SL military, police, traders, exert pressure on civil authorities in Mannaar to alienate lands

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 September 2019, 20:49 GMT]
The occupying SL Police in Mannaar city is under constant pressure from the civil, religious and private property owners to vacate from their premises. The SL Police is harassing the Divisional Secretariat officials to release crown lands as compensation to relocate itself. Similarly, the SL Army from Tha'l'laadi cantonment in the mainland is demanding alternative properties allocated for its use before considering the release of 21 acres of the lands it has seized from a private Tamil land-owner since 1990. In the meantime, millionaire Sinhala investors from the South want large tracts of public lands leased or sold to them to put up wind and solar plants along the coast of the Mannaar island from Oalaith-thoduvaay to Thoadda-ve'li. The officials are already struggling to find lands for thousands of uprooted families from Mannaar, including those returning from exile in Tamil Nadu.
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No to alternative lands, original lands must be released with compensation, say Tamil activists

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 September 2019, 18:19 GMT]
SL Governor to North Suren Raghavan is deceiving the Tamil land-owners by proposing to consider accepting alternative properties in return for the fertile lands, which the occupying SL military wants to retain under its control in Valikaamam North in Jaffna. Out of 47 GS divisions, 21 are affected by SL militarisation. It is the most fertile soil in the entire peninsula. The SL military has continued widespread cultivation, dairy farming and fishing by utilising the resources of the uprooted Tamils even after the end of the war in 2009. It is not justifiable, said Nallathamby Ponrajah, the member of Valikaamam South Divisional Council. In the meantime, grassroots activists are planning to launch a renewed campaign to free their lands said SL State must return the properties and also compensate for the loss of income caused by the unjustified occupation of their areas so far.
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SL State-owned paper refuses to publish condemnation issued by Hindu Congress

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 September 2019, 13:24 GMT]
Colombo-based Attorney-at-Law, Pranavan Neelakandan, has said that the SL State (Lake House) owned English daily, the Daily News, had refused to publish a statement, which was issued by the All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC) on Friday. The paper declined to publish it even as a paid publication. The statement was about the recent “degrading act of cremating the remains of a Buddhist Monk within the premises of the Holy Semmalai Neeraviyadi Pillayar Kovil in Mullaitivu.” Meanwhile, protests continued on Friday in Jaffna, Trincomalee and Batticaloa against the conduct of the monks and the SL Police at Neeraaviyadi in Mullaiththeevu earlier this week.
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UN employed former Sri Lanka Army officer alleged of killing Tamils in Madu Church

