Tamil film-styled gang fight in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 02:25 GMT]
At least two persons were seriously injured, one of them struggling for life, as a result of a gang fight that took place in Kalbakken, a suburb of Norway's capital Oslo, on Sunday. Confrontation between local Tamil youth and a few who intruded into Norway in recent months is said to have caused the formation of gangs that fought to settle scores, using handguns and Samurai swords.
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LTTE fires mortars towards Weli Oya, says SLA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2007, 21:18 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE) fired mortars targetted towards Wel Oya area in Polllanaruwa district, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) spokesperson Brigadier Prasanth Samarasinghe said Sunday. The attack began at 8:00 a.m. Sunday and claimed the life of a 65-year old man and injured five others, Brig. Samarasinghe said. A number of private residences are also said to have been damaged during the attack.
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'Para Demala': a reader's response

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2007, 01:58 GMT]
A Sinhala reader of TamilNet has come out with the following note on our news feature 'Para Demala', dated 06 August 2007. According to him, the word 'para' is the worst kind of derogatory word in Sinhala, but is used in the sense to mean alien or foreign. It is not connected to the Pa'raiyar community. He further adds that even Sinhala-Buddhist reformers of the calibre of Anagarika Dharmapala had used the phrase 'Para Demala' in a negative sense to mean low-grade aliens.
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A few devotees attend Maaviddapuram CAR festival

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 August 2007, 16:54 GMT]
Only around two thousand devotees entered through Sri Lanka Army (SLA) checkpoint in Thellippazhai to attend the Thear festival of the historic Maaviddapuram Kandasamy temple located inside the Valikaamam north High Security Zone (HSZ). After the SLA offensives in 1990 civilians living close to temple and surrounding areas were evicted, and in 1999 the area was demarcated to fall within the HSZ, despite protests from Chaiva organizations.
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Impunity reigns, rights record seriously deteriorates- HRW

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 August 2007, 02:31 GMT]
Qualifying the report as focusing primarily on abuses by the Sri Lankan government, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights organization, in a hard-hitting report released Monday said "the government's respect for international law has sharply declined, with it often appearing indifferent to the impact on civilians in the north and east...the main areas of concern [are], from violations of the laws of war and extrajudicial killings to unlawful restrictions on the media and nongovernmental organizations and the widespread impunity enjoyed by state security forces...Sri Lanka's defense establishment is particularly responsible for abuses."
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Right to Protect

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 August 2007, 01:01 GMT]
Gareth Evans, President, International Crisis Group, in the eighth Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture at International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) , Colombo, 29 July said "The State has a primary responsibility to protect the individuals within it. Where the state fails in that responsibility, through either incapacity or ill-will, a secondary responsibility to protect falls on the wider international community. That, in a nutshell, is the core of the responsibility to protect (R2P) idea" and that "Sri Lanka is anything but an R2P."
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South African Tamils observe Black July

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 July 2007, 17:25 GMT]
Several hundred South African Tamils filled the Bayview Arutpa Kazhagam Hall in Chatsworth in Durban Friday evening to express solidarity with the NorthEast Tamils, and to pay respect for the victims of the pogroms against Tamils in Sri Lanka in July 1983.
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Black July emblematic of Sinhala rule - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 July 2007, 05:38 GMT]
In nearly a quarter century of conflict since the state-sponsored anti-Tamil riots of July 1983, despite the tens of thousands of lives that have been lost in the conflict, “there has not been an iota of change in the Sinhala leadership’s thinking – nor, for that matter, in the sentiments of the international community [on the ethnic question],” the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its editorial this week. Comparing the regimes of Presidents Junius Jayawardene, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse, the paper contends: “Black July is not just a historical event. Rather, it is an emblematic act of Sinhala rule."
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Australia Court grants bail to 3 arrested on terrorism charges

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 July 2007, 11:37 GMT]
Victoria state Supreme Court Judge Bernard Bongiorno, telling the court that if the "principle [normal presumption of innocence] is abandoned or even modified for political expediency, that risks the whole foundation of our criminal justice system," Tuesday released Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, 33, and Sivarajah Yathavan, 36, on bail, Associated Press reported. Bongiorno pointed out that the Australian government has not declared the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group. The two were arrested in May charged with "raising money for Liberation Tigers."
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Sri Lanka and International Community

