Colombo schemes military enclave in Maanthai, grabs 1,500 acres of land

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2012, 23:47 GMT]
Grabbing 1,500 acres of land at Channaar Velimaruthamadu in Maanthai West of Mannaar district, the Sri Lankan military is hurriedly putting up a large cantonment with houses for military personnel from the South, according to news sources in Mannaar. The area selected for this purpose is a fertile land in the high ground near a tank where Tamil-speaking people were earlier engaged in agriculture and the jungle area has been used for slash-and-burn cultivation. Heavy machineries are deployed to clear and put up the structures for the military colony, at a strategic location, to control the A-32 Mannaar - Poonakari highway and the fishing harbour of Vidaththal-theevu which has traditionally been used by the Eezham Tamils to communicate with Tamil Nadu.
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SL Navy chases away resettled Tamil Catholics in Peasaalai, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 June 2012, 23:50 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy on Friday chased out at gunpoint 70 Eezham Tamil Catholics, who had resettled in the lands of the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Kurusup-paadu in Peasaalai, Mannaar. The Tamil families had resettled three weeks ago in the housing scheme area of 50 houses established by the the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), where they were living since 2004 till they were uprooted in entirety in 2007. The Church of Our Lady of Victory is one of the largest Catholic churches in the island. Peasaalai is a large village, situated in the North-West of the island of Mannaar, with a population of 8,000 Eezham Tamils and 90% of the population are Catholic fisher folk while the remaining are Hindu and Muslim fisher folk. The Sri Lankan military is alleged of scheming Sinhalicisation of Thalaimannaar Pier, which is the closest point in Mannaar to the coast of Tamil Nadu in India.
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SL minister Badurdeen diverts Indian aid to his supporters in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 June 2012, 23:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan minister of Industries and Trade, Rishard Badurdeen, a politician behind many controversies in Mannaar, has recently instructed the civil officials in Mannaar to divert the humanitarian aid from India, intended to war-affected fishermen in Mannaar, to his supporters in the district, according to reports from Mannaar fisheries sector sources. Mr Badurdeen has given a new list of 175 names as beneficiaries of the aid. The list prepared by Badurdeen includes only names of 12 Tamils, who are his supporters. Names of genuine fishermen are not included in his list.
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SL Navy blocks resettlement-seeking Tamils from entering Mu'l'likku'lam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 June 2012, 04:28 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy Friday morning stopped a group of 75 uprooted Tamil families, who were demanding resettlement in Mu'l'likku'lam village in Musali DS division of Mannaar district. Earlier, on Wednesday, the uprooted Tamils met the Bishop of Mannaar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, and requested their Catholic priests to accompany them in their effort to gain access to their native village that remains occupied by the SL military since September 2007. Responding, the Parish Priests of Thoaddave'li and Chilaavath-thu'rai, Rev. Fr. Nehru and Rev. Fr. Rasiah, accompanied the villagers. However, the SL Navy camped at Mu'l'likkulam junction stopped the uprooted Tamil families stating that they had no permission to enter the village. The families immediately sat in front of the SLN camp and staged a protest till they were forced to relocate to a nearby locality, Periyaku'lam.
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Batticaloa University protests political capture of its council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 June 2012, 23:39 GMT]
The Eastern University in Batticaloa is helpless to political appointments made to its governing council by Colombo, said the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, Professor K. Gobindarajah, following a recent appointment to the council backed by SL Deputy Minister V. Muralitharan alias Karuna causing the students to boycott classes for the third day on Saturday. The appointment of Dr Jaffer, director of the Kalmunai Base Hospital, to the council membership vacated by the demise of Fr. Sylvester Sritharan, is aimed at capturing and silencing the spirit of the university by paramilitary groups operating with the regime in Colombo, said students in Batticaloa. Such appointments theoretically made by the University Grants Commission are dangerously politicised in recent times especially with the universities in the north and east.
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Queen made to view protest before dining with Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 16:19 GMT]
Queen Elizabeth II, celebrating 60 years of her coronation, had to pass through thousands of Eezham Tamil protestors before lunching with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of genocidal Sri Lanka, and other heads of states at the Marlborough House in Central London, the headquarters of the Commonwealth. “Sri Lanka protest greets royal lunch guests,” said The Independent in its headlines. The Queen passed human rights protestors on her way and she was joined by more than 70 guests, including Prime Minister David Cameron and leaders across the association of nations, as they arrived to angry scenes. The chants of the demonstrators echoed around the forecourt as guests arrived, The Independent further said. Around 8,000 protestors were seen at the Marlborough House and earlier at the Mansion House, which was hired by Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) for Commonwealth Economic Forum.
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IC-directed Norway stubborn on ‘development’ bulldozing national questions

