David in 2012: Diaspora duty-bound in advancing independent polity of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 October 2015, 23:32 GMT]
The late Gandhiyam David, when interviewed in Tamil Nadu in 2012 for TamilNet, categorically stated that an independent state for the Tamils was the only viable solution. The USA was playing “double game” behind the back of Eezham Tamils. India took a decisive role in Colombo's war against Tamils. It was Pirapaharan who defended Eezham Tamils through the army he had built up independently, he said. After decades, Colombo had realised the crucial political backing it needed from New Delhi to militarily destroy the Tamil movement and India played a key role during the Mu'l'livaaykkaal massacre, before and after that. It was only recently they are trying to get out and the Chinese are getting into their boots to transform the island into a base for Chinese politics, he said stressing that Tamils need independent people-centric mobilisation to preserve their existence as Eezham Tamils.
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Veteran Eezham Tamil academic, diaspora leader Theva Rajan passes away

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2015, 19:08 GMT]
Mr. Arumugam Thevarajan, who was contributing to the language, history, culture, rights, media and social welfare of Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora for nearly six decades, passed away in New Zealand on Wednesday at the age of 81. Joining the Ceylon government clerical service in the 1950s, and posted in the police department at Puththa'lam, Theva Rajan resigned his job protesting the ‘Sinhala Only’ Act of 1956. Since then, he was determined and steadfast in devoting an entire life for the national identity development and sociocultural infrastructure development of the nation of Eezham Tamils. He was silently working behind many of the fundamentally important heritage and political pursuits of Eezham Tamils.
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Veteran Eezham Tamil freedom fighter Gandhiyam David passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 October 2015, 14:06 GMT]
Solomon Arulanandan David, popularly known as Gandhiyam David, who presided the Gandhiyam Movement in Vanni in mid 70s, passed away on Sunday at the age of 91 at Ki'linochchi. He had returned to Ki'linochchi a few months ago from Tamil Nadu, where he was exiled after surviving the genocidal massacre at Welikade prison in 1983 and escaped from Batticaloa prison in the same year. David's contribution in the history of the struggle of Eezham Tamils is that at the inception of the armed struggle he had conceived the importance of a grassroot civil movement to accompany it. He remained steadfast in envisaging an independent Tamil Eelam.
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Tamil Nadu, Global Tamils should be organised in addressing US-UN failure: Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2015, 22:40 GMT]
Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law, who teaches at University of Illinois, in an interview given to the 3CR radio broadcast in Melbourne Saturday in the "Tamil manifest" program said that he sees the millions of Tamils in Tamil Naadu, its Chief Minister Jayalalitha, a unified Tamil diaspora and the young generation of Tamils as the propelling agents to force the changes necessary to bring justice to the victims of Tamil genocide by taking the Sinhala genocidaires to Court. The horrendous nature of genocide needs an international tribunal to dispense justice, and the United Nations and the U.S have failed in their obligations, Boyle said. Geopolitical compulsions have pulverized U.S. foreign policy to collude with the genocidaires, Boyle told TamilNet.
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Tamils dutybound to spearhead South Asian struggle for global justice: CPI leader

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2015, 23:47 GMT]
A senior leader of the Communist Party of India, C Mahendran, on Thursday urged Tamils living all over the world to prepare for an ever-intense and unceasing form of struggle to win the rights of Eezham Tamils in the pursuit of global justice. The Eezham Tamil leaders should assert their self-consciousness and shed the mentality that justice for the past crimes of Colombo could be achieved through attracting compassion from the international powers, who act alike in the crave for self interest. As a people living across the coastal entry points in South Asia and long affected by the injustices caused by the colonial and globalisation powers that have been entering South Asia through the Indian Ocean, the Tamils are duty-bound to spearhead the struggle for justice, he said.
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Tamils need leadership, not hypocrisy of powers: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2015, 17:29 GMT]
“United Nations, super powers, regional powers or self-seeking Tamil politicians cannot address the real grievances of Tamils. It is only Tamils under a good and dedicated leadership can move forward,” said Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, a long time advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils in an article to TamilNet on Tuesday. While the actual war saw the murder of Eelam Tamils and the most despicable sexual violence of rape unleashed among Tamil women, it was after the war that the Eelam Tamil nation was plundered of its wealth, Professor Ramasamy said. “The LTTE might not be around; however, the hopes, aspirations and the future agenda of Tamils for ultimate solution were set up by none other than its leader Veluppillai Pirapaharan,” he said.
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China, Russia, India join USA in upholding Agent State in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2015, 17:46 GMT]
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday unanimously adopted the resolution on ‘Sri Lanka’ produced by the USA-led core group consisting 4 UNHRC Member States without any vote. The resolution was co-sponsored by the SL State and was titled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’. Before its adoption without a vote, the resolution had received the support of additional 25 co-sponsors. China, speaking before the adoption of the resolution, extended its support on the basis that ‘Sri Lanka’ had agreed to the resolution which was drafted in consultation. Giving an explanation of the vote after the vote, India said that the consensus resolution underlined the collective desire of the ‘Sri Lankans’ for change, reconciliation and unity and the rejection of extremist voices.
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UNHRC ‘judgement’ harps on Samaraweera oration

