British Court finds Sri Lanka torture allegations credible, stays deportation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2012, 23:29 GMT]
British High Court of Justice, Administrative Court Judge, Mr Justice Eady, noting "[t]he recent Human Rights Watch report, dated 29.05.2012 suggests that there may be new evidence relevant to the risk of ill treatment," overturned the removal order on about 40 failed Tamil asylum seekers, in a dramatic last-minute order hailed by rights groups and attorneys representing to-be-deportees as a landmark decision in UK. "Judicial attitudes have changed," and "previously hard-line judges are granting stays, mostly on grounds of risk upon return," said Barristor Paramjothy from a London-based legal institution.
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Uprooted Tamils live with UXO threat, UN agencies silent on demographic ‘conquest’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2012, 04:30 GMT]
Uprooted Eezham Tamils from the coastal villages of Mullaiththeevu district, denied resettlement in their own lands and forced to ‘resettle’ in Koampaavil resettlement-scheme, away from the radars of international media and human rights activists, have been abandoned without proper humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, the families, clearing lands have been confronted with unexploded ordnance in the area that has been declared by UN agencies as clear of landmines. Last Sunday, 37-year-old Manoranjitham Asokkumar, a mother of three children, sustained serious injuries while clearing her plot of land. Local humanitarian workers, who gave photographs to TamilNet, alleged that the UN agencies had failed to even highlight the plight of the civilians who face the threat of landmines in the area, which the agencies have earlier verified as clear of landmines.
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Tamil asylum seekers to be forcibly deported from UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2012, 02:42 GMT]
While the British Government prepares to welcome Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse to the Royal Jubilee pageant, dozens of failed Tamil asylum seekers are to be forcibly deported to Sri Lanka today, despite objections raised by human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) that there is well founded fear of torture of the returnees. Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) a US-UK based activist group released a research report Tuesday documenting details of evidence of the "risk of persecution upon return simply by virtue of the fact that they sought asylum abroad and also because of imputed political opinion regarding involvement with or sympathy for the LTTE."
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Tamil youth in France pledge to uphold Tamil sovereignty

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2012, 18:36 GMT]
Eezham Tamil youth in France resolved to challenge the dominant global injustice against oppressed nations and approved of The Tamil Sovereignty Cognition declaration “as a principled approach to solve the national question of Eelam Tamils”, along with other resolutions regarding contemporary issues, at a meeting on ‘Self-Determination of the Tamil Eelam people’ organized by the Tamil Youth Organization (TYO)-France at Paris, on Sunday. Speaking to TamilNet, Gobina Mohanandan, media co-ordinator for TYO-France, said that the meeting aimed to give conceptual clarity on Tamil sovereignty and also to highlight the importance of raising awareness among the French public on genocide of the Eezham Tamils and the right of the Tamil people to self-determination.
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HRW urges UK to suspend deportation of Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 May 2012, 23:32 GMT]
The United Kingdom should immediately suspend deportations of ethnic Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka and review its policies in assessing these claims, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The next scheduled deportation of Tamils from the United Kingdom to Colombo is due to take place on May 31, 2012.
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Muslim journalist assaulted for expressing solidarity with Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 May 2012, 15:35 GMT]
An official employed by the Sri Lankan Minister of Industries and Trade, Rishard Badurdeen, on Monday assaulted a 72-year-old Muslim journalist, MA Cader, for having taken part in a prayer expressing solidarity with Mannaar Bishop on Sunday with thousands of civilians of all walks of life in Mannaar. The SL Minister Badurdeen had issued veiled threats against Mannaar Bishop during a speech in the SL Parliament recently. The SL minister's threat against the Bishop comes in the wake of Colombo's harassment against the Bishop, who boldly brought out the fact that 146,679 people had gone unaccounted for in the last stages of Vanni war.
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Child abductions on rise in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2012, 17:51 GMT]
Local human rights watchdogs in Jaffna have blamed media for failing to cover the abductions that are on the rise in Jaffna peninsula this weekend as a father from Valveddith-thu'rai (VVT) managed to chase a vehicle that abducted his son, securing his release in Ki'linochchi and a media worker at the Indian Deputy High Commission in Jaffna found his abducted son returning from Ki'linochchi the following day after the abductors finding him the son of an officer in the Indian mission in Jaffna. As the abductees are being taken to hide-outs in Ki'linochchi, human rights activists in Jaffna allege that the occupying Sri Lankan military is involved in the abductions.
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International Community answerable, say Jaffna University students

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 May 2012, 01:20 GMT]
In the absence of no action to the attack on the student leader aiming at denial of ‘right to memory’ of the Tamil student community, the ultimate responsibility goes with the international community that has unleashed and upholds such a militarized setup against Tamils, commented boycotting students of the University of Jaffna who have decided to attend classes from Monday, after a closed-door meeting with the occupying Sinhala Commander for which the student representatives were taken under threat of ‘dire consequences’. In a statement released on Friday the student’s union has asked the question that the international community has to answer what is the point in the Geneva resolution and the LLRC report. Tamil politicians should realize the futility of participating the delay tactics by which Colombo engages the IC, the statement said.
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Tamil farmers' lands remain occupied in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 May 2012, 23:18 GMT]
Tamil farmers, whose paddy fields have been illegaly encroached 38 years ago in Ampaa'rai district's Chammaan-thu'rai, complain that they have not been provided their lands even after the war ended in May 2009.
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Colombo twists investigation of Canadian Tamil citizen's brutal slaying

