Tamil Nadu Police detains Vaiko, Nedumaran, Rajendran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 15:13 GMT]
Tamil Nadu police arrested Wednesday Vaiko, the leader of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam, Pazha Nedumaran of Tamil Nationalist Movement, Viduthalai Rajendran of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam and 160 activists including 23 females as they marched in protest towards the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai demanding the closure of it. Mr. Pazha Nedumaran, in a statement issued Friday, had condemned the Indian state for lack of response as Sri Lanka Navy continues to kill Tamil Nadu fishermen while the Sri Lankan government which has been waging a genocidal onslaught on Tamils has gone to the extent of propping up a campaign against the UN office in Colombo, sources in Chennai said.
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No peace without justice, says Obama's envoy to Srebrenica

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 03:24 GMT]
On the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, Samantha Power, Director of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the National Security Council in the Obama administration on her way to deliver message from President Obama in Srebrenica-Potocari memorial said, "as a factual matter, as a historical matter – it is very difficult to see lasting peace and stability without this kind of justice. So the more Serbia recognizes, the Bosnian government recognizes what atrocities were committed by its forces, the Croatian government grapples as well, more progress you will see and the more forward we move."
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Seeman’s arrest draws media attention in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 17:01 GMT]
The arrest by a special team of Chennai police of Seeman, a popular film director and leader of Naam Thamizhar movement at Chepauk in Chennai Monday night along with thirteen of his supporters have drawn the attention of the media in Tamil Nadu including The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle and Expressbuzz.com. The gruesome way the Tamil Nadu fisherman Sellappan was beaten to death by the Sri Lanka Navy on 09 July had provoked strong reactions in Tamil Nadu. Sri Lanka Navy has killed 537 Tamil Nadu fishermen either by shooting or beating to death, according to Mr. Seeman.
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MIA's album-release grabs US headlines

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 10:24 GMT]
Washington Post called Jaffna born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam (popularly known as MIA) the "most innovative and dynamic pop star of her generation" as it covered the story of MIA's release of her third album "Maya" Tuesday. The British Guardian, writing about the British singer's popularity before the release of her album said that "she speaks out in support of Tamil citizens," and that "[h]er assertions that the Sri Lankan government is guilty of the genocide of local Tamils have not been going down well."
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War crimes and human civilisation

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 08:19 GMT]
A war will not end without the delivery of political justice to the core issue. Even the winners who waged World Wars for the monopoly of colonies couldn’t escape conceding independence to colonies. USA and India bungling political justice to the national question in the island will have a bearing on Afghan War, Western Civilisation and on Indian integrity. The solidarity of Eezham Tamil diaspora is as important a trump as the geopolitical trump of Sri Lanka. In its historic duty to its nation and to civilisation, the diaspora without succumbing to lures should intensely align with the people of Tamil Nadu and progressive Sinhalese in realising political justice and in seeing no others ever suffer like Eezham Tamils. The last diplomatic chance for the USA and India to make ‘strategic partnership’ a smooth affair is to jointly uphold the balance of nations in the island.
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Indian Film actress Asin visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 06:43 GMT]
Leading Indian film actress Asin paid an unannounced visit to Jaffna Sunday along with the wife of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and took part in the events in Eye Treatment Centre in Jaffna Teaching Hospital, sources in Jaffna said. Despite warning that her films will be boycotted in all South Indian States if she participates in shooting in Sri Lanka, by the Federation of South Indian Film Industry Unions, Asin is in Sri Lanka to act in a Hindi film. Asin had reportedly told media in Colombo that she is not in anyway connected to South Indian politics adding that the warning will not affect her.
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‘All roads lead to Mahinda Rajapaksa’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 19:24 GMT]
The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh advised the visiting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians to work with Mahinda Rajapaksa to find political solution, according to media reports Friday. The TNA parliamentarian A. Vinayagamoorthy was cited saying: "Prime Minister Dr Singh advised us to take along with us the Muslims, the upcountry Tamils and others and work unitedly with President Rajapaksa to evolve a solution to the Tamil problem. We told him we will try to do so." The MP further said: "We depend hundred per cent on India for help to find a political solution acceptable to our people. We will be happy if President Mahinda Rajapaksa gives us what India thinks is reasonable."
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Boat refugees ‘not Tigers’, Canada admits

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 00:08 GMT]
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) now admits it has no proof that 25 Tamils boat refugees that it labelled as terrorists and kept behind bars for months were members of the Liberation Tigers, The Vancouver Sun reported Friday. Last month, The Vancouver Sun obtained a secret CBSA report that stated there were "reasonable grounds" to believe a third of the 76 migrants who arrived on the Ocean Lady migrant ship last October were members of the Tamil Tigers.
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Batticaloa Tamils fear establishment of civil youth committees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 05:36 GMT]
Civil youth committees are to be formed in all thirty Grama Niladhari divisions in the Batticaloa police division, according to Superintendent of Police in charge of the division, I. M. Kaurnaretna. Each committee will comprise of ten youths including the Grama Niladhari of the area in charge, he said at a meeting held Monday at Batticaloa Mahajana College. Tamil residents in Batticaloa district are perturbed over the move of setting up civil youth committees in the background that Sinhalese and Muslim members of such committees earlier appointed during the war time in the Ampaarai district had engaged in burglary and robbery.
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Nedumaran calls for protest demanding closure of SL Mission in Chennai

