Tissainayagam challenges Mohan Peiris statement to UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 June 2012, 03:18 GMT]
Award winning Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who was incarcerated in Sri Lanka prison for his writing, refuted statement made by the former Attorney General of Sri Lanka, Mohan Peiris, to the UN's Committee Against Torture that Tissainayagam accepted complicity in the charged crime [of supporting terrorism] by expressing remorse in the letter requesting Sri Lanka's President for a pardon. Publishing the full text of the letter, Tissainayagam told a Colombo paper that "any allusion to my admitting complicity is completely false," and added that he only apologized for any embarrassment that his writing may have caused Mahinda Rajapakse or his Governement.
Full story >>

Declare for referendum in any unity meeting

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 June 2012, 00:06 GMT]
All groups of Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora, seeking various shades of political solution beyond the present constitution of Sri Lanka, should meet together to present a joint stand of them, is an opinion currently pressurising all of them, mainly the TNA, both the factions of the TGTE, GTF and the Country Councils in various Western countries. While it is well known that the pressure ultimately comes from dubious international crisis management forces that are keen in diffusing the national question of Eezham Tamils through ‘tangent’ approaches, Eezham Tamil political groups could make use of the move to solidly present certain fundamentals to the edification of the so-called international community and India. The most fundamental, democratic and irrefutable stand is to demand for getting an answer from the concerned people through a referendum.
Full story >>

Gotabhaya plans psy-ops newspaper in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 23:12 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's defence establishment led-by SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa plans to start a daily newspaper with the name ‘Thamizh Naatham’ in Jaffna by appropriating the building and assets of the former daily Namathu Eezhanaadu. The move for the psy-ops war through a new newspaper directly run by the SL military establishment comes in, because of the failure of the EPDP's Thinamurasu and the Jaffna edition of Thinakaran, run by SL government-controlled Lake House of Colombo in winning the hearts of the masses in the country of Eezham Tamils to the satisfaction of the occupiers, informed sources in Jaffna said. In the late 1980s, the occupying IPKF tried a similar move by running a newspaper ‘Viduthalai’ with the backing of the EPRLF.
Full story >>

Emerging pattern of SL judicial proceedings needs perusal

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 June 2012, 19:26 GMT]
When gunmen killed the Changkaanai temple priest in 2010, the commander of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe, first accused former LTTE cadres, later said SL Army gun borrowed from corrupt troops was used by former LTTE carders, and subsequently all the arrested - two SLA personnel and two alleged former militants were released by the courts. A pattern is now seen in producing cases in the courts related to the murder of two Eezham Tamils, a UK deportee and a Canadian citizen in Trincomalee and in Ki'linochchi. Media in Colombo is busy in highlighting the SL prosecution version of personal motivation, once again involving SL military personnel in one case and former militants in the other, to exclude the responsibility of top SL military command.
Full story >>

Batticaloa University protests political capture of its council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 June 2012, 23:39 GMT]
The Eastern University in Batticaloa is helpless to political appointments made to its governing council by Colombo, said the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, Professor K. Gobindarajah, following a recent appointment to the council backed by SL Deputy Minister V. Muralitharan alias Karuna causing the students to boycott classes for the third day on Saturday. The appointment of Dr Jaffer, director of the Kalmunai Base Hospital, to the council membership vacated by the demise of Fr. Sylvester Sritharan, is aimed at capturing and silencing the spirit of the university by paramilitary groups operating with the regime in Colombo, said students in Batticaloa. Such appointments theoretically made by the University Grants Commission are dangerously politicised in recent times especially with the universities in the north and east.
Full story >>

US commander, Indian defence minister assure military aid to Gotabhaya in Singapore

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2012, 10:03 GMT]
The Chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, the top most US military commander and Indian Defence Minister A.K. Anthony met genocidal Sri Lanka’s war-crimes-accused Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa behind the screen in Singapore on Tuesday to assure him of their military assistance, especially in the naval field. The high profile meeting took place while Mahinda Rajapaksa was being hosted in London and the US ambassador-designate to Colombo was talking about ‘de-militarisation’ of the north in the island. Singapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam was in Colombo a few days earlier to talk ‘business’. Following the classic British colonial strategy, Sri Lanka, Burma and Singapore are mobilised to meet threats from the East, analysts said.
Full story >>

