Colombo’s brutal suppression of Tamil Heroes’ Day counter-productive to stated objectives: Tamil MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 December 2020, 15:44 GMT]
Emboldened with a two-thirds majority in the SL Parliament, the regime of Rajapaksa has chosen to suppress Tamil remembrance days, particularly the Maaveear Naa'l (Tamil Eelam Heroes’ Day) this year. The Rajapaksa regime was short-sighted in using the opportunity to showcase to its southern audience that it was more determined than its predecessor in blocking November 27 Remembrance. However, the brutal manner in which the SL State and its judiciary suppressed the collective remembrance events received more attention not only among the Tamil youth in the North and the East but also in the South, said ITAK (TNA) Parliamentarian from Batticaloa Shanakiyan Rasamanickam. “I received phone calls from Up-Country Tamil youth from Deniyaya and Matara in the down south to Kandy and Colombo,” he said adding that even fifteen and sixteen-year-old youth were posing questions.
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Gotabaya's ‘Task Force’ monk threatens Tamils to stay away from their paddy fields in Thiriyaay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2020, 22:03 GMT]
The extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk based in Arisimalai in Pulmoaddai, Panamure Thilakawansha Thero, has threatened Eezham Tamil farmers of Thiriyaay in Kuchchave'li division of Trincomalee district to stay away from their agricultural lands on Wednesday. Panamure Thilakawansha is the monk whom the SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has referred as “chief prelate for the Northern and Eastern Provinces” in his Presidential Task Force for ‘archaeological heritage management’ in the East. He has claimed that ancient Buddhist artefacts were lying spread across more than one thousand acres spanning six farming tracts. The Tamil farmers have demanded the Tamil National Alliance and other Tamil national political parties to act against the move.
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Sinhala monks relaunch hate campaign against Poththuvil Muslims

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2020, 20:43 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on 14 May dispatched his defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne to set up a navy sub-post at the coastal locality known as Mathuragn-cheanai in Poththuvil of Ampaa'rai district. Back in 2015, encroaching Sinhala Buddhist monks had erected a Vihara, Muhudu Maha Viharaya, in the lands belonging to SL Archaeology Department. Then, they started to harass the Tamil-speaking Muslims in the nearby area with the motive of annexing more lands to their temple. The monks were using the electoral politics to mobilise support to their campaign. Now, ahead of the SL Parliamentary elections, the issue has re-surfaced, especially after the chief prelates of the three chapters of the Sinhala Theravada Buddhist Maha Sangha met with Mr Gotabaya on 24 April 2020.
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Australia upgrades air defence boosting strategic military ties with US to deter China in Indo-Pacific

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2020, 23:22 GMT]
Australia, one of the Quad partners in the emerging Indo-Pacific military alliance of the US, has recently decided to spend A$1.1 billion to upgrade the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base at Tindal, which is located in its Northern Territory. When the upgrade is complete, the RAAF Tindal will be the “most potent military base south of Guam,” according to Emeritus Professor Paul Dibb AM, who is the director of Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of the Australian National University. The US Air Force would be able to operate its nuclear-capable B-52 strategic bombers from the expanded airfield in the future. In the meantime, the US has approved the sales of up to 200 Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs) of the type AGM-158C at the estimated cost of A$1.47 billion.
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Sand mining mafia intimidates Divisional Secretary in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 October 2019, 15:05 GMT]
Three Sinhala sand mining traders, scooping sands in Kathirave'li in Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division, have threatened the Divisional Secretary M. Karan saying that they were capable of transferring him away from his division. One of the Sinhala sand mining traders from Kanthaa'laay in Trincomalee is demanding to increase the extent of the sand permit to cover the expenses to sponsor one of the leading presidential candidates, the officials further said. The latest threat has come as the DS was trying to limit the extensive scooping. The traders operate with the backing of the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau, which comes under the unitary State system in Colombo.
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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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Sinhala goons confront protesters at Kanniyaa, priest, landowner subjected to “hot water assault”

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 July 2019, 11:31 GMT]
The occupying SL Army and the police were blocking more than five hundred peaceful protesters on Anuradhapura Road 1 km away from Kanniyaa Hot Wells on Tuesday when the Eezham Tamil grassroots activists mobilised to express peaceful resistance to the SL State-sponsored act of heritage genocide. At the same time, the SL Police had allowed tens of Sinhala goons to enter the temple site in advance to be prepared to assault Tamils if anyone managed to reach the venue. Heated arguments ensued between the Sinhala police and the Tamil protesters. Finally, unable to withstand the protesters, the SL Police allowed two representatives to proceed to Kanniyaa Hot Wells. Saivaist priest Akaththiyar Adika'laar and Mrs Ganesh Kokilaramany, the landowner and trustee of the temple, accompanied the police. On their way, Sinhala street sellers who had mobilised at the entrance poured hot water at them.
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SL military, Sinhala monk exploit poverty among Tamils in East for religious conversion

