Colombo to ‘expand’ bird sanctuary to harm territorial-integrity of Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 July 2017, 17:43 GMT]
The occupying ‘Sri Lanka’ is once again actively engaged in scheming seizure of 36,000 acres of lands in addition to the lands it has already grabbed during the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa in Chu'ndik-ku'lam in Vadamaraadchi East under the pretext of ‘bird sanctuary’. Another sinister move is now under way under the so-called expansion of Chun'dik-ku'lam Bird Sanctuary into a ‘National Park’ of genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’. The SL Wild Life Department is organising a ‘special meeting’ on 8th August before the seizure is to be officially gazetted, informed civil sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Monday. In the meantime, the occupying SL military is expanding its military corporatism as well as harbouring the intruding Sinhala fishermen. The SL Navy has been blocking Tamil fishermen from entering the coastal stretch.
Full story >>

Indian mission in Jaffna entertains Sinhala monk engaged in controversial Vihara project

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 July 2017, 20:47 GMT]
Consul General of India in Jaffna A. Natarajan was visiting the Chief Incumbent monk of Nagadeepa vihara in Naiyinaa-theevu, Navadagala Paduma Kiththi Tissa Thero on Wednesday. The CGI visiting the Sinhala-Buddhist monk at Nayinaatheevu, who is treated by the occupying Sinhala Navy as a commander as standing above the executive SL President, is sending wrong signals to Eezham Tamils and the people of Tamil Nadu State in India, commented Tamil political activists in Jaffna. The extremist monk who doesn't adhere to the civic rule or the provincial council in North has recently recommenced the controversial construction of 67-feet Buddha statue. The visit also comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the island on International Vesak Day two months ago.
Full story >>

Nullified ownership of lands not revoked by Colombo: resettled Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 June 2017, 23:40 GMT]
Occupying Colombo has once again proved its systematic violation of traditional land ownership rights of Eezham Tamils to their private lands in Champoor, complain representatives of Vinaayakar Community Centre (Chana-chamooka-nilaiyam) from Champoor in Moothoor East of Trincomalee district. The families in Champoor had residential and agricultural lands as combined tracts of lands that measured from 0.5 acre to 2 acres per family before they were uprooted from their village in September 2006. Now, the occupying Colombo wants to limit their ownership rights to just 20 perches per family, the representatives of Vinaayakar Community Centre told TamilNet on Friday.
Full story >>

Global ‘environment funds’ deployed by Colombo to seize lands in North-East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2017, 17:26 GMT]
Global Establishments seem to be extensively involved in channelling funds to Colombo through the so-called ‘environmental’ and ‘forest preservation’ projects that are conceived by the SL State and Colombo- and Sinhala-centric NGOs, which derive their funds from global programmes associated with the programmes being promoted by global Establishments, particularly the outfits of the West. In order to secure such funds, the agent-State in Colombo is relentlessly seizing the lands of Tamil-speaking peoples in the North and East. Retired Land Commissioner of Eastern Province, Mr Kathirkamathamby Kurunathan, in an interview to TamilNet this week was citing Gazetted seizure of lands from Musali in Mannaar to Ampaa'rai in the East and illustrated how these appropriations were circumventing even the safeguards of the SL Constitution and the principles of natural justice.
Full story >>

Northern fisheries federation issues ultimatum to Colombo before Narendra Modi’s Vesak-visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 May 2017, 23:00 GMT]
Just ahead of Indian PM Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to the island on International Vesak Day, the SL regime in Colombo has started to exert pressure on Tamil-speaking fishermen associations in the North to collaborate with Colombo’s ‘friendly gesture’ towards New Delhi through to back the move of releasing a section of trawlers that had been seized from intruding Indian fishermen in the past. In the meantime, the Federation of Fishing Associations in North has warned Colombo against releasing the Indian trawlers without their consent and reminded Colombo about the 6 demands that have been put forward by the associations one month ago in a direct meeting with SL Fisheries Minister. The leader of the federation was reluctant to reveal all the 6 demands, but reminded the SL State that the federation would be forced to initiate next phase of the struggle, unless Colombo failed to act.
Full story >>

Genocidal Colombo schemes fresh Sinhala military colony in Champoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 May 2017, 19:41 GMT]
After a prolonged period of discrimination against the resettled Eezham Tamils in Champoor and keeping the resettled people under military conditions, the occupying SL Navy in Champoor has now started to scheme a Sinhala colony for 145 families of the occupying SL Naval training base named Vidura (SLNS Vidura). The Sinhala colonial Governor to the Eastern Province, Kalupage Austin Fernando, a former Defence Secretary of the occupying Sri Lankan military and Sinhala Government Agent of Trincomalee District, N.A.A. Pushpakumara, another Sinhala official of Colombo have made the necessary arrangements. Initial work has already started for the construction of houses. A hospital and a Sinhala school are also included in the plan, informed Tamil-speaking sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet this week.
Full story >>

