Veteran Eezham Tamil academic, diaspora leader Theva Rajan passes away

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2015, 19:08 GMT]
Mr. Arumugam Thevarajan, who was contributing to the language, history, culture, rights, media and social welfare of Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora for nearly six decades, passed away in New Zealand on Wednesday at the age of 81. Joining the Ceylon government clerical service in the 1950s, and posted in the police department at Puththa'lam, Theva Rajan resigned his job protesting the ‘Sinhala Only’ Act of 1956. Since then, he was determined and steadfast in devoting an entire life for the national identity development and sociocultural infrastructure development of the nation of Eezham Tamils. He was silently working behind many of the fundamentally important heritage and political pursuits of Eezham Tamils.
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Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike need immediate attention: Ananthy Sasitharan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 October 2015, 23:46 GMT]
Three of more than 200 Tamil political prisoners on fast have fainted on the second day of the hunger strike demanding their release. Vijayakumar Kanthasamy, a father of two, was rushed to medical treatment after he fainted at Anuradhapura prison on Tuesday. Similarly, two prisoners fainted at Magazine prison, informed sources said. “We were expecting a positive response during the Papal visit. Nothing happened. Then came the elections and the talk of good governance. Nothing improved. Now, even after co-sponsoring the resolution in Geneva, we are yet to see any sign of evolution taking place in the mind-set of the Sri Lankan State,” a prisoner on hunger-strike said. Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasistharan has condemned TNA leader R. Sampanthan for not demanding immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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David envisaged human emancipation through Tamil struggle: Sachithananthan

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2015, 23:10 GMT]
“The late Gandhiyam David was an example of a very cultured Tamil, soft-spoken, strong in his views, dedicated to his land and rooted to the soil – he was definitely a person who represented Tamil Eelam,” said Ma'ravanpulavu K. Sachithananthan, a senior activist and former UN consultant, in a video interview to TamilNet in Jaffna on Monday while remembering the contributions of the veteran Gandhiyam leader of early 1970s. “Very few people in history make such determined effort to save their community and hold on to their principles. [...] Even today, many of us hold on to very strong views about our future. We may not be there. But the dream will be there. David's dream will be there. [...] His dream was human emancipation through Tamil emancipation. He was dreaming for the community, not because he loved those around him, but because he loved the humanity,” Mr Sachithananthan said.
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Veteran Eezham Tamil freedom fighter Gandhiyam David passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 October 2015, 14:06 GMT]
Solomon Arulanandan David, popularly known as Gandhiyam David, who presided the Gandhiyam Movement in Vanni in mid 70s, passed away on Sunday at the age of 91 at Ki'linochchi. He had returned to Ki'linochchi a few months ago from Tamil Nadu, where he was exiled after surviving the genocidal massacre at Welikade prison in 1983 and escaped from Batticaloa prison in the same year. David's contribution in the history of the struggle of Eezham Tamils is that at the inception of the armed struggle he had conceived the importance of a grassroot civil movement to accompany it. He remained steadfast in envisaging an independent Tamil Eelam.
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Tamil Nadu, Global Tamils should be organised in addressing US-UN failure: Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2015, 22:40 GMT]
Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law, who teaches at University of Illinois, in an interview given to the 3CR radio broadcast in Melbourne Saturday in the "Tamil manifest" program said that he sees the millions of Tamils in Tamil Naadu, its Chief Minister Jayalalitha, a unified Tamil diaspora and the young generation of Tamils as the propelling agents to force the changes necessary to bring justice to the victims of Tamil genocide by taking the Sinhala genocidaires to Court. The horrendous nature of genocide needs an international tribunal to dispense justice, and the United Nations and the U.S have failed in their obligations, Boyle said. Geopolitical compulsions have pulverized U.S. foreign policy to collude with the genocidaires, Boyle told TamilNet.
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Tamils dutybound to spearhead South Asian struggle for global justice: CPI leader

