Indian people would get democracy voice only when India severs Lanka relations

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2012, 07:39 GMT]
An instruction from the New Delhi establishment’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sent to the TESO organisers on 11 August shows that peoples of India cannot have a democratic voice on the question of Eezham Tamils unless India severs diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka. While retracting from its earlier ban on the use of the word Eelam, the MEA letter ‘advised’ the TESO to “ensure that the conference does not issue any declaration or outcome that calls into question in any manner the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of any foreign country with whom India has diplomatic relations.” This is a serious curb on the universal democratic rights of the peoples of India. Why the TESO organisers who picked on Ms Jayalalithaa didn’t condemn New Delhi for this violation and for not giving visa to many participants, critics in Chennai asked.
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Another brutal attack sends Tamil political prisoner to coma

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2012, 06:51 GMT]
Following the attack on the Eezham Tamil prisoners in Vauniyaa resulting in the death of two and injury of many, details of the case of a new attack in the Galle prison last week, leaving a prisoner in coma status and others suspectedly injured, have started trickling out now. The Tamil prisoner in coma is identified as 34-year-old Sundaram Satheeskumar, father of a 10-year-old child. The victim was arrested at his residence in Kodikaamam in 2008 by the occupying SL military, handed over to the SL police and was kept in the New Magazine prison in Colombo without any charges filed against him. Last week, on 21 August, he was transferred to the Galle prison.
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US, Indian appeasement weakness makes Beijing, Colombo to play old game

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2012, 04:59 GMT]
China will be providing US $ 100 million for permanent ‘housing schemes’ of the Sinhala military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils. The Chinese offer to set up accommodation and infrastructure facilities in the SL military camps in the North and East, is in line with the long-standing ‘national security’ argument of Sri Lanka, despite pressure from Western nations and India to reduce the military presence in the North and East, said Colombo media reports on Sunday. Colombo’s campaign is timed for mounting pressure from Tamil Nadu against New Delhi’s training of Sinhala military and for the impending Colombo visit of Chinese defence minister on Wednesday. Genocidal Colombo’s endless game has to be stopped somewhere by united and decisive action of the world, rather than competitive appeasement, commented South Asian affairs analysts.
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New Delhi resorts to further ‘mischief’ by passing responsibility

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 August 2012, 10:45 GMT]
While New Delhi establishment’s foreign ministry points to defence ministry over the “mischief” issue raised by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa, about India giving training to Colombo’s military personnel in Tamil Nadu behind the back of Tamil Nadu government, the defence ministry sources reportedly have said that any decision on this would have to be taken by the Indian Prime Minister. Knowing the weak and guided personality of the Indian PM on matters related to Eezham Tamils, the establishment in New Delhi is playing further mischief, informed circles said. Those who are ultimately responsible for the genocidal policy of imperialism followed in the island have to be exposed and they have to be made answerable to the people of Tamil Nadu and peoples of India, political activists in Chennai said, appreciating the stand taken by Ms Jayalalithaa.
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Akashi comes to ‘listen’ to people in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 August 2012, 21:37 GMT]
Former Special Envoy of the Tokyo Co-chair to the Peace Process between the SL government and the LTTE, Yasushi Akashi, visited Jaffna and Ki'linochchi on Friday to listen to the views of the religious leaders in Jaffna and to review the humanitarian assistance Japan has provided to the welfare of the resettling civilians and former combatants in Vanni. “Architects of the genocidal war cannot be mere listeners. They are answerable to the affected people and to the world. There is no foreign establishment involved in the island that doesn't really know what is happening. Therefore, the boldness with which the grassroot aspirations of the nation of Eezham Tamils has to be politically translated in a befitting way should never be compromised in the island and in the diaspora,” said a social activist in Jaffna observing Mr Akashi's visit.
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Resettlement showcase brings in further miseries to uprooted Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 August 2012, 20:29 GMT]
250 families recently brought to Chivanakar village in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) division of Mullaiththeevu district complain that they have been let down by the SL authorities that rush to vacate the Menik Farm in Cheddiku'lam, Vavuniyaa. Promising the uprooted proper resettlement to the uprooted Tamils in their own village, 141 families were brought from Menik Farm to Chivanakar. Another 101 families who were residing with their kith and kin elsewhere also joined them when their village was announced opened for resettlement. Now, these families are struggling in their own village without any shelter and have sought refuge under the trees. There are no basic facilities. Most of these families, who are below the poverty line, demand at least temporary huts and basic facilities before the rainy season begins in a few weeks from now.
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Building defying SL governor inauguration receives crude oil attack in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2012, 01:27 GMT]
The colonial military administration of Colombo on Wednesday allegedly deployed its ‘white van squad’ to pour crude oil on the new building of Valikaamam South (Chunnaakam) civic body before it was scheduled to be declared opened by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The colonial military governor of North, Maj Gen (retd.) G.A. Chanadrasiri has been demanding that it should be he who should decide on the inauguration of the building. However, the building was declared opened as scheduled by T. Prakash, the head of the civic body of Valikaamam South. The grassroots politician of the TNA also declared that the office would start to function from Thursday in the new premises.
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Malathy’s ‘Fleeting Moment’ a testimonial to earned sovereignty of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2012, 21:55 GMT]
As a first hand written account of a diaspora Tamil who lived and worked for over four years in civilian institutions in the de facto state of the Eezham Tamils, N. Malathy’s “A fleeting moment in my country: The last years of the LTTE de-facto state” bears witness to how the sovereignty earned through the conduct of the struggle of the Eezham Tamils was denied by world powers, leading to the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre. A literature of ‘lived experience’ of one who stayed in Vanni for 4 years working with civilian institutions like NESoHR, women and child organizations, and later spending over 4 gruelling months in the Manik farm detention camps, the book should elicit interest not just from Tamils world over, but also academics, activists, feminists, journalists and those interested in studying social life under a political struggle against genocide.
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‘War on the diaspora continues to annihilate idea of Tamil Eelam’: Dr. Sentas

