SL military seeks to appropriate market complex at Tamil suburb of Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 February 2014, 23:02 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Trincomalee has sought to permanently appropriate the land and the buildings of Malaiyaruvi, a building complex constructed in 1994 by the Trincomalee Town Council to establish a public market at the Power House Road, where Eezham Tamils reside in large numbers. Recently, the SL military has approached Mr Sirimewan Dharmasena, the land commissioner at the Eastern Provincial Department asking the latter to undertake surveying of the lands.
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PTI twists report on Mannaar killing field

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 February 2014, 23:37 GMT]
Projecting Sri Lankan Government's defensive cover-up statement on the exhumation of human skeletal remains from the killing field of Mannaar at Maanthai without any journalistic scrutiny, the Press Trust of India (PTI) on Wednesday published a news report titled ‘mass grave in former LTTE stronghold’. The report featured an open lie by the Sri Lankan state that the killing field was under LTTE control for 30 years. The mass grave site, situated near Maanthai junction, has been under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military and was also used as a rear site of the SL military that uprooted the Tamil people from the area. So far, 81 human skeletons have been exhumed from the killing fields. The exhumation is scheduled to continue for the 32nd time on 03 March.
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EU terror ban on LTTE challenged

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 February 2014, 17:51 GMT]
The European Union's ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hangs in the balance today after a hearing at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg exposed serious flaws in the original evidence used to proscribe the movement in 2006. Judges expressed concern at the European Council's use of an Indian anti-terror law as a suitable precedent for banning the LTTE, saying there was no evidence that the Council checked if terror suspects had access to a fair trial in India. The court was also dismayed by the Council's use of Wikipedia as a credible source for keeping a terrorism ban on the LTTE. Lawyers for the LTTE left the court in a positive mood, expecting a judgement within the next six months.
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Tamils cautioned against word trick of OHCHR

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 February 2014, 23:11 GMT]
Tamils living world over should take a careful note on who is skipping away from including the demand for an ‘international investigation’ in the draft resolution to be placed at the UN Human Rights Council this March, Tamil activists in the island told TamilNet on Tuesday. The diaspora Tamils and Tamils of Tamil Nadu should not be carried away by the ‘media discourse’ in Colombo following the latest recommendations of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navanetham Pillay, the activists warned. The latest phrase ‘international inquiry mechanism’ could also imply a process of questioning or fact-finding mission by UN Special Rapporteurs under the human rights regime of the UNHRC, which would only end up adding just another report to the existing piles of UN reports. Tamil lobbyists abroad should not deceive the masses by their misinterpretations of the terminology, the activists said.
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New Delhi bans Channel 4 documentary on ‘killing fields’ of Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 February 2014, 20:32 GMT]
India's Central Bord of Film Certification has refused to allow permission to screen No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, Hindustan Times reported on Sunday. Responding to the censorship imposed by New Delhi, the director of the documentary, Callum Macrae has gone on record stating that the documentary would be freely available on line for the Indian public. Mr Macrae was earlier denied visa to enter India.
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Tamils in UK protest against British role in EU ban on LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 February 2014, 23:12 GMT]
Tamil activists in UK gathered at 10 Downing Street, London, on Friday condemning Britain’s lead role in the suppression of independent Tamil political opinion, both before and after Sri Lanka’s genocidal onslaught in 2009. While the UK itself has stated that the LTTE is defunct for the past 5 years, it continues to justify the ban on the Tamil movement, still criminalising all the individuals who were associated with the armed struggle in the past, the protesters said. In the meantime, young Tamil activists who took part in the protest were of the opinion that the fight against the injustice of the past, especially the political struggle against EU ban on the LTTE, an act that enabled the Sri Lankan State to end the peace process in a genocidal onslaught, was a crucial component of the Tamil struggle.
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NPC member presents data exposing extent of genocidal land grab in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 February 2014, 23:09 GMT]
Colombo has seized at least 30,000 acres of residential and agricultural lands for Sinhala colonization in Mullaiththeevu district alone after 2010, according to the data presented by Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member Thurairasa Raviharan, who moved a resolution condemning the demographic changes at the NPC. The land grab in Sinhalicised Gajabapura in Oddu-chuddaan is also being expanded to the ancient village of Othiya-malai, Mr Raviharan said adding that the Colombo government was using the Mahaweli ‘Development’ Porgramme’s L Scheme to occupy the lands in Mullaiththeevu district. Othiyamalai is situated 25 km beyond the reach of Mahaweli waters, he said.
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New Delhi challenges Chief Justice of India over commutation of death sentence