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 September 2019, 16:50 GMT]
The United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), tasked with providing security services to the UN system in delivering its programmes globally, has had a former Sri Lanka Army officer among its rank and file the security staff in the recent years. The ex-SLA officer has previously “killed Tamils in Madu church,” during the times of war, according to allegations made by New York based Inner City Press (ICP), a non-profit organization, which has critically exposed the wrongdoers within the UN system for almost 15 years. The former SL Army officer in question, Lt Col Parakrama Siriwardana, is currently the Head of Security and Emergency Unit at the China-led Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB), since May 2018.
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Lt Col Thileepan’s 32nd commemoration gains momentum across North-East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 September 2019, 17:49 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in the North and East marked the 32nd annual commemoration of the sacrifice of LTTE’s Jaffna Political Head Lt Col Thileepan (Rasiah Parthipan), who sacrificed his life in a historical dry hunger-strike in 1987, which exposed India’s interests-oriented invasion at that time. Tamil National Peoples’ Front organised a march from Vavuniyaa to Nalloor in the North mobilising the youth with significant participation of women. The Tamil National Alliance marked the event in Ki’linochchi and Batticaloa while the former NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran’s Tamil Makkal Kootani commemorated the remembrance at Point Pedro. The Remembrance event at Nalloor, where Thileepan sacrificed his life, was marked as a joint remembrance event beyond group affinities.
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Batticaloa Bar Association protests against contempt of court shown by extremist monks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 September 2019, 17:48 GMT]
Tamil and Muslim lawyers of Batticaloa Bar Associaton boycotted their work on Wednesday expressing their solidarity with the Tamil lawyers from Jaffna and Mullaiththeevu who were allegedly assaulted by the extremist Buddhist monks on Monday. The representatives of the bar association described the events that unfolded at Neeraaviyadi on Monday as contempt of court both in word and deed.
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Tamils mobilise in Vanni exposing lopsided law enforcement of genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 September 2019, 15:06 GMT]
Tamil lawyers in North boycotted the courts on Tuesday condemning the failure of the law enforcement authorities of the unitary SL State that failed to respect the decision by the Magistrate of Mullaiththeevu Courts. Covering their mouths with black ribbons, the lawyers numbering around one hundred, gathered inside the premises of the Magistrates’ Court in Mullaiththeevu. In the meantime, the grassroots organisations including the Catholic and Saivaist dignitaries took to the street in Mullaith-theevu staging a protest march from Mullaiththeevu old hospital to the District Secretariat passing the court on their way. An overwhelming majority of those marched in the protest were young generation Tamils.
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Sinhala extremist monks assault Tamils, say Buddhism stands above Law in Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 September 2019, 18:38 GMT]
A group of violent Sinhala Buddhist monks and a mob led by Bodu Bala Sena’s Secretary Gnanasara Thero, carried the remains of the late Kolamba Medhalankara Thero to cremate the controversial monk within the premises of the Tamil Saivite temple at Neeraaviyadi in Mullaiththeevu. They were violating the court ruling that specified a separate locality to mark the ritual. “Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country. Buddhism stands above the Law here,” proclaimed one of the Buddhist monks, who assaulted the Tamil lawyers and the students near the Neeraaviyadi Pi’l’ laiyaar temple at Naayaa’ru in Mullaiththeevu on Monday. The lawyers were present to convey the information. Elected Tamil politicians and the young generation of Tamil students were witnessing the lopsided behaviour of the SL military and the police, who were only defending the interests of the monks.
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More Sinhala settlers brought to Muslim village in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 September 2019, 21:53 GMT]
The 27th Battalion of the Gajaba Regiment of the occupying Sinhala Army, stationed at the 13th Mile Post on Anuradhapura - Pulmoaddai Road, continues to bring Sinhala settlers into the lands, which it had seized from twenty-four Tamil speaking families at the Muslim village of Maalaanoor in Pulmoaddai, the native residents told TamilNet on Sunday. They blamed UNP's Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa, who is aspiring to become the party's presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections as backing the controversial colonisation scheme through the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA), which comes under his ministry of housing and construction. Thirteen Sinhala settlers have already received houses through the NHDA.
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SL military wants to cremate remains of controversial monk inside temple premises

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 September 2019, 23:21 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military is preparing to stage the cremation of the late Kolamba Medhalankara Thero, who was causing ethnic tensions through the controversial project of Sinhala-Buddhicisation at Neeraaviyadi in the ancient Tamil village of Chemmalai in Naayaa'ru, Mullaiththeevu. The project was launched in 2009 by a genocidaire commander of the SL Army, Major General (retd) Jagath Dias and the late Anunayake of the Seruwila Saranakiththi Kalyani Sect, Seruwila Saranakiththi Thero, who was promoting Sinhala colonization along the border of North and East until his demise in May 2016. Kolamba Medhalankara Thero has passed away due to cancer, and the SL Army and SL Navy want to cremate him on Sunday at the premises of the Pi'l'laiyaar temple where he was violently installing a Buddha statue earlier this year.
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STF creates rifts among Muslims in Pulmoaddai

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 September 2019, 22:05 GMT]
The occupying Special Task Force (STF) stationed at Pulmoaddai 1st Ward has recruited Muslim informants to operate against their fellow villagers in Pulmoaddai using the ‘counter-terror’ relationships it has established after the Easter Sunday attacks. Using the rapport with the Sinhala commandos, operatives such as Jainulabdeen Muhammed Buhari, are making money from the villagers, the people complain. On Thursday, the SL Police suppressed a protest by the villagers by promising to control the informants from misbehaving. The villagers said lack of political power aftermath the April 21 attacks had given space for the rise of exploitative personalities as witnessed during the war when the SL State deployed paramilitary operatives deploying divide-and-rule counter-insurgency tactics.
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SL Police, STF refuse Tamil devotees accessing Kachchatkodi hill-top for worship

