18.08.24 21:23 
Viraj Mendis: A beacon of international solidarity and a pillar in the Eelam-Tamil liberation struggle
Viraj Mendis: A beacon of international solidarity and a pillar in the Eelam-Tamil liberation struggle
Reporting to the world on Tamil Affairs
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Tamil detainees in Anuradhapura prison suspend fast on condition[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 07:13 GMT]Forty-three Tamil political detainees in Anuradhapura prison Tuesday evening called off their fast unto death campaign on a request by the Commissioner of Prisons that their problem would be sorted out within five weeks. The Commissioner of Prison rushed to Anuradhapura prison and met with fasting Tamil detainees. Tamil detainees began their fast Monday afternoon demanding their release or to subject them to judicial inquiry in courts. Full story >> Minister seeks permission to use unclaimed funds in northern banks[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 04:13 GMT]Minister Douglas Devananda said that he had sought permission from President Mahinda Rajapakse to use the funds in the form of cash and gold jewellery worth around 3000 million rupees lying unclaimed in the banks in the north for the development of the north, sources in Jaffna said. Around 1000 million rupees and gold jewellery worth 2000 million rupees stagnate in government and private banks in the north, he said in a press meet held Sunday in Jaffna. Full story >> Sri Lanka journalist threatened by Sinhala gang[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 03:25 GMT]Journalist Dileesha Abeysundera Tuesday lodged a complaint with the Borella Police that she was threatened by a group of unidentified persons around 11.45 p.m. on Monday night, according media reports in Colombo. Ms. Abeysundera works for Irudina, a sister newspaper of the Sunday leader. She is also the Deputy Secretary of the Free Media Movement (FMM), a media watchdog, and Secretary of the National Forum for Journalists (NFFJ). Full story >> UN warns Sri Lanka of Tamil ‘bitterness’[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 01:20 GMT]Sri Lanka’s failure to rapidly resettle nearly 300,000 Tamils who survived the government’s final onslaught against the Tamil Tigers and their further suffering under harsh conditions in militarised camps could result in growing bitterness, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake Tuesday - the same day, the UN issued its strongest criticism yet of Sri Lanka’s continued internment of the hundreds of thousands of displacedTamils. Mr. Ban also stressed the need to expedite “a serious, independent and impartial accountability process to look into alleged violation of international law during the conflict as a critical part of moving forward and building peace in Sri Lanka,” a UN statement said. Full story >> IDP families from Moothoor HSZ villages relocated elsewhere[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 17:02 GMT]327 members of ninety-seven internally displaced Tamil families from Moothoor east in Trincomalee district were brought down to Verukal in fifteen State sector buses with police escort Tuesday morning from Kokkuvil transit centre in Batticaloa district. Moothoor Divisional Secretariat officials received them at Verukal Tuesday and transferred them to another transit centre located in Chinnakku’lam in Moothoor east as their original homes in Champoor east Champoor west, Kooniththeevu and Kadatkaraichcheanai in Moothoor east are occupied as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zones (HSZs). Full story >> JTC students march in protest against college management[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 11:53 GMT] More than a hundred students of Jaffna Technical College (JTC) went on a protest march Tuesday around 11:00 a.m. from JTC accusing the college management for corruption and malpractices, sources in Jaffna said. The protesting students first handed over their memorandum to Minister Douglas Devananda at his office in Jaffna Srithar Theatre and then to Jaffna District Government Agent, K. Ganesh, at Jaffna Secretariat in Chu'ndikkuzhi, demanding speedy action, the sources added.Full story >> IDPs to be held in the islets of Jaffna for indefinite period[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 11:24 GMT]Around 3,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), originally from the islets of Jaffna held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa and brought to the islets of Jaffna recently will be continued to be held in detention camps under the control of Sri Lanka Navy, Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh said. The IDPs will be allowed to go their residences only if Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities issue the necessary clearance to them, he said. Full story >> Tamil political detainees in A’pura prison begin fast[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 03:07 GMT]Forty three Tamil political prisoners currently being detained in Anuradhapura prison began their fast unto death Monday afternoon, demanding their release or to subject them to judicial inquiry. They are held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER) from two to five years without being produced in court. Full story >> 374 Vanni IDP families