Genuine boat refugees fear for life, send SOS from Indonesia

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2012, 20:57 GMT]
53 Eezham Tamil boat refugees, seeking asylum in Australia but driven to Indonesia, are on a fast-unto-death protest on-board their vessel for the past four days, against the decision of the Indonesian authorities to hand them over to Sri Lanka Navy. The refugees claim that they will be persecuted, even killed, if handed over to the SL Navy. On Tuesday, they sent SOS messages to their families, relatives and journalists in the island to urge the international human rights groups to address their plight. A university student representative in Jaffna confirmed that there were genuine refugees needing international protection in the boat. The refugees heading for Christmas Island of Australia were taken to Indonesia on 28 August by that country’s navy after their boat ran out of fuel in mid sea.
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Jayalalithaa orders exit of Colombo footballers, suspension of stadium official

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 18:13 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa on Sunday gave orders to send back a football team of Sri Lanka’s Royal College in Colombo that had come to play ‘friendly’ matches in Chennai. The matches had been organised through an arrangement between the College and an official of the Reserve Bank of India, and the team had already played a match on Friday with the Customs Department of the Central Government, at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai. Slamming the Government of India for allowing the Sri Lankan team to play matches in Tamil Nadu, the Chief Minister directed the Chief Secretary of the State to suspend an officer in-charge of the Nehru Stadium of the state government who had given oral permission for the venue. Department level inquiries are initiated against the official.
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Paramilitary group unleashes violence in Batticaloa, Ampaa'rai against TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2012, 22:43 GMT]
Paramilitary operatives of Pillaiyaan group, contesting the forthcoming election to the Eastern Provincial Council on the ticket of Colombo's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have been attacking the candidates and supporters of the Tamil National Alliance. The poll to elect 35 councilors to the EPC is to take place on September 8.
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Basil Rajapaksa dispatches 1000-member squad to Trincomalee to ensure UPFA polling in PC elections

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2012, 21:37 GMT]
More than one thousand persons have arrived in Trincomalee district under the instruction of SL presidential sibling and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa to manipulate the polling in the forthcoming provincial elections in the East in favour of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), informed sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet Friday.
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Colombo expands diplomatic missions in India

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2012, 20:14 GMT]
The cabinet of Rajapaksa regime has taken decisions to open a new Consulate General Office in Kolkata, appoint Honorary Consuls in Hyderabad, Lucknow and Thiruvanandapuram, and to expand the existing missions in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. The new mission in Kolkata will have consular jurisdiction over West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and the 7 Northeast states. While the High Commission in New Delhi and the Consulate General office in Mumbai will get additional staff to deal with economic and commercial matters, the Deputy High Commission in Chennai will be posted with two additional Tamil-speaking officers, the PTI said Friday.
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Worsening SL economy drives Sinhalese, Muslims to take boats to Australia

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2012, 20:24 GMT]
While Tamil families, especially the former members of the LTTE, subjected to harassments and genocidal sexual abuse by the occupying SL military choose to flee the island seeking security in Australia with their families on board the fishing vessels, Muslims from Katpiddi and Sinhalese from Negombo have also chosen to flee the island in recent days due to worsening economic conditions in the island, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet Thursday. The SL Navy found Muslims from Katpiddi of the North Western Province among the 61 persons who were arrested in the seas off Chu'ndikku'lam in Vadamaraadchi East, Jaffna, in the early hours of Wednesday. In the meantime, media sources in Colombo said that four Sinhala SL Navy personnel were among those who had sought asylum in Australia in recent days.
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Genocidal sex abuse of ex-LTTE female cadres becomes routine in North and East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2012, 08:29 GMT]
The genocidal Sri Lanka military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils is routinely engaged in repeated sexual abuse of the former female members of the LTTE to see them pregnant by the Sinhala soldiers, in the model of former Yugoslavia, news sources citing a number of cases and medical professionals told TamilNet. While Radha D’Souza views the Tamil struggle “as one of the most significant movements since the end of the Vietnam War,” the former US Deputy Secretary of State and a current ICG trustee Richard Armitage in Oslo last year was harping on the unawareness of the world on the happenings in the island. The genocide is meant to be so by the architects, and the Akashi visit last week viewing ‘rehabilitated’ female cadres was another effort to keep the on-going genocide under the carpet, political observers in the island said.
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Double standard in clearing UXOs endangers resettlement in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 August 2012, 23:03 GMT]
Leftover unexploded cluster munitions keep exploding every day in the suburbs of PTK, where the resettling people have embarked upon the dangerous exercise of clearing their lands. In a propaganda drive to close down the Menik Farm camp in Cheddiku'lam, Vavuniyaa, Sri Lanka military operated de-mining officers have given green signal for resettlement in selected suburbs of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) of Mullaiththeevu district, while the lands appropriated by the occupying SL military for militarization and Sinhalicisation in the same area have been carefully de-mined with external aid. At least four cases of big explosions have been reported in Vanni and Jaffna this week with two people seriously injured.
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Indian people would get democracy voice only when India severs Lanka relations

