Norwegian Tamils demonstrate against Sri Lanka's Genocide of Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 08:09 GMT]
Norwegian Tamils marched through Central Oslo (Youngstorget) on Wednesday around 6:00 p.m to condemn Sri Lankan government for its genocidal war against Tamil people. The Leader of the Opposition, from the Conservative party (H), Ms. Erna Solberg, who spoke said that she doesn't support LTTE but she supports the right to self-determination for the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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India legally obliged to prevent GoSL's genocide against Tamils- Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 05:02 GMT]
Emphasizing that under Common Article 1 to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, India has the obligation "to respect and to ensure respect" for these Conventions "in all circumstances," Professor Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, in a communiqué sent to TamilNet says, "India must demand that the United States government prosecute Rajapakse immediately for violating the U.S. Genocide Convention Implementation Act as well as the U.S. War Crimes Act," and appeals to the Tamils worldwide and people of good faith and goodwill to mobilize behind the legal agenda set forth above [in the communique] and to pressure the Governments of India and the United States to fulfill their solemn obligations under the Genocide Convention and the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949."
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Government party paramilitary men threaten Tamil daily editors in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 00:06 GMT]
Paramilitary men of a Tamil political party that is a member of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of Sri Lanka threatened the editorial staff of the two Tamil dailies published in Jaffna for not giving prominence for the news related to their party activities or the reports issued by their party leader, according to the complaint made by the editorial staff to the Joint Media Association in Colombo, sources in Colombo said.
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South Africans demonstrate against Sri Lanka's Genocide of Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 17:19 GMT]
Representatives of the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) Wednesday took part in a demonstration that called for an immediate end to the Sri Lankan military aggression against Eezham Tamils. The demonstration was held around the Durban City Hall on February 04, 2009, coinciding with Sri Lanka’s independence day. South African Muslim Network, Minority Front and members of the South African community also rallied against the war in Sri Lanka.
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Australian Tamils mark February 04 as Black Day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 16:31 GMT]
Upto 5000 Tamils rallied during peak hour traffic through Sydney City, Australia on Wednesday 4 February to urge the Australian government to support international calls for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka as well as highlight the need for an independent Tamil homeland in response to continued acts of genocide by the Sri Lankan army upon Tamil civilians. "For 61 years the Tamils have lived without peace, justice or freedom," says Lakshmi Kathir, a high school student. "Today maybe Sri Lanka's Independence Day, but for the Tamils it is the day we lost our liberty," she added.
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Sri Lanka's scorched earth offensive must be stopped - Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 12:41 GMT]
Pointing out that "the shelling of a hospital pediatric ward Sunday in Sri Lanka gave the world a glimpse of the scorched-earth offensive Sri Lanka's government has been conducting against the secessionist Tamil Tigers," the Boston Globe, in an editorial that appeared Wednesday, said the "war has to stop," and Obama administration ought to ask for a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire, and the Asian powers providing military assistance to Sri Lanka - China, India, and Pakistan - should exert their influence on the government to halt the shooting." The globe reiterated its long standing position that "[t]he only true solution must be political: some form of confederal autonomy for the Tamil regions."
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Top US Senator calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 06:34 GMT]
In a statement issued Tuesday, U.S. Judiciary Committee Chairman and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy said that "it is imperative that the government and the LTTE agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid further loss of life, permit access to UN monitors and humanitarian organizations, and permit civilians to leave for areas of safety. The Obama administration, the British, Indian and other concerned governments, should be publicly urging the same," and added that "over the longer term, if lasting peace is to come to Sri Lanka, the government must effectively address, in negotiations which include all the main Tamil and Muslim parties, the core issues that have fueled the conflict including laws and policies that unfairly discriminate against Sri Lanka’s minorities."
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"Tamils under existential threat"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 05:16 GMT]
In an interview with BBC's Lyse Doucet in Tuesday's Newshour program, British member of the US-based group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), Jan Jananayagam, says, "[g]enocide by UN definition is an attempt to destroy in part or in whole an ethnic group. I think that what is going here becomes perilously close to at least destruction at least in part," and adds that the "existential threat to Tamils" in Sri Lanka has to be immediately recognized to avoid mistakes made in Rwanda where obstruction to recognition of genocide early resulted in the loss of thousands of lives.
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Gotabaya should be prosecuted for Genocide, war crimes – Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 22:47 GMT]
Commenting on the interview to the BBC and to the Sky TV by Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Professor Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet that “the deliberate targeting of Hospitals and Civilians by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) violates the Geneva Conventions and is thus a war crime,” and that “as a United States Citizen, Defense Secretary Rajapakse, should be prosecuted by the United States government for violating the US Genocide Convention Implementation Act and the US War Crimes Act.”
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‘For whom the Co-chairs strive,’ asks Tamil parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 21:33 GMT]
The statement of the Co-chairs released Tuesday is “regrettably based on wrong premises and aims at disastrous ends,” Jaffna district parliamentarian S. Kajendren told TamilNet. "It sounds as though the Co-directors of the current war are at a last bid attempt to save Sri Lanka, one of the worst genocidal states of our times, before it collapses under its own burden of militarization, ethnic chauvinism and human rights violations. Their approach would have been different if they really care for the lives and dignity of civilians and if they have any respect for the democratic right of the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils,” he told TamilNet while issuing a statement responding to Co-chairs' stand.
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Rajapakse, Karunanidhi governments ideologically similar: Dr.S.Ramadoss

