பொள்ளாச்சி "பெரியார் திராவிடர் கழகம்" கா .சு.நாகராசன் நிபந்தனைப் பிணையில் நாளை விடுதலை செய்யப்படுவார் என பொள்ளாச்சி நீதிமன்றம் அறிவித்துள்ளது.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
மீனவர்கள் தாக்குதலை கண்டித்து பேசிய பொள்ளாச்சி கா.சு.நாகராசன் கைது
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01.09.2009 அன்று மதியம் பொள்ளாச்சி திருவள்ளுவர் திடலில் தமிழக மீனவர்கள் தாக்குதல் குறித்து கண்டன ஆர்பாட்டம் "ஆதித்தமிழர் விடுதலை முண்ணனி " சார்பில் நடைபெற்றது. இதில் "பெரியார் திராவிடர் கழகம்" சார்பில் கா.சு.நாகராசன் கண்டன உரையாற்றினார். கலவரத்தை தூண்டிம் விதத்தில் பேசியதாக கூறி தோழர் கா.சு.நாகராசன் மற்றும் ஆதித்தமிழர் விடுதலை முன்னணி தோழர்கள் உட்பட 31 பேரை காவல்துறை கைது செய்து, கோவை மத்திய சிறையில் அடைத்தனர்.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Channel-4 broadcast of internment camp cAonditions irks Colombo
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Following the broadcast of shocking video footage showing Sri Lanka Government soldiers executing Tamils stripped naked and hands tied behind their backs, British Television Channel-4 Monday revealed a new film that showed Tamil "victims of Sri Lanka's war suffering poor conditions in UN-funded camps." The new footage, allegedly taken by a mobile phone, was sent to Channel-4 from the group War Without Witness, and was reportedly shot two weeks ago in Vavuniyaa, in northern Sri Lanka, where more than 300,000 Tamils are being interned in Sri Lanka military supervised camps. Sri Lanka's spokesperson, while insisting that United Nations is active inside there [the camps], responded that the malnutrition statistics reflect "Western standards," indeed malnutrition is present in other parts of Sri Lanka, and also that the situation was worse under the Liberation Tigers.
"Patients on intravenous drips lying on mud floors, a man so weak he is unable to brush the flies from his face," Channel-4 says in its broadcast, and adds, "[t]he concern now is that when the monsoon rain season begins, the camp will be flooded."
"The plight of Tamil children was raised by Unicef spokesman James Elder, who has just been expelled from the country after being accused by the government of spreading Tamil Tiger propaganda," the broadcast said.
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe, secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights blames Channel-4 of "ridiculous behavior" and that Colombo would not invite Channel-4 to Sri Lanka to tour the camps.
While Sri Lanka is taking hurried measures to contain the negative publicity and allegations of war-crimes generated by the summary-execution video, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice, during a press briefing late last week, when asked if she "expects the Council to take that issue [soldiers shooting naked prisoners] up in any way," responded: "With respect to Sri Lanka, again speaking in a national capacity, these reports are very disturbing. They're of grave concern. We'd like more information as we formulate our own national response."
Channel-4 reporter Jonathan Miller who aired the execution video said the execution was "chillingly reminiscent of the Bosnian video [of Serb militia Scorpians murdering six Bosnian Muslims]."
Miller responded to Sri Lanka President's media unit's characterization of the footage as "false and doctored," saying that "Steven Spielberg would have had a hard job staging this grim scene."
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Chauvinism and greed 'naked' in Sri Lanka
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It was frightening to see the combined effect of naked chauvinism of Sri Lanka and naked greed of powers, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo responding to the video clip displayed Tuesday. “Such a trend in the establishments is a challenge to every lay human being of the civilized world. While rising up to free people in the internment camps is a spontaneous response, what is of paramount importance is independent political organisation of Tamils in order to meet the challenge of the same forces that are now coercing or enticing them to drop righteous aspirations. Tamils are not asking for other’s land or for empires. They only ask for their own land and there is nothing to get scared or to feel ashamed of. As people of classical heritage, if Tamils fail, they fail not merely their cause but an entire human civilization,” he writes commenting on current Tamil affairs.
