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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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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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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Tamils will lose land forever by failing to address US, India in time

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 February 2013, 01:25 GMT]
Any international resolution on the island of Sri Lanka that doesn’t recognize and protect the nation of Eezham Tamils and its territoriality is not only useless to the affected people but also worse than the genocidal war waged against them by the International Community of Establishments. In a coordinated way, a concrete demand has to be globally made by Tamil politicians in the island, activists and public in the diaspora, and by political parties and masses in Tamil Nadu, addressed specifically at Washington and New Delhi to not hoodwink any more by deviating resolutions but to come out with meaningful international action to restore the country of Eezham Tamils to them.
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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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Canadian minister fails to address genocide, annihilation of Tamil territory

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2013, 00:13 GMT]
Speaking to media at a gathering in Markham, Ontario (where Eezham Tamils live in considerable number), Mr Jason Kenny, Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism, who recently visited Colombo, was speaking on failure of Sri Lanka in addressing reconciliation, war-crimes accountability and general failure in protecting human rights and rule of law. He also mentioned excessive militarization of the North and East, even though in answering questions he said that he understands militarization to some extent. But the minister, seeing Tamils as minorities and not as a nation, failed to address the pressing question currently faced by Eezham Tamils as a nation in the island, i.e., structural genocide, Sinhala colonization supported by militarization and annihilation of the territoriality of the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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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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‘Slap on the face reception’ to UK Under Secretary visiting Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 February 2013, 16:53 GMT]
People of Vanni closed themselves inside their huts and refused to come out when the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Alistair Burt MP, accompanied by the occupying Sinhala military, wanted to ‘speak’ to the uprooted Eezham Tamils at Keappa-pulavu on Thursday. The reason was two-fold: loss of faith in the modus operandi of foreign dignitaries visiting them with the occupying military and then coming out with statements not recognizing the on-going genocide but buttressing the genocidal State; and the other reason was suffocating intimidation by the occupying Sinhala military that no one should tell anything controversial to visiting foreigners. The same military officials bringing visitors to them in the daytime would turn into torture-interrogators in the night time, Eezham Tamils of Vanni commented.
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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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Sinhala colonisation in sacred land of Tamil martyrs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2013, 01:01 GMT]
Puthu-maaththa’lan, a part of the Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal sacred land of the Eezham Tamil martyrs, was subjected to Sinhala colonization this week with the protection of the Sinhala military occupying the land, news sources in Vanni said. The resettled Tamil fishermen at Ira’naip-paalai and Puthu-maththa’lan resisted the arrival and colonisation of their coast by Sinhala fishermen from the South on Tuesday. The Sinhala fishermen, keeping their equipment for safe custody with the SL military, vowed that they would come back and colonize the land during the scheduled visit of Mahinda Rajapaksa to Mullaith-theevu on Sunday. But they didn’t go back. The Sinhalese were hiding in the SL military camp, and on Wednesday when the Tamil fishermen returned from the sea, to their surprise they found their coastal stretch was colonised by the Sinhalese.
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Sinhala military, Malayala martial arts to mark Indian celebrations in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2013, 00:36 GMT]
Marking India’s 64th Republic Day (26-01-2013) celebrations, a performance of Malayala Martial Arts, called Ka’larip-payattu, has been organized at Veerasingam Hall in Jaffna on Thursday, by New Delhi’s Consulate General in Jaffna. The Commander of the Sinhala military occupying Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, will be the Chief Guest at the celebrations, presided over by New Delhi’s Consul General in Jaffna, Mr. V. Mahalingam. Genocidal Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Culture and Arts and New Delhi’s Indian Council of Cultural Relations jointly sponsor the programme. Meanwhile, India is in the top in training genocidal Sri Lanka’s Sinhala military at the rate of 1400 personnel per year, admitted, New Delhi’s envoy in Colombo Ashok K. Kantha.
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Retired Tamil Justice compares between own and occupied rule in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 January 2013, 15:32 GMT]
When I came here [Jaffna] at the beginning of this century, I was told that even at midnight women could move around without any fear or concern about security. But now, there is fear and apprehension even when one is confined to houses. Rather than saying that only those who have come from the outside commit acts causing fear, it is more appropriate to say that it is the sons of Jaffna who largely commit such acts, without any shame or concern. A careful scrutiny would show how some one of us was there operating and is still operating, behind every wrong committed by the outsiders. We should build unity and an internal mechanism so that our people don’t turn into pimps and servants to the outsiders, said Trincomalee-based retired Tamil Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, while addressing the Vaddukkoaddai YMHA on the Pongkal day.
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NZ routinely rejects Tamil "Mandate-Refugees" for resettlement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 January 2013, 03:01 GMT]
New Zealand has over the years rejected, for admission and resettlement, several Tamil refugees, who have already been declared as Refugees by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in compliance with the UNHCR Charter and associated statutes, labelled as "mandate" refugees, even while the quotas for UNHCR recommended refugee intakes, as determined by the Government of New Zealand, were not exceeded, published Government documents show. While individual states can reach independent determination of the refugee status based on the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and 1967 protocol, labelled as "convention" refugees, legal sources say, the differences between UNHCR statutes and Refugee Convention are relatively minimal to produce conflicting statuses between UNHCR and local state determination, according to refugee activists.
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U.S. Senators call for international probe into Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 January 2013, 02:28 GMT]
U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) called for an independent, international investigation into potential war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE during the civil war in Sri Lanka. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Senators said such an investigation is needed because the legitimate concerns of the Sri Lankan people have not been answered by the government, Senator Leahy's website reported. “Sri Lankans have legitimate concerns about war crimes committed during the civil war that are not being addressed by the government, and an independent, international investigation is needed to get answers,” the letter said.
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Sri Lanka cricket ban getting closer, says noted sports writer

