India mistaken on arms and talks - experts

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 February 2009, 19:43 GMT]
Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram’s call for the LTTE to surrender arms was not in keeping with international practice on conflict resolution, but an endorsement of the Sri Lankan government’s hardline position, scholars of conflict and peace said Monday. They pointed a number of successful peace processes, including those with the ANC, IRA and Nepal’s Maoists had proceeded without making arms surrender a precondition for talks. There had also been several peace processes involving the LTTE without this precondition, a scholar of Sri Lanka’s conflict pointed out. The Indian government was in effect supporting the Rajapakse government’s efforts to avoid negotiations on a lasting settlement by making talks conditional on a demand unacceptable to any party to a conflict, some academics opined.
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Verbal shows fail to save lives in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 February 2009, 15:09 GMT]
“War is also theirs, peace is also theirs; therefore the solution also should be theirs. Why don’t they come out with that and end the suffering?” asked a sulking school teacher in Vanni, frustrated at the diplomatic games and dilly-dallying of world powers in protecting the life and dignity of civilians, neither by themselves nor allowing the UN to do it. But the solution some of the powers envisage in what they call the ‘post-LTTE era’ goes back to the concentration camps of the Nazi times.
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India in duplicitous, murderous collaboration with genocidal regime - SA Post

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2009, 15:00 GMT]
Noting that the "shelling of safe areas, the genocide massacre of the elderly, innocent women, and children," are war crimes "on a par with the worst of Nazism," an article in South Africa's popular daily, The Post, accuses India that it "has revealed a duplicitous and murderous collaboration with the genocidal regime in power in Colombo. Not only deaf to the pleas and cries of its own Tamil population to intervene in this murderous onslaught, it actively assists the regime in the supply of military hardware, the training of strike-aircraft pilots, the supply of military expertise, and the provision of military advisors on the ground."
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Poignant acts of self-immolation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 February 2009, 10:45 GMT]
It may sound good to say that there is no place for feudal expressions in a 'postmodern' world. It may be true that there can be no second word about resolving issues on a democratic plane. But the first warnings have come pointing to the flaws in the handling of the situation by democratic powers and calling for effective rectifications. They have come from non-combatants and have come spontaneously. The extreme expression of self-denial, openly denouncing injustices perpetrated on a people by ganged-up authority, has come from educated people of ordinary walks of life committing self-immolation.
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Singapore Tamils protest newspaper misreporting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2009, 13:57 GMT]
Singapore Tamils have protested misreporting of a news in the headlines of the country's Tamil daily Tamil Murasu last Thursday, which read that the LTTE had claimed they would even attack Tamil Nadu, media circles in Singapore said.
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'Tamil Nadu needs to go beyond demonstrations'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2009, 08:49 GMT]
If at all there is any positive impact of the unprecedented uprising and demonstrations, staged spontaneously by the masses of Tamil Nadu and the diaspora, it is the inward awakening of global Tamils to the forces of oppression and to the defiance of the oppressors, whether domestic or international. A historic responsibility lies on the leaders of Tamil Nadu and on those who uphold the struggle of the oppressed, to channel the positive energy generated from the uprising to achieve its goals rather than allowing it to be carried away by the machinations of the oppressors, writes opinion columnist Chivanadi.
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Written and spoken: learning conversion of Eezham Tamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 13:21 GMT]
One of the problems faced by the diaspora children in learning Tamil is relating the spoken and written forms. There is already a useful teaching material addressing this need, produced by Sankaran Radhakrishnan and brought out by the South Asia Institute of the University of Texas at Austin. But this is for the spoken Tamil of Tamil Nadu. A need of the time is linguists among Eezham Tamils to come out with a similar material identifying the rules of conversion for Eezham Tamil.
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Tigers deny firing at civilians, accuse SLA, urge for international monitors

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 01:15 GMT]
Categorically denying reports by the Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo that the Tigers had fired at the fleeing civilians in Vanni, Puthukkudiyiruppu Divisional Political Head of the LTTE, C. Ilamparithy told TamilNet Wednesday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commando teams had entered the 'safety zone' in Udaiyaarkaddu and Chuthanthirapuram and had opened fire killing civilians and causing injuries to many in their attempt to forcibly move the civilians into the hands of the SLA. "Sri Lankan military machinery, which has relentlessly killed and maimed thousands of civilians during the past four weeks, is now engaged in a propaganda drive to divert the mounting pressure on the Colombo government by the International Community," Mr. Ilamparithy charged.
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Jayalalitha cancels birthday celebrations for Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 18:05 GMT]
Jayalalitha, the principal opposition leader and former Chief Minister in Tamil Nadu announced Sunday her decision to cancel her birthday celebrations on 24 February in view of the massive and tragic killings of Tamils in Sri Lanka for the past six months.
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Diaspora Tamil dies in self-immolation urging Obama to stop Colombo's war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 08:42 GMT]
27-year-old Eezham Tamil, Raja, living in Malaysia for 3 years set fire on himself and died Friday leaving a note in his diary saying “I am burning myself to death resting my hopes on global Tamils to save the Eezham Tamils. I plead American President Barack Obama to bring in a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.” This is the first act of self-immolation committed by a person of the Eezham Tamil diaspora. Three people in Tamil Nadu have already died by self-immolation in support of Eezham Tamils.
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Congress cadre immolates himself to death protesting party inaction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2009, 19:17 GMT]
Congress functionary Sirkazhi (Cheerkaazhi) Ravichandran, a 47-year-old father of two children, immolated himself Saturday to protest his party's inaction on the Eelam Tamils issue. He succumbed to hundred percent burn injuries and died a short while later at 3:45 p.m. Two days earlier, he had an altercation with the Union Minister Mani Shanker Aiyar blaming the Congress party for failing to stop the war in Sri Lanka. He had also told a couple of his friends about his decision in order to bring about a change in the attitude of the Congress.
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CPI leader's car set on fire in Chennai

