Tamil civil groups under pressure to dilute their investigation demand

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 October 2015, 23:37 GMT]
A section of so-called human rights activists from South are exerting pressure on civil groups in North-East, including the Citizens' Committees, women groups, missing persons groups to take part in a deceptive move being organised in Colombo by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera with the aim of projecting their participation as giving consent to Colombo's domestic investigations. The majority of the participants are from South. Ms Nimalka Fernando, a Sinhala Christian and the president of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), has joined Mr Samaraweera in protecting the interests of the new regime in Colombo, a citizens' committee leader in North told TamilNet on Monday. The Tamil civil groups met on Saturday in Jaffna to discuss how to face the move, which is scheduled on 29 October in Colombo.
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US designs target Trincomalee, Champoor Tamils remain deprived of compensation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 October 2015, 23:27 GMT]
The occupying navy of genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’ is buying time to vacate its naval school ‘SLNS Vidura’, which is situated in 40 acres of 237 acres of SL navy seized lands in Champoor. The resettling Tamils are unable to access their lands within the remaining areas of 237 acres as the main routes to these lands run through the 40 acres of lands of the naval training base. Although the SL Navy has moved the activities from the training base, a few officers are instructed to stay behind to delay the process. Now, the occupying navy is buying time citing monsoon rains. The uprooted people have been explicitly demanding the SL authorities to relocate the military before the monsoon rains. In the meantime, SL Governor to East, Austin Fernando, a former SL defence secretary, is busy in scheming US entry into Trincomalee, informed sources in Trincomalee said.
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Denial of genocide ‘even-handed’ for EPW writer

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2015, 23:24 GMT]
Denial of genocide and genocide intent in the long war and on-going structural war in the island, amounts to saying in other words that the war was fought only on the issue of ‘international terrorism’ as the USA and its bandwagon were saying earlier in directing the course of the war. The denial and refusal to even consider investigation on genocidal intent are nothing but completely airbrushing the ethnonational dimensions of the war and even the pogroms preceded that. It is no less a lie than the Rajapaksa lie of ‘zero casualty’ of civilians in the war. But when the fundamental twist comes from the OISL report submitted to the UNHRC that doesn’t recognize even the word Tamil, it becomes consistently ‘even-handed’ for an EPW writer, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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‘Tamils in Norway should take hint from question posed by former peace monitor’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2015, 23:56 GMT]
The judicial model being advocated by the Sri Lankan State following the UNHRC Resolution in Geneva is set to cause headache for Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as soon as Colombo summons the former Norwegian peace envoys as witnesses in what is being interpreted largely as a domestic mechanism with international ‘assistance’, writes Christian Ranheim, a Norwegian Human Rights and Law Consultant, who was a former member of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that monitored the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement between Colombo government and the LTTE. In a blog article on Thursday Mr Ranheim has hinted that Oslo's participation in a ‘Sri Lankan’ domestic court would be a matter of debate, if the judicial process in Colombo is not seen as a legitimate one.
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Tamil political prisoners complain about increased harassment at SL prisons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 2015, 22:18 GMT]
The intelligence operatives of the Sri Lankan military and the prison officers are threatening the Tamil political prisoners against their attempts to file Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions challenging their continued imprisonment, the families visiting the prisoners from Batticaloa told TamilNet this week. When the families are visiting the prisoners, two intelligence operatives were accompanying the imprisoned Tamils. In the meantime, rights activists from Batticaloa, providing free legal assistance to the prisoners in Colombo Magazine prison and at Anurdhapura prison, complain that the prisoners were unable to communicate with them about filing FR petitions.
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OISL report downplays mass killings, silent on genocide: Law academic

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2015, 23:09 GMT]
An article which appeared on Monday in the Blog of the European Journal of International Law (EJIL: Talk!), comparing the 2011 UN's Panel of Expert's report on Sri Lanka with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) 2015 report, points out that the OISL shies away from estimating the scale of deaths and avoids attributing to the [Sri Lanka] government's intent in directing attacks against the civilian [Tamil] population. The article adds that "given this shift of focus away from mass killings of civilians...it is not surprising the OISL is silent on the crime of genocide..." The article is authored by Umesh Perinpanayagam, an Eezham Tamil academic, who works as a researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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Ex-LTTE Women's Political Head Thamilini dies of cancer at 43

