Kooniththeevu arrests illegal without Gazette notification: lawyer

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 January 2018, 22:13 GMT]
Attorney-at-Law Arumukam Jegasothy from Trincomalee, one of the lawyers who appeared on behalf of the three Tamil trustees of the temple of Maththa’la-malai Murukan temple, said without a pre-existing Gazette notification on archaeological reserve at the time of the dispute and police action, the trustees could not be held in detention. The Sinhala lawyer who represented the prosecutor didn’t document the existence of a Gazette notification at Moothoor Magistrate’s court last time. Any new move to file a such notification cannot be used to justify the arrests and that the three trustees would be released by next time when the prosecutor fails to prove the pre-existence of such a Gazette notification.
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US Pacific Command complicit in Colombo’s structural genocide against Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2017, 21:36 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala navy’s Vidura training base is situated in Champoor in the Trincomalee district of the Eastern Province. The Sinhala navy has seized 3,200 acres of lands for the naval training base. The US Pacific Command is directly involved in upgrading the SL Navy with a marine force through its training sessions in Trincomalee. SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has upgraded the Sinhala militarisation through upgrading the 178 acres of SL Naval base into 3,200 acres of modern training base of the occupying SL Navy which is being groomed by the US Pacific Command through military-to-military training in Trincomalee. Now, the Sinhala navy is chasing for more lands in Champoor, the Rural Development Society representatives in Champoor said vowing to protest against the US Embassy in Colombo unless their demands were met by the Colombo government.
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Appointing PSC to look into uprooted Tamils’ land issue, another deception

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 November 2017, 15:08 GMT]
As the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) was preparing itself to conduct a detailed survey of uprooted people, who have lost their properties to SL military occupation in the Northern Province, the Rajapaksa loyalists (Joint Opposition) in the SL Parliament have come up with a deceptive proposal to appoint an SL Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to look into the land issue of the uprooted people in the North. The ruling SL regime also seems to back proposal of the PSC. The Sinhala parties are working on the same line when they want to deceive the Tamils and postpone release of lands further, said the representatives of uprooted people from Vasaavi'laan in Jaffna, who think the PSC move would only end up justifying Sinhala military occupation in the name of so-called national security.
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Jaffna students demand US and UN agenda-setters to declare PTA detainees as political prisoners

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2017, 23:44 GMT]
More than 1,000 Tamil students from across the faculties of Jaffna University as well as the students from the College of Education, Jaffna Technical College and High Tech institute took to the streets in Jaffna on Tuesday demanding the main intervening actors of the International Establishment to recognise the Tamil prisoners detained under the so-called Prevention of Terrorism Act as Political Prisoners. They handed over open and urgent appeals addressed to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the President of UNHRC and to the US Permanent Mission for UN in Geneva, which has been behind the drafting of the ‘consensus’ resolution with the SL State in Geneva Human Rights Council in 2015 and with postponing a final evaluation by two more years in 2017. The student leaders handed over the appeals through the UN Residential Office in Jaffna and the American Corner in the city.
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Tamil-speaking aborigines face existential threat in Moothoor, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2017, 22:27 GMT]
The officials of the Wildlife Department of occupying Colombo have threatened Tamil-speaking aborigines, who had resettled in their traditional lands in Chantha'na-veddai located near Kal-malai in Moothhoor DS Division of Trincomalee district, to vacate their huts. The aborigines who have been residing in the area for centuries were provided with documents proving their ownership to lands as far back as 1972. During the times of war, they were uprooted from Chantha'na-veddai. After 2009, the people resettled back and have constructed huts. Their livelihood is cultivating finger millet and jowar since 2009. Sinhala Wildlife Department officials are now claiming the area as coming under their domain and have instructed the Tamil aborigines to vacate the lands, civil sources in Trincomalee said.
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Student struggle should address external agenda-setters

