Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has say in appealing to Commonwealth

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2011, 04:59 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has a say in appealing to New Delhi and other Commonwealth countries, especially where Tamils live, to decide not to hold the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet in Sri Lanka in 2013, Eezham Tamil political circles told TamilNet. The decision will be taken in the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet in Perth in Australia in October. The Canadian Prime Minister has already announced that he would not take part in the meet in Colombo, if Sri Lanka doesn't make progress on the question of human rights in the island. The Indian Prime Minister may not attend the meet in Australia this year, but Tami Nadu should register its opinion with the head of Indian delegation against deciding on holding the next meet in Colombo, Eezham Tamil politicians requested.
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Sri Lanka aims to get more time to complete genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 16:46 GMT]
The primary aim of Sri Lanka in the UN human rights council is to buy some more time to complete its genocide of Eezham Tamils through structural means and militarisation so that the question of war crimes would eventually lose its importance and would become acceptable means of contemporary world polity. The more time is given to a virtually Sinhala military to occupy the country of Eezham Tamils with impunity, the more the world will be contributing to a dangerous paradigm. If the existing State system in the international organisations is going to repeatedly prove its incapability in delivering criminal and political justice, the global Tamils have to be prepared to undertake an international struggle in appropriate ways. 70 million global Tamils cannot be taken for ride by the Sinhala polity just because it has a State and Tamils don’t have a State.
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Sinhala prisoners attack Tamil political prisoners in Welikade

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 12:10 GMT]
18 Tamil political detainees were wounded Tuesday night when Sinhala extremist inmates attacked them, sources at the Welikade prison told TamilNet Wednesday. The attack has taken place when 250 Tamil political prisoners were suddenly transferred to a Ward I cell where convicted criminals from South have been imprisoned.
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Colombo recalls Dias over war crimes prosecution fear

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 00:49 GMT]
Maj. Gen. (retd.) Jegath Dias, deputy Counsel in Sri Lanka’s embassy in Germany, and commander of Sri Lanka Army's (SLA's) 57th division during the last phase of the Sri Lanka war, was recalled by Colombo "in response to accusations he was involved in war crimes," Swiss media reported today. Spotlight on Dias's alleged war-crimes began when Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET) and Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, first filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Germany for accepting Dias to the diplomatic post. Two other legal efforts by Swiss-based advocacy groups, Society for Threatened People and TRIAL, and by Germany-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights further hindered Dias's ability to function as a diplomat, sources said.
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Friends, Enemies and Geopolitics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 September 2011, 08:27 GMT]
National oppression is common to all countries and we cannot expect the dominant Nations of Countries to be our friends. Our strategic long-term natural allies are obviously the oppressed Nations without State and then the oppressed peoples of the World. We have failed to cultivate friendship and solidarity with our Natural Allies while foolishly expecting the oppressors to deliver Liberation to us. We need to give highest priority first for unity among ourselves at least to the level of coordinating action committees for specific objectives and then develop solidarity and friendship with the Nation without State of Tamil Nadu followed by relationship with other Natural Allies, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific.
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India needs foundational policy change if past is catalogue of failures

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 September 2011, 05:46 GMT]
“The need of the hour is for India to undertake a thorough reappraisal of its Sri Lanka policy and make the necessary changes so that it is in consonance with the traditions of Nehru-Indira Gandhi years. The international community will be watching how India will react to the situation in the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly when the matter [Sri Lanka’s war crimes] comes up for discussion, writes V. Suryanarayan and Ashik Bonofer in Tuesday’s paper of SAAG. The paper catalogues Nehru-Indira Gandhi era interventions in protecting Tamils from pogroms, criticises India’s failure in protecting Tamil civilians in 2009 and argues for a policy change. Tamil politicians commented that the change should be foundational if piecemeal interventions proved a catalogue of failures and the writers treating a nation, as “Tamil minority groups in Sri Lanka” won’t help such a change.
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Batticaloa residents urge international action on already admitted crimes against humanity