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 June 2012, 10:56 GMT]
The evaluation report of Norway on its failed peace facilitation in the island of Sri Lanka had many points of criticism on wrong application of ‘development’ to the context. But Norway’s stubbornness in applying ‘development’ as a tool to make national liberation movements abide by genocidal and agent States created by the colonial order, and in turn to make them abide by the currently imagined order of the so-called international community, continue not only in the island of Sri Lanka but also in Burma. According to critics cited by Democratic Voice of Burma, the latest Norwegian initiative in Burma is being presented as “bait” for ethnic groups to join the government under its 2008 constitution. Having similar experiences before and after the genocidal war, the Eezham Tamils should not make any more mistakes, commented a political observer in Jaffna.
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Muslim journalist assaulted for expressing solidarity with Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 May 2012, 15:35 GMT]
An official employed by the Sri Lankan Minister of Industries and Trade, Rishard Badurdeen, on Monday assaulted a 72-year-old Muslim journalist, MA Cader, for having taken part in a prayer expressing solidarity with Mannaar Bishop on Sunday with thousands of civilians of all walks of life in Mannaar. The SL Minister Badurdeen had issued veiled threats against Mannaar Bishop during a speech in the SL Parliament recently. The SL minister's threat against the Bishop comes in the wake of Colombo's harassment against the Bishop, who boldly brought out the fact that 146,679 people had gone unaccounted for in the last stages of Vanni war.
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All are Sinhalese, Tamils have no territorial right: Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2012, 16:28 GMT]
“Earlier before the war all were Sinhalese,” in Sri Lanka. It is not appropriate to view the north of the country, over which a separatist war was fought, as a predominantly Tamil area, SL presidential sibling and defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was cited saying by the BBC News that interviewed him in Colombo. Commenting, a political analyst in the island said: The Rajapaksa regime, including its former military commander Sarath Fonseka, has been repeatedly reflecting only the pathological aspiration of the Sinhala nation to make State exclusive for it in the island. India and the USA unnecessarily blight it, rather than conceding to the innate reality of allowing the Sinhala nation to have its trouble-free State by separating the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Colombo harasses Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2012, 10:20 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, the Catholic Bishop of Mannaar, who boldly voiced for the number of people went unaccounted in the Vanni war, is being harassed by Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) this week under instructions from the genocidal regime, informed sources in Mannaar told TamilNet. The Bishop's House has declined to comment on the situation. However, informed sources say that two Sri Lankan CIDs have been ‘visiting’ the Bishop on Tuesday after the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Mannaar Police had met the Bishop in person, informing him the decision from his superiors in Colombo. The Bishop didn't oppose the move, but civil society representatives said the move was a calculated psychological operation to silence independent civil voices in the North and East, now fully occupied by the SL military run by presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
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Indian money used in Sinhalicisation, Buddhicisation of Thirukkeatheesvaram

