Powers appeasing SL State risk future instability in the island: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 September 2018, 22:12 GMT]
The Tamil people value the sacrifices made by their liberation movement with the highest respect. However, the SL State and its military show relentless intolerance against every attempt by the Tamils in the North-East to honour the sites of their destroyed monuments. The attitude is counter-productive, not only to the SL State but also to the global actors, who continue to appease the SL government, which refuses to reform itself, alluded Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National Peoples' Front, in a recent interview to TamilNet. His comments come after witnessing the hostile acts of the SL military and the SL CID during the annual festival of Nalloor temple in Jaffna this month against the move to preserve the sacred nature of the memorial square of Lt. Col. Thileepan, who sacrificed himself in a fast-unto-death campaign in 1987.
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Tamil Nadu police detaining leader of May 17 Movement condemned in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 August 2018, 21:43 GMT]
Thirumurugan Gandhi of May 17 Movement, who has been in Europe for almost three months closely working with Eezham Tamil diaspora and exiled Sinhala activists in Europe, was detained twice in India this week when he returned home from Europe. The right of Tamil Nadu activist is being oppressed in his own country because he was standing up for the rights of Eezham Tamils and other oppressed nations, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the president of Tamil National Peoples Front. The TNPF organised a protest to raise awareness on the matter among Eezham Tamils in front of the bus stand in the city of Jaffna on Friday.
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SL President's secretary threatens Jaffna University against May 18 Remembrance statue

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2018, 23:15 GMT]
Kalupage Austin Fernando, the secretary to SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has threatened the Jaffna University administration and the student community not to embarrass the SL President by proceeding with their plan of launching a memorial statue within the premises of the University of Jaffna in remembrance of Eezham Tamils who perished in the genocidal war in 2009. A highly placed source at the administration of the University of Jaffna told TamilNet that Mr Fernando as threatening the university community in a teleconference meeting at the presence of Vice-Chancellor Professor R. Vigneswaran. Austin Fernando, who maintains a close rapport with the Sinhala Buddhist Establishment and Dayaka of several Buddhist temples, is also well connected to foreign Powers influencing the affairs of the genocidal State in Colombo.
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Grassroots stand united against militarisation of PTK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2018, 14:48 GMT]
The representatives of grassroots organisations in Puthuk-kudiyiruppu (PTK) representing all sections of the people in the division unanimously resolved against militarisation and demanded the civil authorities and politicians for de-militarisation of PTK. A Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian received flak for his proposal to SL military for an alternative venue to relocate its camp currently situated at Ponnambalam hospital created during the times of the de-facto State of Tamil Eelam under the LTTE.
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Jaffna University students add a breath of fresh air to principled politics: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2017, 23:40 GMT]
The leader of Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF) Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has welcomed the student community of Jaffna University for taking a well-researched principled position in advancing the struggle of Tamil political prisoners in the island. Mr Ponnamabalam, an experienced human rights lawyer who is also well-versed on the political foundations of the Tamil struggle, was particularly appreciating the appeal document prepared by the Student Union of the Jaffna University on Tuesday. The fact that the University community has come forward to struggle for the right of the political prisoners, legally arguing why Tamil prisoners were entitled to international rights as Prisoners of War under the Geneva Conventions and demanding the most responsible actors to at least recognize them as political prisoners is a “game changer”, Mr Ponnambalam said.
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Tamil protesters confront Maithiripala Sirisena in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 October 2017, 07:34 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who was visiting Jaffna Hindu College amidst black flag protest by Tamil activists and politicians, was trying to score a point with his Jaffna visit and ‘engagement’ with the Tamil protesters. Talking briefly to protesters wavering black flags against him, he was trying to defend his position by saying he was planning to have an internal meeting within his government before arriving at a decision regarding the demands put forward by the hunger striking Tamil political prisoners. The protesters categorically refused to buy his argument, demanded immediate decision from him as he is vested with executive powers to release the prisoners. The protesters vowed to step up the protest even further if he failed to act within short time as the health situation of the protesting hunger strikers has worsened on the 20th day of their fast-unto-death campaign.
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Students, families mark 11 years since genocidal massacre of 53 school girls

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2017, 20:58 GMT]
The 11th anniversary of 53 Eezham Tamil school girls and staff who perished in the genocidal aerial massacre, which was known as Chegnchoalai (Sencholai) killing in 2006, was emotionally marked by the families of the victims at Vallipunam in Mullaiththeevu and also by hundreds of Jaffna University students, academics and the staff inside the university premises in Jaffna on Monday. SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa was briefed at least 12 hours before the genocidal attack by Roshan Goonatilake, the commander of the SL Air Force. SL Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was instructing the state-owned broadcast apparatus to carry a radio message of warning against school children attending LTTE trainings, said a group of rights activists who have gathered details on the preceding events in Colombo in the final hours before the fateful day.
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Pulak-kudiyiruppu experience: Resettlement without de-militarisation is nightmare

