Chain of protests in London against repression of students in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 December 2012, 11:07 GMT]
A series of protests have been organized outside the British Prime Minister’s Office in 10 Downing Street, London since Monday to condemn the repression of the Jaffna University students by the occupying Sinhala military. Condemning the arrests and detentions of the students and the Sinhala military’s systematic assaults on the civil rights of the Eezham Tamils as a part of the genocide of the Tamil nation, the protestors urged UK and the International Community to ensure the immediate release of the arrested students and to safeguard the democratic rights of the Eezham Tamil nation in the island.
Full story >>

HR Day event in Toronto brings Tamils closer to global progressive networks

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 December 2012, 00:03 GMT]
More than twenty social, economic, and environmental justice groups in Canada that joined together in Toronto on the eve of International Human Rights Day to forge a common forum against military occupation, apartheid, genocide and political imprisonment, have voiced against the SL military detention of the students of the University of Jaffna. The event gains significance as the recently formed Coalition for Tamil Rights was invited to represent the perspectives of Eezham Tamils along with other progressive forces. On the occasion of the event, activists of socio-political organizations in Canada condemned the arrests and detentions of Tamil students of the University of Jaffna in the SL military occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The activists demanded immediate release of the students and called for an end to the Sri Lankan military occupation of the Tamil homeland.
Full story >>

SLA summons 4 girl students, house-by-house intimidation to resume university

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 December 2012, 20:31 GMT]
The occupying genocidal military of Sri Lanka now engages in entering each and every house of the Jaffna University students to individually intimidate them to drop the protest and to return to the university or face dire consequences. The Vice Chancellor Prof Vasanthi Arasaratnam installed by colonial Colombo, most of the council members appointed by the regime or planted by collaborating paramilitary and some external intelligence agencies, and the threatened Deans are forced to connive with the new paradigm of occupying military running the university, news sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, in addition to the key student leaders of the university detained for ‘rehabilitation,’ the SL military has freshly demanded the submission of four girl students by their parents.
Full story >>

SLA conscripted Tamil females admitted at Ki'linochchi hospital in mentally affected state

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 December 2012, 11:59 GMT]
21 of around 100 Tamil girls, who were conscripted to Sri Lankan military in Vanni, were admitted in Ki’linochchi hospital in a mentally affected state on Tuesday night around 11:00 p.m. by the SL military from Paarathipuram in Ki'linochchi, parents of the victims told TamilNet. In the meantime, TNA parliamentarian Sritharan was at the hospital struggling to get permission to witness the plight of the victims. But, around 30 SL military personnel guarding the hospital were not allowing him to independently witness the state of the victims, the parliamentarian told TamilNet.
Full story >>

TNPF condemns Sampanthan’s statement on SL military, LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 December 2012, 00:58 GMT]
The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) on Tuesday strongly condemned the SL parliamentary speech made by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan last Friday. Mr. Sampanthan had said that the TNA was not demanding the complete withdrawal of the SL military from the Tamil territory and that the LTTE had had earned its destruction by being a ‘terrorist’ organization not observing human rights and democracy and by engaging in the killing of Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala leaders. The statement coming from the leader of the TNA should be taken as the policy stand of the TNA. Neither the constituent parties of the TNA nor its parliamentary members have so far contradicted the statement, said the TNPF press release, signed by its president Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and secretary, Selvarasa Kajendran.
Full story >>

Top misled EU to err on Tamils: Srinivasan tells Oslo Club session on Nobel peace award

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 December 2012, 18:31 GMT]
The European Union listening to wrong advice from the top and proscribing the Tamil movement was a serious mistake that disrupted peace, said Srinivasa Rao Thangavelu, a grassroot peace ambassador touring world, speaking at a brief session held at Café Nobel in Hotel Opera, by Oslo International Club together with Brussels Alumni, right before the torchlight march honouring Nobel Peace Prize award on Monday. The session was on “Creating lasting peace: top-down and bottom-up.” This time’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to European Union. According to EU Commission President, the EU brings lasting peace among former enemies who fought, among others, two world wars. Usually Norwegians conduct a torchlight parade to honour the Peace Prize winners. But this time there were two: one on Sunday opposing the award going to the EU and the other on Monday honouring the EU.
Full story >>

Canadian youth mobilises global community in showing solidarity with Jaffna students

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 December 2012, 06:34 GMT]
The rally organized in Canada showing solidarity with Jaffna University students by the York University Tamil Students Association was participated by Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), Middle Eastern Students Association (MESA), Indian Cultural Association (ICA), York University Graduate Students Association (YUGSA) and the York Federation of Students (YFS). “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the attack on our brothers and sisters at Jaffna University. What is necessary in order to ensure the safety and democratic rights of the Tamil people is for the IC to immediately recognize the nation, territoriality and right to self-determination of the Tamils,” said Tanya McFadyen, Vice President of the Graduate Students Association of the York University.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka intensifies terror campaign against Tamil students

