Death threat issued to 8 student activists, 3 lecturers of Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 December 2011, 14:10 GMT]
“There will be ‘maximum punishment’ [assassination] for those who disturb the ‘freedom’ that we gave to Tamil people by shedding our blood,” say posters and notices distributed by helmet-wearing unknown operatives who entered the premises of the University of Jaffna Thursday. The poster, titled “last warning” and issued in the name of “Naam Ilangkaiyar Security Force” (We Sri Lankans Security Force), names 8 students from 4 districts and 3 lectures of the University of Jaffna. The elected leadership of the student union this year and the newly elected leaders for the coming year are named in the list. One of the students is Mr. S.Thavapalasingham who was recently attacked by a group of men believed to be SL military intelligence operatives and one of the lecturers is Mr. S. Raveendran, who was abducted in Colombo in March 2009 and released after two weeks.
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Abducted JVP organiser in Jaffna feared killed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 December 2011, 18:02 GMT]
Lalith Veeraraj, the Jaffna district organiser of the Movement for People’s Struggle, a JVP dissident group and his friend Kugan Murugananthan, who were reported missing in Achchuveali on Friday are feared killed, according to the MPS faction of the JVP which staged a press conference in Jaffna on Saturday. Lalith Veeraraj has been involved in bringing out the news regarding the missing persons, political prisoners and abductions in Jaffna, Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Mannaar and Vavuniyaa during the past months and had been warned several times by the SL intelligence operatives not to get involved in the missing persons issue.
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Missing persons' parents stage protest amidst harassment by SL military in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 December 2011, 10:12 GMT]
For the first time in Jaffna, kept under the iron fist of occupying SL military, parents and relatives of the missing persons, braved SL army barriers and harassment by the occupying soldiers and riot police and staged a protest in front of Jaffna Bus stand on Wold Human Rights Day seeking global attention on the plight of those reported missing since the end of Vanni war in 2009. The SL military and police blocked the organisers from Colombo, the Civil Monitoring Commttee of missing persons, at Veampadi in Jaffna, for hours blocking them from reaching the site of the protest. The protestors managed to intuitively stage the rally without the organisers, political observers in Jaffna said. In the meantime, a JVP dissident group member, Lalith Weeraraj, who was on his way to the protest site has been reported missing at Aavarangkaal. The SL Police attacked reporters covering the protest.
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Abductions escalate in North, families urged to approach Co-Chair Ambassadors in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 December 2011, 09:51 GMT]
21-year-old Tharsan Kannuchamy, who was earlier released after detention by the Sri Lanka Army following Vanni war, has been reported missing since Monday this week, according to a complaint lodged by his family with the SL Police in Chu'n'naakam in Jaffna. Mr. Tharsan was last seen leaving for work to a shop in Jaffna from Uduvil, where his family has recently settled after living in the nearby town of Chu'n'naakam. SL Police and Red Cross declining to take complaints, helpless human rights workers now advise family members of the abducted to report matters to the Ambassadors of the Co-Chair countries that are accountable to the war and post-war in the island.
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Abducted university student released

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 November 2011, 15:29 GMT]
Jaffna University Siddha Medicine student, Vetharaniyam Latheesh, who was feared abducted by the occupying Sri Lanka’s military on the Heroes Day evening, Sunday, at Thirunelveali in Jaffna, was released on Monday evening after being taken to a notorious military intelligence outfit directly operated by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in Vavuniyaa. The release of Latheesh became possible as some Western embassies in Colombo showed interest in his case, news sources in the island said. Jaffna University students, who were harassed by the SL military after a torch was lit atop the university hostel on the Heroes Day, felt relieved and optimistic at the gesture of the international community, university circles said.
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Colombo pushes for 40,000 acres land grab for Sinhalese in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 October 2011, 15:48 GMT]
More than 40,000 acres of fertile lands that are located in border villages that come under the DS division of Koa'ralaippattu North, Vavu'natheevu, Ea'raavoorpattu, Chengkaladi, Koa'ralaippattu South and Paddippazhai in the Batticaloa district belonging to Tamil speaking people are under alienation to Sinhalese without the permission of the District Land Alienation Committee, the District Government Agent and Divisional Secretary and is undermining the Provincial Land Ordinance, says Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) member R. Thurairatnam. The EPC has not taken any action against the illegal encroachments Mr. Thurairatnam says in a memorandum to the Chief Minister of the EPC, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan.
