Rajapaksa's UPFA-men destroy Hindu temple in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 September 2012, 17:50 GMT]
Abiraami Amman Koayil in Meankaamam village, situated in Moothoor DS division of Trincomalee district, was destroyed on Wednesday. Residents in the area told TamilNet that a gang led by former Provincial Minister of Agriculture and Inland Fisheries T. Navaratnarajah, who is contesting the forthcoming election to the Eastern Provincial Council on the ticket of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), was behind the destruction.
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Genocide partners talk about people to people relationship

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2012, 00:02 GMT]
The action taken by Tamil Nadu chief minister to send back Colombo footballers and an incident of mob harassment against Sri Lankan tourists in Tamil Nadu have made New Delhi and Colombo, the partners in the genocide of Eezham Tamils, to remember the importance of people to people relationship all of a sudden. Following close on their heels were The Hindu and the Marxist Communist Party of India (CPI-M). The BJP parliamentary leader Sushma Swaraj chose the time to invite Mahinda Rajapaksa to open a Buddhist institution in her constituency. Even though sections of media in India try to reduce the stand of Jayalalithaa as mere impulsive response to the open insistence of the Centre on training Sri Lankan military personnel in India, and project it as a dangerous game, powerful but short-sighted etc., the matter is much deeper than that, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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‘BJP legitimizes Sri Lanka’s culture of genocide through Buddhist links’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2012, 13:54 GMT]
At a function organised by the Sri Lankan high commission in New Delhi on Saturday, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has unveiled a painting depicting Emperor Asoka to mark the 2,600th year of the advent of Buddhism in the island. Sushma Swaraj recalled the important cultural and Buddhist links between India and Sri Lanka and affirmed India's commitment to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, reported IANS on Sunday, adding that “she was impressed by the resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts of the Sri Lankan government and the approaches by all parties towards reconciliation.” A Tamil Nadu activist studying in New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University working with the Delhi Tamil Students’ Union condemned this move as a legitimization of “Sri Lanka’s culture of genocide”.
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Australia Opposition says ready to violate UN Refugee Convention

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2012, 03:33 GMT]
Tamil refugees fleeing the island of Sri Lanka to the shores of Australia drew wide media coverage and Australia's law makers rushed in defence of parties' asylum policies as Australian authorities intercepted a boat carrying 81 suspected asylum seekers north-northwest of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Saturday. While Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop claimed that many asylum seekers from the island of Sri Lanka are economic migrants, and not refugees, and therefore, should be deported before they get access to Australia's legal system, the Immigration Minister in the ruling party said Australia would be breaching UN's 1951 Refugee Convention if the refugees were deported before considering their claims, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
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Syrian crisis - a case study in ‘regime change’ politics

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2012, 07:54 GMT]
Even as Western governments are stepping up covert and overt pressure on the current Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, those following the Kurdish national question are unsure of the future of Kurdish regions in Syria. With reports emerging of Turkey arming the anti-Assad force ‘Free Syrian Army’ (FSA) that receives support from governments in the West, simultaneously Turkey pursues a militarist approach against the PKK. There is apprehension that Turkey might use the opportunity to strike at Kurdish regions in Syria to deal a blow to the PKK sphere of influence. At this conjuncture, those Tamils who are considering Western intervention in Syria as a positive step against repressive regimes should study in detail the intricacies of ‘geopolitics of regime change’ and the dynamics of the Kurdish national struggle in the region, commented a Tamil political analyst.
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Australian Court denies US extradition request

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2012, 02:36 GMT]
Melbourne Federal Court Judge, Justice Tony North, in a precedent setting verdict delivered Friday, denied extradition of an Eezham Tamil, Thulasitharan Santhirarajah, to the U.S., ruling that the US charges against Santhirarajah, were "political". The Court also ruled that Australia's Attorney General (AG) Nicola Roxon's decision to authorize extradition "denied Santhirarajah procedural fairness," and that the AG "erred in the way she accepted extradition would not result in Mr Santhirarajah's torture." Justice North appeared to have also heeded the warning of Mr Santhirarajah's wife, Priya, who is an Australian citizen and who said previously that "to consent to Thulasi's extradition will amount to the signing of his death warrant."
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Basil Rajapaksa dispatches 1000-member squad to Trincomalee to ensure UPFA polling in PC elections

