People in cloth sheds, Buddhist stupas built in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 May 2011, 06:12 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka’s ‘reconciliation’ in Vanni, abetted by its international partners is building huge Buddhist stupas there, while keeping Eezham Tamil natives in cloth tents. If building Buddhist establishments and new Sinhala-military townships in Vanni is the job of the state and re-building houses for the war-ravaged people and providing them with ‘milk and bread’ are the jobs of others and the diaspora, what is wrong in Eezham Tamils and their diaspora demanding the world for their country to be handed over to them for the true development of its people and to ensure ‘milk and bread’ really reach them, asks a Tamil politician in Jaffna, particularly addressing India and two other South Asian countries Pakistan and Bangladesh that will be attending a Chinese sponsored coaching programme of Colombo by the end of this month on how to conduct genocide with international abetment.
Full story >>

Tamil genocide was planned by international powers: British academic

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 May 2011, 15:57 GMT]
The British, the Europeans and the great powers played a dubious role. There was a peace process. But, visas were banned and the political status was denied to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They were branded as a terrorist organisation by the European Union under the prompting of Britain and United States and they deliberately broke the peace process, which had its horrible termination in the killing fields of Rajapaksa. So, there is co-responsibility. This was not just any genocide; this was a genocide planned, including by the international powers, who knew what was going on, said Dr Andrew Higginbottom, the Principal Lecturer in Politics/Human Rights at Kingston University in London, taking part in the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance event in London on 18 May.
Full story >>

SL Military harasses mourners in Jaffna at Remembrance event

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 14:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers on Thursday rounded up the mourners who were taking part in prayers at Kalaith-thoothu Hall in Jaffna, remembering thousands of their kith and kin slain in the genocidal war in Vanni in 2009. The armed soldiers of the occupying military that entered the premises blocked the mourners from leaving the building when the last program, a violin play, ended at 5:30 p.m., according to M K Sivajilingam of Tamil National Liberation Front and Sritharan MP of Tamil National Alliance.
Full story >>

International probe into Sri Lanka’s war crimes urged at British rally

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:56 GMT]
A vigil in London commemorating the tens of thousands of Tamils massacred two years ago by Sri Lanka’s forces in the final months of the island’s war was addressed Wednesday by parliamentarians from all three major political parties and representatives of leading UK trade unions, rights and peace campaigns, as well as representatives of several Tamil Diaspora organisations, with many speakers calling for an international investigation into the atrocities and recognition of Tamil self-determination and Tamil Eelam. The British Tamil Forum (BTF), with the support of other diaspora groups has organised the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance event. Braving rains, over twelve thousand people attended the Trafalgar Square event in the course of the evening, the organizers said, citing police liaison officers.
Full story >>

Massacre commemoration rally in front of UN headquarters

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:51 GMT]
Nearly one thousand expatriate Tamils from the U.S. and Canada held a protest rally in front of the United Nations headquarters near the Dag Hammarskjold park in Manhattan New York on the second anniversary of the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre of May 2009, appealing to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to act on the recommendations of his expert panel to conduct independent war crimes investigations in Sri Lanka. Protesters' chants of “UN, UN, Never again” and “Ban Ki-moon, Act Now” echoed off the white metal building where Secretary General Ban's office now is, Inner City Press (ICP) which covered the protest reported.
Full story >>

Country of Eezham Tamils mourns silently on Mu’l’livaaykkaal Day

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:44 GMT]
Subjugated to the extent of not being to able to even observe remembrance of the death of their kith and kin killed in thousands at Mu’l’lvaaykkaay in a powers-abetted genocide enacted by the Sri Lankan State in May 2009, the nation of Eezham Tamils on Wednesday demonstrated dormant anger through silent observations and confining themselves to their houses. The occupying military has ordered against any renting of public halls on Wednesday and has threatened potential organizers with dire consequences. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has requested people to mourn silently, and people responded. Movement of public, travel and commercial activities were very negligible in Jaffna and in other parts of the country of Eezham Tamils, amidst massive presence of the occupying Army of Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Calls for war-crimes probe escalate as Tamils commemorate massacre

