Snowden, Thulasi force US into legal extradition quagmire

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 June 2013, 00:04 GMT]
In 2008, the United States Government requested the extradition of Eezham Tamil defendant, Thulasitharan Santhirarajah, from Australia for an alleged offense in providing material support to a "terrorist" organization, and now the US is requesting, or will request, the extradition of Edward J Snowden from Hong Kong, and other likely destinations of Snowden, for alleged offenses of “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person." In the Thulasitharan case, the Melbourne Court determined that the charged offenses are "either pure or relative political offenses," and in the high-profile Snowden case, legal experts acknowledge that U.S. will likely meet with the same fate for similar reasons.
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Ibsen’s Doll’s House translated into Eezham Tamil in Norway

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 June 2013, 00:02 GMT]
Modernism’s world famous playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Et Dukkehjem (A Doll’s House) has found earlier translations in Tamil. But what is special about the present translation by Kasinather Sivapalan is that it is in spoken Eezham Tamil, making the reading and staging of the play homely to Eezham Tamils in their country and in the diaspora across the world. A Doll’s House, written in 1879 and said to be the world’s most performed play by the early 20th century, is not new to Eezham Tamils. Even 50 years ago it was staged in Jaffna, scripted in Tamil and directed by veteran writer, the late Mr E. Mahadeva (Thevan-Yaazhppaa’nam), who was Mr Sivapalan’s teacher at Jaffna Hindu College. The current translation by Mr Sivapalan, produced in Norway where he is in exile now, comes as a publication of Mithra Arts and Creations in Chennai.
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Survivors of 1991 Kashmir mass rape case assert struggle for justice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 June 2013, 12:13 GMT]
A court in Kupwara district, Kashmir on Tuesday ordered the re-opening of the infamous Kunan Poshpora mass rape case, allegedly committed by Indian military personnel during a cordon and search operation in the Kunan Poshpora village on February 23, 1991. Despite the case gaining international attention and sparking condemnation by human rights bodies like Amnesty and HRW, the Indian government had officially been in a state of denial as regards the incident. In the wake of this court order, an event titled “Kunan-Poshpora mass rape and torture: Case reopening and future struggle for justice” was organized by Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society on Saturday in Srinagar in which the rape survivors and their relatives spoke to the public, asserting their struggle for justice.
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Gotabhaya names TamilNet a ‘security threat’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 June 2013, 00:04 GMT]
While listing ‘national’ security threats faced by genocidal Sri Lanka, its Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa included the name of TamilNet and said that it is controlled by the Tamil Coordinating Committee, led by Nediyavan, which in turn has control over most of the assets of the LTTE’s international organisation. Gotabhaya who said it on 13 June, while addressing the Kotelawela Defence University, also said that now all the various intelligence services of his State are brought under one Chief of National Intelligence, who reports directly to him (as Defence Secretary). What Gotabhaya said on TamilNet either shows the ignorance of his intelligence or his intention to distort TamilNet’s image. TamilNet challenges him on the truth of his statement.
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Sinhalicisation of Chu’ndik-ku’lam to permanently choke Jaffna Peninsula

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 June 2013, 08:55 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil fishermen’s efforts to reconstruct their war-torn lives face fresh threats from the occupying Sri Lanka’s rampant Sinhalicisation of the North. During the last two weeks, hundreds of Sinhala fishermen are being settled at Chu’ndikku’lam, a coastal village situated in Vadamaraadchi East of the Jaffna district. By employing banned methods of fishing, the invading Sinhala fishermen have been posing a grave threat not only to the resettlement of the uprooted Tamils in the village, but also to the livelihood of the Tamil fishermen of Vadamaraadchi East. However, the worst threat is Sinhala military and fishermen permanently choking the one and only natural entry point into the Jaffna Peninsula, as Chu’ndik-ku’lam is the sandbar that links the peninsula with the main island. 1000 houses are planned for colonizing Sinhala fishermen at this location, says TNA-MP Sritharan.
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India’s housing in un-freed land facilitates Sinhalicisation

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 June 2013, 09:32 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr P Selvarasa has warned that the occupying Colombo government has planned to grab several houses allocated under the Indian aid for war-affected Tamil families in the Eastern Province especially in Batticaloa district to be handed over to Sinhalese who are being brought down to the Batticaloa district from the South. The ultimate culprit that makes the housing meaningless is the Indian policy of not recognising or freeing the land of Eezham Tamils for them. If the policy is tacit support to demographic genocide, the result will be a Palestinian crisis for Eezham Tamils in the island. What has to be primarily addressed is the policy of New Delhi, commented activists of alternative politics in the East.
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UK Tamils gather at Cardiff protesting Sri Lankan cricket

