Announce ceasefire, call back military and commence peace talks - TN Assembly [tami...
Announce ceasefire, call back military and commence peace talks - TN Assembly [tamilnet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 16:56 GMT] Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday demanding "an immediate halt of military operations, reverting the Sri Lankan military to old positions and a commencement of political negotiations to find a solution to the Tamil problem." The house of representatives also urged New Delhi to press for talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (gosl ...
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Added: 300 days ago
Views: 46
BBC News: Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Rejects ceasefire
BBC News: Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Rejects ceasefire
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Added: 324 days ago
Views: 56
Flagging 19 violations of the Line of Control (loc) by Pakistan this year, India on Tuesday told tha...
Flagging 19 violations of the Line of Control (loc) by Pakistan this year, India on Tuesday told that country to respect the 2003 ceasefire agreement and not to vitiate the atmosphere and disturb the bilateral peace process. India also lodged a protest when DGMO Lt Gen AS Sekhon spoke to his Pakistani counterpart through the hotline regarding Monday's major violation which also saw some tough talk by the government.
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Added: 199 days ago
Views: 7
Now that the civil war between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority has ended, will there e...
Now that the civil war between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority has ended, will there ever be true reconciliation that allows Sri Lanka to develop as a normal country?
About 10 percent of the Tamil population almost 300,000 people are still being detained in 30 military-guarded camps, with no end in sight. This only feeds Tamil suspicions that they are destined to remain second-class citizens.
And after decades of media repression by the government during the war with the Tamil Tigers, in the name of national security, will things improve for freedom of speech and criticism?
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Added: 204 days ago
Views: 16
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A group of 11 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were picked up by Indonesian police near Indonesia's Bintan ...
A group of 11 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were picked up by Indonesian police near Indonesia's Bintan island this week.
The group of seven men, two women and two children were said to be abandoned by a Malaysian agent after being told they would be taken to Australia.
For many ethnic Tamils from Sri Lanka, fleeing conflict and what they say is discrimination in their homeland and travelling by boat on a dangerous journey to an uncertain life in Australia is viewed as their only shot at a better life.
Many of them end up detained as refugees and only a handful are granted asylum each year.
But hundreds of them are still willing to try, despite the risks and the high financial costs, as Al Jazeera's Aela Callan finds out.
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Added: 70 days ago
Views: 18
Sri Lankan Consul General Bandula Jayasekara on the progress of closing government-run camps housing...
Sri Lankan Consul General Bandula Jayasekara on the progress of closing government-run camps housing Tamils and Canada-Sri Lanka relations.
http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=7&bpn=779659&ts=2009-11-24%2020:00:00.0
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Added: 111 days ago
Views: 10
Sri Lankan Consul General Bandula Jayasekara on the progress of closing government-run camps housing...
Sri Lankan Consul General Bandula Jayasekara on the progress of closing government-run camps housing Tamils and Canada-Sri Lanka relations.
http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=7&bpn=779659&ts=2009-11-24%2020:00:00.0
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Added: 111 days ago
Views: 22
The disappearing act in Sri Lanka
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id...
The disappearing act in Sri Lanka
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=7&jumival=3858
Abeysekera: Sri Lankan intelligence has always been extremely good at torture
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2009/06/090615_sunila_hooded.shtml
Sharmini Peries speaks to Sunila Abeysekera award-winning human rights defender and the Executive Director of INFORM, an organization working to spread the word on Sri Lankan human rights violations. The speak about the history of the ongoing torture allegations in Sri Lanka and the so-called "internment camps" where roughly 300,000 refugees of the recent conflict linger. Abeysekera says, "Forget the torture; just overcrowding, lack of access to medical attention, and then including on top of that the beatings and the waterboarding. You know, you name it, we hear stories about it."
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Added: 275 days ago
Views: 28
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The disappearing act in Sri Lanka
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id...