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 September 2019, 21:08 GMT]
Tamil villagers from Kachchatkodi-Swami-malai village, which is located 18 km southwest of Batticaloa, complain that the SL Police and the Sinhala Special Task Force (STF) commandos discriminate them from worshipping their village deity of Murukan represented at the hill-top in the form of a ‘divine javelin’ (Saiva Veal). The occupying Sinhala police and commandos are also blocking them from conducting rituals for Naaka-thampiraan deity at the foothills. The STF is providing security to the Sinhala monks who have established a Theravada Buddhist temple. The hill-top with ancient Buddhist remains from the times of Tamil Nagas have been Sinhalicised and projected as Sinhala heritage in the island, the Tamil residents complain.
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Colombo rushes ahead with exploitative expansion of salterns in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 September 2019, 23:50 GMT]
The occupying Colombo’s unitary state mechanism is alienating large tracts of lands, both officially and unofficially, for commercial actors from the South of the island. Tamil agents, including one paramilitary organiser of Karuna Group, are being used as the proxies to showcase that the SL State is ‘ethnically impartial’ in the allocations, informed Tamil servants at the Ki'linochchi District Secretariat said. They suspect the involvement of SL military corporatism in the schemes. In the meantime, Chairman of Karaichchi Divisional Council (PS), A. Velamalikithan, when contacted by TamilNet, described the extent of illegal construction work that has already commenced without securing the required permissions from the elected Council and the Divisional Secretariats concerned.
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SL Police threatens Tamils for observing annual temple festival in Vavuniyaa North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2019, 07:09 GMT]
A group of SL police officers from the Nedungkea'ni station in Vavuniyaa North have been questioning and recording statements from the trustees of Vedukkul-naa'ri Aathi-linkeasvarar temple in Vavuniyaa North on Saturday and Sunday. Furthermore, the SL Police was making phone calls to selected people in the area, stating that a case had been filed against those who were actively involved in the temple festival that completed on Saturday. The trustees and devotees have ‘violated’ the SL Antiquities Ordinance by using a ladder to reach the hilltop, the SL police claims. The SL Police was demanding the removal of the ladder before 10:00 a.m. on Sunday.
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SL military, police intervene in temple affairs in Champoor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 September 2019, 21:37 GMT]
The SL Police is unnecessarily intervening in the internal affairs regarding the consecration (Kumbhabhishekham) ritual of Champoor Sri Siththiviyaakar temple in Moothoor-East, Trincomalee, say Eezham Tamil residents in the village. The SL Police, along with the military intelligence wing of the occupying SL Army, have deployed their personnel to widen an ongoing rift concerning the consecration ceremony of the rebuilt temple. The Kumbhabhishekham is scheduled to commence on Sunday.
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Sinhala police, mob intimidate Saiva Tamil pilgrims at Kanniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2019, 20:04 GMT]
Tens of uniformed Sinhala police officers along with persons dressed in civilian clothing stormed at a group of Tamil Saiva pilgrims who were chanting prayers at Kanniyaa Hot Wells around 7:00 a.m. on Friday. The Sinhala policemen behaved aggressively against the devotees instructing them to remove their vehicle away from the promises, said the organiser of the pilgrimage, 41-year-old V. Mohanathas. The devotees were not allowed to conduct their Bajan worship at the Pi'l'laiyaar temple grounds. Half of them were disturbed from their bathing ritual at the Hot Wells. Even though the Tamil pilgrims explained the reason for their presence, the Sinhala group behaved aggressively, Mr Mohanadas said.
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Foreign-funded ‘Sevalanka’ schemes Sinhala tourism in Tamil hinterland of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 September 2019, 23:10 GMT]
The ‘Sevalanka Foundation’ which operates with the hidden agenda of imposing Sinhala socio-cultural development on Eezham Tamils with the backing of countries like Norway is aiming at transforming Kudumpi-malai area in the hinterland of Batticaloa district into a Sinhala tourism hotspot, District Secretariat sources said. The outfit has proposed to convert the agriculture-dependent Tamil villagers to serve the Sinhala tourists in the name of ‘development’. Informed civil officials in the District Secretariat urged Tamil journalists and the civil society activists to expose the wrong intentions behind the scheme to the larger society. The Tamil diaspora should gain the ability to objectively confront the host countries that continue and promote genocidal ‘engagement’ despite repeated concerns expressed by the Tamils.
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SL military continues to use school building as resort in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 September 2019, 22:26 GMT]
The occupying SL military continues to use the building of the Tamil school, Sarawathy Viththiyaalayam, as resort despite repeated requests to release the building. The SL military stationed along Batticaloa-Naavaladi Road 46 km north of the city is using the building, both as a camp and a resort for tourists from the South. The SL Army has not obtained permission from the Divisional Council to operate the resort, and when the Council took up the matter with the SL Army, the officers claimed that it was not a resort, but only a residence for the families and the relatives of the SL Army officers.
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Tamil-speaking Veddahs confront large-scale land grab in southeast Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 September 2019, 20:49 GMT]
The settlement pattern of the Tamil-speaking aborigines, who were looking after their own administrative affairs in the southeastern sector of Trincomalee district has been severely disturbed after 2010, says Nadarajah Kanagaratnam, the chairperson of Kuveani community organisation from the village of Nalloor. The villages of Veddahs are now riddled with various demographic changes carried out by the Sinhala-dominated SL State and the encroaching settlements facilitated by a section of the Muslim politicians in the East. The latest land grab was carried out by MLAM Hizbullah, the former SL Governor to East. After the controversial politician was forced to resign from the portfolio, the aboriginal people entered back into their lands in the hope of regaining them. However, a group of settlers from the nearby Thoappoor village have started to threaten the indigenous people in August 2019.
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Colombo's departments abet large-scale deforestation and hunting in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 September 2019, 15:19 GMT]
Widespread logging of forest trees, large-scale alienation of forest lands and hunting of spotted and sambur deers, as well as local buffaloes, continue unabated amidst persistent ignorance and possible collusion with the SL Forest and Wildlife Conservation Departments as well as the SL Police. Local Councillor Kandiah Soundararajan, who is elected from Vaddk-ka'ndal in Maanthai West Divisional Council (Piratheasa-chapai/PS), has exposed the extent of the destruction when contacted by TamilNet this week. In the meantime, the law enforcement authorities of the unitary state mechanism in Colombo are systematically depriving the resettled poverty-stricken and landless Tamils. It is the local population, which constitutes a nature-loving-society with excellent human-environment relationships, as history has witnessed in the past, Tamil activists in Mannaar observed.
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SL Police bans playing devotional songs at Vedukku-naa'ri temple in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 September 2019, 20:48 GMT]
The SL Police from Nedungkea'ni police station has instructed the trustee board of Vedukku-naa'ri Aathi-Lingkeasvarar temple in Vavuniyaa North not to use loudspeakers to play devotional songs during the annual temple festival. The SL Archaeology Department started to claim the locality as coming under its purview last year in August and deployed the SL Police to block Tamil devotees from setting up a ladder to the hilltop. When the dispute went to the courts, the local community was allowed to proceed with the deity rituals without engaging in any construction work. This year, the SL Police has restricted the devotees even from playing devotional songs, commented Thamilchelvan Thurairajah, an elected councillor at the Civic Divisional Council of Vavuniyaa North.
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Sinhala military occupation deprives Tamil farmers accessing livelihood services in Paduvaankarai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 September 2019, 22:49 GMT]
The officers of the occupying SL Army’s 232 Brigade Headquarters, stationed at Tharavai near Kudumpi-malai (Thoppik-kal, Baron’s Cap) in the interior Batticaloa, are refusing to vacate from the irrigation and agrarian offices. Around 1,500 farmers who are organised in 25 organisations in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) DS Division are deprived of benefiting from the services of the public office due to the continued militarisation by the Sinhala army, the representatives of the farmer's associations said. The office buildings are used as the residential offices of the commanding officers of the SL Army. The offices are also used as resorts for the Sinhala visitors from the South.
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Activist women allege premeditated accidents targeting them

