Colombo's Archaeology Department, SL Police threaten chief priest of Chiththaa'ndi temple

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 July 2020, 23:30 GMT]
Officials of occupying Colombo's Archaeology Department visited the ancient Saiva (Hindu) Murukan temple at Chiththaa'ndi, located 20 km north of Batticaloa city, last month on 26 June. The visiting team was taking photographs of stones used for crack opening coconuts and for burning camphor as well as the stone slabs used in the temple for various purposes. They claimed that the rocks resembled Buddhist artefacts and that they should be delivered back to the SL Archaeology Department. Sivasri Vasantharajah Kurukka'l, the chief priest of the temple, told them that the stones had been there for several decades while other slabs were produced in Vavuniyaa in 2010 when the temple was renovated. On Sunday, SL Policemen from Batticaloa visited the temple blaming the chief priest for ‘not cooperating’ with the officials of the department.
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Vadamaraadchi North fishers mobilise against Colombo's discrimination

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2020, 22:33 GMT]
Former Tamil paramilitary operative Douglas Devananda, who collaborated with the genocidal military of occupying Sri Lanka, is now SL Minister of Fisheries in the “caretaker” cabinet of Rajapaksa regime. Sinhala poachers from South are allowed to encroach and engage in destructive fishing along the coast of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The quisling minister is citing the law imposed by the SL State during the times of war. The law is known as Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act of 1996. “The 1996 law was drafted with southern fishers in mind. It has not taken into consideration the concerns of Tamils. We are not opposed to others fishing here. But, we are opposed to poaching and destructive fishing methods destroying our fishing ecosystem by the Sinhala fishers,” said N. Varankulasingam, the chairman of the Federation of Vadamaraadchi North Fisheries societies.
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SL Navy backed purse-seiners pose grave threat to fishing ecosystem in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2020, 20:41 GMT]
The occupying SL Navy, with a large number of naval bases along the eastern coast of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, has allowed Sinhala purse seiners to engage in the illegal fishing (churukku-valai) in the prohibited zone within seven to ten miles from the coast of Vaakarai in Batticaloa. Chairman of Kathirave'li Fisheries Society Murugiah Subramaniyam said the illegal fishing was destroying the fishing ecosystem as well as seriously threatening the livelihood of more than one thousand Tamil fisher families in Vaakarai. The families are dependent on their income from 15 karai-valaip-paadus (coastal drag net zones) along the stretch between Panichchang-kea'ni and Kathirave'li, he said. The poachers are also using dynamite bombs for fishing.
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Sumanthiran’s nexus with “Raava'na Senai” in Kanniyaa heritage dispute questioned

