Ramadoss urges Karunanidhi for timely action

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2008, 08:23 GMT]
The ruling Congress of India has no policy alternatives towards Sri Lankan affairs. The DMK should take 'a cue' from the Communist Party of India in denouncing Indian arms to Sri Lanka, said Dr. S. Ramadoss, leader of Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) while speaking to media on the occasion of a demonstration in Chennai on Thursday. "The Tamil Nadu State Assembly should come out of its slumber and pass a resolution in this respect. The Centre should be reminded of the strength of Tamil parliamentarians. Tamil Nadu people are ready to pay any price for the Eezham cause," said Ramadoss whose party is an ally of the ruling Congress coalition government of India, along with DMK.
Full story >>

Furore in Tamil Nadu over 'anti-Tamil' film

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 19:29 GMT]
Politicians and film personalities from Tamil Nadu have taken strong exception to a Sinhalese film that seeks to "vulgarize the Tamil liberation struggle in Sri Lanka." Tamil Nadu Film Producers' Association President Rama. Narayanan condemned the film for disgracing the Tamil people at the end of a special screening. Tamil Protection Movement President Thol. Thirumavalavan vowed to take legal action to prevent the film's release in Tamil Nadu since he felt that it not only degraded the Eelam liberation struggle and hurt Tamil sentiments but it was also capable of disrupting communal harmony in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Stop arms supply to Sri Lanka: CPI urges Indian government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 14:36 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI), a prominent ally of the ruling Congress party, has urged the Indian Government to "immediately stop supplying arms to Sri Lanka that was mindlessly killing Tamil people." A resolution to this effect was passed Wednesday in the party's four-day 20th National Congress at Hyderabad. According to reports in the Indian media, D. Pandian, State Secretary, Tamil Nadu moved this resolution which sought New Delhi to interfere in the war-torn island's ethnic problem towards finding a political solution.
Full story >>

SLN arrests 11 civilians in Kachchaitheevu seas

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 15:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Kayts arrested 11 civilians from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held Vanni on their way to Tamil Nadu on Kachchaitheevu seas Tuesday early morning, according to the statements in Kayts Magistrate Court where the civilians were produced Wednesday before Kayts Magistrate Ms. Joy Mahatheva.
Full story >>

Steps are on to retrieve Kachchatheevu: Congress MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2008, 11:12 GMT]
A Congress leader in Tamil Nadu and Indian Upper House (Rajya Sabha) Member of Parliament, Sudarsana Natchiappan, has said that the Indian Government was taking steps to take back Kadchatheevu according to a report by Dinamani newspaper in Tamil Nadu Sunday. Mr. Natchiappan was participating in the 66th state executive committee meeting of the Human Rights Division of the Congress Party at Raameasvaram on Saturday.
Full story >>

Stop military aid to Sri Lanka: Nedumaran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2008, 01:51 GMT]
Tamil National Movement leader Pala Nedumaran, along with two hundred members of the Tamil Eelam Supporters Co-ordination Committee (TESCC) staged a demonstration Saturday to condemn the Indian Government's military aid to the genocidal Sri Lankan Government. Around 165 members of the TESCC, including its convenor Nedumaran, courted arrested near Memorial Hall, Chennai for agitating in defiance of prohibitory orders from the state police. They were subsequently released.
Full story >>

It needs a mandate to prod them to justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 March 2008, 11:52 GMT]
"Anyone who wishes to see a peacefully united Sri Lanka has to begin from separation. Separation for unity is the appropriate paradigm today. The Sri Lankan situation has transcended the 1987 formula. It is time the Tamils in India have to take care of a policy shift in the Indian establishment. The suggestion is that the political parties of Tamil Nadu who aspire for power in the forthcoming elections have to boldly adapt a policy upholding a Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka in their election manifesto and get the mandate from the people. Only such a mandate can silence the antagonists and direct the foreign policy of India to serve the interests of Tamils, India as well as a peaceful Sri Lanka."
Full story >>

India abetting Tamil genocide: Vaiko

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 March 2008, 10:49 GMT]
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) General Secretary Vaiko Tuesday said that the present attitude of the Indian Government amounted to assistance in Sri Lanka's genocide of Tamils. He sought the withdrawal of the radars supplied to Sri Lanka and an end to all forms of military assistance from India to the Sri Lankan government. Accusing the Indian Government of "betraying the Tamils," the veteran leader in his reply to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's letter, pointed out that no sovereign nation would tolerate the dangerous action of a neighbouring country planting mines in the bordering seas.
Full story >>

No LTTE base in Tamil Nadu: Indian PM's office

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 17:52 GMT]
Virtually bending over backwards the Indian Prime Minister's office Tuesday 'clarified' that National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan had never mentioned about the existence of LTTE bases in Tamil Nadu. On a temple visit to Kerala Sunday, Narayanan was widely quoted by Indian media reports as saying that Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been asked to "monitor the activities" of LTTE sympathisers since "Indian intelligence agencies" had come to know that both the states had "small pockets of the LTTE."
Full story >>

LTTE pockets in south Indian states, says Narayanan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2008, 23:21 GMT]
Indian National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan on Sunday asked the intelligence agencies of the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala to monitor what he alleged as activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) stating that both these states had "presence of small pockets of the rebel group," according to reports in Indian media. The Indian intelligence agencies have been systematically releasing reports of increased LTTE activity in Kerala, Tamil Nadu's neighbouring state. Initial reports charged LTTE with using the coastal areas of Kerala since it was not as heavily monitored as the Tamil Nadu coast.
Full story >>

