SL military blocks resettlement in suburb of PTK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 August 2012, 22:16 GMT]
Landmine clearing unit of the occupying Sri Lankan military has instructed forty Tamil families who resettled recently at 9th ward of Mallikaith-theevu village in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) division in Mullaiththeevu district, to vacate from their lands after the SL authorities had allowed the families to resettle earlier this month. The families were among 96 families that were hurriedly brought down to Mullaiththeevu from Menik Farm camp in Cheddi-ku'lam in Vavuniyaa, promising resettlement in Mallikaith-theevu, Puthukkudiyiruppu West and Puthukkudiyiruppu East. On the one hand Colombo is rushing to showcase that it is closing down the Menik Farm camp. But, on the other hand the occupying military of Colombo is blocking resettlement in the land of Vanni genocide. The SL military still considers the area as its High Security Zone (HSZ), relocated civilians said.
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Village, jungle adjacent to Mu’l’livaaykkaal grabbed for Sinhala militarisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2012, 01:27 GMT]
2,500 acres of land by the side of the Nanthik-kadal lagoon, comprising of the village Keappaa-pulavu and nearby jungle, where the last stages of the Vanni war was fought and prohibited weapons were allegedly used against the LTTE by the genocidal Sinhala military, is now permanently grabbed for use of the occupying military, news sources in Vanni said. The grabbed land in Mullaiththeevu district is divided between Sri Lanka’s Army and Air Force and the original villagers of 700 families detained from resettling are forced to accept lands away from their village. After the TESO conference last week, The Hindu, using an interview of Dr. Wikremabahu Karunaratne, tried to soft-pedal the issue of the annihilation of territorial sovereignty of the nation of Eezham Tamils as a mere “Move to gift Tamil resources to MNCs.”
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People affected by mini-cyclone in Batticaloa seek humanitarian assistance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 August 2012, 17:57 GMT]
War-displaced and ‘resettled’ people of three villages in Poaratheevup-pattu division of Batticaloa district complain that they have not received proper assistance after they were struck by a mini-cyclone four days ago on 14 August. 73 houses were affected. Of these 21 houses were fully destroyed. Totally 256 people belonging to 73 families have been affected, according to Mr. Vilvaratnam, the divisional secretary of Poaratheevup-pattu.
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SLA soldiers alleged of killing father of three in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 July 2012, 15:34 GMT]
Occupying Sinhala soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army, on Wednesday, allegedly beat a recently resettled 47-year-old man, Kandiah Jeyarajah, near A9 highway at Ezhuthumadduvaa'l in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna. The victim succumbed to his injuries while being rushed to Chaavakachcheari hospital, residents in Ezhuthumadduvaazh village told TamilNet Thursday. The wife of the slain victim also confirmed the allegation that the SLA soldiers were involved in the slaying of her husband, who had got into a quarrel with his brother. The SLA soldiers, stationed at the junction had intervened in the private quarrel and when Mr Jeyarajah began to resist, he was severely beaten by the soldiers.
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Paramilitary groups swindle income of resettled people in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 June 2012, 18:32 GMT]
Resettled Tamil families, who are dependent on fresh water fishing in Paduvaankarai area of Batticaloa district, complain that they are being robbed off their catch by paramilitary operatives of SL deputy minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan. Paramilitary operatives, operated by the occupying Sri Lanka Army, do not allow people run their home industries such as drying their catch. The dry fish is sold at a market price of 1,100 rupees per kilo, but the paramilitary operative in the area has forced the people to sell fresh fish catch to him at 50 rupees per kilo, complain the people.
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SL Navy chases away resettled Tamil Catholics in Peasaalai, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 June 2012, 23:50 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy on Friday chased out at gunpoint 70 Eezham Tamil Catholics, who had resettled in the lands of the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Kurusup-paadu in Peasaalai, Mannaar. The Tamil families had resettled three weeks ago in the housing scheme area of 50 houses established by the the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), where they were living since 2004 till they were uprooted in entirety in 2007. The Church of Our Lady of Victory is one of the largest Catholic churches in the island. Peasaalai is a large village, situated in the North-West of the island of Mannaar, with a population of 8,000 Eezham Tamils and 90% of the population are Catholic fisher folk while the remaining are Hindu and Muslim fisher folk. The Sri Lankan military is alleged of scheming Sinhalicisation of Thalaimannaar Pier, which is the closest point in Mannaar to the coast of Tamil Nadu in India.
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SL military extends HSZ in Jaffna, evicts resettled people from Kuppuzhaan North

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 June 2012, 23:46 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna has re-confiscated more than 250 acres of land in Kuppuzhaan North in Valikaamam South division of Jaffna district in recent days, evicting resettled families from their land, complain the uprooted families. The Sinhala Army has been putting up permanent concrete fences and has instructed people not to cross the fence. The news of the latest land grab by the SL military and the news of people being evicted again from the resettled areas of the former ‘High Security Zone’, on top of the news that the SL military planting land mines in de-mined areas of Maathakal, have slashed hopes of resettlement among the 40,000 people, who still remain as uprooted people after their eviction from Valikaamam HSZ.
