December 14th, 2012

Children and adults gunned down in Connecticut school massacre

• 20 children, six adults and the shooter are dead after shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday morning
• Three law enforcement officials say Adam Lanza, 20, was the shooter, and that he died apparently by his own hand
• Suspect's mother, Nancy Lanza, found dead in suspect’s home in Newtown, law enforcement source says
• Ryan Lanza, 24, older brother of Adam Lanza, questioned by police but not labeled a suspect, three law enforcement officials say
• Below are the latest updates as they come to us. You also can read our story of the Connecticut school shooting

 Full Story>>>

Suresh Sriskandarajah, a former University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier student, has lost his six-year legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States for allegedly supporting terrorists.

Melissa Tait/Record staff file photo

‘Waterloo Suresh’ loses legal battle over terrorism charges

Fri Dec 14 2012

OTTAWA — A former Waterloo man lost a six-year legal battle Friday to avoid prosecution in the United States for alleged support of terrorists.

In one of two key rulings upholding anti-terror laws, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected an appeal by Suresh Sriskandarajah of an extradition order to stand trial in New York.

Sriskandarajah and two other men — Piratheepan Nadarajah of Brampton and Momin Khawaja of Ottawa — challenged the constitutional validity of terrorism laws passed in the wake of 9/11 attacks in the U.S.

But in unanimous rulings written by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, seven judges soundly rejected arguments the laws are too broad and improperly infringe on freedom of expression rights.

“The scope of the provision excludes conduct that a reasonable person would not view as capable of materially enhancing the abilities of a terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity,” McLachlin wrote.

Judges also dismissed arguments by Sriskandarajah and Nadarajah that they have a right to be tried in Canada rather than the U.S.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson welcomed the rulings and pledged to remain tough on terrorists.

“Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism,” he said in a statement. “Our government will continue to work with its domestic and international partners to actively combat this threat at home and abroad.”

The decisions mean Sriskandarajah, 32, will be turned over to authorities in New York to face charges of supporting the Tamil Tigers during a bloody civil war in Sri Lanka.

He is accused of researching and buying communications equipment and submarine and warship design software for the rebel group in the country he left as a boy.

Portrayed as the leader of four suspects with ties to the University of Waterloo, Sriskandarajah also allegedly laundered money and used students to smuggle goods into Sri Lanka under the code name Waterloo Suresh between 2004 and 2006.

Arrested in 2006 following a joint FBI-RCMP investigation, he faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted in the U.S.

While on bail as he fought extradition, Sriskandarajah earned a prestigious academic award and a master of business administration degree at Wilfrid Laurier University to go along with an engineering degree from UW.

Recently married, he was a first-year law student at the University of Ottawa before surrendering to authorities Thursday in advance of the Supreme Court rulings.

Charges against two of the four UW suspects were dropped by U.S. authorities.

Ramanam Mylvaganam, a close friend who once lived with Sriskandarajah in Waterloo, was sentenced to time served earlier this year after giving up his extradition fight and pleading guilty in New York.

Sriskandarajah has said he was most concerned with helping children and young people in northern Sri Lanka, especially after a devastating tsunami hit the island nation while he was there in 2004.

He has also said he focused on education after his arrest so he is well-equipped to put his life back together and be a productive citizen when he is finally free.

Nadarajah, who was also appealing an extradition order, is accused of involvement in an attempt by four Canadians to buy almost $1 million worth of missiles and assault rifles for the Tamil Tigers.

The Tigers fought for an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka for 26 years before their defeat by government forces in 2009.

The most high-profile of the three men, Khawaja challenged the constitutional validity of anti-terrorism laws as well as his life sentence in Canada for involvement in a British bomb plot for al-Qaida.

bcaldwell@therecord.com

TGTE Prime Minister, Rudrakumaran's Speech on Human Rights Day in English

Dec-14-2012
Message from the Trans National Government of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka.

(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka ) - The Prime Minister of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), Rudrakumaran gave a speech on 10 December on Human Rights Day, where he reminded the International Community about their undertakings 60 years ago.

http://youtu.be/4EgDMg6v8b8

தமிழர்களுக்கு உதவ ஐ.நா தவறிவிட்டது : சர்வதேச மன்னிப்புச் சபையின் கனேடியப்; பிரதிநிதி ஜோன் ஆர்க் !