Assault on media

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2008, 16:08 GMT]
While the 2007 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. State Department catalogued the deteriorating climate for media freedom in Sri Lanka, State intimidation of, and violence on journalists continue in 2008. Unidentified men have broken into the houses of journalists Munusamy Parameshwari in Gampola, and Sashi Kumar and Sunetra Athugalpura in Gonawela, Kelaniya in three separate incidents in the last two days, according to media reports. Parameshawari's relatives were assaulted before the attackers got away, reports added.
Full story >>

India should not collaborate in genocide of Tamils: Tamil Protection Movement

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 22:19 GMT]
The Tamil Protection Movement (TPM), an umbrella organization consisting of pro-Eelam political parties, NGOs, members of the film fraternity and Tamil associations, condemned the Indian state for extending military support to the genocidal Sri Lankan Government. In a joint statement issued on behalf of the TPM, Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) founder-leader S Ramadoss and Viduthalai Chi'ruththaika'l Kadchi (VCK, Liberation Panthers Party) President Thol Thirumavalavan, demanded the "Indian Government to radically change its approach and actions in the Sri Lankan Tamils issue" and warned the union government not to be seen as collaborating in Sri Lanka's genocide of Tamils.
Full story >>

Stop Indian military aid to Sri Lanka: Tamil Nadu leaders

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 March 2008, 14:44 GMT]
New Delhi unabashedly rolling the red carpet to Sri Lankan military chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka has caused a furore among Tamil Nadu politicians who have urged the Indian Central Government to "stop all military aid to the genocidal government of Sri Lanka." Paddali Makkal Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) founder-leader S Ramadoss and Viduthalai Chiruththaikal Kadchi (VCK, Liberation Panthers Party) President Thol Thirumavalavan accused the Central Government of sabotaging Tamil aspirations on the Sri Lankan issue by lending support to the military-backed genocide of the Eelam Tamils.
Full story >>

Take back Kachchatheevu: Indian Parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 16:31 GMT]
In a rare display of unity and concern, members of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament), cutting across party lines, urged the Centre to take back the Kachchatheevu island from Sri Lanka in the wake of continued killing and arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy. This is the first time when the demand to immediately take back the Kachchatheevu island has been made at the national level.
Full story >>

Dinamani: Tamil Nadu should shape Center’s policy towards Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 15:02 GMT]
Referring to Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s letter to the Indian Prime Minister which protested Sri Lanka Navy (SLN’s) hostile actions including regular incidents of firing against Tamil Naadu fishermen fishing near Kachchatheevu, Dinamani, a mainstream Tamil Nadu daily, in an editorial on Tuesday assailed India’s insensitivity and Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s meek response to the serious violations of the SLN.
Full story >>

Shaping India's policy on Sri Lanka: a reader's response

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 01:08 GMT]
"Those who watch the current developments sense a race against time on the part of India in achieving something militarily in Sri Lanka. At times it looks as though it is India’s war," writes a reader from Tamil Nadu in response to the LTTE's statement on Monday. "The Refuse-to-Retire advisors cum analysts of India, whose writings often reek of revenge, sometimes back came out with enticing hints that the target is only the leadership of the LTTE, and thereafter India will protect the Tamils. Have these advisors ever seen in their lifetime India proving its credibility in safeguarding Tamil rights in Sri Lanka or for that matter, at least India winning a diplomatic war with Sri Lanka?"
Full story >>

CPI responds to LTTE statement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 March 2008, 23:53 GMT]
The government of India should not provide any military help to Sri Lanka, said T. Pandian, the secretary of Tamil Nadu branch of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in an interview to the BBC Thamizhoasai on Tuesday. "The Sri Lankan government is engaging its armed forces against the Tamils in an uncivilised way. In such a situation, receiving the Sri Lankan military chief in India or Indian military officials visiting Sri Lanka to advice them should be avoided. The Sri Lankan government is unjust in every respect. Instead of condemning, it is despicable for Indian government to have any relations with it. Even if there was any before, that should be terminated now."
Full story >>

India risks indictment in war crimes, cautions LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 March 2008, 20:05 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) from its Head Quarters in Vanni on Monday released a statement condemning the Indian 'State welcome' extended to Sri Lanka Army Chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and the statements made by Indian military chiefs in this context. "The Indian State must take the responsibility for the ethnic genocide of the Tamils that will be carried out by the Sinhala military, re-invigorated by such moves of the Indian State," the statement said. "LTTE wishes to point out to the Indian State that by this historic blunder, it will continue to subject the Eelam Tamils to misery and put them in the dangerous situation of having to face ethnic genocide on a massive scale."
Full story >>

12 Tamil Nadu fishermen still detained, 50 released

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 March 2008, 08:17 GMT]
Twelve Indian fishermen with their four vessels are still being detained at Katpiddi police station. Fifty of sixty two Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Saturday off Thalaivillu in the west coast sea when they allegedly strayed into the territorial waters of Sri Lanka, were released with two vessels, according to SLN spokesman Commander D.K.P.Dassanayake.
Full story >>

Karunanidhi urges Indian PM to protect fishermen from unprovoked SLN attacks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 March 2008, 08:01 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Saturday wrote to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to "instruct the [Indian] Coast Guard and the Navy to carry out effective patrolling and surveillance to protect Tamil Nadu fishermen from unprovoked firing" by the Sri Lankan Navy since the situation was "becoming alarming day by day and unprovoked attacks are taking place often", according to reports in the Indian media. "It is necessary to contain the arbitrary activities of the Sri Lankan Navy," his letter noted.
Full story >>