Another Tamil political prisoner goes on hunger-strike at New Magazine Prison

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 December 2015, 17:21 GMT]
32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, a former member of Jaffna Municipal Council, who has been detained in Colombo since July 2010 after being accused of attempting to assassinate Douglas Devananda, a former SL Minister and the leader of the EPDP outfit. The SL 'Terrorist' Investigation Division (TID) had arrested Mr Murugiah during the Rajapaksa regime and produced two cases, one in Vavuniyaa and another in Colombo. The High Court in Vavuniyaa had dismissed his case as his ‘confession’ had been obtained under torture. Mr Douglas Devananda has declined to witness against Mr Murugiah and openly urged for the release of the prisoner. However, the SL TID and SL Attorney General's Department have been trying to file a third case against Murugiah with the intention of keeping him detained indefinitely, informed legal sources told TamilNet on Thursday.
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Hik-kaduwa, Kadu-wela

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2015, 23:20 GMT]
The forest of Hik trees

The jungle paddy field
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Hunger-striking political prisoner transferred to Colombo prison

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2015, 20:47 GMT]
The police officials of occupying Sri Lanka have hurriedly transferred the Tamil political prisoner, Jeneevan Sivarasa, from Jaffna prison to Colombo prison on Wednesday following instructions from SL Attorney General's Department, informed sources told TamilNet. The sudden transfer, against his will, comes following a failed attempt to convince the 36-year-old prisoner to abandon his fast-unto-death campaign through false verbal promises. 36-year-old Jeneevan from Achchuveali, Jaffna, began fast-unto-death campaign at Jaffna prison since Monday.
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Missing persons' families resolve to boycott Paranagama Commission

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 December 2015, 23:43 GMT]
The organisations representing the kith and kin of the enforced disappeared Eezham Tamils from the 8 districts of the country of Eezham Tamils came together in Jaffna on Tuesday to denounce the Sri Lankan Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), which is also known as Paranagama Commission. The families of the missing persons have jointly decided not to take part in any sittings, scheduled to take place at the various Divisional Secretariats in the Jaffna District between 11 and 19 December. The families, expressing solidarity with the Tamil prisoners who have exposed the deceptive designs of the Sri Lankan State have also resolved to step up their protests, including fast-unto-death, in the coming days.
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Tamil political prisoner, subjected to indefinite detention, goes on fast-unto-death

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 December 2015, 22:10 GMT]
36-year-old political prisoner Jeneevan Sivarasa, who has been indefinitely detained without trial for 9 years, on Monday launched fast-unto-death in Jaffna Prison. The SL military had detained Jeneevan Sivarasa, who hails from Achchuveali in Jaffna, in 2006 while he was on his way to Polonnaruwa from Batticaloa. An Assistant Superintendent of Police, Senakumara Singhe, who had fabricated a false confession from Jeneevan, has been systematically avoiding presenting himself at every hearing scheduled during the past 6 years at the High Court in Jaffna. Each time, the Tamil prisoner was taken to Jaffna from Colombo and his case was being postponed indefinitely. There are three cases framed against Mr Sivarasa and two of these were fabricated cases of conspiracy to assassinate Maithiripala Sirisena, who is the incumbent SL President.
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Case for Reparations for Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 December 2015, 19:28 GMT]
MacArthur fellow Ta-Nehisi Coates's historical narrative of the troubled history of racism in the US, which rekindled serious debate on systemic discrimination of blacks, starting with slavery, provides a stark parallel to a similar history behind Eezham Tamils from 1940s, about a decade before Ceylon gained ‘independence’. Similar to Coates characterization of white supremacy that lies at the core of the broken social contract for blacks in the U.S., the Sinhala Supremacy within the ruling elite and Sinhala population in general, is the root of the decades long evil oppression of Tamils, descending to State sponsored mass killing of Tamils leading to genocide. It is ironic that those accused by Coates, the past and current US policy makers, are now aiding and abetting the Sinhala supremacist political class to relegate the Tamils to subservient second class citizenship in the island.
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Colombo harasses Senthuran’s family, insults Tamil political prisoners

