43 Reports

War-displaced without housing assistance now stranded roofless by heavy rains in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 October 2012, 23:50 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr Pon Selvaraja has said that the Sri Lankan state has not taken any step till today to provide permanent housing schemes for people affected by war and natural disasters in the Batticaloa district. In 2006, all civilians fled from their houses to elsewhere for safety when the occupying Sri Lanka Army launched multi-barrel artillery attacks (MBRL) towards Paduvaan-karai. The displaced only received Tarpaulin roofing sheets from NGOs. The SL government omitted the names of the victims from the list of displaced families disabling them from receiving cash relief or dry rations. The argument put forward by the Colombo government at that time was that the occupying Special Task Force (STF), a notorious commando unit under the SL police deployed in combat operations, was providing protection to the displaced people.
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‘Resettled’ people stranded by heavy rains in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2012, 23:31 GMT]
Heavy rainfall, reported amidst cyclone warning, has stranded thousands of people living along the coastal stretch of Mullaiththeevu and Vadamaraadchi East without shelter and food. The people of Keappapulavu, recently left under the trees by the SL military that has occupied their lands, are the worst affected in Mullaiththeevu district. In the meantime, the occupying Sri Lankan military has hijacked the assistance that was supposed to be provided by the civil authorities to the affected people. The SL Government Agent of Mullaiththeevu, Mr N. Vethanayakam, hesitant to to disclose the details of the displacement, has been instructed by Colombo to receive humanitarian assistance through the SL military, informed sources at the District Secretariat told TamilNet on Wednesday.
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North-East experience heavy rains with strong winds

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 October 2012, 13:46 GMT]
Normalcy has been completely disturbed in North-East following heavy rains with strong winds since Sunday. 187 mm rain fall was recorded in Trincomalee and 41.2 mm in Jaffna and Batticaloa for the last twenty four hours at 8:30 a.m. Monday, according to SL Department of Meteorology. The depression in the Bay of Bengal was centered about 250 km east of Mullaithivu coast at 02.00 a.m. on Monday. It is likely to move in westward direction and deepen in to a deep depression.
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‘Reject LLRC based solutions, work with nations without states’: Tamil Nadu activist

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 October 2012, 04:07 GMT]
Arguing that LLRC based political solutions were a trap of International Community of Establishments (ICE) to let Sri Lankan state escape prosecution for the charges of genocide and war crimes, environmental activist from Tamil Nadu, Srinivasa Rao, accused the ICE and India for abetting the genocide of the Eezham Tamils for geopolitical interests in an interview on Palak’ani. Conversing with the presenter V. Kohulan, he further appealed to activists in the Eezham Tamil diaspora to work beyond the structures of establishments to build solidarity with nations without states facing similar oppression. “Without struggle we cannot achieve our goals,” he said, urging the Eezham Tamils to join hands in struggle with other nation without states.
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SL military, paramilitary embark on ‘legal intimidation’ against Tamil media

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 October 2012, 15:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka's military establishment and EPDP paramilitary opt for new ways in recent times to suppress media critical of the SL defence ministry and its paramilitary operatives. Sri Lanka's military commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya has reportedly filed a defamation case against Jaffna-based Uthayan daily and SL minister Douglas Devananda, who is also the leader of EPDP paramilitary, has filed a similar case in the courts in Jaffna demanding a huge sum of compensation against a WikiLeaks-based story filed by the paper, media sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. Sri Lankan Defence Ministry, led by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has found ‘legal operations’ more effective than ‘white van operations’ in silencing critical media, journalists in Colombo said adding that the role of ‘registered’ media in the island has now come to almost an effective end.
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Church vandalized in Trincomalee, mosque burnt in Anuradapura

