Sinhala colonization in Puduvaankarai aims to carve out Sinhala electorate in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 23:48 GMT]
Illegal appropriation of pasturelands by Sinhala settlers in Paduvaankarai area in Batticaloa district has been taking place with the ‘blessings’ of Colombo’s ruling party politicians. If this trend is allowed 20 to 25 thousand acres of lands would soon be appropriated illegally, paving way to elect a Sinhala parliamentarian from the district, owners of cattle farms have told Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who have been ignoring their plight.
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EPDP accuses occupying SL military for inaction on child rape, murder

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2013, 21:10 GMT]
In a strange turn of affairs, SL minister Douglas Devnanda’s Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP), a paramilitary collaborating with Sri Lanka government, demonstrated on Thursday against the rape and murder of a 4-year-old child in one of the islets off Jaffna, shouting slogans against the occupying SL military. Why the Sri Lankan forces that were quick in arresting those who were hoisting Tiger Flags is unable to arrest the culprit behind the heinous crime, the EPDP demonstrators questioned. The girl child, Chudarini Gunasegaram reported missing from her house at Ma’ndai-theevu in Jaffna on 27 December, was found slain and dumped into an abandoned well the following day, with traces of rape in brutal ways.
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100,000 remain internally displaced, says UNHCR

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 December 2012, 18:46 GMT]
In a report on the international protection needs of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, UNHCR identifies several risk profiles including persons suspected of links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), journalists, human rights activists, witnesses to rights violations, and vulnerable children and women, and notes while "there is an ethnic dimension to their vulnerability," in each of these risk groups, "members of the minority Tamil and, to a lesser extent, Muslim communities are reportedly more often subjected to arbitrary detention, abductions or enforced disappearances." Tamil activists including the New Zealand Tamil Action Front was consistently canvassing for this and there was a response in this regard from the Australian representative of the UNHCR in a regional meeting held at Auckland on 19 November.
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SL military begins war on Jaffna University teachers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 December 2012, 09:37 GMT]
The telephone summoning of the Jaffna University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) president and head of English language teaching at the university, A Rajakumaran, to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) of occupying Sri Lanka on Friday is widely seen in the university circles as the beginning of a direct war on the Tamil university teachers by the occupying State. Rajakumaran is summoned in connection with his media statement, especially to the BBC, on the student protest in the university and in connection with his reported comments on the views that in future the teachers’ union and the students’ union should jointly observe the Heroes Day as a measure against situations such as the one unfolded this year.
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40 ex-LTTE members abducted within one week, IOM, UN blamed for silence

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2012, 18:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Department (TID) squads roaming around in Vanni and Jaffna peninsula have detained more than forty former LTTE members after abducting them from their residences and on the streets within the last one week alone, legal sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Monday. Former LTTE members are also being summoned to the SLA camps and questioned over their contacts and friends. Relatives, friends and even employers of those who were summoned to the SL military camps live in fear. While every civil and social freedom of the ‘released’ former members of the LTTE is severely deprived by the occupying Sinhala military, the IOM and the UN that ‘certified’ their rehabilitation and release keep silent.
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Colombo punishes Tamil officials with transfer for opposing Sinhala encroachment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 December 2012, 16:47 GMT]
Tamil civil servants, who take legal action against Sri Lankan State and military run Sinhala encroachment of lands belonging to Tamils in the Batticaloa district, are under threat of transfer by the Colombo government, civil sources in Batticaloa said. Recently, the Divisional Secretary of Koa'raippattu South, Mr M. Thavarasa, who filed cases against illegal encroachers in Vadamunai, Oottuch-cheanai and Kallichchai, is to be transferred from January next year by the Colombo government.
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SLA summons 4 girl students, house-by-house intimidation to resume university

