Eezham Tamils protest against continued military land grab at strategic Poonakari

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2016, 18:35 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has planned to grab further 3,087 acres of private and permit lands in the strategically situated Poonakari, which is situated to the northwest of Ki'linochchi at the entrance to Jaffna Peninsula, Jaffna Lagoon and its location facing the Palk Bay and the opposite coast. The landowners of 6 families and an Amman temple blocked SL Survey Department officials for the 4th time at Paraman-kiraay on Monday. Around 6,000 Tamil families, dependent on agriculture and fishing, live in the heavily garrisoned Poonakari division where more than 30,000 Sinhala soldiers are stationed.
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War-affected, poverty-stricken Tamil villagers complain of neglect in housing assistance

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2016, 23:35 GMT]
104 Eezham Tamil families, who have resettled in Isaimalaith-thaazhvu village, which is located 3 km southeast of Murungkan town along Mannaar - Mathavaachchi Road in Naanaaddaan division, complain that they are being systematically neglected in all the housing schemes reaching Mannaar district. The families, mostly dependent on animal farming or agriculture close to their temporary huts, live below the poverty line, and are among the poorest in Mannaar district. Their houses were either demolished or taken over by the occupying SL military and the notorious Special Task Force (STF) in February 1997 during the brutal military operation code named ‘Edibala’.
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Protest by dairy farmers brings EPC Minister, GA to inspect Sinhala occupation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 May 2016, 23:18 GMT]
After seizing around 16,000 acres of lands, which were officially allocated as grazing lands for the cattle in the Batticaloa district, more than 300 families of Sinhala colonisers from Polonnaruwa, Badulla and Moneragala districts have started to construct a Buddhist temple under the leadership of a former Sinhala policeman at Mayilaththamadu, which comes under Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district. The area was under LTTE administration during the times of war and peace until 2007. The occupying ‘Sri Lanka’ Army is having a artillery base near the new Buddhist temple, which has been put up after January 2016. The SL Government Agent of Batticaloa and Eastern Provincial Agriculture Minister inspected the illegal occupation as 259 Tamil dairy farmers started to boycott their daily supply of 3,000 litres milk to Milco from May 1st demanding immediate action.
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Maithiripala’s structural genocide targets Tamil cattle farmers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2016, 23:21 GMT]
Colombo’s Forest Department, which comes under SL President Maithiripala Sirisena’s Ministry of Mahaweli ‘Development’ and Environment, has been blocking Tamil farmers from taking their cattle to graze in the northern and eastern parts of Thivulaanaik-ku’lam, which is situated across the border of Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai districts in the East. Wealthy Sinhalese businessmen from Kurunegala and Gampaha districts have seized thousands of acres of public and forest lands to grow cowpea crop in large scale in the area, says T. Sivapatham, the president of Poaratheevup-pattu Cattle Farmers Association. Meanwhile, the SL Government Agent in Batticaloa is prioritizing the interests of Colombo’s business elite and the projects by foreign NGOs involving the employees in the public sector. Tamil farmers are being completely ignored in Batticaloa district, according to divisional civil sources.
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Emboldened by EU delisting, genocidal Sri Lanka bans Tamil fishermen from entering their lagoon

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2016, 11:13 GMT]
Christy Lal Fernando, the director general of Colombo's Fisheries Department, who was on a sudden trip on Monday to Mukaththuvaaram, situated at the mouth of Kokku'laay lagoon in Karaithu’raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district, instructed the local authorities to block the native 300 Tamil fishermen from engaging in fishing in the lagoon. He was citing Colombo's declaration of sanctuary. In the meantime 1,352 Sinhala colonisers brought from South by the occupying SL military are engaged in large-scale illegal fishing in the same lagoon. The latest move by Colombo to block Tamil fishermen has triggered wide-scale protests on Tuesday. Mr Fernando was using complaints from Muslim fishermen from Pulmoaddai as excuse to announce the ‘ban’, Tamil civil sources in Mullaiththeevu said.
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Sirisena's party rejects federalism, Sinhala mob in Italy wants Tamils to hoist ‘Lion’ flag

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2016, 16:59 GMT]
A group of Sinhalese carrying genocidal Sri Lanka's Lion flags protested on Monday against a sport event of Eezham Tamils at the city of Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy. The sport event was organised by the Eezham Tamil diaspora organisations to mark the Italian Freedom Day and to honour the pioneer of the Tamil freedom struggle, Pon Sivakumaran. The Sinhala mob was mobilised through posters that called ‘every Sri Lankan’ from Bologne to come to “Muandi Aiya's” shop to protest against the sports event organsed in support of the ‘Barbarous LTT’, according to a poster put up the mob, which was not even unable to write proper Sinhala, commented a Sinhalese who is close to Eezham Tamils. In the meantime, Mahinda Samarasinghe, a key Sinhala leader has described federal demand of Tamils as “unconstitutional” and as something that would strengthen “extremism”.
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Colombo's structural genocide targets Tamil village at Mahaweli delta in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2016, 22:28 GMT]
The current regime of Maithiripala Sirisena, who has been the minister of ‘Mahaweli scheme’ for several years now, is silently spearheading the occupation of thousands of acres of farmlands, both in the name of ‘development’ and through illegal settlements in Trincoamlee. The focal point of Sinhalicisation and militarisation during the former regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa was coastal Trincomalee, particularly the Champoor area in Moorthoor division. But, the regime of present ‘Mahaweli’ genocidaire has shifted the focus to larger plains of farmlands, 18 km south of Moothooor. The Tamil farmers from the ancient village of Kangkuveali recently narrated how they experience the structural genocide in a video interview to TamilNet. If the SL State and those who back it don't put an end to the structural genocide, another war would be inevitable, they warn.
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Tamil women complain increase of ethnic sexual harassment in public sector

