Constitutionally recognise Tamil homeland to prove bona fides, exiled poet tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2015, 17:40 GMT]
“We [Eezham Tamils] are not [people of two] provinces. We are [the people of] a homeland. This reality is constitutionally not recognised in the Constitution. Would the Sinhala rulers of Sri Lanka ever be prepared to constitutionally recognise the joint North-East as the homeland of Tamils,” questioned exiled Eezham Tamil poet Kasi Anandan on Wednesday, speaking from Chennai, in an Internet-based video address on the occasion of a memorial event held in Batticaloa on the 10th anniversary of the assassinated TamilNet Senior Editor and popular columnist Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki). The current Sinhala rulers [in the island of Sri Lanka] are only talking about ‘Tamils in the North’ whenever they refer to Tamils, Kasi Anandan observed.
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PTF continues to control NGOs assisting resettling people in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2015, 21:57 GMT]
Non Government Organisations trying to assist the people who wish to resettle in the pockets of lands released so far in Valikaamam North are instructed to seek permission from the so-called Presidential Task Force (PTF), which is dominated by military commanders and secretaries of various ministries in Colombo. Local NGOs that attempted to put up temporary huts in Valikaamam North have been instructed by the SL Government Agent to approach PTF clearance, says Shageevan Shanmugalingam, an elected civic representative who also leads a welfare organisation for the resettling people in Valikaamam North.
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SL CID wants to investigate journalists in Mannaar, Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2015, 23:25 GMT]
Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has instructed four Tamil journalists in Vavuniyaa and Mannaar on Sunday to appear in Demattagoda CID office on Wednesday for investigations, journalists in Mannaar said. The journalists were not informed on the subject matter of the investigations. The SL police in Mannaar and Vavuniyaa have issued the summons in Sinhala language to the Tamil journalists.
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Investigate SL Minister Bathiyutheen along with Basil Rajapaksa, Muslims demand UNP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2015, 16:34 GMT]
The people of Mannaar, Puththa'lam and Vavuniyaa have started to raise their voices questioning the credibility of the ‘new’ SL regime in Colombo, which has failed to arrest and investigate SL Minister of Industry and Commerce Mr Rishad Bathiyutheen over allegations of misappropriation of funds. Basil Rajapaksa, who was the former SL Minister of ‘Economic Development’ and Mr Bathiyutheen, who was the SL Minister for Resettlement, have appropriated large sums of the funds obtained for resettling the war-affected people, sections of Muslims in Puththa'lam and Mannaar accuse. At a meeting held in Temple Trees on Friday for UNP members from Northern and North-Western Provinces, Muslim members raised their voices against entertaining Bathiyutheen with a minister portfolio instead of investigating him together with Mr Basil Rajapaksa, who is now detained for investigations.
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IC has failed to save imprisoned Eezham Tamils: NPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2015, 19:14 GMT]
The new Sri Lankan President Maithiripala Sirisena, who came to power with the votes of the Tamil-speaking people, gave full pardon to political prisoner Sarath Fonseka, who was the Sri Lankan Army commander during the genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils in 2009. This new president, who came to power with Tamil votes, was not able to release any of the Tamil political prisoners who are imprisoned by the Sri Lankan courts with jail terms ranging to 20 to 30 years for their participation in the war, said NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam at a press conference held in Jaffna earlier this week. “When I visited Europe recently and the met some of the MEPs, they were urging the Tamils to be patient. I told them in clear terms that they too have failed in securing the release of Tamil prisoners from a regime that came to power with the votes of Tamil speaking people,” Mr Shivajilingam said.
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Sajith Premadasa's SL ministry steps up Sinhalicisation in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2015, 18:25 GMT]
Sinhala officials of Colombo's ‘National Housing Development Authority’, which comes under UNP Minister Sajith Premadasa attempted on Tuesday to grab lands that belong to uprooted Eezham Tamils at Mukaththuvaaram in Kokku'laay of Mullaiththeevu district. A tense situation prevailed as Sinhala settlers confronted the Tamil landowners. However, the move to survey the lands that belong to Eezham Tamils was halted after Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member Thurairajah Ravikaran documented the land deeds to survey department officers who were brought by the so-called National Housing Development Authority to seize the lands to Sinhala colonisers in the country of Eezham Tamils. The SL State is accelerating Sinhala colonization with the aim of permanently wedging the demographic contiguity of the northern and eastern provinces at this strategic location.
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Occupying SL Navy continues to intimidate Tamil fishermen in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2015, 19:01 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailors manning the Periya-kadai jetty, situated at the entrance to the city of Mannaar, are unrelenting in their oppression being meted out to the Tamil fishermen from five village (GS) divisions, fishermen's representatives complain. Although there are no official restrictions on Mannaar fishermen accessing their territorial sea, the SL Navy is checking everyone embarking on fishing every day. The names of the fishermen, their fishing vessels are registered. Their fishing catches are being monitored on a daily basis. The SLN personnel present at the check post also use to seize portions of their catches sometimes, the fishermen further complain.
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NPC appointed commission commences investigations on fraud