remain in Trinco transit centres[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 02:51 GMT]Three hundred seventy four IDP families out of three hundred eight nine families brought to Trincomalee district from Vavuniyaa internment camps three weeks ago to be resettled in their villages are still held under detention in transit centres located in four schools under heavy security of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Trincomalee said. Full story >> SL Army bus kills Tamil girl student in Vavuniyaa[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2009, 10:03 GMT]An eleven year-old Tamil girl, Sarma Suhanthini, of Chaanthachoalai in Vavuniyaa died on the spot Friday around 6:00 p.m when a Sri Lanka Army bus, transporting troops from the north, knocked her down along Thaa’ndiku’lam-Vavuniyaa A-9 highway. The accident took place in front of Pramanthu Vithiyaalayam in Thaa’ndiku’lam, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Full story >> Tamil political prisoners in Anuradhapura, Jaffna to begin fast[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2009, 09:53 GMT]Groups of Tamil political prisoners now being detained, in the prisons of Jaffna and Anuradhapura without inquiry, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations, have notified their relatives that they have decided to begin a continuous fast demanding their release or to subject them to judicial inquiry in court, according to the relatives. Full story >> 5 Sinhala youths arrested in Yala sanctuary[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2009, 09:47 GMT]Sri Lanka Army and police in a combined operation Saturday arrested five Sinhala youths of Okampitya in Buttala located in Yala sanctuary in the southern province. They were taken into custody on information received from suspects now being interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Unit (TIU), SLA sources said. Full story >> US Group opposes GSP+ extension[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2009, 03:59 GMT]In a submission to the Chairperson of Human Rights Subcommission of the European Union (EU), Ms. Heidi Hautala, US-based pressure group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) said that the EU should terminate GSP+ privileges to Sri Lanka especially after the "failure of the UN system to uphold international human rights and humanitarian laws," and the "abdication of moral and diplomatic leadership by the UN Secretary General." The Subcommission is scheduled to meet on 1st October, and the decision on the status of the GSP+ to Sri Lanka is to be made on 15th October, according to sources in UK. Full story >> Eezham Tamils in Norway launch move for democratically elected council[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2009, 02:41 GMT]Eezham Tamils in Norway have launched an election process on Monday to form Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET), a move widely perceived as a pioneering major step in the global politics of Eezham Tamils. An independent election committee formed for this purpose has called for the nomination of candidates and has announced that the elections will be held on November 15th. The Norwegian Tamil move follows an overwhelming mandate by them in May this year for independence and sovereignty of Tamil Eelam, based on political fundamental of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution (VR) of 1976. Full story >> Champoor power plant awaits Sri Lanka cabinet approval[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 18:18 GMT]The joint agreement between the Government of India and the Government of Sri Lanka to construct the second coal power plant at Champoor in Moothoor east in Trincomalee district is to be signed after the Sri Lanka Government cabinet approval, according to media reports. The negotiations between the National Thermal Power Corporation of India (NTPC) and the Ceylon Electricity Board are complete, the reports added. Full story >> Tissainayagam, a prisoner of conscience - paper, Amnesty[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 15:48 GMT] Arrested without a warrant, incarcerated without detention order, refused to see a lawyer for more than two weeks after arrest, denied privacy of conversation with his attorney and his wife while under detention, and held without charge for more than 5 months, and now sentenced by Sri Lanka's high court for 20 years in prison, Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam, a Sri Lanka's Tamil journalist, "became a symbol of [Sri Lanka] government repression and a martyr for freedom of the press. To many observers, Tissainayagam’s treatment cemented Sri Lanka’s reputation as a totalitarian state in the making," Sunday Leader said in its weekend edition. Tissainayagam was chosen by President Obama as an emblematic example of persecuted journalists.Full story >> Indian envoy listens to preparations on IDPs withstanding monsoon[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 00:55 GMT]The Indian High commissioner in Colombo, Mr. Alok Prasad, on Saturday visited internment camps in Vavuniyaa and held discussions with the militarised 'Competent Authority' for IDPs in the Northern Province, Maj. Gen. Kamal Goonaratne, and the Sri Lankan Government Agent for Vavuniyaa Mrs. Charles. Amidst all what have been listed by the Indian High