Amnesty urges Britain to examine Rajapakse war crimes allegations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 02:55 GMT]
After Britain’s Channel 4 News aired Tuesday further evidence of war crimes, including sexual abuse, by Sri Lanka’s military, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Professor Christof Heyns, expressed his shock and called for further investigations in light of the new footage. Amnesty International meanwhile urged Britain to investigate bringing war crimes charges against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and other Sri Lankan officials under the UK’s universal jurisdiction laws. Channel 4 says it has “received hundreds of photographs and many more shocking videos depicting summary executions and rape,” and has sent one five-minute video to the UN panel looking at Sri Lanka’s war crimes.
Full story >>

Properties, temples of uprooted Tamils robbed in Valikaamam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 00:09 GMT]
How the number of Tamils in Valikaamam in Jaffna district has dwindled during the last 20-years due to Sri Lankan genocidal onslaught on Tamil homeland became evident when only 970 families registered for resettlement in the three villages of I'lavaalai and Viththakapuram in Valikaamam North, bordering the Sri Lanka Army declared High Security Zone, civil sources in Jaffna said. 1746 families were registered in the same area in 1990, according to the statistics by Thellippazhai divisional secretariat. The uprooted civilians, who were allowed to visit their villages last weekend and later denied of proper access-route to their villages, also complained that even the few properties that remained in their houses and temples have been robbed away after they were allowed access to the villages.
Full story >>

Veteran journalist Sivanayagam passes away

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 12:42 GMT]
Veteran journalist S. Sivanayagam whose contributions were part of the history of the liberation struggle of Eezham Tamils, passed away on Monday in Colombo at the age of 80. The funeral will take place on Thursday. Joining The Daily News in 1953, he became the founder editor of Saturday Review started in Jaffna in 1982. The weekly that made a name in the early stages of the Tamil militant struggle had an abrupt end with the 1983 pogrom. He was later in charge of the Tamil Information Centre in Chennai. In 1990, he was editing a new journal Tamil Nation. Following the assassination of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, he was arrested without any charges, harassed, insulted and was ill treated by the Indian intelligence. He left India in 1993 to get asylum in France. He was also residing in London. Ailing from bone cancer, a few years ago he went back to Colombo and was remaining silent.
Full story >>

More than 50,000 determined Tamils in Toronto pay homage to heroes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 11:14 GMT]
The temperature was freezing. Permission was half-hearted. Venue arrangement was last minute due to anticipated obstacles. Yet, a determined mass of 50,000 Eezham Tamils in Toronto, Canada, congregated on Saturday in four sessions in a temporarily built hall for the purpose, to pay homage to the heroes who laid down their lives for the cause of the liberation of Tamil Eelam. The hall was built on an open terrain where permission to congregate was granted, and the floor was paved with wooden planks to bear with the cold. The event was marked with heart-touching cultural programmes. Meanwhile, the resolution seen in the diaspora now makes Colombo think tanks to question their present strategy of countering the diaspora through hired Public Relations firms and lobbyists. The Tamil diaspora would out-bid the Colombo government they are afraid.
Full story >>

SLA suspends resettlement in Valikaamam North HSZ villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 10:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Sunday suspended the resettlement of displaced people of three village (GN) divisions including I'lavaalai and Viththakapuram after the civil authorities ceremonialy launched resettlement of 970 families in Valikaamam North sector of Jaffna district on Saturday with a pooja at Nakuleasvaram temple, attended by EPDP leader and minister Douglas Devananda and Tamil National Alliance MPs. The military officials have said there were crucial security establishments with minefields on the way to the villages. As a result, the much awaited resettlement has again been postponed, this time for 'another month'. Meanwhile, informed sources said that the whole episode of resettlement was hurriedly staged at Keerimalai temple to coincide with the visit by Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna to Jaffna last week.
Full story >>

Vaazhaichcheanai parents, students protest against TMVP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 08:57 GMT]
Students and parents of Vaazhaichcheanai in Batticaloa district Monday protested against the decision by Piratheasa Chapai (PS) chairman S. Jeevagathas to close down private tuition centres in the area. This was the first time residents of Vaazhaichchenai held such demonstration against the TMVP, which is led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilliayan who is also the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC).
Full story >>

