20% of Mannaar faces genocidal land grab, TNA activists to protest on 07 July

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 June 2012, 22:40 GMT]
The Secretary of Youth Affairs of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi and a TNA political activist in Mannaar, VS Sivakaran, told media in the island Saturday that Colombo has appropriated at least one fifth of the lands in Mannaar district for military purposes and a long-term Sinhalicisation and colonisation of the district. “The land grab in Mannaar should be seen in the light of planned Sinhala settlements, demographic changes and construction of Buddhist stupas throughout the North-East,” he said, providing a comprehensive list of focal points of the land grab in Mannaar district. Calling for a democratic civil protest on July 07 in Mannaar city, Mr Sivakaran, on behalf of the grassroot of the TNA in Mannaar has urged all Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala forces that promote justice, to take part in the civil protest on coming Saturday.
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Paramilitary groups swindle income of resettled people in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 June 2012, 18:32 GMT]
Resettled Tamil families, who are dependent on fresh water fishing in Paduvaankarai area of Batticaloa district, complain that they are being robbed off their catch by paramilitary operatives of SL deputy minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan. Paramilitary operatives, operated by the occupying Sri Lanka Army, do not allow people run their home industries such as drying their catch. The dry fish is sold at a market price of 1,100 rupees per kilo, but the paramilitary operative in the area has forced the people to sell fresh fish catch to him at 50 rupees per kilo, complain the people.
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Tamils in Germany protest India’s ill-treatment of Eezham Tamils in Chengalpet

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2012, 23:54 GMT]
Conveying solidarity with the Eezham Tamil refugees illegally detained in the Chengalpet ‘special camp’, Tamils in Germany demonstrated in front of the Indian Embassy in Berlin today, demanding India to close “such inhuman detention facilities and treat the genocide affected Eelam Tamil refugees like others who have entered its territory for sanctuary from persecution” and urging the UN to compel India to adhere to the standards of the UNHCR. Speaking at the demonstration Vithya Jeyasangar, a democratically elected Eezham Tamil representative from Berlin now working with the VETD, said “After assisting the Sri Lankan government with the structural genocide of the Eelam Tamils, and bartering with the Mahinda regime for economic slices in the Tamil homeland, India is showing its naked contempt for world Tamils through its inhuman treatment of Tamil refugees.”
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SL forces fatally attack protesting Tamil Prisoners of War in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2012, 23:46 GMT]
The forces of genocidal Sinhala State in Sri Lanka fatally attacked Eezham Tamil prisoners of war kept in the prison at Vavuniyaa on Friday. Heads and limbs broken, more than 15 of the prisoners are admitted in Anuradhapura hospital after removing them from Vavuniyaa. The condition of some of them are said to be serious. The prisoners were protesting for the last few days over the torture and disappearance of a prison mate Mr. Saravanabhavan who was taken to Anuradhapura by the SL forces. Finding their peaceful fasting campaign responded with oppression, the enraged prisoners captured three of the prison officials and were demanding the return of Saravanabhavan for their release. In a well-planned operation on Friday, SL forces that entered into the prison, first deployed tear gas shells, plastic bullets and water canon, before brutally attacking the prisoners causing fatal injuries.
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TNA politician in Ampaa'rai threatened not to contest against UPFA

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2012, 18:14 GMT]
The chairman of the Kaaraitheevu Divisional Council (Piratheasa Chapai) who was elected on the ticket of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to the civic council, has been threatened in Sinhala by telephone on Thursday, according to a complaint made at Chammaanthu'rai Police station, sources in Ampaa'rai said. He would have to face serious consequences if he failed to contest on Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the forthcoming election to the Eastern Provincial Council, which is expected to be held in September this year, the caller had said ‘inviting’ him for a meeting to the SL military camp, news sources in Ampaa'rai said.
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Colombo's CIDs grill TNA MP behind recent protests

