Ananthi blames war criminal Silva for blocking collective memorial at Mu'l'livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 May 2021, 19:23 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Commander of the SL Army, General Shavendra Silva, have deployed the occupying military to suppress the 12th collective Mu'l'ivaaykkaal Remembrance of Tamil Genocide at the sacred memorial site, said former councillor Ms Ananthy Sasitharan on Monday. She was talking to TamilNet after the SL military blocked her from entering Mullaiththeevu. The SL military was using Covid-19 as an excuse to shut down two divisions surrounding the memorial place. War criminal Silva, who commanded the notorious 58th Division that waged the genocidal onslaught in Vanni in May 2009, is now leading Colombo's Operation Centre for Preventing COVID-19 Outbreak in addition to being the commander of the SL Army. His military men were also responsible for destroying, desecrating the memorial lamp and removing the enormous memorial stone brought to Vanni from Jaffna on 12 May.
Full story >>

No focus on Tamil genocide, geopolitics gets played out in Geneva in favour of QUAD formation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 March 2021, 12:41 GMT]
Eezham Tamils wanted UN-sanctioned criminal investigations to focus on the crime of genocide through ICC and IIIM. But, the UK-led Core Group on Sri Lanka did not deliver it. Instead, the group chose to consolidate the March 2014 mandate-based evidence collection mechanism inside the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) through the UN Human Rights Council's resolution, which passed voting on Tuesday. The move has secured necessary space and time for the US-led Indo-Pacific geopolitical negotiations with the SL State through India and Japan, two of the QUAD countries that abstained from the voting for the same reason. China and Pakistan, which opposed the resolution called for a vote and nine other countries joined them voting against the resolution: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cuba, Eritrea, Philippines, Russia, Somalia, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.
Full story >>

Navi Pillay explains ‘human rights’ limitations in Geneva on Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 March 2021, 13:34 GMT]
The manifestation of a “pre-existing strategy” using archaeology and historic preservation as guises for political or religious agendas has been observed by the UN Special Rapporteurs visiting Sri Lanka in recent years. Today’s international law has not provided universal human right to land. However, SL State’s violations of the land rights of “marginalised communities” could be addressed under the normative framework of international law, said Dr Navanetham Pillay. She mentioned the violation of the Right of Self-Determination. Pillay appeared as a keynote speaker at a conference titled “Loss of the Tamil Homeland,” which was convened by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on Saturday. She was confronting TamilNet’s questions over her failure to call for investigations on Tamil genocide, which includes examining the “pre-existing strategy” for all the crimes committed against Tamils in the past.
Full story >>

Deceived Tamil activists in UK falsely claimed ‘substantial changes’ to Zero draft

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2021, 20:36 GMT]
A newly formed letterhead organisation in London calling itself ‘Movement for Truth and Justice’ has claimed that “substantial changes were made to the resolution text” of the Core Group on Sri Lanka. The outfit has come with deceptive articulations while announcing the end of a 17-days long hunger strike that was waged by a courageous Tamil woman activist, Ambihai K Selvakumar, on Monday. The announcement was citing a letter written by the UK’s Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 10 March 2021. The letter and the text of the latest update of the draft submitted to the UNHRC on 12 March 2021 expose the claim’s falsehood. The deception comes a day after hundreds of Tamils mobilised in London amidst British police attempting to crack down their protest.
Full story >>

UK repeatedly wronged Tamils says hunger-striker, demands genocide justice

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2021, 21:34 GMT]
The UK has repeatedly failed to address the root cause of the conflict in its former colony, Ceylon, where its colonial injustice escalated the situation into protracted genocide against Tamils, said 53-year-old Ambihai Selvakumar, who is waging a continuous hunger strike in London demanding the UK government to course-correct its past failures. The UK has continued to betray the Tamils in the constitutional discourses of 1948, 1972 and their aftermath by aiding and abetting the warmongering genocidal state of Sri Lanka during and after the 2009 genocidal war, she said. In 2009 its UN envoy blocked a security council debate. In 2021, as the Core Group’s penholder, the UK has tabled a draft resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, totally failing to call for genocide justice. Furthermore, it delays international justice in the already established UN findings on other atrocity crimes.
Full story >>