Genocidal ‘development’ abetted by global partners seeks to wedge North-East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 May 2017, 22:52 GMT]
The occupying Colombo is trying to seize lands in the Tamil-speaking Kuchchave'li division of Trincomalee district in the Eastern Province to construct housing schemes for Sinhala settlers who have been moved out of their lands that were taken over by the SL Irrigation Department for the construction of Yan Oya Reservoir close to Wahalkada in the Horowpothana division of Anuradhapura district in the North Central Province. As the reservoir projects that targets to empower the Sinhala colonists in Anuradhapura North to spearhead the genocidal wedging of territorial integrity of Tamil homeland in the Eastern Province, are to be complete soon. The Tamil-speaking people in Kuchchave’li now face the Sinhala encroachment.
Full story >>

Fisheries federation in Jaffna demands direct talks with SL President, FM and Fisheries Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 May 2017, 21:11 GMT]
On the occasion of International Day of Vesak, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the island. The SL Fisheries Ministry that suppresses Eezham Tamils, particularly between Kokku'laay and Thiriyaay along the northeastern coast, is trying to release the trawlers that have been seized from the intruding Indian fishermen. Tamil fisheries societies in the North have come under pressure from Colombo to collaborate with Colombo and New Delhi to the move by the SL State. V. Subramaniam, who represents the federation of fisheries societies in Jaffna told TamilNet that their federation has demanded a direct meeting with SL President Maitiripala Sirisena, SL Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and SL Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amarasinghe on the burning issue of intruding trawlers from India and the Sinhala South into the territorial waters of Tamil-speaking people.
Full story >>

Colombo's ‘resettlement’ assistance traps Champoor Tamils into private mortgage

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2017, 23:33 GMT]
Many families among the resettled Tamils in Champoor are now trapped into taking huge loans in order to complete housing to qualify ‘resettlement’ assistant from the genocidal State of Sri Lanka, right activists in Trincomalee say. The Divisional Secretary of Moothoor Division, who is tasked with the delivery of so-called resettlement assistance from the SL Ministry of Resettlement, has been repeatedly telling the ‘beneficiaries’ from Champoor to take up loans and complete the construction of houses on their own in order to receive monetary assistance through the SL government programme. Trusting the promises, several families have taken up private loans with high interest rates. Some of them have even handed over their land deeds to external agents as security for their loans. They are facing the risk of losing their lands.
Full story >>

From ‘grease devils’ to ‘peace devils’, genocdial military's new shadow war against Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2017, 23:28 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala soldiers, deployed in surveillance against Eezham Tamils and the SL police providing judicial armour to the military, have again started to respond with violence against Tamils in villages where the people have mobilised demanding de-militarisation and answers from the SL State and its international backers on the whereabouts of their loved ones subjected to enforced disappearances. Two violent incidents have shaken the Tamil people in Vadamaraadchi East. In the meantime, the Sinhala military which posed as ‘grease devils’ in 2011 is now deploying ‘UN white-washed’ genocidal tanks staging patrols and exercises threatening Tamils. Eezham Tamils have now started to grasp the political and military dimensions of an international order that has been consistently backing the physical and structural genocide against them, commented Tamil activists in Vanni.
Full story >>

Muslims, Tamils protest against Colombo’s land grab in Musali, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 March 2017, 07:02 GMT]
Around 150 Tamils are staging a continuous protest demanding Colombo to release the lands seized by the occupying Navy at Mu’l’lik-ku’lam in the Musali division. In the meantime, more than 50 Muslims from Ma’richchuk-kaddi staged a protest condemning the Colombo government, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena and the SL Forest Department for having annexed their residential areas as part of the Vil-pattu reserved forest. Extremist Buddhist monks have been exerting pressure on SL State to Sinhalicise the reserved forest of Tamil-speaking peoples into Wilpatha. Despite repeated protests by Tamil-speaking Muslims, the Colombo Establishment, both during the times of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena, has been trying to seize the lands of Muslim residents.
Full story >>

Collaborate with Colombo or get lost in Geneva: SL President tells Tamils in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 March 2017, 23:22 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena who visited Jaffna on Saturday was reiterating the same words of former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa at both the military and civil event in Jaffna. His visit was fully packed with military events except a single event, which was a PR stunt of launching the “Tell the President” office in Jaffna. Mr Maithiripala Sirisena, who has been claiming earlier that he was also in command of the final phase of Vanni war in his capacity as a deputy defence minister in 2009, was addressing the SL military in Jaffna on Saturday vowing not to allow anyone to subject the troopers of the three armed forces to stand for criminal trials in connection with alleged war crimes. During his trip, Sirisena was not prepared to meet the demonstrating women who were searching for their kith and kin or the graduates demanding jobs.
Full story >>

Wickramasinghe protects unpunished war criminals of SL Military Intelligence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 March 2017, 20:35 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has secretly launched a plan to erase the records of military intelligence officers and operatives of the Military Intelligence who have been named with command responsibility by the affected victims and their families, particularly the kith and kin of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of occupying Sri Lankan military after MI operatives carried out arrests, detentions and abductions during the presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa. In an effort to get rid of the details of those named by the victims, the military intelligence officers and operatives are being transferred to separate divisions or offered early retirement, informed EPDP paramilitary sources told TamilNet on Saturday.
Full story >>

