Jaffna Hindu College Association voices for Tamil right to self-determination

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 22:24 GMT]
The Jaffna Hindu College Association (UK), on Wednesday, came out with a statement addressed to all political parties of Tamil Nadu and the Government of India to recognize the right to self-determination of Tamils as a nation in Sri Lanka. In the war-torn society of Eezham Tamils, the existing grass-root level democratic institutions are the alumni associations and village associations functioning from abroad. The Jaffna Hindu College is a 120 years old pioneering national institution that hosted Swami Vevekananda and Mahatma Gandhi when they visited Jaffna.
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Paradigm shift is the need of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 15:41 GMT]
The International Community and especially India, should not burden any further the peoples of Sri Lanka by insisting on a united Sri Lanka. The first step to diffuse tension is to recognize the right to self-determination of Tamils, not necessarily to mean partition, but to achieve parity and to provide a conducive platform needed for meaningful negotiations of the concerned parties to decide the future of the island of Sri Lanka, peacefully. The way sentiments have been built up, initially it may stir emotions among the Sinhalese, but it may not take long for them to realize that it was for their good as well, writes opinion columnist Chivanadi, quoting paradigm changing global thinking on ethnonationalism.
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Pandemonium in Indian Parliament over Eezham Tamil, Indo-U.S. issues

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 09:35 GMT]
Uproarious scenes over the issues of plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Indo-US civilian nuclear deal and attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra caused the both houses of the Indian Parliament to be adjourned till noon within few minutes of assembling on Tuesday, Press Trust of India reported.
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Karnataka Tamils urge Delhi to recognise Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 12:53 GMT]
Stop the war, withdraw military assistance, recognise Eelam Tamils right to self determination and extend recognition to Tamil Eelam as India recognised the right to self determination of Bengalees in East Pakistan, said a memorandum issued by Karnataka Thamizhar Makkal Iyakkam (KTMI), which held a sit in (Dharna) agitation before the Gandhi statue on the M. G. Road in Bangalore on Monday.
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Tamil Nadu film industry vows support to Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 11:38 GMT]
Bringing the entire Tamil film industry in Tamil Nadu state of India to a standstill, more than two thousand artists converged at the southern tip of Rameswaram (Raameasvaram), which is situated in the close proximity to the island of Sri Lanka, expressing their support for Eezham Tamils struggle. Actors are also expected to hold a fast on November 01 to express their solidarity with the civilians who suffer due to the military offensive by the Sri Lankan forces.
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'Allow us to speak': French Tamil diaspora demonstrates

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 01:45 GMT]
Allow us to speak. We are not terrorists. What is happening in Sri Lanka is genocide: These were the voices of the thousands of Eezham Tamil demonstrators who braved defying a government ban and gathered in Paris on Sunday. Reflecting on his experience, Mr Somasundaram Sarveswaran, a participant said what is abominable that goes against all norms of civilization is silencing the civilian voice. "The Tamil national cause and the struggle against genocide of a people are not terrorist issues. There is a tendency today to look at everything related to Tamil as terrorism. This is why we earnestly look upon the leaders of Tamil Nadu to secure us our righteous global space as a priority, by recognizing the Tamil right to self-determination in the Island of Sri Lanka," he said.
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Indian federal model insufficient to Sri Lanka, says senior leader of CPI

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2008, 08:31 GMT]
Unlike India, which has a multitude of ethnicities, the Sri Lankan question is confined only to two identities, Sinhalese and Tamils. Legacies of struggle and military situation have made a contextual difference in Sri Lanka. Therefore the Indian federal model is insufficient to Sri Lanka. It should be higher than that, perhaps a confederation having constitutional guarantees, preventing one unit militarily interfering with the other, said C. Mahendran, senior leader of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Communist Party of India, in a recent interview to TamilNet.
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17 DMK MPs submit resignation letters to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 10:22 GMT]
Following Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi's ultimatum to the Central Government of India Tuesday on the national issue of Eezam Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, 17 Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam including 2 Central ministers handed their resignation letters Friday to CM Karunanidhi in Chennai, media reports in Chennai said. Meanwhile, Tamil Film Industry will hold a rally Sunday in Rameswaram demanding the Centre to take efforts to stop the war on Eezham Tamils.
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Beginning the end of war with Tamil right to self determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 08:06 GMT]
Those who peruse the demands raised by major political parties in Tamil Nadu may notice that the focus is merely on stopping the war but nothing said by any on the fundamental issue of the sovereignty of the Tamil nation in the island of Sri Lanka, the question on which war has been thrust upon the Eezham Tamils. Any meaningful way to end the war and the suffering of the masses in Sri Lanka should therefore begin from recognizing the right to self-determination of Eezham Tamils and the integrity of their homeland, writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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Time for India to re-think, says Singaporean scholar