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 10:19 GMT]
Triggered by the killing of a Tamil Nadu fisherman and violent intimidation of seven Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy on Thursday, the leader of Tamil Nationalist Movement Pazha Nedumaran, who also coordinates the alliance of Ilangkai Tamil Protection Movement, has announced a protest in Chennai on July 14 Wednesday demanding the Indian government to close down the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Tamil Nadu state. Mr. Nedumaran, in a statement issued on Friday condemned the Indian state for lack of response as the Sri Lanka Navy continues to kill Tamil Nadu fishermen while the Sri Lankan government which has been waging a genocidal onslaught of Tamils has went to the extent of propping up a campaign against the UN office in Colombo.
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Police registration made mandatory to Wellawatte Tamil residents

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 14:56 GMT]
Tamil residents in Wellawatte in Colombo division are reported to have been instructed by the police to register with the local police station immediately. An announcement had been made through loudhailers fixed in three wheelers and some vehicles Wednesday, residents of the area said. Police sources said the procedure was intended to account for the large number of Tamils who had returned from abroad and staying in several hotels and lodges.
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Asylum seekers set sail in a sea of silence

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 00:52 GMT]
Noting that asylum policy debate in Australia has re-focussed on "how to stop the boat people coming," Dr Sam Pari, spokesperson of the Australian Tamil Congress, in an article appearing on ABC, points out that "if both parties [Labor and Liberals] are serious about cutting down on asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, they need to look at the root cause of the problem and review their foreign policy in regards to Sri Lanka," and faults Australia's political leaders saying, "while our Western allies continue to publicly denounce Sri Lanka's appalling treatment of its civilians, Tamils in particular, Australia is yet to publicly condemn any of the country's [Sri Lanka's] current or past acts."
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Constitutional reforms to be further delayed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 00:10 GMT]
The proposed constitutional reforms which was scheduled to be tabled in parliament this month is likely to be further delayed by one or more months according to media reports from Colombo. The proposed reforms are yet to be forwarded to Sri Lanka's Cabinet for approval, reports further said.
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SLA demolishes Koappaay Thamizh Eezham Heroes Cemeteries

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 18:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers along with Sinhalese thugs are engaged in obliterating Koappay Thamizh Eezham Heroes War Cemetery (Thamizh Eezha Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam), the only one that remained in Jaffna peninsula, for the last three days, residents of the neighbouring villages said. The remnants of the graves, memorial plaques and monuments are taken away in the night to unknown destination, the sources added.
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SLA obliterates Tiger Heroes' Cemeteries, erects military bases

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 July 2010, 18:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which has been systematically razing to the ground without any traces the Thamizh Eezham Heroes War Cemeteries (Thamizh Eezha Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam) in several places of North and East, has in recent weeks obliterated the Thuyilum Illam at Kodikaaman in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, and is erecting a big SLA base in its place. Ellangku’lam Heroes Cemetery in Udupiddi in Vadamaraadchi had been already destroyed without any trace and the premises converted into an SLA base. The obliterated Thuyilum Illam is now enclosed by barbed wire fence and hidden by coconut cadjans where a large number of SLA soldiers are hurriedly constructing a base. Tamil circles view the systematic destruction of Tamil war heroes' cemeteries and the symbols of the Tamil struggle in north and East as part of a large-scale genocide programme on Tamils by the Sri Lankan state.
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ITAK stalwarts in Jaffna oppose TNA abandoning alliance concept

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 18:39 GMT]
The concept of TNA as a broad alliance has become a legacy with Suresh Premachandran's move in convincing Mr. Sampanthan to make the alliance into a political party, blame opponents of the latest move by the TNA hierarchy, which has applied to register the alliance as a political party. The TNA has applied to register itself as a political party with R. Sampanthan as the leader and Mavai Senathirajah representing ITAK, Suresh Premachandran of EPRLF Suresh faction and Selvam Adaikalanathan on behalf of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), as joint secretaries.
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Tamil groups meet US War Crimes Ambassador

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 00:16 GMT]
US and UK representatives of Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) met with Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues, Stephen Rapp, and his staff at the Washington offices of the State Department on Wednesday morning, sources from Washington said. The meeting focused on the credibility of Sri Lanka's internal efforts, progress of external efforts by the US government and the United Nations, continuing militarization of the NorthEast, progress on resettlement, the expectations of the Sri Lanka's local commission, and the status of Tamil Prisoners of War.
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Clash of Roadmaps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 19:33 GMT]
The Mahinda – KP move handled by the military intelligence of Sri Lanka, whether a culmination of a long-term strategy or a move to probe the diaspora, is now backfiring against Colombo, is backfiring against some international actors harping on wrong notions of reconciliation and is backfiring against some elements in the diaspora which were long dreaming on the success of this move to trail behind with their tangential politics.
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Power of ideology sustains Tamil struggle: Gulf News

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 09:53 GMT]
Gulf News, a newspaper published from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, in an Op-Ed article on Wednesday said the idea of separate state for Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka is kept alive by the 'power of ideology' although Colombo managed to win the war on LTTE with a 'single-minded' approach. Although it is a softer doctrine, it is capable of gathering momentum over a period of time, the paper said. "Judging by the recent sequence of events, the past may, by all accounts, come back to haunt Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse," the editorial said adding that the onus is on Rajapakse's government to address the plight of the Tamils sooner rather than later.
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Australian War Crimes motion illustrates paradigm shift

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2010, 19:25 GMT]
Australia is expected to back international calls for a war crimes probe in Sri Lanka after a motion urging national support was passed in parliament on Thursday. The motion, put forward by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, comes amid a significant paradigm shift in the orientation of Australia’s Tamil Diaspora, many who have looked to the Greens Party, seen as the “3rd force” in a two-party preferred political system. The formation of Australian “Tamils for Greens” (TFG), a largely voting youth initiated advocacy group, illustrates shifting alliances and growing disenchantment towards the Labor and Liberal parties, whom, despite harbouring sympathetic parliamentarians towards the plight of Eezham Tamils, have remained largely nonchalant in their orientation towards the social and political struggle of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka.
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