30 May 2006 Tamil National
Forum to include
30 May 2006
Reflections
29 May 2006 Tamil Diaspora -
a Trans State Nation
1.
Tamils in Australia call for withdrawal of Sinhala
Armed Forces from the Tamil Homeland -
|
and question the
silence
of the International Community
"see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil "
...on
the war crimes committed by Sinhala armed forces...
a silence that is a lie and a silence that
condones and encourages
rape
of Tamil women,
murder of Tamil Parliamentarians,
extra judicial killing of Tamil journalists,
execution of Tamil students,
abduction of Tamil refugee workers,
attacks on Tamil civilians and Tamil shops,
bombing of Tamil civilian population centres,
massacre of Tamil children,and
displacing thousands of Tamils from their homes.
2.
Tamils
in Finland march from Helsinki EU office to Foreign Ministry
3.
Tamils in Switzerland demonstrate in Berne in support of Struggle for
Tamil Eelam
4.
Tamils in Germany
demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam
5.
Tamils in Italy
demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam
6.
Tamils in France demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam, 29
May 2006
7.
Tamils in
Netherlands demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam
8.
Tamils in
Canada demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam
in
Toronto
in
Ottawa
9.
Tamils in South
Africa demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam
10.Tamils
in Norway demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam
11. Tamils
in Sweden demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam
12.
Tamils in
United Kingdom demonstrate in support of Struggle for Tamil Eelam
|
28 May 2006 Tamil National
Forum to include Comment
by Subramanian Srinivasan on Mathematics of Reservations in Tamil
Nadu
28 May 2006
Comments & About Us
to include
Shalini Kunahlan writes from Australia
"...I am a Tamil Sri Lankan who lives in Malaysia. My
grandparents immigrated from Jaffna to Malaysia 80 years ago. I am
currently studying in Australia and doing my honours in English
literature. I am in the process of writing an essay using your
website to demonstrate how the Tamil diaspora (focusing on the
Australian example) use new media to subvert hegemonic discourses
(represented by the 'info war' between the
Sri
Lankan army's official website and the
LTTE's official website)
of the civil war in Sri Lanka. I will be using your website to show how
it has allowed the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora to affirm 'effectively' and
'subversively' their political and cultural identity."
more
together with
response by tamilnation.org |
27 May 2006
Reflections to include
"..the people's patience is
not endless. The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain
only two choices: submit or fight. That time has now come to South
Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all
means within our power in defence of our people, our future and our
freedom. ...Refusal to resort to force has been interpreted by the
government as an invitation to use armed force against the people
without any fear of reprisals..."
Nelson Mandela, December
1961 |
26 May 2006 Tamil National
Forum to include
25 May 2006 One
Hundred Tamils of 20th/21st Centuries -
Who is
a Tamil?
to include
Comment
by
Mariam
Manuel Pillai from Tamil Eelam
24 May 2006
Reflections to include
".. Petitioning which we have so long followed, we
reject as impossible - the dream of timid experience, the teaching of
false friends who hope to keep us in perpetual subjection, foolish to
reason, false to experience.... It is a vain dream to suppose that what
other nations have won by struggle and battle, by suffering and tears of
blood, we shall be allowed to accomplish easily, without terrible
sacrifices, merely by spending the ink of the journalist and petition
framer and the breath of the orator. Petitioning will not bring us
one yard nearer freedom .. without organised resistance we could not
take more than a few faltering steps towards self emancipation. But
resistance may be of many kinds .. the circumstances of the country and
the nature of the despotism from which it seeks to escape must determine
what form of resistance is best justified and most likely to be
effective. "
Sri Aurobindo, 1907 |
24 May 2006 Tamil National
Forum to include
1. Fr.Chandi
Sinnathurai -
Brian SEN
2. Sachi Sri Kantha from Japan on
Perversity of Pyromaniacs Part 2: Amirthalingam�s Speech on the
Torching of Jaffna in May-June 1981 [also revisited: Nadesan
Satyendra on
Appapillai Amirthalingam,
July 1999 "...It may, perhaps, be said for Amirthalingam, that his
lasting political contribution was to clarify for many Tamils (who
may have thought otherwise) that 'effective leadership of an
armed....struggle requires a new style of leadership' and that
guerrilla warfare cannot be directed from outside but only from
within, by a leadership which accepts
'its full share of the risks involved.' .."]
