Book of veteran Eezham Tamil writer published in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 June 2012, 20:53 GMT]
A collection of writings on the antiquity and traditions of Eezham Tamils written by Mayilangkoodaloor P. Nadarajan was launched at I’nuvil in Jaffna on last Sunday. 76-year-old Mr. Nadarajan has spent a lifetime in Eezham Tamil studies, editing old texts and in bringing out valuable publications. He is regarded as a symbol of selfless service to Tamil studies, benefitting school children to university academics. Generations of writers, researchers and publishers were benefitted by his editing skills in Tamil.
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Gotabhaya plans psy-ops newspaper in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 23:12 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's defence establishment led-by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa plans to start a daily newspaper with the name ‘Thamizh Naatham’ in Jaffna by appropriating the building and assets of the former daily Namathu Eezhanaadu. The move for the psy-ops war through a new newspaper directly run by the SL military establishment comes in, because of the failure of the EPDP's Thinamurasu and the Jaffna edition of Thinakaran, run by SL government-controlled Lake House of Colombo in winning the hearts of the masses in the country of Eezham Tamils to the satisfaction of the occupiers, informed sources in Jaffna said. In the late 1980s, the occupying IPKF tried a similar move by running a newspaper ‘Viduthalai’ with the backing of the EPRLF.
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Sinhala militarisation expanded in Jaffna contrary to claims: Jaffna Paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2012, 23:30 GMT]
Contrary to news reports released by Colombo that it has drastically reduced the number of troops in the North, the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna peninsula has been stepping up land grab for military purposes in recent days even outside of the so-called High Security Zone and former Forward Defence Lines in the Jaffna peninsula. Uthayan Tamil daily, published in Jaffna, on Thursday broke a front-page story that SL military has begun to appropriate 61 acres of land in the peninsula from the civic bodies and private owners in three divisions. After already grabbing thousands of acres of land, the genocidal SL military has now set afoot to appropriate 35 acres in Thellippazhai division, 24 acres in Jaffna division and 2 acres in Nalloor division of the peninsula.
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Sri Lanka orientates education to conform structural genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2012, 18:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s ‘terrorism’ professor Rohan Gunaratna was the foremost of the six “prominent professionals in the education field” cited by Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute in Colombo, as lecturing in a ‘National Conference on the Role of Education in Reconciliation’ hosted by the institute last Tuesday. The professor, lecturing on the “immense success” of Sri Lanka ‘rehabilitating’ ex-LTTE combatants despite their ‘past engagement in the killings in the North and East and outside,’ stressed on the need of schools becoming “multi-ethnic” in the island, shedding ethnic and religious segregations. This means, there can be no more schools for Tamils, like that they can’t have a territory for them, and Tamil and Muslim children will eventually be ‘minorities’ subjugated in the Sinhala-Buddhist schools of the island, commented an educationalist in Jaffna.
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HR organisations urged to attend plight of ex-militants needing asylum

