Nine years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka is still working to address residual traces of conflict that linger in varying forms across the island, and concentrated in the Northern…
The gates of the 59 Division Mullaitivu Security Forces Headquarters dominate the view 10 kilometres inwards from the Nandikadal lagoon and the Eastern coast. The protest tent a few metres away appears…
Photo by REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain via A Reflection The Rohingya in our midst brought out the worst in some of us. The aggression of a mob that sought to intimidate and deny these…
“O our motherland, bid us a farewell We buried our smiles in our lips We buried our life in our bodies We are making a procession like empty skeletons….” This was the…
Photograph courtesy 20th June is World Refugee Day. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 65.6 million people have been forcibly displaced globally. I have heard that close to one…
Last July, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said Sri Lanka was planning to demilitarise by 2018. The cautious optimism that followed this news died away when the military contradicted Samaraweera’s speech, with Jaffna…
Over the last few months, there have been several protests across the Northern Province demanding the release of civilian land from under military occupation. While there have been no definitive responses to…
The adhan call resonates. The residents of Marichchukkaddi in Musali stop speaking and bow their heads in prayer. For five minutes, peace prevails. The only sound is that from the green banners…
The Gazette Notification issued on the 24th of March 2017 declared four forest areas North of the Wilpattu sanctuary as reserves, preventing Muslim Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from returning to their homes in…
At 7:30 am in Mullikulam on March 23, a group of villagers decided to begin a protest, demanding for the return of their land. The residents of Mullikulam have been living ‘as…
Editor’s Note: This is an immersive photo story written by them, compiled using Microsoft Sway. Click here to access it directly, or scroll below.
We first met 83 year old grandmother Sellamma when she was part of a protest fast outside the Puthukudiyiruppu Divisional Secretariat. At that time, her land and house across the road had…
February 9 marks the tenth day of protests in Keppapulavu, a village in Mullaitivu, where residents are demanding the return of their land. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is meeting with representatives…
President Maithripala Sirisena says that the Muslim IDPs have encroached and destroyed land belonging to the Wilpattu National Park (June 2015). President Sirisena says Muslims have not cleared one inch of Wilpattu…
Photo by Jessica Sallabank, from IRIN Jesus was born as a refugee child. When Mary, the pregnant mother on the move couldn’t find a place to give birth, it was poor shepherds…
