Indian university confers honorary doctorate on Erik Solheim

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 February 2012, 02:05 GMT]
TERI University of India (The Energy and Resources Institute), which is a deemed university located in New Delhi, has conferred honorary doctorate on Norwegian Minister of Development Mr. Erik Solheim in its fourth convocation this year held on Wednesday. The deemed university, specialized in sustainable development, got accreditation in India in 1999. The university has affiliated centers in Japan, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, USA and UK, besides in some prominent Indian cities. Mr. Solheim is involved in international peace facilitation on behalf of Norway in several countries in the world. As Development minister, his office is part of the foreign ministry establishment of the Norwegian government, since Norway sees ‘development’ and ‘foreign relations’ intertwined in facilitating its interests.
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SL government will not deliver justice: HRW

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 February 2012, 23:59 GMT]
The acting Geneva Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch, Philippe Dam, has said in a statement issued by the HRW Thursday that justice and accountability will not come from the Sri Lankan government. “Only international action will address the suffering of victims,” Mr. Dam said urging the United Nations Human Rights Council to address the lack of accountability for wartime abuses during its March 2012 session. Sri Lanka has a long history of failed promises to prosecute serious human rights abuses, the statement by the HRC further said.
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TID arrests two Tamil fishermen in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 February 2012, 02:51 GMT]
A group of persons, arriving in a white van and identifying themselves as from the Sri Lankan ‘Terrorism Investigation Division’ (TID), arrested two Tamil fishermen in Mannaar on January 19th, sources in Mannaar said. The TID officers had later had informed relatives of the fishermen after inquiry that TID police had detained the fishermen on reports that they had helped he LTTE.
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CPI moots Tamil Nadu State Assembly participation in Geneva HRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 February 2012, 17:56 GMT]
Tamil Nadu State Assembly should press New Delhi to make arrangements for its participation in the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva in March to present the case of war crimes against Eezham Tamils, said, Communist Party of India’s MLA for Sivagangai, Mr. S. Gunasekaran, during debate on Governor’s Address in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. He reminded the Assembly on its earlier resolution on this issue and said that a case should be filed in the International Court of Justice against SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the genocide committed on Eezham Tamils. Deprivation of political, homeland and language rights of Eezham Tamils continues in the island and they are treated like slaves without security. SL has not even spent the Indian monetary assistance meant for Eezham Tamils sufficiently, the MLA said.
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Last king of Kandy remembered in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 February 2012, 01:48 GMT]
Sri Wikrama Rajasinghe alias Ka’n’nuch-chaami, the last king of Kandy, from whom the British captured the sovereignty of the last remaining kingdom in the island then called Ceylon, was remembered by his heirs and relatives in Tamil Nadu at his memorial in Vealoor (Vellore) in Tamil Nadu on his 181st death anniversary on Monday. Those who claim and uphold ‘unitary’ sovereignty over the entire island today never care for the king, who fought against colonialism for native sovereignty last remaining in the island, just because he was belonging to the Mathurai Naayakka dynasty of Tamil-Telugu origin. This is a small, but revealing example on the attitude of the sovereignty claim of the Sinhala state of Sri Lanka, showing why the sovereignty of genocide-affected Eezham Tamils in the island should never be vested into the hands of this state, commented an academic in Jaffna.
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Destructive trend of Sinhalicisation harmful for future harmony in East: Thurairatnam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 23:57 GMT]
Archaeological traces of heritage, preserved in 25 acres of land in Chuvaami-malai and Kevu'liya-madu villages in Paddippazhai DS division of Batticaloa district, are being destroyed by Sinhala encroachers, who are attempting to construct a Buddhist vihara at the occupied lands, civil sources Paddippazhai said. Condemning the move, Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) member R. Thurairatnam, said the destructive trend is opposed to any future ethnic harmony in the East. The historical evidences in the area were well preserved even during the times of war, Mr. Thurairatnam observed.
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Colombo steps up Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa, Ampaa'rai border village

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 19:20 GMT]
Depriving the livelihood of resettled Tamils at 35th Colony, the Sri Lankan government authorities in Colombo have taken charge of the Tamil area, which comes under the Batticaloa district and the Eastern Provincial Council, aiming Sinhalicisation of the border village between the Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai district. The Tamil fishermen, who have been fishing in Navakkiri tank have now been denied access to the tank and only Sinhalese are allowed by the SL authorities to engage in fishing in the tank situated in the 35th Colony. The provincial minister responsible for fisheries affairs, Mr. Navaratnam, has also confirmed that the civil affairs at 35th Colony are being directly controlled from Colombo.
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USA pressurises civil society to accept genocide and to live with it

