Diaspora Tamils observe Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal Genocide remembrance events

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 May 2013, 17:16 GMT]
Events remembering the internationally-abetted genocide in May 2009 were held in several countries in the West by the Tamil diaspora on Saturday. While over 10,000 Tamils participated in a mass rally in London, the remembrance event in Sydney had an innovative performance of ‘forum theatre’ to encourage the audience to frame their political discourse with conceptual clarity. Speakers at the event in Canada, referring to the Tamil Nadu student uprising, urged the second-generation diaspora youth to organize mass protests challenging the establishments that continue to abet the protracted genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation. Likewise, the events in London and Dusseldorf saw the participation of grassroots Kurdish activists who gave solidarity messages to the Eezham Tamil nation.
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Jaffna University remembers Vanni genocide amidst SL military oppression

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 May 2013, 13:39 GMT]
Sri Lankan military harassments continue at Jaffna University where a memorial event was silently observed by hundreds of students on Friday, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. The occupying SL military is on a continuous war with the university community of students and teachers in the last four years on the issue of remembering the slain. It took a serious turn on the Heroes Day last November. The arrests and the military ‘rehabilitation’ of the student leaders didn't deter the students from paying tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the genocidal war at Vanni. Despite refusal by the University administration to provide a hall to the event this year, hundreds of university students and teachers gathered at the Paramesvara temple premises in the university on Friday for a silent memorial without any speeches.
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‘Idea of the Tamil struggle cannot be killed’: Kashmiri Leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 May 2013, 07:51 GMT]
“Using military operation, they can silence the voice for a time being, they cannot kill the ideology and idea. They cannot defeat ideology and ideas with military means,” Yasin Malik, Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) said in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Saturday. Speaking from Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu where he had gone to address the public in solidarity with the Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance Day event organized by the Naam Tamizhar party, he further said that if the international community thinks that it can suppress people’s movement through military means, peace and security cannot be achieved in the world. “If they want peace and stability in the world, then they will have to resolve the people’s issues. Otherwise, the people across the globe, who are the voiceless people, they will get together and they will form their own strategy,” the Kashmiri leader said.
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Cameron should review his decision to visit Sri Lanka: Lee Scott

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 20:20 GMT]
Speaking to TamilNet from the Mu’l’livaaykkaal Genocide Remembrance Day event in London on Saturday, Conservative MP Mr. Lee Scott said that British PM Cameron should review his decision to visit Sri Lanka for the CHOGM meeting. When the criticism coming from some Tamil quarters that a person of the stature of Mr. Cameron visiting Sri Lanka will only give that state legitimacy was raised to Scott, he replied “I think what is important that up until now, with all the efforts that is made around the world, there has been nothing towards reconciliation. There has been nothing towards, before any reconciliation, getting justice for the Tamil people, and whatever it takes to achieve that must be done.” However, a Tamil activist from the UK questioned the wisdom of taking Mr. Scott to Geneva for lobbying when he seems incapable of convincing his own party’s leadership to boycott Sri Lanka.
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Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal survivor speaks out

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 11:51 GMT]
Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan, who personally witnessed Sri Lanka military taking away her husband, Mr Elilan, a political leader of the LTTE, at the end the Vanni War in May 2009, speaks out her experience from a civilian point of view and as a mother caring for her children during the war and the genocidal onslaught. Still living in Vanni, at Ki'linochchi, the 46-year-old mother of three is also running an organization that seeks to establish what had happened to their beloved ones. The SL State is still refusing to reveal the fate of those who were filtered away from the civilians and taken into buses to undisclosed detention camps. The narration of the survivor of the genocidal massacre, told with courage from Ki'linochchi, brings out the spirit and courage of a people who stood with their liberation fighters until the last moment. TamilNet brings out a 40-minute recount by Mrs Sasitharan.
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SL Police arrests TNPF politicians on Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 11:30 GMT]
Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) politician and former parliamentarian Selvaraja Kajendran and Visvalingam Manivannan of the TNPF and thirteen others were arrested by the Sri Lankan Police at Mannaar Saturday afternoon while they were attending a Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day function. The SL police is trying to curb the activities of the TNPF politicians by attempting to detain them under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), initial reports from Mannaar said.
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German Kurdish federation demands justice for Tamil genocide, condemns powers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 09:50 GMT]
YEK-KOM, a Germany based federation of numerous Kurdish organizations, demanding justice for the genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation, condemned the world powers who rejected “the just demands of the Tamil people, turned their backs and have instead supported a military solution” in a solidarity statement sent on the occasion of Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance Day. Emphasising the need for the state terror against the Tamils in the homeland to be halted, the federation further called on the German government and the European Union to “take diplomatic measures and exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government till the self-determination of the Tamils is recognized.” They also called for revoking the ban on the LTTE in the EU to ensure equality of parties and for a just peace.
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‘Do not consider powers culpable in Tamil genocide as saviours’: Sinhala academic

