5 bodies washed ashore in Jaffna islets indentified

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 12:02 GMT]
The bodies of five persons washed ashore recently along with three other corpses in Analaitheevu, Nedunththeevu and Pungkudutheevu islets of Jaffna, were identified by a relatvie Monday in the presence of Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts) Magistrate Ms. Joy Mahadeva at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, hospital sources said. The five persons belonging to the same family died when their boat capsized mid-sea while returning to Mannaar to escape unbearable living conditions in the Tamil Nadu refugee camp, sources in Jaffna said.
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Eezham Thamizh and Tamil Eelam: Understanding the terminologies of identity

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 00:43 GMT]
Many readers, Tamils as well as non-Tamils, wonder at the way words and phrases such as Eezham, Thamizh, Eezham Tamil or Eezham Thamizh, Tamil Eelam or Thamizh Eezham, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan etc., are presented today in the media and the connotations implied by them. Culture Columnist Akazhaan discusses the etymology, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics of these terms in the context of the Tamil and Sinhala national questions in the island known as Sri Lanka today.
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Relatives identify body of Indian citizen washed ashore in Nedunththeevu

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2008, 19:54 GMT]
The grandson and two nephews of the Indian citizen whose corpse was washed ashore 14 September in the islet of Nedunththeevu (Delft) identified and confirmed that it was their relative from Gujarath by the identifications found on the corpse. The relatives, accompanied by an attorney-at-law from India, identified the corpse in Jaffna Teaching Hospital mortuary Friday, sources in Jaffna said.
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Bodies of returning refugees washed ashore off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 September 2008, 19:13 GMT]
Seven corpses, including two children, a male and four females had been washed ashore in the last couple of days in the islets of Jaffna. One of four female corpses washed ashore was identified by the victim's brother Thursday as one of the refugees returning from Tamil Nadu, India, triggering fears of boats capsizing in the Palk Strait. People wonder at the circumstances leading to the risky return of refugees from Tamil Nadu at this juncture of war, report sources in Jaffna.
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3 corpses of women washed ashore in Nainaatheevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2008, 13:50 GMT]
Three corpses of women in highly decomposed state were found washed ashore Tuesday in Nainaatheevu, an islet of Jaffna, by local residents who informed Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts) police. Ms. Joy Mahadeva, Oorkaavattu'rai magistrate, visited the place in Nainaatheevu where the corpses lay and held the inquest into the deaths. She directed the police to hand over the corpses to Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) mortuary for identification.
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Corpse of Indian citizen washed ashore in Nedunththeevu (Delft)

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2008, 17:27 GMT]
Nedunththeevu police recovered the body of a 77-year-old Indian citizen found washed ashore Sunday at Nedunththeevu, an islet of Jaffna, on information given by local residents. Monday evening another corpse, suspected to be that of a Tamil person from Mannaar fleeing to Tamil Nadu by boat which had capsized mid-sea, was found on Queen’s Tower beach in Nedunththeevu by local residents, Nedunththeevu police said.
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India: While taking action against LTTE, steps should also be taken to protect civilians

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2008, 09:30 GMT]
India's Defence Minister A K Antony was quoted by Press Trust of India (PTI) on Monday as saying: "While taking action against the LTTE, steps should also be taken to protect the civilian Tamils in Sri Lanka and ensure their safety and security." The statement by the Indian Defence Minister has come in the wake of reports that Indian military personnel were involved in providing military support to the Sri Lankan forces.
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Veteran Nathaswaram exponent Kaanamoorthy passes away

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 September 2008, 11:50 GMT]
V.K.Kaanamoorthy, an exponent in Eezham Nathaswaram music passed away Wednesday night in Jaffna Teaching Hospital after a brief illness at 60 years of age. Kaanamoorthy with his younger brother Panchamoorthy, excelled in playing Nathaswaram not only in Sri Lanka but also in Tamil Nadu in South India, Singapore and Malaysia for more than three decades.
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India betrays Tamils by providing military personnel to Sri Lanka - Vaiko

