Braving Colombo’s harassment, people in occupied Tamil Eelam prepare for Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2017, 23:10 GMT]
Harassments by the occupying Sinhala military intelligence and the SL Police are being reported across the 8 districts in the North and East as Eezham Tamils have been mobilising themselves this week to prepare the remaining of the destroyed structures at various Tamil Eelam Great Heroes Cemeteries that have been razed to the ground by the occupying military of genocidal Colombo. The SL Police in Jaffna has deployed additional ‘Special Task Force’ commandos and the Senior Deputy Inspector General in Jaffna has vowed to deploy Sinhala Army soldiers at any time under the pretext of controlling gang violence and narcotic trafficking. Both the crimes have been systematically spread by the military intelligence in the occupied Tamil Eelam as part of a systematic psychological warfare against Eezham Tamils.
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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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34,000 war-uprooted in Jaffna district alone: NPC Report

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2017, 20:43 GMT]
Jaffna district tops the five districts in the Northern Province in the statistics over uprooted people who are awaiting resettlement in their private properties, which still remain occupied by the Sinhala military for the purpose of military zone and cantonments, according to a recent report submitted to NPC CM Justice C.V. Wigneswaran by the Deputy Chief Secretary on Planning at the NPC. There are 34,099 uprooted individuals belonging to 9,758 families in Jaffna district alone, the report says. There are 47,044 individuals who remain uprooted across the five districts. However, these figures are rather conservative and minimalistic as these do not include the people who have not lodged entries for resettlement and those currently remain as refugees in Tamil Nadu State of India and those who live exiled elsewhere as asylum seekers.
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Veteran journalist of Tamil Eelam passes away at 87

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2017, 16:07 GMT]
S.M. Gopalaratnam (SMG), the most senior journalist to serve the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle with a prolific journalistic career in the Tamil-language press with more than 50 years of continuous service, passed away at the age of 87 at his residence in Batticaloa on Wednesday. Born in Jaffna and based in Batticaloa, Mr Gopalaratnam joined Virakesari in Colombo as a proof-reader in 1953 and rose to the level of sub-editor in the same year. SMG joined Jaffna-based Eezha Naadu daily in 1961 as one of the founding editorial board members and served the paper for 20 years covering the non-violent struggle of Eezham Tamils. He narrowly escaped from an arson attack by the occupying Sinhala police who burnt down the office and machinery of Eezha Naadu the very night the Jaffna Public Library was put to ashes in 1981.
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Jaffna students demand US and UN agenda-setters to declare PTA detainees as political prisoners

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2017, 23:44 GMT]
More than 1,000 Tamil students from across the faculties of Jaffna University as well as the students from the College of Education, Jaffna Technical College and High Tech institute took to the streets in Jaffna on Tuesday demanding the main intervening actors of the International Establishment to recognise the Tamil prisoners detained under the so-called Prevention of Terrorism Act as Political Prisoners. They handed over open and urgent appeals addressed to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the President of UNHRC and to the US Permanent Mission for UN in Geneva, which has been behind the drafting of the ‘consensus’ resolution with the SL State in Geneva Human Rights Council in 2015 and with postponing a final evaluation by two more years in 2017. The student leaders handed over the appeals through the UN Residential Office in Jaffna and the American Corner in the city.
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Colombo refuses to release 3 political prisoners who have completed serving prison terms: MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 November 2017, 23:03 GMT]
Three Tamil males from Mullaiththeevu were detained by the Maldivian authorities in May 2007 for suspicious movement in the international waters off Maldives. A Maldivian court later sentenced them for 15 years of imprisonment. The prisoners were handed over to Colombo along with necessary documents and the verdict to serve the remaining terms. The prisoners have completed their terms in May as one prison year is calculated as 8 months and 10 days if served continuously. However, the SL State is refusing to release them, TNA Parliamentarian Charles Nirmalanathan said. The Tamil parliamentarian from Mannaar said that the families of the three prisoners had taken up the matter with the previous SL Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe in July and that the SL minister had promised to forward their request to SL Attorney General's Department and to SL Prison Authority.
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Doḍam-pē, Mādam-pē, Hal-pē, Ẹhẹla-pē

