Tamil Nadu activist urges attention of global Tamils on ‘Red Sanders Massacre’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2015, 22:16 GMT]
The poverty-stricken Tamils in the border areas situated between Tamil Nadu State and Andhra Pradesh State in India are being systematically exploited by smuggling rackets run by gangs from two upper echelons that have been running fiefdoms in Andhra Pradesh in the past and that seek to control the political power in the State. The exploited victims are subjected to indefinite imprisonment and massacres deploying the rule of law in India and the police force in the AP, as it has been exposed in the recent massacre of 20 daily-wage workers on 07 April. The global Tamil community has a moral bound duty to protest against the exploitation as the crime involves the global markets in Eastern Asia, says writer, journalist and Tamil activist Aazhi Senthilnathan in an interview to TamilNet on Saturday.
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New regime deploys military against Habeas Corpus applicants: NPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2015, 21:19 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military intelligence has stepped up harassments against the applicants of Habeas Corpus cases being heard in Vanni, says Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan, who has been harassed twice by the operatives of the Sri Lankan military intelligence when she went to witnesses the cases being heard. Under the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the SL courts were not prepared to hear these cases. The new regime, on one hand, wants to showcase to the outside world that the SL courts are attending these cases, but on the other hand it deploys the military intelligence against the applicants. “I have personally witnessed such harassment in recent days,” Ms Ananthy told media in Jaffna this week.
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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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Sirisena's Commission ‘demonstrates’ deceptive investigations in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2015, 23:02 GMT]
A Sri Lankan military intelligence officer was present inside the hearing hall at Kalmunai in the Eastern Province when the SL Presidential Commission on Missing Persons held its hearings, which were chaired by Mr Maxwell Parakrama Paranagama, said Selvarajah Kanesh, the president of the organisation representing the families of the abducted and missing persons in Ampaa'rai district in an interview to TamilNet on Tuesday. In the meantime, Village officer (GS) in Aalaiyadi-vempu was deployed by the SL authorities to instruct the victims to appear in front of the Commission if they wanted to receive 100,000 SL rupees in return for accepting death certificates of the persons registered as missing following their appearance in front of the Commission. A large number of the victims have boycotted the sittings.
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Sirisena's regime protects corrupt SL minister from Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2015, 23:29 GMT]
Rishad Bathiudeen, the notorious Sri Lankan minister who has been unleashing communal hatred in Mannaar under the previous regime, continues to be a minister in the new regime of Maithiripala Sirisena. Mr Bathiutheen has been promoting and protecting the criminal Divisional Secretary (DS) of Maanthai West, Manickavasagar Sriskandakumar, to appropriate ‘public lands’, which had been properly allocated to the people during the times of the LTTE. As a favour in return for appropriating these lands for his voters, the SL minister backed the DS to grab some lands for himself and a collaborating Village Officer (GS). Mr Sriskandakumar and T. Sivanesan, the GS, were allegedly complicit in ordering the assassination of social activist K. Nakuleswaran last November. Now, their personal appropriation of lands have been exposed, the people of Ve'l'laang-ku'lam say.
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Bisokotuwa, Biso-uyana

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2015, 21:19 GMT]
The water releasing structure (of the tank)

The royal park or the anointed queen's park
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Money allocated to prevent attacks by wild elephants didn't reach Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2015, 19:34 GMT]
At least 27 people have been slain by wild elephants that have been brought from South into the jungles in Batticaloa district by Colombo government's Department of Wildlife Conservation after the entire district has been brought under the SL military control, according to District Secretariat sources. In the meantime, money allocated for protective measures against the wild elephants by the SL Economic Development Ministry of the previous regime, has not reached the district, TNA parliamentarian P. Selvarasa has complained to the SL Government Agent in Batticaloa.
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Missing Tamil journalist: octogenarian parents urge international investigation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2015, 23:09 GMT]
Eight years have passed since 37-year-old Tamil journalist Subramaniam Ramachandran was arrested by the occupying Sinhala military at Kalikai Junction in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna. One month after the SL military ‘abduction’, France-based media watchdog, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) stated in March 2007 that it was in a position to affirm that the Sri Lankan military participated in the arrest of journalist Mr Ramachandran, who was the Vadamaraadchi regional correspondent for newspapers Valampuri and Yaazh Thinakkural. His 85-year-old father and 83-year-old mother are still languishing without knowing what had happened to their son. Ramachandran's nine and twelve-year-old children have been expecting the return of their father for 8 years, the aged grandparents said in a video interview to TamilNet urging global attention on the plight of their missing son.
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Colombo stages ‘deceptive resettlement’ in isolated pockets within military zone

