Visiting US team continues ‘counting trees’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2013, 23:23 GMT]
The visit of the US Defence and State Department officials to Jaffna on Sunday was marked by denial of issues by the occupying Sinhala military, denials countered by the Bishop and civil society of Jaffna, and comments by the visiting team – all just a bickering on counting trees but deliberate refusal to see the wood, because the ambit has been set by the US-tabled 2012 Geneva resolution that has to now facilitate the 2013 resolution under preparation, political analysts in Jaffna told TamilNet. A stage has been set, knowing how the characters would act and what dialogues they would come out with, so that the play could proceed endlessly to the benefit of the director. Unless Tamils insist on a stage to talk nothing but the fundamentals for any future association with the director, they will be ‘played out’ the analysts further said.
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French ambassador concerned about fishermen encroachment, Tamil - Muslim relations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2013, 12:28 GMT]
The French ambassador in Colombo, Christine Robichon, visiting Jaffna and Mannaar between 07 and 12 of this month, was able to “assess the damages of the trespassing of Indian trawlers on the livelihoods of local fishermen, and the consequences of the use of banned methods of fishing on the environment and natural resources,” said a press release of the French embassy in Colombo on Sunday. In her meetings with resettled people, she paid particular attention to the relations between Tamil and Muslim communities. “It is encouraging to see that Tamil and Muslim work together to provide support to all the war affected people in some organizations but it is worrying to perceive signs of communal tensions particularly in Mannar,” the press release said citing the ambassador.
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Demographic genocide aimed in SL military surveying Batticaloa border villages

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2012, 08:59 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of Colombo, stationed in more than 10 military bases along the villages in Batticaloa district in the area bordering Polannaruwa district, has enforced Eezham Tamils to register their households and their lands. The enforced registration is carried out in a military operation style, is claimed to be under the so-called ‘Eastern Province Development Plan’ of the Mahaweli Development Ministry. The intention is to appropriate excess lands to be distributed among ‘landless’ people, a SL military intelligence officer involved in the project said when confronted by the villagers. The enforced registration is being carried out without involving the SL Government Agent of Batticaloa district and the divisional officers under him.
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‘UN internal report meaningless without action, long term solution needed’: Tamil activist

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2012, 21:01 GMT]
Criticizing the UN for its deliberate silence which “protected the Sri Lankan state from international criticism and allowed it to strategically conduct a genocidal campaign under the guise of a “war on terror””, Dr. Sam Pari, an Eezham Tamil activist with the ATC, argues in news site Crickey.com that the recently released internal review report of the UN on Sri Lanka is meaningless to the Eezham Tamils without concrete steps in action. Giving an outline of different ways in which the Sri Lankan state is conducting genocide of the Eezham Tamils, she writes “The Sri Lankan regime’s strategy of eradicating the Tamil people through various avenues is only being abetted by the super powers’ silence. What is required is a longer term solution that deals with the root cause — an oppressive force, the racist Sri Lankan regime, intent on erasing the identity of a people, the Tamils.”
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Sinhala academic condemns ICE’s manipulations of Eezham Tamils at Italy conference

