Colombo Sinhalicises Tamil villages in Trincomalee through State-aided colonisation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2011, 10:13 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Housing, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities has started allocating houses for Sinhalese who are to be brought from the south under SL State-aided housing schemes constructed in traditional Tamil villages in the North and East. This became evident recently when the ministry allocated twenty four of thirty houses to Sinhalese, four for Muslims and two for Tamils in a traditional Tamil village Puththukudiyiruppu located in Tamil speaking Thampalakaamam Divisional Secretariat division of Trincomalee district.
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Archbishop praying for united Sri Lanka speaks on ‘we and they’

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 August 2011, 10:57 GMT]
His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, while presiding and addressing the feast of Our Lady of Madu in Mannaar on Monday, wished a miracle to come from Our Lady to make people of the country respect the rights and identity of one another. The Cardinal who preached in Sinhala lamented that even after finishing 30 years of war still we talk about peace within a divided framework. He prayed for a united Sri Lanka. The Catholic Archbishop for the entire island didn’t conceal his identity going with the Sinhalese when he said, “As Sinhalese, we need to think of political rights and social needs of the Tamil and Muslims in the North. […] Although this country is one by law, it is still divided in hearts. It is still clear that the people of North do not think like the people of South. We need to work flexible ways to win their hearts.”
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Abandoned Tamil schools acquired by occupying SL military

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2011, 17:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils acquires abandoned Tamil schools for converting them into military camps. Occupying military officers are busy in recent days in collecting particulars of the abandoned schools in the Vanni districts as well as in the Vadamaraadchi, Thenmaraadchi and the islands divisions of the Jaffna district. The occupying military has ordered the northern directorate of education to submit particulars of all abandoned schools to facilitate military’s increasing demand for infrastructure facilities. Using the abandoned schools, 30 new military camps are planned in the Jaffna peninsula alone. Occupying military has a particular programme to first intensely militarise and Sinhalicise the islands off the Jaffna peninsula. It makes no secret about it to the Tamils remaining in the islands.
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India answerable for both genocide and structural genocide of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 August 2011, 09:05 GMT]
The Speaker of the Indian Parliament, Meira Kumar, conceding to an objection from a Congress member, altered the topic of discussion in the parliament from “Alleged killing of Sri Lankan Tamils by the island nation’s Lankan army in 2009 as recently revealed in a United Nations report” to “On the steps taken by Government of India for relief and resettlement of Tamils in Sri Lanka and other measures to promote their welfare.” The deviated discussion scheduled for last Thursday has also been postponed to coming Tuesday. But whether in war or in post-war, New Delhi cannot escape answering for its partnership in committing genocide and structural genocide of Eezham Tamils, commented Tamil political circles in the island, citing the activities of India-partnered SL Army in the war and its aftermath.
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‘Political separation needed to stop genocide in Sri Lanka’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2011, 16:25 GMT]
To his surprise, Graham Williamson of Act Now, UK, realised that Tamils and Sinhalese biologically stem from a common genetic process originating since prehistoric times, when he read the book Peopling of Sri Lanka by Subramaniyam Visahan. The study may help to overcome genocidal conflict. Yet the reality of genetic similarity between the two peoples does not suggest that the two should be treated as one as Sinhala nationalism seeks the extinction of Tamils as a cultural identity, if not a people. The many differences of language, religion and culture suggests a political separation in the same way that the peoples of Europe jealously guard their national identities yet manage, today at least, to cooperate in harmony, he reviewed. Meanwhile, Chennai-based website The Weekend Leader on Saturday documented the extent of cultural genocide committed in the land of Tamils in the island.
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IC’s war crimes investigation, looking upon India counterproductive: KP

