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.
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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.
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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."
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