அடிப்படை மனித உரிமைகளை இழந்துள்ள இலங்கைத்தீவின் தமிழ் மக்களுக்கு உதவ ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை தவறிவிட்டதென சர்வதேச மன்னிபுச்சபையின் கனேடிய பிரதிநிதியான ஜோன் ஆர்க் அவர்கள் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

அனைத்துலக மனித உரிமைகள் நாளினை முன்னிட்டு நாடுகடந்த தமிழீழ அரசாங்கத்தினால் கனடாவின் ஸ்காபுறோ பகுதியில் ஒருங்கு செய்யப்பட்டிருந்த கருத்தரங்கில் சிறப்பு அதிதியாக கலந்து கொண்டு உரையாற்றும் பொழுதே இக்கருத்தினை ஜோன் ஆர்க் அவர்கள் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

பெருந் துன்புறுத்தல்களுக்கு ஆளாகி விரக்தி அடைந்த நிலையில் உள்ள இலங்கைத் தமிழர்களின் அரசியல் பிரச்சனைக்கு தீர்வினைக் காண ஐ.நாப் பொதுச் செயலர்;  பான் கீ மூன் அவர்களது விரைந்த உரிய நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டும் எனவும் அவர்கள் கோரிக்கை விடுத்துள்ளார்.

இதேவேளை சிறிலங்கா அரசின் செயல் குறித்து சர்வதேச ரீதியில் பாரபட்சமற்ற முறையில் விசாரணை மேற்கொள்ளப்பட வேண்டும் எனவும் தெரிவித்த ஜோன் ஆர்க  அலர்கள் இலங்கையில் அமைதியை ஏற்படுத்தி தமிழ் மக்களையும் பாரபட்சமின்றி நடாத்துமாறும் தமது அமைப்பான சர்வதேச மன்னிப்புச் சபையு வலியுறுத்தி வருகின்றது எனவும் அவர் தெரிவித்தார்.

நா.தமிழீழ அரசாங்கத்தின் துணை அமைச்சர் வின் மாகாலிங்கம் அவர்களது தலைமையில்  இடம்பெற்றிருந்த இக்கருத்தரங்கில் பிரதமர் வி.உருத்திரகுமாரன் அவர்களது கருத்துக்கள் கணொளிவழி இணைக்கப்பட்டிருந்தது.

அவைத் தலைவர் பொன் பாலராஜன் , வண பிதா சந்திரகாந்தன் ,  ஈழவேந்தன் ஐயா , படைப்பாளிகள் கழகத் தலைவர் நக்கீரன், தமிழர் பேரவைப் பிரதிநிதி பூபாலபிள்ளை ஆகியோர் தங்கள் கருத்துக்களை முன்வைத்திருந்தனர்.

கருத்துரைகளின் சுருக்கம் :

பிரதமர் வி.உருத்திரகுமாரன் : 

இந்த இருபத்தொராம் நூற்றாண்டில் தமிழ் மக்கள் தாங்கொணாத் துயரங்களை அனுபவித்து வருகின்றனர். அவர்களது உயிருக்கு எதுவித பாதுகாப்புமே இல்லை. தமிழ் மக்கள் இனப் படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்டமை குறித்து ஐ.நா.வின் 99வது சரத்தின் படி ஐ.நா.செயலாளர் நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டும். சிறிலங்கா அரசின் செயல்களைக் கண்காணிக்க ஐ.நா.அதிகாரிகளை நியமிக்க வேண்டும்.

வண பிதா சந்திரகாந்தன் : 

பத்து மில்லியன் யூதர்கள் கொல்லப்பட்ட பின்னரே மனித உரிமை பற்றி குரல் எழுப்பப்பட்டது. 
மனித உரிமை அமுலாக்கப்பட்ட 1945ம் ஆண்டிலேயே சிறிலங்காவும் சுதந்திரம் அடைந்தது. ஆனால் மனித உரிமை சம்பந்தமான 32 சரத்துக்களையும் சிறிலங்கா அரசு மீறியுள்ளது. 

