Websites attacked after exposure of Lyca news manipulation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2014, 23:14 GMT]
Two UK-based websites have been subjected to DDoS attacks and vulnerability exploitation attempts on Tuesday, following their news stories exposing the Rajapaksa connections of a Diaspora Tamil-owned multinational business establishment, Lyca Mobiles group, and a recent media twist on an incident that took place in Colombo airport involving the group, said the editors of Inioru.com and Lankanewsweb.com to TamilNet on Wednesday.
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‘Solidarity of oppressed nations needed to defeat global system of oppression’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2014, 20:47 GMT]
“The system that oppresses us is global. The system that oppresses us is united and in solidarity with each other. So we need to be in solidarity with each other against the same system that oppresses us. The Tamil national liberation struggle is a case in point. Your enemies are our enemies”, said Kurdish activist Memed Aksoy, urging for greater solidarity among oppressed nations. In an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Sunday, Mr. Aksoy, who is also a filmmaker and writer, talking about the current situation in Kobane, the nature of the ISIS and its supporters, the duplicity of Turkey, the PKK’s commitment to the peace process, and the changing policies of the West towards the Kurds, gave a concise picture of the Kurdish resistance and the local and global challenges it faces.
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Tamil Nadu researcher testifies to OISL on Indian complicity in genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2014, 23:43 GMT]
“While several actors including US, UK, China, UN involved in different ways in the conflict in Sri Lanka which led to genocide of Eelam Tamils, the actor most severely and the most consistently perplexed in the Sri Lankan war has been India,” says University of Bergen Research Fellow, Vijayshankar Asokan in a submission he sent on “Indian complicity in the genocide of Eezham Tamils” to OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka. A native of Tamil Nadu and studying in Norway since 2008, Mr. Vijayshankar in his submission was extensively citing Mr. Ku. Ramakrishnan, General Secretary of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam, Mr. Erik Solheim, the failed peace facilitator and various reports as well as statements.
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Landslide victims in need of counselling in Tamil, say relief workers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2014, 23:49 GMT]
While assistance has reached landslide victims of Meeriaya-bedda from the grassroots from different parts of the island, independent relief workers who have been assisting the victims of one of massive landslides in recent times complain lack of psychological counselling for the affected children and the adults. They also need proper temporary shelters and new lands for permanent housing need to be identified. “None of these has been forthcoming,” an NGO activist told TamilNet. In the meantime, the student community of the University of Jaffna, the Tamil National Alliance provincial councillors of the Northern Province, Tamil National Peoples Front and Tamil civil society representatives in the North have mobilised immediate humanitarian assistance from the people and sent their first lorry with supplies on 30th October.
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Colombo sniffs at emails being sent to OISL from the island

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2014, 15:04 GMT]
Intelligence officers attached to the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry have given secret instructions to Internet providers in Colombo to covertly scan the emails addressed to OHCHR Investigations on Sri Lanka (OISL), a reliable source in Colombo told TamilNet on Thursday. The intelligence officers have deployed simple network packet sniffing techniques to make copies of the messages that are addressed to the OISL. A lot of messages are also being discarded, while some are allowed to proceed in order to avoid provocation, the source further said. To ensure that their messages have reached the intended destination, the people who have made submissions should request acknowledgement from the OISL, an activist who got a bounced message told TamilNet.
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More than 300 missing after massive landslide in Up-Country

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2014, 23:14 GMT]
In one of the biggest landslide in the island, more than 66 Up-Country Tamil families are feared dead on Wednesday in Meeriyabedda in Badulla District in the Up Country. While official reports said 14 dead bodies were recovered, unconfirmed reports put the figure at 30. Tamil relief workers in the Up Country said more than 300 people are feared missing and there is no hope for survivors. While a section of the people have got assistance, people who have sought security at Poonagala Tamil School are yet to receive proper assistance, reports reaching Colombo said Wednesday night.
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Tamil Nadu CM urged to form foreign policy on Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2014, 17:16 GMT]
The Government of Tamil Nadu should come forward to take a lead in the future in representing the aspirations of Eelam Tamils in the world arena in demanding justice for the genocide committed against the Eelam Tamils, Ananthy Sasitharan, a councillor from the Northern Provincial Council, has said in an interview to TamilNet Palaka’ni during her visit to Europe in September, when she made a submission in person to the OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka. “We urge the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to have a foreign policy with regards to Eelam Tamils,” the councillor from the Northern Provincial Council said.
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SL military steps up threats against OISL submissions

