TamilNet

Book documents pre-colonial Tamil connections of New Zealand

[Sat, 28 Jan 2012, 00:27 GMT]

“Tamil Imprints in New Zealand” by 87-year-old Eezham Tamil author A.T. Arumugam, now living in New Zealand, re-documents and discusses in detail a bronze bell inscribed in Tamil in c. 14-15 century writing that was in the possession of the native Maori people of New Zealand. Originally written in 2007 in Tamil, the book has been translated into English and will be released shortly in Wellington. The publication is sure to give a sense of pride and belongingness, and would contribute to integration with identity for the Tamils of New Zealand today, commented a social worker. Meanwhile, reviewing the book, V. Sivasupramaniam, who also contributed to the translation says, “This book of fifty-two pages could provide a good incentive for historians and researchers to go further deep into the migratory pattern of this multi-cultural country.”

Full story >>

Resettled Tamil woman's body recovered near SLA bund in Thenmaraadchi

[Thu, 26 Jan 2012, 23:55 GMT]

The skeleton of a recently slain 28-year-old unmarried Tamil woman has been recovered near an abandoned military bund used by the Sri Lanka Army in A'rukuve'li, located along Kearatheevu Road (Jaffna - Mannaar Road) in Thenmaraadchi on Wednesday. The victim, Atputhamalar Subramaniyam, who had resettled in Thanangki'lappu near Ma'ravanpulavu of Thenmaraadchi last year, has been missing since November 13. But, her family was receiving SMS messages for some time from her cell phone. The abductors have been sending the messages with the intention of making the family to believe that she was not abducted, relatives of the victim who came for the funeral on Thursday told media. Tension prevailed in the recently resettled area where the occupying SLA is still on random patrol. Full story >>

Sri Lanka genocide story draws 22m visitors, says Argentine paper

[Fri, 27 Jan 2012, 03:33 GMT]

The Spanish Language Diario La Tarde, an evening journal published by independent journalists in West Argentina said the recent web publication of the story "Genocidio: (Primera entrega) - La masacre de los Tamils en Sri Lanka," [Genocide: (First Delivery) The Slaughter of Tamils in Sri Lanka] drew 22 million visits in two days. The story appearing in Spanish covers history to the conflict, the slaughter at Mu'l'livaaykkaal, and asserts the post-conflict miliary aggression in Tamil areas as a form of structural genocide. Full story >>

SL environmental plunder wipes out timber trees in Vanni, protected long by LTTE

[Thu, 26 Jan 2012, 21:30 GMT]

Sinhala plunderers from South who enter Vanni through Mannaar have been cutting valuable timber trees in large numbers and removing them to other parts of the island, people in Vanni complain. The Sri Lankan police is assisting the gangs that enter Vanni through Mannaar. The gangs are in possession of ‘permits’ from the so-called ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Colombo, which is headed by Sinhala ultra nationalist political party leader Champika Ranawake who founded the Sihala Urumaya promoting Mahawansa mindset of anti-Tamil sentiments, comparing Tamils with Jews against an "Aryan Sinhala" supremacist philosophy. He later became the political advisor of the predominantly Buddhist monks party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), and a minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa cabinet. Full story >>

Colombo backed Muslim group threatens Tamils to leave their lands in Batticaloa

[Wed, 25 Jan 2012, 17:11 GMT]

A gang of Tamil-speaking Muslim persons with the backing of government politicians has been engaged in a campaign of threat against Tamil families of Upcountry origin residing in U'rukaamam in Kiththu'l area in the Ea'raavoor Chengkaladi DS division to leave their place and seek residence elsewhere. U'rukaamam-Kiththu'l area is located along Chengkaladi-Badulla highway (A-15). The villagers are of upcountry Tamil origin who fled from their area in the SL state-sponsored anti Tamil pogrom of 1957 and had settled in U'rukaamam-Kiththu'l area after clearing the forest. The villagers were also affected in 1983 anti Tamil ‘Black-July’ pogrom. Full story >>

Chaos inside Welikade prison, Tamil prisoners shifted, Fonseka safe

[Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 12:18 GMT]

Tamil political prisoners detained in the Magazine prison in Welikada have been removed to the main prison complex for safe custody following tense situation created by suspects who are involved in drug trafficking offences, prison sources said. Full story >>

Kalam unaware of Tamil fishermen's plight

[Mon, 23 Jan 2012, 23:56 GMT]

Jaffna District fisheries societies representatives on Monday urged the visiting former Indian President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who was in Jaffna as part of his visit to the island, to impress upon the Indian government to facilitate the Eezham Tamil fishermen to resume their livelihood by containing the Indian poachers who destroy the nets of the local fishermen and cause serious destruction to the environment necessary for sustaining the fisheries industry. Dr. Kalam was listening to the plight of the fishermen in the peninsula as if he was totally unaware of the decades long dispute in the sea and the destruction caused to the Eezham Tamil fishermen by the intruding Indian trawlers that engage in poaching close to the coast of Jaffna peninsula. The visiting former president of India, later visited the University of Jaffna and gave a speech at a fully packed Kailasapathy auditorium. Full story >>

Buddhist viharas grab Tamil lands for Sinhalicisation in Trincomalee

[Sun, 22 Jan 2012, 21:28 GMT]

Hundreds of acres of lands are being alienated to Buddhist Viharas in Trincomalee district on the instruction of the Colombo government and at the request of the heads of such Viharas, civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet. After the war, the SL military-led administration in the district had allocated initially 2 acres per new Buddhist stupa in Tamil areas at Pulmoaddai, Ilaththik-ku'lam, Thiriyaay, Chempiyan-malai in Kuchchave'li DS division. Later, more lands are being allocated at the request of the heads of these Viharas, who aim Sinhalicisation of the Tamil areas. Informed sources said upto 400 acres have been alienated for this purpose. Full story >>

Krishna visit patterns Indo-Sri Lanka deceit on Eezham Tamils

[Sat, 21 Jan 2012, 21:23 GMT]

There was no enthusiasm or expectation in Jaffna on the recent visit by India's Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, media circles said. Civil groups in Jaffna also reflected the same opinion. Just as the visits of MK Narayanan and Shiv Shankar Menon patterned the course of the genocidal war, the visits of the Indian dignitaries in the subsequent phase show a pattern in consolidating the structural genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils in order to facilitate overlapping interests of India's imperialism and the militarized Sinhala state in the island. Rather than pointlessly expecting India's 'development' help or 'mediation' role, all shades of Tamil polity should firmly demand India to get out, if India's imperialism is incapable of finding any overlapping interest in conceding the right to self determination of the genocide-affected nation of Eezham Tamils, civil circles in Jaffna said. Full story >>

2ND LEAD (Corrections)

Tamil plaintiffs oppose US Government's stand on Rajapakse immunity

[Fri, 20 Jan 2012, 01:41 GMT]

Judge Kotelly of District Court of District of Columbia, after considering the Tamil plaintiffs' motion asking the court to allow the plaintiffs to file a response to the United States suggestion of immunity to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, issued an order Tuesday granting permission to plaintiffs' attorney Bruce Fein to file the response on or before 3rd February, and to the United States Government to file a reply on a before 13th February. In the process, Judge Kotelly rejected defendant Rajapakse's opposition to plaintiffs request to be permitted to respond to the U.S. Government's suggestion of immunity. Full story >>

2ND LEAD (ADDS VIDEO)

Tamil sovereignty alone can check protracted genocide: Jose Maria Sison

[Thu, 19 Jan 2012, 13:28 GMT]

