Emergency session of Canadian parliament discusses ceasefire, political solution

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 08:00 GMT]
Amidst demonstration and vigil of thousands of Canadian Eezham Tamils outside, and against the backdrop of Canadian government’s call for ceasefire coupled with 3 million dollars aid to the affected, the Canadian parliament had an emergency debate on the crisis in the island of Sri Lanka Wednesday that lasted four and a half hours. Cutting across party lines members were vocal in stressing the need for immediate ceasefire and federal perspectives of political solution. The balance of the debate was heavily against the Colombo government.
Full story >>

Indian Home Minister, Foreign Minister differ on Colombo's war

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 02:17 GMT]
"We are not happy that the Sri Lankan government has resumed hostilities," said India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who said the LTTE must lay down arms and come to the negotiating table. However, within a few hours after his statement, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the Sri Lankan military offensive by saying: "Along with military offensive, the Sri Lankan government should ensure that the lives of innocent civilians should be protected."
Full story >>

SLA attacks 'safety zone' using short-range mortars, gunfire, claiming lives

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 20:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Thursday shell-attacked saftey zone in torrents not allowing people to come out of bunkers throughout the day in Chuthanthirapuram and Iruddumadu civilian refuges. Two of the sixteen dead bodies of civilians brought to hospital had gunfire injuries, according to medical sources. More than 6,000 shells exploded inside the safe zone, reported TamilNet correspondent amidst shelling audible throughout reporting. The SLA has deployed several short and medium range mortars to fire shells on Chunthanthirapuram and Iruddumadu.
Full story >>

‘Choices limited for the World of Authorities’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 15:44 GMT]
“A major problem with the world authorities today is that they live in their own world and try to look at the crisis in the island through their eyes. This is neo-Orientalism,” writes a New Delhi based scholar of South Asian studies in response to the recent stand of Tokyo Co-chairs. The way the world authorities have been grooming the situation in the island of Sri Lanka, they have narrowed down their choices. Either they have to separate the two ethnicities deeply divided by a protracted war by accepting the two nation states in the island, or allow the Sinhala nation’s attempt of genocide and total annihilation of Tamil identity, facing consequences of protracted turmoil coupled with global Tamil backfire. It is for the world authorities to decide whether their interests in Colombo are that worthy or important, he writes.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka rejects Co-Chairs’ call for surrender negotiations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 10:56 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government has rejected the call by the Co-Chairs (US, EU, Japan and Norway) for the Tamil Tigers to negotiate terms of surrender with Colombo. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the BBC that the government would accept only "unconditional surrender".
Full story >>

Government party paramilitary men threaten Tamil daily editors in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 00:06 GMT]
Paramilitary men of a Tamil political party that is a member of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of Sri Lanka threatened the editorial staff of the two Tamil dailies published in Jaffna for not giving prominence for the news related to their party activities or the reports issued by their party leader, according to the complaint made by the editorial staff to the Joint Media Association in Colombo, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Tamil businessman abducted in Kadawatte

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 17:52 GMT]
A Tamil businessman of Kadawatte in Colombo district was abducted by a gang of unidentified armed persons on Monday night. The members of the gang dressed in denim trousers and T-shirts arrived in a white van and took the businessman identified as M.Gnanasamy, 35 with them.
Full story >>

Tamil civilian reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 16:48 GMT]
A Tamil civilian Velupillai Suntharajah, 47 has been reported missing after he left by train from Colombo to Bandarawela, his home town on 17th January, according to complaints lodged by his relatives with the Bandarawela and Colombo police on Monday.
Full story >>

Trinco Tamil youth arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 14:30 GMT]
A 23 year-old Trincomalee Tamil youth was arrested in Colombo on Monday by the Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka's scorched earth offensive must be stopped - Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 12:41 GMT]
Pointing out that "the shelling of a hospital pediatric ward Sunday in Sri Lanka gave the world a glimpse of the scorched-earth offensive Sri Lanka's government has been conducting against the secessionist Tamil Tigers," the Boston Globe, in an editorial that appeared Wednesday, said the "war has to stop," and Obama administration ought to ask for a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire, and the Asian powers providing military assistance to Sri Lanka - China, India, and Pakistan - should exert their influence on the government to halt the shooting." The globe reiterated its long standing position that "[t]he only true solution must be political: some form of confederal autonomy for the Tamil regions."
Full story >>

Hillary Clinton, David Miliband urge to halt attacks on PTK hospital, Safe Zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 10:06 GMT]
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Tuesday jointly called on the warring parties in the island of Sri Lanka to "not to fire out of or into" the safe zone and in the "vicinity of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) hospital or any other medical structure". The statement has come, following the claims of Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that PTK hospital was a "legitimate" target, delivering a clear message to Colombo saying that the parties "must respect the international law of armed conflict. 12 people have been killed and several wounded in the attacks on the hospital so far. Meanwhile, reports from PTK said Wednesday that Sri Lanka Army was continuing to fire artillery shells on the hospital. A UN official in Colombo said Wednesday that cluster bombs have been fired on the hospital.
Full story >>

