‘Tamils in Norway should take hint from question posed by former peace monitor’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2015, 23:56 GMT]
The judicial model being advocated by the Sri Lankan State following the UNHRC Resolution in Geneva is set to cause headache for Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as soon as Colombo summons the former Norwegian peace envoys as witnesses in what is being interpreted largely as a domestic mechanism with international ‘assistance’, writes Christian Ranheim, a Norwegian Human Rights and Law Consultant, who was a former member of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that monitored the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement between Colombo government and the LTTE. In a blog article on Thursday Mr Ranheim has hinted that Oslo's participation in a ‘Sri Lankan’ domestic court would be a matter of debate, if the judicial process in Colombo is not seen as a legitimate one.
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Tamil political prisoners complain about increased harassment at SL prisons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 2015, 22:18 GMT]
The intelligence operatives of the Sri Lankan military and the prison officers are threatening the Tamil political prisoners against their attempts to file Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions challenging their continued imprisonment, the families visiting the prisoners from Batticaloa told TamilNet this week. When the families are visiting the prisoners, two intelligence operatives were accompanying the imprisoned Tamils. In the meantime, rights activists from Batticaloa, providing free legal assistance to the prisoners in Colombo Magazine prison and at Anurdhapura prison, complain that the prisoners were unable to communicate with them about filing FR petitions.
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David in 2012: Diaspora duty-bound in advancing independent polity of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 October 2015, 23:32 GMT]
The late Gandhiyam David, when interviewed in Tamil Nadu in 2012 for TamilNet, categorically stated that an independent state for the Tamils was the only viable solution. The USA was playing “double game” behind the back of Eezham Tamils. India took a decisive role in Colombo's war against Tamils. It was Pirapaharan who defended Eezham Tamils through the army he had built up independently, he said. After decades, Colombo had realised the crucial political backing it needed from New Delhi to militarily destroy the Tamil movement and India played a key role during the Mu'l'livaaykkaal massacre, before and after that. It was only recently they are trying to get out and the Chinese are getting into their boots to transform the island into a base for Chinese politics, he said stressing that Tamils need independent people-centric mobilisation to preserve their existence as Eezham Tamils.
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OISL report downplays mass killings, silent on genocide: Law academic

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2015, 23:09 GMT]
An article which appeared on Monday in the Blog of the European Journal of International Law (EJIL: Talk!), comparing the 2011 UN's Panel of Expert's report on Sri Lanka with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) 2015 report, points out that the OISL shies away from estimating the scale of deaths and avoids attributing to the [Sri Lanka] government's intent in directing attacks against the civilian [Tamil] population. The article adds that "given this shift of focus away from mass killings of civilians...it is not surprising the OISL is silent on the crime of genocide..." The article is authored by Umesh Perinpanayagam, an Eezham Tamil academic, who works as a researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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Ex-LTTE Women's Political Head Thamilini dies of cancer at 43

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2015, 18:37 GMT]
Sivakamy Sivasubramaniyam alias Thamilni, who was formerly the head of LTTE's Women Political Wing, has passed away on Sunday at Maharagama cancer hospital after battling cancer for some months, news sources in Colombo said. Coming from an Up-Country Tamil family settled in Paranthan in Vanni, Ms Thamilini served in the LTTE for almost 18 years and had earned the trust of the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan for her political work. Thamilini was one of the foremost political leaders of the LTTE, who had proved that women were not second to men in contributing to the liberation of the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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Tamil prisoners in North demand Colombo to respond through NPC Chief Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2015, 10:11 GMT]
The deviating section of ITAK parliamentarians within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), led by R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran, have deployed divide and conquer tactics to deceive a section of Tamil political prisoners in the Magazine prison in Colombo to drop their hunger-strike until November 07, Tamil political prisoners in Anuradhapura prison told TamilNet Saturday morning. The political prisoners have severely criticized the move by Mr Sumanthiran and demanded all the parliamentarians of the TNA to collectively address the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister on securing their release without being treated as criminal offenders. The deceptive move by ITAK politicians comes after a meeting they had with Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the justice minister of genocidal Sri Lanka, who has been insulting the prisoners by saying there were no Tamil political prisoners in the SL prisons.
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Health of hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners worsens

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2015, 23:42 GMT]
At least 20 of around 300 Eezham Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike at 11 prisons in the island have been admitted to hospital by Friday night, according to news sources in Colombo and Jaffna. The prison authorities of genocidal Sri Lanka have refused access to the relatives and rights activists to witness the deteriorating situation of the hunger strikers in the prisons. While ITAK Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran failed to secure tangible results in his meeting with SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, the students and teachers of Jaffna University, together with the relatives of the imprisoned Tamils, have stepped up their mobilisation demanding immediate release of the political prisoners. The Commission For Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, in a statement issued on Friday, has demanded immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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Kos-gulana

