Tamil POW, detained for 10 years, launches hunger-strike at Anuradhapura prison

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 January 2019, 20:06 GMT]
Sivaseelan Sivapragasam was 22 years when the SL military detained him on 19 May 2009 at Oamanthai in Vavuniyaa. He had lost his mother and a brother during the genocidal onslaught by the advancing SL military which directed indiscriminate artillery fire into the so-called ‘safe zone’. His father, Mr Sivapragasam, the only remaining family member outside the SL Prison who was tirelessly demanding the release of his son, also passed away on 16 December at Vaddak-kachchi in Ki'linochchi. The lone survivor of Sivapragasam family is now waging hunger-strike urging his release to at least conduct the 31st-day ritual ('Anthiraddi' rites) to his deceased father, his fellow inmates told media on Sunday.
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Sinhala monk wages anti-TNA propaganda among flood-affected Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 January 2019, 22:10 GMT]
The Tamil people in Vanni should thank the SL military as their saviours as it protected them from the recent floods and the Tamil people should not demand its withdrawal from the North, said Sinhala extremist politician in saffron robes, Battaramulla Seelarathana thero, who was visiting Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu this weekend in an apparent propaganda move. The TNA politicians, who demand de-militarisation were flying in helicopters while the SL military was helping the flood-affected Tamils on the ground, the extremist monk told the people. Apart from the drive to promote military psyops, his visit was aimed at strengthening Sinhala settlers (not affected by the floods) who have encroached Karai-thu'raip-pattu division in Mullaiththeevu district seizing the strategic link between the North and East to wedge the contiguity of the traditional Tamil homeland permanently.
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SL Military psyops takes precedence over flood-assistance in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 December 2018, 22:46 GMT]
For the first time after 2009, the Eezham Tamils in the North managed to mobilise on their own without to provide immediate assistance to more than one hundred thousand people, who were severely affected in the floods across Mullaith-theevu, Ki'linochchi, Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna and in the remote villages beyond the A9 road in Mannaar and Vavuniyaa. Despite some assistance through the hardworking Tamil civil servants, the attitude of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka was, as usual, discriminatory and propaganda-oriented. Also, the SL military which was duty-bound due to assist the victims of the flood, has gone to the extent of putting up ‘thanking note’ banners at several places, especially in Mullaiththeevu district, as if the people were thanking it for humanitarian assistance provided in the recent floods during which several thousand were affected.
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HR Day protests in North-East met with violence, SL Police displays hostility

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 December 2018, 23:08 GMT]
Four Tamil protesters were admitted to Trincomalee hospital as unknown masked men assaulted the Tamils from Moothoor East, who rallied in front of the Trincomalee Bus stand Monday morning for a peaceful protest in connection with International Human Rights Day. The families of the enforced disappeared, and the villagers from Padu-kaadu and Muthalai-madu, whose lands have been seized by the occupying SL military, were staging the protest. In the meantime, the SL Police at Chunnaakam in Jaffna threatened the Tamil villagers of Uduvil who protested in front of the DS office on Monday urging it to not hand over a private property, which the police wants to seize for its use. Later, on Monday night, a petrol bomb was thrown at the property. The people suspect that the SL police was behind the attack, in an apparent threat to force the owners of a fitness centre to vacate the lands.
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Occupying Colombo reintroduces war-time harassments in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 December 2018, 22:19 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military and the SL police, tightly coordinated by the unitary state defence establishment in Colombo, have deployed armed patrols and started to harass former LTTE members across the eight districts of the North and East citing the recent slaying of two police constables in Batticaloa. Widespread harassments, as those prevailed during the war-time in Tamil areas, are again reported from Ampaa'rai to the south of Batticaloa to Mannaar in the west of the Northern province. The SL military in Jaffna has deployed much-dreaded commando field-bike units with soldiers covering faces with black masks to patrol the streets in the peninsula. In the meantime, ex-LTTE members in Vanni are under heavy pressure to organise and take part in proxy demonstrations condemning the attacks to create a public impression that the attack was a politically motivated one.
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Occupying Colombo intentionally targets ex-LTTE members for murder of SL policemen