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2014, 09:48 GMT]
The SL military has arrested a Tamil man in Ki’linochchi, allegedly in possession of forms to be sent to the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) in Geneva on Saturday, according to reports from Vanni on Sunday. The SL Police has informed the family of Sinnathamby Krishnaraja from Ira’nai-maa-nakar in Muzhangkaavil that Mr Krisnarajah was being taken to Colombo for interrogations. As the deadline for submissions to OISL in nearing, the SL military has instructed the Internet café owners to alert them on people scanning documents for submission, a net-café owner in Ki’linochchi told TamilNet.
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NESoHR releases collated reports 2005-2009

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2014, 21:23 GMT]
North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), which was formed during the internationally mediated peace process as the Human Rights body of the Tamil Nation and functioned in the Tamil homeland from July 2004 till January 2009, has released its human rights reports from 2005 till January 2009. Given the current climate of investigation by the OHCHR on Sri Lanka these old NESoHR reports are published in a large single file with continuous page numbers and content pages for easy access, according to Attorney K. Sivapalan and Dr Malathy of NESoHR. Majority of the atrocities covered in these reports falls within the period currently being investigated by the OHCHR. “It is well known that the UN and other international agencies ignored these atrocities when they were taking place. NESoHR team hopes that the OISL investigators will pay due attention to these reports,” they further said.
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14th death anniversary of journalist Nimalarajan observed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2014, 23:12 GMT]
Amidst the prevailing harassments against the journalists in the North, more than 40 journalists from Jaffna peninsula and Vanni mainland gathered at the Jaffna Press Club on Sunday marking the 14th death anniversary of Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, who was assassinated on 19 October 2000. The journalists also paid their tributes to the veteran journalist, Iya Sachchithanantham, who had recently passed away in Jaffna at the age of 64.
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Action needed in UK in converting legal victory into political victory: V. Koppe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2014, 21:10 GMT]
“It is a legal victory, but obviously, it should also be won [as] a political victory. And this decision would be a perfect moment to start negotiations again,” said LTTE’s lawyer Victor Koppe, commenting on Thursday’s European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgement in the LTTE vs. EU case. For reasons not sure to him, Great Britain and the Netherlands, the former colonisers of the island, actively defended the LTTE ban in the case, the Amsterdam-based attorney said in an interview to TamilNet on Saturday. It was the UK who initiated the ban. In bringing a new moment for re-evaluation, national action in that country should be the first thing that could be done. “If you are asking which countries may be on a national level where people should take legal action, I suppose it would be Great Britain, which comes to my mind,” Mr. V. Koppe said.
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ECJ implies non-requirement of evidence in ‘terrorist’ classification: Tamil legal activist

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2014, 14:30 GMT]
What the European Court of Justice (ECJ) proves implicitly is that under European Law, you do not need evidence to classify a group as a ‘terrorist’ organisation, commented US-based Eezham Tamil legal activist, Mr Rajeev Sreetharan, who was one of the initiators of the LTTE vs EU case adjudged by the ECJ on Thursday. However, he added that the ECJ ruling, although tainted by questionable post 9/11 interpretations of international humanitarian law, in essence vindicates assumptions in deciding to challenge the EU ban of the LTTE in a court of law, rather than the halls of government. Rajeev was hopeful that the lifting of the ‘terrorism’ ban helps to begin reshape the European climate for Tamil politics.
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Citing Buddhist monk, SL police refuses to act on land-grab complaints in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2014, 23:50 GMT]
The Head of the Sri Mangalaramaya Buddhist vihara Venerable Ampitiye Sumanarathana thero has been instrumental in seizing the lands of Eezham Tamils and handing over these lands to Sinhalese from the border villages. When the Tamil land owners complained to the Divisional Secretary of Poaratheevup-pattu (Vellaave’li), the DS accepted their lands have been illegally encroached. But, the Sri Lankan Police at Vellaave’li has refused to accept and act on the complaints by Tamil land owners. The latest seizure of farm lands has taken place at Chinnavaththai village in Vellaave’li division of Paduvaankarai region.
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Senior Journalist Iya Sachchithanantham passes away in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 October 2014, 21:32 GMT]
The funeral of senior journalist Iya Sachchithanantham was held in Jaffna on Sunday. The 64-year-old journalist, who devoted his life for people-centric journalism and served two dailies, Eezha-Naadu and Thinak-kural, for a long time, passed away Thursday night following a heart attack. He was also a talented announcer, editor of Joasiyar magazine and the regional correspondent for Radio Ceylon.
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EPDP, Sri Lankan CID jointly harass newspaper editors in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2014, 21:18 GMT]
Sri Lankan military and police establishments in Jaffna and Vanni mainland have intensified threats against Tamil journalists and activists in recent days. Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division, Criminal Investigation Division, Intelligence operatives of Defence Ministry and paramilitary operatives are jointly deployed in a systematic programme suppressing the freedom of expression, an editor of a daily newspaper told TamilNet Wednesday. The SL police CID have deployed EPDP operatives twice within the last month to stage protests against Jaffna Thinakkural.
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SL investigators harass senior journalist in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2014, 12:34 GMT]
Senior Journalist and media activist Thayaraparan Ratnam in Jaffna has been subjected to interrogation style investigations by a 'Special Criminal Investigation Division' in Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) on Wednesday, media circles in Jaffna said. Mr Thayaparan has been subjected to continous harassment by Sri Lankan Defence Ministry operated 'investigation' units, Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and the CID, the sources said adding that the harassments started after the journalists and media activists started to attend media workshops held in Colombo and other places. However, the timing of the harassment against Tamil journalists has a different motive, civil activists in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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PCICMP witnesses in Vanni coerced, threatened by SL military

