Victims demand immediate action against Colombo's squad in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2015, 11:02 GMT]
The families of forcefully disappeared Tamil victims in Ampaa'rai district have demanded immediate arrest and action against Karuna Group paramilitary operative, K. Pushpakumar alias Iniyabarathy, who was the Ampaa'rai district coordinator of Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and a member of the Eastern Provincial Council. After the entire Ampaa'rai district was brought under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military in 2007, more than 200 Tamil youth have been reported missing in the district after arrest or abduction by Sri Lanka military operated squads. Iniyabarathy has been the key paramilitary operative operating a squad for the genocidal SL military in the district. Iniyabarathy is blamed for the assassination of veteran Tamil journalist Aiyathurai Nadesan in May 2004. Incumbent SL president Maithiripala Sirisena was also having a hand in the paramilitary operations in the East.
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Varippaththaan-cheanai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2015, 18:48 GMT]
The shifting cultivation field of a person belonging to the temple service community
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Missing persons' families vow to step up protests in North-East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2015, 11:28 GMT]
Carrying the clothes and photographs of the Tamil youth, who are reported missing after arrest or abductions by the occupying Sri Lankan forces in Batticaloa district, the family members of the missing persons staged a day-long fast in front of Gandhi park in Batticaloa city on Monday. After the entire district of Batticaloa was brought under the control of the Sri Lankan military in 2007, around 300 Tamil youth have been reported missing till 2010, the organisers said. The white-van squads operated by the genocidal military occupying the Tamil homeland have been behind most of the abductions.
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Mannaar fishermen protest against Indian poaching

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2015, 17:45 GMT]
Tamil-speaking fishermen in Mannaar staged a large protest on Monday demanding immediate action against the exploitation by the Indian poachers in the territorial waters of the North. The protest, participated by fishermen from more than 40 coastal villages of Mannaar district, brought parts of central Mannaar to a standstill for more than 2 hours as the Colombo's Sinhala Government Agent (GA) of Mannaar didn't allow the Additional GA to go and receive the petition from the protesters, news sources in the city said. The fisher families have been severely affected by the continuous destruction caused by the Indian trawlers to their fishing nets and the mothers and wives of the fishermen are forced to go for daily wage work, the protesters complained. The fishermen are also concerned about the fishing environment getting permanently destroyed.
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No-surprise postponement of OISL report gives time and space to culprits

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 February 2015, 16:53 GMT]
As anticipated by the ‘regime change’ in Colombo, engineered by Washington and New Delhi, who also designed and remotely directed the genocidal war against the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, the release of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) report mandated by the UNHRC on the war crimes and the crimes against humanity in the island, has been postponed to September. One of the citations of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, for the postponement of the report is the “possibility that new information will become available,” besides “signals of broad cooperation [from the Government of Sri Lanka],” according to a news report by the Reuters on Monday.
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Awakening of Tamil polity evokes ‘concern’ in Indian Intelligence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2015, 23:06 GMT]
Two intelligence operatives attached to the Indian Consulate General in Jaffna and two senior intelligence officers from the Indian High Commission in Colombo hurriedly invited a section of Tamil politicians and paramilitary elements for secret consultations at the Assistant High Commission of India in Kandy this weekend after the latest NPC resolution calling for international investigation on Tamil genocide continuing for decades. The New Delhi Establishment views the call coming from hitherto gagged Tamils in the island as a ‘disturbing development’, informed sources told TamilNet on Sunday.
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NPC resolution gives hopes on Tamil political unity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 February 2015, 14:32 GMT]
The recent resolution presented and unanimously adopted in the Northern Provincial Council on historic and recent genocide against Tamils in the island, has rung alarm bells at necessary diplomatic quarters, say Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran (EPRLF) and TNA Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam (TELO). In a Palaka'ni interview to TamilNet this week, Mr Shivajilingam said there were attempts afoot to influence certain Tamil diaspora activists to issue sophisticated statements urging the UN Rights Chief to postpone the OISL report. Labelling such manipulations as ‘sugar-coated tablets’, he urged the Tamil diaspora activists to be cautious about such deceptive moves. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam of the TNPF and NPC Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan of the TNA have come up with immediate suggestions on how to take forward the resolution to strengthen the Tamil cause.
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Understanding accountability: international investigation on outlook crime