Commission, as matters discussed by the High Commissioner, observers give much significance to his listening to briefings on making facilities for the internment camp mates to face flooding and water logging during the forthcoming monsoon. Tamil circles find it as tacit acceptance by India for prolonging the internment camps beyond this year's rainy season. Full story >> Tamil Nadu fishermen assaulted, driven naked by Sri Lanka Navy[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 17:34 GMT]Twenty-four fishermen from Keechchaangkuppam in Naakarkoayil area in Tamil Nadu, fishing in Kanniyaakumari seas in five boats Friday night, were brutally assaulted and cast naked in the seas by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers, sources in Naakarkoayil said. SLN soldiers had beaten the fishermen on their heads with the ice blocks taken by the fishermen to preserve their catch, the sources added. Fishermen in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu saved the 24 fishermen who managed to swim ashore Saturday morning and admitted them in the local hospital, the sources further said. Full story >> SLA shoots 6 including women, children in Cheddiku'lam camp[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 12:36 GMT]Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Saturday around 6:00 p.m. opened fire and injured six civilians including two women and three children in Cheddiku'lam internment camp, according to initial reports reaching from Vavuniyaa. One 8-year-old child, seriously wounded in the episode, was transferred to Anuradhapura hospital from Vavuniyaa hospital, medical sources in Vavuniyaa said. Full story >> 3 youths injured in SLA landmine explosion in Jaffna[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2009, 18:59 GMT]Landmines planted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), in the area between Ariyaalai and Kozhumpuththu’rai in Jaffna where people were allowed to resettle, exploded Friday around 7:00 p.m seriously injuring three youths transporting sand in a tractor, sources in Jaffna said. The injured youths are admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Jaffna Teaching hospital. Full story >> NGOs hold parallel meeting at UN Human Rights Council[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2009, 15:05 GMT] Switzerland-based ECOSO NGO Interfaith International in Geneva, organized an open dialogue on the theme "War against terrorism and human security - consequences of the failure of state machinery and policies" as a parallel event to the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Friday, where the panelists were drawn from well known academics, lawyers and human rights activists from various parts of the world, sources in Geneva said. The event was co-sponsored by the Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation and the Al-Hakim Foundation.Full story >> SLA soldier killed in truck accident[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2009, 12:00 GMT]A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed and four others reported injured Friday when the truck they were riding in skidded off in Middeniya road in Embilipitiya, Police said. Full story >> CPJ to honour Tamil journalist Tissainayagam[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2009, 04:17 GMT]The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will honour J.S. Tissainayagam as well as courageous journalists from Somalia, Tunisia and Azerbaijan with its 2009 International Press Freedom Awards at a ceremony in November. J.S. Tissainayagam was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison. "These are reporters who risk their personal freedom and often their lives to ensure that independent voices resonate within their nations and across the globe," CPJ Board Chairman Paul Steiger said. Full story >> Another batch of Vavuniyaa IDPs to be detained in the islets of Jaffna[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2009, 04:12 GMT]Around 500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa brought to Jaffna Thursday were handed over to Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) who took them to Kaarainakar, in the islets of Jaffna to be again detained in camps close to the SLN base. The IDPs are being held in Ma’raignanasampanthar Vithiyaalayam in Kaarainakar while the SLN is constructing new camps in the abandoned civilian settlements to detain them, sources in Jaffna said. Full story >> Election monitoring group's website blocked in Sri Lanka[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2009, 02:56 GMT]The Campaign for Fair and Free Elections (CaFFE) said Thursday that access to the group's website www.caffe.lk has been blocked since Wednesday night. "The website was blocked subsequent to the display of photographic evidence of State resources being used for electioneering”, CaFFE said in a press release. The release said the access is blocked only within Sri Lanka indicating that the Sri Lanka-based Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have added CaFFE's URL to blocking filters. Full story >> Denial, bravado, defiance cannot erase Rights issues – Saravanamuttu[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 17:56 GMT] Noting a number of rights violations for which Sri Lanka is under scrutiny by the international community, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, writes in a Daily Mirror column: “Human rights issues are stubborn ones. They will not go away. They cannot be dealt with by denial, bravado, defiance, conspiracy theories or neglect. Moreover they are indubitably in the national interest and to the detriment of no one other than the perpetrators of violations. At the same time, foreign policy cannot be conducted through allegation and counter allegation, shrill incoherence and what increasingly looks like incomprehension and incompetence. Most importantly governance cannot be served or sustained by conflict and conspiracy, fear, paranoia and insecurity.”Full story >> Tamil technologist feared extra-judicially executed in Colombo[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 15:33 GMT]Kathiravel Thayapararaja, a 28-year old Tamil Electrical Engineer, is feared to have been extra-judically executed by Sri Lanka intelligent services, after being forcefully abducted sometime second week of September, informed sources in Colombo said. Thayapararaja's wife, Uthayakala, and the two children of her diseased sister who were under Uthayakala's care, have now been taken under the protection and care of a Church Organization in Colombo, after being left helpless with the disappearance of her husband, unconfirmed reports said. Full story >> Transferring IDPs, instead of releasing them, must stop: Anglican Bishop[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 15:22 GMT]If [IDP] persons said to be released [from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa] are in fact being transferred to camps in different regions, this is misleading and must stop, says Anglican Bishop of Colombo Rev. de Chickera. The Bishop has urged Rajapaksa government to allow media access to areas in the North and provide public updates on the work regarding resettlement of displaced persons. Full story >> 2 fishermen gone missing in Point Pedro sea[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 03:55 GMT]Two of the three fishermen who had gone fishing Sunday evening from Munai area in Point Pedro are reported missing due to a mishap in which their boat had capsized. The third fisherman who managed to swim ashore was saved by fishermen fishing in Kudaththanai area, sources in Point Pedro said. Full story >> 4 Tamil youths arrested in Up-country[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 17:00 GMT]Sri Lanka police took into custody four Tamil youths in a search operation Wednesday morning in Bogawantalawa and Kotagala in the up-country where Tamils live predominantly. Two of the arrested youths are from Jaffna, relatives of the youths said. Full story >> Ireland rejects visas to SL cycling team[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 16:28 GMT]Ireland embassy in New Delhi in India has refused visas to thirteen competitors from Sri Lanka for the cycling event at the World Military Games 2009 in Ireland. A number of reasons for the refusal had been given by the embassy officials, sources in Colombo said. Full story >> Move to make money for 3-wheelers owned by state armed cadres, in Vavuniyaa[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 13:48 GMT]The office of Vavuniya Ramya House Army Civil Affairs has been shifted from the town to Ee’rataperiyaku’lam with immediate effect, causing inconvenience to the Tamil civilian travelers. The reason for the re-location of the office is mainly to enable the three-wheelers owned by Police, Army and Civil Defence force cadres to earn more money as hire from the Tamil passengers due to the long distance to the shifted office of Ramya House Army Civil Affairs in Ee’ratperiyaku’lam, according to well informed sources in Vavuniyaa. Full story >> Police shoot, injures civilian in Thenmaraadchi[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 13:45 GMT]Policemen at a check post in Paalaavi in Kodikaamam, Themaraadchi opened fire on a civilian Wednesday morning causing serious injuries to him, sources in Jaffna said. The police claimed that the man travelling on a tractor tried to run away when they stopped the tractor for checking. The seriously injured man was first rushed to Chaavakachcheari government hospital and then transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital as he was in a critical condition, the sources added. Full story >> Young Tamil mother reported missing in Up-Country[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 12:25 GMT]A 20-year-old Tamil female, who is a mother an 18 months old baby, is reported missing in Hatton in Up-Country since September 13 after she went out for shopping, Police said. Full story >> Civilians clash with SLA in Vavuniyaa internment camp[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 12:09 GMT]Additional police and Sri Lanka Army troops were brought into the College of Education internment camp in Vavuniyaa after clashes erupted between civilian inmates and Sri Lankan forces following the arrest and assault of a Tamil youth in the camp. Several civilians and armed personnel sustained minor injuries, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Full story >> In Orwellian Sri Lanka 40 civilians disappear from camps daily - Samaraweera[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 11:49 GMT]“In George Orwells 1984, the Ministry of Peace dealt with war, and the Ministry of