‘Sexist cartoons on Tamil Nadu CM reflect Sinhala patriarchal attitude to Tamil women’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 September 2012, 00:03 GMT]
In the garb of criticizing protests in Tamil Nadu against visiting Sri Lankan pilgrims, Lakbima, a mainstream Sinhala daily published two cartoons on Sunday portraying the Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa in a derogatory manner. The libellous cartoons, which targeted Ms. Jayalalitha on the basis of her status as a woman political leader, also targeted the late MGR, former Tamil Nadu CM and popular Tamil cinema icon, and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “The sexist nature of these cartoons on a political leader of Tamil Nadu published in a major Sinhala newspaper reflect the patriarchal attitude of the Sinhala state machinery towards Tamil women in general,” commented a feminist working with war survivors in Vanni adding that this attitude manifested itself as genocide-intended sexual violence against Eezham Tamil women by the occupying Sinhala forces in the Tamil homeland.
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Arnestad’s ‘Silenced Voices’ documentary gains momentum

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2012, 14:27 GMT]
Even as the GoSL tightens its vice through different means to gag democratic voices in the island from expressing the truth about the genocide of the Eezham Tamils, award-winning Norwegian documentary filmmaker Beate Arnestad’s ‘Silenced Voices - Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile’ has been steadily gaining momentum at acclaimed film festivals and screenings across the world, exposing the truth about media repression by the Sri Lankan state. After a grand pre-première in Oslo in February 2012, a world premiere in Hague at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in March, screenings at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York in June, Arnestad’s documentary received a salubrious welcome at public screenings in Australia this week.
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SLN arrests asylum seekers, Greens Senator notes systematic abuse of Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2012, 19:36 GMT]
As the Sri Lanka Navy arrested 54 Australia bound asylum seekers fleeing from the island on a boat on Thursday and hauled them off to the CID for interrogations, Australia’s Greens Party Senator Lee Rhiannon condemned the Australian Coalition’s political position to deport refugees from the island before they set foot on Australian soil as being “immoral, discriminatory, cruel”, referring to the routine violations of the Tamils’ basic rights in the island. "It is not surprising that people are looking to escape from Sri Lanka,” she told TamilNet. "Reports of the systematic abuse of Tamil women political prisoners and prisoners-of-war by the Sri Lankan armed forces are extremely disturbing,” she further said, alluding to TamilNet’s feature on genocide-intended sexual violence perpetrated by the Sri Lankan military and police on ex-LTTE female cadres.
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BJP denies inviting Rajapaksa as Tamil leaders announce protest in India

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2012, 19:14 GMT]
Tamils across Tamil Nadu on Wednesday launched protests against Rajapaksa’s scheduled visit to India on 21 September to inaugurate a centre for Buddhist study at Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh. VCK activists in Coimbatore burnt photographs of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sushma Swaraj, the leader of the BJP who had reportedly invited the genocide-accused SL president. Meanwhile, MDMK leader Vaiko urged the BJP to cancel the invitation to Rajapaksa, stating that otherwise he would lead a black flag demonstration to Madhya Pradesh when the SL president arrives. In the meantime, Sushma Swaraj and other BJP leaders have denied inviting Rajapaksa, alleging that the Indian Prime Minister and the Ministry of External Affairs were responsible for inviting the SL president.
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Pilgrimage, tourism become show of genocidal jubilation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2012, 18:00 GMT]
12.5 million Sinhala Buddhist visitors from the South have toured Jaffna peninsula during the last three years, from July 2009 to August 2012, according to the statistics released by the statistics division of the occupying Sri Lankan military in Jaffna. Highest number of visits was recorded in August 2012, when more than 100,000 southerners visited the peninsula. At least 80,000 of these visitors have been to Nagadipa vihara at Nayinaatheevu, an islet off Jaffna during the last month. In the meantime, the Eezham Tamil people of the peninsula, numbering less than 600,000 and the resettling people of Vanni live in a parallel universe without communication with the visiting Sinhalese, who are looked after by the occupying SL military and ‘civil’ administration.
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Basil Rajapaksa dispatches 1000-member squad to Trincomalee to ensure UPFA polling in PC elections

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2012, 21:37 GMT]
More than one thousand persons have arrived in Trincomalee district under the instruction of SL presidential sibling and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa to manipulate the polling in the forthcoming provincial elections in the East in favour of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), informed sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet Friday.
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Worsening SL economy drives Sinhalese, Muslims to take boats to Australia

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2012, 20:24 GMT]
While Tamil families, especially the former members of the LTTE, subjected to harassments and genocidal sexual abuse by the occupying SL military choose to flee the island seeking security in Australia with their families on board the fishing vessels, Muslims from Katpiddi and Sinhalese from Negombo have also chosen to flee the island in recent days due to worsening economic conditions in the island, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet Thursday. The SL Navy found Muslims from Katpiddi of the North Western Province among the 61 persons who were arrested in the seas off Chu'ndikku'lam in Vadamaraadchi East, Jaffna, in the early hours of Wednesday. In the meantime, media sources in Colombo said that four Sinhala SL Navy personnel were among those who had sought asylum in Australia in recent days.
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Land appropriation by Colombo in Trincomalee district goes unabated

