SL presidential race brings violence between EPDP, TNA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2014, 18:11 GMT]
A District Development Council (DDC) meeting, which was co-chaired by Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran and SL Minister Douglas Devananda, ended in violence at Jaffna District Secretariat on Tuesday, when the EPDP paramilitary leader Mr Devananda faced objections from the NPC councillors of the TNA for turning the DDC meeting a venue for Rajapaksa's election propaganda. The paramilitary goons of the EPDP began to assault the TNA representatives who objected the conduct of the EPDP leader at the meeting. EPDP goons assaulted five TNA members, including NPC Ministers Aingaranesan and Sathiyalingam. The EPDP has also claimed that five of its personnel had sustained injuries in the violent episode.
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Sivagnanam, Wigneswaran sabotage NPC move on genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2014, 11:42 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) chairman C.V.K. Sivagnanam on Thursday ran away from the NPC sitting in an attempt to defend the position taken by NPC Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, who wanted to postpone voting on a crucial motion on Tamil genocide at the 20th sittings of the NPC, news sources at the NPC Secretariat in Kaithadi told TamilNet. The NPC chairman has been postponing the resolution, which identifies the crimes that were committed and those that continue to be committed against the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan State as genocide. Initially, there was no objection at the council to commence voting on the motion, which was brought by M.K. Shivajilingam. At the last minute Mr Wigneswaran said he wanted to postpone the voting till after the SL presidential election.
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Rajapaksa deception in North aims at elections

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2014, 23:22 GMT]
The elected representatives of Tamil National Alliance in the North fully boycotted the ceremonial events staged by the visiting SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Vanni and Jaffna on Sunday and Monday claiming that the meetings “do not appear to be in furtherance of a legitimate objective, and are not transparent nor collaborative.” While large numbers of SL soldiers were deployed on the streets of Jaffna subjecting the public with security checks, EPDP paramilitary operatives and a section of occupying SL military soldiers were coercing public sector workers, teachers, students together with the people deceived with false promises of livelihood assistance to attend the meetings.
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EPDP, Sri Lankan CID jointly harass newspaper editors in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2014, 21:18 GMT]
Sri Lankan military and police establishments in Jaffna and Vanni mainland have intensified threats against Tamil journalists and activists in recent days. Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division, Criminal Investigation Division, Intelligence operatives of Defence Ministry and paramilitary operatives are jointly deployed in a systematic programme suppressing the freedom of expression, an editor of a daily newspaper told TamilNet Wednesday. The SL police CID have deployed EPDP operatives twice within the last month to stage protests against Jaffna Thinakkural.
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Tamil teachers protest against SL military interference in schools

