Taking Eezham Tamils for another ride: New Delhi’s preparations

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 10:33 GMT]
While a Congress politician EM Sudarshana Natchiappan convenes a meeting in New Delhi ‘inviting’ nearly 10 Tamil political parties from the island to commit to a hoodwink solution suiting New Delhi’s agenda, Dr. V. Suryanarayan, harping on Sampanthan’s repeated statements that the TNA does not subscribe to a separate state of Tamil Eelam, wrote on Saturday that the ‘minorities’ should now come together against marginalisation. Responding, an Eezham Tamil politician in the island said that with the kind of militarisation having a genocidal Army of exclusive ethnicity and with the kind of grooming it gets from the powers, the ‘minorities’ coming together alone is not going to help in anyway. Rather, the making of Tamil Eelam only could guarantee safety and self-esteem of all, including the up-country Tamils, whether inside or outside of Tamil Eelam.
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It is not mere corruption, but militarisation of corruption in South Asia

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 05:02 GMT]
“Military forces across South Asia are flexing their commercial muscles to create ventures that rival private firms and threaten to militarise civil society,” says a New Zealand Herald article, Saturday. “In Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, defence chiefs have interests in everything from airlines to sugar factories, banks to bakeries, from power plants to ports. Investments worth billions of dollars are controlled by a military elite that is eclipsing civilian bureaucracies and, in some cases, corrupting the services,” the article by Rahul Bedi said. TamilNet commentator responded by saying that as militaries in South Asia don’t hesitate now to commit even genocide to protect corrupt states, the current anti-corruption uprising in India needs to be more inclusive and Tamil Nadu should enlighten peoples of India on the need to integrate the struggle of Eezham Tamils with it.
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TNA thinks of ‘alternative ways’

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 04:34 GMT]
“For six months we continued with talks, engaging the Government of Sri Lanka. But, there was no constructive outcome. The Tamil National Alliance cannot just keep continuing without any results, just for the sake of ‘engaging’ and ‘continuing’ the talks giving room for Sri Lanka to project an impression to the outside world that it is engaging in a constructive dialogue with Tamils,” said R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary leader of the TNA on Saturday in Jaffna, delivering a key speech at the ceremony for TNA's civic council members taking oath in Tamil. While criticising the SL state for not being constructive, Mr. Sampanthan declared for the first time that the TNA was pondering on ‘alternative ways’, which he didn't specify. But, a Vanni parliamentarian of the TNA declared that the Alliance should build up from the grassroots a powerful base of civil struggle.
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SL Army begins registering Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 03:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers have been engaged in registering Tamil youths of both sexes who are staying Colombo with their relatives and friends and lodges in Colombo city and its suburbs. This has caused fear among Tamils living in the South. But the SLA says that this ethnic and selective registration is a ‘routine affair’ and not an especially implemented assignment, a new kind of explanation aimed at escaping criticism. In Mayoorapathi area in Wellawatte, the SLA personnel even photographed members of each family residing there, civil sources in Colombo said. The sudden registration of Tamils residing in Wellawatte has caused fear that the Rajapaksa government is contemplating to acquire several flats now being occupied by Tamil civilians.
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Context demands Tamil-Muslim solidarity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2011, 13:15 GMT]
“Muslims may not be a community distinct from the Tamils, but they have some special problems pertaining to their security. […] Tamil support for Muslim security and peace could open a new chapter in Tamil-Muslim relations,” says an article by A.R.M. Imtiyaz and S.R.H. Hoole, appeared in Routledge-published July issue of Journal of South Asian studies. “We argue that the Tamils’ northern leadership has been insensitive to Muslims,” the article said. Reviewing the article, a Tamil academic in the island commented that while the argument is partly true, the East was always influencing and imposing decisions in this regard. Inspiring initiatives should therefore originate from the East, evolving from its experiences, and all Tamils should support it. Based on secular and inclusive attributes of Tamil identity, progressive forces in Tamil Nadu also have a role to play, the reviewer said.
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Colombo goes on all-out offensive against UN report as UNHRC disaster looms

