Tamil civil society cautions UNHRC to safeguard reputation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2012, 14:58 GMT]
Civil society activists of Eezham Tamils are worried about possibilities of Sri Lanka manipulating the visit of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) team to the island next week. In a letter addressed to HE Navanetham Pillai, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the civil society has cautioned the team against Sri Lanka buying more time to continue and complete its agenda of Sinhalicisation of the North and East. The civil society expressed its fear based on past instances where the GOSL had been able to manipulate visits by members of the International and UN community so as to benefit its agenda. The letter requested the team to have its own agenda for assessment of the situation, to get guarantees from GOSL for that freedom and to let the public know on the terms of reference as well as restrictions.
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Arnestad’s ‘Silenced Voices’ documentary gains momentum

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2012, 14:27 GMT]
Even as the GoSL tightens its vice through different means to gag democratic voices in the island from expressing the truth about the genocide of the Eezham Tamils, award-winning Norwegian documentary filmmaker Beate Arnestad’s ‘Silenced Voices - Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile’ has been steadily gaining momentum at acclaimed film festivals and screenings across the world, exposing the truth about media repression by the Sri Lankan state. After a grand pre-première in Oslo in February 2012, a world premiere in Hague at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in March, screenings at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York in June, Arnestad’s documentary received a salubrious welcome at public screenings in Australia this week.
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SLN arrests asylum seekers, Greens Senator notes systematic abuse of Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2012, 19:36 GMT]
As the Sri Lanka Navy arrested 54 Australia bound asylum seekers fleeing from the island on a boat on Thursday and hauled them off to the CID for interrogations, Australia’s Greens Party Senator Lee Rhiannon condemned the Australian Coalition’s political position to deport refugees from the island before they set foot on Australian soil as being “immoral, discriminatory, cruel”, referring to the routine violations of the Tamils’ basic rights in the island. "It is not surprising that people are looking to escape from Sri Lanka,” she told TamilNet. "Reports of the systematic abuse of Tamil women political prisoners and prisoners-of-war by the Sri Lankan armed forces are extremely disturbing,” she further said, alluding to TamilNet’s feature on genocide-intended sexual violence perpetrated by the Sri Lankan military and police on ex-LTTE female cadres.
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Congress, BJP, religiously sanctify genocide

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2012, 05:16 GMT]
By inviting Mahinda Rajapaksa to inaugurate a Buddhist institution at Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh in India, both New Delhi’s Congress regime and the BJP-run Madhya Pradesh state government endorse religious sanction to the kind of genocide committed and being committed by the Rajapaksa regime of Colombo. In the process they undermine the prospects of Buddhism re-emerging as an expression of the downtrodden masses, accused Dalit Buddhist circles in Tamil Nadu. Sinhala Buddhism is an Orientalist rediscovery in the libraries of the colonial West. India’s Hinduism is no exception. Both have agreed upon the deployment of genocide in the annihilation of nations in the region and it is tested on Eezham Tamils. It is a warning to peoples all over South Asia and elsewhere, commented an academic in Jaffna.
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Genocide partners talk about people to people relationship

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2012, 00:02 GMT]
The action taken by Tamil Nadu chief minister to send back Colombo footballers and an incident of mob harassment against Sri Lankan tourists in Tamil Nadu have made New Delhi and Colombo, the partners in the genocide of Eezham Tamils, to remember the importance of people to people relationship all of a sudden. Following close on their heels were The Hindu and the Marxist Communist Party of India (CPI-M). The BJP parliamentary leader Sushma Swaraj chose the time to invite Mahinda Rajapaksa to open a Buddhist institution in her constituency. Even though sections of media in India try to reduce the stand of Jayalalithaa as mere impulsive response to the open insistence of the Centre on training Sri Lankan military personnel in India, and project it as a dangerous game, powerful but short-sighted etc., the matter is much deeper than that, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Genuine boat refugees fear for life, send SOS from Indonesia

