Tamil civil society seeks clarification from Zeid on reasons cited for OISL deferral

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2015, 13:07 GMT]
The High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein needs to clarify as to how he envisages OISL receiving new information, given the fact that the Sri Lankan Government does not promise cooperation with the OISL inquiry. The possibility of the OISL inquiry receiving important new information will only be credible if the OISL team is given access to Sri Lanka and given full freedom and access to engage in evidence gathering. But, SL Foreign Minister’s letter to the High Commissioner dated 13 February 2015 does not promise engagement with OISL specifically, Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) said in a statement issued on Friday. “Why should the SL Government's willingness to act on present day human rights issues be a bar to releasing a report on accountability for the past,” the TSCF has further asked in the statement.
Full story >>

Missing-persons' families stage protest, denounce LLRC-based outlook

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2015, 12:12 GMT]
Tamil families of forcibly disappeared persons in Ki'linochchi staged a protest on Monday in front of the District Secretariat urging the new Sri Lankan President to establish the whereabouts of their family members, whom they had handed over to the Sri Lankan military at the end of the genocidal onslaught in Vanni in 2009. The mothers of the Tamil youth, who were abducted and made disappeared by the so-called white van squads of the SL military, also joined the protest. The protesting families complained to media that they were disappointed by the inaction so far since Maithiripala Sirisena came to power in the South. In their appeal to SL president, they denounced the LLRC-based outlook in addressing the accountability of the Sri Lankan State.
Full story >>

Paalai-meen-madu, Min-neariya

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2015, 23:03 GMT]
The White Mullet fishpond

The fish reservoir
Full story >>

Poo-malarnthaan, Poop-pooththaan-ku'lam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2015, 03:01 GMT]
The flower-blossomed (pond or tank)

The flower-blossomed tank
Full story >>

Mothers of forcibly disappeared persons demand action from SL State, TNA, IC

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2015, 23:41 GMT]
The mothers of forcibly disappeared persons in Mannaar staged a silent protest on Monday demanding immediate attention from the Tamil National Alliance, the new Sri Lankan regime and the international community to establish the truth on the whereabouts of the persons who were made forcibly-disappeared by the occupying Sri Lankan military; to release the Tamil political prisoners from Sri Lankan jails; to continue the excavation of mass grave of Mannaar killing field and to continue the international investigations on Sri Lanka. The protesting mothers, who were talking to journalists said they were yet to see any constructive step from the new regime or the TNA. They also questioned why the new regime is asking for a ‘list’ of missing persons from the TNA instead of checking their own lists and coming with answers, the protesting mothers asked.
Full story >>

Aalang-ka'ndu, Cheathupathiyaar-ka'ndu

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2015, 14:56 GMT]
The part or enclosure identified with a banyan tree

The part or enclosure of a person named Cheathupathi
Full story >>

Ananthy urges Pope to see genocide, get answers from local, international players

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2015, 13:59 GMT]
As Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the island from Tuesday to Thursday, NPC Councillor Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, urged him to grasp the underlying factor of the conflict in the island, i.e. genocide and sought his help in getting answers from the government in Colombo and the international players, including the UN, the Co-chairs and India. “I hope Your Holiness is aware that there is an ideology behind the genocidal process,” she wrote in a letter addressed to the Pope on Saturday. She was citing a key case of Fr Francis Joseph towards the end of the war in perceiving the dimensions and said: “The Catholic Church, having witnesses among the people, has a moral duty to safeguard the people from the protracted crime of genocide.”
Full story >>

Maithiripala expected to poll 4 to 6 times more than Rajapaksa in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2015, 17:58 GMT]
Maithiripala Sirisena is expected to poll four to six times more votes than Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Jaffna Electoral District while the contest is reportedly tight in the South, sources monitoring the counting told TamilNet at 10:40 p.m. local time on Thursday. Voter turnout in the administrative district of Jaffna was at 61.14%. Mullaiththeevu recorded 74.78% voter turnout, Mannaar 68.25% and Ki'linochchi 70.1%. The voter turnout was at 72% in the administrative district of Trincomalee in the East. 70% turnout was registered at Ampaa'rai district and 60.93% in Batticaloa district in the East. Official results are expected to be released after midnight.
Full story >>

More than 50% voter turnout in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2015, 12:18 GMT]
Voter turnout was registered at 51% in Jaffna, 50% in Mannaar, 55.3% in Ki'linochchi, 68% in Mullaiththeevu and 60% in Vavuniyaa around 2:30 p.m., according to election department sources. The polling was peaceful in most of the places in the North apart form reports of a grenade explosion at Alvaay. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) canvassing for regime change in the South has arranged buses for the transport of the voters at many places in the North. In the meantime, SL military soldiers were instructed to distribute leaflets urging people to vote for Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Full story >>

SL military divided over voting in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2015, 08:06 GMT]
Despite the tension about possible violence in Tamil areas by the occupying Sinhala military and its paramilitary, all arrangements necessary for brisk polling have completed in the two provinces, according to Sri Lankan Government Agents in the North and East. Voters were seen at many polling stations in queue. In the meantime, Sri Lankan military intelligence had stepped up disinformation campaign to divert the voting to another ‘Sirisena’ contesting the elections under the symbol of flag. While a section of the occupying military was hijacking the boycott call, thinking that it will be in favourable of Mahinda Rajapaksa, there were also SL soldiers encouraging the public to vote for the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Sirisena.
Full story >>

