Vaiko urges world leaders to condemn Colombo's desecration of Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 06:03 GMT]
Vaiko, the genral secretary of MDMK, on Wednesday condemned Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Sri Lanka for having carried out a “barbaric act” allegedly by letting his troops to desecrate the ashes of the late Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan. Vaiko urged the world leaders to condemn the act.
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Tamil Nadu needs non-political movement for Eezham liberation: Sathyaraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 04:45 GMT]
Sathyaraj, a popular film actor from Tamil Nadu state of India, while addressing the gathering in Chennai on Monday on the occasion of paying tribute to the late Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader Pirapaharan, urged the leaders and activists supporting the Eezham cause to forge a non-political movement with the sole aim of taking forward the cause of Eezham Tamils. Calling the leaders and activists to put an end to rhetoric, the artist, who played the award-winning role of Periyar E.V. Ramasamy in the documentary film, Periyar, said the cause of Eezham Tamils is beyond any identity of sectarian politics, castes or groups in Tamil Nadu and addressed Pirapaharan as the leader of World Tamils.
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University students protest against desecration of Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 February 2011, 12:02 GMT]
Thousands of the students at the University of Jaffna Wednesday noon boycotted their classes as the news of SL military's desecration of the ashes of late Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan, Tuesday night. The students vacated the premises after putting up posters condemning the uncivilized act of the Sri Lankan military and condemning the Sri Lankan authorities for blocking them from participating in the funeral procession of Parvathi Amma on Tuesday.
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Colombo deports Thirumavalavan, rejects participation in Parvathi Amma's funeral

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2011, 10:01 GMT]
Indian parliamentarian Thol Thirumavalavan, the leader of Viduthalai Chiruththaikal Kadchi, was denied entry to the island Monday night when he arrived at Katunayake International Airport in Colombo to take part in the funeral of Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan. After being deported back to Chennai from Colombo airport, Mr. Thirumavalavan told media in Tamil Nadu that the deportation was an insult to the entire India and urged the governments of Tamil Nadu and India to condemn his deportation from Colombo.
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Occupying SL military intimidates mourning for Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2011, 21:47 GMT]
Colonial military of Sri Lanka occupying Jaffna, intimidated people of Valveddiththu’rai on Sunday to remove the black flags displayed to mourn the demise of Parvathy Amma, 80-year-old mother of the LTTE leader Pirapaharan. Hundreds of SL military intelligence personnel in civil dress, deployed at Theeruvil grounds where the remains are kept for public homage, made the local people themselves to remove the flags of mourning. Angered by the SLA harassment, representatives of civil organizations in Valveddiththu'rai warned the military personnel of repercussions if they continued to harass the people, when the occupying soldiers were instructing the people to remove the name of Mr. Pirapaharan from posters paying tribute to Parvathi Amma. Colonial Colombo behaves the same way the British treated the Kandyan Sinhalese, commented a journalist in Jaffna.
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Jaffna mourns Parvathi Amma amidst SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2011, 07:52 GMT]
The people of Jaffna have flown black flags on Sunday, mourning the demise of 80-year-old Parvathi Amma (Vallipuram Parvathi), the mother of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan. Community organisations have flown their flags at half post amid harassments by the occupying Sri Lankan forces. The funeral of late Parvathi Amma is to take place at Valveddiththu'rai (VVT) Hindu Cremation Grounds on Tuesday. Born on 07 August, 1931, Parvathi Amma, resolved to stay with her people at her native village, after being denied entry to Tamil Nadu for medical treatment last year.
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Parvathi Amma passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2011, 01:47 GMT]
Mrs. Vallipuram Parvathi, the mother of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan, passed away Sunday morning at Valveddiththu'rai hospital in Jaffna around 6:30 a.m., Dr. A. Maylerumperumal, District Medical Officer (DMO) of Valveddiththu'rai told media. Her husband, Thiruvengadam Velupillai, had passed away in Sri Lanka Army detention at Panagoda in January 2010. After the demise of her husband, Mrs. Parvathi was released and was later allowed to go to Malaysia for medical treatment in March 2010. However, she was denied entry to Tamil Nadu and deported back to Malaysia last year. Later, she was brought to her home village of Valveddiththu'rai and was taken care of the doctors and the staff at Valveddiththu'rai hospital till her last breath.
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LTTE ban to be challenged in European Court

