Sri Lanka wants 'friends' to buy tea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 November 2008, 19:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka has appealed to "friendly countries" to buy tea to help the country weather the global financial crisis, AFP quoted officials as saying. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and senior officials of the tea board on Friday met ambassadors and envoys of main tea-buying countries to urge their support. The Sunday Times newspaper reports that the decline in tea prices (which have almost halved in the past two months), and the large volume of unsold tea have caused a cash-flow crisis throughout the supply chain. However, last week demand had improved at last week’s Colombo auctions, reports said.
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Wickremasinghe leaves to New Delhi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 November 2008, 17:03 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the Leader of the Opposition in the current Sri Lanka parliament, is scheduled to leave Colombo Sunday night to New Delhi. He is to meet the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherji first and discuss the Sri Lanka's conflict with Indian foreign ministry officials of the South Block, media sources said in Colombo.
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Rajapaksa claims occupation of Poonakari

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 November 2008, 09:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan President and Commander-in-Chief of the SL Armed Forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday claimed that his forces have occupied the "full stretch of the A-32 road" (Mannaar- Poonakari) and the Poonakari area Saturday morning. "Now, we can open a land route to the Jaffna Peninsula after many years; I think we can say, it was after the Second Eelam war," Mr. Rajapaksa said in a message to the Sri Lankan media.
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Youth of India voice for Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 November 2008, 14:37 GMT]
More than 10,000 students, coming from all the states of India marched to the Indian parliament on Friday in New Delhi, pressing educational demands including a 10 percent allotment of state expenditure on education. Political observers find great significance in the highlight of Eezham Tamil issue as a demand in this all India student rally. This is their only demand outside of the purview of education. The agitation took place against a backdrop of Sri Lankan president ruling out the possibility of stopping the war in the island, while on a visit to New Delhi on Wednesday. Even the Indian Prime Minister who received him hasn’t said anything on stopping the war, according to news reports.
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60% of 327,730 IDPs in Vanni without adequate shelters - TRO

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 November 2008, 13:28 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a local-NGO attending to the relief needs of the more than 320,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), including the 90,000 tsunami and previously affected, in Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi districts, said shortage of nearly 40% basic essential food for the IDPs have to be urgently met through local production, while embargo by the Sri Lankan government on building materials have left 60% of the refugees without adequate shelters, in a report issued this week.
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TN should send relief as commodities, not money: Australian academic

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 November 2008, 02:44 GMT]
The aid and relief money generously given to Sri Lanka by various governments and international organizations tacitly helps filling the coffers of the Sri Lankan government and its foreign exchange capacity in waging the war against Tamils. The Tamil Nadu government should therefore consider sending the relief money in the form of much needed commodities for the rehabilitation and resettlement of the IDPs in Vanni and should make sure that they reach the Eezham Tamils in the non-government controlled areas directly says, Professor E.A. Selvanathan of the School of International Business, Griffith University, Australia.
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Unique agitation by All India Students Federation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 21:49 GMT]
A special train, carrying over 2000 students of Tamil Nadu, members of the All India Students Federation (AISF), left Chennai on Wednesday to march towards the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, demanding end of attacks on Eezham Tamils, stoppage of military aid to Sri Lanka and initiation of peaceful political solution to the crisis. Students from many other states of India will join them in the agitation scheduled for Friday. Such an event is first in the history of AISF, said S. Mahendran, senior leader of the Communist Party of India, guiding the students.
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Announce ceasefire, call back military and commence peace talks - TN Assembly

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 16:56 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday demanding "an immediate halt of military operations, reverting the Sri Lankan military to old positions and a commencement of political negotiations to find a solution to the Tamil problem." The house of representatives also urged New Delhi to press for talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The resolution comes while the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is in New Delhi on an official visit.
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APRC: how long you tolerate a farce, Suresh asks India and IC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 01:20 GMT]
The All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) is a farce of the Sri Lanka government. It was always used to impress upon India and the International Community. The basic premise of the APRC not to go beyond unitary constitution of Sri Lanka, will not bring in any meaningful result. India and the IC know it well. Yet, if they continue to tolerate the farce, they will only be abetting the genocidal programme of Colombo, says Suresh Premachandran of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
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4 Tamils arrested in Badulla

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2008, 17:01 GMT]
Four Tamil civilians were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police within the municipal limits of the Badulla Sunday night, sources in Badulla said. Four Tamils were among sixteen persons arrested on that day. Others were released after preliminary inquiry.
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Persuade Rajapaksa to stop the war: Pandian urges Manmohan Singh

