Diaspora Muslim academic reasons out SLMC politics

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 September 2012, 00:28 GMT]
Colombo-born Dr. A.R.M. Imtiyaz, who is currently teaching in a US university, cautioned this week the SLMC in alliance with Rajapaksa that it “should be able to read political logic of the Rajapaksa regime.” The Tamil-speaking academic, while reasoning out the bargaining politics of the SLMC, and delineating on the areas of lacuna in Tamil–Muslim understanding, further cautioned the SLMC that “Any failure or any deception, would very likely trigger tensions and distrust between Tamils and Moors.” Using the term Moors in his responses to questions put forth by a TamilNet contact in North America, Dr. Imtiyaz commented on the SLMC decision that “ It is easy to win diamonds for elites and politicians in coalition politics, but what is hard is to effectively win rights and security for the masses”.
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Resettlement farce disproves claims of IOM and UN

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 September 2012, 00:04 GMT]
No one from the UN or any other international humanitarian body had come to witness the plight of the people who were forcefully relocated from IDP camp to Vattaappazhai in Mullaiththeeu and then dumped at a plot of land cleared after burning jungle at Chooripuram. The people belonging to more than 110 families languish without potable water or any basic facilities. Many of the remaining families have also been dumped at similar sites at Kaiveali and in other pockets of Puthukkuidyiruppu division. TamilNet brings out photos of Kaiveali and Chooripuram and a video clip from Chooripuram. The visuals tell the story, while the UN and IOM, who have not taken any effort to visit the site, pat their own backs and that of Colombo on fulfilling the ‘commitment’ and resettling people back in their ‘homes’ with safety and dignity.
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Muslim academics condemn Rajapaksa politics of SLMC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 September 2012, 14:31 GMT]
“As a member of the Eastern Muslim community, I am ashamed and take this opportunity to condemn the deceitful actions of the SLMC,” says Dr. Mohamed Ismail Zulfika, responding to the politics of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) that has joined the Rajapaksa government in forming the Eastern Provincial Council administration after getting the Muslim votes by campaigning against the government. This is betrayal of trust of the Muslim voters and even if projected as means of ‘bargaining politics’ it will affect the long-term goals of the war-torn society of the North and East, Zulfika who is now in the diaspora further said in a feature received by TamilNet. Meanwhile, Professor M.A. Nuhman and Dr. M.S.M. Jalaldeen, two prominent Muslim academics from the East, serving universities in the island, have also come out with similar views.
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UN and IOM deceive world on Tamil IDP resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 September 2012, 19:16 GMT]
While the Eezham Tamil survivors of the genocidal war, herded into barbed-wire camps three years ago, are now dumped against their wishes into shelters and jungle tracts forced onto them after their fertile lands and homes are grabbed by the occupying military, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) entered into a deceptive campaign in favour of the genocidal state on Tuesday that all the IDPs have now returned to their ‘homes’. "These families wanted to go home and IOM, in partnership with the UN and the humanitarian community, has helped them to do so in safety and dignity,” the IOM was cited saying on the closure of the last IDP camp, while the UN welcomed it as a “significant sign of the transition from conflict to sustainable peace” and fulfilment of the “commitment of the Government to resettling tens of thousands of people back to their homes.”
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Colombo appoints Sinhala Chief Secretary, sidelines Tamils in EPC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 September 2012, 17:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan government has appointed a Sinhalese, Mr DMS Abeygunawardena as Chief Secretary of the predominantly Tamil-speaking Eastern Province. Not a single Tamil has been appointed as minister by Colombo. Apart from the Muslim Chief Minister, three Muslims and a Sinhalese have been appointed as ministers to the newly formed EPC. Paramilitary operative Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan is the sole member of the newly elected EPC from the Batticaloa district, but he declined to accept a ministerial portfolio. Instead he has been appointed by the SL President as his ‘advisor’ for the entire Eastern Province.
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IDP camp dismantled, inmates appeal directly to International Community

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2012, 10:33 GMT]
The SL military on Sunday dismantled the Cheddiku’lam IDP camp to forcefully remove the inmates, without making any permanent arrangement for their resettlement or return to their original villages. The seriously affected group is the villagers of Keappaa-pulavu of Mullaiththeevu district, whose village is now grabbed by the occupying military. The Sinhala military is quick to announce on Sunday, “There will be no more IDPs in the country from today.” On Friday, the camp inmates, having lost all confidence in Colombo government, have directly appealed for International intervention to enable them to return to their homes. The IC that abetted the genocide and herded the survivors into barbed-wire camps, now engineering even resettlement in continued complicity with genocidal Colombo, has again gone on record, commented Tamil political activists.
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UN complicit in Mu'l'livaaykaal killings, say UN humanitarian workers

