‘Idea of Tamil nation not dead despite aftermath of genocide’: Tehelka report

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 April 2013, 21:10 GMT]
Even in the aftermath of terror and genocide, the idea of nationhood has not disappeared among the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, writes journalist Revati Laul in an investigative feature published on the Indian news magazine Tehelka on its April 27 issue. Travelling to the militarily occupied Tamil homeland in the north and east and interacting with politicians, civil society activists, NGO workers, priests, ex-LTTE cadres and ordinary people, Ms Laul provides through their accounts a picture of the intense oppression that the Sri Lankan state is subjecting the Tamils to through various means, she further notes how the UN’s “pussyfooting on the war” and the Geneva resolution in March 2013 gave a cloak for such oppression, arguing that “It is this refusal to take in the whole narrative that allows Rajapaksa to tell the world all is well now with the Tamils in his country.”
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Sikh resolution passes, Tamil resolution not tabled at NDP national convention

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 April 2013, 11:24 GMT]
The biannual national convention of the New Democratic Party held in Montreal, Canada from April 12-14 passed a resolution recognizing Jaswant Singh Khalra, a Sikh activist who was allegedly abducted and killed by the police in the Indian state of Punjab in 1995, as a human rights defender. However, a resolution submitted from Scarborough-Rouge River calling for, among others, an independent, international and impartial mechanism in Sri Lanka to ensure justice for the Tamils and a UN conducted referendum to determine their political future, failed to make it to the tables of the convention. While Tamil activists who attended the convention argue that the resolution could have been passed had it been pushed by the Tamil NDP MP from Scarborough-Rouge River, Ms Sitsabaiesan, a NDP source claims that the resolution was brought in late but the MP made sure that it was in the policy book.
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Norway Tamil politician questions continued ICE bias against democratic mandate of Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 April 2013, 10:16 GMT]
Khamshajiny Gunaratnam, an Eezham Tamil youth politician of the ruling Labour Party in Norway, who states that her political engagement began with the agony of witnessing civil war in her homeland, questions the conduct of the world powers and the policy groups of the international community, for their continued bias against the democratically proven political mandate of Eezham Tamils, both in the island of Sri Lanka and in the diaspora. In a political column of the newspaper Dagsavisen, Ms Khamshajiny, a survivor of the brutal Utøya massacre carried out by the Norwegian killer Anders Breivik in 2011, also questions the conduct of the international community in leaving the responsibility of investigating the crimes committed by the Sri Lankan State to the very hands of that State, as seen in the recent resolution of the UN Human Rights Council in March 2013.
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Conference at Danish Parliament highlights need for international investigation on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 April 2013, 08:12 GMT]
Expressing deep concern for the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the island of Sri Lanka, Danish politicians from both the ruling left parties and the opposition party, academics, Eezham Tamil politicians from the island and the diaspora, Sinhala journalists, and other civil society activists called for an independent international investigation into the crimes of the Sri Lankan state during the war and after, in a conference organized in the Denmark Parliament on Wednesday. The event titled “A forgotten conflict: Conference on Human Rights in Sri Lanka” saw a general consensus among participants that Sri Lanka was incapable of investigating its crimes through its own mechanisms.
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Kerala researcher speaks on facets of Indo-Eezham discourse

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 April 2013, 07:35 GMT]
“Eelam and Kerala share similar history. We were ruled by the same colonial powers, the Portuguese, Dutch and later English. Kerala is not very far from Eelam and the war in Eelam was something happening right in front of our eyes. Yet Eelam never became the agenda before any political organizations in Kerala. Keralites were in the streets in solidarity with Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan. This never happened in the case of Eelam,” said Dr Vinod Krishnan from Kerala in an exclusive interview to TamilNet this week. Dr Krishnan, an academic researcher involved in studies related to social exclusion in South and Southeast Asia, is currently attached to the Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation (CREST) in India.
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Colombo revives colonial rule to monitor foreign tourists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 April 2013, 20:26 GMT]
Citing an obscure 1886 ordinance of the colonial times of British Ceylon, that has been largely ignored for decades, the Sri Lankan Police now says that it will monitor foreign tourists’ whereabouts in the entire island, a report by the International Business Times said Wednesday. The news report in the IBT has come while Eezham Tamils world over have been campaigning against tourists visiting the Sri Lankan ‘killing fields’.
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Cancel CHOGM, appeals Prof. Lynch

