TESO group to meet Ban in US, visit UNHCR in Geneva

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2012, 12:01 GMT]
M.K. Stalin, son of DMK chief Karunanidhi and former deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu, accompanied by T.R. Balu, senior leader of the DMK, and possibly joined by two other TESO Committee members, the DK chief Veeramani and Subhaveera Pandian, is scheduled to visit the US during the third week of September to meet the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to present the TESO resolutions to him, Deccan Chronicle reported Monday. On their way back, the group is also scheduled to stop at Geneva to hand over the resolutions to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC). Stalin and Balu would be officially informing the purpose of their travel to the Speakers of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the Indian Lok Sabha where they are members.
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Australia Opposition says ready to violate UN Refugee Convention

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2012, 03:33 GMT]
Tamil refugees fleeing the island of Sri Lanka to the shores of Australia drew wide media coverage and Australia's law makers rushed in defence of parties' asylum policies as Australian authorities intercepted a boat carrying 81 suspected asylum seekers north-northwest of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Saturday. While Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop claimed that many asylum seekers from the island of Sri Lanka are economic migrants, and not refugees, and therefore, should be deported before they get access to Australia's legal system, the Immigration Minister in the ruling party said Australia would be breaching UN's 1951 Refugee Convention if the refugees were deported before considering their claims, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
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Tamil book club inaugurated in London

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 22:41 GMT]
With an initial collection of around one thousand books, a Tamil book club has been inaugurated in London on Sunday. The Lotus Book Club for buying, borrowing as well as reading Tamil books in London will be functioning at a facility near Woolwich Arsenal metro station. The opening ceremony, that saw participation of Eezham Tamils, Tamil Nadu Tamils, and Malaysian Tamils displayed a collection of books covering diverse topics such as Tamil history, linguistics, politics, evolution of the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle, literary classics etc.
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Witness to Genocide documentary wins two awards in India

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 19:41 GMT]
One of the big winners of the 2012 exchange4media News Broadcasting Awards (eNBA) in India on Friday was ‘I Witnessed Genocide : Inside the Killing Fields of Lanka’, a key documentary produced last year by Headlines Today Television on the plight of Eezham Tamils in Vanni. The New Delhi based station's special correspondent Priyamvatha and cameraman Ashok Bhanot were the first international journalists to travel to Vanni, undercover, to report on the survivors of the 2009 genocide. The documentary has won under two categories for Best Current Affairs Programme and Best News Coverage – International.
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Jayalalithaa orders exit of Colombo footballers, suspension of stadium official

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 18:13 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa on Sunday gave orders to send back a football team of Sri Lanka’s Royal College in Colombo that had come to play ‘friendly’ matches in Chennai. The matches had been organised through an arrangement between the College and an official of the Reserve Bank of India, and the team had already played a match on Friday with the Customs Department of the Central Government, at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai. Slamming the Government of India for allowing the Sri Lankan team to play matches in Tamil Nadu, the Chief Minister directed the Chief Secretary of the State to suspend an officer in-charge of the Nehru Stadium of the state government who had given oral permission for the venue. Department level inquiries are initiated against the official.
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Basil Rajapaksa's men threaten Tamil-speaking voters: Sampanthan, Hakeem

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 15:31 GMT]
More than one thousand men sent under the instruction of SL Presidential sibling and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse have been engaged in intimidating Tamils and Muslims in the three districts of the eastern province namely Ampaarai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee that they would face serious consequences if they fail to vote for the ruling United Peoples Freedom Party in the forthcoming election to the Eastern Provincial Council that is scheduled to be held on Saturday, September 8 , according to complaints lodged with the Commissioner General of Elections by the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R.Sampanthan and Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, who is also the Justice Minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet. Basil Rajapakse is also a minister in same cabinet.
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Syrian crisis - a case study in ‘regime change’ politics

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2012, 07:54 GMT]
Even as Western governments are stepping up covert and overt pressure on the current Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, those following the Kurdish national question are unsure of the future of Kurdish regions in Syria. With reports emerging of Turkey arming the anti-Assad force ‘Free Syrian Army’ (FSA) that receives support from governments in the West, simultaneously Turkey pursues a militarist approach against the PKK. There is apprehension that Turkey might use the opportunity to strike at Kurdish regions in Syria to deal a blow to the PKK sphere of influence. At this conjuncture, those Tamils who are considering Western intervention in Syria as a positive step against repressive regimes should study in detail the intricacies of ‘geopolitics of regime change’ and the dynamics of the Kurdish national struggle in the region, commented a Tamil political analyst.
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Australian Court denies US extradition request

