Tamils in UK protest against British role in EU ban on LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 February 2014, 23:12 GMT]
Tamil activists in UK gathered at 10 Downing Street, London, on Friday condemning Britain’s lead role in the suppression of independent Tamil political opinion, both before and after Sri Lanka’s genocidal onslaught in 2009. While the UK itself has stated that the LTTE is defunct for the past 5 years, it continues to justify the ban on the Tamil movement, still criminalising all the individuals who were associated with the armed struggle in the past, the protesters said. In the meantime, young Tamil activists who took part in the protest were of the opinion that the fight against the injustice of the past, especially the political struggle against EU ban on the LTTE, an act that enabled the Sri Lankan State to end the peace process in a genocidal onslaught, was a crucial component of the Tamil struggle.
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Beware of war crimes investigation leading to ‘reconciliation’ deception

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 February 2014, 20:07 GMT]
In the event of a US-tabled resolution at UNHRC calling for “an independent international accountability mechanism to evaluate reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations committed by both sides during and after the war in Sri Lanka,” it will have all the potentialities of becoming yet another form of the ‘reconciliation’ deception. It will help to continue harping on ‘reforms’ within a unitary State, will give space and time in a camouflaged way to Colombo to complete genocide, prod Tamils into accepting models as of South Africa that are absurd to them, negotiate escape to culprits, and at maximum, may bring in ‘regime change’, but no political justice or release from genocide to Eezham Tamils, cautioned Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Colombo diverts Indian housing assistance to wedge North and East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 February 2014, 23:18 GMT]
After Sinhalicising the civil administration of the Ma'nalaa'ru division, which is becoming almost a Sinhala only division in the Mullaiththeevu district, Colombo has seized the private lands of Eezham Tamils to allot the lands to Sinhala settlers in Kokku'laay, says Thurairasa Raviharan, an elected member of the Northern Provincial Council. While the war-affected Tamils languish without proper housing, new settlers brought from South are receiving houses intended for war-affected people under the Indian housing scheme, he says after visiting and witnessing the genocidal land grab taking place at Mukaththuvaaram in Kokku'laay.
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Genocide Geography academic cites Tamil case, urges solidarity of victims

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 February 2014, 11:50 GMT]
The US government's record in directly perpetrating or being complicit in the crime of genocide in many regions of the world – even at the present time, as much as in the recent past - was deeply unsettling, and needed to be recognised and confronted, argued Desmond Fernandes, a former senior lecturer in Human Geography and the Geography of Genocide at De Montfort University in the UK. Speaking at a conference held in a UK House of Commons room earlier this month, and discussing genocide cases past and present across the world, Fernandes drew attention to the on-going genocide of Eezham Tamils and the PPT judgement. Noting with concern that struggle against genocide itself is criminalised nowadays, he emphasized on the need of action in solidarity by targeted peoples.
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Thaava'lai, Thawalama, Thaavadi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 February 2014, 06:55 GMT]
The trade station of merchant guilds

The town or mart of merchants travelling and operating in distant territories

The military camp or cultivation camp
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UN should deliver remedial justice to Eezham Tamils, say 23 groups from India

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 February 2014, 23:03 GMT]
Following the recommendations of the Internal Review Panel (IRP) on ‘United Nations Action in Sri Lanka’ brought out in November 2012 by the panel led by Charles Petrie, the United Nations has come up with a follow-up initiative in December 2013. The latest report, flagged as ‘Rights Up Front’ initiative, has also failed to focus on delivering remedial justice to the nation of Eezham Tamils, who have now become the abandoned victims exposed to Sri Lanka's accelerated onslaught of structural genocide, said the activists of May 17 Movement, that staged protests at five cities, both outside and inside India, on February 12. Endorsing the May 17 Movement's approach, 23 influential parties, groups and movements from India demanded two key remedial approaches: UN referendum on Tamil Eelam and International Investigations on War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide.
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IC should address Tamil question coupled with international mechanism: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 February 2014, 23:02 GMT]
No internal mechanism would deliver justice to the people of Tamil homeland. The International Community should come up with a constructive international mechanism capable of delivering political solution to the Tamil question. If the IC that is in fact well able to grasp the situation fails Tamils would regard the IC also as being complicit in the act of suppression being meted upon them, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF). The prevailing suppression on the peaceful, non-violent and democratic voices of the people of Tamil homeland is equivalent to the act of annihilation of the existence of Tamils as a nation, he said while attending a demonstration organized by the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) in Jaffna on Saturday. The occupying SL military has blocked the affected people from taking part in the protest.
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Wigneswaran pours out heart on ‘reconciliation-development’ deception

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 February 2014, 13:47 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran on Thursday openly came out with his frustration about the ways reconciliation and development is practised in the north and east of the island, and the ways the mandate of the NPC is sabotaged. He was referring to the gravity of militarisation, the conqueror's perspective of ‘reconciliation’ imposed on the conquered, and the conqueror's ‘development’ that is neither victim-specific nor owned by the people of the land. Given his background, his denunciations were confined to the State and government in Colombo. But the entire paradigm that frustrates him originates from elsewhere and the message is for the ultimate culprits, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.
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Colombo sabotages Tamil fishermen understanding across Palk Strait