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 06:13 GMT]
“The international conspiracy was not against the Sri Lankan state, but against the Eelam Tamils as a nation,” said Sinhala academic Dr. Jude Lal Fernando, urging the Tamils to not consider the powers who were culpable in their genocide as saviours. In statement for Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance Day, Dr. Fernando, lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin said “It is not only the Sri Lankan state, but all those who aided the state are guilty of genocide,” referring to US, UK and Indian support to the Sri Lankan state, asserting that the reluctance of the powers to recognize the genocide was in fact to cover it up. “As the genocide continues today with the blessings of the same powers that supported the Sri Lankan state we are been told to accept it in the name of post-conflict reconciliation and development,” he said, encouraging the Tamils to continue their struggle with the moral high ground.
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TN Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance meeting condemns Indian-West complicity in genocide

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 May 2013, 23:48 GMT]
Speakers at the Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance meeting in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on Friday came down strongly on the Indian and Western establishments for their complicity in the genocidal war on the Eezham Tamil nation. While veteran Tamil nationalist activist Pazha. Nedumaran condemned the holding of CHOGM in Sri Lanka, MDMK leader Vaiko criticized India’s contribution to the genocide of the Eezham Tamils from the IPKF days to the present. Periyarite leader Kolathur Mani spoke extensively about the structural genocide under unitary Sri Lanka. Criticising the complicity of the International Community of Establishments, Thirumurugan Gandhi from the May 17 Movement stated that the role of the US and India in the war on the Tamils must also be probed.
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Canadian politicians convey messages on Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance day

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 May 2013, 23:37 GMT]
Canadian politicians from both the ruling Conservative party and the main opposition NDP conveyed messages to the Tamil diaspora on the occasion of Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance day. NDP MPP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton Jagmeet Singh, Ontaria NDP leader Andrea Howarth and Ontaria PC Party leader Tim Hudak sent messages emphasising the need for justice and accountability for human rights abuses in the island. MPP Jagmeet Singh, affirming his solidarity with the Tamil community “in their call for justice and recognition of their loss” further encouraged his fellow Canadians “to support the Canadian Tamil community and attend Tamil Genocide Day.”
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BTF's call for genocide remembrance focuses on CHOGM boycott

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 May 2013, 02:44 GMT]
The British Tamil Forum’s (BTF) call for a mass rally in London on Saturday, remembering the 2009 Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal genocidal massacre, focuses on urging Britain and the Commonwealth to boycott the Sri Lanka CHOGM meet in November. Earlier this month, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his decision to attend the meet. “It is ridiculous as well as painful to find that Cameron has decided to attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka,” said a BTF statement on Thursday, adding that the meet, leading to Sri Lanka chairing the Commonwealth for the next two years, “will not only be disgraceful to the Commonwealth and Britain, but will also create a permanent blot in their history.”
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'Sri Lanka’s human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid': Haigh

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 11:41 GMT]
Criticizing Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s support to holding the CHOGM in Sri Lanka, former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh opined that Sri Lanka at the head of the Commonwealth would bring the institution’s demise, arguing that “Sri Lanka has a human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid.” In an article for ABC News on Thursday, Mr. Haigh further said that despite evidence to the contrary, Bob Carr “believes that the Sinhalese majority are free of triumphalism and ethnic abuse of Tamils, amounting to state sponsored genocide, following a bloody civil war that occurred because of the very attitudes and practices being deployed against Tamils today.” Asserting that the Rajapaksa regime undermines the values of the Commonwealth, the author further called on Australia to boycott the CHOGM.
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UK Sikh group calls for solidarity in anti-genocide rallies

