UN Sri Lanka tribunal will avoid ICC jurisdictional issues, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 July 2013, 00:43 GMT]
The United Nations General Assembly (GA) must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka (ICTSL) as a "subsidiary organ" under U.N. Charter Article 22, and organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council, said Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in International Law, while commenting on the appointment of Samantha Power as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and advocating that Ms Power should follow the leadership of Madeline Albright who spearheaded the setting up of the ICTY. This will avoid the jurisdictional hurdles in the ICC taking up criminal matters related to a non-signatory state, Boyle added.
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Colombo engages in widespread Sinhalicisation of Mannaar: TNA-MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 July 2013, 23:38 GMT]
The Colombo government is actively engaged in colonising around 6000 Sinhala families in the Mannaar district of the Northern Province, including its coastal areas, while it is not taking care of the resettlement of the Tamils and Muslims displaced by the war, accused Mr Selvam Adaikkalanathan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian for Mannaar. The TNA may have to seek judicial remedy if the government is bent on bringing in Sinhalese without resettling people affected by the war, he further said. The TNA parliamentarian should first have the guts to mobilise the people to ask the USA, Co-Chairs, India and the UN that have asked the people to come into the barbed-wire camps, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Precedence setting determination by British court on SL Country guidance: legal activist

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 July 2013, 23:19 GMT]
In an interview to TamilNet, Mr. Geetharthanan Kulasegaram, a Tamil legal activist based in the UK who assisted one of the solicitor firms in preparing material for UK’s Sri Lanka country guidance case, elaborated on the significance of the determination by the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the Upper Tribunal in UK. Initially, the Home Office in the UK had tried to paint a picture of normalcy in Sri Lanka, basing on the findings of the report by Norway based Landinfo report. This was challenged and the recent ruling takes note of the ongoing oppression of Tamils in the island, especially ex-LTTE cadres.
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Wigneswaran should not weaken diaspora and Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 July 2013, 17:15 GMT]
Hindustan Times carrying out an interview of CV Wigneswaran on Friday highlighted his statement against Tamil Nadu polity in the title. The highlight shows the priority in New Delhi’s polity and media in diffusing and detracting the uprising in Tamil Nadu for the independence of Eezham Tamils that is denied primarily by New Delhi and Washington. Hindustan Times just follows The Hindu, The Times of India and The New Indian Express in this regard. The gang up of Indian’s mainstream media behind the agenda of the genocidal partners has to be vigilantly perused by the peoples’ polity in Tamil Nadu as it is a re-enactment of the times that led to the Mu’l’livaaykkal genocide, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Can Power, silent on Sri Lanka genocide, redeem herself in UN, asks Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 July 2013, 00:50 GMT]
The Director of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the U.S. National Security Council, Samantha Power, who has been nominated for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been attending a Senate hearing on the nomination this week where she has been forcefully advocating action to stop “the grotesque atrocities being carried out by the Assad regime,” Washington media reported. Professor Boyle, pointing out Power's conspicuous silence during the killing of Tamil civilians reaching genocidal proportions by the Sri Lanka military, said that Power now has a chance to "redeem" herself by establishing an International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka, as did her predecessor Madeline Albright to the former Yugoslavia.
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Habitual detraction of due justice to Eezham Tamils continues in Indian media

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 July 2013, 04:51 GMT]
“In order to allay Sinhalese apprehensions, iron-clad guarantees should be provided that devolution to provinces should not lead to demand for separation,” writes V. Suryanarayan, in an opinion feature “Ethnic riddle in Sri Lanka,” appeared in The New Indian Express on Wednesday. “The Achenese model should be of relevance because like the Sinhalese, the Javanese are also opposed to federalism. The special autonomy status to Acheh, it must be underlined, is within the constitutional framework of a unitary Indonesia,” he further writes. Whatever that has happened or continue to happen, Eezham Tamils should never get independence and the Sinhalese should be appeased at any cost, even in their opposition to federalism, is the thrust of the opinion, on which the impunity of genocidal Sri Lanka is firmly anchored, responds TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Affiliating Trinco university campus with Anuradhapura: civil society calls for protest

