Socialist Resistance voices for Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 02:17 GMT]
“The socialist and labour movement stand against repression and genocide. We stand in solidarity with the Tamil people in the face of its suffering at the hands of the Sri Lankan government”, said Duncan Chapel, member of the Socialist Resistance steering committee, Tuesday, greeting 25,000 strong Tamil demonstration outside of the European Commission. Supporting the demands for sending food and medicine, withdrawal of Sri Lanka military from Tamil homeland and lifting the ban on LTTE, “the legalization of the LTTE has to be the first step towards Tamil peace, freedom and self-determination”, he said.
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Speak your language at home: Lee Kuan Yew

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 00:12 GMT]
“My advice is for both parents to speak Mandarin to their children if they can. If one speaks in Mandarin and the other in English, the child will grow up speaking more English than Mandarin”, said Lee Kuan Yew, minister mentor and former prime minister of Singapore, Tuesday, at the 30th Anniversary Launch of Singapore’s language campaign. “Singapore’s multi-racial peoples will never be united if we had used Mandarin as our common language. All non-Chinese, 25% of Singaporeans, will be disadvantaged. The result will be endless strife, as in Sri Lanka, where Singhalese was made the national language and the Tamil-speaking were marginalized”, the senior statesman said further.
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First ever English novel on Vanni by a writer of Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 00:53 GMT]
Veteran writer Balamanoharan has come out with another first of its kind piece of writing of him recently. His Bleeding Hearts is a first ever novel based on the settings of Vanni, written in English. More than three decades ago, when Balamanoharan wrote Nilakki’li, it was widely appreciated for the ‘scent of earth’ it was emanating and was acclaimed as the first Tamil novel coming from Vanni. Three decades of his maturity and the impact of changes that have taken place during this time in his beloved homeland are obviously perceivable in his latest work.
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Pathmanathan welcomes US shift in approach

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 14:51 GMT]
"We have been hoping for such a fresh approach to the longstanding but little understood problem of the Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the newly appointed LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, when contacted by TamilNet for his response on US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton’s statement Friday. “An immediate ceasefire can stop the killing of civilians and will pave way for other measures to take effect in a more acceptable manner to the affected people”, he further said, adding, “ grief on one side and greed on the other side have to be assessed impartially in working out a solution meeting the aspirations of all of Sri Lanka’s communities.
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Second-generation diaspora reflects trauma and hope

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 20:39 GMT]
"I feel guilty every day for waking up... I follow the news everyday with my family, and sadly our family time has been all about discussing the fate of the Tamil community,” writes Sumudini Sathivadivel reflecting the trauma of the second generation diaspora of Eezham Tamils. “What can I do at this point to take my guiltiness away? I sit here in tears, holding my head… unable to think because I feel helpless. Then I get back on my feet and think to myself there is hope... I guess we are all eagerly waiting for the day to say I am a Tamil from Tamil Eelam.”
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Knowing folly

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 02:12 GMT]
The pleading tone of the US Ambassador in Colombo, Robert Blake, even in selling what is already existing or is in proposal, last Friday, show the mood of Sinhala chauvinism in the South, living in the euphoria of ‘victory’ and delusions of ‘post-LTTE’ politics, writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi. “A striking note of the ambassador’s speech was the importance he gave to the electoral process in ending the conflict.” It is ‘knowing folly’ of Mr. Blake to paint a picture of hope on the end of conflict through electoral process in Sri Lanka, after weakening the Tamil fighting force, he says.
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'Belated and wanting musings from India'

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 March 2009, 08:29 GMT]
While the Establishment in New Delhi is frantic in its attempt to eliminate the liberation force of Eezham Tamils but at the same time by hook or crook insinuate itself into the Tamil masses in order to show a semblance of success before the elections, a section of Indian academics and writers come out with belated and wanting musings urging India to work for a federal solution, writes a political analyst from Colombo. "Some of them may have good intentions, but they fail to see the sharp divide and limited option – genocide or Tamileelam – created by the Indian abetted war. Whatever they now write could serve as a lead to the next government, if there will be changes, but time is over for the present Establishment to achieve anything meaningfully," the analyst says further.
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Indian High Commissioner rebuffs memorandum of Mauritian demonstrators

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 March 2009, 21:45 GMT]
The Indian High Commissioner in Mauritius rebuffed a memorandum of thousands of Mauritian Tamil demonstrators Friday, requesting India to stop the war against Tamils in Sri Lanka. The representatives of the demonstrators were seeking to submit the memorandum in person to the High Commissioner who is a Tamil and they had informed the High Commission of their request five days in advance. On Friday, Third Secretary Ms Menon and the Deputy High Commissioner who received them, turned down their request. Angered at the contempt, the demonstrators chose to burn the memorandum outside the High Commission. The Vice Prime Minister of Mauritius and the Justice Minister were active participants of the emotion-charged demonstration, organized by National Movement Against Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, reports Koomaran Chetty from Mauritius.
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Acid test for international actors

