Keappaa-pulavu struggle continues, only one tenth of lands released

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 March 2017, 23:40 GMT]
Lands belonging 54 families were released in Pulak-kudiyiruppu of Keappaa-pulavu GS area after 29 days of continuous struggle on Wednesday. The families of Pulak-kudiyiruppu entered their lands in a mood of victory. However, the happiness lasted only a few minutes till they arrived premises of their lands to witness their houses and trees, which were standing there in full shape as late as on 30 January this year, had been completely erased to the grounds by the occupying Sinhala military that had a different plan of permanently seizing their lands. Many of the families were caught in pain and trauma caused by the memories of the loss of their loved ones in the genocidal onslaught. In the meantime, more than 128 families of Keappaa-pulavu and the remaining 30 of 84 families from Pulak-kudiyiruppu vowed to continue to the struggle until their lands completely released.



The resolve of Keappaa-pulavu people since 2012 has resulted in securing the release of three of four residential villages in Keappaa-pulavu GS area so far. Apart from the released villages of Sooriyaa-moaddai, Sooriya-puram and Pulak-kudiyiruppu now released, there are still families numbering around 145 who are deprived of their private lands in Keappaa-pulavu village.

At least 450 acres of lands belonging to the people are yet to be freed.

84 families were living in Pulak-kudiyiruppu. Only 54 of them were in possession of ownership to their lands. The remaining families should also be given lands, the representatives waging the struggle said.

37 of 54 families from Pulak-kudiyiruppu were satisfied with the extent of the lands released. 17 families were complaining that their lands were not fully returned.

Ms Akilandeswary Muthusamy and Ms Aswiny Ketheeswaran talked to TamilNet stating that their houses had been destroyed within the last one month.

Mrs Inthirany Vivekananthan who is from Keappaa-pulavu said her ancestors were living in the village for 6 generations and that there were 128 uprooted families who are fully prepared to continue their struggle.

Mrs Saraswathy Thanabalaisngam from Keappaa-pulavu was worried that SL military was going to destroy her house, which she had seen 6 months ago.

In the meantime, TNPF Leader and former parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, who has been actively involved in the struggle of de-militarising Keappaa-pulavu since 2012 said it was important to remind those expressing solidarity with the struggle of Keappaa-pulavu people that only around 48 acres of 500 acres have been released and that more than 145 families were still continuing the struggle to release their lands.

Women’s Rural Development Society leader Mrs Simidkadsan Chandraleela from Keappaa-pulavu also reiterated that the struggle of Keappaa-pulavu families would continue.

The families waging the struggle for the past 29 days say they are now increasingly concerned of their security, particularly the security of their children, as they have to go to school walking a long distance through the military zone.

Chronology:

01.03.17  Keappaa-pulavu struggle continues, only one tenth ..

24.02.17  Kaaththaankudi Muslims express solidarity with upr..

23.02.17  UN Human Rights mechanism in Geneva has disappoint..

20.02.17  Uprooted Keappaa-pulavu families inspire strugglin..

19.02.17  Keappaa-pulavu protesters question silence of fore..

18.02.17  UK, Australia, have responsibility in halting Mull..

17.02.17  SL military puts up shoot-at-sight warning inside ..

13.02.17  Displaced Muslim women from Puththa'lam express so..

11.02.17  Uprooted Keappaa-pulavu people continue protest fo..

06.02.17  Keappaa-pulavu protesters draw solidarity from Tam..

05.02.17  UN Human Rights Council misled on ground situation..

03.02.17  Uprooted families in PTK join de-militarisation st..

01.02.17  Uprooted Ezham Tamil women confront structural gen..

20.01.17  Sinhala military suppresses protests in Vanni prio..

04.01.16  Uprooted Tamils demand occupying SL military to va..

03.04.14  People of Keappaa-pulavu demand Gotabhaya to hand ..

03.04.14  SL military accelerates forced ‘resettlement’ perm..

Human skeletons spotted inside well, bunkers

Human skeletons spotted inside well, bunkers in PTK

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 January 2014, 11:00 GMT]
Human skeletons have been spotted inside a well and the surrounding land of a house located at 2nd division of Puthuk-kudiyiruppu (PTK) in Mullaiththeevu district, news reports from Mullaiththeevu said. On the latest reports of finding human skeletons in PTK, Tamil activists in Mullaiththeevu suspected that these could be the victims who were executed by the advancing Sri Lankan military in 2009 genocidal onslaught on Vanni.

There were also reports of injured civilians being massacred inside their bunkers during the massive onslaught. The occupying Sri Lankan military has suppressed the news of similar discoveries earlier in Mullaiththeevu.

Following the recent focus on Mannaar mass graves, people are reporting such cases also in other areas.

In the meantime, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has also urged international investigations on the mass graves in Mannaar stating that it had no faith in the investigations being carried out by the occupying Sri Lankan government.

TNA’s call for international investigations on Mannaar mass grave has come after a similar request from the Bishop of Mannaar.

Chronology:

01.01.14  Human skeletons spotted inside well, bunkers in PT..

30.12.13  Colombo's motive of using China for forensic exami..

24.12.13  More skeletons to be exhumed from mass grave in Ma..

22.12.13  Colombo sabotages DNA testing on skeletal remains ..

SL immigration officials ‘investigate’ Canadian Tamil MP

SL immigration officials ‘investigate’ Canadian Tamil MP in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 January 2014, 10:28 GMT]
Following the interrogation on Tuesday by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department, who placed the visiting Eezham Tamil parliamentarian from Canada, Ms Rathika Sitsabaiesan, from 7:00 p.m. to midnight under an unofficial house-arrest, the immigration officials of occupying Colombo have subjected her for a second round of investigations Wednesday noon. As the Canadian MP was on a private visit to the island, the SL immigration officials would be carrying out an investigation to see whether she had violated the kind of visa utilized to her, the officers have told Wednesday.

In the meantime, the Sri Lankan military and the police establishment attempted to avoid focus on the ‘house arrest’ issue after the Canadian High Commission intervened Tuesday night.

Following a so-called mutual understanding of getting Sri Lankan immigration officials to investigate her further on alleged violation of ‘visitor visa’, the SL military and police were ‘withdrawn’ from Tilko hotel Tuesday night, but the MP was not available for communication, news sources in Jaffna said.

Chronology:

01.01.14  SL immigration officials ‘investigate’ Canadian Ta..

31.12.13  Canadian Eezham Tamil MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan unde..

Tamil MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan under house arrest in Jaffna

Canadian Eezham Tamil MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan under house arrest in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2013, 20:51 GMT]
Canadian Eezham Tamil parliamentarian Rathika Sitsabaiesan representing Sacarborough-Rouge River constituency, who was on a visit to the island has come under the harassment of the occupying Sri Lankan military and police establishment in Jaffna on Tuesday evening. SL ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ Officer-in-Charge in Jaffna Ranaweera accompanied by two TID female officers, who were waiting at a hotel in Jaffna, where Ms Rathika Sitsabaiesan was staying, have placed the visiting Canadian parliamentarian under an ‘unofficial’ house-arrest after she entered the hotel around 7:00 p.m., concluding a visit to the uprooted people of Valikaamam North and Vadamaraadchi with the chairman of Valikaamam North Piratheasa Chapai (PS) Mr S. Sugirthan.

