APRC: how long you tolerate a farce, Suresh asks India and IC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 01:20 GMT]
The All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) is a farce of the Sri Lanka government. It was always used to impress upon India and the International Community. The basic premise of the APRC not to go beyond unitary constitution of Sri Lanka, will not bring in any meaningful result. India and the IC know it well. Yet, if they continue to tolerate the farce, they will only be abetting the genocidal programme of Colombo, says Suresh Premachandran of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
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Persuade Rajapaksa to stop the war: Pandian urges Manmohan Singh

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2008, 19:58 GMT]
The State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), D. Pandian, on Monday wrote a letter urging the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to act swiftly to end the war in Sri Lanka. Noting that the LTTE has responded positively for the public call from the CPI to spell out their stand in unambiguous terms to the call for ceasefire, Mr. Pandian said urged Manmohan Singh to use his good offices to impress upon Mr. Rajapaksa to stop the war and agree for a ceasefire. Meanwhile, reports in Colombo said Mr. Rajapaksa has left Colombo to attend the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit, to be held in New Delhi.
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Impress upon Colombo to announce ceasefire, CPI urges Indian government

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 12:24 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu State Secretary D. Pandian, in a statement issued on Sunday, referring to the clarification by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan on the LTTE stand on ceasefire, urged the Centre to take immediate steps to impress upon the Sri Lankan state to announce a ceasefire without hesitation. Referring to Mr. Nadesan's statement that the Tigers were engaged in a defensive war and that it was the Sri Lankan state that unilaterally pulled out from the Ceasefire Agreement, Mr. Pandian said.
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'Give way to Tamil Eelam and avoid Sinhala blackmailing for ever'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 17:28 GMT]
Don't abandon the Tiger. A Sinhala-dominated Sri Lanka is not in India’s interests, writes T S Gopi Rethinaraj, a Singapore National University scholar, in the November 2008 issue of Pragati, the Indian National Interest Review. A unified Sri Lanka under Sinhalese domination will be deeply inimical to India's interests. Colombo will permanently exploit India in the absence of a buffer that an Independent Tamil Eelam could provide, he wrote.
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Tigers reiterate consent to ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 16:42 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan, when contacted by TamilNet on Saturday, following reports of Tamil Nadu leaders seeking clarification on LTTE's stand on ceasefire, said "there is no hesitation on our side to reiterate our position that we have always wanted a ceasefire." It is the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) that unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire, Mr. Nadesan said and added that the Tigers were only fighting a defensive war since Colombo has thrust upon Tamils an aggressive war.
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CPI seeks clarification on Tamil ceasefire stand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Stating that the people of Tamil Nadu state and India were being led to a state of confusion by the calls that demanded both the warring parties in Sri Lanka to announce a ceasefire, the State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu, D. Pandian, urged in a statement issued from Chennai on Saturday that the Eezham Tamils' political leadership should clarify the Tamil stand on the issue. Consensus of the people of Tamil Nadu is that the Sri Lankan government should immediately stop the war. However, when questions were raised by certain sections, there is a need for clarification, Mr. Pandiyan said.
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Women wing of VCK stages one-day fast in Chennai

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 November 2008, 09:10 GMT]
Thousands of women belonging to the Makalir Viduthalai Iyakkamm, the Women's Wing of the Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK), went on a one-day fast in Chennai Thursday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. This token fast is the first in a series of agitations that the party has decided to hold indefinitely until a ceasefire is established on the war-ravaged island. Senior Communist leader R Nallakannu and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi addressed the fasting protesters.
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Vaiko, Kannappan released after 14 days in custody

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 November 2008, 18:55 GMT]
MDMK General Secretary Vaiko and Party Presidium Chairman Kannappan were released Thursday by a Chennai city court on the basis of the Tamil Nadu Government's submission that investigations had been completed in the sedition cases filed against them. The state's Additional Public Prosecutor admitted that there was no need to extend the remand because of the completion of the probe.
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'Military hijacking politics'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 November 2008, 15:50 GMT]
A U.S. military chief commending Sri Lankan military 'success' and wishing further capabilities to the Lankan military is viewed seriously as an undue interference in the politics of South Asia, especially at a juncture when the people of Tamil Nadu are up in arms pressing to stop the war for a political solution, says Batticaloa district parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy.
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Ramadoss attacks Karunanidhi's vacillation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2008, 10:35 GMT]
Pattali Makkal Katchi founder-leader Dr. S. Ramadoss condemned Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi for changing his stand on the Eelam Tamils issue in a press release Monday. "All Tamil people will easily understand that there is an immense divide between the Karunanidhi of October 14's All Party Meeting who demanded a ceasefire, and the Karunanidhi of today who justifies the Union Government's inaction by saying that India has limitations on how far it can interfere in another country's affairs," he said.
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13th Amendment: arousing a zombie

