Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike face death threats inside SL prisons

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2015, 20:21 GMT]
The families of Tamil political prisoners expressed fear on Tuesday that the prison authorities of occupying Sri Lanka have started to deploy harsh methods against their detained kith and kin inside the jails in South to contain their struggle. A violent group of criminal Sinhala prisoners were deployed at the same room of the prison hospital, where 36-year-old Jeneevan Sivarasa was warded at the New Magazine prison. The Sinhala prisoners harassed Mr Sivarasa with racist and death threats, the families of the Tamil prisoners told TamilNet. Another Tamil political prisoner, 32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, was also subjected to similar harassments. The two Tamil prisoners are continuing their hunger strike amidst deteriorating health conditions.
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Another Tamil political prisoner goes on hunger-strike at New Magazine Prison

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 December 2015, 17:21 GMT]
32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, a former member of Jaffna Municipal Council, who has been detained in Colombo since July 2010 after being accused of attempting to assassinate Douglas Devananda, a former SL Minister and the leader of the EPDP outfit. The SL 'Terrorist' Investigation Division (TID) had arrested Mr Murugiah during the Rajapaksa regime and produced two cases, one in Vavuniyaa and another in Colombo. The High Court in Vavuniyaa had dismissed his case as his ‘confession’ had been obtained under torture. Mr Douglas Devananda has declined to witness against Mr Murugiah and openly urged for the release of the prisoner. However, the SL TID and SL Attorney General's Department have been trying to file a third case against Murugiah with the intention of keeping him detained indefinitely, informed legal sources told TamilNet on Thursday.
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Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike need immediate attention: Ananthy Sasitharan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 October 2015, 23:46 GMT]
Three of more than 200 Tamil political prisoners on fast have fainted on the second day of the hunger strike demanding their release. Vijayakumar Kanthasamy, a father of two, was rushed to medical treatment after he fainted at Anuradhapura prison on Tuesday. Similarly, two prisoners fainted at Magazine prison, informed sources said. “We were expecting a positive response during the Papal visit. Nothing happened. Then came the elections and the talk of good governance. Nothing improved. Now, even after co-sponsoring the resolution in Geneva, we are yet to see any sign of evolution taking place in the mind-set of the Sri Lankan State,” a prisoner on hunger-strike said. Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasistharan has condemned TNA leader R. Sampanthan for not demanding immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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Colombo's military red tape prevails over civil rule in occupied Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2015, 22:36 GMT]
The Defence Secretary of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, B.M.U.D. Basnayake this week demonstrated to the secretaries of SL Minister D.M. Swaminiathan in Jaffna that it was the SL military commanders in Jaffna, Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu, who were the ultimate decision makers on matters related to releasing back military-occupied lands to the civilians in the Northern province. The SL Defence Secretary, appointed by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, was on his first visit to North on Saturday and Sunday. In the meantime, EPDP leader Douglas Devananda has gone on record stating that the pockets of lands released so far by Maithiripala regime were those already prepared for release by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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OISL should not absolve Colombo from genocidal crimes: survivor of Mirusuvil massacre

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2015, 13:52 GMT]
The United Nations should not commit – once more – a crime against humanity in the case of Eezham Tamils by absolving the Sri Lankan State from the ultimate crime of genocide through facilitating escape routes to Colombo through the OHCHR at Geneva and the Office of the General-Secretary of the United Nations at New York, Ponnuthurai Maheswaran, who is the sole survivor and prime witness of Mirusuvil massacre case, told TamilNet this week in Jaffna. Mr Maheswaran had narrowly escaped from his killers on 19 December 2000 at the age of 21 at Mirusuvil where he witnessed 8 of his close relatives being tortured and killed by a killer squad of the occupying Sri Lanka Army. Although he had identified several soldiers directly involved in the massacre in the identification parades, all of them, except one, have been absolved of the crime by Colombo's justice system.
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Bathiudeen hijacks one more key institution from Swaminathan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 19:33 GMT]
The EPDP leader and a former SL Minister Douglas Devanada lost control of the affairs of the SL State-run industrial establishments such as the Palmyra Development Board and the Elephant Pass Saltern to the new collaborator of the SL regime in Colombo. The new collaborator, D.M. Swaminathan, who is a Colombo-based Tamil representing the UNP has virtually lost control of his own institutions. Five months have elapsed since the Elephant Pass Saltern was assigned to the SL Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs. But, his ministry is still not in control of the key institution. The UPFA-affiliated controversial SL Minister Rishad Bathiudeen is controlling the affairs of one of the major industrial entity in North through Maanthai Salt Ltd., which comes under his ministry, civil sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Tuesday.
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Bathiudeen dictates affairs of Palmyra Development Board