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2012, 02:36 GMT]
Melbourne Federal Court Judge, Justice Tony North, in a precedent setting verdict delivered Friday, denied extradition of an Eezham Tamil, Thulasitharan Santhirarajah, to the U.S., ruling that the US charges against Santhirarajah, were "political". The Court also ruled that Australia's Attorney General (AG) Nicola Roxon's decision to authorize extradition "denied Santhirarajah procedural fairness," and that the AG "erred in the way she accepted extradition would not result in Mr Santhirarajah's torture." Justice North appeared to have also heeded the warning of Mr Santhirarajah's wife, Priya, who is an Australian citizen and who said previously that "to consent to Thulasi's extradition will amount to the signing of his death warrant."
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Colombo expands diplomatic missions in India

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2012, 20:14 GMT]
The cabinet of Rajapaksa regime has taken decisions to open a new Consulate General Office in Kolkata, appoint Honorary Consuls in Hyderabad, Lucknow and Thiruvanandapuram, and to expand the existing missions in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. The new mission in Kolkata will have consular jurisdiction over West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and the 7 Northeast states. While the High Commission in New Delhi and the Consulate General office in Mumbai will get additional staff to deal with economic and commercial matters, the Deputy High Commission in Chennai will be posted with two additional Tamil-speaking officers, the PTI said Friday.
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Genocidal sex abuse of ex-LTTE female cadres becomes routine in North and East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2012, 08:29 GMT]
The genocidal Sri Lanka military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils is routinely engaged in repeated sexual abuse of the former female members of the LTTE to see them pregnant by the Sinhala soldiers, in the model of former Yugoslavia, news sources citing a number of cases and medical professionals told TamilNet. While Radha D’Souza views the Tamil struggle “as one of the most significant movements since the end of the Vietnam War,” the former US Deputy Secretary of State and a current ICG trustee Richard Armitage in Oslo last year was harping on the unawareness of the world on the happenings in the island. The genocide is meant to be so by the architects, and the Akashi visit last week viewing ‘rehabilitated’ female cadres was another effort to keep the on-going genocide under the carpet, political observers in the island said.
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Double standard in clearing UXOs endangers resettlement in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 August 2012, 23:03 GMT]
Leftover unexploded cluster munitions keep exploding every day in the suburbs of PTK, where the resettling people have embarked upon the dangerous exercise of clearing their lands. In a propaganda drive to close down the Menik Farm camp in Cheddiku'lam, Vavuniyaa, Sri Lanka military operated de-mining officers have given green signal for resettlement in selected suburbs of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) of Mullaiththeevu district, while the lands appropriated by the occupying SL military for militarization and Sinhalicisation in the same area have been carefully de-mined with external aid. At least four cases of big explosions have been reported in Vanni and Jaffna this week with two people seriously injured.
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Second annual Ki'liththaddu tournament attracts hundreds in Canada

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 August 2012, 06:10 GMT]
Tamil youth teams from across Canada assembled in Toronto on Sunday to play in the second annual Ki'liththaddu tournament organized by TYO-Canada. Over 20 teams competed for a chance to win the Tamil Eelam Heritage Trophy. Originating from the agricultural roots of Eezham Tamils, the game has gained popularity and was organized to promote and preserve Eezham Tamil identity, tournament organizers said. Community organizers concluded the event highlighting the importance of upholding Eezham Tamil identity and national symbols in resisting the genocidal scheme against Eezham Tamils.
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Tamil Nadu CM reiterates demand to send SL military personnel out

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 August 2012, 17:24 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. J. Jayalalithaa on Tuesday reiterated her demand to immediately halt training to Sri Lanka’s defence personnel at the Wellington base in Tamil Nadu and send them back to Sri Lanka. She expressed surprise about her earlier demand being responded with an open declaration by New Delhi to continue training to Sri Lanka’s military personnel in India, on grounds that Sri Lanka is a friendly country. “This betrays the total insensitivity on the part of the Government of India towards the views of my Government as well as the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu,” she said in an official letter addressed to the Indian Prime Minister, adding that the Government of India should give up “condemnable attitude.”
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Indian people would get democracy voice only when India severs Lanka relations

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2012, 07:39 GMT]
An instruction from the New Delhi establishment’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sent to the TESO organisers on 11 August shows that peoples of India cannot have a democratic voice on the question of Eezham Tamils unless India severs diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka. While retracting from its earlier ban on the use of the word Eelam, the MEA letter ‘advised’ the TESO to “ensure that the conference does not issue any declaration or outcome that calls into question in any manner the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of any foreign country with whom India has diplomatic relations.” This is a serious curb on the universal democratic rights of the peoples of India. Why the TESO organisers who picked on Ms Jayalalithaa didn’t condemn New Delhi for this violation and for not giving visa to many participants, critics in Chennai asked.
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US, Indian appeasement weakness makes Beijing, Colombo to play old game

