Tamils mark Shivaratri at base of hill seized by SL Archaeology Department in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 March 2019, 19:42 GMT]
The uprooted families of the ancient Tamil village of Thennai-maravadi in the northern Trincomalee marked a Pongkal feast on Monday at the base of Kanthasaami-malai. The ritual was staged in objection to the Archaeology Department of the unitary state genocidal Sri Lanka, which was refusing to allow the people to access the temple of their folk-deity, Murukan, at the top of the hill where they used to observe Shivaratri in the past. The move comes amidst tension prevailing at Thirukkoa'nesvaram temple in Trincomalee where the SL Archaeology Department and Sinhala colonisers have desecrated the statue of Sivalingam, which was put up along the pathway to the temple on the occasion of Shivaratri festival. Colombo is trying to convert the hilltop of Kanthasaami-malai into a Buddhist temple, the uprooted Tamils said.
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Ranil's ‘development’ of North-East is divide-and-rule imposed on Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 March 2019, 14:18 GMT]
Grassroots activists in Moothoor East in the Trincomalee district have blamed the SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe for imposing a so-called development agenda of his design, which deploys divide-and-rule tactics in the occupied North-East. The short-term aim of the programme is designed to gain electoral and political mileage to the UNP party by diminishing the role of the Tamil politicians including that of the collaborating TNA. The hidden, much more sophisticated and the long-term agenda of the hostile ‘development’ and ‘rehabilitation’ programme is Sinhala-Buddhicisation of the North-East, they said.
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Colombo wants to mark ancient villages in East as ‘Sinhala Buddhist’ villages

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 March 2019, 21:52 GMT]
SL Minister of Internal Home Affairs, Provincial Council and Local Government Mr Wajira Abeywardhana has instructed the district secretariats in the three districts of the Eastern Province to declare each village having at least one Sinhala Buddhist family as a Buddhist village, highly placed civil sources at the Trincomalee District Secretariat told TamilNet on Friday. Mr Abeywardhana is a UNP politician, who hails from the Galle District in the South. The UNP is following the footsteps of notorious Cyril Mathew (1912 - 1989), an outright racist UNP politician who was the SL Minister of Industry and Scientific Affairs (1977 - 1986) under J.R. Jayewardene, commented the civil sources at Trincomalee District Secretariat.
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Tamil refugees returned from India languish for seven years along border village of Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2019, 19:13 GMT]
Thirty-seven Tamil families that have returned from the refugee camps in Tamil Nadu in India to their native village of Maruthoadai of Naavaladi in Vavuniyaa North after three-decades of exile are struggling without gaining access to their lands located along the border of Northern Province in Vavuniyaa North. The SL Forest Department is not allowing the people to set foot into their properties at Maruthoadai since 2010 when it gazetted their village as a forest conservation area. The intention is to block resettlement of Eezham Tamils and absorb the village into the expanding Sinhala colonisation programme, the uprooted families complain. They urge human right groups as well as the community organisations of Tamils to focus on their plight.
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Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisaton of disputed heritage hilltop in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2019, 22:38 GMT]
A team of technicians from the SL Archaeology Department were deployed to copy stone inscriptions found at the disputed heritage site of Vedukku-naa'ri hill-top in Vavuniyaa on Thursday and Friday. The members of the group were claiming that they had come following special requests from the District Secretary of Vavuniyaa, a Sinhalese, and the secretariat of the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, said Thamilchelvan Thurairajah, an elected councillor at the Civic Divisional Council of Vavuniyaa North, who confronted and interacted with the team on Thursday. Two armed Special Task Force commandos and two police officers were providing ‘security’ to the technicians to carry out the recordings on Thursday and Friday. They were also making some other measurements at the hilltop, the witnesses said.
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SL State apparatus at full swing to Sinhalicise ancient temple of Tamils in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2019, 22:41 GMT]
The trustees of Thiruk-koa'neasvaram (Koneswaram) temple in the eastern port city of Trincomalee blame three different authorities of the unitary of state of genocidal Sri Lanka as severely restricting their initiatives to preserve the spiritual environment at the historic Saiva temple. The Tamil devotees experience the conduct of the SL state apparatus as racial discrimination, reporters in the city said. The secretary of the trustee board, Mr K. Parameswaran, when contacted by TamilNet said the SL Archaeology Department, SL Department of Coast Conservation and the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau, which is a statutory body of the Colombo government, were confronting the trustee board.
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Top military post for genocidaire Sinhala commander, Quisling acid-test to Tamil academic

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 January 2019, 23:18 GMT]
Two appointments recently made by the president of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka have evoked much attention. One is the appointment of a Tamil person, Dr Suren Raghavan, who has been serving him for some time, as the Governor of the Northern Province; and the other is the appointment of Major General Shavendra Silva as the new Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army. The appointments manifest in a classic setting of the genocidal Mahavansa-and-Mahaweli mindset of the Polonnaruwa-Anuradhapura establishment of Maithiripala Sirisena, commented Tamil political observers in Jaffna. The intentions behind the appointment of a Tamil academic, who is loyal to Sirisena and ‘acceptable’ to the Maha Sangha of the Sinhala Theravada Buddhist establishment, should be easy to grasp, they said.
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Tamil POW, detained for 10 years, launches hunger-strike at Anuradhapura prison

