Tamil, Muslim political parties find their table in Zurich

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 November 2009, 15:10 GMT]
Widely speculated as a drama backed by ‘high-powers,’ leaders of most of the Tamil and Muslim political parties in the island of Sri Lanka are meeting for the first time in Zurich, Switzerland, between Thursday and Saturday. The move is said to be for ‘extracting’ a joint proclamation of them necessary for further power manoeuvres in the island. A couple of years ago it was such a behind-the-scene move of some powers that made most of these parties except the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to rally behind Mahinda Rajapaksa and pledge support to him in the war that brought in disaster to Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Tamil Nadu must recognize and support establishment of Tamil Eelam: Thirumavalavan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 13:38 GMT]
Stating that there was a total violation of human rights in the Sri Lankan Government's camps for Internally Displaced Persons, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi President Thol.Thirumavalavan, told TamilNet Friday in an exclusive interview of the "appalling conditions" prevalent in these "barbed-wire concentration camps" which he witnessed firsthand as one of the ten-member parliamentary delegation from Tamil Nadu. Pointing out that Tamil people could not become a "permanent slave society" and "live as second class citizens in Sri Lanka," Thirumavalavan sought to emphasize that Tamil Eelam was the only solution to a struggle that had claimed the lives of nearly fifteen hundred thousand Tamils civilians and more than thirty thousand Tamil Tiger fighters.
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Tamil Nadu government erases the word 'Eezham'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police was seen pasting white papers on the word 'Eezham' and on the picture of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, figured in the banners and posters of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchi (VCK) organised uprising in Chennai attended by more than 100,000 people Monday. The VCK's annual uprising day, conducted on the birthday of its leader Thol Thirumavalavan, has chosen the theme 'Ezhum Thamizh Eezham' for this year. The phrase can either mean the 'rising Tamil Eelam' or 'Tamil Eelam will rise'. The word 'Eezham' is the earliest reference to today's island of Sri Lanka, found in Tamil literature and inscriptions of pre-Christian centuries.
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French university conference on Tamils flawed in perspectives - Tamil academic

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 09:28 GMT]
Organisers from two French universities have embarked upon an international pluridisciplinary conference on ‘Tamil communities and the Sri Lankan conflict’, based on presumptions that the LTTE has ‘surrendered’ and what exists is only Tamil ‘minority rights’ issues, as though the question of Eezham Tamil nation doesn't exist. One of the conference themes is the role of religious communities in seeking solutions to “the traditional Tamil society founded mainly upon the importance of caste and religious solidarity.” A Tamil academic in Colombo, responding to the conference scheme said the current task of the Eezham Tamils is to prove their status of nationhood since the agenda of priority for Colombo, New Delhi and the IC that orchestrate media and universities, is to nullify Eezham Tamil nationalism.
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3 Tamil youths, travel agent arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 July 2009, 11:26 GMT]
Two Tamil youths who were waiting to take a flight to Cairo, capital of Egypt Thursday morning and another Tamil youth who arrived in Friday morning from Dubai were taken into custody at Katunayake International Airport by the Katunayake police. Police said they are being detained and are suspected to be LTTE cadres, sources in Colombo said.
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Holding grounds is fundamental to everything

