Ananthy urges Pope to see genocide, get answers from local, international players

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2015, 13:59 GMT]
As Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the island from Tuesday to Thursday, NPC Councillor Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, urged him to grasp the underlying factor of the conflict in the island, i.e. genocide and sought his help in getting answers from the government in Colombo and the international players, including the UN, the Co-chairs and India. “I hope Your Holiness is aware that there is an ideology behind the genocidal process,” she wrote in a letter addressed to the Pope on Saturday. She was citing a key case of Fr Francis Joseph towards the end of the war in perceiving the dimensions and said: “The Catholic Church, having witnesses among the people, has a moral duty to safeguard the people from the protracted crime of genocide.”
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‘LLRC’ Palihakkara expected to replace Military Governor of North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2015, 20:17 GMT]
Sri Lankan Military Governor of North, Major General (retd.) G.A. Chandrasiri, on Saturday told his staff that he would resign his job before anyone on the top coming with the instruction of transfer to him, informed civil sources in Jaffna said adding that Colombo's regime-changers have proposed HMGS Palihakkara, who was one of the eight panellists earlier appointed by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was aimed at buying space and time for Sri Lanka to escape international investigations. Colombo-centric agenda-setters are replacing a military governor with a more sophisticated diplomat concerned with safeguarding the unitary state of Sri Lanka.
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Sinhala elite succeeds proving Rajapaksa a liability for genocidal State

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2015, 05:24 GMT]
Sections of Sinhala elite have succeeded in removing Mahinda Rajapaksa as a liability for the continuation of the genocidal Sinhala State and its monopoly over the island, Tamil political observers commented on the outcome of the ‘presidential’ election for the Establishment in Colombo. According to latest reports on Friday morning, Mahinda Rajapaksa left the charge of his official residence in Colombo to the current opposition leader Ranil Wikramasinghe, who in turn is expected to invite the winning candidate Maithripala Srisena to become the next president. Rajapaksa was open in his campaign that the choice between the two main candidates was a choice between China and the USA. India had a tacit understanding with the USA, political observers said.
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Tamil will expressed only by distancing from racist election: Jude Lal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2015, 07:13 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena cannot be seen as the greater evil and the lesser evil respectively, says Professor Jude Lal of Trinity College, Dublin, in an interview to TamilNet on Wednesday. The democratic rights of the Tamils and the democratic rights of the Sinhalese are not the same as the so-called Sinhala pro-democracy campaign claims, the director of Centre for Post-Conflict Justice at Trinity College argues, underlining the fact that the promise of democracy by the so-called Sinhala pro-democracy campaigners has totally and radically different meanings for the Tamils and the Sinhalese: It means good governance for the Sinhalese and continuation and furtherance of subjugation for the Tamils, he says. The TNA is being used by USA, UK and India to reinforce Sinhala hegemony in the name of democracy, Jude Lal told TamilNet.
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Maithiripala denies devolution agreement with Tamils, Muslims

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2015, 12:41 GMT]
“We are firm in our stand that there is no place for Tamil Eelam demand and the Sri Lanka Army would not be withdrawn from the Northern Province,” said Common Presidential Candidate Maithiripala Sirisena on Monday. The statement comes after Mr Maithiripala has received unconditional backing from the TNA Parliamentary Group Leader Sampanthan and TNA's National List Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran. “My government will safeguard the unity and the territorial integrity of the country,” Mr. Sirisena added stating that he had not signed any agreement on devolution with Tamil and Muslim parties that are backing him.
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6-year-old child wounded in SL military assault on civilians in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2015, 08:25 GMT]
A 6-year-old child was rushed to Ki'linochchi hospital at serious condition on Sunday when SL military soldiers at Paarathi-puram assaulted the Tamil civilians who were protesting against SL military violence on a tailor shop where a 46-year-old man from Paarathi-puram was brutally assaulted by a Sinhala soldier. The SL soldiers attacked the public when the public had gathered in front of the SL military camp demanding the arrest of SL soldier who went amok on the tailor shop. But, the SL military, which has been suppressing and exploiting the poverty-stricken resettled villagers, chose to assault the public in front of the military base.
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Tamils of struggle polity need not worry who becomes SL president

