US resolution ‘guides’ UK Labour to support Sri Lanka venue of CHOGM

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2013, 20:23 GMT]
The US draft resolution at Geneva that is based on Sri Lanka’s LLRC recommendations and that neither welcomes international investigation nor initiates any meaningful new action on Sri Lanka, also undermines efforts to check Sri Lanka through the Commonwealth, political observers said. The US resolution subverts any opposition to the CHOGM taking place in the island or the Colombo regime leading the Commonwealth for the next two years. Losing no time in playing second fiddle to Washington’s patronage to genocidal Sri Lanka, the UK’s Labour shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, subtly urging the UK government not to boycott the Colombo summit of CHOGM, said on Monday that “the British Government should keep its attendance at this summit under review as it awaits effective action from the Sri Lankan Government.”
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Colombo attempts to resurrect bogey of suicide terror

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 March 2013, 02:35 GMT]
Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN, and the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State University co-sponsored "a dialogue" Friday on suicide bombers in New York, and how the Government of Sri Lanka eliminated the menace and successfully prosecuted the war on terror, sources attending the event told TamilNet. The belated attempt to rekindle the "suicide terror" factor, four years after the Mu'l'livaaykaal massacre and the death of LTTE leadership, was a desperate diversionary measure to shift the increasing focus from Sri Lanka's human rights violations and alleged complicity in mass atrocities, Tamil circles commented.
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Giving bicycles and taking land: New Delhi’s ‘rehabilitation’ policy on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 March 2013, 00:31 GMT]
India donates 10,000 bicycles to assist the rehabilitation of the war displaced in the North, said The Hindu on Thursday, citing the Indian High Commission in Colombo. The highlight was timed for protests in Tamil Nadu and across the world over the Indo-US failure in tabling a just resolution on Sri Lanka at Geneva. New Delhi’s adamant backing to the ‘friendly’ Sinhala State and military in occupying and colonising the lands of the nation of Eezham Tamils is well known. While there are speculations that the Indian policy aims at indirectly grabbing land in the island through strategic partnership with the Sinhala State and by accepting the structural genocide it commits on Tamils, an alternative Indian media Kafila on Wednesday revealed how Indian land grab enslaving peoples takes place in Africa with the complicity of governments there.
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US UNHRC inaction not inconsistent with saving Rajapakse in US Courts, says TAG

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 March 2013, 01:03 GMT]
The resolution tabled in the Geneva UNHCR sessions by the USA in concert with India, which sidesteps forcing an independent international investigation into the Mu'l'livaaykaal killings, and misleads the Eezham Tamils into a mirage that international community will seek accountability, appears entirely consistent with the intervention of the U.S. State Department in the legal actions pursued by Tamil plaintiffs against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, legal sources in Washington said. U.S. is acting as a proxy to Rajapakses in filing legal briefs and replacing Patton Boggs as "the attorneys" for Rajapakse.
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Learn Lesson and Respond Concretely: ‘LLRC’ for Tamils on US resolution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 March 2013, 20:08 GMT]
The draft resolution based on Sri Lanka's LLRC tabled at the 22nd Session of the UNHRC, by the USA that architected the genocidal war against Eezham Tamils, should be an eye-opening lesson to all Tamils in the world in learning with confirmation the dismissive attitude of the USA towards the annihilation-facing nation of Eezham Tamils. The attitude of New Delhi, seeing Sri Lanka an enemy of humanity as a friend of India, and its interest in seeing Washington and Colombo directly engaging with each other are already known. Tamil activists teamed between the two powers for ages, believing that one or both would come to the rescue, and were showing a mirage to the common folk now and then, should learn the lesson at least now and respond concretely in addressing the ultimate adversaries.
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‘US resolution will not give Tamils justice’: Vaiko

