TamilNet

IC has deceived Tamils on international investigations: Ananthi Sasistharan

[Thu, 06 Mar 2014, 13:01 GMT]

“The International Community has deceived the genocide affected Tamils on delivering international investigations,” said Ananthi Sasitharan, a councillor of the Northern Provincial Council, at a press conference held in Jaffna on Thursday. “The draft resolution being circulated in Geneva has failed to satisfy even the minimum expectations. It has totally disregarded the repeated requests from Tamils to the IC to deliver international investigations. Furthermore, it is in complete contrast to the impressions given to the Tamils by the international community in recent times,” she told the press. Ms Ananthi Sasistharan also blamed TNA national list parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran for having instructed her to be silent at a crucial meeting with the representatives of 18 countries during her recent visit to Geneva.

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USA ignores requests of Mannaar Bishop on UNHRC Resolution

[Wed, 05 Mar 2014, 14:57 GMT]

Bishop of Mannaar Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph had sent a model resolution to the foreign diplomatic missions, including the Embassy of USA in Colombo, well in advance of the draft resolution by the USA was leaked in Geneva this Monday. The proposal presented by Mannaar Bishop was demanding international investigations on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Prepared by the Tamil Civil Society Forum, the proposal also called upon the “UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council to activate procedures that will lead to a UN sponsored international mechanism to assess the democratic aspirations of the Tamil People, both in the homeland and in the diaspora for a permanent political solution.” Full story >>

Tamil academic compares Pakistani-Sri Lankan ‘counterinsurgency’

[Wed, 05 Mar 2014, 06:23 GMT]

“The genocidal oppression faced by the Baloch people and the Eelam Tamil people gains little if any attention in international media. Whatever is represented seems to be permeated by a tendency to absolve genocide and represent a state-centric, depoliticized and minority grounded narration of the plight of the oppressed nations. Such narrations effectively deny the Baloch and Eelam Tamils their inalienable right to self-determination or national liberation,” writes Norway-based Eezham Tamil anthropology academic Athithan Jayapalan, in a feature that appeared in a Balochistan website, Balochwarna News last month, urging solidarity between Baloch and Eezham Tamils. Full story >>

US draft stops at Navi Pillai inquiry into HR crimes of ‘both parties’

[Mon, 03 Mar 2014, 23:39 GMT]

A draft resolution on Sri Lanka that is to be tabled at the UNHRC later this month by the USA, UK, Montenegro, FYR of Macedonia and Mauritius was put to circulation on Monday. Contrary to the trumpeting by sections among Tamils expecting US-UK justice through international investigation on war crimes, the draft just harps on OHCHR investigation into “alleged violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka.” On the other hand, the draft that fails in recognising Tamils even by name not only provides more space and time for the completion of their structural genocide but also binds the UNHRC with supporting the “unified land” of the genocidal State. Full story >>

Britain neglected British Tamil suspiciously died in Sri Lanka's prison

[Sat, 01 Mar 2014, 23:43 GMT]

The relatives of a 43-year-old British Eelam Tamil, Gopithas Visuvalingam, who died in the Sri Lankan jail under suspicious circumstances on 24 February, blame Colombo for torture of Tamil political prisoners. Mr Gopithas, a British national and father of two, was arrested in Colombo in March 2007 and jailed without any charges till 2012, when he was finally charged and ‘convicted’ for assisting the LTTE. Gopithas had told his aged father, who was visiting him in prison recently that he feared for his life at the hands of operatives, who were under the direct command of the SL presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa before the jail term was over. The family and the relatives of the victim are disappointed with the lack of legal assistance from the British High Commission in Colombo, news sources in Jaffna said. Full story >>

PTI twists report on Mannaar killing field

[Thu, 27 Feb 2014, 23:37 GMT]

Projecting Sri Lankan Government's defensive cover-up statement on the exhumation of human skeletal remains from the killing field of Mannaar at Maanthai without any journalistic scrutiny, the Press Trust of India (PTI) on Wednesday published a news report titled ‘mass grave in former LTTE stronghold’. The report featured an open lie by the Sri Lankan state that the killing field was under LTTE control for 30 years. The mass grave site, situated near Maanthai junction, has been under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military and was also used as a rear site of the SL military that uprooted the Tamil people from the area. So far, 81 human skeletons have been exhumed from the killing fields. The exhumation is scheduled to continue for the 32nd time on 03 March. Full story >>

Tamils cautioned against word trick of OHCHR

[Tue, 25 Feb 2014, 23:11 GMT]

Tamils living world over should take a careful note on who is skipping away from including the demand for an ‘international investigation’ in the draft resolution to be placed at the UN Human Rights Council this March, Tamil activists in the island told TamilNet on Tuesday. The diaspora Tamils and Tamils of Tamil Nadu should not be carried away by the ‘media discourse’ in Colombo following the latest recommendations of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navanetham Pillay, the activists warned. The latest phrase ‘international inquiry mechanism’ could also imply a process of questioning or fact-finding mission by UN Special Rapporteurs under the human rights regime of the UNHRC, which would only end up adding just another report to the existing piles of UN reports. Tamil lobbyists abroad should not deceive the masses by their misinterpretations of the terminology, the activists said. Full story >>

