Conceiving and designing strategy for ‘Struggle and Development’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 August 2013, 20:08 GMT]
Tamil activists have to reject outright any suggestion of ‘partnership’ with genocidal Colombo in the international ‘development’ agendas. They should insist and wage a struggle for a direct deal, writes an academic in Jaffna cautioning against a current move of the Establishments in linking development with the PC-LLRC process, aimed at the annihilation of the identity and territoriality of the nation of Eezham Tamils. Development doesn’t come without justice. Every generation has to be provided with the struggle of its own times, as a righteous struggle only brings in true social progress and development. Genocide-facing Tamils have to conceive and design strategies of their own for a paradigm of “Struggle and Development,” he further said.
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Vanni teachers ‘ordered’ to back Rajapaksa candidate

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 August 2013, 23:47 GMT]
Pre-school teachers who come under the so-called Civil Defence Force have been instructed by three UPFA operatives named Ilangko, Sutharsan and Inthiran, who were ex-LTTE members, now operated by the SL military, to woo voters for UPFA candidate Geethanjali Nakulesvaran, news sources in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet on Saturday.
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NPC election is no mandate test: Sivagnanam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 August 2013, 23:11 GMT]
The environment under which the people of the North and East were able to give a mandate [based on Vaddukkoaddai Resolution] in 1977 is not available today or not given to us by the international as well as domestic situation, said Mr CVK Sivagnanam, a candidate for the Northern Provincial Council election held by Colombo in September with the active support of New Delhi and Washington. The NPC election is based on what is already there [in the unitary constitution of Sri Lanka in the last 25 years]. Therefore, outcome of this election could never be interpreted as conveying any mandate, Mr Sivagnanam said, adding that he is personally consistent in the stand, “two nations in one country” and the Tamil right to self-determination. We would take up a people's struggle in the event of Colombo blighting the NPC, he further said, responding to questions put forward by TamilNet on Saturday.
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SL State divides communities in East: Batticaloa MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 August 2013, 19:29 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government is doing the opposite to what it wants portrayed to the outside world with the beautiful term ‘reconciliation’, declared Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Batticaloa, Mr P. Selvarasa, Friday, at the agricultural development meeting held at the Batticaloa District Secretariat. Allowing the SL State officials to collaborate with the Buddhist prelate of Mangalarama vihara while there is a court order against the illegal settlement in Paddip-pazhai division and literally banning the Tamils at Navakkiri in Vellaa-ve’li division from accessing their tank to engage in their livelihood of fresh water fishing, is nothing else than setting one community against the other, he said citing the latest reports.
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Navi Pillay signals balanced preliminary assessment as Rajapaksa continues LLRC-farce

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 August 2013, 16:41 GMT]
The AFP, Press Trust of India (PTI) and The New Indian Express have given significance to a story originating from Colombo that SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday ‘bifurcated’ the SL Defense Ministry, which has been in-charge of the police as well as the three armed forces, by bringing the Police under a new ministry. In reality, the announcement is just a farce as both Defence Ministry and the newly created ‘Law and Order’ ministry remain under the same powerful minister who is none other than the SL President himself. Former Chief of Staff of the genocidal SL military, Major General (retd) Nanda Mallawarachchi is to be the Secretary of the new ‘police’ ministry. Both the PTI and the New Indian Express reports have also noted that the LLRC had recommended the SL government to exclude the police from the Defence Ministry's control.
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Theatres in Tamil Nadu unlikely to screen controversial ‘Madras Cafe’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 August 2013, 23:32 GMT]
The screening of contraversial film ‘Madras Cafe’, which has been declared as ‘anti-Tamil’ film by Tamil activists in Tamil Nadu, is facing protests across Tamil Nadu State and in Mumbai, Indian media reports said Thursday on the eve of the release of the film adding that the theatres in Tamil Nadu are unlikely to screen the film as the Theatre Owners' Association had left the decision of screening the film to individual theatre owners. In the guise of a fiction story and dubbed a thriller, the film portrays the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as terrorists, the Tamil activists opposing the screening of the film said.
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Tamil parliamentarians protest against Sinhalicisation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 August 2013, 22:54 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians in Batticaloa staged a peaceful protest in front of Paddippazhai Divisional Secretariat (DS) on Wednesday against the Sinhalicisation of Paduvaankarai, Kevu'liyaa-madu and Puluk-kunaavi. The SL police, operated by Colombo, was telling the protesters to leave the site arguing that a group led by the Buddhist prelate of Batticaloa Mangalarama vihara was coming to the site to stage a counter-protest. However, Tamil parliamentarians objected the explanation by the SL police and held the protest for one hour as planned.
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SL military aims to mar Ananthi meeting Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 23:43 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence in Jaffna on Wednesday staged a ‘protest’ against Ms Ananthi Sasitharan, the representative of thousands of Eezham Tamil women, who are demanding the Sri Lankan State to reveal the whereabouts of their husbands who were filtered away from the civilians in the final hours of the Vanni war by the SL military that had announced ‘general amnesty’ through the loudspeakers. Sinhala workers, intelligence operatives and some ex-LTTE members brought from elsewhere, were holding placards written in broken Tamil against Ananthi Sasitharan in front of the Jaffna Bus Stand. In the meantime, informed sources in Colombo said that the SL State was seeking to ‘influence’ certain foreign missions in Colombo to avoid UN Human Commissioner for Human Rights Navanetham Pillay meeting Ananthi, who is also contesting in the Provincial Council election on behalf of the TNA.
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Abducted Mannaar Tamil youth ‘escapes’ from Sinhala squad

