Occupying Colombo resumes military land grab in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 October 2019, 20:14 GMT]
The occupying military of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has resumed appropriation of lands at several locations in Jaffna peninsula. The SL Survey Department officials have been instructed to carry out surveying activities on Monday and Tuesday for the SL Navy that wants to grab lands at Chuzhi-puram. The tendency is notably worse at Neduntheevu (Delft), the farthest islet off Jaffna, said Shageevan Shangmugalingam, an elected councillor of Valikaamam North and the chairman of Resettlement Committee in that division.
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Sajith Premadasa intensified heritage genocide against Tamils through departments in his ministry

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 October 2019, 23:36 GMT]
The successive governments of the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka have gazetted 167 ancient heritage monuments, which they want to convert as ‘Sinhala only’ Theravada Buddhist monuments in the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils in the North-East after 2010. Rajapaksa government gazetted 123 sites in two notifications in May and August 2013. The regime led by Maithiripala and Wickramasinghe has gazetted forty-four monuments in May 2015 and March 2016. The heritage genocide accelerated under Sajith Premadasa as minister of cultural, housing and construction affairs. A range of departments from the SL Department of Archaeology to Central Cultural Fund, which sophisticatedly undermines Tamil heritage involving Tamil and foreign academics function under him, Tamil civil officials and activists in Jaffna and Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet.
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US trick of coercion: Carrot to entice Gotabhaya, stick to strike Shavendra

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 October 2019, 23:51 GMT]
US Acting Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of South and Central Asia of the US State Department, Alice G. Wells, was turning a blind eye to the ongoing structural and heritage genocide in the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils in the North-East during her testimony on human rights in South Asia to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday. The US was “encouraged by the SL government’s progress on the operationalization of an Office of Missing Persons and the establishment of an Office of Reparations,” she said. Alice G Wells was accompanied by Robert Destro, the assistant secretary at the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, who was also citing “Sri Lanka” as the country in the South Asian region where the US have had some “notable successes”. The only strong complaint they had was the recent promotion of pro-Chinese SL Army Commander Lt Gen Shavendra Silva.
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Chennai Connect and Eezham Tamils reminding Tamil Nadu to assert Tamil geopolitics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 October 2019, 23:19 GMT]
After wrapping up his informal Summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tamil Nadu, Chinese President Xi Jinping this week paid a two-day State visit to Nepal, where he announced a strategic partnership with the landlocked country situated between India and China. While the Nepalese President and Prime Minister extended their commitment to China’s Belt & Road Initiative, Xi Jinping announced the plan for the transformation of the landlocked country into a “land-linked” country in South Asia. He was effectively pitching for a ‘Trans-Himalayan Corridor’. China launching yet another land-based economic corridor in South Asia, in addition to that of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, is the latest manoeuvre of geopolitics.
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Colombo destroys dairy-farming economy of Eezham Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 October 2019, 23:50 GMT]
Former Sinhala paramilitary men have shot and killed around 1,500 of cows in the interior pasturelands of Paduvaan-karai region in Batticaloa district within the last ten months, complains Nimalan Kanthasamy, the secretary of Dairy Farmers Association in Kiraan and Chengka'ladi in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South division. In the meantime, the SL State-owned Milk Industries of Lanka Company, also known as Milco Private Limited, is buying the produce at low rates from the Tamil dairy farmers in Batticaloa. The payments also get severely delayed, he says.
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Tamil parties in North-East stipulate ‘acid test’ terms to SL presidential candidates

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 October 2019, 23:48 GMT]
The main political parties of Eezham Tamils, which claim to uphold the principles of the concept of Tamil nationhood through the Right of Self-Determination and distinct sovereignty of Tamils to their traditional homeland, have come to an understanding of the terms to be placed as the acid-test conditions to the candidates running for the executive presidency of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka. While the parties have unitedly formed the main demands towards the presidential candidates, they have failed in two crucial aspects. Firstly, the failure to course-correct the ‘Quisling politics’ of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Secondly, the inability to stipulate the conditions and choices of Eezham Tamils if and when the actors in the South fail to meet the acid-test terms, especially before the SL Presidential elections.
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SL Governor's latest land grab poses danger to archaeological traces of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 October 2019, 22:15 GMT]
SL Governor to North Mr Suren Raghavan is attempting to alienate 115 acres of lands at Kauthaari-munai in Ma'na'niththa'lai sandbar of Poo-nakari (Pooneryn) division to a private Tamil diaspora business person from Australia before his Governor term expires. Mr Raghavan is deceptively suppressing objections from the Tamil civil sources and the grassroots activists in Ki'linochchi district, informed grassroots activists in Poonakari told TamilNet. The 25 km long sandbar, which extends towards the Jaffna Peninsula from Poonakari in the main island, is of immense natural beauty and archaeological value to the Eezham Tamils. The area is dotted with archaeological remains ranging from microlithic/megalithic times to the times of the Dutch, covered by massive sand dunes.
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Heinous act by HRCSL: former orphans of Chegnchoalai on the brink of losing lands

