Ampaa'rai officials overstep into Batticaloa district to Sinhalicise Tamil village

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 June 2013, 18:31 GMT]
Sinhala authorities from Ampaa'rai district in the East have laid a brand new carpet road to the ancient Tamil village, Chuvaami-malai that comes under the jurisdiction of the Batticaloa district administration. The name of the village has been changed to Booja-boomi. New cottages are being built using beaten earth by Sinhala settlers with funds provided by the Sinhala Buddhist extremist outfit Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force), Tamil civil officials from Paddippazhai division of Batticaloa district told TamilNet Friday. At least 100 acres of lands have been appropriated at Chuvaami-malai for Sinhala colonists, the sources further said.
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Colombo brings in more Sinhala colonists to Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 June 2013, 15:08 GMT]
2,000 Sinhala families from the South are being brought into Trincomalee district by the occupying Sri Lanka's Government Agent in the district, Major General T.T.R. de Silva, who is a former commander of the Sri Lanka Army in Trincomalee, informed civil sources in the city told TamilNet Friday adding that Colombo is in the process of completing a demograhic genocide on Eezham Tamils in the district while the global powers locked in a geopolitcal race provide necessary time and space to the Colombo Establishment.
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White House honoree pays tribute to his hometown in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2013, 01:55 GMT]
Professor Sivalingam Sivananthan, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Microphysics Laboratory (MPL) at the Department of Physics at University of Illinois, who was recently honored in the White House as a "Champion of Change," attributed the strong values inculcated in him while growing up as a child in Chaavakachcheari, a town 10 miles east of Jaffna, by his parents, and his local village community, and the freedom, dignity, and opportunity provided to him in his adopted country, U.S., as the main reasons for his achievements and success. Sivananthan's innovations are in infra-red sensors, which have both commercial and military applications. He was recognized by the White House under the Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovators category of the Champion of Change program last week.
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Geneva basing on LLRC unfortunate, 13A never a starting point: Guruparan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2013, 19:25 GMT]
“The Geneva resolutions premising their programme of action or their indicated programme of action on the basis of the LLRC is very unfortunate in that they fail to understand that the LLRC is merely a time buying process,” said Jaffna University law academic and civil society activist Guruparan Kumaravadivel in an exclusive interview to TamilNet this week. Answering a question on the 13th Amendment, he said, “it is not a starting point; it is not a reference point; it is not a basis.” The views coming from a prominent activist based in the island gains much significance against the backdrop of orchestrations in the diaspora defending the US-tabled, India-fine-tuned Geneva resolution, and renewed efforts of New Delhi in invoking the zombie of the 13th Amendment.
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BBC says SL military seizure of land in East not verified

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 May 2013, 07:03 GMT]
Charles Haviland of BBC, reporting from Colombo on last Friday, cited recent TamilNet reports on SL military seizure of lands of Tamils and Muslims in the Eastern Province, and said that the reports have not been verified. International media operating from Colombo long plays this game. They did it to facilitate the genocidal end of the war and now they do it to subtly shield the structural genocide and annihilation of the contiguous country of Eezham Tamils in the North and East. While the genocidal Sinhala military seizing land in an accelerated way in the North and East is almost a daily routine, the international media never say that this is a direct result of the policy followed by the US-led West, as such as the two LLRC-based resolutions at Geneva, commented an activist for alternative politics in the island.
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‘Sri Lanka’ poetry: Rajapaksa man edits, India publishes, SL-Canada mission launches

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 May 2013, 03:15 GMT]
National Book Trust of India (NBT), a publications outfit of the New Delhi Establishment had entrusted the editorship of an anthology of ‘Sri Lanka’ poetry to the well-known defender of the genocidal State, Prof Rajiva Wijesinha. New Delhi’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid ceremoniously received the book presented by the editor recently. The book “Mirrored Images” will be launched in Toronto, Canada, on Friday at a function jointly organised by Colombo’s High Commission in Ottawa and Consulate General in Toronto. Prof Chelva Kanaganayakam of the University of Toronto will deliver the keynote address at the event, the Sri Lanka High Commission invitation to select audience said.
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Colombo plans Sinhala military settlement in Valikaamam North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 May 2013, 23:51 GMT]
While the uprooted Eezham Tamils of Valikaamam North confront the occupying Sri Lankan State against the seizure of their lands in the former ‘High Security Zone’ (HSZ), the Sri Lankan military is moving fast with its secret plans of establishing permanent Sinhala military settlements to bring in families of the Sinhala soldiers into the former HSZ in Jaffna. Informed paramilitary sources in Jaffna told TamilNet Tuesday that a Sri Lankan commander has been assigned the task of converting the former HSZ into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ), consisting of Palaali military base. Already, more than 5,000 houses have been constructed in Mu'rika'ndi in Vanni and families of Sinhala soldiers are being provided housing there. There are at least 30,000 Sinhala soldiers stationed in the Jaffna peninsula.
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SL military arrests husbands, sexually harasses wives in Trinco