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 May 2012, 22:56 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence and the SL Police have projected the murder case of the late Mahendrarajah as a ‘robbery’ related crime by allegedly ‘fixing’ approvers. Informed sources in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet Saturday that the laptop and the mobile phones missing from the victim and ‘recovered’ later by the SL police were found erased of contact details and logs. The manoeuvrings of the Colombo regime, its defence establishment and its intelligence outfits in fixing the case shows only a tip of the iceberg about the existing conditions, but a careful scrutiny and pursue of even minor details of the fixing exercise would reveal the dimensions of the plight faced by Eezham Tamils in the captivity of the genocidal regime, informed circles knowing background stories further said.
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Dublin conference on geopolitics highlights need for critical solidarity

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 May 2012, 23:40 GMT]
Activists from Kurdistan, Colombia, Ireland and the island of Sri Lanka, talking about the role geopolitics played in determining peace-processes and conflict in various cases, informed a mixed audience of activists, academics and journalists of the nuances of their respective cases connecting it with larger trends at an event organized at Trinity College, Dublin on Thursday. The public meeting titled ‘The Local and the Global: The Geopolitics of Peace and Conflict’, focussing on conflicts in Colombia, Kurdistan, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, elaborated on how different alignments of global interests influenced political outcomes at local levels. The conclusion of the conference saw the unanimous passing of a resolution that opposed the criminalization of political organizations like the FARC, PKK, LTTE that fought for political and democratic demands of peoples.
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SL military coerces Jaffna University students to closed-door talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 May 2012, 06:21 GMT]
The commander of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe, intimidated leaders of the boycotting students of the Jaffna University to come for a closed-door meeting at the occupation headquarters on Wednesday to tell them that the SL military would not provide security to students if they engage in political or social activities. The students were boycotting classes since last Friday, after an attack on the students’ union secretary, Mr. Dharshananth, when he was going to the university to organise Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance. Demanding security assurance to come from the Vice Chancellor of the university, earlier the students refused to talk directly with the occupying military unless it was an open meeting involving the media. But through the VC the military threatened the students of ‘dire consequences’ to force them into a closed-door meeting.
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Tamils will never accept Sri Lanka constitution: Sivajilingam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2012, 00:43 GMT]
Eezham Tamils were not a party and will never accept the one-sided constitutions Sri Lanka enacted either in 1972 or in 1978, said former TNA parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam speaking in Jaffna on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The 1978 constitution not only continued the unitary concept but also made it more autocratic under executive presidency. The Amendments, including the 13 Amendment only strengthened the unitary character. Therefore, Tamils will not accept solutions bound by these constitutions. Based on the right to self-determination we demand the right to rule ourselves in our land, Sivajilingam said.
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40-year-old Sri Lanka constitution burnt at cremation ground of Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 02:05 GMT]
The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised the unitary Sinhala-Buddhist State and brought in the name ‘Sri Lanka’, against the wishes of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, has been burnt on its 40th anniversary on Tuesday, 22 May 2012, at the spot where the LTTE leader Pirapharan's mother was cremated but desecrated by the occupying Sinhala forces last year.
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Tamil diaspora youth group condemns attack on JUSU leader

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 01:08 GMT]
In a statement issued on Monday, the Global Tamil Youth League (GTYL), a diaspora youth group, said that the assault by a four-member squad on the secretary of the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) on the day of Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance was an attempt by the occupying Sri Lankan forces to instil fear in students and silence their voices for justice. The GTYL blamed the Government of Sri Lanka for targeting such remembrance events of Eezham Tamils with the aim of extinguishing the memory of the victims.
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General of genocide released in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 May 2012, 23:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s former military commander General Sarath Fonseka, who led the Sinhala military in the ‘international community’ –abetted genocidal war against the Eezham Tamils, has been released by the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime in Colombo on Monday. While the so-called international community reducing the genocide into mere war crimes, now verbally demands investigation into the ‘war crimes’, the general who led the war and later imprisoned because Rajapaksa found him a challenge, was considered by the USA as a ‘political prisoner.’ His release on that count was always demanded by the USA, the main architect of the war. Fonseka during the war declared that Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese. He also ridiculed the politicians of Tamil Nadu protesting the war as ‘jokers’.
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LJP President Paswan backs call for UN referendum