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 February 2011, 00:07 GMT]
The proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the European Union will be challenged in the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg, said Amsterdam based lawyer Victor Koppe while giving an exclusive interview to TamilNet, Tuesday. Unlike the previous legal instances, now there is direct community involvement. Eezham Tamils in the legal field are actively involved in making this case, and the move is backed by a democratically elected body of Eezham Tamils in Switzerland, the Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET), said Arulnithila Deivendran, the spokesperson for the SCET. The attitude of governments to negate the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils by deliberately confusing it with the LTTE, has prompted the legal action, she further said.
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Police arrest resettled ex-LTTE cadres in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 February 2011, 00:29 GMT]
Tamil youths who are reported to have left the LTTE and returned to normal life after marriage are being arrested by the Sri Lanka Police in the Batticaloa district. Such arrests are said to be on the increase in Paduvaangkarai region. Tamil residents are not coming forward to make complaints to higher authorities due to fear and reprisals, civil sources said.
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Don’t fuse truth seeking with criminal justice, reconciliation: Craig Scott

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 February 2011, 08:51 GMT]
In a paper published recently by Osgoode Hall Law School, York University of Canada on The Transnationalization of truth: A Meditation on Sri Lanka and Honduras, Craig Scott, Professor of Law, said “not to fuse truth-seeking processes with either criminal justice or reconciliation processes with special reference to the Sri Lanka context.” Meanwhile, commenting on the concerted efforts of some sitting and former US diplomats to save the Rajapaksa regime and the unitary character of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka, through vague solutions about which they themselves are not clear, and through continued ‘counterinsurgency approaches of ‘terrorising and tiring’ Eezham Tamils, the TamilNet political commentator in Colombo said that ‘pragmatic’ changes should first come from the US in recognizing the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island.
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TAG, SCET's legal brief asserts ICC obligated to probe Kohona on war-crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 February 2011, 04:31 GMT]
Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, and Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET) said Sunday that both organizations are to jointly file a legal brief requesting the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Netherlands, to initiate war crimes investigations leading to the issuance of an article 58 warrant of arrest of dual Australian-Sri lanka National Palitha Kohona. The legal complaint charges joint criminal enterprise liability on Kohona over the extra-judicial killings of three LTTE hors de combat surrendering by waving a white-flag to the Sri Lanka Army on or about May 18 2009. Mr Kohona is currently the Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.
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Seek pragmatic changes, not focus entirely on war-crimes accountability, says Donald Camp

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 February 2011, 16:39 GMT]
Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Donald Camp, in a seminar held at the US think-tank, American Enterprise Institute, said while everyone was appalled at the events during the final stages of war, focusing entirely on accountability and prosecution will not be pragmatic, as the Rajapakse Government will not allow any investigations to take place. Instead, Camp advocates helping Rajapakse to "do the right thing." Camp, without saying how, mentioned "decentralization of powers," "co-ordinating with the UN Panel," and "reducing security presence in Jaffna," as possible actions that Rajapakse should be assisted to take to capitalize on the post war environment.
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Norway arrests ex LTTE member

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2011, 07:44 GMT]
Crime branch of the Norwegian Police has arrested an ex-LTTE member on January 26 at his work place in Norway. The 31-year-old man, living in Norway for more than 3 years, has been charged for three killings in his home country before coming to Norway, which the lawyer representing the prosecutor said could be acts of war or war-like scenario, reported a local newspaper, Bygdebladet, on 29 January. Per Zimmer, the lawyer representing the Norwegian Police told the paper that the situation prevailing now in the island had enabled them [the Norwegian authorities] to undertake investigations on the ground. While questioning whether any agency of the war crimes accused Sri Lanka would be recognized in such investigations, diaspora Tamils wonder what action would be taken against the individuals suspected in the commitment and facilitation of war crimes in the island.
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Pirapaharan's mother's condition serious, not critical

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 February 2011, 21:34 GMT]
The condition of Velupillai Paa'rvathi Amma, the mother of the LTTE leader Mr. V. Pirapaharan, while remaining serious, has not reached dangerous stage, hospital sources in her native town Valveddiththu'rai said. The health officials transport her to the Jaffna Hospital for emergency needs and then bring her back to Valveddiththu'rai for day-to-day health care delivery, sources added.
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‘Archaeology’ unearths skeletons in Jaffna fort

