Tamil heritage projects launched as NPC's last-minute manoeuvre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 October 2018, 20:09 GMT]
The Northern Provincial Council, which was able to advance and confront the traditional food court of Tamils successfully, has failed to challenge the larger heritage-genocide of Sinhala Theravada Buddhist establishment at a civilisational level. However, as a last-minute manoeuvre before its expiry in one week, the NPC has managed to launch two heritage initiatives on Thursday in the country of Eezham Tamils, a Heritage Centre at Nalloor in Jaffna peninsula and a model heritage village known as Tamil's Civilisation Hub at Maanthai East of the Vanni mainland.
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Tamils should form global action group on mass grave investigation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 October 2018, 14:41 GMT]
Extreme racist sections of the Sinhala establishment in the south of the island would go to whatever extent possible in their attempt to cover up and suppress investigations on exhumed mass graves in the north, legal activists representing the kith and kin of enforced disappeared Tamils in Mannaar said. At the same time, the justice system of the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka is sophisticatedly derailing every attempt to conduct forensic analyses on the exhumed human skeletons by a neutral and international third-party, they said. The legal activists urged global Tamils to form an action group to demand international legal organisations such as the International Commission of Jurists to address the issue.
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Jaffna University students urge UN to act on releasing TPPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 October 2018, 17:36 GMT]
The Jaffna University Student Union has urged the United Nations to demand the SL State to free all the political prisoners, who are languishing in the prisons of the island without any attached conditions. The oppressive Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which is used to suppress the Tamils, should be abolished and the legal system should be conditioned to function impartially. The accountability of the SL State on enforced disappeared, should be addressed at an international level, the JUSU has urged the UN in an appeal handed over to the residential representative of the UN system in Jaffna on Monday.
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Colombo's NGO Secretariat trains NGO activists to collaborate with SL military

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2018, 09:05 GMT]
The Director-General of Colombo's NGO Secretariat Shakya Nanayakkara, who was giving a lecture in Batticaloa to NGO and CBO activists on Thursday, was questioning the Tamil activists in Batticaloa why they were reluctant to collaborate with the SL military and police, NGO workers who attended the training programme said. The so-called ‘National Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organizations’ (NSNGO), also known as NGO Secretariat, has been trying to control the civil society, Community Based Organisations and local NGOs by creating ‘federations’ at district-level.
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SL military has not released 63% of deed lands seized from Tamils in Mullaith-theevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2018, 13:21 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka is still keeping 4,859 acres of title-deed lands that belong to private land-owners in Mullaiththeevu district. The real extent of areas seized by the occupying Colombo and its military accounts to thousands of acres if one takes into account the permit lands, forest lands that have been captured by the SL Forest Department, SL Wildlife Department and the heritage lands that have been seized by the SL Archaeology Department, civil sources in Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat said.
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SL military launches ATMs, postal office in occupied Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2018, 16:01 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka wants to control the civil administration and all aspects of the civilian life in the former ‘High-Security Zone’ in Valikaamam North, Jaffna. The commander of the occupying Sinhala forces in the peninsula has instructed the military to install ATMs and to operate postal offices in Palaali. The SL military, which is running the ATM stations has also started to run a post office in Palaali. The latest move comes amidst increased criticism of SL military intervening in the civil affairs.
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Uprooted Vaakarai Central residents identify SL military-seized lands after 13 years

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2018, 11:15 GMT]
The occupying SL military, which has seized the lands of Tamils in former LTTE-administered Vaakarai central area, is running a resort for southern visitors in the properties confiscated from Tamil villagers, the people who were allowed to identify their lands for the first time on 01st October after 13 years, told TamilNet. SL Survey Department officials were present at the site when almost 26 of 55 land-owners were allowed to identify their lands at the presence of Ooriyan-kaddu Village Officer of Ooriyan-kaddu and the officials of the Divisional Secretariat.
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Jaffna University students resolve to strengthen TPPs protest