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 May 2012, 06:36 GMT]
Ram Vilas Paswan, the president of Lok Janshakthi Party from the state of Bihar and a former Indian minister, took part in a candlelight vigil organized near the Kannagi statue at the Marina Beach, Chennai by May 17 Movement on Sunday and signed on the list of the signature campaign calling for UN referendum among Eezham Tamils to assert their political destiny. Mr. Paswan, a Rajya Sabha MP, talking to media also said that Tamils had mandated the creation of Tamil Eelam in 1977 elections, which was based upon Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of all Tamil parties that represented Tamils in the island. The Sri Lankan state has not only ignored Eezham Tamils' democratic mandate, but has also systematically unleashed violence on them.
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Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembered as symbol of protest in Australia, Canada

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 May 2012, 05:50 GMT]
Exhibiting a spirit of commitment to the Tamil Eelam freedom struggle and seeking to undo defeatist mentalities of some in the diaspora, Eezham Tamil youth in Australia and Canada organized Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance events in their countries as symbolizing Tamil resistance to oppression and genocide, on Friday and Saturday respectively. Speaking to TamilNet, the organizers asserted that Mu’l’livaaykkaal was not a time to weep and mourn, but an occasion to remember the heroic deeds of those who went down fighting for freedom though a genocidal army assaulted them without respite with the aid of world powers, and an occasion to pledge commitment to the ideals of struggle for Tamil Eelam.
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Germany’s Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance highlights IC’s abetment of genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2012, 05:39 GMT]
Addressing a huge gathering of Eezham Tamils who had gathered to remember those massacred in May 2009, speakers at the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance at Dusseldorf highlighted the role the powers in the International Community played in abetting the genocide of the Eezham Tamils, besides emphasising the need to remain faithful to the fundamentals of the struggle for Tamil Eelam, on Friday. While Dr. Andrew Higginbottom, lecturer at Kingston University, London spoke about how the US-UK axis provided the necessary background for the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre to happen, Ninthujah Sutharshan, research scholar and Deputy Chief of Eezham Tamils’ Country Council in Germany, said that the ideals of the Tamils’ struggle “was defined in Mullivaikkal by the people who died defending that cause and cannot be redefined in Berlin or London or Paris or New York to match our comfort and convenience.”
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Independent international investigation on Sri Lanka called for at London event

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2012, 05:35 GMT]
Eezham Tamils from across the UK gathered at Trafalgar Square, London to remember the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre at a remembrance event organized by the British Tamils’ Forum, on Saturday. With participation from the main political parties of the UK, diaspora groups and activists from the homeland and Tamil Nadu, speakers at the occasion emphasised the need for an independent international investigation in the island, a probe into charges of genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state, ending the militarization and colonization of the Tamil homeland, and self-determination of the Tamil people. Many of the non-Tamil speakers also strongly stated that the UK should stop deporting the Eezham Tamil asylum seekers back to the island. The event drew a crowd of over five thousand the organizers said, citing police sources.
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Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance observed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2012, 05:19 GMT]
People of Vanni on Friday observed Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance amidst threats by the occupying Sri Lankan forces. The only statue for the fallen in Mu'l'livaaykkaal is situated within the premises of a church besides the statue in remembrance of a priest who had succumbed due to torture under incarceration by the SL military. In the meantime, Saivita devotees went to temples for special poojas.
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Jaffna University comes to standstill following attack on student leader

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2012, 04:31 GMT]
Following a lethal attack on the Jaffna University Students’ Union Secretary, Dharshananth, who was on his way to the university on Friday to organize the Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance Day, students demanding the Vice Chancellor to get assurance for their security, decided to boycott classes and continue their struggle in various ways until the security question is resolved. We are not waging an armed struggle. We fight for our rights and for our people through democratic means. But politically motivated violent attacks continue to be unleashed against us. The International Community has committed a colossal blunder. Three years after the genocide none of the culprits has been punished. Our message to Tamil political parties and to the diaspora is that their actions should not betray our hopes, students said in their speeches.
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Tamil parties hold Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2012, 04:20 GMT]
How could one expect that the Colombo government would negotiate with us to find a political solution while we are not even refused to honour the war dead people on this day, asked Maavai Senathiraja MP of the Tamil National Alliance on Friday at the remembrance event held on Martin Road office by the Tamil National Alliance. Meanwhile, the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) also observed a separate event marking Mu'l'livaaykkaal. The occupying SL military was registering the details of the participants. Both the remembrance events took place amid heavy deployment of the SL military.
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Photos show torture before killing Canadian Tamil in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2012, 02:30 GMT]
The Canadian Tamil victim who was allegedly slain by Sri Lankan military-operated killing squad two weeks ago, while he was in Ki'linochchi claiming back his properties appropriated by the occupying military, was severely tortured before he was finally killed, legal sources in Ki'linochchi said. The 53-year-old victim, Mr Andrew Mahendrarajah Anthonippillai, was tortured inside his house by the squad and was chased out of the house and slain. The wristwatch he was wearing at the time of the killing stopped ticking at 8:56 p.m. on the fatal day of 03 May 2012, according to the photos submitted to the courts by the police. Due to legal and international value of the evidence, TamilNet publishes edited photos in black and white, cautioning readers against the strong content.
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Tamil Nadu begins campaign for UN referendum on Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2012, 00:03 GMT]
Demanding the UN to conduct a referendum among Eezham Tamils to allow them to determine the political future of their homeland, Tamil Nadu based civil society group Youth Against War Crimes and Genocide (YAWCAG) started a campaign to collect one crore signatures to convey solidarity for the same, on Wednesday. The signature campaign which was inaugurated near the Gandhi statue at Marina beach involved participation of veteran political activists and civil society groups from Tamil Nadu. The organizers plan to take the campaign to other districts of Tamil Nadu soon. “It is necessary for the people of Tamil Nadu to pressurize the state and central government to recognize that the Eezham Tamils cannot live with dignity and peace under a unitary Sri Lankan state,” E. Ra. Thirumalai, one of the co-ordinators of YAWCAG, told TamilNet.
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University student leader attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2012, 09:25 GMT]
A four-member squad on Friday morning attacked the secretary of the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) using iron-rods near a Sri Lanka Army camp at Kaladdi in Jaffna with causing serious injuries to the 25-year-old student leader, who was on his way to the University in a bicycle to observe Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance. Despite the threats by the Sri Lanka military intelligence, the students of Jaffna University went ahead with the memorial event stating that it was their democratic right to mark the remembrance day and protested against the military operated administration of civil affairs in the peninsula. Tension prevails at the University of Jaffna where students have gathered in thousands.
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Colombo unwilling to give grounds to Tamils, says NY Judge