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2012, 07:39 GMT]
An instruction from the New Delhi establishment’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sent to the TESO organisers on 11 August shows that peoples of India cannot have a democratic voice on the question of Eezham Tamils unless India severs diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka. While retracting from its earlier ban on the use of the word Eelam, the MEA letter ‘advised’ the TESO to “ensure that the conference does not issue any declaration or outcome that calls into question in any manner the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of any foreign country with whom India has diplomatic relations.” This is a serious curb on the universal democratic rights of the peoples of India. Why the TESO organisers who picked on Ms Jayalalithaa didn’t condemn New Delhi for this violation and for not giving visa to many participants, critics in Chennai asked.
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Another brutal attack sends Tamil political prisoner to coma

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2012, 06:51 GMT]
Following the attack on the Eezham Tamil prisoners in Vauniyaa resulting in the death of two and injury of many, details of the case of a new attack in the Galle prison last week, leaving a prisoner in coma status and others suspectedly injured, have started trickling out now. The Tamil prisoner in coma is identified as 34-year-old Sundaram Satheeskumar, father of a 10-year-old child. The victim was arrested at his residence in Kodikaamam in 2008 by the occupying SL military, handed over to the SL police and was kept in the New Magazine prison in Colombo without any charges filed against him. Last week, on 21 August, he was transferred to the Galle prison.
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US, Indian appeasement weakness makes Beijing, Colombo to play old game

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2012, 04:59 GMT]
China will be providing US $ 100 million for permanent ‘housing schemes’ of the Sinhala military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils. The Chinese offer to set up accommodation and infrastructure facilities in the SL military camps in the North and East, is in line with the long-standing ‘national security’ argument of Sri Lanka, despite pressure from Western nations and India to reduce the military presence in the North and East, said Colombo media reports on Sunday. Colombo’s campaign is timed for mounting pressure from Tamil Nadu against New Delhi’s training of Sinhala military and for the impending Colombo visit of Chinese defence minister on Wednesday. Genocidal Colombo’s endless game has to be stopped somewhere by united and decisive action of the world, rather than competitive appeasement, commented South Asian affairs analysts.
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New Delhi resorts to further ‘mischief’ by passing responsibility

