Maithiripala demonstrates ‘homegrown’ structural genocide in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 October 2016, 23:16 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena who visited Jaffna on a public relations campaign on Monday claimed that he was ‘releasing’ 454 acres of lands back to the uprooted people from Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS), Veeman-kaamam and Thaiyiddi villages in Valikaamam North. But, the propaganda drive have drawn severe criticism from the uprooted people as Major General Mahesh Senenayake, the SL military commander in Jaffna, also went on record stating that two large military camps would continue to remain within the area claimed by the SL President as being released. A large camp is situated in 70 acres of lands within KKS South (J-235) and another base is located within Thaiyiddi South (J-250) occupying 48 acres. The move is a tactic to make the people to sell off their lands, informed civil sources told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Human skeletons discovered near SL military camp north of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 October 2016, 18:56 GMT]
Tamil workers engaged in digging a latrine at Mu'rak-koddaagn-cheanai, is situated 18 km north of Batticaloa city, have discovered human skeletons along with remains of burnt tires and railway sleepers on Saturday. The site is believed to be a mass grave as the land was under the SL military for 24 years since 1990 and released back to the people only in 2014. The 11th Regiment of notorious 23 Division of the occupying ‘Sri Lanka’ Army is now stationed a few meters close to the locality. The SLA soldiers, who were stationed at this camp in 1990 were behind the brutal massacre of more than 60 Tamils from Chiththaa’ndi village. Several Tamil civilians reported missing during that time from the nearby villages were also allegedly taken to the torture chambers at Mu'rak-kodddaagn-cheanai.
Full story >>

Resettling Champoor Tamils deceived, hundreds of acres seized for militarization

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 October 2016, 23:20 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has deceived uprooted Tamils of Champoor in Trincomalee by asking them to legally transfer lands to SL Navy to relocate its training base SLN Vidura while releasing lands for their resettlement in July 2015. The people were asked to allocate around 40 acres of lands. But, in practice around 300 acres of lands have been seized from them. At least 50 families were deceived this way and were told by even Tamil politicians to cooperate with the request of SL President in order to commence the resettlement of the uprooted Tamils in Champoor. The were told that proper substitute lands would be given to them at different locations within 6 months. Now, 15 months have gone, none of them were given such lands. The SL Navy has seized at least 250 acres more than what was claimed as its requirement, the uprooted Tamils say.
Full story >>

Colombo insults Jaffna University students’ struggle for justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 October 2016, 22:59 GMT]
Student leaders at the University of Jaffna have sent back a letter they received from Colombo’s colonial governor to North Mr Reginald Cooray. The student federation activists told TamilNet on Thursday that Mr Cooray had sent them a reply in Sinhala language to their appeals, which were addressed to SL President and SL Prime Minister and handed over to the representative, Mr Cooray, during the protest in Jaffna on Monday. If Tamil is accorded a status as official language in the island, why is Mr Cooray responding in Sinhala to the Tamil students in Jaffna, the student leaders asked. Mr Cooray was earlier taking the side of Sinhala students who triggered off an ethnic motivated confrontation at the Jaffna University.
Full story >>

Wickramasinghe deploys ‘shadow war’ intelligence squads in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 October 2016, 22:15 GMT]
Ranil Wickramasinghe, the prime minister of genocidal Sri Lanka has deployed more than one hundred high-level intelligence operatives in Jaffna district to step up and coordinate a shadow war on Eezham Tamils as in the mid 1990s under the rule of Chandrika Kumaratunga when the SL military seized the entire Jaffna peninsula. The latest operation has been carried out in collaboration with the Commander-in-Chief of the occupying military, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. The intelligence ‘head quarters’ is attached to the district police headquarters at Pa’n’nai in Jaffna. The new Intelligence hierarchy is operating its own roaming commando squads. The recent violent behaviour of SL police has its origins from the ‘coordination’ and commando operations of this intelligence squad, informed sources within the SL Police establishment in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