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 November 2012, 01:39 GMT]
“Today there is a psychological and political warfare waged against the Tamil Diaspora not only to forget the past but also to abhor the whole project of a Tamil state. Domination under the Sinhala dominated unitary state has been justified as a rational and realistic choice,” Sinhala academic Dr. Jude Lal Fernando said at a conference held in Lecce, Italy last Friday. Criticizing the West for tilting the parity of status against the LTTE, he added that “what has been committed is genocide with full international endorsement. It is approved simply to protect the unitary state of the Sinhalese.” The conference titled “We demand our land” was also addressed by TNPF leaders Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and S. Kajendran, besides Italian EU politician Adriana Poli Bortone, and human rights activist Klodiana Cuka and lawyer Italo Porcaro.
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War-displaced without housing assistance now stranded roofless by heavy rains in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 October 2012, 23:50 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr Pon Selvaraja has said that the Sri Lankan state has not taken any step till today to provide permanent housing schemes for people affected by war and natural disasters in the Batticaloa district. In 2006, all civilians fled from their houses to elsewhere for safety when the occupying Sri Lanka Army launched multi-barrel artillery attacks (MBRL) towards Paduvaan-karai. The displaced only received Tarpaulin roofing sheets from NGOs. The SL government omitted the names of the victims from the list of displaced families disabling them from receiving cash relief or dry rations. The argument put forward by the Colombo government at that time was that the occupying Special Task Force (STF), a notorious commando unit under the SL police deployed in combat operations, was providing protection to the displaced people.
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‘Resettled’ people stranded by heavy rains in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2012, 23:31 GMT]
Heavy rainfall, reported amidst cyclone warning, has stranded thousands of people living along the coastal stretch of Mullaiththeevu and Vadamaraadchi East without shelter and food. The people of Keappapulavu, recently left under the trees by the SL military that has occupied their lands, are the worst affected in Mullaiththeevu district. In the meantime, the occupying Sri Lankan military has hijacked the assistance that was supposed to be provided by the civil authorities to the affected people. The SL Government Agent of Mullaiththeevu, Mr N. Vethanayakam, hesitant to to disclose the details of the displacement, has been instructed by Colombo to receive humanitarian assistance through the SL military, informed sources at the District Secretariat told TamilNet on Wednesday.
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Colombo discriminates Ampaa'rai Tamil villages in fund allocations: TNA councilor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 October 2012, 17:26 GMT]
The Sri Lankan state in Colombo continues to systematically ignore development of Tamil areas in the Ampaa'rai district of the Eastern Province under the district development programme, says A. Kalaiyarasan, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) elected councilor at the Eastern Provincial Council. The SL authorities show interest in implementing development programmes by allocating more funds to Sinhalese and Muslim villages, excluding Tamil areas, Kalaiarasan says further adding that only 9.8 percent (131.4 million rupee) of the total funds, allocated for the implementation of ‘national development programme’ in the district, has been allocated for Tamil villages in Thirukkoayil Tamil division, Aalaiyadivempu, Chaainthamaruthu, Kaaraitheevu, and Naavithanve'li.
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US institute honours genocide-accused SLA’s Demining Unit

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 October 2012, 17:11 GMT]
The Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI), an American non-profit organization based in Virginia, has honoured a ‘Humanitarian Demining Unit’ team of the genocide-accused SLA as the best Mine Detection Dog team for the year 2012 at its annual “Clearing the Path” event, at Washington on October 10. Eezham Tamil activists, however, criticized the move as a legitimization of the structural genocide occurring in the occupied Tamil homeland in which SLA’s demining unit also plays a part.
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600 families in Vellaave'li division denied voting in EPC polls

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2012, 08:09 GMT]
The names of more than six hundred Tamil families, residing in villages Ka'n'nakipuram, Chinnavaththai, Central Camp, and 36, 37, 38 and 39 colonies that come under the Poaratheevup-pattu (Vellaave'li) DS division had been taken off from the voters lists by village officers (GS) on the instruction by the Divisional Secretary a few days ahead of the recently held provincial council elections. A large number of resettled Tamils in Batticaloa district have been denied of exercising their voting rights at the recent Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) polls due to the interventions and instructions by the military-run administration in the East, civil officials in Batticaloa said on condition of anonymity.
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240 families affected by mini-cyclone in Paduvaankarai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 September 2012, 21:08 GMT]
At least 240 families of the resettled Tamils in 6 villages of Poaratheevup-pattu division of Paduvaankarai in Batticaola have been affected in a mini-cyclone that hit the village Friday evening, officials in Batticaloa said. 22 houses have sustained damage and the people who had resettled after their displacement during the times of war, have sought refugee again with their kith and kin elsewhere.
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Ki’linochchi rises up against resettlement farce and SL military occupation

