Tamil Christian epitaph of significance found in Kayts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 June 2009, 02:15 GMT]
An interesting early 19th century Tamil epitaph found on a tomb in Kayts, off Jaffna, evidences the usage of the word ‘Aariyar’ in Christian context, says Professor P. Pushparatnam, Head of the Department of History of the University of Jaffna, who brought the epitaph to notice and read it. According to local media reported his finding, the tomb of one Ales Francis Cruz, died in 1827 was found behind the old customs building at the Kayts port.
Full story >>

9 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 June 2009, 15:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police Tuesday morning took into custody nine Tami youths in a joint search operation conducted in the suburbs of Colombo city including Moratuwa, Panadura and Kalutura, sources in Colombo said. The arrested youths are from Upcountry, employed in shops the areas where they were arrested.
Full story >>

Seeman alleges abduction of young girls by SLA in Vavuniyaa internment camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 June 2009, 13:42 GMT]
Popular Film Director Seeman on Sunday said he had received reliable information from the captives inside the internment camps in Vavuniyaa that the Sri Lankan police and military establishment have started to 'filter and separate teenage girls from their families during the latest hours in large numbers. Mr. Seeman from Tamil Nadu questioned how this 'filtering' of young girls could take place inside the internment camps without any monitoring by the UN agencies present in Vavuniyaa.
Full story >>

Thirumavalavan demands white paper on genocide of Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 16:06 GMT]
In his maiden address in the Indian Parliament Monday evening, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi President Thol. Thirumavalavan, urged the Indian Government to bring out a white paper on the genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils. He also called upon the Indian Government to change its anti-Tamil attitude. Thirumavalavan also sought to know the role of the Union Government on Sri Lankan issues and the kind of support that has been extended to the Government Sri Lanka. "Our party and our allied parties are very much concerned about Sri Lankan issues. I am sorry to say the Government of India betrayed the Tamil community in Sri Lanka," he observed.
Full story >>

'Our hands are tainted with blood,' admits Suryanarayan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 07:36 GMT]
“Our hands are tainted with blood”, admitted professor V. Suryanarayan, a member of India’s national security advisory panel during Vanni war, in a conference organised by International Tamil Centre, Chennai, on Monday. He also implied the connivance of the Tamil Nadu government when he said in this context that “during the last two three years New Delhi will not take any action without consulting Tamil Nadu”. However, Tamil circles found his criticism of India’s Sri Lanka policy leading nowhere to justice but was harping only on Indian aid conditioning Sri Lanka so that “a Tamil can be a Tamil but at the same time a loyal Sri Lankan”.
Full story >>

Boyle, Fein charge Sri Lanka of Genocide in Chennai seminar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 02:20 GMT]
Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, and Bruce Fein, a Washington D.C. Attorney, speaking at a seminar in Chennai organized by the International Tamil Center Monday, reiterated charges of Genocide against the Sri Lanka Government alleging massacre of more than 50,000 Tamil civilians, sources attending the event said. While Prof. Boyle urged India to file charges in International Court against Sri Lanka for violating Geneva conventions, and to stop Colombo "to cease and desist from all acts of genocide against Tamils," Fein stressed the urgent need for the Tamils to reach a "consensus on their political aspirations." The event was organized by Dr Panchadcharam, a consultant physician from New York.
Full story >>

Setting the hands of the clock right

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 20:04 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils and their political representatives have no obligation to anyone now, to engage in the deliberations of fruitless alternatives. But the world has an obligation now to tell the Tamils whether its opposition is to what it has perceived as 'terrorism' or to Tamil nationalism. The Eezham Tamil mainstream has a historic responsibility on its shoulders to be performed right now. If the oppression to their nationalism is trans-national, the Eezham Tamils have to respond by forming a trans-national government fully responsible to them based on democracy, to negotiate with the world and to look after their own affairs.
Full story >>

TNA MP Jeyananthamoorthy's secretary reported missing

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2009, 15:32 GMT]
Thavarajasingham Subash, 23, secretary to S.Jeyananthamoorthy, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian has been reported missing mysteriously since Tuesday early morning around 2:15 a.m after he arrived in Katunayake from Chennai airport in Tamilnadu. Katunayake Police took into custody on his arrival from Chennai. Later it was reported that he was released. However he failed to return home thereafter, according to complaints lodged with the police by his relatives, according to media reports.
Full story >>

Detained TNA MP pays last respects to fellow MP Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 04:55 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mullaiththeevu district parliamentarian Mr. Sathasivam Kanagaretnam, escorted by police officers of the Crime Intelligence Unit Saturday afternoon, paid his last respects to departed fellow parliamentarian Mr. Kanagasabai Pathmanathan who passed away in Mathurai in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Kanagaretnam was dressed in sarong and an old shirt, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

SLA bars upcountry Tamils from viewing Tamilnadu TV programmes

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 14:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Police have ordered Tamil residents in Hatton police division to dismantle dish antennas from their residences as a part of security measure, effectively barring them from viewing TV channels aired by several TV stations operated in Tamilnadu in India, sources in Hatton said.
Full story >>

Claims and scepticism sans evidence

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 00:53 GMT]
The head of the LTTE’s Department of International Relations on Sunday announced that the LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan state on 17 May. However, the LTTE’s Department for Diaspora Affairs (DDA) told TamilNet that it would not comment without explicit authorisation from the LTTE leadership. In the meantime, the Intelligence Department of the Tigers reiterated on Sunday that the LTTE leadership is safe and it will re-emerge when the right time comes.
Full story >>