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 July 2020, 21:47 GMT]
Sinhala Buddhist extremist monk Ampitiye Seelawansa Tissa Thero has been escalating a heritage dispute at Kanniyaa Hot Wells by pushing for the construction of a Buddhist temple within the Saiva temple premises located in the lands that belong to a private landowner. When the case was taken up by the courts on Thursday, ITAK Parliamentarian and President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran represented the owner of the temple lands Ms Ganesh Kokilaramany. Meanwhile, “Ravana Senai,” a shady outfit allegedly connected to Hindutva organisations in India is also in a dispute with Kokilaramany as it had transformed the mutt belonging to Pi'l'laiyaar temple into a Sivan temple. The group maintains rapport with the Seelawansa Tissa Thero and with Mr Sumanthiran who represents Kokilaramany.
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Trident missing, seat of folk-deity desecrated at disputed heritage hillock in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 July 2020, 21:19 GMT]
Unknown persons have removed the trident of Aiyanaar folk-deity, and its seat from the hillock of Kurunthoor-malai, violating a court order that said nothing should be changed. The occupying SL military was using the recently imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 Kumuzha-munai villagers to restrict access to the hillock. Tamil villagers from Kumuzha-munai in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division in the district of Mullaiththeevu alleged that the SL Archaeology Department and Sinhala Theravada monks were behind the removal of the trident (Trisulam) at their heritage site.
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SL Navy ‘updates’ records of ex-LTTE members in Moothoor East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2020, 22:14 GMT]
The occupying SL Navy stationed in Champoor, Moothoor East of Trincomalee district, has started contacting former LTTE members in Moothoor East to “update” their details on current affiliations, Rural Development Society members in Paaddaa'li-puram said. Conducting village-by-village and door-by-door visits or phone conversations, the predominantly Sinhala SL Navy is updating the current status of every former Tamil fighters synchronising the details. The executive president and the Sinhala military of the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka seem to be caught up in paranoia that a regrouping of Tamil armed movement was taking place, RDS representatives said.
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Sinhala Police OIC hit Tamil women with vehicle for opposing monks-led heritage ‘task force’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2020, 10:04 GMT]
The vehicle of SL Police Officer-in-Charge(OIC) of Vellave'li station PWM Anandasiri hit protesting Tamil women causing injuries to them on Thursday. The OIC has threatened the protesting Tamils of Veaththuch-cheanai village in Batticaloa that he would book them under various pretexts if they continued to agitate against the SL Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the so-called Archaeological Heritage Management. The OIC secured a court order and has named 12 residents as respondents who objected the entry by the SL Archaeology Department to the folk-deity temple of Vairavar and nearby playground, the residents said. Veaththuch-cheanai is a hamlet situated in Vellaa-ve'li of Poaratheevup-pattu DS division, 40 km south of Batticaloa city.
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CBK, Kadirgamar condemned at Navaali genocidal massacre remembrance event

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2020, 03:40 GMT]
SL Foreign Minister in 1995, the late Lakshman Kadirgamar, a Tamil, denied that Colombo had carried out the massacre targeting St Peters Church in Navaali. It has taken 25 years for the then SL President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) to admit it to some extent, and that too as an incidental one 4 km away from the battlefield, Rev Fr SJ Emmanuel observed in his speech. He blamed not only Kadirgamar and CBK but also the Sinhala Catholic establishment as well as sections of Tamil Catholic priesthood for failing to speak the truth about the attack. Tamil politician MK Shivajilingam said CBK had failed to admit the nature of the crime. “It is not an accidental event of dropping a parcel. The bombers targeted the church with 13 bombs,” he said. Former NPC Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan said the chain of attacks including Chemma'ni mass graves establishes that they were premeditated.
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SL Police harasses Shivajilingam at 25th Remembrance of Navaali massacre in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 July 2020, 00:05 GMT]
Hundreds of people emotionally marked the 25th remembrance of 147 Tamil men, women and children who perished in SL Air Force bombing and artillery attacks when they had sought refuge at two temples at Navaali in Jaffna on 09th July 1995. On Thursday, the Sinhala police of occupying Colombo was trying to block former TNA parliamentarian and former provincial councillor M.K. Shivajilingam when he went to the remembrance event. On Wednesday, the SL Police was attempting to secure a court order against the participation of the Tamil politician in the remembrance. Mr Shivajilingam, who has been in the forefront championing the right of Eezham Tamils memorialisation events, especially after 2009, was however allowed to take part by the courts. Yet, the SL Police was harassing him at the site, irking the Tamils.
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SL Navy brutally assaults Tamil fishers in Mullaith-theevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 July 2020, 09:33 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala Navy brutally assaulted Tamil fisher families at Puthu-maaththa'lan in Mullaiththeevu causing injuries to a father, his son and three women in the early hours of Thursday. The SL Navy entered the house of fisheries society leader Mahendran Alex alias Suman. It attacked his family members using batons causing severe injuries to his father, 55-year-old Mahalingam Mahendran and 28-year-old Mahendran Nixon, the younger brother. Three women have also sustained injuries. The fisheries society leader said the violent attack was deliberate and unprovoked. The residents interpret the violent episode as part of an aggressive campaign against the peaceful protesters demanding resettlement in the nearby Keappaa-pulavu. The SL Navy is also having a dispute with Tamil fishers who are opposed to the sea cucumber poachers from the South.
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Sinhala colonists encroach into Kangku-veali, Mean-kamam reservoirs in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 July 2020, 16:33 GMT]
Encroaching Sinhala colonist farmers from Dehiwatta in Seruvila division of Trincomalee district have cut the recently re-constructed bunds of Kangku-veali reservoir and drained it to seize and illegally convert more than 55 acres of the 200 acres of the tank catchment area for agriculture. The destruction has taken place at two locations of the bunds with the backing of two Sinhala politicians, Rajapaksa-aligned former deputy minister Mr Susantha Punchinilame and SLFP Trincomalee District Organiser Mrs Ariyawathi Galappaththi. The Sinhala politicians had vowed to allow the Sinhala settlers encroach the reservoir last year after the Tamil National Alliance had managed to accomplish the reconstruction by getting the SL State to allocate the needed money.
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Colombo schemes to expand ilmenite scooping into North from Pulmoaddai in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2020, 19:36 GMT]
Occupying Colombo is silently expanding its scheme to excavate ilmenite mineral to the north of Kokku'laay lagoon after exploiting the silica-rich sand in Pulmoaddai located in Trincomalee to the south of the provincial border. Systematic surveying has been going on since 2016, and the incumbent administration under Gotabaya Rajapaksa is accelerating the plan, informed civil sources in Mullaiththeevu said. The planned exploitation, if allowed to proceed unchecked, could result in an environmental disaster, the sources said seeking the attention of environmentalists, academics, journalists and the politicians among the Eezham Tamils.
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Colombo transfers Tamil Political Prisoners to notorious Anuradhapura prison

