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.
Full story >>

99 Tamil civilians arrested in Matara district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 06:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took 99 Tamil civilians into custody Sunday in a joint cordon and search in Akuressa and Morawaka in Matara district on a tip that the suicide bomber involved in the recent Akuressa bomb blast had spent several months in an estate in the district. Meanwhile, Matara police had earlier arrested 19 Tamils, most of them upcountry residents, in connection with the Akuressa bomb blast,They are being detained and interrogated on Defence Ministry detention orders, Matara police said.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

23 Tamils arrested in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 22:41 GMT]
The Bambalapitya Police in cordon and search operations conducted in Wellawatte in Colombo on Sunday night arrested 23 Tamil civilians, majority of them are residents of North, East and Central provinces. They had been staying in lodges and with their relatives at that time of arrest, police said.
Full story >>

Rally in New York urges UN, US to intervene to stop genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 19:23 GMT]
More than 200 expatriate Tamils protested in front of the Office of the United States Mission to the United Nations Monday, urging the United States and United Nations stop Sri Lanka military from firing into the ‘safe zone’ on the Tamil civilians. Demonstrators shouted slogans calling upon US Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Susan Rice, to ensure that refugees fleeing the war zone are given shelter and basic facilities, and not confined to internment camps without any freedom to lead a normal life.
Full story >>

40,000 Tamils stage protests in front of EU, UN in Europe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 16:14 GMT]
More than 25,000 Tamils, especially youth, across the Europe took to the streets of Brussels on Monday demanding EU to de-proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam, to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government to allow medicine and food to the civilians besieged by its military in all fronts and to demand the Sri Lankan military to pull out from the Tamil homeland. The organisers blamed the EU's misguided policy on proscribing the LTTE as having tilted the diplomatic balance between the parties, causing the war of aggression against the Tamils by the Sri Lankan state. Meanwhile more than 10,000 Tamils staged a protest in front of the UN office in Geneva.
Full story >>

'Safe zone' under encircling fire, 137 killed in 3 days, ICRC worker wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 12:48 GMT]
137 people have died and more than 200 injured since Saturday night in Sri Lanka Army shelling and gunfire inside the 'safe zone' of Vanni. At least 18 of them have died hit by long-range gunfire coming from SLA attacking the civilian zone. Meanwhile, massive bunker buster bombs numbering around 50 dropped by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on the fringes of the 'safe zone' on Tuesday caused untold panic among the civilians.
Full story >>

Tamils jam Toronto, demand Sri Lanka to stop genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 03:14 GMT]
More than 100,000 expatriate Tamils crowded downtown Toronto between 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday to raise the plight of the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians trapped in the war in Vanni, and subjected to continuous artillery attacks and aerial bombardment by Sri Lanka military. Cries of 'genocide' and accusations of human rights abuses were heard throughout the protest, as the protesters held a giant hand-in-hand human chain that stretched along Bloor, Yonge, Front and across to University Avenue. Police officials said this was the largest ever rally held in Toronto.
Full story >>

5 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 March 2009, 06:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody Monday five Tamil youths who were walking along the streets in Colombo Fort and Petta areas, relatives of the youths said. Many Tamils on the streets were checked and interrogated by the police who also checked their vehicles, in this operation.
Full story >>

Boyle warns UN repeating Srebrenica debacle in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 March 2009, 03:41 GMT]
Pointing out that “in 1995 the United Nations Organization as a whole was fully complicit in Serbia's genocidal massacre of 8500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in violation of Article III (e) of the 1948 Genocide Convention that prohibited, criminalized and required the punishment of: 'Complicity in genocide'," Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at Illinois College of Law, said that it looks as if "the United Nations is now repeating one of the most shameless and disgraceful debacles in its entire history in today's Vanni Pocket by becoming complicit in Sri Lanka's genocide against the Tamils there.”
Full story >>

