PMK demands New Delhi to withdraw military aid to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 20:38 GMT]
The Pattali Makkal katchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) in Tamil Nadu staged Tuesday a protest rally in front of the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai, where more than 2000 Tamil activists took part. Welcoming the Tamil Nadu leaders who have extended their support to Eelam Tamils at a critical juncture, Dr. S. Ramadoss, the founder leader of the PMK, urged the remaining leaders to extend their support to pressurise the Central government of India to withdraw military support to the Sri Lankan government which is engaged in a genocide against the Eelam Tamils.
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Britain to aid displaced through functioning NGOs in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 16:29 GMT]
Representatives of British Tamils Forum who met the British Minister for the Department for International Development (DFID) Shahid Malik, on Tuesday in London, quoted the Minister as saying that the British Government did not agree with the general assessment of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) that all local Tamil NGOs, which are currently working within the Vanni area were all controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The British aid would be channelled through local and international NGOs to the displaced civilians in Vanni.
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Defining moment for IC's credibility - Norwegian Tamil Forum

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 13:19 GMT]
"The defining moment for the International Community is right now, if it really wishes to establish its commitment to a principled approach towards Tamil aspirations in the island of Sri Lanka," declared a Norwegian Tamil representative on Tuesday, while concluding a fasting awareness campaign, held for more than 30 hours in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo, focusing on the plight of 230,000 internally displaced Tamil civilians in Vanni.
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15,000 newly displaced from Ki'linochchi swell Vanni IDPs to 230,000

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 13:03 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a humanitarian organization helping the displaced population in Northeast, in a report released Tuesday said, with the food stock in private stores and co-operative stores reaching dangerously low levels, the humanitarian conditions of the more than 230,000 Internally displaced are rapidly deteriorating. Since the departure of foreign NGOs on 16th September under Colombo's directives, 15,217 new IDPs from Ki'linochchi and Poonakari has joined the refugee population, the report added.
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43 Tamils arrested in Wellawatte, Wattala, Katunayake

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 07:05 GMT]
Forty three Tamils including were arrested in Wellawatte, Wattala, and Katunayake in several cordon and search operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Police, assisted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and home guards, from Sunday evening till Monday morning, sources in Colombo said.
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Canadian Tamil youth campaign for IDPs in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2008, 13:55 GMT]
35 Canadian Tamil youths on Friday launched a fasting campaign named '30 Hour Famine' at the Richmond Hill Temple community hall in the province of Ontario in an effort to create awareness regarding the sufferings of the displaced civilians deprived of basic amenities in Vanni, whose plight has worsened after the Sri Lankan government ordered the International NGOs and UN agencies to withdraw aid workers from the region.
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British statement fails to condemn Sri Lanka - BTF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 10:43 GMT]
The Tamils in UK feel confused by a British statement that acknowledges the apparent recognition by the GoSL of its responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians affected by the conflict and its continued co-ordination with humanitarian agencies, at a time when foreign aid workers of the UN and International Non-Governmental Organisations have been expelled from Vanni by the government of Sri Lanka, said a statement issued by the British Tamils Forum (BTF) on Saturday.
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Ethnocentric military dictatorship in the making in Colombo - Vanni MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 09:47 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian for Vanni, Selvam Adaikkalanathan, who blamed Sri Lanka Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka for his Sinhala ethnocentric comments to a Canadian paper, said Sunday that the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as Commander-in-Chief and the Executive President, should instruct the SLA commander to apologise for the statement. Fonseka's statement not only undermined democracy by justifying an ethnic majoritarian rule in the island of Sri Lanka, but also alluded that a military dictatorship was in the making in Colombo, he said. Meanwhile, Rauff Hakim, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, also blamed that the "attack on the minorities " by the SLA commander "bordered on racism."
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Protests in Tamil Nadu gain momentum, Jayalalithaa extends support

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 00:50 GMT]
In a significant move amid the building momentum in Tamil Nadu where Tamil leaders are voicing their support to the Eezham Tamils as the Sri Lankan forces intensified their attacks on Vanni, the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the Leader of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, J. Jayalalithaa, Saturday extended her support to a fasting campaign being organised by the Communist Party of India (CPI). In a letter to D. Pandyan, the general secretary of the CPI in Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa said her party extended wholehearted support to the success of the campaign, which highlights the problems and urges to safeguard the lives, properties and the rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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Kaarainakar, Trincomalee Tamils abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2008, 17:48 GMT]
Two Tamils, one a native of Kaarainakar in Jaffna district, and the other from Lingkanakar in Trincomalee district, had been abducted in two separate incidents in Colombo, according to complaints lodged with the Dehiwala Police and Fort Police by their relatives.
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Rally at UN against Sri Lanka's genocide draws over thousand protesters

