People express solidarity with protests, low-key New Year in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2017, 11:18 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in North and East observed a largely silent Chiththirai New Year this year as the uprooted people in Mannaar and Mullaiththeevu are on the streets waging continuous protests along with the kith and kin of those subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military. A protest march was staged in Vavuniyaa in support of the protest of the families of enforced disappeared. People wearing black armbands took part in the protest. In the meantime, occupying SL military personnel wearing traditional Sinhala clothes attempted to ‘celebrate’ New Year with protesting people at Keappaa-pulavu. The protesting people declined the offer and firmly stated that they would only celebrate New Year after getting their village back.
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Swaminathan’s ministry neglects reconstruction of temples in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2017, 19:18 GMT]
Hindu temples destroyed by the occupying SL military during the times of war in Ampaa’rai district are being systematically sidelined in the allocation of funds for reconstruction despite repeated requests, complains the Trustee Board of Aaladi Pi’l’laiyaar temple, which is located in Poththuvil town of Ampaa’rai district. Similarly, the management of the Hindu temple at Inspector Eattam, located 2 km north of Poththuvil town, also says that the temple, which sustained destruction for two decades, has been systematically deprived of funds for a decent reconstruction.
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Colombo grabs private lands in strategic Vaakarai through long-term leasing

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 April 2017, 19:51 GMT]
Colombo-base Sinhala politicians are bringing in colonisers from South into strategic Vaakarai region, which is located north of Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province. Sinhala traders are being encouraged to lease private lands from genocide-affected and poverty-stricken Eezham Tamils, civil sources in Koa’ra’laip-pattu North said. Sidestepping provincial and local mechanisms, the politicians in South facilitate the dealings through local benamis. Military occupation and Colombo’s business elite operate along the same agenda of land grab, the officials further said.
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UN, Western governments fund genocidal Sinhala militarisation of Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 April 2017, 18:57 GMT]
After deceiving Eezham Tamils on international investigations, the UN, its development agencies and the western governments that talk about post-conflict ‘reconciliation’ and ‘development’ without resolving the conflict, have now gone to the extent of deploying their funds to sustain the genocidal Sinhala military occupation of Vanni. Millions of rupees, channelled through the SL Resettlement Ministry in Colombo to the SL Defence Ministry are being deployed by the occupying military to buy out the lands belonging to uprooted Tamils in Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu district, where uprooted Tamils have been continuously fighting for more than two months now. It now transpires that a two-storied resort has been built inside the military-seized lands at Keappaa-pulavu. The SL Air Force is constructing a Buddhist vihara to defend the case for continued Sinhala militarisation.
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Nānāṭṭāṉ, Maṭṭuvil-nāṭu

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 April 2017, 18:00 GMT]
The place of the Nāṉku-nāṭṭār merchant guild

The administrative unit or settlement named after a place Maṭṭuvil
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Time has come for joint action by protesting masses: NPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 April 2017, 21:13 GMT]
The uprooted Tamils from Mu’l’ik-ku’lam in Musali division and the Tamil-speaking Muslims in Ma’richchuk-kaddi were encouraged to see the support and solidarity they received from NPC Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan and the activists of the Voice for North-East Enforced Disappeared (VNEED), an organisation launched recently by the NPC councillor on behalf of the families of persons subjected to enforced disappearances. The destruction caused by military land-grab in Champoor in Trincomalee, at Keapppaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu, at Valikaamam North in Jaffna and at Mu’l’lik-ku’lam in Mannaar are similar. The intention of the SL State has been the same. These protests are integral part of the struggle for the territorial integrity of the homeland of Tamil-speaking people in the North-East, she said.
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Cilāpam, Cilāvat-tuṟai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 April 2017, 20:02 GMT]
The place to conduct pearl diving or conch-shell diving

The port to conduct pearl diving
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Sinhala police attempts to evict Tamils from fishing Paadu in Naayaa'ru