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2011, 14:06 GMT]
As a trench excavated for archaeological research near the main entrance of the Jaffna fort brought out a group of skeletons, the SL Archaeology Department has requested the police to pursue investigation in the locality. On an earlier occasion many skeletons, including the ones of women and children were found in an adjacent locality where now a stadium building stands. At that time, they were suspected to be the skeletons of the ‘missing’ people of IPKF times. Investigation on them was sabotaged and the burial pits were sealed by ‘development’ work of the Municipality of Jaffna. As finding many more skeletons are expected now in the other side of the road to the stadium and the fort entrance, the SL Archaeology Department has stopped its excavation in the locality.
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US State Department plays ‘ultimate saviour of genocidal Colombo’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2011, 08:34 GMT]
Those who are guilty of war crimes naturally would try to blame others and would do everything to save their skins. If at all the LTTE was responsible of any war crimes, it is not there now. But the others responsible are roaming free. The US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake often calls for ‘some’ accountability. Some accountability comes only when some of those internationally responsible for the crimes bow down first taking responsibility, and desist from further contribution to genocide and denial of independence to Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo, responding to Mr. Blake passing “large part of the responsibility” for the civilian casualty in the Vanni war on the LTTE. In a way Blake in his recent interview concedes that he and his government were a party to the war and thus a party to the war crimes, the writer points out.
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US legal effort to seek justice for son's killing - Dr Manoharan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 January 2011, 00:17 GMT]
In an interview with the BBC Tamil service, Dr Kasippillai Manoharan, father of Ragihar, one of the five students extra-judicially executed by Sri Lanka's military at the Trincomalee beach on January 2nd, 2006, said that Sri Lanka's judicial system is not capable and unwilling to provide justice and bring closure to his son's death, hence his initiating a civil suit in the U.S. He further told the BBC, five years have passed since his son's brutal killing, and he will use all judicial instruments now available to him outside Sri Lanka to bring his son's killers to justice. Dr Manoharan said he is convinced that Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has information on the killers but the President is unwilling to allow prosecution of military officers. Both Mr and Mrs Manoharan are prominent physicians who earlier practiced in Trincomalee.
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Ambassador, an honest man sent to lie for Sri Lanka, responds Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2011, 16:49 GMT]
Noting Sri Lanka's Ambassador's response to the law suit filed in US by three Tamil plaintiffs as initiated by LTTE-front organizations involved in "publicity stunts like this baseless law suits," Bruce Fein, the attorney for the plaintiffs said that the Ambassador Wickramasuriya was an honest man but was apparently instructed that if both the facts and the law demonstrated President Rajapaksa’s criminal culpability, then he should bugle “Tamil Tigers” to confuse the issue. Further, the group that sponsored the law suit cautioned the Ambassador and Colombo's Presidential spokesperson that libel is a serious offense in U.S. law and that any malicious labeling of legitimate US organizations as terrorist may have serious legal consequences.
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Solheim without ‘appetite’ envisages further involvement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2011, 12:19 GMT]
How could the Norwegian ‘peace’ broker Erik Solheim claim that he was not biased towards one party in the national conflict in the island of Sri Lanka, when he had approached the issue with a preconception that there had been no appetite in the world for separations, asked Stephen Pushparajah, a well-recognized Eezham Tamil in Norway, responding to Mr. Solheim’s reiteration Wednesday that there is “no international support for a separate Tamil state” and his envisagement on behalf of Norway to play a further “role as a dialogue partner both with the government and peoples of Sri Lanka, including exile communities.” It was this closed mind of the peace facilitators and the powers behind them that encouraged Rajapaksa to end the war with genocide and to continue the genocide even after the war, he further said.
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New Delhi’s insensitive defence approach triggers off trouble in Palk Strait

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2011, 22:13 GMT]
New Delhi’s approach of safeguarding its defence interests by protecting a flawed state and regime in Sri Lanka is the root cause for recent escalation of trouble in either side of the Palk Strait, following defence agreements and secret protocols between Indian Defence Secretary and Colombo’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. New Delhi and Colombo, having strategic partnership in safeguarding establishments and in economic interests of corporations, were totally insensitive to the defence of the people living on either side of the Palk Strait, the historic shareholders of the waters. Instead of working for international recognition and justice to the national question of Eezham Tamils, New Delhi sitting on it and defending genocidal Colombo will invite further trouble in the coming days, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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