Voluntary dismissal filed in DC court as US contends IMF suit unjusticiable

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 June 2009, 17:30 GMT]
Counsel for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group that filed a law suit in the Federal Court of District of Columbia to stop the U.S. from voting for the $1.9B IMF loan to Sri Lanka, said his group filed for voluntary dismissal in view of the strong legal position taken by the U.S. that the issue is a nonjusticiable political question, and that the plaintiff has no private right of action because Congress did not create a private right of action expressly and created alternative mechanisms for Congress itself to monitor the Executive Branch’s actions." The decision was taken after careful review of the recent developments on the loan where the U.S. and the U.K. have expressed strong objections to speedy approval without attaching conditions for improving human rights violations of Sri Lanka, TAG officials said.
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IFJ condemns reactivation of Sri Lankan Press Council Law

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 June 2009, 07:31 GMT]
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned the Sri Lankan Government's decision to revive the Press Council that was established by an act of parliament in 1973. The Sri Lankan Press Council Act of 1973 contains stringent provisions, including the power to prosecute for contempt and sentence journalists to extended periods in prison and to prohibit the publication of certain kinds of content by the media. Reflecting on the move by Colombo, media activists in Colombo told TamilNet Saturday that the Sri Lanakan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, despite his claim that the Tamil war has ended, was continuing his war on journalists, aiming at creating a full fledged authoritarian ruling of the island.
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Task of legal war vested with diaspora

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 22:32 GMT]
When serious action is needed against Colombo and the Sri Lankan state in order to uphold human dignity and world civilisation, some world leaders pathetically believe in not penalising Colombo and in a ‘carrot and stick’ approach. The Eezham Tamils have seen enough of carrots always going to Colombo and stick always coming to them, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. "The legal system and procedural governments of the liberal democracies have enough space to indict these leaders and governments in their own countries to remind them of their crime and responsibilities. Unless humanitarian organizations and the Eezham Tamil diaspora take up this matter seriously, these leaders will not only go on conning but will also dare to abet Colombo’s agenda of structural genocide."
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Foreign banks looking for profit in "Bloodbath Bonds," says Inner City Press

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 03:06 GMT]
While human rights groups called for investigations of tens of thousands of [Tamil] civilians killed by the Sri Lanka Government, and urged Colombo to release more than 300,000 Tamils including UN staff members held in internment camps, Citybank and Deutsche Bank are looking to make profits on "bloodbath bonds," said Inner City Press which covers the U.N. activities in New York.
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Lessons to be learnt about China

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 20:04 GMT]
The ‘Himalayan’ blunder committed by Nehru and Krishna Menon in their China policy has been re-enacted by their descendants in the Indian Establishment nearly half a century later. A couple of years ago, writing on the crisis in the island of Sri Lanka, a TamilNet article quoted a saying in Tamil about the dog that allowed the squirrel to climb the tree (A’nil ea’ravidda naay). Now it seems that it isn’t just one but many in that situation, after allowing the ethnic question in the island to be hijacked by China. India has to realise at least now that a united Sri Lanka, that too an enforced one, at the cost of its natural ally – and at the cost of ruining its leverage with it – is no guarantee to prevent China’s ambitions in South Asia.
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Sinhalicisation insinuated in Musali

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 09:45 GMT]
Top Sri Lankan military officials appointed by SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Competent Authority in charge of resettlement of Tamils displaced from Vanni have finalised a plan to settle 200 Sinhalese people in Musali where 2,000 displaced Tamils have been allowed to resettle, informed civil officials in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet Friday. More than 4,500 civilians were forced to flee Musali division in Mannnaar district in September 2007.
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Sri Lanka tops list of nations driving journalists to exile

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 June 2009, 06:40 GMT]
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media watchdog, in a special reported published Wednesday, said Sri Lanka topped the list of countries that drove the largest number of journalists into exile. "At least 11 Sri Lankan journalists were driven into exile in the past 12 months amid an intensive government crackdown on critical reporters and editors," the report said, adding the number worldwide totalled 39. Of these journalists, 29 were driven out of threat of violence, 7 threat of imprisonment, and 2 out of harrassment, the report added.
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Seeman alleges abduction of young girls by SLA in Vavuniyaa internment camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 June 2009, 13:42 GMT]
Popular Film Director Seeman on Sunday said he had received reliable information from the captives inside the internment camps in Vavuniyaa that the Sri Lankan police and military establishment have started to 'filter and separate teenage girls from their families during the latest hours in large numbers. Mr. Seeman from Tamil Nadu questioned how this 'filtering' of young girls could take place inside the internment camps without any monitoring by the UN agencies present in Vavuniyaa.
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TNA parliamentarians meet Indian Foreign Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 June 2009, 00:45 GMT]
A team of five Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians met the new Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna on Thursday and discussed matters related to the release of the three doctors and a TNA parliamentarian who rendered invaluable service to the beleaguered people to the very end of war, demilitarization of Tamil areas, resettlement and rehabilitation of civilians in the internment camps and grant amnesty to LTTE carders in captivity, TNA circles told TamilNet. The parliamentarians met National Security Advisor M K Narayanan on Wednesday and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday before the meeting with Mr. S M Krishna. They also met the leader of the opposition L. K. Advani on Friday.
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‘Stop-Genocide’ candidate secures record result, but misses London seat