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 July 2019, 23:12 GMT]
A Sinhala Buddhist monk, Ven Katugastota Mahindalankara thero, stationed at Mayilang-karaichchi village in Vaazhaich-cheanai, 31 km north of Batticaloa city, has been operating a Theravada Buddhist Dhamma School targeting conversion of poverty-stricken Tamil children into Buddhism since 2014. The Sunday school, named ‘Mahindalangkara Dhamma School’ is functioning at the Buddhist temple called Sri Bodhirajaramaya (also named Sri Mahindarama Viharaya). The monk has also arranged a Sinhala lady teacher, L Sisiliya, to teach Sinhala language to the Tamil children in Mayilang-karaichchi for some years. For the last one month she is also teaching Sinhala at her residence, Tamil rural society activists told TamilNet adding that the Sinhala Buddhist vihara establishment was systematically attracting the poverty-stricken Tamil children at a village where all other facilities remained neglected.
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Fishing by intruding colonists hampers livelihood of Tamils in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 July 2019, 21:17 GMT]
Sinhala colonists from the Trincomalee district are intruding into the territorial waters of Eezham Tamils in Vaakarai located to the north of Batticaloa (Koara'laip-pattu North division). The occupying Sinhala navy and the SL fisheries authorities are backing the illegal deployment of purse seines by the Sinhala fishermen. In the meantime, the SL military is harassing the Tamil fishers who engage in fishing using legally allowed methods, the Head of Vaakarai Fishers Society T. Baskaran told TamilNet. The SL military is also backing the former TMVP paramilitary (Pi'l'laiyaan faction) personnel to engage in the exploitative fishing activities, he further said.
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SLA officer attempts to seize coastal lands as intruding fisher in Vaakarai

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 June 2019, 19:23 GMT]
A Sinhala Army officer stationed in Vaakarai is claiming lands to set up fishing ‘Paadu’ (an area of coastal sea-bed falling within the scope of a draw-net at 10 feet long) at the Tamil village of Maavadai-oadai in Vaakarai (Koara'laip-pattu North division) in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. The intruding Sinhala Army officer, attached to 233 Brigade of the SLA, is known as Major Kumara. He was clearing the land, which initially belonged to a Tamil land-owner, N. Packiyarasa. The area falls within the so-called safety buffer zone of 200 meters from the coast as the SL State enforced a ban after the 2004 tsunami. Tension prevailed in the village when the Sinhala officer, in military uniform, started to clear the 2.5 acres of lands using a bulldozer. The occupying Sinhala Army was backing him.
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‘Silver Park’ boosting Hambantota not linked to China: Norwegian agency

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 April 2019, 23:41 GMT]
"Hambantota got a new boost that was nothing to do with China or the BRI," reported a global shipping news service on Monday. The reporting agency, TradeWinds, is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. The China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPH) which controls the Hambantota port has conveyed to Indian and US diplomats who visited the port that its security was led by retired Sri Lankan admiral Jayantha de Silva and not by China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the report further observed. In the meantime, UPFA MP Asanka S Semasinghe was alleging that Tamil Nadu DMK Politician S. Jagathrakshakan's family-owned business could be a money laundering project. SL Minister of ‘Development’ Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrema (UNP) was rejected his allegations on Tuesday.
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Colombo schemes Sinhala Buddhicisation of 40 more locations in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 March 2019, 17:28 GMT]
The anti-Tamil Archaeology Department of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has approached the SL Survey Department to survey 40 more locations in Mullaith-theevu district alone with the intention of permanently declaring the places as heritage monuments of Sinhala Theravada Buddhism, informed civil officials had alerted the TNA Parliamentarian Shanthy Sriskandarajah. It is not known whether these are the places identified in a controversial Gazette declaration made already in 2013 or if these places are additional locations based on a new list, the civil officials who alerted the TNA parliamentarian explained to the journalists who were seeking to verify the information. The Eezham Tamils in Vanni should rapidly form heritage vigilance groups to confront the widespread surveying activities being schemed by the SL Archaeology Department, commented grassroots activists in Vanni.
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118 Muslim families demand occupying SL Navy to release their lands in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2019, 17:33 GMT]
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.
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SL State becomes prime reference for ‘debt trap diplomacy’ of China in US rhetorics

