Colombo proves State recognition for demographic genocide at entrance to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 January 2017, 23:02 GMT]
The Colombo regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe has officially donated 50 houses on Monday through ‘National’ Housing Development Authority (NHDA) to the Sinhala colony, that has been created by the occupying Sinhala military and Sinhala-Buddhist extremist ‘Sinhala Ravaya’ at the strategic entrance to Jaffna at Naavat-kuzhi. The controversial move comes amidst strong opposition from provincial councillors of Northern Provincial and the position taken by the latest District Coordinating Committee (DCC) meeting, which was co-chaired by SL Deputy Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran and SL government agent to Jaffna N. Vethanayahan. The UNP has exerted pressure on ITAK, proposing a deal of 200 houses to Tamils in the same area in order to proceed with the NHDA recognition of the military-enforced colony of demographic genocide.
Full story >>

NPC Councillor vows to take next-phase of protests to foreign missions in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2017, 17:10 GMT]
Northern Provincial Councillor Mrs Ananthy Sasitharan has vowed to take the next step of struggle by the relatives of the enforced disappeared to the diplomatic missions of foreign powers that were responsible for urging Tamils to surrender and move towards Vavuniyaa during the final phase of the Tamil genocide in 2009. In the meantime, the kith and kin of enforced disappeared who were on a hunger strike temporarily ended their struggle on the 4th day on Thursday after SL Deputy Defence Secretary has brokered a meeting between the hunger strikers and the SL Prime Minister on 09th February. Two symbolic hunger-strikes were conducted in Jaffna on Thursday in support of the relatives of enforced disappeared in Vavuniyaa during the last phase of Tamil genocide.
Full story >>

Health of hunger striking elderly women deteriorates, Wigneswaran urges immediate action

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 January 2017, 20:35 GMT]
The health situation of the hunger striking elderly women of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances in SL military controlled Vavuniyaa during and after the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009 has escalated on the third day of their fast-unto death campaign demanding immediate answers from the SL State and its backers on the whereabouts of their kith and kin. Medical sources in Vavuniyaa have urged hospitalisation of four women who were treated by the doctors on Wednesday. But, the hunger strikers have refused to cooperate and continue their struggle. In the meantime, several activists in Jaffna, Trincomalee and other places have called for escalation of hunger strike in other places. Social media activists are also organising a fasting campaign expressing their solidarity.
Full story >>

USA, Norway, UK, EU and Japan answerable for Vavuniyaa missing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2017, 22:32 GMT]
The USA, the EU, the UK, Norway and Japan, demanded Eezham Tamils to move into SL military controlled Vavuniyaa towards the end of war without having any international mechanism on place for their protection. Apart from those who perished, the number of people who were unaccounted for during the genocidal onslaught, a staggering 146,679, is the potential figure of ‘missing persons’. The SL State has put the number of Tamil detainees and prisoners below 200. The genocidal State refuses to recognize them as political prisoners. In the meantime, trauma-stricken kith and kin who survived the Tamil genocide, have been made to carry the photos of their missing ones and expect justice from nowhere. In an attempt to get attention, they have launched a hunger strike at Vavuniyaa this week.
Full story >>

Structural genocide against Tamil fishermen reaches all-time high in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 January 2017, 23:38 GMT]
The structural genocide being waged by the Colombo Establishment, particularly against the Eezham Tamil fishermen in Mullaiththeevu district, has reached an all-time high in the history of the district, says Mariyathas Anthonipillai, the chairman of the Federation of Fisheries Associations in the district, told TamilNet on Monday. More than 50% of the coastal stretch with access to fish has been taken over by the intruding fishermen from South. “If the SL Fisheries Ministry gives permission to put up 20 different sites along Mullaiththeevu coast for fishermen from South, the intruders go to the extent of putting vaadis at 80 places. The native fishermen are not even allowed to have their huts at one single place between Nallatha'n'nith-thoduvaay in the north of the district to Kokkuth-thoduvaay and Mukaththuvaaram in the south of the district,” Mr Mariyathas said.
Full story >>