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 July 2017, 23:36 GMT]
Due to utter ignorance by the civil administration of the SL State, the ITAK sitting in the opposition and collaborating with the occupying Colombo, international backers of genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’ and the agenda-driven Colombo-based NGO community, which only opens its purses where manipulation, deception and hijack is needed for their foreign ‘development’ and ‘environment’ masters, the 54 Tamil families of Pulak-kudiyiruppu, who managed to secure the release of 48 acres of their lands on 01st of March, still languish without proper security to their school-going children under the continued militarisation of Keappaa-pulavu. In a video interview to TamilNet this week, the families that continue to hold on to their village, narrated their destitute situation and the negligence they have been facing so far.
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Eezham Tamils in Jaffna demand release of Thirumurugan and activists detained in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 June 2017, 19:34 GMT]
“Tamil people were demanding international justice. But, the global forces were using the plight of Eezham Tamils and transformed the entire accountability process into a domestic one. As victims, Tamils are now again at the receiving end of injustice. The May 17 Movement and its coordinator Thirumurugan Gandhi have been carefully perusing the discourse in advance and alerting the Tamils ever since the resolutions being passed at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2012”, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam while talking to media at a protest held in Jaffna on Thursday. The protest, organised by the TNPF condemning the arrest of Tamil activists in Tamil Nadu received the participation of Premachandran-led EPRLF, TELO, Tamil civil society activists, the federation of public organisations and the academic and a few students of the University of Jaffna.
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Tamil Diaspora youth protest in front of Indian Embassy in Switzerland

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 June 2017, 21:41 GMT]
Eezham Tamil Diaspora activists in Switzerland mobilized a protest on Friday in front of the Indian Embassy at Bern, demanding the release of Tamil Nadu activists Thirumurgan Gandhi from the May 17 Movement, and Daison, Ilamaran and Arun from the Tamil Vidiyal Kadchi. The four activists have been detained without trial in Puzhal Jail by Tamil Nadu State Police under the influence by the New Delhi Establishment since 21st of May, following a peaceful candle vigil Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance at Marina Beach in Chennai. The Indian Embassy officials responded with ‘surveillance threat’ by taking photos of the activists.
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Keappaa-pulavu struggle continues, only one tenth of lands released

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 March 2017, 23:40 GMT]
Lands belonging 54 families were released in Pulak-kudiyiruppu of Keappaa-pulavu GS area after 29 days of continuous struggle on Wednesday. The families of Pulak-kudiyiruppu entered their lands in a mood of victory. However, the happiness lasted only a few minutes till they arrived premises of their lands to witness their houses and trees, which were standing there in full shape as late as on 30 January this year, had been completely erased to the grounds by the occupying Sinhala military that had a different plan of permanently seizing their lands. Many of the families were caught in pain and trauma caused by the memories of the loss of their loved ones in the genocidal onslaught. In the meantime, more than 128 families of Keappaa-pulavu and the remaining 30 of 84 families from Pulak-kudiyiruppu vowed to continue to the struggle until their lands completely released.
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Keappaa-pulavu protesters question silence of foreign diplomats, challenge ‘TNA optics’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 February 2017, 11:38 GMT]
Tamil women-led protesters in Keappaa-pulavu on Saturday questioned the silence on the part of the diplomats from the international community who have been to Keappaa-pulavu on ‘field trips’ in the past. The Head of Keappaa-pulavu Women’s Development Organisation Ms S Chandraleela told TamilNet on Saturday that in addition to releasing their occupied lands, the SL military should be withdrawn from the roads used by their children from their village to school. The people on the struggle are concerned of retaliatory abductions from the SL military, which is engaged in surveillance against the protesting families. In the meantime, SL Air Force remove the paragraph of shoot-at-sight warning from the notice boards it had put inside the lands, a day after the threat was exposed by media with photographic evidence.
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Thousands mobilize in Ezhuka Thamizh in Batticaloa, denounce genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 February 2017, 20:50 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils mobilized in Batticaloa on Friday denouncing the unitary State model of genocidal Sri Lanka currently being envisaged in the constitutional proposals in the South. The SL regime in Colombo has discarded the proposals submitted in open and transparent manner by the Tamils in the North-East, the organizers of the event, Tamil People’s Council, said. The entire constitutional process has become a secretive discourse while the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act is used to muffle the freedom of expression of Eezham Tamils in the North and East, the speakers, including Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, said in their speeches. There should be full-scale de-militarization. The 6th Amendment to the SL Constitution and the draconian PTA should be scrapped for a free and fair constitutional process to take place in the North-East.
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Colombo intensifies military surveillance on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 December 2016, 22:23 GMT]
The occupying military establishment of genocidal Sri Lanka has tightened its military intelligence grip on Eezham Tamils deploying various tactics within the last few days in Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Mullaiththeevu, Ki’linochchi, Jaffna and Mannaar, according to reports coming from all the corners of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. Fresh deployments of so-called ‘Special Task Force’ commandos, a full-fledged combat military administratively coming under SL Police has been silently moved into several locations in the Jaffna peninsula ‘integrating’ SL military intelligence in a sophisticated manner. There are also fresh attempts to acquire lands for intelligence outfits being expanded in Jaffna. In the meantime, several new tactics are being deployed by the SL military intelligence in other parts of the Tamil homeland.
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15,000 Tamils attend historic uprising in Jaffna, reject Unitary Constitution, ITAK draws flak

