Geopolitics shape Sri Lanka’s conflict - study

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2008, 06:12 GMT]
Politics between powerful states have always been integral to the dynamics of war and peace in Sri Lanka, several contributors to a collected volume exploring the international dimensions of the island’s protracted conflict say. The study by the Centre for Just Peace and Democracy (CJPD) published this year comprises papers presented by academics and analysts at a conference held in Switzerland last June along with extracts of the subsequent discussions.
Full story >>

Jaffna Bishop's House appeal to Colombo to rebuild Allaippiddi church

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 14:33 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop House and several Catholic organizations in Jaffna peninsula appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to rebuild St. Philips Narrie’s church in Allaiappiddi in the islets of Jaffna which was destroyed in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Multi-barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire in August 2006, sources in Jaffna said. The church serves more than 80 resettled families in Allaipiddi.
Full story >>

SLA occupation of Madu, triggers fears of renewed Sinhalicisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 April 2008, 17:42 GMT]
The Madu Road junction located on Mannaar-Madawachchi Road, which branches off the main route to Madu shrine, situated in the middle of traditional Tamil area, became the center of a Sinhala settlement in the 1970s. The Sri Lanka Government had the agenda of transforming the area into a full-fledged Sinhala colony, by using the lands of a cashew farm between the Madu Shrine and the junction. However, the settlement was later abandoned, fearing repercussions following large-scale massacre and arson committed by the Sri Lanka Army in December 1984 after a landmine blast. The spectre of a Sinhalicised Madu area has now become a dangerous new reality with SLA's occupation of Madu shrine.
Full story >>

Re-negotiate Kachchatheevu: CPI urges Indian Government

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 April 2008, 09:41 GMT]
Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary D Raja urged the Indian Government to intervene in Sri Lanka's prolonged ethnic strife in view of the escalation of human rights abuses in the island nation. "Finding a solution to the ethnic crisis alone can bring about a solution to the problems of Tamil Nadu fishermen," he said. Recalling that the state Government of Tamil Nadu had protested when India ceded Kadchaththeevu to Sri Lanka in 1974, he urged upon the Indian Government to renegotiate the Kadchaththeevu Accord and facilitate Tamil Nadu fisherment to catch fish without any hindrance whatsoever.
Full story >>

Mannaar Bishop demands open declaration of Madu as Peace Zone

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 April 2008, 09:09 GMT]
Bishop of Mannaar, Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, on Saturday told media that the warring parties should openly declare the Madu Shrine and its environs as Peace Zone in order to bring back Our Lady of Madu statue to the Holy Shrine. Meanwhile Sri Lankan Defence ministry in its official news on Sunday quoted Sri Lanka Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka as saying: "those who were in charge of the statue have the responsibility of bringing it back". The SL defence ministry added that Madu "would be declared as a security zone," without specifying what it meant with the term, 'security zone.' Vicar General Rev. A. Victor Soosai on Saturday visited the Shrine for an inspection.
Full story >>

SLA enters Madu shrine

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 April 2008, 11:55 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka on Friday officially admitted that the Sri Lanka Army had entered the Madu Shrine. Analysts in Colombo observed that the move, which comes in the wake of the SLA debacle in the Northern Front, was timed to divert increasing focus on recent SLA casualties prior to the provincial elections in the east. Meanwhile, Informed sources in Vanni told TamilNet that the SLA had been stationed 1.5 km away from the Shrine for weeks and it could have entered the Shrine at any time as LTTE defensive units were strictly kept away from the peace zone.
Full story >>

Homage paid to slain Fr. Kaunaratnam in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 13:28 GMT]
More than a thousand people participated in the special Holy Mass Tuesday in Jaffna Cathedral (Kognchegnchi Maathaa Koayil) in Jaffna, paying homage to Rev. M. X. Karunaratnam, killed in a Claymore attack in the Vanni. Rev. Karunaratnam tirelessly strove to expose the human rights violations in Sri Lanka to the International Community and its various organizations including Vatican, Jaffna Bishop House Principal Priest, Rev. Justin Gnanapragasam who conducted the Holy Mass, said in his speech. People in Jaffna peninsula, for the first time since August 11 2006, assembled in large numbers at one place to participate in an event.
Full story >>

TNA condemns Father Karunaratnam slaying

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 04:32 GMT]
Father Karunaratnam was actively engaged in Human Rights related work, and as Chairman of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights, played a prominent role in the exposure of the grave human rights violations to which the Tamil Civilian population in the Vanni area were continuously subjected, said R.Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance and Maavai S.Senathirajah, the general secretary of Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in a press statement issued on Tuesday. "We deeply mourn the loss of Rev Father Karunaratnam who indefatigably served the legitimate interests of the Tamil Civilian population in the Vanni."
Full story >>

NPC condemns Rev Fr Karunaratnam assassination

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 12:08 GMT]
The assassination of Rev. Father M X Karunaratnam, Chairman of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), who succumbed to injuries sustained in a remote controlled claymore mine attack that had targeted him within the LTTE controlled territory where he lived and worked is a shocking and callous act. Fr Karunaratnam died in close proximity to his residential prayer and counseling centre which was a haven to those who suffered the travails of the ongoing war. As head of NESoHR which was set up in July 2004, as part of the 2002 Peace Process, Fr Karunaratnam worked tirelessly to strengthen the human rights protection mechanisms in the North East of Sri Lanka, the NPC said.
Full story >>