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 October 2018, 17:09 GMT]
The student community at Jaffna University has jumped into strengthening the struggle of the hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners. The leaders of the Jaffna University Student Union have called for an awareness protest meeting on Monday. The following day, 20 students are going to launch a protest walk from the University of Jaffna to Anuradhapura prison, they said. In the meantime, SL Minister of Justice, Thalatha Atukorale (UNP) has gone on record reiterating the position of the SL State there are no “political prisoners” in the prisons. SL President Maithiripala Sirisena (SLFP) has also dodged to discuss the matter with Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan at a meeting and told Mr Sampanthan that he would discuss the subject over the phone.
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Sirisena has deceived Tamils: ITAK Leader Mavai Senathirajah

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2018, 05:58 GMT]
ITAK Leader and TNA Parliamentarian, Mavai Senathirjah, has blamed SL President Maithiripala Sirisena as having betrayed the trust of the Tamil National Alliance. Mr Senathirajah was addressing the Tami protesters in front of the District Secretariat of Mullaiththeevu on Friday. The demonstration was staged in support of the hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners. In an emotional speech, Mr Senathirajah said, the SL Government has failed to appoint a special commission as it had promised to look into the matter of imprisoned Tamil political prisoners. Colombo has failed to revoke the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act, and it has not implemented what it promised in the “US-Sri Lanka Consensus Resolution,” which was passed at the UN Human Rights Council in 2015.
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Rajapaksa ally vows to erect Buddhist viharas in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2018, 09:29 GMT]
Sinhala parliamentarians belonging to Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) or National Freedom Front, an extreme Sinhala nationalist JVP-breakaway group, which is aligned with former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, visited Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa on Thursday confronting the Tamil residents. The Tamil villagers opposed the group, but it vowed to erect Buddha statues confronting the Eezham Tamils. The JNP parliamentarians were accompanied by an extremist Buddhist monk who has been blocked by Mullaiththeevu Magistrate from erecting Buddha statues under cover of so-called conservation.
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Occupying Colombo erects 2nd Buddha temple at educational suburb of Tamils in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2018, 22:57 GMT]
Sinhala extremist monks from South and the occupying SL military in civilian clothes along with Sinhala students launched a second Buddhist temple within the Ki'linochchi campus premises of the Jaffna University a week ago on 24 September. The move comes amidst strong objections from the Tamil students. The University administration was also critical as it had allocated a venue for the construction of places of worship for all religions enjoying equal status. However, Sinhala Buddhist Establishment and the occupying SL military want to put up a grand Buddhist site as the unitary Constitution of genocidal Sri Lanka is giving ‘foremost’ place to the Buddhism, Tamil student leaders said.
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Thileepan Remembrance in Jaffna underscores need for new emancipation strategies

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 September 2018, 08:24 GMT]
All Tamil parties and movements that orientate their politics on the national liberation of the nation of Eezham Tamils actively took part in an emotional event participated by hundreds of Eezham Tamils on Wednesday at Nalloor in Jaffna. Lt Col Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan) sacrificed his life through a 12-day fast-unto-death without food and water in 1987. He was the political head of the LTTE in Jaffna when New Delhi intervened with its military force after entering a State-to-State agreement with Colombo. Thileepan's sacrifice was a crucial historical event in the political emancipation of Eezham Tamils as it exposed the real agenda of the intervening power, which was calling the shots in the island during the times of the Cold War.
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Sirisena praises genocidal military at UN, seeks to appease all State actors

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 September 2018, 11:10 GMT]
Maithiripala Sirisena, the president of the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, was addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday appeasing all the actors, ranging from the pro-Israel US President Donal Trump to those who support the cause of the Palestinians. It was an apparent move to keep all the State actors continuing to turn a blind eye to the ongoing structural and heritage genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, commented Tamil political observers in Jaffna. His address, made in Sinhala, was targeting the Sinhala masses in the island, they said.
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USAID-funded project renders exploitation of Tamil farmers by export conglomerate

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2018, 20:03 GMT]
Poverty-stricken Eezham Tamil household farmers from Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division of Batticaloa, complain that they are systematically exploited by the SL State-owned Bank of Ceylon (BOC), which has threatened to seize their lands if they complained about exploitation by Hayleys Agriculture, the largest exporter of fruits in the island. The farmers were given technical assistance to commence Gherkin Cucumber farming with USAID assistance. The BOC maintains that the farmers have to pay back the initial funding by binding their sales to Hayleys. The produce is purchased at a low price, and if they complained about the exploitation, they would risk losing their lands, the BOC officials have threatened they said.
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SL President not prepared to consider demands of TPPs until 27 September

