சனி, 4 அக்டோபர், 2014

Kurds defend Kobane from Islamic State onslaught supported by Turkey

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2014, 10:28 GMT]
The Islamic State (IS) supported by the Turkish state has since 15th September heavily intensified their military onslaught against the Kurdish people and their self-rule government in the region of Kobane in Rojava (Western Kurdistan) in Northern Syria. Following the brutal three pronged IS military assault to capture Kobane more than two hundred thousand Kurdish civilians were forced to flee to the Turkish border. The Turkish border which had hitherto been used unhindered by the IS to infiltrate into Kobane to attack the Kurds had now been closed to weaken the Kurdish resistance. Nevertheless recent information from Rojava reports that the Kurdish resistance is growing as the IS has suffered heavy causalities in battling the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) defending the region.

The IS had also suffered heavy setback following confrontation with the Peoples Defense Force (HPG), the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) in Sengal in Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq).

Despite these efforts, the Kurdish people are facing a dreadful situation which will result in genocide if not the military onslaught is countered or arrested.

Subsequently, as the IS attempted to capture the Kurdish district of Kobane, the Turkish state closed the borders to prevent Kurds fleeing into northern Kurdistan and Kurds entering and re-entering into Rojava to fight the IS.

Thousands of Kurds have crossed into Rojava following a call from the PKK and its imprisoned leader Abdulla Ocalan urging Kurds from everywhere to defend Kobane. The statement from the leader followed earlier statements from the PKK calling Kurds in Turkey to cross the border and mobilize for a united national resistance.

Turkish police and security forces have also crack down on Kurdish protesters who were condemning the Turkish States support of the IS near the Kobane-Turkey border.

In a similar spirit, Kurds across the European capitals have also protested outside Turkish embassies.

The IS started a massive military onslaught on Rojava in mid-September, collectively targeting the Kurdish people.

The campaign comes in the aftermath of the defeat of the IS in southern Kurdistan owing to the combined national defense organized by various Kurdish organizations spearheaded by the people’s protection unit YPG/YPJ from Rojava and the armed wing of the PKK , the HPG from Northern Kurdistan (Turkey).

This combined with the loss of Mosul dam due to US coalition led air strikes have led the IS to focus all its attention and resources on Rojava in Syria.

Kobane has been at the heart of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination and national resistance since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.

The Kurds of Rojava under the assistance of the PKK and its associate organizations mobilized self-rule and national armed resistance through the establishment of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing the YPG/YPJ in 19th July 2012 in Kobane.

The IS has since 2012 tried to capture Kobane with its latest effort starting in July this year following the rapid capture of Mosul in Northern Iraq, when the region was effectively encircled and cut off from the rest of Rojava.

The Kobane canton is situated between the Kurdish self-ruled cantons of Efrin and Cizire, and is also located near the IS headquarters of Al-Raqqa, thereby the capture of Kobane would also effectively bring about a disjuncture of the Kurdish homeland in Rojava.

Kobane, beside its strategic importance is symbolically vital for the Kurdish national struggle as it has since the inception of the PKK in 1979 contributed strongly to the PKK and the Kurdish national cause.

In an interview to the Turkish alternative news Ozgur Gundem, a member of the YPG Rojava general command Meysa Ebdo discerned the international backing of the IS, the intention to destroy Kobane and the commitment of the Kurds to resist:

“They want to break about geography, peoples and cultures. Here it is the shining of the Kurdish people in the Middle East, their existence as an independent power, their ability to act without receiving support from anyone and their heroism that have has been targeted. These international powers are anticipating the liquidation of Kobane in accordance with their own interests. They look at the Kurdish people and other peoples as an obstacle in the way of their plans. ….Coming to the goal of the attacks, Kobanê is a small place. It is surrounded by the [ISIS] gangs on three sides, and on the fourth side is Turkey which supports the gangs. These attacks are not attacks that could be coordinated by these gangs. No force could persist like that in front of us. This is an international operation. When, how, on what flank and at what points they will attack is always established. The geography has been studied village by village, hamlet by hamlet. The tactics are even established. There are many different wings of the attack against Kobanê and each wing represents a state. In fact even among ourselves there is a traitorous element. All the plans are directed toward taking Kobanê. We are fighting against them and we will continue to fight. Even if the whole world joins to fight against us we will never take a step backward.”

The heroic resistance of the YPG and their commitment to not give up the hard-earned sovereignty of their people resembles the spirit of Pirapaharan's LTTE.

The US camp of the international community is accused of being behind the scene and orchestrating a dirty geo-political gambit to nullify the PKK-led Kurdish revolution at Rojava.