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2012, 12:13 GMT]
Unidentified gangs, believed to be Sinhala extremists, have destroyed a statue at a Catholic church located at Paazhaiyoottu in the Trincomalee Divisional Secretariat division Friday night. In the meantime, Thakka Mosque has been put on fire Saturday early morning around 2:30 a.m. on Hajji festival day at Sinha Hanuwa in Malwathu Oya at Anuradhapura district, news sources in Trincomalee said.
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High SL military intelligence protection marks Chinese envoy visit to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 October 2012, 19:50 GMT]
The visit of the Chinese ambassador in Colombo, Wu Jianghao, to Jaffna on Thursday was conspicuous of the SL military intelligence protection he was getting, perhaps the highest a foreign visitor to Jaffna was getting in recent times, news sources in Jaffna said. Usually, SL police in the peninsula or ministerial level security officials provide security to visiting foreign dignitaries. But, top officials of the SL military were looking after the security arrangements to the Chinese envoy. In giving protection, he was surrounded by more than 6 SL military intelligence officers, clad in civil clothes. The SL military intelligence personnel did not allow journalists to get closer or to interact with the visiting envoy.
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UPFA minister Hizbullah allegedly sabotages housing grants for poor in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 October 2012, 19:27 GMT]
MLAM Hizbullah, the SL deputy minister of child development and women's affairs in Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling UPFA, has allegedly instructed the divisional secretary of Kaaththaankudi SHM Muzammil to ignore the list of poverty stricken beneficiaries compiled by 18 village (GS) officers, placing instead his list of UPFA supporters as recipients of a housing grant under the ‘Shelter to the Nation’ housing development that comes under the SL ministry of Housing & Common Amenities, which is led by SL minister Wimal Weerawanse, the former propaganda secretary of the JVP and a Sinhala extremist ally of SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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SL military appropriates Tamil lands in Ampaa'rai to construct cantonment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 October 2012, 22:34 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army has been constructing a permanent cantonment in an area in extent of 60 to 100 acres, whch is situated in Va'laththaap-piddi in Chammanthu'rai DS division of Ampaa'rai district. The militarisation of the Tamil area targets Sinhalicisation, say Tamil leaders pointing that there is an elite commando unit of the Special Task Force (STF) already stationed 2 km near the area at Sadayanthalawa and another SLA camp is situated 7 km away.
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Colombo discriminates Ampaa'rai Tamil villages in fund allocations: TNA councilor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 October 2012, 17:26 GMT]
The Sri Lankan state in Colombo continues to systematically ignore development of Tamil areas in the Ampaa'rai district of the Eastern Province under the district development programme, says A. Kalaiyarasan, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) elected councilor at the Eastern Provincial Council. The SL authorities show interest in implementing development programmes by allocating more funds to Sinhalese and Muslim villages, excluding Tamil areas, Kalaiarasan says further adding that only 9.8 percent (131.4 million rupee) of the total funds, allocated for the implementation of ‘national development programme’ in the district, has been allocated for Tamil villages in Thirukkoayil Tamil division, Aalaiyadivempu, Chaainthamaruthu, Kaaraitheevu, and Naavithanve'li.
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Solidarity activists protest UK deportations of Eezham Tamil asylum seekers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 October 2012, 00:20 GMT]
Condemning deportations of Eezham Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka by the UKBA, solidarity activists staged a demonstration near Heathrow, London today. The protest called for by an anti-deportation group ‘No Borders which saw the participation of mostly non-Tamil activists, also had participation of activists from Tamil Solidarity. Meanwhile, a London high court “ordered that the imminent deportation to Sri Lanka of a number of Tamils be halted amid claims they may be tortured on their return,” the Guardian reported on Tuesday. In a mail sent to TamilNet, UK based activists of the NSSP asked why the diaspora organizations involved in lobbying, especially the pro-Conservatives, have failed to challenge the deportation of Tamil asylum seekers who face obvious threat of persecution by the Sri Lankan state.
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New Delhi knows better about Pakistan in Jaffna: TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 17:38 GMT]
Answering a question put by media in Jaffna on Monday, whether a Pakistani intelligence outfit is in the making in Jaffna, the TNA parliamentarian and one of its leaders, Maavai Senadhirajah said that they are aware of the news, but New Delhi knows more about it. During the talks in New Delhi earlier this month, the TNA was able to sense that India knew more on the matter, the Tamil parliamentarian said. The TNA will come out with its views once the details are known and verified, Mr Senadhirajah further said, when the media asked him about unconfirmed reports that Pakistan’s intelligence plans to open an official outfit in Jaffna city, named as Pakistan Information Centre.
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Jaffna protests Sri Lanka’s oppression of Tamil civic bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 12:51 GMT]
13 elected civic bodies in the Jaffna Peninsula organized parallel agitations in their respective offices on Monday, protesting against occupying Sri Lanka’s violent intimidation and machinations blocking the mandated functions of the elected bodies. The protestors condemned the recent brutal attack on the Nalloor divisional council (Predeasa Sapai) chairperson Vasanthakumar, allegedly by SL military intelligence operatives, while he was attending legal procedures for recovering a civic body land occupied by the SL military. When even the grassroot institutions are treated in this way, Sri Lanka has nothing at all in its agenda to offer as solutions to Tamils, accused TNA parliamentarian Maavai Senadhiraja, addressing the demonstration that took place in front of the divisional secretariat at Nalloor.
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Court injunctions leave UK deportation flights half empty - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 October 2012, 23:15 GMT]
British High Court is regularly issuing injunctions banning the removal of Tamils because they are at risk of being tortured in Sri Lanka, and these court interventions are resulting in chartered deportation flights commissioned by the UK Border Agency leaving UK half-empty, the Independent reported in the Monday edition of the paper. "Despite the regular setbacks in the High Court, which can cost tax payers tens of thousands of pounds each day in legal fees and court costs, the UK Border Agency shows no sign of rethinking its deportation strategy for Sri Lanka, a country where the torture of returned asylum seekers has been empirically documented," the paper said.
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US institute honours genocide-accused SLA’s Demining Unit

