Emergency session of Canadian parliament discusses ceasefire, political solution

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 08:00 GMT]
Amidst demonstration and vigil of thousands of Canadian Eezham Tamils outside, and against the backdrop of Canadian government’s call for ceasefire coupled with 3 million dollars aid to the affected, the Canadian parliament had an emergency debate on the crisis in the island of Sri Lanka Wednesday that lasted four and a half hours. Cutting across party lines members were vocal in stressing the need for immediate ceasefire and federal perspectives of political solution. The balance of the debate was heavily against the Colombo government.
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Civilian sufferings unacceptable – Danish FM

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 06:31 GMT]
“The Danish government, greatly concerned about the situation of the civilians in the conflict areas in North Sri Lanka, is following the situation closely as well as is engaged in exerting pressure on the parties in conflict through institutions including the EU,” Denmark Foreign Minister, Per Stig Møller, said in a report 3 February. Around 4000 Tamils staged a demonstration 4 February starting from Copenhagen Town Hall to the entrance of the Danish Parliament, sources in Copenhagen said.
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Indian Home Minister, Foreign Minister differ on Colombo's war

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 02:17 GMT]
"We are not happy that the Sri Lankan government has resumed hostilities," said India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who said the LTTE must lay down arms and come to the negotiating table. However, within a few hours after his statement, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the Sri Lankan military offensive by saying: "Along with military offensive, the Sri Lankan government should ensure that the lives of innocent civilians should be protected."
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U.S. Tamils urge Ambassador Rice to intervene in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 17:01 GMT]
More than 300 Tamils from New York/New Jersey area held a rally Wednesday afternoon in front of the U.S. Mission to U.N. to highlight the plight of Tamil civilians subjected to daily intense artillery attacks in Vanni, and the persistent human rights violations of the Sri Lanka military. The representatives of the awareness rally in a memorandum addressed to U.S. Ambassador to U.N., Susan Rice, noted her "passion and commitment to prevent genocide," and urged U.S. to "take immediate action to halt the genocide against the Tamils."
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IC abandons hope in liberal peace, seeks to live with Sinhala chauvinism - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 15:53 GMT]
The Co-Chairs statement this week marks the final collapse of the international liberal project in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Guardian newspaper’s editorial said this week. “The international actors who swaggered up in 2001 to make liberal peace in Sri Lanka never had the stomach to take on the Sinhala state's chauvinism. Instead they long pretended it doesn't exist, even as the signs were all around. Now, when it's in their faces, they simply bow to its ferocity - and ask the Tamils to do the same,” the paper said.
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‘Choices limited for the World of Authorities’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 15:44 GMT]
“A major problem with the world authorities today is that they live in their own world and try to look at the crisis in the island through their eyes. This is neo-Orientalism,” writes a New Delhi based scholar of South Asian studies in response to the recent stand of Tokyo Co-chairs. The way the world authorities have been grooming the situation in the island of Sri Lanka, they have narrowed down their choices. Either they have to separate the two ethnicities deeply divided by a protracted war by accepting the two nation states in the island, or allow the Sinhala nation’s attempt of genocide and total annihilation of Tamil identity, facing consequences of protracted turmoil coupled with global Tamil backfire. It is for the world authorities to decide whether their interests in Colombo are that worthy or important, he writes.
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Sri Lanka rejects Co-Chairs’ call for surrender negotiations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 10:56 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government has rejected the call by the Co-Chairs (US, EU, Japan and Norway) for the Tamil Tigers to negotiate terms of surrender with Colombo. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the BBC that the government would accept only "unconditional surrender".
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Norwegian Tamils demonstrate against Sri Lanka's Genocide of Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 08:09 GMT]
Norwegian Tamils marched through Central Oslo (Youngstorget) on Wednesday around 6:00 p.m to condemn Sri Lankan government for its genocidal war against Tamil people. The Leader of the Opposition, from the Conservative party (H), Ms. Erna Solberg, who spoke said that she doesn't support LTTE but she supports the right to self-determination for the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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Government party paramilitary men threaten Tamil daily editors in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 00:06 GMT]
Paramilitary men of a Tamil political party that is a member of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of Sri Lanka threatened the editorial staff of the two Tamil dailies published in Jaffna for not giving prominence for the news related to their party activities or the reports issued by their party leader, according to the complaint made by the editorial staff to the Joint Media Association in Colombo, sources in Colombo said.
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Delhi based human rights centre condemns Tokyo Co-chair stand

