Ecuadorian indigenous people universalise Tamil genocide remembrance

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 May 2016, 20:17 GMT]
Amidst two powerful earthquakes shaking the country on Wednesday, the Ecuadorian indigenous people were undeterred in showing determined solidarity with the cause of Eezham Tamils marking the Mu'l'livaaykkal Genocide Day for the first time in Latin America at Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The gesture shows the universal importance of the Tamil issue, the gravity of which was felt by a people, who have been experiencing global injustices for a long time. The remembrance, held in a charged and emotional atmosphere at the Fundacion Pueblo Indio Del Ecuador (indigenous center), also saw the participation of Latin American left activists, the followers of legendary Liberation Theologist Leonidas Eduardo Proaño Villalba and a visiting delegation of Tamil and non-Tamil activists from various continents. The main slogan of the event was: ‘Tamil Eelam lives; the struggle continues’.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Genocide Day marked in 3 districts of Eastern Province

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2016, 23:34 GMT]
The students of the Eastern University situated at Vanthaa'ru-moolai in Batticaloa, civil society members and TNA politicians in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai district observed Genocide Remembrance Day events and memorial prayers at churches and temples on Wednesday. The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) organised a memorial event at Vaakaarai, one of the most war-affected areas subjected to structural genocide under heavy militarisation in the Batticaloa district. In the meantime, the Tamil Peoples Council (TPC) organised memorial events at the historic Hindu temple and in a church in Batticaloa. TNA politicians working among the grassroots also travelled to North to attend the remembrance event at Mu'l'livaaykkal in Vanni on Wednesday.
Full story >>

Continued denial of justice and Colombo's ban on remembering Tamil fighters condemned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 May 2016, 23:43 GMT]
All the norms of war were broken to target a distinct race. The people in Vanni were targeted in a mass-slaughter, from children in womb to elders, by merciless ethnic chauvinism because they were all Tamil-speakers, said Jaffna University Student Union. Seven years have elapsed with continued denial of justice. Those who committed the crimes are walking scot free under the so-called good-governance, the JUSU said calling for Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance within the premises of Jaffna University at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. In the meantime, NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam, who lit the flame of sacrifice at the memorial site in Trincomalee for those subjected to genocidal slaughter in the Welikade prison in 1983, condemned the Sri Lankan State for denying Eezham Tamils the right to honour their fallen fighters.
Full story >>

Neduntheevu marks Genocide Remembrance on 31st anniversary of Kumuthini massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 May 2016, 23:32 GMT]
Coinciding with the 31st anniversary of the massacre of 36 Tamil civilians on Kumuthini boat in 1985, the people of Nedun-theevu (Delft) island, the farthest inhabited island off the Jaffna Peninsula, marked the fourth day of Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance Week on Sunday by paying tribute to all those who perished in the decades long genocide against Eezham Tamils. On 15 May 1985, 36 Tamil passengers, including four children and one of them being a two-year-old, were hacked to death by Sinhala Navy personnel, who came in two boats. The SL Navy later refused the people of Neduntheevu to commemorate their dead by destroying the memorial site, which was constructed at the jetty. This year, the remembrance took place at the newly constructed memorial site.
Full story >>

Mu'l'livaaykkaal remembrance gains momentum amidst renewed harassments

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2016, 17:18 GMT]
Elected councillors of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), former members of civic bodies, militant-turned political parties in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF) are engaged in organising memorial events in the country of Eezham Tamils amidst recently renewed threats and harassments against former Tamil fighters in the North and East. The SL military intelligence circles have been telling former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that there will be consequences if they were seen paying tribute to fallen LTTE members. Not only the LTTE fighters, all the Tamils who wanted to be free and stood with the LTTE in Vanni while all the global Establishments were directly or indirectly assisting Colombo were all real Tamil Heroes, said NPC Councillors who are organising a series of memorial events and meetings in the North.
Full story >>

War-affected, poverty-stricken Tamil villagers complain of neglect in housing assistance

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2016, 23:35 GMT]
104 Eezham Tamil families, who have resettled in Isaimalaith-thaazhvu village, which is located 3 km southeast of Murungkan town along Mannaar - Mathavaachchi Road in Naanaaddaan division, complain that they are being systematically neglected in all the housing schemes reaching Mannaar district. The families, mostly dependent on animal farming or agriculture close to their temporary huts, live below the poverty line, and are among the poorest in Mannaar district. Their houses were either demolished or taken over by the occupying SL military and the notorious Special Task Force (STF) in February 1997 during the brutal military operation code named ‘Edibala’.
Full story >>

SL Governor condemned for justifying military-run preschools in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2016, 22:55 GMT]
NGO sources in Vanni recently released photos exposing the SL military-run preschools where Tamil children were being made to wear ‘Civil Security Division’ uniforms with CSD and Lion symbols of the occupying Sri Lankan military. More than 8,000 Tamil children are attending the military-run preschools in Vanni at 270 locations. While the SL military is refusing to hand over the administration of these preschools to the provincial council, the SL Governor to North, Reginald Cooray, has rushed to Vanni last week to justify continued military administration of these preschools. Former LTTE members at three different locations were forced to sing ‘Sri Lanka’ anthem in Sinhala and the CSD women had to garland him after dancing in Kandyan Perhara style, news sources in Vanni said. NPC Minister P. Aingaranesan has condemned SL Governor's description of SL military as a ‘development’ agency.
Full story >>

