British Tamils mourn Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2007, 00:41 GMT]
Several thousand British Tamils paid their respects Monday to the political head of the LTTE, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan and five other LTTE officials killed in a targeted airstrike by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Friday. The event was addressed by parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), local Tamil councilors and community figures.
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Muslim writer shot, injured in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 November 2007, 17:20 GMT]
Unidentified armed person shot and seriously injured a well known Muslim writer Monday evening with a pistol as he was returning from the Mosque near his house in Akkaraipattu police division in Ampaa'rai district, Akkaraipattu police said. The writer was rushed to Akkaraipattu hospital for surgery.
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Emergency extended for another month in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 November 2007, 16:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday adopted a motion moved by the Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wikremanayake on behalf of the government to extend the State of Emergency for another month with a majority of 120 votes. 124 parliamentarians voted for the motion and four against.
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UK urged to charge Karuna for war crimes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 November 2007, 14:09 GMT]
Karuna, a former Tamil Tiger commander and later the leader of TMVP paramiitary group that has been deployed by the Sri Lankan forces in their war against the Tigers, has been arrested in Britain on suspicion of immigration offences, including traveling on a false passport, British press reports said this week. International human rights groups are now calling on the UK government to investigate Vinayagamoorthi Muraleetharan (Karuna) for war crimes and are assembling evidence to see whether they can trigger a prosecution, reports said. Amid fears by rights groups that Karuna would be deported to Sri Lanka, some press reports said he had applied for asylum in Britain.
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SLA obstructs Jaffna residents mourning Tamilchelvan's death

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 November 2007, 05:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna deployed large number of troops around Jaffna University Monday morning in an attempt to disturb undergraduates paying homage to S. P. Thamilchelvan, the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) slain by Sri Lanka Air Force, sources in Jaffna said. The SLA troops also removed the black flags hoisted along streets in the peninsula, and harassed people living in houses close to the places where the black flags were hung, the sources added.
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Muslim federation calls for hartal, urges Tamil-Muslim unity in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 November 2007, 04:12 GMT]
Federation of Muslim Mosques in Batticaloa district appealed Monday to the residents in Muslim areas in Batticaloa district to join in a shut down Tuesday, demanding the immediate release of a Muslim trader abducted Wednesday in Chiththaandi area, allegedly by a Tamil paramilitary group. The Federation has also released a hand-bill titled, 'Let us safeguard Tamil-Muslim ties,' sources in Batticaloa said.
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Implement even-handed approach, Netherlands politician urges EU, India, US

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 20:46 GMT]
Paul Willms, ex-MP from the Third Chamber of The Netherlands, in a statement issued on Sunday, said the killing of Mr. S.P Thamilchelvan was a provocative act by the Sri Lankan government, and urged the International Community to put in place sanctions on the government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka for failing to deliver a reasonable proposal to meet the legitimate political aspiration of the Tamil community for three decades, and to improve the deteriorating human rights record.
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Kanimozhi Karunanidhi: Slaying of Thamilchelvan against the norms of war

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 17:05 GMT]
Thamilchelvan's killing was against the norms of conventional warfare, said Kanimohzi Karunanidhi, the daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi and a Member of Indian Parliament when speaking at a meeting in Thiruvaroor in Tamil Nadu, condemning the killing of the political leader and negotiator of Eelam Tamils, media sources in Chennai said, on Monday.
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Thamilchelvan killing, a barbaric act- Australian Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 15:45 GMT]
Australian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), in a media release issued Monday, condemned in the "strongest possible terms, the brutal assassination of the Political Wing leader and the Chief Negotiator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by the Sri Lankan airforce," and said AFTA "salutes the Tamil political leader who had won the hearts and minds of all the Tamil people, diplomats in Colombo and many other international dignitaries." AFTA appealed to the "peace loving people of the international community" to "use their influence to persuade the Sri Lankan government to stop all its indiscriminate aerial bombing of civilian targets."
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Thamilchelvan laid to rest, 25 000 attend funeral

