Tamil Nadu MPs delegation to see IDP internment camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 11:45 GMT]
Eight Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu, from the ruling Congress Party and its supporting political parties Dravida Munetra Kazhakam (DMK) and Viduthalai Chiruththaikal (VCK) are expected to arrive in Colombo Sunday and from there they will be taken to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa where the Vannin IDPs are detained, sources in Colombo said. Meanwhile, opposition parties in Tamil Nadu and India including Communist Party have expressed their strong protest for not having included any MP from the opposition or prominent leaders who had stood up for Eezham Tamils for many years. Sri Lanka government intends to take this delegation on a ‘guided tour’ to ‘selected spots’ in an effort to hide the true conditions under which the IDPs are suffering, representatives of IDP welfare organizations said.
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English Bishops condemn conditions in Sri Lanka camps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 02:31 GMT]
Two English Catholic bishops who recently returned from Sri Lanka are calling for the end of forced confinement of nearly 300,000 Tamil survivors of the government’s final offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Bishop John Rawsthorne of Sheffield and Bishop John Arnold of Westminster have just returned from an eight day tour of the country, where they were looking at work of CAFOD with partner Caritas Sri Lanka. A report by the Independent Catholic News (ICN) quoted the Bishops noting the “serious overcrowding and inadequate food and health services” in the camps and the need to hold the Sri Lankan government to account.
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No change in dire camp conditions - CAFOD

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2009, 11:41 GMT]
As monsoon floods loom, CAFOD (Catholic Fund for Overseas Development) has called on Sri Lanka’s government “to end the forced confinement” of hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians. “Nothing has changed over the last three months for the people that are living in the camps. They are overcrowded with poor sanitary conditions and inadequate health care,” CAFOD’s head of international programmes said this week. Another CAFOD official who visited one of the barbed-wire ringed militarised camps told the BBC this week that “a potential crisis could brew there if the rains come through and those camps are still as congested as they are [now].”
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600 Hindu, Catholic priests allowed to leave internment camps in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 August 2009, 16:04 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka Wednesday freed around 600 Hindu and Catholic priests who were held in internment camps in Vavuniyaa. They had fled Vanni when Sri Lanka Army launched its military operation against LTTE in Vanni region. A total of 571 Hindu priests, six Catholic priests and two nuns were allowed out while 220 nuns are still held in the camps.
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Tamil Nadu government erases the word 'Eezham'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police was seen pasting white papers on the word 'Eezham' and on the picture of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, figured in the banners and posters of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchi (VCK) organised uprising in Chennai attended by more than 100,000 people Monday. The VCK's annual uprising day, conducted on the birthday of its leader Thol Thirumavalavan, has chosen the theme 'Ezhum Thamizh Eezham' for this year. The phrase can either mean the 'rising Tamil Eelam' or 'Tamil Eelam will rise'. The word 'Eezham' is the earliest reference to today's island of Sri Lanka, found in Tamil literature and inscriptions of pre-Christian centuries.
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Castes, religions and Eezham Tamil nationalism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 23:34 GMT]
“Tamil nationalism needs to realise its potentialities and weaknesses in making it progressive, benevolent and an internationally recognised culture in the future world,” writes Opinion Columnist Ampalam. “The secular linguistic identity of Tamil nationalism, based on a classical language in which more than two millennia of human experience and discourses both spiritual and temporal are recorded, and its inclusiveness cum plurality are strong points in making criteria for nationalism and in contributing to the paradigm ‘culture and development’. But jingoism of religions, which soon will be used as cards by imperialisms regional as well as international, and castes cum hierarchies old as well as new, are the liabilities,” he further writes.
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Percival was not an apostate - Prof. Hoole

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 22:54 GMT]
“The late Rev. Dr. Kingsley Muthiah (former President of the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka) has told me of cowardly verbal claims that Percival turned apostate to undermine his efforts but this is the first time I have seen it being openly stated”, writes Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole responding to a statement appeared in a TamilNet feature that Percival deviated from evangelism and concentrated on education and accusing the article for adding another dimension to anti-Christian diatribes. Prof. Hoole says Jaffna Tamils have made an icon of Navalar as the translator of the Bible and as father of prose, but earliest Tamil prose may be traced to catechisms of the Roman Catholics.
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Do not weaken the goals and direction of Eelam struggle: Father S.J. Emmanuel

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 July 2009, 18:02 GMT]
"Let us not betray the struggle nor its goals as evolved, formulated and consolidated by the sacrifice of many thousands of combatants and civilians under the leadership of the LTTE," says Rev. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel, the former Vicar General of the Catholic diocese of Jaffna, in the second part of the open appeal to the Eelam Tamil diaspora. "Let the change of phase in the struggle from the last militant-cum-political phase to a political and international phase, not in any way weaken or water down the goals and directions of the struggle."
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Time for diaspora to stand up for homeland Tamils: Father S.J. Emmanuel

