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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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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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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Force of opinion unplugs Sampanthan to voice for international investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2015, 23:39 GMT]
Three days ahead of genocidal Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe officially visiting New Delhi, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Mr R. Sampanthan, who is also the opposition leader in the Colombo parliament, on Saturday told The Telegraph in India that the TNA expected the international community, including India, to support an international investigation into war crimes in the island. "Our experience with past domestic inquiries suggests that they can't be truly independent," Mr Sampanthan was quoted as saying by the Culcutta based paper. The new Sri Lankan government is “coordinating more with the international community, but it is the TNA's clear position that an international investigation is necessary," Mr Sampanthan told The Telegraph.
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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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‘Global War’ to wage genocide, ‘domestic mechanism’ to confirm structural genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 August 2015, 17:49 GMT]
The USA that designed the ‘International Community’ genocidal onslaught on the national question of Eezham Tamils in the name of Global War on Terror (GWOT) and the agent State in Colombo that conducted it on the ground will move in collaboration in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in September for a ‘domestic mechanism’ of investigation, which is sure to confirm and institutionalise the on-going structural genocide in the island. The announcement in this regard, immediately following the parliamentary elections, confirms the crux of the agenda for which electoral politics was engineered in the island, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics. Eezham Tamils, who have wasted their time, energy and money on a deceptive political course, designed by the ultimate culprits, should at least now think of a different paradigm of polity, the activists further said.
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SLM Hanifa urges Tamil-speaking politicians to transcend parochial localism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 August 2015, 10:05 GMT]
Veteran writer SLM Hanifa has warned Tamils and Muslims of the sinister motives of the incumbent UNP-SLFP regime and the exploitative global politics of the Powers. Urging the Tamil-speaking Muslims and Tamils to shed past old wounds towards building unity between all Tamil speakers, also including the Upcountry Tamils, in order to defend the larger interests of their communities, the former NEPC councillor from Batticaloa condemned the opportunistic parliamentary orientations of the Muslim politicians, who have hitherto brought political confusion among the Muslim masses through their actions that have only strengthened the Sinhala-dominated coalitions. "Like the caste system is exploited for seeking votes in Tamil Nadu, locality-oriented parochialism has emerged as a destructive factor in the electoral politics in the island, which is exploited by the UNP and the SLFP,” Mr Hanifa said.
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Champoor Tamils to join hands with Muslims in opposing controversial coal power plant

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 August 2015, 23:29 GMT]
"Our resettlement was blocked 3 times within the last 8 months between the Sri Lankan Presidential Election in January till the SL Parliamentary Elections in August. We have seen the Gazette notification, legal cases in Colombo and the SL president visiting before the election and after the election. Again, Champoor has gained focus because of the much awaited OISL report in September,” Tamil activists from Champoor told TamilNet on Saturday after witnessing the much orchestrated visit by SL President Maithiripala and former SL president Chandrika Kumaratunga. In the meantime, the people of Champoor will soon to join hands with the Tamil-speaking Muslims in Moothoor in demanding annulment of the controversial coal power plant in Champoor, they further told TamilNet.
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Uprooted people in Champoor demand coordinated Tamil effort on resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2015, 18:00 GMT]
While Tamil activists are set to push for a billion-rupee compensation from the Sri Lankan State for the structural destruction caused to Champoor so far, the president of the genocidal State in Colombo is visiting to Champoor on Saturday to donate 13,000 rupees per family to 25 families together with a symbolic hand-over of their lands, news sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Friday. Meanwhile, the resettling uprooted Tamils said they had spent 30,000 rupees each during the last weeks alone to clear the freed lands. Although there are Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) showing a keen interest in providing support, there is no co-ordinated effort to channel assistance to resettle the people, the civil sources in Trincomalee said.
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Time for Indian media to investigate what went wrong with New Delhi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2015, 23:30 GMT]
Four decades ago, overpowering the US outlook, New Delhi successfully materialised the liberation and independence of Bangladesh from the colony-like rule of Pakistan. But within a couple of years the USA managed to hijack Bangladesh into military rule and to become non-friendly to India. New Delhi did quite the opposite to Eezham Tamils. It was the crucial strategic partner to the US-led coalition that enacted the first ever gang-genocide in the region to uphold a congenitally genocidal State. New Delhi emerged as the main protector of Rajapaksa after the war. Yet, if Indian journalists like P K Balachandran, long operating in Colombo, could now link Rajapaksa with emerging shades of Eezham Tamil nationalism, and they find only anti-Indian sentiments in them, then there must be something constantly wrong with New Delhi, which the Indian media should investigate.
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Relatives of missing persons in East to boycott SL elections

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2015, 23:28 GMT]
The organisations representing the kith and kin of the missing persons in Trincomalee have resolved to boycott the Sri Lankan General Elections as politicians involved in the electoral politics have failed to deliver anything so far during the regimes of Rajapaksa and Sirisena, civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Monday.
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TNA's draft on constitutional reforms exposes dilution of fundamental principles

