Daily Mirror fabricates news: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 March 2013, 00:01 GMT]
“It is sometimes possible for journalists to misunderstand what is being said, and as a result misquote. But in this case, the major part of the said news item is entirely fabricated,” says Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam responding to Colombo-based English media Daily Mirror reporting his speech at the Press Club in Jaffna on Monday. While he had cited the report of Ms. Navi Pillai in appreciation for evidencing the grave violations committed against Tamils in the last one year, the Daily Mirror titled its news report on Wednesday as “Pillai responsible, says Ponnambalam,” Gajendrakumar said. Following protests by Gajendrakumar, Daily Mirror carried another report on Thursday, titled “Ponnambalam clarifies.” This was even more disappointing and completely inadequate, Gajendrakumar told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Australia should withdraw from CHOGM in Sri Lanka: Lee Rhiannon

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2013, 05:24 GMT]
While Australian Liberal MPs Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop gave a clean chit to the genocide-accused Sri Lankan state after their recent visit to the island, Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon has called on Australia to end its silence on Sri Lanka and to withdraw from the CHOGM in a statement on Thursday. Referring to the recent report by HRW on Sri Lanka’s systematic sexual violence on Tamils and to an earlier TamilNet’s feature on the genocidal rape of LTTE cadres, she further lamented Australia still not taking a decisive position for the Tamils. Speaking to TamilNet, Ms. Rhiannon said “The international community must no longer fail the people of Sri Lanka. With the UNHCR meeting in Geneva and the mounting evidence of war crimes emerging, this is an ideal moment to support the Tamil diaspora’s call for an international investigation into the charges of war crimes and genocide.”
Full story >>

Colombo uses international aid, abetment, for structural genocide in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2013, 04:02 GMT]
The genocidal Sinhala State in Colombo has accelerated the process of creating a Sinhala division at Ma'nal-aa'ru renamed as Wæli-oya in Sinhala, in the strategic locality linking North and East territory of the Tamil nation in the island of Sri Lanka, by deploying Indian and other international aid, civil sources in Mullaiththeevu said. The housing aid of India and the infrastructure aid of the IC are pooled in creating the Sinhala division, with all facilities of attraction for the Sinhalicisation process at the wedging locality. This is carried out not without the blessings of India, the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia whose delegates visited the region in the recent months, the civil sources commented, adding that what was heard from the Indian Foreign Minister in the parliament on Wednesday on implementing the 13th Amendment was a sour joke of quarter a century.
Full story >>

Veteran humanitarian Eezham Tamil activist passes away in UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2013, 00:40 GMT]
Dr. Namasivayam Sathiyamoorthy (N.S. Moorthy), a veteran Eezham Tamil activist who was instrumental in the organization of the humanitarian agencies TRO and Ve'n Pu'raa (White Pigeon), passed away at the age of 61 at London, UK. Dr. Sathiyamoorthy was involved in the national liberation struggle of the Eezham Tamils in the homeland from its early stages and was also a popularly recognized activist in democratic politics among the Tamil diaspora in the UK. Dr. Moorthy, as he was fondly called, was known for his dedication to the Tamils’ cause through his activism, his professional work and for his amicable nature, is mourned by a large number of Eezham Tamils across the world who personally knew his contributions. In UK, he was given the privilege of becoming a Freeman of the City of London in 1993, in recognition of his contribution in the field of medicine.
Full story >>

UK High Court blocks Tamil deportations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2013, 00:04 GMT]
The British High Court Wednesday intervened and blocked a scheduled deportation of a group of failed Tamil asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka. High Court Justice Wilkie said that because the guidance on Sri Lanka was being considered "virtually afresh" and it was clear that "the existing country guidance will have to change", the failed Tamil asylum seekers could not be deported as planned.The UK Border Agency (UKBA), which made the determination to deport even while there was evidence of returnees being tortured, said that UKBA will appeal the High Court order.
Full story >>

‘Sexual violence against Tamils is premeditated, deliberate’: HRW UK Director

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2013, 06:26 GMT]
Responding to a question posed by TamilNet at a Human Rights Watch press meet in London on Tuesday, UK director of the HRW, Mr. David Mepham stated that the sexual violence perpetrated by the Sri Lankan state forces against the Tamils was not random but had a method in it, adding that it was deliberate and premeditated. In an exclusive interview to TamilNet, Mr. Mepham further said that HRW stood for an independent international investigation into human rights abuses committed by the GoSL, terming the LLRC “a bit of a farce”, and opining that the “culture of impunity” in Sri Lanka needs to be addressed by the International Community. However, Mr. Mepham said that HRW “has not taken the view that this is genocide,” but only that systematic human rights abuses were committed by the Sri Lankan government, blaming the LTTE also for human rights violations.
Full story >>

