Court in Jaffna dismisses SL military claim on Tamil memorial site at Theeruvil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 22:18 GMT]
District Court of Point Pedro in Jaffna on Wednesday dismissed the claim by the Sri Lankan military that the land, which the Urban Council of Valveddith-thu’rai (VVT) had chosen to build a public park at Theeruvil was a property that should belong to the SL military. Legal sources in VVT said the civic body could now proceed with building the park which is situated at a key memorial site, where three significant monuments stood in remembrance of key LTTE leaders and commanders who sacrificed their lives under the occupation of Indian and Sri Lankan militaries and civilians massacred by the Indian military at VVT in 1989.
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Reports of disappearances surface in wake of Sri Lanka CHOGM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 November 2013, 19:54 GMT]
A 35-year-old Tamil activist, who was actively involved in mobilising support to the victory of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the Provincial Council elections, has been reported missing since Friday in Ki'linochchi. Meanwhile, in Jaffna, an alert public apprehended two culprits, allegedly operated by the occupying Sri Lankan military, when the squad attempted to abduct a 21-year-old Tamil girl in broad daylight on Hospital Road in Jaffna on Monday. When the public caught the two Sinhala-speaking operatives, tens of occupying Sri Lankan soldiers and policemen protected the squad and assaulted the civilians, who had caught the abductors. The fate of another woman recently abducted by a similar squad at Punnaalaik-kadduvan in Jaffna is not known.
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Uprooted Tamils in Jaffna brave harassment to protest militarisation land grab

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 November 2013, 16:04 GMT]
Amid prevailing intimidation, threats and blockade by the occupying Sri Lankan military and its intelligence operatives, the uprooted people of Valikaamam North in Jaffna on Tuesday launched a protest at Thellippazhai, demanding resettlement in their own lands. The organisers have vowed to continue the protest till 18 November to get their demands across the foreign media through visiting journalists to the peninsula. The protest is being held in front of Maaviddapuram Kanthaswamy temple in Thellippazhai, just 200 meters from the barbed wire fence of the former 'High Security Zone'. The fenced area is being transformed into a permanent 'Sinhala Military Zone'.
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Ma'rava-ku'richchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 November 2013, 07:28 GMT]
The part of the village or settlement of the Ma'ravar community
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"Perfidious Albion cannot change its spots"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 November 2013, 03:12 GMT]
Asserting that the Commonwealth is simply a reincarnation of the British Empire and the British Imperial system, Professor Boyle, an expert in international law, remarked that placing the alleged genocidaire Mahinda Rajapakse as the Commonwealth Chairperson-in-office for the next two years, "will expose the Commonwealth as a Sick Joke." Professor Boyle found Prince of Wales and British Prime Minister David Cameron's attendance to CHOGM despicable and drew similarity to the American Founding Father Thomas Paine's charaterization of the British as "Perfidious Albion cannot change its spots," after the massacres of American soldiers at Lexington by the British Hessian mercenaries.
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SL military steps up demolition of houses in Valikaamam North, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 November 2013, 23:41 GMT]
Despite the ‘assurance’ to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan by Sri Lankan president’s secretary Mr Lalith Weerthunga that the demolition of houses inside the former ‘High Security Zone’ would be postponed, the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Palaali continues to bulldoze the houses of Tamil civilians in Va’ruththalai-vi’laan and Kurumpachiddi now being transformed into a permanent Sinhala Military Zone in 6,000 acres land in Valikaamam North in Jaffna. The Civil Military Coordination Office of the SL military in Jaffna told the civilians of Valikaamam that the SL military was free to demolish the houses and clear the area as it has officially been taken over by the military Establishment. Journalists were not allowed to witness the destruction.
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SLA held Isaippiriyaa in custody before she was killed - Channel 4

