SL military collects details of family members of ex-LTTE activists in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2015, 15:06 GMT]
The soldiers of the occupying Sri Lanka Army have been collecting details including the names of family members, their occupation at Chelvaa-nakar East in Aaraiyampathi, Batticaloa during the last five days. The SL soldiers are visiting the houses and huts of the families in the villages in bicycles with a printed list of names of ex-LTTE members in their hands. Why the SL military is harassing the families by registering all the details of family members and their places of employment, Tamil families in Aaraiyampathi question.
Full story >>

Trinco Bishop reminds India, UK on moral obligations, denounces domestic processes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2015, 23:24 GMT]
“If we are to view the recent history, the judicial system [of Sri Lanka] has been deployed against the interests of Tamils. Be it the State or it's military, the system has been deploying these laws against Tamils, further complicating the difficulties faced by them”, said Rt. Rev. Dr. Kinglsey Swampillai, the Bishop of Trincomalee, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet this week. “Although the Tamils have been waiting for a solution to relieve their plight for a long time, there is still no ray of light in this regard,” he said. Noting that India and the UK have contributed to the complexity of the dynamics enabling the successive SL governments to sustain the oppression on Tamils, the Bishop urged Tamils of reminding these Powers on their moral obligation to mediate between the Tamils and the Sri Lankan government to arrive at a political solution resolving the underlying conflict.
Full story >>

Uprooted Champoor Tamils call off hunger-strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 May 2015, 16:32 GMT]
The uprooted people of Champoor, who were promised that their lands would be released by the new regime launched a protest on 18 May after the Sri Lanka Gateway Industries (Private) Limited had sought the SL Supreme Court to revoke the decision of the SL President. A temporary ban on resettlement was issued by the SL Supreme Court. However, the uprooted people of Champoor were determined to take forward the struggle with hunger strike and a fast-unto-death. Latest reports from Colombo said the people have now been allowed to resettle in more than 800 acres of lands. However, around 5,000 acres of lands still remain under the SL military occupation in Champooor.
Full story >>

Mu’l’livaaykkaal Genocide Day marked in occupied Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2015, 06:39 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan State has deployed more than 600 Sinhala riot control policemen Sunday evening at Mu’l’livaaykkaal in Mullaiththeevu, where Eezham Tamils were intentionally corralled in 2009 in a calculated and deliberate attempt to destroy as many Tamils as possible. The Northern Provincial Council, which passed a key resolution in February this year demanding the OISL UN mechanism in Geneva to investigate the claim of genocide, has invited all the Tamil parliamentarians and councillors from the province to attend the remembrance event at Mu’l’livaaykkaal East on Monday. However, students of Jaffna University, the Tamil National Peoples Front, civil society and religious dignitaries are proceeding with collective memorial meetings at several locations in the NorthEast on May 18.
Full story >>

Multi-religious prayer organised at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on 18 May

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2015, 15:16 GMT]
A group of Catholic priests have organised a multi-religious prayer service in commemoration of Mu'l'livaaykkaal massacre at St. Paul's Church in Mu'l'livaaykkaal on 18 May 2015 at 4:00 p.m., a priest from Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet Sunday. The religious prayer comes amidst tightened deployment of civil clad intelligence operatives monitoring each and every corner of Mu'l'livaaykkaal on Sunday.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka bans Remembrance events at Mu'l'livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2015, 17:03 GMT]
The occupying State of Sri Lanka has banned the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members in Mullaiththeevu from taking part at the memorial events to be held at Mu'l'livaaykkaal with the participation of the public, according to an order issued by the SL courts in Mullaiththeevu following a police complain, Deputy Speaker of NPC Antony Jeganathan told TamilNet Saturday. The latest move is a gross violation hurting the sentiments of Eezham Tamils, Mr Jeganathan said. A similar order has been issued to the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), the news sources in Jaffna said. The Chief Minister of NPC, C.V. Wigneswaran had officially invited all the parliamentarians and councillors from the Northern Province to attend the memorial event at the Government Mixed School at Mu'l'livaaykkaal East at 10:00 a.m. on 18 May.
Full story >>

I'raal-kuzhi villagers protest against sand-scooping

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2015, 20:58 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil villagers of I'raal-kuzhi, a small hamlet about 10 square km, situated along one of the two rivers where Mahaweli ganga is branching off into the sea in Moothoor division of Trincomalee district, protested on Wednesday against the unabated sand-scooping carried out by wealthy businessmen from Moothoor. The people living in the low-lying land have been struggling for long time unable to withstand the rainy and flooding seasons. The businessmen who operate with the backing of politicians in power have been engaged in the systematic exploitation for a long time. In addition to the danger of water entering their village, the systematic exploitation irreversibly destroys the environment of the region, the protesters complained.
Full story >>