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 January 2012, 11:37 GMT]
Two officials from the US State Department who met civil society of Jaffna last week categorically told them that the US would not take up war crimes/ human rights issues against Sri Lanka in the March HRC session, as there is no sufficient pressure or request from the affected people. Ruling out any outside intervention for political solution, the officials said that the US would only support the implementation of the LLRC report, which means annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils and completion of structural genocide by 2020, as fixed by the report. The officials didn't listen to the civil group, but insisted only on passing the message. As genocidal Sri Lanka is going to be emboldened further by the stand of the USA and similar stand of India, what responses are going to come from Tamil Nadu and from those who pawned politics to the USA and India, ask the civil groups.
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Protests, non-cooperation, need to be addressed directly against USA, India, UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 January 2012, 07:03 GMT]
Nearly three years after the genocidal war and amidst speedily on-going structural genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils, the Establishments of the US, India and the UN increasingly prove that they are the real culprits buttressing the genocidal state of Sri Lanka and the crimes-accused Rajapaksa regime. A few individuals sitting in these Establishments take the entire human civilisation for a ride in setting a criminal paradigm for international polity. But, despite the presence of a large number of Tamils in North America, millions in the rest of the diaspora all over the world and 70 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu, Tamils still don’t know where to address and how to address their struggle in a concerted way showing strength and solidarity, for their polity is continually kept under deception, says a new generation Tamil politician in the island.
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Boyle: US should publicly accuse Colombo of committing war crimes

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 January 2012, 00:40 GMT]
Pointing to the recent investigative reports in media outlets noting US may possess crucial supporting material to incriminating evidence from senior military commanders of Colombo committing war-crimes, to exposures on Wikileaks of Colombo-based US Ambassadors' reported knowledge of high level Sri Lanka officials' complicity to war crimes, and to incriminating reports from the UN and NGOs on alleged war-crimes, Professor Boyle of University of Illinois, College of Law, said, in similar circumstances Secretary of State Eagleburger accused Radovan Karadzic of committing war-crimes during the Bosnian genocide, and the Obama administration can, and should, do the same thing to political and military leaders in Colombo.
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Sinhala gang attacks Tamil residents in Trinco suburb

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 January 2012, 16:56 GMT]
Four Tamil residents of Vinaayagapuram, a suburb in Trincomalee town, were injured, including one with severe injuries, when a gang of Sinhalese attacked them on Saturday evening around 6 p.m, sources in Trincomalee said. Thurainayagam Sanjeevan, 32, an employee of the Trincomalee office of a leading Tamil daily Virakesari, is in critical condition and has been admitted to the Trincomalee General Hospital. Other injured Tamils were discharged from the hospital after treatment, hospital sources said. The attackers had threatened the Tamil residents to vacate the village, according to the injured residents.
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STF killed Trinco students, Basil Rajapakse told Blake

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 January 2012, 01:26 GMT]
In a classified memo written by US's Sri Lanka Ambassador Robert Blake in October 2006 to Washington, ten months after the extra-judicial execution of five students at a Trincomalee beach, Basil Rajapakse, advisor to Sri Lanka's President and brother Rajapakse, had told Ambassador Blake that Special Task Force (STF) was responsible for the killings, according a Wikileaks document. The father of Ragihar, one of the students killed, is one of the three plaintiffs who have filed a civil case against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse for Command Responsibility in the killings.
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US's dissonant positions boon to Sri Lanka's war-criminals

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 January 2012, 00:39 GMT]
While several members of the legislative branch of the US Government are pressing for independent international investigations into Sri Lanka's war-crimes, the US executive branch, despite the presence of ardent advocates of human rights as President Obama's group of advisers, guided by Ambassador Robert Blake architected policy that has wrought havoc to Tamil justice, appears to support white-washing of war-crimes, Tamil circles in the US said. Civil society groups in Sri Lanka, which met visiting US officials recently have also reported hearing a Rajapakse-centric position from the officials, and revealed that the officials have tried to persuade the civil society to engage with the Sri Lanka Government on development and reconciliation, and thereby, to remain opposed to Tamil diaspora activities, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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Silva's proposed UN appointment elicits condemnation from Rights Groups