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2011, 19:23 GMT]
Gotabhaya-controlled Selvarasa Pathmanathan (KP) meeting media in Mullaiththeevu on Thursday said that the diaspora should stop campaigning for war crimes investigation as it provokes anger and hatred among the Sinhala people. “They have to know the reality, we must live in peace,” he said. According to him, talking about Channel 4 documentation is absurd. On India he said, “India is doing its maximum. India would not go further than this and propose a solution. So this should be understood by responsible people,” adding that, “We should not run to India complaining over minor matters.” The ‘patriotism’ of Sinhala regime that never hesitated to invite the West and India into the island to commit genocide on a part of the population, now voices ‘patriotism’ through the mouth of the captive-KP, to get rid of the ‘partners’, commented Tamil national politicians in the island.
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TNA gives two weeks ultimatum to Colombo’s ‘devolution’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 August 2011, 21:12 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance in a press statement Thursday has said that it gives two weeks ultimatum to Rajapaksa government to come out with ‘devolution’ details on the structure of governance, the division of subjects and functions between centre and the devolved units and on fiscal and financial powers, to decide on carrying forward any future dialogue. As no response has been forthcoming for several months from Colombo’s side, no meaningful or purposeful discussion could be had on the discussion papers tendered by the TNA, said the statement released from the office of TNA’s nominated parliamentarian, Mr. MA Sumanthiran.
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Colombo transfers Admin functions of East Tamil areas to Sinhala districts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 August 2011, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has been implementing a scheme to transfer administrative functions of Tamil districts in Eastern Province to the adjoining Sinhalese districts. As a first step the government has transferred the financial administration of Batticaloa District Coconut Development Board to Polonnaruwa located in the North Central Province. The government should immediately stop this transfer, said Mr.P. Selvarasa, Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian.
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Colombo deprives livelihood of 2500 Tamil, Muslim families in Kuchchave'li

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 August 2011, 01:44 GMT]
Nearly two thousand five hundred Tamil and Muslim families in Periya-karaichchi village in the Kuchchave'li Divisional Secretariat division in Trincomalee district have been deprived of the their permanent livelihood following the construction of a saltern by a southern based firm with the permission of the Colombo government. The project is named Raigam Saltern employing Sinhalese from South. “Nearly 2000 families of Tamils and Muslims who were doing prawn farming on this Periya-karaichchi land and another five hundred families who benefited from the subsidiary employment related to prawn farming have been pushed out and some outsiders from other districts have come started a saltern. This is extremely unfair,” said R.Sampanthan, Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian in a letter to the Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Stop treating Tamils as minority: Premachandran MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 July 2011, 20:37 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran on Sunday touched on an important conceptual issue related to the national question in the island that affects equality between Tamils and Sinhalese, when he criticized those who treat Tamils as a ‘minority’. “We will not allow the government or anyone else to treat the Tamils as a minority anymore. If the Sri Lankan government thinks the Sinhalese are the majority and the Tamils are the minority, then they are mistaken,” Mr. Premachandran told The Sunday Leader.
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Colonization to engulf Thiriyaay as Colombo allocates 3000 acres for Buddhist vihare

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 July 2011, 12:14 GMT]
Nearly three thousand acres in Thiriyaay, a traditional Tamil village, located about 42 km off north of Trincomalee town have been earmarked to be declared as sacred area for a Buddhist Vihare called Girihandu Seya. The Vihare caters exclusively for Sinhala Buddhists from the south of Sri Lanka.
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Colombo targeting Tamil civil service is more than revenge

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 July 2011, 18:02 GMT]
Orders have been issued by Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa and by his sibling Basil Rajapaksa to colonial governor Maj. Gen. Chandrasri for immediate and full-swing replacement of Tamil civil service in the north. The act may superficially look as a revenge for the defeat in the civic elections, but it is actually aimed to make any political solution that will be ‘accounted’ to the outside world completely meaningless to Eezham Tamils, and is a part of a long-contemplated agenda of structural genocide, political observers said. Meanwhile, knowing what is happening and what will happen in demography, political representation, civil administration, militarisation and in all other respects, why should the TNA commit to seek solutions under a ‘united Sri Lanka’ just because the powers that abetted the genocide want it, ask non TNA Tamil nationalists.
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‘Dropping call for justice and independence is worst crime’

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 July 2011, 21:03 GMT]
Voicing on behalf of the present establishment in New Delhi, sections in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) unnecessarily declaring against independence of Eezham Tamils and discouraging war crimes investigations are worst of the crimes committed not merely against Eezham Tamils but against human civilization, said Tamil national as well as Left political circles in the island and in the diaspora to TamilNet on Monday. The comments have come responding to TNA views expressed after its victory and during its campaign in the civic elections. TNA leader Sampanthan interpreted the victory as Tamil wish for solutions within ‘united Sri Lanka’ and a confidential document circulated among ‘friends of the TNA’ during the civic elections said that the war crimes investigations were actually directed against India than against Colombo, and hence Tamils should not pin hopes on them.
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Remembering Sri Lanka’s longer history of mass killing of Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 July 2011, 02:40 GMT]
British Tamils held a candle light vigil Saturday evening opposite the Prime Minister’s official residence, 10 Downing Street, to remember victims of Sri Lanka’s 1983 ‘Black July’ anti-Tamil pogrom. Six days of mob violence, organized by ruling politicians and abetted by Sri Lanka’s security forces, which began on July 23 that year killed over three thousand people, and emptied the capital, Colombo, of Tamils. On Saturday, a thousand British Tamils dressed in black and carrying black flags and Eelam national flags, held a vigil between 6 and 9 pm, with lit candles and banners commemorating the pogrom. For several hours before the vigil began, activists and supporters handed out leaflets in the surrounding Whitehall area. The events were organized by the British Tamil Forum.
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Clinton’s analogue contradicts political reality