3. Sanmugam Sabesan from Australia -
சிறிலங்கா உண்மையிலேயே சட்டரீதியான இறைமையுள்ள நாடா?
உலகநாடுகளும் உண்மையாகவே சமாதானத்தை விரும்புகின்றனவா?
4. Brian Senewiratne from Australia -
Selected
Writings
"There has been
an unprecedented reaction by the Singhalese community by way of
offensive e-mails and telephone calls. The verbal abuse is serious
and disruptive. They have taken the form of telephone calls, both to
my home phone and my mobile every half an hour throughout the night,
ever
since I published the Trinco bombing. The calls are disruptive
not only of my sleep but, what is more serious, of my medical
practice. I�m on call to several hospitals and it is impossible, and
quite irresponsible in the interest of patient care, to knock off
both my mobile and home phone. ...Although it does not bother us too
much, it may be one reason why so few Singhalese (and others) have
been reluctant to come forward and say what has to be said..."
more
5. Usha Sriskandarajah from
Canada -
An Ode
to Brian Senewiratne
|
23 May 2006 Tamil
Diaspora: a Trans State Nation - European Union -
Expatriate
Tamils from Across Europe to rally before Bern Parliament,
Switzerland
23 May 2006
Reflections to include
"...We are fully aware that the world is not rotating
on the axis of human justice. Every country in this world advances its
own interests. Economic and trade interests determine the order of the
present world, not the moral law of justice nor the rights of people.
International
relations and diplomacy between countries are determined by such
interests. Therefore we cannot expect an immediate recognition of the
moral legitimacy of our cause by the international community...In
reality, the success of our struggle depends on us, not on the world.
Our success depends on our own efforts, on our own strength, on our own
determination."
Velupillai Pirabakaran, Mahaveerar Naal Speech, 27 November 1993 |
23 May 2006
Caste & the Tamil Nation -
Brahmins, Non
Brahmins & Dalits
to include
Professor Ravishankar Arunachalam on the
Mathematics of Reservations in Tamil Nadu
"Of course, forward castes aren't happy with the situation, in
spite of having a larger representation than their proportion in the
population. The problem is that the total number of seats available
is so low that most people are left out. But this is true of every
single category, and not just FCs. Many of us, belonging to the
forward castes, have a lot of friends who are "left out", and feel
outraged that its due to reservations ( though many FC candidates score
lower than even the reserved-category cut-off marks, and still blame
reservations!). But the question to ask is: What about the lakhs of
people from the MBCs and BCs who get left out ? There are thousands of
farmers' daughters and weavers' sons who either are unable to get to
high school, or even if they do, do not get adequate support from home
and are unable to afford coaching classes. We seldom know them and do
not encounter them in our day-to-day lives. Yet they are real students,
who are not only unable to get into these seats, but do not even get the
opportunity to compete on an even footing. Are we pre-supposing that
these students are all devoid of merit? According to the math above, for
every Forward Class friend of ours, there are atleast 5 Backward
Class/Most Backward Class students who were denied the opportunity to
get a seat. Who speaks for them ?.."
more |
22 May 2006
Conflict Resolution:
Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka
to include
1.
TNA calls for an even-handed approach "...The
primary cause of the current violence has been due to the refusal of the
Sri Lankan State to implement key provisions of the CFA that obligates
the State to disarm and dismantle Paramilitary armed groups in the
Northeast of Sri Lanka. On the contrary the Sri Lankan State has been
supporting and working with new Paramilitary armed groups in the
Northeast of Sri Lanka that have been involved in targeted killings of
LTTE members, prominent TNA political leaders including elected
parliamentarians, leaders of Tamil Civil Society, Tamil humanitarian
workers, and prominent Tamil journalists..."
2.
