None among political prisoners are real convicts, says released Tamil prisoner

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 January 2016, 23:25 GMT]
36-year-old Tamil political prisoner Jeneevan Sivarasa, who was released after being ‘pardoned’ by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on January 08 told TamilNet that almost none of the 230 Tamil prisoners currently languishing inside the prisons of Colombo had command responsibilities or even contributed to the ‘crimes’ they had been accused of. Most of those detained for decades and those given prison terms beyond the scope of their lifetimes were all innocent people like A.G. Perarivalan of Tamil Nadu who had no knowledge that the battery he was buying was to be used in an assassination. The act of continued imprisonment of these people itself constitutes a crime against humanity, Jeneevan Sivarasa told TamilNet in a video interview this week.
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Sirisena's Mahaweli Ministry continues demographic genocide in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 January 2016, 22:13 GMT]
The UNP government in 1984 kicked off a genocidal project of settling Sinhalese in large numbers in the Tamil-speaking district of Batticaloa in East with the same agenda of Sinhaliciation that took place in Trincomalee district earlier. Eezham Tamils were chased out of their villages as more than ten thousand Sinhalese were almost moved overnight by the SL Ministry of ‘Mahaweli Development’ to occupy the key areas in Batticaloa coming under the so-called Left bank of the B System. The SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the SL Minister of ‘Mahaweli Development’, is now carrying out the same project in a sophisticated manner, Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa said. 30,400 Sinhalese and have been settled under the Mahaweli programme in the district, which is predominantly Tamil-speaking while only 1,281 Tamil-speaking Muslims and 34 Tamils have been given lands, they said.
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Colombo continues to demographically erase Tamil villages in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 January 2016, 08:32 GMT]
Uprooted Eezham Tamils from Kanakar-kiraamam village in Ampaa'rai district complain that their lands have been permanently seized by Maithiripala Sirisena's Mahaweli Ministry in Colombo through SL Forest Department in December 2015. Colombo continues to deploy Sinhala military at Tamil settlements. The Tamil villagers who received permit lands in mid 1970s have been unable to renew their permits as they were uprooted from these settlements. The mechanisms that come under the provincial and central ministries operate with the motive of permanently erasing these settlements. Ever since 1956, when the Tamils in the district were chased out from their traditional and later settlements for the first time, the successive regimes in Colombo have operated against resettlement of Tamils in Ampaa'rai, Tamil civil officials complain citing the latest example of Kanakar-kiraamam.
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10th Anniversary of STF murder of Trincomalee Tamil students