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 January 2019, 20:06 GMT]
Sivaseelan Sivapragasam was 22 years when the SL military detained him on 19 May 2009 at Oamanthai in Vavuniyaa. He had lost his mother and a brother during the genocidal onslaught by the advancing SL military which directed indiscriminate artillery fire into the so-called ‘safe zone’. His father, Mr Sivapragasam, the only remaining family member outside the SL Prison who was tirelessly demanding the release of his son, also passed away on 16 December at Vaddak-kachchi in Ki'linochchi. The lone survivor of Sivapragasam family is now waging hunger-strike urging his release to at least conduct the 31st-day ritual ('Anthiraddi' rites) to his deceased father, his fellow inmates told media on Sunday.
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Tamil dairy farmers face two-frontal attacks in interior Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2019, 17:11 GMT]
Ex-paramilitary Karuna Group, which is aligned with former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been gunning down the cattle belonging to dairy farmers at the pasturelands of Paalai-vaddavaan (Paalai-madu) in Paduvaan-karai, the interior northwestern part of Batticaloa district which was protected by the LTTE before 2007 from Sinhala colonisation coming from Polonnaruwa, the home district of Mr Sirisena. In the meantime, Sinhala encroacher ‘home guards’ paramilitary men have stolen eight calves within the last 20 days. The SL police are taking the side of the encroachers and demands the Tamil dairy farmers to identify the ‘thieves’ to register a complaint. The calve thefts have taken place at Mayilaththa-madu pasture land, which is located within two kilometres from the Paalai-madu tank, where the former paramilitary men who have been firing at the cows.
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Occupying Colombo turns SL military-employed pre-school teachers against TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 January 2019, 23:23 GMT]
The unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka is planning to appoint Sinhala health sector workers and pre-school teachers for vacant posts at the absence of the democratically elected provincial council in the North, Tamil civil officials at the Northern Provincial Council said. In the meantime, the unitary state system has been inciting the pre-school teachers employed in the SL military-operated ‘Civil Security Division’ to protest against the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) through propagating false propaganda that the TNA was attempting to scrap their job contracts, the sources further said.
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Sirisena didn't keep word on resettling Tamil Catholics of Musali before 31 December

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 December 2018, 22:59 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena promised to resettle the people of Mu'l'lik-ku'lam before the end of 31st December 2018. Despite the repeated pleas the people made through their political representatives in the SL Parliament and the Bishop of Mannaar taking up the matter with the SL President and his secretariat in Colombo, nothing has taken place, complained Rev Fr Lawrence Leon on Monday. The SL Navy was refusing to release the lands and is still putting up constructions while the people are languishing without infrastructure and roads. Last year, a bus transporting people narrowly escaped from a fatal accident during the Christmas time. The new year mass at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption at Mu'l'li-ku'lam has therefore been moved to the morning on 01st of January 2019, the parish priest further said.
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Ilmenite exploitation targets Vaakarai, civic members on alert

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 December 2018, 22:17 GMT]
Alchemy Heavy Metals Ltd, a Dambulla-based private mining and processing company has recently stepped up an exploitative move to obtain lands for mineral excavation in Vaakarai, which is located in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. The activity of the company, also known as Mirama Minerals, was unusually high during the recent soft coup in Colombo. There were indications of a similar trend in the past in 2010 and 2013, says Koa'ra'lap-pattu North (Vaakarai) Divisional Council Chairman Sivagnanam Konalingam. The democratically elected Divisional Council functioning since June 2018 is now tracing the background of the move to exploit ilmenite mineral, he told TamilNet on Thursday. The council is deploying the Right to Information Act in investigating the matter as the exploitation has been targeting two hotspots, Kathirave'li (40 acres) and Puchchaak-kea'ni (13 acres).
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Diocesan Authority over Madu Shrine should remain uncompromised: Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 December 2018, 22:30 GMT]
The Diocese of Mannar is still on a clarification and consultation stage in its engagement with the SL Presidential Secretariat on the proposal of declaring the locality of Madu Shrine as a sacred area, Bishop of Mannaar Rt Rev Emmanuel Fernando said in a video interview on Monday. “It is of utmost importance to preserve the authority of the Bishop of the Mannaar Diocese on Madu Shrine without any erosion, same as it has always been,” the Bishop said. “We have also urged the participation of the Administrator – the Holy Friar – of the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu in all the discussions,” he said. “We are still watching whether these would be properly met. Only if these concerns are appropriately met, we would be prepared to grant our permission to the move,” Bishop Fernando clarified. “We have also obtained advice to be able to refuse our permission if that is not the case,” he stressed.
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SL State could tamper with skeletal evidence from Mannaar on the way to foreign labs, lawyers warn

