SLFP-men issue death threat to journalists in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 July 2012, 19:39 GMT]
Two newspaper reporters in Mannaar have complained to Tamil Journalists Association in Vanni that ruling SLFP-men have issued death threats to them for their reporting on inciting violence at Koanthaip-piddi jetty on Friday. An armed Muslim gang incited a section of the Muslims after Jummah Prayer to join them in causing destruction to the boats of uprooted Tamil Catholics while the dispute between communities was being already addressed by the civil officials at divisional and district level.
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Eezham Tamil youth in Germany resolve to uphold Tamil sovereignty

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 July 2012, 11:21 GMT]
Condemning the attempts by establishments to compel Eezham Tamils to accept the genocidal development model of Colombo in the Tamil homeland, second generation Eezham Tamil youth in Germany resolved “to raise awareness and educate Tamils and non-Tamils about the ongoing-internationally abetted-genocide of the Tamil nation” and to educate the IC about the legitimacy of the Tamil struggle for sovereignty at the ‘Tamil Eelam Sovereignty conference’ organized by TYO-Germany at Landau, on Sunday. Speaking to TamilNet, Vibisanan Rajasingam of the TYO said that it was important for the second generation youth in the diaspora to understand the need for a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam as the only solution to check the genocide of the Eelam Tamils, referring to the three types of sovereignty of the Eelam Tamils as mentioned in the Tamil sovereignty cognition declaration.
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TNA should reject PC model, field independents in East elections: TNPF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 July 2012, 22:15 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) should demonstrate to the world the Tamil rejection of the Provincial Council model of the 13th Amendment by not participating in the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) elections, but the TNA could field a front of independent candidates to meet the political challenge of the times. The candidate list already prepared could go as an independent list with a specific political message on the cause to the people, said Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam of the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), presiding over a press conference in Jaffna on Saturday. The TNPF promised support to the TNA in any such move. In the meantime, former TNA parliamentarian and TELO leader M.K Sivajilingam urged the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the TNA to field candidates jointly. It is time for the East to have a Muslim chief minister, who is also elected by Tamils, he told TamilNet.
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Indian civil groups condemn killing of adivasis in Chattisgarh

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 July 2012, 17:35 GMT]
The killing of 19 adivasis in an ‘anti-Maoist operation’ by CRPF commandos on June 28 in the Bijapur district of the Indian state of Chattisgarh has evoked condemnation from civil society groups, student unions and political activists in India. While many of the locals of that district and politicians of Chaatisgarh, including from the Congress party, have alleged that many or all of those killed are not Maoists, the CRPF which was leading this operation has ‘defended’ itself claiming that Maoists have been using villagers as human shields. India, which had abetted Colombo's genocidal war on the Eezham Tamils, is now lifting the ‘human shields’ argument that Sri Lanka and the powers that supported it used against the LTTE and applying it to quell armed struggles in its heartland, observers in Chennai told TamilNet.
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SL Navy steps up harassment on Tamil fishermen in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 July 2012, 01:04 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy have been refusing fishermen in Vadamaraadchi to search for their missing fishermen for 72 hours since their two fishermen had sent SOS signals after their boat damaged in the seas and lost its direction. The missing fishermen were finally brought home after fellow fishermen, who went to search for them hiding from the prying eyes of the SL Navy managed to reach them in their boats. The SL navy had refused to allow the fishermen cross the border and had refused to offer any help to rescue the fishermen. Finally, Tamil Nadu fishermen had rescued them till the fishermen from Jaffna managed to reach them, fisheries society representatives in Vadamaraadchi said complaining increased harassments by the SL Navy in the seas off Jaffna and Vanni.
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New refugee vessels head for Australia from Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 July 2012, 20:05 GMT]
Agents involved in human trafficking, backed by influential ministers and personalities of the Rajapaksa government in Colombo, are exploiting the plight of already victimized Tamil youth in the North and East, to brave the Indian Ocean, making a 15-day journey towards Australia in search of a safe life than the genocide designed for them in the island, informed sources in Vadamaraadchi told TamilNet Sunday. A deep-sea fishing vessel has left Inparuddi of Vadamaraadchi, four days ago, carrying at least 15 Tamil youth. Another 20 members have been recruited and the next group is expected to leave the coast of Jaffna or Mullaiththeevu in a couple of days, the sources further said.
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SL military has grabbed 5,210 acres of land in Mannaar, say protestors