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2012, 00:40 GMT]
Accusing the international community for being "unwilling or incapable of objective fact finding on the issue applied to the Tamils and what has happened in Sri Lanka," Judge Dearie, Judge for the District Court of the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), said during the sentencing hearing of Karunakaran Kandasamy, a Tamil charged with material support to the LTTE, that the situation "really does cry out for some independent reliable voice to tell the full story," and noted that "[t]his Colombo government doesn't seem willing to give ground in terms of the Tamil community, and although the war is over, the conflict continues."
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SL military celebrating ‘victory’ in Jaffna insults Indian diplomat

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2012, 16:38 GMT]
Indian diplomat in Jaffna, V. Mahalingam, who chose to insult the Eezham Tamils bereaving the Mu’l’lvaaykkaal genocide by participating the ‘victory’ celebrations of the genocidal Sinhala military at the Palaali camp in Jaffna, was in turn insulted by the occupying military and its commander Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe on Thursday. The consul at the Deputy Indian High Commission in Jaffna was offered neither a place in the stage nor a seat reserved for him, but was ignored by the SL military and officials of the colonial governor Maj. Gen. Chandrasri. Mahalingam getting out of the event was seen encountered by Hathurusinghe and entering into an argument. Later, a seat was offered to him in the frontline of the audience. Meanwhile school children in Jaffna were forced to participate the celebrations to ‘honour’ Sinhala soldiers with medals.
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SLA expands occupation of Mannaar with two new camps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2012, 23:42 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan Army in Mannaar has started constructing two new large camps in Murungkan in appropriated lands, civil groups in Mannaar mainland complain. Hundreds of SL Army soldiers have come into agricultural settlements occupying water supplies and appropriating lands adjacent to lakes. Tamil and Muslim females complain that they are unable to move in their villages in evening times due to the heavy presence of occupying Sinhala soldiers. Questioning why the SLA is constructing two large camps in the same village, civil activists expressed fear that the move was part of a larger design to occupy and Sinhalicise the entire area comprising fertile agricultural lands of Tamils and Muslims.
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Military GA constructs Buddhist stupa at historic Saivite site in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2012, 15:10 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Government Agent of Trincomalee Major General (retd) Ranjith de Silva has appropriated 15 acres of land that belongs to the Trincomalee District Young Men’s Hindu Associations Federation (TDYMHAF) in the traditional Tamil village Kanniyaa, situated 7 km north of the east port city, for the construction of a Buddhist Vihare. The appropriated land is located in the vicinity of the Kanniyaa hot wells, a revered place for Saivites. The administration of the historic Kanniyaa hot wells has also been handed over to a Buddhist monk who is the head of the Velgam Buddhist Vihare, which is located two km away from the site, according to a memorandum submitted to the All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC).
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Uprooted Tamils in Ampaa'rai district languish without resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 23:48 GMT]
Tamil villages in the DS divisions of Poththuvil, Chammaa-thu'rai and Akkaraippattu in Ampaa'rai district are still in the state of complete destruction. Out of 427 families uprooted from Thangkavealautha-puram, only 70 have been resettled. 80 families have been resettled in Kagnchi-kudichchaa'ru village out of 424 uprooted families. 60 families of 126 uprooted have been resettled in Kaagnchirankudaa village and only 35 out of 127 uprooted families have been resettled in Chaakaamam village, civil officials said.
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New York Judge frees another Tamil man accused of aiding terrorism