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2015, 19:11 GMT]
A 7-member commission appointed by the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) to investigate the wide scale fraud reported within the last five years, said it has commenced the investigations on Monday. The investigations will target various ministries and departments coming under the purview of the NPC, local government and the public service in the province, according to Deputy Speaker M. Antony Jeganathan, who is the chair of the Commission. There have been widespread allegations of fraud involving the previous SL military governor to the North, who was spearheading the structural genocide through the provincial administration. Some of these fraudulent activities have also involved TNA members including a prominent member in the NPC, the critics in the civil sector in Jaffna said urging the Chief Minister to ensure impartial investigations.
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OISL in acid test over witness submissions on ‘Gota camp’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2015, 21:30 GMT]
The revelations on the so-called Gota camp, a secret incarceration camp run by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Trincomalee, where at least 700 former LTTE members were illegally detained for more than five years, will be an acid test to conclude whether the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) has taken the eyewitness submissions seriously, one of the survivors who got out from the notorious detention just a few days before the regime change told TamilNet on Saturday. The whereabouts of those detained at the undisclosed ‘Gota’ camp also constitute a serious question on the conduct of the ‘new’ regime in South. In the meantime, informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet that the SL military has given a figure of less than 400 former LTTE members as being alive in its custody throughout the island.
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Documentary released on Chunnaakam water-pollution issue

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2015, 22:55 GMT]
A new group of documentary makers in Jaffna have released a documentary in Tamil on the ongoing environmental debate regarding the alleged pollution prevailing in Chunnaakam area in Jaffna. Due to the dumping of chemical material by the fossil fuel station in Chunnaakam, the wells around the area have been contaminated by petroleum waste and a toxic heavy metal, maintain a large group of activists, doctors and lawyers in Jaffna. However, the Sri Lankan state-owned company running the power station has deployed all its resources to discredit the campaign by the activists and there have been serious questions on the role played by the politicians in the issue.
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Sinhala colonization continues unabated in pasturelands of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2015, 20:18 GMT]
Sinhala settlers are encroaching into the lands used for grazing of livestock owned by the farmers in Batticaloa. The encroachment is increasing unabated month after month during the 100-day programme of the new regime led by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, Tamil farmers from Periya-maathava'nai in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division told TamilNet on Thursday. The Sinhala settlers target the lands surrounding the water tanks and ponds in the demarcated zones of pastureland. The intruders have slain more than 25 cows that belong to Tamil farmers earlier this year. The Sinhala guards from the SL forest department and the occupying SL military and the police keep fining the cattle owners. “We are targeted by the Sinhala intruders, home guards, military and police because of our ethnicity,” a farmer said describing the illegal fining as extortion.
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SL Minister's men occupy lands of uprooted Tamils in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2015, 21:27 GMT]
Around 100 uprooted Tamil families from Thaangkiyadi in Mannaar have been denied resettlement in the lands where they were living before they were uprooted in 1990. The relatives of SL Minister Rishad Bathiudeen at Thaaraa-puram have occupied the 48-acre land. There is no one to voice for the resettlement of the poverty-stricken families from the lower echelon of the society, rights activists in Mannaar said. “No-one dares to fight with Rishad Bathiudeen who hails from Thaaraa-puram, the nearby village,” a displaced Tamil villager, who visits the temple once a week, told TamilNet on Wednesday. The small temple is the only trace of the Tamil settlement at Thaangkiyadi situated 7 km north of the city on Mannaar - Thalaimannaar A14 Road.
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Ex-LTTE members cannot be investigated: Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2015, 22:37 GMT]
The Sri Lankan State and the members of the international community, who were complicit in the genocide of Eezham Tamils in the name of waging a war against ‘terrorism’ cannot demand any further investigation on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after subjecting the members of the movement to cold-blooded summary executions at the hands of the Sri Lankan State and its military, Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has said. After the end of war, the SL State punished even those who had left the movement several years ago by subjecting them for the so-called rehabilitation in imprisonment. Even those who had left the LTTE several years ago were subjected to military interrogations and punishment by the State, which claims itself as the victor of the war, he said.
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Colombo's propaganda on releasing lands in former HSZ proves futile

