Sinhala extremist federation wants Rajapaksa to terminate talks with TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2011, 05:42 GMT]
The Federation of National Organizations, a coalition formed by ten Sinhala extremist groups in the south, has requested the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to terminate its talks with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a statement issued on May Day, coinciding with the protest show of Mahinda Rajapaksa against the UN Expert Panel report. Meanwhile, Tamils from several parts of the island were forcefully taken to Colombo by Sri Lankan military, paramilitary and other agents to showcase as people from all ethnicities were united in the protest against the UN. However, a dead silence prevailed in the SL occupied country of Eezham Tamils throughout the whole day on May Day.
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Boyle: Word "Genocide" missing in UN Panel's war crimes report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 April 2011, 12:09 GMT]
Pointing out the instances where the criminal allegations on Sri Lanka made in the UN's war crimes report support the charge of genocide on Sri Lanka, Professor Francis Boyle, expert in International Law and Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet, "[f]or obvious political reasons, no one wants to use the word “genocide." And that is because it then raises the question why did no one stop the genocide as required by article I of the Genocide Convention. The same phenomenon happened in Bosnia. No one would use the word “genocide” until afterwards, and it was too late to do anyone any good—they were all dead."
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Sri Lanka plans criminal show of ‘reconciliation’ in Colombo, Jaffna on May 1

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 April 2011, 20:51 GMT]
In a cruel show of ‘reconciliation,’ Sri Lanka’s occupying military in full swing has gone to the houses of released LTTE cadres, family members of the captives and ‘resettled’ Eezham Tamils living in open prisons in north and east and intimidated them to participate in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s demonstration show in Colombo on 1 May, to oppose any international justice coming to the crimes committed against them. A fleet of buses are organized to herd the people from Vanni and Jaffna to Colombo, after warning them of dire consequences if they don’t come. Meanwhile, a group of thugs has been brought from the south for violent demonstrations in the locality of UN offices in Jaffna city on May 1.
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‘Solheim transforms from peace facilitator to facilitator of war crimes indictment escape’

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 April 2011, 06:50 GMT]
Norway’s former peace facilitator to the island of Sri Lanka, Mr. Erik Solheim, speaking to Norwegian state owned media NRK (Dagsnytt 18) on Wednesday, argued against any immediate international investigation on the war crimes in the island and said that it is only correct and fair to expect the Sri Lankan authorities to domestically investigate the UN panel material. According to him, this is what the ‘broader international community’ including nearly all the Western countries want. Solheim defended Ban Ki Moon, as his situation is difficult, accused the Tigers for not listening to his surrender call since five months before the end of the war, and suggested a new principle for international law that since Tiger leaders are now eliminated, domestic handling should be given a chance than ‘one-sided’ international indictment of Sri Lankan state.
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Tibet in exile transforms from theocracy to democracy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 08:38 GMT]
In a significant move, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetans and the head of the Tibetan government in exile in India, has decided in March this year to step down from politics and to transfer the political power entirely into the hands of democratically elected leadership of Tibetans in exile. His farsighted move will prevent China or any others playing competitive politics with the Tibetan belief of reincarnation of Dalai Lama after his times, political observers think. Political observers also place significance to the election of Harvard-based, Lobsang Sengay, who lived in the USA for 16 years, as the new Prime Minister with full political mandate, while some opinion elements in India that oppose the Eezham struggle also oppose the Tibetan struggle.
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Colombo’s crimes grotesque – The Times

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 00:04 GMT]
The Times newspaper (London) said Wednesday that the UN expert panel’s report on Sri Lanka’s war crimes confirms the newspaper’s reporting in May 2009 that the “Sri Lankan Government was party to the mass murder of civilians.” Referring especially to mass bombardment of civilians in so-called no-fire zones, the paper demanded that “perpetrators of this war crime should be pursued and targeted with sanctions by the UN and other international organisations.” Dismissing Colombo’s claim that the UN panel’s conclusions would inflict “irrevocable damage” on postwar efforts of reconciliation as “disingenuous”, the paper singled out India especially to act over Sri Lanka’s war crimes.
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Colombo forces Tamils to sign petition against UN: Srikantha