Icy reception for Rajapaksa at Heathrow

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 22:36 GMT]
More than five hundred Tamils gathered at London’s Heathrow airport to protest as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa landed from Colombo. As Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL509 carrying Mr. Rajapaksa, who is on a private visit, landed at about 9:50 p.m. UK time, protestors braved Britain’s unusually cold weather to call attention to his government’s war crimes. Meanwhile, a senior Norwegian expert on the conflict in Sri Lanka advised Tamil activists to concentrate on country-level legal moves, rather than waiting for any global or governmental actors to take the lead. Tamils should forge alliances with legal, alternative, and human rights groups to fight the legal battle, the expert told Norwegian Country Council representatives, who welcomed the British demonstration.
Full story >>

SL parliament adopts 2nd reading of 2011 Budget

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 17:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Monday evening adopted the second reading of the Budget for the year 2011 by a majority of 104 votes. 150 parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituent parties voted for the budget. 46 parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) voted against. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians abstained from voting.
Full story >>

TNA to abstain from voting on 2nd reading of Sri Lankan budget

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 13:13 GMT]
Rajapaksa's government, which proclaims that it's priority is resettlement of displaced Tamil people, has not translated the words into deeds in its budget for 2011, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said in a press statement Monday. The TNA statement further noted that the allocation made for defence expenditure has continued to increase year by year even after the conclusion of the war and said that the TNA members have unanimously decided not to participate in the voting on second reading of budget on Monday. The TNA said its position was that Colombo should negotiate with the TNA, which is the elected representatives of the Tamils.
Full story >>

Ken Livingstone vows unwavering support for Tamils’ struggle

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 09:22 GMT]
Addressing the Tamil National Remembrance Day gathering in London Saturday, veteran British politician Ken Livingstone slammed the Sri Lankan state for “the terror [it] has waged against the Tamil community”, and vowed his unrelenting support for the Tamil people’s struggle. “The government of Sri Lanka is a disgrace to the international community,” Mr. Livingstone, a prominent figure of the Left in British politics said. “Behind the façade of voting there is no longer a democracy in Sri Lanka. I look forward to the day once again when Sri Lanka once again can become a real democracy, and get rid of the current war criminal who occupies the office of president,” he said of President Mahinda Rajapakse.
Full story >>

This is a struggle for all of us: Vikramabahu tells Heroes Day congregation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2010, 12:57 GMT]
Tamils were killed by successive Sinhala chauvinistic governments and at last but not the least by the Mahinda regime. Not only Tamils but also thousands of Sinhala youth who were sent for aggression in the Tamil homeland and attack Tamils died in an alien land. The misery created among the Sinhalese will also show its reaction in future. This is a struggle for all of us. Yes, we have gone through defeat. Now we have to get up and fight to overthrow this chauvinistic military regime to have democracy in the land, said Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne, Secretary of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), who was a star speaker at the Maaveerar (Heroes) Day gathering in London, Saturday. The event attended by more than 50, 000 diaspora Tamils paid homage to the heroes who laid down their lives fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.
Full story >>

50,000 gather in London to remember Tamil Eelam Heroes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 19:14 GMT]
Around 50,000 Eezham Tamils congregated on Saturday in London to pay homage to the Maaveerar (heroes) who laid down their lives in fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam. Similar gatherings proportionate to the population of Eezham Tamil diaspora were noticed in the other European capitals. 9,000 congregated in one of 8 localities in France and 9,000 at Fribourg in Switzerland, where local organisers noticed a new vigour of uprising. Meanwhile, the BBC in London cut a pathetic figure by featuring a report of a BBC Tamil Service staff, titled “Why Sri Lankan Tamils won’t remember war dead this year”. The BBC Tamil Service in recent years has become a mouthpiece of war crimes accused Colombo and the establishment abetting it from New Delhi, observers said. The subversive game is played by manipulating the unjustified continuation of the tag of ‘terrorism’ in UK, they further said.
Full story >>

Welfare centers sheltering Champoor IDPs under rain water

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 12:31 GMT]
Some one thousand two hundred and sixty two displaced Tamil families sheltered in four welfare centers in Moothoor division in Trincomalee district are undergoing untold hardships due to torrential rain. The temporary sheds in the welfare centers have been inundated with rain water. The inmates find difficult to sleep, cook food and latrines are under water preventing them to answer call of nature. Health authorities have expressed fear of out break of dengue and other diseases among IDPs if no preventive measures are taken.
Full story >>

