Swaminathan blames SL military for failure in releasing lands, resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 June 2015, 23:22 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister of Resettlement and Reconstruction Mr D.M. Swaminathan, who visited Jaffna on Monday publicly admitted that his ministry was been unable to release lands and provide for resettlement of the uprooted people from Valikaamam North as it had been promised by himself earlier. The SL military has not been cooperating as required in the release of lands as promised, the powerless Colombo-based Tamil minister said passing the blame from political leaders to the occupying military establishment. The visiting UNP minister was addressing the elected representatives, civil officers and the organisations representing the uprooted Tamils from Valikaamam North at two places, in Thelliappazhai and at the Jaffna District Secretariat.
Full story >>

Avurik-kaadu, Vearkkuththik-kadavai, Beru-wala

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 June 2015, 22:05 GMT]
The place found with dense growth of indigo plants

The dye-root diggers' place to pass through

The place found with dense growth of indigo plants or the jungle of Agrotistachys indica shrubs
Full story >>

NPC Councillor condemns premature donor-brokering involving Tamil diaspora

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 June 2015, 15:51 GMT]
Tamil diaspora groupings don't need to get locked into any premature donor-brokering process that enables the Sri Lankan regime to claim that a domestic process of so-called reconciliation was being agreed upon by the Tamil diaspora, Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam told TamilNet on Monday, responding to the news of a premature donor brokering by third parties through a South Africa facilitated twin-track process. All the donor States have their development agencies through which they can assist the resettling people in Valikaamam, Champoor and in other places, Mr Shivajiingam told TamilNet adding that Tamil diaspora should be firm in effecting internationally-guaranteed and internationally-mediated solutions including an international investigation on genocide as demanded by the Northern Provincial Council.
Full story >>

Chaa'ndaam Poakkaddi, Ve'l'laam Poakkaddi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2015, 18:18 GMT]
The land-part of toddy-drawers or oil-millers

The land-part of cultivators
Full story >>

Swaminathan's secretary admits SL military delaying release of lands

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2015, 23:07 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government, which recently released some pockets of lands in the occupied Valikaamam North, has come up with a ‘new excuse’ for the delay in releasing the lands back to the people at a meeting held at Jaffna District Secretariat on Friday. Ranjini Nadarasapillai, the secretary of UNP's appointed parliamentarian and SL Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Affairs, D.M. Swaminathan, has admitted that a scheduled announcement of releasing more lands has been delayed, as the SL military commanders were yet to utilise her ministry with the list of new slots, civil officers who attended the meeting told TamilNet. The ITAK Leader and TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja, who hails from Valikaamam North, was disappointed with the progress.
Full story >>

Why no Gazette notification on release of lands, asks retired Land Commissioner

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 2015, 23:18 GMT]
It's not merely enough to allow the people to resettle in the lands that were seized from them by the previous regime, which applied the proviso to 38(A) of the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) under the guise of ‘public use’ in permanently converting the lands for the use of Colombo's military. The new regime should issue fresh Gazette notifications of the lands, which it claims to release back to the people. Only then the people will have legal ownership to their lands, says retired Land Commissioner of the Eastern Province, Karthirgamathamby Kurunathan, in an in-depth video interview to TamilNet this week. Why are the Tamil politicians not demanding the new regime to issue such Gazette notifications to revoke the land grabs that were carried out with the obvious agenda of Sinhala chauvinism by the previous regime, he asked.
Full story >>

PTF continues to control NGOs assisting resettling people in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2015, 21:57 GMT]
Non Government Organisations trying to assist the people who wish to resettle in the pockets of lands released so far in Valikaamam North are instructed to seek permission from the so-called Presidential Task Force (PTF), which is dominated by military commanders and secretaries of various ministries in Colombo. Local NGOs that attempted to put up temporary huts in Valikaamam North have been instructed by the SL Government Agent to approach PTF clearance, says Shageevan Shanmugalingam, an elected civic representative who also leads a welfare organisation for the resettling people in Valikaamam North.
Full story >>