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 08:50 GMT]
A Tamil youth engaged in removing sand legally in Kooraay area in Mannaar district was abducted on Monday by a group of 22 Sinhalese persons deployed by a Sinhalese trader from the South in sand removal in the country of Eezham Tamils. The Sinhala trader operates with the backing of the occupying SL military. The abduction took place while the Tamil youth was at the Anuradhapura office of the SL authority to renew his sand removal permit. However, the 21-year-old youth managed to escape from the custody of the abductors on Tuesday and made a complaint to the SL police in Ilupaaik-kadavai, news sources in Mannaar said. The ‘escape’ was reported after the Tamil villagers in Kooraay held 5 Sinhalese workers deployed by the Southern trader at the house of the Tamil victim.
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23 resettled Tamils slain in Batticaloa since 2009 by wild elephants

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 August 2013, 17:43 GMT]
At least 23 resettled Tamils have been killed in Batticaloa district by wild elephants that have been brought into the jungles close to Tamil villages by genocidal Colombo's Forest Department after 2009. Disregarding the repeated objections of the people, the SL Forest Department has brought in more wild elephants from Hambantota where Rajapaksa government recently launched ‘Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport’. The resettled people have been complaining to the SL Police and civil officials each time a person is slain by the wild elephants brought in from the South.
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Diplomacy could work only when mass mobilisation is ground reality: Guruparan

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2013, 21:09 GMT]
Do we have an environment to talk about Tamil nation and its right to self-determination? Do we have to ask for internal self-determination? Should we go step-by-step in achieving the goals? Do we have the right to call for a referendum? Could we insist on a transitional administration? Are they all realistic in our situation: asking these questions at the Kumar Ponnambalam Memorial Lecture to a fully packed audience in Jaffna on Sunday, Jaffna University Law Lecturer Kumaravadivel Guruparan said that we cannot wage a struggle by seeing what is in the international law, as international law is purposefully ambiguous leaving space for further discourses, and as what needed more than the international law are the mass mobilisation and the backing of powerful friends.
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Ampaa'rai GA, DS officials step up Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2013, 02:53 GMT]
Deputy Elections Commissioner of Batticaloa District, RMAL Ratnayaka, has recently instructed Paddippazhai divisional secretariat to register the Sinhalese, who have recently encroached into the public lands in Kevu’liyaa-madu, on the voters' registry of the district, civil sources in Batticaloa said adding that Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa district is being accelerated while the Sri Lankan Government Agent of Batticaloa Ms PSM Charles, who is a Tamil, is on vacation and the SLGA of Ampaa’rai district, Mr Neel de Alwis, is tasked by Colombo as the acting SLGA of Batticaloa district. The Deputy Elections Commissioner has recently visited the Sinhala encroachers and handed over forms to register in voters’ registry for 25 families.
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Katu-pælælla, Kanu-pælælla

