Tamil parties failing to single-mindedly demand genocide justice, more dangerous than ITAK

Colombo sabotaging mass grave investigations and Tamils learning lessons on ‘hybrid’ paradigm

The radiocarbon tests carried out on bone samples, which the SL authorities had dispatched to a US laboratory, as dating 377 to 615 years back has disappointed many people, who have valid reasons to believe that the recently exhumed mass graves in Mannaar are from the 1990s. The results obtained from Florida-based Beta Analytic (BETA) are being prematurely released by Colombo to imply that the period of the mass grave predates the genocidal war in the island by centuries. BETA has not issued an overall interpretation of all the samples or passed any judgement on the supplied samples as being adequate to conclude the core issue. Besides, there are several unanswered questions, most of them concerning the trustworthiness of the SL State-operated institutions handling the submission, as well as other artefacts revealing 1990s as the time of the crime. Full story >>

Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisaton of disputed heritage hilltop in Vavuniyaa

A team of technicians from the SL Archaeology Department were deployed to copy stone inscriptions found at the disputed heritage site of Vedukku-naa'ri hill-top in Vavuniyaa on Thursday and Friday. The members of the group were claiming that they had come following special requests from the District Secretary of Vavuniyaa, a Sinhalese, and the secretariat of the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, said Thamilchelvan Thurairajah, an elected councillor at the Civic Divisional Council of Vavuniyaa North, who confronted and interacted with the team on Thursday. Two armed Special Task Force commandos and two police officers were providing ‘security’ to the technicians to carry out the recordings on Thursday and Friday. They were also making some other measurements at the hilltop, the witnesses said. Full story >>

STF commandos torture Tamil man in Batticaloa, victim held incommunicado

The occupying Sinhala police Special Task Force (STF) commandos brutally assaulted 27-year-old Tamil man Mannan Kajanthan at Iluppai-adich-cheanai in Karadiyan-aa'ru of Batticaloa district on Monday morning. The STF personnel tortured Kajanthan and also attacked another Tamil youth who went to help Kajanthan, the relatives of the victim said. The STF was assaulting the Tamil man blaming him for logging trees in the jungle. However, the exact cause is yet to be known, rights activists in Batticaloa said. The victim is still kept incommunicado by the notorious STF in the Batticaloa prison. Full story >>

118 Muslim families demand occupying SL Navy to release their lands in Mannaar

One hundred and eighteen Tamil-speaking Muslim land-owners from the strategic coastal village of Chilaavath-thu'rai in Mannaar are waging a continuous protest since 20 February demanding the release of their 36 acres of lands. The SL military has been occupying their lands since 2007. Currently, the SL Navy is stationed in their territories. Despite repeated assurances by SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe who visited Musali division in January 2018 during the local government election campaign and the latest promise from the SL President Maithiriipala Sirisena that their lands would be released before 31 December were only false promises, the protesters said. Full story >>

Occupying Colombo set to grab 227 acres of private lands in Vali North in Jaffna

At least 163 acres of private lands of Eezham Tamils in a triangle area along the coast in Kaangkeasan-thu'rai (KKS) between the Cement Factory, the old hospital and Keerimalai are to be officially seized by the SL State for the use of the occupying Sinhala Navy in KKS Centre (J/234) GS Division. In the meantime, another area of 64 acres is being appropriated in the vicinity of the historically famous Keerimalai Nakuleasvaram temple in Keerimalai GS Division (J/226). The ‘Tourist Development Authority’ of genocidal Sri Lanka (SLTDA) is set to receive this land. Two acres of these lands are also going to be transferred to the SL Navy, Tamil officials at Jaffna District Secretariat said. Full story >>

Tamils mark Shivaratri at base of hill seized by SL Archaeology Department in Trincomalee

The uprooted families of the ancient Tamil village of Thennai-maravadi in the northern Trincomalee marked a Pongkal feast on Monday at the base of Kanthasaami-malai. The ritual was staged in objection to the Archaeology Department of the unitary state genocidal Sri Lanka, which was refusing to allow the people to access the temple of their folk-deity, Murukan, at the top of the hill where they used to observe Shivaratri in the past. The move comes amidst tension prevailing at Thirukkoa'nesvaram temple in Trincomalee where the SL Archaeology Department and Sinhala colonisers have desecrated the statue of Sivalingam, which was put up along the pathway to the temple on the occasion of Shivaratri festival. Colombo is trying to convert the hilltop of Kanthasaami-malai into a Buddhist temple, the uprooted Tamils said. Full story >>

Protest continues beyond two years at Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaith-theevu

