In addition, there has been neither accountability for the allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both Government and Tamil Tiger (LTTE) forces during the conflict nor any meaningful attempts to address the root cause of the ethnic conflict and war – the discrimination and marginalisation of the Tamil people right from the time of independence in 1948, which the British Government gave to all the people of the island.
Posts Categorized: Diaspora
Vote for Liberation
The landslide victory of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) election was an act of sheer defiance by the Tamil people. Their emphatic endorsement of the TNA at the ballot box – whose campaign highlighted the core Tamil political demands and the Tamil armed resistance for independence – was a… Read more »
USTPAC Hails Tamils’ Landslide Victory in Sri Lanka’s Provincial Vote
USTPAC press release _NPC election_092413 In Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council vote held on Saturday, the Tamil National Alliance defeated the Sri Lanka government alliance securing firm control of the Council. Despite violence and voter intimidation with suffocating military presence, Tamils signal to chart their own destiny. WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — United States… Read more »
Ethirveerasingam on his Hopes for Reconciliation
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2013/sep/21/sri-lanka-reconciliation-video Sri Lankan Olympian Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam on his hopes for reconciliation — video Diaspora communities can inspire peace in their country of origin, according to US resident Dr Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, a former Olympian of Tamil heritage who coaches young athletes in Sri Lanka. Though he is sceptical of the government’s reconciliation programme, he says sport… Read more »
Can the TNA Scream ?
Just wanted to put down a few quick comments on the NPC election The difference in press coverage by the western media and the Indian media was in stark contrast. Indian Media was out on a limb trying to set up a different narrative than what the Tamil people were voting for Voter turn out… Read more »
Canadian Tamil Congress congratulates TNA
For Immediate Release September 22, 2013. Canadian Tamil Congress congratulates TNA and Chief Minister elect Justice C.V. Wigneswaran. The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) congratulates the Tamil National Alliance and the Chief Minister elect Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on the impressive election victory in the Northern Provincial Council elections. Despite the intimidation by the Sri Lankan… Read more »
TGTE: UN Rights Chief’s Visit to Sri Lanka
“The visit enabled Ms.Pillay to see militarization of Tamil civilian lives, disappearances & sexual violence against Tamil women by the army” ‘EIN PressWire’s World News,’ New York, September 7, 2013 **** Highlights of the Statement: 1) Failure of rule of law, reinforce the need for international investigation. 2) Need of the hour is international protection… Read more »
#99Eelamtamil Problems. but Unity Ain’t One
If we were not a united people, the struggle would not have lasted for 3 generations… Dissent should not be confused for disunity… The diversity of diaspora organizations, each operating in different spaces but united in the end goal is a strategic asset.
Time to Let Peace Builders Do Their Job
Last Friday marked the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project in which the Court held the sweeping view that “material support” to terrorist organizations included even support aimed at promoting peace. That means the U.S. government can criminally prosecute groups or individuals for facilitating peace talks, offering training… Read more »
Time for U.S. Pressure on Sri Lanka
Editor’s note: Karunyan Arulanantham is the executive director of the Tamil American Peace Initiative, an organization of Tamil Americans. The views expressed are the writer’s own. Amid the jungle and sandy beaches of northeast Sri Lanka’s Vanni region lie tragic truths the government has desperately sought to suppress in the four years since its civil… Read more »
Videos of Recent Conferences
International Council on Eelam Tamils (ICET) – Tamils rights conference in Geneva, March 2-4, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEOY5KrLBqA http://youtu.be/uEOY5KrLBqA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHwah7gzduk http://youtu.be/lHwah7gzduk http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fvOIKXE_I8Q#! http://youtu.be/fvOIKXE_I8Q Transnational Government of Tamil… Read more »
The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka
Certainly the Sinhala-Buddhist Sri Lanka and its predecessor-in-law Ceylon have committed genocide against the Hindu/Christian Tamils that actually started on or about 1948 and has continued apace until today in violation of Genocide Convention Articles II(a), (b), and (c)….
Since 1983 the Sinhala-Buddhist Ceylon/ Sri Lanka have exterminated approximately 300,000 Hindu/Christian Tamils….
In other words, in order to find Sri Lanka guilty of genocide against the Tamils, it is not required to prove that Sri Lanka has the intention to exterminate all Tamils. Rather, all that is necessary is to establish that Sri Lanka intended to destroy a “substantial part” of the Tamils living on Sri Lanka.
Seeking Security
This May 18th, as the Tamil nation remembers on genocide past and present, and looks towards the 5th year of ‘peace’, the need for security is only more apparent; and the Tamil nation’s determination in achieving it, more profound.
Kickstarter Campaign for ‘No Fire Zone’
No Fire Zone – Impact Distribution http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599171067/no-fire-zone-impact-distribution 3,800 British pounds raised to date. Need 20,000 pounds by May 30 to get any funds according to Kickstarter rules. This was supposed to be a war conducted in secret. The Government excluded the international press, forced the UN to leave the war zone and ruthlessly silenced the… Read more »
Discourse on the NPC Elections
From T.K. The 13th Amendment has been discussed in great length here and elsewhere as nowhere near power devolution of any kind for Tamils. However, the insertion of it in Tamils’ path TODAY cannot be termed as about ‘nothing’. Even the parliament and judiciary cannot withstand the Sri Lankan presidential system, so why do we make much ado about the… Read more »
Tamils Continue to Flee Sri Lanka
To escape this climate of fear, it appears that an increasing number of Tamils are fleeing Sri Lanka, boarding barely seaworthy vessels, bound for an uncertain future as asylum seekers. This is despite the government’s official effort to reconstruct the war-torn north of the country. “You have a significant number of people leaving postwar, at a point at which the government is assuring that economic development is prioritized and reconciliation is being effected in earnest,” says the CPA’s Saravanamuttu. The fact that so many people are choosing to go “seems to suggest people in the north don’t feel that way. They are voting with their feet, so to speak, and they are paying fairly large sums of money and risking life and limb to do it.” Saravanamuttu says that official numbers of the number of people leaving are unavailable, but to give just one example, over 6,000 Tamils arrived in Australia in 2012, some 30 times higher than the 2011 figure.
Seeding Resistance
What was long dismissed or vilified as ‘extremist ideology’, proved to be not only irrefutably ubiquitous but a rationale response to legitimate grievances. The nation had come together and its voice was clear: resistance in the face of genocide and the Eelam Tamil nation’s right to self determination – the same two threads that formed and remain the basis of the Tamil struggle today.
TfO: More Needs to Be Done
“Nothing except an international investigation is likely to produce an acceptable result, the letter concluded.”
Resolution Another UN ‘Grave Failure’
While PEARL appreciates continued attention by the Council on Sri Lanka, we regret the resolution’s failure to establish an international Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sri Lanka.
Geneva Resolution: Not A Victory For Tamils, But A Defeat For Sri Lanka
Geneva Resolution: Not a Victory for Tamils, but a Defeat for Sri Lanka PM – TGTE – Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran The resolution proposed by America at the Human Rights Council related to Sri Lanka was passed by a majority of 13 votes. Out of the Human Rights Council comprising of 47 member states, 26 voted for the resolution, 13 against… Read more »