• UK Tamil students get ready for 'Breaking the Silence' genocide awareness campaign, as Cameron goes to CHOGM

    Nov 11

    Tamil students across UK universities began getting ready for the ‘Breaking the Silence’ genocide campaign this week, as the British Prime Minister is set to attend the Commonwealth leaders' meet in Sri Lanka.


    The campaign, which has now become an annual event that takes place each November in a number of UK universities was set up to 'break the silence' on genocide of Tamils in the North-East after the events of 2009.

  • Tamil youth in India and UK unite to call for CHOGM boycott

    Student societies across India and the UK released a statement Tuesday, continuing calls for a boycott of the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

    28 Tamil organisations, in a joint statement, deplored the British Premier’s decision to attend CHOGM and consolidated their calls for heads of states to boycott the summit in Sri Lanka.

  • 5 day hunger strike over land grabs begins in Vali North
    Photographs TamilMirror

  • Mauritius PM becomes 3rd leader to pull out of Commonwealth summit

    The Mauritian Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolan, will not be attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka this week.

    Ramgoolan is reported to have made the announcement at the Mauritian parliament on Tuesday, when responding to a question by the opposition leader, Paul Bérenger, who has previously called for a boycott of the summit.

    "This is a decision taken by a sovereign Mauritius in the face of the absence of progress in Sri Lanka on the respect of human rights," Ramgoolan told parliament.

    He went on to add that Mauritius, which is set to host the next CHOGM, believes that

    "human rights are more important than everything else".

  • Commonwealth risks colluding with ‘crime and cover-up on a historic scale’ – The Times

    British Premier David Cameron and other Commonwealth leaders going to the summit in Sri Lanka this week “have a duty to hold their hosts to account” for crimes against humanity there during and since the war’s end, The Times newspaper said in its editorial Tuesday. 

  • Tamil Nadu activists speak out: Loyola College Students
    As part of our series - 'Tamil Nadu activists speak out' - on the growing activism in Tamil Nadu on the Eelam Tamil issue, Tamil Guardian caught up with leading activists across the state.

    This week, we publish our interview with students from Loyola College in Chennai.

    Students from Loyola College in Tamil Nadu remained steadfast in their call for a complete boycott of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo by the international community, and continued to call for Sri Lanka to be suspended from the Commonwealth.

    In an interview from Chennai, Joe Britto from Loyola College said to the Tamil Guardian,
    "We, the students of Tamil Nadu, we strictly condemn that - that conference shouldn't be happening in Sri Lanka, and we will protest on the streets, and we will raise our voice against the Sri Lankan Commonwealth conference."
  • How Sri Lanka 'engaged' with British MPs - Telegraph
    The Telegraph examined how Sri Lanka 'engaged' with certain British MPs earlier this year, by looking at a debate earlier this year regarding Sri Lanka's human rights situation at the British Houses of Parliament.

    The short video was released as the British government announced that MPs are now banned from accepting all expenses paid trips to Sri Lanka.

  • Tamil Nadu assembly calls for 'complete boycott' of CHOGM
    The Tamil Nadu assembly today passed yet another resolution calling for a 'complete boycott' of Indian participation from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due to be held in Colombo this week.

    The resolution, put forward by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, hit out against the Indian government's decision to still attend the summit, with foreign minister Salman Khurshid confirming his attendance earlier in the day. Jayalalithaa had told the assembly that participation was endorsing the "inhuman" deeds of the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil people "whose sufferings continued even four years after the end of the war".
  • Singh absence at CHOGM 'a big loss' - UNP
    Sri Lanka's main opposition party, the UNP, bemoaned the absence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting, calling it a 'big loss'.

    Speaking to reporters, United National Party (UNP) general secretary Tissa Attanayake said,
  • ‘Regional interests’ of Tamil Nadu must be part of Indian foreign policy
    Writing in the Weekend Leader, Karthick RM hailed the decision of Manmohan Singh not to attend CHOGM in Colombo this week as a 'symbolic victory', but stated it was not enough, calling for a 'serious re-think' of Indian foreign policy towards Sri Lanka.

    Stating that a complete boycott was still needed, he went on to coment that the regional interests of Tamil Nadu were integral to India's foreign policy, adding that Tamil activists from across the globe have "emerged as a well-networked community" and are "constantly expanding their spheres of influence in opinion making".

  • Government suspends flights from Colombo to the North-East

    The sole provider of flights from Colombo to Jaffna, has been instructed by the Sri Lankan government to suspend all flights until the 18th of November.  

  • David Cameron pushing for private meeting with Rajapaksa
    UK Prime Minister David Cameron is pressing for a formal meeting with Mahinda Rajapaksa, to bring up allegations of war crimes, reports the Guardian.
  • Canadian delegate visits Jaffna on fact finding mission
    Obhrai lays wreath at Elephant Pass.
    Photograph Colombo Gazette


    The Canadian delegate to CHOGM, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Deepak Obhrai was in Jaffna on Tuesday, undertaking a fact finding mission.

    Meeting with Tamils in the North-East, including the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C.W. Wigneswaran, Obhrai visited the premises of the Tamil Jaffna based newspaper, Uthayan, reports Colombo Gazette.

    He laid a wreath at Elephant Pass in memory of those who were killed during the armed conflict. The Sri Lankan newspaper, Island, wrote, 'a senior government official 'alleged the flowers had been for those who died fighting for the LTTE.'
  • David Cameron, a boycott is the only way you can help the Tamil people
    A few days from now David Cameron will arrive in Colombo to shake hands with a man who presided over the killing of at least 40,000 Tamil civilians and whose government continues to perpetrate shocking cases of rape, torture and mutilation – when the doors open on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka. As he sits down to watch the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister will not be able ignore the absence of two of his most prominent counterparts – the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. Both are boycotting the event.

  • Singh boycott not a setback – GL Peiris

    Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister GL Peiris has told media that the Indian Prime Minister’s no-show at the Commonwealth summit was not a set-back for the event.

    "It will not affect the success of CHOGM. The Indian Prime Minister was invited. Sri Lankans would have been happier if he came," he said.

Subscribe to Tamil Affairs

Most-Read Articles

Senior Buddhist monk from Anuradhapura remanded over sexual abuse of minor
A senior Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and chief prelate of the Anuradhapura Atamasthana,…
Velupillay makes history as first Tamil at a FIFA World Cup
Photograph: @Socceroos Nishan Velupillay has been selected in Australia's squad…
17 years today - A massacre in Mullivaikkal
To mark 17 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens…
In Pictures - Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day commemorated in Mullivaikkal
All photographs by Uthayarasa Shalin Thousands of Tamils gathered at Mullivaikkal…
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay marks Mullivaikkal remembrance with pledge to support Eelam Tamils
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay issued a message on Monday evening marking…