TESO, AIADMK could create history with tacit action on fundamentals

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 July 2012, 23:54 GMT]
The island transformed from colonial Ceylon into genocidal Sri Lanka has in the process witnessed two wars of brutal conquest in the last two hundred years, both of which were ultimately imperialist. The conquest of Kandy in 1815 by British imperialism bringing in the unitary state and the conquest of Vanni in 2009 by a strategic partnership of the US and Indian imperialism are not two different phenomena, if the aftermaths of the wars are compared and comprehended. The larger question arises for the peoples of the region, elsewhere, and especially for the people of Tamil Nadu in this context is whether they are going to succumb one after the other as in the past, or are going to create history for humanity by learning from history. The TESO meet will only turn into a crafty device if its convenors and participants don’t direct it to answer the fundamentals.
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LLRC witnesses forced to accept death certificates for people handed over to SLA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 July 2012, 23:18 GMT]
A group of Sri Lanka Army officers from the JOSSOP camp in Vavuniyaa, which is the operational headquarters of the occupying SL military in Vanni, have been visiting Mullaiththeevu district in recent days, exerting pressure on the families of the missing persons in the district to receive death certificates for the victims. Suresh Premachandran MP of the Tamil National Alliance, who held a press conference in Jaffna on Monday, said that some of the families declare that they had personally handed over their family members at Oamanthai checkpost during the final hours of the war in 2009. “If these members were handed over to the SLA, then the SL military is answerable for their death,” Mr Premachandran said.
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London demonstrators urge UK, India to act through Commonwealth

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 July 2012, 23:49 GMT]
Gathering at 10 Downing Street in front of the residence of the British Prime Minister on Monday, Eezham Tamils in the UK remembered the 29th anniversary of the Black July massacre, urging for the expulsion of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and for Britain to boycott the CHOGM meeting scheduled to take place in the island next year. “During the 1983 pogrom, the Eezham Tamils could flee to the North as a sanctuary. Now, the extensive land grabs and militarization of the Tamil homeland has made it unsafe for them even in their home. The International Community and especially India should take responsibility for their calculated silence that has allowed this to happen,” Ravi Kumar from the British Tamils Forum (BTF) told TamilNet.
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SL minister Badurdeen competes with SLA on appropriating lands in Vanni amid protests

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 July 2012, 21:59 GMT]
While more than 2,000 war-affected families are struggling without lands in Karaithu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district, Sri Lankan minister of Trade, Rishard Badurdeen, has planned to appropriate 1,500 acres of forest land along Mu'l'liyava'lai - Nedungkea'ni Road promising the lands to his supporters from elsewhere in the island, sources at Karaithu'raippattu divisional secretariat told TamilNet. Even the occupying SLA had opposed the move, but the SL minister has exerted pressure from the top to implement his plan, the sources further said. In the meantime, protests against the SL minister, who is blamed for violent attack on the court complex in Mannaar is being stepped up by the lawyers, who have also protested against the attack on the residence of Point Pedro District Judge on Wednesday.
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SL military harasses, confiscates ICRC clearance of ex-LTTE members in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 July 2012, 18:48 GMT]
A psy-ops squad, operated by SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has started to ‘interrogate’ and harass former fighters and members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who have been released after the detention and so-called rehabilitation programme. Claiming that they belong to a ‘special CID unit’ from Colombo, the psy-ops squad from Colombo has been picking up former LTTE members and those who have earlier served in in the civil bodies under the LTTE administration, taking them to public places such as schools and harassing them psychologically as well as meting out physical torture on to them. Further, as part of the harassment programme, the military squad has confiscated the release papers issued to the ‘rehabilitated’ LTTE cadres by the ICRC and the International Organisation of Migration (IOM).
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Nelliyadi protest urges coherence in Tamil politics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 July 2012, 16:51 GMT]
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF), addressing the peaceful protest on Wednesday at Nelliyadi, which was organised against the slaying of Nimalarooban in Sri Lanka’s prison, urged the people to see things in the context of Sri Lankan government’s systematic annihilation of the existence of Tamils as a Nation in the island. “Until we fail to establish the recognition of the Tamil nationhood and its distinct sovereignty, we will be failing in our political work,” he said. In the meantime, TNA MP S. Sritharan, addressing the protesters at Nelliyadi said Tamils are not a defeated Nation. “What has happened to our youth in 2012 in Vavuniyaa is nothing different than what had happened to our youth at Welikade prison in 1983,” he said adding that until the injustice continues, the struggle for liberation would continue.
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SLFP-men issue death threat to journalists in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 July 2012, 19:39 GMT]
Two newspaper reporters in Mannaar have complained to Tamil Journalists Association in Vanni that ruling SLFP-men have issued death threats to them for their reporting on inciting violence at Koanthaip-piddi jetty on Friday. An armed Muslim gang incited a section of the Muslims after Jummah Prayer to join them in causing destruction to the boats of uprooted Tamil Catholics while the dispute between communities was being already addressed by the civil officials at divisional and district level.
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Indian media seeing SL military misses pronouncing genocide

