32nd anniversary of Vaddakka'ndal genocidal massacre commemorated

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 January 2017, 23:24 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister, Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on Monday joined hands with NPC Opposition Leader Sinnadurai Thavarajah of the EPDP and the people of Vaddak-ka'ndal in Mannaar, commemorating 32nd anniversary of the genocidal massacre of 88 Eezham Tamils, who were shot and butchered to death in execution-style and by 300 Sinhala soldiers who had surrounded the village from all directions in the early hours of 30th January in 1985. Farmers, labourers, students, teachers and a school principal were among the massacred at various places in the village. The SL military had been wantonly targeting Tamil villagers in Mannaar for more than a month since 04 December 1984, when the Tamil Tigers carried out an ambush on an armoured vehicle of the SL military at Moon'raam-piddi, a village located on Mannaar - Jaffna Road.
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Resettled fisher families at Palaali North face hunger due to UNDP negligence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 January 2017, 18:33 GMT]
The UN Development Agency was promising to provide sea-access facilities to more than 50 fisher families who were resettled after 27 years in their own coastal fishing village of Antonypuram in Palaali North in Valikaamam North. A few weeks ago, the fishermen families shifted their work from displaced Inparuddi area in Vadamaraadchi North to their own village in Palaali. After the SL military allowed them to access the sea 60 days ago, the fishermen were only able to make it to sea for 5 days, says 34-year-old Sujeevan Antonypillai, a resettled fisherman. The UNDP, after promising to put up the fisheries infrastructure, has delayed it. Housing was provided through Indian Housing Scheme, which was initiated in May 2016. The UNDP is now citing bad weather conditions to commence the infrastructure work.
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SLN should apologise for brutal assault on stranded Jaffna fishermen at Kachchatheevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 January 2017, 10:18 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala Navy stationed at Kachchatheevu islet brutally assaulted three Eezham Tamil fishermen from Neduntheevu, whose fishing boat ran aground on Kachchatheevu islet after losing fuel on 20 January. The exhausted fishermen, who had been searching for their lost fishing net, were detained throughout the night and subjected to brutal assault by the SL Navy. On the following day, the fishermen were sent back into the sea on board their vessel without any fuel. The news of the SL Navy attacking them was exposed to local media after other fishermen saved the wounded fishermen. Now, the SL Navy has started to exert pressure on those who alerted the media and the Tamil politicians, says NPC Councillor Vinthan Kanagaratnam, who has been in touch with the assaulted fishermen and their representative, Mr Aruljeevan, since the incident was reported for the first time.
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Sirisena wages demographic genocide against ancient Tamil villages in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 January 2017, 18:03 GMT]
The unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka, particularly its president who hails from the North Central Province, is slowly and silently annexing lands of the ancient Tamil village Thamapalakaamam, an agricultural village, which is also a suburb of Trincomalee city in the Eastern Province, with Anuradhapura district. Carving out 75% of the lands coming under Thampalakaamam division and after Sinhalicising the area into two villages with Sinhala colonisers, the current regime of Maithiripala Sirisena, is attempting to administratively annex these villages with the Anuradhapura district, informed Tamil civil sources in Trincomalee said. Thampalakaamam is located about 27 km southwest of the east port town on the Trincomalee-Kandy highway.
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NPC Councillor vows to take next-phase of protests to foreign missions in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2017, 17:10 GMT]
Northern Provincial Councillor Mrs Ananthy Sasitharan has vowed to take the next step of struggle by the relatives of the enforced disappeared to the diplomatic missions of foreign powers that were responsible for urging Tamils to surrender and move towards Vavuniyaa during the final phase of the Tamil genocide in 2009. In the meantime, the kith and kin of enforced disappeared who were on a hunger strike temporarily ended their struggle on the 4th day on Thursday after SL Deputy Defence Secretary has brokered a meeting between the hunger strikers and the SL Prime Minister on 09th February. Two symbolic hunger-strikes were conducted in Jaffna on Thursday in support of the relatives of enforced disappeared in Vavuniyaa during the last phase of Tamil genocide.
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Health of hunger striking elderly women deteriorates, Wigneswaran urges immediate action

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 January 2017, 20:35 GMT]
The health situation of the hunger striking elderly women of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances in SL military controlled Vavuniyaa during and after the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009 has escalated on the third day of their fast-unto death campaign demanding immediate answers from the SL State and its backers on the whereabouts of their kith and kin. Medical sources in Vavuniyaa have urged hospitalisation of four women who were treated by the doctors on Wednesday. But, the hunger strikers have refused to cooperate and continue their struggle. In the meantime, several activists in Jaffna, Trincomalee and other places have called for escalation of hunger strike in other places. Social media activists are also organising a fasting campaign expressing their solidarity.
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Colombo resumes abduction-styled arrests of former LTTE members

