‘Systemic rape of Tamil women is genocidal attack on psyche of Tamils’: Grenada feminist

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 September 2012, 15:22 GMT]
Arguing that systematic abuse of Tamil women, especially ex-LTTE women cadres, by the Sri Lankan state’s forces “must be viewed as the convergence of state power, colonialism, sexism, racism, classism and imperialism”, Kimalee Philip, a Canada based feminist hailing from Grenada, contends in a commentary sent to TamilNet that rape of Tamil women constitutes a significant attack on the collective psyche of Tamil women and the Eezham Tamil people as such. Ms Philip, who was responding to the recently published TamilNet analytical feature on the genocide-intended sexual violence inflicted on ex-LTTE women cadres by Sri Lankan military and police, further argues that the Sri Lankan state condones and commands the continued dehumanization of Tamil bodies, minds and communities so as to deter Tamil women asserting their agency and freedom.
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Diaspora Muslim academic reasons out SLMC politics

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 September 2012, 00:28 GMT]
Colombo-born Dr. A.R.M. Imtiyaz, who is currently teaching in a US university, cautioned this week the SLMC in alliance with Rajapaksa that it “should be able to read political logic of the Rajapaksa regime.” The Tamil-speaking academic, while reasoning out the bargaining politics of the SLMC, and delineating on the areas of lacuna in Tamil–Muslim understanding, further cautioned the SLMC that “Any failure or any deception, would very likely trigger tensions and distrust between Tamils and Moors.” Using the term Moors in his responses to questions put forth by a TamilNet contact in North America, Dr. Imtiyaz commented on the SLMC decision that “ It is easy to win diamonds for elites and politicians in coalition politics, but what is hard is to effectively win rights and security for the masses”.
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Resettlement farce disproves claims of IOM and UN

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 September 2012, 00:04 GMT]
No one from the UN or any other international humanitarian body had come to witness the plight of the people who were forcefully relocated from IDP camp to Vattaappazhai in Mullaiththeeu and then dumped at a plot of land cleared after burning jungle at Chooripuram. The people belonging to more than 110 families languish without potable water or any basic facilities. Many of the remaining families have also been dumped at similar sites at Kaiveali and in other pockets of Puthukkuidyiruppu division. TamilNet brings out photos of Kaiveali and Chooripuram and a video clip from Chooripuram. The visuals tell the story, while the UN and IOM, who have not taken any effort to visit the site, pat their own backs and that of Colombo on fulfilling the ‘commitment’ and resettling people back in their ‘homes’ with safety and dignity.
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UN and IOM deceive world on Tamil IDP resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 September 2012, 19:16 GMT]
While the Eezham Tamil survivors of the genocidal war, herded into barbed-wire camps three years ago, are now dumped against their wishes into shelters and jungle tracts forced onto them after their fertile lands and homes are grabbed by the occupying military, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) entered into a deceptive campaign in favour of the genocidal state on Tuesday that all the IDPs have now returned to their ‘homes’. "These families wanted to go home and IOM, in partnership with the UN and the humanitarian community, has helped them to do so in safety and dignity,” the IOM was cited saying on the closure of the last IDP camp, while the UN welcomed it as a “significant sign of the transition from conflict to sustainable peace” and fulfilment of the “commitment of the Government to resettling tens of thousands of people back to their homes.”
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UN complicit in Mu'l'livaaykaal killings, say UN humanitarian workers

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2012, 00:44 GMT]
A report filed by an independent researcher based on eye-witness accounts from twelve United Nations humanitarian workers during the last phases of war ending in May 2009 on the policies implemented by Colombo, leading to starvation, deprivation of medical supplies, indiscriminate bombings of hospitals and schools in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1612 amounting to war-crimes and crimes against humanity, accuses the United Nation's officials' inaction, failure to speak out and willingness to acquiesce with the Rajapakse government's rights violations and state sanctioned killings of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians. Professor Boyle commented that Tamils should push for a UN independent commission similar to that which produced the hardhitting UN Rwanda report, and to avoid Srebrenica type report which was an inside UN job and hence was a coverup.
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Pongku Thamizh event in Geneva urges global Tamils to uphold struggle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 September 2012, 03:18 GMT]
Diaspora Tamils should focus their full efforts in demanding the United Nation to conduct a plebiscite among the Tamil speaking people in the Tamil homeland, told Professor Giuseppe Burgio from the University of Palermo, Italy, at the Pongku Thamizh rally held Saturday in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva in Switzerland. More than 3,500 Tamil activists across Europe gathered in Geneva to assert their resolve to uphold the struggle for the independence of the nation of Eezham Tamils. A group of mayors and lawyers from France appeared in the stage vowing their support to Eezham Tamils' Right to Self Determination and international legal efforts that sought to pave the way forward. Norwegian Red party politician Stian Nicolajsen told the gathering that his party would extend full support to Tamils' independence.
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Frederica Jansz sacked

