Wounds of war cannot be healed without justice - NYT

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2016, 02:03 GMT]
Asserting as unacceptable Sri Lanka's President Sirisena's statement that his government will not act in "haste" to move forward the justice process demanded by the U.N. resolution of last October, the New York Times in today's editorial said, "[t]roubling allegations of torture under Mr. Sirisena’s watch — which his government denies — must be addressed. Military leaders who oversaw the bloody operations that killed as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the war remain in command, and have even been promoted. A dangerous anti-Muslim campaign by Singhalese nationalists is threatening to further fray Sri Lanka’s ethnic fabric."
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SL police shields military culprits of rape in East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2016, 22:20 GMT]
While evidence at the crime scene pointed to the occupying Sinhala navy personnel of the ‘SLNS Vidura’ naval base as culprits of the alleged abuse and brutal murder of 6-year-old Tamil boy Tharshan Kugathasan, who was dumped into an abandoned well near the Vidura camp at Champoor on Monday, the Sinhala police of genocidal Colombo was attempting to shield the criminals, the resettled Tamil villagers told TamilNet on Wednesday. The detection dogs brought by the SL police were sniffing towards the Navy camp. In the meantime, a Tamil girl, who was sexually abused by three Sinhala soldiers at Chanthi-ve’li in Batticaloa five years ago at the age of eight, is still fearing for the lives of herself and family members. One of the abusers was still deployed in the area. Her father seeking justice was subjected to ‘grease devil’ attack and had to leave the island on employment.
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Switzerland misleads, terminology counts: Prof Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 January 2016, 09:25 GMT]
"The Swiss have no credibility whatsoever when it comes to Tamil Eelam and the Eelam Tamils. Under the circumstances of ongoing GOSL genocide, ‘terminology’ means everything if we want to survive,” responded Professor Francis Boyle to the current Switzerland involved ‘deliberations’ that have taken place in Jaffna earlier this week. “At the end of the day, the Swiss will sell us out to the GOSL once again," Professor Boyle, who is an expert in International Law and who teaches at the University of Illinois College of Law, warned Eezham Tamils. He also noted the Swiss history of supporting Sri Lanka's crimes, especially pointing out that the Swiss sponsored a UN resolution which "congratulated" Sri Lanka as the State killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in the final phases of 2009 war.
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Renewed spirit of resistance in Biafra

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 December 2015, 23:09 GMT]
What was believed as the disintegration of the Biafran struggle following Nigeria’s internationally backed genocidal war, has been proven wrong by the recent popular grass-root movement among the people of the former territories of Biafra in the South and South-East of Nigeria, calling for independence throughout their homeland. The Nigerian state response is repression, during their clamp down on a pro-Biafra protest on the 2nd December in Anambra state, Nigerian security forces opened fire killing nine civilians. The resurgence in the call for self-determination and sovereignty in the former territories of Biafra, comes at a time when peoples’ have renewed their demand for self-determination in Catalonia, Eelam, Northern Ireland, Northern Kurdistan and West-Papua.
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Systematic enforced disappearances, an international crime, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2015, 23:21 GMT]
Noting the re-emerging threat of white van abductions and enforced disappearances in the historic homeland, the NorthEast, of Eezham Tamils, Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law, said that systematic enforced disappearances is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, and in Sri Lanka this criminality of the Government of Sri Lanka is "an indicium of genocide against the Eelam Tamils." Boyle noted, as evidence of his concern, the recent incident in Jaffna where Colombo's military intelligence operatives threatened the editors of a local newspaper that they would have to face the "white van" if the paper failed to retract a published story on missing persons.
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Diaspora should mount independent legal campaign: Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 November 2015, 23:18 GMT]
Pointing out that the United Nation's actions on Sri Lanka are unlikely to lead to establishing criminality for the Mu'l'livaaykkaal massacre on the State, Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law and who teaches at the College of Law, University of Illinois, advocates that the Tamil diaspora should organize a comprehensive legal campaign to bring charges in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and in parallel, bring criminal and/or civil charges against Sri Lanka's genocidaires in the courts of the democracies of the West using domestic legal mechanisms underpinned by universal jurisdiction. Boyle asserted that genocide, crimes against humanity and war-crimes are international crimes that have no statute of limitations, and Rajapaksas can be subjected to legal actions for the rest of their lives like the Jewish people's hunt for the Nazis.
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Wild elephant rampage on resettled villagers continues unabated in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 October 2015, 16:37 GMT]
The systematic ignorance by genocidal Sri Lanka to arrest the menace caused by wild elephants that go on rampage killing and maiming resettled Tamils in former LTTE-administered areas in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa, is an intentional tactic to chase Tamils permanently away from their native villages and colonise Paduvaankarai with Sinhalese, Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet on Friday. In the meantime, Yogarasa Ganesh the chairman of Rural Development Society (RDS) in Katchatkodi, a village situated in Paddippazhai division of Paduvaankarai region, confirmed that there has been no action despite repeated appeals through GS, DS officers and the provincial councillors. The SL authorities were giving better protection to Sinhala settlers in the nearby villages, the RDS chairman said when contacted by TamilNet.
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Denial of genocide ‘even-handed’ for EPW writer

