SL deceptions multiply as protests demanding lands intensify in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2017, 19:55 GMT]
The so-called ‘Resettlement Ministry’ of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka has sought the support of the hijacked hierarchy of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), the dominating component of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to contain the escalating protests in Mullaiththeevu, Ki’linochchi and Mannaar of genocide-affected Vanni region of the homeland of Eezham Tamils. The ITAK hierarchy has been approached to facilitate compromise between the uprooted Tamils and the occupying Sinhala military, a source close to Maavai Senathiraja, the leader of the ITAK told TamilNet on Thursday on condition of anonymity. The source also provided photos documenting how occupying SL Air Force has transformed the lands of uprooted Tamils in Keappaa-pulavu into military resorts and how new structures are being hurriedly constructed inside the occupied zone.
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ITAK leaders have violated Tamil people’s democratic mandate: Premachandran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2017, 22:39 GMT]
The very basic demands of Tamils have been totally denied, both by the constitutional assembly tasked with drafting the new constitution and by the political parties in the South. On what basis, the two ITAK politicians R. Sampanthan and M. Sumanthiran continue to be part of the constitutional assembly, asks EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran, who took up the matter in a recent coordinating committee meeting of the TNA. The Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), under the leadership of Thanthai S.J.V Chelvanayakam, boycotted the 1972 Constitution as the constitutional proposal didn’t respect the demands of Tamils. Similarly, the TULF boycotted the 1978 constitution brought by J.R. Jayawardene. There has been no democratic discussion or debate within the ranks of the ITAK. The two other parties, Sitharthan's PLOTE and TELO led by Selvam Adaikalanthan are also answerable, he said.
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Eezham Tamils face isolation after Jayalalithaa’s demise: ITAK Youth Leader

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 December 2016, 23:20 GMT]
The late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms Jayalalithaa, came forward with statesmanship to articulate the aspirations of Eezham Tamils to the Indian Government in New Delhi and to the powers elsewhere. Her untimely death has created a deep fear among the Eezham Tamils. They feel that they are about to face increased isolation without a strong leader in Tamil Nadu, said V.S. Sivaharan, the youth wing leader of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK).
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Kashmiris step up sovereignty struggle braving New Delhi’s militarization

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2016, 22:20 GMT]
On 08 July 2016, Indian military which occupies the portion of the Kashmir region administered by India, killed a militant Kashmiri commander of Hizbul-ul-Mujadaheen (HM) group, Burhan Wani, along with two of his fighters. Kashmiri people in the Valley have responded with protests in the aftermath of the killings, after a call for general strike from the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and both the factions of umbrella organisation Hurriyat Conference (HC). Defying the curfew enforced by New Delhi, thousands of Kashmiris attended the funeral and demonstrations were stepped up throughout the valley in the following days. The Indian military responded with deploying further violence, killing at least 19 civilians in clashes over the first weekend that followed. The number of Kashmiris who have been killed in two months long Kashmiri uprising stands over 90 with thousands injured.
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15,000 Tamils attend historic uprising in Jaffna, reject Unitary Constitution, ITAK draws flak

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 September 2016, 16:10 GMT]
Ezhuka Thamizh (Let Tamil rise up), the biggest uprising to take place in the country of Eezham Tamils after the Pongku Thamizh uprisings during the times of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), declared on Saturday that the ‘consultations’ staged by Colombo for the new constitution completely failed to include the genuine political aspirations of the Tamil people. The Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) with a hijacked leadership and the powers operating it, received a serious message from the people at the grassroots, regardless of the organisers of the event, that the people on the ground are fully prepared to replace the ITAK hierarchy once a good leadership takes shape to lead the nation of Eehzam Tamils in the next phase of their struggle. It is now time for NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran to prove the case, commented Tamil political observers in Jaffna.
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Sinhala, Muslim participation in Tamil genocide remembrance answers IC detractors

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2016, 20:22 GMT]
A section of Sinhala and Muslim students took part in the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance organised by the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) on Wednesday and a group of Catholic Sinhalese from the South were also present at St. Paul's church at Mu'l'livaaykkaal. At Mannaar, Muslim representatives were present at the memorial event organised by ITAK Youth Wing leader V.S. Sivakaran. The Sinhala and Muslim participation sends message to International Community and UN actors refusing to accept genocide in the island. The very first monument to be erected in remembrance of those who perished in Mu'l'livaaykkaal was also sculpted by a non-Tamil in the island, although the identity of the artist could not be revealed. The statue, having artistic significance has been silently put up near the St. Paul's church by the Tamil villagers of Mu'l'livaaykkaal, news sources in Vanni said.
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Genocide Day marked in 3 districts of Eastern Province

