Posts Tagged Sri Lankan
MK holding Tamil Conference after having “betrayed” the Tamil people in Sri Lankan and Mullaiperiyar issues:vaiko
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Communication, Other, Politics, anniversary, meeting, programme on January 2nd, 2010
MDMK general secretary Vaiko on Friday said Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has no ‘face’ to conduct the World Classical Tamil Conference after having “betrayed” the Tamil people in Sri Lankan and Mullaiperiyar issues.
Addressing reporters here, he said the Chief Minister was holding the conference for “personal glory and to hide the betrayal committed on the Tamil people”. He added that it was held to divert the attention from burning issues like price rise and the “murder of democracy as was witnessed in the recent by-elections.” He said the DMK leader was appealing for the support of all political parties for the conference after abetting the Central government’s help, including the arms assistance to the Sri Lankan Government in its battle against the LTTE and the genocide.
Vaiko, who recalled that an allparty resolution on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, said: What happened to that all-party resolution demanding a stoppage of war? Even for namesake, the Indian government did not ask the Sri Lankan government to stop the war. Chief minister, without blaming the Indian government for the suffering of the Sri Lankan Tamils, was now trying to shift the focus from the basic issues by holding the conference.
Vaiko said the Sri Lankan government would be living in fool’s paradise if it believes that the struggle for separate Tamil Eelam was over. “Thousands of innocent people have been killed in the war. How can they live together after all those killings?” he asked.
Vaiko said the State could also witness a referendum on Tamil Eelam in future as happened in Norway, France and Canada.
MDMK had already announced that it would not take part in the conference to be held in Coimbatore in June.
State got its first deputy chief minister in M K Stalin
THIS was an eventful year with much political activity over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and the byelections, besides inter-State water disputes concerning Mullaiperiyar and the Cauvery.
One of the major developments was that the State got its first deputy chief minister in M K Stalin.
At the fag end of the year, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi created ripples by announcing that he would retire from politics after the World Classical Tamil Conference gets over in June, 2010.
Karunanidhi’s ‘statue diplomacy’ with Karnataka heralded a new era in inter-state relationship as both were locked in the vexed Hogenakkal and Cauvery water disputes.
Karunanidhi and his Karnataka counterpart B S Yeddyurappa unveiled statues of saint-poets Tiruvalluvar and Sarvajna in Bangalore and Chennai, respectively.
The first half of the year was dominated by the turmoil of Sri Lankan Tamils and a spate of suicides demanding steps for saving the Lankan Tamils. The issue slowly subsided after LTTE chief V Prabhakaran was killed by the Lankan Army.
Political parties vied with each other in taking up the cause of the Lankan Tamils. The DMK chief had to call a dawn-to-dusk general strike urging the Centre to take immediate steps to stop the war in Lanka. Later, he went on a fast at Anna memorial for the same cause but ended it after an announcement by Union Minister P Chidambaram.
AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa , changing her stance on the issue, during the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, promised to work fo r forming a separate Tamil Eelam if the party got a decisive mandate.
The CM sought permanent citizenship for the Tamil refugees living in 115 camps in State and announced Rs 100 crore for improving the infrastructure of the camps.
A delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu sans the opposition parties paid a visit to the camps of the displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka. During the visit, Lankan President Rajapaksa agreed to send back around 58,000 Tamils to their native places in a phased manner.
Recently, the DMK chief charged that the decisions taken by the LTTE at crucial junctures of their struggle lacked political vision and that the Tigers’ call for boycotting the 2005 presidential polls in Sri Lanka led to the present crisis.
Sri Lankan Tamil MP was denied to enter the country and sent back as soon as
Posted by ganesh in Airways, Chennai, Departments, Others, government, illegal on December 28th, 2009
A Sri Lankan Tamil MP was denied permission to to enter the country and sent back as soon as he arrived from Dubai at Chennai airport a couple of days ago, immigration sources said.
Tamil National Alliance MP M K Shivajilingam, a vocal LTTE supporter, had come from London to Chennai via Dubai on an Emirates flight. But immigration officials stopped him as soon as he landed. He was detained at the airport.
