Maa-do'la

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2014, 16:57 GMT]
The big streamlet coming from the hill
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Ignoring Sri Lanka’s sexual violence is service to ‘British foreign policy’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2014, 05:38 GMT]
British monarch Queen Elizabeth II made Angelina Jolie an honorary dame for her work against sexual violence in war zones and her services to British foreign policy, media reports said on Friday. In June, Jolie co-chaired an international conference on war-related sexual violence, along with former British foreign minister William Hague. The conference was heavily criticised even by British media, for conspicuously ignoring sexual crimes committed by the Sinhala military against Eezham Tamils in the Vanni War.
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Colombo disproves functionality of 13A

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2014, 17:38 GMT]
Despite the tall claims of New Delhi and Washington on the effectiveness of the Provincial Council model under 13 Amendment of the unitary constitution of genocidal Sri Lanka, as a ‘starting point’ for the solution of national question in the island, the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) chief minister Mr. C. V. Wigneswaran himself on Friday has pointed out how the Rajapaksa regime in Colombo disproves the functionality of the 13A. In a letter to Mahinda Rajapaksa, the NPC-CM condemned the Colombo regime unilaterally convening a “Special District Development Meeting” on Monday for the 5 districts coming under the NPC, without consulting the provincial body or even informing it on the necessity and agenda of the “curious meeting.” The NPC decided not to attend the meeting.
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Umang-kandura, Hoa-kandara

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2014, 00:08 GMT]
The tunnelling hill-streamlet

The hill-streamlet in the locality of Hoa shrubs; or the gorge of the rivulet
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SL military chases Tamils out of farming land in Poththuvil, Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 2014, 22:16 GMT]
15 Tamil farmers who were clearing the agricultural lands at Oottuch-cheanai in Poththuvil of Ampaa’rai district were chased away by the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers who came from Oo'rani camp on Friday. The SLA soldiers have seized the tools used by the Tamil farmers, said T. Kalaiyarasan, a councillor from the Eastern Provincial Council. The Tamil councillor said the act by the SL military is just another example for how the civil affairs are being subjected to the control and command of the SL military. The Tamil people have been using the upper-lying lands of 100 acres for more than 60 years, he said.
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Kurds defend Kobane from Islamic State onslaught supported by Turkey

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2014, 10:28 GMT]
The Islamic State (IS) supported by the Turkish state has since 15th September heavily intensified their military onslaught against the Kurdish people and their self-rule government in the region of Kobane in Rojava (Western Kurdistan) in Northern Syria. Following the brutal three pronged IS military assault to capture Kobane more than two hundred thousand Kurdish civilians were forced to flee to the Turkish border. The Turkish border which had hitherto been used unhindered by the IS to infiltrate into Kobane to attack the Kurds had now been closed to weaken the Kurdish resistance. Nevertheless recent information from Rojava reports that the Kurdish resistance is growing as the IS has suffered heavy causalities in battling the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) defending the region.
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SL military enslaves Eezham Tamils along border villages of Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2014, 22:19 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has effectively enslaved the gagged Eezham Tamil families in the border villages of Paduvaankarai region. Seven years after the end of war in East, the livelihood of the villagers has worsened than during the times of the war. While the resources are being exploited by the intruding Sinhala colonists and fishermen on one hand, the Tamils are being provided only one option of becoming second class citizens serving the interests of the occupying SL military, Tamil activists in Batticaloa said urging immediate focus from the global Tamils on the deteriorating situation of Eezham Tamils in Paduvaankarai.
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PCICMP witnesses in Vanni coerced, threatened by SL military

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2014, 19:49 GMT]
Intelligence officers of the occupying Sri Lankan military brought 7 people in their vehicle to witness in front of the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), which held its sessions in Poonakari on Monday. Two of these witnesses had already appeared in front of the PCICMP at Muzhangkaavil on the previous day. SL soldiers were deployed in civil uniform in large numbers at Poonakari Divisional Secretariat where the session was held. The few witnesses who were present at the site on their own were subjected to strict checking by the SL soldiers. Some of them were sent back by the Sri Lankan soldiers. Those who presented their cases said the Commission was a farce as its members were posing irrelevant questions and were not interested to listen to their complaints of the missing kith and kin.
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Military minds would fail if righteous political wills not respected

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2014, 06:26 GMT]
“India suspicious as Chinese submarine docks in Sri Lanka,” said a headline of a news report in Times of India on Sunday. The report cited New Delhi’s Navy Chief saying that the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) “is our area of operations.” However, the TOI report illustrated the military weakness of India compared to China in budget, armed forces, submarines, warships, fighter jets and tanks, and added that, “insiders fear India’s already stark military asymmetry with China only seems to be expanding all the time.” Military minds and media minds in India fail to see that the foremost of the weaknesses of India in the IOR is not military asymmetry but New Delhi’s loss of credibility with the peoples of the region inside and outside, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in Eezham.
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1,200 Sinhala families encroached into Batticaloa-Ampaa’rai border

