TamilNet

Tamil journalist Shanmugam Thavaseelan says that the SL Navy sailor, who was caught red-handed by the family members of persons subjected to enforced disappearances on 07 April after suspicious photographing activity, has filed a case against him with false charges. The Tamil journalist, subjected to earlier threats by the SL military, suspects the move to be part of harassment targeting him and Tamil journalists in general. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39421

Moulavi AJM Ilyas by TamilNet

Jaffna based Senior Analyst and Grassroots Activist S.A. Jothilingam explains his ideas on how to take forward the politico-diplomatic action against the PTA detention of Jaffna University Student leaders. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39440

Former Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member and ex-TNA parliamentarian M.K. Shivajilingam has vowed to mark Tamil Genocide Week from 12th to 17 May at 21 places across the eight districts in the North and East before taking part in the tenth year marking of 2009 Tamil Genocide Day on 18 May at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal. “We have chosen 21 places where the SL military was committing genocidal acts. It is like the 21-gun salute, the highest respect paid to those who sacrificed their lives,” Mr Shivajlingam, a political leader of TELO said. After inaugurating the first event at Kappaladi along the coast near Mu'l'livaaykkal on Sunday, he blamed the SL State for detaining the student leaders in Jaffna and for harassing himself describing the moves as aiming to suppress the 10th Tamil genocide remembrance on 18 May. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39443

Senior Director of India and South Asia branch of McLarty Associates and former US Ambassador, Robert O Blake, Jr., was addressing a meeting jointly organised by Milinda Moragoda's Pathfinder Foundation and the Joint Apparel Association Forum at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo on 07 May 2019. TamilNet Feature: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?artid=39439&catid=79

Jaffna University Arts Faculty Student Leader Krishanth Rajaratnam urges all sections of the society to address the core issues sustaining the SL State to deploy PTA clauses against the student leaders of the University of Jaffna. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39438

The SL Government itself had admitted, through the act of co-sponsoring Resolution 31 at the UN Human Rights Council in 2015, that allegations of war crimes need to be investigated. How could the banners calling for justice for crimes committed during the war incite disharmony, questioned Attorney Guruparan Kumaravadivel who was representing the student leaders at the Magistrate’s Court in Jaffna on Monday. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39437

Veteran grassroots human rights activist Rev Fr M. Sakthivel says that the serial terror attacks should be seen in the context of the ongoing regime change politics of outside powers influencing the island. The attacks have come at a time when the West is deeply involved in shaping the regime on the island. Tamils were at the receiving end in the past. Now, the Tamil-speaking Muslims are going to be at the receiving end, says Negombo based Tamil Catholic priest who has been at the forefront in actively seeking justice for the crimes committed against the Tamils in the genocidal onslaught. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39423

If the SL Government goes ahead with the proposed move of closing down schools with less than fifty students, it would seriously affect the students in the rural areas and remote villages in the North and East said former Education Minister of Eastern Province S. Thandayuthapani. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39420

Vinthan Kanagaratnam, former councillor of the Northern Provincial Council explains that the occupying SL Navy is expanding the militarisation of Ma'ndai-theevu, where people believe their loved ones subjected to enforced disappearance have been slain and dumped during the times of war. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39413

Elected civic councillor Thurairajah Thamilchelvan (EPRLF) narrates the situation following a field visit to the colonised area. TamilNet Feature: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39419

Murugiah Subramaniam, the fisheries leader of Kathirave'li in Batticaloa north narrates the position of the people of three Tamil villages that are protesting ilmenite mining in their coastal belt. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39414

Eezham Tamils should not fall prey to the advocacy coming from the Western countries that prod them into the roadmap of unworkable transitional justice in the island, Jaffna-based Senior Lawyer and Political Analyst S.A. Jothilingam told TamilNet on Tuesday. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39410

Jaffna-based Eezham Tamil political analyst S.A. Jothilingam says the Foreign Direct Investment move by DMK Politician's family business Silver Park in the south of the island was disappointing the Tamils in the island as well as the prominent international activists who have called for boycotting trade with the SL State. The investment drive has also raised serious questions on DMKs politics failing to address Tamil struggle for national liberation. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39409

Senior Tamil politician M.K. Shivajilingam urges DMK Policitian Samikannu Jagathratchagan to reconsider his decision of investing in Hambantota. Shivajilingam's comment to TamilNet comes following reports that SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe tricking the family-owned business of Tamil Nadu's DMK politician Samikannu Jagathratchagan to invest 70% of USD 3.85 billion to build an oil refinery and cement factory in Mirijjawila in Hambantota district.