Around 8-10 TID officers are stationed at the hotel. No one is allowed to meet the visiting Canadian parliamentarian, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet Tuesday evening.

The latest move by the Sri Lankan TID, which usually receives direct instructions from the SL military command in Colombo, comes after Ms Sitsabaiesan was touring Jaffna after she visited Mannaar on Sunday and Ki’linochchi on Monday on her way to Jaffna.

In Mannaar, Ms Sitsabaiesan met Northern Provincial Council (NPC) minister of fisheries and transport, Mr B. Deniswaran, religious leaders and civil society members. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sritharan was also present in Mannaar, meeting the visiting Canadian parliamentarian.

On Tuesday, the TID interrogators of the occupying SL military went to the office of TNA MP Sritharan in Ki’linochchi and questioned about the whereabouts of the visiting Canadian MP.

In the meantime, Ms Rathika Sitsabaiesan, who had reached Jaffna on Monday, met Valikaamam North uprooted peoples, representative Shanmugalingan Sajeevan and Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member Ananthi Sasistharan in Jaffna on Monday, informed sources in Jaffna said.

The latest ‘house arrest’ of the Canadian MP comes after deportations of a known Eezham Tamil poet from Norway and a visiting young journalist from India.

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29.12.13   Local contacts of visiting Indian journalist exposed..
23.11.13   Colombo arrests visiting Tamil poet, bans gatherings ahead o..
10.11.13   Colombo in CHOGM panic interrogates, gags NZ, Aussie MPs

SL sailor sexually assaults 4-year-old Tamil child

SL navy sailor sexually assaults 4-year-old Tamil child in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2013, 15:25 GMT]
A sailor of the occupying Sinhala Navy from a camp in Thiriyaay, a Tamil village in the north of Trincomalee district, was arrested on Sunday by the Kuchchave'li Police as the villagers demanded immediate action from the commanders of the occupying military and police in Thiriyaay. The SLN sailor, identified as one Priyantha Dissanayake, was produced in Trincomalee magistrate court on Monday before the acting magistrate who ordered the suspect to be remanded till January 6, 2014.

The suspected sailor from the Kuchchave'li Navy camp had been deployed to visit the village to supply drinking water to the resettled people.

He used to visit the house of the victim girl, the parents of the victim said.

On Sunday, the SLN sailor visiting the house for water supply, asked the elder sister to get some curry leaves from the nearby jungle. The parents had gone for cultivation at that time.

The victim child was taken away by the suspect to a lonely spot where he abused her.

When the sister returned, she found the Sinhala sailor abusing her sister and shouted alerting the fellow Tamil villagers, who chased the soldier. The commander of the SL Navy refused to take any action and told the villagers to go and complain to the SL police.

The abused child is now admitted at the Trincomalee General Hospital.

The elder sister of the girl was also sexually abused by ‘unidentified’ persons 6 months ago, news sources in Thiriyaay said.

Sri Lankan TID declares ‘shadow war’ on Tamil journalists

Sri Lankan TID declares ‘shadow war’ on Tamil journalists in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2013, 09:10 GMT]
“We will not abduct you or take you for 4th floor for interrogations. But, we will make sure you die in the road hit by our encounter teams in natural accidents and dispute-like killings. You will not become heroes among your own people and die like street dogs,” is the message re-iterated by the so-called ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ interrogators, who operate various interrogation-cells in the North chasing the journalists in Jaffna. A Colombo-based media rights activist observing the pattern of the psychological warfare by the TID on journalists in Jaffna described the unfolding scenario as Colombo's latest ‘shadow war’ on Tamils, similar to the one that preceded the 2009 genocidal onslaught.

On Friday, SL military intelligence officers claiming as investigators from the ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ appeared at Valampuri Tamil newspaper office in Jaffna at 1:00 p.m. They instructed the Staff Reporter of the paper, Uthayarasa Chalin, to come to the TID station situated at Naavalar Road at the premises of former Namathu Eezhanadu Paper at 3:00 p.m.

The journalist went there after informing to all media watchdogs. The TID interrogators asked some initial questions and instructed Mr Chalin to come for a detailed session the following day.

The journalist was being harassed since he did a story on the collective rights of Tamils to observe remembrance of their war-dead Tamil fighters on Tamil Heroes Day.

In a story, he had interviewed the president of the University Teachers Union Mr I. Rajkumar, who had underlined the resolve to remember the war-dead Tamil fighters on November 27 remembrance, highlighting it as a collective right of Tamils.

On Saturday, when the journalist went for the second session, the interrogators asked him the address of the residences of Mr I Rajkumar and TNA MP S. Sritharan.

The journalist, seeking to avoid controversies, replied in the negative responding that he didn't know the addresses. The interrogators assaulted him as they pointed at a log of date and time when the journalist had, in fact, visited the residences of Mr Rajkumar and Mr Sritharan.

After assaulting the journalist, they placed a document written entirely in Sinhala and asked him to sign it. When he declined, the interrogators attacked him. They said that it was the explanation he had given to them which was recorded in Sinhala and forced him to place his signature on the document.

The interrogators have also questioned the journalist on his educational background, about fellow Tamil reporters in Jaffna. They also questioned him about the activities of the Jaffna Press Club.

The victim journalist has earlier escaped an encounter-like-accident from a killer-squad at Neeraaviyadi.

Another reporter working for Uthayan, Dileep Amuthan, also escaped a similar ‘encounter-accident’ recently, when he was chased and hit by a three-wheeler at Thellippazhai. Mr Dileep narrowly escaped from the accident but had sustained wounds from the accident-encounter.

The SL military intelligence is running killer squads in North and East. These squads are prepared to assassinate the targets in ‘road accidents’ or by creating dispute-like scenarios, the visiting media activist from Colombo said after concluding a fact-finding mission to Jaffna and Vanni on Monday.

Some time back, the TID operatives from Naavalar Road were approaching the Yarl Thinakkural newspaper management to provide personal details such as their residential address of two staff reporters, Punitharoopan Winslow and Tharmapalan Vinojith.

The paper management declined to provide such details to the TID investigators.

However, the SL military intelligence operatives were almost chasing the two staff reporters for a while.

Later, two other reporters of Yarl Thinakkural, Nitharshan and Hamshan, were being harassed by the SL military intelligence, including threats.

The threat, consistently coming from all the anonymous callers claiming to be TID operatives or the visiting interrogators of the TID to the residences of the journalists was to be ‘prepared for death’ like ‘street dogs’ in ‘encounter like’ killings. “We will not make you heroes”, was also a message being passed to the journalists. Such messages are provided after the journalists get assaulted at interrogation sessions. Anonymous callers claiming to be from TID also threaten journalists with the same message.