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2012, 14:20 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department has officially informed the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna to hand over 10 more students of the university, in addition to the three already in detention. The wanted list includes the leader of the student union, student leaders of the faculties and five students from the Medical Faculty. Meanwhile, following individual threats to the faculty Deans by the occupying SL military, the Dean of the Medical Faculty, along with some lecturers, attempt to take the five Medical Faculty students to the SL police. Colombo’s agents also pressurise the Medical Faculty to abandon the other faculties and to announce cancellation of the student protest through the Sinhala students admitted to the faculty.
Full story >>

Suresh calls upon diaspora youth to respond to Jaffna University situation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 December 2012, 20:12 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian and Eelam People Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader Suresh Premachandran in a video interview to TamilNet this week, called upon the diaspora youth studying in the Western World to take up the matter of SL military oppression of Jaffna University students with the Western governments, in order to push them to prevail upon Colombo’s undemocratic activities. Meanwhile, diaspora circles especially in the UK and in Canada now realize how in the last three years Colombo’s agents have succeeded in hijacking, silencing and deviating the diaspora alumni associations of the leading schools of Eezham Tamils. They also cited at the strange silence of an alumni association started in the UK in the name of the Jaffna University.
Full story >>

Tamil parties missed directing USA on LLRC: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 December 2012, 01:22 GMT]
Had the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) been firm on the stand of Eezham Tamils, the USA couldn’t have ended up with the LLRC solution at Geneva, but the TNA blindly backed the US resolution at Geneva. It is after the Geneva resolution the land grab and the structural genocide of Eezham Tamils by the Sri Lankan state got accelerated, said former TNA parliamentarian and TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in his second part of interview to TamilNet's Palaka'ni, covering current political situation of Eezham Tamils. The US-backed resolution was passed in Geneva essentially to resolve the Tamil issue in the island, but it is not serving the Tamil issue, he further said.
Full story >>

EPDP mobilizes protest against Indian trawlers while backing trawlers from South

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2012, 16:54 GMT]
Timed to the visit of the representatives of fishermen societies in Tamil Nadu to Jaffna on Thursday, the SL minister and EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda was allegedly engaged in triggering demonstrations in front of the Consulate General of India in Jaffna, protesting the intrusion of Indian trawlers. According to Jaffna fishermen, the SL minister backs trawlers from the South exploiting Tamil waters. On Thursday, when the EPDP-backed protesters were shouting “Mahalingam come out,” demanding the Indian Consul General to come out and address them, a group of fishermen in Valveddith-thu’rai (VVT) rounded up the SL police station there demanding action against 30 southern trawlers that were operating in the seas off VVT. Another 107 trawlers, backed by Mr. Devandanda were exploiting the seas off Kurunakar, the fishermen complained.
Full story >>

Rice's silence on Sri Lanka may hurt cabinet appointment - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2012, 13:57 GMT]
While the accusation that Dr. Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, intentionally mislead the public by saying that the Bengazhi killings of four Americans was a spontaneous attack in response to a film mocking prophet Mohammed, appears to have damaged her chances of being appointed as the U.S.'s Secretary of State after Hilary Clinton, Rice's human rights record in the U.N., including her inaction on Sri Lanka killings, has also come under closer scrutiny, Washington Post said in an article this Friday, quoting comment from an official of the Human Rights Watch.
Full story >>

Kurdish party conveys solidarity message on Tamil Eelam Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 November 2012, 06:59 GMT]
“History of the world has been full of clashes between the occupiers and the occupied. As a result of struggles, resistances and sacrifices more of the occupied people have been liberated and the fascist and chauvinist occupiers are being destroyed successively,” writes Mr. Rehman Haci Ehmedi, the Secretary General of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), in a solidarity message sent to the Eezham Tamil nation on the occasion of Heroes Day. In a note sent to TamilNet via Rojhelat.info on Thursday, Mr. Ehmedi, who is the highest authority in the PJAK, drawing parallels between the struggle of the Kurds and the Tamils, urged the Eezham Tamil nation to continue the struggle, “In the hope of revitalization of the heroic nation of Tamil Eelam, in the hope of triumphant and freedom for the resolute and revolutionary nation of Tamil Eelam; never rest unless triumphing!”
Full story >>