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2012, 21:37 GMT]
More than one thousand persons have arrived in Trincomalee district under the instruction of SL presidential sibling and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa to manipulate the polling in the forthcoming provincial elections in the East in favour of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), informed sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet Friday.
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Worsening SL economy drives Sinhalese, Muslims to take boats to Australia

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2012, 20:24 GMT]
While Tamil families, especially the former members of the LTTE, subjected to harassments and genocidal sexual abuse by the occupying SL military choose to flee the island seeking security in Australia with their families on board the fishing vessels, Muslims from Katpiddi and Sinhalese from Negombo have also chosen to flee the island in recent days due to worsening economic conditions in the island, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet Thursday. The SL Navy found Muslims from Katpiddi of the North Western Province among the 61 persons who were arrested in the seas off Chu'ndikku'lam in Vadamaraadchi East, Jaffna, in the early hours of Wednesday. In the meantime, media sources in Colombo said that four Sinhala SL Navy personnel were among those who had sought asylum in Australia in recent days.
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Genocidal sex abuse of ex-LTTE female cadres becomes routine in North and East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2012, 08:29 GMT]
The genocidal Sri Lanka military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils is routinely engaged in repeated sexual abuse of the former female members of the LTTE to see them pregnant by the Sinhala soldiers, in the model of former Yugoslavia, news sources citing a number of cases and medical professionals told TamilNet. While Radha D’Souza views the Tamil struggle “as one of the most significant movements since the end of the Vietnam War,” the former US Deputy Secretary of State and a current ICG trustee Richard Armitage in Oslo last year was harping on the unawareness of the world on the happenings in the island. The genocide is meant to be so by the architects, and the Akashi visit last week viewing ‘rehabilitated’ female cadres was another effort to keep the on-going genocide under the carpet, political observers in the island said.
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Second annual Ki'liththaddu tournament attracts hundreds in Canada

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 August 2012, 06:10 GMT]
Tamil youth teams from across Canada assembled in Toronto on Sunday to play in the second annual Ki'liththaddu tournament organized by TYO-Canada. Over 20 teams competed for a chance to win the Tamil Eelam Heritage Trophy. Originating from the agricultural roots of Eezham Tamils, the game has gained popularity and was organized to promote and preserve Eezham Tamil identity, tournament organizers said. Community organizers concluded the event highlighting the importance of upholding Eezham Tamil identity and national symbols in resisting the genocidal scheme against Eezham Tamils.
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New Delhi resorts to further ‘mischief’ by passing responsibility

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 August 2012, 10:45 GMT]
While New Delhi establishment’s foreign ministry points to defence ministry over the “mischief” issue raised by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa, about India giving training to Colombo’s military personnel in Tamil Nadu behind the back of Tamil Nadu government, the defence ministry sources reportedly have said that any decision on this would have to be taken by the Indian Prime Minister. Knowing the weak and guided personality of the Indian PM on matters related to Eezham Tamils, the establishment in New Delhi is playing further mischief, informed circles said. Those who are ultimately responsible for the genocidal policy of imperialism followed in the island have to be exposed and they have to be made answerable to the people of Tamil Nadu and peoples of India, political activists in Chennai said, appreciating the stand taken by Ms Jayalalithaa.
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US Court of Appeals to hear Rajapakse war-crimes case

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 August 2012, 03:59 GMT]
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the briefing schedule Monday for the appeal against the dismissal of the war-crimes case against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse. The appeal was filed by three Tamil plaintiffs/ appellants against Rajapakse for complicity in extrajudicial killings of plaintiffs relatives in violation of the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA). The case, first filed at the lower court, was dismissed in February 2012 by Judge Kotelly after the U.S. State Department intervened to assert that, as a sitting head of state, Rajapakse was immune from litigation.
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UN exposes use of cluster munitions in Vanni War

