Tamil cricket protest draws support at Lords

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 July 2011, 05:49 GMT]
A day long protest on Sunday by scores of Tamil youth activists and supporters outside the Lord’s cricket ground where Sri Lanka played England in the third one-day-international drew support from spectators and the general public, including delegates attending the ordination of five new rabbis at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in front of which the noisy but peaceful demonstration took place. Inside the world famous cricket ground, a youth who raced across the pitch with a Tamil Eelam flag in the middle of the match drew cheers when he dodged the grasps of pursuing stewards, and a round of applause when he was finally caught in front of the MCC pavillion.
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Why a sports boycott is essential for justice – TYO

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 July 2011, 05:50 GMT]
With Sri Lanka defiantly rejecting international calls for war crimes investigations into the mass killings of over 40,000 Tamil civilians in 2009, Britain must go beyond rhetorical support and take concrete action to ensure justice is served, the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) said this week. “As a first step, Britain must support the international isolation of the Sri Lankan regime until it accepts an independent, international investigation into the mass killings,” the group said. “A boycott of Sri Lankan sport will send a clear message to Sri Lanka's regime and in particular to its many supporters at home, of the international community’s abhorrence of these atrocities and its commitment to justice.”
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India adopts a genocidal Army to achieve military integration

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 July 2011, 05:45 GMT]
As Sri Lanka ‘successfully’ ended its war with the LTTE and India is still fighting ‘insurgents’ in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast states, India will share more experience with the SL military particularly in tackling ‘insurgency’ and will give more training to SL military in building capacity, particularly in adventure sports and English language, media reports from India said on the first ‘Army-to-Army’ talks between the two militaries that took place from Wednesday to Friday. Both sides have agreed to send their instructors to each other’s military academies. India has allotted more seats for training SL military personnel in its military academies. As Sinhala and Tamil politics are hostile, economic and military integration are the ways for political integration of the entire island with India, is the line of thinking in New Delhi, political observers said.
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Eezham Tamil coastal areas intensively encroached by Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 July 2011, 05:34 GMT]
Occupying genocidal Sri Lanka opens up the coastal areas of Eezham Tamils for intensive ‘invasion’ of Sinhala fishermen and ‘tourism’ fat cats of the south. The latest target is the eastern coast of Mullaiththeevu and Jaffna districts as well as the islands off Jaffna, news sources from Jaffna said. While thousands of Sinhala fishermen, officially permitted by Colombo, encroach the eastern coast of the northern province to deprive local fishermen, the islands off Jaffna are encroached in the guise of tourism. A large block of prime land at Chaaddi in the Kayts Island, which earlier had the memorials of the LTTE fighters who laid down their lives for the independence of Tamils, is now claimed by John Keells, a Sinhala hotel corporate based in Colombo.
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India enters into ‘Army-to-Army’ talks with Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 June 2011, 14:17 GMT]
India initiates its first Army-to-Army talk with Sri Lanka, which is viewed as a significant bilateral military collaboration between the two establishments. During the current three-day talks, the two Armies will chalk out the programmes to be undertaken over the next one year, Times of India reported Thursday. At present, India has such military-to-military level cordiality only with nine other countries, the US, UK, Israel, France, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Singapore. New Delhi timing the special official recognition and confirming participation with the genocidal military of Sri Lanka occupying the country of Eezham Tamils, send a strong message to those who demand the liberation of Eezham Tamils and talk against war crimes and militarization in the island, political observers said.
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Death certificates to whitewash abductions, killings?

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 10:10 GMT]
Relatives of persons categorized under the missing and disappeared in Batticaloa district for more than a year are in dilemma whether to obtain death certificates as they believe that they are alive. The relatives say that their loved ones were abducted, in their presence, by para military groups led by Karuna and Pilliayan, and by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, and could be still alive.
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Plans afoot to “Sinhalacise” Tamil border villages in east, says MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 09:58 GMT]
Of 310 families which fled from their homes only 70 have returned to the village Poochchikoodu located in Raanamadu GS division in Batticaloa district, according to Batticaloa TNA parliamentarian P. Selvarasa. Authorities in Colombo are ignoring resettlement of Tamil families with a sinister motive to “Sinhalacise” border Tamil villages, Selvarasa alleged.
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Jaffna returnee found hanged to death

