SL military land grab in North-East constitutes genocide: Ex-Land Commissioner

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 August 2017, 23:11 GMT]
What the SL State is committing against the villages of Eezham Tamils in the North and East, such as in Mu'l'li-ku'lam in Musali division of Mannaar, is a nothing else than a systematic genocide, commented former Land Commissioner of Eastern Province Kathirgamathamby Kurunathan in a recent interview to TamilNet. Referring to the definition of the UN Genocide convention, the senior expert on land issues was categorical in articulating the ongoing militarization and genocidal land grab in the North-East as continuing genocide against the Tamil people in the island. Northern Provincial Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran was right in passing the resolution on Genocide to the past crimes as well as the present crimes, Mr Kurunathan said.
Full story >>

Facing displacement since 1977, Tamils of up-country origin fight for Mannaar village

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 August 2017, 22:50 GMT]
Around 30 Tamil families, who were living at a locality called A’naik-kaddu in Thampanaik-kulam GS division in Madu division of Mannaar district, have witnessed several displacements. They were initially uprooted from Kurunegala district in the North Western Province after SL State-sponsored anti-Tami pogroms in 1977 before the times of Tamil militancy. Vanni and Madu region was their choice for ensuring their security in the country of Eezham Tamils. However, twenty years later, they were again forced to displace from their village in Madu division to a ‘refugee camp’ at Neluk-ku’lam in Vavuniyaa district following a military operation code named ‘Edi Bala’ that targeted their village, which was under the administrative control of the Liberation Tigers in 1997. Still, they are refused entry to A’naik-kaddu, which they regard as their native village.
Full story >>

Structural genocide targets Kuchchave'li through long-term land lease

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 August 2017, 23:47 GMT]
Sinhala SL Government Agent of Trincomalee N.A.A.Pushpakumara is leasing lands to Sinhala businessmen from South in Kuchchave'li administrative division. The Tamil Divisional Secretary of the division, P.Thaneswaran, is being directed by the ruling politicians of occupying Colombo to alienate public lands through long-term leasing (99 years) to Sinhala colonisers, Tamil civil sources in Trincomalee said. Although the Eastern Provincial Council has a say on the issue of term-lease, it has been subjected to heavy influence from Colombo. Knowning that Kachcheari has lost original copies of lands from Nilaave'li to Kumpu'rup-piddi, there has been a systematic move of utilising so-called temporary land permits with the motive of transferring the lands later to the Sinhala owners. The long-term lease in practice means that the lands become the property of the owners in the long run.
Full story >>

Pottu-vil, Potu-vila, Potu-koḷa-deniya, Potuvā-gonna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 August 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The pond or marsh of the open glade; or the pond or marsh of Pottu/ Potu reed

The pond or marsh of the open glade; or the pond or marsh of Pottu/ Potu reed

The marshy valley of Pottu/ Potu reed

The open glade jungle; or the Potu-reed jungle
Full story >>

Occupying Colombo steps up militarization of Jaffna streets through STF

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 August 2017, 19:05 GMT]
Hundreds of armed ‘Special Task Force’ commandos have been patrolling the streets of Jaffna in recent days under the pretext of controlling ‘gang violence’ against SL Police. In the meantime, occupying Sinhala military and police Establishments in Jaffna have been falsely claiming that the former LTTE members were behind gang violence. Four Tamil gangsters, have been detained for alleged involvement in violence against SL Police. The SL Police was falsely claiming that the detained youth as former LTTE members. Refuting the false claims by the SL Police and SL military, legal activists in Jaffna questioned the credibility of such claim by referring to the age of detained youth. Tamil youth from Jaffna were completely blocked from entering LTTE controlled Vanni already in 2006. The youth arrested now were 10-year-old children at that time, they said.
Full story >>

New Sinhala police station disturbs peace in resettled Vadamunai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2017, 22:25 GMT]
Some normalcy returned to Vadamunai village situated 65 km northwest of Batticaloa city two years ago when the occupying Sinhala military vacated its military camp, which was situated at a building of the Irrigation Department, which was located on the left bank of Vadamunai tank. Resettled Tamil women were continuously harassed by the Sinhala soldiers stationed at the irrigation building whenever the women went to the tank for water and bathing needs. A few days ago, a Sinhala policemen have stationed at the locality, causing trauma and fear among the resettled villagers. The Tamil people living in the interior village of Batticaloa district, is a border village to Polonnaruwa district of North Central Province. The survivors from Vadamunai village, who witnessed one of the brutal massacres, Mayilanthanai massacre in 1992, only managed to resettled back during the times of the LTTE.
Full story >>

Genocidal Colombo causes new obstacles to investigations on Mannaar mass graves

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2017, 21:33 GMT]
Colombo-based Special Branch of Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Police of genocidal Sri Lanka is once again causing obstacles to judicial investigations of 87 human skeletons exhumed from the mass graves of the killing fields at Thirukkeatheesvaram near Maanthai junction in Mannaar. At a crucial juncture when Mannaar Magistrate A G Alex Raja fixed a date to instruct the CID to send the skeletons to one of the proposed foreign institutions to undertake forensic anthropological analysis and to invite foreign experts during the next phase of exhumation of the alleged mass grave site, the CID has turned to SL Judicial Service Commission with an allegation that Mr Alex Raja was taking sides with the lawyers representing the victims. The move was intended to put an immediate stop to external investigations and involving foreign experts in the future excavations of mass graves.
Full story >>