Tamils witness false dilemma in Geneva as geopolitical formations pit against each other

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2021, 11:53 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ‘balancing act’ has tightly pitted the US-UK-India axis of bandwagoning strategic partners against the China-Russia-Pakistan formation at Geneva. US Ambassador Ms Alaina Teplitz in Colombo was making a North trip as Pakistan’s prime minister visited Colombo. Simultaneously, the politics of human rights was unfolding in Geneva at the Interactive Dialogue on Thursday after Ms Michelle Bachelet, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner and the former president of Chile, presented her report on Wednesday. As usual, the UN High Commissioner’s Report was strongly worded than what one could expect from a resolution being tabled by parties with a vested interest. Eelam Tamils, who demand specific referral to the main crime of genocide from the UN High Commissioner and the UNHRC Resolution, have to confront a false dichotomy once again.
Full story >>

UK not prepared to push for ICC option in new UNHRC Resolution

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 February 2021, 14:02 GMT]
The South Asia Department of the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office of the UK has stated that it still believed that the UNHRC framework is “the best way” to establish the truth and achieve justice and lasting reconciliation for “all communities in Sri Lanka”. The Tamil organisations demanded both ICC referral and investigations on genocide in their letters to the British Foreign Secretary. However, the FCO was dodging any reference to genocide in its reply. On the ICC option, it said: “The ICC could only exercise jurisdiction if the situation is referred to it by a UN Security Council Resolution, or if Sri Lanka accepts the Court’s jurisdiction. Our assessment is that this step would not have the support of the required Security Council members and that it would not advance the cause of accountability for an ICC referral to fail to win Security Council support or to be vetoed.”
Full story >>

Unprecedented P2P uprising paves the way for rights-oriented politics of Tamils and Muslims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 February 2021, 23:16 GMT]
The Tamil-speaking people in the North-East have waged an unprecedented post-2009 march from Poththuvil in Ampaa’rai in the East to Polika’ndi in Jaffna. Confronting the legal barriers and the roadblocks put up by the SL Police and the notorious Special Task Force (STF) commandos, the people across the eight districts of the North-East mobilised outmanoeuvring the ‘disciplining mechanisms’ of the Sinhala-Buddhist ethnocratic rulers in Colombo. The five-day march, named as “Poththuvil to Polika'ndi” (P2P), was organised ahead of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The rally concluded on Sunday demanding international justice for genocide reiterating the fundamental principles, the Right of Self-Determination and Eezham Tamils’ nationhood. The P2P mobilisation also demanded an immediate end to the discriminatory forced cremation of COVID-19 Muslim victims.
Full story >>

Gotabaya sets up deceptive COI citing ‘sovereignty’ and ‘non-aligned’ foreign policy

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2021, 08:01 GMT]
Adding to the series of deceit by his predecessors and using the same modus operandi, SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has now appointed another domestic Commission of Inquiry (COI) on accountability. The three-member COI, announced through an extraordinary Gazette Notification on Thursday is tasked to find out about the preceding domestic COIs and Committees revelations on “any human rights violations, serious violations of the international humanitarian law and other such serious offences”. Further stating in the gazette that even though Colombo has withdrawn from “co-sponsorship policy”, it would continue to “work with the United Nations and its Agencies to achieve accountability and human resource development for achieving sustainable peace and reconciliation”.
Full story >>

Tamil activists resisted three sources of outside influence while drafting demands to UNHRC

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 January 2021, 23:44 GMT]
The joint demands formulated by the Tamil national political parties towards the United Nations make specific reference to genocide twice. The four-point document gains significance as Parliamentary Group Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mr R Sampanthan has endorsed it with his signature, said former Northern Provincial Council Minister Ms Ananthy Sasitharan. Mr M A Sumanthiran representing the TNA in the negotiations finally agreed to make the specific reference after TELO Parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan seemingly insisted for it, she said. TELO is a party of the TNA with three parliamentary seats. In an explosive and lengthy comment to TamilNet, Sasitharan narrated how the foreign powers and NGO agenda-setters were attempting to influence the process from three fronts. She considered Dr Guruparan Kumaravadivel as the behind-the-scene drafter of the final document.
Full story >>