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TNA goes to courts against land registration

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2011, 15:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance on Monday filed a case against the re-registration of lands in North and East. TNA MP for Jaffna Mr. Suresh Premachandran said the re-registration, taking place in North and East, was illegal and the recent protest and political appeals have failed to give any result forcing the TNA to file Fundamental Right Case at the Supreme Court of Colombo.
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Consequences of Tamil genocide engulf entire island: Bahu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 October 2011, 12:44 GMT]
The regime of state terror, which started in the Tamil homeland has now become a menace everywhere in the island. The state terrorism, created on the basis of Sinhala chauvinism, is for a purpose; that is to assist certain neo liberal forces involved in plunder of resources, said Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne, the general secretary of the NSSP, who took oath as the newly elected Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) member for the Dehiwala Mount Lavinia municipal council on Friday. “So-called development of the government is based on displacement of people and plunder of resources. While people are pushed out of their traditional habitat land, marine resources, minerals and earth resources, forest, water resources etc., are taken over by the neo liberal developers. World powers that supported the genocidal war are happy and satisfied about the situation,” Dr. Karunaratne further said.
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123,000 fall below poverty line in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2011, 18:58 GMT]
20.5 percent of the population in the Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province is beyond the poverty line, according to Sri Lankan Central Bank Advisor of the Poverty Abolishment Programme, R.Sri Pathmanathan. At an event held in Batticaloa last week, Mr. Sri Pathmanathan said Batticaloa district was one of the 14 poverty stricken districts in the island. The districts of Ki'linochchi, Vavuniyaa and Mullaiththeevu have not been included in the study, he said.
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Occupying SL military cancels resettlement in Ira’naip-paalai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 08:31 GMT]
Occupying Sinhala military cancelled the resettlement of the war-displaced villagers of the Ira’naip-paalai village in the Puthukkudiyiruppu division of Mullaiththeevu district a few days ago. Facing the monsoon rains, the Tamil villagers continue to live in the camps in Vavuniyaa. Their resettlement was announced on the 7th of this month. While they were waiting for transportation after completing due registrations, the SL Army in the last minute cancelled the resettlement indefinitely. The demining has already been completed in the village, but the occupying Army has some special reasons for blocking the resettlement as it fears exposure of some of the details and evidences of its war crimes if resettlement is allowed without erasing all the remaining ‘traces’, informed sources said.
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Snail pace delivery of houses with Indian assistance, mere 0.1% completed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 October 2011, 14:38 GMT]
Housing scheme for displaced civilians of North and East, announced by India last year, has failed to deliver, according to Tamil NGO and political circles in Jaffna. India had announced last year that it would construct 50,000 houses for the displaced in the North and East. However, only 53 houses have been constructed so far till October 2011, Tamil NGO sources said. Plans were afoot in Mannaar, Vavuniyaa, Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Jaffna in North to construct houses for the war-displaced people. Earlier this year, when asked on the lack of progress of Indian announcement, Indian officials in the island responded that at least one thousand houses will be constructed before the end of 2011. The officials diluted the commitment further indicating that the numbers also included repair of existing houses.
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Sinhala encroachment of grazing lands continues unabated in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 October 2011, 20:32 GMT]
Under the direction of SL authorities in Colombo, the Ampaa'rai District Agrarians Services Department has begun issuing permits to Sinhala encroachers on grazing lands in the Batticaloa district giving permanent status. Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr.P.Selvarasa addressing a meeting of the farmers at Vavu'natheevu DS secretariat last week requested the Sri Lanka Government Agent of Batticaloa District to stop legalizing encroachment by Sinhalese on grazing land located in Vavu'natheevu, Paddippazhai and Vellaave'li DS division in the Batticaloa district.
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Resettled people struggle for survival in Paduvaankarai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 September 2011, 06:51 GMT]
Resettled uprooted people in villages in Paduvaankarai region in Batticaloa district have started moving out to urban areas as they are not provided with basic and livelihood facilities, according to civil sources in Paduvaankarai. The people of Paduvaankarai were driven out from their houses following the military offensive by the Sri Lanka Army in 2006-2007. After the resettlement they once again lost everything they possessed in two floods, one in December in 2010 and the second in 2011 January-February.
