Colombo isolates Tamil political prisoners within heavily fortified cells

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 July 2020, 22:39 GMT]
SL Prison authorities not only continue denying families of Tamil political prisoners (TPPs) to their kith and kin, but they also refuse access to deliver essential supplies to them for more than five months. In the meantime, occupying Colombo, which relocated the Tamil prisoners from other prisons to Anuradhapura, has isolated the TPPs transferring them into heavily fortified isolation cells, the families complain.
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Criminals banished from South deployed for Sinhala colonisation in Musali, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 July 2020, 20:09 GMT]
Criminals and former military men absconding from law enforcement authorities for crimes committed in the South, particularly those with a previous military background, have been provided with an escape route if they agree to take part as settlers in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The tendency has been observed in Ko'ndaichchi in Musali division of Mannaar district, informed sources in the division said. In addition to Sinhala workers who previously worked in Ko'ndaichchi cashew farm, there are tens of Sinhala colonists with criminal background from Colombo, Kegalle, Matara and Gampaha districts in the South. Although only twenty-seven families are registered in the voters' registry, and they were provided with housing scheme, there are scores of other Sinhalese living in the so-called “Sinhala Gammana” village in Ko'ndaichchi.
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Colombo resumes surveying of lands for Sinhala colonisation in interior Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 July 2020, 18:26 GMT]
Officials claiming to be from SL Forest Department and Mahaweli Authority have been surveying of pasture lands in Mayilaththa-madu this week. The process was resumed despite repeated objections from the dairy farmers belonging to all three communities, said Seenithamby Nimalan, the chairman of Mayilaththamadu Dairy Farmers Association. “Those involved in the surveying of lands say they belong to SL Forest Department. Sometimes they also claim to be from SL Mahaweli Authority. They say the surveyed lands would be transferred to Sinhala settlers who are agricultural farmers,” Mr Nimalan said.
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Community physician referring North and East as Tamil areas was ‘racism’ for GMOA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2020, 18:31 GMT]
SL Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), which is the trade union of government doctors in the island, is again on a witch-hunt against Consultant Community Physician (CCP) Dr Murali Vallipuranathan, an outspoken Tamil from North. Secretary of the GMOA Dr Senal Fernando has written a letter to the Secretary of SL Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services Dr Sanjeewa Munasinghe urging the latter to initiate an investigation against Dr Vallipuranathan for calling Northern and Eastern provinces as Tamil areas. “We firmly believe that this is a racists remark as whole of Sri Lanka belongs to all ethnic groups of the country,” wrote Dr Fernando in his letter.
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SL Police blocks protest by families of missing persons in East

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2020, 20:24 GMT]
Ea'raavoor Police has blocked a demonstration on Monday in Batticaloa. The kith and kin of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances organised the protest after informing SL Police in advance. However, the SL Police, which had verbally assured that the protest could proceed, suddenly stopped the rally in a ransacking spree, securing a court order just 30 minutes before the protest. The coordinator of the campaign, Ms Amalanayaki Amalraj, told TamilNet that she had informed the SL Police Officer-in-Charge at Ea'raavoor Police station through a CID officer attached to the central police station in Batticaloa well in advance, three days before the event.
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Sinhala Archaeology officials attach GPS tracking to ‘heritage’ stones in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2020, 20:17 GMT]
A group of employees from all-Sinhala SL Archaeology Department spent time with a stone used to burn camphor at Chiththaa'ndi Murukan temple on Friday. When they left, they claimed to have attached a GPS tracker to the rock. In the meantime, SL Police Officer-in-Charge at Ea'raavoor Police was dodging to register a complaint from the temple board, sources close to the management said. Uniformed police personnel have been visiting the temple since 19 July and persons claiming to be employees of SL Archaeology Department come and go since 26 June. The intruding officials are not interested in informing through proper channels before their interventions. The situation has caused security-related concerns as there are valuable properties of the temple within the premises.
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Colombo's CID questions Wigneswaran for claiming Tamil Buddhism as predating Sinhala