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2012, 23:51 GMT]
The United Nations Mine Action Team, which coordinates the UN agencies engaged in humanitarian de-mining throughout the world, has documented the use of cluster munitions in the Vanni war, informed sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet.
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Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission distorts figures of missing persons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 August 2012, 22:48 GMT]
The ‘Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission’, run by the Sri Lankan State in Colombo, has begun to conceal and twist the figures of complaints registered by its regional offices in the North and East. While announcing that a ‘high level’ delegation from Colombo is scheduled to visit Jaffna in the coming days to ‘investigate’ the registered complaints of missing persons since the year 2006, Mr. S. Kanagaraj, an official at the Jaffna office told media Wednesday that only 472 people were reported missing after the year 2006. However, informed human rights activists in Jaffna said that the office had registered 1,500 to 2,000 cases since 2006. There were at least 599 cases registered by the office in the year 2006 alone, they further said.
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Malathy’s ‘Fleeting Moment’ a testimonial to earned sovereignty of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2012, 21:55 GMT]
As a first hand written account of a diaspora Tamil who lived and worked for over four years in civilian institutions in the de facto state of the Eezham Tamils, N. Malathy’s “A fleeting moment in my country: The last years of the LTTE de-facto state” bears witness to how the sovereignty earned through the conduct of the struggle of the Eezham Tamils was denied by world powers, leading to the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre. A literature of ‘lived experience’ of one who stayed in Vanni for 4 years working with civilian institutions like NESoHR, women and child organizations, and later spending over 4 gruelling months in the Manik farm detention camps, the book should elicit interest not just from Tamils world over, but also academics, activists, feminists, journalists and those interested in studying social life under a political struggle against genocide.
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SL military grabs disabled people's land in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 August 2012, 17:29 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Ki'linochchi district has instructed the Sri Lankan Government Agent (SLGA) of the district to permanently hand over 6 acres of lands already encroached by the 65-2 division of the SLA at Aanaivizhunthaan-ku'lam GS area of Karaichchi division. The land, which is owned by a rehabilitation organisation for disabled persons, is located 10 km southwest of Ki'linochchi town.
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Colombo's immigration arrests 53 Tamil Nadu Tamils in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2012, 23:54 GMT]
Sri Lankan police in SL military occupied Jaffna on Wednesday and Thursday arrested 53 Indian citizens, most of them Tamils from Tamil Nadu, for overstay in the peninsula without informing the Indian mission in Jaffna while hundreds of Chinese workers, including sex workers, are allowed to stay in the island with no regards to visa regulations. The occupying colonial State, which functions as an agent state for the International Community of Establishments (ICE) including the establishment of New Delhi, has become increasingly paranoid about the grassroots business links and people to people interactions between the South Indians and the Eezham Tamils, informed sources close to SL Police in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Schalk writes further on Eezham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2012, 22:25 GMT]
The Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (DED) has two entries (549, 550) for the word Eezham and one of them means the island. This means Eezham is evaluated as a Dravidian word by the DED. Eezham and Chingka’lam are parallel allocations. While they have not derived from each other, Chingka’lam did not refer to an ethnie, the Sinhalas, but to the island as whole and to its demos, not to one ethnie. The demos could be Tamil and/or Sinhala speakers. Considering usage evidences, Seeha’la and Lamkaa are late comers compared to Eezham, writes Professor Peter Schalk in a further note sent to TamilNet, after criticising the Indian MEA demand to drop the word Eezham as “provocative” (TamilNet 13 August). On Saturday, an interview feature in BBC Tamil Service said that Eezham has no entry in the DED and Madras Tamil Lexicon traces its origin to Pali.
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Don't expect justice by changing regimes that do not recognise Tamils as Nation: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2012, 21:16 GMT]
Parity of status to Tamils as a nation is the only way to restore justice in the island. It is meaningless to expect that ‘internal justice’ would come from any regime in Colombo, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, a former parliamentarian and the leader of the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) addressing the participants of a protest organised by the party on Wednesday to condemn the slaying of the Tamil political prisoner Delruxon Mariyathas and Nimalarooban. Wednesday's protest gains significance as the SL military and police that attempted to curb the protest in front of Jaffna were not able to suppress it through their ‘friendly magistrate’ as they managed to do earlier in curbing a protest at the same site by the TNPF.
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Uprooted Tamils in Ampaa'rai question SL Minister's statement on resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2012, 20:27 GMT]
Tamil people have been systematically evicted from forty villages in fifteen different DS divisions in Ampaa'rai district, Tamil civil officials in the district say. Since 13 April 1967 to date, at least 3,500 Tamil families have been uprooted from these villages. Recently, Rauf Hakim, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) who holds the portfolio of Minister of Justice in Mahinda Rajapakse regime has told a foreign envoy in Colombo that steps would be taken to return the lands and properties lost by people in the past decades. Tamil civil officials questioned whether the Tamil people who were systematically uprooted from their traditional villages could get their lands appropriated by Sinhalese and Muslims during the conflict.
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