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2015, 23:47 GMT]
A senior leader of the Communist Party of India, C Mahendran, on Thursday urged Tamils living all over the world to prepare for an ever-intense and unceasing form of struggle to win the rights of Eezham Tamils in the pursuit of global justice. The Eezham Tamil leaders should assert their self-consciousness and shed the mentality that justice for the past crimes of Colombo could be achieved through attracting compassion from the international powers, who act alike in the crave for self interest. As a people living across the coastal entry points in South Asia and long affected by the injustices caused by the colonial and globalisation powers that have been entering South Asia through the Indian Ocean, the Tamils are duty-bound to spearhead the struggle for justice, he said.
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Eezham Tamils in Batticaloa protest against continued suppression by Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2015, 22:52 GMT]
Resettled Tamil villagers from around 30 villages in Poaratheevup-pattu division of Batticaloa district, have complained this week that the Colombo regime and its provincial agents in East continue to ignore their requests to contain the wild elephants that have been brought from South into the jungles adjacent to their villages in Paduvaankarai. The wild elephants have claimed the lives of 5 Eezham Tamils within the last 30 days. Despite their repeated complaints, Sirisena's regime remains deaf to calls to control the attacking elephants, the villagers told TamilNet on Wednesday, two days after staging a protest in front of the divisional secretariat at Vellaave'li. In the meantime, Eezham Tamil graduates who have been neglected by Colombo in employment have launched a hunger strike demanding permanent jobs.
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Tamils need leadership, not hypocrisy of powers: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2015, 17:29 GMT]
“United Nations, super powers, regional powers or self-seeking Tamil politicians cannot address the real grievances of Tamils. It is only Tamils under a good and dedicated leadership can move forward,” said Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, a long time advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils in an article to TamilNet on Tuesday. While the actual war saw the murder of Eelam Tamils and the most despicable sexual violence of rape unleashed among Tamil women, it was after the war that the Eelam Tamil nation was plundered of its wealth, Professor Ramasamy said. “The LTTE might not be around; however, the hopes, aspirations and the future agenda of Tamils for ultimate solution were set up by none other than its leader Veluppillai Pirapaharan,” he said.
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Sirisena's ministry, SL military seize more pasturelands from Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2015, 20:37 GMT]
Genocidal Colombo's Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry, which comes under the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has instructed the SL Divisional Forest Officer in Batticaloa to put up noticeboards annexing more lands to extend the Omunugala ‘Forest Reserve’ in Batticaloa district. Sirisena’s ministry is trying to attach more than 25,000 acres of pasturelands seized by the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa through SL Minister of Environment and Renewable Energey, to the so-called forest reserve. The occupying Sinhala military is blocking Eezham Tamils and their livestock from entering the pastureland. New boards have been put up with warnings and borders have been marked. However, Sinhala colonizers are being encouraged by the occupying SL military to do seasonal cultivation in the pasturelands that are being seized from Tamils under the name of ‘forest preservation’.
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Media, NGOs provide SL cover for Genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2015, 23:32 GMT]
While the UN's Petrie report and the accompanying now-exposed-redacted parts, reveal the maneuvering within the UN diplomats to soften the human rights implications of the mass killings carried out by its member state Sri Lanka, and the open support of the US-UN-India group to Sri Lanka in the UNHRC meetings to provide enough political space and time to prolongate the "investigation time," obviating the need for an international criminal investigations of alleged international crimes, the news media including Reuters and AFP, and NGOs including Amnesty International (AI), and Human Rights Watch (HRW), routinely adopt neutral and pro-Rights language and fail to highlight the UN, US, India triumvirate's efforts to allow Sri Lanka to whitewash the genocidal acts, Tamil activists said.
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U.S, U.N diplomatic shenanigans allow Sri Lanka Genocide cover

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 October 2015, 23:42 GMT]
The United Nations, U.S., and India, the international players complicit in first failing to prevent, and then covering the Sri Lanka's 2009 Genocide of Tamils, have provided the proverbial succor, "more time and political space" to Sri Lanka to investigate itself, allowing the genocidal state to avoid culpability for the crimes. While the "inability and unwillingness" of Sri Lanka for conducting credible investigations for criminal conduct of the island's key politicians and the military has been historically proven, the US has been instrumental in supporting and shaping UN resolutions in buying Sri Lanka time to skirt around the critical obligations for a credible criminal investigations. Six years have passed and UNHRC resolutions are continuing to provide more "time and political space" to Sri Lanka.
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Resolution sponsors, voters, UNHRC become accessories to SL genocide: Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2015, 20:49 GMT]
Accusing that the sponsor states of the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka, the States that voted for the Resolution, and the UN Human Rights Council itself have “all become Accessories after the Fact to Sri Lanka’s Genocide, Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes against the Eelam Tamils,” Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at the College of Law, University of Illinois, said that the “Resolution calls for nothing more than the Genocidal Sri Lanka to set up a Domestic “Judicial” Mechanism dressed up with a transparent fig-leaf of international participation in order to cover-up and do damage control and damage limitation for the GOSL Genocide against the Eelam Tamils,” adding that “[h]istory teaches that this GOSL Domestic Mechanism will fail,” and “Genocide against Eelam Tamils will recur.”
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China, Russia, India join USA in upholding Agent State in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2015, 17:46 GMT]
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday unanimously adopted the resolution on ‘Sri Lanka’ produced by the USA-led core group consisting 4 UNHRC Member States without any vote. The resolution was co-sponsored by the SL State and was titled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’. Before its adoption without a vote, the resolution had received the support of additional 25 co-sponsors. China, speaking before the adoption of the resolution, extended its support on the basis that ‘Sri Lanka’ had agreed to the resolution which was drafted in consultation. Giving an explanation of the vote after the vote, India said that the consensus resolution underlined the collective desire of the ‘Sri Lankans’ for change, reconciliation and unity and the rejection of extremist voices.
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UNHRC ‘judgement’ harps on Samaraweera oration

