All are Sinhalese, Tamils have no territorial right: Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2012, 16:28 GMT]
“Earlier before the war all were Sinhalese,” in Sri Lanka. It is not appropriate to view the north of the country, over which a separatist war was fought, as a predominantly Tamil area, SL presidential sibling and defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was cited saying by the BBC News that interviewed him in Colombo. Commenting, a political analyst in the island said: The Rajapaksa regime, including its former military commander Sarath Fonseka, has been repeatedly reflecting only the pathological aspiration of the Sinhala nation to make State exclusive for it in the island. India and the USA unnecessarily blight it, rather than conceding to the innate reality of allowing the Sinhala nation to have its trouble-free State by separating the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Eezham Tamils protest UK inviting Rajapaksa to Queen’s diamond jubilee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 May 2012, 10:48 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in the UK gathered outside the UK Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street on Saturday demanding withdrawal of an invitation extended to Mahinda Rajapaksa for the upcoming Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth. A petition given to the authorities by the Tamil Coordinating Committee UK (TCC-UK) which had organised the event underscored the significance of Britain recognizing the protracted nature of the genocide of the Tamils in the island stating that “given its colonial history on the island, the UK, more than any other international power, is aware that the Eelam Tamils are a nation of people with their traditional homeland in the north and east of the island. Eelam Tamils expect the UK government to recognise this truth which can go a long way in helping halt the genocide.”
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Germany’s Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance highlights IC’s abetment of genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2012, 05:39 GMT]
Addressing a huge gathering of Eezham Tamils who had gathered to remember those massacred in May 2009, speakers at the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance at Dusseldorf highlighted the role the powers in the International Community played in abetting the genocide of the Eezham Tamils, besides emphasising the need to remain faithful to the fundamentals of the struggle for Tamil Eelam, on Friday. While Dr. Andrew Higginbottom, lecturer at Kingston University, London spoke about how the US-UK axis provided the necessary background for the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre to happen, Ninthujah Sutharshan, research scholar and Deputy Chief of Eezham Tamils’ Country Council in Germany, said that the ideals of the Tamils’ struggle “was defined in Mullivaikkal by the people who died defending that cause and cannot be redefined in Berlin or London or Paris or New York to match our comfort and convenience.”
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Solheim joins orchestration against independence of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2012, 05:13 GMT]
Spelling out the current orchestration against the independence of Eezham Tamils, the former Norwegian minister and failed peace facilitator, Erik Solhiem said that international support is not for a new separate state in Sri Lanka, but for a multicultural, multiracial and multireligious state. Given the age-old understanding of the phrase in the context of the island, Solheim in other words was only implying support to the annihilation of the ancient nation of Eezham Tamils. Solheim, recently removed from ministerial position by his own party was invited to address a gathering in Oslo on Tuesday, by a 2012-registered Tamil organisation led by Yogarajah Balasingham alias Basharan, who was rejected by Norwegian Tamils in the diaspora elections. Sharing the stage with Solheim was visiting TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran.
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SLA expands occupation of Mannaar with two new camps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2012, 23:42 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan Army in Mannaar has started constructing two new large camps in Murungkan in appropriated lands, civil groups in Mannaar mainland complain. Hundreds of SL Army soldiers have come into agricultural settlements occupying water supplies and appropriating lands adjacent to lakes. Tamil and Muslim females complain that they are unable to move in their villages in evening times due to the heavy presence of occupying Sinhala soldiers. Questioning why the SLA is constructing two large camps in the same village, civil activists expressed fear that the move was part of a larger design to occupy and Sinhalicise the entire area comprising fertile agricultural lands of Tamils and Muslims.
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Tamil refugees need help to cross legal hurdles, says TAG

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2012, 15:41 GMT]
Reports from Trincomalee confirmed that a Tamil civilian recently refused asylum in the U.K. and deported to Sri Lanka, was found killed on the 18th April. The killing occurred amidst arrests by the Sri Lanka miltary of more than 300 Tamils in the east, many of whom were refugee returnees from other countries, reports said. Tamil activists say systemic issues such as lack of information on asylum application procedures and sources of funding, a lack of affordable advice in the refugee's own language, combined with out-of-date, biased or inaccurate 'official' country information relied on by immigration officials and judges have resulted in many potentially vulnerable refugees being returned back into the waiting hostile hands of Colombo .
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Press Freedom Day in Jaffna remembers journalists