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 February 2014, 19:56 GMT]
The New Delhi Establishment on Thursday challenged the decision of a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, P. Sathasivam, commuting the death sentences of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, into life imprisonment. In a hurriedly-filed petition, the Centre contended the three-judge bench, also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and SK Singh, did not consider the merits of the case and also ventured into the domain of the government by commuting the death sentence in the case, PTI reported on Thursday.
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Colombo diverts Indian housing assistance to wedge North and East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 February 2014, 23:18 GMT]
After Sinhalicising the civil administration of the Ma'nalaa'ru division, which is becoming almost a Sinhala only division in the Mullaiththeevu district, Colombo has seized the private lands of Eezham Tamils to allot the lands to Sinhala settlers in Kokku'laay, says Thurairasa Raviharan, an elected member of the Northern Provincial Council. While the war-affected Tamils languish without proper housing, new settlers brought from South are receiving houses intended for war-affected people under the Indian housing scheme, he says after visiting and witnessing the genocidal land grab taking place at Mukaththuvaaram in Kokku'laay.
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Tamil Nadu government decides to release 7 victims in Rajiv assassination case

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 February 2014, 08:03 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu Government, in a suo motu statement to the State Assembly on Wednesday said it has decided to release the 7 prisoners, now imprisoned to lifetime in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The decision comes as the Indian Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to commute the death sentence on Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan to life imprisonment. In the meantime, the family of Thilliampalam Suthenthiraraja (Santhan), one of the three victims, thanked the people of Tamil Nadu and the global Tamil community for their struggle for the release of the innocent victims and said their only hope now was the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa. We will never forget the supreme sacrifices of Chengkodi and Muththukkumar seeking justice, the family said from Jaffna.
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IC should address Tamil question coupled with international mechanism: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 February 2014, 23:02 GMT]
No internal mechanism would deliver justice to the people of Tamil homeland. The International Community should come up with a constructive international mechanism capable of delivering political solution to the Tamil question. If the IC that is in fact well able to grasp the situation fails Tamils would regard the IC also as being complicit in the act of suppression being meted upon them, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF). The prevailing suppression on the peaceful, non-violent and democratic voices of the people of Tamil homeland is equivalent to the act of annihilation of the existence of Tamils as a nation, he said while attending a demonstration organized by the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) in Jaffna on Saturday. The occupying SL military has blocked the affected people from taking part in the protest.
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Colombo sabotages Tamil fishermen understanding across Palk Strait

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 February 2014, 22:23 GMT]
Amidst an existing understanding between the fishermen societies of Eezham Tamils and Tamil Nadu fishermen, who met recently in Tamil Nadu, that Indian fishermen could engage in fishing in the Palk Strait till March 15 without hindrance, the navy of the occupying Sri Lanka has arrested 116 Tamil Nadu fishermen in the territorial waters of the Eezham Tamils within the past 12 days, news sources in Jaffna said. In the meantime, the Indian coast guard has detained 25 fishermen from the island, 20 Sinhalese from South and 5 Eezham Tamils, who were engaged in day and night fishing in the deep waters of the strait, sources in Tamil Nadu said.
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Veteran filmmaker Balu Mahendra passes away