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2008, 14:46 GMT]
Referring to the news that two Indian radar operators were wounded Tuesday when the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) attacked the Vanni Headquarters of the Sri Lankan military, Vaiko, the General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), in a letter sent Thursday to the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, said that the Indian Government was "caught red handed in its unpardonable betrayal" of involving Indian military personnel in Sri Lanka's "genocidal war" against the Tamils. He blamed the top level bureaucrats in India, particularly the national security adviser, for "clandestinely conspiring" with the Sri Lankan government.
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Sri Lanka doesn't have Tamils on its side - India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2008, 13:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka may win the battle against the Tamil Tigers but not the war as 'they haven't got the Tamil population on their side', India's National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan said in an interview with the Straits Times newspaper published Tuesday. Saying India understands the Tamils, Mr. Narayanan asked of Sri Lanka, “Do they want a situation like many countries have faced?” His comments come after a survey in a leading Tamil Nadu weekly suggested the majority of people there support the LTTE and want Indian intervention in Sri Lanka.
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Tamil Nadu opinion poll calls for independent Eezham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2008, 07:18 GMT]
A majority of voters decided that an independent Thamizh Eezham is the solution to the Sri Lankan crisis and solicited support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in a significant opinion poll conducted by Ananda Vikatan, a popular weekly of Tamil Nadu state in India. The outcome of the poll and its appearance in an influential media, foretell shifting paradigms in Tamil Nadu scenario, according to observers.
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Jaffna/ Yaazhppaa'nam/ Yaazhppaa'nap Paddinam/ Yaazhppaa'naayan Paddinam

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2008, 13:36 GMT]
The city of the bard / minstrel
The city of the lord of bards / minstrels
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Legend missing in Thiruva'l'luvar statue in London

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 July 2008, 17:02 GMT]
The prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London displays a statue of the ancient Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruva'l'luvar in its premises. The plaque noting him a Tamil scholar and the palm-leave book in his left hand are missing for some time.
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Reflections on Black July in art, literature and theatre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 July 2008, 14:05 GMT]
Artists and writers in different parts of the world reflect through various ways on Black July 1983, the state-sponsored pogrom against Tamils in Sri Lanka, marking its 25th year. Citing some of the aesthetic expressions, a play in English to be staged in Canada on Saturday is based on the post-pogrom phenomenon of refugee hearing. While an ongoing art exhibition in Colombo documents life after 1983 in the eyes of a Sinhala photographer, a novel that comes from Australia bases itself on the psychological scars of the pogrom.
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Voices of 1983: Basil Fernando's poem remembered

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 July 2008, 10:18 GMT]
A poem, based on an eye-witness account of an event during 1983 pogrom captures the determination of a Tamil father at the time of his agonising death. The poem by Basil Fernando, a Sinhala lawyer, encapsulates the impelling spirit of the Tamil struggle of the post-pogrom years. Mr. Basil Fernando is at present the Executive Director of the Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission.
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Vellaave'li

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 08:20 GMT]
The wild expanse
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The master plays his cards

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 July 2008, 14:37 GMT]
Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, chief minister of the Tamil Nadu state of India, cautioned the Indian Government on Saturday that his state wouldn't hesitate to seek the retrieval of Kachchatheevu from Sri Lanka if the rights of the Tamil Nadu fishermen are not safeguarded. The timing and intensity of the demand leads to wide-ranging speculations among observers.
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Sri Lanka's 'Tamil implementation'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 July 2008, 04:04 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government and its agencies outside are bent on a propaganda programme of highlighting equal implementation of Tamil as an official language in Sri Lanka, as provided by the 13th amendment of the constitution, to argue the case against secession and to justify themselves to international opinion. But in actual practice there is a planned effort by the state to sinhalicise the very usage of Eezham Tamil itself.
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Making SAARC meaningful

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 11:42 GMT]
The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, which incorporates India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and now Afghanistan, is a logical process, not just because of geographical contiguity, shared cultures, legacies of British imperialism, elite use of English language etc., but because of the region’s common aspirations and problems, first of all in ensuring secure and quality life, and then seeking the rightful place for one fifth of humanity in the contemporary world. What went wrong with the noble concept of SAARC, while similar regional formations such as the EU and ASEAN are successful elsewhere, discusses Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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'Conversations in a Failing State'

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2008, 04:00 GMT]
Towards the end of 19th century, the renowned American writer Mark Twain visited Colombo. While he was admiring the plurality of colour in the native dresses, somewhere in Pettah, he saw native children coming out of an English school, in line, in white uniform and in the same hairdo. ‘What an ugly scene’, he wrote, being sad at the way colonial institutions depriving natives of their pluralism. More than a century later, Patrick Lawrence, another American, comes to Sri Lanka to record the net results, a failed nationalism and a failed state, as consequences of the loss of pluralism.
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