Aṉṉaṅ-kai, Vattāk-kai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 November 2016, 21:55 GMT]
The pond of the white migrant birds

The pond that doesn't become dry
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New Delhi, Colombo neglect NPC participation in resolving fisheries dispute in Historical Waters

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 November 2016, 22:53 GMT]
The Fisheries Ministry of occupying Sri Lanka was exerting pressure on representatives of fisheries societies in North, when they were taken to New Delhi for a ‘high level’ meeting on 02 November. The fishermen representatives from North were told to cooperate with the suggestion from New Delhi of allowing Indian fishermen entry to the seas off Northern province for three consecutive years. The fishing society members were also asked to sign on a document, which they have declined. In the meantime, Colombo's ministers were discussing the issue with their counterparts at a ‘ministerial-level’ meeting in New Delhi on Saturday. In both the meetings, the Northern Provincial Council, which has a specific ministry for Fisheries, has been completely sidelined, according to the fishermen’s representatives who took part in the meeting at New Delhi on 02 November.
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Aṭṭāḷaic-cēṉai, Aṭāla, Aṭuvē-vatta

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 November 2016, 22:13 GMT]
The jungle cultivation field having a watcher's platform-shelter

The wooden watchtower or observatory

The garden or grove having a watcher's platform-shelter
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SL Navy ‘revenge’ against Tamil fishermen continues in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 November 2016, 21:20 GMT]
The occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka has been harassing the fishermen from Mannaar island in the early hours of Friday. The latest Sinhala navy aggression was an act of ‘revenge’ against Tamil fishermen in Mannaar as the SL Navy commander of Chilaavaththu’rai proclaimed it on 18 October, when the fishermen Arippu village situated far away in the mainland in Musali division, confronted two criminal Navy personnel, who had been committing a series of violent thefts in the village. On Friday, SL Navy at Periya-kadai jetty near the main bridge in Mannaar city, was harassing more than 1,000 Tamil fishermen, embarking on fishing from the jetty from three GS divisions of Mannaar island. The fishermen were asked to show ‘pass documents’ documenting every item they were having on board in their fishing vessel.
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Human skeletons discovered near SL military camp north of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 October 2016, 18:56 GMT]
Tamil workers engaged in digging a latrine at Mu'rak-koddaagn-cheanai, is situated 18 km north of Batticaloa city, have discovered human skeletons along with remains of burnt tires and railway sleepers on Saturday. The site is believed to be a mass grave as the land was under the SL military for 24 years since 1990 and released back to the people only in 2014. The 11th Regiment of notorious 23 Division of the occupying ‘Sri Lanka’ Army is now stationed a few meters close to the locality. The SLA soldiers, who were stationed at this camp in 1990 were behind the brutal massacre of more than 60 Tamils from Chiththaa’ndi village. Several Tamil civilians reported missing during that time from the nearby villages were also allegedly taken to the torture chambers at Mu'rak-kodddaagn-cheanai.
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Resettling Champoor Tamils deceived, hundreds of acres seized for militarization

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 October 2016, 23:20 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena has deceived uprooted Tamils of Champoor in Trincomalee by asking them to legally transfer lands to SL Navy to relocate its training base SLN Vidura while releasing lands for their resettlement in July 2015. The people were asked to allocate around 40 acres of lands. But, in practice around 300 acres of lands have been seized from them. At least 50 families were deceived this way and were told by even Tamil politicians to cooperate with the request of SL President in order to commence the resettlement of the uprooted Tamils in Champoor. The were told that proper substitute lands would be given to them at different locations within 6 months. Now, 15 months have gone, none of them were given such lands. The SL Navy has seized at least 250 acres more than what was claimed as its requirement, the uprooted Tamils say.
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Colombo insults Jaffna University students’ struggle for justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 October 2016, 22:59 GMT]
Student leaders at the University of Jaffna have sent back a letter they received from Colombo’s colonial governor to North Mr Reginald Cooray. The student federation activists told TamilNet on Thursday that Mr Cooray had sent them a reply in Sinhala language to their appeals, which were addressed to SL President and SL Prime Minister and handed over to the representative, Mr Cooray, during the protest in Jaffna on Monday. If Tamil is accorded a status as official language in the island, why is Mr Cooray responding in Sinhala to the Tamil students in Jaffna, the student leaders asked. Mr Cooray was earlier taking the side of Sinhala students who triggered off an ethnic motivated confrontation at the Jaffna University.
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Jaffna university students mobilize against killings by Sinhala police

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2016, 08:37 GMT]
More than 2,500 Tamil students from the University of Jaffna brought the activities of occupying Colombo's District Secretariat in Jaffna to a standstill on Monday morning as they sieged the entrances of Jaffna Kachcheari and the official residence of SL colonial Governor demanding justice for the slaying of two students by armed Sinhalese policemen Thursday night last week. The students observed a peaceful protest without shouting any slogans along the A9 road, but they were holding placards in their hands. The SL military and police stayed away from the protest site to keep the protest to proceed without any confrontation.
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Kashmiris step up sovereignty struggle braving New Delhi’s militarization