According to immigration sources, the central government had issued a notice saying Shivajilingam should not be allowed to enter the country. However, they said he was not deported but was merely denied entry according to rules.
Officials told the MP that he was not permitted to enter the country and that he would have to return to Dubai. Therefore, his papers were not processed. He was sent back in a Chennai-Dubai Emirates flight on the same day.
Sources said the not to allow entry’ notice had been issued against the MP only recently. Shivajilingam has been visiting Chennai quite regularly.
Last year, while he was camping in India to mobilise support against the Rajapaksa regime, there were moves to send him back to Sri Lanka. Many also voiced fears for his safety if he returned to Colombo at the height of the war.
The MP belongs to the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), a constituent of the multi-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which contested the 2004 parliamentary election in Sri Lanka on the symbol of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi’.
The decision to deny entry to the MP was a fairly recent one, sources said, as it was only a few weeks ago that he addressed a press conference in the city recently.
A few years ago, another pro-LTTE MP, MK Eelaventhan, was deported to Sri Lanka in a sudden move.
Tamil alliance not in presidential race
Posted by ganesh in Other, Politics, competition, election, government on December 18th, 2009
Twenty two candidates would fight the upcoming Sri Lankan Presidential election to be held on January 26, 2010. The Commissioner of Elections, Dayananda Dissanayake, said here on Thursday, that 22 out of the 23 nominations were in order.
Among the nominations accepted were those of incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa representing the 26-party United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance; and retired army General Sarath Fonseka, representing the 18-party New Democratic Front.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main party of the Lankan Tamils of the North and the East, did not file a nomination and is said to be thinking of supporting one of the main candidates, namely Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseka.
But a TNA dissident, Kanakalingam Sivajilingam, filed his nomination, which was accepted. He said that the voice of the Lankan Tamils would have to be heard in the elections. Two persons aligned with the UPFA, Sarath Kongahage, a presidential advisor, and Mira Mohideen Mohammad Mustafa alias “My Own” Mustafa, Deputy Minister for Higher Education, also decided to contest to project the Muslim view.
OBJECTION TO FONSEKA REJECTED: Sarath Kongahage objected to the candidature of Fonseka on the grounds that he was not a Lankan citizen but an American Green Card holder. But the objection was negated on the grounds that no supporting documentary evidence was presented.
INTERNATIONAL MONITORS: The Presidential election would be monitored by the Asian Association of Election Authorities and organisations from the European Union and the Commonwealth, Commissioner of Electi ons Dayananda Dissanayake told media here.
The island nation has been urged to give voting rights to Tamils:Wickramasinghe
Posted by ganesh in Communication, Other, Politics, competition, election, illegal on December 16th, 2009
Sri Lankan opposition party leader Ranil Wickramasinghe today said the Election Commission in the island nation has been urged to give voting rights to Tamils in the forthcoming polls to be held there in January next year.
Talking to newspersons at the airport here, the leader of UNP, who was on his way to Colombo from New Delhi, Mr Wickramasinghe said the opposition parties in Sri Lanka had urged the Election Commission to accord voting rights not only to the Tamils living in the camps set up by the government, but also to those who had moved out and were staying with their relatives.
”We are hopeful that the Election Commission will see eye to eye with us”, he said, answering a spate of questions on the current situation in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the war between the Lankan army and the LTTE.
Asked for his comments on retired army chief Sarath Fonseka’s accusation that some top LTTE leaders who had offered to surrender were killed at the behest of officials of the Rajapaksa government itself without informing him, Mr Wickramasinghe said Fonseka had said so because he wanted to remove any blot against his name as he happened to be the army chief then.
Demanding the Sri Lankan Government to speed-up resettlement of the Tamil civilians displaced by civil war
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Other, government, illegal on December 15th, 2009
Activists of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) a regional party, staged a demonstration here on Monday demanding the Sri Lankan Government to speed-up resettlement of the Tamil civilians displaced by civil war in that country.
The demonstrators appealed to the international community to announce former Srilankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka as war criminals.
Speaking on the occasion VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan said : ‘Ranil Wickramasinghe and Fonseka are playing political role, political play. They are not pro Tamils so we accuse Fonseka also for war crimes.’
