Colombo steps up military deployment under SL Police in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 December 2013, 23:40 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government is stepping up the deployment of the notorious Special Task Force (STF) commandos in all the districts in the Northern and Eastern provinces, according to latest reports in Colombo media. In August, when UN Human Rights High Commissioner Ms Navi Pillay visited the North and East, the Sri Lankan government announced that it was ‘separating’ the administration of SL Police department from the Defence Ministry and that the police was now coming under the ministry of ‘Law and Order’ according to a recommendation of Rajapaksa’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). The STF, trained by the British, is a full-fledged military outfit under the SL Police, which was directly engaged in acts of genocide in the East as well as in Vanni during the war.
Full story >>

Colombo schemes another demographic change to permanently wedge North and East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 December 2013, 23:12 GMT]
Colombo has schemed a sinister move to demographically annex Thennai-maravadi, a strategic ancient Tamil village in Kuchchave’li division on the border of Northern and Eastern Provinces with the Sinhala dominated Padavi Sripura division of Trincomalee district, civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet. By annexing Thennai-maravadi to Padavi-Sripura, all the administrative affairs of the village would be taken over by the Sinhala officials. This will make it easier for Colombo to carry out the Sinhalicisation of the entire area, Tamil officials in Kuchchave’li Divisional Secretariat said. The lands belonging to Tamils will be seized and handed over to Sinhalese settlers with the aim of permanently wedging the demographic contiguity of the northern and eastern provinces.
Full story >>

US Congressional caucus to draw attention to Tamil plight

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 December 2013, 23:48 GMT]
The Congressional Caucus on Ethnic and Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka, initiated by Congressmen Bill Johnson (R-OH) and Danny Davis (D-IL) aims to bring the attention of the American public to the Tamils in Sri Lanka and their plight, Washington Times reported in its Thursday edition. In a joint press release, Congressmen Johnson and Davis said, “Given the magnitude of horrors Sri Lankans bore witness to, and how the most egregious alleged violators of international law remain unpunished, accountability for the guilty is essential for helping those who have suffered to heal, and the country’s diverse population reconcile.”
Full story >>

Facebook lifts spirits of Kosavars on State recognition

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 December 2013, 17:55 GMT]
Facebook provided a much needed moral boost to Kosovars as it granted legitimacy last month in the digital world by approving a number of changes, including giving users registering from the diamond-shaped area on the Balkan Peninsula the option to identify themselves as citizens of Kosovo, rather than the decidedly less attractive option for many there, Serbia. Kosavars call the changes important while they seek recognition from the United Nations, which confers legitimacy, and the European Union, whose members are divided on the question, ever since Kosovo proclaimed a separate state five years ago. Jubilant Kosavars say the Facebook's recognition is important as a matter of identity and economics. Kosovar businesses have been included on Facebook’s powerful advertising engine, helping companies target Kosovo’s small but growing consumer market.
Full story >>

SL military arrests 147 Tamil Nadu fishermen in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 December 2013, 23:51 GMT]
At least 147 Tamil Nadu fishermen, who lost their bearing in the rough seas due to stormy weather and reached the shores of the country of Eezam Tamils, have been arrested by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy in the seas off Jaffna and Mullaiththeevu during the past 3 days. In the meantime, two bodies have washed ashore in Maathakal in recent days are yet to identified.
Full story >>

SL minister Badurdeen splits Tamil speaking people in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 December 2013, 12:05 GMT]
Attempting to incite community hatred between various Tamil-speaking communities of Naanaaddaan, Rishard Badurdeen, the Industry and Commerce Minister of the occupying Sri Lanka, has again interfered in the civic affairs, sabotaging the efforts by the Bishop of Mannaar to resolve a land dispute in Pon-theevu-ka’ndal village, news sources in Mannaar said. The SL minister has played a crucial role in creating a conflict between the residents of the Muslim village of Poovarasang-ku’lam and Pon-theevu-ka’ndal where non-Muslim Tamils live. The SL Police and government officials are under the control of the controversial minister, who has been behind causing unrest between Catholics and Muslims in the district.
Full story >>

UN failed in Sri Lanka, says Dieng

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 December 2013, 04:11 GMT]
United Nation's Special Advisor on Prevention of Genocide to the Secretary General (SG), Adama Dieng, said during a UN panel discussion Wednesday that not only the United Nations but all member states failed the people of Sri Lanka. He implied that while the SG did not make use of Article 99 which bestows power on the SG to refer to the Security Council situations that threatened international security, the SG set up panels to identify witnesses and has now set up the "Rights Up Front plan," which might have prevented the situation [killings] in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Amady Ba, the Deputy Prosecutor to the International Criminal Court, referring to the killings, said that the ICC has no jurisdiction over countries that are not party to the Rome Statute.
Full story >>