Full text of the response from the commentator follows:
The world was shocked to see a video footage Tuesday showing the nakedness of Colombo’s genocide of Tamils. What was seen is only an iota of what has happened and what has been happening for decades in the island. But the snippet clip from the Independent Journalists of Sri Lanka has awakened the civilized world that was by design put to slumber by the so-called international media.
Colombo is only partly responsible for crimes against Tamils.
It is the naked greed of the tzars of so-called international community banking on Sri Lankan state that was essentially responsible for this savage experiment on human civilization.
In the long history of genocide against Tamils in the island, the state always escaped scot-free in the pogroms of 1958, 1977 and 1983. The international community did nothing in the edification of the state. Tamils were always told to compromise.
Confident of its impunity, the state was ‘all naked’ in waging the genocidal war and in incarcerating Tamil people. Equally naked, the international community rationalised and abetted it.
Indian Establishment the most active partner of Colombo, China, Russia, Pakistan, and a host of others demonstrated this in a crude way in the UN human rights council. But Tamils are more worried of the sophisticated ways of the West.
India in an intimidating way and the West in an enticing way tries to do the same thing. After military abetment, now strengthening Sri Lankan state diplomatically and economically, they want the victims to reconcile, not to call ‘genocide a genocide’ and want Tamils to forget their aspiration of achieving permanent security by having their own nation state.
India and the West are also competing subtly in capturing and blunting the democratic political moves of Tamils to suit their interests. The former is active in the island and the latter in the diaspora. The main agenda, either by coercion or enticement, is to make Eezham Tamils to drop their nationalism.
They do this with full knowledge that in the context of the deep divide in the island, nothing less than the recognition of two nations only could sort out the matter.
The Australian foreign minister was very open last week.
In view of the long ‘trade relations’ of Australia with Sri Lanka and as a fellow island nation in the ‘region,’ his government is interested in seeing a united Sri Lanka and is reluctant to call for freeing the incarcerated Tamils, despite the fact that all its earlier calls for restraint were not cared by Sri Lanka.
Australia didn’t consider Indonesia as an island nation in the region when it stood for the independence of East Timor.
What implied by the Australian foreign minister is that Tamils have to accept genocide and subjugation for the sake of the economic and geopolitical interests of powers. He leaves Tamils with no choice.
Such an open show of greed by the establishments today is a challenge to the entire civilised world. Ultimately it is a war against every person of lay humanity.
Agitations to attract attention on the plight of Eezham Tamils are planned by diaspora groups in different parts of the world. Attracting the attention of whom? Not that the establishments that caused it don’t know it.
Tamils have to draw the attention of the alternative world, including alternative sections of the Sinhala nation and mobilize them against the common danger all are facing.
Of course, the issue of people in the internment camps is of grave concern and there could be no second word that all have to rise up for their freedom.
But one has to carefully note that governments that allowed genocide, incarceration and the crushing of Tamil safe guards, and the international media that silently sabotaged the Tamil cause, are now showing interest in the IDP issue only because it is essential for the Multinational Corporations (MNCs) to establish themselves in the island. At the same time, all of them meticulously continue nullifying the Tamil national question.
There is no need to elaborate that their operations in collaboration with the Sri Lankan state, while keeping Tamils deprived of sovereignty to decide about their homeland, portend only danger.
The idea is to capture everything of Tamils including their spirit so that the question of political solution or handing over the land to the rightful owners doesn’t arise and the greedy ones could have their ways, making people as ‘work force’.
Therefore, what is of paramount importance is Tamils demonstrating their political will for sovereignty and telling the powers loud and clear that meaningful engagement comes only when they recognize the nation of Eezham Tamils and its absolute self-determination.
Independent political formation of Eezham Tamils, strongly anchored on their national aspiration for independence and sovereignty, is the foundation for achieving anything or engaging with anybody meaningfully.
Individuals who believe in circular ways or in the formulas of powers and think that engagement first and demands later, may do so and may be appreciated if their efforts bring in acceptable results.
But for this purpose they should not attempt to deviate the voice coming from the soul of Tamil nation. Truncating political voice is not the strategy.