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 December 2012, 20:31 GMT]
The occupying genocidal military of Sri Lanka now engages in entering each and every house of the Jaffna University students to individually intimidate them to drop the protest and to return to the university or face dire consequences. The Vice Chancellor Prof Vasanthi Arasaratnam installed by colonial Colombo, most of the council members appointed by the regime or planted by collaborating paramilitary and some external intelligence agencies, and the threatened Deans are forced to connive with the new paradigm of occupying military running the university, news sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, in addition to the key student leaders of the university detained for ‘rehabilitation,’ the SL military has freshly demanded the submission of four girl students by their parents.
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TID interrogators fabricate accusation against 14 students in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 December 2012, 01:28 GMT]
The ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Department operated by the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry is engaged in fabricating a false accusation against 13 students of the University of Jaffna and a few other students in the peninsula, informed sources close to paramilitary circles in Vavuniyaa said. The TID interrogators were working on a false accusation that ‘instructions’ and ‘money’ were provided by the Tamil diaspora in the West to observe Heroes Day in the homeland. Already, nine students of the University of Jaffna are illegally detained by TID interrogators at Vavuniyaa. According to news sources in Jaffna, two student leaders chose to seek humanitarian protection with the SL Human Rights Commission office in Jaffna on Friday. Two more students from the ‘wanted list’ of the TID are yet to seek protection, news sources in Jaffna said.
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Sinhala paramilitary attacks Tamil cattle farmers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 December 2012, 18:10 GMT]
Sinhala ‘home guards’ operated by the occupying Sri Lankan military have been attacking Tamil cattle farmers in the border villages of the Batticaloa district. The SL police is ignoring the complaints made by Tamil farmers against such attacks. The Sinhala ‘home guards’, who have appropriated lands of Eezham Tamils are doing cultivation in the occupied lands and are given military training by the SL military to operate as an occupation paramilitary along the borders of Polonnarwa - Batticaloa and Batticaloa - Ampa'rai districts in the East.
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EPDP mobilizes protest against Indian trawlers while backing trawlers from South

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2012, 16:54 GMT]
Timed to the visit of the representatives of fishermen societies in Tamil Nadu to Jaffna on Thursday, the SL minister and EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda was allegedly engaged in triggering demonstrations in front of the Consulate General of India in Jaffna, protesting the intrusion of Indian trawlers. According to Jaffna fishermen, the SL minister backs trawlers from the South exploiting Tamil waters. On Thursday, when the EPDP-backed protesters were shouting “Mahalingam come out,” demanding the Indian Consul General to come out and address them, a group of fishermen in Valveddith-thu’rai (VVT) rounded up the SL police station there demanding action against 30 southern trawlers that were operating in the seas off VVT. Another 107 trawlers, backed by Mr. Devandanda were exploiting the seas off Kurunakar, the fishermen complained.
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Paramilitary allegedly backed by India effects arrest of Jaffna University students

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2012, 12:07 GMT]
In a revealing turn of affairs following the Heroes Day incidents at the university of Jaffna, four Jaffna University student representatives were detained by occupying Sri Lanka’s police, based on a complaint made against seven students by a newly created paramilitary, called Sri TELO that is operating along with the SL military. The paramilitary, consisting of some Tamils recently brought from camps in India and allegedly backed by New Delhi, hurriedly opened an office adjacent to the university campus a week ago and lodged a complaint with the SL police at Koappaay that the named university students had engaged in throwing petrol bombs at its office on Thursday 3:30 a.m. According to unconfirmed reports, the paramilitary functioned with the SL forces in entering the hostels and in the attack on students.
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TNA parliamentarian, university students question ‘reconciliation’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2012, 15:12 GMT]
Following atrocities committed on the Jaffna university students by occupying Sri Lanka’s military intelligence and police on Tuesday and Wednesday, TNA parliamentarian Mr. E. Saravanabhavan questioned the validity of the so-called reconciliation process when Sri Lanka’s military and police consider the Jaffna University students as enemies. The current developments remind of the situation 30 years back that paved way for the subsequent struggle, the parliamentarian said in a video address to media. Meanwhile student representatives addressing the university students on Wednesday, while condemning the genocidal military of Sri Lanka, asked where to lodge complaint except to the International Community.
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Colombo plans to settle 25,000 Sinhala families in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 November 2012, 23:42 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government with the assistance of occupying Sri Lanka Army and the paramilitary politicians, has been implementing a scheme to settle down about twenty five thousand Sinhala families in the Batticaloa district in the eastern province, informed sources in Batticaola said. More than 5,000 Sinhala families brought from south have been settled down along 16 km coastal area from Paasik-kudaa in Koa'ralaippattu DS division to Chavukkadi in Ea'raavoorpattu (Chengkaladi) DS division.
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SL military, paramilitary embark on ‘legal intimidation’ against Tamil media