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 00:22 GMT]
Ramanan Mylvaganam, 35, accused by the U.S. prosecutors of trying to buy night vision goggles and assisting in the purchase of computer equipment, electronic components and communications equipment for the Liberation Tigers, was allowed to go free after Eastern District of New York Judge Drearie sentenced Ramanan to time served, rejecting the request by the Prosecutors who sought a 15-year sentence. Only on Friday the same judge let another Tamil man who the FBI and the prosecutors labelled the "leader" for the Tigers in the U.S. go free after time served.
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Tamil Conservatives discontent over Rajapaksa’s visit to British Monarch’s celebrations

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 May 2012, 00:30 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the commander-in-chief of the war-crimes and genocide accused SL military, has been invited to participate at the Diamond jubilee celebrations of British Monarch Queen Elizabeth. Expressing regret at the news, Arujuna Sivananthan of the British Tamils for Conservatives told TamilNet “Her Majesty has led an exemplary life binding together various communities not just in the United Kingdom but the the world. As Conservatives committed to the principle of individual liberty, we do not wish the celebration of her six decade reign tarnished by the presence of individuals alleged to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
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No unitary is our understanding: TNA says sharing stage with Indo-US diplomats

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 May 2012, 18:56 GMT]
In a political seminar organised in Jaffna by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Sritharan on Sunday, which was addressed by both the US and Indian diplomats, TNA’s nominated parliamentarian, Mathiaparanam Abraham Sumanthiran, twice received applause from the audience, when he said that the TNA was participating in the talks with the Sri Lankan government with an understanding that there could be no solution within the unitary constitution. But he was suggesting that there is ‘something’ in the 13th Amendment, even though he seemed agreeing that there is ‘nothing’ in the 13th Amendment. As the IC, especially India and the USA want a united Sri Lanka, if the TNA is not showing agreement, it would lose international backing, he said. Neither the Tamil people nor the TNA did ask for Tamil Eelam, he replied to a question.
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Statues disappear from Saiva temples in Batticaloa district: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 May 2012, 01:31 GMT]
The statue of the chief deity of Pi'l'laiyaar temple in Punaanai, situated 52 km northwest of Batticaloa, has been reported missing after the occupation of a plot of land close to the temple by a Buddhist monk sent by Colombo-based Buddhist organizations, says C.Yogeswaran, the Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian. Punanai is a border village located along Batticaloa - Polonnaruwa road that runs through Sri Lanka Army garrisons situated between Punaanai and Welikande. Recent reports have also exposed Sinhalicisation taking place in Vadamunai, situated southswest of Punanai.
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Colombo in full swing to cover up culprits of Canadian citizen's murder

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 May 2012, 13:34 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Ki'linochchi is making every effort to cover up the culprits of the brutal killing of Canadian Tamil citizen who was struggling to get his business properties back from the SL military in Ki'linochhci, informed civil sources in the town told TamilNet Saturday. The intelligence officers of the occupying SL military are now attempting to pass the blame of the slaying of the property owner on petty criminals. The latest move has come to light this week when the military ‘investigators’ were attempting to book some petty criminals for the killing, forging documents that they were former combatants of the LTTE. In the meantime, SL District Judge for Ki'linochchi S. Sivakumar has been made aware that the slain victim had a quarrel with the occupying military a day before his killing, the sources further said.
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LA students help victims of Sri Lanka Genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 May 2012, 12:12 GMT]
Students from a popular private high school in Los Angeles California, motivated by lessons on genocide learnt from their history class, have organized fund-raisers and social awareness campaign to help victims of the alleged genocide in Sri Lanka, said a communique from the students. "We searched videos and read articles of the Sri Lankan people and we felt that it was our duty to help them in any way we could," said the students who also created a video on the details of genocide as part of their information campaign.
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US Court frees Karunakaran

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 May 2012, 03:11 GMT]
The District Court of Eastern District of New York (EDNY) Friday freed Kandasamy Karunakaran who was arrested five years ago and charged with providing material support to Liberation Tigers designated as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)" in the U.S. Judge Raymond Dearie noting that "this is not a garden variety terrorism case," and adding that "[w]e have to pull back that emblazoned banner of terrorism and look at the case specifically," signaled a likely softening of zealous prosecution of material support to organizations that has a history of resisting oppressive States accused of committing genocide.
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Colombo harasses Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2012, 10:20 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, the Catholic Bishop of Mannaar, who boldly voiced for the number of people went unaccounted in the Vanni war, is being harassed by Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) this week under instructions from the genocidal regime, informed sources in Mannaar told TamilNet. The Bishop's House has declined to comment on the situation. However, informed sources say that two Sri Lankan CIDs have been ‘visiting’ the Bishop on Tuesday after the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Mannaar Police had met the Bishop in person, informing him the decision from his superiors in Colombo. The Bishop didn't oppose the move, but civil society representatives said the move was a calculated psychological operation to silence independent civil voices in the North and East, now fully occupied by the SL military run by presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
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Contributions of Sivaram remembered at Memorial Seminar in London

