SL military continues to arrest Tamils from East returning from Middle-East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 May 2015, 17:51 GMT]
A 39-year-old father of a child, who returned to Ampaa'rai after being employed in Dubai, has been detained at Katunayaka International Airport on Saturday, news sources in Ampaa'rai said. The detained person, who hails from 12 Division in Kaarai-theevu, had left the LTTE in 2004 and undergone investigations earlier. But, he has been continuously harassed by the military intelligence of the occupying Sri Lanka Army while he was in Ampaa'rai, news sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet. More than 16 Tamils from East have been ‘arrested’ at Colombo airport within the last five months after the new regime has come to power in Colombo.
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Uprooted Musali Tamils demand lands back, SL Navy ignores Minister Swaminathan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 May 2015, 20:15 GMT]
Mu'l'ikku'lam has become a strategic point of occupation to the Sri Lankan forces that aim to Sinhalicise and colonise the land and the historic waters of Eezham Tamils. More than 4,500 Eezham Tamil civilians, evicted from Musali division in Mannnaar district in September 2007, are still refused entry to their village by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy, which has changed their village into a military cantonment. On Saturday, SL Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs D.M. Swaminathan (UNP) was forced to wait in front of the gates of the cantonment called ‘Command Headquarters - North Western Naval Area’ for more than 40 minutes by the occupying Sinhala Navy.
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Snail's pace delivery of Indian Housing Scheme criticised

