New Delhi poses new challenge to Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 October 2013, 18:57 GMT]
NPC Chief Minister Mr C.V. Wigneswaran has to be profusely thanked and appreciated by Tamils for his honesty in conceding that he is not a natural leader of Eezham Tamils representing their aspirations, but a planted one by New Delhi to implement the 13th Amendment. Wigneswaran’s revelation and his efforts to muffle voices in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora have to be understood in the background of what M.K. Narayanan had told the TNA in May 2009 that, “we know better what is good for Tamils.” New Delhi simulating a leadership for the political surrender of the Tamil cause poses new challenge to Tamils all over the world, writes an activist for alternative politics in Jaffna.
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TNA should learn from history: Poonkuzhali Nedumaran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 October 2013, 23:38 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) should learn from history, and from the experience of their predecessors, on what should NOT be done, writes Tamil Nadu political activist Poonkuzhali Nedumaran in a feature sent to TamilNet this week. She cited the history of TNA’s predecessor TULF failing in upholding the responsibility it was vested with by the people in 1977, compromising with District Councils and how that triggered the Tamil youth to lose confidence in parliamentary methods. The NPC election results mean communication of a will than participation in governance. With the Eezham Tamils rejecting the polity and rule of the State in Colombo, the TNA must understand the responsibility vested with them by the people, she further said.
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Understanding obstacles in structuring people’s struggle for self-determination

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 September 2013, 18:07 GMT]
How do we save national struggles from decimation and structure these struggles as people-centric? This is the uppermost question we have to address in right earnest, observed, Mr Saba Navalan, the editor of inioru.com in the UK, in reading a paper on Sri Lanka’s case study in the 21st century’s movements for self-determination, at an EU-level conference convened by IBON International that took place in the European Parliament last Monday. According to Mr Navalan’s observations, an obstacle in the realization of self-determination is that the upper layer of each ethnic group is held by pro-imperial forces and despite having fundamental contradiction, the upper middle class, in the absence of national capitalism, is comfortable about its association with the pro-imperial class.
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Sampanthan, Sumanthiran find TNA victory superseding Vaddukkoaddai mandate

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 September 2013, 08:23 GMT]
The obsession of utmost priority for a section of TNA leadership is to satisfy the Sri Lanka saving agenda of New Delhi and Washington, by interpreting the TNA victory as supersession of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution based mandate of 1977, political observers in Jaffna commented on a statement made by the TNA leader Mr. R. Sampanthan, aided by Mr M.A. Sumanthiran, at a press conference convened in Jaffna on Sunday. Sampanthan talking of united and undivided country described the TNA victory as a clear verdict of Tamils, unprecedented in the political history of the island. Answering a question raised by an Eezham Tamil journalist that how then he views the 1977 verdict, Sampanthan said that there is nothing wrong in stating that the present victory is greater than the 1977 one. Sumanthiran was heard aiding him in answering the question.
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Uthayan faked, SL forces focus on targeting Ananthi on election day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 September 2013, 07:18 GMT]
While the Indian media, The Hindu and The Times of India, highlight NPC chief minister candidate Mr CV Wigneswaran condemning the call for Tamil Eelam and the call for boycotting the CHOGM meet, the focus of genocidal Colombo seems to be on targeting Ms Ananthi Sasitharan, the Tamil homeland-based candidate, who has become popular among the people. On the morning of Saturday, which is election day, the popular daily in the North, Uthayan, was faked and in its name, a newspaper was circulated saying that Ms Ananthi has joined the Colombo government. The fake paper cited Mavai Senathirajah. Meanwhile, news reports from several parts of the North said that the occupying SL forces are intimidating and preventing Tamils from voting. In Mullaiththeevu, a voting booth captured by Sinhalese prevented local Tamils from voting. Despite the odds, people are seen actively engaged in voting.
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The Justice fails as lawyer of Tamils too

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 September 2013, 07:07 GMT]
NPC Chief Minister candidate Mr C.V. Wigneswaran on Sunday defended him over the interview that appeared in The Hindu on Thursday, by further elaborations and by blaming The Hindu for selective projection of his answers and omission in that too. But he didn’t deny the crucial point he had made through The Hindu, aimed at discrediting and silencing the voices coming from Tamil Nadu for the independence of the genocide-affected nation of Eezham Tamils. “We are facing problems in our discourse with the government in our country, because parties in foreign countries, especially the parties in South India, keep telling that separation is the only solution,” Wigneswaran reiterated in a press meet in Jaffna, held for explaining the TNA election manifesto.
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Wigneswaran bares agenda of his sponsors

