Kapila Jeyasekara, alleged killer of Trinco-5 students, appointed Vanni DIG

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 March 2013, 10:16 GMT]
H.D.K.S. Kapila Jeyasekera, who rose in ranks as the Superintendent of Police (SP) from the Special Task Force (STF), and who was alleged to have been responsible for the extra-judicial execution of five Trincomalee students in 2006, and other killings in Trincomalee during 2006, including the ACF-17 killings, has been appointed as the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) to the Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu district, Jaffna Tamil daily Uthayan reported. Mr Jeyasekara is also a close ally of Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, and has been kept out of visible public presence after Jeyasekera was accused of a serious security lapse involving India's Prime Minister during his visit to Colombo in 2008.
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Commonwealth's quandary over CHOGM in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 March 2013, 21:25 GMT]
If the Commmonwealth Head of States Meeting (CHOGM) were held in Colombo this November, "what’s at stake is the reputation of the Commonwealth...," and, as the host, "it [Commonwealth] will be led by a country that committed war crimes on a scale that the UN says, "represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law,"" says Francis Harrison, a former reporter for the BBC in Colombo. Canada’s Harper has said he will not attend a Colombo meeting, UK's key foreign affairs committee has recommended the Prime Minister not to attend, and there is wide speculation that the Queen will not attend.
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US resolution burnt in front of US Embassy in London

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 March 2013, 12:26 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamils gathered in front of the US Embassy in London on Friday evening, burnt the copy of the US resolution tabled at the UNHRC session in Geneva and the copy of the LLRC recommendations of Sri Lanka, based on which the USA has tabled the resolution. All the speakers at the protest welcomed the student uprising in Tamil Nadu opposing the US designs as an inspiration to global Tamils in continuing the struggle of Eezham Tamils. Viewing the US resolution as one that is facilitating the agenda of the genocidal State and regime of Sri Lanka in the annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils, the demonstrators demanded protection and solutions based on identity, territoriality and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils as a nation in the island. The protestors who gathered at a short notice braved rains and detractors pinning hopes on the USA.
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Gajendrakumar at UN calls for transitional administration to safeguard Tamil Nation

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2013, 15:48 GMT]
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the president of Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF), who addressed the UPR Review session in Geneva on Friday, has called for an internationally supervised transitional administration of the Tamil homeland in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. Noting that the genuine grievances and aspirations of Eezham Tamils are reduced to “mere individual human rights problems” rather than the “destruction of their Nation”, Mr. Gajendrakumar, who represented the NGO, International Education Development (IED), at the UN forum called for independent international investigation on Sri Lanka. In a carefully drafted statement, he further said that the UPR is “de-Tamilized” to the point that, anyone not fully cognizant of the facts of the 65 year long Tamil-Sinhala conflict would not even know who is to be a party to “reconciliation.”
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Colombo executing structural genocide, not reconciliation - Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2013, 11:54 GMT]
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the President of the Tamil National People's Front, in a discussion with Phil Miller of "Open Democracy" in Geneva, criticized the language of "reconciliation" promoted by British officials and asserts that “structural genocide, not reconciliation, is the phrase which most accurately describes what is going on,” and adds that “[t]he land grab is not peculiar to this [Rajapakse] regime. It has been happening for the last 65 years. The only time it stopped was during the armed struggle of the LTTE, because then Sinhalese people were not willing to settle in the north and east, where a de-facto Tamil state existed."
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Tamil Nadu student upsurge gains momentum overcoming manipulations

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2013, 06:03 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu student protests against the pro-LLRC US resolution being tabled at Geneva has intensified in all major towns and cities even despite attempts by certain sections of the Indian media and certain political elements to twist the purpose of the protest, Thanjavur based sources told TamilNet. A protest involving over 5000 students took place on Wednesday at Thanjavur, a city of great historical and cultural importance to Tamils. Speaking to TamilNet, the sources said that while the student protests across Tamil Nadu were all about rejecting the US resolution as it did not meet any of the just expectations of the Eezham Tamils, some sections of the media and political circles were trying to give a false image that the students were urging India to support this hollow resolution.
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U.S. Congressman calls for International Investigation into war-crimes