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 May 2013, 23:51 GMT]
The military intelligence officers of the occupying Sri Lanka Army frequent the houses of former LTTE members and combatants under the pretext of investigations and are attempting to sexually harass the wives while keeping their husbands in prolonged detention, reliable sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Monday. The Sri Lankan military officers who came from Kaddai-pa’richchaan camp had arrested 16 men in Moothoor, after the so-called Independence Day celebrations staged by Colombo in Trincomalee on 04 February 2013. All of the victims, except one, are married and have at least two children. They have all been former LTTE members and some of them have married ex-LTTE females. The SL military intelligence operatives from the Kaddai-pa’richchaan camp have been harassing the wives of the detained husbands.
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DMK chief wants New Delhi to provide Indian citizenship to Eezham Tamil refugees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 May 2013, 05:19 GMT]
Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Friday that DMK Chief M Karunanidhi has requested New Delhi to provide citizenship to over 100,000 Eezham Tamils living in South Indian state of Tamil Nadu as refugees. Pointing out to the immigration reforms in the U.S., Mr Karunanidhi was quoted as saying, "[s]imilarly, it is also our wish and request to the Centre to come forward and provide citizenship to over one lakh Eezham Tamils living in the country ensuring their permanent safety," the PTI added.
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TNA activist in Ampaa'rai abducted, tortured after meeting against land grab

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 May 2013, 23:33 GMT]
An armed squad that came in a white van on Tuesday abducted a 68-year-old activist, Thangathurai Veluppillai, a supporter of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Ampaa'rai district. The victim was blindfolded while he was at Kalmunai public market and was taken away by the squad that tortured him to obtain the names of the TNA activists in Ampaa'rai district. The abduction comes a few days after the intelligence of the occupying SL military ‘investigated’ him following a meeting against the land grab by the SL military in his division. After 3 days of interrogations in Batticaloa, Mr Thangathurai was taken back to Kalmunai and released there, the sources further said.
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Penguin India brings out diary of LTTE captain

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 May 2013, 23:01 GMT]
The English edition of ‘War Journey: Diary of a Tamil Tiger’ authored by the late Capt. Malaravan has been published and released by Penguin Books, India this month. The work originally written in Tamil by Malaravan as a first-person account of the battlefield was first published by the LTTE as ‘Poar Ulaa’ posthumously in 1993. The English translation of the work by Dr N. Malathy, a key member of NESoHR and author of ‘A Fleeting Moment in my Country’, published by Penguin includes translator’s note, a description of Malaravan by the late LTTE Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan, and a note from Malaravan’s mother. In a comment on ‘War Journey’ sent to TamilNet, Dr. Malathy said that ‘War Journey’ was an exceptional work, noting there was no space given by the establishments for writers to portray the positive aspects of the LTTE-led struggle for Tamil Eelam.
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‘Reconciliation with Sri Lanka is fake, Tamil Eelam only solution’: Los Angeles event

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 May 2013, 23:03 GMT]
The Mu’l’livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance event in Los Angeles, USA on Sunday stated emphatically that asking the Eezham Tamil nation to reconcile with genocidal Sri Lanka was fraudulent and that a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam was the only solution, further criticizing the ICE for failing to address the chronic national question of the Eezham Tamils. The speakers at the event further affirmed the necessity for sustained pressure from the masses in Tamil Nadu to effect a change in the regional and global order. Commenting on the recent series of Tamil Genocide Remembrance events, a diaspora activist from Canada said the fourth year after Mu’l’livaay-kkaal has seen an increase in protests challenging the injustice of the world powers towards the Tamil nation, lamenting, however the eagerness of some in the Tamil diaspora to forsake national symbols under the slightest pressure.
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Chennai event challenges ICE complicity in Tamil Genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 May 2013, 08:29 GMT]
Articulating right demands and slogans in Genocide Remembrance events is crucial at a time when the Eezham Tamils in their homeland are barred from even silently mourning their heroes and civilians who sacrificed their lives in the culmination of the genocidal war at Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal, said a Tamil political activist from Jaffna commenting on the slogans used by protestors at the May 19 event at Marina beach in Chennai. Civil society activists, artists, political leaders and ordinary people had participated a mass gathering near the Kannagi statue in the honour of those Eezham Tamils who perished in Sri Lanka’s genocidal war despite dissuasion by the police. Speaking to TamilNet from the gathering, Umar, an activist from the May 17 criticized the failure of UN in preventing the genocide, stating that Sri Lanka must be hauled in the UNSC.
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Diaspora Tamils observe Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal Genocide remembrance events