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2012, 00:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Sinhala military occupying the famous archaeological site Maanthai in Mannaar, where the historically pivotal sacred Tamil-Saiva temple Thirukkeatheesvaram is located in the country of Eezham Tamils, has embarked upon building a Buddhist temple at a forcefully confiscated private land, just 200 metres away from the Saiva temple. Sometimes back, the New Delhi Establishment gave much publicity for the money it gave to preserve the Thirukkeatheesvaram sacred site. But the money is now used by genocidal Sri Lanka to build a Sinhala-Buddhist ‘pilgrim’ centre at the site in order to Sinhalicise the cultural landscape in the way Kathirkaamam was Sinhalicised and is now lost to the Eezham Tamils. The temple management that has now fallen into Colombo-centric hands is silent on the issue.
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Buddhist Stupa to become ‘cultural landmark’ of Jaffna harbour

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2012, 21:30 GMT]
A massive Buddhist Stupa that is being constructed at the Beach Road of Jaffna harbour by the occupying Sinhala military will be the new ‘cultural landmark’ of Jaffna city for vessels coming towards its harbour. The Stupa with pre-fabricated parts and statues, brought from the South, is being built day and night by the Sinhala soldiers. The Stupa is built in the locality of a Saivite Amman temple, between Jaffna Fort and Kurunakar, known as Aluppaanthi, meaning the wharf of the harbour. Many more Buddhist Stupas are hurriedly constructed by the SL military and one of them with extensive residential facilities is going to be just in front of the Jaffna Railway Station. During the liberation war, colonial Sri Lanka constructed a huge Buddha statue overlooking Trincomalee to give a Sinhala Buddhist cultural image to the world-renowned harbour of Eezham Tamils in the East.
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Centre for Peace and Reconciliation attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2012, 10:30 GMT]
Four armed personnel, allegedly from the occupying Sri Lankan military's Intelligence, on Saturday attacked Tamil civilians who had gathered at the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation (CPR) at Grousseault Road in Jaffna City to receive free legal assistance in their effort to locate their kith and kin whose whereabouts are not known following the undeclared arrests, abductions during the mass incarceration and white-van abductions in Jaffna peninsula and Vanni. The CPR, which is run by the Church, regularly conducts free legal aid for victims of human rights violations. The attackers beat the victims and threw dirt on them forcing them to flee the Centre. Meanwhle, SL military intelligence operatives were questioning the whereabouts of a priest of the CPR alleging that he had gone to attend the Human Rights Council sessions taking place in Geneva.
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Tamil Nadu Catholic Church reminds umbilical cord relations at Kachchatheevu fete

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 March 2012, 08:42 GMT]
Amidst intense presence of the occupying Sinhala military at Kachcha-theevu during the annual fete of St. Antony on Sunday, the Ramnad diocese of Tamil Nadu Catholic Church that jointly conducts the prayers along with the Jaffna diocese, reminded the umbilical cord relations of the people on either side of the Palk Bay. The theme of this year’s joint prayer by Tamil Nadu and Jaffna Catholic Church was war-torn Eezham Tamils reuniting with their relatives. The commanders of the occupying military were shocked when Fr. Michael of Ramnad, delivering the sermon, deeply felt for the mass killings of Eezham Tamils and death of humanism in the island, and said that the sons of the soil should be released, they should be honoured and they should lead their lives as heroes (Maaveerar).
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US, Sri Lanka squabble whether hang or slaughter Eezham Tamil Nation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 March 2012, 23:32 GMT]
The LLRC recommendation of the majoritarian and genocidal state of Sri Lanka is clear on the point that ethnic territories cannot exist in the island, and ‘trilingual’ society (ostensibly paving way for total Sinhalcisation) should be achieved by 2020. While Sri Lanka in Geneva sessions wants implementation of its agenda left completely to itself, the US-backed resolution seeks international endorsement to the LLRC recommendations and international commitment from Sri Lanka in the implementation and phases. In an exclusive interview to Ceylon Today on Thursday, the US ambassador in Colombo, Patricia Butanis praising the LLRC for coming out with “some excellent recommendations,” argued why then the qualms in publicly committing to implementation. The squabble is just on whether publicly hang or secretly slaughter the Tamil nation, commented an Eezham Tamil politician.
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TNA tries to sell Indo-US pre-emption to Eezham Tamil civil society

