TNA MP blames Ampaa'rai politicians for allowing land grab

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 June 2011, 00:19 GMT]
All ministers and parliamentarians from the Ampaa'rai district seem to collaborate with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and they have no backbones to challenge the injustice done to Tamil and Muslim people based on ethnic, religious and language basis by the Colombo government, said Mr. P. Selvarajah, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian representing the Batticaloa district, addressing a meeting in Kalmunai last week.
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Campaign in London against war on Indian people

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 June 2011, 22:34 GMT]
Campaigning against the war the New Delhi establishment is waging on peoples in the Indian subcontinent, Arundhati Roy of India, Jane Myrdal of Sweden and Basantha Indramohan of Nepal, convene a meeting and discussion in London this Sunday afternoon at Friends House in Euston Road, London. International Campaign Against War on People of India and the Indian Workers Association (Great Britain) organize the programme. Speaking to BBC last week, Arundhati said India’s economic success a ‘lie’ as the countries poorest masses are suffering at the hands of corrupt governments bought and sold by big corporations.
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SL Army in Jaffna defies judiciary, restarts photo registration

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 June 2011, 08:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna has restarted its terrorising mission of photo registration of people in Jaffna peninsula. Some times back, when the ‘obligatory’ SL military registration of the people in Jaffna was challenged in the courts by the Tamil National Alliance, the SLA said in the courts that it had stopped the process. But, while the matter is sub-judicial, the registration has restarted and forms to this effect are being distributed by the occupying SL military, accuses TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja. A few days ago, overlooking the SL Supreme Court's request to postpone the mandatory military training programme to students entering the universities, Colombo went ahead with the programme citing that it had already spent money on the project and students had already started travelling to the military bases.
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Discrimination continues in teachers appointment in East

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2011, 12:55 GMT]
A group of councilors in the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC), which already collaborates with Colombo have given a memorandum to the SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa complaining about the discrimination shown in the appointment of teachers to ‘national’ and provincial schools disregarding qualified Tamil medium teachers. P. Piyasena, a parliamentarian from Ampaa'rai elected on TNA ticket and later crossed over to the ruling UPFA and the EPC members S.Pushparajah and S.Selvarajah have signed the memorandum.
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330,000 voters ‘missing’ in Jaffna, Ki'linochchi electoral list after 2009 war of genocide

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2011, 12:21 GMT]
In 2009, the number of registered voters in Jaffna electoral district that comprises of the administrative districts of Jaffna and Ki'linochchi was 816,005. This figure has dropped to 481,791 entries in the register of the electoral district of Jaffna. On Thursday, Assistant Commissioner of Elections (ACE) of Jaffna Electoral District S. Karunanithi confirmed that the SL Election Department has removed 331,214 names from the list. “Most of them have fled the country,” was the official explanation by the ACE. The untold story is that the figure also includes the victims of genocide in Vanni from the Ki'linochchi district. Meanwhile, the date for local elections for 16 Piratheasa Chapais (PS) and three Urban Councils is fixed by the department to take place on July 23, the day when Tamils remember the victims of state-sponsored anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983.
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European United Left upholds Tamil right to self-determination including secession

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2011, 12:52 GMT]
A conference organised by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) at the EU Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, resolved that it supported “the right to self determination of the Tamil-speaking people, up to and including separation, if that is what they wish, while safeguarding the rights of all minorities” and demanded the SL state to shut down the military bases of the “army of occupation” in North and East and sought a political solution addressing the “national and democratic aspirations” of the Tamil people. Heidi Hautala, Green MEP and Chair of EU Parliament's Human Rights Sub Committee, a key speaker at the event, called for a GUE/NGL fact finding mission to the island of Sri Lanka. Vaiko, the leader of the MDMK in Tamil Nadu and Sinhala and Tamil political activists from the island and the diaspora took part in the event.
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Political truth of Mu’l’livaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 May 2011, 05:24 GMT]
The Sinhala nation is aware of the massacres, but they justify it the way the USA argues for its invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel argues for invasion of Palestine. For the UN and IC, it was not a mistake but a deliberate action taken by them to protect the Sri Lankan state. The same IC now says there are war crimes and Tamils are victims. Why? They want a group of helpless victims who begin to depend on them to find answers. Tamils had to face the first genocidal massacre of the 21st century, but this should not lead to a sense of helpless victimhood where the very forces who are responsible are seen to be saviours by the Tamils. It is the Tamil people who should decide what their future course of action should be, said Dr. Jude Lal Fernando, post doctoral scholar on International Peace Studies in Trinity College, Dublin, while delivering a speech on 18 May.
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India alone can’t be trusted, IC should be involved: TNLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 May 2011, 17:15 GMT]
India can’t be trusted anymore. A solution for the national question of Eezham Tamils in the island has to be reached through wider international participation and guarantee, said former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians and Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) leaders Sri Kantha and MK Sivajilingam in addressing a press conference in Jaffna on Wednesday. Informed circles say India pressurizes the TNA not to come out with any political proposals. But the TNA should immediately table the political demands of Eezham Tamils, based on their right to self-determination. TNLA has no difference of opinion in conceding that the TNA is currently the predominant political representation of the Eezham Tamils and the TNLA is prepared to give all support to TNA in tabling the Tamil proposal, they further said.
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Colombo defies court request, proceeds with obligatory military course to undergrads