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2012, 04:34 GMT]
In the latest land appropriation of the Colombo government to change the demography of the Trincomalee district, 94 Tamil families are forced to lose their properties that are located 9 km off north from Trincomalee city at Iluppaik-ku'lam GS division. The affected families have made representations to the Divisional Secretary who promised that the matter would be brought up to the notice of the SL Government Agent (SLGA) who is a Sinhalese. The SLGA is a retired Major General who is behind the planned appropriation of lands of Tamils in the district to settle down Sinhalese from the South.
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Village, jungle adjacent to Mu’l’livaaykkaal grabbed for Sinhala militarisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2012, 01:27 GMT]
2,500 acres of land by the side of the Nanthik-kadal lagoon, comprising of the village Keappaa-pulavu and nearby jungle, where the last stages of the Vanni war was fought and prohibited weapons were allegedly used against the LTTE by the genocidal Sinhala military, is now permanently grabbed for use of the occupying military, news sources in Vanni said. The grabbed land in Mullaiththeevu district is divided between Sri Lanka’s Army and Air Force and the original villagers of 700 families detained from resettling are forced to accept lands away from their village. After the TESO conference last week, The Hindu, using an interview of Dr. Wikremabahu Karunaratne, tried to soft-pedal the issue of the annihilation of territorial sovereignty of the nation of Eezham Tamils as a mere “Move to gift Tamil resources to MNCs.”
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Commission report makes Norway police chief resign

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2012, 22:13 GMT]
Following an independent commission report that Norway police could have prevented all or part of a bombing and shooting spree by Anders Behring Breivik last year that killed 77, most of whom were teenagers, the Norwegian police chief Øystein Mæland resigned on Thursday, Reuters said. Norwegian government has also appointed an independent commission to investigate the failure of Norway’s peace facilitation in Sri Lanka that ended in genocide of Eezham Tamils. The commission report found fault with the peace facilitators for not withdrawing from the facilitation to tell the truth to the world, despite anticipations of the outcome. Mr. Erik Solheim, a leading facilitator didn’t resign, but was removed by his party ‘to give room to younger talents’. There was neither penitence nor any changes in Norway’s policy towards the question of Eezham Tamils.
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Uprooted Tamils in Ampaa'rai question SL Minister's statement on resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2012, 20:27 GMT]
Tamil people have been systematically evicted from forty villages in fifteen different DS divisions in Ampaa'rai district, Tamil civil officials in the district say. Since 13 April 1967 to date, at least 3,500 Tamil families have been uprooted from these villages. Recently, Rauf Hakim, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) who holds the portfolio of Minister of Justice in Mahinda Rajapakse regime has told a foreign envoy in Colombo that steps would be taken to return the lands and properties lost by people in the past decades. Tamil civil officials questioned whether the Tamil people who were systematically uprooted from their traditional villages could get their lands appropriated by Sinhalese and Muslims during the conflict.
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Indian protest to Eezham provocative: Peter Schalk

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2012, 06:45 GMT]
The demand of Indian MEA to drop Eelam from the TESO conference title is provocative, gives food for thought and does not make sense, says Professor Peter Schalk in a note sent to TamilNet on Sunday. The decision comes from confusing Eelam, a Tamil toponym standing for the entire island, with Tamileelam. In usage Eelam predates Lanka. On Eelam and Cinkalam, Prof Schalk said they are of a parallel allocation and parallels never meet, but walk side by side. Meanwhile, BBC Tamil Service on Saturday cited Professor MA Nuhman saying that the connotations of the word became a problem only with the ‘secessionist movement’. He agreed with the word’s old Tamil usage meaning the entire island, but questioned its Dravidian origins. The TESO response was naïve or sly by equating Eezham/ Ilangkai with the politically invented and Tamil -rejected term Sri Lanka.
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TESO resolution calls for UN Referendum

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2012, 18:56 GMT]
Announcing the question of Eezham Tamils as a South Asian Human Rights issue, a UN referendum should be conducted among Tamils, demanded the resolution of the TESO conference convened at the YMCA grounds at Rayappettai in Chennai on Sunday. India should work at the UN to bring in a resolution facilitating Eezham Tamils to choose their political solution, the conference resolved. The resolutions of the conference demanded action on the war criminals in the island and removal of Sri Lankan military from the territories of Tamils. The resolutions also demanded immediate removal of the Sinhalese forcefully colonised in Tamil Eelam and in Tamil territories. On the treatment of refugees in India, the conference demanded the Indian government to adhere to the UN conventions.
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SLA constructs military cantonment in lands of Eezham Tamils in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 August 2012, 22:02 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in Ampaa'rai district is constructing a military cantonment in the land of sixty acres extent at Ka'napathipuram, situated in Chammaanthu'rai DS division of Ampaa'rai district. The lands belong to 350 Tamil families from the lower echelons of the society, who remain uprooted for 22 years now, according to Tamil civil officials in the district.
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Local community protests HSBC display of Sri Lanka flag in London