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2012, 02:41 GMT]
Commemorating the life, thoughts and contributions of ‘Taraki’ Sivaram Dharmeratnam, and inviting diverse views on the same, the Sivaram Memorial Seminar conducted in London on Sunday brought together Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim, British and Tamil Nadu journalists, academics and activists to discuss the intellectual legacy of the late senior editor of TamilNet. Referring to personal interactions with Sivaram, his ideological influences, his life as journalist and activist, his political and strategic analysis, the speakers interacted with the audience that included members of different shades of diaspora organizations, mainstream media and solidarity groups. The tightly packed programme included a closed door screening of award winning film-maker Beate Arnestad’s documentary ‘Silenced Voices’ to the seminar attendees.
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Resettled Tamils without assistance affected by mini-cyclone in Paduvaankarai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2012, 18:14 GMT]
At least 90 families in Oottuch-cheanai, a village situated 75 km north-west of Batticaloa city, have been displaced and sought asylum in a school following a mini-cyclone that hit Paduvaankarai area in the Koa'ra'laip-pattu South division of Batticaloa district on Monday. The villagers, who have displaced several times since 1990, each time following large-scale military operation by the Sri Lankan military, have been completely neglected throughout the years without proper humanitarian assistance, civil sources in Batticaloa said. International NGOs also face restrictions to visit the area while Colombo government has grabbed around 25 thousand acres of land in Vadamunai and Oottuch-cheanai, handing over the lands to Sinhala home guards.
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Thirumavalavan hurts sentiments of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2012, 17:43 GMT]
New Delhi parliamentarian and leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a member of ruling UPA alliance, Mr Thirumavalavan, meeting UPA leader Mrs Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday expressed his ‘appreciation’ about New Delhi’s stand on ‘Sri Lankan Tamils’ at the UNHRC resolution, and requested her to implement it and pressurise the Sri Lankan government to find a permanent political solution. The moment Thirumavalavan uses the phrase ‘Sri Lankan Tamils’ and thrust an identity despised by Eezham Tamils on to them, he perverts righteous political solution, commented Tamil political circles in the island. Rather than urging recognition of rights of the nation, the VCK leader pleading Sonia Gandhi, whose party presided over the genocide of Eezham Tamils, to implement UNHRC resolutions paving way for structural genocide, makes him no different from the Congress and CPI-M, they further said.
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Sinhalicization of Batticaloa takes place under guise of archaeology: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2012, 16:48 GMT]
Saiva temples located along the border of the Batticaloa district are being desecrated and demolished under the guise of archaeological excavation, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian P. Ariyanethran said Wednesday at Thaan-thoan'ri-eesvarar temple situated in Kokkaddich-choalai of Batticaloa district. The parliamentarian blamed Buddhist monks for constructing Buddhist viharas on such sites with the backing of Colombo government and the occupying Sri Lanka Army.
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Canadian Muslim, Tamil and civil groups condemn religious intolerance in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2012, 00:40 GMT]
Twenty organizations from Canada, which included prominent Muslim scholarly and activists groups, Tamil organizations, and influential Canadian civil society groups, came together to condemn the religious intolerance of the Sinhala-Buddhist government in Sri Lanka, in the wake of the Dambulla mosque attack, drafting a letter to Mahinda Rajapaksa on the issue. "The Canadian Peace Alliance stands against any type of discrimination, whether against the Tamil nation or the Muslim people of Sri Lanka. Any just society must uphold the rights of all people regardless of ethnicity or religion and must pay special attention to protecting the rights of the most vulnerable groups. That is why campaign against the Tamil genocide as well as Islamaphobia in Canada and abroad," Sid Lacombe, coordinatior of the CPA, told TamilNet.
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Imelda Sugumar removed from Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2012, 23:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government Agent in Jaffna, Mrs. Imelda Sugumar has been ordered to hand over her responsibilities in Jaffna and take up an unspecified post at the SL President’s Office in Colombo, news sources in Jaffna said. From the beginning, Imelda’s tenure in Jaffna was blighting the interests of SL minister and EPDP leader Douglas Devananda. She was a pawn in the power struggle between Basil faction and Gotabhaya faction in the Rajapaksa regime, and in a larger sense was manipulated by the contending powers, India and the USA, political observers said. Even though news circles in Jaffna speculate that Devananda and the Colonial governor Chandrasri who seeks sole recognition for him from the visiting foreign dignitaries achieved her transfer, informed circles say that she has been promised with a diplomatic assignment in India.
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Top SL military hand alleged in killing Canadian Tamil in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2012, 05:34 GMT]
Circumstantial evidences point to the hands of top level Sri Lanka military in the brutal killing of a Canadian Eezham Tamil who came to Vanni to claim his properties appropriated by the occupying military, news sources in Vanni revealed to TamilNet. The victim owned 8 commercially valuable buildings in line in Ki’linochchi town that were appropriated by the Sinhala military to be given in turn to a Colombo-based chain store that now dominates food business in the north. Through the occupying military, presidential sibling and SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has appropriated nearly 250 such commercially valuable properties in Ki’linochchi for his agenda of plunder and structural genocide of Eezham Tamils. The Canadian Tamil lost his life struggling with a genocidal mechanism installed by many world establishments including that of his own adopted country.
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Tamil boy shot by Sinhala military for cattle mangling ‘Buddhist’ decoration