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 September 2019, 23:02 GMT]
Last week, an unknown motorcyclist hit the motorbike of a leading Tamil woman activist S. Chandraleela, who is one of the main organisers of Keappaa-pulavu continuous protest. 43-year-old Chandraleela was on her way to her house from Mullaiththeevu with her daughter seated on the bike. Both the mother and the daughter were thrown into the air during the crash. All those involved in the accident were admitted to Maagn-choalai hospital with injuries. However, the man who hit them has been either freed or transferred to another hospital in secrecy. The identity of the man being hidden from the records has raised serious doubts of the accident being a planned one, rights activists in Mullaiththeevu said. The SL military intelligence is capable of experimenting with different techniques from time to time, be it ‘white-vans’, ‘grease-devils’ or ‘intended-accidents’, they said.
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UNHCR brings back refugees from Tamil Nadu without ensuring prospects for resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 September 2019, 23:42 GMT]
Uprooted Eezham Tamils who are returning from their overseas displacement in Tamil Nadu find it increasingly challenging to regain their lands and livelihood in the North-East of the island, civil officials in Mannaar said. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and the SL state apparatus fail to meet even the basic requirements of those returning, the officials said. While the UNCHR facilitates the flight transport of the refugees through Colombo airport, it expects the SL State to complete the resettlement arrangements at the district level. However, the officials coming under the Colombo government in the district say they are unable to cope with the challenges, even to find temporary accommodation to the returning families.
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