Mahanayaka's visit to Jaffna exposes Sinhala-Buddhist conversion agenda

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 August 2017, 22:04 GMT]
Ven. Warakagoda Dhammasiddhi Gnanarathanabhidhana, the chief prelate of Asgiriya Buddhist chapter in the South visited the controversial Buddhist conversion project at Vaatharavaththai in Puththoor on Wednesday. His trip to the village has exposed the hidden Sinhala-Buddhicisation programme being carried out jointly by the SL State, the Buddhist Establishments and the occupying Sinhala military. In the meantime, the chief monks of the key Buddhist temples in Jaffna were seen openly encouraging the conversion project. Particularly, Ven. Meegahajandure Sri Vimala Thera, the chief monk of Sri Naga Vihara in Jaffna City, was seen propagating a new myth by twisting the name of the village, Puththoor. He went on record stating that the local people had started to believe that their village name was stemming from two words, Buddha and Oor (village), meaning the village where Buddha had resided.
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Wild elephant goes on rampage killing one in Vadamaraadchi East, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 August 2017, 19:11 GMT]
A 50-year-old man who went to a palmyra grove at Vaththiraayan in Uduththu'rai in Vadamaraadchi East of Jaffna district to collect firewood was brutally killed by a wild elephant that went on rampage in the early hours of Monday. Two men survived the attack with injuries. This is the first time a wild elephant has managed to enter Vadamaraadchi East in the recent times. The fatality comes as the SL authorities failed to take action despite eyewitnesses reporting about the wild elephant on Friday. Nobody has ever spotted a wild elephant in Vadamaraadchi East and this is the first fatality due to wild elephant attack in Jaffna district in the recent years. The area where the incident took place is a marshland surrounded by waters and the area, lacking potable water and consumable vegetation, is not fit for the survival of elephants.
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Forced conversion to Sinhala Buddhism deployed as tool of genocide in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 August 2017, 23:06 GMT]
Occupying Colombo, its military and the exclusivist Sinhala Buddhist Theravada Establishment have jointly adopted the Western colonial model of religious conversations of poverty-stricken people at the lowest echelons forcing the Tamil people to convert to Buddhism and start learning Sinhala language. The forced religious conversions are being staged at two separate locations, Navatkuzhi and Puththoor, in the occupied Jaffna peninsula. High-ranking monks including the Chief Prelate (Mahanayakas thero) of the Asgiriya chapter have been scheduled to inspect the genocidal project of Sinhala-Buddhicisation at Puththoor in Valikaamam East and at Naavatkuzhi, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Sunday.
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SL Police irked by sword assaults targeting Tamil ‘soldiers’ of Sinhala Army

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 August 2017, 15:29 GMT]
Two Tamil criminal recruits of the occupying Sinhala army have been subjected to sword assaults by unknown attackers on Thursday in Ki’linochchi. The SL Police has reacted with wanton arrests of at least 6 family people and has vowed to subject the victims to identification parade. The latest assault on the few remaining Tamil recruits in the occupying army of genocidal Sri Lanka is said to be a third one within the last 30 days. Majority of the recruits to the SLA during the times of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, have been subjected to substandard assignments or as thugs engaged in ‘katta panchayat’ (Cangaroo courts) activities on behalf of the occupying SL military and have earned the ire of the public. The exact motive or the nature of the attackers are not known. But, the SL Police, citing the latest criminal confrontations, is on a ‘counter-insurgency’ drive against the Tamils.
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NPC should monitor relocation of SL military buildings: Uprooted Keappaa-pulavu people

