'Pentagon blighting Tamil cause may turn counter-productive to US interests'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 January 2011, 00:39 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government does have supporters in the U.S., particularly in military circles. Senior officials told me that their government owed much to a Pentagon official named James Clad, ‘a great friend of Sri Lanka.’ Clad was the Bush Administration’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia, in charge of the Pentagon’s dealings with India and Sri Lanka, until he was replaced by the Obama Administration in January, 2009,” wrote John Lee Anderson in Newyorker.com last week, adding that in order to reform Sri Lanka’s public image, Clad, who recently retired from the Pentagon’s National Defense University, recommended to Gotabaya Rajapaksa that he host a meeting on maritime-security concerns in the Indian Ocean to “get out of its box as a ‘single-issue country’ and reconnect it with an earlier maritime heritage,” Anderson cited Clad, advising Gotabhaya.
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British Tamil businesses expand networking forum

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 January 2011, 01:14 GMT]
The Tamil Chamber of Commerce (TCC) in Britain held a key gathering Thursday in east London, attended by eighty local Tamil business owners, as well as local bank managers and politicians. The event, the first of a series planned by the TCC across the country, was to raise awareness of the practical benefits of Tamil enterprises working together, a spokesman said. The London Chairman of the Conservative Business Relations organisation, Paul Shea, told the gathering Prime Minister David Cameron had sent his wishes for the initiative’s success. There are five thousand Tamil-owned businesses in Britain, with a combined turnover of over £1 billion and 150,000 employees, the Chamber says.
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UN ambivalent on Advisory Panel's agenda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 January 2011, 14:16 GMT]
United Nation's Secretary General (UNSG), Ban Ki Moon, told the Inner City Press that the members of the Advisory Panel on Sri Lanka "are now working very seriously on finalizing the dates of visiting Sri Lanka," and responding to a question that the panel cannot investigate anything [on Sri Lanka's war crimes], Ban replied, "[t]hey will be able to...They are now discussing that." ICP's Matthew Lee notes that "[t]his again in contradictory to what the Sri Lankan government has said, and even to what Ban's spokespeople have said. Ban's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq, bypassing Inner City Press' outstanding questions, told BBC's Sinhala service that the Panel might only meet the LLRC outside Sri Lanka."
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Queen Elizabeth honours three Tamils this year

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 January 2011, 18:52 GMT]
Queen Elizabeth II honoured three Tamils this year at New Year’s awards in New Zealand and in UK. Significantly, The Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) to 77-year-old Eezham Tamil, Mr. Arumugam Thevarajan from New Zealand was in specific recognition for his services to the Tamil community in New Zealand. Another Eezham Tamil who received Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) was Mr. Chelliah Yogamoorthy, an old student of Jaffna Hindu College, who was honoured for his outstanding service to the Department of Transport. Mr. Yogamoorthy is also a trustee of a Tamil school in Birmingham. The MBE honour for Lakshmi Holmstrom, alumna of Madras and Oxford universities, was for her services to literature. She translated a number of Tamil literary masterpieces into English. In 2007, Canadian Tamils also honoured her with an award.
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Further oppression expected as SL Army takes over islands off Jaffna from SL Navy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 January 2011, 21:23 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna will take over the islands off Jaffna from the occupying SL Navy, an Army spokesman announced in Jaffna Thursday. Since 1990s the control of the islands off the Jaffna Peninsula was vested with the occupying Navy of colonial Sri Lanka. Extensive new bases are now being built for the army next to the establishments of the SL Navy in the islands. Fear engulfs the people of the islands as the Army is insisting on fresh registration of people in addition to earlier registration of them with the SL Navy. Pungkudutheevu Island has become the new centre for the Army’s extensive establishment.
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Floods: Eezham Tamils need a government for them

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 15:43 GMT]
While the Eastern Province is 100 percent affected by the floods in the last two weeks, seriously harming and displacing hundreds of thousands, the SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa visited only the partially affected Polonnaruwa district in the North Central Province and returned to Colombo. The assistance that was meant for the East was diverted to the SL military at Kudumpimalai. Flood relief is totally politicised by Colombo’s factions led by the East chief minister Chandrakanthan, SL deputy minister Muralitharan and another SL deputy minister Hisbullah. Eezham Tamils are left without a government even in meeting natural disasters is the public feeling in the North and East. Meanwhile, Mr. Muralitharan calling the diaspora to send relief confirms once again that the SL government is not meant for Tamils, commented reports from the East.
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Ottawa faulted for alleged political interference in Tamil asylum cases

