DMK chief lists out multifaceted structural genocide beginning from toponyms

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2013, 16:14 GMT]
The DMK chief Mr. M. Karunanidhi, in a letter dated 19 January sent to the Indian Prime Minister, has drawn his attention to Sri Lanka “carrying out an intensive and systematic programme of erasing the Tamil language, culture, religion and diluting the concentration of Tamils in areas where they had historically been predominant.” Beginning from the renaming of Tamil villages, the letter listed out the various facets of the structural genocide committed on Eezham Tamils by the Sinhala State. Citing India’s moral obligation to stop this atrocity immediately, Mr. Karunanidhi requested suitable action.
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UK should exert pressure on Sri Lanka: BTF

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2013, 21:28 GMT]
Referring to the systematic repression and attacks on Eezham Tamil political activists, civil society and students by the Sri Lankan state, the BTF called on the British government to “to exert serious diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka.” Speaking to TamilNet, BTF Coordinator Ravi Kumar said that since the so-called ‘independence’, concentration of powers in the Sinhalese rulers has systematically increased and that after a successful genocidal war on the Tamil nation in 2009, now all powers in the Sri Lankan state, executive, legislative and judicial powers are concentrated under the President. “Under such circumstances, UK and the International community should not focus on internal mechanism to provide justice to the Tamil Nation. This is the time for the UK government to call for an external mechanism towards an international independent investigation,” he added.
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Sinhala colonization in Puduvaankarai aims to carve out Sinhala electorate in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 23:48 GMT]
Illegal appropriation of pasturelands by Sinhala settlers in Paduvaankarai area in Batticaloa district has been taking place with the ‘blessings’ of Colombo’s ruling party politicians. If this trend is allowed 20 to 25 thousand acres of lands would soon be appropriated illegally, paving way to elect a Sinhala parliamentarian from the district, owners of cattle farms have told Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who have been ignoring their plight.
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Grabbing pastureland in Ampaa’rai district goes unabated

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2013, 11:03 GMT]
Over four thousand acres of pastureland allocated for grazing in Chaakaamam area in Ampaa’rai district is being grabbed day by day for illegal settlement by Sinhalese, civil sources in the district said. Next to agriculture and fishing, one of the major livelihood activities in Ampaa’rai and Batticaloa districts for resettling Tamils is livestock farming. Colombo’s Sinhala establishment, backed by its occupation military, is occupying these pasturelands with the intention of accomplishing structural genocide on Eezham Tamils and Sinhalicisation of traditional Tamil villages in the East.
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Jaffna Catholic organization urges Bishops to see illusion of development, reconciliation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2013, 23:50 GMT]
The Commission for Justice and Peace of The Catholic Diocese of Jaffna urged the President and Members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the island, who recently visited the North, to do justice to the existing realities by working for addressing them in the right direction. Cautioning against ideas of cosmetic development and “enforced rehabilitation” as solutions to the conflict, and listing out some of the fundamental and practical issues faced by the Tamil people, which might not have been “visible” to the Bishops during their short visit, the Catholic organization in its statement on Thursday said that “If the present situation continues we fear that it will be paving way for another cycle of violence. The country cannot afford to pay such a heavy price as in the past.”
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SLFP threatens Tamils filing cases against Sinhala land grab in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2013, 23:12 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) men in Ki'linochchi have been threatening the Tamil land owners who have been filing cases against the Sinhalese from South who have occupied their lands. The SLFP men are behind ‘providing’ lands to the family members of the Sri Lanka Army soldiers and other Sinhalese from South. At least 15 cases are pending the Ki'linochchi courts against illegal land grab of priviate lands by the Sinhala settlers from South, legal sources in Ki'lnochchi told TamilNet.
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Kuruppu-mulla, Kochchi-kade

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2013, 23:16 GMT]
The Kuruppu’s Corner
The Kochchi Bazzar
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Sri Lanka appoints military to teach Sinhala in Vanni schools

