TGTE strongly condemns the siege of the United Nations office in Sri Lanka
[Jul 8, 2010, 00:50], [TNS]
The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) strongly condemns the siege of the United Nations office in Sri Lanka led by a senior cabinet member who is also a close ally of the Sri Lankan President. The Sri Lankan police response to this aggressive demonstration is in stark contrast to the brutal force it used against peaceful anti -government demonstrations in the past. Sri Lankan security forces are engaged in holding tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in internment camps, while the UN staff that cared about those in the camps are being threatened in this manner.
Three Strong Personalities in the UN (Opinion)
[Jul 1, 2010, 18:51], [TNS]
Three high ranking people in the UN helped the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to appoint an advisory panel of experts on Jun 22 2010 to advise him on accountability issues relating to alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka that ended in May last year. They were Dr (Mrs) Navaneethan Pillai, Mr Philip Alston and Mr Lynn Pascoe.
The advisory Panel members are:- Indonesia’s Mr Marzuki Darusman will serve as the chair of the expert panel, and the other two members are Ms Yasmin Sooka of South Africa and Mr Steven Ratner of the United States. The three-member panel will advise Mr. Ban on implementing the commitment on human rights accountability made in the Joint Statement issued by him and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) after the UN chief visited the island in May 09. The panel is expected to wrap up its responsibilities within four months of starting work.
"Wish all Canadians enjoyable celebrations for Canada’s 143rd birthday" - Canadian M.P.
[Jul 1, 2010, 11:37], [TNS]
On behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Government of Canada, Patrick Brown, Member of Parliament, Barrie, Ontario Province, Canada wish all the Canadian including Canadian Tamils enjoyable celebrations for Canada’s 143rd birthday on July 1st. The M.P. in his Canada day message to Tamils said, The Tamil community in Canada has demonstrated that they are law-abiding, hard working and contributors to our democratic civic society. Canadian Tamils greatly value education and have become both socially and politically active throughout Canada’s communities.
The Government of Canada celebrates the fact that Tamils have become one of the largest visible minority groups within the Greater Toronto Area. Canadian Tamils have become major contributors to sports and literature and contributed to our communities in many significant ways.
Sri Lanka celebrates victory anniversary with foreign VIPs: Tamils still victims of State terrorism (Opinion)
[Jun 25, 2010, 23:49], [TNS]
Last week was a remarkable one for the Sri Lankan government. They celebrated the first year of victory over the Tamils, what Sri Lanka is calling peace and reconciliation celebrations. The envoys from the U.S. and Japan, as well as the UN, made a surprise visit to the island last week. Although Sri Lanka announced its victory in the war against the LTTE in May last year, the government was not able to hold the event as earlier scheduled on May 18 due to inclement weather. Torrential rain that caused flooding made hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
After the Sri Lankan president’s first visit to neighbouring India, where several agreements including monetary aid from that country were signed with Indian leaders, Rajapaksa returned home just few weeks ago. On his return home, he met with the Chinese deputy prime minister in Sri Lanka. Both leaders signed six agreements.
The Sri Lankan government seemed to be very excited over the last few weeks, especially at a time when international pressure was mounting on Sri Lanka to conduct an impartial third party investigation into last year’s war abuses, as it is getting widespread support unlike in the past few years. In the outset, the Sri Lankan president was doubly happy last week with the diplomats’ visits and the victory celebrations which took place on Friday, June 18, 2010 at the Galle Face green in Colombo.
Burying the ghost on Father's Day
[Jun 23, 2010, 13:18], [TNS]
Sunday June 20th, 2010 was just another day for me. Like many others, no frantic last minute-trip to get a cheesy Father's Day card. No elation at hunting down the perfect gift he wanted.
It was just me and painful and joyful memories. I am a grown up, but a scared 18-year-old all over again. Wanting, wishing and waiting that Father's Day passed quickly.
My father died unexpectedly and suddenly at the age of 53 - thanks to a single bullet. A piece of me gone, my flesh and blood, my father, myself.
A faithful Sri Lankan, proud Tamil, who enjoyed fine food, literature, and biking. Whenever he visited, my dad and I would be on our respective bicycles. I truly enjoyed biking around with him -so did he. It was 'The Dad Thing.' Northern coastal city was ideal place for such activity, roads nestled by serene Indian Ocean, vibrant commercial activity and it was a good place for him to get away.
The Delhi- Chennai Drama Continues (Opinion)
[Jun 22, 2010, 12:20], [TNS]
“Those families and who have been rehabilitated and settled elsewhere need to be provided with economic development and justice-based reconciliation to work towards a permanent political settlement,’’ Karunanidhi wrote in his letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This was written in the context of the impending President Rajapaksa meeting with the Indian prime minister on June 8 in Delhi.
In his reply to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, dated June 10, Singh said that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during his recent visit to India, had promised to resettle the 47,000 Tamils still living in camps by the end of this year.
