White van armed men abduct Tamil woman in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 09:45 GMT]
An armed gang of men alleged to be paramilitaries operating with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) arriving in a white van Friday around 9:00 p.m broke into the house of a woman at Akkaraipattu and forcibly took her away, according to the complaint lodged with Akkaraipattu police by her children. Her husband had been abducted Monday around 5:00 p.m by armed men in a white van as he was riding home on his motorcycle, sources in Akkaraipattu said.
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Youth abducted in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 03:06 GMT]
Unidentified armed men on motor cycles forcibly took away a youth riding on his motor cycle near Kalladdi Pi’laiyaar Koayil in Jaffna Wednesday, according to the complaint registered with Jaffna Human Rights Commission office by his wife S. Sasibarathi.
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Intention of Sri Lankan state is extermination of Tamils - TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 16:04 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan State's actions establish beyond a shadow of doubt, that the real intention of the Sri Lankan State is the progressive extermination of the Tamil people," said the statement published by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in India on Friday. "The fact that the Sri Lankan State and its Armed forces despite the widest possible international outcry that the safety of Tamil civilians is paramount, have not been deterred even to the slightest degree, in the pursuit of their military attacks in Tamil civilian populated areas, without any regard whatever, for the safety of Tamil civilians, is indicative of the deep hostility that the Sri Lankan State and its Armed forces bear towards the Tamil people," the statement issued by the TNA further said.
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India asks for extension of 'pause' in hostilities

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 08:39 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka must extend pause in hostilities to prevent further casualties and enable trapped civilians to leave the area to secure locations, said India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday. "Continuation of precipitate military actions leading to further civilian casualties at this time would be totally unacceptable," it further said. The statement came after India's National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon meeting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members Wednesday and Thursday. Mr. Mukherjee's statement ended by India reminding Government of Sri Lanka and 'others' concerned that 'Tamils are citizens of Sri Lanka'.
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White van armed men abduct Tamil trader in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 07:25 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a white van Wednesday night forcibly took away a young Tamil trader from Akkaraipattu in Ampaa’rai district as he was on his way to his shop, according to a complaint made by his wife to Akkaraipattu police.
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Colombo, India and IC conspire three-pronged attack: Canadian Tamil artist

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 00:01 GMT]
The coercion of the Canadian government withdrawing the release of a statement just because the Canadian Tamil demonstrators refused to lower the Tamil national flag, considered as pro-LTTE flag by the government, is a part of the international conspiracy to break down the Eezham Tamil liberation struggle by isolating and dealing with the three components of the struggle, i.e., the LTTE, the TNA and the diaspora, said Varnarameshwaran, a Canadian Tamil Music Director. "The conspiracy is to abet Colombo to eliminate the LTTE leadership at whatever civilian cost, India to handle the TNA and the governments of the so-called international community to intimidate the diaspora. It is a three-pronged attack," he said.
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Diaspora Tamils fast against genocide of Tamils in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 05:47 GMT]
Thousands of diaspora Tamils of all ages took part in the hunger strike protest demonstrations launched by Tamil youths in France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and Britain against the unceasing atrocious attacks by Sri Lanka armed forces on innocent Tamil civilians in Vanni. Similar protest demonstrations organized by Tamil Youths Organization (TYO) continue in many other countries in an effort to draw the attention of the International Community to the carnage of Tamils in Vanni that continues unchecked.
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Last chance for Congress Establishment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 02:26 GMT]
"The Indian Establishment has an arrogant way of reminding that it is the Eezham Tamils who will be needing India and not vice versa. But it is time to tell that they also will need us," writes a political analyst in Colombo. “There is an increasing tendency among Eezham Tamils today to rely more on the West for solutions and the blame squarely falls especially on the present Indian Establishment. Observers feel that in recent times the mounting anger of Eezham Tamils are more directed at perpetrators and abetters of the war than at Colombo, for it is always expected what the irredeemably chauvinistic state will do. If not for the abetters, the Tamils would have handled it on their own. In the Tamil mind, India tops the list of perpetrators and abetters”, writes the political analyst in Colombo who regularly contributes to TamilNet.
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Mass human tragedy possible any moment in 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 23:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Tuesday night launched a full scale ground offensive attempting to break the last earth bund of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) situated close to the safety zone on Puthukkudiyiruppu - Mullaiththeevu Road, TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reported Wednesday early hours, Sri Lankan time. When the Co-Chairs countries have asked for the extension of ceasefire, Colombo's defiance and ferocious attack on the civilian safety zone are widely seen by political observers as efforts to fulfil the agenda of India, which is scheduled to receive TNA, Wednesday.
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'Three insults to Tamils for the traditional New Year'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 19:32 GMT]
Disguised insults meant against Tamil struggle this week bring out a picture of the attitudes operating in Colombo, New Delhi and Chennai, writes a political analyst in Colombo. “It is not exactly the Sri Lankan government, but the Sri Lankan state that is the core symbol of oppression in the island. Ethnic chauvinism is the cornerstone of this state. No liberation can come to Eezham Tamils unless this symbol is deconstructed. It is important for both Tamils and Sinhalese to see that accepting this symbol as it is now, or imposing this symbol as the basis of any political discourse, will never pave way for peace of both.”
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Tamil people subjected to Genocide - TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 07:18 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in an urgent statement issued on Sunday pointed out the dramatic rise in Tamil civilian casualties over the last two weeks and said over 4,100 Tamil civilians have been killed and over 8,800 gravely injured within the four months of this year. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the TNA, in the statement said that 707 Tamil civilians have been killed within the last 9 days alone and over 1,000 gravely injured. Sri Lankan State's armed forces were deliberately targeting Tamil civilians and that the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka are clearly being subjected to Genocide, the TNA said. It urged the International Community to compel the Sri Lankan Government to stop all military operations immediately and to bring about an immediate ceasefire between the Sri Lankan State and the LTTE.
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Two-thirds of British Tamils march for Ceasefire and Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 19:14 GMT]
In a historic show of solidarity, more than 200,000 British Tamils, nearly two thirds of Tamils resident in Britain, marched through the streets of London Saturday demanding immediate ceasefire and recognition of Tamil Eelam. Sparked off by the initiative of second generation diaspora Tamil youth and students four days earlier, the Saturday's march became an unprecedented rallying point for the entire community, attracting the old students associations of the educational institutions of Eezham Tamils, functioning in London. The spirited participation of teens and mothers with babies in pushchairs significantly marked the level of community involvement in the agitation.
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TNA Ex-MP on hunger-strike calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 20:51 GMT]
Member of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Ex-Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka, Mr Eelaventhan, on his second day of hunger-strike in South Africa's Sri Mariamman Temple, in a press release, said that the "slight hunger pangs I feel now are nothing compared to the pain that pierces my heart when I see the needless suffering of my people," and echoed Tamil diaspora in demanding the international community to bring about an immediate and permanent ceasefire. 'He [Eelaventhan] is also calling for humanitarian aid, supervised by INGO's, to be allowed to reach the Tamil people affected by the war. He asks that local and international NGO's be granted unrestricted access to the detention camps,' the press release further said.
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RSF: Colombo blocking investigations into Lasantha murder