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 22:25 GMT]
Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu State Secretary D. Pandian's car and a moped parked in his A'n'naa Nakar (Anna Nagar) residence were set on fire by unidentified persons Thursday night, media reports from Chennai said. Mr. Pandian was away in Mathurai (Madurai) at that time.
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Tamil Nadu, Puducherry shut down sends strong signals to State, Central Governments

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 10:37 GMT]
In the face of severe threats from the State Government, the people of Tamil Nadu projected their unified voice of support for the Eelam Tamils by making the Wednesday general strike a grand success. More than 90 percent of the shops and commercial establishments throughout the state downed their shutters as a mark of solidarity. Although the umbrella front, Ilangkaith Thamizhar Paathukaappu Pearavai, which was recently formed to protect the Eezham Tamils, had announced the boycott, it was the spontaneous participation of the people of Tamil Nadu of all walks of life, made it a big success. Since the strike coincided with Sri Lanka's 61st independence day, the Sinhalese lion flag and Mahinda Rajapakse's effigy were burnt in several places.
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Sri Lanka's scorched earth offensive must be stopped - Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 12:41 GMT]
Pointing out that "the shelling of a hospital pediatric ward Sunday in Sri Lanka gave the world a glimpse of the scorched-earth offensive Sri Lanka's government has been conducting against the secessionist Tamil Tigers," the Boston Globe, in an editorial that appeared Wednesday, said the "war has to stop," and Obama administration ought to ask for a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire, and the Asian powers providing military assistance to Sri Lanka - China, India, and Pakistan - should exert their influence on the government to halt the shooting." The globe reiterated its long standing position that "[t]he only true solution must be political: some form of confederal autonomy for the Tamil regions."
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Rajapakse, Karunanidhi governments ideologically similar: Dr.S.Ramadoss

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 19:19 GMT]
PMK founder-leader Dr. S. Ramadoss launched a direct attack on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi over the Eelam Tamils issue Tuesday. He criticized the DMK Executive Council resolutions for not containing any ceasefire demand. "Does Karunanidhi not know that ceasefire is a prerequisite for peace-talks? Does this omission not reveal that the Rajapakse Government and the Karunanidhi Government are no different at the ideological level?" he said.
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SLN hands over arrested Tamil Nadu fishermen to Indian Navy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 18:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) handed over Tuesday evening the 22 Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested on 21 January in the seas of Jaffna islets, to Indian Navy on the sea boundary between Sri Lanka and India, on the orders of Oorkaavttu’rai (Kayts) magistrate Ms. Joy Mahatheva, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLAF personnel being trained in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 18:13 GMT]
Eight pilots of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) are presently undergoing training at the Indian Air Force base at Thaamparam (Tambaram) near Chennai in Tamil Nadu, highly placed sources told TamilNet. News of this training spread like wildfire when the Sri Lankan Airforce personnel were taken Monday to the Chealaiyoor (Selaiyur) police-station for visa verification purposes. "People of Tamil Nadu need no further proof that this war of decimating Tamils in Sri Lanka is being undertaken at India's insistence and instructions. This confirms our fears that Indian troops have also been sent to fight there," a veteran Tamil activist told TamilNet.
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Tha'l'laadi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 00:06 GMT]
The locality of the lake / waterhole
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'IC should act before it is too late'

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 21:26 GMT]
Colombo is now blackmailing the IC that any effort to stop the war at this juncture would boomerang in the south, destabilizing the system and disappointing the greed of those who want to eat the cake in full and have invested for that purpose in the island. It now doesn’t hide its intention of committing genocide of civilians along with its attempt to crush the LTTE in the next few days, leaving the consequences to be tackled later. Sonia Establishment’s haste is everyone's knowledge. Some powers think that by immediately dumping money for 'development' in the ‘conquered land’, Tamils can be appeased and the investors can find an outlet for the economic recession. But no one is prepared for a political solution, reflects a reader on an article appeared in TamilNet Monday.
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Focusing on demand for positive change in IC outlook urged

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 11:30 GMT]
It is a war concurrently waged by Colombo government and Sonia Congress of India on the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils and in the process committing genocide on them. The perverted international vantage of the war and the milieu facilitated the war are a result of the Bush Syndrome. Obama has come but there is no US effort to arrest the hangover, and the British duplicity on the issue also continues. It is time the world has to look at the crisis in its true perspective as a national liberation struggle and stop discussing it as a ‘terrorist’ threat or minority issue, seeking solutions within the rotten state and polity of Sri Lanka, writes a senior Tamil scholar.
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