SL judiciary harasses Tamil dairy farmers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 August 2019, 23:36 GMT]
The representatives of the largest dairy farmers association in Batticaloa complain that fifteen of their members had to spend 300,000 rupees on travelling forth and back between Dehiyattakandiya and Batticaloa throughout the last four years to face a case filed against them by the SL Forest Department in 2015. The Forest Department guards detained the cattle herders and filed a lawsuit against them at the Magistrate’s Court in Dehiattekandiya in Ampaa'rai. The representatives of the Live Stock Farmers’ Society in Mayilaththamadu and Periyamathava'nai (LSFS-MP) told TamilNet that the petitioner was failing to attend the hearings and that the case was being postponed every time. It is a form of systematic harassment meted out to Tamil dairy farmers, they complained. Every time, when the case is scheduled the group of farmers and their cattle herders have to travel 140 km both the ways.
Full story >>

SL Governor dodges Ki'linochchi DCC meeting, Colombo's military and departments confronted

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 July 2019, 23:13 GMT]
The so-called Civil Security Division (CSD) and the occupying SL Army, which come under the SL Defence Ministry in Colombo continue to occupy more than 400 acres of farmlands in Ki'linochchi district. The Tamil people suspect the SL Police of backing the Sinhala miners who operate almost all the tipper trucks, which scoop the sands in the region excessively. At the same time, various departments working under the unitary system of the SL State continue to exercise their power in seizing the properties ignoring the divisional authorities and the civic councils. Knowing that these crucial matters were scheduled to be taken up for discussion at a plenary session, Suren Raghavan, the deceitful Tamil SL Governor to North, was absconding from attending the District Coordination Committee meeting on Monday.
Full story >>

SL Police goes door-to-door collecting details of residents in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 July 2019, 18:06 GMT]
Occupying Colombo’s police has started to collect details of persons residing in each house in the police division of Kaaththaan-kudi in Batticaloa district. Tamil residents in Chelvaa-nakar, which comes under the administrative division of Ma’n-munaip-pattu, complained that the police personnel were visiting each household since 27 July. The SL Police demands there must be a household leader for every house, and that person should put a signature in a document where details of every resident are registered.
Full story >>

Anti-Muslim harassment escalates in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 June 2019, 23:51 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala Navy and Army along with the SL Police are harassing the Tamil-speaking Muslims in two hotspots in Mannaar district as never before, and the trend is worsening every day without anyone to voice for the rights of the affected innocent people. The predominantly Sinhala soldiers, particularly the SL Navy personnel at Thaaraa-puram in Mannaar island and those stationed in the mainland in Musali division, are humiliating the residents of more than 20 colonies. These settlements were put up by the controversial politician, Rishard Bathiudeen, who was serving the successive regimes in Colombo while creating a voter base for himself with the funding he facilitated from the Arabic world. The former SL Minister's opportunistic political behaviour has not only backfired against him but also against the Muslim residents of Thaaraa-Puram, which is his native village in Mannaar.
Full story >>

IC failing to impose mediated solution, ultimately responsible for escalating Sinhala chauvinism

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 May 2019, 22:11 GMT]
Even though one feared the outbreak of an anti-Muslim pogrom immediately after the Easter attacks, silence prevailed for two weeks. Then the mob violence targeted the properties of Muslim traders. It was not an act of immediate responsive impulse, but an engineered move instigated by an organised force. Despite their differences in the scale, there are certain similarities between the 1983 Black July anti-Tamil pogrom and the post-2009 anti-Muslim pogroms, says Batticaloa-based human rights activist Kathir Barathythasan. During the war, the International Community (IC) was acting as a mediator. But, it was also abetting the SL State, causing massive civilian deaths. The IC, now wants the anti-terror legislation to fit its global designs ignoring the drastic internal consequences. The IC must, therefore, be convinced to deliver a negotiated settlement to the national question, he said.
Full story >>