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 May 2012, 23:02 GMT]
At the height of a show of ‘victor's supremacy’ in the country of Eezham Tamils, a 17-year-old Tamil boy, S. Krishnakumar of Kumaarasaami-puram village in Visuvamadu in Mullaith-theevu district, was shot and fatally injured by the occupying Sinhala military, for his cattle damaging the ‘Vesak’ decorations commemorating 2600 years of Buddha at an SL military camp. When the injured boy was taken to the hospital, passing through the prevailing hurdles in the district, the occupying SL military took charge of the boy to be sent to Anuradhapura hospital by helicopter, but after warning his family members that the matter should not be revealed to anyone. The boy was herding his cattle on Monday evening when he was shot.
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Tamil fishermen warn protest against SL military in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 May 2012, 15:38 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala fishermen, brought into Tsunami and war-ravaged Vadamaraadchi East by the occupying Sri Lanka Army and Navy, are engaging in deep-sea fishing using prohibited nets and are using dynamite for blast fishing destroying the fish, coral reefs and juveniles, complain Vadamaraadchi East Fisheries Society and Kaddaik-kaadu Fisheries Association. Angered by the illegal acts by the encroaching fishermen from South, endangering the environment of the country of Eezham Tamils and threatening their livelihood, the organizations have called for civil protests if the occupying SL military continued to harbour and entertain the encroaching fishermen from the South. The scale of destruction caused by the Sinhala fishermen was at a level that equals the destruction caused by the Indian trawlers, according to the organizations.
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Paduvaankarai people live with UXO threat

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2012, 23:13 GMT]
Explosions take place frequently in resettled villages in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa district, declared by the occupying Sri Lanka Army as free of land-mines, civil sources in Batticaloa say. The latest victim is an under-age youth engaged in cattle grazing work. Explosions of unexploded ordnance in the region have seriously threatened the security and livelihood of poverty-stricken people who are subjected to structural genocide by the occupying Sri Lankan forces and its military-run civil administration.
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Sinhala GA officially orders Buddhist construction at Thirukkeatheesvaram

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2012, 00:59 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka’s Sinhala Government Agent of the Mannaar district of the country of Eezham Tamils, AK Sarath Savindra on Friday sent official orders to the divisional secretary of Maanthai West to permit the construction of a Buddhist temple at the Saiva sacred centre Thirukkeatheesvaram, where no Sinhala-Buddhists live. A Buddha statue was already placed there by the occupying Sinhala military, at 200 metres near the Saiva temple in a forcefully confiscated private land. Meanwhile, the entire Mannaar district has been brought under the Anuradhapura administrative circle of genocidal Sri Lanka’s Archaeology Department. While existing Muslim and Hindu places of worship are demolished and removed from Dambulla, claimed to be a Buddhist centre, the Sinhala government encroaches a pivotal Saiva sacred centre in the country of Tamils.
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Diaspora Tamil on visit to reclaim land killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2012, 11:51 GMT]
A 53-year-old Eezham Tamil citizen of Canada was found brutally slain with a slit throat Friday morning at Kaagnchipuram lane, 2 km west of Paranthan junction in the Ki’linochchi district of Vanni. The killing seems to have taken place between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Thursday, according to the relatives of the victim. The victim, Anthonypillai Mahendrarasa, the son of a successful former trader, had come to Paranthan to claim the ownership of the lands, especially the lands he owns in Kumaarapuram in Ki'linochchi district, which have been occupied by the SL military, informed sources said. He also owns properties of business potential.
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Ex-LTTE female cadre harassed by SLA commits suicide in ‘resettlement’ camp

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2012, 09:35 GMT]
A senior female ex-cadre of the LTTE, ‘rehabilitated’ and ‘released’ recently by the genocidal SL military has self-immolated herself Thursday night in Polika'ndi in Vadmaraadchi inside a closed room at the camp for resettlement-seeking people. The deceased, 38-year-old Suganthy Sivalingam, had been a member of the LTTE for more than 15 years and was serving in the LTTE medics after she sustained serious injury in a combat operation in 1999. She was engaged in medical services during the final days of the war in Vanni. Suganthy, who was mentally strong, was seen depressed and physically ill on the day of the suicide, the family said. Informed sources further said that the SL military had subjected the victim to severe mental torture in their 'rehabilitation' detention.
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Press Freedom Day in Jaffna remembers journalists

