SLA arrests 9 upcountry Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2008, 18:50 GMT]
Nine Tamil youths were arrested Wednesday morning by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) with the help of three masked men during a cordon and search operation in Kirkil Estate in Uva Paranagama in the hill country, civil society sources in Colombo said. This was the first time the state armed forces had used masked men for their search operation to arrest upcountry Tamil youths.
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Saiva priest arrested in Kandy

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2008, 11:38 GMT]
A Tamil Saiva priest was arrested on Wednesday in Teldeniya in Kandy district, and is being detained in police station for interrogation by the Police Intelligence Unit. The priest was taken into custody by a special police team which went from Kandy Police Headquarters on a report from the intelligence unit, civil sources said.
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Badulla Police arrest two Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2008, 11:30 GMT]
Badulla Police Wednesday arrested two Tamil youths while allegedly taking photographs of police station, court complex, municipal council complex, and Uva provincial Council Secretariat located in Badulla town, police sources claimed. The youths are being detained in the police station and subjected to interrogation by a police team of the Police Intelligence Unit, police sources added.
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Change course or face misfortune: Indian scholar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 21:32 GMT]
The broad sentiment in Tamil Nadu this time is not merely against Colombo but against New Delhi as well. It is widely perceived in Tamil Nadu that New Delhi is collaborating with Colombo in authoring the misery of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, says M S S Pandian in an article appeared in The Times of India on Thursday. "Tamil Nadu had a history of demanding secession from the Indian Union. Yet, over time, it has chosen to integrate itself fully with the national mainstream. If New Delhi does not change course in its Sri Lankan policy, it may plant the seeds towards a reversal of such history. That will be India's misfortune," wrote the renowned scholar on sociopolitical and subaltern studies of contemporary India.
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Italian Tamils march to raise awareness about Tamils plight in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 20:29 GMT]
More than two thousand diaspora Tamils in Southern Italy marched Thursday from Piazza Politama to the Palermo office of the Internal Affairs Ministry to hand over an appeal urging awareness on the plight of the Eezham Tamils in Vanni and elsewhere in the island of Sri Lanka.
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Address the root cause to end suffering: Vidyananda alumni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 20:13 GMT]
"It is our earnest feeling that the fundamental issue of our status as a nation, precisely on the question of which we are put to untold sufferings for ages by the successive Colombo governments, has to be addressed with priority and with urgency by the Indian government," reads a request from the alumni (Norway) of the Mu'l'liyava'lai Vidyananda College of Vanni, made on Thursday to the political parties of Tamil Nadu. Indian recognition of Eezham Tamil self-determination is the fundamental effective measure to discourage war and to lead to peace negotiations, the request said.
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2 Tamil youths arrested in Bandarawela

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 19:12 GMT]
Two Tamil youths were arrested in an estate in Passara by a special team of the Bandarawela Police Tuesday night on receipt of information from Colombo police headquarters. M.Thineshkumar, 23, and S.Kumar, 25, of Hendala in Colombo district had gone to the estate to attend an age-attainment ceremony for a relative of theirs in Passara, when the youths were arrested
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Cheanaiyoor IDPs to be resettled

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 19:07 GMT]
144 members of 44 internally displaced Tamil families, who had fled from Moothoor east in Trincomalee district in 2006 due to military operations of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), were transported in six state sector buses Thursday from several welfare centres in Batticaloa district for resettlement in their village Cheanaiyoor, a once flourishing town and now deserted, civil society sources in Trincomalee said. The buses traveled via Vaakarai, south of the Trincomalee district, with police protection.
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Vaiko arrested for "pro-LTTE speech"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 17:22 GMT]
Tamil Nadu state police arrested MDMK General Secretary Vaiko, a staunch supporter of Tamil Eelam cause, on Thursday afternoon for allegedly making "highly inflammatory speeches in support of the LTTE".
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Thirumavalavan courts arrest with thousands of cadres, asks India to stop proxy war