In Srilanka’s northern tip Jafna over 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are living in camps. Though the Sri Lankan Government settled more than half of them but still 110,000 are remaining in camps.
Sri Lankan fishermen had ‘abducted’ two coast guard sailors when the Indian coast guard apprehended
Sri Lankan fishermen, who had entered into Indian waters off Andhra Pradesh coast for fishing, had ‘abducted’ two coast guard sailors when the Indian coast guard apprehended them early this week.
Intelligence sources said a coast guard patrol vessel had intercepted the Lankan fishermen when they were found fishing in seven boats in Indian waters off Andhra Pradesh coast early this week.
After intercepting the boats, the Coast guard personnel deployed two sailors on each of the seven boats before towing them towards the city to be handed over to the Kasimedu Police for arrest and remand.
The Sources said after deploying the sailors in the Lankan boats, they could not be towed immediately due to ”bad weather” or reasons best known to the Coast Guard.
When they started the process of towing the boats to Chennai, it was found that the seventh boat with five Lankan fishermen and two Coast Guard sailors were ”missing”.
One version had it that the fishermen after overpowering the two sailors, ”abducted” them to Sri Lanka, while intelligence sources said, ”the sailors are missing and a search has been launched”.
”The sailors are safe,” a highly placed source told UNI, but refused to part with other details.
More facilities are now being provided to all the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camps
More facilities are now being provided to all the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camps in the State, said Transport Minister K.N.Nehru, here on Saturday.
The Minister who distributed the Government’s free colour television sets to 230 Sri Lankan Tamil refugee families living in the Kottapattu camp here, said that Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi took immediate steps for providing more facilities and the Government had sanctioned Rs.100 crore recently of which Rs.55 crore would be spent for carrying out development works and Rs.45 crore for construction of new houses in the refugee camps.
Mr. Nehru said that the Government had sanctioned Rs.11 lakh for carrying out electricity repair works in the Kottapattu and Vazhavandankottai refugee camps and the work would commence soon. He said that a free health camp under the Chief Minister’s Varumun Kappom scheme would be conducted on Dec.9 in the camps.
The Minister pointed out that photographs of all the families in the refugee camps would be taken on Dec.13 for issue of biometric smart cards under the Kalaignar’s Health Insurance Scheme for Life Saving treatments. He also distributed tricycles and hearing to five disabled persons. Later, he distributed free colour television sets to the beneficiaries at the Vazhavandankottai refugee camp.
Collector T.Soundiah who presided over the function, said that the Government had ordered for providing all facilities under the various Government welfare schemes to the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in the State and pointed out that their rights would also be safeguarded.
Tiruchi Mayor S.Sujatha, MLA K.N.Sekaran, District Revenue Officer V.Dakshinamurthy, Tiruchi Municipal Corporation Commissioner T.T.Balsamy, District Supply Officer T.Veeramani and others spoke.
AIADMK Jaya hits out at Marine Fisheries Bill
Former Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa today condemned the Centre’s move to bring in a Bill imposing restrictions on fishing activities in high seas.
In a statement here, she said at a time when the fishermen’s livelihood was at stake due to ceding of Katchatheevu Island and the frequent attack on them by the Sri Lankan Navy, the Centre’s proposed Marine Fisheries (Regulation and Management) Bill, 2009, was akin to rubbing salt into their wounds.
The Bill, to be introduced in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, contains several restrictions like making registration of boats mandatory by the fishermen, prior permission for fishing and a fine of Rs nine lakh and three months jail term if they crossed 12 nautical miles while fishing in the high seas.
”If the fishermen violate the restrictions, their licence will be cancelled and they will be subjected to punishment,” she said, adding this would pave way for the authorities to indulge in wrong actions.
The CPI (M) will hold dharna in January
Posted by ganesh in Other, illegal, ramanathapuram on November 20th, 2009
The CPI (M) will hold dharna in front of the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai in January to protest “repeated attacks” on Tamil Nadu fishermen and demand the State, Central and Sri Lankan governments find a workable solution, according to N. Varadharajan, State secretary of the party.
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