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 January 2017, 23:16 GMT]
The so-called ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) of genocidal Sri Lanka has silently resumed abduction-styled ‘arrests’ in Ki'linochchi district in January 2017, according to informed legal sources in the district. Two men, wearing civilian clothes entered the house of 32-year-old Murugiah Thavaventhan on Wilson Road in Thiruvai-aa'ru in the Karaichchi division of Ki'linochchi district on 15 January and took the former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), almost 7 years after he was re-united with his family in March 2010. Legal sources providing assistance to the family said Mr Thavaventhan was being detained by the TID at Vavuniyaa and that the family was not given a valid reason for his detention. Similarly, another ex-LTTE member, 37-year-old Kulendran Karalasingham, who is also from the same area, has been detained by the notorious TID at his working place.
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Tamil land officials, uprooted villagers urge action from Eastern Tamil politicians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 January 2017, 22:44 GMT]
Armed policemen coming under Colombo’s rule in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils are operating against the uprooted Tamil land-owners in Batticaloa district, the villagers from Ee’raavoor-pattu (Chengkaladi) DS division have complained to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Sachchithanantham Viyalendran. The land-owners who were engaged in clearing their lands at Chavukkadi, located 18 km northeast of Batticaloa city within the Chengkaladi division, were recently blocked by armed SL policemen. Some Muslim people were accompanying the Sinhala policemen with the claim of ownership to the same lands. The armed policemen have told Tamil villagers, despite their possession of land deeds and permits to prove their ownership, that their documents were invalid. The SL policemen have expelled Tamil land-owners from 150 acres of lands already, the uprooted Tamils complain.
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Eezham Tamils mark MGR’s birth centenary

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2017, 21:53 GMT]
The birth centenary of the late M.G. Ramachandran, a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, who extended his support to the struggle of Eezham Tamils and wholeheartedly backed both Thanthai S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and LTTE Leader V. Pirapaharan, was emotionally marked in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils on Tuesday. The people of Aaladi in Valveddith-thu’rai (VVT), mobilized themselves to renovate the statue of MGR, which was destroyed by the Sinhala military near Mr Pirapaharan’s house.
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Ancient coastal village in Jaffna transformed into ‘Sinhala Military Zone’ resort

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2017, 23:07 GMT]
The native villagers from Mayiliddi in Jaffna have witnessed this week, from distance, how their houses and the coastal strip have been transformed into a Sinhala Military Zone and a resort for the families of occupying military and Sinhala visitors from South with connection to Colombo's military Establishment. Mayiliddi, situated between KKS and Palaali, was the major fishing port of Eezham Tamils in Jaffna for centuries and was surrounded by fertile agricultural villages. On Pongkal Day, occupying Colombo was waging a propaganda that a fishing port was handed back to resettling people. What was released to people only a narrow access of 400 meters of a fishing jetty situated close to KKS at Oo'ra'ni. The uprooted fishermen, who went to Oo'ra'ni were able to witness how Mayiliddi coast has been transformed into a Sinhala Military Zone.
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SL military intensifies human surveillance on visitors to Champoor

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2017, 22:21 GMT]
The occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka has deployed various actors to spy on those visiting Champoor in Moothoor East of Trincomalee district. All visitors, including the relatives and friends of resettled Eezham Tamils in Champoor, are being subjected to human surveillance through auto rickshaw drivers based in Moothoor town, bus drivers and public sector officials. SL Navy intelligence wing in Champoor has instructed auto drivers in Moothoor town to report details of external visitors, including those from other villages in Trincomalee, immediately after driving each visitor to Champoor. Likewise, shop owners, bus drivers and public sector officials have to report details of those visiting Champoor. The freedom of speech of resettled Champoor people has become much more limited than how it was earlier during the Rajapaksa regime.
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Genocidal Colombo attempts to seize lands from resettling Tamils in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 January 2017, 16:02 GMT]
30 Eezham Tamil families who were uprooted from a housing scheme in Poththuvil division of Ampaa'rai district are now more worried about permanently losing two thirds of their lands to the occupying Sinhala military and the Forest Department of genocidal Sri Lanka. In 1985, the families secured their settlement, which became known as 30th Ward. Initially, each family was provided with 2 acres of lands, including residential and upper-lying lands for agriculture. But, the families lost their houses and their agricultural lands in late 1980's as the occupying SL Army moved in, setting up a military base near the coastal strip of the Kanakar-kiraamam GS division.
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No Pongkal celebrations for resettled Champoor Tamils in 2017

