Resettled Tamils seek empowerment to confront demographic genocide in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2015, 23:12 GMT]
Two decades have elapsed since Eezham Tamils resettled in Va'laththaap-piddi GS division of Ampaa'rai district. After the war ended in the East in 2008, Sinhala settlers from the border villages have accelerated the occupation of fertile agricultural lands of Eezham Tamils at Kanangkaa-veddai near Pazha-ve'li village. A recently established camp of the Sri Lankan military is prohibiting the resettling Tamil landowners from accessing their agricultural lands at Kanangkaa-veddai. In the meantime, the Archaeology department of the genocidal Sri Lankan State has put up border stones surrounding the old Sivan temple of Va'laththaap-piddi. Sinhala settlers who have encroached from border villages have taken over the agricultural lands that belong to Veera-munai Hindu temple. Without political and economic empowerment, the Tamils, already marginalised in Ampaa'rai, risk losing their villages.
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NPC appointed commission commences investigations on fraud

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2015, 19:11 GMT]
A 7-member commission appointed by the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) to investigate the wide scale fraud reported within the last five years, said it has commenced the investigations on Monday. The investigations will target various ministries and departments coming under the purview of the NPC, local government and the public service in the province, according to Deputy Speaker M. Antony Jeganathan, who is the chair of the Commission. There have been widespread allegations of fraud involving the previous SL military governor to the North, who was spearheading the structural genocide through the provincial administration. Some of these fraudulent activities have also involved TNA members including a prominent member in the NPC, the critics in the civil sector in Jaffna said urging the Chief Minister to ensure impartial investigations.
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OISL in acid test over witness submissions on ‘Gota camp’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2015, 21:30 GMT]
The revelations on the so-called Gota camp, a secret incarceration camp run by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Trincomalee, where at least 700 former LTTE members were illegally detained for more than five years, will be an acid test to conclude whether the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) has taken the eyewitness submissions seriously, one of the survivors who got out from the notorious detention just a few days before the regime change told TamilNet on Saturday. The whereabouts of those detained at the undisclosed ‘Gota’ camp also constitute a serious question on the conduct of the ‘new’ regime in South. In the meantime, informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet that the SL military has given a figure of less than 400 former LTTE members as being alive in its custody throughout the island.
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Sinhala colonization continues unabated in pasturelands of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2015, 20:18 GMT]
Sinhala settlers are encroaching into the lands used for grazing of livestock owned by the farmers in Batticaloa. The encroachment is increasing unabated month after month during the 100-day programme of the new regime led by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, Tamil farmers from Periya-maathava'nai in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division told TamilNet on Thursday. The Sinhala settlers target the lands surrounding the water tanks and ponds in the demarcated zones of pastureland. The intruders have slain more than 25 cows that belong to Tamil farmers earlier this year. The Sinhala guards from the SL forest department and the occupying SL military and the police keep fining the cattle owners. “We are targeted by the Sinhala intruders, home guards, military and police because of our ethnicity,” a farmer said describing the illegal fining as extortion.
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Ex-LTTE members cannot be investigated: Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2015, 22:37 GMT]
The Sri Lankan State and the members of the international community, who were complicit in the genocide of Eezham Tamils in the name of waging a war against ‘terrorism’ cannot demand any further investigation on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after subjecting the members of the movement to cold-blooded summary executions at the hands of the Sri Lankan State and its military, Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has said. After the end of war, the SL State punished even those who had left the movement several years ago by subjecting them for the so-called rehabilitation in imprisonment. Even those who had left the LTTE several years ago were subjected to military interrogations and punishment by the State, which claims itself as the victor of the war, he said.
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Colombo's propaganda on releasing lands in former HSZ proves futile

