Need of the hour is consensus and collective leadership

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 May 2010, 18:07 GMT]
Colombo has embarked upon a vicious campaign as though a new power centre of Eezham Tamils had already set in after the elections for the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) last Sunday. Some elements among the diaspora who have been conceiving the TGTE as a ‘high power centre’ also seem to think that it is now ready for their occupation with some manipulations here and there. Both commit serious damages to the cause of Eezham Tamils, the former overtly and the latter covertly.
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Justice Minister of war crimes government appointed as UN human rights official

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 May 2010, 17:01 GMT]
Ivan Simonovic, Justice Minister of Crotia, who served a government of human rights violations and ethnic cleansing and whose ministry failed to cooperate satisfactorily with UN war crimes investigations, has been appointed as top human rights official to liaise with the Geneva office of Navi Pillai and the UN headquarters. He was selected among more than a hundred applicants in a secret process, after becoming one of the four in the shortlist prepared by Navi Pillai, reports Foreign Policy, Thursday. A couple of months ago Ban Ki-moon decided to make Palitha Kohonna, the war crimes accused ambassador of Colombo and Vijay Nambiar, the UN chief of staff, accused of shady deals during the Vanni War as panel members to advice him on the war crimes in Sri Lanka.
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Eezham Tamils in Denmark elect 3 representatives for TGTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 May 2010, 17:41 GMT]
3102 Eezham Tamils in Denmark took part in the elections for Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, electing three representatives: Remmon Washington polling 2738 votes, Sukenthini Nimalanathan polling 2626 votes and Maheswaran Ponnampalam polling 2556 votes.
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Candidates of common opinion elected in Norway for TGTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 May 2010, 01:09 GMT]
3511 Eezham Tamil voters turned out to elect 3 representatives for Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Sunday in a technically well conducted election across 17 centers in Norway. Dr. Sivakanesan Thillaiampalam (2449 votes), Jeyasri Balasubramaniam (2342) and Murali Sivanandan (2321) representing a common shade of opinion on how the TGTE should be structured, were elected.
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MIA spreads genocide message through video, album

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 May 2010, 17:15 GMT]
In a recent release of a video called "Born Free" containing "a hyper-violent mini-film" as a pre-release to her forthcoming album to be released on June 29, Oscar and Grammy award nominee, Eezham born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam (MIA) expresses her sympathy for genocide victims with the powerful imagery of her video. YouTube yanked her video Tuesday, triggering an avalanche of publicity, including a detailed narrative of MIA's album that appeared in the weekend edition of the Washington Post, MTV, and Los Angeles Times among other media outlets.
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Diaspora goes to poll to structure Transnational Government

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 May 2010, 05:19 GMT]
‘An internationally elected government to respond to an internationally abetted genocide and deprivation of sovereignty of a nation’ is the spirit behind the Eezham Tamil diaspora going for polls across the world Sunday to elect members to structure the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE). Polls take place Sunday with full effect in Canada, UK, Norway, Switzerland and France. In France, elections take place simultaneously for the TGTE as well as for the Country Council, Maison du Tamil Eelam France. Two former parliamentarians M.K. Eezhaventhan and S. Jeyananthamoorthy from the North and East of Tamil Eelam respectively, are contesting in Canada and in UK. Informed circles say that Mr. Jeyananthamoorthy is ideologically leading like-minded group of candidates in countries across the world.
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UPFA plans 'War Heroes Week' in mid May

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 2010, 16:42 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government is to celebrate War Hero’s Week (Ranaviru Sathiya) from May 12 to May 18, said the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse during an informal talk with media persons at Elephant Pass in the north Friday while he was on a visit to Jaffna. Media sources in Colombo commented that the model being implemented by the Sri Lankan military and the UPFA, ignoring the advice from its global partners who advocate 'reconciliation' and 'development' as 'post-conflict' paradigm in the island.
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TamilNet releases Sivaram video footage on Tamil journalism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 2010, 10:55 GMT]
TamilNet has released video clippings from a lecture conducted by late D. Sivaram (Taraki), the well-known political and military analyst and senior editor of TamilNet, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of his assassination, at a remembrance event held in Oslo by the Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils on Thursday.
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International war corporatism continues silencing Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2010, 12:30 GMT]
Diaspora Tamils wonder at the arrests, crackdowns and deportations of Eezham Tamil activists taking place in an orchestrated way in the West as well as in the East by governments conniving with the war-crimes-accused defence establishment of Colombo. The targets are those who are firm in their views on the national cause and those who work with the grass root. The timing is diaspora organising its polity. Whether the orchestration is pre-emption, expecting resurgence of the struggle as the IC knows no solutions to the crisis in the island, or whether it foretells something unpleasant that is going to be imposed on Tamils through a deal of Colombo with New Delhi and the West, are questions asked in the diaspora. How the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam is going to be structured and how Tamil Nadu is going to play its role gains new significance in the unfolding situation.
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Indian corporate to build high-rise buildings, apartments, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 10:12 GMT]
An Indian engineering corporate L&T Infrastructure Development Projects is keen in road projects, high-rise buildings, apartments and hotels and power generation in Jaffna, and is looking for trade partners according to Vishal Mathur, its Chief Operating Officer. The high-rise buildings and apartments are for whom, wonder the people of Jaffna. According to Mathur, tourism would boom in Jaffna and there would be a demand for them.
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Diaspora paramount in voicing aspirations of Tamils: The Age

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 10:04 GMT]
Amid Sri Lankas' legal constitution that classifies Tamils as “Second class citizens” and “continuing problems of ethnic marginalisation and persecution”, the Tamil Diaspora feel they “need to press for and represent Tamil claims, because Tamils in Sri Lanka have lost their voice, and have no representation following the defeat of the LTTE” said an article in the Age on Friday, a day after results of Australia’s historic Tamil referendum were announced showing “unanimous support for the proposal for an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka”.
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All in the game in the name of archaeology

