Monday, July 5, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Tamil Diaspora Community Network For Tamils In Ireland
As Tamils world over mark one-year of Indian abetted genocidal war against Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, the Hindi film industry known as Bollywood and the major Indian conglomerate of trade unions, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) are joining hands with Rajapaksa regime in Colombo in staging 11th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards weekend during the first week of June in Colombo. The FICCI, the largest and oldest business conglomerate of India is the flagship organiser of the business event named FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum, where hundreds of CEOs and business heads from India would be signing various investment contracts and tie-ups in the island on the second day of the celebrity and corporate event.
Sri Lanka is to spend USD 9 million for the Awards ceremony and associated events. Colombo expects a return of investment of USD 126 million, said a report filed by Eye TV India Bureau.
The IIFA Awards is a showbiz move, which is watched by 600 million TV viewers in 110 nations, according to organizers.
While big businesses involving States and multinational corporations (MNCs) are discussed at high-level meetings without much publicity, businesses involving the middle class and tourism industry depend on showbiz.
Sri Lanka is to spend USD 9 million for the Awards ceremony and associated events. Colombo expects a return of investment of USD 126 million, said a report filed by Eye TV India Bureau.
The IIFA Awards is a showbiz move, which is watched by 600 million TV viewers in 110 nations, according to organizers.
While big businesses involving States and multinational corporations (MNCs) are discussed at high-level meetings without much publicity, businesses involving the middle class and tourism industry depend on showbiz.
Monday, May 17, 2010
SLA tears down Tamil Heroes memorial monuments in VVT
More than a hundred Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers deployed Sunday evening in Theeruvil in Valveddiththu’rai, the birth place of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V. Pirapaharan in Vadamaraadchi, are tearing down the memorial monuments erected in memory of twelve combatants including senior Commanders Kumarappa, Pulenthiran and another memorial monument of Col. Kiddu, sources in Valveddiththur’ai (VVT) said. Meanwhile, former TNA parliamentarian Sivajilingam told that he too had received complaints about the demolishing of LTTE memorial monuments.
During the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord in 1987, Liberation Tiger Commanders Kumarappa, Pulenthiran and ten other combatants who had been arrested by Sri Lanka armed forces on Sri Lanka marine boundary had ended their lives taking cyanide as they were about to be taken to Colombo.
A memorial monument called Theeruvil monument had been erected in Theeruvil where their remains were cremated.
In 1999, Col. Kiddu, a senior Liberation Tiger Commander and twelve combatants were killed in Indian seas. A monument in remembrance of these also had been erected in Theeruvil.
Another memorial monument had been built in remembrance of the civilians killed by Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) in VVT, in Theeruvil.
All these monuments were severely damaged by SLA when it occupied Jaffna peninsula in 1991.
During 2002 peace period the above memorial monuments, however, were restored.
All these memorial monuments are being systematically demolished by the SLA soldiers, the sources from VVT said.
LTTE Leader V. Pirapaharan’s residence in VVT which had become an important place of visit to Southern Sinhalese visiting Jaffna peninsula had recently been demolished by SLA soldiers.
During the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord in 1987, Liberation Tiger Commanders Kumarappa, Pulenthiran and ten other combatants who had been arrested by Sri Lanka armed forces on Sri Lanka marine boundary had ended their lives taking cyanide as they were about to be taken to Colombo.
A memorial monument called Theeruvil monument had been erected in Theeruvil where their remains were cremated.
In 1999, Col. Kiddu, a senior Liberation Tiger Commander and twelve combatants were killed in Indian seas. A monument in remembrance of these also had been erected in Theeruvil.
Another memorial monument had been built in remembrance of the civilians killed by Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) in VVT, in Theeruvil.
All these monuments were severely damaged by SLA when it occupied Jaffna peninsula in 1991.
During 2002 peace period the above memorial monuments, however, were restored.
All these memorial monuments are being systematically demolished by the SLA soldiers, the sources from VVT said.
LTTE Leader V. Pirapaharan’s residence in VVT which had become an important place of visit to Southern Sinhalese visiting Jaffna peninsula had recently been demolished by SLA soldiers.
SLA soldiers deployed again in road checks, patrol in Jaffna peninsula
Thousands of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are deployed along with the police in carrying out checks and patrol of the main roads in Jaffna peninsula again, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna SLA Commander Mahinda Kathrusinghe informed that SLA forces are being deployed to help the police in Jaffna peninsula to contain the escalating abductions for ransom, killings, robberies and sexual violence on women, deteriorating law and order in the peninsula, in a meeting with the Jaffna district lawyers and magistrates Saturday.
The SLA commander had also said that the deteriorating law and order situation in the peninsula has called for the deployment of SLA forces in an effort to justify the beefing up of its forces in the peninsula.
Meanwhile, opposition parties including Tamil National Alliance (TNA) accused Sri Lanka government of purposely staging the above mentioned social crimes to be carried out by elements collaborating with its Intelligence Wing so as to create a situation that calls for the permanent presence of SLA forces in the peninsula, to continue to hold it absolute control, the sources added.
The SLA commander had also said that the deteriorating law and order situation in the peninsula has called for the deployment of SLA forces in an effort to justify the beefing up of its forces in the peninsula.