BIMSTEC having Eelam territory gets secretariat in Dhaka

[Wed, 05 Mar 2014, 09:50 GMT]

The Third Summit Meeting of BIMSTEC States held in Myanmar concluded on Tuesday, with its heads of governments deciding on operating a permanent secretariat based in Dhaka in Bangladesh. A career diplomat of Colombo will be its first Secretary General. Originally formed in 1997, as Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation (hence BIMST-EC), and was joined by Nepal and Bhutan in 2004 to become known as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, the BIMSTEC is viewed as India’s alternative for SAARC, to have a regional alliance without Pakistan. It is also viewed as an expression of India’s ‘look to East’ policy to balance China's ‘push to South’. Full story >>

Journalists blocked from inspecting alleged massacre site in Trincomalee

[Tue, 04 Mar 2014, 21:39 GMT]

Following the discovery of a human skull near Muttave'li playgrounds situated in front of the historic Thirukkoa'neasvarar shrine in Trincomalee on 13 February, the occupying SL military has been deployed at the site to hide the issue from the attention of media, journalists in Trincomalee said. Heavy vehicles that have been brought to the locality are reportedly engaged in removing the remaining traces, informed sources further said. The SL soldiers at the site have not allowed journalists to inspect the site. Full story >>

2ND LEAD (Adds photos, audio)

Tamil politicians demand international investigation at Jaffna protest

[Sun, 02 Mar 2014, 23:36 GMT]

Protest in Jaffna against continued imprisonment of Tami political prisoners and prisoners of war

When Sinhala prisoners protested in Kandy, Namal Rajapaksa, the son of SL President went to the prison and ordered a report on the condition of prisoners. But, when Tamil political prisoners and prisoners of war, subjected to torture on a daily basis, stage protests, no one from the SL government cares about visiting them, said Sundaram Mahendran, the head of the Colombo based Committee on Missing Persons on Sunday when addressing the people protesting against the mysterious death of a Tamil prisoner Gopithas Visuvalingam, a British citizen who was imprisoned in Colombo since 2007. The protest was staged in the morning of the funeral day of the victim Gopithas, who is a father of two from the UK. Full story >>

SL military seeks to appropriate market complex at Tamil suburb of Trincomalee

[Fri, 28 Feb 2014, 23:02 GMT]

The occupying Sri Lankan military in Trincomalee has sought to permanently appropriate the land and the buildings of Malaiyaruvi, a building complex constructed in 1994 by the Trincomalee Town Council to establish a public market at the Power House Road, where Eezham Tamils reside in large numbers. Recently, the SL military has approached Mr Sirimewan Dharmasena, the land commissioner at the Eastern Provincial Department asking the latter to undertake surveying of the lands. Full story >>

3RD LEAD (Adds videos)

EU terror ban on LTTE challenged

[Wed, 26 Feb 2014, 17:51 GMT]

The European Union's ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hangs in the balance today after a hearing at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg exposed serious flaws in the original evidence used to proscribe the movement in 2006. Judges expressed concern at the European Council's use of an Indian anti-terror law as a suitable precedent for banning the LTTE, saying there was no evidence that the Council checked if terror suspects had access to a fair trial in India. The court was also dismayed by the Council's use of Wikipedia as a credible source for keeping a terrorism ban on the LTTE. Lawyers for the LTTE left the court in a positive mood, expecting a judgement within the next six months. Full story >>

I fear we are destined to kill and slaughter each other for ages to come....Whatever may be the issue, I cannot help sympathizing with the struggles of a warlike people to drive invaders from their lands.

-General Robert E. Lee (Jan 19, 1807 - Oct 12, 1870
Observation on Franco-Prussian War in a letter of 23 Aug. 1870
Best known for commanding the Confederate Army of
..Northern Virginia in the American Civil War.
Greatest victories: the Seven Days Battles,
..the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg,
..and the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
After the war, Lee supported President Johnson's
..program of Reconstruction and inter-sectional friendship.

[22.01.14]
PPT judgement upholds Eelam Tamil identity and nomenclature: The full report of the judgement of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka (Bremen Session), released on Wednesday, came out with a discussion on the choice of nomenclature to identify the victims of genocide and has decided on the use of the term “Eelam Tamils as a national group.”
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[13.01.14]
Opinion: Tamil Nadu needs to initiate Vietnam-like international struggle: The PPT indicting Sri Lanka for the genocide and continued genocide committed with the complicity of the USA, UK and India, against Eelam Tamils as a national group, and the TN Assembly under the leadership of Ms. Jayalalithaa passing unanimous resolutions on international investigations and referendum among Eezham Tamils, are no small steps. But, how to translate them into political action, before it is too late, is the question.
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[07.01.14]
People’s struggle of Eezham Tamils begins from stopping ‘Sri Lanka’ usage: A people’s struggle in fact begins from their households, first by consciously deleting the words Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan from usage, writes a Tamil activist for alternative politics in the island.
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Sinhala nameboard of Mullatithteevu stupa

