Protests on International Day of Disappeared signal emboldened resolve for justice

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 August 2019, 23:39 GMT]
The families of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military and its paramilitaries in the past staged two coordinated demonstrations in the North and East on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared on Friday. More than 500 people, including the grassroots activists and supporting politicians, marched for two hours from Pa'nrik-keytha-ku'lam to Oamanthai, the former entry point to the erstwhile de-facto state of Tamil Eelam. Those handed over to the occupying Sinhala military at the entry point in Vavuniyaa, and at Vadduvaakal in Mullaiththeevu were taken to undisclosed detention camps, and their whereabouts are since not known. The wives and the mothers of the missing persons denounced the reparations mechanisms of the so-called Office of Missing Persons (OMP) and demanded international justice.
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Religious leaders in Mannaar lack statesmanship

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 March 2019, 23:21 GMT]
The forces seeking to escalate religious disharmony among Eezham Tamils in Mannaar have been both influencing and criticising the religious establishments of the Tamil Catholics and the Tamil Saivites in the district, trapping the two communities further into a prolonged conflict this week. The board of trustees of Thirukkeatheesvaram Saiva temple organised a protest on Thursday, a day before the SL Magistrate’s Court in Mannaar is set to hear the religious skirmish that took place in Thirukkeatheesvaram on 03 March. The protest drew four thousand participants from across the district bringing the traffic in the city to a standstill for two hours. In the meantime, SL Minister of Power, Energy and Business ‘Development’, Ravi Karunanayake, a Sinhala Catholic from Colombo, rushed to Madu shrine in Mannaar to discuss ‘development’ of the shrine.
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Alvāy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 September 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The seafront
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Tāṇṭik-kuḷam, Kaṭalāñcik-kuḷam, Uyilaṅ-kuḷam, Tuṭaṛik-kuḷam, Paracaṅ-kuḷam

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2017, 21:40 GMT]
The Tāṇṭi-tree tank

The Kaṭalañci-shrub tank

The Ucilai-tree tank

The Tuṭari-shrub tank

The Paracu-tree tank
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Sinhala, Muslim participation in Tamil genocide remembrance answers IC detractors

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2016, 20:22 GMT]
A section of Sinhala and Muslim students took part in the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance organised by the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) on Wednesday and a group of Catholic Sinhalese from the South were also present at St. Paul's church at Mu'l'livaaykkaal. At Mannaar, Muslim representatives were present at the memorial event organised by ITAK Youth Wing leader V.S. Sivakaran. The Sinhala and Muslim participation sends message to International Community and UN actors refusing to accept genocide in the island. The very first monument to be erected in remembrance of those who perished in Mu'l'livaaykkaal was also sculpted by a non-Tamil in the island, although the identity of the artist could not be revealed. The statue, having artistic significance has been silently put up near the St. Paul's church by the Tamil villagers of Mu'l'livaaykkaal, news sources in Vanni said.
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Senior Jaffna reporter Navaratnarajah passes away

