Mukaththuvaaram, Modara

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 December 2013, 20:04 GMT]
The river mouth
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Villages gone, buildings razed to ground in SL military appropriated Valikamaam North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 December 2013, 07:53 GMT]
Almost all the buildings that were situated in the 6,400 acres of lands seized by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Valikaamam North in Jaffna have been completely bulldozed by the SL military, according to those who have witnessed the destruction in recent days. The entire area of fertile cultivation and residential lands now looks like single piece of desert land, they said. Except the buildings used by the genocidal military at the ‘forward line’ and the building at the rear, close to the Palaali military base, everything else has been razed to the ground. The SL military is transforming the former High Security Zone into a Sinhala Military Zone to encapsulate the Palaali military complex in Jaffna with a Sinhala military colony of the occupying soldiers from South.
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SL military governor declares NPC's inaugural budget null and void

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 December 2013, 23:01 GMT]
While the elected members of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) on Thursday passed the inaugural budget of the NPC after 3 days of sittings at their secretariat in Kaithadi, Colombo's military governor of North, Major General (retd) G.A. Chandrasiri on Friday hastily summoned the officials and secretaries of various ministries to a conference at Koappaay College of Education and told the officials that the budget was not valid until he approved particular sections of the budget. The TNA was not abiding by the Sri Lankan Constitution in preparing the budget, he has told the officials.
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Violent Buddhist monk defies civil administration, steps up Sinhalicisation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 December 2013, 23:46 GMT]
The Chief Incumbent of Buddhist temple in Batticaloa, Ven. Ampitiye Sumanarathana Thera, who behaved violently at Ma'nmunai South-West (Paddippazhai) Divisional Secretariat, threatening the Tamil Divisional Secretary Ms Vilvaratnam continues the Sinhalicisation project at Batticaloa – Ampaa’rai border village, Kevu’liyaamadu, with the backing of the occupying Sri Lankan military. In the meantime, more Sinhalese were being brought into Kevu'liyaa-madu to occupy Tamil lands, civil sources in Batticaloa said.
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Australia's Lawyers blast Abbott, Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 November 2013, 14:29 GMT]
In hard-hitting articles appearing in the Lawyer's Weekly, the Law Council of Australia's (LCA's) president Michael Colbran QC, criticized Sri Lanka over the worsening rule of law in Sri Lanka and expressed concern over the "reports of threats and intimidation directed at members of the legal profession and judiciary." The Law Weekly also slammed Prime Minister Tony Abbott whose recent comments appeared to condone the allegations of torture by Sri Lanka security forces, as “deplorably simplistic," and that Abbott's assertion "is contrary to international law as well as Sri Lanka’s own Constitution which prohibits torture without exception," adding also that "[Abbott's] remark underscores a basic lack of understanding regarding the problem of impunity that Sri Lanka, now the chair of the Commonwealth, faces."
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NPC administration under iron fist of SL Governor Chandrasiri

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 November 2013, 23:46 GMT]
Demonstrating the consolidation of power in the Sri Lankan unitary and military system, the colonial governor in North, Major General (retd) GA Chandrasiri is continuing to demonstrate his executive powers including the cadre management of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) without giving room for the elected NPC to have any say in the affairs of the NPC.
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Family of Tamil activist threatened in Mannaar after ‘Sri Lanka CHOGM’