Tamil land officials, uprooted villagers urge action from Eastern Tamil politicians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 January 2017, 22:44 GMT]
Armed policemen coming under Colombo’s rule in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils are operating against the uprooted Tamil land-owners in Batticaloa district, the villagers from Ee’raavoor-pattu (Chengkaladi) DS division have complained to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Sachchithanantham Viyalendran. The land-owners who were engaged in clearing their lands at Chavukkadi, located 18 km northeast of Batticaloa city within the Chengkaladi division, were recently blocked by armed SL policemen. Some Muslim people were accompanying the Sinhala policemen with the claim of ownership to the same lands. The armed policemen have told Tamil villagers, despite their possession of land deeds and permits to prove their ownership, that their documents were invalid. The SL policemen have expelled Tamil land-owners from 150 acres of lands already, the uprooted Tamils complain.
Full story >>

Eezham Tamils mark MGR’s birth centenary

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2017, 21:53 GMT]
The birth centenary of the late M.G. Ramachandran, a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, who extended his support to the struggle of Eezham Tamils and wholeheartedly backed both Thanthai S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and LTTE Leader V. Pirapaharan, was emotionally marked in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils on Tuesday. The people of Aaladi in Valveddith-thu’rai (VVT), mobilized themselves to renovate the statue of MGR, which was destroyed by the Sinhala military near Mr Pirapaharan’s house.
Full story >>

Ancient coastal village in Jaffna transformed into ‘Sinhala Military Zone’ resort

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2017, 23:07 GMT]
The native villagers from Mayiliddi in Jaffna have witnessed this week, from distance, how their houses and the coastal strip have been transformed into a Sinhala Military Zone and a resort for the families of occupying military and Sinhala visitors from South with connection to Colombo's military Establishment. Mayiliddi, situated between KKS and Palaali, was the major fishing port of Eezham Tamils in Jaffna for centuries and was surrounded by fertile agricultural villages. On Pongkal Day, occupying Colombo was waging a propaganda that a fishing port was handed back to resettling people. What was released to people only a narrow access of 400 meters of a fishing jetty situated close to KKS at Oo'ra'ni. The uprooted fishermen, who went to Oo'ra'ni were able to witness how Mayiliddi coast has been transformed into a Sinhala Military Zone.
Full story >>

SL military intensifies human surveillance on visitors to Champoor

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2017, 22:21 GMT]
The occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka has deployed various actors to spy on those visiting Champoor in Moothoor East of Trincomalee district. All visitors, including the relatives and friends of resettled Eezham Tamils in Champoor, are being subjected to human surveillance through auto rickshaw drivers based in Moothoor town, bus drivers and public sector officials. SL Navy intelligence wing in Champoor has instructed auto drivers in Moothoor town to report details of external visitors, including those from other villages in Trincomalee, immediately after driving each visitor to Champoor. Likewise, shop owners, bus drivers and public sector officials have to report details of those visiting Champoor. The freedom of speech of resettled Champoor people has become much more limited than how it was earlier during the Rajapaksa regime.
Full story >>

Genocidal Colombo attempts to seize lands from resettling Tamils in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 January 2017, 16:02 GMT]
30 Eezham Tamil families who were uprooted from a housing scheme in Poththuvil division of Ampaa'rai district are now more worried about permanently losing two thirds of their lands to the occupying Sinhala military and the Forest Department of genocidal Sri Lanka. In 1985, the families secured their settlement, which became known as 30th Ward. Initially, each family was provided with 2 acres of lands, including residential and upper-lying lands for agriculture. But, the families lost their houses and their agricultural lands in late 1980's as the occupying SL Army moved in, setting up a military base near the coastal strip of the Kanakar-kiraamam GS division.
Full story >>