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2015, 18:28 GMT]
While SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa is almost open in telling that electing the next president is choosing between China and the USA, senior Tamil grassroot leaders and activists in the island are of the opinion that Eezham Tamils put in a situation of struggle polity need not worry who succeeds as president. “Tamils should not participate in this election. Whether the future of Tamils is linked to the Sinhalese or not has to be decided by the Sinhalese. [...] The TNA leaders in their decision [of supporting Mr Sirisena] failed in guiding the Tamils in the right way,” said senior ITAK Central Committee member and former UN consultant Ma'ravan-pulavu K. Sachithananthan, speaking to media in Jaffna on Saturday. The former Jaffna University academic was addressing along with Ananthy Sasitharan of the NPC and ITAK Youth Wing Leader VS Sivakaran.
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Mavai threatens Ananthy for BBC interview on election stand

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2015, 14:10 GMT]
Popularly elected NPC Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan was taken to medical care at fainted state on Friday morning after she was threatened over the phone by ITAK leader and TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah to resign from the ITAK and the TNA. The controversial threat comes following an interview to the BBC Tamil Service by Ms Ananthy on Thursday. In the interview, Ms Ananthy went on stating that she would be either abstaining from the voting or nullifying her vote as no Tamil with self-respect would be voting for any of the two mainstream candidates in the SL presidential race. Ignoring the opposition from the grassroots, the Establishment-centric hierarchy of the TNA last week decided to support the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Sampanthan announces decision to back Sirisena in SL presidential elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 09:25 GMT]
Despite strong opposition from various sections of Eezham Tamils against giving explicit support to any of the two main contestants in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential elections, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan has decided to support the Opposition Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena. Mr Sampanthan announced the stance of the TNA Tuesday morning at a media briefing held at Hotel Jananaki in Colombo. Mr Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran have been blamed for striking a clandestine deal with Chandrika Kumaratunga on backing Maithiripala Sirisena.
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SLMC demanded Muslim coastal district in Ampaa'rai: UPFA minister

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 December 2014, 19:07 GMT]
SL Minister Hakeem wanted the Sri Lankan government to agree to carve out a coastal Muslim district from the present Ampaa'rai district, including Kalmunai, Chammaanthu'rai and Poththuuvil, before defecting to the common opposition front, said SL Environment and Renewable Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha. Mahinda Rajapakasa was opposed to the demand as it will affect the “territorial integrity and unitary character of the country,” the SL minister said. Commenting, Tamil activists in Vanni said Tamil-speaking people and their political parties should be concerned of the territorial integrity of the North-East and oppose both the SLFP and the UNP, who have been Sinhalicising and militarising the Tamil homeland for decades.
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Mazhavaraiyar/ Mazhuvaraayar/ Mazhavaraayar Kaddai Adampan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2014, 21:55 GMT]
The defined or enclosed land in the Adampan division belonging to Mazhavaraayar
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New Delhi mission traps Tamil Nadu film director

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 December 2014, 11:50 GMT]
By trapping him into a meeting with SL Minister Douglas Devananda in Jaffna last Saturday and by circulating photos of the meeting, a sinister attempt has been made to discredit his image among global Tamils, accuses leading Tamil Nadu film director P. Bharathiraja. While in Jaffna, Bharathiraja was told by the Indian High Commission over phone that an SL Minister would be visiting him, and he obliged. Addressing a function at Kiraan-ku'lam in Batticaloa on Tuesday, Bharathiraja, who was invited to the island by Akilan Foundation to meet and felicitate artists, said that he had to clarify the circumstances by which he had been duped.
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Ex-LTTE members forced to vote for Rajapaksa at postal voting in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2014, 21:17 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has forced around 4,000 former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are under the captivity of the so-called Civil Security Division (CSD) in Vanni, to vote for the incumbent SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa through postal voting, which concluded on Wednesday. In the meantime, a special unit of SL military personnel, led by the officers handpicked by the SL presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has been monitoring the rank and file of the SL military stationed in the North. A section of the Sinhala soldiers, who have been advocating against the re-election of Mahinda Rajapaksa have been subjected to investigations by this special unit, informed sources told TamilNet.
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Controversial SL minister Badurdeen backs Sirisena

