EPDP resumes harassment against families of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 August 2019, 22:43 GMT]
Douglas Devananda, the leader of the paramilitary-cum-political party, Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), has again resorted to harassment against the mothers of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the military of genocidal Sri Lanka and his EPDP outfit. Mr Devananda was an SL minister during the regimes of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa. The SL military deployed his group to abduct Tamil activists, journalists and those who were working with the LTTE. Recently, he told the press that he had lodged a complaint with the SL Police in Colombo against the open and public statements made by Mrs Mariasuresh Easwary, the wife of a person reported missing at the hands of the SL military. Mrs Easwary, who heads the district organisation of missing persons in Mullaith-theevu, was making the open allegation on behalf of the members of her organisation.
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Sirisena’s promo on harbour ‘development’ in Jaffna reveals imminent Sinhalicisation threat

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 August 2019, 21:36 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has come up with a promotional video advertising the launch of the so-called development of a fisheries harbour at Point-Pedro in Jaffna. The video itself turns out to be the “proof of concept” of Sinhala colonisation of Tamil fisheries industry in the North. A similar project was abandoned at Peasaalai in Mannaar recently. However, the SL Governor in North Suren Raghavan is determined to speedily commence the project amidst the objections from the grassroots including the three fisher associations and two prominent colleges of Eezham Tamils in the area. SL President Maithiripala's promo video exposes the agenda by featuring the intruding Sinhala fishers in Point Pedro. The Asian Development Bank is abetting the genocidal project, branded as a mega port project.
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Military minds of New Delhi, Colombo stage ‘book fair’ in Jaffna though quisling Governor

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 August 2019, 23:36 GMT]
The SL Governor to North Suren Raghavan, who is the Tamil agent of Maithiripala Sirisena, the SL President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, has organised a book fair in Jaffna this week. The military intelligence outfits of New Delhi and Colombo were collaborating behind the scene to sophisticatedly mix selected books from Tamil Nadu with publications depicting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as ‘terrorists’. The target audience of the book fair is the younger generation of Eezham Tamils. The officers of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka were invited as the special guests to the event along with the Mayor of Jaffna and the Tamil children wearing Sinhala costumes were garlanding the guests at the event held under the patronage of the SL Governor at the Veerasingam Hall.
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Widespread logging backed by SL military in Mannaar continues to escape scrutiny

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 August 2019, 23:35 GMT]
The commanders of the occupying Sinhala military stationed in three of the five divisions of Mannaar district have been partnering with millionaire wood traders from the South in a widespread and systematic illegal logging going on for a long time after 2009, Tamil officials in Mannaar District Secretariat said. The massive-scale exploitation has reached dangerous proportions and was causing severe environmental effects, the officials told TamilNet. The SL Forest Conservation Department or the SL Police do not act against the conduct of the SL military officers. Now, the SL military is also enjoying the police powers, overriding the authority of the SL Police, the officials further said.
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Regional OMP office in Jaffna opened in secrecy ahead of announced time

