Activists discuss strategies of resistance at London event

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 July 2013, 23:33 GMT]
Activists involved with different contemporary political and social movements came together on Thursday at an event in London to discuss strategies of resistance in the 21st Century. Titled ‘Modern Day Protest’, the event was chaired Hugh Muir, columnist with the Guardian, and saw the panellists, with experience in different spheres and types of activism, engage in lively debate and sharing their views on the models of effective activism to be considered especially in the West. Eezham Tamil activist Gobi Sivanthan’s argument that non-violent direct action was a very effective strategy to be pursued in the West given the level of criminalization of activists and protests was taken up well by the participants.

Mr. Sivanthan, an activist with the TCC-UK, talked about how different non-violent strategies were used by the Tamils in the UK to draw attention to the genocide that their brethren face in their occupied homeland.

Elaborating from personal experience, he also spoke of the need for campaigning among people as opposed to trusting establishments.

Dr. Nadine El-Enany, Lecturer in Law at Birbeck, University of London spoke about the importance of challenging the law. Talking about the corruption in the police system, she also explained how the state used convenient definitions of ‘violence’ and ‘non-violence’ to curb protests.

Madeline Carroll, campaign director of activist group 38 Degrees and Trenton Oldfield, activist working against inequality in British society, also spoke at the event.

Activists opposed to Devananda attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 May 2013, 14:14 GMT]

A 12-member squad that came in 4 motorbikes attacked 48-year-old V. Sahadevan, the president of a newly formed group named War Affected Peoples' Movement (WAPM) and 35-year-old Puvilan Pushparaja, the treasurer of the group near Jaffna District Secretariat around 2:30 p.m. Monday. Mr Sahadevan and Mr Puvilan have been distributing leaflets against EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda, who is a minister in SL President Mahinda Rajapksa's cabinet. The attack comes a few minutes after Mr Devandanda spotted the two persons distributing leaflets against him. Sahadevan blames that the attackers were the ones who were escorting Mr Devananda.

The WAPM group has been distributing leaflets against Douglas Devananda since Sunday.

The attack on Monday comes after the two have been distributing leaflets in front of the District Secretariat in Jaffna for more than 4 hours.

Both the victims of the assault have been admitted at Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

Resistance event in London criticises security-obsessed outlook of West

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2013, 17:40 GMT]

Speaking on the topic of “Opposing securitisation, linking our resistances”, Kurdish and Tamil activists from Campaign Against Criminalization of Communities (CAMPACC) criticized the policy of the denial of the freedom of expression and assembly of activists belonging to oppressed sections by governments in West in the name of “security”, at the TINAG annual festival at London on Sunday. The Kurdish and Tamil speakers, belonging to grassroots organizations of their respective communities, also observed the similarities in the criminalization of their respective movements by Western governments and the consecutive denial of a democratic political space for the articulation of their cause.

‘This is Not a Gateway’ (TINAG) festival, held from January 26 to 27, attempts to provide a platform for critical discussion and debate among progressive groups and activists.

Jiyan Avesta, from the Kurdish Federation, UK, spoke about how securitization measures and broad ‘anti-terrorism’ legislations negatively affected the normal human behaviour of individuals belonging to oppressed nations. Referring to the assaults on democratic Kurdish activities in the diaspora, including raids on community centres and curbing of Kurdish national media, Mr. Avesta also noted how anti-terror laws were used to systematically discourage a new leadership from emerging.

Sasithar Maheswaran, Eezham Tamil youth activist with the TCC-UK, drawing parallels with the repression of the Kurds, opined that the banning and curbing of freedom of expression and assembly was based on the logic of establishments wanting to deny space to voices that contradict their geo-political interests.

He was further of the opinion that a neo-liberal agenda of organizations like the ICG also played a role in this by branding those who held a principled political position as extremists.

Activist Diane Nelson spoke about the corporatized security of the British-Danish company G4S, criticizing the promotion of such private security groups.

Concluding the session, Les Levidow from CAMPACC urged for a building up of a common resistance by activists belong to oppressed nations and other marginalized groups.

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Kurdish women activists, including PKK co-founder, assassinated in Paris

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 January 2013, 15:26 GMT]
Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was found shot dead along with two other Kurdish women activists in an execution style murder inside the Information Centre of Kurdistan, Paris in the early hours of Thursday. Sakine Cansiz, a senior female member and former commander of the PKK, was a close ally of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan who is in jail in Turkey. The killers have targeted Ms Cansiz at a time when negotiations were taking place between Turkey and PKK. Sources close to PKK leadership have ruled out allegations of internal dispute and said the execution style killings and the use of silenced weapons indicated that the killers were professional assassins. A similar assassination had been carried out on a key Eezham Tamil activist in Paris in November last year and the matter is yet to be resolved.

Paris becoming a location for such political assassinations of activists working for national liberation struggles raises concern in human rights circles.

The other two Kurdish women who have been slain were identified as Fidan Dogan, Paris Representative of the Kurdish National Congress, and Leyla Soylemez, political activist working as women’s representative on behalf of the PKK.

The murders elicited immediate protests from Kurds in Paris, who gathered at the spot of the crime. Further mass demonstrations have been planned in London on Friday and Sunday and in Paris on Saturday.