Asylum seeker tells UK Court of Colombo sanctioned abduction, torture

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 December 2013, 23:08 GMT]
The Immigration and Asylum Chamber of UK's Upper Tribunal, during hearings of an appeal by a Sri Lankan ex-Police officer who sought asylum in the UK claiming imminent threat of persecution, refused asylum to the appellant on the grounds that there was plausible evidence that the officer knowingly participated in war-crimes, and therefore, is excluded from the protections of the Refugee Convention. The Police officer, named "Mr. AS" in the proceedings to preserve anonymity, and believed to be a Sinhala officer, told the courts that he and 11 other members of a special unit of the police took part in white-van abductions of Tamils suspected of having links with the LTTE, and that his unit operated from abandoned buildings and received direct orders from Deputy Inspector General (DIG), a high level Police authority.
Full story >>

SL intelligence squad behind attack on protestors in Trincomalee on HR Day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 December 2013, 17:16 GMT]
The masked men, who on Tuesday attacked a peaceful demonstration, which was staged by the relatives of missing persons in Trincomalee, belong to a squad operated by the intelligence wing of the occupying SL military, the organisers of the protest said on Wednesday. The members of the squad arrived through the Sinhala market, parked their motorbikes and launched the attack after covering their faces with clothes. More than one hundred peaceful demonstrators, most of them women, carrying the photos of their missing kith and kin, were brutally attacked by the men, who also destroyed the photos and placards on Human Rights Day in the city of Trincomalee while SL Policemen were watching the unfolding violent episode.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka guilty of genocide: PPT verdict

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 December 2013, 11:08 GMT]
After an assessment of evidences presented by eyewitnesses and experts, judges of the Permanent People’s Tribunal reached unanimous consensus that the Sri Lankan state was guilty of crimes of genocide against the Eezham Tamils and that the genocide is continuing even after the end of the military operations against the LTTE. Concluding the four day session with a press conference at Bremen on Tuesday, the judges also noted that the Sri Lankan military did not have capacity to commit genocide on its own and that it was supported by the UK-USA-India axis. While the judges held the USA and the UK to be complicit in the genocidal process, they were of the opinion that more evidence was needed as regards India’s role.
Full story >>

PPT to announce findings at live press conference 10:00 AM CET

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 December 2013, 07:41 GMT]
The panel of judges who heard the charges of genocide against the Eezham Tamil people would be announcing their findings of the Bremen Tribunal in a live streaming press conference which starts at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Journalists can email in questions which will be answered by the panel then and there, the organisors said. The e-mail address, to which the questions should be sent, will appear on the live streaming screen online. Eleven direct eyewitnesses and experts testified in support of the Prosecution’s case, providing evidence on various alleged crimes that could be determined to constitute the crime of Genocide, as well as on the legal and historical background. Press here for streaming video of the press conference
Full story >>

Meeya-gala,
Meeyan-kal-ku'lam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 December 2013, 07:06 GMT]
The rock or rocky hill of beehives.
The tank of the rock/ rocky hill of beehives.
Full story >>

Mandela and the other Prisoners of War

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 December 2013, 11:56 GMT]
As South Africa prepares for the funeral of iconic anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, who passed away at the age of 95 on Thursday, leaders of the world have paid their tributes to the man who was incarcerated as a political prisoner under the apartheid regime for 27 years. Powerful countries in the West, including the USA and UK, which had once denounced Mandela as a ‘terrorist’, are now in the forefront paying homage. However, these establishments still continue to support countries that practice illegal detention and brutal treatment of prisoners-of-war (PoW). Noting this hypocrisy, a British-Kurdish activist, drawing a comparison between Mandela and PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan who has been kept in solitary confinement in a Turkish prison for 13 years, questions how one political leader is considered a “freedom fighter” and the other a “terrorist”.
Full story >>

CHOGM mooted TRC, ill-fit for Sri Lanka, say ANU fellow, legal scholar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 December 2013, 17:54 GMT]
Establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) modeled on the South Africa (SA) experience, viewed by Sri Lanka backers as an urgent need to mitigate possible strong actions by the International Community against Sri Lanka over its rights violations, appears as an imminent outcome from the recently concluded Commonwealth Meeting [CHOGM]. But a Sri Lanka journalist who is a visiting Australian National University fellow, says whereas in the post-apartheid South Africa context and under the leadership of Mandela, TRC was made to work in SA, in Sri Lanka proposing a TRC without defining what it means, makes the effort appear only as "another procrastinating tactic." The scholar cautions, in Sri Lanka, no credible investigations into rights violations are likely to happen, and the consequences for Sri Lanka, in terms of being outlawed from the community of nations, are dire.
Full story >>

