JDS calls for immediate release of arrested Sri Lanka journalist

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2011, 12:22 GMT]
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an group of Tamil and Sinhalese exiled journalists from Sri Lanka condemned the "outrageious arrest" of journalist and news editor of Lankaenews website, Benett Rupasinghe, and called for his immediate release. Rupasinghe was arrested on March 31 by Sri Lanka Police which the JDS called "another act of intimidation agaisnt media freedom."
Full story >>

Democratic uprising in Tamil Nadu crucial to changes in the region

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2011, 12:38 GMT]
If the so-called post 9/11 paradigm provided an opportunity for repressive forces to mobilise against various peoples in the world and if that worked against the liberation of Eezham Tamils, the recent uprising of peoples against establishments in North Africa and West Asia is a favourable trend the Eezham Tamils and the Tamils of Tamil Nadu have to carefully comprehend and make use of in bringing out changes in South Asia too. Progressive Sinhalese who see the need to recognise the nation of Eezham Tamils for a true reconciliation in the island should also join in. A democratic uprising in Tamil Nadu is crucial to changes in the entire region and that is a big hope for Eezham Tamils too. Tamil Nadu has the potentiality and the reasons for the uprising, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
Full story >>

Batticaloa development not transparent, benefits no residents, says Council member

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2011, 11:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has been planning development projects in the Batticaloa district to boost the image of Mahinda Chinthanaya and also to help its financial resources, but not to benefit the district residents, according to Mr.R. Thurairatnam, Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) member. Mr.Thurairatnam is also the leader of the Padmanaba wing of the EPRLF and representd Batticaloa district in the EPC.
Full story >>

Amid Sinhala colonization, Dinamina claims SLA vacates Jaffna Town HSZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2011, 12:50 GMT]
State run daily Dinamina claimed Friday that Sri Lanka military has vacated high security zones in Jaffna town after nearly twenty years of occupation. The announcement came after handing over of Subash Hotel, and the reopening of Jaffna's Victoria Road which links Jaffna-Palaly main road and the Clock Tower road, according to the daily. Large parts of Jaffna Peninsula still remains as prohibited zone for resettlement of evicted Tamil civilians, with Colombo selling large parcels of land to Sinhala businessmen for economic profiteering, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

SL colonial governor hands over 200 acres in Vaddakkachchi to Sinhala trader

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2011, 09:23 GMT]
Colonial governor of Sri Lanka Maj. Gen. Chandrasri, occupying the country of Eezham Tamils, ordered this week for the appropriation of 200 acres of land at Vaddakkachchi in the Ki’linochchi district for the benefit of a Sinhala trader from the South. This land is a part of a 1000-acre farm that was given to the displaced people in 1995. Occupying Sri Lanka now refuses to resettle people in the farm. The Sinhala trader personally went to the site to choose the part he needed and Chandrasri ordered officials that whatever was chosen by the trader should be given to him.
Full story >>

In eastern Tamil areas 80% public servants Sinhalese, says rights group

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 05:27 GMT]
Problems faced by Tamil people cannot be solved by deploying 80% of public servants from Sinhala community in government departments located in areas where one hundred percent of the population is Tamils, said Mr.M.M. Zarook, Kalmunai Regional Coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) while addressing a public awareness discussion on Human Rights (HR) held at Vellaave'li DS division.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka has sinister plans in confiscating lands of Mu’l’livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2011, 05:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka has sinister plans to confiscate the three large coastal villages, Mu’l’livaaykkaal East, Mu’l’livaaykkaal West and Ampalavan Pokka’nai, where the last stages of the Vanni war took place. Original inhabitants of 18 hamlets of the villages are not allowed to resettle and there are secret plans to relocate them to confiscate the stretch of rich marine wealth, said a press release of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF). Mines are still the pretext, but even after 22 months the SL military has not even permitted de-mining the land where thousands of Eezham Tamils and their fighters sacrificed their lives. Meanwhile, with Chinese assistance, colonial SL occupying the country of Eezham Tamils has recently built a fortress-like military base over a cemetery of the LTTE heroes at Koappaay in Jaffna.
Full story >>