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 June 2011, 15:10 GMT]
A 30-year-old male who had recently returned to Jaffna, after staying in south for 2 years, was found beaten and hanged to death Sunday morning at a playground in Achchuveali Thoappu in Valikaamam East, 20 km northeast of Jaffna city. The victim, Balachandran Satkunanathan, had sought refuge in South after he had been harassed by the Sri Lanka Army intelligence operatives 2 years ago, residents in the area said. Recently, he had returned to Achchuveali. The attackers, believed to be from an SLA squad had come in motorbikes Saturday night and have taken him away before hanging him to death at the grounds, the residents further said.
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Colombo fears judgment against Rajapakse in US Courts

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 June 2011, 02:35 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Attorney General’s Department is to “retain a lawyer to oversee the [Sri Lanka’s] President’s interests in the US District Court which had issued the summons on Rajapaksa,” latest edition of Sunday Leader said quoting Justice Ministry Secretary Suhada Gamlath. The statement reflects a change in strategy by Sri Lanka’s Justice Ministry which said last week that it had received the summons but the [Sri Lankan] government would not respond to it. “Under our laws, the President has immunity,” Gamlath had told the media last week.
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Jayasuriya's inclusion in cricket team raises awareness of SL mass killings

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 June 2011, 19:35 GMT]
Several dozen British Tamils leafleted Saturday outside the Bristol grounds where Sri Lanka’s cricketers played a Twenty20 match against England to further raise awareness of the mass killings of civilians at the end of the war in 2009. Their efforts were assisted by critical commentary in the British press of Sri Lanka’s inclusion of all rounder Sanath Jayasuriya, who is also a parliamentarian of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling party, for the remaining one day matches of their tour. Ahead of the match three of Britain’s top broadsheets – The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian - slammed the decision as a ‘scandal’ and urged spectators not to applaud Jayasuriya.
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‘Sinhala only’ implemented in Trinco DDC, DAC meetings

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 14:00 GMT]
Conducting meetings of the Trincomalee District Coordinating Committee (DDC) and District Agricultural Committee (DAC) and other important conferences by the Trincomalee District Secretariat solely in Sinhala language has caused dissatisfaction among the Tamil speaking members. Two third of the population in Trincomalee district is Tamil speaking people. Most of the Rajapaksa appointed heads of government departments and officials attending the conferences are Sinhalese. Earlier, there was a translator to translate Sinhala and Tamil at meetings and conferences held in Trincomalee district secretariat to facilitate members of all communities to understand the proceedings. Now the translator is removed by the Trincomalee district secretariat.
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Left Front protests against SLA attack on TNA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 12:47 GMT]
The Left Front, led by Vickramabahu Karunaratne, on Friday staged a protest in Colombo against the attack on Tamil National Alliance election meeting in Jaffna. The attack on TNA meeting, carried out by an SLA contingent that was led by a Sri Lanka Army Colonel and two Major rank officers, was a “planned attack with a political directive from the top,” Dr. Karunaratne alleged. United Socialist Party, Socialist Party, Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) of Mano Ganesan and the Tamil National Alliance took part in the protest.
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Work with the ‘other’ International Community: leftist MEP

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2011, 17:56 GMT]
“Tamil diaspora activists are very capable and able to put pressure on governments around the world. But, alongside this work, I would really like to encourage the Tamil diaspora to focus on the 'other' international community – which isn't represented by these governments or institutions,” said Socialist Party and United Left Alliance MEP for Dublin, Paul Murphy MEP, in an e-mail interview to TamilNet on Thursday. The Irish MEP who played a key role in organising a hearing at the EU Parliament earlier this month also said: “For us in the Committee for a Workers' International, the right to self-determination for the Tamil people is vital.” He urged the Eezham Tamil diaspora to join hands with the progressive Sinhala forces in the South.
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Eezham question gets entangled in competition of SCO and NATO

