The British Tamil Forum’s (BTF) call for a mass rally in London on Saturday, remembering the 2009 Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal genocidal massacre, focuses on urging Britain and the Commonwealth to boycott the Sri Lanka CHOGM meet in November. Earlier this month, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his decision to attend the meet. “It is ridiculous as well as painful to find that Cameron has decided to attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka,” said a BTF statement on Thursday, adding [...]

Criticizing Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s support to holding the CHOGM in Sri Lanka, former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh opined that Sri Lanka at the head of the Commonwealth would bring the institution’s demise, arguing that “Sri Lanka has a human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid.” In an article for ABC News on Thursday, Mr. Haigh further said that despite evidence to the contrary, Bob Carr “believes that the Sinhalese majority are free of triumphalism and [...]

1984 Genocide Coalition, a UK based Sikh group, has called for solidarity among diasporic Sikhs and Tamils for anti-genocide rallies on 18 May and 9 June in a release on Thursday. Stating that such protests “are an opportunity for these heroic struggling nations to unite their power of protest and unite their campaign resources”, the release further said that “the enduring, courageous struggles of Tamil and Sikh peoples against brutal states like Sri Lanka and India; epitomise the struggle of [...]

Over 1,000 land owners in Sri Lanka’ s northern Jaffna town on Wednesday filed cases against the government taking over their land to build military offices, a minority Tamil political party said.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said that 1,474 people owning land in Jaffna filed the cases challenging the attempts to illegally and unlawfully acquire their private land.

"The petition challenges the Section 2 notices issued under the Land Acquisition Act which specifies that 6381 acres and 38.97 perches are to [...]

Britain said on Wednesday there would be "consequences" for Sri Lanka if its leaders did not address international concerns over human rights abuses, ahead of a Commonwealth summit scheduled to be held in Colombo in November.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told parliament "despicable human rights violations" had taken place in Sri Lanka, but that Britain still planned to attend the Commonwealth meeting there, a stance that has drawn heavy criticism from rights groups.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected calls for an [...]

Driving licences would be issued to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in the state as part of welfare measures provided to them, the AIADMK government announced on Wednesday.

The government has been extending various welfare measures to the refugees, including scholarship schemes for various courses, ranging from Rs 850 to Rs 4,700, the Public Department policy note tabled in the Tamil Nadu Assembly said.

“This government has also decided to permit issue of driving licenses to eligible refugees staying in [...]

Remembering the heroes of the Tamil cause, civilians and journalists, who sacrificed their lives this week in 2009, TamilNet reproduces a short film featured by the slain journalist Ms Isaippiriya.

The short film titled "Veali" appeared in an album released by the LTTE in 2008.

[Full Coverage]

When Liberal Democratic MP, Simon Hughes questioned UK Prime Minister’s decision to participate Sri Lanka CHOGM, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, replied in the British Parliament on Wednesday, “We are all aware that the decision […] is controversial, especially in the light of the despicable human rights violations during the recent civil war.” But according to the Deputy PM, consequences could be expected only when violations continue in ways of political trials, regular assaults on legal professionals, suppression of [...]

The British tourism market to the island of Sri Lanka has seen an 18 per cent increase from last year, according a report by Colombo based financial reporter Feizal Samath, published in TTG Asia, a tour industry publication on Tuesday. The increase in British tourists choosing Sri Lanka “killing fields” as tourist destination comes following the reports and a law-priced air travel campaign by the British Airways, which recently resumed its services with three flights a week from London Gatwick [...]

A cyclone caused by a tropical depression in the Bay of Bengal killed at least seven people in Sri Lanka, government officials said on Tuesday.

Cyclone Mahasen, which brought heavy rains and landslides to Sri Lanka, was expected to hit Bangladesh and Myanmar later this week.

"Seven people have died and 10 people have got injured. There are 7,399 people from 1,947 families affected," Lal Sarath Kumara, the spokesman at Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Center, told Reuters.

The Center said 3,881 people had [...]

by Laksiri Jayasuriya, University of Western Australia

Introduction

The 2010 Sri Lankan Presidential and Parliamentary elections that took place shortly after the end of a debilitating 25 year-old civil war in 2009 constitutes a watershed in Sri Lanka’s politics. Despite the unsettled conditions over the last two decades emanating from this turbulent environment created by the civil war and the seemingly intractable obstacles encountered, Sri Lanka was able to maintain some semblance of the principles and practices of a liberal democracy [...]

The first phase of Sri Lanka’s northern railway project — funded by a line of credit facilitated by the Indian government — was commissioned on Friday.

Coaches in bright red chugged along from Medawachchiya in Anuradhapura, the North Central Province, to Madhu Road, marking the return of a crucial transportation link that was shattered during the war.

Tracks along the 43 km-stretch were reconstructed as part of the $ 800 million-project, being executed by the Indian Railway Ministry’s IRCON International [...]

 “The 40 000 plus killed in the Tamil genocide is one of the worst mass killings sanctioned by a state in history, ” stated Glen Murray, Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre while hosting the third annual Tamil Memorial Tree Planting event on Saturday at Evergreen Brick Works, a community environmental centre. The Evergreen Brick Works houses the first memorial dedicated to the victims of the Tamil genocide and was erected in 2011 by Mr.Murray. The memorial remembers [...]

The occupying Sri Lanka military in Batticaloa district is intimidating the rural official and the leaders of Rural Development Societies to identify lands in 27 Village Officer (GS) divisions in Vaakarai region, which was under the control of the Tigers before 2007, into privately owned and public owned lands. The SL military is scheming a mass scale appropriation of lands for Sinhalicisation and militarisation.

The SL military officials have instructed the Tamil rural officials to trace the owners of the un-inhabited [...]

Sinhala State and IC should be brought to a point to concede Tamil sovereignty through a democratic, non-violent mass struggle with sacrifices, said Tamil National People’s Front leader Gajendrakumar Pomnnambalam, addressing media in Jaffna on Monday, and clarifying the position taken by the TNPF at the tripartite deliberations facilitated by the Mannaar Bishop on Saturday. The IC that is not prepared to accept a separate State cannot reject an alternative either. It cannot impose a specific path. It is [...]