SL Police harasses Eezham Tamil refugees returning home from Tamil Nadu with lawsuits

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2018, 09:55 GMT]
Eezham Tamils who fled the island in their young age during the times of war are now returning home with their children who are born in Tamil Nadu. Unable to wait for the lengthy and costly process of securing passports, they are taking too much of risks and face harassments from the occupying SL Navy and SL Police. However, they continue to hire boats to reach their homeland unable to tolerate the humiliating conditions prevailing in the camps such as Ma'ndapam refugee camp in Tamil Nadu. Many of them have heartbreaking stories to narrate. Due to poverty, they are unable to bear the costs associated with an official return. The UNHCR, which is the UN refugee agency tasked with a formal role to take care of their resettlement, is ineffective, they say.
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Genocide Remembrance evolves into logical uprising embracing emotions of people

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2018, 23:09 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in the island and the Tamil Diaspora marked 9th Mu'l'livaaykkaal Tamil Genocide Day with an ever-increasing emotional and logical uprising on Friday. While the people on the ground paid tribute, expressed their collective trauma, the younger generation contributed to safeguarding the collective memorialisation from the electoral politics of genocidal Sri Lanka paving the way for logical thinking taking precedence over rhetorics. Justice C. V. Wigneswaran has come with a diplomatically well-crafted speech, raising pertinent questions to the world humanity as well as to the Tamils. His message to the so-called International Community was finding ways without delay for direct engagement with Eezham Tamils cutting the Colombo red tape imposed on Tamils through the so-called ‘Sri Lankan’ State sovereignty.
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Colombo resorts to TID-threats against mothers of enforced disappeared

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 May 2018, 19:23 GMT]
The Terrorist Investigation Division of the police of the occupying Colombo has re-introduced interrogation threats against the mothers of enforced disappeared Tamils in the recent days, informed rights activists in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet on Tuesday. A mother from Vavuniyaa, who has been at the forefront in mobilising protests, which also criticised the so-called ‘Office for Missing Persons’ (OMP) as an eyewash, was recently summoned to the so-called 4th floor. The mother has been reluctant to talk to media about the threat, the source further said.
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Mining firm facing resistance in Thirukkoayil shifts exploitation area with fresh tactics

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 May 2018, 16:18 GMT]
Damsila Exports Pvt Ltd., a big company exporting phlogopite mica and other minerals from the island, has shifted its plan of excavating Ilmenite resources in Thirukkoayil North of Ampaa'rai district after the people mobilised against the move in December 2017. The company is now trying to deceive the people along the southern sector of the same division, Tamil activists in Thirukkoayil said. Damsila Exports is the premier mica mining and export company headquartered in Colombo. It is exporting phlogopite mica from the island under semi-processed and powder form to Japan, China, Germany and India. At present, about 65% of phlogopite mica product is sent to Japan according to the website of the company.
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Staggering 10% of lands in Mullaiththeevu militarised

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2018, 23:57 GMT]
The ratio of the occupying Sinhala military personnel per Tamil civilians in the district of Mullaiththeevu is at one Sinhala soldier per two civilians as revealed earlier by Tamil politicians in the area. But, the extent of lands transformed into ‘Sinhala Military Zones’ have been systematically underreported, and the real size stands at 10% of the total land-area of the district, a highly placed source at the District Secretariat of Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet this week.
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Ploy of ‘development’ by powers abetting Colombo aggravates ethnic discrimination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2018, 22:28 GMT]
SL Minister for Housing and Construction Sajith Premadasa has allocated new housing schemes with modern infrastructure facilities for two ‘model villages’ for Sinhala settlers in Trincomalee while ignoring the housing needs of the war-affected and resettled Tamils in Moothoor East division of the same district, Rural Development Society activists in Champoor complain. The mainstream political parties from South are competing in winning the hearts and minds of Sinhala settlers and the foreign powers locked in a ‘development’ race in their greed for geopolitical space in the strategically located island in the Indian Ocean. As a result, all the SL ministries, departments of the SL State and the occupying SL military are deployed in a coordinated and accelerated demographic genocide in the East.
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SL Army's 574 Brigade faces stiff resistance from Tamil landowners in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2018, 17:09 GMT]
The landowners and the people of Maangku'lam in Vanni on Thursday successfully blocked SL Survey Department officials from surveying their lands where the occupying SL Army's 574 Infantry Brigade has camped with its ‘headquarters’. The SL Survey Department has not issued a prior notice to the landowners about the surveying of their land. Protesters complained that the SLA was keeping their lands seized over a long time disregarding their objections. They vowed to step up their protests.
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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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Shifting of May Day is fundamental rights violation - CTU

