SL military, police block protesters in North on International Day of Disappeared

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 August 2014, 06:52 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan Military and Police on Saturday blocked the kith and kin of disappeared persons who were on a protest rally in Vavuniyaa organised by the citizens committees from the five districts in the North. The peaceful march, which started with a public meeting at Vavuniyaa Urban Council building, was blocked by the riot control police from proceeding towards the office of the Government Agent.
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Modi gave lesson to TNA on ‘collaborative politics’ says Devananda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 August 2014, 23:11 GMT]
“I hope that the Tamil National Alliance leaders who recently went to meet the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would listen to his advice, which is the same as our longstanding position on the resolution to the conflict, that one should start collaborating with the Sri Lankan Government on Northern Provincial Council,” said EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, who is also a minister in Rajapaksa regime. He was addressing the audience at the re-opening ceremony of Achchuveali Industrial Estate in Jaffna on Wednesday. The industrial estate has been rehabilitated with Indian assistance. SL Presidential sibling and the ‘Economic Development’ Minister Basil Rajapaksa, High Commissioner of India Y.K. Sinha and the Chief Minister of Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran were among the delegates who attended three ceremonial events connected to projects that have received Indian assistance.
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Muslims protest against land grab in Pulmoaddai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 August 2014, 22:04 GMT]
Tamil-speaking residents of Arisi-moaddai in Pulmoaddai situated in the north of Trincomalee district confronted the occupying Sri Lankan Police on Tuesday blocking the surveying of lands that are being taken over for the construction of a Buddhist vihara. A 54-year-old civilian, Abubakkar has been admitted at hospital with injuries, news sources in Pulmoaddai said. Stating that 500 acres of lands were being taken over for archaeological research, the SL State is seizing lands from Muslims in Pulmoaddai for the construction of a Buddhist site.
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UK Tamils remember Chegn-choalai massacre, condemn genocidal sex abuse

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 August 2014, 22:01 GMT]
Tamils from UK gathered at Downing Street, London on Saturday to remember the Chegn-choalai (Sencholai) massacre and to condemn the ongoing genocidal sex abuse of Eezham Tamil women in the Tamil homeland by the occupying Sinhala forces. The protesters, most of whom were youth activists, held placards and banners stating that "Sri Lanka's LLRC report is a blueprint for genocide of Eelam Tamil nation" and demanding the UN to investigate genocide and conduct referendum for Tamil Eelam.
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Varatharajan’s funeral sends messages on Eezham Tamil political bearings

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 August 2014, 09:14 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamil students, academics, journalists, civil activists and political personalities from different districts on Wednesday came to the residence of popular educationalist and Tamil activist Sinathurai Varatharajan to attend his funeral on Wednesday. He passed away on Monday at the age of 63. The sum message of the entire funeral was that there was no one to replace the educationalist, who has been a mentor to the student community with his society-centred insight and grassroots-oriented commitment towards the advancement of Eezham Tamil nation facing structural genocide.
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Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of Kagnchi-kudichchaa’ru in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2014, 23:22 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan State, which seized the control of the ancient Tamil villages of Kagnchi-kudichchaa’ru and Thangka-vealaayutha-puram in Thirukkoayil division in Ampaa’rai district from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after the end of war in East in 2007, is now scheming a Sinhala settlement in the two villages, Eezham Tamil villagers told TamilNet on Wednesday. A Buddhist monk, accompanied by two Karuna Group paramilitary operatives visited the villages three days ago vowing to put up a Buddhist temple within a month between the two villages, they further said.
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SL military deploys clustered-houses for Sinhala colonisation in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 August 2014, 23:34 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military, which has fenced off several thousands of acres of lands belonging to Eezham Tamils and have bulldozed the public and private buildings, has now started to put up clustered houses, says Deputy Chairman of Valikaamam North Piratheasa Chapai (PS) Sageevan Sanmugalingam, who is also the president Valikaamam North Uprooted People’s Welfare Society. The people who have visited their properties along the line of the fence, which has been put up from Vasaavi’laan West to Achchuveali, also confirmed the report. SL military deployed clustered houses are visible from the fence bordering the occupied Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) in Valikaamam North.
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Educationalist, veteran civil activist Varatharajan passes away