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 22:34 GMT]
Professing defeatism or surrendering the basic grounds are not the ways to begin or to sustain the struggle with the masses, even in ways anew, perhaps through democratic means. Talking on the need to continue the struggle is not to rule out the need to negotiate. But negotiation is not collaboration. Negotiators need a firm platform supported by the hearts of the masses on behalf of whom they negotiate. Negotiation cannot take place when the platform is surrendered. It is to safeguard the platform for struggle and negotiation the Tamil circles are now keen in re-affirming the democratically mandated Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 that upholds independence, sovereignty and self-determination of Eezham Tamils, at least where there is freedom of expression. Even after 2000 years the Jews were able to regain their land because they never lost their nationalism or the thought of Israel.
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Tamil sovereignty crucial to Eelam struggle: Thirumavalavan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 June 2009, 09:49 GMT]
Indian Member of Parliament and President of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) Thol. Thirumavalavan in a statement released Tuesday called upon the international Tamil community to realize that the Tamil sovereignty, Tamil Eelam national leader V. Pirapaharan and Tamil Eelam national flag, are crucial guiding forces in taking the Eelam liberation struggle forward. He also called upon the Tamil Diaspora to fulfil this "historical and moral obligation by not only shouldering the responsibility of overcoming the present crisis situation, but also by identifying and defeating the anti-struggle forces who were trying to infiltrate the liberation struggle." He also said that the Tamil diaspora must devise appropriate strategies to attaining Eelam bearing in mind the international scenario.
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The Liberal Moment in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 12:39 GMT]
“For decades, the international community, especially the Western liberal democracies, have simply refused to confront the Sinhala chauvinism at the heart of the island’s crisis. Instead, it has blamed the LTTE solely. … Without the LTTE, it was unshakably believed, compromise, reconciliation and peace were inevitable. Now, according to Colombo, the LTTE is no more. However, what is taking place is something very different to liberal peace. The Sinhalese, it seems, have little interest in liberalism or peace with the Tamils. The question, however, is what is to be done, ” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week.
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Setting the hands of the clock right

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 20:04 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils and their political representatives have no obligation to anyone now, to engage in the deliberations of fruitless alternatives. But the world has an obligation now to tell the Tamils whether its opposition is to what it has perceived as 'terrorism' or to Tamil nationalism. The Eezham Tamil mainstream has a historic responsibility on its shoulders to be performed right now. If the oppression to their nationalism is trans-national, the Eezham Tamils have to respond by forming a trans-national government fully responsible to them based on democracy, to negotiate with the world and to look after their own affairs.
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Claims and scepticism sans evidence

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 00:53 GMT]
The head of the LTTE’s Department of International Relations on Sunday announced that the LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan state on 17 May. However, the LTTE’s Department for Diaspora Affairs (DDA) told TamilNet that it would not comment without explicit authorisation from the LTTE leadership. In the meantime, the Intelligence Department of the Tigers reiterated on Sunday that the LTTE leadership is safe and it will re-emerge when the right time comes.
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Demonstrate the politics of war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 20:32 GMT]
The Tamil national cause cannot afford to be deviated and exploited by others through questions such as whether the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan is alive or not or whether the armed struggle has to be continued or not. The Tamil diaspora, the only section of the Eezham Tamil community that has the freedom and means to come out with authentic voice, has a historic responsibility in telling the world what they aspire for in no uncertain terms, and in seeing their righteous cause not hijacked by their enemies.
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LTTE leadership safe: Tiger intelligence official

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 09:49 GMT]
Head of International Secretariat of the Intelligence wing of the LTTE, Mr. Arivazhakan, who contacted TamilNet Friday categorically denied the reports that the LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan has been killed. Mr. Arivazhakan urged the global Tamil community not to trust the "engineered rumours," being spread by the Government of Sri Lanka and its military establishment.
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War crime in the massacre of LTTE officials

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 01:52 GMT]
While rejecting Colombo's claim of the killing of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan and assuring his safety and well-being, LTTE's International Relations Head S. Pathmanathan Tuesday accused Colombo of treachery in the killing of the political wing leaders B. Nadesan and S. Puleedevan. Mr. Pathmanathan said it is a crime against humanity that needs to be investigated. Meanwhile, informed sources told TamilNet that what happened in the early hours of Monday was a well-planned massacre of several unarmed civil officers of the LTTE with the aim of annihilating its political structure. At the orders of a 'top defence figure,' an international arrangement involving ICRC, European diplomats and a Colombo government diplomat to arrange safe exit to the civil officers was defied, the sources said.
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Sri Lanka lost confidence of Tamils: Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 21:36 GMT]
Stating that the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr. V. Pirapaharan is alive and well, Mr. Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the head of LTTE's international relations, told TamilNet Monday that it was very unfortunate that many of its senior members and leaders have either given up their lives or have been treacherously killed. "The Sri Lankan Government may have declared a military victory. But it does not realize that it is a hollow victory. It has completely lost the trust and confidence of the Tamils in Sri Lanka," he further said in an exclusive interview.
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Colombo 'ended' the battle with a massacre

