Saiva shrines subjected to Sinhala Buddhicization in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 July 2015, 23:09 GMT]
A shrine of Saiva-Vedda tradition, located 12 km southwest of Paa'nama in Lahugala division of Ampaa'rai district at the hilltop of Channiyaasi-malai, has been subjected to Sinhalicisation and Buddhisization after the area has been seized by Colombo's military from the Tigers eight years ago. Tamil devotees from Ampaa'rai who retured home after a pilgrimage on foot from Thirukkoayil to Kathirkaamam Murukan temple, which is situated in Moneragala district, told TamilNet that the occupying Sinhalese have relocated the ‘divine javelin’ (veal) and built a Buddhist temple at the hilltop in Channiyaasi-malai, which is situated between Paa'nama and Ukanthai.
Full story >>

Colombo's military red tape prevails over civil rule in occupied Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2015, 22:36 GMT]
The Defence Secretary of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, B.M.U.D. Basnayake this week demonstrated to the secretaries of SL Minister D.M. Swaminiathan in Jaffna that it was the SL military commanders in Jaffna, Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu, who were the ultimate decision makers on matters related to releasing back military-occupied lands to the civilians in the Northern province. The SL Defence Secretary, appointed by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, was on his first visit to North on Saturday and Sunday. In the meantime, EPDP leader Douglas Devananda has gone on record stating that the pockets of lands released so far by Maithiripala regime were those already prepared for release by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Full story >>

Geopolitics of the Hegemons and Genocide of the oppressed

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 July 2015, 11:56 GMT]
“The Eezham Tamils occupying the strategic coasts in North-East Sri Lanka facing the Bay of Bengal, the Baloch occupying the coasts where the Persian Gulf meets the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, the Kachins occupying the strategic regions of Burma and the Rohinygas situated near the Isthmus of Kra have all been victims of the geopolitical dynamics involved in the collusion between competing world establishments and Asian nation-states. Such a future scenario warrants alternative measures to overcome the political injustice of imperialistic geopolitics,” writes Norway-based Eezham Tamil anthropology academic Athithan Jayapalan. Eezham Tamils, being the victims of an internationally orchestrated structural genocide, should take the lead in edifying the oppressed nations of the world in building an alternative global political network, writes the second-generation Diaspora academic.
Full story >>

OISL should not absolve Colombo from genocidal crimes: survivor of Mirusuvil massacre

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2015, 13:52 GMT]
The United Nations should not commit – once more – a crime against humanity in the case of Eezham Tamils by absolving the Sri Lankan State from the ultimate crime of genocide through facilitating escape routes to Colombo through the OHCHR at Geneva and the Office of the General-Secretary of the United Nations at New York, Ponnuthurai Maheswaran, who is the sole survivor and prime witness of Mirusuvil massacre case, told TamilNet this week in Jaffna. Mr Maheswaran had narrowly escaped from his killers on 19 December 2000 at the age of 21 at Mirusuvil where he witnessed 8 of his close relatives being tortured and killed by a killer squad of the occupying Sri Lanka Army. Although he had identified several soldiers directly involved in the massacre in the identification parades, all of them, except one, have been absolved of the crime by Colombo's justice system.
Full story >>

Eezham Tamils Learning lessons from Srebrenica

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 July 2015, 06:28 GMT]
Eezham Tamils, especially their politicians and activists, should learn the lesson from Srebrenica that an international investigation on ‘Sri Lanka’ doesn’t merely mean investigating the island at an international level, but investigating the international elements that led to the plight of the island. New researches clearly reveal that the USA and UK knew about the genocide at Srebrenica well ahead of it, but decided to allow it because of a premeditated policy decision. Unchecked, they did it again to Eezham Tamils 14 years later, and the difference is that they still do nothing about the occupying genocidal military, continued genocide, structural genocide and annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils, may be because of another premeditated, original policy, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
Full story >>

SL State sustains genocidal grip on Eezham Tamils citing ‘LTTE affiliation’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 July 2015, 21:43 GMT]
The Sinhala police system of occupying Colombo has once again demonstrated that it could subject any Eezham Tamil civilian to detention under ‘terrorism’ charges under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the Emergency Regulations. The latest case is a Tamil civilian from A'laveddi in Jaffna who lived for some time at Mallaavi in Vanni after the mass exodus of Eezham Tamils from Jaffna peninsula in 1995. Anyone having a family member or close relative with LTTE connection in the past is a potential threat in the eyes of the Sri Lankan military and police. The ‘LTTE affiliation’ has become a ‘valid military objective’, which is necessary to pursue the genocidal project.
Full story >>

Tamil activists in North-East question UN's hidden move on ‘domestic mechanism’

