Colombo schemes Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa with foreign funding: Ariyanethran MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 20:10 GMT]
“Traditional Tamil villages in the North and East are being renamed in Sinhala and streets are named ‘Mawathas’ in Sinhala. When we were students, we learnt that Kantha'laay Tank was built by Tamil King Ku'lak-koaddan. But, today, our children have Tamil text books supplied by the Colombo government saying that Kantha'laay had been built by King Agbo, P.Ariyanethran, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said while addressing the annual festival of Kokkaddich-choalai thaan-thoan'ri Easvarar koayil in Paduvaankarai on Saturday.
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Rajapakse has no immunity against war crimes prosecution, says Attorney

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 September 2011, 10:15 GMT]
Attorney for the three Tamil plaintiffs, who filed a civil case in the District Court of District of Columbia against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse as responsible for extra-judicial killings of plaintiffs' relatives, said Monday that he will be filing a motion in the Court that will (a) seek authority from the court to serve complaint by publication, (b) argue that sitting head of state has no immunity against war-crimes, and (c) the court has personal jurisdiction over Rajapakse. The case (Civil Action No. 11-235(CKK)) where the plaintiffs seek civil damages of $30m, was filed in January of this year. Rajapakse, Sri Lanka's diplomatic mission in the U.S., and Sri Lanka Department of Justice refused to accept the service.
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Jaffna Fort getting Dutch aid to build ’Rajapaksa’ mansion

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 September 2011, 23:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s president occupying the country of Eezham Tamils has issued orders to build a mansion of military and symbolic importance inside the Jaffna fort for the use of Sri Lanka’s president, exploiting the opportunity of the renovation of the colonial fort by the assistance of the government of The Netherlands, news sources in Jaffna said. The 100 million Rupees renovation programme of the Dutch fort, in the name of ‘tourism development’, is shared 60:40 between The Netherlands and Sri Lanka. The Dutch initiative in renovating the symbol of colonial and post-colonial oppression immediately after the genocidal war, without recognizing the territorial and heritage ownership of Eezham Tamils but facilitating the agenda of colonising Colombo, has already evoked righteous indignation among Eezham Tamils against the ‘culture and outlook’ of the contemporary Dutch.
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“We deployed DPU teams inside safe zone”: Rajapaksa confided to US envoy in May 2009

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2011, 21:43 GMT]
During the final days of the genocidal war in Vanni when the international community was repeatedly urging Colombo to cease attacks on the ‘safe zone’, the SL President and Commander-in-Chief of the SL armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa admitted to a top US envoy that his military had deployed Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) missions, also known as Deep Penetration Units (DPU) inside the so-called safe-zone to “organize people to breach the LTTE earth bunds.” Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa has ‘confidentially’ shared this military secret to Charge d'Affaires of the US embassy James R. Moore, while holding a meeting with Co-Chair Ambassadors in Colombo, barely two week before Colombo massacred thousands of civilians and claimed military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
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Mu'l'likku'lam villagers left to languish, resettlement denied

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2011, 16:47 GMT]
Amid claims by the Sri Lankan government that all displaced persons in Mannaar district have been resettled in their own villages, uprooted residents of Mu'l'likku'lam in Musali DS division of the district, who were evicted from their homes in 2007, are still refused entry to their village by the Sri Lanka Navy, which has changed their village into a military cantonment. The uprooted Tamils of Mu'l'likku'lam agitated on Tuesday demanding resettlement. More than 300 families of uprooted villagers, most of whom are fishermen and daily wage earners, have been living without proper housing and their children have been deprived of schooling, said Rev. Fr. Rasanayagam, the parish priest of the area.
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Sri Lanka aims to get more time to complete genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 16:46 GMT]
The primary aim of Sri Lanka in the UN human rights council is to buy some more time to complete its genocide of Eezham Tamils through structural means and militarisation so that the question of war crimes would eventually lose its importance and would become acceptable means of contemporary world polity. The more time is given to a virtually Sinhala military to occupy the country of Eezham Tamils with impunity, the more the world will be contributing to a dangerous paradigm. If the existing State system in the international organisations is going to repeatedly prove its incapability in delivering criminal and political justice, the global Tamils have to be prepared to undertake an international struggle in appropriate ways. 70 million global Tamils cannot be taken for ride by the Sinhala polity just because it has a State and Tamils don’t have a State.
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TNA slams Samarasinghe’s UN statement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 00:02 GMT]
Leader of the Tamil National Alliance, R Sampanthan, in a press release issued to the media today, took exception to Head of Sri Lanka delegation to the UN and Minister in Rajapakse government, Mahinda Samarasinghe’s statement which said that his “government’s approach to reconciliation has been predicated on building trust and amity between communities." TNA retorted that the experience of the Tamil people does not support this claim and that “Tamil people of the North and East continue to be subjected to violence even after the end of the war.”
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EPDP protest blocks Blake meet with Jaffna civil society, students

