U.S. forfeits international responsibility to Sri Lankan state

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2009, 10:59 GMT]
"The United States looks to the Government of Sri Lanka to identify an appropriate and credible mechanism and initiate a process for accountability," read a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo on Thursday, announcing that U.S. Department of State delivered a Congressional report Wednesday detailing the incidents that allegedly occurred during the final months of the war in Vanni that may constitute violations of international humanitarian law or crimes against humanity. While Eezham Tamils are expecting justice from international mechanisms on the genocidal war carried out by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil nation, the U.S. statement attempts to make Colombo responsible for initiating a process for accountability within the anti-Tamil Sri Lankan system itself, commented Tamil circles blaming the statement as attempting to abet Colombo’s agenda of structural genocide.
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Vanni IDP students admitted to Ratmalana Hindu College

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2009, 10:28 GMT]
A batch of 144 Tamil students including 81 boys and 63 girls studying in grades from seven to eleven and detained in Vavuniyaa internment camp were admitted to Ratmalana Hindu College in Colombo district Wednesday. After detention they were rehabilitated at the Poonthooddam Child Protection and Rehabilitation Centre in Vavuniyaa. They left Vavuniyaa around 6.30 a.m. Wednesday in four special buses arranged by the Sri Lanka Army.
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22nd death anniversary of IPKF killed JTH personnel held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2009, 07:45 GMT]
The 22nd death anniversary of the 21 medical personnel including three leading doctors killed indiscriminately by the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) on 21st October 1987 within Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) was held Wednesday in JTH in an emotionally charged atmosphere, sources in Jaffna said. All activities of JTH were suspended for a while when the event took place with the participation of JTH personnel and hundreds of patients. IPKF, opening fire on the medical personnel who were trying to safeguard the patients and civilians, had killed more than a hundred of them too along with the medical personnel.
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Batticaloa IDPs in Vavuniyaa transferred to transit camps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 2009, 18:44 GMT]
The final and fifth batch of 785 members of 298 families among the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs)detained in Vavuniyaa internment camps since the fall of Vanni region to the Sri Lanka Army was sent to Batticaloa to be resettled in their own villages. They arrived in Batticaloa Sinhala Maha Vidiyalayam Wednesday morning in several buses under the escort of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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Time to support the Tamils, say British Conservatives

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 October 2009, 09:01 GMT]
Increasing involvement in British politics and reciprocal openness of the British political parties was marked by a part-televised event held in Essex Sunday where several incumbent and prospective parliamentarians from the British Conservative party reached out to their Tamil constituencies and articulated their positions on the conflict and its consequences in Sri Lanka .The event was the first one in a series planned by the recently formed British Tamil Conservative Association (BTCA). Members of Parliament from the British party were keen to stress both their sense of fairness as well as their orientation towards action over rhetoric, according to a BTCA attendee. Conservative candidate, Robert Halfon, echoed in his website, the sentiments expressed Sunday stressing the need for autonomy for the Tamils saying they deserved nothing less.
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Vavuniyaa IDPs transported to transit camps in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 October 2009, 08:06 GMT]
1191 members of 385 Internally Displaced families among the hundreds of thousands detained in Vavuniyaa internment camps after the fall of Vanni region to the government forces were brought to Eastern province Sunday and Monday in two batches . They were transported to Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai in Sri Lanka Army buses, under heavy escort, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Another batch of IDPs from Vavuniyaa brought to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2009, 07:47 GMT]
Around 2068 persons of 699 families from Jaffna peninsula were brought to Jaffna Sunday from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa. Though nearly 20,000 IDPs have been brought to Jaffna until now none from Themaraadchi or Vadamaraadchi are among them. There are about 10,000 persons of Jaffna origin still being detained in Vavuniyaa camps and they will be sent to Jaffna before 15 November, according to SLA Vanni Commander, Major. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne.
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Politically active Tamil diaspora youths under British spotlight

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2009, 19:11 GMT]
Taking a look into the new political activism of the current generation of diaspora Tamil youths, Financial Times, a premier British Daily, said the "ending [of the war] in Sri Lanka was also a beginning," and many youths experienced a political awakening after devoting a lot of time to the protests and some missing a year of their college. "As one generation of the Tamil diaspora sees its struggle for Eelam, an independent homeland, end in failure, their sons and daughters, who have spent their formative years in the west, are taking up the struggle. But they will fight it on their terms, using their strengths, fomenting a BlackBerry revolution," the paper said.
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Tamil internment, a manifestation of Sinhala state racism - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2009, 16:04 GMT]
"Despite the manifest outrage of international human rights groups like HRW and Amnesty International, relief agencies and several Western states, Sri Lanka defiantly continues to brutalize the [Tamil] detainees [locking them up in barbed wire militarized camps]. Whilst various international actors attempt to goad, cajole and compel Sri Lanka to let the civilians go, few have examined the reasons for their incarceration. As far as the Tamils are concerned, it is obvious: this is the latest manifestation of the Sinhala state racism," the British paper Tamil Guardian said in the latest weekend edition.
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SLA obstructs journalists meeting IDPs brought to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 09:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials in Jaffna did not allow media in Jaffna to meet and interview the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) brought to Jaffna from Vavuniyaa SLA internment camps Friday. The officials who had warned the IDPs of severe consequences should they meet or say anything to media persons said that they have been directed by the Ministry of Defence not to allow the media to meet the IGPs. Meanwhile the fate of two female undergrads who were among 28 women undergrads brought from Vavuniyaa internment camps to Jaffna, is not known, according to University officials in Jaffna. The two undergrads were taken for interrogation by the SLA from Kaithadi detention camp. The others have been handed over to Jaffna University administration.
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Colombo ducking international investigations on civilian killings - UN Rights Chief