“Even our politicians whom we trusted in the past have disappointed us. They did nothing else than mentioning our plight in the parliament,” said Azeez Raheem, a grassroots activist engaged in the protest. He was seeking support from all communities in the Northern province. “We are also prepared to take our protest through various forms that have never been witnessed before in the North,” he said.

Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Ki'linochchi S. Shritharan told TamilNet that the Eezham Tamils viewed the position of SL Governor to North as a shadow of the Sinhala rulers. Tamils have no say in the affairs of the unitary state after losing their sovereignty, said. Although the appointment of a Tamil person was something that should be welcomed, one must also perceive it as nothing else than an acid test for the persona involved, he said. At the same time, Tamils witness the appointment of Shavendra Silva as SL State dealing a blow to the international community's quest for human rights approach, Mr Shritharan said. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39310

SL President Maithiripala Sirisena promised to resettle the people of Mu'l'lik-ku'lam before the end of 31st December 2018. Despite the repeated pleas the people made through their political representatives in the SL Parliament and the Bishop of Mannaar taking up the matter with the SL President and his secretariat in Colombo, nothing has taken place, complained Rev Fr Lawrence Leon on Monday. He was seeking action before 2019 Pongkal Day. Full Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39299

“We could sense the fate of what had happened to the enforced disappeared people while witnessing the hundreds of human skeletons discovered under the grounds of the Sathosa building at the centre of the Mannar town,” said Bishop of Mannaar Rt Rev Emmanuel Fernando when asked to comment on the response of the Mannaar Diocese regarding the need for forensic analyses of the exhumed skeletal remains.

Darshana Hettiarachchi addresses journalists in Jaffna

Vinthan Kanagaratnam, a Councillor of the Northern Provincial Council representing Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, a former Tamil militant group which has later resorted to the electoral politics, has condemned the TNA hierarchy for failing to insist upon principled politics and demands. The TNA, including TELO parliamentarians, have been collaborating with the UNP, which is deceiving the Tamils with so-called development through the TNA parliamentarians, he said. The Colombo regime is sidelining the NPC in all affairs, including the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the war-affected people, he told TamilNet. The recent visit by the SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramisnghe to Jaffna with promises of development, was nothing else than a smokescreen to hide Tamils from marking his party being complicit in the 1983 Black July pogrom, he further said.

“It was a big sign for the Tamils in Switzerland and in other countries that fighting for freedom cannot be a crime,” Marcel Bosonnet, one of the legal experts who defended the Tamil activists in Switzerland in one of the big cases held ever in the country, told TamilNet in an interview on 15 June 2018. Full story: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39099

Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance should be observed without allowing electoral political parties to use the collective remembrance event for their political purposes. Instead, all political parties should extend their support to the Jaffna University Student Union which is led by younger generation Tamil students without electoral party affiliations, says Northern Region CTB Workers Association, Secretary Arulanantham Arudprakash. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?artid=39061&catid=13

Tamil civil society activist, 39-year-old Parthipan Varatharajan has condemned Major General Dharshana Hettiarrachchi, the commander of the occupying SL Military in Jaffna, for politicising the participation of people in SL military organised Vesak festivities in Jaffna. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=39060

The chairperson of families of enforced disappeared of Mullaiththeevu district Mrs Easwary Mariasuresh on alleged paramilitary assault on the protest site on Thursday when the protest entered 400th Day. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39036

SLM Hanifa, a popular writer and journalist from Batticaloa in the Eastern Province talks to TamilNet giving his analysis on the recent anti-Muslim pogrom by a Sinhala mob, which was backed by a section of extremist Buddhist monks. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39002

Haji Ismail Mohamed Lebbe (68) from Ampaa'rai, who is a national organizer of All Ceylon Government General Employees Union (ACGGEU), talks to TamilNet on the recent anti-Muslim pogroms witnessed in Central Province and in Ampaa'rai district of the Eastern Province. Analysing the weaknesses of Tamil-speaking people, he underlines the need for unity among Tamil-speaking people in a merged North-Eastern Province. TamilNet Story: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=39002

A Colombo-based NGO, known as Families of the Disappeared (FoD), was inviting 30 Tamil women from the East on Valentine's Day to Western Province to narrate their ‘love stories’ with their husbands, whom they later lost due to enforced disappearances, Batticaloa District Head of Families of Enforced Disappeared, Mrs Amalraj Amalanayaki told TamilNet.

