Colombo insults Jaffna University students’ struggle for justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 October 2016, 22:59 GMT]
Student leaders at the University of Jaffna have sent back a letter they received from Colombo’s colonial governor to North Mr Reginald Cooray. The student federation activists told TamilNet on Thursday that Mr Cooray had sent them a reply in Sinhala language to their appeals, which were addressed to SL President and SL Prime Minister and handed over to the representative, Mr Cooray, during the protest in Jaffna on Monday. If Tamil is accorded a status as official language in the island, why is Mr Cooray responding in Sinhala to the Tamil students in Jaffna, the student leaders asked. Mr Cooray was earlier taking the side of Sinhala students who triggered off an ethnic motivated confrontation at the Jaffna University.
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Wickramasinghe deploys ‘shadow war’ intelligence squads in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 October 2016, 22:15 GMT]
Ranil Wickramasinghe, the prime minister of genocidal Sri Lanka has deployed more than one hundred high-level intelligence operatives in Jaffna district to step up and coordinate a shadow war on Eezham Tamils as in the mid 1990s under the rule of Chandrika Kumaratunga when the SL military seized the entire Jaffna peninsula. The latest operation has been carried out in collaboration with the Commander-in-Chief of the occupying military, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. The intelligence ‘head quarters’ is attached to the district police headquarters at Pa’n’nai in Jaffna. The new Intelligence hierarchy is operating its own roaming commando squads. The recent violent behaviour of SL police has its origins from the ‘coordination’ and commando operations of this intelligence squad, informed sources within the SL Police establishment in Jaffna said.
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North shuts down in protest to killings of students, killer-policemen transferred to Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 October 2016, 17:58 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in the Northern province on Tuesday observed a full-day shutdown in protest against the deployment of armed Sinhala policemen in the streets of occupied Tamil homeland. Heeding to the call coming from the Tamil political parties following the brutal killings of two Tamil students of Jaffna University by Sinhala policemen on Thursday last week, all the businesses, academic institutions, public offices and even pharmacies and petrol sheds were shut down. No one, except those, who engaged in marking their protests by blocking the roads, were seen on the streets. Although the shut-down was largely peaceful, there were some clashes between Tamil youth and Sinhala policemen at Ki’linochchi, where an Indian-operated and US-funded garments company, which is alleged of exploiting Tamil labourers, refused to heel the call for the protest until the Citizens’ Committee intervened.
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Jaffna university students mobilize against killings by Sinhala police

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2016, 08:37 GMT]
More than 2,500 Tamil students from the University of Jaffna brought the activities of occupying Colombo's District Secretariat in Jaffna to a standstill on Monday morning as they sieged the entrances of Jaffna Kachcheari and the official residence of SL colonial Governor demanding justice for the slaying of two students by armed Sinhalese policemen Thursday night last week. The students observed a peaceful protest without shouting any slogans along the A9 road, but they were holding placards in their hands. The SL military and police stayed away from the protest site to keep the protest to proceed without any confrontation.
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Kashmiris step up sovereignty struggle braving New Delhi’s militarization

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2016, 22:20 GMT]
On 08 July 2016, Indian military which occupies the portion of the Kashmir region administered by India, killed a militant Kashmiri commander of Hizbul-ul-Mujadaheen (HM) group, Burhan Wani, along with two of his fighters. Kashmiri people in the Valley have responded with protests in the aftermath of the killings, after a call for general strike from the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and both the factions of umbrella organisation Hurriyat Conference (HC). Defying the curfew enforced by New Delhi, thousands of Kashmiris attended the funeral and demonstrations were stepped up throughout the valley in the following days. The Indian military responded with deploying further violence, killing at least 19 civilians in clashes over the first weekend that followed. The number of Kashmiris who have been killed in two months long Kashmiri uprising stands over 90 with thousands injured.
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Colombo survyes lands for ‘Sinhala Military Zone’ in Valikaamam North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 October 2016, 22:48 GMT]
While the uprooted Tamils, demanding resettlement in their own villages in Valikaam North, are still denied access to their lands that are situated within the former ‘High Security Zone’ in Valikaamam North, 261 hectares of their lands are now being officially appropriated by the occupying genocidal Sri Lanka under the pretext of expanding the airport at Palaali. Thellippazhai Divisional Secretary has informed the people that their lands in three GS divisions are now being surveyed and appropriated according to an old Gazette notification of 25 November 1986. The SL Military ‘releasing’ selected pockets of lands, constructing deceptive housing schemes and the SL President Sirisena making ‘reconciliation’ PR stunts with the propaganda of resolving land issues, are all camouflage acts being deployed for the creation of a permanent Sinhala Military Zone in Jaffna.
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‘Sinhala Police, gunning down Tamil students in Jaffna, is not different from genocidal military’

