Up-country origin Tamils most affected among uprooted in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 January 2018, 15:09 GMT]
166 families, most of them poverty-stricken Tamils of Up-country origin, who lived with self-respect in Vanni until 1996 doing farming after they ended their centuries old plantation life after state-sponsored pogroms against Tamils in the island in 1977 and 1983, are now again transformed into people doing menial work in the local fishing industry in Peasaalai, Mannaar. The families are living at Chi'ruth-thoappu village which is located on Mannaar-Thalaimannaar Road as they had lost their lands and farms in Vanni to occupying SL military. The families displaced to Mannaar in 1996 and were residing in an open refugee camp operated with the support of UNHCR at that time. While majority of the uprooted people had vacated from the camp, 166 families were unable to resettle due to the war and as their original lands in Vanni were being seized by the occupying Sinhala military.
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Occupying Colombo harasses war-affected families in Madu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 January 2018, 17:18 GMT]
Around 300 war-affected families from the five districts of North who have been resettled at 2nd Mile Post (Ira'ndaam-kaddai) from Madu Road junction along the road to the Holy Shrine of Madu complain of harassments coming from various departments under the central ministries of occupying Colombo, the Sinhala police, particularly the STF and the military intelligence of genocidal Sri Lanka. The villagers say they are living in an open prison, which is being subjected to repeated interventions by the Sinhala officials of the SL Forest Department, who claim to protect the forest from illegal logging, the Wild Life Department falsely blaming the villagers of hunting deers and peacock, Geological Department claiming to protect the soil from illegal sand scooping and the SL Archaeology Department which is in the forefront of Sinhalicisation deploying heritage genocide against Eezham Tamils.
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Sinhala colony schemed with expansion of Buddha temple at Punaa'nai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 January 2018, 22:24 GMT]
A small worship place with a Buddha statue, which was left behind by the occupying Army of genocidal Sri Lanka in 2016, has now been expanded into a big Buddhist temple establishment at 121st Mile Post on Colombo - Batticaloa Road in Punaa'nai East in Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division. The expansion has taken place in an accelerated phase in December 2017. The jungle area without any civilian settlement has been selected for Sinhala colonisation and the Buddhist vihara establishment has become the anchoring point, Tamil civil sources in Batticaloa North said. In the meantime, more than 150 Sinhala families have been settled near Punaa'nai Railway station three years ago. The settlement near the railway station was also commenced with the establishment of a similar Buddhist vihara.
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Karuna paramilitary appropriates pastureland in Paduvaan-karai for electoral exploitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 January 2018, 21:42 GMT]
Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, a paramilitary leader who has been collaborating with the Rajapaksa regime in the past, is again deploying violence and various intimidations, now against a section of dairy farmers from Chiththaa'ndi in Batticaloa district. In an attempt to woo voters for his political party from his native village of Kiraan, he is grabbing public and forest lands to convert these into agricultural lands for farmers, who had distanced from him since his betrayal to the Tamil cause in 2004. Paramilitary personnel carrying weapons have shot and killed cows belonging to Chiththaa'ndi farmers who are using the disputed area as pastureland for their cattle. 200 acres of lands have already been seized at Paalaik-kaaddu-veddai, which is situated close to Mayilaththamadu in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South division.
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Sinhala Buddhicisation stepped up in Kumpu'rup-piddi of Trincomalee North

