CPI-led All Party Meeting calls for state-wide protest in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2008, 04:36 GMT]
The Central Government of India has failed to respond to the four demands, concerning the plight of Eezham Tamils, formulated in the previous All Party Meeting (APM) and forwarded to New Delhi by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Therefore, a second APM was convened on Monday by the initiative of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Tamil Nadu, chaired by its State Secretary D. Pandian, who announced a state-wide peaceful protest on November 25 to demonstrate to New Delhi on the resolve of the Tamil Nadu people for a single resolution: Immediate Ceasefire in Sri Lanka.
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Students of JNU voice for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2008, 02:14 GMT]
The Democratic Students' Union (DSU), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in a statement on Sunday demanded unconditional declaration of ceasefire from the Sri Lanka government and a stop to the genocide of Tamils. Based on Marxist-Leninist principles of self-determination, it called for support to the Eezham Tamil independence.
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Unique agitation by All India Students Federation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 21:49 GMT]
A special train, carrying over 2000 students of Tamil Nadu, members of the All India Students Federation (AISF), left Chennai on Wednesday to march towards the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, demanding end of attacks on Eezham Tamils, stoppage of military aid to Sri Lanka and initiation of peaceful political solution to the crisis. Students from many other states of India will join them in the agitation scheduled for Friday. Such an event is first in the history of AISF, said S. Mahendran, senior leader of the Communist Party of India, guiding the students.
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Announce ceasefire, call back military and commence peace talks - TN Assembly

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 16:56 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday demanding "an immediate halt of military operations, reverting the Sri Lankan military to old positions and a commencement of political negotiations to find a solution to the Tamil problem." The house of representatives also urged New Delhi to press for talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The resolution comes while the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is in New Delhi on an official visit.
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Persuade Rajapaksa to stop the war: Pandian urges Manmohan Singh

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2008, 19:58 GMT]
The State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), D. Pandian, on Monday wrote a letter urging the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to act swiftly to end the war in Sri Lanka. Noting that the LTTE has responded positively for the public call from the CPI to spell out their stand in unambiguous terms to the call for ceasefire, Mr. Pandian said urged Manmohan Singh to use his good offices to impress upon Mr. Rajapaksa to stop the war and agree for a ceasefire. Meanwhile, reports in Colombo said Mr. Rajapaksa has left Colombo to attend the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit, to be held in New Delhi.
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Sri Lanka rejects ceasefire with LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2008, 11:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's government rejected a ceasefire with the LTTE on Monday, again demanding the Tigers surrender or be destroyed. "The government will not go for a ceasefire with the LTTE. We will not have any form of discussion with the LTTE. We have already told them to lay down arms and there is no change in our stand," Agriculture Minister Maithripala Sirisena told Parliament, Reuters reported.
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Impress upon Colombo to announce ceasefire, CPI urges Indian government

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 12:24 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu State Secretary D. Pandian, in a statement issued on Sunday, referring to the clarification by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan on the LTTE stand on ceasefire, urged the Centre to take immediate steps to impress upon the Sri Lankan state to announce a ceasefire without hesitation. Referring to Mr. Nadesan's statement that the Tigers were engaged in a defensive war and that it was the Sri Lankan state that unilaterally pulled out from the Ceasefire Agreement, Mr. Pandian said.
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Tigers reiterate consent to ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 16:42 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan, when contacted by TamilNet on Saturday, following reports of Tamil Nadu leaders seeking clarification on LTTE's stand on ceasefire, said "there is no hesitation on our side to reiterate our position that we have always wanted a ceasefire." It is the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) that unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire, Mr. Nadesan said and added that the Tigers were only fighting a defensive war since Colombo has thrust upon Tamils an aggressive war.
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CPI seeks clarification on Tamil ceasefire stand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Stating that the people of Tamil Nadu state and India were being led to a state of confusion by the calls that demanded both the warring parties in Sri Lanka to announce a ceasefire, the State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu, D. Pandian, urged in a statement issued from Chennai on Saturday that the Eezham Tamils' political leadership should clarify the Tamil stand on the issue. Consensus of the people of Tamil Nadu is that the Sri Lankan government should immediately stop the war. However, when questions were raised by certain sections, there is a need for clarification, Mr. Pandiyan said.
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Women wing of VCK stages one-day fast in Chennai

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 November 2008, 09:10 GMT]
Thousands of women belonging to the Makalir Viduthalai Iyakkamm, the Women's Wing of the Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK), went on a one-day fast in Chennai Thursday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. This token fast is the first in a series of agitations that the party has decided to hold indefinitely until a ceasefire is established on the war-ravaged island. Senior Communist leader R Nallakannu and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi addressed the fasting protesters.
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Ramadoss attacks Karunanidhi's vacillation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2008, 10:35 GMT]
Pattali Makkal Katchi founder-leader Dr. S. Ramadoss condemned Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi for changing his stand on the Eelam Tamils issue in a press release Monday. "All Tamil people will easily understand that there is an immense divide between the Karunanidhi of October 14's All Party Meeting who demanded a ceasefire, and the Karunanidhi of today who justifies the Union Government's inaction by saying that India has limitations on how far it can interfere in another country's affairs," he said.
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Discuss Tamil national question and self-determination: CPI (ML)