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2016, 23:34 GMT]
The students of the Eastern University situated at Vanthaa'ru-moolai in Batticaloa, civil society members and TNA politicians in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai district observed Genocide Remembrance Day events and memorial prayers at churches and temples on Wednesday. The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) organised a memorial event at Vaakaarai, one of the most war-affected areas subjected to structural genocide under heavy militarisation in the Batticaloa district. In the meantime, the Tamil Peoples Council (TPC) organised memorial events at the historic Hindu temple and in a church in Batticaloa. TNA politicians working among the grassroots also travelled to North to attend the remembrance event at Mu'l'livaaykkal in Vanni on Wednesday.
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SL TID cites Facebook ‘private messages’ as evidence to restrict Tamil political activism

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2016, 23:42 GMT]
The notorious ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID), currently engaged in containing the voices against the abduction and hostage taking styled arrests in the North and East, has claimed in communication to Chaavakachcheari Magistrate's Court that they have accessed Facebook private messages and chats that have taken place between individuals in the Diaspora and the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, legal sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Monday. In a recent case where the secretary of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) Youth Wing V.S. Sivakaran was detained and later released on surety bail, the TID had submitted the above argument as ‘evidence’ to the courts, the sources said adding that the TID was silencing critical voices in the island by deploying surveillance agencies outside the island.
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Colombo detains ITAK youth leader cum editor after criticism on PTA arrests

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2016, 13:36 GMT]
The notorious 'Terrorist' Investigation Division (TID), operated by the 'Defence Ministry' of genocidal Sri Lanka has arrested V.S. Sivakaran, the Youth Wing secretary of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) and the editor of Tamil weekly ‘Puthiyavan’ on Wednesday afternoon at the paper office located on Mannaar Main street. Sivakaran's arrest is an attempt to suppress criticism being levelled against the abduction-styled arrests taking place in the Tamil homeland, journalists in North said. The arrest comes 2 days after Sivakaran went on record strongly condemning the PTA based arrests that have taken place in the North and East.
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23 Tamils detained under PTA in recent weeks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2016, 21:27 GMT]
The notorious ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) of occupying Colombo has detained at least 23 Eezham Tamils from North and East at various prisons since 29 March. The arrests have taken place in white-van abduction style and through hostage-taking of family members. One of the victims is a woman, who is detained at Vavuniyaa. Two males are being interrogated at the so-called 4th Floor torture chamber in Colombo, while the remaining 20 are being detained at Boosa prison in Galle district in the South. All the ‘arrests’ have been carried out under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), with judicial evidence standards for arrest lower than even "reason to believe."
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Racist frenzy being whipped up in South against Tamils: ITAK youth leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2016, 21:19 GMT]
A section of the political forces among the Sinhalese in South is attempting to project the isolated event of discovery of mines at Chaavakachcheari in Jaffna as a threat with the intention of justifying and further accelerating military occupation in the North, said V.S. Sivakaran, the youth wing leader of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), condemning the political forces in the South and the Sinhala media for whipping up racist frenzy among the Sinhalese. The intention behind the projection by the Sinhala Establishment is to sustain the suppressive Sinhala military rule and to justify further militarisation, the youth leader from Mannaar said.
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‘Regime change’ didn't bring any change for Tamils: NPC Councillors, TNPF and ITAK MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2016, 15:18 GMT]
While R. Sampanthan, M.A.Sumanthiran and Mavai Senathiraja belonging to Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) were on a collaborating course with the Sri Lankan regime on the advice from Washington and New Delhi, ITAK Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sritharan, who has also been alleged of playing into the hands of the US Embassy, which got him to collaborate with M.A. Sumanthiran, went on record on Friday at a protest in Jaffna stating that he had no faith in the ruling regime and said the current regime has failed in building confidence and building peace with Tamils. Sritharan was protesting along with NPC Councillors and TNPF politicians in laying siege to the Divisional Survey Office at Thirunelveali in Jaffna.
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Eezham Tamils boycott ‘Sri Lanka’ Independence Day in North-East

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 February 2016, 08:21 GMT]
“Tamils are being suppressed as ‘minority’ in this country. This so-called Independence Day is only for Sinhalese, ruling this country as majority. They celebrate this day with Kiribath [milk rice] in the South. We have not forgotten that they also celebrated the annihilation of thousands and lakhs of Tamils at Mu'l'livaaykkaal in 2009, serving Kiribath in the South,” a protesting mother in Mannaar, who joined the district wide protests of Tamils marking the so-called Independence Day of Ceylon, which has later become genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’, as a Black Day. In the meantime V.S. Sivakaran, a young Tamil activist in Mannaar said Tamils have no emotional attachment to the day and that they saw it merely as an Independence Day of a neighbouring country. Tamils marked the day as a Black Day in all the 8 districts of the Northern and Eastern provinces on Thursday.
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Hunger strikers: ‘USA, co-sponsors of consensus-resolution responsible for our fate’