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Sri Lanka relocates uprooted civilians by force in jungles to cover-up war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 15:40 GMT]
Closing down the infamous Manik Farm barbed-wire camp where several thousands of war-displaced Tamil civilians were detained under extremely difficult conditions since early 2009, the genocidal Rajapaksa regime has now decided to relocate them in some strange jungle areas by force, under the name of ‘resettlement’ of internally displaced people (IDPs), mainly to cover up war crimes. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence this week announced that preparations were under way to construct 600 acre new village in Koampaavil in Puthukkudiyiruppu area to resettle the remaining 7,394 IDPs from 2,097 families at the Manik Farm Camp.
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Jaffna University students agitate against ‘grease devils’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 September 2011, 05:45 GMT]
Openly accusing Sri Lanka government and its military for staging the ‘grease devil’ attacks on Tamils and Muslims of the North and East, and especially their women, the agitating students of the University of Jaffna called upon the International Community to take note of what is happening. More than a thousand students of the university with full support of the Teachers Union and Employees Union of the university staged the demonstration on Wednesday. Even animals resist when they are attacked, but we don’t have even that freedom against the cowardice ‘grease devils’ set by SL government with ultimate intentions of continued genocide, the demonstrators raised voices. It was a major demonstration in Jaffna in the last couple of years, news sources said.
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Indian railway aid helps Colombo to wedge North and East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 September 2011, 00:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka occupying the country of Eezham Tamils proposes to lay a railway link between Mannaar and Trincomelee through Medawaachchiya in the Sinhala territory of North Central Province, while the shortest link between the two cities is through Vavuniyaa in the north. As the railway line between Thalai Mannaar and Medawaachchiya has been restored with Indian assistance, Colombo now plans to extend it to Trincomalee through the North Central Province. The link of Thalai Mannaar in the Palk Bay and Trincomalee in the Indian Ocean is strategically important to Indian interests as Trincomalee could be directly linked through land and a short ferry with the Indian railway network coming up to Raameaswaram. But the link planned through Sinhala territory aims to structurally wedge the Tamil country and Sinhalicise the Tamil port cities.
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‘Grease devil’ scare, confrontations trigger displacement from Vavuniyaa villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 01:22 GMT]
Following reports of attempted violent attacks targeting Tamil-speaking women and robberies by armed Sinhala personnel, allegedly belonging to Sri Lankan police and military, the Tamil and Muslim people in the remote villages with dispersed settlements in Vavuniyaa district have displaced in large numbers and sought asylum in buildings in densely populated areas. Tamil residents from the Poovarasang-ku'lam and Muslim residents from Pampaimadu have confronted Sinhalese men belonging to ‘home guards’ and the Sri Lankan Police personnel who have attempted to rescue the captured intruders from the protesting villagers.
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Angry protesters kill SL Policeman, Puththa'lam tense

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 August 2011, 18:42 GMT]
A Sinhala policeman returning from duty was attacked and killed by Muslim protesters in Puththa'lam town Sunday night, initial reports from the area said. The protesters had rallied at Puththa'lam town, from the mosque of Jumma Masjid to the main roundabout, after the residents of Ma'naltheevu, a village 3 km north of Puththa'lam on Puththa'lam - Mannaar Road, confronted alleged ‘grease devil’ attackers, attacking the intruders and two SL policemen. The latest series of attacks by so-called grease devils are targeting remote and border villages, especially the Muslim villages and Up-Country Tamil areas where the Sri Lankan military is attempting to expand its military grip, political circles in Puththa'lam and Vavuniyaa told TamilNet.
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‘Grease Devil’ attacks aim at frightening resettlement in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2011, 12:59 GMT]
While attacks especially on Tamil women carried out by unidentified men in camouflage called ‘Grease Devils’ terrorise Tamil civilians in the East and the hill country, such attacks particularly aim at crippling resettlement in the Vanni districts. On Wednesday evening, three men emerging from the thickets in black dress and grease on their face chased three women of Ki’linochchi 8th milepost engaged in removing landmines. Following similar incidents and attacks on women in Vanni, people resettling in their houses and lands that are dispersed as typical to the settlement pattern of Vanni are now forced to gather into clusters. Occupying SL military’s officials now ‘advice’ resettled people in Vanni to live in clusters to avoid terrorising attacks.
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