Sri Lanka’s removal from Commonwealth urged in Canadian parliament

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2011, 05:22 GMT]
“Will the Prime Minister take steps today to urge the commonwealth to revoke Sri Lanka’s membership until it holds the perpetrators to account and they are judged in international courts? Will he support calls from the international community for action against the Sri Lankan government, asked Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis in the Canadian parliament Thursday, accusing the government for doing nothing when thousands were butchered. Supporting the line, and criticising the government for idling too long, New Democratic Party MP, Rathika Sitsabaiesan urged the government to commit to a stand with immediate effect in calling for a UN inquiry on Sri Lanka. Replying, the foreign minister of the Conservative government, John Baird said, “The Prime Minister did not sit idly by when he expressed grave concern about attending a future summit of the Commonwealth in Colombo.”
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Sri Lanka governor demolishes British heritage in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 September 2011, 21:14 GMT]
Part of a landmark heritage complex at the Old Park in Jaffna, the residency buildings of the British Government Agents, dating back to the beginnings of British rule, was demolished overnight on Wednesday at the orders of the occupying Sri Lanka governor in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasri, despite the SL Archaeology Department declaring it a heritage site, preventing any demolitions. The SL governor is already building a mansion for the occupying governors in that location at a cost of 100 million Rs, news sources in Jaffna said. Both SL President Rajapaksa and his governor give utmost importance to the symbolism in showing who are the colonial masters now, by building a mansion for the SL president at the ‘King’s House’ inside the Dutch Fort and by building a governor’s mansion at the complex of the former British Residents.
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Canada responsible for Tamils becoming refugees: NDP parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 20:38 GMT]
“The Government of Canada refused to act, refused to speak out, refused to demand an end to the atrocities. Canadians of Tamil descent came by the thousands to Ottawa to beg their country, to beg their Prime Minister to do something, to say something in the desperate hope that the slaughter of their families would end. The Prime Minister did nothing. Therefore, in fact, the government helped to create the refugees it denied in 2009 and 2010,” said New Democratic Party MP Irene Mathyssen, speaking on new refugee laws in the Canadian Parliament on last Friday. While the Conservative government of Canada was enacting a draconian law that would affect Eezham Tamils, the decision of the Conservative government in the UK for bulk deportation of Tamil asylum seekers shows orchestrated move of the Establishments across the world without solutions to a situation designed by them.
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Maldives President thinks Sunanda Deshapriya a Tamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 16:22 GMT]
Responding to SL government-backing media allegations against exiled, Sinhala media rights activist Mr Sunanda Deshapriya at Geneva, involving the name of the President of Maldives, the President’s Office of the Republic of Maldives came out with a press release on Tuesday that sounded as though the President of Maldives had thought Mr Deshapriya a Tamil.
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Regimes in Sri Lanka, Maldives, forge questionable alliance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 06:09 GMT]
Maldivian Vice-President Dr Mohammed Waheed, meeting Mahinda Rajapaksa over the weekend at the UN General Assembly Sessions, assured the latter of the support of Male to Colombo’s stand on its human rights issues, according to Maldivian media Haveeru, Tuesday. “Early this month Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed defended Sri Lanka’s position at the UN Human Rights Council sessions held in Geneva,” Haveeru said in its feature “Maldives assures support for Sri Lanka amidst UN allegations.” The undue extra efforts taken by the present regime in Male to shield Colombo against the struggle of Tamils and Muslims in the island need careful scrutiny by the people in Maldives and peoples movements across South Asia, commented a political observer in Male.
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Inaction on Sri Lanka undermines UN Convention: Canadian foreign minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 September 2011, 01:40 GMT]
Citing objection taken “on petty, procedural or process-based grounds to upholding a report that speaks about credible allegations of war crimes committed in Sri Lanka,” and other examples, the Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird speaking at the UN General assembly on Monday, said that “The greatest enemies of United Nations are not those who have publicly repudiated actions, the greatest enemies of the United Nations are those who quietly undermine its principles and, even worse, those who sit idly watching a slow decline. We cannot sit idly. Canada is a vigorous defender of freedom, democracy and the rule of law.” Canada has consistently opposed the debasement of multilateral institutions by conduct that is inconsistent with the values, he further said.
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Targeted attacks in Jaffna show war of Establishments against Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 September 2011, 23:50 GMT]
The US Asst. Secretary of State visiting the island recently, wanted the ‘Grease Devil’ attacks to be stopped as though the ‘switch’ was in his hand. But targeted attacks taking place in Jaffna after his visit, against the backdrop of dubious manoeuvrings currently engineered in the West, only show a continued and concerted war waged against Eezham Tamils by elements in the Establishments guilty of genocide trying politics of intimidation, commented political circles in Jaffna. A house of a judge, two doctors and a bank official were targeted in the attacks in Jaffna last week taking the life of one and injuring at least seven in localities swamped by occupying SL military. The student community in Jaffna would have performed much better by showing righteous resentment to the visiting US dignitary rather than allowing the EPDP to hijack the show, the political circles further said.
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UK plans bulk deportation of Eezham Tamil asylum seekers

