Stiff sentences for pair convicted in New York arms deal

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 January 2010, 12:51 GMT]
Eastern District Court of New York Friday sentenced two Sri Lankan Tamils, Sathajhan Sarachandran and Nadarasa Yogarasa, to 26 years and 14 years in prison respectively, in connection with their attempt to purchase weapons for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in the U.S.A. Defendants were Caught in an FBI undercover sting operation attempting to purchase surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers, and hundreds of AK-47 automatic rifles, the press release said. Material support to to any organization designated as an FTO is illegal in the U.S.
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Tamil internment, a manifestation of Sinhala state racism - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2009, 16:04 GMT]
"Despite the manifest outrage of international human rights groups like HRW and Amnesty International, relief agencies and several Western states, Sri Lanka defiantly continues to brutalize the [Tamil] detainees [locking them up in barbed wire militarized camps]. Whilst various international actors attempt to goad, cajole and compel Sri Lanka to let the civilians go, few have examined the reasons for their incarceration. As far as the Tamils are concerned, it is obvious: this is the latest manifestation of the Sinhala state racism," the British paper Tamil Guardian said in the latest weekend edition.
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Prison guards assault hunger striking detainees in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 10:00 GMT]
At least 36 Tamil political prisoners who were part of a fast unto death hunger strike at the central jail in Welikada Colombo are alleged to have been severely assaulted by guards and jailers on early Friday, informed sources told TamilNet. 32 of the political prisoners who were being held in Cell Block G were transferred to the Block M, and some of them had sustained injuries in the episode, according to the sources. The detainees have been forced to stop their hunger strike.
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Grass root organisations form Global Tamil Forum

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 23:57 GMT]
A number of grass root Tamil organisations across the world on Thursday launched an initiative in forming Global Tamil Forum (GTF) said Suren Surendran of British Tamil Forum, which is one of the constituent organisations of the Forum. The Tamil diaspora is united in restoring the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in their homeland and bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice, Mr. Surendran told TamilNet. The Forum will work for the benefit of Eelam Tamils based on the principles of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution that recognises Self-Determination of Eezham Tamils in creating an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, said Dr. Sampavi Parimalanathan, a diaspora activist in Australia.
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Intent of Genocide provable in Sri Lanka - Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 11:54 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General and currently counsel for the US-based group Tamils Against Genocide, addressing a select gathering of media persons and intellectuals organized by the Max Foundation in Chennai Friday, told the audience that there is enough evidence to criminally convict U.S. citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and U.S. Green card holder Lt.Gen. Sarath Fonseka in the U.S. Federal Courts for "intent to commit Genocide" in Sri Lanka, sources from Chennai said.
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Vaiko urges British Parliament to restore Eezham Tamil sovereignty

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2008, 19:06 GMT]
Vaiko, the general secretary of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam (MDMK) from Tamil Nadu, while addressing British parliamentarians of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Tamils on Wednesday in the British Parliament, said that the British Parliament has a moral responsibility to rectify the historic injustice caused on to the Eezham Tamils during the colonial rule. It was the British who statutorily put the Tamil and the Sinhala territories together in 1833, made Ceylon a unitary entity and refused to consider federalism in their constitutional reforms. When they left in 1948, they passed on the power to the Sinhala majoritarian rulers, he said.
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Confession voluntary or coerced, Court to rule in Tissainayagam case

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 November 2008, 17:35 GMT]
Oral submissions for the voir dire inquiry in the case against a senior journalist J.S.Tissanayagam held in detention for more than eight months were concluded Friday in Colombo High Court under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), where State Counsel Sudarshana De Silva and Defense Counsel Anil Silva argued to establish whether the confession made by the journalist to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police was voluntary or made under threat and duress, legal sources in Colombo said.
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TNA parliamentarians grilled by CID

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 22:15 GMT]
Within the last few days, three Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, P. Ariyanethran and S. Kajendran, were summoned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lanka Police for investigation after getting stipulated permission from the Speaker of the Parliament. The focus of the questioning was their speeches viewed as a breach of the 6th Amendment of the Sri Lankan constitution, which prohibits any opinion expressed inside or outside of the island, in favour of secession in Sri Lanka
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74 Tamil political prisoners transferred to Magazine, jailed with criminal offenders

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 13:56 GMT]
Prison authorities of Colombo Remand Prison (CRP) Tuesday evening suddenly transferred 74 Tamil political prisoners, including senior journalist J.S.Tissanayagam to Colombo Magazine Prison, placing them with hardcore criminal prisoners from South, according to initial messages passed by the prisoners to their relatives. The political prisoners, who have been urging the authorities to transfer them to remand prisons in Northern and Eastern provinces, in their message said they have been intimidated by the move as they are reminded of the massacre of more than 50 Tamil political prisoners inside the nearby Welikada prison in July 1983 by prison guards and fellow Sinhala prisoners.
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Portending danger for potable water in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 August 2008, 09:50 GMT]
The news of re-opening the cement factory at Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) in the Jaffna Peninsula has been received with serious concern by academics and environmentalists from Jaffna. According to them, the factory, when it was functioning earlier, was a health hazard to the densely populated surroundings. It affected horticulture as crops were covered by cement dust. Above all, exploitative quarrying of limestone has already portended the possibility of seawater coming inside and polluting the entire groundwater table of the peninsula.
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SAARC and Human Rights