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 April 2013, 00:31 GMT]
Prof. Jake Lynch, director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, in an opinion column in the ABC website, called for cancellation of the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM), pointing to 'serious allegations of violations of international human rights law' in Sri Lanka "including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture and violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as well as intimidation of and reprisals against human rights defenders, members of civil society and journalists, threats to judicial independence and the rule of law, and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief," which prompted UNHCR voting to send its own investigators to Sri Lanka.
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Sri Lanka torture concerns well founded, says Time

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 April 2013, 06:17 GMT]
The popular biweekly, the Time magazine, commenting on Sri Lanka's deteriorating rights climate, said that amid abuse and fear, Tamils are continuing to flee Sri Lanka, and that torture and sexual violence by Sri Lanka's military against Tamils with alleged separatist ties during the 26-year civil war make credible the threat of torture to a well-known Tamil TV reporter who the UAE is threatening to deport to Sri Lanka. Also pointing to the attack on Uthayan, the Time said, "[t]he tensions revealed in the incident [at Uthayan] are becoming depressingly familiar. The clouds have been darkening over this picturesque island nation in recent years as euphoria over the end of its long-running civil war has ebbed."
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Tamil activist Neethan Shan elected to represent NDP at federal level

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 April 2013, 00:58 GMT]
"As regards [Canada’s] foreign policy on Sri Lanka, I will continue to advocate for recognizing the political aspirations of the Eezham Tamils in the homeland and to push for justice for genocide and war crimes committed on the Tamil nation by the Sri Lankan state,” said 34-year-old Eezham Tamil activist Neethan Shan, who has been elected to represent Ontario at the federal level for the New Democratic Party (NDP) on Saturday.
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Three-pronged land grab against Eezham Tamils stepped up in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 April 2013, 23:41 GMT]
The occupying SL military, Buddhist monks and Sinhala civil officials have stepped up appropriating lands belonging to Eezham Tamils in Ampaa’rai district. The instructions for land grab come from Colombo and the appropriation of Tamils’ lands has accelerated since the Provincial Council elections in the East and the recent ‘development’ exhibition held in Ampaa'rai. Threatened by prevailing ‘disappearances’ and other forms of harassments in the district, the victims hesitate to lodge complaints with the SL Police.
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Kamal Haasan, Prakash Raj strengthen ‘encyclopaedia’ myth on Sambar

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 April 2013, 20:57 GMT]
A Vijay TV programme for ‘Winning One Crore’ on Monday, anchored by Prakash Raj and participated by Kamal Haasan, both celebrities of Indian cinema, said the famous Tamil Nadu food preparation Chaampaar (Sambar) got its name from the Maratha ruler Shahuji at Thanjavur, who invented the recipe and named it after Sambhaji, son of the Maratha king Shivaji. Chaampaar (Sambar) got the name as it is prepared by making Champaaram (ground paste of spices) and the use of the word Champaaram is found in Tamil inscriptions predating Shahuji or Sambhaji, Eezham Tamil academic circles told TamilNet, citing inscriptions and the usage of the words Champal in Eezham Tamil and Sambol in Sinhala for the paste made of spices together with coconut.
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Plight of UAE refugees expose human rights deception of IC, UN

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 April 2013, 08:08 GMT]
No country in the West should have any problem with providing political asylum to the fleeing Tamil Journalist Ms Lokini Rathimohan, currently held at detention in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), rights activists in the island concerned with the protection of journalists fleeing genocidal Sri Lanka told TamilNet. As the journalist's name and photos have been published in the international media now and as there have been write-ups in the hostile press in Colombo suggesting to the SL government to get her deported to Colombo to ‘disprove’ the killing of Isaippiriya, a colleague of Lokini at the National Television of Tamileelam (NTT), the need to assure Lokini's security has become much more important than ever before, the activists further said. In the meantime, a former administrative official at the NTT confirmed that Ms Lokini was not an LTTE member, but was an employed journalist.
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TN government requested to protect heritage site of Eezham Tamils in Chithamparam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 April 2013, 00:05 GMT]
Eezham Tamil circles in the island and in the diaspora, connected to charities established in Chithamparam by their ancestors, request the Tamil Nadu government, especially the Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa, to make legislation to protect the charity enclave at Chithamparam and to promote it as a heritage site of Eezham Tamils, participated by Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora. They cited at the promotion Sri Lanka’s Maha Bodhi Society gets in India, but the dilapidated condition of the Tamil-Saiva heritage site of Eezham Tamils in Tamil Nadu. The Eezham Tamil charities at Chithamparam that record from the times of the Kingdom of Jaffna and that make an enclave around the Gnaanap-pirakaasar Tank are found in almost ruined conditions today.
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Geneva resolution answerable to arson committed on Tamil press: Jaffna activist

