Tamils confront Colombo by reviving deity rituals at threatened heritage-sites in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 September 2018, 22:01 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil villagers from Chemmalai-East in Mullaiththeevu and Nedungkea'ni in Vavuniyaa North have successfully marked ceremonial rituals for Hindu deities at two of their recently-threatened heritage sites in Vanni. The residents of Olu-madu and Muthiram-paddi villages in Nedungkea'ni staged a three-day long feast since Friday at Vedukku-naa'ri with broader participation and the villagers of Chemmalai in Mullaiththeevu marked a Pongkal feast on Monday at the Sinhala-Buddhicised Neeraaviyadi Pi'l'laiyaar temple. However, the extremist sections of the Sinhala Theravada Buddhist establishment, SL Archaeology Department and the occupying Sinhala military, remain emboldened through the military backing of the USA, Japan and India, particularly by the joint naval exercises that have taken place in Trincomalee in recent days, Tamil political observers in Trincomalee commented.
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Sajith Premadasa's ministry revives Sinhala colonisation of Kevu'liyaa-madu in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 August 2018, 12:49 GMT]
SL Minister for Housing and Construction Sajith Premadasa is creating ethnic disharmony in the district of Batticaloa by launching ‘model villages’ with housing and infrastructure, allege grassroots Tamil activists in Batticaloa. Similar to the controversial projects in Trincomalee district, the SL Minister, the son of the late SL President R. Premadasa, is creating conflicts by scheming one of the four ‘model villages’ in Batticaloa district at Kevu'liyaa-madu. The ‘model village’ projects have become places of ethnic tensions as Tamil-speaking Muslim beneficiaries were brought into traditional Tamil villages and Sinhala settlers into predominant Muslim and Tamil areas, civil sources in Batticaloa said.
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Excavation of Mannaar mass grave resumes, media access restored

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2018, 23:02 GMT]
Sixty-six human skeletons, including children and women, have been spotted so far and fifty-six of the skeletal remains have been exhumed, said journalists who accessed the site of mass grave excavations at the premises of the premises of former CWE building in the city of Mannaar on Monday. The excavation had been suspended for a few days due to the annual feast at Madu church. In the meantime, journalists in Mannaar have secured access to news coverage of the mass grave site.
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Colombo schemes Sinhala-Buddhicisation of Tamil heritage site in Vavuniyaa North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2018, 21:33 GMT]
The occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has prohibited Eezham Tamils at Oldu-madu village in Vavuniyaa North from accessing 157-meter-high hill called Vedukku-naa'ri. The issue became a hot topic on 10 August, a day before the annual religious ritual of Aadi Amaavaasai (the new moon of the Tamil month July-August) observed in remembrance of the ancestors by the Saivites (Hindus). The SL Police blocked the Poosaari (non-Brahmin priest) of the village-deity, based on a complaint made by the SL Archaeology Department on 07 August. The SL Police has instructed Poosari and the villagers to keep away from the hilltop. Only after the repeated pleas, they were allowed to access their temple once on 11 August. Now, they have to face heritage genocide on their own, V. Poobalasingam, a grassroots leader in Olu-madu told TamilNet.
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SL Forest Department seizes permit lands of 600 Tamil families in Madu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 August 2018, 23:10 GMT]
The SL Forest Department has started to grab the lands of more than six hundred Eezham Tamil families, who have been residing in their permit lands for more than three decades in Madu Divisional Secretariat division of the district of Mannaar district. The grounds had been appropriately allocated to the families through Land Kachcheari forty and fifty years ago, and many of the families have seen their third generation in the residences located in the lands. However, the SL Forest Department, which comes under the direct rule of the occupying unitary state in Colombo, has systematically deployed Sinhala forest officers and field assistants from South to seize the lands of Eezham Tamils, say grassroots activists in the division.
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Drought-stricken Tamil farmers in Vanni abandoned by authorities, politicians, NGOs