The TID interrogators usually have detailed translations of the news reports filed by the journalists and a log of their activities with time and places monitored by the intelligence network of the SL military and its agents.

Recently, In Vanni, the regional correspondent of Uthayan paper was attacked at his house. Three relatives of an EPDP operative were behind the incident. An investigation was launched on the incident, but nobody was punished.

The SL military experimented already in 2001 in accident-style assassinations on media activists. Two key media workers of Uthayan paper were subjected to such attacks, and one was killed. Another key worker had sustained injuries.

Apart from harassments of psychological threats seeking to curb the activities of the journalists, the SL military squads are also prepared to commit assassinations on Tamil journalists, the media rights activist who has been interviewing the affected journalists told TamilNet on Tuesday.

Resettled survivors of Vanni onslaught languish

Resettled survivors of Vanni onslaught languish in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 December 2013, 17:14 GMT]
95% of the 1080 families of Batticaloa Tamils who survived the 2009 genocidal onslaught in Vanni and resettled back in Batticaloa district have been completely neglected from any help and still languish without basic facilities. When the families displaced from Batticaloa to Vanni in 2004 from different places of the district, Karuna group paramilitary destroyed their houses and their possessions were robbed. When they returned to their district, surviving the genocidal onslaught, Europe-based NGOs and UN agencies provided temporary huts to these families. All support stopped there, and these huts became the ‘markers’ for these families to get isolated from further aid, the families complain. They have also been sidelined from the Indian housing assistance.

These families are systematically discriminated in the provision of humanitarian aid in the district through the influence exerted on the civil administration by the SL military operated paramilitary elements.

Of 4,000 houses to be constructed in the Eastern Province under the Indian housing plan, 2,000 units are allocated to the victims in Batticaloa district. The Vanni survivors are neglected also from the provision of housing scheme due to various interferences in the selection of beneficiaries, the affected families complain.

The families of Vanni survivors, who were originally displaced from Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai), Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan), Vavu'natheevu, Koa'ra'laip-pattu, Paddip-pazhai, Poara-theevup-pattu and Ma'n-munaip-pattu were resettled into 10 DS divisions when they came back to the district surviving the genocidal onslaught, barbed-wire internment and SL military detention.

Chronology:

30.12.13  Resettled survivors of Vanni onslaught languish in..

28.12.13  No Indian houses for uprooted Batticaloa Tamils fr..

using China for Mannaar mass grave questioned

Colombo's motive of using China for forensic examinations on Mannaar mass grave questioned

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 December 2013, 08:42 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's police officials in Mannaar have said that the skeletons recovered at the mass grave at Thirukkeatheesvaram were being dispatched to China for forensic examinations. Responding, legal sources in Mannaar asked the motive of Colombo using China for DNA testing of the skeletons discovered at the mass grave and questioned the fate of similar cases earlier sent to China for ‘forensic examinations’. In 2009, China had allegedly provided Colombo with ‘movable crematory vehicles’ to get rid of the dead bodies of the genocidal victims in Vanni. Tamil activists urged the alternative world to assist the nation of Eezham Tamils to undertake forensic examinations in future in a credible and independent manner.

None of the forensic examinations, supposed to be carried out by Colombo with foreign assistance since the discovery of Chemma'ni mass graves in Jaffna since 1998, has been helpful in the investigations.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, the catholic bishop of Mannaar, has also called for international investigations to be conducted on the mass grave located in Thirukkeatheesvaram as Sri Lanka has systematically failed to carry out any investigations on similar findings in the past.

In 2001, a number of civilians from Paappaa-moaddai were been reported missing when SL military deployed in Rana Gosha military operation advanced into Mannaar. At least 40 people from Paappaa-moaddai were reported missing in May-June 2001.

At the same time, civilians trying to reach Mannaar from Vanni were also captured by the SL military and a lot of them are still reported missing.

Chronology:

30.12.13  Colombo's motive of using China for forensic exami..

24.12.13  More skeletons to be exhumed from mass grave in Ma..

22.12.13  Colombo sabotages DNA testing on skeletal remains ..

Local contacts of visiting Indian journalist exposed to TID

Local contacts of visiting Indian journalist exposed to TID interrogators in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 December 2013, 21:34 GMT]
In one of the strongest investigations and monitoring conducted so far on a foreign journalist visiting the island, the experienced interrogators of the notorious ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ of Colombo had not only confiscated the electronic and non-electronic possessions from the young journalist from Tamil Nadu, but also monitored and traced all his contacts from the moment he landed at Colombo airport for the second time, informed media sources in Colombo told TamilNet Sunday. In the meantime 22-year-old Maga Thamizh Prabhagaran, when contacted by TamilNet after his deportation to Chennai, said he was subjected to ‘psychological torture’ like condition at the hands of the TID interrogators in Colombo and that the TID had his Tamil book of his first visit translated when they questioned him on his affiliations.

The journalist was arrested by the Sri Lankan military in Ki'linochchi on Wednesday and deported to India on Saturday after extensive interrogations in Vanni and Colombo.

A prominent member of a media rights group in Colombo told TamilNet on Sunday that anonymous callers from the TID had already issued threats at least to two local contacts, who were allegedly in touch with Mr Prabhagaran.

When contacted by TamilNet, Maga Prabhagaran said he was extensively questioned on his Tamil Nadu political links. The TID interrogators were questioning on the kind of relationship he had with Tamil leaders and activists in Tamil Nadu.

The TID interrogators were particular on his contact with Mr Vaiko, the general secretary of the MDMK and Mr Pazha Nedumaran. They had a photo of him and Mr Vaiko during their questioning. The interrogators were also interested to know about whether there was any link between him and Mr Seeman of Naam Thamizhar.

He also added that the TID interrogators were also questioning him on his contacts in the island. They were keen in knowing which Tamil politicians in the island, with whom he was in touch during his first and second visit to the island.

Mr Thamizh Prabhagaran, who was on a ‘tourist visa’ trip to the North, has defended himself by saying that he was only filming open facilities and that he had entered none of prohibited places as being claimed by the SL military.

However, it would not be possible to anyone filming activities in North to avoid SL military being captured in filming, as the SL military presence is virtually everywhere inseparable from the civilians, sources in Vanni told TamilNet.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan TID has stepped up threats against local journalists this weekend, rights activists in the island say.

Chronology:

29.12.13  Local contacts of visiting Indian journali..

27.12.13  CPJ calls for immediate release of Indian journali..

27.12.13  Sri Lanka’s TID interrogates Indian journalist in ..

26.12.13  Colombo arrests Indian journalist touring Vanni

No Indian houses for uprooted Batticaloa Tamils

No Indian houses for uprooted Batticaloa Tamils from Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 December 2013, 22:30 GMT]
Hundreds of Tamil residents, who were uprooted from Vanni in the 2009 genocidal onslaught and resettled in Batticaloa district now, have not been provided permanent houses under the Indian housing project, according to complaints made to the Batticaloa District Citizen Committee.