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 April 2017, 19:17 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala police of the genocidal Sri Lankan State has threatened Tamil fishermen at Naayaa'ru in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district this week to vacate from their coastal fishing point, complain the leaders of Naayaa'ru fishermen’s society. The Tamil fishermen are having only one fishing ‘Paadu’, which is an area of coastal sea-bed falling within the scope of a draw net at 10 feet length at a locality known as Padakuth-thurai in Naayaa'ru while intruding Sinhala fishermen from Negombo have seized the entire coastal stretch. TNA Parliamentarian Ms Shanthi Sriskantharasa has condemned the Colombo regime for engaging in demographic genocide against Tamil fishermen.
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SLAF hurriedly erects Buddhist Vihara in Keappaa-pulavu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 April 2017, 23:17 GMT]
In a fresh move to permanently Sinhalicise the military-occupied village of Keappaa-pulavu, the occupying Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) of genocidal Colombo is constructing a Buddhist Vihara inside the school lands of the village while the uprooted Eezham Tamils from Keappaa-pulavu are on a continuous protest outside the military cantonment, Tamil journalists who have been monitoring the activities of the SLAF told TamilNet on Wednesday. The SL Defence Ministry is using the ‘constitutional’ clause of ‘foremost place to Buddhism’ and ‘territorial integrity’ of the genocidal State to permanently Sinhalicise Keappaa-pulavu. In the meantime, SL Ministry of Resettlement has donated 50 million rupees to SL Defence Ministry to find alternative pockets of lands to the uprooted people. The people who are on continuous protest said they are firm in their struggle.
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Colombo's ‘resettlement’ assistance traps Champoor Tamils into private mortgage

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2017, 23:33 GMT]
Many families among the resettled Tamils in Champoor are now trapped into taking huge loans in order to complete housing to qualify ‘resettlement’ assistant from the genocidal State of Sri Lanka, right activists in Trincomalee say. The Divisional Secretary of Moothoor Division, who is tasked with the delivery of so-called resettlement assistance from the SL Ministry of Resettlement, has been repeatedly telling the ‘beneficiaries’ from Champoor to take up loans and complete the construction of houses on their own in order to receive monetary assistance through the SL government programme. Trusting the promises, several families have taken up private loans with high interest rates. Some of them have even handed over their land deeds to external agents as security for their loans. They are facing the risk of losing their lands.
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Protesting Musali villagers expose structural genocide at strategic Mu'l'lik-ku'lam

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 April 2017, 21:43 GMT]
The entire village of Mu'l'lik-ku'lam with its fertile lands, at least 7 irrigation tanks and a thriving fishing infrastructure has been under SL military occupation for 10 years since 2007. Tamil villagers were having at least 200 cement houses, a school, church, temple and a multi-purpose cooperative society, says 75-year-old Tamil fisherman Antony Lambert, who is one of the uprooted Tamils waging a continuous struggle for the last 12 days. All the houses except the few numbering between 27 and 30 have been destroyed by the military, he says. After languishing at different places for more than 4 years, a section of the people went back to Malang-kaadu, a jungle locality near Mu'l'li-ku'lam with a resolve to get back to their fertile village and they were braving military threats. Now, they are resolved to continue the fight to the end, says 63-year-old mother Anthoniya Vaz Sinnappu.
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From ‘grease devils’ to ‘peace devils’, genocdial military's new shadow war against Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2017, 23:28 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala soldiers, deployed in surveillance against Eezham Tamils and the SL police providing judicial armour to the military, have again started to respond with violence against Tamils in villages where the people have mobilised demanding de-militarisation and answers from the SL State and its international backers on the whereabouts of their loved ones subjected to enforced disappearances. Two violent incidents have shaken the Tamil people in Vadamaraadchi East. In the meantime, the Sinhala military which posed as ‘grease devils’ in 2011 is now deploying ‘UN white-washed’ genocidal tanks staging patrols and exercises threatening Tamils. Eezham Tamils have now started to grasp the political and military dimensions of an international order that has been consistently backing the physical and structural genocide against them, commented Tamil activists in Vanni.
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Intruding Sinhala fishermen ridicule Tamil officials in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2017, 17:12 GMT]
Sinhala fishermen, who have occupied the fish-rich coast of Naayaa'ru coast of Eezham Tamils in Karaithu'rai-ppattu division of Mullaith-theevu have challenged the Tamil officials refusing to leave the coastal stretch they have violently occupied from Tamils since 2011. There are more than 2,000 Sinhala fishermen from outside the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils, who are refusing to vacate from the coastal line which they have occupied. The Tamil fishermen from Mullaith-theevu have been repeatedly staging protests and demanding access to their coastal stretch. Tamil officials in Mullaith-theevu, who went to convey the message to Sinhala fishermen were ridiculed, threatened and challenged by the Sinhala fishermen who were citing the backing of the SL military and the same Colombo-based SL Fisheries Ministry, civil sources in Mullaith-theevu told TamilNet on Saturday.
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Tamil villagers severely disturbed by Sinhala soldiers at Ampaa’rai village

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 March 2017, 18:51 GMT]
A military base of the occupying Army of genocidal Sri Lanka, stationed at Veappaiyadi in Annamalai 02 GS area of Naavithan-ve’li division in Ampaa’rai district, has been causing a number of inconveniences to Eezham Tamil villagers at the village, says T. Kalaiyarasan, an elected provincial councilor of the Eastern Province. The villagers are afraid of the harassing Sinhala soldiers and are unable to attend hospital, which is situated near the military base. A temple and a school are also located nearby. The civil authorities are unable to reconstruct the hospital as the SL military is stationed at the site. Around 486 Tamil families are living in the village. The SLA moved in after the notorious Special Task Force (STF), which was stationed at the locality since 1990 left the village in 2012.
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Genocidal Colombo sentences 60-year-old Tamil activist to 20 years in prison

