SL Navy, Buddhist monks ‘harass’ resettling Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2015, 11:41 GMT]
Two Buddhist monks, who arrived in Champoor with Sri Lankan police escort on Sunday were telling the Tamil civilians present inside their lands, to collaborate with Colombo to establish the so-called Special Zone of Heavy Industries (SZHI) to bring ‘development’ to Champoor area. The Tamil people responded to them by stating that the people of the area should be given their lands back to them enabling them to sustain their livelihood as an agricultural society. Allowing the people of the region to evolve their own development should be the goal of a government claiming good governance, the people told them. In the meantime, Sri Lanka Navy, still occupying the lands near the 818 acres of lands being released, has been intimidating the resettling people by questioning their presence near the SL navy camp.
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New mantra of ‘hybrid courts’ in the game of geo-politics

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2015, 10:57 GMT]
The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) was condemning the new regime of Sri Lanka for appointing Major General Jagath Dias, the war-time commander of the abusive 57 division of the SL Military as the new Army Chief of Staff. At the same time, the HRW was urging the new regime in Colombo to “put into place an effective accountability mechanism with a significant international component.” The Tamil people should note the terminology being adopted in the global orchestration in narrowing down the ‘pressure’ on Sri Lanka into a domestic process, Tamil activists for alternative politics in Jaffna cautioned on Sunday. Tamils should pay particular attention to how the HRW and other rights outfits are trying to justify a ‘domestic‘ process while the USA and China are competing with each other in building strategic partnerships in the Indian Ocean Region, the activists further said.
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Sri Lanka bans Remembrance events at Mu'l'livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2015, 17:03 GMT]
The occupying State of Sri Lanka has banned the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members in Mullaiththeevu from taking part at the memorial events to be held at Mu'l'livaaykkaal with the participation of the public, according to an order issued by the SL courts in Mullaiththeevu following a police complain, Deputy Speaker of NPC Antony Jeganathan told TamilNet Saturday. The latest move is a gross violation hurting the sentiments of Eezham Tamils, Mr Jeganathan said. A similar order has been issued to the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), the news sources in Jaffna said. The Chief Minister of NPC, C.V. Wigneswaran had officially invited all the parliamentarians and councillors from the Northern Province to attend the memorial event at the Government Mixed School at Mu'l'livaaykkaal East at 10:00 a.m. on 18 May.
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SL military steps up surveillance during Genocide Memorial Week

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2015, 23:38 GMT]
Following SL Minister Karu Jayasuriya's ‘warning’ against those trying to commemorate fallen LTTE Heroes, the intelligence wing of the occupying Sri Lankan military has stepped up monitoring Tamil activists and politicians who mark commemoration events during the genocide memorial week this year. The intelligence operatives of the SL military have been photographing and videoing those who organise remembrance meetings and gatherings organised by Tamil activists and politicians, said NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam, a key force in the NPC behind the process of passing the Genocide Resolution. In the meantime, Sri Lankan Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) responsible for the Northern Province police permissions was yet to respond to an application to mark commemoration for the slain civilians at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on 18 May.
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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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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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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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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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SL military operatives threaten distributors of Tamil weekly

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 March 2015, 23:14 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan State is waging a propaganda that it has allowed free media operations in the island, the SL military intelligence of Maithiripala Sirisena's regime has silently stepped up monitoring and harassment on the Tamil weekly, Ithu Nam Theasam, a pro TNPF paper which has gained popularity among the serious Tamil readers in the recent times, especially after the regime change. Three operatives, who came in two motorbikes were following the distributor of Ithu Nam Theasam at Sivanakar in Ki'linochchi on Tuesday. The squad stopped the distributor at a place where there was no civilian witnesses and seized the papers from him issuing a threat on his life, the distributor told media.
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Understanding accountability: international investigation on outlook crime