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 February 2012, 14:45 GMT]
Accepting the implementation of the 13th Amendment that is already in Sri Lanka’s constitution and failed to meet Tamil aspirations, was the subject matter the TNA was trying to impress upon the representatives of the Eezham Tamil civil society, in a meeting that took place in Vavuniyaa for five hours on Saturday. Eezham Tamils should not ‘hang on’ to their right to self-determination was the argument of a Colombo-based lawyer backing the stand of TNA leader R. Sampanthan, while this right was the very basis of the struggle of Eezham Tamils in the last sixty years, democratically as well as militarily, civil society circles told TamilNet. Many of the civil society representatives, especially from the East and Mannaar requested the TNA to conceive better ideas to bring in an interim administration for the North and East to face the current situation.
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Without truth, reconciliation not possible - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 February 2012, 12:23 GMT]
Francis Harrison, former BBC foreign correspondent whose book of accounts of survivors from Sri Lanka’s civil war is to be published this summer, says in an article in the Dawn, that there are "signs that the international community is gearing up for action to hold Sri Lanka accountable for alleged war crimes committed by its forces at the end of the brutal civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009," and adds that "Tamil survivors also want the truth acknowledged before they can move on with their shattered lives. Without the truth, reconciliation and forgiveness are simply not possible and the grievances that led to conflict in the first place remain dangerously unresolved."
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Eezham Tamils await dividends to come from Mahendran’s book

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 February 2012, 22:23 GMT]
“It is not a mere documentation sharing opinion, but it is on the demand for justice by the genocide-surviving Eezham Tamils, the plight of whom has not been experienced by any other society in the world,” writes Communist Party of India stalwart C. Mahendran, in the introduction to his book on the Vanni War. He encapsulates the global shame in a nutshell when he says “Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal is the heroes’ land in the 21st century world, where life was the weapon to claim one’s land.” The book in Tamil, “Veezhveanen’ru Ninaiththaayoa” (Have you thought that I would fall), brought out in December 2011 by veteran media publications Vikatan, Chennai, is on hot sales and has already found overwhelming appreciation among Tamil readers all over the world. Any good book is eventually judged by the impact it makes on society and Eezham Tamils await that dividend to come from the Tamil-speaking world.
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Tamils must remind Britain of its obligations on February 04: Brian Senewiratne

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 February 2012, 12:05 GMT]
February 4th, the day Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) got so-called “Independence” from Britain in 1948, is a day for action, not regret or mourning. “The betrayal of the Tamils by the British cannot be ignored. If it is, then Britain must be reminded of its moral, legal and ethical obligations, to ‘do the right thing’, by the Tamils even belatedly,” says Dr. Brian Senewiratne in an article he has authored on the so-called independence of Ceylon on 04 February 1948. “It is no exaggeration to say that on 4 February, 1948, ‘Independence’ was granted to the Sinhalese to do what they wanted to the Tamils. Britain could not care less, as long as the military bases were secure and the (British) tea estates remained under Sinhalese capitalist control, to supply tea at absurdly low prices to fill the British cup.”
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‘ICG report fails to cover genocide-intended sexual violence’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 December 2011, 05:42 GMT]
The International Crisis Group report titled ‘Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East’ that was released on Tuesday touched upon problems faced by the Eezham Tamil women in their homelands at the hands of the occupying Sri Lankan military apparatus. While the report has been welcomed by some for its revelations, Eezham Tamil civil society activists in the homeland, academics and feminists came down heavily on the report for studying the gender problem in isolation without addressing either the national question of the Eezham Tamils or the process of structural genocide, which necessarily includes use of sexual violence, which is being carried out by the Sinhala majoritarian state to crush the Eezham Tamil nation. They also questioned the motives and practical effectiveness of such reports that seek to push the principal contradictions under the carpet.
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