We always requested international investigation: TNA’s Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2012, 18:40 GMT]
“We have been to various countries like United State of America, Great Britain, Canada and South Africa, and we requested those countries that there must be an international investigation on the accountability, because the LLRC report does not have anything about the accountability as such,” said TNA parliamentarian Mr Suresh Premachandran in conducting a press meet at the TNA office, which is also the EPRLF office, in Jaffna on Sunday. On TNA’s talks with the SL government, Premachandran said Colombo has not yet fulfilled an understanding between Sampanthan and Rajapaksa that a bilateral agreement on solutions should precede before the TNA naming participants to the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC). Without third party mediation the talks are futile, as SL doesn’t want to settle the problem through power sharing, Premachandran said.
Full story >>

Salvadoran Ex-defense minister convicted of torture, ordered deported

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2012, 13:46 GMT]
A U.S. immigration judge has ruled that there are sufficient grounds to begin deportation proceedings against a former Salvadoran defense minister for his alleged involvement in torture and extrajudicial killings in the Central American country in the 1980s, Reuters reported. Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), a human rights group involved in the case, praised the ruling saying it was "the first judicial affirmation of Mr Casanova's role in those horrendous crimes."
Full story >>

LLRC-based resolution extremely disappointing: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2012, 11:37 GMT]
The US-tabled resolution at UNHRC, based on the fundamentally flawed LLRC recommendations, is extremely disappointing and counter-productive, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of Tamil National People's Front (TNPF), in a press meet held at the party office in Jaffna on Saturday. The resolution envisages an accused in the violation of international humanitarian law to become the investigator of the crime. If the LLRC findings are going to be the ‘starting point’ for any future prospects, chances of progress are difficult. Rather than keeping the expectations of the grieved party at the bare minimum, the resolution should begin with the UNSG panel report. What need investigation are the genocide of 60 years culminating into the war and the on-going structural genocide. Justice could come only from independent international investigation, he said.
Full story >>

SLA re-confiscates land ‘declared’ resettled in Jaffna HSZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 March 2012, 11:56 GMT]
The Sinhala state occupying the country of Eezham Tamils will never observe any of the ‘reconciliation’ hoodwink it simulates to the outside world. This becomes explicitly evident with the Sri Lanka military re-occupying villages ‘declared’ for resettlement in the Valikaamam High Security Zone, to create an extensive and fenced militarized region along the northern coast of Jaffna, news sources in Jaffna exposed. Several traditional villages of Jaffna in the fertile red-soil belt will be lost forever in the creation of an extensive Sinhala military region in the most strategic and economically important part of the country of Eezham Tamils, and civil officials in Jaffna are gagged to open their mouths on the blatant grab that takes place after showcasing resettlement to the world, news sources further said.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu activists caution diaspora of the US-resolution ploy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 March 2012, 00:07 GMT]
Diaspora Tamils, who have witnessed several setbacks, are made to believe that they should welcome and promote anything that looks like a buoy to hold on. This is wrong and Diaspora groups should think before being carried away in an imposed trend to welcome such ploys, opined activists from Tamil Nadu belonging to various shades of polity in a flagship programme, Neethiyin Kural (Voice of Justice), in WinTV on Friday, anchored by CR Baskaran. Thoazhar Thiyagu called the resolution as an escape route being offered to Sri Lankan state by the USA. Professor Dheeran said Tamils should not be trapped once again by the joint ploy of the USA, India and Norway. Oaviyar Pukazheanthi said Tamil organisations had attributed much significance to the Geneva sessions without the knowledge of the outcome and now the draft resolution clearly exposes the agenda seeking bailout of the SL state.
Full story >>

US-resolution inadequate, India should seize opportunity: New Delhi-based CHRI

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 March 2012, 19:28 GMT]
“The proposed resolution does not go far enough. It will not immediately call for direly needed international investigations — a bitter disappointment. In this context, the proposed resolution must not preclude future UNHRC efforts that demand justice, accountability and international investigations in Sri Lanka. The resolution should be voted on only as a first step in the right direction, and not as a final step to water down scrutiny or as a tactic to delay urgently needed justice in Sri Lanka,” said Maja Daruwala, Director of the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) in a feature appeared in The Indian Express, Friday. She urged India to seize the opportunity and sway votes at UNHRC in favour of accountability in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Protest sends away Sri Lanka’s law academic in Tamil Nadu conference

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 March 2012, 09:55 GMT]
Organizers of an international conference at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Thirunelvely, Tamil Nadu, decided to escort out Ms Jeeva Niriella of the Colombo University law faculty through the side door, when barging in protestors accusing Sri Lanka of genocide demanded Jeeva to leave India. The afternoon session of the 3-day conference on Thursday was disrupted to the disbelief and shock of the organisers, reported Times of India on Friday. During the morning session, Ms. Niriella was eulogising ‘women empowerment’ in Sri Lanka, citing Srimao Bandaranayake, world’s first woman prime minister and the current chief justice who is a woman. She was silent to a question about large-scale crimes committed on women in the island.
Full story >>