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2012, 17:28 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police investigators in the notorious 4th floor at the Colombo Police Headquarters on Thursday interrogated Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Sivagnanam Sritharan, who has been behind the recent protest at Thirumu'rika'ndi against Colombo's genocidal land grab undertaken through occupying SL military in Vanni. The SL CIDs interrogated Mr Sritharan for three hours confronting him with questions about an interview to a diaspora radio in Tamil, an alleged interview in English in Tamil Nadu, his interactions with the Tamil diaspora in Western countries and his diplomatic connections with the foreign missions, especially his recent interactions with the US Embassy in Colombo, TNA sources said.
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TNA MP warns legal action against genocidal land grab in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 June 2012, 19:40 GMT]
From Point-Pedro in the North to Pa'nama in the East, the Sri Lankan government is suppressing Eezham Tamils from protesting against the State-sponsored land grab, which seeks to Sinhalicise the Tamil homeland, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Batticaloa P. Selvarajah said adding that a large area in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa district has been appropriated by the Colombo government for Sinhala colonisation. 25,000 acres of lands have been appropriated by Colombo in the Batticaloa district to be given to Sinhala ‘home guards’ a Sinhala-colonisation-paramilitary, he said warning legal action against providing lands to Sinhala ‘home guards’.
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Colombo deploys paramilitary operative to intimidate Tamils in PC elections in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 June 2012, 07:28 GMT]
SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa has deployed his district coordinator Kanthasamy Nishanthan alias Iniyabarathy, a paramilitary operative, to intimidate the Tamil people in the district in the run up to the next provincial council elections in the East. Iniyabarathy, an operative aligned with Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, has been found guilty by the courts of the SL State itself. The notorious paramilitary operative has been widely alleged as being behind various human rights violations in the district.
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Condition of hunger strikers deteriorates in Chengalpet detention camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 June 2012, 20:57 GMT]
As the indefinite hunger strike by Eezham Tamil refugees in the notorious Chengalpet ‘special camp’ in Tamil Nadu enters its 12th day, 9 out of the 14 inmates fasting have been hospitalized, with 8 of them in a critical condition. A total of 29 detainees, who have been locked up in inhuman conditions on charges based on flimsy grounds, have been demanding release and relocation to their families outside or to the other ‘normal camps’. But despite their deteriorating conditions and protests by political parties in the recent past, the authorities have shown silence. Speaking to TamilNet, an inmate who did not want to be named appealed to the Tamil diaspora to use their influence and to work with concerned forces in Tamil Nadu to highlight the injustices that the Tamil refugees have been facing in such detention camps in the state.
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Political parties protest against SL military land grab in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 June 2012, 23:57 GMT]
The constituting parties of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) from the North-East together with Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) led by Mano Ganesan and the United Socialist Party (USP) led by Sritunga Jayasuriya and NSSP activists from South staged a protest demonstration in front of the Pi'l'laiyaar temple at Thirumu'rika'ndi on Tuesday. Suresh Premachandran of the TNA, who was among the politicians taking part in the protest, said that the Sri Lankan military is following the Israeli model and is engaged in rapid Gazafication of the Tamil homeland.
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Colombo plans new demographic change in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 June 2012, 21:36 GMT]
After tactically promoting the Sinhala Buddhist extremist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a ruling UPFA ally of the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, to file a legal suit against a key post-Tsunami resettlement village of the Tamil-speaking Muslims in Digawapi in Ampaa'rai, the colonial state apparatus in Colombo is now scheming a demographic change in Ampaa'rai to create a Sinhala division covering the Digawapi area with other areas, civil sources in Ampaa'rai say. Digawapi is a Buddhist ‘Sacred Zone’ is the argument promoted by the exclusivist JHU and the genocidal elements in the Colombo establishment. The new Sinhala Buddhist division would be carved out from four divisions, informed civil sources Ampaa'rai say.
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Colombo schemes military enclave in Maanthai, grabs 1,500 acres of land

