US-resolution inadequate, India should seize opportunity: New Delhi-based CHRI

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 March 2012, 19:28 GMT]
“The proposed resolution does not go far enough. It will not immediately call for direly needed international investigations — a bitter disappointment. In this context, the proposed resolution must not preclude future UNHRC efforts that demand justice, accountability and international investigations in Sri Lanka. The resolution should be voted on only as a first step in the right direction, and not as a final step to water down scrutiny or as a tactic to delay urgently needed justice in Sri Lanka,” said Maja Daruwala, Director of the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) in a feature appeared in The Indian Express, Friday. She urged India to seize the opportunity and sway votes at UNHRC in favour of accountability in Sri Lanka.
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Protest sends away Sri Lanka’s law academic in Tamil Nadu conference

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 March 2012, 09:55 GMT]
Organizers of an international conference at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Thirunelvely, Tamil Nadu, decided to escort out Ms Jeeva Niriella of the Colombo University law faculty through the side door, when barging in protestors accusing Sri Lanka of genocide demanded Jeeva to leave India. The afternoon session of the 3-day conference on Thursday was disrupted to the disbelief and shock of the organisers, reported Times of India on Friday. During the morning session, Ms. Niriella was eulogising ‘women empowerment’ in Sri Lanka, citing Srimao Bandaranayake, world’s first woman prime minister and the current chief justice who is a woman. She was silent to a question about large-scale crimes committed on women in the island.
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SL soldiers clash, killing 3 among them inside camp in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 March 2012, 06:15 GMT]
A clash among the occupying soldiers at a major Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in the Jaffna peninsula has taken the lives of at least 3 and has injured many on Friday morning, news sources in Jaffna said. The SLA camp is located along the A9 Highway, at Nu'naavil, 5 km south of Chaavakachcheari town. In a territory where the occupying soldiers in the camps often exceed the number of local people, such clashes within the SLA are common, sporadically ending with killings, the sources further said.
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Promote Dublin report, build solidarity, recognize Self-Determination: grassroots activists in UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2012, 21:22 GMT]
Grassroots activists of the British Tamil Forum (BTF) and journalists from the UK-based International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATJ), who came together with leftist activists of the Socialist Resistance (SR) and Denmark-based leftist activist Ron Ridenour, in a meeting held in London on Wednesday, resolved to promote the findings of the Dublin Tribunal on Sri Lanka and to give foremost priority to the work on building solidarity with trade unions and progressive groups in the UK on the campaign to recognize Tamils Right to Self-Determination. The meeting which was chaired by Fred Leplat of the SR, also had participants from the NSSP, Sri Lanka.
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US-resolution binds Tamils to less than the 13th Amendment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2012, 07:01 GMT]
A draft resolution that appears in media reports as has been tabled by the USA at Geneva UNHCR, while specifying the ‘constructive’ LLRC recommendations that has to be implemented, talks of only de-militarizing the North but not the East and confines the model of political solution to undefined devolution of powers to the provinces and not to the North-East homeland of Eezham Tamils. While internationally binding Tamils to further dilution of the already inadequate provisions of the Indo-Lanka Agreement, the US-resolution giving international endorsement to LLRC-implementation bails out Sri Lankan state and its regime from international investigations of the genocidal crimes and from the need of any constitutional restructure of the unitary state.
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World socialists reject both US-backed resolution and Sri Lanka’s opposition

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 March 2012, 17:04 GMT]
“The Obama administration is pushing the resolution as a means of pressuring the Rajapakse government to accommodate US interests and those of India […] At the same time, the Sri Lankan government has mounted a hysterical campaign at home against the supposed “international conspiracy” to tarnish the country’s name […] The bourgeois Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is likewise manoeuvring. It previously condemned the LLRC report, but now calls for the implementation of its recommendations—in line with Washington and New Delhi. The TNA is desperately seeking US and Indian backing for a “political solution”, from which it hopes to benefit […] The Socialist Equality Party rejects both the phony US-backed resolution and the Rajapakse government’s chauvinist campaign against it, said World Socialist Web Site on Wednesday.
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Tamil Nadu Catholic Church reminds umbilical cord relations at Kachchatheevu fete

