Two more skeletal remains of female victims surface at Mannaar killing fields

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 July 2018, 23:00 GMT]
Skeletal remains of an adult and a child, both females, have surfaced on Tuesday at the mass grave being excavated in the premises of former CWE building in the city of Mannaar. So far, 60 individuals, including six children, have been spotted. Of these, thirty-three have been fully exhumed. The excavators have seen gunshot-like holes in the skulls exhumed a few days ago. There are also injuries caused by sharp metals, indicating torture. The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka was stationed in the locality since the 1990s.
Full story >>

Maithiripala ‘coordinates’ relentless land grab at massive-scale in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 July 2018, 22:49 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Forest Conservation Department and Wildlife Conservation Department have grabbed tens of thousands of acres of lands in the eight districts of North-East. These departments, coming under the unitary state system based in Colombo, are refusing to hand over even a few hundred of acres of these lands to the Divisional Secretariats and other mechanisms, which are also controlled by the same unitary system. A meeting convened by the SL Presidential Secretariat on Friday ended up strengthening further the position of the SL Forest and Wild-Life departments, Tamil officials who attended the meeting said. The Ministry of ‘Mahaweli Development’ and Environment, to which SL President Maithiripala Sirisena is the responsible minister, plays a central role in determining the extent of lands that could be released back, the officials told TamilNet on Saturday.
Full story >>

TELO councillor of NPC questions ‘achievements’ of TNA hierarchy

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2018, 18:34 GMT]
35 years have elapsed since pogrom of Black July, which was waged against the Eezham Tamils with the sponsorship of the UNP regime at that time. The incumbent SL Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe of the UNP, was a cabinet minister at that time when his fellow cabinet ministers were actively backing the pogrom. The late J.R. Jayawardene, who was the president at that time, came with the infamous declaration ‘war for war, peace for peace’ and escalated the pogrom. This month, Ranil Wickramasinghe has been visiting Jaffna to deceive the Tamil people with so-called development, says NPC Councillor Vinthan Kanagaratnam of the TELO. He called it a shame that the TNA parliamentarians were collaborating with the UNP-SLFP government even after failing to win anything tangible from them.
Full story >>

Remembering 35th Black July with Tamil resolve

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 July 2018, 07:51 GMT]
This week, Eezham Tamils in the homeland and the Tamil Diaspora mark the 35th anniversary of the collective trauma of the ‘Black July’, the SL state-sponsored genocidal pogrom that claimed the lives of more than 3,000 Tamil residents in the south of the island in 1983. The key lesson learned throughout the years of the pogroms, massacres, genocidal war and finally the post-war structural genocide, which is aimed at dismantling the existence of Eezham Tamils as a nation, is a hard reality. The genocide originating from the Mahawansa mind-set always gets its way, not because of the strength of the Sinhala nation, but mainly because the external State actors sustaining the Colombo-centric approach, is that lesson. Thus, the collaborationists and the negotiators among the Eezham Tamils were always doomed to failure, Tamil political observers in Jaffna commented.
Full story >>

Boat of Eezham Tamil activist set on fire in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 July 2018, 19:20 GMT]
Unknown attackers have set fire to the fishing boat belonging to a Tamil fisherman, Mr Sujeepan Sebamalai, who played a key role in mobilising against the southern poachers last month, on 20th June. The latest attack has taken place on Saturday night at Mu'l'liyaan in Kaddaik-kaadu in Vadamaraadchi East of the Jaffna district. The boat was fitted with an outboard engine and fishing tools at the time of the destruction, the sources in Kaddaik-kaadu said on Monday.
Full story >>

Role of powers with colonial legacy, abetting contemporary Sinhalicisation, requires scrutiny

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 July 2018, 20:33 GMT]
The National Housing Development Authority (NHDA), which comes under the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, is silently transferring 5 acres of lands to the notorious British-trained ‘Special Task Force’ (STF) to expand its commando post into a permanent camp to defend the controversial Sinhala colony at the strategic entrance to Jaffna at Naavat-kuzhi. The colonisation scheme, initiated during the rule of Rajapaksa brothers, received state-patronisation after the regime change backed by the West. The colony is planned to control the arteries of the city and to Sinhalicise Jaffna city itself. The trend is also evidenced in the latest move by the occupying Colombo to station its troops at the Jaffna Fort, which is ‘developed’ with the blessings, funding and research coming from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Full story >>

British archaeologists, Indian contractors abet Colombo's concealment of mass graves in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 July 2018, 21:44 GMT]
Human skeletons, including that of children, believed to belong to the massacred Eezham Tamils during the times of genocidal war, have been discovered at two separate locations in the city of Jaffna between 15th and 20th of July. At the Jaffna Fort, bones of a child along with a golden ring engraved with the initials ‘SA’ has been recovered. Following this discovery, the officials of Colombo's Archaeological Department have sent Tamil excavators home while allowing the Sinhala and the British excavators to proceed with the work. On Friday, another alleged mass grave discovered at Naayanmaar-kaddu in Ka'l'liyang-kaadu in Jaffna seems to be an extension of the Chemma'ni killing fields from the times of Chandrika Kumaratunga's genocidal rule of Jaffna in the mid-1990s.
Full story >>

