UK: world must act to protect threatened peoples

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2008, 08:27 GMT]
In a keynote speech Monday during his official visit to India, Britain’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, called for the shaping of a “new world order” in which the international community intervenes where populations are being threatened by "genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes or crimes against humanity, and the state is unwilling or unable to halt or prevent it." The world has "a responsibility to protect" Mr. Brown said. Last week, in a British Parliamentary debate on Sri Lanka, junior Foreign Minister Kim Howell called for a new ceasefire and for UN monitoring of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Norwegian Tamils march against abrogation of CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 21:56 GMT]
Abrogation of the CFA by the Government of Sri Lanka has removed the only reporting body of human rights and humanitarian law violations that take place in Sri Lanka, said K. Sivapalan, a senior attorney-at-law from Trincomalee, addressing four hundred participants, mainly members of the Tamil diaspora, who participated in a march carrying torches towards the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo, expressing solidarity with the Tamils in the homeland Wednesday evening.
Full story >>

Amnesty International calls for urgent protection of civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 14:12 GMT]
Amnesty International, in a press release issued on Wednesday said it was gravely concerned that the end to the Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam today will lead to an increase in hostilities that will result in a dramatic rise in indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population. The Human Rights watchdog called on all parties in the conflict to comply with their obligations under international law to protect civilians and urged the international community to support the call to establish an independent, international monitoring presence on the ground without delay.
Full story >>

SLMM bids farewell

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 12:41 GMT]
In a press statement issued by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the Nordic Monitors whose functions were terminated by the unilateral termination of the CeaseFire Agreement (CFA) by Sri Lanka Government, Maj.Gen Solvberg, the Head of Mission, thanked the GOSL and the LTTE for inviting SLMM to serve them, and said "Future heroes in Sri Lanka will be those who recognize the complexity of the situation, and prove able to manage this complexity in a way that reduces rather than increases human pain, fear and hopelessness – those capable of respecting people with different perceptions, and bringing them together."
Full story >>

27 killed, 63 wounded, bus explosion in South

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 03:33 GMT]
27 civilians, including 3 school children, were killed and 63 wounded in a Claymore blast that targeted a bus in Helagama in Buttala DS division in Monaragala district in Uva Province at 7:35 a.m. Wednesday, Police said. The blast comes amid reports the Sri Lankan military leadership was trying to convince the government to shut down schools in the South for extended periods, ahead of major offensives, including bombardments likely to cause heavy civilian casualties, into the Vanni. The 6-years-old ceasefire expires today.
Full story >>

'Pathetically unenforceable' – Sri Lanka response to UN war crimes warning

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 23:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s militarist government reacted furiously Tuesday to warnings by UN Human Rights Chief, Louise Arbour, that human rights abuses in Sri Lanka left perpetrators and their commanders at risk of international war crimes charges. Rejecting Ms. Arbour’s comments as “pathetically unenforceable threats,” Sri Lanka’s embassy to the UN said the Colombo government “will not be deterred by thinly veiled threats attempting to undermine the morale of its military, deter its military campaigns and save separatist terrorism from elimination.” It also challenged the transparency of funding for Ms. Arbour’s office and the extent to which it represented the “world’s peoples.”
Full story >>

Arbour: SL rights abuses risk war crimes charges

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 15:59 GMT]
A day before the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka is due to formally end, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, on Tuesday, reminded the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of their obligations under international law to respect human rights. She warned that rights abuses “by any party could entail individual criminal responsibility under international criminal law, including by those in positions of command.”
Full story >>

Indian Foreign Minister refuses to criticise Colombo for abrogating CFA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2008, 17:29 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in an interview to CNN-IBN news channel, Sunday admitted that India had "scrupulously avoided" being a party to peace negotiations in Sri Lanka. The Indian FM who last week had ruled out any military solution to the ethnic strife in the war-torn island, on Sunday, failed to criticize Sri Lanka for abrogating the ceasefire. Questioned whether Colombo's decision to abrogate the ceasefire agreement was a "mistake," the minister replied that "any country that takes action against terrorists is free to do so within their legal system."
Full story >>

Military action against LTTE not a solution: Indian Defence Minister

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2008, 07:37 GMT]
Indian Defence Minister A K Antony favoured a political solution to the 25-year-old ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and said that military action against the Tamil Tigers would not bring lasting peace to the island nation. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a defence meet in New Delhi Friday.
Full story >>

Colombo's low enthusiasm on reconciliation, distressing- British FM

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 19:21 GMT]
During discussion in British Parliament on 8 Jan 2008, Dr Kim Howells, British Foreign Minister, in responding question on increasing number of killings in Sri Lanka, said: "I think that the most distressing feature is how the Government have won some military battles, but then become less enthusiastic about reconciliation and involving everyone who lives on that troubled island in a more inclusive way. We will continue to work with the Government, however, to emphasise that reconciliation must take place. There must be talks; otherwise the killing will continue."
Full story >>

