Muslim politicians block relocation of SL military base in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2018, 21:34 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military in Batticaloa is under pressure to abandon its plan of relocating one of its artillery bases 18 km north of Batticaloa city as the Tamil-speaking Muslim villagers have been protesting against the move and their politicians have taken the issue seriously with the Colombo regime, informed sources in Batticaloa said. Rauff Hakeem, a cabinet minister in the SL government and Ali Zahir Moulana, an SLFP parliamentarian from Ea'raavoor, have been exerting pressure on the Colombo government against the planned military base at Punnaik-kudaa. Mr Hakeem seems to have managed to stop the move after making it as one of his key demands in the dealings with SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe before extending his support against the no-confidence motion in the SL Parliament, the sources further said.
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NPC finally awakens against SL Mahaweli Authority obstructing territorial integrity of Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2018, 06:35 GMT]
The Northern Provincial Council has discussed the genocidal land grab choking the territorial contiguity of the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils in the North-East of the island in a special sitting on Thursday. The move comes after years of reports highlighting how SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has been committing a systematic genocidal land grab and demographic genocide against Eezham Tamils through the so-called Mahaweli development ministry since 1997, when he took control of the department for the first time. The NPC finally seems to address the precarious issue in a proper context. However, it remains to be seen whether the NPC and the Tamil leadership are prepared to declare all Sinhala colonisations in the North and East that took place after 1956 as illegal, commented Tamil academic circles in Jaffna on Friday.
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Vavuniyaa Judge warns SL Attorney General against delaying tactics on TPP cases

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2018, 16:46 GMT]
Vavuniyaa High Court Judge Balendran Sasi Mahendran on Tuesday gave a strong message to SL Attorney General's Department questioning the absence of its representative at the hearing of the case of three Tamil political prisoners on Tuesday. The case was taken up at Vavuniyaa High Court after it was transferred back following firm pressure from the prisoners and their people against the transfer the case from Vavuniyaa to Anuradhapura last year. Fixing a new date for the hearing the Judge said the AG should not miss representation next time and went to the extent of stating consider a new Judge if there were any hesitation against him hearing the case. But, the hearings should proceed without further postponements, Judge Sasi Mahendran has warned.
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Sinhala colonists attempt to rob Tamil cattle herders in border village of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 April 2018, 18:26 GMT]
Unknown intruders who spoke in Sinhala escaped after a Tamil farmer shouted for help after seeing the gang attempting to steal their cattle at the pastureland of Mayilaththa-madu, a border village situated in Ko'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district. The incident took place Saturday night when the farmers were at sleep in their huts.
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Making decisions rooted in native political space

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 April 2018, 23:25 GMT]
The binary choice in Colombo-centric politics will always be between the devil and the deep blue sea as far as Eezham Tamils are concerned, commented Tamil political activists in Jaffna observing the latest happenings in the North as well as in the South. Eezham Tamils should not conceive their central political space succumbing to the electoral politics of the genocidal unitary system, which is promulgated by the Mahawansa-mindset and the international injustice sustained by geopolitical manoeuvrings. The Tamil-speaking people should instead invest their efforts on evolving a native and unified political space centred in the North-East with the diaspora, Tamil Nadu and global solidarity dimensions which extend beyond their territorial boundary, they said.
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Colombo strengthens impunity for genocidal Sinhala commander

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2018, 23:13 GMT]
Jaffna High Court Judge Manickavasagam Ilancheliyan on Monday gave green signal to proceed with the cases of habeas corpus seeking a senior commander of the SL Military to produce three of twenty-five Tamil youth, whose whereabouts are not known after the SL Army at Naavatkuzhi detained them 22 years ago in 1996. The SL Police instructed by the Judge to investigate the case stated that it was impossible for them to investigate the case as more than 20 years have elapsed since the disappearance of the victims. The first respondent is Major General Duminda Keppettiwalana, who commanded the Sinhala soldiers of the military camp at Naavatkuzhi in 1996 when he was a captain. He has been systematically protected and promoted by Sarath Fonseka, the former SL Army commander and a partner of the current regime in Colombo.
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NPC launches Ammaachchi food court with CBK's participation in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2018, 23:20 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C.V.Wigneswaran has launched another food court retaining the original concept and the name ‘Ammaachchi’ as conceived by the NPC ministry of agriculture. The new branch of Ammaachchi food court was declared opened by former SL President Ms Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) at Keerimalai on Sunday. In the meantime, the food court launched by the NPC at Thirunelveali three months ago, is still unable to use the name ‘Ammaachchi’ as the SL Ministry of Agriculture has been demanding the traditional food court concept promoted by the Northern Provincial Council to be Sinhalicised as ‘Hela Bojun’.
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Military can take back whatever it releases, SL commander tells uprooted people in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 March 2018, 23:34 GMT]
Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake, the commander of the occupying Army of the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka, was ‘reminding’ the families of uprooted people that the SL military was in a position to take back whatever being released to the public. Mahesh Senanayake told the recipients of 25 houses, which were built by the SL military at the so-called ‘Village of Reconciliation’ (Nalli'nakka-puram) on Friday that it was the duty of the recipients of the housing scheme to bring up their children without recourse to a bitter war as in the past. Otherwise, the military was in a position to take back what it was giving, he said. When the Tamil interpreter was reluctant to translate the intimidating statement, he repeated the message to the translator, making sure his warning gets translated from Sinhala to Tamil to the target audience.
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8 Tamil workers quit, ethnic harassment at SL State-run Coconut Garden in East

