Iran seeks international investigation on Hajj tragedy

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2015, 23:47 GMT]
On a lamentable tragedy of humanity in which around 700 Hajj pilgrims were killed in a stampede at Mina in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, “Riyadh's regional rival Iran said 131 of its nationals were among the victims, and on Friday stepped up its criticism of the kingdom, demanding that affected countries have a role in the Saudi investigation into the disaster,” reported AFP, a Western media agency on Friday. Iran was a strong supporter of Sri Lanka’s ‘sovereignty’, against any international scrutiny on the genocidal war against the nation of Eezham Tamils. In 2012, in a show of solidarity, Iran’s military officials visited Sinhala military occupied Jaffna, on the eve of a UNHRC session at Geneva.
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USA sets new stage for Tamil struggle

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2015, 18:42 GMT]
Tamils have to understand that there is a ‘profound’ logic in the US resolution tabled at Geneva on Thursday, ultimately settling for prodding Eezham Tamils into ‘domestic’ investigation of ‘Sri Lanka’, just as the USA had set the stage for the genocidal war and the barbed-wire camps. International investigation for genuine reconciliation comes only when a war is over. But the war on the nation of Eezham Tamils is not yet over. It has only entered into another stage is what the tabled resolution implies. The blessing in disguise is that Tamils all over the world could now clearly identify the main villains and their henchmen. Eezham Tamils were long lacking this perception, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Tamil Nadu political party cautions on impending Geneva deception

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2015, 20:44 GMT]
The weak draft resolution coming from the USA will not bring in any justice to Eezham Tamils. Already, countries like Pakistan have insisted on further weakening of the resolution in favour of Colombo. But, India was silent in such consultative meetings held in Geneva, says Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, an Indian parliamentarian and one of the leaders of Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK), a major political party in Tamil Nadu. He urged the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa to convene an urgent All Party Meeting in Tamil Nadu to press Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi to come out with an alternative resolution at Geneva leading to international judicial process on war crimes in the island.
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Terms may not be important but the thrust matters

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2015, 20:02 GMT]
What is practically delivered matters more than terms such as international justice, genocide investigation, federalism etc., is the argument of Tamil orchestrators envisaging ‘non-descript’ outcome through ‘hybrid mechanism’. Tamils in their long experience have seen how concepts and coining terms were the monopoly of some and what outcome has come through terms such as international terrorism, peace facilitation, reconciliation etc. The fundamental injustice in the Washington/ New Delhi/ UN approach is the insistence in vantage exclusively from the point of saving or reforming the colonially created State and brutal suppression of space for the nation of Eezham Tamils to even enter into a discourse from another point. The genocide denial or detraction is just a manifestation, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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Arrests in historical numbers in Tamil Nadu, TVK vows to fight for international investigations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2015, 23:28 GMT]
Around 100,000 supporters of Thamizhaka Vaazhvurimaik Kadchi (TVK), a prominent party led by T. Velmurugan gathered at various cities of Tamil Nadu State on Monday and staged protests blocking the Indian Railway. “The main demand of our party is independent international investigations on genocide. The USA should decide whether it is interested in listening to 65 million Tamils in the region or 15 million Sinhalese in genocidal Sri Lanka. The Indian government should listen to the unanimous resolutions passed by the TN Assembly. The UN should decide whether it is going to discard Tamils as victims in favour of a Member State that has no constitutional mandate of Eezham Tamils. We are not going to welcome the Hybrid Court that recognizes the genocidal State as a party and ignores Tamils as victims,” Mr Velmurugan told TamilNet on Tuesday.
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Hybrid court unworkable in ‘Sri Lanka’ context: K. Sivapalan

