CPI calls for all India solidarity with Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2011, 12:36 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI) in its National Council Meeting at New Delhi on 18-19 June, passed a resolution, demanding the Indian government to take into account the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on war crimes investigation and economic sanctions against Sri Lanka. Accusing Sri Lanka Army for violation of human rights, state terrorism and perpetration of mass murder of Tamil population in the island, the CPI demanded India to facilitate open enquiry on war crimes and resettlement of Tamils in their own places as well as media entry to monitor Indian aided rehabilitation. The party’s national council decided to observe July 8 as “All India Solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils Day” to press for peaceful political settlement to the ethnic conflict and appealed to other left and democratic parties to join.
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Eezham liberation is geopolitical priority for Tamil Nadu: Thirumurukan

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 June 2011, 00:40 GMT]
If the people of Tamil Nadu are vigilant enough of the nature and aims of the geopolitical forces operate in the region, then they will realise that call for independence of Eezham Tamils should get priority over war crimes investigation and indictment of Mahinda Rajapaksa, said Mr. Thirumurukan Gandhi of the May 17 Movement of Tamil Nadu, while discussing the UN report in Chennai last month. The whole world, except Tamil Nadu, knows that the power to change the paradigm lies in Tamil Nadu, he further said. Thirumurukan’s analysis coming from grassroot thinking in Tamil Nadu was refreshing, while ‘analysis groups’ in Chennai and some international organizations backed by establishments aiming to capitalize the war crimes to their interests truncate the ultimate justice of liberation to the affected, said political observers in the island and in the diaspora.
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TN govt was voted for getting justice to Eezham Tamils: CPI member

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 June 2011, 23:07 GMT]
Participating the debate on Governor’s Speech in Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Tuesday, the Communist Party of India (CPI) Deputy Leader in the Assembly and Sivagangai MLA, Mr. K. Gunasekaran, pointed out that the new government was voted by the people of Tamil Nadu to bring those who committed genocide on Eezham Tamils across the Palk Strait to justice. Declaring that the CPI considers what happened in the island is genocide and not merely war crime, Gunasekaran said that the TN Assembly should unanimously pass a resolution to penalise Mahinda Rajapaksa for the genocide. He also requested the TN Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalitha to lead the struggle for the right of Eezham Tamils over their country and said that the 100 million Tamils all over the world expect this from her.
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Tamils may have lost the battle but will win the war: Delhi convention on UN report

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2011, 00:39 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan media view that the UN panel report has provided the Indian establishment with new bargaining power and facilitates the ‘shopping list’ of the officials from the Indian establishment visiting Sri Lanka soon to go beyond KKS harbour in Jaffna and Champoor power station in Trincomalee, a convention organized in New Delhi by the Delhi Tamil Students Union Thursday, resolved that action should come out of the report at the international level, genocide in the island should be recognized, Indian government should come out with a white paper of its own dealings and all democratic forces in India should raise concern over the happenings in the island. The participation of the convention by progressive forces of India generates hopes that the situation will not be hijacked, commented Eezham Tamil political circles.
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Tamil Nadu needs non-political movement for Eezham liberation: Sathyaraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 04:45 GMT]
Sathyaraj, a popular film actor from Tamil Nadu state of India, while addressing the gathering in Chennai on Monday on the occasion of paying tribute to the late Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader Pirapaharan, urged the leaders and activists supporting the Eezham cause to forge a non-political movement with the sole aim of taking forward the cause of Eezham Tamils. Calling the leaders and activists to put an end to rhetoric, the artist, who played the award-winning role of Periyar E.V. Ramasamy in the documentary film, Periyar, said the cause of Eezham Tamils is beyond any identity of sectarian politics, castes or groups in Tamil Nadu and addressed Pirapaharan as the leader of World Tamils.
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ICC charges Sudan's Bashir of Genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 23:29 GMT]
The International Criminal Court (ICC), in a statement issued Monday, accused Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir of "genocide by killing, genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm and genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction," and issued an arrest warrant. Bashir becomes the first sitting head of state to be charged with genocide. The addition of genocide charge follows the March 2009 indictment of Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity, for which another arrest warrant is pending, and has added further diplomatic pressure on his isolated regime. Bashir has denied these charges.
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Exert pressure on Colombo to declare detained LTTE members as political prisoners: CPI politician