[04.01.14]
Opinion: Theravada Sinhala Buddhism needs further understanding in Tamil Nadu: People of Tamil Nadu especially, and India in general, have to carefully and subtly understand the difference between Mahayana Buddhism advised for Dalits in India by Ambedkar and the Theravada Sinhala-Buddhism of the island of Lanka.
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[02.01.14]
Transcend SA model, SL State and West’s mechanisms in seeking justice: Fr Rajan: The South African model that betrayed its people is now taken up by Colombo just to save war criminals. It is futile for Tamils to expect justice from any future government of SL State. Tamils also have to reconsider approaching their struggle once again through West’s mechanisms of justice, said Fr Elil Rajan, delivering the 2013 Memorial Address remembering Maamanithar Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham.
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PPT Session II on Sri Lanka at Bremen, Germany

[10.12.13]
Sri Lanka guilty of genocide: PPT verdict: After an assessment of evidences presented by eyewitnesses and experts, judges of the Permanent People’s Tribunal reached unanimous consensus that the Sri Lankan state was guilty of crimes of genocide against the Eezham Tamils and that the genocide is continuing even after the end of the military operations against the LTTE.
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British Defence interest in Ceylon in 1947

[10.12.13]
Reminding Britain of its geostrategic injustice against Eezham Tamils: The British cabinet in 1947 decided to short-circuit the discourse of an evolutionary constitutional approach with an accelerated process of handing over of power to Sinhalese, an exercise it carried out on the basis of its own geostrategic considerations, top secret documents from 1947 reveal. Today, the British Prime Minister David Cameron seeking ‘engagement’ with Tamils needs to be reminded of the root injustice the imperial Britain had committed against Eezham Tamils by making them prone to more than 60 years of genocide in the hands of the unitary Sri Lankan State.
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[09.12.13]
Mandela and the other Prisoners of War: As South Africa prepares for the funeral of iconic anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, who passed away at the age of 95 on Thursday, leaders of the world have paid their tributes to the man who was incarcerated as a political prisoner under the apartheid regime for 27 years. Powerful countries in the West, including the USA and UK, which had once denounced Mandela as a ‘terrorist’, are now in the forefront paying homage. However, these establishments still continue to support countries that practice illegal detention and brutal treatment of prisoners-of-war (PoW).
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[08.12.13]
CHOGM mooted TRC, ill-fit for Sri Lanka, say ANU fellow, legal scholar: Establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) modeled on the South Africa (SA) experience, viewed by Sri Lanka backers as an urgent need to mitigate possible strong actions by the International Community against Sri Lanka over its rights violations, appears as an imminent outcome from the recently concluded Commonwealth Meeting.
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[03.12.13]
SL Justice System incapable of investigating Moothoor massacre: ACF Deliberate subversion of the investigative process over the past 7 years and continuous harassment of witnesses and journalists who have raised the case have demonstrated that no effective legal action can be taken in today’s Sri Lanka, said France-based NGO Action Contre la Faim (ACF), whose 17 humanitarian workers were shot and killed at point blank range by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Moothoor, Trincomalee, in August 2006.
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[30.11.13]
Cameron reneges on Sri Lanka war-crimes investigations: In Colombo, Cameron said, "Let me be very clear, if that investigation is not completed by March then I will use our position on the UN human rights council to work with the UN Human Rights commission and call for a full, credible and independent international inquiry." However, in the Arab News, likely issued to blunt expectations of March completion of investigations, Cameron said, "if those investigations were not begun properly by next March, we would call for an international inquiry through the United Nations."
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[27.11.13]
Heroes Day remembrance by public gains significance in North: Almost all sections of Eezham Tamils in North on Wednesday remembered the Tamil Heroes Day in North amidst heavy deployment of the armed soldiers of the occupying Sri Lankan military. This year, the public observing remembrance in Jaffna, Vanni, Mannaar and Mullaiththeevu gains importance above all the events in the country of Eezham Tamils. University lectures, students across all the schools and grassroots political activists observed the Day paying tribute inside their houses amidst the gagged condition and attacks launched by the SL military operatives.
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[08.11.13]
UK-PM buttressing SL-CHOGM seeks ‘legitimacy’ from London Tamils: British Establishment’s Prime Minister David Cameron hurriedly convened a meeting of handpicked Tamil articulators in London on Thursday evening to showcase that the diaspora has compromised with his participation at the Sri Lanka-CHOGM. The British effort seeking ‘Wigneswarans’ in London to ‘legitimise’ the CHOGM participation was also aiming at relieving the New Delhi Establishment from the mounting pressure in Tamil Nadu, Tamil political observers in London said.
