Sinhala policemen harass Tamil families in Kokkuththoduvaay, Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2015, 15:12 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Sinhala policemen, operating from Karunadduk-kea'ni police station in the strategic coastal strip, from Kokkuththoduvaay to Kokku'laay, which links the Northern and Eastern provinces, have been terrorising the resettled Eezham Tamil families in recent days, news sources in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district told TamilNet on Thursday. Under the pretext of searching for illegal brewers, Sinhala policemen without uniforms enter the houses of Tamil fishermen during the nights when the men have left their houses for fishing. The SL policemen have framed a young Tamil fisherman with false charges on Tuesday.
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SL military continues to arrest Tamils from East returning from Middle-East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 May 2015, 17:51 GMT]
A 39-year-old father of a child, who returned to Ampaa'rai after being employed in Dubai, has been detained at Katunayaka International Airport on Saturday, news sources in Ampaa'rai said. The detained person, who hails from 12 Division in Kaarai-theevu, had left the LTTE in 2004 and undergone investigations earlier. But, he has been continuously harassed by the military intelligence of the occupying Sri Lanka Army while he was in Ampaa'rai, news sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet. More than 16 Tamils from East have been ‘arrested’ at Colombo airport within the last five months after the new regime has come to power in Colombo.
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Sirisena's regime protects corrupt SL minister from Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2015, 23:29 GMT]
Rishad Bathiudeen, the notorious Sri Lankan minister who has been unleashing communal hatred in Mannaar under the previous regime, continues to be a minister in the new regime of Maithiripala Sirisena. Mr Bathiutheen has been promoting and protecting the criminal Divisional Secretary (DS) of Maanthai West, Manickavasagar Sriskandakumar, to appropriate ‘public lands’, which had been properly allocated to the people during the times of the LTTE. As a favour in return for appropriating these lands for his voters, the SL minister backed the DS to grab some lands for himself and a collaborating Village Officer (GS). Mr Sriskandakumar and T. Sivanesan, the GS, were allegedly complicit in ordering the assassination of social activist K. Nakuleswaran last November. Now, their personal appropriation of lands have been exposed, the people of Ve'l'laang-ku'lam say.
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Karuna assaults landowner in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2015, 23:52 GMT]
An armed squad led by paramilitary operative and former SL deputy minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna) on Saturday assaulted a Tamil farmer, R. Vanaraja, while he was engaged at cultivation in his own agricultural land at Noo'ru-eakkar in Kiraan, Batticaloa. Mr Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan was claiming ownership to the land. The land was earlier under the control of the Tigers after Vanaraja family had displaced from his village. Later, Muralitharan, who defected from the LTTE had seized the land for commercial purposes, news sources in Batticaloa said.
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Victims demand immediate action against Colombo's squad in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2015, 11:02 GMT]
The families of forcefully disappeared Tamil victims in Ampaa'rai district have demanded immediate arrest and action against Karuna Group paramilitary operative, K. Pushpakumar alias Iniyabarathy, who was the Ampaa'rai district coordinator of Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and a member of the Eastern Provincial Council. After the entire Ampaa'rai district was brought under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military in 2007, more than 200 Tamil youth have been reported missing in the district after arrest or abduction by Sri Lanka military operated squads. Iniyabarathy has been the key paramilitary operative operating a squad for the genocidal SL military in the district. Iniyabarathy is blamed for the assassination of veteran Tamil journalist Aiyathurai Nadesan in May 2004. Incumbent SL president Maithiripala Sirisena was also having a hand in the paramilitary operations in the East.
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ITAK youth wing leader urges Tamils not to be deceived by deviators

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2015, 13:01 GMT]
There is no change in Sri Lankan military deployment in the Tamil homeland. On the contrary, the SL military seems to be enthusiastic about setting up bigger noticeboards than before along the border of Valikaamam North ‘High Security Zone’ said VS Sivakaran, the youth wing leader of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in a video interview this week. “However, a section among Tamils are being deceived to expect that there will be positive changes and that the SL military deployment would be reduced under Maithiripala Sirisena,” Sivakaran said. “But, this is not going to happen,” the ITAK youth wing leader said. The USA and India wanted to reverse the Chinese influence in the island. They needed a regime change, which they got. But, this has taken place at the expense of the political aspirations of the small nation of Eelam Tamils, he said.
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SL military in Batticaloa continues to exploit families returned from Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2015, 22:15 GMT]
The Sri Lankan State and its military intelligence in Batticaloa district continue to harass 1,080 families that survived the genocidal onslaught in Vanni in 2009. The families from Batticaloa returned to their native villages situated in 10 of the 14 Divisional Secretariat divisions in the district. The DS Secretaries in these divisions have also been instructed to refuse assistance to these families by the genocidal military. There is no change in the harassments on the ground despite the ‘changes’ taking place in Colombo, the families said. Even those affected by the recent floods have been neglected in the humanitarian assistance. Women-headed families continue to complain about targeted sexual harassments by the occupying Sinhala military in Batticaloa. Two of the 10 divisions where the families have resettled, Koa'ralaippattu South and Koa'ra'laip-pattu North are worst affected.
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UNP Batticaloa branch wants anti-people elements isolated from politics

