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.
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New Sinhala colonisation-scheme introduced along border villages of Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 July 2017, 23:36 GMT]
The District Secretariats of Sinhala Government Agents of Anuradhapura District in the North Central Province and Vavuniyaa District in the Northern Province are silently implementing a Sinhala colonisation scheme along the borders of Vavuniyaa, Anuradhapura and Mullaiththeevu, says NPC Councillor T. Ravikaran, who hails from Mullaiththeevu district. The Divisional Secretariat of Ma'nal-aa'ru, a division which has been completely Sinhalicised in Mullaiththeevu district and the divisional secretariats bordering Mullaiththeevu district with Anuradhapura and Vavuniyaa districts have introduced new schemes with settlement packages. Traditional Tamil villages and the jungles adjoining the bordering Sinhala villages are being targeted with ethnic Sinhala settlements while the uprooted Tamil people are struggling for resettlement in the villages without infrastructure assistance, he said.
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European Court upholds 2014 decision to de-proscribe LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2017, 14:33 GMT]
The Appeal Court of the European Court of Justice on Wednesday maintained the decision already made by the General Court in October 2014 of annulling the restrictive measures that had been taken against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2006. The case, initiated by Tamil activists from Europe and USA, on behalf of the LTTE, was originally filed in April 2011 with additions later. The case was won by the LTTE on procedural grounds in 2014. The Council of the European Union was the defendant, supported by the Netherlands, the UK and the European Commission. The UK was particularly instrumental in defending continued proscription. Lathan Suntharalingam, one of the initiators of the legal move against EU ban on LTTE on Wednesday told TamilNet that the next step was to challenge the initial 2006-decision to ban the LTTE.
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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.
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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.
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Tamils honour Sinhala policeman killed in assassination attempt on Jaffna Judge

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 July 2017, 16:28 GMT]
A Sinhala police Sergeant Hemachandra from Chilaapam (Chilaw), who functioned as security officer to Jaffna High Court Judge M. Ilancheliyan for 17 years and sustained injuries in the assassination attempt on Judge Ilancheliyan on Saturday, succumbed to his injuries at Jaffna Hospital in the early hours on Sunday. Several activist groups in Jaffna have urged Eezham Tamils to pay homage to the Sinhala policeman on Monday, news sources in Jaffna said following emotional remarks from Judge Ilancheliyan on the service and sacrifice of Sgt Hemachandra.
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"Mini-battles" staged in occupied Tamil country causing anxiety among civilians

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 July 2017, 20:57 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military has deployed military training inside in Valikaamam East and Valikaamam North during the past 3 days, especially near Vazhalaay in Valikaamam East where uprooted people were settled in military constructed houses. This is the first time large-scale coordinated field training with gunfire and RPG fire has been witnessed in the area since the regime change, the resettled families said. Similar gunfire and explosions were also heard in Valikaamam North causing anxiety among the resettled people, news sources in Jaffna said.
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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.
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Continuous street protest brings lung disease, trauma to Keappaa-pulavu families

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 July 2017, 23:28 GMT]
138 uprooted Eezham Tamil families from Keappaa-pulavu, situated west of Nanthik-kadal lagoon in Mullaiththeevu, have been on the street 24 hours a day for more than 5 months waging a continuous protest demanding their lands seized by the occupying SL military to be released for their resettlement. There were only attempts to contain their struggle. None of the promises have been fulfilled, the families told TamilNet in utter frustration. Most of them have become ill due to the dust from the road primarily used by the occupying military. Suffering from trauma, the families have also witnessed exploitation of their resources by the Sinhala military corporatism. 50-year-old Arumugam Velauthapillai said the occupying military, despite getting millions of rupees from Swaminathan's ministry to find alternative lands for itself, has not been prepared to release original lands, he said.
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SL Minister Bathiudeen escalates disunity between Tamils, Muslims in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 July 2017, 17:27 GMT]
More than a hundred Tamil youth, predominantly males, mobilized through social media took to the streets on Sunday in Mullaiththeevu, opposing controversial SL minister Rishad Bathiudeen, who is pushing ahead with a colony for Muslim settlers in Mullaiththeevu. At a time when Muslims and Tamils should stand together confronting the genocidal Sinhala occupation to the north and to the south of Kokku’laay lagoon, which links the northern and eastern provinces, the SL minister’s scheme attempts to set the Tamils against Muslims in Mullaiththeevu, Tamil activists in Vanni said. The protest by Tamil youth comes after Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran walked out of a District Coordinating Committee meeting 7 days ago as Mr Bathiudeen was insisting on his colony declining to honour the proposal from the Justice Wigneswaran of a proportional formula for resettlement.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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STF deployed escalating tension in Vadamaraadchi after civilian shot and killed by SL Police

