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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 May 2011, 16:13 GMT]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has said that Australia, that has ratified and committed to end impunity, has a responsibility to speak up and call for accountability to end impunity for serious crimes in the region. Ms. Pillay was responding to the question by Dr. Sam Pari of Australian Tamil Congress at at panel discussion held at Human Rights 2011 event on 23 May in Sydney. Citing the response by Ms. Navi Pillai, a Greens MP, in her official blog said Australian Government's silence during and since the 2009 war adds to the pain the Tamil community is enduring.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 May 2011, 00:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka's effort to whitewash the charges of war-crimes during the final stages of war received a set back at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) annual session as Navaneetham Pillai, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said she supported special UN panel's recommendations in the war-crimes report made public on 14th April. Meanwhile, despite the theatrics orchestrated by Colombo in questioning the authenticity of the incriminating "Channel-4" video of extra-judicial executions, UN human rights expert, Christof Heyns, said that the shocking footage showed "definitive war crimes," and "[w]hat is reflected in the extended video are crimes of the highest order – definitive war crimes," Associated Press said quoting Heyns.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 30 May 2011, 17:29 GMT]
Officials of demining NGOs in Vanni allege that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are taking measures to ensure that evidence regarding the skeletal remains of Tamil civilians discovered during the demining operations do not become exposed or become public information, sources in Kilinochchi said. Sri Lanka officials have issued unofficial directives to the demining organizations to bury the skeletons in a demarcated area, according to the NGOs.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2011, 16:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy on Friday chased away hundreds of Tamils fishermen from Vadamaraadchi and Kurunakar North, engaged in fishing in the seas off Melignchi-munai of Ooraath-thu'rai (Kayts), blocking them from engaging in fishing in the seas off the islets. The fishermen said they have been fishing in the seas off Ooraath-thu'rai for many years with the permission from the fishermen association of Kayts. Sri Lanka Navy has chased the Tamil fishermen away to bring in Sinhala fishermen from south to occupy the fishing resources of Tamils, the fishermen alleged.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2011, 03:29 GMT]
Rain that drenched Tamil youth activists conducting a major leafleting effort in support of the ‘Boycott Sri Lankan Cricket’ campaign on Saturday, the third day of Sri Lanka’s first test match against England, proved a blessing in disguise when it stopped play till lunch, allowing them to canvass crowds of spectators milling outside the Swalec Stadium in Wales. Two dozen activists received warm support and encouragement from spectators, including several members of England’s colourful ‘Barmy Army’, as they handed out leaflets and conversed with them over several hours, organizers said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2011, 03:16 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), is to leave for New Delhi on Monday on a two day visit. Wickremasinhe is expected to hold talks with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, leader of the Congress Party Ms Sonia Gandhi, and several ministers in the Indian government, according to UNP sources in Colombo.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2011, 02:43 GMT]
A planned move to create dissension between the two communities -Tamils and Muslims- now living with understanidng and in harmony in the Batticaloa district is being orchestrated by the ruling party local politicians with the backing of Colombo authority, sources in the east said. Mr.Ali Zahir Mowlana, Chairman of the Era’voor PS is taking steps to shift the office of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) now located in a building in Ward 5 along Nallathamby Road in Era’voor Chengkaladi DS division to a Muslim suburb in the PS area. Tamil civic groups have urged the Regional Commissioners of Local Government Administrations in Batticaloa and Trincomalee to stop relocating government offices from Tamil areas to Muslim suburbs.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2011, 01:03 GMT]
Inner City Press (ICP), a widely known advocate in seeking clarifications to the United Nation's questionable actions towards Sri Lanka's alleged war-crimes accountability, reported Friday that United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, when "urged by the UN Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka to establish an investigative mechanism, Ban claimed he couldn't do so without a vote by the General Assembly, Security Council or Human Rights Council." But when ICP questioned the President of the General Assembly Joseph Deiss about the Sri Lanka Report, Deiss has reportedly said “[i]t's for the Secretary General to handle this case,” exposing UNSG's perceived duplicity in not being assertive in seeking accountability for crimes widely reported as war crimes and crimes against humanity bordering on genocide.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2011, 12:54 GMT]
The residents of Thoa'ni-thaa'nda-madu, a village situated in Koa'ra'laip-pattu North in Batticaloa district, along the border of Polonnaruwa district, on Friday observed 14th anniversary of massacre of Tamil villagers whom the Sri Lanka Army shot and hacked to death at least 3 women and 8 men with 6 children in the early hours of 27 May 1987 while the victims were asleep. The entire village was burnt together with the bodies of the victims. Last year, following the efforts taken by certain NGOs, around 56 families comprising 102 members had been resettled in the village, according to the Divisional Secretary of the area. However, the SLA has not been willing to hand over the houses it has occupied. Recently, the deployment of the SLA has been further strengthened, threatening the villagers of possible colonisation.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2011, 11:30 GMT]
32-year-old Staff Correspondent of Uthayan Daily in Jaffna, S. Kavitharan, was attacked Saturday morning around 6:30 by a gang believed to be operated by a paramilitary group, near the Jaffna Hindu College while the journalist was on his way to work, the officials at the paper said. A camouflaged group, of up to five members, attacked him with cricket bats.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2011, 03:28 GMT]
A 26-year-old Tamil youth, Thiyagarasa Kuhan, was wounded in an accidental blast while preparing for a hunt in the nearby jungle, reports from the area said.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2011, 03:05 GMT]
Eleven prominent Rights Groups including Carter Center, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and International Crisis Group, in a letter to US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, urged the US to "take advantage of the opportunity of 17th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council to highlight the need for effective accountability in Sri Lanka for war crimes and other abuses committed by both sides." The communication pointed to conclusions of the war-crimes report by the UN panel of experts that "tens of thousands were killed in the final months of the war..." and called for "establishment of an independent international mechanism with a mandate to conduct investigations into alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law,
including war crimes."