It is for an independently organised polity of Eezham Tamils to decide about alliances. An ally may even be an alternative Sinhala polity but it cannot be anyone who tells Tamils to forget righteous aspirations.
Tamils are not asking for other’s land or for empires. They only ask for their own land and there is nothing to get scared or to feel ashamed of it.
The people of Tamil Nadu on their part have a duty in putting the message in strongest possible terms to Karunanidhi government and to the Establishment in New Delhi.
As people of classical heritage, if Tamils fail, they fail not merely their cause but an entire human civilization. news from tamilnet
read more...
Full text of the response from the commentator follows:
The world was shocked to see a video footage Tuesday showing the nakedness of Colombo’s genocide of Tamils. What was seen is only an iota of what has happened and what has been happening for decades in the island. But the snippet clip from the Independent Journalists of Sri Lanka has awakened the civilized world that was by design put to slumber by the so-called international media.
Colombo is only partly responsible for crimes against Tamils.
It is the naked greed of the tzars of so-called international community banking on Sri Lankan state that was essentially responsible for this savage experiment on human civilization.
In the long history of genocide against Tamils in the island, the state always escaped scot-free in the pogroms of 1958, 1977 and 1983. The international community did nothing in the edification of the state. Tamils were always told to compromise.
Confident of its impunity, the state was ‘all naked’ in waging the genocidal war and in incarcerating Tamil people. Equally naked, the international community rationalised and abetted it.
Indian Establishment the most active partner of Colombo, China, Russia, Pakistan, and a host of others demonstrated this in a crude way in the UN human rights council. But Tamils are more worried of the sophisticated ways of the West.
India in an intimidating way and the West in an enticing way tries to do the same thing. After military abetment, now strengthening Sri Lankan state diplomatically and economically, they want the victims to reconcile, not to call ‘genocide a genocide’ and want Tamils to forget their aspiration of achieving permanent security by having their own nation state.
India and the West are also competing subtly in capturing and blunting the democratic political moves of Tamils to suit their interests. The former is active in the island and the latter in the diaspora. The main agenda, either by coercion or enticement, is to make Eezham Tamils to drop their nationalism.
They do this with full knowledge that in the context of the deep divide in the island, nothing less than the recognition of two nations only could sort out the matter.
The Australian foreign minister was very open last week.
In view of the long ‘trade relations’ of Australia with Sri Lanka and as a fellow island nation in the ‘region,’ his government is interested in seeing a united Sri Lanka and is reluctant to call for freeing the incarcerated Tamils, despite the fact that all its earlier calls for restraint were not cared by Sri Lanka.
Australia didn’t consider Indonesia as an island nation in the region when it stood for the independence of East Timor.
What implied by the Australian foreign minister is that Tamils have to accept genocide and subjugation for the sake of the economic and geopolitical interests of powers. He leaves Tamils with no choice.
Such an open show of greed by the establishments today is a challenge to the entire civilised world. Ultimately it is a war against every person of lay humanity.
Agitations to attract attention on the plight of Eezham Tamils are planned by diaspora groups in different parts of the world. Attracting the attention of whom? Not that the establishments that caused it don’t know it.
Tamils have to draw the attention of the alternative world, including alternative sections of the Sinhala nation and mobilize them against the common danger all are facing.
Of course, the issue of people in the internment camps is of grave concern and there could be no second word that all have to rise up for their freedom.
But one has to carefully note that governments that allowed genocide, incarceration and the crushing of Tamil safe guards, and the international media that silently sabotaged the Tamil cause, are now showing interest in the IDP issue only because it is essential for the Multinational Corporations (MNCs) to establish themselves in the island. At the same time, all of them meticulously continue nullifying the Tamil national question.
There is no need to elaborate that their operations in collaboration with the Sri Lankan state, while keeping Tamils deprived of sovereignty to decide about their homeland, portend only danger.
The idea is to capture everything of Tamils including their spirit so that the question of political solution or handing over the land to the rightful owners doesn’t arise and the greedy ones could have their ways, making people as ‘work force’.
