Colombo rushes ahead with military land grab of Mu'l'livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 September 2017, 23:13 GMT]
671 acres of residential, coastal and agricultural lands in Mu'l'livaaykkaal East GS division in Mullaiththeevu, containing crucial evidences and traces of genocidal onslaught against Eezham Tamils, are now being ‘officially’ appropriated by Colombo citing ‘public purpose’. The appropriation planned under Rajapaksa regime is being carried out by Maithiripala-Wickramasinghe regime. The lands have already been seized and fenced off by the SL military for years since 2009. Now these lands are being ‘legally’ transferred to the occupying Sinhala Navy for its largest navy cantonment in Mullaiththeevu named ‘SLNS Gotabhaya’. An extraordinary Gazette notice issued by SL Minister of ‘Lands and Parliamentary Reforms’ on August 04, 2017, only talks about ‘public purpose’ without mentioning the military purpose.
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Diaspora youth organisations re-affirm Tamil sovereignty struggle on Thileepan remembrance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 September 2017, 19:32 GMT]
The spirit of Eezham Tamil national struggle was given a gust of life through the remembrances held in the occupied homeland of Eezham Tamils this week as the people from all walks of life gathered in their hundreds commemorating the resolve and sacrifice made by Lt. Col Thileepan, who sacrificed his life exposing the Indian geo-political agenda in 1987. The political message coming from those who were addressing the Nalloor event was based on Thimphu-principle centred federal discourse. They were also seen urging the Tamil diaspora to adopt the unworkable ‘federal’ demand on the ground to counter the ‘unitary’ paradigm of genocidal Sri Lanka. However, new grassroots Tamil organisations in Tamil diaspora have awaken to the realities and expressed their resolve towards Vaddukkoaddai Resolution based Tamil sovereignty struggle, particularly at the federal State of Switzerland.
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Tamils vow to mobilize against unitary design, mark Lt Col Thileepan’s memorial with reverence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 September 2017, 22:38 GMT]
Hundreds of people attended 30th Remembrance Day of Lt Col Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan) on Tuesday in front of Nalloor temple in Jaffna, where the LTTE’s Jaffna Political Head sacrificed his life through a 12-day long fast-unto-death in 1987. The hunger-strike by 24-year-old Thileepan, without food and water, exposed New Delhi’s partnership with Colombo following the Indo-Lanka Accord. Three decades have elapsed, but the external Establishments in ‘strategic partnership’ are still bent on gaining inroad into the Indian Ocean Region island through backing the same genocidal unitary system of Sri Lanka. Eezham Tamils will not succumb to these designs and will continue to resist any move aimed at sustaining the unitary system until the national question of the nation of Eezham Tamils is resolved in a principled way, proclaimed the activists and politicians who spoke at the event in Jaffna.
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Political prisoners resume hunger-strike as Colombo transfers hearings to Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 September 2017, 19:22 GMT]
Three Tamil political prisoners who earlier abandoned their hunger-strike following assurances that their cases would be heard in Vavuniyaa High Court, resumed their protest on Monday as they learned that their cases were being transferred to Anuradhapura High Court on the instructions from SL Attorney General's Department. Mathiyarasan Sulaxan, Rasathurai Thiruvaran (Chengkan) and Ganesan Tharshanan who have been detained without their cases being heard for 8 years are now being prosecuted with manipulated witnesses produced by the SL ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division.
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Colombo's ‘State Land’ seizure to affect thousands in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 September 2017, 22:26 GMT]
Under the so-called expansion of Chu'ndik-ku'lam bird sanctuary at Vadamaraadchi East, Jaffna, the SL Wildlife Department is systematically choking Jaffna Peninsula and Vanni mainland. The expansion from 25,550 acres into 48,300 acres is set to affect more than one thousand families from Mu'l'liyaan, Poakka'ruppu, Keavil, Niththiyaaveddai and Va'n'naan-ku'lam and absorbes schools and churches. Sinhala guards belonging to SL Wildlife Department have stationed at the locality and are throwing GPS-fitted border stones while they ride in vehicle across the villages. The SL military has issued death threats to the people who have been protesting against the genocidal land grab on Thursday and Friday. Colombo has accelerated the seizure of lands with the aim of converting all non-residential lands in the North-East into ‘State Lands’ before coming up with the sham of constitutional changes.
