Colombo silently consolidates military positions facing Gulf of Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 February 2016, 23:43 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka has been silently consolidating its temporary positions and camps into permanent structures inside the limits of Mannaar Urban Council area within the last 30 days. There are more than 6,000 Sinhala military personnel within the UC area where 25,000 civilians reside. The SL Army, Navy and the STF troopers are stationed at more than 15 positions within the 27 square km. The systematic consolidation of the naval and army cantonments, camps, and positions has taken place despite clear demands from the civil sources to de-militarize the densely populated UC area. The strategic part of the district, commanding both the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannaar as well as commanding the closest communication line with the Tamil Nadu coast, has become a hive of intense Sinhala militarisation and demographic changes in recent times.
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No change in SL oppression: Tamil activists in Trincomalee tell Zeid

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 February 2016, 23:08 GMT]
A group of Tamil rights activists, religious dignitaries and the kith and kin of missing persons, who met the visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Sunday in Trincomalee, conveyed the level of frustration prevailing among the Eezham Tamils, especially among the families of the persons subjected to forced disappearance at the hands of the Sinhala military. The trauma, experienced by these families has reached an epidemic proportion after SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe publicly telling Tamils to regard all those missing as dead on the day of Pongkal Tamil festival in January, the delegation told Mr Zeid. The activists witnessed total lack of understanding on the part of UN Human Rights Chief on the deep-rooted structural crimes taking place against Tamils in the East under the Mahaweli Minister and SL President Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Colombo steps up Sinhala militarisation of Jaffna through ‘development’ camouflage

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 February 2016, 23:19 GMT]
Colombo regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe is silently continuing with the agenda of permanently seizing the military-occupied red-soiled fertile lands and the coastal strip with most resourceful fish beds stretching 12 km in Valikaamam region of Jaffna peninsuala. According to the drawings finalised by survey officials of the Sri Lankan State on 18 November, 2015, the lands belonging to 1,475 Eezham Tamils are to be permanently seized under the pretext of ‘development’ of Palaali air base. UNP agents in Jaffna have been deployed to ‘convince’ the organisations through promising compensations, the representatives of uprooted people in Valikaamam North told TamilNet on Tuesday.
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Civil society misses target

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2016, 00:03 GMT]
From pre-Mu'l'livaaykkaal to present times, while there is a very obvious pattern in the genocidal miseries faced by the nation of Eezham Tamils, designed and executed from outside of the island, the civil society misses target and misleads the people by talking of Sirisena and Wickramasinghe, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island. They were responding to the latest statement coming from the civil society passing the blame on the ‘mixed signals’ coming from Sirisena and Wickramasinghe in implementing the 2015 Geneva resolution. The struggle outlook of the civil society is fundamentally wrong in basing their discourse on the flawed US-set agenda at Geneva. The civil society will not be passing any message to world humanity without pinpointing the role of the ultimate culprits and addressing them to their face, the activists said.
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Mark February 04 as Black Day: Families of forced disappeared