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 November 2013, 14:05 GMT]
Sri Lankan Military Intelligence operatives have threatened the wife of a Tamil activist in Mannaar, while she was at her house with her 2 months old baby and a 5-year-old child on Thursday. Her husband, Jude Bashil Sosai (Sunesh) was at forefront in the demonstration held in Jaffna on 15 November demanding the attention by the visiting British PM David Cameron. The threat by alleged SL military operatives was reported on Thursday when Mr Sunesh was on his way to attend a meeting in Colombo. The president of the Citizens' Committee of Mannaar District, Rev. Fr. E. Sebamalai, in a letter addressed to SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa on behalf of the citizens' committee, on Friday said the Committee suspected Sri Lankan armed forces for the threat issued on Mannaar District Coordinator of National Fisheries Society Organization (NAFSO) Mr Sunesh and his family.
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Reports of disappearances surface in wake of Sri Lanka CHOGM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 November 2013, 19:54 GMT]
A 35-year-old Tamil activist, who was actively involved in mobilising support to the victory of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the Provincial Council elections, has been reported missing since Friday in Ki'linochchi. Meanwhile, in Jaffna, an alert public apprehended two culprits, allegedly operated by the occupying Sri Lankan military, when the squad attempted to abduct a 21-year-old Tamil girl in broad daylight on Hospital Road in Jaffna on Monday. When the public caught the two Sinhala-speaking operatives, tens of occupying Sri Lankan soldiers and policemen protected the squad and assaulted the civilians, who had caught the abductors. The fate of another woman recently abducted by a similar squad at Punnaalaik-kadduvan in Jaffna is not known.
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Indian Foreign Secretary thanks Sampanthan for Jaffna invitation to Indian PM

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 November 2013, 23:37 GMT]
Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh who accompanied Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, when she met the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians last Wednesday repeatedly thanked R Sampanthan, MA Sumanthiran and Suresh Premachandran of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for having extended an invitation to the Indian PM to visit the island appreciating the ‘usefulness’ of the invitation that had coincided with the controversial Indian delegation’s attendance to the CHOGM, informed sources within the TNA told TamilNet on Monday.
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Colombo forced Tamil doctors to lie: Dr. Varatharajah

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 November 2013, 13:14 GMT]
Former Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) for Mullaiththeevu, Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah, currently in exile in the U.S, says in video documentary aired in India's NewsX TV station that Colombo, after keeping him and four other doctors in prison at the end of the war, forced the doctors to lie to foreign media and to the Organizations accusing Sri Lanka of allegations of committing war-crimes to neutralize the allegations. Dr Varatharajah said that living under such conditions had become unbearable that he had to seek ways to get out of Sri Lanka with his family. The doctors were accused by Colombo of giving false accounts of civilian deaths during the war, and were forced to recant the figures in a well publicized news conference. Dr Varatharajah, said he is talking voluntarily to set the record straight now that he does not have to fear for his life.
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Mass struggle, joint action with Tamil Nadu and Diaspora to advance Tamil cause: TNPF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 November 2013, 12:34 GMT]
Citing the recent elections to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and projecting it as a signal of Colombo beginning to deliver something, there was an effort to make many countries attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). To convince the heads of governments not to hesitate attending CHOGM, a message was also passed to the effect that the NPC Chief Minister would be invited to the meet. Had the Indian Prime Minister attended the CHOGM, coupled with this propaganda, the Tamil question would have been endorsed as an internal affair of Sri Lanka. But, this didn't happen, thanks to the non-attendance by the Indian PM, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) in Jaffna on Saturday.
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Uprooted Tamils in Trincomalee demand justice for genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 November 2013, 14:37 GMT]
A section of uprooted Tamil families from Champoor, now staying at one of four so-called welfare centres in Trincomalee, staged a protest on Saturday carrying slogans that demanded justice for genocide and urged global attention on the continued refusal by the Colombo government in allowing them to resettle in their own lands in Moorthoor East. On Friday, a day before the protest, the occupying Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives, went on a house-to-house and camp-to-camp round instructing the Tamils not to take part in any protest during the ‘Sri Lanka CHOGM’. Subsequently, the protest was held in the premises of Ki’liveddi camp. The SL police who came to the Ki’liveddi camp on Saturday confronted the protestors and said they should not carry any placards with slogans. However, the uprooted people were firm in staging their protest with the presence of Tamil politicians.
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British PM disappoints families of missing persons in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 November 2013, 12:27 GMT]
Demanding to witness their plight in person, hundreds of kith and kin of missing persons took to the venue in Jaffna on Friday when the visiting British Prime Minister David Camaron was scheduled to meet with Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran and R. Sampanthan of the TNA at Jaffna Public Library. British PM David Cameron was taken to the meeting without the possibility of even witnessing the mothers and the family members who were carrying the photographs of their loved ones.
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PPT to investigate British, US, Indian role in Sri Lanka's genocide of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 November 2013, 12:49 GMT]
The Sri Lankan state as well as Britain, India and the USA will be accused of orchestrating a genocide on the Tamil people by the International Human Rights Association Bremen (IMRV) and the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka (IFPSL). The charge will be heard by a Tribunal held under the aegis of the Rome based 'Permanent Peoples Tribunal' (PPT). The 'People's Tribunal' relies on a high profile panel of judges that has been selected by the PPT to invoke a robust moral opinion. The PPT in Rome has sent the letters to the 4 States concerned informing them of the investigation to be held in Germany in December 2013, informed sources told TamilNet.
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SL military issues death threats to elected members amidst presence of foreign journalists

