Sinhala extremist monks assault Tamils, say Buddhism stands above Law in Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 September 2019, 18:38 GMT]
A group of violent Sinhala Buddhist monks and a mob led by Bodu Bala Sena’s Secretary Gnanasara Thero, carried the remains of the late Kolamba Medhalankara Thero to cremate the controversial monk within the premises of the Tamil Saivite temple at Neeraaviyadi in Mullaiththeevu. They were violating the court ruling that specified a separate locality to mark the ritual. “Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country. Buddhism stands above the Law here,” proclaimed one of the Buddhist monks, who assaulted the Tamil lawyers and the students near the Neeraaviyadi Pi’l’ laiyaar temple at Naayaa’ru in Mullaiththeevu on Monday. The lawyers were present to convey the information. Elected Tamil politicians and the young generation of Tamil students were witnessing the lopsided behaviour of the SL military and the police, who were only defending the interests of the monks.
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SL military wants to cremate remains of controversial monk inside temple premises

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 September 2019, 23:21 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military is preparing to stage the cremation of the late Kolamba Medhalankara Thero, who was causing ethnic tensions through the controversial project of Sinhala-Buddhicisation at Neeraaviyadi in the ancient Tamil village of Chemmalai in Naayaa'ru, Mullaiththeevu. The project was launched in 2009 by a genocidaire commander of the SL Army, Major General (retd) Jagath Dias and the late Anunayake of the Seruwila Saranakiththi Kalyani Sect, Seruwila Saranakiththi Thero, who was promoting Sinhala colonization along the border of North and East until his demise in May 2016. Kolamba Medhalankara Thero has passed away due to cancer, and the SL Army and SL Navy want to cremate him on Sunday at the premises of the Pi'l'laiyaar temple where he was violently installing a Buddha statue earlier this year.
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US geopolitics prioritises engagement with genocidal Myanmar above accountability

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 September 2019, 23:29 GMT]
The US Establishment’s carrot and stick approach has resulted in selecting the genocidal military of Myanmar in the US-ASEAN joint naval exercise held recently in the international waters of Southeast Asia. The move comes just a few weeks after the USA banned Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief, his deputy and two brigadier generals from travelling to the USA over the crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslims. A UN fact-finding mission, which was led by Marzuki Darusman, released a report on Monday this week stating that 600,000 Rohingya remaining inside Myanmar face systematic persecution and continue to live under the threat of genocide. The Darusman-led mission also said it has a confidential list of over 100 names, including Myanmar officials, suspected of being involved in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, in addition to six generals it named publicly a year ago.
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SL Police, STF refuse Tamil devotees accessing Kachchatkodi hill-top for worship

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 September 2019, 21:08 GMT]
Tamil villagers from Kachchatkodi-Swami-malai village, which is located 18 km southwest of Batticaloa, complain that the SL Police and the Sinhala Special Task Force (STF) commandos discriminate them from worshipping their village deity of Murukan represented at the hill-top in the form of a ‘divine javelin’ (Saiva Veal). The occupying Sinhala police and commandos are also blocking them from conducting rituals for Naaka-thampiraan deity at the foothills. The STF is providing security to the Sinhala monks who have established a Theravada Buddhist temple. The hill-top with ancient Buddhist remains from the times of Tamil Nagas have been Sinhalicised and projected as Sinhala heritage in the island, the Tamil residents complain.
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India should change sterile attitude, IC must stop naming Tamil fighters as terrorists: Wigneswaran

