UN spokesperson ducks, Ban Ki Moon meets Basil

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2009, 11:49 GMT]
When press over reports the Sri Lanka Army had shelled UN staff in the government-declared ‘safe zone’ in Vanni this week, Marie Okabe, the Deputy Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon refused to answer journalists Thursday. Ban Ki-Moon met with Basil Rajapakse, brother of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, the Inner City Press also reported.
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Last statement of Muthukumar

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2009, 09:04 GMT]
Journalist Muthukumar distributed a 4-page statement in Tamil before his self-immolation Thursday in Tamil Nadu. TamilNet provides a translation for the English readership to grasp the significance, without taking responsibility for the accuracy of facts. "The sacrifice of young and idealistic Muthukumar is lamentable beyond words and thoughts of re-enactment should never become a necessity to anyone. It is a reminiscence of the Vietnam of 1960's when self-immolation of monks protesting brutal atrocities as a consequence of US military campaign was common. Such acts occur as a last resort of public frustration when governments suppress democratic space and don't respect overwhelming public opinion of emotional importance," said a diaspora Tamil academic.
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10,000 French Tamils demonstrate in Paris

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2009, 03:48 GMT]
More than 10,000 French Tamils participated in a demonstration protesting against the killing of several hundred civilians by Sri Lanka military in the past week, and urging Pakistan to stop military and other assistance to the Sri Lanka Government to prosecute war against Tamils, sources in Paris said. The protest was organized by the World Tamil Coordnating Committee (WTCC), in the historic Etuval area of France in front of Embassy of Pakistan Wednesday between 2:00 p.m and 5:00 p.m. The demonstration follows a spontaneously organized protest by an activist segment of French Tamils in the La Chappelle area Tuesday.
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'Their imagination is stuck at the 13th amendment'

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:50 GMT]
"All the authoritarians of the world joined hands shamelessly to abet the repulsive Colombo regime in crushing the democratic aspirations of a people to liberate their nation. When the authoritarians gleefully claim success they seem to have forgotten that there is now no excuse of the LTTE for them in coming out with a political solution proving their credentials of liberal democracy, if they practise that at all. But they seem to be having no vision at all other than poking their greedy fingers into the hot pie and their imagination of political solution is stuck at the 20 years old ‘Rajeev Rot’, the 13th amendment," said a Tamil political commentator in Colombo.
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Samaraweera to raise Colombo's rights violations with U.S.

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 04:13 GMT]
Asserting that Mahinda Rajapakse regime is “the darkest, the most brutal and the most ruthless,” that has ruled Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera, the convenor SLFP (M), in an interview published in this weekend Sunday Leader, said that he will “seek an appointment with the US State Department and the incoming Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton,” to offer evidence related to human rights violations committed by “Gotabaya [Rajapakse] and Basil Rajapakse as well as Sarath Fonseka…The US must deal with these people. They have an obligation to deal with them.”
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What prevents Akashi and his ilk reaching out to people in need, asks IDP activist

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 03:48 GMT]
"The Colombo government has claimed that its forces have captured the 'last LTTE town', Mullaiththeevu. Its Army commander has said that 95% of the war is over. Therefore the LTTE must now be powerless in controlling the movement of civilians. But the people every time demonstrate their shudder at the thought of getting into the hands of the invading army and pull themselves into pockets further and further. In such a situation it is nothing but mischief for the visiting Japanese Envoy Yasushi Akashi to talk about the LTTE using civilians as human shield and The Hindu to highlight it," said an IDP activist from Vanni.
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Delhi students on hunger strike to protest Colombo's war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 13:33 GMT]
Students from different universities and colleges in New Delhi, joined by lawyers, teachers and human rights activists held a one day hunger strike Saturday expressing solidarity with Tamil people in Vanni, and protesting against the "onslaught on Tamil people in a unilateral war declared by the Sri Lanka military with a tacit understanding of the Indian Government," organizers of the event said.
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Reaping what they sowed: former US diplomats write to SL President

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 12:01 GMT]
Six former US ambassadors served in Colombo since 1989 have written a letter in their personal capacity to Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, expressing their deep concern about internal threats destabilizing ‘democracy’ in Sri Lanka. They were particularly upset over the assassination of the Editor of Sunday Leader, Mr. Lasantha Wickrematunge. "The civilized world has to appreciate these diplomats voicing for a bold, sane and humane journalist," said a political commentator based in Colombo, adding however that their letter is an "open confession of the reactionary premises taken by them and by their government in the last two decades, which in fact externally contributed to the destruction of the substance of democracy in the island, retaining only a brittle shell that is crumbling now."
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IC urged to act on humanitarian grounds to safeguard civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2009, 12:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has cornered civilians in overcrowded areas in the suburbs of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) town, according to sources in Vanni. While artillery shells exploding in densely populated makeshift settlements have caused several civilian casualties, civilians are fleeing from indiscriminate bombardment from air and ground are forced to seek shelters throughout the day, civil sources from Vanni said. IDPs' representatives express fear that those who fall into the hands of SLA units are likely to be forcibly transported under close military supervision to detention centre style camps at locations isolated from mainstream communities, as evidenced in Mannaar and in areas north of the recently SLA-occupied Elephant Pass.
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Letter from the grave - NYT