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2014, 20:32 GMT]
Sinnathurai Varatharajan, a popular teacher of economics, who stood with his people throughout his life, has passed away in Jaffna on Monday due to cancer-related complications at the age of 63. With his extensive knowledge on the economic potentials in the Tamil homeland, both in the North and East, Mr Varatharajan paid a particular attention to the demographic genocide being committed against the Eezham Tamils in the North and East. Apart from serving his people as an educationalist, Mr Varatharajan stepped in as a grassroots civil activist whenever his people faced a challenging time under outside occupations. Eezham Tamils are a distinct nation with their own sovereignty in the unified North and East of the island was his political stand and he advocated a confederal model as the minimum acceptable solution.
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Majority Tamil Councillors from North, East request OHCHR to investigate genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2014, 07:36 GMT]
“Tamil people strongly believe that they have been, and continue to be subjected to Genocide by Sri Lanka […] Systematic Sinhalese settlements and demographic changes with the intent to destroy the Tamil Nation are taking place. We request the OHCHR investigative team to look into the pattern of all the atrocities against the Tamil people, and to determine if Genocide has taken place,” states a joint letter by the majority of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and Tamil opposition councillors form the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC). 28 elected Eezham Tamil councillors from the 38-member Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and 5 of 11 opposition Tamil National Alliance members from the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) have sent the letter to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navaneetham Pillay on Monday.
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Occupying SL military demolishes mosque in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 August 2014, 23:38 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has demolished a mosque situated at Karumalai-oottu in Trincomalee Town and Gravets division within the past 2 days, Muslim fishermen from Trincomalee said. The mosque, established in 1926 and registered as a Jumma Mosque in 1947, has been seized by the SL military, which demarcated the area as ‘High Security Zone’ in 2009. The land where the mosque is situated comes under the 1200 acres of lands from Prima flourmill to Karumalai-oottu, including Ve’l’lai-ma’nal and Clappenburg Bay, which are being given to China under a ‘defence related development’ project by Colombo.
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Tamil woman under SL military training dies in Jaffna, cause of death concealed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 August 2014, 15:51 GMT]
A 26-year-old Tamil woman from Mullaiththeevu, who was conscripted by the occupying SL military was admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital this week and died at the hospital on Thursday after a mysterious vaginal illness. The victim, Ajantha Prasath, a mother of a 6-year-old girl was from Chelvapuram in Oddu-chuddaan in Vanni. The lone poverty-stricken mother, living with her parents, was deceived with a ‘job offer’ by the SL military three months ago on 22nd May, was under military training at Palaali base. Ajantha died of ‘vaginal cancer’ according to the controversial director of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, Mrs Bavany Pasupathirajah, who attended a ‘press conference’ organised by the so-called Civil Military Coordination Office on Saturday. The dead body was burnt at Ponnakar burial grounds on Friday. The family was told on Saturday that their daughter passed away due to cancer.
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SL military seizes agricultural lands form Trincomalee Tamils in massive scale

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2014, 21:43 GMT]
More than 25,000 acres of lands belonging to Eezham Tamils have been seized through Sinhala militarisation in the three DS divisions of 11 DS areas of Trincomalee district, informed civil sources told TamilNet on Friday. The occupation has been going on through the last 6 years. Now, the Colombo government has blocked water supplies to Eezham Tamils at Maavilaa’ru, diverting the water to the occupied lands where Sinhalese are deployed by the military to do agriculture in Moothoor division.
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Vadamaraadchi East villagers capture SL Navy trooper for rape attempt