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[TamilNet, Friday, 27 May 2011, 11:35 GMT]
The United Nations sent a wrong signal to the world on Wednesday when it signed an agreement with the war crimes indicted Sri Lankan military for its induction in world ‘peacekeeping’ missions of the United Nations. Besides contradicting its own advisory panel report, the UN also ignored the earlier ‘record’ of the Sri Lankan military in the UN peace keeping missions. 114 Sri Lankan soldiers, on peacekeeping mission, were sent back by the UN from Haiti in 2007 for systematically raping Haitian women and girls, some as young as 7 years old. The move comes at a time when the UN is expected to take action on the findings of its report on war crimes and Sri Lanka is hosting international military conference to role model its genocidal military.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 May 2011, 05:58 GMT]
Defying SL Supreme Court request to provide one week time for it to consider a case filed by University students associations against a compulsory military training programme for the newly selected undergrads, the Rajapaksa regime proceeded with the programme on Sunday. The excuse of Colombo was that it had already spent money on the programme and students had already started traveling to the military centers announced by the SL government.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 May 2011, 05:21 GMT]
The genocidal army and militarized infrastructure of Rajapaksa regime proves its ‘capability’ in intimidating people in the island to put 1 million signatures within 10 days against the UN Expert Panel report. According to Sri Lankan state-owned media on Wednesday the vehicles, which are transporting the petition with letters against the UN report are now returning to Colombo, after which, the government will hand over the petition to the UN.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 May 2011, 08:22 GMT]
More than 40 acres of private land, including Saiva temples and their tanks, have been recently confiscated by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy in Ma’ndaitheevu island off Jaffna city to build a naval base and to expand the High Security Zone (HSZ) in that island. Sri Lanka occupying the country of Eezham Tamils denies the existence of High Security Zones in the north. Presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa addressing a meeting in Jaffna last month said that there are no High Security Zones, but the entire island is a ‘peace zone’. The creation of a new HSZ in Ma’ndaitheevu contradicts Colombo’s claim that de-mining is the reason why it is not allowing the resettlement of the HSZs in Jaffna by the owners of the lands.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 May 2011, 06:55 GMT]
Around 55,700 people still live the life of refugees in Jaffna, conceded Sri Lanka Government Agent in Jaffna, Mrs. Imelda Sugumar on Tuesday. The number includes people who lost their homes by the confiscation of lands by the occupying Army in Jaffna for ‘High Security Zones’ (HSZ) and those who have Jaffna connections and have come from Vanni after the war. On de-mining HSZs, 32 percent has been completed, 56 percent doesn’t need de-mining, work progresses in 5 percent and work is yet to start only in 7percent of lands, Imelda said. She didn’t answer the question whether 26 villages that are yet to be resettled in the Valikaamam HSZ come under the 56 percent that doesn’t need de-mining. She also didn’t answer the question whether the lands that are not de-mined yet are localities that have been refused of vacation by the occupying Army.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 May 2011, 04:43 GMT]
As the foreign ministers of the 118 member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meet Wednesday in Jakarta, Amnesty International urged them to support an international investigation into the killings of 40,000 civilians in the final months of Sri Lanka’s war. In an op-ed published in the Jakarta Post, Amnesty’s international advocacy director, Steve Crawshaw, said NAM countries “have a critical part to play in ensuring these terrible abuses never happen again and that survivors of the conflict can seek justice, thus laying the groundwork for reconciliation” and urged them to act on the report on the mass killings by the UN expert panel – led by former Indonesian attorney-general Marzuki Darusman.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 May 2011, 06:12 GMT]
An unidentified gang on Sunday night hacked to death a 75-year-old Tamil woman, Kulasekarapillai Rasanayaki, at her residence located along Ma'nal Veethi in Ka'luvaagnchik-kudi town in Batticaloa district.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 May 2011, 03:08 GMT]
Tamil families, who have been living for generations in Tamil villages of Oo'rani, Kanakar Kiraamam, Koddukkal and Ma'natcheanai in Poththuvil DS division, are under threat from Sinhalese to leave their houses and paddy lands, Tamil political circles in Ampaa'rai said.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 May 2011, 01:50 GMT]
Governments should decline Sri Lanka’s invitation to attend a Sri Lankan military conference that seeks to legitimize the unlawful killing of thousands of civilians during the armed conflict with the LTTE, Human Rights Watch said Monday. "This conference is nothing more than a public relations exercise to whitewash abuses. No professional, law-abiding military should take part in this farce," said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. Sri Lanka’s army chief admitted several Western states and Japan had declined the invitation, but India was sending three Colonels whilst Pakistan and Bangladesh are each sending a General, and Russia is sending six officers. The seminar is being sponsored by two Chinese defence companies.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 23 May 2011, 07:26 GMT]
Well known Eezham Tamil poet VIS Jayapalan received Special Jury Award (national level) at the 58th National Film Awards of India, held on Thursday, for his performance in the Tamil film Aaduka’lam. The 67-year-old poet and writer acted the role of a cockfight ringleader in the film. The achievement is extraordinary for a debut actor, film critics said. “With a face carved out of teak and leather the patriarch of a cock-fighting clan stands like a colossus, even when he feels his power and authority ebbing through his fingers,” reads the citation he received at the film award. Born in Uduvil, Jaffna, to a Delft family of Uduvil connections, and graduated from the University of Jaffna, Shanmugampillai Jayapalan presently lives in Norway as a member of the Eezham Tamil diaspora.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 23 May 2011, 07:20 GMT]
The coastal port town Valveddiththu’rai in the northern coast of Jaffna, the birthplace of the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, remains a targeted a place for harassment by the genocidal Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna. On Sunday, the Army stopped an annual sports-meet event organized by the sports associations of the town and also ordered the removal of the flags of the sports associations displayed for the event. At the involvement of the SL police later, the Army conceded to the conduct of the event, but said that such events should get prior approval from the occupying Army than from anybody else.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 23 May 2011, 06:48 GMT]