Meanwhile, opposition parties including Tamil National Alliance (TNA) accused Sri Lanka government of purposely staging the above mentioned social crimes to be carried out by elements collaborating with its Intelligence Wing so as to create a situation that calls for the permanent presence of SLA forces in the peninsula, to continue to hold it absolute control, the sources added.
Sri Lanka responsible for mass killings - ICG
The report by International Crisis Group, a Europe based NGO, said that despite its [Colombo’s] promises to protect civilians and aid workers as it made its assault on the Tigers, the Sri Lankan government had bombed relentlessly in areas where it knew unarmed people were present, according to the Monday edition of New York Times. “Evidence gathered by Crisis Group provides reasonable grounds to believe that during these months [the security forces intentionally and repeatedly shelled civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations,” the paper said quoting from the text of the ICG report, and added that “[i]t [the report] also provides reason to believe that senior government and military officials were aware of the massive civilian casualties due to the security forces’ attacks, but failed to protect the civilian population as they were obliged to under the laws of war.”
Full text of the NYT article follows:
Report Holds Sri Lanka to Account for Deaths
Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians died in the last, bloody months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the International Crisis Group said in an investigative report to be released Monday, most of them as a result of government shelling of areas that were supposed to be safe zones.
The report, which cites witness testimony, satellite images, documents and other evidence, calls for a wide-reaching international investigation into what it calls atrocities committed in the last months of the Sri Lankan government’s war against the Tamil Tiger insurgency.
The war ended a year ago, when the Tigers’ top leadership was killed on a narrow strand of beach in northeastern Sri Lanka, capping a two-decade armed struggle by a group that pioneered some of the ugliest insurgent tactics in the world, including female suicide bombers and child soldiers.
Because the government barred independent journalists and most humanitarian workers from the war zone, the death toll of the final months of fighting, when at least 300,000 Tamil civilians were pinned down on a beach, caught between the rebels and government forces, is not known.
United Nations workers counted about 7,000 dead in the last weeks of April, just before the last phase of the fighting, but diplomats, aid workers and human rights activists have long argued that those figures far underestimated the dead and did not include the final weeks of battle. Government officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly denied singling out civilians, and have said that the total number of people killed is much lower.
Sri Lankan officials declined to comment on the report, saying they had not yet seen it.
The report by the Crisis Group, an advocacy organization based in Brussels and Washington that seeks to resolve and prevent armed conflicts, said that despite its promises to protect civilians and aid workers as it made its assault on the Tigers, the Sri Lankan government had bombed relentlessly in areas where it knew unarmed people were present.
“Evidence gathered by Crisis Group provides reasonable grounds to believe that during these months the security forces intentionally and repeatedly shelled civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations,” the report said. “It also provides reason to believe that senior government and military officials were aware of the massive civilian casualties due to the security forces’ attacks, but failed to protect the civilian population as they were obliged to under the laws of war.”
The report said that the insurgents, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also committed atrocities, particularly in choosing to corral as many people as possible around its fighters, hoping to maximize civilian casualties and force international intervention.
“Their calculation, ultimately an incorrect one, was that escalating civilian casualties would eventually get the attention of the international community to broker a cease-fire so the L.T.T.E. could regroup or perhaps enter negotiations,” the report said, using initials the Tamil Tigers are also known by.
Instead, the Sri Lankan government pressed the rebels to the bitter end. Tamils who tried to escape were killed, children were forced to fight, and the sick and wounded were left to die, the report said.
But it was the Sri Lankan government, the report concluded, that carried the greatest responsibility for the killing.
“All but a small portion of these deaths were due to government shelling,” the report said.
Full text of the NYT article follows:
Report Holds Sri Lanka to Account for Deaths
Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians died in the last, bloody months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the International Crisis Group said in an investigative report to be released Monday, most of them as a result of government shelling of areas that were supposed to be safe zones.
The report, which cites witness testimony, satellite images, documents and other evidence, calls for a wide-reaching international investigation into what it calls atrocities committed in the last months of the Sri Lankan government’s war against the Tamil Tiger insurgency.
The war ended a year ago, when the Tigers’ top leadership was killed on a narrow strand of beach in northeastern Sri Lanka, capping a two-decade armed struggle by a group that pioneered some of the ugliest insurgent tactics in the world, including female suicide bombers and child soldiers.
Because the government barred independent journalists and most humanitarian workers from the war zone, the death toll of the final months of fighting, when at least 300,000 Tamil civilians were pinned down on a beach, caught between the rebels and government forces, is not known.
United Nations workers counted about 7,000 dead in the last weeks of April, just before the last phase of the fighting, but diplomats, aid workers and human rights activists have long argued that those figures far underestimated the dead and did not include the final weeks of battle. Government officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly denied singling out civilians, and have said that the total number of people killed is much lower.
Sri Lankan officials declined to comment on the report, saying they had not yet seen it.
The report by the Crisis Group, an advocacy organization based in Brussels and Washington that seeks to resolve and prevent armed conflicts, said that despite its promises to protect civilians and aid workers as it made its assault on the Tigers, the Sri Lankan government had bombed relentlessly in areas where it knew unarmed people were present.
“Evidence gathered by Crisis Group provides reasonable grounds to believe that during these months the security forces intentionally and repeatedly shelled civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations,” the report said. “It also provides reason to believe that senior government and military officials were aware of the massive civilian casualties due to the security forces’ attacks, but failed to protect the civilian population as they were obliged to under the laws of war.”