Demolition of Tamil genocide monument, fourth emblematic trauma since 1974: Rev Fr Sakthivel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 January 2021, 09:37 GMT]
Tamils experienced one of their first collective trauma when Colombo’s Sinhala police massacred nine Tamil civilians at the World Tamil Conference in Jaffna in 1974. Then came one of the worst acts of cultural and heritage genocide, the state-backed burning of Jaffna Public Library in 1981. The 2009 genocidal onslaught caused the third emblematic trauma. Now, the demolition of Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Monument at the Jaffna University has triggered the fourth wave of trauma to the same extent, said Rev Fr Sakthivel, a prominent rights activist of Up-Country origin. He urged the Tamil political parties to unite and demand justice for the protracted genocide that has caused waves of collective trauma to the genocide affected Tamil nation.
Full story >>

Colombo destroys Mu'l'livaaykkaal memorial monument at Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 January 2021, 23:51 GMT]
The occupying SL military and the police have razed to the ground Mu'l'livaaykkaal Tamil genocide monument, situated within the premises of the University of Jaffna. The destruction took place Friday night sending shockwaves across the occupied homeland and the diaspora. Despite the students' protest, the SL military went ahead bulldozing the statue. The Tamil people and their civic leaders who rushed to the site to protest were blocked at the university entrance. The Sinhala military and police personnel used abusive language against the protesters, the students said. The destruction has taken place a day after Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar wrapped up his three-day visit to Colombo. In the meantime, Tamil political party leaders are scheduled to discuss their demands to the United Nations on international investigations of Tamil genocide on Saturday.
Full story >>

With emphasis on genocide, Suresh calls for ICC-referral, IIIM and referendum

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2021, 11:22 GMT]
Clarifying three main demands formulated by the TMVK alliance, EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran, a former parliamentarian, urged Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam of the TNPF not to be only preoccupied with a one-point demand of the ICC option. A group of three persons, Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Mr M. A. Sumanthiran and Dr K Sarweswaran, would be meeting in Colombo on Thursday to formulate the demands towards the UNHRC. If the parties do not agree on a joint formulation, they would be placing their demands separately. However, all the alliances and parties represented by the said three persons, were firm in demanding UN action against Tamils' genocide in the island, informed sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Boyle prefers IIIM demand over ICC-referral, says specific reference to genocide essential

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2021, 00:04 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has made it clear that it will not cooperate with the UNHRC. It is time for the UNHRC to take action against the GoSL, said Professor Francis Boyle, an international law expert who teaches at the University of Illinois College of Law in the USA. Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet could forward the situation to the Security Council or the General Assembly if she wants to, he said, responding to a set of questions coming from the Tamil politicians on the ground. However, getting a new resolution with specific reference to genocide is essential, Prof Boyle said. “You have to keep up the reference to genocide. This is the gravamen of your Complaint against the GoSL.” Asked whether he preferred the demand for ICC-referral over the IIIM demand, he said: “I would go for the IIIM along the lines of Syria and for the same reasons”.
Full story >>

Colombo’s brutal suppression of Tamil Heroes’ Day counter-productive to stated objectives: Tamil MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 December 2020, 15:44 GMT]
Emboldened with a two-thirds majority in the SL Parliament, the regime of Rajapaksa has chosen to suppress Tamil remembrance days, particularly the Maaveear Naa'l (Tamil Eelam Heroes’ Day) this year. The Rajapaksa regime was short-sighted in using the opportunity to showcase to its southern audience that it was more determined than its predecessor in blocking November 27 Remembrance. However, the brutal manner in which the SL State and its judiciary suppressed the collective remembrance events received more attention not only among the Tamil youth in the North and the East but also in the South, said ITAK (TNA) Parliamentarian from Batticaloa Shanakiyan Rasamanickam. “I received phone calls from Up-Country Tamil youth from Deniyaya and Matara in the down south to Kandy and Colombo,” he said adding that even fifteen and sixteen-year-old youth were posing questions.
Full story >>

