Tissainayagam: always agitated against violence, fought for justice for oppressed

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 12:16 GMT]
In statement made to the Court Friday, senior Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who has been held in detention for more than a year under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), said: "I was and am still an advocate against terrorism. I have criticized terrorism in whatever form. I never advocated violence, my objective was to generate non violent means of resolving the conflict, my research, writings and work was towards achieving this." Many international rights groups have called for the "unconditional release of Tissainayagam, who has been subjected to arbitrary court adjournments and is suffering ill health.” First anniversary of arrest and imprisonment of Tissaianayagam fell on 7th March.
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LTTE urges China to consider Tamils plight at UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 07:31 GMT]
Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), B. Nadesan, on Friday urged Chinese government to allow Tamils plight to be discussed at the UN Security Council for a second time. "The Sri Lankan state is not only denying the Tamil sovereignty, but it is waging a genocidal war against them of catastrophic dimensions," said Mr. Nadesan adding that Colombo was engaged in a propaganda campaign saying that the conflict is an internal matter.
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Policeman, 2 SLA soldiers killed in LTTE attack in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 06:12 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants launched an attack Wednesday around 10:00 a.m on a road patrol unit at Saahaamam area in Akkaraippattu police division in Ampaa’rai district killing a policemen, sources Ampaa’rai said. In another attack around 12:00 noon LTTE attacked the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers engaged in a cordon and search in Panangkaaddu area in the same police division killing two soldiers and injuring two, LTTE souces in Ampaa'rai said. Meanwhile, SLA shot and killed a Tamil youth in Panangkaddu area and claimed that he was a member of LTTE pistol group and that a pistol recovered from him, Akkaraipattu police said.
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Tamil Eelam flag flown in Toronto protest legal - Canadian Police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 05:06 GMT]
The use of Eezham Tamil national flag did not contravene any law in Canada, according to a report by CBC News which cited Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash. Citing the ban on the LTTE, some representatives of the Sri Lankan government, who have been over-sensitive to any demonstration of overwhelming Tamil diaspora support to Tamil nationalism, have been demanding a ban on the national flag of the Eezham Tamils, seeing it an opportunity of dismembering Tamil nationalism.
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Socialist Resistance voices for Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 02:17 GMT]
“The socialist and labour movement stand against repression and genocide. We stand in solidarity with the Tamil people in the face of its suffering at the hands of the Sri Lankan government”, said Duncan Chapel, member of the Socialist Resistance steering committee, Tuesday, greeting 25,000 strong Tamil demonstration outside of the European Commission. Supporting the demands for sending food and medicine, withdrawal of Sri Lanka military from Tamil homeland and lifting the ban on LTTE, “the legalization of the LTTE has to be the first step towards Tamil peace, freedom and self-determination”, he said.
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US support to IMF's Sri Lanka loan illegal – Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 00:17 GMT]
“Concerning the proposed loan to Sri Lanka by the International Monetary Fund, United States domestic law makes it quite clear that the Obama Administration is obligated to oppose the loan. And given the weighted voting system for the IMF Board of Directors, a United States vote against the loan would be tantamount to a veto,” said Prof. Boyle, Professor at Illinois College of Law, adding, “for the Obama Administration to violate the Statute [22 USC 262d] and vote in favor of the proposed IMF loan to support the GOSL's "policy goals" would render the United States government "complicit" with Sri Lanka's genocide.”
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2 SLA soldiers killed, 3 injured in LTTE attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 10:30 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants launched a grenade attack Tuesday around 8:05 p.m on a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) unit at Mu’rakkoddaancheanai in Ea’raavoor police division, killing two soldiers and injuring three, Batticaloa LTTE wing said.
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Rally in New York urges UN, US to intervene to stop genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 19:23 GMT]
More than 200 expatriate Tamils protested in front of the Office of the United States Mission to the United Nations Monday, urging the United States and United Nations stop Sri Lanka military from firing into the ‘safe zone’ on the Tamil civilians. Demonstrators shouted slogans calling upon US Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Susan Rice, to ensure that refugees fleeing the war zone are given shelter and basic facilities, and not confined to internment camps without any freedom to lead a normal life.
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604 SLA killed in 3 days - LTTE media

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 17:53 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers, the radio broadcast of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in its evening broadcast on Tuesday said that 604 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed in heavy fighting in Puthukkudiyiruppu. Several hundred soldiers were wounded in the fighting, according to the VoT.
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40,000 Tamils stage protests in front of EU, UN in Europe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 16:14 GMT]
More than 25,000 Tamils, especially youth, across the Europe took to the streets of Brussels on Monday demanding EU to de-proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam, to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government to allow medicine and food to the civilians besieged by its military in all fronts and to demand the Sri Lankan military to pull out from the Tamil homeland. The organisers blamed the EU's misguided policy on proscribing the LTTE as having tilted the diplomatic balance between the parties, causing the war of aggression against the Tamils by the Sri Lankan state. Meanwhile more than 10,000 Tamils staged a protest in front of the UN office in Geneva.
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Nadesan urges UN to investigate Colombo's War Crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 08:19 GMT]
B. Nadesan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Sunday said the Tigers had "plenty of evidences" to document that the Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapaksa was "intentionally directing attacks against civilians," committing war crimes and crimes against humanity when asked to comment on the recent statement issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The UN High Commissioner had warned that the actions by the warring parties could amount to war crimes.
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Ask people their choice - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 18:04 GMT]
Have those who advocate evacuation ever cared to ask the concerned civilians whether they want to leave? What will they do if people refuse evacuation? Will they allow them to be killed, asked Yogaratnam Yogi, LTTE military advisor in Vanni in a speech given by him to the LTTE broadcast, Voice of Tigers, Thursday. Why are the governments reluctant to ask our people whether they want to live under the Sri Lanka government or under their own government? They don’t ask because they know the answer. Our request to the world is to pose this question to the people and make decisions rather than attempting through murder and denial of food, in the belief of forcing the people to accept the Sri Lankan regime, Yogi said.
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Pathmanathan welcomes US shift in approach