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[07.11.13]
200 years of British colonial outlook continues to haunt Eezham Tamils: Like the colonial English lured the Colombo-fascinated Tamil elite of the 19th and early 20th centuries, today the strategy of the genocidal partners is to lure the Tamil elite of Colombo-centric and diaspora-centric interests to ‘patch up’ with the Sinhala elite and to diffuse the whole issue, without any fundamental returns to the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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[02.11.13]
More evidences surface on antiquity of Jaffna fort site: More and more evidences surfacing at Jaffna fort indisputably prove that the colonial fort was built on an earlier archaeological site going back to the early centuries of the Common Era. The latest findings are a terracotta tablet of folk religious affinities and brick structural remains found 4.5 feet below the rampart walls at the western side of the fort.
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[29.10.13]
New Delhi experiments Eezham model ‘counterinsurgency’ on its own people: Indian State now consolidates a policy that extraordinary political movements of mass basis, coming from peoples long exposed to social oppression, material deprivation, un-freedom and stark poverty in India, have to be eliminated with the deployment of an increasing number of armed forces. The more the forces are special and armed-to-the-teeth with impunity, the more they are effective, is the policy outlook.
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[28.10.13]
SL military issues death threat to NPC members, TNA parliamentarian in Jaffna: The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers deployed in transforming the former High Security Zone in Valikaamam North into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) on Monday rounded up and threatened a delegation of TNA parliamentarian, elected members of the Northern Provincial Council and the members of two civic bodies, at gunpoint on Monday, when the delegation went to the site following the complaints by the uprooted people that the occupying SLA was demolishing their houses using bulldozers.
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[18.10.13]
New Delhi following British imperialism does no justice to Eezham Tamils: 200 years of imperialist outlook, knowing very well that there are two historically evolved nations in the island but engineering unification for imperialistic purposes, has always gone against the nation of Eezham Tamils and contributed only to its genocide in every respect, including in its territory and demography, writes an academic in Jaffna.
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It has totally disregarded the repeated requests from Tamils to the IC to deliver international investigations. Furthermore, it is in complete contrast to the impressions given to the Tamils by the international community in recent times,” she told the press. Ms Ananthi Sasistharan also blamed TNA national list parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran for having instructed her to be silent at a crucial meeting with the representatives of 18 countries during her recent visit to Geneva. Full story >> Latest 15 Reports: Mar 06 13:01 IC has deceived Tamils on international investigat.. Mar 05 14:57 USA ignores requests of Mannaar Bishop on UNHRC Re.. Mar 05 09:50 BIMSTEC having Eelam territory gets secretariat in.. Mar 05 06:23 Tamil academic compares Pakistani-Sri Lankan ‘coun.. Mar 04 21:39 Journalists blocked from inspecting alleged massac.. Mar 03 23:39 US draft stops at Navi Pillai inquiry into HR crim.. Mar 02 23:36 Tamil politicians demand international investigati.. Mar 01 23:43 Britain neglected British Tamil suspiciously died .. Feb 28 23:02 SL military seeks to appropriate market complex at.. Feb 27 23:37 PTI twists report on Mannaar killing field Feb 26 17:51 EU terror ban on LTTE challenged Feb 25 23:11 Tamils cautioned against word trick of OHCHR << Flashback More Reports >> USA ignores requests of Mannaar Bishop on UNHRC Resolution [Wed, 05 Mar 2014, 14:57 GMT] Bishop of Mannaar Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph had sent a model resolution to the foreign diplomatic missions, including the Embassy of USA in Colombo, well in advance of the draft resolution by the USA was leaked in Geneva this Monday. The proposal presented by Mannaar Bishop was demanding international investigations on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Prepared by the Tamil Civil Society Forum, the proposal also called upon the “UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council to activate procedures that will lead to a UN sponsored international mechanism to assess the democratic aspirations of the Tamil People, both in the homeland and in the diaspora for a permanent political solution.” Full story >> Tamil academic compares Pakistani-Sri Lankan ‘counterinsurgency’ [Wed, 05 Mar 2014, 06:23 GMT] “The genocidal oppression faced by the Baloch people and the Eelam Tamil people gains little if any attention in international media. Whatever is represented seems to be permeated by a tendency to absolve genocide and represent a state-centric, depoliticized and minority grounded narration of the plight of the oppressed nations. Such narrations effectively deny the Baloch and Eelam Tamils their inalienable right to self-determination or national liberation,” writes Norway-based Eezham Tamil anthropology academic Athithan Jayapalan, in a feature that appeared in a Balochistan website, Balochwarna News last month, urging solidarity between Baloch and Eezham Tamils. Full story >> US draft stops at Navi Pillai inquiry into HR crimes of ‘both parties’ [Mon, 03 Mar 2014, 23:39 GMT] A draft resolution on Sri Lanka that is to be