Fasting students arrested, forcibly hospitalized

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 16:54 GMT]
Students of the Chengalpattu Law College who were on a fast-unto-death seeking an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka were arrested by the Tamil Nadu police Wednesday morning even as their fast entered the seventh day. The students were hospitalized and their condition is being monitored. According to eyewitness accounts, the police forbade anybody from capturing photographs or video-footage of the arrest.
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Colombo's war crimes turn to rape of the fleeing - Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 11:45 GMT]
Civilians who have been caught by the Sri Lanka Army recently in Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna and from Murasumoaddai in Ki'linochchi district, who are confined to the 'detention camps' run by the Sri Lankan military, have complained to their relatives that the Sri Lankan soldiers have taken several women into their custody and were sexually abusing them, said Jaffna district parliamentarian S. Gajendran on Wednesday. Those who continue to justify and abet the on going war against Tamils and those who directly or indirectly advocate surrender of Tamil civilians to their adversaries are a party to war crimes, he further said.
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Tamil leaders label Pranab visit futile

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 07:32 GMT]
Frontline leaders in Tamil Nadu, including Dr.S.Ramadoss, Vaiko and Thirumavalavan have expressed their disappointment that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee never pressed for an immediate ceasefire when he met Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa during his emergency visit to Colombo Tuesday night.
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Norwegian Tamils appeal for urgent action from Norway

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 17:47 GMT]
Nearly four hundred Norwegian Tamils gathered Tuesday between 7:30 a.m and 10.00 a.m in front of Norwegian Foreign Ministry in Oslo and appealed to Norway to condemn the Sri Lanka government's killing of innocent Tamil civilians in Vanni, sources in Oslo said.
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Tamil Nadu students' indefinite fast enters fifth day

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 12:31 GMT]
An indefinite fast-unto-death demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lankai by 12 students of the Chengalpattu Law College entered the fifth day on Monday. "We have two demands before the Indian Union Government: India should intervene and bring about an end to the ongoing genocide, India should stop all military aid to the Sinhalese," the protesting students said. Occurring in the backdrop of continuous student boycotts all over Tamil Nadu, this fast which commenced Thursday has gained enormous emotional significance.
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Ramadoss: Tamil Nadu Parties should pressurize Indian Government to recognize Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:54 GMT]
PMK founder-leader Dr. Ramadoss called upon the political parties in Tamil Nadu to exert pressure on the Union Government of India to recognize "Tamil Eelam for Eelam Tamils" while addressing mediapersons Sunday. Reacting to a remark by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi that he was unable to save the Eelam Tamils, Dr.Ramadoss said that Karunanidhi had to exert pressure on the Union Government in order to bring about a ceasefire. "The General Body Meeting of the DMK will take place on February 15. In the intervening three weeks, what will be the multi fold miseries that the Eelam Tamils will be made to face? Why this delay?" he wondered.
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Intent of Genocide provable in Sri Lanka - Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 11:54 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General and currently counsel for the US-based group Tamils Against Genocide, addressing a select gathering of media persons and intellectuals organized by the Max Foundation in Chennai Friday, told the audience that there is enough evidence to criminally convict U.S. citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and U.S. Green card holder Lt.Gen. Sarath Fonseka in the U.S. Federal Courts for "intent to commit Genocide" in Sri Lanka, sources from Chennai said.
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Norwegian Tamils demonstrate in front of Japan Embassy in Oslo

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 12:18 GMT]
Nearly 200 Norwegian Tamils of Norwegian Tamil Federation (NTF) demonstrated Thursday between 2:00 p.m and 3:00 p.m in front of the Japanese Embassy, located on Wergekands veien, 15 in Oslo, urging Japan, one of the co-chair countries, to exert pressure on Sri Lanka to stop the genocidal war waged on the Tamils in Vanni, sources in Oslo said. An official of the Japan Embassy accepted the memorandum submitted by NTF.
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Tamil Nadu gears up for more protests

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 05:27 GMT]
A state-wide common front of college and university students' organisations in Tamil Nadu launched protests against New Delhi and the state government demanding immediate action in stopping the war, which seeks to subjugate Tamil people who have refused to surrender into the hands of the Sri Lanka Army despite the physical and psychological war on them. 200,000 students took part in the 32 districts of the state on Wednesday, according to Dr. Vengadachalam, the organisor of the College Students' Coordinating Committee, a newly formed alliance of the students' organisations.
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Germany calls for Ceasefire between GoSL, LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 01:51 GMT]
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Thursday for an immediately negotiated ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), stating that the ceasefire should enable aid deliveries and medical care for the civilians in the disputed areas.
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Swiss Tamil youth demonstrate in front of UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 00:01 GMT]
Tamils living in Switzerland marched from the Geneva Main Railway station to the United Nations Wednesday evening urging the international community to stop the genocidal war on the Tamils in Vanni in the island of Sri Lanka and to apply pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka to bring about an immediate cease fire.
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TNA urges IC to put an end to genocidal war

