Extra-judicial execution of Trincomalee students, Sixth anniversary

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2012, 00:05 GMT]
Two Tamil organizations in the U.S. jointly issued a commemorative stamp to mark the 6th anniversary of the extra-judicial execution by Sri Lanka security forces of five Trincomalee high school students on the 2nd January 2006, when the highly accomplished students were spending an afternoon at a seafront in Trincomalee. The stamp, the issuing organizations said, is a mark of respect to the families that are fighting for justice, and to celebrate the indomitable spirit of Dr Manoharan, the father of one of the students, Ragihar, who had made the fight to bring the killers of his son to justice his life's mission. Meanwhile, Amnesty International conducted a "Write-for-Rights" campaign seeking justice for Dr Manoharan's family during the first week of December 2011.
Full story >>

TamilNet releases LTTE documents of 2006 talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 December 2011, 16:34 GMT]
A set of documents prepared by the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat during Geneva peace talks held in February 2006, in June 2006 in Oslo and in October 2006 in Geneva, some of which have not yet reached public domain, are being released by TamilNet to facilitate a deeper understanding of the peace process and its eventual collapse. While 2011 has been a "year of reports," the UN panel report, Norway’s ‘Pawns of Peace’, the genocide model LLRC report etc., the LTTE documents provide valuable insight into the Tigers' efforts undertaken to fulfill LTTE's commitment to the International Community. Though groups such as the International Crisis Group (ICG) reject the application of the concept of "earned sovereignty" to Eezham Tamils, the documents prepared by the Peace Secretariat show how the concept was validated in practice by the LTTE.
Full story >>

ITAK activists threatened by SLA intelligence operatives in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 December 2011, 14:34 GMT]
Activists of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in Mullaiththeevu of Vanni, who were engaged in organizing party activities this week have been threatened with death by intelligence operatives of the Sri Lanka Army, sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet. The intimidation by the occupying SLA has come following the leading activists of the ITAK Mr.C.V.K.Sivagnanam and Mr. Kunanayagam, went to the district distributing forms to enrol members to the party. The SLA intelligence personnel have targeted the activists of the party in Mullaiththeevu for accepting these forms.
Full story >>

UPFA goons attack on Mullaiththeevu district accountant draws protest

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 December 2011, 08:17 GMT]
The employees at Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat on Thursday staged a token strike protesting against the attack by UPFA goons on the accountant of the District Secretariat of Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday. A five-member group of Colombo's ruling UPFA Wednesday around 7:30 p.m. entered the office of the accountant, S. Jeyakumar and attacked him. Mr. Jeyakumar has been voicing against the political interference and against the misappropriation of the funds taking place in the district, informed sources told media. The sources alleged involvement of various personalities associated with Rajapaksa establishment with vested interests, ranging from SL minister Rishad Bathiutheen to the Mullaiththeevu coordinator of North East Housing Rehabilitation Project (NEHRP) and the Puthukkudiyiruppu SLFP organiser for intervening in the affairs of the District Secretariat.
Full story >>

SLA soldier shoots dead traveller on Poonakari Road

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 December 2011, 14:29 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier, manning a check post on Poonakari Road, shot and killed a traveller on motorbike Thursday around 7:00 a.m. after demanding the traveller to hand over his motorbike, sources in Poonakari told TamilNet. The SLA soldier was reportedly killed in friendly-fire when he later confronted fellow soldiers, the sources further said. Tension prevailed in the area and the road remained closed for hours. Although the dead body of the SLA soldier was sent to Jaffna hospital and transferred to Palaali military hospital, the information or identity of the slain traveller is yet to be made public. SL military officials are yet to reveal details of the episode and journalists were blocked from reaching the site.
Full story >>

SLA assaults, threatens activists who protest against sand mining in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 December 2011, 10:55 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Mu'rakkoddaagn-cheanai camp in Batticaloa district have summoned civil activists from Chantha'na-madu river basin to their camp, intimidating them and issuing death threats to some of the activists for having protested against illegal sand mining carried out by TMVP paramilitary operated by the SLA. The villagers, intimidated by the soldiers not to protest against the sand mining, revealed that two activists, 30-year-old Muthupillai Nadesan, the second ‘vanniyanaar’ (temple administrator) of Chiththaa'ndi Murukan temple and 28-year-old Velautham Ruban, were severely assaulted by the SLA soldiers and were issued death threats on December 18.
Full story >>

Indian aid to war-affected Tamils diverted to Sinhala colonisers

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 December 2011, 08:02 GMT]
Sri Lankan Colonial Governor of the Northern Province, Major General (retired ) G.A.Chandrasiri, has diverted a portion of India-donated aid, meant for ‘resettled’ Tamil civilians in the five districts of North, once again as in the case of the India-donated tractors. This time, 2,000 bicycles were donated to each district. G.A. Chandrasiri has diverted 500 of 2,000 bicycles allocated to Jaffna district to Sinhala colonisers who have occupied the Ma'naalaa'ru division in Vanni. Even the aid provided by India to the people of North, as a public relations maneuver in camouflaging its anti-people collaboration with the genocidal Colombo's structural genocide on the country of Eezham Tamils, is being exploited by the SL military-led civil administration, commented civil officials in Jaffna.
Full story >>

