Nepalese in West Bengal achieve autonomy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2011, 22:17 GMT]
The Gorkhas of the West Bengal state of India achieved a special autonomy for them in the Darjeeling Hill tracts, after nearly 20 years of struggle. A tripartite agreement signed by the Central Government of India, State Government of West Bengal and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha at a village called Pintail in West Bengal on Monday paves way for the setting up of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. Gorkhas are a major ethnicity of Nepal that also inhabits the Darjeeling Hills in India, bordering Nepal. While it became possible for the Gorkhas to cast geostrategic weight of their location in a bottleneck territory to achieve autonomy, the Tamils on either side of the Palk Bay are yet to cast their international geostrategic weight in decisive ways to achieve the long-deserving liberation of Eezham Tamils, commented Dravidian political circles in Chennai.
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Clinton meets Jayalalithaa in Chennai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2011, 17:00 GMT]
The United States is “looking at some innovative and creative ideas to break the impasse over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue,” PTI quoted visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in Chennai Wednesday. The report did not elaborate. Meanwhile, in a public address Ms. Clinton said that India's example of multicultural democracy should serve as a model for Sri Lanka. Commenting on Clinton's remarks, Eezham Tamil political circles said Indian-modelled political solution will not work in the island when the military is Sinhalese. Centuries of political experience in the island shows that equal status of Tamils and Sinhalese is possible only when they have equal States, the political circles further commented.
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BJP vows to take up Eezham Tamils plight in Indian Parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2011, 07:10 GMT]
Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari who met a top delegation of the British Tamils Forum (BTF) last weekend in London, has said that the BJP was very serious on taking up the ‘Sri Lanka issue’ in the Indian Lok-Sabha. BTF leaders V Ravi Kumar and S. Pathmanathan, who led the BTF delegation to the meeting with the visiting Indian politicians, expressed hope that the BJP would be consulting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa on the plight of Eezham Tamils and that the Indian leaders would also be meeting the Tamil representatives from the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The BJP is yet to adopt a stand on the accountability issue on the question of Eezham Tamils and the genocide committed on them.
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TNA: Sri Lanka performance lacking on solving key Tamil issues

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 July 2011, 11:04 GMT]
While Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has endeavored to work in the spirit of co-operation with the Sri Lanka Government, the Government has yet to address the Rehabilitation and Resettlement of all displaced Tamil families, continued to unlawfully repossess the land from Tamil people, and has failed to craft a political solution within the framework of united and undivided country that will enable the Tamil people to live in security and dignity, fulfilling their legitimate political, economic, social and cultural aspirations, TNA said in a press release issued before the local authority elections in the North East. "The Government has not even kept its several commitments to the Tamil National Alliance on the release of Tamil detainees," the release added.
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Australia’s cricketers should shun repressive Sri Lanka - TYO

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 July 2011, 01:30 GMT]
Australia’s cricketers should take a principled stand in defence of human rights and justice, and boycott Sri Lankan cricket until the Colombo government heeds international calls for an independent investigation into the mass killings of Tamil civilians in 2009, the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) urged Monday. “Sport is inseparable from politics. Nothing gives a repressive regime greater legitimacy, and makes light of its brutal conduct, than continuing sporting links,” the TYO said in a statement.
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Vavuniyaa prisoners end hunger strike

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 July 2011, 00:18 GMT]
Following the visit to Vavuniyaa prison by Mannaar Bishop, Rayappu Joseph, and giving assurances that the Bishop will work for prisoners release, the Tamil inmates who have been conducting a fast-to-death campaign for the past eight days, agreed to end the campaign Monday evening, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Three prisoners with deteriorating health were admitted to the Vavuniyaa hospital.
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Civic elections question solutions within ‘united’ Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2011, 17:32 GMT]
The way civic elections take place in the country of Eezham Tamils occupied by Sri Lanka and its genocidal Army is an open challenge invalidating the stand taken by some powers that political models within a united Sri Lanka could resolve the national question in the island, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. In recent times political pundits in the US are busy in thinking how to inspire the people of China to become ‘Liberal Democratic’ in order to avoid an impending East-West conflict. But in its desire to woo ‘pivotal’ Sri Lanka into its fold, to what extent the West is going to uphold its credibility by structuring a military and genocidal Sri Lanka that makes a mockery of democracy, he asks.
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ICG: Sri Lanka further from reconciliation than ever

