South African Tamils rally for Eezham Tamils' rights

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 June 2008, 00:46 GMT]
Tamils in South Africa on Saturday gathered for Pongku Thamizh rally at the Arena Park Regional Hall, in Chatsworth, where they pledged to support the Eezham Tamils' right to statehood, and urged the international community to voice for the Tamils’ rights.
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SLA, police arrest two youths in Naavalady

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 June 2008, 00:45 GMT]
Two youths were taken into custody during a cordon and search operation jointly conducted Saturday from 9:00 a.m. till noon by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and police personnel in Naavalady area in the administrative area of Maanmunai North District Secretariat within Batticaloa police division, sources said.
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Sampanthan regrets neglected relationship

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 15:23 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan, who on Saturday met the visiting Indian top officials at India House in Colombo, told the delegation that "Tamils believed all these years that they were the natural allies of India, but it is not so today." Even the human rights violations against Tamils, abductions and genocide are largely ignored by India.
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The Symbols Affair

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 13:41 GMT]
Tamil diaspora quarters lament the inability or unwillingness of the International Community to read the diaspora public opinion. They feel that Tamil Nationalism has to be differentiated from the issues between the International Community and the LTTE and no power should dictate or exert insinuating pressure on what the Tamils should aspire for and what not. According to them, in the guise of protecting the diaspora from intimidation of terrorism, the IC is intimidating the Tamil national sentiments and such approaches in the name of the international system are not going to bring in any credibility to the powers involved.
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WTM to fight Ottawa's decision

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 03:24 GMT]
Following Ottawa's decision to designate the World Tamil Movement (WTM), a non-profit organization run by Canadian Tamils, as a terrorist organization, the Counsel for WTM, in a press briefing Friday said they will "apply for a stay of regulation," and if Minister of Public Safety, Mr Stockwell Day, is not inclined to reconsider his recommendation, WTM will make an application to the Federal Court for "judicial review" of the decision.
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TMVP operative injured in gun mishap in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 01:34 GMT]
The fire arm of an operative of the paramilitary-cum-political party Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) accidentally went off Friday night around 8:30p.m. seriously injuring him at Ka’radiyanaa’ru TMVP office in Batticaloa district, Batticaloa police said.
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Tamil man abducted in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 10:29 GMT]
A 30-year-old Tamil male who has been working in a grocery shop in Puththa'lam for nine years was abducted Thursday night by armed men who came in a white van, according to a complaint made by his parents to the Police in Puththa'lam.
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Gunmen target Tamil Jewelery shop owners in South

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 08:31 GMT]
Two unidentified persons riding a motor cycle shot and killed a Tamil jewelery shop owner, Kanagaratnam Devanayagam, at Kamachchoalai, in Negombo, Thursday around 7:30 p.m., police said. 8 days ago, the owner of Vasantha Jewelery was gunned down in Ambalangoda by two armed men who arrived in a motorbike.
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Fein seeks action against Sri Lanka officials

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 05:41 GMT]
Bruce Fein, a Washington Times columnist, and a functionary in the Ronald Reagan administration, who is currently in Toronto, told a Toronto newspaper, that he is seeking support to "gathering evidence against two brothers of current Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse (one a U.S. citizen) and that nation's army chief, Sarath Fonseka," who he claims are responsible for "daily atrocities" in Sri Lanka.
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Moscow film festival features Arnestad's Black Tiger documentary

