NEWS EXTRA

Updated Wednesday, October 01, 2003

This page contains Miscellaneous News items collected by sangam News Agents

bulletOn the Road to Peace by Christopher Patten, Commission for External Relations, European Commission, European Union [29 March 2002]
bulletCeasefire in Sri Lanka Requires 
RealPlayer
TM
bulletAn Island of Peace - Boston Globe Editorial [15 April 2002]
bullet Rupavahini Interview with US Ambassador E. Ashley Willis
[25 April 2002]
bullet Dividend for Canada if Sri Lankan Peace Holds
 - An Exclusive interview with a Canadian Minister
bulletThe Return of Balasingham
bulletSorrowful Departure and Joyful Arrival
 - Return of the Balasinghams [31 March 2001]
bulletSignificance of Land, Language and Culture in a Multicultural Society
  - Report on a Symposium in New Zealand [17 February 2002]
bulletInter-Religious Peace March in Jaffna [23-24 February 2002]
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
bulletEaster Message from Fr. Emmanuel [30 March 2002]
 
Requires Tamil Font Bamini - Download
   Courtesy: EelamOnLine
bulletUS Assistant Secretary of State in Colombo - The Statement [16 March 2002]
bulletNow that you have political asylum in the US...
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
bulletAustralasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA) on the Ceasefire
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
bulletProhibitions and Restrictions of Pharmaceutical Products to Jaffna
    - A Scientific Paper
bulletSri Lanka Peace Agreement receives  - Worldwide Acclaim
 - United States of America
 - Australia
 - Canada
 - United Kingdom
 - Republic of India
 - Japan
 - Switzerland
 - Commonwealth Secretariat 
 - United Nations
bulletAustralasian Federation of Tamil Association on UTHR(J)
 - Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
bulletWBEZ (NPR Affiliate) Analysis on Sri Lanka
               
[Requires Real Audio Player™]
bulletRemembering Professor Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer
bulletPeace or Bloodbath... Its all in our hands - A Lankaweb Surprise
bulletJaffna University Student - Released
bulletAn Interview with a leader of the Tamil National Alliance
bulletSri Lankan High Commission Accused of blocking Tamil Canadian Event
bulletMarie Colvin Pages
bulletReporters Sans Frontières Protest Attack on Tamil Journalists [26 December 2001]
bulletA Memorial Service for Peace and Healing
- in Queens, New York (14 October 2001)
  