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2015, 23:57 GMT]
Five years have elapsed since New Delhi announced what it called as the “flagship project of India´s developmental assistance,” in June 2010. Apart from the fact that the project is being delivered in snail's pace, many of the beneficiaries who had lost everything have been forced to undertake 700,000 rupees in loans to complete their houses as the money allocated for each house, 550,000 rupees, was not adequate, the families complain. Out of 41,512 houses allocated in the Northern Province, only 44% of the houses, numbering around 18,220 units have been completed so far.
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Social Service Officer shot and killed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2015, 16:23 GMT]
Two unknown gunmen, who came in a motorbike, entered the residence of a Social Service Officer at Ma'ndoor in Poaratheevu DS division and shot and killed the 43-year-old SSO after talking to him for a while Tuesday morning around 8:30, news sources in Batticaloa said. The victim, identified as Sachchithanantham Mathisayan was taken to Ka'luvaagnchikkudi hospital with gunshot injuries to his head. The SSO later succumbed to his wounds, the sources further said.
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SL military collects details of family members of ex-LTTE activists in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2015, 15:06 GMT]
The soldiers of the occupying Sri Lanka Army have been collecting details including the names of family members, their occupation at Chelvaa-nakar East in Aaraiyampathi, Batticaloa during the last five days. The SL soldiers are visiting the houses and huts of the families in the villages in bicycles with a printed list of names of ex-LTTE members in their hands. Why the SL military is harassing the families by registering all the details of family members and their places of employment, Tamil families in Aaraiyampathi question.
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SL Navy, Buddhist monks ‘harass’ resettling Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2015, 11:41 GMT]
Two Buddhist monks, who arrived in Champoor with Sri Lankan police escort on Sunday were telling the Tamil civilians present inside their lands, to collaborate with Colombo to establish the so-called Special Zone of Heavy Industries (SZHI) to bring ‘development’ to Champoor area. The Tamil people responded to them by stating that the people of the area should be given their lands back to them enabling them to sustain their livelihood as an agricultural society. Allowing the people of the region to evolve their own development should be the goal of a government claiming good governance, the people told them. In the meantime, Sri Lanka Navy, still occupying the lands near the 818 acres of lands being released, has been intimidating the resettling people by questioning their presence near the SL navy camp.
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Uprooted Tamils confront SL police in Champoor, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2015, 08:42 GMT]
Even after TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan assured the uprooted people of Champoor on Wednesday that they could now start settling down in their lands, except the small plot where two containers of the Sri Lankan Gateway Industries (SLGI) were located, the people who went to their lands, have been blocked by riot control police of the occupying Sri Lankan State Thursday morning. The SL Police ASP from Moothoor was using abusive racial language against the resettling people and was not prepared to talk to Mr R. Sampanthan over the phone. In the meantime, TNA's national list parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran was urging the people not to stand on the road and to stay inside their lands and be patient while he talks to the SL Police Deputy Inspector General, news sources in Trincomalee said.
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Uprooted Champoor Tamils call off hunger-strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 May 2015, 16:32 GMT]
The uprooted people of Champoor, who were promised that their lands would be released by the new regime launched a protest on 18 May after the Sri Lanka Gateway Industries (Private) Limited had sought the SL Supreme Court to revoke the decision of the SL President. A temporary ban on resettlement was issued by the SL Supreme Court. However, the uprooted people of Champoor were determined to take forward the struggle with hunger strike and a fast-unto-death. Latest reports from Colombo said the people have now been allowed to resettle in more than 800 acres of lands. However, around 5,000 acres of lands still remain under the SL military occupation in Champooor.
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German institute in Colombo displays its ‘Tamil’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2015, 20:12 GMT]
For a long time it was the Sinhala State in the island that was known for murdering Tamil language as a part of the protracted genocide. But it seems that the task is now taken over by some Western institutions too that are based in Colombo and are operating in Jaffna, commented a Tamil academic in Jaffna, citing an invitation in ‘Tamil’ to an art programme convened at the Jaffna University on Wednesday by a German institute, Goethe Institut. The Fine Arts Department of the university, co-sponsoring the programme, should also share the responsibility for the ‘Tamil’ in the invitation, the academic said.
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Address ‘domestic’ deceptions of geopolitical powers: Disapora Tamil activist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2015, 05:24 GMT]
“We should remember that it was primarily the geo-political injustice committed by regional and global powers that enabled the SL State to wage the unrelenting genocidal onslaught towards Mu'l'ivaaykkaal in 2009. The powers, pre-occupied with ‘unified’ Sri Lanka, were seeking to force through our throats, the concept of ‘internal self-determination’ to reject our only remedy of asserting our own sovereignty,” Lathan Suntharalingam, a Diaspora activist, who has championed the legal efforts in Europe after 2009, said in his address on Monday at Bern, Switzerland. “The next milestone in the post-2009 struggle is to mark the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Day as a universal day of remembrance of genocides and injustices committed against the nations without states by the regional and global geopolitical powers. This is key to safeguard them from continued ‘domestic’ and global crimes,” he said.
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Mu’l’livaaykkaal Genocide Day marked in occupied Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2015, 06:39 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan State has deployed more than 600 Sinhala riot control policemen Sunday evening at Mu’l’livaaykkaal in Mullaiththeevu, where Eezham Tamils were intentionally corralled in 2009 in a calculated and deliberate attempt to destroy as many Tamils as possible. The Northern Provincial Council, which passed a key resolution in February this year demanding the OISL UN mechanism in Geneva to investigate the claim of genocide, has invited all the Tamil parliamentarians and councillors from the province to attend the remembrance event at Mu’l’livaaykkaal East on Monday. However, students of Jaffna University, the Tamil National Peoples Front, civil society and religious dignitaries are proceeding with collective memorial meetings at several locations in the NorthEast on May 18.
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Multi-religious prayer organised at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on 18 May

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2015, 15:16 GMT]
A group of Catholic priests have organised a multi-religious prayer service in commemoration of Mu'l'livaaykkaal massacre at St. Paul's Church in Mu'l'livaaykkaal on 18 May 2015 at 4:00 p.m., a priest from Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet Sunday. The religious prayer comes amidst tightened deployment of civil clad intelligence operatives monitoring each and every corner of Mu'l'livaaykkaal on Sunday.
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Sri Lanka bans Remembrance events at Mu'l'livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2015, 17:03 GMT]
The occupying State of Sri Lanka has banned the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members in Mullaiththeevu from taking part at the memorial events to be held at Mu'l'livaaykkaal with the participation of the public, according to an order issued by the SL courts in Mullaiththeevu following a police complain, Deputy Speaker of NPC Antony Jeganathan told TamilNet Saturday. The latest move is a gross violation hurting the sentiments of Eezham Tamils, Mr Jeganathan said. A similar order has been issued to the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), the news sources in Jaffna said. The Chief Minister of NPC, C.V. Wigneswaran had officially invited all the parliamentarians and councillors from the Northern Province to attend the memorial event at the Government Mixed School at Mu'l'livaaykkaal East at 10:00 a.m. on 18 May.
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SL military steps up surveillance during Genocide Memorial Week