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2015, 18:37 GMT]
Sivakamy Sivasubramaniyam alias Thamilni, who was formerly the head of LTTE's Women Political Wing, has passed away on Sunday at Maharagama cancer hospital after battling cancer for some months, news sources in Colombo said. Coming from an Up-Country Tamil family settled in Paranthan in Vanni, Ms Thamilini served in the LTTE for almost 18 years and had earned the trust of the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan for her political work. Thamilini was one of the foremost political leaders of the LTTE, who had proved that women were not second to men in contributing to the liberation of the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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Tamil prisoners in North demand Colombo to respond through NPC Chief Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2015, 10:11 GMT]
The deviating section of ITAK parliamentarians within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), led by R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran, have deployed divide and conquer tactics to deceive a section of Tamil political prisoners in the Magazine prison in Colombo to drop their hunger-strike until November 07, Tamil political prisoners in Anuradhapura prison told TamilNet Saturday morning. The political prisoners have severely criticized the move by Mr Sumanthiran and demanded all the parliamentarians of the TNA to collectively address the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister on securing their release without being treated as criminal offenders. The deceptive move by ITAK politicians comes after a meeting they had with Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the justice minister of genocidal Sri Lanka, who has been insulting the prisoners by saying there were no Tamil political prisoners in the SL prisons.
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Health of hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners worsens

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2015, 23:42 GMT]
At least 20 of around 300 Eezham Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike at 11 prisons in the island have been admitted to hospital by Friday night, according to news sources in Colombo and Jaffna. The prison authorities of genocidal Sri Lanka have refused access to the relatives and rights activists to witness the deteriorating situation of the hunger strikers in the prisons. While ITAK Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran failed to secure tangible results in his meeting with SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, the students and teachers of Jaffna University, together with the relatives of the imprisoned Tamils, have stepped up their mobilisation demanding immediate release of the political prisoners. The Commission For Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, in a statement issued on Friday, has demanded immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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SL ‘Justice’ Minister draws flak, Tamil prisoners demand Sirisena's response

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2015, 21:27 GMT]
Mr Mano Ganesan, who has recently become SL minister for ‘National Dialogue’ visited Colombo Magazine Prison on Wednesday and discussed with the Tamil political prisoners who are on hunger strike demanding immediate action from the Sri Lankan Government on their release. The prisoners on hunger strike categorically told Mr Ganesan that they were not prepared to drop their hunger strike without a favourable response from SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. The families of the prisoners on hunger strike have strongly condemned Colombo's minister of Justice, Mr Wijeyadasa Rajapakse who went record claiming there were no ‘political prisoners’ in the prisons.
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Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike need immediate attention: Ananthy Sasitharan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 October 2015, 23:46 GMT]
Three of more than 200 Tamil political prisoners on fast have fainted on the second day of the hunger strike demanding their release. Vijayakumar Kanthasamy, a father of two, was rushed to medical treatment after he fainted at Anuradhapura prison on Tuesday. Similarly, two prisoners fainted at Magazine prison, informed sources said. “We were expecting a positive response during the Papal visit. Nothing happened. Then came the elections and the talk of good governance. Nothing improved. Now, even after co-sponsoring the resolution in Geneva, we are yet to see any sign of evolution taking place in the mind-set of the Sri Lankan State,” a prisoner on hunger-strike said. Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasistharan has condemned TNA leader R. Sampanthan for not demanding immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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Tamil Nadu, Global Tamils should be organised in addressing US-UN failure: Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2015, 22:40 GMT]
Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law, who teaches at University of Illinois, in an interview given to the 3CR radio broadcast in Melbourne Saturday in the "Tamil manifest" program said that he sees the millions of Tamils in Tamil Naadu, its Chief Minister Jayalalitha, a unified Tamil diaspora and the young generation of Tamils as the propelling agents to force the changes necessary to bring justice to the victims of Tamil genocide by taking the Sinhala genocidaires to Court. The horrendous nature of genocide needs an international tribunal to dispense justice, and the United Nations and the U.S have failed in their obligations, Boyle said. Geopolitical compulsions have pulverized U.S. foreign policy to collude with the genocidaires, Boyle told TamilNet.
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Eezham Tamils in Batticaloa protest against continued suppression by Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2015, 22:52 GMT]
Resettled Tamil villagers from around 30 villages in Poaratheevup-pattu division of Batticaloa district, have complained this week that the Colombo regime and its provincial agents in East continue to ignore their requests to contain the wild elephants that have been brought from South into the jungles adjacent to their villages in Paduvaankarai. The wild elephants have claimed the lives of 5 Eezham Tamils within the last 30 days. Despite their repeated complaints, Sirisena's regime remains deaf to calls to control the attacking elephants, the villagers told TamilNet on Wednesday, two days after staging a protest in front of the divisional secretariat at Vellaave'li. In the meantime, Eezham Tamil graduates who have been neglected by Colombo in employment have launched a hunger strike demanding permanent jobs.
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Tamils need leadership, not hypocrisy of powers: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2015, 17:29 GMT]
“United Nations, super powers, regional powers or self-seeking Tamil politicians cannot address the real grievances of Tamils. It is only Tamils under a good and dedicated leadership can move forward,” said Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, a long time advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils in an article to TamilNet on Tuesday. While the actual war saw the murder of Eelam Tamils and the most despicable sexual violence of rape unleashed among Tamil women, it was after the war that the Eelam Tamil nation was plundered of its wealth, Professor Ramasamy said. “The LTTE might not be around; however, the hopes, aspirations and the future agenda of Tamils for ultimate solution were set up by none other than its leader Veluppillai Pirapaharan,” he said.
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Sirisena's ministry, SL military seize more pasturelands from Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2015, 20:37 GMT]
Genocidal Colombo's Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry, which comes under the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has instructed the SL Divisional Forest Officer in Batticaloa to put up noticeboards annexing more lands to extend the Omunugala ‘Forest Reserve’ in Batticaloa district. Sirisena’s ministry is trying to attach more than 25,000 acres of pasturelands seized by the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa through SL Minister of Environment and Renewable Energey, to the so-called forest reserve. The occupying Sinhala military is blocking Eezham Tamils and their livestock from entering the pastureland. New boards have been put up with warnings and borders have been marked. However, Sinhala colonizers are being encouraged by the occupying SL military to do seasonal cultivation in the pasturelands that are being seized from Tamils under the name of ‘forest preservation’.
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Dubious "Sovereignty" defence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2015, 19:36 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka's leading politicians and diplomats, past and present, have used sovereignty as a defense against international "intervention" in conducting investigations of international crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. While sovereignty, defined as "supreme authority within a territory" underpins the political authority bestowed to modern nation states and provides status for the state to be member of the world comity of nations, this authority is not absolute. As a signatory to United Nations charter, article 6 and 7, ‘Sri Lanka’ has accepted to compromise on its sovereignty, related to matters of international security and commission of international crimes.
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Terms may not be important but the thrust matters

