Australia should withdraw from CHOGM in Sri Lanka: Lee Rhiannon

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2013, 05:24 GMT]
While Australian Liberal MPs Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop gave a clean chit to the genocide-accused Sri Lankan state after their recent visit to the island, Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon has called on Australia to end its silence on Sri Lanka and to withdraw from the CHOGM in a statement on Thursday. Referring to the recent report by HRW on Sri Lanka’s systematic sexual violence on Tamils and to an earlier TamilNet’s feature on the genocidal rape of LTTE cadres, she further lamented Australia still not taking a decisive position for the Tamils. Speaking to TamilNet, Ms. Rhiannon said “The international community must no longer fail the people of Sri Lanka. With the UNHCR meeting in Geneva and the mounting evidence of war crimes emerging, this is an ideal moment to support the Tamil diaspora’s call for an international investigation into the charges of war crimes and genocide.”
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Veteran humanitarian Eezham Tamil activist passes away in UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2013, 00:40 GMT]
Dr. Namasivayam Sathiyamoorthy (N.S. Moorthy), a veteran Eezham Tamil activist who was instrumental in the organization of the humanitarian agencies TRO and Ve'n Pu'raa (White Pigeon), passed away at the age of 61 at London, UK. Dr. Sathiyamoorthy was involved in the national liberation struggle of the Eezham Tamils in the homeland from its early stages and was also a popularly recognized activist in democratic politics among the Tamil diaspora in the UK. Dr. Moorthy, as he was fondly called, was known for his dedication to the Tamils’ cause through his activism, his professional work and for his amicable nature, is mourned by a large number of Eezham Tamils across the world who personally knew his contributions. In UK, he was given the privilege of becoming a Freeman of the City of London in 1993, in recognition of his contribution in the field of medicine.
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UK High Court blocks Tamil deportations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2013, 00:04 GMT]
The British High Court Wednesday intervened and blocked a scheduled deportation of a group of failed Tamil asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka. High Court Justice Wilkie said that because the guidance on Sri Lanka was being considered "virtually afresh" and it was clear that "the existing country guidance will have to change", the failed Tamil asylum seekers could not be deported as planned.The UK Border Agency (UKBA), which made the determination to deport even while there was evidence of returnees being tortured, said that UKBA will appeal the High Court order.
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Systematic rape of Tamils violates Genocide convention, says Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2013, 00:51 GMT]
Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law and who represented nearly 40,000 raped Women of Bosnia and argued their case for genocide before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, commenting on the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, "Sri Lanka: Rape of Tamil detainees," said, "[c]learly, this continuing Campaign of widespread and systematic rape by the Government of Sri Lanka against the Tamils violates Article II(b) of the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which Sri Lanka is a contracting party."
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UNHRC heads for structural genocide if Tamil nation territory is not guaranteed: TNPF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2013, 15:02 GMT]
An internationally monitored interim administration in the North and East under UN supervision outside the parameters of the Sri Lankan Constitution is the only way forward to stop the genocide being committed on Tamils, especially to put an immediate end to the accelerated structural genocide taking place in the Tamil homeland, reiterated Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the president of the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), in the first press meeting held at the newly opened press club in Jaffna on Monday. The current indications are that the UNHRC would end up giving another year of time and space to Colombo and the TNA that supported the resolution last year without a principled approach is answerable to what resulted from the resolution in the past 12 months, Gajendrakumar further said.
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Tamils raped in Sri Lanka custody - HRW

