Jaffna University community marks Tamil Eelam Heroes Day with renewed resolve

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2017, 10:48 GMT]
More than 2,000 students along with lecturers, faculty deans and the staff of the University of Jaffna took part on Monday morning in an emotional floral tribute in front of the newly renovated Tamil Eelam Heroes memorial statue, which was destroyed by the occupying SL military after 2009. The event on Monday was equally emotional to the first event held 12 years ago when the statue was declared open. "The people of Jaffna will never forget nor pardon the desecration of the memorials," the vice chancellor at that time Prof Mohanadas told TamilNet after declaring the statue open in 2005. After 2009, the occupying SL military also destroyed the statue inside the University premises as it razed to the grounds all the Heroes’ cemeteries in occupied Tamil Eelam. The emotional event in Jaffna on Monday has passed a strong message to the world, student leaders at Jaffna university said.
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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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Appointing PSC to look into uprooted Tamils’ land issue, another deception

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 November 2017, 15:08 GMT]
As the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) was preparing itself to conduct a detailed survey of uprooted people, who have lost their properties to SL military occupation in the Northern Province, the Rajapaksa loyalists (Joint Opposition) in the SL Parliament have come up with a deceptive proposal to appoint an SL Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to look into the land issue of the uprooted people in the North. The ruling SL regime also seems to back proposal of the PSC. The Sinhala parties are working on the same line when they want to deceive the Tamils and postpone release of lands further, said the representatives of uprooted people from Vasaavi'laan in Jaffna, who think the PSC move would only end up justifying Sinhala military occupation in the name of so-called national security.
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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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34,000 war-uprooted in Jaffna district alone: NPC Report

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2017, 20:43 GMT]
Jaffna district tops the five districts in the Northern Province in the statistics over uprooted people who are awaiting resettlement in their private properties, which still remain occupied by the Sinhala military for the purpose of military zone and cantonments, according to a recent report submitted to NPC CM Justice C.V. Wigneswaran by the Deputy Chief Secretary on Planning at the NPC. There are 34,099 uprooted individuals belonging to 9,758 families in Jaffna district alone, the report says. There are 47,044 individuals who remain uprooted across the five districts. However, these figures are rather conservative and minimalistic as these do not include the people who have not lodged entries for resettlement and those currently remain as refugees in Tamil Nadu State of India and those who live exiled elsewhere as asylum seekers.
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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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World Bank to fund genocidal Sinhala colonisation of Tamil lands in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 November 2017, 23:19 GMT]
SL Mahaweli Ministry, which is led by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has schemed a major Sinhala colonisation programme targeting the pasturelands of Eezham Tamils in two administrative divisions of Paduvaankarai region in Batticaloa district, informed civil sources at Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet this week. While 320 Tamil dairy farmers from the two divisions of Ea'raavoor-pattu (Chengkaladi) and Koa'ra'laippattu South (Kiraan) are already struggling without adequate pasturelands for their cattle, SL Mahaweli ministry has sketched out a new plan to distribute 49 acres per Sinhala colonists through a leasing programme. The overwhelming majority of the recipients are Sinhala farmers, initial reports said. The programme, if allowed to be implemented, would be one of the disastrous Sinhala colonisation schemes in the district, the sources further said.
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Student struggle should address external agenda-setters

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2017, 23:26 GMT]
The ITAK hierarchy of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is led by Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran, has been unconditionally supporting the budget of genocidal Sri Lanka for the past two years. It is the agenda behind the external powers and global financial outfits such as the World Bank, which directs the collaborating polity of the TNA. The ITAK collaborators receive their instructions from the soft-power players of the US Bandwagon. India is also part of it. The ITAK collaborators have succumbed to the external agenda to a Quisling level. They are not even prepared to negotiate with the agent State in Colombo, said student political observers at the University of Jaffna who witnessed the interactions between the student leaders and the ITAK in the discourse of addressing the struggle of Tamil political prisoners.
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Colombo fails to arrest STF commandos who shot and killed Tamil youth in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2017, 23:45 GMT]
A five-member squad of the so-called Special Task Force is believed to be behind the highhanded crime of firing at two unarmed Tamil fishermen and causing death to one of them in Ariyaalai East, a suburb of Jaffna city on 22 October. Despite the discovery of a handgun and vehicles suspected to be used by the killers from a STF camp in the same area, none of the STF commandos have been detained or arrested by the SL Police investigators conducting preliminary investigations so far. The STF, organised under the SL Police department, as a full-fledged military force, which is being operated by the intelligence wing of the occupying Sinhala military in North. Colombo has been replacing key officers of the SL Police in North with former STF commandos who have been promoted to higher ranks.
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Student leaders vow to step up protests in support of hunger-striking political prisoners