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2015, 23:24 GMT]
Denial of genocide and genocide intent in the long war and on-going structural war in the island, amounts to saying in other words that the war was fought only on the issue of ‘international terrorism’ as the USA and its bandwagon were saying earlier in directing the course of the war. The denial and refusal to even consider investigation on genocidal intent are nothing but completely airbrushing the ethnonational dimensions of the war and even the pogroms preceded that. It is no less a lie than the Rajapaksa lie of ‘zero casualty’ of civilians in the war. But when the fundamental twist comes from the OISL report submitted to the UNHRC that doesn’t recognize even the word Tamil, it becomes consistently ‘even-handed’ for an EPW writer, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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OISL report downplays mass killings, silent on genocide: Law academic

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2015, 23:09 GMT]
An article which appeared on Monday in the Blog of the European Journal of International Law (EJIL: Talk!), comparing the 2011 UN's Panel of Expert's report on Sri Lanka with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) 2015 report, points out that the OISL shies away from estimating the scale of deaths and avoids attributing to the [Sri Lanka] government's intent in directing attacks against the civilian [Tamil] population. The article adds that "given this shift of focus away from mass killings of civilians...it is not surprising the OISL is silent on the crime of genocide..." The article is authored by Umesh Perinpanayagam, an Eezham Tamil academic, who works as a researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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Occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka silently grabs more lands in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2015, 06:56 GMT]
After securing secret deals with the major powers on the continuation of the occupying Sri Lanka Army as the lascarine force needed to maintain the artificial unity of the island coupled with the external ambitions of global domination, the new regime of the genocidal State in Colombo has encouraged its Gajaba Regiment to permanently seize more lands in the strategic enclave of Poonakari (Pooneryn), which is situated at the entrance to Jaffna Peninsula facing the Palk Bay. Similar occupation is also reported in Ki'laali, the former defence line situated on the other entry route to Jaffna through Vanni mainland. The SL military has been surveying the lands without the public noticing them along the coast of the Jaffna lagoon this week. However, landowners of Kailaayar-thoaddam in Poonakari confronted the SL military on Tuesday.
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Tamils need leadership, not hypocrisy of powers: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2015, 17:29 GMT]
“United Nations, super powers, regional powers or self-seeking Tamil politicians cannot address the real grievances of Tamils. It is only Tamils under a good and dedicated leadership can move forward,” said Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, a long time advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils in an article to TamilNet on Tuesday. While the actual war saw the murder of Eelam Tamils and the most despicable sexual violence of rape unleashed among Tamil women, it was after the war that the Eelam Tamil nation was plundered of its wealth, Professor Ramasamy said. “The LTTE might not be around; however, the hopes, aspirations and the future agenda of Tamils for ultimate solution were set up by none other than its leader Veluppillai Pirapaharan,” he said.
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Sirisena's ministry, SL military seize more pasturelands from Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2015, 20:37 GMT]
Genocidal Colombo's Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry, which comes under the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has instructed the SL Divisional Forest Officer in Batticaloa to put up noticeboards annexing more lands to extend the Omunugala ‘Forest Reserve’ in Batticaloa district. Sirisena’s ministry is trying to attach more than 25,000 acres of pasturelands seized by the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa through SL Minister of Environment and Renewable Energey, to the so-called forest reserve. The occupying Sinhala military is blocking Eezham Tamils and their livestock from entering the pastureland. New boards have been put up with warnings and borders have been marked. However, Sinhala colonizers are being encouraged by the occupying SL military to do seasonal cultivation in the pasturelands that are being seized from Tamils under the name of ‘forest preservation’.
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Media, NGOs provide SL cover for Genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2015, 23:32 GMT]
While the UN's Petrie report and the accompanying now-exposed-redacted parts, reveal the maneuvering within the UN diplomats to soften the human rights implications of the mass killings carried out by its member state Sri Lanka, and the open support of the US-UN-India group to Sri Lanka in the UNHRC meetings to provide enough political space and time to prolongate the "investigation time," obviating the need for an international criminal investigations of alleged international crimes, the news media including Reuters and AFP, and NGOs including Amnesty International (AI), and Human Rights Watch (HRW), routinely adopt neutral and pro-Rights language and fail to highlight the UN, US, India triumvirate's efforts to allow Sri Lanka to whitewash the genocidal acts, Tamil activists said.
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Australia concerned about ‘domestic violence’, not genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2015, 01:21 GMT]
Australian Minister for Women, Michaelia Cash, has urged her colleague, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, to bar recording artist, dancer and actor, Chris Brown, from entering Australia for a performance in December, because of his history of domestic violence, Sky News reported on Thursday. Australia received genocide-accused Sri Lanka’s Navy Commander Thisara Samarasinghe as High Commissioner to serve in the country between July 2011 and February 2015.
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Chequered Swiss history of supporting Sri Lanka's crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 September 2015, 22:02 GMT]
Switzerland, besides U.S., U.K, and India, has played a key role in providing diplomatic sanctuary for Sri Lanka in international fora against censure for alleged criminal conduct against Tamils. The most strident display was when the Swiss sponsored a UN resolution calling "upon the Government of Sri Lanka to investigate and prosecute itself for war crimes and crimes against humanity," as the State killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in the final phases of 2009 war. This paved the way for the international community to whitewash a possible genocide. This practice continues to this day as Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and Swiss Peace [NGO] participate this week in a meeting organized by an NGO outfit to soften the Tamil call for international investigations on Sri Lanka genocide.
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Genocide not recognised, ‘Hybrid mechanism’ recommended to drag on

