Police arrest 4 Tamils in Chilaapam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 11:15 GMT]
Munthal Police in Chilaapam district Sunday arrested four Tamil civilians including two women during a search operation conducted on receipt of information on suspicious activities in Kaddaikaadu village. The four are being detained in the police station for further interrogation, police sources said.
Full story >>

Intervene in the name of humanity: Pathmathan calls on IC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 09:20 GMT]
"Every passing day is resulting in the loss of countless number of civilian lives and alienation of the entire Tamil community," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued on Wednesday, and called on the International Community for its urgent and immediate intervention, not based on territorial or geo-political ambitions, but based on basic human values. "It is our firm view that a cessation of all hostilities would be the only mechanism that would prevent further civilian carnage and we remain committed to an immediate and permanent ceasefire."
Full story >>

Prof. Boyle: hold Emergency Meeting of UNSC to stop Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 23:20 GMT]
Pointing out that, under the current circumstances, the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the United Nation's Security Council (UNSC) provide at least three ways to convene a formal meeting of the Security Council in order to terminate the Genocide against Tamils by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), Prof. Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the Illinois University College of Law, says, failure of the Secretary General, Governments of the United States, U.K, France, and India to hold a UNSC Emergency meeting indicates that they are all quietly supporting the GoSL genocide against the Tamils from behind the scenes, despite their crocodile tears in public.
Full story >>

US violates Geneva Convention by permitting Sri Lanka to commit slow-motion genocide - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 04:26 GMT]
Pointing to the statement issued by the U.S. Department of State that after an informal meeting at the United Nations that "[t]he United States is deeply concerned by the continued unacceptably high levels of civilian casualties," expert in International Law, Professor Francis A. Boyle said, the Obama administration is violating the 1948 convention for continuing to give "green light" to the Government of Sri Lanka to destroy the LTTE no matter what the cost to innocent Tamil civilians. Lawrence Christy, the head of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) Field Office on Monday put the death toll of civilians at more than 3,200 killed during the weekend.
Full story >>

White House protest accuses Sri Lanka of civilian massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 02:32 GMT]
More than two hundred American Tamils protested in front of the White House in the Lafayette Park Monday 9:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m., accusing the Government of Sri Lanka for slaughtering more than 3000 Tamil civilians crowded into a 5 sq.km. area during Saturday night and Sunday with the use of heavy weapons including multi-barrel artillery directed into the Safety Zone. Holding banners displaying "Stop the Genocide," the protesters called on President Obama to lead an international effort to establish a ceasefire between the two adversaries, Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers.
Full story >>

Tamil Diaspora agitates as civilian death toll rises

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 19:57 GMT]
Around 2000 Tamil Diaspora men, women and children staged a protest demonstration Sunday in Toronto, Canada against the genocide of Tamils in Vanni blocking all lanes of a downtown Toronto highway for several hours, sources in Toronto said. “The Tamil Diaspora will not give up. The Sri Lankan regime continues to unleash terror on our people who have been silenced by brute force and unimaginable atrocities. ‘Mother India’ and International community remain silent. But we, the Tamil Diaspora, will see to that Justice is done. Tamil Eelam will be freed,” a protestor said.
Full story >>

Japan urged to act over Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 19:14 GMT]
Four international organisations - Human Rights Watch, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, International Crisis Group and Amnesty International - released a joint letter to the Japanese Prime Minister Monday, calling on Japan “to play a more active role in confronting the unfolding catastrophe in Sri Lanka.” The four organisations called on Japan “to support efforts for the [United Nations] Security Council to keep the situation in Sri Lanka under close and regular review and to consider the situation in Sri Lanka formally at the Security Council.” Meanwhile, American Tamils after a rally and a night vigil Friday in New York submitted a memorandum to the Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations.
Full story >>

99 percent Norway Tamils aspire for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 10:51 GMT]
In a secret ballot of universal suffrage, conducted by a Norwegian media simultaneously in 14 centres in the length and breath of the country among Eezham Tamils, 98.95 percent of the voters said that they aspire for the formation of an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. The voter turn out was a high 89.8 percent in the capital city of Oslo and an average 80 percent for the country, Utrop biweekly that conducted the ballot said. The ballot gains significance not only in democratically and concretely revealing what the Tamils want, but also in telling that the so-called Oslo Declaration that speaks about internal self-determination is not up to their expectations, Tamil circles said. A couple of days before the ballot, Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim advocated a federal solution to the crisis.
Full story >>

Pathmanathan calls for urgent international intervention

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 09:19 GMT]
Refuting the Sri Lankan propaganda that artillery and shelling against the Tamil civilians was carried out by the Tigers, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the LTTE's head of international relations on Monday urged the governments of the world to prevail upon the Sri Lankan Government to prevent it from causing a collective tragedy.
Full story >>

Grand response to Norway ballot: 80 percent turn out

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 03:41 GMT]
Around 80 percent of eligible voters among Eezham Tamils in the cities and other centres where a ballot was conducted to test the current validity of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution, turned out for the voting, Utrop news paper, which conducted the ballot, reported Sunday night. The voting took place on Sunday between 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., simultaneously in 6 centres in the major cities and in 8 other centres in suburban and remote towns of Norway. People were seen standing in long queues to cast their votes on the gist of the Resolution, whether they like an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam or not. This is the first time the question is tested through universal suffrage, 33 years after its endorsement by the Eezham Tamils in the 1977 general elections in Sri Lanka. The results are awaited Monday noon.
Full story >>

