The onus is on the diaspora

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 00:22 GMT]
The military outcome of the crisis has emboldened a bunch of people to chant that ‘we told you so’ and now collaborate with thy oppressors. This group is not new to Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet's political commentator in Colombo. "Ever since universal suffrage was introduced in the ethnically divided island in 1931, there was always a section willing to play stooges to the majority. Yet the struggle of the freedom seekers also remained alive. If the fighters are accused of not achieving any, so are the collaborators and the ‘we told you so’ groups," the commentator writes. "The onus of facing the situation now entirely rests on the Eezham Tamil diaspora, as it is the only entity that has the freedom of expression. Response to Karunanidhi has to come from the diaspora through reaffirming the Vaddukkoaddai resolution," he further writes.
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Animosity of Tamils will not help India’s maritime ambitions

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 16:46 GMT]
Dominating the Indian Ocean, the shores of which are shared by 47 countries, has been the long-cherished dream of India ever since its independence. As China entering into a competition, the Indian Ocean is fast emerging as the new hotspot of Sino-Indian rivalry, says an article appeared Wednesday in Pakistan Observer. India’s security concerns as well as its needs to assert as a world power may be justifiable, but it is making a grave blunder in earning the animosity of Tamils, which is not going to help in its maritime ambitions, says TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Galle / Kaali

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 03:03 GMT]
The rocks
The rocky place
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Ploy of Buddhism in nullifying Tamil nationalism

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 01:53 GMT]
The North and East of the island of Sri Lanka should first be subjected to ‘archaeological’ investigation to prove the land’s Sinhala ownership, before its ‘resettlement’, is the demand of the National Front of Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka, reported Virakesari a few days ago. If archaeology has any say, the entire island having microlithic sites of prehistoric period has to be resettled by Veddas, and if enough Veddas are not found in the island they could still be found among their next of kin outside, ranging from the Austro-Asiatic tribes of the South Asian subcontinent to aborigines of Borneo, Papua New Guinea and Australia, commented an academic of ethnic studies in the island.
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Colombo’s concentration camps compared with Hitler’s in NZ parliament

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 08:36 GMT]
Urging New Zealand government to pay immediate attention to the horrific situation faced by the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, Keith Locke, New Zealand’s member of parliament, speaking Tuesday last week on the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, compared the concentration camps run by Colombo with that of Hitler. Blaming the international community for its failure, the MP urged the NZ government to demand full access to the camps, fair treatment to the combatants and non-combatants of the LTTE and release of people to get back to their homes. He also reminded not to forget attending the underlying cause of the conflict – the Tamil aspirations that arose from the time of independence, well before the Tamil Tigers were ever thought of.
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ICJ Vice Chairman urges governments of free people to protect Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 00:16 GMT]
“I call upon the Australian government to stand up and complain bitterly until something is done”, said Justice John Dowd, Vice President of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), stressing his point that it is “to not speak up but yell” in order to save the Tamils in the concentration camps. He was addressing a forum in Federal Parliament, Canberra, discussing Australia's role on human rights in Sri Lanka Wednesday last week. Sceptical of United Nations and questioning why Commonwealth is aloof, the jurist mooted an idea for governments such as Australia to hold hearings against those who violated the Genocide Convention, warning what is happening in the island is ethnic cleansing of an ancient people in their homeland.
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Task of legal war vested with diaspora

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 22:32 GMT]
When serious action is needed against Colombo and the Sri Lankan state in order to uphold human dignity and world civilisation, some world leaders pathetically believe in not penalising Colombo and in a ‘carrot and stick’ approach. The Eezham Tamils have seen enough of carrots always going to Colombo and stick always coming to them, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. "The legal system and procedural governments of the liberal democracies have enough space to indict these leaders and governments in their own countries to remind them of their crime and responsibilities. Unless humanitarian organizations and the Eezham Tamil diaspora take up this matter seriously, these leaders will not only go on conning but will also dare to abet Colombo’s agenda of structural genocide."
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Lessons to be learnt about China