The resettled survivors of the genocidal onslaught are still sheltered in temporary huts in Batticaloa.

The affected people residing in Aaraip-pattai (Aaraiyampathi), Thaazhagkudaa and Kiraan-ku’lam attended the monthly meeting of the Batticaloa Citizen Committee last Sunday and brought their pathetic situation without permanent dwellings to the notice of the civil society.

Colombo’s wildlife department appropriates lands in Paddippazhai for Sinhalicisation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 December 2013, 12:40 GMT]
Colombo government’s Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), deploying Sinhala settlers from Ampaa’rai district and paramilitary known as Home Guards, has put up a fence covering 800 acres of Tamil villages of Batticaloa district. The land appropriation is taking place under the guise of constructing a fence to prevent wild elephants from entering Batticaloa district from the jungles of Ampaa’rai district, according to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councillor of the Eastern Provincial Council.

The occupying Sri Lanka Army also backs the fencing project.

On receipt of information Mr. Thurairatnam went to the site where Sinhalese from Ampaa’rai district are engaged in constructing fence to ‘prevent’ wild elephants from entering Batticaloa district.

Mr.Thurairatnam said about eight hundred acres of lands owned by Tamil people have been annexed with the Ampaa’rai district by the Colombo government under the pretext that the fence construction takes place at Kachchatkodi Suvaami Malai in Paddip-pazhai Divisional Secretariat division.

The matter was immediately brought to the notice of the Batticaloa District Government Agent and Paddipazhai Divisional Secretary.

They were unaware of the construction of elephant fence appropriating the lands belong to Tamil villagers in the Batticaloa district, Mr Thurairatnam said.

Related Articles:
24.12.13   Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of land link between Jaf..

CPJ calls for immediate release of Indian journalist

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 December 2013, 20:18 GMT]
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media rights group, on Friday called for the immediate release of an Indian journalist and film-maker, Maga Thamizh Prabhagaran who was arrested by the occupying Sri Lankan military and Police in Vanni on Wednesday.

"Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa continually insists that his administration has nothing to hide, yet time and time again, we see authorities harass and intimidate journalists in an effort to prevent them from doing their work," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

"Sri Lanka should release Tamil Prabhakaran immediately," Joel Simon said.

In the meantime, news sources in Colombo said that the journalist was being subjected to interrogation by the so-called Terrorist Investigation Department of SL Police.

The TID is manned by SL military intelligence operatives who receive direct instructions from the SL Defence Ministry in Colombo.

Chronology:

27.12.13  CPJ calls for immediate release of Indian journali..

27.12.13  Sri Lanka’s TID interrogates Indian journalist in ..

26.12.13  Colombo arrests Indian journalist touring Vanni

Vadamaraadchi East remembers Tamil tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 December 2013, 16:06 GMT]
Families, relatives and friends of victims who perished in the 2004 tsunami gathered at Uduththu’rai burial grounds on Thursday remembering their loved ones on the 9th anniversary of the devastating catastrophe. The gigantic waves of tsunami claimed the lives of 41,000 people in the island on 26 December 2004 and most of the victims were from eastern and northern coasts of the Tamil homeland. Around 1.5 million people lost their homes in the tsunami. The International Community of Establishments, who failed the victims of tsunami, were not only complicit in Sri Lanka's genocidal onslaught on them in 2009, but they continue to fail the victims of the tsunami and the genocide by allowing the Sri Lankan State to continue the structural genocide on the nation of Eezham Tamils.

On Thursday, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Sritharan, former TNA parliamentarian and Northern Provincial Council member M.K. Sivajilingam and Ananthi Sasitharan of the NPC joined the kith and kin of the victims at the remembrance event in Vadamaraadchi East.

The remembrance of the victims of 26 December tsunami would not be a complete one without remembering the victims of the genocide, reminding the ICE on the injustice it has committed on the nation of Eezham Tamils.

The unitary Sri Lankan State system nullified a crucial Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (PTOMS) agreement mediated by Norway between the parties to the conflict in 2005.

The agreement was nullified as the West, represented in a defined entity known as the Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference, failed to take constructive steps in enforcing Colombo to desist from taking the destructive path in nullifying the PTOMS.

Eezham Tamils will never forget how the USA was culpable by encouraging the extremist elements in Sri Lanka to nullify the PTOMS deal.

Eventually, the failure of Post Tsunami conflict management became the failure of the Norway-mediated peace process.

The Sri Lankan Unitary State went the path of de-merging the North and East as it did away with the PTOMS agreement.

A genocidal onslaught was carried out on Eezham Tamils with the complicity of India and the Co-Chair countries.

Today, the International Community of Establishments, absconding from their accountability, continue to talk about ‘war crimes of both sides’ and ‘accountability’ of the parties to the conflict and continue to talk about ‘united Sri Lanka’, while the nation of Eezham Tamils is subjected to an ongoing structural genocide.

Although the UN has admitted its own failure, it continues to escape from its accountability by excusing itself with its own reports stating that it has learned lessons but continues to commit injustice to the victims.

Most of the victims along the coastal belts of Ampaa’rai, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Mullaiththeevu and Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna peninsula have been denied of proper resettlement as Colombo waged a genocidal onslaught on them, killing and maiming thousands of the tsunami victims.

The families who survived the tsunami catastrophe and the genocidal onslaught are still denied assistance despite the propaganda by the Sri Lankan State that it has ‘developed’ Northern Province with ‘Vadakkin Vasantham’ and the Eastern Province with ‘Kizhakkin vidiyal’ programmes of the so-called Mahinda Chintana.

On top of all these crimes, the nation of Eezham Tamils is being robbed of its territories along the coast in Jaffna, Mullaiththeevu and Trincomalee by the Sri Lankan State as the International Community of Establishments continue to fail the victims by refusing to talk about the territorial integrity of Tamil homeland.

The remembrance of those who perished will also not be complete without remembering the Tamil heroes who were there to rescue a lot of people from the tragedy within minutes.

Targeting the coastal Tamil folk, both in Tamil Eelam and in Tamil Nadu, by creating rift among them, by sealing off the coasts and by bringing in colonisation cum demographic changes are long term strategies of both New Delhi and Colombo engaged in the genocide of Tamils.