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2012, 04:59 GMT]
China will be providing US $ 100 million for permanent ‘housing schemes’ of the Sinhala military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils. The Chinese offer to set up accommodation and infrastructure facilities in the SL military camps in the North and East, is in line with the long-standing ‘national security’ argument of Sri Lanka, despite pressure from Western nations and India to reduce the military presence in the North and East, said Colombo media reports on Sunday. Colombo’s campaign is timed for mounting pressure from Tamil Nadu against New Delhi’s training of Sinhala military and for the impending Colombo visit of Chinese defence minister on Wednesday. Genocidal Colombo’s endless game has to be stopped somewhere by united and decisive action of the world, rather than competitive appeasement, commented South Asian affairs analysts.
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New Delhi resorts to further ‘mischief’ by passing responsibility

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 August 2012, 10:45 GMT]
While New Delhi establishment’s foreign ministry points to defence ministry over the “mischief” issue raised by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa, about India giving training to Colombo’s military personnel in Tamil Nadu behind the back of Tamil Nadu government, the defence ministry sources reportedly have said that any decision on this would have to be taken by the Indian Prime Minister. Knowing the weak and guided personality of the Indian PM on matters related to Eezham Tamils, the establishment in New Delhi is playing further mischief, informed circles said. Those who are ultimately responsible for the genocidal policy of imperialism followed in the island have to be exposed and they have to be made answerable to the people of Tamil Nadu and peoples of India, political activists in Chennai said, appreciating the stand taken by Ms Jayalalithaa.
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Akashi comes to ‘listen’ to people in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 August 2012, 21:37 GMT]
Former Special Envoy of the Tokyo Co-chair to the Peace Process between the SL government and the LTTE, Yasushi Akashi, visited Jaffna and Ki'linochchi on Friday to listen to the views of the religious leaders in Jaffna and to review the humanitarian assistance Japan has provided to the welfare of the resettling civilians and former combatants in Vanni. “Architects of the genocidal war cannot be mere listeners. They are answerable to the affected people and to the world. There is no foreign establishment involved in the island that doesn't really know what is happening. Therefore, the boldness with which the grassroot aspirations of the nation of Eezham Tamils has to be politically translated in a befitting way should never be compromised in the island and in the diaspora,” said a social activist in Jaffna observing Mr Akashi's visit.
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Resettlement showcase brings in further miseries to uprooted Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 August 2012, 20:29 GMT]
250 families recently brought to Chivanakar village in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) division of Mullaiththeevu district complain that they have been let down by the SL authorities that rush to vacate the Menik Farm in Cheddiku'lam, Vavuniyaa. Promising the uprooted proper resettlement to the uprooted Tamils in their own village, 141 families were brought from Menik Farm to Chivanakar. Another 101 families who were residing with their kith and kin elsewhere also joined them when their village was announced opened for resettlement. Now, these families are struggling in their own village without any shelter and have sought refuge under the trees. There are no basic facilities. Most of these families, who are below the poverty line, demand at least temporary huts and basic facilities before the rainy season begins in a few weeks from now.
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US Court of Appeals to hear Rajapakse war-crimes case

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 August 2012, 03:59 GMT]
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the briefing schedule Monday for the appeal against the dismissal of the war-crimes case against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse. The appeal was filed by three Tamil plaintiffs/ appellants against Rajapakse for complicity in extrajudicial killings of plaintiffs relatives in violation of the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA). The case, first filed at the lower court, was dismissed in February 2012 by Judge Kotelly after the U.S. State Department intervened to assert that, as a sitting head of state, Rajapakse was immune from litigation.
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Building defying SL governor inauguration receives crude oil attack in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2012, 01:27 GMT]
The colonial military administration of Colombo on Wednesday allegedly deployed its ‘white van squad’ to pour crude oil on the new building of Valikaamam South (Chunnaakam) civic body before it was scheduled to be declared opened by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The colonial military governor of North, Maj Gen (retd.) G.A. Chanadrasiri has been demanding that it should be he who should decide on the inauguration of the building. However, the building was declared opened as scheduled by T. Prakash, the head of the civic body of Valikaamam South. The grassroots politician of the TNA also declared that the office would start to function from Thursday in the new premises.
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