Vavuniyaa protest echoes Tamil sentiments running against ICE-manipulated ‘Transitional Justice’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 June 2016, 14:15 GMT]
The soft agents of external powers, posing themselves as ‘non-governmental’ organisations in Colombo receiving funds through the development agencies of US-aligned external powers in the so-called International Community of Establishments, have made mockery of the term ‘Transitional Justice’ by turning it into a buzzword for fund-oriented Colombo-based NGO operatives. “To NGOs Transitional Justice is like cash tree. For us, it is a drama of international deception,” said a banner of Vavuniyaa Citizens’ Committee, which organised a protest jointly with the Forum for Searching Handed, Kidnapped and Forcibly Disappeared persons Relatives (FSHFDR) opposing the creation of Colombo-based ‘Office for Missing Persons’ (OMP).
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Colombo maintains ethnic chauvinism, majoritarianism in North-East: Bishop Ponniah

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2016, 19:19 GMT]
“I can categorically state that a lot of promises made by the [new] government [towards the Tamil people] have not been fulfilled,” said Bishop of Batticaloa Rt. Rev. Dr. Joesph Ponniah in a recent interview to TamilNet. Some of the root causes to the escalation of ethnic conflict were SL State-backed Sinhala colonization of lands in the North and East and the discrimination in providing equal opportunities. These have a 60-year old history. The reality remains the same even today. What prevails in the North and East is not peace. There is an enforced silence coupled with threat, oppression and militarization by the ethnic majority. There is no change in the attitude of ethnic chauvinism, the Bishop said questioning the hidden motives of Washington and New Delhi collaborating with Colombo and how the situation of the people in North-East getting affected by the motives of these powers.
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Colombo determined to maintain genocidal Military Intelligence structure in North-East

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2016, 18:54 GMT]
Ranil Wickramasinghe, the prime minister of genocidal Sri Lanka, has instructed the SL Military Intelligence in Colombo to maintain the structure and operations of the intelligence agencies deployed in North and East completely intact from the changes taking place in South, informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet on Friday. While enacting certain cosmetic changes in the Intelligence operations in the South, the structure conceived by former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, will operate without changes in the North-East, the sources further said. The decision is based on external advice coming from the US Establishment.
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Veteran Eezham Tamil archivist passes away at 81

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2016, 01:24 GMT]
Mr R. Kanagaratnam (Kurumpasiddi Eraa Kanagaratnam), who tirelessly collected Tamil and English newspaper clippings and manuscripts related to political and cultural affairs of Eezham Tamils for almost 6 decades, has passed away at the age of 81 in Kandy on Wednesday. The leaders of Tamil Eelam and Tamil Nadu respected Mr Kanagaratnam for his contributions to the modern archival history of Eezham Tamils as well as his continued focus on the historiography of Tamils living across the larger region, from Fiji Islands to South Africa. His unique contribution to the nation of Eezham Tamils was collecting, archiving, microfilming and at the same time ensuring secure storage of the Tamil and English documents outside the island – all achieved through his focused and relentless efforts. He was an institution by himself.
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Structural genocide targets Kudumpimalai despite Tamil protests, media focus

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2016, 16:05 GMT]
Despite repeated protests coming from Village (GS) Officers in Batticaloa district against the recent assault on Tamil GS Officer Shanmugam Guru by a group of Sinhala soldiers, the occupying Sinhala military is continuing illegal logging of trees in the interior jungle hamlet of Kudumpimalai. The demograhic genocide is being spearheaded by Colombo’s Forest Department that comes under the direct supervision of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, Divisional Secretariat officials in Kiraan told TamilNet. The SL Forest Department is planning to create a Sinhala colony for agricultural farmers from the bordering Anuradhapura district and elsewhere in the South, they said.
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EPW article on Sinhala nationalism turns veiled threat to bailout Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2016, 20:35 GMT]
“After the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2015, Sinhala nationalism is on the retreat but would most certainly play the once powerful anti-state role it played in the1980s and 1990s, in the context of the new government’s reconciliation programme and war crimes investigations,” said a Special Feature appeared in June 4 issue of the Mumbai-based, Economic & Political Weekly. Does this correspond to Chinese ambassador in Colombo ‘advising’ Lankan leaders to see that reconciliation mechanisms suggested by the UNHRC do not themselves create new conflicts and advising them to put ‘development’ before reconciliation? Has it been timed by the EPW to set the tone at the current UNHRC sessions for a collective excuse of genocidal Sri Lanka by Beijing, New Delhi and Washington, asked Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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China re-interferes surpassing US-Indian paradigm of genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2016, 00:17 GMT]
Last week, Chinese ambassador in Colombo, Mr. Yi Xianliang, went beyond Washington and New Delhi in upholding the paradigm of genocidal Sri Lanka, as he was open in detracting reconciliation and in derailing any UN intervention, which the USA and India are doing covertly. The ambassador said that it would be ill advised to put reconciliation before development and advised Lankan leaders to see that reconciliation mechanisms suggested by the UNHRC do not themselves create new conflicts. Rather than correcting the reconciliation and UNHRC deceptions coming from the USA, but negating even fundamental norms aspired by Tamils and interfering into their very existence as a nation, ironically the ambassador said China is against outside interference in domestic affairs.
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Colombo's TID interrogates Tamil paramilitary operative