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2017, 21:54 GMT]
Tamil families who resettled in the lands released in Champoor after being uprooted from their native village for 10 years, complain that they have been abandoned without basic infrastructure or basic facilities. There have been no compensation for the destruction caused by the SL State on their property. Even the promise of providing dray rations for 6 months was not kept by the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. The people were not able to celebrate Pongkal festival as they were among the hardest hit by the drought.
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Sinhala colonists step up hate crimes against Tamil fishermen in occupied Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2017, 22:37 GMT]
A fishing boat, nets and a motorbike parked along Tha’n’ni-mu’rippu reservoir were destroyed by Sinhala colonists on Tuesday, allege the villagers of Tha’n’ni-mu’rippuk-ku’lam in Karai-thu’raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district. There are only Tamil-speaking fishermen in all the villages surrounding the reservoir. The reservoir used for irrigation of agricultural lands during the cultivation seasons is also the source for fresh-water fishing for Tamil and Muslim villagers. They depend on fresh-water fishing in between the cultivation seasons. A systematic and large-scale invasion by intruding Sinhala fishermen, who come from distant Padawiya and Ma’nal-aa’ru (Sinhalicised into Weli-oya) has not only threatened the livelihood of the native villagers, but also destructive to the eco-system, the local fishermen complain.
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ITAK leaders have violated Tamil people’s democratic mandate: Premachandran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2017, 22:39 GMT]
The very basic demands of Tamils have been totally denied, both by the constitutional assembly tasked with drafting the new constitution and by the political parties in the South. On what basis, the two ITAK politicians R. Sampanthan and M. Sumanthiran continue to be part of the constitutional assembly, asks EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran, who took up the matter in a recent coordinating committee meeting of the TNA. The Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), under the leadership of Thanthai S.J.V Chelvanayakam, boycotted the 1972 Constitution as the constitutional proposal didn’t respect the demands of Tamils. Similarly, the TULF boycotted the 1978 constitution brought by J.R. Jayawardene. There has been no democratic discussion or debate within the ranks of the ITAK. The two other parties, Sitharthan's PLOTE and TELO led by Selvam Adaikalanthan are also answerable, he said.
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Colombo wants to transfer cases of 38 Tamil prisoners to courts in Sinhala suburb

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 January 2017, 15:36 GMT]
SL Attorney General’s Department, which has been trying to transfer the cases of Tamil political prisoners away from the courts in the North and East, is now applying the same tactic also in Colombo by attempting to transfer the cases from Colombo Court to Homagama, an all-Sinhala area situated 30 km southwest of Colombo city, Tamil lawyers in Colombo said. The cases of 38 Tamil political prisoners are going to be transferred to the courts in Homagama and it will not be easy for the Tamil detainees and their families to secure Tamil-speaking lawyers, who are prepared to travel from Colombo to Homagama, says TNA Parliamentarian Mr Charles Nirmalanthan.
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Sinhala Buddhist monks assault Tamil cattle-herders in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 January 2017, 22:43 GMT]
Three cattle-herding Tamil farmers were brutally assaulted on Tuesday by Sinhala Buddhist monks at Maathava’nai pastureland, situated in Koa’ra’laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district. Three monks in robe emerged from Mayilaththa-madu camp of the occupying Sinhala military while the Tamil farmers were feeding water to their cows at Maanthalai-aa’ru river. The violent monks seized the tools from the farmers before assaulting them. 69-year-old Poopalapillai Selvam, a father of six from Pearillaa-ve’li, 30-year-old Kumarasamy Perinpam, a father of four and 25-year-old Manikam Nadarajah, a father of two from Chiththaa’ndi 2nd and 3rd cross streets, were the cattle-herders who sustained injuries.
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SL military deploys ‘media agents’ to deceive uprooted Tamils in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 January 2017, 15:07 GMT]
Major General Mahesh Senanayake, the Jaffna commander of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, Reginald Cooray, who is Colombo's colonial governor to North and Angajan Ramanathan, the SLFP’s nominated parliamentarian who was earlier promoted by the Rajapaksa regime to circumvent Colombo regime’s dependency on Douglas Devananda's EPDP in Jaffna, are now jointly deployed in a covert operation of counter-insurgency and subversive nature with the intension of bringing disunity among the poverty-stricken section of uprooted people from Valikaamam North who are still languishing in 29 of 34 ‘welfare’ camps in Jaffna district.
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8,500 landowner families remain uprooted due to Sinhala militarisation of Jaffna District

