Colombo strengthens impunity for genocidal Sinhala commander

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2018, 23:13 GMT]
Jaffna High Court Judge Manickavasagam Ilancheliyan on Monday gave green signal to proceed with the cases of habeas corpus seeking a senior commander of the SL Military to produce three of twenty-five Tamil youth, whose whereabouts are not known after the SL Army at Naavatkuzhi detained them 22 years ago in 1996. The SL Police instructed by the Judge to investigate the case stated that it was impossible for them to investigate the case as more than 20 years have elapsed since the disappearance of the victims. The first respondent is Major General Duminda Keppettiwalana, who commanded the Sinhala soldiers of the military camp at Naavatkuzhi in 1996 when he was a captain. He has been systematically protected and promoted by Sarath Fonseka, the former SL Army commander and a partner of the current regime in Colombo.
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Genocidal Colombo causes new obstacles to investigations on Mannaar mass graves

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2017, 21:33 GMT]
Colombo-based Special Branch of Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Police of genocidal Sri Lanka is once again causing obstacles to judicial investigations of 87 human skeletons exhumed from the mass graves of the killing fields at Thirukkeatheesvaram near Maanthai junction in Mannaar. At a crucial juncture when Mannaar Magistrate A G Alex Raja fixed a date to instruct the CID to send the skeletons to one of the proposed foreign institutions to undertake forensic anthropological analysis and to invite foreign experts during the next phase of exhumation of the alleged mass grave site, the CID has turned to SL Judicial Service Commission with an allegation that Mr Alex Raja was taking sides with the lawyers representing the victims. The move was intended to put an immediate stop to external investigations and involving foreign experts in the future excavations of mass graves.
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Judge Ilancheliyan narrowly escapes assassination attempt in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 July 2017, 13:58 GMT]
Jaffna High Court Judge Manickavasagam Ilancheliyan narrowly escaped assassination attempt at Nalloor in Jaffna around 5:10 p.m. on Saturday. Two guards giving security to him sustained injuries in the incident. The judge, who was not injured, told TamilNet that the attacker seemed to be an experienced gunman. Judge Manickavasagam Ilancheliyan is well known for his independent judgements. He is also known to be not hesitating to rule against armed criminal elements that operate with the backing of the occupying SL military. The incident on Saturday has taken place at a time Nalloor temple is preparing for its annual festival which is scheduled to commence on coming Friday.
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Irish, Tamil, Sinhala activists expose British colonialism as root cause of their national conflicts

