Tamil and Sinhala versions attached
Sri Lanka has opportunity to break from past – Türk
GENEVA (13 August 2025) – A report published today by the UN Human Rights Office calls on Sri Lanka’s Government to seize the historic opportunity to break with entrenched impunity, implement transformative reforms, and deliver long-overdue justice and accountability for serious violations and abuses committed in the past, including international crimes.
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Kagusthan Ariaratnam in Groundviews, 8 August 2025, where the title reads “Neelan Unsilenced …” while highlights here have been added by The Editor, Thuppahi
Photo courtesy of Pitasanna Shanmugathas
NEELAN: UNSILENCED is a compelling and vital documentary that successfully situates the life of Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam within the turbulent history of the Sri Lankan conflict. Its greatest achievement is providing a nuanced entry point into the war by focusing on the non-violent, intellectual and pluralistic dimensions of Tamil resistance – a perspective often eclipsed by the narrative of armed struggle. By foregrounding Neelan’s journey, the film illuminates a leader who dedicated his life to constitutional reform and reconciliation.
Photo courtesy of Pitasanna Shanmugathas
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Rohan Gunaratna in FACEBOOK, August 2025
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Congratulations to Sri Lankan-born American Anthropologist, Prof. Sharika Thiranagama, on winning the Davidson Prize at Cambridge University, where she was appointed a Scholar of St Johns.
Winner of Stanford University’s “Lifetime award for Academic achievement in Archaeology and Anthropology”, Sharika wrote “In My Mother’s House: Civil War in Sri Lanka” published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2011.
…Rajini Continue reading
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DBS Jeyaraj in 2022 at https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/?p=67620 where the title reads “Vijaya Kumaratunga: Charismatic Actor-Politician May Have Changed Nation’s Destiny” …… Posted by Administrator on 21 February 2022, 1:11 am
The political landscape of Sri Lanka seems gloomy and desolate. Most of the actors who strut about the political stage posing as visionaries and leaders are in actuality empty vessels devoid of substance. Proverbial wisdom tells us that empty vessels make most sound. This is most apparent in the cacophony of voices currently prevalent in the polity. In the words of William Butler Yeats “ The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.” The positive dream of Sri Lanka evolving into an inclusive, plural nation is slowly turning into a numerical majoritarian hegemonic nightmare.
Vijaya Kumaratunga in Jaffna
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Shenali D. Waduge, whose slashing sarcastic essay is entitled “Let’s Celebrate Prabakaran & the LTTE’s Glorious Achievements!” ... with the highlighting being that in the original item
A tribute to the world’s most misunderstood mass murderer and his liberation-through-terror campaign.
They say greatness demands sacrifice—and Velupillai Prabakaran understood this better than most. He wasn’t content with speeches; he offered the world a blueprint: to build a homeland, first destroy the present; to claim justice, first silence every voice—especially your own people’s; to prove your worth, leave no witness behind. For over three decades, he led with unmatched precision: dismantling democracy, eliminating dissent, recruiting children, and bleeding civilians dry—all while demanding the world call it liberation. Some build nations through unity; he built his with bunkers, landmines, cyanide, and the bones of the innocent. And still, they light candles for him. They hold commemorations in universities. UN officials attend. Foreign parliamentarians give speeches. So, in the spirit of glorifying terror, let’s not just mourn Velupillai Prabakaran—let’s celebrate the man who redefined cruelty and called it Eelam, by honoring every child stolen, every right violated, and every drop of blood shed in his name.
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N. Sathiya Moorthy, in CEYLON TODAY, 1 August 2025, with this title “Hundred Not Out” **
For the uninitiated readers of the national media, and possibly the majority Sinhala media, Chemmani may yet to happen. But after weeks of digging up unmarked graves in Northern Jaffna town, Government officials under Court supervision have already taken out over a hundred human skeletons, including those of infants and grown-up children. The numbers are growing with each passing day of digging, which is at times halted for logistics reasons, one should assume.
Yes, only scientific studies would show if they are of recent origin, but the fact that they have been recovered from dig-outs six to eight metres deep may indicate that they are not ancient. Yet, they are historic in their own way, adding heft to the Tamils’ charges that the Armed Forces ruthlessly killed their civilians during the three-decade-long ethnic war – and are yet to be held accountable.
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Michael Roberts reproducing an article presented in a popular website during the final stages in Eelam War IV in 2008/09 within the context TODAY of a horrendous war-situation in Palestine and its environs — the website being GROUNDVIEWS: …………….. https://groundviews.org/2009/04/21/ltte-and-tamil-people-i-preamble/ ….. This article was just the first essay in a four-part enterprise.**
“LTTE and Tamil people, I: preamble,” http://www.groundviews.org, 21 April 2009.
This set of essays on “LTTE and Tamil People” submitted to Groundviews is a sequel to the four articles on “Suicidal Political Action” reproduced in http://www.transcurrents.com from 2 April onwards. Both sets of essays are interconnected and involve a measure of repetition because they are set out as separate articles. All of them are a product of a comparative survey that I embarked on about five years ago: namely, reviewing the cultural ingredients which have motivated the projects of the jihadists (holy warriors) and mujahideen (fighters for cause) on the one hand and, on the other, the 
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Jehan Perera in The Island, 29 July 2025, where the title runs thus: “Engagement is essential for national progress”
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
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Sachi Sri Kantha, whose preferred title is “James T Rutnam (1905-1988): Noted Bibliophile and a Valued Mentor” … with the highlighting in colour being impositions from The Editor Thuppahi
Introduction
My destiny to meet and interact with James T Rutnam came in the aftermath of the August 1977 anti-Tamil riots. Previously, I had written a little about the anti-Tamil riots that engulfed the island then, and my initial attempts to make a grade as a writer in English. [Please check this link. https://sangam.org/s-p-amarasingam-1977-anti-tamil-pogrom/].
I wrote to Mr. S.P. Amarasingam, the editor of the Tribune (Colombo). At that time, I was unaware that James Rutnam was an influential contributor to the Tribune, since its inception in 1954.
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thuppahi