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2014, 06:43 GMT]
Sri Lankan military, which usually threatens people against taking part in civil protests in advance, has now went a step further with staging ‘counter protests’ to disturb the democratic mobilisation of the people, trade unions and activists. On Monday, the occupying Sri Lanka Army deployed its operatives to stage a ‘counter protest’ in front of the Jaffna Central Bus stand where Tamil teachers in Jaffna, organized under the Ceylon Teachers Union were protesting with 15 demands against appointments with low-wage, discrimination in promotions, SL military interference in the administration of the schools in North and East, circulars in Sinhala, continued occupation of Palaali Teachers training college, discrimination in transfer policy and continued ignorance of complaints filed against corruption.
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SL police arrests protesting former EDPD politician in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2014, 23:15 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police in Jaffna arrested the General Secretary of Mutpoakkuth Thamizh Theasiya Kadchi (MTTK) Sutharsingh Vijayakanth and two of his fellow party members Friday night while they were waging a peaceful fast at Nalloor temple demanding the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to release all Tamil political prisoners from the Sri Lankan prisons. The arrests were made on the charge that they were getting electricity from a nearby house to the podium of the fasting campaign. The fast was launched as there was no reply from the Sri Lankan President to their letter urging general amnesty to all Tamil political prisoners, the protesters said. Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to visit Jaffna on a two-day visit on October 12.
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Colombo to seize more lands for militarisation of North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2014, 22:43 GMT]
1,300 acres of lands are to be surveyed and seized by the SL military in Jaffna peninsula in the coming days, informed sources told TamilNet on Saturday. The lands belonging to Tamil people are to be seized in Maathakal, Achchuveali, Chavakachcheari, Nu’naavil and Thikkam. The SL military has already harassed the fishermen at Cheanthaan-ku’lam in Maathakal to vacate from their jetty and relocate their fishing tools as the land was to be surveyed, gazetted and seized for military expansion. On Friday, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politicians, civic council members and Valikaamam North uprooted people’s organisation protested against an attempt to survey the lands in Maathakal. In the meantime, hundreds of acres of lands are being seized without any procedures in the Vanni mainland, Tamil activists in Mullaiththeevu said.
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STF deployed to muzzle protests against environmental genocide in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 August 2014, 07:01 GMT]
Hundreds of commandos from the occupying Special Task Force (STF), a full-fledged military outfit under the SL Police that has committed genocidal massacres against Eezham Tamils in the East, have been deployed in Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna to muzzle renewed protests from Tamil villagers against the environment-destroying sand-scooping that is being carried out by Colombo-backed EPDP paramilitary's Maheswary Foundation and Gotabhaya-operated ‘Neythal’ outfit. On Thursday, a 25-year-old pregnant woman was killed on the spot when a speeding vehicle belonging to Maheswary Foundation hit her on Saraswathy Lane at Navakkiri in Valikaamam East.
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Modi gave lesson to TNA on ‘collaborative politics’ says Devananda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 August 2014, 23:11 GMT]
“I hope that the Tamil National Alliance leaders who recently went to meet the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would listen to his advice, which is the same as our longstanding position on the resolution to the conflict, that one should start collaborating with the Sri Lankan Government on Northern Provincial Council,” said EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, who is also a minister in Rajapaksa regime. He was addressing the audience at the re-opening ceremony of Achchuveali Industrial Estate in Jaffna on Wednesday. The industrial estate has been rehabilitated with Indian assistance. SL Presidential sibling and the ‘Economic Development’ Minister Basil Rajapaksa, High Commissioner of India Y.K. Sinha and the Chief Minister of Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran were among the delegates who attended three ceremonial events connected to projects that have received Indian assistance.
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Fr. Thaninayagam centenary statue unveiled in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2014, 23:27 GMT]
A memorial statue was unveiled in Jaffna marking the centenary of the grand Tamil scholar Rev. Fr. Xavier Thani Nayagam on Saturday and the location known as Madaththadi situated on the Jaffna Main Road in the city, has been declared Thani Nayagam Square. The peaceful opening ceremony comes after the organisers had been firm in braving the harassment by the occupying Sri Lankan military that wanted to erect a Buddha statue at the locality, residents told TamilNet.
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Genocidal Sri Lanka celebrates ‘Vesak’ suppressing Mu’l’livaaykkal Remembrance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 May 2014, 21:01 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala forces of the Sri Lankan State this year celebrated Buddhist Vesak in a massive scale in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils as never before. The commander of the occupying SL military in Jaffna organised a two day military event in Jaffna. New Delhi's Consul General in Jaffna Mr V Mahalingam and his officials were invited to an event held at the Open Air Theatre in front of the Jaffna Public Library together with SL State employees from the Northern Provincial Council and the University of Jaffna. Diaspora operatives collaborating with SL military were also seated as special guests at the event.
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SL governor deploys NPC resources to mark military ‘victory’ in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 May 2014, 23:13 GMT]
While denying Eezham Tamils their collective right to commemorate their war-dead and the victims of genocidal onslaught, the colonial governor of the occupying Sri Lankan State in North, Major General (retd) G.A. Chandrasiri has used the funds allocated to Northern Provincial Council (NPC) to conduct a Sri Lankan military ceremony to ‘mark’ the so-called victory of the Sri Lankan State and to honour the soldiers of the occupying military perished in the war. The SL governor also instructed the employees of the NPC, including the secretaries and top officials of the provincial council to accompany him to the military function held at Nanthik-kadal to mark the genocidal victory of the SL military on Monday. Tamil children in Mullaiththeevu were forced to attend the event. The elected Tamil councillors of the NPC have opposed the move.
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Genocidal Colombo hijacks NPC education review

