Tamils in Sydney are organising Pongku Thamizh 2008 in support of Eelam Tamils  ( in Sri Lanka ) Right to Self-Determination, which means 'Tamil Upsurge', an annual move aimed at Tamil awakening through cultural programmes. Pongu Tamili in Sydney is going to be on 5th  July 2008, sources said.
Date : 06th July 2008 ( Sunday )
Time :  11.00 AM - 02.00 PM
Venue :  Mason Park, Underwood Road,
Homebush

ATBC Radio Station
Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (ATBC) is a radio station broadcasting programs primarily in Tamil language 24 hours a day. Tamil people have migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa and Fiji. There are approximately 35,000 first and second generation Tamils living in the Sydney Metropolitan area and there are more than 80,000 Tamils live in Australia.

Col Karuna was sent to jail in the UK in January for identity fraud after being arrested in London late last year. He said his forged diplomatic passport and visa were arranged for him by the Sri Lankan defence secretary. Human rights group Amnesty International expressed disappointment that despite six months of investigation the British authorities did not find enough evidence to charge him for war crimes.

Sri Lanka’s army chief says the government has won its 25-year war against the Tamil Tigers. This is not true
MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE, Sri Lanka’s president, shakes out his white outfit and spreads his bare toes with a satisfied air. “We have concentrated on the LTTE [the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam],” he says, “because unless we defeat them, we will have no peace and development.” In January he abrogated a ceasefire and stepped up a brutal two-year offensive against the no-less-brutal LTTE. This week his army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, claimed the operation had succeeded. The Tigers, said the general, had lost the capability of fighting as a conventional army. “We have defeated them.”

Australian parliamentarian for federal state of Lowe, Mr John Murphy, submitted to the House of Representatives Wednesday, a petition signed by more than 4000 Australians calling the Australian Governmen "to do everything in its power to get a peaceful resolution" to Sri Lanka's conflict, and pressed for the "proper implementation of the 2002 ceasefire agreement" that brought optimism for all Sri Lankans that there would be an end to the needless death and displacement of innocent people.

My name is Sudharshana Rajasingam. I am now 52 years old. I came to Canada in October 1986. Before the 1983 July riots, I was teaching at Methodist College in Colombo and I was eight months pregnant. My husband was working abroad. On the 25th of July, I got a phone call from a colleague telling me not to come to school because of “troubles.” The word trouble was not new to us - it meant racially motivated riots. It happened in 1971 and again 1977.