‘Development’ vehicle claims life of woman, villagers confront police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2012, 23:11 GMT]
A 40-year-old woman was killed on the spot in an accident on Wednesday at Ee'raavoor where a vehicle of a UN agency, carrying foreign officials, hit a group of women crossing the street at Ampa'laththadi. Another woman and a 12-year-old girl were rushed to hospital with injuries. The officials were returning after inspecting a ‘development’ project in Kudumpimalai, where Tamils are continuously harassed by the occupying SL military. The villagers, angered by the incident started to throw stones at the vehicle blaming irresponsible driving and the SL police retaliated by assaulting the villagers. The villagers then started to clash with the SL police, causing injuries to three policemen.
Full story >>

Parts of Batticaloa worse than Vanni in ‘normalcy’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2012, 16:30 GMT]
While the West and India have stopped talking about the East, and try to project an image that ‘normalcy’ has returned to the East and the North also should follow suit in the same directions, large parts of Batticaloa are silently kept under conditions worse than that of Vanni for the last five years, news sources in the East said. Similar to the times of the war in Vanni, more than 250,000 people were systematically displaced by the occupying SL military in 2007, in Batticaloa’s Paduvaan-karai part alone, under the pretext of ‘liberating’ them from the LTTE. Even though it is said that they are ‘rehabilitated phase by phase’, they are deliberately kept without basic facilities for nearly five years now, while the only ‘development’ seen there is the escalation of militarisation and harassment by the occupying Sinhala military.
Full story >>

Numbers of Tamils said to be a critical factor in London Mayoral elections

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2012, 23:21 GMT]
As the campaign for the Mayoral elections for London reaches its final stages, there now exists a view among all mainstream parties in the United Kingdom that the time of securing outright majorities in the House of Commons through generic campaigns has elapsed and that they need to engage with ‘vote blocs’. Eezham Tamils numbering over 300,000 constitute the largest single issue vote bloc in southern England, with over 250,000 in London alone, have the ability by exercising their vote to directly determine the outcome of the Mayoral elections, 25 of the seats in the London Assembly, and tilt the balance in favour of one party or the other in another 10 seats, on 3rd May.
Full story >>

Let Rajapaksa try waving Lion Flag along with KP: Ranil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2012, 07:28 GMT]
UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, holding the Lion Flag of genocidal Sri Lankan state along with TNA leader R. Sampanthan in Jaffna on Tuesday, challenged SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he could try doing the same with Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP who is in captivity of the regime. While the need of the times is for Tamils to forge alliance with the Muslims in making an alternative State for the Tamil-speaking people in the North and East, Mr Wickramasinghe recollected Sir Ponnampalam Ramanathan bailing out the Sinhala leaders indicted by the British for a pogrom against the Muslims in 1915. Muslims to this day regard it as a treachery of Colombo-centric Tamils and Sinhalese against them.
Full story >>

Sampanthan, Ranil, satisfy agenda of New Delhi, Washington

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 18:11 GMT]
A photograph in which TNA leader Sampathan and UNP leader Ranil Wikremasinghe hold the Lion Flag of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka together, during the May Day rally in Jaffna, Tuesday, has caused much sensation in the island and outside. While the programme was at its height and the show of solidarity was entering into photographic sessions, all of a sudden Ranil produced the Lion Flag and wanted Sampathan to hold it, observers to the programme said. While the UNP has brought down around 10,000 Sinhalese from the south, on the TNA’s side, only less than a hundred, that too only the members of the civic bodies participated the procession and meeting, news sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

UNP-TNA May Day rally in Jaffna fails to draw in local support

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 14:45 GMT]
If the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the United National Party (UNP) of the Sinhala state, and whatever the international forces behind them, have thought of probing the Tamil minds about a future partnership between the parties through a May Day show, then the Eezham Tamils in Jaffna have totally rejected the idea by not showing local participation to their joint May Day rally. The local people didn’t come out even to watch the fun of roughly 10,000 Sinhalese brought down from the South by the UNP marching through the streets of Jaffna. While more than 80 buses were engaged in plying between the South and Jaffna in bringing down UNP politicians and their supporters, the Tamils seen in the rally on the side of the TNA were numbering less than a hundred, confined to the TNA members of the civic bodies, news sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Xenophobic forces hold SL government hostage: SL Justice Minister Hakeem

