Assembling freedom of visiting UN expert put under acid-test in North-East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 July 2019, 23:52 GMT]
The representatives of the families of persons subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the SL military have complained to the visiting United Nations Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association that their freedom of organisation is almost non-existent in the occupied Tamil homeland. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, the UN special rapporteur, met the representatives of district-level organisations of the kith and kin of the missing persons as well as the rights activists and journalists in Jaffna and Trincomalee this weekend. The activists who attended the meetings with the visiting UN rapporteur in Trincomalee said that the SL Police and the intelligence wing of the SL military were harassing them both before and during the closed-room sessions on Sunday. The CID personnel were also closely watching the people accessing the meeting venue.
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SL Police shoots and kills young Tamil motorcyclist at Chuthu-malai in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 July 2019, 23:54 GMT]
The SL police has shot and killed a 23-year-old Tamil man who was riding a motorbike on Maanippaay - I'nuvil Road in Jaffna around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. Another youth, injured in the incident, has managed to escape with fellow motorcyclists. The police was quick to claim that the man belonged to a criminal sword gang and that they had fired as the group of six in three bikes didn't adhere to the instructions to stop. However, the residents suspect the SL police was manipulating evidence by planting a sword at the site of the incident, especially before allowing the media to photograph the scene. The youth group had come from Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi 40 km away from Maanippaay. It is unlikely that the group had such a large sword visibly during their long trip across several police posts, the journalists who inspected the site and talked to the residents said.
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Hunger-striking 62-year-old TPP’s health worsens

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 July 2019, 16:23 GMT]
Thevathasan Kanagasabai, the former Director of the Tamil unit of the ‘National Film Corporation’ whom the judiciary of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka had sentenced to life under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), has been on a dry hunger strike since Monday. The health condition of 62-year-old activist has worsened as he has been fasting without food and water, fellow prisoners said. Unable to afford the expenses to a proper lawyer, Mr Thevathasan was defending himself during the cases. The Tamil political prisoner did not have a chance to prepare evidence on his behalf as he was under detention for several years under the PTA. Now, he has appealed against the verdicts demanding bail, enabling him to prepare for his appeal or released through a political decision.
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Vedanta sections in North-East divided over backing Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 July 2019, 12:36 GMT]
Apart from the secular Eezham Tamil activists, including the Saivites and the Catholics, some sections of Vedanta Hindus have braved their North Indian inclination and condemned the escalating heritage genocide against the Tamils in the North-East. The North Indian Vedanta line wants to sustain the anti-Tamil nexus between the Hindutva and Theravada Buddhism. It is also orientated against Tamil-Muslim unity. However, Swami Chidakashananda of Chinmaya Mission Jaffna, who took part in the mobilisation heeding to the call made by the Saivaist Then-Kayilai Aatheenam at Kanniyaa was addressing media at the Jaffna Press Club on Wednesday. He said the accelerating Sinhala-Buddhicisation of Tamil heritage sites in the North-East must be stopped through exerting international pressure on the SL State.
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Suppression of Kanniyaa protest, yet another lesson for Tamils: Trinco councillor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 July 2019, 14:15 GMT]
The discrimination meted out to the peaceful protesters at Kanniyaa in Trincomalee on Tuesday was yet another lesson for Tamils, says elected Piratheasa Chapai (PS) Councillor Vipooshan Chandirarajah, who was reflecting upon the level of SL injustice he witnessed during the occasion. The way the SL State's security and justice system chose to deal with the rally has exposed the inherent militarised nature of the state apparatus. The system advances the chauvinistic Sinhala-Buddhist agenda as its foremost interest. The deployment of more than five hundred Army and Police personnel with riot control and STF commandos was uncalled for at a peaceful protest, he said. Five busloads of Sinahal goons had been brought into the venue in advance, and how could they be allowed to enter Kanniyaa heritage site while a restriction was in force limiting tourism to the ‘archaeological’ place, he asked.
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Sinhala goons confront protesters at Kanniyaa, priest, landowner subjected to “hot water assault”