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 October 2019, 23:12 GMT]
The so-called Human Rights Commission of genocidal Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has proposed to the Divisional Secretariat office in Karaichchi in Ki'linochchi to evict the resettled former orphans of Chengchoalai who are living at the lands which were bought by the orphanage from the original landowners during the times of war. Cheng-choalai was one of the civilian orphanages operated by the LTTE run de-facto state of Tamil Eelam. It was well known for bringing up children in an exemplary way producing artists and experts within various fields. The lands were allocated to the former orphans through proper purchases during the de-facto civil administration of the LTTE. However, the grounds are now being claimed by greedy elements with vested interests and the SL Human Rights Commission in Jaffna has proposed to do away the arrangement.
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Raghavan plans to distribute uncultivatable lands to Tamils to compensate for loss of fertile lands

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 October 2019, 19:16 GMT]
SL Governor to Northern Province Suren Raghavan has come up with another deceptive offer to the uprooted Eezham Tamil land-owners in Mullaiththeevu. Raghavan is planning to release some plots of saline and brackish soil along the coast as compensation for their fertile lands, which the SL State had seized from the Tamil land-owners under the so-called ‘Mahaweli’ L system, civil sources at Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat said. Suren Raghavan met the District Secretary and TNA Parliamentarian Mrs Shanthy Sriskandarajah at the District Secretariat in Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday. Mr Raghavan has proposed to de-gazette some plots that are retained under the System L. However, the plots coming under the planned release were only ‘tharavai’ lands, the officials said.
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No place for human rights in China’s white paper for future world

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 October 2019, 22:28 GMT]
The People’s Republic of China (PRC), with its ambition as a rising global power, showcased this week its 70th anniversary of the founding of the republic staging big celebrations and a massive military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Along with the fanfare, the RPC also spelt out its worldview for future China and the world combined in a white paper titled “China and the World in the New Era.” Although the Xi Jinping doctrine was upholding the principles of the UN Charter, the term ‘human rights’ was totally missing in the document, which perceives state-to-state relations as the bedrock of international relations. Even the term civilisation was used to defend the states-centric narrative. There were no specific concerns about stateless nations and peoples that don’t fit into the states-centric status quo of the so-called world order.
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No to alternative lands, original lands must be released with compensation, say Tamil activists

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 September 2019, 18:19 GMT]
SL Governor to North Suren Raghavan is deceiving the Tamil land-owners by proposing to consider accepting alternative properties in return for the fertile lands, which the occupying SL military wants to retain under its control in Valikaamam North in Jaffna. Out of 47 GS divisions, 21 are affected by SL militarisation. It is the most fertile soil in the entire peninsula. The SL military has continued widespread cultivation, dairy farming and fishing by utilising the resources of the uprooted Tamils even after the end of the war in 2009. It is not justifiable, said Nallathamby Ponrajah, the member of Valikaamam South Divisional Council. In the meantime, grassroots activists are planning to launch a renewed campaign to free their lands said SL State must return the properties and also compensate for the loss of income caused by the unjustified occupation of their areas so far.
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UN employed former Sri Lanka Army officer alleged of killing Tamils in Madu Church

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 September 2019, 16:50 GMT]
The United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), tasked with providing security services to the UN system in delivering its programmes globally, has had a former Sri Lanka Army officer among its rank and file the security staff in the recent years. The ex-SLA officer has previously “killed Tamils in Madu church,” during the times of war, according to allegations made by New York based Inner City Press (ICP), a non-profit organization, which has critically exposed the wrongdoers within the UN system for almost 15 years. The former SL Army officer in question, Lt Col Parakrama Siriwardana, is currently the Head of Security and Emergency Unit at the China-led Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB), since May 2018.
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Tamils mobilise in Vanni exposing lopsided law enforcement of genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 September 2019, 15:06 GMT]
Tamil lawyers in North boycotted the courts on Tuesday condemning the failure of the law enforcement authorities of the unitary SL State that failed to respect the decision by the Magistrate of Mullaiththeevu Courts. Covering their mouths with black ribbons, the lawyers numbering around one hundred, gathered inside the premises of the Magistrates’ Court in Mullaiththeevu. In the meantime, the grassroots organisations including the Catholic and Saivaist dignitaries took to the street in Mullaith-theevu staging a protest march from Mullaiththeevu old hospital to the District Secretariat passing the court on their way. An overwhelming majority of those marched in the protest were young generation Tamils.
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Sinhala extremist monks assault Tamils, say Buddhism stands above Law in Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 September 2019, 18:38 GMT]
A group of violent Sinhala Buddhist monks and a mob led by Bodu Bala Sena’s Secretary Gnanasara Thero, carried the remains of the late Kolamba Medhalankara Thero to cremate the controversial monk within the premises of the Tamil Saivite temple at Neeraaviyadi in Mullaiththeevu. They were violating the court ruling that specified a separate locality to mark the ritual. “Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country. Buddhism stands above the Law here,” proclaimed one of the Buddhist monks, who assaulted the Tamil lawyers and the students near the Neeraaviyadi Pi’l’ laiyaar temple at Naayaa’ru in Mullaiththeevu on Monday. The lawyers were present to convey the information. Elected Tamil politicians and the young generation of Tamil students were witnessing the lopsided behaviour of the SL military and the police, who were only defending the interests of the monks.
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SL military wants to cremate remains of controversial monk inside temple premises

