SLN intimidates Tamils to give consent for controversial Buddha statue in Jaffna islet

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2016, 15:15 GMT]
Two elected members of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), who were on a fact finding visit to Naiyinaatheevu last Thursday following repeated requests from the native people of the islet off Jaffna told TamilNet this week that they were shocked to see the move for accelerated Sinhalicisation and Buddhicisation being undertaken by the occupying Sinhala Navy and Ven Navadagala Paduma Kiththi Tissa Thero, the chief monk of ‘Nagadeepa Rajamaha Vihara’. The native people are afraid to voice against the cultural and demographic genocide taking place. The SL Navy has been exerting pressure on them to ‘admit’ that they were ‘welcoming’ the plans for erecting a controversial 61-feet Buddha statue along the seashore. The move is a clear exclusivist Sinhala-Buddhist engineering, says NPC Councillor Vinthan Kanagaratnam.
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Continued desecration of Tamil Heroes cemetery is ‘Good Governance’ for Sinhala State

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 April 2016, 23:25 GMT]
Occupying Sinhala military's 233 Brigade has been ploughing the grounds of the largest Tamil Eelam Heroes Cemetery in Batticaloa with the genocidal motive of deploying illegal Sinhala settlers to do cultivation in the grounds where more than 675 fallen Tamil fighters lay buried. The gruesome act has been committed for during the past 2 weeks despite repeated pleas from the Tamil civil sources to the government officials in Batticaloa district not to hurt the sentiments of Eezham Tamils. The present regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe, accompanied by former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who are engaged in ‘Sinhala-Only’ determined ‘reconciliation’, have chosen to ignore the requests from the Tamil public, civil sources at the District Secretariat told TamilNet.
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SL military refuses to release illegally seized lands at Pul-moaddai, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2016, 23:37 GMT]
In addition thousands of acres of agricultural lands that have been seized from Eezham Tamils by the Sinhalese in Kuchchave’li DS division in Trincomalee, the occupying military of genocidal SL State continues to keep around 500 acres of private and public lands. The SL military is refusing to release these lands, even for the purpose of a housing scheme for government employees, Tamil civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet. Pul-moaddai (meaning grassy pond), situated at a sandbar on the side of the Eastern Province of the North-East border, is not only a must location from the genocidal point of view, but is also a place of significant economic importance because of the ilmanite deposits found there beneath the white sand dunes.
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Indian intelligence, media insinuate Eezham Tamils to drop ‘Eelam’ in party names

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2016, 16:52 GMT]
The Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), led by Mr Suresh Premachandran, has denounced on Friday a narration given by the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) that one of the oldest parties of early Tamil militant legacy was dropping the terms ‘Eelam’ and ‘Liberation’ in its party name. The claimed name change is actually being contemplated by a small group, the EPRLF ‘Padmanaba wing’, which is neither part of the TNA nor has any electoral standing. This group is led by former North-Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister Mr Varatharaja Perumal, who is widely seen as an agent of Indian Intelligence. In 2009, immediately after the Vanni genocide, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief Mr M. Karunanidhi also gave instructions to remove the word Eezham in public places. Mr Karunanidhi reportedly has said that it was the wish of the ‘Central agencies’ of India.
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SL Presidential ‘Commission’ continues to deceive families of enforced disappeared

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2016, 23:29 GMT]
The ‘Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints regarding Missing Persons’ (PCICMP) has held 3-day long public sittings at Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat last week and proceeded to Mannaar on Monday with the second session of sittings. The mothers and wives of persons, who have been subjected to enforced disappearances during the genocidal war and its immediate aftermath, blamed the occupying Sri Lanka Navy as the major culprit behind many disappearances that have taken place in Mannaar. In the meantime, the PCICMP ‘Commission’, which lacks credibility among the population, was engaged in deceiving the families through prompting them to consider receiving ‘death’ certificates. “We were handled as beneficiaries and not as witnesses,” a mother in Mannaar told TamilNet adding that Maithiripala Sirisena's ‘Commission’ was trying to substitute justice with ‘supplies’.
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Role of The Netherlands abetting Colombo's cultural genocide questioned in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2016, 16:03 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has erected more than 20 Buddha statues in the Mannaar island to facilitate Sinhalicisation of the ancient urban port city of Eezham Tamils. As the SL military is engaged in consolidating its temporary structures with permanent walls in the recent days, the people were shocked to see the huge statues that have been erected inside the military fortifications across the district. At the same time, the SL military has already handed over a large area within the Dutch Fort to Colombo's Archaeology Department, which has been a key architect in conceiving and executing cultural genocide against Eezham Tamils. The Netherlands is about to launch renovation of the Fort through SL ‘Army and Archaeology’ paradigm. A huge Buddha statue raised by the SL Army is causing controversy in the predominantly Tamil-speaking city.
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SL Police instructed to cover up investigations on Mannaar killing fields