Pungkudutheevu Catholics march for peace

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 07:14 GMT]
Hundreds of Catholic men, women and children went on a Lent Period march for peace, calling to stop the humanitarian disaster in Vanni caused by the relentless and indiscriminate attacks on innocent Tamils unleashed by the government of Sri Lanka, Saturday. The procession started around 5:30 a.m from Pungkudutheevu Savariar Catholic Church and ended at St. Mary’s Church in Chaaddi, Veala’nai, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Ask people their choice - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 18:04 GMT]
Have those who advocate evacuation ever cared to ask the concerned civilians whether they want to leave? What will they do if people refuse evacuation? Will they allow them to be killed, asked Yogaratnam Yogi, LTTE military advisor in Vanni in a speech given by him to the LTTE broadcast, Voice of Tigers, Thursday. Why are the governments reluctant to ask our people whether they want to live under the Sri Lanka government or under their own government? They don’t ask because they know the answer. Our request to the world is to pose this question to the people and make decisions rather than attempting through murder and denial of food, in the belief of forcing the people to accept the Sri Lankan regime, Yogi said.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Police, SLA harass Aalangku’lam Tamil residents

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 00:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police conducted a cordon and search operation Thursday in Aalangku’lam village in Batticaloa district following the burning down of a Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) bus in Vaazhaichcheanai area by uniformed men Thursday early morning. The Tamil residents were intimidated and subjected to harassment, sources in Vaazhaichcheanai said. Policemen allegedly warned the residents that they will be killed if a similar incident occured again, local residents said.
Full story >>

Clinton call expresses concern over deteriorating conditions in 'safe zone'

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 22:08 GMT]
In a call made to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton 'expressed the United States' deep concern over the deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life occurring in the Government of Sri Lanka-designated 'safe zone' in northern Sri Lanka,' and 'stated that the 'Sri Lankan Army should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone,' a press release issued by the U.S. State Department said. Meanwhile, US State Department South Asia official, Diane Kelly, commenting on 'distorted' accounts appearing on some Sri Lanka websites, said: "there was a call, but it was not the sunny news relayed."
Full story >>

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.”
Full story >>

Australian State MP supports Tamils' struggle for self-determination

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 03:32 GMT]
“It is important that the Government of Australia and the international community recognise the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people and acknowledge the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination,” said Hon. Ian Cohen, Member of Legislative Council and Greens Party during a speech he delivered on Thursday 5 March 2009 in New South Wales Parliament, Australia. "Too many lives have been lost, and each day we keep silent we allow more deaths to occur. It is important that the Government of Australia and the international community recognise that the' targeting of a minority' has been taking place for decades. What we see taking place today is but a culmination of successive attacks targeting the Tamils."
Full story >>

Menon wants civilians issue and war ending in Colombo’s favour

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 2009, 10:32 GMT]
The Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, has said in Washington that “civilians caught in the war should be safely moved to government-controlled areas”, PTI reported Thursday. Wrapping up his four days US visit and briefing that both India and the US have similar approaches to address the issue in Sri Lanka, he envisaged rehabilitation, reconstruction and building up normal economic life of people “once these areas are cleared or under the government control.” He also said on the need “to bring in the kind of the political steps including devolution”, according to the PTI report. Whatever Menon said in Washington doesn’t significantly differ from the verbal stance adopted by Mahinda Rajapaksa government, aiming for victory and subjugation of Tamils, said political observers in Colombo.
Full story >>

US Legislators point out Sri Lanka's "Red Alert" genocide ranking to Secretary Clinton

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 2009, 02:44 GMT]
A group of 38 United States members of Congress sent a joint letter today to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and to the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Susan Rice, highlighting the humanitarian crisis faced by Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, and expressing concern over conditions in the internment camps, calling for bringing the issue to the UN Security Council, and encouraging active U.S. leadership to bring about a long-delayed political settlement.
Full story >>

Stopping Sri Lanka's genocide at ICJ, UN- Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 12:14 GMT]
"Any one or more of the 140 states parties to the Genocide Convention (1) must immediately sue Sri Lanka at the International Court of Justice in The Hague; (2) must demand an Emergency Hearing by the World Court; and (3) must request an Order indicating provisional measures of protection against Sri Lanka to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the 350,000 Tamils in Vanni," says Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at University of Illinois College of Law, outlining the steps for the Tamil diaspora to take to bring Sri Lanka to International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Full story >>