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2011, 10:19 GMT]
At a time when the United States is awaiting a response from Colombo for its call for an “interactive dialogue” on the wide-spread credible allegations war crimes, before the UNHRC meets for its 18th sessions next month, Mahinda Rajapaksa government has said the UN Expert Panel Report is “not admissible at UNHRC” and warned that it could produce “dangerous results if entertained”.
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Colombo Sinhalicises Tamil villages in Trincomalee through State-aided colonisation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2011, 10:13 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Housing, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities has started allocating houses for Sinhalese who are to be brought from the south under SL State-aided housing schemes constructed in traditional Tamil villages in the North and East. This became evident recently when the ministry allocated twenty four of thirty houses to Sinhalese, four for Muslims and two for Tamils in a traditional Tamil village Puththukudiyiruppu located in Tamil speaking Thampalakaamam Divisional Secretariat division of Trincomalee district.
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USA to conduct joint exercise with genocidal Air Force of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2011, 05:44 GMT]
The Pacific Air Command of the US Air Force will be conducting a joint air exercise with the Air Force of Sri Lanka, involving the bases at Ratmalana in Colombo and Ampaa’rai in the Eastern Province, media reports from Colombo said. Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Malaysian Air Force, and the Bangladesh Air Force also will participate in the exercise. The Air Force of Sri Lanka is accused of specific instances of war crimes against Eezham Tamils in the UN panel report. While talk of human rights and crimes against humanity is dubiously manipulated by some powers for their political benefits, their defence establishments and intelligence agencies are all out to promote militarism of genocidal Sri Lanka for their strategic benefits, political analysts in the island said.
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Gotabhaya thinks giving into war crimes allegations will have no end

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2011, 23:40 GMT]
Responding to war crimes allegations will not work, confronting them will only work, seems to be the orientation of Rajapaksa regime as implied by a comment of SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who reacted to Tuesday’s The Hindu editorial, saying "it seemed fresh charges would be levelled as soon as we responded to existing allegations". Addressing a symposium on ‘post-war’ challenges at BMICH, Colombo the SL defence secretary said that he would stand by what he had said on rejecting the rape allegations on the SL Army, citing the safe treatment of a UK national “so attractive” in the custody of the SL Army, The island reported Thursday. The Hindu in its editorial said that for this statement alone Gotabhaya should be taken to task.
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Sri Lanka to purchase 14 Mi-17 military helicopters from Russia

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2011, 21:04 GMT]
Further bolstering its military ties with Russia and expanding its own military machine beyond its local needs, Sri Lanka has entered into yet another contract with Russia’s state-run arms enterprise, Rosoboronexport, to purchase different modifications of Mi-17 military helicopters, reports from Colombo and Moscow said. While Rajapasa-critics in Colombo said the purchase is ‘managed’ by SL Presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa through a so-called State-owned company, which is neither controlled by the SL Auditor General nor listed on the Stock Exchange, the Eezham Tamil circles said the military transport gunships are to be deployed in the ongoing SL militarisation of the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Abandoned Tamil schools acquired by occupying SL military

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2011, 17:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils acquires abandoned Tamil schools for converting them into military camps. Occupying military officers are busy in recent days in collecting particulars of the abandoned schools in the Vanni districts as well as in the Vadamaraadchi, Thenmaraadchi and the islands divisions of the Jaffna district. The occupying military has ordered the northern directorate of education to submit particulars of all abandoned schools to facilitate military’s increasing demand for infrastructure facilities. Using the abandoned schools, 30 new military camps are planned in the Jaffna peninsula alone. Occupying military has a particular programme to first intensely militarise and Sinhalicise the islands off the Jaffna peninsula. It makes no secret about it to the Tamils remaining in the islands.
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‘Grease Devil’ attacks aim at frightening resettlement in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2011, 12:59 GMT]
While attacks especially on Tamil women carried out by unidentified men in camouflage called ‘Grease Devils’ terrorise Tamil civilians in the East and the hill country, such attacks particularly aim at crippling resettlement in the Vanni districts. On Wednesday evening, three men emerging from the thickets in black dress and grease on their face chased three women of Ki’linochchi 8th milepost engaged in removing landmines. Following similar incidents and attacks on women in Vanni, people resettling in their houses and lands that are dispersed as typical to the settlement pattern of Vanni are now forced to gather into clusters. Occupying SL military’s officials now ‘advice’ resettled people in Vanni to live in clusters to avoid terrorising attacks.
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Congress and Colombo busy in shielding each other

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 August 2011, 11:26 GMT]
A Congress parliamentarian from Tamil Nadu in Rajya Sabha, Dr. E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan has convened a meeting of ruling and opposition party parliamentarians of India in New Delhi on Thursday with the help of Colombo-based Indian writer N Sathiyamoorthy, aiming to diffuse the growing political momentum that challenges the crimes committed, and being committed, by New Delhi and Colombo on Eezham Tamils. Meanwhile, genocidal Colombo’s High Commissioner in New Delhi, Prasad Kariyawasam is engaged in preaching ‘ethics’ to journalists and in canvassing to get their support by sending propaganda material prepared by the SL ministry of defence. The Indo-Lanka public relations machinery is in over drive to limit damages caused by media exposing the crimes of the two establishments in partnership.
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Belated realisation finds fault with ‘brother’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 August 2011, 06:11 GMT]
President Rajapaksa would be well advised to distance himself swiftly from his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, said The Hindu in its editorial on Tuesday. The problem is not the brother but the confidence the Colombo regime gets from the stand of the big brother in New Delhi, is the opinion of political observers and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalitha. The Hindu now scapegoats ‘Gotabhaya brother’ as a last resort to bail out Rajapaksa, New Delhi establishment and all those who contributed to genocide in the island, political observers in Chennai said. The Hindu could have contributed to pre-empt genocide had its journalism confuted the big brothers in New Delhi and Washington and appealed to the masses in India and outside by telling the truth about the intentions of state in the island, the political observers further said.
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Colombo camouflages confiscation of Tamil lands