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 April 2016, 19:57 GMT]
The successive regimes based in Colombo, unchecked by the absence of the political balance of power from the side of Eezham Tamils, have engineered the structural administration of public sector, by bringing in Sinhala males from South into leadership positions in the East. Tamil women employed in the public sector are being subjected to sexual harassments at working places. Also in the cases where Tamil-speaking males harass the female workers, Tamil women experience increased difficulties in taking forward the complaints to the Sinhala-dominated hierarchy in the public sector, feminist rights activists in Batticaloa told TamilNet.
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Road accidents involving occupying military escalate, jouranlists threatened

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2016, 17:10 GMT]
The increasing accidents and aggressive behaviour by the occupying Sinhala military is on the increase as witnessed this week in two accidents in Poonakari in the North and in Trincomalee. A 59-year-old Tamil mother and her 33-year-old daughter were killed Monday night near Vigneswara College in Trincomalee city when a speeding military vehicle crashed on their autorickshaw. The driver and another 33-year-old woman were rushed to hospital. At Poonakari in Ki'linochci district, a 23-year-old Sri Lanka Army driver of a military water bowser was killed and a civilian driver of a dump truck (Tipper) sustained injuries in the accident on Tuesday night.
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Village officers in Vanni protest against violent Sinhala colonists occupying strategic coast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2016, 23:04 GMT]
More than 40 Tamil Village (GS) officers in Vanni staged a protest on Monday in front of the District Secretariat of Mullaiththeevu condemning the occupying Sinhala military for assaulting the GS officer of Kokkuth-thoduvaay Mr Jeevaratnam Jesuratnam on Sunday, when he went to inspect the illegal occupation by Sinhala fishermen, who have been brought from South by the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka. The violent Sinhala military officers had also seized the identity documents from the Tamil GS officer. The Sri Lankan State is accelerating Sinhala colonization with the aim of permanently wedging the demographic contiguity of the northern and eastern provinces at Kokkuth-thoduvaay, a strategic village situated in Mullaiththeevu district. Colombo regime is deploying SL Navy, Army, Police and various ministries to carry out the structural and demographic genocide.
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Southern extremist groups influence Sinhala students at universities in North-East

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2016, 22:43 GMT]
Tamil academics attached to the Universities of Jaffna and at the Eastern University say they are worried about Sinhala extremist elements from South continuously influencing the Sinhala students at these universities. There is ethnic motivated patterns of suppressive and exclusivist tendency at the universities, especially among the Sinhala students who have a ‘good rapport’ with the occupying Sinhala military and police. However, the university administrations are reluctant to address the challenge at an early stage. They intentionally avoid making complaints about racially motivated crimes taking place within the university premises, the academic sources said. The violence that shocked the Trincomalee campus in March took place as the Eastern University administration maintained its reluctance for a long time despite repeated complaints from the Tamil students.
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Racist frenzy being whipped up in South against Tamils: ITAK youth leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2016, 21:19 GMT]
A section of the political forces among the Sinhalese in South is attempting to project the isolated event of discovery of mines at Chaavakachcheari in Jaffna as a threat with the intention of justifying and further accelerating military occupation in the North, said V.S. Sivakaran, the youth wing leader of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), condemning the political forces in the South and the Sinhala media for whipping up racist frenzy among the Sinhalese. The intention behind the projection by the Sinhala Establishment is to sustain the suppressive Sinhala military rule and to justify further militarisation, the youth leader from Mannaar said.
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‘Regime change’ didn't bring any change for Tamils: NPC Councillors, TNPF and ITAK MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2016, 15:18 GMT]
While R. Sampanthan, M.A.Sumanthiran and Mavai Senathiraja belonging to Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) were on a collaborating course with the Sri Lankan regime on the advice from Washington and New Delhi, ITAK Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sritharan, who has also been alleged of playing into the hands of the US Embassy, which got him to collaborate with M.A. Sumanthiran, went on record on Friday at a protest in Jaffna stating that he had no faith in the ruling regime and said the current regime has failed in building confidence and building peace with Tamils. Sritharan was protesting along with NPC Councillors and TNPF politicians in laying siege to the Divisional Survey Office at Thirunelveali in Jaffna.
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SL military refuses to release illegally seized lands at Pul-moaddai, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2016, 23:37 GMT]
In addition thousands of acres of agricultural lands that have been seized from Eezham Tamils by the Sinhalese in Kuchchave’li DS division in Trincomalee, the occupying military of genocidal SL State continues to keep around 500 acres of private and public lands. The SL military is refusing to release these lands, even for the purpose of a housing scheme for government employees, Tamil civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet. Pul-moaddai (meaning grassy pond), situated at a sandbar on the side of the Eastern Province of the North-East border, is not only a must location from the genocidal point of view, but is also a place of significant economic importance because of the ilmanite deposits found there beneath the white sand dunes.
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Role of The Netherlands abetting Colombo's cultural genocide questioned in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2016, 16:03 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has erected more than 20 Buddha statues in the Mannaar island to facilitate Sinhalicisation of the ancient urban port city of Eezham Tamils. As the SL military is engaged in consolidating its temporary structures with permanent walls in the recent days, the people were shocked to see the huge statues that have been erected inside the military fortifications across the district. At the same time, the SL military has already handed over a large area within the Dutch Fort to Colombo's Archaeology Department, which has been a key architect in conceiving and executing cultural genocide against Eezham Tamils. The Netherlands is about to launch renovation of the Fort through SL ‘Army and Archaeology’ paradigm. A huge Buddha statue raised by the SL Army is causing controversy in the predominantly Tamil-speaking city.
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Maithiripala accelerates structural genocide against Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2016, 23:47 GMT]
Maithiriapala Sirisene, the president of genocidal Sri Lanka, who visited his native district of Polonnaruwa last week, has vowed to ‘develop’ the villages that are being Sinhalicised along the border of Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa through ‘Mahaweli System B’, which is being accelerated according to his latest instructions. Hailing from Polonnaruwa, Mr Sirisena has been implementing a long-term Sinhalicisiation agenda within the System B, which is the largest of Mahaweli ‘Development’ programme, consisting of 75,441 ha., including 27,179 ha of irrigable lands.
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Attacked Tamil students in Trinco campus under pressure not to talk to media