Sri Lanka government can still avert new war -
Anton Balasingham |
21 May 2006
Sri
Lanka's War on Eelam Tamils - in the Shadow of a Ceasefire
to include
International League for the Rights & Liberation of Peoples writes to
Ms. Louise ARBOUR, High Commissioner of Human Rights, Geneva "...we
are under no illusion that the international institutions have largely
remained a forum for governments for whom
political considerations typically count more than those of justice and
morality. We, therefore, appeal to you to lend your voice to the
suffering people in the North and East of Sri Lanka, Tamils and Muslims
alike, who have no voice. The then government of Sri Lanka could prevent
Mr. Kofi Annan from visiting the tsunami affected areas in the Northeast
of the country back in January 2005; there is no govenment today that
can hinder you, High Commissioner, to express your concern about the
killings, the involuntary disappearances, the
bombardment of civilians. .." |
20 May 2006 Tamil National
Forum - Sanmugam Sabesan -
இலக்கு மிகத்தெளிவாக இருக்கின்றது to include
English Translation
20 May 2006 Tamil Heritage
to include
19 May 2006
Reflections to include
"..I want to say to you, friends, that
the Jewish community in Palestine is going to fight to the very end.
If we have arms to fight with, we will fight with those, and if not, we
will fight with stones in our hands... During the last few years the
Jewish people lost 6,000,000 Jews, and it would be audacity on our part
to worry the Jewish people throughout the world because a few hundred
thousand more Jews were in danger. That is not the issue. The issue
is that if these 700,000 Jews in Palestine can remain alive, then the
Jewish people as such is alive and Jewish independence is assured.
If these 700,000 people are killed off, then for many centuries, we are
through with this dream of a Jewish people and a Jewish homeland..."
Golda Meir - The Speech that Made possible A Jewish State, 1948 |
19 May 2006 Tamil National
Forum to include
1.
Arugan from Italy - குற்றச்சாட்டும் பாராட்டும்
�என் எண்ணங்களுக்குப் பசியெடுக்கிறது � அவை என் எழுத்துக்களையே
உணவாய்க்கேட்கிறது�
2.
Tamil
blamelessness? - Editorial, Oru Paper, London
"...Today it is clear beyond all reasonable doubt that
the Tamils in Sri Lanka are facing another major war. Already a well
planned low intensity war is slowly leeching our people of their
futures. Daily people are being injured, intimidated and killed by Sri
Lankan institutions, while the moral and ethical guardians of the world,
India and the US-European-Japan Bloc are trying to politically
stabilise and militarily strengthen the Sri Lankan state in order to
promote and consolidate their respective strategic and economic
interests. Again and again we see the carrots of political
recognition and economic assistance being dangled and verbal and
diplomatic threats splayed before the Tamils..."
more |
19 May 2006 International Frame & the Tamil
Struggle
K.
Sooriyakumaran on Labels and Pliability
"...30 years after the formation of the LTTE and with multiple
international terrorist labels, it had become a mass based
political-military organisation, with an extensive over ground and under
ground network all over the world, and is celebrated and supported as
the vanguard of secular Tamil Nationalism by majority of Tamils in and
outside Sri Lanka. At the same time we find the Sri Lankan nation state
almost economically bankrupt, its armed forces trapped in a military
quicksand of Jaffna peninsula, its institutions racist and impotent, its
media in collective amnesia and hysteria, its elites in denial and the
Sinhalese stake holders in tribal exuberance. �It is the 25th failed
state in the world, even worse than Ethiopia�
says an American institution. But with the Canadians and possibly,
Europeans following suite with the Indians, British and Americans, by
labelling the Tigers as terrorists what does the future hold? And the
question of why can be heard muttered by many Tamil mouths all over the
world. Could it be as one great Tamil said 3 years ago.. �The sole,
ulterior purpose of the US-European-Japan Bloc in trying to influence
and manage the LTTE, is to stabilise the Sri Lankan state (25th failed
state in the world) in a manner that would make the Tamil Nation
sufficiently pliable to accommodate their respective strategic and
economic interests� (Sivaram, May 2003).
more |
18 May 2006 Sri Lanka's War
on Eelam Tamils...in the Shadow of a Ceasefire
to include
International Educational Development and Association of
Humanitarian Lawyers write to Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial,
summary or arbitrary executions and to the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner For Human Rights "...During the long years of this
armed conflict, we have been distressed that the international community
has not kept its focus on application of humanitarian law, and has
allowed States with their own geopolitical interests at stake in the
situation to reframe the discussion about it. This has been to the great
detriment to both unbiased and equal attention to both sides of the
conflict, but has also led to a kind of international �demonization�
of the Tamil people and the LTTE. From this perspective,
military operations that are legal for combatant forces in an armed
conflict carried out by the LTTE are widely discussed as �terrorist,�
while aerial bombings of schools, hospitals, churches (many of them
sheltering persons displaced by the armed conflict) by the Sri Lankan
armed forces receive little or no condemnation, although these acts are
identified in humanitarian law as violations, if not grave breaches....