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The orange grove

The Mādam-tree jungle or grove

The Hal-tree forest or grove

The Ẹhẹla-tree jungle or grove
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Tamil-speaking aborigines face existential threat in Moothoor, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2017, 22:27 GMT]
The officials of the Wildlife Department of occupying Colombo have threatened Tamil-speaking aborigines, who had resettled in their traditional lands in Chantha'na-veddai located near Kal-malai in Moothhoor DS Division of Trincomalee district, to vacate their huts. The aborigines who have been residing in the area for centuries were provided with documents proving their ownership to lands as far back as 1972. During the times of war, they were uprooted from Chantha'na-veddai. After 2009, the people resettled back and have constructed huts. Their livelihood is cultivating finger millet and jowar since 2009. Sinhala Wildlife Department officials are now claiming the area as coming under their domain and have instructed the Tamil aborigines to vacate the lands, civil sources in Trincomalee said.
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Nā-pā-vala, Nā-pā-goḍa, Dehi-gas-pā, Kańdu-pā-gama, Mā-pā-kańda, Sirī-pā-gama, Gal-pāya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 November 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The Nā-tree forest

The Nā-forest bank/ hill/ village

The lime-shrub grove

The hill-place village or the hill-forest village

The great person's hill or the hill having a mansion/ temple

The sacred-footprint village

The stone mansion/ temple or the rocky expanse
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Colombo's NGO coordinator issues threats to freedom of association in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 November 2017, 23:08 GMT]
SL Government-operated NGO Secretariat is again threatening the local civil groups, NGOs and Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) in Batticaloa district against taking part in the protests being organised by the kith and kin of the enforced disappeared, civil activists in the district said. Mr P.S. Sylvester, the chairman of the so-called Federation of Civil Organisations in Batticaloa District, an outfit recently launched by SL Minister Mano Ganesan's NGO Secretariat, is behind the intimidation. Colombo regime wants to completely dismantle the already functioning federation, which is known as I'naiyam.
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Student struggle should address external agenda-setters

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2017, 23:26 GMT]
The ITAK hierarchy of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is led by Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran, has been unconditionally supporting the budget of genocidal Sri Lanka for the past two years. It is the agenda behind the external powers and global financial outfits such as the World Bank, which directs the collaborating polity of the TNA. The ITAK collaborators receive their instructions from the soft-power players of the US Bandwagon. India is also part of it. The ITAK collaborators have succumbed to the external agenda to a Quisling level. They are not even prepared to negotiate with the agent State in Colombo, said student political observers at the University of Jaffna who witnessed the interactions between the student leaders and the ITAK in the discourse of addressing the struggle of Tamil political prisoners.
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ITAK hierarchy receives flak for disregard of political prisoners

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 November 2017, 22:25 GMT]
Jaffna University students on Friday condemned ITAK leaders, particularly M.A. Sumanthiran and Mavai Senathirajah for evading a crucial meeting at Jaffna University in which they were supposed to articulate and take a common responsibility of taking forward the struggle on behalf of the political prisoners before the students urged the hunger-striking political prisoners to abandon their fast unto death. Each of the three hunger-strikers have gone down in weight by 12 to 17 kg and their pulse was slow, the blood pressure has fallen and their body parts could be permanently impaired as their hunger-strike reached 37th day. Heated arguments ensued between the student leaders and NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam who has been trying to negotiate and advance an appeal process in the Court of Appeal in Colombo instead of making it a political struggle with principled demands.
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Colombo fails to arrest STF commandos who shot and killed Tamil youth in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2017, 23:45 GMT]
A five-member squad of the so-called Special Task Force is believed to be behind the highhanded crime of firing at two unarmed Tamil fishermen and causing death to one of them in Ariyaalai East, a suburb of Jaffna city on 22 October. Despite the discovery of a handgun and vehicles suspected to be used by the killers from a STF camp in the same area, none of the STF commandos have been detained or arrested by the SL Police investigators conducting preliminary investigations so far. The STF, organised under the SL Police department, as a full-fledged military force, which is being operated by the intelligence wing of the occupying Sinhala military in North. Colombo has been replacing key officers of the SL Police in North with former STF commandos who have been promoted to higher ranks.
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Student leaders vow to step up protests in support of hunger-striking political prisoners

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 November 2017, 23:11 GMT]
The president of Jaffna University Student Union K. Krishnameenan and Secretary K. Jackson have sent an urgent appeal to SL President Maithiripala Sirisena through various offices in Colombo and Jaffna on Wednesday urging immediate response in resolving the demands of the three hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners at Anuradhapura prison. 14 days have elapsed since the student leaders met the SL President in Colombo on 19 October. Mr Sirisena had promised swift action either before the student leaders returned to Jaffna the next day or at latest on 25th of October after having consulted with SL Attorney General and SL Justice Minister who were out of the island at that time. But, nothing has happened since then. As such the student leaders are planning to step up the protest to next level, they told media on Wednesday.
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CBK's so-called reconciliation faces acid test from North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2017, 16:21 GMT]
“There are 150000 soldiers in the Northern Province. It is amusing that the Attorney General wants to protect three State Witnesses by transferring the case from Vavuniya to Anuradhapura,” said Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister and former Supreme Court Judge C.V. Wigneswaran in a letter addressed to former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike (CBK), who is the Chairperson of Colombo's so-called ‘Office for National Unity and Reconciliation’ urging the latter to intervene and transfer the cases of fasting Tamil political prisoners back to Vavuniyaa or to Jaffna High Court. “Your intervention, Madam Chandrika, at this point of time would ensure understanding and good will among our people if you choose to be empathetic,” Justice Wigneswaran wrote in his letter to CBK.
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Jaffna University at standstill as hunger-striking political prisoner rushed to hospital