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2011, 02:49 GMT]
Amid increasing calls by world's premier human rights NGOs, newly elected Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for independent international investigations into alleged accusations of war-crimes committed by Sri Lanka on Tamils, Tamil expatriates in several countries in the West are preparing to commemorate the massacre of Tamil civilians during the final phase of Sri Lanka war. In the United Kingdom, youth groups are organizing a vigil in Trafalgar Square and planning protest campaigns against visiting Sri Lanka cricket team, while in the U.S. in a show of unity, multiple Tamil organizations are participating in a protest and vigil in front of the United Nations building. Organizers of both events said they are expecting a large turnout.
Full story >>

Gatherings of different nature in foreign lands

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 May 2011, 22:58 GMT]
While the Eezham Tamil diaspora with a heavy heart gather this week in foreign capitals, remembering powers-abetted genocide committed on them and demanding liberation of their land, prevention of further genocide as well as penal and political justice, the occupying soldiers of the genocidal Army of Sri Lanka celebrated 2600 years of the birth of Buddha in the military colony at Palaali in the country of Eezham Tamils. Around 1400 SL soldiers, clad in white, observed the Buddhist ritual Sil at Palaali on Sunday, the occupying military’s website in Jaffna said. As nations and peoples of the island are emotionally divided in entirely different directions, Washington and New Delhi that engineered the genocide will only contribute to further crisis if realities are not met with in political terms, commented political observers in the island.
Full story >>

Ron Ridenour writes on the dilemma of socialist leaning governments on Tamil Genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 May 2011, 13:36 GMT]
The countries in the United Nations are divided in two blocs when it comes to the plight of Eezham Tamils. Those who tag themselves behind a world order promoted by the USA, and those who are in the opposing camp, many of them from the non-alignment movement (NAMs) and Cuba, Venuzela led ALBA countries of Latin America. These countries supported the Sri Lankan state in the previous UN Human Rights Council sessions. “However, ALBA partners now have a chance, whether on the UN Human Rights Council or not, to help the Tamil people in some way, also by calling for an investigation,” writes Ron Ridenour, a veteran US born but now Denmark-based leftist and anti-imperialist, who voiced against the US aggression on Cuba in 1961, jailed in the US for his views on several occasions and contributed extensively to the study of Latin America.
Full story >>

Nobody can suppress Tamil psyche: M K Sivajilingam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2011, 21:00 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in NorthEast would mourn thousands of their slain kith and kin on 18 May, said M K Sivajilingam, a former TNA parliamentarian and the general secretary of Tamil National Liberation Front. “No one can suppress the memories of a people remembering the sacrifices of thousands of their loved ones,” the former Tamil parliamentarian said urging the Tamils in North and East to mark the day with courage in silence under the prevailing conditions of subjugation.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu needs to play cohesive international role

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2011, 00:56 GMT]
Given her background and qualities, Ms. Jayalalitha has a chance of becoming an all India leader of international reputation, provided she fills in the vacuum created by the failure of New Delhi led by Sonia Congress and plays the card of the national question of Eezham Tamils and the geopolitical importance of Tamil Nadu, at an international trend-setting level, commented an Eezham Tamil diaspora studies academic in Europe. Meanwhile, Mr. Karunanidhi and his political family of long Tamil national heritage, now being in the opposition and free from bondage to New Delhi, have a more articulating but cohesive and historic role to play in setting the record right for their coming back, and all new front aspirants have to concentrate on genuine and progressive civil society movements, the academic further said.
Full story >>

Released ex-Tigers constantly harassed, mentally tortured

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2011, 11:24 GMT]
Even the small section of the former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have been released so far in batches, following prolonged harassments, find themselves further harassed and mentally tortured now by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Jaffna and Vanni. Medical sources in Jaffna say that the inhuman treatment meted out on the former Tiger members by the occupying military and the psychological harassment drives many of them to depression.
Full story >>

SLA in Vanni alleged of using forced labour

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 May 2011, 23:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army in Vanni is forcing the Tamil civilians, who visit Vanni to see their kith and kin in Mullaiththeevu district from other parts of the island, to work in the SLA-run projects. Failing to do so they are warned and their relatives in Mullaiththeevu are being interrogated by the SLA intelligence unit, according to affected victims.
Full story >>