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 August 2017, 23:34 GMT]
SL Minister of ‘Resettlement’ D.M. Swaminathan has provided 148 million rupees to the occupying Sinhala military in Keappaa-pulavu without securing any guarantee of freeing the lands that are being actually demanded by the uprooted people of Keappaa-pulavu. The SL minister transferred 50 million rupees also in the past. He claims that the money was intended to enable SL military to find alternative locations for itself and release the lands of people. However, as evidenced last time, the occupying military didn’t relocate itself. Instead, it only released forested lands located elsewhere from the coast of Nanthik-kadal. At the same time, the people have no means of livelihood if they are not allowed to resettle along the fishing coast and in the fertile lands situated close to the lagoon.
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Occupying Colombo’s reluctance to re-issue land documents to Champoor Tamils questioned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 August 2017, 20:16 GMT]
Two years have elapsed since 818 acres of lands were released by Maithiripala Sirisena’s regime back to the uprooted of people of Champoor. However, the resettled people have not received documents confirming their ownership to lands to date. At the same time, more and more lands are being grabbed by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy as the time goes on, complain uprooted Tamils, who have been subjected to strict surveillance by the Intelligence wings of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka. The Electricity Board of ‘Sri Lanka’ is also seizing lands in addition to the SL Navy. The representatives of three Rural Development Societies (RDS) in Moothoor Division have jointly categorized 4 major land-related issues in Champoor, according to Mr S. Shanmuganthan, who is the chairman of Champoor East RDS.
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SL Forest Department at war with resettling Tamils in Vavuniyaa North

