University Teachers Union leader harassed by SL interrogators

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 November 2013, 23:13 GMT]
The ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division of the occupying Sri Lanka has questioned the president of Teachers Union of Jaffna University, Mr S. Rajkumar, over a news item that appeared in a local news paper in Jaffna where he defended the collective right of Tamil people in remembering their loved ones who have sacrificed their lives for their common cause. The TID operatives in Jaffna also grilled the reporter, who interviewed the president of the Teachers Union. 

Meanwhile, reporters at local newspapers in Jaffna said their managements were instructed by the TID not to publish any news of gatherings or remembrance events. 

Mr Rajkumar faced TID interrogations also last year for defending the right of the students of Jaffna University in paying tribute to those fallen in the war. 

The University Teachers association also took part in the demonstration by the relatives of the missing persons in front of Jaffna Public Library on November 15, when British PM David Cameron visited Jaffna.

Heroes Day observed in Tamil homeland under gagged conditions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 November 2013, 08:38 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives were monitoring the activities of the grassroots political activists and the elected councillors of the provincial council and the civic bodies in North and East. However, the Teachers Union of Jaffna University observed a memorial event Wednesday noon by lighting candles of sacrifice and paying a floral tribute braving the SL military harassments. Handwritten and printed posters in memory of those who sacrificed their lives in Tamil struggle have been put up at several places throughout the peninsula where the occupying Sri Lankan soldiers were seen removing them. This year, the student community in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils has been active in remembering the Tamil Heroes. 

In the early hours of Wednesday, a squad operated by the occupying SL military opened fire at the house of Mr Sri Ranjan, an elected member of the civic body in Kodikaamam Piratheasa Chapai, who had recently moved a resolution on restoring Maaveerar Thuyilum illams (Heroes Cemeteries). 

The attack comes after he was detained, questioned and released on Tuesday. 

In another incident, the residence of the president of Valikaamam West (Chuzhipuram) Piratheasa Chapai (PS) Ms Ranjani Aingaran was also attacked by a 8-member squad that came in 4 motorbikes. 

Sri Lankan soldiers were deployed in large numbers on the streets of Jaffna as the people were observing Heroes Day silently inside their houses. 

In the meantime, Northern Provincial Council Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Irrigation and Environment, Mr P. Aingaranesan, introduced a tree-planting scheme, which was announced coinciding with Heroes Remembrance Day. Starting in Mannaar on Tuesday, Mr Aingaranesan said he proceeded to continue the scheme in Jaffna on Wednesday.