US team meets TNA first: Sampanthan tells TamilNet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 January 2013, 22:42 GMT]
A Tamil National Alliance (TNA) delegation led by its parliamentary group leader R.Sampanthan on Saturday noon met the US delegation comprising three US officials, James Moore, Jane Zimmerman and Vikram Singh, at the US Embassy in Colombo, Mr.Sampanthan told TamilNet adding that the USA team met the TNA delegation before meeting others during their stay in Colombo. Talking to TamilNet, Mr. Sampanthan said that the TNA had briefed the US delegation about the Tamil problem “since the country gained independence sixty five years ago.”
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Soul searching in India, Obama wipes out tears

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2013, 17:55 GMT]
If peoples of the USA and India care to scrutinize what their governments are doing to the country of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, they will realize that from which system certain disorders they face in their own countries originate. Both the Establishments that were in complicity in the genocide, and have tacitly approved a structural genocide to take place in the island, are engaged in another round of their machinations at Geneva in March. Once again, the USA is architecting a formula for the completion of the annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils – this time with specific steps of instructions to be fulfilled by the agent state in Colombo – and India, the Strategic Partner, is given with the task of designing and managing the implementation infrastructure, informed sources say.
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TID squad searches Sritharan MPs office for second time

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2013, 15:31 GMT]
A 6-member team of Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Department on Tuesday searched the Ki'linochchi office of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sritharan for three hours. The TID squad, led by a Inspector ranked officer, Sarach Chandra, was searching the office inch-by-inch and were looking for computers that belonged to the parliamentarian, news sources in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet. When Mr Jeevanayagam Singarasa, who was in charge of the office on Tuesday, questioned the procedure of the TID, he was subjected to ‘interrogation’ for two hours inside the office. The TID inspector, when contacted by Mr Sritharan over telephone told the MP that the search operation was being conducted under the Sri Lankan Prevention of Terrorism Act.
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Two students of Jaffna University released in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2013, 10:42 GMT]
Amidst continued boycott of classes by the students of Jaffna University, two of the four detained student activists of the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) have been released on Tuesday in Vavuniyaa. The release comes following the exposure of reports that the SL Defence establishment and the Secretary of Education did not keep their ‘secret’ promise to the Colombo-appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna Ms Vasanthi Arasaratnam. The President of JUSU, Mr V Pavananthan and student activist S. Solomon of the Science Faculty were released in front of the Vice Chancellor and Deans who were on their way to Welikande to visit the students, who were subjected to SL ‘military rehabilitation’. In the meantime, the SL military in Jaffna is on a ‘search operation’ threatening the families of two students who are in hiding.
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SL defence takes Jaffna University administration for a ride

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2013, 01:26 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka’s defence establishment and education secretary have secretly promised the Colombo-appointed Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University that two of the detained students would be released before 14 January and the other two would be released after that, in order to persuade the VC and other members of the university administration to pressurize the students to drop the boycott and resume classes by the first week of January. This made the VC to go to the extent of her resignation threat and other threats to prevail upon the student representatives to agree to the reopening on 08 January. But so far there are no signs for the release of the detained students. The case is a good example for the futility of collaborationism entering into secret agreements with SL State and regime, political observers in Jaffna said.
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Colombo’s UPFA allies further accelerate divide in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2013, 23:37 GMT]
While Muslim politicians of Batticaloa, aligned with Rajapaksa regime in Colombo seek to annex Tamil villages with Muslim-dominated divisions of Batticaloa, Tamil paramilitary elements operated by Colombo attempt to woo Tamil voters by staging shutdown protests against Muslims, capitalizing from the lack of a broader political mobilization from the part of the TNA. The line of collaboration politics with Colombo, adopted by the SLMC, has made it easier for Colombo to deploy the divide and rule tactic, setting Tamils and Muslims against each other, providing necessary time and space to the occupying Sinhala military to scheme Sinhalicisation of resourceful interior villages of Batticaloa.
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SL military deployed ex-LTTE member, EPDP-journalist to frame Sritharan MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2013, 23:41 GMT]

A former LTTE member, known as Premraj Vasanthan, allegedly recruited by the SL military intelligence for covert operations in the post-Mu’l’livaaykkal times, had visited the office of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Mr Sivagnanam Sritharan after a long time last Friday and was wandering around inside the office. On the following day, the SL “Terrorist” Investigation Department (TID) operatives raided the office of the TNA parliamentarian in Ki’linochchi, with Mr Vasanthan in their ‘custody’. The intelligence operative “located” explosives, while the SL military “discovered” pornography material and the EPDP journalist planted condoms in an apparent move to discredit and frame Mr Sritharan, who has been gaining public support from the people of Vanni.
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UK should exert pressure on Sri Lanka: BTF