UN, Ban Ki Moon celebrate Congo's military victory

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 December 2013, 15:20 GMT]
In a meeting on 6th December in Paris with Congo's President Joseph Kabila, UN Secretary General had "...congratulated the DRC for the successful military operation against the M23...," and "reiterated the United Nations support to the DRC for which President Kabila expressed his gratitude," a UN official readout of the meeting appearing in the UN website said. Inner City Press (ICP) which covers UN proceedings asked, "since when did the UN start congratulating governments for "successful military operations"?, and comparing against UN actions in Sri Lanka, said, "[t]his harkens back for some to the UN's approach in 2009 to the Sri Lankan government's "successful military operations" against the Tamil Tigers or LTTE. A rebel group was wiped out; in that case tens of thousands of civilians were killed."
Full story >>

Evidence presented against Sri Lanka at Genocide Tribunal in Germany

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 December 2013, 01:29 GMT]
During the Second Session of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka which opened Saturday in Bremen, Germany, a panel of eleven eminent judges heard the "Prosecution outline its case that the crime of genocide has been and is being committed against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka," the press release issued by the sponsoring organizations, Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT) and Internationaler Menschenrechtsverein Bremen e.V. said. Eleven direct witnesses gave evidence to the panel during the first day. The judges, many of whom are legal scholars on genocide, will apply the principles enshrined in the 1948 Genocide Convention to the evidence presented, and announce their legal determination this Tuesday, December 10th.
Full story >>

ICC's failure to prosecute Sri Lanka, no shelter to Africa's criminals, says HRW

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 December 2013, 19:42 GMT]
African leaders are raising concern over the actions of the 11-year old court of last resort, the International Criminial Court (ICC), where the eight cases that are currently active and the twenty-one defendents are all from Africa, Washington Post reported Sunday. The article quoted Richard Dicker from Human Rights Watch who countered Africa's arguments saying that African nations cannot deny redress to victims (in Darfur or Kenya) just because it is not possible to provide victims in Sri Lanka justice, implying that while ICC has failed to go after war-criminals in Sri Lanka even after the UN's Petrie Report has accused Sri Lanka of killing more than 70,000 Tamil civilians in the no-fire zone, this is not sufficient to deny african victims redress through the Court.
Full story >>

PPT Sri Lanka genocide proceedings (live)

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 December 2013, 17:59 GMT]
The second phase of the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) hearings on determining if Sri Lanka committed genocide on Tamil people is being held in Bremen, Germany from the 7th-10th of December 2013. The hearing is being jointly organized by the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka (IFPSL) and International Human Rights Association (IMRV Bremen).
Full story >>

Aussaresses, Abbott, Rajapaksas, birds of the same feather on torture?

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 December 2013, 01:31 GMT]
While Australian Premier, Tony Abbott, whose recent statements on condoning the allegations of torture by Sri Lanka security forces, was condemned by international rights groups, European media reported that one of top French ex-military officers, Aussaresses, who confessed to coldbloodedly torturing and summarily executing dozens of prisoners during France's brutal colonial war in Algeria decades earlier, and who defended his actions, passed away this week. He was 95. He was stripped of his medals, and was convicted later in France. Allegations of rape and torture are also rampant in Sri Lanka under the rule of Rajapakse-family, with UK charity Freedom From Torture documenting more than 60 cases of torture by Sri Lanka security forces, and Human Rights Watch documented 62 cases of sexual violence involving the security forces, noting that rape is widespread and systemic.
Full story >>

Victims coerced to produce false affidavits on controversial birth control in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 December 2013, 23:49 GMT]
Colombo has instructed Tamil health officials in Ki’linochchi district to obtain ‘affidavits’ from women who were subjected to a controversial coercive population control in three coastal villages of the district. The women are being approached to sign a document stating that they received subdermal implants on their own request for contraceptive protection. The latest move has come as the women, who were coerced to receive a long-term hormonal birth control implant inserted under the skin of their upper arm, have been complaining of side effects such as blood pressure, weight gain, irregular periods as well as traumatic stress after 2 months of the birth control experiment by the SL State. On 30 November, a 26-year-old woman, who was one of more than 50 victims subjected to contraceptive control, died at Jaffna hospital after a mysterious infection.
Full story >>