The disappearing act in Sri Lanka
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=7&jumival=3858
Abeysekera: Sri Lankan intelligence has always been extremely good at torture
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2009/06/090615_sunila_hooded.shtml
Sharmini Peries speaks to Sunila Abeysekera award-winning human rights defender and the Executive Director of INFORM, an organization working to spread the word on Sri Lankan human rights violations. The speak about the history of the ongoing torture allegations in Sri Lanka and the so-called "internment camps" where roughly 300,000 refugees of the recent conflict linger. Abeysekera says, "Forget the torture; just overcrowding, lack of access to medical attention, and then including on top of that the beatings and the waterboarding. You know, you name it, we hear stories about it."
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Added: 275 days ago
Views: 23
Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi and his son MK Azhagiri have gone on fast demanding a ceasefire<...
Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi and his son MK Azhagiri have gone on fast demanding a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.
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Added: 324 days ago
Views: 11
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/600216/n/The-Tiger-Trap
They defeated the Tigers earl...
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/600216/n/The-Tiger-Trap
They defeated the Tigers earlier this year but is the Sri Lankan government's war with the Tamils really all over?
This week on Dateline, Amos Roberts investigates the mysterious disappearance of Kumaran Pathmanathan, or "KP" as he is known, who became the new leader of the Tamil Tigers after the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran in May.
For more than two decades KP had been the Tigers' chief arms smuggler and money launderer, and is still listed on Interpol's "Wanted" list. Now it appears that in a clandestine operation two months ago KP was snatched from a budget hotel in Malaysia and whisked back to Sri Lanka.
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Added: 147 days ago
Views: 28
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/600216/n/The-Tiger-Trap
They defeated the Tigers earl...
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/600216/n/The-Tiger-Trap
They defeated the Tigers earlier this year but is the Sri Lankan government's war with the Tamils really all over?
This week on Dateline, Amos Roberts investigates the mysterious disappearance of Kumaran Pathmanathan, or "KP" as he is known, who became the new leader of the Tamil Tigers after the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran in May.
For more than two decades KP had been the Tigers' chief arms smuggler and money launderer, and is still listed on Interpol's "Wanted" list. Now it appears that in a clandestine operation two months ago KP was snatched from a budget hotel in Malaysia and whisked back to Sri Lanka.
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Added: 147 days ago
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/13/obama.sri.lanka/index.html?eref=rss_latest
WASHINGTON (CNN) ...
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/13/obama.sri.lanka/index.html?eref=rss_latest
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka to halt "indiscriminate" shelling of civilians trapped with the remnants of the country's Tamil Tiger rebels and to let humanitarian aid in.
President Obama criticized the Tamil Tigers for using civilians as "human shields."
Obama criticized the Tigers for using civilians as "human shields" and urged them to surrender and let civilians go. But he also called on the island's government to stop using heavy weapons in the conflict zone, which has shrunk to just a few square miles, and allow U.N. and Red Cross workers to reach the nearly 200,000 people displaced by the fighting in the country's north.
"Without urgent action, this humanitarian crisis could turn into a catastrophe," Obama said. "Now's the time, I believe, to put aside some of the political issues that are involved and to put the lives of the men and women and children who are innocently caught in the crossfire -- to put them first."
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for an independent state for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the Tigers have been declared a terrorist organization by the European Union and more than 30 countries, including the United States.
Obama called on the remaining rebels "to lay down their arms and let civilians go."
"Their forced recruitment of civilians and their use of civilians as human shields is deplorable. These tactics will only serve to alienate all those who carry them out," he said. But he said government troops "should stop the indiscriminate shelling that has taken hundreds of innocent lives" in recent days.
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"Going forward, Sri Lanka must seek a peace that is secure and lasting and grounded in respect for all of its citizens," Obama said. "More civilian casualties and inadequate care for those caught in resettlement camps will only make it more difficult to achieve the peace that the people of Sri Lanka deserve."
Though the rebels once controlled much of northeastern Sri Lanka, government troops have forced them from all but a small portion of the island since November.
