Norway ‘LLRC’ distributes blame, washes hands of victims after ‘victory’

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 November 2011, 11:11 GMT]
A report on Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka, “Pawns of Peace: Evaluation of Norwegian Peace Efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997-2009” was released in Oslo on Friday. Whether pawns of peace or ploys for genocide, Norway’s report distributed blame among all the actors. A deficiency the report finds in Norway was not its grave failure to warn the world about peace turning into genocide, but that Norway should have escaped from the scene at an earlier stage. The report admits that the peace process has only enhanced obstacles to peace now. But, even after the process facilitating internationally abetted genocide, the report subconsciously sees “victory” in the war and it now harps on “primacy of domestic politics,” to imply ways for solutions. Norway washes hands of its responsibilities to victims and the report now seeks lessons to learn for ’peacebuilding’ elsewhere.
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Media opinion urges Philippines to follow genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 November 2011, 12:15 GMT]
Philippines should follow Sri Lanka’s model in getting Chinese assistance and annihilate the Moro National Liberation Front (MILF) fighting for the nation of Muslims in Philippines, urges an Outlook column appeared in Philippine Daily Inquirer, Thursday. A similar outlook in Burma’s military government against the Karen nationalists has been pointed out in many media reports after the genocidal war against the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. The US and India, by setting the stage, by finishing a national war to genocidal end and by continue sitting on political and criminal justice, have inspired a host of rogue States to follow the genocidal path, but ironically the ill-gotten gains of the ‘inspiration’ goes to China, commented a political science academic in the Tamil diaspora.
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Karadiayanaa'ru farmers ignored in agricultural development

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 November 2011, 15:41 GMT]
The destroyed Karadiayanaa'ru Agrarian Services Centre that caters to the needs of farmers in twenty six agricultural tracts in Batticaloa district has not been repaired and has not been used for the last one year. This centre was completely destroyed in a blast that took place on 26.08.2010 in Karadiayanaa'ru Police Station located in Ea'raavoor-pattu in Chengkaladi DS division of Batticaloa district.
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Politics of the Way Ahead

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 November 2011, 20:22 GMT]
The contradictions between the Establishments and Peoples are likely to be the most antagonistic in the Indian subcontinent and hence that is the region for the next major change in the World. Our alliance with Tamil Nadu is of utmost priority in this regard. It appears that India used the Vanni War without witness as a ‘Field Trial’ for its developing wars against its own Nations without State. In due course, the Indian Establishment will become the main enemy of the region and at that time coalition of Establishments supporting the Indian Establishment will be quite different to the coalition that supported genocidal Sri Lanka. With this in perspective, we should keep our eyes open to new opportunities including progressive Sinhala forces that recognize the Right of Self Determination of the Nation of Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific.
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Britain echoes Canada’s warning to Sri Lanka on CHOGM 2013

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 October 2011, 16:40 GMT]
British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Sri Lanka on Sunday to make progress on human rights before it hosts the next Commonwealth leaders meeting in 2013 to prevent the likelihood of boycotts, AFP reports. Mr. Cameron also said he pressed President Mahinda Rajapaske during this year's summit in Australia to show that Colombo did not "have things to hide" following the end of the island’s civil war. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared last month he would not attend the CHOGM meeting in Sri Lanka “if we do not see progress in Sri Lanka in terms of human rights and … political reconciliation, democratic values and accountability.”
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Colombo pushes for 40,000 acres land grab for Sinhalese in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 October 2011, 15:48 GMT]
More than 40,000 acres of fertile lands that are located in border villages that come under the DS division of Koa'ralaippattu North, Vavu'natheevu, Ea'raavoorpattu, Chengkaladi, Koa'ralaippattu South and Paddippazhai in the Batticaloa district belonging to Tamil speaking people are under alienation to Sinhalese without the permission of the District Land Alienation Committee, the District Government Agent and Divisional Secretary and is undermining the Provincial Land Ordinance, says Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) member R. Thurairatnam. The EPC has not taken any action against the illegal encroachments Mr. Thurairatnam says in a memorandum to the Chief Minister of the EPC, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan.
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Perth Tamils join Australians protesting amidst attempts to bail out genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 October 2011, 22:57 GMT]
While Her Majesty the Queen was inaugurating the Commonwealth sessions in Perth, Australia, a few hundreds meters away, hundreds of Tamils have joined over a thousand of 20 diverse groups of the mainstream population of Perth to protest against Mahinda Rajapaksa attending the Commonwealth Sessions. The protest of the diaspora Eezham Tamils and global civil society took place while some Establishments guilty of abetting the crimes are keen in bailing out genocidal Sri Lanka by diplomatic manoeuvres in Perth and by hijacking the polity of Eezham Tamils elsewhere by simulating that everything is coming to normalcy and is under ‘control’. The outcome of Perth Meet will show to what extent the Commonwealth boasting of its origins from the ‘cradle of democracy’ could prove its effectiveness in checking States globally turning into anti-people Establishments, commented political observers.
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Ban reminds Sri Lanka -again- about accountability