"I have also urged upon the Sri Lankan President the need for reconciliation among communities in Sri Lanka and for practical arrangements, including devolution of powers, to enable all minorities in Sri Lanka, particularly the Tamil minority, to lead lives of dignity," he said.
Singh said he had raised these issues with Rajapaksa and also mentioned the joint initiatives, such as constructing 50,000 houses for Internally Displaced Persons in Northern and Eastern provinces. The Government of India is separately also working on projects and programmes for resettled families so that they are in a position to earn their own livelihood, he said.
Meanwhile,Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had also deputed DMK MPs to ask President Rajapaksa to speed up rehabilitation of Tamils displaced by the war with the LTTE. Karunanidhi had also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying nearly 80,000 Tamils were still living in transit camps in the island nation awaiting rehabilitation. He had reminded New Delhi that the Rajapaksa government had promised to rehabilitate all Tamils by December 2009.
Tamil circles are of the view that Karunanidhi is not taking chances in the run-up to the state polls due in May next year. Accused by Opposition parties of remaining silent when the Tamils were subject to “humiliating war”, Karunanidhi wishes to show that he and his party were doing everything they could to help the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam calls to ensure the right to home
[Jun 21, 2010, 08:58], [TNS]
World Refugee Day: Tamils remember more than 50 years of refugee life
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam calls to ensure the right to home
As the World marks the World Refugee Day on June 20, The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) pledges to continue to work for the tens of thousands of Tamil civilians languishing in Sri Lankan military run internment camps and for the welfare of those that have departed the camps but continue to face the likelihood of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture.
It also pledges to work towards overcoming the economic and social challenges faced by these Internally displaced Persons (IDP) and
stopping the colonization schemes planned by the military to permanently keep these people out of their homes. As a body representing and unifying the Tamils around the world, we will keep alive the memories of Tamil refugee life throughout the past five decades in all our endeavors.
Indian awards ceremony in Colombo a total flop (Opinion)
[Jun 12, 2010, 09:01], [TNS]
Sri Lanka flexed their diplomatic and political muscle over India to hold the 11th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards in Colombo from June 3rd. The Festival ended on the 6th with disappointing results. Sri Lanka was keen to hold the event as it concluded the first anniversary of winning the Tamil Tigers in Vanni in May 2009. Tamil Diaspora and Tamils numbering over 75 million across India staged a vehement protest, resulting in a huge impact in making the event a total flop.
This is the 11th IIFA annual awards ceremony to promote Bollywood. The IIFA Awards are watched by over half a billion TV viewers in over 100 countries. This time Bollywood faced an acid test. They never realized that they would face a real challenge from their South Indian counterparts.
The Winds of Prayer - A poem by Gisele Gauthier
[Jun 3, 2010, 21:52], [TNS]
The above poem written by a non-Tamil lady, who stood with the Tamil demonstrators for a year now. She was so touched last May by the Human Chains and the Queen's Park events and all the broken hearted people she met that and started attending the demonstrations and haven't stopped since.
She wrote the poem, "The Winds of Prayer" in honour of those who stood on University Avenue across from the American Embassy non-stop for close to a year. The many fragile seniors especially touched her as it was primarily they who kept the protest going all of late summer into the winter.
Last year, Canadian Tamils in their hundreds of thousands took to the Toronto streets, suburb intersections, lawn of Federal Parliament, lawn of Ontario Parliament, American Embassy and many other places, day and night demonstrated to draw the attention of politicians and policy makers to prevent the slaughter of their kith and kin in northern Sri Lanka .
Sri Lanka lectures to the world on the levity of its war crimes and its serious breaches of the international law (Opinion)
[May 30, 2010, 10:16], [TNS]
After the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government won the parliamentary election in April this year, Sri Lanka appointed a law professor, G. L. Peiris, as the foreign minister who, for the first time, makes his week-long official visit to the U.S starting May 23. He the met UN Secretary, General Ban Ki-Moon, on May 24th at the UN headquarters in New York, as well as the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton on May 28 in Washington D.C. The learned professor also met several other U.S. politicians and down played the serious nature of the crimes against humanity, the war crimes, and genocide. He also lectured to them that in so far as the Tamils were concerned they could not have been happier.
Peiris was rushed to the U.S. within a week of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) holding its first meeting between 17 to May 19 at the historic National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the Constitution of the U.S was adopted in 1787. William Ramsey Clark (a former US Attorney General) and Domach Wal Ruach (the Secretary General of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) USA) were named as keynote speakers of the inaugural event.
At the meeting with UN’s Mr. Ban was discussed the proposed visit of UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe prior to setting up a panel of experts to advise him on Sri Lanka’s human rights accountability, and the entry of senior UN officials, including Mr. Pascoe.
