Sampanthan countered, TELO calls for complete exit of occupying forces

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 December 2012, 22:36 GMT]
The Sri Lanka military, including its three forces that spearheaded the genocide of Tamils by the Sri Lankan state is viewed by Tamils as a Sinhala military and as an occupation military. The wish of the Tamil people is that such a military should quit completely, said a press release of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), signed by its political head and former TNA parliamentarian, M.K. Shivajilingam, on Monday. TELO is a constituent party in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The press release saying that such a statement on the stand of the TELO became a necessity in the context of current debates on the issue in the Tamil political circles, hinted against a recent statement by TNA leader R. Sampanthan that he was not calling for the complete withdrawal of the SL military.

Tamils seeking justice for the genocide and war crimes expect a solution based on their right to self-determination. If there is a solution then a military of Ilankai that includes Tamils could be stationed in the Tamil homeland, the press release said.

On the LTTE, the press statement said that majority of Tamils had accepted the LTTE as the national liberation movement of Tamils and the world was aware that there was a de facto state functioning under the control of the LTTE in the Tamil homeland.

Despite serious mistakes, the armed struggle led by the PLO resulted in the observer state status of Palestine in the UN. Similar armed struggle by the IRA brought in solutions to Northern Ireland. But, several countries joined together to destroy the struggle of LTTE for the national liberation of Tamils. None of them, or the UNO came forward to stop the genocide. Now even the internal review of the UN accuses it for its failure, the TELO statement said, once again hinting against Sampanthan denouncing the LTTE.

Without depending on the Sri Lankan State for solutions, we all should work together for Tamils to rule themselves with the help of the international community. Only through that, lasting peace could come to the island, the statement further said.

Chronology:

18.12.12  Sampanthan countered, TELO calls for complete exit..

12.12.12  TNPF condemns Sampanthan’s statement on SL militar..

40 ex-LTTE members abducted within one week

40 ex-LTTE members abducted within one week, IOM, UN blamed for silence

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2012, 18:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Department (TID) squads roaming around in Vanni and Jaffna peninsula have detained more than forty former LTTE members after abducting them from their residences and on the streets within the last one week alone, legal sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Monday. Former LTTE members are also being summoned to the SLA camps and questioned over their contacts and friends. Relatives, friends and even employers of those who were summoned to the SL military camps live in fear. While every civil and social freedom of the ‘released’ former members of the LTTE is severely deprived by the occupying Sinhala military, the IOM and the UN that ‘certified’ their rehabilitation and release keep silent.

The stepped-up abductions took place while a 'security analysis' team of New Delhi was present and was visiting the North and East during the last week.

In the meantime, the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission office in Jaffna confirmed that it had registered at least 30 complaints from the kith and kin of the missing, within the last 4 days alone.

However, while admitting that there were complaints from the Vanni mainland as well as from the peninsula, the SL-HRC office in Jaffna has declined to reveal the pattern of the complaints.

When the parents of the missing youth approached the nearby SL police station, the SL police confirmed some of the abductions as TID arrests and has issued papers documenting their detention by the TID.

Some of the abducted youth have been taken to the notorious Boosa detention camp in the Galle town in the southern province, informed sources in touch with the detainees in Boosa told TamilNet.

The move by the TID indicates that some of the youths taken by the TID are going to languish for a prolonged period of time at the prison without any legal proceedings or they are going to be charged with false accusations and put behind the bars.

Rights activists in Jaffna expressed concern on the plight of those subjected to extrajudicial detentions by the TID squads and blamed the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the residential coordinators of the United Nations (UN) for being silent on the latest wave of abductions after witnessing and certifying the release of the former LTTE members from the SL military ‘rehabilitation’.

The IOM and the UN offices have earlier reported to their international headquarters on the release of the SL military ‘rehabilitated’ ex members of the LTTE by issuing identity cards and witnessing the release by registering the details in IOM's international database.

The IOM was also accused of revoking the identity cards and asking the former LTTE members to hand them back to it as the IOM found such identity cards were used by the former LTTE members to document their background when they sought political asylum elsewhere.

The IOM, when contacted by media, is saying that it has no information on such abductions.

Abductions and illegal detentions have been reported in Valveddith-thu'rai, Polika'ndi, Chunnaakam, Punnaalaik-kadduvan, Achchu-veali, Koappaay, Puththoor and Meesaalai in the Jaffna district. There were similar reports from Mullaith-theevu and Ki'li-nochchi districts in Vanni.

Questioning of the former LTTE members is taking place throughout the peninsula.

The SL military takes fingerprints, records statements and questions the former LTTE members who have been summoned to their camps about their current social and political connections as well as about their friends and relatives with whom they are in touch with.

Except the ex LTTE members who are working with the EPDP and the SLFP, all others having any contact with other political parties are threatened not to engage in politics. If they continue such affinities, they would be subjected to abductions without any trace, they have been warned by the SL military.

An allegedly India-backed paramilitary called Sri-TELO is also functioning in collaboration with the SL military in recent times.

The SLA is particular about former LTTE members having any affinity with the breakaway group of the JVP.

While ‘abductions’ have now become the de-facto method of arrest by Colombo's TID squads that come from Colombo without any prior notice to the local police stations, the parents and relatives of the former LTTE members express fear as hundreds of youth who had been abducted between 2006 and 2009 had gone permanently missing.

The operations of the TID squads are undertaken under the direct supervision of the SL Defence Secretary and SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, informed police officials in Vavuniyaa said.