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 March 2012, 08:42 GMT]
Amidst intense presence of the occupying Sinhala military at Kachcha-theevu during the annual fete of St. Antony on Sunday, the Ramnad diocese of Tamil Nadu Catholic Church that jointly conducts the prayers along with the Jaffna diocese, reminded the umbilical cord relations of the people on either side of the Palk Bay. The theme of this year’s joint prayer by Tamil Nadu and Jaffna Catholic Church was war-torn Eezham Tamils reuniting with their relatives. The commanders of the occupying military were shocked when Fr. Michael of Ramnad, delivering the sermon, deeply felt for the mass killings of Eezham Tamils and death of humanism in the island, and said that the sons of the soil should be released, they should be honoured and they should lead their lives as heroes (Maaveerar).
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Thousands gather in Geneva denouncing deceptive deliberations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2012, 17:25 GMT]
While the USA and Sri Lanka and their respective blocs at UNHRC squabble whether the LLRC machination against the nation of Eezham Tamils has to be left to Sri Lanka or internationally monitored in implementation, thousands of Eezham Tamils gathered in Geneva on Monday, denounced the deceptive deliberations and demanded international investigation on the genocide, recognition of the sovereignty of the nation of Eezham Tamils and called for a UN-sponsored referendum among Tamils in the island and in the diaspora. The demonstration organized by Walk for Justice and backed by the Tamil Coordination Committees (TCC) of various countries in the Europe also demanded the immediate release of detainees in the island and removal of occupying Sinhala military from the Tamil homeland.
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Tamil Nadu demands India to declare Rajapaksa guilty of genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2012, 13:07 GMT]
In a pan-Tamil Nadu fasting campaign organised by the Communist Party of India with the support of many major political parties of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, the Government of India was urged to declare Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa as guilty of genocide. The CPI demand supported by the ruling AIDMK and by political parties MDMK, VCK and Tamil National Communist Party gains much significance against the backdrop of repeated bailouts of the Rajapaksa regime in the international forums by the New Delhi Establishment, political observers in Chennai said. The main fasting campaign, participated by a large number of party activists, took place in front of the Thaamparam divisional secretariat in Chennai.
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Five ex-LTTE members abducted since February 27

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2012, 02:13 GMT]
Five former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were released last year by the occupying SL forces for integration with their families after the genocidal SL military's ‘rehabilitation’ programme, have been reported missing last week.
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Sumanthiran, Sritharan contradict reasoning Geneva absentia

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2012, 00:22 GMT]
In a meeting held by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Jaffna on Monday, explaining to the public why the TNA opted out canvassing in Geneva, TNA’s Vanni parliamentarian Sritharan and nominated parliamentarian Sumanthiran came out with contrasting reasons. As the TNA has publicly rejected the LLRC recommendations, is there any point in going to Geneva where the resolution is harping on implementation of the recommendations; won’t it be strengthening the resolution, asked Sritharan. But, Sumanthiran implied that the resolution comes after TNA conferring with the US State Department four months back and that it won’t be diplomatically beneficial to the sponsors of the move if the TNA is present in Geneva.
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West has to concede to Tamils its failure of ‘war crimes–reconciliation’ paradigm

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 March 2012, 07:16 GMT]
The West, especially the USA has to concede to Eezham Tamils that its post-war paradigms of war crimes accountability and reconciliation have failed to bring in solutions from Sri Lanka, commented a new generation Tamil politician in the island, citing the repeated state of affairs at the UNHRC in Geneva. Attitudinal change and fresh thinking in the West should at least now accept the reality of genocide in the island and approach the question from the angle of right to self-determination of the affected nation. Polity of Tamils in the island, diaspora and in Tamil Nadu also should stop playing second fiddle to futile paradigms of others and should stage their own paradigm for their own problem to make it inevitable for the powers, especially India and the USA to listen to, the politician added.
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African Art found in Kayts Island off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 March 2012, 15:42 GMT]
Head part of a metal sculpture showing features of African Art, discovered while digging a well at Allaippiddi in the Kayts Island off Jaffna, has been brought to the notice of professionals in archaeology by the efforts of a local teacher Nadarajah Vakeesan of Bharathi Vidyalayam. The artefact, found in the Palk Bay side of Kayts, an ancient as well as colonial harbour island, where pottery dating from pre-Christian centuries, a hoard of Chola artefacts and a cargo of Chinese ware dated to 12th century CE have been found earlier, and where some early Islamic and European colonial monuments are also located, now shows its Black African connections too, academics said.
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Worried Colombo consulted top D.C. law firm for advice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 March 2012, 15:22 GMT]
John Bellinger, currently a senior partner in a large Washington Law firm, and formerly the legal adviser to the State Department in the Bush Administration, writes in a popular website that the Sri Lankan Government consulted him for advice on the war-crimes charges against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse in the D.C. District Court. The article also discloses that Sri Lanka requested the U.S. State Department to intervene in the Rajapakse war-crimes case more than nine-months ago, but the State Department delayed issuing the "Suggestion of immunity" until after Judge Kotelly formally requested the views of the U.S. Government. Judge Kotelly dismissed the case on the grounds of Head of State Immunity.
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Colombo harasses Tamil politicians, civil officials