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2016, 22:48 GMT]
Colombo's ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) officers are interrogating a 29-year-old Tamil paramilitary operative from Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, in connection with the discovery of explosives in March at the village of Ma'ravanpulavu, informed sources told TamilNet on Wednesday. Sivarasa Sivakulan alias Murali, who has been a close confidant of former SL Military Commander in Jaffna Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe and who was actively involved in SLFP election campaigns in Thenmaraadchi during the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa, is the one subjected to interrogations at the notorious 4th Floor in Colombo. Mr Sivakulan has also been a close friend of the present SL Governor of Northern Province Mr Reginald Cooray, informed sources in Jaffna said. He was detained on 11 June.
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Maradaana

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2016, 23:00 GMT]
The sandy plain
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Tamil prison guard trainees subjected to genocidal assault in Colombo, stripped naked

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2016, 19:25 GMT]
More than 100 Sinhala prison guards and their student-trainees stormed the hostel residence of Colombo prison Monday night in a raid-like brutal assault targeting 40 Tamil prison guard students, who have been recently selected for training for the jobs of prison guards. The genocidal attack has taken place inside the hostel situated in front of Colombo prison and all the Tamil students are all still being held stripped naked and are subjected to torture and abuse inside the premises, one of the victims managed to inform TamilNet Tuesday evening over the phone. Eight Tamil students have sustained serious injuries, he said. The fate of 23-year-old V. Vasantharajah from Ooraath-thu'rai (Kayts), Jaffna, is not known to the fellow prisoners. He has sustained skeletal injuries, the source further said describing the assault as a genocidal attack.
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Colombo's ‘Mahaweli Authority’ chases away resettled Eezham Tamils in Kokkuth-thoduvaay

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 June 2016, 21:18 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka's Ministry of ‘Mahaweli Development & Environment’, which is led by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has started to deploy violence to chase away the resettled Eezham Tamils at 15th Mile Post in Kokkuth-thoduvaay, a strategically situated coastal village in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district, the affected families complained. On 02 June, SL Forest Department personnel, accompanied by ‘Mahaweli Development’ officials forcibly removed the temporary huts of some of the resettled Tamil families at 15th Mile Post. After the end of genocidal onslaught on Vanni in May 2009, the project of Sinhalicisation has been intensified through the Sinhala colony of Padaviya in Anuradhapura and Vavuniyaa districts and the entire Ma'nalaa'ru (Weli-oya) area has been fully Sinhalicised and emerged as the ‘Sinhala Only’ administrative division in Mullaiththeevu.
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Learn from Kosgama blast, de-militarise civilian areas in North: Premachandran

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 June 2016, 22:33 GMT]
Colombo must remove the military camps in the North, especially the camps situated in residential areas away from Tamil civilians. The representatives in South have called for relocation camps away from civilian areas after the blast in Kosgama, where people lost lives, sustained injuries and the blast completely destroyed all the surrounding civilian properties. Imagine the situation in North, where several hundreds of army camps have been installed in residential areas among the civilians, said Suresh Premachandran, the leader of EPRLF, which is one of the four parties comprising the Tamil National Alliance.
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Maithiripala to stage another selfie session in Jaffna before next Geneva session

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 June 2016, 22:31 GMT]
Maithiripala Sirisena, the president of genocidal Sri Lanka, is scheduled to visit Jaffna on 18 June to take part in another publicity and ‘selfie’ stunt. Amidst the ‘lack’ of fresh venues to be released to the uprooted Tamils, the visiting SL President will be taking part in an event of ‘releasing’ Nadeswara College and Nadeswara Kansita Viththiyaalayam at militarized Kaangkeasan-thu'rai (KKS) for the second time this year. Mr Sirisena handed over the two schools at a PR move on 12 March. Since the initial PR move, which was also timed before a Geneva session earlier this year, the teachers and the labourers engaged in the reconstruction were being regularly harassed at the ‘Forward Defence Line’ of the SL military zone. Although education activities have been launched last Friday, the schools are still kept under military zone and civilians have not been allowed to resettle there.
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Colombo attempts to indefinitely postpone investigations on Mannaar killing fields