Thousands throng Sydney, London Heroes’ Day events

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2012, 16:21 GMT]
Thousands of Eezham Tamils from across the UK gathered at London on Tuesday to pay obeisance to the Maaveerar (heroes) who laid down their lives in the struggle for a sovereign Tamil Eelam. Likewise, large crowds showed up at the Heroes Day event at Sydney, which was held in open space, and the people stayed on till the conclusion despite a heavy downpour. At the Heroes day event at Excel centre, London, security sources informed that the overall crowd was roughly around 20,000. Speaking to TamilNet, a community activist from Australia said that the strong presence of Tamil public at the Heroes Day events in different parts of the world showed that the diaspora will not be intimidated by any targeting or attacks on grassroots activists. Separately, Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon also spoke in the parliament on the occasion, referring to challenges faced by the Tamils.
Full story >>

SL military attacks house of Kaarainakar PS Head for observing Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2012, 05:35 GMT]
A Sri Lankan military intelligence backed squad entered the house of Mr. Anaimukan Velayutham, the head of the civic council (Piratheasa Chapai) of Kaarai-nakar, who is a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member and a leading trader in Jaffna, and set fire inside his house using burning tyres, news sources in Kaarainakar islet off Jaffna told TamilNet. Mr. Anaimukan was threatened by the gang, alleging that he had observed the Heroes Day by lighting lamps and conducting special prayers at the temples in Kaarainakar.
Full story >>

Pirapaharan’s LTTE had moves to make Heroes Day inclusive

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2012, 10:22 GMT]
Conceding the fact that many members of the other militant organisations too had laid down their lives for the cause of Tamil Eelam, Pirapaharan’s LTTE took initiative in taking an account of them for honouring them as Maaveerar (heroes). Forms had been distributed for this purpose to get written consent from the next of kin of the slain heroes of the other militant organisations. The outbreak of war in 2006 stalled the process started in 2002, revealed a former senior member of the LTTE to TamilNet on Tuesday. If needed, he would openly come out and testify the fact in his own voice, the former senior member said.
Full story >>

Tamil youth in Canada experiment with virtual cemeteries for Tamil heroes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2012, 03:22 GMT]
"Exactly one year ago, we as youth adopted the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition as a basis for our initiatives in the Diaspora. We should continue to move forward and never compromise on the fundamental principles to which we pledged our allegiance,” Pamela Katheswaran, the president of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Tamil Students Association in Canada told TamilNet on Sunday, attending the Heroes Day remembrance event organised by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) in Toronto. The organisers had also launched an experimental web-based virtual replication of Eezham Tamils’ Heroes cemeteries (maaveerar thuyilum illam), razed down by the Sri Lankan military following the occupation of the country of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Canada’s position on Sri Lanka significant, but not enough: Neethan Shan

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 November 2012, 17:49 GMT]
Within days of the release of the UN internal review report on Sri Lanka, it became the subject of debate in Canada’s House of Commons. The House exchange belies an apparent discrepancy in present government policy, Tamil activists opine, citing the ruling Conservatives strongly denouncing the Sri Lankan government’s lack of respect for human rights, while simultaneously deporting Tamil refugee claimants from Canada to Sri Lanka. “I am happy that the Prime Minister who was generally silent with the mass murder of tens of thousands of Tamils during early 2009, is now beginning to stand up for the human rights of Tamils,” Neethan Shan, Eezham Tamil politician in Canada told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Genocidal Sri Lanka forbids Kaarthikai festival as it falls on Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 November 2012, 22:41 GMT]
The Heroes Day observed by Eezham Tamils on 27 November to remember their fallen fighters, falls on a full moon day this year, coinciding with the Kaarthikai festival of lights observed by Tamils since ancient times. Sri Lanka that has made a practice of banning even routine religious observations in the temples of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils on the Heroes Day, dares this year to forbid the Kaarthikai festival observations too. Occupying Sri Lanka’s practice of banning temple rituals, including toll of bells on the Heroes Day, started first in Nov 2009, while New Delhi’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna was visiting Jaffna. New Zealand Tamils appeal to the UN on the continued cultural genocide of their kith and kin in the island.
Full story >>

Emotion-charged homage paid to slain diaspora activist in France

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2012, 18:30 GMT]
Thousands of Eezham Tamils paid their last respects at a state-like funeral given on Saturday to Nadarajah Mathinthiran alias Parithi, who was assassinated outside Tamil Coordinating Committee office in Paris two weeks ago. While the International Community has been unable to exert any meaningful pressure on the Sri Lankan state, the continued ban of the LTTE in countries outside the island, only encourages the SL state to deal with the diaspora through a militaristic counter-insurgency approach, activists in Paris said, adding that the mass attendance at the funeral of the slain Tamil activist was also a message to the International Community of Establishments (ICE) that was projecting the Tamil diaspora as a hostile actor, from the UN panel report to the latest document of the International Crisis Group (ICG).
Full story >>