Colombo schemes new type of subservient CSD colonies in Jaffna diverting foreign aid

SL military brings back paramilitary violence to control peaceful protests as NGO tricks fail

An unidentified operative with alleged paramilitary background violently threatened the mothers of enforced disappeared Tamils in Mullaiththeevu on Thursday when the protesters were marking 400 days of continuous protest. The agent, armed with a knife, entered the hut of the protest around 7:00 p.m., cut the main placard, destroyed a chair and smashed the simmering stock pots. He was pointing the sword-like knife at the protesters and demanding them to “end the protest once and for all”. 47-year-old Eeswary Mariyasuresh, the chairperson of the protesters told TamilNet that the forces who want to stop their protest have resorted to deploy violence and target those who come forward to give leadership to the protesters. She survived a targeted assault on her also in August 2017. There is a pattern of SL military intelligence taking over the containment process from Colombo-centric NGOs. Full story >>

Militarisation of pre-schools akin to child soldiering: NPC Education Minister

The militarisation of pre-schools is a form of child soldiering, Northern Provincial Council Minister of Education K. Sarwesvaran told TamilNet in an interview this week. Out of 12 educational zones coming under the NPC, there are SL army run pre-schools in 6 zones. There are 294 schools with 553 teachers and 6,020 children. Sarwesvaran has once again demanded Colombo government to hand over the administration of the SL military-run preschools in Vanni to the civil administration under the NPC. The NPC Education Minister characterised the military operation of pre-schools as a serious crime on the part of the SL Defence Ministry and the SL Government. They are upbringing the [Tamil] children under their [Sinhala] military culture, discipline, philosophy and thoughts, he said. Full story >>

Cooray emerges as broker of civil contracts to occupying Sinhala military in North

Genocidal Sri Lanka's colonial governor to North, Reginald Cooray, is planning to allocate projects to occupying Sinhala military through the recently elected civic bodies in the North. The move comes after hundreds of Sinhala soldiers were engaged on Dengue prevention programme under the so-called National Dengue Prevention Campaign along with medical officers and Public Health Inspectors. Mr Cooray has also influenced the Catholic Establishment in Jaffna to hire SL military for construction work, Tamil officials at the District Secretariat in Jaffna told TamilNet this week. Full story >>

Mano Ganesan challenged in Jaffna, politician complains of threat

The SL Minister of so-called ‘National Dialogue’ Mano Ganesan, projecting himself as competing with Mangala Samaraweera in winning the hearts and minds of the Tamil diaspora [towards the Colombo-centric agenda promoted by certain foreign Establishments], has gone to the extent of threatening a Jaffna-based political activist this week. Mr Ganesan was visiting Jaffna this week on a propaganda campaign to promote the so-called ‘National Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organizations’ (NSNGO), also known as NGO Secretariat, which is trying to control the civil society, Community Based Organisations and local NGOs by creating ‘federations’ at district-level. Full story >>

SL Forest department blocks access to 300 acres of agricultural lands in Ampaa'rai

The SL Department of Forest Conservation has put up border stones covering 300 acres of agricultural lands belonging to Tamils uprooted from a previously militarised area across three divisions of Ampaa'arai division. The SL Forest Department has taken over the grounds immediately after the SL military relocated from the places, the people said. Full story >>

Fisheries society cautiously welcomes Court decision on fishing access to Naayaa'ru Tamils

After dragging the case, filed by the intruding Sinhala fishermen against the rights of native Tamil fishermen accessing Kokku'laay fishing coast, for two years the courts in Mullaiththeevu has finally instructed the Divisional Secretariat to demarcate new points of access separate from those used by the Sinhala fishermen along the coast between Naayaa'ru and Mukaththuvvaaram on Friday.While welcoming the belated decision by the SL Court, St. Antony's Fisheries Society leaders, who have been defending the rights of Tamil fishers to the coast of Naayaa'ru, questioned the ability of the civil authorities to implement the decision. A similar instruction given by the Courts earlier was not respected, and the intruders went to the extent of filing yet another case. Until Tamil leaders manage to put an active end to the ongoing Sinhala occupation, the struggle will continue, they said. Full story >>

NPC finally awakens against SL Mahaweli Authority obstructing territorial integrity of Tamil homeland