“As part of the delegation representing the families of enforced disappeared, I met the SL President three times. To all our disappointment, none of the promises have been fulfilled,” says Mrs Amalraj Amalanayaki, an activist from Batticaloa, representing the families of enforced disappeared in the district. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?art.html?catid=13&artid=38911

A “poosaari”, who is a traditional priest, whose forefathers for 7th generations have been serving as priests at Kooniththeevu and Champoor region narrates the nature of ancient village deities of Eezham Tamils in Moothoor East. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=38909

At Muttave'li, there are religious places of worship and memorial monuments of historical significance to Tamils. Staging funeral and cremation at this place is therefore regarded as desecration, EPRLF leader and former TNA Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told TamilNet on Friday. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38907

Attorney-at-Law V.S. Niranjan, who represents the families of missing persons in the investigation of exhumed mass graves at Maanthai in Mannaar, narrates the latest decision informed by Judge Alex Raja on 28 July, especially after Colombo-based Special Criminal Investigation Department has made a complaint against the Judge with the SL Judicial Service Commission. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=38760

NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran's address to the council on 14 June 2017. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38709

At a press conference held in Jaffna following the big protest in Ki'linochchi by the Tamil families of enforced disappeared at the hands of the occupying SL military, SL Governor to North Reginald Cooray argued that the only solution to the problem was to issue a ‘certificate on missing’ and provide assistance after the families are prepared to accept a such certificate. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38693

A mix of songs sung by SG Shanthan (20 December 1960 - 26 February 2017) TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=38597

PLOTE Leader and NPC Councillor Tharmalingam Sitharthan addressing Ezhuka Thamizh rally held in Batticaloa on 10 February 2017. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38579

Professor S K Sitrampalam, a senior ITAK leader, addressing Ezhuka Thamizh rally in Batticaloa on 10 February 2017. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38579

Batticaloa District Civil Society Representative and one of the three co-chairpersons of Tamil People’s Council (TPC) addressing the Ezhuka Thamizh rally at Batticaloa. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38579

S Viyaledran, TNA MP from Batticaloa District addressing Ezhuka Thamizh rally held in Batticaloa on 10 February 2017. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38579

NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran addressing the Ezhuka Thamizh uprising in Batticaloa on 10 February 2017. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38579

EPRLF Leader and former Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran addressing Ezhuka Thamizh rally at Batticaloa on 10 February 2017. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38579

The occupying Sinhala military at Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu, releasing only a section of lands, has threatened the villagers not to stage protests demanding full resettlement. The SL military has even named the protestors who should be contained. One of the named protestors, Mrs Inthirany Vivekananthan, narrates the story of the long protests by the villagers, who remain firm in their demand of resettling in Keappaa-pulavu. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38557

N.S. Subramaniyam, the leader of Maathakal West Rural Fisheries Society, together with fishing society leaders from Oo'raath-thu'rai (Kayts), Vea'la'nai, Ezhuvai-theevu, Analai-theevu, Nedun-theevu, Cha'ndilippaaay, Chinna-madu and Thampaaddi vows to fight against permanent occupation of Tamil coastal strip in Jaffna. The fisheries associations have put up 4 demands to SL State. Full TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=38556

Former Parliamentarian and TNA Politician P. Ariyanethiran on constitutional position of the Tamil alliance and recent remarks by SL ‘Justice’ minister on extremist Buddhist monk, colonisation of Batticaloa district. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=38536

Resettled Eezham Tamils in Champpoor, Trincomalee, complain that SL President Maithiripala Sirisena didn't fulfil the promises. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=38551

The widespread erection of Buddha statues in the Northern and Eastern provinces, especially in places where no Buddhists live and Bo trees being regarded as the exclusive property of Sinhala Buddhists, have now become analogous to ‘despicable’ symbols in the minds of Tamil-speaking people as these have been used as tools of occupation disrespecting the prospects for harmony between the different religions. TamilNet Report: https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=38542

Suresh Premachandran Press Meet 28 December 2016. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=38533

The wife of a former Tamil Eelam Police officer explains the level of threat prevailing against them at the moment (November 2016) under the rule of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe. TamilNet Report: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=38506

Ma'ravan-pulavu K Sachchithananthan addresses a press confrerence in Jaffna along with newly lauched Siva Chenai activists representing North and East. Mr Mahalingam Nadesananthan from Mannaar, Sivayogachelvan Sampasivam from Trincomalee, Thaayumaanavar Nikethan and Kandiah Ratnakumar, a former principal of Union College in Thellippazhai who is also a retired deputy director of education from Ki’linochchi district were addressing the press conference.

V. Thavachelvan, the chairman of the Federation of Fisheries Societies in Jaffna on Sunday told TamilNet that the fishermen representatives were calling for the participation of the Northern Provincial Council as a party in the ‘high-level’ meetings taking place between the affected parties at the presence of various SL and Indian ministries.