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 August 2017, 23:06 GMT]
The Forest Department of occupying Colombo has been harassing Eezham Tamils who are resettling in Vavuniyaa North division at Rasapuram in Chinna-adampan. While facilitating Sinhala colonization in forest lands, the Forest Department officials have sealed a well and forced the people to abandon the entire well by giving an ultimatum of facing arrest or back filling the well for complete decommission. 69 of 150 houses have been constructed for the resettling Tamils in the permit lands where they were settled in the past. Now, the Sinhala officials belonging to SL Forest Department claim the area as coming under its domain.
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Sulaxan commences hunger-strike with two other political prisoners in Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 August 2017, 18:13 GMT]
Three Tamil political prisoners, including an Up-Country Tamil, have commenced a continuous hunger-strike at Anuradhapura prison on Sunday objecting the attempts by the SL Attorney General’s Department to transfer their cases away from the High Court in Vavuniyaa to other courts in the South. The SL State, refusing to recognize the Tamil prisoners as political prisoners, wants to process their cases under the so-called Terrorism laws without proper evidences. 30-year-old Sulaxan Mathiyarasan, who has been imprisoned since 18 May 2009 went on a hunger-strike last year and concluded his protest after a promise was extended by D.M. Swaminathan, the SL ‘Resettlement’, ‘Prison Reform’ and Hindu affairs minister, that his case would be expedited without further delay. After witnessing further deceptions, Sulaxan decided earlier this month to launch a fresh hunger-strike.
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Colombo deprives renovation of four key jetties in Mannaar district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2017, 18:19 GMT]
Eight fisheries jetties used by Tamil-speaking fishermen in Mannaar district were selected to be renovated with the assistance of Asian Development Bank. But, occupying Colombo has declined to allow for the renovation of four of these jetties as SL wildlife department has silently seized large tracts of coastal lands through Gazette notifications issued in March 2016, Justin Soyza, the chairman of Mannaar District Fishermen Federation told TamilNet on Wednesday. The disclosure by the SL authorities about the seizure of jetty lands and the subsequent refusal to renovate the jetties have caused anger among the Tamil and Muslim fishermen in Mannaar. Tamil-speaking fishermen are planning to protest against the land grab and deprivation of fishing jetties, Mr Soyza said.
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Colombo's Intelligence harasses families of re-united ex-LTTE members in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2017, 23:16 GMT]
The Intelligence wing of the occupying Sinhala military has instructed several village (GS/GN) officials in the rural areas of Batticaloa district to submit written reports providing in-depth details on the whereabouts of former LTTE members, who have been reunited with their families. The SL military intelligence operatives have been visiting house-to-house in Kokkaddichchoalai in Ma'nmunai South-West division, inquiring the families about the workplace of the re-united members, their phone numbers, employer-details and when they were supposed to be at home with their families after their work. Similar surveillance operations have been reported also in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) and in Poaratheevup-pattu (Vellaa-ve'li) divisions, rights activists in Batticaloa said. The latest harassments are taking place in former LTTE controlled areas.
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Chinese interests eye India's closest coast in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2017, 20:56 GMT]
Occupying Colombo is silently promoting Chinese firms to enter militarised Poonakari (Pooneryn), which is situated in a controlling location linking Vanni with Jaffna Peninsula, with Palk Bay and Jaffna Lagoon on either side. During the times of Rajapaksa regime, China was showing interest in a plan for building an airport in Poonakari. Under Maithiripala and Wickramasinghe, Chinese firms are being invited by Colombo without the knowledge of Northern Provincial Council. In the meantime, Chinese fishing firms are also entering Ariyaalai East and the islets off Jaffna for fishing and freshwater crab farming. The SL Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, which is complicit in grabbing the territorial seas of Vanni away from Eezham Tamils, is bringing in Chinese firms to Ariyaalai East and the islands off Jaffna without informing the NPC, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Jaffna village terrorised by ‘revenge arrests’ of STF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 August 2017, 23:22 GMT]
At least 42 young Eezham Tamils have been subjected to targeted cordon and search arrests in recent days at the village of Thunnaalai in Vadamaraadchi South-West, Jaffna. The so-called ‘Special Task Force’, which is a full-fledged military commando force organised under police of genocidal Sri Lanka. The normalcy of the village is completely marred by the cordon and search operations almost on a daily basis. The series of arrests have come as a targeted revenge against the poverty-stricken Tamil villagers, who smashed an SL police post a month ago when the police gunned down 24-year-old Yogarajah Thinesh, who was seated a vehicle after scooping sand at Kudaththanai and escaping police hunt.
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Occupying Colombo harasses resettled Tamils through 3 Intelligence squads in Champoor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 August 2017, 22:33 GMT]
Deploying Sinhala, Muslim and Tamil Intelligence personnel belonging to SL Police, SL Army and SL Navy, occupying Colombo has increased its harassment of resettled Eezham Tamils at Champoor in Trincomalee in recent days. Each and every move by the people to democratically voice for their needs is also being confronted through Intelligence meddling, rights activists in Champoor told TamilNet on Wednesday. Genocidal Sri Lanka is attempting to deconstruct the social institutions and the remaining ability of the people to mobilize themselves, the activists said. “During the time of Rajapaksa rule, we were living constantly under the gunpoint in various welfare camps. But we knew who they were. But, now they come from different places with pistols inside their clothes. They converse in a harassing manner and we live under a constant military surveillance,” a grassroots activist commented.
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Protests reinvigorate grassroots movement in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 August 2017, 23:20 GMT]
Grassroots activists from the North and progressive groups from the South have joined hands with the backing of civil and community groups in three of the five districts in North reinvigorating the struggle demanding dignified releases of Tamil political prisoners from the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka. On Tuesday, coordinated protests were staged at the towns of Vavuniyaa, Ki’linochchi and in the city of Jaffna. The protests were attended by large number of representatives across a wide-spectrum of grassroots and civil groups as well as trade unions. University students, teachers and non-academic staff as well as religious dignitaries took part in the protest organized on the 5th Year Remembrance of two Tamil political prisoners, Nimalarooban from Vavuniyaa and Dilrukshan from Jaffna, who were killed following severe torture meted out on them at Anuradapura prison.
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SL military land grab in North-East constitutes genocide: Ex-Land Commissioner

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 August 2017, 23:11 GMT]
What the SL State is committing against the villages of Eezham Tamils in the North and East, such as in Mu'l'li-ku'lam in Musali division of Mannaar, is a nothing else than a systematic genocide, commented former Land Commissioner of Eastern Province Kathirgamathamby Kurunathan in a recent interview to TamilNet. Referring to the definition of the UN Genocide convention, the senior expert on land issues was categorical in articulating the ongoing militarization and genocidal land grab in the North-East as continuing genocide against the Tamil people in the island. Northern Provincial Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran was right in passing the resolution on Genocide to the past crimes as well as the present crimes, Mr Kurunathan said.
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Facing displacement since 1977, Tamils of up-country origin fight for Mannaar village

