UNHCR brings back refugees from Tamil Nadu without ensuring prospects for resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 September 2019, 23:42 GMT]
Uprooted Eezham Tamils who are returning from their overseas displacement in Tamil Nadu find it increasingly challenging to regain their lands and livelihood in the North-East of the island, civil officials in Mannaar said. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and the SL state apparatus fail to meet even the basic requirements of those returning, the officials said. While the UNCHR facilitates the flight transport of the refugees through Colombo airport, it expects the SL State to complete the resettlement arrangements at the district level. However, the officials coming under the Colombo government in the district say they are unable to cope with the challenges, even to find temporary accommodation to the returning families.
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Buddhist monks whip up anti-Muslim hate twisting facts on coastal lands in Poththuvil: Civic Chairman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 September 2019, 18:16 GMT]
Poththuvil Divisional Council (PS) Chairman MS Abdul Wazeeth has blamed the extremist Sinhala Buddhist monks for waging hate-campaign against Poththuvil Muslims. An extremist monk based at the newly constructed vihara has claimed that the Muslim villagers were attempting to assault him and he keeps alleging that the ancient Buddhist monuments found close to the beach were being destroyed as the SL Government in Colombo, particularly the UNP led by Ranil Wickramasinghe, had allowed the Muslims to encroach the lands of the so-called Muhudu Maha Viharaya. The archaeological monuments and the monks are protected by armed Sinhala soldiers and the police round the clock. How could the villagers assault them, he asked. It was the monks who had encroached into the areas that come under the purview of the SL Archaeology Department, MSA Wazeeth said.
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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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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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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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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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IC sheds crocodile tears over Shavendra appointment, US engages with his war-time chief

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2019, 19:23 GMT]
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a US citizen when he spearheaded the genocidal war on Eezham Tamils in 2009, must be facing the lawsuits filed against him in the USA. However, instead of putting an effective end to the presidential hopes of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the US establishment has chosen to engage with him furnishing loss-of-US-nationality paperwork as required by him. The trend is quite visible to those watching the discourse, including the visits by the US-friendly actors engaging with the Rajapaksas. However, the US Embassy in Colombo issued a statement stating that it was ‘deeply concerned by the appointment of Lt General Shavendra Silva as SL Army Commander. Where was this US concern while engaging with Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, commented Tamil activists in Jaffna.
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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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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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Tamil awareness urged on geopolitics-driven genocidal ‘development’ in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 August 2019, 17:45 GMT]
The occupying Colombo has met stiff resistance from the people of Mannaar against its ‘development’ plan, which paves the way for industrialisation with a looming danger of Sinhala colonisation changing the demographic pattern of the Mannaar Island. The ‘transformation’ has been schemed to take place within 12 years before 2030. Colombo’s Urban Development Authority (UDA), an almost all-Sinhala ‘regulatory body’ had conceived the overarching plan in 2016. The SL Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development had been tasked to accomplish the construction of a controversial project of Fishery Harbour at Peasaalai as part of Northern Province Sustainable Fisheries Development Project (NPSFDP) with project funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2020. The Tamil Catholic residents in Peasaalai have been opposing the controversial harbour project.
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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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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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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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SL Police evades filing case against extremist monk in Neeraaviyadi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 July 2019, 16:18 GMT]
Ven Kolamba Medhalankara Thero, the Sinhala Buddhist extremist monk, who had encroached into the premises of Pi'l'laiyaar temple at Neeraaviyadi in Mullaith-theevu, was directly involved, along with a group of people, in removing the Saivaist Nandhi flags on 16th July. The Nandhi flags were flown in parity with the Buddhist flags at the locality since 6th July. The controversial monk and his supporters had selectively removed the Nandhi flags leaving behind the Buddhist flags. They have also stolen the robes. The trustee board of the temple went to file a complaint with the SL Police on 17th July, the following day. However, the police was refusing to entertain their complaint. Now, the police has informed the trustees through politicians that the monk was ‘mentally disturbed’ and admitted to a hospital in Colombo to avoid cases against him.
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SL Governor dodges Ki'linochchi DCC meeting, Colombo's military and departments confronted

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 July 2019, 23:13 GMT]
The so-called Civil Security Division (CSD) and the occupying SL Army, which come under the SL Defence Ministry in Colombo continue to occupy more than 400 acres of farmlands in Ki'linochchi district. The Tamil people suspect the SL Police of backing the Sinhala miners who operate almost all the tipper trucks, which scoop the sands in the region excessively. At the same time, various departments working under the unitary system of the SL State continue to exercise their power in seizing the properties ignoring the divisional authorities and the civic councils. Knowing that these crucial matters were scheduled to be taken up for discussion at a plenary session, Suren Raghavan, the deceitful Tamil SL Governor to North, was absconding from attending the District Coordination Committee meeting on Monday.
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SL Police goes door-to-door collecting details of residents in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 July 2019, 18:06 GMT]
Occupying Colombo’s police has started to collect details of persons residing in each house in the police division of Kaaththaan-kudi in Batticaloa district. Tamil residents in Chelvaa-nakar, which comes under the administrative division of Ma’n-munaip-pattu, complained that the police personnel were visiting each household since 27 July. The SL Police demands there must be a household leader for every house, and that person should put a signature in a document where details of every resident are registered.
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Politicians whipping up ‘sovereignty’ fears in South, déjà vu 1956 for Tamils: Guruparan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 July 2019, 23:35 GMT]
Whenever the SLFP or the UNP resorts to a high-handed Sinhala Buddhist nationalist projection as part of the electoral politics, the other party simply follows suit opting to strengthen the same paradigm because they don’t want to be left out. The trend has always been the same throughout the entire electoral political history of the island as far as the Tamils are concerned, said Jaffna-based academic, attorney and civil activist Kumaravadivel Guruparan. For Tamils, this is just another déjà vu of experiencing 1956 when SWRD Bandaranaike bringing the ‘Sinhala Only’ Act and JR Jayawardene making Kandy march the same year, he commented. The SL polity as a whole has demonstrated to the United Nations and the West that the Sinhala-Buddhist ethnonational politics would always be the over-riding factor as far as the politics in the island is concerned, Guruparan observed further.
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