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2016, 02:36 GMT]
Dr Kasippillai Manoharan and four other families will be commemorating the tenth anniversary of the murder of their sons extra-judicially executed by the Special Task force (STF) of the Sri Lanka Government on the 2nd January 2006. The high school students, all then nearly 20-years old, were spending an afternoon at a seafront in Trincomalee when the allegedly planned crime took place. Dr Manoharan told TamilNet that while he is disappointed with the Western powers who are acquiescing with Colombo to impose 'victor's justice' in SriLanka, he will continue to fight to seek justice for his son, and expressed his appreciation to the support he has received from individuals and organizations for his work.
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De-militarize Mu’l’likku’lam in 2016: Uprooted Tamils in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2016, 00:31 GMT]
Rt Rev Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Sinhala Archbishop of Colombo, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leaders, Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and the civil organisations in Mannaar district should demand the Sri Lankan State to fully de-militarize Mu’l’lik-ku’lam GS division of Musali division in the district in 2016 and enable more than 1,200 Eezham Tamils, who were uprooted from their village in September 2007 to resettle in their village, said the representatives of the uprooted Tamils, who have not received any response for their repeated appeals in 2015. The villagers talking to TamilNet in December 2015 urged the concerned stakeholders to come forward in demanding full de-militarization of Mu'l'likku'lam in 2016. The villagers managed to mark the dawn of 2016 at their own church in Mu'l'lik-ku'lam on January 01.
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Tamils should identify natural allies against US-UK military geopolitics: Viraj Mendis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 December 2015, 23:09 GMT]
The strategic location of the island of Sri Lanka becomes hot and very important, especially when the paradigm of war becomes more dominant than the peace paradigm at a global level, says Viraj Mendis, a progressive Sinhala rights activist who is a long-term supporter of the struggle of Eezham Tamils. In an in-depth interview to TamilNet Palaka'ni, the exiled veteran activist details his understanding on how the successive external powers, pre-occupied with the war-paradigm and the geopolitical significance of the island in a military sense in the Indian Ocean Region, have shaped the ‘genocidal consciousness’ of the Sinhalese to their benefit in the past as well as at the present. The Eezham Tamils, particularly their diaspora, should have no illusions about who their adversaries are and whom they should rely upon as their natural allies in their continued freedom struggle, he says.
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SL Governor Austin Fernando schemes Sinhala colonization of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2015, 16:14 GMT]
Colombo’s colonial Governor to Eastern Province, Austin Fernando, who is a former Defence Secretary of the occupying Sri Lankan military, is working behind the scene to settle Sinhala colonisers in Batticaloa district. A settlement is being schemed close to the railway station at Punaa’nai. The nearby ‘Sinhapura’ military camp situated on Batticaloa – Colombo Road is being transferred into a Sinhala military cantonment. Additional lands to the extent of 1,500 acres have been seized for this military purpose. Both the sides of the road stretching to 1.5 km along the main road have been fenced off with barbed-wire. There were only five Sinhala families at Pu’naanai before 1990. Now, 29 families have been settled down. The SL Governor has instructed the SL civil officials to increase the figure to 56 families in the near future.
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TPC success depends on geopolitically addressing national question

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 December 2015, 18:22 GMT]
Tamil People’s Council (TPC), a 30-member body launched in Jaffna on 19 December consisting of three-member co-chairs that includes NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, has gained momentum and hype despite the shortcomings in the formation of an institution bringing together political, religious, civil activists and professionals at a critical juncture. The TPC is set to meet on Sunday to discuss the way forward to articulate the Tamil outlook for a political framework in resolving the Tamil national question. Those involved in the move should rise above the average introvert dialectics and conceive the TPC as a platform in articulating the real aspirations of the nation of Eezham Tamils to the outside geo-political ‘conflict managers’, who seek to contain the aspirations of the people, Tamil political observers in the island said.
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Occupying Colombo seeks 450 Tamil deserters enlisted by SL military in North

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 December 2015, 23:36 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka is silently deploying targeted search operations to arrest conscripted Tamils, who are absconding from their military enlistment in the Northern province. A total of 450 of 600 Tamils, recruited to SL military through deceptive methods after 2009, have escaped from the genocidal grips of the SL military in the North, informed sources told TamilNet on Monday. They were deceived with the promise of non-military civil work and good salaries, but after they signed up, they were given a basic form of ‘disciplinary’ training and showcased in parades with military uniforms against their wish. Later, they were deployed as slaves in the military-run farms inside the so-called High Security Zones (HSZ). Now, the absconding victims have become subjects for search and arrest operations by the SL military. The victims are now seeking protection.
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UN failing Eezham Tamils recognises rape, genocide by IS