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 05:53 GMT]
Former Tamil National Aliance parliamentarians N. Srikantha,and M.K Sivajilingam, who formed Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA), blamed Colombo on Monday for continuing to lead the Sinhala masses on a racial path and for forcing the Tamils in Colombo to sign their petition against the United Nations Expert Panel report. Tamil civilians traveling in buses in Colombo are being forced to sign the petitions by extremist Sinhala elements, Mr. Srikantha, a Colombo based Tamil politician, told journalists in Jaffna at a press meeting held in Jaffna Monday evening.
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'Thanthai Chelva pioneered political course of Eezham Tamils'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 05:37 GMT]
“The first Republican Constitution of 1972 gave the last rites to the slow death for ethnic relations in this country that started when a unitary constitution was handed to us by the departing British,” said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr. M A Sumanthiran, while delivering Thanthai Chelva Memorial Speech at New Kathiresan Hall in Colombo, Tuesday, remembering 34th death anniversary of SJV Chelvanayakam, who founded Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi in 1949. To prove Tamil opinion rejecting the 1972 constitution, Chelva resigned his parliamentary seat and won a by-election. After leading the most favoured Tamil political party and struggling for federal solution for more than 25 years that found no success with Sinhala leadership, Chelva ultimately presided over the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution that called for Tamil independence in 1976.
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Channel 4 to show film on Sri Lanka’s war crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 05:35 GMT]
Channel 4 is to air “probably the most horrific” footage it has ever shown in an investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, The Guardian reported Tuesday. Because of the horrific nature of the videos, the film, presented by Jon Snow, will air in a late night slot in May and C4 said that "distressing images will be preceded by appropriate warnings".
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Ban Ki Moon, Accessory After the Fact to Sri Lanka war crimes, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 22:56 GMT]
Faulting UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for his continued "pattern and practice of criminal behavior by rejecting the recommendation of his own Panel that he appoint a Commission of Inquiry into GOSL war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Tamils," Professor Francis Boyle, expert in International Law and Professor at the University of Illinois School of Law, told TamilNet that "Ban Ki-Moon is an absolute disgrace to the lofty standards of the United Nations Charter and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights," and that Moon should be prevented from being elected for a second term.
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UN panel report oversteps by rejecting homeland of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 11:54 GMT]
Eezham Tamils hoodwinked by war crimes indictments that are doubtful of materialising into actions, should carefully note that the UN panel report has said nothing on the burning question of colonization of the Tamil country by Colombo in listing obstacles to ‘sustainable peace and reconciliation’. On the contrary, it advises especially the diaspora to realise that all ethnic communities in the island “share a common homeland.” Anyone could see that in the context of the island nullification of the historical homeland of Eezham Tamils amounts to dismemberment of their nation and completion of genocide. What is the mandate of the UN panel to imply a political model rejecting the territorial identity of Eezham Tamils as a ‘lasting solution’ and in the process paving way for further crisis to them, asks a Tamil politician in Jaffna.
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SL Police threaten Tamils in Colombo to sign petition against UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 10:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Unit personnel are threatening Tamils walking along roads in Colombo, forcing them to sign petitions prepared by the Rajapakse led government in an attempt to collect one million signatures against the UN Experts panel report. Tamils who refuse to sign are threatened and subjected to bodily harm, Tamil civil sources allege.
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UN has no right to meddle with democratic government - Dinamina

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2011, 19:36 GMT]
An angry Sri Lankan government lashed out at the United Nations declaring that it did not have any right to meddle with the affairs of an independent, democratically elected government, the state run, Dinamina newspaper said in its lead article on Sunday. Quoting Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, the article said, the report by the three member panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was one sided with obvious partiality to the LTTE.
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Germany supports Colombo’s colonial archaeology in Tamil country