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 September 2012, 10:22 GMT]
More than 50% of the participants, who took part in a protest held opposite the District Secretariat of Ki'linochchi district on Thursday, were parents of missing persons, allegedly abducted or arrested and held incomunicado by the occupying Sri Lankan military. The protestors who carried the photos of their missing kith and kin, put forward three main demands to the SL State and to the United Nations Human Rights Council, to end Sinhala colonisation in the Tamil homeland, to ensure freedom of movement to the civilians to resettle in their own houses and to reveal the whereabouts of their loved ones. The protest, organised by the Tamil National Alliance, saw the participation of Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) and Democratic Peoples Front (DPF).
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UN and IOM deceive world on Tamil IDP resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 September 2012, 19:16 GMT]
While the Eezham Tamil survivors of the genocidal war, herded into barbed-wire camps three years ago, are now dumped against their wishes into shelters and jungle tracts forced onto them after their fertile lands and homes are grabbed by the occupying military, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) entered into a deceptive campaign in favour of the genocidal state on Tuesday that all the IDPs have now returned to their ‘homes’. "These families wanted to go home and IOM, in partnership with the UN and the humanitarian community, has helped them to do so in safety and dignity,” the IOM was cited saying on the closure of the last IDP camp, while the UN welcomed it as a “significant sign of the transition from conflict to sustainable peace” and fulfilment of the “commitment of the Government to resettling tens of thousands of people back to their homes.”
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SL military threatens IDP camp inmates to accept ‘alternative resettlement’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2012, 19:33 GMT]
Following Friday’s demonstration at Mullaiththeevu for resettlement of the people of Keappaa-pulavu back in their own village, the SL military on Saturday embarked upon threatening the villagers now in the IDP camp at Cheddiku’lam to immediately vacate it, move temporarily to a school building at Vattaappazhai and accept the SL government offer of another place for resettlement. When the people insisted that they want their village and cultivation lands back, the Sinhala military commander started shouting in his language that either willing or not, all people would be removed from the camp before Monday. Speaking to TamilNet on Saturday, the TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam blamed the International Community for the current plight of Eezham Tamils.
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Resettled people report traces of genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 September 2012, 00:46 GMT]
Despite reports of alleged deployment of unscrupulous foreign expertise in erasing the traces of the genocidal onslaught that took place in Mullaiththeevu district in the final days of Vanni war in 2009, there are still remains of hundreds of human skeletons that were burnt to ashes in Aananthapuram and other parts of Puthukkudiyiruppu, civilians who have been allowed to resettle there told TamilNet this week. Their observations confirm earlier information from reliable sources inside the SL military that thousands of non-combatants were taken to the suburbs of Puthukkudiyiruppu and shot and killed en masse with a clear intention to annihilate a large section of the people including children and women.
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Resettled Tamils again face displacement due to SLA camp expansion

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 September 2012, 23:05 GMT]
Resettled villagers are again forced to leave Thoa'ni-thaadda-madu village, an agricultural village situated 90 km north of Batticaloa city in Koa'ralaippattu North DS division, are again forced to flee their village following the recent expansion of the military camp of the Sri Lanka Army in the village.
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International civil society urged to act on CHOGM meet in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 September 2012, 21:38 GMT]
After seeing the behaviour of today’s establishments in the Commonwealth that was once known for its effective action against South Africa’s apartheid, and after seeing the Indian diplomat turned Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma stretching his position to uphold the genocidal state and regime in Sri Lanka, the gagged Eezham Tamil civil society activists in the island urged the International Human Rights Organizations to come out with an international civil society boycott of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka in November 2013. They also urged understanding governments in Canada, Tamil Nadu state and elsewhere to lead the international civil society paradigm, and the international media to help such a paradigm. The diaspora should be awakened to new struggle strategies, they further urged.
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UPFA operatives threaten TNA councilors to join UPFA in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 September 2012, 23:24 GMT]
Some of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councilors, elected in the Eastern Provincial Elections, have gone into hiding evading abduction and intimidation as operatives sent from Colombo were engaged in threatening that they would be abducted if they fail to extend support for the formation of a new administration by the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). The Colombo operatives began to threaten the TNA councilors as they were not able to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Tamil people even after promising 50 million rupees in cash to each councilor, a house in Colombo and a vehicle, the sources further said.
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Sri Lanka Navy expels resettling Muslims, destroys huts in Musali, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2012, 23:31 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel in uniform and civil clothes, numbering around 70, went amok on the temporary settlement of Muslims at Maraikkaar village in Musali division setting fire to 15 huts and smashing another 10 huts Monday evening around 7:00 p.m., residents said. The SL Navy has ‘warned’ the civilians, who had resettled there in 2010, to vacate the area, the sources further said. In the meantime, a Catholic school that started to function on Monday at Mu'l'likku'lam was also vacated by the SL Navy.
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Resettlement showcase brings in further miseries to uprooted Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 August 2012, 20:29 GMT]
250 families recently brought to Chivanakar village in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) division of Mullaiththeevu district complain that they have been let down by the SL authorities that rush to vacate the Menik Farm in Cheddiku'lam, Vavuniyaa. Promising the uprooted proper resettlement to the uprooted Tamils in their own village, 141 families were brought from Menik Farm to Chivanakar. Another 101 families who were residing with their kith and kin elsewhere also joined them when their village was announced opened for resettlement. Now, these families are struggling in their own village without any shelter and have sought refuge under the trees. There are no basic facilities. Most of these families, who are below the poverty line, demand at least temporary huts and basic facilities before the rainy season begins in a few weeks from now.
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