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 October 2012, 17:11 GMT]
The Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI), an American non-profit organization based in Virginia, has honoured a ‘Humanitarian Demining Unit’ team of the genocide-accused SLA as the best Mine Detection Dog team for the year 2012 at its annual “Clearing the Path” event, at Washington on October 10. Eezham Tamil activists, however, criticized the move as a legitimization of the structural genocide occurring in the occupied Tamil homeland in which SLA’s demining unit also plays a part.
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Colombo’s claims of diaspora dialogue challenged in the diaspora

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 October 2012, 13:45 GMT]
None of the Tamil diaspora bodies that have democratic or institutional mandate of Eezham Tamils have opted to engage in talks with the Sri Lankan government, which continues to negate the nationhood and right to self-determination of Eezham Tamils, said Dr Panchakulasingam Kandiah, the president of the democratically elected Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils and a director in the board of the Global Tamil Forum. He was responding to a question by TamilNet on Saturday, on the statement of Sri Lanka's cabinet spokesperson and minister Keheliya Rambukwela telling that Colombo was “making headway in its dialogue with the Tamil Diaspora”. The ‘dialogue’ will be held in Colombo shortly under the direct patronage of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, media reports from Colombo said.
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Muslim trader shot dead by Sinhala rivals in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 October 2012, 20:15 GMT]
A dealer of gemstones and sea cucumbers was shot and killed Friday noon on Colombo - Puththa'lam Road, 5 km south of Puththa'lam town, while he was on his way to Jummah prayer to the mosque at Naakavil. The victim was identified as Puhari Nafar, a father of three, who had displaced from Mannaar to Puththa'lam in 1990. Sinhala dealers in dispute with Mr Nafar have allegedly hired an armed squad to kill him, the relatives of the victim blamed while the SL police maintained that they had no clue of who the killers could be.
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SL Supreme Court fixes date to hear FR petition by uprooted Maathakal Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 October 2012, 13:57 GMT]
Two members of the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Wednesday fixed the hearing of the Fundamental Rights violation petition filed by six uprooted residents of Maathakal from the Valikaamam division of the Jaffna district for November 12.
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Uprooted Maathakal residents file FR petition in SL Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 October 2012, 22:35 GMT]
Six uprooted residents of Maathakal from the Valikaamam district secretariat division of the Jaffna district have filed a fundamental rights violation petition in the Sri Lankan Supreme Court (SLSC) last week seeking an order that they should be allowed to resettle in their own lands and houses. They have cited the SL Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, Commander of the Jaffna Security Forces Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe and the Attorney General as respondents.
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German translation of NESoHR’s book on pre-2009 massacres released in Frankfurt

