Tamils must AWAKE NOW: Who is Organizing the Brotherhood Day in Jaffna – Organizers, History, and Black July Context?   Organization’s History The annual Brotherhood Day event on July 23 in Jaffna is organized by the Socialist Youth Union (SYU) , which is the youth wing of the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The JVP (People’s Liberation Front) was founded in 1965 as a revolutionary socialist movement and later became a political party after two armed insurrections. By the mid-2000s, the JVP revamped its youth and student fronts – including the SYU – to mobilize young people around social justice and ethnic harmony. Notably, the JVP itself was one of several leftist parties banned by the government in late July 1983, scapegoated for “inciting” the very anti-Tamil riots that it actually opposed. This repression forced the JVP underground during the Black July period. In the post-war era (after 2009), the re-emerged SYU and JVP actively championed reconciliation, deter...

Chemmani ‐ Sinthupaththi Mass Grave: Latest Excavation Discoveries and Human Tragedy Recent Excavation Discoveries (July 22, 2025) in Chemmani, Jaffna After decades of dormancy, the second phase of excavations at the Chemmani–Sinthupaththi mass grave site in Jaffna resumed under court order in mid-2025. The work, overseen by Jaffna Magistrate A.A. Anandarajah along with forensic experts Dr. Pranavan Selliah and Prof. Raj Somadeva, quickly yielded grim findings. By the 17th day of digging (22 July 2025) , archaeologists had unearthed eight additional human skeletal remains from the clandestine burial pits, one of the largest single-day recoveries so far. This brought the total recovered in the renewed excavation to over 70 skeletons (up from 65 when work was paused on July 10). Crucially, some of the newly uncovered skeletons were identified as children , underscoring the poignant nature of the discovery. Forensic investigators noted the small stature of several skeletons and the pr...