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2020, 18:26 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Police Headquarters has directed a police CID officer to come and question former Chief Minister of Northern Province Justice C. V. Wigneswaran with regards to an article (a question per week series) he authored on 14 December 2019. "Why should they come around questioning about the article after seven months when the elections are just around the corner," Justice Wigneswaran said when TamilNet contacted him on Saturday. In the article from 14 December, Wigneswaran claimed that the Tamils were the original inhabitants of this island. He also pointed out that the Sinhalese came by their Sinhala language only in the 6th or 7th Century AD, around 1300 or 1400 years ago only. Early Buddhists in the island were Tamils, he wrote in that article. The police inspector was asking whether it was him who wrote it and whether he still stood by what he wrote.
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Saiva deity statue destroyed 20 days after ‘inspection’ by Sinhala monk in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2020, 22:15 GMT]
Unknown attackers have smashed the door of the inner sanctuary of Kusalaana-malai Saiva Kumaran temple and destroyed the main deity statue, residents of Karadiyan-aattuk-ku'lam in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Friday. The desecration has taken place three weeks after a Sinhala-Buddhist was observed inspecting the temple situated at the 213-feet high hillock, 35 km west of Batticaloa city. A similar destruction was reported a few days ago at Kurunthoor-malai hillock in Mullaiththeevu in Vanni. The board of the temple was reluctant to talk to journalists as it feared media attention could trigger further problems to the temple. However, Tamil farmers in the nearby village urged broader awareness on the ongoing acts of heritage genocide in the East and North.
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University students mark Black July Remembrance in Jaffna, Vavuniyaa and Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2020, 22:46 GMT]
Tamil university students in Jaffna, Vavuniyaa and Batticaloa staged remembrance events within their university premises. Jaffna University Student Union leaders, who gathered at their office lighting candles for the victims of the 1983 SL State-sponsored pogrom against Tamils in the island said Black July remembrance must be integral to the process of international justice on Tamil genocide. Remembrance events were also observed at Vavuniyaa campus and the Eastern University. In the meantime, Tamil political parties that usually organise Black July Remembrance events, were too busy this time with their election campaign.
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Sinhala ‘Army & Archaeology’ target 600 sites for heritage occupation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2020, 23:38 GMT]
Colombo's Sinhala ‘Army and Archaeology’ have identified around six hundred various sites for ‘heritage’ occupation in Batticaloa district alone. There are Saiva and folk-deity temples of Eezham Tamils in most of these places. The Government officials at the District Secretariat have been explicitly instructed to inform the SL Presidential Secretariat about organisations and individuals failing to ‘cooperate’ with SL Archaeology Department and the monks of the Presidential Task Force for so-called Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province, Batticaloa District Secretary (Government Agent) Ms Kalamathy Pathmarajah has told civil society activists in a meeting on Wednesday.
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Colombo's Archaeology Department, SL Police threaten chief priest of Chiththaa'ndi temple

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 July 2020, 23:30 GMT]
Officials of occupying Colombo's Archaeology Department visited the ancient Saiva (Hindu) Murukan temple at Chiththaa'ndi, located 20 km north of Batticaloa city, last month on 26 June. The visiting team was taking photographs of stones used for crack opening coconuts and for burning camphor as well as the stone slabs used in the temple for various purposes. They claimed that the rocks resembled Buddhist artefacts and that they should be delivered back to the SL Archaeology Department. Sivasri Vasantharajah Kurukka'l, the chief priest of the temple, told them that the stones had been there for several decades while other slabs were produced in Vavuniyaa in 2010 when the temple was renovated. On Sunday, SL Policemen from Batticaloa visited the temple blaming the chief priest for ‘not cooperating’ with the officials of the department.
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Colombo aims to get back 20 Trinco oil tanks from India