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2011, 23:38 GMT]
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), if materialises as alliance of China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Central Asian countries accounting for more than half of humanity, it will make NATO (and Pax Americana) simply irrelevant to an entire landmass. NATO may face a piquant situation when it aspires to claim that it is the only global security organization available in the 21st century, writes M K Bhadrakumar, formerly of the Indian Foreign Service, in Asia Times Saturday. With the SCO summit last week admitting Sri Lanka as a ‘dialogue partner,’ the organization brings itself to the waters of the Indian Ocean, Bhadrakumar pointed out. The question of Eezham Tamils would be muffled by both of them competing for control of the island as a whole, unless awareness of people counters them.
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Transfer scheme in East postponed, teachers abandon trade union action

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2011, 07:34 GMT]
The controversial teacher transfer scheme, scheduled to be implemented in the eastern province before the end of June by the Provincial Ministry of Education under the direction of Provincial Governor was suspended for another six months on the orders of the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa. However the Provincial Director of Education said that the transfer scheme would be implemented from January next year with ‘amendments’.
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Tamil youth in UK mark Eezham identity with I'lantha'lir event

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2011, 19:14 GMT]
The Tamil Youth Organisation in Britain hosted Sunday an awareness event for ‘Eezham Thamizh identity’, with an evening of music, drama, dance and poetry. The event, named I'lantha'lir 2011, held at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall, began with the ceremonial raising of the Tamil Eelam flag outside the imposing art deco building, chosen for the quality of the acoustics which make it one of the UK's top venues for recording classical music. The performances opened with instrumental music using traditional Tamil instruments: Murasu, Thappai, Udukku, Changku (conch) and Kompu (horn). Many of the visitors touched or ran their hands through soil from Mullaiththeevu beach placed in a bronze bowl, and encouraged their children to do the same.
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Colombo to declare permanent ‘Sacred HSZ’ at Maathakal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2011, 10:01 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka plans to keep Thiruvadinilai area of Maathakal, the northwest tip of the Jaffna Peninsula, as a permanent ‘High Security Zone’ by building a naval base there, but camouflaging it as a ‘Sacred Place’ of the Sinhala-Buddhists, news sources from Jaffna said. The location is one of the two closest spots of communication between the island of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. While Thalai Mannaar in Mannaar district is the closest to Rameasvaram, Maathakal in Jaffna Peninsula is the closest to Koadikkarai (Point Calimere) in Tamil Nadu. Colombo’s archaeologists claim Thiruvadinilai as the landing place of Sinhala-Buddhism to the island in 3rd century BC, and are building modern Buddhist establishments there. A gazette notification of Colombo is soon expected to declare the area a ‘Sacred Place’ to facilitate permanent confiscation of lands belonging to Tamils.
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Teachers unions to launch protest in East against transfer scheme

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 16:03 GMT]
Four major teacher trade unions Monday announced that they would launch token sick leave protest in the eastern province against the implementation of a controversial teacher transfer scheme. Under this scheme the provincial education ministry has been transferring excess teachers from schools.
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Law becomes an ass by inaction on UN report: Miliband, Kouchner

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2011, 18:30 GMT]
“If foreign policy is about anything, it should be about stopping this kind of inhumanity,” said David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner, writing in New York Times Monday and commenting on how Sri Lanka conducted the Vanni War and treated Tamil life as fourth or fifth class in the refugee camps. Both Miliband and Kouchner were foreign ministers of Britain and France respectively during the Vanni War. They said that in April 2009 they tried to stop the war. Now, responding to the UN panel report on war crimes in the island and citing the need of action, both the former foreign ministers said “We therefore call on our governments to set a deadline, soon, for satisfactory response from the Sri Lankan government, and if it is not forthcoming to initiate the international arrangements recommended by the report.
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CPI calls for all India solidarity with Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2011, 12:36 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI) in its National Council Meeting at New Delhi on 18-19 June, passed a resolution, demanding the Indian government to take into account the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on war crimes investigation and economic sanctions against Sri Lanka. Accusing Sri Lanka Army for violation of human rights, state terrorism and perpetration of mass murder of Tamil population in the island, the CPI demanded India to facilitate open enquiry on war crimes and resettlement of Tamils in their own places as well as media entry to monitor Indian aided rehabilitation. The party’s national council decided to observe July 8 as “All India Solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils Day” to press for peaceful political settlement to the ethnic conflict and appealed to other left and democratic parties to join.
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