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 September 2011, 11:44 GMT]
UK has taken a decision to deport more than 100 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka on 28 of this month. The Home Ministry of UK has taken this decision as a test case to declare Sri Lanka a country free from human rights violations, said Eezham Tamil diaspora activists protesting the deportation in a meeting convened by Tamil Lawyers Association at Ealing Amman Temple in London on Sunday. Meanwhile, just last Tuesday, delivering a judgement and stopping the deportation of an Eezham Tamil refugee in India, judge Arul Varma said in New Delhi, “Handing over a refugee to Sri Lanka where he fears persecution will make us nothing short of abettors.” The Indian judge was worrying about the lack of proper refugee laws in India, but UK has striped the rights of its courts to intervene in such matters, the UK lawyers commented.
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‘Politics of Deceit’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 September 2011, 14:51 GMT]
The TNA needs to publicly clarify its position on the Recognition of the Right of Self Determination and how it is proposing to overcome the Politics of Deceit perpetuated on the Tamils for the last 63 years, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific. As experience teaches us, any agreement can be torn unilaterally. So it is not the details or fine print that matters but that agreement is built on the base of the Recognition of the Right of Self Determination. The politics of deceit is practised universally by the oppressors, in various forms from diversionary politics to pre-emptive solutions, all aimed at blocking political progress of the peoples. What concern Eezham Tamils mostly are the pre-emptive solutions put forward by various interested parties in the prevailing atmosphere of negativism after the disaster of May 2009, he further writes.
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Tamils protest outside Rajapakse's UN address

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 September 2011, 07:13 GMT]
Nearly one thousand Tamils protested outside the United Nations Friday between 10 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. while Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse was addressing the UN's General Assembly. Protesters held placards criticizing UN's inaction on Sri Lanka, and took the 'Pongku Thamizh' oath promising to continue to non-violent struggle until Tamils' inalienable rights are recognized in a political settlement based on Tamils right to self-determination, attendees to the event said. Several protesters crossed the Canadian border to be present at the rally held amid tight security on the 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue.
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Sitrampalam proves self-determination not a diaspora fantasy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 September 2011, 05:24 GMT]
Prof SK Sitrampalam, Senior Vice President of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), writing in Thinakkural this month on the importance of Eezham Tamils asserting to their right to self-determination, disproved a distorting campaign by Colombo, New Delhi, Washington, international crisis managers and even the UN panel report trying to tell that this right is not an aspiration of the Tamils in the island but only in the diaspora. While the concerted campaigners assert to their audacity without seeking a referendum and while the Eezham Tamils in the island are constitutionally and militarily gagged to open mouth on the issue, the bold voice of Sitrampalam coming from the island was highly appreciated by many. Today, Tamils in the island are left to feel more compellingly for liberation than Tamils in the diaspora, Tamil political circles said.
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Indian court stops deportation of an Eezham Tamil

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 10:48 GMT]
A magistrate court in Delhi on Tuesday rejected the plea of the Indian government to deport an Eezham Tamil to Sri Lanka as a part of punishment. “Handing over a refugee to Sri Lanka where he fears persecution will make us nothing short of abettors,” observed Arul Varma, the judge of the Metropolitan Magistrate Court, in a case filed against Chandra Kumar, who has been living in a refugee camp at Thiruva’l’loor for 20 years but got caught recently by immigration while attempting to leave for Italy seeking better life. He was charged with cheating, forgery, impersonation and other offences. The public prosecutor on instructions from the government sought deportation as part of the order on sentence. Besides rejecting deportation, the judge released Chandra Kumar saying that the six months he had already spent in prison was enough punishment.
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Discussions in Geneva show world plunging into ‘State Anarchy’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 05:26 GMT]
The way Sri Lanka’s war crimes were viewed by many State actors at Geneva showed how these States are leading the world into anarchy and are contributing to global unrest of peoples, political observers said. In an informal discussion of State delegates and human rights groups held in Geneva on Wednesday on a draft proposal from Canada to convene an Interactive Discussion on the outcome of Sri Lanka’s LLRC in the 19th session in March 2011, Sri Lanka challenged such a procedure. Russia, China, Cuba and Pakistan opposed any demand on Sri Lanka. Malaysia and Algeria were not happy of the procedure. Thailand, Chili and Mexico were sitting on the fence. The EU, UK, USA, Poland, Denmark, Switzerland and New Zealand welcomed the proposal. India and Maldives present in the room were silent.
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US Ambassador endorsed archbishop's plea for Rajapaksa impunity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 05:20 GMT]
A WikiLeaks file dated 2 Oct 2009, classified confidential by the US Ambassador in Colombo Patricia Butenis, shows that the Sinhala Catholic Archbishop in Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith certified Rajapaksa as personally a ‘good man’ and argued in favour of not pressing him on war crimes accountability for it would make him lose grounds to much more extreme elements. The US Ambassador in her cable endorsed the view of the Archbishop on war crimes accountability. Recently the US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake came out with the same view while briefing Tamil groups in the US. It is a long-felt aspiration among the Eezham Tamil Catholics that Vatican should provide them with a separate Archdiocese, as Sinhala Archbishops sitting in Colombo never addressed their sufferings from their point of view. States in India have their own Archdioceses.
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Colombo schemes Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa with foreign funding: Ariyanethran MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 20:10 GMT]
“Traditional Tamil villages in the North and East are being renamed in Sinhala and streets are named ‘Mawathas’ in Sinhala. When we were students, we learnt that Kantha'laay Tank was built by Tamil King Ku'lak-koaddan. But, today, our children have Tamil text books supplied by the Colombo government saying that Kantha'laay had been built by King Agbo, P.Ariyanethran, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said while addressing the annual festival of Kokkaddich-choalai thaan-thoan'ri Easvarar koayil in Paduvaankarai on Saturday.
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Don’t be intimidated, Prof Neelson tells Tamil diaspora

