200 Journalists stage protest demo in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 16:25 GMT]
More than 200 journalists and media persons staged a protest demonstration at the Chennai Press Club premises Wednesday condemning the killing of journalists in Sri Lanka, particularly the assassination of Sunday Leader's editor Lasanta Wicremtunge. They condemned the fact that reporters who expose the killing of innocent Tamil civilians and children, or who document the human rights abuses in the island are being systematically eliminated by the government.
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Tamil leaders label Pranab visit futile

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 07:32 GMT]
Frontline leaders in Tamil Nadu, including Dr.S.Ramadoss, Vaiko and Thirumavalavan have expressed their disappointment that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee never pressed for an immediate ceasefire when he met Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa during his emergency visit to Colombo Tuesday night.
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Tamil Nadu needs to forge an Eezham front

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 11:46 GMT]
It is time that like-minded political parties, civil groups, social activists, student organizations and cultural institutions of Tamil Nadu jointly forge a mass movement under one umbrella and aim to achieve independence and sovereignty for Eezham Tamils, urged a large number of mails received by TamilNet from India, Eezham and the Tamil diaspora all over the world in the last ten days in response to the call of TamilNet for opinion. "The front should face the forthcoming elections in Tamil Nadu on the question of achieving an independent and sovereign nation state for Eezham Tamils, in no uncertain terms, and get the mandate from the people", the mails further urged.
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Students in Chennai protest against alleged Indian military aid to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 07:00 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police arrested a group of students in front of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Tuesday while they were attempting to protest against what they alleged as an attempt by the Indian Government to export battle-tanks to the Sri Lankan military, reacting to reports and photographs that have appeared in a largest selling Tamil daily (Erode edition of Dianthanthi). Meanwhle, Tamil political leaders in Tamil Nadu, when contacted by TamilNet said that they were investigating the veracity of the claim that tanks photographed at Erode were destined for the Colombo government.
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Tamil Nadu students' indefinite fast enters fifth day

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 12:31 GMT]
An indefinite fast-unto-death demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lankai by 12 students of the Chengalpattu Law College entered the fifth day on Monday. "We have two demands before the Indian Union Government: India should intervene and bring about an end to the ongoing genocide, India should stop all military aid to the Sinhalese," the protesting students said. Occurring in the backdrop of continuous student boycotts all over Tamil Nadu, this fast which commenced Thursday has gained enormous emotional significance.
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Ramadoss: Tamil Nadu Parties should pressurize Indian Government to recognize Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:54 GMT]
PMK founder-leader Dr. Ramadoss called upon the political parties in Tamil Nadu to exert pressure on the Union Government of India to recognize "Tamil Eelam for Eelam Tamils" while addressing mediapersons Sunday. Reacting to a remark by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi that he was unable to save the Eelam Tamils, Dr.Ramadoss said that Karunanidhi had to exert pressure on the Union Government in order to bring about a ceasefire. "The General Body Meeting of the DMK will take place on February 15. In the intervening three weeks, what will be the multi fold miseries that the Eelam Tamils will be made to face? Why this delay?" he wondered.
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'Their imagination is stuck at the 13th amendment'

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:50 GMT]
"All the authoritarians of the world joined hands shamelessly to abet the repulsive Colombo regime in crushing the democratic aspirations of a people to liberate their nation. When the authoritarians gleefully claim success they seem to have forgotten that there is now no excuse of the LTTE for them in coming out with a political solution proving their credentials of liberal democracy, if they practise that at all. But they seem to be having no vision at all other than poking their greedy fingers into the hot pie and their imagination of political solution is stuck at the 20 years old ‘Rajeev Rot’, the 13th amendment," said a Tamil political commentator in Colombo.
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Intent of Genocide provable in Sri Lanka - Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 11:54 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General and currently counsel for the US-based group Tamils Against Genocide, addressing a select gathering of media persons and intellectuals organized by the Max Foundation in Chennai Friday, told the audience that there is enough evidence to criminally convict U.S. citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and U.S. Green card holder Lt.Gen. Sarath Fonseka in the U.S. Federal Courts for "intent to commit Genocide" in Sri Lanka, sources from Chennai said.
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SLN arrests 22 Tamil Nadu fishermen in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) based in Oorkaavattu’rai (Kayts) Wednesday night rounded up 22 fishermen from Tamil Nadu said to be fishing in the seas of the islets of Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The fishermen were produced in Oorkaavattu’rai court Friday where Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate Ms. Joy Mahatheva directed the police to place them in custody in Jaffna Prison.
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Tamil Nadu gears up for more protests

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 05:27 GMT]
A state-wide common front of college and university students' organisations in Tamil Nadu launched protests against New Delhi and the state government demanding immediate action in stopping the war, which seeks to subjugate Tamil people who have refused to surrender into the hands of the Sri Lanka Army despite the physical and psychological war on them. 200,000 students took part in the 32 districts of the state on Wednesday, according to Dr. Vengadachalam, the organisor of the College Students' Coordinating Committee, a newly formed alliance of the students' organisations.
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Stop calling genocide a war on terrorism