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 October 2011, 01:29 GMT]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed to the Sri Lankan government importance of dealing with accountability issues in themeeting on Wednesday at United Nations Headquarters in New York with Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Special Envoy of the President of Sri Lanka on Human Rights, the UN news agency said.
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Australia facilitates timed diplomatic advantage for genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 14:59 GMT]
After creating much sensation by the Australian Prime Minister herself confirming on a federal police investigation of a war crimes case against SL president and envoy, the Attorney General of Australia on Tuesday quashed the case as it would be in “breach of domestic law and Australia’s obligations under international law,” bestowing genocidal Sri Lanka with a well-timed diplomatic victory on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet in Perth, Australia. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan delegation in Australia on Tuesday went to the extent of even denying the occurrence of any war at all in the island. “Number one, there was no war in Sri Lanka. There was brutal terrorism in Sri Lanka led by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka,” said Bandula Jayasekara of the Sri Lankan delegation to ABC.
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Rajapakse accused of war-crimes in Melbourne Court filing

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2011, 16:01 GMT]
Sri Lankan-born Australian Arunachalam Jegatheeswaran filed an indictment on war-crime charges against the Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday, declaring he was seeking justice for thousands who perished in a series of aerial bombardments and ground attacks on shelters, schools, hospitals, orphanages and community centres. Rajapakse was leading a delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Perth.
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TNA goes to courts against land registration

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2011, 15:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance on Monday filed a case against the re-registration of lands in North and East. TNA MP for Jaffna Mr. Suresh Premachandran said the re-registration, taking place in North and East, was illegal and the recent protest and political appeals have failed to give any result forcing the TNA to file Fundamental Right Case at the Supreme Court of Colombo.
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K. Manoharan et al. v. Mahinda Rajapakse: Complaint, Summons

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 23:13 GMT]
As per order issued on the 13th day of October 2011, by the United States District Judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the District Court of District of Columbia, with respect to Civil Action No. 11-00235 (CKK) Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan, et al. v. Percy Mahendra Rajapakse, the Court Summons and the Complaint are published here in full. The 29-page complaint is published as a single PDF document, and as 29 separate jpg images, one for each page.
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‘Liam Fox was Sri Lanka’s influential friend in British cabinet’ – SL paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 07:37 GMT]
While the British government was quick in the wake of former Defence Secretary Liam Fox’s resignation to assert – somewhat unconvincingly, given a plethora of UK press reports about his activities - that he had “not” been running a shadow foreign policy in relation to Sri Lanka and other countries, one at variance from his government’s, the Sri Lankan Sunday Times made clear he had been. “Sri Lanka has lost probably the only influential friend it had in the British Cabinet,” the paper said in its editorial this week. In a separate editorial, the paper also mourned the loss of another friend of Sri Lanka – Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
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Outfits serving Sri Lanka target international media investigation: Channel 4