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2012, 23:47 GMT]
Grabbing 1,500 acres of land at Channaar Velimaruthamadu in Maanthai West of Mannaar district, the Sri Lankan military is hurriedly putting up a large cantonment with houses for military personnel from the South, according to news sources in Mannaar. The area selected for this purpose is a fertile land in the high ground near a tank where Tamil-speaking people were earlier engaged in agriculture and the jungle area has been used for slash-and-burn cultivation. Heavy machineries are deployed to clear and put up the structures for the military colony, at a strategic location, to control the A-32 Mannaar - Poonakari highway and the fishing harbour of Vidaththal-theevu which has traditionally been used by the Eezham Tamils to communicate with Tamil Nadu.
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SL military goes amok on uprooted civilians in Vanni, 2 injured, 1 suffers heart attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2012, 17:08 GMT]
Children were thrown into vehicles and the occupying Sinhala Army assaulted uprooted Tamil families using gun butts and batons Monday evening at Thiru-mu'rika'ndi Hindu Tamil Viththiyaalayam in Ki'linochchi. A section of the uprooted families who had been brought from Menik Farm by the SL military a few weeks ago had declined to accept what they called an ‘enslavement’ offer of ‘resettlement’ by the SL military. They were placed temporarily at the school. On Monday, as one day was remaining till the protest organised by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) against the military land grab assisted by China, the SL military entered the school, bargained with the families at gunpoint for more than 4 hours and finally assaulted them forcefully transporting them back to Vavuniyaa. Tension prevails at Thiru-mu'rika'ndi after the horror let loose by the SL military on the uprooted civilians.
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SL Navy chases away resettled Tamil Catholics in Peasaalai, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 June 2012, 23:50 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy on Friday chased out at gunpoint 70 Eezham Tamil Catholics, who had resettled in the lands of the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Kurusup-paadu in Peasaalai, Mannaar. The Tamil families had resettled three weeks ago in the housing scheme area of 50 houses established by the the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), where they were living since 2004 till they were uprooted in entirety in 2007. The Church of Our Lady of Victory is one of the largest Catholic churches in the island. Peasaalai is a large village, situated in the North-West of the island of Mannaar, with a population of 8,000 Eezham Tamils and 90% of the population are Catholic fisher folk while the remaining are Hindu and Muslim fisher folk. The Sri Lankan military is alleged of scheming Sinhalicisation of Thalaimannaar Pier, which is the closest point in Mannaar to the coast of Tamil Nadu in India.
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Colombo's military instructs civil officials not to voice against land grab in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 June 2012, 19:29 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army's 59-1 Brigade, which has taken over one third of the five acre land that belongs to Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat during the war, is refusing to relocate their base from the land situated in the town. Civil officials of the District Secretariat, which has been functioning without proper building, discovered that the land allocated for the new building of the DS has been encroached by the said brigade of the 51 infantry division of the SLA and that they are unable to put up new buildings to satisfy the civil need.
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SL minister Badurdeen diverts Indian aid to his supporters in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 June 2012, 23:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan minister of Industries and Trade, Rishard Badurdeen, a politician behind many controversies in Mannaar, has recently instructed the civil officials in Mannaar to divert the humanitarian aid from India, intended to war-affected fishermen in Mannaar, to his supporters in the district, according to reports from Mannaar fisheries sector sources. Mr Badurdeen has given a new list of 175 names as beneficiaries of the aid. The list prepared by Badurdeen includes only names of 12 Tamils, who are his supporters. Names of genuine fishermen are not included in his list.
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Rajapaksa's son starts human trafficking from Vanni to Australia

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 June 2012, 16:14 GMT]
Namal Rajapaksa, the son of SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been behind a human trafficking ring, which operates from Mullaiththeevu in Vanni, sending Eezham Tamils to Australia from the seas off Mullaiththeevu at a price tag of one million SL rupees per person, reveal families that have already sent their sons and daughters through the ring. Snatching away the entire coastal stretch of Vanni from Eezham Tamils, the Rajapaksa regime is also evicting them exploiting all possible avenues, concerned civil sources in Vanni said adding that the operation also discredits the asylum seekers who really need protection from the South Asian establishments.
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SL Navy plants land mines again, steps up genocidal land grab of Maathakal

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 June 2012, 17:51 GMT]
Uprooted Eezham Tamils from Maathakal West in Valikaamam South-West, who went to check their lands this week, have been chased away from entering the coastal village by the occupying Sinhala Navy, which still regards the area as it's so-called High Security Zone. The uprooted people, who have been periodically inspecting their houses in the border areas of the HSZ, usually escaping the scrutiny of the SL Navy, have now witnessed the SL Navy planting land mines again inside the HSZ where de-mining had been completed earlier. While the uprooted have been continuously staging protests against the genocidal land grab, the entire coastal stretch has been snatched away from the people by the colonial SL military that has fenced the beach for the construction of military cantonment, erecting houses for SL Navy.
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US intervention in Lee's UN imbroglio imperative, says Washington think tank

