Unity in understanding imperialist legacy of Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2014, 00:39 GMT]
“If there is no unity among Tamils, the Sinhalese ruling elite will continue their game of divide and rule and perpetuate Sinhalese dominance,” writes V. Suryanarayan in The New Indian Express on Saturday. He should first tell this to the New Delhi Establishment and ruling elite in India, which in its greed to come in the shoes of British imperialism and swallow the island as a whole, detracted Tamil Eelam envisaging parity in dominance and self respect to both Tamils and Sinhalese, divided Tamils, exploited sections of them, directed the war into genocide and now in the game of making inroads into the island by confirming the genocidal Sinhala State, gagging Tamil Nadu, but asking Tamils in the island to come in unity to help the process, responds Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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Tamil Nadu researcher testifies to OISL on Indian complicity in genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2014, 23:43 GMT]
“While several actors including US, UK, China, UN involved in different ways in the conflict in Sri Lanka which led to genocide of Eelam Tamils, the actor most severely and the most consistently perplexed in the Sri Lankan war has been India,” says University of Bergen Research Fellow, Vijayshankar Asokan in a submission he sent on “Indian complicity in the genocide of Eezham Tamils” to OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka. A native of Tamil Nadu and studying in Norway since 2008, Mr. Vijayshankar in his submission was extensively citing Mr. Ku. Ramakrishnan, General Secretary of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam, Mr. Erik Solheim, the failed peace facilitator and various reports as well as statements.
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Kaddaik-kaadu, Katta-kaduwa

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2014, 21:54 GMT]
The paddy cultivation enclosure in the jungle

The remote paddy cultivation enclosure
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Colombo sniffs at emails being sent to OISL from the island

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2014, 15:04 GMT]
Intelligence officers attached to the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry have given secret instructions to Internet providers in Colombo to covertly scan the emails addressed to OHCHR Investigations on Sri Lanka (OISL), a reliable source in Colombo told TamilNet on Thursday. The intelligence officers have deployed simple network packet sniffing techniques to make copies of the messages that are addressed to the OISL. A lot of messages are also being discarded, while some are allowed to proceed in order to avoid provocation, the source further said. To ensure that their messages have reached the intended destination, the people who have made submissions should request acknowledgement from the OISL, an activist who got a bounced message told TamilNet.
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Waging struggle with self-respect amidst Delhi-Colombo engineering

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2014, 21:00 GMT]
Earlier this month, re-inaugurating Colombo’s railway line to the occupied North, Mahinda Rajapaksa and the genocide line’s mastermind New Delhi, staged a ‘development’ show in Jaffna. On the same occasion, Rajapaksa also unveiled Colombo’s plans on converting the Nedun-theevu (Delft) Island off Jaffna and close to Tamil Nadu in the Palk Bay, into a Sinhala-Buddhist colony and military-commercial centre. While a leaked letter of the NPC chief minister Wigneswaran was harping on the functional unworkability of the NPC and the question of funds as well as the right over land in the province, more importance should be given to directly addressing and openly denouncing the fundamental policy line and master strategies of New Delhi, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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Tamil Nadu CM urged to form foreign policy on Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2014, 17:16 GMT]
The Government of Tamil Nadu should come forward to take a lead in the future in representing the aspirations of Eelam Tamils in the world arena in demanding justice for the genocide committed against the Eelam Tamils, Ananthy Sasitharan, a councillor from the Northern Provincial Council, has said in an interview to TamilNet Palaka’ni during her visit to Europe in September, when she made a submission in person to the OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka. “We urge the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to have a foreign policy with regards to Eelam Tamils,” the councillor from the Northern Provincial Council said.
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SL military steps up threats against OISL submissions

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2014, 09:48 GMT]
The SL military has arrested a Tamil man in Ki’linochchi, allegedly in possession of forms to be sent to the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) in Geneva on Saturday, according to reports from Vanni on Sunday. The SL Police has informed the family of Sinnathamby Krishnaraja from Ira’nai-maa-nakar in Muzhangkaavil that Mr Krisnarajah was being taken to Colombo for interrogations. As the deadline for submissions to OISL in nearing, the SL military has instructed the Internet café owners to alert them on people scanning documents for submission, a net-café owner in Ki’linochchi told TamilNet.
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SL military attempts to curb Nam-Theasam Tamil monthly in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2014, 23:28 GMT]
The occupying military in Jaffna and Vanni has been harassing the distributors of Ithu-Nam-Theasam monthly in recent days. Last week, a distributor of the paper was attacked at Uruththirapuram in Ki’linochchi district. The assault has come right after the distributor was interrogated at the military camp in Uruththirapuram, media sources in Jaffna said. A squad that followed him from the SL military camp assaulted him and dumped the papers into a reservoir. A systematic harassment of the distributors of the paper, which stands for the rights of Eezham Tamils, is reported also at several other locations in North.
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Citing systematic SL intimidation, Ananthy urges more time from OISL

