Australian Tamil

While a few U.S. cities, including Washington postponed the planned Sri Lanka Boycott rallies due to the record-breaking snow storm, in most of the 15 cities Tamil activists held protests urging ethical-minded consumers to boycott Sri Lanka products, especially textiles, as the protesters allege that the profits fund State violence against Tamil civilians, organizers of the protest said. Meanwhile, the organizers of the boycott campaign released a third-video in a planned series of video releases highlighting the need to black-label Sri Lanka products across the world, sources close to the boycott campaign said.

Sri Lankan military police Monday night arrested former commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and opposition candidate in the recent presidential elections General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, initial reports from sources close to Fonseka said. The arrest comes after he declared that he was prepared to witness against anyone who had committed war crimes. The military personnel ragged away Fonseka in a very disgraceful manner, according to Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the Muslim Congress, who was with Fonseka while the arrest took place, told Reuters.

The widespread systematic pattern of crimes committed by the Sri Lankan state against Tamil civilians, particularly during the first five months of 2009 in the Northeast province, constitute violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, legal scholars have said. During this period, indifference exhibited by the international community, including the United Nations, led to the deaths of more than 30,000 Tamils. The strong transnational expatriate Tamil community now has the burden (a) to prevent Sri Lanka from erasing the massacres from historical record, (b) to resist attempts by international powers to persuade Tamils for reconciliation without establishing justice and accountability for the crimes, and (c) to seek justice for tens of thousands of Tamil victims by charging Sri Lanka of war crimes and genocide against Tamils in world courts.

Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna officials are attempting to close the files of persons reported missing in the period after 11 August 2006 claiming that the missing persons had gone abroad, the families who had made the complaints said. While Sri Lanka government continues to maintain that persons reported missing after arrest by its armed forces have left the country the action taken by Jaffna HRC officials seems to strengthen government?s stand, they further complained.

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which had imposed restrictions on fishing in Jaffna peninsula since its occupation for the last fourteen years is now tightening the restrictions, subjecting the peninsula fishermen to additional harassment, fisheries societies sources in Jaffna said. SLA compels the fishermen to renew their ?fishing pass? often while keeping many fishing jetties in several coastal villages closed to them, the sources further complained.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Priyantha Jayakody has been appointed as the new media spokesman of the Sri Lanka Police with immediate effect. He was the Director (Recruitment) prior to this appointment.

Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa would be dissolving the parliament this week on his return from Russia, said Maithripala Sirisena, a Senior Minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Sunday to media. The term of office of the current parliament ends on April 22. He further said his government hopes to have a 'closer understanding' with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the forthcoming general election to 'uplift' the Northern and Eastern provinces. However he said that does not mean that the UPFA government would accept any condition by the TNA.

Noting that on Sri Lanka's Independence day "Tamil diaspora around the world mourn as they believe today marks the beginning of national oppression," John Murphy, Australian Member of Parliament, said in a recorded speech in the parliament on 4th February, adding, "[d]espite the Sri Lankan government?s declaration of [military] victory, the international community has expressed its grave concern that this battle will not be won and peace will not prevail until the Sri Lankan government provides essential political reform." The MP called for an independent investigation into the "reports of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Sri Lanka."

The Peace Palace Library (PPL), the main library of the World Court, the popular name for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has acquired "The Tamil genocide by Sri Lanka," a recent publication by Clarity press authored by Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at University of Illinois College of Law, Marianne Brouwer, principal catalog librarian for the PPL, confirmed. "The book has made it to the World Court. Now we just need to file the lawsuit [against Sri Lanka for Genocide/war-crimes]," commented Boyle.

With the death of 85 years old Boa Sr in Andaman Islands of India last week, the Bo language of prehistoric antiquity became extinct once and for all, reports, Survival International, a movement for tribal peoples. The Andaman and Nicobar islands, home of several prehistoric tribes of Austroloid, Negroid and Mongoloid origins, is currently a Union Territory directly administered by the Central Government of India. ?The Great Andamanese were first massacred, then all but wiped out by paternalistic policies which left them ravaged by epidemics of disease, and robbed of their land and independence,? says Survival on the modern history of the tribes since British times. Meanwhile, India launched a show off of ?naval exercise? in the Andaman Sea Friday, mobilising 13 countries in the region including Sri Lanka, the new 'colonial power' in South Asia.