Prof Sitrampalam visits China on invitation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 February 2011, 15:10 GMT]
The Vice President of Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Katchi (ITAK), Professor S K Sitrampalam, representing his party, is on a visit to China on the invitation of the Chinese government, ITAK leaders said in a press meet in Jaffna Sunday. Even though the ITAK leaders said that this is a routine invitation extended to party leaders in the island, they didn’t answer the question when in the past the ITAK had been invited or visited China. ITAK is the main component of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The Deccan College trained Dr. S.K. Sitrampalam, retired senior professor of Archaeology of the University of Jaffna, was widely appreciated by Eezham Tamils when he boldly countered the Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao in Jaffna, last year.
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EU team meets military governor, finds no time for civil groups in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 15:13 GMT]
The parents and relatives of abducted and ‘missing’ youth in Jaffna were thoroughly disappointed, as the visiting European Union team could not find time to meet their representatives or receive petitions from them. They were further frustrated by the act of the team choosing to meet on Thursday the SL colonial governor in Jaffna Maj. Gen. Chandrasri, who is accused of many abductions and disappearances when he was commanding the SL military in Jaffna. The EU team that showed much keenness in its ‘aid’ related investments and in knowing the ways the SL colonial administration functions in Jaffna, by its gesture, signals assent to the SL military rule of Eezham Tamils, civil groups said. Conceding synthesis of occupying military and civil service, a high official in Jaffna told the team that the military are also ‘government servants’.
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Australian multinational consortium to set up plant in Champoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 02:04 GMT]
Mitchell Consortium of Australia with partners from Brazil and Sri Lanka plans to set up heavy industries in the SL occupied country of Eezham Tamils. Colonial Colombo’s cabinet approved the consortium to invest 700 million US dollars on coal and iron ore plants and sugar refinery in the 97 Sq.km of Tamil land at Champoor at the mouth of Koddiyaar Bay in Trincomalee. The territory is also earmarked for an Indo-Lanka joint venture coal power plant, reported Lankabusinessonline Thursday. Meanwhile, uprooted Tamil villagers of Champoor continue to face intimidation in regaining their village and lands.
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Tamils say Sri Lanka's new envoy to Australia, a war-criminal

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 00:49 GMT]
Australian Tamils held a protest rally in front of the Parliament House, Canberra, Thursday urging the Australian Government to reject the nomination of retired Sri Lankan Navy Commander Admiral Thisara S.G. Samarasinghe as the new High Commissioner to Australia. The rally was jointly organised by two of the member organisations of Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), the Eelam Thamizh Association of Sydney and the Canberra Tamil Association. The protesters also demanded independent international investigations into war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the last phases of war, and particularly the crimes of Dr Palitha Kohona, an Australian citizen and a current Sri Lanka diplomat at the UN.
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TNA rejecting 13th Amendment is crucial to spirit of Tamil national polity: TNPF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 13:30 GMT]
Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) will boycott elections to Provincial Council, an outfit of the 13th Amendment that has to be rejected, said Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, Vice President of TNPF in a press meet held in Jaffna Wednesday. The TNPF is prepared to work with TNA on this matter and discussions are already initiated. If there is any fear that undesirable elements may exploit the vacuum, both the TNA and TNPF could jointly field suitable candidates of reputation outside of the parties to meet the situation. But it is crucial that the TNA should reject the 13th Amendment to uphold Tamil national polity. Achieving acceptance to the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island is the aim of TNPF. Territory is fundamental to continuity of the nation and chauvinistic Sri Lanka is keen on Sinhala colonisation to destroy that continuity, Gajendrakumar further said.
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TNPF announces Central Committee, prepares party constitution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 13:24 GMT]
Popular Economics teacher Mr. Sinnadurai Varatharaja and former TNA parliamentarian Mr. Selvaraja Kajendran have been respectively announced as President and General Secretary of Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), in a press meet held in Jaffna Wednesday by the TNPF. Former TNA parliamentarians, Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam and Ms. Padmini Sithambaranathan, as well as Mr. Visvalingam Manivannan, Mr. Rajakon Hariharan and Mr. R. E. Anandaraja have become Vice Presidents. Two nations in one country is the fundamental principle of the party and the constitution of the party would be announced within three months, the committee members said.
