This is a struggle for all of us: Vikramabahu tells Heroes Day congregation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2010, 12:57 GMT]
Tamils were killed by successive Sinhala chauvinistic governments and at last but not the least by the Mahinda regime. Not only Tamils but also thousands of Sinhala youth who were sent for aggression in the Tamil homeland and attack Tamils died in an alien land. The misery created among the Sinhalese will also show its reaction in future. This is a struggle for all of us. Yes, we have gone through defeat. Now we have to get up and fight to overthrow this chauvinistic military regime to have democracy in the land, said Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne, Secretary of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), who was a star speaker at the Maaveerar (Heroes) Day gathering in London, Saturday. The event attended by more than 50, 000 diaspora Tamils paid homage to the heroes who laid down their lives fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.
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50,000 gather in London to remember Tamil Eelam Heroes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 19:14 GMT]
Around 50,000 Eezham Tamils congregated on Saturday in London to pay homage to the Maaveerar (heroes) who laid down their lives in fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam. Similar gatherings proportionate to the population of Eezham Tamil diaspora were noticed in the other European capitals. 9,000 congregated in one of 8 localities in France and 9,000 at Fribourg in Switzerland, where local organisers noticed a new vigour of uprising. Meanwhile, the BBC in London cut a pathetic figure by featuring a report of a BBC Tamil Service staff, titled “Why Sri Lankan Tamils won’t remember war dead this year”. The BBC Tamil Service in recent years has become a mouthpiece of war crimes accused Colombo and the establishment abetting it from New Delhi, observers said. The subversive game is played by manipulating the unjustified continuation of the tag of ‘terrorism’ in UK, they further said.
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Indian FM harps on failed 13th Amendment in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 09:16 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who ceremoniously opened an Indian Mission near Kantharmadam junction in Jaffna, failed to deliver any positive message to Eezham Tamils on India's position in resolving the national question. Mr. S.M. Krishna harped on the failed 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, a model Tamils have rejected as inadequate in guaranteeing their rights and he also failed to touch the territorial integrity of the North-Eastern Province which was de-merged by Rajapaksa government that disregarded the earlier arrangement that has been in practice for several years following the Indo Lanka Accord.
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Poet Kasi Anandan speaks to Palaka'ni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 05:03 GMT]
Mu'l'livaaykkaal is only a turning point in the Tamil Eelam struggle, says veteran national poet of Eezham Tamils Kasi Anandan to the audience of Palaka'ni, the TamilNet window for cross-views that features its inaugural programme on Saturday. “The Tigers have silenced their guns. To what extent the chauvinism of the Sinhala state could go, the international community has yet another opportunity to understand now. But, has it ever accepted that what is being committed is a genocide," he questioned. Any struggle that is based on righteous principles will win. Eelam Tamils should understand this and proceed, said the 72-year-old Batticaloa-born poet, who has been associated with Periyar E.V.Ramasamy Nayakkar, S.J.V Chelvanayakam and Velupillai Pirapaharan.
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Heroes Day - 2010

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 00:01 GMT]
At the height of the Vanni war, a representative of the Biafra struggle sent a message to TamilNet. He wanted the Eezham Tamils to remember that they were fighting not merely for them, but for the cause of many peoples like them all over the world. If the Eezham Tamils fail they fail the world of liberation, he said. He wanted the message and his best wishes to be conveyed to Vanni. That is the international dimension of the heroes of Tamil Eelam. They fought for the liberation of their nation and at the same time fought for a missing point in contemporary human civilisation. Many thought that Biafra could never be repeated in contemporary times and that too in ‘civilized’ South Asia. But there were people who adamantly wanted to prove that it is possible. Remembering the heroes in 2010 should remind us of the duty ahead of us towards ourselves and towards human civilisation.
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Swiss Tamil youths launch 'Thamizhan' Energy Drink

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 21:34 GMT]
Two Tamil youths in Switzerland on 26 November 2010 launched an Energy Drink named 'Thamizhan' and announced that the income generated through the sales of the product of their private firm would be fully invested to form and sustain a foundation-managed fund that would strengthen the democratic interests of the Eezham Tamil cause, the owners told TamilNet Friday.
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UN post confers no absolute immunity from war crimes prosecution

