Tamil Diaspora Youth vow solidarity with Kurds against global injustices

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 March 2016, 23:49 GMT]
The younger generation of Eezham Tamil Diaspora has expressed solidarity with the Kurds, condemning the Turkish State atrocities and the global injustices that criminalize Kurdish resistance. The U.S., NATO, and E.U. made evident, with the exclusion of the PYD from the UN hosted Syria-talks in Geneva in February, their brazen support of their regional ally Turkey, while it is intensifying its six month long war against the Kurdish population of Northern Kurdistan (Bakur). The Western media have also failed the Kurds by avoiding to cover the crimes against the Kurds. Amidst global silence on the ongoing massacres of Kurds, voices of solidarity have emerged from Tamils in the form of a collective response through the opinion platform Tamil Diaspora Youth Network and the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) in UK taking part in a national protest on Sunday.
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Colombo resumes surveillance of Eezham Tamils through ‘registration’ in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2016, 11:11 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Sinhala police, the intelligence operatives of the SL State and military surveillance officers are conducting fresh ‘registrations’ of people living across the 14 divisions of Batticaloa district, citing section 76 of the SL ‘Police Ordinance’ which states that householders should furnish the officer of police of his or her division with a list of all the inmates in the house and that any change occurring in the households should be reported to the police or legal authorities of the SL State. The surveillance measure is now being systematically implemented in the entire district of Batticaloa. In addition, Sinhala military intelligence officers are visiting selected households every month and some others every third month. Those who have been in Vanni earlier are being harassed with ‘terrorist’ questions, Tamil civil sources in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Friday.
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Fr Fontgalland sacrificed his entire life for downtrodden Upcountry people: Fr Jeyasegaram

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2016, 16:00 GMT]
Following the example set by the late Rt Rev Leo Nanayakkara OSB, the first Bishop of Badulla, who was a Sinhalese and was renowned for his committed actions among the downtrodden masses, Rev Fr Guy de Fontgalland, who was a Tamil from Jaffna, decided to work among the Upcountry Tamils, continuing the legacy of committed action grounded in grassroots development since the demise of Leo Nanayakkara in 1982. The late Rev Fr Guy de Fontgalland was preparing to launch a big project of planting 10,000 palmyra seedlings in the islets off Jaffna in 2017, said his close associate Rev Fr A.F. Jeyasegaram, the director of Neitha'lam, which is a diocesan center for fishing workers in Jaffna. Fr Jeyasagaram has known Sathiyapillai Guy de Fontgalland since his childhood till his demise on Monday.
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Veteran development activist Fr Sathiyapillai Guy de Fontgalland passes away

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2016, 23:18 GMT]
Veteran Eezham Tamil development activist Rev Fr Sathiyapillai Guy de Fontgalland, who has dedicated his life to the upliftment of the Upcountry Tamils in the island, passed away at the age of 69 on Monday after being hit by a sea wave in Trincomalee. Fr S Guy de Fontgalland, who hails from Ooraaththu'rai (Kayts) island in Jaffna, was the founder of Leo Marga Ashram (LMA) in Bandarawela, which is an alternative development-oriented action group, based in Badulla district. With a vision of liberating the plantation community and a mission of creating an alternative leadership in the plantation sector through conscientization programs aimed at a people’s movement.
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S.T. Arasu remembered by his disciple and friend

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 February 2016, 22:50 GMT]
The multi-faceted personality of the late Mr S.Thirunavukkarasu (S.T.Arasu) was remembered in an interview given to TamilNet last week by Rajaratnam Nadarajah (75), the owner of Baby Photo in Jaffna. Mr Nadarajah was recollecting his close relationship with Mr Arasu since 1958, right from the days of their photography work at Sellams, which was involved in the production of the pioneer Eezham Tamil film ‘Kadamaiyin ellai’. He was also recollecting the encounter of Mr Arasu with the Ceylon military during the non-violent protest of Eezham Tamils in 1961 under the leadership of Mr S.J.V. Chelvanayakam.
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Uprooted Tamils in Jaffna to launch occupy movement carrying ‘white-flags’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 February 2016, 21:31 GMT]
The uprooted Eezham Tamils from Valikaamam North in Jaffna, languishing in so-called welfare camps in Jaffna for 25 years, on Friday resolved that they were no longer prepared to wait in silence trusting the empty promises from David Cameron made in 2013 to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in 2016 that they would be soon resettled. The genocidal State of Sri Lanka and its occupying Sinhala military, being groomed as a ‘Lascarine’ force, have transformed their lands from ‘High Security Zone’ into ‘Sinhala Military Zone’. Now, the SL Defence Secretary in Colombo has claimed that Colombo is to sign an agreement with India in June on transforming SL military occupied Palaali airport into an international airport and that the uprooted people should only expect alternative lands citing ‘development’.
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Goluwaawa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 February 2016, 15:39 GMT]
The thicket or jungle
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UN DPI stands exposed after summarily expelling ICP's Matthew Lee

