Vanni mobilises against structural genocide with anti-Mahaweli rally

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 August 2018, 21:18 GMT]
Around 4,000 Tamil-speaking people of all walks of life mobilised on Tuesday in one of the biggest protests to take place after 2009 in Mullaiththeevu. The protesters came with six concrete demands: Mahaweli projects within the limits of the Northern Province should be scrapped; The land permits issued to encroaching fishers from South in Kokku'laay, Kokkuth-thoduvaay and Karunaadduk-kea'ni should be withdrawn; The lands of 2,000 Tamils, who were evicted from their village in 1984 should be handed back to them. The SL Archaeology Department, which is seizing the sites of heritage at wanton from Tamils to distort the history, should be restrained. The Sinhala colonisation, de-linking the territorial contiguity of the North-East, should be stopped forthwith. The ban on livelihood activities in the lagoons that are unilaterally declared as natural-reserves by Colombo, should be lifted.
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Vavuniyaa protesters: Colombo wages new war through genocidal archaeology

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 August 2018, 22:56 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in Vavuniyaa took to the streets on Tuesday, opposing the move by the SL Archaeology Department to seize their hilltop of ancient heritage at Vedukku-naa'ri. The protesters vowed to fight against the unilateral move by the unitary state to Sinhalicise their ancestral heritage. “From annihilation of Language through setting fire to Jaffna Library to the slaughter in Mu'l'livaaykkaal, the process was genocide,” a placard said. “Today, it is Vedukku-naa'ri, tomorrow it will be Nedunkea'ni Aiyanaar,” questioned another slogan.
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Colombo schemes Sinhala-Buddhicisation of Tamil heritage site in Vavuniyaa North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2018, 21:33 GMT]
The occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has prohibited Eezham Tamils at Oldu-madu village in Vavuniyaa North from accessing 157-meter-high hill called Vedukku-naa'ri. The issue became a hot topic on 10 August, a day before the annual religious ritual of Aadi Amaavaasai (the new moon of the Tamil month July-August) observed in remembrance of the ancestors by the Saivites (Hindus). The SL Police blocked the Poosaari (non-Brahmin priest) of the village-deity, based on a complaint made by the SL Archaeology Department on 07 August. The SL Police has instructed Poosari and the villagers to keep away from the hilltop. Only after the repeated pleas, they were allowed to access their temple once on 11 August. Now, they have to face heritage genocide on their own, V. Poobalasingam, a grassroots leader in Olu-madu told TamilNet.
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Drought-stricken Tamil farmers in Vanni abandoned by authorities, politicians, NGOs

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2018, 23:06 GMT]
The resettled Eezham Tamil families in Madu division of Mannaar district complain that the SL authorities have wholly abandoned them. None of the Tamil politicians has helped them to address their grievances caused by the drought that had rendered 4,300 families who are struggling without the proper livelihood in the absence of agricultural income. The families say they have been complaining since the monsoon rains failed towards the end of 2017. Now, the people are struggling even without potable water.
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New Delhi with ‘cultural presence’ not concerned about Chinese ‘heritage archaeology’ in Kayts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2018, 21:53 GMT]
Even after losing Trincomalee to the grip of the US Pacific Command, which recently renamed itself as the United States Indo-Pacific Command, the New Delhi Establishment has no qualms of increasing Chinese presence in Jaffna. Informed media circles that interacted with Colombo-based diplomats of New Delhi as well as with Indian journalists well-connected to the Indian National Security Advisor, said there were no reservations about Chinese corporates accessing Poonakari nor about the ‘archaeology’ of Chinese at Allaip-piddi, a locality in the island of Oo'raaththu'rai (Kayts). “China accessing Poonakari for fishing and Kayts for isolated heritage purpose is not a security threat. We are already in control of the highest view of the area, and New Delhi is not worried of Chinese digging the coast of Kayts,” a diplomat said without specifying the “highest” lying locality of Indian control.
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Militarisation of Jaffna Fort dashes hope of establishing Tamil antiquity: Saiva Pontiff

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2018, 23:17 GMT]
“Since Buddhism has been accorded with the foremost place as a religion patronised by the State, we are unable to claim our rightful stakes [in the island],” said Sreelasree Somasunthara Parmaachchaariya Chuvaamika'l, the pontiff of Nallai Aatheenam in Jaffna. “We have no means of asserting our distinction; We have no State of our own; Unfortunately, our people are also yet to emancipate themselves,” he said. Commenting on SL Military claiming the Jaffna Fort as its property, the Guru Maha Sannithaanam of Nallai Aaatheenam noted such militarisation would be detrimental to the Tamils establishing their ancient heritage in Jaffna. In his view, the SL military was more preoccupied with the security aspect than claiming ownership to the Fort. However, the military presence there would be a hindrance for Tamil heritage related affairs, he said.
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New Delhis' suppression of Tamil Nadu equally detrimental as geopolitics of West

