Cēṇiya-teru, Kaikkōḷat-teru/ Ceṅkuntar-vīti, Civiyā-teru, Taṭṭā-teru, Cemmā-teru, Paṟaṅkit-teru, Paṟaiyaṉ-

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2018, 18:30 GMT]
The street of Cēṇiyar

The street of Kaikkōḷar/ the street of Ceṅkuntar

The street of Civiyār

The street of Taṭṭār

The street of Cemmār

The street of the people of colonial European origins, connections or descent

The street or path of Paṟaiyar
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Elder generation activists prepared to sacrifice lives to win Ira’nai-theevu resettlement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2017, 23:44 GMT]
The uprooted people of the twin islets of Ira’nai-theevu, located 12 nautical miles from the western coast of Vanni, have been waging a continuous protest for more than 8 months since 01 May 2017. They have been demanding resettlement in their native islets, which lie facing the Palk Bay. 8 years have elapsed since the end of genocidal war, the occupying Sinhala Navy is still adamant in its refusal to release the occupied residential, livelihood lands and the fishing coast which belonged to more than 2,500 people comprising at least 740 families before displacement. “We hoped that we could resettle in our village and celebrate 2018 New Year. But, we were deceived. If this situation continues after 01 January, we will have no other option than advancing our peaceful protest by proving our determination through sacrificing our lives even if it is necessary,” say the protesters.
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Tamils mobilise against Colombo's move to exploit coastal belt of Thirukkoayil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 December 2017, 17:53 GMT]
Around 3,000 Tamil people from Thirukkoayil division of Ampaa'rai district on Wednesday took to the streets and marched against the move by the occupying unitary State in Colombo to exploit the mineral resources of 20 km long coast of Thirukkoayil. The move by occupying Colombo, dubbed as development, is nothing but sand mining which is detrimental to the coast of Eezham Tamils, the villagers said. A private company, Damsila Exports Pvt Ltd from South, is also involved in the move, the agitating villagers said.
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Colombo has nothing else than deception, where is last remedy, ask families of enforced disappeared

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2017, 21:06 GMT]
The entire Colombo state system and the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the occupying military, have only come up with deceptions instead of doing anything meaningful to trace the whereabouts of those subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the SL military and its paramilitaries. At this juncture, what is the last remedy and from where we should seek answers, asks Mrs Amalaraj Amalanayaki, one of around 4,000 families from Batticaloa district searching for their loved ones. In its latest deception, the Colombo establishment has deployed ‘Economic Development Officers’ with ‘English Only’ forms, in which the people are asked to put their signatures leaving the remaining work to the EDO officials, she said referring to a data-collection that has been issued by the so-called Office of the Missing Persons (OMP).
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Sinhalicisation targets interior hill-top northwest of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 December 2017, 21:23 GMT]
The 232 Brigade of the occupying Sinhala Army having its main base at Kudumpi-malai (which is also known as Thoppik-kal and Baron’s Cap) area in the interior of the northwestern hinterland of Batticaloa, is Sinhalicising the area by bringing in Sinhala fishermen to engage in fresh-water fishing at Meeraa'nda-ku'lam and by promoting ‘tourists’ from South to engage in leisure activities in the area, Kudumpi-malai villagers complain. Tamil villagers are barred from accessing their reservoir. The SLA has put up tents and created a camping area where the Sinhala fishermen are staying. When asked about those residing in the camping site, Sinhala soldiers use to refer to the visitors as their relatives or as tourists from South. But, some of the intruders seem to be fishermen who are having a business relationship with the occupying military, the people say.
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Controversial Buddhist cremation staged in Jaffna by SL military draws flak from Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2017, 22:57 GMT]
The Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka and the Colombo-centric unitary system, which constitutionally accords ‘foremost place’ to Buddhism in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils went ahead with staging a controversial cremation at the public grounds of Muttave'li in Jaffna on Friday. The Tamil people regard the venue as a memorial site of Tamil victims of one of the first massacres carried out by the Sinhala police on the final day of the Fourth International Conference of Tamil Research in 1974. In addition to being a memorial venue, Muttave'li is also home to Muniyappar temple. The cremation of Ven Meegahajandure Gnnanarathana thero, the chief prelate of Nagavihara in Jaffna, who passed away on Tuesday in Colombo, was carried out at Muttave’li by the occupying Sinhala military amidst widespread objections coming from Tamil politicians and leading lawyers in Jaffna.
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Families of enforced disappeared mark 300 days of rotational protest in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2017, 18:46 GMT]
The kith and kin of enforced disappeared Tamils on Wednesday marked 300 days of their rotational protest, which they have been staging in front of Vavuniyaa Post Office with the demand of seeking answers from the SL State on the whereabouts of their family members who were handed over to the SL military in front of the families at the end of war in Vanni in 2009. The protesting mothers said they had been deceived by the SL State, particularly its president Mr Maithiripala Sirisena, who has been making public relations stunts aimed at international opinion through entertaining them with meetings in the past. None of the assurances given by Mr Maithiripala were fulfilled, they said.
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Enduring psychological disaster of families of enforced disappeared conveyed through film