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 July 2020, 17:27 GMT]
A ministerial delegation was visiting Trincomalee last week to inspect the possibility for getting back twenty of the Trincomalee oil tanks from the Indian Oil Corporation, according to Colombo-based Sunday Times. “We have made a request for 20 tanks, but we hope we can at least start with 15,” the paper reported SL Power and Energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera as saying on Sunday. New Delhi, which is a major strategic partner of the USA, has been pushing for joint operation of the oil farm, especially during the rule of the previous regime under Maithiriapala Siriseana and Ranil Wickramasinghe.
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Vadamaraadchi North fishers mobilise against Colombo's discrimination

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2020, 22:33 GMT]
Former Tamil paramilitary operative Douglas Devananda, who collaborated with the genocidal military of occupying Sri Lanka, is now SL Minister of Fisheries in the “caretaker” cabinet of Rajapaksa regime. Sinhala poachers from South are allowed to encroach and engage in destructive fishing along the coast of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The quisling minister is citing the law imposed by the SL State during the times of war. The law is known as Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act of 1996. “The 1996 law was drafted with southern fishers in mind. It has not taken into consideration the concerns of Tamils. We are not opposed to others fishing here. But, we are opposed to poaching and destructive fishing methods destroying our fishing ecosystem by the Sinhala fishers,” said N. Varankulasingam, the chairman of the Federation of Vadamaraadchi North Fisheries societies.
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SL Navy backed purse-seiners pose grave threat to fishing ecosystem in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2020, 20:41 GMT]
The occupying SL Navy, with a large number of naval bases along the eastern coast of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, has allowed Sinhala purse seiners to engage in the illegal fishing (churukku-valai) in the prohibited zone within seven to ten miles from the coast of Vaakarai in Batticaloa. Chairman of Kathirave'li Fisheries Society Murugiah Subramaniyam said the illegal fishing was destroying the fishing ecosystem as well as seriously threatening the livelihood of more than one thousand Tamil fisher families in Vaakarai. The families are dependent on their income from 15 karai-valaip-paadus (coastal drag net zones) along the stretch between Panichchang-kea'ni and Kathirave'li, he said. The poachers are also using dynamite bombs for fishing.
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Sumanthiran’s nexus with “Raava'na Senai” in Kanniyaa heritage dispute questioned

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 July 2020, 21:47 GMT]
Sinhala Buddhist extremist monk Ampitiye Seelawansa Tissa Thero has been escalating a heritage dispute at Kanniyaa Hot Wells by pushing for the construction of a Buddhist temple within the Saiva temple premises located in the lands that belong to a private landowner. When the case was taken up by the courts on Thursday, ITAK Parliamentarian and President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran represented the owner of the temple lands Ms Ganesh Kokilaramany. Meanwhile, “Ravana Senai,” a shady outfit allegedly connected to Hindutva organisations in India is also in a dispute with Kokilaramany as it had transformed the mutt belonging to Pi'l'laiyaar temple into a Sivan temple. The group maintains rapport with the Seelawansa Tissa Thero and with Mr Sumanthiran who represents Kokilaramany.
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Civic council demolishes illegal plant put up by southern trader in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 July 2020, 18:35 GMT]
Karaichchi Divisional Council (Piratheasa Chapai) has demolished an illegally constructed saltern-tank at Cherukkan village, located in Uruththirapuram North of the district of Ki’linochchi, on Thursday. The two-storey construction was put up by a Matara-based Sinhala businessman. He had seized 140 acres of lands with 2.5 km coastal stretch to construct a saltern exerting political influence, divisional council members said.
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Trident missing, seat of folk-deity desecrated at disputed heritage hillock in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 July 2020, 21:19 GMT]
Unknown persons have removed the trident of Aiyanaar folk-deity, and its seat from the hillock of Kurunthoor-malai, violating a court order that said nothing should be changed. The occupying SL military was using the recently imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 Kumuzha-munai villagers to restrict access to the hillock. Tamil villagers from Kumuzha-munai in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division in the district of Mullaiththeevu alleged that the SL Archaeology Department and Sinhala Theravada monks were behind the removal of the trident (Trisulam) at their heritage site.
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English version not available

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2020, 22:36 GMT]

