Led by extremist monk, Sinhala colonists launch hate campaign against Tamil officials in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 November 2016, 23:31 GMT]
More than 200 Sinhala colonists led by extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk Ampitiye Sumanarathna Thera in Batticaloa took to the streets on Friday with an intention to accelerate the demographic genocide against Eezham Tamils in the southwestern part of Batticaloa district. A systematic ‘hate campaign’ is being taken up by the Sinhalese monks and the colonists as a tool to threaten Tamil administrative officials in the East. The behaviour of the extremist monk captured in video is being released with this news for the perusal of the nature of the hate campaign under the genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’ paradigm, which accords ‘foremost place to Buddhism’ in its constitution with a genocidal intent against the sovereignty of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the North and East of the island.
Full story >>

Tamil, Muslim fishermen protest against Colombo's Sinhalicisation of Musali in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 November 2016, 23:50 GMT]
The Director General of Department of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources (DFAR), which functions under the purview of the Fisheries Ministry of occupying Colombo, has recently instructed the Divisional Secretary of Musali Division in Mannaar district and the Assistant Director of Fisheries Department in Mannaar to put up a colony with fishing huts, necessary housing and other infrastructural arrangements, informed civil sources in the district said. A list of more than 83 persons has been sent from Colombo. All the persons in the list were Sinhalese fishermen from Gampaha district. The Federation of Fishing Societies in Musali division, comprising of Tamil and Muslim fishermen across 10 villages, took to the streets on Wednesday demanding immediate end to the fishing colony. The protesting Tamil-speaking fishermen blamed Colombo for instigating ethnic tension in Musali division.
Full story >>

Colombo silently schemes fresh Sinhala settlements in Musali division

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 November 2016, 22:54 GMT]
Followed by the recent aggression by the occupying Navy of genocidal Sri Lanka at Arippu and Chilaavaththu'rai, there are also fresh reports of Colombo attempting to settle Sinhala colonists in Musali division. While thousands of Tamil-speaking native people are denied of resettlement and access to their lands, there are various schemes being silently implemented by Colombo's ministries and departments. The Tamil villagers of Mu'l'lik-ku'lam and the Tamil-speaking Muslims from Ma'richchukkaddi will jointly protest against the Sinhalicisation, which is now targeting Musali division, Mannaar Fisheries Society representative and SLMC Vanni member Noor Mohammed Alam told TamilNet in a video interview to TamilNet this week in Jaffna. The division has become a strategic area of occupation to Colombo, which aims to Sinhalicise and colonise the land and the historic waters of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Genocidal Colombo deploys Tamils against Muslims in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 November 2016, 20:46 GMT]
Colombo's colonial Governor to Eastern Province and a section of Sinhala officials in the district accompanied with extremist Buddhist monks are co-ordinately deployed in a dangerous plot to set the numerically less Tamils in the district against the majority Tamil-speaking Muslim population, according to concerned Tamil social activists in Ampaa'rai. A number of recent incidents in the district are also proving their concerns. While deploying ‘Army and Archaeology’ as well as Mahaweli, Forest, Wildlife and Tourism related SL ministries, authorities and departments in seizing lands from uprooted Tamils throughout the Eastern Province, the representatives of uprooted Tamils and a section of elected politicians at various levels in Ampaa'rai district are being coerced into ‘engagements’ with extremist Sinhala-Buddhist monks.
Full story >>

Sirisena deploys ‘pass restrictions’ to block Tamil farmers from entering pasturelands

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 November 2016, 17:13 GMT]
SL Forest Department officials in Batticaloa district, under the instructions from the SL Ministry of ‘Mahaweli Development’, have instructed Sinhala forest guards to demand a pass document from the Tamil cattle-farmers in order to enter the pasturelands used by them for decades. SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the minister in charge of Mahaweli Ministry, has been promoting the demographic genocide against Eezham Tamils by deploying Sinhalese from his Polonnaruwa district to grab lands of Eezham Tamils in Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts. Now, he is trying to limit the claim of Eezham Tamils through introducing a rigid pass system, the Tamil farmers complained.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

‘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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Sirisena regime will not deliver acceptable solution without international intervention: ITAK MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 October 2016, 21:53 GMT]
In a revealing interview to TamilNet, S. Yogeswaran, a TNA parliamentarian representing ITAK in Batticaloa district categorically stated that the regime of Sirisena and Wickramasinghe, which was brought to power with the votes of Tamils, is not going to deliver a reasonable political solution satisfying the expectation of Tamils on its own without international intervention. “I don't speak for others. My conviction is that the Government will not deliver an acceptable solution for Tamils on its own,” he said. “There are a lot of steps to be taken,” and none of these have been achieved so far, he added. Austin Fernando, the governor of the East, installed after Sirisena became the president, was preoccupied with tracing every avenue to Sinhalicise the Batticaloa district. It has now been revealed that SL President Sirisena's Mahaweli ministry is behind the Sinhala colonisation, he said.
Full story >>

Landless Tamils in Maanthai West should be given new lands: senior grassroots activist

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 October 2016, 16:25 GMT]
Various acts enacted by the colonial British rulers before 1948 had brought the public lands in the entire island into the domain of the Colombo-based State structure and its constitution, which was enacted without the democratic mandate of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the North-East. It was the so-called ‘Crown Lands Encroachment Ordinance’ that brought these lands, for which private ownership could not be documented, into Crown property in 1840. Later, in 1972, after the Sinhalese unilaterally enacted the genocidal State of ‘Sri Lanka’, amidst protests and without the democratic mandate of Eezham Tamils, a series of ‘land reforms’ were introduced by Colombo. Even these reforms brought after 1972 are now being violated by the SL State itself in seizing the lands of Tamils, says Seemanpillai Sountharanayakam, the deputy chairman of Maanthai West Divisional Council.
Full story >>

