Colombo resumes surveillance of Eezham Tamils through ‘registration’ in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2016, 11:11 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Sinhala police, the intelligence operatives of the SL State and military surveillance officers are conducting fresh ‘registrations’ of people living across the 14 divisions of Batticaloa district, citing section 76 of the SL ‘Police Ordinance’ which states that householders should furnish the officer of police of his or her division with a list of all the inmates in the house and that any change occurring in the households should be reported to the police or legal authorities of the SL State. The surveillance measure is now being systematically implemented in the entire district of Batticaloa. In addition, Sinhala military intelligence officers are visiting selected households every month and some others every third month. Those who have been in Vanni earlier are being harassed with ‘terrorist’ questions, Tamil civil sources in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Friday.
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Released Tamil prisoner says all inmates subjected to wrongful convictions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2016, 23:07 GMT]
The kith and kin of imprisoned Tamil prisoners of war and political prisoners staged a protest in front of Jaffna Bus Station on Wednesday morning expressing their solidarity with the political prisoners who are on hunger-strike at New Magazine prison in Colombo. Two Tamil prisoners recently released from the prison, attended the protest and one of the released prisoners, 32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, a former member of Jaffna Municipal Council, gave an emotional speech, in which he said all of the inmates languishing with him during the past 6 years were wrongfully convicted based on forced confessions in the past.
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17 political detainees go on hunger-strike in two SL prisons

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 February 2016, 16:52 GMT]
Two Tamil political prisoners imprisoned at Anuradhapura prison and 15 political prisoners, including a woman, imprisoned at New Magazine prison in Colombo have launched fast-unto-death agitation from Anuradhapura and Magazine prisons. Two of those on huger-strike at Anuradhapura Prison, Sulaxan Mathiyarasan and Tharshan Ganesan, have been detained without valid charge-sheets. In the meantime, the mother of Sulaxan Mathiyarasan, when contacted by TamilNet, said the International Community should step in and get her son and others in his situation released from the Sri Lankan prisons.
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Political prisoner detained without charges for 7 years to go on hunger strike

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 February 2016, 22:39 GMT]
A 29-year-old Tamil political prisoner, who has been detained for more than 7 years in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka, informed the Tamil press on Friday that he is going to fast unto death demanding immediate release of political prisoners like him. Stating that he is launching the hunger-strike on Monday, the prisoner, Sulaxan Mathiyarasan, who is being detained without any case against him, said he and fellow prisoners were shocked to learn the stand taken by the UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, who went on record stating that the International Community was not in favour of the model of granting general amnesty to prisoners of war. The question is why Mr Zeid has taken a such position. The global Tamil community should demand a clear response from the UNHRC in the forthcoming sittings in Geneva, Mr Sulaxan said.
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Genocidal Sri Lanka harasses Tamil family for demanding land back in Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 February 2016, 23:27 GMT]
The legally entitled Tamil owners of the land at Kokku'laay, where an extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk, Ven Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, is aggressively engaged in constructing a Buddhist vihara aiming Sinhalaicisation of the strategic location in the Tamil homeland, say their family are being harassed by the officials of the genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’ and the military of the Colombo regime. The monk is constructing the Vihara by deploying the occupying Sinhala soldiers despite the efforts taken by Tamil officials and the Northern Province Council Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the sources further told TamilNet on Wednesday. The area surrounding Kokku'laay is the focus of Sinhala colonisation presently, as it is the key location for wedging the demographic contiguity of the North and East as well as direct communication between Mullaiththeevu and Trincomalee.
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Mark February 04 as Black Day: Families of forced disappeared

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 January 2016, 18:20 GMT]
The kith and kin of Eezham Tamils, who are reported missing after being captured by the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, on Thursday demanded the Tamil politicians, Northern Provincial Council and the Eezham Tamil civil society to publicly denounce genocidal Colombo on February 04 on the so-called independence day of ‘Sri Lanka’ observing the day as a Black Day. Grassroots organisations, including the Citizens’ Committee of Mannaar, condemned the SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and the SL Minister of Health Rajitha Senaratne for their recent attempts to classify thousands of Eezham Tamils missing at the hands of the Sinhala military as dead.
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Tamil youth from Batticaloa reported missing at Colombo airport