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 January 2018, 22:48 GMT]
The Divisional Secretary of Kuchcahve'li administrative division in the North of Trincomalee district has come under pressure—direct harassment as an informed civil source described it—from the SL Presidential Secretariat in Colombo this week. The harassment is meted out on Mr P Thaneswaran after he had questioned the legality of intruding Sinhala Buddhist monks, who fenced off a public bareland at Kumpu'rup-piddi East on 02 January. Kumpu'rup-piddi, a traditional coastal Tamil village with findings of pre-Christian pottery sites, probably from protohistoric period, has been subjected to systematic Sinhala Buddhicisation as well as corporate exploitation by the occupying Sinhala State, especially after the genocidal war on Vanni in 2009.
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Colombo prepares to seize entire hill-top of Maththa'la-malai in Kooniththeevu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 January 2018, 23:14 GMT]
The Archaeology Department of occupying Colombo has instructed the SL Police Officer-In-Charge of Champoor, Trincomalee, that the entire hill-top of Maththa'la-malai in Kooniththeevu, including the traditional Murukan temple of the village deity of Tamils, should be considered as Sinhala Buddhist site of archaeological heritage, according to an informed source close to the SL Police.
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Sinhalicsiation threat looms again at Madu Road Junction in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2018, 19:02 GMT]
The Administrating Priest of the Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Madu in Mannaar, Rev Fr S Emilianuspillai, has expressed serious concerns over the deteriorating level of militarisation of Madu Junction area despite repeated complaints from the Madu Church to the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena over the past two years. The SL military has transformed the Madu Road Junction, an area with spiritual significance into an amusement and business site by operating a restaurant and conducting parties at the locality, the Catholic residents of the area have complained. “The Army check point at the entrance to the Holy Shrine is a distraction and the main Army Camp at 6th milepost has been developed and appears like a small city by itself,” the Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of The Rosary noted in his letter to SL President.
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Occupying Sinhala military steals contracts, employment from Tamils in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 January 2018, 21:24 GMT]
Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake, the present commander of the occupying Sinhala Army of genocidal Sri Lanka is trying justify the overwhelming presence of the SL soldiers in the country of Eezham Tamils by claiming that one third of the soldiers were being deployed for construction work in civil sector. But, in reality, the Sinhala military is stealing the contracts from the firms of Tamils and is depriving Tamils of their employment. Ultimately, the SL military has seized the control of the entire market in the Tamil homeland from farming to construction, civil officials in Jaffna said. On the one hand, the unitary SL State is suppressing the Northern Provincial Council without allocating required funds for necessary development and rehabilitation work of the war-affected province, but on the other hand, it is waging a propaganda against the NPC as being inefficient, they further commented.
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Sinhala Air Force, Navy compete with occupying Army in seizing Tamil lands in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 January 2018, 21:55 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) is deploying at least 16,720 acres of public lands in Vanni, which have earlier been taken over by the Forest Department of genocidal Sri Lanka. The SLAF controls 8,500 acres of lands in Ampa-kaamam, 3,500 acres from Karippadda-mu'rippu to Ira'nai-madu and 2,200 acres in Keappaa-pulavu, where uprooted Tamil villagers are demanding de-militarisation and proper resettlement. In the meantime, The SL Navy base known as ‘SLNS Gotabaya’, which comes under the so-called Eastern Naval Area (ENA), has been officially allocated with 671 acres despite repeated protests from private land owners. The lands being allocated to SLNS Gotabhaya in Mu'l'livaaykkaal East also contains crucial evidences and traces of genocidal onslaught against Eezham Tamils in 2009 where the final onslaught took place in May 2009.
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Another stupa erected at controversial Buddhist vihara in Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2018, 21:10 GMT]
Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, an extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk, who has been constructing a controversial Buddhist vihara establishment at the private lands of Eezham Tamils in the strategic Kokku'laay, which links the Northern and Eastern provinces, has put up another Buddhist stupa at the locality in recent weeks, Tamil officials at Karai-thu'raip-pattu division said. The monk is fully assisted by Sinhala soldiers who are deployed in civil clothes. Despite repeated complaints and interim orders coming from local and provincial authorities, the monk is continuing the construction with the backing of Colombo government, occupying Sinhala military and the extremist Buddhist Power Force (BBS). Mr Manivannathas, the Tamil owner of the land has once again sought help from the public to stop the construction work, but says no-one is coming forward to take up his case.
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Elder generation activists prepared to sacrifice lives to win Ira’nai-theevu resettlement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2017, 23:44 GMT]
The uprooted people of the twin islets of Ira’nai-theevu, located 12 nautical miles from the western coast of Vanni, have been waging a continuous protest for more than 8 months since 01 May 2017. They have been demanding resettlement in their native islets, which lie facing the Palk Bay. 8 years have elapsed since the end of genocidal war, the occupying Sinhala Navy is still adamant in its refusal to release the occupied residential, livelihood lands and the fishing coast which belonged to more than 2,500 people comprising at least 740 families before displacement. “We hoped that we could resettle in our village and celebrate 2018 New Year. But, we were deceived. If this situation continues after 01 January, we will have no other option than advancing our peaceful protest by proving our determination through sacrificing our lives even if it is necessary,” say the protesters.
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Colombo has nothing else than deception, where is last remedy, ask families of enforced disappeared

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2017, 21:06 GMT]
The entire Colombo state system and the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the occupying military, have only come up with deceptions instead of doing anything meaningful to trace the whereabouts of those subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the SL military and its paramilitaries. At this juncture, what is the last remedy and from where we should seek answers, asks Mrs Amalaraj Amalanayaki, one of around 4,000 families from Batticaloa district searching for their loved ones. In its latest deception, the Colombo establishment has deployed ‘Economic Development Officers’ with ‘English Only’ forms, in which the people are asked to put their signatures leaving the remaining work to the EDO officials, she said referring to a data-collection that has been issued by the so-called Office of the Missing Persons (OMP).
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Families of enforced disappeared mark 300 days of rotational protest in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2017, 18:46 GMT]
The kith and kin of enforced disappeared Tamils on Wednesday marked 300 days of their rotational protest, which they have been staging in front of Vavuniyaa Post Office with the demand of seeking answers from the SL State on the whereabouts of their family members who were handed over to the SL military in front of the families at the end of war in Vanni in 2009. The protesting mothers said they had been deceived by the SL State, particularly its president Mr Maithiripala Sirisena, who has been making public relations stunts aimed at international opinion through entertaining them with meetings in the past. None of the assurances given by Mr Maithiripala were fulfilled, they said.
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Enduring psychological disaster of families of enforced disappeared conveyed through film