தமிழ் மக்களின் உரிமைகள் பறிக்கப்பட்ட போது அவர்களைப் பாதுகாக்க ஐ.நா.தவறி விட்டது. 
நாடு கடந்த தமிழீழ அரசாங்கம்  பொதுநலவாய  அமைப்பு நாடுகளின் மாநாட்டுக்கு முன்னர் ஏனைய நாடுகளின் தூதுவர்கள், நீதிக்கும் சமாதனத்துக்கும், மனித உரிமைகளுக்காகவும் பாடுபட்டு வரும் செஞ்சிலுவைச் சங்கம் போன்ற அமைப்புகளின் பிரதிநிதிகளுடனும் தொடர்பு கொள்ள வேண்டும்' எனக் கேட்டுக் கொண்டார்.

அவைத்தலைவர் பொன் பாலராஜன் : 

சிரியாவிலே கொத்தணிக் குண்டுகளும், இரசாயனக் குண்டுகளும் போடப்பட்டதாக இன்று பல நாடுகளும் பேசிக் கொள்கின்றன. ஆனால் சிறிலங்காவில் அவை போடப்பட்ட போது எவருமே குரல் எழுப்பவில்லை. 

எமது உரிமைகளைப் பெறுவதற்காக இறுதி வரை போராடுவோம் எனக் கூறி எமது இளைஞர்கள் போராடியதே தனி நாடு அமைப்பதற்கான சங்கற்பமென அயர்லாந்து பேராசிரியர் ஒருவர் கூறினார். 
பூர்வீகக் குடிகளின் உரிமை களைப் பறிப்பது அநீதி. இனம், மதம், மொழி ரீதியில் பாரபட்சம் காண்பிப்பது இனவாதமாகும். 

உகண்டாவுக்கு அடுத்ததாக இலங்கையிலேயே பரரிய இனப்படுகொலை மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டுள்ளது. மனித உரிமை மீறல்கள் சம்பந்தமான தகவல்களும், ஆவணங்களும் எம்மிடம் உள்ளன. அவற்றின் மூலம் சர்வதே சங்களின் கவனத்தை ஈர்க்கும் நடவடிக்கைகளை நாம் மேற்கொண்டுள்ளோம்.

துணை அமைச்சர் வின் மகாலிங்கம் :

மனித உரிமையானது கேட்டுப் பெற்றுக் கொள்வதல்ல அது பிறப்பினால் கிடைப்பது என ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபையின் சர்வதேச மனித உரிமை சாசனத்தில் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது. ஆனால் தமிழர்களாகிய நாம் அதனை போராடித் தான் பெற வேண்டியிருக்கின்றது. மனித உரிமை சாசனத்தில் மொத்தம் முப்பது உரிமைகள் உள்ளடக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. 

தனிப்பட்ட நபர்களின் அந்தரங்கம், காரணம் எதுவுமின்றி பிறரால் தாக்கப்படாது இருத்தல், ஒருவரது வீட்டினுள்ளோ, தனிப்பட்ட இடங்களுக்கு உள்ளேயோ அனுமதி இன்றி நுழையாது இருத்தல், உணவு மருந்து ஆகியவற்றை மக்களுக்கு வழங்குதல், மக்கள் தமது சுதந்திரத்தையும், உரிமைகளையும் பாதுகாத்தல், மக்கள் கொடூரமாக நடாத்தப்படும் பட்சத்தில் தமது நாட்டை விட்டு வேறொரு நாட்டுக்கு தப்பி ஓடுதல், கருத்துச் சுதந்திரம், மக்கள் தமது அபிப்பிரா யங்களை வெளிப்படுத்துதல் ஆகியன அவற்றில் சிலவாகும். ஆனால் சிறிலங்காவிலுள்ள தமிழ் மக்களு க்கு இவை யாவும் மறுக்கப்பட்டு வருகின்றன.

நாதம் ஊடகசேவை

Matale Skeletal Remains On The Rise

Sri Lanka Matale ‘mass grave could be a crime site’

14 December 2012

Human remains in what appears to be a mass grave unearthed last month in central Sri Lanka could be “the site of a crime”, a forensic medical specialist has told the BBC.

The remains of nearly 60 people have been excavated in the town of Matale.

There are allegations that the bodies are those of Sinhalese guerrillas who fought a bloody left-wing insurgency more than 20 years ago.