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 December 2015, 21:45 GMT]
A 22-year-old Tamil youth from Batticaloa, who returned from Qatar, has been reported missing after he arrived at Colombo Katunayake Airport on 12 December, according to a complaint made to SL Police at Katunayake. The missing person, Gunathas Navaratnam, who hails from Periya Ma'ndapaththadi in Vavu'na-theevu left Batticaloa for employment in Qatar a month earlier in October. According to CCTV footage at the airport, his son had arrived in the airport, says his father Navaratnam Samithamby.
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Another Tamil political prisoner goes on hunger-strike at New Magazine Prison

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 December 2015, 17:21 GMT]
32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, a former member of Jaffna Municipal Council, who has been detained in Colombo since July 2010 after being accused of attempting to assassinate Douglas Devananda, a former SL Minister and the leader of the EPDP outfit. The SL 'Terrorist' Investigation Division (TID) had arrested Mr Murugiah during the Rajapaksa regime and produced two cases, one in Vavuniyaa and another in Colombo. The High Court in Vavuniyaa had dismissed his case as his ‘confession’ had been obtained under torture. Mr Douglas Devananda has declined to witness against Mr Murugiah and openly urged for the release of the prisoner. However, the SL TID and SL Attorney General's Department have been trying to file a third case against Murugiah with the intention of keeping him detained indefinitely, informed legal sources told TamilNet on Thursday.
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Missing persons' families resolve to boycott Paranagama Commission

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 December 2015, 23:43 GMT]
The organisations representing the kith and kin of the enforced disappeared Eezham Tamils from the 8 districts of the country of Eezham Tamils came together in Jaffna on Tuesday to denounce the Sri Lankan Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), which is also known as Paranagama Commission. The families of the missing persons have jointly decided not to take part in any sittings, scheduled to take place at the various Divisional Secretariats in the Jaffna District between 11 and 19 December. The families, expressing solidarity with the Tamil prisoners who have exposed the deceptive designs of the Sri Lankan State have also resolved to step up their protests, including fast-unto-death, in the coming days.
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Deawaale-gaawa, Wadigamang-gaawa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 November 2015, 23:02 GMT]
The temple neighbourhood

The neighbourhood of the Telugu people's street; or the neighbourhood of the village of carpenters
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Occupied Tamil Eelam marks Heroes Day amidst ‘Sri Lankan’ harassment

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 November 2015, 13:54 GMT]
Tamil Eelam Heroes Day was observed in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils amidst intensified monitoring by the occupying military intelligence operatives of genocidal Sri Lanka on Friday. The university community in Jaffna, comprising the student union, teachers association and the union of non-academic staff gathered at Parameasvarar temple, which is located inside the campus of the University of Jaffna, to mark the largest event after 2009 to be organized braving the intimidating presence of the SL military intelligence operatives. Earlier in the day, former TNA parliamentarian and Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam lit the flame of sacrifice at the historic Nalloor temple. A special prayer was held at St. Patricks Church in Jaffna.
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Mystery surrounds death of ex-LTTE member in Maanthai West

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 November 2015, 15:18 GMT]
A 40-year-old former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who witnessed a four-member squad attempting to murder a person at Moon'raam-piddi on Friday, was found dead Saturday morning with his neck tightened by a piece of cloth, news sources in Mannaar said. Mystery surrounds his death as the family and those close to him have dismissed suicide as the cause of his death. The deceased was identified as Thanapalasingham Veerasingham, a father of three, who was living at Moon'raam-piddi in Iluppaik-kadavai of Maanthai West in Mannaar. Thanapalasingham was sleeping in front of his house, as he was to leave for fishing Friday morning around 4:00 a.m., the family said.
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Prisoners on hunger strike expose ‘reconciliation’ mask of genocidal Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 November 2015, 07:55 GMT]
The Prisoners of War and political prisoners on hunger strike languishing in the jails of occupying Colombo have stepped up their fast-unto-death protest on Saturday completely refusing medial treatment. The hunger-strikers learnt on Friday that the SL president Maithiripala Sirisena was not prepared to provide general amnesty to the prisoners. The hunger-strike has exposed the real faces behind the so-called good-governance personalities in the South and the one-way ‘reconciliation’ agenda they are trying to impose on Eezham Tamils, political observers in Jaffna said adding that the common public in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, are now also able to understand the kind of Colombo-centric orchestrated politics being waged by the UN offices, diplomatic missions in Colombo and the NGOs funded by foreign governments.
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Family of imprisoned Muslim joins Tamils demanding release of political prisoners

