Boycott of Sri Lanka Products is Started to Bear Fruits

Suren Surendiran is a senior member of the British Tamils Forum and the official spokesperson for the Global Tamil Forum.


“Some governments try to dodge criticism by claiming that human rights are ‘western values’. But people all over the world prove them wrong by demanding and suffering for their human rights – be they imprisoned protesters in Iran, or murdered journalists in Russia, or civilians caught up in conflicts in Sri Lanka or Gaza. We must continue to support people who demand their human rights across the world.” – David Miliband, Foreign Secretary, Statement to mark International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2009 -

Sri Lanka’s president is pressing forward with parliamentary elections on April 8, 2010 despite allegations of electoral malpractice surrounding his own presidential election victory in January, the country facing economic crisis and growing international criticisms for the State’s callous disregard for human rights, general governance and lack of political will to resolve the 62 years long conflict.

The U.S. State Department, in its Annual Report on Human Rights for 2009, has been highly critical of the Sri Lankan government. It says the government or paramilitary groups close to it were involved in summary killings and disappearances and that lawyers and journalists were harassed and victimised. It says the war-affected parts of the country saw the greatest number of political disappearances, estimated to be in the hundreds.

Britain has also named Sri Lanka a “country of concern” in the latest Foreign and Commonwealth Office Human Rights Report 2009. “This reflects our concern about allegations of serious conflict violations, as well as the deteriorating status of the rule of law and freedom of expression…” – United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office Annual Report on Human Rights 2009

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on March 8, 2010 expressed “concerns about the lack of progress on political reconciliation, the treatment of Internally Displaced Persons and the setting up of an accountability process in Sri Lanka”.

The prospect of a panel of experts being appointed to advise the Secretary General on accountability issues relating to Sri Lanka was not welcomed by President Rajapakse who said it was “uncalled for and unwarranted”.

Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations Sir Mark Lyall Grant has said that UK disagrees with the argument put forward by the Non-Aligned Movement and that “[Secretary General] does have a mandate through the U.N. charter to uphold human rights and humanitarian international law, and therefore he is entirely within his rights to set up a group of experts who will advise him on taking forward his concerns about some of the allegations that have been made in the recent months in Sri Lanka”. – Colombopage, 20 Mar 2010

“Sri Lanka’s government has sought an additional 39.6 billion rupees ($345 million) to fund its military, a 20 percent increase from the original defence budget despite the end of a 25-year war against Tamil Tigers in May.

“Sri Lanka has a public sector of around 6 percent of the population. Maintaining loss-making public institutions without reforms, high and unproductive subsidies, a government with over 110 Ministers and expenditures that make more political than economic sense are other factors in the deficit.” – Reuters, March 4, 2010

It is no surprise that the International Monetary Fund has delayed the third tranche of a $2.6 billion loan after Sri Lanka failed to achieve its budget deficit target to reduce deficit to 7 percent of GDP.

An IMF mission to Sri Lanka in February concluded that they were unable to “complete” its review until the pending parliamentary elections in April. It is however important to note that Sri Lanka’s last two IMF programs ended with missions that were unable to “complete reviews”, effectively staying suspended. – Lanka Business Online, 25 Feb 2010.

Despite Sri Lanka’s claims that it can overcome suspension of IMF loan, the country is already fearing the affects of the temporary suspension of General Scheme of Preference (GSP+) trade concessions due to come into effect in August 2010.

“Western countries, and groups in the Tamil Diaspora, are pressing for some kind of accountability for thousands of civilian deaths at the end of the war. Sri Lanka is adamant its soldiers did not violate international law, and that for now has cost it enhanced European Union trade preferences known as GSP+ worth $136 million a year.” – Reuters, 2 Mar 2010

Some of these above quotes and links stand as evidence that credible independent media organisations, institutions and foreign governments have highlighted facts, which I have used to illustrate my argument that the Rajapaksha regime is driving Sri Lanka into economic ruin for the sake of power at the cost of humanity itself.

It is hoped that all donors including China, Japan and India will follow precedence set by Britain and the U.S. in persuading Sri Lanka to address its human rights record.

