'EU should coordinate powers to bring justice to Eezham Tamils'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 September 2010, 05:08 GMT]
While powers and countries like Norway, preoccupied with geo-strategy and ‘development’, ignore the fundamentals of the crisis in the island, the European Union should work towards convincing and coordinating them in bringing political justice to Eezham Tamils, said 62-year-old Jegatheeswaran Arunachalam, an Australian national who witnessed the war in Vanni to its end. The EU, consisting of old nations that have gone through the gravity of national question in history, is in a better position to grasp appropriate solutions, he said. “As an immediate action, the EU should send a fact finding mission that includes members of the diaspora, and it should work for an internationally guaranteed situation for the diaspora to independently reach out its kith and kin in the island”, Jegatheeswaran, now on a Walk for Justice mission across Europe with two fellow activists, told TamilNet Friday.
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Polgolla

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 September 2010, 22:25 GMT]
The coconut-palm grove
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Ancient port near Hambantota had Dravidian name mixed with Prakrit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 September 2010, 18:14 GMT]
Jars, Black and Red ware pottery and some timber sections were found in 2008 at a depth of 31 metres under sea, at a probable shipwreck site around 3 km off the coast of Godawaya, between Hambantota and Ambalantota in the Southern Province. Earlier, divers retrieved a stone bench having symbols engraved on it from the site. Stone pillars, probably remains of an old maritime structure were excavated and reported in 2001 at Godawaya fishing village, while a stone anchor was found in the sea near the coast in 2003. A late Brahmi inscription of 2nd century CE found on a rock at the Buddhist temple of Godawaya gives the ancient name of the port as Goda-pavata Patana, which is largely Dravidian mixed with Prakrit.
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Alternative Development

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 September 2010, 06:35 GMT]
There is no point in diaspora arguing with officials and politicians over development, because, they ‘do know’ what they are doing. Instead the diaspora should think creatively in identifying overlapping areas of interest in development, without compromising the national aspirations. Human resource development is a potential area, needed both by the ‘developers’ and nationalists. Eezham Tamils have credible institutions at home and grass root organisations in the diaspora to carryout it. Ask the developers whether they are prepared to give direct aid. If they decline and if their interest is only in prodding the diaspora to Rajapaksa and in devising KP-line of politics, then the diaspora need not care for them.
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'India should stop calling Eezham Tamils a minority'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 September 2010, 00:30 GMT]
Eezham Tamils are a nation having historical sovereignty and territory in the island called Sri Lanka. Members of the Indian Establishment should stop humiliating them any further by calling them as ‘minority’. Tamil brethren of Tamil Nadu should be sensitive enough and stop such fundamentally faulty approaches and psyop war of the New Delhi-Chennai-Colombo axis on the historical nation of Eezham Tamils in the island. Edification of Chennai and New Delhi is basic to make the world see the crisis in realistic perspectives. Eezham Tamils, in their casual and social interaction should consciously stop using the recently invented name 'Sri' Lanka of genocidal connotations, when an official Tamil name Ilangkai and another ancient Tamil name Eezham are available to refer to the island, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Boycott Colombo International Tamil Writers Conference - Tamil Nadu Creativists

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 September 2010, 06:36 GMT]
The Association of Tamil Creativists in Tamil Nadu against the Colombo International Tamil Writers Conference to be held in Colombo from 5th to 8th January 2011 has appealed to all Tamil writers to boycott the Colombo conference in a message to media released Tuesday in Chennai. Several leading Tamil creativists including writers, artists, film industry persons and journalists who took part in the Tuesday press meet have signed the appeal.
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Ranil Wickremasinghe in India on official visit

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 September 2010, 09:02 GMT]
The leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Ranil Wickremasinghe Thursday evening left for India on an official visit. He flew first to Chennai to meet Tamilnadu politicians soon after meeting the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Ms Nirupama Rao in Colombo, sources in Colombo said.
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Counterinsurgency, development conquistadors and economic integrators