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2015, 17:02 GMT]
Except New Zealand, none of the State participants at the UNHRC on ‘Sri Lanka’, Wednesday, has touched the crux of the conflict in the island. Only the New Zealand representative ever uttered the word Tamil in urging solutions. The approach of the UN, set from the very beginning by the USA, totally disregards giving any open recognition to the national cause of the nation of Eezham Tamils and looks at the conflict entirely from the point of saving State in the island. What it painstakingly ‘recognises’ is never to offend the genocidal State. An added dimension visible in the latest UNHRC session is the highlight of the blanket term, “crimes by all sides” to get excused from the crime of not recognising the genocide committed on one by all. Again the line was originally set by the USA.
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Tamil Nadu political party cautions on impending Geneva deception

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2015, 20:44 GMT]
The weak draft resolution coming from the USA will not bring in any justice to Eezham Tamils. Already, countries like Pakistan have insisted on further weakening of the resolution in favour of Colombo. But, India was silent in such consultative meetings held in Geneva, says Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, an Indian parliamentarian and one of the leaders of Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK), a major political party in Tamil Nadu. He urged the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa to convene an urgent All Party Meeting in Tamil Nadu to press Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi to come out with an alternative resolution at Geneva leading to international judicial process on war crimes in the island.
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Terms may not be important but the thrust matters

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2015, 20:02 GMT]
What is practically delivered matters more than terms such as international justice, genocide investigation, federalism etc., is the argument of Tamil orchestrators envisaging ‘non-descript’ outcome through ‘hybrid mechanism’. Tamils in their long experience have seen how concepts and coining terms were the monopoly of some and what outcome has come through terms such as international terrorism, peace facilitation, reconciliation etc. The fundamental injustice in the Washington/ New Delhi/ UN approach is the insistence in vantage exclusively from the point of saving or reforming the colonially created State and brutal suppression of space for the nation of Eezham Tamils to even enter into a discourse from another point. The genocide denial or detraction is just a manifestation, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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Arrests in historical numbers in Tamil Nadu, TVK vows to fight for international investigations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2015, 23:28 GMT]
Around 100,000 supporters of Thamizhaka Vaazhvurimaik Kadchi (TVK), a prominent party led by T. Velmurugan gathered at various cities of Tamil Nadu State on Monday and staged protests blocking the Indian Railway. “The main demand of our party is independent international investigations on genocide. The USA should decide whether it is interested in listening to 65 million Tamils in the region or 15 million Sinhalese in genocidal Sri Lanka. The Indian government should listen to the unanimous resolutions passed by the TN Assembly. The UN should decide whether it is going to discard Tamils as victims in favour of a Member State that has no constitutional mandate of Eezham Tamils. We are not going to welcome the Hybrid Court that recognizes the genocidal State as a party and ignores Tamils as victims,” Mr Velmurugan told TamilNet on Tuesday.
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Sumanthiran acts to weaken Tamil demand for genocide investigation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2015, 15:51 GMT]
Switzerland-based diaspora legal activist Lathan Suntharalingam on Friday questioned TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, who was addressing a well-orchestrated meeting at Bern, on how the TNA parliamentarian elected from North was planning to take forward the NPC resolution demanding international investigation on genocide, particularly at the SL Parliament. The response by Mr Sumanthiran was shocking the Tamil psyche, said Thirumurugan Gandhi of May 17 Movement from Tamil Nadu, who was also present at the meeting in Switzerland. At the meeting, Sumanthiran went on record claiming that the NPC resolution was a ‘foolish’ move. He blamed Justice C.V. Wigneswaran for having shut off the door for genocide investigation by passing that resolution against his advice. Sumanthiran was detracting on the genocide question after the instructions by outside agenda-setters, Mr Lathan said.
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Hindutva-Buddhist ‘pincer mechanism’ to compete hybrid mechanism

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2015, 17:52 GMT]
While Tamils are busy in comprehending and extricating themselves from the sophisticated web of ‘hybrid mechanism’ cast on them by Washington and Washington-led UN, New Delhi in its own crude way plans a bilateral ‘pincer mechanism’ along with Colombo, as could be seen from Ranil’s visit to New Delhi. Even though the imperialist aims are different, both ‘mechanisms’ follow the same policy of denying justice to the national question of Eezham Tamils to the genocidal satisfaction of the Sinhala-Buddhist State; the same strategy of absolving Colombo as well as themselves, and the same tactics of wooing Colombo in which only the shades vary, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Wigneswaran thanks Jayalalithaa, but confused on Geneva