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 16:21 GMT]
The all-party resolution in Tamil Nadu should provide New Delhi an opportunity to do some introspection about its Sri Lanka policy, says TS Gopi Rethinaraj of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore in an article that appeared in Hindustan Times on Thursday. Unless India is able to lock SL in a broad bilateral security relationship, their leadership will have no qualms about allowing China or Pakistan to get a foothold, he says. "This is the real danger of India's current policy facilitating the military defeat of the LTTE. If India were to take a hard-nosed view of its interests, a subtle shift in its position on the LTTE will go a long way in safeguarding its strategic interests in the region besides securing the interests of ethnic Tamils in the island."
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Karunanidhi announces human chain demonstration on Eelam issue

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 11:31 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi has announced that a human chain demonstration would be held in Chennai on October 21 to remind the Union Government of India about the state's ultimatum on the national question of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. The resolution demanded the Central Government to take measures to ensure that there is no war in Sri Lanka and that peace prevails in Tamil homeland.
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Attack on media: freedom, arrogance and playing with the will of people

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 23:57 GMT]
The Tamil nationalist sentiments bursting into anti-media violence, spontaneously or otherwise, is not the appropriate way, said a senior Eezham Tamil editor in Colombo, commenting on the reported recent attacks on The Hindu in Tamil Nadu. "Camouflaged in the name of Indian national interest, the intellectual venom, sectarian interests, dynastic interests and personal biases sadly making The Hindu into a pro-Sinhala and anti-Tamil media have to be countered socially, culturally and politically on a superior intellectual plane by bringing out public awakening locally and globally," he said.
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STF shoots dead 2 Tamils, 2 Muslims in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 19:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) commandos opened fire Thursday around 6:00 a.m, on four farmers, two of them Tamils and two Muslims, killing them at Vaddamadu pasture land in Thirukkoayil police division in Ampaa'rai district.
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Australians protest against Bogolloagama press club meet

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 20:20 GMT]
More than 600 Australian Tamils protested in front of the National Press Club in Canberra Tuesday while the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Rohitha Bogollagama, was addressing an invited audience inside the National Press Club, sources in Canberra said. The protesters highlighted Sri Lanka's escalating human rights violations against the media workers.
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Break diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka: Vaiko tells India

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 18:48 GMT]
The MDMK General Secretary Vaiko on Wednesday blamed the union cabinet of India for its 'crime and treachery' against Eezham Tamils by providing military assistance to Sinhalese. The fact of India's military help to Sri Lanka has been conceded in a letter written to him by the Indian PM, he said. "This is being done with full knowledge that such assistances are used for the genocide of Tamils. India should withdraw all assistance and compel Colombo to stop the war. Failing, India should warn Sri Lanka of severed diplomatic ties and imposition of economic sanctions. DMK should withdraw its support to the Congress-led coalition government and the Tamil ministers in the union cabinet should resign if India is not acting in these lines", he demanded in a statement issued from the headquarters of MDMK in Chennai.
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Kanimozhi hands over symbolic resignation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 09:45 GMT]
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, the daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi and a Member of Indian Parliament submitted Wednesday her resignation saying that it was for the party to take an "appropriate decision at appropriate time" on her resignation following the two-weeks ultimatum given to New Delhi by the Tamil Nadu government to exert pressure on Colombo to declare a ceasefire, The Times of India reported.
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37 civilians arrested in Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 19:55 GMT]
Thirty seven civilians, including Tamils and Sinhalese, were taken into custody for questioning in a search operation conducted Sunday from dawn till dusk, civil sources said. Following the killing of Major General (retd) Janaka Perera and 29 others, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are conducting cordon and search operations in hotels and business establishments in Anuradhapura town and suburbs daily.
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Tamil Nadu Government gives ultimatum to New Delhi to safeguard Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 19:39 GMT]
Giving a time frame of a fortnight to New Delhi to respond, an All Party Meeting organized by the Tamil Nadu Government at the State Secretariat in Chennai on Tuesday warned the Union Government of India that all forty members of the Indian parliament representing Tamils would resign en masse if New Delhi failed to take up the right steps to protect Eezham Tamils.
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Rajapaksa re-stages 'APC drama' to avert pressure from Tamil Nadu - Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 01:15 GMT]
Leader of the dissident SLFP (M) Wing and a former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera in the Rajapaska government, charged Monday that the Sri Lankan President was engaged in re-staging 'All Party Conference' drama as agitations and protests were growing in Tamil Nadu state in India and Tamil Nadu politicians have formed broad alliances as never before against the war in Sri Lanka. Stating that Rajapaksa regime is bogged down in war with its "Unitary State," Mr. Mangala Samaraweera said there is absolutely no possibility of finding a political solution that could address the just grievances of the Tamil people within Rajapaksa's Unitary State and its 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
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Tamil nationalism undefeatable - Prof. Kumar David

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2008, 10:59 GMT]
Looking at the characteristics of Tamil nationalism within the four demographic groups, North, East, Colombo and the diaspora Tamils, Professor Kumar David, in an opinion column in the weekend edition of Lakbima, says that the anger of the Tamils with the Sinhala state, though very real, will always remain muted and the "rise of the LTTE in the shape of a militarist alternative is precisely the dialectical response, the antithesis, the rejection, that this [Sri Lankan] state of affairs gave rise to." The Tamil diaspora can drive the nationalist movement forward for decades, irrespective of the outcome of today's military campaigns, he says.
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