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2012, 00:44 GMT]
A report filed by an independent researcher based on eye-witness accounts from twelve United Nations humanitarian workers during the last phases of war ending in May 2009 on the policies implemented by Colombo, leading to starvation, deprivation of medical supplies, indiscriminate bombings of hospitals and schools in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1612 amounting to war-crimes and crimes against humanity, accuses the United Nation's officials' inaction, failure to speak out and willingness to acquiesce with the Rajapakse government's rights violations and state sanctioned killings of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians. Professor Boyle commented that Tamils should push for a UN independent commission similar to that which produced the hardhitting UN Rwanda report, and to avoid Srebrenica type report which was an inside UN job and hence was a coverup.
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Pongku Thamizh event in Geneva urges global Tamils to uphold struggle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 September 2012, 03:18 GMT]
Diaspora Tamils should focus their full efforts in demanding the United Nation to conduct a plebiscite among the Tamil speaking people in the Tamil homeland, told Professor Giuseppe Burgio from the University of Palermo, Italy, at the Pongku Thamizh rally held Saturday in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva in Switzerland. More than 3,500 Tamil activists across Europe gathered in Geneva to assert their resolve to uphold the struggle for the independence of the nation of Eezham Tamils. A group of mayors and lawyers from France appeared in the stage vowing their support to Eezham Tamils' Right to Self Determination and international legal efforts that sought to pave the way forward. Norwegian Red party politician Stian Nicolajsen told the gathering that his party would extend full support to Tamils' independence.
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SL military threatens IDP camp inmates to accept ‘alternative resettlement’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2012, 19:33 GMT]
Following Friday’s demonstration at Mullaiththeevu for resettlement of the people of Keappaa-pulavu back in their own village, the SL military on Saturday embarked upon threatening the villagers now in the IDP camp at Cheddiku’lam to immediately vacate it, move temporarily to a school building at Vattaappazhai and accept the SL government offer of another place for resettlement. When the people insisted that they want their village and cultivation lands back, the Sinhala military commander started shouting in his language that either willing or not, all people would be removed from the camp before Monday. Speaking to TamilNet on Saturday, the TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam blamed the International Community for the current plight of Eezham Tamils.
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Spy case filed in Tamil Nadu against Pakistani diplomat in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2012, 16:34 GMT]
Amir Zubair Siddiqui, a diplomat in the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo has been accused in a court in Tamil Nadu for his alleged spy activities in India. According to the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Tamil Nadu Police in a court in Tiruchy, the Pakistani diplomat, through his contacts Haji and Shaji living in Colombo, has employed Thamim Ansari of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu to supply sensitive information of defence installations in India. The Q Branch of Tamil Nadu police arrested Ansari on Monday, while he was going to the Tiruchy airport to catch the Colombo flight. The DVDs seized from him had defence-related visuals, news reports said.
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Economic Times insinuates Tamils to follow Colombo in ditching India

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2012, 09:38 GMT]
The editorial of Mumbai-based The Economic Times on Friday insinuates that Tamils will never get justice from India unless they too compete with Colombo in playing the card of China and Pakistan, commented a political analyst in Jaffna. The Economic Times editorial, criticising the opposition to Rajapaksa’s visit as chauvinism wrecking New Delhi’s strategy said: “India has many bones to pick with Sri Lanka, including thwarting Colombo's game of playing Pakistan and China off against India. This calls for a combination of unrelenting pressure on some subjects, such as political rights of the Tamil minority, and generous accommodation on some others.” Responding, the Jaffna analyst told TamilNet that ‘unrelenting’ here implies indefinite hoodwink and ‘generous accommodation’ accommodates annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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Tamils in UK salute Vijayaraj, condemn India's welcome of Mahinda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2012, 00:03 GMT]
Saluting the sacrifice of Salem based Tamil Nadu activist Vijayaraj, who had self-immolated protesting Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to India and who succumbed to his burns on Tuesday, Eezham Tamils in the UK conveyed their solidarity to the protesting Tamils of Tamil Nadu, condemning India's welcome of the genocide-accused SL President. Demonstrating outside the Indian High Commission in London on Friday, the protesters further urged the Indian government to recognize the genocide of the Eezham Tamils.
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SL forces attack, throw dirt at people demanding resettlement in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 September 2012, 11:22 GMT]
When people of Mullaiththeevu for the first time in last three years gathered in hundreds in front of the district secretariat on Friday, to demand resettlement in their village at Keappaa-pulavu in the district, the occupying Sinhala military deployed in large numbers responded with intimidation of taking videos of the demonstrators and by arranging a gang to throw human excretion at them. After throwing dirt the gang escaped by getting into a nearby SL police station. Later, a motorbike gang followed the vehicle in which Mr S. Kajendran was returning from the demonstration to attack it near Mu’l’liyava’lai. Another gang, in the very presence of SL military, attacked the vehicle in which Dr. Wikramabahu Karunaratne and Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam were returning via Paranthan road. A vehicle of media persons was also attacked.
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Protests intensify against Rajapaksa’s presence in India, Congress-BJP condemned

