SLA imposes unofficial restrictions on Thenmaraadchi residents

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 17:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has imposed restrictions on the residents in Thenmaraadchi against buying food provisions in large quantities or to stock them from Sunday, following instructions from the Ministry of Defence, sources in Jaffna said. SLA authorities suspect that the people of Thenmaraadchi are providing food to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eazham (LTTE) combatants who had infiltrated into Thenmaraadchi.
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Karnataka Tamils urge Delhi to recognise Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 12:53 GMT]
Stop the war, withdraw military assistance, recognise Eelam Tamils right to self determination and extend recognition to Tamil Eelam as India recognised the right to self determination of Bengalees in East Pakistan, said a memorandum issued by Karnataka Thamizhar Makkal Iyakkam (KTMI), which held a sit in (Dharna) agitation before the Gandhi statue on the M. G. Road in Bangalore on Monday.
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Tamil Nadu film industry vows support to Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 11:38 GMT]
Bringing the entire Tamil film industry in Tamil Nadu state of India to a standstill, more than two thousand artists converged at the southern tip of Rameswaram (Raameasvaram), which is situated in the close proximity to the island of Sri Lanka, expressing their support for Eezham Tamils struggle. Actors are also expected to hold a fast on November 01 to express their solidarity with the civilians who suffer due to the military offensive by the Sri Lankan forces.
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'Allow us to speak': French Tamil diaspora demonstrates

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 01:45 GMT]
Allow us to speak. We are not terrorists. What is happening in Sri Lanka is genocide: These were the voices of the thousands of Eezham Tamil demonstrators who braved defying a government ban and gathered in Paris on Sunday. Reflecting on his experience, Mr Somasundaram Sarveswaran, a participant said what is abominable that goes against all norms of civilization is silencing the civilian voice. "The Tamil national cause and the struggle against genocide of a people are not terrorist issues. There is a tendency today to look at everything related to Tamil as terrorism. This is why we earnestly look upon the leaders of Tamil Nadu to secure us our righteous global space as a priority, by recognizing the Tamil right to self-determination in the Island of Sri Lanka," he said.
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Indian federal model insufficient to Sri Lanka, says senior leader of CPI

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2008, 08:31 GMT]
Unlike India, which has a multitude of ethnicities, the Sri Lankan question is confined only to two identities, Sinhalese and Tamils. Legacies of struggle and military situation have made a contextual difference in Sri Lanka. Therefore the Indian federal model is insufficient to Sri Lanka. It should be higher than that, perhaps a confederation having constitutional guarantees, preventing one unit militarily interfering with the other, said C. Mahendran, senior leader of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Communist Party of India, in a recent interview to TamilNet.
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Mahinda telephones Manmohan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 23:15 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday to discuss recent developments in Sri Lanka. While the Sri Lankan press release is silent on details, the Indian brief discloses the PM's concern for the safety of civilians, ensured relief supply to IDPs, not enmeshing the Tamil community in the hostilities with LTTE and nurturing democracy in the East, apart from the usual reiterations on political solution, united Sri Lanka and Indian fishermen casualties. The Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee was invited by his Sri Lankan counterpart to visit Sri Lanka at an early date, according to SL press release.
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Vavuniyaa Tamil youths arrested in Badulla

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 17:43 GMT]
The police arrested two Vavuniyaa Tamil youths on Tuesday for allegedly taking photograph of the Badulla police station with their hand phone cameras. They are now being detained in the Badulla police station and being interrogated by the Intelligence Unit of the Police, media sources said.
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Tamil UNP activist abducted in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 17:37 GMT]
Forty year old K.Mahalaingam, a former councilor of the Aarachchikatuwa Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) in Puththa'lam district was abducted from his house Thursday around 7:00 p.m. by unidentified armed persons arrived in a white van. He represented the main opposition United National Party (UNP) in the PS, according to complaints lodged with the Puththa'lam Police by his relatives.
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17 DMK MPs submit resignation letters to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 10:22 GMT]
Following Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi's ultimatum to the Central Government of India Tuesday on the national issue of Eezam Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, 17 Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam including 2 Central ministers handed their resignation letters Friday to CM Karunanidhi in Chennai, media reports in Chennai said. Meanwhile, Tamil Film Industry will hold a rally Sunday in Rameswaram demanding the Centre to take efforts to stop the war on Eezham Tamils.
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Beginning the end of war with Tamil right to self determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 08:06 GMT]
Those who peruse the demands raised by major political parties in Tamil Nadu may notice that the focus is merely on stopping the war but nothing said by any on the fundamental issue of the sovereignty of the Tamil nation in the island of Sri Lanka, the question on which war has been thrust upon the Eezham Tamils. Any meaningful way to end the war and the suffering of the masses in Sri Lanka should therefore begin from recognizing the right to self-determination of Eezham Tamils and the integrity of their homeland, writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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Tamil fisherman abducted in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 18:24 GMT]
53 year-old Tamil Subramanian Ganeshan, a fisherman by profession was abducted Friday morning in Udappu in Munthal police division in Puththa'lam district by two unidentified armed men arrived in white van, according to complaints lodged with the police by his relatives.
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Time for India to re-think, says Singaporean scholar

