French ambassador concerned about fishermen encroachment, Tamil - Muslim relations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2013, 12:28 GMT]
The French ambassador in Colombo, Christine Robichon, visiting Jaffna and Mannaar between 07 and 12 of this month, was able to “assess the damages of the trespassing of Indian trawlers on the livelihoods of local fishermen, and the consequences of the use of banned methods of fishing on the environment and natural resources,” said a press release of the French embassy in Colombo on Sunday. In her meetings with resettled people, she paid particular attention to the relations between Tamil and Muslim communities. “It is encouraging to see that Tamil and Muslim work together to provide support to all the war affected people in some organizations but it is worrying to perceive signs of communal tensions particularly in Mannar,” the press release said citing the ambassador.
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China card becomes ‘license’ for genocidal order

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2013, 10:27 GMT]
With the seemingly blackmailing speech of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, reported in Colombo media on Friday that if the USA withdraws its military training programmes to Sri Lanka, China would replace them, it becomes very explicit that the China card is now openly used for justifying a genocidal State order in the world, Tamil political analysts in the island said. Gotabhaya’s stand reported in Colombo media as “We don’t need you, we got China, Gotabhaya tells US,” is not taken seriously by Tamil political analysts, since Gotabhaya would have thrown away his US pass port if he was that ‘Sri Lankan’ and the US policy analysts and groups would not have been engaged in ‘reaching out’ Sri Lanka and engineering the integrity of the genocidal State, if Gota’s speech really means anything, the analysts said.
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Sri Lanka’s ‘Basha Mandiraya’ calls for mother tongue promotion

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2013, 09:48 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka’s ‘Basha Mandiraya’ (Languages Ministry), marking International Mother Language Day, has called for an essay competition at school level “to sensitise public opinion towards the mother tongue.” The organisers, saying that another aim of this competition is “promoting mutual respect based on the love for one’s mother tongue,” want the participating school children to address their essays to ‘Basha Mandiraya’, said an advertisement in the SL government-run Sunday Observer. The SL ministry should first learn to respect the right of the school children to address the name of the ministry in their mother tongue, commented Tamil education circles in Colombo. Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara is Sri Lanka’s Minister of ‘National Languages and Social Integration’.
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Indian students federation stands with Jaffna students, urges withdrawal of SL military

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 January 2013, 18:13 GMT]
The All India Students Federation (AISF), a wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI), in its national conference held in Mumbai on Saturday, unanimously resolved in condemning the Sri Lankan military detention of the Jaffna university student activists and in demanding their immediate release. The AISF urged the Indian government to intervene and facilitate the immediate release of the Jaffna students. The AISF also called upon the SL government to withdraw its armed forces from educational institutions and urged the Government of India to prevail upon the Sri Lankan government against stationing its armed forces in schools and educational institutions.
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US Court to hear oral argument on war-crime case against Rajapakase

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 January 2013, 02:35 GMT]
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit has scheduled March 8th, 9:30 am for the oral argument in the appeal case against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse for civil damages on war-crimes charges filed by three Tamil plaintiffs whose relatives were extra-judicially executed or unlawfully killed under the "command responsibility" of Rajapakse. "The key legal issue in this case is whether the U.S.'s Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) deputed the Executive Branch with authority to extinguish TVPA claims against sitting heads of state based on professed foreign policy concerns," plaintiff-appellants' attorney, Bruce Fein, said. Judges Merrick Garland, Janice Brown, and Brett Kavanaugh have been assigned to hear the case, according to Court papers.
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India’s blunder on Eezham Tamils brings in domino effect in Indian Ocean

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 January 2013, 02:24 GMT]
The historic blunder committed by New Delhi in not boldly checking the genocidal State and regime in Colombo, and New Delhi’s continued complicity in the genocide of Eezham Tamils –all said to be due to a competition with China in wooing the criminal State– have seriously eroded all credibility of India in the neighbourhood, and one by one all the small Indian Ocean countries have started playing the game of Colombo, political analysts in Jaffna said, citing the recent developments in the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius. Indian analysts and sections of India’s so-called national media that see only the money of China playing the culprit, fail to see India’s loss of credibility being the fundamental reason. Only a bold Indian action on genocidal Sri Lanka could course-correct all the others in the region, the Jaffna analysts said.
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SL military deployed ex-LTTE member, EPDP-journalist to frame Sritharan MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2013, 23:41 GMT]