Related Articles:
20.09.11   Genocide proceeds inside Geneva, within diaspora: Viraj Mend..
22.02.07   Marginalisation of CFA compells Tamils to resume freedom str..
27.11.06   Sinhala leaders' duplicity of war and peace has left Tamils ..
27.06.05   JVP files case against P-TOMS
23.06.05   JVP to observe day of "Resistance" over PTOMS


External Links:

The Island:

No US funds for P-TOMS

Armed men abduct son of leading civil activist in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 December 2013, 11:49 GMT]
Four masked men carrying handguns have abducted 22-year-old son of the leading fisheries society activist Kanthavanam Sooriyakumaran in the early hours of Thursday at Inparuddi, Point-Pedro, in Jaffna district, according to the relatives of the victim, Thamilamuthan Sooriyakumaran. The abduction took place while Mr Thamilamuthan was alone at his sister’s home, as the family had gone to Vadamaraadchi East to take part in the memorial event held for their children and others who had perished in 2004 tsunami tragedy. Mr Thamilamuthan has already complained to his family and friends that Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives were closely following him during the past few days. His father, Mr Kanthavanam, is the president of the Federation of fisheries societies in the Northern Province.

In an SOS message to his family through SMS, Mr Thamilamuthan wanted immediate help to save him from four masked men, who were carrying handguns. He was reported missing thereafter.

The abduction has taken place between 4:30 a.m. and 6:00 am.

The incident is reported while there were widespread complaints that the SL military intelligence operatives at Point Pedro camp were monitoring the family members of the civil activists in Vadamaraadchi North.

The abductions have started to surface again in different forms in Jaffna. Most of the abductions are taking place silently, as anonymous callers claiming themselves as TID officers warn the families against any complaint or media reports on the incidents.

Only a few of such harassments get reported in media. In some of the cases that get reported publicly, the TID has claimed the persons reported missing as being under arrest. But, many cases go unreported, rights activists in North say.

Even the civil activists, who receive funds from temple societies in the Diaspora to channel funds to the affected victims, get harassed and monitored by the occupying SL military.

While those sitting in the Embassies in Colombo, conveniently manage their geopolitical game through their ‘soft’ interventions, the occupying Sri Lanka keeps inventing new and creative ways to exercise its unchecked hard power on the gagged nation of Eezham Tamils, civil activists in Jaffna complain.

இலங்கையில் இதழாளர் தமிழ்ப்பிரபாகரன் தளையிடப்பட்டார்

கொழும்பில் இருந்து வந்த செய்தியாக உள்ளது.ஆனால், மகா.தமிழ்ப்பிரபாகரன் என இதழாளர் பெயர் குறிப்பிடப்படவில்லையே! இங்குள்ளவர்களே அறியும் பொழுது அவர் அறியாமல் இருப்பாரா? இளையவிகடன் (சூனியர் விகடன்) என்னும் மற்றோர் இதழைச் சேர்ந்தவர்  என்பதால் குறிப்பிடவில்லையா? கடந்த முறை அஞ்சாமல் சென்று காவலர்கள் ஒடுக்க நினைத்த பொழுது படைத்துறையினர் சுற்றுலாப்பயணிதான் என விட்டு விட்டனர். பின்னர் இங்கு வந்து  புலித்தடம் தேடி என அருமையான தொடரை  வெளியிட்டு நூலாகவும் வெளியிட்டுள்ளார். இப்பொழுது அவர் சென்றிருக்கக்கூடாது. எனினும் துணிவுடன் இதழாளர் பணியை ஆற்றும் நோக்கில் சென்றுள்ளார். தேவயானிக்காகக் கூக்குரலிடும் மத்திய அரசு இவரின் உடனடி விடுதலைக்கு ஆவன செய்ய வேண்டும். வழக்கம்போல் அங்குள்ள இந்தியத் தூதரகம் தூங்கிக் கொண்டுள்ளதால் இங்குள்ளோர் மத்திய அரசிற்கு நெருக்குதலைத் தரவேண்டும். தினமணியும் ஆசிரிய உரை எழுத வேண்டும். அன்புடன் இலக்குவனார் திருவள்ளுவன் /தமிழே விழி! தமிழா விழி!எழுத்தைக்காப்போம்! மொழியைக் காப்போம்! இனத்தைக் காப்போம்!/

இலங்கையில் தமிழகப் பத்திரிகையாளர் கைது

By dn, கொழும்பு

First Published : 27 December 2013 01:12 AM IST

இலங்கையின் கிளிநொச்சி பகுதியில் ராணுவ நடவடிக்கைகளை படம் பிடித்ததாகக் கூறி அந்நாட்டு போலீஸாரால் தமிழ்நாட்டைச் சேர்ந்த பத்திரிகையாளர் ஒருவர் கைது செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளார்.

இதுகுறித்து இலங்கை காவல்துறை செய்தித் தொடர்பாளர் அஜித் ரோஹானா கூறியதாவது:

தமிழ்நாட்டைச் சேர்ந்த அந்த நபர் ராணுவ முகாம்கள், சாலைகள், போரினால் பாதிப்புக்குள்ளான கட்டடங்கள் ஆகியவற்றை படம் பிடித்ததற்காக கைது செய்யப்பட்டார். சுற்றுலாவுக்கான விசாவில் அவர் இலங்கை வந்துள்ளார். விசா விதிமுறைகளை மீறியதன் காரணமாக கைது செய்யப்பட்ட அவர், குடியேற்ற அதிகாரிகளிடம் ஒப்படைக்கப்பட்டார் என்று ரோஹானா கூறினார்.

கிளிநொச்சி, 2009ஆம் ஆண்டு வரையில் விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் அதிகார மையமாக விளங்கி வந்தது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது

Colombo arrests Indian journalist touring Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 December 2013, 01:48 GMT]
A young journalist from Tamil Nadu, Thamizh Mahaapirapaaharan, who was touring in the North was arrested by the occupying Sri Lankan military and the SL police Wednesday noon, while he was talking to the parish priest of St. Antony’s Church in Ponnaavea’li, news sources in Vanni said. The Indian journalist visiting the island on tourist visa was together with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Sritharan, Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member S. Pasupathipillai and Karaichchi Piratheasa Chapai (PS) member S. Thayaparan during the detention, interrogation and arrest, the news sources further said.

The journalist, who had earlier visited the island and authored an article in Anantha Vikatan, was this time visiting the island on tourist visa to make a round trip as a visitor to North and East.

TNA parliamentarian Sritharan had a meeting with the people of Ponnaave’li around 11:00 a.m. and was visiting Vearavil, Ponnaave’li and Valaippaadu villages in Muzhangkaavil area. The accompanying visitor from Tamil Nadu had also taken some photographs of the living condition of the people in these villages.

More than 50 Sri Lanka Army soldiers surrounded the church around 1:30 p.m. and detained the journalist together with the TNA politicians. The SL military seized the cameras from the politicians and the visitor while the SL police took them to Jeyapuram Police station. After more than 4 hours of the interrogation at the police station, the TNA parliamentarian and the councillors were released after their cameras were inspected. The TNA politicians were later released, but Thamizh Mahaapirapaaharan was detained.

He has been subjected to lengthy interrogations by the SL military intelligence operatives, informed sources said. His communication with outside world has been cut off.

In recent times, the SL military intelligence operatives, deployed in the name of ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ of the SL police, have been harassing, detaining and deporting journalists and other activists who visit the island in tourist visa and interact with local journalists or politicians in the North and the East.