Returning Tamil journalists forced to pledge written oath to unitary State

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2016, 21:27 GMT]
None of the Tamil journalists or political activists, who were exiled during and after the Vanni war, could return to their native Northern or Eastern provinces without getting whitelisted by the military intelligence of the occupying Sinhala military prior to their entry into the North and East. Media activists from Colombo who met a group Tamil journalists in Vanni this week told TamilNet that a section of journalists in North had met Major General Mahesh Senanayake on 06 April at Palaali military base. When the journalists questioned the SL commander that some of their exiled journalists, currently residing in Tamil Nadu and other countries, were wondering about returning to the island. The SL commander had refused to officially comment, but shared this information in a ‘unofficial’ way, the sources further said.
Full story >>

Maithiripala’s structural genocide targets Tamil cattle farmers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2016, 23:21 GMT]
Colombo’s Forest Department, which comes under SL President Maithiripala Sirisena’s Ministry of Mahaweli ‘Development’ and Environment, has been blocking Tamil farmers from taking their cattle to graze in the northern and eastern parts of Thivulaanaik-ku’lam, which is situated across the border of Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai districts in the East. Wealthy Sinhalese businessmen from Kurunegala and Gampaha districts have seized thousands of acres of public and forest lands to grow cowpea crop in large scale in the area, says T. Sivapatham, the president of Poaratheevup-pattu Cattle Farmers Association. Meanwhile, the SL Government Agent in Batticaloa is prioritizing the interests of Colombo’s business elite and the projects by foreign NGOs involving the employees in the public sector. Tamil farmers are being completely ignored in Batticaloa district, according to divisional civil sources.
Full story >>

Undeterred by civil actions, extremist monk at Kokku'laay vows to complete controversial Vihara

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2016, 05:27 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military is deployed round-the-clock to construct the controversial Buddhist temple-centric establishment, conceived as a tool for Sinhalicisation of the strategic coastal stretch at Kokku'laay, which links Northern and Eastern provinces of the country of Eezham Tamils. The construction is proceeding despite repeated requests to find an alternative place from Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran and despite instructions from Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat to halt the construction till the dispute of private land, which has been occupied by the Sinhala extremist monk, is resolved. On Sunday, Ven Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, the extremist monk was demonstrating his vow to continue with the construction when he spotted Tamil journalists taking video of the resumed construction work from a distance.
Full story >>

23 Tamils detained under PTA in recent weeks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2016, 21:27 GMT]
The notorious ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) of occupying Colombo has detained at least 23 Eezham Tamils from North and East at various prisons since 29 March. The arrests have taken place in white-van abduction style and through hostage-taking of family members. One of the victims is a woman, who is detained at Vavuniyaa. Two males are being interrogated at the so-called 4th Floor torture chamber in Colombo, while the remaining 20 are being detained at Boosa prison in Galle district in the South. All the ‘arrests’ have been carried out under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), with judicial evidence standards for arrest lower than even "reason to believe."
Full story >>

No sign of ‘change’ in shifting genocidal military away from residential areas in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2016, 23:29 GMT]
The 11th Regiment of the occupying Sinhala Army, organized under the 233 Brigade of the military of genocidal Sri Lanka, is refusing to release the lands belonging to Murakkoddaan-cheanai Government Tamil Mixed School, situated 18 km north of the city of Batticaloa on Batticaloa – Vaazhaichcheanai Road zonal education officials told TamilNet on Friday. The SL military is also occupying the lands that belong to 25 Tamil families in the surroundings of the lands of the school. There is no sign of SL military making the area suitable for civil life. The school is operating at a different location 200 meters away from the seized lands. Continued militarisation of residential areas should be perceived by Tamils realising how large tracts of farm lands are being seized for demographic genocide by occupying Sri Lanka and how ‘Mahaweli’ scheme is conceived to complete the genocide in East.
Full story >>

