CBK answerable for crimes committed under her regime: Ananthy Sasitharan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 August 2016, 20:43 GMT]
Executive Presidents of the SL State in the past and at the present are accountable and answerable for the crimes committed during their regimes, said Ananthy Sasitharan on Tuesday. She was targeting former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga (CBK), who is now heading the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), as responsible, accountable and answerable for the crimes committed during her rule. “If the current and former presidents are serious about reconciliation, they should first stop calling the genocidal war a ‘humanitarian war’. They should officially recognize the Tamil struggle as a liberation struggle and those who participated in it as freedom fighters without any qualms or reluctance. We can only start reconciliation from a position that those who were made to disappear were not terrorists,” Ananthy has said vowing to step up the campaign for international justice.
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White van abduction reported in Ki'linochchi on International Day of Disappeared

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 August 2016, 23:04 GMT]
A white-van squad has abducted a 26-year-old Tamil man, who was formerly a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and released after the so-called ‘military rehabilitation’ on Tuesday while Eezham Tamils from all the districts in the Northern and Eastern Provinces took to the streets on the International Day of the Disappeared demanding international investigations against the genocidal State of Sri Lanka on the burning issue of thousands of forcible disappearances carried out by the occupying Sinhala military and its paramilitaries. The latest abduction in Ki'linochchi, believed to be the work of SL Military Intelligence, is the ‘military response’ to the destruction of Buddha statues in the early hours of the day, political activists in Ki'linochchi said.
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Jaffna GA's letters cause anger among uprooted Tamils from Valikaamam North

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 August 2016, 23:31 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Defence Ministry has instructed the SL Government Agent in Jaffna, Mr N. Vethanayagan to issue three different letters to the uprooted families in Valikaamam North, who are staying in the so-called welfare camps in Jaffna. A section of the people have been asked to prepare to move out of their camps and to accept alternative housing-scheme [being built by the occupying military]. Around 70 of the families staying at Sabapathipillai camp in Chunnaakam have received a second-type of letter that states that in the event their lands were to be permanently seized for military use, they would be compensated with ‘suitable’ and ‘lucrative’ alternatives. A third one asks the remaining to stay calm and wait for resettlement until the end of 2017. The letters have caused confusion and anger among the uprooted people who have been staying in the camps for more than 25 years.
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Colombo steps up deceptive preparations for Ban Ki-moon's ‘inspection’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 August 2016, 21:59 GMT]
As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to visit the island on a three-day tour on Wednesday, Colombo government has engaged its ministers for deceptive preparations for Mr Moon to claim that ‘progress’ was being made by the SL State on the Human Rights front. In the meantime, the SL military intelligence has been given sweeping powers as the topmost agency for terror surveillance on Eezham Tamils. The occupying SL Army has also gained wide powers of spearheading the continued structural genocide by controlling the affairs of resettlement under the guise of Sinhala soldiers engaging in ‘reconciliation’ housing schemes. Meanwhile, Tamil political prisoners in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka for more than 7 years have complained that Colombo was completely ignoring the release of Tamil Prisoners of War, especially those who have been detained since before May-2009.
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Sampanthan, Sumanthiran attempt to quench Tamil uprising in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2016, 20:12 GMT]
Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and pro-Establishment TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, have been staging a series of meetings in recent days in a die-hard attempt to quench the Tamil uprising, which has been scheduled to take place in Jaffna on 14 September. While the mobilisation which has been initiated by the Tamil Peoples Council (TPC), has drawn support from more than 54 grassroots and civil groups in the Northern Province, the deviatory leaders of the main Tamil polity, the TNA, have been instructed by the Establishments not to support the uprising. EPRLF and PLOTE leaders have been harassed by the Sampanthan polity not to be involved with the uprising. However, Dharmalingam Siddharthan and Suresh Premachandran have refused to yield to the pressure to change their stance, informed political sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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49 Tamil students boycott studies, demand security from racial assaults in Peradeniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2016, 20:09 GMT]
Protesting the assault on Tamil-speaking students in ‘surrender position’ by Sinhalese students at Peradeniya University on Monday this week, 49 Tamil-speaking students attending the first year courses at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences (AHS) have left the University premises on Wednesday and informed the administration that they will not be prepared to return until there is a proper guarantee extended to them by the SL State and the University administration. The University Administration was trying to convince that they would provide guarantees for the security of Tamil and Muslim students within the premises. However, Tamil-speaking students who have come from other provinces have raised questions on their freedom of movement and security in Peradeniya and Kandy.
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35 Tamil-speaking students leave Peradeniya campus after racial assault

