Tamil prisoners in North demand Colombo to respond through NPC Chief Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2015, 10:11 GMT]
The deviating section of ITAK parliamentarians within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), led by R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran, have deployed divide and conquer tactics to deceive a section of Tamil political prisoners in the Magazine prison in Colombo to drop their hunger-strike until November 07, Tamil political prisoners in Anuradhapura prison told TamilNet Saturday morning. The political prisoners have severely criticized the move by Mr Sumanthiran and demanded all the parliamentarians of the TNA to collectively address the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister on securing their release without being treated as criminal offenders. The deceptive move by ITAK politicians comes after a meeting they had with Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the justice minister of genocidal Sri Lanka, who has been insulting the prisoners by saying there were no Tamil political prisoners in the SL prisons.
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Health of hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners worsens

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2015, 23:42 GMT]
At least 20 of around 300 Eezham Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike at 11 prisons in the island have been admitted to hospital by Friday night, according to news sources in Colombo and Jaffna. The prison authorities of genocidal Sri Lanka have refused access to the relatives and rights activists to witness the deteriorating situation of the hunger strikers in the prisons. While ITAK Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran failed to secure tangible results in his meeting with SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, the students and teachers of Jaffna University, together with the relatives of the imprisoned Tamils, have stepped up their mobilisation demanding immediate release of the political prisoners. The Commission For Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, in a statement issued on Friday, has demanded immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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Occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka silently grabs more lands in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2015, 06:56 GMT]
After securing secret deals with the major powers on the continuation of the occupying Sri Lanka Army as the lascarine force needed to maintain the artificial unity of the island coupled with the external ambitions of global domination, the new regime of the genocidal State in Colombo has encouraged its Gajaba Regiment to permanently seize more lands in the strategic enclave of Poonakari (Pooneryn), which is situated at the entrance to Jaffna Peninsula facing the Palk Bay. Similar occupation is also reported in Ki'laali, the former defence line situated on the other entry route to Jaffna through Vanni mainland. The SL military has been surveying the lands without the public noticing them along the coast of the Jaffna lagoon this week. However, landowners of Kailaayar-thoaddam in Poonakari confronted the SL military on Tuesday.
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Tamil political prisoners on hunger strike need immediate attention: Ananthy Sasitharan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 October 2015, 23:46 GMT]
Three of more than 200 Tamil political prisoners on fast have fainted on the second day of the hunger strike demanding their release. Vijayakumar Kanthasamy, a father of two, was rushed to medical treatment after he fainted at Anuradhapura prison on Tuesday. Similarly, two prisoners fainted at Magazine prison, informed sources said. “We were expecting a positive response during the Papal visit. Nothing happened. Then came the elections and the talk of good governance. Nothing improved. Now, even after co-sponsoring the resolution in Geneva, we are yet to see any sign of evolution taking place in the mind-set of the Sri Lankan State,” a prisoner on hunger-strike said. Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasistharan has condemned TNA leader R. Sampanthan for not demanding immediate release of the Tamil political prisoners.
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David envisaged human emancipation through Tamil struggle: Sachithananthan

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2015, 23:10 GMT]
“The late Gandhiyam David was an example of a very cultured Tamil, soft-spoken, strong in his views, dedicated to his land and rooted to the soil – he was definitely a person who represented Tamil Eelam,” said Ma'ravanpulavu K. Sachithananthan, a senior activist and former UN consultant, in a video interview to TamilNet in Jaffna on Monday while remembering the contributions of the veteran Gandhiyam leader of early 1970s. “Very few people in history make such determined effort to save their community and hold on to their principles. [...] Even today, many of us hold on to very strong views about our future. We may not be there. But the dream will be there. David's dream will be there. [...] His dream was human emancipation through Tamil emancipation. He was dreaming for the community, not because he loved those around him, but because he loved the humanity,” Mr Sachithananthan said.
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Veteran Eezham Tamil freedom fighter Gandhiyam David passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 October 2015, 14:06 GMT]
Solomon Arulanandan David, popularly known as Gandhiyam David, who presided the Gandhiyam Movement in Vanni in mid 70s, passed away on Sunday at the age of 91 at Ki'linochchi. He had returned to Ki'linochchi a few months ago from Tamil Nadu, where he was exiled after surviving the genocidal massacre at Welikade prison in 1983 and escaped from Batticaloa prison in the same year. David's contribution in the history of the struggle of Eezham Tamils is that at the inception of the armed struggle he had conceived the importance of a grassroot civil movement to accompany it. He remained steadfast in envisaging an independent Tamil Eelam.
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Tamil Nadu, Global Tamils should be organised in addressing US-UN failure: Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2015, 22:40 GMT]
Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law, who teaches at University of Illinois, in an interview given to the 3CR radio broadcast in Melbourne Saturday in the "Tamil manifest" program said that he sees the millions of Tamils in Tamil Naadu, its Chief Minister Jayalalitha, a unified Tamil diaspora and the young generation of Tamils as the propelling agents to force the changes necessary to bring justice to the victims of Tamil genocide by taking the Sinhala genocidaires to Court. The horrendous nature of genocide needs an international tribunal to dispense justice, and the United Nations and the U.S have failed in their obligations, Boyle said. Geopolitical compulsions have pulverized U.S. foreign policy to collude with the genocidaires, Boyle told TamilNet.
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Tamils dutybound to spearhead South Asian struggle for global justice: CPI leader