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Sinhala colonisation stepped up, genocidal system cannot be transformed through ‘consensus’

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 September 2017, 23:32 GMT]
It is not possible to reform or reconfigure the genocidal State system in the island through so-called consensus engagements with the Colombo Establishment either internally or externally, commented a leading civil official in Batticaloa revealing details of a new Sinhala colonisation scheme silently spearheaded by the Mahaweli Ministry of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. “As far as Tamils are concerned, any consensus programme coming from outside towards the SL State should be viewed by Tamils as a consensus forged among the Establishments for continued strutural genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils,” the official, who would be risking the SLAS job if publicly identified, told TamilNet. The official revealed how Mahaweli ‘Development’ Ministry is now reviving a colonisation scheme which was originally proposed under Rajapaksa regime in 2008 and later abandoned in 2010.
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Sathasivam papers on Sumerian-Tamil connections see the light of day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 September 2017, 23:37 GMT]
Four pioneering research papers on the Dravidian connections between ancient Sumerian and Tamil, written between 1964 and 1987 by Eezham Tamil scholar, the late Prof A Sathasivam, are now available as a book. Writing a note to one of those papers in 1965, renowned linguist Prof T. Burrow said that Sathasivam breaks new ground in seeking to relate Dravidian with Sumerian, and added that if it were to be accepted the theory would be of considerable importance for the prehistory of both Dravidian and Sumerian. Brought out by the efforts of Mrs T Sathasivam and edited by Dr. Siva Thiagarajah, the book titled “Proto Sumero Dravidian: The Common Origin of Sumerian and Dravidian Languages,” has been published this year by the History and Heritage Unit of the Tamil Information Centre in the UK.
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Tamil village in Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa border Sinhalicized by Mahaweli authority, Survey Dept

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2017, 22:53 GMT]
SL Mahaweli authority has alienated lands belonging to 300 uprooted Eezham Tamil families to Sinhala settlers in Oamadiyaa-madu village, which is situated near the district border of Polonnaruwa-Batticaloa in the East, Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa district said. Oamadiyaa-madu comes under Batticaloa district. But, SL Survey Department officials marked it as falling under Polonnaruwa district in an irrigation survey, marking the village as catchment area of a tank of Mahaweli system in Polonnaruwa. Omadiyaa-madu village is located 58 km north of Batticaloa city and 10 km north of Welikanda, a bordering Sinhala town in the Polonnaruwa district. SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who has been in charge of Mahaweli ‘development’ for several periods since 1997, hails from Polonnaruwa district.
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Muslims oppose Colombo's ‘Sinhala-only’ policy in public administration of Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 September 2017, 22:07 GMT]
Tamil-speaking Muslims in Ampaa’rai have blamed the Colombo regime, its ministries and the SL Government Agent of Ampaa’rai for failing to implement official language policy in Ampaa’rai district, where more than 61% of the population are Tamil-speaking people. All official administrative communiqués, letters and circulars coming from the District Secretariat to public offices and to the divisional secretariats are in Sinhala. The SL Government Agent and the District Secretariat are deploying Sinhala-only policy with a long-term Sinhalicisation agenda, say Tamil-speaking Muslim activists in Ampaa’rai. They have taken up the issue through the National Council of Muslims criticizing the failure of Maithiripala and Wickramasinghe regime.
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Families of enforced disappeared want answers, no deceptive bills to genocidal system

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 September 2017, 23:49 GMT]
The genocidal State of Sri Lanka would simply ‘privatize’ white van abductions in future to circumvent any restrictions be its own Acts or international conventions such as the “International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance” (ICPPED). Therefore, the SL ratification of the ICPPED and the discourse of enacting bills are not of immediate concern to the families of persons subjected to enforced disappearances, commented Mr Velayutham Vijayakumar, who represents the families of persons reported missing. The Jaffa-based activist said Tamil people were more concerned about SL State's official answer on what happened to those subjected to enforced disappearances, particularly the fate of hundreds of persons who were handed over to the SL military in front of their families inside the SL military controlled area after the genocial onslaught in May 2009.