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2016, 17:27 GMT]
Two Tamil students of the Art Faculty of the University of Jaffna were cold-bloodedly gunned down by Sinhala ‘policemen’ at Kokkuvil, Jaffna, on Thursday night. Both the students died due to gunshot injuries, medical sources at Jaffna hospital said contradicting the cover-up of Colombo. The latest crime committed by the Sinhala Police carrying automatic rifles in the occupied Tamil homeland is a serious security threat to the nation of Eezham Tamils. Sinhala police is not different to the genocidal military as far as the nation of Eezham Tamils are concerned. It was the violent acts by the Sinhala Police in Jaffna that triggered Tamil militant response in the late 70s, Jaffna University student leaders told TamilNet condemning Colombo and its international collaborators, who have failed to deliver justice to the crimes committed against the nation of Eezham Tamils in the past.
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Six fishermen arrested, SL Police ‘facilitates’ SL Navy's ‘legal revenge’ in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2016, 11:48 GMT]
The Sinhala police of occupying genocidal Sri Lanka arrested 6 Tamil fishermen in the troubled Arippu village in Mannaar Friday morning and has brought them for an ‘identification parade’ at Mannaar Magistrate Court, where ‘Manchula’, the criminal SL Navy operative who was caught red-handed after entering a house in the coastal village on Tuesday, has been tasked to identify the villagers who caught him. On Tuesday, the SL Navy culprit was carrying two knives under his shirt when he was chased away and captured by the villagers after a family shouted for help. “This is how the Sinhala Police and the SL Judiciary operate in this island. None of the so-called Constitutional processes in the South are going to change this reality. Today, we are witnessing just another crime against humanity in Mannaar,” said a Tamil lawyer witnessing the behaviour of the SL Police.
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SLN expands naval detachment in Musali, steps up harassment on fishermen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 October 2016, 17:29 GMT]
Making use of the prevailing situation in the coastal village of Arippu facing the Gulf of Mannaar, the occupying Sinhala Navy of genocidal Sri Lanka on Thursday increased its harassment on Tamil fishermen who went for fishing off Arippu and Chilaavaththu’rai. Fishermen from Ko’ndaichchi, Panangkaddi-koddu and Vangkaalai were subjected checking on board their vessels. Five water-jet gunboats were deployed by the SL Navy. In the meantime, the naval detachment at Muththarippuththu’rai was being expanded by seizing further lands and by bringing in more naval personnel into the village, eyewitnesses told TamilNet.
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SL Navy declares war on Tamil fishermen in Arippu, Sinhala police joins SLN

