Tissainayagam: always agitated against violence, fought for justice for oppressed

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 12:16 GMT]
In statement made to the Court Friday, senior Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who has been held in detention for more than a year under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), said: "I was and am still an advocate against terrorism. I have criticized terrorism in whatever form. I never advocated violence, my objective was to generate non violent means of resolving the conflict, my research, writings and work was towards achieving this." Many international rights groups have called for the "unconditional release of Tissainayagam, who has been subjected to arbitrary court adjournments and is suffering ill health.” First anniversary of arrest and imprisonment of Tissaianayagam fell on 7th March.
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“SL parliament passes only bills favourable to the Sinhalese” – Ariyanenthiran MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 10:52 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian, P. Ariyanenthiran, participating in the debate on the bill to issue pension to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) home guards, said that there are more than 45,000 Tamil War Widows in the North and East whom the government does not help while it gives compensation and pension to the members of the three armed forces which clearly shows that it discriminates the Tamils. The bill was submitted in the House when it met Thursday around 9:30 a.m.
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UN withheld civilian casualty figures to protect Sri Lankan state - report

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Publishing two leaked documents by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, in an exclusive report on Wednesday revealed that the United Nations office had its own estimates of casualty figures. The UN had internal documentation for 9,924 civilian casualties including 2,683 killings and 7,241 injuries since 20 January to 07 March 2009. "Now it appears that unlike in other conflicts from Darfur to Gaza, the UN withheld the Sri Lanka figures, in effect protecting the Sri Lankan government from criticism," the Inner City Press reported Wednesday. The report comes as the Sri Lankan government was trying to discredit TamilNet figures, fearing that the UN-referred casualty figures were based on TamilNet coverage.
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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.
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Nadesan urges UN to investigate Colombo's War Crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 08:19 GMT]
B. Nadesan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Sunday said the Tigers had "plenty of evidences" to document that the Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapaksa was "intentionally directing attacks against civilians," committing war crimes and crimes against humanity when asked to comment on the recent statement issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The UN High Commissioner had warned that the actions by the warring parties could amount to war crimes.
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Civilian casualties mount as intense bombing and shelling continues

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 01:45 GMT]
69 civilians were killed, including 19 children, and scores wounded within the safe zone in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardments Saturday in Mullaiththeevu. The SLAF bombers have been attacking the zone continuously for the 5th day, despite the call from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that the SLA "should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone."
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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."
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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.
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Knowing folly

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 02:12 GMT]
The pleading tone of the US Ambassador in Colombo, Robert Blake, even in selling what is already existing or is in proposal, last Friday, show the mood of Sinhala chauvinism in the South, living in the euphoria of ‘victory’ and delusions of ‘post-LTTE’ politics, writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi. “A striking note of the ambassador’s speech was the importance he gave to the electoral process in ending the conflict.” It is ‘knowing folly’ of Mr. Blake to paint a picture of hope on the end of conflict through electoral process in Sri Lanka, after weakening the Tamil fighting force, he says.
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Bomb blast in Islamic procession in Matara, 10 killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 March 2009, 07:43 GMT]
Ten people were killed and several, including a Sri Lankan minister were wounded Tuesday noon in a bomb explosion at a Milad-un-Nabi festival procession in Akuressa in Matara in Southern Province, Police said.
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‘True friends’ coordinate prodding civilians into barbed wires

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 13:50 GMT]
Colombo plans to open two routes to prod Tamil civilians chose to stay under the protection of the LTTE into its barbed-wire internment camps, according to news reports, Friday. One route will be leading to north towards Chalai and the other towards south through Mullaiththeevu, the reports indicated. Meanwhile, India is likely to establish a field military hospital at Pulmoaddai, in the coast south of Mullaiththeevu to treat evacuated civilians Bernama.com reported, quoting Xinhua news agency.
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Unitary Ceylon was an error: British Politician

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:45 GMT]
A Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, Dr. Rachel Joyce, apologised Sunday for the error of Colonial Britain in making a unitary Ceylon out of two nations, the Tamils and the Sinhalese. “The Tamil people have lived on the island currently called Sri Lanka for millennia - in their own contiguous, distinct, geographical territory. They lay claim only to the territory they have historically lived in. In fact, the 3 million Tamils of the island constituted a self governing nation until invaded and occupied by Colonial powers – in particular Britain, who amalgamated them with the Sinhala nation purely for convenience. In retrospect, this cultural naivety was a mistake that has caused problems since independence,” she said in a meeting held at Harrow, where Bruce Fein, a constitutional expert from the United States was the guest speaker.
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'Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society' - Sivasegaram