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 June 2010, 02:50 GMT]
Thousands of former LTTE members, who were captured by the Sri Lanka Army in May last year are still perishing in Colombo’s detention camps in unknown locations. “Many of the families of these young Tamils do not even know the whereabouts of their loved ones. The Sri Lankan state is treating them like criminals. Rajapaksa is not recognising these young Tamils as Prisoners of War. But, he should at least be pressurised by the global community to declare those detained as political prisoners,” said C. Mahendran, the deputy state secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Mahendran was addressing fellow activists of Ilangkai Thamizhar Paathukaappu Iyakkam, while they were held under collective custody by Tamil Nadu police, after a protest on Tuesday against Rajapaksa’s visit to New Delhi.
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Rajapaksa visits India amid wide-scale protests in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 2010, 11:33 GMT]
All the district capitals and major cities of Tamil Nadu state Tuesday noon reported wide-scale protests against Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to India. All the prominent leaders of political parties and movements, Vaiko, Pazha Nedumaran, Thirumavalavan, Seeman, Nallakannu, Mahendran, T. Rajendar, Thiyagu were arrested by Tamil Nadu police with thousands of other activists after they concluded their speeches and protests. The protests, including black flag demonstrations in front of Indian Central Government Institutions in Tamil Nadu, blocking railway and burning effigies of Sri Lankan President, have brought many Tamil parties and movements together in support of Eezham Tamils. All major media outlets operating from India have given coverage to the protests.
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Treaty discussion, reminder for appointing Sri Lanka War Crimes panel, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 21:53 GMT]
While Secretary General Ban Ki Moon extolled the contributions of the UN's International Criminal Court (ICC) as an effective instrument to uphold peace, justice and human rights, in a Washington Post article, as UN's member nations convene Monday in Kampala to formally review the Rome Treaty, Professor Francis A. Boyle criticized Ban for delaying action on establishing accountability for Sri Lanka's "massacre of about 50,000 Tamils" and urged Ban to "immediately appoint the International War Crimes Committee for Sri Lanka that he had already promised to do several weeks ago."
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99.4 percent vote for Tamil Eelam in Australia

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 April 2010, 05:07 GMT]
99.4 percent of those who cast votes in the Tamil referendum across Australia last weekend said “yes” to the formation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the contiguous north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. The results were announced Thursday at a press conference held at NSW State Parliament in front of state and national media. 8,272 out of the registered, numbering around 10,000, participated in the polls. The number of eligible Eezham Tamil voters in Australia is estimated to be around 15,000. The formation of Tamil Eelam was assented by 8,154. The negative votes were 51 and 67 were invalid.
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JNU convention condemns Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 April 2010, 14:15 GMT]
"[C]onditions in Sri Lanka cannot improve unless the Tamils are given a respectful place in society as equal citizens. Unfortunately, that is not happening,” said Rajinder Sachar former Chief Justice on Delhi High Court in a conference on Sri Lanka's war crimes held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Thursday, a summary report of the convention issued by the organizers said. The convention concluded with passing a resolution condemning "the genocidal war crimes perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government on the Tamils," and demanding that the war criminals in the Sri Lankan government be brought to justice, Tamils who have been forcefully detained in camps be released and settled in their native homes, an immediate end to colonization, and suspension of military aid by India.
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Self-organised democracy of Tamils receives global attention

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 April 2010, 09:59 GMT]
The Tamil community in Australia is trying to test its aspirations of its people through a referendum of its own while Sri Lanka goes for parliamentary elections, reported Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Wednesday about a referendum on independent Tamil state organised by Australian Tamils on April 17th and 18th. "This ballot has nothing to do with the parliamentary elections held this week in Sri Lanka. This is a referendum to test the will of the Tamil diaspora," Liam Cochrane of the ABC reported. "Self-organised democracy, the most meaningful of all democracies, has become the need of the times for Eezham Tamils, who are cornered for subjugation, not only militarily, but also through imposed elections in the island," TamilNet correspondent in Australia cited the mood of the diaspora.
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India’s genocide of its own tribal nations

