Swiss German media twists heart of the matter

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2010, 22:31 GMT]
While younger generation of diaspora Tamils respond to the times and express themselves through democratic protests such as the British youth Sivanthan’s war crimes awareness walk to Geneva, the Swiss German media NZZ portrays the long-standing national cause of Eezham Tamils as an LTTE idea. Parameswaran won his case against British media. But there is an orchestrated effort in the Western media from Canada to Geneva to blunt the liberation question in the name of 'terrorism'. Bulk of this media shamefully abetted genocide in the island. Are they now against terrorism or against liberation of a people and whether independent democratic transformation of liberation polity is sabotaged to bail out Rajapaksa and the genocidal state, ask Tamil diaspora circles.
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Australian ‘Sri Lankans’ test conscience of international Tamil writers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2010, 02:06 GMT]
Creative writers are conscience keepers of humanity. They are neither bound by nor are contributors to authoritarian forces. They don’t need ‘sponsors’ whose ‘sponsors’ have bloodstained hands. In the name of ‘International Tamil Writers Forum’, some Australian Tamil individuals donning ‘Sri Lankan’ identity want international Tamil writers to meet in Colombo, January next year. They promise passage, boarding, lodging and even a tour around ‘Sri Lanka’ for those who come forward. The sponsors say they have been organizing the international meet hitherto in Australia for the last ten years, but this time they want to have it in Colombo. What is the message these conscience keepers want to give to international Tamils and to the world of creative writers, asks a writer in Colombo who has no freedom to reveal name.
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‘Development’ conquistadors have no appetite for psychological need of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Psychotherapy provides meaning for the enormous suffering people have undergone to hope for the future and to hope for trust in the world, says Daya Somasundaram of the University of Jaffna, one of the very few psychiatrics serving the war affected Eezham Tamils in the island. Considering the long history in the island, the meaning comes only when Eezham Tamils get their land and affairs into their hands and when their nation is recognised. But the ‘development’ conquistadors of the West and India show no appetite for basic psychology needed for regeneration in the context of the island, commented Tamil circles, citing Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao who is scheduled to visit the island saying that conflict in the island had ended and India has to go beyond rehabilitation to look at development, without any reference to the crux of the matter.
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4 Vavuniyaa Tamils arrested in Kandy

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 05:02 GMT]
Four Tamils, residents of Vavuniyaa, were taken into custody by the Kandy police in Alawathugoda area Wednesday in a cordon and search operation. Police said the suspected Tamils failed to produce documents to identify them and the purpose their visit to Kandy.
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British youth’s war crimes awareness walk to conclude Friday

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 00:40 GMT]
The British Tamil youth who set out to highlight the need for an international investigation into Sri Lanka’s war crimes through an awareness-raising walk from London to the United Nations in Geneva is near the end of his journey, fellow activists said. Well wishers from several European countries are traveling to Switzerland to welcome him there. Gobi Sivanthan has almost reached Geneva, activists said Thursday night. Whilst French media outlets have reported regularly on his progress through France, local and national police have provided support along the way to facilitate Sivanthan and his supporters. Meanwhile, a group of British Parliamentarians hailed the youth’s efforts, describing it as “a noble mission for a noble cause.”
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Senior envoy of Indian government to visit Sri Lanka in September

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 21:10 GMT]
Indian Foreign Minister Nirupama Rao who was in Chennai Wednesday met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at his residence in Gopalapuram. Speaking to the media after meeting the CM she said that a senior officer of the Central government will be visiting Sri Lanka as a special envoy in September and that he will meet the Tamils affected by the war and learn about the resettlement of the displaced Tamils and explore ways to provide livelihoods for them, sources in Chennai said.
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The Hindu review accuses LTTE for failure of peace

