Penang Chief Minister calls for boycott of CHOGM in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 October 2013, 20:14 GMT]
Chief Minister of the State of Penang in Malaysia, Mr. Lim Guan Eng, has called for the boycott of CHOGM in Colombo, Sri Lanka, scheduled to take place in November. Lim Guan Eng is also the Secretary General of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which is the ruling party in the state of Penang. In the DAP’s Central Executive Council (CEC), which is the highest decision making body of the DAP, it was unanimously endorsed that the party, long known for its firm stand on human rights, democracy and justice, would call for the boycott of CHOGM in Colombo, sources close to DAP told TamilNet. The Penang CM's boycott call follows similar call by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and a unanimous resolution in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Thursday.
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Media training centre opened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 October 2013, 13:07 GMT]
Aiming to improve the abilities of Eezham Tamil journalists in Jaffna, a new Media Training Centre, named after former Senior Editor of TamilNet, Maamanithar D Sivaram (Taraki), has been declared opened in Jaffna on Wednesday. The new training centre is situated close to Jaffna Press Club at Raasaavin Thoaddam. Two senior journalists, S. Ratheyan, the former editor of Eezha-murasu, Eezha-Naatham and Namathu Eezhanaadu, and Iya Sachithananthan, who narrowly escaped when the office of the Eezhanaadu newspaper was set to fire by the SL forces in 1982 and who later became its editor, jointly opened the training centre. Journalists and civil society activists from all walks of life were present at the event.
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Fast-unto-death activist demands New Delhi to respect TN Assembly, boycott CHOGM

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 October 2013, 05:03 GMT]
Putting forward 9 concrete demands, Thoazhar (Comrade) Thiyagu, a veteran Tamil activist from Tamil Nadu, has been on a fast-unto-death campaign since October 01st at Va'l'luvar-koaddam in Chennai in Tamil Nadu. As his campaign entered 6th day on Monday, Thoazhar Thiyagu is determined to take forward the struggle, despite doctors warn him about deteriorating health. The genocidal Sri Lankan State should be suspended from the Commonwealth, the venue for the upcoming CHOGM meet should be shifted away from Sri Lanka and the Indian leaders should not take part if Colombo is to host the meet, are among the top demands of the 9-point list. Prominent activists and leaders of movements and parties have been expressing solidarity with Thoazhar Thiyagu and are accompanying him in observing the fasting campaign.
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Diaspora teenager records the Vanni she witnessed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 October 2013, 23:37 GMT]
“Was I a Stranger in My Homeland? Has One Two Lives?” is the title of a book by a young Norwegian Eezham Tamil girl, Malavi Sivakanesan. The book tells the story of how she, as an 8-year-old girl visiting Vanni, enjoyed playing in the sands of her homeland to how she, 6 years later at the age of 14, powerlessly witnessed from Norway the unfolding genocidal onslaught on the coastal strip of the same Vanni in 2009. With a lot of questions on why the global Establishments didn’t do anything to stop the genocidal onslaught despite hundreds of thousands of Tamils, including the children of her age, took to the streets staging demonstrations in an unprecedented way in the West, to why the Tamil youth are still struggling with questions on what is going on and what they should do, she publishes the book at the age of 17.
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TNA should learn from history: Poonkuzhali Nedumaran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 October 2013, 23:38 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) should learn from history, and from the experience of their predecessors, on what should NOT be done, writes Tamil Nadu political activist Poonkuzhali Nedumaran in a feature sent to TamilNet this week. She cited the history of TNA’s predecessor TULF failing in upholding the responsibility it was vested with by the people in 1977, compromising with District Councils and how that triggered the Tamil youth to lose confidence in parliamentary methods. The NPC election results mean communication of a will than participation in governance. With the Eezham Tamils rejecting the polity and rule of the State in Colombo, the TNA must understand the responsibility vested with them by the people, she further said.
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Question raised on truth of Navi Pillay statement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 October 2013, 00:59 GMT]
UN Human Rights chief Ms Navanetham Pillay, in a press interview in Colombo towards the end of her recent visit to the island, has said that no one she had met in the island used the word genocide. TamilNet comes to know that there were specific instances in which responsible civil society members meeting her had told her about genocide in the island, using the very word genocide in English. Ms Navi Pillay held her civil society meetings under ‘Chatham House’ rules. In Vanni she told people that they could whisper in her ear. Has she misused such conditions to suppress what had actually been told to her, in order to shield an imperial design that accommodates genocide by the Agent State? Why should she hide the fact that the island Tamils in deed spoke to her on genocide, asks the civil society in the island.
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Understanding obstacles in structuring people’s struggle for self-determination