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 September 2011, 18:22 GMT]
The kith and kin of 174 Tamil youths, who were arrested and dragged away by the occupying Sri Lanka Army 21 years ago in two separate incidents at Vanthaa'rumoolai and later massacred en masse, observed Monday memorial prayers at the Saiva temple at the Eastern University premises and at the Vishnu temple of Vanthaa'rumoolai. According to the findings of the SL Presidential Commission appointed by the then government to conduct inquiry into several massacres of Tamils that had taken place in East, Sri Lanka Army was responsible for the abduction of 174 Tamil youths.
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Genocide in Sri Lanka targets Tamil women, affects fertility: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 September 2011, 06:17 GMT]
While talking on the past and on-going genocide of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Vanni, S. Sritharan on Sunday said in a meeting in London that Tamil women are particularly targeted now and the fertility of Tamils is systematically jeopardized. He cited the examples of ‘grease devil’ attacks on women and the plight of young widows in child-producing age group. Eezham Tamils are increasingly convinced today that a united Sri Lanka would not work, he said. Later, when a question was asked why the TNA had not raised the issues of genocide and right to self-determination in the recent meet convened by a Congress MP at New Delhi, the deputy leader of TNA Maavai Senadhiraja answered that their unawareness of the agenda of the organizers and the desire not to exhibit disunity among the invited groups had been the reasons.
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The Hindu misquotes TamilNet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 September 2011, 03:20 GMT]
A feature by J. Balaji in The Hindu on Thursday misquoted TamilNet reporting a statement of the Sikh political party Dal Khalsa as that of TamilNet’s argument. “When India asks Pakistan to commute the death sentence of Sarabjit Singh, a convict in the Lahore jail, to life sentence on “humanitarian grounds,” why should it be keen on hanging the three Tamils convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, asks Tamilnet, a website known for its pro-LTTE views,” the feature appeared in The Hindu said. TamilNet on 12 August reported the argument as stated by Dal Khalsa’s general secretary Dr. Manjinder Singh and spokesperson Kanwar Pal singh. The feature was titled ”Sikhs condemn New Delhi’s stand against nations in India.”
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SL Army uses public buildings to ‘transform’ into ‘grease devils’

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 September 2011, 23:32 GMT]
The genocidal military of Sri Lanka occupying Jaffna uses some particular public buildings to ‘transform’ themselves into ‘grease devils’ in the nights, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. Scores of SL military men in uniform, who come to these buildings in the nights change into a different costume, apply grease on their face and disperse in different directions to terrorise residents of the locality. They also wear gloves and carry a small kris-knife with them. When one group disperses like this, another group with military vehicles wait in the building to provide ‘security’ for the ‘grease devils’ if any need arises.
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Tamil Nadu Assembly, Madras High Court, make precedent in Indian democracy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 August 2011, 19:34 GMT]
In an extraordinary development in Indian constitutional history, the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Tuesday unanimously and strongly resolved that the President of India, respecting the sentiments of the people and political parties of Tamil Nadu, should reconsider the clemency appeals of the three Tamils fixed for execution and convert their death sentences into life imprisonment. In the meantime, acting on a legal move by Vaiko and N. Chandrasekaran, The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the executions for 8 weeks giving time for the government to file counter affidavit. The President of India earlier rejected the clemency appeals of Perarivalan of Tamil Nadu and two Eezham Tamils, Murugan and Shanthan condemned to death in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and their hangings were fixed to September 09.
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Blake will draw blank if truth not recognized

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 August 2011, 01:57 GMT]
The US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake visits Sri Lanka this week, following Indian Foreign Minister Krishna telling the Parliament that what bothered the island for the last three decades was nothing but ‘terrorism’ and the solution confines to material ‘rehabilitation’ of Tamils and political ‘build up’ of the defunct 13th Amendment. Blake spoke to diaspora groups in the US before his visit. The engagement of India and the USA with the island is meaningless if it is not based on the recognition of the truth that the issue in the island is a national question, the war waged there had chronic genocidal intentions on the part of the Sri Lankan State and the military that now occupies the country of Eezham Tamils is in actuality not a State military of international norms but a genocidal Sinhala military, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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HRCSL refuses to register complaints against ‘grease devil’ attacks