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2013, 21:28 GMT]
Referring to the systematic repression and attacks on Eezham Tamil political activists, civil society and students by the Sri Lankan state, the BTF called on the British government to “to exert serious diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka.” Speaking to TamilNet, BTF Coordinator Ravi Kumar said that since the so-called ‘independence’, concentration of powers in the Sinhalese rulers has systematically increased and that after a successful genocidal war on the Tamil nation in 2009, now all powers in the Sri Lankan state, executive, legislative and judicial powers are concentrated under the President. “Under such circumstances, UK and the International community should not focus on internal mechanism to provide justice to the Tamil Nation. This is the time for the UK government to call for an external mechanism towards an international independent investigation,” he added.
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TMVP faction wants Batticaloa Tamils to observe shutdown against Muslim politicians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2013, 21:31 GMT]
A faction of TMVP paramilitary in Batticaloa has instructed Tamil business owners and public servants to observe shutdown on Friday against the recent proposal from ‘Muslim politicians’ to annex Tamil villages from the Tamil dominated Koa'ra'laippattu North (Vaakarai) and Koa'ra'laippattu South (Kiraan) divisions with Muslim dominated divisions of Koa'ra'laippattu Centre and Koa'ra'laippattu West.
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Sinhala colonization in Puduvaankarai aims to carve out Sinhala electorate in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 23:48 GMT]
Illegal appropriation of pasturelands by Sinhala settlers in Paduvaankarai area in Batticaloa district has been taking place with the ‘blessings’ of Colombo’s ruling party politicians. If this trend is allowed 20 to 25 thousand acres of lands would soon be appropriated illegally, paving way to elect a Sinhala parliamentarian from the district, owners of cattle farms have told Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who have been ignoring their plight.
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US-based former GTF President becomes advisor to SL colonial governor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 00:16 GMT]
US-based Dr Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, the first president of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), accepts an advisor position to G.A. Chandrasiri, Sri Lanka’s colonial governor and retired Major General of the war crimes accused SL military. The website of SL run Northern Provincial Council on Saturday indicated that Dr Ethirveerasingam is already functioning as Advisor on Education and Sports to the SL Governor. A doctorate in Agriculture education from the Cornell University in the USA, Ethirveerasingam, now 78, is also a recognised sportsman who represented Ceylon in the Olympics of 1950s.
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Sinhala political faction opposing military rule over Tamils attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2013, 20:52 GMT]
Members of Front Line Socialist Party (FLSP), a breakaway faction of the JVP of the Sinhala South, who were seeking end of SL military rule over Tamils, land grab and abductions, as well as release of all political prisoners and Jaffna University student leaders were attacked publicly in the heart of Jaffna city, allegedly by SL military intelligence squads on Tuesday. The political faction from the South, under the banner, Sama Urimai Iyakkam in Tamil (Movement for Equal Rights) was engaged in a signature campaign among the Tamil public when motorbike squads attacked them and threw crude oil on to them in the typical way the SL military intelligence used to carry out attacks on Tamil activists in Jaffna.
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Administrative divisions manipulated to wedge Tamils, Muslims in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2013, 23:49 GMT]
A former minister of ruling UPFA government and a councillor of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) Amir Ali Shihabdeen and SL Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan of SLFP and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan of TMVP in the UPFA who is also a councilor at the EPC have given their consent to changes in the administrative divisions of Vaakarai DS division, Koa’ralaip-pattu Centre DS division and Koa’ralaippattu West DS division, news sources in Batticaloa said. The latest move of annexing villages from Tamil dominated Vaakarai division with Muslim dominated Koa’ra’laip-pattu Centre and Ko’a’ralaippattu West, aims at reducing Tamil representation and contributes to uneven development by seeking to upgrade Muslim dominated divisions in civic governance, say Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians from Batticaloa.
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SLA ex-officer testifies on orders to plant bomb at TNA MP's house in 2008