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 23:58 GMT]
Commenting that “[t]he promotion of Sanath Jayasuriya is a dark day in Sri Lanka’s cricket history,” following the appointment of Jayasuriya, a Government MP and close ally of Rajapaksa, to head the 5-member selection panel of the Sri Lanka cricket team, Australia’s most respected cricket author and journalist Gideon Haigh, said in his website that Colombo's "growing authoritarianism and hubris" will likely "buttress the case for a boycott of Sri Lankan cricket," the group Boycott Sri Lanka Campaign, headed by another well-known Australian journalist Trevor Grant, said in a press release.
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Colonial governor diverts more education funds to Sinhala colonisation in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 22:44 GMT]
Colombo’s colonial governor in North and the former Jaffna commander of the occupying SL military in Jaffna, Maj Gen (retd) GA Chandrasiri, has again diverted a major portion of the funds, allocated for education and health sectors in the five districts in the Northern Province, to the newly carved out Ma'nalaa'rau (Weli-Oaya) Sinhala division in Mullaiththeevu district for the construction of 72 new Sinhala schools and health stations as part of a hurried expansion of the Sinhala colonisation scheme, informed sources in Vanni told TamilNet on Wednesday. To facilitate the accelerated occupation, contractors hired from South are working day and night, putting up the schools and health stations, the sources further said.
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Visiting US team continues ‘counting trees’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2013, 23:23 GMT]
The visit of the US Defence and State Department officials to Jaffna on Sunday was marked by denial of issues by the occupying Sinhala military, denials countered by the Bishop and civil society of Jaffna, and comments by the visiting team – all just a bickering on counting trees but deliberate refusal to see the wood, because the ambit has been set by the US-tabled 2012 Geneva resolution that has to now facilitate the 2013 resolution under preparation, political analysts in Jaffna told TamilNet. A stage has been set, knowing how the characters would act and what dialogues they would come out with, so that the play could proceed endlessly to the benefit of the director. Unless Tamils insist on a stage to talk nothing but the fundamentals for any future association with the director, they will be ‘played out’ the analysts further said.
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Ampaa'rai Tamil activist killed after protesting demographic changes

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2013, 21:31 GMT]
40 year-old Seenithamby Premanathan, a father of two, was waylaid and cut to death by an unknown killer squad Sunday night around 8:30 p.m., when he was returning home in a three wheeler from his brother’s house located at Malvaththai along a paddy field between Mallikaith-theevu and Malvaththai in Chammaanthu’rai police division. The killing comes a day after he was reported to have voiced concern over the injustice done in the demarcation of boundaries of the local authority concerned, civil sources in Ampaa’rai told TamilNet. In recent days, there were also reports of targeted harassments against Tamil women in Ampaa'rai.
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