Anti-genocide eye in Sudan’s sky

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2011, 13:52 GMT]
An organization founded by leading Hollywood figures is teaming up with Google, the United Nations and other anti-genocide organizations to launch satellite surveillance of the border between north and south Sudan. Not On Our Watch will fund the start-up phase of the ‘Satellite Sentinel Project’, which will collect real-time satellite imagery and combine it with field analysis from the Enough Project and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, publishing reports online. “We want to let potential perpetrators of genocide and other war crimes know that we’re watching, the world is watching,” George Clooney, co-founder of Not On Our Watch, said in a statement.
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Imelda accuses police, prefers military

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 18:49 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police has failed in its duty to arrest killings, abductions and anti-social activities in Jaffna, Imelda Sugumar, the Sri Lankan government agent in Jaffna accused on Monday. In a press meeting at her office, she briefed the journalists about her preference to induct the occupying SL military to police the situation further in Jaffna. The police are corrupt and no ‘development’ work is possible in the district under the current circumstances, she claimed. Two weeks ago, while meeting a section of Tamil politicians, the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was also vocal about his preference to the military than the police in running the affairs of the Tamil land. He said this in reply to the visiting politicians when they expressed concern about SL military cantonments in the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Mobile phone saves 30 abductees in Vanni from being taken to South

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2011, 22:34 GMT]
A 20-year-old student, Gajeevan Puvanendran, who was being abducted by men in green uniform in a vehicle Saturday morning around 5:30 in Ki'linochchi, alerted his parents and relatives through SMS and phone conversation that he was being taken away on A9 highway towards South. Later, Mr. Gajeevan was saved with around 4 others in Vavuniyaa. The Sri Lankan Police has not revealed the details of the abductors or other abductees. Informed sources close to the police in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet that a squad operated by Sri Lankan military was taking away the abductees to South. However, latest information from Vavuniyaa from reliable sources said there were around 30 young boys and at least one of them was taken by an intelligence squad.
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Abductions escalate in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2010, 02:44 GMT]
Six civilians have been reported missing in Jaffna peninsula in the last four weeks, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The latest victim, Thanarathnasabapathy Nirojan, 23, a resident of Oorkavaththu'rai (Kayts) in Jaffna failed to return after leaving home on November 29 to Vavuniyaa for business activities, according to a complaint lodged with the Jaffna Secretariat of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
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Terror campaign in Jaffna: abducted youth tortured and beheaded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 21:27 GMT]
Mahendran Thiruvarudchelvam, known as Chelvam, abducted 9 days ago was tortured and beheaded as evidenced by his remains reaching Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Even though initial reports said that he had been abducted for a ransom of 8 million, his background and prevailing terror campaign in the SL-military-occupied Jaffna point to deeper motives behind his killing, human rights activists in Jaffna said. Mr. Chelvam, 28-year-old, and father of a child, was living in Vanni to the end of the war, spent some time in the internment camp and was released for resettlement. He returned to his native place Meesaalai North near Kanakan-pu'liyadi and started doing business as a vehicle dealer. The former residents of Vanni, whether they are in captivity or released, are viewed by the occupying military and paramilitary as objects for exploitation and then extermination.
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Rajapakse fares worst in WikiLeaks damages, says Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 12:56 GMT]
Boston Globe in an editorial opinion piece Wednesday called for a "legitimate UN investigation of war crimes in Sri Lanka," after making the following observations: "[A]mbassador’s [Butenis's] candor illuminates a recurring contradiction between the moral imperatives of human rights and the cold logic of diplomacy. Videos and survivor accounts strongly suggest that hundreds, if not thousands, of Tamils were stripped naked, had their hands bound behind their backs, and were murdered during the final weeks of the government’s war against the Tigers. Yet for reasons of state, neighboring powers India and China show no interest in documenting and punishing such crimes.
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Tsunami remembrance day held in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 01:12 GMT]
The sixth year anniversary of the tsunami remembrance event was held in different parts of Jaffna district, including Vadamaraadchi and Vadamaraadchi east independent of the Colombo-centric organized celebrations, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Uduththu'rai burial grounds in Vadamaraadchi east contained majority of tsunami burials, and grieving relatives held an emotional ceremony organized by the Uduththu'rai Fisheries Union at that site.
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Tamil Nadu leftists in South Africa gathering expose anti-humanity in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2010, 17:51 GMT]
Tamil Nadu leftist youth who went to South Africa for the gathering of international leftist students and youth, attended by 15,000 delegates from 126 countries, exposed the anti-human war Sri Lanka waged against Eezham Tamils. Speaking on the occasion, Dakshinamoorthy Lenin, the Tamil Nadu head of All India Youth Federation, described the war last year as genocide against Eezham Tamils, condemned Colombo’s treatment of Tamil youth, accused India for abetment through inaction, and pointed out that the war has not brought in political justice. Meanwhile, Colombo sent 180 politicians and youth to the event in a chartered flight along with Namal Rajapaksa and higher education minister S.B. Dissanayake. Unruly in defending Colombo, the SL team was reminded by the organisers that it was not ‘Sri Lankan parliament.’ Rallying international students stopped Dissanayake addressing a session.
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Ultimate subjugation by making Tamils lie to themselves