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 11:00 GMT]
The visiting US Assistant Secretary of State, Robert O Blake, had to cancel his appointment with civil society representatives, including student representatives of the University of Jaffna on Tuesday afternoon as EPDP paramilitary cum political party, aligned with Rajapaksa regime in Colombo, organized a protest outside the American Corner, situated on 4th cross street in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Hundreds of people were brought from EPDP-controlled islets off Jaffna with placards supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa and staged the protest outside the American Corner.
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Sri Lanka's war crimes, discussion in UN rights session imminent

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 01:49 GMT]
While Colombo appeared to be spending major diplomatic effort to prevent UN expert panel war crimes report on Sri Lanka reaching the 18th session of the UN's Human Rights Council for discussions, reports from Geneva indicate imminent submission of the Report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to the Human Rights Council, "a move that could lead to an international investigation of the conflict," VoA report said Monday.
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‘Grease devil’ episode develops into standoff at Tholpuram in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 September 2011, 13:06 GMT]
An standoff that erupted between the residents of Paa'naaveddi village and the occupying Sri Lanka Army soldiers of 51-3 brigade Saturday night was contained in the last minute from deteriorating into a blood bath by the intervention of community leaders and politicians, after the residents caught two armed SLA soldiers. While the residents of the village situated in Tholpuram in Valikaamam West were chasing two alleged ‘grease devils’, two armed SLA soldiers emerged from the place where the ‘grease devils’ vanished. The two SLA soldiers were captured by the villagers and kept inside a house bound to ropes.
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Champoor power plant, an ominous threat to public health

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 September 2011, 11:20 GMT]
The signing of the agreement in Colombo Tuesday to build a 500MW coal power plant in the pristine surroundings of Koddiyaar Bay in Trincomalee District, by India and Sri Lanka marks the development of an environmentally destructive project in the east, civil society sources in the east said. A coal power plant of the magnitude planned for Champoor could produce 3,700,0000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, which is a main cause of global warming, will present great danger to the future generations of the Eezham Tamils of the Koddiyaarpuram region, civil sources in the east said.
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Using ‘grease devils’ Colombo sets next stage of militarisation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 September 2011, 06:36 GMT]
Citing ‘grease devils,’ Sri Lanka occupying the country of Eezham Tamils sets the next stage of its militarisation by creating a ‘civil’ paramilitary that will be formally led by SL minister Mr Douglas Devananda, but actually ‘steered’ by the commander of the occupying forces, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe and the colonial governor Maj. Gen. Chandrasri. Openly accusing SL government and SL military for staging ‘grease devil’ attacks on Tamils and Muslims, the demonstrating Jaffna University students on Tuesday called upon the attention of the International Community. But the kind of International Community we see sitting on the world today will only be happy to receive more military lessons from Gotabhaya and ‘Asian Nobel’ laureate Hathurusinghe on how to use devil strategy for militarisation, commented a civil rights activist in Jaffna.
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Hi-tech Chinese ship spied on India using Colombo harbour: NDTV