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Vaiko urges world leaders to condemn Colombo's desecration of Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 06:03 GMT]
Vaiko, the genral secretary of MDMK, on Wednesday condemned Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Sri Lanka for having carried out a “barbaric act” allegedly by letting his troops to desecrate the ashes of the late Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan. Vaiko urged the world leaders to condemn the act.
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Tamil Nadu needs non-political movement for Eezham liberation: Sathyaraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 04:45 GMT]
Sathyaraj, a popular film actor from Tamil Nadu state of India, while addressing the gathering in Chennai on Monday on the occasion of paying tribute to the late Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader Pirapaharan, urged the leaders and activists supporting the Eezham cause to forge a non-political movement with the sole aim of taking forward the cause of Eezham Tamils. Calling the leaders and activists to put an end to rhetoric, the artist, who played the award-winning role of Periyar E.V. Ramasamy in the documentary film, Periyar, said the cause of Eezham Tamils is beyond any identity of sectarian politics, castes or groups in Tamil Nadu and addressed Pirapaharan as the leader of World Tamils.
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TNA challenges Pilliayan to resign, hold election to EPC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2011, 12:47 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa District TNA Parliamentarian, Mr.C.Yogeswaran, addressing an election meeting in Kaaraitheivu, challenged the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC), Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, to dissolve the EPC and to stand for re-election to prove his popularity instead of criticizing the TNA, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Colombo deports Thirumavalavan, rejects participation in Parvathi Amma's funeral

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2011, 10:01 GMT]
Indian parliamentarian Thol Thirumavalavan, the leader of Viduthalai Chiruththaikal Kadchi, was denied entry to the island Monday night when he arrived at Katunayake International Airport in Colombo to take part in the funeral of Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan. After being deported back to Chennai from Colombo airport, Mr. Thirumavalavan told media in Tamil Nadu that the deportation was an insult to the entire India and urged the governments of Tamil Nadu and India to condemn his deportation from Colombo.
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Diaspora legal activists speak to Palaka'ni on ICC case

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2011, 01:31 GMT]
It is colonial mentality to expect that others on their own will give us justice and solutions. We should seek them on our own. For well over 60 years the Eezham Tamils were waiting for political justice and now for nearly two years they have been waiting for justice on war crimes. If they are not forthcoming, the younger generation should work for them with the same spirit of united uprising that was seen before May 2009, was the opinion expressed in a panel discussion on Monday by new generation politico-legal activists, Rajeev Sreetharan in USA, Lathan Suntharalingam in Switzerland and Sam Pari in Australia. The activists who are engaging directly with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in seeking legal action against Palitha Kohona, said that such cases are only the beginning, but the real focus should be on emancipation and independence of Eezham Tamils.
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Kohona could face court over Tamil Tiger deaths - Sydney paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 February 2011, 13:33 GMT]
"An Australian citizen and senior Sri Lankan diplomat has been accused of complicity in the murders of three surrendering Tamil Tigers in an application to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands," Sydney Morning Herald said in its Monday edition, referring to Dr Palitha Kohona, who is currently attached to the United Nations Sri Lanka Mission in New York. "...two international Tamil organisations have made a series of war crimes allegations to the International Criminal Court involving Dr Kohona and his role in the negotiated surrender of three Tamil Tigers who are believed to have been killed," the paper said.
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Maathakal fishermen foil SL military attempt to sabotage silent protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 February 2011, 11:45 GMT]
While hundreds of fishermen from Maathakal were staging a silent protest Monday morning in front of the Indian consulate in Jaffna, Sri Lankan military intelligence brought a group of their men, numbering around 100, posing as fishermen in a march from Naga Vihara Buddhist temple through Palaali Road to the Indian Consulate and attempted to create a violent episode outside the mission, around 10:00 a.m. The representatives of the Maathakal fishermen society, grasping the sabotage attempt by the occupying Sri Lankan military intelligence, handed over the appeal to Mr. Mahalingam, the Consul-General of India, and left the site peacefully.