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 December 2017, 21:57 GMT]
“Uru” (Trance), a short film shot in Batticaloa by a native Eezham Tamil cast and crew from the island and which was inspired by the stories of long enduring sufferings of the enforced disappeared families, has been acclaimed with global recognition from the Best Short Film Competition in California in September. Subsequently, it also won the award for 2017 Best Human Rights Short Film at the London Eye International Film Festival. The story writer and director of the film, 49-year-old Gnanadas Kasinathar, narrates the depth of psychological disaster as witnessed by him on the ground. Behind every act of structural violence and discrimination against the Tamils, there is a deep-studied psychological phenomenon, carefully hidden by the SL State mechanism, the artist says narrating the examples in a recently recorded interview with TamilNet in London.
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Colombo Establishment accelerates multi-frontal cultural assault on Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2017, 22:29 GMT]
The people of the island of Mannaar and the mainland constituting a fine balance of Tamil Catholics, Tamil-speaking Muslims and Tamil Saivites, have been living in harmony with each other. They have been more or less oriented towards an inclusive and secular Tamil nationalism. But, all sections of them are now sensing a systematic and multi-frontal assault coming from the Colombo-centric Sinhala establishment on their culture and collective Tamil orientation, activists across various communities in Mannaar say. The recent trend is witnessed in the attitudinal change among the Sinhala tourists being witness in the recent weeks. The visitors from South, unlike earlier are pre-occupied with renovating the Buddhist statues that have been left behind by the Sinhala military and in promoting the Buddhist temples in the Tamil-speaking district.
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Kiḷuvai-nāṭṭi, Kaṉṉāṭṭi, Kal-nāṭṭiṉa-kuḷam, Kannaṭṭiya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The place where Kiḷuvai trees are planted (to mark the boundary)

The place demarcated by stones erected (to mark the boundary)

The tank of the place in where the boundaries are set by erecting border stones; or the tank where a stone pillar or post has been set

The place demarcated by stones erected (to mark the boundary)
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Truth, justice can only come through international intervention, say protesters in North-East

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 December 2017, 17:45 GMT]
“As the world prepares to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the most meaningful action that the UN and the international community can take vis a vis Sri Lanka is to apply concrete pressure on the Government to take concrete steps to trace the fate of our loved ones and hold those responsible for their forced disappearance. Otherwise Human Rights will remain for us an unrealized value, full of rhetoric and of no practical relevance to our plight,” said the appeal from the families of enforced disappeared in Batticaloa district on Sunday. The appeal was addressed to the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. Protests were staged in Jaffna in the North and in Batticaloa in the East by the families of enforced disappeared from all the 8 districts of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.
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SL Intelligence harasses ex LTTE members, warns against contact with UN rapporteurs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 December 2017, 22:38 GMT]
Three different intelligence agencies of occupying Colombo are simultaneously harassing former LTTE members in Vanni on contacts they were having or expected to have in the nearest future with thematic special procedure mandate holders of the United Nations Human Rights Council, ex-LTTE members who have been grilled by the SL intelligence agencies in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet this week. The notorious ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ (TID) investigators, SL State Intelligence Service (SIS) which is the official intelligence agency of the SL State and the intelligence wing of the occupying SL military have been contacting the ex-LTTE members in recent days inviting them for ‘conversations’. The intelligence officers have issued veiled threats claiming that they were aware of those getting in touch with the UN Human Rights system.
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US Pacific Command complicit in Colombo’s structural genocide against Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2017, 21:36 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala navy’s Vidura training base is situated in Champoor in the Trincomalee district of the Eastern Province. The Sinhala navy has seized 3,200 acres of lands for the naval training base. The US Pacific Command is directly involved in upgrading the SL Navy with a marine force through its training sessions in Trincomalee. SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has upgraded the Sinhala militarisation through upgrading the 178 acres of SL Naval base into 3,200 acres of modern training base of the occupying SL Navy which is being groomed by the US Pacific Command through military-to-military training in Trincomalee. Now, the Sinhala navy is chasing for more lands in Champoor, the Rural Development Society representatives in Champoor said vowing to protest against the US Embassy in Colombo unless their demands were met by the Colombo government.
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Colombo’s deceptions on Tamil political prisoners continue unabated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 December 2017, 15:18 GMT]
Reginald Cooray, the SL Governor to North and the officials of the SL Presidential Secretariat in Colombo have systematically misled the families of the three Tamil political prisoners along with NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam, who was negotiating with the SL President on their behalf, legal sources in Jaffna said. The prisoners were on a fast-unto-death for 38 days objecting their case being transferred to Anuradhapura court, where it was to be addressed by a Sinhala judge. The SL Governor and the officials of the SL Presidential Secretariat had ‘advised’ Mr Shivajilingam and the families of the prisoners to lodge an appeal against the transfer of the case to Anuradhapura in the Appeal Court of Colombo and had promised that the SL Attorney General would be cooperating with transferring their case back to Vavuniyaa by not attending the hearings at the Appeal Court in Colombo.
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