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2018, 22:40 GMT]
The vice president of Ceylon Teachers Union Mr Theepan Thileeshan Arokianathan said the Sri Lankan State shifting the May Day from May 1st to May 7th this year was a fundamental rights violation. The CTU is joining hands with the Jaffna University Union of Non-Academic Staff, and other grassroots organisations, is marking May Day at the University of Jaffna on May 01st, he said adding that the union has flagged it as a rights violation with the Geneva office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights. The Buddhist Vesak day was on April 29th. The following day on Monday was also a public holiday. Denying the right to mark May Day on May 01st, just because it is the third day after the Buddhist Vesak Day, cannot be justified, he said.
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Don't deviate from agreed venue for memorial statue, JUSU warns VC of Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2018, 23:16 GMT]
The Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) has conveyed an ultimatum to Prof Ratnam Vignswaran, the vice chancellor of Jaffna University and the administration under him, to respect what they had previously agreed with the student leaders on launching a statue in remembrance of those who sacrificed themselves confronting the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009. The University administration and the JUSU came to an understanding in a meeting on 19 April that the students could proceed with their plan of launching Mu'l'livaaykkaal memorial monument. The only dispute they had was on the venue, and it was the university administration that proposed the site to be alongside the Maaveerar memorial statue. But, now the University administration has come under pressure from the University Grant Commission and the SL Ministry of Higher Education, the student leaders said.
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Eezham Tamils differ with SL State on shifting 2018 May Day

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2018, 20:33 GMT]
The May Day is universally observed on May 01. It cannot be changed according to the whims and fancies of non-secular Establishments and States, opined Eezham Tamil trade unionists and political activists in the North-East. They were responding to the move by the Colombo government to mark the day on May 7th instead of on May 01st following the advice coming from the Mahahanayake Theras of the Sinhala Buddhist Theravada Establishment in the South.
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Uprooted Tamils embark on courageous sea landing, SL navy restrained at Ira'nai-theevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2018, 21:35 GMT]
Four hundred uprooted Eezham Tamils, who have been waging a continuous protest since May 01, 2017 at Muzhangkaavil along the western coast of Vanni, embarked on a historic sea journey to the twin-islet of Ira'nai-theevu on the 359th day of their protest on Wednesday. They were vowing to resettle back in their native place braving any objection coming from the occupying SL Navy, The Sinhala sailors present at the naval detachment restrained as their officers were embarrassed by the courage of the people. The people went there in 46 boats. Seven Catholic priests, including their parish priest Fr Arudchelvan, accompanied them. The people are now staying at the premises of the Church of Our Lady of Holy Rosary and at the Catholic Tamil Mixed School in the twin-islet, which is located 12 nautical miles from the coast of the mainland in Mannaar facing the Palk Bay.
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Militarisation of housing contract frustrates storm affected Tamils in Ampaa'rai North

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2018, 18:49 GMT]
Tamil residents have expressed serious concerns over the occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka emerging as the contractor of reconstructing the roofs of a housing scheme with 684 apartments, which come under two village (GS) divisions in Periya-neelaava'nai of Kalmunai administrative division in the Ampaa'rai district, along the border of the Batticaloa district. The residents are in shock after learning that the apartments, initially constructed by the SL Foreign Ministry exploiting international funds in the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami catastrophe, are not strong enough to bear roofs of traditional tiles. The SL military contractors are now going to put up lighter roofing sheets, which are prone to wind suction during extreme weather, informed civil sources in the division told TamilNet.
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NPC Minister walks out as SL Governor ditches CM's recommendations on SLAS transfers