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2012, 06:34 GMT]
The local community of New Malden, Surrey, is enraged at the insensitivity of the HSBC bank for its display of Sri Lanka’s Lion Flag in its New Malden branch. In making a request addressed to its manager, Ms. Sam Fletcher, the local community members said, “HSBC prides themselves in being the local bank and we hope that this also involves for them to be aware of our local issues.” The protestors pointed out that as most of the island’s community in the UK are victims of State with memories of torture, rape and massacre, they are greatly upset at seeing the flag reminding them of the horrors. The protest, led by even non-Tamil South Asians in New Malden, cited support of local parliamentarian, Mr Edward Davey. The London-based HSBC was the first foreign bank to initiate a branch in Jaffna. It has 16 branches in the island labelled Sri Lanka.
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TESO, AIADMK could create history with tacit action on fundamentals

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 July 2012, 23:54 GMT]
The island transformed from colonial Ceylon into genocidal Sri Lanka has in the process witnessed two wars of brutal conquest in the last two hundred years, both of which were ultimately imperialist. The conquest of Kandy in 1815 by British imperialism bringing in the unitary state and the conquest of Vanni in 2009 by a strategic partnership of the US and Indian imperialism are not two different phenomena, if the aftermaths of the wars are compared and comprehended. The larger question arises for the peoples of the region, elsewhere, and especially for the people of Tamil Nadu in this context is whether they are going to succumb one after the other as in the past, or are going to create history for humanity by learning from history. The TESO meet will only turn into a crafty device if its convenors and participants don’t direct it to answer the fundamentals.
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Fasting in London against genocidal Sri Lanka timed for Black July, Olympics

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 July 2012, 22:52 GMT]
The Black July remembrance event held at London on Sunday addressed the systematic injustice that Sri Lanka had been meting out to the Tamils, with activists placing emphasis on the protracted nature of genocide Eezham Tamils face in unitary Sri Lanka. Gobi Sivanthan, a Tamil youth activist, began his hunger-strike vigil which will end on the Olympics closing ceremony on August 12 demanding, among others, the immediate halting of land grabs in the Tamil homeland. Conveying solidarity with the demands of the demonstrators, Kurdish and British activists who spoke at the event urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to immediately suspend Sri Lanka from the 2012 London Olympics. “States committing genocide should not be part of Olympic games,” Akif Wan, a representative from the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) said, speaking at the event.
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Genocidal land grab extended to new division in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 July 2012, 22:18 GMT]
The SL state-sponsored genocidal land grab has now reached to Ea'raavoorpattu (Chengkaladi) DS division, civil sources in Batticaloa said. In recent days, Sinhala settlers have cleared several acres of forest along Magncha'l Aaru, located 5 km east of Maha Oya junction on A5 (Chengkaladi-Badulla) highway, renaming the area in Sinhala as ‘Mangalagama’. The Colombo based authorities of the SL state, which have taken over the administration of rivers, reservoirs, and ponds from the district-based irrigation authorities since 2009, are depriving the livelihood of Tamils by appropriating cultivation lands and the water sources used for inland fishing.
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Acute malnutrition prevails among uprooted Champoor families

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 July 2012, 23:22 GMT]
Acute malnutrition and hunger prevail among uprooted Champoor families now staying in ‘welfare centres’ that are located at Kaddai-pa'richchaan, Ma'nat-cheanai, Ki'liveddi and Paddiththidal in the Moothoor East. About 4,036 uprooted members of 263 families from Champoor six years ago due to SL military operation launched by the Sri Lanka Army in 2006 are staying in these camps as the government had refused to allow them to resettle in their own villages in Champoor area. According to reports by civil groups that the stoppage of distribution of dry ration relief under the World Food Programme for the last six months has led to the tragic situation in welfare camps.
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Australian socialist calls for support to Tamils’ right to self-determination

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 July 2012, 07:47 GMT]
“Tamils should have the right to choose whether they wish to be part of a united Sri Lanka, to break away and form an independent Tamil state in their traditional homelands in the north and east of the island, or to have some intermediate form such as federalism or autonomy,” writes Chris Slee, a member of the Melbourne branch of the Socialist Alliance, in an article published on Green Left Weekly, Sunday. Noting that the support given to Sri Lanka by world powers, especially the US, in allowing the May 2009 massacre to happen and criticizing the misunderstanding of the “progressive” Latin American countries of the Tamils’ struggle, the author calls on Australians to “demand that the Australian government support the proposal for a UN-supervised referendum. We should also demand that it end all ties with the Sri Lankan army and the other repressive forces of the Sri Lankan state.”
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