North shuts down in protest to killings of students, killer-policemen transferred to Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 October 2016, 17:58 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in the Northern province on Tuesday observed a full-day shutdown in protest against the deployment of armed Sinhala policemen in the streets of occupied Tamil homeland. Heeding to the call coming from the Tamil political parties following the brutal killings of two Tamil students of Jaffna University by Sinhala policemen on Thursday last week, all the businesses, academic institutions, public offices and even pharmacies and petrol sheds were shut down. No one, except those, who engaged in marking their protests by blocking the roads, were seen on the streets. Although the shut-down was largely peaceful, there were some clashes between Tamil youth and Sinhala policemen at Ki’linochchi, where an Indian-operated and US-funded garments company, which is alleged of exploiting Tamil labourers, refused to heel the call for the protest until the Citizens’ Committee intervened.
Full story >>

Jaffna university students mobilize against killings by Sinhala police

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2016, 08:37 GMT]
More than 2,500 Tamil students from the University of Jaffna brought the activities of occupying Colombo's District Secretariat in Jaffna to a standstill on Monday morning as they sieged the entrances of Jaffna Kachcheari and the official residence of SL colonial Governor demanding justice for the slaying of two students by armed Sinhalese policemen Thursday night last week. The students observed a peaceful protest without shouting any slogans along the A9 road, but they were holding placards in their hands. The SL military and police stayed away from the protest site to keep the protest to proceed without any confrontation.
Full story >>

Colombo survyes lands for ‘Sinhala Military Zone’ in Valikaamam North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 October 2016, 22:48 GMT]
While the uprooted Tamils, demanding resettlement in their own villages in Valikaam North, are still denied access to their lands that are situated within the former ‘High Security Zone’ in Valikaamam North, 261 hectares of their lands are now being officially appropriated by the occupying genocidal Sri Lanka under the pretext of expanding the airport at Palaali. Thellippazhai Divisional Secretary has informed the people that their lands in three GS divisions are now being surveyed and appropriated according to an old Gazette notification of 25 November 1986. The SL Military ‘releasing’ selected pockets of lands, constructing deceptive housing schemes and the SL President Sirisena making ‘reconciliation’ PR stunts with the propaganda of resolving land issues, are all camouflage acts being deployed for the creation of a permanent Sinhala Military Zone in Jaffna.
Full story >>

Six fishermen arrested, SL Police ‘facilitates’ SL Navy's ‘legal revenge’ in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2016, 11:48 GMT]
The Sinhala police of occupying genocidal Sri Lanka arrested 6 Tamil fishermen in the troubled Arippu village in Mannaar Friday morning and has brought them for an ‘identification parade’ at Mannaar Magistrate Court, where ‘Manchula’, the criminal SL Navy operative who was caught red-handed after entering a house in the coastal village on Tuesday, has been tasked to identify the villagers who caught him. On Tuesday, the SL Navy culprit was carrying two knives under his shirt when he was chased away and captured by the villagers after a family shouted for help. “This is how the Sinhala Police and the SL Judiciary operate in this island. None of the so-called Constitutional processes in the South are going to change this reality. Today, we are witnessing just another crime against humanity in Mannaar,” said a Tamil lawyer witnessing the behaviour of the SL Police.
Full story >>

SLN expands naval detachment in Musali, steps up harassment on fishermen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 October 2016, 17:29 GMT]
Making use of the prevailing situation in the coastal village of Arippu facing the Gulf of Mannaar, the occupying Sinhala Navy of genocidal Sri Lanka on Thursday increased its harassment on Tamil fishermen who went for fishing off Arippu and Chilaavaththu’rai. Fishermen from Ko’ndaichchi, Panangkaddi-koddu and Vangkaalai were subjected checking on board their vessels. Five water-jet gunboats were deployed by the SL Navy. In the meantime, the naval detachment at Muththarippuththu’rai was being expanded by seizing further lands and by bringing in more naval personnel into the village, eyewitnesses told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Tamil fishermen apprehend menacing Sinhala soldier, smash SL naval detachment in Arippu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2016, 18:46 GMT]
A Sinhala military intelligence operative attached to the occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Arippu, a coastal village in the Musali division of Mannaar district was caught red-handed by Tamil fishermen Tuesday around 10:00 p.m. when he was harassing a family in the village. The military intelligence operative was beaten up by the angry villagers. The SL Navy sailors stationed at the naval detachment in Arippu tried to rescue the culprit by sending an SLN sailor. When the attempt failed, the navy sailor escaped from the villagers, who chased him to the naval detachment. The navy personnel threatened the villagers by firing gunshots. However, the angry villagers smashed the SL Navy detachment sending a strong message against the criminal conduct of the occupying navy. Catholic priests in Mannaar told TamilNet that they have managed to calm down the villagers. Tension prevails in the area.
Full story >>