SL Prime Minister behind harassing Tamil DS officers in Batticaloa with transfers

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2017, 22:36 GMT]
Divisional Secretaries, who have been defending the interests of Tamil land-owners in Batticaloa District in the Eastern Province, continue to face harassment from the Colombo-centric administrative system with transfers, according to Tamil civil sources in the district. Ali Zazhir Mouland, a UNP parliamentarian elected with the votes from Tamils, has been instrumental in influencing SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe in transferring two divisional secretaries in recent months, civil sources in Batticaloa revealed. Politicians aligned with UNP and SLFP are competing with each other in exploiting the resources of Eezham Tamils in the East. Amidst the competition, certain parliamentarians have become more powerful than SL ministers as far as the Eastern Province is concerned, the Tamil officials commented.
Full story >>

Colombo's tourism industry to grab 1,300 acres along Batticaloa coast

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 July 2017, 23:40 GMT]
The occupying Colombo has grabbed 1,300 acres of coastal lands from four administrative divisions in Batticaloa for commercial exploitation by Sinhala and external actors aligned with Colombo, a highly placed source in the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) told TamilNet. The lands are mostly situated within 500 meters from the territorial sea baseline, the officials said. The EPC was under pressure from Colombo to hand over the lands for its ‘tourism’ business, the sources further said. 21 Paadus (sea beds falling within the scope of draw-nets) of Eezham Tamils are directly affected by the seizure. In the meantime, the divisional secretaries of all the 14 divisions in Batticaloa have been instructed by Colombo to evaluate the value of private and public lands, the sources further said. Similar land grab is also taking place in Trincomalee.
Full story >>

West funds SL military by channeling funds through UN and SL Ministry

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 July 2017, 19:17 GMT]
The so-called SL Minister of Resettlement, D.M. Swaminathan has become a money transfer agent between the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka and the Western donor states backing the unitary State based in Colombo, commented Tamil activists in Mullaiththeevu after meeting a delegation of protesting people from Keappaa-pulavu, who met the SL minister on Wednesday. The SL Minister, in his meeting with the representatives of the protesting people, has revealed that the SL military was demanding 148 million rupees in order to release 110 acres of their lands in the ‘next phase’. The so-called international community seems to pay money to its Lascarine military. Tamil diaspora activists should scrutinise the funds being channelled to the UN system and the NGOs operating in Colombo, they said.
Full story >>

Genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’ sentences life imprisonment to popular Tamil artist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 July 2017, 20:12 GMT]
Popular Mridangam artist Kannathasan Kanesasundaram, who is a lecturer at the Arts faculty of the University of Jaffna and who was formerly the director of Tamil Eelam College of Fine Arts while he was a member of LTTE's Political Division, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a High Court of the judiciary of genocidal Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The news has sent shockwaves across the intellectual community of Eezham Tamils. The 50-year-old father of three has been earlier released after SL military ‘rehabilitation’. However, he was again targeted by the SL military intelligence through a family that had lost their daughter in the war. The artist, known by his stage name Tha'nikai-maa'ran, was a close associate of Eezham Tamil Poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai, whose whereabouts is still not known after the occupying Sinhala military had him in its custody in May 2009.
Full story >>

Colombo to ‘expand’ bird sanctuary to harm territorial-integrity of Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 July 2017, 17:43 GMT]
The occupying ‘Sri Lanka’ is once again actively engaged in scheming seizure of 36,000 acres of lands in addition to the lands it has already grabbed during the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa in Chu'ndik-ku'lam in Vadamaraadchi East under the pretext of ‘bird sanctuary’. Another sinister move is now under way under the so-called expansion of Chun'dik-ku'lam Bird Sanctuary into a ‘National Park’ of genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’. The SL Wild Life Department is organising a ‘special meeting’ on 8th August before the seizure is to be officially gazetted, informed civil sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Monday. In the meantime, the occupying SL military is expanding its military corporatism as well as harbouring the intruding Sinhala fishermen. The SL Navy has been blocking Tamil fishermen from entering the coastal stretch.
Full story >>

Pulak-kudiyiruppu experience: Resettlement without de-militarisation is nightmare

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 July 2017, 23:36 GMT]
Due to utter ignorance by the civil administration of the SL State, the ITAK sitting in the opposition and collaborating with the occupying Colombo, international backers of genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’ and the agenda-driven Colombo-based NGO community, which only opens its purses where manipulation, deception and hijack is needed for their foreign ‘development’ and ‘environment’ masters, the 54 Tamil families of Pulak-kudiyiruppu, who managed to secure the release of 48 acres of their lands on 01st of March, still languish without proper security to their school-going children under the continued militarisation of Keappaa-pulavu. In a video interview to TamilNet this week, the families that continue to hold on to their village, narrated their destitute situation and the negligence they have been facing so far.
Full story >>