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 December 2018, 21:20 GMT]
There must be a credible independent international mechanism to oversee and ensure that the human skeletal remains exhumed from the Mannaar killing fields get transported without the risk of tampering with the evidence by the SL State, the team of lawyers representing the families of enforced disappeared in Mannaar have cautioned. The lawyers, who didn't wish to be named, said they have urged the Bishop of Mannaar and are preparing to take up the matter with international actors once the exhumation commences again on 02 January 2019. The lawyers also told TamilNet that they would stand firm in their demand to be allowed to monitor the entire transportation process.
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Sirisena brings ‘sacred area’ deception to subvert Madu Shrine into ‘Anuradhapura’ paradigm

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 December 2018, 21:50 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena and a section of Sinhala Catholics in Colombo are pushing to demarcate the Madu area, where Our Lady of Madu shrine is located. The sinister move is based on the advice coming from the Sinhala Theravada Buddhist establishment, which wants to assert a mythical ‘Pathini Deiyo’ legacy in the next phase through the ‘Anuradhapura’ perception of so-called Sinhala heritage. Sections of Tamil Catholic priests in Mannaar have already sensed the heat in Sinhala establishment in Colombo and advocate caution without much public attention, informed sources in Mannaar told TamilNet. The Sanctity of Madu (Madhu) has always been beyond the scope of the boundary of a non-secular state apparatus and it should remain so also in the future is the general opinion being whispered within the ranks of Mannaar Diocese, the sources further said.
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USA welcomes India's USD 1.4 billion assistance to Maldives

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 December 2018, 23:34 GMT]
The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, David Ranz, has welcomed the latest announcement by Indian PM Narendra Modi that New Delhi would be assisting Malé with USD 1.4 billion in financial assistance. Mr Ranz recently visited the Maldives announcing USD 7 million in “foreign military financing” to maritime security and another USD 3 million for civil society and environment. Geopolitical observers interpret the Indian mega assistance as a move to bail out the archipelago nation struggling under Chinese debt burden and transform it as a strategic asset for the Quad formation.
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China steps up investment on Sinhala propaganda assets in South

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 December 2018, 20:07 GMT]
The Chongqing Normal University (CNU) in China is promoting 20 annual scholarships for carrier journalists through the organisation known as Sri Lanka China Journalist’s Forum (SLCJF). A Memorandum of Understanding signed between the CNU President Prof. Zhou Zeyang, and Nalin Aponso of the SLCJF outfit mentions the Belt and Road Initiative as the main platform for the scholarships. Mr Aponso is also the Public Relations Manager of the ‘Sri Lanka’ Port Authority. The MoU was signed at the presence of Chinese Embassy officials and the representatives of the Confucius Institute at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Kelaniya at an event held in Colombo on 12 December. The SLCJF, established in 2001 has been promoting China with Sinhala language periodical ‘Mahajana Cheenaya’ (People’s China), several exhibitions for educational institutions in China and arranging trips to China.
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Sirisena showcases military-to-military relationship with China

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2018, 11:33 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on Saturday gave prominence to a photo session with Chinese military officers and Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan staging a grand opening ceremony to a Chinese military constructed auditorium at Diyatalawa military academy of genocidal Sri Lanka. The publicity stunt was aimed at passing a message to India and the West, observers in Colombo said. Mr Sirisena was using the opportunity in an attempt to balance out his setback in the constitutional with the military relation stunt with China, the observers said adding that Sirisena, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the SL military, was also passing a warning signal to the USA and India. Similarly, Chinese were giving a message by appointing Major General Shen Jun to lead their military delegation to the event, a diplomatic source in Colombo told TamilNet.
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Ex-Land Commissioner observes systematic ethnic discrimination in issuing land documents in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 December 2018, 22:42 GMT]
The SL Government in Colombo has been issuing circulars instructing the provincial land authorities to release land documents to displaced and uprooted war-affected people. Such circulars were attempting to document ‘adherence’ to the recommendations of the so-called ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’. These circulars were also intended to convince the UN Human Rights Council and the international community that the SL State was implementing reconciliatory measures without discrimination. However, the Tamil people in the Eastern Province have been systematically and ethnically discriminated in the delivery of land documents even after the issuance of specific circulars, former Land Commissioner of Eastern Province Kathirgamathamby Kurunathan told TamilNet this week.
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SL military erects giant Buddha statue at controversial heritage site in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 December 2018, 21:45 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military in Mullaith-theevu installed a small Buddha statue, which was covered with glass at the disputed heritage site of Neeraaviyadi-eattam in Chemmalai in November. The SL military has now hurriedly replaced it with a huge Buddha statue disregarding the interim order and the protests of Tamil residents. The move comes after a delegation from the SL Archaeology Department in Colombo visited the SL military prompting it to accomplish the mission, civil sources in Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat told TamilNet. An extremist Buddhist monk, Kolamba Medhalankara Thera, staying with the SL Army's 593rd Brigade at Naayaa'ru is operating with the thinking that once the giant statue has been successfully erected, Tamil protests, as well as the interim orders, would lose their impact as the SL Constitution accords ‘foremost place to Buddhism’, the sources further said.
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