tabled at the UNHRC later this month by the USA, UK, Montenegro, FYR of Macedonia and Mauritius was put to circulation on Monday. Contrary to the trumpeting by sections among Tamils expecting US-UK justice through international investigation on war crimes, the draft just harps on OHCHR investigation into “alleged violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka.” On the other hand, the draft that fails in recognising Tamils even by name not only provides more space and time for the completion of their structural genocide but also binds the UNHRC with supporting the “unified land” of the genocidal State. Full story >> Britain neglected British Tamil suspiciously died in Sri Lanka's prison [Sat, 01 Mar 2014, 23:43 GMT] The relatives of a 43-year-old British Eelam Tamil, Gopithas Visuvalingam, who died in the Sri Lankan jail under suspicious circumstances on 24 February, blame Colombo for torture of Tamil political prisoners. Mr Gopithas, a British national and father of two, was arrested in Colombo in March 2007 and jailed without any charges till 2012, when he was finally charged and ‘convicted’ for assisting the LTTE. Gopithas had told his aged father, who was visiting him in prison recently that he feared for his life at the hands of operatives, who were under the direct command of the SL presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa before the jail term was over. The family and the relatives of the victim are disappointed with the lack of legal assistance from the British High Commission in Colombo, news sources in Jaffna said. Full story >> PTI twists report on Mannaar killing field [Thu, 27 Feb 2014, 23:37 GMT] Projecting Sri Lankan Government's defensive cover-up statement on the exhumation of human skeletal remains from the killing field of Mannaar at Maanthai without any journalistic scrutiny, the Press Trust of India (PTI) on Wednesday published a news report titled ‘mass grave in former LTTE stronghold’. The report featured an open lie by the Sri Lankan state that the killing field was under LTTE control for 30 years. The mass grave site, situated near Maanthai junction, has been under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military and was also used as a rear site of the SL military that uprooted the Tamil people from the area. So far, 81 human skeletons have been exhumed from the killing fields. The exhumation is scheduled to continue for the 32nd time on 03 March. Full story >> Tamils cautioned against word trick of OHCHR [Tue, 25 Feb 2014, 23:11 GMT] Tamils living world over should take a careful note on who is skipping away from including the demand for an ‘international investigation’ in the draft resolution to be placed at the UN Human Rights Council this March, Tamil activists in the island told TamilNet on Tuesday. The diaspora Tamils and Tamils of Tamil Nadu should not be carried away by the ‘media discourse’ in Colombo following the latest recommendations of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navanetham Pillay, the activists warned. The latest phrase ‘international inquiry mechanism’ could also imply a process of questioning or fact-finding mission by UN Special Rapporteurs under the human rights regime of the UNHRC, which would only end up adding just another report to the existing piles of UN reports. Tamil lobbyists abroad should not deceive the masses by their misinterpretations of the terminology, the activists said. Full story >> BIMSTEC having Eelam territory gets secretariat in Dhaka [Wed, 05 Mar 2014, 09:50 GMT] The Third Summit Meeting of BIMSTEC States held in Myanmar concluded on Tuesday, with its heads of governments deciding on operating a permanent secretariat based in Dhaka in Bangladesh. A career diplomat of Colombo will be its first Secretary General. Originally formed in 1997, as Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation (hence BIMST-EC), and was joined by Nepal and Bhutan in 2004 to become known as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, the BIMSTEC is viewed as India’s alternative for SAARC, to have a regional alliance without Pakistan. It is also viewed as an expression of India’s ‘look to East’ policy to balance China's ‘push to South’. Full story >> Journalists blocked from inspecting alleged massacre site in Trincomalee [Tue, 04 Mar 2014, 21:39 GMT] Following the discovery of a human skull near Muttave'li playgrounds situated in front of the historic Thirukkoa'neasvarar shrine in Trincomalee on 13 February, the occupying SL military has been deployed at the site to hide the issue from the attention of media, journalists in Trincomalee said. Heavy vehicles that have been brought to the locality are reportedly engaged in removing the remaining traces, informed sources further said. The SL soldiers at the site have not allowed journalists to inspect the site. Full story >> 2ND LEAD (Adds photos, audio) Tamil politicians demand international investigation at Jaffna protest [Sun, 02 Mar 2014, 23:36 GMT] When Sinhala prisoners protested in Kandy, Namal Rajapaksa, the son of SL President went to the prison and ordered a report on the condition of prisoners. But, when Tamil political prisoners and prisoners of war, subjected to torture on a daily basis, stage protests, no one from the SL government cares about visiting them, said Sundaram Mahendran, the head of the Colombo based Committee on Missing Persons on Sunday when addressing the people protesting against the mysterious death of a Tamil prisoner Gopithas Visuvalingam, a British citizen who was imprisoned in Colombo since 2007. The protest was staged in the morning of the funeral day of the victim Gopithas, who is a father of two from the UK. Full story >> SL military seeks to appropriate market complex at Tamil suburb of Trincomalee [Fri, 28 Feb 2014, 23:02 GMT] The occupying Sri