Thousands attend White Pigeon Mega Musical in U.K.

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2008, 17:40 GMT]
Thousands of British Tamils attended White Pigeon's 2nd Annual Mega Musical Festival in the Great Hall of the historic Alexandra Palace in London, Saturday to raise funds to support White Pigeon humanitarian projects in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka. White Pigeon works with UNICEF and international NGOs in the NorthEast of the country to provide prosthetic limbs for mine victims and Mine Risk Education for those living in war affected areas.
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Indian Foreign Minister refuses to criticise Colombo for abrogating CFA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2008, 17:29 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in an interview to CNN-IBN news channel, Sunday admitted that India had "scrupulously avoided" being a party to peace negotiations in Sri Lanka. The Indian FM who last week had ruled out any military solution to the ethnic strife in the war-torn island, on Sunday, failed to criticize Sri Lanka for abrogating the ceasefire. Questioned whether Colombo's decision to abrogate the ceasefire agreement was a "mistake," the minister replied that "any country that takes action against terrorists is free to do so within their legal system."
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Military action against LTTE not a solution: Indian Defence Minister

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2008, 07:37 GMT]
Indian Defence Minister A K Antony favoured a political solution to the 25-year-old ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and said that military action against the Tamil Tigers would not bring lasting peace to the island nation. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a defence meet in New Delhi Friday.
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Sri Lanka Navy attacks TamilNadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 19:38 GMT]
A TamilNadu fisherman was injured and his boat damaged when Sri Lankan naval personnel fired 'indiscriminately' at his boat fishing between Kadchatheevu and Thalaimannaar on Saturday, official sources said.
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Colombo's low enthusiasm on reconciliation, distressing- British FM

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 19:21 GMT]
During discussion in British Parliament on 8 Jan 2008, Dr Kim Howells, British Foreign Minister, in responding question on increasing number of killings in Sri Lanka, said: "I think that the most distressing feature is how the Government have won some military battles, but then become less enthusiastic about reconciliation and involving everyone who lives on that troubled island in a more inclusive way. We will continue to work with the Government, however, to emphasise that reconciliation must take place. There must be talks; otherwise the killing will continue."
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Hakeem seeks legal redress for reduction in security personnel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 16:47 GMT]
Rauf Hakeem, leader of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) filed a petition Friday in Colombo Supreme Court stating that reducing security for him is a violation of human rights, simultaneously claiming a compensation of 100 million Rupees from the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL).
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Paramilitary opens fire on Muslim worshippers at Mosque in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 15:33 GMT]
Paramilitary gunmen from Pillayaan Group opened fire on Muslims who were emerging from a Mosque in Karbala village in Aaraiyampathi Saturday at 7:55 p.m. Three persons, including a chief Mawlawi were wounded, two of them were in critical state, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. Tension prevails in the village with longstanding settlement dispute between the Tamil and Muslim communities. Shops were closed and additional police and Special Task Force personnel have been rushed to the village, Police said.
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Tamil trader shot dead in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 15:08 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot and killed a Tamil trader in Selva Nakar in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district Friday around 8:45 p.m as he was going home after closing his shop, Kaaththaankudi police said. Police recovered his body Saturday morning and handed it over to Batticaloa Teaching hospital.
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17 SLA, 5 Tigers killed in Pa'ndivirichchaan - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 14:09 GMT]
A two pronged ground movement by the Sri Lanka Army was thwarted at one front by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam after almost 6-hours heavy fighting in which 17 SLA soldiers and five LTTE fighters were killed, according to LTTE Operations Command in Mannaar, media sources in Ki'linochchi said. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopters landed at least 10 times, transporting wounded soldiers from the SLA defence line.
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Co-chairs request Colombo to provide diplomatic access to Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 10:59 GMT]
The Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference for Sri Lanka Peace Process, the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Norway, jointly expressing "strong concerns" about the termination of the 2002 CFA by the Government of Sri Lanka, Saturday called on the GoSL to provide access to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam in Ki'linochchi for representatives of the Co-Chairs and the facilitator, Norway. The Co-chairs also expressed deep concern about the human rights situation and protection of civilians in Sri Lanka, and called for continued monitoring of the human rights situation by such means as to assure an appropriate role for the United Nations.
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LTTE, the most dangerous, deadly, says FBI