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 August 2019, 08:58 GMT]
The OMP office in Jaffna was secretly declared open ahead of the scheduled time on Saturday. The SL military also used to abduct their children in secrecy, commented the protesting families of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances in the past. The Chairperson of the OMP, Mr Saliya Peiris declared the regional office opened at 6:30 a.m., four hours ahead of the scheduled time to avoid the presence of the protesters. Meanwhile, Karu Jayasuriya (UNP), the speaker of the SL Parliament as well as SL Minister Mano Ganesan dropped their plans to grace the occasion as the protesting Tamil women had severely criticised the move in advance.
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Tamil representatives urged to boycott OMP office opening in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 August 2019, 02:22 GMT]
The coordinator of Mullaiththeevu district organisation of the families of persons subjected to enforced disappearances, Mariyasuresh Easwary, has urged Tamil politicians and representatives to boycott the opening event of the Jaffna office of the Office for Missing Persons, scheduled for Saturday. “We have already received information that Minister Mano Ganesan has abandoned his plan to attend the ceremony. It signals that they understand our concerns and respect the call made by all the five district organisations of the families of the missing persons that jointly appealed to the media four days ago,” she told TamilNet.
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Despite ending Emergency, Sirisena keeps SL military empowered with police powers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 August 2019, 00:04 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has re-issued a Gazette notification calling out all the members of the SL Army, SL Navy and SL Air Force for the maintenance of public order in all the 25 districts of the island, including the eight districts of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils in the North and East. The powers provided to the three armed forces include the powers of search and arrest, usually conferred on police officers. The SL President has however allowed the Emergency Regulations to lapse itself by not renewing the Gazette notification that could extend it for another month. Although the state of emergency has expired, the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), enacted initially in 1979 and made permanent in 1982, is in force.
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SL Forest Department remains unmoved by uprooted Tamils’ demand for resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 August 2019, 07:04 GMT]
The uprooted people of Kanakar-kiraamam village, a Tamil settlement located 7 km north of Poththtuvil in Ampaa'rai district, are yet to see any change in the attitude of the SL Forest Department, which has seized their lands violating the law of the SL State itself. The people have been staging a continuous protest since 13 August 2018. Former Eastern Provincial Land Commissioner Kathrigamathamby Kurunathan confronted the SL Forest Department on 20 July exposing the mischievous way the land grab was executed, and the officials attached to the department agreed to release the lands. However, nothing has taken place, even as the protesters completed 365 days of protest on 13 August. It is the SL Forest Department, which is the chief trouble-maker, says Mrs Rangathenna, a mother taking part in the protest.
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40 parents of missing persons die within 915 days of protest

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 August 2019, 06:50 GMT]
A fifty-six-year-old father of a Tamil man subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the occupying SL military since May 2009 passed away due to hypertension on Tuesday. Velayutham Selvarasa was admitted at the district hospital in Vavuniyaa with high blood pressure. With his demise, the number of parents passing away since the beginning of the continuous protest has become 40 in the North-East. He is the fifth parent to die in Vavuniyaa.
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‘Death certificates’ issued to 500 of 3,500 Tamils subjected to enforced disappearance in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 August 2019, 18:17 GMT]
The families of around 500 Tamil persons subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the occupying SL military and the paramilitaries operated by it have been utilised with false ‘death certificates’ in Ampaa'rai district. The death certificates claim that the victims were abducted by ‘terrorists’ and that their dead bodies were not found. It was the SL military which abducted these victims. The SL authorities have deceptively issued these certificates promising financial assistance to the affected families. Everybody knows that the victims were Tamil youth abducted by the SL military, says Thambirasa Selvarany, the coordinator of kith and kin of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearance in Ampaa'rai district.
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Wigneswaran warns of bleak future for Tamils, urges planning for next step

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 August 2019, 20:23 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena appointing Shavendra Silva as the SLA commander is the logical outcome of the Sinhala thinking that remains unchanged. “Secondly, he may also be thinking that if Gotabhaya Rajapaksa were to come in as the president next, Shavendra Silva would be an ideal lieutenant to him, because they have worked together in the past,” commented former Chief Minister of North Justice C.V. Wigneswaran. The Sinhala political leaders would not grant any political rights to the Tamils in the future because, in their position there had been no genocide, no war crimes and they maintaint that those killed were all ‘terrorists’. “We may expect a very difficult time ahead. Tamils, both internationally and locally, must start thinking as to what should be our next step in the event of such people becoming very violent against our people,” the former chief minister told TamilNet.
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SL TID detains outspoken Tamil doctor at Pazhai hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 August 2019, 23:50 GMT]
The notorious ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) of occupying Colombo’s SL Police has detained a Tamil doctor, 41-year-old Sinniah Sivaruban, who is the medical superintendent of the Divisional Hospital of Pazhai in Jaffna peninsula on Sunday night. The father of three was on duty and was on his way to hospital from a field trip around 10:00 pm., when the SL Army intelligence wing detained him at Elephant Pass and handed him over to the TID. The doctor was taken to the hospital where a raid was carried out. The TID was alleging that the devoted doctor was engaged in ‘reviving the LTTE’ with Tamil diaspora links, eyewitnesses at the hospital told TamilNet.
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SLA Jaffna commander refuses to release Palaali lands at meeting presided by Wickramasinghe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 August 2019, 23:08 GMT]
The commander of the SL Army in Jaffna Major General Ruwan Wanigasooriya, has openly refused to release the SL military-occupied lands in Palaali and Vasaavi'laan citing the expansion of Palaali airport. The revelation was made at the District Coordinating Committee meeting which was presided by the visiting SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe at the District Secretariat of Jaffna on Saturday. The scheme is projected as ‘development’ by New Delhi and Colombo while the uprooted people of the villages demand their lands released back to them. The TNA is observing silence. However, the uprooted land-owners are not going to tolerate the military grabbing these lands anymore permanently, said Chairman of Valikaamam North Resettlement Committee Mr Shageevan Shanmugalingam, who is also an elected member of the Divisional Council of Valikaamam North.
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SL Archaeology Department resumes plans to construct controversial ‘chaitya’ at Koonith-theevu

