Colombo targets NPC member Ananthi for witnessing against Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 January 2014, 07:59 GMT]
“I am fully prepared to confront the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, which has leaked a news threatening to put me through their so-called military rehabilitation,” said Ananthi Sasitharan, the only woman candidate of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), who also polled largest number of preferential votes next to the chief minister candidate of the NPC. Ms Ananthi Sasistharan was one of the public witnesses at the recent hearings by the Permanent Peoples Tribunal held in Bremen. She also met the US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, who visited Jaffna recently and explained to him that what went on in Vanni in 2009 was a genocidal onslaught and that a programme of structural genocide was being stepped up against Eezham Tamils.
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Colombo ‘reveals’ US connections in cluster bomb use

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 15:55 GMT]
United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) advised the Sri Lankan Defence Establishment to purchase Cluster Bomb Units (CBUs) during the peace talks mediated by Norway in 2002. The Island paper, which gives media space for PSYOP and information war waged by the SL military Establishment, on Monday released portions of an alleged FOUO-classified document of the US Defence Establishment. The ‘leak’ was made to remind the US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen J. Rapp, that Colombo was having proofs of ‘US complicity’ in the genocidal onslaught it waged on Eezham Tamils, an informed journalist from South told TamilNet. Colombo’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa himself timed the ‘leak’, the journalist further said.
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Bangkok Post compares BBS to violent 969 group of Myanmar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 16:14 GMT]
In an editorial opinion titled ‘Unacceptable intolerance' the Bangkok Post on Tuesday said that the Buddhists across the globe should be dismayed at the abuse of their religion by the Sri Lankan Bodu Bala Sena and Myanmar's 969 group, which are opposed to other races and faiths. The ideology, actions and speeches of both these groups are virtually identical, the Bangkok Post observed.
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Tamil Nadu needs to initiate Vietnam-like international struggle

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 January 2014, 23:26 GMT]
It is now explicit that the genocide and continued genocide committed on Eezham Tamils as a nation, is part of a larger global paradigm of ‘statecraft’ or tradecraft conceived and executed by Washington, London, New Delhi and Beijing in unison. They won’t alter the agenda of deploying or allowing the Sinhala State to annihilate the nation and territoriality of Eezham Tamils, unless the paradigm is globally challenged as was in the case of Vietnam, or is specifically thwarted by the power of the people in the region. The latter is more relevant to the context of Eezham Tamils. Tamil Nadu and other peoples of India are duty-bound to act not for the sake of Eezham Tamils but for their own sake and for entire humanity.
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Sri Lankan Weltanschauung

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 January 2014, 01:38 GMT]
The accumulating woes for Sri Lankan State in the international scene can be attributed to two distinct and inter-related phenomena. One, the continuing denial of the history of injustices inflicted by the State on the Tamils, culminating in the Mu'l'livaaykaal massacres of civilians and the refusal by the Sinhala rulers and the elites to acknowledge the killings, and second, the locally prevailing "Weltanschauung" (worldview) cultivated as an instrument for the ruling autocracy to stay in power, which accepts that, to eliminate the Tigers, any atrocity against any Tamil is acceptable. However, the Sri Lankan weltanschauung does not apply in the international arena. Colombo's refusal to respond to the accusations of war-crimes, and genocide, partly arises from the tolerance for Tamil injustice that is intrinsic to Sri Lanka's weltanshauung.
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TNPF urges investigations on genocide since British exit

