USA answerable to ‘ethics and efficacy’ in architecting, abetting genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2012, 02:19 GMT]
John O. Brennan, Assistant for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism to the US President, addressing the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars on 30 April on “The Ethics and Efficacy of the President’s Counterterrorism Strategy,” was defending the US tactics in its ten years of ‘success story’ in countering ‘terrorism’ culminating into victories in Obama’s times. Brennan was earlier Deputy Executive Director of the CIA. Presiding his presentation, senior Democrat Jane Harmane of the Wilson Centre, who was earlier a member of the Congress Commission on Terrorism as well as its House Intelligence Committee, said “we won’t defeat those threats by military might alone, we must win the argument.”
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Tamil refugees need help to cross legal hurdles, says TAG

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2012, 15:41 GMT]
Reports from Trincomalee confirmed that a Tamil civilian recently refused asylum in the U.K. and deported to Sri Lanka, was found killed on the 18th April. The killing occurred amidst arrests by the Sri Lanka miltary of more than 300 Tamils in the east, many of whom were refugee returnees from other countries, reports said. Tamil activists say systemic issues such as lack of information on asylum application procedures and sources of funding, a lack of affordable advice in the refugee's own language, combined with out-of-date, biased or inaccurate 'official' country information relied on by immigration officials and judges have resulted in many potentially vulnerable refugees being returned back into the waiting hostile hands of Colombo .
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Sinhala GA officially orders Buddhist construction at Thirukkeatheesvaram

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2012, 00:59 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka’s Sinhala Government Agent of the Mannaar district of the country of Eezham Tamils, AK Sarath Savindra on Friday sent official orders to the divisional secretary of Maanthai West to permit the construction of a Buddhist temple at the Saiva sacred centre Thirukkeatheesvaram, where no Sinhala-Buddhists live. A Buddha statue was already placed there by the occupying Sinhala military, at 200 metres near the Saiva temple in a forcefully confiscated private land. Meanwhile, the entire Mannaar district has been brought under the Anuradhapura administrative circle of genocidal Sri Lanka’s Archaeology Department. While existing Muslim and Hindu places of worship are demolished and removed from Dambulla, claimed to be a Buddhist centre, the Sinhala government encroaches a pivotal Saiva sacred centre in the country of Tamils.
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Diaspora Tamil on visit to reclaim land killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2012, 11:51 GMT]
A 53-year-old Eezham Tamil citizen of Canada was found brutally slain with a slit throat Friday morning at Kaagnchipuram lane, 2 km west of Paranthan junction in the Ki’linochchi district of Vanni. The killing seems to have taken place between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Thursday, according to the relatives of the victim. The victim, Anthonypillai Mahendrarasa, the son of a successful former trader, had come to Paranthan to claim the ownership of the lands, especially the lands he owns in Kumaarapuram in Ki'linochchi district, which have been occupied by the SL military, informed sources said. He also owns properties of business potential.
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Press Freedom Day in Jaffna remembers journalists

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2012, 16:26 GMT]
The journalistic contribution of Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki), especially his writings on the struggle of Eezham Tamils, were remembered by several speakers at a well-attended Press Freedom Day event held in Jaffna on Thursday. The event, organised by Nimalarajan Memorial Foundation (NMF), has also brought out a publication of cartoons by Mr Pious Raja, who passed away in Jaffna after experiencing the genocidal war and incarceration in Vanni. A speaker at the event urged the NMF to compile and translate Tamil articles by late Sivaram into English and vice versa, as his writings continue to be valuable to the Tamil cause. The NMF, in an exemplary way, took up the cause of Tamil female students of Vanni in the Jaffna Univeristy, as there have been several cases of suicides among them. Poverty, trauma and psychological stress have been identified as the factors behind the tragic trend.
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‘Development’ vehicle claims life of woman, villagers confront police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2012, 23:11 GMT]
A 40-year-old woman was killed on the spot in an accident on Wednesday at Ee'raavoor where a vehicle of a UN agency, carrying foreign officials, hit a group of women crossing the street at Ampa'laththadi. Another woman and a 12-year-old girl were rushed to hospital with injuries. The officials were returning after inspecting a ‘development’ project in Kudumpimalai, where Tamils are continuously harassed by the occupying SL military. The villagers, angered by the incident started to throw stones at the vehicle blaming irresponsible driving and the SL police retaliated by assaulting the villagers. The villagers then started to clash with the SL police, causing injuries to three policemen.
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Numbers of Tamils said to be a critical factor in London Mayoral elections

