"Sri Lanka sets precedent for internationally acceptable genocide model"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 April 2010, 14:56 GMT]
Kolathur T. S. Mani, president of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, during a conference at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi titled "Unspoken Genocide: Convention on War Crimes and Genocide in Sri Lanka," held at the Speaker Hall, Constitution Club on Thursday , said that Sri Lanka has presented to the world a viable model of genocide by successfully killing "hundreds of thousands of civilians without any witness" and not eliciting international or national censure or condemnation. Rajinder Sachar, former chief justice of High Court of New Delhi, a member of the Dublin war crimes Tribunal, Justice V R Krishna Iyer, former judge of the Supreme Court of India, and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), Kashmir, participated in the event among others.
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India refuses landing to Pirapaharan's mother

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 22:35 GMT]
Mrs. Vallipuram Parvathi, the ailing mother of LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, was refused landing by Indian immigration officials at Chennai airport Friday night around 11:30 p.m., media sources in Tamil Nadu said. Mrs. Parvathi, travelling from Malaysia, was seeking medical treatment in India. She was sent back to Malaysia in the same flight. Tamil Nadu leaders Nedumaran and Vaiko were at the airport and they were later joined by the members of the VCK party of Thirumavalavan. According to media sources citing immigration officials, Mrs. Parvathi is considered by India as a threat to law and order situation in the country. Members of I'lanthamizhar Iyakkam (Young Tamils Movement) led by Mr. Arunbarathy and Director Ram continued staying at the airport at the time of this report, demanding explanation from responsible officials.
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JMC evicts Sinhalese pavement traders in Nalloor

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 21:28 GMT]
Due to pressure from Jaffna Traders’ Union (JTU) and civil society organizations in Jaffna peninsula Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) administration has begun evicting the Sinhalese pavement traders who had illegally set up stalls in the surroundings of historically famous Nalloor Kanthasuvami Koayil, sources in Jaffna said. Some of the above Sinhalese traders along with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers had on 22 March demolished the memorial pillar of Lt. Col. Thileepan located behind Nalloor temple and this had enraged the residents of Jaffna peninsula who had accused JMC authorities for not evicting the illegal pavement traders from the streets around the temple.
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Indian Navy launches coast guard interceptor vessel in Rameswaram

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 21:25 GMT]
Indian Navy Commandant D. S. Saini, Commanding Officer, Coast Guard Station, Mandapam said that the arrival of C-146, an advanced interceptor vessel of Coast Guard, will help to engage in monitoring the movement of suspected vessels or persons round-the-clock, as it has modern facilities for night patrol, in an event in Rameaswarm Friday attended by key Indian Coast Guard officers, sources in Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu said. The launching of this patrol vessel is observed to be an action taken to strenghthen Coast Guard activities along the coast off Rameswaram in the context of alleged presence of foreign elements including Chinese Navy in the northern seas of Sri Lanka, the sources added.
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USA wishes joint celebrations, engages in joint operations

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 15:20 GMT]
The US embassy in Colombo carried a statement Monday from Secretary Clinton, greeting ‘Sinhala and Tamil New Year,’ and saying that this year, for the first time in decades, Sri Lankans from all parts of the island can celebrate together in a peaceful and united country. This is an opportunity for ‘Sri Lankans’ living inside and outside of the country to renew bonds and the US is eager to support them in this journey, the statement said. On Friday the US embassy announced joint operations of the US and Sri Lankan militaries in ‘humanitarian exercises’ in Trincomalee. “The joint exercise helped members from our two militaries to exchange best practices on how to address complex humanitarian challenges,” said Defence Attache of the US embassy.
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Remandating VR, a unique opportunity to address Australian refugee crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 12:15 GMT]
Australia’s announcement that it will not accept claims of asylum by Tamils in defiance of U.N convention merely strengthens the argument that independence as outlined by the Vaddukoddai Referendum remains the “silver bullet” in addressing underlining issues causing instability in Sri Lanka and must be adopted by the IC and imposed upon the Rajapakse administration, say Tamil advocates in Australia on the eve of the Tamil referendum.
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Media owner's election participation invokes reactions in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 09:06 GMT]
Criticism has emerged from various quarters in Jaffna, including the senior activists of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), against the way the TNA conducted its campaign promoting industrialist Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, a senior UNP member and the general manger of two leading newspapers, Jaffna based Uthayan and Colombo based Chudaro'li. Meanwhile, the chief editor of the newspaper has complained to his management that he is considering to renounce his editorship as criticisms are levelled against him for his stand in the last parliamentary election.
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TNA parliamentary group meeting scheduled in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 07:14 GMT]
The first parliamentary group meeting of the Tamil National Alliance is to be held on Sunday in Trincomalee. Thirteen parliamentarians elected from the five districts in North and East on the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) ticket and the only national list parliamentarian will attend the first group meeting, Mr. R.Sampanthan, a senior leader of the TNA.
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Britain’s Conservative party wishes Tamils on New Year