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2017, 23:36 GMT]
“Ireland and the Irish are no strangers to State oppression [...] Over 70000 Tamils were killed during the final phase of the last war [...] The World [establishments], in some instances, encouraged it,” said Joe Austin, the president of the National Graves association at the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day in the north of Ireland on Friday. He was addressing a workshop participated by Irish activists, Eezham Tamil survivors of genocide such as Tamilvani who was featured in the documentaries by the Channel 4 and exiled Sinhala activists. Rev Fr M V E Ravichandran, a civil society activist from Jaffna, also participated in the event. Sinn Féin politician Pat Sheehan said people should not look at the conflict in Ireland through the prism of colonialism. The conflict in Ireland is about Colonialism, he said. Professor Jude Lal explained how the Colonialism formed the genocidal SL State.
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Tamil Genocide and Resistance to be commemorated in north of Ireland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2017, 20:02 GMT]
Irish and exiled Sinhala activists are this year joined by Eezham Tamil diaspora in organising remembrance events on Mu’l’livaaykkaal Genocide on May 18 in the north of Ireland. The Remembrance Day is to be marked at Belfast and in Derry, with memorial functions at republican cemeteries and at memorial sites followed by screening of documentaries and public meetings. The move reflects increasing efforts at solidarity-building with the grassroots of oppressed nations and progressive forces in the Western hemisphere in order to internationalize the Eezham Tamil struggle and to build solidarity for their quest for equality, self-determination and justice, the organizers told TamilNet on Sunday. The Sinn Féin has also expressed its support to the Mu’l’livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance, whcih is to be held in Derry and Belfast, the organizers further said.
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CID instructed to determine forensic expertise on Mannaar mass graves in unison with victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 November 2016, 22:12 GMT]
Mannaar Magistrate A G Alex Raja has instructed the Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to come to a conclusion without further delay on the external institution that should be conducting the scientific investigations on more than 80 human skeletons from the alleged mass graves at Thirukkeatheesvaram in Mannaar exhumed since December 2013. The decision on external scientific institution should be taken in unison with the lawyers, who represent the families of enforced-disappeared in Mannaar, the Magistrate has instructed the CID.
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Genocidal Colombo deploys Tamils against Muslims in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 November 2016, 20:46 GMT]
Colombo's colonial Governor to Eastern Province and a section of Sinhala officials in the district accompanied with extremist Buddhist monks are co-ordinately deployed in a dangerous plot to set the numerically less Tamils in the district against the majority Tamil-speaking Muslim population, according to concerned Tamil social activists in Ampaa'rai. A number of recent incidents in the district are also proving their concerns. While deploying ‘Army and Archaeology’ as well as Mahaweli, Forest, Wildlife and Tourism related SL ministries, authorities and departments in seizing lands from uprooted Tamils throughout the Eastern Province, the representatives of uprooted Tamils and a section of elected politicians at various levels in Ampaa'rai district are being coerced into ‘engagements’ with extremist Sinhala-Buddhist monks.
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Human skeletons discovered near SL military camp north of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 October 2016, 18:56 GMT]
Tamil workers engaged in digging a latrine at Mu'rak-koddaagn-cheanai, is situated 18 km north of Batticaloa city, have discovered human skeletons along with remains of burnt tires and railway sleepers on Saturday. The site is believed to be a mass grave as the land was under the SL military for 24 years since 1990 and released back to the people only in 2014. The 11th Regiment of notorious 23 Division of the occupying ‘Sri Lanka’ Army is now stationed a few meters close to the locality. The SLA soldiers, who were stationed at this camp in 1990 were behind the brutal massacre of more than 60 Tamils from Chiththaa’ndi village. Several Tamil civilians reported missing during that time from the nearby villages were also allegedly taken to the torture chambers at Mu'rak-kodddaagn-cheanai.
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Colombo's desecration of Tamil Heroes Cemetery comes to light as SLA vacates Kanakapuram

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 September 2016, 07:12 GMT]
The occupying SL military destroyed Tamil War Heroes Cemetery (Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam) at Kanakapuram in Ki’linochchi in January 2009, desecrating the buried bodies of Tamil fighters in an inhumane manner and bulldozing all the tombstones. Hundreds of destroyed tombstones were used as stones for SL military driveways in the occupied Ki’linochchi. In 2013, as the people started to resettle, the elected Divisional Council of Karaichchi division resolved to transform the destroyed Heroes Cemetery into a park as the 10-acres land was originally a property of the civic body. Within a few days of the declaration, the SL military fenced off the lands to block the move and deployed the area for military use. Last week, the SL military finally vacated from the grounds and reporters were able to witness the extent of desecration and destruction caused by the SL military.
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Colombo attempts to indefinitely postpone investigations on Mannaar killing fields

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 June 2016, 23:46 GMT]
Around 10 institutions of Colombo seem to have intentionally avoided their attendance in the proceedings of two cases on Thirukkeatheesvaram mass graves on Monday despite an earlier warning by Mannaar Magistrate A G Alex Raja that the representatives of these involved institutions should cooperate without failing to attend the hearings. At the same time, the special branch of the SL Police CID investigators again proposed to the Court that samples of already exhumed 87 skeletal remains could be dispatched to a Miami-based laboratory in the USA for radiocarbon dating. The findings of this laboratory have been already disputed on the Matale mass graves investigations in the South. The lawyers representing the missing persons in Mannaar have already denounced the involvement of the particular institution and suggested three Latin America based institutions.
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East Timorese rise against Australia exploiting their maritime sovereignty

