SL State divides communities in East: Batticaloa MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 August 2013, 19:29 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government is doing the opposite to what it wants portrayed to the outside world with the beautiful term ‘reconciliation’, declared Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Batticaloa, Mr P. Selvarasa, Friday, at the agricultural development meeting held at the Batticaloa District Secretariat. Allowing the SL State officials to collaborate with the Buddhist prelate of Mangalarama vihara while there is a court order against the illegal settlement in Paddip-pazhai division and literally banning the Tamils at Navakkiri in Vellaa-ve’li division from accessing their tank to engage in their livelihood of fresh water fishing, is nothing else than setting one community against the other, he said citing the latest reports.
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Tamil parliamentarians protest against Sinhalicisation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 August 2013, 22:54 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians in Batticaloa staged a peaceful protest in front of Paddippazhai Divisional Secretariat (DS) on Wednesday against the Sinhalicisation of Paduvaankarai, Kevu'liyaa-madu and Puluk-kunaavi. The SL police, operated by Colombo, was telling the protesters to leave the site arguing that a group led by the Buddhist prelate of Batticaloa Mangalarama vihara was coming to the site to stage a counter-protest. However, Tamil parliamentarians objected the explanation by the SL police and held the protest for one hour as planned.
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SL military aims to mar Ananthi meeting Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 23:43 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence in Jaffna on Wednesday staged a ‘protest’ against Ms Ananthi Sasitharan, the representative of thousands of Eezham Tamil women, who are demanding the Sri Lankan State to reveal the whereabouts of their husbands who were filtered away from the civilians in the final hours of the Vanni war by the SL military that had announced ‘general amnesty’ through the loudspeakers. Sinhala workers, intelligence operatives and some ex-LTTE members brought from elsewhere, were holding placards written in broken Tamil against Ananthi Sasitharan in front of the Jaffna Bus Stand. In the meantime, informed sources in Colombo said that the SL State was seeking to ‘influence’ certain foreign missions in Colombo to avoid UN Human Commissioner for Human Rights Navanetham Pillay meeting Ananthi, who is also contesting in the Provincial Council election on behalf of the TNA.
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Diplomacy could work only when mass mobilisation is ground reality: Guruparan

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2013, 21:09 GMT]
Do we have an environment to talk about Tamil nation and its right to self-determination? Do we have to ask for internal self-determination? Should we go step-by-step in achieving the goals? Do we have the right to call for a referendum? Could we insist on a transitional administration? Are they all realistic in our situation: asking these questions at the Kumar Ponnambalam Memorial Lecture to a fully packed audience in Jaffna on Sunday, Jaffna University Law Lecturer Kumaravadivel Guruparan said that we cannot wage a struggle by seeing what is in the international law, as international law is purposefully ambiguous leaving space for further discourses, and as what needed more than the international law are the mass mobilisation and the backing of powerful friends.
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Ampaa'rai GA, DS officials step up Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2013, 02:53 GMT]
Deputy Elections Commissioner of Batticaloa District, RMAL Ratnayaka, has recently instructed Paddippazhai divisional secretariat to register the Sinhalese, who have recently encroached into the public lands in Kevu’liyaa-madu, on the voters' registry of the district, civil sources in Batticaloa said adding that Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa district is being accelerated while the Sri Lankan Government Agent of Batticaloa Ms PSM Charles, who is a Tamil, is on vacation and the SLGA of Ampaa’rai district, Mr Neel de Alwis, is tasked by Colombo as the acting SLGA of Batticaloa district. The Deputy Elections Commissioner has recently visited the Sinhala encroachers and handed over forms to register in voters’ registry for 25 families.
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Katu-pælælla, Kanu-pælælla

