Pasadena firm assists in Alston's execution video analysis

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 February 2010, 20:59 GMT]
Evidence from reputable and established forensic firms on the authenticity of the Channel-4 execution video continues to accumulate, and the latest is a Pasadena, California, forensic firm which disclosed Friday that one of the firm's technical representative, Jeff Spivak, assisted Professor Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in analyzing the video for authenticty. The firm claimed that "[i]n part, due to the image processing results performed with the Cognitech Video Investigator software, UN Rapporteur Professor Phillip Alston, has requested a full scale investigation into the incident," indicating a positive conclusion that video was authentic.
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TNA shouldn't fail representing hearts of Tamils: Fr. Emmanuel

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2010, 13:26 GMT]
At a time when Colombo and its collaborators try their best to erase out the national aspirations of Tamils, the Tamil National Alliance has the noble responsibility to maintain its unity in being the true voice and champions of Tamil aspirations, says Rev. Prof. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel, the former Vicar General of the Catholic diocese of Jaffna in an open letter addressed to TNA leaders Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam. Eezham Tamils have been consistent in expressing their genuine desire for independence ever since 1976 and even now it remains the underlying goal despite constitutional sanction on speaking it out openly in the island of Sri Lanka. But, their kith and kin in the free diaspora have voiced on their behalf, overwhelmingly re-confirming that desire as the standing-aspiration, he said in the appeal.
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Three-pronged Sinhala colonization in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 February 2010, 04:52 GMT]
Ko’ndachchi-Chilaavaththu’rai, Thalaimannaar Pier and Madu in Mannaar district are being particularly targeted for Sinhala-Buddhist colonies by the colonial government in Colombo, news reports from Mannaar said Sunday. Everyday, colonizers with shelter-making facilities and boats are brought through Vilpattu from Puththa’lam district and from Medawachchiya of Anuradhapura district, news sources said adding that even this Sinhalicisation is carefully planned for Buddhicisation of the Tamil Muslim and Christian dominated district. The long-term impact of the process is sure to be felt in coastal Tamil Nadu and in Tamil relationship across the seas, whatever equation imperial India may have with Colombo, Tamil circles said. Meanwhile, diplomats and agencies of Establishments who try to con Tamils need serious education on what is genocide – the Sri Lankan model, diaspora circles commented.
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SLA occupation of churches in Vadamaraadchi shocks Jaffna Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 February 2010, 02:52 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam is reported to be in great shock on witnessing Vettilaikkea’ni Kappal Eanthiya Maathaa Koayil, a historically famous St. Mary’s Church in Vadmaraadchi East, being converted into a big military base of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), on his recent visit to Vanni and Vadamaraadchi, according to sources close to Jaffna Bishop House. The Bishop had been instructed by SLA authorities not to release any information about the said church to media or other institutions, the sources further said.
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Active voting in Jaffna despite intimidation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 05:38 GMT]
Despite a few incidents of bomb explosions, attacks on TNA supporters’ houses Monday night and burning of tyres on some roads in Jaffna people are actively engaged in casting their votes in the presidential election, sources in Jaffna said. Voters who were few in the morning later came in groups to cast their votes and voting continues without any mishaps, the sources added.
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HRW calls for international investigations into war crimes

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2010, 04:57 GMT]
Noting that the "verbal acrobatics" of Sri Lankan officials in an attempt to "dismiss the shocking mobile phone video...showing Sri Lanka soldiers summarily executing naked and bound [Tamil] captives" evokes memories of Orwell's 1984, Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch's emergencies director and an expert in humanitarian crises, in the Thursday edition of Guardian, warns that Sri Lankan officials cannot hide the reality of what happened during this brutal conflict and its continuing impact on Sri Lankan society, and that Sri Lanka's aggressive denial of its crimes only results in escalation of lost credibililty. HRW urges Ban Ki-moon to establish "an independent international investigation to establish the truth of what happened in Sri Lanka, an essential step toward accountability for the serious crimes committed there."
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Thirumavalavan urges Tamils to refrain from celebrating Pongkal this year