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 12:05 GMT]
In a powerful state-wide railway blockade of a scale that has not been witnessed in recent years in Tamil Nadu, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) President Thol. Thirumavalavan courted arrest Thursday morning with thousands of his cadres urging the Indian Government to stop the genocidal war against the Tamils within the next twenty-four hours. He said that the ongoing war in the island was "clearly a proxy war being waged by the Indian Government through the Sinhalese forces" and he urged upon New Delhi to put an end to it at the earliest.
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2 SLA killed in Ampaa'rai - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 10:42 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and one wounded Thursday at 11:05 a.m. in a gunfire ambush carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Bakimitiyawa in Ampaa'rai district, according to LTTE sources in the East.
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Jaffna Hindu College Association voices for Tamil right to self-determination

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 22:24 GMT]
The Jaffna Hindu College Association (UK), on Wednesday, came out with a statement addressed to all political parties of Tamil Nadu and the Government of India to recognize the right to self-determination of Tamils as a nation in Sri Lanka. In the war-torn society of Eezham Tamils, the existing grass-root level democratic institutions are the alumni associations and village associations functioning from abroad. The Jaffna Hindu College is a 120 years old pioneering national institution that hosted Swami Vevekananda and Mahatma Gandhi when they visited Jaffna.
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Abducted Tamil trader found dead in Negombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 14:51 GMT]
The body of the abducted 40-year-old Subramanian Thavarajasingham, father of two children and a trader by profession was found near the Negombo railway station Sunday morning. He was abducted by armed persons arrived in a white van from his telecommunication centre located along Beach Road in Negombo on October 8th, sources said.
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2 STF killed in Ampaa'rai - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 14:05 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) on Wednesday claimed two Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) personnel were killed and one wounded in a mine explosion in Kagnchikudichchaa'ru jungle in Ampaa'rai district Wednesday around 1:50 p.m.
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Sea Tigers sink Sri Lankan supply ship

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 08:10 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Sea Tigers on Wednesday claimed that they carried out a Black Tiger attack on Sri Lankan ship MV Nimalawa, which carried military and other supplies, in Sri Lankan naval harbour in Kankeasnthu'rai in Jaffna Wednesday morning around 5:00. The supply ship was sunk and another vessel, MV Ruhunuwa, sustained heavy damage, the Tigers said.
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Paradigm shift is the need of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 15:41 GMT]
The International Community and especially India, should not burden any further the peoples of Sri Lanka by insisting on a united Sri Lanka. The first step to diffuse tension is to recognize the right to self-determination of Tamils, not necessarily to mean partition, but to achieve parity and to provide a conducive platform needed for meaningful negotiations of the concerned parties to decide the future of the island of Sri Lanka, peacefully. The way sentiments have been built up, initially it may stir emotions among the Sinhalese, but it may not take long for them to realize that it was for their good as well, writes opinion columnist Chivanadi, quoting paradigm changing global thinking on ethnonationalism.
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STF commando killed, one wounded in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 13:51 GMT]
A Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) commando was killed and one wounded Tuesday around 11:45 a.m. in a jungle area in Poththuvil in Ampaa'rai, according to the claims by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in the East.
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Pandemonium in Indian Parliament over Eezham Tamil, Indo-U.S. issues

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 09:35 GMT]
Uproarious scenes over the issues of plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Indo-US civilian nuclear deal and attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra caused the both houses of the Indian Parliament to be adjourned till noon within few minutes of assembling on Tuesday, Press Trust of India reported.
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"No Home - Just Hope" photo exhibition of Vanni IDP's woes, in Norway

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 08:25 GMT]
Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) of the city of Bergen in Norway launched an exhibition titled "No Home – Just Hope" of photos depicting the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Vanni in Sri Lanka, in Hanseatisk Museum in Bergen town, Friday around 6:00 p.m, inaugurated by Eileen, Kolsås Dalen, culture consultant in Bergen Municipality, sources in Bergen said. Friday marked the day when the United Nations was founded.
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Shut down observed in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 20:10 GMT]
A general shut down was observed in Batticaloa district Monday against Tamil youths being abducted and killed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Tamil youths arrested being killed, civil society sources in Batticaloa said. All public and private institutions, business establishments were shut down in Batticaloa district though SLA troops compelled the shop owners to open the shops.
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