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 July 2012, 17:34 GMT]
Providing details of private and public lands being appropriated by the SL military in Mannaar district, Tamil activists, who came together for a protest on Saturday said, the militarisation seriously affects the lives of people of Mannaar. Tamil civilians, who are denied resettlement in Channaar in Maanthai West, where the occupying Sri Lankan military has appropriated 3,500 acres of lands, were the majority of the participants in the protest. Mannaar Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, together with Catholic priests and other civil activists from Mannaar, took part in the protest, which was organised by the youth activists of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK). The protest was supported by the other parties in the TNA, the parties outside the alliance, and by the elected representatives of the civic bodies in Mannaar as well as the Democratic People Front from South.
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Washington Post journalist confirms state of emergency in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 July 2012, 19:46 GMT]
Referring to the all pervasive rule of the Sinhala military in the country of Eezham Tamils, Simon Denyer of Washington Post reports from Jaffna that “[t]he military has even inserted itself into almost every aspect of economic life in the north of the country, farming and selling vegetables, running hotels, restaurants and even barber shops” in a feature published Friday. Alluding to sources from the ground, the report gives a picture of how the military runs a state of emergency in the Tamil homeland, with land grabs, routine harassment, curtailment of the right to assembly and even forcible interventions in public functions.
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SLA soldiers alleged of killing father of three in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 July 2012, 15:34 GMT]
Occupying Sinhala soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army, on Wednesday, allegedly beat a recently resettled 47-year-old man, Kandiah Jeyarajah, near A9 highway at Ezhuthumadduvaa'l in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna. The victim succumbed to his injuries while being rushed to Chaavakachcheari hospital, residents in Ezhuthumadduvaazh village told TamilNet Thursday. The wife of the slain victim also confirmed the allegation that the SLA soldiers were involved in the slaying of her husband, who had got into a quarrel with his brother. The SLA soldiers, stationed at the junction had intervened in the private quarrel and when Mr Jeyarajah began to resist, he was severely beaten by the soldiers.
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‘IC turns deaf ear to struggling Eezham Tamil Prisoners of War’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 July 2012, 09:05 GMT]
The international community of establishments and their agenda-driven outfits continue to turn deaf-ear to the plight of the Eezham Tamil Prisoners of War (POWs), failing to accord the necessary international legal status to Eezham Tamil POWs, who have become the ‘pawns of genocide’, activists in the island blamed following the reports on Wednesday that a 28-year-old Tamil prisoner, Ganesan Nimalarooban from Nelukku'lam in Vavuniyaa, had succumbed to his injuries at Mahara prison in South. All the 122 prisoners who were inside the raided prison cell in Vavuniyaa last Friday were taken to Anuradhapura prison, where Sinhala prison guards and criminal inmates tortured them for more than 10 hours. 22 of these Eezham Tamil POWs were later transferred to Mahara prison and Nimalarooban, hailng from a poverty-stricken family in the suburb of Vavuniyaa, was one of them.
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Canada should have prosecuted officer of war-crimes complicit SL Navy: TAG

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 July 2012, 13:41 GMT]
In what can turn out to be a move of political significance, one of Sri Lankan Navy’s top officer’s refugee claim has been rejected by federal officials in Canada, owing to a finding by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) that the officer, Nadarajah Kuruparan, had been complicit in crimes against humanity and that there was systematic human rights abuses committed against the Tamils in the island by institutions he served in. However, referring to the salient points of this outcome, Rajeev Sreetharan from TAG told TamilNet “Deporting, as opposed to prosecuting Nadarajah Kuruparan for his direct participation in coordinated maritime armed attacks and logistical support to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces' genocidal siege of the Tamil civilian population cornered in Mu'l'livaaykkaal, is incompatible with letter and spirit of what the Geneva Conventions compel.”
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Demonstrating UK Tamils expose India’s defiance of international refugee conventions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 July 2012, 00:31 GMT]
Demonstrating outside the Indian High Commission at India Place, London, Tamils in the UK demanded the immediate release of the detained inmates of the Chengalpet (Chengkal-paddu) ‘special camp’ and for the closure of that facility. Separate petitions submitted by TCC-UK to the UNHCR and the Indian High Commission called for a revision in the Indian approach to Eezham Tamil refugees in India. “Right now our priority is to shut down these special camps. Apart from that we can't expect much from India but we need the various agencies of the UN to communicate with each other to clarify that the isolated incidents witnessed by each when seen together is actually facilitating the genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation,” Sivatharshan Sivakumaravel, an activist from TCC-UK told TamilNet.
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Belgian left group expresses solidarity with Eezham Tamils’ struggle

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 July 2012, 09:21 GMT]
Activists belonging to Links Socialistische Partij (LSP), a leftist political organization in Belgium and civil society activists expressed their solidarity with the struggle of the Eezham Tamils at a public meeting on Tamil culture and history held at Steenokkerzee, a municipality in the Flemish Brabant province, on Saturday. Speaking at the meeting, Geert Gool, Antwerpen member of the LSP said systematic injustices have been committed on the Eezham Tamils and urged the Government of Belgium to change its stance on Tamils struggle. The Mayor of Steenokkerzee, Karen Servranckx, was also present at the event.
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Data reveals scheme for Sinhala military colonies in country of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 July 2012, 22:33 GMT]
Details emerging from four divisional secretariats of Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, since April this year, indicate a concerted and structural move by the occupying Sri Lanka military establishment in Vanni to legally appropriate more than 6,069 acres of public and private lands in the country of Eezham Tamils. The pattern of genocidal land grab also reveals that Mullaiththeevu district is being transformed into a military enclave of the occupying Sinhala forces. TamilNet brings out some of the data it has obtained from the civil officials who have braved the threats by the military run civil administration, in releasing the details.
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Activists demonstrating at Chengalpet detained by police

