Kooniththeevu arrests illegal without Gazette notification: lawyer

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 January 2018, 22:13 GMT]
Attorney-at-Law Arumukam Jegasothy from Trincomalee, one of the lawyers who appeared on behalf of the three Tamil trustees of the temple of Maththa’la-malai Murukan temple, said without a pre-existing Gazette notification on archaeological reserve at the time of the dispute and police action, the trustees could not be held in detention. The Sinhala lawyer who represented the prosecutor didn’t document the existence of a Gazette notification at Moothoor Magistrate’s court last time. Any new move to file a such notification cannot be used to justify the arrests and that the three trustees would be released by next time when the prosecutor fails to prove the pre-existence of such a Gazette notification.
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SL Navy behind causing temple controversy at Kooniththeevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2018, 23:06 GMT]
Without having established anything scientifically and without even officially declaring anything through a Gazette notification, the SL Archaeology Department, which relies upon manipulations, extremist views, occupying Sinhala military and the ‘Buddhism foremost’ clauses of the unitary constitution, managed to build a false paradigm of an imaginative ‘stupa’ as having existed at the hill-top of Maththa'la-malai at the locality of Choodaik-kudaa in Kooniththeevu GS division of Moothoor East, Trincomalee. Basicially, the entire falsehood has been based on the utterances coming from the chief monk of Seruwila Mangala Raja Maha Viharaya, Munhene Mettarama thero. The Seruwila monk is someone who has been closely working with the occupying Sinhala Navy in Champoor, a well-informed source in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Saturday.
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Colombo steps up structural genocide against Paduvaankarai in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 January 2018, 21:59 GMT]
Former LTTE members who have resettled in Paduvaan-karai region of Batticaloa district complain that they are being systematically neglected in the provision of even the bare minimum assistance in the form of housing and loans. The SL officials have also gone to the extent of citing a section of the ex-LTTE families being away from Paduvaan-karai during the times of war as an excuse to denounce such assistance. In the meantime, The Tamil farmers and fishermen in Paduvaan-karai blame SL President Maithiripala Sirisena for silently introducing a new ‘leasing’ scheme for Sinhala colonists to seize the lands of Tamils in Paduvaan-karai region. Sirisena's Mahaweli Ministry is also alleged of re-channelling the water away from tanks used by Tamils in Batticaloa to his Sinhala electorate of Polonnaruwa.
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Conduct of SL Judiciary exposed in Koonith-theevu temple dispute

