Canadian Memorial Stamp issued for late Navaratnam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 16:17 GMT]
A set of Canadian Memorial Stamps and First Day Cover were issued at a memorial function in Toronto Saturday, honoring the contribution by late V. Navaratnam, a doyen of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), the Federal Party, and who called upon the Tamil youth to fight for the establishment of a separate self-governing Tamils State in 1969. Mr Navaratnam urged the youth to fight, when he left the Federal Party and founded Thamil Suyadchi Kalaham, the Organisation for Tamil Self-Governance, after witnessing failed negotiations for power-sharing with Sri Lankan leaders for almost three decades.
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International Community's flawed approach assists Colombo- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2007, 15:07 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head S. P. Thamilchelvan, in an Interview to TamilNet Sunday, said the passive stance adopted by the International Community, which he characterized as “unconstructive engagement,” is encouraging Colombo to pursue its power-centric politics and aggressive military agenda. The International Community, while making statements that a military solution is not possible, is either unable to, or unwilling to, exert its formidable muscle to force Colombo out of the current military path, despite the patience shown by the Tigers, he said.


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"Majority Report" authors commended

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 January 2007, 19:33 GMT]
A group of Sri Lankan academics and civil activists in a letter sent to the members of the Experts Panel on Constitutional Reform Friday, said that the "Majority Report provides a reasonably compromised and remarkably consensual road map for effecting the necessary constitutional changes towards a political resolution," and added that "the onus is now on [Sri Lanka's] President Rajapakse and the leaders of the SLFP and the UNP to take the lead and act on these recommendations."
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Remains of Eelanatham Journalist cremated in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 January 2007, 11:43 GMT]
The event paying final tribute to 'Patriot' Late V. Aruljothinathan, the senior most journalist of Eelanatham Tamil daily, was held at Eelanatham office at Jeyanthinagar in Kilinochchi Wednesday around 2:00 p.m, presided by V. Sudarmani, deputy head of Eelanatham.
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Sinhalese police officer arrested in Matara

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 January 2007, 18:26 GMT]
A former officer in-charge of the Trincomalee Harbour Police was arrested Monday with a suspect, allegedly belonging to Liberation Tigers, in possession of 4.5 million rupees inside a hotel in Matara in the southern province, media sources in Colombo said quoting security forces.
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NorthEast demerger, breach of International Treaty- Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 January 2007, 06:53 GMT]
“Not only the Tamil speaking people but also the International Community are unhappy with the de-merger of NorthEastern province. Though the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka told that former President J. R. Jayewardene’s step was defective and invalid, the Sri Lanka's President Mr. Rajapakse who wants to share no powers with Tamils, seized the opportunity quickly and declared the de-merger amidst the opposition from many of his own cabinet ministers and Members of parliament. Mr Rajapakse has not only betrayed the Tamil people, but also breached an international treaty, R. Sampanthan told in the Sri Lankan Parliament Wednesday.
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Three Tamils shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 07:41 GMT]
Three civilians were found shot dead in Trincomalee Friday night. Their bodies were found Saturday morning with gunshot injuries, one at Chelvanayakapuram, about 2 km north of eastern port town and the other two at Allesgarden, where two Sri Lanka Navy sailors were wounded in a claymore attack Saturday. Uppuveli Police, conducting investigations into the killings said the victims, between the ages 19 and 30, were Tamils.
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Navaratnam, the doyen of Federal Party, passes away

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2006, 21:42 GMT]
V. Navaratnam, the only surviving founder member of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), the Federal Party, and who turned 97 last October, has passed away in Montreal, Canada at 4:10 p.m. Friday. The doyen of Tamil politics who inked the Bandaranaiyake Chelvanayagam pact and negotiated with the Sri Lanka leaders for sharing state power within a federal framework for almost three decades, came to a conclusion that the Sinhala polity would never compromise or agree on any decision to share state power with Tamils, and left the Federal Party, calling upon the Tamil youth to fight for the establishment of a separate self-governing Tamil State, as early as in 1969.
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Karunanidhi praised for message on Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 18:31 GMT]
S.P. Thamilchelvan, head of Liberation Tigers Political Division, in his concluding telecast address to expatriate Tamils in Alexandria Hall in London Wednesday to pay last respects to theoretician and political advisor of the LTTE Mr. Anton Balasingham, thanked Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, for the comfort he gave to Tamils worldwide by being the first voice to deliver condolence message from Tamil Nadu, and to Ms Adele Balasingham for her three decade long service to welfare of Tamil women and for her motivating support to her husband's service as the "Voice of Tamil Nation."
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"Colombo on genocidal war path" - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 December 2006, 23:50 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head, S. P. Thamilchelvan, in his address on International Human Rights Day held in Kilinochchi Sunday, stated that the Sri Lankan Government, depriving the Tamil people of their fundamental birthrights such as the "right to life, right to national identity and the right to homeland," and disabling the Ceasefire Agreement with its presently introduced "Prevention of Terrorism" act, was on a "genocidal war path," violating not only human rights laws, but also the Geneva humanitarian laws by carrying out bombardments on hospitals and schools. "Tamil people stand deceived by the membership conferred on the Sri Lankan state to the newly formed Human Rights Council."
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Re-opening of landroutes, non-negotiable humanitarian priority - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 10:15 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head, S. P. Thamilchelvan, Friday told media after meeting Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer in Kilinochchi, that the re-opening of A9 and A15 landroutes constituted basic humanitarian priorities for the survival of the civilian population. "It is critical that the International Community addresses the issue of Colombo's cooperation in re-opening of A9 and A15 landroutes ensuring the Tamil people their top-most basic humanitarian need," Mr. Thamilchelvan said. Tamil people are at the verge of losing hopes in Norwegian facilitators, the SLMM and the International Community for failing to condemn Colombo for refusing to re-open the landroutes, he said.
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LTTE officials dismiss conflicting press reports