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 20:04 GMT]
The ‘Himalayan’ blunder committed by Nehru and Krishna Menon in their China policy has been re-enacted by their descendants in the Indian Establishment nearly half a century later. A couple of years ago, writing on the crisis in the island of Sri Lanka, a TamilNet article quoted a saying in Tamil about the dog that allowed the squirrel to climb the tree (A’nil ea’ravidda naay). Now it seems that it isn’t just one but many in that situation, after allowing the ethnic question in the island to be hijacked by China. India has to realise at least now that a united Sri Lanka, that too an enforced one, at the cost of its natural ally – and at the cost of ruining its leverage with it – is no guarantee to prevent China’s ambitions in South Asia.
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Proposals for roof without foundation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 June 2009, 00:12 GMT]
M S Swaminathan is a great name in the world of agriculture. He is a pride for all Tamils all over the world. The 83-year-old veteran who is now a member of Indian parliament in the Rajya Sabha and is running his own research foundation in agricultural sciences has recently come out with a ‘roadmap’ for India to develop agriculture, livestock and fisheries in the North to facilitate the twin mantras ‘resettlement and rehabilitation’. Mahinda Rajapaksa pricked his enthusiasm by saying ‘de-mining first’. Dr. Swaminathan should have first spoken to Eezham Tamils, the intended recipients. With all due respect to him they would have told him that if the guilty Indian Establishment he represents could concede their self-determination, they would be able to resettle and rehabilitate by themselves without giving the trouble to anyone.
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Sri Lanka, unfulfilled challenge to peace mediators

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 June 2009, 17:43 GMT]
A group of well-known people in the peace making profession are gathering for an annual meet in recluse in Oslo between Tuesday and Thursday to reflect on current mediation processes, according to a news release from Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Geneva. The participants include some of those from Norway whose peace process has led Eezham Tamils to face genocide and incarceration in internment camps. The highlights of this year’s meet for discussion are Islamic groups, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea, which means Washington is the peace vantage and war and peace are over for them in the island of Sri Lanka. What they should prioritize for discussion is ways of salvaging the very credibility of mediation itself that is lost in the island. Mediation without justice to people is only contribution to conflict.
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Breaking the deadlock through transnational governance

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 June 2009, 09:52 GMT]
The need of the time now is the metamorphosis of the existing infrastructure into a democratic and inclusive transnational government of Eezham Tamils to strengthen the diaspora socially, economically and culturally; to achieve the goal of independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in the home country and to meet the international challenges internationally. Many of our readers confuse between the concepts of transnational government and government in exile. While the government in exile is a conventional phenomenon that needs a host country, the transnational government is a novel experiment that has no precedence.
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'Our hands are tainted with blood,' admits Suryanarayan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 07:36 GMT]
“Our hands are tainted with blood”, admitted professor V. Suryanarayan, a member of India’s national security advisory panel during Vanni war, in a conference organised by International Tamil Centre, Chennai, on Monday. He also implied the connivance of the Tamil Nadu government when he said in this context that “during the last two three years New Delhi will not take any action without consulting Tamil Nadu”. However, Tamil circles found his criticism of India’s Sri Lanka policy leading nowhere to justice but was harping only on Indian aid conditioning Sri Lanka so that “a Tamil can be a Tamil but at the same time a loyal Sri Lankan”.
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'Geopolitical excuse for esoteric diplomacy'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 02:18 GMT]
“India views with unease the Chinese inroads into Sri Lanka as part of a broad move into the Indian Ocean. But India faces acute dilemma. Its capacity to cajole the diehard Sinhalese nationalists to compromise with the Tamils for an enduring settlement suffers so long as China extends such no-holds-barred political backing to the Colombo establishment”, writes M K Bhadrakumar, a former Indian diplomat in an article that appeared in Deccan Herald, 25 May. “The naval presence in Sri Lanka becomes invaluable for China if the planned canal across the Isthmus of Kra in Thailand materialises connecting Indian Ocean with China’s Pacific coast, a project that could dramatically shift the balance of power in Asia in China’s favour. Therefore, no matter what it takes, the West and China (with Russian backing) will compete for gaining the upper hand in Sri Lanka”, he further says.
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Historic task awaits all freedom fighters