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2013, 12:34 GMT]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released this week that Sri Lankan security forces have committed crimes of sexual violence against ethnic Tamils in state custody between 2006 and 2012. The said detainees were arrested because of their suspected links to the LTTE. The report gives 75 accounts of alleged sexual abuse and torture, saying most of them are backed by medical evidence.
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Attacks against Tamil farmers escalate in Vellaave’li, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2013, 23:11 GMT]
A Tamil village official looking after agricultural tracts (Vaddavithaa’nai) in Kevu’liyaa-madu in Vellaave’li division of Batticaloa district was severely assaulted four days ago by a group of Sinhalese settlers who have occupied the farm and grazing lands of Tamils. Two weeks ago, Sinhala ‘home guards’ had assaulted Tamil youths who were breeding their cattle in the same area, news sources in Vellaave’li said.
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NZ Tamils raise question on applying SA model to Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2013, 00:03 GMT]
“We are constrained to seek a clarification from those few who are waxing eloquently on the need to study and gain from the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa vis-à-vis the LLRC recommendations of Sri Lanka,” said a press release coming from the Tamil Action Front (TAF) of New Zealand on Sunday, raising the question, “Will those protagonists of the South African experience please explain to the Tamil diaspora at least what they mean – what is it that is so significant for the Tamils to emulate?” The press release signed by the TAF coordinator Mr. A Theva Rajan, brought out the contextual difference between South Africa and the island of Sri Lanka.
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International investigation essential - Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2013, 21:50 GMT]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navaneetham Pillay, in an e-mail interview with Sunday Times, held steadfastedly to her belief that since the steps Sri Lanka has taken domestically has not inspired confidence, an International investigation into the crimes committed by both adversarial parties was essential for accountability, and to reconciliation. High Commissioner Pillay remained focused on the need to establish the truth of what happened during the final months of war while fending off the journalist's leading questions, and infused a fresh determination to establish accountability to the otherwise stiffling inaction of other International actors, Tamil political observers noted.
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‘Tamil Van’ undertakes tour of Europe to highlight justice for genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2013, 21:31 GMT]
Even as Tamils across the world are anticipating yet another watered down resolution on Sri Lanka at the forthcoming Geneva session this year, a group of Eezham Tamil youth activists from the UK have undertaken a journey on a ‘Tamil Van’ to reach out to the Tamil diaspora across Europe and also to interact with European civil society activists, solidarity groups and politicians, to raise awareness of the protracted genocide of the Tamil nation and the need for a corresponding just political solution. The Van, which began its journey from London on 12 February, is currently in Germany and will finish its tour at Geneva coinciding with the UNHRC sessions. Appealing to Tamils not to fall for any watered down resolution, the activists undertaking the tour stated that any solution which does not address the genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation was a farce.
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Suspect genocidaire gives U.S. marines lessons in war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2013, 17:38 GMT]
Tamil activists questioned the bonafides of the U.S. Government in the US attempts to push for accountability in Sri Lanka's war, after the alleged war-criminal, Sri Lanka’s United Nations Deputy Permanent Representative Shavendra Silva, was invited to speak on "defeating terrorism" at the United States Marine Corps University in New York. Sources close to policy makers in Washington said that the approval for the "lecture" would not have been given without the knowledge of the US State Department and Department of Defense.
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Ban receives Japan's "whitewash" report - ICP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2013, 18:43 GMT]
At the initiative from the Japanese Government, an independently formed group of countries, including Bangladesh, Nigeria, Romania, and Sri Lanka naming the effort as "Observation Project," paid a visit to Sri Lanka in December 2012, and presented a "report" to UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, containing the group's assessment on Sri Lanka's post-war issues, Inner City Press reported. Japan's Permanent Representative Tsuneo Nishida, presented the "Report" in a closed meeting where reporters were not allowed.
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SLA threatens Mannaar farmers not to protest against discrimination

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2013, 06:51 GMT]
The demonstration and fasting campaign organized by farmers organizations in Mannaar district earlier this week to protest against the discrimination by the SL government in Colombo in providing relief to affected farmers following the recent floods, was put off due to the threat issued by the intelligence Unit of the occupying Sri Lanka Army that those participating would be dealt severely under the ‘Sri Lankan Law’. Due to the threat and intimidation exerted by the SL intelligence, the demonstration was now put off for February 26, the organisers said.
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Tamil Nadu CM bars sports event citing Sri Lankan participation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2013, 23:37 GMT]
Citing the participation of athletes from the genocide-accused Sri Lankan state in the 20th Asian Athletics Championship that was scheduled to be held in Tamil Nadu State, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa on Thursday announced that her state will not host the Games. The participation of Sri Lankan athletes would hurt the feelings of Tamils, Ms Jayalalithaa said in a statement. Earlier this week, commenting on the recently released Channel 4 photographs of the execution of Balachandran Pirapaharan, Ms. Jayalalitha had also drawn a parallel between Nazi crimes against the humanity and that of the Sri Lankan state. Separately, protests against Sri Lanka have been reported in various parts of Tamil Nadu.
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Sri Lankan TID harasses ex-LTTE members in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2013, 22:28 GMT]
Tension and fear continues to prevail among the families of former LTTE members, who have rejoined their families in the East, especially in Vaakarai in Batticaloa and in Moothoor East of Trincomalee district as the SL military thinks any resistance coming from the uprooted families that demand resettlement originates from people who were associated with the LTTE in the past. The SL TID squads have been visiting several houses in Kathirave'li and Puchchangkea'ni in Koa'ralaip-pattu North (Vaakarai) DS division in the Batticaloa collecting details of former LTTE members through Village level (GS) officers.
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NZ Tamils accuse Obama for doing nothing to check genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 February 2013, 04:19 GMT]
Addressing the US President Barack Obama on Sunday, the Tamil Action Front (TAF) in New Zealand in a press statement said, “Nothing tangible was done by your administration with regard to the on-going genocide in Sri Lanka in your first term. We hope you will now take meaningful effective measures to save the Tamils from genocide.” The stand taken by the NZ Tamils in directly accusing and addressing the US Administration is a significant development in the diaspora, resulting from a long frustration in the ‘looking upon’ polity hitherto followed, political observers said. The TAF statement, signed by its coordinator Mr A. Theva Rajan, demanded the US Administration to come out with a resolution at Geneva to create a structure with powers that could redeem and preserve the territoriality of Tamils and could save them from the on-going genocide.
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Host CHOGM in New Zealand: Tamil Action Front

