Eezham Tamils urged to concentrate on strategic connections opposed to imperialism

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 November 2015, 21:06 GMT]
“The US and Britain deliberately broke the peace process, they reorganised and re-equipped the Sri Lankan armed forces, provided it with training, intelligence and tactical support and let it loose [on Eezham Tamils]. Then at the critical moment they withdrew the UN, and allowed the mass killings to take place with international impunity. Now the same imperialist powers are orchestrating acceptance of SL’s cover up,” said Dr. Andrew Higginbottom, lecturer in Politics and Human Rights at the Kingston University in London. He was addressing the participants at Tamil Eelam Heroes Day remembrance event held in London on Friday. Solidarity activist Roberto Cardenas from MERU Verdadero, the movement of Ecuadoreans in the UK, also joined the British academic in urging Eezham Tamils to make strategic connections with the progressive social movements in Latin America.
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Heroes Day addresses in diaspora slam ‘US-Sri Lanka’ agenda on Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 November 2015, 17:52 GMT]
Thousands of Diaspora Eezham Tamils gathered in several cities across the globe on Friday marking Tamil Eelam Heroes Day and passed a sharp message to the unitary State of Sri Lanka and to the powers that steer the UN discourse to whitewash the genocidal State through perfunctory investigations and biased presentations of past crimes for their geopolitical benefits. Eezham Tamils were already aware of the nexus between New Delhi and Colombo. Now, Tamils have also realised the real nature of the smoke-screen discourses in Geneva and New York, which have actualized the ‘US-Sri Lanka consensus resolution’ upholding the Colombo-centric unitary State of Sri Lanka. Eezham Tamil activists of the first- and second-generation diaspora responded with direct messages to the US-Colombo nexus at Oslo in Norway and at Fribourg in Switzerland.
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Colombo withdraws police protection to NPC members after Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 November 2015, 09:19 GMT]
While keeping genocidal military for ‘State’ protection, Colombo regime has suddenly withdrawn police protection given to Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members Sunday morning. “It may have something to do with the democratic political voicing of their feelings and concerns by our Members yesterday (27 November 2015),” NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran noted while reminding the Senior Deputy Inspector General W.S.U Fernando in Jaffna that the “police must not get involved in tit for tat” situation. The NPC CM has sent the letter as a matter of urgency to the DIG, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Fallen Tamil Eelam sea fighters commemorated in North Sea, Europe

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 November 2015, 21:05 GMT]
A special remembrance event was organised by Eezham Tamil diaspora activists, including former Sea Tiger fighters, on Friday, in the North Sea of Europe, a non-Tamil solidarity activist told TamilNet providing video clips and photos of the memorial event held on board a boat at the mid-sea. The boat was representing Sea Tiger vessel “M.V. Sofa Maru 2”, the activist further said. Eezham Tamil activists on board the vessel hoisted Tamil Eelam flag and paid floral tributes to the fallen Tamil heroes. The activist didn't want to reveal the location of the event or the details about those who organised the memorial event.
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Occupied Tamil Eelam marks Heroes Day amidst ‘Sri Lankan’ harassment

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 November 2015, 13:54 GMT]
Tamil Eelam Heroes Day was observed in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils amidst intensified monitoring by the occupying military intelligence operatives of genocidal Sri Lanka on Friday. The university community in Jaffna, comprising the student union, teachers association and the union of non-academic staff gathered at Parameasvarar temple, which is located inside the campus of the University of Jaffna, to mark the largest event after 2009 to be organized braving the intimidating presence of the SL military intelligence operatives. Earlier in the day, former TNA parliamentarian and Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam lit the flame of sacrifice at the historic Nalloor temple. A special prayer was held at St. Patricks Church in Jaffna.
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Tamil student in Jaffna commits suicide demanding release of political prisoners