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2009, 03:26 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a press release issued on Wednesday urged the International Community to prevail upon the Sri Lankan state to bring the war to an immediate end stating that It is the considered view of the TNA that the Sri Lankan State is prosecuting the current war in pursuit of an ideology, namely the assertion of Sinhala Buddhist supremacist nationalism, and in order to achieve that objective a process of Genocide of the Tamil people is in progress. The inhuman conditions and the daily killings to which the Tamil civilians in LTTE controlled areas are being subjected to are only the more obvious elements of this process, the statement by the TNA said.
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British FO sabotaging Tamil national question condemned

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2009, 03:13 GMT]
A statement released by the British Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs on Wednesday, totally ignoring the national basis of the decades old Tamil struggle and treating the humanitarian crisis of civilians as an outcome of terrorism is strongly condemned by Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian S. Gajendran, who added: The preaching of the modern "corporate religion of greed" to Tamils seems to be "submit yourself to thy genocidal killers."
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'Lives lost yielding nothing to Colombo'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 17:59 GMT]
"It is not a question of whether Tamil Eelam will become independent. Rather, it is a question of how many lives, on both sides of the Tamil Eelam border, the Sinhala regime(s) are prepared to waste in the process," writes a reader, Mr. Poulson, in response to TamilNet's call for opinion last week. "The Sinhala polity is not interested in a ceasefire and nor are the strategic partners. Hence it must be forced upon them," he writes further in his situation analysis.
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Norwegian Tamils demonstrate in front of US Embassy in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 11:27 GMT]
Around 400 Norwegian Tamils gathered in front of United States Embassy in Oslo, Tuesday between 9:30 a.m and 10:30 a.m urging the U.S. Government to help stop the genocidal war on the Tamils in Vanni in Sri Lanka and to exert pressure on Sri Lanka Government to bring about an immediate cease fire. This is the fourth demonstration organized by Norwegian Tamils Federation within the last two weeks, sources in Oslo said. A representative of the American Embassy received the memorandum submitted by the demonstrators.
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'International media abetted death of journalism in Sri Lanka'

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2009, 03:04 GMT]
Following the latest assassination of prominent editor Lasantha Wickramatunge of The Sunday Leader, four notable journalists, have reportedly fled Sri Lanka last week. "Had the international media, which was refused access to the war front and LTTE held territories, boycotted the government news, from the beginning itself as a measure of asserting media rights, the casualty of journalism in the island could have been avoided. But, the international media, especially the popular news agencies, are part of the game and they pay only lip service at every media casualty in the country," says a journalist formerly based in Colombo and now operating in the West.
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Thirumavalavan drops fast, signals 'change of strategy'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2009, 18:02 GMT]
VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, in his fourth day of the fast-unto-death said that he was forced to reconsider his decision to continue the fast because of the emotional pleading by his frenzied cadres, particularly women cadres who threatened self-immolation, and the shoot at sight orders that had been given by the state police department. "At this stage, I have to ensure that those who lay their love and trust in me should not lose their lives," Mr. Thirumavalavan said. He added that henceforth the VCK had snapped all ties with the Congress party.
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9000 British Tamils gather in protest against war on Tamils in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2009, 14:45 GMT]
More than 9000 British Tamils gathered Saturday in front of No. 10 Downing Street in London participating in a mass vigil from 3:00 p.m till 7:00 p.m, urging British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to exert pressure on the governments of Sri Lanka and India to call for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. This event marks the third of the ‘Awareness Campaign’ organized by the Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) in United Kingdom.
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Tamil Nadu CPI, BJP leaders slam Delhi’s inaction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 22:13 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), D Pandian charged Saturday that it was not enough to merely condemn the genocide in Sri Lanka, but instead one should be prepared to embrace a martyr's death. He was speaking about VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan’s fast-unto-death over the humanitarian crisis imposed on Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s war. The senior CPI leader added that if India was capable of sending the Chandrayaan to the moon, it could at least do some lip-service to save the lives of Tamils by telling to the Government of Sri Lanka that it will not hesitate to interfere."
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Norwegian Tamils urge Norway to stop Sri Lanka's genocidal war in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 16:52 GMT]
Nearly three hundred Norwegian Tamils, along with Norwegian Members of Parliament and political leaders, gathered in the premises of Norway Parliament Friday between 11:00 a.m till 1:30 p.m, and appealed to the Government of Norway to save the Tamils in Vanni in from the genocidal war waged on them by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), This is the third such demonstration by Norwegian Tamils in this week.
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