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 October 2012, 15:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka's military establishment and EPDP paramilitary opt for new ways in recent times to suppress media critical of the SL defence ministry and its paramilitary operatives. Sri Lanka's military commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya has reportedly filed a defamation case against Jaffna-based Uthayan daily and SL minister Douglas Devananda, who is also the leader of EPDP paramilitary, has filed a similar case in the courts in Jaffna demanding a huge sum of compensation against a WikiLeaks-based story filed by the paper, media sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. Sri Lankan Defence Ministry, led by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has found ‘legal operations’ more effective than ‘white van operations’ in silencing critical media, journalists in Colombo said adding that the role of ‘registered’ media in the island has now come to almost an effective end.
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SL military appropriates Tamil lands in Ampaa'rai to construct cantonment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 October 2012, 22:34 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army has been constructing a permanent cantonment in an area in extent of 60 to 100 acres, whch is situated in Va'laththaap-piddi in Chammanthu'rai DS division of Ampaa'rai district. The militarisation of the Tamil area targets Sinhalicisation, say Tamil leaders pointing that there is an elite commando unit of the Special Task Force (STF) already stationed 2 km near the area at Sadayanthalawa and another SLA camp is situated 7 km away.
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Southern workers sexually harass Tamil women in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 October 2012, 23:13 GMT]
Some of the workers from South who are brought down to Eastern province by the Colombo government, which employs them in road construction and electricity supply ‘development’ work in the Eastern province, engage in sexual abuse of Tamil women, civil sources in Batticaloa say citing two cases this week alone. At Vaazhaichcheanai, a 38-year-old mother of five, A Sinnappillai, was killed after sexual abuse by at least two Sinhala men and the body of the victim was found dumped in a pit upside down. At Vellaave'li, a man from Matara, caught by the villagers after he attempted to sexually harass a 17-year-old Tamil girl on Thursday, was allowed to go unpunished by the Sinhala policemen.
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Colombo appoints Sinhala Chief Secretary, sidelines Tamils in EPC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 September 2012, 17:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan government has appointed a Sinhalese, Mr DMS Abeygunawardena as Chief Secretary of the predominantly Tamil-speaking Eastern Province. Not a single Tamil has been appointed as minister by Colombo. Apart from the Muslim Chief Minister, three Muslims and a Sinhalese have been appointed as ministers to the newly formed EPC. Paramilitary operative Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan is the sole member of the newly elected EPC from the Batticaloa district, but he declined to accept a ministerial portfolio. Instead he has been appointed by the SL President as his ‘advisor’ for the entire Eastern Province.
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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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‘Power cut’ costs a seat to TNA in EPC elections

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 September 2012, 03:14 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was getting 7 seats and was leading in the counting of votes for the Batticaloa district, taking place at Vincent Girls College. Then, there was a 30 minutes ‘power cut’ and when the lights came back, it was announced that the TNA got only 6 seats. The ‘lost’ one went to the UPFA. As it stands now TNA has secured 11 seats, trailing behind the ruling UPFA that has won 12 seats in the province. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has secured 7 seats, while the UNP got 4 seats and Wimal Weerawansa's National Freedom Front (NFF) got one. The counting for Batticaloa district that usually takes place at the Hindu College was shifted this time to Vincent's College close to a paramilitary camp.
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Paramilitary group unleashes violence in Batticaloa, Ampaa'rai against TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2012, 22:43 GMT]
Paramilitary operatives of Pillaiyaan group, contesting the forthcoming election to the Eastern Provincial Council on the ticket of Colombo's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have been attacking the candidates and supporters of the Tamil National Alliance. The poll to elect 35 councilors to the EPC is to take place on September 8.
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