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2015, 00:31 GMT]
The historic resolution unanimously passed by the Northern Provincial Council on Tuesday has demanded urgent international investigation on the historically continued genocide against Eezham Tamils in the island. Presenting the resolution, the NPC Chief Minister, Justice Wigneswaran was elucidating on the deception and genocide carried out for decades by successive governments of Colombo. He observed that such an investigation would make Sinhala people to see the truth and would help getting justice. Equally important or more important is an international investigation on the adamant ‘outlook crime’ of certain powers that fundamentally contributed to the genocide, especially in the recent decades. The former investigation alone will not bring in justice without the latter and change in the ‘Sri Lanka’ outlook of the concerned powers.
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Don't delay OISL report, TCSF urges UN Rights Chief

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2015, 15:18 GMT]
The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) on Thursday urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein to proceed with the release of the findings of the OISL inquiry and in the event of finding of serious crimes being committed recommend to the relevant UN agencies and member states of the UN to take all steps necessary for international criminal prosecutions to be initiated. The network of more than 100 civil activists from the North-East, also referred to the resolution passed by the Northern Provincial Council on the 10th of February 2015 also expressing disbelief in the credibility of domestic mechanisms delivering on accountability, truth and justice.
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Wigneswaran exposes US delay tactics at Geneva

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2015, 13:56 GMT]
The US Asst. Secretary of State Nisha Biswal was not in favour of pursuing the Geneva OISL investigation on Sri Lanka in the March sessions as scheduled, revealed NPC Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran in his speech in Tamil at the council on Tuesday, while introducing the resolution that demanded urgent international investigation on historically continuing genocide against Tamils. “In my recent conversation with Ms Biswal, I understood that the USA wants to be in favour of the present Sri Lanka government, as this government is favourable to the USA,” Wigneswaran said. “When Ms Biswal asked what could be the appropriate time for the release of the Geneva report and when I replied that it should be in March, she didn’t accept it,” the NPC-CM said.
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Break vicious circle of political obfuscation: Sivaram in 2003

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2015, 01:35 GMT]
“Today it is clear beyond all reasonable doubt that India and the US-UK-Japan Bloc are trying to influence and manage Sri Lanka's peace process to promote and consolidate their respective strategic and economic interests. [..] Those who say that we should keep quiet — not rock the boat by clamouring about the true motives of the US-UK-Japan Bloc — while certain objectives are being achieved through the peace process, should remember the developments which led up to the Indo Lanka Treaty and the arrival of the Indian army. [...] The price the Tamil liberation movement as a whole had to pay for not educating the people about the truth of India's intentions was high. At this juncture, even a doddering dullard would find the déjà vu inescapable. The Tamil nation cannot afford to make the same mistake again.” Thus wrote late D. Sivaram in 2003, six years before Mu'l'livaaykkaal genocide.
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Key to struggle is to change outlook of powers: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2015, 00:04 GMT]
Equal to the war crimes, there is an outlook crime of the powers involved in the island that was responsible for the genocide and is responsible for the on-going genocide of Eezham Tamils. Whether changing the outlook is possible through edification or through challenging the concerned powers? Whether changing the outlook is going to be the major issue in the future decades of the Tamil politics? When TamilNet-Palaka’ni interviewer Haydn Howard asked these questions to Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam last week, his reply was “Yes I think that is the key.” The outlook in question doesn’t come from lack of knowledge, Gajendrakumar said, naming US-dominated West, India and China as actors primarily involved. It is certainly not going to be through education, it is something that has to come through a struggle, he said.
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NESoHR welcomes genocide resolution by Northern Provincial Council

