Structural genocide targets Kudumpimalai despite Tamil protests, media focus

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2016, 16:05 GMT]
Despite repeated protests coming from Village (GS) Officers in Batticaloa district against the recent assault on Tamil GS Officer Shanmugam Guru by a group of Sinhala soldiers, the occupying Sinhala military is continuing illegal logging of trees in the interior jungle hamlet of Kudumpimalai. The demograhic genocide is being spearheaded by Colombo’s Forest Department that comes under the direct supervision of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, Divisional Secretariat officials in Kiraan told TamilNet. The SL Forest Department is planning to create a Sinhala colony for agricultural farmers from the bordering Anuradhapura district and elsewhere in the South, they said.
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EPW article on Sinhala nationalism turns veiled threat to bailout Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2016, 20:35 GMT]
“After the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2015, Sinhala nationalism is on the retreat but would most certainly play the once powerful anti-state role it played in the1980s and 1990s, in the context of the new government’s reconciliation programme and war crimes investigations,” said a Special Feature appeared in June 4 issue of the Mumbai-based, Economic & Political Weekly. Does this correspond to Chinese ambassador in Colombo ‘advising’ Lankan leaders to see that reconciliation mechanisms suggested by the UNHRC do not themselves create new conflicts and advising them to put ‘development’ before reconciliation? Has it been timed by the EPW to set the tone at the current UNHRC sessions for a collective excuse of genocidal Sri Lanka by Beijing, New Delhi and Washington, asked Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Colombo's TID interrogates Tamil paramilitary operative

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2016, 22:48 GMT]
Colombo's ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) officers are interrogating a 29-year-old Tamil paramilitary operative from Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, in connection with the discovery of explosives in March at the village of Ma'ravanpulavu, informed sources told TamilNet on Wednesday. Sivarasa Sivakulan alias Murali, who has been a close confidant of former SL Military Commander in Jaffna Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe and who was actively involved in SLFP election campaigns in Thenmaraadchi during the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa, is the one subjected to interrogations at the notorious 4th Floor in Colombo. Mr Sivakulan has also been a close friend of the present SL Governor of Northern Province Mr Reginald Cooray, informed sources in Jaffna said. He was detained on 11 June.
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Tamil prison guard trainees subjected to genocidal assault in Colombo, stripped naked

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2016, 19:25 GMT]
More than 100 Sinhala prison guards and their student-trainees stormed the hostel residence of Colombo prison Monday night in a raid-like brutal assault targeting 40 Tamil prison guard students, who have been recently selected for training for the jobs of prison guards. The genocidal attack has taken place inside the hostel situated in front of Colombo prison and all the Tamil students are all still being held stripped naked and are subjected to torture and abuse inside the premises, one of the victims managed to inform TamilNet Tuesday evening over the phone. Eight Tamil students have sustained serious injuries, he said. The fate of 23-year-old V. Vasantharajah from Ooraath-thu'rai (Kayts), Jaffna, is not known to the fellow prisoners. He has sustained skeletal injuries, the source further said describing the assault as a genocidal attack.
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Family receives death threat for alerting GS officer on SL military exploitation of natural resources

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 June 2016, 22:07 GMT]
A family has been forced to seek security with its relatives and friends in Koara'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) DS division of Batticaloa this week after a two-member squad of ‘unknown’ persons, who came in a motorbike on Sunday (05 June) issued death threats to the family alleging it for passing information to the Village (GS) Officer about illegal logging and related military trade taking place at the interior jungle outlet of Kudumpimalai, 63 km northwest of Batticaloa city. On 01 June, Shanmugam Guru, the GS officer who was trying to investigate the exploitation was told by the armed persons in civil clothes that they belonged to SL military. When the GS officer asked to document their permit and identity, he was taken to nearby camp and brutally assaulted. The GS officer was told not to interfere in ‘military matters’. Now, a family has received death threat from ‘unknown’ persons.
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Multi-pronged structural genocide targets Periya-mu’rippu in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2016, 23:45 GMT]
Eezham Tamil villagers from Periya-mu'rippu, a remote hamlet situated 65 km southwest of Mannaar city and 18 km south from Mannaar - Medawachiya A-14 Road in Madu division, narrated to TamilNet this week how they were facing a multi-pronged structural annihilation coming through the hierarchy of genocidal Sri Lanka. While Colombo's structural and demographic annihilation continues unabated in the country of Eezham Tamils, Washington and New Delhi remain adamant in upholding the genocidal unitary State through their imperialist outlook shaped by geopolitics. The ultimate culprits have not only denied Tamils international justice, they also continue to impose a Colombo-centric ‘development’ agenda, which is coupled to their ‘counter insurgency’ operations at a trans-national level, Tamil political activists in Mannaar said, urging Tamils to understand where their responsibility lies.
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Illegal occupation of pasturelands continues unabated in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 May 2016, 07:55 GMT]
4,000 acres of lands, officially declared as pastureland in 1974, have been illegally seized by farmers having Colombo connections through their parliamentarians. The land situated between Rufus-ku’lam and Vammiyadik-ku’lam in Thirukkoayil division where Tamils constitute the majority of the residents, is known as Vadda-madu area and is situated 15 km southwest of Thirukkoayil. Tamil cattle farmers from Akkaraippattu complain that they are being deprived of sustaining their livelihood after the end of war.
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Genocide Remembrance at Mu'l'livaaykkaal passes strong messages to IC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2016, 17:22 GMT]
It would tantamount to betrayal of the victims of war if Tamils were to engage in ‘swap trade’ (pa'nda-maattu) exchanging accountability for the heinous war-crimes that were intentionally committed against them in the past with future reconciliation efforts, said the Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on Genocide Remembrance, which was collectively marked at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on Wednesday. In a carefully worded statement read out among the crying survivors of Tamil genocide, Mr Wigneswaran also delivered a sharp message to the member states of the ‘International Community’, the UN Human Rights Establishment, particularly its chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, not to ask Tamils to forget war crimes in return for the promises of federal solution.
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Mu'l'livaaykkaal remembrance gains momentum amidst renewed harassments