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 July 2012, 07:22 GMT]
A correspondent of the Mumbai-based Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), visiting the country of Eezham Tamils occupied by Sinhala military, sees there the Palu tree identified in Sinhala, but not the Paalai tree of Tamil literary fame. The example may be trifle but illustrative in showing how the lenses through which the Indian media sees or try to project the question of Eezham Tamils misses genocide in reducing the issue into mere militarisation, commented Eezham Tamil activists in the island responding to a feature in July 14 issue of EPW. Criticising the SL militarisation but at the same time artfully avoiding the heart of the matter, the genocide, the article said, “The message for the moment at least is clear: reconcile, by keeping your head down, give way to the army, be patient and hope for the best. In other words - do pretty much what you did to survive the reign of the LTTE."
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Unemployed graduates protest in Jaffna, UPFA dominates public sector employment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 July 2012, 18:29 GMT]
SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Colombo government is widely blamed for handling new and temporary appointments in the Northern province for electoral political purposes. Recent temporary appointments have been provided with the condition that the employees should extend support the UPFA government in the provincial elections, unemployed graduates demanding justice said. On Thursday, a section of unemployed graduates, who have been sidelined in such appointments, demonstrated in front of the District Secretariat in Jaffna amidst harassment from the SL military intelligence and police commandos.
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Colombo destroys education of Tamil youth in North, teachers complain

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 July 2012, 06:55 GMT]
More than 11% of the schools in the Northern Province remain closed due to Sri Lanka military occupation, say teachers in Jaffna citing statistics from the Northern provincial ministry of education. Colombo has been systematically depriving the Eezham Tamil educational institutions in North and East from receiving external aid, both from foreign NGOs and the Tamil diaspora. In addition, the SL military-run civil administration has been diverting the funds already allocated in the provincial budget for the education sector. As a result, the Northern Province has ranked last in the latest GCE A/L examinations, the teachers said adding that such decline was not reported before, even during the height of the war.
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SL Navy steps up harassment on Tamil fishermen in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 July 2012, 01:04 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy have been refusing fishermen in Vadamaraadchi to search for their missing fishermen for 72 hours since their two fishermen had sent SOS signals after their boat damaged in the seas and lost its direction. The missing fishermen were finally brought home after fellow fishermen, who went to search for them hiding from the prying eyes of the SL Navy managed to reach them in their boats. The SL navy had refused to allow the fishermen cross the border and had refused to offer any help to rescue the fishermen. Finally, Tamil Nadu fishermen had rescued them till the fishermen from Jaffna managed to reach them, fisheries society representatives in Vadamaraadchi said complaining increased harassments by the SL Navy in the seas off Jaffna and Vanni.
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Tamil reported missing found in coma after Vavuniyaa prison raid

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 July 2012, 23:37 GMT]
28-year-old Tamil man, Dilrukshan Muthurasa from Iluppaikkadavai, in Maanthai West of Mannaar district in Vanni, was one of the prisoners in Vavuniyaa prison, which was raided by the Sri Lankan Special Task Force commandos on 29 June. Dilrukshan, seriously attacked and allegedly subjected to torture at Vavuniyaa and Anuradhapura prisons, is currently in coma and is fighting for his life at Mahara prison. His mother, Reeza Muthurasa, who didn't know about the whereabouts of her son, has identified him after visiting her son at Mahara hospital, following press reports. According to Ms Reeza, her son, who had gone on employment in Middle East in 2006 had returned just before the war intensified in Vanni and was caught by the SL Navy when he tried to escape the war zone in a boat in 2009.
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New refugee vessels head for Australia from Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 July 2012, 20:05 GMT]
Agents involved in human trafficking, backed by influential ministers and personalities of the Rajapaksa government in Colombo, are exploiting the plight of already victimized Tamil youth in the North and East, to brave the Indian Ocean, making a 15-day journey towards Australia in search of a safe life than the genocide designed for them in the island, informed sources in Vadamaraadchi told TamilNet Sunday. A deep-sea fishing vessel has left Inparuddi of Vadamaraadchi, four days ago, carrying at least 15 Tamil youth. Another 20 members have been recruited and the next group is expected to leave the coast of Jaffna or Mullaiththeevu in a couple of days, the sources further said.
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Public land becoming military land is strategy of ICE in the island