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 July 2019, 11:31 GMT]
The occupying SL Army and the police were blocking more than five hundred peaceful protesters on Anuradhapura Road 1 km away from Kanniyaa Hot Wells on Tuesday when the Eezham Tamil grassroots activists mobilised to express peaceful resistance to the SL State-sponsored act of heritage genocide. At the same time, the SL Police had allowed tens of Sinhala goons to enter the temple site in advance to be prepared to assault Tamils if anyone managed to reach the venue. Heated arguments ensued between the Sinhala police and the Tamil protesters. Finally, unable to withstand the protesters, the SL Police allowed two representatives to proceed to Kanniyaa Hot Wells. Saivaist priest Akaththiyar Adika'laar and Mrs Ganesh Kokilaramany, the landowner and trustee of the temple, accompanied the police. On their way, Sinhala street sellers who had mobilised at the entrance poured hot water at them.
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Eezham Tamils set to mobilise against heritage genocide in Kanniyaa, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 July 2019, 19:03 GMT]
Following the call from the Saiva priest of Thenkayilai Aadheenam at Kanniyaa, Trincomalee, the grassroots of the Eezham Tamils are mobilising for a unified protest against the heritage genocide at Kanniyaa Hot Wells. Former Chief Minister of Northern Province Justice CV Wigneswaran expressing his solidarity named the joint activity against Tamils at Kanniyaa as an “open act of genocide”. The pattern of the cultural and heritage destruction as well as the landgrab by the various SL Departments has become a widespread phenomenon especially after the Easter Sunday attacks, he said in a statement issued in Tamil on Monday. In the meantime, the District Organiser of the Tamil National People's Front in Trincomalee Dr Ra Shrignaneswaran urged the UN agencies such as the UNICEF and UNESCO as well as the foreign governments that fund the SL State not to back the heritage genocide.
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Colombo wants to grab lands once again for power plants in Champoor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 July 2019, 23:49 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala-Buddhist unitary state in Colombo has once again schemed to acquire the agricultural and residential lands of the Eezham Tamils in Champoor in Trincomalee for the construction of two power plants. The project seems to have been outsourced to a Japanese firm this time. The Tamil people were protesting against the controversial project as the SL authorities came to survey the locality last week. Former Provincial Land Commissioner to East, Kathrigamathamby Kurunathan, who made a trip to help the Tamil landowners earlier this week, condemned the latest acquisition of lands as a fundamental violation of the human rights of the resettling Tamils. Furthermore, the land expert characterised the project as detrimental to the environment, which has already been compromised by the five cement plants already constructed in the eastern port city.
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ITAK's failure brings Sinhala extremists to Jaffna's entrance with challenging ceremony

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 July 2019, 09:49 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna has hurriedly organised a ceremony, Puṇya Mahōtsavaya, at the controversially erected Buddhist ‘Sammidhi Sumana’ Vihara at the entrance to Jaffna city at Naavat-kuzhi in Jaffna on Saturday evening. The construction of the stupa is yet to complete. However, the SL military has announced the move to coincide with the first-year Kumbhabhishekham of the nearby Tamil Saiva temple of Siva-thedcha'naa-moorththi, which has been constructed by a Tamil Saivist organisation in Jaffna. The latest ‘confrontation’ has come as the elected civic council (Piratheasa-chapai) with a majority of ITAK (TNA) members was tricked into withdrawing its legal objection to the construction of the Vihara by the SL Minister of Megapolis & Western Development, ‘Patali’ Champika Ranawaka, a well exposed extremist of the militant section of the Sinhala Buddhist establishment.
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Trustee vows to take up legal fight for restoration of Kanniyaa temple

