Sampanthan, Sumanthiran attempt to quench Tamil uprising in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2016, 20:12 GMT]
Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and pro-Establishment TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, have been staging a series of meetings in recent days in a die-hard attempt to quench the Tamil uprising, which has been scheduled to take place in Jaffna on 14 September. While the mobilisation which has been initiated by the Tamil Peoples Council (TPC), has drawn support from more than 54 grassroots and civil groups in the Northern Province, the deviatory leaders of the main Tamil polity, the TNA, have been instructed by the Establishments not to support the uprising. EPRLF and PLOTE leaders have been harassed by the Sampanthan polity not to be involved with the uprising. However, Dharmalingam Siddharthan and Suresh Premachandran have refused to yield to the pressure to change their stance, informed political sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Sweeping the issue of ethnic assaults under carpet is not reconciliation: Peradeniya Tamil students

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2016, 20:18 GMT]
In an attempt to conceal the recent racial assault by a section of Sinhalese students on Tamil-speaking students at Peradeniya, the University Administration has said it has taken disciplinary action against the students who were involved in a clash on 22 August. Accordingly, 10 students were suspended for two weeks from attending their studies, the Administration has said. Responding, the Tamil-speaking students who were subjected to ethnic violence by the Sinhala students told TamilNet on Thursday that they didn't interpret the so-called disciplinary action as a proper response to ensure their future security. In the meantime, Reginald Cooray, Colombo's colonial governor to North has been once again exposed, this time by the Sinhalese students themselves, as a force escalating the conflict while the University Administration in Jaffna was trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution.
Full story >>

49 Tamil students boycott studies, demand security from racial assaults in Peradeniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2016, 20:09 GMT]
Protesting the assault on Tamil-speaking students in ‘surrender position’ by Sinhalese students at Peradeniya University on Monday this week, 49 Tamil-speaking students attending the first year courses at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences (AHS) have left the University premises on Wednesday and informed the administration that they will not be prepared to return until there is a proper guarantee extended to them by the SL State and the University administration. The University Administration was trying to convince that they would provide guarantees for the security of Tamil and Muslim students within the premises. However, Tamil-speaking students who have come from other provinces have raised questions on their freedom of movement and security in Peradeniya and Kandy.
Full story >>

35 Tamil-speaking students leave Peradeniya campus after racial assault

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2016, 23:37 GMT]
35 Tamil-speaking students attending first year courses at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences (AHS) at the University of Peradeniya on Tuesday left the University premises, after 12 of them were subjected to brutal ethnic-motivated assault by Sinhala students Monday evening. Four students were rushed to hospital with severe injuries after a group of 2nd year Sinhala students of the same faculty attacked them on Monday. Sinhala students who came in motorbikes surrounded the Tamil-speaking students and instructed them to put their hands on surrender position and brutally attacked them using their helments. The incident took place when the Tamil-speaking students were on their way to hostel after attending a faculty related event at Ku'ringhchik-kumaran temple. Around 35 of 200 first-year students at the Faculty of AHS are Tamil-speaking students and most of them were from North-East.
Full story >>

Colombo schemes permanent slum housing for uprooted Tamils at limestone quarry lands

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 August 2016, 23:37 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka in Jaffna is attempting to nullify the demand for resettlement coming from the uprooted people of Valikaamam North who are languishing at 32 camps, by projecting the construction of houses at limestone quarry lands in Keerimalai/Maaviddapuram as a ‘reconciliation initiative’. Colombo is converting the project, which started off as a 100-houses scheme into a larger five-phased housing scheme and by ‘marketing’ it as ‘reconciliation’ and ‘affordable’ housing scheme for uprooted people. The ulterior motive of the deceptive Keerimalai housing scheme is to weaken the demands coming from uprooted Tamils to release their military occupied fertile lands in Valikaamam North. The five-phased project is targeting to lump together the uprooted people into a 47-acre area.
Full story >>

Global Tamils urged to help fight legal case of Muslim political prisoner detained under PTA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2016, 23:16 GMT]
The wife of a Muslim political prisoner, who has been detained under the ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ of genocidal Sri Lanka since 2009, has urged global Tamils to financially assist her to cover the legal expenses in her continued fight to release her husband, Mr Abdul Hameed Umar Hattaaph, who has been alleged of involvement in the assassination of a former notorious commander of the genocidal military, Major General (retd) Janaka Perera in 2008 “No lawyer was prepared to take up the case on behalf of my husband when my Father-in-Law was searching for a lawyer before he passed away. Now, my husband is detained with 48 counts against him while all others have been released 6 years ago. Only one Sinhala lawyer was prepared to take up his case following the assistance provided by a legal organisation. But, now that assistance too has stopped,” the mother of three told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Thiraayk-kea'ni struggles to survive as Tamil village in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 August 2016, 22:16 GMT]
Thiraayk-kea'ni, a traditional Tamil village situated in Muslim-dominated Addaa'laich-cheanai division, is still struggling to come to terms with the past. 26 years have elapsed after the village faced a brutal massacre in which 52 Tamils were hacked to death at the temple grounds and a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped and thrown into the fire. The poverty-stricken villagers, resettled there after four years have been deprived of proper resettlement and livelihood. They were even unable to commemorate the 26-year remembrance of the victims at the temple on 06 August this year.
Full story >>