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 June 2007, 18:05 GMT]
Nation, nation-state and nationalism are manifestations of a psychological phenomenon, experienced collectively by a group of people. It is a feeling of attachment and identity that comes naturally. Nationalism cannot be dictated to unwilling sections of the peoples of a country, whoever may come forward guaranteeing the territorial integrity of that country. Such guarantees may be meaningful when one nation invades others, but not when there is a genuine struggle for freedom within a country.
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Diaspora youth speakout

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 June 2007, 23:21 GMT]
A new brand of politically active Canadian Tamil youths are seeking innovative new outlets to express their political message, and to capture the attention of local media. Social networking sites including YouTube, and Facebook have become key electronic arsenal youths have marshalled to promote political themes and to invite other youths to join action groups. Groups employ well-organized public relations efforts including marathon-walks through cities to attract attention of the local media, law enforcement authorities and politicians.
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India: Sri Lankan Navy attacking Tamil Nadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2007, 12:11 GMT]
The Indian government said Wednesday that it “is aware that a number of fishermen from Tamil Nadu are being attacked and killed by Sri Lankan Navy.” In a written response to a query in Parliament, India’s Defence Minister, Shri AK Antony, noted: there have been incidents of firing on Indian fishing boats in Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar area and recently slight increase in such incidents has been noticed.” The Defence Minister did not comment on recent accusations by Tamil Nadu Police that Tamil Tigers had also fired on fishermen.


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Swiss Tamil children hone language, religion skills

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2007, 04:02 GMT]
3858 Tamil children sat for proficiency tests in Tamil and religion in forty two test centers in 17 of the 23 cantons in Switzerland Saturday conducted by the Swiss Tamil Educational Service (TES), a volunteer organization administered by expatriate Tamils, sources in Switzerland said. The examinations are being conducted for the 13th consecutive year, according to TES officials.
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35 civilians arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2007, 11:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan armed forces Thursday and Friday arrested thirty-five civilians, majority of them Tamils, in cordon and search operations conducted in Wellawatte, and Vaalaithoddam in Colombo city. Five have been remanded on the orders of the Colombo Magistrate and the others are detained in police station and are being interrogated, police sources said.
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Tamil Journalists launch protest in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2007, 08:45 GMT]
"Tamil journalists in Jaffna are hunted down and shot dead with impunity. So far six Tamil journalists had lost their lives for writing about and exposing the misdeeds of those in power," the press release of North Ceylon Journalists Association (NCJA) Thursday said. NCJA observed the World Press Freedom Day by launching a token demonstration programme protesting against the violence unleashed on the journalists of NorthEast and demanding the freedom to write.


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UK lawmakers urge LTTE de-proscription

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2007, 23:47 GMT]
Amid signs of greater British involvement in efforts to end Sri Lanka’s conflict, the UK government was this week urged by ruling and opposition lawmakers to lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers in the interests of a negotiated solution. At a landmark debate on Sri Lanka’s conflict in the British Parliament on Wednesday, leaders of a newly formed all party group representing the interests of the island’s Tamils urged the Blair government to lift the ban on the LTTE and also called for LTTE political leaders to be allowed to address the British parliament to better understand their views.
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Australia arrests will jeopardize humanitarian help- AFTA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2007, 11:55 GMT]
The recent arrests in Australia of Tamil activists on allegations of misdirecting of funds for the LTTE, "could jeopardize the humanitarian projects funded by the Australian Tamil community and NGOs that assist over 500,000 internally displaced Tamil civilians in the Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. Denial of this assistance to the needy would only help the Sri Lankan government in their attempt to “beat the Tamil people in Sri Lanka into submission,"" the Australasian Federation Of Tamil Associations (AFTA) said in a press release issued Wednesday.
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Swiss Tamils May day rally highlights State opression in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2007, 11:33 GMT]
Hundreds of Swiss Tamils participated in the May day rally held in Zurich, starting at the Central platz near the Main railway station and ending in Helvetia platz, sources in Switzerland said. Tamils joined the multi-national labor organizations, and liberation groups in the rally.
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Tamils hold May day rally in Paris

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2007, 11:03 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils participated in the May day rally held in Paris Tuesday starting in Republique and ending in Nation area, sources in Paris said. Participants distributed leaflets urging the French to recognize Tamils right to self-determination, carried photographs of the leader of Liberation Tigers, Velupillai Pirapaharan, and shouted slogans in support of Tamileelam during the procession.
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Two Tamils arrested in Puttalam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 16:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government armed forces Tuesday arrested two Tamil civilians in Puttalam area during the cordon and search operation, sources in Puttalam said. The two had failed to prove their identity and the reason for their stay in the location, police sources said.
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