The British Tamil Forum’s (BTF) call for a mass rally in London on Saturday, remembering the 2009 Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal genocidal massacre, focuses on urging Britain and the Commonwealth to boycott the Sri Lanka CHOGM meet in November. Earlier this month, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his decision to attend the meet. “It is ridiculous as well as painful to find that Cameron has decided to attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka,” said a BTF statement on Thursday, adding [...]

Britain said on Wednesday there would be "consequences" for Sri Lanka if its leaders did not address international concerns over human rights abuses, ahead of a Commonwealth summit scheduled to be held in Colombo in November.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told parliament "despicable human rights violations" had taken place in Sri Lanka, but that Britain still planned to attend the Commonwealth meeting there, a stance that has drawn heavy criticism from rights groups.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected calls for an [...]

Remembering the heroes of the Tamil cause, civilians and journalists, who sacrificed their lives this week in 2009, TamilNet reproduces a short film featured by the slain journalist Ms Isaippiriya.

The short film titled "Veali" appeared in an album released by the LTTE in 2008.

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When Liberal Democratic MP, Simon Hughes questioned UK Prime Minister’s decision to participate Sri Lanka CHOGM, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, replied in the British Parliament on Wednesday, “We are all aware that the decision […] is controversial, especially in the light of the despicable human rights violations during the recent civil war.” But according to the Deputy PM, consequences could be expected only when violations continue in ways of political trials, regular assaults on legal professionals, suppression of [...]

by Laksiri Jayasuriya, University of Western Australia

Introduction

The 2010 Sri Lankan Presidential and Parliamentary elections that took place shortly after the end of a debilitating 25 year-old civil war in 2009 constitutes a watershed in Sri Lanka’s politics. Despite the unsettled conditions over the last two decades emanating from this turbulent environment created by the civil war and the seemingly intractable obstacles encountered, Sri Lanka was able to maintain some semblance of the principles and practices of a liberal democracy [...]

 “The 40 000 plus killed in the Tamil genocide is one of the worst mass killings sanctioned by a state in history, ” stated Glen Murray, Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre while hosting the third annual Tamil Memorial Tree Planting event on Saturday at Evergreen Brick Works, a community environmental centre. The Evergreen Brick Works houses the first memorial dedicated to the victims of the Tamil genocide and was erected in 2011 by Mr.Murray. The memorial remembers [...]

Sinhala State and IC should be brought to a point to concede Tamil sovereignty through a democratic, non-violent mass struggle with sacrifices, said Tamil National People’s Front leader Gajendrakumar Pomnnambalam, addressing media in Jaffna on Monday, and clarifying the position taken by the TNPF at the tripartite deliberations facilitated by the Mannaar Bishop on Saturday. The IC that is not prepared to accept a separate State cannot reject an alternative either. It cannot impose a specific path. It is [...]

“Tamils agonize why the entire setup of Western institutions refuses to call what happened to us and what is happening to us is Genocide. Should the Tamils be surprised,” asked Dr N. Malathy, a key member of NESoHR and the author of ‘A Fleeting Moment in My Country’ at a meeting in Auckland, organized by the New Zealand Tamil Society on 5th May. “In this talk I have to convince you that there is nothing surprising in the behaviour of [...]

While Sri Lanka’s genocidal war on the Eezham Tamils architected by world powers, being reduced to only ‘human rights abuses’ in the criticism by political actors within the Establishments, it is studied by military experts within the same system to ‘learn lessons’ in counterinsurgency (COIN). The latest is a COIN literature on Sri Lanka, ‘Total Destruction of the Tamil Tigers’ by British analyst Paul Moorcraft, which adds to the myth of a ‘successful innovative Sri Lanka COIN’, while covering up [...]

Targeting brand label garment stores including Victoria Secret and Gap which sell Sri Lankan made apparel, Tamil activists held protests in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Toronto in front of both stores Sunday, organizers of the protest said. The protesters held placards and distributed leaflets describing the war-crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Sri Lanka government, as shoppers, aware of the recent tragedy of garment workers in Bangladesh, were drawn in increasing numbers towards the [...]

The occupying Sri Lanka has planned to appropriate lands in Mannaar district of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils to settle five thousand Sinhala families thus creating two new Sinhala villages, said Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan citing inside instructions coming from Colombo to Mannaar district secretariat. “According to this covert plan one thousand five hundred Sinhalese families in Maanthai West DS division, one thousand Sinhalese families in Madu AGA division and one thousand five hundred [...]

The decision by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II not to attend a Commonwealth summit later this year in Sri Lanka is related to the island nation’s poor human rights record, the main opposition said Wednesday.

The November meeting has been mired in controversy, with Canada threatening to stay away unless Colombo investigates suspected war crimes committed by its troops in 2009.

United National Party (UNP) spokesman Ravi Karunanayake said the queen might have attended the summit "if we didn’t have these governance and [...]

While Colombo media advanced the theory that Queen Elizabeth’s age was factor in her skipping the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting [CHOGM] in Colombo, and the British media opined that the Queen was slowly scaling down her royal responsibilities and transferring duties to Prince Charles, Professor Francis Boyle who teaches law at College of Law, University of Illinois, surmised that the reason for Her Majesty the Queen skipping Colombo was, as a constitutional monarch, the Queen was not willing to [...]

The Queen is set to miss the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka, for the first time in 40 years.

It is not yet known why the monarch will not attend the meeting. The Prince of Wales will go in her place, Buckingham Palace said.

The news comes amid controversy over the summit, with concerns having been raised by member governments over human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. But the decision by the Queen not to attend the Commonwealth Heads of [...]

If the British Prime Minister David Cameron is not prepared to boycott CHOGM hosted by Sri Lanka setting a new global paradigm on genocide, then the UK Tamils should have the guts to demonstrate the same sentiments they had showed to Rajapaksa visiting London to the British Prime Minister too, commented new generation Tamils for alternative politics in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. As a first step, Eezham Tamils in the Conservative Party should resign, activists ‘instructed’ by the [...]