OISL report downplays mass killings, silent on genocide: Law academic

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2015, 23:09 GMT]
An article which appeared on Monday in the Blog of the European Journal of International Law (EJIL: Talk!), comparing the 2011 UN's Panel of Expert's report on Sri Lanka with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) 2015 report, points out that the OISL shies away from estimating the scale of deaths and avoids attributing to the [Sri Lanka] government's intent in directing attacks against the civilian [Tamil] population. The article adds that "given this shift of focus away from mass killings of civilians...it is not surprising the OISL is silent on the crime of genocide..." The article is authored by Umesh Perinpanayagam, an Eezham Tamil academic, who works as a researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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Ex-LTTE Women's Political Head Thamilini dies of cancer at 43

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2015, 18:37 GMT]
Sivakamy Sivasubramaniyam alias Thamilni, who was formerly the head of LTTE's Women Political Wing, has passed away on Sunday at Maharagama cancer hospital after battling cancer for some months, news sources in Colombo said. Coming from an Up-Country Tamil family settled in Paranthan in Vanni, Ms Thamilini served in the LTTE for almost 18 years and had earned the trust of the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan for her political work. Thamilini was one of the foremost political leaders of the LTTE, who had proved that women were not second to men in contributing to the liberation of the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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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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Veteran Eezham Tamil academic, diaspora leader Theva Rajan passes away

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2015, 19:08 GMT]
Mr. Arumugam Thevarajan, who was contributing to the language, history, culture, rights, media and social welfare of Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora for nearly six decades, passed away in New Zealand on Wednesday at the age of 81. Joining the Ceylon government clerical service in the 1950s, and posted in the police department at Puththa'lam, Theva Rajan resigned his job protesting the ‘Sinhala Only’ Act of 1956. Since then, he was determined and steadfast in devoting an entire life for the national identity development and sociocultural infrastructure development of the nation of Eezham Tamils. He was silently working behind many of the fundamentally important heritage and political pursuits of Eezham Tamils.
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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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Oora'ni, Oora'niya-wæwa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2015, 14:52 GMT]
The drinking water tank of public use in the village

The tank that provides drinking water for the village
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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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Sirisena's ministry, SL military seize more pasturelands from Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2015, 20:37 GMT]
Genocidal Colombo's Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry, which comes under the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, has instructed the SL Divisional Forest Officer in Batticaloa to put up noticeboards annexing more lands to extend the Omunugala ‘Forest Reserve’ in Batticaloa district. Sirisena’s ministry is trying to attach more than 25,000 acres of pasturelands seized by the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa through SL Minister of Environment and Renewable Energey, to the so-called forest reserve. The occupying Sinhala military is blocking Eezham Tamils and their livestock from entering the pastureland. New boards have been put up with warnings and borders have been marked. However, Sinhala colonizers are being encouraged by the occupying SL military to do seasonal cultivation in the pasturelands that are being seized from Tamils under the name of ‘forest preservation’.
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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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China, Russia, India join USA in upholding Agent State in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2015, 17:46 GMT]
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday unanimously adopted the resolution on ‘Sri Lanka’ produced by the USA-led core group consisting 4 UNHRC Member States without any vote. The resolution was co-sponsored by the SL State and was titled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’. Before its adoption without a vote, the resolution had received the support of additional 25 co-sponsors. China, speaking before the adoption of the resolution, extended its support on the basis that ‘Sri Lanka’ had agreed to the resolution which was drafted in consultation. Giving an explanation of the vote after the vote, India said that the consensus resolution underlined the collective desire of the ‘Sri Lankans’ for change, reconciliation and unity and the rejection of extremist voices.
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UNHRC ‘judgement’ harps on Samaraweera oration

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2015, 17:02 GMT]
Except New Zealand, none of the State participants at the UNHRC on ‘Sri Lanka’, Wednesday, has touched the crux of the conflict in the island. Only the New Zealand representative ever uttered the word Tamil in urging solutions. The approach of the UN, set from the very beginning by the USA, totally disregards giving any open recognition to the national cause of the nation of Eezham Tamils and looks at the conflict entirely from the point of saving State in the island. What it painstakingly ‘recognises’ is never to offend the genocidal State. An added dimension visible in the latest UNHRC session is the highlight of the blanket term, “crimes by all sides” to get excused from the crime of not recognising the genocide committed on one by all. Again the line was originally set by the USA.
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UN mechanism fails in gaining confidence of victims: NPC-CM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2015, 14:50 GMT]
A statement on Wednesday coming from the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister, Justice C. V. Wigneswaran, said that it is a matter of grave concern that the mechanism coming from the resolution at UN fails in gaining support and confidence of the victims. The Chief Minister cited concerns about the process to be adopted in seeing the prevalence of International Laws in a local system that misses them; placing the responsibility of prosecution to local hands that would never bring in justice to victims and the possibility of local judges vetoing or undermining decisions. “I remain deeply concerned about some of the serious weaknesses in the resolution which unless addressed could lead to the failure of this whole process,” Justice Wigneswaran said.
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Tamil civil groups, political parties, come a step forward if the line is their own

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2015, 19:13 GMT]
Thoroughly deceived by the Washington-Colombo genocide partners even in minimum expectations of justice, Eezham Tamil civil groups and a significant section of political parties on Tuesday came hard on the resolution tabled at Geneva. Urging reconsideration of the current draft, the statement coming from 40 civil groups and 4 political parties pointed out that the mechanism largely managed and controlled by the Sri Lankan State loses credibility with the victims, and ‘deeply regretted’ the removal of references to demilitarisation of North-East. With impending further deceptions, whether the response would lead to substantial alternative initiatives and appropriate non-cooperation movement is the question, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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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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Australia concerned about ‘domestic violence’, not genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2015, 01:21 GMT]
Australian Minister for Women, Michaelia Cash, has urged her colleague, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, to bar recording artist, dancer and actor, Chris Brown, from entering Australia for a performance in December, because of his history of domestic violence, Sky News reported on Thursday. Australia received genocide-accused Sri Lanka’s Navy Commander Thisara Samarasinghe as High Commissioner to serve in the country between July 2011 and February 2015.
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Iran seeks international investigation on Hajj tragedy

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2015, 23:47 GMT]
On a lamentable tragedy of humanity in which around 700 Hajj pilgrims were killed in a stampede at Mina in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, “Riyadh's regional rival Iran said 131 of its nationals were among the victims, and on Friday stepped up its criticism of the kingdom, demanding that affected countries have a role in the Saudi investigation into the disaster,” reported AFP, a Western media agency on Friday. Iran was a strong supporter of Sri Lanka’s ‘sovereignty’, against any international scrutiny on the genocidal war against the nation of Eezham Tamils. In 2012, in a show of solidarity, Iran’s military officials visited Sinhala military occupied Jaffna, on the eve of a UNHRC session at Geneva.
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USA sets new stage for Tamil struggle

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2015, 18:42 GMT]
Tamils have to understand that there is a ‘profound’ logic in the US resolution tabled at Geneva on Thursday, ultimately settling for prodding Eezham Tamils into ‘domestic’ investigation of ‘Sri Lanka’, just as the USA had set the stage for the genocidal war and the barbed-wire camps. International investigation for genuine reconciliation comes only when a war is over. But the war on the nation of Eezham Tamils is not yet over. It has only entered into another stage is what the tabled resolution implies. The blessing in disguise is that Tamils all over the world could now clearly identify the main villains and their henchmen. Eezham Tamils were long lacking this perception, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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