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 August 2012, 10:45 GMT]
While New Delhi establishment’s foreign ministry points to defence ministry over the “mischief” issue raised by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa, about India giving training to Colombo’s military personnel in Tamil Nadu behind the back of Tamil Nadu government, the defence ministry sources reportedly have said that any decision on this would have to be taken by the Indian Prime Minister. Knowing the weak and guided personality of the Indian PM on matters related to Eezham Tamils, the establishment in New Delhi is playing further mischief, informed circles said. Those who are ultimately responsible for the genocidal policy of imperialism followed in the island have to be exposed and they have to be made answerable to the people of Tamil Nadu and peoples of India, political activists in Chennai said, appreciating the stand taken by Ms Jayalalithaa.
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Akashi comes to ‘listen’ to people in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 August 2012, 21:37 GMT]
Former Special Envoy of the Tokyo Co-chair to the Peace Process between the SL government and the LTTE, Yasushi Akashi, visited Jaffna and Ki'linochchi on Friday to listen to the views of the religious leaders in Jaffna and to review the humanitarian assistance Japan has provided to the welfare of the resettling civilians and former combatants in Vanni. “Architects of the genocidal war cannot be mere listeners. They are answerable to the affected people and to the world. There is no foreign establishment involved in the island that doesn't really know what is happening. Therefore, the boldness with which the grassroot aspirations of the nation of Eezham Tamils has to be politically translated in a befitting way should never be compromised in the island and in the diaspora,” said a social activist in Jaffna observing Mr Akashi's visit.
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Resettlement showcase brings in further miseries to uprooted Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 August 2012, 20:29 GMT]
250 families recently brought to Chivanakar village in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) division of Mullaiththeevu district complain that they have been let down by the SL authorities that rush to vacate the Menik Farm in Cheddiku'lam, Vavuniyaa. Promising the uprooted proper resettlement to the uprooted Tamils in their own village, 141 families were brought from Menik Farm to Chivanakar. Another 101 families who were residing with their kith and kin elsewhere also joined them when their village was announced opened for resettlement. Now, these families are struggling in their own village without any shelter and have sought refuge under the trees. There are no basic facilities. Most of these families, who are below the poverty line, demand at least temporary huts and basic facilities before the rainy season begins in a few weeks from now.
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Building defying SL governor inauguration receives crude oil attack in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2012, 01:27 GMT]
The colonial military administration of Colombo on Wednesday allegedly deployed its ‘white van squad’ to pour crude oil on the new building of Valikaamam South (Chunnaakam) civic body before it was scheduled to be declared opened by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The colonial military governor of North, Maj Gen (retd.) G.A. Chanadrasiri has been demanding that it should be he who should decide on the inauguration of the building. However, the building was declared opened as scheduled by T. Prakash, the head of the civic body of Valikaamam South. The grassroots politician of the TNA also declared that the office would start to function from Thursday in the new premises.
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Sri Lanka's coal-power politics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 August 2012, 23:54 GMT]
Environment and health issues arising from coal dust and erosion from the coal-fired power plant in Nuraichchoalai in Puththa'lam and the plant under construction in Champoor continue to dog the affected villagers in Sri Lanka. Compounding the problem, frequent breakdowns of power plants worsened by draught induced reduction of hydro-power, and the resulting power cuts are drawing public anger, reports from Colombo say. The Chinese designers accused Sri Lanka's plant managers for the overuse of the plant without scheduled maintenance, while calls for investigations into mismanagement of the Electric Utility and alleged misconduct of officials in the financing and contract offers increased, Colombo media said.
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Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission distorts figures of missing persons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 August 2012, 22:48 GMT]
The ‘Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission’, run by the Sri Lankan State in Colombo, has begun to conceal and twist the figures of complaints registered by its regional offices in the North and East. While announcing that a ‘high level’ delegation from Colombo is scheduled to visit Jaffna in the coming days to ‘investigate’ the registered complaints of missing persons since the year 2006, Mr. S. Kanagaraj, an official at the Jaffna office told media Wednesday that only 472 people were reported missing after the year 2006. However, informed human rights activists in Jaffna said that the office had registered 1,500 to 2,000 cases since 2006. There were at least 599 cases registered by the office in the year 2006 alone, they further said.
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SL military blocks resettlement in suburb of PTK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 August 2012, 22:16 GMT]
Landmine clearing unit of the occupying Sri Lankan military has instructed forty Tamil families who resettled recently at 9th ward of Mallikaith-theevu village in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) division in Mullaiththeevu district, to vacate from their lands after the SL authorities had allowed the families to resettle earlier this month. The families were among 96 families that were hurriedly brought down to Mullaiththeevu from Menik Farm camp in Cheddi-ku'lam in Vavuniyaa, promising resettlement in Mallikaith-theevu, Puthukkudiyiruppu West and Puthukkudiyiruppu East. On the one hand Colombo is rushing to showcase that it is closing down the Menik Farm camp. But, on the other hand the occupying military of Colombo is blocking resettlement in the land of Vanni genocide. The SL military still considers the area as its High Security Zone (HSZ), relocated civilians said.
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Land appropriation by Colombo in Trincomalee district goes unabated

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2012, 04:34 GMT]
In the latest land appropriation of the Colombo government to change the demography of the Trincomalee district, 94 Tamil families are forced to lose their properties that are located 9 km off north from Trincomalee city at Iluppaik-ku'lam GS division. The affected families have made representations to the Divisional Secretary who promised that the matter would be brought up to the notice of the SL Government Agent (SLGA) who is a Sinhalese. The SLGA is a retired Major General who is behind the planned appropriation of lands of Tamils in the district to settle down Sinhalese from the South.
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Village, jungle adjacent to Mu’l’livaaykkaal grabbed for Sinhala militarisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2012, 01:27 GMT]
2,500 acres of land by the side of the Nanthik-kadal lagoon, comprising of the village Keappaa-pulavu and nearby jungle, where the last stages of the Vanni war was fought and prohibited weapons were allegedly used against the LTTE by the genocidal Sinhala military, is now permanently grabbed for use of the occupying military, news sources in Vanni said. The grabbed land in Mullaiththeevu district is divided between Sri Lanka’s Army and Air Force and the original villagers of 700 families detained from resettling are forced to accept lands away from their village. After the TESO conference last week, The Hindu, using an interview of Dr. Wikremabahu Karunaratne, tried to soft-pedal the issue of the annihilation of territorial sovereignty of the nation of Eezham Tamils as a mere “Move to gift Tamil resources to MNCs.”
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