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 October 2012, 15:51 GMT]
The German translation of a compilation of large-scale massacres of Eezham Tamils by Sinhala forces from 1956 to 2008, brought out by the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), has been released at the famous Frankfurt Book Fair, reputed to be the largest book festival in the world, on Sunday. The book release of “Damit wir nicht vergessen” saw the participation of Peter Schalk, Professor Emeritus Uppasala University, Christian Weiss, the owner of the publishing house that brought out the book, apart from several Eezham Tamil activists. Speaking at the release, Prof. Schalk said that this book contained important evidence indicting the GoSL of human rights violations and genocide and it would be an asset in hauling the Sri Lankan state before the International Criminal Court.
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Uprooted Champoor villagers file FR application in SL Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 October 2012, 15:03 GMT]
A Fundamental Rights Violation petition filed by uprooted villagers of Champoor in Trincomalee is to be taken up for further hearing on November 15, according to legal sources in Colombo. The petitioners have been challenging the Gazette Extraordinary issued on May 12 this year that a “Special Zone for Heavy Industries” had been demarcated in the areas formerly inhabited by them. Seven villagers in their petition filed on Friday before the Sri Lankan Supreme Court complained that the Gazette purportedly attempts to demarcate a “Special Zone for Heavy Industries” within the provision of the Section A of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka Law No:4 of 1978.
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Address UN failure on referring Sri Lanka to ICC investigation: HRW

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 October 2012, 14:50 GMT]
“When it comes to ICC referrals, the United States, Russia, and China seem more concerned about prosecuting their enemies and protecting their friends,” says Richard Dicker, International Justice director at Human Rights Watch in a press statement issued on Tuesday adding that “[t]his checkered approach has left victims of abuses in Syria, Gaza, and Sri Lanka without recourse to justice.” The statement by the HRW comes while UN Security Council discussion, its first ever debate on the ICC open to all UN members, is scheduled for Wednesday.
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TNA, New Delhi, harp on LLRC implementation

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 October 2012, 11:23 GMT]
The TNA parliamentary delegation that visited New Delhi last week thanked the Government of India for its consistent interaction with the SL President in bringing about reconciliation and political solution through implementation of LLRC recommendations. The complaints of the TNA were confined to the lack of progress in the implementation of ‘constructive’ recommendations of the LLRC and lack of commitment on the part of Colombo in evolving an acceptable political solution. The TNA earlier rejected the LLRC recommendations but was later made to harp on them for non-descript solutions. The TNA has also refused attending Rajapaksa’s all party process for solution, without guarantees. But last month, the genocide-accused President on a Buddhist visit to India told TNA that the matter would be pursued after his return from India.
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UK Tamil tortured in Colombo, returned after payment of ransom to CID

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 October 2012, 07:46 GMT]
Sivasubramaniam Jeevan, an Eezham Tamil youth citizen of UK living in Scotland, who was on a visit to the island of Sri Lanka on 3 October, was detained by the notorious Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Colombo from the day he landed to 9 October, and was allegedly tortured under suspicion of “LTTE links”, after taking away his passport and other documents. He was released last Tuesday after managing a payment of a sum of 1.5 million rupees, plus 325 pounds, as ransom money to the CID. Speaking to TamilNet from his residence in Scotland, 33 year old Jeevan, who is now undergoing psychological treatment owing to the trauma of interrogation, said that the CID officers tortured him by beating him, verbally abusing him, and threatening to kill him. He was also interrogated on diaspora activities in the UK, he said.
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Colombo appropriates Trinco fish market from civic body