The report said that the insurgents, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also committed atrocities, particularly in choosing to corral as many people as possible around its fighters, hoping to maximize civilian casualties and force international intervention.
“Their calculation, ultimately an incorrect one, was that escalating civilian casualties would eventually get the attention of the international community to broker a cease-fire so the L.T.T.E. could regroup or perhaps enter negotiations,” the report said, using initials the Tamil Tigers are also known by.
Instead, the Sri Lankan government pressed the rebels to the bitter end. Tamils who tried to escape were killed, children were forced to fight, and the sick and wounded were left to die, the report said.
But it was the Sri Lankan government, the report concluded, that carried the greatest responsibility for the killing.
“All but a small portion of these deaths were due to government shelling,” the report said.
NESoHR: Except Dublin, world remains without action on Colombo's War Crimes
"For the last one year, there has only been talk of war crime charges. Repeated attacks on hospitals; killing, torture, rape and sexual abuse of people escaping the war zone are some of the charges leveled against the Sri Lankan forces. But, except for the verdict passed by the Dublin Permanent People’s Tribunal there has been no other concrete action," said the exiled team members of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), the Humanitarian body which was earlier based in Vanni, in a statement issued Monday. "The 300,000 people who walked out of the war zone are witnesses to these war crimes. Each one of them would have narrowly escaped death at least once in those safe zones. Fear, extreme fear, prevents the 300,000 eye witnesses from speaking. Even those who escaped from the island to other countries are silenced by fear."
Full text of the NESoHR statement follows:
Remembering Mullivaikal May-09
When there is widespread attack on a people, the natural reaction is for the people to run to a place where they feel safer. When the people are attacked repeatedly, they move again and again to the places they perceive as safe. This is what happened to the 400,000 people in Vanni for two years, from the start of 2007 till end of 2008. Then came the Sri Lankan Government declared safe zones: one, two and three, from January to May 2009, asking the people to seek safety in these safe zones. These are the final killing fields, the last of which was Mullivaikal. In them 40,000 civilians were killed, the remaining who got out of the “safe zones” were then incarcerated in camps in appalling conditions. In the month of May we mark this history.
The two years, 2007-2008, in Vanni is a history of: building bunkers in every household; living with continuous displacement and digging bunkers again and again as we displaced; living on the roadside and under trees; living with Sri Lankan government imposed shortages of medicine and food; indeed living with shortages of all the basics of life. It is two years of studying the sky for Sri Lankan bombers that frequented the Vanni spaces. Civilian deaths during these aerial raids were common. Claymore attacks on civilian vehicles, ambulances, school buses, pilgrims’ vehicles all became the norm. Dignitaries like NESoHR’s chairperson and a TNA MP were among those targeted and killed.
January-April 09: The safe zones declared to concentrate the people into small areas so that the killings can be more efficient. Over crowded streets with displacing people were attacked with artillery shelling. Many were killed on the narrow traffic jammed streets. Dead bodies transported on tractor-trailers, bloodied and shredded tents where the displaced once lived were common sights. Open spaces became hospitals where the injured and the dead were dumped. Doctors and volunteers risked life to do their best. These too were attacked, killing the injured, the doctors and the volunteers.
Mullivaikal in May-09: bunkers in sand collapsing in rain, permanent sounds of shell explosions, venturing out a gamble with life that must be taken to ward off hunger, mothers holding onto dead children, dead babies delivered with shrapnel lodged into them, dead bodies just left where they fall, mass arrests, disappeared after arrest presumed tortured, sexually abused and killed.... This is May-09.
For the last one year, there has only been talk of war crime charges. Repeated attacks on hospitals; killing, torture, rape and sexual abuse of people escaping the war zone are some of the charges leveled against the Sri Lankan forces. But, except for the verdict passed by the Dublin Permanent People’s Tribunal there has been no other concrete action. The Dublin verdict said,
“Harrowing evidence, including video footage, was submitted by eye-witnesses of the use of heavy artillery and phosphorous munitions, and of the continuous violation of human rights by military activity to a panel of ten international jurors over two days”.
The 300,000 people who walked out of the war zone are witnesses to these war crimes. Each one of them would have narrowly escaped death at least once in those safe zones. Fear, extreme fear, prevents the 300,000 eye witnesses from speaking. Even those who escaped from the island to other countries are silenced by fear. So far, the world remains incapable or unwilling to implement its laws on war crimes.
Whilst remembering Mullivaikal May-2009, we at NESOHR would like to remind the Government of Sri Lanka and the mute U.N. and the International Community that Truth will triumph at the end. We call upon the Human Rights Defenders and the Human race all over the World,’ flinch not until the perpetrators are brought to book.’ May justice prevail.
Full text of the NESoHR statement follows:
Remembering Mullivaikal May-09
When there is widespread attack on a people, the natural reaction is for the people to run to a place where they feel safer. When the people are attacked repeatedly, they move again and again to the places they perceive as safe. This is what happened to the 400,000 people in Vanni for two years, from the start of 2007 till end of 2008. Then came the Sri Lankan Government declared safe zones: one, two and three, from January to May 2009, asking the people to seek safety in these safe zones. These are the final killing fields, the last of which was Mullivaikal. In them 40,000 civilians were killed, the remaining who got out of the “safe zones” were then incarcerated in camps in appalling conditions. In the month of May we mark this history.