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2016, 19:46 GMT]
Tension has mounted in the fishing village of Arippu throughout Wednesday as the Sinhala commanding officer of the occupying SL Navy in Arippu and Chilaavaththu'rai vowed to revenge the spontaneous public action on a criminal Sinhala navy person on Tuesday night. The SL Navy person, who entered a household threatening a woman around 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday was caught and beaten up by the villagers. The remaining three members of the four-member squad have managed to escape from the villagers. The squad has been engaged in a series of robberies and misconduct causing injuries to the villagers in recent days. The squad is alleged of stabbing a husband and wife 5 days ago and robbed off gold from another family after putting a knife on the throat of a child 8 days ago, the villagers told TamilNet. The SLN person was caught red-handed on Tuesday and he was in possession of two knives.
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Tamil fishermen apprehend menacing Sinhala soldier, smash SL naval detachment in Arippu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2016, 18:46 GMT]
A Sinhala military intelligence operative attached to the occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Arippu, a coastal village in the Musali division of Mannaar district was caught red-handed by Tamil fishermen Tuesday around 10:00 p.m. when he was harassing a family in the village. The military intelligence operative was beaten up by the angry villagers. The SL Navy sailors stationed at the naval detachment in Arippu tried to rescue the culprit by sending an SLN sailor. When the attempt failed, the navy sailor escaped from the villagers, who chased him to the naval detachment. The navy personnel threatened the villagers by firing gunshots. However, the angry villagers smashed the SL Navy detachment sending a strong message against the criminal conduct of the occupying navy. Catholic priests in Mannaar told TamilNet that they have managed to calm down the villagers. Tension prevails in the area.
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Abducted Tamil businessman released after torture in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 October 2016, 20:45 GMT]
36-year-old Krishnasamy Ratheesan, a Tamil businessman who was reported missing on 12 October in Ki'linochchi, returned home with internal injuries and symptoms of shock. Refusing to comment anything on who the culprits were and why they abducted him and subjected him to torture, the father of one chose to seek legal protection through the police in Ki'linochchi, sources in Ki'linochchi said. So-called white-van squads operated by the SL military intelligence were behind similar abductions in the past, especially during the times of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as the ‘Defence Secretary’ of the occupying SL military. The latest abduction has raised alarms among the business community in the North-East.
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NPC Councillor initiates action to assist Muslim political prisoner’s family

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 October 2016, 16:29 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council member Ms Ananthy Sasitharan has come forward to facilitate assistance to Ms Segu Mohaideen Noorjan, a mother of three and the wife of a Muslim political prisoner after the latter made an open plea for assistance to fight for the release of her husband and to help her cover the expenses for the education of her children. “There should be a collective political decision on the part of the Sri Lankan State and its leaders to release all the political prisoners. I have therefore chosen to facilitate initial assistance for Ms Noorjahan’s family to sustain its livelihood,” Ms Ananthy Sasitharan told TamilNet on Sunday adding that she had promised to facilitate assistance to enable Ms Noorjan to do farming on her own.
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SL military gets emboldened by greeting UN officials, joint military exercises in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2016, 21:44 GMT]
The ‘headquarters’ of genocidal military in Jaffna was one of the first places to be visited by UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye this week. “It has almost become a routine for visiting foreign diplomats to greet the SL military commanders before they meet the people in the North-East. In the meantime, foreign militaries stage joint exercises with SL military in our homeland. They even conduct medical services intended for the civilians jointly with the SL military. The SL military Establishment perceives such international ‘engagements’ as recognising its past conduct. Emboldened by the appeasement, the military is openly denouncing the calls for de-militarisation and the demands for reduction of military deployment in the North-East,” said Tamil civil activist in Jaffna, Vijaratnam Kesavan, in a video interview to TamilNet.
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UN ‘peace-builders’ threaten resettled Tamils during UN Special Rapporteur's visit to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 October 2016, 23:07 GMT]
A group of Sinhalese and Tamil officials of the so-called ‘Peacebuilding Fund’ (PBF) attached to the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) went to the extent of threatening ‘resettled’ Tamil families, who have been dumped at Vaazhalaay, a locality of limestone outcrops and marsh along the Tho'ndaimaa-aa'rau lagoon, when the PBF group wanted to document the so-called resettlement that has been carried out by the occupying SL military and ‘Seva Lanka’, a Sinhalese-led outfit. The families were instructed not to complain anything in video recordings, but only to praise that the SL military had helped them, the people told TamilNet after the episode on Wednesday. The PBF visit has taken place in connection with the fact-finding trip by UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, who was also visiting Jaffna this week.
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Credibility-lost Commonwealth, UN ignored even by small States

