Ramdoss exhorts Karunanidhi to urgent action in stopping Sri Lanka war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 21:08 GMT]
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader Dr S Ramadoss, who visited VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, now in his fourth day of a fast-unto-death over the humanitarian crisis imposed on Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s punitive bombardments, exhorted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi to act urgently to invoke Indian intervention to stop the war. Emphatically refuting Mr. Karunanidhi's statement that the VCK leader had “unilaterally decided” to stage a protest fast without consulting the rest of the Tamil Nadu polity, Dr. Ramadoss said Thol Thirumavalavan, whose health is detoriarating, had consulted other leaders several times in the recent weeks.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Norway to stop Sri Lanka's genocidal war in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 16:52 GMT]
Nearly three hundred Norwegian Tamils, along with Norwegian Members of Parliament and political leaders, gathered in the premises of Norway Parliament Friday between 11:00 a.m till 1:30 p.m, and appealed to the Government of Norway to save the Tamils in Vanni in from the genocidal war waged on them by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), This is the third such demonstration by Norwegian Tamils in this week.
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Menon restated India’s support for war – Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 16:46 GMT]
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who met with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday “reaffirmed India’s cooperation with Sri Lanka in the attempts to eliminate terrorism from Sri Lanka and the region, and observed that at present the relations between India and Sri Lanka have never been so close, so warm and so deep,” the Colombo government said in a statement. President Rajapakse met Mr. Menon in Kandy, the ancient seat of Sinhala power, rather than in Colombo.
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India should stop war, instruct Colombo to talk to Tigers - BJP Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 12:37 GMT]
A senior leader of BJP, a major national political party of India, visited Friday Thol. Thirumavalavan, the VCK President who is on a fast-unto-death demanding the Central government of India to stop the war being waged by Colombo against Eezham Tamils. The BJP politician, Vaithiyalingam, a member of the party's national general council, declared that India, which is a powerful country in the region, cannot sit back and watch without doing anything to stop the genocidal war in Sri Lanka and added India should be specific in demanding ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam.
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Catholic priests appeal to UN to intervene in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 06:55 GMT]
Catholic priests and other religious leaders in Vanni, in an urgent letter appealed to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, to "take immediate steps to stop the senseless war and put an end to the untold sufferings of the innocent civilians," and said that the "root of the on going war is the Structural Injustice, a vehement denial of equality and dignity of the Sri Lanka Tamils..."
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2 Tamil youths shot dead in Moneragala

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 03:24 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons wearing masks shot dead two Tamil youths in Moneragala division in two separate incidents. One youth Ramachchandran Ravichandran, 22, a three-wheel driver was shot dead on Tuesday, and the other, Kulanthaivel Krishnaraj, was shot dead Thursday, police sources said.
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UK turns away from ‘War on Terror’ doctrine

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 19:30 GMT]
Britain’s Foreign Secretary this week slammed the US-led ‘War on Terror’ as a “misleading and mistaken” doctrine that had effacing the nuances of various conflicts while uniting extremists opposed to the West. Speaking in Mumbai, David Miliband said Thursday the concept had invited “invidious comparisons” between organisations as diverse as the Tamil Tigers, fighting for independence of the Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based faction that Indian and British officials believe was behind the Mumbai atrocities. “Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology,” he was quoted by The Times as saying.
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Heavy fighting erupts in Tharmapuram, Tigers say 51 SLA killed

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 17:12 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) media reported Friday that the advance by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from Tharmapuram on three fronts were repulsed at 14:00 p.m. 51 SLA soldiers were killed and 150 troops sustained injuries in the confrontation that lasted for 14 hours from the early hours of Friday. The Tigers have claimed that they seized weapons in the clearing mission that followed. The Tigers deployed at least one BMP-1 armoured fighting vehicle, according to pictures released to media. It is not clear if the vehicle was captured from the SLA, and when.
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Jaffna District Secretariat urges help from NGOs to assist uprooted civilians

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 14:36 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) and Thenmaraadchi Divisional Secretary have requested the help of International and local Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and humanitarian organizations in Jaffna to supply urgent requisites other than food to the civilians who have been brought to Thenmaraadchi by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from areas earlier held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Pa’lai, Pachchilaippa’li, Iyakkachchi and Vadamaraadchi East. 1796 persons belonging to 627 families have been brought by Sri Lanka Army to Kodikaamam till Thursday evening, according to the figures from the District Secretariat. More families have been brought Thursday night and on Friday.
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CPI pledges support to Thirumavalavan's fast

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 05:13 GMT]
Veteran leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu, R. Nallakannu Thursday pledged his party's support to Thirumavalavan's fast-unto-death campaign demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Mr. Thirumavalavan blamed the Indian establishment for not asking Sri Lanka to stop war or sending Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian External Affairs Minister to Colombo, as promised. The VCK leader decried the Indian Government's inaction and said that by insulting the demands of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi, New Delhi had in effect insulted the whole Tamil population.
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"Which norms of liberal democracy preclude IC attending to exodus, genocide?" asks IDP activist