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2012, 20:57 GMT]
53 Eezham Tamil boat refugees, seeking asylum in Australia but driven to Indonesia, are on a fast-unto-death protest on-board their vessel for the past four days, against the decision of the Indonesian authorities to hand them over to Sri Lanka Navy. The refugees claim that they will be persecuted, even killed, if handed over to the SL Navy. On Tuesday, they sent SOS messages to their families, relatives and journalists in the island to urge the international human rights groups to address their plight. A university student representative in Jaffna confirmed that there were genuine refugees needing international protection in the boat. The refugees heading for Christmas Island of Australia were taken to Indonesia on 28 August by that country’s navy after their boat ran out of fuel in mid sea.
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Pilgrimage, tourism become show of genocidal jubilation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2012, 18:00 GMT]
12.5 million Sinhala Buddhist visitors from the South have toured Jaffna peninsula during the last three years, from July 2009 to August 2012, according to the statistics released by the statistics division of the occupying Sri Lankan military in Jaffna. Highest number of visits was recorded in August 2012, when more than 100,000 southerners visited the peninsula. At least 80,000 of these visitors have been to Nagadipa vihara at Nayinaatheevu, an islet off Jaffna during the last month. In the meantime, the Eezham Tamil people of the peninsula, numbering less than 600,000 and the resettling people of Vanni live in a parallel universe without communication with the visiting Sinhalese, who are looked after by the occupying SL military and ‘civil’ administration.
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‘BJP legitimizes Sri Lanka’s culture of genocide through Buddhist links’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2012, 13:54 GMT]
At a function organised by the Sri Lankan high commission in New Delhi on Saturday, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has unveiled a painting depicting Emperor Asoka to mark the 2,600th year of the advent of Buddhism in the island. Sushma Swaraj recalled the important cultural and Buddhist links between India and Sri Lanka and affirmed India's commitment to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, reported IANS on Sunday, adding that “she was impressed by the resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts of the Sri Lankan government and the approaches by all parties towards reconciliation.” A Tamil Nadu activist studying in New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University working with the Delhi Tamil Students’ Union condemned this move as a legitimization of “Sri Lanka’s culture of genocide”.
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TESO group to meet Ban in US, visit UNHCR in Geneva

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2012, 12:01 GMT]
M.K. Stalin, son of DMK chief Karunanidhi and former deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu, accompanied by T.R. Balu, senior leader of the DMK, and possibly joined by two other TESO Committee members, the DK chief Veeramani and Subhaveera Pandian, is scheduled to visit the US during the third week of September to meet the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to present the TESO resolutions to him, Deccan Chronicle reported Monday. On their way back, the group is also scheduled to stop at Geneva to hand over the resolutions to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC). Stalin and Balu would be officially informing the purpose of their travel to the Speakers of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the Indian Lok Sabha where they are members.
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Australia Opposition says ready to violate UN Refugee Convention

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2012, 03:33 GMT]
Tamil refugees fleeing the island of Sri Lanka to the shores of Australia drew wide media coverage and Australia's law makers rushed in defence of parties' asylum policies as Australian authorities intercepted a boat carrying 81 suspected asylum seekers north-northwest of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Saturday. While Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop claimed that many asylum seekers from the island of Sri Lanka are economic migrants, and not refugees, and therefore, should be deported before they get access to Australia's legal system, the Immigration Minister in the ruling party said Australia would be breaching UN's 1951 Refugee Convention if the refugees were deported before considering their claims, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
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Tamil book club inaugurated in London

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 22:41 GMT]
With an initial collection of around one thousand books, a Tamil book club has been inaugurated in London on Sunday. The Lotus Book Club for buying, borrowing as well as reading Tamil books in London will be functioning at a facility near Woolwich Arsenal metro station. The opening ceremony, that saw participation of Eezham Tamils, Tamil Nadu Tamils, and Malaysian Tamils displayed a collection of books covering diverse topics such as Tamil history, linguistics, politics, evolution of the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle, literary classics etc.
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Witness to Genocide documentary wins two awards in India

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 19:41 GMT]
One of the big winners of the 2012 exchange4media News Broadcasting Awards (eNBA) in India on Friday was ‘I Witnessed Genocide : Inside the Killing Fields of Lanka’, a key documentary produced last year by Headlines Today Television on the plight of Eezham Tamils in Vanni. The New Delhi based station's special correspondent Priyamvatha and cameraman Ashok Bhanot were the first international journalists to travel to Vanni, undercover, to report on the survivors of the 2009 genocide. The documentary has won under two categories for Best Current Affairs Programme and Best News Coverage – International.
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Jayalalithaa orders exit of Colombo footballers, suspension of stadium official

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 18:13 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa on Sunday gave orders to send back a football team of Sri Lanka’s Royal College in Colombo that had come to play ‘friendly’ matches in Chennai. The matches had been organised through an arrangement between the College and an official of the Reserve Bank of India, and the team had already played a match on Friday with the Customs Department of the Central Government, at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai. Slamming the Government of India for allowing the Sri Lankan team to play matches in Tamil Nadu, the Chief Minister directed the Chief Secretary of the State to suspend an officer in-charge of the Nehru Stadium of the state government who had given oral permission for the venue. Department level inquiries are initiated against the official.
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Syrian crisis - a case study in ‘regime change’ politics