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 December 2015, 23:02 GMT]
The United Nations has said that Islamic State may have committed genocide in trying to wipe out the Yazdi minority and has urged the UN Security Council to refer the issue to the International Criminal Court for prosecution, reported Reuters on Thursday, after the UNSC listening to a Yazdi rape victim at its meeting on Wednesday. In 2009, the UNSC deliberations took a line that the Tamil struggle was long blighting the SL State, and thus allowed Colombo’s rape and genocide of Eezham Tamils and further institutionalisation of structural genocide in the island. Meanwhile, any attempt by Tamil polity to tell the truth is intimidated by certain media writers that such a polity is earning the wrath of the USA and India.
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Heroes Day addresses in diaspora slam ‘US-Sri Lanka’ agenda on Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 November 2015, 17:52 GMT]
Thousands of Diaspora Eezham Tamils gathered in several cities across the globe on Friday marking Tamil Eelam Heroes Day and passed a sharp message to the unitary State of Sri Lanka and to the powers that steer the UN discourse to whitewash the genocidal State through perfunctory investigations and biased presentations of past crimes for their geopolitical benefits. Eezham Tamils were already aware of the nexus between New Delhi and Colombo. Now, Tamils have also realised the real nature of the smoke-screen discourses in Geneva and New York, which have actualized the ‘US-Sri Lanka consensus resolution’ upholding the Colombo-centric unitary State of Sri Lanka. Eezham Tamil activists of the first- and second-generation diaspora responded with direct messages to the US-Colombo nexus at Oslo in Norway and at Fribourg in Switzerland.
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Occupied Tamil Eelam marks Heroes Day amidst ‘Sri Lankan’ harassment

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 November 2015, 13:54 GMT]
Tamil Eelam Heroes Day was observed in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils amidst intensified monitoring by the occupying military intelligence operatives of genocidal Sri Lanka on Friday. The university community in Jaffna, comprising the student union, teachers association and the union of non-academic staff gathered at Parameasvarar temple, which is located inside the campus of the University of Jaffna, to mark the largest event after 2009 to be organized braving the intimidating presence of the SL military intelligence operatives. Earlier in the day, former TNA parliamentarian and Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam lit the flame of sacrifice at the historic Nalloor temple. A special prayer was held at St. Patricks Church in Jaffna.
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Mystery surrounds death of ex-LTTE member in Maanthai West

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 November 2015, 15:18 GMT]
A 40-year-old former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who witnessed a four-member squad attempting to murder a person at Moon'raam-piddi on Friday, was found dead Saturday morning with his neck tightened by a piece of cloth, news sources in Mannaar said. Mystery surrounds his death as the family and those close to him have dismissed suicide as the cause of his death. The deceased was identified as Thanapalasingham Veerasingham, a father of three, who was living at Moon'raam-piddi in Iluppaik-kadavai of Maanthai West in Mannaar. Thanapalasingham was sleeping in front of his house, as he was to leave for fishing Friday morning around 4:00 a.m., the family said.
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Opposition leader should address sovereignty concerns of Tamils: Former Land Commissioner

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 November 2015, 21:16 GMT]
The United States of America, locked in a geopolitical competition with China in the Indian Ocean Region, is primarily concerned with its own interests. All the stakeholders are mainly concerned of their stakes with regards to the geo strategic location of this island in the Indian Ocean. This was also the case during the times of the World Wars. Now, the USA wants to be in control after ousting the Chinese. India was also interested in the same. The same way, Tamils should also be concerned of their primary interests, said Karthirgamathamby Kurunathan, a retired land commissioner, urging the Tamil polity not to allow the Sinhala politicians to buy time and space through the manoeuvrings in the United Nations. The Tamil polity should be sharp in countering the age-old dragging techniques, he told TamilNet. The opposition leader should address the sovereignty concerns of Tamils, he said.
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Condition of hunger-striking POWs, political prisoners worsens

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 November 2015, 16:28 GMT]
At least 31 Prisoners of War and political prisoners are either forcefully admitted to prison hospitals or their health has seriously declined as their fast-unto-death campaign reached the 5th day on Thursday at New Magazine prison in Welikade, Bogambara prision in Kandy and in Anuradhapura prison, former parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told journalists in Jaffna today. There are Tamils from all the districts, up-country, Muslims and even Sinhalese who are alleged or accused for their involvement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) among the prisoners who are on hunger-strike, informed legal sources in Colombo told TamilNet. A wide-scale shut-down is to take place in the country of Eezham Tamils on Friday demanding release of the POWs and the political prisoners currently jailed in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka.
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Family of imprisoned Muslim joins Tamils demanding release of political prisoners