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2017, 23:26 GMT]
The ITAK hierarchy of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is led by Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran, has been unconditionally supporting the budget of genocidal Sri Lanka for the past two years. It is the agenda behind the external powers and global financial outfits such as the World Bank, which directs the collaborating polity of the TNA. The ITAK collaborators receive their instructions from the soft-power players of the US Bandwagon. India is also part of it. The ITAK collaborators have succumbed to the external agenda to a Quisling level. They are not even prepared to negotiate with the agent State in Colombo, said student political observers at the University of Jaffna who witnessed the interactions between the student leaders and the ITAK in the discourse of addressing the struggle of Tamil political prisoners.
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Colombo seizes more lands for Sinhala colonisation in Trincomalee through engineering Tamil-Muslim divide in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2017, 21:55 GMT]
The authorities of occupying Colombo are seizing the lands of uprooted Tamils in Uppaa'ru, a GS area in Ki'n'niyaa division located between the East port city of Trincomalee and Moothoor division. There were at least 60 Tamil families and 8 Tamil-speaking Muslim families living in Uppaa'ru village before their displacement during the times of war. The occupying Sri Lanka Army was behind driving the people out from their villages in the late 1990s during the regime of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge. The SL military was sustaining around 10 Sinhala colonisers in a nearby locality known as Gengasasara-thoaddam. Now, setting encroaching Muslims against uprooted Tamils, the SL authorities are trying to ‘legally’ seize the lands that belonged to Tamils.
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Unitary constitution imposing choice irrelevant to fundamentals needs rejection by Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 October 2017, 21:46 GMT]
Imposing conditions on Eezham Tamils to denounce their sovereignty is denial of their right to self-determination. The Eezham Tamils are a distinct nation with sovereignty-based claim to exercise their right to Self-Determination. A framework for political solution should therefore recognise the nationhood of Eezham Tamils, their geographically contiguous homeland and their inalienable right of self-determination. The interim report of the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly [of genocidal Sri Lanka] has not only denied the right of self-determination, but it also attempts to force upon Tamils the unitary system with a ‘Sri Lankan’ identity, both of which have been historically and democratically denounced by Tamils. Therefore Eezham Tamils should not hesitate to reject it, says Jaffna-based Tamil political analyst S.A. Jothilingam in an exclusive interview to TamilNet.
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Eastern Provincial Land authority discriminates Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2017, 23:45 GMT]
The Department of Land Administration in the Eastern Province is ethnically biased against the Tamil-speaking people of the district, Tamil civil officials at the District Secretariat said. Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians such as K Thuraratnasingham are very well aware of the ethnic discrimination, but they have been unable to bring any change due to the collaborationist agenda of Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan, the officials said. The discrimination has escalated in recent times and the Sinhala officials are systematically ignoring the requests coming from the Divisional Secretaries of the Tamil-speaking divisions in the district. Requests for convening Land Kachcheri are also being neglected to escape resolving the burning issues of uprooted Tamil people.
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Tamil protesters confront Maithiripala Sirisena in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 October 2017, 07:34 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who was visiting Jaffna Hindu College amidst black flag protest by Tamil activists and politicians, was trying to score a point with his Jaffna visit and ‘engagement’ with the Tamil protesters. Talking briefly to protesters wavering black flags against him, he was trying to defend his position by saying he was planning to have an internal meeting within his government before arriving at a decision regarding the demands put forward by the hunger striking Tamil political prisoners. The protesters categorically refused to buy his argument, demanded immediate decision from him as he is vested with executive powers to release the prisoners. The protesters vowed to step up the protest even further if he failed to act within short time as the health situation of the protesting hunger strikers has worsened on the 20th day of their fast-unto-death campaign.
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North at standstill, Sampanthan not to accompany Sirisena to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 October 2017, 17:40 GMT]
The five districts of the entire northern province stood at complete standstill on Friday heeding the joint call from 20 grassroots movements and civil groups to pass a strong message to the Colombo regime and its collaborators. As the SL State has failed to honour the demands of the hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners, the organisers of the protest resolved on Friday to step up the protest by wavering black flags against the visiting SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is scheduled to visit Jaffna Hindu College as the chief guest in the Tamil Language Day, jointly organised by SL Education Ministry and the Education Ministry of the Northern Provincial Council. ITAK Leader R. Sampanthan, scheduled to take part as ‘special guest’ has cancelled his visit to Jaffna. In the meantime, SL Police is attempting to secure interim order against the protest on Saturday.
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EPRLF opposes 20A to SL Constitution, ITAK duo wrongs again says Premachandran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 September 2017, 16:39 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has completely failed to conduct an internal democratic discussion on the consequences of the so-called 20th Amendment and the latest amendments to the 20th Amendment, said EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran at a press conference held in Jaffna on Tuesday. Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan, who has started to lament the situation of the current regime that has failed to deliver justice and power sharing, has not publicly articulated his position. The ITAK has even failed to address the Tamil media. Meanwhile, the ITAK councillors in the Eastern Province have been tricked to vote in favour of the amendment, he said. In the meantime, M.A. Sumanthiran is staging selective campaigns and invitees-only briefings advocating for the amended 20A.
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New Delhi suppressing memorialisation of VVT massacre wants to renovate forgotten IPKF tomb