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2010, 18:54 GMT]
Wishing British Tamils on the occasion of the traditional Tamil New Year, the main opposition Conservative party, in a statement by its leader, David Cameron, welcomed the contribution the Diaspora has made to the United Kingdom and hailed its values of family, community, enterprise and responsibility.
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SLA constructs big bases in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2010, 11:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Vanni without allowing the uprooted civilians from resettling in their homes is busy engaged in constructing big bases in strategic areas in Vanni, sources in Vanni said. Meanwhile, the small numbers of civilians permitted to resettle in some areas in Vanni are subjected to harassment by SLA. Armed group of men forcibly enter their houses in the nights where there are young women, the sources further said. SLA soldiers do not permit the civilians to move freely in the nights. Even during day time they are forced to carry their Sri Lankan National Identity Cards.
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Global consortium of Tamil corporates needed to address Eezham question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2010, 09:35 GMT]
In the present world of corporate colonialism, the national question and the liberation of Eezham Tamils have to be negotiated with the international community in the language of the corporates. But the Tamil corporates, existing in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora across the world, are yet to be awakened to the prospects of forming a consortium among them to deal with the situation in a concerted way for the mutual benefit of them and the Eezham Tamils. The potentiality of the Tamil corporate world and what it could achieve by coming together globally are still not realised due to lack of initiatives and lack of insight in Tamil political thinking.
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New Year celebrations dull in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2010, 07:00 GMT]
The Tamil New Year was observed in a low key in the North as well as in the East of the country. The Vanni uprooted civilians held in Vavuniyaa Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps, not allowed to resettle in their own places despite countless promises and dates announced by the government, had other unfulfilled basic needs in their minds than the arrival of the New Year, according to sources in Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, Sinhalese Buddhists from the South attended in unprecedented numbers in the religious ceremonies held in Nainaatheevu Naakavikaarai, Aariyaku’lam Naakavikaarai and the newly built Buddhist Vikaarai in Ki’linochchi, sources in Jaffna said.
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Diaspora and Tamil Nadu have to play their cards

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2010, 10:51 GMT]
Diaspora's self-organised structures of experimental democracy polarising political will, is inspiration as well as fallback to the polity of the silenced people at home, writes TamilNet political commentator adding that diaspora Tamils have an immense responsibility in seeing right people come forward and right people elected to these bodies. On current geopolitical perspectives he writes: “The West and intelligence circles in India invariably acknowledge that much significance is attached to the role Tamil Nadu could play in the given scenario. But how effectively the people of Tamil Nadu are going to play their strength to achieve a decisive solution overpowering deceptions of detractors is the concern of Eezham Tamils.”
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Electioneering allowed in Kumpu'ruppiddi, Nawalapitiya re-polls

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2010, 09:37 GMT]
Trincomalee District Elections Department is to deploy fifty government officials to hold the re-poll in Kumpu'ruppiddi, a traditional Tamil village located north of Trincomalee town along Trincomalee –Pulmoaddai highway.
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Sri Lanka Boycott campaign buoyed by British MP's endorsement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2010, 00:02 GMT]
The Sri Lanka boycott campaigners staged co-ordinated rallies in US and UK cities Saturday and were enthused by the endorsement to their campaign by the British Member of Parliament, Siobhain McDonagh, who in her publicized video and urged consumers to step up pressure on the Sri Lanka Government by sustained economic boycott, US organizer of the boycott, Dr Ellyn Shander said. Boycott rallies were held in several cities in the U.S. and in U.K. "The campaigns in the future are likely to take the form of globally co-ordinated events to increase the effectiveness and to elicit wider publicity," Shander said.
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SLA blocks public visiting Pirapaharan’s house in VVT, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 April 2010, 18:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna deny permission to public visiting the house at Aaladi, Valveddiththu’rai (VVT) in Vadamaraadchi where the Leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Velupillai Pirapaharan was born and raised. It has become an important tourist attraction for the people from South and foreign tourists who pour into Jaffna peninsula after the opening of A9 road, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, SLA authorities have set in course the secret destruction of the remains of LTTE leader's house, civil society organizations in Valveddiththu’rai said.
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New party to be launched in Tamil Nadu with Leaping Tiger as its flag

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 April 2010, 05:26 GMT]
Popular Film Director and Tamil activist S. Seeman has introduced Tiger flag for a new political party "Naam Tamilar" (We are Tamils) Saturday, claiming that the establishment of Tamil Eelam should be the moral goal of Tamils in Tamil Nadu as the leaders of the Indian Union and Tamil Nadu State had betrayed Eezham Tamils. Mr. Seeman has called for a major rally towards Mathurai on 18 May 2010, one year after the military subjugation of Eezham Tamils, marking the day as Black Day of Tamils and has announced that the new party would be inaugurated on that day. The event of introducing the flag took place at Thilagar Thidal of Thanjavur, the historic capital of the Cholas, whose emblem was Tiger.
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Swiss Tamil woman recovered dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 April 2010, 06:29 GMT]
The body of a woman from Switzerland was found hung with electric wire Sunday behind Thiru Ma’rai Kalaa Mantram located behind the Periya Church in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Police are investigating into whether she had committed suicide or had been hung after being killed by someone else. The victim had accompanied her husband, a native Kurunakar in Jaffna, living in Switzerland, in a visit to Jaffna some days ago. Her husband said that she was mentally ill and had committed suicide, the sources added.
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Lawyer Sumanthiran to be appointed MP in TNA national list

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 April 2010, 05:06 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) circles in Jaffna confirmed Saturday that N. A. Sumanthiran, a prominent attorney-at–law, is to be proposed as the Member of Parliament in its national list. Former lecturer of Jaffna University, Prof. Sittampalam had been earlier proposed to this place but the change has been made according to the wish of the newly elected TNA candidates from North and East, sources in Jaffna said.
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Re-poll in Kumpuruppiddi village

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 April 2010, 16:19 GMT]
A re-poll is to be held in Kumpuruppiddi polling station in the Trincomalee electorate on April 20 following the cancellation of polling held on April 8. Kumpuruppiddi is a Tamil village located north of Trincomalee town along Trincomalee-Pulmoaddai highway.
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