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2014, 06:53 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) councillor and a direct eyewitness to the genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils in Vanni in 2009, Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, on Thursday urged the OHRC Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) to give more time for the people on the ground to send their submissions to the OISL. Ms Ananthy has requested to extend the time for submissions by one month or at least to the extent possible, citing the intense atmosphere of intimidation, threats and attacks against potential witnesses in the North and East. There is also a serious lack of communication on the process of submitting evidences, the councillor further said. Meanwhile, a planted section in the TNA that argues against Tamils demanding genocide investigation came out with a last minute statement this week, as eyewash, asking people to give evidence to the OISL.
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NESoHR releases collated reports 2005-2009

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2014, 21:23 GMT]
North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), which was formed during the internationally mediated peace process as the Human Rights body of the Tamil Nation and functioned in the Tamil homeland from July 2004 till January 2009, has released its human rights reports from 2005 till January 2009. Given the current climate of investigation by the OHCHR on Sri Lanka these old NESoHR reports are published in a large single file with continuous page numbers and content pages for easy access, according to Attorney K. Sivapalan and Dr Malathy of NESoHR. Majority of the atrocities covered in these reports falls within the period currently being investigated by the OHCHR. “It is well known that the UN and other international agencies ignored these atrocities when they were taking place. NESoHR team hopes that the OISL investigators will pay due attention to these reports,” they further said.
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14th death anniversary of journalist Nimalarajan observed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2014, 23:12 GMT]
Amidst the prevailing harassments against the journalists in the North, more than 40 journalists from Jaffna peninsula and Vanni mainland gathered at the Jaffna Press Club on Sunday marking the 14th death anniversary of Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, who was assassinated on 19 October 2000. The journalists also paid their tributes to the veteran journalist, Iya Sachchithanantham, who had recently passed away in Jaffna at the age of 64.
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SL military turns back UN official at Oamanthai check-post on World Food Day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2014, 09:51 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka on Thursday turned back the country representative for United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) at Oamanthai military check post in Vavuniyaa citing the lack of SL Defence Ministry pass to travel to North, civil sources in Vavuniyaa said. Ms Beth Crawford, the FAO representative for Maldives and Sri Lanka, invited as Special Guest to attend the World Food Day event organised by the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) in Ki’linochchi, was unable to attend the event. Colombo has imposed a new restriction on foreigners traveling to North without Defence Ministry permission since last Friday.
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Genocidal Sri Lanka bans ‘foreigners’ visiting occupied Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2014, 17:26 GMT]
Colombo has banned ‘foreigners’ from visiting the island’s former war zone without permission to prevent ‘negative interventions’, media reports said on Wednesday, citing a statement of Colombo’s defence ministry run by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The move primarily targets the Eezham Tamil diaspora having the citizenship of various countries of the West and it equally targets the interaction of Eezham Tamils in the island. It is a master strategy of international imperialist dimensions to keep the genocide-facing Eezham Tamils shackled and submissive. While the Eezham Tamils in India can’t travel outside as they are kept as ‘refugees’ for decades, the target is now the free diaspora in the West, Tamil activists for alternative politics said.
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Rajapaksa deception in North aims at elections

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2014, 23:22 GMT]
The elected representatives of Tamil National Alliance in the North fully boycotted the ceremonial events staged by the visiting SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Vanni and Jaffna on Sunday and Monday claiming that the meetings “do not appear to be in furtherance of a legitimate objective, and are not transparent nor collaborative.” While large numbers of SL soldiers were deployed on the streets of Jaffna subjecting the public with security checks, EPDP paramilitary operatives and a section of occupying SL military soldiers were coercing public sector workers, teachers, students together with the people deceived with false promises of livelihood assistance to attend the meetings.
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Ignoring Sri Lanka’s sexual violence is service to ‘British foreign policy’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2014, 05:38 GMT]
British monarch Queen Elizabeth II made Angelina Jolie an honorary dame for her work against sexual violence in war zones and her services to British foreign policy, media reports said on Friday. In June, Jolie co-chaired an international conference on war-related sexual violence, along with former British foreign minister William Hague. The conference was heavily criticised even by British media, for conspicuously ignoring sexual crimes committed by the Sinhala military against Eezham Tamils in the Vanni War.
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Vavuniyaa Citizen Committee chairman escapes assassination attempt

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2014, 21:51 GMT]
While the Citizen Committee of Vavuniyaa has been preparing for a protest against the prolonged detention of the Tamil activist Ms Jeyakumari and all other Eezham Tamil political prisoners on Friday, an attack squad operated by the Sri Lankan military has targeted the 61-year-old chairman of the Committee, Mr Krishnapillai Thevarasa, on Wednesday night. A 4-member squad that followed Mr Thevarasa while he was returning home after attending a preparatory meeting at Vavuniyaa, blocked him near the Sri Lankan military camp at Nedungkea’ni and brutally attacked him using iron rods and batons. The attack comes 5 days before SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to North.
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EPDP, Sri Lankan CID jointly harass newspaper editors in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2014, 21:18 GMT]
Sri Lankan military and police establishments in Jaffna and Vanni mainland have intensified threats against Tamil journalists and activists in recent days. Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division, Criminal Investigation Division, Intelligence operatives of Defence Ministry and paramilitary operatives are jointly deployed in a systematic programme suppressing the freedom of expression, an editor of a daily newspaper told TamilNet Wednesday. The SL police CID have deployed EPDP operatives twice within the last month to stage protests against Jaffna Thinakkural.
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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 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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