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 09:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Justice Minister and the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Rauff Hakeem, who has faced severe criticism in the recent days from the Tamil-speaking people in the island, the Sinhala opposition and the Tamil Muslims of Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday, admitted to Chinese news agency Xinhua that he was appealing to the Sri Lankan government “to prevent xenophobic forces from holding the government hostage.” But, Mr Hakeem was arguing against internationalizing the issue, which he maintained was an internal affair, according to the Xinhua. The ‘revelations’ by the SL Justice minister comes in the wake of more than 500 Tamil Muslims in Tamil Nadu besieging the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai after burning the effigy of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Full story >>

Viyaapaari-moolai, Hetti-mulla

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2012, 20:18 GMT]
The merchant’s corner
Full story >>

I'lantha'lir programme showcases struggle-oriented performance in Toronto

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2012, 08:24 GMT]
Utilizing various mediums, including drama, dances, spoken word, songs, and dialogue, second generation Tamil youth in Canada conveyed the message of preserving the Eezham Tamil identity, and continuing the freedom struggle of the Eezham Tamils, at I'lantha'lir - The Artistic Revolution of Tamil Eelam’. The event performed to a packed audience on Friday at The Chinese Cultural Centre in Toronto showcased the historical evolution of the Tamil Eelam Struggle. “An outstanding play with such amazing concept, acting, dances, songs, spoken word, screenplay, dialogue, setting and flow. Our struggles, our nation building capacity, our resilience, our cries, our milestones and our vision were communicated most effectively,” said Neethan Shan, President of the New Democratic Party of Ontario and the Guest of Honor at the event.
Full story >>

Amnesty rally in New York demands justice for Trinco-5 victims

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2012, 00:14 GMT]
More than seven hundred Amnesty International human rights activists, including many high school students from the New England area, held a rally in front of Sri Lanka UN Mission Friday, demanding justice for Ragihar Manoharan and four of his friends extra-judically executed by Sri Lanka military on the 2nd January 2006. The protesting students demanded Colombo to bring perpetrators of the crime to justice. Sri Lanka was one of the rights violators, besides China/Tibet, Indonesia and Burma, targeted by the "Get on the Bus for Human Rights (GOTB)" rally organized by the Boston Chapter of Amnesty International.
Full story >>

Ampaa'rai Tamil politician questions Rauff Hakeem on land justice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2012, 21:12 GMT]
Traditional lands belong to Tamil people in the Ampaa'rai district have been continuously grabbed by those sitting in power in Colombo, according to Selliah Rasaiah, the chairman of Kaaraitheevu Piratheasa Chapai (PS) situated in Ampaa'ria district of the Eastern Provice. Mr Rasiah, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician, has asked the SL Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, whether the Tamil people chased out of their villages in the district would be able to demand their lands forcibly occupied by the Sinhalese and Muslims. The SL minister had recently gone on record saying that he would make laws to enable those who lost their lands in the times of the war to gain them back.
Full story >>

Samantha Power to chair US genocide prevention effort

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2012, 16:09 GMT]
Samantha Power, Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, National Security Council of the Obama administration, and a long time advocate of genocide prevention in Bosnia and around the world will chair the newly created Atrocities Prevention Board, sources in Washington said. President Obama made the announcement when he spoke at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum commemorating the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Observers pointed out that the "Crime of the 21st Century" where Sri Lanka military forces killed more than 40,000 unarmed Tamil civilians, occurred in 2009 under Obama's watch while the President was making a statement of the imminent slaughter from the east-side lawn of the White House.
Full story >>

UK deportee killed while Tamil Nadu returnees arrested in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2012, 11:41 GMT]
A 28-year-old Tamil man, recently deported from UK was found killed in Trincomalee on 18 April, news sources in the district told TamilNet Saturday. In the meantime, in a systematic combing operation launched by the special units of Colombo's military and police establishments, up to 300 Tamil males and females have been ‘arrested’ and sent to military detention camps in Welikanda and Vavuniyaa since last Saturday. Among the victims are also people who have recently returned from Tamil Nadu and they too have now ended up in Welikanda and Vavuniyaa, the sources in Trincomalee further said.
Full story >>

India’s CPI-M cites gagged Eezham Tamils in negating their independence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2012, 07:06 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday defended its parliamentarian TK Rangarajan saying that Eezham Tamils don’t ask for independence. Citing statements of politicians gagged in the island as authentic expression of the minds of Eezham Tamils and endorsing Rangarajan’s negation of Eezham Tamil independence, the CPI-M state secretary G. Ramakrishnan argued against the current stand of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and his criticism for Rangarajan. If the CPI-M is truly a party of oppressed people, and a party valuing true democracy, it should first demand removal of the Sri Lankan constitutional ban on talking about secession to help people and their politicians to talk from their heart, and it should support a referendum, rather than imposing conclusions of genocidal Establishments, said an Eezham Tamil politician having no freedom to even reveal his name.
Full story >>

