Occupied Tamil Eelam mobilised to mark Heroes Day amidst SL military threats

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2017, 23:45 GMT]
Braving various harassments coming from the occupying Sinhala military and the SL Police, the people of occupied Tamil Eelam have fully mobilised to mark Tamil Eelam Heroes Day (Maaveerar Naa'l) in a big scale for the first time since 2008 in their occupied homeland. One of the first Heroes Cemeteries (Maaveerar thuyilum illam) at Ka'l'lik-kaadu, Nedungkea'ni in Vavuniyaa, which was created by the LTTE during the times of Indian occupation, has been renovated by the people, news sources in Vanni said. Similarly, one of the last Heroes Cemeteries at Iraddai-Mu'l'livaaykkaal, where the war dead Tamil fighters were buried during the final days in 2009, has also been prepared by the people. Red and yellow decorations have been put up at all the locations of Heroes Cemeteries except those being still occupied by the SL military.
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Empowering genocide-victims, particularly women, is nation-building: diaspora writer

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 November 2017, 20:16 GMT]
A France based Eezham Tamil diaspora writer, Parani Krishnarajani, who has been studying sexual violence unleashed on Tamil women and children in the aftermath of the genocidal war, says rape was not only used as a tool of war or as tool of terror, but as a tool of genocide with multi-pronged effects. The effects are well-recorded but not the intentions and how they were set in motion to achieve the end results that we are witnessing today in the society. The genocidal intent seems to vary from suppressing the memories of valour of Tamil women from the times of Pirapaharan’s LTTE and to the destruction of their familial set-up, nullifying all positive social transformations that had been achieved during the times of the armed struggle. The nation of Eezham Tamils should empower the victimised Tamil women on the ground through evolving familial institutions for them.
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SL military intelligence, Sinhala Police step up surveillance on Heroes Remembrance Committees

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2017, 23:35 GMT]
The intelligence wing of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna has been warning the people, particularly those taking part in the self-mobilised Heroes Day Facilitation Committees not to display Tiger emblem or LTTE uniformed photos of Tamil fighters who have sacrificed their lives. Although the pressure has shifted away from not marking the day during the Rajapaksa regime to not using the symbols associated with the LTTE, the SL military intelligence is more active in logging the details of those being active in the self-mobilised facilitation committees attached to each Thuyilum Illams (Heroes Cemeteries) in Jaffna peninsula and in Vanni. Armed Sinhala policemen have been posted around police posts. Posters that appeared in Vadamaraadchi in connection with marking Heroes Day have been removed by the SL police.
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Veteran journalist of Tamil Eelam passes away at 87

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2017, 16:07 GMT]
S.M. Gopalaratnam (SMG), the most senior journalist to serve the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle with a prolific journalistic career in the Tamil-language press with more than 50 years of continuous service, passed away at the age of 87 at his residence in Batticaloa on Wednesday. Born in Jaffna and based in Batticaloa, Mr Gopalaratnam joined Virakesari in Colombo as a proof-reader in 1953 and rose to the level of sub-editor in the same year. SMG joined Jaffna-based Eezha Naadu daily in 1961 as one of the founding editorial board members and served the paper for 20 years covering the non-violent struggle of Eezham Tamils. He narrowly escaped from an arson attack by the occupying Sinhala police who burnt down the office and machinery of Eezha Naadu the very night the Jaffna Public Library was put to ashes in 1981.
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Jaffna students demand US and UN agenda-setters to declare PTA detainees as political prisoners