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2016, 23:37 GMT]
35 Tamil-speaking students attending first year courses at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences (AHS) at the University of Peradeniya on Tuesday left the University premises, after 12 of them were subjected to brutal ethnic-motivated assault by Sinhala students Monday evening. Four students were rushed to hospital with severe injuries after a group of 2nd year Sinhala students of the same faculty attacked them on Monday. Sinhala students who came in motorbikes surrounded the Tamil-speaking students and instructed them to put their hands on surrender position and brutally attacked them using their helments. The incident took place when the Tamil-speaking students were on their way to hostel after attending a faculty related event at Ku'ringhchik-kumaran temple. Around 35 of 200 first-year students at the Faculty of AHS are Tamil-speaking students and most of them were from North-East.
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Ki'linochchi mobilizes against SL military-led Sinhala Buddhicisation of Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2016, 23:09 GMT]
Grassroots Tamil organisations from all parts of Ki'linochchi district on Monday staged one of the largest protests after the genocidal onslaught on Vanni, in which they demanded international justice for genocide committed against Eezham Tamils, de-militarisation, full resettlement of uprooted people and an immediate end to Sinhala Buddhicisation targeting the occupied Tamil homeland. NPC Councillors from Ki'lnocchi district and Tamil National Peoples Front took part in the protest, which was led by TNA Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sritharan.
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Global Tamils urged to help fight legal case of Muslim political prisoner detained under PTA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2016, 23:16 GMT]
The wife of a Muslim political prisoner, who has been detained under the ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ of genocidal Sri Lanka since 2009, has urged global Tamils to financially assist her to cover the legal expenses in her continued fight to release her husband, Mr Abdul Hameed Umar Hattaaph, who has been alleged of involvement in the assassination of a former notorious commander of the genocidal military, Major General (retd) Janaka Perera in 2008 “No lawyer was prepared to take up the case on behalf of my husband when my Father-in-Law was searching for a lawyer before he passed away. Now, my husband is detained with 48 counts against him while all others have been released 6 years ago. Only one Sinhala lawyer was prepared to take up his case following the assistance provided by a legal organisation. But, now that assistance too has stopped,” the mother of three told TamilNet.
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Tamil graduates in East sidelined in education sector employments for 2016

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2016, 23:40 GMT]
The Secretary of Provincial Public Service Commission (PPSC) in the Eastern Province, H.E.M.W.G. Dissanayake has issued a notice in Sinhala and Tamil languages, inviting graduates from the three districts of Ampaa’rai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee to attend for ‘Open Competitive Examination’ to fill vacancies of Provincial Schools in the Eastern Province. Except Tamil, History and certain Information Communication Technology related vacancies are in the medium of Sinhala language, complain Tamil teachers from Batticaloa. While side-lining Tamil-medium positions for Arts, Religion, Agriculture in all the three districts getting only four of thirteen subjects, Trincomalee district is allocated with all 13 subjects.
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Colombo reinvigorates genocidal Military Intelligence in North-East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 August 2016, 22:17 GMT]
The Colombo regime, led by Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe, has given fresh instructions to SL Military ‘State Intelligence Service’, which was formerly known as the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), to function as the sole ‘lead agency’ in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The latest instruction comes following renewed protests by uprooted Eezham Tamils demanding de-militarization and resettlement in recent weeks and the publicly announced mobilisation against the full-fledged Sinhala Buddhisiciation spearheaded by the Sinhala Army and Navy in the North-East. SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe's earlier plans of giving a ‘face lift’ to showcase that the SL Police was now in charge of the ‘security intelligence’ in the North-East, has now been scrapped and the SIS is again given full charge of keeping Eezham Tamils subordinated to Sinhala military domination.
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US 'reconciliation' talk in Jaffna while China gives state upon state to genocidal Sri Lanka  