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 August 2019, 13:25 GMT]
The Acting Assistant Director of SL Archaeology Department WHA Sumanadasa, who is in charge of the regional office in Trincomalee, is pushing ahead with the plan of constructing a controversial ‘Buddhist chaitya’ at Maththa’la-malai hill-top in Choodaik-kudaa at Koonith-theevu, located to the south of Trincomalee. While all the attention is focused on Kanniyaa, Mr Sumanadasa has started to plan the reconstruction through various field trips to the disputed hill-top as well as to the lighthouse area, the trustees of the Saivaist “Kun’raththoor Maththa’la-malai Thiru-murukan temple” told TamilNet this week.
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Wickramasinghe lacks courage to meet protesting Tamil mothers in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2019, 21:39 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has started an election campaign trip to North using the funds and loans provided by the Western countries which uphold occupying Colombo's ‘development’ paradigm. The same powers are negotiating and backing both the camps in the election campaign as they are preoccupied with securing geopolitical access to the island regardless of those gaining control of the executive presidency. On Wednesday, Mr Wickramasinghe chose to take a different route to Vavuniyaa hospital when the protesting mothers of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the occupying SL military attempted to lay siege to the entrance demanding a direct meeting with him. The SL Police confronted the mothers. SL military intelligence operatives without uniform were also present along with the police commandos.
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2006 genocidal massacre at Chengchoalai campus marked in Vanni, Jaffna amidst PTA-threats

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 August 2019, 23:31 GMT]
Amidst PTA-threats coming from the occupying Sinhala Army, military intelligence and the SL Police against inscribing the names and photos of the school-girls, who perished in a targeted aerial massacre by the SL Air Force in 2006, the parents of the students commemorated the victims of the attack by putting up temporary paper photos on the arch. An emotional remembrance event took place at Va'l'li-punam in Mullaiththeevu district with the participation of TNA politicians. Vanni Cross and Chegnchoalai Remembrance Organisation organised the event jointly. In the meantime, Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) also staged a remembrance event within the premises of the Jaffna University on Wednesday.
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Percival's 19th century Tamil proverb compilations collated and sorted in new publication