Lankan military in Trincomalee has sought to permanently appropriate the land and the buildings of Malaiyaruvi, a building complex constructed in 1994 by the Trincomalee Town Council to establish a public market at the Power House Road, where Eezham Tamils reside in large numbers. Recently, the SL military has approached Mr Sirimewan Dharmasena, the land commissioner at the Eastern Provincial Department asking the latter to undertake surveying of the lands. Full story >> 3RD LEAD (Adds videos) EU terror ban on LTTE challenged [Wed, 26 Feb 2014, 17:51 GMT] The European Union's ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hangs in the balance today after a hearing at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg exposed serious flaws in the original evidence used to proscribe the movement in 2006. Judges expressed concern at the European Council's use of an Indian anti-terror law as a suitable precedent for banning the LTTE, saying there was no evidence that the Council checked if terror suspects had access to a fair trial in India. The court was also dismayed by the Council's use of Wikipedia as a credible source for keeping a terrorism ban on the LTTE. Lawyers for the LTTE left the court in a positive mood, expecting a judgement within the next six months. Full story >> Top Flashback: 2013: 2013 Mar 07 13:16 USA releases draft resolution for discussion in... 2013 Mar 07 07:22 ‘US resolution will not give Tamils justice’: V... 2013 Mar 07 00:56 Worsening human rights woes drive political sku... 2013 Mar 07 00:20 Sinhala Buddha-Sasana custodians not recognizin... 2011: 2011 Mar 07 17:47 Veteran journalist Sabaratnam passes away 2011 Mar 07 14:54 TNA MP Sritharan narrowly escapes assassination... 2011 Mar 07 09:09 Indian SC rules against criminalising membershi... 2011 Mar 07 01:49 "Mere association" insufficient to prove member... 2010: 2010 Mar 07 22:03 Time for International Criminal Tribunal on Sri... 2010 Mar 07 18:05 32 journalists from Trincomalee district visit ... 2010 Mar 07 15:11 Pilgrims to Paalaitheevu St. Antony’s church su... 2010 Mar 07 12:43 ADB assists resettled IDPs in Jaffna peninsula 2010 Mar 07 11:36 Magistrate courts to be built in Vanni where ID... 2010 Mar 07 03:44 Indian Foreign Secretary arrives in Colombo on ... 2010 Mar 07 01:55 US Supreme Court ruling on "sovereign immunity"... 2009: 2009 Mar 07 21:45 Indian High Commissioner rebuffs memorandum of ... 2009 Mar 07 19:07 IDPs threatened by malnutrition - RDHS 2009 Mar 07 18:13 Kachchaitheevu St. Antony’s Church annual festi... 2009 Mar 07 17:33 IDPs in Jaffna SLA detention camps require help 2009 Mar 07 17:10 Mediaperson killed in SLA shell attack 2009 Mar 07 17:07 Tamil family man abducted in Batticaloa 2009 Mar 07 17:01 SLA shoots dead Tamil woman in Batticaloa 2009 Mar 07 13:16 California Democrats seek Referendum to resolve... 2009 Mar 07 12:33 Sri Lankan attacks kill 208 civilians within 72... 2009 Mar 07 06:22 Paramilitary, intelligence personnel arrested f... 2009 Mar 07 05:42 Toddy tapper knifed to death in Jaffna 2008: 2008 Mar 07 18:57 Fisherman reported missing in Mannaar 2008 Mar 07 18:52 SLN, Police instruct Vanni IDPs away from Manna... 2008 Mar 07 17:33 SLA, LTTE clash at Paalamoaddai, Vavuniyaa 2008 Mar 07 17:26 SLA's night offensive thwarted in Mukamaalai - ... 2008 Mar 07 16:58 Pirapaharan confers Maamanithar title to Sivanesan 2008 Mar 07 16:27 WFP to continue relief activity in Jaffna 2008 Mar 07 14:38 TNA condemns Sivanesan killing 2008 Mar 07 14:37 STF accused of sexual abuses in Ampaarai District 2008 Mar 07 14:31 Norway condemns assassination of Sivanesan MP 2008 Mar 07 14:09 TID detains Sunday Times columnist, video photo... 2008 Mar 07 04:34 Jaffna SLA commander calls upon LTTE cadres to ... 2008 Mar 07 03:43 Shortage of tires cripple Jaffna transport serv... 2008 Mar 07 01:14 Japan-UNDP sign agreement to assist resettlemen... 2008 Mar 07 00:14 Conference to discuss security measures held in... 2007: 2007 Mar 07 23:06 Parents visit Sinhala soldiers in LTTE custody 2007 Mar 07 19:25 Tamil milk vendor shot dead in Sambaltivu 2007 Mar 07 13:15 SLA abducts 3 youths in Vadamaradchy 2007 Mar 07 12:54 SL Parliament votes to extend Emergency Regulat... 2007 Mar 07 12:24 Woman shot dead in Trincomalee 2007 Mar 07 11:48 Claymore attack kills one policeman, injures th... 2007 Mar 07 11:34 Tamil youth abducted in Nanattan 2007 Mar 07 10:12 Policeman killed at Parapankandal in Mannar 2007 Mar 07 10:10 Sri Lanka parliament debates emergency extensio... 2007 Mar 07 10:09 JVP, JHU to appeal court order on CFA 2007 Mar 07 10:07 SLA fires artillery on LTTE-held villages in Ma... 2007 Mar 07 05:14 SL Government's respect for Human Rights declin... 2007 Mar 07 02:43 Communication Center owner shot dead in Jaffna 2007 Mar 07 01:26 LTTE shells hit Manthuvil Base 2006: 2006 Mar 07 17:25 Act upon Geneva commitment, NPC urges GoSL 2006 Mar 07 17:23 Rural Volunteers Brigade passing out parade hel... 2006 Mar 07 17:20 Jaffna student reported missing 2006 Mar 07 11:42 ADB funded pre-school opens in Pooneryn 2006 Mar 07 11:33 Armed men rob Kaluwanchikudy petrol station 2006 Mar 07 10:55 LTTE delegation returns from Geneva 2006 Mar 07 09:15 JVP demands expulsion of Norway from peace process 2006 Mar 07 02:43 Northern fishermen call off protest action 2006 Mar 07 02:31 Muslim businessman shot dead in Eravur 2006 Mar 07 02:15 Tsunami affected Trinco students treated to var... 2005: 2005 Mar 07 18:04 EU commissioner hopeful of LTTE, GoSL joint mec... 2005 Mar 07 17:00 Kodikamam Police force entry, search LTTE office 2005 Mar 07 15:39 Refugees, robbed, molested on sandbank in Manna... 2005 Mar 07 14:11 Students protest army killings in Jaffna 2005 Mar 07 11:46 Alikambai villagers receive Tsunami Relief 2005 Mar 07 07:16 Military informant killed in Batticaloa 2005 Mar 07 04:04 JVP demands World Bank Country Director to be r... 2004: 2004 Mar 07 21:04 Karuna feared expulsion, avoided direct contact... 