Zurich, Vienna, war crimes and Tamil polity

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 December 2009, 07:28 GMT]
By concentrating in an undue way on the choice of a president between the two main candidates seen as war criminals, why should Eezham Tamils ultimately uphold the interests of any of the powers either committed or abetted those very war crimes but show no signs of mending their ways on the national question and are now backing those dummy candidates, argues TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. Instead, Tamil politicians and new political aspirants among Tamils should leave the matter to genuine and spontaneous decision of the Tamil people and should make the best use of the time to concentrate more on laying strong foundations to the emerging national polity of Eezham Tamils to face any eventuality that emerges after the presidential elections, he further said.
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Referendum to speak for themselves - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 December 2009, 01:39 GMT]
Why after three decades once again a democratic mandate on independent Tamil Eelam? The answer is simple says Tamil Guardian in an editorial this week: The collective demand and popular mandate of 1977 has been studiously ignored and instead all kinds of voices - including the Sinhala state, marginal Tamil actors and important members of the international community - have simply asserted that 'the majority' of Tamils reject independence, whilst simultaneously lending tacit or overt support to the systematic and forcible denial of any space for the Tamil people to freely express their views on this core issue. On their assertion, a war was waged to devastate Tamils. The demand to conduct UN-run referendum was only met with silence. The referenda on Tamil Eelam now being organized by the Diaspora are an effort by Tamils to speak over those speaking for them, the editorial said.
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22 aspiring for SL Presidency pay their deposits

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 December 2009, 13:21 GMT]
Seventeen political parties and five independent candidates have paid their deposits when the Sri Lankan Elections Department closed its counter to accept the same Wednesday noon. The nominations will be accepted from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon on Thursday. The qualified candidates to contest the forthcoming presidential election, scheduled to be held on January 26, would be announced by the SL Commissioner of Elections after 1:00 p.m. Thursday, spokesman of the department told media.
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Cast the first vote to Bahu: Manickasothy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 21:43 GMT]
All Tamil political leaders should ensure in unison that Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne receive the first preferential vote in the presidential election, so that the two main candidates equal in their chauvinistic agenda against Tamils will not get the necessary 50 percent to win, said senior politician and civil movement member Manickasothy Abhimannasingham in an interview to media in Jaffna, Tuesday. Bahu was always consistent in his stand on Tamil question even under trying times and voting him is an opportunity to show the Tamil will locally and internationally, he further said. On the candidature of Mr. Sivajilingam, he said the candidature should not demonstrate Tamil disunity. His observation on TNA was that it is nowadays open about its proclivity to India and is now waiting only to receive instructions from India.
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Sivajilingam to contest SL presidential polls as independent candidate

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 10:07 GMT]
"There is no point supporting either of the two main candidates, Rajapaksa or Fonseka," said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian K. Sivajilingam Tuesday morning after making his deposit at the Sri Lankan Election Secretariat in Colombo stating that he would contest the presidential polls as an independent candidate.
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Heavy floods in East, 3 killed, IDP camps under water

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 09:37 GMT]
Lightning claimed the lives of three people and more than 25,000 have been displaced due to heavy floods as cyclone 'Ward' entered the Eastern coast Monday night. Vaakarai, Vaazhaichcheanai, Kaaththaankudi and Vavu'natheevu are among the worst affected areas in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, all the huts of 'welfare centers' located in Moothoor East and Eechchilampattu in Trincomalee district where hundreds of internally displaced Tamil families, still sheltered awaiting resettlement in their own villages, are under water due to torrential rain now being experienced. Roofs of these huts have been blown off due to gale winds due to depression that moves along the coast of North and East.
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Grenade attack on UNP district office in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 11:12 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed a hand grenade Sunday around 10:40 p.m on the United National Party (UNP) office located in the residence of UNP Batticaloa district branch president and member of Eastern Provincial Council, Arasaratnam Sasitharan, Batticaloa police said. None was injured in the blast but the office has been damaged a little.
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FT: Fight for Eelam far from over, say young activists

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 01:18 GMT]
Popular British broadsheet Financial Times, on a follow-up article to October coverage on young Tamils, said that while the western crackdown on the Tigers’ financiers among the diaspora, has created despondency among this often wealthy migrant community, the "clued-up second-generation migrants were turning to political lobbying," and that, "[t]hese young activists said the fight for Eelam, an independent Tamil homeland, was far from over."
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Family rule or Democratic rule? – Ranil Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 10:22 GMT]
“The time has come for the people to decide whether they want the Rajapakse family rule to continue or democratic rule to be restored in Sri Lanka,” Leader of the opposition and United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremasinghe, who is in Jaffna canvassing support for Sarath Fonseka, the common candidate of the opposition parties in the presidential election, said Saturday speaking among the students of the private College of Education near the Buddhist temple in Jaffna.
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Kantha’laay Koayil burgled, Pi’l’laiyaar statue missing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 10:05 GMT]
About one hundred kilo weighing bronze Vinaayakar statue was stolen from the historic Pilliyaar Koayil located in ancient Kantha’laay Tamil village Saturday early morning. The devotees who went to the Koayil to worship Saturday morning were taken aback when they saw the statue of the deity was missing, according to complaints lodged with the Kanthalaai Police.
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No threat to Fonseka’s life - AG informs court