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2020, 19:06 GMT]
The prison authorities of New Magazine Prison in Colombo have transferred twenty Tamil Political Prisoners (TPPs) to Anuradhapura prison on Saturday. Five of eleven TPPs who narrowly escaped death or injury at Anuradhaprison prison during the rioting on 21 March and later relocated to Jaffna have also been sent back to Anuradhapura jail on 30 June, legal sources in Jaffna said. All the TPPs at the Anuradhapura have been jailed along with Sinhala hardcore prisoners at death row or life imprisonment. The families of the TPPs are concerned for the safety of the TPPs.
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University students, Shivajilingam brave SL harassment to commemorate fallen Black Tigers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 July 2020, 23:06 GMT]
Reacting to SL military harassment against paying tribute to Tamil war hero Captain Miller and other Black Tigers at Nelliyadi in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna, Tamil students at the University of Jaffna lit the flame of sacrifice within the university premises at 7:05 pm at the time of the death of Miller on Sunday. The students released the photos to journalists in Jaffna. The reaction came as the occupying SL military and police in Jaffna blocked Tamil political parties and their representatives from paying tribute to the Tamil heroes on Black Tigers Day. Former TNA Parliamentarian M.K. Shivajilingam also braved to mark the day at a public event in Vadamaraadchi on Sunday.
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Monk commanding Sinhala-Buddhicisation of North-East threatens Tamil villagers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 July 2020, 22:28 GMT]
Panamure Thilakawansha Thero, the extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk based in Arisimalai in Pulmoaddai, whom Gotabaya Rajapaksa referred as “chief prelate for the Northern and Eastern Provinces” in his Presidential Task Force for ‘archaeological heritage management’ in the East, paid a threatening visit to Batticaloa on Saturday. The anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim monk, accompanied with fifteen SL Army soldiers, warned Veaththuch-cheanai Tamil villagers to keep away from their village deity Vairavar and the nearby playground. The monk claimed the folk-deity land as a Buddhist “archaeological heritage site”. Veaththuch-cheanai is situated in Vellaa-ve'li of Poaratheevup-pattu DS division, 40 km south of Batticaloa city.
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After Naavat-kuzhi, Colombo targets Poonakari for Sinhala colonisation across Jaffna lagoon

