US Ambassador meets Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2012, 10:28 GMT]
The United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Patricia Butenis, Wednesday, during an official visit to Mannaar, paid a courtesy call to Rt. Reverend Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannaar Diocese, and talked to him for more than three hours on the current situation faced by Tamils in the NorthEast, sources close to the Bishop said.
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1033 lands, houses to be permanently appropriated for SL military in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 June 2012, 23:41 GMT]
After appropriating thousands of acres of land in Mullaiththeevu, Ki'linochchi, Mannaar and Vavuniyaa districts of the Northern Province, the SL military establishment in the North has accelerated its drive of appropriating 1033 properties, most of them privately owned lands and buildings, for the three SL armed forces outside the already seized ‘High Security Zone’ in the peninsula, civil officials in Jaffna told TamilNet, giving statistical breakdown of figures from the internal records of the occupying military. Colombo has passed the responsibility of land appropriation in Jaffna to its colonial military governor Maj. Gen. (retd) GA Chandrasri, according to the informed officials. In the meantime, the commander of the occupying SL military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe, has defended the military move to maintain permanent camps in areas outside the so-called High Security Zones.
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Colombo exerts political influence on government employments in East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 June 2012, 08:02 GMT]
Unemployed Tamil graduates in the Batticaloa district are being forced by the Colombo government through its colonial agents in the Eastern Province to join SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), to get job opportunities in the government sector. 2,800 unemployed graduates attended the interview examinations held at district secretariat last week.
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Gotabhaya plans psy-ops newspaper in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 23:12 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's defence establishment led-by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa plans to start a daily newspaper with the name ‘Thamizh Naatham’ in Jaffna by appropriating the building and assets of the former daily Namathu Eezhanaadu. The move for the psy-ops war through a new newspaper directly run by the SL military establishment comes in, because of the failure of the EPDP's Thinamurasu and the Jaffna edition of Thinakaran, run by SL government-controlled Lake House of Colombo in winning the hearts of the masses in the country of Eezham Tamils to the satisfaction of the occupiers, informed sources in Jaffna said. In the late 1980s, the occupying IPKF tried a similar move by running a newspaper ‘Viduthalai’ with the backing of the EPRLF.
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Indian casino comes to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 15:26 GMT]
Delta Corp, a listed gaming company of India led by Jayadev Mody, has acquired 11 acres of land near Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo to build a fully integrated entertainment hotel/ resort, the company informed Bombay Stock Exchange. "Sri Lanka, post the end of the three-decade long civil war, is now witnessing a tourism and industrialization boom. Delta Corp hopes to have an early mover advantage and be part of this growth," the company was cited saying by The Economic Times, Monday. Casinos are always a prerequisite in the development of any regional or international hub of economic and social crimes, commented political observers in the island.
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Emerging pattern of SL judicial proceedings needs perusal

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 June 2012, 19:26 GMT]
When gunmen killed the Changkaanai temple priest in 2010, the commander of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe, first accused former LTTE cadres, later said SL Army gun borrowed from corrupt troops was used by former LTTE carders, and subsequently all the arrested - two SLA personnel and two alleged former militants were released by the courts. A pattern is now seen in producing cases in the courts related to the murder of two Eezham Tamils, a UK deportee and a Canadian citizen in Trincomalee and in Ki'linochchi. Media in Colombo is busy in highlighting the SL prosecution version of personal motivation, once again involving SL military personnel in one case and former militants in the other, to exclude the responsibility of top SL military command.
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Occupying SL military threatens uprooted Tamils of Thirumu'rika'ndi in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2012, 15:13 GMT]
Lands that belong to 183 Tamil families in Thirumu'rika'ndi in Ki'linochchi district have been appropriated by the occupying Sri Lanka Army for a military housing scheme. The Tamil families have filed cases in law courts pleading that they should be allowed to resettle in their own lands in Thirumu'rika'ndi. In the meantime, the SL military intelligence officers visit each family, who reside in Vavuniyaa, and intimidate them to withdraw their cases and to settle at a different place.
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Civic bodies in Jaffna resolve not to provide lands to SL military

