Colombo finds new ways to extend detention of Tamil political prisoners

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 December 2015, 20:39 GMT]
The Tamil prisoners, who are being indefinitely detained for several years in the prisons of occupying Colombo, are going to be subjected for prolonged proceedings once more under a new Colombo-based ‘special court’, legal sources in Jaffna said. There are cases where false confessions obtained under torture by the Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) have been already rejected by the district courts in the North and East. These prisoners were awaiting their cases to be dismissed. But, the judiciary of occupying Sri Lanka wants their cases to be addressed again in Colombo.
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White-van abductions continue in North with ‘UNP sophistication’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2015, 21:42 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence is operating white-van abductions through diaspora and homeland based intermediaries, a well-informed right activists in Jaffna told TamilNet on Wednesday. There have been at least three cases in the recent weeks where abductions were carried out in the Northern Province. The affected parties were given death threats if they chose to go public through other channels than the intermediaries through whom they were released after abductions. The targeted people were Tamil journalists, family members of diaspora activists and traders.
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SL Governor Austin Fernando schemes Sinhala colonization of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2015, 16:14 GMT]
Colombo’s colonial Governor to Eastern Province, Austin Fernando, who is a former Defence Secretary of the occupying Sri Lankan military, is working behind the scene to settle Sinhala colonisers in Batticaloa district. A settlement is being schemed close to the railway station at Punaa’nai. The nearby ‘Sinhapura’ military camp situated on Batticaloa – Colombo Road is being transferred into a Sinhala military cantonment. Additional lands to the extent of 1,500 acres have been seized for this military purpose. Both the sides of the road stretching to 1.5 km along the main road have been fenced off with barbed-wire. There were only five Sinhala families at Pu’naanai before 1990. Now, 29 families have been settled down. The SL Governor has instructed the SL civil officials to increase the figure to 56 families in the near future.
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TPC to formulate preliminary report on Tamil outlook for political solution within 1 month

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 December 2015, 12:08 GMT]
The recently launched Tamil People’s Council (TPC) has formed a 15-member sub-committee on Sunday consisting of appointed members from various stakeholders representing Tamil political parties and civil groups in the North and East. The subcommittee will formulate a preliminary report articulating the fundamentals of a political solution-outlook of the Tamil people in one month. The approach will be a scientific one, said one of the co-chairs of the initiative, Dr P Lakshman, who is a consultant cardiologist at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the chief minister of the Northern Provincial Council, who also co-chairs the TPC, re-iterated that the process would be strengthened through the participation of various stakeholders, regardless of their background or political affiliation.
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Ex-paramilitary operative harasses Koappaave’li villagers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 December 2015, 23:36 GMT]
Former Karuna group paramilitary spokesperson Asad Moulana has been deployed to seize lands from resettled Tamil villagers at Koappaave’li village, situated on Chengkaladi – Badulla Road in Ea’raavoor-pattu DS division, complains Jeyendiran Pathmanathan, the secretary of the Rural Development Society (RDS) of the village. The former paramilitary operative, now working with SL State Minister of Rehabilitation and Resettlement M. L. A. M. Hizbullah, has already seized 3 acres of permit lands through deceiving a villager.
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Resettlement remains a far dream for uprooted Tamils from Vidaththal-theevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 December 2015, 13:11 GMT]
Eezham Tamil fisher families, who were uprooted from the strategic coastal village of Vidaththal-theevu in Mannaar mainland during the times of war, are again facing pressure from Mannaar District Secretariat officials to vacate from Koanthaip-piddi jetty and their temporary settlement at Thoadda-ve’li, situated in Mannaar island, where they have been residing for 16 years since their displacement. Meanwhile, the naval officers of the occupying Sri Lanka Navy, which has already seized 90% of their jetty in Vidaththal-theevu, claimed in November this year that the SLN would be seizing more coastal lands at Vidaththaltheevu. The navy of genocidal Sri Lanka is transforming the naval installation at Vidaththal-theevu into a full-fledged naval cantonment.
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Occupying STF seizes Tamils' lands in Batticaloa for its founder Ravi Jayawardene