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 May 2011, 05:58 GMT]
Defying SL Supreme Court request to provide one week time for it to consider a case filed by University students associations against a compulsory military training programme for the newly selected undergrads, the Rajapaksa regime proceeded with the programme on Sunday. The excuse of Colombo was that it had already spent money on the programme and students had already started traveling to the military centers announced by the SL government.
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Uprooted Champoor Tamils show resolution to get back their land

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 May 2011, 06:48 GMT]
Uprooted Tamils in Champoor, whose lands were taken away by the Sri Lankan government for India's thermal power project, de-populating the Tamil villages and declaring the area as High Security Zone, managed to secure permission from the occupiers to to hold Vaikaasi Pongkal in several centuries old Champoor Paththirakaa'li Koayil on Sunday. The uprooted Tamils prayed for the blessing of Kaa'i goddess that they should be allowed to resettle without further delay in their home villages and in their houses in Champoor area.
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Shanmugaratnam in short list of possible IMF successors

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 May 2011, 22:08 GMT]
Increasing the profile of Ealam Tamils who have received international recognition, BBC has listed recently appointed as Deputy Prime Minister holding Finance, Manpower and Monetary Authority portfolios, in the Government of Singapore, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, as one of the top nine leading candidates to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The position became vacant after Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned so he could fight sexual assault charges.
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Early Eazham-Tamil diaspora novel published in Malaysia in 1927

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 May 2011, 09:59 GMT]
A Tamil novel, Sampasivam–Gnanamirtham, set in the background of migration from Jaffna to British Malaya and Singapore, and was published in 1927 in Kuala Lumpur, is one of the earliest pieces of Eezham Tamil diaspora literature, writes a student of History who brings out an electronic copy of the publication for the benefit of research and documentation. The author of the novel Mr. A. Nagalingam (1901-1979) himself was a migrant to British Malaya from the Island of Kaarainakar, Jaffna. He was working in the Treasury of Kuala Pilah at the time of the publication. The 360-page novel was printed by S. Lazar & Sons, 13, Scott Road, Kuala Lumpur. The author records his intention of renovating a tank in his native village from the sales of the book and the support he received in this respect from the Sultan of the Negri Sembilan State of Malaya, Sir Mohamed Shah.
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Tamils become key ministers in Singapore

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 May 2011, 05:28 GMT]
In the new cabinet of Singapore, headed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that will be sworn in on Saturday, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Jaffna origin becomes Deputy Prime Minister holding Finance, Manpower and Monetary Authority portfolios, Mr. K. Shanmugam takes over Foreign Affairs and Law, Mr Vivian Balakrishnan becomes Minister for Environment and Water Resources and Mr. S. Iswaran holding the rank of a full cabinet minister will function in the Prime Minister’s Office as Second Minister for Home, Trade and Industry. The new cabinet has two Deputy Prime Ministers, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Mr. Teo Chee Hean. General Elections took place in Singapore on 7 May.
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SL Military harasses mourners in Jaffna at Remembrance event