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2012, 19:47 GMT]
Centuries old public fish market of the Trincomalee Urban Council, which was recently renovated with the consent of the Trincomalee Urban Council (UC), is to be appropriated by the Fisheries ministry of Colombo government. Susantha Punchinilame, the deputy minister of fisheries and a UPFA parliamentarian from Trincomalee district has made the announcement at the Trincomalee District Co-ordinating Committee (DCC) meeting held this week. Mr.K.Selvarajah, the chairman of the Trincomalee UC, who attended the DCC meeting vehemently protested against the appropriation and said the UC would not agree for the takeover of the fish market by the central government. The market belongs to the Trinco UC and it was renovated with the permission of the council, he added.
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Media questions fate of missing report on UN inaction during Vanni war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2012, 18:25 GMT]
Nearly a year has passed since a heavily criticized UN Secretary General, had asked the former Executive Director of the UN Population Fund, Thoraya Obaid, to submit a review within 4 months on UN inaction during the 2009 Vanni massacre. However, in an un-announced change in the committee leadership, UK's Charles Petrie replaced Thoraya Obaid. Even Petrie, is now engaged in Norway's Myanmar Peace Support Initiative (MPSI). But, the report on the UN in Sri Lanka is yet to come out. Where is the report, asked the Inner City Press, on Friday. Answering the question, the UN spokesperson, Martin Nesirky, confirmed the incompletion and non-availability of the report.
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SL Supreme Court to decide on governor’s approval to Divineguma bill

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2012, 19:02 GMT]
The writ application filed by a Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian pertaining to the powers of the Northern Provincial Governor referred to the Sri Lankan Supreme Court for interpretation and determination by the Court of Appeal will be mentioned before the Supreme Court on Monday, legal sources in Colombo said. The draft bill has paved way for the establishment of a Department of Divineguma Development incorporating the existing Samurdhi Authority, Southern Development Authority and the Udarata Development Authority into a single unit under Colombo governments Development Ministry, which is headed by SL presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa.
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Poor Saiva families subjected to Islamic proselytism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2012, 19:02 GMT]
Administrators of mosques in Ampaa'rai district are engaged in converting members of poor Tamil Saiva families to Islam with financial inducement, civil society sources in Ampaa'rai said. Poor Tamil families from Chiththa'ndi, Mu'rakkottaancheanai, Chanthive'li, Kiraan and Ko'rakkallimadu who go work in rice mills, textile shops and brick making centres owned by Muslim businessmen are being coerced with inducements from the business owners according to sources.
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SL Police in Champoor appropriates public playground in Naavaladi

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2012, 20:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan government officials in Colombo have instructed the divisional secretary of Moothoor to hand over a play ground, about four acres in extent, situated at the centre of several villages in Champoor area to the occupying SL police, civil officials told media. The Moothoor DS is the sole authority of the playground. The Divisional Secretary has handed over the playground for the use of the SL police camped at Champoor without seeking the consent of the people of the area and the school administration.
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Veteran Eezham Tamil educationalist passes away in Seychelles

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2012, 06:12 GMT]
Mr V. Sivasupramaniam, teacher, educational administrator, trade unionist and social worker, passed away in Seychelles on Wednesday, at the age of 81. His funeral takes place on Friday. Mr. Sivasupramaniam taught at Jaffna Hindu College between 1953 and 1972. Besides his reputation as an eminent, committed and inspiring teacher, he was also a leading trade unionist, long associated with the Northern Province Teachers Association that was the predominant teachers union of the region at that time. Later, the newly independent Seychelles government was benefitted by his services in developing educational infrastructure and institutions there. Serving Seychelles for nearly quarter a century, Mr. Sivasupramaniam was also a key person in building a cultural centre, a temple, for the South Asian Hindu community there.
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JHU monks besiege historic Munneasvaram Siva temple in Chilaapam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2012, 17:16 GMT]
The Sinhala Buddhist extremist monks party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), which is a constituent of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), has been blocking the construction of ten-storied front tower (Rajakoapuram) of the several centuries old Munneasvaram Siva temple in Chilaapam (Chilaw) district in the North Western Province, according to the chief priest of the koayil, Mr Pathmanabakurukka'l.
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Sinhalese occupy grazing lands of Tamil cattle breeders in East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 22:56 GMT]
Tamil cattle breeders face threat and intimidation from the occupying Sri Lanka Army to use their grazing grounds in Periya Maathava'nai and Mayilaththa-madu areas situated in Koara'laip-pattu South DS division of Batticaloa district. Eezham Tamils are being chased away from the area with their cattle by the occupying Sri Lanka Army that only allows the Sinhala cattle breeders to enter the grazing lands. A group of Tamil cattle breeders led by K.Thurairajasingham, a former Batticaloa district parliamentarian who is an elected member to the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC), went to the site on October 4 to see the ground situation. They were told by the occupying Sri Lanka Army camped in the area that more than one hundred Sinhalese had been settled down in the area and are preparing for the Maha paddy cultivation.
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Colombo's militarisation budget to increase by 26%