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2020, 19:28 GMT]
Strategically located Naavat-kuzhi in Jaffna peninsula and Poonakari across the Jaffna lagoon at the entrance to the peninsula in the mainland were systematically targeted for Sinhalicisation by occupying Colombo during the previous Rajapaksa regime. Politicians, including Rajapaksa family members, were directly involved in grabbing lands and farms in Poonakari. Sinhala colonists were brought to Naavat-kuzhi in Jaffna. The colonisation of Naavatkuzhi carried out clandestinely during the Rajapaksa rule gained “legal” status under the Sirisena-Wickramasinghe rule that followed. Sections of Sinhala nationalists who joined the US bandwagon, such as Patali Champika Ranawake, allocated lands and housing schemes to the colonists. They also completed a Buddhist stupa. Now, the Rajapaksa regime is back in business escalating the project into Poonakari, informed Tamil officials in Jaffna said.
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Colombo imposes restrictions on Tamil valour related symbolism in schools of North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 July 2020, 22:26 GMT]
Director of Northern Provincial Department of Education Sellathurai Uthayakumar has instructed the school principals to “discipline” the sport meets held in the schools within the province not to use symbols associated with the armed struggle of Tamils in the house decorations. The move comes after the SL military intelligence monitored a trend in the schools of Vanni, where Tamil students and teachers have been using the symbolism of resistance against European colonialism as well as the Sinhala occupation in the sports events. Often, the winning “house decorations” of the sports meets depicted Pandaara Vanniyan or names of Tamil Eelam War Heroes (Maaveerar) in the titles, a principal of a renowned school in Vanni told TamilNet.
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New secret unit among four SL military and police squads competing to arrest Tamil youth in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 July 2020, 13:22 GMT]
Four SL military and police squads, including a new secret unit led by a Police Deputy Inspector General (DIG) based in Colombo, have been detaining Tamils under the allegation of attempting to regroup armed struggle. Apart from the notorious ‘Terrorist Investigation Division,’ based in Colombo, the new unit led by another DIG is also operating from Colombo with field trips to all the five districts of North, informed sources in Jaffna said. Four different “networks” of Tamil youth have been detained in Magazine New Remand Prison in Colombo in the recent months, the sources further said. In the meantime, Coordinator of SL Human Rights Commission in Jaffna, Thangavel Kanagaraj, has admitted that his office had received an increased number of complaints in June. At least one of those detained were below the age of 18.
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Tamils blocked from accessing properties near SL Navy training base in Champoor, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2020, 22:10 GMT]
The occupying SL Navy in Champoor in Trincomalee has deceived twenty poverty-stricken Tamil families into clearing one-hundred acres of lands located between SLNS Vidura base and the nearby Munpa'l'li Murukan temple with the false promise of resettlement. Five months ago, the SL Navy told the resettling Tamil families that they could move back into 300 acres of their properties. In their drive to get back their lands, the families went to the extent of borrowing money to clean up the bushes and trees. When one-third of the work was complete towards the end of May, the SL Navy refused access to the lands. SLNS Vidura is SL Navy's naval training base of the SL marines, established and groomed by the US Indo Pacific Command since 2017.
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Moragoda advising Gotabaya prompts Sinhala parties to scrap Provincial Councils

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 June 2020, 23:29 GMT]
Former SL Minister Milinda Moragoda, who conspired with western powers to create an ‘international safety-net’ for Colombo during the Norway-led peace process, is now demanding the Sinhala political parties to make their stand on the provincial councils. Mr Moragoda, whose Pathfinder Foundation is advising SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has urged the political parties to repeal the 13th Amendment, reported Colombo-based EconomyNext on Monday. The move to do away with the PCs was aimed at the deterritorialisation of the Tamil homeland, commented Tamil political observers in Jaffna. The rulers of the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka were also looking for creative ways to de-legitimise the validity of the 1987 Indo-Lanka accord to re-negotiate external powers’ strategic access to strategic Trincomalee harbour, they further commented.
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