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, 11:21 GMT]
Not mentioning anything on genocide or future investigations on it, but projecting war crimes and crimes against humanity by both sides, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, summing up the findings of the OISL report on Wednesday at the UNHCR, said that the recommendation is for a ‘Hybrid mechanism’. Mr Zeid openly admitted that ‘change’ in the political environment is the reason for OHCHR abandoning independent international investigation mechanism that had been recommended on many occasions by his predecessor Ms Navanetham Pillay. ‘Hybrid mechanism’ missing mandate for genocide investigation is the new way for buying ‘time and space’. If the universal process of justice could be dictated by local political changes, then there is no independency or universality in UN justice mechanism, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Further ‘Sri Lanka’ blunder would again lead UN to investigate itself: TN activist

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 September 2015, 14:04 GMT]
‘Sri Lanka’ Army Court of Inquiry has already given a verdict in 2013 that there were no civilian casualties caused by its military and that sums up the would-be course and end result of any domestic mechanism. The OHCHR ignores the role of international actors in the conflict in the island, which the UN Expert Panel Report itself had pointed out. If the UHHRC concedes to the forthcoming resolution by the US, it will be another ‘systemic failure’ caused by going against its own Internal Review Report. “If OHCHR does not resort to Article 99 mandate and refer the case to ICC, we will be witnessing another report, after 4 years, from the UN, terming this fiasco as another systemic failure,” writes a Tamil Nadu activist.
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Obama legacy of progressive moral decay

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2015, 18:47 GMT]
Obama's foreign policy legacy is likely to be, not just that he presided over humanitarian and cultural disasters of epochal proportions, now with flood of refugees from Syria after US engineered instability with Iraqi invasion and later supporting ill-conceived National Opposition, and observing as passive on-lookers at the unfolding "Crime of the century" when Sinhala troops killed more than 80,000 Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, but that Obama soothed the American people into feeling no responsibilities for the tragedies. Germany, which abstained from colluding with US, Britain, France, Turkey and Gulf states in the aggression against Assad, is now setting the moral leadership to the West, welcoming nearly one million Muslim-Syrians, and planning to integrate them as citizens of its own.
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Chief Minister Wigneswaran rejects domestic investigation in new NPC resolution

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2015, 06:23 GMT]
Questioning the legal possibilities of conducting a credible investigation within the domestic sphere of the Sri Lankan Constitution and pointing out other hurdles within the SL State system, C.V. Wigneswaran, the Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council (NPC) on Tuesday passed a resolution rejecting the domestic process being proposed by the USA and other powers. In ithe new resolution, the NPC has once again demanded a credible international investigation mechanism. Mr Wigneswaran, the NPC chief minister, who was a former Supreme Court Judge of Sri Lanka, citied previous examples of domestic failures including the earlier commissions that had international participation. Explaining the nature of crimes and legal circumstances prevailing in the island, the suggestion of domestic mechanism would be a ‘travesty of justice’ the CM proclaimed in the resolution.
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‘Global War’ to wage genocide, ‘domestic mechanism’ to confirm structural genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 August 2015, 17:49 GMT]
The USA that designed the ‘International Community’ genocidal onslaught on the national question of Eezham Tamils in the name of Global War on Terror (GWOT) and the agent State in Colombo that conducted it on the ground will move in collaboration in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in September for a ‘domestic mechanism’ of investigation, which is sure to confirm and institutionalise the on-going structural genocide in the island. The announcement in this regard, immediately following the parliamentary elections, confirms the crux of the agenda for which electoral politics was engineered in the island, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics. Eezham Tamils, who have wasted their time, energy and money on a deceptive political course, designed by the ultimate culprits, should at least now think of a different paradigm of polity, the activists further said.
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