Queen made to view protest before dining with Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 16:19 GMT]
Queen Elizabeth II, celebrating 60 years of her coronation, had to pass through thousands of Eezham Tamil protestors before lunching with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of genocidal Sri Lanka, and other heads of states at the Marlborough House in Central London, the headquarters of the Commonwealth. “Sri Lanka protest greets royal lunch guests,” said The Independent in its headlines. The Queen passed human rights protestors on her way and she was joined by more than 70 guests, including Prime Minister David Cameron and leaders across the association of nations, as they arrived to angry scenes. The chants of the demonstrators echoed around the forecourt as guests arrived, The Independent further said. Around 8,000 protestors were seen at the Marlborough House and earlier at the Mansion House, which was hired by Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) for Commonwealth Economic Forum.
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Gagged Tamils in Jaffna symbolically protest British unitary legacy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 15:10 GMT]
Marking the day the diamond jubilee celebrating Queen of England dining with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of the genocidal State of Sri Lanka, Eezham Tamils gagged in the island chose to symbolically burn the unitary constitutions of British legacy in Ceylon, starting from 1833, and the republican constitutions of 1972 and 1978 of Sri Lanka, at a British colonial cemetery in Nalloor, the last capital of the Tamil Kingdom of Jaffna. A group of students arriving in vehicles symbolically laid the 7 unitary constitutions in the form of placards at the St. John’s cemetery in Jaffna, and after placing a wreath, burnt them on Wednesday. As attack and intimidation by the occupying military have silenced the activities of the Jaffna University Students’ Union, another set of students outside of the university carried out the protest even under the gagged circumstances, sources in Jaffna said.
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Rajapaksa for jubilee protested by 19 parties, civil groups in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 12:58 GMT]
Political parties, including mainstream parties, Communist Party of India (CPI), MDMK and VCK, and civil groups of Muslims, youth, students and women including the May 17 movement – altogether 19 organisations and two prominent individuals led a demonstration and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy British High Commission in Chennai on Wednesday, protesting the British government inviting Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the diamond jubilee celebrating 60 years of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Reminding the UK government of its international obligation to deal with a war criminal, the memorandum also urged the UK to work for the removal of Sri Lanka from the commonwealth.
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New Zealand Tamils protest Queen dining with genocidal Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2012, 10:24 GMT]
Braving biting winter and incessant rains, Eezham Tamils in New Zealand staged a demonstration on Tuesday in the capital Wellington and in the commercial capital Auckland, protesting the diamond jubilee celebrating Queen Elizabeth II dining with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the genocidal President of Sri Lanka. Synchronized with protests in London, the demonstration on the other side of the former British Empire where the Sun was never setting gained significance, as the Queen of England is also still the Head of State and Queen of New Zealand. Speaking at the demonstration, Queen’s Service Medallist in New Zealand, Mr. A Thevarajan pointed out how the colonial British administration, which for the first time introduced unitary state formation in Ceylon, ignored historical sovereignty of Tamils and denied even federalism due to its sluggishness.
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Rajapaksa's proposed speech at Economic Forum cancelled

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2012, 21:16 GMT]
The Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) cancelled the morning sessions of the Diamond Jubilee Commonwealth Economic Forum where genocide accused Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was due to speak Wednesday. On their site, the CBC stated that “After careful consideration the morning sessions of the Forum on Wednesday 6th of June have been cancelled and will not take place.” However, informed sources told TamilNet that the event was cancelled owing to fear of massive protests at the venue of Mansion House, which is near the Bank area in London, and problems of policing a demonstration of large proportions.
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Rajapaksa visit to Queen’s jubilee evokes spontaneous responses

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2012, 01:23 GMT]
Diamond Jubilee celebrating Queen of England hosting genocide-accused Sinhala President Mahinda Rajapaksa evokes spontaneous responses from the leadershipless Eezham Tamils all over the world. The responses emanating from dormant anger are actually addressed to the so-called international community and more than that, are directed against the mediocre claimants for leadership among Eezham Tamils who would not dare to take a step without getting ‘signals’ from the masters in the IC, commented a veteran Tamil political observer in London. Commenting further on the Sinhalese in London welcoming Rajapaksa, he said the Tamils have no qualms about it. The Sinhala nation has every right to seek recognition and it should articulate in every possible way. Our problem is the adamant refusal of the IC and India to see that there are two nations in the island, he said.
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Sinhala Army destroys statues of historic Saiva temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 June 2012, 23:56 GMT]
The Sinhala military occupying Batticaloa has destroyed several tradtional stone-statues at the historic Thaanthaamalai Murukan temple, situated in Paddippazhai DS division of Batticaloa district. The temple, revered by Saivaites in the East as ‘Chinna Kathirkaamam’ and the land of 25 acres around it, were declared in 1959 as a Saiva Sacred Area according to the decree entered by the Court of Law in Ceylon. The area, which was safeguarded by the Tamil Tigers for more than 12 years since 1994, has now been subjected to the intrusion of Colombo's Archaeology Department and the SL Army after the war. The villagers allege that Colombo is attempting to construct a Buddhist stupa on the land that belongs to the historic Saiva temple.
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Rajapaksa at Queen's Jubilee a blot: Queen's Award recipient