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 June 2012, 00:05 GMT]
Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank, commenting on the attempts to oust journalist Matthew Lee of Inner City Press from covering the UN, said Wednesday that the US "absolutely should stand firm in protecting the principle of freedom of the press," and "make clear to the U.N. that it [the US] supports Lee and other controversial journalists trying to retain their press credentials." Heritage's Brett Schaefer also noted that journalists commenting on investigations being carried out by the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) for "unethical and unprofessional behavior," have said that personal animosity of some members of UNCA has overridden professional judgement.
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Colombo stands exposed after attack on democratic protesters: Tamil politicians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 June 2012, 16:35 GMT]
The General Secretary of Democratic Peoples Front (DPF), Kumaraguruparan, who participated in both the protests in the city and in Thellppazhai in Jaffna this week told media that the way the Sri Lankan legal system and the police were deployed, and the way the peaceful protesters were attacked while they were returning home, raised questions whether the SL State wants the people to opt for an armed struggle again. Such suppressive and violent responses by the SL state apparatus has justified the armed struggle waged by Tamils in the past, he said. “You don't attack buses carrying participants of a peaceful protest,” he said. In the meantime, grassroot political activists in Jaffna also recalled that the participants who went in a bus to attend the annual meeting of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), which was held in Batticaloa were also subjected to a similar attack.
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Colombo deploys riot police, blocks protest against land grab in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 June 2012, 11:47 GMT]
Riot control commandos of the Sri Lankan Police were deployed in large numbers Tuesday morning confronting hundreds of peaceful protesters, who objected the land grab being undertaken by the occupying SL military inside the so-called High Security Zone. The protesters were demanding immediate resettlement in Valikaamam North. Parking several vehicles across the road and deploying armed riot commandos, the officers of the SL police told the protesters that they would not be allowed to march on the KKS Road to hand over a petition at the Divisional Secretariat in Thellippazhai. The protestors have given one month for the SL authorities to respond and have warned to step up the protest campaign unless there was no favorable response by the SL government to their demands.
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SL Minister Devananda threatens civil protest in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 June 2012, 05:20 GMT]
Speaking in line with the SL courts in Jaffna on Monday, EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda, who is a minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet, threatened protesting volunteer teachers from Vanni, declaring that if he uttered the word ‘postpone’ to the SL authorities, their appointments would be put on hold forever. Seating besides Maj. Gen. (retd) GA Chandrasiri, the colonial military governor of North, Mr Devananda, in a discriminating tone, said that the SL president doesn't like those who protest. The volunteer teachers, who have served for more than 12 years without SL government salary in Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts, have been promised permanent employment each time they were staging protests, but find them discriminated on every occasion. On Monday, they were protesting outside the provincial education ministry situated in Nalloor, Jaffna.
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Civil disobedience against occupying SL military's land grab gains momentum

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 June 2012, 15:14 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police in Jaffna on Monday blocked a protest that gained momentum receiving wider participation against the occupying SL military's land grab in the peninsula. As hundreds of activists gathered in front of the Jaffna Bus Stand, the SL Police appealed to the Judge of the District Court stating that the Police had information that 'destructive elements' were about to use the protest to disturb normalcy in the city and blocked the protest at last minute. The protest, initiated by the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) and attended by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mano Ganesan's Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) and the leftist parties from the South as well the support it received from the Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) and the trade unions including the teachers trade union, marked the protest as first of its kind in the post-war scenario in the peninsula.
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Tissainayagam challenges Mohan Peiris statement to UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 June 2012, 03:18 GMT]
Award winning Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who was incarcerated in Sri Lanka prison for his writing, refuted statement made by the former Attorney General of Sri Lanka, Mohan Peiris, to the UN's Committee Against Torture that Tissainayagam accepted complicity in the charged crime [of supporting terrorism] by expressing remorse in the letter requesting Sri Lanka's President for a pardon. Publishing the full text of the letter, Tissainayagam told a Colombo paper that "any allusion to my admitting complicity is completely false," and added that he only apologized for any embarrassment that his writing may have caused Mahinda Rajapakse or his Governement.
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Planned omission of Tamils from voters registry alleged in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 June 2012, 20:20 GMT]
As part of its tactics in demographic manipulations, the Colombo government has deleted the names of a section of Tamil voters from the village of Aa'rumukaththaan-kudiyiruppu in Chengkaladi DS division of Batticaloa district, a civil official told TamilNet Sunday. Around 300 names of voters belonging to 138 Tamil families of the village have been deleted from 2011 voters’ register, the official said.
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SL Navy blocks resettlement-seeking Tamils from entering Mu'l'likku'lam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 June 2012, 04:28 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy Friday morning stopped a group of 75 uprooted Tamil families, who were demanding resettlement in Mu'l'likku'lam village in Musali DS division of Mannaar district. Earlier, on Wednesday, the uprooted Tamils met the Bishop of Mannaar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, and requested their Catholic priests to accompany them in their effort to gain access to their native village that remains occupied by the SL military since September 2007. Responding, the Parish Priests of Thoaddave'li and Chilaavath-thu'rai, Rev. Fr. Nehru and Rev. Fr. Rasiah, accompanied the villagers. However, the SL Navy camped at Mu'l'likkulam junction stopped the uprooted Tamil families stating that they had no permission to enter the village. The families immediately sat in front of the SLN camp and staged a protest till they were forced to relocate to a nearby locality, Periyaku'lam.
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Defender of Tamil sovereignty selected for Queen's Jubilee medal in Canada