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 09:22 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Wednesday, accused the Government of Sri Lanka authorities for "blocking investigations into the murder of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga," and urged Sri Lanka's President Rajapaksa to "assign members of the criminal investigation police to the case and to formally request the help of international experts in solving the murder." Sri Lanka was ranked 165th out of 173 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2008 press freedom index, the lowest ranking of any democratic country, the release added.
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Abductors release TNA MP's brother Raveendran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 05:14 GMT]
Selvarajah Raveendran, a lecturer of Jaffna University and the brother of Jaffna District TNA MP S. Kajendran was released Wednesday night around 9:30 p.m. at Wellawatte in Colombo, media sources in Colombo said.
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TNA Ex-MP to begin hunger strike in South Africa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 18:12 GMT]
M.K.Eelaventhan, a former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka, in a press statement issued Wednesday, announced he will begin hunger strike on Thursday, 9 April 2009 at 8:30 am at the Mariamman Temple, Mt. Edgecombe, South Africa. He said by starting his protest on "the soil from which freedom struggle of South African people was won," he hopes to draw the attention of freedom fighters nobel laureates like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu to recognize the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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Emergency extended in Sri Lanka for another month

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 19:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Parliament Tuesday adopted a motion to extend the state of emergency for another month by a majority of 81 votes when the House of Representatives met Tuesday around 9:30 a.m. presided by the Speaker of the House, V. J. M. Lokku Bandara. The motion submitted by the Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was passed with 92 MPs voting for, and 11 MPs voting against, parliamentary sources said.
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17 Tamil youths abducted, gone missing in Trincomalee, Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 14:11 GMT]
Seventeen Tamil youths have been either abducted or gone missing in the past two weeks in Moothoor East in Trincomalee district and Thirukkoayil in Batticaloa district, according to complaints made by the youths’ relatives to Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian K. Thurairatnasingam. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and paramilitary military men who operate with them come to the houses of the youths in white vans and forcibly take the youths away, the relatives said in the complaint.
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Jaffna Univeristy students continue boycott, demand Raveendran’s release

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 15:10 GMT]
“We are reliably informed that the men who took away our lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran in Colombo were in police uniform and we therefore request to reveal the place where he is detained and to produce him in a court of law according to legal procedure. We also request that Raveendran be interrogated decently and released at the earliest,” Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in a report to the media in Jaffna Thursday evening.
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JU students boycott lectures demanding Raveendran’s release

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 13:58 GMT]
Jaffna University students of Medicine, Science and Agricultural Faculties joined in the boycott of lectures launched by the Arts Faculty students Wednesday demanding the immediate release of lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran, the younger brother of Jaffna District Tamil National (TNA) parliamentarian, Selvarajah Kajendran, sources in Jaffna said. All educational activities in Jaffna University ceased as the entire students joined in the boycott which is expected to continue until the release of Raveendran, the sources added.
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