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 December 2009, 01:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday fixed further inquiry into the Fundamental Rights petition filed by General Sarath Fonseka for December 17. The FR petition came up for inquiry Friday before a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Asoka de Silva, Justices Gamini Amaratunga and P. A. Ratnaike. General Fonseka has been nominated as the common presidential candidate.
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HR Day observed in Jaffna after 3 years

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 December 2009, 07:28 GMT]
Thousands of persons whose family members had gone missing after abduction or arrest by Sri Lanka Armed forces and paramilitary men participated in an event organized by Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna Veersingham Hall Thursday around 10:00 a.m to mark the 61st International Human Rights Day. Representatives of various Tamil political parties and human rights activists participated in the event which ended around 2:00 p.m. The day’s events concluded with the torch festival held in Aariyaku’lam in Jaffna after a procession which highlighted human rights, source in Jaffna said.
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“Trinco district turned into military garrison”- Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 15:30 GMT]
Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian brought to the notice of the parliament that Trincomalee district is being turned into military garrison day by day by the Sri Lanka Army and historic Hindu Koayils there are being desecrated and destroyed to settle Buddhist Sinhalese in traditional Tamil villages. He cited the recent incident where unidentified gangs had desecrated the several centuries’- old Sivan Koayil called as Agasthiyar Thaapanam and located in Kanguveali. He added the said temple was founded by Hindu sage Agasthiyar. He said the government agent of the district is a retired Major General in the Sri Lanka Army and the governor of the eastern province is a retired naval commander.
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Emergency extended for another month in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 December 2009, 11:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Tuesday evening adopted a motion moved by the Prime Minister Ratnasri Wickremanayake seeking the approval to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of seventy four votes. Ninety five parliamentarians from the ruling party United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its allies voted for the motion. Twenty one parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP), present in the House voted against.
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Attempts to split TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 December 2009, 06:35 GMT]
A faction led by Mavai Senathirajah and some by Srikantha, both Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians for Jaffna, are said to be engaged in activities aimed at splitting TNA, sources in Jaffna said. Srikantha and Selvam Adaikalanathan, another TNA parliamentarian, met Monday Basil Rajapakse, the brother and senior advisor of President Mahinda Rajapakse, in Colombo after which Srikantha told press that Basil Rajapakse had consented to allow resettlement of 4,500 IDPs from Valikaamam North in the first stage. Meanwhile, Mavai Senathirajah said in a press release to the media that Thamizh Arasukk Kadchi (TAK) had sent a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse requesting the resettlement of IDPs in Valikaamam North.
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Mano Ganesan backs Fonseksa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 December 2009, 11:17 GMT]
Democratic People's Front leader Mano Ganesan Thursday announced that his party would support General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, the joint opposition candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections in Sri Lanka. The DPF leader also said that he was presently negotiating with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to win their support to General Fonseka.
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Facing offensive presidential election with self-respect

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 December 2009, 23:04 GMT]
The Tamil parties thinking of fielding a common candidate should rise above outside diktats, should do justice to the Tamil cause at this formative stage of new Tamil polity and should come out with an election agenda that doesn’t harm the cause of Tamils in the long run. Any mistake made now will be irreversible, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Resettle IDPs in Jaffna before Presidential Election – IDP Welfare General Committee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 November 2009, 19:09 GMT]
The Welfare General Committee (WGC) of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Jaffna demands the speedy resettlement of IGPs in their own places occupied by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in its High Security Zones (HSZs) in Jaffna peninsula before the Presidential elections, WGC sources said. WGC has decided to present its request directly to Sri Lanka President, Mahinda Rajapakse when he visits Jaffna 8 December. Meanwhile, WGC strongly condemns Minister Douglas Devananda’s recent announcement that resettlement in HSZs in Jaffna peninsula will take place only in July 2010 after the presidential election.
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Locking Tamil nationalism through presidential candidature

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 November 2009, 12:27 GMT]
A Tamil candidature in the presidential elections, proposing a political solution deviating from the goals of Tamil nationalism, is a tactic to bind and nullify the aspirations of Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. In the current circumstances, Tamils naturally boiling with anger about both the main candidates are most likely to cast their votes en masse to any respectable Tamil candidate. But it is an artful move to get a mandate by stealth from the surviving people of the North and East for dropping the fundamentals of Tamil nationalism set earlier in 1977 and for locking them with political subjugation within a single state in the island. Therefore the election proposal of any potential Tamil candidate should be the removal of the 6th Amendment to the constitution and not any half-backed formula, the commentator further said.
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Eezham Tamil refugees in Thailand in dire straits – TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 November 2009, 11:41 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Chandraneru Chandrakanthan who had spent three days in Thailand meeting Eezham Tamils who had sought refugee with Thailand UNCHR authorities said that nearly 4000 of them are facing insurmountable difficulties. The MP has requested the UN and the UNCHR to do the needful to these refugees. Tamils living in various parts of the world should pay attention to the sufferings of these refugees in Thailand remembering that there are Eezham Tamil refugees even out of Sri Lanka who need immediate attention and support, Chandrakanthan said.
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