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 June 2012, 03:30 GMT]
“It will be a blot on modern world history if war criminal Mahinda Rajapakse is to be allowed to dine with Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II on the Diamond Jubilee celebration. We are proud of her regime but sad about this intrusion of a war criminal,” said Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) recipient, Mr. A. Thevarajan in New Zealand, remembering Mu’l’livaaykkal genocide in a gathering at Auckland on 19 May, which was addressed by politicians of NZ, Mr Phil Twyford, Labour MP and Ms Jan Logie Green MP. Responding, a new generation political activist in Jaffna asked how the global Tamils living all over the former empire, where the sun was never setting, are going to mark their protest in contemporary world history for the insult shown to the genocide-affected nation of Eezham Tamils by Her Majesty’s Government in the UK.
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Visiting alleged war criminals fear arrest in UK despite changes in law

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 June 2012, 01:37 GMT]
Major-General Doron Almog, a senior Israeli officer of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Southern Command cancelled his planned trip to attend a fund-raising dinner fearing arrest in Britain, Middle East Monitor reported in the June 01 edition. In December 2010, a suspect Sri Lankan war criminal, Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of the then Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London, escaped arrest by his premature departure from Britain, and in September 2011, Maj.Gen.(Retd.) Jegath Dias, deputy counsel in Germany was recalled by Colombo after being informed of imminent investigations by Swiss Government over allegations of war-crimes charges.
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Rajapaksa’s confirmed London visit elicits Tamil protests

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 June 2012, 10:46 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s scheduled visit to the British Monarch’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations next week and his planned speech at Mansion House, and the UK government’s endorsement of the genocide accused Sri Lankan president drew protests from hundreds of Eezham Tamils at a demonstration organized by the Tamil Coordinating Committee-UK (TCC-UK) at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London on Friday. “The invitation of Mr Rajapaksa who is manipulating geopolitical rivalries at the UN to evade international law flies in the face of the Commonwealth's claimed values of human rights and international law,” Sasithar Maheswaran from the TCC-UK told TamilNet.
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Tamil asylum seekers to be forcibly deported from UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2012, 02:42 GMT]
While the British Government prepares to welcome Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse to the Royal Jubilee pageant, dozens of failed Tamil asylum seekers are to be forcibly deported to Sri Lanka today, despite objections raised by human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) that there is well founded fear of torture of the returnees. Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) a US-UK based activist group released a research report Tuesday documenting details of evidence of the "risk of persecution upon return simply by virtue of the fact that they sought asylum abroad and also because of imputed political opinion regarding involvement with or sympathy for the LTTE."
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Eezham Tamils protest UK inviting Rajapaksa to Queen’s diamond jubilee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 May 2012, 10:48 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in the UK gathered outside the UK Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street on Saturday demanding withdrawal of an invitation extended to Mahinda Rajapaksa for the upcoming Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth. A petition given to the authorities by the Tamil Coordinating Committee UK (TCC-UK) which had organised the event underscored the significance of Britain recognizing the protracted nature of the genocide of the Tamils in the island stating that “given its colonial history on the island, the UK, more than any other international power, is aware that the Eelam Tamils are a nation of people with their traditional homeland in the north and east of the island. Eelam Tamils expect the UK government to recognise this truth which can go a long way in helping halt the genocide.”
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India’s Marxist Communist Party calls for withdrawal of Sri Lanka military

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2012, 03:33 GMT]
The Marxist Communist Party of India (CPI-M) in a press release on Wednesday called for immediate withdrawal of the Sri Lanka military stationed in Tamil areas of the island. In one of the five resolutions passed at the state committee meeting of the party held at Ealakiri in Tamil Nadu last Sunday, it was decided to urge the Indian government to diplomatically pressurize Sri Lanka to withdraw the troops. Observing that the SL military is intimidatingly omnipresent in the Tamil areas, the CPI-M said that it strongly condemns the stand of Mahinda Rajapaksa not to withdraw the troops. It only shows that the Sri Lanka government is not interested in resolving the Tamil question, the press release further said.
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General of genocide released in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 May 2012, 23:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s former military commander General Sarath Fonseka, who led the Sinhala military in the ‘international community’ –abetted genocidal war against the Eezham Tamils, has been released by the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime in Colombo on Monday. While the so-called international community reducing the genocide into mere war crimes, now verbally demands investigation into the ‘war crimes’, the general who led the war and later imprisoned because Rajapaksa found him a challenge, was considered by the USA as a ‘political prisoner.’ His release on that count was always demanded by the USA, the main architect of the war. Fonseka during the war declared that Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese. He also ridiculed the politicians of Tamil Nadu protesting the war as ‘jokers’.
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Independent international investigation on Sri Lanka called for at London event