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 January 2012, 01:34 GMT]
New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), California-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), and Washington-based SPEAK, three premier Rights organizations which routinely use litigation in US Courts to resolve constitutional issues and to indict violators of rights, in a press release issued Thursday, condemned the proposed appointment of Shavendra Silva - an ex-General of the Sri Lanka Army who is being charged for war-crimes in US Court - to the Special Advisory Group to advise UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Peacekeeping Operations.
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Book documents pre-colonial Tamil connections of New Zealand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 January 2012, 00:27 GMT]
“Tamil Imprints in New Zealand” by 87-year-old Eezham Tamil author A.T. Arumugam, now living in New Zealand, re-documents and discusses in detail a bronze bell inscribed in Tamil in c. 14-15 century writing that was in the possession of the native Maori people of New Zealand. Originally written in 2007 in Tamil, the book has been translated into English and will be released shortly in Wellington. The publication is sure to give a sense of pride and belongingness, and would contribute to integration with identity for the Tamils of New Zealand today, commented a social worker. Meanwhile, reviewing the book, V. Sivasupramaniam, who also contributed to the translation says, “This book of fifty-two pages could provide a good incentive for historians and researchers to go further deep into the migratory pattern of this multi-cultural country.”
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Sri Lanka genocide story draws 22m visitors, says Argentine paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 January 2012, 03:33 GMT]
The Spanish Language Diario La Tarde, an evening journal published by independent journalists in West Argentina said the recent web publication of the story "Genocidio: (Primera entrega) - La masacre de los Tamils en Sri Lanka," [Genocide: (First Delivery) The Slaughter of Tamils in Sri Lanka] drew 22 million visits in two days. The story appearing in Spanish covers history to the conflict, the slaughter at Mu'l'livaaykkaal, and asserts the post-conflict miliary aggression in Tamil areas as a form of structural genocide.
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Human skeletons found in SLA abandoned locality in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 January 2012, 00:45 GMT]
Skeletons of two persons, allegedly slain by the Sri Lankan military in recent times, have been recovered from an abandoned well near a bund constructed by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in I'lavaalai, Pa'ndaththeruppu situated in Valikaamam in the Jaffna district on Wednesday. Brain parts found inside one of the two skulls indicate that the victims have been slain in recent times, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. The skeletons were located when the villagers were clearing the well at a locality known as Thennanthoappu (cocount palm grove), a place recently vacated by the Sri Lanka Army.
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Resettled Tamil woman's body recovered near SLA bund in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2012, 23:55 GMT]
The skeleton of a recently slain 28-year-old unmarried Tamil woman has been recovered near an abandoned military bund used by the Sri Lanka Army in A'rukuve'li, located along Kearatheevu Road (Jaffna - Mannaar Road) in Thenmaraadchi on Wednesday. The victim, Atputhamalar Subramaniyam, who had resettled in Thanangki'lappu near Ma'ravanpulavu of Thenmaraadchi last year, has been missing since November 13. But, her family was receiving SMS messages for some time from her cell phone. The abductors have been sending the messages with the intention of making the family to believe that she was not abducted, relatives of the victim who came for the funeral on Thursday told media. Tension prevailed in the recently resettled area where the occupying SLA is still on random patrol.
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SL environmental plunder wipes out timber trees in Vanni, protected long by LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2012, 21:30 GMT]
Sinhala plunderers from South who enter Vanni through Mannaar have been cutting valuable timber trees in large numbers and removing them to other parts of the island, people in Vanni complain. The Sri Lankan police is assisting the gangs that enter Vanni through Mannaar. The gangs are in possession of ‘permits’ from the so-called ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Colombo, which is headed by Sinhala ultra nationalist political party leader Champika Ranawake who founded the Sihala Urumaya promoting Mahawansa mindset of anti-Tamil sentiments, comparing Tamils with Jews against an "Aryan Sinhala" supremacist philosophy. He later became the political advisor of the predominantly Buddhist monks party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), and a minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa cabinet.
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NZ Tamils felicitate Queen's Award couple

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 January 2012, 17:33 GMT]
Queen’s Service award-winning Eezham Tamil couple in New Zealand, Mr. George Arulanantham and Ms. Anne Umadevi George, were felicitated by New Zealand Tamils at the Tamil Harvest Festival celebrated at Auckland on Saturday. NZ parliamentarian Ms. Denise Roche was Chief Guest to the function. This year’s Queen’s Service Medal was awarded to the couple honouring their long community service to refugees in New Zealand. While George Arulanantham’s contribution was related to social organisation and integration of Tamil refugees, Anne Umadevi George largely concentrated on the Tamil education of the refugee children. Both are engaged in community service since 1990s.
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