EU Court of Justice takes up LTTE case

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 June 2011, 16:49 GMT]
Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, on Tuesday, informed Victor Koppe, attorney for the LTTE, that the Court has taken up the case “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) vs Council of the European Union” (Case T-208/11-9) for hearing. The Registrar of the General Court informed the attorney that the case has been assigned to the Court's Second Chamber. Victor Koppe, filed the case against the European Union for the annulment of the European Union's ban on Liberation Tigers.
Full story >>

US attaché clarification, a linguistic legerdemain, accuses Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 June 2011, 00:03 GMT]
Response from the US State Department on the comments made this week by US defence attaché Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith in Colombo at the controversial 3-day seminar organised by the Sri Lankan military to expound on its defeat of the LTTE earlier this week that the remarks "reflected his personal opinions," and that "[t]hey [the comments] do not reflect the policy of the United States Government,” was "all linguistic legerdemain by the United States Government," accused Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in International Law and a professor at the University of Illinois School of Law.
Full story >>

LTTE mounts legal challenge, says post-Mu’l’livaaykkaal EU ban illegal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 June 2011, 00:20 GMT]
Amsterdam-based Bohler Group's attorney, Victor Koppe, brought an action on behalf of the European wing of the LTTE against the Council of the European Union at the European Court of Justice Thursday for the annulment of the ban on Liberation Tigers, arguing that the LTTE no longer uses military means to achieve its goals, and in post-Mu’l’livaaykkaal context, uses political and non-violent methods to achieve the movement's goals of obtaining Tamil justice and exercising the right to self-determination of the Tamil people. Koppe argues that these rights are protected by the doctrine of fundamental freedoms of speech, association, assembly and movement.
Full story >>

US Defence Attaché in Colombo ‘embarrasses’ Obama administration

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 June 2011, 16:53 GMT]
“Remarks earlier this week by the U.S. Embassy’s Defense Attaché at a conference in Colombo reflected his personal opinions. They do not reflect the policy of the United States Government,” said a spokesman for the U.S. State Department Friday. The comment came in a statement officially distancing the USA from remarks made this week by its own defence attaché Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith in Colombo at the controversial 3-day seminar organised by the Sri Lankan military to expound on its defeat of the LTTE. The USA had earlier declined Sri Lanka’s invitation to attend the controversial seminar. The latest US controversy has raised questions whether the US military officials were also playing a ‘personal counter-insurgency’ role in the Sri Lankan State's war against Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

European United Left upholds Tamil right to self-determination including secession

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2011, 12:52 GMT]
A conference organised by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) at the EU Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, resolved that it supported “the right to self determination of the Tamil-speaking people, up to and including separation, if that is what they wish, while safeguarding the rights of all minorities” and demanded the SL state to shut down the military bases of the “army of occupation” in North and East and sought a political solution addressing the “national and democratic aspirations” of the Tamil people. Heidi Hautala, Green MEP and Chair of EU Parliament's Human Rights Sub Committee, a key speaker at the event, called for a GUE/NGL fact finding mission to the island of Sri Lanka. Vaiko, the leader of the MDMK in Tamil Nadu and Sinhala and Tamil political activists from the island and the diaspora took part in the event.
Full story >>

Tamil independence, a universal issue going beyond state reformation in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2011, 09:36 GMT]
India could do much better by acknowledging the right to independence of Eezham Tamils, by working for international consensus towards it, by structuring an IC-facilitated transition arrangement for it, and by creating an environment for the diaspora to freely interact through Palaali and Trincomalee, for India’s own reconciliation with Tamils and for relieving the island from endangering the entire region, rather than covertly waging ‘counterinsurgency’ and psy-op wars with people of Tamil Nadu and the diaspora through intelligence operatives to save establishments indicted, writes TamilNet commentator in Colombo. The Frankenstein Monster in Colombo is now difficult for its creators and the UN to handle, but Sinhalese alone may able to bring it down and strike true reconciliation if there is an IC decision that Tamil Eelam is inevitable. That is the only way out now, he further said.
Full story >>