“The Eezham people have a very direct obligation of fighting for their own sovereignty against a state that presumes to have a unitary power over them,” stressed veteran Filipino left ideologue, Prof. Jose Maria Sison. In an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Sunday, Prof. Sison spoke on the questions of sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation, the protracted nature of genocide that Sri Lanka imposes on Tamils in their homelands, the principled position of leftists on the national question, and on the imperative to look beyond both the human rights and reconciliation paradigm. Prof. Sison, a long standing activist of the left movement in Philippines, criticised the Sri Lankan government’s military strategy as ‘barbaric’ and western governments for supporting this, and welcomed the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition declaration that aims to build solidarity among progressive forces. Full story >>

Tamil couple knifed to death in Vavuniyaa resettled village

[Fri, 20 Jan 2012, 12:27 GMT]

A husband and his wife were knifed to death on Thursday at a resettled village, Pan'rikkeitha-ku'lam in Vavuniyaa district. Kanthaiah Muthiah, 67, and his wife were living in a temporary hut with tin sheets, and have been doing paddy cultivation in the resettled village when the murder occurred. Full story >>

Unidentified gang ransacks Tamil NGO office in Colombo

[Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 12:14 GMT]

The Colombo office of "Vi'luthu," a non-governmental organization that has been implementing development projects for the welfare of the underprivileged people in the North and East by providing free legal advice and conducting courses in journalism, was ransacked by an unidentified group of persons in the late hours of Monday or early hours of Tuesday, according to an official of the NGO. Full story >>

Silva's proposed UN appointment elicits condemnation from Rights Groups

[Sat, 28 Jan 2012, 01:34 GMT]

New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), California-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), and Washington-based SPEAK, three premier Rights organizations which routinely use litigation to resolve constitutional issues and to indict violators of rights in a press release issued Thursday condemned the proposed appointment of Shavendra Silva - an ex-General of the Sri Lanka Army who is being charged for war-crimes in US Court - to the Special Advisory Group to advise UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Peacekeeping Operations. Full story >>

Human skeletons found in SLA abandoned locality in Jaffna

[Fri, 27 Jan 2012, 00:45 GMT]

Skeletons of two persons, allegedly slain by the Sri Lankan military in recent times, have been recovered from an abandoned well near a bund constructed by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in I'lavaalai, Pa'ndaththeruppu situated in Valikaamam in the Jaffna district on Wednesday. Brain parts found inside one of the two skulls indicate that the victims have been slain in recent times, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. The skeletons were located when the villagers were clearing the well at a locality known as Thennanthoappu (cocount palm grove), a place recently vacated by the Sri Lanka Army. Full story >>

NZ Tamils felicitate Queen's Award couple

[Wed, 25 Jan 2012, 17:33 GMT]

Queen’s Service award-winning Eezham Tamil couple in New Zealand, Mr. George Arulanantham and Ms. Anne Umadevi George, were felicitated by New Zealand Tamils at the Tamil Harvest Festival celebrated at Auckland on Saturday. NZ parliamentarian Ms. Denise Roche was Chief Guest to the function. This year’s Queen’s Service Medal was awarded to the couple honouring their long community service to refugees in New Zealand. While George Arulanantham’s contribution was related to social organisation and integration of Tamil refugees, Anne Umadevi George largely concentrated on the Tamil education of the refugee children. Both are engaged in community service since 1990s. Full story >>

Award winning filmmaker presents documentary on exiled Sinhala, Tamil journalists

[Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 22:45 GMT]

‘Silenced Voices – Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile’, a new documentary by Norwegian filmmaker Beate Arnestad, who directed and produced the award winning documentary ‘My Daughter the Terrorist’ in 2007, is to be pre-premiered in Oslo, Norway, on 09 February. The screening of ‘Silenced Voices’, which is about journalists, who contributed to international exposure of the internationally abetted genocidal war without witnesses, will be followed by a debate featuring journalists Bashana Abeywardane, the former chief editor of Hiru weekly, Frances Harrison, the former BBC foreign correspondent to Sri Lanka and Sverre Tom Radøy, a Norwegian journalist. The film features Mr. Bashana Abeywardene, his wife Sharmila Logeswaram, Sonali Wickrematunge and A. Lokeesan, TamilNet wartime correspondent, who was reporting from 2005 to April 2009 from Vanni. Full story >>

Kalam risks his image in salvaging New Delhi in Tamil Nadu

[Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 07:04 GMT]

While India’s former president Abdul Kalam has real work to do in addressing his own Establishment in New Delhi what brought him to genocidal Colombo and its India-partnered colony in the North and East of the island, wonders genocide-affected Eezham Tamils. Mr. Kalam may not be worried about criticism against him, as his interview to The Hindu has shown. But the general public is worried about India’s projected ‘sane’ faces getting more and more discredited, paving way for people distrusting any face that come from India in future, comments an academic in Jaffna. Kalam and India know that the deception will not work with Eezham Tamils but the mission is more aimed at engineering opinion in Tamil Nadu for the ‘Asian Model’ the Indian imperialism is experimenting in partnership with Rajapaksa, the academic further said. Full story >>

SL Navy militarises Jaffna lagoon

[Mon, 23 Jan 2012, 21:37 GMT]

Sri Lanka Navy and Army have denied resettled fishermen along a major part of Jaffna lagoon from accessing their sea from Sunday, citing training purposes of the military at a major cantonment of the occupying SL military at Allaarai on Chaavakachcheari - Kachchaay Road. The SL military has blocked the fishing boats from Koayilkudiyiruppu on Sunday giving instructions to the fishermen that the entire stretch from Chavakachcheari to Kachchaay will remain blocked until further notice, representatives of fishermen from Koayilkudiyiruppu in Chavakachcheari told TamilNet Monday. The SL military has also said that access to sea will be blocked five to ten days every month in future. Full story >>

TNA should use its Tamil national mandate: Bishop of Mannaar

[Sun, 22 Jan 2012, 15:32 GMT]

The aim of the Tamil civil groups’ memorandum dated 13 December 2011 and addressed to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was in fact to strengthen the Tamil national polity and its democratically mandated representatives. It was not meant to weaken the TNA. There is a mandate given by the people to the TNA about continuing talks with the SL government and that the TNA in its course of action should stick to its mandate is the thrust of the memorandum, clarified the Bishop of Mannaar, Most Reverend Rayappu Joseph, in a press release issued on last Monday on behalf of the civil society signatories of the memorandum. Full story >>

Missing ITAK representative in Jaffna under ‘investigation’ in Colombo

[Sat, 21 Jan 2012, 15:22 GMT]

The organizer of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in Jaffna city and a former representative of Jaffna University Student Union, Mr. Arnold, has been reported missing after being invited to Colombo by a person yet to be identified. Arnold has been allegedly abducted and subjected to investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sri Lankan Police in Colombo, informed circles in Jaffna said. Full story >>

Rejected asylum seeker kills herself and her child in Norway

[Thu, 19 Jan 2012, 23:14 GMT]

A 24-year-old Eezham Tamil asylum seeker has set fire to herself and her 20-month-old baby child Tuesday at an asylum camp in western Norway. The Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende reported Thursday that the mother succumbed to her injuries the same day and the son on Wednesday after doctors fought to save their lives. The future was very bleak for the victim, who was living in Norway since 2006 undergoing a lot of suffering. One week before her death, her 18-year-old sister was found dead in Jaffna. Full story >>

Indian FM exerts pressure on TNA, wants Sampanthan in Rajapaksa's PSC

[Wed, 18 Jan 2012, 18:11 GMT]