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2017, 23:44 GMT]
More than 1,000 Tamil students from across the faculties of Jaffna University as well as the students from the College of Education, Jaffna Technical College and High Tech institute took to the streets in Jaffna on Tuesday demanding the main intervening actors of the International Establishment to recognise the Tamil prisoners detained under the so-called Prevention of Terrorism Act as Political Prisoners. They handed over open and urgent appeals addressed to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the President of UNHRC and to the US Permanent Mission for UN in Geneva, which has been behind the drafting of the ‘consensus’ resolution with the SL State in Geneva Human Rights Council in 2015 and with postponing a final evaluation by two more years in 2017. The student leaders handed over the appeals through the UN Residential Office in Jaffna and the American Corner in the city.
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Factoring political solution more important than addressing human rights: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 November 2017, 21:33 GMT]
Not only did the Sri Lankan regime won the war against the Tamil liberation force, it might even win the propaganda war if the problems of Tamils in the island are exclusively focused on human rights to the neglect of the fundamental question of a long lasting political solution, commented Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, told TamilNet on Monday. “Yes, human rights must be addressed, but in the larger context of the Tamil political question. It would make no sense just to address the human rights issues without factoring the political solution,” the longtime advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils said. Focusing primarily on human rights might be an irritant to the Sri Lankan regime, but it may prefer it simply because it diverts the attention from the need of a political solution of Tamils, he further said.
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SL Police reluctant to act against SLFP goons in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2017, 17:19 GMT]
Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, a former Tiger commander turned paramilitary operative of the occupying Sinhala military in 2004, has illegally seized 25 acres of farmlands that belong to 16 private landowners at Thadaa'nai in Pearillaa-ve'li of Koa'ra'laippattu South (Kiraan) Division and transferred the lands to his sister, the affected landowners complain. The SL Police is not prepared to act against the encroachers, the landowners said. Mr Muralitharan who became a deputy minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet in 2009 and later joined Rajapaksa's SLFP, has appointed his sister as the head of SLFP Women Wing in Batticaloa.
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MCC should not insult Tamils by inviting ‘Sri Lankan’ envoy: Deputy CM of Penang

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 November 2017, 20:55 GMT]
The Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia Professor P. Ramasamy, who is a long time advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils, on Wednesday condemned the Malaysian Ceylonese Congress (MCC) for inviting the SL High Commissioner to Malaysia to grace a biennial dinner, which is being organised on November 25, 2017. The Chief Minister of Penang has also been invited to deliver a keynote address at the dinner. “I am not sure whether the Chief Minister of Penang would be accepting this invitation. However since the Penang state government has taken a strong stand against the Sri Lankan government for its abuse of human rights among Tamils, it is unlikely that he will attend,” the Deputy CM said.
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CBK's so-called reconciliation faces acid test from North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2017, 16:21 GMT]
“There are 150000 soldiers in the Northern Province. It is amusing that the Attorney General wants to protect three State Witnesses by transferring the case from Vavuniya to Anuradhapura,” said Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister and former Supreme Court Judge C.V. Wigneswaran in a letter addressed to former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike (CBK), who is the Chairperson of Colombo's so-called ‘Office for National Unity and Reconciliation’ urging the latter to intervene and transfer the cases of fasting Tamil political prisoners back to Vavuniyaa or to Jaffna High Court. “Your intervention, Madam Chandrika, at this point of time would ensure understanding and good will among our people if you choose to be empathetic,” Justice Wigneswaran wrote in his letter to CBK.
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Paramilitary operative employed at Cooray's secretariat in Jaffna harasses public servants