CMPC in Tamil Nadu pays tribute to Eezham Tamil Journalist Sivaram

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2015, 17:19 GMT]
Centre of Media Persons for Change (CMPC), a journalist movement based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, observed 10th year anniversary of the assassination of Eezham Tamil journalist Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki) at a journalists meeting, which was organised on Sunday to mark the World Press Freedom Day and the 5th year of the CMPC movement, media sources in Chennai said. Young journalists from mainstream media groups participated in the event discussing conflict-reporting, self-realization on the role of the journalists in the larger society dominated by a corporate culture, commitment to principled approaches and focus on human rights of the oppressed nations and people.
Full story >>

Swaminathan's secretary admits SL military delaying release of lands

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2015, 23:07 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government, which recently released some pockets of lands in the occupied Valikaamam North, has come up with a ‘new excuse’ for the delay in releasing the lands back to the people at a meeting held at Jaffna District Secretariat on Friday. Ranjini Nadarasapillai, the secretary of UNP's appointed parliamentarian and SL Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Affairs, D.M. Swaminathan, has admitted that a scheduled announcement of releasing more lands has been delayed, as the SL military commanders were yet to utilise her ministry with the list of new slots, civil officers who attended the meeting told TamilNet. The ITAK Leader and TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja, who hails from Valikaamam North, was disappointed with the progress.
Full story >>

SL Minister, backed by CBK, appropriates Tamils’ lands in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2015, 22:56 GMT]
Sri Lankan Deputy Minister of Housing and Samurdhi Amir Ali Sahabdeen, who became a minister during the regime of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) in 2004, is again stepping up the appropriation of lands at Kirimichchi, located 62 km north of Batticaloa. The lands belong to Eezham Tamils who are still uprooted and refused access to these lands, civil sources at Koara’laip-pattu North (Vaakarai) division of Batticaloa told TamilNet on Thursday. The land grab, schemed under CBK regime, aims to annex more lands to the Muslim-dominated division of Koara’laip-pattu Central (Vaazhaich-cheanai) by involving a section of wealthy businessmen from Kaaththaan-kudi, Oadda-maavadi and Ea’raavoor after Amir Ali became a non-cabinet minister in the ‘new’ regime with the backing of CBK, the sources further said.
Full story >>

Why no Gazette notification on release of lands, asks retired Land Commissioner

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 2015, 23:18 GMT]
It's not merely enough to allow the people to resettle in the lands that were seized from them by the previous regime, which applied the proviso to 38(A) of the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) under the guise of ‘public use’ in permanently converting the lands for the use of Colombo's military. The new regime should issue fresh Gazette notifications of the lands, which it claims to release back to the people. Only then the people will have legal ownership to their lands, says retired Land Commissioner of the Eastern Province, Karthirgamathamby Kurunathan, in an in-depth video interview to TamilNet this week. Why are the Tamil politicians not demanding the new regime to issue such Gazette notifications to revoke the land grabs that were carried out with the obvious agenda of Sinhala chauvinism by the previous regime, he asked.
Full story >>

TNPF rejects ‘domestic investigations’ upheld by USA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 May 2015, 21:49 GMT]
The fact that the United States and the US Secretary of State John Kerry would consider the post January 08th 2015 situation in Sri Lanka, with the new government favourable, is understandable. But, for him to suggest that there is a favourable condition for the Tamils, is stretching too far, said Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, responding to a question from TamilNet on the subject on Tuesday. Pointing out that the new regime is not only maintaining the status quo of the occupying military, which is primarily being accused in the crimes, but both the major parties in the South have claimed complete allegiance to the military and have in fact vouched that the military would be protected, the former parliamentarian said.
Full story >>

New generation of organic intellectuals needed to continue Sivaram’s work

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2015, 12:08 GMT]
“Only a new generation of organic Tamil intellectuals, who have a clear understanding of changing global paradigms and who are able to create paradigm shifts in Tamil political discourse, can preserve and take forward Sivaram’s legacy” writes research scholar RM Karthick. In an article written on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the assassination of ‘Taraki’ Sivaram Dharmeratnam, Mr. Karthick argues that the current Tamil intelligentsia needs to live up to its historical responsibility in exposing the designs of the powers, be it in Oslo, Geneva or Singapore. Criticizing mainstream Tamil intellectuals for their apathy and for failing to keep up with important changes in South Asian geo-politics, he further says that “a nation’s ability to spring back to its feet politically depends on how soon it is able to organize itself intellectually.”
Full story >>

Sivaram commemorated in Tamil Nadu on 10th anniversary of his assassination

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2015, 10:29 GMT]
The 10th death anniversary of assassination of Senior Editor at TamilNet, an Eezham Tamil intellectual, journalist, political analyst and activist Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki) was marked on Tuesday in Chennai. Sivaram, beside his profound love for his people, was a genuine internationalist who dedicated his life and writing- to quote him in his own words, “…to create a body of knowledge to help oppressed people all over the world help themselves to get out from under oppression; to disseminate this body of knowledge.” A decade after his assassination by the hands of the Sri Lankan state, Eelam and much of the oppressed nations of the world which he espoused solidarity with and desired to aid are still beleaguered and subjected to counter-insurgency perpetuated by their respective oppressor states aided by world powers.
Full story >>

