Copper plates tell on charities of Jaffna and Vanni at Chithamparam

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 May 2013, 06:46 GMT]
A copper plate grant issued by the chieftains of Vanni in the Dutch times, refers to an earlier charity; a mutt built by the King of Jaffna, Pararaja Sekaran at Chithamparam in Tamil Nadu, and on the charities made by chieftains of different parts of Vanni to another mutt built by a Vanni chieftain, Kayilaaya Vanniyan, at Chithamparam. The present conditions of the royal mutt of the Kingdom of Jaffna, called Iraasaakka’l Thampiraan Madam and the Vanni Chieftain’s mutt called Kayilaaya Vanniyan Madam at Chithamparam are not known today. The copper plates in the custody of a family at Ka’l’liyang-kaadu in Nalloor, Jaffna, were deciphered and published earlier by Dr S. Gunasingham of Trincomalee and by Prof S. Pathmanathan. A mutt at Chithamparam, in the name of the Ka’l’liyang-kaadu village is in completely ruined conditions today.
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Keith Locke questions New Zealand's silence on Sri Lanka hosting CHOGM

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 May 2013, 04:46 GMT]
“So far Canada's campaign to move CHOGM away from Sri Lanka has met with little success. Britain's Conservative government has been critical of Rajapaksa but won't support changing the conference venue. Australia has turned a blind eye to the continuing tragedy in Sri Lanka, apparently so it can justify returning Tamil boatpeople to their home country. And what of New Zealand? Our Government seems to be keeping as quiet as possible,” writes Keith Locke, former Green MP, in an opinion article published in The Dominion Post on Friday.
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Commonwealth SG upholds SL venue of CHOGM, meets Colombo’s HR outfit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 May 2013, 22:19 GMT]
While widespread calls from credible quarters across the world were urging either change of the CHOGM venue or boycott, if it is going to take place in Sri Lanka, and while the UK Tamils staged a demonstration against the venue, the Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma upheld the venue in a press meet in London last Friday. “I meet leaders continually and continue to take soundings with leaders, and have been doing so recently as well, and no member of government has indicated remotely that it wishes to change the venue, Kamalesh Sharma said, answering a question put by Jonathan Miller of Channel 4 News. Meanwhile, Kamalesh Sharma also received a ‘human rights’ outfit of genocidal Colombo that came to meet him in London this week.
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Colombo appropriates lands of 400 Tamil families in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 May 2013, 20:33 GMT]
The Colombo government has begun to appropriate 400 acres of lands belonging to Tamils in Veerapuram in Vavuniyaa Cheddiku'lam division to settle down Sinhalese, according to Vanni district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Sivasakthi Aanandan. In a similar move, at Nochchikku'lam GS division, private lands of Eezham Tamils have been appropriated for the purpose of 56th brigade headquarters for the occupying Sri Lanka Army, news sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Eezham Tamil activist elected to represent youth wing of German left party

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 May 2013, 23:56 GMT]
Balakrishnan Koculan, a 29 year old Eezham Tamil youth activist, was elected to represent the official youth wing of the German Die Linke party on Sunday. In the 6th Federal Congress of the Left Youth -Die Linksjugend [`solid] held at Magdeburg in Germany, Mr. Koculan along with seven other activists were elected by 200 delegates of the youth organization from across several states in Germany, with Koculan getting 52.63% of votes. Speaking to TamilNet, Mr. Koculan urged Tamil youth in the diaspora to challenge the unjust approach of the global establishments towards the Eezham Tamils’ struggle, stressing the necessity of building alliances with progressive forces.
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TNPF prepared to join TNA, if pre-2009 goals upheld: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 May 2013, 23:28 GMT]
Amidst news reports on split within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and disunity in the Tamil political camp, the leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam on Wednesday came forward to tell that his party is prepared to join with the TNA, if the TNA could stick to pre-2009 political goals of Tamils. The current split within the TNA is between the ITAK, the major constituent party of electoral political origins and other parties of militant political origins. Both factions have now approached the TNPF. The deceptive prospects of Northern Provincial Council elections, which the LLRC-based Geneva resolution urged to conduct, and Indo-US competitive engineering in the hijack of Tamil polity are behind the split, news sources in Jaffna said.
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Leaked US draft on Maldives should open eyes of Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 April 2013, 21:12 GMT]
A draft of US defence pact proposed to the Maldives, but leaked to media a few days ago, should open the eyes of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora, on the game played by the USA along with the Establishments in the region, either by exploiting or by treading on the struggles of peoples in the region, commented alternative political activists in the Sinhala military occupied country of Eezham Tamils. Maldivians had made a mistake in not checking their governments supporting the genocide of Eezham Tamils abetted by the USA, India and China. It reflects on them now. Meanwhile, Global Tamils should know where the struggle of Eezham Tamils should ultimately be addressed to in unison, and what ideological stand they should independently take with people’s strength, the activists said.
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Australian Labor MP calls for CHOGM boycott

