Democratic uprising in Tamil Nadu crucial to changes in the region

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2011, 12:38 GMT]
If the so-called post 9/11 paradigm provided an opportunity for repressive forces to mobilise against various peoples in the world and if that worked against the liberation of Eezham Tamils, the recent uprising of peoples against establishments in North Africa and West Asia is a favourable trend the Eezham Tamils and the Tamils of Tamil Nadu have to carefully comprehend and make use of in bringing out changes in South Asia too. Progressive Sinhalese who see the need to recognise the nation of Eezham Tamils for a true reconciliation in the island should also join in. A democratic uprising in Tamil Nadu is crucial to changes in the entire region and that is a big hope for Eezham Tamils too. Tamil Nadu has the potentiality and the reasons for the uprising, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Two ex-LTTE cadres die in SL army detention centres

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2011, 01:46 GMT]
Two former cadres of the LTTE have died in two separate incidents while under detention in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) supervised 'rehabilitation' centres. The first death was reported from Vavuniyaa-Ne'lukku'lam rehabilitation centre Monday and the second from Welikanda-Thirukoa'namadu detention camp in the Polonnaruwa district Tuesday morning. The deaths have created tension among parents of ex-LTTE detainees, civil sources said.
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US based sources gave hope on evacuation: Nadesan told a journalist

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2011, 02:08 GMT]
According to a senior journalist, the late LTTE political head, Mr. B Nadesan, consulted him over some messages Nadesan had been receiving from a US based former LTTE member that assurances had been given by the US State Department about evacuation of the LTTE cadres during the final stages of the war. The journalist, who cautioned Nadesan to be sceptical, says that he is prepared to give affidavit to any international investigation if the investigative body could arrange his safe appearance. The US based former LTTE member cited by Nadesan was known for claiming that he was associated with a ‘think tank’ of Prof. James Clad, who between 2007 and 2009 served as the US Deputy Asst. Secretary of Defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.
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UPFA lead candidate attacked in Ea'raavoor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 11:40 GMT]
Ali Zahir Mowlana, former parliamentarian of the Batticaloa district and currently the lead candidate of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance contesting the Ea'raavoor Urban Council that is scheduled to held on Thursday, was critically injured in an attack that took place Wednesday afternoon at Ea'raavoor, sources in the East said.
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Sri Lanka police arrest 52 Jaffna Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2011, 23:27 GMT]
Colombo Chief Magistrate, Rashmi Singapuli, Tuesday ordered remand for 48 Tamils, all residents of Jaffna, till March 27, legal sources in Colombo said. Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) of Sri Lanka Police last week arrested fifty two persons, including four children less than 10 years of age, while they were staying in lodges in Colombo and Negombo.
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US intelligence assessed Narayanan as anti LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2011, 19:13 GMT]
A classified cable of the US embassy in India accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks shows that the US embassy made a particular note of the bias of M K Narayanan, the former National Security Advisor (NSA) of India, against the LTTE. “US Consulate General Chennai officials recall his repeatedly expressed and profound distaste for the LTTE,” notes the cable. Narayanan was the chief of India’s Intelligence Bureau during the IPKF times and was the NSA during the Vanni war. He and the present NSA, Shiv Shankar Menon, handled India’s role in the war and in the way the war ended. During the war, both were accused of wielding ‘extra-parliamentary’ powers. The US cable noted Narayanan as part of the traditional "coterie" around Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi and as a part of the Keralite “Mafia” in the Prime Minister’s Office.
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Sri Lanka has sinister plans in confiscating lands of Mu’l’livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2011, 05:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka has sinister plans to confiscate the three large coastal villages, Mu’l’livaaykkaal East, Mu’l’livaaykkaal West and Ampalavan Pokka’nai, where the last stages of the Vanni war took place. Original inhabitants of 18 hamlets of the villages are not allowed to resettle and there are secret plans to relocate them to confiscate the stretch of rich marine wealth, said a press release of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF). Mines are still the pretext, but even after 22 months the SL military has not even permitted de-mining the land where thousands of Eezham Tamils and their fighters sacrificed their lives. Meanwhile, with Chinese assistance, colonial SL occupying the country of Eezham Tamils has recently built a fortress-like military base over a cemetery of the LTTE heroes at Koappaay in Jaffna.
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Harvard lays bare Sri Lanka newspaper's distorted reporting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2011, 00:48 GMT]
Professor Nicholas Burns of Belfar Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, in a letter to Colombo-based Nations news paper, pointed out several inaccuracies in the reporting of the March 1 Harvard event on Sri Lanka, and said, the article neglected to mention the substance of the discussions where the wartime conduct of Sri Lanka Government was criticised. Prof. Burns added that "the LTTE had no role whatsoever in the event" whereas the paper had alleged that LTTE was occupying most of the seats.
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HRW calls for boycott of Colombo Defence Seminar

