http://www.tamilnet.com Latest 20 TamilNet reports from Sri Lanka en Copyright (c) 1997-2026 TamilNet Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:04:27 GMT Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:04:27 GMT tamilnet@tamilnet.com http://www.tamilnet.com/img/feedlogo2.gif http://www.tamilnet.com 88 31 TamilNet logo http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=40008 18 May is not a day for empty remembrance. It is a day that tests whether Eezham Tamils will remain faithful to the political meaning of Mu'l'livaaykkaal and Vaddukkoaddai, or allow both to be folded back into a ‘safer’ language of accommodation. The issue is not whether formulas can be drafted. It is whether a people whose claim rests on homeland, sovereignty, and the insistence that Tamil political status was never validly surrendered should once again be pushed into recasting that claim as an internal arrangement within the very state whose legitimacy they dispute. That, in essence, is what lies behind the current push toward “maximum devolution” and similar formulas. Rather than opening a new path, it risks drawing Eezham Tamils back into the constitutional grammar of containment. Mon, 18 May 2026, 12:19 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=40007 Fifty years after the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution articulated the restoration and reconstitution of Eezham Tamil sovereignty as the political objective of the nation of Eezham Tamils, the central challenge facing Tamil politics is no longer remembrance but action. The Resolution did not merely speak of abstract self-determination, improved internal arrangements or ‘maximum devolution’ within Sri Lanka. It explicitly called for the “Free, Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of Tamil Eelam,” a position democratically endorsed by the 1977 TULF mandate. Yet today, while the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution is ceremonially commemorated, attempts persist to dilute its juridical and political meaning through federalist internalism, symbolic international lobbying and post-2009 narratives that detach Eezham Tamil nationhood from sovereignty. Thu, 14 May 2026, 14:14 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=40006 The escalating confrontation involving the U.S., Israel and Iran, combined with the growing denial of operational access to American forces in the Persian Gulf, is rapidly elevating the strategic importance of the island of Sri Lanka within U.S. military calculations in the Indian Ocean, writes Norway-based Eezham Tamil political analyst and anthropology scholar Athithan Jayapalan. As Washington faces increasing difficulties in sustaining its naval and military presence in the Gulf due to Iranian missile capabilities, drone warfare and maritime interdiction strategies, the island’s geographical position, naval infrastructure and longstanding defence ties with the United States are once again assuming major geopolitical significance. Wed, 06 May 2026, 22:19 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=40004 Intensifying rivalries between major powers are reshaping global geopolitics and elevating the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean. As the unipolar dominance of the United States faces increasing challenges from Russia and China, emerging fractures within the Western alliance system and expanding military confrontations across several regions are drawing renewed attention to the island of Sri Lanka. Situated at a critical maritime crossroads, the island is becoming increasingly significant within the evolving strategic calculations of competing global powers. Thu, 05 Mar 2026, 18:16 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=99&artid=40003 The present moment in Tamil politics demands far more than tactical adjustment or rhetorical caution. It demands a fundamental reassessment of the assumptions that have gradually come to govern political engagement since the end of the genocidal war in 2009. What is at stake today is not merely the content of constitutional proposals, but whether the Tamil political project itself is being quietly stripped of its historical, legal, and moral foundations. This erosion has not occurred overnight. It has unfolded through a slow narrowing of political imagination, in which positions once regarded as foundational have been recast as impractical, excessive, or even dangerous. Mon, 19 Jan 2026, 14:44 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=40000 The federal framework advanced by the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), rooted in the 2016 Tamil People’s Council (TPC) proposals, is presented in that section as preserving Tamil sovereignty and self-determination, while retaining the possibility of a referendum. A closer constitutional reading reveals the opposite. While employing the language of pre-constitutional agreement, inalienable self-determination, sovereignty, homeland, and claims of popular legitimacy through referendum, the framework systematically contracts each of these claims through clause design and enforcement logic. What emerges is not transition, but