Sumanthiran alleged of exerting Colombo’s influence to tamper with preferential vote counts

Tamil nation-oriented parties challenged in East

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is set to win six of thirteen seats of the Northern province in the SL Parliament. The competing Tamil national rights-oriented parties, the TNPF (Tamil Congress) and Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) would be securing one seat each, electing a federalism-oriented majority of eight Tamil parliamentarians from the province. However, in the most populous Eastern province with a significant mix of Sinhala and Muslim voters, the TNA is gaining only three of sixteen seats, two in Batticaloa and one in Trincomalee, entirely losing Ampaa'rai. Former paramilitary operative Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna waged an anti-Muslim campaign in Ampaa'rai to woo the voters, making his opportunistic politics out of the collective failure by the TNA, TNPF and the TMTK in the East. Full story >>

Occupying Sinhala military reminds Eezham Tamils of whose elections they partake

The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has been harassing the Tamil candidates contesting in the general elections, particularly Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) led by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and Tamil Makkal Thesiya Koottani (TMTK) led by CV Wigneswaran in the Northern and Eastern provinces. The SL Army has been deploying surveillance teams and field-bike units during their campaign meetings. The TNPF has publicly alleged that SL military intelligence operatives were behaving in a threatening manner in their election meetings. The SL military intelligence had also threatened its candidates in Batticaloa to withdraw from the elections, the TNPF blamed. TMTK Leader and former Chief Minister of Northern Province, Justice Wigneswaran, was harassed by the field-bike group of the SL Army recently, when he went for an election meeting to Kurunakar, a suburb of Jaffna. Full story >>

Manifestos of TNA, TNPF and TMTK expose lacuna, hint areas for corrections of Tamil polity

The revisionist ITAK hierarchy-led Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has issued its manifesto exposing and justifying its deviationist and revisionist approach to the Tamil national question in the island. The TNA, which is engaged in Quisling politics post-2009, issued its proclamation in Tamil and English as it has nothing to ‘fear’ from the judiciary of genocidal Sri Lanka and its Sixth Amendment. In the meantime, the TNPF and the TMTK, both claiming to be more struggle-centric and principles-oriented, have ‘tactically’ avoided issuing their proclamations in English for reasons best known to themselves. Journalists in Jaffna said both the alliances were dodging questions on the topic. Full story >>

Colombo isolates Tamil political prisoners within heavily fortified cells

SL Prison authorities not only continue denying families of Tamil political prisoners (TPPs) to their kith and kin, but they also refuse access to deliver essential supplies to them for more than five months. In the meantime, occupying Colombo, which relocated the Tamil prisoners from other prisons to Anuradhapura, has isolated the TPPs transferring them into heavily fortified isolation cells, the families complain. Full story >>

Colombo resumes surveying of lands for Sinhala colonisation in interior Batticaloa

Officials claiming to be from SL Forest Department and Mahaweli Authority have been surveying of pasture lands in Mayilaththa-madu this week. The process was resumed despite repeated objections from the dairy farmers belonging to all three communities, said Seenithamby Nimalan, the chairman of Mayilaththamadu Dairy Farmers Association. “Those involved in the surveying of lands say they belong to SL Forest Department. Sometimes they also claim to be from SL Mahaweli Authority. They say the surveyed lands would be transferred to Sinhala settlers who are agricultural farmers,” Mr Nimalan said. Full story >>

SL Police blocks protest by families of missing persons in East

Ea'raavoor Police has blocked a demonstration on Monday in Batticaloa. The kith and kin of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances organised the protest after informing SL Police in advance. However, the SL Police, which had verbally assured that the protest could proceed, suddenly stopped the rally in a ransacking spree, securing a court order just 30 minutes before the protest. The coordinator of the campaign, Ms Amalanayaki Amalraj, told TamilNet that she had informed the SL Police Officer-in-Charge at Ea'raavoor Police station through a CID officer attached to the central police station in Batticaloa well in advance, three days before the event. Full story >>

Colombo's CID questions Wigneswaran for claiming Tamil Buddhism as predating Sinhala

Occupying Colombo's Police Headquarters has directed a police CID officer to come and question former Chief Minister of Northern Province Justice C. V. Wigneswaran with regards to an article (a question per week series) he authored on 14 December 2019. "Why should they come around questioning about the article after seven months when the elections are just around the corner," Justice Wigneswaran said when TamilNet contacted him on Saturday. In the article from 14 December, Wigneswaran claimed that the Tamils were the original inhabitants of this island. He also pointed out that the Sinhalese came by their Sinhala language only in the 6th or 7th Century AD, around 1300 or 1400 years ago only. Early Buddhists in the island were Tamils, he wrote in that article. The police inspector was asking whether it was him who wrote it and whether he still stood by what he wrote. Full story >>

