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.
Full story >>

Kurds defend Kobane from Islamic State onslaught supported by Turkey

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2014, 10:28 GMT]
The Islamic State (IS) supported by the Turkish state has since 15th September heavily intensified their military onslaught against the Kurdish people and their self-rule government in the region of Kobane in Rojava (Western Kurdistan) in Northern Syria. Following the brutal three pronged IS military assault to capture Kobane more than two hundred thousand Kurdish civilians were forced to flee to the Turkish border. The Turkish border which had hitherto been used unhindered by the IS to infiltrate into Kobane to attack the Kurds had now been closed to weaken the Kurdish resistance. Nevertheless recent information from Rojava reports that the Kurdish resistance is growing as the IS has suffered heavy causalities in battling the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) defending the region.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

OHCHR fails to recognise de-Tamilisation in ‘Sri Lanka’: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2014, 06:25 GMT]
“Most of the incidents referred to by the oral update are part of a larger pattern aimed at creating the conditions of permanent subjugation of the Tamil people as a whole - a process of de-Tamilisation which we interpret as the structural genocide of the Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka,” said Gajendrakumar addressing the 27th Session of the UNHRC on Thursday in Geneva. “An honest and forthright appreciation of the problems that face the Tamil people is fundamental and we call upon the OHCHR to conduct the inquiry in this spirit,” he told the UNHRC. “We note with concern the oral update’s failure to acknowledge that the Tamil people are being targeted because of their national identity. The fact that religious minorities such as the Muslims and Christians can be mentioned by name for being targets, makes the refusal to mention the Tamils by name all the more disappointing,” he said.
Full story >>

Tamils denied of observing collective remembrance in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2014, 16:11 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police in Batticaloa has been harassing the families of the victims of 1990 Puthukkudiyiruppu massacre on Sunday when they gathered to observe the annual memorial event in front of the statue of 17 civilians who were slain by ‘homeguards’ paramilitary operated by the Sri Lankan military in 1990. Tamil Councillor K. Thurairajasingam, who was present at the event with parliamentarians P. Selvarasa and P. Ariyanethiran blames that the SL Police was blocking the peaceful event with a court order from an Acting Magistrate. This is the second incident in recent days where the SL Police, under false charges of ‘causing disturbance to peace’, has blocked the kith and kin of the victims of the past massacres from paying tribute to their slain victims by lighting candles together.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

UPFA victory in Badulla based on manipulations: Upcountry Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2014, 08:51 GMT]
More than 50,000 Up Country Tamils from Badulla and Moneregala districts in Uva Provice were not able to cast their votes in the Provincial Council elections held on Saturday, say Upcountry Tamil activists in Badulla. The narrow victory of UPFA in Badulla district is a manipulated victory, they said. The ruling UPFA of Mahinda Rajapaksa has won the elections in Badulla district polling 11,000 votes more than the opposition UNP.
Full story >>

Mass grave found in Veala’nai off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2014, 20:14 GMT]
Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) workers, who dug postholes along the wall of Ooraaththu’rai Civic Council secretariat situated in Veala’nai in the Ooraaththu’rai islet (Kayts) off Jaffna, came across human skeletal remains in all the seven postholes they had dug on Friday. The SL Police has immediately sealed off the site from public access, news sources in Veala’nai said. The residents in Veala’nai alleged that the CEB workers have discovered a mass grave similar to the one that has been recently discovered in Thirukkeatheesvaram in Mannaar.
Full story >>

SL military begins deceptive recruitment drive in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 September 2014, 21:50 GMT]
Inviting poverty-stricken Tamil families along the district border between the Ampaa’rai district and Batticaloa district to receive ‘humanitarian supplies’, the occupying Sri Lanka Army has been conducting propaganda meetings promising civil jobs for Tamil women in the SL military, news sources in Ampaa’rai told TamilNet on Thursday. A group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers, who brought drinking water supply to the villagers in 35th Colony, Malaiyar-kaddu and Ka’n’naki-puram were campaigning ‘good salary’ and ‘government pension’ for subservient jobs in SL military. In the meantime, the SL military has also gone to the extent of promising a house to each family that sends their daughters and sons for employment in SL military.
Full story >>

Funeral of veteran activist Manickasothy held in Uduvil, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2014, 19:14 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamils paid their last respects to veteran Eezham Tamil activist Abimannasingham Manickasothy on Wednesday at Uduvil in Jaffna. Mr Manickasothy passed away Monday night in a vehicle accident on his way to Jaffna from Colombo. Mr Manickasothy, who stood with his people throughout the Tamil struggle, has been articulating the political aspiration of Eezham Tamils in all available platforms. He has been a firm defender of Eezham Tamils right to self-determination for more than 30 years.
Full story >>