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 June 2013, 16:12 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamils from the UK gathered near the cricket stadium in Cardiff on Thursday to protest the presence of the Sri Lankan cricket team on British soil, urging the UK for a complete boycott of sporting and cultural ties with the genocide-accused Sri Lankan state. This mass protest follows on the heels of a violent incident near the Oval stadium on Monday, where dozens of Tamil activists protesting on the occasion of the Sri Lanka-Australia cricket match were brutally attacked by Sinhala mobs.
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Jaffna University teachers boycott SL-UGC ‘academic reconciliation’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 June 2013, 06:05 GMT]
Jaffna University Teachers’ Association boycotted a ‘national’ level conference on the “Role of Higher Education in Reconciliation” hosted in Jaffna last week by genocidal Sri Lanka’s University Grants Commission. Even though Colombo media reports said that the conference was a joint venture of the SL-UGC and the University of Jaffna, it neither took place in the Jaffna University premises nor was it participated by the academics of the university. Fearing the prevailing mood at the university, the conference was held almost as a closed-door affair at a hotel in Jaffna. Only the VC and the administration that were obliged to go represented the Jaffna University. Among the 25 speakers brought by the SL-UGC, the star speakers to “set the tone and tempo of the conference,” were ‘Terrorism Professor’ Rohan Gunaratna and Law Professor C.G. Weeramantry.
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Veteran Canadian journalist criticizes Harper’s policy on refugees

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2013, 22:46 GMT]
Karl Nerenberg, a veteran journalist with over 25 years of experience, came down sharply on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s policy towards refugees. In an article published on alternative news site Rabble.ca on Tuesday, Nerenberg, giving examples of refugees from Syria, Sri Lanka and Hungary, criticized the Harper government’s approach to refugees for being ‘inconsistent’ and ‘stigmatizing’. Giving the examples of the Tamils from the island, he opined Harper’s position on holding the CHOGM in Sri Lanka was in contrast to his government’s policy towards Tamil refugees. He further alleges that the new refugee law in Canada gives the Ministry of Immigration “untrammeled power” to pursue a discriminatory policy.
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TNA MP alleges 'planned sinhalicisation' of punaanai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 June 2013, 12:11 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance MP C Yogeswaran on Sunday demanded that immediate steps be taken to stop the aggressive and meticulously planned sinhalicisation of Punaanai East, situated 52 km northwest of Batticaloa city. During the times of the LTTE, the presence of the Tiger forces from Kudumpimalai in the South to Vaakarai in the North had thwarted the earlier attempts of sinhalicisation. In the absence of LTTE, sinhalicisation is now rapidly taking place along the Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa border, where Punaanai is situated. Besides occupation by Sinhala families, Punaanai has also witnessed various instances of Sinhalicisation such as demolition of Saiva temples in the guise of archeological excavations and the deity in the sanctum sanctorum of a Pi'l'laiyaar temple missing.
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BJP, RSS, Shiv Sena answerable to Dasgupta policy-line

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 June 2013, 06:33 GMT]
Whatever is the journalistic halo behind Swapan Dasgupta, his recent writings and utterances on the struggle of the genocide-facing nation of Eezham Tamils could have been ignored as coming from just another of the dubious ilk that writes for agendas, had he not been a member of the Rajapaksa-sponsored BJP-RSS-Shiv Sena delegation that went to Colombo and Jaffna. Now as he openly bares the line of thinking in the camp, the BJP-RSS-Shiv Sena lot aspiring for power in India, may have to answer to the world of Tamils and to the humanity in general whether it is aspiring to become worse than that of the present Establishments in New Delhi, Washington and Beijing, commented an activist of alternative politics in Jaffna, urging mainstream polity and public in Tamil Nadu to be prepared with the needed.
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SL State backs Christian persecution, 30 churches attacked this year: World Evangelical Alliance

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2013, 23:32 GMT]
World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty Commission (RLC), which is a network of churches in 129 countries, in a ‘Research and Analysis’ report issued on Monday observed that Sri Lanka “appears to be seeking to establish social and political supremacy of the Sinhala Buddhist majority within a unitary state,” in the ‘post-war resurgence’ of Sihala Buddhist nationalism that no longer threatens only the Tamils, but also religious minorities, particularly Christians and Muslims. “The resurgence of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism can be attributed to the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in 2009, which by some was seen as a victory of Buddhism over Tamil nationalism,” the report said. This year thus far, at least 30 churches have reported being attacked. Last year, Sri Lanka witnessed 52 incidents of Christian persecution.
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Sri Lanka provides harbour, state endorsement, to Chinese fishing