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 March 2017, 22:10 GMT]
After the genocidal State of Sri Lanka was once again given ‘time and space’ at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the SL judiciary sentenced a prominent Tamil political prisoner, 60-year-old Thevathasan Kanagasabai, with 20 years of imprisonment accusing the former director of the Tamil unit of the ‘National Film Corporation’. Mr Thevathasan has been serving the film corporation as a board member for long time and was finally awarded with the director post to lead the Tamil Unit by the SL government in 2004. Later, he was accused of assisting the LTTE Black Tigers in Colombo. The film corporation director, who has been promoting the cinema of Eezham Tamils, hails from a family with leftist background at Karaveddi in Jaffna.
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Muslims, Tamils protest against Colombo’s land grab in Musali, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 March 2017, 07:02 GMT]
Around 150 Tamils are staging a continuous protest demanding Colombo to release the lands seized by the occupying Navy at Mu’l’lik-ku’lam in the Musali division. In the meantime, more than 50 Muslims from Ma’richchuk-kaddi staged a protest condemning the Colombo government, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena and the SL Forest Department for having annexed their residential areas as part of the Vil-pattu reserved forest. Extremist Buddhist monks have been exerting pressure on SL State to Sinhalicise the reserved forest of Tamil-speaking peoples into Wilpatha. Despite repeated protests by Tamil-speaking Muslims, the Colombo Establishment, both during the times of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena, has been trying to seize the lands of Muslim residents.
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62 families in Champoor demand lands back from abandoned coal power plant

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 March 2017, 22:14 GMT]
The lands seized for the construction of drainage canals from the now abandoned coal power plant scheme in Champoor have not been released back to the land owners from Champoor and Kadatkaraich-cheanai, rights activists in Champoor complain. 27 families from Champoor and 35 families from Kadatkarai-cheanai are planning to launch a protest demanding their lands back, they said. The affected land-owners have also been sidelined in the provision of housing schemes so far. Colombo is reluctant to release these lands with a hidden motive of transferring the lands to some other purpose, the activists said.
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CBK draws flak in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 March 2017, 23:44 GMT]
Former SL President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK), who is the Chairperson of so-called Office For National Unity (ONUR) visited Jaffna on Saturday and addressed the Tamil audience along with NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran at Pazhai Veeman-kaamam in Thellip-pazhai, where she laid foundation stone for a Primary Health Care Centre. She was confronted by an uprooted mother, Ms Sarasvathy Tharmalingam, who demanded demilitarisation of villages with houses, properties and agricultural lands of more than 3,000 families just 500 meters away from the site of the event. NPC Chief Minister also went on record exposing serious lack in the so-called Peacebuilding Priority Plan (PPP) framework, which has excluded the participation of the key stakeholder, the Tamils as a party shaping the process.
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Uprooted Tamils in Mannaaar launch continuous protest braving SL Navy threat

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 March 2017, 12:21 GMT]
Around 120 uprooted Tamil villagers from Mu'l'lik-ku'lam in Musali divison of Mannaar mainland on Thursday morning launched a protest with a vow to continue and step up their struggle to liberate their village. The struggle was inspired by the continuous protest by the people of Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaith-theevu district, who have been waging their struggle for almost two months now. The uprooted Tamils residing at Malang-ku'lam and Kaayaa-kuzhi gathered along Mannaar - Puththa'lam Highway announcing their struggle. SL Navy and a Sinhala Assistant Divisional Secretary were threatening and harassing the people to end their protest. However, the protest continues.
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Establishment-centric Geneva approach, built on Colombo's LLRC, loses credibility

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 March 2017, 23:48 GMT]
Tamil Nadu activist Thirumurugan Gandhi from May 17 Movement and Tamil diaspora activist Lathan Suntharalingam from Switzerland, who have been observing the UN Human Rights Council discourse in Geneva throughout this session urged Eezham Tamils in the homeland to continue to focus on building struggle-centric movements that really go beyond the electoral politics in the island urging them to focus sharply on the fundamentals of the Tamil struggle in their continued protests. The constitutional discourse is a deception without political justice. Political justice cannot be achieved without justice for genocide, they told TamilNet in an in-depth interview this week. The entire UN Human Rights Council discourse in Geneva is Establishment-centric and not victim-centric, as people tend to believe, they said.
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