Tamil graduates in East sidelined in education sector employments for 2016

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2016, 23:40 GMT]
The Secretary of Provincial Public Service Commission (PPSC) in the Eastern Province, H.E.M.W.G. Dissanayake has issued a notice in Sinhala and Tamil languages, inviting graduates from the three districts of Ampaa’rai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee to attend for ‘Open Competitive Examination’ to fill vacancies of Provincial Schools in the Eastern Province. Except Tamil, History and certain Information Communication Technology related vacancies are in the medium of Sinhala language, complain Tamil teachers from Batticaloa. While side-lining Tamil-medium positions for Arts, Religion, Agriculture in all the three districts getting only four of thirteen subjects, Trincomalee district is allocated with all 13 subjects.
Full story >>

Tamil polity urged to principally oppose ‘military rehabilitation’ of Tamil POWs

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 August 2016, 23:29 GMT]
Serious allegations have been levelled against the so-called military rehabilitation of former Tamil fighters in the captivity of SL State. As far as 103 former Tamil fighters, who have been released after the ‘rehabilitation’ have been diagnosed with cancer while there are several cases of persons who have been subjected to the SL military programme having sustained nerve damage losing feelings below their abdomen. The Tamil politicians have completely failed to object the continuation of the genocidal programme, Fr M Sakthivel, a veteran human rights activist, has told TamilNet in a recent video interview. “This is not rehabilitation. This is politically-motivated genocide,” Fr Sathivel said.
Full story >>

Uprooted Tamils reject Colombo's crores of bribes for naval seizure of Pa'l'li-munai in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 August 2016, 23:50 GMT]
The Tamil fishermen belonging to Pa'l'li-munai in Mannaar city, whose houses, lands and the fishing market, have been occupied by the SL military since November 1990 moved 19 cases against the SL Navy and the SL State in February 2013 after they were thoroughly disappointed by the political inaction inside the island and after seeing the Geneva discourse not bringing any solutions home. The case has been scheduled for hearings 21 times and postponed each time citing requests or absence from the respondents. Despite the pending case against the SL Navy, Colombo's Survey Department officials were attempting to survey the lands for permanent seizure on 02 July. The poverty-stricken fishermen told TamilNet on Thursday that they have not yielded to the pressure from Colombo, including the offer of crores of rupees to abandon their case and settle for alternative arrangements.
Full story >>

Tamil Prisoners of War call for renewed struggle to free them from SL prisons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 August 2016, 23:06 GMT]
Tamil Prisoners of War, languishing in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka have urged Tamil political and civil activists, students and journalists to launch a renewed struggle for their liberation from the SL prisons. The Tamil POWs said their freedom should be based upon a political decision and a principled one. If SL President Maithiripala Sirisena was able to re-instate a former Chief Justice subjected to impeachment by Rajapaksa government and extend complete Presidential pardon acquitting former SL Commander Sarath Fonseka of all the charges, how could anyone defend the lack of political decision to free the Tamil political prisoners without subjecting them to prolonged imprisonment, a spokesperson of the Tamil POWs asked TamilNet over the phone. The Tamil prisoners have raised severe criticism against Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and TNA Parliamentarian M. Sumanthiran.
Full story >>

SL Police crimes against Eezham Tamils exposed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 August 2016, 23:02 GMT]
While a Sinhala Officer-in-Charge (OIC), Chintaka Bandara, and his criminal gang, alleged of being responsible for the torture, killing and subsequent cover-up of the murder of a 26-year-old Tamil youth in their custody at Chunnaakam in 2011 are still being at the helm of the SL police affairs at Kodikaamam in Jaffna, the SL Police in Jaffna city has been alleged of murdering a crucial witness this week. 51-year-old Krishnan Kanthasamy, who was a brokering agent of the Sinhala military-run white-van squad, was caught by the people on Kasthooriyaar Road in the city on Monday and he revealed the details of a Major rank SL Military Intelligence officer and his squad as being responsible for several abductions, killings and extortion of money from some of the families of their genocidal victims. Later, he was poisoned by Sinhala police officers, informed Tamil police circles told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Eezham Tamils in Mullaiththeevu protest against expansion of ‘SLNS Gotabhaya’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 August 2016, 16:54 GMT]
The people of Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday confronted SL Survey Department officials who were trying to seize 617 acres of lands at Vadduvaakal, where the final onslaught took place in May 2009. The area has been seized by the SL Navy for the so-called ‘Regional Security Centre’, monitoring the coastal belt of Mullaiththeevu towards the Bay of Bengal. The lands that belong to private owners have been illegally occupied since 2009 and there are crucial evidences still intact in the area, the people say. The SL Department officials had informed the owners in advance that their lands were to be surveyed for three days starting from Wednesday. The protesting land-owners were accompanied by TNA and TNPF politicians. The protest comes also after SL Deputy Defence Secretary recently visited the area in an attempt to convince the land-owners to accept alternative lands elsewhere.
Full story >>