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 03:52 GMT]
The LTTE doesn't obstruct or instruct the civilians of Vanni of what direction they have to take in fleeing the current phase of war. But, a large section of the civilians have considered that their security, even now, lies in the LTTE held areas in the eye of war, and are spontaneously moving towards that direction. "Allowing the war to continue, leaving Tamil civilians in the hands of the preying Sinhala army, which we dread, demonstrates only the cruelty of the few minds that determine the course of the war from outside of the island and how international norms evolved through civilisation have become a joke," said P. Kanakalingam, the president of Vanni People's Welfare Organisation (VPWO), on Thursday.
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TamilNet invites opinion

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 03:30 GMT]
Many readers of the Eezham Tamil diaspora and India, anxiously communicate with TamilNet on the future course of the Eezham Tamil struggle. In this regard, TamilNet invites positive written opinion from its readers. The views will be compiled and presented shortly. TamilNet also considers this as a healthy democratic exercise in inspiring the future course of the struggle.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Indian PM to stop war in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 11:22 GMT]
Around three hundred Norwegian Tamils gathered in front of the Indian Embassy in Oslo Wednesday between 2:00 p.m and 3:00 p.m in an attempt to draw the attention of the Indian state to stop the genocidal war waged on the Tamils in Vanni by the Government of Sri Lanka. Norwegian Tamil Federation (NTF) which had arranged the demonstration presented a memorandum of its requests to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by handing it over to the representative of the Indian Embassy in Oslo.
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Thirumavalavan launches fast-unto-death, demands India to stop war

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 06:54 GMT]
"Mahatma Gandhi, who fought against British colonialists didn't think of taking the side of genocidal Hitler during World War II. He was not seeking personal vengeance against the British. Likewise, the present leaders in New Delhi should also take a bold decision that they will not support the genocidal war being waged by the Sri Lankan state on Eezham Tamils," said Kasi Anandan, a well-known Eezham poet living in Tamil Nadu, inaugurating the fast-unto-death campaign launched Thursday by VCK (Liberation Panthers Party) President Thol. Thirumavalavan.
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SLA forcibly uproots civilians from occupied Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 03:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been engaged in vacating civilians from the coastal villages earlier held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vadamaraadchi East, to Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi and brought around 300 civilians in vehicles along the A9 road Wednesday making a total of 985 civilians along with those brought in during the last four days, according to Divisional Secretariat sources in Chaavakachcheari. Meanwhile, there have also been alleged reports of disappearances in the custody of the SLA. The latest move, to keep the civilians within military High Security Zone in Mirusuvil, has set off fears of military 'detention centres' like the ones reported in Mannaar and Vavuniyaa in recent times.
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Fate of 200 fleeing civilians arrested by SLN not known

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 21:15 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police in Jaffna, which had alerted the judicial system and the civil authorities on Monday that around 200 civilians arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) while fleeing in boats from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupied Vadamaraadchi East to Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) held areas in Mullaiththeevu district, were to be handed over to the authorities, on Wednesday said that they had no further updates from the SLN or the SLA on the whereabouts of the refugees.
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British premier wants ceasefire in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 20:24 GMT]
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, while responding to a question by Keith Vaz MP about the plight of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka and the killing of Sunday Leader editor, said Britain’s Parliament Wednesday that there is a need for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka and that he would be raising the matter with French President Nikolas Sakorzy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr. Brown was speaking during the first Prime Minister’s Questions of 2009.
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13 civilians wounded in SLA shelling on Pongkal day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 09:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells targeting civilians who have been moving from other areas of Vanni towards Puthukkudiyiruppu, causing injuries to 13 civilians, initial reports from Puthukkudiyiruppu said. The indiscriminate shelling has targeted Kaiveali settlement in Puthukkudiyiruppu division of Mullaiththeevu district. The bombardment comes on civilian settlement comes on Pongkal Day, a common festival of Tamil identity. The Tamil diaspora has called off Pongkal celebrations.
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World oblivious to Sri Lanka's genocide of Tamils, says music phenom M.I.A

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 04:06 GMT]
Maya Arulpragasam, better known by her stage name M.I.A, a British born Tamil and recent U.S. Grammy nominee, reveals that her music was shaped by her experience as a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka, and accuses the International Community for standing idle as Colombo perpetrates acts of genocide against Tamils in Sri Lanka's NorthEast. In her interview to an Indian website, Maya adds: "[P]eople need to learn that you cannot wipe out a whole [Tamil] race."
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End of peace in India’s south

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 00:40 GMT]
The people of Tamil Nadu in no uncertain terms have said what they wish and have shown their indignation and resentment to what is happening in the island of Sri Lanka. The Tamil diaspora all over the world has demonstrated its solidarity with the national question of Eezham Tamils. The people of USA have firmly voted for the revision of the politics of terrorism. But the few, clinging at the helm of the outgoing administrations of New Delhi and Washington have decided to run amok, defying local and global public opinion. While Bush leaves behind a precarious world legacy to Obama, the Sonia Congress bears personal responsibility for the plight of Eezham Tamils.
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