A former LTTE member, known as Premraj Vasanthan, allegedly recruited by the SL military intelligence for covert operations in the post-Mu’l’livaaykkal times, had visited the office of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Mr Sivagnanam Sritharan after a long time last Friday and was wandering around inside the office. On the following day, the SL “Terrorist” Investigation Department (TID) operatives raided the office of the TNA parliamentarian in Ki’linochchi, with Mr Vasanthan in their ‘custody’. The intelligence operative “located” explosives, while the SL military “discovered” pornography material and the EPDP journalist planted condoms in an apparent move to discredit and frame Mr Sritharan, who has been gaining public support from the people of Vanni.
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UK should exert pressure on Sri Lanka: BTF

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2013, 21:28 GMT]
Referring to the systematic repression and attacks on Eezham Tamil political activists, civil society and students by the Sri Lankan state, the BTF called on the British government to “to exert serious diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka.” Speaking to TamilNet, BTF Coordinator Ravi Kumar said that since the so-called ‘independence’, concentration of powers in the Sinhalese rulers has systematically increased and that after a successful genocidal war on the Tamil nation in 2009, now all powers in the Sri Lankan state, executive, legislative and judicial powers are concentrated under the President. “Under such circumstances, UK and the International community should not focus on internal mechanism to provide justice to the Tamil Nation. This is the time for the UK government to call for an external mechanism towards an international independent investigation,” he added.
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TMVP faction wants Batticaloa Tamils to observe shutdown against Muslim politicians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2013, 21:31 GMT]
A faction of TMVP paramilitary in Batticaloa has instructed Tamil business owners and public servants to observe shutdown on Friday against the recent proposal from ‘Muslim politicians’ to annex Tamil villages from the Tamil dominated Koa'ra'laippattu North (Vaakarai) and Koa'ra'laippattu South (Kiraan) divisions with Muslim dominated divisions of Koa'ra'laippattu Centre and Koa'ra'laippattu West.
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Violence against Tamil women on increase in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2013, 18:31 GMT]
Soldiers of the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Ampaa'rai on Wednesday said they recovered a dead body of a 45-year-old Tamil woman who had been living alone at Koamaari village in Ampaa'rai district. The body had washed ashore along the coast of the Tamil village where an SLA camp is located. Medical sources at Pothtuvil hospital, after inspecting the dead body of the victim with injuries on her face and neck, said the woman had been sexually abused.
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Indian diplomat hints at Colombo sitting on development crucial to Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2013, 01:43 GMT]
Certain key development programmes that would really benefit Tamils are manoeuvred by Colombo for its own agenda, implied India’s Consul General in Jaffna V. Mahalingam, speaking to media in Jaffna on Wednesday. He was citing the example of Colombo sitting on the runway project making Palaali as an international airport. Mahalingam’s citation is an indirect acknowledgement of the structural genocide that is being carried out by occupying Colombo over the Tamils, political observers in Jaffna said, adding that Sri Lanka’s occupying Sinhala military only wants to permanently militarize and Sinhalicise the Palaali airport and its surroundings including the KKS harbour, sealing off direct communication of Tamils with India and the outside world.
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Sinhala colonization in Puduvaankarai aims to carve out Sinhala electorate in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 23:48 GMT]
Illegal appropriation of pasturelands by Sinhala settlers in Paduvaankarai area in Batticaloa district has been taking place with the ‘blessings’ of Colombo’s ruling party politicians. If this trend is allowed 20 to 25 thousand acres of lands would soon be appropriated illegally, paving way to elect a Sinhala parliamentarian from the district, owners of cattle farms have told Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who have been ignoring their plight.
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Colombo militarizes civil administration in Tamil DS divisions of Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 23:07 GMT]
The establishment of three new camps of the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in three Tamil Divisional Secretariat divisions, Aalaiyadivempu, Naavithanve'li and Thirukkoayil of the Ampaa'rai district has caused tension and fear among the population as a part of militarization of civil administration, civil sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet.
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US-based former GTF President becomes advisor to SL colonial governor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 00:16 GMT]
US-based Dr Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, the first president of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), accepts an advisor position to G.A. Chandrasiri, Sri Lanka’s colonial governor and retired Major General of the war crimes accused SL military. The website of SL run Northern Provincial Council on Saturday indicated that Dr Ethirveerasingam is already functioning as Advisor on Education and Sports to the SL Governor. A doctorate in Agriculture education from the Cornell University in the USA, Ethirveerasingam, now 78, is also a recognised sportsman who represented Ceylon in the Olympics of 1950s.
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Section of Canadian ‘human smuggling’ law struck down by British Columbian Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2013, 22:24 GMT]
In a January 11 ruling, a Canadian judge in the provincial British Columbia Supreme Court struck down a section of the Canadian government’s ‘human smuggling’ law for being “unnecessarily broad”. The immediate effect is the adjournment of the trials of four Eezham Tamil refugees who arrived aboard the Ocean Lady in 2009. All four had been charged with ‘human smuggling’ under Section 117 of the Canadian ‘Immigration and Refugee Protection Act’ (IRPA). Section 117 of the IRPA defines ‘human smuggling’ and imposes mandatory minimum sentences for convicted ‘human smugglers.’ However Justice Silverman’s ruling in the R. v. Appulonappa case found Section 117 of the IRPA “overbroad” and a violation of the principles of fundamental justice guaranteed by Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Sinhala political faction opposing military rule over Tamils attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2013, 20:52 GMT]
Members of Front Line Socialist Party (FLSP), a breakaway faction of the JVP of the Sinhala South, who were seeking end of SL military rule over Tamils, land grab and abductions, as well as release of all political prisoners and Jaffna University student leaders were attacked publicly in the heart of Jaffna city, allegedly by SL military intelligence squads on Tuesday. The political faction from the South, under the banner, Sama Urimai Iyakkam in Tamil (Movement for Equal Rights) was engaged in a signature campaign among the Tamil public when motorbike squads attacked them and threw crude oil on to them in the typical way the SL military intelligence used to carry out attacks on Tamil activists in Jaffna.
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Grabbing pastureland in Ampaa’rai district goes unabated