Systematic rape of Tamils violates Genocide convention, says Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2013, 00:51 GMT]
Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law and who represented nearly 40,000 raped Women of Bosnia and argued their case for genocide before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, commenting on the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, "Sri Lanka: Rape of Tamil detainees," said, "[c]learly, this continuing Campaign of widespread and systematic rape by the Government of Sri Lanka against the Tamils violates Article II(b) of the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which Sri Lanka is a contracting party."
Full story >>

UNHRC heads for structural genocide if Tamil nation territory is not guaranteed: TNPF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2013, 15:02 GMT]
An internationally monitored interim administration in the North and East under UN supervision outside the parameters of the Sri Lankan Constitution is the only way forward to stop the genocide being committed on Tamils, especially to put an immediate end to the accelerated structural genocide taking place in the Tamil homeland, reiterated Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the president of the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), in the first press meeting held at the newly opened press club in Jaffna on Monday. The current indications are that the UNHRC would end up giving another year of time and space to Colombo and the TNA that supported the resolution last year without a principled approach is answerable to what resulted from the resolution in the past 12 months, Gajendrakumar further said.
Full story >>

Tamils raped in Sri Lanka custody - HRW

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2013, 12:34 GMT]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released this week that Sri Lankan security forces have committed crimes of sexual violence against ethnic Tamils in state custody between 2006 and 2012. The said detainees were arrested because of their suspected links to the LTTE. The report gives 75 accounts of alleged sexual abuse and torture, saying most of them are backed by medical evidence.
Full story >>

Attacks against Tamil farmers escalate in Vellaave’li, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2013, 23:11 GMT]
A Tamil village official looking after agricultural tracts (Vaddavithaa’nai) in Kevu’liyaa-madu in Vellaave’li division of Batticaloa district was severely assaulted four days ago by a group of Sinhalese settlers who have occupied the farm and grazing lands of Tamils. Two weeks ago, Sinhala ‘home guards’ had assaulted Tamil youths who were breeding their cattle in the same area, news sources in Vellaave’li said.
Full story >>

NZ Tamils raise question on applying SA model to Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2013, 00:03 GMT]
“We are constrained to seek a clarification from those few who are waxing eloquently on the need to study and gain from the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa vis-à-vis the LLRC recommendations of Sri Lanka,” said a press release coming from the Tamil Action Front (TAF) of New Zealand on Sunday, raising the question, “Will those protagonists of the South African experience please explain to the Tamil diaspora at least what they mean – what is it that is so significant for the Tamils to emulate?” The press release signed by the TAF coordinator Mr. A Theva Rajan, brought out the contextual difference between South Africa and the island of Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

International investigation essential - Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2013, 21:50 GMT]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navaneetham Pillay, in an e-mail interview with Sunday Times, held steadfastedly to her belief that since the steps Sri Lanka has taken domestically has not inspired confidence, an International investigation into the crimes committed by both adversarial parties was essential for accountability, and to reconciliation. High Commissioner Pillay remained focused on the need to establish the truth of what happened during the final months of war while fending off the journalist's leading questions, and infused a fresh determination to establish accountability to the otherwise stiffling inaction of other International actors, Tamil political observers noted.
Full story >>

‘Tamil Van’ undertakes tour of Europe to highlight justice for genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2013, 21:31 GMT]
Even as Tamils across the world are anticipating yet another watered down resolution on Sri Lanka at the forthcoming Geneva session this year, a group of Eezham Tamil youth activists from the UK have undertaken a journey on a ‘Tamil Van’ to reach out to the Tamil diaspora across Europe and also to interact with European civil society activists, solidarity groups and politicians, to raise awareness of the protracted genocide of the Tamil nation and the need for a corresponding just political solution. The Van, which began its journey from London on 12 February, is currently in Germany and will finish its tour at Geneva coinciding with the UNHRC sessions. Appealing to Tamils not to fall for any watered down resolution, the activists undertaking the tour stated that any solution which does not address the genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation was a farce.
Full story >>

