Colombo stages smokescreen operations to divert global focus on crimes: TNA councillor

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2014, 18:26 GMT]
The so-called revival or regrouping of the LTTE and the arrests made during the sessions in Geneva, targeting of rights activists, and now claiming the episode over by killing three alleged ex LTTE members under suspicious circumstances, looks like a political smokescreen operation carefully managed by the Sri Lankan military intelligence, blames TNA councillor and former parliamentarian M.K. Shivajilingam. The reaction comes after the Sri Lankan military claimed that it had slain three LTTE members who were re-organising the movement. The killings seem to have taken place in Nedungkea’ni in Mulaiththeevu district. But, the dead bodies were taken to Sinhala colony Padaviya division in Anuradhapura district. No independent journalists have been allowed to witness the episode or those slain at the claimed site where the cordon and search operation had taken place, he said.
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Namal Rajapaksa’s Mullaiththeevu operative detained on human trafficking allegation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 April 2014, 21:47 GMT]
A key operative of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling UPFA and two of his close associates have been arrested in Mullaiththeevu by the SL police on 05 April following reports from Australia that they were operating a human trafficking agency. The UPFA operative, who is a close confidante of Namal Rajapaksa, was identified as 45-year-old Arul Jenyberd, who lost in the NPC elections on UPFA ticket. In the meantime, the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) has arrested a group of fishermen on the following day at Polika’ndi in Point Pedro on allegations that they had bought a boat from money obtained from overseas, in an attempt to project them as having ‘LTTE’ connections. More than 50 people have been arrested within the last 5 weeks on various allegations by the TID.
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Peace Studies philosopher advises Tamils to tell the story with a vision

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 April 2014, 11:37 GMT]
“Let us say you have one million Tamils in the Tamil diaspora. They used to collect money for the LTTE. They collected a lot of money. Let me put it in very plain simple terms: these one million work on the media of the world and make the story better known,” said 84-year old Peace Studies Professor Johan Galtung, in an interview to TamilNet-Palaka'ni last month. Acknowledging that the Eezham Tamils face genocide and structural genocide, identifying the Mahavamsa mentality in the Sinhala-Buddhists as the impediment for solutions, and at the same time blaming the armed struggle of the LTTE as a mistake, Galtung stood by “federation with a high level of autonomy,” which he had advocated and failed during his 34 visits to the island at the time of the peace talks.
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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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SL military accelerates forced ‘resettlement’ permanently seizing lands from Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2014, 06:16 GMT]
Despite the continuous refusal from the people, the occupying Sri Lanka Army is forcefully settling Tamil people from Keappaapulavu by constructing 121 ‘sample’ houses at a jungle locality called Sooriyapuram. The houses are to be handed over in a military function scheduled to be attended by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the SL presidential sibling and defence secretary of the occupying State, who has also instructed its military Establishment to get rid of the complaints from uprooted people from Valikaamam North in Jaffna district by forcing them to accept ‘alternative’ housing schemes being offered at quarry lands in Kaangkeasan-thu'rai after permanently seizing their fertile lands from them in 24 village divisions. Also, people from Champoor in Moothoor East in Trincomalee district, currently staying in the so-called welfare camps are being harassed to accept forced resettlement.
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SL military ‘punishes’ families opposing forced conscription of Tamil women

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2014, 23:48 GMT]
More than 30 soldiers and intelligence personnel of the occupying Sri Lankan military, who came in 5 vehicles, rounded up the village of Ka'nukkea'ni in Tha'n'neer-oottu in Mu'l'liyava'lai of Mullaiththeevu district on Monday and arrested 28-year-old brother of a woman as the woman had refused to join the SL military. A Sri Lankan military commander was exerting pressure on the two survivors of a family, which lost both the parents and a sister in the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009, to enlist the remaining girl. The ‘arrests’ come as the girl declined to enlist herself and her brother too opposed the SL military, news sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet.
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SL military rule stepped up in North, wartime restrictions re-introduced

