Ex-paramilitary operative harasses Koappaave’li villagers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 December 2015, 23:36 GMT]
Former Karuna group paramilitary spokesperson Asad Moulana has been deployed to seize lands from resettled Tamil villagers at Koappaave’li village, situated on Chengkaladi – Badulla Road in Ea’raavoor-pattu DS division, complains Jeyendiran Pathmanathan, the secretary of the Rural Development Society (RDS) of the village. The former paramilitary operative, now working with SL State Minister of Rehabilitation and Resettlement M. L. A. M. Hizbullah, has already seized 3 acres of permit lands through deceiving a villager.
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SL Navy to seize more lands in Vidaththal-theevu, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 December 2015, 22:51 GMT]
Resettled Eezham Tamil coastal villagers in Vidaththal-theevu, Mannaar, urged the SL administrative authorities last week to release the seized lands that belong to 12 of 200 resettled villagers. However, the commander of the occupying SL Navy in Vidaththal-theevu, who was present at a meeting on Thursday last week, responded by declining to take the request into consideration On the contrary, the SL Navy commander said he was looking for more lands to expand the naval camp into a full-fledged cantonment, news sources in Maanthai West told TamilNet on Saturday.
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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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David in 2012: Diaspora duty-bound in advancing independent polity of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 October 2015, 23:32 GMT]
The late Gandhiyam David, when interviewed in Tamil Nadu in 2012 for TamilNet, categorically stated that an independent state for the Tamils was the only viable solution. The USA was playing “double game” behind the back of Eezham Tamils. India took a decisive role in Colombo's war against Tamils. It was Pirapaharan who defended Eezham Tamils through the army he had built up independently, he said. After decades, Colombo had realised the crucial political backing it needed from New Delhi to militarily destroy the Tamil movement and India played a key role during the Mu'l'livaaykkaal massacre, before and after that. It was only recently they are trying to get out and the Chinese are getting into their boots to transform the island into a base for Chinese politics, he said stressing that Tamils need independent people-centric mobilisation to preserve their existence as Eezham Tamils.
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Eezham Tamils in Batticaloa protest against continued suppression by Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2015, 22:52 GMT]
Resettled Tamil villagers from around 30 villages in Poaratheevup-pattu division of Batticaloa district, have complained this week that the Colombo regime and its provincial agents in East continue to ignore their requests to contain the wild elephants that have been brought from South into the jungles adjacent to their villages in Paduvaankarai. The wild elephants have claimed the lives of 5 Eezham Tamils within the last 30 days. Despite their repeated complaints, Sirisena's regime remains deaf to calls to control the attacking elephants, the villagers told TamilNet on Wednesday, two days after staging a protest in front of the divisional secretariat at Vellaave'li. In the meantime, Eezham Tamil graduates who have been neglected by Colombo in employment have launched a hunger strike demanding permanent jobs.
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Colombo's Wildlife Department harasses Eezham Tamil villagers in Maanthai West

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2015, 23:24 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military and the operatives of Colombo's Wildlife Department, have been harassing the Tamil people to vacate from Kuruvil village, situated in Paalaip-perumaa'l-kaddu GS division in Maanthai West DS division of Mannaar District. The harassment has been going on since SL President Maithiripala Sirisena came to power in January 2015. Around 70 families have already left from the village, where they have been residing since late 60s. More than 35 families are still fighting for their right to live in the village, which is located on the northeast sector of Kadduk-karaik-ku'lam (Giant's Tank). The SL Wildlife Department, claiming the village as coming under Giant's Tank Sanctuary, has filed cases against 6 families at Mannaar District Court. While the case is going on, Colombo's department has put up Sinhalicised name boards at several locations of the village.
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Champoor Tamils to join hands with Muslims in opposing controversial coal power plant

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 August 2015, 23:29 GMT]
"Our resettlement was blocked 3 times within the last 8 months between the Sri Lankan Presidential Election in January till the SL Parliamentary Elections in August. We have seen the Gazette notification, legal cases in Colombo and the SL president visiting before the election and after the election. Again, Champoor has gained focus because of the much awaited OISL report in September,” Tamil activists from Champoor told TamilNet on Saturday after witnessing the much orchestrated visit by SL President Maithiripala and former SL president Chandrika Kumaratunga. In the meantime, the people of Champoor will soon to join hands with the Tamil-speaking Muslims in Moothoor in demanding annulment of the controversial coal power plant in Champoor, they further told TamilNet.
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War-affected Women Development Society leader threatened in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 August 2015, 23:43 GMT]
47-year-old Thavapalan Piriayatharsini, who is the head of Women Development Society at Theaththaa-vaadi, a village situated near Iluppaik-kadavai in Maanthai West division of Mannnaar district, says she and her three daughters have been subjected to death threats by an unknown squad. The family has been subjected to death threats since 11 August. A group of unknown men, who came in a white van entered her house that day and warned ‘rape and death’ if she continued to give social leadership to the villagers. They were particularly angry about Piriyatharsini making demands from political parties. The threatening presence of a white van squad is still continuing, she told TamilNet on Thursday.
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Sinhala policemen harass Tamil families in Kokkuththoduvaay, Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2015, 15:12 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Sinhala policemen, operating from Karunadduk-kea'ni police station in the strategic coastal strip, from Kokkuththoduvaay to Kokku'laay, which links the Northern and Eastern provinces, have been terrorising the resettled Eezham Tamil families in recent days, news sources in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district told TamilNet on Thursday. Under the pretext of searching for illegal brewers, Sinhala policemen without uniforms enter the houses of Tamil fishermen during the nights when the men have left their houses for fishing. The SL policemen have framed a young Tamil fisherman with false charges on Tuesday.
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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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Ex-militant Tamil mother attempts suicide due to poverty, discrimination