Dr Amir Ali: Neoliberal institutions, religious extremism major hurdles of resolving conflict

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 April 2019, 13:11 GMT]
The global neoliberalist institutions such as the IMF and three particular religious extremist tendencies aggravated by external factors manifesting in the island were going to be the major future hurdles in achieving a lasting resolution to the conflict affecting the Tamils and the Tamil-speaking Muslims in the island, said Dr Ameer Ali, a renowned academic based in Australia, in a video interview to TamilNet in May 2018. He identified the Hindutva coming from India, militant Theravada Buddhism getting exposed in Myanmar and the Wahhabism which had started-off from Saudi Arabia as the three far-right religious tendencies. The expulsion of Muslims from Jaffna was a crime, but it was not ethnic cleansing as some propagandists tend to project it, he stated further.
Full story >>

People of all walks of life victims in ‘chosen island’ of geopolitics, religious extremism

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 April 2019, 23:12 GMT]
The families and the relatives of the victims of the serial terror attacks on Easter Sunday mourned their dead with mass burials and an island-wide day of mourning with three minutes of silence on Tuesday. At least 45 of those killed were children, according to the figures gathered by the United Nations. As the death toll from the bombings rose to 321, the Syria-based Islamic State group, which had lost all its territorial control in Syria and Iraq, claimed that it stood behind the serial terror attacks, publishing photos and a video of the attackers. In the meantime, reports also said that the US Indo-Pacific Command had wrapped up a joint naval training, four days earlier than it was scheduled to conclude in Hambantota.
Full story >>

Uprooted Tamils in Karanthaay enter their lands in dispute with SL authority

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 April 2019, 22:20 GMT]
The Coconut Development Authority (CDA), which comes under the unitary occupying system of Colombo was claiming 90 acres of lands that belong to private land-owners at Karanthaay village near Mukamaalai, which was a ‘Forward Defence Line’ during the times of war. The lands were to be released back to the rightful owners in 2012-2013 when mines clearance in the area came to an end. However, the SL CDA was quick to claim the lands despite the owners proving their ownership. On Tuesday, the land-owners entered their lands and put up temporary huts. They said the SL authority was trying to convert their properties into state-owned farm without resolving the dispute of ownership.
Full story >>

SL State appropriates lands of Tamils in Batticaloa under ‘Mahaweli’ scheme

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 April 2019, 22:31 GMT]
Eezham Tamil land-owners in four interior GS divisions in Kiraan and Chengkaladi divisions of Batticaloa district are facing an imminent threat of losing upto 90 per cent of their paddy lands and 99 per cent of other lands which they owned for decades. Their areas are being absorbed into the Mahaweli colonisation programme under cover of ‘development’, say Tamil farmers. Agrarian Services Centre official at Kiraan T. Jeyaraj has informed the farmers that they would be only allowed to retain 2.5 acres of paddy lands and 0.5 acres of lands for homestead per adult person in their families as their lands were being taken over by the Mahaweli authority, the farmers said.
Full story >>

IC urged to pressure Colombo to allow ICMP to detect more mass graves in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 March 2019, 09:23 GMT]
If the Colombo government wants to establish that there are no war-time mass graves in Mannaar district, it should invite the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) to initiate systematic scanning of all former and present military zones for mass graves, say families of persons subjected to enforced disappearances during the times of genocidal war in the district. More than 800 Tamil people have been subjected to enforced disappearances in Mannaar district alone within 19 years between 1990 and 2009. The families of the victims want to initiate a broader campaign calling for an independent international competent authority to take charge of the entire process. The families suspect there are potential sites of mass graves the Sunny Village in Mannaar island as well as in the notorious SL military base in the mainland.
Full story >>