But other theories hold that the people died in non-political contexts.

The skulls and partial skeletons were discovered late last month by workers building a facility at a hospital in Matale.

‘Extreme violence’

Forensic medical specialist Ajith Jayasena told the BBC that 58 sets of remains have been found so far, some full and some partial. He said that more may still be discovered.

Dr Jayasena said the grave appeared to be the site of a “crime” as it was not a regular place of burial.

“We have to find out whether they are male or female, their age, whether they had any injuries, and the cause or circumstances of their deaths,” he said.

“Finding multiple human remains there means we have suspicions.”

Dr Jayasena said that no real conclusions could be drawn until a team of experts had finished its work. He said that some bones had been damaged during the initial discovery.

The Matale area was an epicentre of a late 1980s insurgency by leftist Sinhalese group, the JVP, in which the state matched the guerrillas’ extreme violence.

The JVP suspects its former members may be buried at the site

The modern-day JVP suspects its former members may be buried at the site and has demanded an inquiry.

But Colombo police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said that those buried were probably victims of a landslide in the 1940s.

“We can’t pinpoint [the exact time],” he said.

“But we can say it’s more than 60 years old. The doctors and neighbours say so. Old guys, 80 or 90-years-old, said there was a big landslide nearby. Five hundred people [either] died [or] were taken to hospital and badly treated. That was in 1946.”

Hospital workers meanwhile have suggested that the grave could contain the bodies of smallpox victims.

If it is a grave of people who were killed during the JVP insurrection, this would unfortunately be nothing new in Sri Lanka.

There are believed to be dozens of similar sites from that era, a time in which 60,000 or more young people are said to have disappeared.

Large numbers may be buried in the same area in the north where thousands of civilians perished in shelling towards the end of the war against Tamil Tiger insurgents in 2009 - but where no open process of excavation has been permitted.

49 skeletal remains: Mystery continues

SATURDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2012
Detectives had exhumed some 49 skeletal remains from the backyard of the Matale Hospital.  

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had voiced concern over the manner in which the victims had been buried urged the government to hold an inquiry into the tragedy because of the growing suspicion surrounding the mass grave.

Questions are being asked about the cause of death, how they came to be buried there, whether it was on a court order and who might have been involved in carrying out the burial.

Excavations are continuing in an effort to locate more bodies if there are any and the collection of evidence or clues that would held the detectives with the investigations.

Speculation is rife as to whether they were the victims of the 1971 insurgency or the 1987/89 turmoil in the country buried in this block of land.
There is also the possibility that the area must have been used as a cemetery during British rule.

The skeletal remains were unearthed when authorities began digging up a block of land to build a bio gas unit for the Matale Hospital. (SD)

Matale Skeletal Remains On The Rise

Consultant Judicial Medical Officer of Base Hospital, Matale Dr Ajith Jayasena collecting bones of those buried.

Body found in well

[ Saturday, 15 December 2012, 02:00.48 PM GMT +05:30 ]

A dead body has been found inside a well in the Ponnarasankulam area in Vavuniya.

The police said that the body was discovered yesterday on a tip off received. It is suspected that the fifty-two-year old was murdered and then dumped into the well. Police added that a friend of the murdered person was arrested on suspicion.

A shocking analogy between female CJ and vanni women

WEDNESDAY, 12 DECEMBER 2012
Chief Justice (CJ) Shirani Bandaranayake is not only fighting for the rule of law; she is also forced to fight for feminism. Ms. Bandaranayake is the first woman to have earned the post of CJ, which she achieved without exploiting the prestige of parents or any other high profile connection.

Previously, she had had a brilliant career in the faculty of law and had been appointed as its Dean for a certain period. The Mahinda Rajapaksa administration put all that into question by implying that she entered this highest post by improper means.

Some government members said she had come up through the backdoor. The men who made such comments were doing so to gain favouritism from the President. They deliberately used half filth to embarrass her during what was clearly a male dominated inquiry.

They wanted to humiliate her and get her to plead mercy. But her decision to leave this den of hypocrisy and fraud defeated their efforts. Hence they decided to come out with the final ruling. They found her guilty of three charges.

Now, the ball is in the court of the Opposition. Lawyers are prepared to take the next appropriate step if the Supreme Court overrules the PSC probe. If so what will the opposition do?