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 November 2015, 08:39 GMT]
Leaving behind a letter demanding the Maithiripala regime in Colombo to immediately release Tamil political prisoners, 18-year-old Advanced Level Arts section student of Kokkuvil Hindu College, Senthuran Rajeswaran from Koappaay North, sacrificed his life Thursday morning by jumping in front of a speeding ‘Sri Lankan’ train at Kokkuvil junction. “In Tamil Elam, always loving Tamils,” he ended his letter just a day ahead of Eezham Tamils world over observing the Tamil Eelam Heroes Day.
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NPC reiterates not to change name of Nayinaa-theevu islet off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 November 2015, 17:29 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) officials on Tuesday released a letter to media, which it recently sent to the SL Minister of Provincial Councils & Local Government Mr Faiszer Musthapha, reiterating NPC's demand on the continuation of the historical Tamil name of Nayinaa-theevu (Nainathivu) islet in the official records. The Colombo regime, in a recent Gazette notification relating to the delimitation of wards 08 and 12 of Veala'nai Divisional Council, had deployed a Sinhala term in Tamil as "Nagadeepam" ("Nagadeepa" in Sinhala) to denote the residential wards under three GS divisions in the islet. The NPC had earlier complained in writing to the SL Minister opposing the name change on 06 November. However, the SL Minister was later twisting the issue other way around in the media reports in Colombo.
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Samantha Power evades questions in Jaffna on Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 November 2015, 22:22 GMT]
Placing high hopes on Colombo regime that it will act positively to accountability demands of the US, and that there would be a vibrant civil society, lasting democracy and increased prosperity in the island, the visiting US Ambassador to United Nations, Ms Samantha Power, in Jaffna, dodged questions on the need for investigations on Tamil genocide, when journalists in Jaffna met her at the Jaffna Public Library on Sunday. During the tightly scheduled visit to Jaffna, Ms Power met with SL Governor to North, NPC Chief Minister and his ministers, toured the offices of the Uthayan newspaper and ceremonially opened a new science building at Jaffna Osmania College, constructed with 450,000 USD aid from the US Pacific Command. The Tamil-speaking Muslims in Jaffna had experienced “ethnic cleansing” even before the term was coined, Power said in her Osmania address.
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Mystery surrounds death of ex-LTTE member in Maanthai West

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 November 2015, 15:18 GMT]
A 40-year-old former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who witnessed a four-member squad attempting to murder a person at Moon'raam-piddi on Friday, was found dead Saturday morning with his neck tightened by a piece of cloth, news sources in Mannaar said. Mystery surrounds his death as the family and those close to him have dismissed suicide as the cause of his death. The deceased was identified as Thanapalasingham Veerasingham, a father of three, who was living at Moon'raam-piddi in Iluppaik-kadavai of Maanthai West in Mannaar. Thanapalasingham was sleeping in front of his house, as he was to leave for fishing Friday morning around 4:00 a.m., the family said.
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Opposition leader should address sovereignty concerns of Tamils: Former Land Commissioner

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 November 2015, 21:16 GMT]
The United States of America, locked in a geopolitical competition with China in the Indian Ocean Region, is primarily concerned with its own interests. All the stakeholders are mainly concerned of their stakes with regards to the geo strategic location of this island in the Indian Ocean. This was also the case during the times of the World Wars. Now, the USA wants to be in control after ousting the Chinese. India was also interested in the same. The same way, Tamils should also be concerned of their primary interests, said Karthirgamathamby Kurunathan, a retired land commissioner, urging the Tamil polity not to allow the Sinhala politicians to buy time and space through the manoeuvrings in the United Nations. The Tamil polity should be sharp in countering the age-old dragging techniques, he told TamilNet. The opposition leader should address the sovereignty concerns of Tamils, he said.
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Veteran photojournalist passes away at 82 after bicyle accident