Indian embassy, Chandrahasan, Rajadurai, conspicuous at Chelva memorial in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2012, 07:10 GMT]
Indian embassy officials, SJV Chelvanayakam’s son, SC Chandrahasan, who was long operating in Chennai reportedly with the backing of Indian intelligence agencies, and C. Rajadurai from Batticaloa who defected the Tamil national cause in the late 1970s to join with Sinhala parties, were conspicuous participants at the 35th death anniversary of Thanthai Chelva observed at his memorial in Jaffna on Thursday. The current TNA parliamentarians were absent in the gathering. TNA’s former MP, Sivajilingam, who paid homage at the memorial before the event, showed black flag to C. Rajadurai, saying that traitors should never be entertained unless they repent for their actions. Political observers suspect New Delhi using the event for a leadership endorsement of faces from the north and east agreeable to its designs.
Full story >>

KP, Gotabhaya eye on Tamil children by hijacking LTTE institution names

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2012, 01:24 GMT]
Following a court order to close down two KP-run centres for war orphans in Vanni for their mismanagement, Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP, functioning in the custody of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and the SL Defence Establishment plan returning with their ‘child management’ activities by exploiting the names of the former social institutions of the LTTE, news sources in Vanni said. By using the names, they also aim at claiming funds from international donors and attracting money from gullible sections in the diaspora, the news sources further said. The district judge of Mullaiththeevu, Mr. Prabhakaran has recently ordered the closure of the KP-run orphanages after finding serious mismanagement and fearing abuse of children. But on Thursday, backed by SL Military, KP opened another orphanage at Mu’l’liyava’lai, in the name of a former LTTE facility.
Full story >>

SLA suspected in slaying Jaffna youth while ex AG defends crimes as normal

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2012, 01:14 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence resorts to liquidate Tamil youths it suspect by using different means in recent times, human rights activists in Jaffna said, citing a brutal killing that took place on Tuesday this week at Vathiri Junction of Nelliyadi in Vadamaraadchi. The killer squad followed 28-year-old Sivarooban Sivagnanam, who had returned from Qatar six months ago when he was on his way to Manthikai hospital from his house in Koththiya-kaadu in Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru, taking food to his hospitalised father. The squad that followed Sivaraoopan in motorbike, knifed him to death in broad daylight near a Sri Lanka Army camp located near the Vathiri junction, residents said.
Full story >>

UN admits use of cluster bombs three years after Vanni War

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2012, 11:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka using cluster bombs, an ordnance banned by several countries in the world, in a location where the Eezham Tamil civilians were herded during the Vanni war has been confirmed by a UN agency nearly three years after the civilians were silently allowed to succumb to such weapons by the international community. A report from a UN mine removal expert of the UNDP’s mine action group in Sri Lanka admits finding unexploded cluster munitions at Puthukkudiyiruppu, Associated Press reported Thursday, adding that the ‘revelation’ is likely to increase calls for international investigations. During the war, vividly describing the use of cluster bombs and other prohibited weapons, the affected people repeatedly appealed to the world to stop the genocide. TamilNet even published photographs of cluster bomb shells with Russian markings.
Full story >>

220 Tamils arrested in SLA combing in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 17:53 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army and Police, backed by special teams of the ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ from Colombo, have been entering selected houses in the villages of Trincomalee district, detaining ex-LTTE members since Saturday evening. The SL forces have detained around 220 Tamil males and females from their houses. The detained men have been taken to Welikande and the females have been taken to Poonthoaddam in Vavuniyaa, informed sources told TamilNet Wednesday. Ex-LTTE members who had left the movement more than 10 years ago have also been detained. The arrested also include returnees from Tamil Nadu and those who have been detained earlier and released for reunification with their families. While India and the West talk only about the North nowadays, the operations of genocidal Colombo in the East largely go unnoticed.
Full story >>

The crime of shielding crime by powers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 05:05 GMT]
Criminally belated revelations that recently come from the USA and UK on 1994 Rwanda Genocide and similar offences of 1950s in various parts of the world show the gravity of the crime committed by powers that have knowledge on international crimes committed against humanity, but sit deliberately on evidence to hush international justice. Hiding evidence is a crime in many judicial systems, but what international system is there to indict these powers, asks an Eezham Tamil human rights activist. He made an analogy of the current crime committed by the very powers and their organisations in denying the genocide of Eezham Tamils and pressurising the subjugated people not to talk of genocide, right to protection, self-determination etc., on one hand, and the behaviour of India, its imperialist political parties and sections of media, on the other.
Full story >>