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2016, 22:41 GMT]
The administration of Trincomalee Campus at the Eastern University has instructed the students not to talk to media. On Monday, the campus was temporarily shut down to avoid situation getting out of control. The administration has also appointed a three-member committee with the instruction not to bring out the racial motive behind the episode. The attacked students said they had complained for a long time about the hate crime tendency, but the university administration has ignored the early warnings. On Monday, the Sinhala students started to claim that the attack was in retaliation to ‘bullying behaviour’ from the Tamil students. The Tamil students from the Unit of Siddha Medicine have provided names of ten Sinhala students from the departments of Communication and Management to the Campus administration and the SL Police. No action has been taken against them, they said.
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Sinhala students assault Tamil students at Trincomalee campus of Eastern University

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 March 2016, 18:45 GMT]
Nine of twelve Tamil male students attending the discipline of Siddha Medicine at Trincomalee Campus of the Eastern University were brutally assaulted on Thursday evening by Sinhalese students from the two mainstream faculties at the campus. The attacked Tamil students were also blocked by the Sinhala students from getting medical treatment. The administration of the University has been subjected to political pressure in covering up the incident not being portrayed as an ethnic assault. Although the name of 10 identified Sinhala male students have been provided to the SL Police, there has been no action against them, the affected Tamil students receiving medical treatment at Nilaave'li hospital told TamilNet on Sunday.
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Fr Fontgalland sacrificed his entire life for downtrodden Upcountry people: Fr Jeyasegaram

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2016, 16:00 GMT]
Following the example set by the late Rt Rev Leo Nanayakkara OSB, the first Bishop of Badulla, who was a Sinhalese and was renowned for his committed actions among the downtrodden masses, Rev Fr Guy de Fontgalland, who was a Tamil from Jaffna, decided to work among the Upcountry Tamils, continuing the legacy of committed action grounded in grassroots development since the demise of Leo Nanayakkara in 1982. The late Rev Fr Guy de Fontgalland was preparing to launch a big project of planting 10,000 palmyra seedlings in the islets off Jaffna in 2017, said his close associate Rev Fr A.F. Jeyasegaram, the director of Neitha'lam, which is a diocesan center for fishing workers in Jaffna. Fr Jeyasagaram has known Sathiyapillai Guy de Fontgalland since his childhood till his demise on Monday.
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Maithiripala deploys ‘Mahaweli’, monks, military to grab Tamil lands in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 2016, 23:30 GMT]
The Tamil people, who are trying to resettle in their traditional villages in Poththuvil area in Ampaa'rai district complain that the continued presence of the occupying Sinhala military along the two sides of the main access road to Poththuvil Road threaten their resettlement. Tamil civil service officials observe a pattern of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena's so-called ‘Mahaweli Development’ ministry systematically deploying its departments to seize lands from Eezham Tamils in the same area. In the meantime, Sinhala Buddhist extremist monks and their operatives are seeking inroads to establish their temples in the villages where no Sinhalese are found citing they want to help Tamils to ‘confront’ occupation by Muslims.
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