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 December 2010, 22:51 GMT]
“Humanitarian operation will not stop until the painful memories of terrorism and all thoughts of separatism are removed from people's hearts. You pass out today to contribute to this noble humanitarian operation”, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who believes in “winning the hearts and minds” of Tamils by military terrorism of state, told the passing out cadets at Diyatalawa Military Academy Tuesday. The ultimate point of subjugation comes when Tamils are made to lie to themselves. After Rajapaksa demonstrating that through the captured doctors of the Vanni war, another example comes in Government Agent Imelda Sugumar ‘evidencing’ before LLRC. More than felt towards such victims or Rajapaksa, the Tamil anger is in fact felt towards the external elements that have brought out the situation and now either talk about ‘home grown’ solution or back Rajapaksa through their bankers.
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Argentina’s Videla convicted of crimes against humanity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 December 2010, 11:32 GMT]
Former Argentine military ruler Jorge Videla has been sentenced to life for crimes against humanity committed during the Argentine junta’s murderous "Dirty War" (1976-1983) against left-wing dissidents, reports said. Videla, whose conviction was for the torture and murder of 31 prisoners in 1976, was unrepentant, saying Argentine society had demanded the crackdown to prevent a Marxist revolution. He complained that "terrorists" now ran the country. As she handed down the sentence in the central Argentine city of Cordoba, judge Maria Elba Martinez said: "Videla ... is a manifestation of state terrorism."
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Nambiar, UN, undermine war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka, Burma

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, 08:48 GMT]
Unchecked for the role he played in the genocide of Eezham Tamils last year, Vijay Nambiar’s UN villainy is now targeting ethnicities struggling in Burma. The Burmese military now plans to adopt the Rajapaksa doctrine of military solution to the national question in Burma, with the backing of the same establishments that backed Rajapaksa, and Vijay Nambiar is in the scene again, facilitating the agenda and shielding the war crimes. A few days ago, UK has urged the UN to replace Vijay Nambiar by another fulltime envoy to deal with Burma. According to Mizzima News Wednesday, the London-based Burma Campaign expressed extreme disappointment on the approach of Nambiar befriending military generals and ignoring nations struggling for liberation. Meanwhile, the UN panel on Sri Lanka meeting Colombo’s LLRC has raised eyebrows in the human rights circles.
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Boycott campaign highlights Sri Lanka atrocities

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, 00:06 GMT]
During the first boycott held after the release by Channel-4 of an extended execution video showing extra-judicial executions and the naked body of a popular Tamil journalist with hands tied and the incriminating evidence contained in WikiLeaks cable accusing Sri Lanka' President and brothers of alleged war-crimes, the protest campaigners in several major cities in the U.S. Saturday exposed details of Sri Lanka's atrocities towards civilian Tamils to the consumers patronizing GAP and Victoria's Secrets stores which import garments made in Sri Lanka.
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Devananda threatens Kudaththanai villagers to call off protests against sand excavation