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2013, 11:03 GMT]
Over four thousand acres of pastureland allocated for grazing in Chaakaamam area in Ampaa’rai district is being grabbed day by day for illegal settlement by Sinhalese, civil sources in the district said. Next to agriculture and fishing, one of the major livelihood activities in Ampaa’rai and Batticaloa districts for resettling Tamils is livestock farming. Colombo’s Sinhala establishment, backed by its occupation military, is occupying these pasturelands with the intention of accomplishing structural genocide on Eezham Tamils and Sinhalicisation of traditional Tamil villages in the East.
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Administrative divisions manipulated to wedge Tamils, Muslims in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2013, 23:49 GMT]
A former minister of ruling UPFA government and a councillor of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) Amir Ali Shihabdeen and SL Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan of SLFP and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan of TMVP in the UPFA who is also a councilor at the EPC have given their consent to changes in the administrative divisions of Vaakarai DS division, Koa’ralaip-pattu Centre DS division and Koa’ralaippattu West DS division, news sources in Batticaloa said. The latest move of annexing villages from Tamil dominated Vaakarai division with Muslim dominated Koa’ra’laip-pattu Centre and Ko’a’ralaippattu West, aims at reducing Tamil representation and contributes to uneven development by seeking to upgrade Muslim dominated divisions in civic governance, say Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians from Batticaloa.
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Sinhala military opens ‘holiday resorts’ in occupied Jaffna with ‘Kiribath Pongkal’

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2013, 21:12 GMT]
Amidst the beat of Sinhala drums and blessings of Sinhala-Buddhist monks, the SL military occupying Jaffna opened two new ‘holiday resorts’ on Sunday at Mayiliddi, and at Kaankeasan-thu’rai (KKS), which are under High Security Zone, along the northern coast of Jaffna. To mark the opening, an SL Military ‘Kiribath Pongkal’ was also conducted at the new buildings. While the housing and even shelters of the hundreds of thousands of Eezham Tamils affected by the genocidal onslaught of the Sinhala military is still a pressing question, the military opening and running ‘holiday resorts’ for its use shows that Sri Lanka is not making any pretensions of its colonial conquest and rule over Eezham Tamils in the model of European colonialists, civil society sources in Jaffna commented.
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Mass protests in London condemning assassination of Kurdish activists in Paris

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2013, 02:01 GMT]
Thousands of Kurds from across the UK took to the streets in London on Sunday condemning the recent assassination of three Kurdish women activists in Paris. Demanding a proper inquiry and immediate justice for the brutal murders of Sakine Cansiz, co-founder of the PKK, and activists Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez, the protestors raised slogans of ‘”Turkey is a terrorist state” and “We want freedom”. Kurdish sources told TamilNet that the assassination was an attempt to sabotage the Kurds desire for peaceful negotiations and France should act soon, lest it portrays itself complicit by inaction. Large protests were also held in France and Germany on Saturday. These protests saw the participation of solidarity groups and Eezham Tamil activists, who had joined to convey their solidarity with the Kurds.
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