Land Commissioner in East threatens Tamil farmers of Thennai-maravadi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2014, 22:33 GMT]
The Provincial Land Commissioner (PLC) of Eastern Province, Sirimewan Dharmasena, a Sinhalese, has been threatening the Tamil farmers of the ancient Tamil village of Thennai-maravadi in Kuchchcave’li division of Trincomalee district to share their lands with Sinhalese colonisers or face security threats at the hands of the Sinhala ‘home guards’ paramilitary. The threat comes after a series of meetings with the PLC on 12th, 24th and 30th of September 2014, the Tamil farmers from Kuchchave’li said. Thennai-maravadi is situated on the border of Trincomalee district and Mullaith-theevu district.
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Action needed in UK in converting legal victory into political victory: V. Koppe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2014, 21:10 GMT]
“It is a legal victory, but obviously, it should also be won [as] a political victory. And this decision would be a perfect moment to start negotiations again,” said LTTE’s lawyer Victor Koppe, commenting on Thursday’s European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgement in the LTTE vs. EU case. For reasons not sure to him, Great Britain and the Netherlands, the former colonisers of the island, actively defended the LTTE ban in the case, the Amsterdam-based attorney said in an interview to TamilNet on Saturday. It was the UK who initiated the ban. In bringing a new moment for re-evaluation, national action in that country should be the first thing that could be done. “If you are asking which countries may be on a national level where people should take legal action, I suppose it would be Great Britain, which comes to my mind,” Mr. V. Koppe said.
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SL military turns back UN official at Oamanthai check-post on World Food Day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2014, 09:51 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka on Thursday turned back the country representative for United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) at Oamanthai military check post in Vavuniyaa citing the lack of SL Defence Ministry pass to travel to North, civil sources in Vavuniyaa said. Ms Beth Crawford, the FAO representative for Maldives and Sri Lanka, invited as Special Guest to attend the World Food Day event organised by the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) in Ki’linochchi, was unable to attend the event. Colombo has imposed a new restriction on foreigners traveling to North without Defence Ministry permission since last Friday.
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Genocidal Sri Lanka bans ‘foreigners’ visiting occupied Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2014, 17:26 GMT]
Colombo has banned ‘foreigners’ from visiting the island’s former war zone without permission to prevent ‘negative interventions’, media reports said on Wednesday, citing a statement of Colombo’s defence ministry run by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The move primarily targets the Eezham Tamil diaspora having the citizenship of various countries of the West and it equally targets the interaction of Eezham Tamils in the island. It is a master strategy of international imperialist dimensions to keep the genocide-facing Eezham Tamils shackled and submissive. While the Eezham Tamils in India can’t travel outside as they are kept as ‘refugees’ for decades, the target is now the free diaspora in the West, Tamil activists for alternative politics said.
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Citing Buddhist monk, SL police refuses to act on land-grab complaints in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2014, 23:50 GMT]
The Head of the Sri Mangalaramaya Buddhist vihara Venerable Ampitiye Sumanarathana thero has been instrumental in seizing the lands of Eezham Tamils and handing over these lands to Sinhalese from the border villages. When the Tamil land owners complained to the Divisional Secretary of Poaratheevup-pattu (Vellaave’li), the DS accepted their lands have been illegally encroached. But, the Sri Lankan Police at Vellaave’li has refused to accept and act on the complaints by Tamil land owners. The latest seizure of farm lands has taken place at Chinnavaththai village in Vellaave’li division of Paduvaankarai region.
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Rajapaksa deception in North aims at elections

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2014, 23:22 GMT]
The elected representatives of Tamil National Alliance in the North fully boycotted the ceremonial events staged by the visiting SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Vanni and Jaffna on Sunday and Monday claiming that the meetings “do not appear to be in furtherance of a legitimate objective, and are not transparent nor collaborative.” While large numbers of SL soldiers were deployed on the streets of Jaffna subjecting the public with security checks, EPDP paramilitary operatives and a section of occupying SL military soldiers were coercing public sector workers, teachers, students together with the people deceived with false promises of livelihood assistance to attend the meetings.
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Maa-do'la

