Independent media watchdogs urged to visit Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 November 2015, 21:17 GMT]
International media watch dogs, not funded by State actors or Corporates, are urged to visit Northern and Eastern Provinces in the island and record the failure of domestic investigation mechanisms of the present regime in Colombo in bringing justice to the killings, enforced disappearances and harassments that prevailed and continue to prevail against independent journalists in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. Those who ordered the assassinations of leading reporters and those who took part in the executions are still being operated by the occupying SL military in Jaffna and other places, independent Tamil journalists who are not exposed to funded agendas in the North and East told TamilNet.
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Wild elephant rampage on resettled villagers continues unabated in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 October 2015, 16:37 GMT]
The systematic ignorance by genocidal Sri Lanka to arrest the menace caused by wild elephants that go on rampage killing and maiming resettled Tamils in former LTTE-administered areas in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa, is an intentional tactic to chase Tamils permanently away from their native villages and colonise Paduvaankarai with Sinhalese, Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet on Friday. In the meantime, Yogarasa Ganesh the chairman of Rural Development Society (RDS) in Katchatkodi, a village situated in Paddippazhai division of Paduvaankarai region, confirmed that there has been no action despite repeated appeals through GS, DS officers and the provincial councillors. The SL authorities were giving better protection to Sinhala settlers in the nearby villages, the RDS chairman said when contacted by TamilNet.
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Sirisena's ministry, SL military seize more pasturelands from Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2015, 20:37 GMT]
Genocidal Colombo's Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry, which comes under the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has instructed the SL Divisional Forest Officer in Batticaloa to put up noticeboards annexing more lands to extend the Omunugala ‘Forest Reserve’ in Batticaloa district. Sirisena’s ministry is trying to attach more than 25,000 acres of pasturelands seized by the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa through SL Minister of Environment and Renewable Energey, to the so-called forest reserve. The occupying Sinhala military is blocking Eezham Tamils and their livestock from entering the pastureland. New boards have been put up with warnings and borders have been marked. However, Sinhala colonizers are being encouraged by the occupying SL military to do seasonal cultivation in the pasturelands that are being seized from Tamils under the name of ‘forest preservation’.
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Genocide not recognised, ‘Hybrid mechanism’ recommended to drag on

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, 11:21 GMT]
Not mentioning anything on genocide or future investigations on it, but projecting war crimes and crimes against humanity by both sides, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, summing up the findings of the OISL report on Wednesday at the UNHCR, said that the recommendation is for a ‘Hybrid mechanism’. Mr Zeid openly admitted that ‘change’ in the political environment is the reason for OHCHR abandoning independent international investigation mechanism that had been recommended on many occasions by his predecessor Ms Navanetham Pillay. ‘Hybrid mechanism’ missing mandate for genocide investigation is the new way for buying ‘time and space’. If the universal process of justice could be dictated by local political changes, then there is no independency or universality in UN justice mechanism, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Sinhala settlers claim ownership to Tamils' lands in Thiyaa-vadduvaan, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 21:45 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan Military and Police in Batticaloa district are attempting to transfer a section of lands seized from Tamils at Koara'laip-pattu (Vaazhaich-cheani) division to Sinhala settlers, informed civil sources in Batticaloa told TamilNet. While Tamil landowners are still struggling to get released their lands, where were seized from them in 1990, Sinhalese persons have started to claim ownership to a section of lands at Thiyaavadduvaan in the division, the sources further said.
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Deployment of SL Intelligence operatives triggers fear among villagers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 August 2015, 21:10 GMT]
Sri Lankan military has increased the deployment of Sinhala military intelligence troopers in Paduvaan-karai region of Batticaloa district, news sources in Kokkaddich-choalai told TamilNet on Wednesday. The sudden deployment of intelligence operatives has caused tension and fear among the public in Kokkaddichchoalai and other rural environs in Paddippazhai division of the district. The freedom of civilian movement has been severely restricted ahead of the SL Elections and the SL military has deployed a former Tamil paramilitary operative as a tactic to divide the Tamil votes, the sources further said.
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Buddhist military monks behind structural genocide: Tamils in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2015, 23:39 GMT]
Sinhala settlers brought down from South into Ampaa’rai under the Gal Oya scheme carried out the first ever large-scale massacre against Eezham Tamils in June 1956 when Ceylon was a British Dominion. The fundamentals for the future genocide were laid under the British rule since 1833. Invading Buddhist monks and the occupying SL military played the crucial role in the genocide project in Ampaa'rai district in the Eastern Province. The first monk entered the place Buddangala, situated 8 km away from Ampaa'rai town in 1964 with the agenda of Sinhalicisation and Buddhicisation of the Tamil villages. After the SL military seized the full control of the Eastern province from the LTTE, Major General (retd) Ananda Weerasekara, a former war criminal and associate of extremist Sihala Urumya, has been spearheading the Sinhalicisation of Ampaa'rai as ‘Buddhangala Ananda Thero’.
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New act of structural genocide seeks to uproot 3,500 Tamils from Mannaar islet