Political truth of Mu’l’livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 May 2011, 05:24 GMT]
The Sinhala nation is aware of the massacres, but they justify it the way the USA argues for its invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel argues for invasion of Palestine. For the UN and IC, it was not a mistake but a deliberate action taken by them to protect the Sri Lankan state. The same IC now says there are war crimes and Tamils are victims. Why? They want a group of helpless victims who begin to depend on them to find answers. Tamils had to face the first genocidal massacre of the 21st century, but this should not lead to a sense of helpless victimhood where the very forces who are responsible are seen to be saviours by the Tamils. It is the Tamil people who should decide what their future course of action should be, said Dr. Jude Lal Fernando, post doctoral scholar on International Peace Studies in Trinity College, Dublin, while delivering a speech on 18 May.
Full story >>

India alone can’t be trusted, IC should be involved: TNLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 May 2011, 17:15 GMT]
India can’t be trusted anymore. A solution for the national question of Eezham Tamils in the island has to be reached through wider international participation and guarantee, said former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians and Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) leaders Sri Kantha and MK Sivajilingam in addressing a press conference in Jaffna on Wednesday. Informed circles say India pressurizes the TNA not to come out with any political proposals. But the TNA should immediately table the political demands of Eezham Tamils, based on their right to self-determination. TNLA has no difference of opinion in conceding that the TNA is currently the predominant political representation of the Eezham Tamils and the TNLA is prepared to give all support to TNA in tabling the Tamil proposal, they further said.
Full story >>

HRW: governments should shun Sri Lanka’s whitewash of mass killings

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 May 2011, 01:50 GMT]
Governments should decline Sri Lanka’s invitation to attend a Sri Lankan military conference that seeks to legitimize the unlawful killing of thousands of civilians during the armed conflict with the LTTE, Human Rights Watch said Monday. "This conference is nothing more than a public relations exercise to whitewash abuses. No professional, law-abiding military should take part in this farce," said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. Sri Lanka’s army chief admitted several Western states and Japan had declined the invitation, but India was sending three Colonels whilst Pakistan and Bangladesh are each sending a General, and Russia is sending six officers. The seminar is being sponsored by two Chinese defence companies.
Full story >>

Valveddiththu’rai specially targeted for harassment by occupying SL Army

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 May 2011, 07:20 GMT]
The coastal port town Valveddiththu’rai in the northern coast of Jaffna, the birthplace of the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, remains a targeted a place for harassment by the genocidal Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna. On Sunday, the Army stopped an annual sports-meet event organized by the sports associations of the town and also ordered the removal of the flags of the sports associations displayed for the event. At the involvement of the SL police later, the Army conceded to the conduct of the event, but said that such events should get prior approval from the occupying Army than from anybody else.
Full story >>

Uprooted Champoor Tamils show resolution to get back their land

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 May 2011, 06:48 GMT]
Uprooted Tamils in Champoor, whose lands were taken away by the Sri Lankan government for India's thermal power project, de-populating the Tamil villages and declaring the area as High Security Zone, managed to secure permission from the occupiers to to hold Vaikaasi Pongkal in several centuries old Champoor Paththirakaa'li Koayil on Sunday. The uprooted Tamils prayed for the blessing of Kaa'i goddess that they should be allowed to resettle without further delay in their home villages and in their houses in Champoor area.
Full story >>

Press USA, UK and France to talk to China, Russia: Vidar Helgesen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 05:40 GMT]
“I'm not the best-placed person to suggest how China and Russia could be convinced and how one could pass a resolution at the UN Security Council. One should pose this question to the governments of USA, United Kingdom and France, those who negotiate with China and Russia in New York,” said Vidar Helgesen, the highest-ranking diplomat who headed the Norwegian facilitated peace process, in a video documentary released by the Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils Wednesday, hinting that if the USA, UK and France are really determined China and Russia could always be negotiated to bring in a political solution to the question of Eezham Tamils. “There was a conflict before the LTTE was established; still there is a conflict even after the LTTE has been vanquished; you will not get a solution without a political solution,” Helgesen further said.
Full story >>

Aftenposten-Wikileaks shows shallow understanding of US diplomats

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 May 2011, 19:18 GMT]
Classified cables of US diplomats sent between February 2009 and January 2010, made available by Wikileaks and released in the Norwegian media Aftenposten earlier this month, show how shallow and wanting the understanding of the US diplomats in dealing with the decades-old and still continuing national question and genocide in the island of Sri Lanka, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. The primary responsibility of the diaspora, rather than being ‘guided’ by such diplomacy, is the edification of the neo-Orientalist thinking in the Western capitals, especially in Washington, London and Paris for the replacement of this kind of diplomacy, he further writes, citing what the public opinion has achieved in Tamil Nadu and pointing to where the public opinion has to be directed to in the world by the diaspora.
Full story >>