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 November 2015, 16:37 GMT]
The wife and a daughter of a 41-year-old Tamil Muslim political prisoner, who is languishing in the Sri Lankan prison in the South since January 2009 after being alleged of assisting the LTTE, joined the Tamil mothers on Tuesday morning at Mannaar where they staged a protest demanding the Sri Lankan President Maithiripala Sirisena to release their kith and kin, who are on a fast-unto-death campaign. Along with Ms Segu Mohadeen Noorjahan, Tamil mothers walked from St. Sebastian Church in the city of Mannaar towards the District Secretariat appealing for the release of their family members. “If this is the plight of the declared-prisoners in jail, what is going to be the response on the missing Prisoners of War and others believed to be in secret prisons,” the mothers asked the journalists covering the protest.
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Tamil POWs, political prisoners announce fast unto death

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 November 2015, 23:44 GMT]
Rejecting the offer by the SL State to release them on bail, Tamil prisoners of war and political prisoners on Friday announced that they are going to begin a fast-unto-death protest in the prisons starting from 08 November on Sunday. Giving a last chance to the president, prime minister, attorney general and justice minister of the SL State to conduct negotiations with Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the Tamil prisoners who are going to commence the hunger-strike said they are determined to wage the struggle. Upon their demise, the SL Prsident Maithiripala Sirisena should come in person to receive their dead bodies and hand them over to the medical faculty of the University of Jaffna and that their organs should be donated or used for medical research, the Tamil prisoners said. “We are determined like Thileepan”, a POW told TamilNet.
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Tamil leadership need not shy away or react to unfair challenge coming from Sumanthiran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 November 2015, 03:34 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil leadership should positively consider seeking pardon from the Tamil-speaking Muslims, explaining the dynamics, going back to the root of the evil lying in the mentality of the sections of elite of all sides in upholding the colonially created Colombo-centric genocidal State in the island and its patrons outside, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island. The Muslim grievances, as often highlighted by them, do not begin from the LTTE eviction of Muslims from Jaffna. They start from Sir. P. Ramanathan, lawyering and achieving impunity for the Colombo-centric Sinhala leadership’s crimes against Muslims in the Puththa'lam pogrom of 1915. The dynamics of Colombo, now added with international partners in deploying ‘lawyers’ to seek impunity continues to this day, the activists said.
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ITAK leaders stand exposed as powers deceive Tamils with hypocritical investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 October 2015, 21:48 GMT]
Refusing to look at the affairs of the nation of Eezham Tamils through their homeland in the North-East and being bent on approaching the Eezham Tamils through Colombo-centric geopolitical designs, the West and the UN mechanisms have nakedly exposed themselves even before the ink went dry on the OISL report and the ‘US-Sri Lanka’ co-sponsored resolution in the UN Human Rights Council. In the meantime, the leaders of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) stand exposed for their lack of statesmanship and for the failure of not clarifying TNA's position regarding the deceptive path of ‘domestic’ investigations. The ITAK leaders have also failed the nation of Eezham Tamils by not demanding the release the Tamil political prisoners, who have been rotting in the jails of genocidal Sri Lanka for years.
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Wild elephant rampage on resettled villagers continues unabated in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 October 2015, 16:37 GMT]
The systematic ignorance by genocidal Sri Lanka to arrest the menace caused by wild elephants that go on rampage killing and maiming resettled Tamils in former LTTE-administered areas in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa, is an intentional tactic to chase Tamils permanently away from their native villages and colonise Paduvaankarai with Sinhalese, Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet on Friday. In the meantime, Yogarasa Ganesh the chairman of Rural Development Society (RDS) in Katchatkodi, a village situated in Paddippazhai division of Paduvaankarai region, confirmed that there has been no action despite repeated appeals through GS, DS officers and the provincial councillors. The SL authorities were giving better protection to Sinhala settlers in the nearby villages, the RDS chairman said when contacted by TamilNet.
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