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 July 2015, 23:39 GMT]
The civil officers working under the SL Government Agent in Mannaar have been exerting pressure on 500 Eezham Tamil families living in three GS divisions within Mannaar DS division to vacate from their coastal villages in the islet and settle in alternative lands 15 km away in the mainland. The war-affected poor families, comprising 3,500 to 4,000 people, are dependent on fishing as their livelihood. They were given land deeds in the three GS divisions in 2008 and 2009. Utilized with land deeds, the families have constructed permanent houses and huts in their villages. The move would severely affect their access to the coast and their livelihood. But, the officials receiving instructions from Colombo's administrative system, are bent upon uprooting the fishing families without any promising alternative arrangements, concerned civil sources in Mannaar told TamilNet on Wednesday.
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SL Police alleged of ‘protecting’ killers of Batticaloa social activist Mathisayan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 July 2015, 23:48 GMT]
The police of occupying Sri Lanka, receiving instructions from Colombo, has suppressed details on the progress of the investigations on the killing of 43-year-old Eezham Tamil Social Service Officer (SSO) Mathisayan Sachchithanantham. The killing, which shocked the civil activists in Batticaloa, took place a month ago on 26 May 2015. Informed sources in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Wednesday that one person, having ‘high level’ connections was initially arrested from Thikkoadai and two others were later arrested on the information provided by the person arrested first. Although the entire village was aware of these arrests, the SL police has so far provided no information on the progress of the case to the concerned public, the sources further said.
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Colombo continues to deploy Wildlife Department as agent of Sinhalicisatoin

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 June 2015, 23:48 GMT]
Wildlife Department officials operating along the border of Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa have become the chief operatives deployed to drive Eehzam Tamils away from their villages in Paduvaan-karai, say civil sources at the District Secretariat of Batticaloa. The ‘wildlife’ operatives have been encouraging Sinhala colonisers to run illegal breweries to sustain their needs as well as to maintain the violent conduct of the ‘home guards’ Sinhala paramilitary. In the meantime, around 70 Tamil villagers have so far lost their lives due to the uncontained attacks by wild elephants in Paduvaan-karai area alone.
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Mathisayan's killing evokes fear among social activists in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2015, 23:06 GMT]
The killing of 43-year-old Mathisayan Sachchithanantham last Tuesday at Ma'ndoor situated 40 km south of the city of Batticaloa, has caused fear among the Eezham Tamil social activists in East. The slain victim was a leading social activist, who had confronted the previous administration of the Murukan temple, where corruption prevailed with the backing of civil administrative officers appointed by the occupying Sri Lankan State. The slain activist has also been vocal in opposing the construction of a playground at a river delta in his native village, close friends of the slain activist told TamilNet on Monday adding that paramilitary operative Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, has been backing the construction of the controversial playground. The activists say social activism among Eezham Tamils has been seriously threatened by the anti-people elements promoted by the occupying SL State.
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Violence intensified in Sinhala military-driven demographic genocide in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2015, 22:45 GMT]
The Rural Development Society (RDS) of Kachchat-kodi Swami-malai GS division is a grassroots-level attempt by the villagers to sustain the livelihood of the people who face a systematic demographic genocide along the border of Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai districts for a long time. In an in-depth interview to TamilNet, Secretary of the RDS, Mr Paramanatham, exposes the details behind the demographic genocide and the role played by the Buddhist monks, Sri Lankan Police and the ‘Sinhala home guards,’ which is an armed paramilitary operated by the occupying SL military. Mr Paramantham also details the institutionalised non-responsive governance of the Sri Lankan system, including Colombo's departments, provincial, district and divisional offices, all operating with one single aim of driving Tamils away and Sinhalicising the native villages of Eezham Tamils.
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Diaspora urged to document flow of narcotics into Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 May 2015, 15:37 GMT]
The Sri Lankan police will not be investigating to the fullest degree possible to assert what kind of narcotics were used by the gang rapists, who committed the brutal crime earlier this month, informed Tamil paramilitary operatives in Jaffna claim. The occupying Sri Lankan military has systematically deployed a number of Sinhala and Muslim narcotic sellers from South into Jaffna and Vanni over a long period of time. The Sri Lanka Navy sustains the flow of narcotics from India. Even the narcotic traffickers who earlier operated from Mannaar have shifted their activities to the islets off Jaffna in recent years. So-called rape drugs have been introduced in recent times, the Tamil paramilitary sources further say. The Chief Minister of Northern Province, Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, was also expressing the same message last week.
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I'raal-kuzhi villagers protest against sand-scooping