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 December 2010, 18:08 GMT]
EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, a minister in Rajapaksa's cabinet, along with Sri Lankan military and Police officers in Jaffna, on Sunday threatened the villagers of Koddoadai in Vadamaraadchi East with drastic action if they continued to protest against illegal sand excavation undertaken by Maheswary Foundation, a business outfit run by his paramilitary group. Civil organizations in Kudaththanai, fearing erosion by sea water of their coastal areas have been protesting against the excavation of sand from their areas.
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Imelda, Daya Master, felicitate Asian ‘peace laureate’ Hathurusinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 01:51 GMT]
The commander of Sri Lanka’s colonial military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, was felicitated by SL government circles in Jaffna, Thursday, for the Guci Peace Prize given to him in Philippines, which according to SL military web sites, ‘Asian equivalent of Nobel Peace Prize’. Mrs. Imelda Sugumar, the SL Government Agent of Jaffna was the chief guest for the felicitation that was coordinated by Daya Master, former LTTE spokesperson and now executive director of a paramilitary-backed television supporting Colombo. In a press meet the previous day, Hathurusinghe accused former LTTE members conniving with SLA as responsible for the robberies and other atrocities committed on people in Jaffna. While felicitating Hathurusinghe, Imelda attacked the editors of diaspora media for their bias and said that SL government and its military only help people in Jaffna.
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Tamil boy in Batticaloa wounded in gunfire by Sinhala policemen on meat hunting

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 December 2010, 11:40 GMT]
A 13-year-old Tamil boy who was playing near Karaveddi playground on Tuesday was hit by gunfire by Sinhala policemen who were on meat hunting 5 km west of Batticaloa town. Policemen on hunting have been firing indiscriminately on animals in the area causing panic among the civilians who live in the hamlets. The injured boy, Baskaran Vijayakumar, a 9th grade student at Naavatkaadu Naamaka'l Viththiyaalayam, has been admitted at the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital. Policemen targeting pigs in the jungle area use automatic rifles and fire several rounds, the civilians in the area complain adding that the residents in the densely populated areas have been hit by gunfire also on earlier occasions.
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Canadian Tamil submission to UN focuses on international investigation

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 2010, 14:54 GMT]
From Nuremburg to Rwanda, precedents have been set to indict those who were individually responsible for war crimes. The precedent of individual accountability is a guiding principle in upholding international law, says the war crimes submission of the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) to the UN advisory panel on Sri Lanka. 26 organizations and parliamentarians, ranging from trade unions and university students associations to Conservative, Liberal and New Democratic parliamentarians, including the leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, Jack Layton, have endorsed the NCCT submission. The submission, extensively dealing with intentional targeting of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan state and arguing for an international inquiry, pointed out that there would be no lasting peace without justice.
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Fox cancels trip amid Sri Lanka War Crimes accusations

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 2010, 02:03 GMT]
Liam Fox, the British defence secretary whose friendship with Sri Lanka's President has been in the news during Rajapakse's visit to the UK early this month, was tonight forced to abandon a private visit to Sri Lanka this weekend after a row with William Hague, who feared that Fox would upset Britain's carefully balanced approach to Colombo, UK Guardian reported.
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SLA blocks use of Vadamaraadchi East road publicized as open

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 2010, 14:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues to block civilians from using the Point Pedro-Maruthangkea'ni Road that passes through Naakarkoayil in Vadamaraadchi East even after publicizing that the said road was to be open for public. A journalist who works for the Jaffna Tamil daily "Valampuri" has complained to the Jaffna Human Rights Commission that he was stopped at the SLA checkpoint at the Maruthangkea'ni bridge and was turned back without being allowed to proceed to his native village of Chempiyanpattu, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Timely protest saves church land from police occupation in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 2010, 13:34 GMT]
A demonstration by the Peasaalai church and residents Wednesday morning forced the Sri Lankan police to abandon its attempt to seize the land and construct a police station on the land that belongs to St.Lady of Victory Church in Pesalai in Mannaar district. Large number of people including Parish Priests and Vicar of the church participated in the demonstration that was held for one and a half hours from 7:00 a.m.
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SLA, Police launch search operations in Mannaar city

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 December 2010, 20:17 GMT]
Armed policemen and Sri Lanka Army soldiers were deployed within the limits of town council of Mannaar in search operations inspecting the passengers in buses and the pedestrians who hit the roads Wednesday evening between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
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