Tamil Nadu students' indefinite fast enters fifth day

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 12:31 GMT]
An indefinite fast-unto-death demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lankai by 12 students of the Chengalpattu Law College entered the fifth day on Monday. "We have two demands before the Indian Union Government: India should intervene and bring about an end to the ongoing genocide, India should stop all military aid to the Sinhalese," the protesting students said. Occurring in the backdrop of continuous student boycotts all over Tamil Nadu, this fast which commenced Thursday has gained enormous emotional significance.
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Ramadoss: Tamil Nadu Parties should pressurize Indian Government to recognize Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:54 GMT]
PMK founder-leader Dr. Ramadoss called upon the political parties in Tamil Nadu to exert pressure on the Union Government of India to recognize "Tamil Eelam for Eelam Tamils" while addressing mediapersons Sunday. Reacting to a remark by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi that he was unable to save the Eelam Tamils, Dr.Ramadoss said that Karunanidhi had to exert pressure on the Union Government in order to bring about a ceasefire. "The General Body Meeting of the DMK will take place on February 15. In the intervening three weeks, what will be the multi fold miseries that the Eelam Tamils will be made to face? Why this delay?" he wondered.
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'Their imagination is stuck at the 13th amendment'

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:50 GMT]
"All the authoritarians of the world joined hands shamelessly to abet the repulsive Colombo regime in crushing the democratic aspirations of a people to liberate their nation. When the authoritarians gleefully claim success they seem to have forgotten that there is now no excuse of the LTTE for them in coming out with a political solution proving their credentials of liberal democracy, if they practise that at all. But they seem to be having no vision at all other than poking their greedy fingers into the hot pie and their imagination of political solution is stuck at the 20 years old ‘Rajeev Rot’, the 13th amendment," said a Tamil political commentator in Colombo.
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Does IC know no human dignity of civilians, asks a doctor in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:36 GMT]
"The world is silently witnessing one of the worst massacres of helpless civilians in contemporary times. These civilians know no crime other than not knowing where to go. While the genocidal military of the Colombo government is on the killing spree, India and the international community sadistically expect the civilians to come running out into the hands of their killers. Either way they expect them to perish," a doctor, while attending casualties at the Udaiyaarkaddu hospital, said on Monday.
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100 civilians feared killed, countless wounded, artillery barrage on 'saftey zone'

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 09:06 GMT]
More than one hundred civilians were killed and hundreds of wounded patients were helpless without medical attendance as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was continuously engaged in one of the most inhumane artillery barrage on civilian populated 'safety zone' in Udaiyaarkaddu Monday morning. All the civilians were remaining under the bunkers for more than 5 hours, according to initial reports from the medical sources in Udaiyaarkaddu. The makeshift hospital at Udaiyaarkaddu was on total disarray as 10 patients were killed and four ambulances damaged. The doctors have called for the ICRC, which is also helpless under the bunkers, the reports said.
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Jaffna students protest against SLA artillery barrage on Vanni IDPs

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 08:47 GMT]
All educational and administrative activities of the University of Jaffna came to a complete halt Monday as its students launched their boycott of lectures in protest against the indiscriminate and deadly attacks unleashed by the government of Sri Lanka on the Tamil people in Vanni, sources in Jaffna said. A larger number of policemen and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were deployed in and around the university premises.
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Samaraweera to raise Colombo's rights violations with U.S.

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 04:13 GMT]
Asserting that Mahinda Rajapakse regime is “the darkest, the most brutal and the most ruthless,” that has ruled Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera, the convenor SLFP (M), in an interview published in this weekend Sunday Leader, said that he will “seek an appointment with the US State Department and the incoming Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton,” to offer evidence related to human rights violations committed by “Gotabaya [Rajapakse] and Basil Rajapakse as well as Sarath Fonseka…The US must deal with these people. They have an obligation to deal with them.”
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SLA shelling kills 22 civilians, wounds 60, targets humanitarian supply centre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 January 2009, 19:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has continued artillery shelling on densely populated 'safety zone,' in Chuthanthirapuram, Udaiyaarkaddu and Thearaavil in Visuvamadu throughout Sunday, at least twice attacking the vicinity of the supply centre, located at Chuthanthirapuram playground, the only centre in Vanni where humanitarian supplies brought in by the UN World Food Programme are distributed. Two shells exploded in the premises, killing five members of a single family of Mr. Jegatheeswaran, owner of a saloon displaced from Visuvamadu. Five more civilians, including children and women, were also killed. Body parts were scattered across the locality and not all of them could be identified, according to medical sources. At least 13 civilians were wounded at the site.
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Delhi students on hunger strike to protest Colombo's war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 13:33 GMT]
Students from different universities and colleges in New Delhi, joined by lawyers, teachers and human rights activists held a one day hunger strike Saturday expressing solidarity with Tamil people in Vanni, and protesting against the "onslaught on Tamil people in a unilateral war declared by the Sri Lanka military with a tacit understanding of the Indian Government," organizers of the event said.
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Fleeing civilian youths misused to fabricate SLA propaganda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 13:07 GMT]
Six Tamil youths who recently moved from the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled area to Vavuniyaa were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, taken to a nearby army camp where they were given LTTE military uniforms and were forced to give video and voice cuts saying that they were LTTE cadres, who were fed up with the Tiger hierarchy and decided to hand over themselves to the SLA, legal sources in Vavuniya said. Vavuniyaa Magistrate has instructed the Police to approach the families of the youth through Government officials and to initiate family re-union.
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Intent of Genocide provable in Sri Lanka - Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 11:54 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General and currently counsel for the US-based group Tamils Against Genocide, addressing a select gathering of media persons and intellectuals organized by the Max Foundation in Chennai Friday, told the audience that there is enough evidence to criminally convict U.S. citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and U.S. Green card holder Lt.Gen. Sarath Fonseka in the U.S. Federal Courts for "intent to commit Genocide" in Sri Lanka, sources from Chennai said.
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‘Stop killing innocent Tamils in Vanni immediately’ - Jaffna University students

