Tamil parties failing to single-mindedly demand genocide justice, more dangerous than ITAK

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2019, 14:11 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils need to objectively and scientifically distinguish the competing discourses of the collaborative politics of the ITAK and the actors claiming to counter the wrong narrative of the ITAK. While the ITAK is lost to ‘quisling politics’, there is a danger that the emerging alternative actors also succumbing to a rather dangerous ‘diplopia politics’, which is a double-option trap. The bedrock of both the deceptions is the overt orientation of relying upon the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), tasked to promote and protect the human rights and function also as the secretariat of the UNHRC. It is important that Tamils should engage and interact with UN bodies. However, limiting the demands to the inside-the-box thinking of that system is more disastrous than the ITAK advocating quisling politics.
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118 Muslim families demand occupying SL Navy to release their lands in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2019, 17:33 GMT]
One hundred and eighteen Tamil-speaking Muslim land-owners from the strategic coastal village of Chilaavath-thu'rai in Mannaar are waging a continuous protest since 20 February demanding the release of their 36 acres of lands. The SL military has been occupying their lands since 2007. Currently, the SL Navy is stationed in their territories. Despite repeated assurances by SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe who visited Musali division in January 2018 during the local government election campaign and the latest promise from the SL President Maithiriipala Sirisena that their lands would be released before 31 December were only false promises, the protesters said.
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Colombo sabotaging mass grave investigations and Tamils learning lessons on ‘hybrid’ paradigm

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 March 2019, 18:34 GMT]
The radiocarbon tests carried out on bone samples, which the SL authorities had dispatched to a US laboratory, as dating 377 to 615 years back has disappointed many people, who have valid reasons to believe that the recently exhumed mass graves in Mannaar are from the 1990s. The results obtained from Florida-based Beta Analytic (BETA) are being prematurely released by Colombo to imply that the period of the mass grave predates the genocidal war in the island by centuries. BETA has not issued an overall interpretation of all the samples or passed any judgement on the supplied samples as being adequate to conclude the core issue. Besides, there are several unanswered questions, most of them concerning the trustworthiness of the SL State-operated institutions handling the submission, as well as other artefacts revealing 1990s as the time of the crime.
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Intelligence establishments poised to escalate religious fundamentalism in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 March 2019, 21:10 GMT]
A group of Saiva Tamil activists, attempting to renovate a decoration-arch placed four years ago on the road to Thirukkeatheeswaram temple in Mannaar, were opposed by a section of Tamil Catholic people on Sunday. The Catholics alleged that the presence of the galvanised arch was a disturbance to Our Lady of Lourdes Church at the locality. The Lourdes church, which was a minor place of worship, had also been expanded into a big temple four years ago in Maanthai parish. The parish priest of nearby Vangkaalai was opposing the ‘renovation’ of the arch blaming that the Saivites were scheming a permanent concrete structure. The Saivites, in their turn, were arguing that they were only consolidating the damaged parts of the existing galvanised arch on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri which was to be observed on Monday. The dispute was blown out of proportion by the parties with vested interest.
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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 goes on dry hunger-strike amidst suffering asthma attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2019, 23:26 GMT]
31-year-old Tamil Prisoner of War, Sivaseelan Sivapragasam, who has been waging a hunger strike at Anuradhapura prison Saturday, refused to drink water starting from Tuesday. On Wednesday morning he was subjected to medical inspection at the prison hospital. Later in the noon, he was rushed to Anuradhapura hospital in a stretcher after suffering an asthma attack, fellow Tamil prisoners said. Sivaseelan was caught in trauma after his father, the only family member to be alive outside the prison, recently passed away, according to his fellow Tamil prisoners who talked to reporters at Vavuniyaa when they came for a hearing in the afternoon.
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Speeding SL military truck claims lives of three Tamils on A9 highway

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 January 2019, 18:43 GMT]
Three Tamil passengers riding a three-wheeler including its driver were killed on the spot when a speeding truck of the occupying Sinhala military crashed into the vehicle on Tuesday afternoon. The fatal incident has taken place on the A9 highway at Iyak-kachchi, north of Elephant Pass in Ki'linochchi district. Eyewitnesses said that a group of military soldiers rushed to the spot in a pickup vehicle immediately after the accident and transported the Sinhala military driver that seemed drunk away from the locality. By the time when the SL Police came, another SLA soldier had taken his place. The SL military started to claim that the wrong driving of the auto-driver had caused the accident.
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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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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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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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Racist UNP Minister from Ampaa'ari deploys ‘human rights’ to terminate Tamil school

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 December 2018, 11:06 GMT]
SL Minister of ‘Labour, Trade Union Relations and Social Empowerment’ Daya Gamage, widely known for his anti-Tamil politics in the district, has been working behind the scene to terminate the operation of the only government Tamil school in the town, Ampaa'arai Tamil Maha Viththiyaalayam, Tamil civil officials in the East told TamilNet this week. In 2016, the then Zonal Director of Education, Sunil Gunathilake, a Sinhalese, handed over the classrooms of the school to the ‘National Youth Corps’ under the influence of Mr Gamage without consulting the principal of the school, K Loganathan, they said. However, the racist minister has deployed a Sinhala journalist and the ‘Sri Lanka’ Human Rights Commission office in the district to harass the Tamil principal and a teacher to issue leaving certificates to the students in an apparent bid to cease the operation of the Tamil school, they said.
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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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Sinhala Navy pelts stones at Tamil fishers at Vadduvaakal lagoon in Mullaith-theevu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 December 2018, 10:07 GMT]
The sailors of the occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka's largest naval base in Mullaiththeev, SLNS Gotabhaya, which is located to the north of the narrow Vaddvaakal lagoon which links the largest Nanthik-kadal lagoon with the sea, have imposed an unofficial ban on fishing activities in the Vadduvaakal lagoon, complain the representatives of Mullaiththeevu Fishers Association. The SLN personnel started to warn the Tamil fishers to stay away from the lagoon which engulfs the SLNS garrison. When the fishers continued to engage in fishing and pleaded with the SLN that their families were dependent on the income from prawn fishing, the SLN sailors started to threaten the fishers away by pelting stones at them.
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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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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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Modi brings Maldives into Quad-agenda, announces USD 1.4 billion in assistance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 December 2018, 12:35 GMT]
The President of the Maldives, Mohamed Ibrahim Solih, who defeated the former pro-China president Abdulla Yameen in what was described by media as a shock election in October, is in New Delhi on his first ever state visit to a foreign country. Mr Solih, elected to power with an “India-First Policy,” has inked four pacts with New Delhi during the visit on Monday. During the occasion, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced USD 1.4 billion financial assistance to the Maldives, which is yet to find out how much it owes to China following the infrastructure projects initiated during the Yameen regime (2013-2018). New Delhi's diplomatic relations with Malé were in shambles during the ‘pro-China’ Yameen Government.
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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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