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 April 2013, 15:37 GMT]
Burning the press of Eezham Tamils in the island has more than three decades of history. The office and machinery of the Jaffna-based Tamil Daily Eezha Naadu was burnt down the very night the Jaffna Public Library was put to ashes in 1981. Arson was once again committed on Eezha Naadu while the IPKF of the New Delhi Establishment was occupying Jaffna. The Washington-New Delhi deception carried out in the name of Geneva resolution, allowing Sri Lanka to escape from genocide indictment and to continue with structural genocide, is answerable to the current attacks and arson committed on the press of Eezham Tamils in the island, said a new generation political activist in Jaffna.
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Torture is systemic in Sri Lanka, HK Court sends chilling message

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 April 2013, 10:02 GMT]
Giving additional impetus to world-wide protests of Tamils against the gross rights violations, including torture, on Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka security forces, and reinforcing that torture is endemic to Sri Lanka's oppressive state apparatus, and systemic across successive Sri Lanka governments, Hong Kong's appeals court granted asylum to two Tamil men, declaring that the men face torture and can claim "well-founded fear of persecution" if returned to Sri Lanka, reports from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, reveal. The two Tamils are believed to be the first and the second to win appeal cases since a new appeal process was set in place in 2009 in Hong Kong. The first man arrived in Hong Kong in 2003, at age 20. The names of the two were not made public due to security reasons, reports said.
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Armed squad attacks Tamil paper office in Jaffna setting ablaze press machines

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 April 2013, 07:03 GMT]
An armed squad, allegedly operated by the Sri Lankan military intelligence, stormed the main office of the Uthayan Tamil daily in the city of Jaffna in the early hours of Saturday, setting ablaze the press machines and the copies of printed papers that were ready for distribution. The squad chased media workers away at gun point and poured petrol on the papers and machinery in the fourth attack to be reported on the popular Tamil daily since January this year. The pre-dawn attack, carried out Saturday at 4:45 a.m., comes 10 days after a similar attack on its Ki'linochchi office this month. Colombo's systematic attack on the Tamil daily, owned by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian E. Saravanapavan, seeks to destabilize the operation and dissemination of the paper in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, especially before conducting elections to Northern Provincial Council.
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Joke and a fraud, Boyle slams Kerry's New Year message

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 April 2013, 11:46 GMT]
Noting the new U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry's New Year Statement that included, "[t]he New Year brings with it a new opportunity for all Sri Lankans to join together in the spirit of peace and reconciliation," Professor Boyle, an expert in international law and a keen watcher of the treacherous conduct of the international community in watching the genocide of Tamils unfold in Sri Lanka, said, "Kerry [is] lumping the Tamils in with the genocidal Sinhala. It would be like Kerry congratulating the German Jews together with the German Nazis on the German New Year."
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Australian detainees demanding release enter fifth day of hunger-strike

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 April 2013, 10:33 GMT]
27 asylum seekers, including 24 Eezham Tamils, kept in Broadmeadows detention centre in Melbourne, Australia are entering the fifth day of hunger-strike demanding release. The Tamil refugees had arrived in Australia by boat in 2009 and have been in detention ever since as the Australian government considered them a ‘security threat’, even as they get support from Australian media and civil society activists. They include 4 women and 7 children below the age of ten, some still toddlers. Speaking to TamilNet from the detention centre, a 40 year old detainee said that despite being recognized as refugees by the UNHCR, there was no move by any international agency or by the Australian government to release them into normal society. “We are like a people without a future. Some individuals in depression are also feeling that suicide would be better than such a life,” he said.
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NZ Intelligence alleged of monitoring former Green MP for involvement in Tamil question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 April 2013, 16:50 GMT]
New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service (SIS), which is part of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence network, comprising the intelligence agencies of Australia, Canada, Britain and the USA, was alleged of monitoring former Green party politician Keith Locke, who has been sympathetic to the Tamil cause. Mr Locke believes the SIS began covert operations on him in 2003, when he travelled to Sri Lanka, reports The Dominion Post. The former Green Party politician has demanded apology for illegal spying and that all 88 New Zealanders who were being spied on should be notified if the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has illegally snooped on them.
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Tamil genocide framework highlighted in Slovenia Conference

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 April 2013, 11:14 GMT]
The framework of genocide carried by Colombo on Eelam Tamils is featured in a poster presentation at the Slovenia conference on R2P being held in the Faculty of Law, University of Lkubljana, Thursday by Tamils Against Genocide [TAG], a US-UK based activist organization, the conference details reveal. More than 80 speakers and poster presenters from almost 40 states and international institutions will discuss issues regarding R2P in 2 parallel panels each day, according to the conference program.
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