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 September 2019, 23:03 GMT]
“There are no terrorists among us. Only those affected by State terrorism are among us. We ask the powers that be not to couple the names of our people with those who have been identified as fundamentalist religious terrorists. Our youth and others fought for a noble cause – the independence of their people. It is as a reaction to State terrorism that our youth resorted to arms,” declared Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the former chief minister of the North at the massive rally held in Jaffna on Sunday. Wigneswaran demanded India to change its ‘hitherto sterile attitude’ towards a more robust and judicious one. He urged the Sinhala and Muslim people to recognise the Tamils right to Self-Determination. The rally in Jaffna drew between 3,000 and 6,000 people and was a success despite the weather conditions and the rifts caused by various political actors including the SL Governor to the North.
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SL Police threatens Tamils for observing annual temple festival in Vavuniyaa North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2019, 07:09 GMT]
A group of SL police officers from the Nedungkea'ni station in Vavuniyaa North have been questioning and recording statements from the trustees of Vedukkul-naa'ri Aathi-linkeasvarar temple in Vavuniyaa North on Saturday and Sunday. Furthermore, the SL Police was making phone calls to selected people in the area, stating that a case had been filed against those who were actively involved in the temple festival that completed on Saturday. The trustees and devotees have ‘violated’ the SL Antiquities Ordinance by using a ladder to reach the hilltop, the SL police claims. The SL Police was demanding the removal of the ladder before 10:00 a.m. on Sunday.
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Foreign-funded ‘Sevalanka’ schemes Sinhala tourism in Tamil hinterland of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 September 2019, 23:10 GMT]
The ‘Sevalanka Foundation’ which operates with the hidden agenda of imposing Sinhala socio-cultural development on Eezham Tamils with the backing of countries like Norway is aiming at transforming Kudumpi-malai area in the hinterland of Batticaloa district into a Sinhala tourism hotspot, District Secretariat sources said. The outfit has proposed to convert the agriculture-dependent Tamil villagers to serve the Sinhala tourists in the name of ‘development’. Informed civil officials in the District Secretariat urged Tamil journalists and the civil society activists to expose the wrong intentions behind the scheme to the larger society. The Tamil diaspora should gain the ability to objectively confront the host countries that continue and promote genocidal ‘engagement’ despite repeated concerns expressed by the Tamils.
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UNF schemes Sinhalicisation as ‘development’ transforming Jaffna into ‘megacity’

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 September 2019, 16:40 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and SL Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera were visiting Jaffna during the weekend along with SL minister for Megapolis & Western Development, ‘Patali’ Champika Ranawaka, the secretary of Sinhala-Buddhist ultra-nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU). Mr Wickramasinghe was reciting the mantra of ‘development’ and was repeating the talk of ‘devolving more powers’ to the provincial councils through securing a majority in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. However, Mr Ranawaka, who is opposed to the concept of Sinhalese sharing political power with Tamils in a federal arrangement, was claiming that a ‘megacity’ project would be transforming the city into one of the four main economic hubs in the island. Furthermore, Ranawaka contended that the plan was part of an integrated ‘national physical plan’, which conceived at Battaramulla in Colombo.
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Tamil-speaking Veddahs confront large-scale land grab in southeast Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 September 2019, 20:49 GMT]
The settlement pattern of the Tamil-speaking aborigines, who were looking after their own administrative affairs in the southeastern sector of Trincomalee district has been severely disturbed after 2010, says Nadarajah Kanagaratnam, the chairperson of Kuveani community organisation from the village of Nalloor. The villages of Veddahs are now riddled with various demographic changes carried out by the Sinhala-dominated SL State and the encroaching settlements facilitated by a section of the Muslim politicians in the East. The latest land grab was carried out by MLAM Hizbullah, the former SL Governor to East. After the controversial politician was forced to resign from the portfolio, the aboriginal people entered back into their lands in the hope of regaining them. However, a group of settlers from the nearby Thoappoor village have started to threaten the indigenous people in August 2019.
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Colombo's departments abet large-scale deforestation and hunting in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 September 2019, 15:19 GMT]
Widespread logging of forest trees, large-scale alienation of forest lands and hunting of spotted and sambur deers, as well as local buffaloes, continue unabated amidst persistent ignorance and possible collusion with the SL Forest and Wildlife Conservation Departments as well as the SL Police. Local Councillor Kandiah Soundararajan, who is elected from Vaddk-ka'ndal in Maanthai West Divisional Council (Piratheasa-chapai/PS), has exposed the extent of the destruction when contacted by TamilNet this week. In the meantime, the law enforcement authorities of the unitary state mechanism in Colombo are systematically depriving the resettled poverty-stricken and landless Tamils. It is the local population, which constitutes a nature-loving-society with excellent human-environment relationships, as history has witnessed in the past, Tamil activists in Mannaar observed.
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SL Police bans playing devotional songs at Vedukku-naa'ri temple in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 September 2019, 20:48 GMT]
The SL Police from Nedungkea'ni police station has instructed the trustee board of Vedukku-naa'ri Aathi-Lingkeasvarar temple in Vavuniyaa North not to use loudspeakers to play devotional songs during the annual temple festival. The SL Archaeology Department started to claim the locality as coming under its purview last year in August and deployed the SL Police to block Tamil devotees from setting up a ladder to the hilltop. When the dispute went to the courts, the local community was allowed to proceed with the deity rituals without engaging in any construction work. This year, the SL Police has restricted the devotees even from playing devotional songs, commented Thamilchelvan Thurairajah, an elected councillor at the Civic Divisional Council of Vavuniyaa North.
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Sinhala military occupation deprives Tamil farmers accessing livelihood services in Paduvaankarai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 September 2019, 22:49 GMT]
The officers of the occupying SL Army’s 232 Brigade Headquarters, stationed at Tharavai near Kudumpi-malai (Thoppik-kal, Baron’s Cap) in the interior Batticaloa, are refusing to vacate from the irrigation and agrarian offices. Around 1,500 farmers who are organised in 25 organisations in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) DS Division are deprived of benefiting from the services of the public office due to the continued militarisation by the Sinhala army, the representatives of the farmer's associations said. The office buildings are used as the residential offices of the commanding officers of the SL Army. The offices are also used as resorts for the Sinhala visitors from the South.
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Activist women allege premeditated accidents targeting them