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2014, 19:49 GMT]
Intelligence officers of the occupying Sri Lankan military brought 7 people in their vehicle to witness in front of the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), which held its sessions in Poonakari on Monday. Two of these witnesses had already appeared in front of the PCICMP at Muzhangkaavil on the previous day. SL soldiers were deployed in civil uniform in large numbers at Poonakari Divisional Secretariat where the session was held. The few witnesses who were present at the site on their own were subjected to strict checking by the SL soldiers. Some of them were sent back by the Sri Lankan soldiers. Those who presented their cases said the Commission was a farce as its members were posing irrelevant questions and were not interested to listen to their complaints of the missing kith and kin.
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Tamils complain discrimination in selection of beneficiaries of Indian housing scheme

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2014, 21:49 GMT]
A point system introduced to determine the recipients of the Indian housing scheme discriminates the uprooted people of Champoor in Trincomalee district, civil sources in Moothoor East told TamilNet on Wednesday. The recipients are being selected on the basis that their displacement after year 2008 and that they should now be living in temporary huts at the moment in addition to certain points based criteria. The people of Champoor region were uprooted from their native villages in 2006. Most of the potential recipients are being filtered away by this method, the sources said. Further, there is no transparency in the way the points are being assigned. In some cases, government officers are being bribed to assign temporary huts for some applicants to become eligible, the sources further said.
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Colombo to seize more lands for militarisation of North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2014, 22:43 GMT]
1,300 acres of lands are to be surveyed and seized by the SL military in Jaffna peninsula in the coming days, informed sources told TamilNet on Saturday. The lands belonging to Tamil people are to be seized in Maathakal, Achchuveali, Chavakachcheari, Nu’naavil and Thikkam. The SL military has already harassed the fishermen at Cheanthaan-ku’lam in Maathakal to vacate from their jetty and relocate their fishing tools as the land was to be surveyed, gazetted and seized for military expansion. On Friday, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politicians, civic council members and Valikaamam North uprooted people’s organisation protested against an attempt to survey the lands in Maathakal. In the meantime, hundreds of acres of lands are being seized without any procedures in the Vanni mainland, Tamil activists in Mullaiththeevu said.
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SL military begins deceptive recruitment drive in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 September 2014, 21:50 GMT]
Inviting poverty-stricken Tamil families along the district border between the Ampaa’rai district and Batticaloa district to receive ‘humanitarian supplies’, the occupying Sri Lanka Army has been conducting propaganda meetings promising civil jobs for Tamil women in the SL military, news sources in Ampaa’rai told TamilNet on Thursday. A group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers, who brought drinking water supply to the villagers in 35th Colony, Malaiyar-kaddu and Ka’n’naki-puram were campaigning ‘good salary’ and ‘government pension’ for subservient jobs in SL military. In the meantime, the SL military has also gone to the extent of promising a house to each family that sends their daughters and sons for employment in SL military.
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