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 August 2016, 23:53 GMT]
While never recognising the genocide committed and being committed on the nation of Eezham Tamils, the US Ambassador Atul Keshap visiting Jaffna on Monday uttered the word 'reconciliation' 11 times in his few minutes’ speech. In the meantime, on the genocidal blood of Tamils spilt by the USA and India, China is rewarding 'Sri Lanka' with a state-within-state built in Colombo. The one left out in the game is India.
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Uprooted Tamils in Ki’linochchi step up protest against SL military occupation of lands

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 August 2016, 21:55 GMT]
Uprooted Tamil families from Paravip-paagnchchaan, a fertile suburb situated in the heart of Ki’linochchi town, have been protesting in front of the cantonment of occupying SL military’s 58 Division since Saturday. The protest comes a week after SL Defence Secretary visiting the site and the SL military is scheming permanent seizure of the lands. The families said they decided to launch round-the-clock protest as their earlier protests were completely ignored by the SL regime in Colombo. In the meantime, Sinhala Army soldiers have been harassing the news reporters who went to cover the peaceful protest Sunday night. 62 families are demanding resettlement in the 23 acres of lands seized by the SL military at Paravip-paagnchaan.
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2006 Sencholai massacre victims commemorated in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 August 2016, 22:00 GMT]
The relatives of the victims slain in the targeted air-raid on school girls attending a self-protection workshop at Vallipunam in Mullaiththeevu commemorated their kith and kin together with education sector officials and Tamil politicians in a memorial event held near Jaffna Public Library on Sunday. No investigations have so far covered the underlying patterns of the planning, preparation and execution of the massacre, which was carried out with high-level decision-making involving the SL commanders of the three armed forces, SL Defence Secretary and the Commander-in-Chief (SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa) at that time. The targeted massacre was carried out two years before the Government of Sri Lanka withdrew from the Ceasefire Agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
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Ki'linochchi to mobilise against SL military erecting Buddhist sites in occupied Tamil land

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 August 2016, 23:17 GMT]
Triggered by Sinhala military soldiers being deployed to construct Buddhist vihara inside the occupied temple lands of Kanakaampikai Amman at Ira'nai-madu, two mainstream Tamil formations have announced protests and shutdown in the following weeks with the backing of rural and grassroots organisations in Ki'linochchi district. The first protest is to take place on 22 August from Elephant Pass (EPS) to Ki'linochchi with the backing of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sritharan. The next protest and shutdown is scheduled on 07 October, on the initiative by Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) with the participation of former Parliamentarians of EPRLF, PLOTE, EPDP. Tamil National Council, Catholic and Saiva organisations have come together extending their support to the mobilisation.
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Tamil polity urged to principally oppose ‘military rehabilitation’ of Tamil POWs

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 August 2016, 23:29 GMT]
Serious allegations have been levelled against the so-called military rehabilitation of former Tamil fighters in the captivity of SL State. As far as 103 former Tamil fighters, who have been released after the ‘rehabilitation’ have been diagnosed with cancer while there are several cases of persons who have been subjected to the SL military programme having sustained nerve damage losing feelings below their abdomen. The Tamil politicians have completely failed to object the continuation of the genocidal programme, Fr M Sakthivel, a veteran human rights activist, has told TamilNet in a recent video interview. “This is not rehabilitation. This is politically-motivated genocide,” Fr Sathivel said.
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Tamil Prisoners of War call for renewed struggle to free them from SL prisons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 August 2016, 23:06 GMT]
Tamil Prisoners of War, languishing in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka have urged Tamil political and civil activists, students and journalists to launch a renewed struggle for their liberation from the SL prisons. The Tamil POWs said their freedom should be based upon a political decision and a principled one. If SL President Maithiripala Sirisena was able to re-instate a former Chief Justice subjected to impeachment by Rajapaksa government and extend complete Presidential pardon acquitting former SL Commander Sarath Fonseka of all the charges, how could anyone defend the lack of political decision to free the Tamil political prisoners without subjecting them to prolonged imprisonment, a spokesperson of the Tamil POWs asked TamilNet over the phone. The Tamil prisoners have raised severe criticism against Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and TNA Parliamentarian M. Sumanthiran.
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Tamil polity should face on-going communal dispute in Mannaar with statesmanship

