Rajapaksa visits India amid wide-scale protests in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 2010, 11:33 GMT]
All the district capitals and major cities of Tamil Nadu state Tuesday noon reported wide-scale protests against Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to India. All the prominent leaders of political parties and movements, Vaiko, Pazha Nedumaran, Thirumavalavan, Seeman, Nallakannu, Mahendran, T. Rajendar, Thiyagu were arrested by Tamil Nadu police with thousands of other activists after they concluded their speeches and protests. The protests, including black flag demonstrations in front of Indian Central Government Institutions in Tamil Nadu, blocking railway and burning effigies of Sri Lankan President, have brought many Tamil parties and movements together in support of Eezham Tamils. All major media outlets operating from India have given coverage to the protests.
Full story >>

Rajapaksa reschedules 'victory day' parade for June 18

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 June 2010, 08:14 GMT]
Colombo's 'victory parade' postponed due to bad weather in May is re-scheduled to be held on June 18 at Colombo Galle Face Green, according to government sources in Colombo. The three armed forces, police, and Civil Defence Force are to participate in the parade to be held by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Meanwhile, Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) would mark 'Victory Day' on June 8 with Adishtana Pooja at the Viharamahadevi Open Air Theatre, said Mrs. Anoma Fonseka, wife of General (retired) Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army who led the Sri Lankan forces in the war against Tamils.
Full story >>

SLA Commander's deposition provides convincing evidence of war crimes- TAG

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 June 2010, 00:21 GMT]
Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, claimed in a press release issued Saturday, that it has obtained a 100-page long sworn affidavit from a senior commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) who has fled Sri Lanka seeking asylum for himself and his family. Noting the sensitivity of the evidence, TAG said that the affidavit was recorded by a court reporter but declined to reveal the name of the commander or the modalities used in obtaining the affidavit. The sworn testimony contains "clear and convincing evidence" that Colombo committed war crimes, and this document can be made available to "other independent organizations which can demonstrate serious intent in pursuing legal action against Colombo officials," TAG spokesperson told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka's war, a corporate war, says Arundhati Roy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 June 2010, 02:22 GMT]
The war in Sri Lanka was not just a war of the Sri Lankans against the Tamil people, according to writer-activist Arundhati Roy. "That was a corporate war. All the large Indian companies are now heading to Sri Lanka to make more money," Roy said on Friday speaking at a Chennai convention on attacks by India against tribal resistance movements, Times of India said. Roy has previously voiced her opposition openly on Sri Lanka's war against Tamils and had condemned India's silence on the humanitarian tragedy in Sri Lanka, calling the war "a racist war on Tamils."
Full story >>

Boyle: Independent Eelam will be a bulwark for India

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 June 2010, 00:02 GMT]
Professor Francis A. Boyle, an expert in international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, said that an independent state of Tamil eelam south of the Indian border will add to India's security, and therefore, India should actively intervene in the Tamil struggle and facilitate the formation of Tamil eelam. Boyle was talking to the popular Tamil Nadu Tamil biweekly magazine Junior Vikatan in an exclusive interview given to the magazine's US correspondent Prakash M Swamy early part of May.
Full story >>

Student Unions observe death anniversary of Pon. Sivakumaran in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 June 2010, 21:20 GMT]
Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) and Jaffna Technical College Student Union (JTCSU) observed the death anniversary of Pon. Sivakumaran who was the pioneer in leading the Tamil youth into armed struggle to regain the robbed rights of Tamils marking this transition and setting its basic attributes such as sacrificing one's life by consuming cyanide. Only a few students participated in the event due to fear while Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP) which vie with each other to observe the death anniversary of Pon. Sivakumaran did not show any interest in commemorating the day, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Alston: Domestic inquiries into extrajudicial killings insufficient

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 June 2010, 00:08 GMT]
United Nations special envoy, Prof. Philip Alston, stressed the need for international inquiries into serious allegations of extrajudicial executions in cases where national probes have been insufficient, citing Sri Lanka, among other nations. Mr. Alston also referred to the allegations that as many as 30,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka last year in the closing months of the conflict between Government forces and Tamil rebels and that grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law were committed. “In this case also there is a need for an independent international inquiry,” UN News Center reported, quoting Alston. Professor Francis A Boyle commented after Alston's statement that "U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon no longer has any excuse to delay appointing an International War Crimes Committee on Sri Lanka, which has been within his powers to do for the past year now."
Full story >>