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 June 2016, 23:46 GMT]
Around 10 institutions of Colombo seem to have intentionally avoided their attendance in the proceedings of two cases on Thirukkeatheesvaram mass graves on Monday despite an earlier warning by Mannaar Magistrate A G Alex Raja that the representatives of these involved institutions should cooperate without failing to attend the hearings. At the same time, the special branch of the SL Police CID investigators again proposed to the Court that samples of already exhumed 87 skeletal remains could be dispatched to a Miami-based laboratory in the USA for radiocarbon dating. The findings of this laboratory have been already disputed on the Matale mass graves investigations in the South. The lawyers representing the missing persons in Mannaar have already denounced the involvement of the particular institution and suggested three Latin America based institutions.
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SL military ammunition dump explodes in Colombo suburb

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 June 2016, 20:26 GMT]
At least one Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and three civilians sustained injuries as an explosions ripple ammunition dump of the SL military camp at Salalwa situated at Kosgama in Awissawela, 36 km east of Colombo Sunday evening. An SL military spokesperson said a fire had started off the explosions, adding that the cause was yet to be established. Chaos prevailed as thousands of people were fleeing the area to escape from the shrapnel from the continuous explosions.
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Colombo beefs up naval installations along eastern coast

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2016, 23:16 GMT]
Emboldened with the blessings coming from the diplomatic US Establishment and its increased ‘military-to-military’ rapport with the Sinhala navy in the island, the military Establishment of genocidal Sri Lanka has stepped up its programme of militarisation and Sinhaliciation of the strategic belt in the three coastal directions of the country of Eezham Tamils in the recent months. The SL Navy, which has been fortifying its coastal cantonments, mini-camps and detachments along the western coast facing towards the Gulf of Mannaar and the Palk Bay during the past 6 months, has in recent weeks stepped up its expansion programme along the eastern coast of Northern and Eastern provinces facing the Bay of Bengal.
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SL military brutally assaults Tamil Village Officer in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2016, 06:34 GMT]
A group of five Sinhala soldiers, who were engaged in illegal tree cutting, abducted Village Officer (GS) Shanmugam Guru and brutally assaulted him at a military camp causing serious injuries to him. The incident took place at Kudumpi-malai, 63 km northwest of Batticaloa city on Wednesday. The Sinhala soldiers were in civil clothes. Two of them were having automatic rifles. When the Tamil GS officer questioned them whether they were having permit to cut trees, the group responded that they belonged to SL military and that they were having permission to cut trees. The GS officer then asked the group to document that they were in possession of such permit along with their identity. The soldiers took Mr Shanmugam Guru to the nearby military camp, where he was subjected to life-threatening assault.
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Trade union demands University administration to discipline students engaged in ethnic violence

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 June 2016, 23:42 GMT]
The main responsibility to discipline the Sinhala students engaged in violence against Tamil students, academics and the workers at the Eastern University, lies with the University administration, said Mr Ramanathan Rajasekaram, the president of the Union of Non-Academic Staff in an interview to TamilNet on Wednesday. Those involved in instigating confrontations seemed to be the same personalities. Even when the administration took certain disciplinary actions, the involved Sinhala students were behaving in a manner that they had certain power above the University administration, he said.
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Eastern University staff protest against impunity for ethnic violence by Sinhala students

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 May 2016, 22:07 GMT]
The administration of the Eastern University has failed to implement disciplinary decisions taken against certain Sinhala students, who have assaulted Tamil lecturers and students in the recent months, a spokesperson on behalf of the union non-academic staff at the Eastern University at Vanthaa'ru-moolai in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Tuesday as the union staged a one-day boycott against the continued failure by the administration to enforce discipline. The administration is under heavy pressure from Colombo's ministers and the intelligence officers of the occupying Sinhala military in the East, the protesters said. A one-day boycott was successfully staged at Vanthaa'ru-moolai, Trincomalee campus and at Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies on Tuesday.
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Multi-pronged structural genocide targets Periya-mu’rippu in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2016, 23:45 GMT]
Eezham Tamil villagers from Periya-mu'rippu, a remote hamlet situated 65 km southwest of Mannaar city and 18 km south from Mannaar - Medawachiya A-14 Road in Madu division, narrated to TamilNet this week how they were facing a multi-pronged structural annihilation coming through the hierarchy of genocidal Sri Lanka. While Colombo's structural and demographic annihilation continues unabated in the country of Eezham Tamils, Washington and New Delhi remain adamant in upholding the genocidal unitary State through their imperialist outlook shaped by geopolitics. The ultimate culprits have not only denied Tamils international justice, they also continue to impose a Colombo-centric ‘development’ agenda, which is coupled to their ‘counter insurgency’ operations at a trans-national level, Tamil political activists in Mannaar said, urging Tamils to understand where their responsibility lies.
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