India should call for genocide investigation, referendum: Jayalalithaa tells Modi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2014, 07:01 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Selvi Jayalalithaa, in a memorandum submitted to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has firmly reiterated the stand expressed in four Tamil Nadu State Asssembly resolutions, demanding the Indian government to move a UN resolution demanding investigations on Tamil genocide and a UN referendum on Tamil Eelam among the Tamils in the island as well as among those living outside the island. Selvi Jayalalithaa, who didn’t attend the swearing-in ceremony due to the controversial invitation extended to SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa, met Mr Narendra Modi at New Delhi presenting him the demands of Tamil Nadu in the 25 point memorandum where the genocide investigation and UN referendum on Tamil Eelam was the second point of the agenda.
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Sri Lanka State identity needs denouncement, as mass-grave polity is congenital

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2014, 23:28 GMT]
“Sri Lanka: The Island of mass graves,” says editorial of Asian Human Rights Commission’s journal for Feb–April 2014. The editorial by Nilantha Ilangamuwa traces the ‘mass grave’ statecraft of ‘Sri Lanka’ since early 1970s. Generalisation of the mass graves and equating them with labels such as JVP and LTTE, is fundamentally misleading, and would not resolve the issue of State in the island, as the former was state terrorism’s response to a political question and the latter was naked genocide to respond to a national question, to which even the JVP was a party. The Tamil graves are largely not LTTE graves, but graves of ordinary members of a nation. If there is anything common that all in the island have to denounce, that is the very ‘Sri Lanka’ state identity, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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SL Minister accompanied by Pakistani officials threatens Tamil villagers in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2014, 21:06 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister of Industry and Commerce, Rishard Badurdeen, who has been inciting conflicts among the Tamil-speaking people in Mannaar and Mullaiththeevu districts, has now threatened more than 40 Tamil families living in Paarathi-puram village in Vavuniyaa to vacate from their village, news sources in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet. Accompanied with five Pakistani officials and British trained Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF), the SL minister has gone to the village last week claiming that a factory is going to be built at Paarathipuram and that the Indian origin Tamils living there since 1977 should vacate from their settlement.
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Obama’s West Point address ‘missing’ Sri Lanka is double edged

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2014, 15:26 GMT]
The US President Barack Obama missing Sri Lanka in a key foreign policy address is double edged, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island. Obama was addressing the US Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday. He was listing out his administration’s direct, indirect and collaborative deliberations as well as achievements over ‘terrorism’ all over the world and was coming out with his vision for future. Sri Lanka didn’t figure among the 30+ countries noted by Obama, in past, present or future. Whether the USA now feels embarrassed in claiming its unprecedented ‘achievement’ in the island, or is it another tactic of down playing the gravity and establishing a paradigm, asked the Tamil activists.
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Polarization widens between New Delhi and Tamil Nadu following Rajapaksa visit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2014, 23:24 GMT]
Protests have proliferated in Tamil Nadu state against what activists have termed as “New Delhi’s unwavering courting of genocidal Sri Lanka”, at the very inception of the new BJP government. The decision to invite the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa to the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected Indian Prime Minister is interpreted as New Delhi’s disrespect to the democratic mandate expressed in Tamil Nadu State Assembly resolutions calling for sanctions on Sri Lanka and for a referendum to be conducted among the Eezham Tamil nation.
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Acid test for Eezham Tamil Bishops, TN Archbishop should intervene

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2014, 16:33 GMT]
The announcement of Pope Francis to visit Mahinda Rajapaksa’s genocidal Sri Lanka in January 2015 is not a small matter. It is like giving a ‘spiritual finishing touch’ to the temporal conquest achieved through genocide cum agent State paradigm by current imperialism. What is actually meant by the idea, ‘reconciliation’ for a united island after genocide, hatched by the US State Department in 2009, is explicitly evident in the last five years in the form of Sinhala militarisation, colonisation, structural genocide and annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils. The Pope now visiting the island carrying the banner of ‘reconciliation’ is not going to reverse the process, but will only confirm the process.
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Papal visit to ‘bless’ genocidal Sri Lanka next year