these grave breaches --
war crimes
in international law -- receive almost no condemnation for what they
actually represent..."
more |
18 May 2006 Tamil National
Forum
17 May 2006 Sri Lanka's
Continuing Massacre of Tamils: 48 years
after
Emergency'58, & 22 years after
Genocide'83,
1.
Extrajudicial killing of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan Armed
Forces (SLAFs) - Report by LTTE Political Wing
2.Sri
Lanka Navy murders 13 civilian Tamils (including a 4 month old baby and
a 4-year-old child) in Mandaithivu, Jaffna on 13 May 2006
"The (international) monitors - God bless them all - are
investigating! Let us all hope that the SLMM comes out forcefully
and fast with a statement!! ... What is happening now in parts of the
North - East is unadulterated state terror. Why is it that the
international community which is quick to condemn LTTE �terror� harshly
is by contrast painfully slow and soft in condemning state �terror�? Is
there any justification for killing sleeping infant and child? ... The
Allaipiddy massacre and Velanai violence has sent shock waves down all
decent people who came to know of it.. It was committed the day after
Vesak. Mahinda Rajapakse has once again promised a full investigation.
The world is keen to know the fate of his earlier full investigations
like the murder of
five Tamil youths in Trincomalee... It is customary to end articles
of this type with the appeal that justice should be done and the
culprits be punished. In the Sri Lanka of Mahinda and Gothabhaya
Rajapakse that is not likely to happen..."
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
Murdered: Ketheeswaran Yathursan (4
months), Ketheeswaran Thanushkanth (4), Palachamy
Ketheeswaran (25), Ketheeswaran Anex Ester (23), Abraham
Robinson (28), Sellathurai Amalathas (28), Kanesh Navaratnam
(50) , Joseph Anthonymuttu ,(64) Sinnathurai Sivanesan(46),
Murugesu Shanmugalingam (72), S Kantharoopan (29),
Shanmugalingam Parameswari (65), Ratnam Senthuran (38)
ஓ....எங்கள் குரல் கேட்கிறதா ?
REST IN PEACE
Rev. Father Chandi Sinnathurai
Look what the peace talkers have
done! Much could be understood From that which is not said..
We shall take
control of our very own destiny We shall
rule our
land and the sea...
Upon our dead we promise�
more
|
16 May 2006 Conflict
Resolution: Norwegian Peace Initiative - Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka
to include
16 May 2006
Pattern of Massacres by Sri Lanka Armed Forces - the Record
Speaks...
Massacre in Trincomalee, 2006 |
Bindunuwewe Massacre, 2000 |
Orphanage Massacre, 2000 |
Kalutara Prison Massacre, 1997 |
Kumarapuram Massacre, 1996 |
Navali Massacre, 1995 |
Jeyanthipuram Massacre, 1995 |
Kokaddicholai Massacre, 1991 |
Saththurukondan Massacre, 1990 |
Kannapuram Massacre,1990 |
Kokkadaicholai Massacre, 1987 |
Akkaraipattu Massacre, 1986 |
Iruthayapuram Massacre, 1986 |
Tiriyai Massacre 1985 |
Kumithini Massacre 1985 |
Chunnakam Massacre 1984 |
Organized Progom, 1977 |
Welikade Prison Massacre, 1983 |
Genocide '83 |
Genocide'58 |
16 May 2006 Tamil Armed
Resistance & the Law to include
Role
of Non-State Actors in Building Human Security - Case of Armed Groups in
Intra-State Wars - Claude Bruderlein "...the term "non-state
actors" amalgamates a large number of very different actors with
distinct roles in societies in conflict. Non-state actors include
armed groups, NGOs, corporations, educational institutions, private
donors, religious organizations, the scientific community, private
individuals, the media and, increasingly, the internet community.