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 January 2016, 18:20 GMT]
The kith and kin of Eezham Tamils, who are reported missing after being captured by the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, on Thursday demanded the Tamil politicians, Northern Provincial Council and the Eezham Tamil civil society to publicly denounce genocidal Colombo on February 04 on the so-called independence day of ‘Sri Lanka’ observing the day as a Black Day. Grassroots organisations, including the Citizens’ Committee of Mannaar, condemned the SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and the SL Minister of Health Rajitha Senaratne for their recent attempts to classify thousands of Eezham Tamils missing at the hands of the Sinhala military as dead.
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Time is running out for Colombo leaders to prove statesmanship: Shivajilingam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 January 2016, 22:27 GMT]
Colombo regime, which came to power claiming ‘good governance’, has failed to address the urgent demands of releasing 200 Tamil political prisoners, reveal the whereabouts of more than 20,000 people in the past and the genocidal military occupying the Tamil homeland continues to seize lands from Mannaar to Ampaa'rai. “Unless we see any credible move within a few months time this year, the Tamil people will be mobilised to wage a civil disobedience campaign,” said Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam, who organised a protest in Jaffna on Wednesday. “The few Tamil politicians who are telling Tamils not to protest against the visit of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena and SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, have a very short time now to prove their claims,” he further said.
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‘Home-made’ solution not possible, NPC councillor calls for protest on Wednesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 January 2016, 23:05 GMT]
Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam on Monday urged the public to attend a protest in Jaffna on Wednesday expressing their opposition to the deceptive politics being staged by the Colombo regime, particularly its leaders Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe, who are scheduled to visit Jaffna in just another PR stunt on Friday, when Tamils across the globe mark the secular festival of Thaip-Pongkal. Mr Shivajingam said there has been no progress at all on five important fronts: release of 200 political prisoners, establishing the whereabouts of 20,000 missing persons, de-militarisation and releasing lands seized by the occupying military in the North and East, internationally mediated negotiations to resolve the national question and investigations on crimes against international law including the genocide.
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PTI and Express correspondent in Colombo contradict on Pak fighter jet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2016, 14:27 GMT]
At the heels of Press Trust of India (PTI) coming out with a report on Tuesday that Pakistan “sealed a landmark deal to sell JF-17 Thunder Fighters to Sri Lanka as the two countries signed eight agreements”, the Colombo correspondent of New Indian Express, who also contributes to the PTI, came out with a counter report on Wednesday, citing ‘Sri Lankan’ Air Force that no decision had been taken yet on the purchase. Meanwhile, Ranil Wikremesinghe on Tuesday was revealing his plans of facilitating Pakistan to have free trade with the USA through Colombo, using genocidal Sri Lanka’s proposed ‘Free Trade Agreement’ with the USA.
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IC-backed Colombo hurriedly erases evidences of Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2016, 00:15 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has hurriedly burnt and destroyed the remaining traces of a newly discovered makeshift torture chamber within the recently released lands in Valikaamam North in Jaffna at a locality known as Pazhai-Veemankaamam. Tamil journalists filmed the locality a few days ago. After the video evidence was published, the SL Defence Ministry in Colombo instructed its military at Palaali to remove the traces of the torture chamber, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Wednesday. In the meantime, former TNA Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran and Valikaamam North Deputy Chairman of Divisional Council S. Shageevan, have blamed Maithiripala - Ranil regime in Colombo for removing the crucial evidences instead of protecting the alleged traces that need to be investigated.
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Pakistan joins global warmongers, furthering genocidal Sri Lanka militarisation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 January 2016, 07:28 GMT]
Pakistan’s entry into genocidal Sri Lanka through the supply of ‘fighter jets’, frequent port calls, participation and training of military personnel and combating ‘terror financing’ raises serious questions that against whom and at whose behest Islamabad and Colombo embark on the military programme; for what world war the preparations are being made and who are the ultimate facilitators of the paradigm of bartering genocide and geopolitics, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island. So far, only Washington, New Delhi and Beijing were the ones that were openly and significantly involved in the genocidal military paradigm in the island. Pakistan’s entry and Colombo’s reception are not without the blessing of some, the activists further said.
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Colombo SLT extends TamilNet censorship to south of the island

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2016, 00:03 GMT]
The Colombo regime of Maithiripala Sirisena (SLFP) and Ranil Wickramsinghe (UNP) have once again proved that they are not different from the previous regime of Rajapaksa in suppressing access to tamilnet.com for the vast majority of Internet users in the island who connect through ADSL broadband provided by ‘Sri Lanka’ Telecom PLC (SLT). The main stakeholder of the SLT ownership is the Government of ‘Sri Lanka’. The other dominant shareholder of the SLT is Egypt-based Global Telecommunication Holdings. The SLT has been continuously blocking access to TamilNet in the North and East despite the claim by the Maithiripala regime last January that the Government of ‘Sri Lanka’ would not be practicing Internet censorship anymore as it was during the Rajapaksa regime. Ironically, the marketing slogan of the SLT is: ‘One Country. One Voice.’
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Maithiripala regime accelerates Sinhala occupation of Nayinaatheevu islet off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 November 2015, 23:47 GMT]
The occupying Navy of genocidal Sri Lanka and the Chief Buddhist monk stationed at Nayinaatheevu, an islet off Jaffna, have accelerated Sinhalicisation and Buddhicisation of the islet through military occupation. SL Minister for Justice and Buddha Sasana Mr Wijedasa Rajapakshe, who was visiting the peninsula last week, was encouraging Ven Navadagala Paduma Kiththi Tissa Thero to expand further the Buddhist vihara constructions in the island. The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) on Friday condemned the Sinhala-Buddhisication of the settlement wards belonging to Eezham Tamils. The Sinhala Buddhist domination and occupation, purely based on mythical claims, is being accelerated at the strategically located island where popular Saiva and Islamic sites of worships have existed for a long time along with a Buddhist temple.
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Tamil POWs, political prisoners announce fast unto death

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 November 2015, 23:44 GMT]
Rejecting the offer by the SL State to release them on bail, Tamil prisoners of war and political prisoners on Friday announced that they are going to begin a fast-unto-death protest in the prisons starting from 08 November on Sunday. Giving a last chance to the president, prime minister, attorney general and justice minister of the SL State to conduct negotiations with Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the Tamil prisoners who are going to commence the hunger-strike said they are determined to wage the struggle. Upon their demise, the SL Prsident Maithiripala Sirisena should come in person to receive their dead bodies and hand them over to the medical faculty of the University of Jaffna and that their organs should be donated or used for medical research, the Tamil prisoners said. “We are determined like Thileepan”, a POW told TamilNet.
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OISL report downplays mass killings, silent on genocide: Law academic

