Professor Kanagaratnam succumbs to accident and heart attack in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2016, 00:11 GMT]
Veteran Eezham Tamil academic, Professor Ramanathar Vaithilingam Kanagaratnam passed away in Jaffna on Tuesday, after meeting with an accident and succumbing to heart attack. He was 70. Professor Kanagaratnam was one of the rare personalities produced by the Eezham Tamil nation, who were silently but rigorously contributing to studies in Saivism, Tamil and folklore. He devoted an entire life and has made a significant mark especially in the study of the genre of the cultural heritage of Eezham Tamils that was responding to European colonialism. Coming from the grassroots, his academic mission was on the memory and awakening of the grassroots culture of Eezham Tamils, and he did that contributing practically to the people in the land when they needed it the most. His funeral is scheduled to take place on Sunday in Jaffna.
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Tamil genocide, controversies haunt UNSG aspiring and outgoing

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 May 2016, 12:09 GMT]
As Mr Ban Ki-moon is looking forward to get elected as South Korea’s president after exhausting the United Nation's tenure by the end of this year, New Zealand’s Helen Clark, who is accused of penalising a UN official for exposing the role played by the UN in the Tamil genocide in 2009, is aspiring for the post of the UN Secretary General. Recently, while the UN has ostensibly detracted crucial global questions by downgrading and sending the questions to the UNHRC for deliberations, even at the UNHRC level ‘Sri Lanka’ is selectively the most soft-pedalled one. This only means the highest importance is being silently given to the ‘genocidal Sri Lanka paradigm’ by the ultimate culprits of world humanity, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island, citing ‘Sri Lanka’ constantly haunting people in the UN.
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‘Sinhala Ravaya’ colony in Jaffna, outcome of US-Indian policy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 May 2016, 23:42 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, genocidal Sri Lanka’s occupying Sinhala military, the Special Task Force (STF) and Colombo’s ‘National’ Housing Development Authority (NHDA) have all joined hands with a Sinhala-Buddhist extremist group, ‘Sinhala Ravaya’, in extending the Sinhala military colony at Naavatkuzhi, which is situated at the entry point to the Jaffna City. In recent days, the Sinhala colony has received a new name board, naming the village as “Sinhala Ravaya Gama” (Sinhala Ravaya Village). What is practically evolving after 7 years of Mu’l’livaaykkaal tells the actual agenda of USA and India, commented political observers in Jaffna, urging the affected nation of Eezham Tamils to identify and act against the ultimate culprits and their ‘vision’ of genocidal handling through Agent States.
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Illegal occupation of pasturelands continues unabated in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 May 2016, 07:55 GMT]
4,000 acres of lands, officially declared as pastureland in 1974, have been illegally seized by farmers having Colombo connections through their parliamentarians. The land situated between Rufus-ku’lam and Vammiyadik-ku’lam in Thirukkoayil division where Tamils constitute the majority of the residents, is known as Vadda-madu area and is situated 15 km southwest of Thirukkoayil. Tamil cattle farmers from Akkaraippattu complain that they are being deprived of sustaining their livelihood after the end of war.
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Rural societies in North-East will determine future leaders of Tamils: Kurunathan

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 May 2016, 23:25 GMT]
Tamils in the East, especially the people of Batticaloa, strongly wish for the merger of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces into a single province as before, says retired Land Commissioner of Eastern Province and the last Deputy Land Commissioner of the merged North-Eastern Province in the past Karthirgamathamby Kurunathan. In a recent interview to TamilNet, Mr Kurunathan said the rural societies in the Tamil homeland would determine the future leaders of Eezham Tamils. Even in the elections, the rural participation was more than 80% while the urban population stood just above 40%. Most of the Tamil parliamentarians have become urban-centered after getting elected by the rural population and they want to keep the rural population in dark. If 2016 doesn't bring a political solution as promised by Mr Sampanthan, the people, the ITAK and the TNA will risk its future, he said.
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Colombo's pompous ‘Vesak’ in North endorsed by India, while celebrations cancelled in South

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 May 2016, 23:20 GMT]
Colombo's occupying Sinhala military has launched 7-day-long Buddhist Vesak celebrations from Saturday in the country of Eezham Tamils while Vesak festivities have been called off in the South where at least 73 people have been killed in landslides caused by torrential rains and more than 200,000 have fled their homes in recent days. The genocidal military and the State have transformed Vesak celebrations as ‘Sinhala Buddhist victory’ over Tamils after the 2009 onslaught. The added feature this time is the open and official endorsement given by New Delhi to the genocide gesture. In its over-enthusiasm to counter Tamils marking Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Day on 18 May, the SL military advertised ‘very pompous celebrations’ of Vesak in Tamil newspapers, inviting the Tamils in Jaffna to take part in their celebrations.
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Sinhala, Muslim participation in Tamil genocide remembrance answers IC detractors

