I'raal-kuzhi villagers protest against sand-scooping

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2015, 20:58 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil villagers of I'raal-kuzhi, a small hamlet about 10 square km, situated along one of the two rivers where Mahaweli ganga is branching off into the sea in Moothoor division of Trincomalee district, protested on Wednesday against the unabated sand-scooping carried out by wealthy businessmen from Moothoor. The people living in the low-lying land have been struggling for long time unable to withstand the rainy and flooding seasons. The businessmen who operate with the backing of politicians in power have been engaged in the systematic exploitation for a long time. In addition to the danger of water entering their village, the systematic exploitation irreversibly destroys the environment of the region, the protesters complained.
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NPC Minister demands de-militarisation of Chu'ndiku'lam Bird Sanctuary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2015, 22:08 GMT]
The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Minister, responsible for the environmental affairs Ponnuthurai Ayngaranesan has stated that the NPC was demanding the occupying Sri Lanka Navy to hand over the environmental tourism related establishments it has established in the bird sanctuary of Chu'ndik-ku'lam. Like the forest department of the Tamil Nadu government and the local people have been protecting the Veadanthaangkal Bird Sanctuary, which is situated in Chengkalpaddu District of Tamil Nadu, the people in Vadamaraadchi East and the ministry at the NPC with the responsibility of protecting the environment want to take over the affairs of their environment from the military, he said. The people-environment relationship in the North-East would be best taken care of by the people in their traditional homeland than a [occupying] military, he said.
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British Tamils should start backing Scottish Nationalist Party

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 May 2015, 23:18 GMT]
The British elections should teach the lesson and open the eyes of Eezham Tamils in the UK, who shamefully count on the Labour and Conservative parties. If the Eezham Tamils in the UK wish to make a fundamental theoretical point for their own benefit and for the cause of the nations without State all over the world, it is time that they should start actively voicing and working for the Scottish Nationalist Party, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in Jaffna. The theoretical foundations laid by the English outlook on the island of Ceylon 200 years ago are the ones that are now followed by Washington and New Delhi and still haunt the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island. They have to be challenged in their very birthplace, the activists further said.
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Why no Gazette notification on release of lands, asks retired Land Commissioner

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 2015, 23:18 GMT]
It's not merely enough to allow the people to resettle in the lands that were seized from them by the previous regime, which applied the proviso to 38(A) of the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) under the guise of ‘public use’ in permanently converting the lands for the use of Colombo's military. The new regime should issue fresh Gazette notifications of the lands, which it claims to release back to the people. Only then the people will have legal ownership to their lands, says retired Land Commissioner of the Eastern Province, Karthirgamathamby Kurunathan, in an in-depth video interview to TamilNet this week. Why are the Tamil politicians not demanding the new regime to issue such Gazette notifications to revoke the land grabs that were carried out with the obvious agenda of Sinhala chauvinism by the previous regime, he asked.
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Sivaram uplifted standard of journalists in North-East: SLM Hanifa

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 May 2015, 21:25 GMT]
Sivaram, through his contributions to the field of journalism, raised the standards of Tamil-speaking reporters in the North-East. The work of the reporters in the North-East was taken seriously by Colombo-based editors only after the arrival of Sivaram to the field of journalism, the veteran Muslim writer said while delivering a memorial address, held in Batticaloa last Wednesday, marking the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Sivaram.
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16 Batticaloa Tamils arrested within last 100 days at Colombo airport