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 03:36 GMT]
A "persuasive decision" memorandum issued by Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) claiming that Tamils, particularly young males, will not be prosecuted in Sri Lanka because of their political opinions, was condemned as biased, and was questioned whether political interference from Ottawa prompted the IRB to highlight a ruling that rejected the claim of a young Tamil immigrant. The case cited in the new IRB policy involved a 25-year-old Tamil male from Sri Lanka who arrived in Canada in 2009 and not on either of the high-profile boats.
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Canada greets Tamils for Thaippongkal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 12:17 GMT]
On behalf of the Prime Minister of Canada, the Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Mr. Jason Kenney extended warmest greetings to all those celebrating Thaip-pongkal. It is a festival that unites Tamils from all over the world. It is also an opportunity for all Canadians to recognize the tremendous contributions of the Tamil community and share in the joyous spirit of this great festival, the Canadian minister said in his message. Tamils in Canada are predominantly Eezham Tamils who continue experiencing a collective trauma of the ongoing genocide of their nation in their home country.
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Colombo hurriedly appoints Sinhala civil officials to North

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 06:45 GMT]
Colombo establishment is hurriedly attempting to appoint Sinhala officials in higher posts of the civil administration in the North in recent days, civil sources in Jaffna said. Sinhala officials are being appointed to top level civil services posts of local civil administration, the civil sources further said. Meanwhile, among 135 new recruits to Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) recently, there is not even one Tamil and there was only one Muslim. SL Secretary to Public Administration gave an explanation that none of the Tamil medium candidates could score enough marks in the examination evaluated by Tamil academics, implying that standard of education among war-torn Tamils became poor. But Colombo has no explanation why it was poor even among Up-Country Tamils, Colombo Tamils and Muslims, in not being able to bring out administrators.
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Family man reported missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 01:46 GMT]
A 52-year-old man from Urumpiraay in Valikaamam, Jaffna, has been reported missing since Friday. Meanwhile, human rights activists in Jaffna express fear that there were similar abductions have not been registered by the media as the Sri Lankan police authorities systematically suppress information reaching media on complaints of abductions and disappearances. The ‘effective’ subjugation of Tamils by the militarised Sri Lankan civil administration has silenced the community, from reporting information that could reach human rights activists or journalists as the public fears repercussions from the ‘white-van’ squad.
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Oppression is not forever, but resistance is – editorial

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 15:20 GMT]
It is not the possibility of statehood, but the impossibility of living under oppression that sustains protracted struggles for self-determination, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. Referring to the three major initiatives for self-determination at the beginning of 2011 – by South Sudanese, Iraqi Kurds and Palestinians, the paper noted that in all three cases, years of international intervention to produce an amicable settlement amongst the peoples in conflict failed due to the conduct of the state concerned. Similarly, in Sri Lanka today, “the state's murderous policies of violence, humanitarian deprivation, demographic change and economic starvation will sustain, more forcefully than any theoretical exposition, the Tamil demand for self-determination,” the paper said.
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JDS condemns silence of Colombo media over terror campaign in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 08:27 GMT]
Detailing the recent killings, abductions and other atrocities in the SL military occupied North, the Journalists For Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an exiled organisation of journalists, on Friday condemned the silence of Sinhala and English media in Colombo over the terror campaign. Instead, these media highlight only the explanations from the side of the SL government, the report said. The JDS statement exposed the latest twist of portrayal of the situation by SL media minister and government spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella, who wanted to pass the blame on "elements seeking tarnish the image of Colombo government internationally". The JDS statement, with details of earlier unreported crimes, noted that human rights violations not being exposed is high in Vanni as journalists and aid workers were barred from entering Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts.
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Fatal blow on Eezham Tamil fishery follows Indo-Lanka ‘defence’ agreement

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 01:14 GMT]
From Maathakal to Mannaar, several millions worth fishing nets belonging to Eezham Tamil fishermen, laid in the Palk Bay even very close to the shores of the country of Eezham Tamils, were systematically destroyed this week in a highly organised way by trawlers coming from the Tamil Nadu coast. The destruction of Eezham Tamil fishery in the Palk Bay follows immediately the defence agreement signed between New Delhi’s Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and Colombo’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in the last week of December. While an agreement has been reached between the two establishments on the security of sea-lanes, as in the past many protocols of it remain a secret. Both the establishments in New Delhi and Colombo have joint interests in bringing in a wedge between the Tamil fishing communities on either side of the Palk Bay.
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EPDP, SLA, confuse public, lottery-fraud arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2011, 03:31 GMT]
An alleged EPDP member from Vavuniyaa faced the brunt of public anger in Jaffna as he was said to be moving in suspicious ways and was selling fake lottery tickets in Martin Road, Jaffna on Thursday. SL Police, on information from public, arrested him. He is said to have confessed his membership with the EPDP. There was no response from the side of the EPDP. Meanwhile, EPDP leader and SL minister Douglas Devananda in the SL parliament on Tuesday said that he didn’t want to embarrass the SL government internationally by raising the plight of the fear-engulfed people in Jaffna. In the meantime, the public in Jaffna senses EPDP and SLA indirectly passing blame on each other over the systematic infliction of terror by manipulative forces controlling the both.
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First land, now food: Sri Lanka’s powers-abetted genocide progresses unabated