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 November 2015, 23:41 GMT]
82-year-old photojournalist Sankarakampan Kathiravelu passed away on Thursday at Jaffna Hospital after he accidentally fell into a well when his bicycle crashed on a by-lane located near the newspaper office of Thinakkural in Jaffna. Mr S. Kathirvelu, coming from Up-country Tamil origin, has been one of the key photojournalists of Jaffna, who remained committed in his service for more than three decades. “His last wish was that Tamil journalists in the diaspora and the homeland should jointly work to strengthen the journalists to remain committed in their work to document the systemic crimes against the nation of Eezham Tamils,” senior journalists paying tribute to him told TamilNet.
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Hunger strike exposed non-seriousness of US Resolution: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 November 2015, 09:10 GMT]
Since the prisoners’ plight has not been seriously addressed, many are wondering how the present Sri Lankan government would be able to address and punish those responsible for crimes against humanity, said Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, in an article to TamilNet on Wednesday, announcing the intentions of a forthcoming international forum being organised on Saturday in Penang. “It is indeed ironic, that President Sirisena who promised truth, justice and reconciliation for Tamils, has failed to address the serious human rights plight of Tamils in the country,” he said. The conference comes at a time the prisoners in the island have placed the furtherance of their cause at the hands of the global Tamils and the Northern Provincial Council. The forum will be officiated by Chief Minister of Penang Lim Guan Eng.
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Political prisoners call off hunger strike, issue new ultimatum with global struggle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 November 2015, 07:38 GMT]
Following Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran's request to call off the hunger strike with a promise to undertake a global campaign for their release, the prisoners of war and political prisoners in the SL prisons on Tuesday have called off their hunger strike. After Justice Wigneswaran's visit to New Magazine prison on Monday, D.M. Swaminathan, the newly upgraded SL Minister of ‘Prison Reforms’, was also visiting the prisoners with the offer of sending around 70 prisoners to ‘military rehabilitation’ instead of releasing them with the recognition of ‘political prisoners’. The remaining prisoners have set December 15 as ultimatum before commencing their final fast-unto-death. The political prisoners have assigned the responsibility of advancing their cause to the Northern Provincial Council and the Tamil Diaspora.
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Hunger strikers: ‘USA, co-sponsors of consensus-resolution responsible for our fate’

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 November 2015, 14:10 GMT]
The political prisoners and prisoners of war, waging hunger strike inside the Sri Lankan prisons for the 10th day told TamilNet Monday morning that the United States, which authored the consensus resolution with the genocidal State of Sri Lanka and the sponsor-States that passed the resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, should now ensure the release of the political prisoners languishing in the jails of occupying Sri Lanka through making the SL President declare them as political prisoners entitled to general amnesty. The prisoners of war and political prisoners demanded the officials at the diplomatic missions in Colombo to visit and witness their plight in person.
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Tamil genocide continues, Sirisena shows no desire for change, says Grant

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2015, 22:04 GMT]
Australian journalist and an advocate for Tamils rights, Trevor Grant, who has also written widely on the Sri Lankan State's genocide against Eezham Tamils and on the complicity of the Western governments in the genocide, in an interview with TamilNet this week opined that the Sirisena government's policies on critical Tamil issues are substantively not different from those of the predecessor Rajapakse government. Commenting on the recent prisoner issue where Tamil prisoners in several jails have resumed hunger strike after Sirisena failed to release the prisoners on Nov 7th as promised, Grant said that "if there was a genuine desire for change [in Srisena government], all prisoners would have been released within days of the election result in January." Grant added that Tamil Naadu has the capacity to turn India as a force supporting the cause of Eelam Tamils.
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Prisoners on hunger strike expose ‘reconciliation’ mask of genocidal Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 November 2015, 07:55 GMT]
The Prisoners of War and political prisoners on hunger strike languishing in the jails of occupying Colombo have stepped up their fast-unto-death protest on Saturday completely refusing medial treatment. The hunger-strikers learnt on Friday that the SL president Maithiripala Sirisena was not prepared to provide general amnesty to the prisoners. The hunger-strike has exposed the real faces behind the so-called good-governance personalities in the South and the one-way ‘reconciliation’ agenda they are trying to impose on Eezham Tamils, political observers in Jaffna said adding that the common public in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, are now also able to understand the kind of Colombo-centric orchestrated politics being waged by the UN offices, diplomatic missions in Colombo and the NGOs funded by foreign governments.
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Hartal brings North to standstill, no signs of Colombo releasing Tamil POWs