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 February 2013, 04:13 GMT]
The Tamil Action Front (TAF) of New Zealand in a letter addressed to New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Murray McCully on Friday urged his government to offer to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM) this year at New Zealand instead of in Sri Lanka, to save the dignity and decorum of the member states of the Commonwealth. The TAF also reminded the NZ government of its earlier request to explore the possibility of suspending Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth.
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Weak UN resolution caused Colombo to sustain lack of political will: Christian clergy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 February 2013, 20:46 GMT]
“What we have seen since the rather weak resolution adopted at the 19th session of the Council is a total lack of political will on the part of the government to implement recommendations therein, such as the call for investigations into allegations of international law during the final stages of the conflict and cooperation with the UN Special Procedures,” said 133 priests of various Christian denominations in the North and East in an appeal to UN Human Rights Council on Monday. They urged the Council not to interpret the problem as ‘lack of capacity’ by the SL State. Despite the deviatory tone in using the terms such as ‘internal self-determination’ and the orchestrated deception of the so-called ‘stronger resolution’, the priests from the gagged country of Eezham Tamils didn't fail in establishing what was taking place on the ground as protracted genocide against the Tamil people.
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Washington Post: Sri Lanka's squandered opportunities

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 February 2013, 12:08 GMT]
Washington Post, in a main editorial piece Thursday, said that Sri Lanka is on a descent from democracy, and noting that repeated and public protest by the West on Rajapaksa’s retrograde measures "have fallen on deaf ears," advocated that threats to "move or boycott the [Commonwealth] summit and Sri Lanka’s assumption of the Commonwealth chairmanship, [by] governments such as Britain, Canada and Australia could send a clear message to Mr. Rajapaksa that his policies are unacceptable to democratic nations."
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Channel 4 releases documentary evidence on SL war crime

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 February 2013, 01:03 GMT]
Releasing photos of LTTE leader Pirapaharan's 12-year-old son Balachandran, who was captured by the occupying Sinhala military in the final hours of the genocidal onslaught on Vanni, the British Channel 4 television on Monday said that the photos, which had been taken before and after the brutal slaying of the boy, stemmed from the same camera within a period of two hours. Releasing the photos in a write up to The Independent, Callum Macrae, the director of “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka,” said “this is proof, beyond reasonable doubt, of the execution of a child – not a battlefield death.” The news was titled “Handed a snack, and then executed: the last hours of the 12-year-old son of a Tamil Tiger”.
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UN envoy to Burma laments condition of Kachin, Rohingya refugee camps

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 February 2013, 23:53 GMT]
Criticizing the Burmese government and Buddhist extremists in Burma for the pathetic conditions of camps for Internally Displaced Persons belonging to the Rohingya and Kachin ethnic communities, the UN Special Rapporteur to Burma Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana, addressing a press conference on Saturday, compared the refugee camps to prisons, Burmese media reported. The camps are located in the Rakhine state of Burma which house over a 100000 Rohingya IDPs, who were displaced in last year’s ethnic violence, and in the Kachin state in North Burma, where Kachin rebels have been fighting for regional autonomy. Peace talks between the Kachin rebels and Burma have been on since early this February. The current Burmese government ruled by President Thein Sein, a former military commander, is considered by some analysts to be a moderate, pro-reform and pro-US regime.
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Flood victims deprived of relief by Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 February 2013, 23:35 GMT]
63,386 members of 13,903 families have been displaced in the Northern and Eastern provinces while two died and one hundred thousand and thirty four thousand persons have been affected in the whole island due to torrential rain with strong winds in recent days. Hundreds of acres of paddy crops ready for harvesting are under water and harvested paddy crops floating in flood water. But no action has been taken to provide any relief to affected families, civil officials say. Heavy torrential rains and floods have repeatedly affected the lives of the people struggling to resettle in their homeland subjected to structural genocide by the occupying Sinhala military and its administrative apparatus in the North and East.
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British arms sales to Colombo continue