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 August 2018, 23:34 GMT]
The latest happenings in the quasi-federal state of Tamil Nadu in India, need to be perused in a broader historical context, grasping the ever-raging conflict between the Centre being the dominating New Delhi Establishment and Tamil Nadu. The oppressed people of Tamil Nadu have been unable to strike power of balance with it, argues Norway-based Eezham Tamil anthropology academic Athithan Jayapalan in a recent paper. The underlying hegemony has also been one of the significant impediments to finding a confederal or, at the least a federal, solution to the national question of Eezham Tamils in the island situated along the southern tip of India. The New Delhi Establishment is adamantly upholding the unitary character of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka, even at the cost of its national security, and it has no qualms in sacrificing the self-determination and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils.
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Autopsy: Jaffna University students, slain by SL Police in 2016, not shot from behind

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 August 2018, 17:07 GMT]
Civil rights activists based in Colombo have recently released post-mortem reports of two Jaffna University Tamil students, whom the SL Police in Jaffna shot and killed in October 2016 at Kokkuvil. The autopsy confirms earlier media reports of gunshot fire going through the chest of the motorbike driver, and the other student sitting behind succumbing to injuries caused by the crash immediately after the firing. The reports also disprove the allegations made by the SL Police that they had fired at the students only after they failed to stop. They were not shot from behind. It seems like they were shot from the front or from their right side by a policeman who aimed at them with his automatic rifle, probably after being tipped off from another check post in advance, commented fellow students at the University of Jaffna.
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NPC Minister responds to SLA Commander, British Archaeologist on Jaffna Fort controversies

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 August 2018, 21:45 GMT]
The recent statement made by Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake, the SL military chief, who claimed the SL military as the rightful owner of the Jaffna Fort, was invalid, illogical and a fabricated one, said Education Minister of Northern Provincial Council Sarveswaran Kandiah, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet this weekend. “There is no rule stating that all the fortresses [in the island] should belong to the [SL] military,” Dr Sarveswaran said. Senanayake should mind his own business by confining himself to the leadership of the elected leaders in a democracy and by refraining from intervening in the civil affairs in the North-East, the NPC minister said. He was also responding to British Archaeologist Professor Robin Coningham's proposition of ‘visitor experience’ and ‘tourism’ shaping the so-called post-conflict future of Jaffna through advancing tangible and intangible heritage.
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Protesting grassroots Tamil activists targeted in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 August 2018, 18:12 GMT]
Unknown attackers, who are believed to be the operatives of the occupying SL military or the intruding Sinhala fishers in Vadamaraadchi East, Jaffna, have burnt down another boat of a Tamil fisherman activist in the early hours on Monday. Arulappu Nimal, a father of two, lost his boat at Thaa'laiyadi. This is the second incident within the last ten days in which the attackers have targeted the vessels that belong to Tamil fishers who staged a self-mobilised action against the Sinhala sea cucumber poachers in Vadamaraadchi East. In the meantime, the SL Police has acted against a leading Tamil woman activist in Keappaa-pulavu, Mullaiththeevu, allegedly on the instructions from the occupying SL military.
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Intruding engine boats destroy ecosystem of Kokku'laay lagoon

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 July 2018, 20:21 GMT]
Native Eezham Tamil fishermen in Kokku'laay complain that their fishing ecosystem will be destroyed within the next two years if the fisheries authorities of the occupying unitary state of Sri Lanka continue to allow the intruding fishermen from other districts to deploy boats fitted with engines. The intruders use diesel,l petrol and kerosene and have no concerns of the ecosystem as it is not their environment, says Tamil fisherman representative M. Mariyathas, who is a survivor of genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009.
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Maithiripala ‘coordinates’ relentless land grab at massive-scale in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 July 2018, 22:49 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Forest Conservation Department and Wildlife Conservation Department have grabbed tens of thousands of acres of lands in the eight districts of North-East. These departments, coming under the unitary state system based in Colombo, are refusing to hand over even a few hundred of acres of these lands to the Divisional Secretariats and other mechanisms, which are also controlled by the same unitary system. A meeting convened by the SL Presidential Secretariat on Friday ended up strengthening further the position of the SL Forest and Wild-Life departments, Tamil officials who attended the meeting said. The Ministry of ‘Mahaweli Development’ and Environment, to which SL President Maithiripala Sirisena is the responsible minister, plays a central role in determining the extent of lands that could be released back, the officials told TamilNet on Saturday.
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Remembering 35th Black July with Tamil resolve

