Stop military aid to Sri Lanka: PDK submits one million signatures to Indian defence minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 February 2008, 19:57 GMT]
Several hundred activists of the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) marched towards the Indian Parliament Wednesday morning demanding the Indian Government to immediately stop military aid and assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). As a part of the protest, the activists, including 100 women and children, dressed as wounded Tamils marched from Jantar Mantar to Parliament Street and submitted a memorandum at the Prime Minister's office. PDK leaders on Thursday met Indian Defence Minister A K Antony at his residence and submitted a petition signed by one million Indian Tamils demanding that India stop all military aid to Sri Lanka.
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Sri Lanka parliament debates emergency extension motion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 February 2008, 12:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Wednesday moved a motion in parliament to extend the State of Emergency for another month. The State of Emergency is in force in the island since August, 2005.
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British Tamils mark Sri Lanka's '60 years of Oppression'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2008, 22:42 GMT]
Tamil expatriates in Britain marked Sri Lanka's independence day with protests and publicity campaigns highlighting '60 years of oppression'. Hundreds of Tamils participated in a lively demonstration outside 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister's official residence. Another group of expatriates hosted a major photo exhibition of Sri Lanka's post-independence history highlighting the state's repression of the Tamils.
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'Hatching chicken from spoiled egg'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2008, 04:15 GMT]
Ruling out any constitutional reform and upholding a 'single unitary state', the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his 60th Independence Day speech harped on 'bringing the provincial administration closer to the people within the framework of the constitution' to resolve the ethnic crisis of Sri Lanka. “The solution must be based on what could be implemented in this country. We cannot offer solutions that are experiments,” he said. The challenge he stressed was the 'defeat of terrorism'. “Impotent of laying new eggs, the president is duping Tamils, promising to hatch an egg rotten for 60-years,” said Selvam Adaikkalanathan, Member of Parliament and the leader of TELO.
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Karunanidhi offers to step down, challenging false allegations over Tiger issue

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 February 2008, 18:03 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi hit back at Congress leaders and announced on Sunday that he was even ready to face a change of power in the state over false allegations of supporting the LTTE. Speaking at a marriage function at the DMK headquarters, well-attended by several Congress leaders, Mr. Karunanidhi alleged that some people were trying to topple his government by indulging in a 'conspiracy' and requested Congressmen not to become a party to it.
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17 Tamils arrested in Nugegoda

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 February 2008, 02:50 GMT]
Seventeen Tamil civilians, majority of them workers at business establishments and staying in lodges, were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka government security forces at Nugegoda, a suburb in Colombo, from Sunday evening till early morning Monday, sources said.
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16 arrested in Matale following Dambulla explosion

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2008, 14:21 GMT]
Sixteen persons, majority of them Tamils, were taken into custody by the Sri Lanka government security forces in a cordon and search operation conducted at Matale and Naula area from Saturday evening till Sunday morning following the bus explosion at Dambulla Saturday morning.
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Battle for Equality, Liberty

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2008, 01:04 GMT]
While leading democratic presidential candidates have articulated defects in United States current approach to "war on terror," forewarning imminent changes to U.S. domestic and foreign policies, leading legal authorities in the U.S., acting as proxies to public interest and driven by Maslowian instinct, are battling in U.S. Courts to balance security and personal liberty by challenging Bush's national security policies. The judicial outcomes have a bearing on American Tamils, and contain illuminating lessons on civil society's struggle in a nation whose democratic governance is built on Montesquieu's doctrine of "checks and balances."
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East elections, perversion of democracy, says Tamil Arasu Kadchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2008, 04:19 GMT]
Outlining the reasons for not participating in the forthcoming local elections in the east, a press release issued by Mavai Senathirajah, General Secretary, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) in Colombo Wednesday, said: TMVP, an armed paramilitary group which is aligning with the ruling party in the forthcoming elections is openly brandishing weapons and has a strong presence in Batticalo district. The release added that in this climate of fear, elections will be a perversion of democracy, and ITAK has decided not to participate.
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Conflict headed for bloody, decisive phase- Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2008, 01:16 GMT]
"With the umbilical cord between Sri Lanka’s conflict-management process and the international community, in the form of the CFA, having been severed, both parties are now relatively free to conduct the war in the way they feel suitable, with no external pressures regarding human rights or humanitarian consequences. In the coming months, the conflict will become a war without checks or balances, a war without inhibition," Prof. Uyangoda says in a dispassionate analysis that appeared in a southasian monthly, Himal, on the reasons and aftermath of the formal abrogation of CeaseFire Agreement.
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Police rescinds collecting personal details of Tamils in Modara