Tamil National Alliance has been pressurised by the visiting Indian Foreign Minister S. Krishna to take part in the SL Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), sources close to TNA told TamilNet Wednesday. At the same time, demanding the TNA to come through the PSC farse, the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's delegation that has been engaging with the TNA in fruitless talks, boycotted scheduled talks this time for the second day. Reacting to the behaviour of the Sri Lankan government, which has failed to meet the TNA as scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr. M.K. Sivajilingam, the political leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), which is a constituent party of the TNA, said Wednesday that the Tamil alliance should at least now realise that there is no point in talking about the 13 amendment, or something plus or minus to it. Full story >>

Uprooted fisherman drowns in Thirukkoayil, wife commits suicide

[Wed, 18 Jan 2012, 23:57 GMT]

55-year-old Alagesvari Nadesan, mother of four committed suicide on Tuesday after hearing that her husband who gone for fishing in a tank in Kagnchi-kudichcha-aa'ru had drowned. The uprooted family, deprived of livelihood since displacement, was dependent on the fishing income generated by the 62-year-old father Sellaththurai Nadesan. Several deaths in recent times, categorized as accidents and suicides, are reported in places where families stricken by poverty are still denied of their lands and access to resume their livelihoods, sources in Ampaa'rai said. Full story >>

Colombo-backed gang threatens resettled Tamil families in Mannaar

[Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 02:59 GMT]

A gang of more than one hundred fifty Sinhalese who were brought to Channaar village in Mannaar district on Sunday by a government minister had threatened resettled Tamil families to leave the village immediately to give room for the majority community. The intimidation of Tamil families who have suffered in the conflict and relatives of the killed LTTE cadres had been engineered by Minister Rischard Bathiudeen and Maanthai West Divisional Secretary with the blessing of the Colombo government, according to reports emerging from the area. Full story >>

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions.

-Adlai E. Stevenson
1900-1965, American Lawyer, Politician

[24.01.12]
Award winning filmmaker presents documentary on exiled Sinhala, Tamil journalists: ‘Silenced Voices – Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile’, a new documentary by Norwegian filmmaker Beate Arnestad, is to be pre-premiered in Oslo, Norway, on 09 February. The film features Mr. Bashana Abeywardene, his wife Sharmila Logeswaram, Sonali Wickrematunge and A. Lokeesan, TamilNet wartime correspondent, who was reporting from 2005 to April 2009 from Vanni.
Related Story >>

[24.01.12]
Kalam risks his image in salvaging New Delhi in Tamil Nadu: While India’s former president Abdul Kalam has real work to do in addressing his own Establishment in New Delhi what brought him to genocidal Colombo and its India-partnered colony in the North and East of the island, wonders genocide-affected Eezham Tamils.
Related Story >>

[22.01.12]
TNA should use its Tamil national mandate: Bishop of Mannaar: The aim of the Tamil civil groups’ memorandum dated 13 December 2011 and addressed to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was in fact to strengthen the Tamil national polity and its democratically mandated representatives. It was not meant to weaken the TNA. There is a mandate given by the people to the TNA about continuing talks with the SL government and that the TNA in its course of action should stick to its mandate is the thrust of the memorandum, clarified the Bishop of Mannaar, Most Reverend Rayappu Joseph, in a press release issued on last Monday on behalf of the civil society signatories of the memorandum.
Related Story >>

[21.01.12]
Krishna visit patterns Indo-Sri Lanka deceit on Eezham Tamils: There was no enthusiasm or expectation in Jaffna on the recent visit by India's Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, media circles said. Civil groups in Jaffna also reflected the same opinion. Just as the visits of MK Narayanan and Shiv Shankar Menon patterned the course of the genocidal war, the visits of the Indian dignitaries in the subsequent phase show a pattern in consolidating the structural genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils in order to facilitate overlapping interests of India's imperialism and the militarized Sinhala state in the island.
Related Story >>

[19.01.12]
Tamil sovereignty alone can check protracted genocide: Jose Maria Sison: “The Eezham people have a very direct obligation of fighting for their own sovereignty against a state that presumes to have a unitary power over them,” stressed veteran Filipino left ideologue, Prof. Jose Maria Sison. In an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Sunday, Prof. Sison spoke on the questions of sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation, the protracted nature of genocide that Sri Lanka imposes on Tamils in their homelands, the principled position of leftists on the national question, and on the imperative to look beyond both the human rights and reconciliation paradigm.
Related Story >>

[17.01.12]
Galle literary festival gives mask of normalcy to genocidal Sri Lanka: The Galle Literary Festival, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday is reported to involve diverse participants with the funding from a variety of corporate houses and Western embassies in Colombo. But the prevailing opinion in Eezham Tamil circles is that such occasions and the participation of high profile writers only serve the purpose of providing cultural and ideological legitimacy to the Sri Lankan state and the structural violence it imposes on the Tamil people.
Related Story >>

[03.01.12]
'Champions of Change': Even as the nation of the Scots enjoys limited autonomy in the United Kingdom, its desire for independence coupled with other political and economic developments compels the leader of the Scottish National Party to optimistically assert that Scotland and other similar small independent nation-states will be the champions of change in the near future.
Related Story >>

[31.12.11]
TamilNet releases LTTE documents of 2006 talks: A set of documents prepared by the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat during Geneva peace talks held in February 2006, in June 2006 in Oslo and in October 2006 in Geneva, some of which have not yet reached public domain, are being released by TamilNet to facilitate a deeper understanding of the peace process and its eventual collapse. While 2011 has been a "year of reports," the UN panel report, Norway’s ‘Pawns of Peace’, the genocide model LLRC report etc., the LTTE documents provide valuable insight into the Tigers' efforts undertaken to fulfill LTTE's commitment to the International Community.
Related Story >>

[05.12.11]
Maathakal protests Sri Lanka’s Naval base: A major coastal village Maathakal in Jaffna staged a protest on Monday against occupying Sri Lanka building an extensive naval base there by confiscating private lands of Eezham Tamils. Maathakal is the closest point of Jaffna to Point Calimere (Koadikkarai) in the Tamil Nadu coast across the Palk Strait. The base is a security threat not only to Eezham Tamils but also to Tamil Nadu as well as to India, but New Delhi and Colombo seem to think Tamils on either side of the Palk Strait as ‘common enemies’, commented a geopolitical analyst in Jaffna.
Related Story >>

[03.12.11]
Wider public participation marks Heroes Day in Tamil Nadu: It became clear on the eve of Heroes Day, Sunday, that ruling circles in India join hands with genocidal Colombo in denying Tamils the right to remember their fallen freedom fighters. Yet the day was observed with a marked positive difference in Tamil Nadu this time. Public and grassroot initiatives replaced political party organized mass gatherings, and there was wider and spontaneous participation of a social cross-section: from workers and farmers to communities in business, education and professions.
Related Story >>

[30.11.11]
Whether history is different to Tamils and Sinhalese, asks Jaffna academic: A single event that took place in the University of Jaffna on the Heroes Day, Sunday, has captivated the minds of Tamils all over the world, more than the diaspora functions marked by ever increasing participation of people but in some instances showing hijack aimed at dividing, capturing and ‘softening’ the struggle by the very forces against whom the spirit of the Day was meant for.
Related Story >>

[27.11.11]
Tamil activists assert sovereignty, declare for plebiscite: Leading Tamil activists of the younger generation in Tamil Nadu, Canada, USA and Switzerland, came out with a declaration on Sunday asserting sovereignty of Eezham Tamils on three counts: historical, earned and remedial. They also declared that international players should stop insisting on united Sri Lanka and drop pretensions of ‘domestic solutions’. Further declarations upheld symbols and expressions of the struggle, urged recognition of all those who laid down their lives for the liberation cause and called upon coordinated global action.
Related Story >>