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 March 2012, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lankan ‘Criminal Investigation Department’ in Colombo has stepped up harassments on Tamil politicians and civil officials summoning them for investigation meetings in Colombo. A politician and a medical officer have been recently ‘invited’ to appear in Colombo without providing any information on why they were being ‘investigated’. Colombo government has again started to systematically harass the active sections Eezham Tamils, seeking to dis-empower them by de-motivating and demoralising such activists.
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Land grabbed for Buddhist stupa, local people blocked at Kudumpimalai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 March 2012, 07:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Sinhala military occupying the scenic sacred hillock Kudumpimalai (Baron's Cap) in the Koa'ra'lappattu South Division of the Batticaloa district has not only appropriated five acres of land there to build a Buddhist stupa, but also blocks the local people from entering that area. The occupying military plans to convert the local sacred place of Eezham Tamils and a former jungle stronghold of the LTTE into a tourist place for the Sinhala-Buddhists from the south, informed civil officials of the division told TamilNet. The land has been appropriated at Alli-Oadai junction, 2km south of the hillock and the local people are blocked from going to that junction and beyond it, besides being prevented from entering their grazing lands in the nearby village Tharavai. The name of the junction also has been Sinhalicised similar to the Sinhalicisation of Kudumpimalai into Thoppigala.
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US demand on Sri Lanka is not enough: UNSG Panel of Experts

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 March 2012, 19:08 GMT]
Recalling the 2009 blunder by UN Human Rights Council of praising Sri Lanka for its bloody finish to the civil war and stating that the war in its final days had cost as many as 40,000 deaths, the three UN Secretary General's Expert Panel Members, Marzuki Darusman, Steven Ratner and Yasmin Sooka, on Friday said “it is time for the council to correct its embarrassing decision from 2009.” While crediting US for its efforts, the experts of UN panel said: “Yet such a demand is not enough.” Given Sri Lanka's unwillingness to take concrete steps, the best way to get to the truth is for the council to “create an independent investigative body to determine the facts and identify those responsible, as we recommended in our report,” the trio said in an Op-Ed article published in the New York Times.
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Supreme Court's June ruling can undermine Rajapakse verdict, says Fein

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 March 2012, 01:40 GMT]
Commenting that the District of Columbia District Court’s dismissal of the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) claims by three Tamil plaintiffs against Sri Lanka's President Rajapaksa in his individual capacity for complicity in at least six extra-judicial killings, Bruce Fein, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said that the dismissal was ill-reasoned. Mr Fein added that the ruling is vulnerable to reversal upon an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and that the ruling expected in June on Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority, where the issue is centered around the meaning of the word "individual," may also overturn the ruling on the case against Rajapakse.
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US, Sri Lanka squabble whether hang or slaughter Eezham Tamil Nation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 March 2012, 23:32 GMT]
The LLRC recommendation of the majoritarian and genocidal state of Sri Lanka is clear on the point that ethnic territories cannot exist in the island, and ‘trilingual’ society (ostensibly paving way for total Sinhalcisation) should be achieved by 2020. While Sri Lanka in Geneva sessions wants implementation of its agenda left completely to itself, the US-backed resolution seeks international endorsement to the LLRC recommendations and international commitment from Sri Lanka in the implementation and phases. In an exclusive interview to Ceylon Today on Thursday, the US ambassador in Colombo, Patricia Butanis praising the LLRC for coming out with “some excellent recommendations,” argued why then the qualms in publicly committing to implementation. The squabble is just on whether publicly hang or secretly slaughter the Tamil nation, commented an Eezham Tamil politician.
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Head of State immunity saves Rajapakse from war-crimes charges

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 March 2012, 12:42 GMT]
Noting that "two centuries of case law and basic constitutional and statutory principles prevent this court from allowing the plaintiffs' complaint to move forward at this time,'' District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly Wednesday, in the ruling on the case against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse on war crime charges filed by three Tamil plaintiffs, said she had to dismiss the suit against President Rajapaksa because the Obama administration had said he was immune from litigation as a foreign head of state.
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