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 November 2013, 11:45 GMT]
Channel-4 has uncovered new evidence in the form of a video where the 27-year-old LTTE journalist Shoba (Isaippiriyaa) was seen under the custody of the Sri Lanka Army soldiers before she was killed. Previously, Channel-4 has released images of the journalist and TV commentator stripped naked, hands tied behind back, and shot dead. Channel-4 adds in its news report that this new evidence of war-crime will add to pressure to British Prime Minister David Cameron to not attend the Commonwealth leaders' meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo scheduled to take place this month.
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Media organizations condemn SL military intimidation of 5 journalists in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 October 2013, 23:12 GMT]
The Jaffna Press Club (JPC) and Colombo-based Sri Lanka Tamil Media Association (SLTMA) have condemned SL military for intimidation, censorship and death threat on five Tamil journalists on Monday at Valikaamam North in Jaffna, where the journalists working for different media organisations, went to cover the visit by a delegation comprising of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian and Northern Provincial Council members.
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SL military issues death threat to NPC members, TNA parliamentarian in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 October 2013, 10:13 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers deployed in transforming the former High Security Zone in Valikaamam North into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) on Monday rounded up and threatened a delegation of TNA parliamentarian, elected members of the Northern Provincial Council and the members of two civic bodies, at gunpoint on Monday, when the delegation went to the site following the complaints by the uprooted people that the occupying SLA was demolishing their houses using bulldozers. When the TNA parliamentarian E. Saravanapavan and the elected members of Northern Provincial Council M.K. Sivajilingam and Tharmalingam Sitharthan were watching the demolition, armed SLA soldiers with their officers rounded up and threatened the delegation at gunpoint and threatened them to leave the site after deleting photos and recordings from their cameras.
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SL military harasses ex-LTTE female members in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 October 2013, 23:39 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army soldiers, coming from the so-called S-cave camp at Thikili-veddai in Batticaloa have been harassing former LTTE female members 6 years after they have been re-united with their families. When some of the women subjected to sexual harassment by the SLA soldiers, complained to rights activists and NGOs, the women were given death threat by the SL military. The Sri Lankan soldiers were also harassing the women to join the SL military.
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Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously demands full CHOGM boycott by New Delhi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 October 2013, 14:02 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa on Thursday moved a resolution in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly demanding the Indian Central Government to completely boycott its participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka this November. The resolution was particular in demanding that there should not even be a token participation from the Indian side. Instead, India should take steps to temporarily suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth till the Sri Lankan State acts upon ensuring the freedom and equality of Tamils on a par with the Sinhalese. All the political parties present in the Assembly, including the Congress, passed the resolution unanimously.
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Jaffna hospital observes 26th year of IPKF massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 October 2013, 15:54 GMT]
Donating modern scanners to the X-ray division of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, the Indian government had recently requested the administration of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital to do away with the memorial site situated within the hospital, but the employees were firm in refusing to erase the memory of 21 doctors, nurses and other medical staff together with 46 patients were slain by the so-called Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in one of the brutal massacres witnessed in Jaffna when the invading Indian military was at war with the LTTE in 1987. The medical staff and the kith and kin of the victims, who remembered their co-workers, patients and family members on Monday, demanded a public apology from the Government of India.
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Indian FM in Jaffna talks of ‘tri-lingual, united, sovereign, devolved and connected’ Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 October 2013, 17:12 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who visited Jaffna on Tuesday, ceremonially opened two houses of the controversial ‘50,000 House Project’, by visiting Thanthai Chelvapuram village at Thellippazhai in Valikaamam North, after landing in Palaali, meeting SL military officials and paying tribute to slain Indian soldiers in the war 23 years ago. Mr Khurshid then proceeded to lunch with the war-crimes accused Sri Lankan colonial governor in North and thereafter met the Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council. Salman Khurshid, addressing the beneficiaries of financial asssistance and the journalists at Tilko hotel was talking of devolved Sri Lanka under the 13 Amendment, for a happy, prosperous and tri-lingual Sri Lanka which is sovereign and united and connected with India.
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SL military sends back officials inspecting illegal encroachment of pasturelands

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 September 2013, 23:29 GMT]
A team of civil officials and affected Tamil farmers, who went to witness illegal encroachment of pasturelands were blocked and sent back by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Koara’laip-pattu South and Ma’nmunai West divisions last week, news reports in Batticaloa said. The SL police was accompanying the visiting officials when the team was blocked by the SL military.
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Colombo deploys ‘military land-surveyors’ to seize more lands in Pulmoaddai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 September 2013, 23:41 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military is seizing more lands in Pulmoaddai, a traditional Muslim village in the coast along the border of the Northern and Eastern provinces. In its latest move, the SL military has surveyed 60 acres of lands situated in front of an army camp at 14th Mile Post. Openly claiming that the lands are being taken over for the families of Sri Lankan soldiers under the so-called ‘Ranaviru Gammanaya’ project, the SL military has deployed its own surveyors without the knowledge of the Department of Civil Survey and the Divisional Secretary of the division, civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet.
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Voters’ attendance in Jaffna reached 50% at 2:00 p.m.