University students mark Black July Remembrance in Jaffna, Vavuniyaa and Batticaloa

Tamil university students in Jaffna, Vavuniyaa and Batticaloa staged remembrance events within their university premises. Jaffna University Student Union leaders, who gathered at their office lighting candles for the victims of the 1983 SL State-sponsored pogrom against Tamils in the island said Black July remembrance must be integral to the process of international justice on Tamil genocide. Remembrance events were also observed at Vavuniyaa campus and the Eastern University. In the meantime, Tamil political parties that usually organise Black July Remembrance events, were too busy this time with their election campaign. Full story >>

Colombo's Archaeology Department, SL Police threaten chief priest of Chiththaa'ndi temple

Officials of occupying Colombo's Archaeology Department visited the ancient Saiva (Hindu) Murukan temple at Chiththaa'ndi, located 20 km north of Batticaloa city, last month on 26 June. The visiting team was taking photographs of stones used for crack opening coconuts and for burning camphor as well as the stone slabs used in the temple for various purposes. They claimed that the rocks resembled Buddhist artefacts and that they should be delivered back to the SL Archaeology Department. Sivasri Vasantharajah Kurukka'l, the chief priest of the temple, told them that the stones had been there for several decades while other slabs were produced in Vavuniyaa in 2010 when the temple was renovated. On Sunday, SL Policemen from Batticaloa visited the temple blaming the chief priest for ‘not cooperating’ with the officials of the department. Full story >>

Vadamaraadchi North fishers mobilise against Colombo's discrimination

Former Tamil paramilitary operative Douglas Devananda, who collaborated with the genocidal military of occupying Sri Lanka, is now SL Minister of Fisheries in the “caretaker” cabinet of Rajapaksa regime. Sinhala poachers from South are allowed to encroach and engage in destructive fishing along the coast of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The quisling minister is citing the law imposed by the SL State during the times of war. The law is known as Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act of 1996. “The 1996 law was drafted with southern fishers in mind. It has not taken into consideration the concerns of Tamils. We are not opposed to others fishing here. But, we are opposed to poaching and destructive fishing methods destroying our fishing ecosystem by the Sinhala fishers,” said N. Varankulasingam, the chairman of the Federation of Vadamaraadchi North Fisheries societies. Full story >>

Sumanthiran’s nexus with “Raava'na Senai” in Kanniyaa heritage dispute questioned

Sinhala Buddhist extremist monk Ampitiye Seelawansa Tissa Thero has been escalating a heritage dispute at Kanniyaa Hot Wells by pushing for the construction of a Buddhist temple within the Saiva temple premises located in the lands that belong to a private landowner. When the case was taken up by the courts on Thursday, ITAK Parliamentarian and President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran represented the owner of the temple lands Ms Ganesh Kokilaramany. Meanwhile, “Ravana Senai,” a shady outfit allegedly connected to Hindutva organisations in India is also in a dispute with Kokilaramany as it had transformed the mutt belonging to Pi'l'laiyaar temple into a Sivan temple. The group maintains rapport with the Seelawansa Tissa Thero and with Mr Sumanthiran who represents Kokilaramany. Full story >>

Trident missing, seat of folk-deity desecrated at disputed heritage hillock in Mullaiththeevu

Unknown persons have removed the trident of Aiyanaar folk-deity, and its seat from the hillock of Kurunthoor-malai, violating a court order that said nothing should be changed. The occupying SL military was using the recently imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 Kumuzha-munai villagers to restrict access to the hillock. Tamil villagers from Kumuzha-munai in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division in the district of Mullaiththeevu alleged that the SL Archaeology Department and Sinhala Theravada monks were behind the removal of the trident (Trisulam) at their heritage site. Full story >>

Sonia-Rahul’s Congress advocates India strengthening US-led “Quad” alliance

“Two senior Congress leaders — AM Singhvi and Deepender Hooda — advocated that India play a leading role in a more muscular Quad,” reported The Economic Times on Sunday in an article titled “Quad is shaping up as the backbone of India’s post-COVID foreign policy.” The recent India-China border standoff in Ladakh has accelerated the tendency. In the meantime, Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, a former minister of state for external affairs, observed that foundations for US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) were pointing towards “a more substantive strategic shift”. Full story >>