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 September 2013, 18:07 GMT]
How do we save national struggles from decimation and structure these struggles as people-centric? This is the uppermost question we have to address in right earnest, observed, Mr Saba Navalan, the editor of inioru.com in the UK, in reading a paper on Sri Lanka’s case study in the 21st century’s movements for self-determination, at an EU-level conference convened by IBON International that took place in the European Parliament last Monday. According to Mr Navalan’s observations, an obstacle in the realization of self-determination is that the upper layer of each ethnic group is held by pro-imperial forces and despite having fundamental contradiction, the upper middle class, in the absence of national capitalism, is comfortable about its association with the pro-imperial class.
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Colombo deploys ‘military land-surveyors’ to seize more lands in Pulmoaddai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 September 2013, 23:41 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military is seizing more lands in Pulmoaddai, a traditional Muslim village in the coast along the border of the Northern and Eastern provinces. In its latest move, the SL military has surveyed 60 acres of lands situated in front of an army camp at 14th Mile Post. Openly claiming that the lands are being taken over for the families of Sri Lankan soldiers under the so-called ‘Ranaviru Gammanaya’ project, the SL military has deployed its own surveyors without the knowledge of the Department of Civil Survey and the Divisional Secretary of the division, civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet.
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‘Tamils vote in NPC not a legitimation of unitary Sri Lanka’: Tamil Nadu activist

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 September 2013, 23:43 GMT]
Arguing that the Northern Provincial Council elections was not conducted for the interests of the Eezham Tamil nation but rather was coordinated by the US-Indian establishments for diverting the attention of the world from the genocide taking place, Umar, activist with the May 17 Movement, stated that the vote of the Eezham Tamils for the TNA was cast against the genocidal Sri Lankan state. Without considering this, some are interpreting the vote as being against the demand of Tamil Eelam and a legitimation of unitary Sri Lanka. In an interview to TamilNet, he further said a political solution can be arrived at only through a referendum amongst the Eezham Tamils in the island, in Tamil Nadu and the diaspora, referring to the overwhelming mandate for the Vaddukkoaddai resolution given by the diaspora in 2010.
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Navi Pillay's oral update, a gross betrayal of Tamils: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 September 2013, 09:24 GMT]
The United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Navanetham Pillay, in her latest oral update to the UN Human Rights Council is more concerned with whitewashing the Sri Lankan government than looking at the tragic situation of Tamils, writes Malaysia’s Penang State Deputy Chief Minister Professor P. Ramasamy, in an article sent to TamilNet on Thursday. “I think that the report should be more appropriately entitled ‘Strengthening Democracy in Sri Lanka’. In essence, close reading of the report in its entirety will reveal that she picked her words carefully to drive home the point that her main interest in Sri Lanka is not about inquiring into gross violation of human rights against Tamils, but to strengthen democracy and human rights in Sri Lanka. Tamils are not given prominence in the report. In fact, Tamils are treated just like another minority in the country, he further writes.
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Pillay ‘balances’ crimes of genocide with crimes of bad governance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 September 2013, 16:30 GMT]
“Four years since the end of the war, the military presence in the north remains considerable,” said UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navanetham Pillay in her update to the UN Human Rights Commission on Wednesday. Stating that she is convinced that the continued attention of the Human Rights Council to the human rights situation in Sri Lanka remains critically important and will be making recommendations in March on appropriate ways it could continue that engagement, Ms Pillay in her oral update following her visit to North and East, gave equal importance to Colombo's bad governance issues in the South, demanding results on both fronts. In the meantime, Tamil Human Rights activists in the island commented that the High Commissioner was shielding the crimes of genocide by ‘balancing’ these crimes against humanity with the crimes of ‘bad governance’ in the South.
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SL military attacks Ananthi's residence in Jaffna, 8 wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 September 2013, 19:35 GMT]
Eight persons, including an election monitor, Lawyer Sugas of PAFFREL, were brutally attacked by the occupying SL military in Jaffna, which besieged the residence of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) woman candidate Ms Ananthi Sasistharan at Araali in Jaffna in the early hours of Friday. Ms Ananthi narrowly escaped from the assault as her supporters had managed to send her away over the wall of the residence as the military rounded up her residence. The Sri Lankan soldiers were searching for her with the intention of physically harming her, those who were present at the residence told media and the election monitors. An independent election monitoring group, CaFFE, has openly stated that the SL military was behind the attack. The public, TNA members and election monitors of various groups are visiting the house of Ms Ananthi on Friday, witnessing the shocking attack.
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Genocidal Colombo appropriates 500 acres at NE border for Sinhala Buddhism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2013, 09:53 GMT]
Under the so-called "Buddha Pooja Boomi" project, the Colombo government has decided to appropriate about five hundred acres of land in Chuvaami-malai area in the traditional Tamil village of Thennai-maravadi that is in the narrow corridor linking the North and East provinces of the country of Eezham Tamils, informed sources in Trincomalee said. Of the five hundred acres, four hundred acres are to be allocated for the construction of a Buddha Vihara and one hundred acres to the Department of Archaeology of the genocidal State. Interestingly, this brand of Buddhism finds patronage from both the Congress as well as the BJP of New Delhi. In the meantime, one of the ‘Singapore principles’ proposed by the South African ‘initiative’ is to provide foremost place to Buddhism, informed circles said.
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Colombo plans forced ‘militarisation’ of ex-LTTE members