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2012, 12:21 GMT]
The civic bodies in Jaffna have resolved that they would not allow the lands that come under the authority of the civic bodies to be appropriated for military purposes. “As the elected members of the public, we are not going to allow the lands to be deployed for the construction of military cantonments against the will of our people, whom we represent,” was the decision taken by all the civic bodies, a TNA politician in Jaffna told media Sunday. “The decision was unanimous,” the sources further said.
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Batticaloa University protests political capture of its council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 June 2012, 23:39 GMT]
The Eastern University in Batticaloa is helpless to political appointments made to its governing council by Colombo, said the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, Professor K. Gobindarajah, following a recent appointment to the council backed by SL Deputy Minister V. Muralitharan alias Karuna causing the students to boycott classes for the third day on Saturday. The appointment of Dr Jaffer, director of the Kalmunai Base Hospital, to the council membership vacated by the demise of Fr. Sylvester Sritharan, is aimed at capturing and silencing the spirit of the university by paramilitary groups operating with the regime in Colombo, said students in Batticaloa. Such appointments theoretically made by the University Grants Commission are dangerously politicised in recent times especially with the universities in the north and east.
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After messing up question of Eezham Tamils ‘IC’ embarks on Myanmar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 June 2012, 22:58 GMT]
After messing up the national question of Eezham Tamils into genocide, the so-called international community now conceives identical models for the struggling nationalities in the island of Sri Lanka and Myanmar (Burma). The basic message is that the struggling nations should abide by the existing constitutions, compromise with the genocidal militaries of the respective states, envisage only non-descript solutions to come eventually and now concentrate only on resettlement rehabilitation and reconciliation to facilitate the ‘development’ of the so-called international community. Following the peace initiation of Norway in Burma, Australia and Singapore embark upon to play a role there, resembling what the Co-Chairs did to Eezham Tamils.
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Chammaanthu'rai Tamils, Muslims oppose land appropriation causing tension

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2012, 23:48 GMT]
Tamils and Muslims at the Koarakkar village of Chammaanthu'rai in Ampaa'rai district of the Eastern province, oppose an appropriation of Tamil land for the construction of a mosque that causes tension between communities. 250 Tamil families of the village were displaced in 1990s after communal disturbances between Tamils and Muslims. When the families returned recently, they have found some of their lands appropriated for the construction of a police station. In addition, a land that had been earlier allotted for the construction of a cooperative society by the family of K. Tharmalingam, has been now appropriated for the construction of a mosque, despite the presence of two more mosques within 500 meters.
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US commander, Indian defence minister assure military aid to Gotabhaya in Singapore

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2012, 10:03 GMT]
The Chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, the top most US military commander and Indian Defence Minister A.K. Anthony met genocidal Sri Lanka’s war-crimes-accused Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa behind the screen in Singapore on Tuesday to assure him of their military assistance, especially in the naval field. The high profile meeting took place while Mahinda Rajapaksa was being hosted in London and the US ambassador-designate to Colombo was talking about ‘de-militarisation’ of the north in the island. Singapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam was in Colombo a few days earlier to talk ‘business’. Following the classic British colonial strategy, Sri Lanka, Burma and Singapore are mobilised to meet threats from the East, analysts said.
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Sinhala militarisation expanded in Jaffna contrary to claims: Jaffna Paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2012, 23:30 GMT]
Contrary to news reports released by Colombo that it has drastically reduced the number of troops in the North, the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna peninsula has been stepping up land grab for military purposes in recent days even outside of the so-called High Security Zone and former Forward Defence Lines in the Jaffna peninsula. Uthayan Tamil daily, published in Jaffna, on Thursday broke a front-page story that SL military has begun to appropriate 61 acres of land in the peninsula from the civic bodies and private owners in three divisions. After already grabbing thousands of acres of land, the genocidal SL military has now set afoot to appropriate 35 acres in Thellippazhai division, 24 acres in Jaffna division and 2 acres in Nalloor division of the peninsula.
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New US envoy to Colombo has Iraq, Lebanon experience