Goods pilfered in Colombo Harbor, Jaffna traders complain

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 13:49 GMT]
Jaffna Traders Association representives accused workers and other agents at Colombo Harbor for organized pilfering of millions of rupees worth of goods waiting to be transported to Jaffna, and blamed this theft as one of the key reason for the elevated prices of essential food and other items in Jaffna compared to the prices in other areas of Sri Lanka, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Co-chairs request Colombo to provide diplomatic access to Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 10:59 GMT]
The Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference for Sri Lanka Peace Process, the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Norway, jointly expressing "strong concerns" about the termination of the 2002 CFA by the Government of Sri Lanka, Saturday called on the GoSL to provide access to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam in Ki'linochchi for representatives of the Co-Chairs and the facilitator, Norway. The Co-chairs also expressed deep concern about the human rights situation and protection of civilians in Sri Lanka, and called for continued monitoring of the human rights situation by such means as to assure an appropriate role for the United Nations.
Full story >>

Sri Lankan State not secular, nor fair- Retd Indian Colonel

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 21:01 GMT]
Noting that Sri Lankan State has a fundamental problems that lie at the root of the conflict, Retired Indian Colonel, Mr Anil Athale, in a column appeared in Rediff Friday, says "many Indian commentators have flippantly advised Tamils to accept Sri Lankan unity without realising that Sri Lanka is not a secular State like India nor is it a 'fair State' like the UK in terms of rule of law."
Full story >>

Conflict sustained by world equating oppressor and oppressed - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 08:12 GMT]
The international community’s “stubborn refusal to accept, even when it is thrust in their faces, the racist oppression that underpins ethnic politics there and, consequently, the impossibility of reforming the Sinhala state,” is sustaining Sri Lanka’s conflict the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued this week. “It is [the] ready equating of the violence of the oppressor with the resistance of the oppressed which reveals the international mindset,” the paper’s editorial said.
Full story >>

LTTE requests Norway to continue facilitation, urges IC's support for Tamil rights

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 January 2008, 05:51 GMT]
The Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Major General Lars Johan Solvberg on Thursday met Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan in Ki'linochchi, following the GoSL announcement of unilateral withdrawal from the Ceasefire. Noting that the GoSL has withdrawn from the CFA without any justifications, LTTE's political head said that the Tigers, even at this juncture, stood ready to implement every clause of the agreement and requested Norway to continue with its facilitation role with the support of the International Community. He urged the IC to recognize the right of the Tamil people to live with self-determination in their homeland and remove the bans it has placed on the LTTE.
Full story >>

Withdraw Indian radars from SL: Vaiko

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2008, 13:52 GMT]
Vaiko, General Secretary of the Tamil Nadu based Marumalarchchi Dravida Munneatta Kazhakam (MDMK), wrote to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week urging him not to attend the February 4 independence day celebrations at Colombo to be "carried on by the bloodstained hands of the Rajapaksa regime." He also appealed to Dr. Manmohan Singh to withdraw the Indian radars supplied to Sri Lanka and stop any further supply of military equipment.
Full story >>

Indian PM to skip SL Independence Day Celebrations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2008, 10:43 GMT]
As Sri Lanka increased its military offensives against Tamils in the North following the abrogation of the ceasefire, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday virtually confirmed that he would not visit Colombo next month for the 60th anniversary of Sri Lanka's Independence Day on February 4. "I have not made up my mind", he said when asked whether he would be traveling to Sri Lanka next month during an interaction with journalists in New Delhi. According to reports in the Indian media, the immediate provocation for India's ire was Sri Lanka’s decision to abrogate the six year CFA without seeking to negotiate with the Tamils.
Full story >>

Colombo removing witnesses to impending carnage- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 January 2008, 00:24 GMT]
Colombo abrogated the CFA to remove the presence of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) which was instrumental in exposing rights violations by all sides. "Government will want to rid the Northeast of any witnesses of the carnage that it intends to unveil on the Tamil people in the name of safeguarding the Sovereignty of the State," said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an interview to TamilNet this week. He added that anti-Tamil actions by Rajapakse Government are taking place under the full glare of the International Community which is able to only make verbal condemnations, but remains largely ineffective to reign in on Colombo on the rights abuses.
Full story >>

Indian PM's participation in SL independence day not fixed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 January 2008, 17:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogolloagama had to hastily retract on Friday his earlier claim that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will participate in the 60th Independence Day celebrations of Sri Lanka on February 4, 2008. A few weeks ago, Mr. Bogollagama told Parliament that Sri Lanka had invited Dr. Manmohan Singh to be the chief guest of the independence day function. The information that the dates of Manmohan Singh's proposed visit to Colombo have not been finalized was revealed a day after Bogollagama called the Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad to inform him about GoSL's decision to abrogate the almost six-year old CFA agreement with the LTTE, informed sources said.
Full story >>

No military solution: Indian External Affairs Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 January 2008, 13:00 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee ruled out any military solution to the Sri Lankan problem two days after the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) formally scrapped the five-year ceasefire with the LTTE. Mr Mukherjee stressed that the solution to the island nation's problem "had to be found through dialogue and discussion" and called upon the Lankan government to address the problem by "fulfilling the legitimate aspirations of the ethnic groups."
Full story >>