‘If UK-USA do not stop genocide of Tamils, they are still complicit in it’: Denis Halliday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 February 2014, 09:17 GMT]
Noting how the UK-USA governments helped the GoSL during the genocidal war on the Eezham Tamil nation owing to geopolitical interests, former UN Assistant Secretary-General Dr. Denis Halliday said that “as long as they don’t stop the genocide and block the land grabs, and help us to turn it around, they are still complicit in my book.” In an exclusive interview to TamilNet, Dr. Halliday, who was also one of the judges at the Bremen-PPT, condemned Britain’s historical role in “creating a problem” that is the unitary state of Sri Lanka noting that “there was no reason, no justification, to conclude that you need a unitary state.”He also emphasised that Britain should relook its neo-colonial policies and own responsibility for the Tamils soon. “This genocide is going to destroy Tamil Eelam if we do not stop it soon,” he said.
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Colombo beefs up military presence in Tamil homeland on SL ‘Independence Day’

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 February 2014, 23:48 GMT]
Anticipating black flags on the so-called Independence Day, Colombo has beefed up the presence of Sinhala soldiers and roaming patrols in the occupied country of Eelam Tamils. The occupying Sri Lankan soldiers have taken positions at public buildings for the past two days to block the people from putting up black flags and to make sure that the SL Lion flags get hoisted in the North and East.
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Eyp-pan'rik-kaadu

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 February 2014, 19:18 GMT]
The jungle of porcupines
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USA softer than UK in wooing genocidal Colombo: Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 February 2014, 10:14 GMT]
"Everyone must redouble their pressure on the Obama administration directly at the White House and the Cameron government directly at No. 10 Downing Street in order to get that international commission of investigation at the UNHCR in March. With elections coming up in India, everyone must redouble their pressure on the Tamil Nadu government to get them to pressure the Indian government to support that international commission of investigation at the UNHRC in March. The one hope we have is that the GOSL continues to be so obstinate, stubborn, pig-headed and genocidal that they will do nothing," said Professor Boyle, an expert in International law and a keen observer of Sri Lanka's genocidal politics said in a comment sent to TamilNet.
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London conference explores nature of land grabs in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 February 2014, 10:50 GMT]
Academics, legal experts, activists, journalists, and Eezham Tamil politicians gathered in London to discuss Sri Lankan state facilitated land grabs in the Eezham Tamils homeland, its nature, its effects, and possible solutions, at a conference on Saturday. While all of the presenters were in consensus that land grabs in the Tamil homeland was a phenomena that was a genuine and pressing issue, many expressed their support for a strong international campaign to put a halt to this. Likewise, some of the participants also criticised the international community’s silence and complicity in the process. There was also heated debate on whether the process could be termed “genocide”, with former UN official and Bremen-PPT judge Dr. Denis Halliday along with Tamil activists from both the presenters and the audience arguing in its favour.
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Tamil Nadu should be welcomed to give jolt to Indian foreign policy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 February 2014, 00:44 GMT]
“The running of foreign policy by federal units is not advocated, but they can and should make benign inputs into its making. Think-tanks specialising in foreign relations and Area Studies Departments in Universities can play a meaningful role in this direction,” writes Chennai-based former South and Southeast Asian Studies Professor V. Suryanarayan, who was also a member of the National Security Advisory Board of India during the Vanni War. Claiming that his “essay is a perspective from Chennai,” Suryanarayan was particularly elucidating and detracting the moves of Tamil Nadu on the cause of Eezham Tamils in his foreign policy discourse that appeared in the website of New Delhi-based Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), on Friday.
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USA continues to harp on ‘reconciliation’ than investigation or arrest of genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 February 2014, 14:00 GMT]
According to the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, the US Asst Secretary of State, Nisha Desai Biswal, visiting Jaffna on Saturday, was harping on ‘reconciliation’ in response to his request for a credible investigation on the conduct of the war. ‘Reconciliation’ is a paradigm set by the US State Department immediately after the genocidal war to facilitate continued genocide and structural genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils. The events of the last five years have proved it beyond any doubt that ‘reconciliation’ is a camouflage for genocide. What is needed urgently is an international arrangement to protect the nation and territoriality of Eezham Tamils from the on-going genocide, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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PPT verdict and Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 January 2014, 13:18 GMT]
While the PPT hearings peeled away the layers of oppression the Eelam Tamils had faced due to the prolonged activities of the UK and USA, a “vortex model” that is now put in action with the allure of proximity to power, has created a new kind of thinking among many Eelam Tamils. These Eelam Tamils rationalise their pro-UK-USA position, thinking that Eelam Tamils will not gain justice without the support of these states and thus exposing their complicity will not work in our favour. Such a position is incompatible with the meaning of struggle. Eelam Tamils should develop a better strategy for their struggle than one that requires them to cover up the crimes of those states that were in complicity in the genocide. The PPT verdict should play a central role in that new strategy, writes N. Malathy.
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Peasaalai villagers mobilize against genocidal land grab in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 January 2014, 07:52 GMT]
The Tamil Catholic people of the coastal village of Peasaalai in the north-west of the Mannaar island on Thursday took to the streets in protest against the genocidal land grab by the occupying Sinhala military. The protest took place when the SL Navy brought land surveyors to measure a land belonging to the 600-year-old church in their village. The occupying Navy, which is already stationed in the one-acre coconut palm grove, is now trying to permanently seize the land from the church. The people of the village mobilized against the move and blocked the surveyors from measuring the land despite the harassment by the occupying navy video-filming the people amidst the deployment of a large number of SL navy sailors at the site.
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UNHRC urged against considering PSC route