Father of three reported missing en route to Batticaloa from Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 March 2019, 18:53 GMT]
A Tamil father of three, 55-year-old R. Pathamanathan, who has been employed in masonry work in Colombo, has been reported missing since 14 March. Mr Pathamanathan was on his way to his native village, Thiruch-chenthoor in Kalladi, Batticaloa, on board a private passenger van to Batticaloa from Colombo, according to his wife. He had phoned after getting into the vehicle in Colombo, she said.
Full story >>

Tamil parties failing to single-mindedly demand genocide justice, more dangerous than ITAK

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2019, 14:11 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils need to objectively and scientifically distinguish the competing discourses of the collaborative politics of the ITAK and the actors claiming to counter the wrong narrative of the ITAK. While the ITAK is lost to ‘quisling politics’, there is a danger that the emerging alternative actors also succumbing to a rather dangerous ‘diplopia politics’, which is a double-option trap. The bedrock of both the deceptions is the overt orientation of relying upon the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), tasked to promote and protect the human rights and function also as the secretariat of the UNHRC. It is important that Tamils should engage and interact with UN bodies. However, limiting the demands to the inside-the-box thinking of that system is more disastrous than the ITAK advocating quisling politics.
Full story >>

Colombo schemes Sinhala Buddhicisation of 40 more locations in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 March 2019, 17:28 GMT]
The anti-Tamil Archaeology Department of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has approached the SL Survey Department to survey 40 more locations in Mullaith-theevu district alone with the intention of permanently declaring the places as heritage monuments of Sinhala Theravada Buddhism, informed civil officials had alerted the TNA Parliamentarian Shanthy Sriskandarajah. It is not known whether these are the places identified in a controversial Gazette declaration made already in 2013 or if these places are additional locations based on a new list, the civil officials who alerted the TNA parliamentarian explained to the journalists who were seeking to verify the information. The Eezham Tamils in Vanni should rapidly form heritage vigilance groups to confront the widespread surveying activities being schemed by the SL Archaeology Department, commented grassroots activists in Vanni.
Full story >>

SL Navy restricts humanitarian access to resettling people of Ira'nai-theevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 January 2019, 22:21 GMT]
Nine months have elapsed since the uprooted people embarked on a courageous sea landing to SL Navy occupied twin-islet of Ira'nai-theevu at the western coast of Vanni. Only a few toilets and temporary huts have been provided to them. While the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is set to assist the resettled people with necessary facilities such as access to potable water, the SL Navy stationed at Muzhangkaavil along the coast of the Vanni mainland has restricted the NGOs and community organisations from accessing the twin-islets, which it regards as a ‘high-security zone’. The local workers of the UNDP and other NGOs as well as the community-based organisations, trying to visit Ira'nai-theevu are facing strict procedures and are subjected to surveillance as if they were enemies entering the property of the SL Navy, humanitarian workers said.
Full story >>

Tamil dairy farmers face two-frontal attacks in interior Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2019, 17:11 GMT]
Ex-paramilitary Karuna Group, which is aligned with former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been gunning down the cattle belonging to dairy farmers at the pasturelands of Paalai-vaddavaan (Paalai-madu) in Paduvaan-karai, the interior northwestern part of Batticaloa district which was protected by the LTTE before 2007 from Sinhala colonisation coming from Polonnaruwa, the home district of Mr Sirisena. In the meantime, Sinhala encroacher ‘home guards’ paramilitary men have stolen eight calves within the last 20 days. The SL police are taking the side of the encroachers and demands the Tamil dairy farmers to identify the ‘thieves’ to register a complaint. The calve thefts have taken place at Mayilaththa-madu pasture land, which is located within two kilometres from the Paalai-madu tank, where the former paramilitary men who have been firing at the cows.
Full story >>

Occupying Colombo intentionally targets ex-LTTE members for murder of SL policemen