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, 15:07 GMT]
“It is a happy news to us that Selvi Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has been very forthright in coming out with a resolution accepting what we had passed a few days ago on 01 September 2015 and bringing a very strong message to the Indian government asking them to take all possible steps in order to see that an international mechanism is formulated to hear the war crimes with regards to Sri Lanka,” NPC Chief Minister Justice Wigneswaran told media in Jaffna on Wednesday. However, he was confused in welcoming OHCHR position on OISL with the same spirit of welcoming the Tamil Nadu resolution.
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Genocide not recognised, ‘Hybrid mechanism’ recommended to drag on

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, 11:21 GMT]
Not mentioning anything on genocide or future investigations on it, but projecting war crimes and crimes against humanity by both sides, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, summing up the findings of the OISL report on Wednesday at the UNHCR, said that the recommendation is for a ‘Hybrid mechanism’. Mr Zeid openly admitted that ‘change’ in the political environment is the reason for OHCHR abandoning independent international investigation mechanism that had been recommended on many occasions by his predecessor Ms Navanetham Pillay. ‘Hybrid mechanism’ missing mandate for genocide investigation is the new way for buying ‘time and space’. If the universal process of justice could be dictated by local political changes, then there is no independency or universality in UN justice mechanism, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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TN State Assembly passes resolution against US move to back domestic investigation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, 06:07 GMT]
In a key development, the State Assembly of Tamil Nadu unanimously passed a resolution, which was brought forward by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday, reiterating the call for international investigations on genocide and war crimes committed against Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. Urging the Central Government of India to diplomatically block the move by the USA if it chooses to propose domestic investigations in favour of a domestic SL investigation, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, in her introduction to the resolution, said the reported US move to support domestic investigation in Sri Lanka went against the concept of natural justice. The entire Tamil race stood firmly behind the call for international investigations as demanded by the Northern Provincial Council resolutions that were brought by CV Wigneswaran, the chief minister of NPC, she said.
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US deceit worse than India, China opposition

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2015, 23:03 GMT]
Rather than questioning the consistent opposition of India and China for any international investigation on ‘Sri Lanka’, Tamils targeting the US move for domestic investigation in the current UNHRC session is condemnable, argues a Tamil Nadu based environmental NGO of special consultative status with UN ECOSOC. The ‘international investigation’ is already over with the OISL process and referring the matter to the ICC depends mainly on the support of India and China, the NGO argues further for containing the anger and protests in Tamil Nadu against the USA. The US move, hijacking the Tamil struggle for international justice since 2009, and institutionally ditching it at the UNHRC in 2015, is worse than the game of India and China in suppressing the struggle of Eezham Tamils, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Further ‘Sri Lanka’ blunder would again lead UN to investigate itself: TN activist

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 September 2015, 14:04 GMT]
‘Sri Lanka’ Army Court of Inquiry has already given a verdict in 2013 that there were no civilian casualties caused by its military and that sums up the would-be course and end result of any domestic mechanism. The OHCHR ignores the role of international actors in the conflict in the island, which the UN Expert Panel Report itself had pointed out. If the UHHRC concedes to the forthcoming resolution by the US, it will be another ‘systemic failure’ caused by going against its own Internal Review Report. “If OHCHR does not resort to Article 99 mandate and refer the case to ICC, we will be witnessing another report, after 4 years, from the UN, terming this fiasco as another systemic failure,” writes a Tamil Nadu activist.
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Force of opinion unplugs Sampanthan to voice for international investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2015, 23:39 GMT]
Three days ahead of genocidal Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe officially visiting New Delhi, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Mr R. Sampanthan, who is also the opposition leader in the Colombo parliament, on Saturday told The Telegraph in India that the TNA expected the international community, including India, to support an international investigation into war crimes in the island. "Our experience with past domestic inquiries suggests that they can't be truly independent," Mr Sampanthan was quoted as saying by the Culcutta based paper. The new Sri Lankan government is “coordinating more with the international community, but it is the TNA's clear position that an international investigation is necessary," Mr Sampanthan told The Telegraph.
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Indian media implies anti-Tamil policy as antidote to Chinese influence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2015, 11:39 GMT]
The Hindustan Times in a feature on Sunday said, “Rajapaksa, a lawyer from the country’s deep south, epitomised what many Lankans felt about India – that New Delhi will always favour the Tamils and the Sinhalese will be a wary majority, alert about saving their culture, language and economy from an onslaught just waiting to be launched from barely 22 nautical miles away. China was the antidote. Under Rajapaksa’s presidency in November 2005, Beijing finally got its foot in the door […] The new government has already reversed the tide,” said the feature by Sutirtho Patranobis, reporting from Colombo/ Beijing. The New Delhi-based media’s projection of affairs of the island to masses in India raises serious questions, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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