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2018, 16:27 GMT]
The health condition of the Tamil political prisoners who have been on a hunger strike since 14 September has deteriorated and two of the hunger strikers have been admitted to the prison hospital at Anuradhapura, the families of the prisoners said. In the meantime, a group of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who visited the fasting prisoners have told them that TNA Leader and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan had taken their matter with SL President Maithiripala Sirisena before the latter travelled to New York to address the UN General Assembly. Mr Maithiripala had told Mr Sampanthan that he would only be able to think about the matter of Tamil prisoners after 27 September, after the UN meetings were over.
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SLA commander in Jaffna admits counter-insurgency agenda of Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 September 2018, 21:21 GMT]
An armed movement threatening the sovereignty and the ‘national security’ of the SL State originated in Jaffna. Even though almost ten years have elapsed since that movement was destroyed, the military is present in Jaffna to make sure that such an organisation doesn't rise again, said the commander of the SL military in Jaffna Major General Darshana Hettiarachchi at a PR conference he organised at Palaali on Thursday. The PR meeting organised as one of the first kind turned into a flop as the SL commander was exhausted facing an array of questions to which he was either dodging response or contradicting himself.
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SL State refuses to renew land permits to resettled Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2018, 16:54 GMT]
The resettled Eezham Tamils from Champoor and the connecting section of Kadatkaraich-cheanai were refused of renewal of their land permits at a mobile land kachcheri held on Sunday at Moothoor. The Eastern Provincial Land Commissioner organised the land meeting at Moothoor to look into the land issues of the resettled people in the Moothoor East. However, the residents of Champoor were told the renewals of their land permits were on hold as the SL State has not revoked the earlier state acquisition of their lands from the times of Rajapaksa rule. The people who are in possession of old documents are refused of housing assistance as well as loans that could be obtained through Samurdhi scheme as they are unable to document current ownership to their lands where they reside.
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Vadamaraadchi East fishers besiege intruding poachers from South

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2018, 22:42 GMT]
Eezham Tamil fishers from Valveddith-thu'rai (VVT) in Vadamaraadchi to Maruthang-kea'ni in Vadamaraadchi East in the district of Jaffna have mobilised against the Sea-Cucumber poachers who are deployed in the territorial seas and lagoons of Eezham Tamils in the North. The occupying SL Navy and the SL Police are protecting the intruders whom the native fishermen blame as destroying the fishing ecosystem in the North. The SL Fisheries Ministry and its department, coming under the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, have been collaborating with the big export-oriented business owners in the South who deploy the fishers from South for large-scale Sea Cucumber poaching. On Tuesday, Tamil fishers staged a coordinated action searching for intruders in their coast during the early hours and detained 8 Sinhala poachers along with three boats.
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TPP on hunger-strike in Anuradhapura shifted to Welikade prison

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 September 2018, 22:06 GMT]
The SL Prison authorities have transferred one of the eight Tamil political prisoners who are on hunger-strike away from the prison at Anuradhapura citing the diabetic condition of the prisoner. In the meantime, Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) convened a press conference highlighting the significance of a mass struggle to support the protesters. University students in Jaffna are also planning to launch a wider student campaign in support of the hunger-strikers.
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Mullaiththeevu residents resume deity rituals after confronting intruding Sinhala group

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 September 2018, 20:33 GMT]
The Tamil residents of Kumuzha-munai and Tha'n'ni-mu'rippu villages in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district on Sunday staged a ‘Padaiyal’ ritual to their village deity at Kurunthoor-malai after Mullaiththeevu Magistrate on Thursday lifted the restraining order, which had come into force following the controversies earlier this month. A group of Sinhala youth, led by two extremist Theravada Buddhist monks, attempted to erect a Buddha statue at the hilltop of Kurunthoor-malai, a place with traces of ancient heritage in the country of Eezham Tamils, causing ethnic tension at the site. SL Forest Department guards and SL military intelligence soldiers wearing civilian clothes had accompanied the intruding mob, which was besieged by a group of vigilant Tamil youth on 04 September.
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