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2008, 19:58 GMT]
The State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), D. Pandian, on Monday wrote a letter urging the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to act swiftly to end the war in Sri Lanka. Noting that the LTTE has responded positively for the public call from the CPI to spell out their stand in unambiguous terms to the call for ceasefire, Mr. Pandian said urged Manmohan Singh to use his good offices to impress upon Mr. Rajapaksa to stop the war and agree for a ceasefire. Meanwhile, reports in Colombo said Mr. Rajapaksa has left Colombo to attend the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit, to be held in New Delhi.
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Sri Lanka rejects ceasefire with LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2008, 11:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's government rejected a ceasefire with the LTTE on Monday, again demanding the Tigers surrender or be destroyed. "The government will not go for a ceasefire with the LTTE. We will not have any form of discussion with the LTTE. We have already told them to lay down arms and there is no change in our stand," Agriculture Minister Maithripala Sirisena told Parliament, Reuters reported.
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Perth Tamils draw attention of Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister to IDPs plight

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 21:58 GMT]
More than two hundred Australian Tamils held a vigil in Perth, Western Australia on Friday between 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in front of the electorate office of Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith, to create an awareness among the Australian public and inform the Australian government about the plight of the displaced people in Wanni. This is the fourth in a series of protest vigils, being organised by the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA).
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13 upcountry Tamils detained in Colombo under PTA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 13:16 GMT]
Thirteen upcountry Tamil youths arrested in cordon and search operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police with the help of masked men in several estates in Udapusselawa during the last week of October are still being detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in Dam Police Station in Colombo
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Impress upon Colombo to announce ceasefire, CPI urges Indian government

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 12:24 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu State Secretary D. Pandian, in a statement issued on Sunday, referring to the clarification by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan on the LTTE stand on ceasefire, urged the Centre to take immediate steps to impress upon the Sri Lankan state to announce a ceasefire without hesitation. Referring to Mr. Nadesan's statement that the Tigers were engaged in a defensive war and that it was the Sri Lankan state that unilaterally pulled out from the Ceasefire Agreement, Mr. Pandian said.
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'Give way to Tamil Eelam and avoid Sinhala blackmailing for ever'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 17:28 GMT]
Don't abandon the Tiger. A Sinhala-dominated Sri Lanka is not in India’s interests, writes T S Gopi Rethinaraj, a Singapore National University scholar, in the November 2008 issue of Pragati, the Indian National Interest Review. A unified Sri Lanka under Sinhalese domination will be deeply inimical to India's interests. Colombo will permanently exploit India in the absence of a buffer that an Independent Tamil Eelam could provide, he wrote.
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Tigers reiterate consent to ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 16:42 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan, when contacted by TamilNet on Saturday, following reports of Tamil Nadu leaders seeking clarification on LTTE's stand on ceasefire, said "there is no hesitation on our side to reiterate our position that we have always wanted a ceasefire." It is the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) that unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire, Mr. Nadesan said and added that the Tigers were only fighting a defensive war since Colombo has thrust upon Tamils an aggressive war.
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CPI seeks clarification on Tamil ceasefire stand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Stating that the people of Tamil Nadu state and India were being led to a state of confusion by the calls that demanded both the warring parties in Sri Lanka to announce a ceasefire, the State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu, D. Pandian, urged in a statement issued from Chennai on Saturday that the Eezham Tamils' political leadership should clarify the Tamil stand on the issue. Consensus of the people of Tamil Nadu is that the Sri Lankan government should immediately stop the war. However, when questions were raised by certain sections, there is a need for clarification, Mr. Pandiyan said.
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Women wing of VCK stages one-day fast in Chennai

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 November 2008, 09:10 GMT]
Thousands of women belonging to the Makalir Viduthalai Iyakkamm, the Women's Wing of the Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK), went on a one-day fast in Chennai Thursday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. This token fast is the first in a series of agitations that the party has decided to hold indefinitely until a ceasefire is established on the war-ravaged island. Senior Communist leader R Nallakannu and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi addressed the fasting protesters.
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'Military hijacking politics'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 November 2008, 15:50 GMT]
A U.S. military chief commending Sri Lankan military 'success' and wishing further capabilities to the Lankan military is viewed seriously as an undue interference in the politics of South Asia, especially at a juncture when the people of Tamil Nadu are up in arms pressing to stop the war for a political solution, says Batticaloa district parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy.
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