Uprooted Tamils in Champoor, whose lands were taken away by the Sri Lankan government for India's thermal power project, de-populating the Tamil villages and declaring the area as High Security Zone, managed to secure permission from the occupiers to to hold Vaikaasi Pongkal in several centuries old Champoor Paththirakaa'li Koayil on Sunday. The uprooted Tamils prayed for the blessing of Kaa'i goddess that they should be allowed to resettle without further delay in their home villages and in their houses in Champoor area.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 May 2011, 02:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Sinhala nationalist constitution - introduced in 1972 in contemptuous dismissal of the protests of the Tamils and their elected leaders - makes it “the duty of the state to protect and foster” Buddhism. This is a responsibility Sri Lanka’s High Commission in Britain apparently takes very seriously: according to a London newspaper, the mission has “whipped up” a campaign against a local Nepalese restaurant, the ‘Greedy Buddha’, whose owner is being bombarded with abusive and aggressive emails and letters, some of which threaten violence.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 May 2011, 22:08 GMT]
Increasing the profile of Ealam Tamils who have received international recognition, BBC has listed recently appointed as Deputy Prime Minister holding Finance, Manpower and Monetary Authority portfolios, in the Government of Singapore, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, as one of the top nine leading candidates to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The position became vacant after Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned so he could fight sexual assault charges.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 May 2011, 19:47 GMT]
“Tamils deserve freedom, they deserve dignity and they deserve their independence, as they want. That is the right of any nation on earth. It is the right for the Tamils too,“ said Conservative MP Robert Halfon from Harlow, who addressed the participants at the London event of Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day. Meanwhile, Lee Scott, a Conservative Member of Parliament for Ilford North, and an officer of the Conservative Friends of Israel group, said it was unacceptable for people not to know what had happened to their relatives, children and not to be able to live in peace and harmony with dignity. “I recently met with the SL High Commissioner and asked these questions. And I will continue to ask these questions,” he said and signed an appeal on the stage urging independent international investigations.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 20 May 2011, 18:58 GMT]
Genocidal regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa in further militarization of state in the island introduces an obligatory course conducted by the military for all students selected for the universities. The three-weeks course in selected centres of the SL Armed Forces begins on Sunday and Tamil students received summons letters in Sinhala, BBC News said Thursday. Meanwhile, Students Unions in the island have moved to the Supreme Court to stop the programme, and the court on Saturday has asked the SL Attorney General to postpone the commencement of the programme by one week.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 20 May 2011, 17:23 GMT]
A 23-year-old Art faculty student from the Eastern University in Batticaloa was found dead hanging in his house Friday morning, according to the Sri Lankan Police in Ka'luvaagnchik-kudi.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 20 May 2011, 17:06 GMT]
19-year-old Diluxon Anandarajah, taken away by the Sri Lanka Army intellligence from his house located in Zone-A of “Swiss” village at Kokkuvil in Batticaloa on 15 May has been reported missing, according to a complaint lodged by his mother with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. According to the complaint, SLA intelligence officer Suresh had taken away her son for ‘investigation’.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 14:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers on Thursday rounded up the mourners who were taking part in prayers at Kalaith-thoothu Hall in Jaffna, remembering thousands of their kith and kin slain in the genocidal war in Vanni in 2009. The armed soldiers of the occupying military that entered the premises blocked the mourners from leaving the building when the last program, a violin play, ended at 5:30 p.m., according to M K Sivajilingam of Tamil National Liberation Front and Sritharan MP of Tamil National Alliance.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:56 GMT]
A vigil in London commemorating the tens of thousands of Tamils massacred two years ago by Sri Lanka’s forces in the final months of the island’s war was addressed Wednesday by parliamentarians from all three major political parties and representatives of leading UK trade unions, rights and peace campaigns, as well as representatives of several Tamil Diaspora organisations, with many speakers calling for an international investigation into the atrocities and recognition of Tamil self-determination and Tamil Eelam. The British Tamil Forum (BTF), with the support of other diaspora groups has organised the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance event. Braving rains, over twelve thousand people attended the Trafalgar Square event in the course of the evening, the organizers said, citing police liaison officers.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:51 GMT]
Nearly one thousand expatriate Tamils from the U.S. and Canada held a protest rally in front of the United Nations headquarters near the Dag Hammarskjold park in Manhattan New York on the second anniversary of the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre of May 2009, appealing to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to act on the recommendations of his expert panel to conduct independent war crimes investigations in Sri Lanka. Protesters' chants of “UN, UN, Never again” and “Ban Ki-moon, Act Now” echoed off the white metal building where Secretary General Ban's office now is, Inner City Press (ICP) which covered the protest reported.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:44 GMT]
Subjugated to the extent of not being to able to even observe remembrance of the death of their kith and kin killed in thousands at Mu’l’lvaaykkaay in a powers-abetted genocide enacted by the Sri Lankan State in May 2009, the nation of Eezham Tamils on Wednesday demonstrated dormant anger through silent observations and confining themselves to their houses. The occupying military has ordered against any renting of public halls on Wednesday and has threatened potential organizers with dire consequences. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has requested people to mourn silently, and people responded. Movement of public, travel and commercial activities were very negligible in Jaffna and in other parts of the country of Eezham Tamils, amidst massive presence of the occupying Army of Sri Lanka.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 00:15 GMT]
A few Sinhala students recently admitted to Jaffna University chose the Mu’l’livaaykkaal Day to erect a decorated pandal at Thirunelveali Junction to ‘celebrate’ the birth of Buddha and to distribute eatables to passers by, while the Eezham Tamils subjugated to the extent of not being able to even openly observe the remembrance of their dead were silently mourning on Wednesday. While activities of Colombo in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils clearly show ‘reconciliation’ means subjugation and genocide, the US State Department that coined the paradigm ‘post-war reconciliation’ instead of post-war justice, and the supporting institutions of the West, are either once again outwitted by Sinhala diplomacy, or they wanted things to happen in this way, commented students of the Jaffna university.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2011, 15:21 GMT]