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2015, 23:38 GMT]
Following SL Minister Karu Jayasuriya's ‘warning’ against those trying to commemorate fallen LTTE Heroes, the intelligence wing of the occupying Sri Lankan military has stepped up monitoring Tamil activists and politicians who mark commemoration events during the genocide memorial week this year. The intelligence operatives of the SL military have been photographing and videoing those who organise remembrance meetings and gatherings organised by Tamil activists and politicians, said NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam, a key force in the NPC behind the process of passing the Genocide Resolution. In the meantime, Sri Lankan Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) responsible for the Northern Province police permissions was yet to respond to an application to mark commemoration for the slain civilians at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on 18 May.
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I'raal-kuzhi villagers protest against sand-scooping

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2015, 20:58 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil villagers of I'raal-kuzhi, a small hamlet about 10 square km, situated along one of the two rivers where Mahaweli ganga is branching off into the sea in Moothoor division of Trincomalee district, protested on Wednesday against the unabated sand-scooping carried out by wealthy businessmen from Moothoor. The people living in the low-lying land have been struggling for long time unable to withstand the rainy and flooding seasons. The businessmen who operate with the backing of politicians in power have been engaged in the systematic exploitation for a long time. In addition to the danger of water entering their village, the systematic exploitation irreversibly destroys the environment of the region, the protesters complained.
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NPC Minister demands de-militarisation of Chu'ndiku'lam Bird Sanctuary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2015, 22:08 GMT]
The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Minister, responsible for the environmental affairs Ponnuthurai Ayngaranesan has stated that the NPC was demanding the occupying Sri Lanka Navy to hand over the environmental tourism related establishments it has established in the bird sanctuary of Chu'ndik-ku'lam. Like the forest department of the Tamil Nadu government and the local people have been protecting the Veadanthaangkal Bird Sanctuary, which is situated in Chengkalpaddu District of Tamil Nadu, the people in Vadamaraadchi East and the ministry at the NPC with the responsibility of protecting the environment want to take over the affairs of their environment from the military, he said. The people-environment relationship in the North-East would be best taken care of by the people in their traditional homeland than a [occupying] military, he said.
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CMPC in Tamil Nadu pays tribute to Eezham Tamil Journalist Sivaram

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2015, 17:19 GMT]
Centre of Media Persons for Change (CMPC), a journalist movement based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, observed 10th year anniversary of the assassination of Eezham Tamil journalist Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki) at a journalists meeting, which was organised on Sunday to mark the World Press Freedom Day and the 5th year of the CMPC movement, media sources in Chennai said. Young journalists from mainstream media groups participated in the event discussing conflict-reporting, self-realization on the role of the journalists in the larger society dominated by a corporate culture, commitment to principled approaches and focus on human rights of the oppressed nations and people.
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SL Governor continues ‘LLRC agenda’ of Sinhalicisation in Northern Province

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2015, 22:12 GMT]
The incumbent Sri Lankan Governor of Northern Province, HMGS Palihakkara, who was one of the eight panellists appointed by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), has instructed the SL Government Agents in the Northern Province to channel more resources to the Sinhala settlements initiated during the Rajapaksa regime in the North, civil sources in Jaffna said. In the meantime, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) provincial councillor K.T. Linganathan, who is from Nedungkea'ni, Vavuniyaa, on Sunday said elected Tamil representatives were being refused access to an accelerated Sinhala colonisation scheme at Kokkachchaan-ku'lam, which has been Sinhalicised into Kalabogaswewa with 5,000 Sinhala settlers. The occupation, initiated during the previous regime, is now being expanded with new housing schemes.
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Swaminathan's secretary admits SL military delaying release of lands