 Ranil Wickremasinghe has said there is very little one could do if the government is not prepared to abide by the agreement he had signed with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Commission when he was prime minister,.

As things stand, President Rajapaksa should at least agree to abide by the promise he made to India and other Commonwealth countries. Then it will be a setback for the government which is eager to implement the Divi Neguma Bill.

Hence the ‘wait and see’ approach adopted by the Opposition could be seen as another international conspiracy to destroy the government
In this scenario, not much can be done within the parliamentary legal framework either. Hence, the conflict could grow to become a mass agitation outside the realm of the Opposition.

The first step was taken by several organizations committed to democracy. If these mass agitations can develop beyond the protests of lawyers and judges, then it could become a tremendous movement to seek radical changes to the existing system.

The anti feminist nature of the government campaign was exposed by several women’s organizations. They see the erosion of the independence of the judiciary and the anti feminist nature of the campaign against the CJ, as a serious threat to freedom and democracy.

While the CJ’s impeachment issue raised a fundamental problem in the domain of feminism, the government is accused of intimidation and harassment in the course of action taken to recruit Tamil women to the armed forces.

It was reported in recent weeks that Tamil women were recruited to the military claiming it was a step towards reconciliation by way of inclusion of minorities.
 However, a closer look at the appointment process shows a lack of transparency and coercion.

Military personnel of the Vanni area were involved in the recruitment process and had targeted poor families. In some villages the announcement had been made by loudspeakers. In some other places, they had visited houses and selected female members of poor families for this purpose. In a few places they had got the assistance of the Grama Niladhari of the area.

Young women living only with single mothers or families with a large number of members had been targeted in particular.Those recruited had been informed that they would be engaged in clerical work; or area social work with the Grama Niladhari of the village.
Also, they had been told that they would have to do only a few hours work for which they would be paid Rs.30, 000 monthly and that they could go home in the evening after work as they would be working in their own areas.

 Around 109 women applied and appeared for these interviews. The information provided never conveyed that they would be working for the military and would have to join the military to perform their duties.

It was learnt that these women had been taken to the military camp in Bharathipuram in Kilinochchi District. At the camp, the candidates’ personal information was recorded in Sinhala, except for their names and addresses.

It was only then these women had realized that they were to join the military.  Some of them had panicked and called their families, and informed the military that they did not wish to join. Then the military had told them that they could leave only after a certain function which was to be held at the camp.  

This function was held inside the army camp while family members of some of the young women participating in it protested outside the military camp.
Ironically, while the head of the judiciary who is a woman was subjected to humiliation by way of mental torture at one end, Tamil girls of the Vanni were attempted to be conscripted to the military without proper recruitment process or consent given by their adults.

Female Jaffna University student strangled to death, as TID summons three more

14 DECEMBER 2012

BY RAMANAN VEERASINGHAM

A female student of the Jaffna University has reportedly been found strangled to death at her house in Chunnakam under mysterious circumstances on Friday (14), as three more female students have been summoned to report immediately to the Jaffna police amid mounting tension and fears in the war-ravaged northern peninsula.

According to news sources in Jaffna, 21-year old Fine Arts Faculty student identified as Nadarasa Kiyani was found dead with the bed sheet tightly wrapped around her neck at her house at Iyanar road Kantharodai, Chunnakam, when the parents returned home from routine shopping in Chunnakam town, located five miles north of Jaffna town.

The parents have said that she was studying at her desk when they left home.

The autopsy report of the deceased, however, has declared that the death was due to heart attack, a latest report from Jaffna said.

More students summoned

Meanwhile, the dreaded Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka police on Thursday evening has summoned three female students of the Jaffna University, including the Girls Hostel Students’ Union President, to report immediately to the Jaffna police station.

The fate of these three female students is not immediately known. 

The summoning of the three female students has come amid reports that the police and the military were visiting the houses, private boarding places of many University students, looking for detailed information about their activities and other students. 

'University administration uninformed'

A police team has visited the house of university student in Mullaitivu and conducted inquiries. This has been without the prior permission or knowledge of the university administration.
The University Administration said that they did not have the exact details of how many students have been summoned or in the wanted list “because the police have started summoning and interrogating students directly without informing the University Administration”.