‘ICG report fails to cover genocide-intended sexual violence’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 December 2011, 05:42 GMT]
The International Crisis Group report titled ‘Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East’ that was released on Tuesday touched upon problems faced by the Eezham Tamil women in their homelands at the hands of the occupying Sri Lankan military apparatus. While the report has been welcomed by some for its revelations, Eezham Tamil civil society activists in the homeland, academics and feminists came down heavily on the report for studying the gender problem in isolation without addressing either the national question of the Eezham Tamils or the process of structural genocide, which necessarily includes use of sexual violence, which is being carried out by the Sinhala majoritarian state to crush the Eezham Tamil nation. They also questioned the motives and practical effectiveness of such reports that seek to push the principal contradictions under the carpet.
Full story >>

SLFP on collision course with EPDP in Jaffna Municipal Council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 December 2011, 21:35 GMT]


The internal crisis in the ruling party of the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) has reached climax to capture the administration of the Municipal Council in Jaffna from Douglas Devananda's EPDP. The latest move is reported to have the blessings of SL presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa, who is also the SL Economic Development Minister. The councilors opposing the JMC Mayoress Yogeswary Patkunam, who was chosen by Mr. Devandanda, are now aligning with the SLFP group backed by Mr. Basil Rajapaksa. EPDP councilor Manuel Mangalanesan, who was attacked on Thursday had also announced that he would be joining the SLFP group after another EPDP member, Nishanthan, had joined the SLFP.
Full story >>

‘Failure to confront UK deportations is failing humanity’

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 December 2011, 07:03 GMT]
While various human rights and media outfits across the world are day by day realizing the full extent of the genocidal actions of the Sri Lankan state, whether the United Kingdom’s deportation of around 50 Eelam Tamils despite protests from various organizations is not an endorsement of a war criminal state, wondered diaspora activists in the country. In the same spirit, British journalist Emanuel Stoakes came down on the left parties in the country for not paying the sort of attention the issue deserves, in an article on the New Statesman on Wednesday. Criticising the general silence on the Eelam Tamil issue, he opined that there needs to be more people pushing for accountability of the Rajapaksa regime and for rights of the asylum seekers not to be deported. There are still about 100 Eelam Tamils in the UK who are awaiting deportation, sources in UK told TamilNet.
Full story >>

No infrastructure to take care of floods displaced genocide victims of Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 December 2011, 06:47 GMT]
11,000 people belonging to 2,556 families have been displaced from the low-lying lands of Ki'linochchi district this week following heavy rain and floods, according to District Secretariat officials in Ki'linochchi. Of these, only 1,443 persons of 349 families have been provided refuge by the SL administration. The remaining families have been struggling to find space with their relatives and friends elsewhere. Most of the ‘re-settled’ victims of genocide were living in temporary huts in the low-lying lands. But, the floods have taken away even their huts while destroying their agricultural produce, the livelihood for which the people had to borrow money from the SL banks. Despite the claims by the SL government that people have been resettled and their infrastructure restored, the district remains roofless to accommodate people affected by the floods, even after two years of the war.
Full story >>

Thousands displaced, stranded by floods in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 December 2011, 15:05 GMT]
More than twelve thousand people earlier uprooted during the war and later allowed to resettle but forced to reside in temporary huts as they were not provided with government assistance to construct news houses, are now seeking refuge in temporary transit camps due to flood caused by torrential rain with gale that is continuing since last week in Vanni region in the Northern Province. The civil authorities have come over a new challenge this year as they lack buildings in Vadamaraadchi East and the remaining areas of Vanni to even house the people temporarily.
Full story >>

TNA demands internationally mandated mechanism for war-crimes accountability

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2011, 15:30 GMT]
Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of Tamil National Alliance, in a forceful articulation of the stand of the TNA on the report from the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) said that the report “categorically fails to effectively and meaningfully deal with issues of accountability, and added that “the findings of the LLRC offend the dignity of these victims [deposed before the LLRC]," according to a report appearing in the Hindu. In a previous statement nominated TNA MP, and attorney, M.A. Sumanthiran told Sunday Leader that "the Commission has severely contradicted itself by concluding that the civilians had not been deliberately targeted by the security forces in the final stages of the war."
Full story >>