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2008, 18:01 GMT]
“Sri Lanka Police has no authority to collect private personal details especially financial details even during the current State of Emergency in Sri Lanka,” Mr. R. Yogarajan, the Vice President of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) said in an interview to BBC Tamil service Thursday. The forms distributed to the Tamils by the police in Sinhalese language calling for personal details including place of work, phone number, and bank details, ending into the hands of criminal elements would be dangerous to the Tamils, Yogarajan told the BBC.
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Sri Lanka police arrests 3 Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 January 2008, 18:45 GMT]
Ten Sri Lanka Secret Police personnel arriving in a white van Wednesday morning arrested three Tamil civilians in Mattakku’li area in Colombo and took them for interrogation, according to a complaint made to Deputy Minister P. Rathakrishnan by relatives of the arrested civilians.
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LTTE Political Head writes to UN Secretary General

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 January 2008, 10:17 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan, in a letter to United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, bringing attention to the Claymore attack by the Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit in Madu, urged the UN Secretary to "recognize Tamil sovereignty as a constructive approach to end the unending five decades long, large scale, and serious rights violations against the Tamil people." Stating that the Tigers have ensured that there was no underage members in the movement and that the LTTE has respected the efforts made by the international community to rectify the rights situation, Mr. Nadesan said the LTTE has "demonstrated its readiness to cooperate with the international community."
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Contain threats against media, RSF appeals to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 16:12 GMT]
Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, expressing concern over escalating threats and violence against media personnel in Sri Lanka, in a press release issued Tuesday appealing to Mr Rajapakse, said: "Mr. President, it is not yet too late to restrain those of your close associates and political allies who sow trouble and fear among journalists," and added, "The violent behaviour of the men employed by some of your ministers is bringing the government into disrepute, a situation that will be hard to redress if nothing is done."
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U.S. Group advocates for Tamil Statehood

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 13:52 GMT]
"Applying the 'self-evident' truths celebrated in the Declaration of Independence, the United States should recognize the right of Sri Lanka's long oppressed Tamil people to independent statehood from the racial supremacist Sinhalese," says Bruce Fein, the associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, and a lawyer for Tamils For Justice, a U.S. group of Tamil activists, in an opinion piece appearing Tuesday in Washington's conservative news paper, The Washington Times.
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40 Tamils still in custody after Ja-ela claymore explosion

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 10:07 GMT]
Forty Tamils arrested following the January claymore explosion in Ja-ela that killed Mr.D.M.Dassanayake, Nation Building Minister in the cabinet of President Mahinda Rajapakse, are still being detained by the police and are being interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Division, according to Peliyagoda police.
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6 Tamils arrested in Passara, Kandy

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2008, 14:13 GMT]
Six Tamil civilians including three women, arrested on Saturday evening at Kandy, are still being detained in Kandy police station and are being interrogated to find out the reason for their visit to Kandy, police sources said.
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Tamil Nadu fishermen on indefinite strike

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2008, 09:49 GMT]
Normal life was paralysed in Rameswaram as TamilNadu fishermen continued their indefinite strike into the third day today to condemn the Sri Lanka Navy's atrocities against them and demanded immediate removal of the underwater mines set up by SLN between Kachchatheevu and Neduntheevu. They called for the nullification of the Kachchatheevu agreement and demanded the release of 12 of their brethren arrested by the SLN. None of the 2500 steamers and 1500 country boats ventured into the sea as fishermen were steely in their resolve to indefinitely boycott the seas until their demands were met.
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9 Tamils arrested in Grandpass, Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2008, 15:23 GMT]
Nine Tamil civilians were taken into custody by the security forces in a cordon and search operation conducted in Grandpass area in Colombo Sunday following the discovery of two suicide jackets with explosives found abandoned from a latrine pit Saturday morning. The security forces said they received a tip off by members of the Vigilant Committee enabling them to recover the suicide jackets.
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Four pronged offensive by SLA in Ma'nalaa'ru thwarted by LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 January 2008, 21:33 GMT]
Attempt by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers Saturday afternoon 2:00p.m, to move forward through four fronts including Ma'nalaa'ru, Ma'nki'ndi Malai with heavy artillery gunfire towards Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) bases was successfully thwarted by Liberation Tigers in a counter attack, LTTE sources said.
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