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 July 2018, 07:51 GMT]
This week, Eezham Tamils in the homeland and the Tamil Diaspora mark the 35th anniversary of the collective trauma of the ‘Black July’, the SL state-sponsored genocidal pogrom that claimed the lives of more than 3,000 Tamil residents in the south of the island in 1983. The key lesson learned throughout the years of the pogroms, massacres, genocidal war and finally the post-war structural genocide, which is aimed at dismantling the existence of Eezham Tamils as a nation, is a hard reality. The genocide originating from the Mahawansa mind-set always gets its way, not because of the strength of the Sinhala nation, but mainly because the external State actors sustaining the Colombo-centric approach, is that lesson. Thus, the collaborationists and the negotiators among the Eezham Tamils were always doomed to failure, Tamil political observers in Jaffna commented.
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Uprooted Mu'l'lik-ku'lam Tamils adopt Ira'nai-theevu approach, enter their lands seized by SL Navy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 July 2018, 19:21 GMT]
More than 200 Tamil families were living in Mu'l'lik-ku'lam eleven years before, in 2007, when the Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka seized the coastal village facing towards the Gulf of Mannaar. Last year, the occupying SL Navy said it would consider handing over a small pocket of 77 acres of the total 5,000 acres back to the people, after ten years of protests and finally the people waging a continuous protest for 38 days in March and April 2017. However, the SL Navy didn't clear the lands and hand them over to the people despite repeated requests. The promise was a deceptive move aimed at containing the protest. However, around 50 of the 200 families have now chosen to enter the lands by themselves. They are now confined to the lands, which the SL Navy said it was prepared to release, Catholic priests in Mannaar told TamilNet on Wednesday.
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Families of enforced disappeared vehemently oppose OMP sittings in North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 July 2018, 19:14 GMT]
The sittings by the deceptive ‘Office of the Missing Persons’ (OMP) held in Jaffna and Ki'linochchi this weekend received strong opposition as the families of enforced disappeared, who have been protesting for more than 500 days, conclusively rejecting the OMP as a farce. The protesters in Jaffna did not stop with their symbolic protest outside the building. They also protested inside the hall where the sitting went on with a few attendees. Finally, the SL police were invited to control the situation.
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SL Military Intelligence recommences recruitment of notorious ex-paramilitary operatives

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 July 2018, 21:53 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the occupying military, and SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe have given green signals to the respective intelligence services under their control to recommence recruitment of former Tamil paramilitary operatives in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils in the North and East, informed ex-paramilitary sources in Jaffna said.
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Antiquities Ordinance used to justify Sinhalicisation of 48 locations in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 July 2018, 22:30 GMT]
The intruding Sinhala-Buddhist establishment and the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka are rushing ahead with the expansion of an already reconstructed Buddhist temple, the so-called Gurukanda Raja Maha Vihara (Gurukanda RMV), which is located at Chemmalai, Naayaa'ru in the coastal Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district. As the protesting Tamil land-owners successfully blocked the surveying of the lands earlier this month, the intruders are now citing an Extraordinary Gazette notification, issued in 2013 (1823/73) during the times of Rajapaksa rule, to proceed with their plans of expanding the Vihara, the civil sources at the District Secretariat said.
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Source files from one of digital cameras witnessing 2009 genocide released to public domain

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 July 2018, 23:39 GMT]
A surviving staff reporter of the Eezha-naatham daily, one of the few media to directly witness the last phase of the genocidal war in Vanni, released this week a set of photos and video clips from one of the digital cameras used by an Eezham Tamil humanitarian worker during the final days of the onslaught in 2009. Apart from serving the purpose of documenting the genocide, the material would also be useful to the kith and kin of the victims who perished in the onslaught and to those who are searching for their loved ones, says Suren Karthikesu, the journalist who is exiled in Vancouver, Canada. TamilNet brings the material to the public domain with the warning that some of the photos would be too upsetting to the viewers.
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Macro-level approach needed to confront genocidal land grab in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 July 2018, 22:55 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka is deploying the ethnic chauvinist Archaeology Department of the unitary State with a motive to permanently Sinhalicise a private property, which is of religious significance to the native Tamils at Oddu-chuddaan in Mullaiththeevu, after being repeatedly confronted by the family of the 62-year-old landowner, V. Kanagasundaram. The SL military invited the family at the presence of the Divisional Secretary on 25 June to a meeting in which their 5-acre land was supposed to be handed back to the rightful owner. J. Indrakumar, an official at the Divisional Secretariat also confirmed that the SL military had invited the family to release the lands. However, the meeting turned out to be a different one, the family told TamilNet.
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Occupying Colombo steps up sting operations to justify continuation of draconian PTA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 June 2018, 22:31 GMT]
The so-called Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of occupying Colombo has detained six Tamil men in the Ki'linochchi district during the last four days. Most of the arrested are believed to be ex-LTTE members. The recent arrests by the SL TID come following an incident on 22 June at former LTTE stronghold of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) in Mullaiththeevu district. The entire episode seems to be a sting operation initiated by the SL military intelligence to project a false impression that there were ex-LTTE members, still interested in reviving an armed struggle, informed sources in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet on Wednesday. The operation seems to combine counter-insurgency experiments along with an intention to justify the continuation of the draconian and abusive ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ (PTA), the sources further said.
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