Ananthi blames war criminal Silva for blocking collective memorial at Mu'l'livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 May 2021, 19:23 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Commander of the SL Army, General Shavendra Silva, have deployed the occupying military to suppress the 12th collective Mu'l'ivaaykkaal Remembrance of Tamil Genocide at the sacred memorial site, said former councillor Ms Ananthy Sasitharan on Monday. She was talking to TamilNet after the SL military blocked her from entering Mullaiththeevu. The SL military was using Covid-19 as an excuse to shut down two divisions surrounding the memorial place. War criminal Silva, who commanded the notorious 58th Division that waged the genocidal onslaught in Vanni in May 2009, is now leading Colombo's Operation Centre for Preventing COVID-19 Outbreak in addition to being the commander of the SL Army. His military men were also responsible for destroying, desecrating the memorial lamp and removing the enormous memorial stone brought to Vanni from Jaffna on 12 May.
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Navi Pillay explains ‘human rights’ limitations in Geneva on Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 March 2021, 13:34 GMT]
The manifestation of a “pre-existing strategy” using archaeology and historic preservation as guises for political or religious agendas has been observed by the UN Special Rapporteurs visiting Sri Lanka in recent years. Today’s international law has not provided universal human right to land. However, SL State’s violations of the land rights of “marginalised communities” could be addressed under the normative framework of international law, said Dr Navanetham Pillay. She mentioned the violation of the Right of Self-Determination. Pillay appeared as a keynote speaker at a conference titled “Loss of the Tamil Homeland,” which was convened by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on Saturday. She was confronting TamilNet’s questions over her failure to call for investigations on Tamil genocide, which includes examining the “pre-existing strategy” for all the crimes committed against Tamils in the past.
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Tamils witness false dilemma in Geneva as geopolitical formations pit against each other

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2021, 11:53 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ‘balancing act’ has tightly pitted the US-UK-India axis of bandwagoning strategic partners against the China-Russia-Pakistan formation at Geneva. US Ambassador Ms Alaina Teplitz in Colombo was making a North trip as Pakistan’s prime minister visited Colombo. Simultaneously, the politics of human rights was unfolding in Geneva at the Interactive Dialogue on Thursday after Ms Michelle Bachelet, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner and the former president of Chile, presented her report on Wednesday. As usual, the UN High Commissioner’s Report was strongly worded than what one could expect from a resolution being tabled by parties with a vested interest. Eelam Tamils, who demand specific referral to the main crime of genocide from the UN High Commissioner and the UNHRC Resolution, have to confront a false dichotomy once again.
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UK not prepared to push for ICC option in new UNHRC Resolution

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 February 2021, 14:02 GMT]
The South Asia Department of the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office of the UK has stated that it still believed that the UNHRC framework is “the best way” to establish the truth and achieve justice and lasting reconciliation for “all communities in Sri Lanka”. The Tamil organisations demanded both ICC referral and investigations on genocide in their letters to the British Foreign Secretary. However, the FCO was dodging any reference to genocide in its reply. On the ICC option, it said: “The ICC could only exercise jurisdiction if the situation is referred to it by a UN Security Council Resolution, or if Sri Lanka accepts the Court’s jurisdiction. Our assessment is that this step would not have the support of the required Security Council members and that it would not advance the cause of accountability for an ICC referral to fail to win Security Council support or to be vetoed.”
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Tamil activists resisted three sources of outside influence while drafting demands to UNHRC

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 January 2021, 23:44 GMT]
The joint demands formulated by the Tamil national political parties towards the United Nations make specific reference to genocide twice. The four-point document gains significance as Parliamentary Group Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mr R Sampanthan has endorsed it with his signature, said former Northern Provincial Council Minister Ms Ananthy Sasitharan. Mr M A Sumanthiran representing the TNA in the negotiations finally agreed to make the specific reference after TELO Parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan seemingly insisted for it, she said. TELO is a party of the TNA with three parliamentary seats. In an explosive and lengthy comment to TamilNet, Sasitharan narrated how the foreign powers and NGO agenda-setters were attempting to influence the process from three fronts. She considered Dr Guruparan Kumaravadivel as the behind-the-scene drafter of the final document.
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Demolition of Tamil genocide monument, fourth emblematic trauma since 1974: Rev Fr Sakthivel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 January 2021, 09:37 GMT]
Tamils experienced one of their first collective trauma when Colombo’s Sinhala police massacred nine Tamil civilians at the World Tamil Conference in Jaffna in 1974. Then came one of the worst acts of cultural and heritage genocide, the state-backed burning of Jaffna Public Library in 1981. The 2009 genocidal onslaught caused the third emblematic trauma. Now, the demolition of Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Monument at the Jaffna University has triggered the fourth wave of trauma to the same extent, said Rev Fr Sakthivel, a prominent rights activist of Up-Country origin. He urged the Tamil political parties to unite and demand justice for the protracted genocide that has caused waves of collective trauma to the genocide affected Tamil nation.
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Muslims join Tamils opposing Colombo's suppression of Thileepan Remembrance in North

