US Ambassador endorsed archbishop's plea for Rajapaksa impunity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 05:20 GMT]
A WikiLeaks file dated 2 Oct 2009, classified confidential by the US Ambassador in Colombo Patricia Butenis, shows that the Sinhala Catholic Archbishop in Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith certified Rajapaksa as personally a ‘good man’ and argued in favour of not pressing him on war crimes accountability for it would make him lose grounds to much more extreme elements. The US Ambassador in her cable endorsed the view of the Archbishop on war crimes accountability. Recently the US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake came out with the same view while briefing Tamil groups in the US. It is a long-felt aspiration among the Eezham Tamil Catholics that Vatican should provide them with a separate Archdiocese, as Sinhala Archbishops sitting in Colombo never addressed their sufferings from their point of view. States in India have their own Archdioceses.
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US cables show how international silence enabled Sri Lanka’s genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 03:55 GMT]
In March 2009 Sri Lanka had come to the attention of the UN’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Francis Deng, but despite his disquiet he did not take further steps as Sri Lanka had assured him the United States and India supported its military campaign, according to a leaked US cable. The account of the meeting on March 16, 2009 between Mr. Deng and the US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, as well as other US cables, shows how international inaction and silence, rather than ignorance, made it possible for Sri Lanka to continue and escalate its mass killings of Tamil civilians.
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Australian Senator calls for suspension of Sri Lanka from CHOGM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 01:38 GMT]
In a roundtable discussion led by Australia's Green Party Senator from New South Wales, Lee Rhiannon, the party passed a resolution calling upon the Australian government to suspend Sri Lanka from the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Perth next month and to Sri Lanka to be suspended from the Councils of the Commonwealth because it is resisting setting up a tribunal to investigate war crimes.. The Green Party accused Sri Lanka for refusing to hold an independent international investigation into the alleged war crimes committed during the final stages of the civil war in 2009 and for breaching the commitment to the Commonwealth's values and principles.
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Colombo schemes Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa with foreign funding: Ariyanethran MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 20:10 GMT]
“Traditional Tamil villages in the North and East are being renamed in Sinhala and streets are named ‘Mawathas’ in Sinhala. When we were students, we learnt that Kantha'laay Tank was built by Tamil King Ku'lak-koaddan. But, today, our children have Tamil text books supplied by the Colombo government saying that Kantha'laay had been built by King Agbo, P.Ariyanethran, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said while addressing the annual festival of Kokkaddich-choalai thaan-thoan'ri Easvarar koayil in Paduvaankarai on Saturday.
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Don’t be intimidated, Prof Neelson tells Tamil diaspora

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 05:41 GMT]
“When I see the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam or the Global Tamil Forum, you associate and put your faith in the West, I beg to differ,” said Professor John P. Neelson, while addressing Eezham Tamils rallying at Geneva on Monday. Talking on the past experience of Tamils trusting Western Establishments, Neelson said that instead of siding with the victims of State Terrorism, they [the West] sided with the perpetrators. Criminalisation of your struggle in favour of Sri Lanka was to intimidate you. Don’t be intimidated, Neelson said besides warning Tamils against trusting the ruling elites of the West too much. He emphasized on seeing more white people of Europe associated with the Eezham struggle and stressed on the point that India “remains the most important power that will determine what happens in Sri Lanka.”
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Genocide proceeds inside Geneva, within diaspora: Viraj Mendis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 September 2011, 22:31 GMT]
“We all know that the process of Genocide is continuing. In Eelam the colonization process and the enslavement process in continuing, as the power of the LTTE is not there to stop it. The process of Genocide is continuing here too. It is happening inside these buildings here in Geneva,” said Mr. Viraj Medis, a progressive Sinhala rights activist and a long-term supporter of the struggle of Eezham Tamils, while addressing the Pongku Tamil rally held in front of the UN office in Geneva on Monday. The real external architects of the genocidal war are now trying their ultimate spin. The US/British political offensive which is a crucial part the genocidal process is taking place right now within the Diaspora, cautioned Mr. Mendis of the International Human Rights Association, Bremen, Germany.
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Pongku Thamizh in Geneva reinvigorates call for Eezham Tamil Independence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 September 2011, 14:11 GMT]
More than 5,000 Eezham Tamil activists across Europe confluenced Monday in what the organizers of the event described as successful Pongku Thamizh rally in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva in Switzerland where 18th session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is taking place. “We demand the Human Rights world to denounce Tamil Genocide in the island of Sri Lanka in both word and deed,” an exiled Tamil activist with a personal experience of the genocidal war, who met the representatives of the UNHRC at its 18th Session, told TamilNet. Professor John P. Neelson, an experienced scholar on the international dimensions of the conflict in the island and Stéphane Gatignon, a mayor from France, who asserted that he had come to the rally reflecting the interests of 30,000 Tamils in his constituency, met the representatives of the Human Rights Council with the Tamil representatives.
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Sri Lanka cancels landing visa for 78 countries