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 July 2008, 01:23 GMT]
A SAARC 'Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms' of the people of the region based on the same model as that of the European Union, as well as a 'Regional Mechanism on Human Rights' may be a way to fight the so-called terrorism because such a convention with a regional mechanism to implement it will prevent the root causes for violence arising in the first place. Countries like Pakistan and India, the two big brothers of the region should do better than abetting the war machinery of Sri Lanka that kills its own citizens. Aspirations of the peoples cannot be put down by Human Rights violations and State Terrorism, says Columnist Koanaamalai Manraadiyaar.
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Australia, New Zealand Tamils Commemorate Black July

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 July 2008, 20:36 GMT]
In marking the 25th anniversary of Black July, Australian Tamils held three different events, a Friday morning rally at the heart of Sydney, followed by a protest meeting at Burwood Park, Burwood, and on Saturday afternoon a photographic exhibition in Melbourne at the State Library Forecourt, opposite the Melbourne Central Railway Station. Meanwhile, New Zealand Tamil Medical Association (NZTMA) and the Tamil Youth Organistion (TYO-New Zealand) organised a blood donation drive, and on Friday held a vigil marking the Black July.
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South African Tamils commemorate Black July

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 July 2008, 12:29 GMT]
More than 600 South African Tamils assembled at the Kharwastan Temple Hall in Chatsworth South Africa to observe the 25th anniversary of Black July, Friday. The African National Congress (ANC) Member of Parliament, Sisa Njikelana from Gauteng Province, delivered the key note speech, comparing developing situation in Sri Lanka to those in Rwanda and Brundi. The function, organised by the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee of South Africa and presided by Mr Vinoth Rajagopaul, was broadcast live on national radio station, Lotus FM (SABC).
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Reflections on Black July in art, literature and theatre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 July 2008, 14:05 GMT]
Artists and writers in different parts of the world reflect through various ways on Black July 1983, the state-sponsored pogrom against Tamils in Sri Lanka, marking its 25th year. Citing some of the aesthetic expressions, a play in English to be staged in Canada on Saturday is based on the post-pogrom phenomenon of refugee hearing. While an ongoing art exhibition in Colombo documents life after 1983 in the eyes of a Sinhala photographer, a novel that comes from Australia bases itself on the psychological scars of the pogrom.
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Voices of 1983: Basil Fernando's poem remembered

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 July 2008, 10:18 GMT]
A poem, based on an eye-witness account of an event during 1983 pogrom captures the determination of a Tamil father at the time of his agonising death. The poem by Basil Fernando, a Sinhala lawyer, encapsulates the impelling spirit of the Tamil struggle of the post-pogrom years. Mr. Basil Fernando is at present the Executive Director of the Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission.
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US Tamils to hold Black July rally, vigil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 July 2008, 11:23 GMT]
People For Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), an advocacy group composed of over 1,800 Americans concerned about the crisis in Sri Lanka, is organizing a protest rally and vigil in Washington DC on Thursday at 12 pm to remember the victims of Black July 1983, an ethnic pogrom, where organized mobs backed by the Sri Lankan government killed approximately 3,000 Tamil civilians, displaced several thousand Tamils and destroyed over $300 million worth of Tamils’ property. The rally will be held at the Russell Senate Park, at the intersection of Constitution Avenue and Delaware Avenue, Washington DC, according to the organizers.
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Eezham exhibition impresses UK parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 July 2008, 14:28 GMT]
A photo exhibition on '60 years of oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka,' held at the premises of British Parliament on Wednesday brought in 'positive responses' from the Lawmakers cutting across party lines and other dignitaries, according to British Tamils Forum, the organisers of the display.
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"Plucked peace flower"- Washington Times

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2008, 11:25 GMT]
In a commentary appearing in the Tuesday issue of Washington Times, Bruce Fein, Washington-based attorney for a Tamil Activist Group, and Chairman of the American Freedom Agenda, says that "the peace solution to Sri Lanka's descent into hell was discerned by [Ambassador] Mr. Blake - even if unwittingly - in an interview published in the Sunday Observer on May 25. The subtext affirmed the right of the Tamil people to determine their own political destiny without dictation by Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabharkaran, or by any other person or organization."
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Fein: Hold referendum to test support for Tamil Statehood

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2008, 18:15 GMT]
Bruce Fein, Attorney for a US-based Tamil Activist Group, in responding to a statement by Ambassador Robert Blake to Sunday Observer saying that from his discussions with Tamils he knows that "over 95 percent of them [Tamils] support a solution within a framework of a united Sri Lanka," challenged the Ambassador to hold a referendum to prove his assertion of percentage Tamil support, and added that "[i]f statehood prevails, the Ambassador should be the first to concede Prabhakaran’s superiority in discerning the political aspirations of the Tamil people."
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Reserved hero: Brigadier Balraj

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 09:00 GMT]
In over two decades of service with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Brig. Balraj, who passed away Tuesday after a heart attack, had been a courageous and skilled fighter and commander whose last years were spent institutionalizing the training of a new generation of LTTE field officers. Although he joined the LTTE later than many of the other top commanders, Brig. Balraj had risen rapidly through the ranks on the strength of his shrewdness on the battlefield and courage under fire, fighters who served with him said this week.
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