2004 Mar 07 19:58 Karuna’s accusations are cover up for guilt and... 2004 Mar 07 18:29 TNA must capture atleast 21 seats - Sampanthan 2004 Mar 07 13:22 Karuna’s supporters protest in Valaichenai 2004 Mar 07 06:45 Karikalan condemns Karuna as Pol Pot 2004 Mar 07 01:45 "Will handle the problem in Batticaloa with cau... 2004 Mar 07 01:16 LTTE urges support for TNA in Pt.Pedro election... 2003: 2003 Mar 07 18:22 LTTE-TNA agree to take forward peace process 2003 Mar 07 03:35 Fighters killed in Vavunathivu SLA camp attack ... 2003 Mar 07 01:34 Canadian Foreign Minister to visit Sri Lanka 2003 Mar 07 01:11 Judge returns homicide verdict in Trinco hartal... 2003 Mar 07 00:05 Trinco remembers disappeared social worker 2002: 2002 Mar 07 21:03 "UNF to take constructive decision on LTTE ban"... 2002 Mar 07 20:59 SLN personnel produced in disappearance case 2001: 2001 Mar 07 19:11 US ambassador visits mass graves site in Jaffna 2001 Mar 07 17:34 Saw navy men strangling Uthayakumar -daughter 2000: 2000 Mar 07 18:58 'Clarify your position PA' says UNP 2000 Mar 07 15:57 Three reported 'missing' 2000 Mar 07 14:03 Committee to study problems of security forces 2000 Mar 07 11:24 News in Brief: 2000 Mar 07 07:59 Two Tiger boats sunk - SLN 1999: 1999 Mar 07 14:04 SLA moves into new territory 1999 Mar 07 13:59 News In Brief: 1999 Mar 07 13:55 Police arrests paramilitary leader 1998: 1998 Mar 07 23:59 Firing near Eravur Police sentry I fear we are destined to kill and slaughter each other for ages to come....Whatever may be the issue, I cannot help sympathizing with the struggles of a warlike people to drive invaders from their lands. -General Robert E. Lee (Jan 19, 1807 - Oct 12, 1870 Observation on Franco-Prussian War in a letter of 23 Aug. 1870 Best known for commanding the Confederate Army of ..Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. Greatest victories: the Seven Days Battles, ..the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg, ..and the Battle of Chancellorsville. Surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. After the war, Lee supported President Johnson's ..program of Reconstruction and inter-sectional friendship.	Know the Etymology: 331 Place Name of the Day: Wahala-kananke, Poramba-kananke The entrance part of the forest The end or exit part of the forest Read more >> [22.01.14] PPT judgement upholds Eelam Tamil identity and nomenclature: The full report of the judgement of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka (Bremen Session), released on Wednesday, came out with a discussion on the choice of nomenclature to identify the victims of genocide and has decided on the use of the term “Eelam Tamils as a national group.” Related Story >> [13.01.14] Opinion: Tamil Nadu needs to initiate Vietnam-like international struggle: The PPT indicting Sri Lanka for the genocide and continued genocide committed with the complicity of the USA, UK and India, against Eelam Tamils as a national group, and the TN Assembly under the leadership of Ms. Jayalalithaa passing unanimous resolutions on international investigations and referendum among Eezham Tamils, are no small steps. But, how to translate them into political action, before it is too late, is the question. Related Story >> [07.01.14] People’s struggle of Eezham Tamils begins from stopping ‘Sri Lanka’ usage: A people’s struggle in fact begins from their households, first by consciously deleting the words Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan from usage, writes a Tamil activist for alternative politics in the island. Related Story >> [04.01.14] Opinion: Theravada Sinhala Buddhism needs further understanding in Tamil Nadu: People of Tamil Nadu especially, and India in general, have to carefully and subtly understand the difference between Mahayana Buddhism advised for Dalits in India by Ambedkar and the Theravada Sinhala-Buddhism of the island of Lanka. Related Story >> [02.01.14] Transcend SA model, SL State and West’s mechanisms in seeking justice: Fr Rajan: The South African model that betrayed its people is now taken up by Colombo just to save war criminals. It is futile for Tamils to expect justice from any future government of SL State. Tamils also have to reconsider approaching their struggle once again through West’s mechanisms of justice, said Fr Elil Rajan, delivering the 2013 Memorial Address remembering Maamanithar Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham. Related Story >> [10.12.13] Sri Lanka guilty of genocide: PPT verdict: After an assessment of evidences presented by eyewitnesses and experts, judges of the Permanent People’s Tribunal reached unanimous consensus that the Sri Lankan state was guilty of crimes of genocide against the Eezham Tamils and that the genocide is continuing even after the end of the military operations against the LTTE. Related Story >> [10.12.13] Reminding Britain of its geostrategic injustice against Eezham Tamils: The British cabinet in 1947 decided to short-circuit the discourse of an evolutionary constitutional approach with an accelerated process of handing over of power to Sinhalese, an exercise it carried out on the basis of its own geostrategic considerations, top secret documents from 1947 reveal. Today, the British Prime Minister David Cameron seeking ‘engagement’ with Tamils needs to be reminded of the root injustice the imperial Britain had committed against Eezham Tamils by making them prone to more than 60 years of genocide in the hands of the unitary Sri Lankan State. Related Story >> [09.12.13] Mandela and the other Prisoners of War: As South Africa prepares for the funeral of iconic anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, who passed away at the age