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2014, 21:21 GMT]
The villagers of Vinaayakapuram at Vettilaik-kea’ni of Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna captured a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailor, who had entered into the house of a former LTTE member and attempted to sexually abuse his wife in the early hours of Wednesday. The neighbours, who were alerted by the shouting of the woman around 1:00 a.m. rushed to the spot and captured the Sinhala-speaking man after chasing him for a while. The villages severely assaulted the culprit before handing him over to the SL Police with the demand of immediate remand. The villagers also provided the photograph of the captured SLN soldier to the media as the SL Navy was harassing them to get the man released without going to the courts.
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Police protection has lost its meaning: Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2014, 08:26 GMT]
“The reality in this country is that the criminal himself is the judge. This practice has almost become the rule of law. There is no democratic rule. The independency of the justice system is compromised. The judiciary is under the control of the Sri Lankan government. At this junction, what can we do? We can only explain [to the world] that the families of missing persons cannot expect any justice from the culprits themselves,” said Mannaar Bishop Rt Rev Rayappu Jospeh. The Bishop was responding to a question on the attitude displayed by the SL government, which has been citing the police as the protecting agency, especially in the wake of a request by the foreign missions to ensure the safety of the relatives of the missing persons, who attended a meeting, which was disrupted by a mob led by extremist Buddhist monks at a church in Maradana in Colombo on 04 August.
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SL Police, intelligence officers threaten relatives of missing persons in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2014, 07:23 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police Constables and Intelligence operatives of the occupying SL military in Mannaar have threatened and harassed the relatives and families of missing persons, who wanted to appear in front of the SL Presidential Commission on Missing Persons (SLPC) which held its hearings between 08 and 11 August in Mannaar. The chairman of Mannaar Citizens Committee, Rev Fr Immanuel Sebamalai, told TamilNet that SL military intelligence officers had even gone to the extent of telling the people that there will be no use in appearing in front of the SLPC.
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SL police opens fire on Tamil villagers in Batticaloa, two women wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2014, 20:25 GMT]
Two Tamil women were admitted to Batticaloa Teaching Hospital Tuesday night with gunshot injuries after SL policemen, who went in civil to ransack illicit brewers had opened fire on the villagers at Panai-a'ruppaan, located 15 km west of Kokkaddich-choalai. Two Sinhalese policemen and two Tamil men were also rushed to hospital with assault injuries. Only 25 families live in the remote village of Panai-a’ruppaan. Some of these female-headed families have been running illicit ‘kasippu’ breweries after they had lost their husbands and their livelihood. They were not involved in such activity under the LTTE-run civil administration, civil sources in Kokkaddich-choalai told TamilNet on Wednesday. The episode on Tuesday was only a tip of the iceberg, they said.
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Indian housing scheme in Trincomalee ignores uprooted Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2014, 14:08 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Trincomalee has blocked the representatives of uprooted Eezham Tamils from Champoor from presenting their appeal in person to the Indian High Commissioner Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, who visited Moothoor East last Friday to lay the foundation stone for the housing scheme for the war affected people from the three villages of Koonith-theevu, Navaratnapuram and Choodaik-kudaa. The uprooted Tamils, still living in four so-called welfare camps at Paddith-thidal, Ma’nat-cheanai, Ki’liveddi and Kaddai-pa’richchaan, who were blocked from the handing over their appeal have sent a letter to the Indian High Commissioner detailing their suffering for the past 9 years.
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Colombo schemes Sinhala colony at Saiva Shrine of Kanniyaa Hot Wells

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2014, 13:36 GMT]
After illegally occupying the Hot Wells, a Saiva sacred site in the traditional Tamil village of Kanniyaa in the Uppu-ve’li division of the Trincomalee district, and after constructing a Buddhist Shrine at the locality, the genocidal State of Sri Lanka is now ‘developing’ a new road to connect the traditional Hindu shrine with a remote Sinhala settlement, abandoning the already existing road that links the village wtih Jaffna – Anuradhapura Road. The Colombo government is also scheming a large Sinhala colonization project along the new road in thousands of acres of public lands in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, informed Tamil civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet.
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Mannaar Bishop rejects GoSL’s Presidential commission on missing persons

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2014, 18:21 GMT]
Rejecting an offer to make presentations before the GoSL’s Presidential commission on missing persons, Mannaar Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph said “Over the years many commissions such as yours have been set up and there is absolutely no shred of evidence that they have tackled impunity. Most, if not all of these commissions have provided only to be eye washers for the then Governments in power.” In a letter sent on Sunday addressed to the Chairman and Commissioners of this setup, he further expressed his concern that “the recent expansion of your mandate and the appointment of international experts to oversee the work of the commission without any clear terms of reference has been deliberately done to undermine the work of the UN OHCHR's inquiry into Sri Lanka which commenced recently.”
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SL TID detains another Tamil student of Sabaragamuwa university

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2014, 10:23 GMT]
The Tamil student, who was arrested last Tuesday by the SL Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), has been released as protests by Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim students of the Sabaragamuwa University gained momentum on Friday. However, another Tamil student of the same university has been arrested and subjected to interrogation at the notorious 4th Floor in Colombo. The students of the Sabaragamuwa University have termed the harassment of Tamil students as State Terrorism in their protest. Sutharsan from Mukamalaai, Ki’linochchi, was arrested while he was recovering from an injury.
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British officials held secretive Belfast meeting with Sri Lanka after Mu'l'livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2014, 00:02 GMT]
UK government lawyers are claiming there are no minutes available from a controversial meeting held between British officials and a Sri Lankan military adviser at Belfast's Policing Board HQ one month after the genocidal onsluaght on Vanni in 2009. The revelation comes after a year-long legal battle to get full disclosure from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to a Freedom of Information request. The British government withdrew its national security exemptions just days before the matter was to due to be decided by a judge at the Information Tribunal. The Belfast meeting related to the deployment of two senior Northern Ireland police officers to Sri Lanka as “critical friends” of the regime during the final stages of the genocidal onslaught in 2009.
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Tamils show solidarity with Kurdistan, Palestine