Love with torture. Likewise we witnessed in Sri Lanka how the Peace Secretariat justified excesses carried out in the name of war against terrorism. And the so-called welfare camps are virtual prisons,” Daily Mirror said quoting Mangala Samaraweera's charge against the Sri Lanka in the parliament Tuesday, adding that about 30 to 40 persons are abducted on a daily basis from IDP camps in the North, Full story >> FR petition allowed against SSP, wife, son in abduction, assault incident[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 09:15 GMT]The three-member bench of Supreme Court Friday granted leave to proceed with the rights violation petition filed by Nipuna Ramanayake, a Malabe SLIIT undergraduate, against Colombo Crimes Division officers, its former Director Vas Gunawardena, his wife and son. Chief Justice Asoka de Silva, Justices Jagath Balapatebendi and S. I. Imam were members of the bench, legal sources said. Full story >> Court fixes inquiry into FR filed by Sunday Leader journalist[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 08:07 GMT]The three –member bench of the Supreme Court Friday listed the Fundamental Rights petition filed by journalist Arthur Wamanan Sornalingam of the Sunday leader to be taken up on November 9 for inquiry as the court was told that the two parties concerned were agreeable to a mutually negotiated settlement. The petitioner cited the Police Chief, CID (Special Unit) OIC, its DIG and SSP, Minister Mano Wijeratne and the Attorney General as respondents. The Chief Justice Asoka de Silva, Jagath Balapatebendi and S.I.Imam were the members of the bench. Full story >> Jaffna HRC gets Coordinating Officer after an year[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:36 GMT]Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in Jaffna which had been inactive for nearly an year without a Coordinating Officer (CO) is expected to function again with the appointment of a new CO, sources in Jaffna said. Mr. Thangavel Kanagaraj, who had been serving as CO in Trincomalee HRC, assumed duties as CO in HRC Jaffna office Tuesday. Full story >> Political motive behind bringing Vavuniyaa IDPs to the islets of Jaffna[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:33 GMT]Sri Lanka government has political motives in detaining afresh the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, in the islets of Jaffna in new camps under the control of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), so that these IDPs could be made to vote for it in the general election next year, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Full story >> Tamils protest in New York, say Ban ineffective, lacks leadership[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:08 GMT] Several dozen American Tamils assembled near the United Nations building between 1st Avenue and 47th Street Tuesday around noon and protested against UN inaction, particularly the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, for first failing to prevent the bloodbath in May when more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were allegedly killed by Sri Lanka Army using heavy weapons, and now for allowing Sri Lanka to continue to incarcerate nearly 300,000 in military supervised internment camps with little freedom of movement. Protesters urged the UN to take swift action to pressure Sri Lanka to allow civilians to return to their villages and resume normal life, attendees to the rally said.Full story >> “No IDPs but FDDPs, in Vavuniyaa camps” - Mangala Samaraweera[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 03:51 GMT] “Today barbed wire internment camps are euphemistically called
“Welfare Camps” and the 280,000 people incarcerated there are called
IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) while in actual fact that these
people should be called FDDPs (Forcibly Displaced and Detained
Persons)”, Mangala Samaraweera, the leader of the dissident
group of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), said.
Full story >> SL Budget to be tabled in parliament on November 7[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 03:47 GMT]The 2010 budget will be presented to Parliament on November 7, Non Cabinet Minister of Finance Ranjit Siyambalapitiya said. The third reading vote on the budget will take place on December 4, he told parliament Tuesday. There were speculations earlier that a budget will not be presented this year. Full story >> US leadership in rights issues questioned[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 02:27 GMT] Noting that the "[Obama] Administration has pursued a low profile approach to Sri Lanka, where a military offensive against rebels is believed to have killed thousands of civilians," Washington Post in an article in Tuesday edition says that rights advocates have been frustrated by several episodes and said US's new approach has undercut U.S. leadership on human rights issues. Responding to U.S.'s assertion that "it[US] is not going to preach its values and not going to impose its values," Kenneth Ross, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said "[t]he problem is they are not American values -- they are international values." Full story >> HRW: World leaders should demand end to Sri Lanka detention camps[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 02:08 