People of Maldives cut off face of ‘Sri Lanka Lion’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 November 2011, 23:47 GMT]
People in the Addu Atoll of Maldives on Friday early hours cut off the face of the Lion statue installed by Sri Lanka last week in the Maradhoo island of the Addu Atoll, to mark Sri Lanka’s participation in the 17th SAARC Summit held in Addu between 10-11 November. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s monument in the Hithadhoo island of Addu Atoll was also set on fire on last Monday. The Islamic Ministry of Maldives on Thursday ordered the relevant government authorities to remove the irreligious SAARC monuments, which it said, breach the nation’s law and religion, reported Maldivian media Haveeru on Friday. In the 1990s SL President Premadasa built a clock tower in Male, with a dome resembling a Buddhist stupa. It was modified later due to public protest.
Full story >>

Administration of 7 Tamil villages to be brought under Muslim dominated Ea'raavoor UC

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 November 2011, 22:54 GMT]
Colombo government has recently given instructions to Ea'raavoor Urban Council chairman Ali Zahir Mowlana to bring 7 Tamil villages under his administration using the Urban Council, informed sources told reporters in Batticaloa. The villages Aa'rumukaththaan-kudiyiruppu, Tha'lavaay, Chavukkadi, Mayilampaave'li and wards No 1, 4 and 5 in the Ea'raavoor under the Ea'raavoor Chengkaladi Piratheasa Chapai (PS) division are to be brought under the civil administration of Era’voor UC, which is predominantly inhabited by Muslims. Mr. Ali Zahir Mowlana is taking steps to settle Muslim families in the lands belong to Tamil people in these villages, creating division among the Tamil speaking people of the district, civil sources in Ea'raavoor said.
Full story >>

Politics of the Way Ahead

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 November 2011, 20:22 GMT]
The contradictions between the Establishments and Peoples are likely to be the most antagonistic in the Indian subcontinent and hence that is the region for the next major change in the World. Our alliance with Tamil Nadu is of utmost priority in this regard. It appears that India used the Vanni War without witness as a ‘Field Trial’ for its developing wars against its own Nations without State. In due course, the Indian Establishment will become the main enemy of the region and at that time coalition of Establishments supporting the Indian Establishment will be quite different to the coalition that supported genocidal Sri Lanka. With this in perspective, we should keep our eyes open to new opportunities including progressive Sinhala forces that recognize the Right of Self Determination of the Nation of Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific.
Full story >>

Aaduka'lam 2011: spectacular dance performances celebrate pursuit of World Peace

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 October 2011, 04:34 GMT]
Aaduka'lam 2011, an international dance competition hosted by the Tamil Youth Network in Munich, Germany on October 22 drew spectacular performances from Diaspora teams vying for the top prize. Staged in the Theater Leo 17, one of the city’s most prestigious venues, the event was organised by the Global Tamil Youth League, and had as its theme, ‘In pursuit of Global Peace’. Interpreting this, the performances depicted how all forms of oppression, as well as hunger, poverty and greed, needed to be confronted if this aspiration is to be realised. The competition was won by a British team which also won best prize for technical execution, while teams from Switzerland and Canada won prizes for choreography and costume.
Full story >>

Tamils protest outside Rajapakse's UN address

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 September 2011, 07:13 GMT]
Nearly one thousand Tamils protested outside the United Nations Friday between 10 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. while Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse was addressing the UN's General Assembly. Protesters held placards criticizing UN's inaction on Sri Lanka, and took the 'Pongku Thamizh' oath promising to continue to non-violent struggle until Tamils' inalienable rights are recognized in a political settlement based on Tamils right to self-determination, attendees to the event said. Several protesters crossed the Canadian border to be present at the rally held amid tight security on the 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue.
Full story >>

Tamil name boards removed along Batticaloa - Kalmunai Road

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 September 2011, 18:47 GMT]
Tamil name boards put up by the Batticaloa Municipal Council along the border of Kaaththaakudi have been removed allegedly by the Sri Lankan police, which is engineering dissension between Tamils and Muslims, informed sources in Kaaththaakudi said. The welcome board “Va'nakkam, Batticaloa welcomes you” in Tamil has been removed and the Sri Lankan police was spreading a ‘rumour’ that certain Muslim leaders, including the Batticaloa Urban Council chairman considered “Va'nakkam” in Tamil as harem.
Full story >>

