15,000 Diaspora Eelam Tamils demonstrate in Geneva

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 19:32 GMT]
More than 15,000 Diaspora Eelam Tamils from all over Europe gathered in front of the UN office in Geneva in Switzerland Friday voicing their demands calling the Sri Lanka government of stop the war on Tamils at once. The representatives of the Eelam Tamils youth organizations handed a memorandum to the officials of the UN, during the demonstration.
Full story >>

Inter-religious prayers held in Jaffna for Vanni Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 17:04 GMT]
More than a hundred Saiva priests, representatives of social and Non-governmental organizations and others participated in the prayers held in Nallai Aatheenam located behind Nalloor Kanthasuvami Temple, led by Nallai Aatheenam Srilasiri Somasunthara Parmaachchaariya Suvamikal, Sunday from 9:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m, for the liberation of the suffering Tamils in Vanni, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

12 Tamils including 2 women arrested in South

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Police from outstations arrested twelve young Tamil civilians including two women in Moratuwa, Panadura and Kalutura in the outskirts of Colombo city in a cordon and search conducted Sunday morning, the relatives of the arrested said.
Full story >>

50 Tamil civilians killed, 130 wounded within 48 hours

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 15:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery barrage has killed 33 civilians on Saturday and 73 were brought to the makeshift hospital at Maaththa'lan with injuries. 14 deaths were registered by the hospital. On Sunday, around 20 civilians were killed in the SLA barrage and 60 wounded were brought to hospital, according to medical sources.
Full story >>

LTTE denies civilian killings in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 12:01 GMT]
Nakulan, one of the commanders of Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Ampaa'rai district on Sunday denied allegations by the Sri Lankan military that Tigers were behind the slaying of Sinhalese Chena cultivators at Karametiya village at Rathmalgaha Ella in Iginiyagala, an area that borders Ampaa'rai and Moneragala districts.
Full story >>

Holmes u-turns minutes after TNA meeting

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 11:41 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan has told the visiting UN Under Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs, Sir John Holmes, that there is an urgent need for the international community to act decisively to stop the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Vanni. However, in the press conference he gave minutes afterwards, Sir Holmes lauded the Sri Lankan government’s conduct vis-à-vis the humanitarian situation and said there was “good cooperation” between UN agencies and the Mahinda Rajapakse regime.
Full story >>

Jaffna Saiva Mahaa Chapai announces special prayers for Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 11:25 GMT]
Saiva Mahaa Chapai in Jaffna is to observe special prayers during the forthcoming Sivaraathiri religious event for the sake of the Tamil in Vanni whose sufferings continue and urging the warring parties to stop the war at once.
Full story >>

Police arrests Tamil nurse, family man abducted, in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 08:29 GMT]
Batticaloa police arrested Saturday around 11:00 a.m a Tamil nurse attached to Kalmunai hospital in Kalladi on suspicion that she had helped Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Meanwhile, unidentified armed men abducted Saturday a family man in Karadiyanaa’ru police division in Batticaloa district, Karadiyanaa’ru police said.
Full story >>

Holmes whitewashes Sri Lanka’s ‘slaughter’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 23:44 GMT]
Within a day of Human Rights Watch’s damning report stating that “Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there,” the UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes, went out of his way to avoid criticising the hardline Mahinda Rajapaksa regime and instead praised the “good cooperation” between the government and the UN agencies vis-à-vis the needs of the displaced Tamil population. Instead, he blamed the LTTE for the continuing suffering of the Tamil civilians in Mullaiththeevu.
Full story >>

Holmes relies on SL Minister to translate IDPs' complaints

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 23:42 GMT]
Visiting UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes, visited displaced camps in Vavuniyaa on Friday, accompanied by the Minister of Resettlement, Rishard Badurdeen and his security detail. Moreover, Sir Holmes relied on the Minister to translate the complaints of those people brave enough to speak up, humanitarian sources in Vavuniyaa said. When one woman complained her sons had been abducted by the Army, Minister Badurdeen told Sir Holmes that she said LTTE had abducted or shot her sons. Meanwhile, parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had also protested the matter to Sir Holmes, sources said.
Full story >>

Black Air Tiger urges Vanni youth to join for final battle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 20:45 GMT]
Col. Rooban, one of the two Black Air Tigers who flew LTTE aircrafts hitting Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Headquarters and the SLAF base at Katunayake Friday, in a letter left behind, urged the Tamils in Vanni to join the Liberation Tigers and strengthen the LTTE's military forces in the fight against the Sri Lanka Military forces.
Full story >>