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 June 2012, 11:13 GMT]
Krisna Saravanamuttu, a second generation Eezham Tamil youth activist in Canada, is set to receive the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal next month. The 26-year-old Mr. Saravanamuttu, who was nominated for this award for his work within the Tamils in Canada and the broader Canadian community by Cabinet Minister in charge of Training, Colleges and Universities Mr. Glen Murray, has been in the forefront advocating the need for an independent international investigation into the war crimes and genocide of Eezham Tamils by Sri Lanka. He has also been demanding a referendum among the Eezham Tamils on the basis of historical, earned and remedial aspects of Tamil sovereignty as the only means to check the protracted genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation.
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Eezham Tamil football players take part in Viva World Cup for first time

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 June 2012, 21:13 GMT]
Competing with other nations without states, “Tamil Eelam Football Association”, an Eezham Tamil diaspora football club participated in VIVA 2012 World Cup for the first time this year. Making it’s debut on 6th June, TEFA, a football team comprising of players from across the world, participated in the tournament at Erbil, Kurdistan, scoring the first victory for Tamil Eelam in football on Saturday in a match against Raetia. The newly assembled football team of young Eezham Tamils won one match out of four, rank seventh in the tournament. The tournament was won by Iraqi Kurdistan, with Northern Cyprus as runners up and Zanzibar in the third position.
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Book of veteran Eezham Tamil writer published in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 June 2012, 20:53 GMT]
A collection of writings on the antiquity and traditions of Eezham Tamils written by Mayilangkoodaloor P. Nadarajan was launched at I’nuvil in Jaffna on last Sunday. 76-year-old Mr. Nadarajan has spent a lifetime in Eezham Tamil studies, editing old texts and in bringing out valuable publications. He is regarded as a symbol of selfless service to Tamil studies, benefitting school children to university academics. Generations of writers, researchers and publishers were benefitted by his editing skills in Tamil.
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US music group boycotts Sri Lanka event

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2012, 10:52 GMT]
Big Mountain, a US-based reggae music group with origins from San Diego, declined an invitation from Sri Lanka to participate in a reggae festival to be held in Colombo. The band, which was named Big Mountain, in protest to colonization by Europe, said in a statement that they "feel that to play a concert of this type, at this moment in time, would help to gloss over or legitimate conditions of systemic violence that have transpired in that region and towards indigenous populations in particular."
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New Buddhist stupa constructed in Pachchanoor village in Moothoor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2012, 10:41 GMT]
A Buddhist Vihara has been constructed in Pachchanoor, a village in Moothoor DS division of Trincomalee district, by the Colombo government and its Sinhala Buddhist clergy with the backing of the occupying Sri Lanka Army under the patronage of the SL presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, news sources in Moothoor said.
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US Ambassador meets Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2012, 10:28 GMT]
The United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Patricia Butenis, Wednesday, during an official visit to Mannaar, paid a courtesy call to Rt. Reverend Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannaar Diocese, and talked to him for more than three hours on the current situation faced by Tamils in the NorthEast, sources close to the Bishop said.
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Jaffna civil activist, family attacked by masked gang

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2012, 09:57 GMT]
An unidentified gang wearing masks entered the residence of Cancer specialist at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, Dr Jeyakumar, in Kantharmadam Wednesday midnight and attacked Jeyakumar and his family, sources from Jaffna said. While all members of Jeyakumar family escaped with minor injuries, the intruders ransacked the house, destroyed the windows, poured waste-oil inside the rooms and fled when the family switched the lights on and screamed to awaken the neighbours.
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Colombo exerts political influence on government employments in East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 June 2012, 08:02 GMT]
Unemployed Tamil graduates in the Batticaloa district are being forced by the Colombo government through its colonial agents in the Eastern Province to join SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), to get job opportunities in the government sector. 2,800 unemployed graduates attended the interview examinations held at district secretariat last week.
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Gotabhaya plans psy-ops newspaper in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 23:12 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's defence establishment led-by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa plans to start a daily newspaper with the name ‘Thamizh Naatham’ in Jaffna by appropriating the building and assets of the former daily Namathu Eezhanaadu. The move for the psy-ops war through a new newspaper directly run by the SL military establishment comes in, because of the failure of the EPDP's Thinamurasu and the Jaffna edition of Thinakaran, run by SL government-controlled Lake House of Colombo in winning the hearts of the masses in the country of Eezham Tamils to the satisfaction of the occupiers, informed sources in Jaffna said. In the late 1980s, the occupying IPKF tried a similar move by running a newspaper ‘Viduthalai’ with the backing of the EPRLF.
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Indian casino comes to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 15:26 GMT]
Delta Corp, a listed gaming company of India led by Jayadev Mody, has acquired 11 acres of land near Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo to build a fully integrated entertainment hotel/ resort, the company informed Bombay Stock Exchange. "Sri Lanka, post the end of the three-decade long civil war, is now witnessing a tourism and industrialization boom. Delta Corp hopes to have an early mover advantage and be part of this growth," the company was cited saying by The Economic Times, Monday. Casinos are always a prerequisite in the development of any regional or international hub of economic and social crimes, commented political observers in the island.
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UK’s soft policy towards Rajapaksa, despots criticized by British journalist

