Intense protest in Mullaiththeevu against SL Navy base blocks surveying for 3rd time

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 February 2018, 21:05 GMT]
The people of Vadduvaakal staged an intensive protest for more than 6 hours in front of the so-called ‘SLNS Gotabhaya’ navy base in Mullaiththeevu on Thursday. The move came as the SL Survey Department officials were attempting to measure 671 acres of lands, which the SL Navy has seized from the public several years ago. The SL State was trying to legalise the illegal land grab through a Gazette notification in August 2017. The people accompanied by their politicians managed to stop the surveying for the 3rd time. They also burnt an effigy representing the so-called ‘good governance’ regime in Colombo in front of the SL navy base.
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Colombo barring Tamils from fishing along Adam's Bridge reef sparks protest

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 February 2018, 21:41 GMT]
More than one hundred Eezham Tamil families from Thalai-mannaar took to the streets on Monday protesting against the occupying SL Navy and SL Department of Wildlife for blocking them from fishing in their traditional territorial waters along Adam's Bridge reef and Thalai-mannaar. The SL Navy has forcefully chased away the fishermen on Sunday night and in the early hours of Monday stating that the SL Wildlife Department has barred fishing for the ‘protection’ of endangered birds. Occupying Colombo and its military are using ‘wildlife protection’ as a cover for militarisation, the fishermen questioned.
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Colombo's fake mangroves for export destroy fishing-ecosystem of Eezham Tamils in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 February 2018, 18:42 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's “National Aquaculture Development Authority” (NAQDA) has deployed Sinhala-owned companies from South to engage in “fake mangrove” production along the northern coast of Batticaloa. The fake mangroves, made with cement blocks, are systematically sunk along the coast of Kaayaang-kea'ni affecting both the natural mangroves and the fishing environment of native Tamil fisherfolks, A.M. Anton, the chairperson of the fisheries association at Kaayaang-kea'ni told TamilNet this week. The fake stones are dug up after 6 to 8 months and exported to the USA before the next wave of artificial layer gets spread over the natural mangroves.
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SL port ‘development’ to cause hazardous conditions to Hartley, Methodist colleges

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 February 2018, 15:06 GMT]
Occupying Colombo is bringing permanent disturbance to the peaceful environment needed for two of the prominent educational institutions of Eezham Tamils in Jaffna, the Hartley College and the Methodist Girl’s High School, situated in northernmost Point Pedro. The SL Port Authority (SLPA) which comes under the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka is seizing more lands to the west of the two educational institutions, which are already struggling to sustain a safe environment amidst militarised conditions.
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SL military enlists 50 Tamils for slave work in military-run farms in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2018, 19:30 GMT]
The Jaffna commander of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, Major General Dharshana Hettiarrachchi, on Thursday came with the false propaganda claiming that he was integrating fifty former LTTE members as a workforce in the armed forces of ‘Sri Lanka’. In reality, the SL military was employing the fifty Tamils for slave work in the military-run agriculture farms in the fertile lands, which it had seized from the uprooted people of Valikaamam North, informed sources in Jaffna said.
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Victimised Tamil women from East exposed to nightmare on Valentine's Day in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 February 2018, 12:27 GMT]
A Colombo-based NGO, known as Families of the Disappeared (FoD), was inviting 30 Tamil women from the East on Valentine's Day to Western Province to narrate their ‘love stories’ with their husbands, whom they later lost due to enforced disappearances. It was shocking that the personalities involved in the outfit, known to be making money on the plight of Tamil victims, would go to this level of ‘Human Rights’ exploitation, commented Mrs Amalanayaki Amalaraj, the chairperson of the organisation for enforced-disappeared in Batticaloa district. She characterised the stage event of traumatic exposure as psychological and cultural ‘torture’. There is no point in blaming the arrows while the real archers operating the Colombo-centric paradigm sustaining the exploitation, commented informed sections of Tamil activists in Batticaloa.
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13 years elapsed, GTZ-initiated housing scheme yet to obtain roofs in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 February 2018, 17:28 GMT]
Many of the 300 houses of a housing scheme, initiated 13 years ago by Germany's governmental organisation for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), in Tsunami and war-affected Vaakarai in Koa'ra'laip-pattu North of Batticaloa district, are yet to obtain their roofs, windows and doors, complain the beneficiaries of the housing project. Some time back, the officials of the Divisional Secretariat were collecting 1,500 rupees from each family promising to complete the project with roofs. But, nothing has been delivered, the poverty-stricken families said.
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Champoor Tamils prepare to launch protest after civic elections