‘For whom the Co-chairs strive,’ asks Tamil parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 21:33 GMT]
The statement of the Co-chairs released Tuesday is “regrettably based on wrong premises and aims at disastrous ends,” Jaffna district parliamentarian S. Kajendren told TamilNet. "It sounds as though the Co-directors of the current war are at a last bid attempt to save Sri Lanka, one of the worst genocidal states of our times, before it collapses under its own burden of militarization, ethnic chauvinism and human rights violations. Their approach would have been different if they really care for the lives and dignity of civilians and if they have any respect for the democratic right of the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils,” he told TamilNet while issuing a statement responding to Co-chairs' stand.
Full story >>

SLA forces public to hoist lion flag on Independence Day, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 17:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has been engaged in issuing strict orders to the public to hoist the national flag of Sri Lanka on Independence Day Wednesday on all houses as well as public and private institutions, using loud speakers attached to SLA vehicles, in the last few days, sources in Jaffna said. Shop keepers and traders in Vadamaraadchi and Thenmaraadchi in particular have been warned by SLA officials in their area that they will not be allowed to open their shops in the future if they fail to follow their orders, the traders said.
Full story >>

Prominent Norwegian politician blames Sri Lanka for violating international Law

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 10:14 GMT]
Deputy Leader of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Norwegian Parliament, representing the ruling Labour Party (AP), Marit Nybakk, on Monday came hard on Colombo government for violating the International Law. "Sri Lanka should adhere to the Geneva Conventions under the prevailing war conditions," she said and condemned Colombo for committing genocide. Norwegian politicians across political parties addressed Norwegian Tamils at a public meeting in Oslo and said they were concerned why Co-chairs of Sri Lanka Peace Process are yet to respond to the current phase of the crisis.
Full story >>

US Senators express concern on humanitarian situation in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 04:08 GMT]
United States Senator and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D - Mass.) and Ranking Committee Minority Member, Senator Richard Lugar, in a press release issued today expressed concern "about the deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Vanni, and urged both parties to provide humanitarian access. The senior Senators condemned the "repeated shelling of a hospital," and added they are deeply troubled by Colombo's threat to expel foreign diplomats, and the brazen assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge.
Full story >>

'IC should act before it is too late'

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 21:26 GMT]
Colombo is now blackmailing the IC that any effort to stop the war at this juncture would boomerang in the south, destabilizing the system and disappointing the greed of those who want to eat the cake in full and have invested for that purpose in the island. It now doesn’t hide its intention of committing genocide of civilians along with its attempt to crush the LTTE in the next few days, leaving the consequences to be tackled later. Sonia Establishment’s haste is everyone's knowledge. Some powers think that by immediately dumping money for 'development' in the ‘conquered land’, Tamils can be appeased and the investors can find an outlet for the economic recession. But no one is prepared for a political solution, reflects a reader on an article appeared in TamilNet Monday.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka HRC key officials visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 15:12 GMT]
A high profile team of Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (HRC) Colombo arrived Friday in Jaffna where they met Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers and the magistrates in Jaffna and discussed matters related to the interests of persons placed in the protective custody of Jaffna Prison and the civilians brought to Jaffna peninsula by the SLA and placed in detention camps, sources in Jaffna said. The team flew back to Colombo Sunday.
Full story >>

Explosive laden lorry discovered in Trincomalee town

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 14:33 GMT]
Sri Lanaka armed forces in Trincomalee town have been put on red alert Monday following the discovery of a lorry alleged to have been loaded with explosives near the residence of a police official of Trincomalee Harbour Police. Sri Lanaka armed forces suspect that LTTE cadres had brought the explosive laden vehicle to commit a crime in the east port town, according to media sources in Colombo quoting Police Headquarters.
Full story >>

Focusing on demand for positive change in IC outlook urged

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 11:30 GMT]
It is a war concurrently waged by Colombo government and Sonia Congress of India on the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils and in the process committing genocide on them. The perverted international vantage of the war and the milieu facilitated the war are a result of the Bush Syndrome. Obama has come but there is no US effort to arrest the hangover, and the British duplicity on the issue also continues. It is time the world has to look at the crisis in its true perspective as a national liberation struggle and stop discussing it as a ‘terrorist’ threat or minority issue, seeking solutions within the rotten state and polity of Sri Lanka, writes a senior Tamil scholar.
Full story >>

Shelling hits hospital, ICRC shocked

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2009, 19:39 GMT]
The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), in a statement issued from Colombo Sunday expressed shock at the shelling of Puthukkudiyiruppu Hospital a second time in a week, and said "wounded and sick people, medical personnel and medical facilities are all protected by international humanitarian law. Under no circumstance may they be directly attacked," pointing an accusing finger at the Government of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) without mentioning either by name.
Full story >>