UK Defence Minister accuses Labour regime for Sri Lanka’s war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 July 2011, 13:14 GMT]
The visiting British Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox, while delivering the Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture in Colombo on Saturday, accused the previous Labour government of UK for neglecting a political process he had worked out in 1997 and thus contributing to war in the island. “The incoming Labour government showed little interest in Sri Lanka or in taking forward the political process we had begun. The agreement subsequently withered on the vine, to my very great sadness, and the cycle of violence brought more misery, more violence and more death,” he said. Dr. Fox, viewed as one of the ‘friends’ the Rajapaksa regime is harping on, pinned his hopes now on the LLRC report expected in November and made only a passing remark on the need of an inclusive political solution.
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Sampanthan proposes SL minister dismisses

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 July 2011, 02:55 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan, moving an adjournment motion in Sri Lanka’s parliament Thursday and speaking on it said that his objective was “to develop a just settlement within an undivided Sri Lanka,” adding that this approach has been widely endorsed by the international community, notably India. The co-chairs have clearly stated and have clearly ruled out any form of division of this country, he further said. On the same day in the SL parliament, SL minister Nimal Sripala de Silva said that his government would not offer a federal solution to Tamils. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka occupying the Tamil country is intensifying its war against the TNA as more and more of the TNA candidates and supporters are attacked and intimidated in civic elections in the north, news sources in Jaffna said.
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Norway’s deafening silence on Sri Lanka is wrong: Aftenposten

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 July 2011, 00:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka is in the middle of a power-game played by India, China and the USA. Norway’s interests in Sri Lanka are insignificantly few. There is no reason why Norway should maintain a deafening silence over the need for an international tribunal on the war crimes that took place in the island. The silence is due to a line of thinking in the Norwegian foreign ministry and especially in Mr Erik Solheim, that it would ‘normalise’ Norway’s relationship with Colombo. Rather than being in the driver’s seat in demonstrating how concerned Norway is about human rights, it is wrong on the part of Norway’s government to stand along the roadside with a mouth full of dust, says Kristoffer Rønneberg, a foreign affairs journalist of the prominent newspaper Aftenposten, in a commentary column published on Tuesday.
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Civil administration becomes Sinhalese in the country of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 July 2011, 06:45 GMT]
140 Sinhala Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) officers who have come initially for a ‘training’ programme to Jaffna on Monday are eventually expected to be appointed to Sinhalicise the civil service of the country of Eezham Tamils. By not recruiting Tamils and Muslims to the civil service for many years now, Colombo has schemed a situation so that only the Sinhalese could be appointed to key administrative positions even in the north and east. The process that has started in the east has now come to Vanni and Jaffna. While artfully delaying urgently needed action for the national question by reducing it into an endless debate on war crimes that has no reference to genocide, the powers that abet state in Sri Lanka commit more crimes of a permanent nature in allowing Colombo on its structural genocide and extermination of Tamil nation, political circles in Jaffna said.
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War and aftermath raise questions over Tamil strategy of engagement with powers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 July 2011, 05:41 GMT]
LTTE and Tamil nationalism were perceived by some powers as getting into the way of their geo-strategic interests. Therefore ‘peace and stability’ means stabilising the Sinhalese regime by crushing LTTE’s military challenge – that was done – and bringing Tamil nationalism to heel, which process is ongoing both in Sri Lanka and among the Tamil diaspora, writes Dr. S. Sathananthan in an article he sent to TamilNet. The power-abetted genocidal war and the aftermath facilitations given to Colombo to complete the genocide into a structural one, raise serious questions among Tamils over the nature of their strategic engagement with some powers.
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Tamil cricket protest draws support at Lords