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 February 2014, 22:23 GMT]
Amidst an existing understanding between the fishermen societies of Eezham Tamils and Tamil Nadu fishermen, who met recently in Tamil Nadu, that Indian fishermen could engage in fishing in the Palk Strait till March 15 without hindrance, the navy of the occupying Sri Lanka has arrested 116 Tamil Nadu fishermen in the territorial waters of the Eezham Tamils within the past 12 days, news sources in Jaffna said. In the meantime, the Indian coast guard has detained 25 fishermen from the island, 20 Sinhalese from South and 5 Eezham Tamils, who were engaged in day and night fishing in the deep waters of the strait, sources in Tamil Nadu said.
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4 members of Sinhala paramilitary squad detained in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 February 2014, 22:47 GMT]
Following information and pressure from the public, four Sinhala members of a paramilitary squad were arrested by SL Police on Wednesday from a ‘safe-house’ at Kokkuvil in Jaffna, news sources in Jaffna said. One of those detained was a former Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) person. Two of the arrested were from Ja-Ela and the remaining two were from Angkoda and Kottawa from the South. Legal action was not taken despite the news of their detention was exposed by the local press, Tamil legal activists said adding that most of the members of a similar squad, known as ‘Avaa’, arrested last year at Thalaiyaa’li in Kokkuvil have now been either released or bailed out. The remaining three persons, including the leader of the squad, are waiting to get bailed out of police detention this week.
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Kantha'laay
(Gangaa-tataaka),
Giritha'le
(Giri-tata-vaapi)

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 February 2014, 07:16 GMT]
The reservoir of the river

The reservoir with a hill in it
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US Senators call for War Crimes investigations in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 February 2014, 23:33 GMT]
Noting that, "Human rights violations continue, and the Sri Lankan government has failed to bring to justice the perpetrators of attacks against journalists, religious and ethnic minorities, and opposition politicians. As the March session of the UNHRC approaches, I believe another UNHRC resolution is warranted,” a senior Democratic Senator Casey, and Republican Senator Richard Burr, in a resolution called "on the United States and the international community to establish an independent international accountability mechanism to evaluate reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations committed by both sides during and after the war in Sri Lanka."
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Padaviya/ Pathi-vaavi

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 February 2014, 00:03 GMT]
The tank of the town
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Slain EPDP councillor's sister receives death threat

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2014, 21:03 GMT]
The president of Nedun-theevu (Delft) civic council, Daniel Rexian alias Rajeev of the EPDP was shot and killed in November 2013. His sister, Ms Regina, a key witness in the case, is now being threatened by unidentified persons alleged to be EPDP operatives aligned with Mr Kamal Kamalendran, the Jaffna District organizer of the EPDP and the opposition leader, who is one of the persons detained for alleged involvement in the killing. The SL police in Ooraath-thu'rai (Kayts) has refused to register her complaints.
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Iluk-pelessa

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2014, 09:11 GMT]
The open parkland or the jungle cum grassland of I'luk reed
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Families of missing persons subjected to threats, intimidation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2014, 20:24 GMT]
The intelligence wing of the occupying Sri Lankan military and the ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Department (TID) operatives in the North intimidate and threaten the families of the missing persons as many of the victims were not prepared to give up their complaints. The latest harassment comes in the wake of the so-called ‘independent’ Presidential Commission on Investigating Missing Persons had its first sitting in Ki’linochchi district last month. The current drive of genocidal Colombo, intimidating the kin of the missing to receive Rs 100,000 and withdraw the complaint or to face the fate of those who were ‘missing,’ raises question on what was actually meant by the US Asst Secretary of State reiterating ‘reconciliation’ last week.
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Colombo deploys Indian assistance to commit structural genocide on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2014, 16:37 GMT]
The housing assistance provided to war-affected uprooted families in the North and East is being used to colonise the Tamil homeland with Sinhala settlers from South in Mullaiththeevu district, says Tamil Councillor of the Northern Provincial Council Mr Thurairasa Raviharan. While the resettled Tamil families are deprived of housing at Chaa'lampaik-ku'lam in Mullaiththeevu district, Sinhalese settlers are being provided brand new houses constructed with Indian assistance, he said. This is not only a betrayal by India, but also a recognition of the structural genocide being committed by the Sri Lankan State, Mr Raviharan told media.
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Uguræssa-pitiya, Kiralæssa, Mal-læhæwa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 February 2014, 17:36 GMT]
The high ground plain of Uguræssa (live-hedge) bush

The thicket of parrots

The hilly thicket or bush-jungle
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30,000 troops try imposing ‘SL Independence Reconciliation’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 February 2014, 20:19 GMT]
Explicitly proving that Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was lying on the number of troops in Jaffna peninsula and that the country of Eezham Tamils is under occupied and colonial rule, more than 30,000 Sinhala soldiers were deployed to impose the ‘Sri Lanka Independence Day’ in Jaffna on Tuesday. As armed soldiers were posted throughout the streets and public buildings, the scenario depicted the times of war and such a paradigm was the one that was endorsed and blessed by the US Assistant Secretary of State talking of ‘reconciliation’ and imposing the ‘Sri Lankan’ identity, two days ago, commented political observers in Jaffna. Despite the terrorization, people responded by hoisting black flags and turning the SL Lion Flag upside down at several places in Jaffna.
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‘If UK-USA do not stop genocide of Tamils, they are still complicit in it’: Denis Halliday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 February 2014, 09:17 GMT]
Noting how the UK-USA governments helped the GoSL during the genocidal war on the Eezham Tamil nation owing to geopolitical interests, former UN Assistant Secretary-General Dr. Denis Halliday said that “as long as they don’t stop the genocide and block the land grabs, and help us to turn it around, they are still complicit in my book.” In an exclusive interview to TamilNet, Dr. Halliday, who was also one of the judges at the Bremen-PPT, condemned Britain’s historical role in “creating a problem” that is the unitary state of Sri Lanka noting that “there was no reason, no justification, to conclude that you need a unitary state.”He also emphasised that Britain should relook its neo-colonial policies and own responsibility for the Tamils soon. “This genocide is going to destroy Tamil Eelam if we do not stop it soon,” he said.
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