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2011, 15:19 GMT]
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) refuses to entertain complaints against the harassment by alleged Sri Lankan armed forces personnel posing as “greased devils” in Batticaloa district. Instead the HRCSL asks the complainants to lodge same with the emergency service unit of the Sri Lanka Police, according to affected persons in the district.
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SLA-assaulted Tamil civilian dies in Puththa'lam hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2011, 15:07 GMT]
A 33-year-old Tamil civilian, suffering from heart ailment died last Sunday at hospital after being assaulted by Sri Lanka Army soldiers in Narakkalli village in Puththa'lam, medical sources told TamilNet. The victim, Mr. P. Sivakumar, was the first one to alert the villagers of suspected ‘grease devils’ believed to be Sinhala soldiers.
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New Delhi meet of Tamil parties ends without consensus

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 18:55 GMT]
The two-days meet of Eezham Tamil political parties held in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday on the initiative of Congress Party parliamentarian Sudharshana Natchiappan ended without consensus, participants told TamilNet. The main issue was that those who didn’t want to disappoint the Congress agenda didn’t want to resolve on the status of Eezham Tamils as a nation and that the nation has the right to self determination in the island. Instead, some of them wanted to concentrate on measures of protection and on accepting whatever that is given. The TNA wanted to avoid specific wordings and demands on issues of fundamental nature in order to stage-manage a New Delhi sponsored consensus of Tamil political parties.
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SLA destroys traces of Pirapaharan's house in VVT

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2011, 00:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Mondah night deployed a large number of troops at Aaladi in Valveddiththu'rai, surrounding the already demolished house, where Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Lieration Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was born and raised. The soldiers who came in armoured vehicles were engaged throughout the night in destroying the remaining structures of the already demolished house.
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SLA, STF militarise Puththa'lam following unrest

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 13:07 GMT]
Hundreds of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and elite commandos of the notorious Special Task Force (STF) personnel have been deployed in Puththa'lam following the clashes between the residents and the SL Police on Sunday. The SLA has come to the town with military tanks and armoured vehicles. SLA and STF personnel are manning every 5 meter of the road, the residents said. The residents say the that two armed intruders, who caused injuries to a dog entering the premises of a house in Ma'nal-theevu, 3 km north of Puththa'lam and shot at the Muslim youth who confronted them, were Sinhala policemen.
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Tamils in Mannaar confront SL Navy 'grease devil' at Peasaalai

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 12:34 GMT]
Tamil civilians of Peasaalai, 15 km northwest of Mannaar city, Sunday evening confronted an alleged 'grease devil' attacker around 7:30 p.m. When the attacker was chased by the civilians, the suspect ran into the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) camp at Peasaalai. The villagers who rang the bells of the churches and temples in the area gathered outside the Sri Lanka Navy camp demanding the SLN to handover the suspect to the police and file a case against him. The protesters wanted the process be transparent and demanded to carry on the process in their presence. Violent reactions ensued as the SLN personnel at the camp refused to handover the suspect and chose to opened fire confronting the protesters.
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SLA establishes 224th Brigade in Ki'n'niyaa after ‘grease devil’ episode

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 11:38 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has established its 224 Brigade in Ki'n'niyaa town where ninety nine percent of the population are Tamil-speaking Muslims. The deployment of Sri Lankan military at Ki'n'niyaa, the most densely populated town in the Trincomalee district, comes in the wake of protests held by Muslim residents of the area against the arrest of twenty four Muslim civilians over an attempted ‘grease devil’ attack by an alleged Sri Lanka Navy man last week. The new SLA Brigade consists two battalions with 1,000 to 2,000 soldiers, informed sources in the East told TamilNet Monday.
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It is not mere corruption, but militarisation of corruption in South Asia

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 05:02 GMT]
“Military forces across South Asia are flexing their commercial muscles to create ventures that rival private firms and threaten to militarise civil society,” says a New Zealand Herald article, Saturday. “In Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, defence chiefs have interests in everything from airlines to sugar factories, banks to bakeries, from power plants to ports. Investments worth billions of dollars are controlled by a military elite that is eclipsing civilian bureaucracies and, in some cases, corrupting the services,” the article by Rahul Bedi said. TamilNet commentator responded by saying that as militaries in South Asia don’t hesitate now to commit even genocide to protect corrupt states, the current anti-corruption uprising in India needs to be more inclusive and Tamil Nadu should enlighten peoples of India on the need to integrate the struggle of Eezham Tamils with it.
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