New Delhi owes a public apology on Jaffna Hospital massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 October 2018, 19:04 GMT]
Thirty-one years have elapsed, but the Indian state is yet to tender a public apology to Eezham Tamils for its brutal massacre of more than 60 civilians, including 21 doctors, nurses and other medical staff as well as the warded patients at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital in one of the brutal massacres witnessed in the history of Jaffna. The killings took place during the invading Indian military was at war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1987. The war crimes committed by the IPKF on the soil of Eezham Tamils have not been adequately investigated, said the medical staff who marked the 26th year of the massacre committed by the so-called Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).
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TPPs conclude hunger-strike as University students vow to watch politicians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2018, 18:04 GMT]
The student activists of Jaffna University who walked for four days passing 200 km from Jaffna to Anuradhapura along with the representatives of the grassroots organisations, the Tamil National Peoples’ Front politicians and the students from Eastern University met the Tamil political prisoners in Anuradhapura and urged the TPPs to end their hunger strike. The activists vowed to watch the Tamil politicians who are dealing with the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena and the SL Government authorities in Colombo to act without fail in future. The request comes after the public organisations met NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran in Jaffna on Friday and resolved to take responsibility for the advancement of the TPPs cause. Rev. Fr. S. Sakthivel, who is coordinating the mobilisation met the TPPs as part of a 10-member group, which was allowed to meet the TPPs on Saturday.
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TPPs vow to continue hunger-strike confronting Colombo's deceit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2018, 14:09 GMT]
The twelve Tamil political prisoners (TPPs) on a hunger-strike in Anuradhapura prison on Wednesday said Colombo was trying to suppress the fasting protesters in Bogombara prison in Kandy and Magazine prison in Colombo by deploying Tamil politicians of the TNA to dilute their hunger-strike. Confusing messages were being conveyed from Colombo to Fr S. Sakthivel, a veteran human rights defender who is working hard to coordinate outside support to their campaign, the protesters on hunger-strike said. In the meantime, Jaffna University students, who started a protest walk on Tuesday reached Ki'linochchi on Wednesday. The hunger-strikers said they were encouraged by the outside mobilisation.
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Sirisena has deceived Tamils: ITAK Leader Mavai Senathirajah

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2018, 05:58 GMT]
ITAK Leader and TNA Parliamentarian, Mavai Senathirjah, has blamed SL President Maithiripala Sirisena as having betrayed the trust of the Tamil National Alliance. Mr Senathirajah was addressing the Tami protesters in front of the District Secretariat of Mullaiththeevu on Friday. The demonstration was staged in support of the hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners. In an emotional speech, Mr Senathirajah said, the SL Government has failed to appoint a special commission as it had promised to look into the matter of imprisoned Tamil political prisoners. Colombo has failed to revoke the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act, and it has not implemented what it promised in the “US-Sri Lanka Consensus Resolution,” which was passed at the UN Human Rights Council in 2015.
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SL-AG Department finds new excuses to dodge hunger-striking TPPs demands

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 October 2018, 15:07 GMT]
SL Attorney General's Department has told TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran that it would not be considering the demands of three of the twelve hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners at Anuradhapura prison at all. The families of the TPPs said the explanation given by the SL-AG was illogical and condemned the TNA for passively tolerating the Colombo establishment citing ongoing disputes between the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena's UPFA and the UNP led by SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe.
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Two more TPPs join hunger-strike, refuse medical admittance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 September 2018, 22:16 GMT]
The Tamil political prisoners waging hunger-strike for the 16th day on Sunday at Anuradhapura prison have sent a letter to the management of the prison not to admit them to medical treatment anymore. In the meantime, two TPPs joined the hunger strike today. Purusothaman Aravinthan who hails from Jaffna and Nallan Sivalingam from Vavuniyaa joined the campaign. The TPPs who were admitted for treatment were also back in the Anuradhapura prison continuing the protest.
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Thileepan Remembrance in Jaffna underscores need for new emancipation strategies

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 September 2018, 08:24 GMT]
All Tamil parties and movements that orientate their politics on the national liberation of the nation of Eezham Tamils actively took part in an emotional event participated by hundreds of Eezham Tamils on Wednesday at Nalloor in Jaffna. Lt Col Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan) sacrificed his life through a 12-day fast-unto-death without food and water in 1987. He was the political head of the LTTE in Jaffna when New Delhi intervened with its military force after entering a State-to-State agreement with Colombo. Thileepan's sacrifice was a crucial historical event in the political emancipation of Eezham Tamils as it exposed the real agenda of the intervening power, which was calling the shots in the island during the times of the Cold War.
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Four hunger-striker TPPs admitted to Anuradhapura hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 September 2018, 18:34 GMT]
Four of the hunger-striking Tamil Political Prisoners have been admitted to the public hospital in Anuradhapura as their health conditions have worsened. Two TPPs who had been admitted to the attached hospital at Anuradhapura prison earlier were transferred to the general hospital on Friday. Two more TPPs were rushed to the same hospital on Saturday. Rights activist Ganesh Velayutham who visited the fasting TPPs told TamilNet that all the prisoners were in bad condition as they were languishing for more than nine years in the prison. The TPPs are heavily traumatised due to the depression caused by the dilly-dallying by the occupying Colombo's rulers. All of them have staged hunger-strikes four times before, and that they are not fit for a lengthy hunger-strike, he said.
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SL President not prepared to consider demands of TPPs until 27 September