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 March 2013, 07:22 GMT]
Stating that only an internationally monitored referendum among Eezham Tamils for an independent state of Tamil Eelam and an independent international investigation into genocidal war crimes of Sri Lanka would provide justice, MDMK leader Vaiko, in a statement on Wednesday asserted that the upcoming US resolution at Geneva falls drastically short of providing any justice to the genocide-affected nation of the Eezham Tamils. In the statement Mr. Vaiko also criticized political parties in India for holding up the US resolution as an appropriate step forward. Separately, protests against Sri Lanka have been intensifying across Tamil Nadu.
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Colombo reaches ‘understanding’ with USA, claims Sinhala daily

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 March 2013, 07:09 GMT]
Sinhala daily Divaina, which is a sister news paper of The Island, published by Upali Newspapers in Colombo, has stated in a recent news report citing ‘reliable’ sources that Colombo had reached a mutual understanding with Washington on the implementation of LLRC and monitoring its implementation through a Rajapaksa-appointed Commission of Colombo. According to the paper, the USA had promised to Colombo that it would refrain from imposing sanctions on Sri Lanka through UN Security Council until 2016. Last week, the External Affairs Minister of the New Delhi Establishment in the Indian parliament ‘encouraged’ the USA and Sri Lanka “to directly engage on the draft resolution and aim for a mutually acceptable outcome.”
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Worsening human rights woes drive political skulduggery

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 March 2013, 00:56 GMT]
While Tamils unitedly view the Mu'l'livaaykaal killings as an international crime of genocidal proportions committed by the State, Colombo, sensing the tightening of the rights noose around its neck at the UNHCR and beyond, is resorting to political skulduggery, even while Tamils look suspiciously at the international actors, particularly India and the U.S. Both India and the U.S., even while armed with credible evidence of Rajapaksas' complicity in the genocidal crimes, continue to allow Colombo space and time to act on "improving" the rights climate, while Colombo continues its cultural genocide, and aggressively erases any remaining evidence of mass atrocities.
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Sinhala Buddha-Sasana custodians not recognizing nuns accuse Cholas

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 March 2013, 00:20 GMT]
With the fall of Anuradhapura to the “Chola invaders” in AD 1017, the Bikkhuni order (the Order of Buddhist Nuns) disappeared and became non-operational. Even though the Bikkhu Order of the males in the island was revived later with the help of the Theravada Buddhist monks of Burma, the Bikkhuni order could not be revived according to Theravada traditions, because the Theravada countries like Burma, Siam, Cambodia and Laos didn’t have nuns. Hence, recognising those who now claim as Bikkhunis in the island is not very satisfactory, commented, Registrar of the Asgiriya Chapter and academic of the Bikkhu University in Anuradhapura, Ven. Anamaduwe Dhammadassa Thero as cited by the latest edition of the Sunday Leader. [Anamaduwe is recent Sinhalicisation of a Tamil village Aanai-madu in NW province, meaning the pond of elephants]
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Colombo instructs SL intelligence to curb protests against SL State

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 March 2013, 23:52 GMT]
As the world’s attention is focused on Colombo’s crimes against Tamils, the intelligence offices of the occupying Sri Lankan military in North and East have received fresh instructions from the SL Defence Ministry in Colombo to stop people from mobilizing protests demanding the release of Tamil prisoners in the Sri Lankan prisons and to curb protests against the creation of Sinhala Military Zones in the Tamil homeland. On Tuesday, SL intelligence officers were directly involved in harassing and blocking around 700 protestors from the five districts in North, who were boarding the buses heading to Colombo for the protest which took place in front of the UN office in Colombo on Wednesday.
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Veteran Eezham Tamil journalist, poet, Parvathinathasivam passes away