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 April 2013, 07:18 GMT]
Breaking ranks with his Labor party in Australia, John Murphy, a federal backbencher, has called for the boycott of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). "All the empirical and other evidence today indicates an arrogant reluctance by the Sri Lankan government to deal properly with these very, very serious allegations and so I've reached the conclusion that the best step would be for our country to boycott CHOGM," Australian media has reported the MP as saying. Tamil political observers watching Canada’s open stance against holding the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka and Australia extending open support for going ahead with the summit, as an outcome of the West’s ‘carrot and stick policy’ towards the Sri Lankan State.
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Protest against SL military seizure of lands gains momentum in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 April 2013, 16:16 GMT]
More than 800 uprooted people gathered Monday morning in front of the Divisional Secretariat at Thellippazhai, situated near the entrance to the former High Security Zone (HSZ), which is now being permanently seized by the occupying Colombo aiming a permanent Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) in Jaffna. Despite the refusal by the SL Police to stage any protest march on the KKS Road, the people who rallied peacefully from 8:30 to 11:30 in front of the DS office, started to block the entrance of the DS office and embarked upon a spontaneous march towards the entrance of the HSZ. The riot control police commandos and the SL military men blocked them in front of the SL Police Station located on KKS Road.
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Indo-US manoeuvrings impact TNA's political future

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 April 2013, 23:30 GMT]
The sophisticated competition between the Establishments of the USA and India in winning Colombo to their side exploiting the plight of the genocide affected nation of Eezham Tamils, has resulted in divisions among the constituent parties of the Tamil National Alliance. The exploitations now revolve around the provincial council elections. Informed sources said that EPRLF Varathar-wing has been recently consulted by New Delhi. Likewise, the son of the late SJV Chelvanayakam and a son of the late A. Amirthalingam have also been consulted by India to back up the ITAK faction that has been aligning with India. Informed circles further told TamilNet that the US officials have been disappointed with the ITAK alignment with New Delhi.
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Panguwa, Kittam-pahuwa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 April 2013, 21:47 GMT]
The part

The jute (producing) part
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Justice Wigneswaran delivers ITAK’s Chelva Memorial Lecture

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 April 2013, 07:01 GMT]
Marking the 36th death anniversary of S.J.V. Chelvanayagam Q.C., Justice C.V. Wigneswaran delivered this year’s Thanthai Chelvanayagam Memorial Lecture, titled “Whither Sri Lankan Tamils,” at the New Kathiresan Hall in Colombo on Friday. The Lecture was organised by the Colombo District Branch of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), formerly known in English as Federal Party and is currently the leading constituent party of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Justice Wigneswaran’s lecture gains significance, as there are speculations about TNA fielding him as Chief Minister in the Geneva Resolution-urged Northern Provincial Council elections. Despite logic and eloquence in aptly bringing out the cause of Tamils, the lecture was ultimately reeking of the agenda of India and the USA, political observers in the island commented.
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Tamils were not the ‘favoured’ under British colonialism: Theva Rajan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 April 2013, 23:44 GMT]
It is noted that D S Senanayake advised the British to grant independence to Ceylon early, citing that the Tamils will be problematic as they were followers of Gandhian principles led by the Jaffna Youth League that agitated for full independence, writes Mr. A Theva Rajan in New Zealand, commenting further on a TamilNet feature last Saturday that refuted a repeatedly told myth about British colonialism favouring Tamils. The feature, “Tehelka report misled on British treatment of Tamils,” challenged a recent statement by Ms Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga that the frustration of Tamils was due to lost privileges they had enjoyed under British favouritism aimed at ‘divide and rule’. The myth, constructed by Sinhala polity to justify State-conducted genocide in the island has misled a recent report by Tehelka too.
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Panthiya, Aanaip-panthi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 April 2013, 08:42 GMT]
The stable or cattle stand
The elephant stable
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Fraser supports CHOGM boycott as CMAG ducks action