[22.11.11]
Solheim hijacks thrust of Norway report: Norwegian minister Erik Solheim, while speaking in Oslo 11 November at the release of the report evaluating Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka, tried to hijack the philosophical thrust of the findings of the report and this brought him into confrontation with the evaluation team leader, Gunnar M. Sørbø. Mr. Erik Solheim tried to defend the main criticism in the report and the stand of Sørbø that Norway should have quit the peace process to signal the world of the impending dangers.
Related Story >>

[16.11.11]
India emerges as main designer of ‘Asian Model’ in Norway report: The Norway report on the failed peace in Sri Lanka, concluding that Asian powers in pursuance of military solution were a reason for the failure, cautions that this model of ‘conflict resolution’ will challenge future Norwegian-style mediations. India’s role in the genocidal model of conflict resolution is not adequately discussed in the report, yet bits and pieces in the report along with what transpired in the panel discussion in Oslo on Friday, place India as decisively responsible for the ‘Asian model’ that ended the war in genocide.
Related Story >>

[14.11.11]
International unity on criticism of Sri Lanka’s conduct: Armitage: Expressing dismay at the “chauvinistic attitude” of the Sri Lankan state, former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Friday the international community was united in its criticism of Sri Lanka’s conduct in the north and east and that SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa would not be welcomed internationally unless conditions there improved. “I don’t think anyone disagrees that the Tamil people have been mistreated and are continuing to lack – across the board – fundamental freedoms, dignity, etc,” Mr. Armitage told the audience.
Related Story >>

[13.11.11]
LTTE losing, SL winning was Norway failing: Norway report team leader: While releasing the evaluation report on Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka on Friday, the team leader of the evaluation panel, Gunnar M. Sørbø, outlining the main findings of the report said “The collapse of talks and the subsequent military victory were as much a story of the LTTE ‘losing’, as of the government ‘winning’, or the Norwegians ‘failing’.
Related Story >>

[12.11.11]
SLMM tilted balance in favour of Sri Lanka, against LTTE: Gajendrakumar Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the peace keeping arm of the Norway facilitated peace process in the island, tilted the balance in favour of the Sri Lankan state and against the LTTE, wrote Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam in 2007, in an unpublished research paper on the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) he submitted to a foundation in the West. The IC could have used the CFA to pursue conflict resolution by maintaining the balance of power between the parties, but to the contrary it had used the CFA as a ‘counterinsurgency’ tool to reinforce the state and weaken the de facto state, so that the state could pursue yet another military solution to the conflict, he further wrote.
Related Story >>

[11.11.11]
Norway ‘LLRC’ distributes blame, washes hands of victims after ‘victory’: A report on Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka, “Pawns of Peace: Evaluation of Norwegian Peace Efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997-2009” was released in Oslo on Friday. Whether pawns of peace or ploys for genocide, Norway’s report distributed blame among all the actors. A deficiency the report finds in Norway was not its grave failure to warn the world about peace turning into genocide, but that Norway should have escaped from the scene at an earlier stage.
Related Story >>