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 February 2013, 11:10 GMT]
Despite Sri Lanka's dire human rights record, and the Foreign Office still classifying Sri Lanka as a “country of concern” for rights abuses, British small arms and weaponry worth at least £3m including pistols, rifles, assault rifles, body armour and combat shotguns were sold in the three months between July and September last year, The Independent reported. The figures on Britain’s most recent arms sales come from the Government’s own Export Controls Organisation, the paper said.
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"Free pass on rights violations, a dangerous precedent"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 February 2013, 15:57 GMT]
"The end of war has not augured a return to normalcy in Sri Lanka’s North and East. Rather, there are clear, indisputable indications that conditions are getting worse. Consequently, international condemnation of the country’s human rights record is not only justified; it is essential. Giving Sri Lanka a free pass on human rights and reconciliation would set a damaging precedent that could take decades to overcome. If the time for more resolute action has not yet arrived, will it ever?" asks an analytical article on Foreign Policy (FP) magazine's website.
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Major Sinhala colony crops up at entrance to Jaffna city

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 February 2013, 11:06 GMT]
A permanent Sinhala colony is in the making at Naavat-kuzhi in Jaffna with the assistance and backing of the genocidal government in Colombo and with the protection of its occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna. Buddhist associations in the south and EPDP collaborating with the Rajapaksa regime are also involved in the process, news sources in Jaffna said. Naavat-kuzhi is a major junction located 5km east of Jaffna city, where the two highways A9 and A32 that come from the south join and enter into the city. To give protection to the colony, a Sinhala military camp is also established there amidst the colonisers. The Sinhala colony at the location is planned to control the arteries of the city and to even Sinhalicise Jaffna city itself, as similar tactics were tested earlier at Trincomalee, the sources further said.
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Swiss, South Africa reconciliation attempt in Sri Lanka ‘ill-conceived’, says ICG

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 February 2013, 00:59 GMT]
Switzerland's backing of a South African post-Apartheid reconciliation initiative to bring adversarial parties in Sri Lanka to the negotiating table, is ill-conceived and has little chance of yielding any positive results, Alan Keenan, an ICG [International Crisis Group] Sri Lanka expert commented. Keenan "accused the Sri Lankan government of having no interest in fair negotiations with Tamil political parties, no intention to devolve meaningful power to the Tamil-majority northern province or the Tamil-speaking majority eastern province, and of going back on its many promises." The Swiss government funding and the South African brokering were behind the GTF convened and Burghof Foundation facilitated Berlin conference, informed circles say.
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Military confrontations resurface in Colombia, 7 soldiers killed

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 February 2013, 17:37 GMT]
The rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have killed seven soldiers in clashes with the Colombian military on Wednesday. The attacks are seen as the biggest offensive by the FARC since peace talks between the rebel group and the Colombian government began last year. However, other news sources also infer that the latest FARC offensives are targeted at bringing the Colombian government to a ceasefire. Bogota has been arguing for a long time that it would agree to a truce only after a peace agreement has been arrived at.
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SL military operatives attack peaceful protest against Jaffna SMZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 February 2013, 12:20 GMT]
More than ten Sri Lankan military operatives, co-mingling with and camouflaging as protestors in front of Thurkkai Amman temple in Thellippazhai, where a token fast against Colombo converting the former SL Miltiary High Security Zone (HSZ) into Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) in Jaffna, attacked the peaceful protestors on Friday. The attack came after the SL Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe had left the site taking part and addressing the protestors. The SL military men went amok on Tamil parliamentarians and journalists at the site of the protest. However, the attackers who were causing panic among the participants were confronted by the protestors. More than one hundred SL policemen silently watched the unfolding episode without restraining or arresting the civil clad military operatives.
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Colombo shuns Tamil representation in Delimitation Committee in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 February 2013, 23:47 GMT]
Not a single Tamil officer was appointed to the six-member Trincomalee District Local Authorities Delimitation Committee that is headed by the Sri Lankan Government Agent (SLGA) who is a retired Major General of the occupying Sri Lanka Army, civil sources in Trincomalee said. Four members are Sinhalese, including the SLGA, and the remaining two are Muslims. The Trincomalee District Local Authorities Delimitation Committee is empowered to demarcate the boundaries of the existing wards and carve out new wards of the 13 local authorities under the Amended Local Government Ordinance.
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R2P doctrine failed in Sri Lanka to protect Tamil Nation: TNPF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 February 2013, 11:37 GMT]
“What is now public knowledge of credible allegations of what transpired during the last stages of the war, amply points to the complete failure of the UN and the international community in its obligations under the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to have intervened on behalf of the Tamil Nation,” said Tamil National Peoples Front, in an open appeal on Thursday urging UNHRC member states to resolve to set up a transitional administration in the Tamil homeland comprising of the North East provinces in the island of Sri Lanka, as a matter of urgency. The said transitional administration will have to necessarily lie outside the present constitutional apparatus.
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23 Kurds arrested in France and Spain