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 November 2013, 12:26 GMT]
Amidst the presence of foreign journalists who have come to Jaffna in connection with the CHOGM meet, alleged operatives of the occupying SL military have been issuing death threats to the organisers of the protest scheduled to take place on Tuesday. In the early hours of Monday, heads of dead cows were dumped in front of the houses of chairman and deputy chairman of the elected civic body of Valikaamam North. The act, which is not only considered as deeply insulting, but also as reminding the days of beheading, comes as both the elected Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members were engaged in organising a protest against the transformation of former ‘High Security Zone’ lands into ‘Sinhala Military Zone’ and the demolition of houses by the SL military in Valikaamam North.
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Former associate of Jaffna Mayoress alleges widespread corruption in JMC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 November 2013, 23:53 GMT]
S. Vijayakanth, an elected member of the EPDP in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) and a former close associate of Ms Yogeswari Patkunam, the mayoress of Jaffna, has blamed the JMC for not having democratic sittings according to the procedures. The general assembly has not been convened for the last three months, he said on Thursday. The lifetime of the current administration was extended by one year from August 2013 by SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Following disputes, the EPDP has sacked Mr Viajayakanth from the party blaming him on corruption charges. Now, the former EPDP member has vowed of revealing details of widespread corruption in the JMC administration.
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200 years of British colonial outlook continues to haunt Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 November 2013, 16:08 GMT]
After British colonialism waging the war on Kandy in 1815, administratively uniting the island and creating unitary Ceylon for colonial geopolitical purposes, the next major war of international dimensions was fought against the nation of Eezham Tamils in 2009, in which the genocide was predetermined. While Washington and New Delhi follow the British colonial outlook of keeping the island as one unit, whatever the human cost could be, today’s Britain itself is one of the driving forces behind the ‘strategic partnership.’ Those who doubt the West’s equal culpability with New Delhi should recollect the ‘strategic partnership’ call made in Chennai by US State Department during the war and what the UK is doing today on CHOGM, writes a political observer in Jaffna.
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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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More evidences surface on antiquity of Jaffna fort site

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 November 2013, 18:15 GMT]
More and more evidences surfacing at Jaffna fort indisputably prove that the colonial fort was built on an earlier archaeological site going back to the early centuries of the Common Era. The latest findings are a terracotta tablet of folk religious affinities and brick structural remains found 4.5 feet below the rampart walls at the western side of the fort. Earlier, Rouletted Ware pottery and a Lakhsmi coin datable to the early centuries of the Common Era, pottery of c. 5th century CE, and Arab-Chola-Chinese pottery of 7 – 13 centuries CE were found at three locations in the fort site, since Netherlands funding Colombo has embarked on renovating the Dutch fort in the last couple of years.
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SL military issues death threat to NPC members, TNA parliamentarian in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 October 2013, 10:13 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers deployed in transforming the former High Security Zone in Valikaamam North into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) on Monday rounded up and threatened a delegation of TNA parliamentarian, elected members of the Northern Provincial Council and the members of two civic bodies, at gunpoint on Monday, when the delegation went to the site following the complaints by the uprooted people that the occupying SLA was demolishing their houses using bulldozers. When the TNA parliamentarian E. Saravanapavan and the elected members of Northern Provincial Council M.K. Sivajilingam and Tharmalingam Sitharthan were watching the demolition, armed SLA soldiers with their officers rounded up and threatened the delegation at gunpoint and threatened them to leave the site after deleting photos and recordings from their cameras.
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