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 February 2015, 23:57 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mr Rishad Bathiudeen (Rishard Badurdeen), who has been notorious for causing dissension between Tamil-speaking Muslims and Tamils belonging to other religions in Mannaar and Vanni under the rule of former SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa, is continuing the same course also under the new regime, sources in Mannaar said. He has virtually hijacked the affairs of the Palmyrah Development Board (PDB), which comes under D.M. Swaminadan, the SL Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs, reliable sources at the PDB said. Earlier, the PDB came under Douglas Devananda of the EPDP, who was the minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development.
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Victims demand immediate action against Colombo's squad in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2015, 11:02 GMT]
The families of forcefully disappeared Tamil victims in Ampaa'rai district have demanded immediate arrest and action against Karuna Group paramilitary operative, K. Pushpakumar alias Iniyabarathy, who was the Ampaa'rai district coordinator of Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and a member of the Eastern Provincial Council. After the entire Ampaa'rai district was brought under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military in 2007, more than 200 Tamil youth have been reported missing in the district after arrest or abduction by Sri Lanka military operated squads. Iniyabarathy has been the key paramilitary operative operating a squad for the genocidal SL military in the district. Iniyabarathy is blamed for the assassination of veteran Tamil journalist Aiyathurai Nadesan in May 2004. Incumbent SL president Maithiripala Sirisena was also having a hand in the paramilitary operations in the East.
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New SL cabinet to be sworn in on Monday evening

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2015, 12:48 GMT]
The cabinet of the newly installed Sri Lankan President Maithiripala Sirisena is to be sworn in on Monday evening at 6:00 p.m., according to SL presidential media unit. In the meantime Monday's Virakesary carried a news item quoting Mr M.A. Sumanthiran that TNA will not be accepting ministerial portfolios in the ‘national government’.
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‘LLRC’ Palihakkara expected to replace Military Governor of North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2015, 20:17 GMT]
Sri Lankan Military Governor of North, Major General (retd.) G.A. Chandrasiri, on Saturday told his staff that he would resign his job before anyone on the top coming with the instruction of transfer to him, informed civil sources in Jaffna said adding that Colombo's regime-changers have proposed HMGS Palihakkara, who was one of the eight panellists earlier appointed by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was aimed at buying space and time for Sri Lanka to escape international investigations. Colombo-centric agenda-setters are replacing a military governor with a more sophisticated diplomat concerned with safeguarding the unitary state of Sri Lanka.
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Ananthy's house stoned in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2015, 08:18 GMT]
Unknown attackers stoned the house of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councillor in the Northern Province, Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, in the early hours of Tuesday, threatening the NPC councillor and her three children while they were sleeping at their residence located at Vadakkamparai in Chuzhipuram in Valikaamam West, Jaffna. Ms Ananthy and her children narrowly escaped from a stone that went through the window inside the house. The attack comes after Ms Sasitharan warned a local media, DAN TV, which backs Colombo regime, that she would be filing legal suit against misusing her name in their advertisement.
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Gotabhaya monitors Devananda's allegiance to Kumaratunga

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2015, 11:09 GMT]
While welcoming the incumbent SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to North and challenging the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in District Development Committee meetings with a pro-Colombo stance, SL minister and EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda, has also assured his personal allegiance to former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives under the direct command of SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa have been questioning the close associates of Mr Devananda for his lack of interest in putting up Rajapaksa posters ahead of Rajapaksa's scheduled visit to Jaffna.
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New Delhi mission traps Tamil Nadu film director