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 23:52 GMT]
17 Kurds in France and 6 Kurds in Spain alleged of having connections with the PKK were arrested in separate “anti-terror probes” in the two countries on Tuesday. The arrests coincide with the filing of charges against a 46 year old activist by federal prosecutors in Germany, suspecting him of raising funds for the PKK. Incidentally, on the same day, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan had accused the European Union for being too soft on the PKK. Arrests and interrogations of Kurdish activists in Europe have been intensifying over the past one year, even as Turkey takes a more aggressive stand against the Kurdish movement.
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Colombo discriminates Tamil farmers in disaster relief distribution

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 21:01 GMT]
Sri Lankan government in Colombo is discriminating Tamil farmers in Northern Province in distributing disaster relief following recent natural disasters, farmers representatives in Mannaar said, announcing a fasting campaign on February 18 at Uyilangku’lam in Mannaar.
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Protests across India against UN complicity in Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 00:10 GMT]
Criticizing the United Nations, especially the Ban Ki Moon, Vijay Nambiar and Sir John Holmes trio for their complicity in the genocide of the Eezham Tamils owing to their calculated inaction, protests took place across different parts of India on Tuesday calling for punitive action to be taken against the three UN officials, besides pressing for a referendum among the Eezham Tamils and an independent international investigation to probe the charges of genocide against the Sri Lankan state. Demonstrations took place at Chennai, Koodangku'lam, Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi. Over 600 protestors outside the UNICEF office in Adayar, Chennai were taken into custody by the police and released later in the day.
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Protests against ‘regime change’ President intensify in Egypt

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 February 2013, 23:47 GMT]
Demanding Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi to step down, thousands of Egyptians demonstrated on streets across the country against the President and the Muslim Brotherhood. The demonstrators accused Mursi's and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood “of hijacking Egypt's democratic revolution and seeking to monopolise power”, Reuters reported on Monday. Mursi coming to power through democratic elections after toppling Hosni Mubarak, the erstwhile dictator of 30 years, and the much spoken about Tahrir square protests were considered by certain sections of political analysts to be a successful case of ‘regime change’ politics of the West. The recent spate of unrest has been going on in Cairo since 24 January, the second anniversary of the Egyptian uprising.
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Hospital becomes breeding ground for disharmony between Tamils, Muslims in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 February 2013, 22:16 GMT]
The Base hospital of Kalmunai North in Ampaa’rai district has become a breeding ground for disharmony between Tamils and Muslims following systematic posting of 22 Muslim health workers with the backing of SL ministers aligned with the Colombo regime with an intention of causing communal dissension, health officials at the hospital say.
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CHOGM boycott calls for renewed action on Sri Lanka judicial independence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 February 2013, 17:58 GMT]
As Canada continues to voice its call for boycott of Commonwealth summit scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in November this year, Commonwealth officials renewed efforts to nudge Sri Lanka to adhere to principles of judicial independence, after Colombo defied international appeals and sacked its chief justice in January. Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma is holding talks with Sri Lankan leaders in Colombo on the rule of law and the separation of powers, AFP reported.
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Sinhala paramilitary attacks Tamil dairy farmers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 February 2013, 20:41 GMT]
A group of armed Sinhalese ‘home guards’ have attacked Tamil farmers who were herding their cattle, after ‘allowing’ the Tamil farmers to breed their cattle. The attack has taken place at ‘Mangalagama’ area in Vellaave'li division two days ago, the victims said, adding that they were using the grazing lands to breed their cattle for four decades.
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Uprooted Champoor families live in fear following arrest of 7 persons by TID