of 95 on Thursday, leaders of the world have paid their tributes to the man who was incarcerated as a political prisoner under the apartheid regime for 27 years. Powerful countries in the West, including the USA and UK, which had once denounced Mandela as a ‘terrorist’, are now in the forefront paying homage. However, these establishments still continue to support countries that practice illegal detention and brutal treatment of prisoners-of-war (PoW). Related Story >> [08.12.13] CHOGM mooted TRC, ill-fit for Sri Lanka, say ANU fellow, legal scholar: Establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) modeled on the South Africa (SA) experience, viewed by Sri Lanka backers as an urgent need to mitigate possible strong actions by the International Community against Sri Lanka over its rights violations, appears as an imminent outcome from the recently concluded Commonwealth Meeting. Related Story >> [03.12.13] SL Justice System incapable of investigating Moothoor massacre: ACF Deliberate subversion of the investigative process over the past 7 years and continuous harassment of witnesses and journalists who have raised the case have demonstrated that no effective legal action can be taken in today’s Sri Lanka, said France-based NGO Action Contre la Faim (ACF), whose 17 humanitarian workers were shot and killed at point blank range by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Moothoor, Trincomalee, in August 2006. Related Story >> [30.11.13] Cameron reneges on Sri Lanka war-crimes investigations: In Colombo, Cameron said, "Let me be very clear, if that investigation is not completed by March then I will use our position on the UN human rights council to work with the UN Human Rights commission and call for a full, credible and independent international inquiry." However, in the Arab News, likely issued to blunt expectations of March completion of investigations, Cameron said, "if those investigations were not begun properly by next March, we would call for an international inquiry through the United Nations." Related Story >> [27.11.13] Heroes Day remembrance by public gains significance in North: Almost all sections of Eezham Tamils in North on Wednesday remembered the Tamil Heroes Day in North amidst heavy deployment of the armed soldiers of the occupying Sri Lankan military. This year, the public observing remembrance in Jaffna, Vanni, Mannaar and Mullaiththeevu gains importance above all the events in the country of Eezham Tamils. University lectures, students across all the schools and grassroots political activists observed the Day paying tribute inside their houses amidst the gagged condition and attacks launched by the SL military operatives. Related Story >> [08.11.13] UK-PM buttressing SL-CHOGM seeks ‘legitimacy’ from London Tamils: British Establishment’s Prime Minister David Cameron hurriedly convened a meeting of handpicked Tamil articulators in London on Thursday evening to showcase that the diaspora has compromised with his participation at the Sri Lanka-CHOGM. The British effort seeking ‘Wigneswarans’ in London to ‘legitimise’ the CHOGM participation was also aiming at relieving the New Delhi Establishment from the mounting pressure in Tamil Nadu, Tamil political observers in London said. Related Story >> [07.11.13] 200 years of British colonial outlook continues to haunt Eezham Tamils: Like the colonial English lured the Colombo-fascinated Tamil elite of the 19th and early 20th centuries, today the strategy of the genocidal partners is to lure the Tamil elite of Colombo-centric and diaspora-centric interests to ‘patch up’ with the Sinhala elite and to diffuse the whole issue, without any fundamental returns to the nation of Eezham Tamils. Related Story >> [02.11.13] More evidences surface on antiquity of Jaffna fort site: More and more evidences surfacing at Jaffna fort indisputably prove that the colonial fort was built on an earlier archaeological site going back to the early centuries of the Common Era. The latest findings are a terracotta tablet of folk religious affinities and brick structural remains found 4.5 feet below the rampart walls at the western side of the fort. Related Story >> [29.10.13] New Delhi experiments Eezham model ‘counterinsurgency’ on its own people: Indian State now consolidates a policy that extraordinary political movements of mass basis, coming from peoples long exposed to social oppression, material deprivation, un-freedom and stark poverty in India, have to be eliminated with the deployment of an increasing number of armed forces. The more the forces are special and armed-to-the-teeth with impunity, the more they are effective, is the policy outlook. Related Story >> [28.10.13] SL military issues death threat to NPC members, TNA parliamentarian in Jaffna: The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers deployed in transforming the former High Security Zone in Valikaamam North into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) on Monday rounded up and threatened a delegation of TNA parliamentarian, elected members of the Northern Provincial Council and the members of two civic bodies, at gunpoint on Monday, when the delegation went to the site following the complaints by the uprooted people that the occupying SLA was demolishing their houses using bulldozers. Related Story >> [18.10.13] New Delhi following British imperialism does no justice to Eezham Tamils: 200 years of imperialist outlook, knowing very well that there are two historically evolved nations in the island but engineering unification for imperialistic purposes, has always gone against the nation of Eezham Tamils and contributed only to its genocide in every respect, including in its territory and demography, writes an academic in Jaffna. Related Story >>
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