Ron Ridenour writes on the dilemma of socialist leaning governments on Tamil Genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 May 2011, 13:36 GMT]
The countries in the United Nations are divided in two blocs when it comes to the plight of Eezham Tamils. Those who tag themselves behind a world order promoted by the USA, and those who are in the opposing camp, many of them from the non-alignment movement (NAMs) and Cuba, Venuzela led ALBA countries of Latin America. These countries supported the Sri Lankan state in the previous UN Human Rights Council sessions. “However, ALBA partners now have a chance, whether on the UN Human Rights Council or not, to help the Tamil people in some way, also by calling for an investigation,” writes Ron Ridenour, a veteran US born but now Denmark-based leftist and anti-imperialist, who voiced against the US aggression on Cuba in 1961, jailed in the US for his views on several occasions and contributed extensively to the study of Latin America.
Full story >>

Occupying Army adds insult to injury in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 May 2011, 22:32 GMT]
The commander of the occupying genocidal Army of Sri Lanka, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe accompanied by large number of troops on Saturday visited the Changkaanai Murugamoorthi temple where the chief priest was killed and his two sons were fatally injured in a vicious firing, during a time when the occupiers were terrorising the people of Jaffna after the Heroes Day last November. “A special Pooja to invoke blessing on Commander Security Forces - Jaffna (SF-J) Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe and the troops serving in Jaffna was held,” said the website of the genocidal Army, adding that the Army prayed to stay more and more in Jaffna. Besides adding insult to injury, it was a subtle show of intimidation aimed at silencing or twisting evidence, observers said.
Full story >>

Kohona admits to sending "Killer SMS"

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 20:26 GMT]
Dr Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN, admitted to sending an SMS message through a European intermediary giving instructions to leaders of the Libertation Tigers to surrender, Sydney Morning Herald reported in an investigative story in its Friday edition. In this "white flag" incident Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers is alleged to have gunned down all the LTTE members who surrendered. The Journalist Ben Doherty appeared to have visited Sri Lanka and gathered the pertinent evidentiary information, including a statement from an eye-witness to the incident.
Full story >>

Released ex-Tigers constantly harassed, mentally tortured

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 11:24 GMT]
Even the small section of the former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have been released so far in batches, following prolonged harassments, find themselves further harassed and mentally tortured now by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Jaffna and Vanni. Medical sources in Jaffna say that the inhuman treatment meted out on the former Tiger members by the occupying military and the psychological harassment drives many of them to depression.
Full story >>

'EU parliament leaves justice to the indicted'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2011, 19:44 GMT]
“The EP urges the Sri Lankan government to implement the recommendations suggested by the UN panel of experts and conduct a genuine investigation,” said the European Parliament press release Thursday, leaving the delivery of justice with the genocidal state of Sri Lanka indicted for war crimes by the UN panel report. Eezham Tamils also noted with a feeling of insult added to injury, the statement of the EU parliament that said that the war “ended with the surrender of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)”, where as to their knowledge the war ended with massacre and genocide abetted by many establishments including some of the member states of the EU tagged behind the USA.
Full story >>

War crime, genocide case against Rajapaksa placed in Norway courts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2011, 00:06 GMT]
Leading Norwegian Lawyer on Human Rights, Harald Stabell, has filed a case under the Norwegian national law, against the Sri Lankan President and Commander-in-Chief of the SL armed forces, Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and former Sri Lanka Army commander Sarath Fonseka, now in Rajapaksa's custody, and several other SL commanders, for allegedly committing War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against Eezham Tamils. The case is filed on behalf of the Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils (NCET) and 15 affected Norwegian Tamils. Following the latest revelations by the Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim in Norwegian national media NRK about his knowledge of the white-flag surrender, which turned into a war crime, the lawyers have indicated to the Chief Prosecutor of Norway that evidence may be sought from Mr. Solheim.
Full story >>

Third instance of Australia accepting alleged SL war criminal as ambassador

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 01:21 GMT]
Australia has accepted as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner former Navy commander Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, according to some press reports. Admiral Samarasinghe was commander of the Navy during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s war, including the final months in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were slaughtered. The recently released UN panel’s report states that “[f]rom as early as Feb 6 [2009], the SLA continuously shelled within the area that became the second NFZ from all directions, including air, land and sea.”
Full story >>