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2015, 20:58 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil villagers of I'raal-kuzhi, a small hamlet about 10 square km, situated along one of the two rivers where Mahaweli ganga is branching off into the sea in Moothoor division of Trincomalee district, protested on Wednesday against the unabated sand-scooping carried out by wealthy businessmen from Moothoor. The people living in the low-lying land have been struggling for long time unable to withstand the rainy and flooding seasons. The businessmen who operate with the backing of politicians in power have been engaged in the systematic exploitation for a long time. In addition to the danger of water entering their village, the systematic exploitation irreversibly destroys the environment of the region, the protesters complained.
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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.
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SL Minister's men occupy lands of uprooted Tamils in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2015, 21:27 GMT]
Around 100 uprooted Tamil families from Thaangkiyadi in Mannaar have been denied resettlement in the lands where they were living before they were uprooted in 1990. The relatives of SL Minister Rishad Bathiudeen at Thaaraa-puram have occupied the 48-acre land. There is no one to voice for the resettlement of the poverty-stricken families from the lower echelon of the society, rights activists in Mannaar said. “No-one dares to fight with Rishad Bathiudeen who hails from Thaaraa-puram, the nearby village,” a displaced Tamil villager, who visits the temple once a week, told TamilNet on Wednesday. The small temple is the only trace of the Tamil settlement at Thaangkiyadi situated 7 km north of the city on Mannaar - Thalaimannaar A14 Road.
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Karuna assaults landowner in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2015, 23:52 GMT]
An armed squad led by paramilitary operative and former SL deputy minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna) on Saturday assaulted a Tamil farmer, R. Vanaraja, while he was engaged at cultivation in his own agricultural land at Noo'ru-eakkar in Kiraan, Batticaloa. Mr Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan was claiming ownership to the land. The land was earlier under the control of the Tigers after Vanaraja family had displaced from his village. Later, Muralitharan, who defected from the LTTE had seized the land for commercial purposes, news sources in Batticaloa said.
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Victims demand immediate action against Colombo's squad in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2015, 11:02 GMT]
The families of forcefully disappeared Tamil victims in Ampaa'rai district have demanded immediate arrest and action against Karuna Group paramilitary operative, K. Pushpakumar alias Iniyabarathy, who was the Ampaa'rai district coordinator of Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and a member of the Eastern Provincial Council. After the entire Ampaa'rai district was brought under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military in 2007, more than 200 Tamil youth have been reported missing in the district after arrest or abduction by Sri Lanka military operated squads. Iniyabarathy has been the key paramilitary operative operating a squad for the genocidal SL military in the district. Iniyabarathy is blamed for the assassination of veteran Tamil journalist Aiyathurai Nadesan in May 2004. Incumbent SL president Maithiripala Sirisena was also having a hand in the paramilitary operations in the East.
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Awakening of Tamil polity evokes ‘concern’ in Indian Intelligence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2015, 23:06 GMT]
Two intelligence operatives attached to the Indian Consulate General in Jaffna and two senior intelligence officers from the Indian High Commission in Colombo hurriedly invited a section of Tamil politicians and paramilitary elements for secret consultations at the Assistant High Commission of India in Kandy this weekend after the latest NPC resolution calling for international investigation on Tamil genocide continuing for decades. The New Delhi Establishment views the call coming from hitherto gagged Tamils in the island as a ‘disturbing development’, informed sources told TamilNet on Sunday.
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SLMC, SLFP jointly seize EPC, want TNA to follow suit

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2015, 09:42 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Rauff Hakeem has seized the governance of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) with the backing of the SLFP. Fearing a possible TNA-UNP alliance in the future, the SLMC has offered the post of chair and a ministerial portfolio at a meeting that took place in Colombo on Sunday, informed TNA sources told TamilNet.
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