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2012, 16:26 GMT]
The journalistic contribution of Sivaram Dharmeratnam (Taraki), especially his writings on the struggle of Eezham Tamils, were remembered by several speakers at a well-attended Press Freedom Day event held in Jaffna on Thursday. The event, organised by Nimalarajan Memorial Foundation (NMF), has also brought out a publication of cartoons by Mr Pious Raja, who passed away in Jaffna after experiencing the genocidal war and incarceration in Vanni. A speaker at the event urged the NMF to compile and translate Tamil articles by late Sivaram into English and vice versa, as his writings continue to be valuable to the Tamil cause. The NMF, in an exemplary way, took up the cause of Tamil female students of Vanni in the Jaffna Univeristy, as there have been several cases of suicides among them. Poverty, trauma and psychological stress have been identified as the factors behind the tragic trend.
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Parts of Batticaloa worse than Vanni in ‘normalcy’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2012, 16:30 GMT]
While the West and India have stopped talking about the East, and try to project an image that ‘normalcy’ has returned to the East and the North also should follow suit in the same directions, large parts of Batticaloa are silently kept under conditions worse than that of Vanni for the last five years, news sources in the East said. Similar to the times of the war in Vanni, more than 250,000 people were systematically displaced by the occupying SL military in 2007, in Batticaloa’s Paduvaan-karai part alone, under the pretext of ‘liberating’ them from the LTTE. Even though it is said that they are ‘rehabilitated phase by phase’, they are deliberately kept without basic facilities for nearly five years now, while the only ‘development’ seen there is the escalation of militarisation and harassment by the occupying Sinhala military.
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I'lantha'lir programme showcases struggle-oriented performance in Toronto

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2012, 08:24 GMT]
Utilizing various mediums, including drama, dances, spoken word, songs, and dialogue, second generation Tamil youth in Canada conveyed the message of preserving the Eezham Tamil identity, and continuing the freedom struggle of the Eezham Tamils, at I'lantha'lir - The Artistic Revolution of Tamil Eelam’. The event performed to a packed audience on Friday at The Chinese Cultural Centre in Toronto showcased the historical evolution of the Tamil Eelam Struggle. “An outstanding play with such amazing concept, acting, dances, songs, spoken word, screenplay, dialogue, setting and flow. Our struggles, our nation building capacity, our resilience, our cries, our milestones and our vision were communicated most effectively,” said Neethan Shan, President of the New Democratic Party of Ontario and the Guest of Honor at the event.
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Samantha Power to chair US genocide prevention effort

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2012, 16:09 GMT]
Samantha Power, Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, National Security Council of the Obama administration, and a long time advocate of genocide prevention in Bosnia and around the world will chair the newly created Atrocities Prevention Board, sources in Washington said. President Obama made the announcement when he spoke at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum commemorating the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Observers pointed out that the "Crime of the 21st Century" where Sri Lanka military forces killed more than 40,000 unarmed Tamil civilians, occurred in 2009 under Obama's watch while the President was making a statement of the imminent slaughter from the east-side lawn of the White House.
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SLA suspected in slaying Jaffna youth while ex AG defends crimes as normal

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2012, 01:14 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence resorts to liquidate Tamil youths it suspect by using different means in recent times, human rights activists in Jaffna said, citing a brutal killing that took place on Tuesday this week at Vathiri Junction of Nelliyadi in Vadamaraadchi. The killer squad followed 28-year-old Sivarooban Sivagnanam, who had returned from Qatar six months ago when he was on his way to Manthikai hospital from his house in Koththiya-kaadu in Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru, taking food to his hospitalised father. The squad that followed Sivaraoopan in motorbike, knifed him to death in broad daylight near a Sri Lanka Army camp located near the Vathiri junction, residents said.
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UN admits use of cluster bombs three years after Vanni War

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2012, 11:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka using cluster bombs, an ordnance banned by several countries in the world, in a location where the Eezham Tamil civilians were herded during the Vanni war has been confirmed by a UN agency nearly three years after the civilians were silently allowed to succumb to such weapons by the international community. A report from a UN mine removal expert of the UNDP’s mine action group in Sri Lanka admits finding unexploded cluster munitions at Puthukkudiyiruppu, Associated Press reported Thursday, adding that the ‘revelation’ is likely to increase calls for international investigations. During the war, vividly describing the use of cluster bombs and other prohibited weapons, the affected people repeatedly appealed to the world to stop the genocide. TamilNet even published photographs of cluster bomb shells with Russian markings.
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220 Tamils arrested in SLA combing in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 17:53 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army and Police, backed by special teams of the ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ from Colombo, have been entering selected houses in the villages of Trincomalee district, detaining ex-LTTE members since Saturday evening. The SL forces have detained around 220 Tamil males and females from their houses. The detained men have been taken to Welikande and the females have been taken to Poonthoaddam in Vavuniyaa, informed sources told TamilNet Wednesday. Ex-LTTE members who had left the movement more than 10 years ago have also been detained. The arrested also include returnees from Tamil Nadu and those who have been detained earlier and released for reunification with their families. While India and the West talk only about the North nowadays, the operations of genocidal Colombo in the East largely go unnoticed.
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The crime of shielding crime by powers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 05:05 GMT]
Criminally belated revelations that recently come from the USA and UK on 1994 Rwanda Genocide and similar offences of 1950s in various parts of the world show the gravity of the crime committed by powers that have knowledge on international crimes committed against humanity, but sit deliberately on evidence to hush international justice. Hiding evidence is a crime in many judicial systems, but what international system is there to indict these powers, asks an Eezham Tamil human rights activist. He made an analogy of the current crime committed by the very powers and their organisations in denying the genocide of Eezham Tamils and pressurising the subjugated people not to talk of genocide, right to protection, self-determination etc., on one hand, and the behaviour of India, its imperialist political parties and sections of media, on the other.
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Militarisation of southern South Asia centres-around Sri Lanka’s genocidal military