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 00:04 GMT]
Under the terms of the United Nations Charter, UN Officials only have “functional” immunity, immunity ratione materiae which confers immunities on those performing acts of state (duties). War crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are not incidental to the duties of a UN accredited diplomat, and therefore, Shavendra Silva, Sri Lanka's official at the UN in New York, can be prosecuted under the 18 USC 2441 of US criminal code for allegedly committing war crimes outside the US. Legal sources also said that the UN Headquarters Agreement on UN officials' Privileges and Immunities concluded with respect to the UN Charter arguably confers functional immunity only as well.
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Genetics and etymology go contrary to myths

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 06:38 GMT]
Kadugannawa, the Sinhala name of a key mountain pass in the Kandy district of the island of Sri Lanka comes from Dravidian etymology and is related to Kadu-ka’navaay in Tamil, reveals an etymological column in TamilNet. Meanwhile, genetic studies based on DNA conducted on Sinhala expatriates by a British medical institute 10 years ago showed that the Sinhalese predominantly carry M20, the Dravidian marker in them, says Subramaniyam Visahan who recently came out with an outline publication on the peopling of the island of Sri Lanka. Myths that obscure objective history about the peopling of the island could have been shattered had Colombo joined the DNA mapping programme, the Human Genome Project, said the UK-based writer, who formerly worked for the British National Archives.
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Wickramabahu to meet Diaspora Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 08:39 GMT]
Dr Wickramabahu Karunaratne, the leader of New Left Front and General Secretary of New Sama Samaja party, would be meeting diaspora Tamils in UK, British Tamil Forum (BTF) officials told TamilNet Friday. The meeting, scheduled to take place on 25 November in South Harrow, comes at a time when forces operating against solidarity among progressive leftist forces, were engaged in spreading false propaganda, Tamil political circles in UK said.
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UK billboard announces Tamil Eelam National Remembrance Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 04:26 GMT]
As part of the global Tamil Eelam community’s events to mark National Remembrance Day on November 27, expatriate Tamils in London have sponsored a public billboard. The Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO), an activist group comprising Tamil students and young professionals, coordinated the effort. “We wanted to express the significance of this day for Eelam Tamils, when all of us across the globe are united in remembering the sacrifices made so that the Tamil people could one day live in peace and dignity in their own homeland,” Nisha Mariyathas, TYO spokesperson told TamilNet.
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Swiss Tamil council arranges safe custody for war crimes evidence

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 November 2010, 22:53 GMT]
The Swiss branch of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), a human rights organisation that speaks up for voiceless peoples and communities, has come forward to act as an independent custodian of evidence material and in working out submissions on behalf of individuals and organisations, who need assistance in making submissions to the UN Panel, Tharsika Pakeerathan, the president of Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET), told TamilNet Wednesday. The GfbV will begin by conducting interviews on 28 November, 2010 in Bern, aiming for submission to UN Panel before 15 December.
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Sri Lankan military operatives disperse JVP-backed protestors in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 11:05 GMT]
Hundreds of helpless parents and relatives of missing persons in Jaffna, who took part in a hastily organised protest by the extremist JVP were attacked by Sri Lankan military-backed operatives Monday within 30 minutes of the commencement of the protest. The attackers threw eggs and tomatoes on JVP leaders Somawanse Amarasinghe, Tilvin Silva, Sunil Handuneththi and Jaffa district organiser of the outfit Lalith Kumar, forcing the JVP leaders to flee from the protest site which was heavily guarded by Sri Lankan police and monitored by military officers.
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War crimes and the responsibility of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 November 2010, 04:04 GMT]
Eezham Tamils have made a strategic blunder two decades back in not internationally indicting the Indian Establishment for the war crimes committed by the IPKF. On one hand they allowed the indictment to sink under the din of Rajiv Gandhi assassination and on the other hand sections of them thought that the Indian Establishment should be spared for future benefits. Yet some others thought that it was not as important as Tamils acquiring military strength. The failure, in two decades of time, resulted in those who were a party to the crimes – from politics to military and from diplomacy to media – to boldly commit further crimes on a massive scale in proxy ways. Tamils should not fail again. Now it should be comprehensive indictment that needs own initiation and institutions coming from Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political comentator in Colombo.
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Rights groups flay LLRC, say whitewashes War Crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 04:17 GMT]
International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the three premier human rights watchdogs, today slammed Sri Lanka’s reconciliation commission (LLRC) accusing the commission of failing to “meet basic international standards for independent and impartial inquiries,” and for "proceeding against a backdrop of government failure to address impunity and continuing human rights abuses.” The Rights groups further pointedly attacked the island's legal system saying, “Sri Lanka’s government and justice system cannot and will not uphold the rule of law and respect basic rights.”
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Media denied access to meeting in Jaffna Public Library