NYT corrects journalistic "error" on MIA article

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 June 2010, 03:46 GMT]
New York Times (NYT) in a correction published Thursday admitted that NYT journlalist Lynn Hirschberg used quotes from an interview with Jaffna born music phenom Maya Arulpragasam (known by popular name MIA) out of context to misrepresent her views on the Tamil conflict. Hirschberg also wrote "Maya taps into her rage at the persecution of Tamils in Sri Lanka to espouse violence," pointing to Maya's lyrics "You wanna win a war?/Like P.L.O. I don’t surrender.” A media outlet commented "within the context of the song, there’s no way to interpret the lyrics this way, unless you’re coming into it with a certain agenda."
Full story >>

Unintended consequences and deeper dynamic of the IIFA in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 June 2010, 00:24 GMT]
“The decision to hold this year’s International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards in Colombo was clearly a political, even geopolitical, calculation. Whereas the previous award ceremonies … were meant to bring India ‘to the world’, this year’s event was intended instead to bring the world to Sri Lanka – or, more precisely, to the Sinhala south. It has done that, but in ways unintended. …The clumsy rush to whitewash the regime in Colombo has thus, perversely, served to focus attention on, and further highlight, Sri Lanka’s grotesque past and present,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. “[Moreover] the hosting of IIFA event in Colombo is symbolic of a much deeper dynamic: … while the Sinhala south is showcased and touts for economic inflows, the Northeast is isolated, hidden and scorched. This is not a mere legacy of protracted war, but of a long institutionalised, racial logic.”
Full story >>

Protests against controversial IIFA event draw attention on Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 June 2010, 01:15 GMT]
As protests gathered momentum in Tamil Nadu and Mumbai, with the support of South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce (SIFCC), against holding International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards weekend in Colombo, big stars from the Indian film industry have decided to avoid participation, media reports from Mumbai said. Hindustan Times reported that the event was turning out to be IIFAs most controversial, even before it has been held. The protests in South India have also brought media attention in New Delhi. The NDTV has timed a documentary, titled ‘Blood on Water,’ accommodating Tamil perspectives and an Indian doctor who was part of an Indian paramedic team present in Vavuniyaa last year, during the final phase of the war in Vanni, has spoken out on the scale of the slaughter as "massive casualties" among the civilian population.
Full story >>

STF, Police arrest 4 Tamils in Puththalam, Pottuvil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 June 2010, 15:37 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were taken into custody by the Special Task Force (STF) at Arugam Bay in Pottuvil Tuesday. The police said that the two are suspected to have links with the LTTE. The arrested were handed over to the Terrorist Investigations Unit (TID) and are being interrogated, according to the Police.
Full story >>

Samantar ruling portends legal danger to alleged foreign torturers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 June 2010, 11:20 GMT]
In an unanimous ruling at the United States Supreme Court, the judges said that a federal law that protects foreign government officials from law suits filed in the U.S. does not cover individuals such as Mohamed Ali Samantar, who was a prime minister in the 1980s in the now ousted government of Siad Biarre. A group of Somalis who allege torture and killings by Samantar's government may pursue legal action against Samantar now living in Fairfax, Virginia, the court ruled.
Full story >>

SLA hastens to destroy skeletal remains of victims killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 June 2010, 16:18 GMT]
Following the disclosure of five male corpses in a toilet pit in Ki’linochchi Monday Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has ordered all skeletal remains of persons assassinated or killed in war lying visibly in Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, an officer of a humanitarian de-mining organization who had personally seen some skeletal remains along the roads in Mullaiththeevu and the frantic efforts of SLA soldiers to burn them without any trace told TamilNet Tuesday. Colombo has sent in a team of Sinhalese officers from Vavuniyaa to survey the areas and evaluate the extent of de-mining that has to be done, with the assistance of SLA, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
Full story >>