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 August 2011, 03:29 GMT]
All people of the north and east who cannot confirm ownership of their land through supporting documents are to be given a two-month period to furnish details of such land through a special application to the respective Divisional Secretaries, reports SL state-owned Daily News and SL ‘Defence’ website. “A special procedure is to be followed in cases where state land has been claimed by the people,” the report says, meaning that ‘state’ lands distributed to Tamils during British rule and after independence will be now ‘reconsidered’ if documents or parties are not available. All land issues in the country of Eezham Tamils have to be dealt with only by Tamil sovereignty and by no body else, commented Tamil political circles, adding that the former colonial power Britain and India that backs genocidal Colombo are answerable for not upholding the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils over their land.
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Riot-hit Tamils in London rebuild amid local support

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 August 2011, 00:22 GMT]
Tamil-owned businesses amongst those damaged in three days of rioting and looting last week in several parts of London were also picking themselves up this week, cleaning and restoring damaged premises, restocking and inviting customers back. They are being assisted by sympathy and support from their local communities. Amongst the hardest hit parts of the capital on Monday night were London road in Croydon and Hackney, where Tamil businesses were amongst those destroyed. Prime Minister David Cameron, touring Croydon the day after the riots, met with police and emergency services and visited damaged shops to express his support. London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, did the same later that day. British insurers expect to pay out £100m for damage, interrupted trade and cleanup costs.
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Occupying Navy brings in Sinhala fishermen to Pungkudutheevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 August 2011, 12:24 GMT]
In a daring attempt of colonisation, genocidal Sri Lanka’s Navy occupying the islands off Jaffna brought in hundreds of Sinhala fishermen Sunday to settle in Pugkudutheevu island and to engage in fishing. Leaders of the protesting local Tamil fishermen association were taken to the SL Navy camp in the island and were served with death threats. The Sinhala fishermen came with all preparations to make settlements in the island and to engage in the lucrative business of catching sea cucumbers that are of export value. Their activities are now stalled following protests. Punkudutheevu, an island off Jaffna close to the Tamil Nadu coast has a recently built extensive base of the Sri Lanka Navy. Sinhala militarisation and colonisation of the land of Eezham Tamils enjoy blessings of the New Delhi government.
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India answerable for both genocide and structural genocide of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 August 2011, 09:05 GMT]
The Speaker of the Indian Parliament, Meira Kumar, conceding to an objection from a Congress member, altered the topic of discussion in the parliament from “Alleged killing of Sri Lankan Tamils by the island nation’s Lankan army in 2009 as recently revealed in a United Nations report” to “On the steps taken by Government of India for relief and resettlement of Tamils in Sri Lanka and other measures to promote their welfare.” The deviated discussion scheduled for last Thursday has also been postponed to coming Tuesday. But whether in war or in post-war, New Delhi cannot escape answering for its partnership in committing genocide and structural genocide of Eezham Tamils, commented Tamil political circles in the island, citing the activities of India-partnered SL Army in the war and its aftermath.
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UK, Netherlands join fight against Koppe's EU Court filing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 August 2011, 01:43 GMT]
United Kingdom applied to the General Court of the European Union (CVRIA) for leave to intervene in the case (T 208/11) against the ban on the Liberation Tigers filed by Victor Koppe, attorney from Amsterdam-based Bohler Advocaten representing the LTTE, legal sources in Amsterdam said. The case is against the Council of the European Union's extension of the LTTE ban. Earlier, European Commission and The Netherlands had applied to intervene in the case. The Registrar of the Court has ordered the parties to submit observations by 19th September, according to Court records. Notable absentee nations, not expressing intent to participate in the intervention, are Germany, France and Denmark, where several Eelam Tamils have been prosecuted for allegedly providing material support to the LTTE.
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Iran, Turkey follow Sri Lanka model: Kurdish paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 August 2011, 22:02 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan government is accused of deploying Israeli ‘Gazafication’ model in Sinhalicising the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, Iran and Turkey are adopting the so-called Sri Lankan model of ‘warfare’ against Kurdish people. In an article titled, “Reminding the Kurdish nation of the case of Tamil,” The Kurdish Globe, a weekly published in Erbil, Kurdistan in northern Iraq, on Saturday cited recent instances of pro-Turkey writers discussing ‘Sri Lanka model’. In the meantime, the executives of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have also gone on record comparing the Tamil situation with their own, the paper said.
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