Demonstrate the politics of war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 20:32 GMT]
The Tamil national cause cannot afford to be deviated and exploited by others through questions such as whether the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan is alive or not or whether the armed struggle has to be continued or not. The Tamil diaspora, the only section of the Eezham Tamil community that has the freedom and means to come out with authentic voice, has a historic responsibility in telling the world what they aspire for in no uncertain terms, and in seeing their righteous cause not hijacked by their enemies.
Full story >>

'Timely action from Tamil Nadu expected'

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 11:02 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils are ever grateful to all political parties of Tamil Nadu that upheld their cause, irrespective of electoral politics and its outcome determined by national and state level equations. The Eezham Tamils are especially grateful to the two major political parties, the DMK and the AIDMK, for firmly voicing for the creation of Tamil Eelam as the ultimate solution to the crisis. It is now time that a resolution to this effect has to be enacted in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly to inspire course of action in India, international community and in the Tamil diaspora, said veteran liberation fighter Ki Pi Aravinthan in France, Sunday. This is a possible and affordable action Tamil Nadu can undertake immediately to guarantee the future of Eezham Tamils and to respect the thousands laying down their life upholding Tamil dignity, he said.
Full story >>

TNA parliamentarian Kanagasabai passes away

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2009, 07:08 GMT]
Pathmanathan Kanagasabai, Ampaarai district parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) passed away Thursday early morning around 4:00 a.m. after a brief illness in Mathurai in Tamilnadu while he was staying with his friend. He was 64, media sources reported quoting fellow parliamentarian B.Ariyanenthiran.
Full story >>

Tamils need to be heard - John Pilger

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 12:24 GMT]
"In order to conduct a slaughter, you ensure the pornography is unseen, illicit at best. You ban foreigners and their cameras from Tamil towns such as Mulliavaikal, which was bombarded recently by the Sri Lankan army, and you lie that the 75 people killed in the hospital were blown up quite wilfully by a Tamil suicide bomber. You then give reporters a ride into the jungle, providing what in the news business is called a dateline, which suggests an eyewitness account, and you encourage the gullible to disseminate only your version and its lies," says award winning documentary maker and popular journalist John Pilger in a recent report in the New Statesman on Sri Lanka war. "History teaches us that when no one listens, tragedy ensues. Sri Lanka’s Tamils face terrible suffering. They urgently need to be heard," adds the author.
Full story >>

'Responsibility now with US'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 10:37 GMT]
The first act of Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi after the announcement of the election results was an appeal to the Indian Establishment re-elected to power to save the Eezham Tamils. However, the utmost responsibility lies with the Co-Chairs and especially with the US, says TamilNet’s political analyst in Colombo. The US has to either convince India or act alone to save the situation and save its own credibility. Failing, the White House is likely to emerge bearing the major responsibility for conning Tamils to their death and subjugation, and the IC tagged behind it may never be able to justify its credentials in implementing a world order it desires, he further said.
Full story >>

Colombo / Kozhumpu / Ko'lumpu / Ko'lamba

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 13:46 GMT]
The point where the land bends inside
The point of the bend
Full story >>

Sonia says war is over while 1200 civilian bodies are counted in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 23:56 GMT]
Congress president Ms Sonia Gandhi, sharing a platform with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Sunday said: "Our government had done everything possible to bring an end to the hostilities and it was due to our resolute efforts that Sri Lanka announced conclusion of combat operations and people moved to safer places," PTI quoted Ms. Gandhi saying. Meanwhile, the same day has seen a massive massacre of civilians in the no-fire zone by the Sri Lanka Army using all kinds of heavy weapons and aerial bombing. Around 1200 bodies were counted so far and 1125 injured managed to reach the makeshift hospital.
Full story >>

'Post-conflict is post-Sri Lankan'

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2009, 13:31 GMT]
The Norwegian peace facilitator Erik Solheim is half a century late in calling for a federal solution to the Tamil national question in the island of Sri Lanka, said TamilNet’s political commentator in Colombo. “By naming the solution in his mind, whether Erik Solhiem is resigning from his role of peace facilitation and assumes another profile”, asked the commentator. “A federal agenda upheld at this juncture is a mockery of the spirit of federalism. A successful federal set-up comes only from spontaneous and mutual consent of peoples. Warring parties of a long legacy may make federal more miserable. The bitter war unchecked but abetted by the international community in the island leads to nothing but secession”, the commentator further said.
Full story >>

London protesters want international action, not words, over Sri Lankan humanitarian crisis

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 11:26 GMT]
British Tamils demonstrating outside Parliament are demanding the UK government takes concrete action immediately “to end the humanitarian crisis engulfing the Tamils in Vanni and in the military-run concentration camps.” In a statement to media, Tamil students leading the protests said: “What is needed right now is action by the international community, not merely words of sympathy. Humanitarian intervention has taken place in many parts of the world to save people who have been subject to state violence, ethnic cleansing, and starvation by blockade. Powerful liberal states have acted to save populations being brutalized by their own states, despite the objections and obstructions of other powerful states. The Tamils of Sri Lanka are human beings too.”
Full story >>