The Hindu misquotes TamilNet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 September 2011, 03:20 GMT]
A feature by J. Balaji in The Hindu on Thursday misquoted TamilNet reporting a statement of the Sikh political party Dal Khalsa as that of TamilNet’s argument. “When India asks Pakistan to commute the death sentence of Sarabjit Singh, a convict in the Lahore jail, to life sentence on “humanitarian grounds,” why should it be keen on hanging the three Tamils convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, asks Tamilnet, a website known for its pro-LTTE views,” the feature appeared in The Hindu said. TamilNet on 12 August reported the argument as stated by Dal Khalsa’s general secretary Dr. Manjinder Singh and spokesperson Kanwar Pal singh. The feature was titled ”Sikhs condemn New Delhi’s stand against nations in India.”
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Sri Lanka conspires for a Sinhala division in Mullaiththeevu district

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 September 2011, 02:22 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka’s Colonial Governor in the North Maj. Gen. Chandrasri and presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa are all set to create a new Sinhala division in the Ma’nal Aa’ru part of the Mullaiththeevu district that will be delinking the contiguity of Northern and Eastern Provinces. India that has committed to the integration of the northern and eastern provinces but now collaborates with Colombo in the genocide and structural genocide of Eezham Tamils is particularly answerable to the situation, demand Tamil politicians in the island. Last week, while talking to diaspora Tamil groups, the US Asst Secretary of State feigned ignorance on the intense Sinhala colonisation that is taking place in the country of Eezham Tamils.
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World Bank aid diverted to Sinhala colonisation in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 September 2011, 00:06 GMT]
The assistance given by the World Bank to North East Services Improvement Project (NELSIP) to improve road development in recently resettled areas in the Puthukudiyiruppu and Karaithu’raippattu divisions of the Mullaiththeevu district is diverted to a recently initiated Sinhala colony called Sampath Nuwara in the district at the instructions of presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa and SL colonial governor of the north Maj. Gen. Chandrasri. SL minister Rishad Baddiudeen is also involved in the racket. The World Bank has allotted the funds to help the war-torn people and while the local administration has almost finalised the programme of road development, all of a sudden the fund amounting to 15 million has been diverted to an intrusive Sinhala colony Sampath Nuwara initiated in the Ma’nal Aa’ru area now Sinhalicised as Weli-oya in the district.
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Indian railway aid helps Colombo to wedge North and East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 September 2011, 00:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka occupying the country of Eezham Tamils proposes to lay a railway link between Mannaar and Trincomelee through Medawaachchiya in the Sinhala territory of North Central Province, while the shortest link between the two cities is through Vavuniyaa in the north. As the railway line between Thalai Mannaar and Medawaachchiya has been restored with Indian assistance, Colombo now plans to extend it to Trincomalee through the North Central Province. The link of Thalai Mannaar in the Palk Bay and Trincomalee in the Indian Ocean is strategically important to Indian interests as Trincomalee could be directly linked through land and a short ferry with the Indian railway network coming up to Raameaswaram. But the link planned through Sinhala territory aims to structurally wedge the Tamil country and Sinhalicise the Tamil port cities.
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Grease devils, occupying forces, intensify terror in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 September 2011, 23:00 GMT]
The ‘grease devil’ terror, staged by Sri Lanka’s occupying forces in the country of Eezham Tamils in a systematic way, clearly shows signs of a master-minded genocide emboldened by international inaction, said political and civil activists in Jaffna, commenting on terror unleashed on Wednesday and Thursday in the Jaffna University locality and in the Kurunakar suburb of Jaffna city. The events followed the model of the attack on residents of the Naavaan-thu’rai suburb of Jaffna a few days ago. “You cannot protect your women form us, is the psychological challenge posed by the ‘grease devil’ terror to provoke Tamils and then to attack them like they attack dogs to establish the point that militarisation and genocide have to be submissively accepted, because the occupying forces are sure that the powers that ignore genocide are on their side,” commented a politician in Jaffna.
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Welimuva-pothana

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 September 2011, 05:00 GMT]
The grassland/ scrub of white-faced monkeys
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Tamil Nadu Assembly, Madras High Court, make precedent in Indian democracy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 August 2011, 19:34 GMT]
In an extraordinary development in Indian constitutional history, the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Tuesday unanimously and strongly resolved that the President of India, respecting the sentiments of the people and political parties of Tamil Nadu, should reconsider the clemency appeals of the three Tamils fixed for execution and convert their death sentences into life imprisonment. In the meantime, acting on a legal move by Vaiko and N. Chandrasekaran, The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the executions for 8 weeks giving time for the government to file counter affidavit. The President of India earlier rejected the clemency appeals of Perarivalan of Tamil Nadu and two Eezham Tamils, Murugan and Shanthan condemned to death in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and their hangings were fixed to September 09.
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Tamil Nadu tensed over execution of death sentences