Abducted Tamil businessman released after torture in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 October 2016, 20:45 GMT]
36-year-old Krishnasamy Ratheesan, a Tamil businessman who was reported missing on 12 October in Ki'linochchi, returned home with internal injuries and symptoms of shock. Refusing to comment anything on who the culprits were and why they abducted him and subjected him to torture, the father of one chose to seek legal protection through the police in Ki'linochchi, sources in Ki'linochchi said. So-called white-van squads operated by the SL military intelligence were behind similar abductions in the past, especially during the times of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as the ‘Defence Secretary’ of the occupying SL military. The latest abduction has raised alarms among the business community in the North-East.
Full story >>

NPC Councillor initiates action to assist Muslim political prisoner’s family

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 October 2016, 16:29 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council member Ms Ananthy Sasitharan has come forward to facilitate assistance to Ms Segu Mohaideen Noorjan, a mother of three and the wife of a Muslim political prisoner after the latter made an open plea for assistance to fight for the release of her husband and to help her cover the expenses for the education of her children. “There should be a collective political decision on the part of the Sri Lankan State and its leaders to release all the political prisoners. I have therefore chosen to facilitate initial assistance for Ms Noorjahan’s family to sustain its livelihood,” Ms Ananthy Sasitharan told TamilNet on Sunday adding that she had promised to facilitate assistance to enable Ms Noorjan to do farming on her own.
Full story >>

SL military gets emboldened by greeting UN officials, joint military exercises in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2016, 21:44 GMT]
The ‘headquarters’ of genocidal military in Jaffna was one of the first places to be visited by UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye this week. “It has almost become a routine for visiting foreign diplomats to greet the SL military commanders before they meet the people in the North-East. In the meantime, foreign militaries stage joint exercises with SL military in our homeland. They even conduct medical services intended for the civilians jointly with the SL military. The SL military Establishment perceives such international ‘engagements’ as recognising its past conduct. Emboldened by the appeasement, the military is openly denouncing the calls for de-militarisation and the demands for reduction of military deployment in the North-East,” said Tamil civil activist in Jaffna, Vijaratnam Kesavan, in a video interview to TamilNet.
Full story >>

Austin Fernando schemes Muslim ploy for Sinhala colonisation in Tamil division

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 October 2016, 18:24 GMT]
Colombo’s Governor of Eastern Province, Mr Austin Fernando, is once again scheming a plan to bring in Sinhala colonizers into the Tamil division of Koara’laip-pattu South (Vaakarai), informed sources at Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet on Tuesday. Mr Fernando, a former defence secretary and an advisor to SL President on ‘reconciliation’, has now joined hands with the SL State Minister of ‘Rehabilitation and Resettlement’ Mr M.L.A.M Hizbullah after the latter’s plan to settle Muslim families at Kaarai-munai in Vaakarai division was turned down by Ms S. Rahulanayaki, the divisional secretary of Vaakarai, the sources further said. Kaarai-munai is situated 42 km north of Batticaloa city. Vaakarai, a traditional Tamil division, faced a genocidal onslaught in 2007.
Full story >>

Colombo ‘demonstrates’ genocidal approach by continuing controversial Vihara at Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 October 2016, 19:27 GMT]
The regime of occupying Colombo has instructed its military and government officials to extend full support to the controversial construction of Buddhist vihara at the lands seized from an Eezham Tamil family at Kokku'laay in Mullaiththeevu district despite repeated complaints from the land owner, Tamil civil officials and the Northern Provincial Council. In the meantime, video recorded this weekend at the construction site show that the extremist monk, Ven Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, has proceeded with the construction of the outer circle wall of the Vihara since April 2016 when the construction stood at the inner circle of the Vihara. 354 families of Sinhala colonists have been brought into Mukaththuvaaram, situated south of Kokku'laay and Sinhala fishermen have put up fishing huts at various places along the coast from Mukaththuvaaram and north towards Mullaiththeevu.
Full story >>

