Penguin India brings out diary of LTTE captain

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 May 2013, 23:01 GMT]
The English edition of ‘War Journey: Diary of a Tamil Tiger’ authored by the late Capt. Malaravan has been published and released by Penguin Books, India this month. The work originally written in Tamil by Malaravan as a first-person account of the battlefield was first published by the LTTE as ‘Poar Ulaa’ posthumously in 1993. The English translation of the work by Dr N. Malathy, a key member of NESoHR and author of ‘A Fleeting Moment in my Country’, published by Penguin includes translator’s note, a description of Malaravan by the late LTTE Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan, and a note from Malaravan’s mother. In a comment on ‘War Journey’ sent to TamilNet, Dr. Malathy said that ‘War Journey’ was an exceptional work, noting there was no space given by the establishments for writers to portray the positive aspects of the LTTE-led struggle for Tamil Eelam.
Full story >>

Jaffna University remembers Vanni genocide amidst SL military oppression

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 May 2013, 13:39 GMT]
Sri Lankan military harassments continue at Jaffna University where a memorial event was silently observed by hundreds of students on Friday, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. The occupying SL military is on a continuous war with the university community of students and teachers in the last four years on the issue of remembering the slain. It took a serious turn on the Heroes Day last November. The arrests and the military ‘rehabilitation’ of the student leaders didn't deter the students from paying tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the genocidal war at Vanni. Despite refusal by the University administration to provide a hall to the event this year, hundreds of university students and teachers gathered at the Paramesvara temple premises in the university on Friday for a silent memorial without any speeches.
Full story >>

Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal survivor speaks out

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 11:51 GMT]
Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan, who personally witnessed Sri Lanka military taking away her husband, Mr Elilan, a political leader of the LTTE, at the end the Vanni War in May 2009, speaks out her experience from a civilian point of view and as a mother caring for her children during the war and the genocidal onslaught. Still living in Vanni, at Ki'linochchi, the 46-year-old mother of three is also running an organization that seeks to establish what had happened to their beloved ones. The SL State is still refusing to reveal the fate of those who were filtered away from the civilians and taken into buses to undisclosed detention camps. The narration of the survivor of the genocidal massacre, told with courage from Ki'linochchi, brings out the spirit and courage of a people who stood with their liberation fighters until the last moment. TamilNet brings out a 40-minute recount by Mrs Sasitharan.
Full story >>

‘Do not consider powers culpable in Tamil genocide as saviours’: Sinhala academic

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 06:13 GMT]
“The international conspiracy was not against the Sri Lankan state, but against the Eelam Tamils as a nation,” said Sinhala academic Dr. Jude Lal Fernando, urging the Tamils to not consider the powers who were culpable in their genocide as saviours. In statement for Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance Day, Dr. Fernando, lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin said “It is not only the Sri Lankan state, but all those who aided the state are guilty of genocide,” referring to US, UK and Indian support to the Sri Lankan state, asserting that the reluctance of the powers to recognize the genocide was in fact to cover it up. “As the genocide continues today with the blessings of the same powers that supported the Sri Lankan state we are been told to accept it in the name of post-conflict reconciliation and development,” he said, encouraging the Tamils to continue their struggle with the moral high ground.
Full story >>

BTF's call for genocide remembrance focuses on CHOGM boycott

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 May 2013, 02:44 GMT]
The British Tamil Forum’s (BTF) call for a mass rally in London on Saturday, remembering the 2009 Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal genocidal massacre, focuses on urging Britain and the Commonwealth to boycott the Sri Lanka CHOGM meet in November. Earlier this month, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his decision to attend the meet. “It is ridiculous as well as painful to find that Cameron has decided to attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka,” said a BTF statement on Thursday, adding that the meet, leading to Sri Lanka chairing the Commonwealth for the next two years, “will not only be disgraceful to the Commonwealth and Britain, but will also create a permanent blot in their history.”
Full story >>

UK Deputy PM’s awareness not on genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 22:41 GMT]
When Liberal Democratic MP, Simon Hughes questioned UK Prime Minister’s decision to participate Sri Lanka CHOGM, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, replied in the British Parliament on Wednesday, “We are all aware that the decision […] is controversial, especially in the light of the despicable human rights violations during the recent civil war.” But according to the Deputy PM, consequences could be expected only when violations continue in ways of political trials, regular assaults on legal professionals, suppression of press freedom, and in the non-implementation of the LLRC recommendations. It is exactly this reduction, twist and pretended unawareness of the UK that is in complicity with Sri Lanka’s genocide. Worse than that is the pretended unawareness seen in a section of the diaspora ‘lobbyists’ when it comes to the treachery of the West, commented Tamil political observers.
Full story >>