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 August 2017, 22:50 GMT]
Around 30 Tamil families, who were living at a locality called A’naik-kaddu in Thampanaik-kulam GS division in Madu division of Mannaar district, have witnessed several displacements. They were initially uprooted from Kurunegala district in the North Western Province after SL State-sponsored anti-Tami pogroms in 1977 before the times of Tamil militancy. Vanni and Madu region was their choice for ensuring their security in the country of Eezham Tamils. However, twenty years later, they were again forced to displace from their village in Madu division to a ‘refugee camp’ at Neluk-ku’lam in Vavuniyaa district following a military operation code named ‘Edi Bala’ that targeted their village, which was under the administrative control of the Liberation Tigers in 1997. Still, they are refused entry to A’naik-kaddu, which they regard as their native village.
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Structural genocide targets Kuchchave'li through long-term land lease

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 August 2017, 23:47 GMT]
Sinhala SL Government Agent of Trincomalee N.A.A.Pushpakumara is leasing lands to Sinhala businessmen from South in Kuchchave'li administrative division. The Tamil Divisional Secretary of the division, P.Thaneswaran, is being directed by the ruling politicians of occupying Colombo to alienate public lands through long-term leasing (99 years) to Sinhala colonisers, Tamil civil sources in Trincomalee said. Although the Eastern Provincial Council has a say on the issue of term-lease, it has been subjected to heavy influence from Colombo. Knowning that Kachcheari has lost original copies of lands from Nilaave'li to Kumpu'rup-piddi, there has been a systematic move of utilising so-called temporary land permits with the motive of transferring the lands later to the Sinhala owners. The long-term lease in practice means that the lands become the property of the owners in the long run.
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Occupying Colombo steps up militarization of Jaffna streets through STF

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 August 2017, 19:05 GMT]
Hundreds of armed ‘Special Task Force’ commandos have been patrolling the streets of Jaffna in recent days under the pretext of controlling ‘gang violence’ against SL Police. In the meantime, occupying Sinhala military and police Establishments in Jaffna have been falsely claiming that the former LTTE members were behind gang violence. Four Tamil gangsters, have been detained for alleged involvement in violence against SL Police. The SL Police was falsely claiming that the detained youth as former LTTE members. Refuting the false claims by the SL Police and SL military, legal activists in Jaffna questioned the credibility of such claim by referring to the age of detained youth. Tamil youth from Jaffna were completely blocked from entering LTTE controlled Vanni already in 2006. The youth arrested now were 10-year-old children at that time, they said.
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Tamil political prisoner Sulaxan to launch hunger-strike again

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 August 2017, 18:32 GMT]
30-year-old Eezham Tamil political prisoner who has been detained in various prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka without trial for more than 8 years, has conveyed Vavuniyaa Court on 01 August that he would again launch a hunger-strike on 20th August at Anuradhapura prison in North Central Province, where he is currently detained. Legal sources said the latest case against Sulaxan has been prepared on the basis of fraudulent evidence obtained from persons arrested in 2013 and after as the previous case against him didn't stand the trial in 2013. Last year, Sulaxan was on a hunger-strike demanding SL Attorney General's Department to either release him or bring him in front of a Court to face the charges. SL ministers and TNA politicians interfered urging him to abandon his hunger-strike in turn of legal processing.
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Genocidal Colombo causes new obstacles to investigations on Mannaar mass graves

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2017, 21:33 GMT]
Colombo-based Special Branch of Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Police of genocidal Sri Lanka is once again causing obstacles to judicial investigations of 87 human skeletons exhumed from the mass graves of the killing fields at Thirukkeatheesvaram near Maanthai junction in Mannaar. At a crucial juncture when Mannaar Magistrate A G Alex Raja fixed a date to instruct the CID to send the skeletons to one of the proposed foreign institutions to undertake forensic anthropological analysis and to invite foreign experts during the next phase of exhumation of the alleged mass grave site, the CID has turned to SL Judicial Service Commission with an allegation that Mr Alex Raja was taking sides with the lawyers representing the victims. The move was intended to put an immediate stop to external investigations and involving foreign experts in the future excavations of mass graves.
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