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 10:31 GMT]
“To those who knew that the ceasefire was built on a glaringly faulty premise — that the LTTE wanted a negotiated settlement within a united Sri Lanka — its eventual breakdown was foretold on the day it was signed,” writes, Nirupama Subramanian in reviewing a book in The Hindu Tuesday. The review was favourably highlighting a point that Tamil polity should drop ‘liberation’ to focus on securing economic rights for the people. “They are absolutely right since the development they mean is not even economic liberation of people,” responded Tamil circles, adding that the previous generation of Indians shouldn’t have asked for independence but should have focused on development the British colonialism was undertaking.
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Canada paints 'terrorism' to escape responsibility

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2010, 14:41 GMT]
Canadian government which tilted the balance by branding the defensive national struggle of Eezham Tamils as 'international terrorism' and was thus one of the abetters of Colombo in the war, is in its attempt to escape responsibility now breaches all bounds by painting a picture of 'terrorism' even for the arrival of refugees, Tamil circles said. "Canada government foments reaction over Tamil refugee boat," fans anti-immigrant prejudice, and boosts "Sri Lanka's authoritarian, communalist government - a government that is implicated in horrific war crimes," wrote Keith Jones in The World Socialist Website, Tuesday. Citing Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, he noted that Canada government may also use the country’s anti-terrorism laws to prosecute any Canadians of Tamil origin who helped fund the passage of their relatives to Canada on the MV Sun Sea, by linking the refugees to the LTTE.
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Traditional Hindu temples in East destroyed, replaced with Buddhist Viharas: MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2010, 06:43 GMT]
"Sri Lanka government is systematically destructing Hindu temples in the Eastern Province and constructing Buddhist Viharas in their places and one cannot remain passive while the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists continue to destroy Hindu temples and appropriate the traditional Tamil lands for the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA)," S. Yogeswaran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Batticaloa district said.
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Revisiting Sinhala nationalist mindset

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2010, 00:15 GMT]
As long as Sinhala nationalist mindset deny the antiquity and right of Eezham Tamil nation in the island and unable to come out with appropriate political models, no ‘reconciliation’ will be possible and there will be only subjugation. The Tamils don’t deny the Sinhala nation in the island but they are not reciprocated. It has become a must that the national question be decided with secession for any genuine reconciliation at least in the future. The ‘kohomba kankariya’ model of the past envisaged by some academics, who want to be ‘Tamil and Sri Lankan,’ will not work under current norms of Sinhala nationalism. If the current subjugation of Tamils continues there won’t be anyone in the island in future even to read what these academics have written in Tamil, says an academic of Tamil studies in Jaffna.
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Police instructs Tamils in Kotahena to register their presence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2010, 04:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police Thursday early morning conducted a cordon and search operation in Kotahena in Colombo district for several houses from 4:30 a.m.. Police personnel engaged in the operation instructed Tamil residents to register their presence in the location with the police immediately. Some Tamil residents argued with the police personnel that there was no need for them to register their presence with the police as the clause to the effect had been withdrawn from the Emergency Regulations now in force.
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Colombo begins deluding campaign through ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 14:24 GMT]
Accusing the LTTE for missing the opportunity of ‘mega development’ and for walking out from the Peace Process on ‘flimsy grounds’, Sri Lanka’s former head of the Peace Secretariat, Bernard Gunatilleke inaugurated the misinformation campaign of Colombo while appearing before the ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission on Wednesday. However, Gunetilleke who emphasized that the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) demanded by the LTTE for return to negotiation could not have been granted by the government, didn’t attribute any reasons for it. Whether hoodwinking Tamils with ‘development without political solution’ is a long-contemplated strategy of Colombo and its abetters and whether it was this attitude that ditched the peace process is the question asked in the Tamil circles.
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Malaysia releases 62 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 05:45 GMT]
Immigration Department of Malaysia released Thursday noon 62 of the 75 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers, held in at the KLIA depot for 111 days, according to Free Malaysia Today daily. Alternative Action Team (AAT) president B. Kalaivanar said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur Thursday that 13 of the asylum seekers still held are expected to be released Friday. Tamil Integrity Movement chief T. Sembiyan was also present in the conference.
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Malaysian Tamil leader hard on Sri Lanka’s abetters, urges boycott