Silence is eloquence: last remarks of Rev Fr Karunaratnam

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 11:32 GMT]
Barely two weeks before he was killed in a Claymore attack, allegedly carried out by a Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army, Rev M X Karunaratnam was interviewed by the National Television of Tamileelam (NTT). While answering questions on the Madu Shrine controversy, he said, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) was entirely responsible for politicizing the issue of the Shrine as it had attempted to achieve a militarily favourable situation by choosing to launch its offensive drive through Madu, a greatly revered Catholic holy pilgrim center. The Reverend Father also explained the silence of Vatican and the Sinhala bishops.
Full story >>

Condemn Colombo for targeting Human Rights defenders: LTTE urges IC

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 06:51 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan State has targeted a human rights defender who worked for the welfare of the people," Political Division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), charged in a statement issued on Monday, and urged the international human rights bodies and the international community to condemn the continued gross human rights violations of the Sri Lankan state, and take actions without further delay to bring an end to the continuing human rights violations by the State.
Full story >>

Threat to Jaffna journalists from SLA, paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 04:20 GMT]
Journalists in Jaffna face continued threats to their lives and harassment from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers and SLA-backed paramilitaries, severely impacting news coverage, and the deteriorating media freedom may lead to a complete breakdown of newspaper publications in the North, sources close to Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians told TamilNet Sunday.
Full story >>

Liberate Calendar

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 April 2008, 23:57 GMT]
A Calendar is conceived and designed by logic and astronomy rather than emotions and myths of politics. If people don’t understand the calendar they follow, educate them. If any section of the society thinks that the calendar is its prerogative, liberate the calendar, rather than mutilating it or abandoning it. If there is any problem in the calendar it has to be investigated and corrected by a forum of astronomers, climatologists and environmental scientists, sitting along with traditional astronomers historians and Tamil scholars. Any society, which doesn’t care to investigate and understand its own heritage of science, is not going to make any progress. It will always remain in slavery.
Full story >>

12,000 Madu IDPs redisplaced, says report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 April 2008, 12:34 GMT]
More than 12,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) from Madu have moved out to safer areas along villages located close to A-32 Mannar-Pooneryn highway north of Madu, a situation report from Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) issued this week said.
Full story >>

A church in Madu destroyed, dreaded stage of ethnic cleansing, says TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2008, 13:03 GMT]
The Sacred Heart Church of the Madu Shrine complex has been destroyed in SLA shelling after the priests had taken away the image of Our Lady of Madu last Thursday, reveal the photos taken by K. Baskaran, a photographer who visited the Madu church on Sunday. "Any desecration of Madu is likely to be understood as an effort of the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism to erase out the symbols of other religions and thus serving a spiritual blow which is the most dreaded stage in the process of ethnic cleansing," Vanni District Parliamentarian Selvam Adaikkalanathan told TamilNet Tuesday.
Full story >>

All India Catholic Union condemns attack on Madu Shrine

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 April 2008, 07:45 GMT]
"There is no defence for attacking a church which has saved hundreds of refugees from death," said Dr. John Dayal, National President of the All India Catholic Union (AICU) in a statement to media on Sunday. He also called upon the "International Community which has a stake in this cauldron of ethnic strife which poses its own threat to stability in the region, and thereby to global peace."
Full story >>

Lankan ploy of Buddhism for subversion in Tamil Nadu: Viduthalai Rajendran

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 April 2008, 06:08 GMT]
Circumstantial evidence supports the hand of the Lankan government’s National Intelligence Bureau in the Buddhist temple-building campaign in Tamil Nadu, observed political analyst TSS Mani in Win TV’s News and Views, reported Tehelka Magazine, on Saturday. It further quoted Viduthalai Rajendran, General Secretary of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK), saying “ the temple-building a ploy to woo Indian Dalits and pit them against Sri Lankan Tamils on religious lines” A Sinhalese delegation of prominent Buddhist monks laid foundation stones for Buddhist places of worship in Tamil Nadu. Most of them are archaeological sites.
Full story >>

The temporal and spiritual conquest of Tamils: Mahinda's book of dreams

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2008, 07:18 GMT]
More than security concerns, the sentiments of Tamil Christians and their mistrust of Sri Lankan State seem to be the impelling force behind the decision of taking away Our Lady of Madu from her abode. Those who could look at how Kathirkaamam was confiscated from the predominance of Tamils and how the ancient temples behind the Tamil Saiva myth are inside ‘High Security Zones’, could understand the fear of Tamil Christians. The question is whether the International Community and India, which contribute to the military option, don’t understand or don’t want to understand the fact that if there is anything to be defeated militarily in Sri Lanka, it is the chauvinism of the Sri Lankan State.
Full story >>

'Sinhala regime transforming holy land into battlefield': LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 19:59 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B Nadesan in a statement issued Thursday from Ki'linochchi strongly condemned the indiscriminate shelling on the Madu Church and urged the International Community and Human Rights organizations to condemn the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for 'barbarically' transforming a sacred shrine that offered refuge to displaced people into a battlefield. He criticized GoSL for unleashing its army on an area that was ought to be free of war according to war ethics and UN conventions.
Full story >>

SLA fired shells, rounds hit Madu Shrine premises - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 15:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has launched sporadic offensive pushes from Pa'ndivirichchaan targeting Madu on Tuesday and Wednesday, LTTE's Operations Command in Mannaar told media in Vanni. Meanwhile, LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet that the SLA-fired artillery and mortar shells exploded inside the mess of the Madu shrines premises, in the vicinity of the well and on priests' quarters. All civilians, except the priests, have vacated the premises. LTTE has lost one fighter while facing the offensive initiated by the SLA, 1.5 km away from the Madu premises. The Tigers said 15 SLA soldiers were killed in two days in Pa'ndivirichchaan and 10 near Giant's Tank on Wednesday.
Full story >>