Sri Lanka's government says it has the remainder of the Tamil Tigers pinned down on a narrow peninsula in northern Sri Lanka. But the rebels are among an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 civilians confined to the roughly 4.5-square-kilometer (1.75-square-mile) strip, and U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss told CNN on Monday that hundreds of civilians died during weekend fighting because the Sri Lankan army had put residents in the crossfire.
Wednesday, a Red Cross worker was killed by shelling in the conflict zone, the third aid worker killed in six weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
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Added: 304 days ago
Views: 31
Erik Solheim spent years trying to broker a deal between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tig...
Erik Solheim spent years trying to broker a deal between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers. But he failed. Why? He talks to Stephen Sackur
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Added: 274 days ago
Views: 19
Erik Solheim spent years trying to broker a deal between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tig...
Erik Solheim spent years trying to broker a deal between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers. But he failed. Why? He talks to Stephen Sackur
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Added: 274 days ago
Views: 17
After a military victory for the government in a civil war that has torn the country apart for decad...
After a military victory for the government in a civil war that has torn the country apart for decades, Sri Lanka now begins a process of national reconciliation.
UN urges Sri Lanka war crime probe
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/05/2009526142330606852.html
The United Nations human rights chief has called for an independent investigation into whether war crimes were committed in the final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war.
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said there was reason to believe that the government and the Tamil Tigers had "grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians".
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Added: 295 days ago
Views: 366
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Diplomatic misstep
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=30878
Professor Rajiva Wijesinha...
Diplomatic misstep
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=30878
Professor Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, appears to have received a reprimand from his Department's Minister after making disparaging remarks on Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execution, and for dismissing as "another nuisance," the letter from Alston requesting explanation to Sarath Fonseka's allegations that Colombo may have committed war-crimes. In an interview, Mr Wijesinha calls Alston "a sad man," "an excitable man," and "a bit of an excitable chap." The Sri Lanka Government announced that it has withdrawn Mr. Wijesinha's self-publicized response to Alston.
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Added: 80 days ago
Views: 12
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=30878
Professor Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secreta...
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=30878
Professor Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, appears to have received a reprimand from his Department's Minister after making disparaging remarks on Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execution, and for dismissing as "another nuisance," the letter from Alston requesting explanation to Sarath Fonseka's allegations that Colombo may have committed war-crimes. In an interview, Mr Wijesinha calls Alston "a sad man," "an excitable man," and "a bit of an excitable chap." The Sri Lanka Government announced that it has withdrawn Mr. Wijesinha's self-publicized response to Alston.
"Colombo rightly felt that Mr Wijesinha's condescending admonition to Philp Alston, whose strong legal credentials earned him the coveted expert position at U.N., to withdraw the letter, would create difficulties for Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council, especially as Alston is scheduled to submit a report on these revelations. Further, when International community, following the damning report by the U.S. State Department, is raising stronger voices of war-crimes allegations against Colombo, Wijesinha's diplomatic transgressions are ill-advised," spokesperson for a US-based pressure group said.
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Added: 80 days ago
Views: 18
Sri Lanka: Tigers' Issue Ending? by Press TV
17 Apr. 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ap...
Sri Lanka: Tigers' Issue Ending? by Press TV
17 Apr. 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/19/tamil-tigers-sri-lanka
Hundreds of civilians are being killed or seriously injured in artillery and gun attacks as the Sri Lankan army attempts to finish off the last Tamil Tiger rebels trapped in a shrinking pocket of land.
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Added: 331 days ago
Views: 17
Sri Lanka: Tigers' Issue Ending? by Press TV
17 Apr. 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ap...
Sri Lanka: Tigers' Issue Ending? by Press TV
17 Apr. 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/19/tamil-tigers-sri-lanka
Hundreds of civilians are being killed or seriously injured in artillery and gun attacks as the Sri Lankan army attempts to finish off the last Tamil Tiger rebels trapped in a shrinking pocket of land.
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Added: 331 days ago
Views: 54
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