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2016, 17:18 GMT]
Elected councillors of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), former members of civic bodies, militant-turned political parties in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF) are engaged in organising memorial events in the country of Eezham Tamils amidst recently renewed threats and harassments against former Tamil fighters in the North and East. The SL military intelligence circles have been telling former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that there will be consequences if they were seen paying tribute to fallen LTTE members. Not only the LTTE fighters, all the Tamils who wanted to be free and stood with the LTTE in Vanni while all the global Establishments were directly or indirectly assisting Colombo were all real Tamil Heroes, said NPC Councillors who are organising a series of memorial events and meetings in the North.
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Colombo's attempt to survey church lands for permanent militarisation foiled at Poonakari

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2016, 08:29 GMT]
Three days after the last attempt to survey the lands belonging to 6 families and a Saiva temple at Paraman-kirray in the strategically situated Poonakari, the occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka attempted on Thursday to survey lands belonging to St. Jude's Church at Pa'l'lik-kudaa in Poonakari without prior notice. However, the Parish Priest of the church and more than 100 villagers blocked the survey department officials, who were brought to the spot with SL Navy escort, news sources in Poonakari said. In addition to the protest, the public spontaneously mobilised making a written signature campaign against the militarisation. The SL military intelligence operatives and SL Navy sailors were taking photos of the journalists who were covering the protest and recording video of the protestors in a threatening manner, news sources further said.
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Eezham Tamils protest against continued military land grab at strategic Poonakari

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2016, 18:35 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has planned to grab further 3,087 acres of private and permit lands in the strategically situated Poonakari, which is situated to the northwest of Ki'linochchi at the entrance to Jaffna Peninsula, Jaffna Lagoon and its location facing the Palk Bay and the opposite coast. The landowners of 6 families and an Amman temple blocked SL Survey Department officials for the 4th time at Paraman-kiraay on Monday. Around 6,000 Tamil families, dependent on agriculture and fishing, live in the heavily garrisoned Poonakari division where more than 30,000 Sinhala soldiers are stationed.
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War-affected, poverty-stricken Tamil villagers complain of neglect in housing assistance

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2016, 23:35 GMT]
104 Eezham Tamil families, who have resettled in Isaimalaith-thaazhvu village, which is located 3 km southeast of Murungkan town along Mannaar - Mathavaachchi Road in Naanaaddaan division, complain that they are being systematically neglected in all the housing schemes reaching Mannaar district. The families, mostly dependent on animal farming or agriculture close to their temporary huts, live below the poverty line, and are among the poorest in Mannaar district. Their houses were either demolished or taken over by the occupying SL military and the notorious Special Task Force (STF) in February 1997 during the brutal military operation code named ‘Edibala’.
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SL Governor condemned for justifying military-run preschools in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2016, 22:55 GMT]
NGO sources in Vanni recently released photos exposing the SL military-run preschools where Tamil children were being made to wear ‘Civil Security Division’ uniforms with CSD and Lion symbols of the occupying Sri Lankan military. More than 8,000 Tamil children are attending the military-run preschools in Vanni at 270 locations. While the SL military is refusing to hand over the administration of these preschools to the provincial council, the SL Governor to North, Reginald Cooray, has rushed to Vanni last week to justify continued military administration of these preschools. Former LTTE members at three different locations were forced to sing ‘Sri Lanka’ anthem in Sinhala and the CSD women had to garland him after dancing in Kandyan Perhara style, news sources in Vanni said. NPC Minister P. Aingaranesan has condemned SL Governor's description of SL military as a ‘development’ agency.
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Protest by dairy farmers brings EPC Minister, GA to inspect Sinhala occupation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 May 2016, 23:18 GMT]
After seizing around 16,000 acres of lands, which were officially allocated as grazing lands for the cattle in the Batticaloa district, more than 300 families of Sinhala colonisers from Polonnaruwa, Badulla and Moneragala districts have started to construct a Buddhist temple under the leadership of a former Sinhala policeman at Mayilaththamadu, which comes under Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district. The area was under LTTE administration during the times of war and peace until 2007. The occupying ‘Sri Lanka’ Army is having a artillery base near the new Buddhist temple, which has been put up after January 2016. The SL Government Agent of Batticaloa and Eastern Provincial Agriculture Minister inspected the illegal occupation as 259 Tamil dairy farmers started to boycott their daily supply of 3,000 litres milk to Milco from May 1st demanding immediate action.
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Key Tamil organisations boycott Colombo's dialogue meet in Norway

