Norwegian MP criticizes closure of A9

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2006, 10:33 GMT]
Jan Bøhler, Labour Party parliamentarian and leader of the Oslo Labour Party, expressed concern about the failure of the week-end talks between the Sri Lanka Government (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and commended the efforts of the Norwegian Tamils supporting peace, Monday around 7:00 p.m in front of the Norway Parliament, source in Norway said. The GoSL blockade of the A9 landroute to Jaffna should be criticized by all who care about humanitarian issues, said Jan Bøhler in his address.
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Indian model ill-suited to address Tamil demands- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2006, 03:44 GMT]
While the Sri Lanka Government negotiators in Geneva II heralded the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) as key to formulating “a political and constitutional framework for the resolution of the national question,” an APRC delegation has been touring India to study India's “federal” setup. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian and Member of the Parliamentary Consultative Committees for Constitutional affairs, said that the post-partition constitution of India was not required to address any sovereignty issues similar to those that lie at the core of Tamil struggle, and therefore, is ill-suited for Sri Lanka.


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No agreement in Geneva on Humanitarian crisis, Tigers respond on pluralism and democracy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2006, 16:57 GMT]
The talks in Geneva ended Sunday without any agreement between the Parties, the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the Humanitarian crisis and the re-opening of closed gateways. Responding on Democracy the Tigers said they were "more committed to the democratic principles" than the GoSL and challenged the GoSL to repeal the sixth amendment to the SL constitution as a token of its commitment to democracy and pluralism. The LTTE also challenged the GoSL to remove its armed forces from the Tamil homeland and allow the holding of a referendum under international supervision to ascertain the aspirations of the people in the homeland.
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Peace process depends on ceasefire implementation - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2006, 10:49 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers called Saturday for the full implementation of the February 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA), saying "such actions will bring normalcy in the lives of our people, and help in taking forward the peace process towards a satisfactory conclusion." Addressing the opening session of the Norwegian facilitated negotiations in Geneva, LTTE's Political Head, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, said: "the best we can hope for from the current talks is therefore, the strengthening of the CFA agreement that has the potential to lead to a permanent, just peace in this island."
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Is Colombo ready for a paradigm shift, asks TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2006, 01:26 GMT]
A full scale war is unavoidable if the southern polity fails to timely demonstrate that it is ready for a paradigm shift in the approach to solving the Tamil national question, said Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy, speaking to TamilNet after meeting the LTTE delegation in Geneva Thursday.
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Karuna ‘abducted hundreds of children’ – The Times

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 15:48 GMT]
The Karuna Group has abducted between 300 and 900 children — some as young as 12 — since March, The Times newspaper reported this week, quoting international and local aid workers in Sri Lanka. The paramilitary group’s “escalating activity has emerged as a key factor behind the upsurge in violence that has killed more than 2,000 people this year and left a 2002 ceasefire agreement in tatters,” the British newspaper said.
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Tamil Norwegians hold vigil in Bergen

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 15:03 GMT]
Tamils living in Bergen, Norway held a peace event Thursday evening, expressing their desire for just peace and condemned the human rights violation committed by the Sri Lankan Armed forces and the paramilitaries operating with them. Representatives of major political parties took part in the event, held in the town centre.
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TNA appeals to UN: "GoSL uses Humanitarian crisis as tool of war"

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 06:36 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) consisting 22 out of the 23 Tamil members elected to Sri Lankan Parliament from the NorthEast, in an appeal to the United Nations High Commissioners for Human Rights and Refugees, said that the Government of Sri Lanka was using the humanitarian crisis as a tool of war. Detailing the humanitarian situation prevailing in all the districts of NorthEast, the TNA charged that the GoSL was engaged in a policy to drive the Tamil civilian population out of the Trincomalee District. The TNA's appeal to UN comes a day before the talks in Geneva.
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EU allocates Rs.667m to help displaced Sri Lankan Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 00:26 GMT]
The European Commission (EU) is concerned about the upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka from the beginning of 2006 that directly affects thousands of civilians in the island, said the report of Louis Michel, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Activities, read by Julian Wilson Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, at a press briefing held Wednesday around 11:00 a.m at the EU office in Colombo.