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 January 2010, 14:30 GMT]
Thol Thirumavalavan, the leader of the Viduthalai Chi'ruththaika'l Kadchi (VCK) in a message appealed the Tamils in Tamil Nadu to refrain from celebrating Thai Pongkal to express distress and agony on behalf of Eelam Tamils who have been suffering in the internment camps of Sri Lanka Army after the brutal massacre of their loved ones by the Sri Lanka Army in their own soil.
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Remains of Pirapaharan’s father cremated in VVT

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 January 2010, 13:20 GMT]
Late Thiruvengadam Veluppillai, father of LTTE leader Mr. V.Pirapaharan, was cremated at the central cremation grounds in Oo'ra'ni Valveddiththu’rai Sunday around 2:30 p.m with thousands of mourners participating in the last funeral rites, sources in Jaffna said. Thousands of people from all parts of the peninsula joined in the procession when the remains were taken from Pirapaharan’s home in Aaladi in Valveddiththu’rai (VVT) while black flags were flown and sombre music was played in VVT, despite the intimidating presence of a large number of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and policemen, the sources added. Thol. Thirumavalvan, the leader of Viduthalai Chi’ruththaika’l from Tamil Nadu and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Sivajilingam paid their last tribute at the cremation grounds.
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Video authentic, Alston calls for wider war crimes probe

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 January 2010, 06:56 GMT]
Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in a press meet today called for wider investigations into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka after three forensic experts hired by Alston and two previous independent analyses by Times On Line (UK), and a Colorado firm confirmed the authenticity of the video broadcast by Channel-4 in August.
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Eezham / E'lu / He'la

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 00:01 GMT]
The gold (land)
The land of metal
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World obliged to expose civilian slaughters, Arnestad tells CNN

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 December 2009, 02:15 GMT]
Beate Arnestad, the director an hour long documentary film, "My daughter the terrorist," in an interview with CNN Monday says that the lesson the world should learn from her film which follows two young, Catholic female LTTE fighters and the final end of the war when tens of thousands of unarmed civilians were killed by Sri Lanka military, is that the World has an obligation to expose the slaughter civilians by Governments for political reasons. The documentary made its World Premiere to a full house at Parkteatret in the Norwegian capital Oslo on the 12th March 2007.
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Tamil Nadu leaders wish well for referendum in Canada

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 December 2009, 23:04 GMT]
Tamil Nadu political leaders Pazha Nedumaran, Ko'laththoor Mani, Aruna Bharathi and Thamizharuvi Maniyan in their statements Friday wished well for the democratic move of Canadian Tamils in conducting a referendum on Tamil Eelam Saturday and urged all Canadian Tamils to make it a grand success. Other prominent leaders like Vaiko and Thol Thirumavalavan have already extended their support to this international effort. Mr. Thirumavalavan has recently called for such democratic exercises in Tamil Nadu too. In the meantime, the move for the referendum is enlightening many Canadians on the history of Eezham Tamil struggle and how the struggle predates militant movements, said a Canadian Tamil who happened to spend some time with Canadian intelligence officials in explaining what was Vaddukkoaddai Resolution.
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Sinhala / Chingka'lam / Ceylon

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 21:03 GMT]
The red tract of land
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Hindu temple of ritual significance destroyed in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 December 2009, 09:22 GMT]
A Siva temple located at an ancient Hindu site called Akaththiyar Thaapanam, at Kangku-veali in the Moothoor division of the Trincomalee district, where Hindus gather especially to perform the Aadi Amaavaasai ritual for ancestors, was destroyed without any traces coinciding the Heroes’ Day on 27 November. The location of the temple is under the control of Sri Lanka Army stationed at a nearby Sinhala village, Neelaappola. The Sinhala villagers of Neelaappola protected the Tamil villagers of Kangku-veali from displacement in 2006. The Tamil villagers who were shocked and wept to see the temple razed to the ground now, suspect ‘outsiders’ and are scared whether this is a prelude to wipe out their traditional village as well.
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Sinhala Buddhists, Christians clash over attacks on Vihare, Church in Ja-Ela

