SL Court to hear mother's challenge on military seizure of land

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 December 2014, 23:01 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) that had moved into the lands of an old mother, Mrs Maheswary Thambirasa at Mirusuvil in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, had relocated the notorious 52-2 Division Headquarters of the SLA, which was earlier situated in Vara'ni into the new locality situated along the A9 road. SL presidential sibling and SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa opened declared the 52 Division HQ on January 08. Later, the SL military wanted to encroach further lands and the mother was protesting against the illegal seizure. Now, the case has been accepted for hearing at the Court of Appeal in Colombo, news sources in Jaffna said.
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Rajapaksa, Sirisena, 17 others hand over nominations for SL presidency

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2014, 11:17 GMT]
The incumbent Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance, common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena and seventeen other candidates on Monday handed over their nominations at the SL Elections Secretariat in Rajagiriya, news sources in Colombo said.
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Arundhati misses Buddhist casteism, Wigneswaran massages Hindu imperialism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 December 2014, 12:18 GMT]
Brilliantly exposing the legacy of Hinduism in the political, social, cultural and economic oppression committed in India by a small section against the vast majority of the masses, Indian writer Arundhati Roy in an article last month said: “Now, the caste system is up for export. Wherever Hindus go, they take it with them. It exists among the brutalised Tamils in Sri Lanka.” She sadly misses the caste structured Sinhala-Buddhism, with which now India’s Hindutva makes an unholy alliance through a genocidal route, in the process of empire building and consolidation of the traditional forces of oppression. Meanwhile, the Sanskrit sloka-reciting NPC chief minister Wigneswaran, attending World Hindu Conference in New Delhi last month, was appealing to ‘Sanaadhana Dharma’ for the salvation of Tamils, writes an academic in Jaffna.
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Colombo's investigators, minister protect suspects in Nakuleswaran assassination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 December 2014, 22:19 GMT]
Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) officers, who have detained four suspects in connection with the killing of ex-LTTE member Nakuleswaran in Ve'l'laang-ku'lam in Mannaar last month, are trying to protect the real culprits who gave the orders and weapons to assassinate the Tamil activist, who was struggling for the resettlement of Tamil villagers of Eekam-kudiyiruppu, the villagers complain. In the meantime, the Divisional Secretary of Maanthai West, who has been collaborating with the SL minister Rishad Badurdeen, has been given special protection by the controversial minister following the assassination of Nakuleswaran. The DS has been transferred away from Maanthai West.
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Sivagnanam, Wigneswaran sabotage NPC move on genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2014, 11:42 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) chairman C.V.K. Sivagnanam on Thursday ran away from the NPC sitting in an attempt to defend the position taken by NPC Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, who wanted to postpone voting on a crucial motion on Tamil genocide at the 20th sittings of the NPC, news sources at the NPC Secretariat in Kaithadi told TamilNet. The NPC chairman has been postponing the resolution, which identifies the crimes that were committed and those that continue to be committed against the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan State as genocide. Initially, there was no objection at the council to commence voting on the motion, which was brought by M.K. Shivajilingam. At the last minute Mr Wigneswaran said he wanted to postpone the voting till after the SL presidential election.
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Colombo stages 'excavation' of massgrave in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 December 2014, 23:16 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military on Tuesday brought down a large number of journalists from Colombo and staged an 'excavation' of an alleged burial site in Puthukkudiyiruppu of Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, describing the site as a place where Tigers had slain prisoners of the SL military persons. As there were no skeletal remains at the alleged site, the TID changed its version and claimed that there were traces of burnt bodies from 2006 at the site.
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Colombo threatens TNA civic members to crossover to UPFA

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2014, 22:39 GMT]
The intelligence and political operatives who operate under the direct command of SL presidential siblings Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the SL defence secretary and Basil Rajapaksa, the economic minister have been trying to woo grassroots Tamil members of the civic bodies in the North and East to the side of the ruling UPFA in the South. US-trained SL military commander in Jaffna, Major General Udaya Perera, who has been transferred to Colombo and promoted to the rank of Director General General Staff at the Office of the Chief of Defence Staff is attempting to woo TNA urban Council chairpersons and deputy chairpersons in North to the side of the UPFA through Colombo-based Tamil operatives, informed sources in Jaffna said.
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Sirisena, Rajapaksa compete to deceive Tamil voters, Sampanthan faces criticism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2014, 23:36 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, who recently assured that the TNA would not take any decision ignoring his own Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) party and the other parties in the Tamil alliance on the issue of SL presidential elections, has again come under criticism from the ITAK structures for deciding to send TNA national list parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran to a meeting of the opposition parties, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, ITAK sources told TamilNet Sunday. In the meantime, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has been targeting Tamils in the education sector in the North and East inviting different organisations, trade unions and interest groups to Temple Trees seeking votes, informed sources said.
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Sustaining egalitarian national culture is key to Tamil unity: Tamil academic

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2014, 09:09 GMT]
“The material force and the historical significance of the liberation struggle for [Tamil] Eelam, battled by the LTTE provided a counter-hegemonic source for all oppressed people to organize a sovereign and people-centered and highly effective liberation struggle, to the dismay of international and regional establishments,” writes Norway-based Anthropology academic Athithan Jayapalan, in an article on the role of national narratives of liberation and culture for the oppressed. “The destruction of the LTTE was a loss for oppressed people across the world and for people of South Asia in particular,” he writes.
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Conveying message to Sinhala nation on presidential election