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 November 2015, 14:10 GMT]
The political prisoners and prisoners of war, waging hunger strike inside the Sri Lankan prisons for the 10th day told TamilNet Monday morning that the United States, which authored the consensus resolution with the genocidal State of Sri Lanka and the sponsor-States that passed the resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, should now ensure the release of the political prisoners languishing in the jails of occupying Sri Lanka through making the SL President declare them as political prisoners entitled to general amnesty. The prisoners of war and political prisoners demanded the officials at the diplomatic missions in Colombo to visit and witness their plight in person.
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ITAK leaders stand exposed as powers deceive Tamils with hypocritical investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 October 2015, 21:48 GMT]
Refusing to look at the affairs of the nation of Eezham Tamils through their homeland in the North-East and being bent on approaching the Eezham Tamils through Colombo-centric geopolitical designs, the West and the UN mechanisms have nakedly exposed themselves even before the ink went dry on the OISL report and the ‘US-Sri Lanka’ co-sponsored resolution in the UN Human Rights Council. In the meantime, the leaders of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) stand exposed for their lack of statesmanship and for the failure of not clarifying TNA's position regarding the deceptive path of ‘domestic’ investigations. The ITAK leaders have also failed the nation of Eezham Tamils by not demanding the release the Tamil political prisoners, who have been rotting in the jails of genocidal Sri Lanka for years.
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Tamil political prisoners complain about increased harassment at SL prisons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 2015, 22:18 GMT]
The intelligence operatives of the Sri Lankan military and the prison officers are threatening the Tamil political prisoners against their attempts to file Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions challenging their continued imprisonment, the families visiting the prisoners from Batticaloa told TamilNet this week. When the families are visiting the prisoners, two intelligence operatives were accompanying the imprisoned Tamils. In the meantime, rights activists from Batticaloa, providing free legal assistance to the prisoners in Colombo Magazine prison and at Anurdhapura prison, complain that the prisoners were unable to communicate with them about filing FR petitions.
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Tamil Nadu political party cautions on impending Geneva deception

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2015, 20:44 GMT]
The weak draft resolution coming from the USA will not bring in any justice to Eezham Tamils. Already, countries like Pakistan have insisted on further weakening of the resolution in favour of Colombo. But, India was silent in such consultative meetings held in Geneva, says Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, an Indian parliamentarian and one of the leaders of Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK), a major political party in Tamil Nadu. He urged the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa to convene an urgent All Party Meeting in Tamil Nadu to press Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi to come out with an alternative resolution at Geneva leading to international judicial process on war crimes in the island.
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Arrests in historical numbers in Tamil Nadu, TVK vows to fight for international investigations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2015, 23:28 GMT]
Around 100,000 supporters of Thamizhaka Vaazhvurimaik Kadchi (TVK), a prominent party led by T. Velmurugan gathered at various cities of Tamil Nadu State on Monday and staged protests blocking the Indian Railway. “The main demand of our party is independent international investigations on genocide. The USA should decide whether it is interested in listening to 65 million Tamils in the region or 15 million Sinhalese in genocidal Sri Lanka. The Indian government should listen to the unanimous resolutions passed by the TN Assembly. The UN should decide whether it is going to discard Tamils as victims in favour of a Member State that has no constitutional mandate of Eezham Tamils. We are not going to welcome the Hybrid Court that recognizes the genocidal State as a party and ignores Tamils as victims,” Mr Velmurugan told TamilNet on Tuesday.
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Premachandran urges ITAK MPs to establish party position on international investigations

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 September 2015, 23:13 GMT]
Suresh Premachandran, former parliamentarian and the leader of EPRLF, who recognised that the majority of the party members within the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) are opposed to the domestic accountability mechanism being proposed by the USA, urged the ITAK parliamentarians, provincial councillors and others to focus on clarifying the party position of the ITAK leadership instead of giving personal media interviews demanding International Investigations to save their skin. Mr Premachandran's interview comes after S. Sritharan, who entered parliamentary politics initially through EPRLF ticket and later crossed over to the ITAK, has been giving interviews to media saying that he was rejecting the domestic mechanism and was demanding international investigations without exerting pressure on ITAK hierarchy.
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TNA faces pressure from ITAK grassroots to reject US move on domestic mechanism

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2015, 23:36 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) hierarchy is facing pressure from the grassroots of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) against the move to extend its support to domestic investigations, informed sources told TamilNet on Thursday. In an interview to TamilNet this week, Eastern Provincial Council member of the ITAK, Mr Nageswaran Kumarasamy, categorically rejected the domestic accountability mechanism, which is to be proposed by the USA, Sri Lanka and other actors in collaboration in the forthcoming sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, saying that a such mechanism lacks credibility and security in the context of the island of Sri Lanka.
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