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 14:51 GMT]
"We have been hoping for such a fresh approach to the longstanding but little understood problem of the Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the newly appointed LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, when contacted by TamilNet for his response on US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton’s statement Friday. “An immediate ceasefire can stop the killing of civilians and will pave way for other measures to take effect in a more acceptable manner to the affected people”, he further said, adding, “ grief on one side and greed on the other side have to be assessed impartially in working out a solution meeting the aspirations of all of Sri Lanka’s communities.
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Colombo-Vavuniyaa train service stops with Madawachchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 14:13 GMT]
Vavuniyaa bound Yaazh Theavi (Yarl Devi) train service from Colombo has been curtailed up to Madawachchi due to 'security reasons' with effect from Thursday until further notice, media reports said. Railway Department, however, has not given the reason for the suspension of service, according to media reports.
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"Terrorists" likely perpetrated attacks on journalists, says Sri Lanka's Ambassador

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 11:08 GMT]
In a meeting with a officials of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based media watchdog, Jaliya Wickramasuriya, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the U.S. in responding to CPJ's accusation that "[t]here has been impunity for those who attack journalists in Sri Lanka, and there have been attempts to intimidate and silence critics of the government," denied there was any crisis of press freedom in Sri Lanka, and asserted that Sri Lanka's "image has been distorted. It has been called a place of violence, a place where journalists are threatened. But this image is not accurate," and added that "attacks on journalists may have been perpetrated by "terrorists" seeking to embarrass the government."
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Clinton call expresses concern over deteriorating conditions in 'safe zone'

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 22:08 GMT]
In a call made to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton 'expressed the United States' deep concern over the deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life occurring in the Government of Sri Lanka-designated 'safe zone' in northern Sri Lanka,' and 'stated that the 'Sri Lankan Army should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone,' a press release issued by the U.S. State Department said. Meanwhile, US State Department South Asia official, Diane Kelly, commenting on 'distorted' accounts appearing on some Sri Lanka websites, said: "there was a call, but it was not the sunny news relayed."
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UN lopsided in calling for evacuation - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 17:21 GMT]
Calling for the evacuation of civilians and making them to end up in the hands of their killers, is taking side with one of the parties to the conflict and amounts to another one of the war crimes, perhaps the most serious one of them when comes from a world body of human rights, said Jaffna MP, Kajendran, responding to a statement from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Friday. The High Commissioner, Ms. Navi Pillai called on both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to immediately suspend hostilities in order to allow the evacuation of the entire civilian population by land or sea, a press release from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said. She didn’t say anything on where should they be evacuated or on who would be responsible for them thereafter.
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Australian State MP supports Tamils' struggle for self-determination

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 03:32 GMT]
“It is important that the Government of Australia and the international community recognise the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people and acknowledge the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination,” said Hon. Ian Cohen, Member of Legislative Council and Greens Party during a speech he delivered on Thursday 5 March 2009 in New South Wales Parliament, Australia. "Too many lives have been lost, and each day we keep silent we allow more deaths to occur. It is important that the Government of Australia and the international community recognise that the' targeting of a minority' has been taking place for decades. What we see taking place today is but a culmination of successive attacks targeting the Tamils."
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US Senators call for immediate ceasefire, international oversight of detention camps

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 02:15 GMT]
A bipartisan group of seven senior U.S. Senators in a letter to Foreign Secretary Hilary Clinton blamed the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers for the "impending catastrophe," and said: "The situation in Sri Lanka is unacceptable and must be remedied as quickly as possible. We commend your recent statement with UK Foreign Minister David Milliband that called on the government and the LTTE to adhere to a ceasefire, allow access to humanitarian agencies, and resume political discussions to bring the long-standing ethnic conflict to an end. An enduring peace can be achieved only through a political solution that treats the Tamil minority as equal citizens under the law. Without such an agreement, the violence will only continue."
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EU Parliament passes significant resolution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 2009, 21:43 GMT]
The EU Parliament Thursday passed a resolution, with a large majority, calling for immediate ceasefire between the Sri Lanka Army and Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam in order to allow the civilian population to leave the combat zone. Condemning all acts of violence against civilians in the safe zone and expressing serious concern for the plight of the people in the refugee camps run by the Sri Lankan government, the EU Parliament demanded full and unhindered access to international and national humanitarian organisations, as well as journalists to the combat zone and to the refugee camps.
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