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2015, 21:08 GMT]
After making propaganda announcements naming entire GS divisions as to be released for resettlement in Valikaamam North and Valikaamam East, the Sri Lankan State and its occupying military, once again demonstrated on Saturday that only a small pocket was being released, that too under appalling conditions of militarisation near Chaanthai Junction in Valikaamam North. The people of Thaiyiddi and Mayiliddi who went there to see their lands had to return without gaining access to their lands. The SL military has put up fences around the pockets of lands being released to the public while maintaining the militarisation of the occupied villages with all their military installations being intact, the people of Thaiyiddi said.
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New regime deploys military against Habeas Corpus applicants: NPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2015, 21:19 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military intelligence has stepped up harassments against the applicants of Habeas Corpus cases being heard in Vanni, says Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan, who has been harassed twice by the operatives of the Sri Lankan military intelligence when she went to witnesses the cases being heard. Under the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the SL courts were not prepared to hear these cases. The new regime, on one hand, wants to showcase to the outside world that the SL courts are attending these cases, but on the other hand it deploys the military intelligence against the applicants. “I have personally witnessed such harassment in recent days,” Ms Ananthy told media in Jaffna this week.
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Sri Lankan police at war with Tamil journalists in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2015, 22:44 GMT]
A two-member squad, dressed in civil clothes, was trying to knife three journalists in Jaffna after chasing them in a motorbike for 2 kilometres at Nalloor on Tuesday night. The journalists were returning to their offices in two motorbikes after collecting news of a hunger strike when the incident took place. The journalists managed to escape from the attackers and rushed to the Police station in Jaffna to lodge a complaint on the assassination attempt. At the police station, they saw the motorbike of the attackers parked inside the premises and the alleged attackers were a police inspector and a sergeant. The police officers at duty refused to file the complaint from the journalists. In the meantime, another reporter from Point Pedro has been remanded on Wednesday for filing a story about an attempted rape of a school girl by a police constable belonging to Nelliyadi police station.
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Sirisena's regime protects corrupt SL minister from Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2015, 23:29 GMT]
Rishad Bathiudeen, the notorious Sri Lankan minister who has been unleashing communal hatred in Mannaar under the previous regime, continues to be a minister in the new regime of Maithiripala Sirisena. Mr Bathiutheen has been promoting and protecting the criminal Divisional Secretary (DS) of Maanthai West, Manickavasagar Sriskandakumar, to appropriate ‘public lands’, which had been properly allocated to the people during the times of the LTTE. As a favour in return for appropriating these lands for his voters, the SL minister backed the DS to grab some lands for himself and a collaborating Village Officer (GS). Mr Sriskandakumar and T. Sivanesan, the GS, were allegedly complicit in ordering the assassination of social activist K. Nakuleswaran last November. Now, their personal appropriation of lands have been exposed, the people of Ve'l'laang-ku'lam say.
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Money allocated to prevent attacks by wild elephants didn't reach Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2015, 19:34 GMT]
At least 27 people have been slain by wild elephants that have been brought from South into the jungles in Batticaloa district by Colombo government's Department of Wildlife Conservation after the entire district has been brought under the SL military control, according to District Secretariat sources. In the meantime, money allocated for protective measures against the wild elephants by the SL Economic Development Ministry of the previous regime, has not reached the district, TNA parliamentarian P. Selvarasa has complained to the SL Government Agent in Batticaloa.
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Colombo stages ‘deceptive resettlement’ in isolated pockets within military zone

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2015, 23:38 GMT]
The uprooted people from Valikaamam North, who were disappointed to see that their residential lands not released as promised by the Colombo regime, gathered on Friday at Vasaavi'laan MMV to discuss the next course of action. The civic representatives from Valikaamam North complained that the SL military wants to maintain the former High Security Zone as Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) while selectively allowing Tamil civilians into isolated pockets surrounded by military cantonments and business establishments run by the SL military within the SMZ. In the meantime, Non Governmental Organizations have also conveyed their reservation to the SL Government Agent in Jaffna in sending their employees into these pockets, informed civil sources at the District Secretariat of Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Colombo manipulates land figures in Champoor to retain lands

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2015, 11:02 GMT]
Champoor region in Trincomalee district has seen displacement since 1990. But, Colombo’s officials have been instructed to use the voter’s registry of 2005 in deciding those ‘eligible’ for resettlement in Champoor. Several families were uprooted within the 15 years. Further, the people demanding resettlement are asked to hand over ownership documents. Many families have lost their documents during the times of the war due to displacements. The uprooted people who are able to document their ownership to lands within the occupied ‘Economic’ zone will receive alternative lands elsewhere is the position of the SL Governor in the East. Through such manipulations, the figures of lands belonging to people within the occupied ‘Special Economic Zone’ have been manipulated down to 138 acres, the people complain.
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NPC Chief Minister hands over Genocide Resolution to UN Special Rapporteur

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2015, 22:20 GMT]
The Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Justice C.V. Wigneswaran has handed over the NPC resolution on Tamil genocide to the visiting UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, who met him in Jaffna on Wednesday. Almost all the representatives including the Chief Minister, Bishop of Mannaar and the representatives of the Tamil Civil Society Forum have categorically denounced any effort by the UN to sanctify domestic investigations, informed sources said. Mr Pablo de Greiff declined to respond to questions by the journalists. The UN Special Rapporteur has also urged the Chief Minister not to release the details of their discussions to journalists, informed NPC sources told TamilNet.
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