Conforming to mandate more important than getting offices of position: Suresh

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2012, 23:54 GMT]
It was a last resort for the democratic political struggle of Thanthai Chelva to call for the independence of Tamil Eelam in 1976, after a series of political deceits and finally his 6-point demand following the 1972 constitution to resolve the Tamil question within a united Sri Lanka was also rejected, said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran, while speaking at the 114th birth anniversary of SJV Chelvanayakam in Jaffna on Saturday. But after Tamils paying a heavy price in the armed struggle only the world has now started looking at the issue, which has now become international. TNA has the mandate and responsibility at a crucial time and it should not make even a small slip. Petty offices of position are not the answer to the price paid by our people. We are conscious of the mandate given to us by our people, he further said.
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Hindu Council objects Buddhist Vihara replacing Saiva temple in Kokku'laay

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2012, 16:24 GMT]
The construction of a Buddhist Vihara in the site after the destruction of several decade old Pi'l'laiyaar temple at Kokku'laay in Mullaith-theevu district cannot be allowed, said C.Yogeswaran, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian in a memorandum to Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister D.M.Jayatrena who also hold the post of Ministry of Buddha Sasana. Mr Yogeswaran has sent the memorandum in the capacity of vice president of All Ceylon Hindu Council.
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Eezham Tamil youth in Canada challenge connivance with LLRC-based resolution

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2012, 08:38 GMT]
Second generation Eezham Tamil youth in Canada strongly criticized the support lent to the pro-LLRC US resolution by some diaspora organizations at a panel discussion organized by the National Council of Canadian Tamils on Saturday about the recent United Nations Human Rights Council meeting. While the older generation on the panel were welcoming the US resolution as a “step in the right direction”, the youth activists criticized it for being a “step backward”. Urging the diaspora leadership to have a “slightly longer memory than the last four weeks,” Krisna Saravanamuttu of the NCCT said that the US resolution was “fundamentally flawed” because it used the LLRC as a basis for achieving accountability and a political solution from the Sri Lankan government guilty of genocide.
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Sri Lanka orientates education to conform structural genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2012, 18:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s ‘terrorism’ professor Rohan Gunaratna was the foremost of the six “prominent professionals in the education field” cited by Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute in Colombo, as lecturing in a ‘National Conference on the Role of Education in Reconciliation’ hosted by the institute last Tuesday. The professor, lecturing on the “immense success” of Sri Lanka ‘rehabilitating’ ex-LTTE combatants despite their ‘past engagement in the killings in the North and East and outside,’ stressed on the need of schools becoming “multi-ethnic” in the island, shedding ethnic and religious segregations. This means, there can be no more schools for Tamils, like that they can’t have a territory for them, and Tamil and Muslim children will eventually be ‘minorities’ subjugated in the Sinhala-Buddhist schools of the island, commented an educationalist in Jaffna.
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US resolution offers bailout to Rajapaksa: Brian Senewiratne