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 March 2014, 19:44 GMT]
Clamping down on civilian life in the North, the occupying Sri Lankan military has re-introduced pass system for fishermen in the North to access their seas, putting up check posts on the roads, dawn to dusk search operations and military patrols of armed soldiers in the Northern province, especially targeting coastal areas. In the meantime, the occupying Sri Lankan military has ‘arrested’ at least 44 Eelam Tamils between 07 March and 27 March, news sources in Jaffna said. Most of them have been arrested in abduction style. The iron fist control on the civilian life seeks to silence all activism and threatens the witnesses who have been prepared to witness against the genocidal crimes by the Sri Lankan State, rights activists in Jaffna told TamilNet. Civilian movement was at standstill during the nights as if a curfew has been clamped down at several locations of the peninsula.
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Tamil Nadu prisoner under Colombo’s PTA custody begins hunger strike

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2014, 10:02 GMT]
An Indian citizen from Tamil Nadu, who has been jailed in Colombo for five years, has launched hunger-strike unto death demanding his fate known to the world, after he has been subjected to severe harassment by the Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ and the prison authorities, reliable sources told TamilNet on Sunday. The victim, John Peter Vijayendran, is a political prisoner, who has been jailed in Colombo’s Magazine prison and recently transferred to a prison in Negombo, the sources further said.
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Jambu-kola-pattana

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 March 2014, 09:51 GMT]
The seaport at the point of reeds

The seaport at the point of rose apple trees
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UN resolution neither prevents nor punishes GoSL genocide, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2014, 03:18 GMT]
While noting that "“investigation” by the UNHCR is better than nothing—with all due and sincere respect for the UNHCR," Professor Boyle, an expert in international law, said, dissemination of that “investigation” will be subject to the control of the UN Human Rights Council for political reasons and the dissemination of that UNHCR “investigation” will be dragged out for as long as possible by the Human Rights Council, thus enabling the GOSL to continue its campaign of ongoing genocide against the Tamils despite the requirement of article 1 of the Genocide Convention that every UN Human Rights Council state member is obligated both “to prevent and to punish” the GOSL genocide against the Tamils," Boyle said.
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Tamil university students attacked in their homeland by Sinhala students

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 March 2014, 14:29 GMT]
All Tamil students from the first year have vacated the hostel of the Eastern University at Vanthaa’ru-mooalai in Batticaloa on Saturday following a brutal attack by Sinhala hostel inmates on 1st year Tamil students who were having a birth day party on Thursday midnight. More than 45 Sinhala students, armed with batons, penknives and iron-boxes, assaulted the Tamil students at the party causing serious injuries to 7 Tamil students. 2 Sinhala students were also injured in the clashes that followed. The Sinhala policemen at the police post had refused to intervene to stop the clash.
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Lawyers release testimony of Vipooshika, details confirm SL military trap

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 March 2014, 10:01 GMT]
Lawyers in Colombo working on a Fundamental Rights case, have released a translated text of the letter written by 13-year-old Vipooshika on what happened to them on 13 March 2014 and in the continued detention. The details given by her confirms the earlier reports of alleged trap set by the SL military Establishment and the reports of assault and intimidation. The letter further establishes how the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) in Vavuniyaa cooperated with the Sri Lankan military establishment to intimidate the women.
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Fear psychosis grips Vanni as SL military clamps down on Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 March 2014, 08:08 GMT]
The occupying SL military system, emboldened by the extension of one more year to continue its iron fist manoeuvrings to continue to engineer demographic, cultural and structural genocide on the nation of Eelam Tamils, has used 2014 March sessions in Geneva to project an enemy in its imagination, bringing again untold miseries for the thousands of families that have been affected by the genocidal onslaught in 2009. On Wednesday and Thursday, the districts of Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu witnessed military round up operations as never before in recent years after the war. Several villagers were brought to open grounds, filtered one-by-one, arrests made and threats issued by Sinhala soldiers who are made to believe by Colombo that former LTTE members were regrouping to wage another armed struggle. A fear psychosis has gripped the people of Vanni.
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Moongkilaa'ru victims slain by heavy weapons: forensic report