UK Tamils plan protests during Sri Lanka cricket tour

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2011, 01:16 GMT]
Tamil Diaspora groups are planning protests to coincide with Sri Lanka’s cricket tour of England this summer, beginning with a demonstration on May 14 at the Uxbridge venue of the first match between Sri Lanka and Middlesex County. The protest series is the latest phase of a ‘Boycott Sri Lanka Cricket’ campaign initiated by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) in March and since endorsed by several other Tamil community groups in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Tamil campaigners Monday dismissed Sri Lankan press reports claiming that British authorities were trying to prevent the protests.
Full story >>

Nothing will happen by some welcoming UN report: Basil Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 18:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka President’s brother and SL Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa made an unannounced sudden visit to Jaffna Monday. Nothing will happen by some welcoming the UN panel report and ‘Tamils should not play treachery by betraying the country for a few thousand dollars,’ Basil Rajapaksa who was carrying a ‘special message’ from Mahinda Rajapaksa to the people of Jaffna said, while addressing a meeting at Maaviddapuram. Basil’s ‘message’ implied a warning against any evidence going out of Tamils in Jaffna on the war crimes and genocide committed on them, news sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

SL minister intimidates resettled in Vanni to sign against UN report

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 12:55 GMT]
Similar to the show of a group of Sinhala thugs forcing passers by to sign petition against UN panel report in Jaffna city Sunday, a Sri Lankan minister CB Ratnayake lead the occupying military and military intelligence personnel to intimidate the resettled Eezham Tamils in Vanni to sign a petition Saturday and Sunday. Members of village and civil society institutions were summoned over the phone by the military to bring people to Ki’linochchi town and when they gathered, the group lead by Ratnayake forced them to sign the petition. The military deployed in the streets in large numbers saw to it that no one escapes signing.
Full story >>

Sinhalese continue to encroach paddy fields of Tamils, Muslims in Moothoor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2011, 23:53 GMT]
Sinhala villagers backed by Sri Lankan military operated ‘home guards’ have forcibly encroached one thousand acres of paddy fields that belong to Tamils and Muslims in Puthukkaadu, Oottu and Muthu-kaayamadu in Moothoor DS division in Trincomalee district.
Full story >>

War crime, genocide case against Rajapaksa placed in Norway courts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2011, 00:06 GMT]
Leading Norwegian Lawyer on Human Rights, Harald Stabell, has filed a case under the Norwegian national law, against the Sri Lankan President and Commander-in-Chief of the SL armed forces, Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and former Sri Lanka Army commander Sarath Fonseka, now in Rajapaksa's custody, and several other SL commanders, for allegedly committing War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against Eezham Tamils. The case is filed on behalf of the Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils (NCET) and 15 affected Norwegian Tamils. Following the latest revelations by the Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim in Norwegian national media NRK about his knowledge of the white-flag surrender, which turned into a war crime, the lawyers have indicated to the Chief Prosecutor of Norway that evidence may be sought from Mr. Solheim.
Full story >>

Blake’s visit follows Maldives ditching UN panel report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 16:30 GMT]
The Maldivian foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem told journalists in Colombo that the UN report into human rights abuses in the closing days of Sri Lanka’s civil war is “singularly counterproductive,” reports Minivan News, an independent news service from Maldives, Saturday. Maldives is currently a member of the UN Human Rights Council. This week, the US Asst. Secretary of State Robert Blake, after closeting with Sri Lanka’s defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made a three-day visit to the Maldives. Eezham Tamils in UK, who support the Conservative Party that has considerable influence in deciding the foreign policy of Maldives should take a special note of what the Maldivian foreign minister has said, commented a diaspora political observer.
Full story >>

Powers, corporate interests behind personal wars in The Hindu

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 May 2011, 10:53 GMT]
“In a shocking display of bad faith,” N. Ram, who has become the Editor in Chief of The Hindu in 2003, “by stealth,” postpones his retirement agreed upon last year, and “seems bent on taking all the editorial directors—most are in their 50s--into retirement with him with a scorched earth policy to ensure that no one in the family succeeds him,” accuses N. Ravi, who is the Editor of The Hindu since 1991, writing an open letter to media brethren in April in The Hoot, the website of the New Delhi-based Media Foundation. However, Ravi’s long list of accusations that include the projection of Ram as pro-left/ pro-China, has no reference to the role he played against Eezham Tamils, suggesting, Ravi and Ram as well as the forces behind them are the same on the question of the liberation of Eezham Tamils, commented diaspora media circles.
Full story >>