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 September 2013, 10:38 GMT]
Despite the psy-ops manipulations and various harassments by the occupying SL military in at several places of Jaffna peninsula, the participation of people in the provincial council election in Jaffna peninsula has reached almost 50% by 2:00 p.m., independent election monitors told media. A Tamil National Alliance politician and deputy chairman of Chaavakachcheari Pirathesa Chapai (PS), was almost abducted and tortured by the intelligence operatives of the SL military near a voting booth in Thenmaraadchi and when fellow TNA supporters came in a vehicle to his rescue, those who had abducted the TNA politician escaped into the SLA 52-4 Brigade command base at Vara’ni in Jaffna. Following this, a group of SL soldiers who came from the camp opened fire. The vehicle of TNA supporters has sustained heavy damage in the firing.
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SL military attacks Ananthi's residence in Jaffna, 8 wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 September 2013, 19:35 GMT]
Eight persons, including an election monitor, Lawyer Sugas of PAFFREL, were brutally attacked by the occupying SL military in Jaffna, which besieged the residence of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) woman candidate Ms Ananthi Sasistharan at Araali in Jaffna in the early hours of Friday. Ms Ananthi narrowly escaped from the assault as her supporters had managed to send her away over the wall of the residence as the military rounded up her residence. The Sri Lankan soldiers were searching for her with the intention of physically harming her, those who were present at the residence told media and the election monitors. An independent election monitoring group, CaFFE, has openly stated that the SL military was behind the attack. The public, TNA members and election monitors of various groups are visiting the house of Ms Ananthi on Friday, witnessing the shocking attack.
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23 years later, memories of Chaththurukko'ndaan refuses to die

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2013, 06:44 GMT]
23 years after the cold-blooded massacre of 184 Tamil civilians including infants, children and women by SL Army at Chaththurukko'ndaan village in the Batticaloa district, the kith and kin of the victims held a remembrance meeting on 09 September and offered their respects to the victims.
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SL colonial governor chooses to ‘boycott’ Swiss ‘development’ function in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 September 2013, 21:06 GMT]
A move by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) inviting the occupying Sri Lanka's colonial Governor in North, Major General (retd) GA Chandrasiri, as chief guest to the opening ceremony of two reconstructed schools in the Jaffna Peninsula on Thursday has ended up in the SL governor ‘boycotting’ the event, news sources in Uduththu'rai said. The controversial move by the SDC had received media attention prior to the event. Tamil politicians also protested against Chandrasiri using the occasion to wage election propaganda in favour of the UPFA government. However, the occupying SL military deployed its soldiers at the venue to demonstrate their occupation of the country of Eezham Tamils and to distribute leaflets canvassing among the public to support SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA in the forthcoming PC elections in the North.
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Sarath Fonseka denies Elilan's surrender

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 September 2013, 23:07 GMT]
“Elilan was never handed over to the army,” claimed Sarath Fonseka, the former military commander of the occupying SL military, at a press conference held in Jaffna on Saturday. “Elilan was an important man and if he was handed over to the army, as the commander of the army, I will know. He was never handed over to the army,” Mr Fonseksa said, once again whitewashing the genocidal SL military from serious war crimes committed under his command during the final days of the war in Vanni. Fonseka, who visited Jaffna on election campaign for his ‘Democratic Party’ went further with a humiliating comment that some families of war-dead LTTE cadres were claiming them as ‘missing’ in order to claim compensation. Sarath Fonseka also went on record blaming the current SL military commander in Jaffna as a very corrupt officer at the press conference held in Jaffna.
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