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 July 2019, 07:29 GMT]
The Sinhala SL Government Agent (District Secretary) of Trincomalee District, NAA Pushpakumara, has been liaising with the SL Presidential Secretariat in Colombo and facilitating the SL Archaeology Department to resume the deconstruction of the base structure of Pi'l'laiyaar temple at the disputed heritage site of Kanniyaa Hot Wells. Mrs Ganesh Kokilaramany, who is the land-owner and the principal trustee of Pi'l'laiyaar temple, went to file a complaint with the SL Police. However, the Police showed four documents to her in an attempt to justify the resumption of the controversial work by the SL Archaeology Department. SL Presidential Secretariat has given go for the construction of the disputed Buddhist ‘chaitya’ by dismantling the construction of 200-year-old Hindu Pi'l'laiyaar temple at the private lands that belong to Mrs Kokilaramany.
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SL Archaeology Department resumes disputed ‘chaitya’ project in Kanniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 July 2019, 18:12 GMT]
Openly violating the promise extended to Mano Ganesan, the SL Minister of Hindu Religious Affairs and National Integration on 10th June 2019, the occupying Colombo's Archaeology Department has resumed the controversial dismantling of the base construction of the old Saiva temple of Pi'l'laiyaar at the heritage site of Eezham Tamils in Kanniyaa, Trincomalee three days ago. The SL Archaelogy officers engaged in the dismantling claimed that SL Minister Mano Ganesan had agreed to such reconstruction when the Saiva Priest of Then-Kayilai Aatheenam, Thavath-Thiru Akaththiyar Adika'laar, visited the disputed site on Thursday. The officials were violating the promise extended by themselves and the monks that they would not proceed with the disputed dismantling/construction work at the site.
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Colombo not prepared to return military-seized lands belonging exiled Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 July 2019, 20:39 GMT]
Suren Raghavan, the SL Governor to North, has told 71-year-old Maheswary Thambirajah, whose lands the occupying SL Army had seized for military purposes, that the properties which she had transferred to her daughters were unlikely to be released back to the rightful owners as they were staying outside the island. The mother of seven met the SL Governor on Wednesday seeking his support to exert pressure on the SL government in Colombo to release her lands back to the rightful owners. The SL Government could only consider providing alternative lands for those who were residing in the island and that too at a distant locality in Vanni, the SL Governor has told the mother.
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Occupying Colombo's justice system ridicules Tamil mother fighting to get her lands released

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2019, 21:17 GMT]
TNA parliamentarians-cum-lawyers such as President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran have failed politically and legally to challenge the SL Defence Ministry deploying the argument of ‘national security’ as a pretext to seize the lands of Tamil landowners. The SL Court of Appeal (CoA) in Colombo, delivering a recent determination has gone to the extent of claiming that “these are matters in relation to National Security, which need not and should not be discussed and probed openly”. The Sinhala judge, Mahinda Samayawardhena, was also ridiculing the petitioner, 71-year-old Tamil mother of seven Mrs Maheswary Thambirajah by stating that “[p]lanting coconuts cannot be more important than national security.” The 54 acres of lands in question at Aasaip-pi'l'lai-eattam in Ezhuthu-madduvaa'l in Thenmaraadchi Jaffna is the locality where the occupying SL Army's 52 Division Headquarters is situated.
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Toxic cancer medicines transported from South for improper disposal in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 July 2019, 22:59 GMT]
Unused and outdated cancer treatment medicines, which are extremely toxic to humans and animals, are being transported from Anuradhapura Cancer Hospital and disposed through an average medical waste incinerator at Thellip-pazhai Cancer Hospital, informed medical sources in Jaffna told TamilNet this week. The equipment is not made to handle such a large quantity of cytotoxic drugs at necessary high temperature. The disposal tool at use doesn't meet the required standards for burning the poisonous human-made chemicals that turn into dioxins, which could cause many new types of cancers to the resettling Eezham Tamils in Valikaamam North, the informed health-workers warned. Several truckloads of outdated cancer medicines have been disposed throughout the last three years, they said.
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Photos from Tamil feast of uprising in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 July 2019, 18:17 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamils from all walks of life got together on Saturday to mark a Pongkal feast at the small temple for Neeraaviyadi Pi'l'laiyar at Naayaa'ru in Mullaith-theevu. The locality is exposed to Sinhala Buddhicisation, erection of controversial Buddha statue and other associated structures while the SL State-run ‘Archaeology’ department backing the militant sections of Sinhala Theravada Buddhists. The occupying Sinhala Army stationed at the locality has been grooming the monk who wants to transform the entire area into a Sinhala Buddhist enclave. The marking of the temple feast on Saturday evolved as a manifestation of Pongku-Thamizh resistance.
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Unprecedented uprising marked at Sinhala-Buddhicised Naayaa'ru in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 July 2019, 20:16 GMT]
Eezham Tamil grassroots activists from the Northern and Eastern provinces transformed the mobilisation for the feast of their deity, Neeraaviyadi Pi'l'laiyaar in Naayaa'ru in the Mullaiththeevu district, into a successful uprising, establishing it as a wave of unceasing Pongku Thamizh. They were braving the harassments of the occupying Sinhala police, military and the extremist Sinhala-Buddhist section, Sinhala Ravaya, that had come to the locality with a confrontational attitude on Saturday. The grassroots activists-cum-devotees came from all directions from six of the eight districts in the North-East. The scheduled 108 Pongkal pots were increased to 150 as more than four hundred people from all walks of life took part in the emotional marking. Hindus, Christians and non-believers came together in the sense of Tamilness. The mobilisation has taken place through the social media.
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SL military, Sinhala monk exploit poverty among Tamils in East for religious conversion