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 July 2011, 11:26 GMT]
Visiting Chennai and appreciating the Tamil Nadu state in India, the US Secretary of State Ms. Hilary Clinton on Wednesday said, "Every Sri Lankan deserves the same hope and opportunity." If Ms. Clinton implies an Indian-modeled federal solution to the chronic national crisis in the island then she is making a historic mistake in her analogy, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. Federalism in India had an altogether different origin beginning from the days of the English East India Company compared to the vicious experiment of the British ‘Crown Colony’ in the island. Ms. Clinton should now delete the word ‘Sri Lanka’ if she means talking about Eezham Tamils or about ‘reconciliation’ in the island, he further writes.
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Clinton meets Jayalalithaa in Chennai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2011, 17:00 GMT]
The United States is “looking at some innovative and creative ideas to break the impasse over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue,” PTI quoted visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in Chennai Wednesday. The report did not elaborate. Meanwhile, in a public address Ms. Clinton said that India's example of multicultural democracy should serve as a model for Sri Lanka. Commenting on Clinton's remarks, Eezham Tamil political circles said Indian-modelled political solution will not work in the island when the military is Sinhalese. Centuries of political experience in the island shows that equal status of Tamils and Sinhalese is possible only when they have equal States, the political circles further commented.
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Australia’s cricketers should shun repressive Sri Lanka - TYO

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 July 2011, 01:30 GMT]
Australia’s cricketers should take a principled stand in defence of human rights and justice, and boycott Sri Lankan cricket until the Colombo government heeds international calls for an independent investigation into the mass killings of Tamil civilians in 2009, the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) urged Monday. “Sport is inseparable from politics. Nothing gives a repressive regime greater legitimacy, and makes light of its brutal conduct, than continuing sporting links,” the TYO said in a statement.
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Civic elections question solutions within ‘united’ Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2011, 17:32 GMT]
The way civic elections take place in the country of Eezham Tamils occupied by Sri Lanka and its genocidal Army is an open challenge invalidating the stand taken by some powers that political models within a united Sri Lanka could resolve the national question in the island, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. In recent times political pundits in the US are busy in thinking how to inspire the people of China to become ‘Liberal Democratic’ in order to avoid an impending East-West conflict. But in its desire to woo ‘pivotal’ Sri Lanka into its fold, to what extent the West is going to uphold its credibility by structuring a military and genocidal Sri Lanka that makes a mockery of democracy, he asks.
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ICG: Sri Lanka further from reconciliation than ever

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2011, 17:28 GMT]
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s authoritarian and Sinhalese nationalist post-war policies are undermining prospects for reconciling Sri Lanka’s ethnic communities, weakening democracy for all Sri Lankans and increasing the risk of a return to violent conflict, the International Crisis Group warned Monday, announcing its latest report, ‘Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Harder than Ever’. “Sri Lanka may be ‘post-war’, but it will never be ‘post-conflict’ until all its people are free to build a credible narrative of its past and to play meaningful roles in their own governance, ” says Alan Keenan, Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst on Sri Lanka.
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Tamils have reasons to seek asylum: NZ Herald editorial

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2011, 17:22 GMT]
“Sri Lanka has not long emerged from a long and bloody civil war. The Sinhalese Government would not allow media to witness the way it finally crushed the Tamil rebellion. Anyone afraid to remain in that country probably has cause. They deserve compassion even though no country can afford to welcome refugees who bypass the international channels for resettling them somewhere safe, said New Zealand Herald editorial on Monday on the question of 85 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers heading for New Zealand in a boat and were detained by Indonesia. The Prime Minister of New Zealand was uncharacteristically blunt about the boatload of asylum seekers when he said, "They are not welcome here," the editorial of the reputed NZ newspaper said.
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