SL military assaults family man after playground dispute in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 January 2015, 23:28 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala soldiers at Ellaang-ku'lam camp in Uduppiddi in Vadamaraadchi brutally assaulted a 29-year-old father of three from the same village Saturday evening around 5:15 p.m. The victim, Selvaratnam Jegan, was admitted to the Valveddiththu'rai (VVT) Hospital with serious injuries. The SL military on Sunday threatened the family not to reveal the news to media and exerted pressure on the hospital administration to send the injured patient home, news sources in VVT told TamilNet. The SL military camp at Ellang-ku'lam has been a notorious place for torture.
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Resettling Tamils silently expelled from Champoor in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2015, 23:43 GMT]
Following the election of Maithiripala Sirisena as new Sri Lankan President, the uprooted families from a section of the 5th Division and 7th Division of Champoor situated along both the sides of Champoor main road, started to clear their lands for resettlement. Their lands, seized by Colombo under the so-called ‘Special Economic Zone’ (SEZ) were to be handed over to a Chinese-owned corporate. The occupying Sri Lanka Navy was blocking the uprooted Tamils from resettling in their lands. Despite the ‘regime change’, the Sri Lanka Navy occupying Champoor and the Sri Lankan Police have chased away the 162 families, who were clearing their plots to prepare for resettlement in the 1,430 acres of lands appropriated by Colombo under the so-called SEZ.
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Singapore Principles of 2013: Tamil polity taken for ride from Oslo to Singapore