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 October 2011, 16:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields broadcast by Channel 4 had to face an organized campaign against it originating from the Sri Lankan ministry of defence, said British Channel 4 head of news and current affairs Dorothy Byrne testifying before the Communications Committee of the House of Lords of the British Parliament Tuesday. Citing the example, she warned the committee on the plight of international media’s investigative journalism facing increasingly sophisticated and orchestrated campaigns by hired PR companies and lobbying groups. Inappropriate Sri Lanka connections of the British defence secretary Dr. Liam Fox made him to resign this month. One of his connections was with Bell Pottinger, a PR company hired by Sri Lanka until recently.
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Tamil groups urge New Zealand not to host SL President

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 October 2011, 10:30 GMT]
Tamil Action Front (TAF), an umbrella organisation of Eezham Tamil associations in New Zealand have urged the NZ government on Tuesday not to host Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa who plans a stopover in Auckland to watch Rugby Final Match and to be accorded with a dinner on Sunday on his way to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet in Perth, Australia. Accusing the NZ government for being tagged behind Australia in accepting war-crimes-accused as ambassadors, TAF in a letter to the NZ Foreign Minister urged the NZ government to support prosecution against the accused in the Australian court, independent international investigation of SL war crimes, suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and to work for the appointment of a Commissioner for Human Rights in the Commonwealth.
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Rajapakse says will defy Court Order, Shavendra hires NY law firm

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 03:13 GMT]
While Sri Lanka's media spokesperson told a website that Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapakse "will not answer and is not answerable" to charges in the complaint filed by three Tamil plaintiffs in the District Court of District Columbia, Shavendra Silva, an ex-army commander and currently Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) has hired a New York-based multi-national law firm as his defense counsel for charges of torture and extra-judicial killings filed in the District Court of Southern District of New York (SDNY). Both are civil cases.
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Sri Lanka in war crimes quagmire before CHOGM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 01:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka is sinking deeply inside a torrent of allegations of war crimes against three senior officials, including Sri Lanka's President, ten days before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is to take place in Perth, prompting Premier Julia Gillard to confirm that Australian Federal Police (AFP) is conducting investigations on Sri Lanka officials over allegations of serious war-crimes, and forcing shadow foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop to demand Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd to reveal whether the government knew about the allegations against Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe before it accepted him as Sri Lanka’s high commissioner.
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Sinhala division starts functioning in Mullaiththeevu district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 05:32 GMT]
A Sinhala administrative division, under a Sinhala Asst. Government Agent, has started functioning recently in the Mullaitheevu district. The new division with a toponym ‘Welioya,’ renaming the Tamil Ma’nal-aa’ru, will permanently wedge the demographic contiguity of the northern and eastern provinces of the country of Eezham Tamils occupied by Sri Lanka’s military. The division has been planned in such a way to demographically link the Anuradhapura district of the Sinhala North Central Province with the eastern coast at Kokku’laay, through recently established Sinhala colonies. With accelerated colonisation, soon the division may even pave way for a Sinhala electorate in the Mullaiththeevu district. Meanwhile, talking to Tamil diaspora members recently, the US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake said that he was unaware of any Sinhala colonisation of Tamil lands in the island.
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Sri Lanka's Ex-Navy diplomat accused of war-crimes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 00:02 GMT]
Citing evidence from Australian Tamil witnesses, the International Commission of Jurists, an international NGO dedicated to ensuring respect for international human rights standards through the law, has submitted a brief before the Australian Federal Police (AFP), to investigate Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia, former navy Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, for committing possible war-crimes, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald reported Sunday. Samarasinghe was the commander of the Sri Lankan navy's eastern and then northern areas, as well as naval chief of staff, during the final years of Sri Lanka's civil war.
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Sinhalese given lands in Tamil villages in East under Mahaweli Scheme: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 October 2011, 18:49 GMT]
Thirty Sinhalese families have been allocated lands under the Mahaweli Development Land Distribution Scheme in a traditional Tamil village Oamadiyaamadu located in Koa'ralaippattu North DS division in Batticaloa district. This planned land grab in Batticaloa district is being carried out on the direction of Colombo government led by SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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