Tragedy of US policy on Sri Lanka's war crimes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 December 2011, 00:02 GMT]
The Obama Administration has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to human rights and dignity and rule of law and has largely delivered on its promise -- most notably in the context of the Arab Spring, commented Tamil legal activists in the United States. Tragically, they observed, the US administration has failed dismally in the case of Sri Lanka, with catastrophic consequences (a) to the many tens of thousands of Tamil civilians killed whom the US knowingly failed to protect, under Blake architected policy on Sri Lanka, during and after the war; (b) to the credibility of US commitment to universal human rights, democracy and rule of law, and to justice and national reconciliation in Sri Lanka; and (c) to the integrity of international human rights and humanitarian law.
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LLRC criticisms escalate as Colombo threatens legal action

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 December 2011, 14:27 GMT]
Questioning the need for "a seven-man presidential Commission costing millions of rupees for platitudinous recommendations that the government will ignore," Prof. Kumar David, in an opinion column in Lakbima says, "[t]his game [LLRC] is not being played for reconciliation with the Tamils; it is being played to get the human rights and international agencies baying for blood off the government’s back," and notes, "[i]f GoSL wants to settle the national question it knows what it needs to do and could have done so a long time ago; no need for commissions. End the military occupation of Tamil areas and close down the High Security Zones, implement full devolution of power, and release Tamil youth held in illegal detention for years. For starters, these few steps will do more than a hundred commissions of inquiry."
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Maldives President on SL trip tipped to endorse LLRC report

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 December 2011, 12:54 GMT]
In what appears to be a move to further strengthening diplomatic relationship between Maldives and Sri Lanka, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed is on an invited trip to the island. While official sources have attributed the trip to other reasons, informed media circles in Colombo told TamilNet that Mr. Nasheed is there to endorse the LLRC report, which whitewashes the Colombo regime from all charges of genocide and war crimes, which was released by Sri Lanka recently. This visit of the leader of the tiny Asian country is a first step to getting the regional power India to officially approve and to market the LLRC report that is already coming under heavy criticisms from many quarters, observers said. The blessings of New Delhi-Washington powers are observed in such shadow wars of diplomacy even as protests in support of the demands of the Eezham Tamils are intensifying in Tamil Nadu.
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Indian aid to war-affected Tamils diverted to Sinhala colonisers

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 December 2011, 08:02 GMT]
Sri Lankan Colonial Governor of the Northern Province, Major General (retired ) G.A.Chandrasiri, has diverted a portion of India-donated aid, meant for ‘resettled’ Tamil civilians in the five districts of North, once again as in the case of the India-donated tractors. This time, 2,000 bicycles were donated to each district. G.A. Chandrasiri has diverted 500 of 2,000 bicycles allocated to Jaffna district to Sinhala colonisers who have occupied the Ma'naalaa'ru division in Vanni. Even the aid provided by India to the people of North, as a public relations maneuver in camouflaging its anti-people collaboration with the genocidal Colombo's structural genocide on the country of Eezham Tamils, is being exploited by the SL military-led civil administration, commented civil officials in Jaffna.
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SL military appropriates 54 acres of Palaali Training College

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 December 2011, 20:46 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defence Ministry has set afoot plans for grabbing the lands of Palaali Teachers Training College, one of the two key academic institutions of Tamil teachers in the North, for military purposes. The latest move by Colombo to appropriate the 54 acres of the land situated near the Palaali airport in the High Security Zone and to possibly annex the personnel of the institution with Koappaay training college, has drawn severe reactions from the educationalist and academic circles as well as the civil society in the North.
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‘ICG report fails to cover genocide-intended sexual violence’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 December 2011, 05:42 GMT]
The International Crisis Group report titled ‘Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East’ that was released on Tuesday touched upon problems faced by the Eezham Tamil women in their homelands at the hands of the occupying Sri Lankan military apparatus. While the report has been welcomed by some for its revelations, Eezham Tamil civil society activists in the homeland, academics and feminists came down heavily on the report for studying the gender problem in isolation without addressing either the national question of the Eezham Tamils or the process of structural genocide, which necessarily includes use of sexual violence, which is being carried out by the Sinhala majoritarian state to crush the Eezham Tamil nation. They also questioned the motives and practical effectiveness of such reports that seek to push the principal contradictions under the carpet.
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SLFP on collision course with EPDP in Jaffna Municipal Council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 December 2011, 21:35 GMT]