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2015, 07:19 GMT]
Right from the Indo-Lanka agreement of 1987 to Oslo Declaration of 2002 and to hitherto unrevealed Singapore Principles of 2013 that brought the Sampanthan polity into a conceptual framework for the recent regime change in Colombo, the external forces seeking to influence the affairs of the island have taken the Eezham Tamils for a ride to confine the Tamil polity into the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka without securing any concrete and descriptive guarantee from the Sinhala polity. By its latest move, the ITAK has pushed the Tamils back into the past, Tamil political observers in Jaffna said citing the so-called Singapore Principles from 2013. TamilNet brings out the text of the so-called Singapore Principles for the edification of global Tamils.
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Protests erupt in Jaffna against continued militarisation, unemployment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2015, 23:44 GMT]
The owners of five houses and lands that have been illegally seized by the Sri Lankan military for more than two decades at Koozhaavadi, situated on Maanippaay Road at Aanaik-koaddai in Jaffna protested on Wednesday against the attempt by Colombo to transform their lands into State property with the motive of permanently sustaining a war-time military camp, which was notorious for extra-judicial interrogations, abductions and disappearances since 1996. At the same time, unemployed graduates staged a protest in front of Jaffna District Secretariat demanding jobs.
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SL military in Batticaloa continues to exploit families returned from Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2015, 22:15 GMT]
The Sri Lankan State and its military intelligence in Batticaloa district continue to harass 1,080 families that survived the genocidal onslaught in Vanni in 2009. The families from Batticaloa returned to their native villages situated in 10 of the 14 Divisional Secretariat divisions in the district. The DS Secretaries in these divisions have also been instructed to refuse assistance to these families by the genocidal military. There is no change in the harassments on the ground despite the ‘changes’ taking place in Colombo, the families said. Even those affected by the recent floods have been neglected in the humanitarian assistance. Women-headed families continue to complain about targeted sexual harassments by the occupying Sinhala military in Batticaloa. Two of the 10 divisions where the families have resettled, Koa'ralaippattu South and Koa'ra'laip-pattu North are worst affected.
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New Tamil-Muslim equation engineered for Colombo-centric agenda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2015, 23:37 GMT]
Negotiations are under way for bringing in a new alliance among the political forces of Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims in the North and East that are orientated for collaboration with the Washington - New Delhi - Sinhala State agenda, reconfirming the Colombo-centric genocidal State, informed sources told TamilNet. This follows the electoral engineering in the island in which Tamils victimised in the US-designed war ending in genocide and Muslims internationally at loggerheads with the US views of imperialism were brought together to vote for a regime change that has put the USA at the helm of affairs. The follow-up ‘ground operations’ now take place in the North and East provincial councils and the first victim is likely to be the EPDP, which would be losing its opposition leadership in the NPC to Rishard Badurdeen's All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), the sources further said.
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Pope Francis at Madu: ‘Our Lady remained always with you’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2015, 21:55 GMT]
Pope Francis on Wednesday paid a pilgrimage to Madu shrine, which is the famous pilgrim centre of Tamil Catholics, where even the Sinhalese Catholics of the western coast, who were Tamils a century ago, flock in for festivals. “No Sri Lankan can forget the tragic events associated with this very place, or the sad day when the venerable statue of Mary, dating to the arrival of the earliest Christians in Sri Lanka, was taken away from her shrine. But Our Lady remained always with you. She is the mother of every home, of every wounded family, of all who are seeking to return to a peaceful existence,” the Pope said. Tamils who came in large numbers from all parts of the island appreciated his call for wartime ‘truth’ in future peace making. The Tamils also welcomed his call for harmony without forsaking the identity of the peoples, whether ethnic or religious.
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New SL regime fails to give policy-based assurance on de-militarisation: TNA circles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2015, 10:33 GMT]
Informed sources close to the hierarchy of the Tamil National Allaince (TNA) told TamilNet Wednesday that the newly elected Executive President of Sri Lanka, Maithiripala Sirisena, has failed to give a positive response to the request placed by the TNA to look at the issue of the de-militarisation of North and East as matter of a principled decision, marking a policy change. Mr Sirisena has reportedly told the TNA that the Sri Lankan military being stationed in strategic locations was largely based on the ‘national security’ concern and has justified the militarisation of public lands. Mr Maithiripala Siriesena, like his predecessors, is projecting the major issue as ‘isolated incidents of disputes’, which need to be addressed by the two separate committees, the disappointed TNA circles told TamilNet.
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Resettlement meaningless without guarantee against structural genocide in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2015, 23:22 GMT]
Governments may come and go, but the State of Sri Lanka gets strengthened in its genocidal project whether there is war, peace or talk of ‘change’, comment the resettled women of Mu'raa-oadai village, situated 5 km south of Vaazhaich-cheanai town in Batticaloa district. 400 houses have been destroyed. Two temples are damaged. Almost all the resettled families are women-headed households, poorest of the poor. The women of the village say: “It is only when we have permanent security from future genocide, we can breath the air of freedom.” The SL military has vacated last year from the village. But, a Buddhist statue and a ‘sacred’ Bo tree are still threatening the villagers who are haunted by the mere existence of the symbols of structural genocide.
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‘LLRC’ Palihakkara expected to replace Military Governor of North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2015, 20:17 GMT]
Sri Lankan Military Governor of North, Major General (retd.) G.A. Chandrasiri, on Saturday told his staff that he would resign his job before anyone on the top coming with the instruction of transfer to him, informed civil sources in Jaffna said adding that Colombo's regime-changers have proposed HMGS Palihakkara, who was one of the eight panellists earlier appointed by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was aimed at buying space and time for Sri Lanka to escape international investigations. Colombo-centric agenda-setters are replacing a military governor with a more sophisticated diplomat concerned with safeguarding the unitary state of Sri Lanka.
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Maithiripala expected to poll 4 to 6 times more than Rajapaksa in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2015, 17:58 GMT]
Maithiripala Sirisena is expected to poll four to six times more votes than Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Jaffna Electoral District while the contest is reportedly tight in the South, sources monitoring the counting told TamilNet at 10:40 p.m. local time on Thursday. Voter turnout in the administrative district of Jaffna was at 61.14%. Mullaiththeevu recorded 74.78% voter turnout, Mannaar 68.25% and Ki'linochchi 70.1%. The voter turnout was at 72% in the administrative district of Trincomalee in the East. 70% turnout was registered at Ampaa'rai district and 60.93% in Batticaloa district in the East. Official results are expected to be released after midnight.
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Tamil will expressed only by distancing from racist election: Jude Lal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2015, 07:13 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena cannot be seen as the greater evil and the lesser evil respectively, says Professor Jude Lal of Trinity College, Dublin, in an interview to TamilNet on Wednesday. The democratic rights of the Tamils and the democratic rights of the Sinhalese are not the same as the so-called Sinhala pro-democracy campaign claims, the director of Centre for Post-Conflict Justice at Trinity College argues, underlining the fact that the promise of democracy by the so-called Sinhala pro-democracy campaigners has totally and radically different meanings for the Tamils and the Sinhalese: It means good governance for the Sinhalese and continuation and furtherance of subjugation for the Tamils, he says. The TNA is being used by USA, UK and India to reinforce Sinhala hegemony in the name of democracy, Jude Lal told TamilNet.
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Ananthy's house stoned in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2015, 08:18 GMT]
Unknown attackers stoned the house of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councillor in the Northern Province, Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, in the early hours of Tuesday, threatening the NPC councillor and her three children while they were sleeping at their residence located at Vadakkamparai in Chuzhipuram in Valikaamam West, Jaffna. Ms Ananthy and her children narrowly escaped from a stone that went through the window inside the house. The attack comes after Ms Sasitharan warned a local media, DAN TV, which backs Colombo regime, that she would be filing legal suit against misusing her name in their advertisement.
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Tamils of struggle polity need not worry who becomes SL president