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Arumugam, now living in New Zealand, re-documents and discusses in detail a bronze bell inscribed in Tamil in c. 14-15 century writing that was in the possession of the native Maori people of New Zealand. Originally written in 2007 in Tamil, the book has been translated into English and will be released shortly in Wellington. The publication is sure to give a sense of pride and belongingness, and would contribute to integration with identity for the Tamils of New Zealand today, commented a social worker. Meanwhile, reviewing the book, V. Sivasupramaniam, who also contributed to the translation says, “This book of fifty-two pages could provide a good incentive for historians and researchers to go further deep into the migratory pattern of this multi-cultural country.” Full story >> Latest 15 Reports: Jan 28 01:34 Silva's proposed UN appointment elicits condemnati.. Jan 28 00:27 Book documents pre-colonial Tamil connections of N.. Jan 27 03:33 Sri Lanka genocide story draws 22m visitors, says .. Jan 27 00:45 Human skeletons found in SLA abandoned locality in.. Jan 26 23:55 Resettled Tamil woman's body recovered near SLA bu.. Jan 26 21:30 SL environmental plunder wipes out timber trees in.. Jan 25 17:33 NZ Tamils felicitate Queen's Award couple Jan 25 17:11 Colombo backed Muslim group threatens Tamils to le.. Jan 24 22:45 Award winning filmmaker presents documentary on ex.. Jan 24 12:18 Chaos inside Welikade prison, Tamil prisoners shif.. Jan 24 12:14 Unidentified gang ransacks Tamil NGO office in Col.. Jan 24 07:04 Kalam risks his image in salvaging New Delhi in Ta.. Jan 24 02:59 Colombo-backed gang threatens resettled Tamil fami.. Jan 23 23:56 Kalam unaware of Tamil fishermen's plight Jan 23 21:37 SL Navy militarises Jaffna lagoon << Flashback More Reports >> Resettled Tamil woman's body recovered near SLA bund in Thenmaraadchi [Thu, 26 Jan 2012, 23:55 GMT] The skeleton of a recently slain 28-year-old unmarried Tamil woman has been recovered near an abandoned military bund used by the Sri Lanka Army in A'rukuve'li, located along Kearatheevu Road (Jaffna - Mannaar Road) in Thenmaraadchi on Wednesday. The victim, Atputhamalar Subramaniyam, who had resettled in Thanangki'lappu near Ma'ravanpulavu of Thenmaraadchi last year, has been missing since November 13. But, her family was receiving SMS messages for some time from her cell phone. The abductors have been sending the messages with the intention of making the family to believe that she was not abducted, relatives of the victim who came for the funeral on Thursday told media. Tension prevailed in the recently resettled area where the occupying SLA is still on random patrol. Full story >> Sri Lanka genocide story draws 22m visitors, says Argentine paper [Fri, 27 Jan 2012, 03:33 GMT] The Spanish Language Diario La Tarde, an evening journal published by independent journalists in West Argentina said the recent web publication of the story "Genocidio: (Primera entrega) - La masacre de los Tamils en Sri Lanka," [Genocide: (First Delivery) The Slaughter of Tamils in Sri Lanka] drew 22 million visits in two days. The story appearing in Spanish covers history to the conflict, the slaughter at Mu'l'livaaykkaal, and asserts the post-conflict miliary aggression in Tamil areas as a form of structural genocide. Full story >> SL environmental plunder wipes out timber trees in Vanni, protected long by LTTE [Thu, 26 Jan 2012, 21:30 GMT] Sinhala plunderers from South who enter Vanni through Mannaar have been cutting valuable timber trees in large numbers and removing them to other parts of the island, people in Vanni complain. The Sri Lankan police is assisting the gangs that enter Vanni through Mannaar. The gangs are in possession of ‘permits’ from the so-called ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Colombo, which is headed by Sinhala ultra nationalist political party leader Champika Ranawake who founded the Sihala Urumaya promoting Mahawansa mindset of anti-Tamil sentiments, comparing Tamils with Jews against an "Aryan Sinhala" supremacist philosophy. He later became the political advisor of the predominantly Buddhist monks party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), and a minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa cabinet. Full story >> Colombo backed Muslim group threatens Tamils to leave their lands in Batticaloa [Wed, 25 Jan 2012, 17:11 GMT] A gang of Tamil-speaking Muslim persons with the backing of government politicians has been engaged in a campaign of threat against Tamil families of Upcountry origin residing in U'rukaamam in Kiththu'l area in the Ea'raavoor Chengkaladi DS division to leave their place and seek residence elsewhere. U'rukaamam-Kiththu'l area is located along Chengkaladi-Badulla highway (A-15). The villagers are of upcountry Tamil origin who fled from their area in the SL state-sponsored anti Tamil pogrom of 1957 and had settled in U'rukaamam-Kiththu'l area after clearing the forest. The villagers were also affected in 1983 anti Tamil ‘Black-July’ pogrom. Full story >> Chaos inside Welikade prison, Tamil prisoners shifted, Fonseka safe [Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 12:18 GMT] Tamil political prisoners detained in the Magazine prison in Welikada have been removed to the main prison complex for safe custody following tense situation created by suspects who are involved in drug trafficking offences, prison sources said. Full story >> Kalam unaware of Tamil fishermen's plight [Mon, 23 Jan 2012, 23:56 GMT] Jaffna District fisheries societies representatives on Monday urged the visiting former Indian President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who was in Jaffna as part of his visit to the island, to impress upon the Indian government to facilitate the Eezham Tamil fishermen to resume their livelihood by containing the Indian poachers who destroy the nets of the local fishermen and cause serious destruction to the environment necessary for sustaining the fisheries industry. Dr. Kalam was listening to the plight of the fishermen in the peninsula as if he was totally unaware of the decades long dispute in the sea and the destruction caused to the Eezham Tamil fishermen by the intruding Indian trawlers that engage in poaching close to the coast of Jaffna peninsula. The visiting former president of India, later visited the University of Jaffna and gave a speech at a fully packed Kailasapathy auditorium. Full story >> Buddhist viharas grab Tamil lands for Sinhalicisation in Trincomalee [Sun, 22 Jan 2012, 21:28 GMT] Hundreds of acres of lands are being alienated to Buddhist Viharas in Trincomalee district on the instruction of the Colombo government and at the request of the heads of such Viharas, civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet. After the war, the SL military-led administration in the district had allocated initially 2 acres per new Buddhist stupa in Tamil areas at Pulmoaddai, Ilaththik-ku'lam, Thiriyaay, Chempiyan-malai in Kuchchave'li DS division. Later, more lands are being allocated at the request of the heads of these Viharas, who aim Sinhalicisation of the Tamil areas. Informed sources said upto 400 acres have been alienated for this purpose. Full story >> Krishna visit patterns Indo-Sri Lanka deceit on Eezham Tamils [Sat, 21 Jan 2012, 21:23 GMT] There was no enthusiasm or expectation in Jaffna on the recent visit by India's Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, media circles said. Civil groups in Jaffna also reflected the same opinion. Just as the visits of MK Narayanan and Shiv Shankar Menon patterned the course of the genocidal war, the visits of the Indian dignitaries in the subsequent phase show a pattern in consolidating the structural genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils in order to facilitate overlapping interests of India's imperialism and the militarized Sinhala state in the island. Rather than pointlessly expecting India's 'development' help or 'mediation' role, all shades of Tamil polity should firmly demand India to get out, if India's imperialism is incapable of finding any overlapping interest in conceding the right to self determination of the genocide-affected nation of Eezham Tamils, civil circles in Jaffna said. Full story >> 2ND LEAD (Corrections) Tamil plaintiffs oppose US Government's stand on Rajapakse immunity [Fri, 20 Jan 2012, 01:41 GMT] Judge Kotelly of District Court of District of Columbia, after considering the Tamil plaintiffs' motion asking the court to allow the plaintiffs to file a response to the United States suggestion of immunity to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, issued an order Tuesday granting permission to plaintiffs' attorney Bruce Fein to file the response on or before 3rd February, and to the United States Government to file a reply on a before 13th February. In the process, Judge Kotelly rejected defendant Rajapakse's opposition to plaintiffs request to be permitted to respond to the U.S. Government's suggestion of immunity. Full story >> 2ND LEAD (ADDS VIDEO) Tamil sovereignty alone can check protracted genocide: Jose Maria Sison [Thu, 19 Jan 2012, 13:28 GMT] “The Eezham people have a very direct obligation of fighting for their own sovereignty against a state that presumes to have a unitary power over them,” stressed veteran Filipino left