Landless Tamils in Maanthai West should be given new lands: senior grassroots activist

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 October 2016, 16:25 GMT]
Various acts enacted by the colonial British rulers before 1948 had brought the public lands in the entire island into the domain of the Colombo-based State structure and its constitution, which was enacted without the democratic mandate of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the North-East. It was the so-called ‘Crown Lands Encroachment Ordinance’ that brought these lands, for which private ownership could not be documented, into Crown property in 1840. Later, in 1972, after the Sinhalese unilaterally enacted the genocidal State of ‘Sri Lanka’, amidst protests and without the democratic mandate of Eezham Tamils, a series of ‘land reforms’ were introduced by Colombo. Even these reforms brought after 1972 are now being violated by the SL State itself in seizing the lands of Tamils, says Seemanpillai Sountharanayakam, the deputy chairman of Maanthai West Divisional Council.
Full story >>

Uprooted Tamils yet to resettle in Ampaa'rai village risk losing their lands

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 October 2016, 19:23 GMT]
The Divisional Secretary of Poththuvil, Mr N.M.Musharaf, has been harassing the Tamil families who were uprooted from Vadduve'li (P/11) GS division to forget resettlement in Ki'raval-kuzhi village as their lands are to be seized for ‘public purposes’, informed civil sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet on Wednesday. 173 Tamil families were uprooted from their native village in 1990 and they were reluctant to resettle due to persistent threat from the occupying military and police, especially after the massacre that took place in 1994 in close proximity to the SL Police station. The Divisional Secretary has now dashed the hopes of uprooted Tamils who have been waiting for a conducive situation to return to their lands.
Full story >>

UN refugee agency discriminates against stateless Eezham Tamil refugees

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 October 2016, 22:43 GMT]
Around 100,000 uprooted and poverty-stricken refugees from the country of Eezham Tamils are staying in the camps in Tamil Nadu State in India. Apart from them, more than 200,000 Eezham Tamils, who are also uprooted due to the conflict in the island, are also living outside the camps in Tamil Nadu. Only 4,564 people, belonging to 1,854 families have returned back to Northern Province. Most of the people returned to the island within the last five years the UN refugee agency UNHCR complain that they have been abandoned by the agency and the authorities. People who have returned to Vavuniyaa complain that Sinhala colonisers had seized their lands and that they are now let to look after themselves without any programmes of resettlement. The UN agency was only interested in paying the travel expenses. The returnees complain that they have not heard anything from the UNCHR after that.
Full story >>

Sinhala colonisers in Batticaloa challenge officials with Sirisena-issued land permits

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 October 2016, 23:01 GMT]
A group of government officials belonging to various departments including the officials from Mahaweli ‘development’ authority, which comes under the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, were confronted by the Sinhala settlers, who claimed the lands were given to them by none other than Mr Maithiripala Sirisena, when he was serving under Mahinda Rajapakasa a few years ago. The officials were on a fact-finding mission to Mayilaththa-madu and Maathava'nai pasturelands, situated in the interior Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division in Batticaloa district. The visit took place on 25 September after repeated complaints coming from Tamil dairy farmers in the division. However, there was no sign of action from the authorities, the farmers told TamilNet on Sunday.
Full story >>

People rise up against occupation of Vidaththal-theevu at DDS meeting

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2016, 23:36 GMT]
Former Deputy Chairman of Maanthai West Divisional Council S. Soundaranayagam and rural representatives of various organisations across Maanthai West division in Mannaar on Friday confronted the co-chairs of Divisional Development Committee meeting and the Divisional Secretary of Maanthai West against the structural genocide prevailing in their division. Unable to defend the Colombo system, the co-chairs were forced to conclude the meeting with the decision of instructing the Divisional Secretary M. Sriskanthakumar to officially inform the SL Navy to immediately vacate Vidaththal-theevu jetty and the properties belonging to resettled Tamil fishing families.
Full story >>