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2013, 21:21 GMT]
In a hitherto unheard experiment in conducting genocide, the Sri Lanka government has appointed its occupying military to teach Sinhala as second language to Tamil school children in Vanni. The Sinhala military personnel went in uniform to schools to report as Sinhala teachers and they claimed that they had permission from the SL education authorities to do so, news sources in Vanni said. The genocidal military teaching Sinhala goes parallel to the teaching of Theravada Buddhism to Tamils. The Sinhala military also aims to be in direct touch with the Tamil school children, the news sources further said. Already there were strict instructions to schools in Vanni that no functions could take place without inviting the occupying military and garlanding them publicly.
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Brian says Aussie FM was with Rajapaksa during his Singapore deportation

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2013, 19:35 GMT]
Sharing with TamilNet more details of his deportation from Singapore on 14 December, 81-year-old Australian human rights activist of Sinhala origin, Dr Brian Seneviratne said that the Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr was in Colombo, meeting Mahinda Rajapaksa, at the time of his deportation. Reminding the Australian Prime Minister that what had happened in Sri Lanka was genocide, and the regime is a set of pathological liars, Brian said: “Mr Carr has enhanced the ability of this murderous regime to commit gross violations of human rights by doing what he has just done in Colombo – saying that Australia will help the Sri Lankan Navy to stop people fleeing from the murderous regime in Sri Lanka.”
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Brian identifies Sri Lanka, Australia as beneficiaries of his Singapore deportation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 December 2012, 12:35 GMT]
Dr Brian Seneviratne, 81-year-old Australian human rights activist of Sinhala origin steadfastly fighting for the rights of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, was deported by Singapore immigration on 14 December, when he came from Australia to go to Malaysia and address closed-door meetings on the push factors of refugees coming from the island via Malaysia and their handling by Australia. In a letter addressed to Australian Prime Minister, Ms Julia Gillard, raising several questions on the modus operandi of his deportation by Singapore defying a State’s obligation to the international rights of any person, Brian identifies the Government of Sri Lanka and the Government of Australia as the ultimate beneficiaries of his deportation.
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Colombo posters wage war against all shades of Tamil nationalism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 December 2012, 09:20 GMT]
Citing the posters that appeared in Colombo and in southern parts of the island last week, a notice in Sinhala addressing ‘intelligent students’ of the Jaffna University, invariably accused all shades of Tamil polity in the island and in the diaspora that are not collaborating with the genocidal regime, as working for the division of the ‘country’. The notice also accused Sinhala students and shades of Sinhala Left in the south showing solidarity with the students of the Jaffna University, as unconsciously becoming a “prey to the interests of the LTTE to divide the country.” An English translation of the notice is produced herewith.
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Colombo punishes Tamil officials with transfer for opposing Sinhala encroachment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 December 2012, 16:47 GMT]
Tamil civil servants, who take legal action against Sri Lankan State and military run Sinhala encroachment of lands belonging to Tamils in the Batticaloa district, are under threat of transfer by the Colombo government, civil sources in Batticaloa said. Recently, the Divisional Secretary of Koa'raippattu South, Mr M. Thavarasa, who filed cases against illegal encroachers in Vadamunai, Oottuch-cheanai and Kallichchai, is to be transferred from January next year by the Colombo government.
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TNPF condemns Sampanthan’s statement on SL military, LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 December 2012, 00:58 GMT]
The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) on Tuesday strongly condemned the SL parliamentary speech made by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan last Friday. Mr. Sampanthan had said that the TNA was not demanding the complete withdrawal of the SL military from the Tamil territory and that the LTTE had had earned its destruction by being a ‘terrorist’ organization not observing human rights and democracy and by engaging in the killing of Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala leaders. The statement coming from the leader of the TNA should be taken as the policy stand of the TNA. Neither the constituent parties of the TNA nor its parliamentary members have so far contradicted the statement, said the TNPF press release, signed by its president Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and secretary, Selvarasa Kajendran.
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EPDP mobilizes protest against Indian trawlers while backing trawlers from South