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2012, 06:27 GMT]
While the Indian parliamentary delegation, boycotted by Tamil Nadu political parties but made up of imperial minded Congress, BJP and CPI-M, has winded up its tour in the island hoodwinking Tamils, the New Delhi Establishment has embarked upon recognising the genocidal Sinhala military for conducting a joint naval exercise in the waters off Maldives. The Coast Guards of the “three friendly countries,” India, Sri Lanka and Maldives have to ensure the safety and security of the Indian Ocean for all seafarers, the SL Navy was cited bragging by The Times of India, Monday. Knowing that the true face of New Delhi is for militarisation, Mahinda Rajapaksa blatantly rejected the call to withdraw the Sinhala military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Indian delegation disappoints civil representatives in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2012, 23:53 GMT]
Civil representatives in Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday said that they were not provided any opportunity to meet and convey the plight of resettled Tamils in the district to the visiting delegation of Indian parliamentarians led by Mrs Sushma Swaraj. The Tamil representatives belonging to several civil organisations in the district had been invited and were waiting for a long time since 10:00 a.m. to meet the delegation. But, no meeting took place. The visiting delegation was taken on a ‘guided tour’ giving priority to inaugurations and distributing gifts. The Congress group of the delegation which came late to the opening ceremony of a housing scheme was seen quarrelling with the group of parliamentarians led by Mrs Sushma Swaraj of the BJP, who had declared the scheme open, news sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet.
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New Delhi delegation’s Sri Lanka visit loses face in its own country

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2012, 17:18 GMT]
With four major political parties, including the two government-making political parties of Tamil Nadu, boycotting the ‘All Party’ delegation of New Delhi visiting Sri Lanka, New Delhi’s approach to the national question of Eezham Tamils in the island and its strategic partnership with the genocidal regime of Rajapaksa lose face in its own country, political observers said. The ruling AIADMK of Tamil Nadu State and the New Delhi regime’s coalition partner DMK have announced in advance about their boycott. Mamata Banerjee’s AITMC, the ruling party of West Bengal, and United Janata Dal pulled out in the last minute. Communist Party of India was not invited. The ‘All Party’ delegation ultimately turned out to be only a five-party delegation of the ruling Congress, Opposition BJP, Rajapaksa-friendly Marxist Communists and two other regional parties.
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‘Development’ gives no light to people while SL cantonment gets electricity in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 April 2012, 21:41 GMT]
More than 30 months have elapsed since the Sri Lankan government was promising electricity link to the resettling people in Ki'linochchi under the so-called Spring of North ‘development’, which is nothing but a camouflage for the structural genocide committed by Colombo in the country of Eezham Tamils. Electricity posts were put up creating hope among the people that power would be supplied. Many trees were also felled in Vanni jungle in the name of putting up infrastructure. Renewed hopes were again given during the civic elections held a year ago by SL Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka, the theoretician of the JHU, the Sinhala Buddhist extremist monks party, who declared opened a transformer at Chalvaa-nakar, a suburb of Ki'linochchi. The suburb is yet to see the light promised by the ‘Spring of North’, while the power lines are directed only to illuminate an SL cantonment.
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Sinhala academic blames US-UK axis for genocide in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 April 2012, 23:15 GMT]
Speaking at a meeting on “The Tamil Struggle for Self-Determination: A Leftist Sinhala Perspective” at University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, Sinhala academic Dr. Jude Lal Fernando highlighted the need to understand the role of powers in shaping and manipulating the forces among the Sri Lankan state and the Eezham Tamils, on Thursday. Talking extensively about how the western establishments tilted the parity of status against the Tigers during the CFA period, he expressed the view that the US-UK axis was to blame for the 2009 massacre. Dr. Fernando, who was one of the main co-ordinators of the Dublin Permanent People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka, explained how with the implementation of neoliberal policies the Sri Lankan state expedited privatization and militarization of the Tamil homeland.
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Rajapaksa's blithe contempt for world opinion: Paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2012, 21:48 GMT]
Pointing out that in Sri Lanka "[t]he rule of law continues to be set aside. A huge military machine is yet to be stood down. Glaring war crimes remain to be investigated. Tamils are treated as a subjugated people. Emergency security measures continue, turned against Rajapaksa's critics even among the Sinhala majority," Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) wondered that, "if Sinhala majority are not protected by law, what hope do Tamils have?"
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