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2011, 12:25 GMT]
Based on ‘security considerations’ Sri Lanka cancels landing visa facility to 78 countries. Visitors form these countries could make online applications from September 28 onwards for Colombo to process visas, Daily Mirror reported Monday, citing a SL Immigration Department official. The 78 countries are yet to be named and getting online visa prior to arrival will be mandatory from 01 January 2012. Through the process genocidal Colombo aims to differentiate, screen and deny visa to diaspora Eezham Tamils having foreign passports, said diaspora political circles adding that this is another intimidation tactic. As property rights and even visiting rights of Eezham Tamils are targeted in subtle ways, only jokers can deny that there is no structural genocide in the island, diaspora circles further said.
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India’s indirect campaign backs Sri Lanka’s military and genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2011, 09:36 GMT]
Choosing a time when Geneva is supposed to decide on investigating Sri Lanka’s war crimes, New Delhi has scheduled a large-scale joint military exercise with Sri Lanka in Trincomalee in the country of Eezham Tamils. Meanwhile, a senior leader of India’s major opposition party, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi of BJP, chose to deliver a lecture in Colombo on Saturday commemorating a Sinhala-Buddhist revivalist, and according to The Hindu, Dr. Joshi “was left with the impression that everyone wanted an early solution leading to a united Sri Lanka under one constitution.” Both the Administration and Opposition of New Delhi indirectly signal against investigating genocidal Sri Lanka’s war crimes and the ‘impression’ Joshi conveyed to The Hindu has no moral validity as Tamils are constitutionally prevented from telling their opinion on the national question, commented a Tamil politician in the island.
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EPC acts as agent of Colombo in harassing Champoor Tamils: Thurairatnam

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2011, 05:54 GMT]
Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan in the capacity of its chief minister has been assisting the Colombo government in harassing uprooted Eezham Tamils of Champoor now being held in so-called temporary welfare centres in Ki'liveddi, Ma'natcheanai, Mallikaith-theevu and Kaddai-pa'richchaan, alleged Mr.R.Thurairatnam, an opposition EPC councillor. He appealed to EPC administration to allocate a day to debate Champoor resettlement issue, as uprooted people are not in favour to be resettled in alternate lands other than in their original traditional Tamil villages.
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Jaffna Fort getting Dutch aid to build ’Rajapaksa’ mansion

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 September 2011, 23:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s president occupying the country of Eezham Tamils has issued orders to build a mansion of military and symbolic importance inside the Jaffna fort for the use of Sri Lanka’s president, exploiting the opportunity of the renovation of the colonial fort by the assistance of the government of The Netherlands, news sources in Jaffna said. The 100 million Rupees renovation programme of the Dutch fort, in the name of ‘tourism development’, is shared 60:40 between The Netherlands and Sri Lanka. The Dutch initiative in renovating the symbol of colonial and post-colonial oppression immediately after the genocidal war, without recognizing the territorial and heritage ownership of Eezham Tamils but facilitating the agenda of colonising Colombo, has already evoked righteous indignation among Eezham Tamils against the ‘culture and outlook’ of the contemporary Dutch.
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SL Police creates tension between Tamils, Muslims in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 September 2011, 00:36 GMT]
Civil society sources in Batticaloa allege that the Sinhala policemen of the SL police have been interfering in the civil administration creating dissension between Tamils and Muslims in Batticaloa district. The civil sources cite an incident where the SL Police has allowed the garbage collected in the Muslim dominated Kaaththaankudi Urban Council area to be dumped in a Tamil village Poonochchimunai located in Ma'nmunai North DS division. Local community leaders blame Colombo for using Sinhala policemen to resolve disputes that should be dissolved by the Government Agent and Divisional Secretaries in the district.
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SLA harasses uprooted Tamils from Champoor in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2011, 17:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers have been harassing uprooted people from Champoor villages in Trincomalee, who are sheltered in temporary camps of the Moothoor East division of the district. In recent days, groups of occupying SLA soldiers who visit the so-called welfare centres of the Champoor uprooted living in Mallikaith-theevu, Ma'natcheanai, Kaddaipa'richchaan and Ki'liveddi, have been questioning the ‘background’ and the ‘past’ of the civilians under LTTE-administration before 2006. Recently, the SL governor of the East, Rear Admiral (retd) Mohan Wijewickrema, had warned the uprooted Champoor people sheltered in the camps that they risk losing their ‘refugee’ status if they continue to refuse moving into alternate lands provided by Colombo. Champoor has been seized from the people for Indian assisted coal power plant, which is a scheme of Colombo's structural genocide on Eezham Tamils.
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Post War Politics of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2011, 17:13 GMT]
The conclusion of the 18th session of the UNHRC will reveal whether there is anything left to rely on the International Community of Establishments, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific. While the Eezham Tamils are the worst affected by the war, they are also at the receiving end of the post war Sri Lankan Politics which is indeed continuation of the war by other means or to put it bluntly the continuation of the Genocide. We should always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. That preparedness is the Solidarity we develop with our Natural Allies. The Natural Allies will certainly include those in the Sinhala society rising up against the Family Rule provided they recognize the Right of Self Determination of the Tamil Speaking Nation, a recognition (including the right to secede) adopted by the Ceylon Communist Party in 1944, he further said.
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Mu'l'likku'lam villagers left to languish, resettlement denied