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2012, 12:50 GMT]
Frederica Jansz, the editor of one of the last remaining "outspokenly anti-government" English newspaper published in Colombo, was sacked by the new businessman owner when Jansz refused to "curb her style of writing and compromise her credibility," as demanded by the owner, BBC reported. Asanga Seneviratne who is an associate of Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapakse, had bought a 72% stake in the paper, and had asked Jansz to stop carrying articles critical of the Rajapaksas - several of whom occupy senior government positions, BBC reported.
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UK Judge draws attention to Sri Lanka torture reports

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 September 2012, 01:36 GMT]
UK Queen's Bench Administrative Court Judge, Mr CMG Oakton, while refusing to grant stay of removal of failed Tamil asylum seekers, ruling that the legal challenge has to be mounted on an "individual basis," said during an individual appeal that he is concerned with the recent reports released by Freedom From Torture, and by Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) on the likelihood of State sanctioned torture in Sri Lanka. The Case was filed at the Administrative Court Wednesday morning by TAG to stop the forced deportation of asylum seeking Tamils by the UK Government in a chartered flight scheduled to depart at 15:30 pm. Wednesday. However, The Independent reported that "[d]ozens of failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers were removed at the last minute from a controversial deportation flight today after a senior judge accepted there was a risk that they could be tortured on their return. "
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China strengthens its grip on Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2012, 11:17 GMT]
China has signed 16 agreements with Colombo on Monday. The agreemets range from visa exemption and marine development to economic and technology cooperation. The agreements also promised to expand investment and increase imports from the island, reported China Daily on Tuesday. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa signed the agreements with China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, who is the highest ranking official of the Chinese legislature to visit Colombo since the end of genocidal Vanni war in May 2009.
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Detention, Torture in Sri Lanka, Tamil returnees at risk, says TAG report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2012, 10:40 GMT]
Tamils Against Genocide (TAG-UK), in a report released this week, provides supporting evidence from several successful judicial opinions in the UK of Tamil asylum applicants on claims of being subjected to torture in Sri Lanka, asylum interviews by UK Border Agency, and exclusive Medico-Legal Reports, concludes that Tamil returnees to Sri Lanka face "likelihood of torture in association with initial arrest and detention" and the returnees are subjected to "brutal interrogation techniques," and called for a "comprehensive re-evaluation of the UK government’s current policy towards asylum applicants of Eezham Tamil origin.
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Resettled Tamils again face displacement due to SLA camp expansion

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 September 2012, 23:05 GMT]
Resettled villagers are again forced to leave Thoa'ni-thaadda-madu village, an agricultural village situated 90 km north of Batticaloa city in Koa'ralaippattu North DS division, are again forced to flee their village following the recent expansion of the military camp of the Sri Lanka Army in the village.
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Tamil returnees from UK face possible torture in Sri Lanka: Report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 September 2012, 03:35 GMT]
Freedom from Torture (FfT),a medical foundation for the care of victims of torture, in a report released this week, pointed to the evidence of more than 20 Eezham Tamils who experienced torture after returning voluntarily to Sri Lanka in the post-conflict period, and said that the Organization "considers that the UK's removal policy for Sri Lanka is based on a flawed assessment of risk." Asserting that the examined cases "reveal that Sri Lankan Tamils who in the past had an actual or perceived association at any level with the LTTE but were able to leave Sri Lanka safely now face risk of torture on return," the FfT added that there "should be a pause in forcible removals of Tamils to Sri Lanka" while the UK Border Agency's policy on removals to Sri Lanka is changed to properly reflect the evidence presented in FfT's report.
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International civil society urged to act on CHOGM meet in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 September 2012, 21:38 GMT]
After seeing the behaviour of today’s establishments in the Commonwealth that was once known for its effective action against South Africa’s apartheid, and after seeing the Indian diplomat turned Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma stretching his position to uphold the genocidal state and regime in Sri Lanka, the gagged Eezham Tamil civil society activists in the island urged the International Human Rights Organizations to come out with an international civil society boycott of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka in November 2013. They also urged understanding governments in Canada, Tamil Nadu state and elsewhere to lead the international civil society paradigm, and the international media to help such a paradigm. The diaspora should be awakened to new struggle strategies, they further urged.
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IOM blamed for double standards