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 January 2017, 15:31 GMT]
The Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka is still occupying 5,322 acres of private lands owned by 8,065 families in Jaffna district, according to latest figures from the District Secretariat. Among the 14 administrative divisions in the district, 7,921 families uprooted from their 4,589 acres of lands are from Valikaamam North, which is administratively managed by Thellippazhai Divisional Secretariat. Of these, only 791 families (10%) reside in the so-called welfare camps. The remaining 7,130 landowner-families, uprooted from the fertile Valikaamam North, reside outside these camps in the island or elsewhere. In the meantime, Colombo's regime and its global backers are trying to deceive the poverty-stricken 10% in order to ensure permanent genocidal occupation of fertile Valikaamam North and the strategic coastline with its rich fish beds that belong to the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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Unknown gangs desecrate Hindu temples in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2017, 13:23 GMT]
The main statue in the Garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) of a Pi'l'laiyaar temple situated near Naavaladi Nursery in Kiraan division, 40 km northwest of Batticaloa city, has been removed by unknown persons on Thursday. A military base of the occupying Sri Lanka Army is located 500 meters from the temple, both of which are situated on Batticaloa - Colombo main road. This is the second incident within one month in the same division. Hindu temples are being targeted in Trincomalee and Battialoa in recent times.
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Outside forces abet genocidal Colombo, deceive uprooted Tamils in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2017, 23:18 GMT]
The Foreign Ministry and Resettlement Ministry of occupying Colombo are working together with a number of Colombo-based foreign ‘diplomats’ and ‘development’ conquistadors in silencing the opinion of uprooted Eezham Tamils languishing in 34 ‘welfare’ camps in the Jaffna peninsula, Tamil development workers in Jaffna say. The main agenda of outside funders is targeting on sustaining the UNP-SLFP regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe rather than adhering to their own principles and procedures of development assistance. In the meantime, representatives of uprooted people from Valikaamam North said public civil servants were being actively deployed by the SL State with the offer of finding ‘alternative lands’ abandoning their 25-year-old struggle of regaining their villages in Valikaamam North.
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Erection of Buddha statues in areas where no Buddhists live, has become despicable: MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 January 2017, 23:11 GMT]
The widespread erection of Buddha statues in the Northern and Eastern provinces, especially in places where no Buddhists live and Bo trees being regarded as the exclusive property of Sinhala Buddhists, have now become analogous to ‘despicable’ symbols in the minds of Tamil-speaking people as these have been used as tools of occupation disrespecting the prospects for harmony between the different religions, say senior Tamil-speaking politicians in the North and East. Tamil-speaking people are not opposed to peaceful co-existence of religions, but when these symbols reflect ethno religious aggression, these become despicable in their minds, says K. Thurairatnasingham, a senior Tamil National Alliance (TNA) national list parliamentarian from Trincomalee. In the meantime, several Hindu temples in the East have witnessed theft and desecration in recent days.
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Colombo frames cases to prolong imprisonment of Tamil political prisoners

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 January 2017, 22:13 GMT]
30-year-old Sulaxan Mathiyarasan, who was detained by the occupying Sinhala military at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on the final day of genocidal onslaught on Vanni on 18 May 2009, and later languished in three prisons for more than 7 years without a valid case, is now facing a newly framed case in which the so-called ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ has used statements obtained under torture from other inmates, who were former LTTE members. The TID is arguing that for security reasons, the cases where ex-LTTE members’ statements were being used, should be moved to courts in the South for ‘security’ reasons. There are 132 Tamil political prisoners currently detained in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka while whereabouts of thousands, subjected to forced disappearance or filtered away from the survivors of 2009 genocide, is not yet known
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Sirisena accelerates ‘Army and Archaeology’, Ampa'rai becomes first target in 2017

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2017, 23:48 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has officially assigned SL military-run ‘Civil Defence Force’ the responsibility of guarding SL 'Army and Archaeology' paradigm from January 2017. Allocating more than 100 million rupees to Defence Ministry which comes under his direct rule, Mr Maithiripala has assigned weapons, ammunitions and armed personnel through the CDF to SL Archaeology Department, news sources in Colombo said. Commenting, Tamil-speaking Muslim activists in Ampaa'rai said they were being increasingly targeted by Sinhala extremist ‘Archaeology and Army’ paradigm being waged against them by H.B.A.K. Nilmalgoda, the assistant director of Archaeology for Ampaa'rai and Batticaloa and the Director General of Archaeology Department in Colombo Senerath Dissanayaka.
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Merged North-East, spelt-out federal solution should be TNA's ultimatums: Ariyanethiran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 January 2017, 23:43 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the East remains firm in the demand that the leadership of the TNA should reconsider its continued cooperation with Maithiripala and Wickramasinge regime if Colombo is not prepared to spell-out federal solution and merged North-East in the constitutional proposals, said TNA politician and former parliamentarian P. Ariyanethiran passing a clear message to Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and the incumbent hierarchy of the TNA alliance. The TNA politician from Batticaloa, has condemned Wijayadasa Rajapaksha, the ‘Justice’ and Buddha Sasana minister of Colombo for the remarks he made in Batticaloa during his latest visit to Batticaloa. While legal cases are lodged in the courts, the SL ‘Justice’ minister should not have gone on record calling the extremist Sinhala monk as representing the aspirations of Sinhala people in Batticaloa district, he said.
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