Muslims in Mannaar expose systemic inability of SL State in delivering justice to victims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 March 2017, 22:48 GMT]
“2 years or 20 years, it doesn't matter. You can't expect real justice to be delivered by the SL State,” commented Tamil-speaking Muslim activists in Mannnar while TamilNet recently interviewed three Muslim women who have been languishing without justice or remedy for 20 years. The occupying Sri Lanka Army shot and killed the fishermen from Erukkalampiddi-East on 23 May 1997. The massacre took place while the victims were on their way to the seashore in bicycles carrying their fishing nets in the early hours of the fateful Friday. The dead bodies were released to the families on a condition that they signed in a document stating that their husbands were LTTE members, says 44-year-old Rifanu Beham Yaseen, the widow of the late Meerasa Marikar Yaseen and a mother of two girls. Her husband was 32 when he was massacred by the SLA and Ms Rifanu was one-month pregnant carrying a second child.
Full story >>

SL Military Intelligence wages shadow war against Champoor people

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 March 2017, 23:13 GMT]
The intelligence wing of the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Moothoor East has been threatening the leaders of various social and justice organisations in an attempt to dismantle the entire social fabric that prevails among the resettled people of Champoor. There have been several reports of strict military surveillance on everything that moves in and out of Champoor and Tamil activists being forced to work as surveillance operatives. But, the latest move aims at dismantling the grassroots from sustaining their social fabric. The mediation board (I’nakka-chapai), Rural Development Society, Womens’ Development Society and the local justice systems that facilitate and mediate in disputes between the individuals in the society are facing serious threats from the SL military intelligence in recent days.
Full story >>

Colombo's structural genocide against Eezham Tamils reaches its peak in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 22:38 GMT]
The structural genocide being waged by Colombo against the nation of Eezham Tamils has reached its peak in Mullaiththeevu district, particularly in Karai-thur'aip-pattu, says NPC Councillor T. Ravikaran in an interview to TamilNet. Tamil fishermen being systematically deprived of even accessing one of their fishing jetty (vaadi) is the latest contention. All the coastal points with vaadis have been seized from Tamils and given to Sinhalese. Tamil people were able to freely engage in their livelihood during the times of the LTTE. But, now they have fallen victims to the structural genocide although the physical genocide ended in May 2009. The Sinhala fishermen, who have been brought from South are using all possible means of banned forms of fishing destroying the fishing ecosystem, the Tamil fishermen complain.
Full story >>

Colombo instructs civil administration in East to alienate lands to occupying military

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 March 2017, 22:04 GMT]
Fearing continued protests that could spread to the three districts in East against genocidal land grab, the occupying SL State has in recent days issued circulars to all the three government agents in East to speedily alienate lands through so-called legal measures making sure that the lands already seized by its three armed forces and the STF that comes under the SL Police. The military forces should ‘legally’ own all the private and public lands that remain militarized since 1990, a source close to Batticaloa GA told TamilNet on Wednesday. Similar instructions have also been given to land officials. The GA has come under increased pressure from Colombo to collaborate with the occupying military in surveying and transferring the lands.
Full story >>

Wickramasinghe protects unpunished war criminals of SL Military Intelligence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 March 2017, 20:35 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has secretly launched a plan to erase the records of military intelligence officers and operatives of the Military Intelligence who have been named with command responsibility by the affected victims and their families, particularly the kith and kin of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of occupying Sri Lankan military after MI operatives carried out arrests, detentions and abductions during the presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa. In an effort to get rid of the details of those named by the victims, the military intelligence officers and operatives are being transferred to separate divisions or offered early retirement, informed EPDP paramilitary sources told TamilNet on Saturday.
Full story >>

SL military threat against civil organisations reaches serious level in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 February 2017, 22:47 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military was directly controlling the civil rights of the Eezham Tamils under the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa. But, the SL military under the joint regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe, has chosen much worse forms of controlling the underlying social fabric of Eezham Tamils in the Eastern Province, complain Tamil activists from Rural Development Society (RDS) organisations and women’s rural organisations in Batticaloa district in the East. SL military intelligence, which has gathered details of RDS activists and the details of their families, has been exerting pressure on the activists to operate as its informants. All the RDS organisations in the 14 divisions of Batticaloa district are facing the same threat and harassment from the SL military.
Full story >>

Tamil protest targets embassies in Colombo, demands ultimatum at Geneva

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 February 2017, 23:02 GMT]
Voice for North-East Enforced Disappeared (VNEED), a recently launched organisaton by the families of persons subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military on Monday travelled to Colombo and staged protests outside the embassy of USA, High Commissions of India and the UK, and the UN office in Colombo. Giving more time and space to Sri Lankan State at the Human Rights Council in Geneva will only worsen the structural genocide in the North-East, they said. The international community should realise the futile exercise of expecting results from Colombo through a co-sponsored process, which has gravely failed to de-militarise the North-East since the joint USA-Sri Lanka resolution was passed in September 2015, they said.
Full story >>