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 August 2017, 20:30 GMT]
The New Delhi Establishment, repeatedly losing in the race for strategic influence over the island since the times of Jawaharlal Nehru due to its botched Colombo-centric approach, has only managed to earn the ire of the Eezham Tamils during the times of war and after. The Consul General of India in Jaffna Mr A Natarajan has recently received flaks from Tamils for attempting iron fist control on journalists and newspapers in Jaffna. The CGI was not only trying to censor the coverage of a protest that demanded release of Tamil Nadu activist Thirumurugan Gandhi in June, but it was also suppressing the 28th annual remembrance of the Valvaddiththu’rai massacre by the IPKF. Now, the CGI wants to renovate a tomb stone of an IPKF soldier, which has been forgotten for three decades. It is situated 400 meters close to the obliterated Tamil Eelam Heroes Cemetery of thousands of Tamils in Koappaay.
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Continuous street protest brings lung disease, trauma to Keappaa-pulavu families

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 July 2017, 23:28 GMT]
138 uprooted Eezham Tamil families from Keappaa-pulavu, situated west of Nanthik-kadal lagoon in Mullaiththeevu, have been on the street 24 hours a day for more than 5 months waging a continuous protest demanding their lands seized by the occupying SL military to be released for their resettlement. There were only attempts to contain their struggle. None of the promises have been fulfilled, the families told TamilNet in utter frustration. Most of them have become ill due to the dust from the road primarily used by the occupying military. Suffering from trauma, the families have also witnessed exploitation of their resources by the Sinhala military corporatism. 50-year-old Arumugam Velauthapillai said the occupying military, despite getting millions of rupees from Swaminathan's ministry to find alternative lands for itself, has not been prepared to release original lands, he said.
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Muslims next target of demographic, structural genocide in northern Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 July 2017, 11:10 GMT]
After waging physical, economic and demographic genocide against the Eezham Tamil villages surrounding the Kokku’laay lagoon for decades, genocidal Colombo has intensified a systematic demographic genocide against Tamil-speaking Muslims of ilmenite-rich Pulmoaddai (புல்மோட்டை/Pulmōṭṭai/Pulmoddai) since 2010, say Muslim activists who have been confronting the occupation in all directions. In a recent in-depth interview to TamilNet, former Village Officer (GS) Abdul Salam narrates how the land grab has been systematically stepped up and jointly waged by SL ministries, departments, Sinhala Army, Navy, STF commandos, Buddhist monks, ‘home guards’ paramilitary and the encroachers from bordering divisions of Trincomalee and Anurahapura since 2010. The occupation is relentlessly crushing the Tamil-speaking Muslims regardless of the regime change and change of the guard in Colombo.
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Understanding ‘Quisling politics’ and facing it with ‘Navaratnam School of Thought’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 July 2017, 23:31 GMT]
The internal and external proponents of unitary constitution of genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’ want to remove Justice C.V. Wigneswaran from the position of Chief Minister in the NPC at whatever price before selling the Singapore principle-based SL Constitution to Eezham Tamils. The proponents want to preserve the unitary character of SL State. This means preserving the genocidal character of the SL State as far as Eezham Tamils are concerned. All the previous constitutions in the island have been rejected by Tamils. Knowing the Tamil discourse of the past very well, the external powers, particularly the West, is currently promoting ‘Quisling politics’ among Tamils. It is therefore vital to grasp the synthesis of the Quisling politics and regain the strength to address it through the approach embraced by enlightened leaders of Eezham Tamils in the past.
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Quisling politics of ITAK seeks to contain protests against SL military land grab