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2011, 17:28 GMT]
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s authoritarian and Sinhalese nationalist post-war policies are undermining prospects for reconciling Sri Lanka’s ethnic communities, weakening democracy for all Sri Lankans and increasing the risk of a return to violent conflict, the International Crisis Group warned Monday, announcing its latest report, ‘Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Harder than Ever’. “Sri Lanka may be ‘post-war’, but it will never be ‘post-conflict’ until all its people are free to build a credible narrative of its past and to play meaningful roles in their own governance, ” says Alan Keenan, Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst on Sri Lanka.
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Tamils have reasons to seek asylum: NZ Herald editorial

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2011, 17:22 GMT]
“Sri Lanka has not long emerged from a long and bloody civil war. The Sinhalese Government would not allow media to witness the way it finally crushed the Tamil rebellion. Anyone afraid to remain in that country probably has cause. They deserve compassion even though no country can afford to welcome refugees who bypass the international channels for resettling them somewhere safe, said New Zealand Herald editorial on Monday on the question of 85 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers heading for New Zealand in a boat and were detained by Indonesia. The Prime Minister of New Zealand was uncharacteristically blunt about the boatload of asylum seekers when he said, "They are not welcome here," the editorial of the reputed NZ newspaper said.
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Political prisoner admitted to Vavuniyaa hospital

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2011, 08:48 GMT]
One of the 42 Tamil political prisoners, 40-year-old Kattaiyan Logeswaran, currently on fasting unto death campaign in Vavuniyaa prison demanding their release was admitted to the Vavuniyaa general hospital Sunday as his condition was reported to be critical.
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Tamil political prisoners stage hunger strike in Vavuniyaa prison

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 July 2011, 19:52 GMT]
Forty Tamil political prisoners detained in the Vavuniyaa prison Saturday started a fast unto death demanding immediate release from prison. The number of prisoners on hunger strike has risen to 44 including the 4 who began their fast a week ago. The prisoners have been demanding that the government should take immediate measures to expedite their cases against them now pending in law courts for several years without inquiry. The condition of the four prisoners who started their fast a week ago is reported to be in critical state, civil sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Prime Minister criticized in New Zealand’s parliament over Tamil refugees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 July 2011, 08:38 GMT]
Green Party MP, Keith Locke was furious at New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key in the parliament on Thursday, over the latter’s recent remarks on Eezham Tamil boat refugees. On the question of the 87 asylum seekers, the New Zealand Prime Minister on Monday had said, "Our very simple message to them is they are not welcome here." Citing the PM’s statement, Keith Locke said, “Good-hearted New Zealanders were shocked when their Prime Minister so bluntly rejected the appeals of Tamil boat people who had arrived in Indonesia on the Elysia to come to New Zealand.” Locke pointed out that John Key's own mother was an asylum seeker, who fled from Nazi Germany to Britain in 1939.
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US Congressman: "Gruesome example of Humans at their worst"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 July 2011, 03:52 GMT]
Congressman James McGovern, co-chair of a US Congress human rights commission named in honor of late lawmaker Tom Lantos, described the Channel-4 documentary, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, as "a gruesome example of humans at their worst," AFP reported after the 50-minute documentary was shown at the U.S. Capitol Complex Friday as US lawmakers and rights advocates stepped up calls for an international probe into Sri Lanka's civil war. Nearly 300 people including several senior and influential Congressional staff, diplomats from different countries and State Department officials, and members of the public attended the screening in the auditorium with a seating capacity of 450.
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International Criminal Court, Commonwealth Secretariat sign MoU