Colombo deploys military to carry out extra-judicial arrests, hostage-taking in North-East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2016, 21:41 GMT]
Colombo's military Establishment has stepped up white-van abductions and hostage-taking of family members of former LTTE members in the North and East in the recent weeks. At least 13 Eezham Tamils, including a woman, are being detained at the moment in the notorious torture chamber known as 4th Floor in Colombo, legal sources in Colombo said. Ex-LTTE members returning from employment abroad in the Middle East have been subjected to arrests at Katunayake airport. In the meantime, the ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID), operated from Colombo had taken two siblings of a former LTTE member in Batticaloa as hostages till the person they were searching for turned himself over to the TID, the sources in Colombo said. While claiming ‘good-governance’ and ‘reconciliation’ to outside world, the Colombo regime has reinforced Sinhala military rule in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Village officers in Vanni protest against violent Sinhala colonists occupying strategic coast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2016, 23:04 GMT]
More than 40 Tamil Village (GS) officers in Vanni staged a protest on Monday in front of the District Secretariat of Mullaiththeevu condemning the occupying Sinhala military for assaulting the GS officer of Kokkuth-thoduvaay Mr Jeevaratnam Jesuratnam on Sunday, when he went to inspect the illegal occupation by Sinhala fishermen, who have been brought from South by the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka. The violent Sinhala military officers had also seized the identity documents from the Tamil GS officer. The Sri Lankan State is accelerating Sinhala colonization with the aim of permanently wedging the demographic contiguity of the northern and eastern provinces at Kokkuth-thoduvaay, a strategic village situated in Mullaiththeevu district. Colombo regime is deploying SL Navy, Army, Police and various ministries to carry out the structural and demographic genocide.
Full story >>

New Delhi approach to apartheid South Africa should open eyes of global Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 April 2016, 00:05 GMT]
A secret document of 1949, recently unearthed from South African diplomatic archives, shows that contrary to India’s outward show of opposition to apartheid, the actual thinking in New Delhi diplomacy was prepared to make secret elitist deals with apartheid South Africa, scapegoating its own people who had gone as victims of colonial labour as ‘not of the best type’ of Indians. A large part of such labour migrants from Guyana to Fiji were Tamils. It was such outlook of New Delhi that made it to go for ‘elite to elite’ deal with Sinhala-Buddhist Colombo in endorsing the disenfranchisement of the upcountry Tamils in Ceylon. Later the attitude was extended for New Delhi to become a crucial partner in the genocide cum continued genocide of Eezham Tamils having their own historical country in the island. Now there is the ‘military to military’ relationship for corporate elite pally-pally.
Full story >>

SLN intimidates Tamils to give consent for controversial Buddha statue in Jaffna islet

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2016, 15:15 GMT]
Two elected members of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), who were on a fact finding visit to Naiyinaatheevu last Thursday following repeated requests from the native people of the islet off Jaffna told TamilNet this week that they were shocked to see the move for accelerated Sinhalicisation and Buddhicisation being undertaken by the occupying Sinhala Navy and Ven Navadagala Paduma Kiththi Tissa Thero, the chief monk of ‘Nagadeepa Rajamaha Vihara’. The native people are afraid to voice against the cultural and demographic genocide taking place. The SL Navy has been exerting pressure on them to ‘admit’ that they were ‘welcoming’ the plans for erecting a controversial 61-feet Buddha statue along the seashore. The move is a clear exclusivist Sinhala-Buddhist engineering, says NPC Councillor Vinthan Kanagaratnam.
Full story >>

Indian intelligence, media insinuate Eezham Tamils to drop ‘Eelam’ in party names

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2016, 16:52 GMT]
The Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), led by Mr Suresh Premachandran, has denounced on Friday a narration given by the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) that one of the oldest parties of early Tamil militant legacy was dropping the terms ‘Eelam’ and ‘Liberation’ in its party name. The claimed name change is actually being contemplated by a small group, the EPRLF ‘Padmanaba wing’, which is neither part of the TNA nor has any electoral standing. This group is led by former North-Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister Mr Varatharaja Perumal, who is widely seen as an agent of Indian Intelligence. In 2009, immediately after the Vanni genocide, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief Mr M. Karunanidhi also gave instructions to remove the word Eezham in public places. Mr Karunanidhi reportedly has said that it was the wish of the ‘Central agencies’ of India.
Full story >>

SL Presidential ‘Commission’ continues to deceive families of enforced disappeared

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2016, 23:29 GMT]
The ‘Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints regarding Missing Persons’ (PCICMP) has held 3-day long public sittings at Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat last week and proceeded to Mannaar on Monday with the second session of sittings. The mothers and wives of persons, who have been subjected to enforced disappearances during the genocidal war and its immediate aftermath, blamed the occupying Sri Lanka Navy as the major culprit behind many disappearances that have taken place in Mannaar. In the meantime, the PCICMP ‘Commission’, which lacks credibility among the population, was engaged in deceiving the families through prompting them to consider receiving ‘death’ certificates. “We were handled as beneficiaries and not as witnesses,” a mother in Mannaar told TamilNet adding that Maithiripala Sirisena's ‘Commission’ was trying to substitute justice with ‘supplies’.
Full story >>

Commonwealth and UN set paradigm of great global deception

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2016, 00:03 GMT]
In doing his work “below the radar to carry political conviction,” the outgoing Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma claims: “we gave a compendium to the Rajapaksa government of best practices in the Commonwealth”. He was referring to his response to the judicial appointments made by Rajapaksa, and was projecting that to his credibility in dismissing criticisms against him on the role he played in bailing out Rajapaksa who carried out the genocidal conviction of Washington-London-New Delhi bandwagon. The question comes whether the Commonwealth has also given a compendium to Rajapaksa below the radar to carry out the genocide of Eezham Tamils as one of the best practices of the Commonwealth, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
Full story >>