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2006, 07:01 GMT]
Director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan and Military Spokesman of the LTTE, Irasaiah Ilanthirayan Thursday jointly dismissed press reports that cited SLMM officials as saying that the Tigers had conveyed a message to Colombo following the policy address by the LTTE leader. "Our National Leader, in his policy address, has clearly explained everything that was needed to be conveyed to Colombo," Mr. Ilanthirayan said. The LTTE leader, Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, in his policy address on Heroes' Day had accused Colombo for having conducted the funeral rites of the Ceasefire Agreement without tearing it apart.
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Iceland Foreign Ministry official meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 00:15 GMT]
Anna Johannsdottir, Head of Crisis Response Unit of the Iceland ministry of foreign affairs, accompanied by Chief of Staff of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Jon Oskar Solnes, and Acting head of the SLMM, Thofinur Omarson, met with LTTE Political Head S. P. Tamilchelvan in the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi Tuesday 11:00 a.m., sources in Kilinochchi said.
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Body of abducted youth found in Irupalai

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 12:19 GMT]
The body of a youth who disappeared from Irupalai at 2:40 p.m. Saturday was found with gunshot wounds along the Stadium Road in Irupalai Monday morning, Kopay police said.
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LTTE leader participates in Heroes commemoration event

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 08:22 GMT]
Leader of Liberation Tigers, Velupillai Pirapaharan, took part in a commemoration event held in Vanni Saturday when the three-day long 'Tamil National Heroes Day' remembrance events were inaugurated. From 27 November 1982, when the first LTTE fighter Lt.Sanker was killed, until 20 November 2006, a total of 18,742 fighters have died, all of whom have been declared War Heroes by the LTTE. 818 LTTE fighters, 568 men and 250 women fighters of the LTTE, have been killed in a largely defensive war faced by the Tigers in 2006. The list also includes members of Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS) and selected members of other organisations.
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Colombo ignoring humanitarian catastrophe - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 15:49 GMT]
Colombo was engaged in "last minute tactics to placate the international community," prior to a scheduled meeting of Co-Chairs in Washington, by dispatching a single lorry into Vaharai where 38,000 civilians were starving for the past fortnight. Likewise, Colombo was showcasing to the media that it would dispatch a single convoy of supplies through A9 into Jaffna where 600,000 Tamils are under military siege in an "open prison," charged S. P. Thamilchelvan, political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Monday.
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Kilinochchi remembers Raviraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2006, 00:07 GMT]
"Nadaraja Raviraj went to the doorsteps of his people, observed their living conditions, understood the daily struggle of our people, and exposed the atrocities and human rights violations committed against the Tamil people by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). His activities were a threat to the extremists who have succeeded in taking his life," said C. Ilamparithi, the Jaffna political head of Liberation Tigers, Wednesday in an event held to remember the slain parliamentarian, held at Kilinochchi Cultural Hall, 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, sources in Kilinochichi said.
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LTTE Political Head condemns Raviraj assassination in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 11:02 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Political Head S.P.Thamilchelvan condemned the assassination of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj and accused the Sri Lankan state as responsible for the systematic slaying of humanitarian and democratic voices of Tamils. "Mr. Raviraj was slain in Colombo where he voiced against the abductions and killings carried out by the Sri Lankan military and it's paramilitaries," he said.
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TNA calls on Sri Lanka to uphold 1987 merger

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 November 2006, 15:20 GMT]
Saying that the Sri Lankan state’s recognition of the Tamils’ historical existence as a people living in the Northeast of the island was realised in the establishment of the Northeast province in 1987, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), charged Tuesday that it was the duty of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government to uphold the merger as it constituted a recognition of Tamil grievances. The TNA is expected to pass a resolution as Sri Lankan Prime Minister is reported to have told the Parliament Tuesday that a "future merger" would be dependent on a referendum in the East.
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Colombo intensifies attacks in Vanni, Vaharai

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 November 2006, 22:34 GMT]
Four civilians were killed and six wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery shelling in Vaharai in the East, and a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadre was killed and two wounded in Pooneryn, Vanni, Friday, as SLAF intensified air raids across Northeast, sources in Kilinochchi said. The attacks continued despite Colombo's commitment to cease violence at the negotiating table in Geneva last weekend, and Co-chairs' indignation over the bombing of a house in Kilinochchi that killed five persons and damaged Kilinochchi Hospital.
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