30 temples, 25 churches remain damaged in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 June 2013, 22:47 GMT]
Even after four years have passed, More than 30 Saiva temples are found either destroyed or damaged in the three divisions of Ki'linochchi district, informed sources in Ki'linohchi told TamilNet on Saturday. In one division alone, 24 churches have been damaged during the war, according to civil sources in Ki'linochchi. In one of the division, Poonakari, two churches (St. Mary's Church and Our Lady of Refuge Church) were fully destroyed while 22 other churches have been partially damaged in Poonakri (Pooneryn).
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"US action on Sri Lanka necessary to protect Tamils"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2013, 00:22 GMT]
Dr. Karunyan Arulanantham, the executive director of the Tamil American Peace Initiative, an organization of American Tamils, in a article in the CNN World website says, "[j]udging by recent history, one thing seems clear: Sri Lanka won’t solve its problems on its own," and advocating that "U.S. pressure is necessary," suggests that "[a] U.N. mechanism that would allow the international community to act decisively and initiate independent investigations and conduct a U.N. supervised referendum on options for peaceful coexistence is long overdue. This is by far the best way to achieve real reconciliation."
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Accomplishing genocide while evading IC intervention: Dayan’s dilemma

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 May 2013, 23:26 GMT]
Sinhala diplomacy that was genesis and integral to one of the worst paradigms of human civilisation that synchronised intervention of every shade of the International Community of Establishments (ICE) with State-conducted genocide, now suffers from incurable paranoia. The paranoia results from the gravity of the crimes already committed, inability to yield in to justice, insatiable desire to commit further crimes of structural genocide and from the unpredictability of the very ICE partners. In his own stance of an ostrich, Colombo’s diplomat Dr Dayan Jayatilleka thinks that a cosmetic provincial devolution within a unitary system could resolve the dilemma of the Sinhala State between accomplishing genocide and outsmarting the ‘intervening’ ICE, commented a Tamil activist for alternative politics in the island, responding to Dayan’s feature that appeared in The Island on Wednesday.
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Penguin India brings out diary of LTTE captain

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 May 2013, 23:01 GMT]
The English edition of ‘War Journey: Diary of a Tamil Tiger’ authored by the late Capt. Malaravan has been published and released by Penguin Books, India this month. The work originally written in Tamil by Malaravan as a first-person account of the battlefield was first published by the LTTE as ‘Poar Ulaa’ posthumously in 1993. The English translation of the work by Dr N. Malathy, a key member of NESoHR and author of ‘A Fleeting Moment in my Country’, published by Penguin includes translator’s note, a description of Malaravan by the late LTTE Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan, and a note from Malaravan’s mother. In a comment on ‘War Journey’ sent to TamilNet, Dr. Malathy said that ‘War Journey’ was an exceptional work, noting there was no space given by the establishments for writers to portray the positive aspects of the LTTE-led struggle for Tamil Eelam.
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Occupying STF seizes 600 acres of farmland in Poththuvil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 May 2013, 19:06 GMT]
Sinhala Buddhist extremists, with the backing of the occupying Sri Lankan government in Colombo, have planned to appropriate about six hundred acres of paddy fields belonging to Muslims and Tamils in Pasarich-cheanai in Poththuvil electorate in Ampaa'rai district, claiming that the said lands belong to Sinhala Buddhists. The paddy fields are located east of Naavilaa'ru at Poovarasadith-thoaddam in Poththuvil DS division. The Tamil-speaking farmers have been doing cultivation in these lands for more than five decades, civil sources said.
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Chennai event challenges ICE complicity in Tamil Genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 May 2013, 08:29 GMT]
Articulating right demands and slogans in Genocide Remembrance events is crucial at a time when the Eezham Tamils in their homeland are barred from even silently mourning their heroes and civilians who sacrificed their lives in the culmination of the genocidal war at Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal, said a Tamil political activist from Jaffna commenting on the slogans used by protestors at the May 19 event at Marina beach in Chennai. Civil society activists, artists, political leaders and ordinary people had participated a mass gathering near the Kannagi statue in the honour of those Eezham Tamils who perished in Sri Lanka’s genocidal war despite dissuasion by the police. Speaking to TamilNet from the gathering, Umar, an activist from the May 17 criticized the failure of UN in preventing the genocide, stating that Sri Lanka must be hauled in the UNSC.
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Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal survivor speaks out