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 September 2012, 09:08 GMT]
Criticizing both the BJP led Madhya Pradesh state government and Congress Party for inviting SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa for a Buddhist event in Sanchi, MDMK leader Vaiko told reporters “Despite knowing that Rajapaksa is solely responsible for the genocide of innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh has invited him and the Centre endorsed his visit,” a PTI report on Thursday said. As Mr. Vaiko and the MDMK cadres attempted to march to Sanchi today, all were arrested and have been temporarily detained at a location nearby, sources told TamilNet. Separately, a correspondent for The Hindu reported today that “It was an ironical scenario in Bhopal as a President accused of genocide arrived here on Thursday to inaugurate a ceremony on world peace.”
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UK Judge draws attention to Sri Lanka torture reports

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 September 2012, 01:36 GMT]
UK Queen's Bench Administrative Court Judge, Mr CMG Oakton, while refusing to grant stay of removal of failed Tamil asylum seekers, ruling that the legal challenge has to be mounted on an "individual basis," said during an individual appeal that he is concerned with the recent reports released by Freedom From Torture, and by Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) on the likelihood of State sanctioned torture in Sri Lanka. The Case was filed at the Administrative Court Wednesday morning by TAG to stop the forced deportation of asylum seeking Tamils by the UK Government in a chartered flight scheduled to depart at 15:30 pm. Wednesday. However, The Independent reported that "[d]ozens of failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers were removed at the last minute from a controversial deportation flight today after a senior judge accepted there was a risk that they could be tortured on their return. "
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British MP raises issue of Tamil deportees persecution in House of Commons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2012, 21:52 GMT]
Making an emergency ‘Point of Order’ speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Gareth Thomas, Labour MP for Harrow West, raised the issue of deported Tamil asylum seekers being tortured by the Sri Lankan government. Referring to a HRW report on torture of Tamil deportees, Mr. Thomas said “The Foreign Office says they condemn torture but their counterparts in the Home Office have so far rejected the danger of torture to Tamil deportees. At the moment the Tories are saying one thing in one department and doing the reverse in another. They need to take the allegations of torture much more seriously than they are so far.” Separately, activists from the ‘No Borders’ group protested today the deportation of 60 Tamil refugees by attempting to halt the bus transporting them.
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Self-immolation protestor dies, anti-Rajapaksa agitations intensify in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2012, 01:38 GMT]
26-year old auto driver Vijayaraj from Salem in Tamil Nadu, who immolated himself on Monday early morning protesting Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to India, succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday noon. A follower of Periyaar, member of CITU, and a supporter of the Tamil Eelam cause, Vijayaraj, despite being in his death bed, insisted on talking to media at the hospital that Rajapaksa should not be allowed into India. I did it, because Tamils in unison should rise up against the Indian government that welcomes Rajapaksa even after seeing the heroic sacrifices, he was cited by Tamil media Nakkeeran. Agitations intensify in Tamil Nadu, while the BJP Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivaraj Singh Chauhan, claims that Rajapaksa’s visit to Sanchi to inaugurate a Buddhist University is ‘apolitical’.
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China strengthens its grip on Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2012, 11:17 GMT]
China has signed 16 agreements with Colombo on Monday. The agreemets range from visa exemption and marine development to economic and technology cooperation. The agreements also promised to expand investment and increase imports from the island, reported China Daily on Tuesday. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa signed the agreements with China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, who is the highest ranking official of the Chinese legislature to visit Colombo since the end of genocidal Vanni war in May 2009.
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Detention, Torture in Sri Lanka, Tamil returnees at risk, says TAG report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2012, 10:40 GMT]
Tamils Against Genocide (TAG-UK), in a report released this week, provides supporting evidence from several successful judicial opinions in the UK of Tamil asylum applicants on claims of being subjected to torture in Sri Lanka, asylum interviews by UK Border Agency, and exclusive Medico-Legal Reports, concludes that Tamil returnees to Sri Lanka face "likelihood of torture in association with initial arrest and detention" and the returnees are subjected to "brutal interrogation techniques," and called for a "comprehensive re-evaluation of the UK government’s current policy towards asylum applicants of Eezham Tamil origin.
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Resettled Tamils again face displacement due to SLA camp expansion

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 September 2012, 23:05 GMT]
Resettled villagers are again forced to leave Thoa'ni-thaadda-madu village, an agricultural village situated 90 km north of Batticaloa city in Koa'ralaippattu North DS division, are again forced to flee their village following the recent expansion of the military camp of the Sri Lanka Army in the village.
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