The uprooted Eezham Tamils from Keappaa-pulavu village, located along the Nanthik-kadal lagoon in Mullaiththeevu, launched their continuous protest demanding the release of their lands two years ago on 01 March 2017. One hundred and thirty-eight families are still waging their continuous protest demanding 432 acres of their private lands and public properties such as schools, temple, church and a public hall to be released. The protesting people require de-militarisation of their village to resume their livelihood of fishing as well as agriculture in their fertile lands. The younger generation of Keappaa-pulavu Tamils demands the occupying Sinhala military to go home. They describe the presence of SL forces as illegal. Full story >>

Colombo wants to mark ancient villages in East as ‘Sinhala Buddhist’ villages

SL Minister of Internal Home Affairs, Provincial Council and Local Government Mr Wajira Abeywardhana has instructed the district secretariats in the three districts of the Eastern Province to declare each village having at least one Sinhala Buddhist family as a Buddhist village, highly placed civil sources at the Trincomalee District Secretariat told TamilNet on Friday. Mr Abeywardhana is a UNP politician, who hails from the Galle District in the South. The UNP is following the footsteps of notorious Cyril Mathew (1912 - 1989), an outright racist UNP politician who was the SL Minister of Industry and Scientific Affairs (1977 - 1986) under J.R. Jayewardene, commented the civil sources at Trincomalee District Secretariat. Full story >>

SL State apparatus at full swing to Sinhalicise ancient temple of Tamils in Trincomalee

The trustees of Thiruk-koa'neasvaram (Koneswaram) temple in the eastern port city of Trincomalee blame three different authorities of the unitary of state of genocidal Sri Lanka as severely restricting their initiatives to preserve the spiritual environment at the historic Saiva temple. The Tamil devotees experience the conduct of the SL state apparatus as racial discrimination, reporters in the city said. The secretary of the trustee board, Mr K. Parameswaran, when contacted by TamilNet said the SL Archaeology Department, SL Department of Coast Conservation and the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau, which is a statutory body of the Colombo government, were confronting the trustee board. Full story >>

Tamil POW goes on dry hunger-strike amidst suffering asthma attack

31-year-old Tamil Prisoner of War, Sivaseelan Sivapragasam, who has been waging a hunger strike at Anuradhapura prison Saturday, refused to drink water starting from Tuesday. On Wednesday morning he was subjected to medical inspection at the prison hospital. Later in the noon, he was rushed to Anuradhapura hospital in a stretcher after suffering an asthma attack, fellow Tamil prisoners said. Sivaseelan was caught in trauma after his father, the only family member to be alive outside the prison, recently passed away, according to his fellow Tamil prisoners who talked to reporters at Vavuniyaa when they came for a hearing in the afternoon. Full story >>

SL Navy restricts humanitarian access to resettling people of Ira'nai-theevu

Nine months have elapsed since the uprooted people embarked on a courageous sea landing to SL Navy occupied twin-islet of Ira'nai-theevu at the western coast of Vanni. Only a few toilets and temporary huts have been provided to them. While the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is set to assist the resettled people with necessary facilities such as access to potable water, the SL Navy stationed at Muzhangkaavil along the coast of the Vanni mainland has restricted the NGOs and community organisations from accessing the twin-islets, which it regards as a ‘high-security zone’. The local workers of the UNDP and other NGOs as well as the community-based organisations, trying to visit Ira'nai-theevu are facing strict procedures and are subjected to surveillance as if they were enemies entering the property of the SL Navy, humanitarian workers said. Full story >>

Sinhala monk wages anti-TNA propaganda among flood-affected Tamils

The Tamil people in Vanni should thank the SL military as their saviours as it protected them from the recent floods and the Tamil people should not demand its withdrawal from the North, said Sinhala extremist politician in saffron robes, Battaramulla Seelarathana thero, who was visiting Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu this weekend in an apparent propaganda move. The TNA politicians, who demand de-militarisation were flying in helicopters while the SL military was helping the flood-affected Tamils on the ground, the extremist monk told the people. Apart from the drive to promote military psyops, his visit was aimed at strengthening Sinhala settlers (not affected by the floods) who have encroached Karai-thu'raip-pattu division in Mullaiththeevu district seizing the strategic link between the North and East to wedge the contiguity of the traditional Tamil homeland permanently. Full story >>

2ND LEAD (Correction)

SL Navy transforms another hill-top into Sinhala Buddhist temple in Moothoor East

A small hill with an abode for Tamil deity Murukan has been slowly converted into a full-fledged Sinhala Buddhist temple during the last two years in Champoor, Moothoor East of Trincomalee district. The hill-top was absorbed into the so-called ‘high-security zone’ in 2016 for the expansion of the SL Navy's naval training base, SLNS Vidura. The transformation has taken place in all secret while Maththa'la-malai, which is facing Choodaik-kudaa (Shell Bay) of Trincomalee outside the military zone, gained focus last year. The SL Department of Archaeology seized the hill-top of Maththa'la-malai after creating controversy with the claim of finding artefacts associated with an ancient girth of a Cetiya which it claimed as existed in the ancient past at the locality. Full story >>