Indian FM harps on failed 13th Amendment in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 09:16 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who ceremoniously opened an Indian Mission near Kantharmadam junction in Jaffna, failed to deliver any positive message to Eezham Tamils on India's position in resolving the national question. Mr. S.M. Krishna harped on the failed 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, a model Tamils have rejected as inadequate in guaranteeing their rights and he also failed to touch the territorial integrity of the North-Eastern Province which was de-merged by Rajapaksa government that disregarded the earlier arrangement that has been in practice for several years following the Indo Lanka Accord.
Full story >>

Poet Kasi Anandan speaks to Palaka'ni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 05:03 GMT]
Mu'l'livaaykkaal is only a turning point in the Tamil Eelam struggle, says veteran national poet of Eezham Tamils Kasi Anandan to the audience of Palaka'ni, the TamilNet window for cross-views that features its inaugural programme on Saturday. “The Tigers have silenced their guns. To what extent the chauvinism of the Sinhala state could go, the international community has yet another opportunity to understand now. But, has it ever accepted that what is being committed is a genocide," he questioned. Any struggle that is based on righteous principles will win. Eelam Tamils should understand this and proceed, said the 72-year-old Batticaloa-born poet, who has been associated with Periyar E.V.Ramasamy Nayakkar, S.J.V Chelvanayakam and Velupillai Pirapaharan.
Full story >>

Heroes Day - 2010

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 00:01 GMT]
At the height of the Vanni war, a representative of the Biafra struggle sent a message to TamilNet. He wanted the Eezham Tamils to remember that they were fighting not merely for them, but for the cause of many peoples like them all over the world. If the Eezham Tamils fail they fail the world of liberation, he said. He wanted the message and his best wishes to be conveyed to Vanni. That is the international dimension of the heroes of Tamil Eelam. They fought for the liberation of their nation and at the same time fought for a missing point in contemporary human civilisation. Many thought that Biafra could never be repeated in contemporary times and that too in ‘civilized’ South Asia. But there were people who adamantly wanted to prove that it is possible. Remembering the heroes in 2010 should remind us of the duty ahead of us towards ourselves and towards human civilisation.
Full story >>

Jaffna paper office encircled by thugs

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 22:12 GMT]
A group of 10 to 15 men wearing black masks have encircled the Jaffna office of Thinakkural located at Kasthooriyaar Road Friday midnight. The newspaper officers who contacted their Colombo office have told the management to take immediate steps to ensure their safety as the presence of the gang posed a direct threat to the media workers at the office and attached press of the Jaffna edition of Thinakkural daily.
Full story >>

Swiss Tamil youths launch 'Thamizhan' Energy Drink

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 21:34 GMT]
Two Tamil youths in Switzerland on 26 November 2010 launched an Energy Drink named 'Thamizhan' and announced that the income generated through the sales of the product of their private firm would be fully invested to form and sustain a foundation-managed fund that would strengthen the democratic interests of the Eezham Tamil cause, the owners told TamilNet Friday.
Full story >>

SLA warns temples in Jaffna not to toll bells on Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 18:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has instructed the temple authorities in Valikaamam not to toll the temple bells Saturday. The army thinks that it will be a way of people paying their homage to the Heroes who laid down their lives in the struggle for liberation, sources in Jaffna said. The temple authorities were instructed to drape the bells with cloth if the bells cannot be removed from their positions. Last year, on Heroes’ Day, people who were oppressed from observing the Day remembering their fallen kith and kin tolled bells in the temples in the evening defying the restrictions of the SLA.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka will reject any political settlement with Tamils - editorial

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 12:27 GMT]
“If [India's External Affairs Minister S M] Krishna is intending to take up the issue of a political settlement during his visit to Sri Lanka, he will get short shrift in Colombo. President Mahinda Rajapakse has already made his response clear in an interview with The Hindu newspaper this week: there will be no such thing,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said in its editorial this week. “It is in this way that a long-standing contradiction between the Sinhala establishment and the international community, which had been masked by Indian and Western hostility to the Tamil armed struggle, is now coming clearly to the fore.”
Full story >>