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2012, 20:50 GMT]
The US ambassador-designate to be sent to Colombo, Ms Michele Sison is currently assistant chief of mission for law enforcement and rule of law at the US embassy in Baghdad, AP reported Wednesday. Her earlier experiences include ambassadorial assignments in Lebanon and United Arab Emirates. Sison said the U.S. was looking for "near term progress" by Sri Lanka, particularly in setting a date for provincial elections in the country's north and demilitarization of former conflict zones.
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Canadian Tamils join protesting Queen hosting Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 23:53 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in Canada protested the hosting of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the British Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations on Wednesday. The demonstration took place in front of the British Consulate-General in Toronto. The Queen of England is also the head of State and Queen of Canada. The protesters displayed placards calling SL President Mahinda Rajapakse as a war criminal and shouted slogans against the ongoing genocide against Eezham Tamils. They also condemned Sri Lanka's membership in the Commonwealth.
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Kellner: Rights improvement by Colombo imperative to prevent 2013 CHOGM disaster

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 22:58 GMT]
"Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse should not have been allowed to attend the jubilee celebrations. The mistake of inviting him was not made by the Queen or the Buckingham Palace; the mistake was made by the Commonwealth in the last summit at Perth where they took no action against mounting evidence of human rights violations exposed by Channel-4 among others," the Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Peter Kellner, said, adding the "next Commonwealth summit expected to be held in Sri Lanka next year will be a disaster if there is no marked improvement in human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Sustained protests carried out by large numbers of Tamil expatriates marked Rajapakse's presence in UK, and fearing disruption to businesses in London his speech to the Commonwealth Business Council was cancelled Wednesday.
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Chennai British mission insults protestors, say grassroot Tamil organisations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 21:31 GMT]
The Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam (PDK), the striking and pioneer section of the Dravidian movement of Tamil Nadu, on Wednesday condemned the British mission in Chennai for not receiving in person the memo of the 19 mainstream political parties and grassroot organisations of Tamil Nadu protesting the hosting of Rajapaksa by the British Queen celebrating 60 years of coronation. The diplomatic mission, despite prior intimation of a memorandum to be submitted, made the demonstrators to put their memo into the mailbox at the gate of the mission. Tamils had a relationship with British imperialism since its initial years of founding the Madras Presidency, a major constituent of today’s India. Kolathoor Mani of PDK asked whether the British government and the international community want Tamils to be anti-imperialistic in the current context.
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Queen made to view protest before dining with Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 16:19 GMT]
Queen Elizabeth II, celebrating 60 years of her coronation, had to pass through thousands of Eezham Tamil protestors before lunching with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of genocidal Sri Lanka, and other heads of states at the Marlborough House in Central London, the headquarters of the Commonwealth. “Sri Lanka protest greets royal lunch guests,” said The Independent in its headlines. The Queen passed human rights protestors on her way and she was joined by more than 70 guests, including Prime Minister David Cameron and leaders across the association of nations, as they arrived to angry scenes. The chants of the demonstrators echoed around the forecourt as guests arrived, The Independent further said. Around 8,000 protestors were seen at the Marlborough House and earlier at the Mansion House, which was hired by Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) for Commonwealth Economic Forum.
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Gagged Tamils in Jaffna symbolically protest British unitary legacy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 15:10 GMT]
Marking the day the diamond jubilee celebrating Queen of England dining with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of the genocidal State of Sri Lanka, Eezham Tamils gagged in the island chose to symbolically burn the unitary constitutions of British legacy in Ceylon, starting from 1833, and the republican constitutions of 1972 and 1978 of Sri Lanka, at a British colonial cemetery in Nalloor, the last capital of the Tamil Kingdom of Jaffna. A group of students arriving in vehicles symbolically laid the 7 unitary constitutions in the form of placards at the St. John’s cemetery in Jaffna, and after placing a wreath, burnt them on Wednesday. As attack and intimidation by the occupying military have silenced the activities of the Jaffna University Students’ Union, another set of students outside of the university carried out the protest even under the gagged circumstances, sources in Jaffna said.
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Rajapaksa for jubilee protested by 19 parties, civil groups in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 12:58 GMT]
Political parties, including mainstream parties, Communist Party of India (CPI), MDMK and VCK, and civil groups of Muslims, youth, students and women including the May 17 movement – altogether 19 organisations and two prominent individuals led a demonstration and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy British High Commission in Chennai on Wednesday, protesting the British government inviting Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the diamond jubilee celebrating 60 years of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Reminding the UK government of its international obligation to deal with a war criminal, the memorandum also urged the UK to work for the removal of Sri Lanka from the commonwealth.
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