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2013, 14:28 GMT]
Mr C.V. Wigneswaran, the Chief Minister candidate the TNA was prodded to field by the Establishments, found The Hindu on Thursday to bare open what would be his political agenda once given with a ‘mandate’ by a choice-less people, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island. Speaking to The Hindu, and comparing the island situation to a husband and wife fight at home, Wigneswaran addressed to Tamil Nadu that “We will fight, but sometimes we come together. The next-door neighbour must not come and say ‘you must divorce, you must divorce’. That is not your business.” Will the former justice come out with a similar stricture on Washington, New Delhi and Beijing that are in complicity with the spouse murdering dominant spouse, asked the activists.
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Sri Lanka archaeology claims finding ‘Sinhala Prakrit’ in Delft

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2013, 06:50 GMT]
An archaeology website of Sri Lanka on Thursday claimed that the Maritime Archaeology Unit of the Central Cultural Fund (an exclusive Sinhala outfit of the genocidal State) had found a Brahmi inscription in “Sinhalese Prakrit language” at Delft (Nedun-theevu), the farthest inhabited island off the Jaffna Peninsula. The claim was based on a four-letter fragment found on a coral slab of the base of a possible Buddhist stupa, locally called Vediyarasan Koaddai. When it comes to Brahmi and Prakrit, many Sinhala archaeologists choose to forget ‘Sri Lanka’ but imagine ‘Sinhala,’ commented academic circles in Jaffna, rejecting the connotations with which the nomenclature “Sinhalese Prakrit” is conceived and is projected nowadays.
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Mysterious death amidst increasing reports on torture in SL prisons

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 September 2013, 23:49 GMT]
52-year-old Francis Nelson, a father of one, from Karunaadduk-kea'ni in Kokkuth-thoduvaay in Mullaiththeevu, died in Sri Lankan custody at Kalutara prison on September 02. His wife, a Sinhalese, who has been living in Vanni with the parents of Nelson, has alleged that her husband's death was caused by continuous and systematic torture at the prison. Nelson had managed to phone his wife on September 01 and the news of his death the following day was a shocking news to the family, news sources in Vanni said. The mysterious death of the Tamil prisoner comes amidst increasing complaints of routine torture at the prisons in the South.
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Eezham Tamil man self-immolates in front of Geneva UN office

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 September 2013, 18:22 GMT]
An Eezham Tamil diaspora Tamil man, 35-year-old Senthilkumaran Ratnasingam, has immolated himself in front of the UN office in Geneva on Thursday around 1:10 a.m. The authorities in Switzerland were initially reluctant to confirm or release the details of the incident. However, Tamil circles at Geneva told TamilNet that the Swiss police together with a group of Iranian activists, who were engaged in protests at the time of the incident, attempted to save his life and rushed him to Chuv hospital in Lausanne, where he succumbed to his injuries on Thursday around 4:15 p.m. Meanwhile, Iranian persons present at the site of the incident said they found a photo of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan at the site. The latest self-immolation comes amidst disappointment prevailing among Eezham Tamils following the recent visit of UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navanetham Pillay to the island.
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Talking ‘development’ for taking nation and politics away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 September 2013, 20:00 GMT]
The Norwegian Ambassador Grete Løchen saying last week that the diaspora should drop talking about Eezham to avoid feeding into the rhetoric of the Sri Lankan government, implies near-criminalisation of the struggle of the nation of Eezham Tamils, at the behest of the genocidal State of Sri Lanka. The Ambassador said it at a ‘development’ conference convened with an emphasized note that the intention was not to discuss the political situation in Sri Lanka in general or internal differences between Tamil political actors. Earlier the West criminalized the armed struggle of Eezham Tamils as international terrorism. If the diaspora keeps quiet, even the democratic struggle will be criminalized and gagged by the Establishment partners of Colombo just like the 6th Amendment to the constitution of Sri Lanka, cautioned Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Buddhist vihara being constructed at Tamil village in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 September 2013, 23:54 GMT]
A group of Buddhist monks and Buddhist extremist elements from the South are constructing a Buddhist Vihara in the Tamil village of Thangka-vealaayutha-puram in Ampaa'rai district. The occupying Sri Lankan military is assisting the monks, news sources in Thirukkoayil told TamilNet.
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‘Military presence in North-East worrying’: Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 August 2013, 21:09 GMT]
“I was concerned to hear about the degree to which the military appears to be putting down roots and becoming involved in what should be civilian activities, for instance education, agriculture and even tourism,” Ms Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a press conference in Colombo on Saturday. Speaking at the conclusion of her visit to the island, Ms Pillay said that that the military presence in the North-East seemed “much greater than is needed for strictly military or reconstruction purposes,” also referring to the vulnerability of women to sexual abuse. While sympathizing with the spirit of the address of Ms Pillay, who has been at the receiving end of vulgar verbal abuse from Sinhala nationalists, Tamil activists in the island expressed regret that she was still conferring legitimacy to the GoSL’s genocidal blueprint called LLRC.
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Norwegian ambassador in Colombo bares agenda in Oslo