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 March 2016, 11:23 GMT]
More than ten thousand East Timorese gathered in front of the Australian Embassy in Dili on March 22 demanding a re-negotiation of the maritime borders of the strategic as well as oil- and gas rich Timorese sea. Grass-root level activists, students and former liberation fighters organized the protest, seeking an end to Australian violation of East Timorese national sovereignty. The protests follow several large demonstrations organized by the East Timorese people protesting Australian state-corporate imperialism in their homeland. The latest mobilisation of East Timorese is a lesson to the smaller nations, peoples and their former liberation fighters on how to confront the outer challenges through a struggle-centric approach, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.
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Family questions whereabouts of abducted journalist last seen in SL custody in 2012

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 February 2016, 22:14 GMT]
Tamil journalist Subramaniam Ramachandran, who was abducted by the SL military in February 2007 in front of Kalikai junction military camp at Karaveddi in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna, was last seen alive in the custody of Sinhala military at the notorious camp at Pallappai in the same area in 2012, according to his 55-year-old sister Jeyaratnam Kamalashini. The SL military vacated from Pallappai a year later in 2013 and instructed the people not to dig the abandoned wells in an attempt to cover up alleged mass graves. The genocidal State of Sri Lanka still refuses to reveal the whereabouts of the father of two children. Despite reports of alleged mass graves, there have been no efforts by the judiciary of ‘Sri Lanka’ to excavate the killing fields. Reporters in Jaffna question the advice by the visiting UN Human Rights Chief to expect delivery of justice through the ‘Sri Lankan’ judiciary.
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Colombo SLT extends TamilNet censorship to south of the island