A special team of Sri Lanka Army personnel Tuesday afternoon conducted a search at the Batticaloa residence of Eastern Province Chief Minister S. Chandrakanthan alias Pilliayan. Mr. Chandrakanthan was not at his residence at the time of search operation. TMVP sources said the reason for the operation was not revealed by the army personnel. The search of Chandrakanthan's residence, located along Lake View, is being viewed as the climax of the internecine fighting between the two paramilitary groups, which are operated by the Rajapaksa regime in Colombo. Informed sources in Colombo said that the Sri Lanka Army intelligence unit has been actively engaged in causing deep division between the two paramilitary groups.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2011, 10:47 GMT]
41-year-old Pakkiyarajah Jeevaharan, a resident of Periyakallaa'ru in Batticaloa district was alleged to have hacked to death. His body was recovered from a house located along Ponnampalam Veethi at Periyakallaa'ru Tuesday morning on receipt of information by the Kaluvaangchchik-kudi police.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2011, 02:49 GMT]
Amid increasing calls by world's premier human rights NGOs, newly elected Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for independent international investigations into alleged accusations of war-crimes committed by Sri Lanka on Tamils, Tamil expatriates in several countries in the West are preparing to commemorate the massacre of Tamil civilians during the final phase of Sri Lanka war. In the United Kingdom, youth groups are organizing a vigil in Trafalgar Square and planning protest campaigns against visiting Sri Lanka cricket team, while in the U.S. in a show of unity, multiple Tamil organizations are participating in a protest and vigil in front of the United Nations building. Organizers of both events said they are expecting a large turnout.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 May 2011, 17:02 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in Canada, declaring the entire month of May as Genocide Month, have been focusing their efforts at grassroots and towards the diplomatic missions in bringing the Tamil concerns to the global community, according to the organisors of the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT), the democratically elected country council of Eezham Tamils in Canada. Meanwhile, Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) launched an awareness campaign through social media on Tamil genocide and was conducting signature campaign urging the International Criminal Court to investigate the Sri Lankan state. Democrats of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, have focused their efforts by engaging with the foreign missions in Canada and met with the Embassy of Mexico and the Embassy of South Africa.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 May 2011, 06:58 GMT]
For the sixth year, the Tamil Studies Conference that attracts academics and research students mainly from the academic institutions of the North American continent was held at the New College of the University of Toronto, between May 14 and 15. Prof. Daud Ali, Chair of the Department of South Asia Studies of the University of Pennsylvania and Feminist theorist and historian Ms. V. Geetha from Tamil Nadu delivered the keynote addresses of the two-day conference in which over 30 academics presented papers. A highlight of the conference was two panel discussions on Eezham Tamil refugees, one on structural violence against them and the other on the first arrival of Tamil boat refugees to Newfoundland, 25 years ago.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 May 2011, 06:55 GMT]
“The ‘international community’ should get moving now, because the Sri Lankan government has already dismissed the report out of hand,” said New Zealand parliamentarian Keith Locke on Monday, responding to the stand of New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully that the IC would consider appropriate action if the Sri Lankan government is unable to address the concerns of the UN panel report. Keith Locke called a similar stand by the European Parliament on the implementation of the panel report as compromising. “The European Parliament’s compromise resolution makes some good points but essentially leaves it up to the Sri Lankan government to investigate further and implement the Panel’s recommendations,” he said.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 16 May 2011, 18:05 GMT]
More than 600 students from all the faculties of Jaffna University, came together Monday to observe Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance, defying the threatening presence of Sri Lankan riot police commandos, Sri Lanka Army soldiers and intelligence operatives at the University premises between 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The Jaffna University Students Union urged the Tamils to excel in knowledge by continuing to focus on education and resolved that any effort to find a political solution should be founded on ‘historical realities’ and that those who claim to conduct ‘negotiations’ with the government should be mindful that their mandate is vested with people and all sections of the Tamil Nation should be consulted before finalising any model. Sinhala and Muslim students also took part in the remembrance event.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 16 May 2011, 10:51 GMT]
“A senile TNA member’s descendants are in the West. With one foot in the West and one in the grave this member thrive on the sufferings of the innocent Tamil civilians. And he likes kindling violence. And obviously TNA welcomed the findings of the Experts’ Panel,” was the editorial opinion of a “noteworthy” newspaper, Daily Mirror, published in Colombo on Monday. The editorial titled “Irresponsible politics,” by the pro-opposition newspaper, projecting itself belonging to a ‘liberal world’, show only the basic feelings of Sinhala polity, whether ruling or opposition, when it comes to delivery of justice to Tamils within Sri Lankan State that is upheld by powers in the island, commented Tamil political circles in the island, adding that the editorial in fact was a response to the stand of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalitha.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 16 May 2011, 05:59 GMT]
The occupying SL Military has stepped up cordon and search operations and check points in Batticaloa district following the slaying two persons associated with Karuna and Pillaiyan paramilitary groups in the district. All the travellers are stopped at newly set up check point at 5th Mile Post along Kalmunai-Batticaloa Road and are being interrogated by SL intelligence personnel.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 May 2011, 22:32 GMT]
The commander of the occupying genocidal Army of Sri Lanka, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe accompanied by large number of troops on Saturday visited the Changkaanai Murugamoorthi temple where the chief priest was killed and his two sons were fatally injured in a vicious firing, during a time when the occupiers were terrorising the people of Jaffna after the Heroes Day last November. “A special Pooja to invoke blessing on Commander Security Forces - Jaffna (SF-J) Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe and the troops serving in Jaffna was held,” said the website of the genocidal Army, adding that the Army prayed to stay more and more in Jaffna. Besides adding insult to injury, it was a subtle show of intimidation aimed at silencing or twisting evidence, observers said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 May 2011, 11:44 GMT]
