Nepalese war criminal faces torture charges in UK

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 January 2013, 13:54 GMT]
Colonel Kumar Lama, a 46-year-old Nepalese officer, currently seconded to the UN, was held at his East Sussex home by Metropolitan Police officers on Thursday, charged with intentionally "inflicting severe pain or suffering" as a public official on two separate individuals, BBC reported. "This encouraging development puts on notice persumptive war-criminals from Sri lanka who have participated or commanded extra-judicial killings, torture of civilians, and killings of surrendees, all qualifying as war-crimes during a State sanctioned massacre that comes perilously close to genocide, on visiting UK, or other European Countries where the Courts exercise Universal jurisdiction for such crimes," a spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) said.
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Colombo ventures to coach New Delhi on ‘Counterinsurgency’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 January 2013, 10:42 GMT]
After spearheading an internationally-coordinated counterinsurgency (COIN) operation against the LTTE which resulted in an internationally abetted genocide of the Eezham Tamils in May 2009, in which India played no small a role, Sri Lanka now claims that it can offer training to Indian and other military forces in COIN operations. The commitment of General Bikram Singh, the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army, to Sri Lanka’s security and his implicit appreciation of the Sri Lanka model of COIN by his statements at the passing out parade at Sri Lanka Military Academy on 22 December should be a cause of concern for progressive civil society activists in India, for while the ‘Sri Lanka solution’ was possible in its specific case only by a combination of geo-political factors and genocidal intent, it holds out lessons that could threaten democratic traditions in any country.
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Sri Lanka appoints military to teach Sinhala in Vanni schools

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2013, 21:21 GMT]
In a hitherto unheard experiment in conducting genocide, the Sri Lanka government has appointed its occupying military to teach Sinhala as second language to Tamil school children in Vanni. The Sinhala military personnel went in uniform to schools to report as Sinhala teachers and they claimed that they had permission from the SL education authorities to do so, news sources in Vanni said. The genocidal military teaching Sinhala goes parallel to the teaching of Theravada Buddhism to Tamils. The Sinhala military also aims to be in direct touch with the Tamil school children, the news sources further said. Already there were strict instructions to schools in Vanni that no functions could take place without inviting the occupying military and garlanding them publicly.
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Brian says Aussie FM was with Rajapaksa during his Singapore deportation

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2013, 19:35 GMT]
Sharing with TamilNet more details of his deportation from Singapore on 14 December, 81-year-old Australian human rights activist of Sinhala origin, Dr Brian Seneviratne said that the Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr was in Colombo, meeting Mahinda Rajapaksa, at the time of his deportation. Reminding the Australian Prime Minister that what had happened in Sri Lanka was genocide, and the regime is a set of pathological liars, Brian said: “Mr Carr has enhanced the ability of this murderous regime to commit gross violations of human rights by doing what he has just done in Colombo – saying that Australia will help the Sri Lankan Navy to stop people fleeing from the murderous regime in Sri Lanka.”
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UN continues to commit knowing blunder on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2013, 08:14 GMT]
While various publications, including an internal investigation report of the UN, find fault with the way the UN handled the Vanni War that ended in genocide, the UN, the ICRC, the IOM and other international agencies continue to commit the same blunder knowingly, by leaving Eezham Tamils entirely in the hands of Colombo, with no outfits to complain with trust or to independently monitor the on-going genocide, said a senior social activist in the island, citing the cases of the repeated rape and abuse of former LTTE cadres, the sufferings of the Tamil women coerced into SL military, the plight of a doctor who voiced for them, forced relocation of re-settlers and the acts committed on Jaffna University students. These take place at individual level, apart from the larger militarisation, colonisation and Sinhalicisation of the genocidal agenda, he said.
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East mourns demise of Muslim Tamil educationalist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 January 2013, 11:50 GMT]
The 40th day mourning for Al-haj M.A. Samsudeen, who passed away on 25 November at the age of 82, is to be observed at Addaa’laich-cheanai in the Ampaa’rai district of Eastern Province on Thursday. Mr. Samshudeen dedicated nearly 40 years of his life to education in the East as well in the North and retired as Batticaloa’s Additional Director of Education. His education and career in the East, North and Tamil Nadu is one such that would inspire anyone of the larger perspective shared by Muslims and Tamils.
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Canada extradites citizens to stand "terrorism" trial in Brooklyn