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2015, 17:02 GMT]
Except New Zealand, none of the State participants at the UNHRC on ‘Sri Lanka’, Wednesday, has touched the crux of the conflict in the island. Only the New Zealand representative ever uttered the word Tamil in urging solutions. The approach of the UN, set from the very beginning by the USA, totally disregards giving any open recognition to the national cause of the nation of Eezham Tamils and looks at the conflict entirely from the point of saving State in the island. What it painstakingly ‘recognises’ is never to offend the genocidal State. An added dimension visible in the latest UNHRC session is the highlight of the blanket term, “crimes by all sides” to get excused from the crime of not recognising the genocide committed on one by all. Again the line was originally set by the USA.
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UN mechanism fails in gaining confidence of victims: NPC-CM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2015, 14:50 GMT]
A statement on Wednesday coming from the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister, Justice C. V. Wigneswaran, said that it is a matter of grave concern that the mechanism coming from the resolution at UN fails in gaining support and confidence of the victims. The Chief Minister cited concerns about the process to be adopted in seeing the prevalence of International Laws in a local system that misses them; placing the responsibility of prosecution to local hands that would never bring in justice to victims and the possibility of local judges vetoing or undermining decisions. “I remain deeply concerned about some of the serious weaknesses in the resolution which unless addressed could lead to the failure of this whole process,” Justice Wigneswaran said.
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Tamil civil groups, political parties, come a step forward if the line is their own

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2015, 19:13 GMT]
Thoroughly deceived by the Washington-Colombo genocide partners even in minimum expectations of justice, Eezham Tamil civil groups and a significant section of political parties on Tuesday came hard on the resolution tabled at Geneva. Urging reconsideration of the current draft, the statement coming from 40 civil groups and 4 political parties pointed out that the mechanism largely managed and controlled by the Sri Lankan State loses credibility with the victims, and ‘deeply regretted’ the removal of references to demilitarisation of North-East. With impending further deceptions, whether the response would lead to substantial alternative initiatives and appropriate non-cooperation movement is the question, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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SL Military Intelligence steps up surveillance on Eezham Tamils in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2015, 20:01 GMT]
The military intelligence of genocidal Sri Lanka has stepped up surveillance on Eezham Tamils, who have been advocating independent international investigations and who have been vocal against ‘domestic’ and ‘hybrid’ investigation mechanism, despite the global focus on human rights abuses in the island. The latest harassments and threats are being reported from Ampaa'rai district in the East. Tamil people who have been talking in favour of independent international investigations have been receiving anonymous telephone calls from the operatives of the SL military intelligence in Kaarai-theevu, Thirukkoayil, Thampiluvil and Paa'ndiruppu, news sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet.
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Dubious "Sovereignty" defence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2015, 19:36 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka's leading politicians and diplomats, past and present, have used sovereignty as a defense against international "intervention" in conducting investigations of international crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. While sovereignty, defined as "supreme authority within a territory" underpins the political authority bestowed to modern nation states and provides status for the state to be member of the world comity of nations, this authority is not absolute. As a signatory to United Nations charter, article 6 and 7, ‘Sri Lanka’ has accepted to compromise on its sovereignty, related to matters of international security and commission of international crimes.
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Australia concerned about ‘domestic violence’, not genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2015, 01:21 GMT]
Australian Minister for Women, Michaelia Cash, has urged her colleague, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, to bar recording artist, dancer and actor, Chris Brown, from entering Australia for a performance in December, because of his history of domestic violence, Sky News reported on Thursday. Australia received genocide-accused Sri Lanka’s Navy Commander Thisara Samarasinghe as High Commissioner to serve in the country between July 2011 and February 2015.
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Iran seeks international investigation on Hajj tragedy

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2015, 23:47 GMT]
On a lamentable tragedy of humanity in which around 700 Hajj pilgrims were killed in a stampede at Mina in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, “Riyadh's regional rival Iran said 131 of its nationals were among the victims, and on Friday stepped up its criticism of the kingdom, demanding that affected countries have a role in the Saudi investigation into the disaster,” reported AFP, a Western media agency on Friday. Iran was a strong supporter of Sri Lanka’s ‘sovereignty’, against any international scrutiny on the genocidal war against the nation of Eezham Tamils. In 2012, in a show of solidarity, Iran’s military officials visited Sinhala military occupied Jaffna, on the eve of a UNHRC session at Geneva.
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