No Pongkal celebrations for resettled Champoor Tamils in 2017

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2017, 21:54 GMT]
Tamil families who resettled in the lands released in Champoor after being uprooted from their native village for 10 years, complain that they have been abandoned without basic infrastructure or basic facilities. There have been no compensation for the destruction caused by the SL State on their property. Even the promise of providing dray rations for 6 months was not kept by the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. The people were not able to celebrate Pongkal festival as they were among the hardest hit by the drought.
Full story >>

Sinhala colonists step up hate crimes against Tamil fishermen in occupied Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2017, 22:37 GMT]
A fishing boat, nets and a motorbike parked along Tha’n’ni-mu’rippu reservoir were destroyed by Sinhala colonists on Tuesday, allege the villagers of Tha’n’ni-mu’rippuk-ku’lam in Karai-thu’raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district. There are only Tamil-speaking fishermen in all the villages surrounding the reservoir. The reservoir used for irrigation of agricultural lands during the cultivation seasons is also the source for fresh-water fishing for Tamil and Muslim villagers. They depend on fresh-water fishing in between the cultivation seasons. A systematic and large-scale invasion by intruding Sinhala fishermen, who come from distant Padawiya and Ma’nal-aa’ru (Sinhalicised into Weli-oya) has not only threatened the livelihood of the native villagers, but also destructive to the eco-system, the local fishermen complain.
Full story >>

ITAK leaders have violated Tamil people’s democratic mandate: Premachandran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2017, 22:39 GMT]
The very basic demands of Tamils have been totally denied, both by the constitutional assembly tasked with drafting the new constitution and by the political parties in the South. On what basis, the two ITAK politicians R. Sampanthan and M. Sumanthiran continue to be part of the constitutional assembly, asks EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran, who took up the matter in a recent coordinating committee meeting of the TNA. The Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), under the leadership of Thanthai S.J.V Chelvanayakam, boycotted the 1972 Constitution as the constitutional proposal didn’t respect the demands of Tamils. Similarly, the TULF boycotted the 1978 constitution brought by J.R. Jayawardene. There has been no democratic discussion or debate within the ranks of the ITAK. The two other parties, Sitharthan's PLOTE and TELO led by Selvam Adaikalanthan are also answerable, he said.
Full story >>

SL military deploys ‘media agents’ to deceive uprooted Tamils in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 January 2017, 15:07 GMT]
Major General Mahesh Senanayake, the Jaffna commander of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, Reginald Cooray, who is Colombo's colonial governor to North and Angajan Ramanathan, the SLFP’s nominated parliamentarian who was earlier promoted by the Rajapaksa regime to circumvent Colombo regime’s dependency on Douglas Devananda's EPDP in Jaffna, are now jointly deployed in a covert operation of counter-insurgency and subversive nature with the intension of bringing disunity among the poverty-stricken section of uprooted people from Valikaamam North who are still languishing in 29 of 34 ‘welfare’ camps in Jaffna district.
Full story >>

8,500 landowner families remain uprooted due to Sinhala militarisation of Jaffna District

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 January 2017, 15:31 GMT]
The Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka is still occupying 5,322 acres of private lands owned by 8,065 families in Jaffna district, according to latest figures from the District Secretariat. Among the 14 administrative divisions in the district, 7,921 families uprooted from their 4,589 acres of lands are from Valikaamam North, which is administratively managed by Thellippazhai Divisional Secretariat. Of these, only 791 families (10%) reside in the so-called welfare camps. The remaining 7,130 landowner-families, uprooted from the fertile Valikaamam North, reside outside these camps in the island or elsewhere. In the meantime, Colombo's regime and its global backers are trying to deceive the poverty-stricken 10% in order to ensure permanent genocidal occupation of fertile Valikaamam North and the strategic coastline with its rich fish beds that belong to the nation of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Outside forces abet genocidal Colombo, deceive uprooted Tamils in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2017, 23:18 GMT]
The Foreign Ministry and Resettlement Ministry of occupying Colombo are working together with a number of Colombo-based foreign ‘diplomats’ and ‘development’ conquistadors in silencing the opinion of uprooted Eezham Tamils languishing in 34 ‘welfare’ camps in the Jaffna peninsula, Tamil development workers in Jaffna say. The main agenda of outside funders is targeting on sustaining the UNP-SLFP regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe rather than adhering to their own principles and procedures of development assistance. In the meantime, representatives of uprooted people from Valikaamam North said public civil servants were being actively deployed by the SL State with the offer of finding ‘alternative lands’ abandoning their 25-year-old struggle of regaining their villages in Valikaamam North.
Full story >>