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2014, 00:17 GMT]
In a series of protests that happened across the globe, Tamils demonstrated their solidarity with the nations of Kurdistan and Palestine. Condemning the Islamist ISIS’ brutality and ethnic cleansing against the Kurds in the Kurdish territories of Syria and Iraq and Israel’s unrelenting assault on Palestine, Tamil activists conveyed their support for independent Kurdistan and Palestine. Over the past few weeks, protests for these causes in Chennai, London, Washington, Los Angeles, Sydney, Toronto and other places saw active Tamil participation. Over 2000 activists of different organizations staged a protest in Chennai on Friday for Kurdistan and Palestine. Likewise, Tamil activists who attended a Kurdish demonstration in London on Friday highlighted the need for greater solidarity among Nations-Without-States.
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Tamil man dies at hospital, SL police shields traffic crime by SL Navy

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2014, 10:54 GMT]
A speeding tractor belonging to the Naayaa’ru camp of the occupying SL Navy in Mullaiththeevu on 02 August hit a motorbike causing serious injuries to two 24-year-old Eezham Tamil men from Mullaiththeevu. One of the victims, Arumukam Sivakumar from Chilaavaththai South of Mullaiththeevu district, succumbed to his injuries at Jaffna Teaching Hospital on Thursday after struggling for his life for four days. The victim is a father of two children. The SL Navy trooper who was riding the tractor and his fellow troopers in the trailer had run away into a nearby military camp after the accident, and they have not been ‘identified’ by the SL police.
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Eezham Tamil student subjected to abduction-styled arrest at university in South

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2014, 09:53 GMT]
The intelligence operatives of Colombo’s military Establishment on Tuesday abducted an Eezham Tamil student attending the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages in the Sabaragamuwa University, which is situated at Balangoda of Ratnapura District in the South. The Tamil student from Vavuniyaa in the North was allegedly ‘arrested’ with the assistance of the University administration, according to informed student circles at the University. The 25-year-old student, Niroj Yogarajah, was last seen when a lecturer had summoned him after the examination. The parents of Niroj have complained to the ‘Sri Lankan’ Human Rights Commission at Vavuniyaa on Thursday stating that they suspected the SL Terrorist Investigation Division to be behind the ‘arrest’.
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Occupation of grazing lands in Batticaloa is big scale Sinhalicisation: EPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2014, 08:40 GMT]
Colombo is engaged in a sinister move to Sinhalicise and colonise a large territory of the Batticaloa district with Sinhalese, Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councillor K. Thurairajasingham told TamilNet. The area consists of more than 30 Tamil villages that come under the Koara’laip-pattu South (Kiraan) and Ea’raavoor-pattu (Chengkaladi) divisions. The Sinhala colonisation project is taken forward through militarisation. Buddhist monks and Sinhala politicians from Ampaa’rai and Polonnaruwa districts are deployed by Colombo to give political leadership to the Sinhalicisation phase of the project.
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Sinhala division hijacks civil affairs of Tamil division in East

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 August 2014, 23:49 GMT]
After Sinhalicising the strategic land-link between the Northern and Eastern provinces and demographically changing the Ma’nal-aa’ru region of Eezham Tamils into a fully Sinhalicised DS division in the south of Northern province, the Colombo government and its military Establishment have now instructed the Sinhala Divisional Secretariat of Padavi Sripura in Trincomalee to take charge of the civil affairs in the northernmost part of Kuchave’li division of Trincomalee district in the Eastern province. The move intends to carve out a Sinhala district, occupying the strategic land and the sea link between the Northern and Eastern provinces and annex that part with the North Central Province, fear informed Tamil civil officials in Trincomalee.
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Fr. Thaninayagam centenary statue unveiled in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2014, 23:27 GMT]
A memorial statue was unveiled in Jaffna marking the centenary of the grand Tamil scholar Rev. Fr. Xavier Thani Nayagam on Saturday and the location known as Madaththadi situated on the Jaffna Main Road in the city, has been declared Thani Nayagam Square. The peaceful opening ceremony comes after the organisers had been firm in braving the harassment by the occupying Sri Lankan military that wanted to erect a Buddha statue at the locality, residents told TamilNet.
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