Some of the ex LTTE members have gone into hiding.

Many of the surviving former LTTE combatants had sustained serious injuries during the war and are struggling without proper livelihood as disabled persons. Meanwhile, ex female combatants are subjected to particular harassments by the occupying military that insists on their regular show up in the military camps.

Related Articles:
08.10.12   Jaffna civil society concerned about Sri Lanka using UN team..
27.09.12   Resettlement farce disproves claims of IOM and UN
25.09.12   UN and IOM deceive world on Tamil IDP resettlement

Kurdish party conveys solidarity message on Tamil Eelam Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 November 2012, 06:59 GMT]
“History of the world has been full of clashes between the occupiers and the occupied. As a result of struggles, resistances and sacrifices more of the occupied people have been liberated and the fascist and chauvinist occupiers are being destroyed successively,” writes Mr. Rehman Haci Ehmedi, the Secretary General of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), in a solidarity message sent to the Eezham Tamil nation on the occasion of Heroes Day. In a note sent to TamilNet via Rojhelat.info on Thursday, Mr. Ehmedi, who is the highest authority in the PJAK, drawing parallels between the struggle of the Kurds and the Tamils, urged the Eezham Tamil nation to continue the struggle, “In the hope of revitalization of the heroic nation of Tamil Eelam, in the hope of triumphant and freedom for the resolute and revolutionary nation of Tamil Eelam; never rest unless triumphing!”

On 27 November, the PJAK had also commemorated the 34th anniversary of the establishment of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and greeting “the whole Kurdish people, the families of the martyrs of the PKK in East Kurdistan as well as the Leader Apo (Abdullah Ocalan).”

The PKK, which was formed on 27 November 1978, has been waging an armed struggle for autonomy in East Kurdistan against an oppressive Turkish government which denies the Kurdish nation basic political, economic and cultural rights.

The PJAK, based in Northern Iraq, is constituent of the Koma Civaken Kurdistan (KCK), of which the PKK is also a member. A Kurdish nationalist organization which also aims at the creation of an economically egalitarian and gender-just society, the PJAK’s long term goals is to establish an autonomous secular Kurdish region within the Iranian state.

The full text of Mr. Ehmedi’s solidarity message to the Eezham Tamil nation follows:

Happy Tamil Eelam Heroes’ Day to Tamil Nation
Revolutionary greetings for the heroic and steadfast nation of Tamil

Dedicating campaigners and activists of Tamil’s freedom path; our pains and sufferings, our hopes and aspirations are the same. Not we do only share them together, but with all the oppressed peoples in the world who are struggling to attain freedom. In the same manner; all the inhumane fascists and chauvinists in the world share their way of thinking, ideology and paradigm.

History of the world has been full of clashes between the occupiers and the occupied. As a result of struggles, resistances and sacrifices more of the occupied people have been liberated and the fascist and chauvinist occupiers are being destroyed successively.

In the last century more than 122 nations have been liberated and achieved their rights. Many more are leading liberation struggles and the bodies of their daughters and sons are becoming the fuelling logs of revolution blazes while their villages and cities are being destroyed; the Tamil and Kurdish nations are just samples of those peoples.

History and the philosophy of those liberated nations give us a lesson as the campaigners of liberation. The lesson is that campaign for freedom means; struggle, devastation, resoluteness and resurrection; struggle again, devastation, resoluteness and resurrection; once more struggle, devastation, resoluteness and resurrection; and ultimately triumphant and freedom will prevail.

Each damage and devastation would push us a step forward once we stand up, this is the dialectic of struggle for freedom and liberation. We have also experienced damages and devastations, but we never gave in and stood up again. Any nation who is scared of damage and devastation will never triumph. We should learn how to stand up from the way we get damaged and are devastated, any nation who learns how to stand up, will triumph.

In the hope of revitalization of the heroic nation of Tamil Eelam, in the hope of triumphant and freedom for the resolute and revolutionary nation of Tamil Eelam; never rest unless triumphing!

The Secretary General of Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)
Rehman Haci Ehmedi 29-11-2012

Academics question ICE deceit after Solheim's speech at London book launch

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2012, 22:01 GMT]
Reacting to arguments put forth by the panel of discussants at the London book launch event of Frances Harrison's 'Still Counting the Dead' on Friday, especially to the opinions of Norwegian politician and peace-broker Erik Solheim, Indian academic Radha D'Souza and UK-based academic Amanda Latimer, criticized the politics of deceit the International Community of Establishments (ICE) was playing with the Tamils. In exclusive videos to TamilNet, both Dr. D'Souza and Ms. Latimer came down hard on the Western Establishments and those working with vested interests for spreading misinformation to the Tamil diaspora about the liberation struggle of the Eezham Tamils.

The panellists at the event besides Mr Erik Solheim were Mr Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka project director in the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Ms Yasmin Sooka, member of the UNSG panel that brought out a report on the war in the island of Sri Lanka.

Earlier, at the book launch event, both Dr. D'Souza and Ms. Latimer had raised questions on the UK and India providing arms and other help to the genocide-accused Sri Lankan government. Their questions were not satisfactorily answered.

Dr. D'Souza and Ms. Latimer were interviewed by TamilNet during the book launch event of Ms. Frances Harrison in London on Friday.





Chronology:

08.10.12  Academics question ICE deceit after Solheim's spee..

06.10.12  Solheim’s politics, UN role in SL criticized at Fr.