Therefore, what is of paramount importance is Tamils demonstrating their political will for sovereignty and telling the powers loud and clear that meaningful engagement comes only when they recognize the nation of Eezham Tamils and its absolute self-determination.
Independent political formation of Eezham Tamils, strongly anchored on their national aspiration for independence and sovereignty, is the foundation for achieving anything or engaging with anybody meaningfully.
Individuals who believe in circular ways or in the formulas of powers and think that engagement first and demands later, may do so and may be appreciated if their efforts bring in acceptable results.
But for this purpose they should not attempt to deviate the voice coming from the soul of Tamil nation. Truncating political voice is not the strategy.
It is for an independently organised polity of Eezham Tamils to decide about alliances. An ally may even be an alternative Sinhala polity but it cannot be anyone who tells Tamils to forget righteous aspirations.
Tamils are not asking for other’s land or for empires. They only ask for their own land and there is nothing to get scared or to feel ashamed of it.
The people of Tamil Nadu on their part have a duty in putting the message in strongest possible terms to Karunanidhi government and to the Establishment in New Delhi.
As people of classical heritage, if Tamils fail, they fail not merely their cause but an entire human civilization. news from tamilnet
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Independence day is “BLACK DAY” for us.
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கொலை ஆயுதங்களை கொடுத்து அப்பாவி தமிழ் மக்களை கொன்று தமிழ் இனத்தை துடைத்து அழிக்கும் இந்திய அரசின் செயலைக் கண்டித்து இந்திய விடுதலை தினத்தை "கருப்பு தினமாக" பொள்ளாச்சி பெரியார் திராவிடர் கழகத்தினர் அனுசரிப்பு.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
French university conference on Tamils flawed in perspectives - Tamil academic
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Organisers from two French universities have embarked upon an international pluridisciplinary conference on ‘Tamil communities and the Sri Lankan conflict’, based on presumptions that the LTTE has ‘surrendered’ and what exists is only Tamil ‘minority rights’ issues, as though the question of Eezham Tamil nation doesn't exist. One of the conference themes is the role of religious communities in seeking solutions to “the traditional Tamil society founded mainly upon the importance of caste and religious solidarity.” A Tamil academic in Colombo, responding to the conference scheme said the current task of the Eezham Tamils is to prove their status of nationhood since the agenda of priority for Colombo, New Delhi and the IC that orchestrate media and universities, is to nullify Eezham Tamil nationalism.
UFR de géographie et d'aménagement du territoire of the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne and Pôle Droit-Science Politique of the Université de Lille 2 are the institutions involved in the conference scheduled for February 2010.
Keeping with the trend set by the Establishments, the conference will discuss reconciliation, reintegration of Tamil minority in national politics, people in detention camps, IDPs as minorities responding to ‘multiethnic environment’ of Colombo, and women finding work and taking family responsibilities as ‘others’ have joined the Tigers (a pet agenda of MS Swaminathan that was viewed by a people’s group in Tamil Nadu as a conspiracy to turn the Tamil women as bonded labourers while keeping the men in custody).
As the Tamil diaspora pricks everybody’s eyes, the other major theme for the conference is to investigate at length, the functions of the Eezham Tamil diaspora and how the other Tamil diasporas as well as the people of Tamil Nadu respond to the question of Eezham Tamils.
“Eezham Tamils and their diaspora should take special note and respond appropriately to the West and its institutions that are seemingly sympathetic to the plight of Eezham Tamils with verbal articulations, but act subtly and systematically in denying Eezham Tamils the identity they wish to have and in imposing an identity they hate,” said the Tamil academic who responded to the news about the conference.
The preamble announcing the conference maintains that the LTTE was holding Tamil civilians as human shields.
“ The leaders of the West, including Obama and Hillary have to first apologise to Tamils like the Emperor of Japan apologising to the people of Okinawa,” said the academic, citing that those who repeatedly called the civilians to come to concentration camps could do nothing about them thereafter and they are responsible for every death, disappearance, human rights abuse and loss of physical cum mental health that is taking place in the camps. “If not today, one day, the posterity of leaders, especially the Indians will have to apologise, shaming the present lot of them,” the academic said.