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 July 2012, 23:48 GMT]
Converting all public lands or community lands of Eezham Tamils into Sinhala military lands, in the guise of ‘legally’ asserting them as ‘State Land’ of Sri Lanka is the strategy now promoted by the International Community of Establishments (ICE), partnered in the context by India and the USA that are in war with the nation of Eezham Tamils in proving a new order based on State terrorism and genocide, said political observers in Jaffna commenting on the accelerated land and sea appropriations taking place in the country of Eezham Tamils, ‘conquered’ in a genocidal war designed by the said culprits. As genuine Eezham Tamil nationalism would not agree to the grab, the culprits employ the genocidal Sinhala military to do the job, protect it from international indictment and that is why they deny any genocide taking place in the island, the activists further said.
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SLA soldiers alleged of killing father of three in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 July 2012, 15:34 GMT]
Occupying Sinhala soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army, on Wednesday, allegedly beat a recently resettled 47-year-old man, Kandiah Jeyarajah, near A9 highway at Ezhuthumadduvaa'l in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna. The victim succumbed to his injuries while being rushed to Chaavakachcheari hospital, residents in Ezhuthumadduvaazh village told TamilNet Thursday. The wife of the slain victim also confirmed the allegation that the SLA soldiers were involved in the slaying of her husband, who had got into a quarrel with his brother. The SLA soldiers, stationed at the junction had intervened in the private quarrel and when Mr Jeyarajah began to resist, he was severely beaten by the soldiers.
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EPW article on Palk Bay fishermen misses crux of the matter

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 July 2012, 06:30 GMT]
The Mumbai-based Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) in a 23 June article on trans-boundary fishing incursions in the Palk Bay reduces the issue as arising from mere “unequal technological developments” between the sides of the bay. The article misses or doesn’t want to see the larger issue: the overlapping imperialist and genocidal agendas respectively of the establishments in New Delhi and Colombo carrying out a two-pronged attack on the nation of Eezham Tamils, ultimately to grab their coasts and seas. Colombo’s military and Sinhala fishermen occupying the coasts of Eezham Tamils and New Delhi setting Tamil fishermen on either side against each other are not two different issues. The fundamental flaw of the EPW article is that it sees the affected party as ‘Sri Lankan fishermen’ while in truth even the Sri Lankan state doesn’t see them in that spirit, commented an academic in Jaffna.
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Right to free assembly worsens further in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 July 2012, 16:48 GMT]
The occupying SL military-run ‘civil’ administration of the Northern province, led by Colombo's colonial governor of North Maj. Gen. (retd) GA Chandrasir, has instructed the educational sector officials in Vanni about whom they should invite as guests to events and meetings of the schools. Those who could be invited are military officers, SL ministers, state officials and the politicians or operatives of the ruling UPFA alliance or the paramilitary outfits such as the EPDP. Those banned from the stages are elected parliamentarians of the TNA and representatives of civic bodies. The SL military has almost imposed an undeclared emergency in Vanni, prohibiting people from getting together for meetings without prior permission from the military.
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Data reveals scheme for Sinhala military colonies in country of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 July 2012, 22:33 GMT]
Details emerging from four divisional secretariats of Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, since April this year, indicate a concerted and structural move by the occupying Sri Lanka military establishment in Vanni to legally appropriate more than 6,069 acres of public and private lands in the country of Eezham Tamils. The pattern of genocidal land grab also reveals that Mullaiththeevu district is being transformed into a military enclave of the occupying Sinhala forces. TamilNet brings out some of the data it has obtained from the civil officials who have braved the threats by the military run civil administration, in releasing the details.
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Colombo's CIDs grill TNA MP behind recent protests

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2012, 17:28 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police investigators in the notorious 4th floor at the Colombo Police Headquarters on Thursday interrogated Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Sivagnanam Sritharan, who has been behind the recent protest at Thirumu'rika'ndi against Colombo's genocidal land grab undertaken through occupying SL military in Vanni. The SL CIDs interrogated Mr Sritharan for three hours confronting him with questions about an interview to a diaspora radio in Tamil, an alleged interview in English in Tamil Nadu, his interactions with the Tamil diaspora in Western countries and his diplomatic connections with the foreign missions, especially his recent interactions with the US Embassy in Colombo, TNA sources said.
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SOS of Eezham Tamils seeks global Tamils, world humanity to respond

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 June 2012, 19:20 GMT]
Mu’l’livaaykkaal was only a beginning for the Sinhala State and its international abetters to perpetuate genocide of Eezham Tamils to suit overlapping agendas. After three years of Colombo’s accelerated structural genocide facilitated by the international community of establishments, the Tamil leaders in the island have once again voiced an SOS in unison on Tuesday, appealing to global Tamils and global community of humanity, to intervene and save their nation from militarised annihilation. Gagged, but experiencing the realities of the hoodwink of ‘post-war reconciliation,’ the voices coming from the island show better clarity and bearing, compared to the hijacked diaspora confused over where to address the issue and a Tamil Nadu leadership silent after a resolution that doesn’t address fundamental solutions, political observers in the island said.
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