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2016, 22:20 GMT]
On 08 July 2016, Indian military which occupies the portion of the Kashmir region administered by India, killed a militant Kashmiri commander of Hizbul-ul-Mujadaheen (HM) group, Burhan Wani, along with two of his fighters. Kashmiri people in the Valley have responded with protests in the aftermath of the killings, after a call for general strike from the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and both the factions of umbrella organisation Hurriyat Conference (HC). Defying the curfew enforced by New Delhi, thousands of Kashmiris attended the funeral and demonstrations were stepped up throughout the valley in the following days. The Indian military responded with deploying further violence, killing at least 19 civilians in clashes over the first weekend that followed. The number of Kashmiris who have been killed in two months long Kashmiri uprising stands over 90 with thousands injured.
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‘Sinhala Police, gunning down Tamil students in Jaffna, is not different from genocidal military’

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2016, 17:27 GMT]
Two Tamil students of the Art Faculty of the University of Jaffna were cold-bloodedly gunned down by Sinhala ‘policemen’ at Kokkuvil, Jaffna, on Thursday night. Both the students died due to gunshot injuries, medical sources at Jaffna hospital said contradicting the cover-up of Colombo. The latest crime committed by the Sinhala Police carrying automatic rifles in the occupied Tamil homeland is a serious security threat to the nation of Eezham Tamils. Sinhala police is not different to the genocidal military as far as the nation of Eezham Tamils are concerned. It was the violent acts by the Sinhala Police in Jaffna that triggered Tamil militant response in the late 70s, Jaffna University student leaders told TamilNet condemning Colombo and its international collaborators, who have failed to deliver justice to the crimes committed against the nation of Eezham Tamils in the past.
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Six fishermen arrested, SL Police ‘facilitates’ SL Navy's ‘legal revenge’ in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2016, 11:48 GMT]
The Sinhala police of occupying genocidal Sri Lanka arrested 6 Tamil fishermen in the troubled Arippu village in Mannaar Friday morning and has brought them for an ‘identification parade’ at Mannaar Magistrate Court, where ‘Manchula’, the criminal SL Navy operative who was caught red-handed after entering a house in the coastal village on Tuesday, has been tasked to identify the villagers who caught him. On Tuesday, the SL Navy culprit was carrying two knives under his shirt when he was chased away and captured by the villagers after a family shouted for help. “This is how the Sinhala Police and the SL Judiciary operate in this island. None of the so-called Constitutional processes in the South are going to change this reality. Today, we are witnessing just another crime against humanity in Mannaar,” said a Tamil lawyer witnessing the behaviour of the SL Police.
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SL Navy declares war on Tamil fishermen in Arippu, Sinhala police joins SLN

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2016, 19:46 GMT]
Tension has mounted in the fishing village of Arippu throughout Wednesday as the Sinhala commanding officer of the occupying SL Navy in Arippu and Chilaavaththu'rai vowed to revenge the spontaneous public action on a criminal Sinhala navy person on Tuesday night. The SL Navy person, who entered a household threatening a woman around 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday was caught and beaten up by the villagers. The remaining three members of the four-member squad have managed to escape from the villagers. The squad has been engaged in a series of robberies and misconduct causing injuries to the villagers in recent days. The squad is alleged of stabbing a husband and wife 5 days ago and robbed off gold from another family after putting a knife on the throat of a child 8 days ago, the villagers told TamilNet. The SLN person was caught red-handed on Tuesday and he was in possession of two knives.
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SL military gets emboldened by greeting UN officials, joint military exercises in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2016, 21:44 GMT]
The ‘headquarters’ of genocidal military in Jaffna was one of the first places to be visited by UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye this week. “It has almost become a routine for visiting foreign diplomats to greet the SL military commanders before they meet the people in the North-East. In the meantime, foreign militaries stage joint exercises with SL military in our homeland. They even conduct medical services intended for the civilians jointly with the SL military. The SL military Establishment perceives such international ‘engagements’ as recognising its past conduct. Emboldened by the appeasement, the military is openly denouncing the calls for de-militarisation and the demands for reduction of military deployment in the North-East,” said Tamil civil activist in Jaffna, Vijaratnam Kesavan, in a video interview to TamilNet.
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UN ‘peace-builders’ threaten resettled Tamils during UN Special Rapporteur's visit to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 October 2016, 23:07 GMT]
A group of Sinhalese and Tamil officials of the so-called ‘Peacebuilding Fund’ (PBF) attached to the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) went to the extent of threatening ‘resettled’ Tamil families, who have been dumped at Vaazhalaay, a locality of limestone outcrops and marsh along the Tho'ndaimaa-aa'rau lagoon, when the PBF group wanted to document the so-called resettlement that has been carried out by the occupying SL military and ‘Seva Lanka’, a Sinhalese-led outfit. The families were instructed not to complain anything in video recordings, but only to praise that the SL military had helped them, the people told TamilNet after the episode on Wednesday. The PBF visit has taken place in connection with the fact-finding trip by UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, who was also visiting Jaffna this week.
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Making Eezham Tamil ‘Shiv Sena’ meaningful