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2016, 17:21 GMT]
61-year-old N. Navaratnarajah (Navam GS) from Mallaakam in Jaffna, who briefly served in TamilNet as a reporter for Jaffna during the turbulent times in the past, has passed away in the early hours of Tuesday due to heart attack at the Teaching Hospital in Jaffna. Mr Navaratnarajah was a Village Officer (GS), a committed social activist and was engaged in news reporting as a freelance journalist for at least 2 decades. Despite his busy schedule, Mr Navaratnarajah remained committed as a full time journalist, working for Uthayan, Chudar-O'li, Veerakesari, Tamil Mirror and to certain Tamil language websites for a long time. He was born on 14 April, 1954.
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Samantha Power evades questions in Jaffna on Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 November 2015, 22:22 GMT]
Placing high hopes on Colombo regime that it will act positively to accountability demands of the US, and that there would be a vibrant civil society, lasting democracy and increased prosperity in the island, the visiting US Ambassador to United Nations, Ms Samantha Power, in Jaffna, dodged questions on the need for investigations on Tamil genocide, when journalists in Jaffna met her at the Jaffna Public Library on Sunday. During the tightly scheduled visit to Jaffna, Ms Power met with SL Governor to North, NPC Chief Minister and his ministers, toured the offices of the Uthayan newspaper and ceremonially opened a new science building at Jaffna Osmania College, constructed with 450,000 USD aid from the US Pacific Command. The Tamil-speaking Muslims in Jaffna had experienced “ethnic cleansing” even before the term was coined, Power said in her Osmania address.
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Sri Lankan police at war with Tamil journalists in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2015, 22:44 GMT]
A two-member squad, dressed in civil clothes, was trying to knife three journalists in Jaffna after chasing them in a motorbike for 2 kilometres at Nalloor on Tuesday night. The journalists were returning to their offices in two motorbikes after collecting news of a hunger strike when the incident took place. The journalists managed to escape from the attackers and rushed to the Police station in Jaffna to lodge a complaint on the assassination attempt. At the police station, they saw the motorbike of the attackers parked inside the premises and the alleged attackers were a police inspector and a sergeant. The police officers at duty refused to file the complaint from the journalists. In the meantime, another reporter from Point Pedro has been remanded on Wednesday for filing a story about an attempted rape of a school girl by a police constable belonging to Nelliyadi police station.
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SL military squads intensify attacks on Tamil journalists in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 September 2014, 21:19 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives have intensified attacks on independent Tamil journalists in Vanni in recent days. A 33-year-old reporter from Paranthan, Sinnarasa Siventhiran, who files news stories at Uthayan’s branch office at Karadippoakku junction had a narrow escape from a squad that intended to kill him by throwing him in front of a vehicle on A9 Road Sunday night. Squads operated by the SL military have also assaulted two other reporters in recent days and threatened them not to complain or publish news on the attack.
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Sinhala military operates US-trained ‘counterinsurgency’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 April 2014, 22:21 GMT]
The commander of the genocidal Sri Lankan military in the Jaffna peninsula, Maj. Gen. Udaya Perera, who was trained and awarded in the US Army War College in 2012, after his role as director of SL Army operations in the genocidal onslaught in 2009 followed by counter-insurgency foreign service targeting Tamil diaspora from Malaysia, is deploying new tactics for furthering the structural genocide against Eezham Tamils in his position as the commander of SL military occupying the peninsula. The SL commander has launched a deceptive programme to woo Tamil youth into subservient jobs to SL military by promising good payment through a secret agent known as ‘Tamil CNN Kannan’ who has come from the UK. As the direct campaign to enlist Tamils into the genocidal military has failed, the SL military has chosen to trap Tamil youth through business and media agents.
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Fear psychosis grips Vanni as SL military clamps down on Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 March 2014, 08:08 GMT]
The occupying SL military system, emboldened by the extension of one more year to continue its iron fist manoeuvrings to continue to engineer demographic, cultural and structural genocide on the nation of Eelam Tamils, has used 2014 March sessions in Geneva to project an enemy in its imagination, bringing again untold miseries for the thousands of families that have been affected by the genocidal onslaught in 2009. On Wednesday and Thursday, the districts of Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu witnessed military round up operations as never before in recent years after the war. Several villagers were brought to open grounds, filtered one-by-one, arrests made and threats issued by Sinhala soldiers who are made to believe by Colombo that former LTTE members were regrouping to wage another armed struggle. A fear psychosis has gripped the people of Vanni.
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Stephen Rapp dodges question on international investigations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 January 2014, 11:57 GMT]
The visiting US Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp, who met Tamil civil society representatives in Jaffna on Wednesday, was dodging proper response on calling for international investigations at the forthcoming Human Rights Council session to be held in Geneva in March. The top US diplomat was seen advocating a slightly stronger version of resolution than the one in last year at the forthcoming UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva. He was citing impracticality, as some permanent members at the UN Security Council would save the Sri Lankan State. The civil representatives in Jaffna urged him to at least propose a political solution in the next resolution that is being drafted by the USA.
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Sri Lankan TID declares ‘shadow war’ on Tamil journalists in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2013, 09:10 GMT]
“We will not abduct you or take you for 4th floor for interrogations. But, we will make sure you die in the road hit by our encounter teams in natural accidents and dispute-like killings. You will not become heroes among your own people and die like street dogs,” is the message re-iterated by the so-called ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ interrogators, who operate various interrogation-cells in the North chasing the journalists in Jaffna. A Colombo-based media rights activist observing the pattern of the psychological warfare by the TID on journalists in Jaffna described the unfolding scenario as Colombo's latest ‘shadow war’ on Tamils, similar to the one that preceded the 2009 genocidal onslaught.
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Jaffna Tamil daily wins Press Freedom Award

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 November 2013, 14:05 GMT]
The 2013 Press Freedom award from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Le Monde and TVMonde was awarded to the Jaffna Tamil-language daily Uthayan and an Uzbek journalist, RSF announced Wednesday. Uthayan editor Vallipuram Kaanamylnaathan and owner Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, received the awards during a ceremony Wednesday evening in Strasbourg’s city hall, an RSF media release said. "Uthayan has never balked at covering stories that are controversial in a still fragmented society. As a result, it has been the target of repeated violence, leading to the departure of many of its employees over the years. Two were killed in May 2006 and its editor, Gnagnasundaram Kuhanathan, was beaten unconscious in Jaffna in 2011," the announcement said.
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Sri Lanka's Chairmanship makes mockery of Commonwealth values: NYT

