Mahinda Rajapakse displeased with Jaffna election meeting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 April 2010, 11:01 GMT]
Despite efforts by Minister Douglas Devananda and the candidates of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) it was possible to bring in only less than 400 persons to attend the propaganda meeting in which Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse participated Thursday in Jaffna Duraippah Stadium, sources in Jaffna said. Mahinda Rajapakse appeared disturbed and displeased on seeing a small crowd and delivered an address which failed to cover the much expected and vital issues like political solution, resettlement of uprooted families in Valikaamam North in Sri Lanka Army occupied High Security Zone (HSZ) and restoring normalcy in Jaffna peninsula.
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Tamil Nadu government blocks protest march against Eezham Tamil Woman refugee’s suicide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 March 2010, 20:44 GMT]
Tamil Nadu government blocked the protest march that was to be staged Wednesday against the forced death of the Eezham Tamil woman refugee, Ms. Kumar Pathmathevi, sexually abused by three Tamil Nadu policemen, by the Protection Committee for Human Rights (PCHR) led by Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam Leader Kolaththoor Mani, sources in Tamil Nadu said. On being refused permission by Tamil Nadu police to stage the protest march Koalththoor Mani held a press meet Wednesday in which he exposed the said sexual abuse by three Tamil Nadu policemen which made the Pathmathevi to commit suicide. He accused the authorities for failing to take action on the policemen who sexually abused Patmathevi.
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Thanthai Chelva remembered on his 112th Birthday in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 March 2010, 15:09 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop of South Indian Diocese, Rt. Rev. Jebanesan, the president of Thanthai Chelva Trustee Board, garlanded the statue of late leader Mr. S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, located in the Chelva mausoleum in Jaffna town Wednesday around 9:30 a.m, in the first event of the day in remembering Thanthai Chelva on his 112th birthday. Mr. S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, founder of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), fondly called by Tamils as "Thanthai" (father), was remembered by several others who turned up later to garland the statue and offer flowers at its feet, sources in Jaffna said.
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Belated regret by UK for arms deal with Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 March 2010, 06:31 GMT]
“In the case of Sri Lanka, arms were exported during ceasefire periods, which, in retrospect was regrettable,” the report released Wednesday by the British House of Commons said. It also mentions that, “[t]he final offensive raised “grave concerns” for human rights,” and adds that the British Government had been concerned about the Sri Lankan situation “for quite a long period of time”. “[t]he review and subsequent revocation of nine extant licences for exports to Sri Lanka is to be welcomed,” the report said in conclusion. Considering the thousands of innocent Tamils killed during the Sri Lanka armed forces’ offensive on Vanni and their continuing distress, the belated regret expressed in diplomatic terms does not in anyway help to erase the cause of the regret, representatives of Tamil civil organizations in UK said.
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TNA says it does not uphold ‘One country, two Nations’ policy – JU Student Union

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 March 2010, 16:02 GMT]
Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) representatives held discussions individually with the candidates of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) contesting forthcoming parliamentary elections Tuesday in which the candidates were requested to spell out their political principles, the stand and activities they intend taking after the election, the media report released by Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) said. The discussion was organized by JUSU representatives so that the doubts prevailing among the Tamils about the political policies of both parties could be cleared. TNA did not accept TNPF’s doctrine of ‘One country, two Nations’ but upheld the policy of ‘One Country with Two Nationalities’, the report quoted TNPF candidates.
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Why welcome and caution to Transnational Government

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 March 2010, 07:09 GMT]
Many Eezham Tamils are elated at the idea of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam. But it seems the concept has been hijacked at the outset itself to turn it into another CEO of corporate colonialism. TamilNet, which was advocating for Transnational Government even before the pronouncement of the present move, will not advise Eezham Tamils to abandon the move. Rather, the diaspora has to face the elections just like people at home face a series of imposed elections. The diaspora is free and better disposed in identifying elements that should be kept at a distance and in electing right candidates to bring in the necessary course correction in the outlook of the Transnational Government. In the meantime, moves for grass root political organizations in the diaspora should proceed unabated, because they are going to be the real fallback for the independent polity of Eezham Tamils.
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Eezham Tamil woman in Tamil Nadu refugee camp commits suicide due to sexual abuse by 3 policemen