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 October 2017, 18:46 GMT]
A former EPRLF (Varathar wing) paramilitary operative turned ‘sanitary worker’ at the secretariat of SL Governor to North, 30-year-old Sivarasa Sivakulan alias Murali, has been harassing Tamil public servants who have been sympathetic to the kith and kin of the struggling political prisoners, Tamil journalists and activists who have been supporting the elected Chief Minister of the NPC. The SL operative has handed over details of Tamil public servants, who took part in the black flag protest and demanded the SL Presidential Security Division (PSD) to punish them through SL Presidential Secretariat instructions to relevant ministries. The harassment has already begun with instruction of transfers being sent to North, informed sources in Colombo said. A Ministerial Security Division (MSD) officer in charge of SL Governor's security is also involved in the latest operation.
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20 Tamil organisations to lay siege to SL Governor's office on Friday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 October 2017, 23:48 GMT]
Twenty Tamil organisations, including a number of political parties, grassroots organisations and civil groups, have collectively decided on Tuesday to lay siege to the office of the Sinhala colonial Governor to North, Reginald Cooray, in Jaffna on Friday. The SL State should honour the demands of the hunger-striking political prisoners in Anuradhapura prison as a matter of urgency before SL President Maithiripala Sirisena's scheduled visit to Jaffna on Saturday to take place, the groups said in a joint statement. In addition, there should be a political decision on unconditional release of all 132 Tamil political prisoners, who are being detained or imprisoned across the island. The time has come for Eezham Tamils to demonstrate their mainstream opinion through democratic protests, the organisations said. The hunger strikers are continuing their protest for the 17th day on Wednesday.
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SL constitutional discourse seen coupled with ‘Vision 2025’ policy of genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 October 2017, 23:00 GMT]
The World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have influenced the Colombo-based unitary system to prepare ‘Vision 2025’, a policy which gives a face-lift to the ‘development paradigm’ of genocidal Sri Lanka. The drafters of SL Constitution, engineering ‘reforms’ in the unitary system, are also the agents serving the external masters. The new constitution is going to be the bed-rock for many more so-called reforms and Acts to be enacted in future to permanently lock the island as a single-unit into the bandwagonism of the West. New Delhi has already been locked in the grid as a ‘Strategic Partner’. The interim report on the constitutional discourse should be seen coupled with ‘Vision 2025’, launched in September jointly by SL President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
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Colombo brings Sinhala private partnerships to wage structural genocide in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 October 2017, 23:21 GMT]
Occupying Colombo has alienated 600 acres of farm lands in Ki'linochchi district to a private Sinhala trader from South in the name of ‘development’ and bringing ‘investment’ to the north, civil sources in the district said. A Cashew farm is to be established in the lands being alienated through a central ministry in Colombo. The occupying SL military is already running cashew farms in more than 1,500 acres of lands along the A-32 highway. Colombo has started to occupy new lands for Sinhalicisation of the occupied homeland of Eezham Tamils through what it calls Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives, the sources further said.
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Protests widen in Jaffna as hunger-striking political prisoners’ health deteriorates

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 October 2017, 22:11 GMT]
Both the governing and the opposition parties at the Northern Provincial Council have urged immediate action from Colombo on the burning issue of Tamil political prisoners, who have been on a fast unto death for the past 11 days at Anuradhapura prison. On Wednesday, the students, academics and non-academic staff at the University of Jaffna staged a protest for 2 hours demanding SL Attorney Department in Colombo not to transfer the cases of Tamil political prisoners away from the courts in the North and East, where their cases could be heard in Tamil language. In the meantime, S. Thavarajah, the opposition leader at the NPC, who represents the EPDP, described the demands of the Tamil prisoners as a reasonable. “They were only demanding their cases to be heard in front of Tamil-speaking judges in their native language in the North, which is a constitutionally recognised right,” he said.
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SL Navy groomed by Washington destroys Tamils’ houses as US naval ship docks at Trinco port

