India to build ‘cultural centre’ at Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2014, 23:12 GMT]
The Government of India, after taking permission from the Sri Lankan state, is planning to construct a cultural centre at Jaffna. A Memorandum of Understanding for implementation of the project was signed by the High Commissioner of India Mr. Y.K. Sinha and the Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Development, Dr. Nihal Jayathilaka in the presence of Basil Rajapaksa, the website of the Indian High Commission for Sri Lanka reported on Monday. The aim of the project was “to rejuvenate and nurture the ancient cultural heritage of Jaffna”, the report further said. Jaffna civil society activists however are sceptical and wonder whether this project is a “cultural imperialist” collaboration between New Delhi and Colombo to distort, fetishize and commercialize the culture of the Eezham Tamils.
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Art, literature, should enlighten masses on larger forces at work

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2014, 23:29 GMT]
When the last king of Kandy in the island of Ceylon, who belonged to the Telugu-speaking Nayaka dynasty of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, was conquered and captured by British imperialism in 1815, history, literature and plays written on him by both Sinhalese and Tamils in the island were focussing only on a historically still unproven point that he killed the children of the Sinhala chieftain Ehelapola who joined the British and made the chieftain’s wife to pound the heads of the children in a mortar. That was the highlight of all the plays on the king, performed to this date. None of the writers or playwrights saw the ultimate culprits or the larger dimensions of the onset of colonialism. That was the success of British colonialism.
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‘Proliferation of micronarratives assists the logic of counterinsurgency’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2014, 23:48 GMT]
In the context of the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle, when a “micronarrative” discourse about gender, caste, region or other “special interest groups” claims autonomous status, “when it divorces itself from the primary contradiction between the Tamil nationalist metanarrative and the Sri Lankan state, it only ends up fracturing a resistance movement against genocide” argues Karthick RM. In an article published on Indian journal Sanhati, providing examples of how such differences were used to fracture the Eezham Tamils liberation struggle in the past and the present, he shows that such “dissidence” only assists the logic of counterinsurgency (COIN). Drawing from classical and contemporary COIN experts and from the writings of psychologists, Mr. Karthick also observes how such micronarratives and a defeatist mentality complement each other.
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SL Army conducts ‘archaeology’, The Hindu relays ‘history’

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2014, 17:23 GMT]
In addition to doing agriculture, industries and tourism, genocidal Sri Lanka’s occupying Sinhala Army, groomed to set a new paradigm jointly by Washington, New Delhi, Beijing and the UN, has started conducting archaeology too in the country of Eezham Tamils. The military claims ‘exploring and discovering’ a Buddhist site at the locality of Uruththirapuram Siva temple in Ki’linochchi. Meanwhile, The Hindu last week relayed a one-sided history projected by Colombo’s High Commission in New Delhi, on the Buddhist connections of Lanka and Odisha (Orissa), to envisage new business enterprises. The relay also added on Sita temple in Nuwara Eliya, a fake promoted into a larger regional myth in recent times.
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India should call for genocide investigation, referendum: Jayalalithaa tells Modi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2014, 07:01 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Selvi Jayalalithaa, in a memorandum submitted to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has firmly reiterated the stand expressed in four Tamil Nadu State Asssembly resolutions, demanding the Indian government to move a UN resolution demanding investigations on Tamil genocide and a UN referendum on Tamil Eelam among the Tamils in the island as well as among those living outside the island. Selvi Jayalalithaa, who didn’t attend the swearing-in ceremony due to the controversial invitation extended to SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa, met Mr Narendra Modi at New Delhi presenting him the demands of Tamil Nadu in the 25 point memorandum where the genocide investigation and UN referendum on Tamil Eelam was the second point of the agenda.
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Sri Lanka State identity needs denouncement, as mass-grave polity is congenital

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2014, 23:28 GMT]
“Sri Lanka: The Island of mass graves,” says editorial of Asian Human Rights Commission’s journal for Feb–April 2014. The editorial by Nilantha Ilangamuwa traces the ‘mass grave’ statecraft of ‘Sri Lanka’ since early 1970s. Generalisation of the mass graves and equating them with labels such as JVP and LTTE, is fundamentally misleading, and would not resolve the issue of State in the island, as the former was state terrorism’s response to a political question and the latter was naked genocide to respond to a national question, to which even the JVP was a party. The Tamil graves are largely not LTTE graves, but graves of ordinary members of a nation. If there is anything common that all in the island have to denounce, that is the very ‘Sri Lanka’ state identity, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
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Obama’s West Point address ‘missing’ Sri Lanka is double edged