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 October 2016, 23:39 GMT]
The chief coordinator of ‘Siva Cheanai’ in Jaffna, Ma'ravan-pulavu K. Sachithananthan has come out with a statement on Wednesday that on the Vijayadasami day (Tuesday), the Buddhists, Christians and Muslims disturbed Saiva Tamil religious rituals of Muththumari Amman temple in Anuradhapura Old Town. They chased away the devotees and one devotee who escaped into the sanctum of the temple was fatally stabbed by a Buddhist and a Muslim. Both of them also smashed the image at the sanctum. Condemning the act on behalf of ‘World Hindus’, Mr Sachithananthan urged for the supply of a replacement statue. The Eezham Tamil Siva Cheanai would be more meaningful if it could focus on countering the paradigm of Indian Shiv Sena that mischievously patronizes both genocidal Buddha and monkey god statues for geopolitical purposes in the island.
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Austin Fernando schemes Muslim ploy for Sinhala colonisation in Tamil division

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 October 2016, 18:24 GMT]
Colombo’s Governor of Eastern Province, Mr Austin Fernando, is once again scheming a plan to bring in Sinhala colonizers into the Tamil division of Koara’laip-pattu South (Vaakarai), informed sources at Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet on Tuesday. Mr Fernando, a former defence secretary and an advisor to SL President on ‘reconciliation’, has now joined hands with the SL State Minister of ‘Rehabilitation and Resettlement’ Mr M.L.A.M Hizbullah after the latter’s plan to settle Muslim families at Kaarai-munai in Vaakarai division was turned down by Ms S. Rahulanayaki, the divisional secretary of Vaakarai, the sources further said. Kaarai-munai is situated 42 km north of Batticaloa city. Vaakarai, a traditional Tamil division, faced a genocidal onslaught in 2007.
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Book urges Tamils to focus on geopolitical struggle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 October 2016, 23:45 GMT]
A book published in June 2016 by M. Thirunavukkarasu on the constitutions of Ilankai [Ceylon/ ‘Sri Lanka’], from the 1931 Donoughmore constitution to the one currently in the making by Sirisena, pivotally elucidates on a theme that all the unitary constitutions of the island were ultimately targeting against India, and in the process the Eezham Tamils became scapegoats. In tracing the roots, Thirunavukkarasu exposes the British colonial and postcolonial policies keeping the island as a checkmate against India in the region. The author urges Tamils to get awakened to the geopolitics in shaping their future struggle. The calibre of Thirunavukkarasu’s book is that what has been implied is more important than what has been written. The book has to be read in between the lines to get the thrust.
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Valañciyaṉ-veḷi, Ainūṟṟuvaṉ-vaḷavu, Veḷańda-goḍa, Ūrvaṇikaṉ-paṟṟu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 October 2016, 21:34 GMT]
The open place of a member of the Vaḷañciyar merchant community

The premises of a member of the Ainūṟṟuvar merchant community

The mercantile village or the bank that has a mart/market place

The part under the control of a merchant of Ūrvaṇikaṉ identity
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Sirisena regime will not deliver acceptable solution without international intervention: ITAK MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 October 2016, 21:53 GMT]
In a revealing interview to TamilNet, S. Yogeswaran, a TNA parliamentarian representing ITAK in Batticaloa district categorically stated that the regime of Sirisena and Wickramasinghe, which was brought to power with the votes of Tamils, is not going to deliver a reasonable political solution satisfying the expectation of Tamils on its own without international intervention. “I don't speak for others. My conviction is that the Government will not deliver an acceptable solution for Tamils on its own,” he said. “There are a lot of steps to be taken,” and none of these have been achieved so far, he added. Austin Fernando, the governor of the East, installed after Sirisena became the president, was preoccupied with tracing every avenue to Sinhalicise the Batticaloa district. It has now been revealed that SL President Sirisena's Mahaweli ministry is behind the Sinhala colonisation, he said.
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Colombo deploys police ‘pistol squad’ in Jaffna to threaten Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 October 2016, 07:10 GMT]
Tamil political leaders, who are firm in calling for the de-militarisation of the Tamil homeland, have been avoiding to voice against the crimes being committed by Colombo's police system as they don't want to be interpreted as ‘Tamil extremists’ opposing everything coming from Colombo. But, the role played by the SL police in the war against Eezham Tamils has already been well exposed through the genocidal crimes committed by the notorious Special Task Force, a full-fledged military force administratively organised under the SL Police system. The SL police system operating in the North-East has long been the protecting agency of Sinhala colonists engaged in demographic genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils. Under Sirisena’s rule, the SL police in North has deployed pistol squads roaming around and threatening the Tamils as demonstrated this week at Kokkuvil in Jaffna.
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