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2011, 01:31 GMT]
Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights organization, called on countries worldwide to boycott a conference to be held in Colombo between 31 May to 02 June labelled "Defeating Terrorism Sri Lankan Experience” aimed at sharing Sri Lanka's war experience, BBC reported. “What we are telling the militaries around the world is that they should not attend a meeting to celebrate a military policy that involves killing so many civilians,” HRW Executive Director Brad Adams told BBC.
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Indian High Commission rejects Jeyaratne's LTTE camp statement as "baseless"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2011, 12:40 GMT]
The Indian High Commission in Colombo Thursday denied the claims made by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne that there were three LTTE training camps in Tamil Nadu, according to a news report carried this evening by Times Online. Spokesman for the Indian High Commission in Colombo Birender Singh Yadav said that the statement was ‘baseless’ and a detailed response will follow.
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No security guarantee for Tamil parliamentarians: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2011, 07:58 GMT]
Over the attack on his vehicle at Nochchiyagama on Monday, Tamil National Alliance Ki'linochchi district parlimentarian S. Sreetharan said in Parliament on Wednesday, “It is clear that there is no security guarantee for MPs in this country. How can a Tamil here expect security from the state?” He further stated that while he was passing Medawachchiya on Monday at 5:30 p.m., a white colored van without a number plate overtook their vehicle. When they approached Ullukku'lam the said vehicle was parked on the side of the road and three men got off from the vehicle and fired at them using small weapons. In return, his security guards fired back before the assassins threw a grenade at his vehicle and fled the scene.
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Three opposition MPs to give evidence in “white flag” case

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2011, 02:41 GMT]
Two parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and a parliamentarian from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are among ten witnesses who will be giving evidence in the white flag case in which former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Sarath Fonseka is charged for causing disrepute to the Sri Lanka government by making allegedly false statements to The Sunday leader, an English weekly published in Colombo.
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TNA MP Sritharan narrowly escapes assassination in Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 14:54 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Vanni, S. Sritharan, narrowly escaped from a group of attackers who lobbed two hand grenade targeting his vehicle and fired at the vehicle using pistols from behind Monday evening around 6:00 p.m. at Nochchiyaagama in Anuradhapura, TNA parliamentarians told media. The parliamentarian was on his way from Vavuniyaa to Colombo to attend the Tuesday sittings in SL parliament. No one was hurt in the attack, SL Police in Anuradhapura said.
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"Mere association" insufficient to prove membership, says Canada Refugee board

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 01:49 GMT]
In ruling on a Tamil migrant who arrived in Canada last August onboard the MV Sun Sea, Refugee board member, Marc Tessler ruled Sunday that mere association with banned terrorist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is not enough to prove membership in that group, a conclusion that may make it more difficult for the federal government [of Canada] to send the migrants back, CTV News reported. "Having a definition of membership that would encompass such low-range activities [such as working as a mechanic to repair LTTE run buses] was too broad to encompass membership in a terrorist group," said lawyer Eric Purtzki, who represented one of the migrants at the hearing.
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Meaningful accountability comes by addressing the national question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2011, 10:33 GMT]
When events similar to what happened and is happening in the island led to international intervention and liberation of the affected in many other instances of the world, the issue of Eezham Tamils is consciously blunted as something concerned to insurgency, counterinsurgency and war crimes investigation of both. In the process, the main culprit of decades, i.e., the Sri Lankan state (not the regimes) escapes unscathed and is being saved by those who have a problem of irregularity with their appetite, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo responding to discussions in a live web-seminar conducted by Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research of Harvard University on 24 February.
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US Senate Resolution calls for accountability for Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2011, 03:37 GMT]
United States Senate unanimously passed resolution S. Res. 84 introduced by Senator Casey which commended UN Secretary General for appointing a panel to advise UNSG on Sri Lanka's human rights accountability and called "on the Government of Sri Lanka, the international community, and the United Nations to establish an independent international accountability mechanism to look into reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations committed by both sides during and after the war in Sri Lanka and to make recommendations regarding accountability," as one of the four elements of the resolution.
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Sri Lanka's rights violations compel investigations, says Australian MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 02:45 GMT]
Laurie Ferguson, Member of Australian Parliament for Werriwa and Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services, in his statement following submitting a private members bill for debate on "Humanitarian Issues During the War in Sri Lanka," Monday detailed the egregious violations of human rights in Sri Lanka and said he supported eminent personalities, Governments, and premier Rights organizations around the world in demanding an independent, international investigations into Sri Lanka's rights violations.
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Occupying military orders VVT people to register before 10:00 a.m. Wednesday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 20:40 GMT]
In a draconian order, the SL military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils has asked the people of Valveddiththu’rai, a densely populated town in the northern coast of Jaffna, to register themselves with the military, along with family photos, before 10:00 a.m. Wednesday. The shocked Eezham Tamils wonder whether their country is fast turning into an open concentration camp for them. The order comes even as there is a case against such registrations filed by TNA is pending in the court. The notice to the public to register within 24 hours and forms for that are distributed by the SL Army to local shops. On the order of the Army, the local village officials were seen carrying out the work even during the night. People feel that the show of terror is a revenge for the participation of the people of VVT in the funeral of Parvathi Amma, despite military harassment.
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Young Tamil mother strangled to death in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2011, 12:24 GMT]
Body of a young woman, mother of one child, was recovered from a shrub jungle in Paalaiyadi-thoa'na area in Ea'ravoor police division in Batticaloa district Sunday. The body identified as that of 18 years-old Roopashini Jeyagnesh was found along the coast of a lagoon in Jinnah Veethi in Paalaiyadi-thoa'na. She left on February 24 with a herd of cattle for rearing to the shrub jungle and failed to return home, residents said.
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TNPF announces Central Committee, prepares party constitution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 13:24 GMT]
Popular Economics teacher Mr. Sinnadurai Varatharaja and former TNA parliamentarian Mr. Selvaraja Kajendran have been respectively announced as President and General Secretary of Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), in a press meet held in Jaffna Wednesday by the TNPF. Former TNA parliamentarians, Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam and Ms. Padmini Sithambaranathan, as well as Mr. Visvalingam Manivannan, Mr. Rajakon Hariharan and Mr. R. E. Anandaraja have become Vice Presidents. Two nations in one country is the fundamental principle of the party and the constitution of the party would be announced within three months, the committee members said.
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