SLA arrests 10 Tamil civilians in Kalmunai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 16:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested 10 Tamil labourers 16 February in a cordon and search launched jointly with the police in Kalmunai police division in Batticaloa district, according to their relatives who had lodged complaints to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Batticaloa. Only seven of the arrested Tamils were produced in Batticaloa court Friday while the fate of three of them is not known, the relatives said.
Full story >>

SLA arrests Tamil youth in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 15:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested a Tamil youth in Maangkea’ni in Vaakarai police division Friday as he was going from Puchchaangkea’ni to Maangkea’ni and took him to a jungle area, sources in Batticaloa said. The youth who tried to escape was arrested again by SLA soldiers but it is not known where he is being held, the sources added.
Full story >>

KwaZulu condemns genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 11:58 GMT]
The Speaker of Kwazulu-Natal legislature, the provincial government of the South African region inhabited by the largest ethnic group of the country, on Friday condemned the genocide of Tamils and expressed his support for the Tamil freedom struggle, accepting a memorandum on behalf of the premier of Kwazulu Natal, Sbu Ndebele, from the demonstrators in the city. More than 1500 South African participants marched approximately 2 km through the city’s main street to Freedom Square urging India to stop sending arms, Sri Lanka to stop the genocide of Tamils and the international community to impose sanctions on Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

U.S. rally exposing Colombo's genocide draws 7000

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 04:17 GMT]
Nearly seven thousand U.S. and Canadian Tamils filled the Ellipse at the southern perimeter to the White House, as a show of solidarity with the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians undergoing daily aerial bombardment and artillery attacks herded within a 100 sq.mile area in Vanni. The rally, organized jointly by the US-based activist group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and several local organizations, drew a record crowd, dewarfing the "hurriedly arranged" counter-rally organized by supporters of Colombo, an AFP report said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka forces 'slaughtering' civilians – HRW

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 23:07 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government should immediately cease its indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilians in the northern Vanni region and its policy of detaining displaced persons in internment camps, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday. "Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there," James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Sri Lankan forces have repeatedly and indiscriminately shelled areas crowded with displaced persons. This includes numerous reported bombardments of government-declared "safe zones" and of the remaining hospitals in the region,” HRW said. “The plight of the region's civilians has been made worse by the government's decision in September 2008 to order most humanitarian agencies out of the Vanni.”
Full story >>

LTTE: Black Air Tiger attack on Colombo's Air Force HQ, Air Base

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 22:55 GMT]
The LTTE Friday claimed two aircraft of Black Air Tiger mission diving into Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Headquarters in Colombo and into the SLAF base at Katunayaka, carrying out successful air raids. The Tigers also released photograph of the two Black Air Tigers, Col. Roopan and Lt. Col. Siriththiran with LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan before embarking on their mission.
Full story >>

Norwegian company donates sea craft, felicitates Colombo's 'victorious' forces

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 19:39 GMT]
Managing Director of a Norwegian boat manufacturing company, Jostine Viksund, Friday said that he and his staff had decided to donate their latest innovation, Viksund 605, a speed boat produced by them, to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, as a "tribute to the victorious armed forces," according to the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry, which said the craft would be used in coastguard duties. More than 400 Tamil Nadu fishermen have been reportedly killed by the Sri Lanka Navy on coastguard duties during the last few years.
Full story >>

Tamil Murasu comes out with corrigendum

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 11:42 GMT]
The Tamil daily of Singapore, Tamil Murasu, on Thursday published a corrigendum in its front page for a headline that appeared in the newspaper on 05 February. The headline cited a TamilNet article of 30 January as the source. The corrigendum consents that TamilNet is not a website of the LTTE and provides a Tamil translation of the concerned lines of the article, conceding that the Tamil Murasu headline did not accurately capture the thrust of the article.
Full story >>

"Flames on my body will guide to liberation"

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 11:30 GMT]
"We Tamils, displaced and all over the world, loudly raised our problems and asked for help before [the] international community in your own language for three decades. But nothing happened ... So I decided to sacrifice my life ... The flames over my body will be a torch to guide you through the liberation path," said British newspaper Guardian quoting British computer graduate, Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, who immolated to death in Geneva last week.
Full story >>