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2012, 18:52 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan conflict is now a transnational war against the Tamil diaspora that enables the continued political repression of political aspirations both in Sri Lanka and abroad,” writes Dr. Vicki Sentas in a chapter published in a recently released book “Counter-Terrorism and state political violence: The ‘war on terror’ as terror”. Dr. Sentas, currently a lecturer in Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney further opines in the chapter titled “One more successful war? Tamil diaspora and counter-terrorism after the LTTE” that the criminalization of political aspirations of the Tamil diaspora and proscription of Tamil organizations only strengthens the cause of the genocide accused Sri Lankan.
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Village, jungle adjacent to Mu’l’livaaykkaal grabbed for Sinhala militarisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2012, 01:27 GMT]
2,500 acres of land by the side of the Nanthik-kadal lagoon, comprising of the village Keappaa-pulavu and nearby jungle, where the last stages of the Vanni war was fought and prohibited weapons were allegedly used against the LTTE by the genocidal Sinhala military, is now permanently grabbed for use of the occupying military, news sources in Vanni said. The grabbed land in Mullaiththeevu district is divided between Sri Lanka’s Army and Air Force and the original villagers of 700 families detained from resettling are forced to accept lands away from their village. After the TESO conference last week, The Hindu, using an interview of Dr. Wikremabahu Karunaratne, tried to soft-pedal the issue of the annihilation of territorial sovereignty of the nation of Eezham Tamils as a mere “Move to gift Tamil resources to MNCs.”
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Commission report makes Norway police chief resign

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2012, 22:13 GMT]
Following an independent commission report that Norway police could have prevented all or part of a bombing and shooting spree by Anders Behring Breivik last year that killed 77, most of whom were teenagers, the Norwegian police chief Øystein Mæland resigned on Thursday, Reuters said. Norwegian government has also appointed an independent commission to investigate the failure of Norway’s peace facilitation in Sri Lanka that ended in genocide of Eezham Tamils. The commission report found fault with the peace facilitators for not withdrawing from the facilitation to tell the truth to the world, despite anticipations of the outcome. Mr. Erik Solheim, a leading facilitator didn’t resign, but was removed by his party ‘to give room to younger talents’. There was neither penitence nor any changes in Norway’s policy towards the question of Eezham Tamils.
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Colombo's immigration arrests 53 Tamil Nadu Tamils in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2012, 23:54 GMT]
Sri Lankan police in SL military occupied Jaffna on Wednesday and Thursday arrested 53 Indian citizens, most of them Tamils from Tamil Nadu, for overstay in the peninsula without informing the Indian mission in Jaffna while hundreds of Chinese workers, including sex workers, are allowed to stay in the island with no regards to visa regulations. The occupying colonial State, which functions as an agent state for the International Community of Establishments (ICE) including the establishment of New Delhi, has become increasingly paranoid about the grassroots business links and people to people interactions between the South Indians and the Eezham Tamils, informed sources close to SL Police in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Schalk writes further on Eezham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2012, 22:25 GMT]
The Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (DED) has two entries (549, 550) for the word Eezham and one of them means the island. This means Eezham is evaluated as a Dravidian word by the DED. Eezham and Chingka’lam are parallel allocations. While they have not derived from each other, Chingka’lam did not refer to an ethnie, the Sinhalas, but to the island as whole and to its demos, not to one ethnie. The demos could be Tamil and/or Sinhala speakers. Considering usage evidences, Seeha’la and Lamkaa are late comers compared to Eezham, writes Professor Peter Schalk in a further note sent to TamilNet, after criticising the Indian MEA demand to drop the word Eezham as “provocative” (TamilNet 13 August). On Saturday, an interview feature in BBC Tamil Service said that Eezham has no entry in the DED and Madras Tamil Lexicon traces its origin to Pali.
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HSBC apologises for Lion flag display, hunger striker welcomes community action in UK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2012, 10:02 GMT]
Eezham Tamil activist Sivanthan who waged a hunger strike in London for 22 days during the Olympics, has welcomed the action by the local Tamil community of New Malden, Surrey, after reading the news report, which appeared in the local news paper Your Local Guardian on Sunday with the title “New Malden bank sorry for displaying ‘genocide’ flag.” The Bank had removed the offending flag on 03 August, a few hours after the local community reacted against the display and the wider attention it acquired through a headline story. After removing the Sri Lankan flag, the HSBC branch had also extended apologies to the members of the community. In the meantime, the recovering hunger striker has appealed the London based Tamil electronic media to refrain from running commercials displaying ‘Sri Lanka’ flag and businesses to stop using the same.
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Youth Activist Sivanthan concludes 22 day hunger strike

