Real war is just beginning, get involved: Brian Senewiratne

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 March 2010, 18:47 GMT]
“Despite my involvement over many years, I was taken aback by the result,” writes Brian Senewiratne on the overwhelming mandate for Tamil Eelam in the referenda of the diaspora in several countries. The time for federation has long since gone. Until the Tamil areas are separated from the control in Colombo there will be neither peace nor prosperity in the island. If there is a genuine referendum in the Tamil areas of the island the ‘yes’ vote might be 100 percent and Delhi will have to duck for cover if such a ballot is taken among the 70 million Tamils of Tamil Nadu, he writes. According to him this major crisis of global dimensions, the genesis of which lies in British colonialism, and the global fall-out in resolving it, demands global response. The real war, not in a military sense, is just beginning. Loss of hope has achieved nothing and the ray of hope is the Tamil youth, he says.
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‘Vanni Mouse’ wins best fiction award in international film festival

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 18:01 GMT]
A Tamil short film directed by a diaspora Eezham Tamil winning the best award in an international festival is seen as a first with the short film titled ‘Vanni Mouse’, which has won the best film award in the fiction category in the nine-day 11th International Short and Independent Film Festival (ISIFF) at the Shaukat Osman auditorium of Central Public Library in Dhaka on Friday. Commenting on the award, Barrister S. J. Joseph of Eelavar Cine Arts Council, based in London told TamilNet on Monday that this was the first time an Eezham Tamil artist being awarded at an international film festival.
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TNA releases election manifesto

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2010, 12:08 GMT]
Federal solution based on shared sovereignty and right to self-determination in a contiguous north and east of Sri Lanka was the highlight of the TNA manifesto released Friday. While irreversibly committing on federal solution, the manifesto is ambiguous on the nature of the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils and their right to self determination, said Tamil political circles in their immediate responses. The term shared sovereignty is used to describe structures such as the European Union as well as federal structures with or without the right to secession. The manifesto refrains from either asserting to Tamils exercising their right to self determination to decide the national question in an internationally monitored arrangement or including the unavoidable diaspora in the political process of reaching a solution, the political circles commented further.
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Third Mu'l'livaaykkaal in the name of 'development'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 12:50 GMT]
After abetting a military defeat and subsequently blessing a political defeat, the coterie of countries propping up Sri Lankan state is now bent upon enacting a third Mu’l’livaaykkaal, by bringing in a ‘development defeat’ of Eezham Tamils through handing over development management to the Sinhalese, said a concerned group of diaspora Tamils who recently had an experience of negotiating development in a peace-facilitating European country. Funding agencies of this country, citing their present choice of a Sinhala NGO for implementation of programmes in the island, advise Diaspora Tamils seeking development funds for the North and East to work under the Sinhala NGO.
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GTF resolution inspires Tamil polity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 March 2010, 05:13 GMT]
Whereas the Tamils democratically gave the mandate for the independence of their own country Tamil Eelam by endorsing the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976, in the 1977 general elections, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) calls upon the international community, governments, leaders and the UN to conduct a UN monitored referendum in the North-East region of Sri Lanka and among the displaced Tamils living in other countries, to determine if they wish independence or to be part of a united Sri Lanka, says a crucial part of the GTF resolution passed unanimously in London last week. The GTF resolution, not voluntarily surrendering the cause of Eezham Tamils but leaving it to the democratic choice of the concerned people, should inspire polity in the name of Tamil nationalism in the island and in the diaspora, Tamil circles commented.
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Police collect information of Vanni IDPs living out of refugee camps in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2010, 18:37 GMT]
Tamil Nadu police and its intelligence unit personnel are actively engaged in collecting details of the persons internally displaced from Vanni during the later stages of war who had gone to Tamil Nadu in South India from the detention centres in Vavuniyaa, sources in Tamil Nadu said. Information is being gathered particularly of those who are living with their relatives and friends in Tamil Nadu. Involvement of Sri Lanka intelligence in this investigation is suspected as many Vanni IDPs from Vavuniyaa detention centres were abducted by SL intelligence department and forced into turning informers, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Swiss Tamils set benchmark in political organisation

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2010, 01:32 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in Switzerland will democratically elect their representatives to form Swiss Council of Eezham Tamils on March 28, announced Tamil Election Switzerland (TES) it its official website. The constitution of the council will be based on the democratic mandate given by the diaspora Tamils of Switzerland in a referendum held in January this year, the announcement further said. The democratic moves of Swiss Tamils for their political organisation have already received widespread appreciation from the Swiss media, political parties and from the members of the National Parliament. The council will follow Switzerland's federal model of cantons for its structure, said Thayatharan Deivendran, the spokesman of the election committee.
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Orchestrated efforts suspected in silencing war witnesses