The media of Eezham Tamils, both in Jaffna and Colombo, highlighted AIADMK victory in the headlines, with a specific note of Ms. Jayalalitha's concern to Eezham Tamils, especially her stand on genocide, war crimes and international justice against SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 May 2011, 11:17 GMT]
Suresh K. Premachandran, the official spokesman of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Saturday sent TNA's congratulations to Ms. J. Jayalalitha, the newly elected chief minister of Tamil Nadu state in India, saying that Eezham Tamils have become hopeful and are encouraged by the stand Ms. Jayalalitha has expressed to the media on the plight of Eezham Tamils. “Eezham Tamils seek your immense support to gain their full self-rule with self-dignity to lead a life in their own soil,” Mr. Premachandran said in the message.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2011, 21:26 GMT]
More than 200 prisoners and detainees, imprisoned in Vavuniyaa, have launched a fasting protest from Friday demanding the prison officers to transfer back four fellow inmates recently relocated to Anuradhapura prison. The protesting prisoners also demand to end physical harms against them and to stop harassing their relatives who come to visit them. A fasting inmate, 29-year-old Akilan, was wounded and admitted to Vavuniyaa hospital Saturday when the prison officers allegedly prompted a gang of prisoners to launch an attack on those who were fasting, according to the protesting Tamil prisoners.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2011, 21:00 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in NorthEast would mourn thousands of their slain kith and kin on 18 May, said M K Sivajilingam, a former TNA parliamentarian and the general secretary of Tamil National Liberation Front. “No one can suppress the memories of a people remembering the sacrifices of thousands of their loved ones,” the former Tamil parliamentarian said urging the Tamils in North and East to mark the day with courage in silence under the prevailing conditions of subjugation.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2011, 15:58 GMT]
Four Tamil Nadu fishermen were reported missing in the seas off Neduntheevu (Delft) islet in Jaffna in late April. Later, a decapitated body bearing a tattoo mark of The Cross on one of the arms was washed ashore and was identified as that of one of the missing Tamil Nadu fishermen. The family of the victim came to Jaffna, received the remains and conducted the burial at Naavaanthu'rai Church. Meanwhile, the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) from Jaffna Teaching Hospital, Dr. Sivarupan, who conducted the autopsy report in Jaffna was summoned to Colombo on Tuesday this week to sign a forged autopsy report by medical authorities in Colombo, informed sources in Colombo said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 20:26 GMT]
Dr Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN, admitted to sending an SMS message through a European intermediary giving instructions to leaders of the Libertation Tigers to surrender, Sydney Morning Herald reported in an investigative story in its Friday edition. In this "white flag" incident Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers is alleged to have gunned down all the LTTE members who surrendered. The Journalist Ben Doherty appeared to have visited Sri Lanka and gathered the pertinent evidentiary information, including a statement from an eye-witness to the incident.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 19:34 GMT]
While most of the media in India don’t want to recognize the heart of the matter behind the unprecedented way in which Tamil Nadu voters turned out to teach a lesson to the regimes in New Delhi and Chennai, grasping the significance behind her historic victory, Ms. J. Jayalalitha on her victory speech in Jaya TV Friday, recognizing genocide and war crimes against Eezham Tamils said: "I will exert pressure on the central government, after I take over as the CM, to take action against Sri Lankan president before international court for genocide and war crimes. India should take the initiative for this." The general mood among Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora over the TN election results was one that of vindication and jubilation. It has generated fresh hopes on the strength of public opinion in Tamil Nadu.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 18:11 GMT]
Unknown gunmen opened fire at a 38-year-old Tamil businessman causing injury to the victim on Eruvil school road in Ka'luvaagnchikkudi of Batticaloa district, Friday around 6:30 p.m., SL Police said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 11:35 GMT]
Leading in 193 constituencies of the 234-seat house, the AIADMK coalition led by J. Jayalalitha sweeps through the Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections in which an unprecedented 80 percent of the voters cast their votes. The DMK-Congress alliance trails behind with a lead only in 39 electorates. Ms. Jayalalitha’s party, leading in more than 130 seats, could comfortably form a government even without the participation of any alliance parties. Jayalalitha, who is generally considered to be honest to her words taking a positive stand towards the struggle of Eezham Tamils in recent times, and Mr. Karunanidhi being in the opposition are helpful for the cause of Eezham Tamils provided the civil society in Tamil Nadu is assertive and vigilant, political observers in Tamil Nadu said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 00:13 GMT]
While visiting SL presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa claimed in Jaffna on Monday that there is noting called ‘High Security Zone’ (HSZ) and that the whole island is a ‘Peace Zone’, 26 villages in the Valikaamam HSZ alone are occupied by Sri Lankan military, uprooting 43,700 people of 17,108 families for more than two decades now. The number is actually more, and could go upto 70,000, if refugees to foreign countries are included, welfare societies in Jaffna said. Considering, their location and the intentions of the occupying military, the people of these villages are afraid that they will never see their homes back. The excuse of Colombo is that it would take 8 more years for de-mining these villages.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2011, 22:58 GMT]
Following Judicial Medial Officer in Colombo confirming that the bone-remains recently found in the Mallkaakam Court complex in Jaffna belonged to human beings, further search was conducted Thursday in the dilapidated Court complex, which served as a SL military camp since 1996. Sri Lanka Police earlier claimed that the skulls found in a ruined well of the complex belonged to animals.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2011, 21:38 GMT]
China, India and Pakistan are among 40 countries that have confirmed their participation to attend a conference Sri Lanka is convening on 31 May to give advice on a new model for defeating insurgencies, Financial Times said Thursday, citing Sri Lankan officials. Colombo invited military officials from 54 countries. The US, Britain and a number of other European countries are still considering whether to attend, Financial Times further said. Commenting on the conference SL Brigadier Udaya Nanayakara said, “We also want to set the record clear that we have not committed any war crimes.”
