Australia facilitates timed diplomatic advantage for genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 14:59 GMT]
After creating much sensation by the Australian Prime Minister herself confirming on a federal police investigation of a war crimes case against SL president and envoy, the Attorney General of Australia on Tuesday quashed the case as it would be in “breach of domestic law and Australia’s obligations under international law,” bestowing genocidal Sri Lanka with a well-timed diplomatic victory on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet in Perth, Australia. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan delegation in Australia on Tuesday went to the extent of even denying the occurrence of any war at all in the island. “Number one, there was no war in Sri Lanka. There was brutal terrorism in Sri Lanka led by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka,” said Bandula Jayasekara of the Sri Lankan delegation to ABC.
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No bartering of war-crimes accountability for political concessions: TNPF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 16:02 GMT]
Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), a post-war Tamil political formation in the island of Sri Lanka, in a press conference held Sunday morning 11:00 am at a Colombo residence, congratulated TNA leadership on the forthcoming visit to the USA, and said that the visit is a significant historic first where the US-State Department has extended invitation to a non-State Tamil political party, adding that the visit has potential for improving the political status of the Tamil people who have suffered within a majoritarian democracy for several decades. While pointing out that the TNA is carrying a tremendous burden on its shoulders to articulate clearly the aspirations of Tamils, TNPF cautioned that TNA, under no circumstance, should barter away Sri Lanka's accountability for war crimes for ‘political concessions.’
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Canadian Peace Alliance, unions show solidarity with Tamil Nation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 14:44 GMT]
The Canadian Peace Alliance, Canada’s largest umbrella organisation of 180 groups representing over 1 million Canadians, resolved last week to encourage “its member organizations to stand in solidarity with the Tamil nation in their global struggle for self-determination and freedom.” It called for an “immediate end to the colonialism and genocide of the Tamil nation and an end to the occupation of the Tamil homeland by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and its allied paramilitary groups.” It resolved to support “the Pongu Tamil Rally for Self-Determination on Saturday, October 29,” besides urging international investigation on war crimes. Meanwhile, Canada’s largest trade union, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers demanded Sri Lanka to “immediately withdraw from Tamil Eelam,” and the Canadian Federation of Students, Ontario, condemned the attack on the student president of Jaffna University.
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Remains of dead SLA soldier recovered in Poonakari

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 09:10 GMT]
The remains of male body suspected to be of a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army was recovered by the SL police on receipt of information from a farmer on Thursday from Poonakari Vaadiyadi Villadikku'lam area in the Ki'linochchi district.
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Consequences of Tamil genocide engulf entire island: Bahu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 October 2011, 12:44 GMT]
The regime of state terror, which started in the Tamil homeland has now become a menace everywhere in the island. The state terrorism, created on the basis of Sinhala chauvinism, is for a purpose; that is to assist certain neo liberal forces involved in plunder of resources, said Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne, the general secretary of the NSSP, who took oath as the newly elected Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) member for the Dehiwala Mount Lavinia municipal council on Friday. “So-called development of the government is based on displacement of people and plunder of resources. While people are pushed out of their traditional habitat land, marine resources, minerals and earth resources, forest, water resources etc., are taken over by the neo liberal developers. World powers that supported the genocidal war are happy and satisfied about the situation,” Dr. Karunaratne further said.
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123,000 fall below poverty line in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2011, 18:58 GMT]
20.5 percent of the population in the Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province is beyond the poverty line, according to Sri Lankan Central Bank Advisor of the Poverty Abolishment Programme, R.Sri Pathmanathan. At an event held in Batticaloa last week, Mr. Sri Pathmanathan said Batticaloa district was one of the 14 poverty stricken districts in the island. The districts of Ki'linochchi, Vavuniyaa and Mullaiththeevu have not been included in the study, he said.
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Outfits serving Sri Lanka target international media investigation: Channel 4

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 October 2011, 16:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields broadcast by Channel 4 had to face an organized campaign against it originating from the Sri Lankan ministry of defence, said British Channel 4 head of news and current affairs Dorothy Byrne testifying before the Communications Committee of the House of Lords of the British Parliament Tuesday. Citing the example, she warned the committee on the plight of international media’s investigative journalism facing increasingly sophisticated and orchestrated campaigns by hired PR companies and lobbying groups. Inappropriate Sri Lanka connections of the British defence secretary Dr. Liam Fox made him to resign this month. One of his connections was with Bell Pottinger, a PR company hired by Sri Lanka until recently.
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Sri Lanka in war crimes quagmire before CHOGM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 01:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka is sinking deeply inside a torrent of allegations of war crimes against three senior officials, including Sri Lanka's President, ten days before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is to take place in Perth, prompting Premier Julia Gillard to confirm that Australian Federal Police (AFP) is conducting investigations on Sri Lanka officials over allegations of serious war-crimes, and forcing shadow foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop to demand Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd to reveal whether the government knew about the allegations against Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe before it accepted him as Sri Lanka’s high commissioner.
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Buddhist stupa built in Kokku’laay after brutal attack on Tamil landowner