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2015, 22:41 GMT]
Internal investigations on violence against Tamils carried out by Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) with members appointed by Sri Lanka officials in the past have always been a failure. "The main reason for the failures can be traced to the absence of political will in successive Buddhist majority governments in ‘Sri Lanka’ to ensure accountability for grave violations of Human Rights of Tamil people," says K. Sivapalan, the exiled deputy chairperson of a Tamil rights group, North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR). Two of the commissions had “international” presence in 1963 and in 2006, in a hybrid context, but failed to deliver justice. As a lawyer who represented several victims from the Eastern Province, Mr Sivapalan says, for any criminal investigations to be successful, hearings of the courts will have to be held outside the island.
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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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Sumanthiran acts to weaken Tamil demand for genocide investigation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2015, 15:51 GMT]
Switzerland-based diaspora legal activist Lathan Suntharalingam on Friday questioned TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, who was addressing a well-orchestrated meeting at Bern, on how the TNA parliamentarian elected from North was planning to take forward the NPC resolution demanding international investigation on genocide, particularly at the SL Parliament. The response by Mr Sumanthiran was shocking the Tamil psyche, said Thirumurugan Gandhi of May 17 Movement from Tamil Nadu, who was also present at the meeting in Switzerland. At the meeting, Sumanthiran went on record claiming that the NPC resolution was a ‘foolish’ move. He blamed Justice C.V. Wigneswaran for having shut off the door for genocide investigation by passing that resolution against his advice. Sumanthiran was detracting on the genocide question after the instructions by outside agenda-setters, Mr Lathan said.
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Welcoming OISL implies dropping national question and genocide claims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2015, 01:09 GMT]
A hybrid mechanism in any form would seal the space and freedom of Eezham Tamils forever to talk about their national aspirations or independence, because in concept it is ‘hybrid’. This should be very well known to the Tamil civil societies functioning in the island, long gagged by the 6th Amendment of genocidal Sri Lanka’s constitution. The OISL has also not provided space for any mandated investigation from the angle of genocide, as demanded by the highest democratic institutions existing among Tamils in the island and in India. Yet, if the welcome comes from a group of civil societies, missing to tell what is fundamentally lost, it then shows only the long preparation of the USA, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island, responding to a Joint Statement on the OISL Report, coming from 21 civil society organisations.
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Hindutva-Buddhist ‘pincer mechanism’ to compete hybrid mechanism

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2015, 17:52 GMT]
While Tamils are busy in comprehending and extricating themselves from the sophisticated web of ‘hybrid mechanism’ cast on them by Washington and Washington-led UN, New Delhi in its own crude way plans a bilateral ‘pincer mechanism’ along with Colombo, as could be seen from Ranil’s visit to New Delhi. Even though the imperialist aims are different, both ‘mechanisms’ follow the same policy of denying justice to the national question of Eezham Tamils to the genocidal satisfaction of the Sinhala-Buddhist State; the same strategy of absolving Colombo as well as themselves, and the same tactics of wooing Colombo in which only the shades vary, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Reforms will not happen, genocide will continue, warns Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2015, 00:21 GMT]
Asserting that war crimes and crimes against humanity “on discriminatory grounds” can constitute genocide, Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law and who teaches at the University of Illinois, commenting on the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights overview report on Sri Lanka made public Wednesday, said, that "a Truth and Reconciliation Process does not work within the context of genocide," and that instead of a hybrid court recommended by the OISL there is a "need for an International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka or else referral by the United Nations Security Council to the International Criminal Court." Boyle also warned that reforms by GOSL will not happen and that "[t]he Sinhala genocide against the Tamils will simply and predictably continue."
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Hybrid Mechanism saves State lacking political will, fools Tamils: NESoHR

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2015, 07:43 GMT]
North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), which was formed during the internationally mediated peace process as the Human Rights body of the Tamil Nation and functioned in the Tamil homeland from July 2004 till January 2009, has categorically rejected the Hybrid Mechanism, recommended by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein while the much expected report of the Human Rights (OHCHR) investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) was made public on Wednesday. “Eelam Tamils know and should know that the UN, and through the UN the USA, has done the minimum to appear neutral in face of mountain of evidence. This is the knowledge that should prevent Eelam Tamils from being fooled by the hybrid mechanism that can never work without the ‘domestic political will,’ which is absent even in the current Sri Lankan government,” NESoHR said in a statement issued on Thursday.
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Wigneswaran thanks Jayalalithaa, but confused on Geneva