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 September 2019, 23:02 GMT]
Last week, an unknown motorcyclist hit the motorbike of a leading Tamil woman activist S. Chandraleela, who is one of the main organisers of Keappaa-pulavu continuous protest. 43-year-old Chandraleela was on her way to her house from Mullaiththeevu with her daughter seated on the bike. Both the mother and the daughter were thrown into the air during the crash. All those involved in the accident were admitted to Maagn-choalai hospital with injuries. However, the man who hit them has been either freed or transferred to another hospital in secrecy. The identity of the man being hidden from the records has raised serious doubts of the accident being a planned one, rights activists in Mullaiththeevu said. The SL military intelligence is capable of experimenting with different techniques from time to time, be it ‘white-vans’, ‘grease-devils’ or ‘intended-accidents’, they said.
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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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Sirisena’s promo on harbour ‘development’ in Jaffna reveals imminent Sinhalicisation threat

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 August 2019, 21:36 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has come up with a promotional video advertising the launch of the so-called development of a fisheries harbour at Point-Pedro in Jaffna. The video itself turns out to be the “proof of concept” of Sinhala colonisation of Tamil fisheries industry in the North. A similar project was abandoned at Peasaalai in Mannaar recently. However, the SL Governor in North Suren Raghavan is determined to speedily commence the project amidst the objections from the grassroots including the three fisher associations and two prominent colleges of Eezham Tamils in the area. SL President Maithiripala's promo video exposes the agenda by featuring the intruding Sinhala fishers in Point Pedro. The Asian Development Bank is abetting the genocidal project, branded as a mega port project.
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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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Regional OMP office in Jaffna opened in secrecy ahead of announced time

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 August 2019, 08:58 GMT]
The OMP office in Jaffna was secretly declared open ahead of the scheduled time on Saturday. The SL military also used to abduct their children in secrecy, commented the protesting families of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances in the past. The Chairperson of the OMP, Mr Saliya Peiris declared the regional office opened at 6:30 a.m., four hours ahead of the scheduled time to avoid the presence of the protesters. Meanwhile, Karu Jayasuriya (UNP), the speaker of the SL Parliament as well as SL Minister Mano Ganesan dropped their plans to grace the occasion as the protesting Tamil women had severely criticised the move in advance.
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