Tamils, Muslims need strategic alliance to counter worsening paradigm of genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2018, 22:48 GMT]
Sinhala Buddhist extremist monks and sections of the SL military intelligence, directly or indirectly serving the interests of external agenda setters, have been trying to trigger off an island-wide pogrom against Tamil-speaking Muslims, starting from Kandy, the capital of Theravada Buddhism in the Central Province. It is not a shocking development, especially when the global powers competing for geo-strategic access to the island in the Indian Ocean are determined to uphold the genocidal paradigm through sustaining impunity for the unitary State. It is under the prevailing State impunity, the ‘Sinhala Only’ attitude, which manifested as an Act in the late 50s now taken an extreme form of imposing ‘uniformity’ from the southernmost Dondra point in the Sinhala country to the northernmost Chakkoadai cape in the occupied Tamil country, in every aspect of life.
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Eezham Tamils set to lose Vavuniyaa North to Sinhala colonists in civic elections

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2018, 15:08 GMT]
The Sinhala colonisation and demographic changes engineered by the genocidal unitary State of Sri Lanka in Vavuniyaa North have gone to the extent that Eezham Tamils would be losing their political hold of Vavuniyaa North Divisional Council (Piratheasa Chapai) in the forthcoming civic elections, Tamil civil sources in Vavuniyaa said. Vavuniyaa North was entirely a Tamil division before the colonisation by Sinhala paramilitary-led colonists following the State-sponsored anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983. Although the area has been subjected to Sinhala colonisation for a long time through settling Sinhala paramilitary personnel and their families, the extent of silent colonisation has been accelerated after the war in the recent years with the aim of transforming Vavuniyaa North into a 'Sinhala Only' division as the recently Sinhalicised division of Weli-oya, the civil sources further said.
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UNHRC, OHCHR belong to failed human rights paradigm, say victims in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 February 2018, 21:18 GMT]
The families of enforced disappeared, who have been waging continuous protests for hundreds of days have again blamed SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the commander of the armed forces of genocidal Sri Lanka, for repeatedly deceiving them with different explanations each time he met them last year and for his latest claim in Jaffna on Monday that none of the enforced disappeared were in the custody of his forces anywhere in the island. Mr Sirisena was visiting Jaffna for election campaign on Monday. The families of enforced disappeared have been demanding the International Community to trace what had happened to those who were handed over to the SL military in Mullaiththeevu and in Vavuniyaa after the occupying SL military instructed the families of all LTTE members to hand over the surviving at the end of genocidal onslaught in May 2009.
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Britain accountable for causing genocide through unitary discourse: Political Analyst

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 February 2018, 22:40 GMT]
The two initial European powers to colonise the island, the Portuguese and the Dutch, only introduced some changes in the customary laws and religious practices. They didn't impose upon us any major political or economic change disturbing the parity that prevailed among the ethnic identities. It was the colonial British, since they seized the control of the island in 1796 and enforced a single administrative unit in 1833, who were behind the political reforms starting from Colebrooke-Cameron commission disturbing the parity between the ethnic identities in the island. The British were the ones who brought the constitutional discourse of unitary character and they should bear the responsibility for creating conditions for the annihilation of Tamils as a nation in the island, commented Jaffna based Tamil political analyst S.A. Jothilingam in an interview to TamilNet on Sunday.
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UNP wants to erect 1000 Sinhala-Buddhist temples in occupied Tamil country