SL soldiers clash, killing 3 among them inside camp in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 March 2012, 06:15 GMT]
A clash among the occupying soldiers at a major Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in the Jaffna peninsula has taken the lives of at least 3 and has injured many on Friday morning, news sources in Jaffna said. The SLA camp is located along the A9 Highway, at Nu'naavil, 5 km south of Chaavakachcheari town. In a territory where the occupying soldiers in the camps often exceed the number of local people, such clashes within the SLA are common, sporadically ending with killings, the sources further said.
Full story >>

Promote Dublin report, build solidarity, recognize Self-Determination: grassroots activists in UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2012, 21:22 GMT]
Grassroots activists of the British Tamil Forum (BTF) and journalists from the UK-based International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATJ), who came together with leftist activists of the Socialist Resistance (SR) and Denmark-based leftist activist Ron Ridenour, in a meeting held in London on Wednesday, resolved to promote the findings of the Dublin Tribunal on Sri Lanka and to give foremost priority to the work on building solidarity with trade unions and progressive groups in the UK on the campaign to recognize Tamils Right to Self-Determination. The meeting which was chaired by Fred Leplat of the SR, also had participants from the NSSP, Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

US-resolution binds Tamils to less than the 13th Amendment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2012, 07:01 GMT]
A draft resolution that appears in media reports as has been tabled by the USA at Geneva UNHCR, while specifying the ‘constructive’ LLRC recommendations that has to be implemented, talks of only de-militarizing the North but not the East and confines the model of political solution to undefined devolution of powers to the provinces and not to the North-East homeland of Eezham Tamils. While internationally binding Tamils to further dilution of the already inadequate provisions of the Indo-Lanka Agreement, the US-resolution giving international endorsement to LLRC-implementation bails out Sri Lankan state and its regime from international investigations of the genocidal crimes and from the need of any constitutional restructure of the unitary state.
Full story >>

World socialists reject both US-backed resolution and Sri Lanka’s opposition

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 March 2012, 17:04 GMT]
“The Obama administration is pushing the resolution as a means of pressuring the Rajapakse government to accommodate US interests and those of India […] At the same time, the Sri Lankan government has mounted a hysterical campaign at home against the supposed “international conspiracy” to tarnish the country’s name […] The bourgeois Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is likewise manoeuvring. It previously condemned the LLRC report, but now calls for the implementation of its recommendations—in line with Washington and New Delhi. The TNA is desperately seeking US and Indian backing for a “political solution”, from which it hopes to benefit […] The Socialist Equality Party rejects both the phony US-backed resolution and the Rajapakse government’s chauvinist campaign against it, said World Socialist Web Site on Wednesday.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu Catholic Church reminds umbilical cord relations at Kachchatheevu fete

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 March 2012, 08:42 GMT]
Amidst intense presence of the occupying Sinhala military at Kachcha-theevu during the annual fete of St. Antony on Sunday, the Ramnad diocese of Tamil Nadu Catholic Church that jointly conducts the prayers along with the Jaffna diocese, reminded the umbilical cord relations of the people on either side of the Palk Bay. The theme of this year’s joint prayer by Tamil Nadu and Jaffna Catholic Church was war-torn Eezham Tamils reuniting with their relatives. The commanders of the occupying military were shocked when Fr. Michael of Ramnad, delivering the sermon, deeply felt for the mass killings of Eezham Tamils and death of humanism in the island, and said that the sons of the soil should be released, they should be honoured and they should lead their lives as heroes (Maaveerar).
Full story >>

Thousands gather in Geneva denouncing deceptive deliberations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2012, 17:25 GMT]
While the USA and Sri Lanka and their respective blocs at UNHRC squabble whether the LLRC machination against the nation of Eezham Tamils has to be left to Sri Lanka or internationally monitored in implementation, thousands of Eezham Tamils gathered in Geneva on Monday, denounced the deceptive deliberations and demanded international investigation on the genocide, recognition of the sovereignty of the nation of Eezham Tamils and called for a UN-sponsored referendum among Tamils in the island and in the diaspora. The demonstration organized by Walk for Justice and backed by the Tamil Coordination Committees (TCC) of various countries in the Europe also demanded the immediate release of detainees in the island and removal of occupying Sinhala military from the Tamil homeland.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu demands India to declare Rajapaksa guilty of genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2012, 13:07 GMT]
In a pan-Tamil Nadu fasting campaign organised by the Communist Party of India with the support of many major political parties of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, the Government of India was urged to declare Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa as guilty of genocide. The CPI demand supported by the ruling AIDMK and by political parties MDMK, VCK and Tamil National Communist Party gains much significance against the backdrop of repeated bailouts of the Rajapaksa regime in the international forums by the New Delhi Establishment, political observers in Chennai said. The main fasting campaign, participated by a large number of party activists, took place in front of the Thaamparam divisional secretariat in Chennai.
Full story >>