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 December 2017, 21:57 GMT]
“Uru” (Trance), a short film shot in Batticaloa by a native Eezham Tamil cast and crew from the island and which was inspired by the stories of long enduring sufferings of the enforced disappeared families, has been acclaimed with global recognition from the Best Short Film Competition in California in September. Subsequently, it also won the award for 2017 Best Human Rights Short Film at the London Eye International Film Festival. The story writer and director of the film, 49-year-old Gnanadas Kasinathar, narrates the depth of psychological disaster as witnessed by him on the ground. Behind every act of structural violence and discrimination against the Tamils, there is a deep-studied psychological phenomenon, carefully hidden by the SL State mechanism, the artist says narrating the examples in a recently recorded interview with TamilNet in London.
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Colombo Establishment accelerates multi-frontal cultural assault on Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2017, 22:29 GMT]
The people of the island of Mannaar and the mainland constituting a fine balance of Tamil Catholics, Tamil-speaking Muslims and Tamil Saivites, have been living in harmony with each other. They have been more or less oriented towards an inclusive and secular Tamil nationalism. But, all sections of them are now sensing a systematic and multi-frontal assault coming from the Colombo-centric Sinhala establishment on their culture and collective Tamil orientation, activists across various communities in Mannaar say. The recent trend is witnessed in the attitudinal change among the Sinhala tourists being witness in the recent weeks. The visitors from South, unlike earlier are pre-occupied with renovating the Buddhist statues that have been left behind by the Sinhala military and in promoting the Buddhist temples in the Tamil-speaking district.
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Tamil journalists in Jaffna expose SL military denial of confronting media coverage

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2017, 23:09 GMT]
Eight journalists from Jaffna, who went to Tha'n'ni-mu'rippu tank last Saturday in Karaithu'raip-pattu in Mullaiththeevu to witness and report on the alleged role of the occupying Army and Police of genocidal Sri Lanka in promoting Sinhala intruders to engage in fishing in the reservoir, said the SL military command and the SL Police were now lying on their involvement in the threat against the journalists. SL military and Police blocked the journalists and forced the journalists to delete the photos and video evidences citing ‘national security’. A civil military officer of the SLA was also trying to confiscate their media equipment, one of the journalists K. Hamsan, told TamilNet. The journalists also blamed foreign diplomats, particularly Colombo-based defence attaché of the British High Commission, who has given diplomatic recognition to the occupying military at the locality.
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Kiḷuvai-nāṭṭi, Kaṉṉāṭṭi, Kal-nāṭṭiṉa-kuḷam, Kannaṭṭiya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The place where Kiḷuvai trees are planted (to mark the boundary)

The place demarcated by stones erected (to mark the boundary)

The tank of the place in where the boundaries are set by erecting border stones; or the tank where a stone pillar or post has been set

The place demarcated by stones erected (to mark the boundary)
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Mystification of post-war U.S strategic engagement with SL unitary state

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 December 2017, 21:14 GMT]
Following the 2015 regime change, U.S strategic interests in the island have advanced to unprecedented heights. Such structural development is obfuscated through the opinions engendered by the Geneva-UNHRC based Human Rights discourse as well as the ‘reconciliation, transitional justice and development’ discourses. The highly distorted discourse that is disseminated from established international systems pivoting the U.S and their allies, paints a picture of U.S axis of powers and U.N as being saviors of a ‘victimized’ Tamil ‘minority’ sans self-determination. Tacitly this discourse attempts to purge the national character of the aspirations and grievances of Eezham Tamils and brackets their political struggle into a ‘minority issue’. It bereaves the Tamils of their democratic will, national existence and sovereignty.
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Truth, justice can only come through international intervention, say protesters in North-East

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 December 2017, 17:45 GMT]
“As the world prepares to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the most meaningful action that the UN and the international community can take vis a vis Sri Lanka is to apply concrete pressure on the Government to take concrete steps to trace the fate of our loved ones and hold those responsible for their forced disappearance. Otherwise Human Rights will remain for us an unrealized value, full of rhetoric and of no practical relevance to our plight,” said the appeal from the families of enforced disappeared in Batticaloa district on Sunday. The appeal was addressed to the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. Protests were staged in Jaffna in the North and in Batticaloa in the East by the families of enforced disappeared from all the 8 districts of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.
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Sinhala policemen force Tamil journalists to delete evidence of Sinhalicisation in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 December 2017, 21:44 GMT]
Eight Tamil journalists who went from Jaffna to Tha'n'ni-mu'rippu reservoir in the south of Mullaiththeevu district on Saturday to witness the Sinhalicisation, which is stepped up there through the militarization of occupying Sinhala Army, were subjected to severe harassment. The journalists, who were documenting the scale of Sinhalicisaton and militarisation of the irrigation tank of Tamils were stopped by the ‘Sri Lanka’ Army soldiers, who brought a higher-ranking officer from the nearby military camp. The SLA officer was attempting to confiscate the cameras of the Tamil journalists claiming that he wanted to inspect the equipment citing ‘national security’ concerns. The journalists refused to hand over their equipment. In the meantime, Sinhala policemen who arrived from Mullaiththeevu intervened deleting the photos and videos recorded by the journalists at the spot.
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Īccilam-paṟṟai/ Īccilam-pattai, Ińdi-bẹdda, Bẹddē-gama

