Gotabaya sets up deceptive COI citing ‘sovereignty’ and ‘non-aligned’ foreign policy

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2021, 08:01 GMT]
Adding to the series of deceit by his predecessors and using the same modus operandi, SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has now appointed another domestic Commission of Inquiry (COI) on accountability. The three-member COI, announced through an extraordinary Gazette Notification on Thursday is tasked to find out about the preceding domestic COIs and Committees revelations on “any human rights violations, serious violations of the international humanitarian law and other such serious offences”. Further stating in the gazette that even though Colombo has withdrawn from “co-sponsorship policy”, it would continue to “work with the United Nations and its Agencies to achieve accountability and human resource development for achieving sustainable peace and reconciliation”.
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Tamil national parties demand UN to inquire into crime of genocide and set up IIIM

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 January 2021, 11:03 GMT]
All the three alliances of the Eezham Tamil national political parties in the island have come together demanding the UN Human Rights system and the Member States of the UNHRC to inquire into the crime of genocide and raise unaddressed accountability issues to higher forums. A referral to the International Criminal Court and an evidence-gathering mechanism similar to the International Independent Investigatory Mechanism (IIIM) established by the UN for Syria in 2016, were among the four main demands. The joint letter by the Tamil political parties and the Tamil civil society organisations on the ground including the families of the people subjected to enforced disappearances, also demands the President of the UNHRC to refer the matters on accountability back to the UN Secretary-General for action. They also want the OHCHR to monitor current human rights violations on the ground.
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Demolition of Tamil genocide monument, fourth emblematic trauma since 1974: Rev Fr Sakthivel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 January 2021, 09:37 GMT]
Tamils experienced one of their first collective trauma when Colombo’s Sinhala police massacred nine Tamil civilians at the World Tamil Conference in Jaffna in 1974. Then came one of the worst acts of cultural and heritage genocide, the state-backed burning of Jaffna Public Library in 1981. The 2009 genocidal onslaught caused the third emblematic trauma. Now, the demolition of Mu'l'livaaykkaal Genocide Monument at the Jaffna University has triggered the fourth wave of trauma to the same extent, said Rev Fr Sakthivel, a prominent rights activist of Up-Country origin. He urged the Tamil political parties to unite and demand justice for the protracted genocide that has caused waves of collective trauma to the genocide affected Tamil nation.
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Colombo destroys Mu'l'livaaykkaal memorial monument at Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 January 2021, 23:51 GMT]
The occupying SL military and the police have razed to the ground Mu'l'livaaykkaal Tamil genocide monument, situated within the premises of the University of Jaffna. The destruction took place Friday night sending shockwaves across the occupied homeland and the diaspora. Despite the students' protest, the SL military went ahead bulldozing the statue. The Tamil people and their civic leaders who rushed to the site to protest were blocked at the university entrance. The Sinhala military and police personnel used abusive language against the protesters, the students said. The destruction has taken place a day after Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar wrapped up his three-day visit to Colombo. In the meantime, Tamil political party leaders are scheduled to discuss their demands to the United Nations on international investigations of Tamil genocide on Saturday.
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With emphasis on genocide, Suresh calls for ICC-referral, IIIM and referendum

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2021, 11:22 GMT]
Clarifying three main demands formulated by the TMVK alliance, EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran, a former parliamentarian, urged Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam of the TNPF not to be only preoccupied with a one-point demand of the ICC option. A group of three persons, Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Mr M. A. Sumanthiran and Dr K Sarweswaran, would be meeting in Colombo on Thursday to formulate the demands towards the UNHRC. If the parties do not agree on a joint formulation, they would be placing their demands separately. However, all the alliances and parties represented by the said three persons, were firm in demanding UN action against Tamils' genocide in the island, informed sources in Jaffna said.
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Indian Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar trades off Tamils’ sovereign rights

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 January 2021, 14:26 GMT]
Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during his recent three-day visit to SL spoke of an imaginary “united Sri Lanka” and “meaningful devolution” within the framework of the rotten 13th Amendment that fails to deliver any equal rights to the genocide affected nation of Eezham Tamils. This at a time when Colombo is consolidating the unitary system. India was again trading off Tamil homeland’s territorial integrity in the North-East and Eezham Tamils’ Right of Self-Determination against territorial integrity of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka and maritime cooperation. Dr Jaishankar’s visit aims to expand New Delhi’s maritime security, trade and investment cooperation with Colombo to counter the growing influence of China in the region.
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TNPF's reluctance, NGO-meddling pose challenges to formulating joint Tamil demands to UN: Shivaji

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2021, 07:08 GMT]
The three alliances of Tamil national parties with SL parliamentary representation have entered into negotiations to formulate joint demands to the UN System on two key issues. Firstly, the parties discuss how to demand the UN System to specifically address the crime of genocide, which was lacking in the UNHRC-led process so far. Secondly, they debate how to effectively request the UN system to prosecute those responsible for genocide and the already established crimes in the UN findings. Although the Tamil parties have been brought into a negotiation process, mainly by the larger community's efforts, there remain two key challenges, according to veteran Tamil politician and activist M.K. Shivajilingam. The first challenge was the reluctance shown by the Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF) to discuss the main demands with an open mind with other Tamil alliances, parties and politicians.
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