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2014, 16:57 GMT]
The big streamlet coming from the hill
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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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Tamil teachers protest against SL military interference in schools

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2014, 06:43 GMT]
Sri Lankan military, which usually threatens people against taking part in civil protests in advance, has now went a step further with staging ‘counter protests’ to disturb the democratic mobilisation of the people, trade unions and activists. On Monday, the occupying Sri Lanka Army deployed its operatives to stage a ‘counter protest’ in front of the Jaffna Central Bus stand where Tamil teachers in Jaffna, organized under the Ceylon Teachers Union were protesting with 15 demands against appointments with low-wage, discrimination in promotions, SL military interference in the administration of the schools in North and East, circulars in Sinhala, continued occupation of Palaali Teachers training college, discrimination in transfer policy and continued ignorance of complaints filed against corruption.
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Palestine and Eezham Tamils: The Hindu group's double standard

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 2014, 07:24 GMT]
The Hindu group and its associates known for their bias and bigotry towards the issues of genocide and independence of Eezham Tamils, and towards the LTTE-led militant struggle of the recent past, have now reiterated their stand on Palestine, endorsing Hamas as the resistance force representing the people of Gaza. As a response to the recent Israeli military offensive against the people of Gaza, The Hindu and associates have been rallying public opinion in favour of the Palestinian struggle. In two separate events organized in Chennai in Tamil Nadu, the affluent Hindu clique has vehemently condemned Israel and termed its acts against the Palestinians as war crimes and demanded India to take a more vocal stand against Israel, writes a media watcher in Chennai.
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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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Mæ'nik-diwela

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2014, 22:44 GMT]
The gem-bearing land granted in lieu of payment for services
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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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SL investigators harass senior journalist in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2014, 12:34 GMT]
Senior Journalist and media activist Thayaraparan Ratnam in Jaffna has been subjected to interrogation style investigations by a 'Special Criminal Investigation Division' in Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) on Wednesday, media circles in Jaffna said. Mr Thayaparan has been subjected to continous harassment by Sri Lankan Defence Ministry operated 'investigation' units, Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and the CID, the sources said adding that the harassments started after the journalists and media activists started to attend media workshops held in Colombo and other places. However, the timing of the harassment against Tamil journalists has a different motive, civil activists in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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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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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 complain discrimination in selection of beneficiaries of Indian housing scheme

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2014, 21:49 GMT]
A point system introduced to determine the recipients of the Indian housing scheme discriminates the uprooted people of Champoor in Trincomalee district, civil sources in Moothoor East told TamilNet on Wednesday. The recipients are being selected on the basis that their displacement after year 2008 and that they should now be living in temporary huts at the moment in addition to certain points based criteria. The people of Champoor region were uprooted from their native villages in 2006. Most of the potential recipients are being filtered away by this method, the sources said. Further, there is no transparency in the way the points are being assigned. In some cases, government officers are being bribed to assign temporary huts for some applicants to become eligible, the sources further said.
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Colombo to seize more lands for militarisation of North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2014, 22:43 GMT]
1,300 acres of lands are to be surveyed and seized by the SL military in Jaffna peninsula in the coming days, informed sources told TamilNet on Saturday. The lands belonging to Tamil people are to be seized in Maathakal, Achchuveali, Chavakachcheari, Nu’naavil and Thikkam. The SL military has already harassed the fishermen at Cheanthaan-ku’lam in Maathakal to vacate from their jetty and relocate their fishing tools as the land was to be surveyed, gazetted and seized for military expansion. On Friday, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politicians, civic council members and Valikaamam North uprooted people’s organisation protested against an attempt to survey the lands in Maathakal. In the meantime, hundreds of acres of lands are being seized without any procedures in the Vanni mainland, Tamil activists in Mullaiththeevu said.
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