SLA occupation of Madu, triggers fears of renewed Sinhalicisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 April 2008, 17:42 GMT]
The Madu Road junction located on Mannaar-Madawachchi Road, which branches off the main route to Madu shrine, situated in the middle of traditional Tamil area, became the center of a Sinhala settlement in the 1970s. The Sri Lanka Government had the agenda of transforming the area into a full-fledged Sinhala colony, by using the lands of a cashew farm between the Madu Shrine and the junction. However, the settlement was later abandoned, fearing repercussions following large-scale massacre and arson committed by the Sri Lanka Army in December 1984 after a landmine blast. The spectre of a Sinhalicised Madu area has now become a dangerous new reality with SLA's occupation of Madu shrine.
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Silence is eloquence: last remarks of Rev Fr Karunaratnam

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 11:32 GMT]
Barely two weeks before he was killed in a Claymore attack, allegedly carried out by a Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army, Rev M X Karunaratnam was interviewed by the National Television of Tamileelam (NTT). While answering questions on the Madu Shrine controversy, he said, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) was entirely responsible for politicizing the issue of the Shrine as it had attempted to achieve a militarily favourable situation by choosing to launch its offensive drive through Madu, a greatly revered Catholic holy pilgrim center. The Reverend Father also explained the silence of Vatican and the Sinhala bishops.
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Ten youths arrested at Nittambuwa

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 10:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody ten youths including three Tamils, six Sinhalese, and one Muslim in a cordon and search operation conducted in Nittambuwa from dawn to dusk on Saturday. All of the arrested were from other districts and had been staying in Nittambuwa seeking employment, reports said.
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Ferial Ashraff dismayed over appointment of Sinhala Education Secretary

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 April 2008, 01:10 GMT]
Ms Ferial Ashraff, a minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, is alleged to have expressed dissatisfaction over the appointment of a Sinhalese officer as the Secretary to the East Provincial Education Ministry at a time when the east provincial council election is to take place, political sources in Colombo said.
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Sinhalese appointed Secretary of Education for East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 April 2008, 15:03 GMT]
Condemning the hurried appointment of Uppul Weerawardene as the secretary of Ministry of Education in Eastern province, P.Ariyanarenthiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament told TamilNet t that the appointment is further evidence of the Government of Sri Lanka's mission of continued Sinhalization of the east.
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No doctors in Pungkudutheevu Hospital for 17 years

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 April 2008, 16:09 GMT]
Pungkudutheevu District Government Hospital, in the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) controlled islets of Jaffna, since its destruction in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) 1991 offensive, has been without any permanent medical officers due to the reluctance of Sri Lanka government (GoSL) to rebuild the hospital complex in Pungkudutheevu, Jaffna District Director of Public Health Services (DPHS), Dr. Ketheeswaran said.
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Liberate Calendar

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 April 2008, 23:57 GMT]
A Calendar is conceived and designed by logic and astronomy rather than emotions and myths of politics. If people don’t understand the calendar they follow, educate them. If any section of the society thinks that the calendar is its prerogative, liberate the calendar, rather than mutilating it or abandoning it. If there is any problem in the calendar it has to be investigated and corrected by a forum of astronomers, climatologists and environmental scientists, sitting along with traditional astronomers historians and Tamil scholars. Any society, which doesn’t care to investigate and understand its own heritage of science, is not going to make any progress. It will always remain in slavery.
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Tamil New Year

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 April 2008, 02:30 GMT]
The Tamil New Year day falls on Sunday, 13th April, since 2008 is a leap year. On other years, it is 14th April. It is not only the Tamil New year, but also the New Year of Sinhalese and Malayalis. It is not appropriate to call it a Hindu New Year since vast majority of Hindus in India don't celebrate it a New Year. It is only an auspicious day called Mesha-samkraanti for them. But, the Sikhs celebrate it a New Year. It is equally inappropriate to call it a Buddhist New Year, as Buddhists don’t celebrate it universally. The calculation for the commencement of this New Year and the calendar based on it are entirely astronomical.
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Prime Minister of Canada greets Tamil New Year

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 April 2008, 01:59 GMT]
In a warm greeting message, the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, wished the Canadian Tamil community on the occasion of the Tamil New Year falling on 13th April 2008. "This New Year celebration affords us the opportunity to reflect upon the notable contributions members of the Canadian Tamil community are making to our great nation," he noted. The Solar cum Stellar New Year is calculated astronomically to mark the entry of the Sun in the first degree of the fixed zodiac. It is a Dravidian legacy, especially observed in the extreme peninsular India and Sri Lanka, by the Tamils, Malayalis and Sinhalese, while most of the Indians observe another New Year called Yugadi (Lunar New Year).
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Five youths arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2008, 11:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took five youths, three Tamils and two Sinhalese, into custody in a cordon and search operation conducted in parts of Gampaha town from Wednesday until Thursday morning. Police said the five were arrested after they failed to prove their identity.
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'My Daughter the Terrorist' producer receives death threat - Norwegian paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2008, 10:57 GMT]
Morten Dae, the producer of the award winning Norwegian documentary film, "My Daughter the Terrorist," on two Tamil Black Tiger female cadres in Vanni, has received death threats after the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) failed in blocking the organisers from screening the film at the Full Frame Documentary Festival, in Durham in the United States, reported Dagsavisen, a Norwegian daily, on Thursday.
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"Sri Lanka at the brink"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2008, 12:26 GMT]
Advocating a "federal accommodation for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority," Dr Whitehall in an article on Australia's News Weekly says: "In the first eight months of 2007, an estimated 1,212 Tamils were murdered or disappeared, according to the Sri Lanka-based Law and Society Trust, which reports that Tamils to have been "overwhelmingly affected". Of these victims, 23 were aid and church workers, eight worked with the media, and 68 were children. Most of the abuses occurred in Jaffna, the historic capital of the Tamil region, which is now "occupied" by over 50,000 Sri Lankan troops. Many of the reported abuses have occurred within "high security zones" under the control of those troops."
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Lankan ploy of Buddhism for subversion in Tamil Nadu: Viduthalai Rajendran