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 16:21 GMT]
The all-party resolution in Tamil Nadu should provide New Delhi an opportunity to do some introspection about its Sri Lanka policy, says TS Gopi Rethinaraj of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore in an article that appeared in Hindustan Times on Thursday. Unless India is able to lock SL in a broad bilateral security relationship, their leadership will have no qualms about allowing China or Pakistan to get a foothold, he says. "This is the real danger of India's current policy facilitating the military defeat of the LTTE. If India were to take a hard-nosed view of its interests, a subtle shift in its position on the LTTE will go a long way in safeguarding its strategic interests in the region besides securing the interests of ethnic Tamils in the island."
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Karunanidhi announces human chain demonstration on Eelam issue

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 11:31 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi has announced that a human chain demonstration would be held in Chennai on October 21 to remind the Union Government of India about the state's ultimatum on the national question of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. The resolution demanded the Central Government to take measures to ensure that there is no war in Sri Lanka and that peace prevails in Tamil homeland.
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Attack on media: freedom, arrogance and playing with the will of people

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 23:57 GMT]
The Tamil nationalist sentiments bursting into anti-media violence, spontaneously or otherwise, is not the appropriate way, said a senior Eezham Tamil editor in Colombo, commenting on the reported recent attacks on The Hindu in Tamil Nadu. "Camouflaged in the name of Indian national interest, the intellectual venom, sectarian interests, dynastic interests and personal biases sadly making The Hindu into a pro-Sinhala and anti-Tamil media have to be countered socially, culturally and politically on a superior intellectual plane by bringing out public awakening locally and globally," he said.
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STF shoots dead 2 Tamils, 2 Muslims in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 19:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) commandos opened fire Thursday around 6:00 a.m, on four farmers, two of them Tamils and two Muslims, killing them at Vaddamadu pasture land in Thirukkoayil police division in Ampaa'rai district.
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Batticaloa girl arrested in Kalpity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 18:45 GMT]
22 year-old Tamil girl was arrested by the police in Kalpity in Puththalam district in northwestern province Tuesday night from a residence she was temporarily staying, Puththa'lam police said. She is being detained in the police station and under interrogation on a report that she had been closely associating with the LTTE cadres, police added.
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SLA attempt to advance thwarted in Northern FDL - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 14:21 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) on Thursday claimed that their defensive formations thwarted an attempt by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to advance into their territory across Mukamaalai Forward Defence Line (FDL) in Jaffna. Heavy fighting that erupted at 5:30 a.m. lasted till 2:30 p.m., the Tigers said, claiming that more than 15 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and at least 40 wounded in the fighting.
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Clashes erupt in Jaffna FDL

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 13:01 GMT]
Clashes between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) erupted Thursday early morning in Thenmaraadchi Front Defence Line, after direct confrontations between Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and the LTTE's Sea Tigers in Jaffna lagoon Wednesday night, according to the sources in Jaffna. As SLA in Jaffna has not released any information about this clash it is not known whether the clashes indicated a limited SLA military offensive.
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Australians protest against Bogolloagama press club meet

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 20:20 GMT]
More than 600 Australian Tamils protested in front of the National Press Club in Canberra Tuesday while the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Rohitha Bogollagama, was addressing an invited audience inside the National Press Club, sources in Canberra said. The protesters highlighted Sri Lanka's escalating human rights violations against the media workers.
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Tamil jeweler shot dead in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 19:39 GMT]
A Tamil jeweler was shot dead Monday afternoon when he was standing along Vihare Road in Wellawatte in Colombo by an unidentified came in a three wheeler. The jeweler has been identified as S.Nesarajah, 32. He was immediately transferred to Kalubowila Teaching Hospital where he was pronounced dead on admission.
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