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 December 2015, 22:36 GMT]
Ravi Jayawardene, the son of former Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayawardene, has been given 60 acres of lands that belonged to Eezham Tamils at Kiraanku'lam, which is situated on Kalmunai - Batticaloa Road in Ma'nmunaippattu DS division of Batticaloa district. Sri Lankan Special Task Force commandos have fenced off the seized lands that are located in front of a military camp. Claiming that Ravi Jayawardene has bought the lands, the STF personnel have been bulldozing coconut trees in the lands. They are also aiming to seize a total of 400 acres of lands in the area, the people from the area complain. Ravi Jayawardene was a former ‘National Security Advisor’ of genocidal Sri Lanka.
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Tamil youth from Batticaloa reported missing at Colombo airport

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 December 2015, 21:45 GMT]
A 22-year-old Tamil youth from Batticaloa, who returned from Qatar, has been reported missing after he arrived at Colombo Katunayake Airport on 12 December, according to a complaint made to SL Police at Katunayake. The missing person, Gunathas Navaratnam, who hails from Periya Ma'ndapaththadi in Vavu'na-theevu left Batticaloa for employment in Qatar a month earlier in October. According to CCTV footage at the airport, his son had arrived in the airport, says his father Navaratnam Samithamby.
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Occupying Colombo seeks 450 Tamil deserters enlisted by SL military in North

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 December 2015, 23:36 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka is silently deploying targeted search operations to arrest conscripted Tamils, who are absconding from their military enlistment in the Northern province. A total of 450 of 600 Tamils, recruited to SL military through deceptive methods after 2009, have escaped from the genocidal grips of the SL military in the North, informed sources told TamilNet on Monday. They were deceived with the promise of non-military civil work and good salaries, but after they signed up, they were given a basic form of ‘disciplinary’ training and showcased in parades with military uniforms against their wish. Later, they were deployed as slaves in the military-run farms inside the so-called High Security Zones (HSZ). Now, the absconding victims have become subjects for search and arrest operations by the SL military. The victims are now seeking protection.
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Jeneevan, Komahan call off hunger strike after meeting TNA MPs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 December 2015, 23:29 GMT]
The two Tamil prisoners, 36-year-old Jeneevan Sivarasa and 32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, waging a huger-strike at the New Magazine prison, called off their protest on Wednesday evening around 3:00 p.m., after two Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, D. Sitharthan and S. Viyalendran, met the Tamil prisoners and urged them to postpone their hunger strike giving SL authorities one more chance to address their cases without further delay. The SL Minister for ‘Prison Reforms’ Mr D.M. Swaminathan has agreed to instruct the SL Police ASP Senakumara Singhe to be present at the High Court in Jaffna when Jeneepan Sivarasa's case is taken up for investigation, the Tamil prisoner said.
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Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike face death threats inside SL prisons

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2015, 20:21 GMT]
The families of Tamil political prisoners expressed fear on Tuesday that the prison authorities of occupying Sri Lanka have started to deploy harsh methods against their detained kith and kin inside the jails in South to contain their struggle. A violent group of criminal Sinhala prisoners were deployed at the same room of the prison hospital, where 36-year-old Jeneevan Sivarasa was warded at the New Magazine prison. The Sinhala prisoners harassed Mr Sivarasa with racist and death threats, the families of the Tamil prisoners told TamilNet. Another Tamil political prisoner, 32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, was also subjected to similar harassments. The two Tamil prisoners are continuing their hunger strike amidst deteriorating health conditions.
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Systematic enforced disappearances, an international crime, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2015, 23:21 GMT]
Noting the re-emerging threat of white van abductions and enforced disappearances in the historic homeland, the NorthEast, of Eezham Tamils, Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law, said that systematic enforced disappearances is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, and in Sri Lanka this criminality of the Government of Sri Lanka is "an indicium of genocide against the Eelam Tamils." Boyle noted, as evidence of his concern, the recent incident in Jaffna where Colombo's military intelligence operatives threatened the editors of a local newspaper that they would have to face the "white van" if the paper failed to retract a published story on missing persons.
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SL military intelligence threatens Jaffna daily, reminds editors on ‘white-vans’ of past