Suspect genocidaire gives U.S. marines lessons in war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2013, 17:38 GMT]
Tamil activists questioned the bonafides of the U.S. Government in the US attempts to push for accountability in Sri Lanka's war, after the alleged war-criminal, Sri Lanka’s United Nations Deputy Permanent Representative Shavendra Silva, was invited to speak on "defeating terrorism" at the United States Marine Corps University in New York. Sources close to policy makers in Washington said that the approval for the "lecture" would not have been given without the knowledge of the US State Department and Department of Defense.
Full story >>

New Delhi, Colombo, jointly ‘cherish’ IPKF memory at Palaali SMZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2013, 22:13 GMT]
New Delhi Establishment’s envoy in Colombo, Ashok K. Kantha, accompanied by his wife Mrs. Sharmila Kantha paid tribute at the newly ‘rediscovered’ IPKF memorial at Palaali in the Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) on Saturday. Joining the couple in cherishing the legacy of the IPKF was Colombo’s occupying Sinhala military commander in Jaffna, Maj. Gen Mahinda Hathurusinghe, senior officers of the SL military, New Delhi’s Defence Advisor at the Colombo High Commission and the Establishment’s Consul General in Jaffna. New Delhi already has a memorial built for the war-crimes-accused IPKF at Colombo. New Delhi’s current gesture of rediscovering another memorial at Palaali along with the occupying genocidal Sinhala military signals negatively when there is demand for international investigation of war crimes in the island.
Full story >>

Ban receives Japan's "whitewash" report - ICP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2013, 18:43 GMT]
At the initiative from the Japanese Government, an independently formed group of countries, including Bangladesh, Nigeria, Romania, and Sri Lanka naming the effort as "Observation Project," paid a visit to Sri Lanka in December 2012, and presented a "report" to UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, containing the group's assessment on Sri Lanka's post-war issues, Inner City Press reported. Japan's Permanent Representative Tsuneo Nishida, presented the "Report" in a closed meeting where reporters were not allowed.
Full story >>

Blake, architect of Tamil tragedy, spectator to genocide

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2013, 22:22 GMT]
Blinded by the 9/11 terror and impelled by the perceived need for swift action against "terrorism," the US-led International Community, made two serious miscalculations in Sri Lanka war: By allowing unhindered space for Sri Lanka's final military thrust, they misjudged Sinhala society's willing capacity to inflict bestial, savage crimes on fellow human beings; and the IC's belief that, once the Tigers are eliminated Rajapakses will “fill in the gaps” and provide an acceptable political solution, has been shown as embarrassingly flawed. Now, as the IC savors the dystopian-monster they created, the need to whitewash the atrocities by side-stepping accountability, and to focus on development, appear to be driving IC's actions. Tamils, now left defenseless, hold Ambassador Blake, as the key US official who shaped the US policy on Sri Lanka's war, responsible for the tragedy.
Full story >>

SLA threatens Mannaar farmers not to protest against discrimination

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2013, 06:51 GMT]
The demonstration and fasting campaign organized by farmers organizations in Mannaar district earlier this week to protest against the discrimination by the SL government in Colombo in providing relief to affected farmers following the recent floods, was put off due to the threat issued by the intelligence Unit of the occupying Sri Lanka Army that those participating would be dealt severely under the ‘Sri Lankan Law’. Due to the threat and intimidation exerted by the SL intelligence, the demonstration was now put off for February 26, the organisers said.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu CM bars sports event citing Sri Lankan participation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2013, 23:37 GMT]
Citing the participation of athletes from the genocide-accused Sri Lankan state in the 20th Asian Athletics Championship that was scheduled to be held in Tamil Nadu State, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa on Thursday announced that her state will not host the Games. The participation of Sri Lankan athletes would hurt the feelings of Tamils, Ms Jayalalithaa said in a statement. Earlier this week, commenting on the recently released Channel 4 photographs of the execution of Balachandran Pirapaharan, Ms. Jayalalitha had also drawn a parallel between Nazi crimes against the humanity and that of the Sri Lankan state. Separately, protests against Sri Lanka have been reported in various parts of Tamil Nadu.
Full story >>

Sri Lankan TID harasses ex-LTTE members in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2013, 22:28 GMT]
Tension and fear continues to prevail among the families of former LTTE members, who have rejoined their families in the East, especially in Vaakarai in Batticaloa and in Moothoor East of Trincomalee district as the SL military thinks any resistance coming from the uprooted families that demand resettlement originates from people who were associated with the LTTE in the past. The SL TID squads have been visiting several houses in Kathirave'li and Puchchangkea'ni in Koa'ralaip-pattu North (Vaakarai) DS division in the Batticaloa collecting details of former LTTE members through Village level (GS) officers.
Full story >>