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2013, 15:22 GMT]
In a move delicately endangering local fishing of the peoples of entire southern South Asia, the Rajapaksa Establishment in Colombo has provided facilities of a state-of-the-art fishing harbour near Colombo and State endorsement to Chinese vessels fishing beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Island’s waters. A Company in China has been graced with the rights to ply its fishing vessels with the flag of the genocidal State in Sri Lanka and to use the facilities of the Dikovita fishing harbour. While the Establishment in Colombo would get paltry benefits, shoals of fishes coming from the Antarctica would be exploited in the no-country water itself, before they come to South Asia, affecting the livelihood of not only Tamils, Malayalis and Maldivians but also the Sinhalese, fisheries sources in the island said.
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Colombo schemes permanent occupation of two Tamil villages in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 June 2013, 20:26 GMT]
Sinhala officials attached to Sri Lanka's Department of Forest Conservation, which comes under the SL Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy, have surveyed this weekend two traditional Tamil villages in the Thirukkoayil DS division of Ampaa'rai district, in a move to plant trees in the lands that belong to uprooted Eezham Tamils, who have not been allowed to resettle in the villages of Thangkavealaayuthapuram and Kagnchi-kudichchaa'ru, news sources in Thirukkoayil told TamilNet Sunday. The Sinhala officials of the Eastern Provincial Council also back the move, the sources further said.
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Tamil "Mandate" Refugees, left homeless, languish in foreign camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 June 2013, 15:21 GMT]
Hundreds of Tamil refugees, including several hundreds who have been declared as "Mandate" refugees by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in compliance with the UNHCR Charter and associated statutes, are languishing in camps in East Asian countries, and recently in Dubai, while Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) and the U.S., which have traditionally admitted mandate and convention refugees, are denying resettlement to many of these refugees. Australia, which is one of the contracting countries with UNHCR, is even keeping in detention, citing security threat, Tamil boat refugees who have been granted asylum.
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30 temples, 25 churches remain damaged in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 June 2013, 22:47 GMT]
Even after four years have passed, More than 30 Saiva temples are found either destroyed or damaged in the three divisions of Ki'linochchi district, informed sources in Ki'linohchi told TamilNet on Saturday. In one division alone, 24 churches have been damaged during the war, according to civil sources in Ki'linochchi. In one of the division, Poonakari, two churches (St. Mary's Church and Our Lady of Refuge Church) were fully destroyed while 22 other churches have been partially damaged in Poonakri (Pooneryn).
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Tamil activist film director Manivannan passes away in Chennai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 June 2013, 08:53 GMT]
Tamil activist, film director and actor P Manivannan has passed away due to cardiac arrest at his residence on Saturday. He was 59. Mr Manivannan has directed nearly 50 films. He has also made a mark in acting Tamil cinema by playing sharp character roles having shades of comedy and political sarcasm in more than 400 films. Director Manivannan took an active role of an artist in expressing solidarity with the Tamil struggle and was instrumental in maintaining the link between the Tamil Nadu cinema artists and the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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Sinhala military wants ‘Kappan’ from Batticaloa Tamil farmers

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 June 2013, 22:38 GMT]
Aiming at totally bankrupting the Tamil farmers of Koa'raippattu South (Kiraan) division in Batticaloa district, the occupying Sri Lankan military, which schemes Sinhalicisaton and colonisation of the pasturelands in the division, now demand 3,000 rupees per 10 cattle from the Tamil farmers. The ‘Kappan’ military of Sri Lanka has instructed the Tamil farm-owners to pay the money before 25th of this month. The extortion is taking place in the name of providing ‘housing’ to disabled Sinhala soldiers, the farmers from Alli-oadai village told TamilNet on Friday.
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NESoHR revives reporting, highlights collective rights

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 June 2013, 20:30 GMT]
“Tamil Eelam today is a crucible of ‘excess of power’ - Lankan President with unchecked executive power, the very heavy presence of his military in Tamil Eelam and the Prevention of Terrorism Act still in place almost four years after the defeat of the LTTE,” says the latest Human Rights report issued by the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR). “The leading human rights groups are hoping to deal with this situation of ‘excess of power’ only through appeals to individual rights. Indeed their mandates restrict them from dealing with it in any other way,” the NESoHR, which was formed during the internationally mediated peace process as the Human Rights body of the Tamil Nation, said on Friday, reviving its reporting on human rights in the country of Eezham Tamils and launching an international wing for dissemination of its reports.
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Vanni, Vanniyan-madu, Vanniyanaar-madu

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 June 2013, 06:33 GMT]
The territory of the commander-chieftains
The tank of the commander-chieftain
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