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 December 2014, 11:50 GMT]
By trapping him into a meeting with SL Minister Douglas Devananda in Jaffna last Saturday and by circulating photos of the meeting, a sinister attempt has been made to discredit his image among global Tamils, accuses leading Tamil Nadu film director P. Bharathiraja. While in Jaffna, Bharathiraja was told by the Indian High Commission over phone that an SL Minister would be visiting him, and he obliged. Addressing a function at Kiraan-ku'lam in Batticaloa on Tuesday, Bharathiraja, who was invited to the island by Akilan Foundation to meet and felicitate artists, said that he had to clarify the circumstances by which he had been duped.
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Teachers oppose political pressure on Jaffna University to back Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 December 2014, 23:04 GMT]
The administration of the University of Jaffna is under pressure from the Colombo government and its occupying military in Jaffna to issue a statement supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa at the forthcoming SL presidential elections. The members of the Jaffna University Teaches Union have opposed the move after seeing the draft letter that has been on private circulation among a few Deans and Heads of Departments, informed sources at the University told TamilNet.
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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.
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Rajapaksa deception in North aims at elections

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2014, 23:22 GMT]
The elected representatives of Tamil National Alliance in the North fully boycotted the ceremonial events staged by the visiting SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Vanni and Jaffna on Sunday and Monday claiming that the meetings “do not appear to be in furtherance of a legitimate objective, and are not transparent nor collaborative.” While large numbers of SL soldiers were deployed on the streets of Jaffna subjecting the public with security checks, EPDP paramilitary operatives and a section of occupying SL military soldiers were coercing public sector workers, teachers, students together with the people deceived with false promises of livelihood assistance to attend the meetings.
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Tamil teachers protest against SL military interference in schools

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2014, 06:43 GMT]
Sri Lankan military, which usually threatens people against taking part in civil protests in advance, has now went a step further with staging ‘counter protests’ to disturb the democratic mobilisation of the people, trade unions and activists. On Monday, the occupying Sri Lanka Army deployed its operatives to stage a ‘counter protest’ in front of the Jaffna Central Bus stand where Tamil teachers in Jaffna, organized under the Ceylon Teachers Union were protesting with 15 demands against appointments with low-wage, discrimination in promotions, SL military interference in the administration of the schools in North and East, circulars in Sinhala, continued occupation of Palaali Teachers training college, discrimination in transfer policy and continued ignorance of complaints filed against corruption.
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STF deployed to muzzle protests against environmental genocide in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 August 2014, 07:01 GMT]
Hundreds of commandos from the occupying Special Task Force (STF), a full-fledged military outfit under the SL Police that has committed genocidal massacres against Eezham Tamils in the East, have been deployed in Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna to muzzle renewed protests from Tamil villagers against the environment-destroying sand-scooping that is being carried out by Colombo-backed EPDP paramilitary's Maheswary Foundation and Gotabhaya-operated ‘Neythal’ outfit. On Thursday, a 25-year-old pregnant woman was killed on the spot when a speeding vehicle belonging to Maheswary Foundation hit her on Saraswathy Lane at Navakkiri in Valikaamam East.
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Modi gave lesson to TNA on ‘collaborative politics’ says Devananda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 August 2014, 23:11 GMT]
“I hope that the Tamil National Alliance leaders who recently went to meet the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would listen to his advice, which is the same as our longstanding position on the resolution to the conflict, that one should start collaborating with the Sri Lankan Government on Northern Provincial Council,” said EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, who is also a minister in Rajapaksa regime. He was addressing the audience at the re-opening ceremony of Achchuveali Industrial Estate in Jaffna on Wednesday. The industrial estate has been rehabilitated with Indian assistance. SL Presidential sibling and the ‘Economic Development’ Minister Basil Rajapaksa, High Commissioner of India Y.K. Sinha and the Chief Minister of Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran were among the delegates who attended three ceremonial events connected to projects that have received Indian assistance.
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Fr. Thaninayagam centenary statue unveiled in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2014, 23:27 GMT]
A memorial statue was unveiled in Jaffna marking the centenary of the grand Tamil scholar Rev. Fr. Xavier Thani Nayagam on Saturday and the location known as Madaththadi situated on the Jaffna Main Road in the city, has been declared Thani Nayagam Square. The peaceful opening ceremony comes after the organisers had been firm in braving the harassment by the occupying Sri Lankan military that wanted to erect a Buddha statue at the locality, residents told TamilNet.
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