Colombo schemes Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa with foreign funding: Ariyanethran MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 20:10 GMT]
“Traditional Tamil villages in the North and East are being renamed in Sinhala and streets are named ‘Mawathas’ in Sinhala. When we were students, we learnt that Kantha'laay Tank was built by Tamil King Ku'lak-koaddan. But, today, our children have Tamil text books supplied by the Colombo government saying that Kantha'laay had been built by King Agbo, P.Ariyanethran, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said while addressing the annual festival of Kokkaddich-choalai thaan-thoan'ri Easvarar koayil in Paduvaankarai on Saturday.
Full story >>

Aaraip-pattai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 September 2011, 04:44 GMT]
The thicket of Aarai shrub
Full story >>

SL Police creates tension between Tamils, Muslims in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 September 2011, 00:36 GMT]
Civil society sources in Batticaloa allege that the Sinhala policemen of the SL police have been interfering in the civil administration creating dissension between Tamils and Muslims in Batticaloa district. The civil sources cite an incident where the SL Police has allowed the garbage collected in the Muslim dominated Kaaththaankudi Urban Council area to be dumped in a Tamil village Poonochchimunai located in Ma'nmunai North DS division. Local community leaders blame Colombo for using Sinhala policemen to resolve disputes that should be dissolved by the Government Agent and Divisional Secretaries in the district.
Full story >>

Batticaloa residents urge international action on already admitted crimes against humanity

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 September 2011, 18:22 GMT]
The kith and kin of 174 Tamil youths, who were arrested and dragged away by the occupying Sri Lanka Army 21 years ago in two separate incidents at Vanthaa'rumoolai and later massacred en masse, observed Monday memorial prayers at the Saiva temple at the Eastern University premises and at the Vishnu temple of Vanthaa'rumoolai. According to the findings of the SL Presidential Commission appointed by the then government to conduct inquiry into several massacres of Tamils that had taken place in East, Sri Lanka Army was responsible for the abduction of 174 Tamil youths.
Full story >>

Welimuva-pothana

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 September 2011, 05:00 GMT]
The grassland/ scrub of white-faced monkeys
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu Assembly, Madras High Court, make precedent in Indian democracy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 August 2011, 19:34 GMT]
In an extraordinary development in Indian constitutional history, the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Tuesday unanimously and strongly resolved that the President of India, respecting the sentiments of the people and political parties of Tamil Nadu, should reconsider the clemency appeals of the three Tamils fixed for execution and convert their death sentences into life imprisonment. In the meantime, acting on a legal move by Vaiko and N. Chandrasekaran, The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the executions for 8 weeks giving time for the government to file counter affidavit. The President of India earlier rejected the clemency appeals of Perarivalan of Tamil Nadu and two Eezham Tamils, Murugan and Shanthan condemned to death in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and their hangings were fixed to September 09.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu tensed over execution of death sentences

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 August 2011, 06:41 GMT]
The people of Tamil Nadu and Tamils all over the world are agitated over the Indian government decision to execute death sentences to three Tamils after keeping them in prison for more than 20 years. Perarivalan of Tamil Nadu, and Eezham Tamils Murugan and Shanthan arrested in 1991 on charges of involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi were sentenced to death in 1998. Their clemency petition was rejected last month and the hangings are fixed to September 9. The politics behind the case is 30 years of India-involved war in the island of Sri Lanka that turned into genocide of Eezham Tamils. While the Indian foreign minister in the parliament last week sought to respond to the war crimes investigations without endangering India’s relations with Sri Lanka, the hangings are sure to endanger New Delhi’s relations with Tamils, political observers said.
Full story >>

Mannaar Court remands “grease devil” Navy sailor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2011, 11:11 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy soldier caught by members of the public inside the Paddith-thoaddam Catholic Convent in Mannaar on Tuesday around 8 p.m. with a T-56 rifle and 120 live bullets was ordered remand till September by the Mannaar District Judge Ms K.Jeevaranee, legal sources in Mannaar said. The suspect has been identified as R.M.K.Prasath Bandara, a soldier of the SLN camp in Mannaar. Residents handed over the suspect to the Mannaar Police in the presence of Fr. Victor Jose.
Full story >>