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 January 2014, 12:33 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s submissions to the UNHRC seek international pressure on the TNA and the UNP to take part in the deliberations of the deceptive Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC). Rajapakse has not implemented even a single recommendation of his own Commissions and Committees so far. On what grounds can the International Community guarantee that a future for the Tamils lies in Sri Lanka, questioned a media release of the Tamil Action Front, New Zealand, on Tuesday. The media release signed by Mr. A. Theva Rajan reminded Tamils and the international community to never subscribe to the continuity of the catalogue of deceits.
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European Court of Justice fixes hearing date for EU ban case on LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 January 2014, 14:21 GMT]
Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) is scheduled to hear the case “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) vs Council of the European Union” (Case T-208/11-9) on 26 February 2014, legal sources in Europe said. The case was filed in 2011 by Victor Koppe, the Amsterdam-based Bohler advocaten attorney and the ECJ determined that he could legally represent the Europe-based political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The demand for annulment of the inclusion of LTTE in the EU's terrorism list is partly to stop the prosecution of Tamils in The Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, and other member countries, Mr Koppe has told earlier.
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Wigneswaran confuses court and legislature in naming genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 January 2014, 06:32 GMT]
However flimsy it is, if the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) is a legislative body exercising the power of the people, it need not have any inhibition over calling a spade a spade, or qualms over presenting a case to the world with a nomenclature it decides as righteous. But, the NPC Chief Minister Mr C.V. Wigneswaran, a former justice, who was for long interpreting and ensuring the implementation of the laws enacted by the Colombo legislature of the genocidal State of Sri Lanka, confused court and the legislative powers of the NPC in diluting the word genocide into ‘equivalent to genocide’, in passing a crucial resolution on Monday calling for international investigations, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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NPC calls for international investigation on situation ‘equivalent to genocide’

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 January 2014, 07:44 GMT]
A resolution brought in the Northern Provincial Council, calling for international investigation on the genocide, was diluted with the wording ‘equivalent to genocide’ at the instance of the NPC chief minister CV Wigneswaran, news sources said. The modified resolution was passed on Monday. The Resolution rejecting faith in investigations conducted by the State of Sri Lanka, demanded for an independent international investigation facilitated by the UN. The Council also resolved in expressing its opinion that no justice or political solution could come to Tamils without the active intervention of the international community.
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SL military seizes cremation grounds of Tamils in Pulmoaddai, Kuchchve'li