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 August 2019, 20:04 GMT]
One thousand eight hundred and seventy Tamil proverbs compiled by Rev Peter Percival and published as Thiruddaantha Changkirakam (திருட்டாந்த சங்கிரகம், Tiruṭṭānta Caṅkirakam) with their translation in English by the American Mission in Jaffna in 1843 and the second expanded edition in Tamil Nadu with 6,156 proverbs collected by the same author in 1874 have been combined into a single source by “Viruba” T Kumaresan and A Sivagnanaseelan. While the Tamil Nadu edition had been reprinted five times until 2019, the initial publication of proverbs collected in the country of Eezham Tamils had not been reproduced until now. The latest effort combines both the Jaffna and Mylapore compilations with English translations deploying traditional Tamil sorting in listing them all into a single source. The collection was published at an event held in Jaffna Hartley College on Monday.
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PTA-threats against constructing memorial arch for student victims of 2006 aerial massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 August 2019, 20:32 GMT]
The occupying SL Army and its Intelligence have warned the workers, who were engaged in setting up a memorial road arch in Mullaith-theevu on Sunday. The arch was being constructed in memory of 51 school-girls and four staff members, whom the SL Air Force had brutally killed in a targeted aerial massacre at Chengchoalai compound on 14 August 2006 at Va'l'li-punam in Mullaiththeevu. The SL military personnel who came to the site on Sunday and instructed the workers to cease all the work threatened to detain them under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). In the meantime, the SL Police, which took the workers to the station told them that there should be no photographs of the school children, who were slain in the aerial massacre carried out by the SL Air Force. The workers were engaged in completing the construction before the 13th Commemoration on Wednesday.
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Sinhala encroachers storm into 100 acres of lands at Kanneeraavi in Pulmoaddai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 August 2019, 22:49 GMT]
A group of Sinhala encroachers, led by Sinhala Buddhist monks, are clearing one hundred acres of lands for the third consecutive day on Saturday at Kanneeraavi in Pulmoaddai. The area is located northwest of Pulmoaddai town and southeast of Kokku'laay lagoon near the cremation of grounds of Tamils. It consists of both the crown and private lands, grassroots activists in Pulmoaddai said. Kuchcha-ve'li Divisional Secretary P. Thaneswaran is reluctant to act against the latest encroachment, Tamil-speaking Muslim activists said. Panamure Thilakawanse Thero, the well known extremist monk is leading the intruders. The monk seems to have the backing of Sajith Premadasa, who is the SL Minister of Housing, Construction and ‘Cultural’ Affairs, the sources further said. When TamilNet contacted the civil officials in Pulmoaddai, they urged immediate media attention to the problem.
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SL Forest Department retains 8,034 hectares of pasturelands in Paduvaan-karai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 August 2019, 14:28 GMT]
Eight thousand and thirty-four hectares of grass plain in Paduvaan-karai region of Batticaloa district was tentatively traced in a map to demarcate the area as pastureland in 1976 by the SL Survey Department. However, the process didn't complete into accurate demarcation, said Rajbabu Suntharamoorthy, the divisional secretary of Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan). The SL Forest Department retains the area as belonging to Thopik-kal (Thoppigala) thick forest. The incumbent Government Agent has taken necessary steps to get the pastureland secured as demanded by the farmers, the Divisional Secretary maintained. TamilNet contacted the DS on Friday following the report on Thursday that more than one thousand cows had died since January as the SL authorities were dragging their feet concerning the allocation of the pasturelands and access to the drinking water reservoir to the cattle.
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Colombo converts 2000 acres of ex-HSZ lands citing India-assisted airport expansion in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 August 2019, 20:05 GMT]
The SL State schemes to permanently seize 2000 acres of properties belonging to private Eezham Tamil landowners in Valikaamam North, citing the Indian-funded transformation of the so-called civilian airport in Palaali in Jaffna. Valikaamam North Divisional Councillor Shanmugalingam Shageevan, who is also the chairman of Vali-North Resettlement Committee, said the occupying SL military was converting the former ‘High-Security Zone’ lands into the so-called civilian airport lands. The ultimate aim of the SL State is retaining the areas as before during the times of war, he accused.
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Book on Santhiya becomes narration of Tamil struggle incorporating Marxist ideas in early 80s

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 August 2019, 23:28 GMT]
Ben Hillier, the editor of Australia’s leading socialist publication, Red Flag, wanted to recount the life of Santhiya, a former LTTE cadre who had perished in an Indonesian detention centre in late 2017. Her tragic death occurred as a result of the anti-refugee and anti-Tamil struggle policies practised by Australia. In his efforts to trace her life the editor of the Red Flag travelled to Jakarta, Indonesia and then to the occupied country of Eezham Tamils with the support of the Tamil Refugee Council (TRC) a grassroots diaspora group in Australia. Ben Hillier, who travelled to the occupied country and learned more about the sacrifices made by the Eezham Tamils, particularly the Tamil women, authored his book “Losing Santhiya: On Life and Loss in the Struggle for Tamil Eelam” in July.
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State discrimination causes death of 1000 cows, milk production drops by 5,500 litres in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 August 2019, 23:27 GMT]
The drought has taken a big toll on dairy farmers as the SL State has been systematically neglecting their repeated requests for drinking water reservoirs for the cattle. The occupying Colombo has also been desisting from safeguarding the pasture lands in the interior Ko'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district targeting Sinhala colonisation through the Mahaweli scheme. Nimalan Kanthasamy, the Secretary of Dairy Farmers Association in Kiraan and Chengka'ladi, told TamilNet on Tuesday that the milk production supplied to the SL State-owned dairy Milco (Pvt) Ltd from the region has dropped from 6,000 litres to just 400 litres on average between January and July 2019. It is a human-made disaster intended to obliterate the particular livelihood, say the grassroots activists in the district.
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Pirapaharan’s statements between 1984 and 1993 reproduced in book form in Europe