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 August 2013, 00:58 GMT]
Norway, once hoodwinked the nation of Eezham Tamils with an ‘internal self-determination’ formula in the Oslo Declaration, now bares its deceptive face by talking about ‘development’ of Tamils with diaspora ‘partnership’ within a ‘Sri Lankan minority’ formula and the PC model. While the Norwegian ambassador in Colombo Ms Grete Løchen was baring the agenda in Oslo on Monday, the Tamil participants looped in were not only confirmed revisionists, habitual upholders of the Sri Lankan State and tangent-polity activists, but were also the representatives of the NCET, Tamil Women Organisation, a TCC outfit and the TECH-Norway. If the agenda can’t be perceived with its nuances and rejected outright at the face of Norway, the diaspora will prove only its impotence, commented Tamils for alternative politics in the island.
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Tamils stopped at gunpoint, Sinhalese demonstrate during Pillay visit to Trinco

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 August 2013, 04:09 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in Trincomalee visited all the camps where uprooted Tamil civilians were staying and threatened them that they would be facing dire consequences if they were to take part in awareness gatherings anywhere in the district during the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navanetham Pillay. The SL police didn’t allow local media reporters to any of the venues where Ms Pillay was interacting with the people and the civil society. Meanwhile, the SL military deployed its paramilitary and intelligence operatives to organize a protest giving placards portraying that LTTE was the main culprit in ‘abducting’ people. The Sinhala extremist JVP and JHU elements were also behind bringing false victims to the stage-managed protest held in front of the District Secretariat.
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Navi Pillay meeting Tamils in Jaffna ended in eyewash, say Tamil activists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 August 2013, 01:04 GMT]
The UN Human Rights Commissioner Navanetham Pillay met a group of 15 Tamil rights activists and civil representatives at the UN office in Jaffna. While she spent more time with the Sri Lankan State officials, the independent Tamil activists were given just 90 seconds each to present their cases under 8 different themes that included the cases of missing persons, detention of prisoners, land grab, colonization and attacks on religious institutions.
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SL State divides communities in East: Batticaloa MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 August 2013, 19:29 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government is doing the opposite to what it wants portrayed to the outside world with the beautiful term ‘reconciliation’, declared Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Batticaloa, Mr P. Selvarasa, Friday, at the agricultural development meeting held at the Batticaloa District Secretariat. Allowing the SL State officials to collaborate with the Buddhist prelate of Mangalarama vihara while there is a court order against the illegal settlement in Paddip-pazhai division and literally banning the Tamils at Navakkiri in Vellaa-ve’li division from accessing their tank to engage in their livelihood of fresh water fishing, is nothing else than setting one community against the other, he said citing the latest reports.
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SL military aims to mar Ananthi meeting Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 23:43 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence in Jaffna on Wednesday staged a ‘protest’ against Ms Ananthi Sasitharan, the representative of thousands of Eezham Tamil women, who are demanding the Sri Lankan State to reveal the whereabouts of their husbands who were filtered away from the civilians in the final hours of the Vanni war by the SL military that had announced ‘general amnesty’ through the loudspeakers. Sinhala workers, intelligence operatives and some ex-LTTE members brought from elsewhere, were holding placards written in broken Tamil against Ananthi Sasitharan in front of the Jaffna Bus Stand. In the meantime, informed sources in Colombo said that the SL State was seeking to ‘influence’ certain foreign missions in Colombo to avoid UN Human Commissioner for Human Rights Navanetham Pillay meeting Ananthi, who is also contesting in the Provincial Council election on behalf of the TNA.
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Abducted Mannaar Tamil youth ‘escapes’ from Sinhala squad

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 08:50 GMT]
A Tamil youth engaged in removing sand legally in Kooraay area in Mannaar district was abducted on Monday by a group of 22 Sinhalese persons deployed by a Sinhalese trader from the South in sand removal in the country of Eezham Tamils. The Sinhala trader operates with the backing of the occupying SL military. The abduction took place while the Tamil youth was at the Anuradhapura office of the SL authority to renew his sand removal permit. However, the 21-year-old youth managed to escape from the custody of the abductors on Tuesday and made a complaint to the SL police in Ilupaaik-kadavai, news sources in Mannaar said. The ‘escape’ was reported after the Tamil villagers in Kooraay held 5 Sinhalese workers deployed by the Southern trader at the house of the Tamil victim.
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Ampaa'rai GA, DS officials step up Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2013, 02:53 GMT]
Deputy Elections Commissioner of Batticaloa District, RMAL Ratnayaka, has recently instructed Paddippazhai divisional secretariat to register the Sinhalese, who have recently encroached into the public lands in Kevu’liyaa-madu, on the voters' registry of the district, civil sources in Batticaloa said adding that Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa district is being accelerated while the Sri Lankan Government Agent of Batticaloa Ms PSM Charles, who is a Tamil, is on vacation and the SLGA of Ampaa’rai district, Mr Neel de Alwis, is tasked by Colombo as the acting SLGA of Batticaloa district. The Deputy Elections Commissioner has recently visited the Sinhala encroachers and handed over forms to register in voters’ registry for 25 families.
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