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2014, 15:26 GMT]
The US President Barack Obama missing Sri Lanka in a key foreign policy address is double edged, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island. Obama was addressing the US Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday. He was listing out his administration’s direct, indirect and collaborative deliberations as well as achievements over ‘terrorism’ all over the world and was coming out with his vision for future. Sri Lanka didn’t figure among the 30+ countries noted by Obama, in past, present or future. Whether the USA now feels embarrassed in claiming its unprecedented ‘achievement’ in the island, or is it another tactic of down playing the gravity and establishing a paradigm, asked the Tamil activists.
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Polarization widens between New Delhi and Tamil Nadu following Rajapaksa visit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2014, 23:24 GMT]
Protests have proliferated in Tamil Nadu state against what activists have termed as “New Delhi’s unwavering courting of genocidal Sri Lanka”, at the very inception of the new BJP government. The decision to invite the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa to the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected Indian Prime Minister is interpreted as New Delhi’s disrespect to the democratic mandate expressed in Tamil Nadu State Assembly resolutions calling for sanctions on Sri Lanka and for a referendum to be conducted among the Eezham Tamil nation.
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Acid test for Eezham Tamil Bishops, TN Archbishop should intervene

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2014, 16:33 GMT]
The announcement of Pope Francis to visit Mahinda Rajapaksa’s genocidal Sri Lanka in January 2015 is not a small matter. It is like giving a ‘spiritual finishing touch’ to the temporal conquest achieved through genocide cum agent State paradigm by current imperialism. What is actually meant by the idea, ‘reconciliation’ for a united island after genocide, hatched by the US State Department in 2009, is explicitly evident in the last five years in the form of Sinhala militarisation, colonisation, structural genocide and annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils. The Pope now visiting the island carrying the banner of ‘reconciliation’ is not going to reverse the process, but will only confirm the process.
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Papal visit to ‘bless’ genocidal Sri Lanka next year

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 May 2014, 14:36 GMT]
While the new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosting Rajapaksa to his swearing-in on Monday has enraged Tamils, Pope Francis on the same day has announced to media about his visit to Sri Lanka, the very State of which is accused of genocide, on-going genocide, and has been rejected by Eezham Tamils since 1972. The Papal visit would give recognition to the genocidal State, blunting the calls for genocide investigation, and for that matter any international investigation at all against the State and the Rajapaksa regime, Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island commented.
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Tamils protest against New Delhi’s invitation to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2014, 23:41 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Tamils took to the streets protesting against New Delhi inviting the president of genocidal Sri Lanka to the swearing in ceremony on Monday. The General Secretary of MDMK Vaiko led a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi condemning the invitation extended to the genocide accused SL president, whose presence was ‘polluting the sanctity’ of Modi’s swearing in ceremony. Protesters across Tamil Nadu burnt the effigies of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The entire Tamil Nadu was on protest as the Chief Minister and key leaders of political parties have strongly opposed the invitation extended to the SL president.
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U'naa-kooruwa, Koora-gala, Koora-gammana

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2014, 23:41 GMT]
The bamboo part or the elephant department in the bamboo locality

The pointed rock or rocky hill

The rice fields of the village
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Tamil Nadu students rally against BJP invitation to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2014, 23:38 GMT]
Shedding differences among different formations of activists in Tamil Nadu, the student groups came together on Saturday to protest against the newly elected BJP government inviting the president of genocidal Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to the swearing in ceremony of the Prime Minister Elect Narendra Modi, amidst strong opposition from the Tamil Nadu State Government and the opposition against the invitation. The latest justification given by BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman has irked the entire Tamil Nadu, the protesting students who courted arrest told TamilNet. In fact the first protest against the newly elected BJP government in India has emanated from Tamil Nadu, the students added. The organisers also said that a protest was planned by several social organizations on the 26th of May in Chennai as well as other places against BJP inviting Rajapaksa.
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Resorting to genocide does not always ensure COIN success: Israeli military historian

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2014, 21:38 GMT]
“It should be noted […] that resorting to mass murder, even genocide, does not always enable counterinsurgents to win,” renowned Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld said. In an exclusive Email interview to TamilNet on Saturday, Prof. van Creveld also expressed a degree of consent to the proposition that a counterinsurgency (COIN) that secured a brutal victory over an insurgent but could not dent the political aspirations of the target population was a failure. He is also of the opinion that while a large scale ground intervention by US forces in South and South East Asian regions does not have great possibility of success, the superior ability of the US “to dominate the sea, the air, and outer space” in these regions give it a significant leverage. However, van Creveld’s comments on the imposition of peace in Sri Lanka warrant some introspection.
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Machiavellian ‘Prince’ of Sri Lanka?