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 November 2015, 15:58 GMT]
The entire Northern province was brought to a standstill on Friday in what was described as a successful boycott as the occupying Colombo and its military were unable to use force or muffle the protest for the first time after 9 years since 2006. The dawn to dusk shutdown, demanding immediate release of all prisoners of war and political prisoners involved in the Tamil war of independence, has sent a strong message to the SL State and to the global community, journalists in Jaffna said. However, informed sources close to Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran were pessimistic in their interpretation of the reports of a possible announcement coming from the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on the coming Monday. “We are yet to see a principled decision from the side of the Sri Lankan president,” an NPC source told TamilNet.
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Condition of hunger-striking POWs, political prisoners worsens

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 November 2015, 16:28 GMT]
At least 31 Prisoners of War and political prisoners are either forcefully admitted to prison hospitals or their health has seriously declined as their fast-unto-death campaign reached the 5th day on Thursday at New Magazine prison in Welikade, Bogambara prision in Kandy and in Anuradhapura prison, former parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told journalists in Jaffna today. There are Tamils from all the districts, up-country, Muslims and even Sinhalese who are alleged or accused for their involvement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) among the prisoners who are on hunger-strike, informed legal sources in Colombo told TamilNet. A wide-scale shut-down is to take place in the country of Eezham Tamils on Friday demanding release of the POWs and the political prisoners currently jailed in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka.
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Family of imprisoned Muslim joins Tamils demanding release of political prisoners

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 November 2015, 16:37 GMT]
The wife and a daughter of a 41-year-old Tamil Muslim political prisoner, who is languishing in the Sri Lankan prison in the South since January 2009 after being alleged of assisting the LTTE, joined the Tamil mothers on Tuesday morning at Mannaar where they staged a protest demanding the Sri Lankan President Maithiripala Sirisena to release their kith and kin, who are on a fast-unto-death campaign. Along with Ms Segu Mohadeen Noorjahan, Tamil mothers walked from St. Sebastian Church in the city of Mannaar towards the District Secretariat appealing for the release of their family members. “If this is the plight of the declared-prisoners in jail, what is going to be the response on the missing Prisoners of War and others believed to be in secret prisons,” the mothers asked the journalists covering the protest.
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Colombo intensifies demographic genocide in Moothoor, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 November 2015, 23:51 GMT]
After settling local scores with a corporate outfit associated with the previous regime of Rajapaksa by releasing some of the lands seized from Eezham Tamils in Trincomalee back to the uprooted people from Champoor and making use of the act involved in a larger re-alignment of the geopolitical nexus with external powers that were trading on influencing the OISL recommendations and finally a resolution by ‘consensus’ at UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in October, the current regime of genocidal Sri Lanka has silently intensified the plans to permanently Sinhalicise 1,500 acres of lands that were already seized from Eezham Tamils at Kangkuveali, located southeast of Champoor in Moothoor division of the Trincomalee district.
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Diaspora should mount independent legal campaign: Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 November 2015, 23:18 GMT]
Pointing out that the United Nation's actions on Sri Lanka are unlikely to lead to establishing criminality for the Mu'l'livaaykkaal massacre on the State, Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law and who teaches at the College of Law, University of Illinois, advocates that the Tamil diaspora should organize a comprehensive legal campaign to bring charges in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and in parallel, bring criminal and/or civil charges against Sri Lanka's genocidaires in the courts of the democracies of the West using domestic legal mechanisms underpinned by universal jurisdiction. Boyle asserted that genocide, crimes against humanity and war-crimes are international crimes that have no statute of limitations, and Rajapaksas can be subjected to legal actions for the rest of their lives like the Jewish people's hunt for the Nazis.
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Maithiripala regime accelerates Sinhala occupation of Nayinaatheevu islet off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 November 2015, 23:47 GMT]
The occupying Navy of genocidal Sri Lanka and the Chief Buddhist monk stationed at Nayinaatheevu, an islet off Jaffna, have accelerated Sinhalicisation and Buddhicisation of the islet through military occupation. SL Minister for Justice and Buddha Sasana Mr Wijedasa Rajapakshe, who was visiting the peninsula last week, was encouraging Ven Navadagala Paduma Kiththi Tissa Thero to expand further the Buddhist vihara constructions in the island. The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) on Friday condemned the Sinhala-Buddhisication of the settlement wards belonging to Eezham Tamils. The Sinhala Buddhist domination and occupation, purely based on mythical claims, is being accelerated at the strategically located island where popular Saiva and Islamic sites of worships have existed for a long time along with a Buddhist temple.
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Tamil POWs, political prisoners announce fast unto death