“ In seeking solutions, one need not refuse to look at the reality of Eezham Tamil nationalism that has been amply demonstrated by the people. The West doesn’t need to copy the paranoid approach of
Neither the Eezham Tamils nor the LTTE under Pirapaharan have ever surrendered the national cause or the struggle for it. Academics and universities should show intellectual honesty at least in acknowledging it, commented the Tamil academic.
News from tamilnet
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
2 corpses of youths washed ashore in the islets of Jaffna
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Oorkaavatu’rai police recovered Sunday the corpse of a young male found washed ashore on the beach of Pungkudutheevu, an islet of Jaffna, and handed it over to Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) mortuary. Meanwhile, a male corpse washed ashore on the coast of Ezhuvaitheevu, another islet of Jaffna, was recovered by Oorkaavatttu’rai police Monday and handed over to JTH mortuary. Both bodies, clad only in underwear, were covered with assault injuries, residents who saw the bodies said.
Both corpses appear to be between 25 to 30 years of age, they said.
No one has claimed the bodies so far, hospital authorities said.
People in the islets of Jaffna, are afraid and shocked and they are reminded afresh of similar corpses of youths being washed ashore packed in gunny bags wound around with barbed wire, the sources added.
news from tamilnet
Monday, July 6, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Captain Ali Ship - Vanangaman to Srilanga
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Despite the Indian government’s statement that the Sri Lankan government had relented on its refusal to allow the aid ship sent by Tamil expatriates to dock in Colombo harbour and that the supplies for Tamil refugees would be offloaded by the Indian Red Cross, there has been no action at all, the organisers of the mercy mission said Friday. In an urgent press release, they said the MV ‘Captain Ali’ has been at sea for 51 days and the condition of its crew and passengers is now critical.
On Wednesday, Indian’s External Affairs Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, declared after meeting a high-level Sri Lankan delegation led by Basil Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan President’s brother: “I also requested the delegation that as a humanitarian gesture, the Sri Lankan Government allow the ship Captain Ali to off load the relief items on board meant for IDPs in Northern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan delegation kindly agreed to our suggestion and these would now be routed to Sri Lanka through the Indian Red Cross.”
The full text of the Mercy Mission’s statement follows:
After the positive statement by the External Affairs Minister Hon. Mr. S.M.Krishna on Wednesday evening (24 June 2009) regarding the Mercy Mission ship the MV Captain Ali, Mercy Mission personnel, supporters, volunteers and the Tamil Diaspora as a whole were relieved that there was movement on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka and that the desperately needed humanitarian relief aboard the ship would be delivered to the 300,000 Tamil civilians in the internment camps in Sri Lanka.
As of Friday evening (26 June 2009) Mercy Mission has yet to be formally notified of the 24 June decision and statement by the Indian and Sri Lankan governments. There has also not been ANY movement at the ground level and the MV Captain Ali remains anchored five (5) miles off the Port of Chennai.
The situation on the ship is now critical. The crew and passengers have been onboard for 51 days without respite and in very harsh, stressful conditions. The passengers, Uthayanan Thavarajasingam and Kristjan Gudmundsson have formally requested that the authorities allow them to disembark and to take the next flight to London and Iceland.