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2013, 00:36 GMT]
The entrance shutter made of thorns
The gate panel made of poles or logs
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Cheanaik-ka'ndam, Thava'naik-ka'ndam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 August 2013, 01:54 GMT]
The paddy field under slash-and-burn cultivation
The paddy field that is cultivated under seasonal lease
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TNA’s woman candidate in NPC elections seeks appointment with Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 August 2013, 01:17 GMT]
“As a representative of the kith and kin who have been struggling for four years without knowing the whereabouts of thousands of family members who had surrendered to the Sri Lankan military in the final hours after the Sri Lanka Army had promised a general amnesty, and as the only woman taking part in the provincial council elections in Jaffna district representing the interests of war widows, I am looking forward for an appointment with United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navanetham Pillay, who is scheduled to visit the island soon,” said Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan, the wife of Ezhilan, the former Trincomalee Political Head of the LTTE and a mother of three girls, when addressing the press at Jaffna Press Club on Friday on her participation at the forthcoming Provincial Council elections in the Jaffna district.
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Tamil Nadu activists condemn India, USA for imposing 13A on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 August 2013, 00:01 GMT]
“Northern Provincial Council election is a farce. Conduct UN referendum for Tamil Eelam, NPC elections is only a step further in structural genocide” said an influential section of Tamil activists in Tamil Nadu on Saturday when they came together to stage a protest at Va'l'luvar-koaddam in Chennai organized by the May 17 movement. Condemning the Indian and US establishments for imposing wrong and non-descript solutions on Eezham Tamils, the speakers at the event also blamed the global outfits such as the International Crisis Group (ICG) for advocating solutions within the unitary structure of the genocidal Sri Lankan State.
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Colombo deploys extremist NGO to fund Sinhalicisation in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 August 2013, 16:00 GMT]
A Sinhala Buddhist extremist ‘NGO’ named ‘Helabima’ is being deployed by the occupying Colombo government to encourage the Sinhala people to occupy Tamil lands in the border villages between Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai. Major Bertie Perera, a Sinhala military official appointed by the Colombo government coordinates the structural genocide programme being carried out in the name of ‘development’. He collaborates with Helabima’s colonization operative Sunil Chandrakumara and the Buddhist prelate of the Batticaloa Mangalarama Vihara to enact Sinhalicisation of Kevu’liyamadu village in Paddip-pazhai division.
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Professor Sanmugadas clarifies to media on London conference

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 August 2013, 17:07 GMT]
Amidst threats coming from Sri Lanka’s UGC Chairperson, Military Chief, and government news portal against a conference in London, un-named but alleged by them that it is being organized by “Tamil Eelam Government of the tiger terrorists in London,” Professor A. Sanmugadas, who is academically leading the World Conference on Tamilology currently being held in London, clarified to media on Friday about the nature of the conference. The chief guest for the inauguration of the conference on Wednesday was the director of the International Institute of Tamil Studies in Chennai and the Special Guest was the Registrar of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil [an Indian Central Government institution] in Chennai. None of the 124 papers of the conference is politically orientated, Sanmugadas said.
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Sri Lanka UGC threatens Tamil academics

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 August 2013, 11:15 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka’s University Grants Commission (UCG) will carry out “extensive investigations” about the participation of some Tamil university academics of the island in a conference in London, and will take “stern action” against them, said News.Lk, SL Govt.’s official news portal on Friday, citing SL-UGC Chairperson Prof Kshanika Hirimburegama. According to the Chairperson, the academics obtained permission to attend a Tamil Language seminar in London, but they were participating in an anti-Sri Lanka gathering. A conference that currently takes place in London, with the participation of Tamil academics from the island at the venue of SOAS, is a World Conference on Tamilology, felicitating centenary of Fr. Xavier Thaninayagam.
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Sinhala soldiers brutally rape Tamil mother in Poonakari, Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2013, 14:10 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on Tuesday evening brutally raped a Tamil woman, who had gone to the nearby shrub to collect firewood in Poonakari division of Ki'linochchi district. The 38-year-old mother of two was rushed to Poonakari hospital by the neighbours after her children discovered her at unconscious state. The victim has told the medical staff at Poonakari hospital that two Sinhala soldiers had forced her into a bush and brutally raped her after binding her legs with her hands using their belts. Around 6,000 Tamil families, dependent on agriculture and fishing, live in the heaviliy garrsoned Poonakari division where more than 30,000 Sinhala soldiers are stationed, committing all kinds of abuses on them. The latest rape victim is from Vinaasiyoadai village. Her husband is reportedly a former LTTE-member who is still in SL military custody.
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