Sumanthiran, Sritharan contradict reasoning Geneva absentia

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2012, 00:22 GMT]
In a meeting held by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Jaffna on Monday, explaining to the public why the TNA opted out canvassing in Geneva, TNA’s Vanni parliamentarian Sritharan and nominated parliamentarian Sumanthiran came out with contrasting reasons. As the TNA has publicly rejected the LLRC recommendations, is there any point in going to Geneva where the resolution is harping on implementation of the recommendations; won’t it be strengthening the resolution, asked Sritharan. But, Sumanthiran implied that the resolution comes after TNA conferring with the US State Department four months back and that it won’t be diplomatically beneficial to the sponsors of the move if the TNA is present in Geneva.
Full story >>

West has to concede to Tamils its failure of ‘war crimes–reconciliation’ paradigm

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 March 2012, 07:16 GMT]
The West, especially the USA has to concede to Eezham Tamils that its post-war paradigms of war crimes accountability and reconciliation have failed to bring in solutions from Sri Lanka, commented a new generation Tamil politician in the island, citing the repeated state of affairs at the UNHRC in Geneva. Attitudinal change and fresh thinking in the West should at least now accept the reality of genocide in the island and approach the question from the angle of right to self-determination of the affected nation. Polity of Tamils in the island, diaspora and in Tamil Nadu also should stop playing second fiddle to futile paradigms of others and should stage their own paradigm for their own problem to make it inevitable for the powers, especially India and the USA to listen to, the politician added.
Full story >>

Colombo harasses Tamil politicians, civil officials

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 March 2012, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lankan ‘Criminal Investigation Department’ in Colombo has stepped up harassments on Tamil politicians and civil officials summoning them for investigation meetings in Colombo. A politician and a medical officer have been recently ‘invited’ to appear in Colombo without providing any information on why they were being ‘investigated’. Colombo government has again started to systematically harass the active sections Eezham Tamils, seeking to dis-empower them by de-motivating and demoralising such activists.
Full story >>

Land grabbed for Buddhist stupa, local people blocked at Kudumpimalai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 March 2012, 07:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Sinhala military occupying the scenic sacred hillock Kudumpimalai (Baron's Cap) in the Koa'ra'lappattu South Division of the Batticaloa district has not only appropriated five acres of land there to build a Buddhist stupa, but also blocks the local people from entering that area. The occupying military plans to convert the local sacred place of Eezham Tamils and a former jungle stronghold of the LTTE into a tourist place for the Sinhala-Buddhists from the south, informed civil officials of the division told TamilNet. The land has been appropriated at Alli-Oadai junction, 2km south of the hillock and the local people are blocked from going to that junction and beyond it, besides being prevented from entering their grazing lands in the nearby village Tharavai. The name of the junction also has been Sinhalicised similar to the Sinhalicisation of Kudumpimalai into Thoppigala.
Full story >>

US, Sri Lanka squabble whether hang or slaughter Eezham Tamil Nation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 March 2012, 23:32 GMT]
The LLRC recommendation of the majoritarian and genocidal state of Sri Lanka is clear on the point that ethnic territories cannot exist in the island, and ‘trilingual’ society (ostensibly paving way for total Sinhalcisation) should be achieved by 2020. While Sri Lanka in Geneva sessions wants implementation of its agenda left completely to itself, the US-backed resolution seeks international endorsement to the LLRC recommendations and international commitment from Sri Lanka in the implementation and phases. In an exclusive interview to Ceylon Today on Thursday, the US ambassador in Colombo, Patricia Butanis praising the LLRC for coming out with “some excellent recommendations,” argued why then the qualms in publicly committing to implementation. The squabble is just on whether publicly hang or secretly slaughter the Tamil nation, commented an Eezham Tamil politician.
Full story >>

Enragement over US-India stand results in Sumanthiran-effigy in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 February 2012, 23:44 GMT]
The nominated parliamentarian of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) M.A. Sumanthiran faced the brunt of public enragement in Jaffna on Wednesday, for reflecting the stand of the USA and India, in handing over even the last of the trumps of Eezham Tamils to Sri Lankan state, by internalizing war-crimes accountability and political solution. Washington allegedly backs proposals at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva that will give international legitimacy to the LLRC hoodwink of Colombo and whatever the differences with New Delhi backing Colombo that could only be related to binding Colombo with a time frame for the implementation of the LLRC recommendations. Meanwhile, the stands of both the Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa and the DMK Chief Karunanidhi are also just confined to urging New Delhi to back the US proposal in Geneva that is ‘perceived’ to be against Sri Lanka.
Full story >>