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2016, 20:22 GMT]
A section of Sinhala and Muslim students took part in the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance organised by the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) on Wednesday and a group of Catholic Sinhalese from the South were also present at St. Paul's church at Mu'l'livaaykkaal. At Mannaar, Muslim representatives were present at the memorial event organised by ITAK Youth Wing leader V.S. Sivakaran. The Sinhala and Muslim participation sends message to International Community and UN actors refusing to accept genocide in the island. The very first monument to be erected in remembrance of those who perished in Mu'l'livaaykkaal was also sculpted by a non-Tamil in the island, although the identity of the artist could not be revealed. The statue, having artistic significance has been silently put up near the St. Paul's church by the Tamil villagers of Mu'l'livaaykkaal, news sources in Vanni said.
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Genocide Remembrance at Mu'l'livaaykkaal passes strong messages to IC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2016, 17:22 GMT]
It would tantamount to betrayal of the victims of war if Tamils were to engage in ‘swap trade’ (pa'nda-maattu) exchanging accountability for the heinous war-crimes that were intentionally committed against them in the past with future reconciliation efforts, said the Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on Genocide Remembrance, which was collectively marked at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on Wednesday. In a carefully worded statement read out among the crying survivors of Tamil genocide, Mr Wigneswaran also delivered a sharp message to the member states of the ‘International Community’, the UN Human Rights Establishment, particularly its chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, not to ask Tamils to forget war crimes in return for the promises of federal solution.
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Continued denial of justice and Colombo's ban on remembering Tamil fighters condemned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 May 2016, 23:43 GMT]
All the norms of war were broken to target a distinct race. The people in Vanni were targeted in a mass-slaughter, from children in womb to elders, by merciless ethnic chauvinism because they were all Tamil-speakers, said Jaffna University Student Union. Seven years have elapsed with continued denial of justice. Those who committed the crimes are walking scot free under the so-called good-governance, the JUSU said calling for Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance within the premises of Jaffna University at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. In the meantime, NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam, who lit the flame of sacrifice at the memorial site in Trincomalee for those subjected to genocidal slaughter in the Welikade prison in 1983, condemned the Sri Lankan State for denying Eezham Tamils the right to honour their fallen fighters.
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Colombo schemes 4 Buddhist temples in Kuchchave'li division of Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 May 2016, 20:13 GMT]
Genocidal State of Sri Lanka, regardless of regimes coming to power in Colombo, has been intensely spearheading a Sinhala colonisation programme to wedge the North and East at several strategic locations in the north of Trincomalee district and in the south of Mullaiththeevu district in North. Recently, the SL Ministry of Buddha Sasana in Colombo has approved funds to construct four new Buddhist temples (pansala) and viharas in predominantly Tamil-speaking Thennai-maravadi and Pulmoaddai areas that come under the Kuchchave'li division, Tamil civil sources in Trinocmalee told TamilNet on Monday. In the meantime, several pansalas are to be constructed in the bordering largely Sinhala division of Morawewa, where two Tamil villages, Panku'lam and Nochchik-ku'lam, are being subjected to Sinhalicisation, the sources further said.
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Mu'l'livaaykkaal remembrance gains momentum amidst renewed harassments

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2016, 17:18 GMT]
Elected councillors of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), former members of civic bodies, militant-turned political parties in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF) are engaged in organising memorial events in the country of Eezham Tamils amidst recently renewed threats and harassments against former Tamil fighters in the North and East. The SL military intelligence circles have been telling former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that there will be consequences if they were seen paying tribute to fallen LTTE members. Not only the LTTE fighters, all the Tamils who wanted to be free and stood with the LTTE in Vanni while all the global Establishments were directly or indirectly assisting Colombo were all real Tamil Heroes, said NPC Councillors who are organising a series of memorial events and meetings in the North.
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Colombo's attempt to survey church lands for permanent militarisation foiled at Poonakari

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2016, 08:29 GMT]
Three days after the last attempt to survey the lands belonging to 6 families and a Saiva temple at Paraman-kirray in the strategically situated Poonakari, the occupying navy of genocidal Sri Lanka attempted on Thursday to survey lands belonging to St. Jude's Church at Pa'l'lik-kudaa in Poonakari without prior notice. However, the Parish Priest of the church and more than 100 villagers blocked the survey department officials, who were brought to the spot with SL Navy escort, news sources in Poonakari said. In addition to the protest, the public spontaneously mobilised making a written signature campaign against the militarisation. The SL military intelligence operatives and SL Navy sailors were taking photos of the journalists who were covering the protest and recording video of the protestors in a threatening manner, news sources further said.
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SL Police refuses to vacate from lands belonging to uprooted Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2016, 18:03 GMT]
Colombo's police continue to be stationed in lands belonging to 42 families in Paala-munai village and a large section of Ma'ndoor-1 and 2 South GS area in Poaratheevup-pattu (Vellaa-ve'li) administrative division of Batticaloa district. The uprooted people are unable to resettle in 90% of Paalamunai village, civil sources in Batticaloa said. The area is located 40 km south of Batticaloa city near the border of Ampaa'rai district. Ma'ndoor is known for its popular Murukan temple.
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Sinahalicisation of Musali division in Mannaar resembles colonisation of Kokku'laay, Ma'nalaa'ru