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 June 2012, 21:28 GMT]
“Appearing at events such as the jubilee is a PR gift to heads of state with poor human rights records, giving the impression that they're just like any world leader. It also encourages a sense of impunity,” writes British journalist Joan Smith, criticizing the presence of Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations last week. In an article published on The Independent on Sunday, Ms. Smith notes how a soft policy of Western governments in general, UK in particular, towards despots and war crimes accused leaders like Rajapaksa encouraged blood baths in countries like Syria. Emphasizing the need to send a strong message to rogue states, she stressed the need for UK to announce a boycott for the proposed CHOGM meeting in Sri Lanka in 2013 and to call for an independent inquiry into Sri Lanka’s war crimes.
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Occupying SL military threatens uprooted Tamils of Thirumu'rika'ndi in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2012, 15:13 GMT]
Lands that belong to 183 Tamil families in Thirumu'rika'ndi in Ki'linochchi district have been appropriated by the occupying Sri Lanka Army for a military housing scheme. The Tamil families have filed cases in law courts pleading that they should be allowed to resettle in their own lands in Thirumu'rika'ndi. In the meantime, the SL military intelligence officers visit each family, who reside in Vavuniyaa, and intimidate them to withdraw their cases and to settle at a different place.
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Civic bodies in Jaffna resolve not to provide lands to SL military

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2012, 12:21 GMT]
The civic bodies in Jaffna have resolved that they would not allow the lands that come under the authority of the civic bodies to be appropriated for military purposes. “As the elected members of the public, we are not going to allow the lands to be deployed for the construction of military cantonments against the will of our people, whom we represent,” was the decision taken by all the civic bodies, a TNA politician in Jaffna told media Sunday. “The decision was unanimous,” the sources further said.
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Batticaloa University protests political capture of its council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 June 2012, 23:39 GMT]
The Eastern University in Batticaloa is helpless to political appointments made to its governing council by Colombo, said the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, Professor K. Gobindarajah, following a recent appointment to the council backed by SL Deputy Minister V. Muralitharan alias Karuna causing the students to boycott classes for the third day on Saturday. The appointment of Dr Jaffer, director of the Kalmunai Base Hospital, to the council membership vacated by the demise of Fr. Sylvester Sritharan, is aimed at capturing and silencing the spirit of the university by paramilitary groups operating with the regime in Colombo, said students in Batticaloa. Such appointments theoretically made by the University Grants Commission are dangerously politicised in recent times especially with the universities in the north and east.
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Chammaanthu'rai Tamils, Muslims oppose land appropriation causing tension

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2012, 23:48 GMT]
Tamils and Muslims at the Koarakkar village of Chammaanthu'rai in Ampaa'rai district of the Eastern province, oppose an appropriation of Tamil land for the construction of a mosque that causes tension between communities. 250 Tamil families of the village were displaced in 1990s after communal disturbances between Tamils and Muslims. When the families returned recently, they have found some of their lands appropriated for the construction of a police station. In addition, a land that had been earlier allotted for the construction of a cooperative society by the family of K. Tharmalingam, has been now appropriated for the construction of a mosque, despite the presence of two more mosques within 500 meters.
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Sinhala militarisation expanded in Jaffna contrary to claims: Jaffna Paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2012, 23:30 GMT]
Contrary to news reports released by Colombo that it has drastically reduced the number of troops in the North, the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna peninsula has been stepping up land grab for military purposes in recent days even outside of the so-called High Security Zone and former Forward Defence Lines in the Jaffna peninsula. Uthayan Tamil daily, published in Jaffna, on Thursday broke a front-page story that SL military has begun to appropriate 61 acres of land in the peninsula from the civic bodies and private owners in three divisions. After already grabbing thousands of acres of land, the genocidal SL military has now set afoot to appropriate 35 acres in Thellippazhai division, 24 acres in Jaffna division and 2 acres in Nalloor division of the peninsula.
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New US envoy to Colombo has Iraq, Lebanon experience