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 March 2018, 22:32 GMT]
Eight Tamil workers at Paasikkudaa Coconut Model Garden have quit their jobs unable to tolerate the harassment meted out on them by the Sinhala-controlled management of the SL State-owned garden, which comes under the Batticaloa Regional Office of the Coconut Cultivation Board (CCB). The Sinhala administration of the CCB office in Batticaloa and its Paasikkudaa Garden management have moved on to appoint Sinhala workers to the positions of the permanent cadre after successfully evicting the Tamil workers from the garden. Only two of the positions have gone to a Tamil and a Tamil-spaking Muslim. The Sinhala officials have stepped up harassments on the Tamil workers since 2015 with the hidden agenda of evicting them from the Model Garden. A co-worker, who was previously a military soldier, was also deployed against them, the Tamil workers who have quit their jobs told TamilNet on Friday.
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Traffic police in Moothoor East harass Tamil youth to join Sinhala Police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 March 2018, 21:04 GMT]
The traffic policemen of occupying Colombo are stopping Tamil males between 18 and 25 years riding motorbikes in the eight villages including Champoor, Koonith-theevu and Kadatkaraich-cheanai in Moothoor East and are harassing them to join the SL police. The latest campaign is annoying the resettled Eezham Tamils. The traffic police are also registering the names of those who are being stopped and asked to join the police. “The policemen are asking to register the names first even when we politely say we need some time to think about the offer,” a 24-year-old Tamil male from Kadatkaraich-cheanai told TamilNet on Thursday.
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Ex-LTTE members with war-injuries discriminated with burden of medical documentation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 March 2018, 13:29 GMT]
The SL authorities are refusing to assist former members of the Tamil liberation movement with war injuries by merely demanding medical documentation from the times of their injuries. The ex-combatants of the LTTE, who were subjected to prolonged incarceration at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military, do not have such documentation with them. The SL military that carried out a so-called ‘military rehabilitation’ of former LTTE fighters didn't provide any document entitling them for medical treatment after their release. Now, they are struggling without proper treatment, Tamil doctors say.
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SL Navy erects new buildings in occupied Moohoor East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2018, 23:26 GMT]
SL Navy is continuing to put up new buildings and bunkers within the lands it has seized from Eezham Tamils in Moothoor East of Trincomalee. Initially, the SL Navy wanted only 40 acres of private lands for its naval training base named Vidura, but then expanded its occupation covering more than 3,500 acres of public lands of Eezham Tamils. Now the SL Navy is planning to put up resorts for Sinhala tourists as Buddhist extremist monks have started to claim the places of worship of Tamils with ancient Tamil heritage as sites belonging to occupying Sinhala Theravada Buddhism. In the meantime, the U.S. Pacific Command is grooming the occupying SL Navy with a marine training programme in Trincomalee under the notion of 'military-to-military' engagement with the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka.
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SL Forest Department seizes lands for future Sinhala colony northwest of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 March 2018, 21:34 GMT]
The Forest Conservation Department of the occupying unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka has seized the residential and agricultural lands of war-uprooted Eezham Tamils in four villages 30 km northwest of Batticaloa city, civil officials at the District Secretariat told TamilNet on Monday. The villages come under three GS divisions in the administrative division of Ea'raavoor-pattu (Chengkaladi) of Batticaloa district. Already, the division is exposed to Sinhalicisation as it is bordering with Maha-oya division of Ampaa'rai district in the west with Sinhala settlers in Tempitiya, Poolawala and Aranthalawa GS divisions of Maha-oya.
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Monks object alienation of public lands to Tamils in border village of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2018, 21:11 GMT]
A Sinhala Buddhist extremist monk has been threatening the civil officials in Poaaratheevup-pattu (Vellaa-ve'li) division of Batticaloa district against alienation of public lands to 15 poverty-stricken and war-affected Tamil families at Maalaiyar-kaddu village, located close to the border with the Uhana division of Ampaa'rai district. The threat initiated by the monk has been escalating into pressure from the authorities of the occupying Colombo, informed sources at the District Secretariat told TamilNet. Maalaiyar-kaddu is a remote Tamil village located 55 km southwest of Batticaloa city. The intruding monk and Sinhala colonists have built a Buddhist temple at Chinna-vaththai, a GS division to the north of Malaiyar-kaddu, at the lands that belonged to Irrigation Department.
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SL authorities in Ampaa’rai harassing Tamil farmers from Batticaloa exposed at courts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2018, 22:56 GMT]