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2015, 22:42 GMT]
The hillside forest having jack trees
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Occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka silently grabs more lands in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2015, 06:56 GMT]
After securing secret deals with the major powers on the continuation of the occupying Sri Lanka Army as the lascarine force needed to maintain the artificial unity of the island coupled with the external ambitions of global domination, the new regime of the genocidal State in Colombo has encouraged its Gajaba Regiment to permanently seize more lands in the strategic enclave of Poonakari (Pooneryn), which is situated at the entrance to Jaffna Peninsula facing the Palk Bay. Similar occupation is also reported in Ki'laali, the former defence line situated on the other entry route to Jaffna through Vanni mainland. The SL military has been surveying the lands without the public noticing them along the coast of the Jaffna lagoon this week. However, landowners of Kailaayar-thoaddam in Poonakari confronted the SL military on Tuesday.
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SL ‘Justice’ Minister draws flak, Tamil prisoners demand Sirisena's response

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2015, 21:27 GMT]
Mr Mano Ganesan, who has recently become SL minister for ‘National Dialogue’ visited Colombo Magazine Prison on Wednesday and discussed with the Tamil political prisoners who are on hunger strike demanding immediate action from the Sri Lankan Government on their release. The prisoners on hunger strike categorically told Mr Ganesan that they were not prepared to drop their hunger strike without a favourable response from SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. The families of the prisoners on hunger strike have strongly condemned Colombo's minister of Justice, Mr Wijeyadasa Rajapakse who went record claiming there were no ‘political prisoners’ in the prisons.
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Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike need immediate attention: Ananthy Sasitharan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 October 2015, 23:46 GMT]
Three of more than 200 Tamil political prisoners on fast have fainted on the second day of the hunger strike demanding their release. Vijayakumar Kanthasamy, a father of two, was rushed to medical treatment after he fainted at Anuradhapura prison on Tuesday. Similarly, two prisoners fainted at Magazine prison, informed sources said. “We were expecting a positive response during the Papal visit. Nothing happened. Then came the elections and the talk of good governance. Nothing improved. Now, even after co-sponsoring the resolution in Geneva, we are yet to see any sign of evolution taking place in the mind-set of the Sri Lankan State,” a prisoner on hunger-strike said. Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasistharan has condemned TNA leader R. Sampanthan for not demanding immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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David envisaged human emancipation through Tamil struggle: Sachithananthan

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2015, 23:10 GMT]
“The late Gandhiyam David was an example of a very cultured Tamil, soft-spoken, strong in his views, dedicated to his land and rooted to the soil – he was definitely a person who represented Tamil Eelam,” said Ma'ravanpulavu K. Sachithananthan, a senior activist and former UN consultant, in a video interview to TamilNet in Jaffna on Monday while remembering the contributions of the veteran Gandhiyam leader of early 1970s. “Very few people in history make such determined effort to save their community and hold on to their principles. [...] Even today, many of us hold on to very strong views about our future. We may not be there. But the dream will be there. David's dream will be there. [...] His dream was human emancipation through Tamil emancipation. He was dreaming for the community, not because he loved those around him, but because he loved the humanity,” Mr Sachithananthan said.
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EPC CM cites administrative difficulties to buy time from protesting graduates

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 October 2015, 22:19 GMT]
Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister Ahamed Nazeer, who visited the unemployed graduates protesting at Gandhi Park in Batticaloa on Friday urged the protesters to give him time until 31 March 2016 to resolve the unemployment issue. The unemployed graduates, who agreed to drop their hunger-strike, have demanded a meeting with the EPC CM on 24 March to assess the progress, news sources in Batticaloa said. Mr Ahamed Nazeer was telling the representatives of the protesting graduates that there were administrative hurdles in the Colombo government as well as the provincial government in the East and that he needed 5 more months to resolve the unemployment issue.
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Tamils dutybound to spearhead South Asian struggle for global justice: CPI leader