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 February 2014, 17:24 GMT]
Veteran Tamil Eelam born filmmaker Balendranathan Mahendra, popularly known as Balu Mahendra passed away in Chennai on Thursday. Born in Batticaloa on 20 May 1939, Balu Mahendra was a 1966 batch Diploma holder in Cinematography from the prestigious Pune Film Institute of India. Debuting as a cinematographer in the 1974 Malayalam movie Nellu, for which he won a state award, Balu Mahendra went on to win five national awards and three Filmfare awards subsequently both as a director and a cinematographer, and is widely regarded as a trendsetter in Indian cinema.
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Mass held at killing field, Mannaar Bishop demands international investigation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 February 2014, 10:43 GMT]
We should never give up the struggle seeking the truth, said Bishop of Mannaar, Dr. Rayappu Joseph, attending a special mass and prayer service held on Wednesday at the St Lourde’s church at Maanthai, just across the spot where excavations of a killing field have so far brought out 61 skeletons. The mass was dedicated to the disappeared. Speaking at the mass, the Bishop demanded international investigation on the disappearance of people in the war and he was specific about the Maanthai killing field. He also reminded the crowd on the number of the disappeared [146, 678], which he had earlier brought out at the LLRC. Intelligence sleuths of Colombo were present at the mass, recording the Bishop’s speech.
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4 members of Sinhala paramilitary squad detained in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 February 2014, 22:47 GMT]
Following information and pressure from the public, four Sinhala members of a paramilitary squad were arrested by SL Police on Wednesday from a ‘safe-house’ at Kokkuvil in Jaffna, news sources in Jaffna said. One of those detained was a former Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) person. Two of the arrested were from Ja-Ela and the remaining two were from Angkoda and Kottawa from the South. Legal action was not taken despite the news of their detention was exposed by the local press, Tamil legal activists said adding that most of the members of a similar squad, known as ‘Avaa’, arrested last year at Thalaiyaa’li in Kokkuvil have now been either released or bailed out. The remaining three persons, including the leader of the squad, are waiting to get bailed out of police detention this week.
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Tamil man from Trincomalee sentenced to death

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 February 2014, 05:45 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police in 1992 arrested a 20-year-old man from Aalangkea’ni in Ki’n’n’iyaa, as second accused in a case indicting him for a bomb blast that had claimed the lives of 6 Muslims from Moothoor in August 1990. The young accused, Thangarajah Sivakantharajah, was detained by the Sri Lankan Police under Emergency Regulations (ER) for 12 years and was released in July 2003 on surety bail. 24 years after the alleged crime, Sivakantharajah, now aged 42 and a married man, has been sentenced to death by Trincomalee High Court on Friday February 7. Sivakantharajah was ordered to report to the Chinabay Police every Sunday.
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USA and India conspire to cripple genocide investigation: ITAK Youth Front

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 February 2014, 16:14 GMT]
The resolution tabled by the two US Senators, Richard Burr and Bob Casey, only shows that the US defence establishment is adamant on seeing that any investigation on Sri Lanka should not focus on genocide, said Youth Front General Secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), Mr Subramaniam Sivakaran, urging the global Tamils to be vigilant on what is taking place. Asking, “What are the Tamils in the USA doing,” he said, “The time has come for us in the homeland to raise the question.” India is in partnership with the USA in suppressing international investigation on the genocide. Our homeland will be totally lost while the IC deliberates on impractical reconciliation, he further said.
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US Senators call for War Crimes investigations in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 February 2014, 23:33 GMT]
Noting that, "Human rights violations continue, and the Sri Lankan government has failed to bring to justice the perpetrators of attacks against journalists, religious and ethnic minorities, and opposition politicians. As the March session of the UNHRC approaches, I believe another UNHRC resolution is warranted,” a senior Democratic Senator Casey, and Republican Senator Richard Burr, in a resolution called "on the United States and the international community to establish an independent international accountability mechanism to evaluate reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations committed by both sides during and after the war in Sri Lanka."
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Tamil cattle farmers complain of Sinhala occupation in Chengkaladi division

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 February 2014, 23:47 GMT]
Sinhala paramilitary known as ‘home guards’ from Thambitiya in Ampaa'rai district have encroached into the grazing lands near Nediya-vaddaik-ku'lam in Pu'liyadip-poaththanai in Chengkaladi, Batticaloa, occupying the lands for sugar cane cultivation. The occupying Sinhala military and Buddhist monks from Ampaa'rai have also been accompanying the intruding Sinhala home guards, civil sources in Batticaloa said. Pu'liyadip-poththanai is located on A5 Badulla - Chengkaladi Road in Kiththu'l GS area of Chengkaladi DS division.
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Civil servants in Jaffna threatened to withdraw their support to NPC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 February 2014, 22:58 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has been refusing to extend his cooperation to the repeated pleas made by the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran to appoint a non-military governor and to install a Chief Secretary capable of extending allegiance to the elected representatives of the NPC, has now gone to the extent of allowing the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna to harass and threaten the other senior civil officials to render the NPC defunct. While escalating the rift between the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councillors and the SL governor-installed chief secretary on one hand, the SL military on the other hand subjects the civil servants who extend cooperation to the elected NPC to systematic harassment and intimidation.
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SL military harasses families living near Mannaar mass grave