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 December 2015, 23:45 GMT]
Unidentified Sinhala operatives in civil cloths, claiming as intelligence wing officers of the occupying Sri Lankan military, as investigators from the ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) and as police officers attached to SL Criminal Investigation Department (CID), have been continuously and systematically harassing the grieving family of 18-year-old Tamil student Senthuran Rajeswaran, who committed suicide last week in Jaffna, relatives of the family told TamilNet on Friday. The A/L student killed himself a day before Eezham Tamils observed Tamil Eelam Heroes Day. Senthuran left behind a letter demanding immediate release of Tamil political prisoners languishing in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka.
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American Corner’s “Kozhampa Yaathraa” in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 December 2015, 23:30 GMT]
Those who were reading ITAK’s Suthanthiran newspaper of 1960s and 1970s would recollect how the weekly had to regularly fight against Colombo’s corruption and Sinhalicisation of Tamil language, stemming from contemptuous attitude of “Perun-thesiyam” (i.e., the genocidal nationalism in other words, and even today we have some ‘Marxists’ who see the Tamil struggle as “Ku'run-thesiyam”, i.e., narrow nationalism). After the three decades interlude of Tamil militant struggle, nothing has changed, except for the fact that the USA is now leading Colombo’s outlook of linguistic genocide, commented Tamil activists in Jaffna citing “Kozhampa Yaathraa” call of “American Corner” in Jaffna.
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Heroes Day addresses in diaspora slam ‘US-Sri Lanka’ agenda on Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 November 2015, 17:52 GMT]
Thousands of Diaspora Eezham Tamils gathered in several cities across the globe on Friday marking Tamil Eelam Heroes Day and passed a sharp message to the unitary State of Sri Lanka and to the powers that steer the UN discourse to whitewash the genocidal State through perfunctory investigations and biased presentations of past crimes for their geopolitical benefits. Eezham Tamils were already aware of the nexus between New Delhi and Colombo. Now, Tamils have also realised the real nature of the smoke-screen discourses in Geneva and New York, which have actualized the ‘US-Sri Lanka consensus resolution’ upholding the Colombo-centric unitary State of Sri Lanka. Eezham Tamil activists of the first- and second-generation diaspora responded with direct messages to the US-Colombo nexus at Oslo in Norway and at Fribourg in Switzerland.
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Colombo withdraws police protection to NPC members after Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 November 2015, 09:19 GMT]
While keeping genocidal military for ‘State’ protection, Colombo regime has suddenly withdrawn police protection given to Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members Sunday morning. “It may have something to do with the democratic political voicing of their feelings and concerns by our Members yesterday (27 November 2015),” NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran noted while reminding the Senior Deputy Inspector General W.S.U Fernando in Jaffna that the “police must not get involved in tit for tat” situation. The NPC CM has sent the letter as a matter of urgency to the DIG, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Tamil student in Jaffna commits suicide demanding release of political prisoners

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 November 2015, 08:39 GMT]
Leaving behind a letter demanding the Maithiripala regime in Colombo to immediately release Tamil political prisoners, 18-year-old Advanced Level Arts section student of Kokkuvil Hindu College, Senthuran Rajeswaran from Koappaay North, sacrificed his life Thursday morning by jumping in front of a speeding ‘Sri Lankan’ train at Kokkuvil junction. “In Tamil Elam, always loving Tamils,” he ended his letter just a day ahead of Eezham Tamils world over observing the Tamil Eelam Heroes Day.
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Theravada Buddhism worse than Brahmanism in language replacement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 November 2015, 23:54 GMT]
Pali-based Theravada Buddhism, especially its Sinhala version, is historically worse than Sanskritic Brahmanism in language replacement and denial of linguistic rights of peoples in their religious pursuits. Tamils in their long civilization have seen all the religions through their language, and from time to time have been rebelling against all kinds of oppression coming through them. In this respect the atheist Dravidian movement set an example to entire South Asia and the Tamil militant struggle upheld the legacy. Tamils will come out with fitting answer to genocide coming through religion and to the international paradigms harping on religions in the game for world monopoly, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics responding to the Nayinaa-theevu question.
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NPC reiterates not to change name of Nayinaa-theevu islet off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 November 2015, 17:29 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) officials on Tuesday released a letter to media, which it recently sent to the SL Minister of Provincial Councils & Local Government Mr Faiszer Musthapha, reiterating NPC's demand on the continuation of the historical Tamil name of Nayinaa-theevu (Nainathivu) islet in the official records. The Colombo regime, in a recent Gazette notification relating to the delimitation of wards 08 and 12 of Veala'nai Divisional Council, had deployed a Sinhala term in Tamil as "Nagadeepam" ("Nagadeepa" in Sinhala) to denote the residential wards under three GS divisions in the islet. The NPC had earlier complained in writing to the SL Minister opposing the name change on 06 November. However, the SL Minister was later twisting the issue other way around in the media reports in Colombo.
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Kænda-gas Mankada