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 03:09 GMT]
In a campaign "celebrating a century," U.S.'s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) said of the Liberation Tigers: "Needless to say, the Tamil Tigers are among the most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world. For more than three decades, the group has launched a campaign of violence and bloodshed in Sri Lanka, the island republic off the southern coast of India." The website added that LTTE's "ultimate goal is to seize control of the country from the Sinhalese ethnic majority."
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Sri Lankan State not secular, nor fair- Retd Indian Colonel

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 21:01 GMT]
Noting that Sri Lankan State has a fundamental problems that lie at the root of the conflict, Retired Indian Colonel, Mr Anil Athale, in a column appeared in Rediff Friday, says "many Indian commentators have flippantly advised Tamils to accept Sri Lankan unity without realising that Sri Lanka is not a secular State like India nor is it a 'fair State' like the UK in terms of rule of law."
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Parents of 2 arrested students seek HRC help

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 18:32 GMT]
The parents of two students of Jaffna St. Patrick College arrested and held in connection with Maheswaran’s killing sought help from Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) Friday to have them released. Jaffna police produced the two students, alleged to be involved in the assassination of Tamil parliamentarian Maheswaran, before Jaffna Magistrate R. T. Vignarajah January 2nd who directed them to be produced before Colombo Chief Justice.
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"Military solution is all Mr. Rajapakse has left" - Wall Street Journal

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 15:47 GMT]
Despite holding moral high ground as countries have labelled the LTTE terrorists and cracked down on funding, Rajapakse's "commitment to the negotiated cease-fire has always been shaky," and Rajapakse and his party "have done little to win over moderate Tamils," said the Wall Street Journal in an article published in Friday edition, and added that "now, the military solution is all Mr. Rajapakse has left, and it's not a sure bet by any means."
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Conflict sustained by world equating oppressor and oppressed - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 08:12 GMT]
The international community’s “stubborn refusal to accept, even when it is thrust in their faces, the racist oppression that underpins ethnic politics there and, consequently, the impossibility of reforming the Sinhala state,” is sustaining Sri Lanka’s conflict the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued this week. “It is [the] ready equating of the violence of the oppressor with the resistance of the oppressed which reveals the international mindset,” the paper’s editorial said.
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SLMM representatives preparing to leave Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 January 2008, 17:48 GMT]
The representatives of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) are completing any remaining activities and are preparing to leave Jaffna peninsula on the 16th, two weeks after the unilateral withdrawal of Sri Lanka state from the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Jaffna said. SLMM representatives are handing over their vehicles and equipments to two Danish Non-governmental Organizations which still remain in Jaffna peninsula, the sources added.
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LTTE requests Norway to continue facilitation, urges IC's support for Tamil rights

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 January 2008, 05:51 GMT]
The Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Major General Lars Johan Solvberg on Thursday met Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan in Ki'linochchi, following the GoSL announcement of unilateral withdrawal from the Ceasefire. Noting that the GoSL has withdrawn from the CFA without any justifications, LTTE's political head said that the Tigers, even at this juncture, stood ready to implement every clause of the agreement and requested Norway to continue with its facilitation role with the support of the International Community. He urged the IC to recognize the right of the Tamil people to live with self-determination in their homeland and remove the bans it has placed on the LTTE.
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White van armed men abduct 3 Tamil civilians in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2008, 14:27 GMT]
Armed men in military uniform arriving in a white van forcibly abducted Monday a father of three children at Mukaththuvaaram in Colombo, and in a separate incident a 30-year-old mother and her 5-year-old daughter are alleged abducted Tuesday from their house in Wathala, according to complaints made to Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan and Wattala police by the relatives of the abducted persons.
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Withdraw Indian radars from SL: Vaiko

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2008, 13:52 GMT]
Vaiko, General Secretary of the Tamil Nadu based Marumalarchchi Dravida Munneatta Kazhakam (MDMK), wrote to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week urging him not to attend the February 4 independence day celebrations at Colombo to be "carried on by the bloodstained hands of the Rajapaksa regime." He also appealed to Dr. Manmohan Singh to withdraw the Indian radars supplied to Sri Lanka and stop any further supply of military equipment.
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STF, police search Eastern University student hostel

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2008, 13:46 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police surrounded Wednesday dawn the student hostel in Vanthaa’rumoolay Eastern University and conducted a search operation, subjecting the students to intensive checking and interrogation until 9:30 a.m, sources in Batticaloa said. SLA and the police have been deployed in large numbers in Batticaloa district in the wake of Sri Lanka government’s announcement of its unilateral withdrawal of the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement signed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the sources added.
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