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 11:51 GMT]
Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan, who personally witnessed Sri Lanka military taking away her husband, Mr Elilan, a political leader of the LTTE, at the end the Vanni War in May 2009, speaks out her experience from a civilian point of view and as a mother caring for her children during the war and the genocidal onslaught. Still living in Vanni, at Ki'linochchi, the 46-year-old mother of three is also running an organization that seeks to establish what had happened to their beloved ones. The SL State is still refusing to reveal the fate of those who were filtered away from the civilians and taken into buses to undisclosed detention camps. The narration of the survivor of the genocidal massacre, told with courage from Ki'linochchi, brings out the spirit and courage of a people who stood with their liberation fighters until the last moment. TamilNet brings out a 40-minute recount by Mrs Sasitharan.
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Canadian politicians convey messages on Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance day

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 May 2013, 23:37 GMT]
Canadian politicians from both the ruling Conservative party and the main opposition NDP conveyed messages to the Tamil diaspora on the occasion of Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance day. NDP MPP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton Jagmeet Singh, Ontaria NDP leader Andrea Howarth and Ontaria PC Party leader Tim Hudak sent messages emphasising the need for justice and accountability for human rights abuses in the island. MPP Jagmeet Singh, affirming his solidarity with the Tamil community “in their call for justice and recognition of their loss” further encouraged his fellow Canadians “to support the Canadian Tamil community and attend Tamil Genocide Day.”
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UK Sikh group calls for solidarity in anti-genocide rallies

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 08:04 GMT]
1984 Genocide Coalition, a UK based Sikh group, has called for solidarity among diasporic Sikhs and Tamils for anti-genocide rallies on 18 May and 9 June in a release on Thursday. Stating that such protests “are an opportunity for these heroic struggling nations to unite their power of protest and unite their campaign resources”, the release further said that “the enduring, courageous struggles of Tamil and Sikh peoples against brutal states like Sri Lanka and India; epitomise the struggle of small nations around the world.” The activists from the Coalition and Nations Without States further urged small nations across the world to unite in a common movement for global justice and freedom.
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Short film featuring Isaippiriya reproduced

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 06:18 GMT]
Remembering the heroes of the Tamil cause, civilians and journalists, who sacrificed their lives this week in 2009, TamilNet reproduces a short film that featured the slain journalist Ms Isaippiriya.
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Genocide could be mandated by democracy of West: Malathy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 May 2013, 10:58 GMT]
“Tamils agonize why the entire setup of Western institutions refuses to call what happened to us and what is happening to us is Genocide. Should the Tamils be surprised,” asked Dr N. Malathy, a key member of NESoHR and the author of ‘A Fleeting Moment in My Country’ at a meeting in Auckland, organized by the New Zealand Tamil Society on 5th May. “In this talk I have to convince you that there is nothing surprising in the behaviour of the Western institutions,” Malathy continued substantiating her stand and said that genocide can be mandated by a Western style of democracy. In meeting the situation, Tamils in Tamil Nadu have taken up their own course of action. Tamils in Tamil Eelam would act to suit their own conditions. The best for the diaspora is to protest in numbers as they did in 2009 and protest continuously, Malathy concluded.
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UK author eulogising Sri Lanka COIN backfires exposing USA

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 May 2013, 20:02 GMT]
While Sri Lanka’s genocidal war on the Eezham Tamils architected by world powers, being reduced to only ‘human rights abuses’ in the criticism by political actors within the Establishments, it is studied by military experts within the same system to ‘learn lessons’ in counterinsurgency (COIN). The latest is a COIN literature on Sri Lanka, ‘Total Destruction of the Tamil Tigers’ by British analyst Paul Moorcraft, which adds to the myth of a ‘successful innovative Sri Lanka COIN’, while covering up the genocide executed by GoSL. But, it exposes the various measures taken by the US-led powers to break the Tamils’ struggle, including advise by the Pacific Command to the GoSL as early as in 2002 to use cluster bombs. When the US-led West's military mindset is such an approval to the SL model, its ‘rights abuses’ talk is just a strategic façade, realize Tamil activists.
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Boycott campaigns worsen Sri Lanka's economic woes

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 May 2013, 02:34 GMT]
Targeting brand label garment stores including Victoria Secret and Gap which sell Sri Lankan made apparel, Tamil activists held protests in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Toronto in front of both stores Sunday, organizers of the protest said. The protesters held placards and distributed leaflets describing the war-crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Sri Lanka government, as shoppers, aware of the recent tragedy of garment workers in Bangladesh, were drawn in increasing numbers towards the protesters.
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Keith Locke questions New Zealand's silence on Sri Lanka hosting CHOGM