It is against this backdrop and as part of its campaign to create worldwide awareness of the real human rights situation in Sri Lanka, the Global Tamil Forum has called for a worldwide boycott of Sri Lankan products and services – www.boycottsrilanka.com

Sri Lanka is Quickly Becoming the Congo of South Asia for Its Continuous Subject of Rapes of Tamil Women and Girls

Never ending stories of rapes of Tamil women and girls at the hands of Srilankan armed forces and its paramilitaries is norm of daily lives of Tamils who what they face in Sri Lanka nowadays. What is so alarming is that these criminals were never brought into justice. For example, Krishanthy case, in which the victim - Tamil teenage girl -was gang raped and later killed by two dozen Srilankan military men in the outposts of their camp in Ariyalai, Jaffna, in early 90s when she was on the way to her school. And another story of young Tamil woman worker of TRO ( Tamil relief Organization ) how she was gang raped and killed by about 20 paramilitary members of TMVP ( Karuna led faction of LTTE) for her suspected affiliation with LTTE in 2006. Because of the culture of impunity in Sri Lanka it encourages the Srilankan armed personnel to inflict more crimes against Tamil women and girls whenever they get chances. In the past, Srilankan armed forces often used to see every Tamil woman as their sexual pry or LTTE cadre given how the civil war played out in last 3 decades . Now LTTE is not in the picture, and it makes things easier for paramilitaries and Srilankan armed forces to go after any Tamil woman or girl whom they like. Raping of Tamil women and girls by Srilankan armed forces has become widespread in Sri Lanka but many stories never hit the mass media due to the backlashes the families of victims expect both from the culprits and the Tamil community itself.



One can argue that what are the benefits in trying to prevent the future rapes if the victims can go through anguish, isolation and the stigma by revealing their horrifying events to the public. Well, how many of you knew that more than 4,000 Tamil women were raped by IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) and its paramilitaries ( ENDLF, PLOTE, etc) during their stay of 3-year period from 1987 to 1989? Even if the local media knew about those incidents, they failed to bring into public because of the retaliation from the culprits of these rapes. People familiar with the IPKF rule in Jaffna knew well about how Tamil women and girls suffered at the heels of IPKF and its paramilitaries. And those paramilitaries often wait on the streets of Jaffna for the school girls to come out from their schools like Veambadi, Chundikuli and Hindu Ladies College etc. These victims were often disappeared for days and released later on with the mercy of their captors or they were killed in some instances. It was evident from the findings of many female bodies buried beside the Ashoka Hotel that was occupied by IPKF and its paramilitaries during their stay in Jaffna. Many can think that 4,000 rape victims may not be high enough to think as epidemic of rape and grotesque violence against Tamil women in IPKF time. In fact, if you go into those little details of the Jaffna population, you would see it was clearly on the epidemic scale.



What it made me to write this post is clearly this news - http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=31223- that appeared on Tamilnet few days back. And I see this is as the troubling sign of what to come from the Srilankan armed forces and its paramilitaries who stationed in Jaffna town which currently falls in the high-military zone. I’m already privy to one such incident happened few months ago and won’t reveal the victim’s name and her place for obvious reasons. The victim was raped by 9 EPRLF men (a paramilitary group that led by Douglas Devananda who is minister of the current ruling government in SL ) It is important to highlight the sufferings of Tamil women what they endure at the hands of Srilankan armed forces and its paramilitaries, otherwise it can once again become epidemic of rape against Tamil women and girls in Sri Lanka.

One should not forget the barbaric nature of Srilankan armed forces who are often given incentives to work in North East provinces of Tamil homeland that they can always get way with the sexual assaults of Tamil women. Past history of Srilankan armed forces is real proof what you can expect from them. During the final stages of Eelam war IV last summer, Defence Sectary Gotabaya Rajapaksa even said that all the Tamil women can become the possession of his military personnel and Tamil men should be thrown into Indian ocean. If military head can have that kind of mentality, no need to mention how the lower ranks work. It was said in many channels that widespread sexual assaults were on going against Tamil women and girls who were part of the 300,000+ Tamils put behind the barped wires by Srilankan government aftermath of its military victory over LTTE last summer.

