Urging Colombo to rebuild railway to north evokes 143-year-old debate

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 February 2012, 00:39 GMT]
A group of politicians, academics and NGO workers in the South including some Tamils and Muslims of southern orientation, while urging implementation of several LLRC recommendations in consultation with the TNA, and at the same time urging demilitarisation and political solution based on devolution, concluded their signed statement on Friday, wondering it was “hard to understand delay in rebuilding the railway to the north – a one time artery of commerce and people movement.” The perception of the model of ‘integration’ with the Colombo-based system, evokes 143-year-old debate on ‘the tale of two cities’, started by the then British Government Agent in Jaffna, Sir William Twynham, whether the railway makes Jaffna independent or dependent of Colombo. Twynham in his time rather preferred to develop the external trade of the ports in Jaffna and land-link them with the rest of the island.
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Colombo demarcates new Batticaloa villages for Sinhalicisation

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 February 2012, 22:27 GMT]
The Colombo government has been engaged in creating new villages for Sinhalese who are being brought down from the south to the Eastern Province. The SL government authorities have set aside around 25,000 acres of land in Vavu'natheevu in Batticaloa district under the pretext of allowing members of the so-called Sri Lanka Civil Defence Force, who are Sinhala home guards trained to colonise Tamil land by the Sri Lankan military, to do cultivation. Hundred percent of the paramilitary home guards in the unit receiving the lands in Batticaloa are Sinhalese.
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US Congress tables resolution on Baloch self-determination

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 February 2012, 17:08 GMT]
A resolution has been introduced in the US Congress last week, calling upon Pakistan to recognize the right to self-determination of the Baloch people, whose main territory Balochistan, bordering Iran in the west and Afghanistan in the north, is currently a province in Pakistan. It is the US policy to “oppose aggression and the violation of human rights inherent in the subjugation of national groups as currently being shown in Iran and Pakistan against the aspirations of the Baloch people,” the motion said. The resolution also talks on the distribution of the Baloch in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, their long revolts since 1958 and the need for the world to give them an opportunity to choose their own status among the community of nations. Balochistan is rich in oil and minerals with pipeline access to sea besides its strategic importance to US engagements in West Asia and Afghanistan.
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Cambodia analogy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 February 2012, 05:14 GMT]
The UN Secretary General is under attack by international legal experts and the media for a seriously bungled war-crimes prosecution in east asia- Cambodia's war tribunal (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, ECCC). Two million civilians were killed by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and 35 years later, politics and finance, instead of law and evidence, appear to dictate the course of justice. But, here, now, Tamil political leaders point to the Cambodia model as reflecting the speed of international investigations, and assert that Tamils should not be impatient at the slow progress of international mechanisms. Western States, allegedly complicit in "crime against peace" in Sri Lanka, forward the same argument to avoid their own exposure and to buy the SL Government time so that 30-years into the future, prosecutions become largely irrelevant as is happening in Cambodia.
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Court to decide if US can save Rajapakse from war-crime charges

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 February 2012, 02:38 GMT]
The United States Department of State, in its response to three Tamil plaintiffs' opposing arguments to the US's suggestion of immunity for Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse from alleged war-crimes, said that the plaintiffs have asked the Court to "ignore the substantial and unanimous body of authority recognizing the controlling nature" of US's immunity determination, and that US's earlier submission adequately explained why the Court should recognize Rajapakse's immunity from the suit. Plaintiff's attorney said the US Government has failed to adequately address why the Court should pre-empt judicial review when under TVPA "an individual" has allegedly committed "universally repugnant" crimes, and is insolently insisting on the dispositiveness of US's determination on immunity. A ruling is expected from Judge Kotelly soon.
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TNA tries to sell Indo-US pre-emption to Eezham Tamil civil society

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 February 2012, 14:45 GMT]
Accepting the implementation of the 13th Amendment that is already in Sri Lanka’s constitution and failed to meet Tamil aspirations, was the subject matter the TNA was trying to impress upon the representatives of the Eezham Tamil civil society, in a meeting that took place in Vavuniyaa for five hours on Saturday. Eezham Tamils should not ‘hang on’ to their right to self-determination was the argument of a Colombo-based lawyer backing the stand of TNA leader R. Sampanthan, while this right was the very basis of the struggle of Eezham Tamils in the last sixty years, democratically as well as militarily, civil society circles told TamilNet. Many of the civil society representatives, especially from the East and Mannaar requested the TNA to conceive better ideas to bring in an interim administration for the North and East to face the current situation.
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Ban under fire for silence in Shavendra's UN appointment