Popular Tamil Eelam singer SG Shanthan passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2017, 23:08 GMT]
Shanthalingam Gunaratnam (SG Shanthan), the most popular Eezham Tamil singer of songs in the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle so far, has passed away in Jaffna on Sunday at the age of 57 of kidney failure. The singer, known for his unique high-pitch singing of liberation songs, has recorded more than 250 Tamil Eelam songs and at least 350 devotional songs. One of his initial Tamil Eelam songs, “Intha ma'n engka'lin chontha ma'n” (this is our soil) sung 26 years ago, is still used as slogan by the people demanding de-militarisation of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. Shanthan is gone but his voice will live in the hearts and minds of Eezham Tamils forever.
Full story >>

Sinhala military chases 850 Tamil escapees from military slavery in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 February 2017, 23:30 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has stepped up search operations against Eezham Tamils who have escaped from slavery ’employment’, which was carried out to document that the SL military was also recruiting Tamils in North. Around 1,000 Tamil men and women were deceptively recruited to subservient deployment as technicians, carpenters, painters, flower garden workers, plumbers, farm slaves and as female servants to Sinhala ‘war commanders’ residing inside so-called High Security Zones. These ‘workers’ were put on military's payroll and documented as Tamils serving in the genocidal military. More than 850 of the deceived and victimised males and females have managed to escape from the so-called military deployment. The SL military is now searching for the ‘missing’ slaves.
Full story >>

Displaced Muslim women from Puththa'lam express solidarity with Keappa-pulavu families

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 February 2017, 19:26 GMT]
A women-delegation of displaced Muslims, who are living in Puththa'lam since they were evicted from Jaffna, visited Keappa-pulavu on Monday expressing their solidarity with the continuous struggle being waged by Tamil women, who are demanding the Colombo regime to release their lands that have been seized by the occupying SL Air Force. The protest that continuous for the 14th day has also received Sinhala visitors from South and Tamil activists from the Up-Country. In the meantime, Tamils in Batticaloa have staged demonstrations in solidarity with the families of Keappaa-pulavu. In the meantime, another struggle is also gaining momentum at Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), where protesters have been demanding their lands back from the occupying SL Army.
Full story >>

Genocidal Colombo to dispatch ex-LTTE members to Geneva for ‘reconciliation’ hoodwink

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 February 2017, 22:58 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has instructed the military intelligence of genocidal Sri Lanka to select 20 persons among the 10,000 enslaved former LTTE members, who are employed as slave workers at SL military-run farms, to be dispatched to Geneva in March to confront the Tamil activists at the side-events of the Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, informed circles in Jaffna said. While the former LTTE members, employed as slave workers under the so-called Civil Security Department (CSD) are being systematically deprived of independent livelihood, the hand-picked ex-LTTE members are being trained to project a positive image of the enslavement as ‘reconciliation’. The Tamil CSD ‘personnel’ have been forced to sing ‘Sri Lanka’ anthem in Sinhala at various events as documented last year at Poonakari on the so-called ‘independence day’.
Full story >>

Tamil protests in North strengthen on February 04 Black Day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 February 2017, 18:36 GMT]
The occupying Colombo was staging a parade for the first time in front of Jaffna District Secretariat to mark the so-called independence day of genocidal Sri Lanka in Jaffna this year. NPC Councillors M.K. Shivajilingam and Ananthy Sasitharan organised a protest with the participation of fellow struggle-centric NPC councillors, civic members and families of enforced-disappeared after 18 May 2009. The SL Police came with a stay order from Jaffna Magistrate S. Satheestharan, who had written in Tamil that the stay order was about a protest disturbing the public on A9 Road. However, the protest went ahead as planned, 300 meters away from the District Secretariat. The Tamil public in North and East refused to celebrate the so-called Independence Day and have proclaimed through various protests that February 04 will continue to remain a Black Day as far as the Tamils are concerned.
Full story >>

Uprooted Ezham Tamil women confront structural genocide in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 February 2017, 23:22 GMT]
The uprooted Eezham Tamil families from Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu have blamed the SL military of genocidal Sri Lanka for deploying all the mechanisms of the unitary State in Colombo to deprive them their lands. After a series of protests, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena was supposed to release 234 acres of lands in January as a temporary measure to contain the struggle of the uprooted people. But, only 142 acres are to be released, the people say. That too, not from the coastal and agricultural side along the Nanthik-kadal. The SL Air Force has stationed itself in the fertile lands. SL Forest Department was trying to add confusion by claiming the lands as coming under its purview. The Forest Department falls under Mahaweli Ministry, which is being run by none other than Mr Maithiripala.
Full story >>