SL military threat against civil organisations reaches serious level in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 February 2017, 22:47 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military was directly controlling the civil rights of the Eezham Tamils under the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa. But, the SL military under the joint regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe, has chosen much worse forms of controlling the underlying social fabric of Eezham Tamils in the Eastern Province, complain Tamil activists from Rural Development Society (RDS) organisations and women’s rural organisations in Batticaloa district in the East. SL military intelligence, which has gathered details of RDS activists and the details of their families, has been exerting pressure on the activists to operate as its informants. All the RDS organisations in the 14 divisions of Batticaloa district are facing the same threat and harassment from the SL military.
Full story >>

LRC Director narrowly escapes assassination, land disputes in Batticaloa take violent turn

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 23:50 GMT]
Batticaloa District Director of Land Reforms Commission (LRC), Wimalarj Nesakumar, a Tamil from Ka'luthaava'lai, was shot and seriously injured by two unidentified men around 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Mr Wimalaraj, who emerged from his residence as unknown men wearing helmets called him by name, was shot at least three times. The attackers intended to kill him, his family told the SL Police. The LRC Director has sustained three gunshot wounds. The terrible incident has taken place at a time when the LRC Director was involved in exposing the nature of land grab in the ‘public lands’ in Ea'raavoor, according to informed civil sources. Some sections were quick to blame Muslims due to the nature of land grab at Eea'raavoor, while others say there could be deeper ‘counter insurgency’ motives behind the timing of the violent act.
Full story >>

Resettled government servants in Champoor complain of ethnic discrimination

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 February 2017, 23:07 GMT]
176 public servants, who are among the resettled Eezham Tamils in Champoor, are being systematically discriminated in the provision of governmental and non-governmental assistance for their resettlement after being uprooted from their own lands in Champoor. From Colombo's UNP-influenced administrative hierarchy to the Tamil-speaking Divisional Secretary of Moothoor, the entire administrative mechanism of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has been operating against the resettled Champoor Tamils. While the structural discrimination has been institutionalized in the ‘Sri Lankan’ system, the officials of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have also not been able to assist the people cutting the red tape of the anti-Tamil establishment operating against the resettled Tamils in Champoor.
Full story >>

Sirisena accelerates ‘Army and Archaeology’, Ampa'rai becomes first target in 2017

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2017, 23:48 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has officially assigned SL military-run ‘Civil Defence Force’ the responsibility of guarding SL 'Army and Archaeology' paradigm from January 2017. Allocating more than 100 million rupees to Defence Ministry which comes under his direct rule, Mr Maithiripala has assigned weapons, ammunitions and armed personnel through the CDF to SL Archaeology Department, news sources in Colombo said. Commenting, Tamil-speaking Muslim activists in Ampaa'rai said they were being increasingly targeted by Sinhala extremist ‘Archaeology and Army’ paradigm being waged against them by H.B.A.K. Nilmalgoda, the assistant director of Archaeology for Ampaa'rai and Batticaloa and the Director General of Archaeology Department in Colombo Senerath Dissanayaka.
Full story >>

TNA should quit constitutional steering committee: EPRLF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 December 2016, 20:26 GMT]
The position of the TNA was that talks on political solution should precede the discourse on constitutional proposals. This has not taken place. The parties comprising the TNA are kept at dark by Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran. The duo has completely disregarded the exercise of participatory democracy of others in the TNA alliance, including the majority of other ITAK parliamentarians, said EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran on Wednesday this week. Except some ‘secret meetings’ organised by SL Foreign Ministry at Singapore and in London with some of their collaborators in the Tamil diaspora, the duo have kept the entire Tamil nation uninformed of their work, Mr Suresh Premachandran said.
Full story >>

UN has abandoned Champoor Tamils: EPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 December 2016, 23:30 GMT]
The uprooted Eezham Tamils in Champoor were formally allowed to resettle in August 2015 and 906 families have moved into Champoor by March 2016. The Colombo government has failed to deliver even the basic facilities to the resettled people. So far, only 50 permanent houses have been built. Around 700 families were not provided with even temporary shelters. Only 350 temporary shelters were provided to the resettling people. More than one year have passed since people started to move in with hopes of resettlement. The Colombo government has even failed to provide assistance to government servants numbering around 110 among the uprooted people apart from latrines to 16 of them. When Tamil politicians approached UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, it simply said there was no funds allocated for the region, says EPC Councillor K. Nageswaran.
Full story >>

Ownership of released Champoor lands not transferred to people from SL State

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 December 2016, 21:41 GMT]
Maithiripala Sirisena, the president and the commander-in-chief of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, has not legally released the lands back to the resettled people in Champoor. In May 2015, Mr Sirisena issued a Gazette notification revoking and setting aside the previous alienation of the lands to the Board of Investment, which was carried out by Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2012. However, Mr Sirisena has avoided to revoke the original acquisition of the lands from people, which was carried out according to a previous order under the clause of the proviso to S.38A of the constitution of the unitary State in Colombo. The lands where people have resettled are still ‘State property’ according to the law of genocidal Sri Lanka.
Full story >>