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2015, 23:49 GMT]
The District Organiser of the United National Party (UNP) in Batticaloa Mr Arasaretnam Sasitharan said that a resolution has been passed at the UNP Batticaloa District Executive Committee to the effect that anti-people elements and former paramilitary operatives, who were deployed under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, should not be absorbed into the UNP or the polity associated with the UNP in the new regime in Colombo. The resolution has named four persons who should be kept away from the politics of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramaisnge if UNP needs to win credibility among the Tamil public in Batticaloa district, Mr Sasitharan further said.
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Resettlement meaningless without guarantee against structural genocide in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2015, 23:22 GMT]
Governments may come and go, but the State of Sri Lanka gets strengthened in its genocidal project whether there is war, peace or talk of ‘change’, comment the resettled women of Mu'raa-oadai village, situated 5 km south of Vaazhaich-cheanai town in Batticaloa district. 400 houses have been destroyed. Two temples are damaged. Almost all the resettled families are women-headed households, poorest of the poor. The women of the village say: “It is only when we have permanent security from future genocide, we can breath the air of freedom.” The SL military has vacated last year from the village. But, a Buddhist statue and a ‘sacred’ Bo tree are still threatening the villagers who are haunted by the mere existence of the symbols of structural genocide.
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Sumanthiran makes challenges to shield political bankruptcy

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2014, 23:35 GMT]
Colombo-based parliamentarian of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M.A. Sumanthiran, who visited Batticaloa on Thursday challenged the SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa to release the purported ‘secret agreement’, signed between the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Srisena and the TNA. Responding, the grassroots activists from Aalaiyadi-vempu who met Mr Sumanthiran told TamilNet Friday that the TNA had failed to come out with a people-centric political move challenging the real perpetrators of the plight faced by Tamils and instead comes out with empty challenges to shield its political-agenda bankruptcy. The TNA should have made use of the opportunity to mobilise the Tamil masses to send message to the forces that stage the deceptive game of presidential election for the perpetuation of the genocidal State, the activists in the East further said.
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Tamil people should reject both Mahinda and Maithiripala: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2014, 18:55 GMT]
The global and regional powers locked in a geopolitical gambling have brought a contest between Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena. Rajapaksa is backed by China while the West and possibly India back Rajapaksa's former associate Sirisena, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) on Thursday. Declared that there is no use for Tamil people by going behind any of the two mainstream candidates of the South in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election, the former Tamil parliamentarian, who addressed the press on behalf of the TNPF and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, urged the Tamil people to refrain from backing any of the two candidates. The TNPF leader blamed the TNA for betraying the Tamil people for the second time as it did by backing Sarath Fonseka in 2010.
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Tamil Nadu researcher testifies to OISL on Indian complicity in genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2014, 23:43 GMT]
“While several actors including US, UK, China, UN involved in different ways in the conflict in Sri Lanka which led to genocide of Eelam Tamils, the actor most severely and the most consistently perplexed in the Sri Lankan war has been India,” says University of Bergen Research Fellow, Vijayshankar Asokan in a submission he sent on “Indian complicity in the genocide of Eezham Tamils” to OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka. A native of Tamil Nadu and studying in Norway since 2008, Mr. Vijayshankar in his submission was extensively citing Mr. Ku. Ramakrishnan, General Secretary of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam, Mr. Erik Solheim, the failed peace facilitator and various reports as well as statements.
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NESoHR releases collated reports 2005-2009