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2015, 17:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist’ investigation division has arrested at least 16 Tamil men from Batticaloa district at Katunayake International Airport within the past 100 days of the so-called good governance of the new SL regime in Colombo, Tamil rights activists in Batticaloa said. The arrests have been made under the notorious Emergency Regulations. But, the visiting foreign diplomats like the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, have been blindly appreciating the Sri Lankan government for ‘good governance’ in the island, the activists said. The detentions were isolated events without any relationship to each other, they said.
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Kerry implies allowing time for genocidal Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2015, 16:37 GMT]
"Peace has come but true reconciliation will take time," said the visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry in Colombo, praising the “enormous progress Sri Lanka has made in just a few months”, AFP reported on Saturday. By declaring so at a time when the Colombo regime and its military are systematically involved in the structural genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, the US Secretary of State implies giving more time and space for the regime in Colombo so that the genocide will be complete and there will be no question of reconciliation, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Sivaram, Wigneswaran saw futility in convincing Sinhala polity: senior editor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2015, 01:58 GMT]
My friend Mr. Sivaram, who earlier took a non-partisan and neutral stand on the national question in the island, thought that he could convince the South on the justifiable aspirations of Tamils by his writings. But the hawkish military minds in the South and the foreign diplomats in the island took his writings in English only as valuable information in planning and countering the struggle of Tamils. Disillusioned after ten years, Sivaram wrote in Tamil that it was futile to convince the Sinhala nation on the question of Tamils. The failure of Sivaram and his transfer into a staunch Tamil nationalist is analogical to the political course and current stand of the NPC Chief Minister, Mr C.V. Wigneswaran, said veteran Tamil journalist and editor, Mr. V. Thevaraj, addressing the 10th assassination anniversary meet of Sivaram held in Batticaloa on Wednesday.
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Constitutionally recognise Tamil homeland to prove bona fides, exiled poet tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2015, 17:40 GMT]
“We [Eezham Tamils] are not [people of two] provinces. We are [the people of] a homeland. This reality is constitutionally not recognised in the Constitution. Would the Sinhala rulers of Sri Lanka ever be prepared to constitutionally recognise the joint North-East as the homeland of Tamils,” questioned exiled Eezham Tamil poet Kasi Anandan on Wednesday, speaking from Chennai, in an Internet-based video address on the occasion of a memorial event held in Batticaloa on the 10th anniversary of the assassinated TamilNet Senior Editor and popular columnist Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki). The current Sinhala rulers [in the island of Sri Lanka] are only talking about ‘Tamils in the North’ whenever they refer to Tamils, Kasi Anandan observed.
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PTF continues to control NGOs assisting resettling people in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2015, 21:57 GMT]
Non Government Organisations trying to assist the people who wish to resettle in the pockets of lands released so far in Valikaamam North are instructed to seek permission from the so-called Presidential Task Force (PTF), which is dominated by military commanders and secretaries of various ministries in Colombo. Local NGOs that attempted to put up temporary huts in Valikaamam North have been instructed by the SL Government Agent to approach PTF clearance, says Shageevan Shanmugalingam, an elected civic representative who also leads a welfare organisation for the resettling people in Valikaamam North.
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Unabated structural genocide in East reminds Tamils of Dudley's betrayal in 1965