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2015, 00:31 GMT]
The historic resolution unanimously passed by the Northern Provincial Council on Tuesday has demanded urgent international investigation on the historically continued genocide against Eezham Tamils in the island. Presenting the resolution, the NPC Chief Minister, Justice Wigneswaran was elucidating on the deception and genocide carried out for decades by successive governments of Colombo. He observed that such an investigation would make Sinhala people to see the truth and would help getting justice. Equally important or more important is an international investigation on the adamant ‘outlook crime’ of certain powers that fundamentally contributed to the genocide, especially in the recent decades. The former investigation alone will not bring in justice without the latter and change in the ‘Sri Lanka’ outlook of the concerned powers.
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Genocidal Sri Lanka insists full continuation of military occupation of Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2015, 16:20 GMT]
“We, as a government, will never remove any of the military camps established in the North and East to ensure security of the Tamil people as well as other people,” claimed Ruwan Wijewardene, the new Sri Lankan State Minister of Defence, who visited the Palaali headquarters of the occupying military in Jaffna. “We are not prepared to reduce the number of troops under any condition,” he said. Ruwan Wijewardene was addressing the SL military officers and soldiers calling them as ‘war heroes’ who ended the ‘frightening terrorism of Tigers’. Wijewardene is on a three-day trip to North and East, visiting the officers and soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) to boost their morale, informed military sources said.
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Sivanesan Memorial Hall declared open in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2015, 18:40 GMT]
A memorial hall has been declared open in Jaffna on Saturday in commemoration of Maamanithar K. Sivanesan, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian who was assassinated in a targeted claymore explosion by the Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on 06 March 2006 inside LTTE-controlled Vanni. Sivanesan worked tirelessly to improve the conditions of the deprived sections of population among the Eezham Tamils for a long time. He played also a key role in the democratic mobilization of the Tamil masses at the grassroots level.
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UK minister cites ‘other stakeholders’ in furthering Geneva investigations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2015, 20:35 GMT]
The visiting British Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire in Jaffna said that there was no change in British position on proceeding with Geneva-based war crimes investigations. But, there are also other stakeholders behind the Geneva discourse, the visiting British minister told the Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran. In the meantime, Conservative and Labour MPs who debated the developments in the island of Sri Lanka on Wednesday that took place in British parliament have recognised the crime against Tamil civilians as genocide and have called for continuation of Geneva-based investigations as a necessary step for reconciliation. Yet, the British politicians' framework continues to harp on ‘unitary Sri Lanka’ and ‘minority Tamils’, British Tamil activists lamented.
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SL military in Batticaloa continues to exploit families returned from Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2015, 22:15 GMT]
The Sri Lankan State and its military intelligence in Batticaloa district continue to harass 1,080 families that survived the genocidal onslaught in Vanni in 2009. The families from Batticaloa returned to their native villages situated in 10 of the 14 Divisional Secretariat divisions in the district. The DS Secretaries in these divisions have also been instructed to refuse assistance to these families by the genocidal military. There is no change in the harassments on the ground despite the ‘changes’ taking place in Colombo, the families said. Even those affected by the recent floods have been neglected in the humanitarian assistance. Women-headed families continue to complain about targeted sexual harassments by the occupying Sinhala military in Batticaloa. Two of the 10 divisions where the families have resettled, Koa'ralaippattu South and Koa'ra'laip-pattu North are worst affected.
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Resettlement meaningless without guarantee against structural genocide in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2015, 23:22 GMT]
Governments may come and go, but the State of Sri Lanka gets strengthened in its genocidal project whether there is war, peace or talk of ‘change’, comment the resettled women of Mu'raa-oadai village, situated 5 km south of Vaazhaich-cheanai town in Batticaloa district. 400 houses have been destroyed. Two temples are damaged. Almost all the resettled families are women-headed households, poorest of the poor. The women of the village say: “It is only when we have permanent security from future genocide, we can breath the air of freedom.” The SL military has vacated last year from the village. But, a Buddhist statue and a ‘sacred’ Bo tree are still threatening the villagers who are haunted by the mere existence of the symbols of structural genocide.
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6-year-old child wounded in SL military assault on civilians in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2015, 08:25 GMT]
A 6-year-old child was rushed to Ki'linochchi hospital at serious condition on Sunday when SL military soldiers at Paarathi-puram assaulted the Tamil civilians who were protesting against SL military violence on a tailor shop where a 46-year-old man from Paarathi-puram was brutally assaulted by a Sinhala soldier. The SL soldiers attacked the public when the public had gathered in front of the SL military camp demanding the arrest of SL soldier who went amok on the tailor shop. But, the SL military, which has been suppressing and exploiting the poverty-stricken resettled villagers, chose to assault the public in front of the military base.
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Sampanthan announces decision to back Sirisena in SL presidential elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 09:25 GMT]
Despite strong opposition from various sections of Eezham Tamils against giving explicit support to any of the two main contestants in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential elections, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan has decided to support the Opposition Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena. Mr Sampanthan announced the stance of the TNA Tuesday morning at a media briefing held at Hotel Jananaki in Colombo. Mr Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran have been blamed for striking a clandestine deal with Chandrika Kumaratunga on backing Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Ex-LTTE members forced to vote for Rajapaksa at postal voting in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2014, 21:17 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has forced around 4,000 former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are under the captivity of the so-called Civil Security Division (CSD) in Vanni, to vote for the incumbent SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa through postal voting, which concluded on Wednesday. In the meantime, a special unit of SL military personnel, led by the officers handpicked by the SL presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has been monitoring the rank and file of the SL military stationed in the North. A section of the Sinhala soldiers, who have been advocating against the re-election of Mahinda Rajapaksa have been subjected to investigations by this special unit, informed sources told TamilNet.
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Colombo stages 'excavation' of massgrave in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 December 2014, 23:16 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military on Tuesday brought down a large number of journalists from Colombo and staged an 'excavation' of an alleged burial site in Puthukkudiyiruppu of Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, describing the site as a place where Tigers had slain prisoners of the SL military persons. As there were no skeletal remains at the alleged site, the TID changed its version and claimed that there were traces of burnt bodies from 2006 at the site.
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Norwegian doctor vows to challenge Israeli travel ban to Gaza

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 21:45 GMT]
Israel has recently blocked Mads Gilbert, professor and head of Emergency Medicine from the University Hospital of North Norway, from entering Gaza. After facing criticism from several holds, including the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of Israel changed its explanation that the Norwegian physician was no longer allowed to enter Israel. The outspoken trauma surgeon, who witnessed 51 days of Israeli onslaught on civilians during its 100-day war with Hamas in Gaza earlier this summer, internationally exposed the slaughter of the innocent civilians, stating that Israel was committing “state terrorism at highest levels.” Gilbert has vowed to fight against any restriction on his movement into Gaza.
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