Questioning the motive of Colombo’s interrogators, the NPC councilor Mr Pasupathipillai blamed the SL military and police for banning the interaction between the tourists and the people in the North. He also questioned why those on tourist visa cannot be present with the democratically elected representatives of the people while they were touring the North.

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Genocide has to be compensated by separation: Sikh politician

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 December 2013, 22:30 GMT]
“Tamils can’t live [in a united Sri Lanka] after the perpetration of the crime of genocide. I think the wounds are too deep historically there to be reconciliation. After a State has committed genocide, there can’t be any reconciliation,” says Simranjit Singh Mann, the president of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar party, who advocates the formation of Khalistan as an independent and sovereign State for Sikhs, in an exchange of views with May 17 Movement in Tamil Nadu. “Pirapaharan and his movement was too powerful for the Sri Lankan government,” he said, adding that “it was under the collaboration of UPA-led Congress government that the Sri Lanka government was able to achieve and crush the movement for freedom by committing a genocide on the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.”

Simranjit Singh Mann

A major tactic deployed by the Indian State was to make sure that Tamil Nadu didn’t rise up to exert pressure on the Indian Government. This was achieved through wooing collaborators from Tamil Nadu with positions and money, he said.

“The Tamil people would have listened in revolt and in favour of what was happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka [in 2009]. But, for the fact that these Tamil leaders had been ‘bought over’, this didn’t happen,” the Sikh leader told Tamil activists from Tamil Nadu.

“Government of India rules Tamils of Tamil Nadu and the Sikhs of Punjab through collaborators, in keeping the Tamils and the Sikhs subdued and not letting in the nationalist feelings be turned into votes,” Mr Simranjit Singh said drawing parallels between the genocide against Sikh people and the genocide against Eezham Tamils.

“I came across Mr Vaiko while I was in parliament from 1999 to 2004. But, other than that, the Tamils have not taken up the cause of the Tamil people in [Indian] parliament,” Mr Simrajit Singh said.

“My experience of the Tamil people is that when the Central Government of Mr Sastri [in 1964-66] wanted to impose Hindi all over India and abolish English [as lingua franca], it was the Tamil people who rose up against it. They committed mass suicides. The pressure went up that the Hindi-speaking Northern Indian people had to give up their designs to poise Hindi on all of India,” he said.

The Sikh politician was advocating for the use of electoral politics as a means to demonstrate the democratic will of the people [of Tamil Nadu].

“The Tamil Nadu State and the Tamil people in India will have to help Tamils in Sri Lanka to achieve their independence,” he said.

“Democracy gives legitimacy. If we had elected representatives from Punjab and the other territories, we can pass a resolution and that would be accepted by the world,” he said.

“But, if you try any other methods of gaining independence, the world opinion will go against you. You would be crushed not only by the State from which you want to separate, but the forces, which are operated in the world,” he said.

“Once, the American foreign policy was so great and Woodrow Wilson wanted the right of self-determination and he created Nations after First World War on the principle of nationalities. But today, America doesn’t believe in human rights, it doesn’t believe in the right of self-determination, in the right of people being the masters of their own destiny as sovereign states.

“At the moment, or even during the British period, the Hindus got their independence through Congress and the Muslims got Pakistan through the Muslim League. They did fight the elections and that was the only determining factor on expressing what you want. If the history of our sub-continent to be followed, it was the determination of the people through the elections that made their voice legitimate and acceptable to the rest of the world,” he said.

On a question on whether a policy change was possible in the Indian establishment on the question of Tamil Eelam, he said: “The theocratic State of India is very scared of helping independence movements, because it is so fragile with the Nagas, with the Kashmiris, with the Mizos, with the Tamils and with the Sikhs. If you see the periphery of India, the theocratic State over here rules all these states with the help of the Army and draconian laws, which give impunity to the Army and the police forces to commit crimes on the people. So, I don’t think that the Indian ruling class, the theocrats, they will ever help the Eezham people to separate.”

“I don’t think the attitude of the UN is helpful to freedom movements though on its charter it allows for right to self-determination and the obliteration of the death penalty and things like that. But in practice, it is going along with the rulers who commit these crimes, whether they be anywhere. The UN at this moment of time is going along with the repressive governments.

“Since the elections are near, your organizations should put up candidates who are Tamil nationalists, who want separation, sovereignty and independence. Then only can the crime of genocide perpetrated in Sri Lanka would be recognized. Like the Armenian people and the Armenian genocide, it took years and years for it to be registered in the American Congress and the Senate etc.

“So, if we want Sikh genocide to be registered in international forums, we need to have independent people in parliaments and in the legislatures to speak on this.

“Tamil and Sikh people who are represented at these so-called democratic bodies [in India] do not take up these issues.

“We want Khalistan to be an independent and sovereign Sikh State, which would be a buffer between Islamic Pakistan, Communist China and theocratic Hindu Indian State. Khalistan would ensure peace internally in South Asia, because the theocratic Hindu India, communist China and Islamic Pakistan, are deadly enemies [against each other] and a nuclear war can break out.

“What would be the battlefield for the nuclear war? It is the Sikh territories of Rajastan, Punjab, Hariyana, Chandigarh, Jammu Kashmir and Himachal.

“If a buffer State is created, the Sikhs would also be safe and the Hindus and Muslims who live here would be safe. Apart from that it would create peace in South Asia. For a plebiscite for the right of self-determination, we are in favour of an independent and sovereign state.

Further excerpts from the exchange of views follow:

“The brutality and the perpetration of genocide of the Tamil people has been so severe by the Sri Lankan government that there cannot be any reconciliation after this crime has been committed – just like it was impossible for the Jews to live inside Germany after what they went through in the era of the holocaust during the second world war and Armenia which couldn’t stay with Turkey or any other country – they have to be separated after this. The Sri Lankans have committed enormous crimes on Tamil people living there. The Tamil Nadu State and the Tamil people in India will have to help them to achieve this.

[…]

“The 13th Amendment doesn’t go as far as total independence and sovereignty. It talks about internal settlement […] I don’t agree with that. The Tamil people of Sri Lanka have to be independent. They must be the masters of their destiny after what they have gone through.”

[…]

If there are elections [under 13 Amendment], the people who are elected and who would be put as administrators or chief ministers or whatever you call that, they would become the collaborators of Sri Lanka.

[…]

“We have always been keen about the struggle of Tamil people under Pirapharan and the mobilization for freedom and separation. Our party has followed these events very closely. If you see our website, we have tabulated each and everything from time to time what has been happening in Sri Lanka and to the Tamils.

“It was under the collaboration of India under UPA-led Congress government that the Sri Lanka government was able to achieve and crush the movement for freedom by committing a genocide on the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

“And the reason was that the Congress Party believed, rightly or wrongly, it was the Tamil people, who had assassinated their leader Rajiv Gandhi. And, they had been working in many ways to have Pirapaharan and some other people extradited from Sri Lanka. Those in the Sri Lankan government wanted to ‘help’ India. But, the fact was that Pirapaharan and his movement was too powerful for the Sri Lankan government and its Army to capture him alive and hand him over to the Indians.