Demise of LTTE commanders and its implications - Opinion
[May 22, 2010, 09:24], [TNS]
It’s been a year since the Eelam War IV ended. During the last days of the war, the LTTE leadership warned Tamils to not fall prey to the false propaganda of the Sri Lankan government. Now, the LTTE has confirmed that they lost precious and fearless commanders, like Brigadier Theepan and Brigadier Sornam.
Tamils have yet to recover from the wounds caused in the last phase of the war, in which nearly 50,000 Tamils were mass murdered. No other civilization has seen such horrible events in the current century. The international community promised the LTTE that they wouldn’t let the LTTE lose. But, the LTTE had to silence their guns, with the hope that the international community would secure their freedom.
The LTTE leadership, also, never realized the negative consequences in their 35 years of military history. The LTTE fought decades of war with the Sri Lankan and Indian armed forces. Even the Sri Lankan armed forces acknowledged the courageous fighting of the LTTE fighters, under the command of Sornam, Bhanu, Theepan, Soosai, Vidusha, Durga, Gadhapi, Gopith, Nagesh, Thamilini, Keerthi, Manivannan, Amuthaab, etc.
Shame on World Community - A Poem by Jasan
[May 22, 2010, 08:28], [TNS]
Recent Human Rights Watch report and photos in the media (see here) prompted this poem by Jasan. Regardless of rights and wrongs, the international community stood and watched while cruelty staged its dance to the tune of depraved criminality.
Its betrayal is as much deplorable as these crimes against humanity. The silence of nations that call themselves democratic, decent and moral is utterly shameful.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is broken beyond repair, and for tens of thousands of innocent victims, inaction has proven to be the biggest weapon of destruction.
Shame on World Community
Come! Join! And struggle
All people with humanitarian diligence
Old and new nations of moral conscience
Slumped in front, mutilated and murdered
Not just a Tamil rebel - but abused and abandoned
International codes on confrontation and war
Blood that oozes out of this fighter
Symbolize bleeding holes on your humanitarian stature
Brain tissues seeping to the fore -
Witness to a crime in which your
Hands held tight, buried at your rear
Open mouth of this dead young man
Took his last breath in extreme pain
Knowing your impromptus international inaction
A shamble and shame on right thinking nation'
Eyes that remain closed
Ashamed to view this World
That you call democratic, decent and moral
Flag that cover this fighter's
Slain body may be torn, ripped and soaked in blood
Yet his honour intact though he is dead
But, listen you community of nations
Have you realized
Your so called civilized
Garbs are a disgrace and torn beyond repair
Jay A. Jasan
Sri Lanka must be prosecuted for its “War Crimes” against its Tamil citizens - CSWSL
[May 19, 2010, 18:34], [TNS]
The Coalition to Stop the War in Sri Lanka (CSWSL) welcome the latest report from the International Crisis Group (ICG) and supports the ICG call for the independent international investigation into the ‘war crimes’ committed in Sri Lanka based on reliable evidences gathered from eyewitnesses, satellite images, aid workers on the ground at the time of crimes, and other means. The U.K. based Television News agency, Channel 4 News, in an exclusive report confirms that according to a senior Sri Lankan army commander and frontline soldier, that point-blank executions of Tamils at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war were carried out under orders from the top.
First Anniversary of the Tamil Genocide - 40,000 candles in heart (Opinion)
[May 18, 2010, 21:05], [TNS]
On May 19th, Tamils in Sri Lanka and in the Diaspora commemorate the 1st anniversary of the genocide that took the lives of more than 40,000 Tamil civilians including tens of thousands of children. The occasion constantly remind them the immense sacrifice those individuals made for the simple reason there were born as Tamils – the simple logic whereby the Diaspora breathes all aspects of those Tamil heritage the Sinhala regime tries to bury deep down in Mullivaikal, yet couldn’t. It gives an absolute resolute that the Diaspora has an obligation to voice for the voiceless Tamils of East and North, in them getting a just and sustainable political solution based on their rights to self - determination.
The genocide becomes so magnified given the fact the whole world simply looked away last May, when the Tamils were assaulted with heavy weaponry including internationally banned cluster bombs and chemical weapons by the Sri lankan forces, on the narrow stretch where more than 300,000 of innocent civilians were herded into. It was a complete darkness in the pages of Humanity.
Punctuated Equilibrium - (Opinion)
[May 18, 2010, 09:29], [TNS]
Those with moderate interest in science probably remember the phrase “Punctuated Equilibrium” was used by Stephen Jay Gould, the gifted and well-known evolutionary biologist and paleontologists at Harvard — to describe how our world has evolved over several millenniums. Equilibrium would exist for a while only to have it disrupted by an event of one sort or another, which would then start the planet down the path to yet another new equilibrium. It is the theory of evolution, which postulates that changes such as speciation can occur very quickly, with long periods of little change in between. For organisms, this means they must evolve or perish as the world around them changes. This is just as true for organizations as it is for organisms. And it is certainly true for our liberation struggle.
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