The internal crisis in the ruling party of the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) has reached climax to capture the administration of the Municipal Council in Jaffna from Douglas Devananda's EPDP. The latest move is reported to have the blessings of SL presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa, who is also the SL Economic Development Minister. The councilors opposing the JMC Mayoress Yogeswary Patkunam, who was chosen by Mr. Devandanda, are now aligning with the SLFP group backed by Mr. Basil Rajapaksa. EPDP councilor Manuel Mangalanesan, who was attacked on Thursday had also announced that he would be joining the SLFP group after another EPDP member, Nishanthan, had joined the SLFP.
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Rajapaksa strengthens blueprint of Sinhalicisation in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 December 2011, 11:52 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has re-appointed former Sri Lanka Navy Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral (Rtd) Mohan Wijewickrama as the Governor of Eastern Province for the second term on December 22. Wijewickrama's re-appointment is considered as a move by Mr. Rajapaksa to keep the civil administration of the Eastern Provincial Council under the control of Sri Lankan military. The former SLN officer is being in charge of implementing ‘Mahinda Chindana’ policy and ‘development’ agenda of structural genocide in the areas where Tamil speaking people live in majority.
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Kevu'liyaamadu encroached by Sinhalese, Tamil farmer attacked

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 December 2011, 10:39 GMT]
Sinhalese encroachers, who have occupied the grazing lands of in the border of Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai districts, have attacked and broke the hand of a 40-year-old Tamil farmer who took his cattle for grazing lands allocated for the purpose at Thevu'laala-ku'lam in Paddippazhai DS division in Batticaloa district on December 07. The injured farmer, Thiayagarajah Moothavan, who has been admitted at the Gonakelle hospital in Ampaa'rai general hospital, complained that a ten member gang attacked him when he was taking cattle to grazing land allocated for the Batticaloa dairy farmers. 480 Sinhalese families had encroached high lands and paddy lands owned by Tamil families in Suvaamimalai and Kevu'liyaamadu in Paddipazhai DS division. Meanwhile, Muslim farmers facing competition by the Sinhalese in Ampaa'rai district are also encroaching the lands of Tamils in Batticaloa.
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‘Failure to confront UK deportations is failing humanity’

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 December 2011, 07:03 GMT]
While various human rights and media outfits across the world are day by day realizing the full extent of the genocidal actions of the Sri Lankan state, whether the United Kingdom’s deportation of around 50 Eelam Tamils despite protests from various organizations is not an endorsement of a war criminal state, wondered diaspora activists in the country. In the same spirit, British journalist Emanuel Stoakes came down on the left parties in the country for not paying the sort of attention the issue deserves, in an article on the New Statesman on Wednesday. Criticising the general silence on the Eelam Tamil issue, he opined that there needs to be more people pushing for accountability of the Rajapaksa regime and for rights of the asylum seekers not to be deported. There are still about 100 Eelam Tamils in the UK who are awaiting deportation, sources in UK told TamilNet.
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Rajapaksa exacerbates tension between Tamils, Sinhalese: US Republican

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 December 2011, 12:04 GMT]
Instead of pursuing genuine reconciliation, which is essential for the country's long-term stability, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa continues to exacerbate tensions in his country, particularly those between Tamils and Sinhalese, New York Republican Rep. Michael Grimm told Roll Call Newspaper online Wednesday. “A prime and alarming example of this is the attempts by Rajapaksa's regime to whitewash horrible actions by the government in the final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war, where 10,000 to 40,000 ethnic Tamils were slaughtered by government forces made up almost entirely of ethnic Sinhalese,” said the former FBI agent and U.S. Marine.
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No infrastructure to take care of floods displaced genocide victims of Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 December 2011, 06:47 GMT]
11,000 people belonging to 2,556 families have been displaced from the low-lying lands of Ki'linochchi district this week following heavy rain and floods, according to District Secretariat officials in Ki'linochchi. Of these, only 1,443 persons of 349 families have been provided refuge by the SL administration. The remaining families have been struggling to find space with their relatives and friends elsewhere. Most of the ‘re-settled’ victims of genocide were living in temporary huts in the low-lying lands. But, the floods have taken away even their huts while destroying their agricultural produce, the livelihood for which the people had to borrow money from the SL banks. Despite the claims by the SL government that people have been resettled and their infrastructure restored, the district remains roofless to accommodate people affected by the floods, even after two years of the war.
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Thousands displaced, stranded by floods in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 December 2011, 15:05 GMT]
More than twelve thousand people earlier uprooted during the war and later allowed to resettle but forced to reside in temporary huts as they were not provided with government assistance to construct news houses, are now seeking refuge in temporary transit camps due to flood caused by torrential rain with gale that is continuing since last week in Vanni region in the Northern Province. The civil authorities have come over a new challenge this year as they lack buildings in Vadamaraadchi East and the remaining areas of Vanni to even house the people temporarily.
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Intelligence agencies on man-hunt for genocide witnesses