“Reports of students being directly summoned is a cause for serious concern, given the fact that four of our students were detained at the Welikanda Military Detention Camp. This is for the first time that female students have been summoned by the TID. The police action has ridiculously reduced the university administration to a mere puppet,” an Academic source told the JDS via phone from Jaffna.

24 year-old Medical Faculty student Darshananth of Kantharmadam, Arts Faculty Union President Kanakasundaraswami Jenamejeyan (24) of Puthukkudiyiruppu, Science Faculty Union member Shanmugam Solomon (24) of Jaffna were arrested along with Students’ Union leader V. Bavanandan on December 29 and 30 by the Sri Lankan police in Jaffna and later taken away to Vavuniya by its Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).

Boycott continues

They are now being kept at the Welikanda Military Detention Camp under the provisions of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).   

The parents along with top three University lecturers, were allowed visited the students at Welikanda on Wednesday for two hours.

The Jaffna university students are boycotting their academic activities for the past two weeks, demanding the early release of their fellow students.

Photo courtesy: indi.ca/flickr

SLA summons 4 girl students, house-by-house intimidation to resume university

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 December 2012, 20:31 GMT]
The occupying genocidal military of Sri Lanka now engages in entering each and every house of the Jaffna University students to individually intimidate them to drop the protest and to return to the university or face dire consequences. The Vice Chancellor Prof Vasanthi Arasaratnam installed by colonial Colombo, most of the council members appointed by the regime or planted by collaborating paramilitary and some external intelligence agencies, and the threatened Deans are forced to connive with the new paradigm of occupying military running the university, news sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, in addition to the key student leaders of the university detained for ‘rehabilitation,’ the SL military has freshly demanded the submission of four girl students by their parents. 

The commander of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe and Colombo-installed Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna, Prof. Vasanthi Arasaratnam, co-chairing a meeting at the SL military base at Palaali to resolve student matters of the University of Jaffna last week. Seated on the left are the deans of the faculties and on the right is the Ankajan group that belongs to the Colombo regime's SLFP

The SL military now dropping even the guarantee the students get from the university administration when they are arrested and detained on university matters, and the SL military demanding parents to bring the students is another dangerous development, student representatives of the university said.

The SL military demand, coupled with its house-to-house intimidation on university students to return to classes, clearly shows that the occupying Sinhala military is now on a personal war with each and every Eezham Tamil student of self respect, the representatives said.

In the meantime, for the detained students, the regime plans to fabricate charges of the nature that would not allow their return soon, the student representatives suspect. 

With the indefinite ‘rehabilitation’ detention of key student leaders and by the militarised intimidation seeking student return to the university, the regime aims at dysfunction of the student union and stamping out all future uprisings coming from the university, the representatives said.

There is already a vacuum in organising the student union, but efforts are there for an interim arrangement, the representatives further said.

The sheer number of the Sinhala military deployed in the Tamil country, with the no-secret complicity and blessing of certain powers, has made possible a hitherto unseen model of implementing a genocide, while denying genocide totally and at the same time camouflaging it with the phrase ‘reconciliation,’ political observers in Jaffna told TamilNet.

Such an idea of ‘reconciliation’ originated from certain world capitals and their organisations that directed the genocidal war. Whether there is a personal war on every Eezham Tamil of self respect by a few in the Establishments who failed humanity in the Eezham War and fear for indictment in human history, the political observers in Jaffna asked. 

During the WW II Genocide by the Nazis, it is said that there was a cruel experiment to see that to what extent a nation could withstand genocide and to what extent a human being could withstand pain. Whether a similar experiment to suit contemporary times and aimed at a new world monopoly, is now being conducted on Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora by vicious forces in the Establishments using genocidal Colombo, the political observers in Jaffna further questioned.

While an allegedly India-backed paramilitary is operating with the SL military in oppressing the Jaffna University students and while the student situation is of secondary importance to the US embassy in Colombo, the Green Party politicians and People Forum of New Zealand in a resolution on the Universal Human Rights Day have urged the UNSG to intervene using his special powers.

They have cautioned the world that the developments could lead to another spate of genocidal crime in the island. 

Observing the same Human Rights Day in Canada, more than 20 social, economic, and environmental justice groups and trade unions of global perspectives have demanded the release of Jaffna university students. 

