Point Pedro to Mullaiththeevu coast encroached by Sinhala fishermen

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 May 2011, 10:39 GMT]
The northeast coast of the Jaffna and Mullaiththeevu districts of the country of Eezham Tamils, from Kat-koava’lam in Point Pedro to Mullaiththeevu is encroached in recent days by hundreds of Sinhala fishermen supported by occupying Sri Lanka’s Army and fisheries officials. Exploitation of the catch of sea cucumber for the season is said to be the reason and many more Sinhala encroachers are expected soon, news sources in Jaffna said with concern that the encroachment coupled with the use of advanced fishing technology triggers off tension and confrontation between the native and poaching fishing communities. Sea cucumber is a valuable export item. But the real interest of the encroachers is Chank (conch shells), an export item more valuable than the sea cucumber, the news sources further said.
Full story >>

Calls for war-crimes probe escalate as Tamils commemorate massacre

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2011, 02:49 GMT]
Amid increasing calls by world's premier human rights NGOs, newly elected Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for independent international investigations into alleged accusations of war-crimes committed by Sri Lanka on Tamils, Tamil expatriates in several countries in the West are preparing to commemorate the massacre of Tamil civilians during the final phase of Sri Lanka war. In the United Kingdom, youth groups are organizing a vigil in Trafalgar Square and planning protest campaigns against visiting Sri Lanka cricket team, while in the U.S. in a show of unity, multiple Tamil organizations are participating in a protest and vigil in front of the United Nations building. Organizers of both events said they are expecting a large turnout.
Full story >>

Ooraaththu'rai (Kayts), Pa'n'naiththu'rai, Matara

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 06:45 GMT]
The port of ships or small ships
The port of large boats or cargo boats
The big port
Full story >>

Colombo propagates UN report as against Muslims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 May 2011, 08:51 GMT]
Amid vicious propaganda by the Colombo government that UN Experts Panel is against the interests of the Muslim Community, Mr. Basheer Sego Dawood, deputy minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksea government said that the report should be considered as a foundation to find a lasting political solution for the ethnic conflict in the country.
Full story >>

Kaaththaankudi UC defends Arabic usage in name boards

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 10:22 GMT]
The president of the Urban Council of Kaaththaankudi, a Muslim dominated town in the Eastern Province, has defended the use of Arabic on par with English in the name boards following protests from certain quarters in Colombo and in the provincial council in the East. Mr. S.H. Mohammed Anzar, the president has said it was a decision solely within the authority of the urban council.
Full story >>

Police sentry in East University to continue says SL Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2011, 11:51 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister of Higher Education S.B.Dissanayake has said that the SL police sentry located in the premises of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) at Vanthaa'rumoolai in Batticaloa district would not be removed for any reason and the security of EUSL would be handed over to one of the three ‘security establishments’ of the government, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) or to the Special Task Force (SLF) if necessity arises.
Full story >>

India must act over Sri Lanka’s war crimes - AIADMK

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 22:29 GMT]
Citing the leaked UN expert panel’s report on Sri Lanka’s war crimes, Tamil Nadu’s main opposition AIADMK party has demanded India take steps to ensure Sri Lanka’s leadership stands international trial. "The UN Panel report is very clear. It lists out the war crimes of the Sri Lankan government," AIADMK leader and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa said in a statement Friday reported on by PTI and IANS.
Full story >>

Thalpitiya, Thaaligala, Thaazhaiyadi, Kaththaazhampiddi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 22:51 GMT]
The plain or high ground of palmyra palms
The rocky place of talipot palms
The locality of screw-pines
The high ground of aloe

Full story >>

Pillaiyan group robs houses in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2011, 03:44 GMT]
Personnel of the paramilitary group led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilliayan, chief minister of the Eastern provincial Council (EPC), have been involved in several robberies in the province, sources in the east said. On April 13, members of this group had robbed jewelry worth 1.5 million rupees from a house at Aaraiyampathi West Kaaddumaavadi area in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district after brandishing knives and threatening residents .
Full story >>

Reformulating Kooththu theatre for Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2011, 06:53 GMT]
Contemporary humans alienated from their own environment by an education system are isolated even within their families by the electronic media. Reformulating the Kooththu theatre of Eezham Tamils is not to show it to somebody else or to carry it to somewhere else, but to effectively make the owners of the form of art to gather and enjoy it for themselves in the open air. The reformulation aims at reinstating the Kooththu theatre as a social institution, by giving importance to its inherent features such as participation, social function and memory; by bringing in traditional values to contemporary discourse and by providing space for the grassroot performers to perform in their own environment, says S. Jeyasankar of the Eastern University, Batticaloa, in his new book in Tamil on “Reformulating Kooththu: New Dimensions of the Kooththu of Eezham.”
Full story >>