Their few shared characteristics result from their distinct "unofficial"
nature as compared to state actors, their greater flexibility and
often unaccountability under national and international laws. There is
an acute need to distinguish better the various types of non-state
actors...This paper focuses on the armed groups as non-state actors
engaged in violent action..."
more
|
16 May 2006 Comments
to include Leslie
Kanthan, Warwick, United Kingdom, on Brian Senewiratne
16 May 2006 Tamil National
Forum to include
1. Sanmugam Sabesan writes from Australia -
இலக்கு
மிகத்தெளிவாக இருக்கின்றது
2.
A Tamil University Student, United Kingdom
"Even now writing this e-mail, I struggle to write coherently as I am
overwhelmed with great sadness. I have too many questions, although many
of those had been addressed by your very great articles, I still find
myself asking those very same questions time after time. So to sum it up
in a few lines..."
more |
14 May 2006 Sri Lanka's War
Crimes
Brian
Senewiratne on the Situation in Muthur
"..The Sinhala Government is too
stupid to realise that Eelam is not a creation of the Tamils
or even of the LTTE. It is a creation of
Sinhala ethno-religious chauvinism and
State brutality. The division of the country is not
going to come because the Tamils wanted it, but
because it was forced on them by the abysmal stupidity of a
succession of Sinhala Governments since Independence,
especially since 1956. It is too late now to turn the clock
back. Indeed, the events now unfolding in
Trincomalee
are turning the clock forward at a spectacular rate..."
more |
12 May 2006 Reflections
12 May 2006
Armed Struggle for Tamil Eelam: Reports of Armed Conflict to
include
Indian help secures safety of Sri Lanka's �Pearl Cruiser�
10 May 2006 Sri Lanka's
Continuing War in the Shadow of A Ceasefire to include
1.
International Federation of Tamils writes to UN Special
Rapporteur, Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
2.
Tamil civilians murdered, by and under the supervision of, Sri Lankan
Armed Forces (SLAFs) - Since Geneva talks on 24 February until 8 May
2006 - Report by LTTE Political Wing "...Another very important
aspect of these civilian murders that is missed by most international
observers is the fact that a total 12 Tamil civilians were killed on
February 27, March 5, 6, 9, 20, 22, 24, 25, and 28. Then on April 7
Tamil activist, Vigneswaran, was killed. The first attack on SLA posts
after the Geneva talks took place on April 8th. Readers can now draw
their own conclusion about who is responsible for the deteriorating
situation following the Geneva talks..."
more
3.
Eight �missing� Tamils from Manthuvil feared killed by
Army - D.B.S. Jeyaraj |
9 May 2006 Tamil National Forum
to include
1.
Chandiravarman Sinnathurai
from Tamil Eelam
Any Questions? "...I came back after the retreat
thinking whether there has there been a proper preparation for these
so-called peace talks between Sri Lanka and Tamil Eelam. Don't
you think it is wrong that only when the heat is up, only when each
is at the other's throat we run to talk, to negotiate - without any
preparation; without any thought - perhaps only duplicitous
thoughts...accusations; counter accusations; press releases opposing
media speeches; tit for tat? Everything ends in violence - violating
fundamental human dignity and right. When either side refuses to
listen and hear then what is left is a dialogue of the deaf. I hold
a dim view of such talks. It persistently misses the fundamental
point, the sole reason for coming together..."
more
2.
Sanmugam Sabesan from Australia
ஊடகவியலாளர்களின் உயிர்களை உறிஞ்சுகின்ற சிறிலங்காவின் பயங்கரவாதம்
"...தமிழ் ஊடகங்கள் மீதும் தமிழ் ஊடகவியாளர்கள் மீதும் சிறிலங்கா
அரசுகள்
தொடர்ச்சியான வன்முறைகளை
மேற்கொண்டு வருவது குறிப்பிடத் தக்கதாகும்.
நிர்மலராஜன்,
சுகிர்தராஜன்,
நடேசன்,
சிவராம்
போன்ற தமிழ் ஊடகவியலாளர்கள் கோரமாகக் கொலை செய்யப்பட்டது மட்டுமன்றி
எண்ணிலடங்காத் தமிழ் ஊடகவியலாளர்கள் சிங்கள அரசுகளாலும் தமிழ் ஒட்டுக்
குழுக்களாலும் தொடர்ந்தும் அச்சுறுத்தப்பட்டே வருகின்றார்கள்..."
more
3.