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 08:26 GMT]
An Eezham Tamil landowner in Kokku’laay in Mullaiththeevu district was brutally attacked receiving serious injuries when he refused to part with his land for the construction of a second Buddhist stupa in the locality. He was even chased away from the hospital where he was admitted, after severe warning. Koku’laay lagoon is the focus of Sinhala colonisation presently, as it is the key location for wedging the demographic contiguity of the north and east of the country of Eezham Tamils in the island, as well as direct communication between Mullaiththeevu and Trincomalee. A new Sinhala administrative division ‘Weli-oya’ comprising of Sinhala-Buddhist colonies has started functioning in the region last week and the division is expected to include Kokku’laay to cut off north and east permanently up to the very coastline.
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Sinhala division starts functioning in Mullaiththeevu district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 05:32 GMT]
A Sinhala administrative division, under a Sinhala Asst. Government Agent, has started functioning recently in the Mullaitheevu district. The new division with a toponym ‘Welioya,’ renaming the Tamil Ma’nal-aa’ru, will permanently wedge the demographic contiguity of the northern and eastern provinces of the country of Eezham Tamils occupied by Sri Lanka’s military. The division has been planned in such a way to demographically link the Anuradhapura district of the Sinhala North Central Province with the eastern coast at Kokku’laay, through recently established Sinhala colonies. With accelerated colonisation, soon the division may even pave way for a Sinhala electorate in the Mullaiththeevu district. Meanwhile, talking to Tamil diaspora members recently, the US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake said that he was unaware of any Sinhala colonisation of Tamil lands in the island.
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India urged to help tracing transfer of sovereignty document

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2011, 10:32 GMT]
Like the Kandyan Convention signed between the British and the chieftains of Kandy in 1815, which is a legal document for the transfer of sovereignty, the Portuguese signed a treaty with the Muthaliyaars of Jaffna after their conquest of the Kingdom of Jaffna in 1621. Earlier historians have cited the availability of a copy of the document in Goa, the former colonial headquarters of the Portuguese in the East. Whether India that proposes to help developing a museum in Jaffna would help tracing the document and similar Portuguese documents on Jaffna for the display of copies in the proposed museum, ask academics in Jaffna.
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Rift in TNA citing dissatisfaction in struggle spirit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2011, 06:36 GMT]
TULF politician Mr. Anandasangaree, who was earlier supporting Rajapaksa’s war, has born again now, being furious at the TNA’s lack of spirit in fighting against Rajapaksa over the land re-registration issue. He publicly accuses the TNA leaders, particularly Mr. Sampanthan and Mr Premachandran for not leading a people’s struggle against the issue. Mr. Anandasangaree and the PLOTE of Mr Siddharthan, both who earlier backed the genocidal Colombo, have joined the TNA in contesting the last civic elections and they were successful in capturing three local bodies. This week, Mr. Anandasangaree has convened a ‘general body’ meeting for the TULF in which he and Mr. Kanagaraja have respectively been named as General Secretary and President of the TULF. Sampanthan has responded by protesting to the election commission that the meeting was illegal and was breaching earlier court rulings.
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Sinhala Army builds Buddhist temple in front of church in Valveddiththu’rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2011, 05:37 GMT]
The virtually Sinhala Army of Sri Lanka that occupies the country of Eezham Tamils, is building a new Buddhist temple at Valveddiththu’rai Junction, in front of the historic St. Sebastian Church. Valveddiththu’rai, the birthplace of the LTTE leader Pirapaharan, never had any Buddhists, except the occupying Sinhala Army. The act is a naked show of Sri Lanka’s jubilation over the genocide of Eezham Tamils, mocking at those who talk about ‘post-war reconciliation,’ civil activists in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, former TNA parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam on Friday has appealed to the Vatican to take immediate ecclesiastical and diplomatic action to stop the military’s Buddhist construction as it seriously hurts the feelings of the Tamil Catholics of the town. Similar acts of the SL Army are also reported from Mannaar, a major Tamil Catholic city.
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UK’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox quits as pressure mounts