Meanwhile, genocidal Colombo and its occupying military have a clear agenda to completely engineer the school education of Eezham Tamils, education circles in Jaffna said.

Occupying SL governor, Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasri is the kingpin executive of the agenda. Nothing could take place in any schools without his personal approval. Recently some Buddhist schools have been started in Jaffna to convert possible sections of the population, the education sources said.

Like every genocidal regime, they aim at the future generation. They even aim at the children to be born, commented social activists working with children and women.

Most of the so-called education, children and women NGOs that operate in the Tamil country are Colombo-centric and are run mostly by Sinhala women, who only make name in the international circles to get funds. They in fact thrive on the genocide-affected people while genuine workers coming from the soil and who have a genuine feeling for their people are either intimidated or sidelined, the social workers on education and women said.

A comical but ironical happening they were sharing with TamilNet was the Tamil school children getting birthday cards from ‘Naamal Maamaa’ (Namal Rajapaksa, the presidential progeny), to become ‘familiar’ with his name. 

Namal Rajapaksa gets the birthday details of every Tamil school student in the Mullaiththeevu district through the school records and sends them birthday cards. He is running an office for this purpose and has appointed staff to do the job. That is the show of ‘reconciliation’ designed by the top in the global affairs, they commented. 

On Sri Lanka, UN Review to 2Q 2013, Any Silva Visit Screening & Kilinochchi Qs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 13, updated -- A week ago, Inner City Press asked the UN what it would do in the face of the troubling report on its actions and inaction in Sri Lanka, penned by sometime UN official Charles Petrie. 

  The UN answered that Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson would lead a team to review the report.

   Today, the UN announced a bit more: that Eliasson has asked UN departments, funds and programs to nominate people to participate in the review, and that the review is due in the second quarter of 2013.

   Inner City Press immediately asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky if any UN specialized agencies would be involved, for example the IMF (which stands accused of lending into increased military spending by the Rajapaksa government, even after 2009).

   Nesirky reiterated, only funds and programs, and not agencies like the IMF.

   Inner City Press asked how it was that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations allowed General Shavendra Silva of the Sri Lankan Army, showing up in the UN's report as engaged in war crimes, to "inspect" its troops in the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon. 

    Doesn't DPKO have some type of review?

   Nesirky said he would ask DPKO. The chief of DPKO Herve Ladsous has refused to answer any Press questions, including  about Silva as a "Senior Adviser on Peacekeeping Operations" and other human rights issues, see recent video here. How about Silva as a UN troop inspector?

  The lack of standards in the UN was exemplied by a Shavendra Silva appearance in September 2011, complaints about which started a series of anti-Press moves profiled by the UK based Sri Lanka Campaign, here. Months later this has led to a new move in the UN: the Free UN Coalition for Access.

   After a troubling report forwarded by the SlC, Inner City Press asked Nesirky about at least 20 women brought into a military wing of a Kilinochchi hospital and not allowed visits.

   For the record, the SLC recites

Of the women recently recruited to the 6th Brigade of the Sri Lankan Army (SLA), 20 were admitted to the Kilinochchi district hospital on December 11, 2012 between 11.00 pm and 12.30 am.

They had recently been trained in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts

They were brought from Navam Arivu Koodam located in a village called Krishnapuram. Killinochi West

Upon arrival at the hospital, some of the women were unconscious.

They were immediately isolated from the other patients and subsequently detained in a small room in the hospital’s northern section.

The northern section of the hospital is not accessible to the public; it is used exclusively by army personnel.

Shortly after the group of women was admitted, a large group of army personnel (male and female) gathered at the hospital.

Only SLA doctors and nurses are looking after these female patients.

   Nesirky said that the Eliasson review is separate, but that the UN maintains a presence in Sri Lanka. So do THEY have anything to say about the Kilinochchi hospital? Watch this site.

Update of 6:30 pm -- Here was Thursday's evening's UN answer to Inner City Press' noon question, note the last line:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 5:33 PM
Subject: Your question at the noon briefing - a reminder
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

The Spokesperson later said that Major General Shavendra Silva was part of the Military-Police Advisors Community (MPAC) delegation visiting the United Nations Interim Force Mission in Lebanon from 28 Nov - 4 Dec 2012. The official MPAC programme included briefings and visits to UN positions. The MPAC is a group comprising permanent missions' military attaches and police advisors, and the UN had no authority over the group of visitors that included Gen. Silva.