neutralisation by design. Sun, 11 Jan 2026, 15:02 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=99&artid=39999 When the now-defunct Tamil People’s Council (TPC) released its federal proposals in 2016, TamilNet warned that the draft risked diluting the Tamil national question under Colombo-centric constitutionalism and externally driven “solutions.” Nearly a decade later, those warnings warrant renewed scrutiny for a clear and concrete reason. The All Ceylon Tamil Congress, also known as the Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) and currently represented in Parliament by a single member, continues to uphold the TPC proposals as a valid political framework. At the same time, certain European institutions, often through externally funded initiatives, promote Belgian or Swiss models as templates for the island. This risks reframing the Tamil question within donor-driven containment strategies rather than addressing its political substance. Sat, 03 Jan 2026, 14:10 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39995 The JVP has recently lent itself to US efforts to consolidate the unitary state and realise its long-held ambition to capture state power in Colombo. In this regard, they have also engaged with a range of actors, from the IMF, Washington, and New Delhi, as well as attempted to woo Eezham Tamils and other Tamil-speaking people to opt for the NPP in the 2024 SL Presidential Elections. Norway-based Eezham Tamil anthropology scholar Dr Athithan Jayapalan writes that the NPP and Lionel Bopage speak of equality without addressing the right of an oppressed nation to secession in the face of national oppression and genocide. Instead, the NPP, aligned with the US position, vows to neutralise the Eezham Tamil political struggle for self-determination. Sat, 21 Sep 2024, 16:12 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39994 Russian revolutionary leader and theoretician Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) was highly critical of the interpretation of the Right of Self-Determination by his contemporary Marxist thinker Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919). While Luxemburg argued that national self-determination was a dangerous distraction from the desired system change towards a socialist state, Lenin defended the right to self-determination, including secession. Most Sinhala leftists have been opportunists who peddle Marxism like a pimp, especially concerning the national question. They are divergent from Lenin’s extremely well-articulated definition and clarification of the national right of self-determination. Wed, 18 Sep 2024, 21:30 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39993 Even though I first met Viraj Mendis in Geneva, his reputation as a fearless advocate for Tamil liberation preceded him. The movement respected Viraj, and many of our leaders in the diaspora and the homeland sought his clarity and insight. I consider myself fortunate to have worked with him and learned from him. Fri, 30 Aug 2024, 15:27 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39991 When I went to work on a project with Viraj Mendis in Germany, I recognised him at the Bremen airport from a video: a tall man with white hair and beard. He was interesting and special in my view then as he was Sinhalese and passionate about ending the conflict of Tamil Eelam's occupation by Sri Lanka. I wanted to know how it came to be. I failed to understand that the opportunity of working with him was so precious; I should meticulously document everything he said in videos, at least just for myself. Just like after my parents passed away, I had regrets, I feel the same for Viraj and wish I could talk to him again. As he has said in a video, the realisation comes after a tragedy. Tue, 20 Aug 2024, 17:59 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39990 Comrade Viraj Mendis, arrived in the U.K in 1973 as a student and were there until he was forcefully deported by the British government to Sri Lanka in 1989. During the course of these years, Viraj developed ties with revolutionary movements in the U.K and advocated solidarity towards the liberation struggle of the Eelam-Tamils. Likewise, he spent his one year of deportation in Sri Lanka to work towards building solidarity for the LTTE and the Eelam-Tamils amongst the Sinhalese. His efforts created the conditions for the emergence of a small number of Sinhala revolutionaries who would follow his path towards embracing the Eelam-Tamil liberation struggle. These Sinhala revolutionaries would also over the course of the years be forced into exile and have since worked alongside Viraj. Sun, 18 Aug 2024, 21:23 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39989 The “radicalness” observable in Eelam Tamil Nationalist struggle ranges from centre-right all the way to radical left. It was only the launch of armed struggle that saw radical-left politics entering the Tamil Nationalist struggle. Prior to that Tamil radical politics was led by the Communist party centred on anti-caste movement. Armed struggle was partially successful in absorbing the anti-caste struggle but there were many