UN, a safe haven for alleged criminals?

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 December 2013, 01:17 GMT]
While the treatment of a woman Indian consular officer in the hands of the wayward New York law enforcement officials who stripped and cavity searched her for an alleged visa fraud has triggered widespread condemnation, the Government of India's swift action to transfer the official to a United Nations post to offer her retroactive diplomatic immunity, has further highlighted that, under the leadership of Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the United Nations is becoming a safe haven for alleged criminals, political observers in Washington said. Sri Lanka's alleged war criminals, ex-military General Shavendra Silva, under whose command Tamil civilians were massacred, and Palitha Kohona, who has a complaint pending in the International Criminal Court over his complicity the killing of surrendees in the Sri Lanka war, hold UN posts that protect them from prosecution.
Full story >>

Take bearing from PPT verdict in delivering justice to Eezham Tamils: May 17

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 December 2013, 07:14 GMT]
The recent verdict by the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) on Sri Lanka, which found the Sri Lankan State guilty of genocide, was a landmark decision in the path of justice to Eezham Tamils, say the activists of May 17 Movement from Tamil Nadu, who were present at the session in Bremen as expert witnesses on the genocide against Eezham Tamils. In an interview to TamilNet on Tuesday, Mr Thirumurgan Gandhi and Mr Umar of May 17 stated that the next step in the path of justice to the victims should be legally binding international investigation on genocide – not something that only deals with war crimes – and the parallel delivery of political justice to the victims of genocide. Any intervention or monitoring in the process to ensure this must avoid the forces of the countries that were complicit in the genocide, they said.
Full story >>

Colombo schemes another demographic change to permanently wedge North and East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 December 2013, 23:12 GMT]
Colombo has schemed a sinister move to demographically annex Thennai-maravadi, a strategic ancient Tamil village in Kuchchave’li division on the border of Northern and Eastern Provinces with the Sinhala dominated Padavi Sripura division of Trincomalee district, civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet. By annexing Thennai-maravadi to Padavi-Sripura, all the administrative affairs of the village would be taken over by the Sinhala officials. This will make it easier for Colombo to carry out the Sinhalicisation of the entire area, Tamil officials in Kuchchave’li Divisional Secretariat said. The lands belonging to Tamils will be seized and handed over to Sinhalese settlers with the aim of permanently wedging the demographic contiguity of the northern and eastern provinces.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka guilty of genocide: PPT verdict

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 December 2013, 11:08 GMT]
After an assessment of evidences presented by eyewitnesses and experts, judges of the Permanent People’s Tribunal reached unanimous consensus that the Sri Lankan state was guilty of crimes of genocide against the Eezham Tamils and that the genocide is continuing even after the end of the military operations against the LTTE. Concluding the four day session with a press conference at Bremen on Tuesday, the judges also noted that the Sri Lankan military did not have capacity to commit genocide on its own and that it was supported by the UK-USA-India axis. While the judges held the USA and the UK to be complicit in the genocidal process, they were of the opinion that more evidence was needed as regards India’s role.
Full story >>

PPT names panel of judges to hear genocide case against Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 December 2013, 23:51 GMT]
The Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT) in Rome has announced the names of 11 judges, who would be hearing the long-awaited case on the accusation of genocide against Eezham Tamils to be heard by an independent panel. “Like in the first session, a respected panel of judges consisting of experts in Genocide studies, former UN-officials, experts in international law and renowned peace and human rights activists will hear the evidence that is presented and make a determination,” a press statement signed by Mr Gianni Tognoni, the secretary general of the PPT, stated. The first session held in January 2010, known as the Dublin Tribunal, was the first independent international undertaking that recognised the need to look into the case of genocide in the island of Sri Lanka. The second session is to take place between December 07 -10, 2013 in Bremen, Germany.
Full story >>

Heroes Day remembrance by public gains significance in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 November 2013, 18:31 GMT]
Almost all sections of Eezham Tamils in North on Wednesday remembered the Tamil Heroes Day in North amidst heavy deployment of the armed soldiers of the occupying Sri Lankan military. This year, the public observing remembrance in Jaffna, Vanni, Mannaar and Mullaiththeevu gains importance above all the events in the country of Eezham Tamils. University lectures, students across all the schools and grassroots political activists observed the Day paying tribute inside their houses amidst the gagged condition and attacks launched by the SL military operatives. While the Sri Lankan soldiers, anticipating a lightning event in the University premises were deployed in large numbers there, the students and the public lit the main flame of remembrance at the roof of one of the tallest buildings in the Jaffna Teaching Hospital at 6:00 p.m.
Full story >>

