Boyle: India a moral failure, Colombo's monstrosity matched only by Nazis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 August 2009, 00:51 GMT]
"India’s support to Rajapakse Government is an atrocious crime. Tamils are undergoing unspeakable hardship, and the monstrosity is only matched by the Nazis terror on Jews. The world had simply closed its eyes....Failure to ensure safety to Sri Lanka Tamils is a moral disgrace to India and a stain in India's illustrious history," said Francis Boyle, expert in International Law and Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, during an interview with Tamil Nadu magazine, Dalit Murasu.
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Australia reluctant to call for closure of camps, release of IDPs

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 August 2009, 11:48 GMT]
While expressing serious concern about the civilian toll of the conflict, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) officials conveyed to a delegation of the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA) that Australia’s trade relations with Sri Lanka has been very strong from time immemorial and Australia wants to maintain this relationship, and further to nurture that, Australia is keen on seeing a united Sri Lanka. While continuing to insist that the IDP camps be administered in line with international standards, Australia is reluctant to call for a closure of these camps and release of the innocent IDPs as soon as possible, DFAT officials told the Tamil delegation last week.
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MNCs flock in to get the ‘fruits’ of war

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 August 2009, 09:18 GMT]
Roman Scott of Calamander Group, who believes Tigers have been effectively contained, suppression of free expression by Colombo will not affect business, and economics is not really that strong related to democratic principles, is an early bird in the island for investment, says the latest issue of Forbes India. Sri Lanka is going to be “one of the best investment opportunities on the planet for the next two to three years,” said the Singapore based British equity manager. According to Forbes, companies from some countries have a natural advantage either because they have the trust of the Sinhalese or understand the local nuances better. China falls into the first category and India into the second. These two countries are likely to play a major role in the reconstruction.
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731 IDP students in Vavuniyaa sit Year 5 scholarship examination

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 17:38 GMT]
Save the Children, a non-governmental organization (NGO), provided cardboards to internally displaced Year Five students in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa who sat for the Year 5 scholarship examination Sunday due to the non-availability of desk and tables in the centres located in the camps, educational sources said.
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Mullaiththeevu medical student refused permission to enter Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 17:27 GMT]
Sivapatham Prasath, a Tamil youth from Mullaitheivu district who gained admission to the medical faculty of the Jaffna University for the academic year 2008 but was unable to enter as he had lost his legs in an artillery shell attack in Mullaitheivu on 08.08.2008, has been detained in an internment camp in Vavuniyaa. He has been refused permission by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to leave the camp to enter the Jaffna University to join the medical faculty for the academic year 2009 which commenced last week, sources said.
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Government plans to hold Vanni IDPs in camps for longer period

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 17:20 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) has instructed government authorities to set up offices in Vavuniyaa and its surrounding area to carry out the administration of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts in Vanni which had ceased to function due to the war on Vanni, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Though it is said that the above decision has been taken due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) refusal to resettle Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in their own villages in the near future, the real intention of the government is to hold the Vanni IDPs in the detention camps permanently, the sources added.
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Eelam and the new 'super power' Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 04:46 GMT]
In their petty geopolitical and corporate interests, India and the West have created a Frankenstein monster of a state in Sri Lanka that disgraces the whole world. What fears them now is this monster in its frenzies making their labours lost in the island. This is what impels them to tell the victims to reconcile, not to anger the monster and not to say genocide even when it takes place for decades. A general excuse they come out with is that the present world has no appetite for new nation states. Colombo makes the best use of this weakness. No justifiable norm of polity could be seen in why India and the West should labour so hard to uphold a united Sri Lanka and to appease it beyond all limits, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Boyle debunks Kohona's war-crimes braggadocio

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 03:17 GMT]
Debunking Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary, Palitha Kohona's statement that "no winner of a war has been tried [for war crimes] before a Tribunal," Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the Illinois College of Law, said, as legal counsel for the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja, he had convinced the Honorable Carla Del Ponte, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to indict Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for every crime in the ICTY Statute, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Restriction on fishing will continue in Jaffna peninsula – SLN

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 August 2009, 07:19 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh, quoting Northern Region Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Admiral, sent a circular to local media Friday informing that the fishing restriction imposed in areas close to SLN base in Kaangkeasanththu’rai, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zones (HSZ) and areas along the runways and flight routes of aircrafts will continue. Detailed information about the places where fishing restriction is in force, however, was not given by SLN authorities and the fishermen have to obtain the information from their local SLA and SLN authorities, the circular said.
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Winners are never tried for war crimes, says Colombo’s foreign secretary

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 07:33 GMT]
“If you look at the history of war crimes there isn’t one instance where a winner of a war has been tried before a Tribunal. They have always been set up for losers. And if you were to take winners then the start would have to be taken elsewhere. Sri Lanka did not drop atom bombs or destroy entire cities during the war,” said, Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary and newly appointed permanent representative to the UN, Palitha Kohona in an interview to Daily Mirror, Thursday, outlining the diplomatic prospects of Colombo in engaging the officialdom of the world, in negating political solutions to the Tamil national question. “There is this thinking that all our problems can be solved by applying a political solution. I fail to see the logic behind this,” he said.
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'Political formula needs to address Tamil nationalist fundamentals'