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2015, 20:02 GMT]
What is practically delivered matters more than terms such as international justice, genocide investigation, federalism etc., is the argument of Tamil orchestrators envisaging ‘non-descript’ outcome through ‘hybrid mechanism’. Tamils in their long experience have seen how concepts and coining terms were the monopoly of some and what outcome has come through terms such as international terrorism, peace facilitation, reconciliation etc. The fundamental injustice in the Washington/ New Delhi/ UN approach is the insistence in vantage exclusively from the point of saving or reforming the colonially created State and brutal suppression of space for the nation of Eezham Tamils to even enter into a discourse from another point. The genocide denial or detraction is just a manifestation, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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Genocide not recognised, ‘Hybrid mechanism’ recommended to drag on

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, 11:21 GMT]
Not mentioning anything on genocide or future investigations on it, but projecting war crimes and crimes against humanity by both sides, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, summing up the findings of the OISL report on Wednesday at the UNHCR, said that the recommendation is for a ‘Hybrid mechanism’. Mr Zeid openly admitted that ‘change’ in the political environment is the reason for OHCHR abandoning independent international investigation mechanism that had been recommended on many occasions by his predecessor Ms Navanetham Pillay. ‘Hybrid mechanism’ missing mandate for genocide investigation is the new way for buying ‘time and space’. If the universal process of justice could be dictated by local political changes, then there is no independency or universality in UN justice mechanism, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Tamils should assess main adversary: Jude Lal

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2015, 05:47 GMT]
Colombo's LLRC was used by Washington as the basis for sponsoring the three UN resolutions on Sri Lanka in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Through sponsoring resolutions in the UNHRC, the USA has thrown away UN’s own Expert Panel Report as well as its Internal Review Panel Report, which pointed towards war crimes and crimes against humanity, says Professor Jude Lal in his second part of the interview to TamilNet. “In fact, it is the Expert Panel Report that recommended an international investigation. What has happened to these reports and their recommendations,” he asks adding that the same path will be adopted through the upcoming OISL report and the proposed domestic war crime investigation. Tamil people will have to carefully assess, which of the powers that they want to accuse as the primary international protagonists of the genocide, the exiled Sinhala academic says.
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Jolie silent on US sponsored Sinhala rape talks about IS

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 September 2015, 17:14 GMT]
Hollywood actress and UN Special Envoy for Refugee Issues at the UNHCR, Angelina Jolie, campaigning at the House of Lords of the British parliament on Tuesday, said that the Islamic State (IS) is using rape as a very effective weapon, centre point of their terror and as policy in a way the world has never seen before. She stressed on the importance of bringing prosecutions at the International Criminal Court (ICC). In June 2014, Jolie and the then British Foreign Secretary William Hague, organising Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, with delegations from 140 countries, failed to even discuss Sri Lanka’s use of rape as a weapon in a US-UK bandwagon sponsored genocidal war against a national question.
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