"The first special broadcast will be on May 18th (Friday), for one hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, Sri Lanka time."
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)* today announced that it will start broadcasting Radio News to the Island of Sri Lanka starting from May 18, 2012; the 3rd anniversary of the Genocide of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government forces.
The Tamil Government’s Radio called Naatham will broadcast in shortwave frequency. This Radio can also be heard in India, Malaysia and Singapore where large number of Tamils live. While this broadcast will become a bridge between the Tamil diaspora and the Tamils living in Tamil homeland, it will also play a role of politically and emotionally link Tamils worldwide.The first special broadcast will be on May 18 th (Friday), for one hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, Sri Lanka time. TGTE has designated May 18th as the Tamil National Mourning Day to remember tens of thousands of Tamils who were killed simply and solely on account of their Tamil nationality."While the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka are struggling to cope with the mass killing and be subject to systematic and pervasive human rights violation on account of their Tamil nationality, this broadcast will ease the pain and give them confidence that their dream of achieving sovereign and independent state of Tamil Eelam will become a reality" said Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, Prime Minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE). "This broadcast will pierce the strict media censorship in Sri Lanka and reach the Tamils to give them unbiased information."
Background:
Tamils faced repeated mass killings since 1958 and the killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of killings. According to this UN report over 40,000 were killed in five months in 2009, due to deliberate and intense carpet bombing of areas designated by the government as "no-fire zones", where Tamils assembled for safety. The Sri Lankan Government used cluster bombs and restricted food and medicine for Tamils, resulting in large numbers of people dying from starvation and many of the injured bleeding to death.According to the UN, Tamil women were sexually assaulted and raped by Sri Lankan forces. According to a recent UK government report there are over 90,000 Tamil war widows. There are also reports that detained Tamil women are used as sex slaves by the Security Forces. According to the Bishop of Mannar, Dr. Rayappu Joseph, 146,679 Tamils were unaccounted for when Sri Lankan forces attacked Tamil people in 2009. Members of the Sri Lankan Security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community.
For information contact: media@tgte.org
*Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected government of Tamil Diaspora from the island of Sri Lanka. Its actions are strictly non-violent, democratic and diplomatic. It held internationally supervised elections in twelve countries to elect Members of Parliament (MPs). These MPs drafted and ratified a Constitution and elected a Prime Minister, a 10 member Cabinet and a Speaker.
