Pulak-kudiyiruppu experience: Resettlement without de-militarisation is nightmare

2ND LEAD (Adds video)

Colombo's deceptive land release in Keappaa-pulavu exposed

The uprooted families in Keappaa-pulavu, who have been engaged in a continuous struggle for 141 days on Wednesday confronted SL minister for ‘Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs’ D.M. Swaminathan, who was visiting Keappaa-pulavu on Wednesday as part of a SL military conceived deception of releasing lands back to the people. None of the plots in the ‘released’ 189 acres of lands belong to the uprooted 138 families in Keappaa-pulavu who have been involved in the protest. The disappointed protesters exposed how the SL military is trying to release lands elsewhere in the jungle outlet and buying time and money without releasing even an iota of the lands of Keappaa-pulavu families. In the meantime, Colombo is scheming Sinhalicisation through seizing 2,524 acres of lands in Kokkuththoduvaay to permanently wedge North and East. Full story >>

2ND LEAD (Correction)

SL Minister Bathiudeen escalates disunity between Tamils, Muslims in Mullaiththeevu

More than a hundred Tamil youth, predominantly males, mobilized through social media took to the streets on Sunday in Mullaiththeevu, opposing controversial SL minister Rishad Bathiudeen, who is pushing ahead with a colony for Muslim settlers in Mullaiththeevu. At a time when Muslims and Tamils should stand together confronting the genocidal Sinhala occupation to the north and to the south of Kokku’laay lagoon, which links the northern and eastern provinces, the SL minister’s scheme attempts to set the Tamils against Muslims in Mullaiththeevu, Tamil activists in Vanni said. The protest by Tamil youth comes after Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran walked out of a District Coordinating Committee meeting 7 days ago as Mr Bathiudeen was insisting on his colony declining to honour the proposal from the Justice Wigneswaran of a proportional formula for resettlement. Full story >>

SL Police sustains impunity for crimes of structural genocide in North-East

The genocidal State of Sri Lanka has been allowed to get off scot-free from international investigations by the global and regional State actors, who are locked in the geo-political game. As the crimes during the times of war have not been subjected to criminal prosecution, the occupying SL State also finds it easy to sustain impunity for crimes being committed against Tamil social activists and public officials in the East, especially in the Tamil villages of Batticaloa district, Tamil activists in the district complain. The structural genocide against Eezham Tamils cannot be prevented through internal justice mechanisms as impunity is maintained through the police system of the unitary State, they said. Full story >>

Colombo sustains Sinhala colonisation in Southwest Batticaloa

Occupying Colombo is continuing to sustain illegal colonies of Sinhala colonists despite recent eyewash measures of annulling encroachment of Sinhala settlers in the deed lands owned by Tamil farmers and in the lands allocated for the purpose of pasture lands in the interior villages bordering Polonnaruwa and Ampaa'rai districts. 10 Sinhala colonist families are intentionally kept in the in the deed lands of Eezham Tamils in Kevu'liyaa-madu while 39 colonist families have vacated the area after selling the roofs and doors of their houses. A Buddhist temple constructed in the area in 4 acres of lands belonging to Tamils is still maintained, Tamil activists in Paddippazhai said. Kevu'liyaa-madu comes under Kachchatkodi Swami-malai GS division in Ma'nmunaip-pattu South (Paddippazhai) DS division and is situated southwest of Batticaloa lagoon, 13 km away from Batticaloa city. Full story >>

STF deployed escalating tension in Vadamaraadchi after civilian shot and killed by SL Police

Two policemen of occupying Sri Lanka shot and killed a daily wage worker on Sunday in Jaffna while he was in a vehicle that was transporting illegally scooped sand. The SL policemen chasing the vehicle in their motorbike have intentionally fired targeting the youth who was seated on top of the sand load, the family said. The victim, 24-year-old Yogarajah Thinesh, had lost his father in the genocidal war and the family was dependent on him. He was looking after the family of his sister, who had also lost her husband in the war, the relatives said. Tension prevailed in Thunnaalai in Vadamaraadchi South-West on Sunday and Monday as the villagers were agitating against the SL police, demanding the killers to be identified and brought to justice. SL military and STF were preparing to cordon off and deploy a crackdown style arrest operation after the funeral on Tuesday, the residents alleged. Full story >>

Tamil youth in UK protest against BJP-triggered detention of Thirumurugan Gandhi

A group of young Eezham Tamil diaspora activists as well as progressive activists of older generation, numbering around 30, got together in front of the Indian High Commission in London stressing the need to mobilise against the arrest of May 17 Movement Coordinator Thirumurugan Gandhi and three activists of Thamizh Vidiyal Kadchi who have been detained under draconian Goondas Act in Tamil Nadu after they organised a candle vigil remembrance in May for those who perished in Mu’l’livaaykkaal genocide. Thirumurugan Gandhi has been targeted not only for voicing against the genocide of Eezham Tamils. He has been one of the key articulators against the economic exploitation of resources by India’s ruling BJP backed corporate Establishments. The activists who gathered in front of the India House in London said the protest was particularly intended as an awareness campaign among Eezham Tamils. Full story >>

Redefining modernity as alternative to extractivist Capitalism: Houtart in 2016

In a tribute to the Belgiam-born Marxist sociologist Emeritus Professor Rev. Francois Houtart who recently passed away, TamilNet publishes an interview recorded with him last year when 2016 Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance was commemorated in Quito, Ecuador. In the interview, which centred on his experiences on Latin American discourses, Rev Houtart said: “We need to redefine modernity, a modernity absorbed by the capitalist system, a mistake done by socialist countries of Europe and China, who have not redefined the definition of modernity and have thus taken to afflicting the people”. He pointed out that radical change of the capitalist system in place in a region was not easy, as it alerted and brought about the US interventions to destroy it as witnessed in Grenada, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Full story >>