Haitian peace keeping mission of Srilankan armed forces is a testimonial for how rouge Srilankan armed forces are. If they can go and involve in the raping spree of Haitian girls in their peace keeping mission of Haiti, not to mention that Haiti is more than 12,000 miles away from their country, they sure can inflict more violence against Tamil women in Sri Lanka given the history of hatred Srilankan armed forces have against Tamils in SL. What U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said of Sri Lanka is no accident that rape had been used as a weapon of war in Sri Lanka.
If we do not escalate the issue of rapes of Tamil women how they suffer at the heels of Srilankan forces and its paramilitaries, we may see 100s of brothels between Elephant Pass and Jaffna town on A9 highway just as what Colombo has it between Negombo and Pettah. The cultural city of Jaffna can become history for what it is known if we neglect the seriousness of these rapes. More importantly, there is no end to the sufferings of our women.

Ruwanda, Congo, Darfur, now Sri Lanka - Up to 40,000 civilians 'died in Sri Lanka offensive'

By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
Friday, 12 February 2010

The bitter controversy surrounding the final stages of the Sri Lankan government’s operation to crush separatist rebels has been reopened after a former UN official claimed that up to 40,000 civilians may have been killed.

In the final stages of last year’s move to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the UN protested strongly about the number of Tamil civilians caught up in the fighting. Privately, officials estimated that between 8,000-10,000 lost their lives and that many more were wounded.

Now, Gordon Weiss, who until the end of last year was the UN’s spokesman in Colombo, has suggested the figure may be much higher. “A lot of civilians died inside the siege zone. I have heard anything between ten and forty thousand people and that’s from reliable sources who had a presence inside the zone,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “[The Sri Lankan authorities] repeated a number of things that were either intentionally misleading or were lies. One senior government civil servant remarked at the end of the war that the government insistence that the figures were very low was a ploy. It was a ploy to allow the government to get on with its business.”

Last night, the Sri Lankan government dismissed the claims. Lucien Rajakarunanayake, a senior presidential spokesman said: “All I can tell you is that [Mr Weiss] is unaware of the facts. The figures are a total exaggeration. The UN itself has given figures that are much lower than this.”

Precisely how many civilians were injured or wounded as Sri Lankan forces defeated the remnant of the LTTE fighters making a final stand in the north east of Sri Lanka, may never be known. At the time, the UN and other organisations claimed that civilians were being struck by ordinance fired by both sides. Testimony provided by Tamils who escaped from the war zone suggests that many civilians were used as human shields by the LTTE as government troops advanced.

Mr Weiss was last night unavailable to comment and the UN in Sri Lanka refused to discuss the claims of its former spokesman, believed to be writing a memoir of his experiences in Sri Lanka.

In the interview, the former spokesman also suggested there was a need to investigate allegations of possible war crimes. While there have been widespread calls for such an inquiry, including from some senior figures within the UN, the Sri Lankan authorities have refused such an undertaking. “I will not allow any investigation by the United Nations or any other country. There is nothing wrong happening in this country?Take it from me, we will not allow any investigation,” Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the country’s defence secretary and brother of the president, recently told an interviewer.

Indeed, the purported readiness of former army chief Sarath Fonseka to cooperate with such an inquiry has been cited by the government as one of the reasons he was arrested and placed in detention and will likely be placed before a court-martial. Mr Fonseka, who last month failed in his electoral challenge to Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, had said allegations about war could be investigated. The defence secretary said of Mr Fonseka’s undertaking: “He simply cannot do that. For one thing it is a lie.”

Yesterday, hundreds of lawyers marched through Colombo to protest against Mr Fonseka’s continued detention. They gathered near the country’s Supreme Court which admitted a petition filed by the former general’s wife that claimed his detention by the military police was illegal. The court has given the government four weeks to reply.

Such a date would be less than a month before parliamentary that Mr Fonseka has intended to contest. The government has not yet specified which charges it wishes to bring against him, but has repeatedly claimed he was plotting a coup – something he denied.