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2014, 21:23 GMT]
North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), which was formed during the internationally mediated peace process as the Human Rights body of the Tamil Nation and functioned in the Tamil homeland from July 2004 till January 2009, has released its human rights reports from 2005 till January 2009. Given the current climate of investigation by the OHCHR on Sri Lanka these old NESoHR reports are published in a large single file with continuous page numbers and content pages for easy access, according to Attorney K. Sivapalan and Dr Malathy of NESoHR. Majority of the atrocities covered in these reports falls within the period currently being investigated by the OHCHR. “It is well known that the UN and other international agencies ignored these atrocities when they were taking place. NESoHR team hopes that the OISL investigators will pay due attention to these reports,” they further said.
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Timing of Jayalalithaa case targets Dravidian polity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2014, 17:10 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK Chief Ms J Jayalalithaa has been sentenced on Saturday to 4 years of imprisonment, Rs. 100 crore fine and has been debarred from contesting elections for six years after the completion of the prison term by a special court of India, in a 18-year-old disproportionate assets case. Last month, New Delhi’s Central Bureau of Investigation filed a new telecommunication corruption case against a former DMK minister and a Malaysian corporate owner of Eezham Tamil origin, in addition to earlier cases on DMK leaders. The New Delhi government stridently opposes and blocks any UN or international scrutiny on crimes committed in the island of Sri Lanka. Ms Jayalalithaa, personally as well as through Tamil Nadu State Assembly, has been demanding international investigations on the genocide in the island.
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Funeral of veteran activist Manickasothy held in Uduvil, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2014, 19:14 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamils paid their last respects to veteran Eezham Tamil activist Abimannasingham Manickasothy on Wednesday at Uduvil in Jaffna. Mr Manickasothy passed away Monday night in a vehicle accident on his way to Jaffna from Colombo. Mr Manickasothy, who stood with his people throughout the Tamil struggle, has been articulating the political aspiration of Eezham Tamils in all available platforms. He has been a firm defender of Eezham Tamils right to self-determination for more than 30 years.
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Jayalalithaa condemns Swamy’s stance on Tamil Nadu fishermen issue

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2014, 04:26 GMT]
In a letter sent to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said that the views of BJP member Subramanian Swamy on the fishermen issue “has given rise to resentment and angst not only amongst the fishermen community but also amongst the entire population of Tamil Nadu.”Ms. Jayalalithaa was referring to an interview of Swamy where he had said that he had given the idea to the Sri Lankan government to seize the boats of Tamil Nadu fishermen who crossed the IMBL. This letter comes in the wake of the arrest of 9 fishermen, the sinking of one boat and the seizure of another by the SL Navy on Monday. Separately, TESO staged a protest on Wednesday where the DMK chief Karunanidhi said that Tamils in the island lived like slaves, PTI reported.
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Political fundamentals cannot be surrendered to military requisites of imperialism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 August 2014, 15:33 GMT]
Five years of actual ground experience of Eezham Tamils since the Vanni War ending in genocide, is nothing but the thorough and accelerated militarisation of their land by the Sinhala military, carried out with active patronage coming from New Delhi, Washington and Beijing. Militarisation of this nature, that too by a historically proven genocidal State and by its military, is perhaps the most important reason, why the military-less nation of Eezham Tamils can’t expect any political solution working within a united island and that they should seek independence. Eezham Tamil individuals and forums in the diaspora hijacked by imperialisms of militaristic interest should think twice before telling that Tamils have given up the claim for their country.
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Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of Kagnchi-kudichchaa’ru in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2014, 23:22 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan State, which seized the control of the ancient Tamil villages of Kagnchi-kudichchaa’ru and Thangka-vealaayutha-puram in Thirukkoayil division in Ampaa’rai district from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after the end of war in East in 2007, is now scheming a Sinhala settlement in the two villages, Eezham Tamil villagers told TamilNet on Wednesday. A Buddhist monk, accompanied by two Karuna Group paramilitary operatives visited the villages three days ago vowing to put up a Buddhist temple within a month between the two villages, they further said.
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‘Proliferation of micronarratives assists the logic of counterinsurgency’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2014, 23:48 GMT]
In the context of the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle, when a “micronarrative” discourse about gender, caste, region or other “special interest groups” claims autonomous status, “when it divorces itself from the primary contradiction between the Tamil nationalist metanarrative and the Sri Lankan state, it only ends up fracturing a resistance movement against genocide” argues Karthick RM. In an article published on Indian journal Sanhati, providing examples of how such differences were used to fracture the Eezham Tamils liberation struggle in the past and the present, he shows that such “dissidence” only assists the logic of counterinsurgency (COIN). Drawing from classical and contemporary COIN experts and from the writings of psychologists, Mr. Karthick also observes how such micronarratives and a defeatist mentality complement each other.
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Jayalalithaa to boycott PM swearing-in over ‘ill-advised’ invitation to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2014, 07:15 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa will boycott the swearing-in event of India’s new Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi on 26 May, over the issue of invitation to Mahinda Rajapaksa, latest news reports said on Friday, citing AIADMK party sources. Earlier, Ms. Jayalalithaa described the invitation to genocide-accused Rajapaksa as “ill-advised” and as “rubbing salt into the wounds.” Modi’s camouflage in inviting SAARC heads of governments is impelled by his priority to Pakistan and Muslim factor, and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s immediate response to come shows the US advice behind the move, political analysts said, adding that the USA and India long sidelining and sabotaging the Tamil question is the boon for genocidal Colombo and the Rajapaksas.
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