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2015, 20:19 GMT]
“[W]e take note with serious concern the recent announcement by the UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka that the UN has already decided to fund a domestic mechanism,” said 15 Tamil organisations from North-East in a letter forwarded through the Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday. The organizations have put forward two pertinent questions to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: A) How could the UN system decide on supporting a domestic mechanism in abstraction when there has been no proposal or consultation about one? B) Does this announcement not pre-empt the recommendations of the OISL report and any possible follow up action by the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies?
Full story >>

New Delhi calls for registration of Hindi speakers in Northern Province

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 July 2015, 15:18 GMT]
New Delhi’s Consulate General in Jaffna has asked people in the Northern Province, who could speak, read or write Hindi, to come forward to register them at the consulate before 30 July. The necessary registration form for this purpose could be found in the consulate’s website, a press release from the consulate said on Thursday. Meanwhile, New Delhi’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has announced the creation of a post of Joint Secretary at her ministry for the promotion of Sanskrit. Indian media reports wonder why this post at the ‘Foreign Ministry’.
Full story >>

Swaminthan continues ‘facilitation meetings’ between SL military, Tamil actors in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 July 2015, 10:07 GMT]
After the Sri Lankan regime led by Maithripala Sirisena had publicly stated that the continued occupation of civilian properties and any release of them are matters decided by its occupying SL military, D.M. Swaminathan, the SL Minister of Resettlement, has been visiting Jaffna and Ki’inochchi, conducting meetings involving the commanding officers of the SL military and Tamil politicians as well as the civil groups representing the interests of uprooted Eezham Tamils. At a ‘facilitation’ meeting chaired by Mr Swaminthan at Ki’linochchi District Secretariat on Wednesday, the representatives of uprooted people refused to accept the explanations given by the Sinhala military commanders for the delay in the resettlement.
Full story >>

Avurik-kaadu, Vearkkuththik-kadavai, Beru-wala

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 June 2015, 22:05 GMT]
The place found with dense growth of indigo plants

The dye-root diggers' place to pass through

The place found with dense growth of indigo plants or the jungle of Agrotistachys indica shrubs
Full story >>

SL military seizes more lands at Tha'l'laadi, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2015, 23:08 GMT]
While the civil officials in Mannaar are struggling to locate lands to settle Eezham Tamil refugees, who are scheduled to be sent back from India with the facilitation by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the SL Ministry of Resettlement, the occupying SL military in Mannaar has put up noticeboards claiming ownership to more than 50 acres of public lands along the A32 highway between Tha'l'laadi and Thirukkeatheesvaram. The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has recently seized these lands near the notorious Tha'l'laadi military base, civil sources in Mannaar told TamilNet on Monday. The SL military is scheming a military cantonment to facilitate long-term Sinhalicisation of the Mannaar mainland, the sources further said.
Full story >>

Buddhist monk, SL military obstruct territorial contiguity of Tamil homeland at Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 June 2015, 23:48 GMT]
An extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk, Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, who has occupied the lands of Eezham Tamils at Kokku'laay, located along the coastal Mullaiththeevu - Batticaloa Road, has deployed the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers to proceed with the construction of the Vihara, completely ignoring an interim order issued last week by Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat to not to proceed with the construction of the ‘Sri Sambodhi Vihara’ until the dispute of lands occupied by the Incumbent monk is solved. The monk and the soldiers of the occupying army continue to the work despite the pressure and objection coming from the Eezham Tamils. The area surrounding Kokku'laay is the focus of Sinhala colonisation presently, as it is the key location for wedging the demographic contiguity of the North and East as well as direct communication between Mullaiththeevu and Trincomalee.
Full story >>

Fundamentals non-negotiable for non-descript formulas

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 June 2015, 23:46 GMT]
In the current discourse over the US-agenda put through South Africa –Switzerland proxies that bargain the closure of files at the international level for ‘non-descript’ hoodwink of solutions to the genocide-afflicted national question of Eezham Tamils, two arguments are noteworthy of answering, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island. The first one repeatedly comes from the lawyer and spokesperson of the agenda, Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran that those who had earlier found fault with the US move at the UNHRC now realise its importance and demand continuation. The other one comes from Mr. Erik Solheim, who never lost his appetite for con, saying that the situation has now successfully gone back to 1972 and it is in the best hands of Sinhala leadership.
Full story >>

‘LLRC’ Palihakkara promotes pompous ceremony for genocidal ‘War Heroes’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 June 2015, 23:20 GMT]
The office of the SL Governor to North, HMGS Palihakkara, who was one of the eight panellists earlier appointed by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), was an an official co-organiser to the pompous ceremony organised together with Ranaviru Seva Authority (RSA) of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna on Wednesday. ‘LLRC’ Palihakkara himself was the chief guest of the ceremony organised in remembrance of the ‘fallen war heroes of three forces and the Police’. Mr Palihakkara has forced a section of Tamil public servants in the North to accompany him to the military ceremony. Tamil journalists in Jaffna have boycotted the event. The NPC councillors said they were not informed of public servants associated with the NPC being taken to the event.
Full story >>