Occupied Tamil Eelam marks Heroes' Day indoors, SL military detains seminary principal

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 November 2020, 16:44 GMT]
The Police of the occupying state of genocidal Sri Lanka detained a Tamil Catholic priest, S. Baskaran, who is the principal of St. Martin’s Seminary while conducting Tamil Eelam Heroes’ Day remembrance at the entrance of the seminary, located near the Bishop’s House in Jaffna. Amidst tightened harassment from the SL military and the police against public remembrance events, the people and their political representatives resolvedly and emotionally marked the commemoration lighting flames of sacrifice inside their premises. The mobilisation for indoor remembrance has drawn the attention of the younger generation of Tamils like never before in the post-2009 context, journalists in Jaffna said. All the occupying Sinhala soldiers and the police personnel were deployed in the public places, junctions and along the road everywhere, reminding the people the level of military occupation.
Full story >>

Muslims join Tamils opposing Colombo's suppression of Thileepan Remembrance in North

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2020, 23:19 GMT]
Tamil business and student communities in the North-East observed hartal on Monday condemning SL State's widespread hostility towards the annual commemoration of Lt Col Thileepan on Saturday. Occupying Colombo's police and military were trying to block the business owners from conducting the shutdown. However, the business chambers didn't succumb to the pressure. Also, Muslim traders in the cities of North fully observed shutdown. They also marked hartal in their residential suburbs in Jaffna showing solidarity with Eezham Tamils. Except for the hospitals and necessary public transportation, the cities and towns were at a standstill in Jaffna, Mullaiththeevu, Vavuniyaa and Mannaar.
Full story >>

Tamils unify to mark Thileepan Remembrance, brave Colombo's suppression of memorialisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2020, 12:05 GMT]
Colombo's widespread attempts through SL judiciary, Police and military covering all the potential memorial sites and the Maaveerar square within the University of Jaffna, didn't manage to curb Eezham Tamils, their grassroots activists and politicians from marking the collective memorialisation events on Saturday on the occasion of 33rd commemoration of Lt Col Thileepan. Jaffna University students took part in three events in Jaffna, Chaavakachcheari and Vavuniyaa North. All mainstream Tamil parties doing politics on Tamil nationalist platform were brought together by the pressure from Tamil media, grassroots activists and the students who were responding to the suppression coming from Colombo. All Tamil dailies published in the Tamil homeland gave prominence to Thileepan Remembrance and highlighted Colombo's harassment against the collective memorialisation events.
Full story >>

Commemorating sacrifices of Tamil struggle is an inalienable right, not a subject for ‘SL permission’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2020, 09:10 GMT]
Veteran human rights activist and Catholic priest Fr M. Sakthivel has condemned Tamil political parties for having lowered their moral standards to the level of seeking permission from the SL State to commemorate the sacrifices made in the Tamil struggle. His comments come following the members of the political parties writing a letter to the head of the occupying state of genocidal Sri Lanka to lift the ‘ban’ enforced through its judiciary and police on marking Lt Col Thileepan’s 33rd commemoration. Tamils held all their struggle related remembrance events, including all the Mu’l’ livaaykkaal Remembrance events after 2009, as part of their inalienable right as they regard such remembrance as an inalienable exercise of their right of self-determination, Fr Sakthivel observed.
Full story >>

South Asia mourns SPB's demise

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2020, 22:08 GMT]
The demise of legendary and iconic South Asian singer SP Balasubrahmanyam (74), who captivated millions of hearts world over, has left an enormous void in the music world. The singer genius gave more than 40,000 tracks with versatility in sixteen languages, most of them in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam in a span of half a century of musical life. SPB, who was based in Chennai, set the benchmark for pronunciation not only in his mother tongue Telugu but also for singing Tamil playback songs in Tamil Nadu. TamilNet joins the millions of people in paying tribute to the greatest music legend of our times. Artist Pugazhenthi from Tamil Nadu shares with TamilNet his memories of SPB coming forward to sing freedom songs for Eezham Tamils and their liberation movement in 2007.
Full story >>