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SL military schemes Sinhala colony in Paduvaankarai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 June 2012, 17:44 GMT]
Five years after seizing Paduvaankarai area from Eezham Tamils, the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Batticaloa has appropriated most of the rain-fed paddy lands and pasture-lands belonging to Tamil farmers in Paduvaankarai villages of Meeraan-kadavai, Nuraich-cheanai and Periya-ve'li claiming that it was ‘transforming’ and ‘developing’ the area into a tourist destination. The SLA has brought in Sinhala labourers from the South and has instructed the paramilitary groups to expel the uprooted Tamils, who refuse to hand over their lands to the military. The colonial SL Army Commander of the East, Major General Lal Perera is constructing roads with Colombo's ‘development’ money while the resettled Tamils are denied of water and other basic facilities.
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SL military confiscates state lands from civic bodies in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 June 2012, 14:02 GMT]
As far as Eezham Tamils are concerned, State in the island exclusively means the occupying Sinhala military. This is once again vigorously demonstrated in the North, as the Sinhala military has started confiscating State lands from elected civic bodies in the North at gun point. The Sinhala colonial governor Maj. Gen. GA Chandrasri facilitates the process by appointing Sinhala Government Agents/ Asst. Government Agents in many of the districts in the North and by transferring Tamil officials not cooperating with the land grab for Sinhala colonies and the use of the military. Now the elected civic bodies in Jaffna too are threatened to give up not only State lands but also to agree to confiscation of private lands by the occupying military. Washington and New Delhi have discovered an Israel in the Sinhala State to groom in South Asia.
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Uprooted Tamils live with UXO threat, UN agencies silent on demographic ‘conquest’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2012, 04:30 GMT]
Uprooted Eezham Tamils from the coastal villages of Mullaiththeevu district, denied resettlement in their own lands and forced to ‘resettle’ in Koampaavil resettlement-scheme, away from the radars of international media and human rights activists, have been abandoned without proper humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, the families, clearing lands have been confronted with unexploded ordnance in the area that has been declared by UN agencies as clear of landmines. Last Sunday, 37-year-old Manoranjitham Asokkumar, a mother of three children, sustained serious injuries while clearing her plot of land. Local humanitarian workers, who gave photographs to TamilNet, alleged that the UN agencies had failed to even highlight the plight of the civilians who face the threat of landmines in the area, which the agencies have earlier verified as clear of landmines.
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Unique temple of Tamil folk heritage found destroyed, desecrated in HSZ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2012, 05:25 GMT]
A unique temple of Eezham Tamil folk heritage, dedicated to Kooddaththaar, a deity historically worshipped by a soldier guild that got absorbed into the toddy-tapping community, was found destroyed in bombing and its rare bronze idol sawed off and stolen at the Vasanthapuram locality of I’lavaalai in Jaffna. For the last two decades the locality was under the ‘High Security Zone’ (HSZ) of the occupying Sinhala military. Recently, when some fringes of the HSZ were allowed for resettlement, the people of Vasanthapuram returned. Finding their temple destroyed and the deity missing they now worship only the pedestal remaining. Vasanthapuram is where the occupying military has built lines of a few monotype houses for the resettled people and often shows them off to visiting foreign dignitaries as an example of its ‘reconciliation’ efforts.
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Uprooted Tamils in Ampaa'rai district languish without resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 23:48 GMT]
Tamil villages in the DS divisions of Poththuvil, Chammaa-thu'rai and Akkaraippattu in Ampaa'rai district are still in the state of complete destruction. Out of 427 families uprooted from Thangkavealautha-puram, only 70 have been resettled. 80 families have been resettled in Kagnchi-kudichchaa'ru village out of 424 uprooted families. 60 families of 126 uprooted have been resettled in Kaagnchirankudaa village and only 35 out of 127 uprooted families have been resettled in Chaakaamam village, civil officials said.
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Resettled Tamils without assistance affected by mini-cyclone in Paduvaankarai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2012, 18:14 GMT]
At least 90 families in Oottuch-cheanai, a village situated 75 km north-west of Batticaloa city, have been displaced and sought asylum in a school following a mini-cyclone that hit Paduvaankarai area in the Koa'ra'laip-pattu South division of Batticaloa district on Monday. The villagers, who have displaced several times since 1990, each time following large-scale military operation by the Sri Lankan military, have been completely neglected throughout the years without proper humanitarian assistance, civil sources in Batticaloa said. International NGOs also face restrictions to visit the area while Colombo government has grabbed around 25 thousand acres of land in Vadamunai and Oottuch-cheanai, handing over the lands to Sinhala home guards.