The two years, 2007-2008, in Vanni is a history of: building bunkers in every household; living with continuous displacement and digging bunkers again and again as we displaced; living on the roadside and under trees; living with Sri Lankan government imposed shortages of medicine and food; indeed living with shortages of all the basics of life. It is two years of studying the sky for Sri Lankan bombers that frequented the Vanni spaces. Civilian deaths during these aerial raids were common. Claymore attacks on civilian vehicles, ambulances, school buses, pilgrims’ vehicles all became the norm. Dignitaries like NESoHR’s chairperson and a TNA MP were among those targeted and killed.
January-April 09: The safe zones declared to concentrate the people into small areas so that the killings can be more efficient. Over crowded streets with displacing people were attacked with artillery shelling. Many were killed on the narrow traffic jammed streets. Dead bodies transported on tractor-trailers, bloodied and shredded tents where the displaced once lived were common sights. Open spaces became hospitals where the injured and the dead were dumped. Doctors and volunteers risked life to do their best. These too were attacked, killing the injured, the doctors and the volunteers.
Mullivaikal in May-09: bunkers in sand collapsing in rain, permanent sounds of shell explosions, venturing out a gamble with life that must be taken to ward off hunger, mothers holding onto dead children, dead babies delivered with shrapnel lodged into them, dead bodies just left where they fall, mass arrests, disappeared after arrest presumed tortured, sexually abused and killed.... This is May-09.
For the last one year, there has only been talk of war crime charges. Repeated attacks on hospitals; killing, torture, rape and sexual abuse of people escaping the war zone are some of the charges leveled against the Sri Lankan forces. But, except for the verdict passed by the Dublin Permanent People’s Tribunal there has been no other concrete action. The Dublin verdict said,
“Harrowing evidence, including video footage, was submitted by eye-witnesses of the use of heavy artillery and phosphorous munitions, and of the continuous violation of human rights by military activity to a panel of ten international jurors over two days”.
The 300,000 people who walked out of the war zone are witnesses to these war crimes. Each one of them would have narrowly escaped death at least once in those safe zones. Fear, extreme fear, prevents the 300,000 eye witnesses from speaking. Even those who escaped from the island to other countries are silenced by fear. So far, the world remains incapable or unwilling to implement its laws on war crimes.
Whilst remembering Mullivaikal May-2009, we at NESOHR would like to remind the Government of Sri Lanka and the mute U.N. and the International Community that Truth will triumph at the end. We call upon the Human Rights Defenders and the Human race all over the World,’ flinch not until the perpetrators are brought to book.’ May justice prevail.
Tamil Nadu Police denies permission to Muthukumaran statue
Tanjavoor police in Tamil Nadu Sunday denied permission to erect the statue of Muthukumaran of Kolaththoor in Tamil Nadu who had set himself ablaze demanding to stop the war waged on Eezham Tamils by Sri Lanka Army. ‘I’lanthth Thamizhar Iyakkam’ (Young Tamils Movement) had decided to erect the statue of Muthukumaran near Tanjavoor in Tamil Nadu and to hold a public meeting named ‘Mu’l’livaaikkaal Veerava’nakkam (Mu’l’livaaikkaal Homage of Valor) Sunday. Tamil Nadu Police banned the meeting and the Torch Marathon that was to be held before the meeting and the opening of the statue event, sources from Tamil Nadu said.
YTM had decided to open the first statue of Mutukumaran in Tamil Nadu near Tanjavoor and the public meeting that was to be preceded by a Torch carrying marathon race Sunday morning.
The police refused to reveal the reason for the ban but the public meeting was held Sunday.
YTM youths resolved at the end of the meeting to condemn the action of Tamil Nadu government and to urge all Tamil sympathizers of the cause to have a statue of Muthukumaran in each of their houses.
YTM coordinator Arunbarathi said that YTM will accomplish the task of erecting Muthukumaran’s statue in all parts of Tamil Nadu.
On Friday 30 January 2009, Head of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham political wing said in a condolence message that, "The LTTE salutes the sacrifice of Muthukumaran, who carried the emotional message of the 70 million Tamil Nadu people against the genocidal war by the Sinhala chauvinism in Tamil Eelam."
Muthukumaran, an employee of the PMK-run 'Pennae Nee' magazine, had set himself ablaze on Thursday 29 January 2009 "to express solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamils".
YTM had decided to open the first statue of Mutukumaran in Tamil Nadu near Tanjavoor and the public meeting that was to be preceded by a Torch carrying marathon race Sunday morning.
The police refused to reveal the reason for the ban but the public meeting was held Sunday.
YTM youths resolved at the end of the meeting to condemn the action of Tamil Nadu government and to urge all Tamil sympathizers of the cause to have a statue of Muthukumaran in each of their houses.
YTM coordinator Arunbarathi said that YTM will accomplish the task of erecting Muthukumaran’s statue in all parts of Tamil Nadu.
On Friday 30 January 2009, Head of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham political wing said in a condolence message that, "The LTTE salutes the sacrifice of Muthukumaran, who carried the emotional message of the 70 million Tamil Nadu people against the genocidal war by the Sinhala chauvinism in Tamil Eelam."