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 September 2013, 09:09 GMT]
In a shocking revelation, it is reported that former LTTE members – both men and women – are being intimidated to join the SL military in the East. The paramilitary operatives of Karuna and Pillaiyan groups are being used by the SL military intelligence for this purpose. The former Tiger fighters are threatened that their parents would be in danger if they refuse to join the military. The intelligence operatives have been conducting door-to-door campaign in areas including Vaakarai, Vellaave'li, Kudumpi-malai and Veappa-vedduvaan in Batticoala district intimidating the former Tiger fighters in order to enlist them for the occupying SL military.
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Basil Rajapaksa deploys government employees for UPFA campaign in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2013, 04:59 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa is spearheading the election campaign for the occupying UPFA regime in Jaffna, all the government workers under his ministry, including ‘Samurdhi’ officials, who have access to the grassroots and unemployed graduates, who have been provided trainee appointments on a 10,000 rupee monthly salary, are instructed to work for Rajapaksa’s ruling UPFA, carrying out election campaign among the masses for the coming 7 days starting from Friday till 20th September in violation of the rules for a free and fair election. At least 40 Sinhala ‘Samurdhi’ officials from the South have been brought to Jaffna to supervise the poverty alleviation Tamil workers in Jaffna deployed in the election campaign, civil sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Corruption of Tamil gets into genocidal Colombo’s ‘Hindu’ outfit as well

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 September 2013, 23:40 GMT]
Corruption of Tamil language by the various ministries and departments of genocidal Colombo is a decades-long routine affair. But, it has now come into the Hindu Religious Affairs Department as well, commented a TamilNet reader sending a web page of the department, updated in January this year, with gross errors in language. This shows that even the Hindu affairs department is not in Tamil hands, the reader said, adding that he is sending it to the perusal of the New Delhi Establishment’s former president and Thirukku’ra’l expert Mr APJ Abdul Kalam, who inaugurated the ‘Trilingual’ programme in January 2012, to uphold the unity and integrity of the genocidal State.
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Navi Pillay, a big disappointment: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 September 2013, 13:06 GMT]
Despite the publicity surrounding her visit, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navanetham Pillay “was a big disappointment for Tamils in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. At the end of her visit, she basically revealed her true character of serving the interests of the UN and the larger interests of the Anglo-Saxon world,” writes Malaysia’s Penang State Deputy Chief Minister Professor P. Ramasamy, in an article sent to TamilNet on Monday. Accusing the UN for being an arm of the “arch imperialist power in the world, the United States of America,” Prof Ramasamy said that Ms Pillay’s visit had especially disappointed the sections of Tamils in the US and Europe that had thought that she would make a difference.
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SL colonial governor chooses to ‘boycott’ Swiss ‘development’ function in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 September 2013, 21:06 GMT]
A move by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) inviting the occupying Sri Lanka's colonial Governor in North, Major General (retd) GA Chandrasiri, as chief guest to the opening ceremony of two reconstructed schools in the Jaffna Peninsula on Thursday has ended up in the SL governor ‘boycotting’ the event, news sources in Uduththu'rai said. The controversial move by the SDC had received media attention prior to the event. Tamil politicians also protested against Chandrasiri using the occasion to wage election propaganda in favour of the UPFA government. However, the occupying SL military deployed its soldiers at the venue to demonstrate their occupation of the country of Eezham Tamils and to distribute leaflets canvassing among the public to support SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA in the forthcoming PC elections in the North.
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Sarath Fonseka denies Elilan's surrender

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 September 2013, 23:07 GMT]
“Elilan was never handed over to the army,” claimed Sarath Fonseka, the former military commander of the occupying SL military, at a press conference held in Jaffna on Saturday. “Elilan was an important man and if he was handed over to the army, as the commander of the army, I will know. He was never handed over to the army,” Mr Fonseksa said, once again whitewashing the genocidal SL military from serious war crimes committed under his command during the final days of the war in Vanni. Fonseka, who visited Jaffna on election campaign for his ‘Democratic Party’ went further with a humiliating comment that some families of war-dead LTTE cadres were claiming them as ‘missing’ in order to claim compensation. Sarath Fonseka also went on record blaming the current SL military commander in Jaffna as a very corrupt officer at the press conference held in Jaffna.
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South African initiative props up ‘Sri Lankan’ identity

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 September 2013, 06:42 GMT]
A geopolitical axis of South Africa-Colombo-Singapore, held a “Dialogue promotion amongst Sri Lankans,” by convening a meeting of different political and academic stakeholders at Singapore last week. The very orientation of the axis, as the conference title implies, was to prop up the Sri Lankan State and to make Eezham Tamils to compromise with ‘Sri Lankan’ identity, despite decades of genocide and on-going genocide, Tamil observers in the island said. At least two Establishments of the West, Switzerland and Norway are said to be backing the South Africa process that has an 18 months history behind it. Eezham Tamils have rejected the Sri Lankan identity at the very official introduction of it along with the 1972 republican constitution.
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