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 March 2010, 18:13 GMT]
A Tamil woman from Sri Lanka held in the Refugee camp for Sri Lankans in Karoor district in Tamil Nadu died Sunday night in Karoor government hospital where she had been admitted two weeks ago when she had set herself ablaze unable to bear being sexually molested by three Tamil Nadu policemen. Ms. Kumar Pathmathevi, 28, had said in her statement to a feminist human rights activist that the policemen took her to a private house and molested her instead of taking her to the police station to be interrogated about her husband Kumar who was wanted in a homicide case. Various civil organizations in Jaffna peninsula as well as in Tamil Nadu are in uproar against the police cremating the body of Pathmathevi, against the law of the country.
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Appoint Prof. Boyle to UN advisory panel, Tamil Groups urge Ban Ki Moon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 March 2010, 22:56 GMT]
Key expatriate Tamil organizations, the US-based Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC), and Global Tamil Forum (GTF), in a press release issued Sunday following the announcement by UN Secretary General to appoint an advisory panel on Sri Lanka's war-crime issues, said "[w]e appeal to the Secretary General, that in the interests of fairness to the victims that the Secretary General consults the Tamils also in appointing the advisory panel," adding, "the USTPAC and the Global Tamil Forum strongly recommend Professor Francis A. Boyle to the advisory panel."
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30 members elected for Swiss Council of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 March 2010, 22:54 GMT]
14 of the 22 members elected for the national assembly of Swiss Council of Eezham Tamils (SCET) on Sunday were 2nd generation youths and 8 more members were elected to form Canton based councils in the elections held across the country, said initial reports from the Tamil Elections Switzerland (TES). Two non-Tamils were among the 22 member national council. The polls were organised by second generation Tamil youth and manned by around 70 non-Tamil election officials in 17 booths across the country. The election was conducted in an exemplary way was the remark of Urs Egger, a Free Democratic Party (FDP) politician, according to TES spokesman Thayatharan Deivendran. 41 candidates contested in the elections for the first country council of Eezham Tamils.
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Suresh Premachandran accuses EPDP men for abduction, killing of student in Chaavakachcheari

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 March 2010, 17:15 GMT]
Suresh Premachandran, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, accused Eealm People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) men, an ally of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), for the abduction and killing of Thiruchelvam Kapilthev, a 17-year-old student of Chaavakachcheari Hindu College in a report released Sunday in Jaffna. Suresh Premachandran accused the police to have willfully ignored the statements of the three students arrested and detained in this case where the involvement of EPDP members is mentioned.
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Sydney launch of CJPD's book on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 March 2010, 22:41 GMT]
“Sri Lanka 60 Years of 'Independence' and Beyond" a publication by Switzerland based NGO, Center for Just Peace and Democracy (CJPD), and edited by Program Director at CJPD, Ana Pararajasingham, was launched at the popular Gleebooks bookshop in the heart of Sydney Friday. John Murphy, Member of the Australian Parliament, David Feith, an academic attached to Monash University, and Professor Bruce Kapferer who were contributors to the publication, and Gordon Weiss, the former UN diplomat, attended the event.
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New generation takes lead role in forming country council of Switzerland

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 March 2010, 16:30 GMT]
More than 40 candidates, including talented Tamil youth of the second generation have come forward to participate as candidates in the elections for the country council of Eezham Tamils in Switzerland across 26 cantons of Switzerland. The voting to elect 25 representatives of the Swiss Council of Eezham Tamils (SCET) and its federal units is scheduled to take place in 19 cantons between 10:00 a.m. and 17:00 p.m. on Sunday. The Tamil Elections Switzerland (TES), a coalition formed by seven Tamil organisations in the country, has also come up with an experimental mechanism for allowing the voters to appoint and vote for their favourite candidates at the same time. In addition to those who have already nominated as candidates, each voter will have the possibility of adding two possible candidates for the respective Canton, the organisers said.
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Confederation of nations, solution to save Trincomalee: Varatharajan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 March 2010, 12:23 GMT]
Demographic genocide of Trincomalee cannot be stopped unless the two-nation reality in the island is recognised. Tomorrow even Jaffna will have the fate of Trincomalee, warned S. Varatharajan, the main candidate of Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) for the Jaffna District. Based on official census, the economic teacher came out with a graphic presentation showing how the percentage of Tamils dropped in Trincomalee district from 66 to 33 percent and the percentage of Sinhalese went up from 3 to 33 percent, even before 1981. “This is why we advocate a confederacy of two nations as a solution,” he said.
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Coup in The Hindu means more than a family feud