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 January 2014, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) on Friday urged the global community not to limit the demand for investigations to only war crimes committed in the last phase of the war. Referring to the ongoing exhumation of Thirukkeatheesvaram mass grave in Mannaar, where four of the recovered 32 skulls so far were of children, the TNPF said the slaying of children clearly indicated the nature of genocidal intent. Given the long record of massacres, pogroms, war crimes and the ongoing crimes of structural genocide, the call for investigation should be on the genocide since British left the island, the TNPF said.
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Colombo opens new military camps, ‘Red soldiers’ to monitor Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 January 2014, 21:57 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has created a new unit, which has come to be called as ‘Red Army’ with military intelligence personnel fluent in three languages. The new ‘Red’ soldiers of the occupying military will be patrolling the interior villages of Vanni in bicycles. While Stephen Rapp, the US Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice was visiting North on Wednesday, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan presidential sibling and SL defence secretary, declared open 3 major military bases of the occupying Sri Lankan military in North. A large complex, which was earlier built by the political division of the LTTE near Ira'naimadu tank, has now become one of the new military installations of the occupying SL military in Ki'linochchi district.
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Stephen Rapp was briefed on structural genocide at Bishop's House in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 January 2014, 17:06 GMT]
After having caused massive deaths and disappearances on the Tamil civilian population during the times of war, the Sri Lankan State now continues to commit acts of structural genocide in the Tamil land. This aims at causing demographic and identity change, ethnic subordination and dilution of Tamils political power, the Bishop of Mannaar Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph told the visiting US diplomat on Wednesday. The visiting delegation was primarily interested in the details of the ‘war crimes’ during the final months of the war, according to Mannaar Bishop. Mr Rapp was told that an international investigation was necessary, not to punish any individual, but to create a conducive environment, which would in turn cause an attitudinal change on the part of the Sri Lankan State.
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Stephen Rapp dodges question on international investigations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 January 2014, 11:57 GMT]
The visiting US Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp, who met Tamil civil society representatives in Jaffna on Wednesday, was dodging proper response on calling for international investigations at the forthcoming Human Rights Council session to be held in Geneva in March. The top US diplomat was seen advocating a slightly stronger version of resolution than the one in last year at the forthcoming UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva. He was citing impracticality, as some permanent members at the UN Security Council would save the Sri Lankan State. The civil representatives in Jaffna urged him to at least propose a political solution in the next resolution that is being drafted by the USA.
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People’s struggle of Eezham Tamils begins from stopping ‘Sri Lanka’ usage

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 January 2014, 23:54 GMT]
The Second Session of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka held at Bremen has clearly indicted the Sri Lankan State for the genocide and continued genocide committed against Eelam Tamils as a national group in the island. The recognition of continued genocide and the identification of the affected party as Eelam Tamils as a national group, are very significant parts of the verdict. What are next steps the civilised humanity in general, and Tamils in particular, are going to take; and how to wage a peoples’ struggle of non-violence and non-cooperation, ask naïve sections of Eezham Tamils. A people’s struggle in fact begins from their households, first by consciously deleting the words Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan from usage, writes a Tamil activist for alternative politics in the island.
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Sinhala Military Zone in Jaffna gets ‘archway’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 January 2014, 16:29 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military, which has seized public and private lands in Valikaamam North and bulldozed the buildings, is constructing an arch on Palaali Road, which will be the future entrance to the Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) and its township. The SL military has almost completed the process of bulldozing the buildings inside the SMZ without leaving any trace. In the meantime, the economic assistance from India and other powers, which are locked in the geopolitical game, goes to ‘develop’ ports, corporate outfits, electricity farm and the airstrip of the township of the Sinhala Military Zone in the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Weerakodiyaana

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 January 2014, 11:20 GMT]
The place of Veera-kodiyaar (a Tamil guild of mercantile guards)
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26 victims exhumed, mass grave reveals torture, executions at standing position

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 January 2014, 06:59 GMT]
Some of the victims slain in the mass grave at Thirukkeathessvaram in Mannaar have been shot after being ordered to stand up straight inside the bunkers, according to those who witnessed the excavation of the mass grave in Mannaar. Of the four more skeletons recovered on Friday, one skull was found covered by a camouflage cloth used by the SL military. Gunshot wounds were also found on two of the skulls recovered on Friday. There were also teeth of children among the remains recovered on Saturday. On Monday, a full skeleton of a 6-year-old child has been exhumed. 26 skeletons have been found till Monday noon. Several skeletons recovered so far also bore marks of torture, the sources told TamilNet Monday. The exhumation effort will continue, the reports said.
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Top US war-crimes official visits Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 January 2014, 00:50 GMT]
US Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp will spend five days in Sri Lanka meeting with government, political and civil society officials "on a range of issues focusing on Sri Lanka's justice, accountability, and reconciliation processes," the US State Department said. While Rapp was previously holding the title Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues, Rapp's office released a damaging "Report to Congress on Incidents During the Recent Conflict in Sri Lanka," to US Congress as required by the US Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009. Also, in July 2010, US and UK representatives of Tamil diaspora groups briefed Ambassador Stephen Rapp, and his staff on the historical context of the Tamil struggle, and submitted supporting evidence and affidavits on war-crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Sri Lankan State on Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka.
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Theravada Sinhala Buddhism needs further understanding in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 January 2014, 04:53 GMT]
The genocidal onslaught carried out by Theravada Sinhala-Buddhist institutions of the island of Lanka against the nation of Eezham Tamils and other non-Buddhist peoples in the island is often presented by certain sections in certain countries as a necessary ‘civilisation-engineering’ that should be welcomed and supported. This is not due to innocence or ignorance. The Establishments of most of these countries were in complicity in the genocidal war either through the Tokyo Co-Chairs (USA, EU, Japan and Norway) or through joining the US bandwagon. A few others especially in Southeast Asia consider Sinhala-Buddhism a role model. But the most misleading of them all is a campaign carried out in Tamil Nadu.
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SL military wants Railway station in North named after Sinhala soldier