Colombo resumes abduction-styled arrests of former LTTE members

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 January 2017, 23:16 GMT]
The so-called ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) of genocidal Sri Lanka has silently resumed abduction-styled ‘arrests’ in Ki'linochchi district in January 2017, according to informed legal sources in the district. Two men, wearing civilian clothes entered the house of 32-year-old Murugiah Thavaventhan on Wilson Road in Thiruvai-aa'ru in the Karaichchi division of Ki'linochchi district on 15 January and took the former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), almost 7 years after he was re-united with his family in March 2010. Legal sources providing assistance to the family said Mr Thavaventhan was being detained by the TID at Vavuniyaa and that the family was not given a valid reason for his detention. Similarly, another ex-LTTE member, 37-year-old Kulendran Karalasingham, who is also from the same area, has been detained by the notorious TID at his working place.
Full story >>

Eezham Tamils mark MGR’s birth centenary

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2017, 21:53 GMT]
The birth centenary of the late M.G. Ramachandran, a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, who extended his support to the struggle of Eezham Tamils and wholeheartedly backed both Thanthai S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and LTTE Leader V. Pirapaharan, was emotionally marked in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils on Tuesday. The people of Aaladi in Valveddith-thu’rai (VVT), mobilized themselves to renovate the statue of MGR, which was destroyed by the Sinhala military near Mr Pirapaharan’s house.
Full story >>

SL military deploys ‘media agents’ to deceive uprooted Tamils in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 January 2017, 15:07 GMT]
Major General Mahesh Senanayake, the Jaffna commander of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, Reginald Cooray, who is Colombo's colonial governor to North and Angajan Ramanathan, the SLFP’s nominated parliamentarian who was earlier promoted by the Rajapaksa regime to circumvent Colombo regime’s dependency on Douglas Devananda's EPDP in Jaffna, are now jointly deployed in a covert operation of counter-insurgency and subversive nature with the intension of bringing disunity among the poverty-stricken section of uprooted people from Valikaamam North who are still languishing in 29 of 34 ‘welfare’ camps in Jaffna district.
Full story >>

Colombo frames cases to prolong imprisonment of Tamil political prisoners

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 January 2017, 22:13 GMT]
30-year-old Sulaxan Mathiyarasan, who was detained by the occupying Sinhala military at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on the final day of genocidal onslaught on Vanni on 18 May 2009, and later languished in three prisons for more than 7 years without a valid case, is now facing a newly framed case in which the so-called ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ has used statements obtained under torture from other inmates, who were former LTTE members. The TID is arguing that for security reasons, the cases where ex-LTTE members’ statements were being used, should be moved to courts in the South for ‘security’ reasons. There are 132 Tamil political prisoners currently detained in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka while whereabouts of thousands, subjected to forced disappearance or filtered away from the survivors of 2009 genocide, is not yet known
Full story >>

Poverty-stricken uprooted Tamils deceived to bribe SL military to become eligible for housing status

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 December 2016, 17:01 GMT]
A Scandinavia-based media operative, who is a long-time collaborator of foreign intelligence Establishments and who has been working with the rulers of genocidal Sri Lanka against the freedom struggle of Eezham Tamils for decades, has now been deployed as a bribing agent, allegedly by the SL military commander in Jaffna Major, General Mahes Senanayake, in deceiving a number of poverty-stricken uprooted families from Valikaamam North to pay 50,000 rupees each to become ‘eligible’ as recipients of so-called ‘housing schemes’ being built by Colombo's Ministry of Resettlement and the occupying military. Between 60 to 80 families have already paid 50,000 rupees each through the media-operative, who has been deployed to trap the people to succumb to the designs of the genocidal military. Some sources put the number of families who succumbed to the trap as high as 200.
Full story >>

Public servants in East under increased pressure to alienate lands from Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2016, 23:13 GMT]
The Divisional Secretary of Koara'laippattu North (Vaakarai), Ms S.R. Rahulanayaki, has been under constant pressure from the Speaker of Eastern Provincial Ms Ariyawathi Galappaththy, a Sinhalese, and the Government Agent of Batticaloa District Ms P.S.M. Charles, who is a Tamil, to collaborate with Colombo's ministries and departments to alienate lands from the people of Vaakarai, informed civil sources in Vaakarai told TamilNet. While the Divisional Secretaries are under pressure to alienate lands to intruders from other areas in the island, the Governor to Eastern Province is busily engaged in identifying lands elsewhere along the strategic coast of Trincomalee to lease those lands out to US and other external actors, the sources further said.
Full story >>

Resettled Sinhala farmers oppose genocidal colonisation of Tamil village in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 December 2016, 22:25 GMT]
28 Sinhala families, who displaced from Ko'ndaichchi Cashew farm to Anuradhapura in 1990 due to the war and resettled back in the Ko'ndaichchi farm in the predominant Tamil-speaking division of Musali during the regime of Rajapaksa, are also opposing the latest Sinhala colonisation moves that are being spearheaded by the occupying SL Navy in Paasith-then'ral village coming under the GS area of Ko'ndaichchi. The fertile lands, owned by Eezham Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims with land deeds going back to almost 100-years-old from the times of British rule, are now being taken over silently by the occupying SL Navy, which has put up a naval base right in front of Paasith-then'ral tank after seizing the area from the de-facto administration of the LTTE in 2007.
Full story >>