The Sri Lankan government is attempting to build Sinhala settlements in land that was appropriated supposedly for army camps, forcing Tamils into refugee camps, the TNA's General Secretary, MP Maavai Senathirajah was quoted by the Uthayan as saying, when speaking at an ITAK event. "People who did fishing and farming for generations are facing unfortunate lives as homeless refugees, as their native lands are being grabbed by the military," he said. "Those who are seizing those lands are planning to build Sinhala settlements in Tamil regions. Today, Sri Lankan government acts to reduce the proportion of Tamils. It is focused on creating restlessness in North and the East and to banish [Tamil] people from there," he added, stating that almost 2 lakhs of Eelam Tamils were currently in refugees camps in India.
Marking the 31st anniversary of Black July, an anti-Tamil pogram that saw over 3000 Tamils killed by state-sponsored Sinhala mobs, the US based advocacy group, USTPAC, stressed that violence against Tamils continues in the North-East where Tamils live under occupation. “Black July was a watershed event that signaled to the Tamils that they would have only a subservient place in a Sri Lanka ruled by the majority Sinhala Buddhists, for their exclusive benefit,” said USTPAC President, Dr Karunyan Arulanantham. "Tamil lands are expropriated, Tamils are denied the right to mourn their dead, Tamil children and women are raped with impunity, all while an ex-military governor appointed by the president holds executive authority and the largest military per capita in Asia is stationed in the traditional Tamil homelands," he added.
Sri Lanka’s navy has arrested 50 fishermen and seized seven trawlers from Tamil Nadu off the coast of Jaffna, accusing them of poaching in Sri Lankan waters. There are already 38 Indian fishermen and 55 trawlers in Sri Lankan custody, according to The Hindu . Chief Minister Jayalalithaa last week called on Prime Minister Modi to secure the release of the fishermen describing it as a "deliberate strategy of the Sri Lankan government to destroy the primary means of livelihood of Indian fishermen."
The Jaffna Press Club “strongly condemns” the treatment meted out by the military to Tamil journalists, travelling to a work shop in Colombo, and accused the Sri Lankan security forces of deliberately placing marijuana in the vehicle they were travelling in. In a statement, the group said that Sri Lanka is “committed to preventing journalists from the North from fostering a relationship with journalists in the south in every way [and] repressing them by any means available”. “On one hand, as the Sri Lankan government is trying to portray the journalists of the [Jaffna] peninsula as terrorists, on the other, it is taking measures to ensure their circle of contacts does not widen,” the statement charged. The statement described how the journalists were followed by vehicles, from Jaffna, before being stopped at Maankulam and Omanthai, by members of the police and the military.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has written to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for decisive action over the arrests of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan authorities, as dozens more fishermen were detained this week. The Sri Lankan Navy arrested 50 Indian fishermen for poaching in Sri Lankan waters on Tuesday reported Xinhua, following the arrest of a further 38 fishermen on July 22nd. See our earlier post: 50 Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested by Sri Lankan Navy (29 July 2014) Jayalalithaa wrote to Modi on Tuesday, saying, “However, as part of a deliberate and callous design, the...
Sri Lankan authorities have allowed Buddhists monks to operate with impunity in attacking places of worship across the island and continued to build Buddhist shrines in the Tamil North-East, said the United States in a report released this week. The US State Department, in their International Religious Freedom Report for 2013, stated that Sri Lanka had “failed to prevent the destruction of a Hindu temple in Dambulla and an attack on the Grandpass Mosque in Colombo”, adding that, “In multiple instances during the year, police failed to respond or were reluctant to arrest or pursue criminal...
Journalists who protested against military intimidation have been called for questioning tomorrow by the Omanthai police, reports a journalist at Yarl Thinakkural, a Jaffna based newspaper. The journalist, Monday morning, tweeted that 7 journalists who protested against the military had been called in for police questioning.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Missing persons, this week, received criticism from both opposition and ruling coalition parties, reports the Sunday Leader . The opposition UNP in a statement criticised the decision to conduct the inquiry, suggesting that it was a betrayal of Sri Lankan soldiers. “They (the public) should be told why President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who boasted he would sit in an ‘electric chair’ than betray soldiers, has now done an about turn and that too quite secretly. The UNP strongly believes the public should also know whether the actions are in the best interests of Sri Lanka or are the outcome of ignorant, shady but powerful brokers who are on an adventure wrapping up secret diplomatic deals behind the backs of the people,” read the statement. The leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a party within the ruling party (UPFA) coalition, criticised the government’s expansion of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Missing Persons without gaining approval from members of the ruling coalition. Warning of unrest should anything happen to Sri Lankan soldiers as a result of the inquiry, the General Secretary of the JHU, Minister Champika Ranawaka said,
The US embassy in Colombo has expressed “grave concern” about the intimidation by Sri Lankan security forces of journalists , covering the court proceedings related to the gang rape of an 11-year old Tamil school girl by Sri Lankan Navy personnel in Jaffna. In a statement released on Monday, the embassy also said it was deeply concerned about the cancellation of a training session for Tamil journalists, which was financially supported by the US embassy, after protests hit the venue in Colombo. The US said that “well-organised protestors” disrupted the third such event since May, threatening to harm the participants, and accused the Sri Lankan police of not providing security to the threatened journalists, or taking action against the groups making the threats, despite their presence during the incidents.
Photograph CIMICJaffna.lk A football coaching camp for Tamil youths and schoolchildren was held by the Sri Lankan Army in Jaffna. Coordinated by the Commander of the 533 Brigade Colonel Vijith Subasinghe and the president of the Sri Lankan Football Federation Ranjith Rodrigo, the three day camp in the Duraiyappa Stadium saw participation by coaches and players from the US-based Soccer Outreach Association, Pennsylvania.