• Manmohan Singh blocks release of death row inmates

    Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned moves to release the prisoners who have been jailed and were on death row for their alleged involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

    India’s Supreme Court has issued a restraining order blocking Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa from releasing the prisoners, after the New Delhi government filed an appeal against the proposal.

  • SLMC warns of foreign exploitation of Muslim issues in Sri Lanka

    The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress has warned Muslims on the island to be wary of supporting foreign efforts to push for an international probe into war crimes allegations, reported The Island.

  • Rwandan Tamils celebrate heritage

    The Tamil Sangam Rwanda held celebrations earlier this month, paying tribute to their Tamil heritage in an evening of cultural performances and traditional cuisine.

    Taking place in Kigali, dozens of Tamils gathered to participate in traditional festivities, which included bharatanatyam dance performances and koothu-style drama re-enactments.

  • Sri Lanka rejects UN High Commissioner report – Daily Mirror

    The Sri Lankan government has rejected the findings of an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report, which calls for an international independent investigation into rights violations on the island, reported the Daily Mirror.

  • Did the TNA even offer the soldiers a cup of tea?'
    The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) should have been banned immediately after the war, the Deputy Minister of Labour and Labour Relations, Sarath Weerasekara, said today, alleging that ‘unwarranted and false’ allegations made by the TNA had damaged the country.
  • British High Commissioner briefed on issues in North-East
    The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, John Rankin, has been on a two day visit to the North-East, where he was briefed on several issues by members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Northern Provincial Council, international agencies working in the area and civil society.

    Speaking on his visit, Rankin said,
  • Rwandan Tamils celebrate heritage

    The Tamil Sangam Rwanda held celebrations earlier this month, paying tribute to their Tamil heritage in an evening of cultural performances and traditional cuisine.

    Taking place in Kigali, dozens of Tamils gathered to participate in traditional festivities, which included bharatanatyam dance performances and koothu-style drama re-enactments.

  • Tamil Nadu to free death row inmates in Rajiv Gandhi case

    The Tamil Nadu state government has decided to free all seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, a move widely welcomed by all major parties in the state.

  • CTC win defamation case against Sri Lankan 'terrorism expert'
    The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), was awarded $53,000 today in a successful defamation lawsuit against the head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyyang Technological University in Singapore, Rohan Gunaratna.

    Justice Stephen E Firestone of the Ontario Superior court ruled in favour of CTC after a case was filed on 21 January 2014 against remarks made by Gunaratna that labelled the CTC as a LTTE proxy.

    Expanding on the reasons behind the verdict, Justice Firestone commented on Gunaratna’s remarks to Sri Lankan press, stating,
    “the statements were clearly defamatory, either directly or by innuendo, because they imply CTC is involved in the commission of violent and illegal activity. It is unequivocal and uncontroverted that these statements were, in fact, false and untrue.

    The National Spokesperson for CTC, David Poopalapillai, commenting on the court verdict, said,

    “The court's decision is vindication to CTC and its members and supporters. The surest way to attempt to destroy an ethnic group is to make its members afraid to even admit that they are part of that group for fear of being labelled terrorist sympathisers or terrorists themselves."

    He further added,
    "The Sri Lankan government and its sympathisers have labelled all Tamils as terrorists for far too long. This judgement is a victory not only for CTC but for Tamils everywhere.”

    A recent upper tribunal country guidance case on Sri Lanka, held in the UK also declared that Gunaratna was 'an insider in relation to the Government of Sri Lanka, and his views are interesting as a reflection of its mindset."
  • NPC resolution demands transport links between North-East and India

    A resolution passed by the Northern Provincial Council has called for transport links to be reestablished to connect the Tamil homeland to India.

    The resolution, presented by Councillor MK Sivajilingam and seconded by Kandaiah Sarveshwaran of the TNA, said flights should travel directly from Indian airports to the airports in Palaly in the Jaffna district and Trincomalee on the east coast.

  • India to support international investigation – The Telegraph

    An international investigation into crimes by the Sri Lankan army will be supported by India, according to The Telegraph.

  • Parliamentarians stage Lok Sabha walkout over ‘inaction’ on fishermen

    Members of the Indian parliament, headed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa walked out of Lok Sabha earlier today, slamming India’s “inaction” over fishermen arrested by Sri Lankan security forces.

  • Police continue to block Trinco grave site

    Sri Lankan police have continued to block access to a site in Trincomalee where skeletal remains were found last week, sources have told the Tamil Guardian. 

    Workers, who were digging a well, uncovered skeletons at the playground in Trincomalee last Thursday and police have since blocked all access to the site.

  • Defining moment

    UN Human Rights chief Navaneetham Pillay’s forthcoming report to the Human Rights Council, extracts of which appeared this weekend in a Sri Lankan newspaper, makes a clear and unambiguous call: for an international investigation into the mass atrocities of the final months of the island’s civil war. The High Commissioner’s call will be welcomed by the diverse array of actors, both ‘local’ and international, who have been steadfastly campaigning for five years for accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity in which at least 70,000 people were systematically slaughtered in 2009. In particular, it will be enthusiastically welcomed by the Tamil people, for whom the mass killings – described by an earlier report by a UN panel of experts as amounting to ‘systematic targetting' and 'persecution’ of them – constituted genocide by the Sri Lankan state.

  • Death sentences commuted in Rajiv Gandhi case

    Three men who were sentenced to death for their alleged involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, have had their sentences commuted by India’s Supreme Court.

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