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2014, 04:09 GMT]
The Prince, a short treatise written by Niccolo Machiavelli in about 1527 as an advice to the Governor of Florence, to win his favour presents doctrines which have a striking similarity to those adopted by Rajapaksa, with unapologetic obeisance from Colombo elites. While historians and political scientists argue on the true objectives of the book, the term "Machiavellian" is near universally used to refer to amoral, unscrupulous, and devious power games in the conduct of States. Rajapaksa’s calculated acts to destroy the Tamil nationalist struggle by first killing thousands of Tamil civilians in the "crime of the century," and then continuing the structural genocide in the NorthEast, with the complicit West unable to arrest the Sinhala state machinery, appear to be policy actions directly pulled out from The Prince.
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Jaffna University, NPC brave threats to observe Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2014, 20:06 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan military was recklessly determined to suppress the Tamil students, academics, religious dignitaries, democratically elected political representatives and the common public against observing the 5th Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance, the University students and academics at Jaffna University emotionally commemorated the supreme sacrifice by the thousands of Eezham Tamils who faced the genocidal onslaught in the final days of Vanni war. Also the elected Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members on Thursday marked their observance by lighting candles at the NPC Secretariat where councillors Mr Shivajilingam and Ms Ananthi Sasitharan were blocked by the occupying SL police, who also desecrated the tribute site at the gate.
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New Delhi has to be told whether it wants Tamil Nadu or genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 May 2014, 23:02 GMT]
New Delhi’s prime minister designate Narendra Modi can’t have an excuse in inviting genocidal Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa to the inauguration of his government, citing his invitation to all SAARC heads of governments. None of the States in India has ever indicted the head of government of a neighbouring country, as the Tamil Nadu State Assembly has unanimously resolved against Rajapaksa’s genocide of Eezham Tamils. The Rajapaksa case is a unique case India has never seen before, and that too considerably involving the previous Congress government at New Delhi. Tamil Nadu, having a duty in showing a protest in no uncertain terms to New Delhi that whether it wants its southern State or a genocidal State in the neighbourhood, need not care Mr. Modi’s self-invited diplomatic compulsions.
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Indian corporate to build houses for Gotabhaya’s Colombo development

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 May 2014, 07:04 GMT]
Timed to the Indian election results, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa-controlled Urban Development Authority of Colombo has made an unconventional deal with a leading corporate house of India, the Tata Group, by giving a prime area of Colombo city on a 99 years lease ‘free of charge’, for the group to ‘build houses’. While Sri Lanka’s strategy is to bind India with the structural genocide of Eezham Tamils, through Colombo-centric interests and building Sinhala military capitals in Jaffna and Trincomalee, the Indian intelligence agencies deceptively tell Tamil activists that an ‘economic integration’ would bring in political solutions. The Colombo-backing stand of Observer Research Foundation has to be understood in the background of the actual happenings, said Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Gajendrakumar calls for foolproof position, closer ties with Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2014, 17:17 GMT]
Tamils should make their position foolproof said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on 17 May in London. The problem the Tamils face is two fold. The first is geopolitics and the International Community's reasons for not wanting to recognise Tamils nationhood and sovereignty. The second is our own problem, where we have a party that claims to be the democratic representatives of Tamils, but deliberately chooses not to put forward positions that make Tamil sovereignty the fundamental basis for any political discourse. Giving a brief account on continuing oppression and militarization of the Tamil homeland and talking about manipulation of Tamil political opinion by international powers both in the island and in the diaspora, Mr Gajendrakumar called for a stronger network between Tamil Nadu and the Eezham Tamils to prevent such deviations.
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India gets prime minister of his own political stature

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2014, 15:49 GMT]
After 10 years, India is getting a political prime minister of his own stature, routing out the Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka Congress Party, the government of which was run by a puppet prime minister and extra-parliamentary elements such as National Security Advisors, intelligence officials and bureaucrats. Apart from the debate on BJP’s Hindutva polity and the impact that might come with the brute majority given to it, the past experience of Eezham Tamils is that Non-Congress governments were much better in post-Indira Gandhi times. Mr. Narendra Modi’s predecessor Mr. A. B. Vajpayee earned the respect of Tamils, despite the virtual non-existence of his party in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Modi must have surely got the cue about the expectations behind the unprecedentedly overwhelming victory of Ms. Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu.
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