Constitutionally recognise Tamil homeland to prove bona fides, exiled poet tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2015, 17:40 GMT]
“We [Eezham Tamils] are not [people of two] provinces. We are [the people of] a homeland. This reality is constitutionally not recognised in the Constitution. Would the Sinhala rulers of Sri Lanka ever be prepared to constitutionally recognise the joint North-East as the homeland of Tamils,” questioned exiled Eezham Tamil poet Kasi Anandan on Wednesday, speaking from Chennai, in an Internet-based video address on the occasion of a memorial event held in Batticaloa on the 10th anniversary of the assassinated TamilNet Senior Editor and popular columnist Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki). The current Sinhala rulers [in the island of Sri Lanka] are only talking about ‘Tamils in the North’ whenever they refer to Tamils, Kasi Anandan observed.
Full story >>

PTF continues to control NGOs assisting resettling people in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2015, 21:57 GMT]
Non Government Organisations trying to assist the people who wish to resettle in the pockets of lands released so far in Valikaamam North are instructed to seek permission from the so-called Presidential Task Force (PTF), which is dominated by military commanders and secretaries of various ministries in Colombo. Local NGOs that attempted to put up temporary huts in Valikaamam North have been instructed by the SL Government Agent to approach PTF clearance, says Shageevan Shanmugalingam, an elected civic representative who also leads a welfare organisation for the resettling people in Valikaamam North.
Full story >>

Unabated structural genocide in East reminds Tamils of Dudley's betrayal in 1965

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2015, 19:51 GMT]
Resettled Tamils in Paddith-thidal village in Moothoor divion in Trincomalee, recently made a fresh attempt to engage in agriculture in their lands after the ‘new’ regime came to power in Colombo. However, the latest effort, made with the assistance of the ‘Legal Aid Commission’ has also proved futile, says Velayutham Velmaran, the chairman of Paddith-thidal Sri Vinayaga Agricultural Society in an interview to TamilNet on Monday. A Sinhala-Buddhist extremist monk from Samagipura, which is situated in the bordering Seruwila DS division, has been blocking the resettled Eezham Tamil landowners for several years from engaging in agriculture in their land. The Sinhala colonisers from Seruwila have seized around 1,500 acres of the agricultural lands of Eezham Tamils in the villages of Kangku-veali, Padukaadu and Muthalai-madu , Mr Velmaran said.
Full story >>

Resettled Tamils seek empowerment to confront demographic genocide in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2015, 23:12 GMT]
Two decades have elapsed since Eezham Tamils resettled in Va'laththaap-piddi GS division of Ampaa'rai district. After the war ended in the East in 2008, Sinhala settlers from the border villages have accelerated the occupation of fertile agricultural lands of Eezham Tamils at Kanangkaa-veddai near Pazha-ve'li village. A recently established camp of the Sri Lankan military is prohibiting the resettling Tamil landowners from accessing their agricultural lands at Kanangkaa-veddai. In the meantime, the Archaeology department of the genocidal Sri Lankan State has put up border stones surrounding the old Sivan temple of Va'laththaap-piddi. Sinhala settlers who have encroached from border villages have taken over the agricultural lands that belong to Veera-munai Hindu temple. Without political and economic empowerment, the Tamils, already marginalised in Ampaa'rai, risk losing their villages.
Full story >>

Occupying SL Navy continues to intimidate Tamil fishermen in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2015, 19:01 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailors manning the Periya-kadai jetty, situated at the entrance to the city of Mannaar, are unrelenting in their oppression being meted out to the Tamil fishermen from five village (GS) divisions, fishermen's representatives complain. Although there are no official restrictions on Mannaar fishermen accessing their territorial sea, the SL Navy is checking everyone embarking on fishing every day. The names of the fishermen, their fishing vessels are registered. Their fishing catches are being monitored on a daily basis. The SLN personnel present at the check post also use to seize portions of their catches sometimes, the fishermen further complain.
Full story >>

SL State agencies, occupying military accelerate Sinhalicisation in Madu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2015, 20:18 GMT]
Two departments of the occupying Sri Lankan State, the Wildlife Department and the Forest Department, have been blocking the uprooted Eezham Tamils from resettling and owning lands in the four villages that come under Poomalarnthaan GS division, which is one of the 17 GS areas of Madu division in the Mannaar District, the uprooted Tamil villagers complain. The policy of social engineering targeting Sinhalicisation of Madu division has not changed under the ‘new’ regime, as these departments seem to compete with each other in the occupation of the lands. The threatening presence of Sinhala soldiers in the villages and the jungles facilitates the occupation. The programme of Sinhalicisation is accelerated following the commencing of railway line to Mannaar, the civil sources said.
Full story >>