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2012, 05:35 GMT]
Eezham Tamils from across the UK gathered at Trafalgar Square, London to remember the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre at a remembrance event organized by the British Tamils’ Forum, on Saturday. With participation from the main political parties of the UK, diaspora groups and activists from the homeland and Tamil Nadu, speakers at the occasion emphasised the need for an independent international investigation in the island, a probe into charges of genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state, ending the militarization and colonization of the Tamil homeland, and self-determination of the Tamil people. Many of the non-Tamil speakers also strongly stated that the UK should stop deporting the Eezham Tamil asylum seekers back to the island. The event drew a crowd of over five thousand the organizers said, citing police sources.
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Solheim joins orchestration against independence of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2012, 05:13 GMT]
Spelling out the current orchestration against the independence of Eezham Tamils, the former Norwegian minister and failed peace facilitator, Erik Solhiem said that international support is not for a new separate state in Sri Lanka, but for a multicultural, multiracial and multireligious state. Given the age-old understanding of the phrase in the context of the island, Solheim in other words was only implying support to the annihilation of the ancient nation of Eezham Tamils. Solheim, recently removed from ministerial position by his own party was invited to address a gathering in Oslo on Tuesday, by a 2012-registered Tamil organisation led by Yogarajah Balasingham alias Basharan, who was rejected by Norwegian Tamils in the diaspora elections. Sharing the stage with Solheim was visiting TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran.
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Tamil Conservatives discontent over Rajapaksa’s visit to British Monarch’s celebrations

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 May 2012, 00:30 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the commander-in-chief of the war-crimes and genocide accused SL military, has been invited to participate at the Diamond jubilee celebrations of British Monarch Queen Elizabeth. Expressing regret at the news, Arujuna Sivananthan of the British Tamils for Conservatives told TamilNet “Her Majesty has led an exemplary life binding together various communities not just in the United Kingdom but the the world. As Conservatives committed to the principle of individual liberty, we do not wish the celebration of her six decade reign tarnished by the presence of individuals alleged to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
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No unitary is our understanding: TNA says sharing stage with Indo-US diplomats

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 May 2012, 18:56 GMT]
In a political seminar organised in Jaffna by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Sritharan on Sunday, which was addressed by both the US and Indian diplomats, TNA’s nominated parliamentarian, Mathiaparanam Abraham Sumanthiran, twice received applause from the audience, when he said that the TNA was participating in the talks with the Sri Lankan government with an understanding that there could be no solution within the unitary constitution. But he was suggesting that there is ‘something’ in the 13th Amendment, even though he seemed agreeing that there is ‘nothing’ in the 13th Amendment. As the IC, especially India and the USA want a united Sri Lanka, if the TNA is not showing agreement, it would lose international backing, he said. Neither the Tamil people nor the TNA did ask for Tamil Eelam, he replied to a question.
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Colombo harasses Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2012, 10:20 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, the Catholic Bishop of Mannaar, who boldly voiced for the number of people went unaccounted in the Vanni war, is being harassed by Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) this week under instructions from the genocidal regime, informed sources in Mannaar told TamilNet. The Bishop's House has declined to comment on the situation. However, informed sources say that two Sri Lankan CIDs have been ‘visiting’ the Bishop on Tuesday after the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Mannaar Police had met the Bishop in person, informing him the decision from his superiors in Colombo. The Bishop didn't oppose the move, but civil society representatives said the move was a calculated psychological operation to silence independent civil voices in the North and East, now fully occupied by the SL military run by presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
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Canadian Muslim, Tamil and civil groups condemn religious intolerance in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2012, 00:40 GMT]
Twenty organizations from Canada, which included prominent Muslim scholarly and activists groups, Tamil organizations, and influential Canadian civil society groups, came together to condemn the religious intolerance of the Sinhala-Buddhist government in Sri Lanka, in the wake of the Dambulla mosque attack, drafting a letter to Mahinda Rajapaksa on the issue. "The Canadian Peace Alliance stands against any type of discrimination, whether against the Tamil nation or the Muslim people of Sri Lanka. Any just society must uphold the rights of all people regardless of ethnicity or religion and must pay special attention to protecting the rights of the most vulnerable groups. That is why campaign against the Tamil genocide as well as Islamaphobia in Canada and abroad," Sid Lacombe, coordinatior of the CPA, told TamilNet.
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