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.”
Full story >>

'Lives lost yielding nothing to Colombo'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 17:59 GMT]
"It is not a question of whether Tamil Eelam will become independent. Rather, it is a question of how many lives, on both sides of the Tamil Eelam border, the Sinhala regime(s) are prepared to waste in the process," writes a reader, Mr. Poulson, in response to TamilNet's call for opinion last week. "The Sinhala polity is not interested in a ceasefire and nor are the strategic partners. Hence it must be forced upon them," he writes further in his situation analysis.
Full story >>

Only 1,000 Tigers left, war almost over – Fonseka

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2009, 13:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said Sunday that as there were only a thousand Tamil Tigers left and they were “boxed” into a small jungle area in Mullaitivu, the war would soon be won. The Tigers could not resist the 50,000 SLA soldiers surrounding them, he said. Lt. Gen. Fonseka, who spoke at an annual dinner he hosts for defence correspondents at his residence, joked that he expected most of them "to be out of work by this time next year." He wore a black shirt, adorned with a dragon strangling a tiger, Reuters reported.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu CPI, BJP leaders slam Delhi’s inaction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 22:13 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), D Pandian charged Saturday that it was not enough to merely condemn the genocide in Sri Lanka, but instead one should be prepared to embrace a martyr's death. He was speaking about VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan’s fast-unto-death over the humanitarian crisis imposed on Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s war. The senior CPI leader added that if India was capable of sending the Chandrayaan to the moon, it could at least do some lip-service to save the lives of Tamils by telling to the Government of Sri Lanka that it will not hesitate to interfere."
Full story >>

3,000 Sri Lankan troops killed in three months, Army to double – newspapers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 12:37 GMT]
Three thousand Sri Lankan soldiers were killed fighting the Liberation Tigers in the past three months, the Sunday Island newspaper reported this week, quoting government Defence spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. He was responding to opposition charges that 15,000 troops had been killed in the battles since October last year. Meanwhile SLA commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka wants to eventually double the size of the SLA to 300,000 soldiers to hold areas captured from the LTTE. A colonel of the SLA’s Air Mobile brigade was killed in a booby trap explosion in the fighting for Elephant Pass last week, the Sunday Times reported.
Full story >>

Vaiko addresses 40,000 at London Remembrance Day event

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 03:09 GMT]
Over 40,000 expatriate Tamils participated in the Remembrance Day ceremony in London on Thursday, a record turnout for the usually well-attended annual event. Vaiko, leader of the MDMK party in Tamil Nadu delivered the keynote address at the ExCel centre, London’s largest auditorium, whilst, earlier, the 2008 Heroes’ Day speech by LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan was heard by attendees as it was broadcast live via satellite from Vanni to Diaspora centres around the world.
Full story >>

Faultline of Sri Lanka’s conflict now clear - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2008, 19:50 GMT]
Pointing out that it is as Sinhalese have become more and more confident of winning the war that overt racism against Tamils has become blatant, the Tamil Guardian newspaper this week said “what is qualitatively different between the late nineties and now is the clarity of the ethnic faultline in Sri Lanka.” The paper, published Wednesday, argued “Since independence the island’s core problem has been Sinhala domination and … persecution, of the Tamils. In the global liberal bubble of the nineties, this fundamental truth was subsumed amidst the logics of underdevelopment, resource wars and so on.”
Full story >>

India is our friend, we are not against any country, remove the hindrance of ban: Pirapaharan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2008, 12:31 GMT]
While conveying his love and gratitude to the people and leaders of Tamil Nadu and leaders of India who have grasped the heartbeat of Eezham Tamils and have come forward with timely support, the LTTE leader V.Pirapaharan in his Hero’s Day speech on Thursday requested them to voice firmly for Tamil Eelam and to undertake conducive measures to remove the ban, a great hindrance to amicable relationship between India and the LTTE. “At no stage did we ever consider India as an enemy force. Our people always consider India as our friend. They have great expectations that the Indian super power will take a positive stand on our national question”, he said. The LTTE leader also requested the world powers to remove the ban on it, citing that the LTTE never schemed any act against any country and the Tamil struggle is not against the geopolitical, national or economic interests of any country.
Full story >>

Colombo spent 50 million for every Tiger it killed - Vickramabahu Karunaratne

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 20:18 GMT]
Leader of New Left Front, Dr Wickramabahu Karunaratne, in a column that appeared last week in Lankadeepa accused India for instigating the current war in Sri Lanka. After enough damage has been done, now they push Rajapaksa government to stop the war and to go for talks. “They [the Colombo government] spent 500 billions of national wealth to kill Tigers. Accordingly, for each Tiger killed, they have spent 50 millions. All this is wealth of the people. How many thousand Sinhala were sacrificed in this war? Today mounts of Sinhala dead bodies are stacked under Palmyra trees," he wrote.
Full story >>

