Poor Saiva families subjected to Islamic proselytism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2012, 19:02 GMT]
Administrators of mosques in Ampaa'rai district are engaged in converting members of poor Tamil Saiva families to Islam with financial inducement, civil society sources in Ampaa'rai said. Poor Tamil families from Chiththa'ndi, Mu'rakkottaancheanai, Chanthive'li, Kiraan and Ko'rakkallimadu who go work in rice mills, textile shops and brick making centres owned by Muslim businessmen are being coerced with inducements from the business owners according to sources.
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‘A right way and a wrong way to protest’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2012, 13:42 GMT]
In May 2009, before the civil war in Sri Lanka came to a fiery end with Sri Lanka armed forces killing tens of thousands of unarmed Tamil civilians in what has been labelled as the "crime of the century," several thousand Canadian Tamils, in protest, blocked the busy Gardiner Expressway angering Canadian motorists, and drawing condemnation from politicians. Gillian Philipupillai, a second generation Canadian Tamil, in a research paper, explores the position of diasporic Tamils in the "white settler state" through a focus on colonialism, movement, violence and sovereignty, and concludes, "[b]y racializing Tamil protesters as an intrusive mob of illegal occupiers, the Canadian state normalized and further justified mass Tamil civilian deaths and casualties on their homelands in the state of Sri Lanka."
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Achchezhu, Oorezhu, Ezhuthu-madduvaa’l

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2012, 06:43 GMT]
The open land enclosed by a ridge or divided into plots by ridges

The open land of the village

The open land in the flood plains

The muddy surrounding or the mud-walled encirclement
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Veteran Eezham Tamil educationalist passes away in Seychelles

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2012, 06:12 GMT]
Mr V. Sivasupramaniam, teacher, educational administrator, trade unionist and social worker, passed away in Seychelles on Wednesday, at the age of 81. His funeral takes place on Friday. Mr. Sivasupramaniam taught at Jaffna Hindu College between 1953 and 1972. Besides his reputation as an eminent, committed and inspiring teacher, he was also a leading trade unionist, long associated with the Northern Province Teachers Association that was the predominant teachers union of the region at that time. Later, the newly independent Seychelles government was benefitted by his services in developing educational infrastructure and institutions there. Serving Seychelles for nearly quarter a century, Mr. Sivasupramaniam was also a key person in building a cultural centre, a temple, for the South Asian Hindu community there.
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‘Sri Lanka model of COIN sets a dangerous precedent for humanity’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2012, 18:26 GMT]
After the International Community of Establishments working in tandem with a genocide-intending Sri Lankan state oversaw a brutal military solution over the armed struggle of the Eezham Tamils in May 2009, the ‘Sri Lanka model’ of dealing with insurgencies is now being incorporated into the science of Counterinsurgency (COIN), opines RM Karthick, observing what dangerous ramifications this could have for struggling peoples worldwide in an article published on Sanhati, an Indian online journal, on Wednesday. Outlining internal and external factors in shaping the conflict, using the politico-military analysis of the late TamilNet senior editor ‘Taraki’ Sivaram, the author explains how internationally coordinated measures against the LTTE and the genocidal intent of Sinhala nationalists led to Mu’l’livaaykkaal and the systemic repression of the Eezham Tamils in their homeland that followed.
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Canada’s will to intervene guided by geopolitics or humanity, ask Tamil activists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 20:17 GMT]
On September 24, the Canadian capital of Ottawa announced its endorsement of the “Will to Intervene” Project. It is the fourth Canadian city to endorse external military intervention on human rights grounds. Discussion at September 24th's event centred on the present civil conflict in Syria. Given Canada's recent rupture of diplomatic ties with Iran, the prospect of intervention in Syria holds clear geo-strategic implications. "Genocide" discourse, however, masks a selectively humanitarian foreign policy whose inconsistency demonstrates Canada's political interests in conflict situations. The divergence between Canada's approaches toward Syria and Sri Lanka is instructive and Tamil activists allege that Canada does not want the “Responsibility to Protect” Eezham Tamils, and harbours no moral “Will to Intervene” against Sri Lanka.
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Genocide needs investigation but separation contextually unwise: Alan Keenan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2012, 21:43 GMT]
Calls for investigation on what has happened and is happening now in Sri Lanka from genocide angle need to be looked into, said ICG’s Sri Lanka Project Director, Dr Alan Keenan, in an interview to TamilNet on Friday. “If you want to call it an investigation, it needs to be looked into. I am fully supportive of it being looked into,” he said 3 years after the war and the Dublin Tribunal calling for such an investigation in Jan 2010. The ICG had earlier targeted the diaspora for the genocide argument that it aims achieving Tamil Eelam. To questions on ICG negating independence to Tamils, while supporting it for others, he said that independence [even] as an ultimate goal is unwise to the current context of Tamils, while “balance of merits” favours it in other contexts. When pressed to explain the contextual difference, he hinted at the chance of further violence coming from the Sinhalese.
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Colombo's militarisation budget to increase by 26%

