Illegal excavation of limestone threatens ecology of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 04:05 GMT]
Threatening the entire groundwater and fragile ecology of Jaffna peninsula, a private Sinhalese company is engaged in the illegal excavation of limestone in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North while Rajapaksa government refuses to reveal details of this enterprise in the area from Maaviddapuram to Keerimalai where the uprooted residents have not been allowed to resettle for the past twenty years. The indiscriminate excavation of limestone in a 4 sq km area at depths of nearly 40 feet has already caused seepage of sea water and it is feared the area becoming submerged. The underground channels that bring in freshwater to the innumerable aquifers of the peninsula, have an underneath entry into sea adjacent to the locality of the quarries. It is obvious how indiscriminate quarrying and the possibility of seawater coming inside can affect the potable water of the masses.
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Venezuela and the 'law of the fishes’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 00:18 GMT]
"Instead of making connections with the illegitimate opposition of Sri Lanka, Venezuela should be strengthening the hand of an ally that is also suffering imperial aggressions," says Eva Golinger, a friend of the President of Venezuela and English editor of the Venezuela government newspaper Correo del Orinoco. Writing a feature of factual and perceptual errors, Golinger says, Rajapaksa who is supported by left and communist parties put an end to the LTTE that has strong ties with the CIA. Tamil circles don’t believe that the reputed left-wing writer failed to do her homework on Sri Lanka or on the Eezham Tamil struggle. Instead, they think that in a world where the villains and the heroes are together nowadays, some forces are working on luring Latin America to enter into South Asia from the wrong direction, hanging onto the deceptive red shawl of Rajapaksa soaked in genocidal blood.
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Eezham Tamils in Canada to form country council

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 June 2010, 14:40 GMT]
Followed by Norway, Switzerland, Italy and France, Eezham Tamils in Canada are going to elect representatives on Sunday for their Country Council named National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT). The NCCT will be a grass-root organisation composed of democratically elected Canadian Tamils focused on strengthening the Tamil community within the Canada. The bicameral national assembly of 27 Council Members consists of 22 elected members on 3-year-term and 5 elected members by Tamil organisations on 1-year-term. In addition, 6 regional councils in areas where a high population of Tamils live, will constitute the grass-root bodies of the NCCT.
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India was not happy about Norwegian peace: Prof Shanmugaratnam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2010, 10:40 GMT]
India was not happy about Norway being given a role in peace brokering in Sri Lanka. Japan was keen to be the broker, but India was more against Japan than Norway, said Dr. N. Shanmugaratnam, Professor of Development Studies and Head of Research of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, while addressing a session on the failed peace process and Norway’s role in Sri Lanka, at a conference held in Nansen Peace Centre in Norway last Friday. The Norwegian Tamil academic also said that in his view the key challenges to the peace process were internal than international and the internal has always been decisive. Post mortem of the peace process has become a hot topic in Norwegian circles nowadays since the failed envoys of Sri Lankan process have embarked upon fresh peace initiatives elsewhere.
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Political transformation should start in Tamil Nadu: Prof Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 June 2010, 22:45 GMT]
Political transformation of the Tamil mind at the global level starting with Tamil Nadu is a fundamental prerequisite for the achievement of Eelam, said Prof. P. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of the Penang State of Malaysia in an interview to TamilNet. Tamil Nadu should go beyond DMK or AIADMK to handle the global plight of Tamils. Tamil groups in Sri Lanka have no vision or capacity and some are goaded by India. Some in the West don’t understand the historical and contemporary trajectory of the national liberation of Eezham Tamils. Discussing Tamil question with the Sinhala State is counter-productive at this stage, he further said, adding that he is presently working on exposing the misdeeds of India and the DMK and will push for international investigation of Sri Lanka’s war crimes and India’s strong role in them.
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Genocidal Colombo gets unlimited chances from US, India

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 June 2010, 23:38 GMT]
"The US and India have a very similar view of the situation in Sri Lanka and the steps that need to be taken,” said US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake Monday to rediff.com, acknowledging, "We have worked very closely throughout the last several years on the situation in Sri Lanka, and again we have a real convergence of view on how that situation has evolved." Commenting, Tamil circles said the US policy compelled by the geopolitics of the Afghan war is tagged with New Delhi’s perception of the crisis in the island and unless the diaspora and the people of Tamil Nadu are not vigilant Colombo is likely to be encouraged with chances after chances to blunt the national struggle of Eezham Tamils and to complete the genocide. Tamil circles anticipate a long orchestrated plan soon unfolding to hoodwink their national cause as well as to make them economic slaves in their own land.
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Douglas Devananda says charges against him in Madras High Court will be dropped Monday