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2018, 14:17 GMT]
The investigating squad of SL Police that had come from Colombo to investigate the killings of two police constables on Friday has interrogated at least seven former LTTE members and one of them involved in organising Tamil Heroes Day Remembrance at Thaa'ndiyadi on November 27 has been detained, informed sources in Batticaloa said. The interrogators were mostly investigating how Heroes Day was organised braving SL Police harassment at Thaa'ndiyadi Heroes Cemetery, which comes under the supervision area of the SL Police at Vavu'natheevu. The investigating police squad is particular in interrogating the organisors of the memorial event at Thaa'ndiyadi Heroes Cemetery. The investigating squad has also deployed hundreds of agents clad in civil clothes in Vavu'na-theevu area. The SL policemen have also assaulted four onlookers on Friday.
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Germany abets Sinhalicisation of education in occupied Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2018, 18:02 GMT]
A'riviyal-nakar (Knowledge city) was a concept developed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the de-facto administration of the Tamil state in the suburb of Ki'linochchi. The University of Jaffna established the Faculty of Engineering in 2013 at A'riviyal-nakar, which is located 7km south of Ki'linochchi town. The ‘Sri Lanka’ German Training Institute (SLGTI) conceived during the regime of Rajapaksa in 2010 as a “vocational training project for the regions affected by the war,” started to function in 2014. Now, 80% of the students are Sinhala students. While all other technical institutions operating in the North use Tamil as the default language of learning and teaching, Tamil is not used as the language of education at the SLGTI, which is operating in “A'riviyal-nakar”.
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Tamil Eelam war heroes emotionally commemorated, people defy SL Court orders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2018, 17:40 GMT]
The oppressed Eezham Tamils gathered in large numbers on Tuesday as never before in post-2009 remembrance day events to mark the public commemoration of Tamil Eelam great heroes (Maaveerar) at more than thirty heroes’ cemeteries which the occupying SL military had razed to the ground in the eight districts of the North-East. The people also defied the verbal court order in Jaffna, and the written court order in Batticaloa, which prohibited playing LTTE produced songs. Eezham Tamils went ahead with playing the main maaveerar-song, which vows to stay the course of the liberation of Tamil state.
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New Delhi owes a public apology on Jaffna Hospital massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 October 2018, 19:04 GMT]
Thirty-one years have elapsed, but the Indian state is yet to tender a public apology to Eezham Tamils for its brutal massacre of more than 60 civilians, including 21 doctors, nurses and other medical staff as well as the warded patients at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital in one of the brutal massacres witnessed in the history of Jaffna. The killings took place during the invading Indian military was at war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1987. The war crimes committed by the IPKF on the soil of Eezham Tamils have not been adequately investigated, said the medical staff who marked the 26th year of the massacre committed by the so-called Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).
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Colombo's NGO Secretariat trains NGO activists to collaborate with SL military

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2018, 09:05 GMT]
The Director-General of Colombo's NGO Secretariat Shakya Nanayakkara, who was giving a lecture in Batticaloa to NGO and CBO activists on Thursday, was questioning the Tamil activists in Batticaloa why they were reluctant to collaborate with the SL military and police, NGO workers who attended the training programme said. The so-called ‘National Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organizations’ (NSNGO), also known as NGO Secretariat, has been trying to control the civil society, Community Based Organisations and local NGOs by creating ‘federations’ at district-level.
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TPPs vow to continue hunger-strike confronting Colombo's deceit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2018, 14:09 GMT]
The twelve Tamil political prisoners (TPPs) on a hunger-strike in Anuradhapura prison on Wednesday said Colombo was trying to suppress the fasting protesters in Bogombara prison in Kandy and Magazine prison in Colombo by deploying Tamil politicians of the TNA to dilute their hunger-strike. Confusing messages were being conveyed from Colombo to Fr S. Sakthivel, a veteran human rights defender who is working hard to coordinate outside support to their campaign, the protesters on hunger-strike said. In the meantime, Jaffna University students, who started a protest walk on Tuesday reached Ki'linochchi on Wednesday. The hunger-strikers said they were encouraged by the outside mobilisation.
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Occupying Colombo erects 2nd Buddha temple at educational suburb of Tamils in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2018, 22:57 GMT]
Sinhala extremist monks from South and the occupying SL military in civilian clothes along with Sinhala students launched a second Buddhist temple within the Ki'linochchi campus premises of the Jaffna University a week ago on 24 September. The move comes amidst strong objections from the Tamil students. The University administration was also critical as it had allocated a venue for the construction of places of worship for all religions enjoying equal status. However, Sinhala Buddhist Establishment and the occupying SL military want to put up a grand Buddhist site as the unitary Constitution of genocidal Sri Lanka is giving ‘foremost’ place to the Buddhism, Tamil student leaders said.
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Two more TPPs join hunger-strike at Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 September 2018, 10:07 GMT]
Two political prisoners, including a Tamil-speaking Mulsim, recently transferred to Anuradhapura from Colombo have joined the hunger strike on Sunday. The SL military intelligence has alleged the Muslim prisoner, Abdul Hameed Umar Hattaaph, as being involved in the assassination carried out by the LTTE on a former commander of the genocidal military, Major General (retd) Janaka Perera in 2008.
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SLA commander in Jaffna admits counter-insurgency agenda of Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 September 2018, 21:21 GMT]
An armed movement threatening the sovereignty and the ‘national security’ of the SL State originated in Jaffna. Even though almost ten years have elapsed since that movement was destroyed, the military is present in Jaffna to make sure that such an organisation doesn't rise again, said the commander of the SL military in Jaffna Major General Darshana Hettiarachchi at a PR conference he organised at Palaali on Thursday. The PR meeting organised as one of the first kind turned into a flop as the SL commander was exhausted facing an array of questions to which he was either dodging response or contradicting himself.
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TPP on hunger-strike in Anuradhapura shifted to Welikade prison