While some in the French and Turkish governments have condemned the killings, others have tried to use the tragic event to pick fault with the PKK. These include Huseyin Celik spokesperson of Turkey's ruling party the AKP, who claimed that "it seems like an internal settling of scores within the PKK" and Hugh Pope, senior Turkey analyst for the International Crisis Group who said that the PKK "has a long history of killing its own people, too. So there's no way anybody can jump to conclusions," from CNN reports.

CNN reports also cited the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) which demanded the French authorities to conduct a proper probe of the executions, as well as Roj Welat, a spokesperson for the PKK in northern Iraq, who had said that the PKK had not seen any claims of responsibility and was waiting for the results of the French investigation into the murders, as well as its own probe.

"It is an assassination, it is terror, it is ideological and political assassination, (a) terror attack against the Kurdish people," CNN reports quoted Roj Welat, who added that "Sakine Cansiz has been actively involved in the peace and democracy struggle, freedom struggle, of the Kurdish people for a long time. She was one of the women who participated in the formation of the PKK."

In a release following the assassinations, the Kurdish Federation in Britain called for an immediate “International Solidarity” for Kurdistan’s people. We appeal to the “International Communities” with our hearts and pain and urge them to take actions and put pressure on Turkey and French Government in order to solve those ruthless murders and bring peaceful solutions to the Kurdish question by dialogue and implementing democracy for Kurds not only in Turkey but in the Middle East too.”

Likewise, a release of the EU Turkey Civic Commission said “The reason of the killings and the forces behind are still to be unveiled – and they will be. These people should know that such killings or whatever provocation they might conduct in the future will not stop the ongoing peace process,” further appealing to France to stop the criminalization of Kurdish activists working for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.

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Tamil politicians, activists protest against SL military attacks on civic leaders in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 October 2012, 01:20 GMT]
Tamil politicians and civil activists on Wednesday protested condemning the brutal attack Sunday on Paramsothy Vasanthakumar, the elected chairman of Nalloor Piratheasa Chapai (PS). Vasanthakumar was on his way to prepare a legal suit after lodging a formal complaint against the illegal SL military occupation of 5 acres of land belonging to the civic body when he was attacked. The attackers, alleged to be the operatives of the SL military intelligence, had followed Mr Vasanthakumar in motorbikes, assaulted him using sharp iron rods at Kokkuvil and forcibly removed the legal documents on the SL military occupied land together with a sum of money. The protestors on Wednesday openly blamed the SL military intelligence in Jaffna for carrying out a systematic campaign of terror, targeting elected civic leaders in the peninsula.

The protestors repeatedly shouted ‘Go Home, Military’ on Wednesday during the protest.

Ms Komathy, the vice chairman of Nalloor PS, 17 Oct 2012 by TamilNet

The vice chairman of the Nalloor Piratheasa Chapai, Ms Komathy, said several civic leaders have been subjected to attacks and almost all the activities undertaken to improve the welfare of the people are getting blocked. She urged the global community to come forward to ensure the freedom of Tamils. They are not even allowed to open a children's park in their own land, Komathy said.



Addressing the protestors, former TNA MP and a political leader of TELO, Mr MK Sivajilingam, said the military land grab taking place and the prevailing threat against all civil protests only strengthened the argument that there should be an international investigation on the question of Tamil genocide and the genocidal onslaught that had taken place in Vanni claiming more than 40,000 lives of Tamil civilians.

M K Sivajilingam, 17 Oct 2012 by TamilNet

S Kajendren, 17 Oct 2012 by TamilNet

TNA parliamentarian Mr Sritharan, in his speech, explained the nature of Sri Lankan military occupation prevailing in the historic Tamil homeland where Eezham Tamils are denied of their nationhood and the so-called democratic Sri Lanka of Mahinda Chintana is attacking even the grassroots level civic leaders of Eezham Tamils.

TNA MP S. Sritharan, 17 Oct 2012 by TamilNet

Addressing the protest, another TNA MP, E. Saravanpavan, blamed the Sri Lanka military intelligence for the attacks on civic leaders in Jaffna.

TNA MP E Saravanapavan, 17 Oct 2012 by TamilNet

Mr Vasanthakumar, a retired village officer (GS) and an elected representative of the TNA, the ruling party of the Nalloor civic body, narrowly escaped death on Sunday after being attacked, and was admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital with serious injuries.

The attackers were wearing black helmets with tinted glass covering their faces, according to Mr Vasanthakumar.

The latest attack is reported in the wake of a series of harassments and threats posed by the intelligence operatives of the occupying SL military at various places in the peninsula, TNA representatives, who took part in the protest told TamilNet.

The civic representatives also complained that only two TNA parliamentarians were present at the protest.

The campaign of terror is being waged by the SL military intelligence against the civic representatives after the elected civic bodies in the peninsula jointly resolved to oppose the illegal occupation of the lands by the SL military.

Mr Vasanthakumar was targeted while he was on his way from the Jaffna Police to his attorney to prepare a legal suit against the SL military occupying the land at Thirunelveali, where the civic body had reserved the land to construct a children's park.

The SL military has put up a camp with Chinese assistance at the disputed land.

The civic representatives close to Mr Vasanthakumar also suspect the SL police in Jaffna for passing information to the SL military intelligence on the complaint he had lodged at their station.