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2012, 16:54 GMT]
Timed to the visit of the representatives of fishermen societies in Tamil Nadu to Jaffna on Thursday, the SL minister and EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda was allegedly engaged in triggering demonstrations in front of the Consulate General of India in Jaffna, protesting the intrusion of Indian trawlers. According to Jaffna fishermen, the SL minister backs trawlers from the South exploiting Tamil waters. On Thursday, when the EPDP-backed protesters were shouting “Mahalingam come out,” demanding the Indian Consul General to come out and address them, a group of fishermen in Valveddith-thu’rai (VVT) rounded up the SL police station there demanding action against 30 southern trawlers that were operating in the seas off VVT. Another 107 trawlers, backed by Mr. Devandanda were exploiting the seas off Kurunakar, the fishermen complained.
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Genocidal Sri Lanka forbids Kaarthikai festival as it falls on Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 November 2012, 22:41 GMT]
The Heroes Day observed by Eezham Tamils on 27 November to remember their fallen fighters, falls on a full moon day this year, coinciding with the Kaarthikai festival of lights observed by Tamils since ancient times. Sri Lanka that has made a practice of banning even routine religious observations in the temples of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils on the Heroes Day, dares this year to forbid the Kaarthikai festival observations too. Occupying Sri Lanka’s practice of banning temple rituals, including toll of bells on the Heroes Day, started first in Nov 2009, while New Delhi’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna was visiting Jaffna. New Zealand Tamils appeal to the UN on the continued cultural genocide of their kith and kin in the island.
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Demographic genocide aimed in SL military surveying Batticaloa border villages

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2012, 08:59 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of Colombo, stationed in more than 10 military bases along the villages in Batticaloa district in the area bordering Polannaruwa district, has enforced Eezham Tamils to register their households and their lands. The enforced registration is carried out in a military operation style, is claimed to be under the so-called ‘Eastern Province Development Plan’ of the Mahaweli Development Ministry. The intention is to appropriate excess lands to be distributed among ‘landless’ people, a SL military intelligence officer involved in the project said when confronted by the villagers. The enforced registration is being carried out without involving the SL Government Agent of Batticaloa district and the divisional officers under him.
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‘UN internal report meaningless without action, long term solution needed’: Tamil activist

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2012, 21:01 GMT]
Criticizing the UN for its deliberate silence which “protected the Sri Lankan state from international criticism and allowed it to strategically conduct a genocidal campaign under the guise of a “war on terror””, Dr. Sam Pari, an Eezham Tamil activist with the ATC, argues in news site Crickey.com that the recently released internal review report of the UN on Sri Lanka is meaningless to the Eezham Tamils without concrete steps in action. Giving an outline of different ways in which the Sri Lankan state is conducting genocide of the Eezham Tamils, she writes “The Sri Lankan regime’s strategy of eradicating the Tamil people through various avenues is only being abetted by the super powers’ silence. What is required is a longer term solution that deals with the root cause — an oppressive force, the racist Sri Lankan regime, intent on erasing the identity of a people, the Tamils.”
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Colombo disregards school development in North-East: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2012, 15:42 GMT]
The Colombo government has been systematically neglecting the development of Tamil schools in the North and East provinces and the trend has been evident in the proposed 2012 budget proposals now being debated in the Sri Lankan parliament, says Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian P. Selvaraja.
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Honest intellectual discourse missing in Tamil Nadu: Thirumurugan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2012, 08:38 GMT]
Lack of honest intellectual discussion in Tamil Nadu is the reason why the Tamil Eezham cause has not been taken up for intense intellectual discussion at a larger All-India level, said Thirumurugan Gandhi, coordinator of May 17 civil society movement of TamilNadu in an interview to TamilNet earlier this month. Such intellectual discourses usually dominated by Marxist Communists and Brahmanistic sections in Tamil Nadu failed the Eezham Tamils. But the biased sections that theoretically opposed Tamil Eezham, opposed the LTTE, pushed back the cause and contributed favourably to the Sri Lankan state now find themselves sidelined in Tamil Nadu due to civil society awakening, Thirumurugan said, adding an appreciating note on the support of Muslim civil society in Tamil Nadu.
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Eyewitnesses to Kumaarapuram massacre summoned to Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2012, 20:16 GMT]
Witnesses to February 1996 brutal massacre of 24 Tamils by the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Kumarapuram vilage in Trincomalee, have been sent summons to appear on Monday in Anuradhapura High Court situated in predominantly Sinhala district, more than 16 years after the genocidal massacre. “This gang rape and massacre of innocent civilians, including children and women, forms part of a system evidence of Genocide against Eezham Tamils,” a lawyer from Trincomalee told TamilNet commenting “justice delayed is justice denied.” Many of the witnesses are poor labourers who do not know Sinhala. The witnesses have also been threatened by the SL military not to appear in the Courts, the sources further said.
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