Sinhala military colonization escalates further north in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 November 2013, 21:35 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has seized 3,200 acres of lands belonging to Eezham Tamils in Odduchuddaan DS division situated in the heart of Mullaith-theevu district, civil sources in Vanni told TamilNet on Thursday. The latest military land grab aims to hurriedly Sinhalicise the ancient Tamil villages in Othiyamalai GS area situated in the south of Odduchuddaan division, where a genocidal massacre was carried out by the occupying Sinhala military in 1984. The colonisation is being done while the recently elected Northern Provincial Council and its Chief Minister are yet to take up the burning issue of Sinhala colonisation in Mullaiththeevu. The Tamil people also blamed the global powers for providing funds to Sri Lankan State system, enabling it to channel the funds and resources, in continuing to commit a demographic genocide, permanently wedging the North and East.
Full story >>

Court in Jaffna dismisses SL military claim on Tamil memorial site at Theeruvil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 22:18 GMT]
District Court of Point Pedro in Jaffna on Wednesday dismissed the claim by the Sri Lankan military that the land, which the Urban Council of Valveddith-thu’rai (VVT) had chosen to build a public park at Theeruvil was a property that should belong to the SL military. Legal sources in VVT said the civic body could now proceed with building the park which is situated at a key memorial site, where three significant monuments stood in remembrance of key LTTE leaders and commanders who sacrificed their lives under the occupation of Indian and Sri Lankan militaries and civilians massacred by the Indian military at VVT in 1989.
Full story >>

Indian Foreign Secretary thanks Sampanthan for Jaffna invitation to Indian PM

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 November 2013, 23:37 GMT]
Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh who accompanied Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, when she met the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians last Wednesday repeatedly thanked R Sampanthan, MA Sumanthiran and Suresh Premachandran of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for having extended an invitation to the Indian PM to visit the island appreciating the ‘usefulness’ of the invitation that had coincided with the controversial Indian delegation’s attendance to the CHOGM, informed sources within the TNA told TamilNet on Monday.
Full story >>

Uprooted Tamils in Trincomalee demand justice for genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 November 2013, 14:37 GMT]
A section of uprooted Tamil families from Champoor, now staying at one of four so-called welfare centres in Trincomalee, staged a protest on Saturday carrying slogans that demanded justice for genocide and urged global attention on the continued refusal by the Colombo government in allowing them to resettle in their own lands in Moorthoor East. On Friday, a day before the protest, the occupying Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives, went on a house-to-house and camp-to-camp round instructing the Tamils not to take part in any protest during the ‘Sri Lanka CHOGM’. Subsequently, the protest was held in the premises of Ki’liveddi camp. The SL police who came to the Ki’liveddi camp on Saturday confronted the protestors and said they should not carry any placards with slogans. However, the uprooted people were firm in staging their protest with the presence of Tamil politicians.
Full story >>

PPT to investigate British, US, Indian role in Sri Lanka's genocide of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 November 2013, 12:49 GMT]
The Sri Lankan state as well as Britain, India and the USA will be accused of orchestrating a genocide on the Tamil people by the International Human Rights Association Bremen (IMRV) and the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka (IFPSL). The charge will be heard by a Tribunal held under the aegis of the Rome based 'Permanent Peoples Tribunal' (PPT). The 'People's Tribunal' relies on a high profile panel of judges that has been selected by the PPT to invoke a robust moral opinion. The PPT in Rome has sent the letters to the 4 States concerned informing them of the investigation to be held in Germany in December 2013, informed sources told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Mauritius conference calls for referendum, transitional administration

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 November 2013, 17:19 GMT]
International Conference for Tamil Diaspora Solidarity (ICTDS) held in Mauritius, and was officially opened by the President of Mauritius, resolved on Sunday urging the international community, to conduct independent international investigation into genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan state; to set up a transitional administration in the Tamil homeland to stop on-going structural genocide and to conduct a referendum within the Tamil homeland and the diaspora for the Tamil nation to exercise its right to self-determination.
Full story >>

Colombo suspends flights to Jaffna ahead of CHOGM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 November 2013, 10:47 GMT]
In an apparent move to make foreign diplomats and journalists attending Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting [CHOGM] in Colombo steer away from Jaffna and block them from witnessing the protest of uprooted people of Valikaamam North as well as meeting their representatives, Colombo government has instructed the only private passenger flight operator, FITS Aviation (Pvt) limited, to suspend all flights from Ratmalana in Colombo to Palaali in Jaffna till 18 November. On Tuesday, the Canadian officials visiting North had to travel by road to Jaffna.
Full story >>

TYO-UK condemns Cameron for ‘engagement’ with genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 November 2013, 22:45 GMT]
Condemning British Prime Minister David Cameron for his decision to participate in CHOGM in Sri Lanka, TYO-UK, in a press statement released on Monday accused Mr. Cameron of engaging with a genocide-accused state and for “pushing for a solution to be chosen by the Sri Lankan government, one which the Tamil nation is threatened by.” The release further conveyed its dismay over the willingness of Britain and other countries to give approval to the Sri Lankan ‘reconciliation’ model, which in practice amounts to genocide of the Tamil nation. Speaking to TamilNet Shanyuga Ganesan, TYO activist and law student at the University of Leicester expressed her regret at Mr. Cameron’s decision. “For a Tamil youth whose vote now counts in this country, I can't seem to digest the decision made by the Prime Minister to attend the CHOGM. We just feel like we are not being heard,” she said.
Full story >>