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2009, 14:44 GMT]
Former Vicar General of the Catholic diocese of Jaffna, Rev. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel, in an open appeal issued from Germany on Monday urged the diaspora Tamils to hasten to help the Tamils suffering in the island Sri Lanka. "Neither the Tamils who are suffering in silence have the strength to stand up or speak up for themselves nor the few Sinhalese are able to give their voice for the Tamils because these are quickly labelled as non-patriots, if not, traitors. The only people who can help them in some way or other are the Diaspora Tamils," he writes in his first part of the article. The second part will deal with the need to unite and organise the diaspora for further Struggle.
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Tamil Christian epitaph of significance found in Kayts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 June 2009, 02:15 GMT]
An interesting early 19th century Tamil epitaph found on a tomb in Kayts, off Jaffna, evidences the usage of the word ‘Aariyar’ in Christian context, says Professor P. Pushparatnam, Head of the Department of History of the University of Jaffna, who brought the epitaph to notice and read it. According to local media reported his finding, the tomb of one Ales Francis Cruz, died in 1827 was found behind the old customs building at the Kayts port.
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Tamil sovereignty crucial to Eelam struggle: Thirumavalavan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 June 2009, 09:49 GMT]
Indian Member of Parliament and President of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) Thol. Thirumavalavan in a statement released Tuesday called upon the international Tamil community to realize that the Tamil sovereignty, Tamil Eelam national leader V. Pirapaharan and Tamil Eelam national flag, are crucial guiding forces in taking the Eelam liberation struggle forward. He also called upon the Tamil Diaspora to fulfil this "historical and moral obligation by not only shouldering the responsibility of overcoming the present crisis situation, but also by identifying and defeating the anti-struggle forces who were trying to infiltrate the liberation struggle." He also said that the Tamil diaspora must devise appropriate strategies to attaining Eelam bearing in mind the international scenario.
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Sinhala goons destroy Jesus statue in Minneriya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 June 2009, 19:06 GMT]
A group of Buddhist chauvinist elements forcefully removed a Jesus Christ statue from Minneriya convent on June 3 and destroyed it. The remnants of the statue were found near Minneriya tank. National Catholic Association has expressed deep concern over the vandalism against the Catholic community in Minneriya in north central province.
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SLA refuses to release 6 Catholic priests detained in Vavuniyaa SLA camps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 June 2009, 19:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Command rejected a request made by Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, to release the six Catholic priests from Vanni held in one of the SLA detention centres in Vavuniyaa as they are suffering from illness, Jaffna Bishop House sources said. The Bishop had made the request to Defence Secretary to allow the six priests to get back to their parishes, the sources added.
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Thirumavalavan demands white paper on genocide of Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 16:06 GMT]
In his maiden address in the Indian Parliament Monday evening, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi President Thol. Thirumavalavan, urged the Indian Government to bring out a white paper on the genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils. He also called upon the Indian Government to change its anti-Tamil attitude. Thirumavalavan also sought to know the role of the Union Government on Sri Lankan issues and the kind of support that has been extended to the Government Sri Lanka. "Our party and our allied parties are very much concerned about Sri Lankan issues. I am sorry to say the Government of India betrayed the Tamil community in Sri Lanka," he observed.
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Jaffna Bishop seeks release of 6 Catholic priests detained in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 June 2009, 14:02 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop Rt. Rev. Joseph Saundaranayagam has despatched a letter to Defence Secretary requesting the release of six Catholic parish priests who are being held in an unknown Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp in Vavuniyaa, sources in Jaffna said.
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Catholic priest reported missing, another dies of heart attack, in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2009, 16:42 GMT]
Former principal of St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna, Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph, aged seventy, who had been serving in Vanni with six other priests in Puthumaaththa’lan is reported missing, according to the request made to ICRC by Jaffna Bishop House to find his whereabouts, Thursday. Meanwhile, one of the six priests, Rev. Fr. Mariampillai Thatheus Sarathjeevan, 41, died of heart attack while leaving Vanni with the last badge of civilians fleeing Vanni, Jaffna Bishop House sources said.
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Colombo / Kozhumpu / Ko'lumpu / Ko'lamba

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 13:46 GMT]
The point where the land bends inside
The point of the bend
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Vanni civilians in SLA detention centres to be settled in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 May 2009, 15:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna have decided to permanently settle the civilians from Vanni, now held in the SLA detention centres in Jaffna district, in three large detention centres to be located in Allaarai area in Kodikaamam and Kaithadi, in Thenmaraadchi, sources in Jaffna said. The SLA detention centres in Mirusuvil Roman Catholic Church premises and Kodikaamam Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS) will continue to be maintained, the sources added.
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Maathakal St. Thomas Church plundered

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 16:27 GMT]
Persons alleged to be Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers entering St. Thomas Roman Catholic Church in Maathakal, Jaffna, during curfew hours on a night last week, had broken the holy statues and other properties in an attempt to find gold jewelry beneath the statues, residents of Maathakal said. Christian organizations in Maathakal have brought this incident to the attention of SLN Northern region high command, sources in Maathakal said.
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SLA forcibly removes youths from its detention centres in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 May 2009, 17:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers have forcibly taken away young men and women among the Vanni civilians held in the SLA detention centres in Thenmaraadchi and Vadamaraadchi, according to NGO representatives who visited the detention centres. The family members who raised protest against the abduction of their children in Mirusuvil detention centre have been taken away from the centre for ‘interrogation’ by SLA soldiers, the sources added. SLA officials say that the youths taken away are to be placed in the SLA Special Rehabilitation Camp (SRC) located in Thellippazhai High Security Zone (HSZ).
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