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2015, 23:47 GMT]
A senior leader of the Communist Party of India, C Mahendran, on Thursday urged Tamils living all over the world to prepare for an ever-intense and unceasing form of struggle to win the rights of Eezham Tamils in the pursuit of global justice. The Eezham Tamil leaders should assert their self-consciousness and shed the mentality that justice for the past crimes of Colombo could be achieved through attracting compassion from the international powers, who act alike in the crave for self interest. As a people living across the coastal entry points in South Asia and long affected by the injustices caused by the colonial and globalisation powers that have been entering South Asia through the Indian Ocean, the Tamils are duty-bound to spearhead the struggle for justice, he said.
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Eezham Tamils in Batticaloa protest against continued suppression by Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2015, 22:52 GMT]
Resettled Tamil villagers from around 30 villages in Poaratheevup-pattu division of Batticaloa district, have complained this week that the Colombo regime and its provincial agents in East continue to ignore their requests to contain the wild elephants that have been brought from South into the jungles adjacent to their villages in Paduvaankarai. The wild elephants have claimed the lives of 5 Eezham Tamils within the last 30 days. Despite their repeated complaints, Sirisena's regime remains deaf to calls to control the attacking elephants, the villagers told TamilNet on Wednesday, two days after staging a protest in front of the divisional secretariat at Vellaave'li. In the meantime, Eezham Tamil graduates who have been neglected by Colombo in employment have launched a hunger strike demanding permanent jobs.
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Tamils need leadership, not hypocrisy of powers: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2015, 17:29 GMT]
“United Nations, super powers, regional powers or self-seeking Tamil politicians cannot address the real grievances of Tamils. It is only Tamils under a good and dedicated leadership can move forward,” said Deputy Chief Minister of Penang state in Malaysia, Professor P. Ramasamy, a long time advocate of the rights of Eezham Tamils in an article to TamilNet on Tuesday. While the actual war saw the murder of Eelam Tamils and the most despicable sexual violence of rape unleashed among Tamil women, it was after the war that the Eelam Tamil nation was plundered of its wealth, Professor Ramasamy said. “The LTTE might not be around; however, the hopes, aspirations and the future agenda of Tamils for ultimate solution were set up by none other than its leader Veluppillai Pirapaharan,” he said.
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Resolution sponsors, voters, UNHRC become accessories to SL genocide: Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2015, 20:49 GMT]
Accusing that the sponsor states of the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka, the States that voted for the Resolution, and the UN Human Rights Council itself have “all become Accessories after the Fact to Sri Lanka’s Genocide, Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes against the Eelam Tamils,” Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at the College of Law, University of Illinois, said that the “Resolution calls for nothing more than the Genocidal Sri Lanka to set up a Domestic “Judicial” Mechanism dressed up with a transparent fig-leaf of international participation in order to cover-up and do damage control and damage limitation for the GOSL Genocide against the Eelam Tamils,” adding that “[h]istory teaches that this GOSL Domestic Mechanism will fail,” and “Genocide against Eelam Tamils will recur.”
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Occupying SL Navy reluctant to pull out from Champoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2015, 18:30 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy, which has relocated its naval school, ‘SLNS Vidura’ away from the occupied lands belonging 579 Eezham Tamil families at Champoor in Moothoor East, is reluctant to hand over the lands back to the original owners, the uprooted people of Champoor complain. “We are not going to tolerate the reluctance anymore. If the SL Navy fails to vacate within one week, we will call for protests,” a Tamil activist from Champoor told TamilNet on Friday. “All the owners of the lands have been properly identified. There should be no delay in handing back the lands. But, we are yet to see any move on the part of the SL Navy and the SL authorities in Trincomalee,” a land-owner, who did not wish to be named, told TamilNet.
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SL Military Intelligence steps up surveillance on Eezham Tamils in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2015, 20:01 GMT]
The military intelligence of genocidal Sri Lanka has stepped up surveillance on Eezham Tamils, who have been advocating independent international investigations and who have been vocal against ‘domestic’ and ‘hybrid’ investigation mechanism, despite the global focus on human rights abuses in the island. The latest harassments and threats are being reported from Ampaa'rai district in the East. Tamil people who have been talking in favour of independent international investigations have been receiving anonymous telephone calls from the operatives of the SL military intelligence in Kaarai-theevu, Thirukkoayil, Thampiluvil and Paa'ndiruppu, news sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet.
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Dubious "Sovereignty" defence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2015, 19:36 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka's leading politicians and diplomats, past and present, have used sovereignty as a defense against international "intervention" in conducting investigations of international crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. While sovereignty, defined as "supreme authority within a territory" underpins the political authority bestowed to modern nation states and provides status for the state to be member of the world comity of nations, this authority is not absolute. As a signatory to United Nations charter, article 6 and 7, ‘Sri Lanka’ has accepted to compromise on its sovereignty, related to matters of international security and commission of international crimes.
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Arrests in historical numbers in Tamil Nadu, TVK vows to fight for international investigations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2015, 23:28 GMT]
Around 100,000 supporters of Thamizhaka Vaazhvurimaik Kadchi (TVK), a prominent party led by T. Velmurugan gathered at various cities of Tamil Nadu State on Monday and staged protests blocking the Indian Railway. “The main demand of our party is independent international investigations on genocide. The USA should decide whether it is interested in listening to 65 million Tamils in the region or 15 million Sinhalese in genocidal Sri Lanka. The Indian government should listen to the unanimous resolutions passed by the TN Assembly. The UN should decide whether it is going to discard Tamils as victims in favour of a Member State that has no constitutional mandate of Eezham Tamils. We are not going to welcome the Hybrid Court that recognizes the genocidal State as a party and ignores Tamils as victims,” Mr Velmurugan told TamilNet on Tuesday.
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Chequered Swiss history of supporting Sri Lanka's crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 September 2015, 22:02 GMT]
Switzerland, besides U.S., U.K, and India, has played a key role in providing diplomatic sanctuary for Sri Lanka in international fora against censure for alleged criminal conduct against Tamils. The most strident display was when the Swiss sponsored a UN resolution calling "upon the Government of Sri Lanka to investigate and prosecute itself for war crimes and crimes against humanity," as the State killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in the final phases of 2009 war. This paved the way for the international community to whitewash a possible genocide. This practice continues to this day as Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and Swiss Peace [NGO] participate this week in a meeting organized by an NGO outfit to soften the Tamil call for international investigations on Sri Lanka genocide.
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Sumanthiran acts to weaken Tamil demand for genocide investigation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2015, 15:51 GMT]
Switzerland-based diaspora legal activist Lathan Suntharalingam on Friday questioned TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, who was addressing a well-orchestrated meeting at Bern, on how the TNA parliamentarian elected from North was planning to take forward the NPC resolution demanding international investigation on genocide, particularly at the SL Parliament. The response by Mr Sumanthiran was shocking the Tamil psyche, said Thirumurugan Gandhi of May 17 Movement from Tamil Nadu, who was also present at the meeting in Switzerland. At the meeting, Sumanthiran went on record claiming that the NPC resolution was a ‘foolish’ move. He blamed Justice C.V. Wigneswaran for having shut off the door for genocide investigation by passing that resolution against his advice. Sumanthiran was detracting on the genocide question after the instructions by outside agenda-setters, Mr Lathan said.
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Grassroot mobilisation strengthens demand for international investigations