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 January 2013, 02:29 GMT]
Two naturalized Canadian citizens of Eezham Tamil origin, Suresh Sriskandarajah and Piratheepan Nadarajah, plead not guilty to charges on providing material assistance to the now defunct Liberation Tigers when both were arraigned Thursday last week in the District Court of the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), after a six year battle in Canada fighting extradition, legal sources in New York said. The defendants lost a constitutional challenge in the Canadian Supreme Court when the Court ruled that Canada’s terrorism laws did not infringe on the defendants constitutional rights and that the Canadian Justice Minister's order to surrender the defendants to the United States was legal.
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Extra-judicial killings of Trinco-5 students by SL military - 7th Anniversary

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 January 2013, 00:01 GMT]
Dr Kasippillai Manoharan and four other families will be commemorating the seventh anniversary of the death of their sons extra-judicially executed by the Sri Lanka armed forces on the 2nd January 2006. The high school students, all then nearly 20-years old, were spending an afternoon at a seafront in Trincomalee when the dastardly crime, widely believed to be carried out under directives from high-level officials in Colombo, happened. While the case (DR-11/1-2006) in the Trincomalee court is kept alive for procedural reasons and the Court is unable to deliver justice due to the State's alleged complicity in the killings, legal action against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse is proceeding in the District Columbia District Court.
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SL military admits ‘terrorism’ detention of Dr Sivashankar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2013, 21:50 GMT]
Sri Lankan military spokesman in Colombo, Brigadier Ruwan Vanigasooriya, on Tuesday admitted to journalists in the South that the SL military was detaining Medical Officer Ratnasingham Sivashankar. According to the spokesman of the occupying SL military, the Tamil doctor has been detained because he had "trespassed" into the military base where Tamil women were being held for military training. The doctor had entered the camp in connection with a recently recruited female trainee relative, Vanigasooriya claimed, and added that the doctor had showed ‘false reasons’ and had tried to make contact with a recently ‘recruited’ Tamil females and tried to discourage them from undergoing training. He tried to question the SL military officials on the recruitment of Tamil females and the SL military has arrested him on suspicion, he said.
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Malaysian Tamil declaration upholds Eezham Tamil sovereignty

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2013, 00:14 GMT]
The World Tamilar Protection Conference (WTPC) in its second session conducted in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on Friday, declared that it recognises the need to understand the question of Eezham Tamils in terms of their claim for Historical Sovereignty, Earned Sovereignty and Remedial Sovereignty in their territory. The declaration said that the nation of Eezham Tamils having sovereignty and the right to self-determination in their traditional homeland in the island of Sri Lanka had been subjected to genocide over 60 years by the Sinhala nation. Convened jointly by the President of Puthiya Thamizhakam Party in Tamil Nadu Dr K. Krishnasamy and the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang State in Malaysia Prof P Ramasamy, the conference was addressed by Malaysia’s Leader of the Opposition Mr Anwar Ibrahim.
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Brian identifies Sri Lanka, Australia as beneficiaries of his Singapore deportation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 December 2012, 12:35 GMT]
Dr Brian Seneviratne, 81-year-old Australian human rights activist of Sinhala origin steadfastly fighting for the rights of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, was deported by Singapore immigration on 14 December, when he came from Australia to go to Malaysia and address closed-door meetings on the push factors of refugees coming from the island via Malaysia and their handling by Australia. In a letter addressed to Australian Prime Minister, Ms Julia Gillard, raising several questions on the modus operandi of his deportation by Singapore defying a State’s obligation to the international rights of any person, Brian identifies the Government of Sri Lanka and the Government of Australia as the ultimate beneficiaries of his deportation.
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Colombo posters wage war against all shades of Tamil nationalism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 December 2012, 09:20 GMT]
Citing the posters that appeared in Colombo and in southern parts of the island last week, a notice in Sinhala addressing ‘intelligent students’ of the Jaffna University, invariably accused all shades of Tamil polity in the island and in the diaspora that are not collaborating with the genocidal regime, as working for the division of the ‘country’. The notice also accused Sinhala students and shades of Sinhala Left in the south showing solidarity with the students of the Jaffna University, as unconsciously becoming a “prey to the interests of the LTTE to divide the country.” An English translation of the notice is produced herewith.
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Schalk tells Tamil politicians to claim territory of Tamil Buddhists

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 December 2012, 07:37 GMT]
“The real danger for the Tamil speaking community is the traditional bond between Sinhala Buddhism and its claims to the whole territory of the island. Now we understand why the historical existence of Tamil Buddhism is denied: it is apprehended as a dangerous counter-movement to the Sinhala Buddhists’ claims of territory. Tamil politicians are expected to reject the territorial claims of Sinhala Buddhists by referring to the historical existence of territories settled by Buddhists who were Tamil speakers with their own claims for territorial control,” writes Emeritus Professor Peter Schalk in sending a note, responding to TamilNet feature “Simulated Buddhists, Sinhala-Buddhist schools to accelerate colonization, genocide,” appeared on 19 December.
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Takasu, Tamils' adversary in UN Security Council?