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2011, 19:44 GMT]
“The EP urges the Sri Lankan government to implement the recommendations suggested by the UN panel of experts and conduct a genuine investigation,” said the European Parliament press release Thursday, leaving the delivery of justice with the genocidal state of Sri Lanka indicted for war crimes by the UN panel report. Eezham Tamils also noted with a feeling of insult added to injury, the statement of the EU parliament that said that the war “ended with the surrender of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)”, where as to their knowledge the war ended with massacre and genocide abetted by many establishments including some of the member states of the EU tagged behind the USA.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 May 2011, 23:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army in Vanni is forcing the Tamil civilians, who visit Vanni to see their kith and kin in Mullaiththeevu district from other parts of the island, to work in the SLA-run projects. Failing to do so they are warned and their relatives in Mullaiththeevu are being interrogated by the SLA intelligence unit, according to affected victims.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 May 2011, 22:28 GMT]
Two unidentified gunmen, who came in a motorbike, shot and killed 38-year-old Rasamanikkam Mathiyalakan, a SLFP coordinator and an assistant to the paramilitary leader cum SL deputy minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, Wednesday around 2:00 p.m. The killing took place at Mathiyalakan's residence located along Kalladiththeru Lagoon. Mr. Mathiyalakan was earlier an operative of the EPDP and later was associated with the Sri Lanka Army intelligence unit.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 May 2011, 03:15 GMT]
Legal action will be taken in courts against persons who fail to leave encroached State lands in Ko'raalaippaththu South division within one month, warned V. Thavarasa, Divisional Secretary (DS), sources in the east said. Sixteen Muslims and two Tamils have encroached each about fifty acres of state lands in Aathichcheanai area in Oothuchcheanai village. Wealthy persons including businessmen and rice mill owners are among the encroachers, according to the DS office.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2011, 01:36 GMT]
The United States has launched a high-level initiative to make its military more ready and able to respond to potential mass killings in future, the Wall Street Journal reports. The emerging doctrine is a blueprint for an interventionist foreign policy that places such ideas as "responsibility to protect" on a par with the principles of realpolitik, the paper says. A senior Department of Defense official told the WSJ that the project, which is at an early stage, would help develop "a complete set of options that the leadership can consider in the preventive area before it comes to sending in the military, or not sending in the military."
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2011, 01:16 GMT]
Tamil Diaspora groups are planning protests to coincide with Sri Lanka’s cricket tour of England this summer, beginning with a demonstration on May 14 at the Uxbridge venue of the first match between Sri Lanka and Middlesex County. The protest series is the latest phase of a ‘Boycott Sri Lanka Cricket’ campaign initiated by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) in March and since endorsed by several other Tamil community groups in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Tamil campaigners Monday dismissed Sri Lankan press reports claiming that British authorities were trying to prevent the protests.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2011, 00:01 GMT]
Despite all claims of unity and ‘reconciliation’ by state and some establishments in complicity with the state, in actual practice the state concedes division of nations and one nation in the island keeping the other for genocide and colonisation, said political circles in Jaffna, citing Colombo implementing a visa like system for travellers from outside visiting the north. It is a ‘must’ for all foreign travellers to get prior clearance from the SL ministry of defence to visit territories north of Vavuniyaa in the island, says SL defence ministry website in corrupt Tamil. While countries like Singapore and Malaysia, where Tamils are not an ancient nation, come out with official documents in flawless Tamil, genocidal Sri Lanka for decades is determined to murder Tamil, commented a diaspora visitor on seeing the language of the official announcement.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 18:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka President’s brother and SL Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa made an unannounced sudden visit to Jaffna Monday. Nothing will happen by some welcoming the UN panel report and ‘Tamils should not play treachery by betraying the country for a few thousand dollars,’ Basil Rajapaksa who was carrying a ‘special message’ from Mahinda Rajapaksa to the people of Jaffna said, while addressing a meeting at Maaviddapuram. Basil’s ‘message’ implied a warning against any evidence going out of Tamils in Jaffna on the war crimes and genocide committed on them, news sources in Jaffna said.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 12:55 GMT]
Similar to the show of a group of Sinhala thugs forcing passers by to sign petition against UN panel report in Jaffna city Sunday, a Sri Lankan minister CB Ratnayake lead the occupying military and military intelligence personnel to intimidate the resettled Eezham Tamils in Vanni to sign a petition Saturday and Sunday. Members of village and civil society institutions were summoned over the phone by the military to bring people to Ki’linochchi town and when they gathered, the group lead by Ratnayake forced them to sign the petition. The military deployed in the streets in large numbers saw to it that no one escapes signing.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 12:22 GMT]
Tamils are ignored in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) competitive examination conducted by the Sri Lanka’s Department of Education. Not a single Tamil public servant has been selected from the SLAS competitive examination conducted in 2010, sources in the Department of Education said. Applications were called in for the said examination in 2009. More than thousand Tamils sat for the examination held in Colombo and Jaffna.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 01:31 GMT]