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 July 2013, 12:33 GMT]
In one of the worst moves of educational genocide of Eezham Tamils, efforts are now being undertaken to affiliate the Trincomalee Campus of the Eastern University with the Rajarata University of Anuradhapura, informed sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Thursday. The university-level educational institutions of Tamils in Jaffna and Batticaloa, started by the missionaries in the 19th century, became secondary schools when the British rule transferring power to the Sinhalese towards its closing days, encouraged only a Colombo-centric education. Later, when the Tamils demanded a university after the so-called independence, they wanted it to be based in Trincomalee. Affiliating the Trincomalee Campus with the Sinhala University at Anuradhapura is the height of educational genocide, said, Tamil academic and civil circles in the East.
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Political solution comes only when military-geostrategy approach overpowered

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 July 2013, 02:51 GMT]
The recent joint US-Sri Lankan military exercise in Trincomalee, coming after Colombo announcing the ‘arrest’ of a few police personnel for the massacre of five Tamil students in Trincomalee, signals that the USA is again sending a message to China that it still considers the island in the Indian Ocean Region as a US-Indian territory, says a geopolitical analyst in Trincomalee. The development also signals to Tamils that powers locked in the geopolitical game are only seeking eyewash and token responses from the Sri Lankan State. Political solution will never come unless masses overpower the rotten military-geostrategy approach of the powers, forcing them to seek alternatives, the analyst said.
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Kumaarapuram massacre case comes up for trial after 17 years

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 July 2013, 10:44 GMT]
Four witnesses to the February 1996 brutal massacre of 24 Tamils by the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Kumaarapuram village in Trincomalee district have been summoned to appear on Wednesday in Anuradhapura High Court that is situated in predominantly Sinhala district. The trial in the case is listed for hearing on July 17, July 18 and July 19 more than 17 years after the genocidal massacre. Many of the witnesses are poor labourers who do not know Sinhala.Meanwhile observes say that the Colombo government hoodwinks the international community on one side summoning the witnesses to give evidence and the on the other hand threatening them not to appear in court to give evidence.
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Usbima Kotasa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 July 2013, 07:59 GMT]
The high-ground part
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Jayalalithaa fears New Delhi, Colombo weakening Tamils further

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 July 2013, 23:53 GMT]
Citing moves to repeal the 13Th Amendment, public stand of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in this regard and a recent meeting of Basil Rajapaksa with New Delhi, presumably to justify Colombo’s stand, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa in a letter to New Delhi’s PM on Sunday urged India not to give in to Colombo’s moves to take away even the limited political rights of Tamils. Also citing the 2007 demerger of the North and East “as a sinister first step leading to the eventual abrogation and repeal of the 13th Amendment, which has starkly appeared on the agenda now,” Ms. Jayalalithaa’s letter implied her fear of New Delhi further collaborating with Colombo against Tamils in the island, political observers said.
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‘Crimes against women on increase in Sri Lanka’: AHRC

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 July 2013, 19:38 GMT]
“In Sri Lanka the citizens live in an environment that has no respect for women and it is estimated that 95% of women using public transport are at risk of being subjected to sexual harassment,” states a news report by the Asian Human Rights Commission on Monday. Further citing from a press conference held in Colombo on July 14 by Women for Rights, the report alleged that crimes causing violence relating to women and children is on the rise in the island. Commenting on this report, a Tamil social activist from Jaffna said that while the information provided was a matter of grave concern, it was regrettable that the Colombo-centric reportage took no account of the genocidal nature of crimes perpetrated against Tamil women.
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Diaspora youth release Policy Document to chart course of struggle post-Mu’l’livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 July 2013, 22:20 GMT]
Second-generation diaspora youth activists came together to release a Policy Document to chart the course of the Eezham Tamils’ struggle, assessing political developments post- May 2009. After interactive sessions held from July 6-7 at an event titled ‘Seeking Perception sans Conditioning: Charting the Course of Struggle in Assessment of Post-Mullivaaikkaal’, eight activists from Europe, Australia and Canada asserted the need for holding the recognition of a sovereign nationhood of the Eezham Tamils as basis for a principled minimal demand of the Eezham Tamil nation, grounding it in the School of Thought of the Eezham Tamils’ struggle. Calling for a critical engagement with the International Community, the youth activists declared that Tamil organizations must be held accountable to the democratic will of the people, urging the formation of a robust Tamil civil society in the diaspora.
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‘Abuse of Tamil women part and parcel of intended genocide’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 July 2013, 11:02 GMT]
The abuse of Eezham Tamil women committed by the Sri Lankan state apparatus should not be seen as individual human rights violations but as a part and parcel of an intended genocide of a protracted nature, write Dr. N. Malathy, key member of NESoHR and author of ‘A Fleeting Moment in my Country’ and RM Karthick, research scholar at University of Essex, UK. In an article published on Indian journal Sanhati’s 6th issue for 2013, the authors, criticizing international organizations for their failure to properly deal with the issue of genocidal rape by Sri Lankan forces, also call on the Tamil community to have a change of social approach towards rape survivors, noting how violence against Tamil women is deeply intertwined with communal identity.
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Sinhala military takes up Buddhicisation of East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 July 2013, 05:59 GMT]
The Sinhala military occupying the East of the country of Eezham Tamils is directly engaged in Buddhicising the province, news sources in Batticaloa said, citing the mushrooming Buddha statues in the district in the recent times. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr R. Thurairatnam said that an effort is now being undertaken to create permanent Buddhist establishments out of the improvised Buddhist shrines built in the SL military camps. Such shrines were ostensibly built for the ‘religious purposes’ of the occupying military and they could be found everywhere, as the Sinhala military is occupying every junction and other strategic locations.
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GA inefficient in Sinhala colonisation of Tamil land transferred