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2015, 23:38 GMT]
The uprooted people from Valikaamam North, who were disappointed to see that their residential lands not released as promised by the Colombo regime, gathered on Friday at Vasaavi'laan MMV to discuss the next course of action. The civic representatives from Valikaamam North complained that the SL military wants to maintain the former High Security Zone as Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) while selectively allowing Tamil civilians into isolated pockets surrounded by military cantonments and business establishments run by the SL military within the SMZ. In the meantime, Non Governmental Organizations have also conveyed their reservation to the SL Government Agent in Jaffna in sending their employees into these pockets, informed civil sources at the District Secretariat of Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Liberating Champoor is fundamental to Tamils' existence in East

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2015, 23:53 GMT]
Liberating Champoor is liberating Tamils from permanent subjugation in Trincomalee district, say the Tamil people of Moothoor East in Trincomalee. From the average Tamil families languishing in the camps to experts among Tamils coming from Moothoor East, having in-depth knowledge of their region and the politics, are unanimous in their opinion that both the Indian Coal Power Plant, for which lands are allocated 7-8 kilometres close to the residential area in Champoor and the so-called Special Economic Zone where the Sinhala rulers in Colombo are aiming for Sinhala colonisation and the SL military which is going to clear more lands close to the coastal strip for maintaining its military cantonment are going to be the main challenges of the future existence of Tamils in Moothoor East.
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Colombo manipulates land figures in Champoor to retain lands

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2015, 11:02 GMT]
Champoor region in Trincomalee district has seen displacement since 1990. But, Colombo’s officials have been instructed to use the voter’s registry of 2005 in deciding those ‘eligible’ for resettlement in Champoor. Several families were uprooted within the 15 years. Further, the people demanding resettlement are asked to hand over ownership documents. Many families have lost their documents during the times of the war due to displacements. The uprooted people who are able to document their ownership to lands within the occupied ‘Economic’ zone will receive alternative lands elsewhere is the position of the SL Governor in the East. Through such manipulations, the figures of lands belonging to people within the occupied ‘Special Economic Zone’ have been manipulated down to 138 acres, the people complain.
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NPC Chief Minister hands over Genocide Resolution to UN Special Rapporteur

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2015, 22:20 GMT]
The Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Justice C.V. Wigneswaran has handed over the NPC resolution on Tamil genocide to the visiting UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, who met him in Jaffna on Wednesday. Almost all the representatives including the Chief Minister, Bishop of Mannaar and the representatives of the Tamil Civil Society Forum have categorically denounced any effort by the UN to sanctify domestic investigations, informed sources said. Mr Pablo de Greiff declined to respond to questions by the journalists. The UN Special Rapporteur has also urged the Chief Minister not to release the details of their discussions to journalists, informed NPC sources told TamilNet.
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UNP wants to continue geopolitical occupation of Champoor

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2015, 23:46 GMT]
Colombo's Governor to the Eastern Province, Austin Fernando, who was the SL Defence Secretary under the UNP government during the Norwegian mediated peace process, is now defending Colombo's occupation of the so-called ‘Economic’ zone in Champoor as demarcated by the Rajapaksa regime, informed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) circles in the East told TamilNet on Tuesday. Talks between the TNA and the SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe on resettling civilians in Champoor failed to produce any positive outcome. In the meantime, Mr Fernando is opposed to release the lands from the occupied ‘economic’ zone. The uprooted Tamils are being told to expect alternative lands from the SL military occupied zone, civil sources in Trincomalee said. In the meantime, a geo-political deal is being worked out involving a foreign power, informed sources told TamilNet.
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Priests blame SL military for desecration of Catholic ashram in Vasaavi'laan

