Malathy’s ‘Fleeting Moment’ a testimonial to earned sovereignty of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2012, 21:55 GMT]
As a first hand written account of a diaspora Tamil who lived and worked for over four years in civilian institutions in the de facto state of the Eezham Tamils, N. Malathy’s “A fleeting moment in my country: The last years of the LTTE de-facto state” bears witness to how the sovereignty earned through the conduct of the struggle of the Eezham Tamils was denied by world powers, leading to the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre. A literature of ‘lived experience’ of one who stayed in Vanni for 4 years working with civilian institutions like NESoHR, women and child organizations, and later spending over 4 gruelling months in the Manik farm detention camps, the book should elicit interest not just from Tamils world over, but also academics, activists, feminists, journalists and those interested in studying social life under a political struggle against genocide.
Full story >>

Land appropriation by Colombo in Trincomalee district goes unabated

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2012, 04:34 GMT]
In the latest land appropriation of the Colombo government to change the demography of the Trincomalee district, 94 Tamil families are forced to lose their properties that are located 9 km off north from Trincomalee city at Iluppaik-ku'lam GS division. The affected families have made representations to the Divisional Secretary who promised that the matter would be brought up to the notice of the SL Government Agent (SLGA) who is a Sinhalese. The SLGA is a retired Major General who is behind the planned appropriation of lands of Tamils in the district to settle down Sinhalese from the South.
Full story >>

‘War on the diaspora continues to annihilate idea of Tamil Eelam’: Dr. Sentas

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2012, 18:52 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan conflict is now a transnational war against the Tamil diaspora that enables the continued political repression of political aspirations both in Sri Lanka and abroad,” writes Dr. Vicki Sentas in a chapter published in a recently released book “Counter-Terrorism and state political violence: The ‘war on terror’ as terror”. Dr. Sentas, currently a lecturer in Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney further opines in the chapter titled “One more successful war? Tamil diaspora and counter-terrorism after the LTTE” that the criminalization of political aspirations of the Tamil diaspora and proscription of Tamil organizations only strengthens the cause of the genocide accused Sri Lankan.
Full story >>

Village, jungle adjacent to Mu’l’livaaykkaal grabbed for Sinhala militarisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2012, 01:27 GMT]
2,500 acres of land by the side of the Nanthik-kadal lagoon, comprising of the village Keappaa-pulavu and nearby jungle, where the last stages of the Vanni war was fought and prohibited weapons were allegedly used against the LTTE by the genocidal Sinhala military, is now permanently grabbed for use of the occupying military, news sources in Vanni said. The grabbed land in Mullaiththeevu district is divided between Sri Lanka’s Army and Air Force and the original villagers of 700 families detained from resettling are forced to accept lands away from their village. After the TESO conference last week, The Hindu, using an interview of Dr. Wikremabahu Karunaratne, tried to soft-pedal the issue of the annihilation of territorial sovereignty of the nation of Eezham Tamils as a mere “Move to gift Tamil resources to MNCs.”
Full story >>

Commission report makes Norway police chief resign

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2012, 22:13 GMT]
Following an independent commission report that Norway police could have prevented all or part of a bombing and shooting spree by Anders Behring Breivik last year that killed 77, most of whom were teenagers, the Norwegian police chief Øystein Mæland resigned on Thursday, Reuters said. Norwegian government has also appointed an independent commission to investigate the failure of Norway’s peace facilitation in Sri Lanka that ended in genocide of Eezham Tamils. The commission report found fault with the peace facilitators for not withdrawing from the facilitation to tell the truth to the world, despite anticipations of the outcome. Mr. Erik Solheim, a leading facilitator didn’t resign, but was removed by his party ‘to give room to younger talents’. There was neither penitence nor any changes in Norway’s policy towards the question of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Colombo's immigration arrests 53 Tamil Nadu Tamils in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2012, 23:54 GMT]
Sri Lankan police in SL military occupied Jaffna on Wednesday and Thursday arrested 53 Indian citizens, most of them Tamils from Tamil Nadu, for overstay in the peninsula without informing the Indian mission in Jaffna while hundreds of Chinese workers, including sex workers, are allowed to stay in the island with no regards to visa regulations. The occupying colonial State, which functions as an agent state for the International Community of Establishments (ICE) including the establishment of New Delhi, has become increasingly paranoid about the grassroots business links and people to people interactions between the South Indians and the Eezham Tamils, informed sources close to SL Police in Jaffna told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Don't expect justice by changing regimes that do not recognise Tamils as Nation: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2012, 21:16 GMT]
Parity of status to Tamils as a nation is the only way to restore justice in the island. It is meaningless to expect that ‘internal justice’ would come from any regime in Colombo, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, a former parliamentarian and the leader of the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) addressing the participants of a protest organised by the party on Wednesday to condemn the slaying of the Tamil political prisoner Delruxon Mariyathas and Nimalarooban. Wednesday's protest gains significance as the SL military and police that attempted to curb the protest in front of Jaffna were not able to suppress it through their ‘friendly magistrate’ as they managed to do earlier in curbing a protest at the same site by the TNPF.
Full story >>