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2020, 23:19 GMT]
Tamil business and student communities in the North-East observed hartal on Monday condemning SL State's widespread hostility towards the annual commemoration of Lt Col Thileepan on Saturday. Occupying Colombo's police and military were trying to block the business owners from conducting the shutdown. However, the business chambers didn't succumb to the pressure. Also, Muslim traders in the cities of North fully observed shutdown. They also marked hartal in their residential suburbs in Jaffna showing solidarity with Eezham Tamils. Except for the hospitals and necessary public transportation, the cities and towns were at a standstill in Jaffna, Mullaiththeevu, Vavuniyaa and Mannaar.
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Tamils unify to mark Thileepan Remembrance, brave Colombo's suppression of memorialisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2020, 12:05 GMT]
Colombo's widespread attempts through SL judiciary, Police and military covering all the potential memorial sites and the Maaveerar square within the University of Jaffna, didn't manage to curb Eezham Tamils, their grassroots activists and politicians from marking the collective memorialisation events on Saturday on the occasion of 33rd commemoration of Lt Col Thileepan. Jaffna University students took part in three events in Jaffna, Chaavakachcheari and Vavuniyaa North. All mainstream Tamil parties doing politics on Tamil nationalist platform were brought together by the pressure from Tamil media, grassroots activists and the students who were responding to the suppression coming from Colombo. All Tamil dailies published in the Tamil homeland gave prominence to Thileepan Remembrance and highlighted Colombo's harassment against the collective memorialisation events.
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Commemorating sacrifices of Tamil struggle is an inalienable right, not a subject for ‘SL permission’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2020, 09:10 GMT]
Veteran human rights activist and Catholic priest Fr M. Sakthivel has condemned Tamil political parties for having lowered their moral standards to the level of seeking permission from the SL State to commemorate the sacrifices made in the Tamil struggle. His comments come following the members of the political parties writing a letter to the head of the occupying state of genocidal Sri Lanka to lift the ‘ban’ enforced through its judiciary and police on marking Lt Col Thileepan’s 33rd commemoration. Tamils held all their struggle related remembrance events, including all the Mu’l’ livaaykkaal Remembrance events after 2009, as part of their inalienable right as they regard such remembrance as an inalienable exercise of their right of self-determination, Fr Sakthivel observed.
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South Asia mourns SPB's demise

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2020, 22:08 GMT]
The demise of legendary and iconic South Asian singer SP Balasubrahmanyam (74), who captivated millions of hearts world over, has left an enormous void in the music world. The singer genius gave more than 40,000 tracks with versatility in sixteen languages, most of them in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam in a span of half a century of musical life. SPB, who was based in Chennai, set the benchmark for pronunciation not only in his mother tongue Telugu but also for singing Tamil playback songs in Tamil Nadu. TamilNet joins the millions of people in paying tribute to the greatest music legend of our times. Artist Pugazhenthi from Tamil Nadu shares with TamilNet his memories of SPB coming forward to sing freedom songs for Eezham Tamils and their liberation movement in 2007.
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UN Rights Chief joins her predecessors in watering down collective rights of genocide affected people

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2020, 06:37 GMT]
Without imposing a robust follow-up on the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, which withdrew its support to UN Human Rights Resolution 30/1 that failed to address genocide justice, international investigations and ensure the collective rights of the people of the occupied traditional Tamil homeland in the North-East, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet was just “encouraging” the Council to “give renewed attention to Sri Lanka, in view of the need to prevent threats to peace, reconciliation and sustainable development.” Ms Bachelet was only referring to “commitments” made by the Rajapaksa regime “since it withdrew its support for resolution 30/1”.
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Diaspora youth group re-aligns Tamil narrative on enforced disappearances