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2014, 17:21 GMT]
If State Reform is the real question now in the presidential elections, it is better for Eezham Tamil politicians to leave it to the Sinhala nation to decide. But it is not simply keeping quiet or Tamils painting themselves into a corner. It is keeping quiet with a mission and conveying a message in no uncertain terms to the Sinhala nation and to the powers. In 1977, at the height of the pogrom, J. R. Jeyawardane asked Tamils whether they want peace or war. Now it is the turn of Tamil politicians to tell in a different way, whether the Sinhala nation wants peace by sharing territory and sovereignty in the island with the Eezham Tamil nation, so that the power games in the island could be faced jointly, or whether it wants to continue with the genocide to invite war – this time a war of competing imperialisms fulfilling their greed for the entire island.
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TNA not in haste to take decision on SL Presidential election: Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2014, 12:15 GMT]
The parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance after about two hour discussion held at parliamentary complex on Monday evening decided not to take any hasty decision on the forthcoming Presidential election immediately. TNA Parliamentary Group Leader and Trincomalee district parliamentarian Mr R. Sampanthan presided the meeting.
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Rajapaksa’s budget passed by a majority 95 votes

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 2014, 15:08 GMT]
The 2015 Budget of the United People Freedom Alliance government was passed in Sri Lanka’s parliament Monday around 5:00 p.m. with a majority of ninety five votes amid speculation that more parliamentarians from the government ranks might cross over to the opposition supporting the Common Presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena, news sources in Colombo
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Sampanthan suspected of clandestine deal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 November 2014, 23:28 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan is suspected of making a clandestine deal on his own with former SL president Chandrika Kumaratunga on supporting the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Srisena, informed sources in Colombo said on Sunday. The deal harps of implementing the 13th Amendment, bringing in changes in the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) and in changing the governors of the North and East. There was no discussion on international investigations of the war crimes. Sampanthan’s suspected secret deal raises eyebrows within the TNA and there is already heated discussion on the issue, the sources further said.
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SL presidential election to be held on January 08, 2015

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 November 2014, 16:16 GMT]
The Sri Lankan presidential election will be held on January 08, 2015, according to the gazette notification issued by the SL Election Commissioner Mahinda Desapriya on Friday.
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Maithiripala Sirisena of SLFP emerges as common opposition candidate contesting Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 November 2014, 11:17 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) in the South on Friday decided to support Maithiripala Sirisena as the common candidate of the opposition to contest the upcoming Presidential election against the SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Currently, Mr. Maithiripala Sirisena is holding the post of Minister of Health in the Rajapaksa cabinet and the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
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Recent books on regions of Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 November 2014, 10:40 GMT]
Four voluminous books have recently been published on the Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vanni and Jaffna regions of the country of Eezham Tamils. The publications, resulting from the efforts and contributions of Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora, show the rise of a new generation as well as the conviction of the old generation in documenting the history and culture of the regions and people of Tamil Eelam with a geographical sense of attachment. The political geographic nuance of the publications subtly responds to the New Delhi–Washington–Colombo genocide partners’ denial of territorial and historical sovereignty claim of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island. On the other hand, the publications implicitly impel the Eezham Tamils of the various regions in the island to understand the milieu and needs of one another in strengthening the nation with new equations.
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Buddhist Vihara of JHU parliamentarian attacked

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 2014, 14:24 GMT]
A group of unidentified men attacked Buddhist Vihare of JHU parliamentarian Venerable Athula Ratana Thursday morning, news sources in Colombo said. The Vihare is located along Gothami Road in Borella. The attack comes a few days after the extreme Buddhist monks party JHU withdrew its support to the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance. The extremist JHU is making alliance with the opposition against SL president Rajapaksa seeking re-election for presidency for third time.
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Colombo constructed 463 Buddhist viharas in 2013 in North-East: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 2014, 08:09 GMT]
At the end of the year in 2012 there were 10,349 Buddhist temples in the Northern and Eastern provinces. But, at the end of the year 2013 the figure has increased to 10,812, according to Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Batticaloa Seenithamby Yogeswaran. The genocidal Sri Lankan State has constructed 463 new Buddhist temples in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils in one year alone. The structural genocide on Eezham Tamils is continuing unabated with the deployment of Sinhala ‘Army and Archaeology’ by Colombo, the ‘Time and Space’ provided through the Geneva discourse by the West and is encouraged by the nexus between the ‘Hindutva’ New Delhi and the ‘Sinhala Buddhist’ Colombo, commented Eezham Tamil political observers in the East.
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JHU breaks away from Rajapaksa's ruling UPFA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 09:27 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a Sinhala extremist Buddhist monks political party on Tuesday decided to leave SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and decided to function as an ‘independent’ political party in the SL parliament, news sources in Colombo said.
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Interest in resettlement cost life to Nakuleswaran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 November 2014, 23:50 GMT]
Funeral of assassinated Krishnasamy Nakuleswaran was held on Sunday at his village, Eekam-kudiyiruppu (settlement of sacrifice), at Ve’l’laang-ku’lam in Mannaar. 15 uniformed SL military men were busy taking photographs from different corners at the funeral and 70 of the 200 participants were intelligence operatives on surveillance assignment, residents told TamilNet Sunday. While many people believed that the SL military intelligence had chosen a target to create fear psychosis among the families of Tamil Heroes, the residents of the village were of the opinion that Nakuleswaran’s interest in working for the proper resettlement of his people had cost him his life. Nakuleswaran's assassination was timed to respond to the call made by C.V. Wigneswaran in Tamil Nadu on bringing back Eezham Tamil refugees in Tamil Nadu and resettling them in the North, political observers said.
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