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2015, 23:28 GMT]
Four Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives, who entered the office of the Jaffna edition of Thinakkural newspaper on Wednesday night, threatened the editorial staff for publishing a news item that exposed the ‘activities’ of certain surveillance operatives, who were camouflaged as journalists and deployed to monitor a meeting held on the previous day. The paper had published a story detailing the presence of four to six ‘operatives’, who were monitoring the participants at a meeting organised by the families of missing persons from all the 8 districts in the North and East on Tuesday. The SL military intelligence operatives who entered the office of the paper on Wednesday warned the editors to withdraw their story with a correction and apology to be issued on Thursday.
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Colombo seeks to contain political prisoners' struggle through adding ‘complications’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 December 2015, 23:32 GMT]
When Tamil political prisoners and prisoners of war waging their struggle demand release through existing SL mechanisms such as the presidential pardon and rehabilitation, they do not mean the SL ‘military rehabilitation’ or to get subjected further to the complicated procedures under the so-called Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the political prisoners planning their next phase of the struggle told TamilNet on Saturday. Although the Tamil prisoners have waged two phases of hunger strikes to bring attention to their plight, the Colombo regime has only complicated the matter citing the PTA. The outside world should take note of the conduct of the Colombo regime, the prisoners who are expected to announce their next phase of the struggle after December 15, said.
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Tamil mother complains of neglect in tracing missing daughter, featured in photo with Sirisena

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 December 2015, 23:12 GMT]
A 15-year-old Eezham Tamil girl, Thanoja Viveganathan from Mu'l'liyava'lai in Mullaiththeevu was reported missing since the final hours of genocidal onslaught on Vanni on 17 May, 2009. Thanoja's mother, Vathanalogini Viveganathan has been claiming for almost a year now that she discovered her missing daughter in a photo taken with the incumbent SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, when he was visiting a school in the South during his election campaign 12 months ago. The trauma-stricken mother has been approaching the political leaders and the investigating commissions to trace the girl in the photo. But, no one has done anything so far to verify the claim of the Tamil mother or to disprove it by acting on her complaint. Born on 23 June 1993, Thanoja, if alive, would be at the age of 22 this year.
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Another Tamil political prisoner goes on hunger-strike at New Magazine Prison

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 December 2015, 17:21 GMT]
32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, a former member of Jaffna Municipal Council, who has been detained in Colombo since July 2010 after being accused of attempting to assassinate Douglas Devananda, a former SL Minister and the leader of the EPDP outfit. The SL 'Terrorist' Investigation Division (TID) had arrested Mr Murugiah during the Rajapaksa regime and produced two cases, one in Vavuniyaa and another in Colombo. The High Court in Vavuniyaa had dismissed his case as his ‘confession’ had been obtained under torture. Mr Douglas Devananda has declined to witness against Mr Murugiah and openly urged for the release of the prisoner. However, the SL TID and SL Attorney General's Department have been trying to file a third case against Murugiah with the intention of keeping him detained indefinitely, informed legal sources told TamilNet on Thursday.
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Hunger-striking political prisoner transferred to Colombo prison

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2015, 20:47 GMT]
The police officials of occupying Sri Lanka have hurriedly transferred the Tamil political prisoner, Jeneevan Sivarasa, from Jaffna prison to Colombo prison on Wednesday following instructions from SL Attorney General's Department, informed sources told TamilNet. The sudden transfer, against his will, comes following a failed attempt to convince the 36-year-old prisoner to abandon his fast-unto-death campaign through false verbal promises. 36-year-old Jeneevan from Achchuveali, Jaffna, began fast-unto-death campaign at Jaffna prison since Monday.
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Missing persons' families resolve to boycott Paranagama Commission