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30th remembrance of Lt Col Thileepan strengthens resolve among Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 September 2017, 23:30 GMT]
Lt Col Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan), who was LTTE's political head in Jaffna, sacrificed his life through a 12-day long fast-unto-death without food and water in September 1987. He had put forward five demands to the Indian Establishment following the signing of Indo-Lanka accord in July 1987 and his fast-unto-death exposed New Delhi and its Colombo-centric geopolitical dealings with the SL State among the grassroots of Eezham Tamils. Three decades on, Eezham Tamils are still dealing with almost the same demands as that were put forward by Thileepan in 1987. The Eezham Tamils waging protests demanding whereabouts of their kith and kin subjected to enforced disappearances and the protests demanding de-militarisation, resettlement and release of political prisoners, are again exposing the Colombo-centric geopolitics of the ‘Strategic partners’, political observers in Jaffna said.
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Sirisena’s Mahaweli ministry twists old records to Sinhalicize Paduvaankarai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 September 2017, 22:52 GMT]
SL Mahaweli Ministry, which is led by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has recently sent a letter to the Planning Director of Batticaloa District secretariat claiming that there were 136 agricultural/farming [Sinhala] families residing in the past at Mayilaththamadu, which comes under Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district. Between 2007 and 2014, at least 16,000 acres of lands in Paduvaankarai were illegally encroached by 300 Sinhala colonists from Polonnaruwa, the home district of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. They went to the extent of constructing a Buddhist temple (hut). However, after protests the colonists were withdrawn towards the end of 2016. Now, Mahaweli Ministry is attempting to twist the old records to facilitate a fresh claim that there were Sinhala settlers in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa in the past, informed civil sources said.
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Alienate lands to Sinhala colonists or face transfer: SL Governor warns Tamil DS in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 September 2017, 23:17 GMT]
Occupying Colombo’s Sinhala Governor to North Reginald Cooray has threatened S. Gunabalan, the Tamil divisional secretary of Karai-thu’raip-pattu (Maritime-pattu) division of the Mullaiththeevu district to either face transfer to a remote station or find a way to alienate lands owned by uprooted Tamils at the coastal village of Mukaththuvaaram to 300 Sinhala colonists, informed civil sources in Jaffna said. The threat was issued in front of the representatives of the encroaching Sinhala fishermen, who were gathered last week at the secretariat of the SL governor for an exclusive ethnic Sinhala meeting. Colombo-based Director General of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DFAR) MCL Fernando, who happens to be a relative of an influential colonist in Mukaththuvaaram and Ven Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, the extremist Buddhist monk from Kokku’laay, attending the meeting.
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Risking legal action, Hakeem wants to transfer lands to Hizbulla’s colony in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 September 2017, 12:10 GMT]
Rauff Hakeem, the SL cabinet minister of ‘Urban Development, Water Supply and Drainage’ is trying to illegally allocate 35 acres of public lands to put up a Muslim colony being schemed by M.L.A.M. Hizbulla, an appointed UPFA parliamentarian and State Minister of ‘Resettlement and Rehabilitation’ at a traditional Tamil area in Batticaloa district. The controversial move is taking place at Kalladi, 7 km southeast of Batticaloa city. The lands initially taken over from Tamil people back in 1963 for the purpose of expanding water supply and irrigation from Unnichchai tank to other areas, civil sources in Batticaloa said. The SL ministers are engaged in hostile activities setting Batticaloa Tamils against Tamil-speaking Muslims from Kaaththaan-kudi, the sources further said.
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Mano Ganesan’s NGO Secretariat restricts freedom of organisation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 September 2017, 23:29 GMT]
Community organizations, civil groups and local NGOs operating in Batticaloa have been recently instructed not to undertake any humanitarian assistance project without informing and securing permission in advance from the district-level officials of the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka. The move is being spearheaded through the NGO Secretariat, which SL Minister Mano Ganesan claims as being organized under his ministry of “National Co-existence, Dialogue and Official Language”. However, the move is being controlled by the so-called State Intelligence Service (SIS) of occupying Colombo, informed sources in Batticaloa said. The latest move has also connections with certain Colombo-based NGO outfits that are funded by the West. In recent times, Special Task Force (STF), the notorious counter-insurgency arm of occupying Colombo, has also been harassing the organisations in the district.