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2012, 14:58 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry, headed by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has sought a 26% increase in its military and ‘urban development’ expenditures for the year 2013, news sources in Colombo said. The military expenditure for the year 2012 was 230 billion rupees out of a total budget of 2,220 billion. For the year 2013, out of a total budget of 2,520 billion, the SL defence ministry seeks 290 billion rupees. While the budget increase is 13% the military seeks 26% increase, a double. Meanwhile, a group of international academics pointed out last week that Sri Lanka's expenditure on education is only 1.86% of the GDP, which is the lowest in South Asia and one of the lowest in the world.
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Jaffna civil society concerned about Sri Lanka using UN teams

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2012, 23:29 GMT]
Many UN teams are visiting the island of Sri Lanka in connection with the reviews of UNHRC in November 2012 and March 2013. The civil society in Jaffna is concerned that the UN team visits are encouraged to serve the agenda of the Colombo government, said civil society activist and Jaffna University academic in law, Mr Guruparan Kumaravadivel to media in Jaffna on Monday. The visits are not transparent, as they have not revealed the Terms of Reference and restrictions to their visits, and most of the time, they end up visiting SL government officials and people who do not come up with independent views. The whole exercise raises questions on UN deliberations in the island and “the UN definitely has not learnt lessons,” Mr Guruparan further said.
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Academics question ICE deceit after Solheim's speech at London book launch

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2012, 22:01 GMT]
Reacting to arguments put forth by the panel of discussants at the London book launch event of Frances Harrison's 'Still Counting the Dead' on Friday, especially to the opinions of Norwegian politician and peace-broker Erik Solheim, Indian academic Radha D'Souza and UK-based academic Amanda Latimer, criticized the politics of deceit the International Community of Establishments (ICE) was playing with the Tamils. In exclusive videos to TamilNet, both Dr. D'Souza and Ms. Latimer came down hard on the Western Establishments and those working with vested interests for spreading misinformation to the Tamil diaspora about the liberation struggle of the Eezham Tamils.
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TamilNet columnist in Asia Pacific passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 October 2012, 10:48 GMT]
TamilNet columnist in the diaspora, writing as Economic and Political Analyst in the Asia Pacific, passed away this week at the age of 73. Retired from the service of an apex world infrastructure of the Establishments, including a tenure that brought him awards from Vietnam, he had first hand experience on the 1 per cent of the world oppressing the 99 per cent. Oppressed nations and peoples coming together to change the world order was the pivotal theme of his writings. His commitment to the Tamil Eelam cause was based on his ideology that completion of the national liberation or recognition of the Right of Self-determination of the 6000 odd nations without state is an indispensable preliminary for the Socialist World Order. TamilNet’s inability to reveal his identity even at his demise reflects the nature of oppression Eezham Tamils face today.
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Sri Lanka’s genocide model sets trend in the region

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2012, 23:09 GMT]
The genocidal model of State, licensed to Sri Lanka by India and the International Community of Establishments, now inspires other peoples in the region to follow suit, as was seen in the recent attacks on Muslims in Myanmar and Buddhists in Bangladesh. The Sinhala-Buddhist clergy and mob in Colombo reverberated on Thursday by ransacking the Bangladesh High Commission and reiterating the ‘license to genocide’ privilege of the Sinhala Buddhists. “No matter which religion or race you may belong to, everyone has to understand that this is a country of the Sinhalese. If you accept this culture you can live here peacefully. Anyone who cannot, they should leave,” the Buddhist monk who led the march to the Bangladesh High Commission was cited saying, turning the demonstration into anti-Tamil and anti-Tamil-speaking Muslims in the island.
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Solheim’s politics, UN role in SL criticized at Frances Harrison’s book launch event

