Executives of TGTE-Democrats speak on Transnational Polity

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 March 2011, 07:45 GMT]
“Our aim is to strengthen the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam and to take it to the next stage of the global struggle of Eezham Tamils,” said Sasi Mahesawaran, one of the three executives of the TGTE-Democrats, adding that Tamils believe in unity to win the struggle. The frequent questions that are asked whether the TGTE Democrats are part of the TGTE or whether they are an opposition party or whether they are an alternative TGTE, were answered in a panel address they gave on Saturday in Tamil.
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Release prisoners held without charge under PTA, demands Amnesty

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 March 2011, 00:05 GMT]
Amnesty International, in a press release issued today, called upon the "Sri Lankan government to immediately release thousands of people currently being held in detention without charge or trial and to amend its repressive anti-terrorism laws to conform to international standards." Amnesty International said the organization "will again be raising its concerns about Sri Lanka’s emergency laws at a 9 March session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, including at a seminar about the laws and their application that will include lawyers from Sri Lanka."
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Canadian Tamil husband suspected in hiring southerners to kill wife in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2011, 06:44 GMT]
38-year-old Kukathasan Shanthini of Meesaalai in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, was abducted Sunday and her body with signs of torture and defacement was found Monday in a remote neighbourhood of Kiraampuvil temple. Sri Lanka Police in Chaavakachcheari suspects that her husband, who has recently come from Canada has hired assassins from Colombo. Shanthini and the 8-year-old child of the couple also have recently returned from India after disappointment in waiting for her Canadian visa to join with her husband.
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British Tamil businesses continue networking effort

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2011, 03:50 GMT]
The Tamil Chamber of Commerce in UK held another introductory dinner on March 2 in Northwest London, attended by scores of local Tamil entrepreneurs. The aim of the event in Ruislip, which was addressed by Deputy Mayor of London Richard Barnes, Mayor of Ealing Rajinder Mann and Mayor of Hounslow Colin Ellar, as well as local politicians and representatives from Britain’s main political parties, was to explain the TCC’s goals and potential for growing Tamil enterprise and to expand its membership, organisers said.
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100 years of Thirunelveali YMHA: anthropology of a grassroot institution

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 18:27 GMT]
The Young Men Hindu Association (YMHA) of Thirunelveali in Jaffna that was started in April 1911 celebrates its centenary next month. Its members of old times met in London Sunday to observe the centenary. Located at the Thirunelveali Junction, where the Aadiyapaatham Road crosses the Palaali Road, the institution played an important role in the social, political and cultural history of the people of Thirunelveali village. An academic of the University of Jaffna writes on Thirunelveali, the anthropology of civil institutions and changing times in Jaffna.
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Veteran journalist Sabaratnam passes away

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 17:47 GMT]
Veteran journalist T. Sabaratnam passed away after a brief illness on Saturday in Colombo at the age of 79. Mr. Sabaratnam, who held the post of senior deputy editor of the SL State run Daily News at the time of retirement in 1997, was contributing to the English weekly, the Nation and other English and Tamil newspapers after retirement from the Lake House newspapers. He worked as a lecturer in the College of Journalism since its inception till his demise.
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TNA MP Sritharan narrowly escapes assassination in Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 14:54 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Vanni, S. Sritharan, narrowly escaped from a group of attackers who lobbed two hand grenade targeting his vehicle and fired at the vehicle using pistols from behind Monday evening around 6:00 p.m. at Nochchiyaagama in Anuradhapura, TNA parliamentarians told media. The parliamentarian was on his way from Vavuniyaa to Colombo to attend the Tuesday sittings in SL parliament. No one was hurt in the attack, SL Police in Anuradhapura said.
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Transnational experiment can’t be allowed to go astray, says younger generation

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 02:09 GMT]
Conventional ‘government-modelled’ power politics shouldn’t be allowed to hijack the ideals of the experiment of transnational struggle by Eezham Tamils for their liberation, says the younger generation in the diaspora that on Saturday announced certain moves to set bearings for the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE). Consisting of members elected as well as contested to the TGTE and led by the younger generation, the TGTE-Democrats said that they would not obstruct the activities of the current executive of the TGTE, even though they didn’t agree with the one-person leadership constitution, but would work for evolving a proper constitution for the next election. To carry out the program, elected TGTE-Democrats decided to mandate 9 among them to function for two years as a committee and the committee to annually appoint 3 executives.
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"Mere association" insufficient to prove membership, says Canada Refugee board

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 01:49 GMT]
In ruling on a Tamil migrant who arrived in Canada last August onboard the MV Sun Sea, Refugee board member, Marc Tessler ruled Sunday that mere association with banned terrorist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is not enough to prove membership in that group, a conclusion that may make it more difficult for the federal government [of Canada] to send the migrants back, CTV News reported. "Having a definition of membership that would encompass such low-range activities [such as working as a mechanic to repair LTTE run buses] was too broad to encompass membership in a terrorist group," said lawyer Eric Purtzki, who represented one of the migrants at the hearing.
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Sri Lankan state shows ‘reconciliation’ in the country of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2011, 15:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka military occupying the Tamil country opened a new fort and an extensive military base on Friday at Koappaay in Jaffna, over the graves and memorials of the heroes who laid down their lives to the cause of the liberation of Eezham Tamils. The Chinese helped the occupying SL military to raze down the Maaveerar Thuyilumidam (the resting place of the heroes) and to build the fortress at that very premises for the occupying Army to tread on it. The resident of the king of Jaffna was at Koappaay during the times of the Kingdom of Jaffna. The Portuguese destroyed it in the 17th century. The US State Department coined the word 'reconciliation' but Colombo is writing the meaning for the word, commented a Tamil politician in Jaffna.
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AG suspends forced registration by SLA in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2011, 02:50 GMT]
A three-member bench of the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday terminated the proceedings in the Fundamental Rights application filed by five Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians against the forced registration of resident in the Jaffna district and Killinochchi district by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) after Sri Lanka's Attorney General (AG) informed the Court that SLA will stop forced registration, legal sources in Colombo said. The Deputy Solicitor General, Buvaneka Aluvihare, on behalf of the AG gave the undertaking said that the forced registration would be suspended until a procedure that passes constitutional muster is developed to collect information pertaining to the two districts.
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Occupying SL military stops re-installing MGR statue in VVT