“So, in a plot and conspiracy with the Sri Lankan government, they first bought over the Tamil [Nadu] political leaders like Mr Karunanithy and Mr Chidamparam. Then, by bribing these Tamil leaders, they kept the people of Tamil Nadu from not helping the State movement for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

“For instance, Mr Karunanidhi and the Central Government had his daughter in an important post. Mr Raja was given a ministerial post in which they made a lot of money. Mr Chidambaram had also made a lot of money. That is how they suppressed [Tamil Nadu].

“My position is that the Tamil people would have listened in revolt in favour of what was happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka. But, for the fact that these Tamil leaders had been ‘bought over’, this didn’t happen.”

“The Tamils constitute a separate Nation. They are a separate race. They have their separate Hindu religion. But, they are oppressed by the Brahmins, who have been priests for generations – by the Brahmanical system in India. Tamils have a separate language, separate history, they have a separate school of drama, music, art, and in the history, they have ruled their land and they have been great colonizers in South East Asia.

“And I do believe that the Tamil people should, like the Sikhs, be separated and should have their own sovereign State, like what we Sikhs are fighting for.

“So, we studied the Tamil movement very closely and have been to Tamil Nadu and have given speeches. We have spoken very freely that the Government of India rules Tamil Nadu and the Punjab and the Sikhs through collaborators, who collaborate with the Government of India in keeping the Tamils and the Sikhs subdued and not letting the nationalist feelings be turned into votes.

“Since the elections are near, your organizations, should put up candidates who are Tamil nationalists, who want separation, sovereignty and independence. Then only can the crime of genocide perpetrated in Sri Lanka would be recognized. Like the Armenian people and the Armenian genocide, it took years and years for it to be registered in the American Congress and the Senate etc.,

“So, if we want Sikh genocide to be registered in international forums, we need to have independent people in parliaments and in the legislatures to speak on this.

“Tamil and Sikh people who are represented at these so-called democratic bodies do not take up these issues.

UN offers immunity to Indian diplomat accused of visa fraud

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 December 2013, 21:12 GMT]
In a blatant exhibition of skullduggery and political nepotism, Secretary General of the United Nations (UNSG), Ban Ki Moon, Monday, has approved the appointment to a diplomatic position, a New York-based Indian diplomat, accused of visa fraud, thereby affording her diplomatic immunity from alleged criminal conduct. Earlier, U.N. raised no opposition to UN appointments of Sri Lanka's alleged war criminals, ex-military General Shavendra Silva, under whose command Tamil civilians were massacred, and Palitha Kohona, who has a complaint pending in the International Criminal Court over his complicity the killing of surrendees in the Sri Lanka war. Political observers say U.N. has become a safe haven for friendly states to provide diplomatic protection from past crimes and to whitewash alleged criminal conduct.

However, US remains reluctant to drop visa fraud charges against the diplomat, Devyani Kohobragade, and while she got accreditation from the UN in her current posting at India's permanent mission paving the way for full immunity, observers say, absent a positive acknowledgement from the U.S. State Department, full diplomatic immunity may not be forthcoming.

Observers said that even at high levels of Indian Government, the propensity for doubletalk and misleading the public (and the U.S.) is visible in the Kohobragade case. India's stand was that the remaining dollars not paid to the "servant" was sent to India in Rupees, $350 was deducted for the maid's personal use of the facilities such as telephone, and a whopping 50% of the contractually agree salary was paid in "cash" with signed receipts.

Moon's political closeness to India cannot be not influenced by the fact that Mr. Ki-moon’s daughter is married to a retired Indian army general Siddarth Chatterjee, who also served in the IPKF and who had consistently been writing political opinion pieces in the Indian media against the struggle of the Eezham Tamils, India observers said.

"India, while conspicuosly silent and avoid comment on-going atrocities in the neighboring Sri Lanka, where rape, torture and other crimes against humanity were and are being perpetrated on women by the Sri Lanka state, appears to be flexing its diplomatic muscle to force U.S. to provide exception to India's woman diplomat who is accused of lying and committing visa fraud," Sri Lanka observers say.

Meanwhile, Tamil Naadu former Chief Minister and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi said that he was saddened by the fact that the Indian government was least bothered about the brutal killing of Isaipriya, a Sri Lankan Tamil broadcaster, but showed a lot of interest in the case of Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat in New York, Times of India reported.

Chronology:

24.12.13  UN offers immunity to Indian diplomat accused of v..

19.12.13  UN, a safe haven for alleged criminals?

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India-US diplomatic row

More skeletons to be exhumed from mass grave

More skeletons to be exhumed from mass grave in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 December 2013, 20:23 GMT]
Medical experts from Colombo must be present in order to further excavate the recently located mass grave in Mannaar, Sri Lankan police officials said as the work was suddenly stopped on Monday after 11 full human skeletons were recovered from the site at Thirukkeatheesvaram. Northern Provincial Council minister of fisheries Mr Deinswaran, who witnessed the excavation, said the bones bore marks of torture. Local residents said that there were signs that more skeletons were buried under the road, running parallel to the excavated pit. The second largest camp of the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Mannaar was located at the locality from 1993.

Mass grave site found near Maanthai Junction in Mannaar

In the meantime, residents of Veaddaiyaa-mu'rippu village, feared that some of the Tamil youth reported abducted from their village by the SL military, were the victims dumped in the mass grave.

The excavation of mass grave was carried out with Mannaar Justice Ananthy Kanagaratnam present at the site on Saturday and Sunday. The work was expected to continue on Monday.

A Judicial Medical Officer from Anuradhapura inspected the skeletons on Sunday.

A temporary secretariat was to be established before further excavation, the JMO has requested the courts, the SL police said adding that a team of experts would have to be present to continue the exhumation.

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24.12.13  More skeletons to be exhumed from mass grave in Ma..

22.12.13  Colombo sabotages DNA testing on skeletal remains ..

Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of land link

Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of land link between Jaffna and Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 December 2013, 18:25 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has almost transformed the narrow strip of Chu’ndik-ku’lam sandbar, which links the Jaffna peninsula with Vanni mainland, into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ), denying the Tamil fishermen of Vadamaraadchi East and Vadmaraadchi, access to the coastal strip and the seas off Chu’ndikku’lam. While the occupying SL military is carrying out a new kind of Sinhalicisation with settlements for Sinhala fishermen, who endanger the fishing environment, the SL Ministry of Wildlife Resources Conservation has schemed occupation under the so-called extended development of the Chu’ndik-ku’lam Natural Park, bringing 11,149 hectares and a coastal strip of more than 50 square km into the exploitation of Colombo.