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SL Navy ‘updates’ records of ex-LTTE members in Moothoor East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2020, 22:14 GMT]
The occupying SL Navy stationed in Champoor, Moothoor East of Trincomalee district, has started contacting former LTTE members in Moothoor East to “update” their details on current affiliations, Rural Development Society members in Paaddaa'li-puram said. Conducting village-by-village and door-by-door visits or phone conversations, the predominantly Sinhala SL Navy is updating the current status of every former Tamil fighters synchronising the details. The executive president and the Sinhala military of the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka seem to be caught up in paranoia that a regrouping of Tamil armed movement was taking place, RDS representatives said.
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Sonia-Rahul’s Congress advocates India strengthening US-led “Quad” alliance

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 July 2020, 16:30 GMT]
“Two senior Congress leaders — AM Singhvi and Deepender Hooda — advocated that India play a leading role in a more muscular Quad,” reported The Economic Times on Sunday in an article titled “Quad is shaping up as the backbone of India’s post-COVID foreign policy.” The recent India-China border standoff in Ladakh has accelerated the tendency. In the meantime, Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, a former minister of state for external affairs, observed that foundations for US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) were pointing towards “a more substantive strategic shift”.
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SL Police harasses Shivajilingam at 25th Remembrance of Navaali massacre in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 July 2020, 00:05 GMT]
Hundreds of people emotionally marked the 25th remembrance of 147 Tamil men, women and children who perished in SL Air Force bombing and artillery attacks when they had sought refuge at two temples at Navaali in Jaffna on 09th July 1995. On Thursday, the Sinhala police of occupying Colombo was trying to block former TNA parliamentarian and former provincial councillor M.K. Shivajilingam when he went to the remembrance event. On Wednesday, the SL Police was attempting to secure a court order against the participation of the Tamil politician in the remembrance. Mr Shivajilingam, who has been in the forefront championing the right of Eezham Tamils memorialisation events, especially after 2009, was however allowed to take part by the courts. Yet, the SL Police was harassing him at the site, irking the Tamils.
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SL Navy brutally assaults Tamil fishers in Mullaith-theevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 July 2020, 09:33 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala Navy brutally assaulted Tamil fisher families at Puthu-maaththa'lan in Mullaiththeevu causing injuries to a father, his son and three women in the early hours of Thursday. The SL Navy entered the house of fisheries society leader Mahendran Alex alias Suman. It attacked his family members using batons causing severe injuries to his father, 55-year-old Mahalingam Mahendran and 28-year-old Mahendran Nixon, the younger brother. Three women have also sustained injuries. The fisheries society leader said the violent attack was deliberate and unprovoked. The residents interpret the violent episode as part of an aggressive campaign against the peaceful protesters demanding resettlement in the nearby Keappaa-pulavu. The SL Navy is also having a dispute with Tamil fishers who are opposed to the sea cucumber poachers from the South.
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Sinhala colonists encroach into Kangku-veali, Mean-kamam reservoirs in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 July 2020, 16:33 GMT]
Encroaching Sinhala colonist farmers from Dehiwatta in Seruvila division of Trincomalee district have cut the recently re-constructed bunds of Kangku-veali reservoir and drained it to seize and illegally convert more than 55 acres of the 200 acres of the tank catchment area for agriculture. The destruction has taken place at two locations of the bunds with the backing of two Sinhala politicians, Rajapaksa-aligned former deputy minister Mr Susantha Punchinilame and SLFP Trincomalee District Organiser Mrs Ariyawathi Galappaththi. The Sinhala politicians had vowed to allow the Sinhala settlers encroach the reservoir last year after the Tamil National Alliance had managed to accomplish the reconstruction by getting the SL State to allocate the needed money.
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Colombo schemes to expand ilmenite scooping into North from Pulmoaddai in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2020, 19:36 GMT]
Occupying Colombo is silently expanding its scheme to excavate ilmenite mineral to the north of Kokku'laay lagoon after exploiting the silica-rich sand in Pulmoaddai located in Trincomalee to the south of the provincial border. Systematic surveying has been going on since 2016, and the incumbent administration under Gotabaya Rajapaksa is accelerating the plan, informed civil sources in Mullaiththeevu said. The planned exploitation, if allowed to proceed unchecked, could result in an environmental disaster, the sources said seeking the attention of environmentalists, academics, journalists and the politicians among the Eezham Tamils.
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Colombo transfers Tamil Political Prisoners to notorious Anuradhapura prison

