Chinese 'pre-fabricated structures' in Kachchatheevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 March 2010, 07:04 GMT]
The presence of Chinese in Sri Lanka owned island of Kachchatheevu, considered as a threat to the security of India, is confirmed by a group of journalists and social activists from Tamil Nadu. More than thirty pre-fabricated structures with Chinese names were found on the island of Kachchatheevu located on the sea boundary between India and Sri Lanka by Tamil Nadu journalists and social activists who participated in the recent annual festival of Kachchatheevu St. Antony’s Church, according to Dinamalar, a Tamil Nadu daily. The pre-fabricated structures, however, were unoccupied but evidence of people living in them was observed by the visiting journalists from Tamil Nadu who were not permitted to photograph them by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers. The presence of Chinese in the island of Kachchatheevu is seen as a threat to the security of India by its citizens, Dinamalar added.
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Academic exposes habitual collaboration of Chennai in bungling geopolitics

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 February 2010, 02:12 GMT]
Writing on the negotiations of 1964 Srimao-Shastri Pact that caused adverse impact on the demography of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Professor V. Suryanarayan says, “The most pathetic member of the Indian team was Ramiah, a Cabinet Minister from Tamil Nadu. According to informed sources, throughout the discussions, Ramiah did not utter a single word on behalf of the Tamil plantation workers, who wanted to remain in Sri Lanka and become Sri Lankan citizens.” Mr. Karunanidhi, for his personal consolidation of power, collaborated with New Delhi in ceding Kachchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974. Had he challenged it in the Supreme Court, the India-Sri Lanka relations might have taken a different turn, the academic said in a paper he read last week.
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Indian parliament expunges remarks on genocide in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 December 2009, 08:13 GMT]
When Communist Party of India (CPI) member D. Raja in his speech Friday in Rajya Sabha pointed out what happened in the island of Sri Lanka was full-scale war and genocide against Tamils with the assistance of Government of India, the Chair ordered to expunge the word genocide from parliamentary records. The verbatim but lengthy debate Friday questioned the government on IDPs, Kachchatheevu, Tamil Nadu fishermen, and about sending a parliamentary delegation to meet Tamil IDPs. But when it came to the core issue of political solution, the debate had nothing new to offer as from Indian foreign minister S M Krishna to main opposition BJP’s Vekaiah Naidu were still harping on treating the Eezham Tamils not as a nation but as a ‘minority’ and perceiving solutions based on obsolete 13th Amendment. Even Raja was using the word ‘national linguistic minority’.
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CPI-led hunger strike draws thousands in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2008, 11:14 GMT]
Thousands of people Thursday took to the venues in Tamil Nadu's capital city Chennai and other district capitals in the southern state of India to participate in a fasting campaign on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday demanding New Delhi to withdraw military assistance to Sri Lanka. Several Tamil leaders, including Panruti S. Ramachandran, who was actively engaged in the Sri Lankan process under the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) in the mid-80's addressed the participants at Seappaakkam. CPI National Secretary D. Raja, in his address, charged that New Delhi was clandestinely assisting Sri Lanka in its war against Tamils and questioned what the Indian personnel who came under attack in the North of Sri Lanka were doing there.
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155 SL forces killed, 983 wounded in August - Sri Lankan PM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2008, 10:56 GMT]
155 Sri Lankan armed personnel were killed and 983 wounded during August in the war against the LTTE, said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, when the parliament resumed sittings Tuesday to debate on the motion of extending the State of Emergency for another month, parliamentary sources said.
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Tamil Nadu opinion poll calls for independent Eezham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2008, 07:18 GMT]
A majority of voters decided that an independent Thamizh Eezham is the solution to the Sri Lankan crisis and solicited support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in a significant opinion poll conducted by Ananda Vikatan, a popular weekly of Tamil Nadu state in India. The outcome of the poll and its appearance in an influential media, foretell shifting paradigms in Tamil Nadu scenario, according to observers.
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The master plays his cards

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 July 2008, 14:37 GMT]
Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, chief minister of the Tamil Nadu state of India, cautioned the Indian Government on Saturday that his state wouldn't hesitate to seek the retrieval of Kachchatheevu from Sri Lanka if the rights of the Tamil Nadu fishermen are not safeguarded. The timing and intensity of the demand leads to wide-ranging speculations among observers.
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Indian Tamil fishermen on token strike against Sri Lanka Navy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2008, 17:47 GMT]
Fishermen's associations in Thangakchchimadam in the state of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday organized a token strike to protest against the Sri Lanka Navy that shot and killed a 20-year-old Indian Tamil fisherman in the waters off Raameasvaram. An SLN vessel had opened fire on four Tamil Nadu fishermen who had set out in a mechanized boat on Monday when the 45-day fishing ban imposed by the state government of Tamil Nadu had come to an end, according to the representatives of the fishermen's associations in Thangkachchimadam. The fishermen were fishing near Kachchatheevu around midnight. The Deputy High Commission of Sri Lanka in Chennai, has denied SLN involvement in the attack.
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19 Tamil Nadu fishermen blindfolded, attacked by SLN for 5 days

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 May 2008, 10:07 GMT]
Nineteen Indian Tamil fishermen, including two 15-year-old boys, arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy in the Historical Waters of Palk Strait last Friday were blindfolded, attacked and interrogated by the SLN for 5-days and handed over to the Police and brought to Mannaar Magistrate's Courts Thursday. T.J. Prabahkaran, the magistrate, allowed the Police application to remand the fishermen into police custody for 7 days, legal sources said.
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Colombo has failed to honour Kachchatheevu agreement after 1983 - CPI