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 May 2016, 11:35 GMT]
The mainstream political and development related diaspora organisations of Eezham Tamils in Norway boycotted a so-called “high level” dialogue meeting organised by two NGOs funded by Norway on Wednesday. The Foreign Ministry of Norway has been advocating behind the scene to lock the Tamil organisations into the ‘dialogue’ meeting with the Netherland-based NGO operative Ram Manikkalingam, who is a close associate of former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike (CBK) and is an official member of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena's “Office for National Unity and Reconciliation”. At least 8 of the 12 invited organisations either boycotted or abstained from attending the meeting on Wednesday. Five of the boycotting organisations came out with a joint communiqué clarifying their position.
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Emboldened by EU delisting, genocidal Sri Lanka bans Tamil fishermen from entering their lagoon

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2016, 11:13 GMT]
Christy Lal Fernando, the director general of Colombo's Fisheries Department, who was on a sudden trip on Monday to Mukaththuvaaram, situated at the mouth of Kokku'laay lagoon in Karaithu’raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district, instructed the local authorities to block the native 300 Tamil fishermen from engaging in fishing in the lagoon. He was citing Colombo's declaration of sanctuary. In the meantime 1,352 Sinhala colonisers brought from South by the occupying SL military are engaged in large-scale illegal fishing in the same lagoon. The latest move by Colombo to block Tamil fishermen has triggered wide-scale protests on Tuesday. Mr Fernando was using complaints from Muslim fishermen from Pulmoaddai as excuse to announce the ‘ban’, Tamil civil sources in Mullaiththeevu said.
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No sign of ‘change’ in shifting genocidal military away from residential areas in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2016, 23:29 GMT]
The 11th Regiment of the occupying Sinhala Army, organized under the 233 Brigade of the military of genocidal Sri Lanka, is refusing to release the lands belonging to Murakkoddaan-cheanai Government Tamil Mixed School, situated 18 km north of the city of Batticaloa on Batticaloa – Vaazhaichcheanai Road zonal education officials told TamilNet on Friday. The SL military is also occupying the lands that belong to 25 Tamil families in the surroundings of the lands of the school. There is no sign of SL military making the area suitable for civil life. The school is operating at a different location 200 meters away from the seized lands. Continued militarisation of residential areas should be perceived by Tamils realising how large tracts of farm lands are being seized for demographic genocide by occupying Sri Lanka and how ‘Mahaweli’ scheme is conceived to complete the genocide in East.
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Colombo deploys military to carry out extra-judicial arrests, hostage-taking in North-East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2016, 21:41 GMT]
Colombo's military Establishment has stepped up white-van abductions and hostage-taking of family members of former LTTE members in the North and East in the recent weeks. At least 13 Eezham Tamils, including a woman, are being detained at the moment in the notorious torture chamber known as 4th Floor in Colombo, legal sources in Colombo said. Ex-LTTE members returning from employment abroad in the Middle East have been subjected to arrests at Katunayake airport. In the meantime, the ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID), operated from Colombo had taken two siblings of a former LTTE member in Batticaloa as hostages till the person they were searching for turned himself over to the TID, the sources in Colombo said. While claiming ‘good-governance’ and ‘reconciliation’ to outside world, the Colombo regime has reinforced Sinhala military rule in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.
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SL Foreign Ministry instructs visiting foreign citizens to North to obtain ‘military visa’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2016, 23:42 GMT]
The officials of Colombo's Foreign Ministry have started to cite an updated ‘news report’ in the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry website, dated 03 March 2016, in instructing foreign citizens travelling to the five districts in North to obtain ‘prior approval’ from the genocidal military of ‘Sri Lanka’, a Tamil visitor from Europe engaged in providing humanitarian assistance has complained to rights activists in Colombo this week. The latest ‘development’ comes after increased reports of abduction-styled arrests that have been carried out by Colombo's military intelligence in North. The Eezham Tamil visitor, engaged in humanitarian work from abroad for a long time, was recently lured into ‘think’ as ‘Sri Lankan’ by the ‘reconciliation’ desk of the foreign ministry in the country of citizenship.
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Zeid aids Sri Lanka's war-crimes in the treatment of Tamil PoWs, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2016, 18:22 GMT]
Denouncing United Nation's Human Rights Chief, Zeid bin Ra’ad, for labeling Sri Lanka's Tamil prisoners as "Security Detainees," Professor Boyle, an expert in international law, and who teaches at the University of Illinois College of Law, said that Zeid, as a military man, knows fully well that Tamil detainees are Prisoners of War (PoWs) under the Geneva Convention, and continuing to hold Tamil PoWs in prison after the cessation of hostilities [in 2009, nearly 7 years ago] is a war crime under the same convention. "Zeid is a GOSL Wolf dressed up in the Blue Clothing of the United Nations," Boyle said.
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