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2012, 17:42 GMT]
The US-tabled resolution, which has more to do with geopolitics than human rights, “effectively offers Rajapaksa a way of ending international criticism and the danger of government leaders and its Armed Forces facing war crimes charges,” says Brian Senewiratne, a renowned physician and an Australia based Sinhala expatriate in a 41-page long document released on Thursday. “Concerned people, in particular the expatriate Tamil community, waiting for the UN ‘to do something’, are living in a dream world. The UN and its bodies do not act this way. They never have – an abysmal record of failure, which is not about to change.” However, the latest follow-up documentary by the Channel-4 could be even more damaging for the GoSL than the previous one, according to Dr. Brian Senewiratne.
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Ram journalism faces criticism in JNU for pro-Sri Lanka bias, endorsing genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2012, 06:04 GMT]
Activists of Delhi Tamil Students’ Union, Democratic Students Union, Students for Resistance and other common students raised slogans against N. Ram accusing him of being a ‘media fascist’ and ‘a stooge of Rajapaksa’ at a public meeting in JNU after his reply to a question on The Hindu’s role in whitewashing the Sri Lankan state genocide of the Eezham Tamils, wherein he had extensively blamed the LTTE. The meeting on ‘Paid news and media ethics’ was organized at JNU on Wednesday by the Student’s Federation of India, which is the students wing of the CPI(M). The fact that N.Ram and The Hindu have unethically manipulated news to cover up the war crimes of Colombo makes them complicit in the genocide committed on the Eezham Tamils, a Tamil Nadu research scholar in JNU told TamilNet.
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We always requested international investigation: TNA’s Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2012, 18:40 GMT]
“We have been to various countries like United State of America, Great Britain, Canada and South Africa, and we requested those countries that there must be an international investigation on the accountability, because the LLRC report does not have anything about the accountability as such,” said TNA parliamentarian Mr Suresh Premachandran in conducting a press meet at the TNA office, which is also the EPRLF office, in Jaffna on Sunday. On TNA’s talks with the SL government, Premachandran said Colombo has not yet fulfilled an understanding between Sampanthan and Rajapaksa that a bilateral agreement on solutions should precede before the TNA naming participants to the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC). Without third party mediation the talks are futile, as SL doesn’t want to settle the problem through power sharing, Premachandran said.
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LLRC-based resolution extremely disappointing: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2012, 11:37 GMT]
The US-tabled resolution at UNHRC, based on the fundamentally flawed LLRC recommendations, is extremely disappointing and counter-productive, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of Tamil National People's Front (TNPF), in a press meet held at the party office in Jaffna on Saturday. The resolution envisages an accused in the violation of international humanitarian law to become the investigator of the crime. If the LLRC findings are going to be the ‘starting point’ for any future prospects, chances of progress are difficult. Rather than keeping the expectations of the grieved party at the bare minimum, the resolution should begin with the UNSG panel report. What need investigation are the genocide of 60 years culminating into the war and the on-going structural genocide. Justice could come only from independent international investigation, he said.
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Promote Dublin report, build solidarity, recognize Self-Determination: grassroots activists in UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2012, 21:22 GMT]
Grassroots activists of the British Tamil Forum (BTF) and journalists from the UK-based International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATJ), who came together with leftist activists of the Socialist Resistance (SR) and Denmark-based leftist activist Ron Ridenour, in a meeting held in London on Wednesday, resolved to promote the findings of the Dublin Tribunal on Sri Lanka and to give foremost priority to the work on building solidarity with trade unions and progressive groups in the UK on the campaign to recognize Tamils Right to Self-Determination. The meeting which was chaired by Fred Leplat of the SR, also had participants from the NSSP, Sri Lanka.
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World socialists reject both US-backed resolution and Sri Lanka’s opposition

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 March 2012, 17:04 GMT]
“The Obama administration is pushing the resolution as a means of pressuring the Rajapakse government to accommodate US interests and those of India […] At the same time, the Sri Lankan government has mounted a hysterical campaign at home against the supposed “international conspiracy” to tarnish the country’s name […] The bourgeois Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is likewise manoeuvring. It previously condemned the LLRC report, but now calls for the implementation of its recommendations—in line with Washington and New Delhi. The TNA is desperately seeking US and Indian backing for a “political solution”, from which it hopes to benefit […] The Socialist Equality Party rejects both the phony US-backed resolution and the Rajapakse government’s chauvinist campaign against it, said World Socialist Web Site on Wednesday.
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Sumanthiran, Sritharan contradict reasoning Geneva absentia

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2012, 00:22 GMT]
In a meeting held by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Jaffna on Monday, explaining to the public why the TNA opted out canvassing in Geneva, TNA’s Vanni parliamentarian Sritharan and nominated parliamentarian Sumanthiran came out with contrasting reasons. As the TNA has publicly rejected the LLRC recommendations, is there any point in going to Geneva where the resolution is harping on implementation of the recommendations; won’t it be strengthening the resolution, asked Sritharan. But, Sumanthiran implied that the resolution comes after TNA conferring with the US State Department four months back and that it won’t be diplomatically beneficial to the sponsors of the move if the TNA is present in Geneva.
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African Art found in Kayts Island off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 March 2012, 15:42 GMT]
Head part of a metal sculpture showing features of African Art, discovered while digging a well at Allaippiddi in the Kayts Island off Jaffna, has been brought to the notice of professionals in archaeology by the efforts of a local teacher Nadarajah Vakeesan of Bharathi Vidyalayam. The artefact, found in the Palk Bay side of Kayts, an ancient as well as colonial harbour island, where pottery dating from pre-Christian centuries, a hoard of Chola artefacts and a cargo of Chinese ware dated to 12th century CE have been found earlier, and where some early Islamic and European colonial monuments are also located, now shows its Black African connections too, academics said.
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Colombo harasses Tamil politicians, civil officials