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 October 2011, 16:05 GMT]
UK’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox has resigned from his post Friday afternoon amid mounting pressure over his working relationship with his flatmate and self-styled adviser Adam Werritty. Dr. Fox was widely accused of running a ‘shadow foreign policy’ on Sri Lanka and undermining Britain’s official foreign policy, a mysterious trust he set up to solicit private sector contributions to ‘development’ in Sri Lanka – with Mr. Werritty as its key contact - seems to have done nothing other than fund his visits to the island, and now it appears that Mr. Werritty’s globe-trotting to numerous places Dr. Fox was also visiting on official business, has been partly funded by a corporate intelligence company with “a close interest” in Sri Lanka.
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Colombo brings Sinhalese to culture prawn in Jaffna marshlands

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 October 2011, 05:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government occupying Jaffna has taken over 350 acres of coastal marshland along the Jaffna Lagoon in Kaarainakar, Ma’ndaitheevu and Araali for prawn culture laboured by Sinhalese brought from the South. Even though said as developed for freshwater prawn culture, the project will ruin the groundwater table in the above places where local people already face difficulties in getting drinking water. Such environmental disasters were already experienced in Puththa’lam. The ultimate aim of such projects is to demographically confiscate the coasts from Eezham Tamils, make their traditional villages environmentally uninhabitable and swindle the resources of their sea and land, academics in Jaffna said. The Sinhalese fishermen brought from the South target items of export value such as conches, sea cucumber and prawns.
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Sri Lanka links to the fore in Liam Fox political storm

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 October 2011, 04:48 GMT]
Amid the relentless political and media storm over British Defence Secretary Liam Fox’s relationship with Mr Adam Werritty, a close friend who has been operating as an unofficial ‘advisor’ to him on security and foreign policy matters, the duo’s links to Sri Lanka’s regime have been regularly popping up. By Friday, three separate types of links had been established in a series of reports filed over the past week by The Times, The Guardian, the Financial Times, and The Daily Telegraph newspapers, as well as Channel 4 and BBC television. The main opposition Labour party has in recent days tabled several questions in Parliament over Dr. Fox’s links to Sri Lanka, while the seemingly ceaseless revelations by the media are unsettling both Dr. Fox’s hitherto staunch allies in the right wing of the ruling Conservative Party, as well as senior Ministry of Defence staff and top military officers.
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Maldives defence minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 October 2011, 05:04 GMT]
Maldivian Defence Minister, Thalhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaanu, visited Sri Lanka’s occupying Army in the country of Eezham Tamils in Jaffna on Wednesday. His visit follows Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed’s unhindered support to genocidal Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa in shielding the latter from international war crimes investigation. The ‘hundred per cent Islamic country’ Maldives in recent times has entered into a number of agreements with Israel, the secret protocols of which are yet to be known to the public. However, the new friendship and the lease of one of the islands to Israel for ‘agricultural development’ are much talked about in Maldives. The support of US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake to Nasheed’s Maldives in the international organisations is not without reason, political observers say.
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Sri Lanka entices India in Commonwealth Games bid

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 October 2011, 02:41 GMT]
If Sri Lanka becomes successful in the bid to host 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota, India will get 5 billion dollar investment opportunity in building facilities, The Hindu Business Online reported SL envoy Prasad Kariyawasam saying in New Delhi on Tuesday. The construction corruption of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the diplomatic corruption of Rajapaksa being the ‘Guest of Honour’ are well known. While Sri Lanka’s very membership in Commonwealth and it hosting the 2013 Heads of Govt Meet have become controversies likely to be raised in Perth this month, Colombo entices India by offering partnership in swindling ‘Common Wealth’ to further development imbalance of the nation of Eezham Tamils and to diplomatically establish Genocide as an acceptable State paradigm for the region, Tamil politicians commented.
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The Times slams Liam Fox’s ties to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 October 2011, 07:17 GMT]
Amid the continuing – and seemingly expanding – controversy in Britain over Defence Secretary Liam Fox’s working relationship with close friend, Mr. Adam Werritty, the former’s relationship with Sri Lanka’s regime has been thrust into the media spotlight. In its editorial Wednesday, The Times newspaper slammed Dr. Fox’s involvement with the Colombo government with which, press reports reveal, Mr. Werritty is also intimately associated. “The Defence Secretary’s ties to Sri Lanka are wrong and have exceeded his ministerial remit,” The Times said, referring to how his actions have undermined UK policy in dealing with the “grotesque and criminal” actions of the Sri Lankan armed forces against Tamil civilians in 2009.
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