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 December 2018, 19:03 GMT]
The unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has become the de-facto reference case for Chinese debt-trap diplomacy, which is being increasingly referred in the US political, military and financial discussions. USINDOPACOM Commander Admiral Philip S. Davidson made a reference to ‘Sri Lanka’ when he faced a question on what he found as the most problematic with the Belt and Road initiative on 30 November. In the meantime, Roland de Marcellus, the acting deputy assistant secretary for international finance and development within the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, testifying at a US Senate subcommittee hearing on “multilateral economic institutions in foreign policy,” on 27 November said ‘Sri Lanka’ had become “a campaign issue in many elections around the world where opposition groups are criticizing the volume of Chinese lending and the terms and all of the other drawbacks”.
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Tamil Eelam war heroes emotionally commemorated, people defy SL Court orders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2018, 17:40 GMT]
The oppressed Eezham Tamils gathered in large numbers on Tuesday as never before in post-2009 remembrance day events to mark the public commemoration of Tamil Eelam great heroes (Maaveerar) at more than thirty heroes’ cemeteries which the occupying SL military had razed to the ground in the eight districts of the North-East. The people also defied the verbal court order in Jaffna, and the written court order in Batticaloa, which prohibited playing LTTE produced songs. Eezham Tamils went ahead with playing the main maaveerar-song, which vows to stay the course of the liberation of Tamil state.
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Antiquities Ordinance used to justify Sinhalicisation of 48 locations in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 July 2018, 22:30 GMT]
The intruding Sinhala-Buddhist establishment and the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka are rushing ahead with the expansion of an already reconstructed Buddhist temple, the so-called Gurukanda Raja Maha Vihara (Gurukanda RMV), which is located at Chemmalai, Naayaa'ru in the coastal Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district. As the protesting Tamil land-owners successfully blocked the surveying of the lands earlier this month, the intruders are now citing an Extraordinary Gazette notification, issued in 2013 (1823/73) during the times of Rajapaksa rule, to proceed with their plans of expanding the Vihara, the civil sources at the District Secretariat said.
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Sand mining, backed by Colombo's authority and monk, destroys ecology of verukal river

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 June 2018, 22:32 GMT]
A Sinhala trader from Kantha'laay in Trincomalee district, Ms Ramani Herath, is operating a sand mining business exploiting Verukal river basin at Aaladi in Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division, north of Batticaloa. The sand extraction is going on disregarding the concerns of the native people of erosion and other mining-induced consequences disrupting the channel and the habitat. At least 24 truckloads of sands are being transported to Colombo on a daily basis, deploying the vehicles of a Tamil businessman from Chengkaladi, local government sources in Vaakarai told TamilNet. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were protecting Vaakarai from structural genocide and exploitation during the times of peace and war until 2007 when the entire area faced an all-out genocidal war by the SL State.
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SL Navy deploys illegal means of fishing in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2018, 05:09 GMT]
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.
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Three Saiva temples vandalized in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2018, 20:37 GMT]
Three Saiva temples have been vandalized in Mannaar following the civic elections and a day before the Saiva religious day of Maha Shivaratri. One of the places of worship, Lingkeasvarar temple, is located on the left side of Mannaar - Thalai-mannaar Road and is situated near the St.Xavier's Boys' College. The Lingkam statue at the temple was fully destroyed Tuesday night. The other two temples are located very close to two Sinhala military bases in the district. Although various suspicions are being raised, the residents are of opinion that the vandalization would not have been possible without the culprits having a close rapport with the occupying military establishment.
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US naval engagement with Colombo triggers genocidal Sinhalicisation of Tamil heritage

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 February 2018, 13:33 GMT]
The workers from SL Archaeology department of genocidal Sri Lanka have been deployed to carry out 'excavations' at the disputed hill-top of Maththa'la-malai at Choodaik-kudaa in Kooniththeevu, which is located near Champoor in Moothoor division of Trincomalee district. The project, which follows militarisation of Champoor, is aimed at Sinhalicising the entire Champoor region through evoking 'foremost place to Buddhism' clause in the unitary constitution of genocidal Sri Lanka. The move has been triggered by the SL Navy, which is being groomed by the U.S. Pacific Command under the notion of 'military-to-military' engagement. The USA is engaged in promoting the genocidal military of Sri Lanka with a marine training programme in Trincomalee.
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