Sinhala colonisers in Batticaloa challenge officials with Sirisena-issued land permits

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 October 2016, 23:01 GMT]
A group of government officials belonging to various departments including the officials from Mahaweli ‘development’ authority, which comes under the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, were confronted by the Sinhala settlers, who claimed the lands were given to them by none other than Mr Maithiripala Sirisena, when he was serving under Mahinda Rajapakasa a few years ago. The officials were on a fact-finding mission to Mayilaththa-madu and Maathava'nai pasturelands, situated in the interior Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division in Batticaloa district. The visit took place on 25 September after repeated complaints coming from Tamil dairy farmers in the division. However, there was no sign of action from the authorities, the farmers told TamilNet on Sunday.
Full story >>

Colombo steps up hate campaign against Wigneswaran

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 September 2016, 21:29 GMT]
The Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council was only raising questions in a cautious speech at Ezhuka Thamizh uprising on Saturday. Justice C.V. Wigneswaran didn't even refer to the Genocide Resolution passed unanimously by the elected NPC assembly. Further, the resolution drafted by the organisers was limiting the scope of the Tamil aspiration just at self-rule, an out-dated demand which was abandoned by the late Tamil leader S.J.V Chelvanayakam in favour of Tamil sovereignty-centred aspiration as he realised that Colombo would never reconcile with Tamils without any compulsion beyond the parameters of SL parliamentary politics. Now, Wigneswaran asking simple questions with a mobilised mass, is being intentionally projected as ‘extremism’ by Colombo, commented Tamil activists in Vavuniyaa, who witnessed a hate campaign by Sinhala Buddhists in their town on Friday.
Full story >>

Criticism emerges in Jaffna over USA training SL military, IC soft-pedalling Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 September 2016, 23:18 GMT]
In spite of all the accusations against the Sri Lankan government of war-crimes and other atrocities committed during the war, USA and other governments continue to have naval and military exercises with the Sri Lankan forces, as they also had these trainings with the SL military during the regime of the Mahinda Rajapaksa, said Rev Fr S.V.B. Mangalarajah, the chairman of the Commission for Justice & Peace of the Catholic Diocese in Jaffna in a follow-up video interview to TamilNet after the Ezhuka Thamizh uprising held in Jaffna. The implied message coming from the veteran human rights activist based in Jaffna was that the international community and its approach towards the national question of Tamils in the island was lopsided and unless that problem is seriously addressed by Tamils, the SL Government and the South would not deliver anything substantial for Tamils.
Full story >>

Mobilisation towards ‘Ezhuka Thamizh’ uprising in Jaffna gains momentum

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2016, 22:26 GMT]
Grassroots organisations, academics and students of University of Jaffna, business community, religious leaders involved in civil activism and various political parties voicing for the rights of Eezham Tamils are extending their support to the public rally named ‘Ezhuka Thamizh’ (Let Tamil rise up) to take place in Jaffna on Saturday. Despite the deviatory sections of the TNA hierarchy, led by M.A. Sumanthiran and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan, have been fully busy with causing obstacles to the move taken forward by the Tamil People’s Council (TPC), the mobilisation has gained support from the people on the ground, activists close to the organisers said.
Full story >>

Sinhala colonists step up assaults on Tamil cattle herders in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 September 2016, 18:56 GMT]
Three Sinhalese colonists severely assaulted a 44-year-old Tamil cattle farmer, who was taking care of his cattle Monday evening at Mayilaththa-madu in Maathava'nai pastureland situated in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district. The wounded cattle herder, a father of three, was admitted to Chanthi-ve'li and transferred to Batticaloa Teaching Hospital on Tuesday with badly injured legs. The incident took place around 3:30 p.m. on Monday. This is the second assault on Tamil cattle herders in the area, Tamil farmers said.
Full story >>

‘Reconciliation prospects’ look as grim as ever: Rev Fr Mangalarajah

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 September 2016, 22:55 GMT]
Colombo government is keeping the people in the North and East under heavily militarised conditions and is not even prepared to let the people remember their war-dead freely, which is essential for any meaningful reconciliation, said Rev. Fr. S.V.B. Mangalarajah, the president of the Justice & Peace Commission in Jaffna, in a video interview to TamilNet on Tuesday. Now, People on the ground have realised that Colombo is not even prepared to involve foreign experts in the local investigations. The people are also dissatisfied with the Tamil leaders who are collaborating with the government and asking the people to have patience, he said. “The United Nations should realise that the SL Government is well-known for extending promises just to backtrack on them later.”
Full story >>

Sinhala colonists advance 3 km further into Batticaloa, erect 2nd Buddhist temple in 1 year

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2016, 23:42 GMT]
Sinhala colonists from Polonna'ruwa, the home district of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, have advanced 3 km further into the pasturelands in Koara'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) division of Batticaloa district in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils within the last 12 months, Tamil cattle farmers from Chiththaa'ndi told TamilNet on Wednesday. A second Buddhist temple is being hurriedly put up by the Sinhala colonists at Maathava'nai , the Tamil cattle herders said. A Sinhala squad, led by a Buddhist monk, assaulted the Tamil farmers who went close to the Buddhist temple searching for missing cattle a few days ago. The Sinhala monk seized their mobile phone SIM cards. The cattle herders said the second Buddhist temple is located 3 km east of the Buddhist temple constructed almost a year ago. The area was part of the de-facto Tamil State defended by the Tamil Tigers until 2007.
Full story >>