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 December 2012, 00:15 GMT]
Yukio Takasu, the 2009 President of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the critical month of February, was one of the key UN officials who allegedly prevented Sri Lanka from being dragged into the UNSC for the unfolding mass scale killings in Mu'l'livaaykkaal, public statements made by UN officials during media stakes reveal. While some UN Security Council (UNSC) permanent members may have agreed with Takasu'a views, in a media stake out, Takasu lays out his "own" critical view of the "terrorist LTTE," and the primacy of political and security need to "defeat" the Tigers over imminent large scale civilian casualties. Political observers believe that Japanese cultural views on refugees, asylum seekers may provide clues to Takasu's approach and conduct in the UNSC that led to the disastrous outcome for the Tamil refugees trapped in Sri Lanka's civil war.
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Sri Lanka’s TID summons Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 December 2012, 18:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) has sent summons to Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) President, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, asking him to be present at its investigating office in Colombo on Saturday for inquiries. The summon note, entirely in Sinhala language, was served at Gajendrakumar’s residence in Colombo by a TID officer on Thursday afternoon. Mr. Gajendrakumar is currently outside of the island, informed sources told TamilNet. Meanwhile, notices in Sinhala and English, viciously implicating TNPF Secretary and former TNA parliamentarian, Selvaraja Kajendran as one of the key persons behind the ‘pro-LTTE and TNA/ TNPF network’ in the Jaffna University, is being circulated in the south of the island.
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Gotabhaya appropriates whole village in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 December 2012, 15:53 GMT]
An entire Eezham Tamil village, Mu’l’lik-ku’lam in the Musali division of Mannaar district, has been declared out of bounds for its uprooted residents by SL defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa visiting the village on Wednesday. The entire village will be used for a military base of the occupying Sinhala forces and to serve as a hub for the Sinhalicisation and Colonisation process of the land and waters of the strategic locality in the Mannaar district. Nobody would be allowed to resettle within a perimeter of 750 meters of the Mu’l’likku’lam village, Gotabhaya said at a meeting held at the SL Naval Base established there on Wednesday between 10:30 am and 1:30 pm.
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190,000 displaced in Batticaloa due to floods, 30% of paddy destroyed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 December 2012, 20:33 GMT]
211 GS divisions in Batticaloa district have been affected by floods that have caused displacement of 190,966 members of 51,379 families in one week, civil officials at Batticaloa district secretariat said. Four persons were reported dead, one injured and two others have been reported missing in the floods. More than 4,000 houses were damaged. 30% of 155,000 acre paddy cultivation has been destroyed. 25,000 fishermen have lost their livelihood and families engaged in firewood and bricks making have lost their expected income. Several hundred heads of cattle have been washed away by the floods and those engaged in animal husbandry have lost their income, according to Department of Animal Husbandry sources.
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Kade-weediya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 December 2012, 14:44 GMT]
The bazaar street
The street of shops
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SL military begins war on Jaffna University teachers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 December 2012, 09:37 GMT]
The telephone summoning of the Jaffna University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) president and head of English language teaching at the university, A Rajakumaran, to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) of occupying Sri Lanka on Friday is widely seen in the university circles as the beginning of a direct war on the Tamil university teachers by the occupying State. Rajakumaran is summoned in connection with his media statement, especially to the BBC, on the student protest in the university and in connection with his reported comments on the views that in future the teachers’ union and the students’ union should jointly observe the Heroes Day as a measure against situations such as the one unfolded this year.
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SL Commander threatens VC-led team visiting Palaali

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 December 2012, 07:46 GMT]
Following the refusal of the Deans of the University of Jaffna to meet the SL commander of the occupying forces at Palaalai military base on Wednesday, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna on Friday morning led a team to meet the SL commander at Palaali. The team included many of the deans, heads of departments and parents of the detained as well released students. The SL Commander Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe threatened the visiting team that if they insist on the release of the detained students for the re-opening of the University, then there will be no chance of the students getting released. He ignored the pleading and crying parents of the students, who attempted to prostrate before him.
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