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2016, 00:03 GMT]
The Colombo regime of Maithiripala Sirisena (SLFP) and Ranil Wickramsinghe (UNP) have once again proved that they are not different from the previous regime of Rajapaksa in suppressing access to tamilnet.com for the vast majority of Internet users in the island who connect through ADSL broadband provided by ‘Sri Lanka’ Telecom PLC (SLT). The main stakeholder of the SLT ownership is the Government of ‘Sri Lanka’. The other dominant shareholder of the SLT is Egypt-based Global Telecommunication Holdings. The SLT has been continuously blocking access to TamilNet in the North and East despite the claim by the Maithiripala regime last January that the Government of ‘Sri Lanka’ would not be practicing Internet censorship anymore as it was during the Rajapaksa regime. Ironically, the marketing slogan of the SLT is: ‘One Country. One Voice.’
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SL Navy to seize more lands in Vidaththal-theevu, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 December 2015, 22:51 GMT]
Resettled Eezham Tamil coastal villagers in Vidaththal-theevu, Mannaar, urged the SL administrative authorities last week to release the seized lands that belong to 12 of 200 resettled villagers. However, the commander of the occupying SL Navy in Vidaththal-theevu, who was present at a meeting on Thursday last week, responded by declining to take the request into consideration On the contrary, the SL Navy commander said he was looking for more lands to expand the naval camp into a full-fledged cantonment, news sources in Maanthai West told TamilNet on Saturday.
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Premachandran releases photos of SL military-run torture chamber in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 December 2015, 23:04 GMT]
Former Tamil Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran has released photos taken by him from a former torture chamber operated by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Jaffna to media on Tuesday. The photos show blood-stained walls of a house used as torture cell and the roof of the abandoned house netted inside with barbed-wire. The photos were taken after the occupying Sri Lankan military relocated one of its most dreaded camps, known as 52nd Brigade Head Quarters, from Vara'ni to Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi. Describing the photographic traces of the former torture chamber in Vara'ni, Mr Premachandran told TamilNet that he was releasing the photos after the visiting UN working group on enforced disappearances had confirmed his earlier allegations on the existence of a similar torture chamber at Trincomalee Naval base in the East.
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Two more human skeletons exhumed from Kumaratunga's killings fields in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 October 2015, 20:29 GMT]
The organization representing the families of forced disappeared in Jaffna has demanded on Friday credible and independent forensic analysis to be conducted without further delay on recently exhumed skeletons from Mu'l'li at Ariyaalai East, located near the genocidal killing fields of Chemma'ni. Skeletons of two females, one of them believed to be a schoolgirl allegedly raped and killed by the occupying SL military, have been recently exhumed after sand scoopers discovered the remains. The SL military had vacated from Mu'l'li two years ago after keeping the area as a ‘High Security Zone’ since 1996. Around 800 Tamil youth were forcefully disappeared between 1996 and 1999 in Jaffna peninsula under Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's (CBK) rule.
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Families of enforced disappeared Tamils decry domestic investigations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 August 2015, 15:38 GMT]
Around 1,200 people from all the 8 districts of North-East came together at an emotional gathering on Sunday at the De La Salle Brothers School in Mannaar, remembering the enforced disappeared persons in the country of Eezham Tamils. On the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, the families of enforced disappeared demanded independent international investigations and categorically rejected the domestic and so-called hybrid mechanisms that are currently being advocated by the USA. In the meantime, leading lawyers from Mannaar told TamilNet on Sunday that international investigations were necessary on the mass graves at the killing fields of Mannaar. On Friday, an abandoned well allegedly used by the SL military to dump slain Tamils was located 40 meters close to Maanthai Junction near Thirukkeatheesvaram temple.
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Lawyers in Mannaar seek external assistance on mass grave investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 August 2015, 23:39 GMT]
Colombo-based Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department officer H. Ranasinghe was confronted last Wednesday by leading lawyers from Mannaar, when the case on continued exhumation of the alleged killing fields of Mannaar was taken at Mannaar Magistrate Court. Colombo's CID officers were trying to annul further investigations by sabotaging DNA based forensic investigations to judge the exact time when the victims were slain and by projecting a false claim that the skeletons belonged to a graveyard. However, Judge Aseervatham Gracian Alex Raja, after hearing the arguments from both the Colombo's Police and the lawyers representing the missing persons in Mannaar and the lawyers association in Mannaar, ordered for further excavation of another site, which is believed to be a well, where the SL military is believed to have dumped slain Tamils, 14 years ago.
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Victims of Moothoor massacre must see justice prevail: mother of Kokilavarthani

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2015, 23:40 GMT]
60-year-old Vairamuththu Pushparany, the mother of one of the victims who was assassinated on 04 August 2006 at Moothoor, in Trincomalee, along with 16 of her co-workers at the office of France-based NGO Action Contre la Faim (ACF, Action Against Hunger), is sharing her grief with Tamils on the occasion of 9th year anniversary of one of the brutal massacres in the war. Those who committed the crime are yet to be subjected to proper investigations. All the investigations that took place happened in “their courts with their judges and police,” the mother of 27-year-old Vairamuththu Kokilavarthani, who was a Hygine promotion moderator with the ACF, told TamilNet. Kokilavarthani was the eldest and the only breadwinner of the family at the time of the massacre. The crime should be subjected for an international investigation of genocide, Tamil activists in Trincomalee said.
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Eezham Tamils Learning lessons from Srebrenica

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 July 2015, 06:28 GMT]
Eezham Tamils, especially their politicians and activists, should learn the lesson from Srebrenica that an international investigation on ‘Sri Lanka’ doesn’t merely mean investigating the island at an international level, but investigating the international elements that led to the plight of the island. New researches clearly reveal that the USA and UK knew about the genocide at Srebrenica well ahead of it, but decided to allow it because of a premeditated policy decision. Unchecked, they did it again to Eezham Tamils 14 years later, and the difference is that they still do nothing about the occupying genocidal military, continued genocide, structural genocide and annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils, may be because of another premeditated, original policy, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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