Marie Colvin remembered in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 February 2012, 21:06 GMT]
Tamil journalists from various media organizations came together on Monday in Jaffna with civil society members and student representatives of various faculties of the Jaffna University, to pay tribute to the slain war correspondent in Syria, Marie Colvin, who had been in the island covering the conflict earlier. Paying floral tribute, the event, organized by Nimalarajan Memorial Foundation, remembered the late Marie Colvin as a Journalist Friend of Tamils. Meanwhile, remembering Marie Colvin in the diaspora, the London-based International Association of Tamil Journalists came out with a tribute last Thursday, saluting her courage, discipline and commitment to her work and to humanity.
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DDoS attack disrupts TamilNet web traffic

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 February 2012, 23:14 GMT]
Distributed Denial-of-Service Attack (DDoS), identified by the service provider of TamilNet as originating in an orchestrated way from certain affluent parts of the world, has been disrupting web traffic of TamilNet.com since Saturday. The attack on the independent media reporting to the world on Tamil affairs coincides with the opening of the 19th sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) in Geneva on Monday, where the USA and Sri Lanka have already pitched positions in hijacking the focus of issues concerning the cause of genocide-affected Eezham Tamils. TamilNet has been forced to seek expert services in regularising the web traffic. As a media arguing for Eezham Tamil public to take up the issues into their hands, TamilNet depends on the support of nobody other than the Tamil masses and the alternative world.
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SL colonial governor coordinates anti-UN demonstration of SLFP, EPDP in North

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 February 2012, 16:41 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka’s colonial governor, Maj. Gen. G. A. Chandrasri was seen coordinating the two factions collaborating with the Rajapaksa regime, the Angkayan-led SLFP and Douglas Devananda-led EPDP, in staging a simulated demonstration in Jaffna and Vanni against UNHRC discussing Sri Lanka in Geneva on Monday. The simulation forced in sections and individuals waiting for benefits from the Colombo regime. An attendance register was maintained for the participants. However, a media clip that captured comments of a passing-by youth street vendor, universally encapsulated the game on the island. The youth told the unemployed graduates in the ‘demonstration’: “I am not educated like you to perform this act.” The youth has not said that to the ‘demonstrators’ alone, commented media circles witnessing the scene in Jaffna.
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TNA plans boycotting UNHRC, requests people to remain ‘calm’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2012, 19:30 GMT]
Reliable sources informed on Saturday that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) plans issuing a statement on Monday about its non-participation in the UNHRC sessions open in Geneva on that day. The sources also said that the TNA genuinely fears that if the present unstable situation continues, violence could recur and the civilian population could again be the victims. According to thinking in the TNA circles, it is imperative that in the present situation calm should be maintained and nothing should be done which could exacerbate tensions. The reason for TNA boycott is its disappointment in expecting any positive commitment of Sri Lanka at the UNHRC towards addressing the aspirations of Eezham Tamils, despite the TNA’s commitment to solutions within a ‘united and undivided’ Sri Lanka, informed sources said.
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US ‘tables’ Rajapaksa formula while pretending pressure

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2012, 02:30 GMT]
Other than the US attempting to ‘steal’ the credit of passing a resolution on Sri Lanka at the March UNHRC sessions in Geneva, there is no difference between what the US ‘proposes’ and what the genocidal Colombo ‘envisages’ for Eezham Tamils, political observers commented on a ‘leaked’ draft of the resolution as well as on statements made by US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Thursday. Perhaps the only difference the Colombo regime is fussing about is the resolution expecting a time-frame from Sri Lanka to implement the wanting recommendations of the LLRC. The Rajapaksa-regime is not prepared even for that. Despite the US deception on genocide-affected Eezham Tamils, some Tamil politicians in the island, Colombo-based ‘civil society’ and some diaspora lobbyists try to paint a picture that the US ‘pressure’ is bringing in something substantial for Eezham Tamils.
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UNHRC sessions open on Monday amidst US–Sri Lanka gambits

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 February 2012, 07:16 GMT]
On Tuesday, Genocidal Sri Lanka’s foreign minister GL Peiris and its ‘socialist’ ploy Tamara Kunanayakam, SL permanent representative in Geneva, painted a picture of victimisation by the USA, to the 47 UNHRC member states meeting in Geneva for two weeks from Monday. Sri Lanka that conducted the genocidal war and carries out structural genocide labelled as ‘reconciliation’– both primarily architected by the USA– now says that it has no secret deal with the USA on any resolution in the sessions and urges the member states to vote against even the mildest move of the USA proposing Sri Lanka to conduct its own investigations on the war crimes, recommended by its own LLRC. On the same day, military delegations of Iran, Russia and Bangladesh visited Jaffna, and a few days earlier Rajapaksa secretly inaugurated a China project in Jaffna. India maintains an eerie silence.
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Gananath review shows nations divided in perception