ideologue, Prof. Jose Maria Sison. In an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Sunday, Prof. Sison spoke on the questions of sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation, the protracted nature of genocide that Sri Lanka imposes on Tamils in their homelands, the principled position of leftists on the national question, and on the imperative to look beyond both the human rights and reconciliation paradigm. Prof. Sison, a long standing activist of the left movement in Philippines, criticised the Sri Lankan government’s military strategy as ‘barbaric’ and western governments for supporting this, and welcomed the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition declaration that aims to build solidarity among progressive forces. Full story >> Tamil couple knifed to death in Vavuniyaa resettled village [Fri, 20 Jan 2012, 12:27 GMT] A husband and his wife were knifed to death on Thursday at a resettled village, Pan'rikkeitha-ku'lam in Vavuniyaa district. Kanthaiah Muthiah, 67, and his wife were living in a temporary hut with tin sheets, and have been doing paddy cultivation in the resettled village when the murder occurred. Full story >> Unidentified gang ransacks Tamil NGO office in Colombo [Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 12:14 GMT] The Colombo office of "Vi'luthu," a non-governmental organization that has been implementing development projects for the welfare of the underprivileged people in the North and East by providing free legal advice and conducting courses in journalism, was ransacked by an unidentified group of persons in the late hours of Monday or early hours of Tuesday, according to an official of the NGO. Full story >> Silva's proposed UN appointment elicits condemnation from Rights Groups [Sat, 28 Jan 2012, 01:34 GMT] New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), California-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), and Washington-based SPEAK, three premier Rights organizations which routinely use litigation to resolve constitutional issues and to indict violators of rights in a press release issued Thursday condemned the proposed appointment of Shavendra Silva - an ex-General of the Sri Lanka Army who is being charged for war-crimes in US Court - to the Special Advisory Group to advise UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Peacekeeping Operations. Full story >> Human skeletons found in SLA abandoned locality in Jaffna [Fri, 27 Jan 2012, 00:45 GMT] Skeletons of two persons, allegedly slain by the Sri Lankan military in recent times, have been recovered from an abandoned well near a bund constructed by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in I'lavaalai, Pa'ndaththeruppu situated in Valikaamam in the Jaffna district on Wednesday. Brain parts found inside one of the two skulls indicate that the victims have been slain in recent times, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. The skeletons were located when the villagers were clearing the well at a locality known as Thennanthoappu (cocount palm grove), a place recently vacated by the Sri Lanka Army. Full story >> NZ Tamils felicitate Queen's Award couple [Wed, 25 Jan 2012, 17:33 GMT] Queen’s Service award-winning Eezham Tamil couple in New Zealand, Mr. George Arulanantham and Ms. Anne Umadevi George, were felicitated by New Zealand Tamils at the Tamil Harvest Festival celebrated at Auckland on Saturday. NZ parliamentarian Ms. Denise Roche was Chief Guest to the function. This year’s Queen’s Service Medal was awarded to the couple honouring their long community service to refugees in New Zealand. While George Arulanantham’s contribution was related to social organisation and integration of Tamil refugees, Anne Umadevi George largely concentrated on the Tamil education of the refugee children. Both are engaged in community service since 1990s. Full story >> Award winning filmmaker presents documentary on exiled Sinhala, Tamil journalists [Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 22:45 GMT] ‘Silenced Voices – Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile’, a new documentary by Norwegian filmmaker Beate Arnestad, who directed and produced the award winning documentary ‘My Daughter the Terrorist’ in 2007, is to be pre-premiered in Oslo, Norway, on 09 February. The screening of ‘Silenced Voices’, which is about journalists, who contributed to international exposure of the internationally abetted genocidal war without witnesses, will be followed by a debate featuring journalists Bashana Abeywardane, the former chief editor of Hiru weekly, Frances Harrison, the former BBC foreign correspondent to Sri Lanka and Sverre Tom Radøy, a Norwegian journalist. The film features Mr. Bashana Abeywardene, his wife Sharmila Logeswaram, Sonali Wickrematunge and A. Lokeesan, TamilNet wartime correspondent, who was reporting from 2005 to April 2009 from Vanni. Full story >> Kalam risks his image in salvaging New Delhi in Tamil Nadu [Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 07:04 GMT] While India’s former president Abdul Kalam has real work to do in addressing his own Establishment in New Delhi what brought him to genocidal Colombo and its India-partnered colony in the North and East of the island, wonders genocide-affected Eezham Tamils. Mr. Kalam may not be worried about criticism against him, as his interview to The Hindu has shown. But the general public is worried about India’s projected ‘sane’ faces getting more and more discredited, paving way for people distrusting any face that come from India in future, comments an academic in Jaffna. Kalam and India know that the deception will not work with Eezham Tamils but the mission is more aimed at engineering opinion in Tamil Nadu for the ‘Asian Model’ the Indian imperialism is experimenting in partnership with Rajapaksa, the academic further said. Full story >> SL Navy militarises Jaffna lagoon [Mon, 23 Jan 2012, 21:37 GMT] Sri Lanka Navy and Army have denied resettled fishermen along a major part of Jaffna lagoon from accessing their sea from Sunday, citing training purposes of the military at a major cantonment of the occupying SL military at Allaarai on Chaavakachcheari - Kachchaay Road. The SL military has blocked the fishing boats from Koayilkudiyiruppu on Sunday giving instructions to the fishermen that the entire stretch from Chavakachcheari to Kachchaay will remain blocked until further notice, representatives of fishermen from Koayilkudiyiruppu in Chavakachcheari told TamilNet Monday. The SL military has also said that access to sea will be blocked five to ten days every month in future. Full story >> TNA should use its Tamil national mandate: Bishop of Mannaar [Sun, 22 Jan 2012, 15:32 GMT] The aim of the Tamil civil groups’ memorandum dated 13 December 2011 and addressed to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was in fact to strengthen the Tamil national polity and its democratically mandated representatives. It was not meant to weaken the TNA. There is a mandate given by the people to the TNA about continuing talks with the SL government and that the TNA in its course of action should stick to its mandate is the thrust of the memorandum, clarified the Bishop of Mannaar, Most Reverend Rayappu Joseph, in a press release issued on last Monday on behalf of the civil society signatories of the memorandum. Full story >> Missing ITAK representative in Jaffna under ‘investigation’ in Colombo [Sat, 21 Jan 2012, 15:22 GMT] The organizer of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in Jaffna city and a former representative of Jaffna University Student Union, Mr. Arnold, has been reported missing after being invited to Colombo by a person yet to be identified. Arnold has been allegedly abducted and subjected to investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sri Lankan Police in Colombo, informed circles in Jaffna said. Full story >> Rejected asylum seeker kills herself and her child in Norway [Thu, 19 Jan 2012, 23:14 GMT] A 24-year-old Eezham Tamil asylum seeker has set fire to herself and her 20-month-old baby child Tuesday at an asylum camp in western Norway. The Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende reported Thursday that the mother succumbed to her injuries the same day and the son on Wednesday after doctors fought to save their lives. The future was very bleak for the victim, who was living in Norway since 2006 undergoing a lot of suffering. One week before her death, her 18-year-old sister was found dead in Jaffna. Full story >> Indian FM exerts pressure on TNA, wants Sampanthan in Rajapaksa's PSC [Wed, 18 Jan 2012, 18:11 GMT] Tamil National Alliance has been pressurised by the visiting Indian Foreign Minister S. Krishna to take part in the SL Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), sources close to TNA told TamilNet Wednesday. At the same time, demanding the TNA to come through the PSC farse, the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's delegation that has been engaging with the TNA in fruitless talks, boycotted scheduled talks this time for the second day. Reacting to the behaviour of the Sri Lankan government, which has failed to meet the TNA as scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr. M.K. Sivajilingam, the political leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), which is a constituent party of the TNA, said