Meanwhile, the US and Norway denied claims made by the government that they had bankrolled Mr Fonseka’s campaign. In a statement, the US Embassy in Colombo said: “The United States backed no candidate but strongly supported a free, fair, and credible democratic process.”

VP, Death, and the Myth!

The latest story at Tamilwin - http://www.tamilwin.com/view.php?2a36QVj4b4cF98224beSIPz0e22p1GQdcd2GipD3e0dpZLuQce04g2F92cdbHjoQ30 - is stirring the controversy surrounding the death of VP once more. It is astonishing to see how the person who is Srilankan army officer on this image resembles the body of VP that was shown in all Srilankan channels.



It's the real image of VP that was taken on 2007 Maveerar Day.


There were mixed opinions among pro-Tamils about the death of VP prior to this news story at Tamilwin as some thought he may have been killed and some simply said he never dies. For any common-sensed person, it was hard to reject the opinion of death of VP earlier as all the evidences in Mulliyavaikal directly pointed his death. Mind you, well into first week after the alleged killing of VP on May 18th by SLA, KP who is in Srilankan army custody now maintained his position that VP was alive then. I will reproduce few excerpts of the Tamilnet’s interview with KP that took place on May 18th, 2009.

TamilNet: The Sri Lankan Government has declared the war won and has claimed that Mr Pirapaharan, the leader of LTTE has been killed. Has Colombo really won the war?

S. Pathmanathan, Head of LTTE's International Diplomatic Relations
Pathmanathan: The Sri Lankan government makes unverified claims. I am only able to ascertain that our National Leader is alive and well. It is true that many of our senior members and leaders have either given up their lives or been treacherously killed. This is very unfortunate, but it is important to realize that our struggle will continue until the aspirations of our people are realized.

The Sri Lankan Government may have declared a military victory. But it does not realize that it is a hollow victory. It has completely lost the trust and confidence of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

One thing is clear that LTTE hierarchy was confident of KP then, otherwise they wouldn’t have moved him into higher up the position of Head of LTTE’s international relations when things started to get serious in the midst of Wanni war. After the executions of political leaders- Nadesan, Pulidevan and along with 300 others- on May 17th, the remaining LTTE hierarchy, assume VP was alive then, may have smelled the rat in KP and that put them not to share the info with KP anymore. Either way LTTE intelligence wing that learned the lessons of its life in the final week of battle in Wanni may have awaken from its sleep in time to think what was right for Tamils and its organization by going silent about the death of VP, even if he was alive. What puzzling to me is that why LTTE allowed the common enemy – GoSL- takes control of KP saga. The seismic proportions of Wanni events may have prevented LTTE think clearly for some time. It looks to me they’re still figuring out the good and bad apples even in their organization itself now.

Revelation of VP alive can bring greater harms than VP dead for Tamils for the time being. Let it be what is now that VP is dead. For your own euphoria, you may bring harm to those 14,000 Tamil youths who’re in SLA’s custody now and to those who lost loved ones and their own limps in the war from any chance of rebuilding their remaining scattered lives.

As it seems, LTTE is slowly overhauling its ship now. Look at their new website – www.lttepress.com – and it looks to me real site of their own. Don’t jump on the bandwagon quickly, and the GoSL and its Intel channels can double or even triple cross you here with their abundance of Tamil traitors from its arsenal. If you visit pulikalinkural.com, you would know that it is functioning well now. All it suggests that they’re in the fast-paced rebuilding mode now. The immutable fact of life for anyone is that there are two states in SL now regardless of VP’s existence.

Never Too Late

If we have learned from our past mistakes, we all know half measures never would bring any final result that we want. The amount of energy put into de facto state in Wanni by LTTE on the expense of building a strong political front in Tamilnadu cost everything for Tamils. Should they have built a strong network in Tamilnadu, at least a strong political front, we wouldn’t be in a position that no one would have imagined it before. Leaving the corrupt DMK or ADMK in power for a past decade or so, pro-Eelam elements put themselves in a big hole that wasn’t really exposed until they were pushed against the wall in the last Eelam war.

