The Sri Lankan military's army commander in Jaffna, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe warned Tamils in the North-East to be wary of the Tamil diaspora.

Hathurusinghe said,

"Various groups in Tamil Diaspora are now in the process of undermining the hard-earned peace in the country. Instead of disturbing peace now being enjoyed by people of Sri Lanka, those groups must come forward to help destitute people to make their life better using money being wasted on creating dissension among communities in Sri Lanka"

The Sri Lankan government has previously dismissed human rights concerns as "propaganda" by the Eelam Tamil diapora, which it refers to as the "LTTE rump".

The Sri Lankan president's spokesperson, Bandula Jayasekera, told ABC news channel last year,

"This is hearsay. These are mere allegations... we have ended 30 years of terror."

"This is the well-oiled propaganda machinery of the LTTE rump"

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, extended his wishes to the British Tamil community celebrating Chithirai Tirunaal and Tamil New Year.

In his message Mr Johnson highlighted the significant contributions British Tamils make to the city.

Full message:

"I would like to extend my warmest wishes to the British Tamil community on this day of celebrating Chithirai Tiru-naal."

"This important occasion provides us with the opportunity to renew the ties that bring us all together in building a prosperous community based on the bonds of family and social responsibility."

"It is these strong values that enable the tens of thousands of British Tamils who have made London their home to make such a significant contribution to the city and its communities."

"Puthandu Vazthukal to you and your families on this special day."

Hoping to capitalise on Palestine's $4.02 billion economy, Sri Lanka seeks further trade links and tourism investment with Palestine.

Sri Lanka's minister of Industry and Commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen, and his Palestinian counterpart, Khuloud Daibes, discussed ways of increasing trade between the two country's during a recent trade show.

Addressing delegates at the show last month, Daibes said,

"While offering greetings from our President and the Prime Minister, I should stress that Palestine can almost feel the great potential Sri Lanka has. We are glad that we have been able to arrive for Expo 2012 and become part of Sri Lanka’s resurgence"

"We believe there is strong partnering potential between SL and Palestine for tourism cooperation, specially with regard to Sri Lankan’s interest in Holy Land and other Holy Places in Palestine. We are prepared to offer joint ventures between Palestinian Hotels in Bethlehem and Sri Lankan investors to help Sri Lankan pilgrims coming to Bethlehem."

Responding to Daibes' comments, Bathiudeen said,

"I believe that a Joint Investment Forum between the two countries can kick-start bilateral trade process in this resurgent climate. I believe that Expo 2012 also can help in this direction."

See 'European embassies that serve no purpose will close - Sri Lanka' (27 Mar 2012)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Sri Lanka to respect human rights in a statement marking Tamil and Singhalese New Year.

“On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to send best wishes to Sri Lankans around the world as you celebrate Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

“This celebration brings people together to renew bonds of friendship and family.

“It also gives Sri Lankans of all backgrounds, living inside and outside the country, an opportunity to help build a prosperous, democratic nation defined by tolerance and respect for human rights.

“As a partner and friend of Sri Lanka for more than 150 years, the United States looks forward to supporting your efforts to foster national reconciliation and development, and to build even stronger ties between our people.

“Congratulations and best wishes for a safe and happy holiday and a prosperous New Year.”

Meanwhile Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa used his New Years message to express his 'sincere gratitude' to the members of Sri Lanka's armed forces and police and called upon everyone to pay 'due importance to the observance of new year traditions'.

"The observance of the many important traditions associated with the New Year strengthens great unity and understanding between family and village. Such unity is a great encouragement to solidarity for national prosperity. As the country moves towards prosperity, the observances of these traditions by all at the auspicious hours would bring great blessings.

"I, therefore, call upon you all to pay due importance to the observance of the New Year traditions.

"I express my sincere gratitude to the members of the Armed Forces, the Police and Civil Defence Corps and all others who carry out their official duties during this period of festivity.

"I wish you all a happy New Year."

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) announced it will be launching a new 'patriotic movement' early next month.

The leader of the JVP, Somawansa Amarasinghe said the country was in need of a true patriotic force that campaigns against 'imperialist interventions into the country'.

The party will hold seminars in the upcoming weeks to create awareness on how to defeat such 'imperialist intervention'.

Delegates represent their country organisations at T-League's second annual general meeting

A worldwide coalition of Tamil youth organisations, Global Tamil Youth League (T-League), pledged to continue the struggle against the genocide faced by the Tamil nation and work towards a political solution that was based on the Tamil nation's right to self-determination, at its second annual conference held on the 7th - 8th April.