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2018, 23:06 GMT]
The resettled Eezham Tamil families in Madu division of Mannaar district complain that the SL authorities have wholly abandoned them. None of the Tamil politicians has helped them to address their grievances caused by the drought that had rendered 4,300 families who are struggling without the proper livelihood in the absence of agricultural income. The families say they have been complaining since the monsoon rains failed towards the end of 2017. Now, the people are struggling even without potable water.
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Antiquities Ordinance used to justify Sinhalicisation of 48 locations in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 July 2018, 22:30 GMT]
The intruding Sinhala-Buddhist establishment and the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka are rushing ahead with the expansion of an already reconstructed Buddhist temple, the so-called Gurukanda Raja Maha Vihara (Gurukanda RMV), which is located at Chemmalai, Naayaa'ru in the coastal Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district. As the protesting Tamil land-owners successfully blocked the surveying of the lands earlier this month, the intruders are now citing an Extraordinary Gazette notification, issued in 2013 (1823/73) during the times of Rajapaksa rule, to proceed with their plans of expanding the Vihara, the civil sources at the District Secretariat said.
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Tamils need native movements to confront Colombo-centric environmental exploitations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 July 2018, 23:49 GMT]
Many recent reports from the eastern coast of the North-East indicate a widespread pattern of various corporate and state-centric exploitations targeting the natural resources of the territorial sea and the coast of the North-East. Colombo-based corporates and traders are exploiting export-related businesses, be it sea cucumber export to China, fake mangroves and minerals to the USA and Japan, or mining sand for shipping to the neighbouring state of Maldives. On top of this, Colombo-centric State-to-State relationships originating from geopolitics-driven ‘development’ narrative, as well as military to military ‘exchanges’, are challenging the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in a big-scale along the territorial sea and the strategic cost.
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SL Navy deploys illegal means of fishing in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2018, 05:09 GMT]
Sinhala navy sailors are using prohibited fishing nets to fish in the seas off Ko'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division of Batticaloa district, say fisheries society leaders in Vaakarai. Earlier, the occupying SL Navy seized the nets from a section of local fishers, who were deploying illegal means of fishing.
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Sinhala colonists attempt to rob Tamil cattle herders in border village of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 April 2018, 18:26 GMT]
Unknown intruders who spoke in Sinhala escaped after a Tamil farmer shouted for help after seeing the gang attempting to steal their cattle at the pastureland of Mayilaththa-madu, a border village situated in Ko'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district. The incident took place Saturday night when the farmers were at sleep in their huts.
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SL authorities in Ampaa’rai harassing Tamil farmers from Batticaloa exposed at courts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2018, 22:56 GMT]
Why did the guards from the SL Wildlife Conservation Department in Ampaa'rai district intrude into the district of Batticaloa and arrest the Tamil dairy farmers from the pasture lands there in January 2015, questioned Lahshman Bandara Mullegama, the lawyer representing the Tamil farmers at a court case, which was taken up for investigation at Dehiattakandiya Court in Ampaa'rai for the 11th time on Thursday. Operatives belonging to the SL Wildlife Conservation Department and the occupying Sinhala soldiers were chasing the Tamil cattle herders away from Maathava'nai and Mayilaththamadu pasturelands where Sinhala colonists were allowed to engage in slash-and-burn cultivation.
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SL court in Aralaganwila discriminates Tamil dairy farmers from Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 February 2018, 16:21 GMT]
The SL court in Aralaganwila, which comes under the Polonnaruwa district was addressing a case filed by the so-called Department of Wildlife Conservation of genocidal Sri Lanka against Tamil dairy farmers on 05 February. Eight Tamil farmers who took their cattle for grazing in Mayilaththamadu pasturelands in Batticaloa district complained to the SL Police at Karadiyanaa'ru on 30th January that their cattle were being targeted with animal traps. The Sinhala policemen instructed the Tamil farmers to remove the traps and promised to trace the culprits. Later on the same day guards from the SL Wildlife Department from Aralaganwila entered the huts of Tamil farmers in Batticaloa and charged the Tamil farmers for being in possession of animal traps.
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Eezham Tamils set to lose Vavuniyaa North to Sinhala colonists in civic elections

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2018, 15:08 GMT]
The Sinhala colonisation and demographic changes engineered by the genocidal unitary State of Sri Lanka in Vavuniyaa North have gone to the extent that Eezham Tamils would be losing their political hold of Vavuniyaa North Divisional Council (Piratheasa Chapai) in the forthcoming civic elections, Tamil civil sources in Vavuniyaa said. Vavuniyaa North was entirely a Tamil division before the colonisation by Sinhala paramilitary-led colonists following the State-sponsored anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983. Although the area has been subjected to Sinhala colonisation for a long time through settling Sinhala paramilitary personnel and their families, the extent of silent colonisation has been accelerated after the war in the recent years with the aim of transforming Vavuniyaa North into a 'Sinhala Only' division as the recently Sinhalicised division of Weli-oya, the civil sources further said.
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SL Forest Department grabs agricultural lands of 45 Tamil farmers in Madu