One can argue that the mood was hostile against LTTE in India after the death of Rajiv, so any move by pro-Eelam elements in Tamilnadu would cost the remaining support. Well, one wrong call – the death of Rajiv Ghandi that hasn’t proved yet for who did – should not force another wrong call that was being passive on the corrupt DMK and ADMK leaders who are the reasons for why we have been forced to become slaves in our own land now. It is sad to see the so called political pundits blaming the change of mood in western and regional powers for our current state than our own political people – Karunanidhi and other traitors.

Any charity or reform should always start from home. Without cleaning the garbage at home, we can’t point fingers on others - external powers. To the extent India cooperated with Sri Lanka to kill 30,000 Tamils in less than 4 months is a real proof of what you can expect from them in future. Sadly, they even went further by leveraging their current rise of power in South Asia to cover of their involvement of war crimes by silencing the human right calls. It won’t take too long to replicate of what happened to Eelam Tamils on Tamilnadu Tamils. So long as 4 feet “veadi” wearing politicians continue to dance to their masters in New Delhi to amass fortune for them, Tamils will continue to lose their rights, voices, and an identity.

Yes, Tamilnadu enjoys the greater economic prosperity within the current system in India. Being the number one industrialized state and the contributor of third of economy of India, Tamilnadu would have easily prevented the bloodbath and saved 30,000 innocent Tamil lives, instead they watched the carnage unfolding in Wanni. When 100s of Tamil lives were forcefully taken daily in Wanni, Sun TV continued to be silent about any human loss. And the mainstream Medias of India followed their soap-opera stories of cricket and movie stars on their front pages and headline news instead of highlight the any suffering of Tamils in Wanni then. It all indicates one thing: there is no value for Tamil lives. Here is the glimpse of idea where Tamilnadu is heading; Tamil cinema rules the lives of Tamils there, and any Tamil channel you tune into contains 70/30 in favour of English dialogue. After all, Tamil cinema is home to pedophiles and perverts, who often backed by corrupt politicians. No wonder why the scumbag, Actor Vijay, openly expressed his interest for joining the Congress.

What Tamilnadu needs at the moment is “The Shock Doctrine” version of Naomi Klein – a reform in the wake of crisis. Leader of “ Naam Thamizhar Iyakkam”, Seeman, should stop entertaining the local crowd and it is time for him to start the real work. We need a sophisticated umbrella organization that can take hard decisions if needed. Once the clean-up makes full-circle in Eelam and Tamilnadu, then sky is the limit for getting back our lost land and rights. That means the buck stops with Tamilnadu youth now. With one half-measure, we've already lost 3 decades and 130,000 Tamil lives, if we make one more, there won’t be any recovery for Tamils. It is time for Tamil youth to roll up their sleeves and get dirty in Tamilnadu.

Yes or no to Tamil Eelam( referendum in Canada )

As you know, the political vacuum left by LTTE after its debacle in Mulliyavaikkal can bring greater adversities to Tamils if they do not shake off from what happened there. Yes, there are many Tamil factions emerging in our circles since the brutal military victory of GoSL against Tamils back home. Any ambivalence of the broader Tamil public should not be replaced with anti-Tamil views that is what GoSL have already started to throw at us. Please be clear in one thing that as long as we do not deviate from the Tamil nationalism, we're in the right direction regardless of any short-term adversities. Arguing about what good can bring whether forming the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam or supporting the Vaddukoddai Resolution, won't help us. But it is all about keeping our Tamil Nationalism alive in these troubling times until we get the right time to strike back. And that opportune moment can come in 10 years down the stretch or 50 years but we can wait for it.

Leaving our youth back home in harms way by escaping into Western countries we also have blood in our hands. If anything in doubt, please see the CH4 clip. How many of our Tamil women are raped by SLA? How many are quietly suffering inside for their current turmoil?

The least thing you can do Tomorrow is paying a visit to any polling center that is close by in your area.

Pictures won't hide the truth!

The evil acts by Srilankan armed forces against Tamils have reached another new low.