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 November 2017, 23:11 GMT]
The president of Jaffna University Student Union K. Krishnameenan and Secretary K. Jackson have sent an urgent appeal to SL President Maithiripala Sirisena through various offices in Colombo and Jaffna on Wednesday urging immediate response in resolving the demands of the three hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners at Anuradhapura prison. 14 days have elapsed since the student leaders met the SL President in Colombo on 19 October. Mr Sirisena had promised swift action either before the student leaders returned to Jaffna the next day or at latest on 25th of October after having consulted with SL Attorney General and SL Justice Minister who were out of the island at that time. But, nothing has happened since then. As such the student leaders are planning to step up the protest to next level, they told media on Wednesday.
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NPC Chief Minister addresses question on future road map for Tamil struggle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2017, 23:15 GMT]
The Chief Minister of Northern province Justice CV Wigneswaran has cast his thoughts over what he regards as significant in consolidating the future road map of Tamils in the island. Tamil leadership should realise the futility of collaborationist politics and focus on a rights oriented struggle with a positive outlook, he said. Describing the strengths, he emphasized the cooperation with Tamil diaspora, support of Tamil Nadu, stepping up global pressure on the SL Establishment, increased solidarity with Sinhalese who understand the concerns of Tamils, and the last but not the least, the edification of Sinhala masses on the real share, history and the ownership stake of Tamils to the traditional homeland in the North-East. He was also seeking attitudinal change among the upper echelons of the Tamil society.
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All three districts in East placed under Sinhala Government Agents

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2017, 20:45 GMT]
The unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka is planning to install a Sinhala person as the SL Government Agent (District Secretary) of Batticaloa district, concerned Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa said. The latest move comes as the Tamil GA, Ms P.S.M. Charles, was promoted as the Director General of SL Customs Department after serving as the GA of the district for five years. Her tenure was marred with indirect Sinhala rule. Now, the Sinhala GA of Trincomalee district, N.A.A Pushpakumara, who operates against Tamil-speaking people in the district, has taken her place temporarily until a permanent GA is installed. Both the Government Agents of Trincomalee and Ampaa'rai districts are Sinhalese collaborating with the occupying operating with the agenda of demographic changes.
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Nāvaṟ-kāṭu, Paṉaṅ-kāṭu, Kilukiluppaip-kāṭu, Neruñcik-kāṭu, Kurakkaṉ-kāṭu, Tōṭ&am

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 October 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The jungle of Nāval trees

The palmyra-palm grove

The thicket of rattlewort shrubs

The (locality found with) dense growth of cow's-thorn thistle

The finger-millet cultivation field

The pastureland of cattle herders

The garden or plantation

The Dutch-ruins jungle

The sandy desert

The burial ground

The banyan-tree locality by the cremation ground

The wild-mango-tree locality
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Tamil protesters confront Maithiripala Sirisena in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 October 2017, 07:34 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who was visiting Jaffna Hindu College amidst black flag protest by Tamil activists and politicians, was trying to score a point with his Jaffna visit and ‘engagement’ with the Tamil protesters. Talking briefly to protesters wavering black flags against him, he was trying to defend his position by saying he was planning to have an internal meeting within his government before arriving at a decision regarding the demands put forward by the hunger striking Tamil political prisoners. The protesters categorically refused to buy his argument, demanded immediate decision from him as he is vested with executive powers to release the prisoners. The protesters vowed to step up the protest even further if he failed to act within short time as the health situation of the protesting hunger strikers has worsened on the 20th day of their fast-unto-death campaign.
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SL military postpones land release for 2 years as UN awarded Colombo with 2 more years in Geneva

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 October 2017, 23:35 GMT]
The occupying SL military in North, which has heavily militarised Jaffna peninsula, the islets off Jaffna and the Vanni mainland, is now claiming that no further lands would be released for the coming two years. 50-year-old Kalathevy Rajan, a mother uprooted from Palaali and stranded at Antony-puram in Vazhalaay, says that the latest stand of the SL military has dashed her hopes of gaining back her lands. The latest move aims to test the limits of patience and toleration of the uprooted people, who have been staging continuous protests. It also signals that the external ‘strategic partners’ are encouraging genocidal Sri Lanka, which is engaged in military training with the US forces in the occupied homeland of Eezham Tamils. Future protests need to be addressed to the international Establishments rather to the Colombo Establishment, political observers in Jaffna commented.
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Protests gain momentum as hunger-striking political prisoners’ health deteriorates

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 October 2017, 22:09 GMT]
Three Tamil political prisoners waging fast-unto-death in Anuradhapura prison were admitted to the public hospital in Anuradhapura on Sunday as their health deteriorated at the prison hospital. Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) Leader Mavai Senthirajah, who went to meet the prisoners at Anuradhapura, received flak as parliamentarians representing his party have been collaborating with the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka. One of the protesters, 30-year-old Sulaxan Mathiyarasan, was transferred back to prison after treatment. Protests were staged at several places in Jaffna peninsula and in the Vanni mainland in support of Tamil political prisoners who are on a fast unto death opposing their cases being transferred away from Vavuniyaa High Court.
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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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