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 February 2018, 14:08 GMT]
Grassroots organisations of the resettled people of Champoor have decided to launch a protest campaign after the civic elections are over, the representatives of the community organisations said. The occupying SL Navy has seized thousands of acres of agricultural lands. Similarly, the SL Board of Investment and the Ceylon Electricity Board are still engaged in fencing off lands that were seized earlier for the controversial coal power plant, which has been abandoned. But, the land-owners have not been provided alternative lands as promised by the SL authorities. In the meantime, Sinhala Buddhist extremist monks have been triggered by the SL military intelligence to occupy the worship sites of Eezham Tamils using the clauses of the SL constitution, which accords foremost place to Buddhism.
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US naval engagement with Colombo triggers genocidal Sinhalicisation of Tamil heritage

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 February 2018, 13:33 GMT]
The workers from SL Archaeology department of genocidal Sri Lanka have been deployed to carry out 'excavations' at the disputed hill-top of Maththa'la-malai at Choodaik-kudaa in Kooniththeevu, which is located near Champoor in Moothoor division of Trincomalee district. The project, which follows militarisation of Champoor, is aimed at Sinhalicising the entire Champoor region through evoking 'foremost place to Buddhism' clause in the unitary constitution of genocidal Sri Lanka. The move has been triggered by the SL Navy, which is being groomed by the U.S. Pacific Command under the notion of 'military-to-military' engagement. The USA is engaged in promoting the genocidal military of Sri Lanka with a marine training programme in Trincomalee.
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Sirisena's deceptive election promise exposed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 February 2018, 15:21 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, during his latest propaganda trip to Jaffna on Monday, promised to open the coastal road that links Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi North with Punnaalai in Valikaamam West for public use. In the meantime, ITAK Leader Mavai Senathirajah, who has deployed his son in the civic election race for Valikaamam North, was claiming that ITAK's 'collaborative politics' with Colombo was yielding results. But, within 2 days, the eyewash opening of the road for 'public use' was exposed as a farce as the people were refused access to use the road. The occupying Sinhala military has restricted the 'public use' to only allow SL State-owned bus service with military escort through the road on Tuesday.
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Eezham Tamils set to lose Vavuniyaa North to Sinhala colonists in civic elections

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2018, 15:08 GMT]
The Sinhala colonisation and demographic changes engineered by the genocidal unitary State of Sri Lanka in Vavuniyaa North have gone to the extent that Eezham Tamils would be losing their political hold of Vavuniyaa North Divisional Council (Piratheasa Chapai) in the forthcoming civic elections, Tamil civil sources in Vavuniyaa said. Vavuniyaa North was entirely a Tamil division before the colonisation by Sinhala paramilitary-led colonists following the State-sponsored anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983. Although the area has been subjected to Sinhala colonisation for a long time through settling Sinhala paramilitary personnel and their families, the extent of silent colonisation has been accelerated after the war in the recent years with the aim of transforming Vavuniyaa North into a 'Sinhala Only' division as the recently Sinhalicised division of Weli-oya, the civil sources further said.
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UNHRC, OHCHR belong to failed human rights paradigm, say victims in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 February 2018, 21:18 GMT]
The families of enforced disappeared, who have been waging continuous protests for hundreds of days have again blamed SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the commander of the armed forces of genocidal Sri Lanka, for repeatedly deceiving them with different explanations each time he met them last year and for his latest claim in Jaffna on Monday that none of the enforced disappeared were in the custody of his forces anywhere in the island. Mr Sirisena was visiting Jaffna for election campaign on Monday. The families of enforced disappeared have been demanding the International Community to trace what had happened to those who were handed over to the SL military in Mullaiththeevu and in Vavuniyaa after the occupying SL military instructed the families of all LTTE members to hand over the surviving at the end of genocidal onslaught in May 2009.
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SL Forest Department grabs agricultural lands of 45 Tamil farmers in Madu

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 February 2018, 19:19 GMT]
Colombo-based SL Forest Department is blocking 45 Eezham Tamil families in Madu DS division of Mannaar district from accessing their own agricultural lands in extent of 175 acres at Chinnak-kungchuk-ku'lam, the villagers of Periya-kungchuk-ku'lam complain. All the land-owners are in possession of land deeds or LDO permits provided by the Assistant Government Agent of Madu. The families were owning the agricultural lands for more than 40 years. Due to the war and displacement, they were unable to engage in agriculture for almost 15 years and the SL Forest Department has put up border stones seizing their lands. The people having valid documents of ownership to their agricultural lands are being confronted by the guards of SL Forest Department, which disregards the rights of resettled Tamils. Some of their land deeds are from 1930s.
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Organised rings backed by occupying Colombo exploit natural resources in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2018, 18:04 GMT]
The Sinhala police and the military of occupying Colombo, collaborating with businessmen from South, are exploiting the natural resources of Paduvaan-karai region, where the major cultivable lands of Eezham Tamils in the Batticaloa district are situated. Paduvaan-karai, also known for dairy and cattle farming for decades, is being systematically targeted for Sinhalicisaton and colonisation by the Sinhalese from Polonnaruwa district under the rule of Maithiriapala Sirisena as the president and the minister of Mahaweli ‘development’. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are also backing Sirisena's discriminative ‘development’ programmes under the System B of Mahaweli irrigation scheme. It is under these circumstances, the occupying forces of genocidal Sri Lanka are engaged in plundering the sand and logging trees by harbouring the exploitative rings from the South.
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37 fisher families in Batticaloa north vow to fight for their land rights