GMT]Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights group, in a press release issued Tuesday, expressed concern "about a lack of protection mechanisms in the camps and the secret, incommunicado detention - and possible enforced disappearance - of suspected combatants. Poor conditions, overcrowding, and inadequate medical care increases the risk of serious health problems during the coming monsoon season," and noting that "the authorities are not being open and honest with camp residents about when they may go home, keeping them in a state of uncertainty and anxiety," urged the world leaders to demand an end to Sri Lanka 'detention camps." Full story >> Woman swallows cynanide, dies in hospital[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 20:26 GMT]A Tamil female who swallowed cyanide capsule when a team of police officials from the Galle District Crime Division attempted to arrest her died after being admitted to the hospital in Vavuniyaa on Tuesday early morning. Full story >> JVP supporters harassed in Hambantota[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 15:23 GMT]Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), one time ally of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Tuesday claimed that two of its supporters were abducted by the bodyguards of a cabinet minister. They were putting up posters about an upcoming meeting when the minister who was passing by stopped and ordered his bodyguards to take the two men away, JVP sources said. Full story >> UNDP to give identification documents to IDPs[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 08:01 GMT]The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has initiated a project to provide important legal documents the displaced people lost due to the conflict or the tsunami, sources in Colombo said. Full story >> SLN constructs new internment camps in the islets of Jaffna[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 05:06 GMT]Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) stationed in Kaarainakar, Oorkaavatu’rai and Veala’nai are hastily engaged in constructing new internment camps to detain Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the islets of Jaffna held in Vavuniyaa and brought to the islets. Around 1500 IDPs brought from Vavuniyaa in two stages and handed over to SLN are undergoing untold difficulties being held by the SLN, sources in the islets said. Full story >> SL Prime Minister to attend UN general assembly[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 17:43 GMT]Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake will be heading the Sri Lankan delegation to the 64th session of the United Nations (UN) general assembly. He is scheduled to address the general assembly on September 26 on “Strengthening of Multilateralism and Dialogue among Civilizations for International Peace, Security and Development”, according to foreign ministry spokesman. Full story >> UN envoy Kalin to arrive in Colombo Wednesday[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 17:30 GMT]Mr. Walter Kalin, Human Rights envoy of the United Nations is scheduled to arrive in Colombo late Wednesday on a five-day visit that includes a tour to Vanni IDP camps holding tens of thousands of refugees. "Mr. Kalin will meet with senior government officials, international aid agencies, including UN staff, and also visit some sites holding internally displaced people (IDPs)," UN sources said. Full story >> Ruling party candidate arrested in Galle[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 11:00 GMT]Galle Police Monday morning took a candidate of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Nishantha Muthuhettigama into custody for a number of charges, including unlawful assembly and damaging of property. Meanwhile, a special team appointed by the Inspector General of Police, Jayantha Wickremaratne, rushed to Galle to investigate into the credibility of the accusation made by Nishantha Muthuhettigama to media against the police and the Presidential Security Division (PSD), Police Spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwake told media. Full story >> SLA refuses permission to Jaffna University students in camps to attend lectures[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 10:15 GMT]Despite efforts made by Jaffna University Students’ Union (JUSU), University Administration and other interested parties, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues to detain 74 university students from Vanni districts held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa and brought to Jaffna, in the SLA detention camp in Kaithadi, a press notice released by the JUSU said. JUSU accused the government for its continued reluctance to allow the detained undergrads to attend university, in the press notice. Full story >> Tamil engineer arrested in Katunayake[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 09:34 GMT]Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service (SIS) Sunday morning arrested a Tamil engineer who arrived in Katunayake International Airport (KIA) from Singapore. He has been identified as Ratnasekaram, a resident of Point Pedro in Jaffna district, sources in Colombo said. Full story >> Election monitors blame police for increase of election violence in South[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 02:46 GMT]Election