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2008, 07:02 GMT]
Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary D Raja on Tuesday made a special mention during the Zero Hour in the Indian Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament of India stated that the agreement on Kachchatheevu and the historical waters between the Government of India and the Government of Sri Lanka, signed in 1974, didn't work after 1983. Mr. Raja said there is a grey area in the agreement with regards to the right of access to the island by the Indian fishermen and said that the agreement should be reopened and renegotiated in order to protect the rights of fishermen.
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Re-negotiate Kachchatheevu: CPI urges Indian Government

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 April 2008, 09:41 GMT]
Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary D Raja urged the Indian Government to intervene in Sri Lanka's prolonged ethnic strife in view of the escalation of human rights abuses in the island nation. "Finding a solution to the ethnic crisis alone can bring about a solution to the problems of Tamil Nadu fishermen," he said. Recalling that the state Government of Tamil Nadu had protested when India ceded Kadchaththeevu to Sri Lanka in 1974, he urged upon the Indian Government to renegotiate the Kadchaththeevu Accord and facilitate Tamil Nadu fisherment to catch fish without any hindrance whatsoever.
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Stop arms supply to Sri Lanka: CPI urges Indian government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 14:36 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI), a prominent ally of the ruling Congress party, has urged the Indian Government to "immediately stop supplying arms to Sri Lanka that was mindlessly killing Tamil people." A resolution to this effect was passed Wednesday in the party's four-day 20th National Congress at Hyderabad. According to reports in the Indian media, D. Pandian, State Secretary, Tamil Nadu moved this resolution which sought New Delhi to interfere in the war-torn island's ethnic problem towards finding a political solution.
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Steps are on to retrieve Kachchatheevu: Congress MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2008, 11:12 GMT]
A Congress leader in Tamil Nadu and Indian Upper House (Rajya Sabha) Member of Parliament, Sudarsana Natchiappan, has said that the Indian Government was taking steps to take back Kadchatheevu according to a report by Dinamani newspaper in Tamil Nadu Sunday. Mr. Natchiappan was participating in the 66th state executive committee meeting of the Human Rights Division of the Congress Party at Raameasvaram on Saturday.
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India should not collaborate in genocide of Tamils: Tamil Protection Movement

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 22:19 GMT]
The Tamil Protection Movement (TPM), an umbrella organization consisting of pro-Eelam political parties, NGOs, members of the film fraternity and Tamil associations, condemned the Indian state for extending military support to the genocidal Sri Lankan Government. In a joint statement issued on behalf of the TPM, Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) founder-leader S Ramadoss and Viduthalai Chi'ruththaika'l Kadchi (VCK, Liberation Panthers Party) President Thol Thirumavalavan, demanded the "Indian Government to radically change its approach and actions in the Sri Lankan Tamils issue" and warned the union government not to be seen as collaborating in Sri Lanka's genocide of Tamils.
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Stop Indian military aid to Sri Lanka: Tamil Nadu leaders

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 March 2008, 14:44 GMT]
New Delhi unabashedly rolling the red carpet to Sri Lankan military chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka has caused a furore among Tamil Nadu politicians who have urged the Indian Central Government to "stop all military aid to the genocidal government of Sri Lanka." Paddali Makkal Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) founder-leader S Ramadoss and Viduthalai Chiruththaikal Kadchi (VCK, Liberation Panthers Party) President Thol Thirumavalavan accused the Central Government of sabotaging Tamil aspirations on the Sri Lankan issue by lending support to the military-backed genocide of the Eelam Tamils.
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Take back Kachchatheevu: Indian Parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 16:31 GMT]
In a rare display of unity and concern, members of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament), cutting across party lines, urged the Centre to take back the Kachchatheevu island from Sri Lanka in the wake of continued killing and arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy. This is the first time when the demand to immediately take back the Kachchatheevu island has been made at the national level.
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Dinamani: Tamil Nadu should shape Center’s policy towards Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 15:02 GMT]
Referring to Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s letter to the Indian Prime Minister which protested Sri Lanka Navy (SLN’s) hostile actions including regular incidents of firing against Tamil Naadu fishermen fishing near Kachchatheevu, Dinamani, a mainstream Tamil Nadu daily, in an editorial on Tuesday assailed India’s insensitivity and Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s meek response to the serious violations of the SLN.
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Karunanidhi urges Indian PM to protect fishermen from unprovoked SLN attacks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 March 2008, 08:01 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Saturday wrote to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to "instruct the [Indian] Coast Guard and the Navy to carry out effective patrolling and surveillance to protect Tamil Nadu fishermen from unprovoked firing" by the Sri Lankan Navy since the situation was "becoming alarming day by day and unprovoked attacks are taking place often", according to reports in the Indian media. "It is necessary to contain the arbitrary activities of the Sri Lankan Navy," his letter noted.
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SLN Dvora missing in the seas off Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2008, 05:50 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy Dvora Fast Attack Craft (FAC), with seven navy personnel on board, has been reported missing in the seas north of Mannaar, according to informed military sources. The last contact with the FAC was made at 6:30 p.m. Monday. However, official sources of the SLN said an Indian trawler had opened fire at the SLN Dvora when it went to help Indian fishermen who were seeking help from the attack craft.
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Tamil Nadu fishermen on indefinite strike

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2008, 09:49 GMT]
Normal life was paralysed in Rameswaram as TamilNadu fishermen continued their indefinite strike into the third day today to condemn the Sri Lanka Navy's atrocities against them and demanded immediate removal of the underwater mines set up by SLN between Kachchatheevu and Neduntheevu. They called for the nullification of the Kachchatheevu agreement and demanded the release of 12 of their brethren arrested by the SLN. None of the 2500 steamers and 1500 country boats ventured into the sea as fishermen were steely in their resolve to indefinitely boycott the seas until their demands were met.
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