First day of British Referendum draws to a close

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 02:00 GMT]
As the first day of voting in Britain's referendum comes to an end, preliminary reports indicate that several thousands of British Tamils have cast their vote, reports TamilNet UK correspondent Saturday. The referendum is to re-mandate the fundamentals of the Vaddukoaddai Resolution passed in 1976, which Tamils overwhelmingly mandated in the 1977 general elections proclaiming their desire for an independent and sovereign state in the contiguous North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. An important achievement of the referendum is that it has made the determined people to righteously defy the 'taboo' on Tamil Eelam imposed by an amendment to the constitution by Colombo in 1983, conspired by New Delhi in 1987, insinuated into the peace communique by the West in Oslo in 2002 and endorsed by Karunanidhi in 2009, diaspora circles in UK said.
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Brisk early voting in UK referendum

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 13:24 GMT]
Initial reports indicate close to a thousand votes have been cast in the first hour of voting in the referendum being held in the UK this weekend. British Tamils are holding the referendum to re-mandate the Vaddukoddai Resolution passed in 1976, demanding an independent state of Tamil Eelam for the Tamils living in the island of Sri Lanka.
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Perumaa’l temple consecrated in Myanmar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 11:25 GMT]
Tamils in Myanmar impressively consecrated a renovated Perumaa’l temple in Yangon on Wednesday morning. Several thousands of Tamils participated in the ceremonies. A 13th century Tamil inscription in Myanmar records that a Perumaa’l temple patronized by Tamils existed at the earlier capital at Pagan.
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British Politicians express support to Tamil referendum

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2010, 17:16 GMT]
Robert Evans, former Member of European Parliament from Britain and Labour politician, urged the diaspora Tamils in UK to participate in the referendum this weekend, saying that the message should go to Mr. Rajapaksa and the Colombo government should know what the diaspora thinks. Meanwhile, Conservative Parliamentary candidate Andrew Charalambous, strongly supporting the referendum, said: "If I had a chance to vote or I were a Tamil, I would be the first to vote." He called for loud expression and said the referendum should be recognised within Sri Lanka itself. Mr. Charalambous urged the diaspora to vote to show the International Community that Tamil Eelam is alive and is a physical reality.
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British Tamils embark upon significant referendum this weekend

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2010, 07:06 GMT]
The referendum on Tamil Eelam scheduled to Saturday and Sunday in UK, organized in unison by all main stakeholders of Eezham Tamil nationalism, is going to be very significant, said diaspora circles. Apart from the size of Eezham Tamil population in UK, the significance actually lies in how the public spirit is going to be demonstrated through participation, as it holds the key in inspiring all united democratic efforts in future everywhere in the diaspora, they further said. The referendum is on re-mandating the main particular of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 that called for the formation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. After Eezham Tamils in 6 countries endorsing it by overwhelming 99%, the ballot in the country of the former colonial masters fundamentally responsible for the plight of Tamils, has a particular bearing.
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"Referendum on Eelam is our right and responsibility"

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2010, 04:42 GMT]
"Diaspora Tamils live in established liberal democratic states with freedom of the press and where the rule of law is invariably observed. This weekend’s referendum in Britain provides us with a chance to prove that the demand for Tamil Eelam is, as it always was, the well reasoned conclusion of rational, free-thinking, independent individuals. By endorsing an independent statehood, we demonstrate our commitment to our people in the island and make clear and that there can be no peace or reconciliation without a just solution, without freedom and equality for the Tamil nation; and that it is stability, not chaos we seek in our homeland," comments Sivakami Rajamanoharan, member of the TYO-UK (Tamil Youth Organisation – United Kingdom), on the forthcoming referendum in UK.
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Tamils pay tribute to Holocaust victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 January 2010, 03:56 GMT]
American Tamils join the world humanitarian community in remembering and paying tribute to the victims of the Holocaust at the hands of Nazi Germany, honoring survivors and supporting the recognition of this day internationally, said United States Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) in a press release issued Monday. Noting that the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is of special significance to Tamils, the release added, "[t]he 2009 onslaught by the mono-ethnic Sinhala Sri Lankan armed forces claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians under the guise of a “humanitarian operation”...The plight of Tamils continues, with internment, separation of children from their parents and the holding of people in detention under secret conditions."
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Eezham artist presents heritage as everybody’s property