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 July 2012, 07:11 GMT]
Over 200 activists from different Tamil Nadu political parties and civil society outfits, who had gathered at Chengalpet to protest the detention and harsh treatment of Eezham Tamil refugees in the ‘special camp’ there were arrested by the police on Saturday. Pressuring the police to release the protestors, 4 of the camp inmates climbed on trees and threatened to jump. After a brief parley, the detained activists were released by evening. Meanwhile, the condition of those hunger strikers who have been hospitalized has been further deteriorating, sources told TamilNet.
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Tamils in Germany protest India’s ill-treatment of Eezham Tamils in Chengalpet

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2012, 23:54 GMT]
Conveying solidarity with the Eezham Tamil refugees illegally detained in the Chengalpet ‘special camp’, Tamils in Germany demonstrated in front of the Indian Embassy in Berlin today, demanding India to close “such inhuman detention facilities and treat the genocide affected Eelam Tamil refugees like others who have entered its territory for sanctuary from persecution” and urging the UN to compel India to adhere to the standards of the UNHCR. Speaking at the demonstration Vithya Jeyasangar, a democratically elected Eezham Tamil representative from Berlin now working with the VETD, said “After assisting the Sri Lankan government with the structural genocide of the Eelam Tamils, and bartering with the Mahinda regime for economic slices in the Tamil homeland, India is showing its naked contempt for world Tamils through its inhuman treatment of Tamil refugees.”
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Colombo deploys paramilitary operative to intimidate Tamils in PC elections in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 June 2012, 07:28 GMT]
SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa has deployed his district coordinator Kanthasamy Nishanthan alias Iniyabarathy, a paramilitary operative, to intimidate the Tamil people in the district in the run up to the next provincial council elections in the East. Iniyabarathy, an operative aligned with Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, has been found guilty by the courts of the SL State itself. The notorious paramilitary operative has been widely alleged as being behind various human rights violations in the district.
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Condition of hunger strikers deteriorates in Chengalpet detention camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 June 2012, 20:57 GMT]
As the indefinite hunger strike by Eezham Tamil refugees in the notorious Chengalpet ‘special camp’ in Tamil Nadu enters its 12th day, 9 out of the 14 inmates fasting have been hospitalized, with 8 of them in a critical condition. A total of 29 detainees, who have been locked up in inhuman conditions on charges based on flimsy grounds, have been demanding release and relocation to their families outside or to the other ‘normal camps’. But despite their deteriorating conditions and protests by political parties in the recent past, the authorities have shown silence. Speaking to TamilNet, an inmate who did not want to be named appealed to the Tamil diaspora to use their influence and to work with concerned forces in Tamil Nadu to highlight the injustices that the Tamil refugees have been facing in such detention camps in the state.
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SOS of Eezham Tamils seeks global Tamils, world humanity to respond

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 June 2012, 19:20 GMT]
Mu’l’livaaykkaal was only a beginning for the Sinhala State and its international abetters to perpetuate genocide of Eezham Tamils to suit overlapping agendas. After three years of Colombo’s accelerated structural genocide facilitated by the international community of establishments, the Tamil leaders in the island have once again voiced an SOS in unison on Tuesday, appealing to global Tamils and global community of humanity, to intervene and save their nation from militarised annihilation. Gagged, but experiencing the realities of the hoodwink of ‘post-war reconciliation,’ the voices coming from the island show better clarity and bearing, compared to the hijacked diaspora confused over where to address the issue and a Tamil Nadu leadership silent after a resolution that doesn’t address fundamental solutions, political observers in the island said.
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SL military goes amok on uprooted civilians in Vanni, 2 injured, 1 suffers heart attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2012, 17:08 GMT]
Children were thrown into vehicles and the occupying Sinhala Army assaulted uprooted Tamil families using gun butts and batons Monday evening at Thiru-mu'rika'ndi Hindu Tamil Viththiyaalayam in Ki'linochchi. A section of the uprooted families who had been brought from Menik Farm by the SL military a few weeks ago had declined to accept what they called an ‘enslavement’ offer of ‘resettlement’ by the SL military. They were placed temporarily at the school. On Monday, as one day was remaining till the protest organised by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) against the military land grab assisted by China, the SL military entered the school, bargained with the families at gunpoint for more than 4 hours and finally assaulted them forcefully transporting them back to Vavuniyaa. Tension prevails at Thiru-mu'rika'ndi after the horror let loose by the SL military on the uprooted civilians.
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