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 20:22 GMT]
The Indian establishment, pretending neutrality, backed overtly and covertly the Sri Lankan government, politically as well as militarily, using Chinese and Pakistani interests in Sri Lanka as a pretext, writes Professor S. Sivasegaram, a well-known academic and Marxist writer. “International concern on human rights violations, threat to the media, the state of lawlessness including killings and abductions, and other issues have been mere formalities and have never been translated into action.[…] Foreign governments and international organisations to demand that the LTTE should ‘release’ the people under its wings is wrong, without simultaneously insisting that the Sri Lankan government ends all attacks on civilians and ensures the safety of civilians wherever they are.”
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Chennai journalists demand Vithyatharan's immediate release

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 19:34 GMT]
Over a hundred journalists held a demonstration in Chennai near the State Guest House on Saturday to condemn the increasing attacks on the media in Sri Lanka and the recent abduction and arrest of well-known Tamil newspaper editor Nadesapillai Vithyatharan. The participants were from the Chennai Press Club, the Madras Union of Journalists, The Madras Reporters' Guild, and 'Journalists against Fascism'.
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Vithyatharan attacked by 'abductors' inside white-van

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 17:06 GMT]
The wife of Chudaroli (Sudar Oli) Editor who was 'abducted' first and later claimed 'arrested' by the Sri Lankan Police, told media Thursday night that her husband had been attacked on his head and heels inside the white-van by the abductors. Meanwhile, Vithyatharan was dumped at Demattagoda by the abductors, Police told Mrs. Kala Vithytharan Thursday evening. However, Vithyatharan is detained at the Crime Division of the Police in Demattagoda where his wife visited him with their three children with police permission.
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Sampanthan on CID grilling: Unwarranted interference in freedom of thought

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 06:48 GMT]
Senior Politician and the Parliamentary Group Leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan on Wednesday described the so-called 'investigation' by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as "unwarranted interference in my freedom of thought," in a letter addressed to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mr. Sampanthan further said that there is "clearly a malicious effort" to create an environment hostile to him, the objective of which is to "suppress the truth." He was questioned by the CID on a statement at a media conference at the Sri Lankan Parliamentary complex on 17th February 2009 pertaining to the position of Tamil civilians in the war zone in the Mullaiththeevu District, and the Tamil civilians who had crossed into Sri Lanka Army controlled territory.
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Sri Lanka war crimes under U.S. spotlight

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 06:12 GMT]
The uncontradicted testimony of Dr. Anna Neistat, Human Rights Watch, in Tuesday's U.S. Foreign Relations Subcommittee Hearings of Sri Lanka concluded that the "Sri Lankan Armed Forces are guilty of war crimes, including the indiscriminate shelling of areas packed with displaced Tamil civilians and of hospitals; the use of imprecise multi-barrel rocket launchers; acute or complete restrictions on humanitarian aid; the operation of militarily controlled “concentration camps” for Tamil civilians without freedom of movement or communications or adequate medical or other assistance," said Bruce Fein, in a letter sent to the Subcommittee following the Hearings.
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Prominent Tamil Editor abducted in Colombo, later claimed 'arrested'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 05:08 GMT]
Armed persons and men in police uniform who arrived in three white vans Thursday morning abducted Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, 51, the prominent editor of Jaffna-based Uthayan daily and Colombo-based Chudaroli, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. The abduction comes six days after Mr. Vithyatharan was grilled by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). The TID had questioned him Sunday for six hours on news and views that appeared in his papers on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) attacks on civilians in Vanni and about his interactions with the officials of the Tigers in the past. Police spokesman Gunasekara, who first said that the editor was abducted by unidentified men, hours later claimed that he had been arrested.
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US Subcommittee to hear genocide charges against Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 11:47 GMT]
In an invited written testimony to the hearing on "Recent Developments in Sri Lanka" before the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Middle East and Asia, at the Dirksen Senate Building Tuesday, Bruce Fein, former U.S. associate deputy attorney general, details the recent violence by the Sri Lanka Government against Tamils civilians under "impenetrable media blackout and eviction of all outside observers...has crossed the line into genocide, which justified a criminal investigation under United States laws."
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15,000 Diaspora Eelam Tamils demonstrate in Geneva

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 19:32 GMT]
More than 15,000 Diaspora Eelam Tamils from all over Europe gathered in front of the UN office in Geneva in Switzerland Friday voicing their demands calling the Sri Lanka government of stop the war on Tamils at once. The representatives of the Eelam Tamils youth organizations handed a memorandum to the officials of the UN, during the demonstration.
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