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2011, 01:17 GMT]
In its innovative model of inspiring the entire world on genocide, the Sri Lankan state has decided to deploy its occupying military to cultivate 40, 000 acres of abandoned land in the country of Eezham Tamils, after uprooting them in the war and not allowing them to resettle. The program is being implemented under the directions of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, according to SL military media. The SL colonial governor in the north, Maj. Gen. G A Chandrasiri said this week that the government would cultivate black gram on 19,786 acres, groundnuts on 7,231 acres, red onions on 4,709 acres, green chillies on 4,329 acres and cowpea on 4,729 acres. The SL Army will also buy produce of farmers cultivating near its sprawling estates, and it will sell vegetables in Colombo at ‘concessionary’ rate to control market prices.
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'Experimenting with Eezham Tamils on how to cheat trauma'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2011, 00:02 GMT]
First, deliberately and knowingly give a blow of trauma to a nation of people, without worrying about the outcome. What comes later is later. Then you know the trauma will backfire. So, make the nation to cheat its trauma by advocating religious observations, cricket, sports and entertainment. They don’t make much difference from drugs and alcohol, except that they bring in lesser physical health problems and lesser ‘law and order’ problems to the oppressors. But a trauma shouldn’t be cheated. Seeking justice and working for justice are the truly meaningful ways for a nation to treat its trauma, says a mental-health therapist from Vanni in a note sent to TamilNet on Tuesday.
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Environment endangering life in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2011, 00:31 GMT]
News reports from the south of the island, Saturday, said that Colombo government had yielded to the protests of fishermen and Church in the south, and had dropped a project to have sea planes in the Negombo lagoon. The fishermen in and around Negombo feared affliction to fish catch by the sea plane project. But on the same day, a budding young environmentalist having concern for the sand dunes and the drinking water of his people was shot dead in Jaffna. SL military intelligence occupying Jaffna and paramilitary are suspected. An academic in Jaffna brings out the environmental background of the issue.
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Imelda accuses police, prefers military

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 18:49 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police has failed in its duty to arrest killings, abductions and anti-social activities in Jaffna, Imelda Sugumar, the Sri Lankan government agent in Jaffna accused on Monday. In a press meeting at her office, she briefed the journalists about her preference to induct the occupying SL military to police the situation further in Jaffna. The police are corrupt and no ‘development’ work is possible in the district under the current circumstances, she claimed. Two weeks ago, while meeting a section of Tamil politicians, the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was also vocal about his preference to the military than the police in running the affairs of the Tamil land. He said this in reply to the visiting politicians when they expressed concern about SL military cantonments in the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Escalating killings, abductions: ‘Diplomatic civilities will not work with Colombo’

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 00:06 GMT]
Fatal attacks and abductions against educationalists, environmentalists, priests and youth activists in recent days in the Jaffna peninsula seriously question the wisdom of some sections of diplomats and politicians in the international community who sometimes back advocated unassuming participation of Tamils in ‘development’ and ‘reconciliation’ without resolving political and military questions. Diplomatic civilities as shown by the US ambassador Patricia A. Butenis in taking pride of what Rajapaksa government is achieving in resettlement, while making it a beneficiary of USAID, will not work with the kind of people at the helm of affairs in Colombo. The IC is once again demonstrating its impotency in handling the national question of Eezham Tamils without political solution and without removal of occupying military, a Jaffna based human rights activist told TamilNet Sunday.
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Fifth Anniversary of Trincomalee Students execution

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 January 2011, 01:18 GMT]
As relatives of the five Trincomalee students, who were shot dead execution style by Sri Lanka soldiers on January 2nd 2006, prepare to remember the fifth anniversary and mourn the death of their children, Dr. Kasipillai Manoharan, the father of Ragihar, one of the students killed, appealed to international rights groups including the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate the crime and to provide justice to his lost son and his friends who were killed. Information, recently made public, from the US embassy in Colombo, which has highlighted that ruling Rajapakse family sanctioned extra-judicial killings in the NorthEast, adds further obligation to international human rights watchdogs to take steps to advocate independent international investigations into war crimes.
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