Uprooted Musali Tamils demand lands back, SL Navy ignores Minister Swaminathan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 May 2015, 20:15 GMT]
Mu'l'ikku'lam has become a strategic point of occupation to the Sri Lankan forces that aim to Sinhalicise and colonise the land and the historic waters of Eezham Tamils. More than 4,500 Eezham Tamil civilians, evicted from Musali division in Mannnaar district in September 2007, are still refused entry to their village by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy, which has changed their village into a military cantonment. On Saturday, SL Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs D.M. Swaminathan (UNP) was forced to wait in front of the gates of the cantonment called ‘Command Headquarters - North Western Naval Area’ for more than 40 minutes by the occupying Sinhala Navy.
Full story >>

Diaspora urged to document flow of narcotics into Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 May 2015, 15:37 GMT]
The Sri Lankan police will not be investigating to the fullest degree possible to assert what kind of narcotics were used by the gang rapists, who committed the brutal crime earlier this month, informed Tamil paramilitary operatives in Jaffna claim. The occupying Sri Lankan military has systematically deployed a number of Sinhala and Muslim narcotic sellers from South into Jaffna and Vanni over a long period of time. The Sri Lanka Navy sustains the flow of narcotics from India. Even the narcotic traffickers who earlier operated from Mannaar have shifted their activities to the islets off Jaffna in recent years. So-called rape drugs have been introduced in recent times, the Tamil paramilitary sources further say. The Chief Minister of Northern Province, Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, was also expressing the same message last week.
Full story >>

Oppressed nations shouldn’t take mere existence of geopolitics for granted: Tamil academic

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2015, 23:31 GMT]
“Despite the emergence of a multipolar world, in which international and regional powers will battle each other and intervene in various conflicts in order to enhance their respective geopolitical dominance, oppressed people and Eezham Tamils should be wary,” writes Norway-based Anthropology academic Athithan Jayapalan. The patronage given by rivalling geopolitical powers to the genocidal policies of Sri Lanka and Pakistan in South Asia imply that a multipolar world does not by itself serve the interest of oppressed nations, the academic from the second generation diaspora, concludes that the national political mobilization within the oppressed nations themselves and a global solidarity transcending the State borders, would create the necessary de-facto situations to empower the nations without States to achieve their freedom.
Full story >>

Address ‘domestic’ deceptions of geopolitical powers: Disapora Tamil activist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2015, 05:24 GMT]
“We should remember that it was primarily the geo-political injustice committed by regional and global powers that enabled the SL State to wage the unrelenting genocidal onslaught towards Mu'l'ivaaykkaal in 2009. The powers, pre-occupied with ‘unified’ Sri Lanka, were seeking to force through our throats, the concept of ‘internal self-determination’ to reject our only remedy of asserting our own sovereignty,” Lathan Suntharalingam, a Diaspora activist, who has championed the legal efforts in Europe after 2009, said in his address on Monday at Bern, Switzerland. “The next milestone in the post-2009 struggle is to mark the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Day as a universal day of remembrance of genocides and injustices committed against the nations without states by the regional and global geopolitical powers. This is key to safeguard them from continued ‘domestic’ and global crimes,” he said.
Full story >>

NPC Minister demands de-militarisation of Chu'ndiku'lam Bird Sanctuary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2015, 22:08 GMT]
The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Minister, responsible for the environmental affairs Ponnuthurai Ayngaranesan has stated that the NPC was demanding the occupying Sri Lanka Navy to hand over the environmental tourism related establishments it has established in the bird sanctuary of Chu'ndik-ku'lam. Like the forest department of the Tamil Nadu government and the local people have been protecting the Veadanthaangkal Bird Sanctuary, which is situated in Chengkalpaddu District of Tamil Nadu, the people in Vadamaraadchi East and the ministry at the NPC with the responsibility of protecting the environment want to take over the affairs of their environment from the military, he said. The people-environment relationship in the North-East would be best taken care of by the people in their traditional homeland than a [occupying] military, he said.
Full story >>

CMPC in Tamil Nadu pays tribute to Eezham Tamil Journalist Sivaram

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2015, 17:19 GMT]
Centre of Media Persons for Change (CMPC), a journalist movement based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, observed 10th year anniversary of the assassination of Eezham Tamil journalist Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki) at a journalists meeting, which was organised on Sunday to mark the World Press Freedom Day and the 5th year of the CMPC movement, media sources in Chennai said. Young journalists from mainstream media groups participated in the event discussing conflict-reporting, self-realization on the role of the journalists in the larger society dominated by a corporate culture, commitment to principled approaches and focus on human rights of the oppressed nations and people.
Full story >>