Wednesday that the Tamil alliance should at least now realise that there is no point in talking about the 13 amendment, or something plus or minus to it. Full story >> Uprooted fisherman drowns in Thirukkoayil, wife commits suicide [Wed, 18 Jan 2012, 23:57 GMT] 55-year-old Alagesvari Nadesan, mother of four committed suicide on Tuesday after hearing that her husband who gone for fishing in a tank in Kagnchi-kudichcha-aa'ru had drowned. The uprooted family, deprived of livelihood since displacement, was dependent on the fishing income generated by the 62-year-old father Sellaththurai Nadesan. Several deaths in recent times, categorized as accidents and suicides, are reported in places where families stricken by poverty are still denied of their lands and access to resume their livelihoods, sources in Ampaa'rai said. Full story >> Colombo-backed gang threatens resettled Tamil families in Mannaar [Tue, 24 Jan 2012, 02:59 GMT] A gang of more than one hundred fifty Sinhalese who were brought to Channaar village in Mannaar district on Sunday by a government minister had threatened resettled Tamil families to leave the village immediately to give room for the majority community. The intimidation of Tamil families who have suffered in the conflict and relatives of the killed LTTE cadres had been engineered by Minister Rischard Bathiudeen and Maanthai West Divisional Secretary with the blessing of the Colombo government, according to reports emerging from the area. Full story >> Top Flashback: 2011: 2011 Jan 28 20:05 Rajapaksa sued in US Courts over war-crimes, pl... 2011 Jan 28 18:46 Resettlement worker injured in Vanni explosion ... 2011 Jan 28 01:31 Military in Jaffna district to stay, says SLA C... 2010: 2010 Jan 28 22:50 Tamil civilian arrested in Colombo 2010 Jan 28 03:56 Tamils pay tribute to Holocaust victims 2009: 2009 Jan 28 20:31 Police recover anti-aircraft gun bullets in Raj... 2009 Jan 28 20:30 15 Tamil youths arrested at Katunayake airport 2009 Jan 28 19:08 LTTE denies reports of preventing patients leav... 2009 Jan 28 18:55 British duplicity of proscribing LTTE, inaction... 2009 Jan 28 17:44 Students 'gherao' Indian Army headquarters at C... 2009 Jan 28 17:36 SLA instructs Jaffna GA to open more detention ... 2009 Jan 28 17:10 Death threats to Jaffna Asst. Election Commissi... 2009 Jan 28 16:54 Fasting students arrested, forcibly hospitalized 2009 Jan 28 16:25 200 Journalists stage protest demo in Tamil Nadu 2009 Jan 28 15:40 Brutal attack on civilians, assurance to Mukher... 2009 Jan 28 14:08 French Tamils demonstrate against killings in V... 2009 Jan 28 14:03 Jaffna Catholic community appeals to stop killi... 2009 Jan 28 12:27 46 more civilians killed Tuesday, few wounded s... 2009 Jan 28 10:20 Hospitals, ambulances hit by shelling, hundreds... 2009 Jan 28 09:19 Protest fast in Jaffna against Vanni killings, ... 2009 Jan 28 07:32 Tamil leaders label Pranab visit futile 2008: 2008 Jan 28 20:34 LTTE, SLA clash in Ma'nalaa'ru, SLAF bombs Ira'... 2008 Jan 28 19:34 SLA steps up minor clashes in Madu region 2008 Jan 28 16:30 Suspects in Rupavahini journalist assault relea... 2008 Jan 28 16:29 Court presses State Counsel on Hakeem security ... 2008 Jan 28 16:28 Thinakaran editor stabbed in Colombo 2008 Jan 28 15:30 2 civilians abducted, 2 seek HRC protection in ... 2008 Jan 28 14:13 6 Tamils arrested in Passara, Kandy 2008 Jan 28 14:09 Ampaa'rai-Bibile road temporarily closed for tr... 2008 Jan 28 14:07 Burnt body recovered in Kalladi, Puththa'lam 2008 Jan 28 13:57 Family man shot dead in Poththuvil 2008 Jan 28 13:14 Batticaloa candidates to be provided police pro... 2008 Jan 28 12:46 High-tech Canadian radar sold to Sri Lanka 2008 Jan 28 09:49 Tamil Nadu fishermen on indefinite strike 2008 Jan 28 08:01 Tiger artillery targets Palaali airbase, fighti... 2008 Jan 28 00:44 Sovereignty implies responsibility to protect c... 2008 Jan 28 00:19 LTTE, SLA clash in Ma'nalaa'ru 2008 Jan 28 00:16 SLA attack injures 4 civilians in Mannaar 2007: 2007 Jan 28 21:46 Body found in abandoned well in Jaffna 2007 Jan 28 20:45 Valikamam North displaced to be re-settled 2007 Jan 28 18:34 7500 flee homes due to SLA attacks in Batticaloa 2007 Jan 28 18:32 One SLA trooper killed, two injured in Valvetti... 2007 Jan 28 18:21 UNP Chairman tore MoU copy with SLFP into pieces 2007 Jan 28 17:19 Number of Cabinet rank ministers swells to 52 2007 Jan 28 15:07 International Community's flawed approach assis... 2007 Jan 28 11:16 SLA to strictly enforce curfew in Jaffna 2007 Jan 28 10:16 Defections annul MoU with SLFP- UNP 2007 Jan 28 09:28 UNP dissidents, SLMC join UPFA government, appo... 2007 Jan 28 09:27 18 Tamil civilians arrested in Moratuwa 2007 Jan 28 00:10 White van abductors kill youth, leave body in K... 2006: 2006 Jan 28 15:19 Tamil students allege discrimination in Univers... 2006 Jan 28 15:12 Three vie for Jaffna campus VC post 2006 Jan 28 15:03 LTTE, Muslim leaders meet in Muttur 2006 Jan 28 13:23 Sewing training to tsunami-affected Kaddaikadu ... 2006 Jan 28 12:01 Children Nutrition Park opens in Yogapuram 2006 Jan 28 11:32 Balasingham leaves for UK 2005: 2005 Jan 28 20:10 Japanese, Dutch Foreign Ministers to visit Sri ... 2005 Jan 28 14:20 Tsunami victims in Batticaloa ignored by the Go... 2005 Jan 28 10:43 "Colombo bent on blocking aid reaching NorthEas... 2005 Jan 28 08:34 Eastern LTTE Commanders in Kilinochchi to consu... 2005 Jan 28 08:27 LTTE opens Children's home in Batticaloa 2005 Jan 28 07:45 Pirapaharan's top priority is reconstruction, n... 2005 Jan 28 07:36 Protest in Mannar against Colombo 2005 Jan 28 07:14 Another Tsunami panic in east 2005 Jan 28 03:46 Tsunami relief to northeast inadequate- Chandra... 2005 Jan 28 03:09 Rebuilding Trinco fishing industry discussed 2004: 2004 Jan 28 17:55 Sri Lanka navy rams boat, two injured 2004 Jan 28 16:43 UNICEF donates vehicles to education officials 2004 Jan 28 16:39 India should not assist expansion of Palaly Air... 2004 Jan 28 16:36 TULF central working committee to meet Sunday 2004 Jan 28 13:08 Trinco students excel at national level exam 2004 Jan 28 12:13 6000 families received aid from SLRC 2004 Jan 28 11:35 Student protests force Eastern University VC to... 2004 Jan 28 00:10 MIS seminar held in Trincomalee 2003: 2003 Jan 28 18:41 UNESCO photo-book exhibition opens in Trincomalee 2003 Jan 28 18:01 SLA collects details of resettled families in T... 2003 Jan 28 18:00 SLMM chief holds talks with LTTE political head 2003 Jan 28 17:57 New SLA camp in Varani 2003 Jan 28 08:33 LTTE rejects Indian General's terms on HSZs 2002: 2002 Jan 28 18:14 Optimism grows over permanent ceasefire 2002 Jan 28 17:51 SLN assaults fishermen in Trincomalee 2002 Jan 28 16:14 Moragoda hears Trincomalee fishermen's plight 2002 Jan 28 12:48 Amnesty slams zero prosecutions for rape in mil... 2002 Jan 28 05:11 Vanni citizens committee slams block on reconst... 2001: 2001 Jan 28 23:34 Court to hear Mailanthanai massacre case 2000: 2000 Jan 28 19:38 Scrap pass plan, says Pararajasingham 2000 Jan 28 12:57 Three navy personnel killed 2000 Jan 28 12:55 Students protest arrest 2000 Jan 28 12:53 Reconstruction aid should not be used for war 1999: 1999 Jan 28 19:34 Election Committee stands by findings 1999 Jan 28 19:26 Orphans recount father's death 1999 Jan 28 18:08 News in Brief: 1999 Jan 28 16:58 SLA death squad spreads terror 1999 Jan 28 12:56 Friendly fire kills one 1998: 1998 Jan 28 23:59 Suresh granted deportation stay order 1998 Jan 28 23:59 Tigers list captured weapons 1998 Jan 28 23:59 Gen. Ratwatte submits resignation 1998 Jan 28 23:59 Tigers hit Valaichenai SLA camps 1998 Jan 28 23:59 Polls overshadowed by developments elsewhere 1998 Jan 28 23:59 UNP opposes devolution package 1998 Jan 28 23:59 Army bans civilians from leaving Vanni The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. -Adlai E. Stevenson 1900-1965, American Lawyer, Politician	Know the Etymology: 210 Place Name of the Day: Naalanda The high ground cum low jungle having Naa trees Read more >> [24.01.12] Award winning filmmaker presents documentary on exiled Sinhala, Tamil journalists: ‘Silenced Voices – Tales of Sri Lankan Journalists in Exile’, a new documentary by Norwegian filmmaker Beate Arnestad, is to be pre-premiered in Oslo, Norway, on 09 February. The film features Mr. Bashana Abeywardene, his wife Sharmila Logeswaram, Sonali Wickrematunge and A. Lokeesan, TamilNet wartime correspondent, who was reporting from 2005 to April 2009 from Vanni. Related Story >> [24.01.12] Kalam risks his image in salvaging New Delhi in Tamil Nadu: While India’s former president Abdul Kalam has real work to do in addressing his own Establishment in New Delhi what brought him to genocidal Colombo and its India-partnered colony in the North and East of the island, wonders genocide-affected Eezham Tamils. Related Story >> [22.01.12] TNA should use its Tamil national mandate: Bishop of Mannaar: The aim of the Tamil civil groups’ memorandum dated 13 December 2011 and addressed to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was in fact to strengthen the Tamil national polity and its democratically mandated representatives. It was not meant to weaken the TNA. There is a mandate given by the people to the TNA about continuing talks with the SL government and that the TNA in its course of action should stick to its mandate is the thrust of the memorandum, clarified the Bishop of Mannaar, Most Reverend