New Delhi fails to update Jaffna on Palaali airport plans

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 July 2018, 22:09 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has repeatedly been claiming that Colombo was proceeding with its plans to renovate the runway at Palaali in Jaffna with Indian assistance allowing flight services from South India to Jaffna. There were also reports that New Delhi was reviewing a plan for “regional airport” as before the times of war. In the meantime, the occupying military of Colombo, which has been deploying Palaali runway as its airbase since 1977, is rushing ahead with planting coconut and palmyra saplings in the lands seized from the uprooted Tamils in five GS divisions. The SL authorities have taken the lands citing a war-time Gazette notification from 07 August 1987. However, the office of the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Jaffna, has no information from New Delhi regarding India's plans on the airport, informed sources at the Northern Provincial Council said.
Full story >>

Skulls with bullet-like holes excavated in Mannaar mass grave, women and children among victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 July 2018, 23:22 GMT]
Human skeletons of massacred people including children and women embracing each other have emerged in the 37 day-long excavations of the brutal massacre site discovered at the entrance to the Tamil-speaking city of Mannaar island, which has been under the control of the Sinhala military. There was no doubt the slain victims were subjected to a brutal massacre, said an excavator on condition of anonymity. The excavators have discovered gunshot holes in the skulls. A young person's skeleton was found along with the skeleton of an embracing adult, visibly exposing the brutality of the massacre. So far, the unearthed skeletal remains give a head count of 29. However, the extent of the killing field is still expanding, possibly reaching out of the premises.
Full story >>

Uprooted Mu'l'lik-ku'lam Tamils adopt Ira'nai-theevu approach, enter their lands seized by SL Navy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 July 2018, 19:21 GMT]
More than 200 Tamil families were living in Mu'l'lik-ku'lam eleven years before, in 2007, when the Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka seized the coastal village facing towards the Gulf of Mannaar. Last year, the occupying SL Navy said it would consider handing over a small pocket of 77 acres of the total 5,000 acres back to the people, after ten years of protests and finally the people waging a continuous protest for 38 days in March and April 2017. However, the SL Navy didn't clear the lands and hand them over to the people despite repeated requests. The promise was a deceptive move aimed at containing the protest. However, around 50 of the 200 families have now chosen to enter the lands by themselves. They are now confined to the lands, which the SL Navy said it was prepared to release, Catholic priests in Mannaar told TamilNet on Wednesday.
Full story >>

Colombo steps up shadow war against NPC Chief Minister Wigneswaran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 July 2018, 21:29 GMT]
The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council, Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, has stated that he would be opposing the level of militarisation even if the SL military was to behave in a manner attracting the people of the North by doing good deeds. In his weekly Tamil statement formatted as Q&As, Wigneswaran was responding to the latest comment coming from Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake, the commander of the SL military, that the NPC CM was trying to cause a rift between the SL military and the people in the North. In the meantime, Tamil political observers in Jaffna said Colombo had staged a series of hostile events in the recent days with the hidden agenda to checkmate the emerging symbolic leadership of the mainstream Tamil politics.
Full story >>

SL Forest Department seizes agricultural lands of Eezham Tamils in Paduvaan-karai

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 July 2018, 22:48 GMT]
The so-called Forest Conservation Department of occupying Colombo has seized a small pond, known as Ka'lik-ku'lam, and almost 500 acres of lands in the vicinity of Unnichchai 6th Mile Post. The Eezham Tamil villagers have been using the area for Cheanai (slash-and-burn) cultivation for decades. The villagers, who have resettled after the end of war and who also received housing through the ‘National Housing Development Authority’, complain that they are unable to continue with their livelihoods of agriculture, fresh-water fishing and animal farming as a direct consequence of the latest occupation, which has been carried out by the SL Forest Department.
Full story >>

SL High Court in Vavuniyaa tricked again into postponing hearings on TPP case

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 July 2018, 19:35 GMT]
The Attorney General Department of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has once again managed to get the SL High Court in Vavuniyaa to postpone the long-awaited hearing on a case involving three Tamil political prisoners (TPP) by two months. After re-transferring case back to Vavuniyaa from the so-called Special Court in Anuradhapura, a previous hearing at the Vavuniyaa was also postponed at the request of the SL Attorney General's Department, which was arguing that it needed time to locate a witness, who was supposed to appear for the hearing in Vavuniyaa. In the meantime, Vavuniyaa High Court Judge Sasi Mahendran, well versed in the particular case, has been transferred away from the High Court in Vavuniyaa. Judge Mahendran has been critical of the role played by the AG Department.
Full story >>

NPC CM declines participation in Colombo's unilateral task force for so-called Development