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 May 2013, 17:16 GMT]
Events remembering the internationally-abetted genocide in May 2009 were held in several countries in the West by the Tamil diaspora on Saturday. While over 10,000 Tamils participated in a mass rally in London, the remembrance event in Sydney had an innovative performance of ‘forum theatre’ to encourage the audience to frame their political discourse with conceptual clarity. Speakers at the event in Canada, referring to the Tamil Nadu student uprising, urged the second-generation diaspora youth to organize mass protests challenging the establishments that continue to abet the protracted genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation. Likewise, the events in London and Dusseldorf saw the participation of grassroots Kurdish activists who gave solidarity messages to the Eezham Tamil nation.
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Jaffna University remembers Vanni genocide amidst SL military oppression

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 May 2013, 13:39 GMT]
Sri Lankan military harassments continue at Jaffna University where a memorial event was silently observed by hundreds of students on Friday, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. The occupying SL military is on a continuous war with the university community of students and teachers in the last four years on the issue of remembering the slain. It took a serious turn on the Heroes Day last November. The arrests and the military ‘rehabilitation’ of the student leaders didn't deter the students from paying tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the genocidal war at Vanni. Despite refusal by the University administration to provide a hall to the event this year, hundreds of university students and teachers gathered at the Paramesvara temple premises in the university on Friday for a silent memorial without any speeches.
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‘Idea of the Tamil struggle cannot be killed’: Kashmiri Leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 May 2013, 07:51 GMT]
“Using military operation, they can silence the voice for a time being, they cannot kill the ideology and idea. They cannot defeat ideology and ideas with military means,” Yasin Malik, Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) said in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Saturday. Speaking from Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu where he had gone to address the public in solidarity with the Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance Day event organized by the Naam Tamizhar party, he further said that if the international community thinks that it can suppress people’s movement through military means, peace and security cannot be achieved in the world. “If they want peace and stability in the world, then they will have to resolve the people’s issues. Otherwise, the people across the globe, who are the voiceless people, they will get together and they will form their own strategy,” the Kashmiri leader said.
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Cameron should review his decision to visit Sri Lanka: Lee Scott

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 20:20 GMT]
Speaking to TamilNet from the Mu’l’livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance Day event in London on Saturday, Conservative MP Mr. Lee Scott said that British PM Cameron should review his decision to visit Sri Lanka for the CHOGM meeting. When the criticism coming from some Tamil quarters that a person of the stature of Mr. Cameron visiting Sri Lanka will only give that state legitimacy was raised to Scott, he replied “I think what is important that up until now, with all the efforts that is made around the world, there has been nothing towards reconciliation. There has been nothing towards, before any reconciliation, getting justice for the Tamil people, and whatever it takes to achieve that must be done.” However, a Tamil activist from the UK questioned the wisdom of taking Mr. Scott to Geneva for lobbying when he seems incapable of convincing his own party’s leadership to boycott Sri Lanka.
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Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal survivor speaks out

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 11:51 GMT]
Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan, who personally witnessed Sri Lanka military taking away her husband, Mr Elilan, a political leader of the LTTE, at the end the Vanni War in May 2009, speaks out her experience from a civilian point of view and as a mother caring for her children during the war and the genocidal onslaught. Still living in Vanni, at Ki'linochchi, the 46-year-old mother of three is also running an organization that seeks to establish what had happened to their beloved ones. The SL State is still refusing to reveal the fate of those who were filtered away from the civilians and taken into buses to undisclosed detention camps. The narration of the survivor of the genocidal massacre, told with courage from Ki'linochchi, brings out the spirit and courage of a people who stood with their liberation fighters until the last moment. TamilNet brings out a 40-minute recount by Mrs Sasitharan.
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Short film featuring Isaippiriya reproduced

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 06:18 GMT]
Remembering the heroes of the Tamil cause, civilians and journalists, who sacrificed their lives this week in 2009, TamilNet reproduces a short film that featured the slain journalist Ms Isaippiriya.
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Boycott campaigns worsen Sri Lanka's economic woes

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 May 2013, 02:34 GMT]
Targeting brand label garment stores including Victoria Secret and Gap which sell Sri Lankan made apparel, Tamil activists held protests in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Toronto in front of both stores Sunday, organizers of the protest said. The protesters held placards and distributed leaflets describing the war-crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Sri Lanka government, as shoppers, aware of the recent tragedy of garment workers in Bangladesh, were drawn in increasing numbers towards the protesters.
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