Colombo's blueprint for expansion of Chu'ndikku'lam Sanctuary into Natual Park [Map courtesy: Integrated Strategic Environmental Assessments (ISEA) - North]

The expansion scheme would also affect the bordering Kaa’ndaava’lai division of Ki’linohchi and Karai-thu’raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district, Tamil civil sources say.

Another map by SL Department of Wildlife Conservation, revealing the extent of Sinhalicisation

SL Minister of Wildlife Resources Conservation, Mr Gamini Vijith Vijayamuni Zoysa, last week declared open a modern tourist resort built in Chu’ndikku’lam using 22 million rupees.

EPDP's opposition member of Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and the district organizer of EPDP in Ki’linochchi, Mr Thavanathan, took part in the opening ceremony of the ‘Bear Garden’ resort together with the the SL Government Agent of Ki’linochchi district.

The Tamil families that were residing in Chu’ndikku’lam have been refused resettlement. The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has already seized the public buildings, including the post office building at Chu’ndik-ku’lam.

SL ministry of fisheries and resources development is targeting a corporate occupation from South as part of the Sinhalicisation scheme.

Having access to a major seabed along the narrow coast, Chu’ndikku’lam stood for the major portion of fish supply to Vanni and Jaffna, Tamil fishermen society representatives say.

Stealing the fishing industry from Tamils, Colombo would be exploiting an expected annual fish production from Chu’ndik-ku’lam lagoon alone amounting to 180 MT (Midterm Policy Framework 2013-2016 for Fisheries Sector Development by SL ministry of fisheries and resources development, 2012).

Before the occupation by the SL military, hundreds of Tamil fishermen from nearby villages, Uduth-thu’rai, Thaazhaiyadi and Maruthangkea’ni in Vadmaraadchi East and Vadamaraadchi, used to camp at Chun’dikku’lam on a permanent basis from March to October every year for seasonal fishing.

Between November and January, local and migrant birds frequent the lagoon.

Chundikkulam Nature Park [Photo Courtesy: Snappikz Media, Dehiwala]

The SL ministry for wildlife resources conservation has schemed the expansion of the area into a Natural Park, using the funding from UNDP and UNEP in the name of developing 11,149 hectares of the bird sanctuary.

In 2009, the SL military in Jaffna advanced into Chu’ndikku’lam during the last phase of the Vanni war.

Despite the end of war, the SL military has continued constructing military bases in the area.

After seizing the area, the occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) imposed a complete ban on Tamil fishermen accessing their coastal strip for camping. Tamil fishermen are now not allowed to access the sea.

But, Sinhala fishermen were brought in with the backing of SL Navy to engage in fishing. The fishermen from the South were deploying illegal methods of fishing, causing an environmental disaster to the seabed, according to the representatives of fishermen societies in Jaffna.

The occupation and expansion of the occupied land, lagoon and sea is part of a calculated move by Colombo, political observers say.

The latest construction of the resort adding to already open facilities is compared with what has been taking place in Kaangkeasan-thu’rai (KKS) in Jaffna.

Colombo is engaged in strategic Sinhalicisation with an aim of permanently choking the Jaffna peninsula in all the three linking entries to Jaffna from Vanni mainland.

With an aim to convert Poonakari into a major hub of Sinhala militarization and colonization, more than 30,000 SL soldiers have been deployed there.

Similar to the Vanni war, genocidal Colombo is now hurriedly engaged in a colonisation war against the unarmed and demographically weakened nation of Eezham Tamils. India and USA, which labelled the former as war against terrorism now smokescreen the latter as ‘reconciliation’ and ‘post-war development’. Shown in pink is the targeted area for industrial and fisheries colonisation. The yellow circles are the major SL military colonies. [Map by TamilNet]

At Naavat-kuzhi, where the two highways A9 and A32, the only existing land arteries that lead into Jaffna from the south and the western coast, meet, a small Sinhala colony has been already established with SL military guarding the settlement.

Now, the strategic sandbar linking the mainland with Jaffna is being converted into a Sinhala zone under the so-called ‘Natural Park’ extension scheme.

A deputy director at the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), Manjula Amarathna, has taken command of the expansion project, informed civil sources said. Another key area of his focus is Madu Road, a long time plan of Colombo for Sinhalicisation, the sources added.

A coordination project, linking the ministries and various stakeholders, was carried with international assistance, under the name of Integrated Strategic Environment Assessment (ISEA) - North.

The World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Global Environment Fund (GEF) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are providing support to the Sri Lankan ministry of fisheries and resource development as well as the wildlife conservation ministry of Colombo, Tamil civil sources in Jaffna said.

Chronology:

24.12.13  Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of land link b..

22.06.13  Sinhalicisation of Chu’ndik-ku’lam to permanently ..

08.05.12  Tamil fishermen warn protest against SL military i..

Tamils should guard against from being misled by IC, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 December 2013, 19:45 GMT]
"Based upon my first-hand personal experiences working with the Palestinians at their peace negotiations and the Bosnians at their peace negotiations, the Tamils cannot trust the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, the European Union and its Member States to do the right thing for them. The Tamils can only trust in themselves,” responded Professor Francis Boyle on Monday, when TamilNet asked him what would be his advice to the Tamil diaspora in engaging with the ‘International Community’. TamilNet posed the question to Professor Boyle following his recent interview on Bosnian ‘peace’ negotiations to the Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada.

[Full text of Prof Boyle's interview to the Institute for Research of Genocide is here.]

Prof. Francis A. Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law

When asked whether ethnicity or nationalism, or socio-economic problems was the main issue of the conflict, Boyle said, "it was outright genocide by Yugoslavia and Milosevic against the Bosnians. They proclaimed independence as was requested by the European Union. The EU put out guidelines and said to Bosnia and Croatia that they needed to have elections. They had elections and they voted for independence and they were hit with genocide and aggression," Boyle told the Canadian organization on Genocide research.

On the behavior of the British representative at the peace negotiations for Bosnia, Boyle said, "I dealt personally with David Owen. He is a typical British, imperialist, establishment, racist individual who believed Muslims were an inferior race of people. We were just supposed to do what he told us to do. I made it clear that that was not going to happen on my watch."

"Europe just did not want a Muslim state in Europe. It was that simple. It went back to the crusades.

[…]

This has to do with anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe going back to the crusades, at least. At that time, before 9/11 2001, we really didn’t have that in the United States. We didn’t have experience with the crusades and all the rest of that. But eventually, Clinton would go along with a carve-up too," Boyle said.

On the conduct of US representative in the talks, Boyle said, "Cyrus Vance was running the show. That was clear. He was the de facto representative of the US Government. Everyone knew that. Even though he technically represented the United Nations, everyone knew that Vance was there speaking pretty much on behalf of the US Government. He had been former Secretary of State. That’s the way people looked at Vance, that he had the backing of the US Government behind him. Of course Vance never said that, to the best of my knowledge, but that is the way people looked at Vance."

External Links:

IRG:

Interview with Francis Boyle