'Freedom Flotilla symbolises new dimension of humanitarian struggle'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 June 2010, 12:48 GMT]
A project manager of the Vanni Mission ship of the Tamil diaspora has said the courage displayed by the organisers and activists of the Freedom Flotilla and the sacrifices made by the activists have brought a new dimension to the global humanitarian struggle, exclusively revealing to TamilNet how Tamil Nadu government was 'forced' to act in delivering the aid carried by the Tamil mission last year. S. Noel, the France based project manger of the Tamil diaspora project said humanitarian activists world over should not hesitate to initiate similar actions in future if the humanity is serious about changing the attitude of oppressors, who cause untold sufferings to innocent children in besieged situations of genocidal proportion, and urged Tamil diaspora to express solidarity with those affected in the tragedy.
Full story >>

UN Rights chief renews call for Sri Lanka war-crimes probe

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 May 2010, 10:41 GMT]
The United Nations human rights chief, Navaneetham Pillay Monday reiterated her call for an "independent international probe" into Sri Lanka Government's final offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the final months of the war in 2009. While noting the appointment of "post-war reconciliation commission" by Colombo, Navi Pillay said, "based on previous experience and new information, I remain convinced that such objectives [looking into alleged human rights violations, and provide justice to victims] would be better served by establishing an independent international accountability mechanism that would enjoy public confidence, both in Sri Lanka and elsewhere," AFP reported.
Full story >>

Treaty discussion, reminder for appointing Sri Lanka War Crimes panel, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 21:53 GMT]
While Secretary General Ban Ki Moon extolled the contributions of the UN's International Criminal Court (ICC) as an effective instrument to uphold peace, justice and human rights, in a Washington Post article, as UN's member nations convene Monday in Kampala to formally review the Rome Treaty, Professor Francis A. Boyle criticized Ban for delaying action on establishing accountability for Sri Lanka's "massacre of about 50,000 Tamils" and urged Ban to "immediately appoint the International War Crimes Committee for Sri Lanka that he had already promised to do several weeks ago."
Full story >>

Rajapaksa extremism cannot be changed: Lee Kuan Yew

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 17:17 GMT]
Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, in a newly released book titled "Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew,' says that Tamils have been in the island of Sri Lanka as long as the Sinhalese, and that Sri Lanka is not a happy "united" country. The present president of Sri Lanka believes he has settled the problem now that the Tamil Tigers are killed, and wants others to believe that too," and Lee observes:"I don't think they [Tamils] are going to be submissive or go away." Referring to the Sri Lankan president he said: "I have read his speeches and I knew he was a Sinhala extremist. I cannot change his mind."
Full story >>

US awaits Sri Lanka action, despite rights groups’ warning

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 12:26 GMT]
The United States will be “watching closely” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s newly established ‘reconciliation commission’ to see if it lives up to Colombo’s claims, the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake, said Friday. Shortly after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as holding “promise” the body Sri Lanka has set up to investigate war crimes – and which international human rights groups have dismissed as a sham - Mr. Blake said “they’ve now just begun this process … It’s up to them now to prove that they will be able to take on all of these responsibilities.”
Full story >>

South Indian Film Industry calls for boycott against IIFA to be held in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 04:40 GMT]
Representatives of the South Indian Film Industry (SIFI) unions called for a boycott of the International Indian Film Award (IIFA) ceremony to be held in Sri Lanka in June which they described as a country stained with the blood of innocent Tamils, in a meeting held Friday at the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce premises in Chennai, according to SIFI release Friday . A request was extended to the North Indian Film Industry fraternity to boycott the IIFA function among other resolutions passed while it was stressed that the protest is not against the function but the venue chosen to hold it, the sources added.
Full story >>

Journalists, NGOs unsettle Peiris's US visit

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 May 2010, 00:30 GMT]
While Tamil demonstrators plan to protest in front of the State Department during Sri Lanka's Minister of External Affairs Gamini Lakshman Peiris's meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton Friday, reports covering Peiris's US visit indicate an uncomfortable minister facing hostile press and questioners, and the resulting damage to the Minister's mission to block UN and US acting on the war-crimes call by several NGOs. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, International Crisis Group and Elders this week, had called for an independent international war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka. Minister Peiris has been taking pre-emptive steps, unprecedented for a visiting Minister, to avoid facing serious journalists who have been covering Sri Lanka's war and the conduct of the protagonists during the last months of the war.
Full story >>