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2011, 07:25 GMT]
After a discussion between Colonial Colombo’s ‘National Heritage’ Minister Dr. Jagath Balasuriya and German Deputy Ambassador to Colombo, Stefan Weak Bark, it was decided that Germany would support Sri Lanka’s initiatives to declare important ancient archaeological sites in the Northern and Eastern Provinces as World Heritage Sites. Quite typical of genocidal Sri Lanka’s indiscrimination between Army and Archaeology in the Tamil country it is occupying, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence website on Tuesday, citing the government media Daily News, said that Kurundugoda temple [?] in Jaffna which belongs to prehistoric period [?], Girihandu Seya which is considered the first stupa built in the world [?], along with Jaffna fort and Thirukethiswaram Kovil [Koayil] will be proclaimed ‘world heritage sites’.
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Indian public opinion should take care of Russia meddling with Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2011, 21:51 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa is harping on Russia and China to escape international action on war crimes and to continue the well-planned genocide of Eezham Tamils unabated. Regrettably, Russia sees the current accelerated process of structural genocide and dismemberment of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island as ‘reconciliation’ that should not be disturbed by war crimes investigation. On Monday Russia raised a number of ‘procedural’ objections on UN discussing the panel report. According to Inner City Press Thursday, Colombo’s UN representative Palitha Kohona insisted that there was “no mechanism” to bring the matter to the Security Council and that “We have Friends”. Whether Russia is acting on own or at the behest of somebody else, public opinion in India should take care of Russia, writes a Tamil political activist in Colombo.
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BTF requests UN to release Panel report public, urges focus on Tamil Genocide in May

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 14:02 GMT]
The British Tamils Forum (BTF) has called upon global Tamils to come together in breaking the international silence on Tamil genocide while marking the remembrance this year of those who perished in Mu'l'livaaykkaal in May 2009. “Focusing the genocidal onslaught by the Sri Lankan state on Eezham Tamils in Mu'l'livaaykkaal and reiterating the now widely acknowledged demand for international investigations on war crimes and crimes against humanity, we should all target our efforts in convincing the global community on the core theme of the crime of genocide, which is establishing the ‘intent’ on the part of the Sri Lankan state behind a systematic destruction of the Eezham Tamil nation in the island,” Kana Nirmalan, a Human Rights activist of the BTF said when contacted by TamilNet Wednesday, following a media statement the organisation issued urging the UN to make the Panel report public.
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‘Saving a state that refuses to be saved’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 02:40 GMT]
A perusal of the leaked UN report would show that the outlook is to ultimately save the Sri Lankan state by providing it with an escape avenue through a minimum penalty of accepting a ‘concurrent’ international mechanism to investigate the war crimes. But the reactions coming from Colombo only show that such an undue consideration on the part of the UN and the IC towards Sri Lanka is futile as state has never been orientated in the island for peaceful unity or for being genocide-free. Perhaps a chance has now been given especially to the Sinhala masses to demonstrate their choice between supporting a criminal regime that tries to save its skin by citing love to a genocidal `mother country´ and recognizing the love of both the Sinhalese and Eezham Tamils towards their mother countries in order to pave way for true reconciliation, writes A. Vijayshankar of Tamil Nadu who is now in Norway.
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Tamil Nadu youth immolates himself for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 00:52 GMT]
Following the UN report calling for an international commission on the war crimes in the island of Sri Lanka, 25 years-old engineer Mr R. Krishnamoorthy, hailing from Thirunelvely District of Tamil Nadu, immolated himself and died on Monday, demanding that the next state government in Tamil Nadu should see Eezham Tamils get their separate country. Tamil Nadu state government should not sworn in until achieving this status for Eezham Tamils, Mr. Krishnamoorthy wrote in a note before his self-immolation at Sangaran Koyil in the southern district. Paying tributes to him, but at the same time requesting that others should not follow such models of action, MDMK leader Vaiko said Tamil Nadu should fight for the achievement of Tamil Eelam.
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TNA urges GoSL not to miss the opportunity to engage in equality process

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2011, 18:38 GMT]
R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in his response to the leaked recommendations of the UN Panel, on Monday said that the TNA urged the Rajapaksa regime not to miss the opportunity to "constructively engage in a process which would result in all the Peoples of Sri Lanka being the beneficiaries of genuine democracy, equality and justice."
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UN Panel gives Colombo a lesson on "Theory of Justice"

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 April 2011, 21:12 GMT]
The three-member UN panel rejected Sri Lanka's two-pronged notion of accountability that focussed on the responsibility of past Governments and of the LTTE, saying that the approach "does not envisage a serious examination of the Government’s decisions and conduct in prosecuting the final stages of the war or the aftermath, nor of the violations of law that may have occurred as a result." International standards mandate that any approach to accountability should "place the rights and dignity of the victims of the conflict at the centre," the panel said, and explained to Colombo that "[a]ccountability for serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law is not a matter of choice or policy; it is a duty under domestic and international law."
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