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2010, 17:12 GMT]
Malaysian Tamil leader and Deputy Chief Minister of the Penang State Prof P. Ramasamy came hard on some industrial circles of Ceylonese in Malaysia buttressing Colombo in the name of ‘development. Speaking to media Thursday he urged global Tamils to boycott commercial pursuits of Karunanidhi family. Party decisions announced by him urged Malaysian government to take a serious view of the situation in the island and wanted war crimes investigation to cover the roles played by Indian Prime Minister, Home Minister, Congress Party leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. His party plans tabling resolution on war crimes investigation in the Penang State Assembly and internationally working for solutions to the national question of Eezham Tamils.
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Resolutions passed against governments of India, Tamil Nadu for disregarding Eezham Tamils, Tamil Nadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 August 2010, 16:23 GMT]
Karuththurimaikk Kazhakam (Union for Freedom of Expression), an umbrella organization consisting of several poltical and humanitarian organizations in Tamil Nadu passed resolutions condemning the Central Government of India and the State Government of Tamil Nadu for willingly maintaining silence over for Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa regime's blatant violation of democracy related to its war crimes committed during the war on Vanni and the frequent killings of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), in a public meeting held 06 August in Chennai Purasavaakkam Thaa'naa Street, sources in Chennai said. The meeting was presided by Comrade Nallakannu of the Communist Party of India. Vaiko, the leader of Marumalarchi Dravida Munetra Kalazham (MDMK) proposed the resolutions that were passed unanimously.
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Extremism of defeatism

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2010, 02:31 GMT]
Promoting extremism of defeatism is the latest ‘counterinsurgency’ weapon Colombo and those who abetted it in the war are trying on Eezham Tamils and especially on their diaspora in recent times. They do it for different purposes but none of them are prepared to come out with solutions other than subservience. Individual extremists of defeatism, who seek political space by upholding united Sri Lanka with wrong elements, are making the same mistake of their forefathers that haunt Eezham Tamils to this day and will continue to haunt their posterity. Eezham is the only rightful living space in the world for Eezham Tamils. Whatever geopolitical contests take place in the island the world will care only when Eezham Tamils have an independent polity for them.
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BBC reports wrongly about car park incident in Norway

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2010, 08:37 GMT]
A minor violent incident, resulting from a dispute over parking car at a Tamil religious festival on Sunday in Oslo, Norway, was wrongly reported by BBC Sinhala as a clash between “rival factions supporting the Tamil Tigers.” Even though there was undue highlight, the Norwegian media reported the incident properly along with police report. But the BBC Sinhala.com, citing the Norwegian media and police, mischievously came out with imaginary additions, Tamil circles in Oslo commented. Just a few days back Parameswaran who won a libel case against two British newspapers commented how people are gullible to what comes in the English media. What went wrong with the BBC Sinhala Service that had progressive Sinhalese in the staff, diaspora circles wonder.
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Malaysian politician to form Committee on genocide in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2010, 14:26 GMT]
Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, and human rights advocate, Prof. Ramasamy, is to form an international committee to collect evidence on the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, with the aim of presenting a case to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Panel, a Malaysian companian site to the Sun newspaper said Sunday. "The group will also fight for human rights anywhere, in places where people are deprived of their rights and privileges," said the Batu Kawan MP who is a long-time human right activist.
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DPF suspends Praba Ganesan for ‘betraying’ party, Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2010, 23:31 GMT]
The Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) led by Mano Ganesan has suspended the membership of parliamentarian Praba Ganesan who joined the government in a surprising move Thursday. DPF termed the cross over as one which has ‘betrayed’ the party and Tamil people during "these trying times."
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Odduchuddaan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2010, 21:01 GMT]
The quarry mound
The mound or high ground that remains after quarrying
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