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 November 2015, 16:37 GMT]
The wife and a daughter of a 41-year-old Tamil Muslim political prisoner, who is languishing in the Sri Lankan prison in the South since January 2009 after being alleged of assisting the LTTE, joined the Tamil mothers on Tuesday morning at Mannaar where they staged a protest demanding the Sri Lankan President Maithiripala Sirisena to release their kith and kin, who are on a fast-unto-death campaign. Along with Ms Segu Mohadeen Noorjahan, Tamil mothers walked from St. Sebastian Church in the city of Mannaar towards the District Secretariat appealing for the release of their family members. “If this is the plight of the declared-prisoners in jail, what is going to be the response on the missing Prisoners of War and others believed to be in secret prisons,” the mothers asked the journalists covering the protest.
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Hanguran-ketha, Hangaran-gala, Han-gamuwa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 October 2015, 22:48 GMT]
The paddy fields of the Buddhist monastery; or the paddy fields the revenue of which go to the Buddhist monastery

The Buddhist monastery hill or the hill of yellow orpiment mineral

The village belonging to the Buddhist monastery
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Veteran Eezham Tamil freedom fighter Gandhiyam David passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 October 2015, 14:06 GMT]
Solomon Arulanandan David, popularly known as Gandhiyam David, who presided the Gandhiyam Movement in Vanni in mid 70s, passed away on Sunday at the age of 91 at Ki'linochchi. He had returned to Ki'linochchi a few months ago from Tamil Nadu, where he was exiled after surviving the genocidal massacre at Welikade prison in 1983 and escaped from Batticaloa prison in the same year. David's contribution in the history of the struggle of Eezham Tamils is that at the inception of the armed struggle he had conceived the importance of a grassroot civil movement to accompany it. He remained steadfast in envisaging an independent Tamil Eelam.
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Tamils need leadership, not hypocrisy of powers: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2015, 17:29 GMT]
“United Nations, super powers, regional powers or self-seeking Tamil politicians cannot address the real grievances of Tamils. It is only Tamils under a good and dedicated leadership can move forward,” said Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, a long time advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils in an article to TamilNet on Tuesday. While the actual war saw the murder of Eelam Tamils and the most despicable sexual violence of rape unleashed among Tamil women, it was after the war that the Eelam Tamil nation was plundered of its wealth, Professor Ramasamy said. “The LTTE might not be around; however, the hopes, aspirations and the future agenda of Tamils for ultimate solution were set up by none other than its leader Veluppillai Pirapaharan,” he said.
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Tamil civil groups, political parties, come a step forward if the line is their own

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2015, 19:13 GMT]
Thoroughly deceived by the Washington-Colombo genocide partners even in minimum expectations of justice, Eezham Tamil civil groups and a significant section of political parties on Tuesday came hard on the resolution tabled at Geneva. Urging reconsideration of the current draft, the statement coming from 40 civil groups and 4 political parties pointed out that the mechanism largely managed and controlled by the Sri Lankan State loses credibility with the victims, and ‘deeply regretted’ the removal of references to demilitarisation of North-East. With impending further deceptions, whether the response would lead to substantial alternative initiatives and appropriate non-cooperation movement is the question, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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Hybrid court unworkable in ‘Sri Lanka’ context: K. Sivapalan

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2015, 22:41 GMT]
Internal investigations on violence against Tamils carried out by Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) with members appointed by Sri Lanka officials in the past have always been a failure. "The main reason for the failures can be traced to the absence of political will in successive Buddhist majority governments in ‘Sri Lanka’ to ensure accountability for grave violations of Human Rights of Tamil people," says K. Sivapalan, the exiled deputy chairperson of a Tamil rights group, North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR). Two of the commissions had “international” presence in 1963 and in 2006, in a hybrid context, but failed to deliver justice. As a lawyer who represented several victims from the Eastern Province, Mr Sivapalan says, for any criminal investigations to be successful, hearings of the courts will have to be held outside the island.
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Colombo's Wildlife Department harasses Eezham Tamil villagers in Maanthai West

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2015, 23:24 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military and the operatives of Colombo's Wildlife Department, have been harassing the Tamil people to vacate from Kuruvil village, situated in Paalaip-perumaa'l-kaddu GS division in Maanthai West DS division of Mannaar District. The harassment has been going on since SL President Maithiripala Sirisena came to power in January 2015. Around 70 families have already left from the village, where they have been residing since late 60s. More than 35 families are still fighting for their right to live in the village, which is located on the northeast sector of Kadduk-karaik-ku'lam (Giant's Tank). The SL Wildlife Department, claiming the village as coming under Giant's Tank Sanctuary, has filed cases against 6 families at Mannaar District Court. While the case is going on, Colombo's department has put up Sinhalicised name boards at several locations of the village.
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