Syria evokes better response not seen in the case of Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 June 2012, 00:53 GMT]
The war within the same people in the regime and opposition in Syria, casualty wise much less in proportion to the genocidal war in the island of Sri Lanka in 2009, has evoked active responses from all the powers and the UN that were never shown in the case of the massive genocide of Eezham Tamils. The genocidal ruler Rajapaksa and his regime are still pampered by the world establishments, from the diamond jubilee celebrating Her Majesty’s Government in the UK to Buddhism celebrating Thailand, and from the USA and India facilitating escape route in the UNHRC to China, Russia and Cuba steadily protecting the regime. Nelson’s Eye will not help the world order. But Tamils have to realise that the failure of Tamil Nadu in 2009 and the continued failure of global Tamils in addressing the real culprits cause the disparity, said a diaspora activist.
Full story >>

British Court finds Sri Lanka torture allegations credible, stays deportation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2012, 23:29 GMT]
British High Court of Justice, Administrative Court Judge, Mr Justice Eady, noting "[t]he recent Human Rights Watch report, dated 29.05.2012 suggests that there may be new evidence relevant to the risk of ill treatment," overturned the removal order on about 40 failed Tamil asylum seekers, in a dramatic last-minute order hailed by rights groups and attorneys representing to-be-deportees as a landmark decision in UK. "Judicial attitudes have changed," and "previously hard-line judges are granting stays, mostly on grounds of risk upon return," said Barristor Paramjothy from a London-based legal institution.
Full story >>

Tamil asylum seekers to be forcibly deported from UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2012, 02:42 GMT]
While the British Government prepares to welcome Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse to the Royal Jubilee pageant, dozens of failed Tamil asylum seekers are to be forcibly deported to Sri Lanka today, despite objections raised by human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) that there is well founded fear of torture of the returnees. Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) a US-UK based activist group released a research report Tuesday documenting details of evidence of the "risk of persecution upon return simply by virtue of the fact that they sought asylum abroad and also because of imputed political opinion regarding involvement with or sympathy for the LTTE."
Full story >>

HRW urges UK to suspend deportation of Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 May 2012, 23:32 GMT]
The United Kingdom should immediately suspend deportations of ethnic Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka and review its policies in assessing these claims, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The next scheduled deportation of Tamils from the United Kingdom to Colombo is due to take place on May 31, 2012.
Full story >>

All are Sinhalese, Tamils have no territorial right: Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2012, 16:28 GMT]
“Earlier before the war all were Sinhalese,” in Sri Lanka. It is not appropriate to view the north of the country, over which a separatist war was fought, as a predominantly Tamil area, SL presidential sibling and defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was cited saying by the BBC News that interviewed him in Colombo. Commenting, a political analyst in the island said: The Rajapaksa regime, including its former military commander Sarath Fonseka, has been repeatedly reflecting only the pathological aspiration of the Sinhala nation to make State exclusive for it in the island. India and the USA unnecessarily blight it, rather than conceding to the innate reality of allowing the Sinhala nation to have its trouble-free State by separating the country of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Dublin conference on geopolitics highlights need for critical solidarity

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 May 2012, 23:40 GMT]
Activists from Kurdistan, Colombia, Ireland and the island of Sri Lanka, talking about the role geopolitics played in determining peace-processes and conflict in various cases, informed a mixed audience of activists, academics and journalists of the nuances of their respective cases connecting it with larger trends at an event organized at Trinity College, Dublin on Thursday. The public meeting titled ‘The Local and the Global: The Geopolitics of Peace and Conflict’, focussing on conflicts in Colombia, Kurdistan, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, elaborated on how different alignments of global interests influenced political outcomes at local levels. The conclusion of the conference saw the unanimous passing of a resolution that opposed the criminalization of political organizations like the FARC, PKK, LTTE that fought for political and democratic demands of peoples.
Full story >>

1972 constitution reminds Tamils not to backtrack idea of nationhood

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 18:05 GMT]
The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised a unitary Sinhala-Buddhist state, was enacted without the participation or mandate of Eezham Tamils. Not only their political opposition was brushed aside but even the judiciary also played a game against legal challenges. The constitution forced the shift in Tamil polity from federal to the idea of right to self-determination of the nation for independence, pointed out Jaffna University Law Lecturer, Guruparan Kumaravadivel on Tuesday, citing legal cases involving the republic. “You don't have to go further and look for anyone else than Murugesu Thiruchelvam's argument in the Amirthalingam trial-at-bar as to why our politics should be done on the idea of Tamil nationhood and self-determination,” Guruparan said addressing especially to the people in the TNA.
Full story >>

