Ramdoss exhorts Karunanidhi to urgent action in stopping Sri Lanka war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 21:08 GMT]
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader Dr S Ramadoss, who visited VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, now in his fourth day of a fast-unto-death over the humanitarian crisis imposed on Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s punitive bombardments, exhorted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi to act urgently to invoke Indian intervention to stop the war. Emphatically refuting Mr. Karunanidhi's statement that the VCK leader had “unilaterally decided” to stage a protest fast without consulting the rest of the Tamil Nadu polity, Dr. Ramadoss said Thol Thirumavalavan, whose health is detoriarating, had consulted other leaders several times in the recent weeks.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Norway to stop Sri Lanka's genocidal war in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 16:52 GMT]
Nearly three hundred Norwegian Tamils, along with Norwegian Members of Parliament and political leaders, gathered in the premises of Norway Parliament Friday between 11:00 a.m till 1:30 p.m, and appealed to the Government of Norway to save the Tamils in Vanni in from the genocidal war waged on them by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), This is the third such demonstration by Norwegian Tamils in this week.
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India should stop war, instruct Colombo to talk to Tigers - BJP Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 12:37 GMT]
A senior leader of BJP, a major national political party of India, visited Friday Thol. Thirumavalavan, the VCK President who is on a fast-unto-death demanding the Central government of India to stop the war being waged by Colombo against Eezham Tamils. The BJP politician, Vaithiyalingam, a member of the party's national general council, declared that India, which is a powerful country in the region, cannot sit back and watch without doing anything to stop the genocidal war in Sri Lanka and added India should be specific in demanding ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam.
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Catholic priests appeal to UN to intervene in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 06:55 GMT]
Catholic priests and other religious leaders in Vanni, in an urgent letter appealed to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, to "take immediate steps to stop the senseless war and put an end to the untold sufferings of the innocent civilians," and said that the "root of the on going war is the Structural Injustice, a vehement denial of equality and dignity of the Sri Lanka Tamils..."
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CPI pledges support to Thirumavalavan's fast

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 05:13 GMT]
Veteran leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu, R. Nallakannu Thursday pledged his party's support to Thirumavalavan's fast-unto-death campaign demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Mr. Thirumavalavan blamed the Indian establishment for not asking Sri Lanka to stop war or sending Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian External Affairs Minister to Colombo, as promised. The VCK leader decried the Indian Government's inaction and said that by insulting the demands of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi, New Delhi had in effect insulted the whole Tamil population.
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"Which norms of liberal democracy preclude IC attending to exodus, genocide?" asks IDP activist

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 03:52 GMT]
The LTTE doesn't obstruct or instruct the civilians of Vanni of what direction they have to take in fleeing the current phase of war. But, a large section of the civilians have considered that their security, even now, lies in the LTTE held areas in the eye of war, and are spontaneously moving towards that direction. "Allowing the war to continue, leaving Tamil civilians in the hands of the preying Sinhala army, which we dread, demonstrates only the cruelty of the few minds that determine the course of the war from outside of the island and how international norms evolved through civilisation have become a joke," said P. Kanakalingam, the president of Vanni People's Welfare Organisation (VPWO), on Thursday.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Indian PM to stop war in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 11:22 GMT]
Around three hundred Norwegian Tamils gathered in front of the Indian Embassy in Oslo Wednesday between 2:00 p.m and 3:00 p.m in an attempt to draw the attention of the Indian state to stop the genocidal war waged on the Tamils in Vanni by the Government of Sri Lanka. Norwegian Tamil Federation (NTF) which had arranged the demonstration presented a memorandum of its requests to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by handing it over to the representative of the Indian Embassy in Oslo.
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Thirumavalavan launches fast-unto-death, demands India to stop war

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 06:54 GMT]
"Mahatma Gandhi, who fought against British colonialists didn't think of taking the side of genocidal Hitler during World War II. He was not seeking personal vengeance against the British. Likewise, the present leaders in New Delhi should also take a bold decision that they will not support the genocidal war being waged by the Sri Lankan state on Eezham Tamils," said Kasi Anandan, a well-known Eezham poet living in Tamil Nadu, inaugurating the fast-unto-death campaign launched Thursday by VCK (Liberation Panthers Party) President Thol. Thirumavalavan.
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World oblivious to Sri Lanka's genocide of Tamils, says music phenom M.I.A

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 04:06 GMT]
Maya Arulpragasam, better known by her stage name M.I.A, a British born Tamil and recent U.S. Grammy nominee, reveals that her music was shaped by her experience as a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka, and accuses the International Community for standing idle as Colombo perpetrates acts of genocide against Tamils in Sri Lanka's NorthEast. In her interview to an Indian website, Maya adds: "[P]eople need to learn that you cannot wipe out a whole [Tamil] race."
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End of peace in India’s south