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 February 2013, 20:11 GMT]
Tension and fear prevail among uprooted Tamil families from Champoor area currently being sheltered in temporary sheds described as welfare centres at four places, Kaddai-pa'richchaan, Paddith-thidal, Ma'nat-cheanai and Ki'liveddi since the arrest of seven Tamils by a special TID team from Colombo last week alleging them as LTTE members. Two of them are inmates of Paddith-thidal welfare camp. They are all breadwinners of their families. They were taken to a place out of the Trincomalee district for military ‘rehabilitation’.
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Tamil Nadu protests Rajapaksa's ‘pilgrimage’ to India

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 February 2013, 23:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday landed in India, drawing widespread protests in Tamil Nadu against his ‘pilgrimage' trip to India, media reports in India said. While MDMK leader Mr Vaiko courted arrest together with MDMK activists, who marched towards Indian Prime Minister's residence in New Delhi, condemning the Centre and the visiting SL president, in Tamil Nadu, DMK Chief Mr M Karunanidhi was taking part in protests with DMK activists.
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SL military steps up land grab in Vaakarai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 February 2013, 22:40 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has demanded thirteen Tamil families in Thoa'nithaa'ndamadu, a village in the Koa'ralaip-pattu North (Vaakarai) DS division in Batticaloa district to hand over photo copies of their deeds in an attempt to grab their lands saying that they would be paid rent for its use. The residents say that the SLA promise is not genuine but a ploy to grab their lands where a SLA camp is already is located.
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Poonakari becomes another major hub of Sinhala militarisation, colonisation

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 February 2013, 07:50 GMT]
Similar to the so-called High Security Zone (HSZ) on the northern coast of Jaffna Peninsula, including KKS harbour and Palaali airport that has now become a permanent enclave for Sinhala military cantonment, colonisation and corporatism, another enclave in the Poonakari division is in the making, news sources in Vanni said. Around 31,000 Sinhala military personnel are stationed in the Poonakari division where currently only 6216 families live, which means that for every Tamil family there are 5 personnel from the genocidal military. While the SL military alone occupies 800 acres of land, the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s siblings Basil and Gotabhaya, and progeny Namal have appropriated many more acres of land. Building a Chinese assisted international airport at Poonakari is in the centre of the plans.
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SL ‘Terrorist’ squad arrests 7 Tamils in Moothoor East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 February 2013, 22:11 GMT]
An elite squad of the Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) that arrived in Trincomalee on Monday from Colombo has been conducting search operations in the district targeting Tamil youth. The squad has so far arrested 7 Tamils and transferred them to Colombo from Moothoor police station, news sources said. The latest rounds of harassments by the TID squad is reported following the protest by Eezham Tamils who had put up posters condemning the observation of the SL ‘independence’ day in Trincomalee.
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Attacks on media escalate in Jaffna, newspapers burnt by alleged SL military squad

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 February 2013, 04:26 GMT]
A newspaper distributor who was on his way to Vadamaraadchi through Jaffna - Point Pedro Road to distribute the copies of the Jaffna edition of Tamil daily Thinakkural was attacked and all the newspapers in his possession and his motorbike were put to fire by an alleged Sri Lankan military intelligence squad that intercepted the distributor at Puththoor Junction at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday. In the meantime, Uthayan paper distributor to Vadamaraadchi narrowly escaped from another attack around the same time. The latest attacks come within three weeks of a similar attack on Uthayan paper distributor.
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Tamil Heritage Month Bill Proposed in Canadian Parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 February 2013, 23:48 GMT]
Tamil Canadian federal MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan introduced Bill C-471 in the Canadian Parliament on January 31, to designate the month of January as Tamil Heritage Month in Canada by an Act. This bill, a private member’s bill that doesn’t often become law, if passed, will enshrine at the federal level an ongoing practice among Tamil community organizations. Neethan Shan, founder and chair of the Tamil Heritage Month Committee, believes that such a commemoration of Tamil heritage will provide a platform for discussion of Tamil national identity. "We have been working hard for two years to get both the federal and provincial governments to recognize Tamil Heritage Month formally and we are hopeful that it will happen before our fifth year anniversary in January 2014," Neethan Shan, founder and chair of the Tamil Heritage Month Committee, told TamilNet.
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British Under Secretary’s ‘war picnic’, misleading comments, draw flak from Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 February 2013, 21:17 GMT]
While Alistair Burt, British Under Secretary of State at FCO, endorsed on Twitter on Wednesday the self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara, in his Twitter discussions on Tuesday with Eezham Tamils, he opined that “Detail of political settlement must be for Sri Lankans themselves. We encourage TNA and govt to make serious progress.” Likewise, in a video recording taken with the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka a few days back at the Mullaitheevu coast, which witnessed the worst massacres in May 2009, he welcomed the defeat of the LTTE calling it “terrorism” and picked only politically insignificant flaws with the Sri Lankan government. Civil society activists from the North remarked that the minister seemed to be on a sort of a “war picnic”, appreciating some aspects with Sri Lanka and criticizing others. Activists in the UK have also reacted to Mr. Burt’s comments.
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Genocide prosecution, a Guatemalan lesson