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2016, 23:40 GMT]
UN Department of Public Information (UN-DPI) last Friday summarily expelled, without due process, UN accredited journalist Matthew Russell Lee, who is well known for his independent and critical coverage on matters related to the injustices committed by the UN officials in New York since 2005. Mr Lee has been continuously questioning the UN officials whenever they were attempting to conceal the demand for independent international investigations on Tamil genocide under the carpet. The ICP journalist was behind bringing out leaked UN documents during the times of the war exposing the casualty figures. After May 2009, he was systematically exposing the tip of the iceberg findings of UN shielding the genocidal SL State through his sharp observation of the workings from within the UN premises itself as an independent journalist.
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Colombo continues with ‘Sinhala-only’ circulars, Tamil officials in Batticaloa complain

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2016, 21:33 GMT]
The occupying Colombo continues to issue almost all official circulars in Sinhala language to the administrative offices that come under the ministries of the Colombo government, provincial and local administrative bodies, Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa complain. 90% of the population in the district is Tamil-speaking. Regardless of repeated complaints, SL ministries of genocidal Sri Lankan are bent upon Sinhalicisation of governance in the district, the Tamil officials in Batticaloa told TamilNet. While the global actors are not prepared to see physical, psychological, structural and cultural genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island and are not prepared to even spell the word Tamil in their resolutions being presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, how would their agent State in Colombo be prepared to issue the circulars in Tamil, the officials asked.
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Maithiripala deploys ‘Mahaweli’, monks, military to grab Tamil lands in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 2016, 23:30 GMT]
The Tamil people, who are trying to resettle in their traditional villages in Poththuvil area in Ampaa'rai district complain that the continued presence of the occupying Sinhala military along the two sides of the main access road to Poththuvil Road threaten their resettlement. Tamil civil service officials observe a pattern of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena's so-called ‘Mahaweli Development’ ministry systematically deploying its departments to seize lands from Eezham Tamils in the same area. In the meantime, Sinhala Buddhist extremist monks and their operatives are seeking inroads to establish their temples in the villages where no Sinhalese are found citing they want to help Tamils to ‘confront’ occupation by Muslims.
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What is left of the Left sans the Tamil national question, asks Diaspora Tamil academic

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 February 2016, 21:53 GMT]
"Only a process of national liberation of the oppressed Eelam Tamil nation can facilitate the grounds for the revolutionary conditions necessary to undertake and advance all other revolutionary struggles within the island; that pertaining to the rights of the Tamil speaking interspersed minorities, the struggle of the Sinhala masses, the anti-caste struggle and the proletarian struggle at large,” writes Norway-based Eezham Tamil anthropology academic Athithan Jayapalan. “Any prospect of anti-imperialism, without accommodating the indivisible right of Tamil self-determination and the recognition of the multi-national nature of the island with the historically evolved Tamil and Sinhala nations and homelands, will paradoxically remain in the service of imperialism by safeguarding the unitary structure of the imperialist implanted Sri Lankan state,” he further writes.
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Veteran drama artist Maamanithar S.T. Arasu passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 February 2016, 23:18 GMT]
Veteran Eezham Tamil drama artist Kalaapooshanam S.T. Arasu, who was betowed with the highest civilian Maamanithar title by LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan in 1990, passed away after a brief illness at the age of 89 in Nalloor, Jaffna on Friday. Sivakkolunthu Thirunavukkarasu (S.T. Arasu) received an emotional funeral service, attended by Tamil artists, academics and politicians on Sunday. As a multi-talented creative artist, S.T. Arasu has worked with prominent drama directors of his times and has contributed at various fronts including make-up and music. S.T.Arasu had a keen interest in sculpture and was also a professional photographer.
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Genocidal military rapists harass Tamil female teachers at Muzhangkaavil