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 July 2017, 06:08 GMT]
Two policemen of occupying Sri Lanka shot and killed a daily wage worker on Sunday in Jaffna while he was in a vehicle that was transporting illegally scooped sand. The SL policemen chasing the vehicle in their motorbike have intentionally fired targeting the youth who was seated on top of the sand load, the family said. The victim, 24-year-old Yogarajah Thinesh, had lost his father in the genocidal war and the family was dependent on him. He was looking after the family of his sister, who had also lost her husband in the war, the relatives said. Tension prevailed in Thunnaalai in Vadamaraadchi South-West on Sunday and Monday as the villagers were agitating against the SL police, demanding the killers to be identified and brought to justice. SL military and STF were preparing to cordon off and deploy a crackdown style arrest operation after the funeral on Tuesday, the residents alleged.
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Mayiliddi people will not succumb to SL military resettlement farce: Subramaniyam

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 July 2017, 13:07 GMT]
It doesn't matter which regime was in power in Colombo. But, it was a Colombo government that created the mind-set in the ranks of SL military that in turn of war victories, it was ‘rewarded’ with all kinds of abuse of power such as raping Tamil women and seizing the lands of Eezham Tamils. This mindset still prevails in the ranks of the SL military and is the main attitude also behind the deceptive ‘resettlement’ farce in Valikaamam North, says Suntharam Subramaniam, the chairman of Mayiliddi Uprooted Peoples’ Organisation. The 58-year-old father of four, who resides in the so-called welfare camp at Koa'nappulam in Mallaakam in Jaffna, systematically deconstructs the destructive trends of the military-led, international community abetted and ITAK-contained resettlement farce in a video interview to TamilNet.
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Tamil youth in UK protest against BJP-triggered detention of Thirumurugan Gandhi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 July 2017, 23:27 GMT]
A group of young Eezham Tamil diaspora activists as well as progressive activists of older generation, numbering around 30, got together in front of the Indian High Commission in London stressing the need to mobilise against the arrest of May 17 Movement Coordinator Thirumurugan Gandhi and three activists of Thamizh Vidiyal Kadchi who have been detained under draconian Goondas Act in Tamil Nadu after they organised a candle vigil remembrance in May for those who perished in Mu’l’livaaykkaal genocide. Thirumurugan Gandhi has been targeted not only for voicing against the genocide of Eezham Tamils. He has been one of the key articulators against the economic exploitation of resources by India’s ruling BJP backed corporate Establishments. The activists who gathered in front of the India House in London said the protest was particularly intended as an awareness campaign among Eezham Tamils.
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Muslims next target of demographic, structural genocide in northern Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 July 2017, 11:10 GMT]
After waging physical, economic and demographic genocide against the Eezham Tamil villages surrounding the Kokku’laay lagoon for decades, genocidal Colombo has intensified a systematic demographic genocide against Tamil-speaking Muslims of ilmenite-rich Pulmoaddai (புல்மோட்டை/Pulmōṭṭai/Pulmoddai) since 2010, say Muslim activists who have been confronting the occupation in all directions. In a recent in-depth interview to TamilNet, former Village Officer (GS) Abdul Salam narrates how the land grab has been systematically stepped up and jointly waged by SL ministries, departments, Sinhala Army, Navy, STF commandos, Buddhist monks, ‘home guards’ paramilitary and the encroachers from bordering divisions of Trincomalee and Anurahapura since 2010. The occupation is relentlessly crushing the Tamil-speaking Muslims regardless of the regime change and change of the guard in Colombo.
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Redefining modernity as alternative to extractivist Capitalism: Houtart in 2016

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 July 2017, 08:47 GMT]
In a tribute to the Belgiam-born Marxist sociologist Emeritus Professor Rev. Francois Houtart who recently passed away, TamilNet publishes an interview recorded with him last year when 2016 Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance was commemorated in Quito, Ecuador. In the interview, which centred on his experiences on Latin American discourses, Rev Houtart said: “We need to redefine modernity, a modernity absorbed by the capitalist system, a mistake done by socialist countries of Europe and China, who have not redefined the definition of modernity and have thus taken to afflicting the people”. He pointed out that radical change of the capitalist system in place in a region was not easy, as it alerted and brought about the US interventions to destroy it as witnessed in Grenada, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.
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