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2012, 23:21 GMT]
As the campaign for the Mayoral elections for London reaches its final stages, there now exists a view among all mainstream parties in the United Kingdom that the time of securing outright majorities in the House of Commons through generic campaigns has elapsed and that they need to engage with ‘vote blocs’. Eezham Tamils numbering over 300,000 constitute the largest single issue vote bloc in southern England, with over 250,000 in London alone, have the ability by exercising their vote to directly determine the outcome of the Mayoral elections, 25 of the seats in the London Assembly, and tilt the balance in favour of one party or the other in another 10 seats, on 3rd May.
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Let Rajapaksa try waving Lion Flag along with KP: Ranil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2012, 07:28 GMT]
UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, holding the Lion Flag of genocidal Sri Lankan state along with TNA leader R. Sampanthan in Jaffna on Tuesday, challenged SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he could try doing the same with Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP who is in captivity of the regime. While the need of the times is for Tamils to forge alliance with the Muslims in making an alternative State for the Tamil-speaking people in the North and East, Mr Wickramasinghe recollected Sir Ponnampalam Ramanathan bailing out the Sinhala leaders indicted by the British for a pogrom against the Muslims in 1915. Muslims to this day regard it as a treachery of Colombo-centric Tamils and Sinhalese against them.
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Sampanthan, Ranil, satisfy agenda of New Delhi, Washington

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 18:11 GMT]
A photograph in which TNA leader Sampathan and UNP leader Ranil Wikremasinghe hold the Lion Flag of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka together, during the May Day rally in Jaffna, Tuesday, has caused much sensation in the island and outside. While the programme was at its height and the show of solidarity was entering into photographic sessions, all of a sudden Ranil produced the Lion Flag and wanted Sampathan to hold it, observers to the programme said. While the UNP has brought down around 10,000 Sinhalese from the south, on the TNA’s side, only less than a hundred, that too only the members of the civic bodies participated the procession and meeting, news sources in Jaffna said.
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UNP-TNA May Day rally in Jaffna fails to draw in local support

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 14:45 GMT]
If the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the United National Party (UNP) of the Sinhala state, and whatever the international forces behind them, have thought of probing the Tamil minds about a future partnership between the parties through a May Day show, then the Eezham Tamils in Jaffna have totally rejected the idea by not showing local participation to their joint May Day rally. The local people didn’t come out even to watch the fun of roughly 10,000 Sinhalese brought down from the South by the UNP marching through the streets of Jaffna. While more than 80 buses were engaged in plying between the South and Jaffna in bringing down UNP politicians and their supporters, the Tamils seen in the rally on the side of the TNA were numbering less than a hundred, confined to the TNA members of the civic bodies, news sources in Jaffna said.
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Xenophobic forces hold SL government hostage: SL Justice Minister Hakeem

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 09:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Justice Minister and the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Rauff Hakeem, who has faced severe criticism in the recent days from the Tamil-speaking people in the island, the Sinhala opposition and the Tamil Muslims of Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday, admitted to Chinese news agency Xinhua that he was appealing to the Sri Lankan government “to prevent xenophobic forces from holding the government hostage.” But, Mr Hakeem was arguing against internationalizing the issue, which he maintained was an internal affair, according to the Xinhua. The ‘revelations’ by the SL Justice minister comes in the wake of more than 500 Tamil Muslims in Tamil Nadu besieging the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai after burning the effigy of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Viyaapaari-moolai, Hetti-mulla

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2012, 20:18 GMT]
The merchant’s corner
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I'lantha'lir programme showcases struggle-oriented performance in Toronto

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2012, 08:24 GMT]
Utilizing various mediums, including drama, dances, spoken word, songs, and dialogue, second generation Tamil youth in Canada conveyed the message of preserving the Eezham Tamil identity, and continuing the freedom struggle of the Eezham Tamils, at I'lantha'lir - The Artistic Revolution of Tamil Eelam’. The event performed to a packed audience on Friday at The Chinese Cultural Centre in Toronto showcased the historical evolution of the Tamil Eelam Struggle. “An outstanding play with such amazing concept, acting, dances, songs, spoken word, screenplay, dialogue, setting and flow. Our struggles, our nation building capacity, our resilience, our cries, our milestones and our vision were communicated most effectively,” said Neethan Shan, President of the New Democratic Party of Ontario and the Guest of Honor at the event.
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Amnesty rally in New York demands justice for Trinco-5 victims