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2016, 23:33 GMT]
Colombo has instructed the Sri Lankan police officers in Mannaar to do their maximum to cover up further exhumation of the alleged killing fields at Thirukkeatheesvaram in Mannaar, informed sources told TamilNet on Monday. The SL Police officials are working hard to twist the facts that the exhumed remains were from a burial site while the two burial sites used by the villagers are situated far away from the mass grave site. In the meantime, Sri Lankan Special Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Colombo is unnecessarily dragging the process of determining the institution outside the island to determine the characteristics of the victims who died, how they died and how long ago they died.
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Sinhala military of US design consolidates along Palk Bay challenging Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2016, 23:07 GMT]
Hundreds of soldiers of genocidal Sri Lanka have been deployed between Iluppaik-kadavai in Maanthai-West of Mannaar and the strategic Poonakari in the north of Vanni mainland along the coastal belt facing the Palk Bay in recent days. The occupying Sinhala soldiers are transforming their temporary positions into permanent structures. Even the travellers along the A32 Highway from Mannaar through Poonakari to Jaffna could witness the systematic deployment of the SL soldiers being busily engaged in consolidating their positions and cantonments. The betrayal committed upon the Eezham Tamils by the Geneva-based ‘Human Rights’ discourse, which is primarily exploited by the world powers for their geopolitical manoeuvrings on the island, has ended up strengthening the military grip of genocidal Sri Lanka on Eezham Tamils.
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Occupying SL military behind bringing extremist BBS monks to Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2016, 08:47 GMT]
Officers of the occupying SL Army and Navy were operating behind in arranging Sinhala Buddhist extremist Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force) to visit Kokku'laay in Mullaiththeevu district, informed sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet on Wednesday. Ven Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, the general secretary of the BBS was in Kokku'laay on Monday encouraging the extremist monk Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero for his occupation scheme, which is being projected through the construction of a Buddhist Vihara establishment in the lands illegally seized from Eezham Tamils at the strategic point linking North and East. In the meantime, the SL government in Colombo, through its Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, has issued hundreds of fishing permits to Sinhala fishermen occupying Kokku'laay.
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Attacked Tamil students in Trinco campus under pressure not to talk to media

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2016, 22:41 GMT]
The administration of Trincomalee Campus at the Eastern University has instructed the students not to talk to media. On Monday, the campus was temporarily shut down to avoid situation getting out of control. The administration has also appointed a three-member committee with the instruction not to bring out the racial motive behind the episode. The attacked students said they had complained for a long time about the hate crime tendency, but the university administration has ignored the early warnings. On Monday, the Sinhala students started to claim that the attack was in retaliation to ‘bullying behaviour’ from the Tamil students. The Tamil students from the Unit of Siddha Medicine have provided names of ten Sinhala students from the departments of Communication and Management to the Campus administration and the SL Police. No action has been taken against them, they said.
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Sinhala students assault Tamil students at Trincomalee campus of Eastern University

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 March 2016, 18:45 GMT]
Nine of twelve Tamil male students attending the discipline of Siddha Medicine at Trincomalee Campus of the Eastern University were brutally assaulted on Thursday evening by Sinhalese students from the two mainstream faculties at the campus. The attacked Tamil students were also blocked by the Sinhala students from getting medical treatment. The administration of the University has been subjected to political pressure in covering up the incident not being portrayed as an ethnic assault. Although the name of 10 identified Sinhala male students have been provided to the SL Police, there has been no action against them, the affected Tamil students receiving medical treatment at Nilaave'li hospital told TamilNet on Sunday.
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Resettling Tamils confront SL Navy consolidating deployment along Northern cost

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 March 2016, 05:46 GMT]
The resettling villagers of Cheanthaan-ku'lam near I'lavaalai in Jaffna successfully blocked the occupying Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) from seizing the lands belonging to St. Anne's Church on Tuesday when the SLN of genocidal Sri Lanka brought Survey Department officials to survey 4 acres of lands situated between Maathakal and Keerimalai along the coast. The SL Navy from ‘Uttara’ naval cantonment in Kaangkeasan-thu'rai (KKS) was attempting for the fourth time to survey and seize the lands for a ‘coastal observation point’. The beach of Cheanthaan-ku'lam was a former Sri Lankan military ‘High Security Zone’, situated near Maathakal and Kaangkeasanthu'rai in Valikaamam North. The resettling people have blocked the SL Navy from carrying out the survey.
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Senior Jaffna reporter Navaratnarajah passes away

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2016, 17:21 GMT]
61-year-old N. Navaratnarajah (Navam GS) from Mallaakam in Jaffna, who briefly served in TamilNet as a reporter for Jaffna during the turbulent times in the past, has passed away in the early hours of Tuesday due to heart attack at the Teaching Hospital in Jaffna. Mr Navaratnarajah was a Village Officer (GS), a committed social activist and was engaged in news reporting as a freelance journalist for at least 2 decades. Despite his busy schedule, Mr Navaratnarajah remained committed as a full time journalist, working for Uthayan, Chudar-O'li, Veerakesari, Tamil Mirror and to certain Tamil language websites for a long time. He was born on 14 April, 1954.
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SL ‘TID’ operatives threaten Tamil family in Mannaar at gunpoint