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 July 2018, 23:20 GMT]
“National Unity and Integration cannot be forged by foisting so-called development on the politically affected people of the North and East. The political settlement of the problem of the Tamil speaking people of the North and East should precede any such development processes,” said Chief Minister of Northern Province Justice C.V. Wigneswaran in a reply sent to SL President Maithiripala Siriena on Monday. He was declining to accept being nominated to the overwhelmingly Colombo-controlled 48-member SL Presidential Task Force to direct, coordinate and monitor ‘development activities’ in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Full story >>

Genocidal Sri Lanka seizes ancient coastal hamlet of Tamil-speaking aborigines in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 July 2018, 12:22 GMT]
The occupying Colombo is systematically absorbing Ilakkanthai, a fishing hamlet and an ancient settlement of Tamil Veddahs, located in the southeastern sector of Moothoor East in Trincomalee district. The coastal village was maintaining close links with neighbouring Paddaa'li-puram and Champoor and was previously under the control of LTTE. There were at least 210 families before the people were fully uprooted due to the war in 2006. After 2010, the occupying SL Navy didn't want the Veddahs to resettle in Ilakkanthai. The aboriginal people were given housing at Paaddaa'li-puram together with the Veddahs from Veera-maanakar. Later, the SL Navy reduced its presence there. The ancient hamlet of indigenous people is now being absorbed by the Forest Conservation Department of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Collaborationist sections of TNA lose significance, Wigneswaran holds key to unified Tamil polity

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 July 2018, 18:20 GMT]
The policy outlook adopted by the US-led bandwagonism of the West and that of India is tightly in sync with each other. Their modus operandi is nothing else than pure appeasement of the accelerating Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism in the South. They would be prepared to sacrifice the democratic aspirations of Eezham Tamils as their manoeuvrings are aimed at gaining strategic access to this island. However, they find themselves in a delicate situation today as they could no longer dictate the terms of Tamil political debate through the collaborationist sections of the TNA, says Political Analyst S.A. Jothilingam in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Friday. Thanks to the role played by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the mainstream discourse is getting shaped to the point that it is now practically possible to forge a unified Tamil polity for Tamils once again, he says.
Full story >>

TNPF protests against Colombo's move to militarise Jaffna Fort

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 July 2018, 19:06 GMT]
The Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) staged a protest outside the Jaffna Fort against the move by the occupying SL military to militarise a section of the Jaffna Fort. The TNPF protesters also blamed Emmanuel Arnold, the Mayor of Jaffna and the TNA politicians who collaborate with the SL Governor in North Reginald Cooray, who is advocating militarisation of Jaffna Fort.
Full story >>

SL Police in Champoor blocks remembrance of Tamils massacred by SL military

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 July 2018, 19:56 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala Army of genocidal Sri Lanka indiscriminately massacred more than 130 Eezham Tamils in Moothoor East in Trincomalee district on 07th and 08th of July in 1990, launching a so-called cordon and search operation. The people of Champoor and other villages commemorate the massacre victims every year. Last year, they marked the event on 07 July at the presence of TNA Parliamentarian K Thurairatnesingham putting up a basic structure in remembrance of those who perished. This year, the SL Police informed the people on Friday that it has prohibited the memorial event, which was scheduled to take place on Saturday. The United States Indo-Pacific Command is grooming the marine force of genocidal Sri Lanka at Champoor.
Full story >>

Jaffna University silent to Colombo's pressure, motives behind Fort excavation questioned

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 July 2018, 23:17 GMT]
The Colombo-based Archaeology Department of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka is pushing for the presence of the SL military inside the Jaffna Fort. The move hints a deep-rooted motive of checkmating the native Tamil academics and their institutions from engaging in independent research. Mainly depending on the funds and the academic focus of the UK-based ‘UNESCO Chair on Archaeological Ethics and Practice in Cultural Heritage’ of the Durham University, which is flowing through the Colombo-centric unitary mechanism, the academics of the Faculty of Arts and the Department of History, avoid opposition to the Sinhala militarization of the Jaffna Fort, they further commented. In the meantime, the occupying SL military has started to put up foundation structures for a military point, just 100 meters close to the archaeological excavation site, on Friday.
Full story >>

Tamils need native movements to confront Colombo-centric environmental exploitations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 July 2018, 23:49 GMT]
Many recent reports from the eastern coast of the North-East indicate a widespread pattern of various corporate and state-centric exploitations targeting the natural resources of the territorial sea and the coast of the North-East. Colombo-based corporates and traders are exploiting export-related businesses, be it sea cucumber export to China, fake mangroves and minerals to the USA and Japan, or mining sand for shipping to the neighbouring state of Maldives. On top of this, Colombo-centric State-to-State relationships originating from geopolitics-driven ‘development’ narrative, as well as military to military ‘exchanges’, are challenging the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in a big-scale along the territorial sea and the strategic cost.
Full story >>