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2008, 01:39 GMT]
The Indian government may be bereft of all guts to do anything in Sri Lanka. But at least it can render a great service by not talking about the 13th amendment as a basis to resolve the crisis. What is more dangerous than India abetting a war against Eezham Tamils by providing arms, armed personnel and intelligence to Colombo is the political sabotage of thrusting the rotten 13th amendment upon the struggling people to muffle their voice. India should rather acknowledge the decades-old Tamil voice for self-determination as a nation, to base exploration of fresh models, writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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Nedumaran slams Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's stand on Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2008, 21:22 GMT]
Tamil Nationalist Movement (TNM) leader Pazha Nedumaran on Monday said that he was shocked and dismayed at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's attempts to "justify the Centre's inaction." Mr. Nedumaran, who is also the convener of the Tamil Eelam Supporters Co-ordinating Committee, said that the widespread protests extending to all areas of Tamil Nadu reflected that people were rejecting Mr. Karunanidhi's position and urged the party leaders, who have expressed disappointment to the ineffective response of the India's Center to the resolutions adopted in the Tamil Nadu All Party Conference, to decide upon follow up action.
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'Political solution, not politics of food': Mano Ganesan to India

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2008, 16:47 GMT]
The leader of the Western Province People's Front (WPPF) Mano Ganesan on Sunday said the need of hour for India was to push the Government of Sri Lanka to fair and reasonable political solution alluding that India was not needed for the job of supplying 800 MT humanitarian supplies. Three basics of the upheavals in Tamil Nadu were: stop the war, stop the military aid to Sri Lanka and send humanitarian aids to the needy in Vanni. "The Indian Government virtually dismissed first two and got hold of the last, comparatively easy one," Mr. Mano Ganesan said in a press statement issued from Colombo.
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LTTE planes drew Indian embassy gunfire as Rajapaksa moved to bunker- report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 23:02 GMT]
Indian gunners in the Indian embassy compound in Colombo “fired relentlessly” at the LTTE aircraft that were returning to Vanni after bombing on the Kelanitissa power station Tuesday, a Sri Lankan press report said Sunday. Quoting reliable sources, the Lakbima newspaper also reported that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse was ushered into a special bunker during the air raid ‘purely as a precaution’’. Meanwhile, the Sunday Times said the LTTE had used a new kind of bomb on the Army Headquarters in Tha'l'laadi, Mannaar and that Sri Lankan jet’s missile was unable to ‘lock on’ to the LTTE plane.
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Only ceasefire is real relief to Eelam Tamils: Ramadoss

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 15:05 GMT]
Coming out publicly to voice his displeasure over the manner in which the Eelam Tamil issue was handled by the Tamil Nadu State and Union Governments, Pattali Makkal Katchi founder-leader Dr. S. Ramadoss alleged at a press meet in Chennai Saturday that not a single resolution of the All Party Meeting had met with success. He called upon Chief Minister Karunanidhi to explain as to why the ceasefire demand was not addressed. "There should be an immediate ceasfire in Sri Lanka, only that shall be the real relief to Eelam Tamils," he said.
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Strategic Partners

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 13:14 GMT]
"The American ban on the LTTE, which was followed by several other countries, also cut the flow of money and weapons to the Tigers, the result of which could be seen in their recent military defeats", said the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka in an interactive session at Chennai last month, as reported by The Hindu. The other side of the result story is that the same American policy tilted the balance in favour of a genocidal government, precipitated aggressive war on a grand scale and thus deepened immensely the divide between the concerned ethnicities, making reconciliation unfeasible more than ever.
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Tamil film fraternity fasts for Eelam cause

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 02:20 GMT]
Packed with performance and punch lines, the entire Tamil film fraternity staged a powerful show of strength at a one-day fast in Chennai Saturday to express solidarity with the Eezham Tamils. The actors demanded the Tamil Nadu state and the Indian Union Government to immediately find a peaceful and permanent solution to the Sri Lankan problem.
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Tamil Nadu shuts down for traders' bandh on Eelam Tamils issue

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 16:34 GMT]
Shops and commercial establishments in Tamil Nadu shut down and the state's roads wore a deserted look as a result of the traders' bandh (shut down) Friday on the Eezham Tamils issue. According to reports in the Indian media, the bandh was total all over the state as over 25 lakh traders, owing allegiance to 5,500 trade unions, took part in the peaceful agitation to show their solidarity with the Eezham Tamils. All political parties in Tamil Nadu had extended their support to this bandh which took place from six in the morning to six in the evening in Tamil Nadu and Puduchery (Puthuchcheari). The shutdown of the private sector has drawn more participation than the government organised human-chain, observers said.
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Tehelka on what the grass roots feel in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 12:19 GMT]
"In these villages, it hardly matters that Pirabhakaran is an accused in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, or that the LTTE is banned un India. Many have named their children after Pirabhakaran. Housing colonies have been given the names of LTTE martyrs", reports Tehelka Magazine in a feature article on Kolathur (Ku'laththoor), a Panchayat of 10 villages and 75,000 people, bordering Karnataka, in the Selam (Chealam) district of northwestern Tamil Nadu.
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Tamil Nadu doctors seek to help Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 15:41 GMT]
Doctors' Association For Social Equality in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, has requested the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and Union Minister for Health, Mr. Anpumani Ramados on Wednesday, to arrange permission for them to visit the war zone and offer their services to war-torn Eezham Tamils.
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