Colombo spends funds from military budget for wedging North from East

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 November 2013, 01:24 GMT]
Aiming to increase the number of Sinhala settlers in the newly created division of Ma’nalaa’ru in Mulliath-theevu, which has been Sinhalicised into ‘Weli-oya’, the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has made hurried arrangements for bringing in 2,000 new Sinhala families, informed sources in Mullaith-theevu told TamilNet. Colombo government has allocated funds for the Sinhalicisation scheme under the Sri Lankan ‘defence expenditure’, the sources further said adding that large tracts of forest reserves have also been cleared for the colonization scheme.
Full story >>

Colombo simulates ‘clustered camp’ for uprooted people of Valikaamam East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 November 2013, 23:27 GMT]
Colombo deployed its officials on Friday to showcase a ‘clustered camp’ project in Valikaamam East in Jaffna, promising ‘settlement’ to a few hundred uprooted Tamils in a deceptive move of moving a few hundred uprooted people from their camps outside the former ‘High Security Zone’ into the clustered camp environment in former grazing lands at Idaik-kaadu and Antony-puram near Palaali in Valikaamam East. Around 150 uprooted people from different camps were taken with journalists from South to showcase the ‘settlement’, a smokescreen move by SL military just ahead of Sri Lanka CHOGM to be held this month. More than 51,000 uprooted people from Valikaamam, which was occupied and declared as HSZ by the SL military, are continuously languishing in more than 10 so-called welfare camps and elsewhere in Jaffna peninsula since 1990.
Full story >>

UK-PM buttressing SL-CHOGM seeks ‘legitimacy’ from London Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2013, 00:43 GMT]
British Establishment’s Prime Minister David Cameron hurriedly convened a meeting of handpicked Tamil articulators in London on Thursday evening to showcase that the diaspora has compromised with his participation at the Sri Lanka-CHOGM. The British effort seeking ‘Wigneswarans’ in London to ‘legitimise’ the CHOGM participation was also aiming at relieving the New Delhi Establishment from the mounting pressure in Tamil Nadu, Tamil political observers in London said. A couple of hours before the meeting, a diaspora media in London published the ‘opinion’ of the PM on his CHOGM participation. The meeting ended with a ‘photo session.’
Full story >>

Puththoor villagers blame SL police for shielding culprits of rape, murder

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 November 2013, 12:23 GMT]
Sinhala police officials of the occupying Sri Lankan State are protecting the culprits committing rape and murder of Tamil women, accuse the residents of Puththoor in Valikkaamam East in Jaffna at a protest held on Wednesday following the recent rape and murder of 27-year-old woman, Maithili Amirthalingam, who was recovered dead from a well near her house on 29 October. The SL Police officials was attempting to protect the culprits by stating that the death was caused by drowning and ignoring the medical report of the Judicial Medical Officer at Jaffna Hospital, the family of the victim told TamilNet on Wednesday. Maithili is the second victim subjected to brutal rape and murder within the last one month in Jaffna.
Full story >>

"Perfidious Albion cannot change its spots"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 November 2013, 03:12 GMT]
Asserting that the Commonwealth is simply a reincarnation of the British Empire and the British Imperial system, Professor Boyle, an expert in international law, remarked that placing the alleged genocidaire Mahinda Rajapakse as the Commonwealth Chairperson-in-office for the next two years, "will expose the Commonwealth as a Sick Joke." Professor Boyle found Prince of Wales and British Prime Minister David Cameron's attendance to CHOGM despicable and drew similarity to the American Founding Father Thomas Paine's charaterization of the British as "Perfidious Albion cannot change its spots," after the massacres of American soldiers at Lexington by the British Hessian mercenaries.
Full story >>

SL military steps up demolition of houses in Valikaamam North, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 November 2013, 23:41 GMT]
Despite the ‘assurance’ to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan by Sri Lankan president’s secretary Mr Lalith Weerthunga that the demolition of houses inside the former ‘High Security Zone’ would be postponed, the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Palaali continues to bulldoze the houses of Tamil civilians in Va’ruththalai-vi’laan and Kurumpachiddi now being transformed into a permanent Sinhala Military Zone in 6,000 acres land in Valikaamam North in Jaffna. The Civil Military Coordination Office of the SL military in Jaffna told the civilians of Valikaamam that the SL military was free to demolish the houses and clear the area as it has officially been taken over by the military Establishment. Journalists were not allowed to witness the destruction.
Full story >>