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2012, 07:54 GMT]
Even as Western governments are stepping up covert and overt pressure on the current Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, those following the Kurdish national question are unsure of the future of Kurdish regions in Syria. With reports emerging of Turkey arming the anti-Assad force ‘Free Syrian Army’ (FSA) that receives support from governments in the West, simultaneously Turkey pursues a militarist approach against the PKK. There is apprehension that Turkey might use the opportunity to strike at Kurdish regions in Syria to deal a blow to the PKK sphere of influence. At this conjuncture, those Tamils who are considering Western intervention in Syria as a positive step against repressive regimes should study in detail the intricacies of ‘geopolitics of regime change’ and the dynamics of the Kurdish national struggle in the region, commented a Tamil political analyst.
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Australian Court denies US extradition request

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2012, 02:36 GMT]
Melbourne Federal Court Judge, Justice Tony North, in a precedent setting verdict delivered Friday, denied extradition of an Eezham Tamil, Thulasitharan Santhirarajah, to the U.S., ruling that the US charges against Santhirarajah, were "political". The Court also ruled that Australia's Attorney General (AG) Nicola Roxon's decision to authorize extradition "denied Santhirarajah procedural fairness," and that the AG "erred in the way she accepted extradition would not result in Mr Santhirarajah's torture." Justice North appeared to have also heeded the warning of Mr Santhirarajah's wife, Priya, who is an Australian citizen and who said previously that "to consent to Thulasi's extradition will amount to the signing of his death warrant."
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Colombo expands diplomatic missions in India

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2012, 20:14 GMT]
The cabinet of Rajapaksa regime has taken decisions to open a new Consulate General Office in Kolkata, appoint Honorary Consuls in Hyderabad, Lucknow and Thiruvanandapuram, and to expand the existing missions in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. The new mission in Kolkata will have consular jurisdiction over West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and the 7 Northeast states. While the High Commission in New Delhi and the Consulate General office in Mumbai will get additional staff to deal with economic and commercial matters, the Deputy High Commission in Chennai will be posted with two additional Tamil-speaking officers, the PTI said Friday.
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Genocidal sex abuse of ex-LTTE female cadres becomes routine in North and East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2012, 08:29 GMT]
The genocidal Sri Lanka military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils is routinely engaged in repeated sexual abuse of the former female members of the LTTE to see them pregnant by the Sinhala soldiers, in the model of former Yugoslavia, news sources citing a number of cases and medical professionals told TamilNet. While Radha D’Souza views the Tamil struggle “as one of the most significant movements since the end of the Vietnam War,” the former US Deputy Secretary of State and a current ICG trustee Richard Armitage in Oslo last year was harping on the unawareness of the world on the happenings in the island. The genocide is meant to be so by the architects, and the Akashi visit last week viewing ‘rehabilitated’ female cadres was another effort to keep the on-going genocide under the carpet, political observers in the island said.
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Double standard in clearing UXOs endangers resettlement in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 August 2012, 23:03 GMT]
Leftover unexploded cluster munitions keep exploding every day in the suburbs of PTK, where the resettling people have embarked upon the dangerous exercise of clearing their lands. In a propaganda drive to close down the Menik Farm camp in Cheddiku'lam, Vavuniyaa, Sri Lanka military operated de-mining officers have given green signal for resettlement in selected suburbs of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) of Mullaiththeevu district, while the lands appropriated by the occupying SL military for militarization and Sinhalicisation in the same area have been carefully de-mined with external aid. At least four cases of big explosions have been reported in Vanni and Jaffna this week with two people seriously injured.
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Second annual Ki'liththaddu tournament attracts hundreds in Canada

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 August 2012, 06:10 GMT]
Tamil youth teams from across Canada assembled in Toronto on Sunday to play in the second annual Ki'liththaddu tournament organized by TYO-Canada. Over 20 teams competed for a chance to win the Tamil Eelam Heritage Trophy. Originating from the agricultural roots of Eezham Tamils, the game has gained popularity and was organized to promote and preserve Eezham Tamil identity, tournament organizers said. Community organizers concluded the event highlighting the importance of upholding Eezham Tamil identity and national symbols in resisting the genocidal scheme against Eezham Tamils.
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Tamil Nadu CM reiterates demand to send SL military personnel out

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 August 2012, 17:24 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. J. Jayalalithaa on Tuesday reiterated her demand to immediately halt training to Sri Lanka’s defence personnel at the Wellington base in Tamil Nadu and send them back to Sri Lanka. She expressed surprise about her earlier demand being responded with an open declaration by New Delhi to continue training to Sri Lanka’s military personnel in India, on grounds that Sri Lanka is a friendly country. “This betrays the total insensitivity on the part of the Government of India towards the views of my Government as well as the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu,” she said in an official letter addressed to the Indian Prime Minister, adding that the Government of India should give up “condemnable attitude.”
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