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2016, 23:10 GMT]
Five Sinhala-speaking operatives of the notorious ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ who entered the house of 66-year-old Manikam Ilaiyathamby, situated near Mannaar Hospital Road Junction, have threatened his family on 26 February 2016 around 10:30 p.m. demanding the family to hand over their 36-year-old son who is residing in UK. The SL military intelligence and the TID division operatives have been harassing the family since the breakdown of the Norway-brokered Ceasefire Agreement between the Sinhala State and the Tamil Tigers. The Sinhala operatives under the direct command of the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry in Colombo have been harassing the family for some time stating that they were having photos of Ilaiyathamby Kalaivanar, the son of Mr Ialaiyathamby garlanding LTTE Political Division members who arrived at Mannaar following the CFA.
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Colombo resumes surveillance of Eezham Tamils through ‘registration’ in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2016, 11:11 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Sinhala police, the intelligence operatives of the SL State and military surveillance officers are conducting fresh ‘registrations’ of people living across the 14 divisions of Batticaloa district, citing section 76 of the SL ‘Police Ordinance’ which states that householders should furnish the officer of police of his or her division with a list of all the inmates in the house and that any change occurring in the households should be reported to the police or legal authorities of the SL State. The surveillance measure is now being systematically implemented in the entire district of Batticaloa. In addition, Sinhala military intelligence officers are visiting selected households every month and some others every third month. Those who have been in Vanni earlier are being harassed with ‘terrorist’ questions, Tamil civil sources in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Friday.
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Fr Fontgalland sacrificed his entire life for downtrodden Upcountry people: Fr Jeyasegaram

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2016, 16:00 GMT]
Following the example set by the late Rt Rev Leo Nanayakkara OSB, the first Bishop of Badulla, who was a Sinhalese and was renowned for his committed actions among the downtrodden masses, Rev Fr Guy de Fontgalland, who was a Tamil from Jaffna, decided to work among the Upcountry Tamils, continuing the legacy of committed action grounded in grassroots development since the demise of Leo Nanayakkara in 1982. The late Rev Fr Guy de Fontgalland was preparing to launch a big project of planting 10,000 palmyra seedlings in the islets off Jaffna in 2017, said his close associate Rev Fr A.F. Jeyasegaram, the director of Neitha'lam, which is a diocesan center for fishing workers in Jaffna. Fr Jeyasagaram has known Sathiyapillai Guy de Fontgalland since his childhood till his demise on Monday.
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Veteran development activist Fr Sathiyapillai Guy de Fontgalland passes away

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2016, 23:18 GMT]
Veteran Eezham Tamil development activist Rev Fr Sathiyapillai Guy de Fontgalland, who has dedicated his life to the upliftment of the Upcountry Tamils in the island, passed away at the age of 69 on Monday after being hit by a sea wave in Trincomalee. Fr S Guy de Fontgalland, who hails from Ooraaththu'rai (Kayts) island in Jaffna, was the founder of Leo Marga Ashram (LMA) in Bandarawela, which is an alternative development-oriented action group, based in Badulla district. With a vision of liberating the plantation community and a mission of creating an alternative leadership in the plantation sector through conscientization programs aimed at a people’s movement.
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S.T. Arasu remembered by his disciple and friend

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 February 2016, 22:50 GMT]
The multi-faceted personality of the late Mr S.Thirunavukkarasu (S.T.Arasu) was remembered in an interview given to TamilNet last week by Rajaratnam Nadarajah (75), the owner of Baby Photo in Jaffna. Mr Nadarajah was recollecting his close relationship with Mr Arasu since 1958, right from the days of their photography work at Sellams, which was involved in the production of the pioneer Eezham Tamil film ‘Kadamaiyin ellai’. He was also recollecting the encounter of Mr Arasu with the Ceylon military during the non-violent protest of Eezham Tamils in 1961 under the leadership of Mr S.J.V. Chelvanayakam.
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Three Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike admitted to hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 February 2016, 19:04 GMT]
Three of the Tamil political prisoners, who have been on hunger-strike since Monday have been forcefully admitted for medical treatment by the SL prison authorities at New Magazine prison, legal sources in Colombo told TamilNet. Out of 15 Tamil prisoners who were on fast-unto death, one prisoner had withdrawn and the condition of five prisoners worsened on Saturday, the sources said. Through their hunger strike so far, the Tamil prisoners have exposed that there are several prisoners without proper legal process and each and every one of them are forced to fight to expedite their cases or to get them released.
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Colombo continues with ‘Sinhala-only’ circulars, Tamil officials in Batticaloa complain

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2016, 21:33 GMT]
The occupying Colombo continues to issue almost all official circulars in Sinhala language to the administrative offices that come under the ministries of the Colombo government, provincial and local administrative bodies, Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa complain. 90% of the population in the district is Tamil-speaking. Regardless of repeated complaints, SL ministries of genocidal Sri Lankan are bent upon Sinhalicisation of governance in the district, the Tamil officials in Batticaloa told TamilNet. While the global actors are not prepared to see physical, psychological, structural and cultural genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island and are not prepared to even spell the word Tamil in their resolutions being presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, how would their agent State in Colombo be prepared to issue the circulars in Tamil, the officials asked.
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