Rayappu Joseph, in a press release issued on last Monday on behalf of the civil society signatories of the memorandum. Related Story >> [21.01.12] Krishna visit patterns Indo-Sri Lanka deceit on Eezham Tamils: There was no enthusiasm or expectation in Jaffna on the recent visit by India's Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, media circles said. Civil groups in Jaffna also reflected the same opinion. Just as the visits of MK Narayanan and Shiv Shankar Menon patterned the course of the genocidal war, the visits of the Indian dignitaries in the subsequent phase show a pattern in consolidating the structural genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils in order to facilitate overlapping interests of India's imperialism and the militarized Sinhala state in the island. Related Story >> [19.01.12] Tamil sovereignty alone can check protracted genocide: Jose Maria Sison: “The Eezham people have a very direct obligation of fighting for their own sovereignty against a state that presumes to have a unitary power over them,” stressed veteran Filipino left ideologue, Prof. Jose Maria Sison. In an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Sunday, Prof. Sison spoke on the questions of sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation, the protracted nature of genocide that Sri Lanka imposes on Tamils in their homelands, the principled position of leftists on the national question, and on the imperative to look beyond both the human rights and reconciliation paradigm. Related Story >> [17.01.12] Galle literary festival gives mask of normalcy to genocidal Sri Lanka: The Galle Literary Festival, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday is reported to involve diverse participants with the funding from a variety of corporate houses and Western embassies in Colombo. But the prevailing opinion in Eezham Tamil circles is that such occasions and the participation of high profile writers only serve the purpose of providing cultural and ideological legitimacy to the Sri Lankan state and the structural violence it imposes on the Tamil people. Related Story >> [03.01.12] 'Champions of Change': Even as the nation of the Scots enjoys limited autonomy in the United Kingdom, its desire for independence coupled with other political and economic developments compels the leader of the Scottish National Party to optimistically assert that Scotland and other similar small independent nation-states will be the champions of change in the near future. Related Story >> [31.12.11] TamilNet releases LTTE documents of 2006 talks: A set of documents prepared by the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat during Geneva peace talks held in February 2006, in June 2006 in Oslo and in October 2006 in Geneva, some of which have not yet reached public domain, are being released by TamilNet to facilitate a deeper understanding of the peace process and its eventual collapse. While 2011 has been a "year of reports," the UN panel report, Norway’s ‘Pawns of Peace’, the genocide model LLRC report etc., the LTTE documents provide valuable insight into the Tigers' efforts undertaken to fulfill LTTE's commitment to the International Community. Related Story >> [05.12.11] Maathakal protests Sri Lanka’s Naval base: A major coastal village Maathakal in Jaffna staged a protest on Monday against occupying Sri Lanka building an extensive naval base there by confiscating private lands of Eezham Tamils. Maathakal is the closest point of Jaffna to Point Calimere (Koadikkarai) in the Tamil Nadu coast across the Palk Strait. The base is a security threat not only to Eezham Tamils but also to Tamil Nadu as well as to India, but New Delhi and Colombo seem to think Tamils on either side of the Palk Strait as ‘common enemies’, commented a geopolitical analyst in Jaffna. Related Story >> [03.12.11] Wider public participation marks Heroes Day in Tamil Nadu: It became clear on the eve of Heroes Day, Sunday, that ruling circles in India join hands with genocidal Colombo in denying Tamils the right to remember their fallen freedom fighters. Yet the day was observed with a marked positive difference in Tamil Nadu this time. Public and grassroot initiatives replaced political party organized mass gatherings, and there was wider and spontaneous participation of a social cross-section: from workers and farmers to communities in business, education and professions. Related Story >> [30.11.11] Whether history is different to Tamils and Sinhalese, asks Jaffna academic: A single event that took place in the University of Jaffna on the Heroes Day, Sunday, has captivated the minds of Tamils all over the world, more than the diaspora functions marked by ever increasing participation of people but in some instances showing hijack aimed at dividing, capturing and ‘softening’ the struggle by the very forces against whom the spirit of the Day was meant for. Related Story >> [27.11.11] Tamil activists assert sovereignty, declare for plebiscite: Leading Tamil activists of the younger generation in Tamil Nadu, Canada, USA and Switzerland, came out with a declaration on Sunday asserting sovereignty of Eezham Tamils on three counts: historical, earned and remedial. They also declared that international players should stop insisting on united Sri Lanka and drop pretensions of ‘domestic solutions’. Further declarations upheld symbols and expressions of the struggle, urged recognition of all those who laid down their lives for the liberation cause and called upon coordinated global action. Related Story >> [22.11.11] Solheim hijacks thrust of Norway report: Norwegian minister Erik Solheim, while speaking in Oslo 11 November at the release of the report evaluating Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka, tried to hijack the philosophical thrust of the findings of the report and this brought him into confrontation with the evaluation team leader, Gunnar M. Sørbø. Mr. Erik Solheim tried to defend the main criticism in the report and the stand of Sørbø that Norway should have quit the peace process to signal the world of the impending dangers. Related Story >> [16.11.11] India emerges as main designer of ‘Asian Model’ in Norway report: The Norway report on the failed peace in Sri Lanka, concluding that Asian powers in pursuance of military solution were a reason for the failure, cautions that this model of ‘conflict resolution’ will challenge future Norwegian-style mediations. India’s role in the genocidal model of conflict resolution is not adequately discussed in the report, yet bits and pieces in the report along with what transpired in the panel discussion in Oslo on Friday, place India as decisively responsible for the ‘Asian model’ that ended the war in genocide. Related Story >> [14.11.11] International unity on criticism of Sri Lanka’s conduct: Armitage: Expressing dismay at the “chauvinistic attitude” of the Sri Lankan state, former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Friday the international community was united in its criticism of Sri Lanka’s conduct in the north and east and that SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa would not be welcomed internationally unless conditions there improved. “I don’t think anyone disagrees that the Tamil people have been mistreated and are continuing to lack – across the board – fundamental freedoms, dignity, etc,” Mr. Armitage told the audience. Related Story >> [13.11.11] LTTE losing, SL winning was Norway failing: Norway report team leader: While releasing the evaluation report on Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka on Friday, the team leader of the evaluation panel, Gunnar M. Sørbø, outlining the main findings of the report said “The collapse of talks and the subsequent military victory were as much a story of the LTTE ‘losing’, as of the government ‘winning’, or the Norwegians ‘failing’. Related Story >> [12.11.11] SLMM tilted balance in favour of Sri Lanka, against LTTE: Gajendrakumar Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the peace keeping arm of the Norway facilitated peace process in the island, tilted the balance in favour of the Sri Lankan state and against the LTTE, wrote Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam in 2007, in an unpublished research paper on the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) he submitted to a foundation in the West. The IC could have used the CFA to pursue conflict resolution by maintaining the balance of power between the parties, but to the contrary it had used the CFA as a ‘counterinsurgency’ tool to reinforce the state and weaken the de facto state, so that the state could pursue yet another military solution to the conflict, he further wrote. Related Story >> [11.11.11] Norway ‘LLRC’ distributes blame, washes hands of victims after ‘victory’: A report on Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka, “Pawns of Peace: Evaluation of Norwegian Peace Efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997-2009” was released in Oslo on Friday. Whether pawns of peace or ploys for genocide, Norway’s report distributed blame among all the actors. A deficiency the report finds in Norway was not its grave failure to warn the world about peace turning into genocide, but that Norway should have escaped from the scene at an earlier stage. Related Story >>
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