  "Had no authority?" The UN has no say over who visits and inspects its peacekeepers? Watch this site.

AROUND 1.06 LAKH PERSONS ‘MISSING’ AFTER SRI LANKAN WAR, CLAIMS AUTHOR

December 14, 2012 

Author of a book on the internal conflict in Sri Lanka involving its armed forces and rebel LTTE today claimed that around 1.06 lakh persons were missing in LTTE-controlled areas after the war and said the Sri Lankan government should explain this.

Having worked as a BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2004, Frances Harrison said she had accessed World Bank population data in this regard to substantiate her claim.

“The number may not include (LTTE) detainees or those who had left the country but the government has to explain (the dip in the population in Tamil-dominated areas)”, she told reporters in Chennai today.

Harrison said she had accessed the World Bank data on population of Mullaitheevu, Kilinochi, Vavuniya and Mannaar in the island nation, which she said, revealed that 1.06 lakh persons were “missing” after the war.

Author of the book “Still Counting the Dead,” which is set to be released in Tamil soon, said it was based on tales of survivors including a former rebel, a nurse, a nun and a teacher, among others.

Besides narrating the account of war by its survivors, the book also carried criticism against LTTE, she said. - Agencies

UN’s action in SL: nominations called for WG

WEDNESDAY, 12 DECEMBER 2012

The United Nations yesterday said that the UN Deputy Secretary-General sent a letter to relevant heads of UN departments, offices, funds and programmes this week, asking them to nominate representatives to participate in a working group to give careful consideration to the recommendations set out in the Internal Review Panel report on United Nations actions in Sri Lanka.

Addressing the daily press briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York, Martin Nesirky, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said, “you will recall the Secretary-General asked the Deputy Secretary-General to convene this working group and report to him.”

“The working group is expected to complete its deliberations sometime in the second quarter of next year, with options for action and implementation.  These will be reviewed by the Deputy Secretary-General after discussion with relevant heads of the UN system before the findings are presented to the Secretary-General.”

The following is the transcript of the briefing

Question:  And just one factual thing and… would… you may either have this or you could look, I am wondering, in order to figure out whether the UN is still covering this issue.  There is… the… the Sri Lanka Campaign, which is a well-known group based in the UK headed by Kofi Annan’s former spokesman, has put out an alert saying about 20 women that were taken into a hospital in Kilinochi, brought there by the army, haven’t been able to be visited by any human rights groups and are… and there… there is much concern about what the origin of being… putting these women in the military hospital outside of… of public reach, and so I wondered if… if… if… one, if the UN system is aware of this and has tried to look into it, and if it is not, what does it think of this?  Is this… is this still the kind of thing that would be on the radar of the UN system, including given the reason that… that the DSG is doing this review?

Spokesperson:  Well, I would put that review to one side, because it is something that is being looked at.  There are recommendations in that report that the Secretary-General and the UN system take very seriously, and that is why this working group will be looking at them, as I just mentioned.  Of course, there is a UN presence in the country, and of course there is UN interest from parts of the system in various developments in Sri Lanka, as elsewhere.  If I have anything specific on the point that you mentioned, coming from this campaign, I’ll let you know.  I don’t have anything specific here right now.  Yes, Carla?

State Intelligence Unit vigilant of Mangala’s trip to England

Thursday, 13 December 2012 

A directive has been issued to the State Intelligence Service by a high government office to inquire and report immediately on the sudden trip undertaken by former Foreign Minister and UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera to England on the 12th morning.

The President and the Rajapaksa family are concerned over Samaraweera’s sudden trip to England after lodging a complaint with Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma about the current situation in the country. The situation has got worse with former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge also undertaking a sudden trip to England at the same time.

All institutions in London are to close down after the 18th for the holiday season. However, the reason for the concern is the fact that several European diplomats in Colombo had met with the former Foreign Minister on the 11th night at the residence of a powerful UNP MP.

It is learnt that the former Foreign Minister’s visit to England had been previously planned and that it is not an official visit. He is expected to spend his Christmas holidays in Scotland.