The Northern Provincial Council has discussed the genocidal land grab choking the territorial contiguity of the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils in the North-East of the island in a special sitting on Thursday. The move comes after years of reports highlighting how SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has been committing a systematic genocidal land grab and demographic genocide against Eezham Tamils through the so-called Mahaweli development ministry since 1997, when he took control of the department for the first time. The NPC finally seems to address the precarious issue in a proper context. However, it remains to be seen whether the NPC and the Tamil leadership are prepared to declare all Sinhala colonisations in the North and East that took place after 1956 as illegal, commented Tamil academic circles in Jaffna on Friday. Full story >>

Making decisions rooted in native political space

The binary choice in Colombo-centric politics will always be between the devil and the deep blue sea as far as Eezham Tamils are concerned, commented Tamil political activists in Jaffna observing the latest happenings in the North as well as in the South. Eezham Tamils should not conceive their central political space succumbing to the electoral politics of the genocidal unitary system, which is promulgated by the Mahawansa-mindset and the international injustice sustained by geopolitical manoeuvrings. The Tamil-speaking people should instead invest their efforts on evolving a native and unified political space centred in the North-East with the diaspora, Tamil Nadu and global solidarity dimensions which extend beyond their territorial boundary, they said. Full story >>

NPC launches Ammaachchi food court with CBK's participation in Jaffna

Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C.V.Wigneswaran has launched another food court retaining the original concept and the name ‘Ammaachchi’ as conceived by the NPC ministry of agriculture. The new branch of Ammaachchi food court was declared opened by former SL President Ms Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) at Keerimalai on Sunday. In the meantime, the food court launched by the NPC at Thirunelveali three months ago, is still unable to use the name ‘Ammaachchi’ as the SL Ministry of Agriculture has been demanding the traditional food court concept promoted by the Northern Provincial Council to be Sinhalicised as ‘Hela Bojun’. Full story >>

8 Tamil workers quit, ethnic harassment at SL State-run Coconut Garden in East

Eight Tamil workers at Paasikkudaa Coconut Model Garden have quit their jobs unable to tolerate the harassment meted out on them by the Sinhala-controlled management of the SL State-owned garden, which comes under the Batticaloa Regional Office of the Coconut Cultivation Board (CCB). The Sinhala administration of the CCB office in Batticaloa and its Paasikkudaa Garden management have moved on to appoint Sinhala workers to the positions of the permanent cadre after successfully evicting the Tamil workers from the garden. Only two of the positions have gone to a Tamil and a Tamil-spaking Muslim. The Sinhala officials have stepped up harassments on the Tamil workers since 2015 with the hidden agenda of evicting them from the Model Garden. A co-worker, who was previously a military soldier, was also deployed against them, the Tamil workers who have quit their jobs told TamilNet on Friday. Full story >>

Ex-LTTE members with war-injuries discriminated with burden of medical documentation

The SL authorities are refusing to assist former members of the Tamil liberation movement with war injuries by merely demanding medical documentation from the times of their injuries. The ex-combatants of the LTTE, who were subjected to prolonged incarceration at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military, do not have such documentation with them. The SL military that carried out a so-called ‘military rehabilitation’ of former LTTE fighters didn't provide any document entitling them for medical treatment after their release. Now, they are struggling without proper treatment, Tamil doctors say. Full story >>

SL Forest Department seizes lands for future Sinhala colony northwest of Batticaloa

The Forest Conservation Department of the occupying unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka has seized the residential and agricultural lands of war-uprooted Eezham Tamils in four villages 30 km northwest of Batticaloa city, civil officials at the District Secretariat told TamilNet on Monday. The villages come under three GS divisions in the administrative division of Ea'raavoor-pattu (Chengkaladi) of Batticaloa district. Already, the division is exposed to Sinhalicisation as it is bordering with Maha-oya division of Ampaa'rai district in the west with Sinhala settlers in Tempitiya, Poolawala and Aranthalawa GS divisions of Maha-oya. Full story >>

SL Navy deploys illegal means of fishing in Batticaloa North

Sinhala navy sailors are using prohibited fishing nets to fish in the seas off Ko'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division of Batticaloa district, say fisheries society leaders in Vaakarai. Earlier, the occupying SL Navy seized the nets from a section of local fishers, who were deploying illegal means of fishing. Full story >>