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2013, 00:36 GMT]
The entrance shutter made of thorns
The gate panel made of poles or logs
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TNA’s woman candidate in NPC elections seeks appointment with Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 August 2013, 01:17 GMT]
“As a representative of the kith and kin who have been struggling for four years without knowing the whereabouts of thousands of family members who had surrendered to the Sri Lankan military in the final hours after the Sri Lanka Army had promised a general amnesty, and as the only woman taking part in the provincial council elections in Jaffna district representing the interests of war widows, I am looking forward for an appointment with United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navanetham Pillay, who is scheduled to visit the island soon,” said Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan, the wife of Ezhilan, the former Trincomalee Political Head of the LTTE and a mother of three girls, when addressing the press at Jaffna Press Club on Friday on her participation at the forthcoming Provincial Council elections in the Jaffna district.
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Archaeological Report on Maanthai comes after 29 years

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 August 2013, 22:36 GMT]
Archaeological report on the excavations at the ancient port city of Maanthai (Thirukeatheesvaram) in the Mannaar district of the country of Eezham Tamils, conducted between the years 1980 and 1984 and co-directed by John Carswell then from the University of Chicago, has finally seen the light of publication this June. Edited by John Carswell, Siran Deraniyagala and Alan Graham, and copyrighted to the Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka, the publication supported by Ceramica-Stiftung Basel has been released by the publishers Linden Soft Verlag, Aichwald in Germany. Professor Carswell, now turning 83, has succeeded in presenting the material he had excavated, which would have otherwise been lost forever with the kind of State in the island.
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SL military intelligence collects details of TNA candidates in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 August 2013, 23:43 GMT]
The intelligence operatives of the occupying Sri Lankan military in Mannaar have been visiting the houses of candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) taking part in the provincial elections and ‘registering’ the personal data, their affiliations and details of the family members in an intimidating way, the candidates taking part in the Northern Provincial Council elections say. Some of the ‘visits’ have taken place during the nights.
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SL minister punishes Batticaloa villagers for supporting TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 August 2013, 22:38 GMT]
More than 1,830 acres of paddy crops lying on the left hand channel of Unnichchai tank are in the verge of dying without water supply. Spill gates of the tank have been closed from July 25 as SL Deputy Minister in Rajapaksa government Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan has imposed a ‘ban’ on water supply to farmers on the left channel as ‘punishment’ for their support to the parliamentarians of Tamil National Alliance in the Eastern Province, civil sources in Batticaloa said.
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Erasing Tamil nation prioritized over political justice

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 August 2013, 08:55 GMT]
“If India opens dialogue with moderate groups, extremists will be isolated and India can influence diaspora people for solution within a united Sri Lanka," said V. Suryanarayan of the New Delhi think tank, cited by The Times of India on Friday. In July, writing in The New Indian Express, the same person said “In order to allay Sinhalese apprehensions, iron-clad guarantees should be provided that devolution to provinces should not lead to demand for separation.” The explicit and unashamed priority in the heart of the academic and the Mumbai-New Delhi-Chennai-based media corporates in India, is to only negate at any cost the possibility of Eezham Tamils getting independence than delivering even paltry political justice, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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SL military bans devotional song at ancient Saiva temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 August 2013, 23:44 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in the East has banned Saiva devotional songs authored by popular poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai, whose whereabouts are still not known after the occupying Sri Lankan military had him into custody during the final hours of the Vanni war in May 2009. The SL military personnel have warned the temple administration of the historic Siva temple Thaan-thoan'ri-eesvarar at Kokkaddichchoalai not to play the popular devotional song "Piddukku ma'n chumantha perumaanaar” on the temple loud-speakers or on at any occasion. Together with the popular song on Kokkaddich-choalai, TamilNet also releases a few other songs for the wider Tamil audience throughout the world.
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Thirukkoayil land Sinhalicised through diaspora transaction