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 September 2020, 22:13 GMT]
The misrepresentation and interpretation of enforced Tamil disappearances and Tamil Prisoners of War (POWs) represent an extension of Colombo’s genocidal agenda which continues to be mirrored through the engagements of the genocidal state’s global counterparts. In that regard, the Swiss-based Tamil Youth group – “Phoenix – the Next Generation” have condemned such internal and external diversions away from the contextualisation of enforced Tamil disappearances as a component of Colombo’s genocidal agenda through a social media initiative coinciding with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
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Sumanthiran alleged of exerting Colombo’s influence to tamper with preferential vote counts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 August 2020, 01:05 GMT]
The supporters of two leading candidates of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the Jaffna electorate vehemently protested against an alleged move to tamper with the preferential vote counts in Jaffna to the favour of MA Sumanthiran, who was ranked fifth for the most part the counting process. Two of TNA’s candidates, Dharmalingam Sitharthan (PLOTE) and Sashikala Raviraj (ITAK) were carefully following the development to ensure that the hierarchy of their party doesn’t exert back-door influence to alter their preferential vote counts. The supporters of Sitharthan and Sashikala alleged that the government officials were acting on instructions from their superiors. SL Police and STF commandos were providing security to Mr Sumanthiran, and they assaulted the protesters outside the counting centre. When Sashikala left the centre, she refused police protection.
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Unified Eezham Tamil national front, beyond electoral politics, is next step: Jothilingam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2020, 21:17 GMT]
The bi-polar big-power geopolitics unfolding in the Indo-Pacific region and the ever-accelerating Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism on the ground in the island are the primary factors shaping the political fate of Eezham Tamils. When the Tamil National Alliance played out in the hands of the US-led alliance causing miseries to Tamils, there was a need for alternative politics, particularly under the previous government in Colombo. What Eezham Tamils need now is an effort towards unified Tamil national politics, rooted in the principles of their nationhood, homeland, sovereignty, right of self-determination and the international dimensions of justice, mediation and necessary guarantees related to these. The political parties must be involved as components in this wider effort, but not be the sole actors determining the Tamil discourse, said senior Tamil political analyst S.A. Jothilingam.
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SL Police blocks protest by families of missing persons in East

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2020, 20:24 GMT]
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.
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Colombo's CID questions Wigneswaran for claiming Tamil Buddhism as predating Sinhala

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2020, 18:26 GMT]
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.
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Saiva deity statue destroyed 20 days after ‘inspection’ by Sinhala monk in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2020, 22:15 GMT]
Unknown attackers have smashed the door of the inner sanctuary of Kusalaana-malai Saiva Kumaran temple and destroyed the main deity statue, residents of Karadiyan-aattuk-ku'lam in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Friday. The desecration has taken place three weeks after a Sinhala-Buddhist was observed inspecting the temple situated at the 213-feet high hillock, 35 km west of Batticaloa city. A similar destruction was reported a few days ago at Kurunthoor-malai hillock in Mullaiththeevu in Vanni. The board of the temple was reluctant to talk to journalists as it feared media attention could trigger further problems to the temple. However, Tamil farmers in the nearby village urged broader awareness on the ongoing acts of heritage genocide in the East and North.
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University students mark Black July Remembrance in Jaffna, Vavuniyaa and Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2020, 22:46 GMT]
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.
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Colombo's Archaeology Department, SL Police threaten chief priest of Chiththaa'ndi temple

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 July 2020, 23:30 GMT]
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.
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Sinhala Police OIC hit Tamil women with vehicle for opposing monks-led heritage ‘task force’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2020, 10:04 GMT]
The vehicle of SL Police Officer-in-Charge(OIC) of Vellave'li station PWM Anandasiri hit protesting Tamil women causing injuries to them on Thursday. The OIC has threatened the protesting Tamils of Veaththuch-cheanai village in Batticaloa that he would book them under various pretexts if they continued to agitate against the SL Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the so-called Archaeological Heritage Management. The OIC secured a court order and has named 12 residents as respondents who objected the entry by the SL Archaeology Department to the folk-deity temple of Vairavar and nearby playground, the residents said. Veaththuch-cheanai is a hamlet situated in Vellaa-ve'li of Poaratheevup-pattu DS division, 40 km south of Batticaloa city.
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