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2015, 23:47 GMT]
A senior leader of the Communist Party of India, C Mahendran, on Thursday urged Tamils living all over the world to prepare for an ever-intense and unceasing form of struggle to win the rights of Eezham Tamils in the pursuit of global justice. The Eezham Tamil leaders should assert their self-consciousness and shed the mentality that justice for the past crimes of Colombo could be achieved through attracting compassion from the international powers, who act alike in the crave for self interest. As a people living across the coastal entry points in South Asia and long affected by the injustices caused by the colonial and globalisation powers that have been entering South Asia through the Indian Ocean, the Tamils are duty-bound to spearhead the struggle for justice, he said.
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Eezham Tamils in Batticaloa protest against continued suppression by Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2015, 22:52 GMT]
Resettled Tamil villagers from around 30 villages in Poaratheevup-pattu division of Batticaloa district, have complained this week that the Colombo regime and its provincial agents in East continue to ignore their requests to contain the wild elephants that have been brought from South into the jungles adjacent to their villages in Paduvaankarai. The wild elephants have claimed the lives of 5 Eezham Tamils within the last 30 days. Despite their repeated complaints, Sirisena's regime remains deaf to calls to control the attacking elephants, the villagers told TamilNet on Wednesday, two days after staging a protest in front of the divisional secretariat at Vellaave'li. In the meantime, Eezham Tamil graduates who have been neglected by Colombo in employment have launched a hunger strike demanding permanent jobs.
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Sirisena's ministry, SL military seize more pasturelands from Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2015, 20:37 GMT]
Genocidal Colombo's Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry, which comes under the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has instructed the SL Divisional Forest Officer in Batticaloa to put up noticeboards annexing more lands to extend the Omunugala ‘Forest Reserve’ in Batticaloa district. Sirisena’s ministry is trying to attach more than 25,000 acres of pasturelands seized by the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa through SL Minister of Environment and Renewable Energey, to the so-called forest reserve. The occupying Sinhala military is blocking Eezham Tamils and their livestock from entering the pastureland. New boards have been put up with warnings and borders have been marked. However, Sinhala colonizers are being encouraged by the occupying SL military to do seasonal cultivation in the pasturelands that are being seized from Tamils under the name of ‘forest preservation’.
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Media, NGOs provide SL cover for Genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2015, 23:32 GMT]
While the UN's Petrie report and the accompanying now-exposed-redacted parts, reveal the maneuvering within the UN diplomats to soften the human rights implications of the mass killings carried out by its member state Sri Lanka, and the open support of the US-UN-India group to Sri Lanka in the UNHRC meetings to provide enough political space and time to prolongate the "investigation time," obviating the need for an international criminal investigations of alleged international crimes, the news media including Reuters and AFP, and NGOs including Amnesty International (AI), and Human Rights Watch (HRW), routinely adopt neutral and pro-Rights language and fail to highlight the UN, US, India triumvirate's efforts to allow Sri Lanka to whitewash the genocidal acts, Tamil activists said.
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Occupying SL Navy reluctant to pull out from Champoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2015, 18:30 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy, which has relocated its naval school, ‘SLNS Vidura’ away from the occupied lands belonging 579 Eezham Tamil families at Champoor in Moothoor East, is reluctant to hand over the lands back to the original owners, the uprooted people of Champoor complain. “We are not going to tolerate the reluctance anymore. If the SL Navy fails to vacate within one week, we will call for protests,” a Tamil activist from Champoor told TamilNet on Friday. “All the owners of the lands have been properly identified. There should be no delay in handing back the lands. But, we are yet to see any move on the part of the SL Navy and the SL authorities in Trincomalee,” a land-owner, who did not wish to be named, told TamilNet.
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China, Russia, India join USA in upholding Agent State in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2015, 17:46 GMT]
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday unanimously adopted the resolution on ‘Sri Lanka’ produced by the USA-led core group consisting 4 UNHRC Member States without any vote. The resolution was co-sponsored by the SL State and was titled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’. Before its adoption without a vote, the resolution had received the support of additional 25 co-sponsors. China, speaking before the adoption of the resolution, extended its support on the basis that ‘Sri Lanka’ had agreed to the resolution which was drafted in consultation. Giving an explanation of the vote after the vote, India said that the consensus resolution underlined the collective desire of the ‘Sri Lankans’ for change, reconciliation and unity and the rejection of extremist voices.
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UNHRC ‘judgement’ harps on Samaraweera oration

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2015, 17:02 GMT]
Except New Zealand, none of the State participants at the UNHRC on ‘Sri Lanka’, Wednesday, has touched the crux of the conflict in the island. Only the New Zealand representative ever uttered the word Tamil in urging solutions. The approach of the UN, set from the very beginning by the USA, totally disregards giving any open recognition to the national cause of the nation of Eezham Tamils and looks at the conflict entirely from the point of saving State in the island. What it painstakingly ‘recognises’ is never to offend the genocidal State. An added dimension visible in the latest UNHRC session is the highlight of the blanket term, “crimes by all sides” to get excused from the crime of not recognising the genocide committed on one by all. Again the line was originally set by the USA.
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