SL military backs plunder of scrap iron, vehicles, in land of genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 August 2012, 19:41 GMT]
While the international system bails out genocidal Sri Lanka by indecisiveness on international investigations, the occupying Sinhala military is engaged in erasing all remaining traces as well as in earning money by systematically backing plunder and trade of vehicles and scrap-iron left in the land of genocide. While citing land mines the public and local people are not allowed to return to Mu’l’livaaykkaal and Maaththa’lan, large gangs of Muslim traders brought from the South, and equipped with oxygen cylinder cutting tools, are openly engaged in removing vehicle parts and scrap iron. The SL military and some high officials earn huge amount of money in the lucrative trade. Meanwhile, 21 local families of Mu’l’livaaykkaal, who were recently allowed to come back in a showcase resettlement, languish without even drinking water and they are treated like slaves by the occupying military.
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Jaffna Chamber of Commerce exposes farce of development

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2012, 22:02 GMT]
Citing unwillingness of Colombo in actually putting into action the much talked about re-activation of the Achchuveali Industrial Zone in the Jaffna Peninsula, the Chamber of Commerce in Jaffna said that development is only in the lip service to show account to the outside world, but it is carefully designed to stop only at certain ‘infrastructure development’ calculatedly aimed at converting Jaffna into a market for the South and to suck and transfer the capital in Jaffna to the South. All the banks mushroomed in Jaffna serve only this agenda of transferring capital and they don’t invest or provide loans to any substantial economic activity based on the land of Tamils, accused the local chamber members who were unsuccessful in their initiations and applications.
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Tamil rejection of LLRC formula should be loudly told to UNHRC

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2012, 20:59 GMT]
As the orientation and the thrust of the LLRC recommendations are annihilation of the Eezham Tamil nation and its territoriality – in other words structural genocide – the crafty arrangement at the UNHRC making the LLRC implementation as an international obligation has to be opposed, and the report as approach to solutions should be rejected as a whole, said new generation political activists in the island. Their comment came, as genocidal Colombo after a drama announced its consent last week to ‘cooperate’ with the proceedings of the UNHRC. The activists in the island cautioned the diaspora and Tamil Nadu to carefully identify and check the agenda-players and gullible elements of shallow understanding, which campaign that LLRC implementation would suffice Tamil aspirations and self-determination not needed.
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3,500 Tamil families remain uprooted from 40 villages in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 August 2012, 23:48 GMT]
More than 3,500 Tamil families still remain uprooted from fifteen DS divisions in Ampaa'rai, civil officials in the district said. 6,500 acres of paddy fields, 3,500 acres of coconut lands and about 2,000 acres of lands, used for sugar cane cultivation, have also been appropriated from the Tamils since 13 April 1967. Since 2007, new Buddhist stupas have mushroomed with the backing of the occupying Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) commandos, the sources further said adding that more than 20 Saiva shrines have been destroyed. Tamil people who fled from their traditional villages in Ampaa'rai district now ask whether they would also get their lands according to the assurances given by the SL Minister Rauf Hakeem, the civil sources said.
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TNPF launches Tamil bimonthly

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 August 2012, 20:41 GMT]
The Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) led by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam launched a bimonthly party paper named Nam Theasam (Our Nation) Sunday at the office of the TNPF in Jaffna. University Student representatives, civil society representatives, journalists, and representatives of the newspapers published in Jaffna took part in the event. "The path chosen by the TNPF is a people-oriented approach to politics, contrary to politics that centers around elections and positions," says the lead article, quoting Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam from a recent interview.
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‘Tamils should not compromise on independent Tamil Eelam’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 August 2012, 23:33 GMT]
While the Solhiems of the West urge the Eezham Tamils to use only Gandhian methods of protest to secure some convenient solution within a unitary Sri Lanka, youth activist Gobi Sivanthan’s hunger strike following Gandhian means, which is entering its 15th day today, shows to the western world that the just demands of the Eezham Tamil nation cannot be compromised for the sake of convenience. Speaking through a video interview for TamilNet, Sivanthan, along with Sasithar Maheswaran from TCC-UK, said in unequivocal terms that only an independent Tamil Eelam can resolve the problems of the genocide affected Eezham Tamils, referring to the three types of sovereignty that the Tamils are entitled to as highlighted in the TSC declaration.
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Tamils de-facto state chronicled in new book

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 August 2012, 21:43 GMT]
While the global powers of all persuasions—the USA, Russia, China and India—each driven by their own realpolitik concerns and self- interests continue to dismiss Tamil liberation cause and struggle, a new book written by a Diaspora Tamil engaged in human rights work in the Tamil-controlled area of Vanni until the Sri Lanka's "Crime of the Century" at Mu'l'livaaykkaal, provides a compelling insider’s look at the motivations, issues and complexities of this internationally abetted genocide; the entire text is based on first hand observation and includes sociological insights based on these first hand observations, says the publisher, Clarity Press in the US.
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The Hindu finds David to defend genocidal culprits