UN served a ploy to surrender killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2011, 12:47 GMT]
Around 18 hours before the surrender of the LTTE Political Head B Nadesan and other civil officials of the LTTE that ended in their killing by the Sri Lanka Army, the UN officials served in the island met in Vavuniyaa and made plans to receive them on behalf of the UN. The UN officials were very well aware of who were coming to surrender, said a high-ranking UN worker who was involved in the arrangements to TamilNet on Monday. All the UN officers who served in the island at the time of the war are either no more in UN service or have left the island. The UN was used as a ploy in arranging and enacting the ‘surrender’ and then to kill the LTTE officials, Tamil political observers said. Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was in Colombo at the time.
Full story >>

Kadaiya-moaddai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 March 2011, 00:52 GMT]
The pond of Kadaiyar community
Full story >>

Democratic uprising in Tamil Nadu crucial to changes in the region

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2011, 12:38 GMT]
If the so-called post 9/11 paradigm provided an opportunity for repressive forces to mobilise against various peoples in the world and if that worked against the liberation of Eezham Tamils, the recent uprising of peoples against establishments in North Africa and West Asia is a favourable trend the Eezham Tamils and the Tamils of Tamil Nadu have to carefully comprehend and make use of in bringing out changes in South Asia too. Progressive Sinhalese who see the need to recognise the nation of Eezham Tamils for a true reconciliation in the island should also join in. A democratic uprising in Tamil Nadu is crucial to changes in the entire region and that is a big hope for Eezham Tamils too. Tamil Nadu has the potentiality and the reasons for the uprising, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
Full story >>

SL Minister Hisbullah's men lead post election violence in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2011, 23:57 GMT]
1.5 million rupees worth fishing equipments belonging to the supporters of the Peoples’ Movement for Good Governance (PMGG) that contested the election to the Kaaththaankudi Urban Council held last Thursday against the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by Deputy Minister M.L.A.M.Hisbullah. Armed gang deployed allegedly by Mr. Hisbulla had set fire to fishing huts of PMGG supporters, according to complaints lodged with the police by the victims.
Full story >>

Azhignchil-poththaanai (Alinchipothana),
Unnichchaikku'lam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 00:43 GMT]
The grassland or thicket of Alangium lamarckii trees
The tank of Alangium lamarckii trees or Lantana indica plants
Full story >>

SLA-operated paramilitary responsible for Thenmaraadchi woman's killing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 March 2011, 10:23 GMT]
A paramilitary group that works with the Sri Lanka Armed forces in Vavuniyaa has been identified as the group behind the abduction and brutal murder of a Tamil woman from Meesaalai In Thenmarachchi last week. In an inquiry statement as part of the inquest proceedings held by the Magistrates Court, the husband of the murdered woman, has revealed that he had hired the Vavuniyaa-based group to abduct and murder his wife.
Full story >>

100 years of Thirunelveali YMHA: anthropology of a grassroot institution

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 18:27 GMT]
The Young Men Hindu Association (YMHA) of Thirunelveali in Jaffna that was started in April 1911 celebrates its centenary next month. Its members of old times met in London Sunday to observe the centenary. Located at the Thirunelveali Junction, where the Aadiyapaatham Road crosses the Palaali Road, the institution played an important role in the social, political and cultural history of the people of Thirunelveali village. An academic of the University of Jaffna writes on Thirunelveali, the anthropology of civil institutions and changing times in Jaffna.
Full story >>

Officials opposing Sinhala encroachment threatened with transfer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 12:10 GMT]
Tamil Divisional Secretaries in the eastern province are facing transfer threats due to the non-co-operation to implement Mahinda Chinthanaya in the Eastern Province in allowing encroachment by Sinhalese in Tamil villages. Already, Divisional Secretaries of the two DS divisions Koa'ra'laip-pattu South and Koa'ra'laip-pattu North in Batticaloa district are said to be informed of their transfer, sources in Eastern province said.
Full story >>

Wahalkada

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2011, 00:13 GMT]
The outer entrance
The entrance side
The entrance part
Full story >>

Bodhi-ma’luwa, Changku-maal, Aa’rukaal-madam

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 February 2011, 06:09 GMT]
The fig-tree terrace,
The shed or yard to keep dived conch shells,
The six-pillared resting-place

Full story >>