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 March 2014, 07:26 GMT]
A forensic team that inspected the skeletons of the victims from a bunker at Moongkilaa'ru have submitted their report to Mullaiththeevu District Court stating that they have found 11 pieces of shrapnel used in artillery and mortar shells. The 9 victims were slain in Sri Lanka Army fired shells during the mass exodus by the civilians from the so-called ‘No Fire Zone’ which was targeted by the SL military fire during the genocidal onslaught. Hundreds of civilians perished in the shelling along the road and the families and relatives were not able to conduct proper burial. Volunteers who helped to bury the victims say most of the victims buried at the said bunker belonged to a single family from Thiruvaiyaa’ru in Ki’inochchi district.
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Geneva press conference to discuss nature of US resolution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 March 2014, 20:24 GMT]
Civil society activists and Tamil politicians from the homeland join together with Diaspora activists and exiled journalists to look into the question whether the US draft resolution being framed at the Human Rights Council would be a part of the solution or part of the problem in bringing a solution to the 60-year-old genocide of Eezham Tamils in their homeland on Friday at a side event in Geneva addressing a press conference at Geneva Press Club on Friday, Professor R. Sri Ranjan from the University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada, told TamilNet on Thursday. The event would explore the multiple aspects of the resolution and whether UNHRC as a body failed in its mandate to protect a persecuted people who face a most brutal form of genocidal oppression in their homeland. The press conference will also be webcast at 11:00 a.m. CET.
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Sri Lankan TID releases Fr. Praveen, Ruki Fernando

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 March 2014, 07:51 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan Government delegation in Geneva responded Tuesday evening defending the claims of the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) to the concerns raised by several NGOs against the TID detention of the Human Rights defenders Rev Fr Praveen and Mr Ruki Fernando, both the human rights activists were released a few hours later by the TID due to mounting pressure abroad and in the island. The SL delegation in Geneva came with a ‘point of order’ statement saying that both the activists were linked to someone named K.P Selvanayagam alias Gobi, who had been overseas and was ‘reviving the LTTE’ through ‘regrouping unemployed local youth’. Tamil activist Jeyakumari was in detention for harbouring Gobi, the SL delegation said.
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Anglican priest receives death threat following reports of mass grave in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 March 2014, 03:09 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has issued death threats to Rev Fr. N. Prabahar, an Anglican Priest who resides close to Trincomalee harbour, after an alleged mass grave site has been concealed by the SL military at Makeasvara playgrounds in the stadium premises. The mass grave was discovered on 13 February. In the meantime, an NGO activist in Trincomalee, who didn’t wish to be named, said there were at least 15 skeletal remains in the alleged mass grave.
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SL military steps up harassment on IDPs as US draft drops ‘de-militarisation’ in Geneva

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2014, 23:20 GMT]
As the US draft that already failed Tamils by dropping international investigation on Sri Lankan State gets further watered down in its demands at the corridor discourse at Human Rights Council in Geneva, the occupying SL military in North and East of the island has strengthened its grip on Tamil people who have been determined with seeking justice on the ground. While those demanding the SL State to reveal the whereabouts of their missing family members in the North are subjected to harassments by the intelligence wing of the SL military, the uprooted Champoor Tamils still languishing in temporary huts in four camps in Moothoor East in Trincomalee are left to rotten with deteriorating health conditions in their camps, the women in the camps complain.
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Protesters demand immediate release of Jeyakumari

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 March 2014, 19:47 GMT]
Condemning the arrest of Jeyakumari Balendran and her daughter at Musilampaddi in Tharumapuram, Ki’linochchi and demanding immediate release of Jeyakumari who has been remanded at Boosa jail, Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) and All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) organised a protest in Vavuniyaa, which was well attended by political activists, councillors and Catholic priests and nuns, who demanded international attention and immediate release of the victim turned activist Jeyakumari.
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SLA sets arrest of teen girl and mother figured in British PM's visit to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2014, 06:20 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Ki'linochchi has arrested a 13-year-old girl and her 48-year-old mother, sending shock waves across the entire Tamil nation on Thursday. The girl, Vipooshika Balendren has become a symbol of young children seeking the whereabouts of their family members, as she used to attend the peaceful protests crying in search for her brother, touching the hearts of the people. In a move, believed to be a trap to target the girl and her mother, more than 350 Sri Lankan soldiers rounded up their village Thursday evening in an encounter like operation claiming that they were looking for a ‘terrorist’. The SL military is detaining the girl and her mother, Jeyakkumari Balendran, news sources in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet Thursday night.
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