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 October 2017, 23:04 GMT]
One of the three hunger-striking political prisoners, Rasathurai Thiruvarul (6th Division, Vela’nai West, Jaffna), was admitted to hospital on Monday as his health condition seriously deteriorated, family members said. In the meantime, Non-Academic staff and the University Teachers Union joined hands with Jaffna University Student Union in imposing total boycott of all activities at the campuses in Jaffna starting from Monday. The students have been boycotting classes since October 20. The protesters, blocking the two entrances of the Jaffna University amidst pouring rains, said their protest would continue until the SL Government heeds to the demands of the Tamil political prisoners.
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Occupying SL Navy wants surveying of Mu’l’livaaykkaal lands amidst public protests

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2017, 20:25 GMT]
The occupying SL Navy in Mullaiththeevu district is exerting pressure on the officials of the SL Survey Department to survey the lands near Vadduvaakal in Mullaiththeevu for permanent seizure for military use. The latest move comes in the wake of a two-hour protest staged by the landowners on Thursday blocked the survey department officials from proceeding with their work. 671 acres of residential, coastal and agricultural lands in Mu'l'livaaykkaal East, containing crucial evidences and traces of genocidal onslaught against Eezham Tamils, are now being ‘officially’ appropriated by Colombo citing ‘public purpose’ for the expansion of SL naval base SLNS Gotabaya. Most of the lands belong to private owners. Around 100 acres of lands are intended for the creation of a fisheries campus, civil officials in the district said.
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SL Court in Anuradhapura humiliates hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2017, 22:08 GMT]
The three hunger-strikers, waging fast-unto-death for the last 30 days demanding their cases not to be transferred to SL Court in Anuradhapura were on Tuesday forcefully taken to Anuradhapura Special Court, where the Judge told them their fast-unto-death or any protest being waged by Tamils would not work. “You have to either face case here or lodge an appeal against it,” the judge told the hunger-strikers, according to the families of the three hunger strikers told TamilNet on Wednesday. In the meantime, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has again dodged responding to the request of the families of the Tamil political prisoners and is on a travel outside the island. SL Presidential Secretary Austin Fernando has told NPC Opposition Leader S. Thavarasa that Mr Sirisena would not be interfering in the matters of SL Attorney General.
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Tamil political prisoners incarcerated in Colombo go on hunger strike

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2017, 23:26 GMT]
While the health condition of three Tamil prisoners who are waging fast-unto-death for the past 29 days in Anuradhapura prison has been deteriorating day by day, Tamil prisoners incarcerated in the high security Magazine prison in Colombo announced on Monday evening that they are launching a hunger strike on Tuesday demanding a principled decision on the release all 132 Tamil political prisoners detained and jailed in various prisons across the island. In the meantime, SL President Maithiriapala Sirisena, sitting on a time frame until Wednesday on making a decision on the demands from the hunger strikers in Anuradhapura. The SL prison authorities, fearing that the worsening condition of hunger strikers could spark off vigorous protests in the North, are treating the prisoners at prison ward without admitting them to the civil hospital in Anuradhapura to avoid media focus.
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Colombo seizes more lands for Sinhala colonisation in Trincomalee through engineering Tamil-Muslim divide in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2017, 21:55 GMT]
The authorities of occupying Colombo are seizing the lands of uprooted Tamils in Uppaa'ru, a GS area in Ki'n'niyaa division located between the East port city of Trincomalee and Moothoor division. There were at least 60 Tamil families and 8 Tamil-speaking Muslim families living in Uppaa'ru village before their displacement during the times of war. The occupying Sri Lanka Army was behind driving the people out from their villages in the late 1990s during the regime of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge. The SL military was sustaining around 10 Sinhala colonisers in a nearby locality known as Gengasasara-thoaddam. Now, setting encroaching Muslims against uprooted Tamils, the SL authorities are trying to ‘legally’ seize the lands that belonged to Tamils.
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