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 July 2019, 23:12 GMT]
A Sinhala Buddhist monk, Ven Katugastota Mahindalankara thero, stationed at Mayilang-karaichchi village in Vaazhaich-cheanai, 31 km north of Batticaloa city, has been operating a Theravada Buddhist Dhamma School targeting conversion of poverty-stricken Tamil children into Buddhism since 2014. The Sunday school, named ‘Mahindalangkara Dhamma School’ is functioning at the Buddhist temple called Sri Bodhirajaramaya (also named Sri Mahindarama Viharaya). The monk has also arranged a Sinhala lady teacher, L Sisiliya, to teach Sinhala language to the Tamil children in Mayilang-karaichchi for some years. For the last one month she is also teaching Sinhala at her residence, Tamil rural society activists told TamilNet adding that the Sinhala Buddhist vihara establishment was systematically attracting the poverty-stricken Tamil children at a village where all other facilities remained neglected.
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Trinco DS infringes 13th Amendment by allocating lands to Buddhist hermitage at Kanniyaa: TNPF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2019, 20:24 GMT]
The intruding extremist Sinhala Buddhist monks at Kanniyaa have been demanding the Divisional Secretariat to allocate four acres of lands, and the Divisional Secretary had reportedly agreed to allocate a land plot at the extent of one acre. The move was not adhering to the item numbers 2 and 2.7 of the 13th Amendment, 9th Schedule, says Dr Ra Shrignaneswaran, the deputy leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), who is also the district organizer of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF).
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Fishing by intruding colonists hampers livelihood of Tamils in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 July 2019, 21:17 GMT]
Sinhala colonists from the Trincomalee district are intruding into the territorial waters of Eezham Tamils in Vaakarai located to the north of Batticaloa (Koara'laip-pattu North division). The occupying Sinhala navy and the SL fisheries authorities are backing the illegal deployment of purse seines by the Sinhala fishermen. In the meantime, the SL military is harassing the Tamil fishers who engage in fishing using legally allowed methods, the Head of Vaakarai Fishers Society T. Baskaran told TamilNet. The SL military is also backing the former TMVP paramilitary (Pi'l'laiyaan faction) personnel to engage in the exploitative fishing activities, he further said.
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SL military in Jaffna hurriedly constructs Buddhist vihara in ‘HSZ’ lands in KKS

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2019, 23:33 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka is silently and hurriedly erecting a Buddhist vihara at Thaiyiddi in Kaangkeasan-thu'rai (KKS) in Jaffna. The construction is taking place inside the military-held former High-Security Zone area which has not been released back to the people. Tamil civic member Shageevan Shanmugalingam from Valikaamam North (Thellip-pazhai) Divisional Council told TamilNet on Monday that he was turned back by the SL military when he went there to see the construction. In the meantime, journalists have managed to photograph the structure from a distance, exposing the project. New Delhi talking about the ‘development’ of the KKS port and upgrading the Palaali airport without ensuring de-militarisation, is paving the way for socio-economic and cultural Sinhalicisation of the coastal stretch of Eezham Tamils in Valikaamam North, Tamil activists in Jaffna said.
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