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2011, 16:47 GMT]
Amid claims by the Sri Lankan government that all displaced persons in Mannaar district have been resettled in their own villages, uprooted residents of Mu'l'likku'lam in Musali DS division of the district, who were evicted from their homes in 2007, are still refused entry to their village by the Sri Lanka Navy, which has changed their village into a military cantonment. The uprooted Tamils of Mu'l'likku'lam agitated on Tuesday demanding resettlement. More than 300 families of uprooted villagers, most of whom are fishermen and daily wage earners, have been living without proper housing and their children have been deprived of schooling, said Rev. Fr. Rasanayagam, the parish priest of the area.
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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has say in appealing to Commonwealth

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2011, 04:59 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has a say in appealing to New Delhi and other Commonwealth countries, especially where Tamils live, to decide not to hold the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet in Sri Lanka in 2013, Eezham Tamil political circles told TamilNet. The decision will be taken in the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet in Perth in Australia in October. The Canadian Prime Minister has already announced that he would not take part in the meet in Colombo, if Sri Lanka doesn't make progress on the question of human rights in the island. The Indian Prime Minister may not attend the meet in Australia this year, but Tami Nadu should register its opinion with the head of Indian delegation against deciding on holding the next meet in Colombo, Eezham Tamil politicians requested.
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Sri Lanka aims to get more time to complete genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 16:46 GMT]
The primary aim of Sri Lanka in the UN human rights council is to buy some more time to complete its genocide of Eezham Tamils through structural means and militarisation so that the question of war crimes would eventually lose its importance and would become acceptable means of contemporary world polity. The more time is given to a virtually Sinhala military to occupy the country of Eezham Tamils with impunity, the more the world will be contributing to a dangerous paradigm. If the existing State system in the international organisations is going to repeatedly prove its incapability in delivering criminal and political justice, the global Tamils have to be prepared to undertake an international struggle in appropriate ways. 70 million global Tamils cannot be taken for ride by the Sinhala polity just because it has a State and Tamils don’t have a State.
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Colombo recalls Dias over war crimes prosecution fear

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 00:49 GMT]
Maj. Gen. (retd.) Jegath Dias, deputy Counsel in Sri Lanka’s embassy in Germany, and commander of Sri Lanka Army's (SLA's) 57th division during the last phase of the Sri Lanka war, was recalled by Colombo "in response to accusations he was involved in war crimes," Swiss media reported today. Spotlight on Dias's alleged war-crimes began when Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET) and Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, first filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Germany for accepting Dias to the diplomatic post. Two other legal efforts by Swiss-based advocacy groups, Society for Threatened People and TRIAL, and by Germany-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights further hindered Dias's ability to function as a diplomat, sources said.
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US comments on LLRC assist Sri Lanka deflect international pressure over mass atrocities

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 23:10 GMT]
The United States and other governments must move without further delay towards an independent international investigation into mass atrocities committed during the Sri Lankan civil war, and desist from lending credibility to Sri Lanka’s sham domestic investigation, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) said in a statement Tuesday. Pointing out that leading international human rights organisations have comprehensively discredited Sri Lanka’s government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC), TAG said comments by US officials on expectations of the LLRC’s report merely contributed to Colombo’s “duplicitous effort to deflect international scrutiny [of mass atrocities].”
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Blake's bona fides to deliver Tamil justice questioned

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 September 2011, 09:12 GMT]
Robert Blake, U.S. assistant secretary of State for South Asia, and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka and India, is widely known to be the architect of the U.S. policy on Sri Lanka which has resulted in Sri Lanka's massacre at Mu'l'livaaykkaal where more than 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed. Key activists in the Tamil diaspora are increasingly convinced that Tamils are unlikely to obtain justice and accountability under Blake's tenure where Blake is forced to face challenges to provide sustenance to his Sri Lanka policy - a policy which requires accommodating Rajapakse rule amid soaring rights violations, continuing structural genocide of Tamils and an authoritarian governance where war victims are further subjected to State sanctioned military violence.
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