Boyle: Tamils safety possible only under separate state

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 December 2011, 23:17 GMT]
Asserting that the "Tamils on the Island known as “Sri Lanka” have been the victims of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide," Francis A. Boyle, an expert in International Law, and a professor at the School of Law, University of Illinois, argues using the "remedial sovereignty" doctrine in support, and noting that "[h]istorically the only way a people who have been subjected to genocide like the Tamils on Sri Lanka have been able to protect themselves from further extermination has been the creation of an independent state of their own," and concludes, "[h]ence the need for the Tamils on Sri Lanka to create their own independent state in order to protect themselves from further extermination and total annihilation by Sri Lanka."
Full story >>

LLRC, a farcical attempt at accountability: paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 December 2011, 16:59 GMT]
Noting that the "LLRC has for too long been the international community's fig leaf, used by governments across the world, including the US and the UK, to stall calls for accountability and a credible investigation into allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide," the Tamil Guardian in its analysis of the report, points out that the report exposes the lack of mandate and the will to investigate international crimes the world was expecting to see, and asserts that "International law is uncompromising in this regard - responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide goes to the very top. In the case of Sri Lanka, the defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the then head of the army, General Sarath Fonseka, and the commander in chief - the president - Mahinda Rajapaksa are principally answerable."
Full story >>

TAG files legal challenge to UK deportation policy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 December 2011, 03:27 GMT]
Tamils Against Genocide (TAG-UK), an activist group that assists in obtaining legal redress to war-affected Tamil civilians, filed a legal action in the British Queens Bench Administrative Court Tuesday claiming that UK government’s policy to proceed with the deportation of failed asylum seekers to Sri Lanka was a breach of legitimate expectation of policy review following serious concerns of returnee safety revealed in the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) report and the submissions by independent NGOs including Freedom From Torture (FfT) and Amnesty International to UNCAT, legal sources in London said. The British Government has reportedly organized a chartered flight to return nearly fifty failed asylum seekers to Sri Lanka on 15th December.
Full story >>

TNA leadership faces admonition from civil society of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 December 2011, 23:50 GMT]
Prominent members of the Tamil civil society of all walks of life presented a memorandum to the Tamil National Alliance leadership on Tuesday, strongly condemning deception and deviatory polity of the leadership while times demand well-defined solutions to a long struggle. The civil society members urged firmness of leadership in political stand in convincing India and the US of the indispensability of addressing fundamentals of the aspirations of Eezham Tamils, i.e., nation and the right to self-determination. Tamils are not a ‘minority’ requesting concessions, but a nation demanding self-rule, the memorandum said. The impressive list of signatories included prominent religious leaders, academics, educationalists, professionals, trade unionists and community leaders. For the first time the TNA leadership faces such an open challenge of the first magnitude from the civil society.
Full story >>

Missing persons' parents stage protest amidst harassment by SL military in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 December 2011, 10:12 GMT]
For the first time in Jaffna, kept under the iron fist of occupying SL military, parents and relatives of the missing persons, braved SL army barriers and harassment by the occupying soldiers and riot police and staged a protest in front of Jaffna Bus stand on Wold Human Rights Day seeking global attention on the plight of those reported missing since the end of Vanni war in 2009. The SL military and police blocked the organisers from Colombo, the Civil Monitoring Commttee of missing persons, at Veampadi in Jaffna, for hours blocking them from reaching the site of the protest. The protestors managed to intuitively stage the rally without the organisers, political observers in Jaffna said. In the meantime, a JVP dissident group member, Lalith Weeraraj, who was on his way to the protest site has been reported missing at Aavarangkaal. The SL Police attacked reporters covering the protest.
Full story >>

Abductions escalate in North, families urged to approach Co-Chair Ambassadors in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 December 2011, 09:51 GMT]
21-year-old Tharsan Kannuchamy, who was earlier released after detention by the Sri Lanka Army following Vanni war, has been reported missing since Monday this week, according to a complaint lodged by his family with the SL Police in Chu'n'naakam in Jaffna. Mr. Tharsan was last seen leaving for work to a shop in Jaffna from Uduvil, where his family has recently settled after living in the nearby town of Chu'n'naakam. SL Police and Red Cross declining to take complaints, helpless human rights workers now advise family members of the abducted to report matters to the Ambassadors of the Co-Chair countries that are accountable to the war and post-war in the island.
Full story >>

Translate political strength into solution: TNPF’s Kajendren

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 December 2011, 15:46 GMT]
The LTTE left endowing us with enhanced political strength in the international arena. It will be a folly if we don’t know to effectively translate that into political solution addressing to our aspirations, said the Secretary General of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), Selvaraja Kajendren, while remembering the slain Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, N. Raviraj on Wednesday in Jaffna. The present TNA tries to project an image that the Tamils are now weak and they should not demand anything as in the past. This is a wrong projection. It is the political strength and righteousness the LTTE left with us that now makes the IC to poke its nose with seeming sympathy. Their real interests are different, but the space has to be used with firmness and not with naivety on our part, Kajendren said.
Full story >>