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 00:40 GMT]
The people of Tamil Nadu in no uncertain terms have said what they wish and have shown their indignation and resentment to what is happening in the island of Sri Lanka. The Tamil diaspora all over the world has demonstrated its solidarity with the national question of Eezham Tamils. The people of USA have firmly voted for the revision of the politics of terrorism. But the few, clinging at the helm of the outgoing administrations of New Delhi and Washington have decided to run amok, defying local and global public opinion. While Bush leaves behind a precarious world legacy to Obama, the Sonia Congress bears personal responsibility for the plight of Eezham Tamils.
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Doctors call for attack free zones surrounding displaced hospitals

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 23:45 GMT]
In a systematic well planned militarily and politically crucial campaign, the Sri Lankan Government directed military forces are pursuing attacks on densely populated areas east of the A9 in Vanni. Often in close proximity to relocated hospitals and camps of the fleeing population, its strategy seems to be one of aerial bombardment followed by immediate ground attacks, involving heavy artillery and mortar attacks that have caused increased civilian casualties. Above statistics and ground reports, echo a plea from government service doctors in Vanni, who have called for 'attack free zones' surrounding displaced hospitals.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Norway to stop war on Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 18:24 GMT]
More than five hundred members of Norwegian Tamils' Federation (NTF) protested in front of Norway Foreign Ministry, Tuesday from 2:00 p.m til 3:00 p.m, demanding Norway to immediate intervene to stop the war waged on the people of Vanni by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). "Norway has the moral responsibility to stop the war on the Tamil people in Vanni," the protestors shouted during the demonstration.
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Thirumavalavan to fast to death, demands New Delhi to stop war in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 20:16 GMT]
Thol. Thirumavalavan, President of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), announced Monday that he would undertake a fast-unto-death to pressurize the Indian Government to put an immediate end to the genocide of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, according to media sources in Chennai.
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Tamil diaspora calls off Pongkal, Vanni situation 'precarious'

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 08:45 GMT]
The representatives of Eezham Tamil diaspora organisations in Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States on Sunday said they were suspending all Pongkal celebrations as the situation of civilians in Vanni has reached intolerable limits. The announcement came as the Sri Lankan military was preparing for an all out war on densely populated territory in the northeast of Vanni. The diaspora representatives in a joint electronic message said it was "only the pressure from Tamil Nadu that could halt the genocidal onslaught on Tamils by the Sri Lankan armed forces on Tamils in Vanni."
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6 Tamils arrested in Katunayake

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 16:16 GMT]
Six Tamils were arrested in the Katunayake high security zone in a cordon and search operation conducted by the police Saturday evening. Police took them into custody as they were seen loitering close to the Katunayake airbase, sources in Colombo said.
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35th anniversary of Tamil Conference victims held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 09:31 GMT]
The 35th anniversary memorial of the eleven Tamils shot and killed by Sri Lanka policemen during the Fourth International Tamil Conference on 10 January 1974 was held Saturday in Jaffna esplanade in front of Veerasingam Hall where the memorial monuments for the civilians who had been killed stand erected, sources in Jaffna said.
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Moneragala police arrest 5 Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 01:25 GMT]
Moneragala Police took five Tamils youths into custody during a cordon and search operation Monday. The operation was conducted on receipt of information that some LTTE cadres had stealthily entered the Moneragala estate, police said.
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6 Tamils arrested in Chilaw, one in Kuchchave'li

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 22:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested six Tamil civilians Tuesday night in Chilaw town on receipt of information that some strangers were seen moving in the area. The Chilaw police said that the arrested failed to justify their presence in the location during the preliminary inquiry.
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IFT calls for redoubling of effort to support Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 12:47 GMT]
Accusing the International Community of attempting to "wean Tamil people, both in the Tamil homeland and the Diaspora, away from the LTTE," by advocating the need for a political solution while Kilinochchi is under occupation, International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a Geneva-based umbrella group of expatriate Tamil organizations, in a press release issued today "called upon over 70 million strong world Tamil community to redouble it support to the Eelam Tamils for their struggle to create the State of Tamil Eelam," and interated "that the future State of Tamil Eelam will negotiate with the Sinhala State of Sri Lanka to create a mutually acceptable relationship whereby both Peoples pool their sovereignties to associate with each other for purposes of mutual benefit."
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2 Tamils reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 16:22 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians, one a 57-year old former manager of Mullaitivu branch of Peoples Bank, and the other a 29-year old owner of a Dehiwela eatery, are reported missing in Colombo since Monday, sources in Colombo said.
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