In a resolution unanimously adopted by all of the coalition's member organisations, T-League called for 'the establishment of an independent, international mechanism to ensure truth, accountability and justice', and pledged to work 'to achieve a political solution that recognises the uncompromising, fundamental principles of the Tamil freedom struggle', 'to raise awareness about the ongoing multi-faceted genocide unleashed on the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan state' and 'to promote the identity of the Tamil nation'. 

 

Global Tamil Youth League second AGM held in UK

The resolution was adopted by Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance, Canada (CTYA); Tamil Youth Network, Germany; Giovani Tamil, Italy; Tamil Youth Organisation, Norway (TYO-Norway); Tamil Youth Organisation, Switzerland (TYO-Swiss) and Tamil Youth Organisation, UK (TYO-UK); and endorsed by Voice of Tamils, Australia; Tamil Youth Organisation, New Zealand (TYO-NZ), Tamil Youth Organisation, Sweden (TYO-Sweden) and  Tamil Youth Organization, USA (TYO-USA).

Delegates from member organisations attended a two-day conference held in the UK, which included seminars on project management skills, identity, the Eelam struggle within an international perspective, future strategies of the struggle and a session on the genocide of Tamils run by Jan Jananayagam of the Tamil rights group, TAG (Tamils Against Genocide).

Following the success of T-League's 2011 inaugural event, 'Aadukalam' - an international dance competition held in Germany, the coalition announced plans to hold Aadukalam 2012 in the UK later this year, along side the creation of the Tamil Eelam Football Association and the Global Tamil Archive Foundation, and plans to hold a film festival.

Janarthan Sadacharalingam, a delegate from the Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance (CTYA), told Tamil Guardian,

“It was a great opportunity to meet fellow young Tamil activists from all around the world, and share our experiences and thoughts of how to resist the genocide our nation faces. We are also pleased to have been elected to chair T-League for the following year and look forward to strengthening and expanding this global network of Tamil youth”

Full text of resolution adopted by the Global Tamil Youth League reproduced below:

Global Tamil Youth League 08/04/12

Whereas the Tamil people have historically inhabited Tamil Eelam, the North-East of the island of Sri Lanka, as their traditional homeland; and

Whereas the Tamil people are distinguished from other people living in the island by their unique language, culture, traditions and history; and

Whereas for over sixty years the Sinhala Buddhist ideology of the Sri Lankan state is destroying the economic existence, the political and social institutions, and the demographic and territorial basis of the Tamil national identity; and

Whereas the Tamil people have been historically marginalised in language, education and citizenship and suffered state-orchestrated pogroms; and

Whereas these practices have been continuing for over sixty years in a systematic, intentional and targeted manner, constituting the genocide of the Tamil nation; and

Whereas the Tamil nation called for an independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in 1977, and reaffirmed this in 2009 and 2010, based on the principles of the Vaddukkoddai Resolution of 1976; and

Whereas the Sri Lankan state cannot provide meaningful accountability or justice into the grave violations of international humanitarian law during the last phase of the armed conflict, through a domestic inquiry; and

Whereas in order to move forward with a meaningful advancement for the Tamil youth it is vital to preserve the Eelam Tamil identity and remember its history; and therefore

Be It Resolved that the Global Tamil Youth League calls for the establishment of an independent, international mechanism to ensure truth, accountability and justice.

Be it Resolved that the Global Tamil Youth League will work to achieve a political solution that recognises the uncompromising, fundamental principles of the Tamil freedom struggle; namely: recognition of the Tamil homeland, the recognition of the Tamil people as a distinct nation; recognition of the right to self determination of the Tamil nation.

Be It Resolved that the Global Tamil Youth League will work to raise awareness about the ongoing multi-faceted genocide unleashed on the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan state.

Be It Resolved that the Global Tamil Youth League will promote the identity of the Tamil nation by working to protect, foster and create awareness about the history and sacrifices of our martyrs, the national flag of Tamil Eelam, the national symbols of Tamil Eelam, our social, political and cultural symbols and national festivals associated with our rich heritage and history.

One of the two activists of a newly formed Leftist party abducted by Sri Lankan security forces and later released after Australia’s intervention says he was tortured in custody.

Speaking on his return to Australia after being deported, Kumar Gunaratnam told ABC:

“I confirm I was abducted by the Sri Lankan government forces [who] blind-folded me and tortured [me].

“This includes, I'm embarrassed to say, sexual torture. I was handcuffed and my ankles were bound during the whole period.”

“I have no doubt that if I didn't have the Australian Government's support, I would have been killed just like my brother and hundreds of other political activists and journalists have been killed.”

The other activist, Dimuthu Attygalle, held a press conference in Colombo ato announce that she was abducted by the security forces. (See AFP's report.)

Gunaratnam, leader of the new Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), was abducted on Friday and Attygalle, the party’s women's wing leader, was abducted the day before.