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 August 2019, 23:55 GMT]
A Switzerland-based Eezham Tamil youth group, ‘Phoenix - the Next Generation’, has photostatically reproduced the rare 314-page compilation officially published by the Headquarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in September 1993 in Jaffna. The book contains selected letters, interviews and statements of LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan starting from his first media interview in March 1984. The compilation consists, amongst others, of a letter that declines LTTE representation at a meeting held in New York in May 1985, appeals to the leaders of India and Tamil Nadu during the LTTE-IPKF war in 1987, and a letter of solidarity addressed to South African (ANC) leader, the late Oliver Tambo, in July 1988. The reproduction has been made from a book obtained at the public library of Jaffna in the past. The book, with ID 9907, is no longer accessible at the library.
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Threatened female activist suffers injuries in suspicious ‘accident’ in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 August 2019, 23:47 GMT]
A leading activist of missing persons in Batticaloa district, Mrs Amalanayaki Amalraj, was struck by a suspicious motorbike rider around 4:30 PM on Sunday. Mrs Amalraj, seated back on a motorcycle which her daughter was riding, spotted a speeding motorbike with three persons passing them, then slowing down. As her daughter reduced the speed, the other speeding bike hit them from behind and rapidly vanished away. A group of villagers who witnessed the accident chased the speeding motorcycle and managed to catch the driver. The two others seated in the motorbike have managed to escape. The rider was identified as a close relative of one of the most dreaded Tamil paramilitary operative of the SL military in the past. Mrs Amalraj was also harassed by the SL Police when she was on her way to meet the UN Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association last month.
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SL Army puts up military post, Buddhist chanting dominates Kanniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 August 2019, 23:55 GMT]
The Sinhala Buddhist monks are playing the sound of Pirith through loudspeakers at the disputed heritage site of Kanniyaa Hot Wells round the clock. At the same time, occupying Sinhala Army soldiers of 221 Brigade have started to put up new military posts between the road arch and the Hot Wells. The Tamil visitors feel that the loud Pirith chanting was highly disturbing their visit to the place of geological heritage with Saivaist religious significance. SL Army and Sinhala officials attempted to block the Tamil journalists from taking photos and video. The SL Army and the officials who claimed to be the representatives of the Archaeology department tried to prevent the visiting Tamil journalists from taking pictures or videos of the locality. However, the ‘Archaeology’ officials withdrew from the site after the journalists demanded them to document their identity papers on Saturday.
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Tamils must fight back against illegal seizure of lands by SL Forest Department: Kurunathan

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 August 2019, 21:18 GMT]
The SL Forest Department has been systematically thrusting upon the divisional secretariats in the North-East various mischievous interpretations of forest conservation laws of the unitary state system to seize the lands of the uprooted Tamils. The SL department was violating the constitution by declaring 220 acres of lands that belonged to 200 landowners at Kanakar-kiraamam in Ampaa'rai as coming under its domain in December 2015. It took four years for the SL Forest Department officials to admit the seizure as a 'failure', said Former Eastern Provincial Land Commissioner Kathrigamathamby Kurunathan. He was confronting the SL department officials at a meeting organised by the SL Human Rights Commission in Ampaa'rai on 20th July. However, the people are yet to see any positive sign on the ground.
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38 parents of missing Tamils have perished during prolonged protest, mothers blame IC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 August 2019, 22:55 GMT]
Thirty-eight parents, most of them mothers, have died since the families of persons subjected to enforced disappearances launched their protest, which is nearing 900 days. Many of them suffered heart-attacks, says Leelathevi Ananthanadarajah, the mother of a Tamil went missing at the hands of the occupying SL military. By failing to specify a time-bound action plan to the SL State, the IC has failed the victims, she said. The mother was talking to media during the monthly marking at Ki'linochchi on Tuesday. In the meantime, the ‘Office on Missing Persons’, which is the SL State-agency tasked to determine the status of the missing, has stepped up its psychological war against the women taking part in the continuous protests across the districts of North-East. The latest OMP manoeuvre is to offer 250,000 rupees of loans to the active protesters selectively, Mrs Ananthanadarajah said.
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