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 November 2015, 16:07 GMT]
The road-part or the ferry point found with Kænda trees
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Samantha Power rehabilitates genocidal Sri Lanka: Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 November 2015, 20:41 GMT]
"Power’s visit is just a public relations exercise designed to rehabilitate the genocidal GOSL government. In other words, Power has become an Accessory After The Fact to the GOSL genocide against the Eelam Tamils. Power has now become part of the GOSL’s “Problem from Hell,” said Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law and who teaches at the College of Law, University of Illinois, after following the events of Ms Samantha Power's visit to Sri Lanka this weekend. Criticizing Ms Power for avoiding questions on genocide, Boyle said, Power was guilty of unwittingly exhibiting racial bias in asking Tamil journalists whether they trusted Colombo, while she never would have asked the white-skinned Bosnian Muslims if they trusted the genocidal maniacs running the Government of Republika Srpska.
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Samantha Power evades questions in Jaffna on Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 November 2015, 22:22 GMT]
Placing high hopes on Colombo regime that it will act positively to accountability demands of the US, and that there would be a vibrant civil society, lasting democracy and increased prosperity in the island, the visiting US Ambassador to United Nations, Ms Samantha Power, in Jaffna, dodged questions on the need for investigations on Tamil genocide, when journalists in Jaffna met her at the Jaffna Public Library on Sunday. During the tightly scheduled visit to Jaffna, Ms Power met with SL Governor to North, NPC Chief Minister and his ministers, toured the offices of the Uthayan newspaper and ceremonially opened a new science building at Jaffna Osmania College, constructed with 450,000 USD aid from the US Pacific Command. The Tamil-speaking Muslims in Jaffna had experienced “ethnic cleansing” even before the term was coined, Power said in her Osmania address.
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Kadawatha, Galle Four Gravets

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 November 2015, 15:36 GMT]
The border post

Galle town area within the four border posts
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Habara-kada, Wæli-kada

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 November 2015, 10:16 GMT]
The forest of Wæddas (hunters) or the forest of Habara trees

The sandy piece of land
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Political prisoners call off hunger strike, issue new ultimatum with global struggle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 November 2015, 07:38 GMT]
Following Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran's request to call off the hunger strike with a promise to undertake a global campaign for their release, the prisoners of war and political prisoners in the SL prisons on Tuesday have called off their hunger strike. After Justice Wigneswaran's visit to New Magazine prison on Monday, D.M. Swaminathan, the newly upgraded SL Minister of ‘Prison Reforms’, was also visiting the prisoners with the offer of sending around 70 prisoners to ‘military rehabilitation’ instead of releasing them with the recognition of ‘political prisoners’. The remaining prisoners have set December 15 as ultimatum before commencing their final fast-unto-death. The political prisoners have assigned the responsibility of advancing their cause to the Northern Provincial Council and the Tamil Diaspora.
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Hunger strikers: ‘USA, co-sponsors of consensus-resolution responsible for our fate’

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 November 2015, 14:10 GMT]
The political prisoners and prisoners of war, waging hunger strike inside the Sri Lankan prisons for the 10th day told TamilNet Monday morning that the United States, which authored the consensus resolution with the genocidal State of Sri Lanka and the sponsor-States that passed the resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, should now ensure the release of the political prisoners languishing in the jails of occupying Sri Lanka through making the SL President declare them as political prisoners entitled to general amnesty. The prisoners of war and political prisoners demanded the officials at the diplomatic missions in Colombo to visit and witness their plight in person.
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