Neighbours say that about 25 armed men arrived at his home before dawn last Saturday and cut the power, before storming the house and taking him away. (See the Sydney Morning Herald's report).

Sri Lanka has denied the kidnapping claims and says Mr Gunaratnam is a dangerous militant.

A Foreign Ministry statement said Mr Gunaratnam's claim of abduction is a fabrication and he was thrown out of the country because he overstayed his visa by five months.

Human rights organisations say in the past six months, 56 political activists, party leaders and journalists have disappeared from Sri Lankan streets.

Writing in The Nation newspaper, Sri Lanka's Power and Energy Minister, Patali Champika Ranawaka, warned India that it had "dealt a killer blow to India-Sri Lanka relations", whilst attempting to protect "Tamil fascism and Western imperialism".

Ranawaka wrote,

"By voting against Sri Lanka, India has not only dealt a killer blow to India-Sri Lanka relations, but also to reconciliation efforts between Sinhalese and Tamils. This in turn is akin to committing an act of diplomatic hara-kiri, as both Tamil fascism and Western imperialism — which India is attempting to protect through its actions — are the real enemies of India."

The past few weeks have seen increasing anti-Indian sentiments in Sri Lanka, with mobs desecrating a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Batticaloa on Friday, along with statues of Swami Vipulananda, Pulavarmani Periyathampipillai and Baden-Powell.

Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, asserted it should be the priority of the state to ensure that "communal politics" be removed from the North, and replaced by "political leadership by national level political parties". Lest there be any confusion as to which party he was endorsing, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa clarified, "such as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)".

He added,

“These voters should be given a chance because it is their democratic right. They should be given political leadership by national level political parties, such as, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)."

"One time LTTE member Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan (Karuna Amman) is now the vice president of the SLFP,” the Defence Secretary said. This is a step in the right direction."

“Only then the new voters of the North who dislike communal politics and who wish to join mainstream national politics, will receive a non - communal national level leadership.”

Soon after facing threats of losing his position as Sri Lanka's ambassador to Paris, Dayan Jayatilleka, vehemently rebutted the accusations. Responding to the letter stating that he should be charged under Sri Lanka's Penal Code, for "alleged wrongdoings" in the conduct of the affairs of the Embassy in Paris, Jayatilleka said,

"Having destroyed the solid 17 vote majority I obtained for the country [in 2009], thus handing a victory to the pro-Tiger elements worldwide and making Sri Lanka vulnerable to external interference, these power- hungry conspiratorial elements are now trying to ‘white van’ my reputation, instead of examining how, why and where they failed in Geneva."

The alleged wrongdoings include repainting and whitewashing the embassy and ambassadorial residence buildings prior to the visit of external affairs minister, G.L. Peiris, and providing hotel accommodation to the first secretary at a hotel until a suitable house could be found.

Comparing the charges to the Channel 4 documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ and a report released by the UN panel of experts, Jayatilleka dismissed the charges as "crazy, rather like the Darusman report and Channel 4 combined."

Jayatilleka added,

"my task of representing and safeguarding Sri Lanka’s national interest in France, which is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is at a qualitatively different level.”

Indignant, Jayatilleke reminded everyone that he turned down a senior research fellow position at which he was paid ten thousand Singapore dollars a month, because the country’s leadership and its new foreign minister obliged him to return to the task of representing Sri Lanka in the wake of the challenges and danger posed by the ‘Darusman report’.

“Unlike some others I have never been in jail for fraud nor have I had scandalous audit reports concerning huge sums of money spent on the renovation of official residences wherever I served,” said Jayatilleka.

Major General Prasanna de Silva, Sri Lanka's military attache at the high commission in London, is to return to Sri Lanka in the next few days, amid allegations of war crimes and an increasing moves towards legal action, reported The Guardian newspaper on Thursday.

A spokesperson for Sri Lankan government has refuted any connection between the legal proceedings and Silva's departure, claiming it to be a "routine transfer matter".

Speaking to The Guardian, he said,

"The claim of a lawsuit by the GTF has nothing to do with this routine transfer matter and it appears to be yet another invidious attempt to embarrass both Sri Lankan and British governments and a continuation of GTF's history of attempting to gain misplaced publicity mileage for events it has nothing to do with."

A dossier detailing Silva's alleged involvement in war crimes during the first half of 2009, was submitted to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on 24th January 2012. The dossier was prepared by the Society for Threatened Peoples Switzerland with the support of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and TRIAL.

See here for ECCHR press statement (05 Apr 2012)

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) recently instructed solicitors, Birnberg, Peirce and Partners, to launch a judicial review against the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, citing the Foreign Office’s refusal to take action against Silva. A hasty departure would make it likely that Silva evades questioning however.

See here for full report by The Guardian.