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2018, 22:26 GMT]
The occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka is bent on curbing the powerless Northern Provincial Council from carrying out its work through deploying the colonial Governor, who is controlling the army of SLAS officials serving the NPC in various positions. Be it a military governor or a civilian governor — regardless of the person being Sinhala Catholic or Tamil-speaking — it is the role of the SL Governor coming under the direct control of Colombo, which is causing headache to the elected Chief Minister who want to exercise the powers vested in him. The Tamil criticism target the underlying paradigm, commented Tamil political activists in Jaffna after witnessing the recent administrative disputes taking place between Justice C.V. Wigneswaran and Reginald Cooray, the SL Governor to North.
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Cooray emerges as broker of civil contracts to occupying Sinhala military in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2018, 23:03 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka's colonial governor to North, Reginald Cooray, is planning to allocate projects to occupying Sinhala military through the recently elected civic bodies in the North. The move comes after hundreds of Sinhala soldiers were engaged on Dengue prevention programme under the so-called National Dengue Prevention Campaign along with medical officers and Public Health Inspectors. Mr Cooray has also influenced the Catholic Establishment in Jaffna to hire SL military for construction work, Tamil officials at the District Secretariat in Jaffna told TamilNet this week.
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Colombo schemes new type of subservient CSD colonies in Jaffna diverting foreign aid

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 April 2018, 23:19 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has released 683 acres of coastal pockets of lands in Mayiliddi of Valikaamam North with propaganda it has also opened the coastal road from Point Pedro to Punnaalai for public use. Although the release of the pockets of lands as well as improved access to the coast for uprooted Tamil fishers is seen as a step in the right direction, the SL military is retaining the entire area as a sophisticated military zone, say representatives of uprooted people from Valikaamam North. These are merely pockets of civilian settlements surrounded by SL Army and Navy bases and heavy military presence. The military wants to be in possession of crucial resources and all the fertile lands while aiming to transform the resettling people into its subservient workforce, Tamil rights activists in Jaffna said.
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SL military brings back paramilitary violence to control peaceful protests as NGO tricks fail

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2018, 23:18 GMT]
An unidentified operative with alleged paramilitary background violently threatened the mothers of enforced disappeared Tamils in Mullaiththeevu on Thursday when the protesters were marking 400 days of continuous protest. The agent, armed with a knife, entered the hut of the protest around 7:00 p.m., cut the main placard, destroyed a chair and smashed the simmering stock pots. He was pointing the sword-like knife at the protesters and demanding them to “end the protest once and for all”. 47-year-old Eeswary Mariyasuresh, the chairperson of the protesters told TamilNet that the forces who want to stop their protest have resorted to deploy violence and target those who come forward to give leadership to the protesters. She survived a targeted assault on her also in August 2017. There is a pattern of SL military intelligence taking over the containment process from Colombo-centric NGOs.
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Genocidal Sri Lanka imposes forcible military training for CSD pre-school teachers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2018, 18:19 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has instructed enslaved Tamil women teachers in the pre-schools operated by its Civil Security Division (CSD) in Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts. The pre-school teachers were earlier forced to undergo three-day training sessions. The SL military has now instructed a section of these teachers to take part in 21-days of a full-fledged military training programme, named as ‘leadership training’. The military training is conducted at SL military training centres in Diyattalawa and at Panagoda in the South. The training programme also aims at a brainwashing programme targeting the younger generation of enslaved children of CSD parents, employed at SL military-operated farms in Vanni.
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NPC finally awakens against SL Mahaweli Authority obstructing territorial integrity of Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2018, 06:35 GMT]
The Northern Provincial Council has discussed the genocidal land grab choking the territorial contiguity of the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils in the North-East of the island in a special sitting on Thursday. The move comes after years of reports highlighting how SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has been committing a systematic genocidal land grab and demographic genocide against Eezham Tamils through the so-called Mahaweli development ministry since 1997, when he took control of the department for the first time. The NPC finally seems to address the precarious issue in a proper context. However, it remains to be seen whether the NPC and the Tamil leadership are prepared to declare all Sinhala colonisations in the North and East that took place after 1956 as illegal, commented Tamil academic circles in Jaffna on Friday.
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Colombo strengthens impunity for genocidal Sinhala commander

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2018, 23:13 GMT]
Jaffna High Court Judge Manickavasagam Ilancheliyan on Monday gave green signal to proceed with the cases of habeas corpus seeking a senior commander of the SL Military to produce three of twenty-five Tamil youth, whose whereabouts are not known after the SL Army at Naavatkuzhi detained them 22 years ago in 1996. The SL Police instructed by the Judge to investigate the case stated that it was impossible for them to investigate the case as more than 20 years have elapsed since the disappearance of the victims. The first respondent is Major General Duminda Keppettiwalana, who commanded the Sinhala soldiers of the military camp at Naavatkuzhi in 1996 when he was a captain. He has been systematically protected and promoted by Sarath Fonseka, the former SL Army commander and a partner of the current regime in Colombo.
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