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 December 2009, 13:38 GMT]
Police riot squads, Special Task Force (STF), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Sunday were called to prevent clashes between two groups representing Sinhala Buddhists and Sinhala Christians following two separate attacks on a Buddhist Vihare and a Catholic church in Ja-Ela area by unidentified persons, Police spokesman I . M. Karunaratne said.
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Grabbing land for wrecking contiguity of Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 December 2009, 10:22 GMT]
‘Investors’ may see the eastern coastal tract of the island of Sri Lanka, from Kokku’laay to Kuchchave’li, potential for minerals, tourism and fisheries. But the tract is of utmost importance to Eezham Tamils in linking the north and east of their historic homeland. Tamils wouldn’t have been averse to the idea of anyone coming and investing in this tract had there been a guarantee to the territorial integrity of their nation. It would have even been welcomed. But the genocidal Sinhala State and powers of greed have chosen the cruel way to achieve ambitions by crushing the Tamil nation – killing, maiming, chasing, incarcerating and weakening the historical inhabitants. If India that has a particular eye on this tract wants its gratification peaceful and long lasting it should take the responsibility of not altering the demography, writes a university academic of the Eastern Province.
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Age of struggle Tamil poetry comes in English

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 November 2009, 09:01 GMT]
Eezham Tamil poetry since 1970s by three leading poets has been translated into English and for the first time appears in an exclusive volume, which is to be launched in Canada Saturday. One of the poets, Puthuvai Rathnathurai, regarded as Tamil National Bard, was last seen among the displaced moving towards internment camps during the closing days of the war in Vanni and was taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Army. He is reportedly kept in undeclared captivity under rigorous conditions.
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Tamil Eelam not a lost cause: Fr. Jegath Gaspar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 November 2009, 01:14 GMT]
“I don't think Tamil Eelam is a lost cause. If there was any point of time in history that Eelam was a possibility, I think it is now. Tamils all over the world are more determined than ever,” says Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj, Chennai based Catholic priest and international broadcast journalist in an interview to TamilNet Sunday. “I believe that geopolitics or foreign policy or security policies are never static; they are ever dynamic, they will keep changing. I am confident that at some point of time India will come to realize that the only strategic leverage it has against the Chinese-Sri Lankan combine in the Indian Ocean is the Indo-Tamil combination,” he said, pinning the responsibility for the failure of Indian foreign policy to M K Narayanan Doctrine.
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Tamil Nadu must recognize and support establishment of Tamil Eelam: Thirumavalavan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 13:38 GMT]
Stating that there was a total violation of human rights in the Sri Lankan Government's camps for Internally Displaced Persons, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi President Thol.Thirumavalavan, told TamilNet Friday in an exclusive interview of the "appalling conditions" prevalent in these "barbed-wire concentration camps" which he witnessed firsthand as one of the ten-member parliamentary delegation from Tamil Nadu. Pointing out that Tamil people could not become a "permanent slave society" and "live as second class citizens in Sri Lanka," Thirumavalavan sought to emphasize that Tamil Eelam was the only solution to a struggle that had claimed the lives of nearly fifteen hundred thousand Tamils civilians and more than thirty thousand Tamil Tiger fighters.
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SLA denies permission to Thirumavalavan to meet public in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2009, 07:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna turned down the request of Thol. Thirumavalavan, Tamil Nadu Parliamentarian and leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Kadchi (VCK) Party, to meet the public in Jaffna when the delegation of Tamil Nadu MPs was taken to Jaffna Public Library for a meeting Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna University Students expressed their strong protest against India for having let down the Eezham Tamils and for deceiving them continually, when the MPs met students in Jaffna University Sunday, the sources added.
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