Muthukumaran, an employee of the PMK-run 'Pennae Nee' magazine, had set himself ablaze on Thursday 29 January 2009 "to express solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamils".
SLA blocks May remembrance events in Jaffna, journalists threatened
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has prevented the first commemoration events of Mu’l’livaaikkaal Massacre of May 2009 being observed in Jaffna Sunday in Nalloor and Jaffna town by chasing away the public from participating, threatening to death the reporters trying to cover the event and detaining Yarl Thinakural reporter who was present in the memorial event observed in Ilangkai Thamizh Arasu Kaddchi (ITAK) office on Martin Road, Jaffna.
Large number of SLA soldiers were deployed in around Nallai Aatheenam area who beat and chased away the public who came to attend the event besides blocking all roads to the place to public use. The reporters too were stopped midway, intimidated and their family particulars collected by SLA Intelligence wing officers.
Meanwhile, SLA had rounded up and searched the ITAK office and the residence of Mavai Senathirajah, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district, from 10:00 a.m to 12:30 p.m Monday. The Thinakural reporter taken away in a Buffel Personnel Carrier and held by SLA Intelligence Wing officer Major Nisantha was released only after eliciting an assurance from Yarl Thinakural chief that nothing will be published about the event or reporters being intimidated.
The memorial event at Nalloor was to be held in Nalloor Aatheenam in which Jaffna Bishop Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundranayagam, Nallai Aatheenam Chief Priest, Srila Siri Somasuthanra Kurukkal and several others being invited to participate in.
The event, however, was observed only by the few religious dignitaries present.
Only around ten prominent ITAK persons including Mavai Senathirajah were able pay homage to the victims of Mu’l’livaaikkal Massacre as SLA soldiers had rounded up the ITAK office blocking anyone trying to attend the event.
Meanwhile, the memorial event organized by Jaffna Interreligious Committee that was to take place Tuesday at Jaffna Veerasingham Hall was cancelled the administrators of Veerasingaham Hall were threatened to death SLA intelligence wing officers.
The event relocated to another location nearby too had been abandoned due to death threats by the above officers.
Large number of SLA soldiers were deployed in around Nallai Aatheenam area who beat and chased away the public who came to attend the event besides blocking all roads to the place to public use. The reporters too were stopped midway, intimidated and their family particulars collected by SLA Intelligence wing officers.
Meanwhile, SLA had rounded up and searched the ITAK office and the residence of Mavai Senathirajah, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district, from 10:00 a.m to 12:30 p.m Monday. The Thinakural reporter taken away in a Buffel Personnel Carrier and held by SLA Intelligence Wing officer Major Nisantha was released only after eliciting an assurance from Yarl Thinakural chief that nothing will be published about the event or reporters being intimidated.
The memorial event at Nalloor was to be held in Nalloor Aatheenam in which Jaffna Bishop Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundranayagam, Nallai Aatheenam Chief Priest, Srila Siri Somasuthanra Kurukkal and several others being invited to participate in.
The event, however, was observed only by the few religious dignitaries present.
Only around ten prominent ITAK persons including Mavai Senathirajah were able pay homage to the victims of Mu’l’livaaikkal Massacre as SLA soldiers had rounded up the ITAK office blocking anyone trying to attend the event.
Meanwhile, the memorial event organized by Jaffna Interreligious Committee that was to take place Tuesday at Jaffna Veerasingham Hall was cancelled the administrators of Veerasingaham Hall were threatened to death SLA intelligence wing officers.
The event relocated to another location nearby too had been abandoned due to death threats by the above officers.
SLA instructs public on celebrating its Mu’l’l’ivaaikkal victory in Jaffna peninsula
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) high command in Palaali military head quarters released Monday a media directive to Jaffna dailies calling all government offices, schools, shops, public markets and people, in Jaffna peninsula to hoist the Sri Lanka National flag in their places Tuesday, celebrating the first anniversary of SLA Mu’l’livaaikkal victory, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, SLA has also announced that more than 600 young women held in Thellippazhai SLA Special Rehabilitation Camp and Kaithadi SLA detention camp are to be released in an event to be held in Jaffna Veeraisngham Hall Tuesday, the sources added.
SLA, however, did not reveal the particulars of the young women to be released Tuesday.
It is learnt that a similar event is to be held in Vavuniyaa Tuesday
SLA, however, did not reveal the particulars of the young women to be released Tuesday.
It is learnt that a similar event is to be held in Vavuniyaa Tuesday
TGTE inaugurated in transnational way, Ramsey Clark stresses importance of history
87 of 115 representatives of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) already declared elected from 11 countries are meeting in three spots of the world, in the US city of Philadelphia, in London and in Geneva, in a 3 day inaugural session from 17 to 19 May. The Tamil Eelam flag was hoisted and a representative from each country addressed the public stating that the goal of the TGTE should be the formation of independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. William Ramsey Clark, a former US Attorney General, was one of the keynote speakers of the inaugural event. He characterized the move to form the transnational government a "brave initiative to find the wisdom and the courage to achieve - as it was for many centuries - a free and independent Tamil Eelam."
The 82-year-old Ramsey Clark, who was a prominent figure in the anti-Vietnam War moment, had functioned as the Election Commissioner of the TGTE elections in the USA.