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 December 2015, 23:43 GMT]
The organisations representing the kith and kin of the enforced disappeared Eezham Tamils from the 8 districts of the country of Eezham Tamils came together in Jaffna on Tuesday to denounce the Sri Lankan Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), which is also known as Paranagama Commission. The families of the missing persons have jointly decided not to take part in any sittings, scheduled to take place at the various Divisional Secretariats in the Jaffna District between 11 and 19 December. The families, expressing solidarity with the Tamil prisoners who have exposed the deceptive designs of the Sri Lankan State have also resolved to step up their protests, including fast-unto-death, in the coming days.
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Tamil political prisoner, subjected to indefinite detention, goes on fast-unto-death

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 December 2015, 22:10 GMT]
36-year-old political prisoner Jeneevan Sivarasa, who has been indefinitely detained without trial for 9 years, on Monday launched fast-unto-death in Jaffna Prison. The SL military had detained Jeneevan Sivarasa, who hails from Achchuveali in Jaffna, in 2006 while he was on his way to Polonnaruwa from Batticaloa. An Assistant Superintendent of Police, Senakumara Singhe, who had fabricated a false confession from Jeneevan, has been systematically avoiding presenting himself at every hearing scheduled during the past 6 years at the High Court in Jaffna. Each time, the Tamil prisoner was taken to Jaffna from Colombo and his case was being postponed indefinitely. There are three cases framed against Mr Sivarasa and two of these were fabricated cases of conspiracy to assassinate Maithiripala Sirisena, who is the incumbent SL President.
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SL Navy to seize more lands in Vidaththal-theevu, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 December 2015, 22:51 GMT]
Resettled Eezham Tamil coastal villagers in Vidaththal-theevu, Mannaar, urged the SL administrative authorities last week to release the seized lands that belong to 12 of 200 resettled villagers. However, the commander of the occupying SL Navy in Vidaththal-theevu, who was present at a meeting on Thursday last week, responded by declining to take the request into consideration On the contrary, the SL Navy commander said he was looking for more lands to expand the naval camp into a full-fledged cantonment, news sources in Maanthai West told TamilNet on Saturday.
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American Corner’s “Kozhampa Yaathraa” in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 December 2015, 23:30 GMT]
Those who were reading ITAK’s Suthanthiran newspaper of 1960s and 1970s would recollect how the weekly had to regularly fight against Colombo’s corruption and Sinhalicisation of Tamil language, stemming from contemptuous attitude of “Perun-thesiyam” (i.e., the genocidal nationalism in other words, and even today we have some ‘Marxists’ who see the Tamil struggle as “Ku'run-thesiyam”, i.e., narrow nationalism). After the three decades interlude of Tamil militant struggle, nothing has changed, except for the fact that the USA is now leading Colombo’s outlook of linguistic genocide, commented Tamil activists in Jaffna citing “Kozhampa Yaathraa” call of “American Corner” in Jaffna.
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Boyle denounces Power's notion of "trust deficit"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 December 2015, 22:55 GMT]
Commenting on US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power's statement in an interview to the Sri Lanka's Sunday Observer that "[t]he entire country [Sri Lanka] needs to feel that there is positive and concrete action being taken to move forward...The government has commenced a journey and it must deliver the peace dividend to the people by calling for truth, justice and an end to impunity," Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law, said "Power knows full well that what she is saying here is total baloney and double-talk...It is ridiculous and preposterous for Power to talk about a ‘trust deficit’ between the GOSL and the Eelam Tamils—between the Genocidaires and their Victims."
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Premachandran releases photos of SL military-run torture chamber in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 December 2015, 23:04 GMT]
Former Tamil Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran has released photos taken by him from a former torture chamber operated by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Jaffna to media on Tuesday. The photos show blood-stained walls of a house used as torture cell and the roof of the abandoned house netted inside with barbed-wire. The photos were taken after the occupying Sri Lankan military relocated one of its most dreaded camps, known as 52nd Brigade Head Quarters, from Vara'ni to Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi. Describing the photographic traces of the former torture chamber in Vara'ni, Mr Premachandran told TamilNet that he was releasing the photos after the visiting UN working group on enforced disappearances had confirmed his earlier allegations on the existence of a similar torture chamber at Trincomalee Naval base in the East.
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