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2012, 01:44 GMT]
“I will confess that, as I write this essay, many do see him [Rajapaksa] as someone who “saved” the nation from the brutal LTTE. Surely such a view is not without its truth. But that truth cannot excuse human rights violations that currently afflict the nation as a whole; or for that matter obscure the looming threat of the cultural and political colonisation of the north by the Sinhala Buddhist majority,” writes Gananath Obeyesekere, in reviewing a recent book on Sri Lanka. Commenting, a Tamil academic said Gananath’s reference to ‘nation’ in singular confines to the Sinhala nation, for despite differences of opinion on ways and tactics, many Eezham Tamils see the LTTE as something that was checking brutal genocide by the Sinhala state. The divided perception is sign of nations in plural, justifying their separation even for reconciliation in future, the Tamil academic said.
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Rajapaksa secretly inaugurated China project in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 February 2012, 17:57 GMT]
SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during his last trip to Jaffna on 06 February, ceremonially declared open a renovated hospital and a swimming pool, both of which were criticised by local media, especially the diversion of funds intended to reconstruct schools in Vanni to the completion of modern swimming pool in Jaffna. However, Mr. Rajapaksa had also inaugurated a China backed controversial project in Maathakal under the eyes of Sri Lanka Navy, without any public knowledge, informed sources in Jaffna now reveal. The controversial project to install windmills and solar panels along the coastal stretch from Thiruvadi-nilai to KKS and lease the occupied land of Eezham Tamil families, deprived of resettlement, to a Malaysian corporate of Chinese connections for 20 years was the one secretly inaugurated by the SL President together with the SLN.
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TNA tries to sell Indo-US pre-emption to Eezham Tamil civil society

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 February 2012, 14:45 GMT]
Accepting the implementation of the 13th Amendment that is already in Sri Lanka’s constitution and failed to meet Tamil aspirations, was the subject matter the TNA was trying to impress upon the representatives of the Eezham Tamil civil society, in a meeting that took place in Vavuniyaa for five hours on Saturday. Eezham Tamils should not ‘hang on’ to their right to self-determination was the argument of a Colombo-based lawyer backing the stand of TNA leader R. Sampanthan, while this right was the very basis of the struggle of Eezham Tamils in the last sixty years, democratically as well as militarily, civil society circles told TamilNet. Many of the civil society representatives, especially from the East and Mannaar requested the TNA to conceive better ideas to bring in an interim administration for the North and East to face the current situation.
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Self-denial of heritage in Maldives sends message to Establishments

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 February 2012, 23:49 GMT]
A group of Maldivians who stormed into the National Museum at Male on the day Mr. Mohamed Nasheed resigned from the office of president, destroyed artefacts of pre-Islamic heritage on display. The whole pre-Islamic history is gone and the loss to the nation’s archaeological legacy can never be recouped, The Economic Times said Tuesday, citing Maldivian officials. Most of the artefacts, including statues smashed, belong to Maldivian Buddhism dating between c. 6 – 12 century CE. The vandals destroyed not only the religious heritage but also the literacy heritage as well, because many of the 30 odd coral-stone artefacts destroyed were inscribed with the earliest written records of the country. While media is busy on comparison with Afghanistan, the question arises why the situation deteriorated in Nasheed’s time, when the heritage had found no qualms during Gayoom’s long rule.
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Build capacity when regime tries to take away all capacity: Prof Gene Sharp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 17:26 GMT]
In an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Friday in Oslo, Dr. Gene Sharp, Emeritus Professor of Political Science of the University of Massachusetts, provided some insights on non-violent strategies to be pursued by nations against states and powers that deny them their legitimate rights. “They have to build up some capacity for strength when the regime is trying to take away all capacity for strength from the oppressed people,” he said, adding, “We need to have a wise strategy – not something where you express anger but which achieves smaller victories and finally a big victory.” However, the leading theoretician of non-violent struggle who was not specifically addressing on any of the current struggles, conceded that “The situations are very different for different people of different countries.”
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Occupying SL Army, Police jointly attack Tamil youth in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 February 2012, 18:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka's occupying Sinhala army and police brutally attacked a number of Tamil youth below the age of 25, who were passing by the road in Nedung-kea'ni in Mullaiththeevu district on Tuesday night. The unprovoked and random attack followed some complaints of Sinhala road workers from the South, news sources in Vanni told TamilNet. Sometimes back a similar attack took place in Vanni after a confrontation between some Sinhala visitors from the South and the local people. Such attacks by the colonial forces were to remind the Eezham Tamils in Vanni of their subjugated status, the sources further said.
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EPC puts off debate on controversial ‘land grab’ bill