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 May 2014, 14:36 GMT]
While the new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosting Rajapaksa to his swearing-in on Monday has enraged Tamils, Pope Francis on the same day has announced to media about his visit to Sri Lanka, the very State of which is accused of genocide, on-going genocide, and has been rejected by Eezham Tamils since 1972. The Papal visit would give recognition to the genocidal State, blunting the calls for genocide investigation, and for that matter any international investigation at all against the State and the Rajapaksa regime, Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island commented.
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Tamils protest against New Delhi’s invitation to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2014, 23:41 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Tamils took to the streets protesting against New Delhi inviting the president of genocidal Sri Lanka to the swearing in ceremony on Monday. The General Secretary of MDMK Vaiko led a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi condemning the invitation extended to the genocide accused SL president, whose presence was ‘polluting the sanctity’ of Modi’s swearing in ceremony. Protesters across Tamil Nadu burnt the effigies of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The entire Tamil Nadu was on protest as the Chief Minister and key leaders of political parties have strongly opposed the invitation extended to the SL president.
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Tamil Nadu students rally against BJP invitation to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2014, 23:38 GMT]
Shedding differences among different formations of activists in Tamil Nadu, the student groups came together on Saturday to protest against the newly elected BJP government inviting the president of genocidal Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to the swearing in ceremony of the Prime Minister Elect Narendra Modi, amidst strong opposition from the Tamil Nadu State Government and the opposition against the invitation. The latest justification given by BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman has irked the entire Tamil Nadu, the protesting students who courted arrest told TamilNet. In fact the first protest against the newly elected BJP government in India has emanated from Tamil Nadu, the students added. The organisers also said that a protest was planned by several social organizations on the 26th of May in Chennai as well as other places against BJP inviting Rajapaksa.
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Resorting to genocide does not always ensure COIN success: Israeli military historian

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2014, 21:38 GMT]
“It should be noted […] that resorting to mass murder, even genocide, does not always enable counterinsurgents to win,” renowned Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld said. In an exclusive Email interview to TamilNet on Saturday, Prof. van Creveld also expressed a degree of consent to the proposition that a counterinsurgency (COIN) that secured a brutal victory over an insurgent but could not dent the political aspirations of the target population was a failure. He is also of the opinion that while a large scale ground intervention by US forces in South and South East Asian regions does not have great possibility of success, the superior ability of the US “to dominate the sea, the air, and outer space” in these regions give it a significant leverage. However, van Creveld’s comments on the imposition of peace in Sri Lanka warrant some introspection.
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Machiavellian ‘Prince’ of Sri Lanka?

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2014, 04:09 GMT]
The Prince, a short treatise written by Niccolo Machiavelli in about 1527 as an advice to the Governor of Florence, to win his favour presents doctrines which have a striking similarity to those adopted by Rajapaksa, with unapologetic obeisance from Colombo elites. While historians and political scientists argue on the true objectives of the book, the term "Machiavellian" is near universally used to refer to amoral, unscrupulous, and devious power games in the conduct of States. Rajapaksa’s calculated acts to destroy the Tamil nationalist struggle by first killing thousands of Tamil civilians in the "crime of the century," and then continuing the structural genocide in the NorthEast, with the complicit West unable to arrest the Sinhala state machinery, appear to be policy actions directly pulled out from The Prince.
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Jayalalithaa to boycott PM swearing-in over ‘ill-advised’ invitation to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2014, 07:15 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa will boycott the swearing-in event of India’s new Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi on 26 May, over the issue of invitation to Mahinda Rajapaksa, latest news reports said on Friday, citing AIADMK party sources. Earlier, Ms. Jayalalithaa described the invitation to genocide-accused Rajapaksa as “ill-advised” and as “rubbing salt into the wounds.” Modi’s camouflage in inviting SAARC heads of governments is impelled by his priority to Pakistan and Muslim factor, and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s immediate response to come shows the US advice behind the move, political analysts said, adding that the USA and India long sidelining and sabotaging the Tamil question is the boon for genocidal Colombo and the Rajapaksas.
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Jaffna University, NPC brave threats to observe Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2014, 20:06 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan military was recklessly determined to suppress the Tamil students, academics, religious dignitaries, democratically elected political representatives and the common public against observing the 5th Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance, the University students and academics at Jaffna University emotionally commemorated the supreme sacrifice by the thousands of Eezham Tamils who faced the genocidal onslaught in the final days of Vanni war. Also the elected Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members on Thursday marked their observance by lighting candles at the NPC Secretariat where councillors Mr Shivajilingam and Ms Ananthi Sasitharan were blocked by the occupying SL police, who also desecrated the tribute site at the gate.
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New Delhi has to be told whether it wants Tamil Nadu or genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 May 2014, 23:02 GMT]
New Delhi’s prime minister designate Narendra Modi can’t have an excuse in inviting genocidal Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa to the inauguration of his government, citing his invitation to all SAARC heads of governments. None of the States in India has ever indicted the head of government of a neighbouring country, as the Tamil Nadu State Assembly has unanimously resolved against Rajapaksa’s genocide of Eezham Tamils. The Rajapaksa case is a unique case India has never seen before, and that too considerably involving the previous Congress government at New Delhi. Tamil Nadu, having a duty in showing a protest in no uncertain terms to New Delhi that whether it wants its southern State or a genocidal State in the neighbourhood, need not care Mr. Modi’s self-invited diplomatic compulsions.
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Indian corporate to build houses for Gotabhaya’s Colombo development