elements in the anti-caste struggle that stood apart and watched the armed struggle with a very critical eye. Sun, 18 Aug 2024, 16:47 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39980 HASH(0x55e690a504c8) Wed, 15 Sep 2021, 08:19 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39977 SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Commander of the SL Army, General Shavendra Silva, have deployed the occupying military to suppress the 12th collective Mu'l'ivaaykkaal Remembrance of Tamil Genocide at the sacred memorial site, said former councillor Ms Ananthy Sasitharan on Monday. She was talking to TamilNet after the SL military blocked her from entering Mullaiththeevu. The SL military was using Covid-19 as an excuse to shut down two divisions surrounding the memorial place. War criminal Silva, who commanded the notorious 58th Division that waged the genocidal onslaught in Vanni in May 2009, is now leading Colombo's Operation Centre for Preventing COVID-19 Outbreak in addition to being the commander of the SL Army. His military men were also responsible for destroying, desecrating the memorial lamp and removing the enormous memorial stone brought to Vanni from Jaffna on 12 May. Mon, 17 May 2021, 19:23 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39982 HASH(0x55e690a12748) Fri, 09 Apr 2021, 14:46 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39976 Eezham Tamils wanted UN-sanctioned criminal investigations to focus on the crime of genocide through ICC and IIIM. But, the UK-led Core Group on Sri Lanka did not deliver it. Instead, the group chose to consolidate the March 2014 mandate-based evidence collection mechanism inside the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) through the UN Human Rights Council's resolution, which passed voting on Tuesday. The move has secured necessary space and time for the US-led Indo-Pacific geopolitical negotiations with the SL State through India and Japan, two of the QUAD countries that abstained from the voting for the same reason. China and Pakistan, which opposed the resolution called for a vote and nine other countries joined them voting against the resolution: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cuba, Eritrea, Philippines, Russia, Somalia, Uzbekistan and Venezuela. Tue, 23 Mar 2021, 12:41 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39975 The manifestation of a “pre-existing strategy” using archaeology and historic preservation as guises for political or religious agendas has been observed by the UN Special Rapporteurs visiting Sri Lanka in recent years. Today’s international law has not provided universal human right to land. However, SL State’s violations of the land rights of “marginalised communities” could be addressed under the normative framework of international law, said Dr Navanetham Pillay. She mentioned the violation of the Right of Self-Determination. Pillay appeared as a keynote speaker at a conference titled “Loss of the Tamil Homeland,” which was convened by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on Saturday. She was confronting TamilNet’s questions over her failure to call for investigations on Tamil genocide, which includes examining the “pre-existing strategy” for all the crimes committed against Tamils in the past. Sun, 21 Mar 2021, 13:34 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39974 A newly formed letterhead organisation in London calling itself ‘Movement for Truth and Justice’ has claimed that “substantial changes were made to the resolution text” of the Core Group on Sri Lanka. The outfit has come with deceptive articulations while announcing the end of a 17-days long hunger strike that was waged by a courageous Tamil woman activist, Ambihai K Selvakumar, on Monday. The announcement was citing a letter written by the UK’s Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 10 March 2021. The letter and the text of the latest update of the draft submitted to the UNHRC on 12 March 2021 expose the claim’s falsehood. The deception comes a day after hundreds of Tamils mobilised in London amidst British police attempting to crack down their protest. Mon, 15 Mar 2021, 20:36 http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39973 The UK has repeatedly failed to address the root cause of the conflict in its former colony, Ceylon, where its colonial injustice escalated the situation into protracted genocide against Tamils, said 53-year-old Ambihai Selvakumar, who is waging a continuous hunger strike in London demanding the UK government to course-correct its past failures. The UK has continued to betray the Tamils in the constitutional discourses of 1948, 1972 and their aftermath by aiding and abetting the warmongering genocidal state of Sri Lanka during and after the 2009 genocidal war, she said. In 2009 its UN envoy blocked a security council debate. In 2021, as the Core Group’s penholder, the UK has tabled a draft resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, totally failing to call for genocide justice. Furthermore, it delays international justice in the already established UN findings on other atrocity crimes. Tue, 09 Mar 2021, 21:34