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 February 2012, 06:42 GMT]
While Navi Pillay, U.N.'s chief of human rights, advised U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier this month to seek the removal of a former Sri Lankan officer, Shavendra Silva, from a top peacekeeping advisory committee for alleged complicity in war-crimes, other rights groups blasted Ban for the silence on the controversial appointment. Philippe Bolopion, the U.N. representative for Human Rights Watch, said "[t]he responsibility for this puzzling appointment lays squarely with the Asia Group, but ultimately Ban Ki-moon established the panel and has to safeguard the reputation and credibility of the United Nations."
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Holland artist conveys oppressed peoples stories through theatre reportage

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 February 2012, 23:31 GMT]
Combining theatre and reportage, artist Annet Henneman from The Netherlands has been conveying the real stories of oppressed peope and the refugees across Europe in a novel form of theatre performance, causing attitudinal change on viewers for years, through Italy-based Teatro di Nascosto (Hidden Theatre). Eezham Tamils in Berlin, Germany, were introduced to her media last Friday, when she performed there narrating true stories from Iraq, Kurdistan, Palestine, Iran and South America with songs and photos in a programme titled “Don't forget us”.
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EU refrains from welcoming LLRC, calls for UN Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 February 2012, 03:04 GMT]
The European Parliament on Thursday, among its resolution specifying its position on UN Human Rights Council's 19th session to be convened in Geneva this month, resolved on Sri Lanka that it “[s]tresses the need to further support efforts to strengthen the accountability process in Sri Lanka and continue to call for the establishment of a UN commission of inquiry into all crimes committed, as recommended by the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka; invites the Sri Lankan Government to send an invitation to the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” The maneuverings of Sri Lanka supporters to replace the call for UN commission with a note welcoming LLRC were defeated by the members of Labour and Left parties (GUE and S&D).
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Sumanthiran comes forward to save Rajapaksa from international investigations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 February 2012, 01:47 GMT]
A few days left to the UNHRC sessions in Geneva, the Colombo-based nominated parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran, has come out with a statement to BBC Sinhala Service on Tuesday, bailing out the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa. “TNA backs a domestic process to implement the LLRC recommendations. We should ask for an international probe only after a failure of that,” Sumanthiran said. “It is a step-by-step process. It will take time. They took 30 years in Cambodia,” the BBC further cited the MP, who welcomed the ‘US pressure’ on the SL government. Meanwhile, the visiting US Under Secretary General of State, Maria Otero, told reporters in Colombo on Monday that the US will support a resolution at the UNHRC providing an opportunity for Sri Lanka to implement the LLRC recommendations.
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Buddhist monk on Sinhalicisation project in Batticaloa causes ethnic disharmony