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 May 2014, 07:04 GMT]
Timed to the Indian election results, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa-controlled Urban Development Authority of Colombo has made an unconventional deal with a leading corporate house of India, the Tata Group, by giving a prime area of Colombo city on a 99 years lease ‘free of charge’, for the group to ‘build houses’. While Sri Lanka’s strategy is to bind India with the structural genocide of Eezham Tamils, through Colombo-centric interests and building Sinhala military capitals in Jaffna and Trincomalee, the Indian intelligence agencies deceptively tell Tamil activists that an ‘economic integration’ would bring in political solutions. The Colombo-backing stand of Observer Research Foundation has to be understood in the background of the actual happenings, said Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Gajendrakumar calls for foolproof position, closer ties with Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2014, 17:17 GMT]
Tamils should make their position foolproof said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on 17 May in London. The problem the Tamils face is two fold. The first is geopolitics and the International Community's reasons for not wanting to recognise Tamils nationhood and sovereignty. The second is our own problem, where we have a party that claims to be the democratic representatives of Tamils, but deliberately chooses not to put forward positions that make Tamil sovereignty the fundamental basis for any political discourse. Giving a brief account on continuing oppression and militarization of the Tamil homeland and talking about manipulation of Tamil political opinion by international powers both in the island and in the diaspora, Mr Gajendrakumar called for a stronger network between Tamil Nadu and the Eezham Tamils to prevent such deviations.
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India gets prime minister of his own political stature

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2014, 15:49 GMT]
After 10 years, India is getting a political prime minister of his own stature, routing out the Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka Congress Party, the government of which was run by a puppet prime minister and extra-parliamentary elements such as National Security Advisors, intelligence officials and bureaucrats. Apart from the debate on BJP’s Hindutva polity and the impact that might come with the brute majority given to it, the past experience of Eezham Tamils is that Non-Congress governments were much better in post-Indira Gandhi times. Mr. Narendra Modi’s predecessor Mr. A. B. Vajpayee earned the respect of Tamils, despite the virtual non-existence of his party in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Modi must have surely got the cue about the expectations behind the unprecedentedly overwhelming victory of Ms. Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu.
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SL military ridicules Mu’l’ivaaykkaal observance even in temples

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 May 2014, 23:13 GMT]
The military intelligence operatives of the occupying Sri Lanka Army deployed local goons to confront the elected Tamil representatives of the Tamil National Alliance and Tamil National Peoples Front from observing rituals at temples and churches in the North and East commemorating Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance Day on Sunday. As a way of ridiculing, Sinhala soldiers entered into Nalloor Kanthasaami temple and ‘competed’ with Tamil representatives in making ‘ritual offerings’ at the temple. The Bishop of Jaffna was under pressure to stop lighting commemoration lamps at the churches. SL soldiers were deployed in front of temples and churches. However, Eezham Tamils in the North and East observed Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance at their houses and businesses in an emotional manner, passing a strong message to the world.
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Ananthi goes for traditional medium of remembering the dead on Mu'l'livaaykkaal Day

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 May 2014, 08:38 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member Ananthi Sasistharan has been protesting in front of a Sri Lankan military barrier on Mu’l’ivaaykkaal Remembrance Day demanding access to Keerimalai Nakuleasvaram temple at Keerimalai for the families to perform rituals to the dead family members. The SL military has been blocking all the avenues to the ritual site rejecting the Tamil families from conducting the ritual during Mu’l’livaaykaal remembrance. Keerimalai is situated in Valikaamam North which has been subjected to militarisation and Sinhalicisation by the occupying SL military.
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Tamils should project universality in Mu'l'livaaykkaal remembrance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 May 2014, 07:08 GMT]
The Jaffna University Science Teachers’ Association (JUSTA) on Saturday condemned the Colombo government for oppressing Mu'l'livaaykkaal remembrance. One of the obverse impacts recognised by the JUSTA is that “it might lead to latent nostalgia for the LTTE, despite the anger against its holding the civilians hostage in the last stages of the war.” The JUSTA statement reeks of a deceptive twist deployed by the agencies of the West in covertly passing the blame. New Delhi was overt in oppressing any remembrance when its FM chose to visit Jaffna on the 2009 Heroes Day. Tamils should not slip in recognising and projecting the global struggle dimensions of remembering Mu'l'livaaykkaal, commented a Jaffna University academic.
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