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 November 2013, 03:56 GMT]
The New York Times, in an editorial appearing in the Thursday edition, accused Sri Lanka of committing "serious human rights violations" and of failing "to provide accountability for wartime abuses." Under the Rajapaksa government, the paper said, journalists have been systematically threatened, harassed, killed or forced into exile in what amounts to a war on the press, adding, that Colombo did everything it could to sabotage a free and fair outcome [in the Northern elections], including publishing a fake edition of the local newspaper Uthayan. The editorial urged the leaders attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to insist that Colombo show meaningful progress in addressing human rights abuses abiding by international standards and to restore constitutional protection for freedom of expression.
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Media organizations condemn SL military intimidation of 5 journalists in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 October 2013, 23:12 GMT]
The Jaffna Press Club (JPC) and Colombo-based Sri Lanka Tamil Media Association (SLTMA) have condemned SL military for intimidation, censorship and death threat on five Tamil journalists on Monday at Valikaamam North in Jaffna, where the journalists working for different media organisations, went to cover the visit by a delegation comprising of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian and Northern Provincial Council members.
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Uthayan faked, SL forces focus on targeting Ananthi on election day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 September 2013, 07:18 GMT]
While the Indian media, The Hindu and The Times of India, highlight NPC chief minister candidate Mr CV Wigneswaran condemning the call for Tamil Eelam and the call for boycotting the CHOGM meet, the focus of genocidal Colombo seems to be on targeting Ms Ananthi Sasitharan, the Tamil homeland-based candidate, who has become popular among the people. On the morning of Saturday, which is election day, the popular daily in the North, Uthayan, was faked and in its name, a newspaper was circulated saying that Ms Ananthi has joined the Colombo government. The fake paper cited Mavai Senathirajah. Meanwhile, news reports from several parts of the North said that the occupying SL forces are intimidating and preventing Tamils from voting. In Mullaiththeevu, a voting booth captured by Sinhalese prevented local Tamils from voting. Despite the odds, people are seen actively engaged in voting.
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‘Military presence in North-East worrying’: Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 August 2013, 21:09 GMT]
“I was concerned to hear about the degree to which the military appears to be putting down roots and becoming involved in what should be civilian activities, for instance education, agriculture and even tourism,” Ms Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a press conference in Colombo on Saturday. Speaking at the conclusion of her visit to the island, Ms Pillay said that that the military presence in the North-East seemed “much greater than is needed for strictly military or reconstruction purposes,” also referring to the vulnerability of women to sexual abuse. While sympathizing with the spirit of the address of Ms Pillay, who has been at the receiving end of vulgar verbal abuse from Sinhala nationalists, Tamil activists in the island expressed regret that she was still conferring legitimacy to the GoSL’s genocidal blueprint called LLRC.
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Sri Lanka torture concerns well founded, says Time

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 April 2013, 06:17 GMT]
The popular biweekly, the Time magazine, commenting on Sri Lanka's deteriorating rights climate, said that amid abuse and fear, Tamils are continuing to flee Sri Lanka, and that torture and sexual violence by Sri Lanka's military against Tamils with alleged separatist ties during the 26-year civil war make credible the threat of torture to a well-known Tamil TV reporter who the UAE is threatening to deport to Sri Lanka. Also pointing to the attack on Uthayan, the Time said, "[t]he tensions revealed in the incident [at Uthayan] are becoming depressingly familiar. The clouds have been darkening over this picturesque island nation in recent years as euphoria over the end of its long-running civil war has ebbed."
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Armed squad attacks Tamil paper office in Jaffna setting ablaze press machines

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 April 2013, 07:03 GMT]
An armed squad, allegedly operated by the Sri Lankan military intelligence, stormed the main office of the Uthayan Tamil daily in the city of Jaffna in the early hours of Saturday, setting ablaze the press machines and the copies of printed papers that were ready for distribution. The squad chased media workers away at gun point and poured petrol on the papers and machinery in the fourth attack to be reported on the popular Tamil daily since January this year. The pre-dawn attack, carried out Saturday at 4:45 a.m., comes 10 days after a similar attack on its Ki'linochchi office this month. Colombo's systematic attack on the Tamil daily, owned by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian E. Saravanapavan, seeks to destabilize the operation and dissemination of the paper in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, especially before conducting elections to Northern Provincial Council.
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