monitors blame the police of not doing enough to prevent the increasing incidences of pre-poll violence and violation of election laws as the Southern Provincial Council election draws closer. The elections monitoring body- Campaign for Free & Fair Elections (CaFFE) has received reports of 24 pre-poll violations and assaults. The majority of the incidents have been reported from Galle, Hambantota and Matara. Full story >> Trinco Tamil youth abducted in Batticaloa[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 September 2009, 18:06 GMT]R.Manotharan, 26, a native of Naranayapuram in Moothoor east and later residing in Nochchimunai in Kaaththankudy police division was abducted by unidentified persons on Friday, according to complaints lodged with the Kaathankudy Police by his parents. The youth returned to Sri Lanka in August, returned after working in Qatar in Middle East since 2006. Full story >> Welikade Tamil prisoners continue hunger strike[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 September 2009, 01:55 GMT]135 Tamil political prisoners out of a total of 600 Tamil political prisoners in maximum security Central Jail in Welikada, Colombo, continued their fast unto death campaign demanding the state to expedite their cases, release the prisoners who have no charges filed against them, and to allow others charged with less serious offenses to undergo rehabilitation. Full story >> Two Up-Country Tamil girls reported missing in Colombo[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 12:43 GMT]Two Up-Country Tamil girls who were brought to Colombo from Maskeliya in Nuwara Eliya district as domestic aids are reported missing. The parents of the two girls have lodged a complaint with P. Radakrishnan, deputy vocational and technical training minister, who represents the Upcountry People’s Front (UPF). Full story >> ‘From one prison to another’: Sri Lanka’s ‘resettlement’[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 08:31 GMT]Under international pressure as the monsoon looms, the Sri Lanka government is hastily engaged in relocating some of the displaced Tamils being held in militarised internment camps in Vavuniyaa. However, the inmates are being moved from Vavuniyaa’s barbed-wire ringed camps to similar overcrowded enclosures without facilities in other districts, sources in Jaffna said. Moreover these camps are also located in low-lying terrain in the path of oncoming floods, NGO workers say. “There is no resettlement. This is like being sent from one prison to another prison," Mavai Senathiraja, a parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said. Full story >> Passports of Indian traders in Kalmunai confiscated[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 07:34 GMT]A special team of the Sri Lanka’s Immigration and Emigration Department Friday raided houses and lodges in Kalmunai town in the eastern province where Indian traders were staying and engaged in the sale of textiles with tourist visa. The team confiscated passports and other travel documents from eighty-two Indian citizens, all Tamils of Tamil Nadu, who had entered the island on tourist visa. They were ordered to appear before the Controller of Immigration and Emigration in Colombo for further action. Full story >> JVP offices burnt down in Galle, Matara[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 07:27 GMT]Two election offices of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) located in Seenipella and Kiriveldeniya in Galle and Matara districts were set on fire Thursday night by unidentified gang suspected to be ruling UPFA supporters. JVP member of the Mulatiyana Pradeshiya Sabha and Matara district provincial election candidate Ajantha Gammedda complained to the police that the furniture and several banners in the two offices were destroyed by the fire. Full story >> Election violence on the increase in SPC election[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 07:18 GMT]The Network for Election Monitoring (NEM) said Saturday that the election related violation and violence is on the increase in the Southern Provincial Council election which is scheduled to be held on October 10. It is high compared to previous PC elections held recently. Assaults on opposition party members and property damage reported in Hambantota and Galle districts were high, NEM said in a statement. Full story >> Continued detention of IDPs endangers future political stability: Pascoe[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 04:11 GMT] “Keeping these persons in the camps is breeding resentment and
endangering the future political stability of Sri Lanka,” United Nations Under Secretary General of Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe told reporters Friday night in Colombo after meeting President Mahinda Rajapakse, sources in Colombo said. The UN too reflected the same sentiments saying that the political stability of Sri Lanka is jeopardized due to rising resentment among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the camps, the sources further said. While Mr. Pascoe was expressing his concerns of future stability of the [unitary state of] Sri Lanka, the UN administration of Ban Ki-moon in New York, was seeking to control its message and limit questions, to turn the tide of negative coverage of its handling of Sri Lanka, Inner City Press reported.
