Colombo arrests visiting Tamil poet, bans gatherings ahead of Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 November 2013, 13:53 GMT]
The operatives of the occupying Sri Lankan military on Friday arrested VIS Jayapalan, a well-known Eezham Tamil poet and an award-winning actor in Indian Tamil cinema, while the Norwegian passport holder was visiting the island on a tourist visa. The arrest took place in abduction-style. By arresting Jayapalan, Colombo was sending a message to Eezham Tamil diaspora that Tamils visiting the island should not address any meeting or gathering. Colombo's TID operatives could claim any meeting as a ‘gathering causing communal unrest,’ academic circles in Jaffna said. In the meantime, the SL Police in Ki'linochchi, on Friday told 40 people it detained that all gatherings and meetings have been banned until further notice in the district.
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Australian PM's conduct at CHOGM shameful: Bishop Pat Power

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 November 2013, 16:45 GMT]
As Australian media on Friday reported that 79 Tamil asylum seekers were being sent back to Colombo amidst the controversial ties between the Sri Lankan Government and the Australian Government were further exposed in ‘Sri Lanka CHOGM’ last week, Canberra-based retired Bishop Pat Power, long an outspoken critic of Rome, has criticised both the Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbot and the Catholic Church on the controversial Sri Lanka policy.
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Sinhala military colonization escalates further north in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 November 2013, 21:35 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has seized 3,200 acres of lands belonging to Eezham Tamils in Odduchuddaan DS division situated in the heart of Mullaith-theevu district, civil sources in Vanni told TamilNet on Thursday. The latest military land grab aims to hurriedly Sinhalicise the ancient Tamil villages in Othiyamalai GS area situated in the south of Odduchuddaan division, where a genocidal massacre was carried out by the occupying Sinhala military in 1984. The colonisation is being done while the recently elected Northern Provincial Council and its Chief Minister are yet to take up the burning issue of Sinhala colonisation in Mullaiththeevu. The Tamil people also blamed the global powers for providing funds to Sri Lankan State system, enabling it to channel the funds and resources, in continuing to commit a demographic genocide, permanently wedging the North and East.
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Colombo spends funds from military budget for wedging North from East

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 November 2013, 01:24 GMT]
Aiming to increase the number of Sinhala settlers in the newly created division of Ma’nalaa’ru in Mulliath-theevu, which has been Sinhalicised into ‘Weli-oya’, the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has made hurried arrangements for bringing in 2,000 new Sinhala families, informed sources in Mullaith-theevu told TamilNet. Colombo government has allocated funds for the Sinhalicisation scheme under the Sri Lankan ‘defence expenditure’, the sources further said adding that large tracts of forest reserves have also been cleared for the colonization scheme.
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JPC urges immediate assistance to victims subjected to coercive population control

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2013, 16:56 GMT]
Widespread complaints have been registered from the Tamil women in three villages of Ki'linochchi district that they are suffering from side effects such as blood pressure, weight gain, irregular periods as well as traumatic stress, two months after they have been subjected to coercive population control by the occupying Colombo using Progestogen-only subdermal implants inserted into their body, said the Chairman of Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, Fr. S.V.B Mangalarajah in a fresh report issued on Friday. Terming the population control experimented on Tamil women in Vanni as “Mu'l'livaaykkaal-2”, the JPC has urged the provincial health ministry under the newly elected Northern Provincial Council to do the needful to remove the implants and assist the victims to return to normal lives.
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Puththoor villagers blame SL police for shielding culprits of rape, murder

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 November 2013, 12:23 GMT]
Sinhala police officials of the occupying Sri Lankan State are protecting the culprits committing rape and murder of Tamil women, accuse the residents of Puththoor in Valikkaamam East in Jaffna at a protest held on Wednesday following the recent rape and murder of 27-year-old woman, Maithili Amirthalingam, who was recovered dead from a well near her house on 29 October. The SL Police officials was attempting to protect the culprits by stating that the death was caused by drowning and ignoring the medical report of the Judicial Medical Officer at Jaffna Hospital, the family of the victim told TamilNet on Wednesday. Maithili is the second victim subjected to brutal rape and murder within the last one month in Jaffna.
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India refuses visa to Macrae