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 April 2013, 00:42 GMT]
Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser joined calls on the federal government to boycott the Commonwealth summit, CHOGM, in Sri Lanka, as its Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) failed to discuss Sri Lanka on its formal agenda during CMAG's meeting in London Friday. The deliberations on Sri Lanka fell into the “Other Matters of Interest to Ministers”, which are not made public, a news media monitoring the CMAG reported. Meanwhile, Minister Baird, Canada’s Foreign Minister, said he was appalled that Sri Lanka seems poised to have the honour and responsibility of hosting the Commonwealth summit meeting in November. Speaking at London after the CMAG meeting, Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird alluded to Sri Lanka hosting the CHOGM as ‘evil’.
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CPI urges TN government to initiate Eezham Tamil heritage centre at Chithamparam

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 April 2013, 15:33 GMT]
Speaking at the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Friday on the budget allocations of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Communist Party of India’s Tha’li constituency member, Mr. T. Ramachandran urged the Tamil Nadu Government to initiate an Eezham Tamil Cultural Centre at Chithamparam by taking over and protecting the enclave of Eezham Tamil Mutts in Chithamparam. The Mutts date from the times of the Kingdom of Jaffna. King Pararaja Sekaran, who ruled in the 16th century, before the advent of the Portuguese, built the earliest known among them. Most of the Eezham Tamil Mutts at Chithamparam are located as an enclave around a large tank called Gnaanap-pirakaasam, excavated by the ascetic Gnaanap-pirakaasar who came from Jaffna in the 17th century.
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SL Military turns back Ranil visiting Valikaamam

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 April 2013, 11:34 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army, which is busily transforming the former High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North in Jaffna into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ), turned away a delegation led by SL opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe on Thursday evening, denying them access to visit the area and witness the scale of the land acquisition. In the meantime, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told the visiting UNP leader to voice for the rights of the uprooted people of Valikaamam North.
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Tamil from Australia tortured, abused by Sri Lankan forces during visit to island

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 April 2013, 17:48 GMT]
An Eezham Tamil male currently residing in Melbourne, Australia was tortured and sexually abused by Sri Lankan forces when he paid a visit to the island a few weeks before, Australian media reports. Speaking under a different name of ‘Kumar’ to the ABC on Wednesday, the father of three described in graphic detail of how he was abducted and tortured. This was, however, flatly rejected as “false allegations” by the SL High Commissioner for Australia, Thisara Samarasinghe, himself a military officer accused of war crimes. Despite living in Australia, the torture survivor is unable to come out in public owing to fear of retaliation by the GoSL on his family back in the island. Tamil sources from Australia further said that as long as the US and its bloc are going to churn out only impotent resolutions, this arrogance of the genocide-accused SL state would continue.
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TN responded, diaspora should come forward: Gajendrakumar urges addressing IC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 April 2013, 08:14 GMT]
“Just 25 miles away, across the sea, there are 70 million people in Tamil Nadu prepared to give their voice for our struggle […] At the same time, the Tamils living across the world who constitute the global Tamil Diaspora, should also come forward to strengthen this struggle by taking it forward in their countries, demonstrating their strength, as they voiced for us during the last phase of the war,” said TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam on Wednesday, urging the Tamils in the West and in Tamil Nadu to address the concerned States that allowed the genocide in war, to remind their responsibility when the process of genocide reaches its peak four years later. He was addressing people demonstrating against SL military seizing an entire region of their lands in Jaffna.
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People rise up against SL military seizure of Valikaamam in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 April 2013, 06:57 GMT]
Hundreds of people, braving the hurdles put up by the Sri Lankan military, gathered on Wednesday in front of the District Secretariat in Jaffna, protesting against the systematic seizure of their already SL-military occupied lands in Valikaamam North, transforming the former ‘High Security Zone’ area into a permanent Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ). The successful protest, for the first time saw active participation of law students and activists, news sources in Jaffna said. Despite the deployment of SL military, intelligence operatives and the SL police in blocking peoples’ participation, around 500 people gathered in front of the District Secretariat passing a strong message to not only the occupying military, but also to the powers abetting the continued LLRC-based structural genocide.
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