Eezham Tamils were also subjected to such a sophisticated form of counterinsurgency presided over by the Strategic Partnership of the U.S and Indian Establishments in which the entire egalitarian state system built up by the LTTE and the national armed resistance which made the former achievable were annihilated alongside the genocidal massacres of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians and their fighters.
The spirit espoused by the present Kurdish resistance should inspire Tamils to carry forth the political struggle for justice, national rights and liberation with fortitude, resilience and commitment.

Furthermore, the words from the YPG commander should also inspire the Tamils us to take lessons from the 30 years of national armed resistance and the resistance put forth by the LTTE against unholy alliance effectuating a united International Community of Establishments bound to see the military solution to the national question in the island ‘succeed’ in which genocide was deemed as a ‘necessary means’ to destroy the sovereignty of the Eezham Tamils:

“Let our people know that for a long time here a heroic struggle has been waged for the identity, existence and rights of the Kurdish people. We have lost martyrs in every village and hamlet and on every hill. We have had wounded in every village. In some places they stood over our corpses, but they will never, never trample upon the honor of the Kurdish people. In every resistance we grew the resistance of our people and will continue to grow. As long as one of us remains we will continue to fight as we have fought, village to village, house to house. This is the home of resistance. The Kurdish people must take moral from this resistance. We are not fighting with such a small power. The world is passing over us. The entire world is passing through a small town. We will suffer thousands of losses. If just one freedom fighter remains we will still resist. Our people must take ownership for the magnitude of the resistance here. It should look at it as a symbol and forge unity. It should adopt a stance against internal treachery. This people should recognize those who do not want to unify and only watch or even watch saying look how Kobanê will fall. Here we are fighting against tanks with braves. And alongside of this there is great psychological war being waged against us. However the resistance of the last ten days will without a doubt be one of the foundation stones of a free Kurdistan. There will be a Kurdish people which has won absolutely. Everyone got to know the Kurds once more in this resistance. If we are going to live in this world it will be honorably and with a free identity. “

The Rojava Report:		Interview With YPG Commander On The Attack On Kobanê And Its Objectives
ekurd.net:		Once again, Turkey's PKK calls on fellow Kurds to fight IS jihadists
Kurdish Question:		The Kobane war...

வெள்ளி, 3 அக்டோபர், 2014

SL military enslaves Eezham Tamils along border villages of Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2014, 22:19 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has effectively enslaved the gagged Eezham Tamil families in the border villages of Paduvaankarai region. Seven years after the end of war in East, the livelihood of the villagers has worsened than during the times of the war. While the resources are being exploited by the intruding Sinhala colonists and fishermen on one hand, the Tamils are being provided only one option of becoming second class citizens serving the interests of the occupying SL military, Tamil activists in Batticaloa said urging immediate focus from the global Tamils on the deteriorating situation of Eezham Tamils in Paduvaankarai.

One of the worst exploited villages by the Sinhala militarisation in Paddippazhai division of Paduvaankarai region is Kachchatkodi village.

183 Tamil families were living there before 1990. After displacements during the war and the so-called resettlement after 2009, only 98 families are living in the village now. All of them are denied of humanitarian assistance and they lack facilities to revive their lost livelihood.

Kachcatkodi village has necessary natural resources to provide for the needs of the people. There are enough cultivation lands and fisheries potential in the village. Sinhala ‘homeguards’ and intruding Sinhala colonists from the border villages are exploiting the resources.

Even the fresh water fishing arrangements, which were meant for the resettling Tamil people, are being exploited by the SL military. The Tamil villagers are not allowed to engage in fishing. Even those who are ‘allowed’ to engage in fishing have to submit their catch to the SL military backed wholesale businessmen.

The resettled Tamil families also face threat against their lives by the wild elephants that have been brought from Hambantota and other places from the South into the jungles near Batticaloa by Colombo government's Department of Wildlife Conservation.

While keeping the people suppressed, the SL military is systematically transforming some of the resettled people into suppliers of illegal alcohol suppliers. Dry rations are provided only to those families who are prepared to serve the SL military as local informants.

SL military has deployed a widespread scheme of psychological operations directed at the grassroots fabric of the Tamil society.

When Colombo seized the territorial control of Paduvaankarai from the LTTE in 2007 and projected its occupation on Eezham Tamils as ‘liberation’ of people from ‘international terrorism’, the USA and India were in the forefront in welcoming the Sinhala military occupation of the region. Now, the Tamil people of Paduvaankarai are being subjected to a systematic structural, cultural and demographic genocide by occupying Colombo and there is no concern from any quarters of these powers, Tamil activists in Batticaloa say urging the global Tamil community to find ways to ensure the structural independency of Tamils in Paduvaankarai in the future.