"I need to tell you that your challenge is enormous […] Freedom is possible. But you have to work awfully hard at it. And you have to be right. You have to convince other people that you are right. […] You need to know your history. You need to persist your history and need to have your history understood that you were a uniquely different people than the Sinhalese on the same island," Clark said.
"Resolve your differences together openly and frankly wherever it occurs outright and quickly, and abide by the agreement
that you reach," Mr. Clark said elaborating how the American nation was made possible with unity as an unprecedented force to achieve independence. "To divide and conquer a dispersed people is an easy thing to do," he warned.
Francis Boyle, a professor of international law, Domach Wal Ruach, the secretary general of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) USA and Janani Jananayagam, a British Tamil activist engaged in awareness campaign on Tamil genocide were the other speakers in the inauguration ceremony.
Congratulating the members of TGTE, Domach Wal Ruach of the SPLM-USA said: "Although results are not seen overnight, I think what you have done now is a step towards right direction. We have been there and we are getting close to it now. The struggle is not easy. There are setbacks. But, you have to be steadfast. You owe it to the young generation. They are coming to you. If you don't do it now, no-one else would do it and the entire generations would be
lost."
"I want to tell you that, through collective work, diaspora is one of the component. Our leader commanded the largest single rebel groups ever. And yet, we were not able to win, militarily," he said and added: "The most important organic guarantee that you could always have, is your diaspora." Explaining the history of the Sudanese struggle and how the SPLM organized the diapora in grass-root level.
He further claimed that the US had done magnificent help to Sudanese. "I don't think we could have done this without the United States of America," he told the TGTE members who were gathered at the Philadelphia National Constitution Centre (NCC): "They helped us so much. I want to thank them again once more. The peace agreement is still unimplemented, but we are hopeful that in January next year, we will be an independent state," he said. "That has cost us 2.5 millions of peoples lives, dead."
Professor N. Sriskandarajah, a member of the advisory panel, who invited the elected members of the TGTE for the inauguration meeting, had set the agenda for the session. In an invitation to the elected, Prof Sriskandarajah had outlined the following agenda in advance: "The elected body will be transformed into a Constituent Assembly, an Interim Chief Executive and a small executive committee to manage this process elected, important themes for the Constituent Assembly discussed, agreed on and teams created, and a number of working groups for important and immediate tasks also elected."
The main venue of the event was changed from London to Philadelphia in short notice. However, virtual participation through video conferencing from London and Geneva has worked satisfactory on Monday as it was a session of presentations.
"Despite the issues of sectarian politics involved in the pre-formation process of the democratic exercise and the conceptual concerns, the people have had their say in electing their representatives. The representatives have also clearly expressed what they stand for in their addresses. It is now up to the elected to prove their credibility in the formation process," commented a diaspora analyst, following the developments.
The inauguration commenced at 13:00 on Monday and is scheduled to conclude by 13:00 on Wednesday.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thought crime, torture and kingly fiat
Tissainayagam’s pardon is clearly an act of Sri Lanka’s international diplomacy, an act made possible by the complete absence of the rule of law as an operating principle in its legal system,” writes a columnist in the Tamil Guardian newspaper. “[While] the legal system’s ability to convict Tissainayagam on the basis of a confession obtained under torture on charges that amount to accusations ‘thought crime’ reveal that Sri Lanka has fully departed from the principles of the rule of law […] the Presidential pardon echoes medieval forms of justice dispensed as royal patronage and is in keeping with Sinhala leaders’ proclivity for styling themselves as mythical Sinhala rulers.”
The full text of the op-ed follows:
The detention, trial, imprisonment and subsequent pardon of the journalist Tissainayagam reveals that the rule of law no longer applies in Sri Lanka. Tissanayagam’s almost two and a half year ordeal by law sets out the extent to which the law in Sri Lanka has become an instrument of political and ethnic coercion rather than the guarantor of justice, rights and stability.
After months of mounting international pressure, it appears that Tissainayagam will finally be pardoned by Presidential decree - an outcome that does little to restore faith in the system whilst revealing that Sri Lanka’s legalised capacity for violence and coercion can only be restrained by international intervention.
The conditions of Tissainayagam’s detention as well as the charges that were laid against him violated all the fundamental principles that guarantee the law’s compliance with the principle of the rule of law. Despite all of this Sri Lanka’s legal system delivered a verdict of guilty and in accordance with its own distorted principles sentenced him to twenty years of imprisonment.
Kept in detention for months without charge Tissainayagam and the other Tamil journalists were subject to abuse including the extraction of forced confessions. They were denied proper access to defence and police officers supervised the few meetings the defendants were allowed with their lawyers.
Not only was Tissainayagam finally convicted and sentenced on the basis of a forced conviction, the charges of ‘inciting communal hatred’ were also a clear violation of universally applicable norms regarding the reasonable expression of political dissent.
He was charged on the basis of articles and editorials that appeared in the English language North East Herald that reported on Sri Lanka’s military campaign from a Tamil perspective as a fundamental threat to Tamil lives, security and integrity of the Tamil polity.
Although there was nothing in this that could reasonably be interpreted as inciting communal hatred, it was of course fundamentally at odds with the mainstream Sri Lankan media’s depiction of the war as an epic struggle against terrorism which would finally liberate the Sinhala motherland from the clutches of LTTE separatism.