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 02:55 GMT]
India and the so-called international community continue to demonstrate with adamancy and arrogance that they have no interest in stopping the genocide of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka but they would rather abet it in the name of war on terrorism. The people of Tamil Nadu and the Tamil diaspora all over the world should realize that these elements are not going to listen to pleading, but will respond only when their interests are at stake. It is time that demonstrations are to be directed against them with a clear message that their strategic and economic interests will definitely be at stake by losing popular trust if they continue to play the malevolent game with the lives of Tamils, says the gist of a volume of opinion mails received by TamilNet.
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'Lives lost yielding nothing to Colombo'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 17:59 GMT]
"It is not a question of whether Tamil Eelam will become independent. Rather, it is a question of how many lives, on both sides of the Tamil Eelam border, the Sinhala regime(s) are prepared to waste in the process," writes a reader, Mr. Poulson, in response to TamilNet's call for opinion last week. "The Sinhala polity is not interested in a ceasefire and nor are the strategic partners. Hence it must be forced upon them," he writes further in his situation analysis.
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'Madaraasi Madam' on Eezham Tamils: comments of a Tamil journalist

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2009, 19:29 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu opposition leader Ms. Jeyalalithaa, in an interview reported by BBC on Saturday, has said that it is wrong to call the Tamils of the island of Sri Lanka as Eezhath Thamizhar, because there is no country at present called Eezham. In her opinion the right term is Ilangkaith Thamizhar. What is explicit in the statement of this leader who was made a Chief Minister twice by the people of Tamil Nadu as leader of a political party having a Dravidian label that doesn’t stand for any people at present, is her heartbeat of desire not exactly to see the elimination of the LTTE, but to see the nullification of the nationalism of Eezham Tamils inclusive of all its symbols, writes a Tamil journalist based in Chennai.
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Thirumavalavan drops fast, signals 'change of strategy'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2009, 18:02 GMT]
VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, in his fourth day of the fast-unto-death said that he was forced to reconsider his decision to continue the fast because of the emotional pleading by his frenzied cadres, particularly women cadres who threatened self-immolation, and the shoot at sight orders that had been given by the state police department. "At this stage, I have to ensure that those who lay their love and trust in me should not lose their lives," Mr. Thirumavalavan said. He added that henceforth the VCK had snapped all ties with the Congress party.
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Tamil Nadu CPI, BJP leaders slam Delhi’s inaction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 22:13 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), D Pandian charged Saturday that it was not enough to merely condemn the genocide in Sri Lanka, but instead one should be prepared to embrace a martyr's death. He was speaking about VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan’s fast-unto-death over the humanitarian crisis imposed on Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s war. The senior CPI leader added that if India was capable of sending the Chandrayaan to the moon, it could at least do some lip-service to save the lives of Tamils by telling to the Government of Sri Lanka that it will not hesitate to interfere."
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Ramdoss exhorts Karunanidhi to urgent action in stopping Sri Lanka war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 21:08 GMT]
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader Dr S Ramadoss, who visited VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, now in his fourth day of a fast-unto-death over the humanitarian crisis imposed on Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s punitive bombardments, exhorted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi to act urgently to invoke Indian intervention to stop the war. Emphatically refuting Mr. Karunanidhi's statement that the VCK leader had “unilaterally decided” to stage a protest fast without consulting the rest of the Tamil Nadu polity, Dr. Ramadoss said Thol Thirumavalavan, whose health is detoriarating, had consulted other leaders several times in the recent weeks.
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India should stop war, instruct Colombo to talk to Tigers - BJP Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 12:37 GMT]
A senior leader of BJP, a major national political party of India, visited Friday Thol. Thirumavalavan, the VCK President who is on a fast-unto-death demanding the Central government of India to stop the war being waged by Colombo against Eezham Tamils. The BJP politician, Vaithiyalingam, a member of the party's national general council, declared that India, which is a powerful country in the region, cannot sit back and watch without doing anything to stop the genocidal war in Sri Lanka and added India should be specific in demanding ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam.
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CPI pledges support to Thirumavalavan's fast

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 05:13 GMT]
Veteran leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu, R. Nallakannu Thursday pledged his party's support to Thirumavalavan's fast-unto-death campaign demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Mr. Thirumavalavan blamed the Indian establishment for not asking Sri Lanka to stop war or sending Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian External Affairs Minister to Colombo, as promised. The VCK leader decried the Indian Government's inaction and said that by insulting the demands of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi, New Delhi had in effect insulted the whole Tamil population.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Indian PM to stop war in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 11:22 GMT]
Around three hundred Norwegian Tamils gathered in front of the Indian Embassy in Oslo Wednesday between 2:00 p.m and 3:00 p.m in an attempt to draw the attention of the Indian state to stop the genocidal war waged on the Tamils in Vanni by the Government of Sri Lanka. Norwegian Tamil Federation (NTF) which had arranged the demonstration presented a memorandum of its requests to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by handing it over to the representative of the Indian Embassy in Oslo.
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Thirumavalavan launches fast-unto-death, demands India to stop war

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 06:54 GMT]
"Mahatma Gandhi, who fought against British colonialists didn't think of taking the side of genocidal Hitler during World War II. He was not seeking personal vengeance against the British. Likewise, the present leaders in New Delhi should also take a bold decision that they will not support the genocidal war being waged by the Sri Lankan state on Eezham Tamils," said Kasi Anandan, a well-known Eezham poet living in Tamil Nadu, inaugurating the fast-unto-death campaign launched Thursday by VCK (Liberation Panthers Party) President Thol. Thirumavalavan.
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