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 07:25 GMT]
Monday early hours around 3:00 a.m. Vanni local time, the LTTE Political Chief B. Nadesan and LTTE Peace Secretariat Director S. Puleedevan telephoned their contacts in Europe and informed them to tell the ICRC Head Office that only around 1,000 wounded cadres, civil officials of the LTTE and civilians remained in the so-called safety zone and there was no firing from the LTTE side. They urged the ICRC to evacuate the wounded. A few hours later, Colombo's Defence Ministry website claimed finding the dead bodies of Mr. Nadesan, Mr. Puleedevan, Mr. Ilango (Tamileelam Police Chief), and LTTE Leader V. Pirapaharan's son Mr. Charles Antony. The LTTE is yet to confirm, but initial reports indicate a determined massacre by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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Flaunting 'victory' to Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 16:51 GMT]
Sinhala mob carrying the Lion Flag of Sri Lanka, and shouting 'jeyawewa' (victory), menacingly hover around the Tamil suburbs in Colombo such as Ko'l'lup-piddi, Ve'l'la-vaththai, Bambalapiti, Dehiwela, Koddaagn-cheanai and Maddakku'li, news reports from Colombo said. Their vehicles in which they roam around, are also guarded by flag-carrying police and intelligence vehicles, the reports said. The Tamil pedestrians are humiliated and ridiculed by this gang and by the armed personnel at security points by being specifically addressed and told that their leader Pirapaharan has been captured and everything was over, the reports further said.
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Norway Tamils ballot-test political course

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 08:50 GMT]
"After deliberately abetting the process of ethnic polarisation to its height reaching genocide, and after creating a situation that warrants secession more than ever, the international community and India, vested with their own interests, have started talking about a federal solution. It is time that the Tamils have to democratically test the validity of the political course democratically set for them in 1976 by the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution and democratically tell the world what they want now," commented a self-exiled Tamil politician of the pre-1977 times responding to a ballot on Vaddukkoaddai resolution taking place among Eezham Tamils in Norway on Sunday.
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Sri Lanka’s democratically mandated genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 15:41 GMT]
"If Sri Lanka has reached the stage of having a 'democratically elected' government mandated for genocide by the ethnic majority, then that is the strongest reason why the country has to be democratically divided", writes TamilNet's political commentator in Colombo, responding to British envoy John Sawers' comment Thursday at UN that "Sri Lanka is a democratically elected government fighting a terrorist organization". Pointing out that this stand, worse than the fallacy of viewing an ethnic war as war on terrorism is not isolated in the IC, the commentator cautioned "as long as the IC, jaundiced in eyesight, fails to acknowledge that genocide and terrorism are 'democratically elected’ in Sri Lanka, they endanger democratic ideals globally” adding that "it is time for Tamil Nadu and the diaspora to demonstrate mandate for secession".
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'One-man hunt excuse to nullify a national question'

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2009, 08:04 GMT]
Contrary to what is said outside, the real focus of the UN Security Council deliberations is not on the plight of the Tamil civilians, but using their plight as a shield and by manipulating it, the thrust is actually for the hunt or deposition of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, in order to blunt the Tamil struggle, news reports hinted Thursday. Inner City Press quoted a senior advisor of Ban Ki-moon saying that the UN Secretariat’s hope was to arrange amnesty to the remaining LTTE cadres in the conflict zone, except Mr. Pirapaharan. When asked about his son, the advisor said, “That’s what negotiations are for”. While Colombo’s ambassador at UN said the matter is being considered, according to the UN advisor cited above, the Three Brothers have shown little interest as they feel they are about to win. Tamil circles smell Indian hand in such a line of deliberations.
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IC caused disaster of epic proportion: Anita Pratap

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 11:07 GMT]
“Lacking independent assessments, journalists repeat Sri Lankan claims that this is the end game, this is Prabhakaran's last stand. Judging from the past, I doubt it”, writes former CNN Bureau Chief in New Delhi, Anita Pratab, in the 03 May issue of The Week. “Nowhere in the world has a government been continuously bombing its own civilians for over a year. This is a crime Israeli, American and NATO forces are not guilty of. Nowhere else in the world is a war being waged without outsiders and independent witnesses, not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Gaza. But in Sri Lanka”, she writes.
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