The legal system’s ability to convict Tissainayagam on the basis of a confession obtained under torture on charges that amount to accusations ‘thought crime’ reveal that Sri Lanka has fully departed from the principles of the rule of law.
The Sri Lankan president’s reported decision to pardon him does not restore legality or a sense of fairness to the conduct of this case. A presidential pardon is not the same as a legal acquittal and Tissanayagam’s life and freedom has ultimately been decided by presidential whim rather than the normal operation of an impersonal but just set of legal mechanisms.
The Presidential pardon echoes medieval forms of justice dispensed as royal patronage and is in keeping with Sinhala leaders’ proclivity for styling themselves as mythical Sinhala rulers.
Rajapakse associates himself with the fabled Duttugemunu, his predecessor Chandrika chose to mark the Sinhala military’s capture of Jaffna in a ‘royal’ style ritual in which she received the Tamil city that was renamed in Sinhala as ‘Yappapatune’. Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s first executive president Jeyawardene penned a treatise entitled ‘Golden Chains’ in which he presented himself as the latest in a 2,000 year line of Sinhala chieftains.
Not only does the pardon fail to exonerate Tissanayagam of the chilling charges of ‘thought crime’, it also fails to address the sinister provision of Sri Lanka’s anti terrorism legislation that leaves Tamils at the mercy of an ethnically biased legal system.
In June 2009 a report by the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association found that Tamils were left ‘unprotected’ in Sri Lanka’s legal system as the legal aid system, funded by the UN, operated a policy of not providing assistance to cases involving terrorism legislation. This has left many Tamils incarcerated for years at a time without hope of legal redress.
In October 2009 for example a Colombo based human rights group found a twenty nine year old Tamil youth in Welikada prison who had been detained for fifteen years, since the age of fourteen, under the terrorism legislation. He had not been charged or brought before a court and had been deprived of fifteen years of his youth for no apparent reason except that he was Tamil. There are possibly countless others in a similar situation.
Tissainayagam’s freedom was finally assured by his international profile which led to sustained pressure on his behalf. Tellingly it was Sri Lanka’s external affairs minister, G. L Pieris, who announced the pardon to the gathered international media. The pardon is clearly an act of Sri Lanka’s international diplomacy, an act made possible by the complete absence of the rule of law as an operating principle in its legal system.
Sri Lanka may hope that pardoning Tissainayagam will ease the international pressure, perhaps reversing the European Union’s suspension of preferential tariffs on the island’s key export, garments. However, the international community can no longer afford to be bought off with such superficial gestures.
Royal pardons have no place in a state that must now grow up and become a stable, inclusive and constitutional democracy. Sri Lanka’s legal, administrative and constitutional systems require a radical overhaul. As the outcome of Tissainayagam’s legal ordeal demonstrates, the only way this can be achieved is through sustained and ongoing international intervention.
The full text of the op-ed follows:
The detention, trial, imprisonment and subsequent pardon of the journalist Tissainayagam reveals that the rule of law no longer applies in Sri Lanka. Tissanayagam’s almost two and a half year ordeal by law sets out the extent to which the law in Sri Lanka has become an instrument of political and ethnic coercion rather than the guarantor of justice, rights and stability.
After months of mounting international pressure, it appears that Tissainayagam will finally be pardoned by Presidential decree - an outcome that does little to restore faith in the system whilst revealing that Sri Lanka’s legalised capacity for violence and coercion can only be restrained by international intervention.
The conditions of Tissainayagam’s detention as well as the charges that were laid against him violated all the fundamental principles that guarantee the law’s compliance with the principle of the rule of law. Despite all of this Sri Lanka’s legal system delivered a verdict of guilty and in accordance with its own distorted principles sentenced him to twenty years of imprisonment.
Kept in detention for months without charge Tissainayagam and the other Tamil journalists were subject to abuse including the extraction of forced confessions. They were denied proper access to defence and police officers supervised the few meetings the defendants were allowed with their lawyers.
Not only was Tissainayagam finally convicted and sentenced on the basis of a forced conviction, the charges of ‘inciting communal hatred’ were also a clear violation of universally applicable norms regarding the reasonable expression of political dissent.
He was charged on the basis of articles and editorials that appeared in the English language North East Herald that reported on Sri Lanka’s military campaign from a Tamil perspective as a fundamental threat to Tamil lives, security and integrity of the Tamil polity.
Although there was nothing in this that could reasonably be interpreted as inciting communal hatred, it was of course fundamentally at odds with the mainstream Sri Lankan media’s depiction of the war as an epic struggle against terrorism which would finally liberate the Sinhala motherland from the clutches of LTTE separatism.
The legal system’s ability to convict Tissainayagam on the basis of a confession obtained under torture on charges that amount to accusations ‘thought crime’ reveal that Sri Lanka has fully departed from the principles of the rule of law.
The Sri Lankan president’s reported decision to pardon him does not restore legality or a sense of fairness to the conduct of this case. A presidential pardon is not the same as a legal acquittal and Tissanayagam’s life and freedom has ultimately been decided by presidential whim rather than the normal operation of an impersonal but just set of legal mechanisms.
The Presidential pardon echoes medieval forms of justice dispensed as royal patronage and is in keeping with Sinhala leaders’ proclivity for styling themselves as mythical Sinhala rulers.