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 21:06 GMT]
Noting that the last editorial late Lasantha Wickrematunge wrote was a "powerful indictment of the increasingly brutal Sri Lankan government, which runs one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist," New York Times, in an editorial that appeared Sunday, said that his farewell piece is also "a painful explanation of why another brave journalist would die while trying to publish truths that most people are afraid to whisper."
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9000 British Tamils gather in protest against war on Tamils in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2009, 14:45 GMT]
More than 9000 British Tamils gathered Saturday in front of No. 10 Downing Street in London participating in a mass vigil from 3:00 p.m till 7:00 p.m, urging British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to exert pressure on the governments of Sri Lanka and India to call for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. This event marks the third of the ‘Awareness Campaign’ organized by the Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) in United Kingdom.
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Gotabhaya: TV station attack was self-inflicted

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2009, 12:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, claimed this week that the independent television station stormed on January 6 by over a dozen masked gunmen who threw grenades and shot up equipment with assault rifles, had in fact staged the attack to win public sympathy, because the Tamil Tigers, which he said the Sirasa station was supporting, were losing the war. He said government investigations had conclusively established this. Mr. Gotabhaya, who is also the brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, made his comments to a state media station, The BBC Sinhala service reported Friday.
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Ramdoss exhorts Karunanidhi to urgent action in stopping Sri Lanka war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 21:08 GMT]
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader Dr S Ramadoss, who visited VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, now in his fourth day of a fast-unto-death over the humanitarian crisis imposed on Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s punitive bombardments, exhorted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi to act urgently to invoke Indian intervention to stop the war. Emphatically refuting Mr. Karunanidhi's statement that the VCK leader had “unilaterally decided” to stage a protest fast without consulting the rest of the Tamil Nadu polity, Dr. Ramadoss said Thol Thirumavalavan, whose health is detoriarating, had consulted other leaders several times in the recent weeks.
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Menon restated India’s support for war – Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 16:46 GMT]
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who met with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday “reaffirmed India’s cooperation with Sri Lanka in the attempts to eliminate terrorism from Sri Lanka and the region, and observed that at present the relations between India and Sri Lanka have never been so close, so warm and so deep,” the Colombo government said in a statement. President Rajapakse met Mr. Menon in Kandy, the ancient seat of Sinhala power, rather than in Colombo.
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Jaffna Bishop urges SL President to stop bombardment

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 14:35 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam has urged the Sri Lankan President and Commander-in-Chief of the Lankan armed forces to stop all shelling and aerial bombings at civilian places in Vanni, in an urgent letter sent to President Mahinda Rajapakse Monday, before the latest mass exodus towards Puthukkudiyiruppu. "It is the duty of the Government to open a safe corridor for the safety of the civilians. Please stop all shelling and aerial bombings at civilian places," the Bishop said in his letter titled "Humble but urgent request to stop shelling on civilian places in Vanni."
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End of peace in India’s south

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 00:40 GMT]
The people of Tamil Nadu in no uncertain terms have said what they wish and have shown their indignation and resentment to what is happening in the island of Sri Lanka. The Tamil diaspora all over the world has demonstrated its solidarity with the national question of Eezham Tamils. The people of USA have firmly voted for the revision of the politics of terrorism. But the few, clinging at the helm of the outgoing administrations of New Delhi and Washington have decided to run amok, defying local and global public opinion. While Bush leaves behind a precarious world legacy to Obama, the Sonia Congress bears personal responsibility for the plight of Eezham Tamils.
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"And they came for me" - Lasantha Editorial

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 14:07 GMT]
"What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen - and all of the government - cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall," says late Wickrematunge, in an editorial penned before his death; he adds "It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when."
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Media activists protest against Lasantha assassination

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 21:41 GMT]
Hundreds of media activists took to the streets in Colombo Friday protesting against the assassination of one of the prominent journalists in Colombo and Chief Editor of Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, who was shot dead Thursday. The protesters accused Rajapaksa regime for the prevailing impunity as heavily armed military personnel ringed the area of protest at Regal Junction, the metropolitan heart of the city. Meanwhile, opposition parties have blamed the government for using the military achievements in its war against the LTTE as a propaganda ploy to suppress and eliminate the opposition.
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SLA takes control of A9 - Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 14:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday announced that the Sri Lanka Army regained the control of A9 Jaffna Kandy highway linking the south and the north after 23 years. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said that 53 Division commanded by Brigadier Kamal Gunaratne and 55 Division commanded by Brigadier Prasanna Silva based in the Mukamaalai area have advanced nearly 22 km south and occupied the Elephant Pass (EPS) and hoisted the Sri Lankan flag. The EPS was held by the LTTE for over eight years.
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RSF: Mahinda Rajapakse "directly to blame" for Wickrematunge murder

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 12:27 GMT]
Expressing outrage over the murder of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, Reporters sans frontières (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued today, said: "President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press. Sri Lanka's image is badly sullied by this murder, which is an absolute scandal and must not go unpunished."
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