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 July 2011, 20:08 GMT]
Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, on Wednesday signed an MoU with the International Criminal Court, to strengthen and develop co-operation between the two organizations to jointly support States implementing International Criminal Law. Legal circles in Colombo opined that Sri Lanka not being a signatory to the Rome Statute, the country of Eezham Tamils occupied by Sri Lanka, would not be a beneficiary of this MoU. However, they said that it is a good sign to see the Commonwealth Secretary General Sharma, who once stated that he had no mandate to question Sri Lanka on its human rights violations perpetrated on Tamil people, has started to move in the right direction with the signing of this MoU.
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SL Army in Jaffna harasses JVP campaigners from South

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 July 2011, 18:02 GMT]
After curbing the Tamil National Alliance from conducting campaign meetings ahead of civic elections in North, the occupying Sri Lanka Army of Mahinda Rajapaksa regime now harasses the other opposition parties that come from the South for election campaign. The JVP campaigners in Jaffna told media Thursday that a Brigadier rank officer of the SL military headquarters in Palaali in Jaffna had phoned and threatened them when they went to the SL Police to complain against the harassments by the SLA soldiers.
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SL governor threatens Vanni NGOs to ‘donate’ money to Buddhist stupas

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 July 2011, 16:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s colonial governor for the country of Eezham Tamils in the north, Maj. Gen. Chandrasri is now completely obsessed with building Buddhist stupas, Sinhala colonisation and Sinhalicisation of administration, news sources in Jaffna said. Building Buddhist stupas at Old Park in Jaffna, where the provincial administration is located, and at Mullaiththeevu town, the occupying SL governor threatens the NGOs working in Vanni to pay ‘unaccounted’ money for his projects. NGOs working in Vanni have to get annual clearance from the SL president’s ‘special task force’ and the colonial governor makes use of this situation to fleece money from the NGOs.
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Genuine elections not possible in Jaffna: TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 July 2011, 15:15 GMT]
Thoroughly intimidated and prevented from making their campaign for the civic elections scheduled for next week, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leaders on Tuesday said that genuine elections are not possible under the current circumstances. Colombo is resolved to fake the elections by hook or by crook and ‘prove’ to the outside world that it is having ‘democratic’ support of the Tamils, the TNA leaders said. Meanwhile, Sinhala officers brought into the administration of Northern Provincial Council by the SL colonial governor, Chandrasri, are now in command, making arbitrary orders and the Tamil officers have to be silent and subservient, fearing transfer if resist, Tamil civil service circles said. They are disappointed that the TNA is not highlighting their predicament at ‘proper places’.
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SL government servants in Jaffna complain political exploitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 July 2011, 12:59 GMT]
Tamil public servants working under Rajapaksa Administration occupying the Tamil country, now openly complain that they are exploited in Colombo’s electioneering. The occupying government forces them to do election campaign, the civil officers accuse. Colombo particularly pressurises them to claim the development work undertaken by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the UN Agencies, as those of the achievements of the Rajapaksa government, the civil officers said. In this regard, they are forced to use public funds to send ads to local newspapers, they further said. Local newspapers said that everyday they receive around 10 such ads, but many of the newspapers shun publishing the ads fearing public backlash.
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SL police refuses permission to TNA to hold election meetings

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 July 2011, 11:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka police in Jaffna refuses permission to civic election candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to conduct public meetings. Instead, the ‘advise’ the candidates to engage in door-to-door campaign. But in the meantime, presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa and a team of 13 SL ministers are camping in Jaffna to conduct Colombo’s campaign in various ways, misusing SL government’s administration and resources, complain the TNA candidates. SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa is also expected in Jaffna to campaign for the civic elections in the guise of opening a school building and laying foundation stones for certain projects.
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Defamation suit filed against terror "expert" in Canada

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 July 2011, 11:07 GMT]
The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) is suing in Superior Court of Justice in Toronto, a Singapore-based “terrorism” expert for defamation of CTC, Toronto Star reported. The plaintiffs charge that in an interview to a Sri Lankan newspaper, Rohan Gunaratne had said that "the outlawed Tamil Tigers organization was operating in Canada under the name of “the Canadian Tamil Congress.”"
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