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 June 2010, 16:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda, just returned after his visit to India with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, told media Friday that the charges against him filed in Tamil Nadu Courts will be dropped when they will be taken up for hearing in the Mandras High Court Monday. He said this in a press meet held through phone at Srithar theatre in Jaffna. According to The Times of India, Tamil Nadu lawyer P. Pugalenthi, the secretary of Tamil Nadu Peoples Rights Forum, a pro-Eezham Tamil body, had filed a petition that action should be taken against Mr. Devananda since the VIth Additional Sessions Judge in June 1994 had issued a proclamation warrant treating him as an 'absconding accused' in the case relating to the killing of a city resident in 1986.
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Rajapaksa visits India amid wide-scale protests in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 2010, 11:33 GMT]
All the district capitals and major cities of Tamil Nadu state Tuesday noon reported wide-scale protests against Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to India. All the prominent leaders of political parties and movements, Vaiko, Pazha Nedumaran, Thirumavalavan, Seeman, Nallakannu, Mahendran, T. Rajendar, Thiyagu were arrested by Tamil Nadu police with thousands of other activists after they concluded their speeches and protests. The protests, including black flag demonstrations in front of Indian Central Government Institutions in Tamil Nadu, blocking railway and burning effigies of Sri Lankan President, have brought many Tamil parties and movements together in support of Eezham Tamils. All major media outlets operating from India have given coverage to the protests.
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IIFA showbiz event blamed for promoting ‘paradise of genocide’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 May 2010, 16:24 GMT]
As Tamils world over mark one-year of Indian abetted genocidal war against Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, the Hindi film industry known as Bollywood and the major Indian conglomerate of trade unions, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) are joining hands with Rajapaksa regime in Colombo in staging 11th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards weekend during the first week of June in Colombo. The FICCI, the largest and oldest business conglomerate of India is the flagship organiser of the business event named FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum, where hundreds of CEOs and business heads from India would be signing various investment contracts and tie-ups in the island on the second day of the celebrity and corporate event.
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Camouflaged ban on Tamil Eelam by New Delhi, Chennai

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 May 2010, 23:07 GMT]
The Government of Tamil Nadu has gazetted a notification by the Indian Central Government's Ministry of Home Affairs, dated 14 May, banning the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as an 'unlawful association'. The announcement falsely linked 'Tamil Eelam' as threatening the 'sovereignty and territorial integrity of a part of the territory of India'. Questioning when Tamil Eelam became part of Indian territory, Eezham Tamil circles in the diaspora said the notification reflected the guilt related paranoia of New Delhi and Chennai and urged the democratic bodies in the diaspora and the legal activists in Tamil Nadu to address the false interpretation, politically and legally.
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Youth activists favoured in TGTE elections of Australia

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 May 2010, 20:11 GMT]
Youth activists Seran Sribalan and Darshan Gunasingham received overwhelming support, tallying 1272 and 1231 respectively out of over 1300 votes registered in the NSW ballot for electing members for Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) held Saturday in the suburbs of Homebush and Wentworthville. Meanwhile, Kulasegaram Sanchayan, a long-time activist of the Tamil Diaspora in Australia, received the highest number of votes for an individual candidate, with 1300 out of 1363.
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Taking stock on the first anniversary of Internationally abetted genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 May 2010, 14:07 GMT]
The Tamil struggle for independence, one of the longest running struggles of Asia, which has progressed through the Colonial phase and the World Wars, through Cold-War era and through the period of War on Terrorism and the times of economic conquest, now stands at the juncture of a paradigm shift, one-year after the end of asymmetric, but largely conventional Eezham War IV. If Eezham Tamil Nation is to advance successfully forward from where it stands, it needs to adopt its own set of paradigms, capable of not only defeating opposing maneuvers of the Sri Lankan state and the abettors from outside, but also powerful in addressing the future from a broad perspective, rising above the classical dialectic approach.
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Diaspora cine artists initiate web project to promote Eezham Cinema

