106 civilians detained in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 15:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police detained 106 civilians when they went to police stations in the western province last Sunday to register their presence, civil sources in Colombo said. The civilians, 68 Tamils, 2 Muslims and 36 Sinhalese were detained for interrogation by the Terrorist Intelligence Division as they failed to prove their identity with required legal documents, police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara said.
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U.S. statement: 'we don't advocate talks with LTTE'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 14:25 GMT]
The United States, a member of the Co-Chairs for the Sri Lankan peace process following the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement brokered by Norway, in a statement issued after the Sri Lanka Army occupation of Ki'inochchi town in Vanni, said it does not advocate the Government of Sri Lanka to negotiate with the LTTE. "The fall of Kilinochchi represents an important point in the 25-year war that has divided Sri Lanka," the U.S. statement said.
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Peoples support will help surmount challenges: LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2009, 08:23 GMT]
Pointing out that Ki'linochchi was where Sri Lanka military has suffered previous historic debacles, LTTE Political Head B. Nadesan, in an interview with TamilNet on Monday dismissed the occupation of the town as an insignificant setback in the context of a liberation struggle, and said, Tamil people’s support has always been LTTE’s strength, and with the moral backing of the global Tamil community the movement will surmount current and future challenges. "We have taken forward our struggle for more than 30 years, solely relying on the support of our people," and reiterated that the Tigers were spearheading the Tamil struggle, which was based on legitimate political aspirations as defined by the democratic mandate in the elections of 1977.
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Indian Naval Personnel to Mullaiththeevu: Thirumavalavan lambasts New Delhi

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2009, 18:08 GMT]
Thirumavalavan, a Tamil nationalist leader and the president of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) in Tamil Nadu, on Monday condemned the Indian Government for "betraying the entire Tamil people" by sending civil clothed Indian naval personnel to Mullaiththeevu through the Chennai international airport. Addressing the media in Chennai, he said that New Delhi was "totally responsible" for the "ruthless genocide" of Tamils in Sri Lanka. "Even the future generations of Tamils will never forgive the Indian Government for disrespecting the sentiments of 100 million Tamil people," he warned.
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Lift ban on the LTTE: Tamil Nadu BJP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 19:11 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal opposition party in India, has given clear indications of the necessity for lifting the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam according to news reports in the Indian media. Vaithiyalingam, a senior BJP leader and member of the party's national general council, proposed this idea. In an exclusive interview to a Tamil biweekly, he said that although his party did not believe in violent measures, it was unfair to impose the ideas of a Gandhian struggle on the people of Tamil Eelam.
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SL Police arrests 10 Tamils in Colombo, 8 in Kandy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 12:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took ten Tamils into custody Sunday morning in cordon and search operations conducted around Fort, Aattupattitheru, and Valaithoddam in Colombo city, sources in Colombo said. The operation was conducted on information received by the police after the explosion at Bankshall Street Saturday afternoon that injured three persons.
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'Annals of history'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 19:44 GMT]
The message of "veiled racism" in Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s remarks Friday in his telecast address announcing the capture of Ki'linochchi town, betrayed the true intentions of him and his ilk, camouflaged in saintly wordings against separatism, terrorism, racism, North-South war etc, to hoodwink the outside world, writes a regular academic commentator to TamilNet from Colombo. "Unfortunately, those who claim to be at the helm of the international community, even though very well aware of the impossibility of the Sri Lankan state to satisfy Tamil aspirations, refuse to acknowledge the logic and legitimacy behind the ethnonational demand of Tamils to have political sovereignty to save themselves from genocide," he further writes.
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Mano Ganesan: Political solution after 'military victory' not acceptable to Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 10:02 GMT]
Responding to the mood of "celebration" in South over the Sri Lankan military occupation of Ki'linochchi, Mano Ganesan, parliamentarian and the leader of Democratic Peoples Front (former WPPF), in a statement issued on Saturday said political solution after "total military victory" of the Sri Lankan state was not acceptable to the Tamils. He added: "If the north today is a military battle field, the government has a political battle field in the east. You have your own provincial council. It is not the solution. But it is part of the constitutional law. You are not even implementing what is law."
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Colombo Tamils ordered to register with Sri Lanka Police

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 05:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Police headquarters Thursday has ordered all Tamil civilians who came after 2003 from NorthEast and residing in Colombo and other parts of the western provinces to register at the nearest police stations on the 4th January, Sunday. Those registered with the police in 2008 have also been asked to register again, media reports said.
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28 Tamils arrested in Gampaha town