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2012, 05:55 GMT]
While Amnesty International and other international organisations have started to look at widespread and systematic mistreatment of detained former LTTE combatants in the hands of genocidal Sri Lanka, the organisations should also attend to the way some countries have enacted laws to create conditions of detention to asylum-seeking former Tamil militants, deport them or detain them in constant fear of deportation, and at the same time encourage and assist the handling of the Tamil militants by the genocidal state, urged Tamil civil activists in the island. In the context of the island, the human rights question and rehabilitation of all ex-militants could ultimately be handled with satisfaction and dignity, only when the Eezham Tamils are restored with their sovereignty, the activists further said.
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Military officials of Iran, Russia, Bangladesh visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2012, 20:05 GMT]
In a show of solidarity to genocidal Sri Lanka, on the eve of UNHRC sessions in Geneva, military officials of Iran, Russia and Bangladesh visited Jaffna exclusively for meeting the occupying military of Sri Lanka in the peninsula, on Tuesday and Wednesday, news sources in Jaffna said. The visiting military delegates didn't meet the public, but were taken to showcase the ‘rehabilitation’ of ex-LTTE cadres and to see the Nalloor temple and the Buddhist Naga Vihara at Nayinaa-theevu. On 05 February, SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, secretly inaugurated China-involved power generation project along the northern coast of Jaffna. The inauguration completely hushed to the knowledge of media, took place in a SL naval base at Maathakal, near the KKS harbour.
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Book documents pre-colonial Tamil connections of New Zealand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 January 2012, 00:27 GMT]
“Tamil Imprints in New Zealand” by 87-year-old Eezham Tamil author A.T. Arumugam, now living in New Zealand, re-documents and discusses in detail a bronze bell inscribed in Tamil in c. 14-15 century writing that was in the possession of the native Maori people of New Zealand. Originally written in 2007 in Tamil, the book has been translated into English and will be released shortly in Wellington. The publication is sure to give a sense of pride and belongingness, and would contribute to integration with identity for the Tamils of New Zealand today, commented a social worker. Meanwhile, reviewing the book, V. Sivasupramaniam, who also contributed to the translation says, “This book of fifty-two pages could provide a good incentive for historians and researchers to go further deep into the migratory pattern of this multi-cultural country.”
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Maldives defence minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 October 2011, 05:04 GMT]
Maldivian Defence Minister, Thalhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaanu, visited Sri Lanka’s occupying Army in the country of Eezham Tamils in Jaffna on Wednesday. His visit follows Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed’s unhindered support to genocidal Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa in shielding the latter from international war crimes investigation. The ‘hundred per cent Islamic country’ Maldives in recent times has entered into a number of agreements with Israel, the secret protocols of which are yet to be known to the public. However, the new friendship and the lease of one of the islands to Israel for ‘agricultural development’ are much talked about in Maldives. The support of US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake to Nasheed’s Maldives in the international organisations is not without reason, political observers say.
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SL 'grease devils’ in Jaffna target uprooted Vanni families

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 September 2011, 06:52 GMT]
While news reports from the East earlier this week said that the Sri Lanka Army in Batticaloa has been harassing the families of former LTTE members, including those who had left the movement 20 years ago, reports from different areas in the Jaffna peninsula indicate that the SL military operated ‘grease devils’ and ‘abduction units’ in the peninsula have been increasingly targeting uprooted families from Vanni, who have settled themselves in the Jaffna peninsula after the Vanni war. Amidst the tension and chaos created by ‘grease devils’, reports of children being abducted are on the increase, civil activists in the peninsula said.
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Sri Lanka Grease Devils scapegoat mental patients

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 September 2011, 05:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s occupying military in Jaffna that has now become Sri Lanka Grease Devils commits a despicably inhuman crime by forcibly bringing in mental patients warded in Thellippazhai mental hospital to take part in its ‘grease devil’ attacks, residents in Vasaavi’laan said. In one such ‘mission,’ the ‘grease devil’ attackers who went to the nearby Kuddiyappulam locality of Vasaavi’laan village created a situation of getting caught by the public, but ran away after purposefully leaving behind a 24-year-old Tamil mental patient, Mr. Jeyakanthan in the hands of the public. Enquiries by the residents revealed that Mr. Jeyakumar who had been warded in the mental hospital was brought in by the occupying military. The two grease devils that came with him ran away.
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SL government servants in Jaffna complain political exploitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 July 2011, 12:59 GMT]
Tamil public servants working under Rajapaksa Administration occupying the Tamil country, now openly complain that they are exploited in Colombo’s electioneering. The occupying government forces them to do election campaign, the civil officers accuse. Colombo particularly pressurises them to claim the development work undertaken by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the UN Agencies, as those of the achievements of the Rajapaksa government, the civil officers said. In this regard, they are forced to use public funds to send ads to local newspapers, they further said. Local newspapers said that everyday they receive around 10 such ads, but many of the newspapers shun publishing the ads fearing public backlash.
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SLA commanders of the assault could be identified: TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 June 2011, 09:44 GMT]
Convening a press conference at the Martin Road office on Friday, to brief about the blatant attack on a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) meeting at A’laveddi by the Sri Lanka Army on Thursday, the TNA members said that it was a calculated demonstration by the occupying Army to tell the Tamils of the north and east of the island that they are under military rule. Two of the commanders who led the attack could be identified, said TNA parliamentarian Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran. TNA would seek legal action and would hereafter go for house-to-house campaign, the parliamentarians said. The realities of the military rule by a genocidal Army prevent even the TNA holding public meetings in future, political observers in Jaffna said.
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SL Army brutally attacks public meeting of politicians, journalists in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2011, 16:34 GMT]
In what is seen as retaliation for Channel 4 broadcast Tuesday, the genocidal SL Army occupying Jaffna brutally attacked TNA parliamentarians, journalists and public in Jaffna on Thursday, causing injuries to an unspecified number of people, according to initial reports. The blatant attack by SL Army in uniform took place when the TNA politicians held a meeting at A’laveddi in Jaffna, inaugurating their political campaign for the forthcoming civic elections. Tension prevailed as SL Army was deployed in the area and the public that came for the meeting sought refuge in the nearby houses. “British diplomats satisfied with Army’s role in Jaffna,” said a website of the occupying Army on Tuesday, after the visit of the Deputy High Commissioner of UK, announcing ‘reintegration’ of ex-LTTE combatants in detention through the occupying Army.
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UK routeing ex-LTTE ‘reintegration’ through SL Army raises controversy in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 June 2011, 22:06 GMT]
Announcing a donation of 5,00,000 pound sterling (90 million SL rupees), and entirely accompanied by the occupying Sri Lanka Army, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Colombo, Mark Gooding, visited a detention camp run for ‘reintegration’ of ex-LTTE combatants by the SL military at the High Security Zone part of Thellippazhai in Valikaamam North, Jaffna, on Monday. The British government policy of accepting a genocidal military accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as competent authority for the ‘reintegration’ of the ex-LTTE combatants, and involving the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) of questionable local credibility in the process, raises controversy in Jaffna.
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26 Villages continue as HSZ in Valikaamam alone