IC should act on de-militarisation of Valikaamam, Champoor: Shageevan

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2015, 23:29 GMT]
Without de-militarisation, it is not possible to achieve proper resettlement, even at the minimum standard in the military-occupied former High Security Zone in the North and in the Champoor region in the East. “The international community knows this very well. But, it intentionally avoids putting forward this as a demand,” says S. Shageevan, the deputy chairperson of the Divisional Council of Valikaamam North and the president of the welfare association of uprooted people from Valikaamam North. The International Community has been allowing the previous and current regimes in Colombo to buy necessary “time and space” in Geneva and in New York after 2009. It was during this time Colombo transformed the former High Security Zone into a permanent military zone, he further said, urging the Tamils to focus on making the IC to act on the demand of de-militarisation.
Full story >>

Colombo's propaganda on releasing lands in former HSZ proves futile

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2015, 21:08 GMT]
After making propaganda announcements naming entire GS divisions as to be released for resettlement in Valikaamam North and Valikaamam East, the Sri Lankan State and its occupying military, once again demonstrated on Saturday that only a small pocket was being released, that too under appalling conditions of militarisation near Chaanthai Junction in Valikaamam North. The people of Thaiyiddi and Mayiliddi who went there to see their lands had to return without gaining access to their lands. The SL military has put up fences around the pockets of lands being released to the public while maintaining the militarisation of the occupied villages with all their military installations being intact, the people of Thaiyiddi said.
Full story >>

Sri Lankan police at war with Tamil journalists in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2015, 22:44 GMT]
A two-member squad, dressed in civil clothes, was trying to knife three journalists in Jaffna after chasing them in a motorbike for 2 kilometres at Nalloor on Tuesday night. The journalists were returning to their offices in two motorbikes after collecting news of a hunger strike when the incident took place. The journalists managed to escape from the attackers and rushed to the Police station in Jaffna to lodge a complaint on the assassination attempt. At the police station, they saw the motorbike of the attackers parked inside the premises and the alleged attackers were a police inspector and a sergeant. The police officers at duty refused to file the complaint from the journalists. In the meantime, another reporter from Point Pedro has been remanded on Wednesday for filing a story about an attempted rape of a school girl by a police constable belonging to Nelliyadi police station.
Full story >>

Colombo stages ‘deceptive resettlement’ in isolated pockets within military zone

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2015, 23:38 GMT]
The uprooted people from Valikaamam North, who were disappointed to see that their residential lands not released as promised by the Colombo regime, gathered on Friday at Vasaavi'laan MMV to discuss the next course of action. The civic representatives from Valikaamam North complained that the SL military wants to maintain the former High Security Zone as Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) while selectively allowing Tamil civilians into isolated pockets surrounded by military cantonments and business establishments run by the SL military within the SMZ. In the meantime, Non Governmental Organizations have also conveyed their reservation to the SL Government Agent in Jaffna in sending their employees into these pockets, informed civil sources at the District Secretariat of Jaffna told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Priests blame SL military for desecration of Catholic ashram in Vasaavi'laan

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2015, 23:35 GMT]
Catholic priests who inspected the 90 acres of released lands in Vasaavi'laan East (GS Division of J/244) in Valikaamam North, Jaffna, say that proper resettlement is not feasible without getting the remaining residential and agricultural lands released. The access road, cut off by the SL military should be restored, they said. The Roman Catholic school and the main church of the village are still occupied by the SL military. The first indigenous contemplative congregation (Ashram) of the Catholic Church in Asia, has been released. But, it is fully ruined. The entire building has been robbed of everything, except the walls, Catholics priests in Jaffna said. TamilNet publishes a short video of the first visit by a section of Catholic priests to the convent of the Rosarian Sisters (nuns) in Vasaavi'laan East.
Full story >>

SL Military motives questioned while Colombo trio visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2015, 23:19 GMT]
The SL military has suddenly fenced off a crucial link road in the area supposed to be handed over back to the people of Vasaavi'laan East, just one day ahead of the much-orchestrated visit to the area by the Sri Lankan President Maithiripala Sirisena together with SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga. On Sunday, Northern Provincial Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran visited the area and was shocked to see the link road been fenced off by the SL military. The Chief Minister said the lands have not been released as promised by the Colombo government. Only a small area has been released, he said questioning whether there was a conflict between the Colombo government and its military or whether there was anything else. The people are disappointed to see that the lands have not been handed over as promised by the government.
Full story >>