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2012, 21:04 GMT]
A section of the officials of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), working with the Sri Lankan State, have been harassing former LTTE members to return the identity cards the organisation had earlier provided to them certifying their release. The IOM, which undertook ‘pre-release profiling’ of more than 10,000 ex-Tiger members, had received foreign aid from Japan, Norway, USA, The Netherlands and the UK for the programme named ‘Information, Counselling, and Referral Services’ (ICRS). After completing the project, the inter-governmental organisation, with its global agenda of restricting ‘illegal immigration’, has now sought to prevent the possibility of ex-Tiger members using the identity card to document their background when they seek political asylum outside the island, informed sources told TamilNet.
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India awakens to sexist component of genocidal culture in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 September 2012, 05:23 GMT]
A cartoon that appeared in Lakbima newspaper of Sri Lanka, on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, has awakened the masses in India on the sexist side of the genocidal culture encountered by Eezham Tamils over several decades, said South Asia watchers in New Delhi noting responses from different parts of India. The impact of the cartoon in India in realising the nature of the genocidal culture that is not checked, not boycotted like the apartheid, but is always pampered, is many times more than the impact evoked by seeing images of the sexual abuse of even corpses of Eezham Tamils, the South Asia watchers said. The cartoon found condemnation in Colombo too, by Women and Media Collective (WMC).
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Australia deals legal setback to US on extradition cases

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 September 2012, 10:23 GMT]
In a legal blow to U.S. anti-terrorism laws used in extraditing Tamils caught in various sting operations of the U.S. law enforcement authorities, the 109-page opinion issued by the Federal Court of Australia's Judge J. North agreed with the Eezham Tamil defendant, Thulasitharan Santhirarajah, that in approving the extradition request, the Australian Attorney General (AG) fell into jurisdictional error on six different legal issues, the most precedent setting among them being that the offences charged by the U.S. were "political offenses," and therefore, that under section 22(3)(a) of the Extradition Act 1988, the Court was empowered to grant relief by prohibiting the "AG acting on her determination to surrender the defendant to the US."
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Arnestad’s ‘Silenced Voices’ documentary gains momentum

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2012, 14:27 GMT]
Even as the GoSL tightens its vice through different means to gag democratic voices in the island from expressing the truth about the genocide of the Eezham Tamils, award-winning Norwegian documentary filmmaker Beate Arnestad’s ‘Silenced Voices - Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile’ has been steadily gaining momentum at acclaimed film festivals and screenings across the world, exposing the truth about media repression by the Sri Lankan state. After a grand pre-première in Oslo in February 2012, a world premiere in Hague at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in March, screenings at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York in June, Arnestad’s documentary received a salubrious welcome at public screenings in Australia this week.
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SLN arrests asylum seekers, Greens Senator notes systematic abuse of Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2012, 19:36 GMT]
As the Sri Lanka Navy arrested 54 Australia bound asylum seekers fleeing from the island on a boat on Thursday and hauled them off to the CID for interrogations, Australia’s Greens Party Senator Lee Rhiannon condemned the Australian Coalition’s political position to deport refugees from the island before they set foot on Australian soil as being “immoral, discriminatory, cruel”, referring to the routine violations of the Tamils’ basic rights in the island. "It is not surprising that people are looking to escape from Sri Lanka,” she told TamilNet. "Reports of the systematic abuse of Tamil women political prisoners and prisoners-of-war by the Sri Lankan armed forces are extremely disturbing,” she further said, alluding to TamilNet’s feature on genocide-intended sexual violence perpetrated by the Sri Lankan military and police on ex-LTTE female cadres.
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Apply BDS campaign against Sri Lanka: Tamil Nadu writer

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 September 2012, 09:02 GMT]
Arguing that “massive international pressure alone can halt the ongoing cultural and structural genocide against the Tamils”, Tamil Nadu based poet and writer Meena Kandasamy contends in an article on Tehelka.com that an effective Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which was used against the apartheid South African state must be also applied to Sri Lanka.
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Pilgrimage, tourism become show of genocidal jubilation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2012, 18:00 GMT]
12.5 million Sinhala Buddhist visitors from the South have toured Jaffna peninsula during the last three years, from July 2009 to August 2012, according to the statistics released by the statistics division of the occupying Sri Lankan military in Jaffna. Highest number of visits was recorded in August 2012, when more than 100,000 southerners visited the peninsula. At least 80,000 of these visitors have been to Nagadipa vihara at Nayinaatheevu, an islet off Jaffna during the last month. In the meantime, the Eezham Tamil people of the peninsula, numbering less than 600,000 and the resettling people of Vanni live in a parallel universe without communication with the visiting Sinhalese, who are looked after by the occupying SL military and ‘civil’ administration.
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