Meaningful accountability comes by addressing the national question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2011, 10:33 GMT]
When events similar to what happened and is happening in the island led to international intervention and liberation of the affected in many other instances of the world, the issue of Eezham Tamils is consciously blunted as something concerned to insurgency, counterinsurgency and war crimes investigation of both. In the process, the main culprit of decades, i.e., the Sri Lankan state (not the regimes) escapes unscathed and is being saved by those who have a problem of irregularity with their appetite, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo responding to discussions in a live web-seminar conducted by Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research of Harvard University on 24 February.
Full story >>

Officials opposing Sinhala encroachment threatened with transfer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 12:10 GMT]
Tamil Divisional Secretaries in the eastern province are facing transfer threats due to the non-co-operation to implement Mahinda Chinthanaya in the Eastern Province in allowing encroachment by Sinhalese in Tamil villages. Already, Divisional Secretaries of the two DS divisions Koa'ra'laip-pattu South and Koa'ra'laip-pattu North in Batticaloa district are said to be informed of their transfer, sources in Eastern province said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka's rights violations compel investigations, says Australian MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 02:45 GMT]
Laurie Ferguson, Member of Australian Parliament for Werriwa and Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services, in his statement following submitting a private members bill for debate on "Humanitarian Issues During the War in Sri Lanka," Monday detailed the egregious violations of human rights in Sri Lanka and said he supported eminent personalities, Governments, and premier Rights organizations around the world in demanding an independent, international investigations into Sri Lanka's rights violations.
Full story >>

Sinhalese with SL Defense Ministry permit occupy Pulmoaddai coast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 February 2011, 16:24 GMT]
Muslim Fishermen Society in Pulmoaddai village, north of Trincomalee district, has complained to the civil authorities that their livelihood has been seriously affected by the Sinhala fishermen, who have encroached the Pulmoaddai coast. The Sri Lankan Defense Ministry has issued “permits” allowing them to construct “vaadi” (huts) along the coast for their stay, the Pulmoaddai MSF representatives say.
Full story >>

Occupying SL military intimidates mourning for Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2011, 21:47 GMT]
Colonial military of Sri Lanka occupying Jaffna, intimidated people of Valveddiththu’rai on Sunday to remove the black flags displayed to mourn the demise of Parvathy Amma, 80-year-old mother of the LTTE leader Pirapaharan. Hundreds of SL military intelligence personnel in civil dress, deployed at Theeruvil grounds where the remains are kept for public homage, made the local people themselves to remove the flags of mourning. Angered by the SLA harassment, representatives of civil organizations in Valveddiththu'rai warned the military personnel of repercussions if they continued to harass the people, when the occupying soldiers were instructing the people to remove the name of Mr. Pirapaharan from posters paying tribute to Parvathi Amma. Colonial Colombo behaves the same way the British treated the Kandyan Sinhalese, commented a journalist in Jaffna.
Full story >>

Jaffna mourns Parvathi Amma amidst SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2011, 07:52 GMT]
The people of Jaffna have flown black flags on Sunday, mourning the demise of 80-year-old Parvathi Amma (Vallipuram Parvathi), the mother of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan. Community organisations have flown their flags at half post amid harassments by the occupying Sri Lankan forces. The funeral of late Parvathi Amma is to take place at Valveddiththu'rai (VVT) Hindu Cremation Grounds on Tuesday. Born on 07 August, 1931, Parvathi Amma, resolved to stay with her people at her native village, after being denied entry to Tamil Nadu for medical treatment last year.
Full story >>

UNP leaders conduct election campaign in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 February 2011, 12:08 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said by defeating the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the forthcoming local election Tamil people could teach a good lesson to the government in power. UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya said so in responding to a question why his party has been contesting in the local elections in the districts of Jaffna and Vanni, at a media briefing held Thursday in Kaarainagar in Jaffna district.
Full story >>