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2012, 17:44 GMT]
Chennai-based Indian media The Hindu, well known for the roles it played in setting opinion against the independence of Eezham Tamils, in deliberately failing to bring in awareness even when the war was turning into one of the worst genocides of modern times, and in image-building exercises for the Rajapaksa regime after the war, was trying to absolve an array of culprits from the crimes on Thursday, by finding a respected person like Gandhiyam David at the age of 88, to naively pass the blame on the LTTE. In April this year David was cited saying that he should be buried in Vanni when Tamil Eelam becomes a reality. The Hindu desecrated him on Thursday by tagging him as “Sri Lankan Gandhian”. Mr. David should have refrained from honouring a media like The Hindu by giving an interview, commented a new generation politician in the island.
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Local community protests HSBC display of Sri Lanka flag in London

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2012, 06:34 GMT]
The local community of New Malden, Surrey, is enraged at the insensitivity of the HSBC bank for its display of Sri Lanka’s Lion Flag in its New Malden branch. In making a request addressed to its manager, Ms. Sam Fletcher, the local community members said, “HSBC prides themselves in being the local bank and we hope that this also involves for them to be aware of our local issues.” The protestors pointed out that as most of the island’s community in the UK are victims of State with memories of torture, rape and massacre, they are greatly upset at seeing the flag reminding them of the horrors. The protest, led by even non-Tamil South Asians in New Malden, cited support of local parliamentarian, Mr Edward Davey. The London-based HSBC was the first foreign bank to initiate a branch in Jaffna. It has 16 branches in the island labelled Sri Lanka.
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US Law allowing legal challenge to LTTE terror listing remains vacuous

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 August 2012, 11:21 GMT]
"The LTTE's military wing does not exist, and as such, there is no rational basis to continue to proscribe the LTTE as terrorist. However, the State Department continues the ban on the safe presumption that the ban is essentially immune to challenge, an immunity fortified by the threat of material support charges for an individual purporting to represent the LTTE in American jurisdiction," said legal sources in Washington, pointing out that statute [1189] that allows legal challenge to continued "terrorist" designation is toothless and vacuous when confronting anti-terror statute [2339b] that threatens criminal prosecution on any one who is willing to mount a legal challenge.
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New Zealanders call for international investigation, back right to self-determination

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 August 2012, 06:51 GMT]
“We support your demand for self-determination,” said New Zealand’s parliamentary leader of the Green Party, Metiria Turei MP, speaking at an event in Auckland on Sunday, convened to remember Black July 1983. Her view was echoed by John Minto, a respected human rights activist saying, “I know you have been consistently airing your right to self determination and we support your demand because you cannot live in a country that does not recognise and respect your rights.” Labour MP and shadow foreign minister Phil Goff who spoke at the event as well as the other two guest speakers called for an international investigation on the war crimes. The Green leader announced that her party is determined to work with Australian Greens in expelling the war-crimes-accused SL High Commissioner for Australia.
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Italian academics, activists, political groups endorse TSC declaration

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 August 2012, 18:04 GMT]
Concluding that the only way for Eezham Tamils to live with freedom and peace is in a sovereign Tamil Eelam, a range of Italian academics, left parties, antiracist groups, civil society activists, immigration groups and NGOs endorsed the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition declaration at a conference titled “Tamil, l’identita negate” (Tamil, a denied identity) organized in Palermo, Sicily on 28th July. Speaking at the event, academics from the University of Palermo argued that what happened in the island of Sri Lanka was genocide against the Tamil nation, besides pushing for an independent international investigation into war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan state. "In the diaspora, the youth organizations should work with solidarity groups, political groups, and NGOs using this historic declaration as an action plan," Stefano Edward Puvanendrarajah from Giovani Tamil told TamilNet.
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India reintroduces caste among Ceylon repatriates

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 August 2012, 06:28 GMT]
Life in India has made Tamil repatriates of colonial Ceylon legacy and their descendants to retrace their caste identity and seek caste certificates to meet official requirements. Tamil Nadu is already issuing them caste certificates. On Tuesday, Karnataka announced that it would set up a committee to study the system in the neighbouring states to give such certificates. The Hindu came out with an article two weeks ago on the issue of caste-certificate-less repatriates from ‘Sri Lanka’. India reintroducing caste identity among the repatriates may cause adverse effects on the social progress of their kith and kin remaining in the island, commented a social activist in Colombo. Considering the historical legacy, current context and generations of misery, it would be ideal for India to recognize them with a common identity and extend equal SC-ST privileges to them, he said.
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11 Diaspora organizations affirm Tamil sovereignty, call for referendum