Colombo's deceptive land release in Keappaa-pulavu exposed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2017, 23:19 GMT]
The uprooted families in Keappaa-pulavu, who have been engaged in a continuous struggle for 141 days on Wednesday confronted SL minister for ‘Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs’ D.M. Swaminathan, who was visiting Keappaa-pulavu on Wednesday as part of a SL military conceived deception of releasing lands back to the people. None of the plots in the ‘released’ 189 acres of lands belong to the uprooted 138 families in Keappaa-pulavu who have been involved in the protest. The disappointed protesters exposed how the SL military is trying to release lands elsewhere in the jungle outlet and buying time and money without releasing even an iota of the lands of Keappaa-pulavu families. In the meantime, Colombo is scheming Sinhalicisation through seizing 2,524 acres of lands in Kokkuththoduvaay to permanently wedge North and East.
Full story >>

Colombo rushes ahead with moves to release trawlers confiscated from Indian poachers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 July 2017, 13:45 GMT]
The SL Attorney General's Department has instructed Ooraaththu'rai (Kayts) Magistrate's Court to release 42 Indian trawlers that are in the custody of the SL occupying Navy at Kaangkeasanthu'rai naval base. The trawlers were confiscated from the Indian poachers. The move comes after the SL Government passed a bill to ban bottom trawling. However, Indian trawlers continue to engage in bottom trawling, Eezham Tamil fishermen in Jaffna complain. The fishermen societies in Jaffna want to see an effective end to the Indian poaching before releasing their vessels. But, Colombo regime, as usual, is preoccupied with its relationship with New Delhi than protecting the interests of the Tamil fishermen in the North, they said. BJP rulers in New Delhi are also engaged in legitimising the genocide culture of the unitary ‘Sri Lanka’, the fishermen societies further blamed citing the recent trends.
Full story >>

SL Police sustains impunity for crimes of structural genocide in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 July 2017, 23:47 GMT]
The genocidal State of Sri Lanka has been allowed to get off scot-free from international investigations by the global and regional State actors, who are locked in the geo-political game. As the crimes during the times of war have not been subjected to criminal prosecution, the occupying SL State also finds it easy to sustain impunity for crimes being committed against Tamil social activists and public officials in the East, especially in the Tamil villages of Batticaloa district, Tamil activists in the district complain. The structural genocide against Eezham Tamils cannot be prevented through internal justice mechanisms as impunity is maintained through the police system of the unitary State, they said.
Full story >>

Occupying Colombo attempts to hamper investigation on Kudaththanai murder by SL police

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 July 2017, 09:37 GMT]
A serious question is being raised by rights activists in Jaffna on the underlying motive of SL police of gunning down 24-year-old Yogarajah Thinesh on Sunday while he was transporting illegally scooped sand at Kudaththanai in Vadamaraadchi East. Whether the SL police was hunting a competing group of sandscoopers who were not paying the share to the SL military, or whether the SL police is attempting to cover up something in the investigations, question the rights activists. The occupying SL military with the backing of police exploits the business of illegal scooping of sand in Kudaththanai making millions of rupees of income every month. In the name of conducting investigations on the killing of the Tamil youth, the fellow workers who were in the vehicle, are going to be subjected to harassment undermining the investigation.
Full story >>

Colombo sustains Sinhala colonisation in Southwest Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 July 2017, 16:19 GMT]
Occupying Colombo is continuing to sustain illegal colonies of Sinhala colonists despite recent eyewash measures of annulling encroachment of Sinhala settlers in the deed lands owned by Tamil farmers and in the lands allocated for the purpose of pasture lands in the interior villages bordering Polonnaruwa and Ampaa'rai districts. 10 Sinhala colonist families are intentionally kept in the in the deed lands of Eezham Tamils in Kevu'liyaa-madu while 39 colonist families have vacated the area after selling the roofs and doors of their houses. A Buddhist temple constructed in the area in 4 acres of lands belonging to Tamils is still maintained, Tamil activists in Paddippazhai said. Kevu'liyaa-madu comes under Kachchatkodi Swami-malai GS division in Ma'nmunaip-pattu South (Paddippazhai) DS division and is situated southwest of Batticaloa lagoon, 13 km away from Batticaloa city.
Full story >>

Mullēriyāva, Nēriya-kuḷam, Tuvaranēri

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 July 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The main lake

The dammed tank or the tank of the dam

The tank in the locality of Tuvarai trees
Full story >>

SL ‘national intelligence’ deployed to harass Tamil activists voicing for resettlement in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 July 2017, 15:05 GMT]
The so-called National Intelligene Bureau based in Colombo has started to harass Eezham Tamil social activists who have been actively engaged in resettling uprooted Tamil villagers at 60th Mile Post, which is situated in the administrative division of Poththuvil in Ampaa'rai district. Tamil activists in Poththuvil say that the Sinhala military intelligence operatives have been visiting their houses warning them against their activism. The intelligence officers in civil uniform were also telling the social activists that it was ‘illegal’ to collect details of people in an attempt to silence their activism. The threats have come after a Sinhala NGO personality based in South had obtained the details including the documents of land deeds from the activists.
Full story >>