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 July 2013, 03:14 GMT]
Colombo’s Government Agent (GA) in the Mannaar district of the Northern Province, Mr A.S. Sarath Ravindra, who is a Sinhalese, has been transferred with immediate effect for poor performance in the Sinhalicisation of the Tamil district, news sources in Mannaar said. Similar to Ma’nal-aa’ru in the Mullaith-theevu district that is now Sinhalicised into ‘Weli-oya’ division, grabbing a part of the North at its border, the genocidal State has been planning for a massive Sinhala colonisation at the Musali division of the Mannaar district too that borders the North Central and North Western Provinces. The new GA of the occupying State, Mr M.N. Desapriya, who is also a Sinhalese, assumed duties even before handover by his predecessor and has immediately conducted a meeting with the Bishop of Mannaar.
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Stop Sri Lankan assaults on Tamil Nadu fishermen: Jayalalitha to Indian PM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 July 2013, 23:05 GMT]
In a stern letter condemning India’s “stoic and apathetic silence” on the assaults on Tamil Nadu fishermen by the SL Navy on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha, addressing the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, urged him to impress upon Sri Lanka “to stop these continuing unprovoked assaults upon innocent Indian fishermen on the high seas by the Sri Lankan Navy." The letter was sent in the wake of the arrest of 21 Tamil Nadu fishermen by the SL Navy on 6 July, which Ms. Jayalalitha termed a "high-handed and illegal abduction." The AIADMK leader further called on the Indian Prime Minister to summon the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in New Delhi and to advice him to stop such assaults.
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India, Sri Lanka, Maldives frame maritime security pact

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2013, 23:15 GMT]
At the conclusion of a meeting on ‘Trilateral Cooperation on Maritime Security’ held in Colombo on Monday, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives have entered into a maritime security pact to ensure tripartite co-operation in sea routes in the region. The agreement was signed by Shivshanker Menon, National Security Advisor of India, Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and Maldives’ Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim. Concurrently, reports also say that Mr. Menon was in the island with a six-member delegation to plead with the Rajapaksa government to provide devolution to the Tamils on the basis of the 13th Amendment, which has been rejected time and again by the Eezham Tamil people, “for early political settlement and national reconciliation.”
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Occupying SLA hoodwinks resettlement of uprooted people in Champoor, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 July 2013, 14:55 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army and the Trincomalee district Government Agent, who is also a retired Major General in the army, have been spreading false information via media regarding the resettlement of uprooted Tamil villagers from Champoor area in Trincomalee. Uprooted people are not resettled in their original villages in Champoor area. Some selected displaced who preferred to move out of the IDP camps due to personal reasons are settled in alternative sites that are not fit for habitation, according to reports emerging from the area.
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TNA fails on several counts: S.K. Sitrampalam

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 July 2013, 07:20 GMT]
In the opinion of political analysts, the polity of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is nothing but playing a stooge to the USA and India – time after time and without any returns – said Dr. S.K. Sitrampalam, Emeritus Professor of Jaffna University and a senior ITAK leader, while addressing the Jaffna Press Club on Saturday. TNA has failed in mobilising a people’s struggle, failed in politicising people on the question of rights, failed in placing a full-fledged federal solution draft as an alternative to separate Tamil Eelam, failed in forging alliance with Muslims and Up-country Tamils, failed in addressing Sinhala people on the justice behind the Tamil struggle, failed in effectively using the post-war international situation and failed in transparency within the alliance itself, Sitrampalam said.
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