“Glaring hypocrisy, blatant sophistry” Boyle slams Swiss UN Resolution

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 17:35 GMT]
Pointing out the twelfth operative paragraph of the Draft Resolution sponsored by Switzerland, that is currently pending before the U.N. Human Rights Council, Professor Boyle, expert in International Law and Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, says this would be the same “as if the U.N. Human Rights Council had invited the Nazi government to investigate and prosecute itself for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Jews instead of supporting the Nuremberg Charter and Tribunal."
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Sri Lanka accused of 'ethnic cleansing' of Tamil areas - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 12:43 GMT]
"Aid officials, human rights campaigners and politicians claim Tamils have been driven out of areas in the north-east of the country by killings and kidnappings carried out by pro-government militias. They say the government has simultaneously encouraged members of the Sinhalese majority in the south to relocate to the vacated villages," Telegraph, UK, said, adding that according to an aid worker the recent killings in Trincomalee "were part of a strategy to drive out Tamils."
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Detained TNA MP pays last respects to fellow MP Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 04:55 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mullaiththeevu district parliamentarian Mr. Sathasivam Kanagaretnam, escorted by police officers of the Crime Intelligence Unit Saturday afternoon, paid his last respects to departed fellow parliamentarian Mr. Kanagasabai Pathmanathan who passed away in Mathurai in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Kanagaretnam was dressed in sarong and an old shirt, sources in Colombo said.
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SLA interrogates Tamil daily editor in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 04:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) civil administration office summoned Monday the editor of a popular Tamil daily in Jaffna for interrogation into a news item related to abduction of children for ransom, published in the front page of the daily, sources in Jaffna said. The daily, however, intimidated by SLA authorities in Palaali head quarters and SLA-backed paramilitaries, had published a refutation of the story published earlier.
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SLA seeks help to trace Liberation Tigers in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 03:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna have sought the help of civil society organization representatives and government officers to trace the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants who had infiltrated along with the civilians fleeing war from Vanni, sources in Jaffna said. No one has surrendered themselves to the SLA despite the 48 hour grace period given to the LTTE combatants, the sources added.
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UN becomes battleground for maritime Great Game - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 00:26 GMT]
"The strange line-up of the member countries of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) for or against Sri Lanka at the special session of the body scheduled to take place in Geneva on Tuesday underscores the maritime Great Game unfolding in the Indian Ocean," says former Pakistani diplomat in the Tuesday edition of Deccan Herald, referring to the support by India, China, Russia, and Pakistan among others to a self-congratulatory resolution put forward by the Sri Lanka Government, and the competing resolution advanced by the Swiss Government.
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SLA bars upcountry Tamils from viewing Tamilnadu TV programmes

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 14:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Police have ordered Tamil residents in Hatton police division to dismantle dish antennas from their residences as a part of security measure, effectively barring them from viewing TV channels aired by several TV stations operated in Tamilnadu in India, sources in Hatton said.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 09:34 GMT]
A Tamil civilian residing in Kottawa in Colombo has gone missing since 19 May according to the complaint lodged with the police by his sister.
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Claims and scepticism sans evidence

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 00:53 GMT]
The head of the LTTE’s Department of International Relations on Sunday announced that the LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan state on 17 May. However, the LTTE’s Department for Diaspora Affairs (DDA) told TamilNet that it would not comment without explicit authorisation from the LTTE leadership. In the meantime, the Intelligence Department of the Tigers reiterated on Sunday that the LTTE leadership is safe and it will re-emerge when the right time comes.
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Demonstrate the politics of war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 20:32 GMT]
The Tamil national cause cannot afford to be deviated and exploited by others through questions such as whether the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan is alive or not or whether the armed struggle has to be continued or not. The Tamil diaspora, the only section of the Eezham Tamil community that has the freedom and means to come out with authentic voice, has a historic responsibility in telling the world what they aspire for in no uncertain terms, and in seeing their righteous cause not hijacked by their enemies.
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US Justice Dept. files "Motion to Dismiss" in IMF case

