War and aftermath raise questions over Tamil strategy of engagement with powers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 July 2011, 05:41 GMT]
LTTE and Tamil nationalism were perceived by some powers as getting into the way of their geo-strategic interests. Therefore ‘peace and stability’ means stabilising the Sinhalese regime by crushing LTTE’s military challenge – that was done – and bringing Tamil nationalism to heel, which process is ongoing both in Sri Lanka and among the Tamil diaspora, writes Dr. S. Sathananthan in an article he sent to TamilNet. The power-abetted genocidal war and the aftermath facilitations given to Colombo to complete the genocide into a structural one, raise serious questions among Tamils over the nature of their strategic engagement with some powers.
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SLFP gang comes for campaign after militarily attacking TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 July 2011, 08:37 GMT]
A gang of SLFP ministers and parliamentarians, including presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa were camping in Jaffna last weekend to plan and campaign for the forthcoming civic elections to the town and village councils scheduled to take place in the north on 23 July. Their meetings were also participated by occupying Sri Lanka’s colonial governor Maj. Gen. Chandrasri. The SLFP campaign in Jaffna takes place after occupying SL Army brutally attacking the participants of a Tamil National Alliance election campaign meeting at A’laveddi a few days ago. After leaving democracy in the hands of a decidedly genocidal state, is there any point in some powers talking of the 13th Amendment and political solutions within one country, ask Eezham Tamil civil circles in the island.
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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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Genocidal Colombo eyes on 3-5 year old children in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 July 2011, 14:43 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka’s military governor in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Chandrasri now schemes to bring more than 1000 nursery schools functioning in Jaffna under the control of genocidal Colombo. As a preliminary step, the SL governor wants to ‘aid’ and affiliate the schools to the military-controlled administration of the Northern Provincial Council. Amidst controversies, a meeting for pre-school teachers was convened on Saturday at Veerasingham Hall in Jaffna. SL Presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa attending the meeting announced payment of salaries to pre-school teachers and eventual absorption of them into ‘government’ service. While the deeper intention of the agenda was eyeing on tender children of Eezham Tamils, the presidential sibling also chose the occasion to attack the TNA to campaign for the civic elections scheduled this month.
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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 political detainees face severe mental torture

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 July 2011, 06:11 GMT]
Eezham Tamil political detainees kept in the prisons of Sri Lanka in the south as well as in the north without any cases filed against them for years are severely affected psychologically, medical sources examined them when they were brought to Jaffna teaching hospital said. Under unbearable mental stress some of the detainees attempted to escape this week, but they were re-arrested. One of them who attempted escape was swimming for a whole day to avoid detection and later he was re-arrested on information while hiding in an abandoned building.
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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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‘India can do without a highly militarised autocratic neighbour in the south’ - paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 04:39 GMT]
India’s political engagement and generous financial assistance are not bringing about an equitable post-war settlement Sri Lanka, and instead an authoritarian government and a dangerously powerful military have emerged, The Pioneer newspaper warned Wednesday in an editorial titled 'Necessary Intervention' . “[India’s] policies and initiatives have fallen tragically short [but] South Block has been reluctant to … press for more reforms and greater accountability. This must change. … Rajapaksa should be asked to keep his promises,” India’s oldest English language newspaper argued.
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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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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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Sexual violence against Eezham Tamils carried out with genocidal intentions

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 June 2011, 14:25 GMT]
Sexual violence committed against Eezham Tamils by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Vanni is on the increase in the recent months, reliable civil sources told TamilNet. Personnel in military vehicles and auto rickshaws parked under the trees away from the roadside in Ki'linochchi commit sexual violence to girls forcefully brought from the resettled villages and sometimes even to girls passing by on the road, by grabbing them into the vehicles. The wails of the victims are commonly heard, but people are unable to do anything about it, the civil sources further said. The violence is systematically committed with genocidal mentality and soon by replacing the civil administration of Ki'linochchi entirely by the Sinhalese, all protests will be silenced, the sources added.
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Sivajilingam, Sri Kantha decide to join TNA, restructure TELO

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 14:46 GMT]
Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians as well as Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) leaders Mr. Sivajilingam and Mr. Sri Kantha have decided to dissolve their newly formed party Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) and to re-join TELO and TNA, with a view of strengthening TNA and restructuring TELO to meet the demands of the times. They took the decision after a group of former TELO members in the diaspora taking the initiative to speak between them and the TELO president cum TNA parliamentarian Mr Selvam Adaikalanathan. The decision revealed in a press meet in Jaffna on Saturday will be officially announced in the 20th Annual Conference of TELO convened to take place in Vavuniyaa on Sunday. TELO is one of the constituent parties of the TNA. Mr. Selvam Adaikkalanathan confirmed the reunity that is taking place in TELO.
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Sri Lankan peace group admits level of SL military rule in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 13:00 GMT]
“Citizens of the North, including school teachers, believe that any meeting, including a school meeting, has to be authorized by the military,” said a press statement issued by a Colombo based peace group, National Peace Council, following the recent attack on TNA meeting in Jaffna. “While a strong military presence in the North following the war may allow many a sense of security, it must be remembered that the intervention of armed force in daily civil life cannot foster reconciliation or give a sense of security to the people,” the statement issued on Friday said.
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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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SL Army orders against renting halls to TNA, political parties

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2011, 19:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna comes out with intimidating ‘unofficial orders’ to owners of public halls in Jaffna, not to rent halls to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) or to any other political party critical of the Colombo regime to conduct political or public meetings, news sources from Jaffna said. Colombo has decided to completely prohibit all political campaign of Tamil parties against it and in this respect, the occupying Army in Jaffna has received instructions from the SL defence headquarters in Colombo to stop the use of public halls in Jaffna, the news sources further said. Meanwhile, the TNA is also prevented from the use of loud speakers for its political campaign in the civic elections. Authorities chased out TNA workers, who went to get permission for the use of loud speakers on vehicles for political campaign.
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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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Colombo denies water to paddy crops of Batticaloa Tamil farmers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 15:59 GMT]
Irrigation facilities are denied to about 30,909 acres of paddy fields in several Tamil villages in the Batticaloa district as the Sri Lankan Mahaweli ‘Development’ Authority has stopped issuing water for the last one month and the livelihood of 8,580 families who are solely depending on the farming has been severely affected, according to complaints made by farming community sources to the District irrigation Authority and Agricultural Authority.
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Tamil Eelam is the solution: Loyola opinion poll in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 June 2011, 16:15 GMT]
65 percent of the participants in an opinion poll conducted in Tamil Nadu this month by Centre for Public Studies of the Loyola College in Chennai said that an independent Tamil Eelam is the appropriate permanent solution for the question of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. 70 percent of them said that the Government of India should declare Mr. Rajapaksa as war criminal in the coming sessions of the parliament. According to 74 percent of the participants, all political parties of Tamil Nadu should jointly lead a struggle on the question of Tamils in the island, after giving an ultimatum to the Centre. An overwhelming 81 percent welcomed the resolution on Sri Lanka in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly. The opinion coming from the effective civil society initiative challenges obsolete views of the intelligence-operated analysis groups in Chennai, political observers in Tamil Nadu said.
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