Chandiravarman Sinnathurai
from Tamil Eelam -
The Life
of Job "Job wanted God to reveal the meaning of his life. What
is the purpose? Where do I fit into God�s divine plan? As the
conversation with God progressed Job grew in maturity. Job paid a heavy
price for this deepening experience. He experienced dark mental torture.
His friends proved to be flimsy, superficial, and shallow. However, in
the end, Job�s life was enriched. He recovered everything he lost.
Perhaps much more than he thought he had lost."
more |
8 May 2006 Revisited
Indictment
Against Sri Lanka - Ethnic Cleansing of Eelam Tamils
"..
Ethnic cleansing is about assimilating a people. It is about
destroying the identity of a people, as a people. And it often
occurs in stages. The preferred route of a conqueror is to achieve
his objective without resort to violence - peacefully and
stealthily. But when that fails, the would be conqueror turns to
murderous violence and genocide to progress his assimilative agenda.
In the island of Sri Lanka, the record shows that during the past
fifty years and more, the intent and goal of all Sinhala governments
(without exception) has been to secure the island as a
Sinhala
Buddhist Deepa. Rule by a permanent ethnic majority within the
confines of a single state is the
dark side of democracy... Today, (in 2006) the President
Rajapakse government seeks to pursue the Sinhala assimilative agenda
by
reneging on the 2002 Oslo Declaration, by refusing to recognise
the
existence of the Tamil homeland, and by perpetuating a Sri
Lankan state structure within which the Tamil people may continue to
be
ruled by a permanent Sinhala majority. At the sametime the
genocidal intent of the President Rajapakse government is reflected
in the
war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces under the
President's command..."
more |
8 May 2006 Spirituality
& the Tamil Nation to include
Whither Saivaism - 21st Century?- V.Siva Subramaniam
5 May 2006 Sachi Sri
Kantha writes from Japan -
On the 30th
Birth Anniversary of LTTE
"The penultimate page of �terrorism expert� and LTTE
critic Rohan Gunaratna�s short book �War & Peace in Sri Lanka� (1990)
carried the following candid report of the wish of a Sinhalese
politician, who made a political career as a Tamil-baiter.
�December 1987: President J.R.Jayewardene [JRJ]
vows to destroy the LTTE in the North and the JVP in the South. At a
public rally in Hambantota, President Jayewardene stated, �I am a
military leader. I am like Hitler. There is no doubt that there is a
war on. We cannot win a war without killing the enemy. If they
destroy me � I do not know whether this is the correct word to use �
avenge me.� �
While Jayewardene died 10 years ago, his vow of
�destroying the LTTE� had remained as a mere fantasy."...
more |
3 May 2006
Fourth
World - Nations without a State to include
International Human Rights Organisation accuses Indian Intelligence
Agencies and Renegade Militants for Sikh Massacre in Kashmir " The
International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), after an on the spot
investigation, indicted renegade-militants for the Chithi
Singhpora (Anantnag) massacre of 35 Sikhs on March 20 last. Area around
the ill-fated Singhpora village is largely controlled by armed
militant groups that had abandoned freedom movement and are recruited by
the (Indian) army as an auxiliary counter-insurgency force. They
are provided with settlements almost adjoining to the army camps...
(the massacre was) aimed at breaking the Sikh-Muslim worldwide nexus to
rundown the Kashmir movement for self-determination. Actually, Sikhs and
Muslims are now coming closer not only in Kashmir but also worldwide.
This ghastly act is aimed at dampening this process."
more (comment by tamilnation.org:
Many Eelam Tamils may find the actions of the Indian Intelligence
Services all
too familiar) |
3 May 2006
Media & the Tamil
Struggle - Censorship, Disinformation & Murder of Tamil Journalists
"Tuesday Night Raid by five armed paramilitaries attached to the Sri Lanka army
ended in two journalists dead, three seriously injured and the entire office
smashed and reduced to a heap of debris. Five paramilitary gunmen, 4 with T-56
rifles and the fifth with a pistol bulldozed into the Udhayan Tamil Newspaper
office, at Kasthuriyar Road, Jaffna and sprayed bullets all around. For
Thevasagayam Suresh, the marketing manager and S.Ranjith, 24, a technical staff,
death by government paramilitary bullet was instantaneous, on the eve of the
World Press Freedom Day..."
