UNHRC heads for structural genocide if Tamil nation territory is not guaranteed: TNPF
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2013, 15:02 GMT]
An internationally monitored interim administration in the North and
East under UN supervision outside the parameters of the Sri Lankan
Constitution is the only way forward to stop the genocide being
committed on Tamils, especially to put an immediate end to the
accelerated structural genocide taking place in the Tamil homeland,
reiterated Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the president of the Tamil
National Peoples Front (TNPF), in the first press meeting held at the
newly opened press club in Jaffna on Monday. The current indications
are that the UNHRC would end up giving another year of time and space to
Colombo and the TNA that supported the resolution last year without a
principled approach is answerable to what resulted from the resolution
in the past 12 months, Gajendrakumar further said.
Blaming the Tamil National Alliance
(TNA) and the section of media that were refuting the position the TNPF
took during the last round of UNHRC sessions, Mr Gajendrakumar said
that the so-called step-by-step approach is a farce on the part of the
powers that were limiting the UNHRC resolution to the internal paradigms
set by the Sri Lankan State.
Arguing that the way forward could
be nothing else than securing the territoriality of the Tamil nation in
the North and East to safeguard it from existential threat, by clearly
articulating the Tamil demands to the international community, he
reminded the press in Jaffna that an interim solution is needed even to
fulfil the iota of demands being advocated by the IC.
Limiting
the investigations to the last phase of the war is ignoring the Tamil
demand for investigation of the protracted genocide since the British
left the island, Gajendrakumar said.
To ensure that people in the
North and East are able to take part in free and fair investigations
and present their evidences without any fear, an extra-constitutional
interim administration must be in place, he said.
The leaders
of the TNA and the section of media that were trumpeting about the
resolution framed last year are now answerable to the people for their
utter ignorance and lack of a principled approach with regards to the
Tamil aspirations, the TNPF leader said.
Citing reliable sources
and information obtained through direct contacts, Gajendrakumar said
that the resolution to be framed this time is going to end up giving
another year calling for the implementation of the resolution tabled
last time. The situation on the ground has only worsened during the last
12 months, he said citing that the best evidence to the trend is
nothing else than the latest report by UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Ms Navaneethampillai.
In the meantime, the TNA bringing in
the UNP into the North and East, harping on a ‘regime-change’ agenda
has come under severe criticism among Tamil political analysts in the
island. They cited Ranil Wickramasinghe favouring the Sinhala military
to stay in the Tamil country and advocating that the solution to the
ethnic question is implementation of the LLRC. Mr Wickramasinghe was
also seen ridiculing the sections that call for federal solutions.
The
‘regime change’ strategy meekly followed by the TNA on the ill advices
of the powers, by taking the side of the former SL military commander
Sarath Fonseka and the UNP in the last presidential election of Colombo,
is now interpreted in India by unscrupulous elements like Subramainam
Swamy as a proof for Tamils endorsing the SL military that fought
against the LTTE, Tamil political observers in the island cited.
Elements
in India that don’t hesitate to deploy genocide a tool to promote
imperialist interests and back Rajapaksa regime, now use the imprudence
of the TNA to argue that there is no need for war crimes investigations,
the political observers further cited.
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Tamils raped in Sri Lanka custody - HRW
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2013, 12:34 GMT]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released this week that Sri
Lankan security forces have committed crimes of sexual violence against
ethnic Tamils in state custody between 2006 and 2012. The said
detainees were arrested because of their suspected links to the LTTE.
The report gives 75 accounts of alleged sexual abuse and torture, saying
most of them are backed by medical evidence.
Noting that the sex crimes committed by government security forces
"sharply increased" following a ceasefire breakdown in 2006, the report
said most of the abuses were politically motivated.
"Rape was one
of the unlawful tools used by the military and police against suspected
LTTE members or supporters to gather intelligence during the fighting
and immediately after the conflict ended in May 2009, as well as to
obtain information about any remnants of the LTTE since then, whether in
Sri Lanka or abroad," BBC said quoting the report.
The research
was carried out secretly because of government access restrictions, the
organisation says. As a result, it was able to speak only to ex-captives
and not to current detainees, whose "fate is of urgent concern," the
Rights group said.
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Attacks against Tamil farmers escalate in Vellaave’li, Batticaloa
[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2013, 23:11 GMT]
A Tamil village official looking after agricultural tracts
(Vaddavithaa’nai) in Kevu’liyaa-madu in Vellaave’li division of
Batticaloa district was severely assaulted four days ago by a group of
Sinhalese settlers who have occupied the farm and grazing lands of
Tamils. Two weeks ago, Sinhala ‘home guards’ had assaulted Tamil youths
who were breeding their cattle in the same area, news sources in
Vellaave’li said.
Earlier, the land official had made a complaint with the SL police in
Kevu’liyaa-madu that the cattle of the Sinhalese person were daily
causing damage to paddy crops of the Tamil farmers.
As the SL
Police did not take any action to the complaint, the Vaddavithaa’nai
official went straight to the Sinhala owner of the cattle, requesting
him not to allow his cattle to damage paddy crops of Tamil farmers.
The Sinhala settler denied the allegation and started attacking the land official.
The
Vaddavithaanai official, who was subjected to the assault, again went
to the SL police and made another complaint about the assault by the
Sinhala dairy farmer. The SL police did not take action on that
complaint too.
Kevu’liyaa-madu is located along the border of Ampaa’rai district.
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The press release hinted at New Delhi’s hands behind the out of context
conflation of South African model with the island of Sri Lanka, where
the Rajapaksa regime is still engaged in genocide, and said that K M
Panikkar’s dream about India and the Indian Ocean has been shattered by M
K Narayan, Shiva Shankar Menon, and Nirupama Menon.
The TAF has
earlier accused the Obama administration for doing nothing to check
genocide in the island, in its letter addressed to the US President Mr
Barack Obama on last Wednesday, and asked the question “ are our beliefs
that Russia is a champion of the downtrodden and oppressed a false
dream,” in a letter addressed to Mr Vladimir Putin on last Thursday.
The
TAF statements were impelled by the US position of bringing out a
resolution of lacuna in Geneva that doesn’t recognise the territoriality
of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island and the reported stand of
Putin that Russia have vowed to see that the motion against Sri Lanka
scheduled to be taken up at the March sessions of the UNHRC is not
carried through.
The current statement of the TAF targeted New
Delhi for being an “amused onlooker” even when the 13th Amendment has
been reduced to zero by the Divineguma Law under genocidal Colombo, and
when a Chief Justice of the State had to face impeachment for rejecting
that law as unconstitutional.
The stand taken by the Tamil Action
Front of New Zealand in targeting the Establishments that globally
orchestrate in silencing the grassroot voices of Eezham Tamils is
refreshing, when sections of politicians, activists and academics are
hijacked by the orchestration, commented political observers among
Eezham Tamils.