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2018, 23:50 GMT]
Moothoor Magistrate’s Court on Thursday further remanded the three Tamil trustees from Choodaik-kudaa in Kooniththeevu, who were arrested by the Sinhala police that invited them for a meeting at Champoor Police station on 01 January. Despite the occupying police failing to document the existence of a Gazette notification to prove the hill-top as an archaeological reserve as claimed by the Sinhala monks who filed the case, the Magistrate of the SL court went ahead extending the remand without bail, Tamil legal activists in Trincomalee complained. In the meantime, the dispute originated only after the intruding Sinhala Buddhist monks from Seruwila objected to the expansion of the Murukan temple of Tamils and there were no archaeological artefacts discovered or destroyed as being claimed by the Sinhalese, the leader of Champoor Women’s Rural Society Leader told TamilNet on Thursday.
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Another stupa erected at controversial Buddhist vihara in Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2018, 21:10 GMT]
Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, an extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk, who has been constructing a controversial Buddhist vihara establishment at the private lands of Eezham Tamils in the strategic Kokku'laay, which links the Northern and Eastern provinces, has put up another Buddhist stupa at the locality in recent weeks, Tamil officials at Karai-thu'raip-pattu division said. The monk is fully assisted by Sinhala soldiers who are deployed in civil clothes. Despite repeated complaints and interim orders coming from local and provincial authorities, the monk is continuing the construction with the backing of Colombo government, occupying Sinhala military and the extremist Buddhist Power Force (BBS). Mr Manivannathas, the Tamil owner of the land has once again sought help from the public to stop the construction work, but says no-one is coming forward to take up his case.
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Sinhala military silently recruits Tamil teenagers through deceptive ‘cadet training’ in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2018, 21:19 GMT]
Selfies of school-going Tamil children as young as 15-years from Uruththirapuram in Ki’linochchi and from Jaffna, including from the prestigious colleges such as Jaffna Central, have surfaced in the social media revealing ongoing silent recruitment to the occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka in recent days. The building of one of the key native Tamil academic institutions, that evolved in Jaffna to protect the native language and heritage against European colonialism, the Arya Dravida Bhasha Viruthi Sangam (Academy for the Development of Aryan and Dravidian languages) located at Koddaddi in Jaffna, has become the secretariat for the occupying Sinhala military to recruit Tamil children. Questions have arisen on ‘silent advice’ to SL military on the move was coming from Colombo-based foreign missions that sustain seek to sustain the ‘uniformity’ of genocidal Sri Lanka.
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Elder generation activists prepared to sacrifice lives to win Ira’nai-theevu resettlement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2017, 23:44 GMT]
The uprooted people of the twin islets of Ira’nai-theevu, located 12 nautical miles from the western coast of Vanni, have been waging a continuous protest for more than 8 months since 01 May 2017. They have been demanding resettlement in their native islets, which lie facing the Palk Bay. 8 years have elapsed since the end of genocidal war, the occupying Sinhala Navy is still adamant in its refusal to release the occupied residential, livelihood lands and the fishing coast which belonged to more than 2,500 people comprising at least 740 families before displacement. “We hoped that we could resettle in our village and celebrate 2018 New Year. But, we were deceived. If this situation continues after 01 January, we will have no other option than advancing our peaceful protest by proving our determination through sacrificing our lives even if it is necessary,” say the protesters.
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Genocidal Colombo does not even spare traditional food court of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2017, 22:26 GMT]
“Ammaachchi” was the name chosen by Northern Provincial Council's Ministry of Agriculture for a concept of traditional restaurant. The United Nations Development Programme financially assisted the initiative, which was launched in Vavuniyaa under the previous minister Mr P. Aingaranesan. The food court became a success earning a good reputation. The kitchen, driven by grassroots women groups, has been promoting war-affected women with livelihood opportunities and was serving traditional Tamil cuisine at affordable price and good quality. Soon, the concept was expanded to Ki'linochchi. However, when a similar NPC initiative was to be launched at Thirunelveali in Jaffna at the initiative of the same NPC ministry, Colombo based unitary system, preoccupied with the genocidal idea of ‘uniform Sri Lanka’, has been insisting upon naming the restaurant with its Sinhala counterpart, Hela Bojun.
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Uprooted people of Keappa-pulavu vow to continue their protest until all lands area released

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 December 2017, 21:55 GMT]
The uprooted Tamil families from Keappaa-pulavu, who have been staging a continuous protest for the past 302 days demanding release of their occupied lands and de-militarisation of their village located in Mullaiththeevu district, on Thursday vowed to continue their struggle until all their lands are released by the occupying Sinhala military. The announcement comes despite the occupying SL State and its military releasing a pocket of 111 acres of lands with properties belonging to 28 families in Keappaa-pulavu and another pocket of 28 acres that belong to 17 families in the nearby Seeniyaa-moaddai.
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Tamils mobilise against Colombo's move to exploit coastal belt of Thirukkoayil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 December 2017, 17:53 GMT]
Around 3,000 Tamil people from Thirukkoayil division of Ampaa'rai district on Wednesday took to the streets and marched against the move by the occupying unitary State in Colombo to exploit the mineral resources of 20 km long coast of Thirukkoayil. The move by occupying Colombo, dubbed as development, is nothing but sand mining which is detrimental to the coast of Eezham Tamils, the villagers said. A private company, Damsila Exports Pvt Ltd from South, is also involved in the move, the agitating villagers said.
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Colombo has nothing else than deception, where is last remedy, ask families of enforced disappeared