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2012, 07:24 GMT]
Even as Erik Solheim tried to sell stories that the LTTE leadership was responsible for the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre at the book launch event of Frances Harrison’s ‘Still Counting the Dead’ at London on Friday, solidarity activists and members from Eezham Tamil diaspora in the audience criticized his role as a failed peace-broker and the unjust role of the UN and the International Community of Establishments in leading to the genocidal massacre of the Eezham Tamils in May 2009. Ms. Harrison’s book, which presents the different types of atrocities that the Eezham Tamils endured at the hands of the Sri Lankan forces through case histories, also had some insights on the silence of world powers as the Sri Lankan government carried its onslaught on the Eezham Tamils.
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‘Surrendering a struggle’: Biafran lessons to Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2012, 15:56 GMT]
In an article published in The Guardian on Tuesday, famed novelist Chinua Achebe, who hails from the Igbo community in Nigeria, opines that decades after Nigeria’s genocidal war on the short-lived state of Biafra, the Igbo people still face monumental problems under Nigerian rule. The Nigerian-Biafran war ended after the internationally aided Nigerian offensives on the Igbo people, which resulted in the death of around 2 million, compelled the leaders of the armed resistance for Biafra to capitulate. Whether the Solheim clique in the Western establishments who now claim that they could have saved civilian lives by facilitating the ‘surrender’ of the LTTE leadership in 2009 had the same intentions for the Eezham Tamil nation, ask Tamil political activists.
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Commonwealth Secretariat thrusts ‘Sri Lankan’ identity on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 October 2012, 20:08 GMT]
An Indian official in the Commonwealth Secretariat, Amitav Banerji, Director of Political Affairs of the Secretariat, will be addressing “We Sri Lanka 2012” event organised by The Association of Professional Sri Lankans in the UK, on Saturday at Clore Management Centre of the University of London. Amitav Banerji is also the chief political adviser to the Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, and is responsible for managing the Commonwealth’s political activity. He was earlier a career diplomat of New Delhi. The ‘We Sri Lanka’ meet will also be featuring a panel discussion on ‘Road to Reconciliation Post LLRC Report, Commonwealth Diaspora Dialogues about their recent visit to Sri Lanka, besides Sri Lankan dances and refreshments.
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Opening brief filed in US war-crimes appeal against Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 October 2012, 04:20 GMT]
Brief for the three Tamil Plaintiffs-Appellants in the case, Kasippillai Manoharan versus Percy Mahendra Rajpakse, the current sitting Head of Sri Lanka, was filed on Tuesday at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, plaintiffs' attorney, Bruce Fein said. The legal issue raised was whether the words "an individual" in the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA), Congress subjected to civil liability for complicity in the universal crimes of torture or extra judicial killings under color of foreign law to implement the Convention Against Torture and to advance promoting human rights abroad include the sitting head of states (Mahinda Rajapakse) sued in their individual capacities, the legal brief of the plaintiffs said.
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SL military stops renovation of Hindu temple, appropriates Islamic burial ground in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 October 2012, 23:47 GMT]
Interfering in the religious freedom of Hindus and Muslims in Ampaa'rai, the occupying Sinhala military has appropriated an Islamic burial ground at Koddukkal in Poththuvil division of the district while instructing the administration of an ancient Murukan temple, worshipped by the Saivites for centuries, to stop the renovation of the temple. The head of the Murukan temple administration at Changkaman-ka'ndi in Thirukkoayil, Mr. Nakalingam, on Wednesday said that the SL military personnel who had come from Kaagnchirang-kudaa military base instructed the temple administration to immediately stop the renovation work being undertaken at the temple. The SL Army had told the temple administration that they were acting on behalf of the SL Archeology Department in Colombo.
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Colombo snatches away even little power devolved to EPC: TNA councilor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 October 2012, 21:40 GMT]
The leader of the opposition in the Eastern Provincial Council, Mr C. Thandayuthapani, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician, has said that the Sri Lankan government in Colombo was trying to snatch even the littler powers already devolved to the provincial administration in the Eastern Province. The comment by the TNA politician has come in the wake of EPC endorsing the controversial ‘Divineguma’ bill on Tuesday. The draft bill is a blueprint for the structural genocide of the country of Eezham Tamils, say Tamil civil officials in the East. In the meantime, the TNA has also filed a case at the SL Court of appeal against a move by Colombo to get a similar approaval from the colonial military governor in North to approve the bill in the absence of an elected provincial council in the North.
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British Marxist historian Hobsbawm dies at 95

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 October 2012, 23:44 GMT]
Eric Hobsbawm, one of the most prominent British historians of this century and the last, passed away at the age of 95 at London this Monday. Hobsbawm, who specialized in the history of industrial revolution in the West and the emergence of modern societies in Europe, underscored in his works the crucial role that popular culture played in the evolution of history. Besides influential works on historical epochs in modernity and the study of history as a discipline, Hobsbawm has also written extensively on the subject of nations and nationalism. Till his death, despite his loss of faith in the Soviet/Chinese model of socialism, he remained convinced that the current model of capitalist globalization was against the interests of humanity, writes RM Karthick, research scholar at a British university.
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NESoHR book on Tamil massacres prior to 2009 published in German

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 October 2012, 23:21 GMT]
A compilation of large-scale massacres from 1956 to 2008, brought out by the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), has been translated to German. The book, “Damit wir nicht vergessen” will be launched at Frankfurt Book Fair this month. The publication has an important historical dimension as it presents the massacres prior to 2009 genocidal onslaught in a historical dimension, says Emeritus Professor Peter Schalk in Uppsala, Sweden, sending an introductory note to TamilNet. “In a shortened time perspective those violations of human rights [in 2009] may appears as an occasional and random deviation of a particular Government of Sri Lanka or as committed by individual offenders. We have good reasons to assume that this massacre by the government represents a planned cultural and physical genocide over a long time,” he further says adding that a Chinese translation is desirable.
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