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 13:38 GMT]
More than 25,000 people took part in the funeral procession of LTTE's Political Head and Chief Negotiator S.P. Thamilchelvan, despite the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers circling over the Ki'linochchi town. The remains of Brigadier Thamilchelvan were taken in procession from the LTTE Peace Secretariat to Ki'linochchi Cooperative Training Hall Monday morning and kept there for the public to pay their last respects till 4:45 p.m., where Liberation Tigers Intelligence Wing Chief Pottu Amman and the new Political Head, P. Nadesan, addresed the gathering. Mr. Thamilchelvan was laid to rest at Kanakapuram Heroes Cemetery at 7:45 p.m. Monday.
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Swiss Tamils pay tribute to Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 11:20 GMT]
Hundreds of diaspora Tamils took part in an event to pay homage to Brigadier S. P. Thamilchelvan, the slain Political Head and Chief Negotiator of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in Zurich in Switzerland Sunday around 2:30 p.m, organized by the Switzerland Art and Cultural Society of the Tamils in Switzerland.
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Vaiko condemns India for providing military assistance to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 10:18 GMT]
Vaiko, the leader of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) in a communique issued Saturday, called upon the international community to strongly condemn the killing of Liberation Tigers Political Head S.P.Thamilchelvan who was slain in a targeted air attack in Ki'linochchi and condemned the Government of India for providing military assistance to Sri Lanka. An array of political leaders from Tamil Nadu, including K. Veeramani, Pandiyan, Ramdoss and Nedumaran have condemned the killing while Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi condoled the demise of Thamilchelvan, passing a subtle message that the Tamils of Sri Lanka haven't gone brotherless.
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American Tamils condemn killing of Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 02:19 GMT]
Describing the death of S.P Thamilchelvan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and its chief negotiator, as "an irreparable loss to both the Tamil nation and the peace process," consortium of Tamil organizations in the U.S., in a press release issued Monday, urged the international community to "charter a new course that guarantees the basic human rights of all individuals and the equality of all nations in the island of Sri Lanka."
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‘Peace needs a paradigm shift in international approaches’

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 00:18 GMT]
"A striking sentiment perceivable on stage and among the audience at the gathering in Olso to pay tribute to Thamilchelvan, was righteous indignation about the lopsided morality of International Community, in not responding effectively to the killing of an important political personality," K. Sivapalan, a senior attorney-at-law from Trincomalee, who attended the gathering in Oslo on Saturday, told TamilNet.
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Thamilchelvan funeral Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 23:07 GMT]
The state funeral of S. P. Thamilchelvan, the head of the Liberation Tigers’ Political Wing and the movement’s Chief Negotiator, who was killed Friday in a targeted airstrike by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) will be held in Kilinochchi Monday, LTTE officials in Vanni told TamilNet. Tens of thousands of people paid their respects Saturday and Sunday as Mr Thamilchelvan’s body was taken in procession to the twelve sectors (Koaddams) of the LTTE-administered Vanni. In a notice emailed Sunday, LTTE published an email address for condolence messages to be sent.
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Bauer pays tributes to Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 15:45 GMT]
Jon Hanssen Bauer, the Norwegian special envoy for the peace process in Sri Lanka, on Saturday paid tributes to Liberation Tigers Political Head and Chief Negotiator S. P. Thamilchelvan. Stating that Mr. Thamilchelvan's role was important not only for Norway, but also for other countries, Mr. Bauer said Thamilchelvan was a patient man in explaining the rightful demands of Tamils and he was a moderate person within the LTTE, one who sought political alternatives.
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Peoples of 'historical waters' and Indian security

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 12:14 GMT]
Due to improved understanding and collaboration between the navies of India and Sri Lanka, and enhanced sea monitoring power, India need not to worry about repercussions of the ongoing war in Sri Lanka, said L. V. Sarath Babu, the Chief Staff Officer, Eastern Command of the Indian Navy to media men at Rameasvaram on Friday. The night of the same day, 97 Tamil Nadu fishermen, were arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy off the waters of Jaffna. This is an illustrative example of the wide gap between the security concerns of the two governments and the aspirations of the peoples they claim to represent.
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Rape by Sri Lankan troops resurfaces – in Haiti

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 07:31 GMT]
The United Nations has asked Sri Lanka to prosecute ‘to the fullest extent of the law’ 108 Sri Lankan soldiers with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti for sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of minors, including prostitution, the Sunday Times reported. The number is one of the biggest single withdrawal of soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission. During the conflict numerous local and international NGOs protested both frequent rapes by security forces and the climate of impunity in which they occur.
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UNP hails Thamilchelvan killing, slams LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 November 2007, 21:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) has hailed the killing of LTTE Political Head and Chief Negotiator, S. P. Thamilchelvan, in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airstrike on his official residence Friday as “a victorious moment.” Praising the Air Force, UNP spokesman Lakshman Kireiella said it was not possible to talk peace with the LTTE.
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Sri Lanka Navy arrests 97 Tamil Nadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 November 2007, 20:03 GMT]
Sri Lankan Navy on Friday night arrested 97 Tamil Nadu fishermen along with 17 fishing trawlers allegedly off Kankesanthurai seas, according to police sources in Jaffna. Meanwhile, thousands of fishermen in Rameasvaram and Naakappaddinam in Tamil Nadu state in India abstained from fishing Saturday demanding the state government to trace the whereabouts of the fishermen who had gone missing in the sea. This is the first time that Sri Lankan Navy has arrested a large number of Indian fishermen, sources in Jaffna said.
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