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 October 2016, 23:05 GMT]
The decision of tiny Maldives to leave the Commonwealth, because of criticism against its human rights record, only shows where the credibility of the Commonwealth stands today, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics. Had the organisation cared to take action on ‘Sri Lanka’ on the worst ever crime of genocide committed in the region and had proved its ‘human rights’ credibility, the neighbouring Maldives would have thought twice before becoming defiant. The Commonwealth Meet in Australia in 2011 deciding on Rajapaksa’s Colombo presiding over the organisation in the following term, as though nothing had happened there, was the worst ever defiance to human rights committed by the Commonwealth. This has set the doom of that organisation.
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Making Eezham Tamil ‘Shiv Sena’ meaningful

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 October 2016, 23:39 GMT]
The chief coordinator of ‘Siva Cheanai’ in Jaffna, Ma'ravan-pulavu K. Sachithananthan has come out with a statement on Wednesday that on the Vijayadasami day (Tuesday), the Buddhists, Christians and Muslims disturbed Saiva Tamil religious rituals of Muththumari Amman temple in Anuradhapura Old Town. They chased away the devotees and one devotee who escaped into the sanctum of the temple was fatally stabbed by a Buddhist and a Muslim. Both of them also smashed the image at the sanctum. Condemning the act on behalf of ‘World Hindus’, Mr Sachithananthan urged for the supply of a replacement statue. The Eezham Tamil Siva Cheanai would be more meaningful if it could focus on countering the paradigm of Indian Shiv Sena that mischievously patronizes both genocidal Buddha and monkey god statues for geopolitical purposes in the island.
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Austin Fernando schemes Muslim ploy for Sinhala colonisation in Tamil division

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 October 2016, 18:24 GMT]
Colombo’s Governor of Eastern Province, Mr Austin Fernando, is once again scheming a plan to bring in Sinhala colonizers into the Tamil division of Koara’laip-pattu South (Vaakarai), informed sources at Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet on Tuesday. Mr Fernando, a former defence secretary and an advisor to SL President on ‘reconciliation’, has now joined hands with the SL State Minister of ‘Rehabilitation and Resettlement’ Mr M.L.A.M Hizbullah after the latter’s plan to settle Muslim families at Kaarai-munai in Vaakarai division was turned down by Ms S. Rahulanayaki, the divisional secretary of Vaakarai, the sources further said. Kaarai-munai is situated 42 km north of Batticaloa city. Vaakarai, a traditional Tamil division, faced a genocidal onslaught in 2007.
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Colombo ‘demonstrates’ genocidal approach by continuing controversial Vihara at Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 October 2016, 19:27 GMT]
The regime of occupying Colombo has instructed its military and government officials to extend full support to the controversial construction of Buddhist vihara at the lands seized from an Eezham Tamil family at Kokku'laay in Mullaiththeevu district despite repeated complaints from the land owner, Tamil civil officials and the Northern Provincial Council. In the meantime, video recorded this weekend at the construction site show that the extremist monk, Ven Sri Thissapura Gunarathna Thero, has proceeded with the construction of the outer circle wall of the Vihara since April 2016 when the construction stood at the inner circle of the Vihara. 354 families of Sinhala colonists have been brought into Mukaththuvaaram, situated south of Kokku'laay and Sinhala fishermen have put up fishing huts at various places along the coast from Mukaththuvaaram and north towards Mullaiththeevu.
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Book urges Tamils to focus on geopolitical struggle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 October 2016, 23:45 GMT]
A book published in June 2016 by M. Thirunavukkarasu on the constitutions of Ilankai [Ceylon/ ‘Sri Lanka’], from the 1931 Donoughmore constitution to the one currently in the making by Sirisena, pivotally elucidates on a theme that all the unitary constitutions of the island were ultimately targeting against India, and in the process the Eezham Tamils became scapegoats. In tracing the roots, Thirunavukkarasu exposes the British colonial and postcolonial policies keeping the island as a checkmate against India in the region. The author urges Tamils to get awakened to the geopolitics in shaping their future struggle. The calibre of Thirunavukkarasu’s book is that what has been implied is more important than what has been written. The book has to be read in between the lines to get the thrust.
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