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 July 2015, 00:21 GMT]
“In point of fact, if the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka is to be preserved from claims to the right of secession, it is a sine quo non that the right to self-determination of the Tamils is recognized and the nature of the state is restructured to enable meaningful exercise of internal self-determination,” concludes the draft introduction prepared by TNA in November 2009 to accompany its proposals of constitutional reforms. 5 years have elapsed since. The TNA, now claiming a final solution in 2016, is yet to educate the masses on what efforts it has undertaken to establish the sine quo non (“cause-in-fact”) and on how long it is going to cling to the explanation of re-inventing the wheel, getting voluntarily locked to a genocidal situation which is beyond any rectification. TamilNet is releasing the documents from November 2009 for the awareness of Eezham Tamils.
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TNA sabotages Tamils proving will for genocide investigation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2015, 13:49 GMT]
Despite the mounting pressure on the planted Colombo-centric polity controlling the affairs of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the alliance has once again sabotaged Eezham Tamils' call for international investigations on genocide. The General Election Manifesto produced by R Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran undermines the unanimous and democratically established position of the elected members of its own alliance in the Northern and Eastern provincial councils on the question of genocide. TNA's manifesto is also non-descript with regards to its demand to the SL State on expected constitutional framework, political solution and the question of accountability, deploying self-contradictory and ambiguous terminology.
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PCICMP resumes public sittings amidst protests against domestic commissions

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 June 2015, 19:21 GMT]
Rajapaksa-appointed and Maithiripala-extended ‘Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints regarding Missing Persons’ (PCICMP) resumed its public sittings on Saturday at Moothoor Divisional Secretariat in the Trincomalee district. Around 300 relatives of the missing people and civil activists protested outside the venue, while 159 people who had been invited by the PCICMP for hearings took part in the sittings. The protesters were demanding international investigations. Even those who attended the sittings had no trust in the commission, said Mannaar Citizens' Committee vice chairman A. Sagayam. His committee had urged the people to take part in the sittings.
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Champoor Tamils should demand 1 bn compensation, political-demographic guarantees

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 June 2015, 22:37 GMT]
The focus on Champoor so far by the new regime has been to get rid of the Chinese-affiliated Rajapaksa's ‘development’ family enterprises in Champoor. The India-oriented project of constructing Trincomalee Thermal Power Plant (TPP) was also part of the same ‘Industrial Zone’ game, conceived by Colombo involving all the powers locked in the geopolitical game of occupation. The geopolitical exploitation and the structural genocide will continue with a new model of conspiracy, which would be hatched by involving new actors unless the Tamils conceive a concerted struggle against the game without aligning themselves with any of the players, informed civil activists in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Friday. Meanwhile, a Tamil expert on the topic was of the opinion that Tamils should demand compensation for the destruction caused to the civil property, after the military seizure.
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Ampaa’rai Tamils side-lined by Sampanthan polity : TNA Councillor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 June 2015, 15:02 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance Councillor representing the Ampaa’rai district in the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) T. Kalaiyarasan on Sunday condemned TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan for failing to secure the release of the occupied lands of Eezham Tamils in the district. “Nothing has been delivered to Tamils in Ampaa’rai district despite Mr Sampanthan representing the TNA being a member of the apex body of the present SL Government in Colombo,” the TNA Councillor from the East said. The so-called National Executive Council has failed to deliver anything to Tamils in the 100-day programme, he said.
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‘LLRC’ Palihakkara promotes pompous ceremony for genocidal ‘War Heroes’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 June 2015, 23:20 GMT]
The office of the SL Governor to North, HMGS Palihakkara, who was one of the eight panellists earlier appointed by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), was an an official co-organiser to the pompous ceremony organised together with Ranaviru Seva Authority (RSA) of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna on Wednesday. ‘LLRC’ Palihakkara himself was the chief guest of the ceremony organised in remembrance of the ‘fallen war heroes of three forces and the Police’. Mr Palihakkara has forced a section of Tamil public servants in the North to accompany him to the military ceremony. Tamil journalists in Jaffna have boycotted the event. The NPC councillors said they were not informed of public servants associated with the NPC being taken to the event.
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Sinhala Navy seeks funds to lure uprooted Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 June 2015, 23:46 GMT]
The occupying SL Navy is trying to lure a section of the uprooted landowners in Champoor in Moothoor East to sell their residential and fertile lands to SL military. Informed sources told TamilNet Thursday that the SL Navy has demanded the new regime in Colombo to allocate large sums of money for the so-called relocation of its military cantonment in Champoor. The SL Navy is not prepared to shift the military cantonment to a remote location away from the people. The SL Navy was seeking ‘alternative’ lands consisting fertile agricultural and residential lands of the uprooted people, the sources further said. The SL Navy has worked out a new plan to modernize its military cantonment, the sources further said.
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Edifying Tamil leadership to face South Africa succeeding Norway in deception

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2015, 00:57 GMT]
The UK-based British Tamil Forum (BTF) and the so-called Global Tamil Forum (GTF), which are locked in a sectarian conflict with each other, have dragged almost all the Eezham Tamil diaspora outfits from the USA, Canada, Australia and several European countries into a two-pronged South Africa based discourse which the new Sri Lankan regime wants to exploit to its advantage to counter the internationalisation of the national question of Eezham Tamils, informed Tamil diaspora activists told TamilNet supplying documentary evidences of the interactions that have taken place in May and June 2015. It is historic duty of the Tamil diaspora to produce an appropriate leadership to advance the Tamil cause without diluting the fundamentals and falling prey to the ultimate culprits, the activists told TamilNet.
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SL Navy deploys Sinhala extremist BBS to keep Tamils away from Champoor

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2015, 22:39 GMT]
On the invitation by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy in Trincomalee, Sinhala Buddhist extremist monks belonging to Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force) have been exerting pressure on the Sri Lankan Police in Moothoor to keep the uprooted Tamils away from their lands in Champoor, informed sources in Trincomalee said. The BBS has also been exerting pressure on the Sri Lankan Gateway Industries (SLGI) to file complaints with the SL Police to maintain the status quo of occupation until the final verdict is issued on the on-going court case.
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