bulletSL Attempt to foil conference in Malaysia fails
bulletThe emotional damage of the Jaffna civil war - 
A BBC Video [Requires Real Player]
bulletDr. Swamy and the US Tamils
bulletMelbourne Demonstration Against Janaka Perera  
bulletGraves of Missing Haunt Sri Lanka  - New York Times  
[29 August 2001]
Requires Registration to View Page
bulletWar Brings Ruin - A Sinhala Villages Live Off it
 - New York Times [17 Aug 2001]
bulletA Tamil Village in Ruins  
 - New York Times [6 Aug 2001]
bulletJaffna - City of Expert Refugees  
 - The Guardian [17 Aug 2001]
bulletProfessor Chelvadurai Manogaran Passed Away 
bulletWho Moved My Cheese
We regret to report to our readers that TamilNation.org closed on 5 July 2001, after three spectacular years of presence in the worldwide web. With this closure our Cheese Station C too is gone.
bulletAmnesty News Release & Action Appeal [4 July 2001]
An upsurge in arrests, “disappearances” and torture linked to paramilitary activity in the Vavuniya area must be urgently addressed by the Sri Lankan government, Amnesty International said today in a letter to President Kumaratunga.
bulletLTTE Response to Ministry of Information Statement [1 May 2001]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka today, accused the Government of Sri Lanka of attempting to undermine the peace environment by its irrational and dangerous policy of war and military conquest.
bulletIntervention by Ms. Deirdre McConnell at the UN [10 April 2001]
On behalf of Women Against Rape (an NGO) at the United Nation Commission on Human Rights [10 April 2001] under the agenda item “Violence against Women” [Text]
Audio Clip [Requires Real Audio Player™]
bulletJaffna's only Daily Newspaper under siege
Ganamylnathan, aged 58, was hit by a pick up van and both he and the driver of the motorbike sustained serious injuries and are in hospital awaiting surgery. The paper also reported that in a very similar incident on May 6 at exactly the same location another employee, Daily’s manager Nanthakumar, was hit by a pick up van and he died on the spot.
bulletA Letter to The European Union from the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies - Jaffna
Your Excellency,While expressing our gratitude for the visit of the EU team to Jaffna today, we wish to place before you the following aspirations of ours.We appeal to you to use your good offices to prevail on the Sri Lankan Government to reciprocate expressly the LTTE’s declaration of cease-fire. This needs to be done before the expiry of the latter declaration on Saturday, 24th inst.What we want urgently is an immediate stop to the war.
bulletJaffna Consortium to US Ambassador
Your Excellency, This letter refers to your press release delivered at the Jaffna Public Library on March 7th. First of all, we would like to express our utter disappointment over it. Your speech absolutely misrepresents the nature of the Tamil people’s quest for Eelam, undermining the legitimacy of the quest and ignoring the complexity of its historical background.
bulletSubversive Acts in India - Sri Lankan Role?  
The Sri Lankan government is routinely engaged in paying felicitation money to prominent overseas politicos and media outfits through its various front organizations to peddle influence. A classic example in this case is the India Sri Lanka Friendship Association started at the initiative of the Foreign Minister, Mr. Laxman Kadirgamar. Professor Suriyanarayanan, a longtime exponent of Sri Lanka in the Indian soil, heads the association endowed with the task of extrapolating and rationalizing the Sinhala point of view in the Madarasi press.
bulletPresident Chandrika's Monologue
bulletDouble Standards Exposed
bulletIndia Holds the Key to Peace in Sri Lanka?
 - The Independent
bulletSouth Asian of the Year
Velupillai Prabhakaran: A concerted campaign by his supporters took the secretive leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers to the head of the pack. Most nominators cited Prabhakaran's recent call for peace negotiations with Colombo. Sadly, we live in a times when a call for peace is frequently followed by the sound of gunfire (see Palestine, Kashmir and, for that matter, Sri Lanka itself). If Prabahkaran proves true to his word and negotiations do begin in the months ahead, he will be a strong candidate for South Asian of the Year 2001.
bulletSangam's Salute to Mamanithar Jayaratnam Eliezer  
Professor Jayaratnam Eliezer is no longer with us. He passed away on 10 March 2001, in Melbourne Australia, at the age of 82. A distinguished son of Thamileelam, he was bestowed the title Mamanithar by Thamileelam national leader Velupillai Pirabakaran in 1997. Australia honored him with the ‘Order of Australia’ in 1996. Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA wishes to pay our tribute to the late Professor Eliezer by publishing his contribution to the 1997 International Tamil Foundation symposium, titled ‘Plight of the Tamil Nation’.
bulletDouble Standards in the USA  
On Friday, December 22, 2000, Washington Post (Page A32) wrote an editorial on the double standards by which US government treats its Arab and Jewish citizens. Kahane Chai, a Jewish Nationalist organization, was listed along with the LTTE in 1997 as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department. Although fundraising on US soil by organizations in this list is prohibited, Kahane Chai collects funds with impunity.
bulletTony's impressions of Jaffna  
I have just returned from a situation that is as far removed from the normal stability and predictability of Scotland as it is possible to be. A group of students and lecturers from our College went to Jaffna
bullet

The U.S. Supreme Court Decision  
“The statute does not prohibit being a member of one of the designated groups or vigorously promoting and supporting the political goals of the group. Plaintiffs are even free to praise the groups for using terrorism as a means of achieving their ends.” - Judge Kozinski

bulletBritish Draft Order of Organizations to be Proscribed [Terrorism Act of 2000]
bulletYouth Organization of American Tamils (YOAT) formed  
We believe we are now in a unique position to lead the next generation of Tamil youth in the right path.
bulletMaveerar Day Observances in the US
A photo album
bulletExcerpts of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s "Chat"
My analysis is that a political leader has never before been collectively attacked by the media in history... This venomous reptile of destruction has creeped into a place which is somewhat beyond the government’s control - the media...
bulletAn Interview with Fr. Emmanuel
The war is getting prolonged because the majority Sinhalese and their government have neither a correct understanding of the nature of the conflict nor the required attitude and good will to solve it with justice and peace nor the humility to invite help of the international community. 
bulletTamil Parties: Rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic
The crux of the issue is this. It is the war that violates human rights and the right to life of children. It is the Government that is stubbornly waging war. Therefore it is the PA Government that must stop the war immediately to save Tamil children.- TAGOT Press Release
bulletPA’s Military Debacle And The Re-Discovery Of Tamil Children
The crux of the issue is this. It is the war that violates human rights and the right to life of children. It is the Government that is stubbornly waging war. Therefore it is the PA Government that must stop the war immediately to save Tamil children.- TAGOT Press Release
bulletAn Open Letter to Chandrika
We, on behalf of the 100,000 strong Tamil Americans living in the U.S.A., take the liberty to address this open letter to you
bullet