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 February 2018, 22:42 GMT]
The UNP of the ruling Yahapalanaya alliance, particularly SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, has recently gone on record vowing to erect 1,000 Buddhist temples in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils in the North-East of the island. The agenda is also mentioned in the manifesto of UNP in the run-up to the local elections. The UNP claims as it has managed to allocate 500 million rupees to the programme. The propaganda waged by the UNP and the SLFP in Vavuniyaa has been centred around the theme of SL State sponsorship to Sinhala-Buddhisication of Vavuniyaa and the North. The construction of 1,000 locations for Sinhalicisation in the North-East project is being termed as a ‘reconciliation project’.
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Organised rings backed by occupying Colombo exploit natural resources in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2018, 18:04 GMT]
The Sinhala police and the military of occupying Colombo, collaborating with businessmen from South, are exploiting the natural resources of Paduvaan-karai region, where the major cultivable lands of Eezham Tamils in the Batticaloa district are situated. Paduvaan-karai, also known for dairy and cattle farming for decades, is being systematically targeted for Sinhalicisaton and colonisation by the Sinhalese from Polonnaruwa district under the rule of Maithiriapala Sirisena as the president and the minister of Mahaweli ‘development’. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are also backing Sirisena's discriminative ‘development’ programmes under the System B of Mahaweli irrigation scheme. It is under these circumstances, the occupying forces of genocidal Sri Lanka are engaged in plundering the sand and logging trees by harbouring the exploitative rings from the South.
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Up-country origin Tamils most affected among uprooted in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 January 2018, 15:09 GMT]
166 families, most of them poverty-stricken Tamils of Up-country origin, who lived with self-respect in Vanni until 1996 doing farming after they ended their centuries old plantation life after state-sponsored pogroms against Tamils in the island in 1977 and 1983, are now again transformed into people doing menial work in the local fishing industry in Peasaalai, Mannaar. The families are living at Chi'ruth-thoappu village which is located on Mannaar-Thalaimannaar Road as they had lost their lands and farms in Vanni to occupying SL military. The families displaced to Mannaar in 1996 and were residing in an open refugee camp operated with the support of UNHCR at that time. While majority of the uprooted people had vacated from the camp, 166 families were unable to resettle due to the war and as their original lands in Vanni were being seized by the occupying Sinhala military.
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Occupying Colombo harasses war-affected families in Madu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 January 2018, 17:18 GMT]
Around 300 war-affected families from the five districts of North who have been resettled at 2nd Mile Post (Ira'ndaam-kaddai) from Madu Road junction along the road to the Holy Shrine of Madu complain of harassments coming from various departments under the central ministries of occupying Colombo, the Sinhala police, particularly the STF and the military intelligence of genocidal Sri Lanka. The villagers say they are living in an open prison, which is being subjected to repeated interventions by the Sinhala officials of the SL Forest Department, who claim to protect the forest from illegal logging, the Wild Life Department falsely blaming the villagers of hunting deers and peacock, Geological Department claiming to protect the soil from illegal sand scooping and the SL Archaeology Department which is in the forefront of Sinhalicisation deploying heritage genocide against Eezham Tamils.
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Tamil political prisoners transferred to cells with criminal inmates in Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 January 2018, 16:47 GMT]
A 70-year-old Tamil political prisoner from Mannaar and a 40-year-old political prisoner from Chaavakachcheari in Jaffna, both of whom survived a fatal assault by Sinhala prison guards, STF commandos and military intelligence personnel five years ago, complained on Friday that they have been transferred to cells with Sinhala criminal prisoners in Anuradhapura prison. The Tamil prisoners have been complaining for a long time of threats of ethnic violence against them from Sinhala prisoners. Apart from being subjected to violence, some Tamil political prisoners have also been exposed to narcotics from the criminal prisoners.
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Another stupa erected at controversial Buddhist vihara in Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2018, 21:10 GMT]
Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, an extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk, who has been constructing a controversial Buddhist vihara establishment at the private lands of Eezham Tamils in the strategic Kokku'laay, which links the Northern and Eastern provinces, has put up another Buddhist stupa at the locality in recent weeks, Tamil officials at Karai-thu'raip-pattu division said. The monk is fully assisted by Sinhala soldiers who are deployed in civil clothes. Despite repeated complaints and interim orders coming from local and provincial authorities, the monk is continuing the construction with the backing of Colombo government, occupying Sinhala military and the extremist Buddhist Power Force (BBS). Mr Manivannathas, the Tamil owner of the land has once again sought help from the public to stop the construction work, but says no-one is coming forward to take up his case.
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Elder generation activists prepared to sacrifice lives to win Ira’nai-theevu resettlement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2017, 23:44 GMT]
The uprooted people of the twin islets of Ira’nai-theevu, located 12 nautical miles from the western coast of Vanni, have been waging a continuous protest for more than 8 months since 01 May 2017. They have been demanding resettlement in their native islets, which lie facing the Palk Bay. 8 years have elapsed since the end of genocidal war, the occupying Sinhala Navy is still adamant in its refusal to release the occupied residential, livelihood lands and the fishing coast which belonged to more than 2,500 people comprising at least 740 families before displacement. “We hoped that we could resettle in our village and celebrate 2018 New Year. But, we were deceived. If this situation continues after 01 January, we will have no other option than advancing our peaceful protest by proving our determination through sacrificing our lives even if it is necessary,” say the protesters.
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Genocidal Colombo does not even spare traditional food court of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2017, 22:26 GMT]
“Ammaachchi” was the name chosen by Northern Provincial Council's Ministry of Agriculture for a concept of traditional restaurant. The United Nations Development Programme financially assisted the initiative, which was launched in Vavuniyaa under the previous minister Mr P. Aingaranesan. The food court became a success earning a good reputation. The kitchen, driven by grassroots women groups, has been promoting war-affected women with livelihood opportunities and was serving traditional Tamil cuisine at affordable price and good quality. Soon, the concept was expanded to Ki'linochchi. However, when a similar NPC initiative was to be launched at Thirunelveali in Jaffna at the initiative of the same NPC ministry, Colombo based unitary system, preoccupied with the genocidal idea of ‘uniform Sri Lanka’, has been insisting upon naming the restaurant with its Sinhala counterpart, Hela Bojun.
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Paṭṭi, Āṭṭup-paṭṭi, Paṭṭik-kuṭiyiruppu, Paṭṭiya, Ẹt-paṭṭiya, Paṭṭi-pola