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 19:19 GMT]
PMK founder-leader Dr. S. Ramadoss launched a direct attack on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi over the Eelam Tamils issue Tuesday. He criticized the DMK Executive Council resolutions for not containing any ceasefire demand. "Does Karunanidhi not know that ceasefire is a prerequisite for peace-talks? Does this omission not reveal that the Rajapakse Government and the Karunanidhi Government are no different at the ideological level?" he said.
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SLAF personnel being trained in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 18:13 GMT]
Eight pilots of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) are presently undergoing training at the Indian Air Force base at Thaamparam (Tambaram) near Chennai in Tamil Nadu, highly placed sources told TamilNet. News of this training spread like wildfire when the Sri Lankan Airforce personnel were taken Monday to the Chealaiyoor (Selaiyur) police-station for visa verification purposes. "People of Tamil Nadu need no further proof that this war of decimating Tamils in Sri Lanka is being undertaken at India's insistence and instructions. This confirms our fears that Indian troops have also been sent to fight there," a veteran Tamil activist told TamilNet.
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Obama greetings disregard Tamil aspirations - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 15:36 GMT]
While Eezham Tamils all over the world observe a Black Day on the occasion of Sri Lankan Independence Day on February 4, US President Barack Obama's greetings to the Sri Lankan President that hint integrity of Sri Lanka is viewed by Tamil circles as hurting the democratic aspirations of Tamils, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) pariamentarian S. Jeyananthamoorthy told TamilNet.
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The pawns of states and super states: A poetic picture of Tamil agony

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 13:48 GMT]
A Tamil academic and folklorist S. Jeyasankar aptly brings out the plight of Eezham Tamils in a recent verse of him in English. The poem found in his website is reproduced by TamilNet.
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Prominent Norwegian politician blames Sri Lanka for violating international Law

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 10:14 GMT]
Deputy Leader of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Norwegian Parliament, representing the ruling Labour Party (AP), Marit Nybakk, on Monday came hard on Colombo government for violating the International Law. "Sri Lanka should adhere to the Geneva Conventions under the prevailing war conditions," she said and condemned Colombo for committing genocide. Norwegian politicians across political parties addressed Norwegian Tamils at a public meeting in Oslo and said they were concerned why Co-chairs of Sri Lanka Peace Process are yet to respond to the current phase of the crisis.
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Hunger strike against killings of Tamil in Vanni continues, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 05:35 GMT]
More than a hundred persons including women, men, children and priests led by Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, continued the hunger strike at Paasaiyoor St. Antony’s Church Monday, calling for the immediate stop of the killings of innocent Tamils in Vanni by the government of Sri Lanka, sources in Jaffna said. The participants in the hunger strike kept praying for the safety of the people in Vanni as artillery barrage and aerial bombings continued in Vanni, killing and maiming men, women and children, the sources added. The hunger strike began at 9:00 a.m and ended at 3:00 p.m.
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'IC should act before it is too late'

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 21:26 GMT]
Colombo is now blackmailing the IC that any effort to stop the war at this juncture would boomerang in the south, destabilizing the system and disappointing the greed of those who want to eat the cake in full and have invested for that purpose in the island. It now doesn’t hide its intention of committing genocide of civilians along with its attempt to crush the LTTE in the next few days, leaving the consequences to be tackled later. Sonia Establishment’s haste is everyone's knowledge. Some powers think that by immediately dumping money for 'development' in the ‘conquered land’, Tamils can be appeased and the investors can find an outlet for the economic recession. But no one is prepared for a political solution, reflects a reader on an article appeared in TamilNet Monday.
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Focusing on demand for positive change in IC outlook urged

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 11:30 GMT]
It is a war concurrently waged by Colombo government and Sonia Congress of India on the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils and in the process committing genocide on them. The perverted international vantage of the war and the milieu facilitated the war are a result of the Bush Syndrome. Obama has come but there is no US effort to arrest the hangover, and the British duplicity on the issue also continues. It is time the world has to look at the crisis in its true perspective as a national liberation struggle and stop discussing it as a ‘terrorist’ threat or minority issue, seeking solutions within the rotten state and polity of Sri Lanka, writes a senior Tamil scholar.
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22 Tamils arrested in Colombo, BMICH declared HSZ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2009, 16:50 GMT]
More than twenty Tamil civilians were arrested in cordon and search operations conducted by the police and armed forces in several parts of Colombo since Friday, in preparation to the Independence Day celebration that falls on February 4. About five thousand police personnel drawn from outstations, have been deployed in the Colombo city to step up security. All vehicles entering the Colombo city are stopped and checked by the police, police sources said.
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SLA arrests 10 Tamils, 5 Sinhalese in Chilaw

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2009, 16:42 GMT]
Ten Tamils and five Sinhalese were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation conducted in Chilaw town Saturday by the Sri Lanka Army and police on receipt of information that some strangers had infiltrated. Houses, shops lodges and boarding houses were subjected to careful search, police sources said.
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