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 August 2016, 23:30 GMT]
A conflict raging between Tamil-speaking Catholics and Muslims in Peasalai in Mannaar in recent weeks has again exposed serious lack of statesmanship on the part of secular Eezham Tamil political and civil activists, including Wigneswaran-led Northern Provincial Council, Sampanthan-led ITAK and the civil groups engaged in advancing the cause of Eezham Tamils in the North-East, particularly in the strategically-located Mannaar island, say independent and secular Tamil activists in Mannaar. Muslim leaders from Periya-karisal and Catholic leaders involved in TNA politics and civil activism on behalf of Eezham Tamils have been dragged into the communal dispute at Peasaalai, situated in the north-west of the Mannaar island.
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Sinhala military builds Buddhist vihara in Hindu temple premises in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2016, 22:38 GMT]
Genocidal Sinhala military is constructing concrete structures surrounding a Buddha statue erected by it inside Kanakaampikai-Amman temple, which was initiated by Eezham Tamil Saiva mystic Yogar Swami in the early 50s when the Ira'nai-madu irrigations scheme was developing in Ki'linochchi. Despite repeated requests made to SL Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs D.M.Swaminthan, the Colombo politician has not been able to relocate the Buddha statue away from the Saiva temple premises and release the occupied lands back to the Hindu temple, Tamil activists in Ki'linochchi said. Now, the occupying ‘Sri Lanka’ Army soldiers have been busily deployed to put up walls surrounding the Buddha statue and the construction is blocking the chariot-route of the Hindu temple, sparking off tension in the area.
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Tamil villages in Poththuvil subjected to demographic threat: EPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2016, 22:44 GMT]
Colombo's Forest Department officials are talking about only releasing one tenth of the lands that belong to uprooted Eezham Tamils at Kanakar-kiraamam, a traditional Tamil village from which Tamils were chased out during the times of war, says T. Kalaiyarasan, an elected member of Eastern Provincial Council. 163 Tamil families were living in 410 acres of deed-lands based settlement. Now, the SL Forest Department officials and the Divisional Secretary are talking about only releasing approximately 41 acres back to Tamils. SL military is still stationed at the village, threatening resettlement, Mr Kalaiyarasan said.
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SL Police crimes against Eezham Tamils exposed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 August 2016, 23:02 GMT]
While a Sinhala Officer-in-Charge (OIC), Chintaka Bandara, and his criminal gang, alleged of being responsible for the torture, killing and subsequent cover-up of the murder of a 26-year-old Tamil youth in their custody at Chunnaakam in 2011 are still being at the helm of the SL police affairs at Kodikaamam in Jaffna, the SL Police in Jaffna city has been alleged of murdering a crucial witness this week. 51-year-old Krishnan Kanthasamy, who was a brokering agent of the Sinhala military-run white-van squad, was caught by the people on Kasthooriyaar Road in the city on Monday and he revealed the details of a Major rank SL Military Intelligence officer and his squad as being responsible for several abductions, killings and extortion of money from some of the families of their genocidal victims. Later, he was poisoned by Sinhala police officers, informed Tamil police circles told TamilNet.
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Eezham Tamils in Mullaiththeevu protest against expansion of ‘SLNS Gotabhaya’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 August 2016, 16:54 GMT]
The people of Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday confronted SL Survey Department officials who were trying to seize 617 acres of lands at Vadduvaakal, where the final onslaught took place in May 2009. The area has been seized by the SL Navy for the so-called ‘Regional Security Centre’, monitoring the coastal belt of Mullaiththeevu towards the Bay of Bengal. The lands that belong to private owners have been illegally occupied since 2009 and there are crucial evidences still intact in the area, the people say. The SL Department officials had informed the owners in advance that their lands were to be surveyed for three days starting from Wednesday. The protesting land-owners were accompanied by TNA and TNPF politicians. The protest comes also after SL Deputy Defence Secretary recently visited the area in an attempt to convince the land-owners to accept alternative lands elsewhere.
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Sinhala Police wants SL Judiciary to investigate Tamil students first

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 August 2016, 08:49 GMT]
While Sinhalese students are demanding a sub-station of SL Police to be established inside the premises of the University of Jaffna, the police of genocidal Sri Lanka have filed cases against 5 Tamil students. The Tamil students, including the Student Union leader who was assaulted by the Sinhalese students, have to present themselves at Jaffna Court on 25 August, informed sources at the University of Jaffna told TamilNet on Sunday. In the meantime, 4 Sinhalese students have to present themselves on 10 September, the sources further said.
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