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2015, 19:51 GMT]
Resettled Tamils in Paddith-thidal village in Moothoor divion in Trincomalee, recently made a fresh attempt to engage in agriculture in their lands after the ‘new’ regime came to power in Colombo. However, the latest effort, made with the assistance of the ‘Legal Aid Commission’ has also proved futile, says Velayutham Velmaran, the chairman of Paddith-thidal Sri Vinayaga Agricultural Society in an interview to TamilNet on Monday. A Sinhala-Buddhist extremist monk from Samagipura, which is situated in the bordering Seruwila DS division, has been blocking the resettled Eezham Tamil landowners for several years from engaging in agriculture in their land. The Sinhala colonisers from Seruwila have seized around 1,500 acres of the agricultural lands of Eezham Tamils in the villages of Kangku-veali, Padukaadu and Muthalai-madu , Mr Velmaran said.
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Investigate SL Minister Bathiyutheen along with Basil Rajapaksa, Muslims demand UNP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2015, 16:34 GMT]
The people of Mannaar, Puththa'lam and Vavuniyaa have started to raise their voices questioning the credibility of the ‘new’ SL regime in Colombo, which has failed to arrest and investigate SL Minister of Industry and Commerce Mr Rishad Bathiyutheen over allegations of misappropriation of funds. Basil Rajapaksa, who was the former SL Minister of ‘Economic Development’ and Mr Bathiyutheen, who was the SL Minister for Resettlement, have appropriated large sums of the funds obtained for resettling the war-affected people, sections of Muslims in Puththa'lam and Mannaar accuse. At a meeting held in Temple Trees on Friday for UNP members from Northern and North-Western Provinces, Muslim members raised their voices against entertaining Bathiyutheen with a minister portfolio instead of investigating him together with Mr Basil Rajapaksa, who is now detained for investigations.
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Sajith Premadasa's SL ministry steps up Sinhalicisation in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2015, 18:25 GMT]
Sinhala officials of Colombo's ‘National Housing Development Authority’, which comes under UNP Minister Sajith Premadasa attempted on Tuesday to grab lands that belong to uprooted Eezham Tamils at Mukaththuvaaram in Kokku'laay of Mullaiththeevu district. A tense situation prevailed as Sinhala settlers confronted the Tamil landowners. However, the move to survey the lands that belong to Eezham Tamils was halted after Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member Thurairajah Ravikaran documented the land deeds to survey department officers who were brought by the so-called National Housing Development Authority to seize the lands to Sinhala colonisers in the country of Eezham Tamils. The SL State is accelerating Sinhala colonization with the aim of permanently wedging the demographic contiguity of the northern and eastern provinces at this strategic location.
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Occupying SL Navy continues to intimidate Tamil fishermen in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2015, 19:01 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailors manning the Periya-kadai jetty, situated at the entrance to the city of Mannaar, are unrelenting in their oppression being meted out to the Tamil fishermen from five village (GS) divisions, fishermen's representatives complain. Although there are no official restrictions on Mannaar fishermen accessing their territorial sea, the SL Navy is checking everyone embarking on fishing every day. The names of the fishermen, their fishing vessels are registered. Their fishing catches are being monitored on a daily basis. The SLN personnel present at the check post also use to seize portions of their catches sometimes, the fishermen further complain.
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SL State agencies, occupying military accelerate Sinhalicisation in Madu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2015, 20:18 GMT]
Two departments of the occupying Sri Lankan State, the Wildlife Department and the Forest Department, have been blocking the uprooted Eezham Tamils from resettling and owning lands in the four villages that come under Poomalarnthaan GS division, which is one of the 17 GS areas of Madu division in the Mannaar District, the uprooted Tamil villagers complain. The policy of social engineering targeting Sinhalicisation of Madu division has not changed under the ‘new’ regime, as these departments seem to compete with each other in the occupation of the lands. The threatening presence of Sinhala soldiers in the villages and the jungles facilitates the occupation. The programme of Sinhalicisation is accelerated following the commencing of railway line to Mannaar, the civil sources said.
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OISL in acid test over witness submissions on ‘Gota camp’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2015, 21:30 GMT]
The revelations on the so-called Gota camp, a secret incarceration camp run by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Trincomalee, where at least 700 former LTTE members were illegally detained for more than five years, will be an acid test to conclude whether the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) has taken the eyewitness submissions seriously, one of the survivors who got out from the notorious detention just a few days before the regime change told TamilNet on Saturday. The whereabouts of those detained at the undisclosed ‘Gota’ camp also constitute a serious question on the conduct of the ‘new’ regime in South. In the meantime, informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet that the SL military has given a figure of less than 400 former LTTE members as being alive in its custody throughout the island.
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Sinhala colonization continues unabated in pasturelands of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2015, 20:18 GMT]
Sinhala settlers are encroaching into the lands used for grazing of livestock owned by the farmers in Batticaloa. The encroachment is increasing unabated month after month during the 100-day programme of the new regime led by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, Tamil farmers from Periya-maathava'nai in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division told TamilNet on Thursday. The Sinhala settlers target the lands surrounding the water tanks and ponds in the demarcated zones of pastureland. The intruders have slain more than 25 cows that belong to Tamil farmers earlier this year. The Sinhala guards from the SL forest department and the occupying SL military and the police keep fining the cattle owners. “We are targeted by the Sinhala intruders, home guards, military and police because of our ethnicity,” a farmer said describing the illegal fining as extortion.
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SL Minister's men occupy lands of uprooted Tamils in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2015, 21:27 GMT]
Around 100 uprooted Tamil families from Thaangkiyadi in Mannaar have been denied resettlement in the lands where they were living before they were uprooted in 1990. The relatives of SL Minister Rishad Bathiudeen at Thaaraa-puram have occupied the 48-acre land. There is no one to voice for the resettlement of the poverty-stricken families from the lower echelon of the society, rights activists in Mannaar said. “No-one dares to fight with Rishad Bathiudeen who hails from Thaaraa-puram, the nearby village,” a displaced Tamil villager, who visits the temple once a week, told TamilNet on Wednesday. The small temple is the only trace of the Tamil settlement at Thaangkiyadi situated 7 km north of the city on Mannaar - Thalaimannaar A14 Road.
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Ex-LTTE members cannot be investigated: Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2015, 22:37 GMT]
The Sri Lankan State and the members of the international community, who were complicit in the genocide of Eezham Tamils in the name of waging a war against ‘terrorism’ cannot demand any further investigation on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after subjecting the members of the movement to cold-blooded summary executions at the hands of the Sri Lankan State and its military, Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has said. After the end of war, the SL State punished even those who had left the movement several years ago by subjecting them for the so-called rehabilitation in imprisonment. Even those who had left the LTTE several years ago were subjected to military interrogations and punishment by the State, which claims itself as the victor of the war, he said.
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IC should act on de-militarisation of Valikaamam, Champoor: Shageevan

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2015, 23:29 GMT]
Without de-militarisation, it is not possible to achieve proper resettlement, even at the minimum standard in the military-occupied former High Security Zone in the North and in the Champoor region in the East. “The international community knows this very well. But, it intentionally avoids putting forward this as a demand,” says S. Shageevan, the deputy chairperson of the Divisional Council of Valikaamam North and the president of the welfare association of uprooted people from Valikaamam North. The International Community has been allowing the previous and current regimes in Colombo to buy necessary “time and space” in Geneva and in New York after 2009. It was during this time Colombo transformed the former High Security Zone into a permanent military zone, he further said, urging the Tamils to focus on making the IC to act on the demand of de-militarisation.
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