We request that the Government of India to:
1. Allow the MV Captain Ali to enter Chennai Port and unload the humanitarian relief which will be kept “in transit” and handed over to the Indian Red Cross for transportation to Sri Lanka and distribution in the internment camps
2. Allow the passengers to disembark and proceed to the nearest international airport where they will be able to fly to their home countries
Kohona: ‘Victorious soldiers could have raped every single woman’
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Sri Lankan government officials are running a prostitution racket using Tamil women interned in at least one of the militarised camps for displaced people, The Australian newspaper reported Thursday. "It's been brought to the attention of senior government officials but no one seems to be doing anything about it," an aid worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told the paper. In response to the accusations, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Palitha Kohona told the paper: "These (the military) are the guys who were winning the war - they could have raped every single woman on the way if they wanted to. Not one single woman was raped."Palitha T. B. Kohona, Permanent Secretary to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Aid workers told The Australian that officials at the internally displaced people's camp in Pulmoddai, a remote northeast region, are running the prostitution ring using women kept in the camp. "It's hard to know whether it's coercive or not, but there is an average of three families living to a tent and it can be extremely difficult trying to get privacy. You can imagine the military coming in and asking for something in return for more space or more favours," the aid worker said.Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Palitha Kohona described the claims as "absolute rubbish", but confirmed the government was investigating the reports, the paper said. "These (the military) are the guys who were winning the war - they could have raped every single woman on the way if they wanted to. Not one single woman was raped," Kohona told The Australian. "I am sure in a mass of people there may be individuals who want to make a quick buck one way or another, but you have to remember the tents are so close together you can't do anything without the entire neighbourhood knowing. If you had a racket going, thousands of people would know about it." A UN official said yesterday many families remained separated in the camps and that men and women believed to be Tamil Tiger fighters were being removed with "no due process or proper documentation, like arrest receipts, given to parents or guardians"."These issues are of huge concern for us," the official said. "The lack of freedom of movement is a violation of human rights under Sri Lanka's own constitution." The restrictions have heightened tensions in the camps, including a mass protest in the Ramanathan camp in the northern town of Vavuniya on Sunday in which IDPs tried to break down barbed-wire fences separating one camp zone - and many relatives - from another. UN Sri Lanka co-ordinator Neil Buhne said camp conditions were slowly improving, thanks to better water and sanitation facilities. "But the main thing is people are still inside these camps and they can't go anywhere. The government has made public commitments to get 80 per cent of people back to their homes by the end of the year (after separating civilians from the fighters) but that's going to be a difficult target to meet."
News From Tamilnet.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sri Lanka destroys evidence, prevents ICRC, UN access - Prof. Boyle
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Noting that the slow genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka accelerated to more than 10,000 killed in the last few months, far exceeding the horrors of Srebrenica, Professor Boyle in conversation with Los Angeles KPFK radio host, Michael Slate, Tuesday, accused Sri Lanka Government of bulldozing and destroying evidence of massacres in the Safety Zone while preventing access to the Red Cross and UN agencies. Boyle added that the United States Government with spy satellites would be knowing exactly what Sri Lanka's actions are in the Safe Zone, and stand implicated along with UK, France, and India in allowing the genocide to happen.
KPFK discussion with Prof. Boyle (start @4:00)
"Today ICRC still does not have access when the area should be flooded with food and medicine to urgently attend to the 300,000 Internally Displaced Tamils held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) supervised camps," Boyle said, adding, survivors from the Safety Zone, from starvation, resembled escapees from Nazi death camps.
Prof Francis Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law
The situation was similar to what happened in Gaza, Boyle said, but in Gaza people had access to food via under ground tunnels, whereas the Tamils holed up in the Safety Zone were completely cutoff from the outside and were entirely dependent on food transported by the ICRC ships.Tracing the history of the conflict, Boyle and Slate agreed that Sri Lanka was an apartheid state from the very beginning of independence, and pointed to the violent elements of the Buddhist clergy, and the India's dravidian-oriented racism as elements that exacerbated the deterioration of the conflict towards genocide.Peace processes failed, Boyle argued, because Sri Lankan Governments, instead engaging in good faith negotiation, "wanted control, domination, and elimination of the Tamil population.""We may be at the beginning of a humanitarian catastrophe for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka which would fit the ultimate objective of the Government motivated by chauvinist, violent racism," Boyle said, adding "my experience in working in genocidal situations says once the government and the people are possessed of this genocidal mentality it's very difficult to stop."Slate added, "Tamil people are a severely oppressed nation. Anyone of conscience must stand up and support their resistance." From tamilnet
read more...
KPFK discussion with Prof. Boyle (start @4:00)
"Today ICRC still does not have access when the area should be flooded with food and medicine to urgently attend to the 300,000 Internally Displaced Tamils held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) supervised camps," Boyle said, adding, survivors from the Safety Zone, from starvation, resembled escapees from Nazi death camps.