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2008, 16:56 GMT]
Over one thousand American Tamils, Canadian Tamils and friends of Tamils protested Wednesday in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York to draw attention of the United Nations, demanding sanctions against Sri Lanka, and advocating to invoke the principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as a means to halt what the protesters alleged "genocide of Tamils." The protesters also denounced the visit to the UN by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. About 20 Sri Lankan Government supporters, including Buddhist monks, showed up briefly for a counter protest.
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Canada says Bahu an LTTE member, refuses visa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2008, 05:51 GMT]
Canadian High Commission in Colombo last week denied visa to the Leader of New Left Front and General Secretary of New Sama Samaja party, Dr Wickramabahu Karunaratne, saying that his past actions "constitute membership in the LTTE," and therefore, Dr Karunaratne fails the admissibility tests laid out in Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
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Veeramani, Thirumavalavan court arrest to condemn Indian aid to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 19:17 GMT]
Tamil leaders in Tamil Nadu, K. Veeramani, President, Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) and Thol. Thirumavalavan, President, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchchi (VCK), courted arrest along with five hundred cadres while attempting a rail blockade in Chennai to protest against Indian aid to the Sri Lankan state. "The Indian Government should not assist the Sinhalese regime in any manner either through imparting military training, or deputing Indian defence personnel to help Sri Lanka unleash its genocidal war," Veeramani said while he addressed an enthusiastic gathering of thousands of cadres of both the parties.
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Tamil diaspora representative addresses British Labour Party conference

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 08:21 GMT]
Leader of British Tamils for Labour, Sen Kandiah, on Monday, addressed the annual conference of the British Labour Party, in front of over 10,000 delegates and the British masses viewing the conference on BBC, urging the Labour Party to note with alarm the increase in violence and human rights violations perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Government against Tamils. He also urged the party to note that the policies of the successive Sinhala governments and the current Sri Lanka constitution, which was adopted without the mandate of the Tamil people lies at the heart of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
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Eezham Thamizh and Tamil Eelam: Understanding the terminologies of identity

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 00:43 GMT]
Many readers, Tamils as well as non-Tamils, wonder at the way words and phrases such as Eezham, Thamizh, Eezham Tamil or Eezham Thamizh, Tamil Eelam or Thamizh Eezham, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan etc., are presented today in the media and the connotations implied by them. Culture Columnist Akazhaan discusses the etymology, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics of these terms in the context of the Tamil and Sinhala national questions in the island known as Sri Lanka today.
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Two Tamils reported missing in Kaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 September 2008, 12:08 GMT]
Two Tamil youths of Aaraiyampathi were abducted by unidentified armed men who arrived in a white van on September 18, according to complaints lodged with the Kaaththaankudi Police and the Batticaloa regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
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SL Police detain 10 civilians in Batticaloa after slaying of TMVP operative

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2008, 19:05 GMT]
Sri Lankan forces and TMVP paramilitary men on Saturday detained 10 Tamil civilians in a cordon and search operation jointly conducted by them in Tha'lavaay area, after a TMVP operative was slain Friday night at the office of TMVP at Tha'lavaay.
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5 students reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2008, 12:56 GMT]
Five students, three Tamils and two Muslims, traveling together from Kotahena to Bambalapitya on September 17th night, are reported missing, according to complaints lodged by their relatives to Maradana Police and Kotahena Police. All were born and grew up in Colombo. One of the students was to leave Sri Lanka last Thursday for higher studies in London with his father.
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Sri Lankan forces arrest 12 Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 September 2008, 18:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Special Task Force (STF) and the Sri Lankan police arrested Thursday 12 civilians in a joint cordon and search operation from 5:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. in Kalladi, Uppoadai, Nochchimunai and Naavatkudaa areas in Batticaloa police division. Paramilitary Razeek group personnel were deployed by the SLA during the search operation, residents said.
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28 Tamils arrested over Horton Place bus bomb blast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 September 2008, 16:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Cinnamon Gardens police in Colombo arrested 28 Tamil civilians including a woman in a joint cordon and search operation conducted in several areas in Colombo city from Tuesday evening till Wednesday morning. The arrests were made in connection with the Horton Place bus bomb explosion Tuesday and the arrestees are detained and being interrogated in Cinnamon Garden police station, police sources said.
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