Genocide of Tamils one of the worst mass killings in history: MPP Glen Murray

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 23:52 GMT]
“The 40 000 plus killed in the Tamil genocide is one of the worst mass killings sanctioned by a state in history, ” stated Glen Murray, Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre while hosting the third annual Tamil Memorial Tree Planting event on Saturday at Evergreen Brick Works, a community environmental centre. The Evergreen Brick Works houses the first memorial dedicated to the victims of the Tamil genocide and was erected in 2011 by Mr.Murray. The memorial remembers the events from Black July to Mu'l'livaikkaal and all trees are planted to create a memorial forest to honour the Tamil lives lost in the pursuit of justice and freedom, the organizers said. On the same day in a symbolic move Frank Scarpitti, the Mayor to Markham city unveiled a new street named after the Vanni, the region of the Tamil homeland which endured the brunt of the genocidal atrocities in 2009.
Full story >>

Occupying SL military brings in Sinhala fishermen to Maaththa’lan sea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 May 2013, 18:44 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has again brought in more than 200 Sinhala fishermen from the south within the last two weeks to Maaththa’lan in Mullaiththeevu, while the Eezham Tamils, uprooted from their native place Maaththa’lan after the genocidal onslaught, are still denied access to their lands and the sea. One month ago, the encroaching Sinhala fishermen were sent back after protesting Tamil fishermen attempted to set fire to their boats. The Sinhala fishermen had then returned to the South vowing that they would return. Now, the Sinhala fishermen camped in Maaththa’lan are deploying more than 50 boats depriving the livelihood of Tamil fishermen in the coastal sea of Mullaiththeevu, Tamil fishermen complain.
Full story >>

Challenging enforced self-deceit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 May 2013, 11:38 GMT]
A former UN official and a key witness to the Vanni War admitted to a diaspora gathering last Sunday that it was genocide that had taken place. But he didn’t want to be quoted, for it would not help his current mission. He advised the Tamils to be ‘pragmatic’. Why is the advice? Is it because Tamils have to learn to live with genocide, as it has been pre-determined by the ‘all-powerful’ and cannot be changed, or is it because the elements that are ultimately responsible for the crime occupy and will continue to occupy the Establishments of the world, asks a diaspora Tamil activist, adding that the deceit of the ICE is bold now, telling: Yes, it is a deceit, it will continue to be a deceit and if you don’t want to be deceived by us then you should deceive yourself by ‘auto-suggestion’ that there was no genocide, there is no genocide and there doesn’t exist a territory of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

UK author eulogising Sri Lanka COIN backfires exposing USA

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 May 2013, 20:02 GMT]
While Sri Lanka’s genocidal war on the Eezham Tamils architected by world powers, being reduced to only ‘human rights abuses’ in the criticism by political actors within the Establishments, it is studied by military experts within the same system to ‘learn lessons’ in counterinsurgency (COIN). The latest is a COIN literature on Sri Lanka, ‘Total Destruction of the Tamil Tigers’ by British analyst Paul Moorcraft, which adds to the myth of a ‘successful innovative Sri Lanka COIN’, while covering up the genocide executed by GoSL. But, it exposes the various measures taken by the US-led powers to break the Tamils’ struggle, including advise by the Pacific Command to the GoSL as early as in 2002 to use cluster bombs. When the US-led West's military mindset is such an approval to the SL model, its ‘rights abuses’ talk is just a strategic façade, realize Tamil activists.
Full story >>

Colombo plans settling 5,000 Sinhala families in Mannaar: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 May 2013, 22:11 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka has planned to appropriate lands in Mannaar district of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils to settle five thousand Sinhala families thus creating two new Sinhala villages, said Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan citing inside instructions coming from Colombo to Mannaar district secretariat. “According to this covert plan one thousand five hundred Sinhalese families in Maanthai West DS division, one thousand Sinhalese families in Madu AGA division and one thousand five hundred Sinhalese families in Musali DS division are to be settled down in the district,” Mr Adaikkalanathan further told media.
Full story >>

CVK Sivagnanam's house attacked

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 May 2013, 08:09 GMT]
The residence of Mr CVK Sivagnanam, a veteran civil activist and joint-secretary of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), has been attacked Tuesday night around 11:45 p.m. by alleged operatives of the SL military in Jaffna. Mr Sivagnanam narrowly escaped from the squad that stoned his residence. The attackers, who smashed the windows of the house, left the scene after the neighbours confronted them. The incident comes following reports that Mr Sivagnanam had shown interest in fielding himself as the chief candidate in the Provincial Council elections on behalf of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), news sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Denmark calls for independent international investigation on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 May 2013, 15:31 GMT]
In an official Parliamentary release on Friday, four major Danish political parties, including two parties of the ruling coalition, called “for the establishment of an independent international investigation into violations of international humanitarian law and human rights committed during the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka.” Welcoming the move as a positive step, the alternative political activists in the country of Eezham Tamils said that the call for international investigation would have been more meaningful had it come at the time of the US-tabled Geneva resolution undermining it.
Full story >>