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 February 2013, 00:05 GMT]
A Guatamalan judge made history Monday by authorizing a public trial to prosecute a dictator and former Guatamalan "head of state" in Guatamalan domestic court for the ultimate crime of genocide. While Guatamala's counter-insurgency massacres provide a stark parallel to Mu'l'lvaaykkaal killings of Tamil civilians, and even while, Sri Lanka's hardline nationalist Sinhala population and the passive liberal voices will likely take generations to chart a similar path to justice for Rajapakse crimes, the Guatamalan lesson is crucial to the Tamils and its widely spread diaspora: "Credit for [the landmark case] goes to the survivors and victims’ families for 30 years of tenacious research and advocacy. International human rights groups, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the United Nations and foreign governments helped," New York Times said of the struggle in Guatamala to seek justice.
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TESO urges New Delhi to move for referendum at Geneva

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2013, 07:39 GMT]
New Delhi should take firm efforts to bring forward a resolution at the UNHRC sessions next month for conducting a referendum among Ilangkai Tamils, said a resolution passed by Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) in Chennai on Monday. The organisation cited its earlier resolution passed in this regard in August last year and said that it had already presented the case for the consideration of the UN, member countries of the UN, the Government of India and the UNHRC. In presenting the plight of Eezham Tamils, TESO has resolved to convene an all-India level meet of political party leaders in New Delhi in March. Condemning New Delhi encouraging Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa visiting India this week, TESO has also resolved to organise a black-clad demonstration in Chennai on Friday morning, protesting his visit.
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Tamil diaspora protests Sri Lanka’s freedom committing genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2013, 07:13 GMT]
Tamil diaspora activists in Europe, Canada and Australia staged protests on Monday coinciding with the Sri Lanka’s official 65th ‘independence day’, with activists alleging that this so-called ‘independence’ was only a freedom given to the Sinhala nation to commit a protracted genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation. Speaking to TamilNet from a solidarity gathering in Geelong in the state of Victoria, Australia, labour union leader Tim Gooden said that there was a need to recognize the sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation. “Unless the aspirations of people are met then there is no peace. One side will always have to suppress people if they are not going to recognise their sovereignty. People on both sides cannot develop culturally, economically or morally until the national question is resolved,” he said.
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MV Sun Sea Refugee Faces Deportation in 10 Days

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2013, 05:26 GMT]
The CBC reported on Thursday that an MV Sun Sea Eezham Tamil refugee faces imminent deportation. The Canadian government has issued a deportation order for February 13 in the case. Changes to refugee appeals processes by the Canadian government have restricted the avenues and time frame for appeals. The refugee’s lawyer, Hadayt Nazami, speculates that the government has been ‘judge-shopping’ by canceling two previous hearings regarding a stay of the refugee’s deportation. Nazami told the CBC these tactics are being employed by the government to ensure a favourable judge, who will not order a stay on the deportation, hears the case.
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Russia celebrates 70th anniversary of Stalingrad

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 February 2013, 02:57 GMT]
Russians commemorated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles waged during World War II, on Saturday. Stalingrad, later named as Volgograd in 1961 under Khrushchev, marked the decisive turning point on the Eastern Front of the War since Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. With over a million civilian and military casualties, the Soviets were able to repulse the Nazi invasion in February 1943 and push forward right into Berlin. While Russians have an obligation to celebrate the monumental event, which is also held in high regard by progressives world over, what moral right does the Russian government, that practices oppression of nations in its territory and extends political and military support to genocidal regimes like Sri Lanka, have to do the same, asks an Eezham Tamil Marxist.
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Book on Malayan educationist, Thuraisingham, released