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 April 2014, 23:43 GMT]
A two-day consultancy workshop initiative, named Northern Education System Review (NESR) launched by the Northern Provincial Council Minister of Education, Sports and Cultural Affairs Mr T. Gurukularajah has been hijacked by Colombo's unitary State authorities and the military governor of the North, disrupting the conference team’s initiative to invite independent Tamil educationalists from the Tamil diaspora to take part in the proceedings held in Jaffna on Wednesday and Thursday.
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Genocidal military twists statistics on uprooted Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 April 2014, 23:31 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka has instructed its government agents in the 8 districts of North and East not to release any statistical figures without consulting the authorities in Colombo, informed sources told TamilNet Wednesday. Sri Lankan authorities have fully abandoned the figures of the resettled people residing outside the so-called welfare camps. The EPDP collaborators in the UPFA have also been instructed to play in sync with Colombo on the statistics of displaced people and resettled people in these two districts, Tamil civil sources in Jaffna said pointing out the controversies that surfaced at the District Development Committee (DDC) meetings of Jaffna and Ki’linochchi held this week.
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JMC workers protest demanding permanent jobs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2014, 12:45 GMT]
A section of Jaffna Municipality Council (JMC) workers, who have been employed at the JMC for several years, protested on Monday demanding permanent employment as promised by the JMC and the colonial SL governor of North. The protesters gathered in front of the secretariat of the colonial governor Major Genral (retd) GA Chandrasiri as SL minister Douglas Devananda of the EPDP had recently threatened to deploy SL soldiers to take over their work if they continued to protest demanding permanent jobs at the JMC.
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Tamil traders in North protest against invading illegal salesmen from South

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2014, 16:55 GMT]
Jaffna District Chamber of Commerce and Tamil National Cultural Association on Thursday staged a half-day protest against invading illegal salesmen from South, who outcompete the native traders with the backing of the occupying Sinhala military. The protest drew the support of civil activists, Tamil politicians and the public as the provincial council and the civic bodies run by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Municipal Council administration run by the EPDP have been powerless in controlling the illegal activity which has also worsened the anti-social crimes in the peninsula. The street vendors from South market their goods at the doorsteps of the shops owned by Tamil traders in the city at cheaper rates, but without any warranties, the organisers told TamilNet.
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Slain EPDP councillor's sister receives death threat

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2014, 21:03 GMT]
The president of Nedun-theevu (Delft) civic council, Daniel Rexian alias Rajeev of the EPDP was shot and killed in November 2013. His sister, Ms Regina, a key witness in the case, is now being threatened by unidentified persons alleged to be EPDP operatives aligned with Mr Kamal Kamalendran, the Jaffna District organizer of the EPDP and the opposition leader, who is one of the persons detained for alleged involvement in the killing. The SL police in Ooraath-thu'rai (Kayts) has refused to register her complaints.
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Sri Lankan TID declares ‘shadow war’ on Tamil journalists in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2013, 09:10 GMT]
“We will not abduct you or take you for 4th floor for interrogations. But, we will make sure you die in the road hit by our encounter teams in natural accidents and dispute-like killings. You will not become heroes among your own people and die like street dogs,” is the message re-iterated by the so-called ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ interrogators, who operate various interrogation-cells in the North chasing the journalists in Jaffna. A Colombo-based media rights activist observing the pattern of the psychological warfare by the TID on journalists in Jaffna described the unfolding scenario as Colombo's latest ‘shadow war’ on Tamils, similar to the one that preceded the 2009 genocidal onslaught.
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Vadamaraadchi East remembers Tamil tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 December 2013, 16:06 GMT]
Families, relatives and friends of victims who perished in the 2004 tsunami gathered at Uduththu’rai, Ma'natkaadu and Thaazhaiyadi burial grounds on Thursday remembering their loved ones on the 9th anniversary of the devastating catastrophe. The gigantic waves of tsunami claimed the lives of 41,000 people in the island on 26 December 2004 and most of the victims were from eastern and northern coasts of the Tamil homeland. Around 1.5 million people lost their homes in the tsunami. The International Community of Establishments, who failed the victims of tsunami, were not only complicit in Sri Lanka's genocidal onslaught on them in 2009, but they continue to fail the victims of the tsunami and the genocide by allowing the Sri Lankan State to continue the structural genocide on the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of land link between Jaffna and Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 December 2013, 18:25 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has almost transformed the narrow strip of Chu’ndik-ku’lam sandbar, which links the Jaffna peninsula with Vanni mainland, into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ), denying the Tamil fishermen of Vadamaraadchi East and Vadmaraadchi, access to the coastal strip and the seas off Chu’ndikku’lam. While the occupying SL military is carrying out a new kind of Sinhalicisation with settlements for Sinhala fishermen, who endanger the fishing environment, the SL Ministry of Wildlife Resources Conservation has schemed occupation under the so-called extended development of the Chu’ndik-ku’lam Natural Park, bringing 11,149 hectares and a coastal strip of more than 50 square km into the exploitation of Colombo.
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