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 00:12 GMT]
The powers of the international community, especially India, recognising the nation of Eezham Tamils, spelling out its right to self-determination and immediately stepping in guaranteeing its security and territorial integrity are more important for producing positive political results than mooting proxy draft solutions, says Roy Gardiner Wignarajah, a spokesman of the Canadian Tamil activist group, International Human Cultural Union (IHCU). "Tamil groups should not engage in demoralising the future course of the liberation struggle by playing in the hands of those who are all out to erase the nationalism of Eezham Tamils. Instead, they should concentrate on ingenuously posing democratic challenges, locally and internationally, convincing the inevitability of conceding liberation to Tamils."
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White House Tamil protest draws media attention

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 23:39 GMT]
Commenting on the increase in number of protests after President Obama came to power, Politico.com, a site run by a Virginia-based popular American political group and edited by former Washington Post staffers, noted that the "most memorable crowd of protesters outside Obama's door [White House]" was a Tamil expatriate group which has "caught the attention of administration officials and journalists alike with its unflagging, mind numbing chants." Tamils from several states in the US and Canadian Tamils have been protesting in front of the White House for the 102nd contiguous day Thursday, urging Obama administration to take steps to safeguard Tamil civilians and to enforce a just and fair solution to the Tamil National question.
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Relocating Moothoor east IDPs continues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 11:54 GMT]
The sixth group of internally displaced families from Moothoor east Tamil villages who had sought refuge in Batticaloa district since the military operation launched by the Sri Lanka in April 2006 were sent back Thursday morning by seven buses via Verukal to Ki’liveddi. They are again given temporary shelter in a welfare centre in Ki’liveddi as they are not allowed to resettle in their traditional villages in Moothoor east which are located in the SLA declared high security zone after its military operation, sources in Batticaloa said.
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'UN, the fence that ate the crop'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 01:00 GMT]
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who was refused admittance by Colombo at the height of the war, chose to accept its invitation as soon as the war was “won”, accuses Norway’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Mona Juul, whose confidential assessment of Ban sent to Norway’s Foreign Ministry, leaked to Afterposten newspaper of Oslo Wednesday. War in Sri Lanka is an example of the weak handling of the Secretary General. He was a passive observer when thousands lost lives and were driven from their homes, the diplomat further said in her mid term assessment of Ban’s tenure. “Even when it was helpless at the gang-up of certain powers, the UN should have upheld its integrity by telling the truth and exposing the culprits to the world. But Ban and his chosen officials not only failed but also shielded them”, said Tamil circles which look at UN as the ‘fence that ate the crop.’
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SLA, police ban rally in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 17:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and Police Wednesday banned the demonstration and rally organized by the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) in Mannaar demanding the immediate resettlement of internally displaced families detained in camps in Vavuniyaa, lifting all restrictions on travelling and entering hospitals in Vavuniyaa and Mannaar and to find a political solution for the conflict and the removal of restriction on fishing and farming.
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Thousands attend Nalloor Thear festival

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 11:50 GMT]
The Thear (Chariot) festival of the historic Nalloor Kandasamy Temple in Jaffna town was held Wednesday morning with thousands of devotees from all over the island and participating, turning Jaffna into a virtual spiritual town, sources attending the festival said. With 300,000 fellow Tamils incarcerated in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, and constrained by the curfews the Jaffna citizens still have to endure daily, the festival had added significance to the Saiva population in the NorthEast, although the number of participants were fewer than the previous years, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Academic exposes ideological shift in DMK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 11:59 GMT]
Discerning students of Tamil Nadu politics, especially those analysing the role of the state in Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, are intrigued by the transformation that has taken place in the DMK perception on Sri Lanka, writes V. Suryanarayan in an article last week appeared in New Indian Express. “The tragedy of the situation must be underlined; the Sri Lankan Tamils became pawns in the electoral politics of the state. What is more, their struggle for justice, equity and dignity has been pushed back by several decades. A long winter of discontent is ahead of Sri Lankan Tamils,” he concludes the article.
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US Tamil boycott campaign targets Victoria Secret, Macy's

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 01:46 GMT]
U.S. Tamil expatriate groups in New York as part of their continuing campaign urging U.S.companies to avoid trade with Sri Lanka, targetted Victoria Secret, the lingerie giant with $5.6b net sales in 2008, and the retail giant Macy's which had $26.3b sales in Fiscal Year 2007, Saturday 15th August in Manhattan at 34th street and Broadway junction, between 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
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Tamil Nadu government erases the word 'Eezham'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police was seen pasting white papers on the word 'Eezham' and on the picture of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, figured in the banners and posters of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchi (VCK) organised uprising in Chennai attended by more than 100,000 people Monday. The VCK's annual uprising day, conducted on the birthday of its leader Thol Thirumavalavan, has chosen the theme 'Ezhum Thamizh Eezham' for this year. The phrase can either mean the 'rising Tamil Eelam' or 'Tamil Eelam will rise'. The word 'Eezham' is the earliest reference to today's island of Sri Lanka, found in Tamil literature and inscriptions of pre-Christian centuries.
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