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 11:45 GMT]
Responding to the law suit filed in the District Court of District of Columbia requesting to obtain a declaratory judgment to force the United States to oppose Sri Lanka’s pending IMF loan application, the lawyers representing the defendants, Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, and Meg Lundsager, Executive Director of the IMF, filed a motion in the Court to dismiss the case on the grounds that the plaintiff has no standing, the court lacks jurisdiction, there is no private right of action to enforce "policy goals," and under federal law both defendants are immune from legal prosecution, Bruce Fein, counsel for the plaintiff said.
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Sri Lanka blocks TNA from meeting Ban Ki Moon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 11:36 GMT]
R. Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a press release issued today, said that after the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry had made arrangements for a TNA delegation to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon prior to his departure at the VVIP Lounge of the Bandaranaike International Airport, the Defense Ministry of Sri Lanka refused the delegation entry into the BIA Airport, denying the Tamil representatives from meeting the UN Secretary General. Meanwhile, Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP), met with the Ban Ki Moon at the Airport.
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Sri Lanka’s camps ‘most appalling’ in the world – Ban Ki-Moon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 10:53 GMT]
"I have traveled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told CNN after visiting Manik Farm, the most presentable of Sri Lanka’s squalid and dangerous internment camps for Tamils civilians. "I sympathize fully with all of the displaced persons," Mr. Ban said Saturday. The UN Chief has also promised international action regarding the heavy shelling of civilian populations during the recent fighting.
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Tamils in Malaysia demand justice for Sri Lanka’s genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 10:50 GMT]
Over 5,000 Tamil Malaysians gathered at one of the country's iconic Hindu temples Sunday to protest acts of 'genocide' against Tamils in Sri Lanka, AFP reported. The demonstration by one of the world's largest Tamil communities outside India and Sri Lanka, followed Colombo's declaration of victory over the Liberation Tigers last Monday, following an offensive in which thousands of Tamil civilians were slaughtered by what the United States has described as indiscriminate shelling of ‘safety zones’. Federal Territories deputy minister M. Saravanan, who attended, along with Tamil opposition leaders, said Malaysia should not support a Sri Lankan-sponsored UNHRC resolution.
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Sri Lanka Police questions TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 16:29 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr.S.Kanagaretnam, was taken for questioning by the Sri Lanka police from Chettikulam internment camp Thursday morning, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Kanagaratnam arrived with his family from Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal area to Omanthai with IDPs when the military operation of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) forced the IDPs from the Safety Zone.
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Sinhala hoodlums harrass Tamils in Negombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 15:51 GMT]
Tamil residents in Negombo are reported being harassed by Sinhala hoodlums during the 'Victory Celebration' held Friday to mark the defeat of LTTE in the war front. Sinhalese youths had visited Tamil houses to demand money under threat to help fund the celebration, and those who declined to give were harassed and in some cases assaulted, media sources said.
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Ban Ki Moon stresses freedom of movement, resettlement of IDPs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 11:09 GMT]
United Nation Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, while visiting the largest internment camp in Vavuniyaa, Manik Farm, Saturday for three hours from 9:15 a.m., stressed the need for freedom of movement and immediate resettlement of the more than 300,000 Tamils held in camps. The IDPs also told Ban Ki Moon that they would want the U.N. to take full responsibility for the welfare of the refugees, sources accompanying Moon on his visit said. "The UN has failed in several measures in preventing egregious human rights violations by Sri Lanka against unarmed civilian Tamils during the last several months, and this is the last opportunity to take bold action to repair the damage to UN's reputation. UN should shed its rhetoric on sovereignty and assume full responsibility for the Tamil people," an aid worker told TamilNet after Moon's visit.
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Vanni civilians held back in Ki’linochchi in thousands

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 10:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues to detain thousands of civilians in its internment camps in Ki’linochchi without sending them on to the camps in Vavuniyaa, sources in Vavuniyaa said. SLA, in its final assault on Mu’l’livaaikkaal, has herded thousands of persons including non-combatants who had been working in the political and judicial wings of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in vast overcrowded camps which lack basic facilities, the sources added.
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"Accessories after the fact to acts of Genocide"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 02:00 GMT]
Condemning the sponsorship, by twelve states, of a self-praising resolution submitted to the United Nations by the Government of Sri Lanka, before the scheduled UN Human Rights Council emergency session scheduled for Monday, Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law said Friday that these states have become accessories after the fact to the numerous acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that the Government of Sri Lanka has perpetrated upon the Tamils.
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5 Tamils arrested in Kalutara

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 20:51 GMT]
Five Tamil civilians were arrested in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army and police in Arapalakanda Estate in Kalutara police division Wednesday early morning for about three hours. Police said they are detained in the police station for further inquiry as they failed to establish their identity and justify their presence in the location.
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