Colombo stands exposed after attack on democratic protesters: Tamil politicians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 June 2012, 16:35 GMT]
The General Secretary of Democratic Peoples Front (DPF), Kumaraguruparan, who participated in both the protests in the city and in Thellppazhai in Jaffna this week told media that the way the Sri Lankan legal system and the police were deployed, and the way the peaceful protesters were attacked while they were returning home, raised questions whether the SL State wants the people to opt for an armed struggle again. Such suppressive and violent responses by the SL state apparatus has justified the armed struggle waged by Tamils in the past, he said. “You don't attack buses carrying participants of a peaceful protest,” he said. In the meantime, grassroot political activists in Jaffna also recalled that the participants who went in a bus to attend the annual meeting of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), which was held in Batticaloa were also subjected to a similar attack.
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United protests in Jaffna send messages to diaspora, Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 June 2012, 05:06 GMT]
Protests against land grab by the occupying Sinhala military, initiated by the Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) and conducted in unison along with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and civil groups in Jaffna, send messages to Tamils in the diaspora and in Tamil Nadu, especially when such protests are met with oppression of the genocidal Sinhala State in Colombo and its ‘security’ and judicial arms, commented political observers in Jaffna. The scenario has to be understood in the light of Tamil civilians in Trincomalee protesting their villages grabbed for Sinhala military’s High Security Zone being converted into ‘Heavy Industry Zone’ funded by India, and the public opinion forcing even the EPDP members in the civic bodies of Jaffna to voice against land grab, the observers pointed out.
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Colombo deploys riot police, blocks protest against land grab in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 June 2012, 11:47 GMT]
Riot control commandos of the Sri Lankan Police were deployed in large numbers Tuesday morning confronting hundreds of peaceful protesters, who objected the land grab being undertaken by the occupying SL military inside the so-called High Security Zone. The protesters were demanding immediate resettlement in Valikaamam North. Parking several vehicles across the road and deploying armed riot commandos, the officers of the SL police told the protesters that they would not be allowed to march on the KKS Road to hand over a petition at the Divisional Secretariat in Thellippazhai. The protestors have given one month for the SL authorities to respond and have warned to step up the protest campaign unless there was no favorable response by the SL government to their demands.
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Civil disobedience against occupying SL military's land grab gains momentum

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 June 2012, 15:14 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police in Jaffna on Monday blocked a protest that gained momentum receiving wider participation against the occupying SL military's land grab in the peninsula. As hundreds of activists gathered in front of the Jaffna Bus Stand, the SL Police appealed to the Judge of the District Court stating that the Police had information that 'destructive elements' were about to use the protest to disturb normalcy in the city and blocked the protest at last minute. The protest, initiated by the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) and attended by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mano Ganesan's Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) and the leftist parties from the South as well the support it received from the Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) and the trade unions including the teachers trade union, marked the protest as first of its kind in the post-war scenario in the peninsula.
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Declare for referendum in any unity meeting

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 June 2012, 00:06 GMT]
All groups of Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora, seeking various shades of political solution beyond the present constitution of Sri Lanka, should meet together to present a joint stand of them, is an opinion currently pressurising all of them, mainly the TNA, both the factions of the TGTE, GTF and the Country Councils in various Western countries. While it is well known that the pressure ultimately comes from dubious international crisis management forces that are keen in diffusing the national question of Eezham Tamils through ‘tangent’ approaches, Eezham Tamil political groups could make use of the move to solidly present certain fundamentals to the edification of the so-called international community and India. The most fundamental, democratic and irrefutable stand is to demand for getting an answer from the concerned people through a referendum.
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Book of veteran Eezham Tamil writer published in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 June 2012, 20:53 GMT]
A collection of writings on the antiquity and traditions of Eezham Tamils written by Mayilangkoodaloor P. Nadarajan was launched at I’nuvil in Jaffna on last Sunday. 76-year-old Mr. Nadarajan has spent a lifetime in Eezham Tamil studies, editing old texts and in bringing out valuable publications. He is regarded as a symbol of selfless service to Tamil studies, benefitting school children to university academics. Generations of writers, researchers and publishers were benefitted by his editing skills in Tamil.
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Civic bodies in Jaffna resolve not to provide lands to SL military