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 March 2010, 05:22 GMT]
Some recent 'abductions' of Eezham Tamil refugees who have come to Tamil Nadu after the war may have connections to orchestrated efforts in silencing war crime witnesses, allege informed media circles in Chennai. Within the last one month, a special group of people, released from the detention camps of Colombo, was sent to Tamil Nadu to carry out certain specific tasks, the sources said adding that the group includes some former LTTE members of key positions and those who were employed in the former Tamil Eelam civil administration, including the police.
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China, India, compete helping Colombo’s demographic onslaught of Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 March 2010, 01:30 GMT]
While Colombo plans allotting lands for ‘retired’ Sinhala army personnel in the so-called 'resettlement' schemes of Tamil North and East of the island of Sri Lanka, China and India compete in proving who is the best facilitator of Colombo in its demographic onslaught, Eezham Tamils circles said. China has emerged as Sri Lanka’s biggest single lender in 2009, revealed Colombo sources adding that China’s top aid to the North was spent particularly on creating conducive environment for Colombo’s occupying armed forces there. India is already helping Colombo’s communication strategies disrupting Tamil demographic contiguity. In the meantime, relieving Colombo from Western pressure, Indian envoy in Colombo said Sri Lanka could export more garments to India under Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
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Denmark silences detractors of Tamil referendum

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 February 2010, 23:52 GMT]
4,147 out of an estimated 6,000 to 6,500 eligible Eezham Tamil voters in Denmark participated in the referendum conducted by a third party professional institute on Sunday and 98.2 percent of them voted yes for the formation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the contiguous north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. Denmark is the eighth country in the West where Eezham Tamils have overwhelmingly demonstrated their aspiration for independence through a series of referenda conducted among the diaspora. Even though the population of Eezham Tamils in Denmark is relatively small, since their number is known with fair accuracy, the turn out and poll results are very significant in silencing detracting campaign against the very democratic process of Tamil referendum, diaspora circles said.
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Langkaa / Ilangkai / Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 February 2010, 00:30 GMT]
The island
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Denmark goes for Tamil referendum Sunday

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2010, 20:06 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in Denmark will cast their ballot in 32 centres across the country in a referendum on the question of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. The referendum will be conducted by a professional institute TNS Gallup, specialised in sociological and public opinion research services, deploying electronic system for confidential voting, says Dr. Remmon Washington, the spokesperson of the Denmark Tamils Forum formation committee, which has initiated the poll. The total number of eligible Eezham Tamil voters in Denmark is estimated to be ranging around 6,500.
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'Eezham Tamils to act for themselves'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2010, 04:15 GMT]
Political, social and economic movements, firmly rooted in national aspiration and democratic in structure, but placed above pseudo electoral politics in the island and power machinations outside, are the need of the hour for Eezham Tamils in the homeland and in the diaspora. Specific tasks ahead of them range from infrastructural nation-formation to damage control of the on going ‘development’ onslaught. At least some core movements of Tamils need to keep collaboration, international crisis engineers and aid funds at arms length and hit the bullseye in alternative ways by independent and ingenious handling of the little resources of Tamils, writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi. The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) that is meeting in London is expected to fill the vacuum Eezham Tamils face in the island and in the diaspora, he says.
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Amuthu Pulavar, veteran of Christian Tamil literature passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 14:57 GMT]
Chevalier Dr. S. Adaikalamuthu, Tamil pundit and poet from I’lavaalai, Jaffna, known by his pseudonym Amuthup-pulavar, passed away at the age of 92 in London, Tuesday. Studied classical Tamil at the prestigious Kaaviya Paadasaalai (School of Classics), which was functioning in the Arumuga Navalar School in Jaffna, Amuthup Pulavar was one of the few surviving authors of Christian Tamil literature of the traditional genre. Born in 1918 and beginning his poetic pursuits in 1938, his most known literary work was Madu Maathaa Kaaviyam, a poetic composition on the famous Catholic pilgrim centre at Madu in Mannaar. He was knighted (Chevalier) by the Late Pope John Paul II in Rome in 2004 and in the same year was awarded honorary doctorate by the University of Jaffna.
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Myth of Sri Lankan state and the historic responsibility of Tamil leadership