Uprooted Tamils in Ampaa'rai question SL Minister's statement on resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2012, 20:27 GMT]
Tamil people have been systematically evicted from forty villages in fifteen different DS divisions in Ampaa'rai district, Tamil civil officials in the district say. Since 13 April 1967 to date, at least 3,500 Tamil families have been uprooted from these villages. Recently, Rauf Hakim, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) who holds the portfolio of Minister of Justice in Mahinda Rajapakse regime has told a foreign envoy in Colombo that steps would be taken to return the lands and properties lost by people in the past decades. Tamil civil officials questioned whether the Tamil people who were systematically uprooted from their traditional villages could get their lands appropriated by Sinhalese and Muslims during the conflict.
Full story >>

HSBC apologises for Lion flag display, hunger striker welcomes community action in UK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2012, 10:02 GMT]
Eezham Tamil activist Sivanthan who waged a hunger strike in London for 22 days during the Olympics, has welcomed the action by the local Tamil community of New Malden, Surrey, after reading the news report, which appeared in the local news paper Your Local Guardian on Sunday with the title “New Malden bank sorry for displaying ‘genocide’ flag.” The Bank had removed the offending flag on 03 August, a few hours after the local community reacted against the display and the wider attention it acquired through a headline story. After removing the Sri Lankan flag, the HSBC branch had also extended apologies to the members of the community. In the meantime, the recovering hunger striker has appealed the London based Tamil electronic media to refrain from running commercials displaying ‘Sri Lanka’ flag and businesses to stop using the same.
Full story >>

Youth Activist Sivanthan concludes 22 day hunger strike

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2012, 07:27 GMT]
Gobi Sivanthan, UK based Eezham Tamil youth activist, concluded his 22 day hunger strike coinciding with the final day of the London 2012 Olympics, on Sunday. Eezham Tamils from across the UK gathered at the spot where Sivanthan was fasting at Stratford, to convey solidarity with his protest as he broke his fast at 4 PM. Sivanthan had undertaken the hunger strike with five demands, including calling for an immediate halt to the “ongoing genocidal land grabs”. After the end of the fast, Tamils took a procession to Aspen way, along the route of the closing ceremony of the Olympics, and staged a three hour demonstration calling for a free Tamil Eelam and an end to the genocide of the Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Indian protest to Eezham provocative: Peter Schalk

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2012, 06:45 GMT]
The demand of Indian MEA to drop Eelam from the TESO conference title is provocative, gives food for thought and does not make sense, says Professor Peter Schalk in a note sent to TamilNet on Sunday. The decision comes from confusing Eelam, a Tamil toponym standing for the entire island, with Tamileelam. In usage Eelam predates Lanka. On Eelam and Cinkalam, Prof Schalk said they are of a parallel allocation and parallels never meet, but walk side by side. Meanwhile, BBC Tamil Service on Saturday cited Professor MA Nuhman saying that the connotations of the word became a problem only with the ‘secessionist movement’. He agreed with the word’s old Tamil usage meaning the entire island, but questioned its Dravidian origins. The TESO response was naïve or sly by equating Eezham/ Ilangkai with the politically invented and Tamil -rejected term Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

TESO resolution calls for UN Referendum

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2012, 18:56 GMT]
Announcing the question of Eezham Tamils as a South Asian Human Rights issue, a UN referendum should be conducted among Tamils, demanded the resolution of the TESO conference convened at the YMCA grounds at Rayappettai in Chennai on Sunday. India should work at the UN to bring in a resolution facilitating Eezham Tamils to choose their political solution, the conference resolved. The resolutions of the conference demanded action on the war criminals in the island and removal of Sri Lankan military from the territories of Tamils. The resolutions also demanded immediate removal of the Sinhalese forcefully colonised in Tamil Eelam and in Tamil territories. On the treatment of refugees in India, the conference demanded the Indian government to adhere to the UN conventions.
Full story >>

Tamils should protest against UN, demand referendum: May 17 Movement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2012, 04:07 GMT]
Criticizing the UN for collaborating with vested interests of world powers in denying a just political solution for the Eezham Tamils, Thirumurugan Gandhi from the May 17th Movement said that Tamils should direct their protests against the UN asking for an internationally monitored referendum to resolve the national question of the genocide affected Eezham Tamils at a demonstration held at Valluvar Kottam, Chennai on Saturday. Speaking to TamilNet, Mr. Gandhi said “The single point common demand of Tamils world over should be to demand for a referendum for Tamil Eelam,” adding that talks about rehabilitation and ‘step by step approach’ without addressing the fundamental demand for political freedom was useless, only giving legitimacy to genocidal Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Gagged Tamil leadership fumbles on telling truth