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 February 2014, 23:05 GMT]
A group of the occupying Sri Lankan military officials, who have been visiting the families that have resettled in the vicinity of the recently discovered mass grave at Thirkkeatheesvaram in Mannaar have been harassing the families to give false witness that the locality of the mass grave was a graveyard belonging to a church situated in the area, residents say.
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Buddhist monk, Sinhala squad appropriate lands along Batticaloa-Ampaa'rai border

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2014, 21:35 GMT]
Under the cover of ‘preventing’ wild elephants from entering the residential areas of the border villages situated between Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai district, a group of Sinhalese are engaged in putting up a new fence with the hidden agenda of appropriating the lands of Eezham Tamils in Kachchatkodi Suvami-malai and Kevu'liya-madu villages of Paddippazhai division of Batticaloa district. A Sinhala name, Bambara-kanda, has been introduced to the Suvaami-malai hillock, according to the Tamil villagers who have an ancient Saiva temple there.
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Slain EPDP councillor's sister receives death threat

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2014, 21:03 GMT]
The president of Nedun-theevu (Delft) civic council, Daniel Rexian alias Rajeev of the EPDP was shot and killed in November 2013. His sister, Ms Regina, a key witness in the case, is now being threatened by unidentified persons alleged to be EPDP operatives aligned with Mr Kamal Kamalendran, the Jaffna District organizer of the EPDP and the opposition leader, who is one of the persons detained for alleged involvement in the killing. The SL police in Ooraath-thu'rai (Kayts) has refused to register her complaints.
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Families of missing persons subjected to threats, intimidation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2014, 20:24 GMT]
The intelligence wing of the occupying Sri Lankan military and the ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Department (TID) operatives in the North intimidate and threaten the families of the missing persons as many of the victims were not prepared to give up their complaints. The latest harassment comes in the wake of the so-called ‘independent’ Presidential Commission on Investigating Missing Persons had its first sitting in Ki’linochchi district last month. The current drive of genocidal Colombo, intimidating the kin of the missing to receive Rs 100,000 and withdraw the complaint or to face the fate of those who were ‘missing,’ raises question on what was actually meant by the US Asst Secretary of State reiterating ‘reconciliation’ last week.
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Colombo deploys Indian assistance to commit structural genocide on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2014, 16:37 GMT]
The housing assistance provided to war-affected uprooted families in the North and East is being used to colonise the Tamil homeland with Sinhala settlers from South in Mullaiththeevu district, says Tamil Councillor of the Northern Provincial Council Mr Thurairasa Raviharan. While the resettled Tamil families are deprived of housing at Chaa'lampaik-ku'lam in Mullaiththeevu district, Sinhalese settlers are being provided brand new houses constructed with Indian assistance, he said. This is not only a betrayal by India, but also a recognition of the structural genocide being committed by the Sri Lankan State, Mr Raviharan told media.
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Tamil councillors in East defy SL instruction to mark ‘Sri Lanka Independence’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 February 2014, 18:12 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Ampaa'rai instructed the Tamil councillors of the civic bodies in the district to be present on a ‘grand meeting’ they were organising to celebrate the ‘Independence Day’ of genocidal Sri Lanka, on Tuesday. Despite the SL military visiting the divisional councils under the administration of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), exerting pressure on the councillors to be present at the meeting, they boycotted the event. The mobile phones of some of the councillors were switched off as the SL military operatives were issuing intimidating phone calls, news sources in Ampaa'rai said.
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UK Tamil youth activists burn SL constitution, condemn British complicity

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 February 2014, 07:29 GMT]
Second-generation Tamil youth activists gathered outside the Sri Lankan embassy in London on the occasion of the 66th ‘independence day of Sri Lanka and burnt copies of the Sri Lankan constitution to assert that the unitary structure of GoSL has only genocidal connotations for the Tamils. The youth activists also condemned Britain’s historical role in buttressing the SL state and denying Tamils’ their sovereignty.
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30,000 troops try imposing ‘SL Independence Reconciliation’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 February 2014, 20:19 GMT]
Explicitly proving that Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was lying on the number of troops in Jaffna peninsula and that the country of Eezham Tamils is under occupied and colonial rule, more than 30,000 Sinhala soldiers were deployed to impose the ‘Sri Lanka Independence Day’ in Jaffna on Tuesday. As armed soldiers were posted throughout the streets and public buildings, the scenario depicted the times of war and such a paradigm was the one that was endorsed and blessed by the US Assistant Secretary of State talking of ‘reconciliation’ and imposing the ‘Sri Lankan’ identity, two days ago, commented political observers in Jaffna. Despite the terrorization, people responded by hoisting black flags and turning the SL Lion Flag upside down at several places in Jaffna.
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Colombo beefs up military presence in Tamil homeland on SL ‘Independence Day’