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 15:46 GMT]
Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), a New Delhi-based human rights watchdog headed by Suhas Chakma, in a statement issued on Wednesday said the Tokyo Co-chairs (Norway, Japan, USA, EU), instead of mediating between government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to declare indefinite cease-fire, have failed to reflect the ground situations and remained silent on the need for ensuring respect for the laws of war. The ACHR on Wednesday issued a review titled "Mullaitivu Vs Gaza: The Tokyo Co-Chairs fail on the responsibility to protect".
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Tokyo Co-chairs' stand fails in fundamentals - TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 14:35 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance, responding to the controversial statement by the Tokyo Co-chairs, which called on the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and surrender to the Sri Lankan government, said it has been the firm and consistent position of the Tamil people that the island of Sri Lanka is inhabited by the Tamil nation and the Sinhala nation. "It is on the basis of recognising this reality and by the respective authentic representatives of these two nations, namely the LTTE and the Sri Lanka State, engaging in negotiations on how these two nations shall associate with each other for the future security and mutual benefit of both nations, can a just and sustainable solution to the Tamil National Question be found."
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Hillary Clinton, David Miliband urge to halt attacks on PTK hospital, Safe Zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 10:06 GMT]
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Tuesday jointly called on the warring parties in the island of Sri Lanka to "not to fire out of or into" the safe zone and in the "vicinity of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) hospital or any other medical structure". The statement has come, following the claims of Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that PTK hospital was a "legitimate" target, delivering a clear message to Colombo saying that the parties "must respect the international law of armed conflict. 12 people have been killed and several wounded in the attacks on the hospital so far. Meanwhile, reports from PTK said Wednesday that Sri Lanka Army was continuing to fire artillery shells on the hospital. A UN official in Colombo said Wednesday that cluster bombs have been fired on the hospital.
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Top US Senator calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 06:34 GMT]
In a statement issued Tuesday, U.S. Judiciary Committee Chairman and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy said that "it is imperative that the government and the LTTE agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid further loss of life, permit access to UN monitors and humanitarian organizations, and permit civilians to leave for areas of safety. The Obama administration, the British, Indian and other concerned governments, should be publicly urging the same," and added that "over the longer term, if lasting peace is to come to Sri Lanka, the government must effectively address, in negotiations which include all the main Tamil and Muslim parties, the core issues that have fueled the conflict including laws and policies that unfairly discriminate against Sri Lanka’s minorities."
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‘For whom the Co-chairs strive,’ asks Tamil parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 21:33 GMT]
The statement of the Co-chairs released Tuesday is “regrettably based on wrong premises and aims at disastrous ends,” Jaffna district parliamentarian S. Kajendren told TamilNet. "It sounds as though the Co-directors of the current war are at a last bid attempt to save Sri Lanka, one of the worst genocidal states of our times, before it collapses under its own burden of militarization, ethnic chauvinism and human rights violations. Their approach would have been different if they really care for the lives and dignity of civilians and if they have any respect for the democratic right of the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils,” he told TamilNet while issuing a statement responding to Co-chairs' stand.
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Co-Chairs: LTTE surrender will save Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 16:53 GMT]
The Tokyo Co-Chairs (Norway, Japan, US and EU) Tuesday called on the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms surrender to the Sri Lankan government if the civilians of Vanni are to be spared further death and suffering. The Co-Chairs said they would (thereafter) ensure an “inclusive dialogue” that will lead to lasting peace.
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'IC should act before it is too late'

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 21:26 GMT]
Colombo is now blackmailing the IC that any effort to stop the war at this juncture would boomerang in the south, destabilizing the system and disappointing the greed of those who want to eat the cake in full and have invested for that purpose in the island. It now doesn’t hide its intention of committing genocide of civilians along with its attempt to crush the LTTE in the next few days, leaving the consequences to be tackled later. Sonia Establishment’s haste is everyone's knowledge. Some powers think that by immediately dumping money for 'development' in the ‘conquered land’, Tamils can be appeased and the investors can find an outlet for the economic recession. But no one is prepared for a political solution, reflects a reader on an article appeared in TamilNet Monday.
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Explosive laden lorry discovered in Trincomalee town

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 14:33 GMT]
Sri Lanaka armed forces in Trincomalee town have been put on red alert Monday following the discovery of a lorry alleged to have been loaded with explosives near the residence of a police official of Trincomalee Harbour Police. Sri Lanaka armed forces suspect that LTTE cadres had brought the explosive laden vehicle to commit a crime in the east port town, according to media sources in Colombo quoting Police Headquarters.
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Focusing on demand for positive change in IC outlook urged

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 11:30 GMT]
It is a war concurrently waged by Colombo government and Sonia Congress of India on the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils and in the process committing genocide on them. The perverted international vantage of the war and the milieu facilitated the war are a result of the Bush Syndrome. Obama has come but there is no US effort to arrest the hangover, and the British duplicity on the issue also continues. It is time the world has to look at the crisis in its true perspective as a national liberation struggle and stop discussing it as a ‘terrorist’ threat or minority issue, seeking solutions within the rotten state and polity of Sri Lanka, writes a senior Tamil scholar.
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22 Tamils arrested in Colombo, BMICH declared HSZ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2009, 16:50 GMT]
More than twenty Tamil civilians were arrested in cordon and search operations conducted by the police and armed forces in several parts of Colombo since Friday, in preparation to the Independence Day celebration that falls on February 4. About five thousand police personnel drawn from outstations, have been deployed in the Colombo city to step up security. All vehicles entering the Colombo city are stopped and checked by the police, police sources said.
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SLA arrests 10 Tamils, 5 Sinhalese in Chilaw

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2009, 16:42 GMT]
Ten Tamils and five Sinhalese were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation conducted in Chilaw town Saturday by the Sri Lanka Army and police on receipt of information that some strangers had infiltrated. Houses, shops lodges and boarding houses were subjected to careful search, police sources said.
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