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 May 2013, 04:46 GMT]
“So far Canada's campaign to move CHOGM away from Sri Lanka has met with little success. Britain's Conservative government has been critical of Rajapaksa but won't support changing the conference venue. Australia has turned a blind eye to the continuing tragedy in Sri Lanka, apparently so it can justify returning Tamil boatpeople to their home country. And what of New Zealand? Our Government seems to be keeping as quiet as possible,” writes Keith Locke, former Green MP, in an opinion article published in The Dominion Post on Friday.
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Protest against SL military seizure of lands gains momentum in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 April 2013, 16:16 GMT]
More than 800 uprooted people gathered Monday morning in front of the Divisional Secretariat at Thellippazhai, situated near the entrance to the former High Security Zone (HSZ), which is now being permanently seized by the occupying Colombo aiming a permanent Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) in Jaffna. Despite the refusal by the SL Police to stage any protest march on the KKS Road, the people who rallied peacefully from 8:30 to 11:30 in front of the DS office, started to block the entrance of the DS office and embarked upon a spontaneous march towards the entrance of the HSZ. The riot control police commandos and the SL military men blocked them in front of the SL Police Station located on KKS Road.
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Geneva resolution responsible for genocidal militarisation of Tamil country

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 April 2013, 07:19 GMT]
The March resolution at UNHRC in Geneva, designed by the USA and watered down by India, is directly responsible for all the current ‘legalisation’ of the genocidal militarisation carried out by the occupying Sinhala State in the country of Eezham Tamils in the island, said alternative Tamil political activists in Jaffna, citing the ‘legal’ appropriation of 6400 acres of Tamil civilian lands at Jaffna HSZ and another 6000 acres in Vavuniyaa, openly for Sinhala military cantonment purposes, within one month of passing the resolution. The genocidal State was internationally allowed to do so by the LLRC-based resolution. Its basic concept ‘reconciliation’ a camouflage for structural genocide is a brainchild of the US State Department, the activists said.
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6,400 acres of civilian land to be seized for military purposes in Jaffna HSZ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 April 2013, 06:40 GMT]
The occupying Colombo, through its Land Acquisition Officer attached to the District Secretariat in Jaffna, has issued a notice dated 27 April 2013, claiming that the owners of lands for 6,381 acres and 38.91 perches in 11 GS divisions in two DS divisions, Valikaamam North (Thellippazhai) and Valikaamam East (Koappaay), have not been identified and that the officials who come under the Sri Lankan Ministry of Land and Land Development are being given necessary rights to enter the lands, survey them and to define how to take over these lands for ‘public purpose’ and for ‘planned activity’. The purpose for the land acquisition is also stated as ‘to orderly hand over the lands where Defence Battalion Head Quarters (Jaffna) High Security Zone (Palaali and Kaangkeasanthu’rai) is situated’.
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Colombo begins legal appropriation of former HSZ lands in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 April 2013, 22:59 GMT]
The occupying Colombo, which is converting the lands of the former High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North in Jaffna into permanent Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ), has now instructed Village level Officials of 24 GS divisions, under SL military occupation, to visit and place legal notices announcing the ‘State takeover’ of the lands in the already SL military-occupied zone on Monday. Placing such takeover-notices inside the lands of the owners without allowing them to view the announcement, is a calculated move to deny them the legal opportunity of filing suits against the appropriation move, say legal activists representing the uprooted people in Jaffna. In the meantime, informed sources said some of the land owners are scheduled to be taken to their lands on Tuesday to give consent to the move or else suffer some negative consequences.
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‘Idea of Tamil nation not dead despite aftermath of genocide’: Tehelka report

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 April 2013, 21:10 GMT]
Even in the aftermath of terror and genocide, the idea of nationhood has not disappeared among the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, writes journalist Revati Laul in an investigative feature published on the Indian news magazine Tehelka on its April 27 issue. Travelling to the militarily occupied Tamil homeland in the north and east and interacting with politicians, civil society activists, NGO workers, priests, ex-LTTE cadres and ordinary people, Ms Laul provides through their accounts a picture of the intense oppression that the Sri Lankan state is subjecting the Tamils to through various means, she further notes how the UN’s “pussyfooting on the war” and the Geneva resolution in March 2013 gave a cloak for such oppression, arguing that “It is this refusal to take in the whole narrative that allows Rajapaksa to tell the world all is well now with the Tamils in his country.”
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Cancel CHOGM, appeals Prof. Lynch

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 April 2013, 00:31 GMT]
Prof. Jake Lynch, director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, in an opinion column in the ABC website, called for cancellation of the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM), pointing to 'serious allegations of violations of international human rights law' in Sri Lanka "including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture and violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as well as intimidation of and reprisals against human rights defenders, members of civil society and journalists, threats to judicial independence and the rule of law, and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief," which prompted UNHCR voting to send its own investigators to Sri Lanka.
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