UK Tamils urged to boycott Conservative Party

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 May 2013, 06:17 GMT]
If the British Prime Minister David Cameron is not prepared to boycott CHOGM hosted by Sri Lanka setting a new global paradigm on genocide, then the UK Tamils should have the guts to demonstrate the same sentiments they had showed to Rajapaksa visiting London to the British Prime Minister too, commented new generation Tamils for alternative politics in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. As a first step, Eezham Tamils in the Conservative Party should resign, activists ‘instructed’ by the Establishment outfits should come forward to boycott them and the message should go to the Labour Party as well that was in complicity with the genocide. The individuals who continue in vain to cling to the Establishments and the ‘lobbyists’ in their service who do most of the lobbying on their own people have to be identified and ostracized, the alternative activists further said.
Full story >>

International aid complicit in Colombo’s structural genocide of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 May 2013, 21:22 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan State has stepped up Sinhala colonization in the cultivation areas that lie between Nedungkea’ni and Ma’nalaa’ru in Mullaiththeevu district. Thousands of acres of cultivation lands, belonging to resettled Tamil people in Karai-thu’raip-pattu division, lie in the area, where the occupying SL military has been blocking access to the owners of the land to even visit their lands. But at the same time in recent days, hundreds of workers have arrived from the Sinhala South and electricity supplies are being put up to accelerate the extension of Sinhala colonization of the area, Tamil civil officials in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet. The international aid providers not stopping the process are openly in complicity with the structural genocide of Eezham Tamils, the officials further said.
Full story >>

Copper plates tell on charities of Jaffna and Vanni at Chithamparam

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 May 2013, 06:46 GMT]
A copper plate grant issued by the chieftains of Vanni in the Dutch times, refers to an earlier charity; a mutt built by the King of Jaffna, Pararaja Sekaran at Chithamparam in Tamil Nadu, and on the charities made by chieftains of different parts of Vanni to another mutt built by a Vanni chieftain, Kayilaaya Vanniyan, at Chithamparam. The present conditions of the royal mutt of the Kingdom of Jaffna, called Iraasaakka’l Thampiraan Madam and the Vanni Chieftain’s mutt called Kayilaaya Vanniyan Madam at Chithamparam are not known today. The copper plates in the custody of a family at Ka’l’liyang-kaadu in Nalloor, Jaffna, were deciphered and published earlier by Dr S. Gunasingham of Trincomalee and by Prof S. Pathmanathan. A mutt at Chithamparam, in the name of the Ka’l’liyang-kaadu village is in completely ruined conditions today.
Full story >>

Commonwealth SG upholds SL venue of CHOGM, meets Colombo’s HR outfit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 May 2013, 22:19 GMT]
While widespread calls from credible quarters across the world were urging either change of the CHOGM venue or boycott, if it is going to take place in Sri Lanka, and while the UK Tamils staged a demonstration against the venue, the Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma upheld the venue in a press meet in London last Friday. “I meet leaders continually and continue to take soundings with leaders, and have been doing so recently as well, and no member of government has indicated remotely that it wishes to change the venue, Kamalesh Sharma said, answering a question put by Jonathan Miller of Channel 4 News. Meanwhile, Kamalesh Sharma also received a ‘human rights’ outfit of genocidal Colombo that came to meet him in London this week.
Full story >>

Colombo appropriates lands of 400 Tamil families in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 May 2013, 20:33 GMT]
The Colombo government has begun to appropriate 400 acres of lands belonging to Tamils in Veerapuram in Vavuniyaa Cheddiku'lam division to settle down Sinhalese, according to Vanni district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Sivasakthi Aanandan. In a similar move, at Nochchikku'lam GS division, private lands of Eezham Tamils have been appropriated for the purpose of 56th brigade headquarters for the occupying Sri Lanka Army, news sources in Vavuniyaa said.
Full story >>

TNPF prepared to join TNA, if pre-2009 goals upheld: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 May 2013, 23:28 GMT]
Amidst news reports on split within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and disunity in the Tamil political camp, the leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam on Wednesday came forward to tell that his party is prepared to join with the TNA, if the TNA could stick to pre-2009 political goals of Tamils. The current split within the TNA is between the ITAK, the major constituent party of electoral political origins and other parties of militant political origins. Both factions have now approached the TNPF. The deceptive prospects of Northern Provincial Council elections, which the LLRC-based Geneva resolution urged to conduct, and Indo-US competitive engineering in the hijack of Tamil polity are behind the split, news sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Justice Wigneswaran delivers ITAK’s Chelva Memorial Lecture

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 April 2013, 07:01 GMT]
Marking the 36th death anniversary of S.J.V. Chelvanayagam Q.C., Justice C.V. Wigneswaran delivered this year’s Thanthai Chelvanayagam Memorial Lecture, titled “Whither Sri Lankan Tamils,” at the New Kathiresan Hall in Colombo on Friday. The Lecture was organised by the Colombo District Branch of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), formerly known in English as Federal Party and is currently the leading constituent party of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Justice Wigneswaran’s lecture gains significance, as there are speculations about TNA fielding him as Chief Minister in the Geneva Resolution-urged Northern Provincial Council elections. Despite logic and eloquence in aptly bringing out the cause of Tamils, the lecture was ultimately reeking of the agenda of India and the USA, political observers in the island commented.
Full story >>