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 04:45 GMT]
Norwegian Director Beate Arnestad's documentary on Black Tigers, "My daughter the terrorist," is to be featured in the Moscow International Film Festival to be held between 19th and 26th of June. The documentary, produced after Tamil Tigers for the first time allowed a foreign film team to "hand-pick, follow, interview and dig deep" into the lives and faiths of two female Black Tigers, was premiered in Oslo in March, was featured in the North Carolina, US film festival, and also in Paris.
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Fishermen demonstrate against SLA restriction in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 04:20 GMT]
More than 300 fishermen from PanangkaddukKoddadi area in Mannaar district launched a protest demonstration in front of Mannar Regional Secretariat Thursday around 10:30 a.m against the restrictions imposed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and submitted memoranda to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, S. Vino Noharathalingam and Mannaar Assistant Government Agent (AGA), requesting their help to solve their problems, sources in Mannaar said.
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'Tamils seek liberation, not just an end to human rights abuses' - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 02:21 GMT]
By reducing the Sri Lankan state’s multi-faceted repression of the Tamils to simply a problem of ‘human rights abuses’, the international community is avoiding the central question of Tamil self-determination and, through the logic of ‘reform’, seeking to legitimize its efforts to strengthen the Sri Lankan state, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued this week. “For the Tamils, the atrocities inflicted on them by the Sri Lankan security forces are a symptom, an indicator of the racist logic of the Sinhala-dominated state; for the international community, they are the problem itself i.e. end the abuses and thus solve the crisis,” the paper’s editorial said.
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CWC, UPF to contest Sabragamuwa PC separately

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2008, 08:30 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) Thursday officially announced that they would contest the election to the Sabragamuwa Provincial Council separately and not in the ticket of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). CWC and UPF are constituents of the UPFA. Leaders of the parties have been holding ministerial portfolios in the cabinet led by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Pongku Thamizh rally in France draws 7000

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 23:21 GMT]
Around 7,000 French Tamils thronged the venue of Pongku Thamizh rally at Place du Président Edouard Herriot close to the French Parliament in Paris Wednesday. A parliamentarian of the French Communist Party (PCF), Maxime Gremetz, who came out of the Parliament, appreciated the Tamils for voicing for their rights. In a spontaneous address to the audience, he said that the proscription imposed on Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) was unfair and the movement was essentially a freedom movement.
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Tamil physical instructor abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 19:03 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons Monday night abducted a Tamil youth, native of Ki'linochchi, in Kotahena (Koddaagncheanai) in Colombo, according to complaints lodged with the police by his relatives Wednesday. The victim, Selliah Sivasubramaniam, 27, had been working in a physical training center, located along George.R.De Silva Mawatte in Kotahena, as an instructor.
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385 Tamil civilians languish in SLA detention in Nanaaddaan - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 19:00 GMT]
385 civilians from 177 families of Mannaar are languishing in Sri Lanka Army detention at Ka'limoaddai in Naanaaddaan for three months without any inquiries, said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Sivasakthy Anandan in a letter to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday. The TNA parliamentarian for Vanni District appealed to the Sri Lankan president to order the release of the civilians detained in the SLA camp. Some of those detained include those who were born in India and had their education in the schools and Universities there.
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Tamil woman arrested in Kandy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 11:27 GMT]
Kandy police arrested a Tamil woman Tuesday afternoon while present at a meeting attended by Arumugam Thondaman, Sri Lankan Minister of Youth Empowerment and Socio economic Development.
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Seven leaders including G.G.Ponnambalam honored in SL parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 04:29 GMT]
Seven political leaders, C.W.W.Kannangara, A.E.Goonesinghe, Dr.S.A.Wickremasinghe, G.G.Ponnambalam, Dr.N.M.Perera, Phillip Gunawardene and Alhaj T.B.Jayah were honored for their services to Sri Lanka, Tuesday in Sri Lanka's parliament. Their photographs were unveiled Tuesday morning in the parliament as a mark of respect in an event presided by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, parliamentary sources said.
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SL Parliament begins debate on Witness Protection Bill

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 04:28 GMT]
Ruling and opposition parties in Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday agreed to debate the Assistance and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Bill. The Minister of Justice Amarasiri Dodangoda presented the Bill, parliamentary sources said.
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ACF quits, says no confidence in SL's investigations into massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 12:33 GMT]
"It has been almost two years and we have seen nothing...We no longer have any confidence the Sri Lankan investigations will deliver justice." Executive Director, Francois Danel, of Action Contre la Faim (ACF) told Reuters saying that "it [ACF] had no confidence in the government investigation and had quit the island in protest."
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