Tamil farmer shot dead in Uyilangku'lam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 16:13 GMT]
Unidentified armed men, who came in a motorbike shot dead a Tamil civilian Sebastiampillai Selvarajah, a father of three children while he was working in his paddy field Thursday morning at Nochchikku'lam in Uyilangku'lam division in Mannaar district. The deceased also owned a cattle farm, sources said.
Full story >>

LTTE leader decorates Tiger airmen, heroes of Vavuniyaa mission

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 November 2008, 02:30 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), on Friday conferred Awards of Valour for Tiger commandos who excelled in their performance in the LTTE operation against the Sri Lankan Forces Vanni Headquarters (Vanni SF HQ) and the Tamileelam Air Force pilots and operators who took part in consecutive and successful flight operations of attack against the targets in the South and the bases of the Sri Lankan armed forces.
Full story >>

LTTE leader pays homage to Thileepan, Sankar

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2008, 12:22 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) on Friday paid homage to Lt. Col. Thileepan, a political leader of the LTTE, who fasted unto death in 1987 and Col. Sankar, a senior commander and the founder of the Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) also known as Air Tigers. Col. Sankar was assassinated by the Sri Lanka Army on September 26 in 2001 when the LTTE was engaged in peace process with the Norwegian facilitators.
Full story >>

Pirapaharan pays homage to Thileepan on 21st anniversary

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2008, 18:47 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) paid homage to Lt. Col. Thileepan on Monday at an undisclosed location in Vanni, when the Tigers commenced to mark the 21st death anniversary of Thileepan's fast to death campaign, according to LTTE officials in Vanni.
Full story >>

LTTE leader pays tribute to Black Tiger commandos on Vavuniyaa mission

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 September 2008, 04:16 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan on Thursday paid his last respects to the ten Black Tiger commandos, who laid down their lives during the Tiger operation on the Vanni headquarters of the Sri Lankan forces (SF HQ). LTTE officials told media that the LTTE leader paid his last respects with garlanding the photographs of the Black Tigers and by lighting the flame of sacrifice at an undisclosed location in Vanni. The Tiger mission destroyed the infrastructure of the joint operations command of the Sri Lankan forces in Vanni in the early hours of Tuesday.
Full story >>

Airstrike targeted SLN Eastern HQ - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 19:52 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) on Wednesday claimed that the Air Tigers carried out a successful air strike on the Eastern Headquarters of the Sri Lanka Navy located in the inner harbour of Trincomalee Tuesday at 9:15 p.m. At least 4 SLN sailors were killed and more than 35 wounded in the air strike, which inflicted heavy damage on the SLN base, the Tigers claimed.
Full story >>

TID questioned Ganesan on his visits to Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 14:08 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) on Tuesday questioned Civil Monitoring Commission Convener and Western Peoples Front Leader Mano Ganesan for six hours from 11:00 a.m. The questions were based on his peace delegation visits to Ki'linochchi during the CFA period between 2002 and 2004. The TID wanted to know if he had developed any 'special relationship' with the LTTE during the these visits. Mano Ganesan has vehemently refused any 'special relationship' with LTTE and any link with any arrested 'terrorist suspects', according to a statement released Wednesday by his office in Colombo.
Full story >>

NPM opposes granting police, land powers to PCs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2008, 01:41 GMT]
The National Patriotic Movement (NPM), an extreme Sinhala nationalist organization, said Friday that it would launch a struggle if the government accedes to the demand to devolve land and police powers to provincial councils. "Granting of such powers to provincial councils is tantamount to granting Tamil Eelam to Velupillai Pirapaharan,"said Dr.Gunadasa Amarasekara, President of NPM at a press briefing held in Colombo.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu opinion poll calls for independent Eezham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2008, 07:18 GMT]
A majority of voters decided that an independent Thamizh Eezham is the solution to the Sri Lankan crisis and solicited support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in a significant opinion poll conducted by Ananda Vikatan, a popular weekly of Tamil Nadu state in India. The outcome of the poll and its appearance in an influential media, foretell shifting paradigms in Tamil Nadu scenario, according to observers.
Full story >>

JHU accuses five UPFA ministers supporting devolution

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 July 2008, 10:54 GMT]
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), all monks' party condemned a group of ministers who have been supporting devolution of police and land powers to provincial councils according to the 13th amendment to the constitution. JHU leaders at a press briefing held Thursday said ministers in the UPFA government have formed a movement to urge the government to devolve police and land powers to provincial councils. JHU media spokesman Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe said the JHU would oppose such move and would take stern steps to crush the movement.
Full story >>

Sivajilingam seeks referendum to decide Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 July 2008, 01:42 GMT]
Let the International Community hold a referendum to get the will of Eezham Tamils for an independent homeland if it is not convinced of their sentiments shown explicitly through the events of Pongku Thamizh all over the world. Australia supported such a referendum in East Timor, said Tamil National Alliance MP, Sivajilingkam to TamilNet, when he came to address the Pongku Thamizh event held at Sydney on Sunday.
Full story >>