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 14:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers on Thursday rounded up the mourners who were taking part in prayers at Kalaith-thoothu Hall in Jaffna, remembering thousands of their kith and kin slain in the genocidal war in Vanni in 2009. The armed soldiers of the occupying military that entered the premises blocked the mourners from leaving the building when the last program, a violin play, ended at 5:30 p.m., according to M K Sivajilingam of Tamil National Liberation Front and Sritharan MP of Tamil National Alliance.
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International probe into Sri Lanka’s war crimes urged at British rally

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:56 GMT]
A vigil in London commemorating the tens of thousands of Tamils massacred two years ago by Sri Lanka’s forces in the final months of the island’s war was addressed Wednesday by parliamentarians from all three major political parties and representatives of leading UK trade unions, rights and peace campaigns, as well as representatives of several Tamil Diaspora organisations, with many speakers calling for an international investigation into the atrocities and recognition of Tamil self-determination and Tamil Eelam. The British Tamil Forum (BTF), with the support of other diaspora groups has organised the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance event. Braving rains, over twelve thousand people attended the Trafalgar Square event in the course of the evening, the organizers said, citing police liaison officers.
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Country of Eezham Tamils mourns silently on Mu’l’livaaykkaal Day

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:44 GMT]
Subjugated to the extent of not being to able to even observe remembrance of the death of their kith and kin killed in thousands at Mu’l’lvaaykkaay in a powers-abetted genocide enacted by the Sri Lankan State in May 2009, the nation of Eezham Tamils on Wednesday demonstrated dormant anger through silent observations and confining themselves to their houses. The occupying military has ordered against any renting of public halls on Wednesday and has threatened potential organizers with dire consequences. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has requested people to mourn silently, and people responded. Movement of public, travel and commercial activities were very negligible in Jaffna and in other parts of the country of Eezham Tamils, amidst massive presence of the occupying Army of Sri Lanka.
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Calls for war-crimes probe escalate as Tamils commemorate massacre

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2011, 02:49 GMT]
Amid increasing calls by world's premier human rights NGOs, newly elected Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for independent international investigations into alleged accusations of war-crimes committed by Sri Lanka on Tamils, Tamil expatriates in several countries in the West are preparing to commemorate the massacre of Tamil civilians during the final phase of Sri Lanka war. In the United Kingdom, youth groups are organizing a vigil in Trafalgar Square and planning protest campaigns against visiting Sri Lanka cricket team, while in the U.S. in a show of unity, multiple Tamil organizations are participating in a protest and vigil in front of the United Nations building. Organizers of both events said they are expecting a large turnout.
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Daily Mirror editorial: “TNA kindles violence”

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 May 2011, 10:51 GMT]
“A senile TNA member’s descendants are in the West. With one foot in the West and one in the grave this member thrive on the sufferings of the innocent Tamil civilians. And he likes kindling violence. And obviously TNA welcomed the findings of the Experts’ Panel,” was the editorial opinion of a “noteworthy” newspaper, Daily Mirror, published in Colombo on Monday. The editorial titled “Irresponsible politics,” by the pro-opposition newspaper, projecting itself belonging to a ‘liberal world’, show only the basic feelings of Sinhala polity, whether ruling or opposition, when it comes to delivery of justice to Tamils within Sri Lankan State that is upheld by powers in the island, commented Tamil political circles in the island, adding that the editorial in fact was a response to the stand of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalitha.
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Eezham Tamils encouraged by Jayalalitha's stand: TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 May 2011, 11:17 GMT]
Suresh K. Premachandran, the official spokesman of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Saturday sent TNA's congratulations to Ms. J. Jayalalitha, the newly elected chief minister of Tamil Nadu state in India, saying that Eezham Tamils have become hopeful and are encouraged by the stand Ms. Jayalalitha has expressed to the media on the plight of Eezham Tamils. “Eezham Tamils seek your immense support to gain their full self-rule with self-dignity to lead a life in their own soil,” Mr. Premachandran said in the message.
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Nobody can suppress Tamil psyche: M K Sivajilingam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2011, 21:00 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in NorthEast would mourn thousands of their slain kith and kin on 18 May, said M K Sivajilingam, a former TNA parliamentarian and the general secretary of Tamil National Liberation Front. “No one can suppress the memories of a people remembering the sacrifices of thousands of their loved ones,” the former Tamil parliamentarian said urging the Tamils in North and East to mark the day with courage in silence under the prevailing conditions of subjugation.
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