Diaspora

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  • Norwegian Tamil reported missing in Sri Lanka

    A 31-year old Norwegian citizen of Tamil origin has been reported missing since March 31, after he was questioned by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vavuniya.

    Sounthararajan Thambirajah, who has lived in Norway since 1993, had gone to Sri Lanka last year to get married but was trapped in Kilinochchi when violence broke out in August 2006.
  • Child Rights group acts to release LTTE under-age recruits
    The Tamileelam Child Protection Board has urgently requested the parents of children under 17 who had joined the LTTE and yet to be released, to contact it, with the intention of identifying and releasing underage LTTE cadres.

    In an announcement published on May 8 in Eezhanaatham, the Tamil daily circulated in LTTE controlled areas, the Board said it had been “expeditiously reuniting children born in 1990 and after with their parents,”
  • Mirror story on Jaffna youths, false, says Rights Group
    Human rights officials dismissed reports in Sri Lankan papers that 200 children had been handed over by Jaffna parents to protect them from being abducted by the Liberation Tigers.

    Officials at the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commissions (SLHRC) called the story in the Daily Mirror newspaper a blatant lie.
  • Violence round up – week ending 13 May
    Summary of incidents – apart from major clashes – since 7 May
  • Death notices issued to Jaffna students, teachers
    Two ‘death notice’ has been issued to students and educational staff across Jaffna, including those at many of the leading schools and Jaffna University.
  • Normalcy dependent on release of students
    Normalcy is impossible until abducted students have been released, a delegation of dignitaries told the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander in Jaffna.

    "The immediate release of the abducted students is the only way to bring Jaffna peninsula educational activities back to normalcy," Jaffna Bishop Rt. Rev. Thomas Savundaranayagam told had said in a special meeting last Wednesday, TamilNet reported.
  • Unrest as Jaffna student abductions continue
    Fear and turmoil continue to grip the Jaffna peninsula due the disappearance of and increasing number students disappear, and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) allegedly responds by threatening to censor reports on the abductions.

    At least 10 students have been reported missing, another two confirmed as having being killed and at least 2 students released after being tortured by Sri Lanka’s Military Intelligence division in the past two months alone.
  • Omanthai closure endangers sick, elderly
    The Sri Lanka Army’s refusal to open the Omanthai checkpoint, on the main A9 route between LTTE controlled territory and Vavuniya town, is endangering the lives of the sick, LTTE officials charged.
  • Violence round up – week ending 20 May
    Summary of incidents – apart from major clashes – since 14 May
  • Aid workers fear for Batticaloa refugees
    Food supplies are running out in refugee camps and aid workers are protesting the Sri Lankan government’s forcible resettlement.
  • Schools in east reopen, but fear persists
    L. Arupragasam is a happy man. The head teacher has finally returned to his school which is located in Kalavanchchikudi division, Batticaloa district, eastern Sri Lanka. Last December, Arupragasam, along with 230 of his students had to abandon the school so it could be used as a shelter for about 2,000 displaced people.
  • Why Tamils face international ‘shock and awe’
    Like the Sri Lankan state, the international community has changed emphasis; the Diaspora is now mainly a problem.
  • Archbishop of Canterbury accepts Sri Lanka’s ‘military action against terrorism’
    It is undoubtedly inevitable that what you might call surgical military action against terrorism should take place.
  • US military sales up from $1.4m to $60.8m
    The Center for Defense Information (CDI), an independent Washington-based think-tank which provides expert analysis on various components of US national security, international security and defense policy, said in a report that arms sales to Sri Lanka from US had increased 40 fold, from $1.4m in 2006 to $60.8m in 2007.
     
    The report points out that Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Sri Lanka had jumped despite "new reports of children serving in government armed forc
  • US: ‘no change’ in policy towards Sri Lanka
    US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Rober O'Blake and US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher shortly after landing in Palali military base in Jaffna.
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