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 December 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The cattle-stall

The goat-stall

The settlement of the cattle-stall

The cattle-stall

The stall or enclosure to keep elephants

The cattle-stall place
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Families of enforced disappeared mark 300 days of rotational protest in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2017, 18:46 GMT]
The kith and kin of enforced disappeared Tamils on Wednesday marked 300 days of their rotational protest, which they have been staging in front of Vavuniyaa Post Office with the demand of seeking answers from the SL State on the whereabouts of their family members who were handed over to the SL military in front of the families at the end of war in Vanni in 2009. The protesting mothers said they had been deceived by the SL State, particularly its president Mr Maithiripala Sirisena, who has been making public relations stunts aimed at international opinion through entertaining them with meetings in the past. None of the assurances given by Mr Maithiripala were fulfilled, they said.
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Kiḷuvai-nāṭṭi, Kaṉṉāṭṭi, Kal-nāṭṭiṉa-kuḷam, Kannaṭṭiya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2017, 18:30 GMT]
The place where Kiḷuvai trees are planted (to mark the boundary)

The place demarcated by stones erected (to mark the boundary)

The tank of the place in where the boundaries are set by erecting border stones; or the tank where a stone pillar or post has been set

The place demarcated by stones erected (to mark the boundary)
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Truth, justice can only come through international intervention, say protesters in North-East

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 December 2017, 17:45 GMT]
“As the world prepares to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the most meaningful action that the UN and the international community can take vis a vis Sri Lanka is to apply concrete pressure on the Government to take concrete steps to trace the fate of our loved ones and hold those responsible for their forced disappearance. Otherwise Human Rights will remain for us an unrealized value, full of rhetoric and of no practical relevance to our plight,” said the appeal from the families of enforced disappeared in Batticaloa district on Sunday. The appeal was addressed to the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. Protests were staged in Jaffna in the North and in Batticaloa in the East by the families of enforced disappeared from all the 8 districts of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.
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Families of enforced disappeared, uprooted people to boycott elections

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2017, 22:23 GMT]
The families of enforced disappeared who have been waging a continuous protest for 292 days in front of Kanthasamy temple in Ki'linochchi on Friday announced that they are going to boycott all the elections in the future as the electoral politicians have completely failed to address their demands. The uprooted people of Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu, who have been waging a continuous protest for the last 283 days, said they were also going to boycott the elections. A spokeswoman for the protesting families at Ki'linochchi said their meetings with SL President Maithiripala Sirisena in the past, facilitated by the electoral politicians, were of no use.
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Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of pubic sector in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 December 2017, 15:55 GMT]
108 of 110 nurses, who were appointed on Tuesday to the government vacancies at teaching hospitals and medical institutions that come under the administrative control of Colombo's central Ministry of Health in the Jaffna district were Sinhalese, civil sources in Jaffna said. While there are 45,000 unemployed young graduates in the Northern province demanding job opportunities from the government, almost all the appointments in the health sector as well as at the administrative sector at the district and divisional secretariats are being allocated to Sinhalese from South, civil sources at the District Secretariat of Jaffna said. At the current rate of Sinhalicisation taking place at the University of Jaffna, the significance of the University as a centre of Tamil culture and education will be gone within the next 5 years, academic circles have commented.
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North-East under Sinhala colonial rule: NPC Minister Sarweswaran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 December 2017, 17:35 GMT]
Instead of respecting the feelings of Tamils and looking at ways to resolve the national conflict, which also includes the introduction of a new flag that doesn't offend the feelings of the Tamil people, the Sinhala establishment of southern politicians and their ethno-religious leaders remain trapped in a colonial mind-set, says K. Sarsweswaran, the minister of Education, Youth affairs and Sport at the Northern Provincial Council. In a recent video interview to TamilNet on the reactions coming from the Sinhala politicians from South and the Sinhala colonial Governor to North regarding the NPC Minister’s avoidance of hoisting the offending Lion flag at a school event in Vavuniyaa, Sarawesaran said he was baffled at the reactions coming from the Sinhala politicians in South as if the denouncement of Lion flag was a latest discovery of Tamils.
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Colombo’s deceptions on Tamil political prisoners continue unabated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 December 2017, 15:18 GMT]
Reginald Cooray, the SL Governor to North and the officials of the SL Presidential Secretariat in Colombo have systematically misled the families of the three Tamil political prisoners along with NPC Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam, who was negotiating with the SL President on their behalf, legal sources in Jaffna said. The prisoners were on a fast-unto-death for 38 days objecting their case being transferred to Anuradhapura court, where it was to be addressed by a Sinhala judge. The SL Governor and the officials of the SL Presidential Secretariat had ‘advised’ Mr Shivajilingam and the families of the prisoners to lodge an appeal against the transfer of the case to Anuradhapura in the Appeal Court of Colombo and had promised that the SL Attorney General would be cooperating with transferring their case back to Vavuniyaa by not attending the hearings at the Appeal Court in Colombo.
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