South Asia Communication Center, Chennai. Press Release
Mr. P.K. Balachandran reported in the Hindustan Times what Minister Kadirgamar of Sri Lanka had told the Foreign Correspondents Association on the 24th of Aug. He had said that India and the world will not accept a separate Tamil State.How does Mr. Kadirgamar know this?

bulletHindu Lands in a Buddhist Land
After repeated efforts at trying to lull the Tamils into complacency, the government has once again pulled the rug under their feet...
bulletTamil Canadians Dismiss Extortion Claims
In recent years, Canadian Tamils have been subjected to intense media scrutiny about their involvement with the LTTE. While the Tamil community has on several occasions admitted publicly that some individuals are voluntarily sending money to the LTTE, they have continually denied allegations of charitable or humanitarian organizations being used as a front to illegally support the LTTE or the Tamils are being extorted by Tamil youth gangs...
bulletLTTE Appeals US Court Ruling
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) today filed Petition for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc with the United States Court of appeals for the District of Columbia. [Full Text]
bulletWho is Afraid of Peter Schalk
G L Peiris, Minister of Justice, Constitutional Affairs, Ethnic Affairs and National Integration and Deputy Minister of Finance visited Sweden in April 1999... According to The Daily News Report, Peiris delivered a largely attended lecture... He presented his devolution of power as "federalism"... What is the truth behind this story?
bulletInvestor's Business Daily (A popular US Daily) Asks
WHY KOSOVO AND NOT SRI LANKA?

The [UN Security] council is nothing more than "a bunch of rival gangs," he said. "Maybe occasionally they cooperate, but whether they do or don’t cooperate is very unpredictable because they’re basically rival gangs."
bulletTIME Magazine Speculates
Freedom Fighters... From Kosovo to Kurdistan, rebels vie for independence. Here are the reasons some succeed--and some don't.
bulletPASLO Press Release 1st March '99
The Sri Lankan government refused to allow the delegations to meet the LTTE, which represents the Tamil Nation. Instead they only allowed them to speak to their puppets who collaborate with the government in oppressing the Tamil people. These groups are in the same category as the collaborators we had here in South Africa
bulletPASLO Press Release
We hear of a mass grave in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the world sends in investigators and forensic experts to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. It was brought to the attention of the UN that a mass grave was discovered in the Jaffna district in October 1998. Thus far, the world and the UN has done nothing. They are depending on the Sri Lankan government’s investigators to furnish them with details. How can a government investigate itself?  How can the Tamil people expect justice when the perpetrator of the crime is investigating itself?
bulletKadirgamar in Australia
Full Text
Audio Clip [Requires Real Audio Player]
bulletChandrika Kumaratunge in South Africa - A Video Clip
[Requires Real Audio Player]
bulletPoliticking may have wrecked bid for Tiger peace talks
A new bid to bring the Tamil Tiger rebels to the negotiating table may have suffered a blow due to political manoeuvring ahead of upcoming local polls, Tamil legislators said yesterday - South China Morning Post Monday February 22 1999
bulletHarry Speaks Again
We seem to believe that killing 'terrorists' will eventually kill 'terrorism', but what is not known is that if terrorists are perceived by the people who are supposed to be represented by them as freedom fighters, they have always ended  as  equal partner with the State.
bulletBoston Globe Editorial [ 23 Dec 1999]
bulletA Chance for Peace in Sri Lanka - Boston Globe
"For the first time in four years, there is a glimmer of hope for peace talks to end one of the world's bloodiest conflicts, the war between the government of Sri Lanka and that country's Tamil minority" says the Boston Globe Editorial
bulletKOSOVO LESSON FOR SRI LANKA
By persuading the Yugoslavian President to withdraw the Serbian troops from Kosovo, NATO is helping end a human tragedy which has claimed hundreds of lives and driven thousands of Albanians into the mountains.
bulletUN Rally In New York
The Sri Lankan government and its armed forces have been responsible for the deaths of over 50,000 Tamil civilians, innumerable unaccounted disappearances, hundreds of rapes and the recently discovered mass graves in Chemmani in the Tamil homelands... Given the willingness of Courts in the United Kingdom to "pierce the cloak of immunity and impose personal liability", it is imprudent for the Sri Lankan military and political establishment to "trot their representatives around the world, while they persist in terrorizing, torturing and persecuting the Tamil people".
bullet