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Tamileelam Legislature enacts Child Protection Act

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 22:29 GMT]
Tamileelam Child Protection Act 2006 (Act No. 03 of 2006), enacted by Tamileelam Legislature Secretariat and which became effective on October 15, brings into law measures to protect the Rights and well-being of children from inception of life through adolescence, Head of Tamileelam Judiciary, E. Pararajasingham, told TamilNet Wednesday. The Act, containing 83 sections, makes education compulsory upto grade 11, mandates registration of all child births, outlaws enlisting of children under 17 years in Armed Forces, makes participation of under 18-year olds in armed combat illegal, and proscribes all forms of child labour.
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NorthEast shuts down against de-merger

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 07:38 GMT]
The entire districts of NorthEast Wednesday came to a standstill following a shut down protest expressing Tamil opposition to Colombo's move to de-merge the NorthEast. Very few vehicles plied the streets, shops remained closed, businesses and private institutions remained closed and the Tamil towns in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna were deserted, despite the threats by the SLA and paramilitaries.
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Saivite priest shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 10:35 GMT]
Unknown men shot and killed a Saivite priest in Vavuniya Sunday night around 9:30. The victim was one of the organisers of a vigil group against theft and robberies, civil sources in Vavuniya said.
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Sri Lanka in "interminable and intractable crisis"- UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 01:56 GMT]
Prof. Philip Alston, United Nation's Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, Third Committee, 20 October 2006, said that the "dramatic attacks in recent days and spiraling number of extrajudicial executions" indicate that "Sri Lanka is not so much on the brink of a new crisis but, instead, only in the midst of an interminable and intractable crisis that has already exhausted its fair share of international attention," and called upon the United Nations Secretariat to "establish a full-fledged international human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka."
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US should support "confederal Sri Lanka"- Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2006, 12:16 GMT]
The Boston Globe, in an editorial appeared in the 22 October edition, said that Washington should prevail on Colombo to "withdraw its armed forces from the Tamil areas in the north of the island," and urge Colombo to open A9, to demonstrate Washington's seriousness towards advocating a "permanent peace that provides for Tamil self-government and human rights in a confederal Sri Lanka."
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De-merger issue raises lot of questions - Richard Boucher

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 October 2006, 11:49 GMT]
Richard Boucher, US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs, when responding to a question at a press conference at the Galle Face Hotel Friday said that the timing of the "unfortunate" issue of NorthEast de-merger in Sri Lankan politics, raised lot of questions, right before the next round of talks, noting that the Sri Lankans were facing a critical moment and it was time to move forward and reverse the negative momentum.
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3 abducted Tamils found shot to death in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 October 2006, 21:33 GMT]
Three Tamil residents in Colombo, abducted by unidentified persons driving a white van on Thursday, were found shot to death in Piliyandala and Ragama areas, Police sources said. People Vigilance Committee (PVC), a Committee comprising a number of political parties and civil right organizations in Colombo, in press release issued Friday said, nine Tamils have been killed and thirty-three have disappeared in the last few weeks in Colombo. The release added that nine persons have been released after paying ransom.
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Akashi visits Muttur

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 October 2006, 00:24 GMT]
Mr. Yashushi Akashi, Japanese special peace envoy, paid a visit to Muthur town Thursday morning and met Muslims, Tamils and Sinhala residents at the Muthur Divisional Secretariat, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Tigers, Norwegian facilitators agree on Geneva travel arrangements

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2006, 14:31 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head S. P. Thamilchelvan, after meeting Jon Hanssen-Bauer, the Norwegian special envoy to Sri Lanka peace process, in Kilinochchi Thursday, told media that the Tigers had given their consent to participate in the talks in Geneva, provided that the International Community, through Norwegian facilitators, guarantees a safe travel arrangement. Switzerland Ambassador also met the LTTE Political Head in Kilinochchi Thursday.
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Illiberal democracy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 16:08 GMT]
The electoral democracy in Sri Lanka, bolstered by regularly held "open, free and fair" elections, is often characterized as robust and vibrant by the international community. However, Sri Lanka has been plagued by decades of ethnic violence. Discriminatory legislation and a politicized judiciary have bred inequality, failed to deliver social justice, and have raised explosive issues related to sovereignty in the multi-cultural state. Reasons for Sri Lanka gaining increasing notoriety as a violator of international norms in human rights, and the State emerging as a killing field, can be traced to its polity's gradual, inexorable shift towards an illiberal democracy.
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"LTTE prepared for talks" - Akashi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 12:09 GMT]
Yasushi Akashi, Japanese peace envoy, after meeting Political Head of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), S.P.Thamilchelvan in Kilinochchi Wednesday, said: "We obtained commitments from Mr. Thamilchelvan that LTTE has prepared to go to Geneva for talks on the 28th October. I have insisted the importance of both sides to end all acts of violence and create an atmosphere for peaceful, sincere and honest discussions."
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