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2015, 18:28 GMT]
While SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa is almost open in telling that electing the next president is choosing between China and the USA, senior Tamil grassroot leaders and activists in the island are of the opinion that Eezham Tamils put in a situation of struggle polity need not worry who succeeds as president. “Tamils should not participate in this election. Whether the future of Tamils is linked to the Sinhalese or not has to be decided by the Sinhalese. [...] The TNA leaders in their decision [of supporting Mr Sirisena] failed in guiding the Tamils in the right way,” said senior ITAK Central Committee member and former UN consultant Ma'ravan-pulavu K. Sachithananthan, speaking to media in Jaffna on Saturday. The former Jaffna University academic was addressing along with Ananthy Sasitharan of the NPC and ITAK Youth Wing Leader VS Sivakaran.
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9th Anniversary of STF killing of Trincomalee students

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2015, 00:01 GMT]
Dr Kasippillai Manoharan and four other families will be commemorating the nineth anniversary of the murder of their sons extra-judicially executed by the Special Task force (STF) of the Sri Lanka Government on the 2nd January 2006. The high school students, all then nearly 20-years old, were spending an afternoon at a seafront in Trincomalee when the allegedly planned crime took place. Dr Manoharan told TamilNet that the STF officers Kapila Jayasekera and Vas Perera, part of the STF contingent sent to Trincomalee on the orders of the Defence Secretary and President's sibling, Gothabaya Rajapakse, and Udawatte Weerakody, a naval officer, were the key players in the planning and execution of the murders.
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Gotabhaya monitors Devananda's allegiance to Kumaratunga

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2015, 11:09 GMT]
While welcoming the incumbent SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to North and challenging the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in District Development Committee meetings with a pro-Colombo stance, SL minister and EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda, has also assured his personal allegiance to former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives under the direct command of SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa have been questioning the close associates of Mr Devananda for his lack of interest in putting up Rajapaksa posters ahead of Rajapaksa's scheduled visit to Jaffna.
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TNA loses civic council to UPFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2014, 22:22 GMT]
Four members of Pachchilaip-pa'l'li civic council, elected on TULF ticket, have defected to the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of genocidal Sri Lanka on Wednesday, a day after TNA's Parliamentary Group leader R. Sampanthan urged Tamils to vote for the common opposition candidate in the South. In the meantime, the occupying SL military intelligence officers, who are loyal to SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa and UPFA politicians are trying to woo the support of leading TNA civic members in other civic councils in North by paying large sums of money to them, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Sampanthan announces decision to back Sirisena in SL presidential elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 09:25 GMT]
Despite strong opposition from various sections of Eezham Tamils against giving explicit support to any of the two main contestants in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential elections, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan has decided to support the Opposition Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena. Mr Sampanthan announced the stance of the TNA Tuesday morning at a media briefing held at Hotel Jananaki in Colombo. Mr Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran have been blamed for striking a clandestine deal with Chandrika Kumaratunga on backing Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Sampanthan arrives from India, meets constituting party leaders

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 December 2014, 23:12 GMT]
R.Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance, who arrived in Colombo Sunday morning from his visit to India presided over a crucial meeting of the TNA co-ordinating committee at Madiwela parliamentary complex on Sunday night, news sources in Colombo told TamilNet.
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Tamil youth brutally assaulted for questioning Pillayan at Rajapaksa campaign

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 December 2014, 13:12 GMT]
A Tamil youth from Ka'luthaa-va'lai in Batticaloa district, who questioned ex-paramilitary operative and former chief minister of Eastern Provincial Council Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan at a pro-Rajapaksa campaign meeting at Ka'luthaava'lai on Thursday, was brutally assaulted after the youth questioned Pillayan on his merits. “We know the genocidal record of Rajapaksa, what is your record,” the 23-year-old youth had questioned the former EPC chief minister at the meeting where Chandrakanthan was eulogising SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The youth, Anthonipillay Atputharasa, has been admitted at the Teaching Hospital of Batticaloa in a serious condition, news sources in Ka'luthaa-va'lai told TamilNet.
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