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2015, 23:09 GMT]
An article which appeared on Monday in the Blog of the European Journal of International Law (EJIL: Talk!), comparing the 2011 UN's Panel of Expert's report on Sri Lanka with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) 2015 report, points out that the OISL shies away from estimating the scale of deaths and avoids attributing to the [Sri Lanka] government's intent in directing attacks against the civilian [Tamil] population. The article adds that "given this shift of focus away from mass killings of civilians...it is not surprising the OISL is silent on the crime of genocide..." The article is authored by Umesh Perinpanayagam, an Eezham Tamil academic, who works as a researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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Tamil prisoners in North demand Colombo to respond through NPC Chief Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2015, 10:11 GMT]
The deviating section of ITAK parliamentarians within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), led by R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran, have deployed divide and conquer tactics to deceive a section of Tamil political prisoners in the Magazine prison in Colombo to drop their hunger-strike until November 07, Tamil political prisoners in Anuradhapura prison told TamilNet Saturday morning. The political prisoners have severely criticized the move by Mr Sumanthiran and demanded all the parliamentarians of the TNA to collectively address the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister on securing their release without being treated as criminal offenders. The deceptive move by ITAK politicians comes after a meeting they had with Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the justice minister of genocidal Sri Lanka, who has been insulting the prisoners by saying there were no Tamil political prisoners in the SL prisons.
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Health of hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners worsens

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2015, 23:42 GMT]
At least 20 of around 300 Eezham Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike at 11 prisons in the island have been admitted to hospital by Friday night, according to news sources in Colombo and Jaffna. The prison authorities of genocidal Sri Lanka have refused access to the relatives and rights activists to witness the deteriorating situation of the hunger strikers in the prisons. While ITAK Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran failed to secure tangible results in his meeting with SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, the students and teachers of Jaffna University, together with the relatives of the imprisoned Tamils, have stepped up their mobilisation demanding immediate release of the political prisoners. The Commission For Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, in a statement issued on Friday, has demanded immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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Tamils need leadership, not hypocrisy of powers: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2015, 17:29 GMT]
“United Nations, super powers, regional powers or self-seeking Tamil politicians cannot address the real grievances of Tamils. It is only Tamils under a good and dedicated leadership can move forward,” said Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, a long time advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils in an article to TamilNet on Tuesday. While the actual war saw the murder of Eelam Tamils and the most despicable sexual violence of rape unleashed among Tamil women, it was after the war that the Eelam Tamil nation was plundered of its wealth, Professor Ramasamy said. “The LTTE might not be around; however, the hopes, aspirations and the future agenda of Tamils for ultimate solution were set up by none other than its leader Veluppillai Pirapaharan,” he said.
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Hybrid court unworkable in ‘Sri Lanka’ context: K. Sivapalan

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2015, 22:41 GMT]
Internal investigations on violence against Tamils carried out by Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) with members appointed by Sri Lanka officials in the past have always been a failure. "The main reason for the failures can be traced to the absence of political will in successive Buddhist majority governments in ‘Sri Lanka’ to ensure accountability for grave violations of Human Rights of Tamil people," says K. Sivapalan, the exiled deputy chairperson of a Tamil rights group, North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR). Two of the commissions had “international” presence in 1963 and in 2006, in a hybrid context, but failed to deliver justice. As a lawyer who represented several victims from the Eastern Province, Mr Sivapalan says, for any criminal investigations to be successful, hearings of the courts will have to be held outside the island.
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Hindutva-Buddhist ‘pincer mechanism’ to compete hybrid mechanism

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2015, 17:52 GMT]
While Tamils are busy in comprehending and extricating themselves from the sophisticated web of ‘hybrid mechanism’ cast on them by Washington and Washington-led UN, New Delhi in its own crude way plans a bilateral ‘pincer mechanism’ along with Colombo, as could be seen from Ranil’s visit to New Delhi. Even though the imperialist aims are different, both ‘mechanisms’ follow the same policy of denying justice to the national question of Eezham Tamils to the genocidal satisfaction of the Sinhala-Buddhist State; the same strategy of absolving Colombo as well as themselves, and the same tactics of wooing Colombo in which only the shades vary, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Force of opinion unplugs Sampanthan to voice for international investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2015, 23:39 GMT]
Three days ahead of genocidal Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe officially visiting New Delhi, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Mr R. Sampanthan, who is also the opposition leader in the Colombo parliament, on Saturday told The Telegraph in India that the TNA expected the international community, including India, to support an international investigation into war crimes in the island. "Our experience with past domestic inquiries suggests that they can't be truly independent," Mr Sampanthan was quoted as saying by the Culcutta based paper. The new Sri Lankan government is “coordinating more with the international community, but it is the TNA's clear position that an international investigation is necessary," Mr Sampanthan told The Telegraph.
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