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I'rakkaamam Police behaves as occupying Sinhala Force: Muslims

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 September 2017, 19:23 GMT]
The SL police in I'rakkaamam was behaving as an occupying Sinhala force taking the side of the encroaching Sinhala Buddhist monks, blame Tamil-speaking Muslims in Ampaa’rai. The Sinhala police was blocking the Muslim villagers who protested against the extremist Buddhist monks who were attempting to expand an access route to the foothill of Maayakkalli-malai, where the monks placed a Buddha statue last year amidst opposition from Tamils and Muslims. The president of the Federation of Mosques in I'rakkaamam, Mr A.H.M. Aswar said the SL Police was blocking the Muslim protesters while allowing the intruding monks and their supporters to continue with their aggression. The SL Police was also refusing to register a complaint. Maayakkalli-malai is located between the Tamil village of Maa'nikka-madu and the Muslim village of Varip-paddaagn-cheanai, 14 km southwest of Ampaa'rai town.
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Cooray emerges as ‘civil’ guardian of Sinhala colonists wedging North-East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 September 2017, 23:21 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military forcibly evicted Eezham Tamils from strategic Mukaththuvaaram, the northern tip at the lagoon-mouth of Kokku’laay in 1983. After the 2009 genocidal onslaught, 350 Sinhala colonist families have encroached into Mukaththuvaaram. An extremist Sinhala monk has been constructing a Buddha vihara just 1 km north of Mukaththuvaaram. A Sinhalicised Catholic church is operating there already. In the meantime, the SL Governor to North, Reginald Cooray, has been harassing the Tamil officials of Karaithu’raip-pattu division and Mullaiththeevu District in a fresh drive to allocate more houses to Sinhala colonisers through Colombo’s National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) at the occupied lands belonging to uprooted Eezham Tamils. Mr Cooray is interacting with the colonists without involving the elected Northern Provincial Council (NPC), civil sources said.
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Tamils, Muslims join hands in Mannaar against Rohingya genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 September 2017, 23:40 GMT]
The organisers of a protest in Mannaar on Tuesday urged global Tamils to rise up against the genocidal onslaught that has been intensified by the genocidal Myanmar State against the Rohingya Muslims. Tamil-speaking people belonging to all religions in Mannaar took to the streets on Tuesday in a joint protest. Theravada Buddhist Myanmar State's persecution against Rohingya Muslims has reached a full-scale stage of genocidal military onslaught. At least 1,000 people have been killed within a month time, reports say. Some activists claim even higher number of civilian casualties. At least 90,000 have recently fled the north-western State of Rakhine, which has been the Rohingya homeland known as Arakan in the past. The Theravada Buddhist Myanmar has also blocked the UN agencies from supplying medicine, food and water to at least 250,000 Rohingyas who have been besieged by the Myanmar State.
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Colombo revives hostility through controversial Buddha statue in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 September 2017, 22:17 GMT]
Sinhala extremist monks led by Ranmuthugala Dhammarathana Thero from Kalmunai deployed a fresh attempt on Saturday to put up a road link to Maayak-kalli hillock where they had forcibly placed a Buddha statue amidst opposition from Tamils and Muslims in October 2016. In the meantime, Sinhala officials comprising of SL Colonial Governor of Colombo, Provincial Land Commissioner of the Eastern Province, SL Government Agent of Ampaa'rai District and archaeologists of the SL State have been promoting the erection of Buddha statue and the project of establishing an access route to the hillock linking it with the main road. The project is also promoted by the extremist Buddhist Power Force (Bodu Bala Sena). The hillock, known as Maayak-kalli-malai is located between the Tamil village of Maa'nikka-madu and the Muslim village of Varip-paddaagn-cheanai, 14 km southwest of Ampaa'rai town.
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Northern fishermen oppose State moves to unconditionally release confiscated Indian trawlers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 September 2017, 23:28 GMT]
The occupying Colombo regime, particularly its Ministry of Fisheries and the SL Navy are working closely with the Indian High Commission in Colombo to release 42 trawlers that were confiscated while trespassing into the territorial waters of Northern province two years ago. The owners of the bottom-trawlers, have been silently visiting the jetty under the control of the SL Navy and repaired their boats. The trawlers are going to be ceremonially released in the sea at an event between the Indian and SL Navies. The associations of the local fishermen societies in North have been demanding written statement from each owner of the bottom-trawlers being released stating that they would not trespass anymore and engage in bottom-trawling which has been legally banned in the island. But, the SL Ministry of Aquatic Resources has dodged their demands.
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