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2013, 01:13 GMT]
U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a letter to Secretary Kerry on Wednesday, expressed serious concern regarding the deterioration of democracy and the lack of progress on reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka, and added that "now is the time for the State Department to support calls for an Independent International Investigation into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka." The Congressman's call answers those who argue among Tamils that the tabled resolution already has provisions for international investigation.
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Kurdish leadership accuses imperialist powers for Eezham Tamil tragedy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2013, 19:14 GMT]
In a solidarity message to the Eezham Tamils’ liberation struggle sent to TamilNet, the Executive Council of the Koma Civaken Kurdistan (KCK), condemned “the massacre and humanitarian tragedy that were executed by the occupying army of Sri Lanka with the support of imperialist powers”, accusing the UN and the world powers of their complicity in this mass atrocity on the Eezham Tamils. The KCK, or the Union of Communities in Kurdistan, an organization founded by the leader of the Kurdish liberation struggle Abdullah Ocalan, drawing parallels with the internationally-abetted oppression of the Kurdish nation and the Eezham Tamil nation, further emphasised the need for a continued solidarity and exchange of ideas between the two national liberation struggles.
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UNHRC, CHOGM, Regime Change: people’s power has no substitute

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2013, 07:26 GMT]
A drama has been carefully executed by all in the game ultimately guilty of crimes and detract the question of Eezham Tamils: first by giving hope and by deploying agents among Tamils that something serious in ‘procedure’ is going to take place, so that any righteous Tamil mobilisation in the island and in the diaspora could be diffused; then by pointing to New Delhi competing in the crime so that the political parties fixed and the gullible in Tamil Nadu would be facilitators, and finally by tabling a mischievous resolution so that whether it is passed or not passed it would favour the genocidal State and regime in Sri Lanka, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo, welcoming the youth uprising in Tamil Nadu and adding that there is no substitute to people’s power in altering the machinations.
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Protest in Australia rejects LLRC-based US resolution, demands Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2013, 05:32 GMT]
Hundreds of Tamils and several non-Tamil protesters gathered at Canberra, Australia in front of the Parliament House, denouncing a LLRC based political solution as a farce and demanding the creation of Tamil Eelam. The Eezham Tamil protesters, who conveyed their admiration for and solidarity with the students’ upsurge in Tamil Nadu, were also of the opinion that the impact of the Tamil Nadu protests had reached Australia, a representative of the Campaign for Tamil Justice told TamilNet. The demonstrators marched to the embassies of the US, India, UK and the EU and submitted their demands to the respective embassies. Speaking to TamilNet, Trevor Grant, former chief sports writer at the Age opined that the proposed US resolution at Geneva would only encourage “the Rajapaksa regime to continue its carefully-planned genocide of Tamils.”
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Rajapaksa ad says Tamils are happy about IA at Hambantota

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2013, 16:26 GMT]
While even the flights to India from the Palaali airport became non-operational for the last 35 years, a newspaper advertisement of Colombo government in Sinhala this week showed a person dressed as a Tamil father, standing against a background of palmyra palms, telling that he is ‘happy’ about the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport at Hambantota, since his son has found a job there. When the Sinhalese workforce brought from the South are grabbing every single job in new infrastructure projects in the North-East and while the Tamil lands are kept under military occupation, the state propaganda paints a picture of a 'Happy Tamil' who even manages to get jobs at the development projects in the deep south, commented media sources in the island.
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Karagaha-ulpatha, Paalai-oottu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2013, 00:38 GMT]
The spring (in the locality) of Kara shrub
The spring (in the locality) of Paalai tree
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Tamil Nadu students burn US draft resolution

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2013, 00:28 GMT]
Protest started by the Loyola College students in Chennai against an empty US resolution on Sri Lanka at Geneva and the Tamil Nadu State Government action against the protest, have triggered spontaneous statewide student uprising that is not depending on any political party, news sources in Tamil Nadu said. Students of instituions such as the Annamalai University in Chithamparam and St. Xavier’s College, an autonomous university institution at Paa’laiyang-koaddai in Thirunelveali, have burnt the copies of the US draft resolution tabled at Geneva for discussion on Friday, saying that the draft only bails out the genocide-accused Sri Lankan State. Meanwhile, student protests took place in every part of Tamil Nadu and All Colleges Students Federation for the Liberation of Tamil Eelam has come out with a 9-point demand.
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Colombo deploys former LTTE members to twist opposition to US resolution

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 March 2013, 07:32 GMT]
While the Tamil Nadu students in an unprecedented international approach have risen up targeting the hollow resolution tabled by the USA at Geneva, and have come out with 9 demands addressed to New Delhi and Tamil Nadu governments, Colombo engineering an ironical twist to the Tamil uprising, organised a simulated anti-resolution demonstration in Vanni on Tuesday directed by the Sinhala military with the forced participation of former LTTE members, who are now kept as farm labourers by the military. The demonstration was scheduled to take place in Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu by placing the detained former LTTE members in the forefront, followed by public passers-by who were detained for this purpose by the SL military on Tuesday morning. But, the plan flopped and the SL military had to bring in Sinhalese from Mannaar in 3 buses to stage the demonstration in Ki'linochchi.
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Student protests across Tamil Nadu intensify against US resolution