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 November 2013, 12:40 GMT]
India has refused visa to Callum Macrae, the Channel-4 documentary maker, who produced a series of video documentaries exposing the war-crimes committed by the Sri Lankan military during the war on the Tamil people in Vanni where, according to UN estimates, the Petrie Report, more than 70,000 Tamil civilians were killed in 2009 alone. Macrae was planning to fly out on November 6 for a screening of the latest documentary in Delhi. The video contained footage showing LTTE TV anchor-actor Isaippiriya's capture during the last phase of the Lankan war. Still images released earlier showed Isaippiriya was bound, tortured and shot naked, and experts alleged that she was severely raped in custody before being shot by the Sri Lankan soldiers.
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SL military steps up demolition of houses in Valikaamam North, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 November 2013, 23:41 GMT]
Despite the ‘assurance’ to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan by Sri Lankan president’s secretary Mr Lalith Weerthunga that the demolition of houses inside the former ‘High Security Zone’ would be postponed, the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Palaali continues to bulldoze the houses of Tamil civilians in Va’ruththalai-vi’laan and Kurumpachiddi now being transformed into a permanent Sinhala Military Zone in 6,000 acres land in Valikaamam North in Jaffna. The Civil Military Coordination Office of the SL military in Jaffna told the civilians of Valikaamam that the SL military was free to demolish the houses and clear the area as it has officially been taken over by the military Establishment. Journalists were not allowed to witness the destruction.
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Dias refused of participation in ICRC meet for alleged war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 October 2013, 12:51 GMT]
Major General Jagath Dias, who was previously a deputy Counsel in Sri Lanka’s embassy in Germany, and was recalled by Colombo in 2011 "in response to accusations he was involved in war crimes," was refused participation in an ICRC conference to be held in Australia this December, media in Colombo reported. ICRC, while refusing to spell out the reason barring Dias from the meeting, said that "procedural matters, relating to international travel, were beyond the control of the ICRC." Dias was the commander of Sri Lanka Army's (SLA's) 57th division during the last phase of the Vanni war, where according UN estimate more than 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed. Another U.N document, the Petrie report, estimated the killings to be more than 70,000.
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Alaikallu-poadda-ku’lam,
Mathavu-vaiththa-ku’lam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 October 2013, 23:27 GMT]
The tank, the banks and watercourses of which were laden with stone facing.

The tank having a covered conduit or set up with a covered conduit.
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Alarm over malnutrition in North East

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 October 2013, 12:08 GMT]
Malnutrition level has reached 50% in North and East while the island-wide rate stands at 29%, according to a leading Community Medicine Specialist attached to Sri Lankan Ministry of Health in Colombo. Dr Murali Vallipuranathan, who held a workshop to journalists in Jaffna on reporting health, revealed the latest malnutrition rates from the districts in North and East as 53% in Batticaloa, 51% in Vanni (comprising 4 districts), 45% in Trincomalee, 44% in Ampaa’rai and 43% in Jaffna district. The alarming malnutrition rate in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils comes after more than 4 years of the so-called ‘development’ propaganda waged by the Sri Lankan State.
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Tamil Nadu protest on Sri Lanka CHOGM targets New Delhi, London

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 October 2013, 18:33 GMT]
Do not conduct Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka and suspend Sri Lanka from Commonwealth till a referendum on independence of Eezham Tamils is held under UN supervision, demanded protestors belonging to 12 political parties and movements that participated in a protest in front of the British Deputy High Commission in Chennai and the Shastri Bhavan office of the Central Government of India at Nungambakkam on Friday. Describing the protest as a siege on Indian and the UK offices in Chennai, May 17 Movement, the organisors of the protest, characterised the Sri Lanka CHOGM as a ‘neo-colonial summit’.
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Catholic peace group in Jaffna details structural genocide to Apostolic Nuncio

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 October 2013, 15:28 GMT]
The Chairman of Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, Fr. S.V.B Mangalarajah, has written a detailed letter on Friday to the permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See in Colombo, Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Spiteri, elucidating the structural genocide being carried out by occupying Sri Lanka on the country of Eezham Tamils. The letter comes following the move by the Colombo's colonial regime handing over a report to the Apostolic Nuncio, detailing the so-called development activities carried out in North and East. The JPC Chairman was categoric in his letter that external ‘development’ cannot substitute the settling of the political solution and urged the Vatican to exert political pressure on Sri Lanka to put forward a political solution framework. The detailed letter summarises the genocidal programme of the Sri Lankan State under 10 topics.
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SL military blamed for brutal gang rape, murder at Jaffna suburb