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Paduvaankarai people live with UXO threat

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2012, 23:13 GMT]
Explosions take place frequently in resettled villages in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa district, declared by the occupying Sri Lanka Army as free of land-mines, civil sources in Batticaloa say. The latest victim is an under-age youth engaged in cattle grazing work. Explosions of unexploded ordnance in the region have seriously threatened the security and livelihood of poverty-stricken people who are subjected to structural genocide by the occupying Sri Lankan forces and its military-run civil administration.
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Diaspora Tamil on visit to reclaim land killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2012, 11:51 GMT]
A 53-year-old Eezham Tamil citizen of Canada was found brutally slain with a slit throat Friday morning at Kaagnchipuram lane, 2 km west of Paranthan junction in the Ki’linochchi district of Vanni. The killing seems to have taken place between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Thursday, according to the relatives of the victim. The victim, Anthonypillai Mahendrarasa, the son of a successful former trader, had come to Paranthan to claim the ownership of the lands, especially the lands he owns in Kumaarapuram in Ki'linochchi district, which have been occupied by the SL military, informed sources said. He also owns properties of business potential.
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Parts of Batticaloa worse than Vanni in ‘normalcy’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2012, 16:30 GMT]
While the West and India have stopped talking about the East, and try to project an image that ‘normalcy’ has returned to the East and the North also should follow suit in the same directions, large parts of Batticaloa are silently kept under conditions worse than that of Vanni for the last five years, news sources in the East said. Similar to the times of the war in Vanni, more than 250,000 people were systematically displaced by the occupying SL military in 2007, in Batticaloa’s Paduvaan-karai part alone, under the pretext of ‘liberating’ them from the LTTE. Even though it is said that they are ‘rehabilitated phase by phase’, they are deliberately kept without basic facilities for nearly five years now, while the only ‘development’ seen there is the escalation of militarisation and harassment by the occupying Sinhala military.
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Ampaa'rai Tamil politician questions Rauff Hakeem on land justice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2012, 21:12 GMT]
Traditional lands belong to Tamil people in the Ampaa'rai district have been continuously grabbed by those sitting in power in Colombo, according to Selliah Rasaiah, the chairman of Kaaraitheevu Piratheasa Chapai (PS) situated in Ampaa'ria district of the Eastern Provice. Mr Rasiah, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician, has asked the SL Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, whether the Tamil people chased out of their villages in the district would be able to demand their lands forcibly occupied by the Sinhalese and Muslims. The SL minister had recently gone on record saying that he would make laws to enable those who lost their lands in the times of the war to gain them back.
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Two children die in landmine explosion at Pazhai in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2012, 06:04 GMT]
Two children playing in front of their house at Mullaiyadi of Pazhai in Jaffna peninsula part of the Ki'linochchi district were killed Wednesday, when they found an unexploded ordnance and started playing with it. 4-year-old Thamilmaran Mukunthan and his younger brother 2-year-old Thanujan Mukunthan were the victims of the tragic incident. The family has resettled in their village recently when Pazhai and Ma'niyanthoaddam areas were declared free of landmines and were opened for resettlement. In the meantime, a leading de-mining group on Tuesday said that it was winding up its activities in Jaffna district and limiting its work in Ki'linochchi district. Independent de-mining groups, supported by international community are forced to close down services at a crucial time due to lack of funds while the SL military apparatus is seeking to dominate the agenda of the entire de-mining process.
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SL colonial governor, EPDP, intrigue against Indian delegation

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2012, 05:58 GMT]
While displaying a big show with welcoming posters particularly aimed at pleasing Sushma Swaraj, and with a dominated presence in receiving the Indian delegation, the SL colonial governor in the north, Maj. Gen. Chandrasri and SL minister Douglas Devananda, on the other hand played intrigues against the delegation, which were thwarted by the Deputy High Commission of India in Jaffna, news sources in Jaffna said. The delegation cancelled visiting Nalloor Kandasamy temple after being tipped on Devananda orchestrating a fishermen agitation in front of the temple during its planned visit. The SL governor ordered the secretariat officials not to attend a meeting convened by the delegation. On Thursday, the Sinhala colonial governor accused India for the delay in the construction of houses promised to the war victims.
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Indian delegation disappoints civil representatives in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2012, 23:53 GMT]
Civil representatives in Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday said that they were not provided any opportunity to meet and convey the plight of resettled Tamils in the district to the visiting delegation of Indian parliamentarians led by Mrs Sushma Swaraj. The Tamil representatives belonging to several civil organisations in the district had been invited and were waiting for a long time since 10:00 a.m. to meet the delegation. But, no meeting took place. The visiting delegation was taken on a ‘guided tour’ giving priority to inaugurations and distributing gifts. The Congress group of the delegation which came late to the opening ceremony of a housing scheme was seen quarrelling with the group of parliamentarians led by Mrs Sushma Swaraj of the BJP, who had declared the scheme open, news sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet.
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