ECJ implies non-requirement of evidence in ‘terrorist’ classification: Tamil legal activist

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2014, 14:30 GMT]
What the European Court of Justice (ECJ) proves implicitly is that under European Law, you do not need evidence to classify a group as a ‘terrorist’ organisation, commented US-based Eezham Tamil legal activist, Mr Rajeev Sreetharan, who was one of the initiators of the LTTE vs EU case adjudged by the ECJ on Thursday. However, he added that the ECJ ruling, although tainted by questionable post 9/11 interpretations of international humanitarian law, in essence vindicates assumptions in deciding to challenge the EU ban of the LTTE in a court of law, rather than the halls of government. Rajeev was hopeful that the lifting of the ‘terrorism’ ban helps to begin reshape the European climate for Tamil politics.
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European Court annuls EU restrictions on LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2014, 08:40 GMT]
In a landmark victory for the legal initiatives of Eezham Tamils, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ordered the Council of European Union on Thursday to annul the restrictive measures taken against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The case has been won by the LTTE on procedural grounds, said the lawyers representing the LTTE. Commenting on the judgement, Mr Lathan Suntharalingam, one of the initiators of the legal move against EU ban on LTTE said: “More than 40 countries in the world directly and indirectly abetted the Sri Lankan State in its genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils. The US paradigm of ‘War Against Terror’ was used to crush the LTTE-defended State of Eezham Tamils. The ECJ verdict on Thursday is a milestone achievement for Eezham Tamils in demanding global justice against the Tamil genocide.”
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Tamil prisoners subjected to racial assault in Anuradhapura prison

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2014, 08:57 GMT]
A Sinhala assistant jailor and Sinhala inmates in the Sri Lankan prison of Anuradhapura have brutally assaulted three Tamil political prisoners, one of them a pastor and another a 60-year-old man, causing serious injuries to them on Wednesday, said Northern Provincial Councillor Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, who described the attack as a targeted racist assault on Tamil inmates at the prison. The Tamil political prisoners are suffering in the Sri Lankan jails. The racist jailors subject them to psychological harassment by putting Sinhala narcotic criminal prisoners in the same cells. The Tamil prisoners are not being treated as human beings in the SL prisons, she said urging immediate international pressure on the Sri Lankan government.
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Shivajilingam reiterates majority demand of genocide investigation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2014, 15:56 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member M.K. Shivajingam on Tuesday vowed to confront any legal action from the South against the joint appeal sent by the majority NPC and Eastern Provincial Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Councillors to the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in August demanding investigations on genocide against Eezham Tamils. At a press conference held at Jaffna Press Club, the senior political leader of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) also warned those expressing views against the association with former militant groups turned political parties constituting the TNA alliance not to spoil the unity within the Tamil alliance.
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Palestine and Eezham Tamils: The Hindu group's double standard

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 2014, 07:24 GMT]
The Hindu group and its associates known for their bias and bigotry towards the issues of genocide and independence of Eezham Tamils, and towards the LTTE-led militant struggle of the recent past, have now reiterated their stand on Palestine, endorsing Hamas as the resistance force representing the people of Gaza. As a response to the recent Israeli military offensive against the people of Gaza, The Hindu and associates have been rallying public opinion in favour of the Palestinian struggle. In two separate events organized in Chennai in Tamil Nadu, the affluent Hindu clique has vehemently condemned Israel and termed its acts against the Palestinians as war crimes and demanded India to take a more vocal stand against Israel, writes a media watcher in Chennai.
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SL police arrests protesting former EDPD politician in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2014, 23:15 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police in Jaffna arrested the General Secretary of Mutpoakkuth Thamizh Theasiya Kadchi (MTTK) Sutharsingh Vijayakanth and two of his fellow party members Friday night while they were waging a peaceful fast at Nalloor temple demanding the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to release all Tamil political prisoners from the Sri Lankan prisons. The arrests were made on the charge that they were getting electricity from a nearby house to the podium of the fasting campaign. The fast was launched as there was no reply from the Sri Lankan President to their letter urging general amnesty to all Tamil political prisoners, the protesters said. Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to visit Jaffna on a two-day visit on October 12.
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Kurds defend Kobane from Islamic State onslaught supported by Turkey