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2012, 14:58 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry, headed by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has sought a 26% increase in its military and ‘urban development’ expenditures for the year 2013, news sources in Colombo said. The military expenditure for the year 2012 was 230 billion rupees out of a total budget of 2,220 billion. For the year 2013, out of a total budget of 2,520 billion, the SL defence ministry seeks 290 billion rupees. While the budget increase is 13% the military seeks 26% increase, a double. Meanwhile, a group of international academics pointed out last week that Sri Lanka's expenditure on education is only 1.86% of the GDP, which is the lowest in South Asia and one of the lowest in the world.
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Jaffna civil society concerned about Sri Lanka using UN teams

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2012, 23:29 GMT]
Many UN teams are visiting the island of Sri Lanka in connection with the reviews of UNHRC in November 2012 and March 2013. The civil society in Jaffna is concerned that the UN team visits are encouraged to serve the agenda of the Colombo government, said civil society activist and Jaffna University academic in law, Mr Guruparan Kumaravadivel to media in Jaffna on Monday. The visits are not transparent, as they have not revealed the Terms of Reference and restrictions to their visits, and most of the time, they end up visiting SL government officials and people who do not come up with independent views. The whole exercise raises questions on UN deliberations in the island and “the UN definitely has not learnt lessons,” Mr Guruparan further said.
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Academics question ICE deceit after Solheim's speech at London book launch

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2012, 22:01 GMT]
Reacting to arguments put forth by the panel of discussants at the London book launch event of Frances Harrison's 'Still Counting the Dead' on Friday, especially to the opinions of Norwegian politician and peace-broker Erik Solheim, Indian academic Radha D'Souza and UK-based academic Amanda Latimer, criticized the politics of deceit the International Community of Establishments (ICE) was playing with the Tamils. In exclusive videos to TamilNet, both Dr. D'Souza and Ms. Latimer came down hard on the Western Establishments and those working with vested interests for spreading misinformation to the Tamil diaspora about the liberation struggle of the Eezham Tamils.
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Southern workers sexually harass Tamil women in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 October 2012, 23:13 GMT]
Some of the workers from South who are brought down to Eastern province by the Colombo government, which employs them in road construction and electricity supply ‘development’ work in the Eastern province, engage in sexual abuse of Tamil women, civil sources in Batticaloa say citing two cases this week alone. At Vaazhaichcheanai, a 38-year-old mother of five, A Sinnappillai, was killed after sexual abuse by at least two Sinhala men and the body of the victim was found dumped in a pit upside down. At Vellaave'li, a man from Matara, caught by the villagers after he attempted to sexually harass a 17-year-old Tamil girl on Thursday, was allowed to go unpunished by the Sinhala policemen.
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Solheim’s politics, UN role in SL criticized at Frances Harrison’s book launch event

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2012, 07:24 GMT]
Even as Erik Solheim tried to sell stories that the LTTE leadership was responsible for the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre at the book launch event of Frances Harrison’s ‘Still Counting the Dead’ at London on Friday, solidarity activists and members from Eezham Tamil diaspora in the audience criticized his role as a failed peace-broker and the unjust role of the UN and the International Community of Establishments in leading to the genocidal massacre of the Eezham Tamils in May 2009. Ms. Harrison’s book, which presents the different types of atrocities that the Eezham Tamils endured at the hands of the Sri Lankan forces through case histories, also had some insights on the silence of world powers as the Sri Lankan government carried its onslaught on the Eezham Tamils.
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Creating historical fiction on Mu'l'livaaykkaal massacre