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 10:50 GMT]
Many Eezham Tamils wonder at some recent political developments but they waste their energy in concentrating on individuals. The individuals, whether KP, section of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, others who come out one by one with statements and ‘development’ agenda in support of the KP-line of politics, and the members of the ‘task’ group that executed the sequence are unimportant. Why they are mobilised so and what makes them to take that line of polity are more important.
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'Anti-Tamil ideology, international meddling make reconciliation impossible'

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 14:42 GMT]
In a recent paper titled "Why National Reconciliation in Sri Lanka Is Not Possible," Brian Senewiratne, a renowned physician and an Australia based Sinhala expatriate, says although he had realized that ‘national reconciliation’ in Sri Lanka was ‘totally unrealistic’, after witnessing the major human rights violations inflicted upon the Tamil people, what has made the reconciliation really ‘impossible’ was the most serious recent slaughter of Tamils with features of genocide. In addition, what makes reconciliation ‘most unlikely’ is ‘international meddling’ and ‘power play’, he argues. The 78-year-old member of the Bandaranaike family, who is a long-time defender of the Eezham Tamil cause, also argues in his paper that even the real development of the Sinhala areas is not possible if the ‘developmental power’ is left in the hands of those in Colombo.
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Politicising religious reformation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 August 2010, 09:02 GMT]
Around 300 goats and countless chickens were sacrificed in a folk ritual on Wednesday at the Kaa’li temple in Munneasvaram, Chilaapam (Chilaw), in the Puththa’lam district of the North Western Province. A group of Buddhist monks marched in protest and when prevented, the angry monks sat on the road and refused to move until the ritual was over. Tension developed in Chilaapam, media reports from Colombo said. The demography of the region is largely made of Sinhalicised Tamils and some surviving pockets of Tamils. A considerable number of Sinhala Buddhists also took part in the folk ritual, Wednesday, and academics wrote on Buddha’s denouncement of animal sacrifice and rituals of Vedic Brahmins. When around 40,000 Tamils were slaughtered in Vanni last year, the Buddhist establishments in the island were either silent or encouraged it.
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Sri Lanka ambassador's refugee claims absurd, says US Academic

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 10:23 GMT]
Robert Oberst, professor of political science, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and an expert on Sri Lanka commenting on Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canada, Chitranganee Wagiswara's remark that Tamil boat refugees were a "human smuggling operation with links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," said Wagiswara's claims "would be offensive, if they were not so absurd," and added that if Wagiswara wanted to silence critics, "she would be better served to persuade her government to allow outside independent observers into the Tamil areas to report on the conditions rather than to slander and attack those who question her government," Rediff.com reported.
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USA donates maritime hardware to SL military

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2010, 12:48 GMT]
Major General Darryll Wong, Chief of Staff and Commander of the Hawaii Air National Guard and Valerie Fowler, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Monday donated maritime hardware to Sri Lanka Air Force to assist the Sri Lanka military in ensuring the safety and security of Sri Lanka's territorial waters, a press statement issued by the US Embassy in Colombo said. "Safe and secure seas are in the interests of both our countries," the statement further said. In the meantime, Tamil Nadu fishermen along the coastal areas, continue to complain that Sri Lankan military has been systematically stepping up violence against them in the traditional waters of Palk Strait.
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Australian ‘Sri Lankans’ test conscience of international Tamil writers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2010, 02:06 GMT]
Creative writers are conscience keepers of humanity. They are neither bound by nor are contributors to authoritarian forces. They don’t need ‘sponsors’ whose ‘sponsors’ have bloodstained hands. In the name of ‘International Tamil Writers Forum’, some Australian Tamil individuals donning ‘Sri Lankan’ identity want international Tamil writers to meet in Colombo, January next year. They promise passage, boarding, lodging and even a tour around ‘Sri Lanka’ for those who come forward. The sponsors say they have been organizing the international meet hitherto in Australia for the last ten years, but this time they want to have it in Colombo. What is the message these conscience keepers want to give to international Tamils and to the world of creative writers, asks a writer in Colombo who has no freedom to reveal name.
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Morawaka