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 July 2011, 05:49 GMT]
A day long protest on Sunday by scores of Tamil youth activists and supporters outside the Lord’s cricket ground where Sri Lanka played England in the third one-day-international drew support from spectators and the general public, including delegates attending the ordination of five new rabbis at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in front of which the noisy but peaceful demonstration took place. Inside the world famous cricket ground, a youth who raced across the pitch with a Tamil Eelam flag in the middle of the match drew cheers when he dodged the grasps of pursuing stewards, and a round of applause when he was finally caught in front of the MCC pavillion.
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Genocidal Colombo eyes on 3-5 year old children in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 July 2011, 14:43 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka’s military governor in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Chandrasri now schemes to bring more than 1000 nursery schools functioning in Jaffna under the control of genocidal Colombo. As a preliminary step, the SL governor wants to ‘aid’ and affiliate the schools to the military-controlled administration of the Northern Provincial Council. Amidst controversies, a meeting for pre-school teachers was convened on Saturday at Veerasingham Hall in Jaffna. SL Presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa attending the meeting announced payment of salaries to pre-school teachers and eventual absorption of them into ‘government’ service. While the deeper intention of the agenda was eyeing on tender children of Eezham Tamils, the presidential sibling also chose the occasion to attack the TNA to campaign for the civic elections scheduled this month.
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SL government manipulates IDP statistics in East: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 July 2011, 12:45 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Batticaloa district, P. Selvarajah has blamed the Mahinda Rajapaksa government for false records of resettlement in the province. While many thousands people still find themselves displaced, their names are marked as resettled in the SL government records. “For example, people who displaced from Kagnchi-kudichchaa'ru and Thangka-vealaayutha-puram during the war are still living as displaced in Thampiluvil and Vinaayakapuram in Thirukkoayil in Ampaa'rai. But, their names are registered as resettled in the government list,” Mr. Selvarajah MP told media on Saturday. Rajapaksa government has also seized thousands of acres of lands in Ampaa'rai for the families of the Sinhala military personnel, he further accused.
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India adopts a genocidal Army to achieve military integration

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 July 2011, 05:45 GMT]
As Sri Lanka ‘successfully’ ended its war with the LTTE and India is still fighting ‘insurgents’ in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast states, India will share more experience with the SL military particularly in tackling ‘insurgency’ and will give more training to SL military in building capacity, particularly in adventure sports and English language, media reports from India said on the first ‘Army-to-Army’ talks between the two militaries that took place from Wednesday to Friday. Both sides have agreed to send their instructors to each other’s military academies. India has allotted more seats for training SL military personnel in its military academies. As Sinhala and Tamil politics are hostile, economic and military integration are the ways for political integration of the entire island with India, is the line of thinking in New Delhi, political observers said.
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Eezham Tamil coastal areas intensively encroached by Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 July 2011, 05:34 GMT]
Occupying genocidal Sri Lanka opens up the coastal areas of Eezham Tamils for intensive ‘invasion’ of Sinhala fishermen and ‘tourism’ fat cats of the south. The latest target is the eastern coast of Mullaiththeevu and Jaffna districts as well as the islands off Jaffna, news sources from Jaffna said. While thousands of Sinhala fishermen, officially permitted by Colombo, encroach the eastern coast of the northern province to deprive local fishermen, the islands off Jaffna are encroached in the guise of tourism. A large block of prime land at Chaaddi in the Kayts Island, which earlier had the memorials of the LTTE fighters who laid down their lives for the independence of Tamils, is now claimed by John Keells, a Sinhala hotel corporate based in Colombo.
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‘India can do without a highly militarised autocratic neighbour in the south’ - paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 04:39 GMT]
India’s political engagement and generous financial assistance are not bringing about an equitable post-war settlement Sri Lanka, and instead an authoritarian government and a dangerously powerful military have emerged, The Pioneer newspaper warned Wednesday in an editorial titled 'Necessary Intervention' . “[India’s] policies and initiatives have fallen tragically short [but] South Block has been reluctant to … press for more reforms and greater accountability. This must change. … Rajapaksa should be asked to keep his promises,” India’s oldest English language newspaper argued.
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Tamil protestors abused at Sri Lanka-England cricket match

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 03:47 GMT]
Three dozen Tamils protesting Tuesday evening outside the Oval ground where Sri Lanka played England in the first one day international were taunted by some Sinhala spectators who gloated over the mass killings of Tamil civilians in 2009, until police intervened and moved them on. Earlier in the day a small group of Tamil activists setting up for the protest were spat and sworn at by other Sinhala spectators. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan parliamentarian Sanath Jayasuriya, recalled to his country’s team at the behest of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was dismissed for two runs off four balls, as England won the match.
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Sexual violence against Eezham Tamils carried out with genocidal intentions

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 June 2011, 14:25 GMT]
Sexual violence committed against Eezham Tamils by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Vanni is on the increase in the recent months, reliable civil sources told TamilNet. Personnel in military vehicles and auto rickshaws parked under the trees away from the roadside in Ki'linochchi commit sexual violence to girls forcefully brought from the resettled villages and sometimes even to girls passing by on the road, by grabbing them into the vehicles. The wails of the victims are commonly heard, but people are unable to do anything about it, the civil sources further said. The violence is systematically committed with genocidal mentality and soon by replacing the civil administration of Ki'linochchi entirely by the Sinhalese, all protests will be silenced, the sources added.
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‘Sinhala only’ implemented in Trinco DDC, DAC meetings