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2012, 20:50 GMT]
The US ambassador-designate to be sent to Colombo, Ms Michele Sison is currently assistant chief of mission for law enforcement and rule of law at the US embassy in Baghdad, AP reported Wednesday. Her earlier experiences include ambassadorial assignments in Lebanon and United Arab Emirates. Sison said the U.S. was looking for "near term progress" by Sri Lanka, particularly in setting a date for provincial elections in the country's north and demilitarization of former conflict zones.
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Canadian Tamils join protesting Queen hosting Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 23:53 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in Canada protested the hosting of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the British Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations on Wednesday. The demonstration took place in front of the British Consulate-General in Toronto. The Queen of England is also the head of State and Queen of Canada. The protesters displayed placards calling SL President Mahinda Rajapakse as a war criminal and shouted slogans against the ongoing genocide against Eezham Tamils. They also condemned Sri Lanka's membership in the Commonwealth.
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Kellner: Rights improvement by Colombo imperative to prevent 2013 CHOGM disaster

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 22:58 GMT]
"Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse should not have been allowed to attend the jubilee celebrations. The mistake of inviting him was not made by the Queen or the Buckingham Palace; the mistake was made by the Commonwealth in the last summit at Perth where they took no action against mounting evidence of human rights violations exposed by Channel-4 among others," the Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Peter Kellner, said, adding the "next Commonwealth summit expected to be held in Sri Lanka next year will be a disaster if there is no marked improvement in human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Sustained protests carried out by large numbers of Tamil expatriates marked Rajapakse's presence in UK, and fearing disruption to businesses in London his speech to the Commonwealth Business Council was cancelled Wednesday.
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Gagged Tamils in Jaffna symbolically protest British unitary legacy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 15:10 GMT]
Marking the day the diamond jubilee celebrating Queen of England dining with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of the genocidal State of Sri Lanka, Eezham Tamils gagged in the island chose to symbolically burn the unitary constitutions of British legacy in Ceylon, starting from 1833, and the republican constitutions of 1972 and 1978 of Sri Lanka, at a British colonial cemetery in Nalloor, the last capital of the Tamil Kingdom of Jaffna. A group of students arriving in vehicles symbolically laid the 7 unitary constitutions in the form of placards at the St. John’s cemetery in Jaffna, and after placing a wreath, burnt them on Wednesday. As attack and intimidation by the occupying military have silenced the activities of the Jaffna University Students’ Union, another set of students outside of the university carried out the protest even under the gagged circumstances, sources in Jaffna said.
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Rajapaksa for jubilee protested by 19 parties, civil groups in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 12:58 GMT]
Political parties, including mainstream parties, Communist Party of India (CPI), MDMK and VCK, and civil groups of Muslims, youth, students and women including the May 17 movement – altogether 19 organisations and two prominent individuals led a demonstration and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy British High Commission in Chennai on Wednesday, protesting the British government inviting Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the diamond jubilee celebrating 60 years of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Reminding the UK government of its international obligation to deal with a war criminal, the memorandum also urged the UK to work for the removal of Sri Lanka from the commonwealth.
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New Zealand Tamils protest Queen dining with genocidal Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 10:24 GMT]
Braving biting winter and incessant rains, Eezham Tamils in New Zealand staged a demonstration on Tuesday in the capital Wellington and in the commercial capital Auckland, protesting the diamond jubilee celebrating Queen Elizabeth II dining with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the genocidal President of Sri Lanka. Synchronized with protests in London, the demonstration on the other side of the former British Empire where the Sun was never setting gained significance, as the Queen of England is also still the Head of State and Queen of New Zealand. Speaking at the demonstration, Queen’s Service Medallist in New Zealand, Mr. A Thevarajan pointed out how the colonial British administration, which for the first time introduced unitary state formation in Ceylon, ignored historical sovereignty of Tamils and denied even federalism due to its sluggishness.
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Paramilitary groups deployed to grab coastal lands in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2012, 22:06 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army has deployed paramilitary groups to grab lands that belong to Tamils along the coastal belt of Ampaa'rai. The lands seized from Tamil owners are later sold to settlers and businessmen from the South by the SL military. The paramilitary operatives, who interfere in land issues, have also been used by politicians to appropriate public lands. Latest reports from Kaaraitheevu division say that a Tamil politician, with the backing of paramilitary, now claims the ownership of a plot of land allocated for the construction of a children park in the beach of Kaaraitheevu village that comes under the Kaaraitheivu DS division in Ampaa'rai district.
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Rajapaksa's proposed speech at Economic Forum cancelled