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 June 2009, 02:49 GMT]
Ms. Jan Jananayagam, an independent candidate contesting the European Parliament elections in London, secured over 50,000 votes, an unprecedented result, and a record for an independent candidate in an EU election. Though Ms Jananayagam failed to secure a seat, her campaign team said they were delighted with the results. Despite having decided to contest only days before voter registration closed and four weeks before the polls, the Tamil candidate had amassed more votes than some well-established small parties in Britain, and more than twice all other independent candidates combined, they said. Apart from Tamil expatriates, her campaign, conducted by students and volunteers, had drawn support and donations from British voters and other minority communities.
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Historic task awaits all freedom fighters

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 June 2009, 20:59 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil nation doesn’t need words to explain the current situation because everybody feels it in the core of their heart. This is a situation that warrants no one else but only the members of the nation to rise up to the occasion. Unprecedented catastrophe awaits unprecedented response from the nation.
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D.C. District Court grants time extension for IMF case

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 03:25 GMT]
Judge Richard J Leon of United States District Court of District of Columbia, issued an order granting the Motion for Extension of Time filed by Bruce Fein, counsel for plaintiff, Tamils Against Genocide, in response to the Motion to Dismiss filed by U.S. Attorney John R. Coleman of U.S. Department of Justice, representing Defendants, Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner, and Executive Director of IMF Meg Lundsagar. Judge Leon allowed TAG's attorney till 29th June to file the response. Since the case will be "pending" until the Court makes a determination, which cannot take place at least until counsel Bruce Fein files a response, the U.S. is unlikely to vote on the IMF loan before 29th June, legal sources in Washington said.
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Potent Tamil voice for European Parliament

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 May 2009, 01:44 GMT]
June 4th elections will determine if Tamils in the London electoral region have the political muscle, organizational acumen and seasoned campaigning skills to attract broader British voters to elect Ms Janani (Jan) Jananayagam, a British, French educated young professional, who is contesting as an Independent candidate to the European Parliament. Ms. Jananayagam’s educational credentials, demonstrated communications skills, and a deftly constructed election platform centered on civil rights, financial transparency, and equality and diversity, will appeal to a broad section of British public and other immigrant groups besides the Tamil community, political observers in London say.
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Claims and scepticism sans evidence

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 00:53 GMT]
The head of the LTTE’s Department of International Relations on Sunday announced that the LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan state on 17 May. However, the LTTE’s Department for Diaspora Affairs (DDA) told TamilNet that it would not comment without explicit authorisation from the LTTE leadership. In the meantime, the Intelligence Department of the Tigers reiterated on Sunday that the LTTE leadership is safe and it will re-emerge when the right time comes.
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Ban Ki Moon stresses freedom of movement, resettlement of IDPs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 11:09 GMT]
United Nation Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, while visiting the largest internment camp in Vavuniyaa, Manik Farm, Saturday for three hours from 9:15 a.m., stressed the need for freedom of movement and immediate resettlement of the more than 300,000 Tamils held in camps. The IDPs also told Ban Ki Moon that they would want the U.N. to take full responsibility for the welfare of the refugees, sources accompanying Moon on his visit said. "The UN has failed in several measures in preventing egregious human rights violations by Sri Lanka against unarmed civilian Tamils during the last several months, and this is the last opportunity to take bold action to repair the damage to UN's reputation. UN should shed its rhetoric on sovereignty and assume full responsibility for the Tamil people," an aid worker told TamilNet after Moon's visit.
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300,000 Tamils held in Nazi-style concentration camps, says Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 12:30 GMT]
"These Nazi-style concentration camps that the Government of Sri Lanka is now forcibly imposing on at least 300,000 completely innocent Tamil civilians constitute acts of genocide within the meaning of Article II(c) of the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which Sri Lanka is a contracting party," Professor Boyle who is an expert international law and teaches at the University of Illinois College of Law said.
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LTTE leadership safe: Tiger intelligence official

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 09:49 GMT]
Head of International Secretariat of the Intelligence wing of the LTTE, Mr. Arivazhakan, who contacted TamilNet Friday categorically denied the reports that the LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan has been killed. Mr. Arivazhakan urged the global Tamil community not to trust the "engineered rumours," being spread by the Government of Sri Lanka and its military establishment.
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IC, India shouldn’t impose 'inclusion' on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2009, 18:23 GMT]
The International Community and India will be contributing to a grave disaster by imposing or enforcing ‘inclusive polity’ on an unwilling Sri Lankan state said the TamilNet political commentator in Colombo Thursday adding that secession is the best option for the island. He cited the events of this week when passions of ‘exclusiveness’ were decisively demonstrated in its goriest possible way by the Sri Lankan state in celebrating ‘victory,’ completely insensitive to the killing, massacres and incarceration of hundreds of thousands of Tamils who are supposed to be its citizens. He also cited the way a dead human being was desecrated whether the identity of the person was another one of the dupe of Colombo or not.
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5 LTTE fighters killed in Batticaloa jungles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 May 2009, 11:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka military shot and killed five Liberation Tigers fighters inside the jungles of Karadiyanaa'ru jungles in Batticaloa Wednesday morning, a LTTE political official in Batticaloa told TamilNet.
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IC has to check militarization and Sinhalicisation of rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 06:59 GMT]
Serious concerns are raised in the Tamil diaspora circles at the IC’s attempts to pour in rehabilitation aid through Colombo’s rehabilitation structure, which is completely militarized and Sinhalicised. This will only serve Colombo’s next agenda of ‘structural genocide’ of Tamils, the diaspora circles said. While rehabilitation is the immediate need, there will be an irredeemable danger if the IC is embarked upon it without recognition of Tamil status in the island and without involving Tamil hands, they said. Ideally, the IC should at least now exercise its authority to completely take over the camps and do the work with the direction and participation of the people for whom they give the aid, they further said.
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