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, 15:07 GMT]
“It is a happy news to us that Selvi Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has been very forthright in coming out with a resolution accepting what we had passed a few days ago on 01 September 2015 and bringing a very strong message to the Indian government asking them to take all possible steps in order to see that an international mechanism is formulated to hear the war crimes with regards to Sri Lanka,” NPC Chief Minister Justice Wigneswaran told media in Jaffna on Wednesday. However, he was confused in welcoming OHCHR position on OISL with the same spirit of welcoming the Tamil Nadu resolution.
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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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TN State Assembly passes resolution against US move to back domestic investigation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, 06:07 GMT]
In a key development, the State Assembly of Tamil Nadu unanimously passed a resolution, which was brought forward by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday, reiterating the call for international investigations on genocide and war crimes committed against Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. Urging the Central Government of India to diplomatically block the move by the USA if it chooses to propose domestic investigations in favour of a domestic SL investigation, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, in her introduction to the resolution, said the reported US move to support domestic investigation in Sri Lanka went against the concept of natural justice. The entire Tamil race stood firmly behind the call for international investigations as demanded by the Northern Provincial Council resolutions that were brought by CV Wigneswaran, the chief minister of NPC, she said.
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US deceit worse than India, China opposition

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2015, 23:03 GMT]
Rather than questioning the consistent opposition of India and China for any international investigation on ‘Sri Lanka’, Tamils targeting the US move for domestic investigation in the current UNHRC session is condemnable, argues a Tamil Nadu based environmental NGO of special consultative status with UN ECOSOC. The ‘international investigation’ is already over with the OISL process and referring the matter to the ICC depends mainly on the support of India and China, the NGO argues further for containing the anger and protests in Tamil Nadu against the USA. The US move, hijacking the Tamil struggle for international justice since 2009, and institutionally ditching it at the UNHRC in 2015, is worse than the game of India and China in suppressing the struggle of Eezham Tamils, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Grassroot mobilisation strengthens demand for international investigations

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2015, 23:41 GMT]
Northern Provincial Councillors M.K. Shivajilingam and Ananthy Sasitharan, who were on a walk from Ki'linochchi to Jaffna rejecting domestic mechanism on war-crimes accountability and demanding international investigations on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, concluded their campaign on Monday in Jaffna. In parallel, a signature campaign was mobilising the grassroots in North and East. In the meantime, the officials at the UN complex (UNHCR, WFP), declined to receive the appeal from the NPC councillors stating that there was no appropriate officer to receive their appeal, an act that was severely criticised by the NPC councillors. The NPC councillors handed over the copies of their appeal to the Indian mission in Jaffna and to the Chief Minister of NPC Justice C.V. Wigneswaran.
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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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Force of opinion unplugs Sampanthan to voice for international investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2015, 23:39 GMT]
Three days ahead of genocidal Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe officially visiting New Delhi, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Mr R. Sampanthan, who is also the opposition leader in the Colombo parliament, on Saturday told The Telegraph in India that the TNA expected the international community, including India, to support an international investigation into war crimes in the island. "Our experience with past domestic inquiries suggests that they can't be truly independent," Mr Sampanthan was quoted as saying by the Culcutta based paper. The new Sri Lankan government is “coordinating more with the international community, but it is the TNA's clear position that an international investigation is necessary," Mr Sampanthan told The Telegraph.
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Tamils need new ways to challenge exhausted credibility of ‘Sri Lanka’ and partners

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2015, 18:56 GMT]
Historically speaking, all the successive Sri Lankan regimes have exhausted their credibility in the delivery of domestic level investigations on the crimes committed against the Tamil people. The SL judiciary has also succumbed to Sinhala chauvinist majoritarianism. Tamils cannot expect justice from the culprit itself. This is against natural justice, said political analyst S Yothilingam in an interview to TamilNet this week from Jaffna. “The international powers, backing the SL regime, are only concerned of protecting the regime, based on their geopolitical interests. Their monitoring of a domestic mechanism is also called into question,” the veteran analyst said, urging Tamils to see the difference between the real Global Community and the International Powers, and conceive new strategies and tactics to deal with the challenges being posed by the Powers and the Agent State.
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