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2012, 16:26 GMT]
The journalistic contribution of Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki), especially his writings on the struggle of Eezham Tamils, were remembered by several speakers at a well-attended Press Freedom Day event held in Jaffna on Thursday. The event, organised by Nimalarajan Memorial Foundation (NMF), has also brought out a publication of cartoons by Mr Pious Raja, who passed away in Jaffna after experiencing the genocidal war and incarceration in Vanni. A speaker at the event urged the NMF to compile and translate Tamil articles by late Sivaram into English and vice versa, as his writings continue to be valuable to the Tamil cause. The NMF, in an exemplary way, took up the cause of Tamil female students of Vanni in the Jaffna Univeristy, as there have been several cases of suicides among them. Poverty, trauma and psychological stress have been identified as the factors behind the tragic trend.
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2 SLA soldiers killed after exchanging gunfire in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2012, 13:00 GMT]
Two Sinhala soldiers of the occupying Sri Lanka Army opened fire killing each other Friday morning in Jaffna, informed sources told TamilNet. The incident took place while the soldiers were on duty at a sentry post of the 51-2 division camp, situated close to Srithar Theatre, the office of the EPDP paramilitary on Stanley Road. In the meantime, Sri Lanka Army spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya, hiding the venue of the incident, has gone on record in Colombo saying that a soldier who was providing security to the Buddhist Naga vihara in the city has shot himself after gunning down one of his fellow soldiers. The SLA, engaged in the militarisation of the city of Jaffna, has been refusing to vacate the 51-2 division cantonment.
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‘Development’ vehicle claims life of woman, villagers confront police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2012, 23:11 GMT]
A 40-year-old woman was killed on the spot in an accident on Wednesday at Ee'raavoor where a vehicle of a UN agency, carrying foreign officials, hit a group of women crossing the street at Ampa'laththadi. Another woman and a 12-year-old girl were rushed to hospital with injuries. The officials were returning after inspecting a ‘development’ project in Kudumpimalai, where Tamils are continuously harassed by the occupying SL military. The villagers, angered by the incident started to throw stones at the vehicle blaming irresponsible driving and the SL police retaliated by assaulting the villagers. The villagers then started to clash with the SL police, causing injuries to three policemen.
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Numbers of Tamils said to be a critical factor in London Mayoral elections

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2012, 23:21 GMT]
As the campaign for the Mayoral elections for London reaches its final stages, there now exists a view among all mainstream parties in the United Kingdom that the time of securing outright majorities in the House of Commons through generic campaigns has elapsed and that they need to engage with ‘vote blocs’. Eezham Tamils numbering over 300,000 constitute the largest single issue vote bloc in southern England, with over 250,000 in London alone, have the ability by exercising their vote to directly determine the outcome of the Mayoral elections, 25 of the seats in the London Assembly, and tilt the balance in favour of one party or the other in another 10 seats, on 3rd May.
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Let Rajapaksa try waving Lion Flag along with KP: Ranil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2012, 07:28 GMT]
UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, holding the Lion Flag of genocidal Sri Lankan state along with TNA leader R. Sampanthan in Jaffna on Tuesday, challenged SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he could try doing the same with Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP who is in captivity of the regime. While the need of the times is for Tamils to forge alliance with the Muslims in making an alternative State for the Tamil-speaking people in the North and East, Mr Wickramasinghe recollected Sir Ponnampalam Ramanathan bailing out the Sinhala leaders indicted by the British for a pogrom against the Muslims in 1915. Muslims to this day regard it as a treachery of Colombo-centric Tamils and Sinhalese against them.
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Sampanthan, Ranil, satisfy agenda of New Delhi, Washington

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 18:11 GMT]
A photograph in which TNA leader Sampathan and UNP leader Ranil Wikremasinghe hold the Lion Flag of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka together, during the May Day rally in Jaffna, Tuesday, has caused much sensation in the island and outside. While the programme was at its height and the show of solidarity was entering into photographic sessions, all of a sudden Ranil produced the Lion Flag and wanted Sampathan to hold it, observers to the programme said. While the UNP has brought down around 10,000 Sinhalese from the south, on the TNA’s side, only less than a hundred, that too only the members of the civic bodies participated the procession and meeting, news sources in Jaffna said.
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UNP-TNA May Day rally in Jaffna fails to draw in local support

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 14:45 GMT]
If the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the United National Party (UNP) of the Sinhala state, and whatever the international forces behind them, have thought of probing the Tamil minds about a future partnership between the parties through a May Day show, then the Eezham Tamils in Jaffna have totally rejected the idea by not showing local participation to their joint May Day rally. The local people didn’t come out even to watch the fun of roughly 10,000 Sinhalese brought down from the South by the UNP marching through the streets of Jaffna. While more than 80 buses were engaged in plying between the South and Jaffna in bringing down UNP politicians and their supporters, the Tamils seen in the rally on the side of the TNA were numbering less than a hundred, confined to the TNA members of the civic bodies, news sources in Jaffna said.
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Xenophobic forces hold SL government hostage: SL Justice Minister Hakeem

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 09:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Justice Minister and the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Rauff Hakeem, who has faced severe criticism in the recent days from the Tamil-speaking people in the island, the Sinhala opposition and the Tamil Muslims of Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday, admitted to Chinese news agency Xinhua that he was appealing to the Sri Lankan government “to prevent xenophobic forces from holding the government hostage.” But, Mr Hakeem was arguing against internationalizing the issue, which he maintained was an internal affair, according to the Xinhua. The ‘revelations’ by the SL Justice minister comes in the wake of more than 500 Tamil Muslims in Tamil Nadu besieging the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai after burning the effigy of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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