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 October 2017, 23:44 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala navy of genocidal Sri Lanka was destroying the houses of uprooted Eezham Tamils in Champoor, Trincomalee, to obtain concrete material to fortify its newly-built administrative headquarters for the training of the ‘Marine Battalion’ of the SL Navy. On Sunday, the resettled Tamils in Champoor had to confront the Sinhala navy sailors to block them from dismantling the walls of a Tsunami settlement with 75 houses, which has already been plundered of the roofs and doors by the occupying SL military. The SL Navy has managed to rob three tractor loads of concrete material before the people mobilised against the move, residents in Champoor told TamilNet on Monday as US Navy Ship Lewis and Clark arrived at Trincomalee port to take part in what the SL Navy was claiming as first of its kind joint training taking place between the SL and US Navies in the island.
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Diaspora youth organisations re-affirm Tamil sovereignty struggle on Thileepan remembrance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 September 2017, 19:32 GMT]
The spirit of Eezham Tamil national struggle was given a gust of life through the remembrances held in the occupied homeland of Eezham Tamils this week as the people from all walks of life gathered in their hundreds commemorating the resolve and sacrifice made by Lt. Col Thileepan, who sacrificed his life exposing the Indian geo-political agenda in 1987. The political message coming from those who were addressing the Nalloor event was based on Thimphu-principle centred federal discourse. They were also seen urging the Tamil diaspora to adopt the unworkable ‘federal’ demand on the ground to counter the ‘unitary’ paradigm of genocidal Sri Lanka. However, new grassroots Tamil organisations in Tamil diaspora have awaken to the realities and expressed their resolve towards Vaddukkoaddai Resolution based Tamil sovereignty struggle, particularly at the federal State of Switzerland.
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Tamils vow to mobilize against unitary design, mark Lt Col Thileepan’s memorial with reverence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 September 2017, 22:38 GMT]
Hundreds of people attended 30th Remembrance Day of Lt Col Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan) on Tuesday in front of Nalloor temple in Jaffna, where the LTTE’s Jaffna Political Head sacrificed his life through a 12-day long fast-unto-death in 1987. The hunger-strike by 24-year-old Thileepan, without food and water, exposed New Delhi’s partnership with Colombo following the Indo-Lanka Accord. Three decades have elapsed, but the external Establishments in ‘strategic partnership’ are still bent on gaining inroad into the Indian Ocean Region island through backing the same genocidal unitary system of Sri Lanka. Eezham Tamils will not succumb to these designs and will continue to resist any move aimed at sustaining the unitary system until the national question of the nation of Eezham Tamils is resolved in a principled way, proclaimed the activists and politicians who spoke at the event in Jaffna.
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Political prisoners resume hunger-strike as Colombo transfers hearings to Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 September 2017, 19:22 GMT]
Three Tamil political prisoners who earlier abandoned their hunger-strike following assurances that their cases would be heard in Vavuniyaa High Court, resumed their protest on Monday as they learned that their cases were being transferred to Anuradhapura High Court on the instructions from SL Attorney General's Department. Mathiyarasan Sulaxan, Rasathurai Thiruvaran (Chengkan) and Ganesan Tharshanan who have been detained without their cases being heard for 8 years are now being prosecuted with manipulated witnesses produced by the SL ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division.
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Sinhala colonisation stepped up, genocidal system cannot be transformed through ‘consensus’

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 September 2017, 23:32 GMT]
It is not possible to reform or reconfigure the genocidal State system in the island through so-called consensus engagements with the Colombo Establishment either internally or externally, commented a leading civil official in Batticaloa revealing details of a new Sinhala colonisation scheme silently spearheaded by the Mahaweli Ministry of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. “As far as Tamils are concerned, any consensus programme coming from outside towards the SL State should be viewed by Tamils as a consensus forged among the Establishments for continued strutural genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils,” the official, who would be risking the SLAS job if publicly identified, told TamilNet. The official revealed how Mahaweli ‘Development’ Ministry is now reviving a colonisation scheme which was originally proposed under Rajapaksa regime in 2008 and later abandoned in 2010.
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Champoor Tamils’ security, livelihood threatened by US military partnership with genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 September 2017, 22:14 GMT]
The occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka has put up 25 new coastal sentry posts, 75 meters at distance from each other along the coast of Champoor in Trincomalee. The naval build up taking place since August 2017 has raised security concerns among the native Eezham Tamil fishermen, who are also caught up in anxiety over fishing restrictions occurring again. The fortification has also come amidst increased reports of surveillance and harassment on resettled Champoor Tamils in the recent times. The military installations in Champoor were being beefed up as foreign trainers, particularly those from the Seventh Fleet of the US Navy based in Japan and South-Korea, use to visit Trincomalee to train the marine corps of genocidal Sri Lanka, informed sources in the East port city said.
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