Prof Francis Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law
The situation was similar to what happened in Gaza, Boyle said, but in Gaza people had access to food via under ground tunnels, whereas the Tamils holed up in the Safety Zone were completely cutoff from the outside and were entirely dependent on food transported by the ICRC ships.Tracing the history of the conflict, Boyle and Slate agreed that Sri Lanka was an apartheid state from the very beginning of independence, and pointed to the violent elements of the Buddhist clergy, and the India's dravidian-oriented racism as elements that exacerbated the deterioration of the conflict towards genocide.Peace processes failed, Boyle argued, because Sri Lankan Governments, instead engaging in good faith negotiation, "wanted control, domination, and elimination of the Tamil population.""We may be at the beginning of a humanitarian catastrophe for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka which would fit the ultimate objective of the Government motivated by chauvinist, violent racism," Boyle said, adding "my experience in working in genocidal situations says once the government and the people are possessed of this genocidal mentality it's very difficult to stop."Slate added, "Tamil people are a severely oppressed nation. Anyone of conscience must stand up and support their resistance." From tamilnet
IFJ CONDEMNS REACTIVATION OF SRI LANKAN PRESS COUCIL LAW
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The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned the Sri Lankan Government's decision to revive the Press Council that was established by an act of parliament in 1973. The Sri Lankan Press Council Act of 1973 contains stringent provisions, including the power to prosecute for contempt and sentence journalists to extended periods in prison and to prohibit the publication of certain kinds of content by the media. Reflecting on the move by Colombo, media activists in Colombo told TamilNet Saturday that the Sri Lanakan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, despite his claim that the Tamil war has ended, was continuing his war on journalists, aiming at creating a full fledged authoritarian ruling of the island. Full text of the IFJ/IFEX statement issued on Friday follows:Reactivation of Discredited Press Council Law a Step Backward for Sri Lanka(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate organisations in Sri Lanka - the Free Media Movement, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association and the Federation of Media Employees' Trade Unions - in strongly condemning the Sri Lankan Government's decision to revive the Press Council that was established by an act of parliament in 1973.The Sri Lankan Press Council Act of 1973 contains stringent provisions, including the power to prosecute for contempt and sentence journalists to extended periods in prison and to prohibit the publication of certain kinds of content by the media, including:- Internal communications of the government and the decisions of the Cabinet;- Matters relating to the armed services that may be deemed prejudicial to national security; and- Matters of economic policy that could lead to artificial shortages and speculative price rises.The IFJ notes that four other professional organisations - the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance, the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, the Newspapers Society of Sri Lanka and the Editors' Guild of Sri Lanka - joined its affiliates in lodging a strong letter of protest with President Mahinda Rajapakse on 22 June over this deeply worrying decision by his government."We applaud this demonstration of unity by the media community of Sri Lanka and urge President Rajapakse to heed the warning that the 1973 law represents a worrying retreat from an agreed compact that the media is best served by self-regulation rather than a coercive imposition of the government‚s will," IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said."Clearly, the 1973 law is designed to protect governmental privileges, rather than serve any public purpose, such as the right of the people of Sri Lanka to be informed about the processes under which they are governed," White said.The professional media organisations in Sri Lanka have recounted in their letter to Rajapakse, that there was agreement between the media community and the Government as far back as 1994 that the statutory provisions of the Press Council law would be kept in abeyance and self-regulation instituted as the more democratic process.Further, in 2003, as the then leader of the opposition, Rajapakse had spoken out against stringent legal impediments to the free functioning of the media. He strongly urged the passage of a law that made defamation a civil rather than a criminal offence.It was then agreed by unwritten consent that the 1973 law would be scrapped. In line with this compact, the Sri Lankan media community in 2003 joined forces to set up the Sri Lanka Press Institute, which also established a Press Complaints Commission to act as a body overseeing the ethical conduct of the media.Sri Lanka's media community reminds Rajapakse of the need to honour this compact, and deplores the decision to revive a lapsed piece of legislation without consulting major stakeholders."We stand by our colleagues in Sri Lanka in this struggle to defeat the revival of old habits of thought," White said."We are convinced that the spirit of unity they have shown in lodging their protest with the President of Sri Lanka will provide a new impetus to the institutions and processes of self-regulation that began in 2003." Thank you tamilnet
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