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2012, 00:14 GMT]
More than seven hundred Amnesty International human rights activists, including many high school students from the New England area, held a rally in front of Sri Lanka UN Mission Friday, demanding justice for Ragihar Manoharan and four of his friends extra-judically executed by Sri Lanka military on the 2nd January 2006. The protesting students demanded Colombo to bring perpetrators of the crime to justice. Sri Lanka was one of the rights violators, besides China/Tibet, Indonesia and Burma, targeted by the "Get on the Bus for Human Rights (GOTB)" rally organized by the Boston Chapter of Amnesty International.
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Ampaa'rai Tamil politician questions Rauff Hakeem on land justice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2012, 21:12 GMT]
Traditional lands belong to Tamil people in the Ampaa'rai district have been continuously grabbed by those sitting in power in Colombo, according to Selliah Rasaiah, the chairman of Kaaraitheevu Piratheasa Chapai (PS) situated in Ampaa'ria district of the Eastern Provice. Mr Rasiah, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician, has asked the SL Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, whether the Tamil people chased out of their villages in the district would be able to demand their lands forcibly occupied by the Sinhalese and Muslims. The SL minister had recently gone on record saying that he would make laws to enable those who lost their lands in the times of the war to gain them back.
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UK deportee killed while Tamil Nadu returnees arrested in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2012, 11:41 GMT]
A 28-year-old Tamil man, recently deported from UK was found killed in Trincomalee on 18 April, news sources in the district told TamilNet Saturday. In the meantime, in a systematic combing operation launched by the special units of Colombo's military and police establishments, up to 300 Tamil males and females have been ‘arrested’ and sent to military detention camps in Welikanda and Vavuniyaa since last Saturday. Among the victims are also people who have recently returned from Tamil Nadu and they too have now ended up in Welikanda and Vavuniyaa, the sources in Trincomalee further said.
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India’s CPI-M cites gagged Eezham Tamils in negating their independence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2012, 07:06 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday defended its parliamentarian TK Rangarajan saying that Eezham Tamils don’t ask for independence. Citing statements of politicians gagged in the island as authentic expression of the minds of Eezham Tamils and endorsing Rangarajan’s negation of Eezham Tamil independence, the CPI-M state secretary G. Ramakrishnan argued against the current stand of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and his criticism for Rangarajan. If the CPI-M is truly a party of oppressed people, and a party valuing true democracy, it should first demand removal of the Sri Lankan constitutional ban on talking about secession to help people and their politicians to talk from their heart, and it should support a referendum, rather than imposing conclusions of genocidal Establishments, said an Eezham Tamil politician having no freedom to even reveal his name.
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UN admits use of cluster bombs three years after Vanni War

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2012, 11:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka using cluster bombs, an ordnance banned by several countries in the world, in a location where the Eezham Tamil civilians were herded during the Vanni war has been confirmed by a UN agency nearly three years after the civilians were silently allowed to succumb to such weapons by the international community. A report from a UN mine removal expert of the UNDP’s mine action group in Sri Lanka admits finding unexploded cluster munitions at Puthukkudiyiruppu, Associated Press reported Thursday, adding that the ‘revelation’ is likely to increase calls for international investigations. During the war, vividly describing the use of cluster bombs and other prohibited weapons, the affected people repeatedly appealed to the world to stop the genocide. TamilNet even published photographs of cluster bomb shells with Russian markings.
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220 Tamils arrested in SLA combing in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 17:53 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army and Police, backed by special teams of the ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ from Colombo, have been entering selected houses in the villages of Trincomalee district, detaining ex-LTTE members since Saturday evening. The SL forces have detained around 220 Tamil males and females from their houses. The detained men have been taken to Welikande and the females have been taken to Poonthoaddam in Vavuniyaa, informed sources told TamilNet Wednesday. Ex-LTTE members who had left the movement more than 10 years ago have also been detained. The arrested also include returnees from Tamil Nadu and those who have been detained earlier and released for reunification with their families. While India and the West talk only about the North nowadays, the operations of genocidal Colombo in the East largely go unnoticed.
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The crime of shielding crime by powers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 05:05 GMT]
Criminally belated revelations that recently come from the USA and UK on 1994 Rwanda Genocide and similar offences of 1950s in various parts of the world show the gravity of the crime committed by powers that have knowledge on international crimes committed against humanity, but sit deliberately on evidence to hush international justice. Hiding evidence is a crime in many judicial systems, but what international system is there to indict these powers, asks an Eezham Tamil human rights activist. He made an analogy of the current crime committed by the very powers and their organisations in denying the genocide of Eezham Tamils and pressurising the subjugated people not to talk of genocide, right to protection, self-determination etc., on one hand, and the behaviour of India, its imperialist political parties and sections of media, on the other.
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