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 May 2016, 20:22 GMT]
SL Government Agent of Mannaar district, Mr M.Y.S. Deshapriya, a Sinhalese and the occupying navy of Colombo are allegedly engaged in creating a Sinhala colony at Kaayaa-kuzhi, situated near Mu'l'lik-ku'lam in the Musali division of Mannaar, say Tamil and Muslim fishermen from the district. While hundreds of Eezham Tamil families from Mu'l'lik-ku'lam are not allowed to resettle in their own village, which has been transformed into a SL Navy cantonment named “North-Western Naval Area HQ of SL Navy”, Colombo is attempting to colonize the nearby Kaayaa-kuzhi area by permanently settling 70 - 80 Sinhala fishing families from Chilaapam (Chilaw) and Negombo, said Mr Noor Mohamed Aalam, the chairman of the Federation of Mannaar District Fisheries Associations. Tamil and Muslim fishermen societies have announced a protest against the move on Friday.
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Eezham Tamils protest against continued military land grab at strategic Poonakari

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2016, 18:35 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has planned to grab further 3,087 acres of private and permit lands in the strategically situated Poonakari, which is situated to the northwest of Ki'linochchi at the entrance to Jaffna Peninsula, Jaffna Lagoon and its location facing the Palk Bay and the opposite coast. The landowners of 6 families and an Amman temple blocked SL Survey Department officials for the 4th time at Paraman-kiraay on Monday. Around 6,000 Tamil families, dependent on agriculture and fishing, live in the heavily garrisoned Poonakari division where more than 30,000 Sinhala soldiers are stationed.
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War-affected, poverty-stricken Tamil villagers complain of neglect in housing assistance

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2016, 23:35 GMT]
104 Eezham Tamil families, who have resettled in Isaimalaith-thaazhvu village, which is located 3 km southeast of Murungkan town along Mannaar - Mathavaachchi Road in Naanaaddaan division, complain that they are being systematically neglected in all the housing schemes reaching Mannaar district. The families, mostly dependent on animal farming or agriculture close to their temporary huts, live below the poverty line, and are among the poorest in Mannaar district. Their houses were either demolished or taken over by the occupying SL military and the notorious Special Task Force (STF) in February 1997 during the brutal military operation code named ‘Edibala’.
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SL Governor condemned for justifying military-run preschools in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2016, 22:55 GMT]
NGO sources in Vanni recently released photos exposing the SL military-run preschools where Tamil children were being made to wear ‘Civil Security Division’ uniforms with CSD and Lion symbols of the occupying Sri Lankan military. More than 8,000 Tamil children are attending the military-run preschools in Vanni at 270 locations. While the SL military is refusing to hand over the administration of these preschools to the provincial council, the SL Governor to North, Reginald Cooray, has rushed to Vanni last week to justify continued military administration of these preschools. Former LTTE members at three different locations were forced to sing ‘Sri Lanka’ anthem in Sinhala and the CSD women had to garland him after dancing in Kandyan Perhara style, news sources in Vanni said. NPC Minister P. Aingaranesan has condemned SL Governor's description of SL military as a ‘development’ agency.
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Returning Tamil journalists forced to pledge written oath to unitary State

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2016, 21:27 GMT]
None of the Tamil journalists or political activists, who were exiled during and after the Vanni war, could return to their native Northern or Eastern provinces without getting whitelisted by the military intelligence of the occupying Sinhala military prior to their entry into the North and East. Media activists from Colombo who met a group Tamil journalists in Vanni this week told TamilNet that a section of journalists in North had met Major General Mahesh Senanayake on 06 April at Palaali military base. When the journalists questioned the SL commander that some of their exiled journalists, currently residing in Tamil Nadu and other countries, were wondering about returning to the island. The SL commander had refused to officially comment, but shared this information in a ‘unofficial’ way, the sources further said.
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Key Tamil organisations boycott Colombo's dialogue meet in Norway

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 May 2016, 11:35 GMT]
The mainstream political and development related diaspora organisations of Eezham Tamils in Norway boycotted a so-called “high level” dialogue meeting organised by two NGOs funded by Norway on Wednesday. The Foreign Ministry of Norway has been advocating behind the scene to lock the Tamil organisations into the ‘dialogue’ meeting with the Netherland-based NGO operative Ram Manikkalingam, who is a close associate of former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike (CBK) and is an official member of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena's “Office for National Unity and Reconciliation”. At least 8 of the 12 invited organisations either boycotted or abstained from attending the meeting on Wednesday. Five of the boycotting organisations came out with a joint communiqué clarifying their position.
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UN ‘rewards’ Erik Solheim

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 May 2016, 21:13 GMT]
Mr. Erik Solheim’s name in history is inseparably intertwined with the genocide of Eezham Tamils that followed a peace facilitation decidedly failed by international criminal outlook in world establishments. Mr. Solheim was placed to play a key role in the facilitation and he is a key witness to the tilt of balance carried out in deception to the world. By forwarding his name to the UN General Assembly to become Head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with the rank of Assistant Secretary General, the UN system and its Secretary General Ban Ki-moon make a pointed mockery at Tamils and peoples of similar plight all over the world, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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