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 October 2013, 23:35 GMT]
Women rights activists in Jaffna have blamed the occupying Sri Lankan military for yet another brutal rape and murder of a mentally affected woman in Jaffna this month. The accusation comes in the wake of the brutal killing of a war-displaced Tamil woman from Nelukku’lam, Vavuniyaa, who was being looked after by the Holy Family Convent in Jaffna and reported missing since October 03. She was recovered dead on Thursday at the temple chariot park site of Naachchimaar koayil, which is frequently used by the SL military, according to the residents of the area. The temple is situated on KKS Road, just 1 km from the city of Jaffna. The residents of the area staged a protest against the killing on Friday. In the meantime, another woman has been reported missing in Jaffna according to woman rights activists.
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EPC opposes affiliation of Trinco campus with universities in South

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 October 2013, 10:22 GMT]
The Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) has unanimously adopted a motion against the proposed affiliation of the Trincomalee campus of the Eastern University with the Rajarata University of Anuradhapura or with the Jayewardanapura University in Colombo. The motion was moved at EPC's September session by the Leader of the Opposition Mr C.Thandayuthapani, the group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the council. Mr R.Thurairatnam, TNA’s Batticaloa district councillor seconded the motion.
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Sinhala colonization to wedge North and East stepped up after NPC elections

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 October 2013, 20:53 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military is being hurriedly deployed in clearing 2,000 acres of agricultural lands of Eezham Tamils in Kokkuth-thoduvaay in Karaithu'raippattu division of Mullaiththeevu district, after the conclusion of the Northern Provincial Council elections. Even though the uprooted people were allowed to resettle in Kokkuth-thoduvaay in 2011, their paddy fields had not been returned to them and they continue to suffer for their survival without livelihood assistance. Now, the Tamil villagers are shocked to learn that their paddy fields are being taken away to carve out a Sinhala colony in the middle of their village where they have been struggling to start their livelihood after 30 years of displacement.
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People's mandate projected differently by TNA MPs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 October 2013, 20:15 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian S. Sritharan from Ki'linochchi delivered an emotional speech in Jaffna on Friday during the oath-taking ceremony of the members of the NPC. The address, also containing satire messages directed at the Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran, reminded the CM and his fellow NPC members on the aspiration of Eezham Tamils and what the real mandate the TNA had promised to its people at the grassroots level during the election campaign, while TNA parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan and national list parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran were interpreting the mandate according to their manuscript produced without involving the majority of the TNA politicians or the candidates.
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New Delhi poses new challenge to Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 October 2013, 18:57 GMT]
NPC Chief Minister Mr C.V. Wigneswaran has to be profusely thanked and appreciated by Tamils for his honesty in conceding that he is not a natural leader of Eezham Tamils representing their aspirations, but a planted one by New Delhi to implement the 13th Amendment. Wigneswaran’s revelation and his efforts to muffle voices in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora have to be understood in the background of what M.K. Narayanan had told the TNA in May 2009 that, “we know better what is good for Tamils.” New Delhi simulating a leadership for the political surrender of the Tamil cause poses new challenge to Tamils all over the world, writes an activist for alternative politics in Jaffna.
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New Delhi minister cancels press conference in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 October 2013, 17:44 GMT]
New Delhi Establishment’s External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid, visiting Jaffna on Tuesday, cancelled the ‘press conference’ he had scheduled at a hotel room in Jaffna exclusively for the Indian media accompanying him, after protest by local media about its exclusion. Eight journalists from Indian mainstream media, including The Hindu, accompanied the minister to set opinion orchestration in India. New Delhi official in Jaffna, Suresh Menon, had earlier announced that the press conference was for Indian journalists. The minister responded to the local media protest by cancelling media meet with all, and thus he also escaped answering questions from the local media, news circles in Jaffna said.
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Diaspora teenager records the Vanni she witnessed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 October 2013, 23:37 GMT]
“Was I a Stranger in My Homeland? Has One Two Lives?” is the title of a book by a young Norwegian Eezham Tamil girl, Malavi Sivakanesan. The book tells the story of how she, as an 8-year-old girl visiting Vanni, enjoyed playing in the sands of her homeland to how she, 6 years later at the age of 14, powerlessly witnessed from Norway the unfolding genocidal onslaught on the coastal strip of the same Vanni in 2009. With a lot of questions on why the global Establishments didn’t do anything to stop the genocidal onslaught despite hundreds of thousands of Tamils, including the children of her age, took to the streets staging demonstrations in an unprecedented way in the West, to why the Tamil youth are still struggling with questions on what is going on and what they should do, she publishes the book at the age of 17.
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