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 14:00 GMT]
Conducting meetings of the Trincomalee District Coordinating Committee (DDC) and District Agricultural Committee (DAC) and other important conferences by the Trincomalee District Secretariat solely in Sinhala language has caused dissatisfaction among the Tamil speaking members. Two third of the population in Trincomalee district is Tamil speaking people. Most of the Rajapaksa appointed heads of government departments and officials attending the conferences are Sinhalese. Earlier, there was a translator to translate Sinhala and Tamil at meetings and conferences held in Trincomalee district secretariat to facilitate members of all communities to understand the proceedings. Now the translator is removed by the Trincomalee district secretariat.
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Eezham question gets entangled in competition of SCO and NATO

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2011, 23:38 GMT]
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), if materialises as alliance of China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Central Asian countries accounting for more than half of humanity, it will make NATO (and Pax Americana) simply irrelevant to an entire landmass. NATO may face a piquant situation when it aspires to claim that it is the only global security organization available in the 21st century, writes M K Bhadrakumar, formerly of the Indian Foreign Service, in Asia Times Saturday. With the SCO summit last week admitting Sri Lanka as a ‘dialogue partner,’ the organization brings itself to the waters of the Indian Ocean, Bhadrakumar pointed out. The question of Eezham Tamils would be muffled by both of them competing for control of the island as a whole, unless awareness of people counters them.
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Buddhist Stupa, Sinhala colony in the making in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2011, 12:27 GMT]
Following a Buddhist stupa complex and Sinhala colony planned in 3000 acres of land in Trincomalee city, depriving Eezham Tamils the territoriality of their country, a similar venture in Mullaiththeevu town is being undertaken by the military governor of genocidal Sri Lanka in the north, Maj. Gen. Chandrasri. The stupa complex is planned in a locality where the LTTE earlier had its memorials for combatants laid down their life in fighting for the liberation of Eezham Tamils. Apart from allotting a huge sum from the funds of Colombo’s administration for the north, The SL governor is intimidating NGOs and civil society institutions functioning in the Tamil country to ‘donate’ unspecified amounts of money in ‘unaccounted ways’ for this project of structural genocide schemed by Colombo.
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Controversial teacher transfers in East suspended

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2011, 12:26 GMT]
The controversial teacher transfer scheme in the districts and education zones of the Eastern province has been suspended due to the stiff opposition by teachers and students, sources in the East said. The transfer scheme, the brainchild of the militarized civil administration's governor, Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema, and Provincial Director of Education, M.T.A.Nizam, gave preference to Sinhalese and discriminated other communities based on political bias, teacher trade unions alleged.
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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister wants Delhi to change course

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 13:20 GMT]
“The Tamil Nadu legislative assembly has recently passed a resolution urging the Government of India to initiate action by working with other nations for the imposition of an economic embargo on the Government of Sri Lanka, until the Tamils who are now living in camps are resettled in their own places and are allowed to live with dignity and with equal constitutional rights on par with the Sinhalese,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said in her memorandum to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Tamil Nadu CM, who met the Indian PM on Tuesday told him that Sri Lankan Navy was harassing and torturing the Tamil Nadu fishermen and demanded cancellation of ferry service which was started Monday between Tutucorin in Tamil Nadu and Colombo. The memorandum submitted to Indian PM said on the resumption of ferry service that it “will not be advisable and it will be against the sentiments of the people.”
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UK routeing ex-LTTE ‘reintegration’ through SL Army raises controversy in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 June 2011, 22:06 GMT]
Announcing a donation of 5,00,000 pound sterling (90 million SL rupees), and entirely accompanied by the occupying Sri Lanka Army, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Colombo, Mark Gooding, visited a detention camp run for ‘reintegration’ of ex-LTTE combatants by the SL military at the High Security Zone part of Thellippazhai in Valikaamam North, Jaffna, on Monday. The British government policy of accepting a genocidal military accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as competent authority for the ‘reintegration’ of the ex-LTTE combatants, and involving the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) of questionable local credibility in the process, raises controversy in Jaffna.
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SL Intelligence intimidates Tamils to sell lands of Batticaloa coastal villages

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 June 2011, 07:06 GMT]
Tamil families in the coastal villages I'raal-oadai, Vadduvaan and Kaayangkea'ni are being forced to sell their lands to Sinhalese who are brought by Sri Lankan military intelligence personnel from elsewhere, according to complaints by the residents to the Divisional Secretary of Koa'ra'laippattu North DS Division in Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province. Some of the villagers have already been forced to sell their lands.
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