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2014, 10:28 GMT]
The Islamic State (IS) supported by the Turkish state has since 15th September heavily intensified their military onslaught against the Kurdish people and their self-rule government in the region of Kobane in Rojava (Western Kurdistan) in Northern Syria. Following the brutal three pronged IS military assault to capture Kobane more than two hundred thousand Kurdish civilians were forced to flee to the Turkish border. The Turkish border which had hitherto been used unhindered by the IS to infiltrate into Kobane to attack the Kurds had now been closed to weaken the Kurdish resistance. Nevertheless recent information from Rojava reports that the Kurdish resistance is growing as the IS has suffered heavy causalities in battling the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) defending the region.
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SL military enslaves Eezham Tamils along border villages of Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2014, 22:19 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has effectively enslaved the gagged Eezham Tamil families in the border villages of Paduvaankarai region. Seven years after the end of war in East, the livelihood of the villagers has worsened than during the times of the war. While the resources are being exploited by the intruding Sinhala colonists and fishermen on one hand, the Tamils are being provided only one option of becoming second class citizens serving the interests of the occupying SL military, Tamil activists in Batticaloa said urging immediate focus from the global Tamils on the deteriorating situation of Eezham Tamils in Paduvaankarai.
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SL investigators harass senior journalist in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2014, 12:34 GMT]
Senior Journalist and media activist Thayaraparan Ratnam in Jaffna has been subjected to interrogation style investigations by a 'Special Criminal Investigation Division' in Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) on Wednesday, media circles in Jaffna said. Mr Thayaparan has been subjected to continous harassment by Sri Lankan Defence Ministry operated 'investigation' units, Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and the CID, the sources said adding that the harassments started after the journalists and media activists started to attend media workshops held in Colombo and other places. However, the timing of the harassment against Tamil journalists has a different motive, civil activists in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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PCICMP witnesses in Vanni coerced, threatened by SL military

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2014, 19:49 GMT]
Intelligence officers of the occupying Sri Lankan military brought 7 people in their vehicle to witness in front of the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), which held its sessions in Poonakari on Monday. Two of these witnesses had already appeared in front of the PCICMP at Muzhangkaavil on the previous day. SL soldiers were deployed in civil uniform in large numbers at Poonakari Divisional Secretariat where the session was held. The few witnesses who were present at the site on their own were subjected to strict checking by the SL soldiers. Some of them were sent back by the Sri Lankan soldiers. Those who presented their cases said the Commission was a farce as its members were posing irrelevant questions and were not interested to listen to their complaints of the missing kith and kin.
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Tamil Nadu condemns Rajapaksa's presence at UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2014, 15:41 GMT]
Condemning the presence of genocide-accused Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the UN General Assembly, over 20,000 Tamils from Tamil Nadu gathered in Chennai on Wednesday to voice their protest. Over 150 Tamil Nadu based organizations took part in the event. The demonstration saw the participation of political parties, social movements, civil society organizations, youth groups, Muslim and Dalit organizations. The protesters also called on the UN to conduct a referendum for an independent Tamil Eelam. While the protesters in Tamil Nadu were raising their voices against SL president, the Indian Prime Minister is scheduled to have a bi-lateral meeting with SL President in the USA on Saturday. In the meantime, Indian and Pakistani sources ruled out a such bilateral meeting between the presidents of India and Pakistan during their presence in the UK.
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Mass grave found in Veala’nai off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2014, 20:14 GMT]
Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) workers, who dug postholes along the wall of Ooraaththu’rai Civic Council secretariat situated in Veala’nai in the Ooraaththu’rai islet (Kayts) off Jaffna, came across human skeletal remains in all the seven postholes they had dug on Friday. The SL Police has immediately sealed off the site from public access, news sources in Veala’nai said. The residents in Veala’nai alleged that the CEB workers have discovered a mass grave similar to the one that has been recently discovered in Thirukkeatheesvaram in Mannaar.
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Funeral of veteran activist Manickasothy held in Uduvil, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2014, 19:14 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamils paid their last respects to veteran Eezham Tamil activist Abimannasingham Manickasothy on Wednesday at Uduvil in Jaffna. Mr Manickasothy passed away Monday night in a vehicle accident on his way to Jaffna from Colombo. Mr Manickasothy, who stood with his people throughout the Tamil struggle, has been articulating the political aspiration of Eezham Tamils in all available platforms. He has been a firm defender of Eezham Tamils right to self-determination for more than 30 years.
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SL military deploys intimidation, deception in East to suppress testimonies to OISL