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 05:41 GMT]
“When I see the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam or the Global Tamil Forum, you associate and put your faith in the West, I beg to differ,” said Professor John P. Neelson, while addressing Eezham Tamils rallying at Geneva on Monday. Talking on the past experience of Tamils trusting Western Establishments, Neelson said that instead of siding with the victims of State Terrorism, they [the West] sided with the perpetrators. Criminalisation of your struggle in favour of Sri Lanka was to intimidate you. Don’t be intimidated, Neelson said besides warning Tamils against trusting the ruling elites of the West too much. He emphasized on seeing more white people of Europe associated with the Eezham struggle and stressed on the point that India “remains the most important power that will determine what happens in Sri Lanka.”
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Genocide proceeds inside Geneva, within diaspora: Viraj Mendis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 September 2011, 22:31 GMT]
“We all know that the process of Genocide is continuing. In Eelam the colonization process and the enslavement process in continuing, as the power of the LTTE is not there to stop it. The process of Genocide is continuing here too. It is happening inside these buildings here in Geneva,” said Mr. Viraj Medis, a progressive Sinhala rights activist and a long-term supporter of the struggle of Eezham Tamils, while addressing the Pongku Tamil rally held in front of the UN office in Geneva on Monday. The real external architects of the genocidal war are now trying their ultimate spin. The US/British political offensive which is a crucial part the genocidal process is taking place right now within the Diaspora, cautioned Mr. Mendis of the International Human Rights Association, Bremen, Germany.
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Pongku Thamizh in Geneva reinvigorates call for Eezham Tamil Independence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 September 2011, 14:11 GMT]
More than 5,000 Eezham Tamil activists across Europe confluenced Monday in what the organizers of the event described as successful Pongku Thamizh rally in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva in Switzerland where 18th session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is taking place. “We demand the Human Rights world to denounce Tamil Genocide in the island of Sri Lanka in both word and deed,” an exiled Tamil activist with a personal experience of the genocidal war, who met the representatives of the UNHRC at its 18th Session, told TamilNet. Professor John P. Neelson, an experienced scholar on the international dimensions of the conflict in the island and Stéphane Gatignon, a mayor from France, who asserted that he had come to the rally reflecting the interests of 30,000 Tamils in his constituency, met the representatives of the Human Rights Council with the Tamil representatives.
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Sri Lanka cancels landing visa for 78 countries

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2011, 12:25 GMT]
Based on ‘security considerations’ Sri Lanka cancels landing visa facility to 78 countries. Visitors form these countries could make online applications from September 28 onwards for Colombo to process visas, Daily Mirror reported Monday, citing a SL Immigration Department official. The 78 countries are yet to be named and getting online visa prior to arrival will be mandatory from 01 January 2012. Through the process genocidal Colombo aims to differentiate, screen and deny visa to diaspora Eezham Tamils having foreign passports, said diaspora political circles adding that this is another intimidation tactic. As property rights and even visiting rights of Eezham Tamils are targeted in subtle ways, only jokers can deny that there is no structural genocide in the island, diaspora circles further said.
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India’s indirect campaign backs Sri Lanka’s military and genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2011, 09:36 GMT]
Choosing a time when Geneva is supposed to decide on investigating Sri Lanka’s war crimes, New Delhi has scheduled a large-scale joint military exercise with Sri Lanka in Trincomalee in the country of Eezham Tamils. Meanwhile, a senior leader of India’s major opposition party, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi of BJP, chose to deliver a lecture in Colombo on Saturday commemorating a Sinhala-Buddhist revivalist, and according to The Hindu, Dr. Joshi “was left with the impression that everyone wanted an early solution leading to a united Sri Lanka under one constitution.” Both the Administration and Opposition of New Delhi indirectly signal against investigating genocidal Sri Lanka’s war crimes and the ‘impression’ Joshi conveyed to The Hindu has no moral validity as Tamils are constitutionally prevented from telling their opinion on the national question, commented a Tamil politician in the island.
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