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 August 2012, 23:32 GMT]
Eezham Tamil political leaders in the island refused of visa by the New Delhi establishment to participate the TESO conference convened by the DMK chief Mr. Karunanidhi, fumble on telling the truth. Instead of letting the world know that they were unable to do justice to the democratic struggle of Eezham Tamils due to New Delhi and Colombo jointly gagging them, they surrender by simply saying that they had cancelled their participation considering circumstances, commented new generation Tamil political activists in the island. The Sinhala politician, Dr. Wikramabahu Karunaratne is honest in bringing out the circumstances to media. Three years ago, Mr. Karunanidhi in the hands of New Delhi was accused of dishonesty and betrayal. Whether the Eezham Tamil leadership is in his shoes now, the activists asked.
Full story >>

Women’s conference in Tamil Nadu terms oppression of Eezham Tamils as genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 August 2012, 06:49 GMT]
Asserting that “Systematic sexual violence against Tamil women by the Sri Lankan military forces, police, paramilitaries during the war on the Tamil people constitute an act of genocide” and that “The question of systematic oppression of Tamil women is directly connected to the national question of the Tamils in the North-East of the island of Sri Lanka”, the 19th conference of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) held at Chennai on Thursday passed resolutions calling for an independent international investigation into the war crimes of the Sri Lankan state and a just political solution for the Eezham Tamils through a referendum. The conference, presided over by Magsaysay award winner, NFIW president and prominent civil rights activist Aruna Roy, further urged India and the IC to take measures to end militarization and colonization of the Tamil homeland.
Full story >>

Unholy agenda of New Delhi, Colombo, continues unchecked

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 August 2012, 21:20 GMT]
During the Vanni War, every visit of New Delhi operatives to Colombo was followed by escalation in genocide. The pattern continues unabated after the war that every Indian visit would follow with further economic inroads into the island, exchanged for Colombo’s bailout and confirmation of its militarisation and structural genocide of the country of Eezham Tamils. The latest example is the ‘economic’ mission of Anand Sharma followed by the visit of Shiv Shankar Menon. While New Delhi deceives gullible Tamils that ‘economic integration’ would resolve the national question, genocidal Colombo prioritises the annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils, to outsmart India later. As only a collective Tamil Nadu could blast the vicious circle, TESO has to be orientated and accommodated appropriately by all concerned, said Tamil activists in the island.
Full story >>

Eezham Tamil politicians not issued with Indian visa until Thursday

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 August 2012, 04:38 GMT]
Just one working day left for the commencement of the TESO conference convened by the DMK chief Mr. M. Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu, the Eezham Tamil political leaders of the TNA and TNPF were yet to be given with visa by the Indian High Commission in Colombo, news sources in the island said. Mr. Sampanthan and Mr. Maavai Senadhiraja told news sources that the DMK chief had personally talked to them over the phone in extending invitation and they had agreed to go. However, sources close to them said that besides not getting the visa, the TNA leaders are heavily pressurized to stay away. TNPF leaders said that they would go if the visa is issued. Mr. Mano Ganeshan cancelled the visit after not getting the visa. Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne’s visa was rejected, but he was later told to resubmit the passport. Visa is yet to be decided for him.
Full story >>

New Delhi infringes into historical and cultural rights of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 August 2012, 17:17 GMT]
By officially announcing a ban on the word “Eezham,” New Delhi establishment’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) infringes into the historical and cultural identity of a people outside of its jurisdiction, accused Eezham Tamil civil groups in the island and in the diaspora, responding to an official instruction of the MEA dated 9 August 2012, sent to TESO organisers in Chennai that “Eelam may be dropped from the title of the conference” for MEA clearance of approval. Whether New Delhi has already started thinking that the island is part of its empire and the Eezham Tamils are its ‘conquered’ people to impose orders on the identity of another people, asked the enraged civil activists. Meanwhile, New Delhi’s foreign missions sabotage giving visa to Eezham Tamils attending the TESO conference, news sources from several countries said.
Full story >>

Section of UK parliamentarians steadily buttress genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 August 2012, 00:03 GMT]
After laying foundation for the transformation of colonial Ceylon into genocidal Sri Lanka, and after playing an articulated role in the US-India architected genocidal war against Eezham Tamils, citing in the UN that the LTTE was “long blighting” State in the island, a particular section of the UK parliamentarians steadily buttress the Sinhala State, accused Tamil political activists in Jaffna, calling a statement made by the visiting 9-member team of UK parliamentarians in Jaffna last Thursday as absurd. The team, mainly of Conservative members, told media in Jaffna that Tamils should settle matters internally and should not seek international solutions. Liam Fox’s genes stealthily continue in the UK parliament to perpetuate genocidal Colombo by disguising subjugation as internal solution after waging a war internationally, the activists said.
Full story >>

SLA constructs military cantonment in lands of Eezham Tamils in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 August 2012, 22:02 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in Ampaa'rai district is constructing a military cantonment in the land of sixty acres extent at Ka'napathipuram, situated in Chammaanthu'rai DS division of Ampaa'rai district. The lands belong to 350 Tamil families from the lower echelons of the society, who remain uprooted for 22 years now, according to Tamil civil officials in the district.
Full story >>