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2014, 22:17 GMT]
The intelligence operatives of the occupying Sri Lankan military are exploiting the poverty-stricken Tamil youth from the temporary settlements of uprooted people from Champoor to spy on the activities going on among the uprooted people. The SL military, which has been providing alcohol and other drugs to the youth, have converted some of the young Tamils deprived of education and other facilities to work as spies for them. Former LTTE members have been two choices. They can either choose work for the SL military or face harassment from the SL military, the representatives of uprooted people in Ki’liveddi and Kaddai-pa’richchaan camps in Trincomalee told TamilNet.
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Powers may have double talk but those who struggle should not

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2014, 16:32 GMT]
"I am convinced that if Ukraine solved its domestic problems without the use of armed forces, without the bloodshed there over the past month, without the use of heavy artillery... this tragedy would not have happened," said Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu to visiting Malaysian defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Wednesday, while discussing MH 17 investigation. Whether Russia would speak in the same line and would advise its BRICS partners, especially New Delhi, to take the line in the investigation on the crimes of Sri Lanka and in the decades long militarised genocide against Eezham Tamils is what world humanity wishes to know, said Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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SL judiciary blocks massacre victims remembrance in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 September 2014, 22:54 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan Police in Batticaloa on Tuesday blocked the 24th annual remembrance event of the victims of the brutal massacre of Chaththuruk-ko’ndaan massacre carried out by the Sri Lanka Army in 1990. Batticaloa District Magistrate Mr NMM Abdulla issued an injunction order prohibiting the remembrance event at the memorial site accepting the SL police version, legal sources in Batticaloa said.
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SL military floats 5,000 cell phones for surveillance on Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2014, 16:30 GMT]
The military intelligence of occupying Sri Lanka has distributed more than 5,000 cell phones to selected Tamil civilians in former LTTE administered areas in Vaakarai and Paduvaan-karai regions of Batticaloa district in an attempt to convert the recipients of the SL military 'gift' into informants and collaborators. 3,000 of the mobile phones have been provided to women. In the meantime, ex-LTTE members are being harassed to report at the SL military camps and instructed to collaborate with the SL military if they wished to avoid 'future problems', civil sources in Vaakarai say.
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'LTTE ban contributes to further oppression of Tamils'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2014, 19:29 GMT]
The international proscription of the LTTE only contributes to criminalizing the political struggle of the Tamils and facilitates increased oppression in their homeland, argues Chris Slee in an article published on the Green Left Weekly on Saturday. "These bans were imposed because the governments of these countries were opposed to the Tamil national liberation struggle. Most Tamils living in exile were sympathetic to the LTTE, seeing them as freedom fighters, not terrorists. The banning of the LTTE in various countries was aimed at intimidating Tamils from supporting the struggle for self-determination in their homeland," he writes. A case challenging the ban on the LTTE in EU is pending in European courts.
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SL TID in Jaffna terrorises Tamil Catholic priests who served in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2014, 10:02 GMT]
Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’, which receives direct instructions from SL presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, in recent days has been monitoring, intimidating and ‘interrogating’ Eezham Tamil Catholic priests, who have been with their people in Vanni during and before the genocidal onslaught on Vanni. One of the six priests, who were detained in military-controlled barbed-wire camps in Menik Farm in 2009, Fr. A. Anton Stephen, was questioned by the TID officers at the Bishop’s House as the TID of the occupying Colombo was speculating that he is one of the key witnesses submitting an eyewitness account to the three member OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) panel tasked to produce a report on the investigation process in Sri Lanka after collecting direct reports from individuals, organisations and governments.
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Political fundamentals cannot be surrendered to military requisites of imperialism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 August 2014, 15:33 GMT]
Five years of actual ground experience of Eezham Tamils since the Vanni War ending in genocide, is nothing but the thorough and accelerated militarisation of their land by the Sinhala military, carried out with active patronage coming from New Delhi, Washington and Beijing. Militarisation of this nature, that too by a historically proven genocidal State and by its military, is perhaps the most important reason, why the military-less nation of Eezham Tamils can’t expect any political solution working within a united island and that they should seek independence. Eezham Tamil individuals and forums in the diaspora hijacked by imperialisms of militaristic interest should think twice before telling that Tamils have given up the claim for their country.
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