Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor Jaffna Monitor — UNAFRAID AND UNBOWED. Independent journalism from Northern Sri Lanka, amplifying unheard voices with truth and courage.
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Deepthi Attygalle, a pioneer of Sri Lankan anaesthesia and an internationally respected researcher on severe tetanus, di...
03/06/2026

Deepthi Attygalle, a pioneer of Sri Lankan anaesthesia and an internationally respected researcher on severe tetanus, died on June 1 at the age of 86.

Her research, teaching and contributions to postgraduate medical education left a lasting mark on the profession.

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Deepthi Attygalle, the Sri Lankan anaesthesiologist whose work on magnesium sulphate became an important reference point in the treatment of severe tetanus, died on June 1, 2026. She was 86. For much of the twentieth century, severe tetanus was managed by heavily sedating patients and supporting the...

A former LTTE fighter's death in Paris has reopened questions about the unseen legacy of Sri Lanka's civil war. Senior j...
02/06/2026

A former LTTE fighter's death in Paris has reopened questions about the unseen legacy of Sri Lanka's civil war. Senior journalist M.R. Narayan Swamy explores PTSD, trauma, addiction and the difficult lives of former combatants at home and abroad.

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By M.R. Narayan Swamy The killing of a former Tamil Tiger in Paris by the police has brought to the fore psychological issues that still affect a huge mass of ex-combatants who mostly lead broken lives after fighting one of the world’s bloodiest insurgencies, which at one point

When the Jaffna Bar Association wrote to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake over the sudden transfer of a High Court jud...
01/06/2026

When the Jaffna Bar Association wrote to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake over the sudden transfer of a High Court judge, a counter-narrative quickly emerged: that only a handful of lawyers supported the appeal, that the association's president resigned in protest, and that other bar associations had been kept in the dark.

Interviews with lawyers and a review of the association's records paint a markedly different picture.

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By Aruliniyan Mahalingam JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The letter ran to a few hundred words, but its message to the President of Sri Lanka was unambiguous: lawyers in Jaffna, the country's Tamil heartland, believed that the executive branch had reached into the judiciary and moved a judge who had displease...

Mano Ganesan has asked Sri Lanka's Committee on Public Finance to investigate whether funds allocated for long-delayed P...
01/06/2026

Mano Ganesan has asked Sri Lanka's Committee on Public Finance to investigate whether funds allocated for long-delayed Provincial Council elections were diverted to post-cyclone reconstruction without parliamentary approval.

The request follows remarks by JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva that election funds had been used for disaster relief

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Mano Ganesan, leader of the Democratic People’s Front and a member of Sri Lanka’s opposition, has asked Parliament’s chief financial oversight committee to investigate whether funds allocated for long-delayed Provincial Council elections were diverted to post-cyclone rec...

The Jaffna Bar Association has asked President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to investigate the sudden transfer of High Court...
01/06/2026

The Jaffna Bar Association has asked President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to investigate the sudden transfer of High Court Judge A.G. Alexraja, saying the move has fueled concerns about possible interference in judicial administration and risks damaging confidence in the judiciary.

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JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The Jaffna Bar Association has appealed directly to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to investigate the sudden transfer of High Court Judge A.G. Alexraja, warning that the move risks undermining public confidence in the judiciary and raising concerns about interference in jud...

A former LTTE fighter known as "Kutti", younger brother of senior LTTE commander Colonel Gopith, was shot dead by French...
31/05/2026

A former LTTE fighter known as "Kutti", younger brother of senior LTTE commander Colonel Gopith, was shot dead by French police in Bobigny, outside Paris, after authorities said he stabbed two neighbours and advanced toward officers armed with two knives.

The incident has sparked debate within France's Tamil diaspora over the long-term effects of war trauma, PTSD, integration challenges and the use of lethal force. It has also exposed sharply contrasting reactions on social media, with some comments reflecting broader anti-immigrant sentiment.

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A man known as "Kutti," a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the younger brother of one of the organisation's most celebrated battlefield commanders, was shot and killed by French police in the northeastern Paris suburb of Bobigny on Saturday afternoon after he allegedly stabb...

A thought-provoking essay by Professor Mahesh Nirmalan of the University of Manchester examines the paradoxes of the Sri...
31/05/2026

A thought-provoking essay by Professor Mahesh Nirmalan of the University of Manchester examines the paradoxes of the Sri Lankan diaspora — its remarkable contributions to host societies and Sri Lanka, alongside the complex political, social and cultural legacies it continues to shape.

An important read on identity, migration, reconciliation and the challenge of building a shared Sri Lankan future.

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Professor Mahesh Nirmalan MD, FRCA, PhD, FFICM, University of Manchester, United Kingdom “திரை கடல் ஓடியும் திரவியம் தேடு” is an age-old saying by the Tamil poet Avvaiyar (ஔவையார்) in the collection of poetic moral statements kn...

A Ministry Secretary, acting with the concurrence of the minister, blocked a duly appointed senior civil servant from as...
30/05/2026

A Ministry Secretary, acting with the concurrence of the minister, blocked a duly appointed senior civil servant from assuming office and sought to replace him with a preferred candidate.

Supreme Court found the conduct unconstitutional, ruling that appointments to the public service cannot be decided according to the "whims and fancies" of those in authority.

Critics told Jaffna Monitor that the judgment amounted to a judicial rejection of a style of governance that places political preference above constitutional process — and a sharp rebuke to attempts to subject the public service to partisan control.

Our investigation:

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam On the morning of Dec. 17, 2024, W.S. Sathyananda, a Special Grade officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service with nearly three decades of experience, sent a brief WhatsApp message to his superior. Having just reported for duty as Additional Secretary at the Ministry of...

S. Sritharan called on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to release military-held lands in Valikamam North as displaced...
29/05/2026

S. Sritharan called on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to release military-held lands in Valikamam North as displaced residents marked the sixth consecutive week of protests demanding the return of ancestral properties nearly 17 years after Sri Lanka's civil war ended.

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MAYILIDDY, Sri Lanka — S. Sritharan, a lawmaker representing the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), on Friday called on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to immediately release military-held lands in Valikamam North, where displaced residents have been staging weekly protests demanding the retur...

Jaffna High Court Judge A.G. Alexraja, who sentenced a convicted narcotics offender to seven years after a case that dra...
29/05/2026

Jaffna High Court Judge A.G. Alexraja, who sentenced a convicted narcotics offender to seven years after a case that dragged on through six years of bail hearings, has been transferred to Badulla within a week of the ruling, following a complaint by the NPP-appointed Northern Province Governor.

Legal sources allege political involvement in the transfer. Lawyers are planning a strike.

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By Aruliniyan Mahalingam For six years, a woman from the Pommaveli area of Jaffna — known to police and lawyers alike as one of the district’s most persistent narcotics dealers — had walked in and out of courtrooms, exploiting successive bail hearings to remain free and, according to legal sou...

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