Rajapakse associates himself with the fabled Duttugemunu, his predecessor Chandrika chose to mark the Sinhala military’s capture of Jaffna in a ‘royal’ style ritual in which she received the Tamil city that was renamed in Sinhala as ‘Yappapatune’. Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s first executive president Jeyawardene penned a treatise entitled ‘Golden Chains’ in which he presented himself as the latest in a 2,000 year line of Sinhala chieftains.
Not only does the pardon fail to exonerate Tissanayagam of the chilling charges of ‘thought crime’, it also fails to address the sinister provision of Sri Lanka’s anti terrorism legislation that leaves Tamils at the mercy of an ethnically biased legal system.
In June 2009 a report by the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association found that Tamils were left ‘unprotected’ in Sri Lanka’s legal system as the legal aid system, funded by the UN, operated a policy of not providing assistance to cases involving terrorism legislation. This has left many Tamils incarcerated for years at a time without hope of legal redress.
In October 2009 for example a Colombo based human rights group found a twenty nine year old Tamil youth in Welikada prison who had been detained for fifteen years, since the age of fourteen, under the terrorism legislation. He had not been charged or brought before a court and had been deprived of fifteen years of his youth for no apparent reason except that he was Tamil. There are possibly countless others in a similar situation.
Tissainayagam’s freedom was finally assured by his international profile which led to sustained pressure on his behalf. Tellingly it was Sri Lanka’s external affairs minister, G. L Pieris, who announced the pardon to the gathered international media. The pardon is clearly an act of Sri Lanka’s international diplomacy, an act made possible by the complete absence of the rule of law as an operating principle in its legal system.
Sri Lanka may hope that pardoning Tissainayagam will ease the international pressure, perhaps reversing the European Union’s suspension of preferential tariffs on the island’s key export, garments. However, the international community can no longer afford to be bought off with such superficial gestures.
Royal pardons have no place in a state that must now grow up and become a stable, inclusive and constitutional democracy. Sri Lanka’s legal, administrative and constitutional systems require a radical overhaul. As the outcome of Tissainayagam’s legal ordeal demonstrates, the only way this can be achieved is through sustained and ongoing international intervention.
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Tamil Exiles to Form 'Government'
"Exiled political activists of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels say they will form an international government to pursue their political demands.
They plan to hold elections across the Tamil diaspora within six months to form an international government.
In a statement the activists claim this government would campaign for a homeland based on self-determination.
It is the first major statement from the rebel group since the capture of their leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan.
As before, they say they will set up what they call a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, based across the countries where there are diaspora communities.
But they now also say they are planning elections to that government by next April, with a full electoral commission and country committees drawing up voter registers.
They are highly critical of the situation inside Sri Lanka, saying they seek to end what they call the Sri Lankan government's "acts of revenge" on Tamils and its "plundering of the resources of [their] homeland".
Their rhetoric is strong - they refer to the government's "Sinhala-Buddhist genocidal forces".
But they have repeated that their new approach will be political, not violent. "
I wonder if, if they do actually form a government, will they still be considered a terrorist organization?
They plan to hold elections across the Tamil diaspora within six months to form an international government.
In a statement the activists claim this government would campaign for a homeland based on self-determination.
It is the first major statement from the rebel group since the capture of their leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan.
As before, they say they will set up what they call a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, based across the countries where there are diaspora communities.
But they now also say they are planning elections to that government by next April, with a full electoral commission and country committees drawing up voter registers.
They are highly critical of the situation inside Sri Lanka, saying they seek to end what they call the Sri Lankan government's "acts of revenge" on Tamils and its "plundering of the resources of [their] homeland".
Their rhetoric is strong - they refer to the government's "Sinhala-Buddhist genocidal forces".
But they have repeated that their new approach will be political, not violent. "
I wonder if, if they do actually form a government, will they still be considered a terrorist organization?
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Self-organised democracy of Tamils receives global attention
The Tamil community in Australia is trying to test its aspirations of its people through a referendum of its own while Sri Lanka goes for parliamentary elections, reported Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Wednesday about a referendum on independent Tamil state organised by Australian Tamils on April 17th and 18th. "This ballot has nothing to do with the parliamentary elections held this week in Sri Lanka. This is a referendum to test the will of the Tamil diaspora," Liam Cochrane of the ABC reported. "Self-organised democracy, the most meaningful of all democracies, has become the need of the times for Eezham Tamils, who are cornered for subjugation, not only militarily, but also through imposed elections in the island," TamilNet correspondent in Australia cited the mood of the diaspora.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Why welcome and caution to Transnational Government
Many Eezham Tamils are elated at the idea of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam. But it seems the concept has been hijacked at the outset itself to turn it into another CEO of corporate colonialism. TamilNet, which was advocating for Transnational Government even before the pronouncement of the present move, will not advise Eezham Tamils to abandon the move. Rather, the diaspora has to face the elections just like people at home face a series of imposed elections. The diaspora is free and better disposed in identifying elements that should be kept at a distance and in electing right candidates to bring in the necessary course correction in the outlook of the Transnational Government. In the meantime, moves for grass root political organizations in the diaspora should proceed unabated, because they are going to be the real fallback for the independent polity of Eezham Tamils.
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