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 23:55 GMT]
Venerable Ambitiya Sumanarathna Thera, the head of the Buddhist temple in Batticaloa, who conducted a fast-unto-death campaign in the year 2010 demanding Colombo to post Sinhala officers to all government departments in the predominantly Tamil-speaking district, has been waging a new fast-unto-death campaign from Tuesday this week. The new campaign is targeted against Tamils, who have been demanding resettlement in their occupied lands by documenting their land deeds. The monk, putting forward a false claim that officials in Batticaloa were issuing false land deeds to Tamils, claimed that the lands belonged to Sinhalese. He ended the fast-unto-death campaign after Colombo's paramilitary operative and a deputy minister in Rajpaksa's cabinet, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, met the prelate and promised to forward his appeal to SL President on Wednesday.
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Abductions on rise in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 22:48 GMT]
An abduction was reported in front of the Court complex on Monday and a body of a male was dumped and burnt near SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's private residence in Boteju Mawatha in Colombo 05 on Tuesday while the fate of a leading Tamil businessman who was abducted on Saturday still remained in the hands of the abductors who have claimed 100 million rupees ransom from his family.
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Build capacity when regime tries to take away all capacity: Prof Gene Sharp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 17:26 GMT]
In an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Friday in Oslo, Dr. Gene Sharp, Emeritus Professor of Political Science of the University of Massachusetts, provided some insights on non-violent strategies to be pursued by nations against states and powers that deny them their legitimate rights. “They have to build up some capacity for strength when the regime is trying to take away all capacity for strength from the oppressed people,” he said, adding, “We need to have a wise strategy – not something where you express anger but which achieves smaller victories and finally a big victory.” However, the leading theoretician of non-violent struggle who was not specifically addressing on any of the current struggles, conceded that “The situations are very different for different people of different countries.”
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Occupying SL Army, Police jointly attack Tamil youth in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 February 2012, 18:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka's occupying Sinhala army and police brutally attacked a number of Tamil youth below the age of 25, who were passing by the road in Nedung-kea'ni in Mullaiththeevu district on Tuesday night. The unprovoked and random attack followed some complaints of Sinhala road workers from the South, news sources in Vanni told TamilNet. Sometimes back a similar attack took place in Vanni after a confrontation between some Sinhala visitors from the South and the local people. Such attacks by the colonial forces were to remind the Eezham Tamils in Vanni of their subjugated status, the sources further said.
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Australian Tamils critical of Rudd's response to LLRC report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 February 2012, 13:15 GMT]
While the Australasian Federation of Tamil Association (AFTA) said it is disappointed to see Australia’s response to LLRC "lacks either the persuasive language or open caution to Sri Lanka for its failure to address alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights," Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) said it is "concerned that Mr Rudd has continued to call on Sri Lanka to investigate itself. The Tamil community has no confidence in the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct an independent investigation and deliver justice to the victims of the war. We cannot expect justice when an investigation is initiated by a party to the alleged crimes," ATC release said.
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White-van abductors demand 100 million ransom

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 February 2012, 01:41 GMT]
Speaking in broken Tamil, a man claiming to have abducted the Colombo-based Tamil businessman Ramayasamy Prabakaran on Saturday, has demanded ransom of 100 million rupees over phone call, family members have told media Monday.
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Pakistan seeks Colombo’s help in deploying genocidal model

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 February 2012, 11:38 GMT]
A high level team of Sri Lankan officials who visited Pakistan were actually on a mission to help Pakistan combat and crush the Baloch freedom fighters or Sarmachars demanding independence from the failing state in South Asia, said an Examiner feature by Ahmar Mustikhan on Monday. Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa was on a two-day visit to Islamabad and signed three MoUs with Pakistan. But secret talks held during the visit were on Pakistan getting Colombo’s ‘expertise’ in crushing Tamil Tigers for deployment against the Balochistan movement, and this matter should be immediately reported to the International Criminal Court, the feature further said.
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SLAF fighter jet crashes in North Western Province

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 February 2012, 11:19 GMT]
A Russian-built MiG-27 fighter jet used by the Sri Lanka Air Force against civilian targets in the country of Eezham Tamils during the war, crashed Monday in the North Western Province. The SLAF deployed Russian built fighters to carry cluster bombs on LTTE and civilian targets in Vanni, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout the war.
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Colombo threatens Tamils in contact with visiting US delegation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 February 2012, 23:56 GMT]
Some of the eyewitnesses in Vanni, who met the visiting US delegation headed by Stephen J Rapp, the ambassador-at-Large for war crimes at the US State Department, on Thursday and Friday, have been harassed by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Mullaith-theevu after the US delegation had left the region, sources in Mullaith-theevu told TamilNet Sunday. The SL Army has questioned a parish priest, inviting him to their camp consecutively for three days, and at least five parents who had allegedly complained about their missing sons and daughters have also been questioned by the SLA. While diplomatic circles in Colombo wonder at what the USA is up to in the island, Tamil circles are worried at pre-emption hatching in the establishments of the USA and India.
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Human skeletons recovered from well in Valikaamam North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 February 2012, 16:40 GMT]
Recently resettled civilians in Kollangk-kaladdi of Valikaamam North in Jaffna have located human skeletons inside a well while clearing it for their use, sources in Valikaamam told TamilNet Sunday. A skull was located. But, the number of the recovered skeletons indicates that some of the victims had been decapitated, before they were dumped into the well, the sources said. It is believed that the victims were civilians abducted by the Sri Lanka Army operated squads and those who went to check their properties inside the SLA occupied territory after year 1992, when the SLA seized the village of Kollang-kaladdi.
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