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2012, 12:21 GMT]
The civic bodies in Jaffna have resolved that they would not allow the lands that come under the authority of the civic bodies to be appropriated for military purposes. “As the elected members of the public, we are not going to allow the lands to be deployed for the construction of military cantonments against the will of our people, whom we represent,” was the decision taken by all the civic bodies, a TNA politician in Jaffna told media Sunday. “The decision was unanimous,” the sources further said.
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US commander, Indian defence minister assure military aid to Gotabhaya in Singapore

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2012, 10:03 GMT]
The Chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, the top most US military commander and Indian Defence Minister A.K. Anthony met genocidal Sri Lanka’s war-crimes-accused Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa behind the screen in Singapore on Tuesday to assure him of their military assistance, especially in the naval field. The high profile meeting took place while Mahinda Rajapaksa was being hosted in London and the US ambassador-designate to Colombo was talking about ‘de-militarisation’ of the north in the island. Singapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam was in Colombo a few days earlier to talk ‘business’. Following the classic British colonial strategy, Sri Lanka, Burma and Singapore are mobilised to meet threats from the East, analysts said.
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Kellner: Rights improvement by Colombo imperative to prevent 2013 CHOGM disaster

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 22:58 GMT]
"Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse should not have been allowed to attend the jubilee celebrations. The mistake of inviting him was not made by the Queen or the Buckingham Palace; the mistake was made by the Commonwealth in the last summit at Perth where they took no action against mounting evidence of human rights violations exposed by Channel-4 among others," the Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Peter Kellner, said, adding the "next Commonwealth summit expected to be held in Sri Lanka next year will be a disaster if there is no marked improvement in human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Sustained protests carried out by large numbers of Tamil expatriates marked Rajapakse's presence in UK, and fearing disruption to businesses in London his speech to the Commonwealth Business Council was cancelled Wednesday.
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Rajapaksa visit to Queen’s jubilee evokes spontaneous responses

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2012, 01:23 GMT]
Diamond Jubilee celebrating Queen of England hosting genocide-accused Sinhala President Mahinda Rajapaksa evokes spontaneous responses from the leadershipless Eezham Tamils all over the world. The responses emanating from dormant anger are actually addressed to the so-called international community and more than that, are directed against the mediocre claimants for leadership among Eezham Tamils who would not dare to take a step without getting ‘signals’ from the masters in the IC, commented a veteran Tamil political observer in London. Commenting further on the Sinhalese in London welcoming Rajapaksa, he said the Tamils have no qualms about it. The Sinhala nation has every right to seek recognition and it should articulate in every possible way. Our problem is the adamant refusal of the IC and India to see that there are two nations in the island, he said.
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Sinhala Army destroys statues of historic Saiva temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 June 2012, 23:56 GMT]
The Sinhala military occupying Batticaloa has destroyed several tradtional stone-statues at the historic Thaanthaamalai Murukan temple, situated in Paddippazhai DS division of Batticaloa district. The temple, revered by Saivaites in the East as ‘Chinna Kathirkaamam’ and the land of 25 acres around it, were declared in 1959 as a Saiva Sacred Area according to the decree entered by the Court of Law in Ceylon. The area, which was safeguarded by the Tamil Tigers for more than 12 years since 1994, has now been subjected to the intrusion of Colombo's Archaeology Department and the SL Army after the war. The villagers allege that Colombo is attempting to construct a Buddhist stupa on the land that belongs to the historic Saiva temple.
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SL military confiscates state lands from civic bodies in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 June 2012, 14:02 GMT]
As far as Eezham Tamils are concerned, State in the island exclusively means the occupying Sinhala military. This is once again vigorously demonstrated in the North, as the Sinhala military has started confiscating State lands from elected civic bodies in the North at gun point. The Sinhala colonial governor Maj. Gen. GA Chandrasri facilitates the process by appointing Sinhala Government Agents/ Asst. Government Agents in many of the districts in the North and by transferring Tamil officials not cooperating with the land grab for Sinhala colonies and the use of the military. Now the elected civic bodies in Jaffna too are threatened to give up not only State lands but also to agree to confiscation of private lands by the occupying military. Washington and New Delhi have discovered an Israel in the Sinhala State to groom in South Asia.
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Unique temple of Tamil folk heritage found destroyed, desecrated in HSZ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2012, 05:25 GMT]
A unique temple of Eezham Tamil folk heritage, dedicated to Kooddaththaar, a deity historically worshipped by a soldier guild that got absorbed into the toddy-tapping community, was found destroyed in bombing and its rare bronze idol sawed off and stolen at the Vasanthapuram locality of I’lavaalai in Jaffna. For the last two decades the locality was under the ‘High Security Zone’ (HSZ) of the occupying Sinhala military. Recently, when some fringes of the HSZ were allowed for resettlement, the people of Vasanthapuram returned. Finding their temple destroyed and the deity missing they now worship only the pedestal remaining. Vasanthapuram is where the occupying military has built lines of a few monotype houses for the resettled people and often shows them off to visiting foreign dignitaries as an example of its ‘reconciliation’ efforts.
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Para-gala, Para-goda, Kat-paa'rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2012, 23:01 GMT]
The rock hill
The rock hill or rocky bank
The rocks
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All are Sinhalese, Tamils have no territorial right: Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2012, 16:28 GMT]
“Earlier before the war all were Sinhalese,” in Sri Lanka. It is not appropriate to view the north of the country, over which a separatist war was fought, as a predominantly Tamil area, SL presidential sibling and defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was cited saying by the BBC News that interviewed him in Colombo. Commenting, a political analyst in the island said: The Rajapaksa regime, including its former military commander Sarath Fonseka, has been repeatedly reflecting only the pathological aspiration of the Sinhala nation to make State exclusive for it in the island. India and the USA unnecessarily blight it, rather than conceding to the innate reality of allowing the Sinhala nation to have its trouble-free State by separating the country of Eezham Tamils.
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SL military coerces Jaffna University students to closed-door talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 May 2012, 06:21 GMT]
The commander of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe, intimidated leaders of the boycotting students of the Jaffna University to come for a closed-door meeting at the occupation headquarters on Wednesday to tell them that the SL military would not provide security to students if they engage in political or social activities. The students were boycotting classes since last Friday, after an attack on the students’ union secretary, Mr. Dharshananth, when he was going to the university to organise Mu’l’livaaykkaal remembrance. Demanding security assurance to come from the Vice Chancellor of the university, earlier the students refused to talk directly with the occupying military unless it was an open meeting involving the media. But through the VC the military threatened the students of ‘dire consequences’ to force them into a closed-door meeting.
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Tamils will never accept Sri Lanka constitution: Sivajilingam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2012, 00:43 GMT]
Eezham Tamils were not a party and will never accept the one-sided constitutions Sri Lanka enacted either in 1972 or in 1978, said former TNA parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam speaking in Jaffna on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The 1978 constitution not only continued the unitary concept but also made it more autocratic under executive presidency. The Amendments, including the 13 Amendment only strengthened the unitary character. Therefore, Tamils will not accept solutions bound by these constitutions. Based on the right to self-determination we demand the right to rule ourselves in our land, Sivajilingam said.
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1972 constitution reminds Tamils not to backtrack idea of nationhood