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 December 2011, 06:39 GMT]
Through fraud, finance and force, the intelligence agencies of Sri Lanka in collusion with their counterparts in ‘friendly’ countries are pursuing and silencing certain crucial witnesses to the genocide that happened in the stages of war leading to Mu’l’livaaykkaal. An upcoming documentary by a British channel is being used as a ruse to draw out such witnesses and target them. To such ends, a selected group of Tamils are operated by such agencies through threats or bribes to act as decoys to win the trust of witnesses and to trap them, reliable sources from India told TamilNet. A number of witnesses, who gave eyewitness accounts have already been arrested and handed over to Colombo through formal deportation from India.
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TNA demands internationally mandated mechanism for war-crimes accountability

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2011, 15:30 GMT]
Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of Tamil National Alliance, in a forceful articulation of the stand of the TNA on the report from the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) said that the report “categorically fails to effectively and meaningfully deal with issues of accountability, and added that “the findings of the LLRC offend the dignity of these victims [deposed before the LLRC]," according to a report appearing in the Hindu. In a previous statement nominated TNA MP, and attorney, M.A. Sumanthiran told Sunday Leader that "the Commission has severely contradicted itself by concluding that the civilians had not been deliberately targeted by the security forces in the final stages of the war."
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US wants to see 'LLRC gaps' filled domestically by Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2011, 12:11 GMT]
While Human Rights groups and Tamil parties in the island as well as the diaspora groups slammed the LLRC report by Rajapaksa-appointed Commission of Colombo, the US State Department said “the report has addressed a number of the crucial areas of concern to Sri Lankans” and saw the accountability issue as a domestic one without calling for international investigations. “We urge the Sri Lankan Government not only to fulfill all of the recommendations of the report as it stands, but also to address those issues that the report did not cover,” was the response by the US State Department as reported by New Delhi based Headlines Today on Tuesday.
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Building consensus with universal ideology

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2011, 06:02 GMT]
The struggle of Eezham Tamils has to be waged with the strength of unity and consensus in ideology; both in the immediate task of dealing with a three-cornered international struggle in a multipolar world as well as in the long-term universal task of pursuing the Right of Self Determination for nearly a third of the world that is currently denied of it and in the world-wide struggles of the 99 per cent of the peoples in this planet seeking a more equitable world against the one per cent that constitutes today’s globalized Establishments, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific. The days of alignment with any power are gone in the multipolar world set-up, where the alignments are shifting every now and then though the underlying element among the Globalised Establishments is Cooperation via UN & its agencies, he further writes.
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TNPF slams LLRC report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2011, 05:00 GMT]
In a press briefing held in Jaffna following the public release of the LLRC report, the by the Tamil National People Front (TNPF) said it totally rejects the report and added that the report is a deliberate attempt to whitewash the egregious crimes committed against the Tamil people. "The report places the blame on the LTTE and other tamil groups. We can no longer remain patient. There is urgent need for the International Community to conduct an independent investigation. What happened is genocide. While the war ended two and a half years ago, structural genocide against Tamil people is continuing, and International community should not hesitate to raise its voices," Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, vice president of TNPF told the media.
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Champoor uprooted Tamil families live in fear due to continuous rain

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 December 2011, 12:49 GMT]
Uprooted 1,486 Tamil families forced to stay by the Colombo authority in structures called temporary welfare centres at Mallikaith-theevu, Paddith-thidal, Ma'nat-cheanai and Kaddai-pa'richchaan in Moothoor DS division without being allowed to resettle in their traditional villages in Champoor area are facing untold suffering due to the incessant rain with gale now being experienced in the Trincomalee district for about one week.
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Eezham Tamil Diaspora activists in UK question SL reconciliation motives

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 December 2011, 00:41 GMT]
While structural genocide continues unabated in the homeland of the Eezham Tamils, certain well funded Sri Lankan NGO’s that harp on peace and reconciliation are steadily pursuing a war by other means on the Eezham Tamil Diaspora. Programmes initiated by organizations like the One Text Initiative, which receives generous funding from foreign donors as well as support from the Sri Lankan state, in the name of ‘engaging with the Sri Lankan diaspora’, are attempting to marginalize the Eezham Tamil diaspora polity that is pushing for international investigation into genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state as well as recognition of their political sovereignty. This agenda was evident from a recent meeting in London where such proponents of reconciliation were challenged by Eezham Tamil activists of various shades.
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