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2016, 21:19 GMT]
The occupying SL military soldiers, who have been earlier captured by the villagers while attempting to sexually abuse Tamil women, have this week gone amok on the ladies hostel of Muzhangkaavil MV School in Ki’linochchi district. The SL military is occupying 10 acres of lands near the school, where the Sinhala soldiers have been deployed in large numbers at the farms run by the military at close vicinity to the MV school and the primary school. The villagers rushed to help the teachers at the ladies hostel as they shouted for help when Sinhala soldiers were trying to break the door of the building Monday night. Despite repeated complaints, the SL military has not been withdrawn from the residential areas of Tamil villages in the district.
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Colombo accelerates demographic genocide along border villages of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 February 2016, 22:55 GMT]
Rural Development Society representatives from the villages situated along the border of Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province, complain that their native villages are being systematically Sinhalicised under the Maithiripala regime. The occupying Sinhala military has brought a number of extremist Buddhist monks into these villages in recent times. Buddhist temples (Pansala) and SL military positions have been mushrooming along these villages since 2007 when Sinhala military brought the entire district under its control. The same pattern of structural occupation is also observed along the Tamil villages bordering the Polonnaruwa district, which is the native district of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Colombo silently consolidates military positions facing Gulf of Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 February 2016, 23:43 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has been silently consolidating its temporary positions and camps into permanent structures inside the limits of Mannaar Urban Council area within the last 30 days. There are more than 6,000 Sinhala military personnel within the UC area where 25,000 civilians reside. The SL Army, Navy and the STF troopers are stationed at more than 15 positions within the 27 square km. The systematic consolidation of the naval and army cantonments, camps, and positions has taken place despite clear demands from the civil sources to de-militarize the densely populated UC area. The strategic part of the district, commanding both the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannaar as well as commanding the closest communication line with the Tamil Nadu coast, has become a hive of intense Sinhala militarisation and demographic changes in recent times.
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Sinhalese from South grab temple lands of Eezham Tamils in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 February 2016, 23:49 GMT]
Two Sinhalese from Matara district in the Southern Province are trying to seize 8 acres of lands that belong to 50-year-old Saiva temple in Poththuvil of Ampaa'rai district using false documents, the management of the Chiththi Vinaayakar temple told TamilNet on Monday. The Sinhala extremists who are engaged in seizing lands from Tamils in the district in the Eastern province have deployed a former Sri Lankan Presidential Coordinator from Poththuvil and a former paramilitary operative as their agents, Tamil officials at the District Secretariat said verifying that the lands belong to the Hindu temple. There is a systematic pattern of genocidal land grab taking place in the district, the officials alleged citing similar cases from several other locations in the district.
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Kaṟuvāk-kāṭu/ Kuruńdu-vatta/ Cinnamon Gardens

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 February 2016, 23:16 GMT]
The cinnamon forest

The cinnamon gardens or grove
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SL Navy brutally assaults Tamil fishermen from Mannaar near Ira'nai-theevu islet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 February 2016, 12:32 GMT]
The occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka on Saturday severely assaulted two Tamil fishermen who were engaged in sea cucumber fishing near Ira'nai-theevu islet, located west of Naachchik-kudaa, where the SL military has been expanding its military positions targeting Tamil Nadu and India in recent years. One of the four fishermen who are from Pa'l'li-munai in Mannaar has sustained serious injuries and was rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital. The fate of two young fishermen is not known while the third one is admitted at Mannaar hospital with cut injuries to his hands. The attacking navy men were armed with automatic rifles. They were aggressive and were using abusive terms in Sinhala while assaulting the two Tamil fishermen with knives, the wounded fishermen told TamilNet. The brutal incident has taken place around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.
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Tamils should conceive alternative investigations: rights activists in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 February 2016, 23:45 GMT]
Not a single person has been arrested by the Colombo government despite 450 persons giving testimony in the district of Batticaloa at the three sittings held so far by the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), one under Rajapaksa regime and two sittings under the present Sirisena - Wickrasinghe regime, Tamil rights activists in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Friday. The modus operandi of the SL commissions of the past and present, including the new ones that are being launched by the current regime incorporating Tamil ‘collaborators’ from Batticaloa and Jaffna, is nothing new to Eezham Tamils. Global Tamils should conceive universal models of justice without getting locked into the so-called Transnational Justice advocates coming through Colombo, the activists further said.
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No change in SL oppression: Tamil activists in Trincomalee tell Zeid

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 February 2016, 23:08 GMT]
A group of Tamil rights activists, religious dignitaries and the kith and kin of missing persons, who met the visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Sunday in Trincomalee, conveyed the level of frustration prevailing among the Eezham Tamils, especially among the families of the persons subjected to forced disappearance at the hands of the Sinhala military. The trauma, experienced by these families has reached an epidemic proportion after SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe publicly telling Tamils to regard all those missing as dead on the day of Pongkal Tamil festival in January, the delegation told Mr Zeid. The activists witnessed total lack of understanding on the part of UN Human Rights Chief on the deep-rooted structural crimes taking place against Tamils in the East under the Mahaweli Minister and SL President Maithiripala Sirisena.
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