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2020, 19:06 GMT]
The prison authorities of New Magazine Prison in Colombo have transferred twenty Tamil Political Prisoners (TPPs) to Anuradhapura prison on Saturday. Five of eleven TPPs who narrowly escaped death or injury at Anuradhaprison prison during the rioting on 21 March and later relocated to Jaffna have also been sent back to Anuradhapura jail on 30 June, legal sources in Jaffna said. All the TPPs at the Anuradhapura have been jailed along with Sinhala hardcore prisoners at death row or life imprisonment. The families of the TPPs are concerned for the safety of the TPPs.
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University students, Shivajilingam brave SL harassment to commemorate fallen Black Tigers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 July 2020, 23:06 GMT]
Reacting to SL military harassment against paying tribute to Tamil war hero Captain Miller and other Black Tigers at Nelliyadi in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna, Tamil students at the University of Jaffna lit the flame of sacrifice within the university premises at 7:05 pm at the time of the death of Miller on Sunday. The students released the photos to journalists in Jaffna. The reaction came as the occupying SL military and police in Jaffna blocked Tamil political parties and their representatives from paying tribute to the Tamil heroes on Black Tigers Day. Former TNA Parliamentarian M.K. Shivajilingam also braved to mark the day at a public event in Vadamaraadchi on Sunday.
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Monk commanding Sinhala-Buddhicisation of North-East threatens Tamil villagers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 July 2020, 22:28 GMT]
Panamure Thilakawansha Thero, the extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk based in Arisimalai in Pulmoaddai, whom Gotabaya Rajapaksa referred as “chief prelate for the Northern and Eastern Provinces” in his Presidential Task Force for ‘archaeological heritage management’ in the East, paid a threatening visit to Batticaloa on Saturday. The anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim monk, accompanied with fifteen SL Army soldiers, warned Veaththuch-cheanai Tamil villagers to keep away from their village deity Vairavar and the nearby playground. The monk claimed the folk-deity land as a Buddhist “archaeological heritage site”. Veaththuch-cheanai is situated in Vellaa-ve'li of Poaratheevup-pattu DS division, 40 km south of Batticaloa city.
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Colombo imposes restrictions on Tamil valour related symbolism in schools of North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 July 2020, 22:26 GMT]
Director of Northern Provincial Department of Education Sellathurai Uthayakumar has instructed the school principals to “discipline” the sport meets held in the schools within the province not to use symbols associated with the armed struggle of Tamils in the house decorations. The move comes after the SL military intelligence monitored a trend in the schools of Vanni, where Tamil students and teachers have been using the symbolism of resistance against European colonialism as well as the Sinhala occupation in the sports events. Often, the winning “house decorations” of the sports meets depicted Pandaara Vanniyan or names of Tamil Eelam War Heroes (Maaveerar) in the titles, a principal of a renowned school in Vanni told TamilNet.
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New secret unit among four SL military and police squads competing to arrest Tamil youth in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 July 2020, 13:22 GMT]
Four SL military and police squads, including a new secret unit led by a Police Deputy Inspector General (DIG) based in Colombo, have been detaining Tamils under the allegation of attempting to regroup armed struggle. Apart from the notorious ‘Terrorist Investigation Division,’ based in Colombo, the new unit led by another DIG is also operating from Colombo with field trips to all the five districts of North, informed sources in Jaffna said. Four different “networks” of Tamil youth have been detained in Magazine New Remand Prison in Colombo in the recent months, the sources further said. In the meantime, Coordinator of SL Human Rights Commission in Jaffna, Thangavel Kanagaraj, has admitted that his office had received an increased number of complaints in June. At least one of those detained were below the age of 18.
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