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 16:29 GMT]
Twenty eight civilians, majority of them Tamils working in business establishments and other institutions, were arrested in a cordon and search operation conducted in Gampaha town Thursday morning. The arrested are detained in police stations and being interrogated as they failed to prove their identity, police sources said.
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65 Tamil youths arrested after Wattala attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2008, 13:11 GMT]
Sixty five Tamil youths were arrested in cordon and search operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Police and Sri Lankan Army (SLA) on Monday and Tuesday following the suicide bomb attack at the Wattala on a camp of the Civil Volunteer Force (CVF). The arrested youths are being detained in several police stations in the Colombo district and are being interrogated, police sources said.
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North and South cannot remain separate, Rajapaksa tells Jaffna people

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2008, 08:57 GMT]
“The people of Jaffna peninsula should forget the tragic past and all people of the north and south should live as one people”, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka, said in a special satellite television broadcast Monday night for the people of Jaffna peninsula, which has become an open prison under Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control. Another message, delivered by Mr. Rajapaksa to the people of Jaffna, was that he has taken steps to 'liberate' Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu and very soon the people there will 'live like' the people of Jaffna.
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19 Tamils arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2008, 10:13 GMT]
Nineteen Tamil civilians were taken into custody in cordon and search operations conducted from Friday morning for several hours in parts of Gampaha town in the Western province by the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police with the assistance home guards units. Police said the arrested are being detained in police stations to ascertain their identity as they failed to provide the national identity cards and other legal documents.
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Jaffna residents asked to shun Sri Lanka Govt organized tamashas

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2008, 03:03 GMT]
In a fax message sent to the media in Jaffna peninsula Friday night, an organization calling itself Ellaa’lan Force, requested the residents of Jaffna peninsula to shun 'carnival' type events organized in Jaffna by the Government of Sri Lanka. "These events, organized to reinforce a preception of prevailing normality, are mainly used as a cover to avoid international spotlight on the killing of Tamils," the message said, according to sources in Jaffna.
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Boston Globe: Grant Tamils autonomy in homelands

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 December 2008, 22:51 GMT]
Boston Globe in an editorial published today warned that Sri Lanka’s military campaign will only produce “new phase of protracted guerrilla warfare,” and that lasting peace is possible only when Sri Lanka's government “grant[s] the Tamils meaningful autonomy in their homelands.” The paper also asserted a cautionary note to the Sri Lanka Government that “[e]thnic or nationalistic pride should not be allowed to inflict such suffering on civilians who committed no crime but to be trapped in a war zone.”
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Muslim engineer’s house attacked in Kalmunai

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2008, 14:44 GMT]
Unidentified armed men, who arrived at the house of Kalmunai Town Council Engineer in Chainthamaruthu in Klamunai lobbed grenade at his house and set fire to the vehicles parked inside the premises, Kalmunai police said. Meanwhile residents said that there had been difference of opinion between the engineer and paramilitary Karuna group regarding a new housing project launched a few days ago in Kalmumunai Tamil area in Ampaa'rai district.
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Kalmunai police detain 7 Tamils, 5 Muslims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 20:47 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police jointly conducted a cordon and search Sunday from 6:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m arresting 12 youths, including 7 Tamils and 5 Muslims, in Kalmunai Police division in Ampaa’rai district. The youths were taken into custody as they failed to establish their identity and they will be produced in the court, Kalmunai police said.
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Gampaha police arrest 14 Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 02:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police, with the assistance of home guards, Saturday arrested 14 Tamil residents during a search operation conducted in several parts of the Gampaha town and its suburbs. The police said the arrested residents were taken in for questioning as they failed to prove their identity and to justify their presence in the location. However, civil sources said the arrested Tamils have been working in buisness establishements in Gampaha for several years.
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Colombo's military campaign will not resolve conflict - British Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 11:53 GMT]
The current approach by the Government of Sri Lanka, to defeat the LTTE militarily before developing a political solution, does nothing to win the hearts and minds of conflict-affected civilians in the north and it will not resolve the underlying conflict, said Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Bill Rammell, while responding to the concerns raised Thursday evening by British Parliamentarians at an adjournment debate on Sri Lanka at the UK Parliament. However, another response by the minister exposed the fact that the British Government still has faith in the APRC myth created by the Rajapaksa regime.
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Tamil Nationalist Poet Thevathasan passes away in U.S.

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 07:41 GMT]
Mr. Thevathasan Antony, a Tamil nationalist, poet, and humanist affectionately known as “Maampazham Swamy” passed away in New Jersey, USA on December 14. An advocate for peace who highlighted Sri Lanka's rights violations of Tamils in the NorthEast succumbed to a sudden stroke at the age of 63.
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