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 June 2009, 20:59 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil nation doesn’t need words to explain the current situation because everybody feels it in the core of their heart. This is a situation that warrants no one else but only the members of the nation to rise up to the occasion. Unprecedented catastrophe awaits unprecedented response from the nation.
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MIA's endorsement expected to boost Jananayagam's MEP prospects

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 June 2009, 02:07 GMT]
Oscar and Grammy award nominee, Eezham born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam (MIA), offered a free song, and has initiated an online campaign appealing to British voters to elect Ms Janani (Jan) Jananayagam, a Jaffna born young banking professional, as a Member of European Parliament (MEP) in the June 4th elections. "Vote to Jan could save 300,000 [Tamil] people [in Sri Lanka]," MIA's entry in Myspace, and a linked twitter message said. Ms. Jananayagam is contesting the London electoral region as an independent candidate, and MIA's support is expected to convince young British fans to exercise their votes, a campaign organizer said.
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Setting the hands of the clock right

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 20:04 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils and their political representatives have no obligation to anyone now, to engage in the deliberations of fruitless alternatives. But the world has an obligation now to tell the Tamils whether its opposition is to what it has perceived as 'terrorism' or to Tamil nationalism. The Eezham Tamil mainstream has a historic responsibility on its shoulders to be performed right now. If the oppression to their nationalism is trans-national, the Eezham Tamils have to respond by forming a trans-national government fully responsible to them based on democracy, to negotiate with the world and to look after their own affairs.
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Demonstrate the politics of war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 20:32 GMT]
The Tamil national cause cannot afford to be deviated and exploited by others through questions such as whether the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan is alive or not or whether the armed struggle has to be continued or not. The Tamil diaspora, the only section of the Eezham Tamil community that has the freedom and means to come out with authentic voice, has a historic responsibility in telling the world what they aspire for in no uncertain terms, and in seeing their righteous cause not hijacked by their enemies.
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'Timely action from Tamil Nadu expected'

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 11:02 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils are ever grateful to all political parties of Tamil Nadu that upheld their cause, irrespective of electoral politics and its outcome determined by national and state level equations. The Eezham Tamils are especially grateful to the two major political parties, the DMK and the AIDMK, for firmly voicing for the creation of Tamil Eelam as the ultimate solution to the crisis. It is now time that a resolution to this effect has to be enacted in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly to inspire course of action in India, international community and in the Tamil diaspora, said veteran liberation fighter Ki Pi Aravinthan in France, Sunday. This is a possible and affordable action Tamil Nadu can undertake immediately to guarantee the future of Eezham Tamils and to respect the thousands laying down their life upholding Tamil dignity, he said.
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IC, India shouldn’t impose 'inclusion' on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2009, 18:23 GMT]
The International Community and India will be contributing to a grave disaster by imposing or enforcing ‘inclusive polity’ on an unwilling Sri Lankan state said the TamilNet political commentator in Colombo Thursday adding that secession is the best option for the island. He cited the events of this week when passions of ‘exclusiveness’ were decisively demonstrated in its goriest possible way by the Sri Lankan state in celebrating ‘victory,’ completely insensitive to the killing, massacres and incarceration of hundreds of thousands of Tamils who are supposed to be its citizens. He also cited the way a dead human being was desecrated whether the identity of the person was another one of the dupe of Colombo or not.
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IC has to check militarization and Sinhalicisation of rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 06:59 GMT]
Serious concerns are raised in the Tamil diaspora circles at the IC’s attempts to pour in rehabilitation aid through Colombo’s rehabilitation structure, which is completely militarized and Sinhalicised. This will only serve Colombo’s next agenda of ‘structural genocide’ of Tamils, the diaspora circles said. While rehabilitation is the immediate need, there will be an irredeemable danger if the IC is embarked upon it without recognition of Tamil status in the island and without involving Tamil hands, they said. Ideally, the IC should at least now exercise its authority to completely take over the camps and do the work with the direction and participation of the people for whom they give the aid, they further said.
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