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2018, 14:17 GMT]
The investigating squad of SL Police that had come from Colombo to investigate the killings of two police constables on Friday has interrogated at least seven former LTTE members and one of them involved in organising Tamil Heroes Day Remembrance at Thaa'ndiyadi on November 27 has been detained, informed sources in Batticaloa said. The interrogators were mostly investigating how Heroes Day was organised braving SL Police harassment at Thaa'ndiyadi Heroes Cemetery, which comes under the supervision area of the SL Police at Vavu'natheevu. The investigating police squad is particular in interrogating the organisors of the memorial event at Thaa'ndiyadi Heroes Cemetery. The investigating squad has also deployed hundreds of agents clad in civil clothes in Vavu'na-theevu area. The SL policemen have also assaulted four onlookers on Friday.
Full story >>

Eastern University massacre was premeditated crime, UN should investigate: families of victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2018, 22:46 GMT]
Twenty-eight years ago, the occupying Sinhala Army of genocidal Sri Lanka, which brought a few so-called Muslim home-guards and Tamil paramilitary operatives, entered the premises of the Eastern University at Vanthaa'ru-moolai in Batticaloa and filtered away 158 young members among the thousands of Tamils, who had sought refuge at the premises of the Eastern University on 05 September 1990. The victims, identified by the masked men, were taken away by the SL Army that had brought two CTB buses with it to the premises. The victims were taken to Naavaladi in Vaazhaich-cheanai, where they were subjected to brutal torture before being hacked to death. The families of enforced disappeared, who marked the 28th remembrance of the traumatic event this month, blamed the SL State for persistent refusal to admit the premeditated arrests, the massacre and removal of skeletal remains of the victims.
Full story >>

Colombo schemes Sinhala-Buddhicisation of Tamil heritage site in Vavuniyaa North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2018, 21:33 GMT]
The occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has prohibited Eezham Tamils at Oldu-madu village in Vavuniyaa North from accessing 157-meter-high hill called Vedukku-naa'ri. The issue became a hot topic on 10 August, a day before the annual religious ritual of Aadi Amaavaasai (the new moon of the Tamil month July-August) observed in remembrance of the ancestors by the Saivites (Hindus). The SL Police blocked the Poosaari (non-Brahmin priest) of the village-deity, based on a complaint made by the SL Archaeology Department on 07 August. The SL Police has instructed Poosari and the villagers to keep away from the hilltop. Only after the repeated pleas, they were allowed to access their temple once on 11 August. Now, they have to face heritage genocide on their own, V. Poobalasingam, a grassroots leader in Olu-madu told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Militarisation of Jaffna Fort dashes hope of establishing Tamil antiquity: Saiva Pontiff

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2018, 23:17 GMT]
“Since Buddhism has been accorded with the foremost place as a religion patronised by the State, we are unable to claim our rightful stakes [in the island],” said Sreelasree Somasunthara Parmaachchaariya Chuvaamika'l, the pontiff of Nallai Aatheenam in Jaffna. “We have no means of asserting our distinction; We have no State of our own; Unfortunately, our people are also yet to emancipate themselves,” he said. Commenting on SL Military claiming the Jaffna Fort as its property, the Guru Maha Sannithaanam of Nallai Aaatheenam noted such militarisation would be detrimental to the Tamils establishing their ancient heritage in Jaffna. In his view, the SL military was more preoccupied with the security aspect than claiming ownership to the Fort. However, the military presence there would be a hindrance for Tamil heritage related affairs, he said.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu police detaining leader of May 17 Movement condemned in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 August 2018, 21:43 GMT]
Thirumurugan Gandhi of May 17 Movement, who has been in Europe for almost three months closely working with Eezham Tamil diaspora and exiled Sinhala activists in Europe, was detained twice in India this week when he returned home from Europe. The right of Tamil Nadu activist is being oppressed in his own country because he was standing up for the rights of Eezham Tamils and other oppressed nations, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the president of Tamil National Peoples Front. The TNPF organised a protest to raise awareness on the matter among Eezham Tamils in front of the bus stand in the city of Jaffna on Friday.
Full story >>