3 Sinhala ‘intruders’ reported missing in Muslim town in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 16:09 GMT]
A combined search operation has been launched by the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police to trace three Sinhalese persons who are reported to be missing in Muslim dominated Kaathankudy in Batticaloa district during disturbances over the ‘grease devil’ scare. The disappearance of three persons suspected to be ‘grease devils’ is alleged to have taken place in Paalamunai village Friday night when they fled and sought refuge in a police station located in Karbala village. Thereafter SL police personnel and SLA soldiers had rushed to the area and attacked youths who were passing through Beach Road and Goodwin Junction and also damaged houses, shops, and vehicles.
Full story >>

TNA thinks of ‘alternative ways’

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 04:34 GMT]
“For six months we continued with talks, engaging the Government of Sri Lanka. But, there was no constructive outcome. The Tamil National Alliance cannot just keep continuing without any results, just for the sake of ‘engaging’ and ‘continuing’ the talks giving room for Sri Lanka to project an impression to the outside world that it is engaging in a constructive dialogue with Tamils,” said R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary leader of the TNA on Saturday in Jaffna, delivering a key speech at the ceremony for TNA's civic council members taking oath in Tamil. While criticising the SL state for not being constructive, Mr. Sampanthan declared for the first time that the TNA was pondering on ‘alternative ways’, which he didn't specify. But, a Vanni parliamentarian of the TNA declared that the Alliance should build up from the grassroots a powerful base of civil struggle.
Full story >>

‘Grease Devil’ attacks aim at frightening resettlement in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2011, 12:59 GMT]
While attacks especially on Tamil women carried out by unidentified men in camouflage called ‘Grease Devils’ terrorise Tamil civilians in the East and the hill country, such attacks particularly aim at crippling resettlement in the Vanni districts. On Wednesday evening, three men emerging from the thickets in black dress and grease on their face chased three women of Ki’linochchi 8th milepost engaged in removing landmines. Following similar incidents and attacks on women in Vanni, people resettling in their houses and lands that are dispersed as typical to the settlement pattern of Vanni are now forced to gather into clusters. Occupying SL military’s officials now ‘advice’ resettled people in Vanni to live in clusters to avoid terrorising attacks.
Full story >>

Tamil villagers clash with SL Police in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 August 2011, 13:56 GMT]
A man suspected to be a Sinhala policeman or soldier, who entered the house of a Tamil woman at Oo'ra'ni in Batticaloa attacked the young women Wednesday afternoon around 2:00 p.m. The intruder, using a sharp object, caused injuries to her chest and her stomach before leaving the premises. An eyewitness saw the attacker escaping into the police post located 100 meters away on Oo'ra'ni - Chelvanayakam Road. Soon after the episode, angered villages started to burn tires and put up roadblocks preventing vehicle movement along Batticaloa Trincomalee Road. The SL policemen deployed in the area attacked the protesters with wooden clubs. The SL police has also used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Tension prevails in Oo'ra'ni.
Full story >>

Congress and Colombo busy in shielding each other

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 August 2011, 11:26 GMT]
A Congress parliamentarian from Tamil Nadu in Rajya Sabha, Dr. E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan has convened a meeting of ruling and opposition party parliamentarians of India in New Delhi on Thursday with the help of Colombo-based Indian writer N Sathiyamoorthy, aiming to diffuse the growing political momentum that challenges the crimes committed, and being committed, by New Delhi and Colombo on Eezham Tamils. Meanwhile, genocidal Colombo’s High Commissioner in New Delhi, Prasad Kariyawasam is engaged in preaching ‘ethics’ to journalists and in canvassing to get their support by sending propaganda material prepared by the SL ministry of defence. The Indo-Lanka public relations machinery is in over drive to limit damages caused by media exposing the crimes of the two establishments in partnership.
Full story >>

Devil reading from scriptures, Jayalalitha derides Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 August 2011, 04:18 GMT]
Verbal feud between Jayalalithaa Jayaram, Tamil Naadu chief minister, and Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse escalated as Jayalalithaa hit back at Gotabhaya after the latter had asked Jayalalithaa to "mind her own business and not interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka," saying, "Gotabaya claims that there were no war crimes and the reports are false and misleading. The Tamil Nadu resolution on Lankan Tamils is beyond politics," India Today reported. Jayalalithaa said that Lankan defence secretary's statement is like the Devil quoting from scriptures, and added that her government will not rest till the issue of atrocities on Lankan Tamils has got a permanent solution.
Full story >>