Colombo stages eyewash resettlement amidst military cantonment in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2015, 23:11 GMT]
211 families, who registered on Friday to resettle in Vasaavi'laan East in Valikaamam North and were allowed to visit and see their villages, have complained that the Colombo regime was still upholding the militarisation of their villages in the former ‘High Security Zone’. The SL military is still occupying their residential areas. Even the few houses situated in the area being released to the people have been totally demolished while the houses within the areas fenced off for continued military use are intact. In addition, most of the lands being released are either agricultural lands or quarry lands unfit for resettlement or agriculture, they complained. The SL military is still occupying the fertile agricultural lands, which have been converted into farms run by the military.
Full story >>

Jaffna voices grief at Indian PM's cosmetic visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2015, 13:19 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to North ended up as a ceremonial tour on Saturday. The uprooted people, who were promised resettlement, just one day ahead of his visit to Jaffna, complained that the occupying Sri Lankan military was robbing even the remaining roofs of their houses till the last minute. The families of the victims of enforced disappearances, who marched from Jaffna Bus Stand to the office of the Consulate General of India at Nalloor, were disappointed to learn that Mr Modi was visiting the North-East after advising the TNA Parliamentary Group in Colombo to ‘re-strategize’ its approach and maintain ‘patience’ with regards to what it expects from the new regime in Colombo. They urged the Indian PM to exert pressure on Colombo to act without further delay.
Full story >>

Indian consulate attempts to prevent civil mobilisation during Modi visit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 2015, 23:32 GMT]
The officials at the office of the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Jaffna have been urging the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, provincial councillors and civic members not to promote any peaceful rally during the visit by the Indian Prime Minister to North. The CGI officials in collaboration with a section of Sri Lankan officials have also instructed the government officials to suppress public mobilisation. A representative of War-affected people's group, Mr V. Sahathevan, who is waging a three-day fasting in front of the Public Library of Jaffna was insulted on Thursday as the Municipal Council officers removed his banner and his temporary hut. However, a section of the public organisations in Jaffna have announced a peaceful rally on Saturday with 10 demands addressed to the visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Full story >>

ITAK youth wing leader urges Tamils not to be deceived by deviators

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2015, 13:01 GMT]
There is no change in Sri Lankan military deployment in the Tamil homeland. On the contrary, the SL military seems to be enthusiastic about setting up bigger noticeboards than before along the border of Valikaamam North ‘High Security Zone’ said VS Sivakaran, the youth wing leader of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in a video interview this week. “However, a section among Tamils are being deceived to expect that there will be positive changes and that the SL military deployment would be reduced under Maithiripala Sirisena,” Sivakaran said. “But, this is not going to happen,” the ITAK youth wing leader said. The USA and India wanted to reverse the Chinese influence in the island. They needed a regime change, which they got. But, this has taken place at the expense of the political aspirations of the small nation of Eelam Tamils, he said.
Full story >>

UK minister cites ‘other stakeholders’ in furthering Geneva investigations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2015, 20:35 GMT]
The visiting British Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire in Jaffna said that there was no change in British position on proceeding with Geneva-based war crimes investigations. But, there are also other stakeholders behind the Geneva discourse, the visiting British minister told the Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran. In the meantime, Conservative and Labour MPs who debated the developments in the island of Sri Lanka on Wednesday that took place in British parliament have recognised the crime against Tamil civilians as genocide and have called for continuation of Geneva-based investigations as a necessary step for reconciliation. Yet, the British politicians' framework continues to harp on ‘unitary Sri Lanka’ and ‘minority Tamils’, British Tamil activists lamented.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Aalang-ka'ndu, Cheathupathiyaar-ka'ndu

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2015, 14:56 GMT]
The part or enclosure identified with a banyan tree

The part or enclosure of a person named Cheathupathi
Full story >>