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 February 2010, 18:49 GMT]
Why Tamil political leadership should never on its own surrender sovereignty, why Tamils are coerced to surrender it by all quarters concerned, what are the historical and legal bases for claims of Tamil sovereignty in the island – these are questions every Eezham Tamil, whether politician or layman has to put to serious perusal at this historic juncture, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. Just like the Sinhalese, Tamils also lost their sovereignty to the Portuguese but through a separate legal convention. The Tamils have not regained it like the Sinhalese but proved it de facto. After an unfair war, TNA or any other Eezham Tamil leadership should not make the historic blunder of again surrendering Tamil sovereignty and also proving that surrender in a ballot, he further writes.
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India to screen academics of Sri Lanka attending conferences

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 February 2010, 20:25 GMT]
Participants from Sri Lanka to conferences in India require advance security clearance from the Home Ministry of India. The restrictions are applicable to peoples of eight countries, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and to people of Pakistani origin and stateless persons, media reports said Friday, citing instructions sent to all Central Ministries, Departments and Chief Secretaries of all State Governments and Union Territories. India’s foreign policy necessitating six-weeks scrutiny for academics of one half of the countries of South Asia is shocking, political observers said adding that while governments collaborate in state terrorism at higher levels they prevent their peoples uniting against it. Some of the countries now red-flagged for academics were India’s staunch partners in abetting Sri Lanka’s war crimes and defending them at the UNHRC.
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Facilitating transnational government needs to be democratic: NCET

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2010, 15:55 GMT]
For the successful formation of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), the idea should be strongly rooted in the people and there should be consensus in the transnational diaspora on the model, says Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils (NCET) responding to the call for comments by the TGTE formation committee on a model proposed by its advisory panel. A grass root based transnational government having federal units and inter-locking mechanism is a better democratic option than a monolithic and high-powered structure conceived in the proposed model, the NCET said, adding that sectarianism and singly led formation process diminish chances of consensus on the model. In a public videoconference recently held in Oslo, Mr V. Rudrakumaran admitted that he alone was the Formation Committee of the TGTE, the observations of the NCET said.
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TNA shouldn't fail representing hearts of Tamils: Fr. Emmanuel

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2010, 13:26 GMT]
At a time when Colombo and its collaborators try their best to erase out the national aspirations of Tamils, the Tamil National Alliance has the noble responsibility to maintain its unity in being the true voice and champions of Tamil aspirations, says Rev. Prof. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel, the former Vicar General of the Catholic diocese of Jaffna in an open letter addressed to TNA leaders Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam. Eezham Tamils have been consistent in expressing their genuine desire for independence ever since 1976 and even now it remains the underlying goal despite constitutional sanction on speaking it out openly in the island of Sri Lanka. But, their kith and kin in the free diaspora have voiced on their behalf, overwhelmingly re-confirming that desire as the standing-aspiration, he said in the appeal.
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Three-pronged Sinhala colonization in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 February 2010, 04:52 GMT]
Ko’ndachchi-Chilaavaththu’rai, Thalaimannaar Pier and Madu in Mannaar district are being particularly targeted for Sinhala-Buddhist colonies by the colonial government in Colombo, news reports from Mannaar said Sunday. Everyday, colonizers with shelter-making facilities and boats are brought through Vilpattu from Puththa’lam district and from Medawachchiya of Anuradhapura district, news sources said adding that even this Sinhalicisation is carefully planned for Buddhicisation of the Tamil Muslim and Christian dominated district. The long-term impact of the process is sure to be felt in coastal Tamil Nadu and in Tamil relationship across the seas, whatever equation imperial India may have with Colombo, Tamil circles said. Meanwhile, diplomats and agencies of Establishments who try to con Tamils need serious education on what is genocide – the Sri Lankan model, diaspora circles commented.
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Canadian Tamil film wins award in Norway festival

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 February 2010, 03:43 GMT]
Canadian Tamil film '1999,' which made its debut in Vancouver International film Festival in October last year, won the “Midnight Sun” award Wednesday at the Tamil Film Festival-2010 held at the Filmenshus Kino in Oslo, Norway, cinematic enthusiasts attending the event said. 1999 was directed by Lenin M. Sivam, an Eezham Tamil of Canada and a software professional. The festival also showcased some of the short films that were made by Eezham Tamils. A short film called “Vanni Mouse” by director Tamiliam Subas from Norway received the best short film award.
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