40-year-old Sri Lanka constitution burnt at cremation ground of Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 02:05 GMT]
The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised the unitary Sinhala-Buddhist State and brought in the name ‘Sri Lanka’, against the wishes of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, has been burnt on its 40th anniversary on Tuesday, 22 May 2012, at the spot where the LTTE leader Pirapharan's mother was cremated but desecrated by the occupying Sinhala forces last year.
Full story >>

Germany’s Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance highlights IC’s abetment of genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2012, 05:39 GMT]
Addressing a huge gathering of Eezham Tamils who had gathered to remember those massacred in May 2009, speakers at the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance at Dusseldorf highlighted the role the powers in the International Community played in abetting the genocide of the Eezham Tamils, besides emphasising the need to remain faithful to the fundamentals of the struggle for Tamil Eelam, on Friday. While Dr. Andrew Higginbottom, lecturer at Kingston University, London spoke about how the US-UK axis provided the necessary background for the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre to happen, Ninthujah Sutharshan, research scholar and Deputy Chief of Eezham Tamils’ Country Council in Germany, said that the ideals of the Tamils’ struggle “was defined in Mullivaikkal by the people who died defending that cause and cannot be redefined in Berlin or London or Paris or New York to match our comfort and convenience.”
Full story >>

Colombo unwilling to give grounds to Tamils, says NY Judge

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2012, 00:40 GMT]
Accusing the international community for being "unwilling or incapable of objective fact finding on the issue applied to the Tamils and what has happened in Sri Lanka," Judge Dearie, Judge for the District Court of the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), said during the sentencing hearing of Karunakaran Kandasamy, a Tamil charged with material support to the LTTE, that the situation "really does cry out for some independent reliable voice to tell the full story," and noted that "[t]his Colombo government doesn't seem willing to give ground in terms of the Tamil community, and although the war is over, the conflict continues."
Full story >>

Solheim joins orchestration against independence of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2012, 05:13 GMT]
Spelling out the current orchestration against the independence of Eezham Tamils, the former Norwegian minister and failed peace facilitator, Erik Solhiem said that international support is not for a new separate state in Sri Lanka, but for a multicultural, multiracial and multireligious state. Given the age-old understanding of the phrase in the context of the island, Solheim in other words was only implying support to the annihilation of the ancient nation of Eezham Tamils. Solheim, recently removed from ministerial position by his own party was invited to address a gathering in Oslo on Tuesday, by a 2012-registered Tamil organisation led by Yogarajah Balasingham alias Basharan, who was rejected by Norwegian Tamils in the diaspora elections. Sharing the stage with Solheim was visiting TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran.
Full story >>

Uprooted Tamils in Ampaa'rai district languish without resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 23:48 GMT]
Tamil villages in the DS divisions of Poththuvil, Chammaa-thu'rai and Akkaraippattu in Ampaa'rai district are still in the state of complete destruction. Out of 427 families uprooted from Thangkavealautha-puram, only 70 have been resettled. 80 families have been resettled in Kagnchi-kudichchaa'ru village out of 424 uprooted families. 60 families of 126 uprooted have been resettled in Kaagnchirankudaa village and only 35 out of 127 uprooted families have been resettled in Chaakaamam village, civil officials said.
Full story >>

Statues disappear from Saiva temples in Batticaloa district: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 May 2012, 01:31 GMT]
The statue of the chief deity of Pi'l'laiyaar temple in Punaanai, situated 52 km northwest of Batticaloa, has been reported missing after the occupation of a plot of land close to the temple by a Buddhist monk sent by Colombo-based Buddhist organizations, says C.Yogeswaran, the Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian. Punanai is a border village located along Batticaloa - Polonnaruwa road that runs through Sri Lanka Army garrisons situated between Punaanai and Welikande. Recent reports have also exposed Sinhalicisation taking place in Vadamunai, situated southswest of Punanai.
Full story >>

Colombo in full swing to cover up culprits of Canadian citizen's murder

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 May 2012, 13:34 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Ki'linochchi is making every effort to cover up the culprits of the brutal killing of Canadian Tamil citizen who was struggling to get his business properties back from the SL military in Ki'linochhci, informed civil sources in the town told TamilNet Saturday. The intelligence officers of the occupying SL military are now attempting to pass the blame of the slaying of the property owner on petty criminals. The latest move has come to light this week when the military ‘investigators’ were attempting to book some petty criminals for the killing, forging documents that they were former combatants of the LTTE. In the meantime, SL District Judge for Ki'linochchi S. Sivakumar has been made aware that the slain victim had a quarrel with the occupying military a day before his killing, the sources further said.
Full story >>