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2014, 13:21 GMT]
Rishad Badurdeen, a cabinet minister in the Rajapaksa regime, who has been causing ethnic unrest between the Muslims and Tamils in the North has defected from SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and joined hands with the joint opposition on Monday, news sources in Colombo said. Mr Badurdeen, who is elected from North and Amir Ali, elected from East, together with many other All Ceylon Muslim Congress (ACMC) members have pledged their support to common opposition’s presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena a short while ago in Colombo.
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Sumanthiran makes challenges to shield political bankruptcy

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2014, 23:35 GMT]
Colombo-based parliamentarian of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M.A. Sumanthiran, who visited Batticaloa on Thursday challenged the SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa to release the purported ‘secret agreement’, signed between the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Srisena and the TNA. Responding, the grassroots activists from Aalaiyadi-vempu who met Mr Sumanthiran told TamilNet Friday that the TNA had failed to come out with a people-centric political move challenging the real perpetrators of the plight faced by Tamils and instead comes out with empty challenges to shield its political-agenda bankruptcy. The TNA should have made use of the opportunity to mobilise the Tamil masses to send message to the forces that stage the deceptive game of presidential election for the perpetuation of the genocidal State, the activists in the East further said.
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Thalaha-gam-waaduwa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 December 2014, 10:17 GMT]
The vicinity or neighbourhood of the village of the firm ground

The vicinity or neighbourhood of the village of Thalaa plants or trees
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SL Court to hear mother's challenge on military seizure of land

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 December 2014, 23:01 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) that had moved into the lands of an old mother, Mrs Maheswary Thambirasa at Mirusuvil in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, had relocated the notorious 52-2 Division Headquarters of the SLA, which was earlier situated in Vara'ni into the new locality situated along the A9 road. SL presidential sibling and SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa opened declared the 52 Division HQ on January 08. Later, the SL military wanted to encroach further lands and the mother was protesting against the illegal seizure. Now, the case has been accepted for hearing at the Court of Appeal in Colombo, news sources in Jaffna said.
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Tamil civil society formalises TCSF organisation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2014, 10:12 GMT]
A loosely organised network of Tamil Civil Society Activists from the North-East of Sri Lanka who had been functioning for the past five years under the leadership of the Mannaar Bishop have now formally constituted themselves as an organization – the Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF). A policy document setting out the aims, objectives and core beliefs of the organisation and a constitution were adopted by more than 60 Tamil Civil Society Activists who took part in the Annual General Meeting of the forum held in mid-November 2014. The aim of the TCSF forum is to protect and promote the existential rights of the Tamil people and the exercise of their right to self determine their social, political, linguistic, cultural and economic future. TCSF is a network of Tamil Civil Society Activists living and/or working primarily in the North-East part of the island.
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Arundhati misses Buddhist casteism, Wigneswaran massages Hindu imperialism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 December 2014, 12:18 GMT]
Brilliantly exposing the legacy of Hinduism in the political, social, cultural and economic oppression committed in India by a small section against the vast majority of the masses, Indian writer Arundhati Roy in an article last month said: “Now, the caste system is up for export. Wherever Hindus go, they take it with them. It exists among the brutalised Tamils in Sri Lanka.” She sadly misses the caste structured Sinhala-Buddhism, with which now India’s Hindutva makes an unholy alliance through a genocidal route, in the process of empire building and consolidation of the traditional forces of oppression. Meanwhile, the Sanskrit sloka-reciting NPC chief minister Wigneswaran, attending World Hindu Conference in New Delhi last month, was appealing to ‘Sanaadhana Dharma’ for the salvation of Tamils, writes an academic in Jaffna.
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Goanu-mæru-wæwa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2014, 12:11 GMT]
The tank where elks were killed
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