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Occupying SL military intimidates mourning for Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2011, 21:47 GMT]
Colonial military of Sri Lanka occupying Jaffna, intimidated people of Valveddiththu’rai on Sunday to remove the black flags displayed to mourn the demise of Parvathy Amma, 80-year-old mother of the LTTE leader Pirapaharan. Hundreds of SL military intelligence personnel in civil dress, deployed at Theeruvil grounds where the remains are kept for public homage, made the local people themselves to remove the flags of mourning. Angered by the SLA harassment, representatives of civil organizations in Valveddiththu'rai warned the military personnel of repercussions if they continued to harass the people, when the occupying soldiers were instructing the people to remove the name of Mr. Pirapaharan from posters paying tribute to Parvathi Amma. Colonial Colombo behaves the same way the British treated the Kandyan Sinhalese, commented a journalist in Jaffna.
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British MPs urge UK to seek ‘robust and independent’ probe into Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 February 2011, 21:59 GMT]
Several dozen parliamentarians from Britain’s three main political parties have written to Prime Minister David Cameron urging an independent international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka. The petition, organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group For Tamils (APPG-T), called for “Britain’s support for a robust and independent international investigation that would clarify what occurred during the conflict and offer the best hope of a sustainable peace in Sri Lanka.” The letter also referred to a similar call recently by several members of the US Congress.
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Sinhala colonization in Vellaave'li discussed in Batticaloa DDC meeting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 February 2011, 23:19 GMT]
The encroachment of lands belonging to Tamils in Vellaave'li division by Sinhalese and the establishment of a camp of the Sri Lanka Army in Punaanai area in Koa'ralaippattu South DS division were brought to discussion. A group of Sinhalese settlers from the 36th colony, with Police protection, has encroached into more than thirty acres of land belonging to twenty Tamil families located in 35th colony, south of Batticaloa district and north of Ampaa'rai district in the Vellaave'li DS division.
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India failed to provide alternatives to trawler fishing in the Palk Bay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 February 2011, 07:51 GMT]
Commenting on the fishermen issue in the Palk Bay, an Eezham Tamil social worker in Jaffna, long covering the crisis, told TamiNet that the Governments in New Delhi and Chennai have failed to take initiatives in providing alternatives to Tamil Nadu’s trawler fishing that had saturated the sustainability of fishing in the Palk Bay. It is not an issue between the fishermen of Tamil Nadu and Eezham alone, but a long existing crisis between the trawler fishermen and country-boat fishermen of Tamil Nadu itself, the activist said. The TN trawlers captured Tuesday in Jaffna, were staying on the sea for two days without getting any catch, before moving towards Jaffna.
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LTTE ban to be challenged in European Court

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 February 2011, 00:07 GMT]
The proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the European Union will be challenged in the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg, said Amsterdam based lawyer Victor Koppe while giving an exclusive interview to TamilNet, Tuesday. Unlike the previous legal instances, now there is direct community involvement. Eezham Tamils in the legal field are actively involved in making this case, and the move is backed by a democratically elected body of Eezham Tamils in Switzerland, the Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET), said Arulnithila Deivendran, the spokesperson for the SCET. The attitude of governments to negate the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils by deliberately confusing it with the LTTE, has prompted the legal action, she further said.
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Eezham fishermen seize trawlers with 100 Indian fishermen in the seas off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 February 2011, 11:56 GMT]
18 fishing trawlers operated by more than 112 fishermen from Naakappaddinam of Tamil Nadu state of India, destroying the livelihood of Eezham fishermen by bottom-trawling, have been seized by the local fishermen in the seas off Point Pedro Tuesday afternoon. The trawlers are being towed to Munai in Point Pedro by the fishermen, a fishing society representative told TamilNet. The latest development comes following repeated complaints by the local fishermen over a long period of time about the fishing trawlers destroying the fishing tools and the resources in the sea. The fishermen representatives further said around 100 Tamil Nadu fishermen were in their custody and they were being looked after well.
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Sinhalese encroach ancestoral lands owned by Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 February 2011, 02:40 GMT]
A group of Sinhalese settlers from the 36th colony, with Sri Lankan Police protection, has encroached into more than thirty acres of land belonging to twenty Tamil families located in 35th colony, south of Batticaloa district and north of Ampaa'rai district in the Vellaave'li DS division, civil sources in Batticaloa said. The affected Tamil families have been residing in the lands that were legally handed over to them by the District Land Development (DLD) in and after 1956. The families possess the land deeds affirming ownership of the affected lands which include residential plot, high land and fertile field to grow paddy, civil sources added.
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