Erection of Buddha statues in areas where no Buddhists live, has become despicable: MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 January 2017, 23:11 GMT]
The widespread erection of Buddha statues in the Northern and Eastern provinces, especially in places where no Buddhists live and Bo trees being regarded as the exclusive property of Sinhala Buddhists, have now become analogous to ‘despicable’ symbols in the minds of Tamil-speaking people as these have been used as tools of occupation disrespecting the prospects for harmony between the different religions, say senior Tamil-speaking politicians in the North and East. Tamil-speaking people are not opposed to peaceful co-existence of religions, but when these symbols reflect ethno religious aggression, these become despicable in their minds, says K. Thurairatnasingham, a senior Tamil National Alliance (TNA) national list parliamentarian from Trincomalee. In the meantime, several Hindu temples in the East have witnessed theft and desecration in recent days.
Full story >>

Overfishing by Sinhala intruders out of control, Tamil fishermen at the verge of anger

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 January 2017, 21:27 GMT]
While the number of families dependent on fishing in the five districts of Northern Province has sharply grown by 6,000 units within the five years since 2010, the coastal stretch dotted with fishing ‘paadu’s (sea beds falling within the scope of draw-nets of local fishermen) between Mullaiththeevu and Mukaththuvaaram have been drastically reduced due to the encroachment by intruding Sinhala fishermen from other provinces. According to the district-wise figures, there were 35,478 families, dependent on fishing as their livelihood in 2010. By November 2015, the figure had risen to 41,491 families due to resettlement and due to the lack of other income sources. The 19% growth of fishing families comes despite the most densely populated district in the North, the Jaffna district, registering the lowest population growth in the entire island.
Full story >>

Merged North-East, spelt-out federal solution should be TNA's ultimatums: Ariyanethiran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 January 2017, 23:43 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the East remains firm in the demand that the leadership of the TNA should reconsider its continued cooperation with Maithiripala and Wickramasinge regime if Colombo is not prepared to spell-out federal solution and merged North-East in the constitutional proposals, said TNA politician and former parliamentarian P. Ariyanethiran passing a clear message to Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and the incumbent hierarchy of the TNA alliance. The TNA politician from Batticaloa, has condemned Wijayadasa Rajapaksha, the ‘Justice’ and Buddha Sasana minister of Colombo for the remarks he made in Batticaloa during his latest visit to Batticaloa. While legal cases are lodged in the courts, the SL ‘Justice’ minister should not have gone on record calling the extremist Sinhala monk as representing the aspirations of Sinhala people in Batticaloa district, he said.
Full story >>

Fan club in Jaffna struggles to erect birth centenary statue for MGR

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 December 2016, 22:10 GMT]
The birth centenary of the late M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), the actor-turned Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, falls on 17 January 2017. To mark the contribution of both MGR and the late Jayalalithaa to the Tamil cause in the island, All Ceylon MGR Fan Club, based in Jaffna has been trying to erect memorial statues within the city limits of Jaffna in remembrance of both the late chief ministers of Tamil Nadu. However, the Colombo Establishment, which is controlling the affairs of Jaffna Municipal Council through an appointed Commissioner, is sabotaging the attempt, complained Pon Mathimukarajah Vijayakanth, the chairman of MGR Club at a press conference held at the Jaffna Press Club on Friday.
Full story >>