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 August 2013, 23:52 GMT]
35 acres of land, known as Muththiah land, is being taken away from the Tamil owners living at the coastal land, news sources in Ampaa'rai said. Around 150 fishermen living in huts are being forced to vacate their lands after Muththiah land is projected as being ‘sold’ to a Sinhalese residing in London. The Sinhalese who purchased the land is engaged in fencing and asking the Tamil fisher families to get out of that land.
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Colombo schemes new ways to appropriate more lands for Sinhalicisation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 August 2013, 22:50 GMT]
Thousands of acres of land in the Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province are likely to be appropriated under the Land Reform Laws of the occupying Sri Lankan State, according to informed civil sources in Batticaloa. The Colombo government is to appropriate lands that have been legally possessed by Tamils for the last fifty years under the one-acre permit scheme. Colombo and its Eastern Provincial Council are to formulate necessary legislation to appropriate lands above one-acre in 14 DS divisions in the Batticaloa district. More than one hundred acres of lands are to be appropriated under the Land Reform Laws of the Sinhala government.
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Occupying Sri Lanka Army threatens Tamil protesters in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 August 2013, 12:13 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army on Sunday threatened the Tamil residents of Maangkaadu and Kurukka'l-madam from participating in the protest march organized by the Tamil National Alliance against desecration of Saiva koayils. Troops of the occupying Sri Lanka Army visited every household and threatened the inmates not participate in protest march.
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Gajendrakumar explains why TNPF boycotts NPC elections

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 August 2013, 02:50 GMT]
Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam addressed a press meet in Jaffna on Tuesday, explaining why the TNPF totally boycotts the Northern Provincial Council elections held under the 13th Amendment of the unitary constitution of Sri Lanka. Rejecting rumours that the TNPF might support an independent group and a media report that the TNPF has shown green signal to the PC election, as misleading, Gajendrakumar said that the TNPF totally boycotts the election. We will not contest and under no circumstances we will support any independent group directly or indirectly, Gajendrakumar said, adding that let people decide with clarity what to do with the election.
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Wigneswaran seeks mandate for ‘IC-facilitated’ Northern Provincial Council

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 July 2013, 01:12 GMT]
People's participation in the polls to Northern Provincial Council will be significant to the implementation of the 13th Amendment. Since Colombo has agreed to conduct the election merely because of international pressure, people have to be prepared to resist any sabotage. The elected PC will help to end the governor’s rule and interferences in civil administration, said Tamil National Alliance's Chief Minister candidate for Northern Province and retired Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on Monday in Jaffna, after fielding TNA's list of candidates for Northern PC elections. Meanwhile, Colombo President Mahinda Rajapaksa implied ‘understanding’ with the candidature of Wigneswaran, when he said on Tuesday that he would be willing to meet Wigneswaran to discuss land and police powers to provinces.
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Colombo accelerates Sinhala colonisation in Batticaloa: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 July 2013, 23:54 GMT]
The Colombo government is accelerating the Sinhala colonization in the Batticaloa district. More than one hundred Sinhalese families were brought down from Ampaa'rai district and have been settled down in Kevu'liya-madu village in Paddippazhai DS division, according to Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr. P. Selvarasa.
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Genocidal Sinhala State cultivates ‘historiography’ in New Delhi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 July 2013, 05:41 GMT]
Like getting journalists, politicians, diplomats and academics in India from time to time over the decades, to engineer public opinion justifying the genocidal unity and integrity of the Sinhala-Buddhist State in the island, Colombo is now actively engaged in grooming ‘historiographers’ in India specialised in the Sinhala-Buddhist ‘State’ history, to which New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has become the partner and space provider, said an academic in Jaffna. He was citing the JNU in collaboration with the genocidal State’s High Commission in New Delhi starting a course in the university last year on “State, Society and religion in Sri Lanka, from circa 3rd century BCE to 13th century CE” with specific focus on Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa period.
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London Black July event rejects 13th Amendment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 July 2013, 22:20 GMT]
Tamils across the UK, braving showers to attend the Black July event held in Mitcham, London on Saturday, rejected the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Councils system under the unitary Sri Lankan system as even a starting point of resolution of the Eezham Tamils’ national question. A statement by the TNPF elaborating on the subject released earlier in the day was read out at the event. A play by youth activists depicted the possible negative aftermaths of accepting the Provincial Council system. The play also urged the older generation to hand over the struggle to the next generation who are willing to fight from principled positions instead of accepting half-baked solutions that will only deny the youth their space to take forward the struggle.
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