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 22:29 GMT]
The side of Mora trees (Nephelium longanum)
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‘Development’ conquistadors have no appetite for psychological need of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Psychotherapy provides meaning for the enormous suffering people have undergone to hope for the future and to hope for trust in the world, says Daya Somasundaram of the University of Jaffna, one of the very few psychiatrics serving the war affected Eezham Tamils in the island. Considering the long history in the island, the meaning comes only when Eezham Tamils get their land and affairs into their hands and when their nation is recognised. But the ‘development’ conquistadors of the West and India show no appetite for basic psychology needed for regeneration in the context of the island, commented Tamil circles, citing Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao who is scheduled to visit the island saying that conflict in the island had ended and India has to go beyond rehabilitation to look at development, without any reference to the crux of the matter.
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Indian HC refuses visa to head of Northern fishermen society representatives

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 August 2010, 06:48 GMT]
Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka refused to issue visa to the president of the Northern Fishermen Societies Federation, S. Thavaratnam who was to head the delegation of 23 representatives from Northern Sri Lanka to hold talks with their counterparts in Tamil Nadu. The former secretary of Vadamaraadchi Fishermen Society, K. Sooriyakumaran is now leading the delegation which is engaged in the talks now, sources in Jaffna said.
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Senior envoy of Indian government to visit Sri Lanka in September

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 21:10 GMT]
Indian Foreign Minister Nirupama Rao who was in Chennai Wednesday met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at his residence in Gopalapuram. Speaking to the media after meeting the CM she said that a senior officer of the Central government will be visiting Sri Lanka as a special envoy in September and that he will meet the Tamils affected by the war and learn about the resettlement of the displaced Tamils and explore ways to provide livelihoods for them, sources in Chennai said.
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SLN creates rift between Northern, Tamil Nadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 07:33 GMT]
Local fishermen in Valveddiththu'rai in Northern Sri Lanka, urged by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), chased away the Indian fishing trawlers illegally fishing in Valveddiththu'ai seas Tuesday night as talks between the fisheries society representatives of Tamil Nadu and Northern Sri Lanka began Wednesday. Fishermen societies in Jaffna peninsula appealed to the local fishermen not to fall prey to the malicious efforts of Sri Lanka government and its armed forces to ruin the cordial relationship between the fishermen of Tamil Nadu and Northern Sri Lanka, sources in Vadamaraadchi said.
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Fishermen society delegation from North leaves for Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2010, 06:01 GMT]
A delegation of 23 representatives of the fishermen societies in North will leave for Tamil Nadu Monday afternoon to Trichi to participate in meetings with the representatives of major fishermen societies in Tamil Nadu, sources in Jaffna said. Two Catholic priests from Mannaar and Jaffna who had organized the programme will be accompanying the delegation. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka government has announced that two officers of the Sri Lanka Fisheries Ministry will be present in the meetings between the representatives to be held in Tamil Nadu. This reveals the keen interest of Sri Lanka government to learn first hand the nature and scope of the meetings in Tamil Nadu, the sources added.
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Revisiting Sinhala nationalist mindset

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2010, 00:15 GMT]
As long as Sinhala nationalist mindset deny the antiquity and right of Eezham Tamil nation in the island and unable to come out with appropriate political models, no ‘reconciliation’ will be possible and there will be only subjugation. The Tamils don’t deny the Sinhala nation in the island but they are not reciprocated. It has become a must that the national question be decided with secession for any genuine reconciliation at least in the future. The ‘kohomba kankariya’ model of the past envisaged by some academics, who want to be ‘Tamil and Sri Lankan,’ will not work under current norms of Sinhala nationalism. If the current subjugation of Tamils continues there won’t be anyone in the island in future even to read what these academics have written in Tamil, says an academic of Tamil studies in Jaffna.
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