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2015, 23:35 GMT]
Catholic priests who inspected the 90 acres of released lands in Vasaavi'laan East (GS Division of J/244) in Valikaamam North, Jaffna, say that proper resettlement is not feasible without getting the remaining residential and agricultural lands released. The access road, cut off by the SL military should be restored, they said. The Roman Catholic school and the main church of the village are still occupied by the SL military. The first indigenous contemplative congregation (Ashram) of the Catholic Church in Asia, has been released. But, it is fully ruined. The entire building has been robbed of everything, except the walls, Catholics priests in Jaffna said. TamilNet publishes a short video of the first visit by a section of Catholic priests to the convent of the Rosarian Sisters (nuns) in Vasaavi'laan East.
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SL military harassment continues to target ex-LTTE members in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 2015, 23:11 GMT]
Former LTTE members who met the touring Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe at Ki'linochchi on Sunday told the SL premier that the occupying Sinhala military was harassing them even after the so-called regime change in Colombo. SL military intelligence operatives continue to interrogate them, they complained adding that the SL soldiers were threatening the families by frequent inspections. The wives of former LTTE members were being harassed after their husbands leave for work, Mr Wickramasinghe was told. However, the SL Prime Minister was using his trip to encourage the occupying SL military to continue the genocidal occupation of the Tamil homeland, informed sources in Jaffna and Vanni told TamilNet.
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Colombo continues to block uprooted Tamils from resettling in Poththuvil, Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2015, 23:49 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military and Sinhala officials belonging to SL Forest Department and SL Archaeology department continue to block hundreds of uprooted Tamil families from resettling in their own villages situated along the border of Poththuvil Divisional Secretariat in Ampaa'rai district. Mr T. Kaliaiyarasan, a councillor of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) told TamilNet on Saturday that 485 families have been blocked from resettling in their residential and agricultural lands. The new regime in Colombo is also blocking the people from accessing these lands, he said.
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Growing nexus between India’s corporates and diplomatic minds

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2015, 20:13 GMT]
Ms. Nirupama Menon Rao, a former foreign secretary of the New Delhi Establishment, has been appointed on Thursday as an independent director of the board of an Ambani-led media company that owns CNN-IBN and CNBC in India, according to an Associated Press report on Friday. Mr Mukesh Ambani the second richest Indian, heads the petrochemicals to telecoms corporate, Reliance Industries Ltd. Sponsored by this Ambani conglomerate, The Observer Research Foundation (ORF) was vocal in supporting Rajapaksa as well as the Colombo-centric State in the island. Ms Nirupama Menon Rao served as New Delhi’s High Commissioner in Colombo (2004 - 2006) and later became Foreign Secretary (August 2009 to July 2011), before going as New Delhi’s ambassador to Washington – all during the NSA tenure of MK Narayanan and Shiv Shankar Menon.
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New regime should demonstrate attitudinal change, says Bishop of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2015, 23:16 GMT]
Whatever the step the new president of Sri Lanka is taking, seems to be too slow and is beyond the expectations of the affected people in the North and East, the Bishop of Batticaloa Rev. Dr. Joseph Ponniah told TamilNet in an interview this week. The new government should demonstrate that it possesses the ability to take bold steps such as the appointment of non-military governors. What is mostly needed now is an attitudinal change on the part of the Colombo government. Even today, whenever someone raises the issues of the affected people in the North and East, the government leaders in Colombo seem to brush off the critiques as coming from ethno-nationalists. This attitude is one of the main problems, the Bishop of Batticaloa said.
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While UN charges ISIS for genocide, SL military gets space for exoneration

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2015, 23:25 GMT]
While deferring the report on Sri Lanka, the UN Human Rights Office acting in sharp contrast called on the UN Security Council earlier this month to refer the ISIS to International Criminal Court, charging the ISIS for genocide committed against Yezidi people in Iraq as well as for crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilians including children. Obviously the contrast comes from the fact that the genocide of Eezham Tamils was determined by the USA and India, conducted by a military needed by the both, and was allowed by the UN. The regime change in Colombo is yet another time and space tactic to exonerate the genocidal Sinhala military and to use it as anchor for the furtherance of the original designs of the ultimate culprits, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics, citing recent reports coming from Colombo.
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Report unearths more facts on UK’s role in Sri Lanka’s counter-insurgency

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2015, 23:50 GMT]
Facts are evidence used to build a truth, which is a very fluid thing. The truth Phil Miller has set out to prove is that “the British State colluded with the Sri Lankan State in its counter-insurgency operations against Tamils since the 1980's,” says Dr N. Malathy, a key member of NESoHR and the author of ‘A Fleeting Moment in My Country’. Phil's latest report, “Exporting Police Death Squads” identifies a person, the late Jack Morton, his career path, and his report, “Morten report”, which was produced for Sri Lanka’s counter-insurgency operations against Tamils. The so-called Morton report is still kept secret by the British State, Phil Miller's research has revealed.
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