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2012, 07:27 GMT]
Gobi Sivanthan, UK based Eezham Tamil youth activist, concluded his 22 day hunger strike coinciding with the final day of the London 2012 Olympics, on Sunday. Eezham Tamils from across the UK gathered at the spot where Sivanthan was fasting at Stratford, to convey solidarity with his protest as he broke his fast at 4 PM. Sivanthan had undertaken the hunger strike with five demands, including calling for an immediate halt to the “ongoing genocidal land grabs”. After the end of the fast, Tamils took a procession to Aspen way, along the route of the closing ceremony of the Olympics, and staged a three hour demonstration calling for a free Tamil Eelam and an end to the genocide of the Eezham Tamils.
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Indian protest to Eezham provocative: Peter Schalk

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2012, 06:45 GMT]
The demand of Indian MEA to drop Eelam from the TESO conference title is provocative, gives food for thought and does not make sense, says Professor Peter Schalk in a note sent to TamilNet on Sunday. The decision comes from confusing Eelam, a Tamil toponym standing for the entire island, with Tamileelam. In usage Eelam predates Lanka. On Eelam and Cinkalam, Prof Schalk said they are of a parallel allocation and parallels never meet, but walk side by side. Meanwhile, BBC Tamil Service on Saturday cited Professor MA Nuhman saying that the connotations of the word became a problem only with the ‘secessionist movement’. He agreed with the word’s old Tamil usage meaning the entire island, but questioned its Dravidian origins. The TESO response was naïve or sly by equating Eezham/ Ilangkai with the politically invented and Tamil -rejected term Sri Lanka.
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TESO resolution calls for UN Referendum

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2012, 18:56 GMT]
Announcing the question of Eezham Tamils as a South Asian Human Rights issue, a UN referendum should be conducted among Tamils, demanded the resolution of the TESO conference convened at the YMCA grounds at Rayappettai in Chennai on Sunday. India should work at the UN to bring in a resolution facilitating Eezham Tamils to choose their political solution, the conference resolved. The resolutions of the conference demanded action on the war criminals in the island and removal of Sri Lankan military from the territories of Tamils. The resolutions also demanded immediate removal of the Sinhalese forcefully colonised in Tamil Eelam and in Tamil territories. On the treatment of refugees in India, the conference demanded the Indian government to adhere to the UN conventions.
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Tamils should protest against UN, demand referendum: May 17 Movement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2012, 04:07 GMT]
Criticizing the UN for collaborating with vested interests of world powers in denying a just political solution for the Eezham Tamils, Thirumurugan Gandhi from the May 17th Movement said that Tamils should direct their protests against the UN asking for an internationally monitored referendum to resolve the national question of the genocide affected Eezham Tamils at a demonstration held at Valluvar Kottam, Chennai on Saturday. Speaking to TamilNet, Mr. Gandhi said “The single point common demand of Tamils world over should be to demand for a referendum for Tamil Eelam,” adding that talks about rehabilitation and ‘step by step approach’ without addressing the fundamental demand for political freedom was useless, only giving legitimacy to genocidal Sri Lanka.
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Gagged Tamil leadership fumbles on telling truth

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 August 2012, 23:32 GMT]
Eezham Tamil political leaders in the island refused of visa by the New Delhi establishment to participate the TESO conference convened by the DMK chief Mr. Karunanidhi, fumble on telling the truth. Instead of letting the world know that they were unable to do justice to the democratic struggle of Eezham Tamils due to New Delhi and Colombo jointly gagging them, they surrender by simply saying that they had cancelled their participation considering circumstances, commented new generation Tamil political activists in the island. The Sinhala politician, Dr. Wikramabahu Karunaratne is honest in bringing out the circumstances to media. Three years ago, Mr. Karunanidhi in the hands of New Delhi was accused of dishonesty and betrayal. Whether the Eezham Tamil leadership is in his shoes now, the activists asked.
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Women’s conference in Tamil Nadu terms oppression of Eezham Tamils as genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 August 2012, 06:49 GMT]
Asserting that “Systematic sexual violence against Tamil women by the Sri Lankan military forces, police, paramilitaries during the war on the Tamil people constitute an act of genocide” and that “The question of systematic oppression of Tamil women is directly connected to the national question of the Tamils in the North-East of the island of Sri Lanka”, the 19th conference of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) held at Chennai on Thursday passed resolutions calling for an independent international investigation into the war crimes of the Sri Lankan state and a just political solution for the Eezham Tamils through a referendum. The conference, presided over by Magsaysay award winner, NFIW president and prominent civil rights activist Aruna Roy, further urged India and the IC to take measures to end militarization and colonization of the Tamil homeland.
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