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 23:07 GMT]
"Stop the war. The Tamil national question in Sri Lanka demands a political solution”, is the headlines of a statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), released in its November issue of Liberation. "The current phase of the war in Sri Lanka does call for an urgent and appropriate Indian response to bring about an immediate cessation of the war and facilitate a negotiated political settlement of the question of Tamil self-determination in Sri Lanka", urged the ultra Marxist party actively leading proletarian movements throughout India.
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Only ceasefire is real relief to Eelam Tamils: Ramadoss

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 15:05 GMT]
Coming out publicly to voice his displeasure over the manner in which the Eelam Tamil issue was handled by the Tamil Nadu State and Union Governments, Pattali Makkal Katchi founder-leader Dr. S. Ramadoss alleged at a press meet in Chennai Saturday that not a single resolution of the All Party Meeting had met with success. He called upon Chief Minister Karunanidhi to explain as to why the ceasefire demand was not addressed. "There should be an immediate ceasfire in Sri Lanka, only that shall be the real relief to Eelam Tamils," he said.
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Tamil film fraternity fasts for Eelam cause

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 02:20 GMT]
Packed with performance and punch lines, the entire Tamil film fraternity staged a powerful show of strength at a one-day fast in Chennai Saturday to express solidarity with the Eezham Tamils. The actors demanded the Tamil Nadu state and the Indian Union Government to immediately find a peaceful and permanent solution to the Sri Lankan problem.
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Tehelka on what the grass roots feel in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 12:19 GMT]
"In these villages, it hardly matters that Pirabhakaran is an accused in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, or that the LTTE is banned un India. Many have named their children after Pirabhakaran. Housing colonies have been given the names of LTTE martyrs", reports Tehelka Magazine in a feature article on Kolathur (Ku'laththoor), a Panchayat of 10 villages and 75,000 people, bordering Karnataka, in the Selam (Chealam) district of northwestern Tamil Nadu.
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Sending food is a farce: D. Pandian

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 10:28 GMT]
"Sending food to an area that is being bombed continuously is a major farce," said D. Pandian, State Secretary of the Communist Party of India. He also expressed discontent over the fact that no information has been released until now on whether India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had addressed the issue of ceasefire during his discussions with Basil Rajapaksa, Special Adviser to the Sri Lankan President.
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Ceasefire should be primary concern: Thirumavalavan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 19:59 GMT]
Quick on the heels of the news-report that hundreds of Tamil schoolchildren had a hair-breadth escape from death due to airstrike by the Sri Lanka Air Force Tuesday, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) President Thol.Thirumavalavan said in a press meet in Chennai that "an immediate ceasefire in the island nation should be the primary concern of the Tamilnadu and Indian Governments." Thirumavalavan lauded Chief Minister Karunanidhi for his efforts to ensure peace in the island nation and requested him not to drop the resignation ultimatum, but to instead postpone it until a later date.
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US, India, Israel plot against Sri Lanka, alleges JVP

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2008, 20:45 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a Sinhala nationalist party, appealed to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse to take stern action against the incumbent US ambassador in Sri Lanka for making a statement derogatory to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka. JVP has described the US ambassador's statement as a part of a plot hatched by the USA, India and Israel against Sri Lanka.
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Food to hoodwink, war to continue

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2008, 01:00 GMT]
The voice of Tamil Nadu people has certainly shaken the power centres of India, but what they really heard or orchestrated was the US ambassador's voice. The establishments are not prepared to change course immediately either on stopping war and military assistance to Colombo or on coming out with meaningful political solutions to Eezham Tamils, but rather the 'machinations' are to bring in a wedge between the suffering people and their fighters, said a Colombo based political analyst. Only a resolute Tamil people and ground realities in Sri Lanka may able to convince the 'strategic partners' of the futility of going against the aspirations of the oppressed, observed the analyst.
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Time for Colombo to defeat LTTE with political solution: U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2008, 10:16 GMT]
"The U.S. view is that the [Sri Lankan] government could further isolate and weaken the LTTE if it articulates now its vision for a political solution," said U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake while addressing an interactive session at the University of Madras on Friday, The Hindu reported. While ruling out the military option, Mr. Blake has alluded that the U.S. position was to militarily weaken the LTTE to defeat it politically. The United States has been a key player of the Co-Chairs for the Sri Lankan process, which has been managed by the facilitation of Norway till Sri Lanka unilaterally withdrew from the ceasefire.
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