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 November 2010, 06:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Minister Douglas Devananda, Jaffna Mayor Ms. Yogeswary Patkunam and the staff of Jaffna Public Library held a meeting Monday to consider the mode of admitting tourists to visit the library following the incident where unruly Sinhala tourists from South had stormed into the library on 24 October. Media persons were not allowed to cover the meeting but sent away. Douglas Devananda had been accusing local media to have fabricated the said incident adding that the Mayor of Jaffna and the President’s Task Force had categorically stated that no such incident had taken place, sources in Jaffna said. It was decided in the meeting to allow the tourists to visit the library in limited numbers, library employees said. Prof. Pon. Balasutharampillai, former Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University and advisor to Douglas Devananda, too attended the meeting.
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TamilNet wartime correspondent from Vanni reaches a free country

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 22:13 GMT]
Living incognito since May 2009, the TamilNet chief correspondent who reported from Vanni during the war, reached a free country this week. He was just 24 when he joined TamilNet. His knowledge in English was just basic. He was neither a member nor an associate of the LTTE. The free working space he had in Vanni was based only on an understanding about the political outlook of TamilNet towards the national cause of Eezham Tamils. But what he achieved goes into history of war journalism. He did a marvellous job on the ‘war without witnesses’, which major international media establishments couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. His safe passage to a free country was achieved by international civil society infrastructure. Many organisations, individuals and progressive Sinhalese helped him in his passage.
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UN event in Jaffna evokes controversy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 01:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan Lion flag was hoisted at the UN office of Jaffna on the occasion of UN Day this year unlike ever before and the guests of honour invited for the celebration event were Sri Lankan military officials, triggering controversy on the sudden change of practice by the UN office in Jaffna, the city which has been under the control of the Sri Lanka Army for the last 15 years. Civil society circles, expressing displeasure on attitudinal changes within the UN office in Jaffna wondered whether it was a bureaucratic practice adopted by a biased-section of UN officials or the event signalled that the apex body of global humanity has gone further in adopting a 'post-war' change in its attitude towards Eezham Tamils after failing them during the final stages of the genocidal war last year.
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UN reforms and nations without state

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 November 2010, 21:59 GMT]
Indian media campaigns for permanent membership to India in the UN Security Council. But another opinion appearing in the Indian media show how far the Indian state, riding on the masses for the benefit of a few, is different from the peoples of India. Permanent membership to such an India or to any others in the already vicious and outdated Security Council is not the answer to the current global turmoil. It will further aggravate subservience of humanity to the Establishments. The UN and particularly Indian behaviour on Eezham Tamils is a lesson to humanity. Nations and the oppressed inside India should be the first to oppose India’s permanent seat as they would be the first to face the brunt of it. Meanwhile, nations without state all over the world should work for veto-powered collective say in UN to achieve balance for peace, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Denmark Tamils take legal step to file war-crimes charges

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Bjørn Elmquist, a Danish attorney specializing in criminal law on crimes against humanity has written to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague Netherlands to bring war crimes charges against Sri Lankan officials alleged to have committed war-crimes against Tamils in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka. The legal effort is being initiated by three Danish Tamils and the Denmark Tamil Forum. The DTF officials told TamilNet that the Danish legal effort is being closely co-ordinated with the recent legal action undertaken by Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET).
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Argentina: a possible forum to prosecute war criminals

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 October 2010, 22:18 GMT]
In a notable reversal of roles Judge María Servini is taking steps, to litigate in Argentina's Courts, cases of torture, murder and disappearance of Franco's political opponents during Spain’s Civil War between 1936 and 1939. Such probes supported by universal jurisdiction, have long been exercised in Spain by the mercurial Judge Baltasar Garzón, whose case against Chilean General Augusto Pinochet in 1998 helped lead to the undoing of amnesties that had protected dictators. With Spain's judicial system imposing constraints on filing such cases, Argentina might become a suitable forum to bring charges against alleged war criminals in other parts of the world hiding behind the cover of diplomatic immunity, or by keeping UN silent using the support of other rights violator nations.
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