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 September 2019, 23:21 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military is preparing to stage the cremation of the late Kolamba Medhalankara Thero, who was causing ethnic tensions through the controversial project of Sinhala-Buddhicisation at Neeraaviyadi in the ancient Tamil village of Chemmalai in Naayaa'ru, Mullaiththeevu. The project was launched in 2009 by a genocidaire commander of the SL Army, Major General (retd) Jagath Dias and the late Anunayake of the Seruwila Saranakiththi Kalyani Sect, Seruwila Saranakiththi Thero, who was promoting Sinhala colonization along the border of North and East until his demise in May 2016. Kolamba Medhalankara Thero has passed away due to cancer, and the SL Army and SL Navy want to cremate him on Sunday at the premises of the Pi'l'laiyaar temple where he was violently installing a Buddha statue earlier this year.
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Sinhala police, mob intimidate Saiva Tamil pilgrims at Kanniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2019, 20:04 GMT]
Tens of uniformed Sinhala police officers along with persons dressed in civilian clothing stormed at a group of Tamil Saiva pilgrims who were chanting prayers at Kanniyaa Hot Wells around 7:00 a.m. on Friday. The Sinhala policemen behaved aggressively against the devotees instructing them to remove their vehicle away from the promises, said the organiser of the pilgrimage, 41-year-old V. Mohanathas. The devotees were not allowed to conduct their Bajan worship at the Pi'l'laiyaar temple grounds. Half of them were disturbed from their bathing ritual at the Hot Wells. Even though the Tamil pilgrims explained the reason for their presence, the Sinhala group behaved aggressively, Mr Mohanadas said.
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Tamil-speaking Veddahs confront large-scale land grab in southeast Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 September 2019, 20:49 GMT]
The settlement pattern of the Tamil-speaking aborigines, who were looking after their own administrative affairs in the southeastern sector of Trincomalee district has been severely disturbed after 2010, says Nadarajah Kanagaratnam, the chairperson of Kuveani community organisation from the village of Nalloor. The villages of Veddahs are now riddled with various demographic changes carried out by the Sinhala-dominated SL State and the encroaching settlements facilitated by a section of the Muslim politicians in the East. The latest land grab was carried out by MLAM Hizbullah, the former SL Governor to East. After the controversial politician was forced to resign from the portfolio, the aboriginal people entered back into their lands in the hope of regaining them. However, a group of settlers from the nearby Thoappoor village have started to threaten the indigenous people in August 2019.
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SL Police bans playing devotional songs at Vedukku-naa'ri temple in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 September 2019, 20:48 GMT]
The SL Police from Nedungkea'ni police station has instructed the trustee board of Vedukku-naa'ri Aathi-Lingkeasvarar temple in Vavuniyaa North not to use loudspeakers to play devotional songs during the annual temple festival. The SL Archaeology Department started to claim the locality as coming under its purview last year in August and deployed the SL Police to block Tamil devotees from setting up a ladder to the hilltop. When the dispute went to the courts, the local community was allowed to proceed with the deity rituals without engaging in any construction work. This year, the SL Police has restricted the devotees even from playing devotional songs, commented Thamilchelvan Thurairajah, an elected councillor at the Civic Divisional Council of Vavuniyaa North.
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UNHCR brings back refugees from Tamil Nadu without ensuring prospects for resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 September 2019, 23:42 GMT]
Uprooted Eezham Tamils who are returning from their overseas displacement in Tamil Nadu find it increasingly challenging to regain their lands and livelihood in the North-East of the island, civil officials in Mannaar said. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and the SL state apparatus fail to meet even the basic requirements of those returning, the officials said. While the UNCHR facilitates the flight transport of the refugees through Colombo airport, it expects the SL State to complete the resettlement arrangements at the district level. However, the officials coming under the Colombo government in the district say they are unable to cope with the challenges, even to find temporary accommodation to the returning families.
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Widespread logging backed by SL military in Mannaar continues to escape scrutiny

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 August 2019, 23:35 GMT]
The commanders of the occupying Sinhala military stationed in three of the five divisions of Mannaar district have been partnering with millionaire wood traders from the South in a widespread and systematic illegal logging going on for a long time after 2009, Tamil officials in Mannaar District Secretariat said. The massive-scale exploitation has reached dangerous proportions and was causing severe environmental effects, the officials told TamilNet. The SL Forest Conservation Department or the SL Police do not act against the conduct of the SL military officers. Now, the SL military is also enjoying the police powers, overriding the authority of the SL Police, the officials further said.
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