2 May 2006
Reflections
''I was once asked by an Englishman connected with
the British Refugee Council: 'You say Tamil Eelam, but where are the
boundaries of this Tamil Eelam that you talk about? Show me.'
I was taken aback by the directness of the question. I thought for a
while, searching for an appropriate response. Then I replied: 'Take a
map of the island. Take a paint brush and paint all the areas where Sri
Lanka has
bombed and launched
artillery attacks during these past several years. When you have
finished, the painted area that you see - that is Tamil Eelam.''"
Sathasivam
Krishnakumar, (Kittu), founding Member of LTTE, speaking in Zurich,
on Maha Veerar Naal, in November 1990 |
2 May 2006 Tamil National Forum
1.
Brian
Senewiratne - Sri Lanka Bombs its Own People "This is not
an Appeal, nor a Plea � humanitarian or otherwise. It is to apprise
foreign Governments, the international media, religious leaders, NGOs,
leaders of civic society and people outside Sri Lanka, of what is going
on in that country. It is NOT a request for help or intervention. I am
merely presenting the facts to the outside world and my sympathy to a
devastated people in Trincomalee...I am not going to hurt these people
again by appealing for help from an international community steeped in
hypocrisy. The only �crime� that these people have committed is to be
born Tamil. They pay for a crime they did not commit in a world where no
one cares.
Presumably
Tamil lives in Sri Lanka are not real lives, Tamil suffering not real
suffering... I am attaching some photographs mailed from Trincomalee on
26 April 2006. If you find them shocking, I tender no apology.
It is time the world was shocked by what is going on behind the closed
doors of Sri Lanka. "
more
2.
Father Chandi Sinnathurai -
What Questions Are Worth Asking?
" Many Sinhala commentators, however, believe that even
if the �bomber� were to pose as a pregnant wife of an army official, the
guards would have checked her carefully. In the process of a thorough
security body check, a female guard would have easily discovered the
plot. That was not to be. If the human bomb was a Tamil, suspicions
would have doubly risen owing to her accent. Gone are the days of any
Tamil army officials in the Sinhala army � no decent Tamil would ever
want to join such a genocidal killing system. Was this �human bomb� then
a Sinhala? Did the human bomb bribe the guards in order to sneak her in
to the complex and to be close to the intended target? What does this
story line tell about the security system in the heart of the Army HQ?
How did the so-called human bomb glean intelligence, including of the
precise timing of the Commander�s exit? "
more
3.
Sanmugam Sabesan from Australia on
உரிமை
இல்லாத சமாதானமா? அல்லது சமாதானம் இல்லாத உரிமையா? "...சர்வதேச நாடுகள்
தங்களுக்கு உண்மை நிலையும், களநிலையும் தெரியாது என்பது போல் நடிப்பதை
இனியாவது நிறுத்த வேண்டும். இல்லாவிட்டால் எதிர்காலத்தில் தமிழர்
பிரச்சனைகளுக்கான தீர்வு முயற்சிகளில் சர்வதேச நாடுகள் பங்கேற்க முடியாமல்
போவது மட்டுமல்ல பார்வையாளர்களாகவும் இருக்க முடியாத நிலைதான் ஏற்படும்..."
more
[together with
Translation in English] |
1 May 2006 On the First
Anniversary of Dharmaretnam Sivaram's murder Revisited -
What is
really wrong with the counter insurgency methods?
"..Sri Lanka is easily the only country in the world
to fight its insurgency with the undivided support of the
international community, the backing of all the important nations
across the global political spectrum. It is the most advantageous
external environment that any country may have ever had in fighting an
insurgency. And yet something is obviously going wrong. There are three
reasons that may be attributed to the apparent failure of western
counter insurgency - CI - methods in Sri Lanka... Firstly, the LTTE has
developed over the years a fairly sophisticated counter-counter
insurgency system. Secondly, it has consistently focused its
resources on building a conventional force and on preserving the
minimum required territory to sustain such a force. And thirdly it
never lets itself be inveigled or coerced into the political space
that is so necessary for diluting and mystifying the basic cause
fuelling the insurgency..."
more |
|