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 11:10 GMT]
“The indiscriminate killings of innocent Tamils in Vanni by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombings should be stopped at once and all members of Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) will boycott lectures Monday to give weight to our demands. Our union seeks the support of the people of Jaffna peninsula in our struggle,” JUSU said in a media announcement Saturday. JUSU intends to expand the struggle by bringing the activities of Jaffna University administration to a halt to achieve the demands, the release further said.
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Human chain protest demonstration in Paris

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 08:07 GMT]
More than 4000 Tamil men, women and students, braving cold weather, held hands forming a human chain, expressed their concern and support for the Tamils in Vanni being continuously attacked by Sri Lanka Armed Forces, Friday from 5:00 p.m to 6:30 p.m along the St. Antony, one of the main avenues in La Chapelle, Paris.
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Police arrest Eastern University Tamil student in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 07:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka police arrested Friday a Tamil student of Eastern University at Kuruntuwathe, a suburb in Colombo, while he was visiting his friend, the police said.
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American Tamils urge India to intervene in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 02:37 GMT]
More than three hundred American Tamils demonstrated in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C. Friday between 12:00 noon and 2:30 p.m. to express solidarity with Eelam Tamils, and called upon India to intervene in Sri Lanka on humanitarian grounds to initiate peace talks, halt military assistance to Sri Lanka, and to recognize the Tamils right to self-determination. The demonstrators later assembled near the U.S. State Department to show their support to the new Obama Administration, organizers of the event said.
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SLN arrests 22 Tamil Nadu fishermen in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) based in Oorkaavattu’rai (Kayts) Wednesday night rounded up 22 fishermen from Tamil Nadu said to be fishing in the seas of the islets of Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The fishermen were produced in Oorkaavattu’rai court Friday where Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate Ms. Joy Mahatheva directed the police to place them in custody in Jaffna Prison.
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India, Co-Chairs backing war: Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 16:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka said Friday its military offensive against the Tamil Tigers was supported by India and the Co-Chairs to the donor community – US, EU, Norway and Japan. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said the Co-Chairs and Sri Lanka had a common objective of a speedy solution to the conflict. Meanwhile, Japan’s special envoy Yashushi Akashi, was quoted by the Defence Ministry as “expressing satisfaction at the efforts by the Sri Lanka Government to safeguard the civilian population in the north.” Almost a hundred civilians died this week in the military’s deliberate shelling of populated areas, including a ‘safe zone’ Colombo announced.
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White van gunmen abduct young Tamil woman in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 13:03 GMT]
Four armed men who arrived in a white van abducted 22-year-old daughter of Kotahena Muththumariyamman temple assistant priest, from her residence Thursday morning around 5:30 a.m. when her parents were away in India, according to the relatives of the victims.
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Artillery barrage continues, 3 killed, 33 wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 13:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) shells continued to target Tamil refugees in temporary settlements of Mullaiththeevu district Friday. Three civilians were killed around 10:00 a.m. and 33 were wounded.
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Norwegian Tamils demonstrate in front of Japan Embassy in Oslo

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 12:18 GMT]
Nearly 200 Norwegian Tamils of Norwegian Tamil Federation (NTF) demonstrated Thursday between 2:00 p.m and 3:00 p.m in front of the Japanese Embassy, located on Wergekands veien, 15 in Oslo, urging Japan, one of the co-chair countries, to exert pressure on Sri Lanka to stop the genocidal war waged on the Tamils in Vanni, sources in Oslo said. An official of the Japan Embassy accepted the memorandum submitted by NTF.
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