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2018, 19:20 GMT]
37 of 44 Tamil fisher families from Murungkaiyadi-munai village in Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) in Batticaloa district were refusing to put their signatures on empty papers in 2008 when the military commander of 233 Brigade in Vaakarai was threatening them to do so and was demanding the official papers of their land ownership to be handed over to the SL military. Only 7 families succumbed to the pressure. After 10 years, these seven families have received an official letter from the SL authorities in January 2018 that they were being provided with alternative lands. The 37 families, who have been refusing to yield to the military threat, are enraged by the attitude of occupying Colombo. They are set to file a legal suit against the SL State, informed sources told TamilNet.
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Resolution to national question should precede reconciliation, development: NPC CM

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 January 2018, 23:49 GMT]
“In South Africa, the political problem was solved and then the Truth and Reconciliation Commission came into being. Before all these things, the necessity of solving the national problem or the Tamil problem looms large,” said NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, who was invited as a guest to the Colombo and New Delhi centric business exhibition Jaffna “International” Trade Fair” (JITF) held for the 8th consecutive year in Jaffna on Friday. The Chief Minister was also conveying the reservations of the native people in the North to the big-scale external investments not sensitive to the economic culture and concerns of the war affected population. Although the entire island is globally ranked as a ‘Middle Income Country’, the conflict and war affected homeland of Tamils in the North-East is below the poverty line according to the global standards, the CM further observed.
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CEB, BOI scheme permanent occupation of 600 acres of cultivation lands in Champoor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 January 2018, 11:40 GMT]
The lands seized for the abandoned project of coal power plant in Champoor in Moothooor East of Trincomalee still remain fenced off on the instruction from the Board of Investment (BOI) in Colombo. Cleaning work of the land is still going on and Colombo is planning to do something else there, the people who are resettled to the west of the BOI-seized lands said. Although it was said only 500 acres were taken over by the BOI as the main project land, around 600 acres are going to be totally fenced off, the people further said. Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) workers are also making regular inspection visits to the site, the villagers further said.
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All departments at work to seize lands in Trincomalee for naval collaboration with USA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 January 2018, 13:20 GMT]
The Department of Agrarian Development run by the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka has instructed the local Agrarian Service Center in Champoor area to collect details of forested lands which have once been cultivation lands. The details are being collected by the Agrarian Service Center officials through five agrarian organisations in Moothoor East, Trincomalee, informed grassroots sources in Champoor said. The latest move comes after an attempt by the SL Forest Department was confronted by the resettled people of Champoor in December 2017. In the meantime, the SL Forest Department is also preparing for another attempt to survey lands after 28th of February, the sources further said.
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Colombo’s ‘development’ crime evicts one-third of resettled Tamils from border village in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 January 2018, 16:49 GMT]
Almost one third of resettled Tamil families in the village of Oamadiyaa-madu village, located near the district border of Polonnaruwa-Batticaloa in the East, have displaced in recent months from their village due to the ‘development’ crimes committed against them by the occupying Colombo. This post-war displacement is caused by systematic deprivation of infrastructure and intentional neglect in the restoration of their livelihood by the central ministries and authorities of the unitary State system of genocidal Sri Lanka. The SL Ministry of so-called Mahaweli ‘Development’ is working behind the scene to Sinhalicise the entire area, Tamil civil sources in Batticaloa said.
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Sirisena declares war against Tamil fishermen of Vanni, says native fishermen society

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 January 2018, 14:03 GMT]
The SL Ministry of Mahaweli Development, which comes under the direct supervision of SL President Maithiriapal Sirisena, has instructed the Divisional Secretary of Karaithu'raip-pattu and the fisheries sector officials in Mullaiththeevu district not to allow a disputed fishing ‘Paadu’, to be used by the fishermen. The SL ministry has come with a new claim that the area, subjected to a legal dispute for the last 21 months, as coming under the so-called ‘Mahaweli L Development zone’. The occupying Sinhala fishermen have been opposed to native fishermen using the only Paadu (an area of coastal sea-bed falling within the scope of a draw net at 10 feet length), at the locality known as Padakuth-thurai in Naayaa'ru. They have seized the entire coastal stretch from Naayaa'ru lagoon to Mukaththuvaaram in Kokku'laay, occupying more than 11 Paadus of Eezham Tamils in that division.
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