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2017, 21:06 GMT]
The entire Colombo state system and the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the occupying military, have only come up with deceptions instead of doing anything meaningful to trace the whereabouts of those subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the SL military and its paramilitaries. At this juncture, what is the last remedy and from where we should seek answers, asks Mrs Amalaraj Amalanayaki, one of around 4,000 families from Batticaloa district searching for their loved ones. In its latest deception, the Colombo establishment has deployed ‘Economic Development Officers’ with ‘English Only’ forms, in which the people are asked to put their signatures leaving the remaining work to the EDO officials, she said referring to a data-collection that has been issued by the so-called Office of the Missing Persons (OMP).
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Sinhalicisation targets interior hill-top northwest of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 December 2017, 21:23 GMT]
The 232 Brigade of the occupying Sinhala Army having its main base at Kudumpi-malai (which is also known as Thoppik-kal and Baron’s Cap) area in the interior of the northwestern hinterland of Batticaloa, is Sinhalicising the area by bringing in Sinhala fishermen to engage in fresh-water fishing at Meeraa'nda-ku'lam and by promoting ‘tourists’ from South to engage in leisure activities in the area, Kudumpi-malai villagers complain. Tamil villagers are barred from accessing their reservoir. The SLA has put up tents and created a camping area where the Sinhala fishermen are staying. When asked about those residing in the camping site, Sinhala soldiers use to refer to the visitors as their relatives or as tourists from South. But, some of the intruders seem to be fishermen who are having a business relationship with the occupying military, the people say.
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SL Eastern Governor should publicly apologies for his wife's hate crime against Tamil devotees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 December 2017, 22:04 GMT]
The wife of Sinhala colonial Governor to East, Mrs Deepthi Bogollagama, on Friday desecrated the temple of village deities Kaa'li, Murukan and Vairavar worshipped by resettled Eezham Tamils at the hill-top of Maththa'la-malai in Kooniththeevu, a traditional Tamil village located near Champoor in Moothoor division of Trincomalee. While even the Sinhala police constables, accompanying the couple on an official visit, had removed their footwear before walking into the temple premises, the wife of SL Governor behaved in a desecrating manner. After being reminded by the Tamil female devotees, she started to verbally attack the devotees with a hostile body language and issued an open threat in Sinahala: “tamuselā okkomalāṭa denavā vẹḍē,” (තමුසෙලා ඔක්කොමලාට දෙනවා වැඩේ), which could mean anything from ‘you all would be dealt with trouble’ to collective death threat.
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Sinhala Buddhicisation targets Champoor, riddled with Sinhala militarisation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 December 2017, 22:35 GMT]
Two Sinhala Buddhist monks who had come from Seruwila division in Trincomalee entered into an ancient Eezham Tamil temple in Champoor of Mooothoor division on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The intruding monks made a false claim that the small hilltop of Maththa’la-malai, which is surrounded with ponds and reservoirs north-west of Champoor was an ancient Sinhala Buddhist site. The monks then high-handedly demanded the management of the temple of Paathaa’la-Vairavar, the village-deity, not to construct any structures at the locality anymore. The SL Archaeology Department was going to seize the temple on their instructions, the monks told the villagers. The occupying SL Navy had already seized the agricultural lands. The move comes after US Pacific Command has started to groom a marine force for the SL Navy. SLNS Vidura situated in Champoor is the training base of the Sinhala ‘marines’.
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Controversial Buddhist cremation staged in Jaffna by SL military draws flak from Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2017, 22:57 GMT]
The Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka and the Colombo-centric unitary system, which constitutionally accords ‘foremost place’ to Buddhism in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils went ahead with staging a controversial cremation at the public grounds of Muttave'li in Jaffna on Friday. The Tamil people regard the venue as a memorial site of Tamil victims of one of the first massacres carried out by the Sinhala police on the final day of the Fourth International Conference of Tamil Research in 1974. In addition to being a memorial venue, Muttave'li is also home to Muniyappar temple. The cremation of Ven Meegahajandure Gnnanarathana thero, the chief prelate of Nagavihara in Jaffna, who passed away on Tuesday in Colombo, was carried out at Muttave’li by the occupying Sinhala military amidst widespread objections coming from Tamil politicians and leading lawyers in Jaffna.
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Families of enforced disappeared mark 300 days of rotational protest in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2017, 18:46 GMT]
The kith and kin of enforced disappeared Tamils on Wednesday marked 300 days of their rotational protest, which they have been staging in front of Vavuniyaa Post Office with the demand of seeking answers from the SL State on the whereabouts of their family members who were handed over to the SL military in front of the families at the end of war in Vanni in 2009. The protesting mothers said they had been deceived by the SL State, particularly its president Mr Maithiripala Sirisena, who has been making public relations stunts aimed at international opinion through entertaining them with meetings in the past. None of the assurances given by Mr Maithiripala were fulfilled, they said.
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Sinhala military schemes Sinhalicisation of Vaakarai under Sirisena's command