Eezham Tamils learning languages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 September 2014, 13:38 GMT]
Thanks to the sustained efforts of the Indian Consulate in Jaffna ‘interest in Hindi’ is sprouting among Jaffna Tamils, reports New Indian Express on Tuesday, citing ‘Hindi Diwas’ [Hindi Day] celebrated by the Consulate, 20 students completing a course and one of them telling that “There are now people who think it will be useful to know Hindi if they go to north India for studies or pilgrimage.” Eezham Tamils wish that the Chinese embassy would soon start teaching Mandarin Chinese and the other embassies would follow suit in teaching major European, Latin American, Arabic and other Asian languages, so that the nation of Eezham Tamils could have a wider interaction with the world and with their own kith and kin worldwide, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
Full story >>

SL Navy attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen escalate

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2014, 06:26 GMT]
Two dead bodies have washed ashore in Jaffna on Friday and Sunday and 59 fishermen from Tamil Nadu have been arrested by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy in Jaffna and Mannaar on Friday. One of the dead fishermen was identified as 40-year-old Gnanapirakasam from Rameswaram from a tattoo that depicted AIDMK's "two leaves" party symbol. The other body washed ashore in Vadamaraadchi Munai on Sunday is yet to be identified.
Full story >>

SL military deploys intimidation, deception in East to suppress testimonies to OISL

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2014, 22:17 GMT]
The intelligence operatives of the occupying Sri Lankan military are exploiting the poverty-stricken Tamil youth from the temporary settlements of uprooted people from Champoor to spy on the activities going on among the uprooted people. The SL military, which has been providing alcohol and other drugs to the youth, have converted some of the young Tamils deprived of education and other facilities to work as spies for them. Former LTTE members have been two choices. They can either choose work for the SL military or face harassment from the SL military, the representatives of uprooted people in Ki’liveddi and Kaddai-pa’richchaan camps in Trincomalee told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Colombo exploits mineral resources of Eezham Tamils in occupied Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 September 2014, 22:50 GMT]
Despite the action by Northern Provincial Council Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Irrigation and Environment in August this year in prohibiting excavation of sand from the coast of Vaaviyadi and Puthu-aattadi in Kokku’laay region in Vanni, the Colombo government and agents of Namal Rajapaksa, the son of SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa, have accelerated the excavation of mineral sands containing ilmenite and rutile, raw materials for manufacturing Titanium Dioxide. The SL government in Colombo has seized several acres of lands along the coast in recent weeks, news sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet on Saturday.
Full story >>

Bringing OISL to NorthEast is IC responsibility: Tamil politicians

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 September 2014, 23:18 GMT]
Tamil politicians who met the British Deputy High Commissioner Lara Levis, who was on a trip to North and East, urged the diplomat to pass a message to her government and the international community to exert maximum pressure on Colombo to allow the Geneva-based OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) to visit the homeland of Eelam Tamils in the North and East of the island. “The Deputy High Commissioner, who listened to our complaints on the human rights violations of the Tamil people, was silent. We urged her to impress upon her government and the international community to enable the OISL to visit the island,” TNA parliamentarian P Selvarasa from Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

Powers may have double talk but those who struggle should not

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2014, 16:32 GMT]
"I am convinced that if Ukraine solved its domestic problems without the use of armed forces, without the bloodshed there over the past month, without the use of heavy artillery... this tragedy would not have happened," said Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu to visiting Malaysian defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Wednesday, while discussing MH 17 investigation. Whether Russia would speak in the same line and would advise its BRICS partners, especially New Delhi, to take the line in the investigation on the crimes of Sri Lanka and in the decades long militarised genocide against Eezham Tamils is what world humanity wishes to know, said Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
Full story >>

SL military floats 5,000 cell phones for surveillance on Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2014, 16:30 GMT]
The military intelligence of occupying Sri Lanka has distributed more than 5,000 cell phones to selected Tamil civilians in former LTTE administered areas in Vaakarai and Paduvaan-karai regions of Batticaloa district in an attempt to convert the recipients of the SL military 'gift' into informants and collaborators. 3,000 of the mobile phones have been provided to women. In the meantime, ex-LTTE members are being harassed to report at the SL military camps and instructed to collaborate with the SL military if they wished to avoid 'future problems', civil sources in Vaakarai say.
Full story >>