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2015, 23:07 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government, which recently released some pockets of lands in the occupied Valikaamam North, has come up with a ‘new excuse’ for the delay in releasing the lands back to the people at a meeting held at Jaffna District Secretariat on Friday. Ranjini Nadarasapillai, the secretary of UNP's appointed parliamentarian and SL Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Affairs, D.M. Swaminathan, has admitted that a scheduled announcement of releasing more lands has been delayed, as the SL military commanders were yet to utilise her ministry with the list of new slots, civil officers who attended the meeting told TamilNet. The ITAK Leader and TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja, who hails from Valikaamam North, was disappointed with the progress.
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SL Minister, backed by CBK, appropriates Tamils’ lands in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2015, 22:56 GMT]
Sri Lankan Deputy Minister of Housing and Samurdhi Amir Ali Sahabdeen, who became a minister during the regime of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) in 2004, is again stepping up the appropriation of lands at Kirimichchi, located 62 km north of Batticaloa. The lands belong to Eezham Tamils who are still uprooted and refused access to these lands, civil sources at Koara’laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division of Batticaloa told TamilNet on Thursday. The land grab, schemed under CBK regime, aims to annex more lands to the Muslim-dominated division of Koara’laip-pattu Central (Vaazhaich-cheanai) by involving a section of wealthy businessmen from Kaaththaan-kudi, Oadda-maavadi and Ea’raavoor after Amir Ali became a non-cabinet minister in the ‘new’ regime with the backing of CBK, the sources further said.
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Sivaram uplifted standard of journalists in North-East: SLM Hanifa

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 May 2015, 21:25 GMT]
Sivaram, through his contributions to the field of journalism, raised the standards of Tamil-speaking reporters in the North-East. The work of the reporters in the North-East was taken seriously by Colombo-based editors only after the arrival of Sivaram to the field of journalism, the veteran Muslim writer said while delivering a memorial address, held in Batticaloa last Wednesday, marking the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Sivaram.
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16 Batticaloa Tamils arrested within last 100 days at Colombo airport

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2015, 17:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist’ investigation division has arrested at least 16 Tamil men from Batticaloa district at Katunayake International Airport within the past 100 days of the so-called good governance of the new SL regime in Colombo, Tamil rights activists in Batticaloa said. The arrests have been made under the notorious Emergency Regulations. But, the visiting foreign diplomats like the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, have been blindly appreciating the Sri Lankan government for ‘good governance’ in the island, the activists said. The detentions were isolated events without any relationship to each other, they said.
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Gajendrakumar urges Tamils not to succumb to invisible designs of genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2015, 13:39 GMT]
The Sri Lankan State wants Tamils to leave the island as part of its sophisticated genocidal project. While Sinhala colonisation, taking place in accelerated phase after the end of war, during the last five years, is visible to everyone, the real extent of the genocidal project, which is being schemed through the widespread militarisation, is invisible to many, TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said in his May Day address at Point Pedro in Jaffna on Friday. All the main pillars of the Tamil Nation are being systematically destroyed. The Tamil people are still forced to leave the island as they are kept under poverty line. The SL State wants them economically deprived of livelihood as it thinks that Tamils, when kept without social and economic empowerment, would not be waging a struggle for political rights, he said.
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Kerry implies allowing time for genocidal Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2015, 16:37 GMT]
"Peace has come but true reconciliation will take time," said the visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry in Colombo, praising the “enormous progress Sri Lanka has made in just a few months”, AFP reported on Saturday. By declaring so at a time when the Colombo regime and its military are systematically involved in the structural genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, the US Secretary of State implies giving more time and space for the regime in Colombo so that the genocide will be complete and there will be no question of reconciliation, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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