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 February 2018, 19:19 GMT]
Colombo-based SL Forest Department is blocking 45 Eezham Tamil families in Madu DS division of Mannaar district from accessing their own agricultural lands in extent of 175 acres at Chinnak-kungchuk-ku'lam, the villagers of Periya-kungchuk-ku'lam complain. All the land-owners are in possession of land deeds or LDO permits provided by the Assistant Government Agent of Madu. The families were owning the agricultural lands for more than 40 years. Due to the war and displacement, they were unable to engage in agriculture for almost 15 years and the SL Forest Department has put up border stones seizing their lands. The people having valid documents of ownership to their agricultural lands are being confronted by the guards of SL Forest Department, which disregards the rights of resettled Tamils. Some of their land deeds are from 1930s.
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UNP wants to erect 1000 Sinhala-Buddhist temples in occupied Tamil country

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 February 2018, 22:42 GMT]
The UNP of the ruling Yahapalanaya alliance, particularly SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, has recently gone on record vowing to erect 1,000 Buddhist temples in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils in the North-East of the island. The agenda is also mentioned in the manifesto of UNP in the run-up to the local elections. The UNP claims as it has managed to allocate 500 million rupees to the programme. The propaganda waged by the UNP and the SLFP in Vavuniyaa has been centred around the theme of SL State sponsorship to Sinhala-Buddhisication of Vavuniyaa and the North. The construction of 1,000 locations for Sinhalicisation in the North-East project is being termed as a ‘reconciliation project’.
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SL Police, Forest Department connive against Tamil dairy farmers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 January 2018, 15:01 GMT]
Eight Tamil dairy farmers were ‘arrested’ on Tuesday by the guards of SL Forest Department alleging the former of being in possession of animal traps. The arrest came in the evening just a few hours after the farmers lodged a complaint with the SL Police in Karadiyanaa’ru against animal traps being laid against their cattle in Mayilaththa-madu pasture land area. The SL police told the farmers to remove the traps from the pasture land promising action against those laying the traps, the farmers said after getting released from the SL forest guards.
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Colombo’s ‘development’ crime evicts one-third of resettled Tamils from border village in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 January 2018, 16:49 GMT]
Almost one third of resettled Tamil families in the village of Oamadiyaa-madu village, located near the district border of Polonnaruwa-Batticaloa in the East, have displaced in recent months from their village due to the ‘development’ crimes committed against them by the occupying Colombo. This post-war displacement is caused by systematic deprivation of infrastructure and intentional neglect in the restoration of their livelihood by the central ministries and authorities of the unitary State system of genocidal Sri Lanka. The SL Ministry of so-called Mahaweli ‘Development’ is working behind the scene to Sinhalicise the entire area, Tamil civil sources in Batticaloa said.
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Occupying Colombo harasses war-affected families in Madu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 January 2018, 17:18 GMT]
Around 300 war-affected families from the five districts of North who have been resettled at 2nd Mile Post (Ira'ndaam-kaddai) from Madu Road junction along the road to the Holy Shrine of Madu complain of harassments coming from various departments under the central ministries of occupying Colombo, the Sinhala police, particularly the STF and the military intelligence of genocidal Sri Lanka. The villagers say they are living in an open prison, which is being subjected to repeated interventions by the Sinhala officials of the SL Forest Department, who claim to protect the forest from illegal logging, the Wild Life Department falsely blaming the villagers of hunting deers and peacock, Geological Department claiming to protect the soil from illegal sand scooping and the SL Archaeology Department which is in the forefront of Sinhalicisation deploying heritage genocide against Eezham Tamils.
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Karuna paramilitary appropriates pastureland in Paduvaan-karai for electoral exploitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 January 2018, 21:42 GMT]
Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, a paramilitary leader who has been collaborating with the Rajapaksa regime in the past, is again deploying violence and various intimidations, now against a section of dairy farmers from Chiththaa'ndi in Batticaloa district. In an attempt to woo voters for his political party from his native village of Kiraan, he is grabbing public and forest lands to convert these into agricultural lands for farmers, who had distanced from him since his betrayal to the Tamil cause in 2004. Paramilitary personnel carrying weapons have shot and killed cows belonging to Chiththaa'ndi farmers who are using the disputed area as pastureland for their cattle. 200 acres of lands have already been seized at Paalaik-kaaddu-veddai, which is situated close to Mayilaththamadu in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South division.
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Sinhalicsiation threat looms again at Madu Road Junction in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2018, 19:02 GMT]
The Administrating Priest of the Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Madu in Mannaar, Rev Fr S Emilianuspillai, has expressed serious concerns over the deteriorating level of militarisation of Madu Junction area despite repeated complaints from the Madu Church to the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena over the past two years. The SL military has transformed the Madu Road Junction, an area with spiritual significance into an amusement and business site by operating a restaurant and conducting parties at the locality, the Catholic residents of the area have complained. “The Army check point at the entrance to the Holy Shrine is a distraction and the main Army Camp at 6th milepost has been developed and appears like a small city by itself,” the Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of The Rosary noted in his letter to SL President.
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