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 February 2012, 01:37 GMT]
The Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) on Monday put off the debate on the proposed "Town and Country Planning Ordinance Amendment" till February 28 as majority members of the opposition raised objection to the amendment bill. This controversial amendment allows the central government to acquire any land for ‘development’ and ‘religious purposes’ without the consent of the provincial council.
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Pakistan seeks Colombo’s help in deploying genocidal model

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 February 2012, 11:38 GMT]
A high level team of Sri Lankan officials who visited Pakistan were actually on a mission to help Pakistan combat and crush the Baloch freedom fighters or Sarmachars demanding independence from the failing state in South Asia, said an Examiner feature by Ahmar Mustikhan on Monday. Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa was on a two-day visit to Islamabad and signed three MoUs with Pakistan. But secret talks held during the visit were on Pakistan getting Colombo’s ‘expertise’ in crushing Tamil Tigers for deployment against the Balochistan movement, and this matter should be immediately reported to the International Criminal Court, the feature further said.
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SLAF fighter jet crashes in North Western Province

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 February 2012, 11:19 GMT]
A Russian-built MiG-27 fighter jet used by the Sri Lanka Air Force against civilian targets in the country of Eezham Tamils during the war, crashed Monday in the North Western Province. The SLAF deployed Russian built fighters to carry cluster bombs on LTTE and civilian targets in Vanni, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout the war.
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Colombo threatens Tamils in contact with visiting US delegation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 February 2012, 23:56 GMT]
Some of the eyewitnesses in Vanni, who met the visiting US delegation headed by Stephen J Rapp, the ambassador-at-Large for war crimes at the US State Department, on Thursday and Friday, have been harassed by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Mullaith-theevu after the US delegation had left the region, sources in Mullaith-theevu told TamilNet Sunday. The SL Army has questioned a parish priest, inviting him to their camp consecutively for three days, and at least five parents who had allegedly complained about their missing sons and daughters have also been questioned by the SLA. While diplomatic circles in Colombo wonder at what the USA is up to in the island, Tamil circles are worried at pre-emption hatching in the establishments of the USA and India.
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US delegation visits Vanni on fact-finding mission

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 February 2012, 23:47 GMT]
Ahead of a scheduled visit by Robert O’ Blake, the US assistant secretary of state for the South and Central Asian affairs to Colombo, a team led by Stephen J Rapp, the ambassador-at-Large for war crimes at the US State Department, was on an official visit to the occupied Tamil homeland on Thursday and on Friday. The delegation was collecting witness testimonials from the war-crimes affected civilians in Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi districts. Despite the heavy deployment of SL military intelligence operatives, the people were narrating how cluster and chemical munitions were deployed by the Sri Lankan military against civilian targets.
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SL Minister Devananda threatens to attack journalists of Jaffna daily

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 February 2012, 16:45 GMT]
“I told my [paramilitary] boys to beat up these journalists. But, the boys are not paying attention. It seems I have to go in person and do it to make these journalists behave,” was the newest controversial comment by SL Minister and EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda on Thursday evening at a meeting held at Jaffna District Secretariat, where he was talking to unemployed graduates who were demanding employment. The spontaneous comment by Mr. Devananda came when SL military governor's secretary informed him of a news item that appeared in the Jaffna edition of Thinakkural exposing the diversion of funds allocated to development of schools in Vanni to the highly showcased construction of swimming pool which was declared opened by SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Village liquidated in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 February 2012, 06:59 GMT]
Chooriya-puram village, created by the LTTE near Keappaa-pulavu in the Puthukkudiyiruppu division of Mullaiththeevu district, to accommodate landless peasants, has been liquidated by the occupying Sinhala military that is engaged in that locality in building a 1200-acre base, news sources in Vanni said. Around 500 families of the locality have lost their living space and are degenerating in their refugee life, either staying in camps or in the houses of relatives and friends. Around 100 families of the Chooriyapuram village, brought from the internment camps for resettlement, are stranded now.
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Eezham Tamils await dividends to come from Mahendran’s book

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 February 2012, 22:23 GMT]
“It is not a mere documentation sharing opinion, but it is on the demand for justice by the genocide-surviving Eezham Tamils, the plight of whom has not been experienced by any other society in the world,” writes Communist Party of India stalwart C. Mahendran, in the introduction to his book on the Vanni War. He encapsulates the global shame in a nutshell when he says “Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal is the heroes’ land in the 21st century world, where life was the weapon to claim one’s land.” The book in Tamil, “Veezhveanen’ru Ninaiththaayoa” (Have you thought that I would fall), brought out in December 2011 by veteran media publications Vikatan, Chennai, is on hot sales and has already found overwhelming appreciation among Tamil readers all over the world. Any good book is eventually judged by the impact it makes on society and Eezham Tamils await that dividend to come from the Tamil-speaking world.
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