Why did the guards from the SL Wildlife Conservation Department in Ampaa'rai district intrude into the district of Batticaloa and arrest the Tamil dairy farmers from the pasture lands there in January 2015, questioned Lahshman Bandara Mullegama, the lawyer representing the Tamil farmers at a court case, which was taken up for investigation at Dehiattakandiya Court in Ampaa'rai for the 11th time on Thursday. Operatives belonging to the SL Wildlife Conservation Department and the occupying Sinhala soldiers were chasing the Tamil cattle herders away from Maathava'nai and Mayilaththamadu pasturelands where Sinhala colonists were allowed to engage in slash-and-burn cultivation.
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SL Departments worse than ever in seizing Tamil lands: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2018, 21:24 GMT]
K. Thurairetnasingam, a veteran ITAK politician from Trincomalee and a national list parliamentarian of the TNA, says Colombo government's Forest Department, Department of Archaeology, Department of Wildlife Conservation, Department of Coastal Conservation and Mahaweli Authority behave in a manner worse than ever before when it comes to seizing the lands of Tamils. The close associate of Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan was making a particular reference to the latest move by the Mahaweli Authority planning to grab 7,000 acres of lands in Mullaiththeevu and said a strong message has already been conveyed through Mr Sampanthan to the concerned Establishment in Colombo. The matter would also be taken up with SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on his return from foreign vist, he further said when contacted by TamilNet on Friday.
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SL military harassment against Tamil journalists continues in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2018, 22:23 GMT]
“We will watch you and get you at the next opportunity,” a Sinhala military official at A'lampil in Mullaiththeevu has told a 32-year-old Tamil journalist who had taken photos and video of a Sinhala military-operated cafe at A'lampil in Mullaiththeevu district on 18 March. The journalist who hails from Vanni was in possession of a media card and documented that he was working for IBC, a privately-owned media outlet that operates in Tamil and Sinhala. Thavaseelan also documented that he had not recorded any military installation. However, the officers of the occupying Sinhala military were harassing him for 2 hours and finally released him only after SL military spokesman in Colombo was contacted by the editorial board of his media. Also when releasing him, the military officers came with the threat that he would be on their watchlist for the next opportunity.
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Colombo unleashes dangerous scheme of demographic genocide choking North-East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 March 2018, 22:24 GMT]
The Mahaweli Authority of the occupying State of genocidal Sri Lanka has schemed a new plan to destroy the territorial integrity of the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils by changing the demography of 13 km long narrow coastal stretch from the south of Nayaa'ru lagoon towards the provincial border with Eastern Province at Kokku'laay in Mullaiththeevu district. The Sinhala colonial governor of Northern Province Reginald Cooray and Thissapura Gunarathna thero the intruding Sinhala extremist Buddhist monk at Kokku'laay have been working closely with the Mahaweli Ministry of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena with the plan to Sinhalicise 7,000 acres of lands along the two sides Mullaiththeevu - Trincomalee highway. It is the most dangerous plan to choke North and East, Tamil civil officials in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district told TamilNet on Wednesday.
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Ananthy urges IC to put an end to 100-years of pogroms through genocide investigations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2018, 15:42 GMT]
NPC Minister Ananthy Sasitharan has said that the recent anti-Muslim violence was part of more than 100 years of pogroms of a protracted genocide, sustained by the Sinhala Buddhist extremist Mahawama mindset and by the failure on the part of the international community to put an end to it. Taking part in UN Human Rights Council session, she released a report, with details composed by Tamil-speaking Muslims in the North on the recent anti-Muslim pogrom waged by extremist Sinhala Buddhist organisations and a section of Buddhist monks in the Central Province as well as in the Ampaa'rai district of Eastern Province.
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TNA Parliamentarian calls for UN plebiscite on independent Tamil State

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 March 2018, 22:25 GMT]
Taking part in a side-event on Tamils Right to Self-Determination, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan on Monday called for a UN referendum among Eezham Tamils to exercise their external Self-Determination. The TNA MP was referring to 1977 democratic mandate for Tamil Eelam and the 2009-2010 referenda held in the Tamil diaspora. Mr Sritharan was braving the prohibition imposed upon him to articulate the aspiration by the 6th Amendment of genocidal Sri Lanka as he was explicitly calling for the exercise of the right to external self-determination. Mr Sritharan has smashed the taboo placed upon him by the TNA hierarchy controlled by R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran through his explicit call for external right to self-determination at Geneva, Tamil political activists in Jaffna said welcoming the courageous move.
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