Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

Displaced residents of the Valikamam North region of Jaffna held protests on Monday, in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat and near Palaly Junction, marking 36 years since their forced displacement and demanding the right to return and resettle in their lands. The people of Valikamam North were displaced from their homeland on 15 June 1990 by the Sri Lankan military. Thirty-six years on…

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,
“This is a big loss, because if our relationship with our neighbour appears to breakdown, no one can say it will be a good thing,”

‘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.  

Hindered by the flight suspensions, Canadian officials who arrived in Colombo this week resorted to travelling by road to reach Jaffna on Tuesday.

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.

According to Downing Street sources, Rajapaksa has not yet agreed to a private meeting with Cameron. If no bilateral meeting takes place, Cameron's only option to address his concerns with Rajapaksa would be on the fringes of the summit, and leave Foreign Secretary William Hague to follow up in meetings with Sri Lanka's foreign affairs counterpart.

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.