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2015, 23:41 GMT]
Northern Provincial Councillors M.K. Shivajilingam and Ananthy Sasitharan, who were on a walk from Ki'linochchi to Jaffna rejecting domestic mechanism on war-crimes accountability and demanding international investigations on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, concluded their campaign on Monday in Jaffna. In parallel, a signature campaign was mobilising the grassroots in North and East. In the meantime, the officials at the UN complex (UNHCR, WFP), declined to receive the appeal from the NPC councillors stating that there was no appropriate officer to receive their appeal, an act that was severely criticised by the NPC councillors. The NPC councillors handed over the copies of their appeal to the Indian mission in Jaffna and to the Chief Minister of NPC Justice C.V. Wigneswaran.
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Tamils need new ways to challenge exhausted credibility of ‘Sri Lanka’ and partners

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2015, 18:56 GMT]
Historically speaking, all the successive Sri Lankan regimes have exhausted their credibility in the delivery of domestic level investigations on the crimes committed against the Tamil people. The SL judiciary has also succumbed to Sinhala chauvinist majoritarianism. Tamils cannot expect justice from the culprit itself. This is against natural justice, said political analyst S Yothilingam in an interview to TamilNet this week from Jaffna. “The international powers, backing the SL regime, are only concerned of protecting the regime, based on their geopolitical interests. Their monitoring of a domestic mechanism is also called into question,” the veteran analyst said, urging Tamils to see the difference between the real Global Community and the International Powers, and conceive new strategies and tactics to deal with the challenges being posed by the Powers and the Agent State.
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Tamils should assess main adversary: Jude Lal

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2015, 05:47 GMT]
Colombo's LLRC was used by Washington as the basis for sponsoring the three UN resolutions on Sri Lanka in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Through sponsoring resolutions in the UNHRC, the USA has thrown away UN’s own Expert Panel Report as well as its Internal Review Panel Report, which pointed towards war crimes and crimes against humanity, says Professor Jude Lal in his second part of the interview to TamilNet. “In fact, it is the Expert Panel Report that recommended an international investigation. What has happened to these reports and their recommendations,” he asks adding that the same path will be adopted through the upcoming OISL report and the proposed domestic war crime investigation. Tamil people will have to carefully assess, which of the powers that they want to accuse as the primary international protagonists of the genocide, the exiled Sinhala academic says.
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