Sinhala Police wants SL Judiciary to investigate Tamil students first

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 August 2016, 08:49 GMT]
While Sinhalese students are demanding a sub-station of SL Police to be established inside the premises of the University of Jaffna, the police of genocidal Sri Lanka have filed cases against 5 Tamil students. The Tamil students, including the Student Union leader who was assaulted by the Sinhalese students, have to present themselves at Jaffna Court on 25 August, informed sources at the University of Jaffna told TamilNet on Sunday. In the meantime, 4 Sinhalese students have to present themselves on 10 September, the sources further said.
Full story >>

Sumanan tortured, killed by Chunnakam police, eye-witness testifies

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 July 2016, 19:23 GMT]
Defence attorney for the five suspects who were charged in an alleged case of theft around November 2011, Visuvalingam Manivannan told TamilNet that one of the first three suspects in the above case had said in his testimony when the case was taken for hearing in Mallaakam courts this week, that the 5th accused, Sumanan Sriskandarajah, was hung upside down, tortured and killed in front of him at the Chunnakam police station. The 4th suspect told the Court during his testimony that he was tortured and severely beaten by the Chunnakam police, but he didn't personally witness any torture administered to the 5th suspect, the attorney further added.
Full story >>

UNP answerable for 1983 genocidal pogrom: Batticaloa UNP Organiser

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 July 2016, 23:14 GMT]
“Although I am involved in UNP politics for 46 years, I am first a Tamil in my heart. There is no denying that UNP is responsible on the accountability for 1983 pogrom and other governments in Colombo for the crimes committed during their regime,” said Batticaloa District UNP organiser, Aloysius Thambimuthu Masilamani, responding to a question on UNP's reaction to the issue raised this week by Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam that how could Tamils expect Justice for 2009 genocidal crimes from the UNP regime, which has failed to deliver accountability for 1983 pogrom against Tamils for 33 years. “What happened on 23 July 1983 was nothing else than a genocide. “Even my political mentor Devanayagam described it as a barbaric act at that time and Cyril Mathew demanded him to withdraw that description. But, Denavayagam stood by it,” Mr Aloysius Masilamani told TamilNet.
Full story >>

JUSU opposes police cases against Tamil students, SL military steps up surveillance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 July 2016, 23:38 GMT]
One of the Sinhala students, who has been admitted for ‘prolonged’ medical treatment in South following the recent violent clash between the Sinhala and Tamil students at the University of Jaffna, has reportedly named 4 Tamil students as the attackers and the SL police has been trying to get the SL Judiciary to issue arrest warrants against them, informed sources at the University of Jaffna told TamilNet on Tuesday. In the meantime, leftist Sinhala circles in Colombo have blamed the SL regime for trying to charge Tamil students under the provisions of ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’. Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) leaders told TamilNet that the Military Intelligence of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has stepped up surveillance against Tamil student activists in Jaffna.
Full story >>

2009 genocide justice not going to come from UNP of 1983 pogrom: Shivajilingam

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 July 2016, 21:12 GMT]
The United National Party (UNP) was responsible for the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom. The current SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe was a cabinet minister in 1983 in the UNP regime. 33 years have elapsed. The UNP has totally failed to deliver accountability for the crimes to which it was responsible. How could one expect any justice or solution to come from the UNP for the genocidal crimes committed against Eezham Tamils in 2009, asked M.K. Shivajilingam, a veteran political leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) marking 33rd anniversary of Black July. The Black July memorial events were held in Jaffna and Trincomalee in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils on Monday. The memorial events in Jaffna were held at St. Mary's Church and at Nalloor Murukan temple.
Full story >>

Ethnic discrimination in student enrollment exposes reconciliation farce: Tamil academic

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 July 2016, 23:09 GMT]
Reconciliation is about change of attitude in the minds of people. The authorities should have set precedence for such transformation through egalitarian practices. But, what has taken place on the ground was in sharp contradiction, especially in the practice of student selection to the universities in the island, said Senior Lecturer Dr J. Kennedy from the Faculty of Arts & Culture at the Eastern University in an interview to TamilNet on Saturday. Stating that proper investigations should reveal the patterns, the academic from the Department of Languages at the main Vanthaa'ru-moolai campus of the Eastern University said he personally believed external sources were influencing certain sections of Sinhala students to behave in a supremacist manner. Colombo's Ministry of Higher Education and the University Grants Commission (UGC) should prove their bona fides, he said.
Full story >>

Tamil student leaders in Jaffna condemn SL Governor Cooray’s remarks in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 July 2016, 19:47 GMT]
Reacting strongly against Colombo’s Governor to North Mr Reginald Cooray, who went on record in Colombo on Thursday claiming that the SL police in Jaffna was searching for an ‘absconding’ [Tamil] student, the Student Union leaders at the University of Jaffna told TamilNet Friday evening that they would launch a long-term boycott bringing the education activities to a standstill if Colombo regime was backing the controversial claim of Mr Cooray. In the meantime, the University administration in Jaffna and the University Grants Commission jointly invited all students to the University promising conducive environment at the Faculty of Science and that education activities have resumed in several other faculties.
Full story >>