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2015, 12:20 GMT]
North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR) has welcomed the resolution passed by the Northern Provincial Council on Tuesday. “This resolution is a clarion call both to the International community and to the peoples around the world to fight for justice of the oppressed Tamil peoples,” the NESoHR said in the statement. The Chief Minister of the NPC has rightly called upon the U.N. Security Council to refer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try the perpetrators of the Genocide of Tamils as it is the only way in which it could be brought before the ICC since Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which created ICC. In this respect he has sought the OISL to take the necessary steps, the NESoHR statement further said.
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Wigneswaran calls for international investigation on genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2015, 08:22 GMT]
In a key development, the Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council (NPC), Justice CV Wigneswaran, on Tuesday called for real international investigations on genocide against Tamils committed by the successive governments since Ceylon's independence from the British in 1948. Passing a resolution in the council that demanded international investigations on genocide, the Chief Minister has called for criminal prosecutions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and urged the on-going OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) to investigate the claim of genocide and recommend appropriate investigations and prosecutions by the ICC. “This Council urgently calls upon the international community to create conditions suitable and sustainable to protect the Tamils of the NorthEast Provinces in Sri Lanka from genocide,” the resolution said.
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ITAK leader on election campaign faces animosity in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2015, 21:08 GMT]
Mavai Senathirajah, the leader of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), was forced to retreat from Mullaiththeevu on Sunday after facing strong objections from the Tamil public following the controversial conduct of TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan and nominated parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran in Colombo before and after the recent SL presidential elections. The duo has failed to secure any concession from Maithiripala Sirisena before going public with urging Tamils to vote for him and they have hurt Eezham Tamils sentiments by partaking in the so-called Independence Day celebrations in Colombo without achieving anything tangible in resolving the Tamil national question, the people complained.
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Task of real Tamil political leadership: Sivaram in 2003

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2015, 18:39 GMT]
Sivaram Dharmeratnam alias Taraki, the late senior editor of TamilNet, wrote an article in January 2003, explaining the deadlock of the Sri Lankan unitary constitution which cannot provide for a solution within its framework. The international backers were also aware that a federal solution to the ethnic conflict was practically, legally and politically impossible with the Sri Lankan Constitution, he wrote. “Demystifying the realm of Tamil politics and ridding it of the host of canards, half-truths and obfuscations that have plagued for long the national will to struggle for our inalienable rights,” was the key task of the real Tamil political leadership, he wrote in the article.
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SLMC, SLFP jointly seize EPC, want TNA to follow suit

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2015, 09:42 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Rauff Hakeem has seized the governance of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) with the backing of the SLFP. Fearing a possible TNA-UNP alliance in the future, the SLMC has offered the post of chair and a ministerial portfolio at a meeting that took place in Colombo on Sunday, informed TNA sources told TamilNet.
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ITAK youth wing leader urges Tamils not to be deceived by deviators

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2015, 13:01 GMT]
There is no change in Sri Lankan military deployment in the Tamil homeland. On the contrary, the SL military seems to be enthusiastic about setting up bigger noticeboards than before along the border of Valikaamam North ‘High Security Zone’ said VS Sivakaran, the youth wing leader of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in a video interview this week. “However, a section among Tamils are being deceived to expect that there will be positive changes and that the SL military deployment would be reduced under Maithiripala Sirisena,” Sivakaran said. “But, this is not going to happen,” the ITAK youth wing leader said. The USA and India wanted to reverse the Chinese influence in the island. They needed a regime change, which they got. But, this has taken place at the expense of the political aspirations of the small nation of Eelam Tamils, he said.
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Genocidal Sri Lanka insists full continuation of military occupation of Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2015, 16:20 GMT]
“We, as a government, will never remove any of the military camps established in the North and East to ensure security of the Tamil people as well as other people,” claimed Ruwan Wijewardene, the new Sri Lankan State Minister of Defence, who visited the Palaali headquarters of the occupying military in Jaffna. “We are not prepared to reduce the number of troops under any condition,” he said. Ruwan Wijewardene was addressing the SL military officers and soldiers calling them as ‘war heroes’ who ended the ‘frightening terrorism of Tigers’. Wijewardene is on a three-day trip to North and East, visiting the officers and soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) to boost their morale, informed military sources said.
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Sampanthan, Sumanthiran exploit ITAK to deviate from Tamil cause: Prof. Sitrampalam

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2015, 11:39 GMT]
The lacuna of inner democracy in the present day Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) is being exploited by TNA Parliamentary Group Leader Mr R. Sampanthan and TNA's nominated parliamentarian Mr M.A. Sumanthiran to deviate Tamils from their cause and struggle, accused Vice President and Senior leader of the ITAK, Professor S.K. Sitrampalam in an interview to TamilNet this week. Professor Sitrampalam also spoke on the danger hatching in any move of postponement of the Geneva process, futility of the 13A - unitary outlooks and Sampanthan participating the ‘Independence Day’ in endorsement of the British designed unitary system and Maithiri regime's strict adherence to it.
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