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 January 2010, 01:53 GMT]
An unconventional artwork of diaspora heritage, Imag(in)ing ‘Home’ presented by Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan, Lecturer in Art History of the Fine Arts Department of the University of Jaffna, with the participation of Eezham Tamil community in Vancouver, Canada, is now in display in an Art Exhibition of the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada. What Shanaathanan did last September was asking the members of the diaspora in Vancouver to bring anything that reminds them of the heritage of ‘home.’ 300 objects thus collected, prompting historical as well as structural analysis, were put into plastic bottles and like a collage giving collective meaning they make an innovative display now in the exhibition titled Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures, opened last Saturday.
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Democracy in Sri Lanka: new lessons add to old ones

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 13:59 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa gains a victory of big margin in the presidential elections of Sri Lanka and this has not surprised Tamil nationalist circles. The voters of Sinhala Nation have very clearly endorsed a regime accused of genocide and war crimes against Tamils. Democracy insisting the need to recognise two Nation States in the island is an old lesson. But the new lesson is to the International Community, especially to the West that is slipping for the third time within one year, first in stopping the war, then in human rights action in the UN and now in bringing out a 'democratic' regime change. There is also a lesson to revisionist Tamil polity and media that wasted the crucial time of Tamils by harping on regime change and not concentrating on the own political organisation of Tamil nationalism.
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Genocide a national policy of Sri Lanka, says Tamil Nadu professor

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 11:59 GMT]
Genocide is a national policy to State in Sri Lanka since independence, says Professor Dheeran in Tamil Nadu in an article sent to TamilNet, citing the various facets, stages and sequences of State-orchestrated genocide against Tamils in the island, denying land, suffrage, polity, economy, culture and ultimately free physical existence. Eezham Tamils have more reasons to claim independence than many other such cases. The twist of the national question by the International Community only resulted in removal of guarantee against genocide. It paved way for China’s entry. The new equations provide new opportunities for the recognition of Tamil Eelam. The diaspora, free and powerful enough, should be steadfast in the only goal of liberation. Referendum is an international way to achieve it and efforts of re-mandating Vaddukkoaddai Resolution follow that line, he writes.
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Democratic elections, a mockery in Sri Lanka: Pandian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 06:51 GMT]
When there is an ongoing genocide and thousands of Tamil speaking people are still kept in concentration camps, when people are denied freedom of movement, when arrests, disappearances and rapes are being reported on a daily basis, when independent media is not allowed to visit and document the plight of the Tamil people, and when the country is behind an iron curtain, holding elections is a mockery, said D. Pandian, the state Secretary of the Communist Party of India in Tamil Nadu. The war was not conducted by the Sri Lankan government alone. It was aided by the Indian government. "As an Indian citizen, I am ashamed that the country of Buddha and Gandhi helped a murderous government to slaughter innocent people," he further said.
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Australian of the Year demands release of refugees

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 January 2010, 16:28 GMT]
Mental health expert Patrick McGorry has slammed the Australian Government’s policies of mandatory detention of asylum seekers on offshore facilities, labelling the centres "factories for producing mental illness" and urging Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to free refugees, including hundreds of Tamils, currently being detained there.
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“Vote to empower parliament” - Jaffna University Student Union

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 January 2010, 02:53 GMT]
“We extend our full support to change the presidential system of governance by voting in the presidential election,“ Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) said in a press report released Sunday titled ‘Let’s vote to empower parliament’, sources in Jaffna said. “We do not have any hope in either of the principal candidates in this election but taking the past experience into consideration and on realizing the value of the lives lost, we lend our full support to bring in a change in the government,” the report further said.
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Referendum conducted in exemplary way in Switzerland