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2015, 21:08 GMT]
After making propaganda announcements naming entire GS divisions as to be released for resettlement in Valikaamam North and Valikaamam East, the Sri Lankan State and its occupying military, once again demonstrated on Saturday that only a small pocket was being released, that too under appalling conditions of militarisation near Chaanthai Junction in Valikaamam North. The people of Thaiyiddi and Mayiliddi who went there to see their lands had to return without gaining access to their lands. The SL military has put up fences around the pockets of lands being released to the public while maintaining the militarisation of the occupied villages with all their military installations being intact, the people of Thaiyiddi said.
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Tamil Nadu activist urges attention of global Tamils on ‘Red Sanders Massacre’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2015, 22:16 GMT]
The poverty-stricken Tamils in the border areas situated between Tamil Nadu State and Andhra Pradesh State in India are being systematically exploited by smuggling rackets run by gangs from two upper echelons that have been running fiefdoms in Andhra Pradesh in the past and that seek to control the political power in the State. The exploited victims are subjected to indefinite imprisonment and massacres deploying the rule of law in India and the police force in the AP, as it has been exposed in the recent massacre of 20 daily-wage workers on 07 April. The global Tamil community has a moral bound duty to protest against the exploitation as the crime involves the global markets in Eastern Asia, says writer, journalist and Tamil activist Aazhi Senthilnathan in an interview to TamilNet on Saturday.
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Sirisena's Commission ‘demonstrates’ deceptive investigations in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2015, 23:02 GMT]
A Sri Lankan military intelligence officer was present inside the hearing hall at Kalmunai in the Eastern Province when the SL Presidential Commission on Missing Persons held its hearings, which were chaired by Mr Maxwell Parakrama Paranagama, said Selvarajah Kanesh, the president of the organisation representing the families of the abducted and missing persons in Ampaa'rai district in an interview to TamilNet on Tuesday. In the meantime, Village officer (GS) in Aalaiyadi-vempu was deployed by the SL authorities to instruct the victims to appear in front of the Commission if they wanted to receive 100,000 SL rupees in return for accepting death certificates of the persons registered as missing following their appearance in front of the Commission. A large number of the victims have boycotted the sittings.
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Money allocated to prevent attacks by wild elephants didn't reach Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2015, 19:34 GMT]
At least 27 people have been slain by wild elephants that have been brought from South into the jungles in Batticaloa district by Colombo government's Department of Wildlife Conservation after the entire district has been brought under the SL military control, according to District Secretariat sources. In the meantime, money allocated for protective measures against the wild elephants by the SL Economic Development Ministry of the previous regime, has not reached the district, TNA parliamentarian P. Selvarasa has complained to the SL Government Agent in Batticaloa.
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Colombo stages ‘deceptive resettlement’ in isolated pockets within military zone

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2015, 23:38 GMT]
The uprooted people from Valikaamam North, who were disappointed to see that their residential lands not released as promised by the Colombo regime, gathered on Friday at Vasaavi'laan MMV to discuss the next course of action. The civic representatives from Valikaamam North complained that the SL military wants to maintain the former High Security Zone as Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) while selectively allowing Tamil civilians into isolated pockets surrounded by military cantonments and business establishments run by the SL military within the SMZ. In the meantime, Non Governmental Organizations have also conveyed their reservation to the SL Government Agent in Jaffna in sending their employees into these pockets, informed civil sources at the District Secretariat of Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Colombo manipulates land figures in Champoor to retain lands

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2015, 11:02 GMT]
Champoor region in Trincomalee district has seen displacement since 1990. But, Colombo’s officials have been instructed to use the voter’s registry of 2005 in deciding those ‘eligible’ for resettlement in Champoor. Several families were uprooted within the 15 years. Further, the people demanding resettlement are asked to hand over ownership documents. Many families have lost their documents during the times of the war due to displacements. The uprooted people who are able to document their ownership to lands within the occupied ‘Economic’ zone will receive alternative lands elsewhere is the position of the SL Governor in the East. Through such manipulations, the figures of lands belonging to people within the occupied ‘Special Economic Zone’ have been manipulated down to 138 acres, the people complain.
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UNP wants to continue geopolitical occupation of Champoor

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2015, 23:46 GMT]
Colombo's Governor to the Eastern Province, Austin Fernando, who was the SL Defence Secretary under the UNP government during the Norwegian mediated peace process, is now defending Colombo's occupation of the so-called ‘Economic’ zone in Champoor as demarcated by the Rajapaksa regime, informed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) circles in the East told TamilNet on Tuesday. Talks between the TNA and the SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe on resettling civilians in Champoor failed to produce any positive outcome. In the meantime, Mr Fernando is opposed to release the lands from the occupied ‘economic’ zone. The uprooted Tamils are being told to expect alternative lands from the SL military occupied zone, civil sources in Trincomalee said. In the meantime, a geo-political deal is being worked out involving a foreign power, informed sources told TamilNet.
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TNA, TNPF politicians address press conference in Geneva