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 March 2010, 19:35 GMT]
Battle for control breaks out in The Hindu, very divided family, reported Indian Express Thursday. At the heart of this battle is the proposed retirement of publisher and the group Editor-in-Chief N Ram and his decision to dig his heels in. According to people close to the developments, the board is split, one group supporting Ram and the other seeking his retirement, Indian Express reported further. In the corporate dictated scenario of polity in India, the coup means more than a family feud – a panic in the Indian corporate world over a failed course and scurried attempts to revise it, political observers said. Similar tensions are noticed in recent times in India’s External Affairs and Home establishments too, the observers further said.
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Remnants of Thileepan memorial monument dumped in Nalloor garbage dumping grounds

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 March 2010, 10:55 GMT]
The gang of Sinhalese army soldiers and hooligans who demolished Monday night the memorial pillar erected in memory of Thileepan in Nalloor took the remnants of demolished memorial pillar and the remaining structures Tuesday night in vehicles and dumped them in Jaffna Municipal Council garbage dumping ground in Nalloor, sources in Jaffna said. People of Jaffna already grieved and enraged by the defilement fear similar fate befalling the memorials of Tamil personalities in the peninsula, the sources added.
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EPDP continues to obstruct political parties from campaigning in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 March 2010, 10:37 GMT]
The election campaign activities that were planned to be carried out in the islets of Jaffna by political parties including United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and other independent groups contesting Jaffna electorate Wednesday with police protection were given up at the last minute as Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) men continue to obstruct anyone other than the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its allies engaging in election campaign in the islets of Jaffna which is held in the complete control of Sri Lanka Navy, sources in Jaffna said.
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Tissainayagam wins British Press award

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 March 2010, 03:28 GMT]
Senior Tamil Journalist J.S Tissainayagam currently in bail after being incarcerated in Sri Lanka for nearly twenty two months as part of a 20 years in prison sentence, won the prestigious International journalist of the year during the award ceremony held at the Grosvenor Hotel, London, on Tuesday, 23 March. "International journalist of the year recognises the courage of an overseas journalist who has battled against oppression and who has helped a British national newspaper report. Nominees are provided by the Foreign Press Association and the World Association of Newspapers," the British Press Awards website said.
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Confederation of nations, manifesto option of TNPF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 March 2010, 02:03 GMT]
The election manifesto of the Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF) comes out with an option for confederation of Tamil and Sinhala nations in the island, said former MP Selvarajah Kajendren to Tamil media on Wednesday. While stressing on Tamil homeland, nationalism, self-determination and nation of identifiable sovereignty as political aspirations, the other distinguishing features of the election manifesto of the TNPF were demand to repeal the 6th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, inclusion of the diaspora in the political processes of Eezham Tamils and an outlook to involve the international community in providing security and support to the political struggle of Tamils. The All Ceylon Tamil Congress led by Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, which came out of the TNA alliance recently is the major constituent of TNPF.
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India’s genocide of its own tribal nations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 March 2010, 02:21 GMT]
India had larger plans when it backed genocidal Colombo in the UN Human Rights Council. India is now embarked upon a greater genocidal war against its own tribal nations, picking up the footsteps of Colombo, making use of its partnership experience in crushing Eezham Tamils, exploiting the impotency of international community and encouraged by the electoral endorsement from Tamil Nadu. The precarious dimensions of the ongoing war in Central India, vividly brought out by Arundhati Roy in Outlook India this week, need careful study by all Eezham Tamils to device apt political moves for them and for the benefit of entire humanity. The IC, Tamils in India and progressive Sinhalese have to realise that acknowledging Eezham Tamil independence is a test case in reconstructing State outlook that is messing up life in entire South Asia and in achieving wider solidarity of peoples in the region.
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Sinhalese soldiers, hooligans destroy Thileepan memorial in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 March 2010, 10:45 GMT]
A gang of Sinhalese army soldiers and hooligans went on rampage Monday night, demolishing the memorial pillar of Lt. Col. Thileepan (Rasiah Parthipan) located behind the historic Nalloor Kanthasuvami Koayil on Point Pedro-Nalloor road, residents of the area said. Lt. Col. Thileepan began his fasting on 15 September 1987 in front of the Nalloor Kandasuvami temple placing five demands to the Indian government but died as India failed to meet the demands, on September 26, 1987.
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