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 04:30 GMT]
United Nations Human Rights Chief, Navi Pillay, speaking at a press conference in Brussels Wednesday criticized the Sri Lanka Government for not responding “to our many requests for an international investigation of what we say is widespread acts of killing of civilians," and that she had pointed out that "they [Sri Lanka Government] have in the past attempted to hold national investigations of very serious acts of killings that occurred of NGO and humanitarian workers and these investigations were dropped," the Washington D.C-based Examiner reported.
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Government merely relocating IDPs instead of resettling them

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2009, 07:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in merely relocating Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from one internment camp to other camps instead of resettling them in their own places, IDP Welfare Organizations in Jaffna raised concern. The government, in an attempt to ward off pressure from International Community to speedily resettle the IDPs in their original villages, is putting up an appearance of resettling IDPs and it is suspected it is intentionally dragging its feet in resettling the residents of Vanni in their villages, they further said.
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UNICEF urged to explore direct assistance to IDP education

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 22:01 GMT]
UNICEF has recently announced an emergency programme to assist Colombo’s Ministry of Education implementing Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) to an estimated number of 85,000 IDP children. According to a UNICEF advertisement, seeking experts to work with Colombo’s ministry, the programme will begin from January 2010 and 2000 teachers are to be trained for this purpose. Over the years the so-called national education in the island has been thoroughly Sinhalicised with scheming perfection, so that education of Tamils is now completely ‘directed’ by Sinhalese from concept and management to curriculum and textbooks. The ‘core curriculum’ in the mind of Colombo is structural and cultural genocide, commented academic circles in the island, adding that the UN agency should explore ways of handing over the education of Tamils to Tamils.
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IDPs in Pulmoaddai camps suffer without enough water

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2009, 16:52 GMT]
Hundreds of Vanni internally displaced families held in two camps in Pulmoaddai in Trincomalee district are undergoing untold hardships due to acute shortage of drinking water. Until last week each camp was supplied with two hundred thousand liters of water for drinking and other purposes. Now the quantity has been reduced to fifty thousand liters.
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SLA denies permission to Thirumavalavan to meet public in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2009, 07:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna turned down the request of Thol. Thirumavalavan, Tamil Nadu Parliamentarian and leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Kadchi (VCK) Party, to meet the public in Jaffna when the delegation of Tamil Nadu MPs was taken to Jaffna Public Library for a meeting Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna University Students expressed their strong protest against India for having let down the Eezham Tamils and for deceiving them continually, when the MPs met students in Jaffna University Sunday, the sources added.
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Tamil Nadu MPs delegation to see IDP internment camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 11:45 GMT]
Eight Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu, from the ruling Congress Party and its supporting political parties Dravida Munetra Kazhakam (DMK) and Viduthalai Chiruththaikal (VCK) are expected to arrive in Colombo Sunday and from there they will be taken to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa where the Vannin IDPs are detained, sources in Colombo said. Meanwhile, opposition parties in Tamil Nadu and India including Communist Party have expressed their strong protest for not having included any MP from the opposition or prominent leaders who had stood up for Eezham Tamils for many years. Sri Lanka government intends to take this delegation on a ‘guided tour’ to ‘selected spots’ in an effort to hide the true conditions under which the IDPs are suffering, representatives of IDP welfare organizations said.
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Disabled IDP youth gains admission to Jaffna medical faculty

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 October 2009, 12:46 GMT]
An Internally Displaced Tamil youth who lost both legs during the final battle launched by Sri Lanka Army against Liberation Tigers in Vanni region and held in Vavuniyaa internment camp had gained admission to the medical faculty of the Jaffna University. He has been admitted to the medical faculty and is attending lectures, according to Vice-chancellor Professor N. Shanmugalingam.
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Netherlands Ambassador to Sri Lanka visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 21:19 GMT]
Netherlands Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Leoni Cuelenare and an official, Gerrit Noordam from the Embassy were in Jaffna Wednesday where they held detailed discussion on matters related to the rehabilitation of Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh, Director of Planning, Pratheepan and high SLA officers took part in the discussion.
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Tamils facing “cultural annihaliation” by SL Government: Australian Politician

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 05:10 GMT]
“It may be argued that the Tamil people have a legitimate right to self-determination but what is essential now is that we must see an end to the oppressive and discriminatory policies of the victorious Sri Lankan Government” urged Greens MLC Ian Cohen in an address to the Australian Parliament on September 24th. Highlighting the “potential humanitarian catastrophe” faced by almost 300,000 refugees who “despite their desire and capacity to return home they are being held prisoner”, Cohen described the Governments treatment of Tamils as “a litany of injustice, cultural annihilation and human rights atrocities”. Meanwhile, a Tamil NGO official in Vavuniyaa, while welcoming the interest of Australian politicians, said they should also come forward to "first address the question of double standards, employed by their government, between issues such as East Timor and Eezham.”
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'India follows Sri Lanka in waging civil war'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 05:01 GMT]
India, in consultation with US counter-insurgency forces, is planning an unprecedented military offensive against ultra-Marxist rebels that is going to hit mainly the Adivasi (indigenous) peoples of India in the states of Andra Predesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra, warns a protest document drafted by Arundhati Roy and a group of progressive intellectuals. India plans to deploy its paramilitary forces, anti-rebel militias organized and funded by government agencies and possibly Indian Armed Forces including the Air Force in this war, the stated objective of which is to ‘liberate’ areas under the influence of Maoist rebels, but the real aim is to exploit land and resources of the deprived people, the document points out.
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