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2013, 20:27 GMT]
A former commissioned officer of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), testifying to the Canadian Immigration officials after fleeing to Toronto from Sri Lanka, said that a Colonel of the SLA had ordered him to plant bomb materials in the home of Mr M K Sivajilingam, a Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian in 2008, reports a Canadian newspaper, the National Post, on Sunday. The revelation gains significance in the context of alleged ‘recovery’ of explosives at the office of a current TNA parliamentarian Mr S Sritharan last week.
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Colombo’s military establishment steps up psyop war on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2013, 23:32 GMT]
The Sri Lankan “Terrorist” Investigation Department (SL-TID), which had summoned Mr Sivagnanam Sritharan, the Tamil parliamentarian from Ki’linochchi, to Colombo Police Headquarters in June 2012 to grill him on his interviews published in diaspora and Tamil Nadu media, was first looking to frame the parliamentarian as someone who had violated the 6th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution. Three months later, the police bodyguards provided to him from the Ministerial Security Division were withdrawn by Colombo without any explanation. On Saturday, the SL-TID entered the office of Mr Sritharan alleging that they had information on explosives. Later, they “discovered” 300 grams explosives inside the kitchen allegedly after “planting” the evidence. Two of the TNA activists, working at Sritharan MPs office, were subjected to interrogations.
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SL “Terrorist” investigators allegedly plant bomb at TNA MP's office in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2013, 12:32 GMT]
The Sri Lankan “Terrorist” Investigation Department (TID) personnel, who receive instructions from SL Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa “recovered” C4 explosives from the office of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Sritharan in a move to trap the Tamil parliamentarian, on Saturday, sources close to the TNA MP told TamilNet. The SL-TID operatives who came to the office with a TNA supporter who had campaigned for Sritharan during the election, planted the explosives inside the office and “discovered” them, the sources close to the Tamil parliamentarian alleged. The latest move by the TID, deployed in systematic campaign against the democratic voices of Eezham Tamils, only indicates the level of paranoia prevailing in the Colombo Establishment at the moment, the sources further said.
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SL military orders civil officials to supply residential information of Jaffna University students

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2013, 23:06 GMT]
As an overwhelming majority of Jaffna University students, demanding release of the detained student leaders, are still boycotting classes despite SL military intimidation on University administration and the teachers to resume the classes, the officers of the occupying military stationed across Jaffna have instructed the Divisional Secretaries to gather residential details of Jaffna University students through Village (GS) Officers, civil sources in Jaffna said. There are also reports that the SL military was summoning students to nearby military camps and instructing them to attend the classes. Several students in Vadamaraadchi East have been taken to SL military camps and threatened against staying in their homes.
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‘Pro-SL UK parliamentarians stoop to mockery in shielding genocide’

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2013, 19:16 GMT]
Commenting on some pro-Sri Lanka UK parliamentarians citing a naïve conversation of Sampanthan in their speech at the UK parliamentary debate on Sri Lanka on Tuesday in urging toleration towards the genocidal State, TCC-UK activist Mr Sasithar Maheswaran said that “The use of such twisted arguments to cover-up the worst genocide of the 21st century is a mockery not just of democratic traditions in the UK, but of humanity at large.” Describing the citation of the UK parliamentarians as a “below the belt tactic to divert attention from genocide,” when there is no other credible point, Sasithar, who is an elected representative of UK Tamils with the TGTE-Democrats further said, “Citizens of the UK, Tamil or otherwise, must be aware of such tendencies among certain politicians and the grave threat it holds for peace and justice in the world.”
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Pro-Sri Lanka UK parliamentarians cite Sampanthan in debate

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2013, 23:54 GMT]
The UK Parliament on Tuesday debated the question of participating the CHOGM meet in Hambantota in the island of Sri Lanka in November this year. Even as many voices among the parliamentarians urged the UK government to consider boycotting the CHOGM meet, there was however a section that argued for a conciliatory approach towards Colombo, despite the worst ever genocide of this century it committed and continues to commit against Eezham Tamils. This section cited the TNA leader Mr R Sampanthan in support of their argument. Obviously the intention of the pro-Sri Lanka section in citing Sampanthan was malicious, but Tamil politicians should take a note of it in guarding against providing undue space for adversaries through infirmity in political fundamentals, commented new generation political activists in the island.
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Less than 50 out of 5000 attended Jaffna University on Tuesday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 January 2013, 23:52 GMT]
In a meeting held on Monday at the Jaffna University by the Vice Chancellor Prof Vasanthi Arasaratnam, it was decided to resume classes on Tuesday, after much persuasion by the Rajapaksa-appointed Tamil VC that she would resign if the students were not agreeing for an immediate reopening. The SL Education Secretary has come out with an open threat that the government would close down the university for one year if it were not resuming. The student representatives under pressure agreed for the resumption, but students didn’t come on Tuesday. Only less than 50 students out of a 5000-strong student population were seen at the university. Most of them were emotionally unprepared while their activists are in detention and they were also scared about security in and around the campus, news sources in Jaffna said.
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