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 September 2011, 10:26 GMT]
A hi-tech Chinese ship with 22 in-built laboratories, but disguised as a fishing trawler, has spied on India using Colombo harbour facilities and Sri Lankan territorial waters a few months ago, an Indian media has reported on Wednesday. The Delhi-based NDTV in its exclusive report said that by the time ship figured in the Indian radars, “it had operated already for about 22 days and was positioned off-the cost of Little Anadaman - an area which is considered sensitive and crucial in the ongoing battle for supremacy over the Indian Ocean region between India and China”. According to the report, although an Indian naval ship was deployed immediately to deal with the target, no punitive action could be taken against the Chinese ship as it was in international waters.
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Colombo brings in new legislation to replace Emergency Regulations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 September 2011, 14:22 GMT]
Having hoodwinked the international community by announcing an imminent withdrawal of the three decade-long Emergency Regulations, Colombo has decided to introduce new set of laws with immediate effect to replace the draconian law that gives sweeping powers to SL Police and military forces to arrest and detain people without any charges indefinitely. Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem has said that the new set of laws will be in place with the expiry of similar provisions under the island’s controversial emergency laws, which Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa proposed to lift by the end of August. Badly hoodwinked by the mere propaganda exercise by the genocidal Rajapaksa regime many members of the powerful international community, including the United States quickly hailed as “significant step” the move to do away with the emergency regulations.
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Delhi protest proclaims Eezham Tamil Right to Self-Determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 August 2011, 18:00 GMT]
Rajya Sabha MP Baishnab Charan Parida of Biju Janta Dal, the ruling political party of the State of Orissa, on Friday expressed his party's strong support to Tamil Right to Self-Determination at a rally organized by leftist youths of the Communist Party of India in front of the Indian Parliament. Meanwhile, R. Thirumalai, from Tamil Nadu, state secretary of the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), declared that no one has the moral right to dictate the form of political solution, and that the victims of genocide, the Tamils in the island, should alone decide their political destiny by exercising the absolute right to Self-Determination without any pre-conditions.
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Tamil Nadu Congress MP agrees with Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 August 2011, 04:22 GMT]
There is no need for any more solution as the 13th Amendment is already there, said Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in giving an interview to Headlines Today this month. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Thursday, Tamil Nadu Congress parliamentarian Dr EM Sudharshana Natchiappan agreed with Gotabhaya. “In the latest booklet released by their [Sri Lanka] Defence Ministry a humanitarian analysis is given. In that also they have accepted the Thirteenth Amendment. Why I am stressing on the Thirteenth Amendment again and again is because there is a new thinking in the policy makers that they have to go beyond the Thirteenth Amendment. This is the policy followed by all the parties including BJP after Rajiv Gandhi. What he had laid as a foreign policy for Sri Lanka is to have the Thirteenth Amendment implemented in toto, so that there is peaceful settlement,” Natchiappan said.
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Sri Lanka must remove PTA, international pressure working - Amnesty

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 August 2011, 03:50 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government must follow up its repeal of the state of emergency by removing repressive legislation such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), Amnesty International said Friday. Whilst welcoming Sri Lanka’s pledge to lift draconian emergency regulations, Amnesty said “the Sri Lankan government still uses repressive measures such as the PTA, which allows authorities to hold detainees arbitrarily and for long periods without trial, including in places that are not officially acknowledged as detention facilities.” The human rights group pointed out that “Police and security forces in Sri Lanka routinely ignore international regulations and procedures intended to protect the rights of individuals who have been arrested.”
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Colombo proposes to lift emergency but continue PTA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2011, 18:36 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday proposed to lift emergency rule in the island, but said that the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) would continue. Even though Colombo’s supporters and media campaign were showcasing it as a significant development to rehabilitation of ‘democracy’ in the island, this doesn’t make much difference to Tamils, considering the extent of militarisation and Sinhalicisation of state in the island, political observers said. Colombo’s media brief denied that the decision was due to pressure from India or other outside forces. But, analysts said that the move was calculated to save Rajapaksa regime from a number of international situations. On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister said that India would wait to take a stand on war crimes until the UN report comes to a UN forum. Meanwhile the US Asst Secretary of State plans visiting Colombo next week.
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It is not mere corruption, but militarisation of corruption in South Asia

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 05:02 GMT]
“Military forces across South Asia are flexing their commercial muscles to create ventures that rival private firms and threaten to militarise civil society,” says a New Zealand Herald article, Saturday. “In Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, defence chiefs have interests in everything from airlines to sugar factories, banks to bakeries, from power plants to ports. Investments worth billions of dollars are controlled by a military elite that is eclipsing civilian bureaucracies and, in some cases, corrupting the services,” the article by Rahul Bedi said. TamilNet commentator responded by saying that as militaries in South Asia don’t hesitate now to commit even genocide to protect corrupt states, the current anti-corruption uprising in India needs to be more inclusive and Tamil Nadu should enlighten peoples of India on the need to integrate the struggle of Eezham Tamils with it.
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TNA thinks of ‘alternative ways’

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 04:34 GMT]
“For six months we continued with talks, engaging the Government of Sri Lanka. But, there was no constructive outcome. The Tamil National Alliance cannot just keep continuing without any results, just for the sake of ‘engaging’ and ‘continuing’ the talks giving room for Sri Lanka to project an impression to the outside world that it is engaging in a constructive dialogue with Tamils,” said R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary leader of the TNA on Saturday in Jaffna, delivering a key speech at the ceremony for TNA's civic council members taking oath in Tamil. While criticising the SL state for not being constructive, Mr. Sampanthan declared for the first time that the TNA was pondering on ‘alternative ways’, which he didn't specify. But, a Vanni parliamentarian of the TNA declared that the Alliance should build up from the grassroots a powerful base of civil struggle.
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