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 April 2008, 06:08 GMT]
Circumstantial evidence supports the hand of the Lankan government’s National Intelligence Bureau in the Buddhist temple-building campaign in Tamil Nadu, observed political analyst TSS Mani in Win TV’s News and Views, reported Tehelka Magazine, on Saturday. It further quoted Viduthalai Rajendran, General Secretary of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK), saying “ the temple-building a ploy to woo Indian Dalits and pit them against Sri Lankan Tamils on religious lines” A Sinhalese delegation of prominent Buddhist monks laid foundation stones for Buddhist places of worship in Tamil Nadu. Most of them are archaeological sites.
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The temporal and spiritual conquest of Tamils: Mahinda's book of dreams

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2008, 07:18 GMT]
More than security concerns, the sentiments of Tamil Christians and their mistrust of Sri Lankan State seem to be the impelling force behind the decision of taking away Our Lady of Madu from her abode. Those who could look at how Kathirkaamam was confiscated from the predominance of Tamils and how the ancient temples behind the Tamil Saiva myth are inside ‘High Security Zones’, could understand the fear of Tamil Christians. The question is whether the International Community and India, which contribute to the military option, don’t understand or don’t want to understand the fact that if there is anything to be defeated militarily in Sri Lanka, it is the chauvinism of the Sri Lankan State.
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'Sinhala regime transforming holy land into battlefield': LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 19:59 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B Nadesan in a statement issued Thursday from Ki'linochchi strongly condemned the indiscriminate shelling on the Madu Church and urged the International Community and Human Rights organizations to condemn the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for 'barbarically' transforming a sacred shrine that offered refuge to displaced people into a battlefield. He criticized GoSL for unleashing its army on an area that was ought to be free of war according to war ethics and UN conventions.
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2 Sinhalese shot dead in Vilpattu sanctuary

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 15:41 GMT]
Two members of a Sinhala family were shot dead inside the Vilpattu wild life sanctuary when they went to cut firewood on Wednesday afternoon around 12.30 p.m by unidentified persons, media sources reported quoting Sri Lankan Army (SLA) spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakara.
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Kalmunai tense after paramilitary firing, Muslim fishermen observe Hartal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 09:38 GMT]
Local fishermen in Kalmunaikkudi of Kalmunai division in the Ampaa'rai district, who have been protesting against the destructive fishing methods by Sinhalese fishermen camped in the area, have launched a shut-down protest Tuesday after paramilitary Pillaiyan Group opened fire on the air Monday, threatening the local Muslim protesters who burned down two fishing huts of the Sinhalese fishermen. Police and Special Task Force personnel have been deployed in the area. Traffic between Batticaloa and Kalmunai was cut off due to the Hartal being observed by the Muslims.
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Sinhala sea cucumber divers under threat to leave Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 March 2008, 02:57 GMT]
Unidentified armed group of local residents of Kalmunaikkudi, Ampaarai are forcing Sinhala divers who have been in involved in harvesting sea cucumbers (Beche-de-Mer) for the past 19 years, to leave the area, the Union of Divers in Sri Lanka complained in a letter addressed to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic resources, spokesmen for the Union said.
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Not possible to remain mute spectators: Ramadoss to Indian PM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2008, 09:16 GMT]
Labelling Sri Lanka "a failed state, a condominium of anarchy, and a shame on humanity" that "terrorized its own Tamil citizens," Dr. S. Ramadoss, leader of Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) and a constituent ally of the Congress-led Indian government, said that it was not possible to remain "passing by-standers to this human tragedy at our doorstep" in his letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday. "The sixty million Tamils in India cannot wait and watch while their sisters and brothers are being decimated across the Palk Straits and Gulf of Mannar," he said.
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53% of Sri Lanka's external military training provided by India, TPM protests

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2008, 15:10 GMT]
Addressing the large demonstration of the Tamil Protection Movement (TPM) opposite the Memorial Hall in Chennai Thursday, Viduthalai Chi'ruththaika'l Kadchi (VCK, Liberation Panthers Party) President Thol. Thirumavalavan, who condemned the Indian government for giving a red carpet welcome to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, charged that one of the primary objectives of Fonseka 's recent visit was to seek a substantial increase in the number of Sri Lankan forces being trained in India. "There has been a three hundred percentage increase in the number of training slots offered to Sri Lankan armed forces personnel between the year 2006-2007 and 2007-2008," he charged.
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