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 March 2012, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lankan ‘Criminal Investigation Department’ in Colombo has stepped up harassments on Tamil politicians and civil officials summoning them for investigation meetings in Colombo. A politician and a medical officer have been recently ‘invited’ to appear in Colombo without providing any information on why they were being ‘investigated’. Colombo government has again started to systematically harass the active sections Eezham Tamils, seeking to dis-empower them by de-motivating and demoralising such activists.
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US, Sri Lanka squabble whether hang or slaughter Eezham Tamil Nation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 March 2012, 23:32 GMT]
The LLRC recommendation of the majoritarian and genocidal state of Sri Lanka is clear on the point that ethnic territories cannot exist in the island, and ‘trilingual’ society (ostensibly paving way for total Sinhalcisation) should be achieved by 2020. While Sri Lanka in Geneva sessions wants implementation of its agenda left completely to itself, the US-backed resolution seeks international endorsement to the LLRC recommendations and international commitment from Sri Lanka in the implementation and phases. In an exclusive interview to Ceylon Today on Thursday, the US ambassador in Colombo, Patricia Butanis praising the LLRC for coming out with “some excellent recommendations,” argued why then the qualms in publicly committing to implementation. The squabble is just on whether publicly hang or secretly slaughter the Tamil nation, commented an Eezham Tamil politician.
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Enragement over US-India stand results in Sumanthiran-effigy in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 February 2012, 23:44 GMT]
The nominated parliamentarian of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) M.A. Sumanthiran faced the brunt of public enragement in Jaffna on Wednesday, for reflecting the stand of the USA and India, in handing over even the last of the trumps of Eezham Tamils to Sri Lankan state, by internalizing war-crimes accountability and political solution. Washington allegedly backs proposals at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva that will give international legitimacy to the LLRC hoodwink of Colombo and whatever the differences with New Delhi backing Colombo that could only be related to binding Colombo with a time frame for the implementation of the LLRC recommendations. Meanwhile, the stands of both the Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa and the DMK Chief Karunanidhi are also just confined to urging New Delhi to back the US proposal in Geneva that is ‘perceived’ to be against Sri Lanka.
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RSF calls for condemnation of Sri Lanka over media rights violations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 February 2012, 02:20 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a media release issued Tuesday, called on members of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) "to pass a resolution condemning the Sri Lankan government’s violations of freedom of information and to demand an end to threats and violence against news media and human rights defenders in Sri Lanka." The release also referred to TamilNet's struggle against the modern electronic form of suppression of media freedom saying, "[s]ince 25 February: Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks (DDoS) have been disrupting web traffic of TamilNet.com. The service provider is struggling to keep the website online."
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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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Second generation Eezham Tamils in Canada assert Tamil sovereignty at Youth Conference

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 February 2012, 05:38 GMT]
Eezham Tamil youth activists from Canada resolved to continue the struggle for Tamil sovereignty at the ‘Eelam Tamil Youth Conference-Canada 2012’ organized by the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) and the Tamil Youth Organization-Canada (TYO-Canada) at Toronto City Hall, Toronto this Sunday. After three presentations from the organizers and an interactive discussion, nine resolutions were passed in the conference which received unanimous approval from the participants. The resolutions, which welcomed the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition declaration “as a principled approach to resolving the national question of Eelam Tamils”, highlighted the nature of genocide of Eelam Tamils in their homelands. Rejecting the territorial integrity of the unitary Sri Lankan state, the resolutions also called for a boycott of those diaspora organizations that principally lent legitimacy to the same.
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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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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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