SLA continues to inflict carnage

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 01:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has stepped up relentless barrage of shelling using all sorts of heavy weapons on the so-called safety-zone (no-fire zone) in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal and Vadduvaakal areas where more than 130,000 civilians have sought refuge without adequate bunkers and shelters. Civilian casualties are mounting amidst lack of medicine and food due to limited or denied supplies into the area of 7 square kilometres. Lawrence Christy, the head of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) Field Office on Monday put the death toll of civilians on Monday at more than 3,200 killed since Sunday evening up to Monday morning. He has called on the IC to immediately invoke the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to the stop the genocide.
Full story >>

Sonia says war is over while 1200 civilian bodies are counted in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 23:56 GMT]
Congress president Ms Sonia Gandhi, sharing a platform with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Sunday said: "Our government had done everything possible to bring an end to the hostilities and it was due to our resolute efforts that Sri Lanka announced conclusion of combat operations and people moved to safer places," PTI quoted Ms. Gandhi saying. Meanwhile, the same day has seen a massive massacre of civilians in the no-fire zone by the Sri Lanka Army using all kinds of heavy weapons and aerial bombing. Around 1200 bodies were counted so far and 1125 injured managed to reach the makeshift hospital.
Full story >>

Aid workers tell donors not to fund Sri Lanka, reports Channel-4's Walsh

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 21:14 GMT]
"This is a man-made humanitarian disaster, the aid worker explained. "I am in the strange position of just keep telling all our donors when they come here to NOT to give money,"" writes Channel-4's Nick Paton Walsh, quoting an aid worker inside an internment camp in Vavuniyaa. The Channel-4 crew was deported on the directions of Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse for reporting allegations of abuse, rape, and ill-treatment of Tamils held in internment camps.
Full story >>

India should sue Sri Lanka in ICJ for massacre of 2000 Tamils - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 14:00 GMT]
"In light of the latest atrocity by the Government of Sri Lanka that overnight exterminated 2000 Tamils, at a minimum the Government of India must sue Sri Lanka for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, request an Emergency Hearing by the World Court, and win an Order of Provisional Measures of Protection --the international equivalent of a temporary restraining order-- against the GOSL to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Tamils," said Professor Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, in a note sent to TamilNet Sunday. "I stand ready to file this World Court Lawsuit immediately upon receipt of the appropriate authorization from the Government of India," Boyle further said.
Full story >>

Norway Tamils ballot-test political course

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 08:50 GMT]
"After deliberately abetting the process of ethnic polarisation to its height reaching genocide, and after creating a situation that warrants secession more than ever, the international community and India, vested with their own interests, have started talking about a federal solution. It is time that the Tamils have to democratically test the validity of the political course democratically set for them in 1976 by the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution and democratically tell the world what they want now," commented a self-exiled Tamil politician of the pre-1977 times responding to a ballot on Vaddukkoaddai resolution taking place among Eezham Tamils in Norway on Sunday.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka arrests Channel-4 journalists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 May 2009, 17:27 GMT]
Three British TV Channel-4 journalists, Nick Paton-Walsh, the channel's Asian correspondent, producer Bessie Du and cameraman Matt Jasper, who were covering the Sri Lanka conflict in Trincomalee have been arrested and are being taken to Colombo, AP reported. Channel-4's first independently filmed recent exposure coverage of the conditions of the Tamil refugees who fled the war and being in the internment camps had irked Colombo. The blatant rights violations of the Sri Lanka state had disturbed the world at large for the cavaliar fashion the state was behaving towards the civilians.
Full story >>

SLA, Police arrest 75 Tamil civilians in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2009, 15:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and Sri Lanka Police arrested seventy five Tamil youths who are residents of Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and upcountry areas in cordon and search operations conducted during the last three days from dusk to dawn in Kotahena, Grandpass, Muhathuwaaram, Wellawatte, Bambalapitya and Kollupitty. Similar operation was also conducted in Negombo, Gampaha and Kalutara, media sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

'Post-conflict is post-Sri Lankan'

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2009, 13:31 GMT]
The Norwegian peace facilitator Erik Solheim is half a century late in calling for a federal solution to the Tamil national question in the island of Sri Lanka, said TamilNet’s political commentator in Colombo. “By naming the solution in his mind, whether Erik Solhiem is resigning from his role of peace facilitation and assumes another profile”, asked the commentator. “A federal agenda upheld at this juncture is a mockery of the spirit of federalism. A successful federal set-up comes only from spontaneous and mutual consent of peoples. Warring parties of a long legacy may make federal more miserable. The bitter war unchecked but abetted by the international community in the island leads to nothing but secession”, the commentator further said.
Full story >>

MIA draws Oprah's attention to Sri Lanka bombing of safe zone

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2009, 10:42 GMT]
Oscar and Grammy award nominee, Eezham born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam (MIA), after meeting the popular talk-show host Oprah Winfrey at a gala at Lincoln Center in celebration of the most influential people list the Time magazine produced, drew Oprah's attention to Sri Lanka Government's bombing of civilian camps inside the safe zone in MIA's face book.
Full story >>

UN violating Charter obligation to promote, encourage human rights - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2009, 00:45 GMT]
Dithering in the halls of the human rights apex body, the United Nations, culminating in the recent uncharacteristic pronouncement that the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is "too-busy" to visit Sri Lanka, has prompted a legal scholar to point out that "where an individual such as the U.N. Secretary General has an obligation to act to prevent criminal activity and either refuses or fails to do so, that would render him "complicit" with the underlying criminal activity--in this case genocide." Prof. Francis Boyle said Thursday that "[t]he U.N. Secretary General must immediately travel to Sri Lanka and do all in his power " to prevent" the Government's genocide against the Tamils."
Full story >>