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 02:36 GMT]
It is clear that the Colombo government is waging a direct war on unarmed civilians with the intention of intimidation and subjugation of them. The hard truth is that for chauvinistic Colombo war with Eezham Tamil civilians is more important than its war with the Tigers. The war with the LTTE is only a part of the agenda aimed at making the Tamils orphans first. India and the Co-Chairs countries have a direct responsibility in perpetrating the present war leading to the genocide of Tamils. They cannot dodge their responsibility accusing the LTTE or saying it is internal affair of Sri Lanka and citing Russia and China possibly vetoing a move in the UN. Their immediate responsibility now is providing food and medicine at the doorstep of the civilians, unconditionally, even if it is going to be against the wishes of Colombo, writes an IDP activist in Vanni.
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Ghost of Bush wishes 'fight to the end'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 12:56 GMT]
The lessons of history are that actually there is nothing called ethnicities winning and losing. It is always forces of oppression and liberation losing and winning. ‘Fight to the end’ is vantage of the vultures hovering above for the spoils of both losers as well as winners. If ‘fight to the end’ is thrust upon peoples then they can’t help it. They have to fight it until the interests of those who orchestrate it are affected to the contrary or civilized world prevail upon those international belligerents. "Let us hope in the civilized world," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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Lankan-ness Vs the Tamilness: thoughts of A.J. Canagaratne

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 16:48 GMT]
Is it possible in today's context to be both a Tamil and a Sri Lankan? I think it is, provided our leaders are statesmen enough to treat all communities as equal and guarantee this equality both in practice and constitutionally. Only time will tell whether the Sinhala political leadership can stop playing games of one-upmanship and indulging in political manoeuvring. It's high time they stop being fixated on a unitary state and think along the lines of a fully federal set-up to preserve the unity of this country, wrote AJ in 2005, a year before his demise, reviewing a publication ‘ Being a Tamil and Sri Lankan by Professor K. Sivathamby.
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'Koayil' controversy

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 February 2009, 23:28 GMT]
The officiating Tamil priesthood of tradition has to be helped to transcend contemporary sociopolitical norms of caste identity or hierarchy. It needs to see the real roots of its culture vested with the Tamil people and should stand on the side of the masses, upholding the cause of the oppressed. In fact, it has to take a step ahead of the government in progressiveness, writes opinion columnist Ampalam on the recent events concerning Chithamparam temple, triggered off by the controversy of reciting Tamil hymns in the Golden Hall of the temple.
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Black Air Tiger urges Vanni youth to join for final battle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 20:45 GMT]
Col. Rooban, one of the two Black Air Tigers who flew LTTE aircrafts hitting Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Headquarters and the SLAF base at Katunayake Friday, in a letter left behind, urged the Tamils in Vanni to join the Liberation Tigers and strengthen the LTTE's military forces in the fight against the Sri Lanka Military forces.
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India offers ‘final thrust’ for ‘subjugation’ of Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 16:40 GMT]
Accusing the Tigers for committing damages to the Tamil community and calling them for laying down arms and releasing the civilians, the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Indian Parliament on Wednesday offered India’s facilitation to evacuate civilians, working along with the Colombo government and the ICRC, who would be responsible for the security, screening and rehabilitation of them, BBC reported. This offer without taking responsibility, neither to the future plight of the civilians nor to the political consequences that would follow, is the 'best of its abetment' India is rendering to Colombo in the subjugation of Tamils, according to Tamil political observers.
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SLA bans re-telecast of Tamil Nadu TV in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 00:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers in charge of their camps in Jaffna peninsula have ordered the cable TV operators not to re-telecast programs of Makkal TV from Tamil Nadu, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The recent news reports in Makkal TV on the present Vanni situation, and the TV's political analysis segments have irked the SLA hierarchy resulting in the ban, sources added.
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Journalist Sathiyamoorthy killed inside Safe Zone

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 February 2009, 19:08 GMT]
Puniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy, journalist and political analyst, well-known and highly respected by the Tamils in Eelam and among diaspora Tamils, sustained serious injuries in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery barrage Thursday on Theavipuram in the 'safety zone' declared by Sri Lanka government in Mullaitheevu district in Vanni, and succumbed to his wounds. Lack of proper medical attention contributed to his death, according to relatives who cared for him after the incident.
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Self-immolation reported in front of British PM's residence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 February 2009, 16:50 GMT]
An Eezham Tamil has self-immolated himself in front of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official residence at 10 Downing Street in London, according to UK based Tamil satellite Television Deepam TV.
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Poignant acts of self-immolation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 February 2009, 10:45 GMT]
It may sound good to say that there is no place for feudal expressions in a 'postmodern' world. It may be true that there can be no second word about resolving issues on a democratic plane. But the first warnings have come pointing to the flaws in the handling of the situation by democratic powers and calling for effective rectifications. They have come from non-combatants and have come spontaneously. The extreme expression of self-denial, openly denouncing injustices perpetrated on a people by ganged-up authority, has come from educated people of ordinary walks of life committing self-immolation.
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Eezham Tamil immolates himself to death in front of UN office in Geneva

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2009, 16:17 GMT]
A 26-year-old diaspora Eezham Tamil from UK has self-immolated himself to death in front of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) in Switzerland Thursday night around 8:20 p.m., according to police spokesman Eric Grandgean. The man has identified himself as Murukathasan in a letter left behind by him 10 meters away from the scene, the Police officer said when contacted by a Tamil journalist in Switzerland on Friday. The copy of the letter in English and Tamil, received by Tamil journalists, with the identical name, said: "I believe the flames over my body, heart and soul will help the world community to have a deep human look over the great sufferings of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
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Singapore Tamils protest newspaper misreporting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2009, 13:57 GMT]
Singapore Tamils have protested misreporting of a news in the headlines of the country's Tamil daily Tamil Murasu last Thursday, which read that the LTTE had claimed they would even attack Tamil Nadu, media circles in Singapore said.
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