Police arrest owner of Poobalasingam Book Depot in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 21:10 GMT]
Prevention of Terrorism branch police arrested the owner of Poobalasingam Book Depot, Sritharasing, for sending Tamil Nadu ‘Ananda Vikadan’ weekly magazine to Ratmalana Air port to be sent to Jaffna branch of Poobalsingam Book Depot when the police at Ratmalana air port found articles and photos in ‘Ananda Vikadan’ in favour of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sritharasing’s relatives in Colombo said.
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Perpetrating civilian starvation is violation of all norms of war: LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 13:51 GMT]
"The brutalities committed by Colombo's armed forces on civilians have no precedence in any conventional war," said LTTE's Puthukkudiyiuruppu area political head C. Ilamparithy on Wednesday describing that the offensive by the Sri Lankan government denying food and medicine to civilians whom it claims as its citizens as an "abnormal violation of all norms of war." He urged direct presence of the International Community to witness the gravity of the situation by itself and urged the Tamil diaspora to engage with the IC in order to make it look at the crisis through the perspective of the affected people and to work for sending international journalists to visit and report the plight of the civilians besieged in Mullaiththeevu.
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US Congressman supports review of Gotabaya, Fonseka indictment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 11:59 GMT]
Congressman Walter B Jones representing North Carolina's 3rd District, in a letter of support sent to the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder, said that the "Department of Justice must take care to review all issues brought to its attention," in the model indictment submitted early February, and requested that the Justice Department to "review this document thoroughly." Congressman Jones serves in the House Committee on Armed Services and in the Committee on Financial Services.
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SLA arrests 10 civilians in Chilaw

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 12:06 GMT]
Ten civilians, majority of them Tamils were taken into custody in a joint cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police in Chilaw town from dawn to dusk on Monday. Hundreds of houses and vehicles were searched, media sources said.
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U.S. Tamil group urges Pacific Command not to abet Colombo's war on Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 01:53 GMT]
Citing "credible reports" from Colombo, a U.S. based activist group, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), on Monday said the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) was planning to lead an evacuation of nearly 200,000 Tamil civilians in Vanni. The plan would only serve to "exacerbate the crisis for these civilians and support ethnic cleansing in this region," the statement said and added: "Instead of an evacuation, the 'safe zones' these civilians are currently in should be strengthened, with full access for aid workers, journalists and human rights monitors."
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Unitary Ceylon was an error: British Politician

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:45 GMT]
A Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, Dr. Rachel Joyce, apologised Sunday for the error of Colonial Britain in making a unitary Ceylon out of two nations, the Tamils and the Sinhalese. “The Tamil people have lived on the island currently called Sri Lanka for millennia - in their own contiguous, distinct, geographical territory. They lay claim only to the territory they have historically lived in. In fact, the 3 million Tamils of the island constituted a self governing nation until invaded and occupied by Colonial powers – in particular Britain, who amalgamated them with the Sinhala nation purely for convenience. In retrospect, this cultural naivety was a mistake that has caused problems since independence,” she said in a meeting held at Harrow, where Bruce Fein, a constitutional expert from the United States was the guest speaker.
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Britain trying to dodge obligations to prevent Genocide of Tamils - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 04:05 GMT]
Commenting on British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's statement in the British Parliament that "a failed [UN] resolution- one that faces a veto- is worse than no resolution at all," Prof Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at University of Illinois College of Law, said that "Uniting for Peace Resolution of 1950" allows a vetoed resolution to be turned over to United Nations General Assembly for action. "The General Assembly can and must do the same with respect to the genocidal plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka [...] Britain is simply trying to dodge its own obligation under Article I of the Genocide Convention "to prevent" the genocide against the Tamils by Sri Lanka," Prof Boyle added.
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'Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society' - Sivasegaram

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 20:22 GMT]
The Indian establishment, pretending neutrality, backed overtly and covertly the Sri Lankan government, politically as well as militarily, using Chinese and Pakistani interests in Sri Lanka as a pretext, writes Professor S. Sivasegaram, a well-known academic and Marxist writer. “International concern on human rights violations, threat to the media, the state of lawlessness including killings and abductions, and other issues have been mere formalities and have never been translated into action.[…] Foreign governments and international organisations to demand that the LTTE should ‘release’ the people under its wings is wrong, without simultaneously insisting that the Sri Lankan government ends all attacks on civilians and ensures the safety of civilians wherever they are.”
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Cordon, search operation in Trincomalee stepped up

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 21:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police and the Sri Lanka Army have stepped up its patrolling and cordon and search operations in the Trincomalee town and its suburbs, where Tamils live in majority. On Friday the police took about five Tamil youths into custody in the Uppuveli Police division alleging that they were strangers to the locality and subjected them for severe interrogation.
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Chennai journalists demand Vithyatharan's immediate release