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2012, 21:16 GMT]
The Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) cancelled the morning sessions of the Diamond Jubilee Commonwealth Economic Forum where genocide accused Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was due to speak Wednesday. On their site, the CBC stated that “After careful consideration the morning sessions of the Forum on Wednesday 6th of June have been cancelled and will not take place.” However, informed sources told TamilNet that the event was cancelled owing to fear of massive protests at the venue of Mansion House, which is near the Bank area in London, and problems of policing a demonstration of large proportions.
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Sinhala Army destroys statues of historic Saiva temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 June 2012, 23:56 GMT]
The Sinhala military occupying Batticaloa has destroyed several tradtional stone-statues at the historic Thaanthaamalai Murukan temple, situated in Paddippazhai DS division of Batticaloa district. The temple, revered by Saivaites in the East as ‘Chinna Kathirkaamam’ and the land of 25 acres around it, were declared in 1959 as a Saiva Sacred Area according to the decree entered by the Court of Law in Ceylon. The area, which was safeguarded by the Tamil Tigers for more than 12 years since 1994, has now been subjected to the intrusion of Colombo's Archaeology Department and the SL Army after the war. The villagers allege that Colombo is attempting to construct a Buddhist stupa on the land that belongs to the historic Saiva temple.
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Rajapaksa at Queen's Jubilee a blot: Queen's Award recipient

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 June 2012, 03:30 GMT]
“It will be a blot on modern world history if war criminal Mahinda Rajapakse is to be allowed to dine with Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II on the Diamond Jubilee celebration. We are proud of her regime but sad about this intrusion of a war criminal,” said Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) recipient, Mr. A. Thevarajan in New Zealand, remembering Mu’l’livaaykkal genocide in a gathering at Auckland on 19 May, which was addressed by politicians of NZ, Mr Phil Twyford, Labour MP and Ms Jan Logie Green MP. Responding, a new generation political activist in Jaffna asked how the global Tamils living all over the former empire, where the sun was never setting, are going to mark their protest in contemporary world history for the insult shown to the genocide-affected nation of Eezham Tamils by Her Majesty’s Government in the UK.
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Visiting alleged war criminals fear arrest in UK despite changes in law

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 June 2012, 01:37 GMT]
Major-General Doron Almog, a senior Israeli officer of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Southern Command cancelled his planned trip to attend a fund-raising dinner fearing arrest in Britain, Middle East Monitor reported in the June 01 edition. In December 2010, a suspect Sri Lankan war criminal, Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of the then Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London, escaped arrest by his premature departure from Britain, and in September 2011, Maj.Gen.(Retd.) Jegath Dias, deputy counsel in Germany was recalled by Colombo after being informed of imminent investigations by Swiss Government over allegations of war-crimes charges.
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ICC a fraud, goes only after Africa's tin-pot dictators, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 June 2012, 00:09 GMT]
Commenting on the recent sentencing of Charles Taylor by the UN's Special Court for Sierra Leone (SC-SL) for 50 years and the ruling by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) giving life imprisonment to Rwanda's Nzabonimana, Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law, who teaches at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet, that UN's "International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a joke and a fraud. I supported it originally. But no more. It has no credibility whatsoever. It [ICC] just goes after tin-pot dictators in Africa while real war criminals such as Bush...get off scot-free... I am keeping Rajapaksas et al on my list of things to do," Boyle said.
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Rajapaksa’s confirmed London visit elicits Tamil protests

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 June 2012, 10:46 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s scheduled visit to the British Monarch’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations next week and his planned speech at Mansion House, and the UK government’s endorsement of the genocide accused Sri Lankan president drew protests from hundreds of Eezham Tamils at a demonstration organized by the Tamil Coordinating Committee-UK (TCC-UK) at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London on Friday. “The invitation of Mr Rajapaksa who is manipulating geopolitical rivalries at the UN to evade international law flies in the face of the Commonwealth's claimed values of human rights and international law,” Sasithar Maheswaran from the TCC-UK told TamilNet.
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