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 08:04 GMT]
1984 Genocide Coalition, a UK based Sikh group, has called for solidarity among diasporic Sikhs and Tamils for anti-genocide rallies on 18 May and 9 June in a release on Thursday. Stating that such protests “are an opportunity for these heroic struggling nations to unite their power of protest and unite their campaign resources”, the release further said that “the enduring, courageous struggles of Tamil and Sikh peoples against brutal states like Sri Lanka and India; epitomise the struggle of small nations around the world.” The activists from the Coalition and Nations Without States further urged small nations across the world to unite in a common movement for global justice and freedom.
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Short film featuring Isaippiriya reproduced

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 06:18 GMT]
Remembering the heroes of the Tamil cause, civilians and journalists, who sacrificed their lives this week in 2009, TamilNet reproduces a short film that featured the slain journalist Ms Isaippiriya.
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Waduwaa-wala, Thachchan-thoappu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 00:52 GMT]
The carpenter’s forest
The carpenter’s grove
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UK Deputy PM’s awareness not on genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 22:41 GMT]
When Liberal Democratic MP, Simon Hughes questioned UK Prime Minister’s decision to participate Sri Lanka CHOGM, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, replied in the British Parliament on Wednesday, “We are all aware that the decision […] is controversial, especially in the light of the despicable human rights violations during the recent civil war.” But according to the Deputy PM, consequences could be expected only when violations continue in ways of political trials, regular assaults on legal professionals, suppression of press freedom, and in the non-implementation of the LLRC recommendations. It is exactly this reduction, twist and pretended unawareness of the UK that is in complicity with Sri Lanka’s genocide. Worse than that is the pretended unawareness seen in a section of the diaspora ‘lobbyists’ when it comes to the treachery of the West, commented Tamil political observers.
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18 per cent increase in British tourists to genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 21:32 GMT]
The British tourism market to the island of Sri Lanka has seen an 18 per cent increase from last year, according a report by Colombo based financial reporter Feizal Samath, published in TTG Asia, a tour industry publication on Tuesday. The increase in British tourists choosing Sri Lanka “killing fields” as tourist destination comes following the reports and a law-priced air travel campaign by the British Airways, which recently resumed its services with three flights a week from London Gatwick to Colombo via Male.
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Genocide of Tamils one of the worst mass killings in history: MPP Glen Murray

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 23:52 GMT]
“The 40 000 plus killed in the Tamil genocide is one of the worst mass killings sanctioned by a state in history, ” stated Glen Murray, Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre while hosting the third annual Tamil Memorial Tree Planting event on Saturday at Evergreen Brick Works, a community environmental centre. The Evergreen Brick Works houses the first memorial dedicated to the victims of the Tamil genocide and was erected in 2011 by Mr.Murray. The memorial remembers the events from Black July to Mu'l'livaikkaal and all trees are planted to create a memorial forest to honour the Tamil lives lost in the pursuit of justice and freedom, the organizers said. On the same day in a symbolic move Frank Scarpitti, the Mayor to Markham city unveiled a new street named after the Vanni, the region of the Tamil homeland which endured the brunt of the genocidal atrocities in 2009.
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SL military collects details of uninhabited lands in Vaakarai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 21:05 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka military in Batticaloa district is intimidating the rural official and the leaders of Rural Development Societies to identify lands in 27 Village Officer (GS) divisions in Vaakarai region, which was under the control of the Tigers before 2007, into privately owned and public owned lands. The SL military is scheming a mass scale appropriation of lands for Sinhalicisation and militarisation.
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TNPF urges mass struggle to course-correct IC imposed devolution deviation

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 May 2013, 21:14 GMT]
Sinhala State and IC should be brought to a point to concede Tamil sovereignty through a democratic, non-violent mass struggle with sacrifices, said Tamil National People's Front leader Gajendrakumar Pomnnambalam, addressing media in Jaffna on Monday, and clarifying the position taken by the TNPF at the tripartite deliberations facilitated by the Mannaar Bishop on Saturday. The IC that is not prepared to accept a separate State cannot reject an alternative either. It cannot impose a specific path. It is up to us to formulate the path without compromising fundamentals. Negotiation between two nations of distinct sovereignties is different from walking the path of devolution within a unitary State. But the TNA had been ‘instructed’ by a powerful country to choose the path of the 13th Amendment, the TNPF leader said.
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