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 June 2017, 22:11 GMT]
Politicians of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) are engaged in a new round of exercises in containing the protests of uprooted people by arranging a meeting between Ruwan Wijewardene, the SL Deputy Minister of Defence and the protesting people of Ira’naitheevu in Ki’linohchci on Wednesday. In the meeting, Mr Wijewardene went on record promising to take action within 2 weeks. What happened to the promised actions of resettling people of Mu’l’lik-ku’lam, who were given a similar 2-weeks promise by SL Naval Commander two months ago, asked the protesting families. In the meantime, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena avoided to meet the protesting families of Keappaa-pulavu, who staged a protest on Tuesday outside the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo with the support of solidarity groups in South.
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Colombo regime, West-funded CEPA, ITAK minister behind causing disunity in NPC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 June 2017, 21:04 GMT]
There has been a systematic move by Colombo regime, particularly its foreign ministry, health ministry and the NGO outfits such as the Center for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), causing a division within the NPC by making its Health Minister Dr P. Sathiyalingam to collaborate along a Colombo-centric line of engineering so-called ‘development’, said Vinthan Kanagaratnam, an NPC councillor in an interview to TamilNet on Sunday. The move also aimed to divert external assistance to other provinces, particularly the North Central Province. The same move also seeks to involve sections of the Tamil diaspora, he said. NPC Health Minister was operating secretly, circumventing the routines and the democratically constituted NPC mechanisms. ‘Advisors’ appointed by Mr Sathiyalingam to his ministry and sections of the ITAK, are also complicit in the engineering of divisions, Mr Kanagaratnam further said.
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Time is running out for ITAK to re-orientate itself to basic fundamentals of Tamil struggle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2017, 22:30 GMT]
The guarantees and promises given so far by R. Sampanthan on crucial matters such as de-militarisation, resettlement, tracing the enforced disappeared, international investigations and on achieving a federal solution have not been materialised. The Eezham Tamils in the North-East are losing faith on Opposition Leader. Instead, the Tamil people look upon Justice Wigneswaran as their leader, said Suresh Premachandran, the leader of the EPRLF, one of the constituent parties of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Three of the four parties comprising the TNA stand with Wigneswaran. Tamil people have delivered their message to the ITAK through the shutdown and agitations in Jaffna, Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa. There was also much support coming from Eastern province, the former TNA parliamentarian told TamilNet on Saturday after a joint meeting with Justice C.V. Wigneswaran.
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Justice Wigneswaran vows to stay the course despite attempts to oust him

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 June 2017, 23:37 GMT]
NPC Chief Minister Justice Wigneswaran on Thursday said that he was not being deterred from continuing his work and service to the people of Northern Province. His comments came after hundreds of Tamil students gathered outside his office expressing their solidarity with him. “I was a silent observer elsewhere [before being elected as the CM] unconcerned about what was taking place here. I hardly knew that the people had so much of love for me, and expectations from me. Despite my age, it is my duty to reciprocate what they have been showing. Today was an eye-opener with so many people coming over and showing their love. It is my duty to continue to serve the people wherever they are to the best of my ability,” Justice C.V. Wigneswaran said.
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