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2014, 21:36 GMT]
Since 2011, more than 1,200 Sinhala families have been brought into the Batticaloa district within the bordering areas of Ampaa’rai district, say Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politicians who have taken a fact-finding mission to Mayilantha-madu and Periya-maathava’nai on Friday. Thousands of acres of grazing lands allocated for farmers from Batticaloa have been seized by the occupying Sri Lankan military and its so-called ‘homeguards’ paramilitary. The Sinhala colonists are doing agriculture in the occupied lands.
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Timing of Jayalalithaa case targets Dravidian polity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2014, 17:10 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK Chief Ms J Jayalalithaa has been sentenced on Saturday to 4 years of imprisonment, Rs. 100 crore fine and has been debarred from contesting elections for six years after the completion of the prison term by a special court of India, in a 18-year-old disproportionate assets case. Last month, New Delhi’s Central Bureau of Investigation filed a new telecommunication corruption case against a former DMK minister and a Malaysian corporate owner of Eezham Tamil origin, in addition to earlier cases on DMK leaders. The New Delhi government stridently opposes and blocks any UN or international scrutiny on crimes committed in the island of Sri Lanka. Ms Jayalalithaa, personally as well as through Tamil Nadu State Assembly, has been demanding international investigations on the genocide in the island.
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Tamil Nadu condemns Rajapaksa's presence at UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2014, 15:41 GMT]
Condemning the presence of genocide-accused Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the UN General Assembly, over 20,000 Tamils from Tamil Nadu gathered in Chennai on Wednesday to voice their protest. Over 150 Tamil Nadu based organizations took part in the event. The demonstration saw the participation of political parties, social movements, civil society organizations, youth groups, Muslim and Dalit organizations. The protesters also called on the UN to conduct a referendum for an independent Tamil Eelam. While the protesters in Tamil Nadu were raising their voices against SL president, the Indian Prime Minister is scheduled to have a bi-lateral meeting with SL President in the USA on Saturday. In the meantime, Indian and Pakistani sources ruled out a such bilateral meeting between the presidents of India and Pakistan during their presence in the UK.
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Tamils denied of observing collective remembrance in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2014, 16:11 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police in Batticaloa has been harassing the families of the victims of 1990 Puthukkudiyiruppu massacre on Sunday when they gathered to observe the annual memorial event in front of the statue of 17 civilians who were slain by ‘homeguards’ paramilitary operated by the Sri Lankan military in 1990. Tamil Councillor K. Thurairajasingam, who was present at the event with parliamentarians P. Selvarasa and P. Ariyanethiran blames that the SL Police was blocking the peaceful event with a court order from an Acting Magistrate. This is the second incident in recent days where the SL Police, under false charges of ‘causing disturbance to peace’, has blocked the kith and kin of the victims of the past massacres from paying tribute to their slain victims by lighting candles together.
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Speeding SLA motorbike claims life of 81-year-old man in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2014, 20:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers riding a motorbike over the speed limit lost control of their motorbike and crashed on an 81-year-old man, who was walking on the pedestrian road cross with his bicycle Tuesday morning at Ampalaththadi junction in Vanthaa’rumoolai in Batticaloa. The victim, Sinnathamby Somasekaram died on the spot. The two SLA soldiers were admitted at the hospital with injuries. The SL police is yet to file a case against the SLA soldiers.
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UPFA victory in Badulla based on manipulations: Upcountry Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2014, 08:51 GMT]
More than 50,000 Up Country Tamils from Badulla and Moneregala districts in Uva Provice were not able to cast their votes in the Provincial Council elections held on Saturday, say Upcountry Tamil activists in Badulla. The narrow victory of UPFA in Badulla district is a manipulated victory, they said. The ruling UPFA of Mahinda Rajapaksa has won the elections in Badulla district polling 11,000 votes more than the opposition UNP.
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Mass grave found in Veala’nai off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2014, 20:14 GMT]
Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) workers, who dug postholes along the wall of Ooraaththu’rai Civic Council secretariat situated in Veala’nai in the Ooraaththu’rai islet (Kayts) off Jaffna, came across human skeletal remains in all the seven postholes they had dug on Friday. The SL Police has immediately sealed off the site from public access, news sources in Veala’nai said. The residents in Veala’nai alleged that the CEB workers have discovered a mass grave similar to the one that has been recently discovered in Thirukkeatheesvaram in Mannaar.
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SL military begins deceptive recruitment drive in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 September 2014, 21:50 GMT]
Inviting poverty-stricken Tamil families along the district border between the Ampaa’rai district and Batticaloa district to receive ‘humanitarian supplies’, the occupying Sri Lanka Army has been conducting propaganda meetings promising civil jobs for Tamil women in the SL military, news sources in Ampaa’rai told TamilNet on Thursday. A group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers, who brought drinking water supply to the villagers in 35th Colony, Malaiyar-kaddu and Ka’n’naki-puram were campaigning ‘good salary’ and ‘government pension’ for subservient jobs in SL military. In the meantime, the SL military has also gone to the extent of promising a house to each family that sends their daughters and sons for employment in SL military.
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Funeral of veteran activist Manickasothy held in Uduvil, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2014, 19:14 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamils paid their last respects to veteran Eezham Tamil activist Abimannasingham Manickasothy on Wednesday at Uduvil in Jaffna. Mr Manickasothy passed away Monday night in a vehicle accident on his way to Jaffna from Colombo. Mr Manickasothy, who stood with his people throughout the Tamil struggle, has been articulating the political aspiration of Eezham Tamils in all available platforms. He has been a firm defender of Eezham Tamils right to self-determination for more than 30 years.
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Sapu-gas-kanda, Hapu-wala

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 September 2014, 19:46 GMT]
The hill of Michelia champaca trees

The forest of Michelia champaca trees
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Eezham Tamils learning languages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 September 2014, 13:38 GMT]
Thanks to the sustained efforts of the Indian Consulate in Jaffna ‘interest in Hindi’ is sprouting among Jaffna Tamils, reports New Indian Express on Tuesday, citing ‘Hindi Diwas’ [Hindi Day] celebrated by the Consulate, 20 students completing a course and one of them telling that “There are now people who think it will be useful to know Hindi if they go to north India for studies or pilgrimage.” Eezham Tamils wish that the Chinese embassy would soon start teaching Mandarin Chinese and the other embassies would follow suit in teaching major European, Latin American, Arabic and other Asian languages, so that the nation of Eezham Tamils could have a wider interaction with the world and with their own kith and kin worldwide, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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