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2010, 03:19 GMT]
The Sinhala academics cannot compare their plight of opposing totalitarian social fascist system of governance with that of the Tamils who bear the entire brunt of fascism amounting to genocide set against them by an ethnic-powered state mechanism, says a Tamil academic in Jaffna responding to professor Sudharshan Seneviratne defending the archaeology agenda of Colombo. Genuine dialogue on culture, co-existence etc and partnership in opposing fascism come only when sovereignty snatched away from Tamils is restored as a priority and when there is parity. However patronising in overtures, individuals and organisations serving Colombo cannot escape from being ultimately colonial. Academics who are always on the side of enjoying the comforts of state power in the island are yet to explore ways of contributing to their ideals better by coming out of the system they identify as oppressive.
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Lawyers, media persons attacked in Chennai High Court premises

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 April 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Condemning the inaction by Tamil Nadu government for not executing Chennai High Court orders to dismiss Tamil Nadu police officers who had attacked lawyers in the high court in an earlier instance, Tamil Nadu lawyers launched a black flag protest when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi arrived in Chennai High Court Sunday to unveil the statue of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, sources in Chennai said. Chief Minister’s Dravida Munetra Kazhakam (DMK) men who arrived at the scene brutally attacked the protesting lawyers and media persons besides smashing their video cameras and equipments, the protesting lawyers alleged.
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Liberation Tigers’ Ira’naimadu runway used exclusively by Indian Air Force

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 April 2010, 21:10 GMT]
The runway constructed by Liberation Tigers of Tami Eezham (LTTE) in Ira’naimadu in Ki’linochchi has been handed over to the exclusive use of Indian Air Force (IAF), according to sources close to a section of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel who have expressed their disapproval of this course of action by Sri Lanka government. The area in which this runway is located in Ira’naimadu falls within the High Security Zone (HSZ) and is strictly out of bounds for low ranking SLA personnel, the sources added. IAF officers fly routinely between Tamil Nadu and Ira’naimadu besides training SLAF personnel at I’ra’naimadu, the sources said.
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99.4 percent vote for Tamil Eelam in Australia

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 April 2010, 05:07 GMT]
99.4 percent of those who cast votes in the Tamil referendum across Australia last weekend said “yes” to the formation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the contiguous north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. The results were announced Thursday at a press conference held at NSW State Parliament in front of state and national media. 8,272 out of the registered, numbering around 10,000, participated in the polls. The number of eligible Eezham Tamil voters in Australia is estimated to be around 15,000. The formation of Tamil Eelam was assented by 8,154. The negative votes were 51 and 67 were invalid.
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Senior LTTE cadres held to be produced in High Court for trial

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 16:43 GMT]
Around 2,000 senior cadres and combatants of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham (LTTE) held in custody are to be soon produced in High Court for trial with the sole aim to find them guilty of war crimes and subject them to long-term imprisonment, according to legal circles in Colombo. Meanwhile, persons of an organization called Home for Human Rights (HHR) are already at work to exploit the above situation and fleece money from Tamil Diaspora in foreign countries and International Humanitarian Organizations on the pretext of arranging lawyers to appear on behalf of the Tigers during the said trial, human rights activist lawyers in Colombo said.
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USA wishes joint celebrations, engages in joint operations

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 15:20 GMT]
The US embassy in Colombo carried a statement Monday from Secretary Clinton, greeting ‘Sinhala and Tamil New Year,’ and saying that this year, for the first time in decades, Sri Lankans from all parts of the island can celebrate together in a peaceful and united country. This is an opportunity for ‘Sri Lankans’ living inside and outside of the country to renew bonds and the US is eager to support them in this journey, the statement said. On Friday the US embassy announced joint operations of the US and Sri Lankan militaries in ‘humanitarian exercises’ in Trincomalee. “The joint exercise helped members from our two militaries to exchange best practices on how to address complex humanitarian challenges,” said Defence Attache of the US embassy.
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Media owner's election participation invokes reactions in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 09:06 GMT]
Criticism has emerged from various quarters in Jaffna, including the senior activists of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), against the way the TNA conducted its campaign promoting industrialist Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, a senior UNP member and the general manger of two leading newspapers, Jaffna based Uthayan and Colombo based Chudaro'li. Meanwhile, the chief editor of the newspaper has complained to his management that he is considering to renounce his editorship as criticisms are levelled against him for his stand in the last parliamentary election.
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Global consortium of Tamil corporates needed to address Eezham question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2010, 09:35 GMT]
In the present world of corporate colonialism, the national question and the liberation of Eezham Tamils have to be negotiated with the international community in the language of the corporates. But the Tamil corporates, existing in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora across the world, are yet to be awakened to the prospects of forming a consortium among them to deal with the situation in a concerted way for the mutual benefit of them and the Eezham Tamils. The potentiality of the Tamil corporate world and what it could achieve by coming together globally are still not realised due to lack of initiatives and lack of insight in Tamil political thinking.
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Diaspora and Tamil Nadu have to play their cards

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2010, 10:51 GMT]
Diaspora's self-organised structures of experimental democracy polarising political will, is inspiration as well as fallback to the polity of the silenced people at home, writes TamilNet political commentator adding that diaspora Tamils have an immense responsibility in seeing right people come forward and right people elected to these bodies. On current geopolitical perspectives he writes: “The West and intelligence circles in India invariably acknowledge that much significance is attached to the role Tamil Nadu could play in the given scenario. But how effectively the people of Tamil Nadu are going to play their strength to achieve a decisive solution overpowering deceptions of detractors is the concern of Eezham Tamils.”
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