In a comic show of events, Sinhalese thugs bought from the south staged a demonstration in Jaffna Sunday, against the UN panel report calling for war crimes investigation. In several places in the Jaffna city they were seen forcing passing by people to sign petitions and those who refused were chased and manhandled by the military intelligence accompanying the ‘demonstrators.’ Even a reputed Catholic priest was not an exception, news sources from Jaffna said. While Tamils have to build up their own democratic polity for ‘reconciliation’ within a ‘united’ island is the reiteration of the US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake, the Indian National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon’s position is that why should there be any qualms in Tamil Nadu when Eezham Tamils and Sinhalese make ‘home-made solutions’ in the island.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2011, 23:53 GMT]
Sinhala villagers backed by Sri Lankan military operated ‘home guards’ have forcibly encroached one thousand acres of paddy fields that belong to Tamils and Muslims in Puthukkaadu, Oottu and Muthu-kaayamadu in Moothoor DS division in Trincomalee district.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2011, 11:40 GMT]
While building up democratic politics in the north and east is reiterated as a prerequisite for ‘reconciliation,’ the genocidal SL Army occupying Jaffna under the command of ‘Asian Nobel Peace Laureate’ Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe is engaged in intimidating politicians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the most favoured political formation in the north and east, and the people who come into contact with it, news sources in Jaffna said. The occupying army particularly threatening people resettled in the so-called High Security Zones that “the TNA should not come here, if they come you will be chased out again,” shows that there is a long-term agenda in the Army to take Tamil politics directly into its hands, the news sources further said.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 16:30 GMT]
The Maldivian foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem told journalists in Colombo that the UN report into human rights abuses in the closing days of Sri Lanka’s civil war is “singularly counterproductive,” reports Minivan News, an independent news service from Maldives, Saturday. Maldives is currently a member of the UN Human Rights Council. This week, the US Asst. Secretary of State Robert Blake, after closeting with Sri Lanka’s defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made a three-day visit to the Maldives. Eezham Tamils in UK, who support the Conservative Party that has considerable influence in deciding the foreign policy of Maldives should take a special note of what the Maldivian foreign minister has said, commented a diaspora political observer.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 09:09 GMT]
Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam was summoned on Thursday by the occupying Sri Lanka military in Valveddiththu’rai and was interrogated for about half an hour. The reason for the interrogation was his manifesto for the forthcoming local body elections in which he has called for the shifting of the SL military camps from the Valveddiththu’rai town area, as they cause much inconvenience to the free movement of the public, alleges Mr. Sivajilingam, who contests for the Town Council of Valveddiththu’rai under TNA ticket.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 08:57 GMT]
By maintaining silence, and covertly working against war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka, India bargained Colombo’s cabinet approval for its hold on the KKS harbour of Eezham Tamils, political observers in Jaffna said. The SL cabinet has approved a proposal by Rajapaksa to develop KKS harbour with Indian aid and a MoU is to be signed soon with Indian government, Deccan Herald reported Thursday. Meanwhile, SL Army physically being inducted in building blocks for a reputed school in the area sets dangerous precedence for prolonged military rule over Eezham Tamils by the occupying Sinhala Army, and shows long-term occupation interests of the military in that particular region, political observers in Jaffna further said.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 01:21 GMT]
Australia has accepted as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner former Navy commander Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, according to some press reports. Admiral Samarasinghe was commander of the Navy during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s war, including the final months in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were slaughtered. The recently released UN panel’s report states that “[f]rom as early as Feb 6 [2009], the SLA continuously shelled within the area that became the second NFZ from all directions, including air, land and sea.”
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 01:19 GMT]
Endorsing the recommendations of the UN expert panel’s report on war crimes in Sri Lanka, the African National Congress (ANC) criticised Colombo’s use of “a military solution of resolving problems [between conflicting parties]” and called on the government “to take immediate steps to address the core grievances of the Tamil population and engage in a genuine reconciliation process.” The ANC noted that one of the UN experts was a prominent South African jurist, Yasmin Sooka, and said it “has consistently condemned any act of violation of human rights in all conflict areas.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 May 2011, 05:38 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, the leader of the Democratic Peoples Front (DPF), who was once named by then US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice, in a statement issued on Wednesday, reminded the Tamils that the visiting US Asst Secretary Robert Blake was instrumental in providing US government's unconditional support to the war waged by the Sri Lankan state against Tamils. The “US government wanted put out a savior impression. But in real it did not bother about the Tamil civilian causalities,” Mr. Mano Ganesan said. “International community should act decisively with the GoSL. It is time that US assistant state secretary for central and south Asia affaires Robert O Blake lives upto his earlier ambassadorial preaching. He should not mislead the Tamils again.”