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 19:34 GMT]
Over a hundred journalists held a demonstration in Chennai near the State Guest House on Saturday to condemn the increasing attacks on the media in Sri Lanka and the recent abduction and arrest of well-known Tamil newspaper editor Nadesapillai Vithyatharan. The participants were from the Chennai Press Club, the Madras Union of Journalists, The Madras Reporters' Guild, and 'Journalists against Fascism'.
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Ghost of Bush wishes 'fight to the end'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 12:56 GMT]
The lessons of history are that actually there is nothing called ethnicities winning and losing. It is always forces of oppression and liberation losing and winning. ‘Fight to the end’ is vantage of the vultures hovering above for the spoils of both losers as well as winners. If ‘fight to the end’ is thrust upon peoples then they can’t help it. They have to fight it until the interests of those who orchestrate it are affected to the contrary or civilized world prevail upon those international belligerents. "Let us hope in the civilized world," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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UN nods ‘fight to the finish’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 04:04 GMT]
The position taken by UN Security Council Friday indicating no go beyond ‘hearing’, and the considerate briefing of John Holmes largely endorsing and trusting Colombo’s agenda and assurances for civilians, are read between the lines by international political observers as a ‘knowing wink’ at Colombo to pursue its offensive. Alternatively, the UN stance either paves way for intervention by interested powers outside of the UN or perhaps reveals an actuality that the UN can be shaken not when people face genocide, but only when ground realities endanger the Sri Lankan state, observers said.
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12 Tamil youths arrested in upcountry

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 February 2009, 08:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police Friday morning took into custody twelve Tamil youths in a joint search operation conducted in Hatton, Bogawanthalawa, Kottagala and Nuwereliya areas where Tamils live in large numbers, according to complaints lodged with Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan by the youths’ relatives.
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Stop war, negotiate interim government for Tamils: Fourth International

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 20:41 GMT]
"We, the undersigned leaders of workers' parties, demand that the government of Sri Lanka stop attacks that can destroy thousands of Tamils and agree to a ceasefire with the LTTE to start discussions in order to install an interim government for the Tamil homeland," said a resolution passed Wednesday at the International Committee of the Fourth International, consisting over 50 political parties and organisations, spread throughout the five continents of the world. Dr. Vickramabahu Karunarante of the NSSP of Sri Lanka mooted the resolution, which was unanimously accepted.
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Britain legally obliged to prevent Genocide in Sri Lanka: Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 20:27 GMT]
Since the British Foreign Minister has now publicly admitted on behalf of his Government that Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is "quite prepared to go ahead with acts of genocide," then under Article I of the Genocide Convention, the British government has a legal obligation "to prevent" this expected genocide of the Tamils by GoSL, said Professor Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, in a note sent to TamilNet.
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Lankan-ness Vs the Tamilness: thoughts of A.J. Canagaratne

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 16:48 GMT]
Is it possible in today's context to be both a Tamil and a Sri Lankan? I think it is, provided our leaders are statesmen enough to treat all communities as equal and guarantee this equality both in practice and constitutionally. Only time will tell whether the Sinhala political leadership can stop playing games of one-upmanship and indulging in political manoeuvring. It's high time they stop being fixated on a unitary state and think along the lines of a fully federal set-up to preserve the unity of this country, wrote AJ in 2005, a year before his demise, reviewing a publication ‘ Being a Tamil and Sri Lankan by Professor K. Sivathamby.
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Sri Lanka war crimes under U.S. spotlight

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 06:12 GMT]
The uncontradicted testimony of Dr. Anna Neistat, Human Rights Watch, in Tuesday's U.S. Foreign Relations Subcommittee Hearings of Sri Lanka concluded that the "Sri Lankan Armed Forces are guilty of war crimes, including the indiscriminate shelling of areas packed with displaced Tamil civilians and of hospitals; the use of imprecise multi-barrel rocket launchers; acute or complete restrictions on humanitarian aid; the operation of militarily controlled “concentration camps” for Tamil civilians without freedom of movement or communications or adequate medical or other assistance," said Bruce Fein, in a letter sent to the Subcommittee following the Hearings.
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Revise policies on Tamil struggle: Karen Parker tells U.S. Senate

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 00:55 GMT]
The twenty-six year old armed conflict between the armed forces of the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has reached a phase that can only be called genocide-like and catastrophic for the Tamil people in the north and east of the island, said human rights expert Karen Parker, Wednesday to the subcommittee of the US Senate, hearing on the situation in the island of Sri Lanka. Describing the war waged by Colombo as illegal military operations, using illegal weapons or legal weapons in an illegal manner without any international monitoring, she urged the US government to call for an immediate ceasefire and address it most forcefully to the Rajapaksa administration.
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CID grills Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 February 2009, 06:57 GMT]
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers subjected R. Samapanthan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Trincomalee district parliamentarian and leader of TNA parliamentary group to intensive interrogation Tuesday for three hours from 10:00 a.m, in the notorious Colombo ‘Fourth Floor’ interrogation centre regarding Sampanthan's statement that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are the sole representatives of the Tamils in a press meet held in the Colombo Parliamentary complex Friday. Sri Lanka Government is accusing him of expressing a view dangerous to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka, sources in Colombo said.
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Norwegian Tamils demonstrate in front of Norway parliament

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 17:57 GMT]
Hundreds of Norwegian Tamils including many youngsters gathered in front of Norwegian parliament Monday around 1:00 p.m where they urged Norway government to help bring about a ceasefire immediately to stop the genocide of Tamils in Vanni. Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) which organized the above demonstration in which members of Norway political parties addressed the gathering submitted a memorandum to Norwegian parliament.
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