By Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah, Senator TGTE, 01 Nov 2012 - “Our solution does not lie in the 13th Amendment but on the Tamil nationhood to be recognised. We are not a minority. From the beginning of history there have been two nations that must be recognized” With these profound words that is sure to resonate well with the Tamil Diaspora and the Tamil heartland in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka, the outspoken Bishop of Mannar, in characteristic fashion set the benchmarks as it were for any future dialogue for a political solution for Eelam Tamils; benchmarks that must be heeded not just by the Rajapaksa administration but by the UN, the international community and India, requiring immediate international intervention.

TamilNet, Sunday, 23 September 2012 - Diaspora Tamils should focus their full efforts in demanding the United Nation to conduct a plebiscite among the Tamil speaking people in the Tamil homeland, told Professor Giuseppe Burgio from the University of Palermo, Italy, at the Pongku Thamizh rally held Saturday in front of the United Nations Office in Geneva in Switzerland. More than 3,500 Tamil activists across Europe gathered in Geneva to assert their resolve to uphold the struggle for the independence of the nation of Eezham Tamils. A group of mayors and lawyers from France appeared in the stage vowing their support to Eezham Tamils' Right to Self Determination and international legal efforts that sought to pave the way forward. Norwegian Red party politician Stian Nicolajsen told the gathering that his party would extend full support to Tamils' independence.

Footage shows soldiers gloating over naked female corpses in final stages of civil war

The Independent, 07 June 2012 - Further evidence has emerged of the brutal treatment of Tamils by Sri Lankan soldiers during the closing stages of the country's civil war. Video footage obtained by The Independent shows soldiers gloating over a pile of more than 100 Tamil corpses, including dozens of women who have been deliberately stripped of their clothes to expose their breasts and genitals.

The Independent, 01 June 2012 - The Home Office is under increasing pressure to halt any future deportations of Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka after a senior judge accepted that there is credible evidence they could be tortured on their return. The last minute decision led to approximately 50 Tamils being taken off a chartered deportation flight back to Sri Lanka on yesterday afternoon and signifies growing discomfort among the judiciary that Britain may be sending people back to their persecutors. In the end the 150 capacity plane left Stansted airport with just 36 people on board. The Independent understands that 22 of the passengers were of Tamil ethnicity with the rest were Sinhalese or Muslim.

By Callum Macrae, Director of the Channel 4 documentary Sri Lanka's “Killing Fields”, 11 March 2011, The Independent - It is a chilling piece of footage that represents yet another blow for the beleaguered Sri Lankan government in its attempts to head off a critical resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this week. The short clip dates from the final hours of the bloody 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the secessionist rebels of the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE. A 12-year-old boy lies on the ground. He is stripped to the waist and has five neat bullet holes in his chest. His name is Balachandran Prabakaran and he is the son of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. He has been executed in cold blood. Beside him lie the bodies of five men, believed to be his bodyguards. There are strips of cloth on the ground indicating that they were tied and blindfolded before they were shot – further evidence suggesting that the Sri Lankan government forces had a systematic policy of executing many surrendering or captured LTTE fighters and leading figures, even if they were children.

By Rachael Cloughton, The Independent, 9 December 2011 - Many other images have been leaked since summer, subsequently Channel 4 is putting together a follow-up programme; ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished,’ which will be screened next year. This will offer another opportunity to disclose photographs of abuse in the hope that they will encourage proper political action and a thorough investigation. As such a direct action within contemporary warfare the image is key evidence to the disputed war crimes. It is also one of the only vestiges of military abuse that can be rewritten, along with the Sri Lankan government’s current internal inquiry, ‘The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ which needs to be re-written, immediately.

By Andrew Buncombe, The Independent, 23 November 2011 - Jaffna - New freedoms promised by the end of 25-year civil war are still being denied journalists in Sri Lanka, where many who have taken an unbiased stance have paid with their lives. Since then, two police officers have been assigned to permanent duty outside the building and Mr Kaanamylnathan and his wife have left their three-bedroom home in the city and moved into a small space next to the newsroom. "I don't go out. The only exception is to go and see my doctor, a heart-specialist, once every three months," Mr Kaanamylnathan said. "For that, I have to make to make special arrangements. The plight of Mr Kaanamylnathan and his newspaper Uthayan, (Rising Sun in Tamil), where six members of staff have been killed in the past decade and many others attacked, threatened and harassed in incidents that continue today, is a frightening window into the world of journalism in Sri Lanka.

27 April 2011 - “Sri Lankan war crimes must be prosecuted”, the Independent newspaper from London emphasized today in a leading article. “If the authorities in Colombo are certain of their innocence they should have nothing to fear from answering these allegations at the bar of an international court”, it said.