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2015, 22:02 GMT]
Northern provincial councillors Ananthy Sasitharan, M.K. Shivajilingam and TNPF Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam addressed the press at the Geneva Press Club on Tuesday, briefing the audience on the various aspects of the structural genocide targeting the Eezham Tamil nation, which continued unabated despite the internationally orchestrated ‘regime change’ hatching Maithriplala Sirisena as the SL president. The Tamil politicians from the homeland also said that the procrastination in delivering justice to Tamils on the part of the international community in the deferral of the OISL report only emboldened the Sri Lankan State in its crimes against Tamils. Human rights activist and one of the judges in the People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka, Maung Zarini also addressed the audience together with Tamil diaspora activists Sivakami Rajamanoharan from the UK and R Sri Ranjan from Canada.
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New regime silently steps up military land grab in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2015, 09:01 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has again started to seize private lands outside the so-called High Security Zone (HSZ) in the North. While releasing some of the lands in the HSZ back to people in the North, the SL military is silently seizing lands outside the HSZ to maintain and expand its cantonments in the country of Eezham Tamils. Informed sources from the district secretariats of Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet Wednesday that the military seizure of lands has been stepped up during the past 3 weeks at more than 20 localities in Vanni. Under the Rajapaksa regime, the SL officials were open about the military seizure of lands. But, now the process is almost invisible. Surveying officers are also brought from Colombo and legal notices are not issued in order to avoid public protests.
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Premachandran challenges Colombo on ‘Gota’ detention camp in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2015, 08:42 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran on Monday said he was in possession of evidences to prove that there existed a notorious detention camp at the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) base in Trincomalee with more than 700 Tamil detainees and 35 families. “We can provide such evidences only if the witnesses could be protected,” Mr Premachandran said. After the TNA MP had raised the issue in the Sri Lankan Parliament in February, the new regime in Colombo promised to come up with answers. Now, the SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe (UNP) has responded citing the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy as saying that there was no such detention camp. The Sri Lankan Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe (UNP) has also gone on record denying the accusation of the so-called Gotabhaya camp.
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Tamil protest at Geneva demands UN investigations on Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 March 2015, 22:17 GMT]
More than 4,000 Diaspora Tamils across Europe gathered at Palais des Nations, in front of the United Nations office in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday demanding international investigations on Tamil genocide and UN monitored plebiscite on Tamil Eelam. Activists from different solidarity groups participated in the protest, which received attention from various media organisations. The protest also witnessed active participation of Eezham Tamils recently exiled from their homeland and a new group of second generation activists from Switzerland.
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Jaffna voices grief at Indian PM's cosmetic visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2015, 13:19 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to North ended up as a ceremonial tour on Saturday. The uprooted people, who were promised resettlement, just one day ahead of his visit to Jaffna, complained that the occupying Sri Lankan military was robbing even the remaining roofs of their houses till the last minute. The families of the victims of enforced disappearances, who marched from Jaffna Bus Stand to the office of the Consulate General of India at Nalloor, were disappointed to learn that Mr Modi was visiting the North-East after advising the TNA Parliamentary Group in Colombo to ‘re-strategize’ its approach and maintain ‘patience’ with regards to what it expects from the new regime in Colombo. They urged the Indian PM to exert pressure on Colombo to act without further delay.
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New Delhi should stop looking at Eezham Tamils through Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2015, 23:54 GMT]
The very fact that no Indian Prime Minister before Mr Modi hitherto cared to visit Jaffna shows the long-offensive foreign policy attitude of New Delhi towards the nation of Eezham Tamils, located at the closest proximity to India. This should be read along with another foreign policy fact that it was in the case of Eezham Tamils India for the first time in its history was involved in the crime of genocide outside of its country. Both stemmed from an adamantly practised policy of New Delhi viewing Eezham Tamils through the prism of ‘Sri Lanka’ and the establishment in Colombo. Whether China or the USA, or both – whatever may be the ultimate foreign policy concern of India, the times are such that New Delhi should learn to approach Eezham Tamils as a nation of its own right.
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Indian consulate attempts to prevent civil mobilisation during Modi visit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 2015, 23:32 GMT]
The officials at the office of the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Jaffna have been urging the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, provincial councillors and civic members not to promote any peaceful rally during the visit by the Indian Prime Minister to North. The CGI officials in collaboration with a section of Sri Lankan officials have also instructed the government officials to suppress public mobilisation. A representative of War-affected people's group, Mr V. Sahathevan, who is waging a three-day fasting in front of the Public Library of Jaffna was insulted on Thursday as the Municipal Council officers removed his banner and his temporary hut. However, a section of the public organisations in Jaffna have announced a peaceful rally on Saturday with 10 demands addressed to the visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Tamils demonstrate against Sirisena's UK visit

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 March 2015, 07:07 GMT]
Around 1,000 Tamils from across the UK gathered in London to demonstrate against the visit of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday. The protest, which was held outside Westminster Abbey and the Commonwealth Head Office at Marlborough House, took place as Sirisena joined the British Queen and others at the Annual Commonwealth Day evening reception. The demonstration saw a large participation of youth activists who rejected the LLRC and demanded an independent international investigation into the genocide of Eezham Tamils.
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