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2012, 02:32 GMT]
Dr. Julian Vigo, an American academic currently living in the U.K., who authored a report based on eye-witness accounts from twelve United Nations humanitarian workers who were working on the ground during the last phases of war in Sri Lanka that ended in May 2009, in an interview to TamilNet, apportions blame to the United Nations organs operating in Sri Lanka at the time of the massacre at the killing fields of Mu'l'livaaykkal, and says, "I am interested in how historical fictions (if we are to take the media as the recorder of history) are created around the issue of Sri Lanka's dead and the way that international organizations eschew responsibility for their role in the 40,000 dead while finger pointing to Colombo."
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Opening brief filed in US war-crimes appeal against Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 October 2012, 04:20 GMT]
Brief for the three Tamil Plaintiffs-Appellants in the case, Kasippillai Manoharan versus Percy Mahendra Rajpakse, the current sitting Head of Sri Lanka, was filed on Tuesday at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, plaintiffs' attorney, Bruce Fein said. The legal issue raised was whether the words "an individual" in the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA), Congress subjected to civil liability for complicity in the universal crimes of torture or extra judicial killings under color of foreign law to implement the Convention Against Torture and to advance promoting human rights abroad include the sitting head of states (Mahinda Rajapakse) sued in their individual capacities, the legal brief of the plaintiffs said.
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SL military stops renovation of Hindu temple, appropriates Islamic burial ground in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 October 2012, 23:47 GMT]
Interfering in the religious freedom of Hindus and Muslims in Ampaa'rai, the occupying Sinhala military has appropriated an Islamic burial ground at Koddukkal in Poththuvil division of the district while instructing the administration of an ancient Murukan temple, worshipped by the Saivites for centuries, to stop the renovation of the temple. The head of the Murukan temple administration at Changkaman-ka'ndi in Thirukkoayil, Mr. Nakalingam, on Wednesday said that the SL military personnel who had come from Kaagnchirang-kudaa military base instructed the temple administration to immediately stop the renovation work being undertaken at the temple. The SL Army had told the temple administration that they were acting on behalf of the SL Archeology Department in Colombo.
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Colombo snatches away even little power devolved to EPC: TNA councilor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 October 2012, 21:40 GMT]
The leader of the opposition in the Eastern Provincial Council, Mr C. Thandayuthapani, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician, has said that the Sri Lankan government in Colombo was trying to snatch even the littler powers already devolved to the provincial administration in the Eastern Province. The comment by the TNA politician has come in the wake of EPC endorsing the controversial ‘Divineguma’ bill on Tuesday. The draft bill is a blueprint for the structural genocide of the country of Eezham Tamils, say Tamil civil officials in the East. In the meantime, the TNA has also filed a case at the SL Court of appeal against a move by Colombo to get a similar approaval from the colonial military governor in North to approve the bill in the absence of an elected provincial council in the North.
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NESoHR book on Tamil massacres prior to 2009 published in German

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 October 2012, 23:21 GMT]
A compilation of large-scale massacres from 1956 to 2008, brought out by the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), has been translated to German. The book, “Damit wir nicht vergessen” will be launched at Frankfurt Book Fair this month. The publication has an important historical dimension as it presents the massacres prior to 2009 genocidal onslaught in a historical dimension, says Emeritus Professor Peter Schalk in Uppsala, Sweden, sending an introductory note to TamilNet. “In a shortened time perspective those violations of human rights [in 2009] may appears as an occasional and random deviation of a particular Government of Sri Lanka or as committed by individual offenders. We have good reasons to assume that this massacre by the government represents a planned cultural and physical genocide over a long time,” he further says adding that a Chinese translation is desirable.
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600 families in Vellaave'li division denied voting in EPC polls

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2012, 08:09 GMT]
The names of more than six hundred Tamil families, residing in villages Ka'n'nakipuram, Chinnavaththai, Central Camp, and 36, 37, 38 and 39 colonies that come under the Poaratheevup-pattu (Vellaave'li) DS division had been taken off from the voters lists by village officers (GS) on the instruction by the Divisional Secretary a few days ahead of the recently held provincial council elections. A large number of resettled Tamils in Batticaloa district have been denied of exercising their voting rights at the recent Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) polls due to the interventions and instructions by the military-run administration in the East, civil officials in Batticaloa said on condition of anonymity.
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