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2018, 16:27 GMT]
The health condition of the Tamil political prisoners who have been on a hunger strike since 14 September has deteriorated and two of the hunger strikers have been admitted to the prison hospital at Anuradhapura, the families of the prisoners said. In the meantime, a group of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who visited the fasting prisoners have told them that TNA Leader and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan had taken their matter with SL President Maithiripala Sirisena before the latter travelled to New York to address the UN General Assembly. Mr Maithiripala had told Mr Sampanthan that he would only be able to think about the matter of Tamil prisoners after 27 September, after the UN meetings were over.
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SL State refuses to renew land permits to resettled Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2018, 16:54 GMT]
The resettled Eezham Tamils from Champoor and the connecting section of Kadatkaraich-cheanai were refused of renewal of their land permits at a mobile land kachcheri held on Sunday at Moothoor. The Eastern Provincial Land Commissioner organised the land meeting at Moothoor to look into the land issues of the resettled people in the Moothoor East. However, the residents of Champoor were told the renewals of their land permits were on hold as the SL State has not revoked the earlier state acquisition of their lands from the times of Rajapaksa rule. The people who are in possession of old documents are refused of housing assistance as well as loans that could be obtained through Samurdhi scheme as they are unable to document current ownership to their lands where they reside.
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Eezham Tamils confront SL military-surveying of lands aimed at expanding Buddhist vihara

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2018, 22:55 GMT]
Occupying Sinhala Army's 593 Brigade, which is having its headquarters at Naayaa'aru in Mullaith-theevu, silently brought in SL Archaeology Department workers on Friday morning in a move to put up border-stones to permanently grab lands for expanding a controversial, military-established Buddhist temple into a stupa establishment. The project also absorbs a traditional Hindu temple worshipped by Eezham Tamils at the heritage locality of Neeraavi-eattam, which lies sandwiched between Naayaa'ru lagoon and the sea. SL Military-hired land-surveyors also accompanied the group. They were carrying a letter that had been issued by one Kekulawala, a high ranking Survey Department official, three months ago. However, the move was vehemently opposed by the Tamil villagers, who confronted the group, chased it away and uprooted the GPS-fitted stones that were put by the group.
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NPC CM prepares to face contempt of court case engineered by Sumanthiran et al

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2018, 22:15 GMT]
The justice system of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has been deployed against the Northern Provincial Council as the TNA Parliamentarian and President's Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran was making another die-hard move to weaken the position of the NPC Chief Minister and former Supreme Court Justice C.V. Wigneswaran through furnishing new cases. The latest in the series is a contempt of court case, filed against him and two of his ministers, Ananthy Sasitharan and K. Sivanesan. The case comes amidst an appeal filed by NPC Chief Minister against the interim order issued by the SL Court of Appeal, pending a scheduled hearing on Wednesday. However, the NPC CM is fully prepared to address the challenge, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Monday. It is not the reputation of the NPC CM, but that of the SL Justice System, getting exposed, political observers in Jaffna said.
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U.S. naval partnership with genocidal Sri Lanka escalates with New Delhi's blessings