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 March 2010, 02:21 GMT]
India had larger plans when it backed genocidal Colombo in the UN Human Rights Council. India is now embarked upon a greater genocidal war against its own tribal nations, picking up the footsteps of Colombo, making use of its partnership experience in crushing Eezham Tamils, exploiting the impotency of international community and encouraged by the electoral endorsement from Tamil Nadu. The precarious dimensions of the ongoing war in Central India, vividly brought out by Arundhati Roy in Outlook India this week, need careful study by all Eezham Tamils to device apt political moves for them and for the benefit of entire humanity. The IC, Tamils in India and progressive Sinhalese have to realise that acknowledging Eezham Tamil independence is a test case in reconstructing State outlook that is messing up life in entire South Asia and in achieving wider solidarity of peoples in the region.
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Indian parliament expunges remarks on genocide in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 December 2009, 08:13 GMT]
When Communist Party of India (CPI) member D. Raja in his speech Friday in Rajya Sabha pointed out what happened in the island of Sri Lanka was full-scale war and genocide against Tamils with the assistance of Government of India, the Chair ordered to expunge the word genocide from parliamentary records. The verbatim but lengthy debate Friday questioned the government on IDPs, Kachchatheevu, Tamil Nadu fishermen, and about sending a parliamentary delegation to meet Tamil IDPs. But when it came to the core issue of political solution, the debate had nothing new to offer as from Indian foreign minister S M Krishna to main opposition BJP’s Vekaiah Naidu were still harping on treating the Eezham Tamils not as a nation but as a ‘minority’ and perceiving solutions based on obsolete 13th Amendment. Even Raja was using the word ‘national linguistic minority’.
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Tamil protection movement launches Four Directions March in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 October 2009, 13:13 GMT]
Ilangkai Thamizhar Paathukaappu Iyakkam (ITPI) led by Pazha. Nedumaaran and consisting of PMK leader Dr. Ramadoss, MDMK leader Vaiko, CPI leaders in Tamil Nadu, R. Nallakannu and C. Mahendran are engaged in launching awareness marches from the four corners of Tamil Nadu highlighting the plight of Eelam Tamils and demanding the immediate release of more than 250,000 Tamils detained in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in the north of Sri Lanka.
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Will Obama take full responsibility of Tamil homeland, ask Tamil circles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 20:57 GMT]
As news reports quote US President Barack Obama saying Tamil Tigers to "free civilians," and Colombo government to stop indiscriminate shelling, Tamil circles in the US asked whether President Obama is prepared to take full responsibility of the Tamil homeland and whether he is prepared to give full assurance to the freedom and the aspirations of the Tamil people.
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Liquor baron buys Gandhi memorabilia in US auction

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 March 2009, 12:10 GMT]
The spectacles, chapels, pocket watch and eating plate along with a bowl, used by Mahatma Gandhi were bought for 92 million Indian rupees by Bangalore based Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya when the memorabilia were auctioned in Washington, USA, on Thursday. “It is unfortunate that the Indian government first of all allowed them to go out of the country, didn’t take any legal effort to regain them and didn’t even care at least to buy them in the auction. It is a sad irony to see liquor money bringing back the belongings of Mahatma Gandhi, who throughout his life fought for temperance in India”, writes Communist Party of India (CPI) leader, C. Mahendran, in Janasakthi, Monday.
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'Tamil Nadu needs to go beyond demonstrations'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2009, 08:49 GMT]
If at all there is any positive impact of the unprecedented uprising and demonstrations, staged spontaneously by the masses of Tamil Nadu and the diaspora, it is the inward awakening of global Tamils to the forces of oppression and to the defiance of the oppressors, whether domestic or international. A historic responsibility lies on the leaders of Tamil Nadu and on those who uphold the struggle of the oppressed, to channel the positive energy generated from the uprising to achieve its goals rather than allowing it to be carried away by the machinations of the oppressors, writes opinion columnist Chivanadi.
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CPI leader's car set on fire in Chennai

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 22:25 GMT]
Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu State Secretary D. Pandian's car and a moped parked in his A'n'naa Nakar (Anna Nagar) residence were set on fire by unidentified persons Thursday night, media reports from Chennai said. Mr. Pandian was away in Mathurai (Madurai) at that time.
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Tamil Nadu, Puducherry shut down sends strong signals to State, Central Governments

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 10:37 GMT]
In the face of severe threats from the State Government, the people of Tamil Nadu projected their unified voice of support for the Eelam Tamils by making the Wednesday general strike a grand success. More than 90 percent of the shops and commercial establishments throughout the state downed their shutters as a mark of solidarity. Although the umbrella front, Ilangkaith Thamizhar Paathukaappu Pearavai, which was recently formed to protect the Eezham Tamils, had announced the boycott, it was the spontaneous participation of the people of Tamil Nadu of all walks of life, made it a big success. Since the strike coincided with Sri Lanka's 61st independence day, the Sinhalese lion flag and Mahinda Rajapakse's effigy were burnt in several places.
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