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 January 2014, 23:40 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military wants to change the name of the Elephant Pass (EPS) Railway Station, being constructed with Indian assistance, to the name of a war-dead 25-year-old Sinhala soldier Lance Corporal Gamini Kularatne, who died after tossing two grenades into the first LTTE-made bulldozer tank in 1991 in the first battle of EPS Base. The destroyed railway track, which was being extended from Vavuniyaa to Ki’linochchi last year, has now reached Ezhuthumadduvaa’l.
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Global vigilance urged on ‘genocidal experiments’ by Sinhala Buddhist monks

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 January 2014, 07:29 GMT]
A recent documentary by a leading Japanese television network depicted the work of a Sinhala Buddhist monk, Kalyana Tissa Thero of the ‘Seth Sevana Lama Nivasa of Attambagaskanda’, an orphanage in the Sinhala-ruled Tamil town of Vavuniyaa, as a ‘reconciliation’ work by a ‘true Buddhist’ who was looking after war-affected Tamil children. But, the monk was sexually abusing the children. The Tamil children, subjected to a genocidal ‘orphanage’ experiment were deprived of their language and religion and were being sent to Sinhala school. Following a specific complaint on sexual abuse committed on a 9-year-old child and amidst prevailing protests by the local child protection activists, the monk was arrested in October. But, two months later, Kalayana Tissa Thero was released on bail with the backing of Colombo's National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), on 31 December 2013.
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Transcend SA model, SL State and West’s mechanisms in seeking justice: Fr Rajan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 January 2014, 07:04 GMT]
The South African model that betrayed its people is now taken up by Colombo just to save war criminals. It is futile for Tamils to expect justice from any future government of SL State. Tamils also have to reconsider approaching their struggle once again through West’s mechanisms of justice. The current TNA failed to combine moderate politics with the politics of struggle. Steering Tamil national polity for crumps can’t be justified as ‘diplomacy.’ Tamil intellectuals have to think beyond the trap of ‘Transitional Justice’ and investigate potentialities of the concept Post-Transitional Justice, which is non-state, multi-sited, multi-actor and multi-referential, said Fr Elil Rajan, advocating Chile model, at a gathering in Batticaloa last week that remembered slain TNA parliamentarian Mr Joseph Pararajasingham.
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Human skeletons spotted inside well, bunkers in PTK

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 January 2014, 11:00 GMT]
Human skeletons have been spotted inside a well and the surrounding land of a house located at 2nd division of Puthuk-kudiyiruppu (PTK) in Mullaiththeevu district, news reports from Mullaiththeevu said. On the latest reports of finding human skeletons in PTK, Tamil activists in Mullaiththeevu suspected that these could be the victims who were executed by the advancing Sri Lankan military in 2009 genocidal onslaught on Vanni.
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SL immigration officials ‘investigate’ Canadian Tamil MP in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 January 2014, 10:28 GMT]
Following the interrogation on Tuesday by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department, who placed the visiting Eezham Tamil parliamentarian from Canada, Ms Rathika Sitsabaiesan, from 7:00 p.m. to midnight under an unofficial house-arrest, the immigration officials of occupying Colombo have subjected her for a second round of investigations Wednesday noon. As the Canadian MP was on a private visit to the island, the SL immigration officials would be carrying out an investigation to see whether she had violated the kind of visa utilized to her, the officers have told Wednesday.
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