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 January 2010, 02:53 GMT]
99.49 percent of 16,441 Eezham Tamil voters who participated in the referendum in Switzerland Saturday and Sunday mandated the formation of an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. The referendum was organised by a coalition of 2nd generation Eezham Tamils in Switzerland and the task of conducting the ballot process was undertaken by an independent election commission that was headed by M. Pagani, ex-Mayor of the city of Biel and participated by journalists, politicians and members of Young Socialist Party (JUSO) of Switzerland. Well-covered by the Swiss media, Pia Holenstein, a member of the federal parliament, described the process as something neatly organised and is exemplary.
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Voting Mahinda or Fonseka is submission to Colombo-centric system

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 18:10 GMT]
Eezham Tamils need not bother much about the outcome of the presidential elections. Whether Mahinda or Fonseka matters the same, says a senior journalist in Jaffna. Only the war criminals, their international abetters and the geopolitical competitors have to worry about the elections and it is their problem. Tamils have to concentrate in organizing their own polity and in demonstrating it. But if they abstain from voting there are people waiting to stuff the boxes. If Tamils want to register opinion and see neither of the main candidates get 50 percent they should cast the first vote to a third person and of all the candidates the moral obligation of Tamils is to vote for Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne. Looking upon the Colombo-centric system is the curse of Tamils for ages and instead of destabilising it, any participatory politics amounts to only submission to the system, he further said.
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“Tamils’ votes indispensable to send Mahinda home” - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 03:55 GMT]
“The votes of Tamils are of great value in this presidential election,” Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader, R. Sampanthan said Saturday in a big election campaign meeting held Saturday around 3:00 p.m in Nalloor Chaddanaathar Koayil area, in which nearly four thousand people from various parts of the peninsula participated, sources in Jaffna said. “After considering various pressing issues including the resettlement of Vanni people in their places we decided to offer our support to Sarath Fonseka,” he said. “He agreed to consider our demands favourably while Mahinda was not prepared to give in on any of them and therefore we decided to support Sarath Fonseka in this presidential election,” Sampanthan further said.
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'Conquerors feed language to the conquered'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 01:45 GMT]
The signboard in the illustration, displayed outside of a newly started food joint along the A9 Highway in the Tamil heartland of Vanni is self-explanatory. This should open the eyes of those who still don’t want to see Sri Lanka and Tamil Eelam are two countries of two different nations, the former colonising the latter after conquest, commented a Tamil academic in Jaffna. With the opening of the highway after the war, nuclei of new townships are planned along the highway with military establishments, Sinhala trade and Buddhist temples. Already they have become new halting places for the buses operated by the government. This ‘development’ plan is to eventually push the native population to the hinterland and to demographic oblivion, cautions a senior Tamil civil servant now engaged in development work.
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Stiff sentences for pair convicted in New York arms deal

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 January 2010, 12:51 GMT]
Eastern District Court of New York Friday sentenced two Sri Lankan Tamils, Sathajhan Sarachandran and Nadarasa Yogarasa, to 26 years and 14 years in prison respectively, in connection with their attempt to purchase weapons for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in the U.S.A. Defendants were Caught in an FBI undercover sting operation attempting to purchase surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers, and hundreds of AK-47 automatic rifles, the press release said. Material support to to any organization designated as an FTO is illegal in the U.S.
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Exiled journalists condemn state media abuse in presidential election campaign

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 January 2010, 11:38 GMT]
Journalists for Democracy (JDS), a Germany-based media advocacy group consisting of members exiled from Sri Lanka on Saturday warned that the withdrawal of the competent authority appointed to monitor state media during the pre-election period was a clear indication of the inability of the nominally democratic institutions to restrain the ruling party practice of using every weapon in its arsenal to bring down democracy in Sri Lanka. With only a couple of days to go, JDS is afraid that the multitude of unfavourable developments, including the inability of institutions set up to guarantee fairness to citizens in Sri Lanka, will lead to an election where democracy and free expression will become an inevitable casualties.
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Malabar, Maabar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 January 2010, 02:16 GMT]
The hillside,
The crossing place
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