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 February 2014, 23:48 GMT]
Anticipating black flags on the so-called Independence Day, Colombo has beefed up the presence of Sinhala soldiers and roaming patrols in the occupied country of Eelam Tamils. The occupying Sri Lankan soldiers have taken positions at public buildings for the past two days to block the people from putting up black flags and to make sure that the SL Lion flags get hoisted in the North and East.
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USA softer than UK in wooing genocidal Colombo: Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 February 2014, 10:14 GMT]
"Everyone must redouble their pressure on the Obama administration directly at the White House and the Cameron government directly at No. 10 Downing Street in order to get that international commission of investigation at the UNHCR in March. With elections coming up in India, everyone must redouble their pressure on the Tamil Nadu government to get them to pressure the Indian government to support that international commission of investigation at the UNHRC in March. The one hope we have is that the GOSL continues to be so obstinate, stubborn, pig-headed and genocidal that they will do nothing," said Professor Boyle, an expert in International law and a keen observer of Sri Lanka's genocidal politics said in a comment sent to TamilNet.
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Colombo bargains China connections in return for US favour

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 February 2014, 14:36 GMT]
Colombo has been lobbying the members of the US Congress through a Washington DC based advisory and strategy firm, citing its geo strategic location, the China factor and a ‘fast growing’ economy. A Europe-based source has provided TamilNet a letter of invitation sent by Robert J. Thompson, the chairman of the Thompson Advisory Group, which helps governments to solve global strategic problems, to US Congresswoman Gwen Moore on 21 January 2014. “China is making major inroads already in Sri Lanka, but our distinguished visitors wish to make sure that relations with the United States are improved even more strongly,” the letter states attaching a trade routes map projecting the island's geostrategic location.
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London conference explores nature of land grabs in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 February 2014, 10:50 GMT]
Academics, legal experts, activists, journalists, and Eezham Tamil politicians gathered in London to discuss Sri Lankan state facilitated land grabs in the Eezham Tamils homeland, its nature, its effects, and possible solutions, at a conference on Saturday. While all of the presenters were in consensus that land grabs in the Tamil homeland was a phenomena that was a genuine and pressing issue, many expressed their support for a strong international campaign to put a halt to this. Likewise, some of the participants also criticised the international community’s silence and complicity in the process. There was also heated debate on whether the process could be termed “genocide”, with former UN official and Bremen-PPT judge Dr. Denis Halliday along with Tamil activists from both the presenters and the audience arguing in its favour.
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Muslim fishermen in Pulmoaddai protest against Colombo’s discrimination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 February 2014, 22:07 GMT]
More than 300 Muslim fishermen from Pulmoaddai have been protesting against a discriminatory ban imposed on them by the occupying Sinhala military. The protest continued for the 4th day at Trinco Junction in Pulmoaddai on Saturday. While allowing the Sinhala fishermen from other areas to exploit the fishing resources of the Kokku’laay lagoon through illegal fishing methods, Colombo’s fisheries ministry has selectively banned Muslim fishermen from practicing stake net fishing (Kadduvalai), the protesting Muslims say.
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USA continues to harp on ‘reconciliation’ than investigation or arrest of genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 February 2014, 14:00 GMT]
According to the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, the US Asst Secretary of State, Nisha Desai Biswal, visiting Jaffna on Saturday, was harping on ‘reconciliation’ in response to his request for a credible investigation on the conduct of the war. ‘Reconciliation’ is a paradigm set by the US State Department immediately after the genocidal war to facilitate continued genocide and structural genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils. The events of the last five years have proved it beyond any doubt that ‘reconciliation’ is a camouflage for genocide. What is needed urgently is an international arrangement to protect the nation and territoriality of Eezham Tamils from the on-going genocide, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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