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2013, 20:41 GMT]
While the students of Loyola have been coerced to end their hunger-strike after their arrest in early hours of Monday, their three day fast has sparked off protests across Tamil Nadu. Students from colleges and universities in Chennai, Chidambaram, Chengalpet, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Trichy, Tanjore and Tirunelveli have begun mass protests condemning the pro-LLRC US resolution and urging for a referendum among the Eezham Tamils for a sovereign Tamil Eelam as the only just political solution. Grassroots mobilization that is not affiliated to any political party but based on correct concepts is credited to the success of these protests, sources from Tamil Nadu told TamilNet.
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US resolution ‘guides’ UK Labour to support Sri Lanka venue of CHOGM

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2013, 20:23 GMT]
The US draft resolution at Geneva that is based on Sri Lanka’s LLRC recommendations and that neither welcomes international investigation nor initiates any meaningful new action on Sri Lanka, also undermines efforts to check Sri Lanka through the Commonwealth, political observers said. The US resolution subverts any opposition to the CHOGM taking place in the island or the Colombo regime leading the Commonwealth for the next two years. Losing no time in playing second fiddle to Washington’s patronage to genocidal Sri Lanka, the UK’s Labour shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, subtly urging the UK government not to boycott the Colombo summit of CHOGM, said on Monday that “the British Government should keep its attendance at this summit under review as it awaits effective action from the Sri Lankan Government.”
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Fasting Loyola students arrested by police, protests to continue

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2013, 06:18 GMT]
In a sudden operation conducted around midnight, the Tamil Nadu police swooped on the eight Loyola College students who were on an indefinite hunger-strike against the pro-LLRC US resolution and have forcibly removed them from the venue of their protest at Koyambedu, Chennai, on Monday. The students, who had begun their fast on Friday, have been taken to the Royapettah General Hospital. Also, around 200 supporters of the students were detained in a community hall near the protest venue. While this move is seen as a draconian curbing of rising sentiments among Tamil Nadu students against those who extend legitimacy to the genocidal Sri Lankan state, sources in Chennai also told TamilNet that the eight students were firm that even if they were arrested they would not give up their protest.
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Tutu, Robinson call for shift of CHOGM venue

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2013, 02:12 GMT]
Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu and the first female President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, both members of The Elders, a group of independent leaders working for peace, justice and human rights, supported the "calls by Sri Lankan civil society, and by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, for an independent and credible international investigation into alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," and urged "the Commonwealth to seriously reconsider appointing Sri Lanka as its chair for 2013-15, as it currently plans to do. In this role, Sri Lanka would host the biennial meeting of Commonwealth heads of government (CHOGM) in November this year," Times of India reported.
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Academics criticize R2P, emphasize inapplicability to Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 March 2013, 20:12 GMT]
Even as certain groups of the establishments are suggesting the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine to the Eezham Tamils, the concept has come under severe criticism by academics who attended the “Conference on Tamil People’s Rights” at Geneva on 02 March. While British academic Dr. Andy Higginbottom argued that R2P was “a humanitarian face to further US interests”, Ireland based Sinhala academic Dr. Jude Lal Fernando stated that “At a time when the powers are giving economic diplomatic and military support to the Sri Lankan state, talking about R2P is nonsensical”, in their opinions conveyed to TamilNet. Dr. Fernando also stressed the need for “the application of remedial sovereignty by means of an UN referendum conducted by powers who were not involved in the genocide.”
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Tamil women in UK begin campaign to highlight genocidal sexual abuse by Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 March 2013, 09:04 GMT]
Seeking to inform the British public on the sexual abuse perpetrated on Tamil women by the Sri Lankan state forces, Tamil women activists in the UK began a campaign on International Women’s Day, from the Boudica statue in Westminster, London, which is an important cultural symbol in British history. “The systematic sexual violence against Tamil women by the Sri Lankan state is not cases of individual human rights violations but part of an intended genocide to break the Eezham Tamil nation. This is a structural problem in unitary Sri Lanka and the International Community should recognize that only in an independent Tamil Eelam, Tamil women can aspire for a life with dignity and safety,” Bairavi Ratnabal, second generation Eezham Tamil youth activist told TamilNet.
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