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 August 2018, 22:50 GMT]
U.S. Navy's amphibious transport vessel USS Anchorage (LPD 23) docked at the harbour of Trincomalee, the capital city of occupied Tamil Eelam, on Friday. The “ships visits help demonstrate the value of the growing U.S.-Sri Lanka partnership,” said Capt. Dennis Jacko, commanding officer of Anchorage, according to a news release from the Public Affairs of the naval ship. Around 300 SL naval academy midshipmen and 40 ‘distinguished visitors’, were scheduled to tour Anchorage to learn about the ship’s amphibious capabilities, the news release further said. The latest US naval deployment off Trincomalee is the first one after the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) renamed itself into US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), incorporating India as a “major defence partner” of the USA in the Indian Ocean Region.
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Jaffna Fort belongs to SL military, proclaims Commander of genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 August 2018, 10:55 GMT]
“When you say it is a fortress, it is military,” proclaimed Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake, the commander of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, who made a special appearance to make his point at the Fort of Jaffna on Wednesday. Currently, only 11 SLA personnel are stationed inside the premises, and that too under the cover of giving protection to the archaeological excavation site. However, Mahesh Senanayake dubbed the latest move to re-militarize the Jaffna Fort as a ‘battalion change’. The controversy comes as the British archaeologists and their funders abroad as well as the government of the Netherlands doing colonial-heritage reconstruction and geopolitics-driven archaeology at the Jaffna Fort in collaboration with the unitary State at a heightened paradigm of the cultural, developmental, educational, heritage and structural genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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Coningham discovers Jaffna as premillennial maritime trade centre, but at which price?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 July 2018, 23:28 GMT]
“If you think of the history of Jaffna Fort within [the timespan of] a day, the colonial period only starts at [the final] three minutes to midnight. All of the rest of that period is a history of before colonial contact. It is a history, which identifies that Jaffna Fort is engaged in Indian Ocean Trade. [...] Most significantly, we have evidence that Jaffna was core within the Indo-Roman trade. So, [within] 200 BC and 200 AD, we have Jaffna at the centre of the Indian Ocean trade,” stated the British Archaeologist Professor Robin Coningham at a workshop cum press conference held at the University of Jaffna on Saturday. However, he was also reiterating the nature of the attached politics and the paradigm behind, which was nothing else than heritage-genocide as far as the Eezham Tamils are concerned, commented political activists in Jaffna.
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TELO councillor of NPC questions ‘achievements’ of TNA hierarchy

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2018, 18:34 GMT]
35 years have elapsed since pogrom of Black July, which was waged against the Eezham Tamils with the sponsorship of the UNP regime at that time. The incumbent SL Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe of the UNP, was a cabinet minister at that time when his fellow cabinet ministers were actively backing the pogrom. The late J.R. Jayawardene, who was the president at that time, came with the infamous declaration ‘war for war, peace for peace’ and escalated the pogrom. This month, Ranil Wickramasinghe has been visiting Jaffna to deceive the Tamil people with so-called development, says NPC Councillor Vinthan Kanagaratnam of the TELO. He called it a shame that the TNA parliamentarians were collaborating with the UNP-SLFP government even after failing to win anything tangible from them.
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Uprooted Mu'l'lik-ku'lam Tamils adopt Ira'nai-theevu approach, enter their lands seized by SL Navy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 July 2018, 19:21 GMT]
More than 200 Tamil families were living in Mu'l'lik-ku'lam eleven years before, in 2007, when the Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka seized the coastal village facing towards the Gulf of Mannaar. Last year, the occupying SL Navy said it would consider handing over a small pocket of 77 acres of the total 5,000 acres back to the people, after ten years of protests and finally the people waging a continuous protest for 38 days in March and April 2017. However, the SL Navy didn't clear the lands and hand them over to the people despite repeated requests. The promise was a deceptive move aimed at containing the protest. However, around 50 of the 200 families have now chosen to enter the lands by themselves. They are now confined to the lands, which the SL Navy said it was prepared to release, Catholic priests in Mannaar told TamilNet on Wednesday.
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Collaborationist sections of TNA lose significance, Wigneswaran holds key to unified Tamil polity

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 July 2018, 18:20 GMT]
The policy outlook adopted by the US-led bandwagonism of the West and that of India is tightly in sync with each other. Their modus operandi is nothing else than pure appeasement of the accelerating Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism in the South. They would be prepared to sacrifice the democratic aspirations of Eezham Tamils as their manoeuvrings are aimed at gaining strategic access to this island. However, they find themselves in a delicate situation today as they could no longer dictate the terms of Tamil political debate through the collaborationist sections of the TNA, says Political Analyst S.A. Jothilingam in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Friday. Thanks to the role played by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the mainstream discourse is getting shaped to the point that it is now practically possible to forge a unified Tamil polity for Tamils once again, he says.
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Antiquities Ordinance used to justify Sinhalicisation of 48 locations in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 July 2018, 22:30 GMT]
The intruding Sinhala-Buddhist establishment and the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka are rushing ahead with the expansion of an already reconstructed Buddhist temple, the so-called Gurukanda Raja Maha Vihara (Gurukanda RMV), which is located at Chemmalai, Naayaa'ru in the coastal Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district. As the protesting Tamil land-owners successfully blocked the surveying of the lands earlier this month, the intruders are now citing an Extraordinary Gazette notification, issued in 2013 (1823/73) during the times of Rajapaksa rule, to proceed with their plans of expanding the Vihara, the civil sources at the District Secretariat said.
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TNPF protests against Colombo's move to militarise Jaffna Fort

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 July 2018, 19:06 GMT]
The Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) staged a protest outside the Jaffna Fort against the move by the occupying SL military to militarise a section of the Jaffna Fort. The TNPF protesters also blamed Emmanuel Arnold, the Mayor of Jaffna and the TNA politicians who collaborate with the SL Governor in North Reginald Cooray, who is advocating militarisation of Jaffna Fort.
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