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 January 2014, 23:41 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Trincomalee has seized the cremation ground belonging to 450 Tamil families, who were affected by 2004 Tsunami and resettled at Chalappaiyanaa'ru in Kuchchave'li. Similarly, another cremation ground of Tamils has been seized in Pulmoaadai. The SL Police in Pulmoaddai has banned the residents from cleaning their cremation ground.
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Veteran lawyer urges China to ensure UN investigation on Tamil plight

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 January 2014, 23:49 GMT]
A veteran legal and social activist in Malaysia, Mr A. Kanesalingam urged the government of China on Thursday to ensure international conventions that could facilitate an independent international investigation conducted by the UN on the genocide in Sri Lanka. “I ask that China as a world leader and permanent member of he UN Security Council propose that an investigation be conducted by the UN under Chapter 7 of the Charter of the United Nations,” said, Mr A. Kanesalingam, in a letter sent to the Foreign Minister of China, Mr. Wang Yi. The Malaysian Tamils beseeching China on the issue is significant, commented diaspora Tamil political observers.
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13 Tamils killed by wild elephants deployed by Colombo in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 January 2014, 23:40 GMT]
Wild elephants that have been brought from the jungles in South to jungles close to Tamil villages in Batticaloa have claimed the lives of 13 Tamils in Batticaloa district since December 2012 to December 2013, Eastern Provincial forest officials said. Seven persons have been handicapped in the assaults by the wild elephants. 12 of the slain victims were men. Many of the families of victims have not been provided compensation. 45 houses have been destroyed partly or fully.
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NZ leader assures independent foreign policy and international investigation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 January 2014, 07:09 GMT]
Leader of the Opposition in the New Zealand Parliament, Mr David Cunliffe, on Saturday, assured that his party would follow an independent foreign policy and would support international investigations into the war crimes and crimes committed against Tamils. He was addressing a grand gathering of Eezham Tamils celebrating Pongkal festival at the Mt. Eden War Memorial Hall in Auckland. The NZ Labour Party leader has promising chances of becoming the next Prime Minister, political observers in New Zealand said.
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PPT judgement upholds Eelam Tamil identity and nomenclature

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 January 2014, 10:42 GMT]
The full report of the judgement of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka (Bremen Session), released on Wednesday, came out with a discussion on the choice of nomenclature to identify the victims of genocide and has decided on the use of the term “Eelam Tamils as a national group.” This recognition, coming for the first time, from a credible global body of humanity such as the Peoples’ Tribunal, nullifies the so-called legitimacy in the insistence of the use of the term ‘Sri Lankan Tamil’ thrust on the victims by various States and their international organisations. This part of the PPT judgement is of equal importance like the verdict on genocide, complicity etc., and the implementation of it is of much practical value to the people’s struggle of the victims, said Tamil civil activists.
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PPT judgement to be broadcast live at 10:00 CET

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 January 2014, 00:01 GMT]
The official judgement of the investigations against the Sri Lankan State and its accomplices on the charge of Genocide against Eelam Tamils by the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT), to be released on Wednesday, and would be broadcast live from the Geneva Press Club in Switzerland at 10:00 a.m. Central European Time, the organizers said. Dr. Denis Halliday, the former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations, Dr. Haluk Gerger, a renowned Turkish academic and Middle East analyst and Dr. Gianni Tognoni, the secretary general of the PPT will be present to answer questions and to elaborate on the points raised by the verdict.
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SL military robs IDP registry from Thellippazhai DS Secretariat

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 January 2014, 16:56 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna on Monday evening entered the Divisional Secretariat of Valikaamam North, situated at Thellippazhai, and robbed the registries containing the details of uprooted civilians from the civil officials at gunpoint. The SL military officers then instructed the DS and his officials not to talk about the incident. Informed sources told TamilNet that the robbery was carried out on the instruction by the new Jaffna commander of the occupying Sinhala military, Maj. Gen. Udaya Perera, who is trying to manipulate the statistics of uprooted people of Valikaamam North, the area where former ‘High Security Zone’ is being transformed into a Sinhala Military Zone by the SL military permanently seizing the fertile lands and properties of the Eezham Tamils.
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