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 July 2012, 12:50 GMT]
Ten country councils and the TYO from New Zealand convened at Oslo from 27th to 29th July, calling for a referendum among the Eezham Tamils to ascertain their political future based on the historical, earned and remedial aspects of sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil Nation. “As a nation subject to a protracted genocide, the Eelam Tamils’ dignity and freedom can be guaranteed only under a free Tamil Eelam and to ensure this, we call for the international community to recognize the creation of Tamil Eelam through an internationally monitored referendum among Eelam Tamils,” a joint release by the 11 organizations dated 29th July read. The three aspects of sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation were concisely discussed in the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition declaration released on Heroes’ Day, 2011.
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TNA should check Colombo using PCs to hoodwink Geneva: Guruparan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 July 2012, 07:00 GMT]
Retracting from statements following Shiv Shankar Menon’s recent visit, about holding Northern Provincial Council (PC) elections in September, Colombo plans to hold it in 2013 February to time an escape showcase at Geneva in March. The PC tactics of Colombo to hoodwink the world that Tamils are contented with the unitary model should have been countered by TNA actions on September this year’s Eastern PC elections itself. But they have decided to directly participate in it. They should at least now indicate in the manifesto the Tamil rejection of the unitary model, their aspirations for a combined North and East and solutions based on recognition of the nation of Tamils and its right to self-determination, for the people to vote with a cause and to tell the world of that cause, said civil activist Guruparan Kumaravadivel of Jaffna University’s Law Department, speaking to media on Monday.
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Australia's extradition of Tamil to US violates due process, says TAG

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 July 2012, 03:10 GMT]
Last week Australia's Attorney General, Nicola Roxon, has authorized the extradition to the U.S of Thulasitharan Santhirarajah, who the U.S. alleges was one of the six co-conspirators in a bungled arms-procurement operation for the Liberation Tigers in 2006. Santhirarajah has been fighting extradition to the U.S. from 2008. If Santhirarajah is extradited, he will have to stand a criminal trial in the U.S. Federal District Court of Baltimore, Maryland, and if convicted, will serve a prison term in the U.S., following which the U.S. immigration will deport the defendant to his country of residence, either to Australia or to Sri Lanka, based on the nature of Santhirarajah's residency in Australia.
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Tale to defend treachery won’t help India’s future prospects with Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 July 2012, 15:58 GMT]
Marking the 25th anniversary of signing the failed Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 29 July 1987, The Hindu came out with an article on Saturday written by Col. R. Hariharan, who was head of military intelligence for the IPKF operations of the legacy of first large-scale war crimes committed against Eezham Tamils. The article, “A Tale of Two Interventions,” compared India’s success under Indira Gandhi in Bangladesh in 1971 and failure under Rajiv Gandhi in Sri Lanka in 1987, and concluded that in the post-2009 scenario, “What India does not have is a dynamic national leadership.” But the old soldier is still on ‘duty’ assigned to him in 1987, as the psy-op thrust of the article is to defend the 13th Amendment as “the most significant achievement of the Accord,” and as an evidence for India’s support to “the minority demand for an equitable deal.”
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Reject PC model in contesting elections: civil society tells TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 July 2012, 01:25 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that has decided to contest the Eastern Provincial Council elections should indicate in its manifesto of its rejection of the provincial council model of the unitary system, the division of the North and East and the 13th Amendment, to tell the world of the Tamil stand on the issues and to disprove an argument that Tamils have accepted the PC model as a solution, urged prominent members of the Tamil Civil Society Movement in a written statement released on Saturday, signed by more than a 100 academics, religious leaders, student leaders, professionals, trade unionists and grassroot activists. The 13th Amendment couldn’t be accepted even as a starting point in resolving a question that needs approaches based on recognition of the nation and right to self-determination of Tamils in the island, the statement further said.
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Australian action defying UN bares ICE’s continued war with Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 July 2012, 01:22 GMT]
The International Community of Establishments that architected a genocidal war against the nation of Eezham Tamils, worked out a barbed-wire incarceration of people and then facilitated an open prison at the ratio of one Sinhala soldier to five Tamil civilians on one hand and an internationally legitimised LLRC on the other to complete the subjugation and structural genocide, being continued to be at war with Eezham Tamils is evidenced by a recent Australian deportation of a Tamil man into the hands of the genocidal Colombo, Tamil activists in Australia said. While the high profile deportation, defying a rare UN intervention on behalf of the victim, evokes suspicions about the intention of collaborating agencies outsmarting the UN norms, the general idea is to make every Eezham Tamil submissive to the genocidal state and regime in the island, the activists further said.
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Tamils in UK condemn Sri Lankan presence at Olympics opening ceremony

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2012, 23:51 GMT]
Protesting against the participation of Sri Lankan sportspersons and the presence of the Sri Lankan delegation for the 2012 London Olympics, Eezham Tamils in the UK gathered in hundreds at Aspen Way, London on Friday, expressing their opposition to the legitimacy given to the Sri Lankan state that is accused of committing genocide. Sources in London, citing the British police, said that the Sri Lankan delegation did not attend the opening ceremony out of choice. However, the delegation invited by the IOC, were not compelled by the UK authorities not to attend. Speaking to TamilNet, Sasithar Maheswaran from the TCC-UK said “The British government ought to take note of the sentiments expressed repeatedly by the Tamils on the streets. An EU wide travel ban against current and previous leaders who have committed the crime of genocide against the Eezham Tamils is long overdue.”
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