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 May 2010, 12:21 GMT]
A web-based project to launch a bilingual database and news services related to Eezham Cinema has been initiated by some Tamil diaspora film artists. The move was launched on 18 May, the Gencidal War Crimes Day against Eezham Tamils, and the first phase of the project lasts till 25 July, the Black July Day, according to the initiators behind the project eelamcinema.com.
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New political party in Tamil Nadu vows to fight for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 May 2010, 18:18 GMT]
Around 75,000 Tamils, most of them of younger generation, attended the May Remembrance of Vanni massacre and the inauguration rally of Naam Thamilar political party at Virakanoor in the city of Madurai in the Tamil Nadu state of India, vowing to fight for the creation Tamil Eelam by politically capturing the power of the Tamil Nadu state as Tamils world over observed Genocidal War Crimes Day on Tuesday, remembering thousands who perished one year ago. “The Tamil Eelam struggle has been transcended into the hands of Tamil Nadu Tamils and the younger generation in particular,” S. Seeman, a Tamil activist and a popular film director told media. “War is politics with bloodshed, our way would be Politics without bloodshed,’ he told the gathering vowing to take forward the struggle for the freedom of Eezham Tamils and to voice for global Tamil freedom.
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War Crimes Day observed in Norway, France, Canada, Italy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 May 2010, 07:22 GMT]
Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET) commemorated the first anniversary of Mu’l’livaaikkaal massacre Tuesday and declared 18 May as ‘War Crimes Day’, sources in Oslo said. Representatives of Norway political parties participated and spoke in the gathering where a memorandum was handed over to them by NCET. Meanwhile, similar events in France, Canada and Italy took place with the participation of Eezham Tamils and political leaders and people from the respective countries.
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Tamil Nadu Police denies permission to Muthukumaran statue

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 May 2010, 13:43 GMT]
Tanjavoor police in Tamil Nadu Sunday denied permission to erect the statue of Muthukumaran of Kolaththoor in Tamil Nadu who had set himself ablaze demanding to stop the war waged on Eezham Tamils by Sri Lanka Army. ‘I’lanthth Thamizhar Iyakkam’ (Young Tamils Movement) had decided to erect the statue of Muthukumaran near Tanjavoor in Tamil Nadu and to hold a public meeting named ‘Mu’l’livaaikkaal Veerava’nakkam (Mu’l’livaaikkaal Homage of Valor) Sunday. Tamil Nadu Police banned the meeting and the Torch Marathon that was to be held before the meeting and the opening of the statue event, sources from Tamil Nadu said.
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Former caretaker of Uduppiddi LTTE Heroes Resting Home found dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 May 2010, 19:26 GMT]
Former caretaker of Uduppiddi E’l’langku’lam Heroes Resting Home of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham (LTTE) was found dead Saturday evening near the cremation grounds in Veampadi area in Thunnaalay South, Karaveddi, Vadamaraadchi, sources in Jaffna said. His body was naked and hands bound with many assault injuries.
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Lest We Forget: Children affected by Genocidal War Crimes of Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 May 2010, 04:01 GMT]
Tamils all over the world mark 18 May as Genocidal War Crimes Day, observing one year remembrance of thousands who perished in the war, waged by the Sri Lankan state and its abettors, on the de-facto state of Tamil Eelam. Despite its repeated pledges to the International Community, the Sri Lankan state and its military machine vowing to erase 'separatism demand' from Tamils for generations, to turn heavy arms on civilian population claiming the lives of thousands of children and women in addition to depriving them of food, medicine and medical evacuation on time. The conduct of the Sri Lankan state, which disregarded all norms of humanity in the war, has posed a civilisational question, and justice remains undelivered. TamilNet releases 14 of 512 photos taken by a humanitarian worker to mark the Genocidal War Crimes Day.
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Cancellation tactics make potential candidates withdraw from TGTE elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 May 2010, 13:14 GMT]
Four candidates, including two who had come within the first five in the poll conducted 8 days ago for the TGTE in the London South West Constituency, withdrew their candidature Monday after there were delays in announcing the results. Dr. N.Sathiyamoorthy, Mr. A.Vairavamoorthy and Mr. David Joseph, candidates sharing a common opinion said in their withdrawal letter that "even though it was hard for us to come to this decision, we feel it is necessary to make such decision to take our struggle to the next level through the TGTE, without giving any room for the Sri Lankan state or the IC to shame our Tamil Nation." The election committee delayed the announcement of the results citing ‘complaints’ and there were behind the scene manoeuvrings by certain members of the CWG that conducted the elections, in selecting candidates without a re-poll, said a journalist who did not wish to be named.
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Naaka-naadu
Naaka-theevu
Naaga-deepa

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 May 2010, 22:01 GMT]
The country of the Naakar
The island / peninsula of the Naakar (The Jaffna Peninsula)
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