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 September 2018, 22:06 GMT]
The SL Prison authorities have transferred one of the eight Tamil political prisoners who are on hunger-strike away from the prison at Anuradhapura citing the diabetic condition of the prisoner. In the meantime, Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) convened a press conference highlighting the significance of a mass struggle to support the protesters. University students in Jaffna are also planning to launch a wider student campaign in support of the hunger-strikers.
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Protest called against SL Police brutality against Tamil family in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 September 2018, 22:37 GMT]
A Sinhala Inspector of Police, Saminda Pinthu, in charge of the SL Police stationed at Kanakaayan-ku'lam in Vavuniyaa North went amok on a Tamil family Sunday night, causing severe injuries to a 14-year-old girl. The SL Police Inspector was also attacking her elder brother who intervened to safeguard their mother, whose clothes were being torn by him. The mother was attempting to protect her husband while the police inspector was attacking her husband. Samindu targeted the family for demanding their lands back from a trader who had initially obtained the property of the family on a lease. The trader, a Muslim, is running a restaurant backed by the Sinhala police.
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Eezham Tamils confront SL military-surveying of lands aimed at expanding Buddhist vihara

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2018, 22:55 GMT]
Occupying Sinhala Army's 593 Brigade, which is having its headquarters at Naayaa'aru in Mullaith-theevu, silently brought in SL Archaeology Department workers on Friday morning in a move to put up border-stones to permanently grab lands for expanding a controversial, military-established Buddhist temple into a stupa establishment. The project also absorbs a traditional Hindu temple worshipped by Eezham Tamils at the heritage locality of Neeraavi-eattam, which lies sandwiched between Naayaa'ru lagoon and the sea. SL Military-hired land-surveyors also accompanied the group. They were carrying a letter that had been issued by one Kekulawala, a high ranking Survey Department official, three months ago. However, the move was vehemently opposed by the Tamil villagers, who confronted the group, chased it away and uprooted the GPS-fitted stones that were put by the group.
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Maithiripala ‘coordinates’ relentless land grab at massive-scale in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 July 2018, 22:49 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Forest Conservation Department and Wildlife Conservation Department have grabbed tens of thousands of acres of lands in the eight districts of North-East. These departments, coming under the unitary state system based in Colombo, are refusing to hand over even a few hundred of acres of these lands to the Divisional Secretariats and other mechanisms, which are also controlled by the same unitary system. A meeting convened by the SL Presidential Secretariat on Friday ended up strengthening further the position of the SL Forest and Wild-Life departments, Tamil officials who attended the meeting said. The Ministry of ‘Mahaweli Development’ and Environment, to which SL President Maithiripala Sirisena is the responsible minister, plays a central role in determining the extent of lands that could be released back, the officials told TamilNet on Saturday.
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Families of enforced disappeared vehemently oppose OMP sittings in North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 July 2018, 19:14 GMT]
The sittings by the deceptive ‘Office of the Missing Persons’ (OMP) held in Jaffna and Ki'linochchi this weekend received strong opposition as the families of enforced disappeared, who have been protesting for more than 500 days, conclusively rejecting the OMP as a farce. The protesters in Jaffna did not stop with their symbolic protest outside the building. They also protested inside the hall where the sitting went on with a few attendees. Finally, the SL police were invited to control the situation.
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Occupying Colombo steps up sting operations to justify continuation of draconian PTA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 June 2018, 22:31 GMT]
The so-called Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of occupying Colombo has detained six Tamil men in the Ki'linochchi district during the last four days. Most of the arrested are believed to be ex-LTTE members. The recent arrests by the SL TID come following an incident on 22 June at former LTTE stronghold of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) in Mullaiththeevu district. The entire episode seems to be a sting operation initiated by the SL military intelligence to project a false impression that there were ex-LTTE members, still interested in reviving an armed struggle, informed sources in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet on Wednesday. The operation seems to combine counter-insurgency experiments along with an intention to justify the continuation of the draconian and abusive ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ (PTA), the sources further said.
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