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 December 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The thicket of dwarf wild date palms

The thicket or jungle of dwarf wild date palms

The jungle village or the village in the jungle
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North-East under Sinhala colonial rule: NPC Minister Sarweswaran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 December 2017, 17:35 GMT]
Instead of respecting the feelings of Tamils and looking at ways to resolve the national conflict, which also includes the introduction of a new flag that doesn't offend the feelings of the Tamil people, the Sinhala establishment of southern politicians and their ethno-religious leaders remain trapped in a colonial mind-set, says K. Sarsweswaran, the minister of Education, Youth affairs and Sport at the Northern Provincial Council. In a recent video interview to TamilNet on the reactions coming from the Sinhala politicians from South and the Sinhala colonial Governor to North regarding the NPC Minister’s avoidance of hoisting the offending Lion flag at a school event in Vavuniyaa, Sarawesaran said he was baffled at the reactions coming from the Sinhala politicians in South as if the denouncement of Lion flag was a latest discovery of Tamils.
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Colombo’s deceptions on Tamil political prisoners continue unabated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 December 2017, 15:18 GMT]
Reginald Cooray, the SL Governor to North and the officials of the SL Presidential Secretariat in Colombo have systematically misled the families of the three Tamil political prisoners along with NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam, who was negotiating with the SL President on their behalf, legal sources in Jaffna said. The prisoners were on a fast-unto-death for 38 days objecting their case being transferred to Anuradhapura court, where it was to be addressed by a Sinhala judge. The SL Governor and the officials of the SL Presidential Secretariat had ‘advised’ Mr Shivajilingam and the families of the prisoners to lodge an appeal against the transfer of the case to Anuradhapura in the Appeal Court of Colombo and had promised that the SL Attorney General would be cooperating with transferring their case back to Vavuniyaa by not attending the hearings at the Appeal Court in Colombo.
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Eastern Tamil Eelam marks Heroes Day with mass mobilisation after 10 years

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 November 2017, 04:57 GMT]
Tamil students at the Eastern University marked Tamil Eelam Heroes Day with remembrance event at the University premises as well as organising a blood donation campaign. No-one can ever erase November 27 as Heroes Day in the hearts and minds of the Tamil people, said Arts Faculty Student Leader Dineshkanth. An academic of the faculty, who addressed the audience said That the Tamil resolve to remember their war-dead fighters as Tamil National Heroes also reiterated that rightful freedoms of all peoples in the island should be restored by ensuring their inalienable rights. Maaveerar Naa'l was marked in Ampaa'rai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee braving the surveillance harassments of the occupying Sinhala military and police in the East. The people openly defied the ‘instructions’ from the SL military and Police not to use photos with LTTE uniforms.
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Lion flag controversy comes to forefront after NPC Minister declining to hoist it in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2017, 23:10 GMT]
“Without giving adequate recognition to the original inhabitants of this Island and their religion our National flag gives undue importance to the Sinhalese and to Buddhism. This is the reason for the resentment of the Hon’ Education Minister,” responded Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the chief minister of Northern Provincial Council (NPC) in his weekly media address formed as Q&A. NPC CM's response came as SL Ministers in South started to react to media reports on the episode. On Wednesday, SL Governor to North, Reginald Cooray also exposed himself by interpreting the democratic and peaceful protest by the NPC Minister as “violating the constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka”. The SL Governor and ultra-nationalist Sinhalese in South seem to have not learnt their lessons from the recent history, commented political observers in Jaffna.
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SL Port Authority vandalises coconut farm of Tamil woman in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2017, 23:20 GMT]
The Colombo government is intentionally avoiding giving back the lands of rightful Tamil owners in the district, commented ITAK (TNA) National List Parliamentarian for Trincomalee district Mr K Thurairetnasingam, who witnessed the plight of a Tamil woman, R. Mangaleswary, who had planted 40 coconut plants in her Chena-cultivation lands. SL Port Authority (SLPA) officials entered her farm lands on 11 November and destroyed the coconut plants and associated crops claiming that the lands belong to SLPA. However, former SL Minister of Ports and Shipping Mr Arjuna Ranatunga had promised one-year ago to issue proper land deeds to Tamil farmers who have been using the farms for decades, the TNA parliamentarian said. The SL Police at China Bay was also refusing to register a complaint from the affected victim, Mr Thureratnasingam said.
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