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 November 2015, 23:44 GMT]
Rejecting the offer by the SL State to release them on bail, Tamil prisoners of war and political prisoners on Friday announced that they are going to begin a fast-unto-death protest in the prisons starting from 08 November on Sunday. Giving a last chance to the president, prime minister, attorney general and justice minister of the SL State to conduct negotiations with Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, the Tamil prisoners who are going to commence the hunger-strike said they are determined to wage the struggle. Upon their demise, the SL Prsident Maithiripala Sirisena should come in person to receive their dead bodies and hand them over to the medical faculty of the University of Jaffna and that their organs should be donated or used for medical research, the Tamil prisoners said. “We are determined like Thileepan”, a POW told TamilNet.
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SL Navy continues to occupy church lands in Peasaalai, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 November 2015, 22:16 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Mannaar has transformed illegally seized lands belonging to one of the largest churches in the island, into military-owned property during the regime of Maithiripala Sirisena. The SL Navy which occupied the lands in 2006 after carrying out a genocidal attack on the church killing a woman and injuring more than 44 by lobbing grenades on people who had sought asylum at the church, was telling the Parish Priest Fr. Vincent Patrick at that time the SLN was going to be stationed for a while as a temporary measure and that the lands would be handed back to the church. The lands seized for the camp were 3,000 square meters in 2006. But, later the SLN base was expanded to 8,000 square meters and now under Maithiripala Sirisene's regime, the occupation has been further expanded to 14,000 square meters.
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Jaffna lawyers tell SL Minister to prove political will in releasing Tamil prisoners

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 November 2015, 23:20 GMT]
Lawyers from Jaffna district, who met the SL Justice Minister Mr Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe in Jaffna on Tuesday urged the Colombo government to release all the Tamil political prisoners rotting in the jails without looking at their cases through criminal or legal procedures. The SL minister was visiting Jaffna to stage a deceptive campaign claiming that the SL Attorney General was prepared to grant bail to a considerable number of prisoners and that all the cases of the persons detained by the notorious ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ (TID) have been transferred to the office of the SL Attorney General.
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Veteran Tamil scholar Professor Veluppillai passes away

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 November 2015, 20:49 GMT]
Veteran Eezham Tamil scholar, Professor Alvappillai Veluppillai, who has internationally contributed over several decades to serious academic work in Tamil language, epigraphy, Dravidian linguistics and religion, passed away on Sunday night in San Francisco in the USA. He was 79. Born in Puloali South of Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna, in 1936, he was Professor of Tamil at the University of Jaffna as well as the University of Peradeniya. He also served at the Institute of Dravidian Linguistics in Trivandrum, Kerala University, the International Tamil Research Centre at Chennai, Uppsala University of Sweden and at the Virginia and Arizona Universities of the USA.
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Independent media watchdogs urged to visit Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 November 2015, 21:17 GMT]
International media watch dogs, not funded by State actors or Corporates, are urged to visit Northern and Eastern Provinces in the island and record the failure of domestic investigation mechanisms of the present regime in Colombo in bringing justice to the killings, enforced disappearances and harassments that prevailed and continue to prevail against independent journalists in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. Those who ordered the assassinations of leading reporters and those who took part in the executions are still being operated by the occupying SL military in Jaffna and other places, independent Tamil journalists who are not exposed to funded agendas in the North and East told TamilNet.
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