Chronology:

02.10.14 SL military enslaves Eezham Tamils along border vi..

03.05.12 Parts of Batticaloa worse than Vanni in ‘normalcy’

SL investigators harass senior journalist in Jaffna

SL investigators harass

senior journalist in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2014, 12:34 GMT]
Senior Journalist and media activist Thayaraparan Ratnam in Jaffna has been subjected to interrogation style investigations by a 'Special Criminal Investigation Division' in Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) on Wednesday, media circles in Jaffna said. Mr Thayaparan has been subjected to continous harassment by Sri Lankan Defence Ministry operated 'investigation' units, Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and the CID, the sources said adding that the harassments started after the journalists and media activists started to attend media workshops held in Colombo and other places. However, the timing of the harassment against Tamil journalists has a different motive, civil activists in Jaffna told TamilNet.

Violent attacks against Tamil journalists have also been stepped up in Jaffna and Vanni in recent weeks.

The SL military is trying to impose a total censorship on Tamil media as it fears that the information from the journalists will be used as "reasonable grounds to believe" standard of proof by the OHCHR panel of Investigation on Sri Lanka. "This standard of proof may be sufficiently high to call for judicial investigations into violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and international crimes,” the OISL said in its Terms of Reference document.

The CID investigators have been questioning Mr Thayaparan, who is associated with Jaffna Press Club (JPC), on his interactions with international media watchdogs, training programmes with journalists from South that took place at Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) in Colombo, journalists in Jaffna said.

Mr Thayaparan was one of the 15 journalists who were chased and harassed by the SL military intelligence operatives on their way to attend a workshop on 25 July at the SLPI. The journalists were stopped twice on their way. On their second attempt, alleged SL military intelligence operatives attempted to plant a small pack of narcotics in one of their vehicles to detain them under false charges. However, the journalists who were on alert, foiled the attempt. Later, the SL military staged a demonstration against the workshop in Colombo disturbing the program of the SLPI.

Several journalists in North have come under similar harassments since their interaction with Transparency International Sri Lanka, which is a branch of the Transparency International (TI), a global watchdog against corruption.

Starting from August 03, 2014, Mr Thayaparan was subjected to continuous questioning, first by Defence Ministry investigators from Colombo and later by so-called Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) investigators, the sources in Jaffna said.

On Wednesday, the journalist was instructed to come to the Forward Defence Line (FDL) at Thellippazhai. He was taken to a house on KKS Road where a ‘Special Investigation team of the CID’, that comes under the Northern DIG of the SL Police, recorded a statement questioning the journalists for more than 3 hours.

The first part of the investigation was based on false allegations of LTTE connection in the past. But, at the end of their session, the investigators started to pose serious questions about Thayaparan's connections to media watchdogs and his connections with the protests organised by the journalists in Jaffna in the recent times, the sources further said.

Chronology:

01.10.14 SL investigators harass senior journalist in Jaffn..

13.08.14 Police protection has lost its meaning: Mannaar Bi..

05.08.14 Monks-led mob disrupts Tamil victims’ meet in Colo..

31.07.14 Media groups protest against SL military’s shadow ..

26.07.14 SL military steps up harassment on Tamil journalis..

07.07.14 SL military issues threatening circular to NGOs as..

PCICMP witnesses in Vanni coerced, threatened by SL military

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2014, 19:49 GMT]
Intelligence officers of the occupying Sri Lankan military brought 7 people in their vehicle to witness in front of the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP), which held its sessions in Poonakari on Monday. Two of these witnesses had already appeared in front of the PCICMP at Muzhangkaavil on the previous day. SL soldiers were deployed in civil uniform in large numbers at Poonakari Divisional Secretariat where the session was held. The few witnesses who were present at the site on their own were subjected to strict checking by the SL soldiers. Some of them were sent back by the Sri Lankan soldiers. Those who presented their cases said the Commission was a farce as its members were posing irrelevant questions and were not interested to listen to their complaints of the missing kith and kin.

Sri Lanka Army bringing coerced and threatened ‘witnesses’ to Commission to Investigate into Complaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP) which held its hearings in Poonakri on 29 September 2014.

The PCICMP commissioners were posing questions on whether the witnesses had received housing for their resettlement, whether they had enough cattle to sustain their livelihood.

The people who went to request the Commissioners to help them trace the whereabouts of their family members – most of them who were handed over by them to the SL military at Vadduvaakal and in Cheddi-ku’lam internment camp in Vavuniyaa – complained that they felt insulted by the questions posed by the PCICMP Commissioners at Poonakari. “I went there searching for my son. But, they were asking whether I was receiving dry rations,” a frustrated mother told TamilNet. “They were also asking whether the Tigers used us as human shields,” she said.

Tamil journalists who were present at the site spotted that the SL military had threatened people to witness against the LTTE. The SL soldiers were brining the people in military vehicle and were monitoring what they were telling the PCICMP. Two of the ‘witnesses’ told the journalists that they were under pressure from the Sri Lankan soldiers to witness against the LTTE.

Finally, when the journalists raised the issue of witnesses being prepared by the SLA, the Commissioners disqualified the witnesses.