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 00:13 GMT]
While visiting SL presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa claimed in Jaffna on Monday that there is noting called ‘High Security Zone’ (HSZ) and that the whole island is a ‘Peace Zone’, 26 villages in the Valikaamam HSZ alone are occupied by Sri Lankan military, uprooting 43,700 people of 17,108 families for more than two decades now. The number is actually more, and could go upto 70,000, if refugees to foreign countries are included, welfare societies in Jaffna said. Considering, their location and the intentions of the occupying military, the people of these villages are afraid that they will never see their homes back. The excuse of Colombo is that it would take 8 more years for de-mining these villages.
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Human skeletons found in ex SL military camp in Mallaakam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2011, 22:58 GMT]
Following Judicial Medial Officer in Colombo confirming that the bone-remains recently found in the Mallkaakam Court complex in Jaffna belonged to human beings, further search was conducted Thursday in the dilapidated Court complex, which served as a SL military camp since 1996. Sri Lanka Police earlier claimed that the skulls found in a ruined well of the complex belonged to animals.
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India, SLA, have occupation blueprint for northern coast of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 08:57 GMT]
By maintaining silence, and covertly working against war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka, India bargained Colombo’s cabinet approval for its hold on the KKS harbour of Eezham Tamils, political observers in Jaffna said. The SL cabinet has approved a proposal by Rajapaksa to develop KKS harbour with Indian aid and a MoU is to be signed soon with Indian government, Deccan Herald reported Thursday. Meanwhile, SL Army physically being inducted in building blocks for a reputed school in the area sets dangerous precedence for prolonged military rule over Eezham Tamils by the occupying Sinhala Army, and shows long-term occupation interests of the military in that particular region, political observers in Jaffna further said.
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Resettled families in Valikaamam North lack infrastructure facilities

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 March 2011, 10:23 GMT]
Unless infrastructure facilities are made available to the people, the resettlement could take place only at snail’s pace in Jaffna peninsula, Thellippazhai Divisional Secretary S.Muralitharan responded to reporters who questioned him on the restrictions prevailing there. Currently, the occupying Sri Lankan military is limiting the freedom of movement of civilians to their native villages by keeping the access roads to resettlement areas closed most of the time and is only allowing them to use the roads for few days in a week.
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Wahalkada

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2011, 00:13 GMT]
The outer entrance
The entrance side
The entrance part
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Japan helps renovate irrigation tanks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2010, 04:10 GMT]
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) handed over renovated irrigation tanks and fishing jetties to the Department of Agriculture Development (DAD) and to the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DFAR) in the Jaffna district recently. The handing over of the fishing jetties took place in the presence of Minister Douglas Devananda, whose criminal activities were recently exposed by WikiLeaks, Assistant Director-DFAR Mr. Dharmalingam, and the local Government Agent of Jaffna Ms. Imelda Sukumar, while Mr. Patrick De Ranjan, the Assistant Commissioner of DAD Jaffna chaired the handing over ceremony of the irrigation tanks.
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