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 August 2011, 06:41 GMT]
The people of Tamil Nadu and Tamils all over the world are agitated over the Indian government decision to execute death sentences to three Tamils after keeping them in prison for more than 20 years. Perarivalan of Tamil Nadu, and Eezham Tamils Murugan and Shanthan arrested in 1991 on charges of involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi were sentenced to death in 1998. Their clemency petition was rejected last month and the hangings are fixed to September 9. The politics behind the case is 30 years of India-involved war in the island of Sri Lanka that turned into genocide of Eezham Tamils. While the Indian foreign minister in the parliament last week sought to respond to the war crimes investigations without endangering India’s relations with Sri Lanka, the hangings are sure to endanger New Delhi’s relations with Tamils, political observers said.
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Blake will draw blank if truth not recognized

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 August 2011, 01:57 GMT]
The US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake visits Sri Lanka this week, following Indian Foreign Minister Krishna telling the Parliament that what bothered the island for the last three decades was nothing but ‘terrorism’ and the solution confines to material ‘rehabilitation’ of Tamils and political ‘build up’ of the defunct 13th Amendment. Blake spoke to diaspora groups in the US before his visit. The engagement of India and the USA with the island is meaningless if it is not based on the recognition of the truth that the issue in the island is a national question, the war waged there had chronic genocidal intentions on the part of the Sri Lankan State and the military that now occupies the country of Eezham Tamils is in actuality not a State military of international norms but a genocidal Sinhala military, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Delhi protest proclaims Eezham Tamil Right to Self-Determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 August 2011, 18:00 GMT]
Rajya Sabha MP Baishnab Charan Parida of Biju Janta Dal, the ruling political party of the State of Orissa, on Friday expressed his party's strong support to Tamil Right to Self-Determination at a rally organized by leftist youths of the Communist Party of India in front of the Indian Parliament. Meanwhile, R. Thirumalai, from Tamil Nadu, state secretary of the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), declared that no one has the moral right to dictate the form of political solution, and that the victims of genocide, the Tamils in the island, should alone decide their political destiny by exercising the absolute right to Self-Determination without any pre-conditions.
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Tamil Nadu Congress MP agrees with Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 August 2011, 04:22 GMT]
There is no need for any more solution as the 13th Amendment is already there, said Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in giving an interview to Headlines Today this month. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Thursday, Tamil Nadu Congress parliamentarian Dr EM Sudharshana Natchiappan agreed with Gotabhaya. “In the latest booklet released by their [Sri Lanka] Defence Ministry a humanitarian analysis is given. In that also they have accepted the Thirteenth Amendment. Why I am stressing on the Thirteenth Amendment again and again is because there is a new thinking in the policy makers that they have to go beyond the Thirteenth Amendment. This is the policy followed by all the parties including BJP after Rajiv Gandhi. What he had laid as a foreign policy for Sri Lanka is to have the Thirteenth Amendment implemented in toto, so that there is peaceful settlement,” Natchiappan said.
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Krishna beats around the bush in Lok Sabha

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 August 2011, 03:51 GMT]
Finding India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna beating around the bush on the question of Eezham Tamils, during discussions in the Lok Sabha on Friday, DMK’s TR Baalu who tabled the topic for discussion raised three specific questions: 1. Whether the Government of India have any relevant information for a time-bound political solution as per the 13th Amendment, and that too in the context of a statement by the [SL] Defence Secretary, who has said, “LTTE has gone, political solution not necessary? 2. Whether the Government of India will come forward to plead before the United Nations Organization for an enquiry by an international agency pertaining to the large-scale human rights violation? 3. Is it not your responsibility to expose the perpetrators before the world as war criminals for having committed human rights violations? But, Krishna had no direct answers.
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Colombo proposes to lift emergency but continue PTA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2011, 18:36 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday proposed to lift emergency rule in the island, but said that the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) would continue. Even though Colombo’s supporters and media campaign were showcasing it as a significant development to rehabilitation of ‘democracy’ in the island, this doesn’t make much difference to Tamils, considering the extent of militarisation and Sinhalicisation of state in the island, political observers said. Colombo’s media brief denied that the decision was due to pressure from India or other outside forces. But, analysts said that the move was calculated to save Rajapaksa regime from a number of international situations. On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister said that India would wait to take a stand on war crimes until the UN report comes to a UN forum. Meanwhile the US Asst Secretary of State plans visiting Colombo next week.
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All Ceylon Tamil Congress calls upon India, IC to ensure fundamentals