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 February 2013, 00:04 GMT]
The role and influence of Eezham Tamil, Datuk Sir Ernest Emmanuel Clough Thuraisingham (28 August 1898- 30 March 1979), in Malaysian politics during the formative years of Malaya, is chronicled in a recently released book written by three lecturers from the Malaya university’s History Department. At the book’s launch, Prof Abdullah Zakaria, one of the authors, described Thuraisingham as an "unsung hero who played an instrumental role in the struggle for Malayan independence."
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Colombo converts Jaffna ‘HSZ’ into zone of Sinhala Military Corporatism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2013, 18:11 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military, which had completed the construction of a huge bund three months ago, from Chelva-channithi shrine in Tho’ndamanaa’ru to Vasaavi’laan near the Palaali military base through Oddakappulam across the former ‘High Security Zone’, has now started to construct another major bund from Kurumpasiddi to Kaangkeasanthu’rai (KKS) through Kadduvan and Thellippazhai, according to S. Sugirthan, the head of the divisional civic body (Piratheasa Chapai / PS) of Valikaamam North. Informed civil officials said that these bunds are being hurriedly put up to carve out a vast area consisting 26 GS divisions for Sinhala Military Corporatism.
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Colombo denies visas to IBA jurists

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2013, 17:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka denied visas to three jurists, headed by India’s former Chief Justice J. S. Verma, from the London-based International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) to enter Sri Lanka on a fact finding mission related to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, AFP reported. Colombo accused the jurists of "misrepresenting" the objective of their visit to Sri Lanka, and that the mission was going to undertake "activity surreptitiously which is of an intrusive nature to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka," according to the AFP. The IBA expressed "serious concern" over the withdrawal of visas as the team was due to visit Colombo for 10 days starting Friday.
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SL minister hands over appropriated public lands in Mannaar to southern companies

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2013, 23:52 GMT]
Several acres of state lands in Mannaar district are being distributed to private sector establishments of the South on the ‘recommendations’ of a Sri Lankan Cabinet Minister Rishard Badurdeen with false deeds, while thousands of people residing in the district are languishing without lands for their existence, especially in Mannaar DS division, civil officials in Mannaar told TamilNet.
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Sri Lanka's STF commandos on sexual spree harass people of Peasaalai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2013, 22:26 GMT]
Armed squads of the occupying Sri Lanka’s Sinhala commandos of the notorious Special Task Force (STF) in Mannaar have been sexually harassing the coastal people of Peasaalai in the country of Eezham Tamils, on a daily basis for more than a week now, residents complain. The STF has virtually banned the movement of men of all ages after 6:00 p.m. in Peasaalai so that its abuses would go unnoticed.
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Vanni visit ‘pleases’ British Under Secretary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2013, 00:21 GMT]
Visiting the Vanni region that bore the brunt of Sri Lanka’s genocidal offensive in 2009 and which has been under military occupation and accelerated Sinhala colonization post-Mu’l’livaaykkaal, Alistair Burt, British Conservative MP and Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), said "I have been pleased to see progress in some areas since the end of the conflict. The destructive force of war-tearing lives, families, societies and countries apart, is only too evident in this part of the country," the PTI reported on Thursday. Mr. Burt, who was a guest at the British funded ‘Sri Lanka Unites’ center, showed more interest in lauding “reconciliation and recovery” but was conspicuously silent on addressing the need for a just political solution for the genocide affected Eezham Tamil nation, Tamil activists from the UK told TamilNet.
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Refugee boat surge to Australia linked to profiteering by Rajapakse ally

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 February 2013, 02:31 GMT]
Australia's Intelligence services linked a senior Sri Lankan government official who is close to Sri Lanka's president Rajapakse as responsible for "authorizing numerous boats in the past 10 months, fuelling the surge of asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka that has threatened to overwhelm Australia's detention system," The Australian reported Friday. While the complicity of this official in people smuggling was widely known at senior levels of the Gillard government, Foreign Minister Bob Carr during his visit to Sri Lanka in December never raised the matter with the Sri Lankan government, the paper pointed out.
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Occupying military in ‘civil’ is more dangerous than military in uniform

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 February 2013, 01:17 GMT]
The Commander of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe appeared in ‘civil’ in playing the role of ‘chief guest’ at the Malayala Martial Arts performance in Jaffna on Thursday, organized by New Delhi’s Consulate General in Jaffna to mark India’s 64th Republic Day. Earlier, Hathurusinghe used to visit even temples in Jaffna in uniform. His transformation, which should be first questioned by the uniformed personnel of Sri Lanka’s genocidal military for insulting the ‘beautiful’ services they are rendering to Tamils, mark a dangerous stage of the Sinhala militarisation imposed on Eezham Tamils by the powers of vested interests in complicity with the genocidal State in the island, commented alternative political activists in Jaffna.
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