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2011, 00:05 GMT]
Efforts by the people of Valveddiththu’rai in Jaffna to re-install a statue for Mr. M G Ramachandran (MGR), the Tamil film icon since 1950s and former chief minister of Tamil Nadu was stopped by the Sri Lanka Army occupying the Tamil country. A statue of MGR that existed earlier at Valveddiththu’rai was desecrated and the arms were broken by the occupying military a few months back. Eezham Tamils, especially the coastal community people, are strong admirers of the films of MGR for well over six decades. MGR was born in Kandy in the island.
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SL Attorney General delays response to Tamil political prisoners

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2011, 23:45 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Attorney General’s Department has been inordinately delaying to process the requests made by Tamil political detainees being held in prisons in the South to transfer them to prisons in Jaffna as they fear attacks on them following the recent ethnic attacks in Anuradhapura.
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Meaningful accountability comes by addressing the national question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2011, 10:33 GMT]
When events similar to what happened and is happening in the island led to international intervention and liberation of the affected in many other instances of the world, the issue of Eezham Tamils is consciously blunted as something concerned to insurgency, counterinsurgency and war crimes investigation of both. In the process, the main culprit of decades, i.e., the Sri Lankan state (not the regimes) escapes unscathed and is being saved by those who have a problem of irregularity with their appetite, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo responding to discussions in a live web-seminar conducted by Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research of Harvard University on 24 February.
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US Senate Resolution calls for accountability for Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2011, 03:37 GMT]
United States Senate unanimously passed resolution S. Res. 84 introduced by Senator Casey which commended UN Secretary General for appointing a panel to advise UNSG on Sri Lanka's human rights accountability and called "on the Government of Sri Lanka, the international community, and the United Nations to establish an independent international accountability mechanism to look into reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations committed by both sides during and after the war in Sri Lanka and to make recommendations regarding accountability," as one of the four elements of the resolution.
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Officials opposing Sinhala encroachment threatened with transfer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 12:10 GMT]
Tamil Divisional Secretaries in the eastern province are facing transfer threats due to the non-co-operation to implement Mahinda Chinthanaya in the Eastern Province in allowing encroachment by Sinhalese in Tamil villages. Already, Divisional Secretaries of the two DS divisions Koa'ra'laip-pattu South and Koa'ra'laip-pattu North in Batticaloa district are said to be informed of their transfer, sources in Eastern province said.
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Sri Lanka's rights violations compel investigations, says Australian MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 02:45 GMT]
Laurie Ferguson, Member of Australian Parliament for Werriwa and Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services, in his statement following submitting a private members bill for debate on "Humanitarian Issues During the War in Sri Lanka," Monday detailed the egregious violations of human rights in Sri Lanka and said he supported eminent personalities, Governments, and premier Rights organizations around the world in demanding an independent, international investigations into Sri Lanka's rights violations.
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Kohona, Samarasinghe issues raised in Australia Parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 02:28 GMT]
John Murphy, Australia's Labor pary member of parliament for Reid, during a house debate on Thursday expressed grave concern at the "foreshadowed appointment" of Sri Lanka's ex-Navy commander Admiral Samarasinghe as the next high commissioner, and called upon the Australian Government to "independently investigate" the involvement of Dr Palitha Kohona, an Australian National, in the killing of surrendees during the last phase of Sri Lanka's civil war.
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Occupying military orders VVT people to register before 10:00 a.m. Wednesday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 20:40 GMT]
In a draconian order, the SL military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils has asked the people of Valveddiththu’rai, a densely populated town in the northern coast of Jaffna, to register themselves with the military, along with family photos, before 10:00 a.m. Wednesday. The shocked Eezham Tamils wonder whether their country is fast turning into an open concentration camp for them. The order comes even as there is a case against such registrations filed by TNA is pending in the court. The notice to the public to register within 24 hours and forms for that are distributed by the SL Army to local shops. On the order of the Army, the local village officials were seen carrying out the work even during the night. People feel that the show of terror is a revenge for the participation of the people of VVT in the funeral of Parvathi Amma, despite military harassment.
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7 arrested in Tamil youth killing in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 14:01 GMT]
The body of a young male person recovered from an empty fertilizer bag hidden under a culvert located in Panichchaiyadi area in Saththurukko'ndaan village in the Batticaloa police division Sunday evening was identified on Monday by his relatives as that of Rasiah Kanthithas, 29, of Thimilaa-theevu. The owner of a hotel in front of the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital where the deceased had been working was arrested Tuesday by the Batticaloa Police in connection with the alleged murder. Six others were also taken into custody by the Police in this connection, sources in Batticaloa said.
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