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 19:55 GMT]
“We are of the firm opinion that the recognition of the Tamil People in the island of Sri Lanka as a distinct Nation entitled to the Right to Self-Determination is necessary to ensure the continued existence and protection of the Tamils as a People. Only then would any negotiations with the Sri Lankan State be meaningful,” said All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) in a separate statement as no consensus was reached in the meeting of Eezham Tamil political parties in New Delhi Tuesday and Wednesday. “We therefore call upon India and the International Community to recognize these rightful claims made by the Tamil Nation and emphasis such as the basis for any solution within one country,” the statement further said.
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New Delhi meet of Tamil parties ends without consensus

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 18:55 GMT]
The two-days meet of Eezham Tamil political parties held in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday on the initiative of Congress Party parliamentarian Sudharshana Natchiappan ended without consensus, participants told TamilNet. The main issue was that those who didn’t want to disappoint the Congress agenda didn’t want to resolve on the status of Eezham Tamils as a nation and that the nation has the right to self determination in the island. Instead, some of them wanted to concentrate on measures of protection and on accepting whatever that is given. The TNA wanted to avoid specific wordings and demands on issues of fundamental nature in order to stage-manage a New Delhi sponsored consensus of Tamil political parties.
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SLA destroys traces of Pirapaharan's house in VVT

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2011, 00:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Mondah night deployed a large number of troops at Aaladi in Valveddiththu'rai, surrounding the already demolished house, where Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Lieration Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was born and raised. The soldiers who came in armoured vehicles were engaged throughout the night in destroying the remaining structures of the already demolished house.
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Taking Eezham Tamils for another ride: New Delhi’s preparations

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 10:33 GMT]
While a Congress politician EM Sudarshana Natchiappan convenes a meeting in New Delhi ‘inviting’ nearly 10 Tamil political parties from the island to commit to a hoodwink solution suiting New Delhi’s agenda, Dr. V. Suryanarayan, harping on Sampanthan’s repeated statements that the TNA does not subscribe to a separate state of Tamil Eelam, wrote on Saturday that the ‘minorities’ should now come together against marginalisation. Responding, an Eezham Tamil politician in the island said that with the kind of militarisation having a genocidal Army of exclusive ethnicity and with the kind of grooming it gets from the powers, the ‘minorities’ coming together alone is not going to help in anyway. Rather, the making of Tamil Eelam only could guarantee safety and self-esteem of all, including the up-country Tamils, whether inside or outside of Tamil Eelam.
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It is not mere corruption, but militarisation of corruption in South Asia

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 05:02 GMT]
“Military forces across South Asia are flexing their commercial muscles to create ventures that rival private firms and threaten to militarise civil society,” says a New Zealand Herald article, Saturday. “In Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, defence chiefs have interests in everything from airlines to sugar factories, banks to bakeries, from power plants to ports. Investments worth billions of dollars are controlled by a military elite that is eclipsing civilian bureaucracies and, in some cases, corrupting the services,” the article by Rahul Bedi said. TamilNet commentator responded by saying that as militaries in South Asia don’t hesitate now to commit even genocide to protect corrupt states, the current anti-corruption uprising in India needs to be more inclusive and Tamil Nadu should enlighten peoples of India on the need to integrate the struggle of Eezham Tamils with it.
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TNA thinks of ‘alternative ways’

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 04:34 GMT]
“For six months we continued with talks, engaging the Government of Sri Lanka. But, there was no constructive outcome. The Tamil National Alliance cannot just keep continuing without any results, just for the sake of ‘engaging’ and ‘continuing’ the talks giving room for Sri Lanka to project an impression to the outside world that it is engaging in a constructive dialogue with Tamils,” said R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary leader of the TNA on Saturday in Jaffna, delivering a key speech at the ceremony for TNA's civic council members taking oath in Tamil. While criticising the SL state for not being constructive, Mr. Sampanthan declared for the first time that the TNA was pondering on ‘alternative ways’, which he didn't specify. But, a Vanni parliamentarian of the TNA declared that the Alliance should build up from the grassroots a powerful base of civil struggle.
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Context demands Tamil-Muslim solidarity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2011, 13:15 GMT]
“Muslims may not be a community distinct from the Tamils, but they have some special problems pertaining to their security. […] Tamil support for Muslim security and peace could open a new chapter in Tamil-Muslim relations,” says an article by A.R.M. Imtiyaz and S.R.H. Hoole, appeared in Routledge-published July issue of Journal of South Asian studies. “We argue that the Tamils’ northern leadership has been insensitive to Muslims,” the article said. Reviewing the article, a Tamil academic in the island commented that while the argument is partly true, the East was always influencing and imposing decisions in this regard. Inspiring initiatives should therefore originate from the East, evolving from its experiences, and all Tamils should support it. Based on secular and inclusive attributes of Tamil identity, progressive forces in Tamil Nadu also have a role to play, the reviewer said.
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