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 March 2013, 17:16 GMT]
Pulavar Parvathinathasivam, poet, journalist, author and Tamil scholar passed away in Jaffna on Tuesday morning at the age of 77. Coming from an illustrious family of Tamil scholars in Jaffna, Parvathi-natha-sivam was further inspired in his outlook and writings by his association with the renowned Tamil poet Bharathidasan in the late 1950s. Starting his journalistic career with Suthanthiran, he served as editor of the weekly edition of Eezhanaadu daily in Jaffna for a long time in the 1970s and 80s. Later, he worked for Uthayan in the 90s and also contributed to Murasoli, Sanjeevi and Thinakkural. The funeral ceremonies will take place at his family’s present residence at Nanthaavil Lane in Kokkuvil on Wednesday. His ancestral house at Maaviddapuram, coming under the SL military-occupied HSZ for two decades, was released recently, but in a completely razed-down condition.
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Daily Mirror fabricates news: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 March 2013, 00:01 GMT]
“It is sometimes possible for journalists to misunderstand what is being said, and as a result misquote. But in this case, the major part of the said news item is entirely fabricated,” says Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam responding to Colombo-based English media Daily Mirror reporting his speech at the Press Club in Jaffna on Monday. While he had cited the report of Ms. Navi Pillai in appreciation for evidencing the grave violations committed against Tamils in the last one year, the Daily Mirror titled its news report on Wednesday as “Pillai responsible, says Ponnambalam,” Gajendrakumar said. Following protests by Gajendrakumar, Daily Mirror carried another report on Thursday, titled “Ponnambalam clarifies.” This was even more disappointing and completely inadequate, Gajendrakumar told TamilNet.
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Colombo uses international aid, abetment, for structural genocide in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2013, 04:02 GMT]
The genocidal Sinhala State in Colombo has accelerated the process of creating a Sinhala division at Ma'nal-aa'ru renamed as Wæli-oya in Sinhala, in the strategic locality linking North and East territory of the Tamil nation in the island of Sri Lanka, by deploying Indian and other international aid, civil sources in Mullaiththeevu said. The housing aid of India and the infrastructure aid of the IC are pooled in creating the Sinhala division, with all facilities of attraction for the Sinhalicisation process at the wedging locality. This is carried out not without the blessings of India, the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia whose delegates visited the region in the recent months, the civil sources commented, adding that what was heard from the Indian Foreign Minister in the parliament on Wednesday on implementing the 13th Amendment was a sour joke of quarter a century.
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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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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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New Delhi, Colombo, jointly ‘cherish’ IPKF memory at Palaali SMZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2013, 22:13 GMT]
New Delhi Establishment’s envoy in Colombo, Ashok K. Kantha, accompanied by his wife Mrs. Sharmila Kantha paid tribute at the newly ‘rediscovered’ IPKF memorial at Palaali in the Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) on Saturday. Joining the couple in cherishing the legacy of the IPKF was Colombo’s occupying Sinhala military commander in Jaffna, Maj. Gen Mahinda Hathurusinghe, senior officers of the SL military, New Delhi’s Defence Advisor at the Colombo High Commission and the Establishment’s Consul General in Jaffna. New Delhi already has a memorial built for the war-crimes-accused IPKF at Colombo. New Delhi’s current gesture of rediscovering another memorial at Palaali along with the occupying genocidal Sinhala military signals negatively when there is demand for international investigation of war crimes in the island.
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Blake, architect of Tamil tragedy, spectator to genocide

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2013, 22:22 GMT]
Blinded by the 9/11 terror and impelled by the perceived need for swift action against "terrorism," the US-led International Community, made two serious miscalculations in Sri Lanka war: By allowing unhindered space for Sri Lanka's final military thrust, they misjudged Sinhala society's willing capacity to inflict bestial, savage crimes on fellow human beings; and the IC's belief that, once the Tigers are eliminated Rajapakses will “fill in the gaps” and provide an acceptable political solution, has been shown as embarrassingly flawed. Now, as the IC savors the dystopian-monster they created, the need to whitewash the atrocities by side-stepping accountability, and to focus on development, appear to be driving IC's actions. Tamils, now left defenseless, hold Ambassador Blake, as the key US official who shaped the US policy on Sri Lanka's war, responsible for the tragedy.
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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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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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