People Against Sri Lankan Oppression (PASLO) Press Release.
14 Nov 1998

Press Release.
14 Nov 1998
Press Release.
14 Nov 1998
We were shocked, but not surprised, at the statement made by Mrs. Kumaratunga in an interview on South African Television, stating that the Tamil people of Sri Lanka are not the original people of the country.

bulletChristian Science Monitor
With no end to the 15-year-old separatist war in sight, an increasing number of Sri Lankans believe that the government and the armed forces are perpetuating the conflict for their own ends.
bulletChemmani Graves
"The actions of the government bears all the hallmarks of a yet another systematic cover-up. The strategy of the government is not to respond to the public outcry long enough so that it could trash it at the opportune moment... senior government officials such as the President, Minister [of Constitutional affairs] Mr.G.L.Pieris, Foreign Minister Mr.L.Kadirkamar, Deputy Defense Minister Mr.A.Ratwatte, are maintaining unusual silence while trying to work out a cover-up plan."
bulletLatest UTHR Report is a Damage Control Exercise say Tamil Activists
A report by the South Asian Media Services (SAMS)
bulletThree Indian Government Parties Demand Sri Lanka withdraw troops
Three key parties of the coalition government of India have demanded that Sri Lankan forces withdraw from Tamil homelands
bulletSri Lanka Renews Campaign Against Tamil Expats
Sri Lanka has recently stepped up its campaign against Tamils living in the west, accusing them of supporting "terrorism"
bulletDPI Press Release
Committee on economic, social and cultural rights hears statements from NGOs on situation in Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Poland, Netherlands and Germany
bullet

A Fact Finding Mission to Vanni - 1997
A group of Christian Church Leaders who visited Vanni from 19th of November to 22nd of November 1997, said, "Earlier we attempted twice to make this trip, but unfortunately we couldn't make it. Fortunately this trip was made possible by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."

bulletSouth Africans Protest Against Sri Lanka
The Asian Age [18 March 1998] reports, "200 South African volunteers are ready to travel to Sri Lanka to fight on the side of the Tamil Tigers."
bulletUS Anti Terrorism Law Challenged
Center for Constitutional Rights Says First Amendment Is Violated by Law's Restrictions on Legitimate Activities of Supporters of International Human Rights
bulletChristian Aid
Christian Aid, an organization of international renown, bewails of Tamil Children hit with Night Blindness, as Sri Lanka government celebrates independence.
bulletAustralian Anglican Synod Asks UN
To Recognize the Right of Tamils to Determine their Political Status.
bulletAttempt on Journalist Fails
The Fascist regime in Sri Lanka does not tolerate dissent when it comes to the war against the Tamils. An attempt on the life of Journalist was foiled by his 7 year old daughter.
bulletMassive Demonstration in Canada
Marks the 50th Anniversary of Sri Lanka's Independence
bulletPrison Massacre
Torture, Rape and Murder of Tamils taken prisoners is a common occurrence in Sri Lanka. The well publicized  murder of prisoners at a maximum security prison (12 Dec 1997) is just a tip of the iceberg. The International Federation of Tamils appeals to the British PM to intervene.
bulletDelhi Conference
Resolutions passed at the International Convention for Solidarity with the Eelam Tamils of Sri Lanka
bulletFreedom of the Press
The Sri Lankan ambassador lodged a formal complaint with the Canadian government that a Pro-Sinhala journalist in Canada was being harassed by  Tamils. The Canadian Tamils respond...
bulletHealth Crisis in Vanni.
An urgent appeal from NGO Officials in Vanni
bulletFeTNA Resolution.
The Board of the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America representing 32 Tamil Sangams reviewed with great pain of mind,  the US Department of State publication 10433...
bulletLTTE Vs. US State Department.
The US government departed from the norms of its international obligations by designating one party to an armed conflict as a terrorist organization. The LTTE has filed legal action challenging this designation...
bulletReligious Persecution Against Christians.
The plan to establish Sri Lanka as a racially-pure Sinhala-Buddhist country has resulted in a war with the Tamil inhabitants of the island. Tamils, however, are not the only targets...
bulletThe Hong Kong Standard Editorial (10 Sep 1997).
The Hong Kong Standard published an editorial titled 'Time to smoke out the Tamil Tigers'. The following is a response from an academic in the US.
bulletEPDP Leader - A Dangerous Criminal.
Sri Lanka government’s closest ally Mr. Douglas Devananda M.P. is a dangerous criminal and a merciless killer according to Mr. T. Mathivaanan who was an area commander for six years in the Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP)...