Sinhala colonization in Vellaave'li discussed in Batticaloa DDC meeting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 February 2011, 23:19 GMT]
The encroachment of lands belonging to Tamils in Vellaave'li division by Sinhalese and the establishment of a camp of the Sri Lanka Army in Punaanai area in Koa'ralaippattu South DS division were brought to discussion. A group of Sinhalese settlers from the 36th colony, with Police protection, has encroached into more than thirty acres of land belonging to twenty Tamil families located in 35th colony, south of Batticaloa district and north of Ampaa'rai district in the Vellaave'li DS division.
Full story >>

Plan to “Sinhalacise” Eastern University discussed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 February 2011, 04:32 GMT]
A plan to appoint Sinhalese academicians as the Vice Chancellor, Registrar and Dean of Faculties to the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) was seriously considered at a meeting held to discuss the development of EUSL presided by Minister of Higher Education Mr.S.Dissanayake, education sources in Batticaloa said. The meeting was held amid protests made by the Batticaloa district Tamil parliamentarians against the appointment of Sinhalese as the Competent Authority to the EUSL.
Full story >>

Sinhalese encroach ancestoral lands owned by Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 February 2011, 02:40 GMT]
A group of Sinhalese settlers from the 36th colony, with Sri Lankan Police protection, has encroached into more than thirty acres of land belonging to twenty Tamil families located in 35th colony, south of Batticaloa district and north of Ampaa'rai district in the Vellaave'li DS division, civil sources in Batticaloa said. The affected Tamil families have been residing in the lands that were legally handed over to them by the District Land Development (DLD) in and after 1956. The families possess the land deeds affirming ownership of the affected lands which include residential plot, high land and fertile field to grow paddy, civil sources added.
Full story >>

Mahaaweli Sinhala farmers to be settled in Vavuniyaa, Polonnaruwa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 09:20 GMT]
100,000 families under the Mahaaweli scheme don’t have enough land. Steps will be taken to provide them with land in the Vavuniyaa and Polonnaruwa districts, said D. M. C. Dissanayake of Sri Lanka’s Director General of the Mahaweli Authority, according to The Island, Tuesday. The north has become a dumping ground of Sinhalese unwanted in the south so that the double purpose of getting rid of them as well as terrorising and subjugating or chasing away the Tamils from their country could be achieved, says resettlement officials in the north.
Full story >>

Genocidal Colombo unleashes new war on unarmed Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 07:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka is now waging a new genocidal war on unarmed and demographically weakened Tamils after converting their country imperceptibly into an open concentration camp. The new war is focussed on the Jaffna Peninsula. Many Tamils believe that by stressing on the negation of their independence, India and USA continue to encourage Colombo, smokescreen the current war by projecting it ‘reconciliation’ cum post-war ‘development’ and thus actually play a party to the war and genocide. All these decades India and USA competitively negotiating the national question by upholding the integrity of a fundamentally flawed state has brought in only untold misery. At least now, why shouldn’t they try in unison, a genuine reconciliation by the option of secession? Further delays will convert the island a bleeding spot of the region for ages, cautions a Jaffna university academic.
Full story >>

HSZ lands in Jaffna sold to Sinhala businessmen

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 01:56 GMT]
Large stretches of lands in Jaffna Peninsula in the so-called High Security Zones and in other areas where people are not permitted to resettle in the guise of landmines are hurriedly sold to Sinhala businessmen ostensibly to start ‘industrial estates’. 100 acres of land near Ezhuthumadduvaa’l railway station along the A9 Highway has been recently sold to an influential Sinhala businessman. Another Sinhalese attempted buying 80 acres between Ki’laali and Puloappazhai. Occupying military officials are also said to be interested in buying lands. Industrial estates are a smokescreen, but Sinhala colonisation in that stretch to completely seal off the people of Jaffna within their own peninsula is the strategy, political circles in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, in Valikaamam HSZ, a Sinhalese is said to be running a farm at Vasaavi’laan and another indiscriminately quarry limestone near Keerimalai.
Full story >>