Maruthang-kea'ni, Mathurang-kea'ni, Kumbukkan-oya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2015, 14:31 GMT]
The constructed pond identified with Terminalia arjuna trees

The river identified with Terminalia arjuna trees or the forest of those trees
Full story >>

6-year-old child wounded in SL military assault on civilians in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2015, 08:25 GMT]
A 6-year-old child was rushed to Ki'linochchi hospital at serious condition on Sunday when SL military soldiers at Paarathi-puram assaulted the Tamil civilians who were protesting against SL military violence on a tailor shop where a 46-year-old man from Paarathi-puram was brutally assaulted by a Sinhala soldier. The SL soldiers attacked the public when the public had gathered in front of the SL military camp demanding the arrest of SL soldier who went amok on the tailor shop. But, the SL military, which has been suppressing and exploiting the poverty-stricken resettled villagers, chose to assault the public in front of the military base.
Full story >>

SL military targets TNA members waging Maithiripala propaganda in North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2015, 22:48 GMT]
SL police arrested five health labourers of Valikaamam North civic council at A'laveddi on Saturday, when they were putting up posters in support of Maithiripala Sirisena. The chairman of Valikaamam North Piratheasa Chapai (PS), S. Sugirthan of TNA had asked them to put up posters, news sources said. The arrested were allowed to go on bail on Sunday. Similarly, three TNA members were arrested earlier in Maanippaay for putting up posters in support of Maithiripala. In the meantime, SL military operatives, who came in a white van were trying to abduct four TNA activists in Ki'linochchi while they were on a Maithiripala propaganda mission. The Tamil youth have managed to escape from the abductors, news sources in Ki'linochchi said.
Full story >>

Controversial SL minister Badurdeen backs Sirisena

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2014, 13:21 GMT]
Rishad Badurdeen, a cabinet minister in the Rajapaksa regime, who has been causing ethnic unrest between the Muslims and Tamils in the North has defected from SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and joined hands with the joint opposition on Monday, news sources in Colombo said. Mr Badurdeen, who is elected from North and Amir Ali, elected from East, together with many other All Ceylon Muslim Congress (ACMC) members have pledged their support to common opposition’s presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena a short while ago in Colombo.
Full story >>

SL presidential race brings violence between EPDP, TNA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2014, 18:11 GMT]
A District Development Council (DDC) meeting, which was co-chaired by Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran and SL Minister Douglas Devananda, ended in violence at Jaffna District Secretariat on Tuesday, when the EPDP paramilitary leader Mr Devananda faced objections from the NPC councillors of the TNA for turning the DDC meeting a venue for Rajapaksa's election propaganda. The paramilitary goons of the EPDP began to assault the TNA representatives who objected the conduct of the EPDP leader at the meeting. EPDP goons assaulted five TNA members, including NPC Ministers Aingaranesan and Sathiyalingam. The EPDP has also claimed that five of its personnel had sustained injuries in the violent episode.
Full story >>

Displaced people from Vanni languish in Trincomalee villages

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2014, 19:30 GMT]
78 families displaced from Ki'linochchi district in 1990 into Trincomalee district and 67 families displaced after 2009 are languishing without permanent housing in the villages of Ki'lik-kugnchi and Naavach-chaalai in Kuchchave'li division in Trincomalee district, civil sources in the district said.
Full story >>

Heroes Day marked in occupied Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2014, 15:30 GMT]
Amidst hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers deployed surrounding the University of Jaffna, a group of students who were inside the premises of the university lit the common flame of sacrifice at the Selvanagam Block. A selected group of journalists witnessed the event. Defying threats from the occupying Sri Lanka Army soldiers, bells were tolled at temples and churches. Sacrifices were offered at churches in Thenmaraadchi. Former LTTE members gathered at various places paying tribute to their fallen fighters. The families of the fighters who had laid down their lives for the liberation of Eezham Tamils, gathered at secret locations, made memorial monuments in paper and paid their tribute in a touching way, according to the journalists who witnessed the events.
Full story >>

SL military deployed everywhere, Jaffna University shut down

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2014, 07:59 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has deployed armoured vehicles at the entrance to the University of Jaffna since Tuesday evening when the university administration was forced to announce that the university has been shut down from 25th of November till 01st of December. The US-trained commander of the SL military in Jaffna, Major General Udaya Perera was insistent on closing down the university during the Tamil Eelam Heroes Day, informed sources said. Students were forced to abstain from attending the classes following the harassments caused by the SL military deployment. Finally, the SL military instructed the university administration to shut down the education activities citing low attendance of the students at the faculties of Arts and Science.
Full story >>

SL military raped conscripted Tamil women after Rajapaksa meeting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2014, 09:07 GMT]
47 Eezham Tamil women from Mullaiththeevu, recently conscripted to the occupying SL military and put under the Civil Security Department (CSD), were taken to Mihintale on 22 Saturday when SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa was on a trip to the ‘sacred city’. After the president of genocidal Sri Lanka requested the Tamil women to engage in campaign supporting him, the SL soldiers were having a party. Some of the 47 Tamil women were raped by the Sinhala soldiers and the others were subjected to sexual harassment, one of the victims told TamilNet on Monday. The women were also sexually harassed in the bus on their way back to Mullaiththeevu.
Full story >>

Kodduk-ki'na'ru, Kodduk-kal, Uppuk-koddu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 November 2014, 15:02 GMT]
The well walled by hollow wood

The block rocks or the barn/ hut-like rock

The salt storing barn or hut
Full story >>