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 May 2011, 12:21 GMT]
The Colombo High Court Wednesday issued notices on two more witnesses cited by the defense to be present at the next date of trial in the controversial white flag case in which the former army commander Sarath Fonseka has been indicted by the Attorney General, legal sources in Colombo said. Fonseka was charged for causing disrepute to the government by giving an interview to a English weekly alleging that the Defense Secretary Gotabahaya Rajapakse had ordered the army to shoot all LTTE cadres, who come to surrender holding white flags at the last leg of the Vanni war, dead.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 May 2011, 12:19 GMT]
Former Sri Lanka Minister Milinda Moragoda has been appointed special advisor on foreign policy matters to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse. Moragoda is to assume duties with immediate effect, according to Presidential Secretariat sources.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 May 2011, 00:08 GMT]
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) Tuesday released a document which the group claimed "substantiates allegations of war crimes committed by the 57 Division of the Sri Lankan Army under the command of Jagath Dias." ECCHR appealed to the German Government to take the allegations levelled against Major General Dias' 57 Division seriously, and to seriously investigate his [Dias's] individual criminal responsibility. ECCHR also appealed to the German Government to withdraw the diplomatic visa of Major General Dias as well as declare him a persona non grata.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 23:19 GMT]
29-year-old Canadian Eezham Tamil Rathika Sitsabaiesen, hailing from Achchuveali in Jaffna, has been elected as member of parliament in Canada as a candidate of New Democratic Party (NDP) which has emerged as the leading opposition under the leadership of Jack Layton in the general elections held on May 02. Ms. Rathika now represents the multi-ethnic federal constituency of Scarborough- Rouge River, where Eezham Tamils make a significant section of the population. She is the first Tamil to be elected to the Canadian Parliament. Her successful election by a big margin through the opposition NDP ticket reflects the true feelings of Eezham Tamils in Canada towards establishments that slip in delivering justice to Eezham Tamils, commented Tamil diaspora circles in Canada.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 18:08 GMT]
Robert O. Blake, the US assistant secretary of state for the South and Central Asian affairs visited Vanni for the first time on Tuesday and learned the plight of Tamil civilians, affected by the genocidal war waged by the Sri Lankan state in 2009 and continue to suffer in the hands of the SL military. The occupying SL military didn't allow journalists to witness the event, which was scheduled as monitoring the ‘development’ activities supported by the USAID, the lead development agency of the US government. However, civilians who had the opportunity to raise their plight with Mr. Blake, who came to witness the programmes for unemployed youth and the farmers, said they got an opportunity to raise their concerns and got a chance to respond to the questions from the visiting US diplomat.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 16:35 GMT]
Several robberies carried out by armed men in military uniform have taken place in recent times in Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts in Vanni, where resettlement of civilians is partially allowed. Armed men in military uniform who came to Kallaa'ru Periyaku'lam village, claiming that they were on a search operation, instructed the families of two houses to stay outside while they searched their houses around 01:00 a.m. The men removed all the valuable belongings inside the houses and walked away, residents who had recently resettled complained.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 03:16 GMT]
Two years after the end of the war, Tamils in the North and East are still living under the yoke of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), said Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.P.Ariyanenthran. "Colombo government and its supporters are saying that the peace has returned with the end of the three decade old war.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 02:35 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) in its May Day message said that Colombo should take immediate steps to provide equal status in education to affected students in Vanni region, and also to provide relief and other assistance to teachers who were reported killed and disappeared in the conflict.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 00:21 GMT]
Resettled Tamil families in Kudumpimalai village in Koa'ralaippattu south DS division in east resettled about two years ago have complained to non-governmental organizations that they are not being provided with basic facilities. NGO representatives who visited the village recently were told that about 150 families were resettled but only 25 houses constructed by NECCDEP had been handed over to the families.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2011, 15:40 GMT]
The nine governors appointed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, including the two ex-military governors of North and East, Maj. Gen (retd.) G.A. Chandrasiri and Rear Admiral (red.) Mohan Wijewickrema, have come out with a joint statement accusing the UN Expert panel report as a “biased unilateral report which would bring discredit to the President and the Armed Forces thereby to the people of Sri Lanka.” Mohan Wijewickrema, the colonial SL governor of the Eastern Province has issued the press release in the capacity of the Chairman of 13th Governor’s Conference.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2011, 09:20 GMT]
Two veteran Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) politicians, C.V.K Sivagnanam and Mavai Senthirajah, on Sunday urged international supervision of a process that guarantees both a proper negotiation process and the implementation of results in the talks between the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). The two officials of ITAK, a key party of the TNA, in their address urged that both the governments of India and Tamil Nadu to play a sincere and constructive role to bring about an international supervision that should include China, USA and other world players. In the meantime, the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) condemned the agents of the Sri Lankan state for forcing Tamils from all the districts in the North and East to take part in May Day demonstrations in Colombo, organized by Sinhala extremist elements against the UN Expert panel report.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2011, 05:42 GMT]
The Federation of National Organizations, a coalition formed by ten Sinhala extremist groups in the south, has requested the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to terminate its talks with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a statement issued on May Day, coinciding with the protest show of Mahinda Rajapaksa against the UN Expert Panel report. Meanwhile, Tamils from several parts of the island were forcefully taken to Colombo by Sri Lankan military, paramilitary and other agents to showcase as people from all ethnicities were united in the protest against the UN. However, a dead silence prevailed in the SL occupied country of Eezham Tamils throughout the whole day on May Day.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 May 2011, 19:31 GMT]
The special committee appointed by UNP Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, to study the UN war-crimes report on Sri Lanka is due to communicate its findings and stand on the report to the UNP and its leader this week, the Sinhala daily Lakbima said. The UNP committee is led by Bradman Weeerakoon and subsequent to the advice given by this panel, the UNP leadership will make the Party's stand public, according to sources close to UNP.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 May 2011, 08:51 GMT]
Amid vicious propaganda by the Colombo government that UN Experts Panel is against the interests of the Muslim Community, Mr. Basheer Sego Dawood, deputy minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksea government said that the report should be considered as a foundation to find a lasting political solution for the ethnic conflict in the country.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 May 2011, 08:48 GMT]
Moratuwa police Sunday morning arrested four cadres of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) while they were preparing for the May Day rally that is scheduled to be held in the afternoon. They were taken to the police station while they were decorating a vehicle for a display against the privatization of the free education system, JVP sources told media in Colombo.
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