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 18:05 GMT]
The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised a unitary Sinhala-Buddhist state, was enacted without the participation or mandate of Eezham Tamils. Not only their political opposition was brushed aside but even the judiciary also played a game against legal challenges. The constitution forced the shift in Tamil polity from federal to the idea of right to self-determination of the nation for independence, pointed out Jaffna University Law Lecturer, Guruparan Kumaravadivel on Tuesday, citing legal cases involving the republic. “You don't have to go further and look for anyone else than Murugesu Thiruchelvam's argument in the Amirthalingam trial-at-bar as to why our politics should be done on the idea of Tamil nationhood and self-determination,” Guruparan said addressing especially to the people in the TNA.
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40-year-old Sri Lanka constitution burnt at cremation ground of Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 02:05 GMT]
The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised the unitary Sinhala-Buddhist State and brought in the name ‘Sri Lanka’, against the wishes of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, has been burnt on its 40th anniversary on Tuesday, 22 May 2012, at the spot where the LTTE leader Pirapharan's mother was cremated but desecrated by the occupying Sinhala forces last year.
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Remembering Mu’l’livaaykkaal is for edification of international community

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 22:14 GMT]
Remembering Mu’l’livaaykkaal is not wailing for a tragedy. It is remembering the highest achievement of modern Tamil history, when Tamils decisively said no to an entire international community abetting a genocidal state. Mu’l’livaaykkaal is not an end of a journey. It calls for our massive re-commitment of collective political aspirations more than ever, as the Sri Lankan state has intensified its second phase of genocide, again aided by the international community, said Dr. Jude Lal Fernando, addressing Mu’l’livaaykkaal rememberance event in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday. Dr. Fernando, a Sinhalese currently lecturing and doing post-doctoral research in peace studies in Ireland was one of the main co-ordinators of the Dublin Permanent People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka held in January 2010.
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