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2017, 21:05 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka is refusing to release the lands of 47 families in Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division, Tamil civil sources at the divisional secretariat said. The SL military forced the uprooted Tamils to put their signatures in blank papers and seized the lands for the military base of 233 Brigade of the SL Army in 2008. Now, the SL military has put up a Buddhist stupa in the lands. The area is located 68 km north of Batticaloa city on Batticaloa-Trincomalee A15 Highway.
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Enduring psychological disaster of families of enforced disappeared conveyed through film

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 December 2017, 21:57 GMT]
“Uru” (Trance), a short film shot in Batticaloa by a native Eezham Tamil cast and crew from the island and which was inspired by the stories of long enduring sufferings of the enforced disappeared families, has been acclaimed with global recognition from the Best Short Film Competition in California in September. Subsequently, it also won the award for 2017 Best Human Rights Short Film at the London Eye International Film Festival. The story writer and director of the film, 49-year-old Gnanadas Kasinathar, narrates the depth of psychological disaster as witnessed by him on the ground. Behind every act of structural violence and discrimination against the Tamils, there is a deep-studied psychological phenomenon, carefully hidden by the SL State mechanism, the artist says narrating the examples in a recently recorded interview with TamilNet in London.
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25 acres of coastal stretch in Vaakarai seized for Sinhala colonization in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 December 2017, 23:43 GMT]
A coastal stretch running parallel to A15 Trincomalee highway in Vaakarai region, which was controlled by the LTTE before 2007, has been secretly transferred to a Sinhala business woman at the instruction of the occupying Sinhala Navy and Sinhala politicians from South, grassroots organisations in Vaakarai complain. The area, known as Noolam-paadi and as Club area, has been under the illegal custody of the occupying Sri Lanka Navy since 2007. The SL Navy is stationed in 15 acres of lands, which belongs to private owners. But, resettlement of civilians has been ‘prohibited’ in the area, according to the occupying SL Navy.
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Tamil journalists in Jaffna expose SL military denial of confronting media coverage

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2017, 23:09 GMT]
Eight journalists from Jaffna, who went to Tha'n'ni-mu'rippu tank last Saturday in Karaithu'raip-pattu in Mullaiththeevu to witness and report on the alleged role of the occupying Army and Police of genocidal Sri Lanka in promoting Sinhala intruders to engage in fishing in the reservoir, said the SL military command and the SL Police were now lying on their involvement in the threat against the journalists. SL military and Police blocked the journalists and forced the journalists to delete the photos and video evidences citing ‘national security’. A civil military officer of the SLA was also trying to confiscate their media equipment, one of the journalists K. Hamsan, told TamilNet. The journalists also blamed foreign diplomats, particularly Colombo-based defence attaché of the British High Commission, who has given diplomatic recognition to the occupying military at the locality.
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