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2015, 19:37 GMT]
An ex-LTTE female member and a mother of three children, Premalatha, was admitted to Batticaloa hospital on Saturday after a suicide attempt, news sources in Vaazhaich-cheanai told TamilNet. The discrimination and targeted isolation of former LTTE members from Batticaloa, especially those who survived the genocidal onslaught at Mu'l'livaaykkaal and resettled in Batticaloa after so-called military rehabilitation and prolonged incarceration, has not improved even after 6 years have elapsed and the regime in Colombo got a ‘facelift’ enacted by Washington and New Delhi.
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Swaminthan continues ‘facilitation meetings’ between SL military, Tamil actors in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 July 2015, 10:07 GMT]
After the Sri Lankan regime led by Maithripala Sirisena had publicly stated that the continued occupation of civilian properties and any release of them are matters decided by its occupying SL military, D.M. Swaminathan, the SL Minister of Resettlement, has been visiting Jaffna and Ki’inochchi, conducting meetings involving the commanding officers of the SL military and Tamil politicians as well as the civil groups representing the interests of uprooted Eezham Tamils. At a ‘facilitation’ meeting chaired by Mr Swaminthan at Ki’linochchi District Secretariat on Wednesday, the representatives of uprooted people refused to accept the explanations given by the Sinhala military commanders for the delay in the resettlement.
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Champoor Tamils should demand 1 bn compensation, political-demographic guarantees

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 June 2015, 22:37 GMT]
The focus on Champoor so far by the new regime has been to get rid of the Chinese-affiliated Rajapaksa's ‘development’ family enterprises in Champoor. The India-oriented project of constructing Trincomalee Thermal Power Plant (TPP) was also part of the same ‘Industrial Zone’ game, conceived by Colombo involving all the powers locked in the geopolitical game of occupation. The geopolitical exploitation and the structural genocide will continue with a new model of conspiracy, which would be hatched by involving new actors unless the Tamils conceive a concerted struggle against the game without aligning themselves with any of the players, informed civil activists in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Friday. Meanwhile, a Tamil expert on the topic was of the opinion that Tamils should demand compensation for the destruction caused to the civil property, after the military seizure.
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SL military seizes more lands at Tha'l'laadi, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2015, 23:08 GMT]
While the civil officials in Mannaar are struggling to locate lands to settle Eezham Tamil refugees, who are scheduled to be sent back from India with the facilitation by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the SL Ministry of Resettlement, the occupying SL military in Mannaar has put up noticeboards claiming ownership to more than 50 acres of public lands along the A32 highway between Tha'l'laadi and Thirukkeatheesvaram. The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has recently seized these lands near the notorious Tha'l'laadi military base, civil sources in Mannaar told TamilNet on Monday. The SL military is scheming a military cantonment to facilitate long-term Sinhalicisation of the Mannaar mainland, the sources further said.
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‘LLRC’ Palihakkara promotes pompous ceremony for genocidal ‘War Heroes’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 June 2015, 23:20 GMT]
The office of the SL Governor to North, HMGS Palihakkara, who was one of the eight panellists earlier appointed by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), was an an official co-organiser to the pompous ceremony organised together with Ranaviru Seva Authority (RSA) of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna on Wednesday. ‘LLRC’ Palihakkara himself was the chief guest of the ceremony organised in remembrance of the ‘fallen war heroes of three forces and the Police’. Mr Palihakkara has forced a section of Tamil public servants in the North to accompany him to the military ceremony. Tamil journalists in Jaffna have boycotted the event. The NPC councillors said they were not informed of public servants associated with the NPC being taken to the event.
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New SL ministry schemes Sinhalicisation through ‘cultural diplomacy’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 June 2015, 23:16 GMT]
Earlier, the occupying Colombo under Mahinda Rajapaksa, declared 11,000 acres of lands in Vangkaalai, situated in the Mannaar mainland as Vankaalai Sanctuary, coming under the control of the SL ministries and departments in Colombo in 2008. The new regime, which came to power in January 2015, is now hurriedly engaged in claiming the remaining lands, where people have resettled with housing provided through the Indian Housing Scheme. The occupation of lands go beyond Vangkaalai in Naanaaddaan into Mannaar DS division intending to chase away the entire village of Chi'runaavatku'lam, located along the Mannaar - Mathavaachchi Road, some parts of Pa'l'li-munai and a residential area near the Thirukkeatheesvaram temple, activists in Mannaar told TamilNet on Tuesday. Colombo's ministry of ‘Tourism and Sports’ is deploying ‘cultural diplomacy’ as smokescreen to advance the occupation.
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Batticaloa ignored in financial allocations for resettlement: EPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 June 2015, 22:45 GMT]
The SL Government in Colombo and the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) have failed to allocate financial resources to resettle the uprooted people in Batticaloa district, EPC Councillor R. Thurairatnam told media on Wednesday. The uprooted people from seven of fourteen divisions in the district have been struggling without proper assistance while Colombo and the EPC keep ignoring their needs despite repeated appeals, he said.
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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.
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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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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.
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