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 September 2016, 16:10 GMT]
Ezhuka Thamizh (Let Tamil rise up), the biggest uprising to take place in the country of Eezham Tamils after the Pongku Thamizh uprisings during the times of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), declared on Saturday that the ‘consultations’ staged by Colombo for the new constitution completely failed to include the genuine political aspirations of the Tamil people. The Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) with a hijacked leadership and the powers operating it, received a serious message from the people at the grassroots, regardless of the organisers of the event, that the people on the ground are fully prepared to replace the ITAK hierarchy once a good leadership takes shape to lead the nation of Eehzam Tamils in the next phase of their struggle. It is now time for NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran to prove the case, commented Tamil political observers in Jaffna.
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Eezham Tamils in Mullaiththeevu protest against expansion of ‘SLNS Gotabhaya’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 August 2016, 16:54 GMT]
The people of Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday confronted SL Survey Department officials who were trying to seize 617 acres of lands at Vadduvaakal, where the final onslaught took place in May 2009. The area has been seized by the SL Navy for the so-called ‘Regional Security Centre’, monitoring the coastal belt of Mullaiththeevu towards the Bay of Bengal. The lands that belong to private owners have been illegally occupied since 2009 and there are crucial evidences still intact in the area, the people say. The SL Department officials had informed the owners in advance that their lands were to be surveyed for three days starting from Wednesday. The protesting land-owners were accompanied by TNA and TNPF politicians. The protest comes also after SL Deputy Defence Secretary recently visited the area in an attempt to convince the land-owners to accept alternative lands elsewhere.
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Sinhala ethnocracy emboldens with confidence that IC would not confront Colombo: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 August 2016, 19:24 GMT]
The SL Attorney General's Department is contemplating to transfer the cases of Tamil political prisoners to Colombo from Vavuniyaa. At the same time, the SL courts have acquitted Sinhala soldiers indicted in a 1996-massacre of Tamils. Recent findings have also revealed that the SL Police was behind the torture and the eventual murder of Tamil youth. All these reports bring Tamils back to the fundamental question whether the ‘Sri Lankan’ judicial system could ever be trusted in delivering justice, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam. All these have taken place, as there is a sense that the International Community – for geopolitical reasons – would rather have this government in power than the previous government, which had a different dispensation internationally, he said adding that the SL government is “so sure that the International Community would not do anything to question its actions.”
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Tamil politicians blame SL Military for enticing Sinhala students with triumphalist chauvinism

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 July 2016, 00:21 GMT]
It was a section of Sinhala students who went against the decision taken by the Jaffna University administration to allow Kandyan dance as a stage-event inside the venue hall and traditional Tamil music in the welcome procession outside the hall on Saturday. It was the SL military intelligence that enticed the Sinhala students to act in contrary to the decision, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF). The SL Police on Wednesday arrested a Jaffna University student leader merely on a complaint made to them. The SL police has acted without conducting an initial investigation, he said. In the meantime, EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran said there was no point in punishing Sinhala or Tamil students. Instead, the investigations should focus on how these students were manipulated by the external forces to indulge in violence, the former MP said.
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Sinhala, Muslim participation in Tamil genocide remembrance answers IC detractors

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2016, 20:22 GMT]
A section of Sinhala and Muslim students took part in the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance organised by the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) on Wednesday and a group of Catholic Sinhalese from the South were also present at St. Paul's church at Mu'l'livaaykkaal. At Mannaar, Muslim representatives were present at the memorial event organised by ITAK Youth Wing leader V.S. Sivakaran. The Sinhala and Muslim participation sends message to International Community and UN actors refusing to accept genocide in the island. The very first monument to be erected in remembrance of those who perished in Mu'l'livaaykkaal was also sculpted by a non-Tamil in the island, although the identity of the artist could not be revealed. The statue, having artistic significance has been silently put up near the St. Paul's church by the Tamil villagers of Mu'l'livaaykkaal, news sources in Vanni said.
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‘Regime change’ didn't bring any change for Tamils: NPC Councillors, TNPF and ITAK MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2016, 15:18 GMT]
While R. Sampanthan, M.A.Sumanthiran and Mavai Senathiraja belonging to Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) were on a collaborating course with the Sri Lankan regime on the advice from Washington and New Delhi, ITAK Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sritharan, who has also been alleged of playing into the hands of the US Embassy, which got him to collaborate with M.A. Sumanthiran, went on record on Friday at a protest in Jaffna stating that he had no faith in the ruling regime and said the current regime has failed in building confidence and building peace with Tamils. Sritharan was protesting along with NPC Councillors and TNPF politicians in laying siege to the Divisional Survey Office at Thirunelveali in Jaffna.
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