Full story >> Court directs CID to expedite inquiry against detained Tamil civilians[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 04:08 GMT]Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi Friday directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to expedite the investigation into the cases against twenty-seven Tamil civilians arrested in connection with alleged terrorist activities and to report to the court on the progress made so far, on September 29. The order was made following Defence Counsel claiming that the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) was acting unfairly in its investigations. Full story >> UN envoy Lynn Pascoe insists on early release of IDPs[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 16:36 GMT]Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe who met Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday to present the letter from UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon outlining the concerns of the international community on the situation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other related matters, said that he had raised the issue of the early release of the IDPs and their freedom of movement with the President, sources in Colombo said. "It is frustrating to live in such conditions and therefore the people should be allowed to return to their original homes at the earliest. The security concerns of the government are understandable but at the same time the people must also be taken into serious consideration", Mr. Pascoe said. Full story >> Prison guards assault hunger striking detainees in Colombo[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 10:00 GMT]At least 36 Tamil political prisoners who were part of a fast unto death hunger strike at the central jail in Welikada Colombo are alleged to have been severely assaulted by guards and jailers on early Friday, informed sources told TamilNet. 32 of the political prisoners who were being held in Cell Block G were transferred to the Block M, and some of them had sustained injuries in the episode, according to the sources. The detainees have been forced to stop their hunger strike. Full story >> Pascoe to deliver Ban Ki-Moon’s letter to Rajapakse Friday[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 07:14 GMT]Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe is to deliver the letter given by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse when meets the latter on Friday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told reporters in New York Thursday, he has sent a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse outlining the concerns of the international community on the developments regarding internally displaced persons, the political process and a possible accountability mechanism. Full story >> No time frame for resettlement of Vanni IDPs - Media Minister[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 04:48 GMT]The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) Thursday said a time frame for the completion or partial completion of resettlement cannot be given despite the assurance given to the UN chief that 80 percent of the resettlement will be completed by the end of this year, according to Media Minister and cabinet spokesman, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. Full story >> Video investigation by Colombo not impartial - Alston[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 02:17 GMT] Noting that two of the four experts cited by the government were full-time government employees, another had previously acted on behalf of the government, "and the basis on which the fourth was identified and selected as an expert remains unclear," Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Thursday, that studies could not be characterized as impartial. "The only way to do this [authenticate the video] is for an independent and impartial investigation to take place,'' Alston said. The video clip, aired in British Channel-4 TV, allegedly showing Sri Lankan troops executing Tamil prisoners stripped naked and hands tied behind backs, has shocked the world community, and re-ignited calls for investigations of war-crimes
against Sri Lanka military. Full story >> Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs meets Tamil Diaspora group[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 23:35 GMT]Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Stephen Smith, participated in a meeting organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) with representatives of several Australian Tamil organisations and individuals, chaired by Mr. David Holly, the Assistant Secretary, South and West Asia Branch of the DFAT, sources in Australia said. Minister Smith explained his government’s approach to handling the conflict in Sri Lanka. Full story >> Lynn Pascoe visits IDP detention camps in Jaffna[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 16:47 GMT]Mr. Lynn Pascoe, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, who was in Jaffna Thursday, visited the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detention camps in Koapaay and Kaithadi, accompanied by Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander, Major Gen. Mark and Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh under heavy escort. Non-government organizations in Jaffna expressed concern that independent civil society representatives in the peninsula were not given an opportunity to meet the visiting UN envoy and inform him of the true situation in the peninsula. Full story >> Tamil political prisoners in Colombo on hunger strike[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 16:05 GMT]Tamil political prisoners arrested on suspicion under Emergency Regulations (ER) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), languishing in Magazine Prison and Colombo Remand Prison (CPR) for many years without being produced in the courts, launched a hunger strike from 6:00 a.m Thursday as their requests placed in previous hunger strikes had not been taken into consideration despite promises by legal authorities that their cases will be taken for trial in two months time, sources in Colombo said. The fasting prisoners said the President of Sri Lanka has granted general amnesty to the soldiers who had deserted their posts during the war, in the past few months and hence it would be an easy matter for the President to use his executive powers at least to order to take up our cases immediately for trial as we had only been arrested on suspicion. Full story >> 3 Tamil youths arrested in Vavuniyaa[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 10:32 GMT]Special Task Force (STF) commandos arrested Wednesday morning three Tamil youths in a search conducted in Cheddiku'lam in Vavuniyaa district, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Many persons in the area were subjected to interrogation and checking during the search. The arrested youths are detained in Vavuniyaa police station. Full story >> UN top official arrives in Colombo, due to visit NE Thursday[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 10:28 GMT]Mr. Lynn Pascoe, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, arrived in Sri Lanka Wednesday night. He is expected to visit the North and East Thursday to assess the progress and development therein and the situation of the displaced people. Mr. Pascoe is expected to meet President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday after his visit to the North and East, sources in Colombo said. Full story >> Body of Tamil woman recovered in Vavuniyaa[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 10:20 GMT]Vavuniyaa police recovered the decomposed body of an eighteen-year-old Tamil married woman from a closed shop located along 10th Lane in Vairavapu’liyangku’lam in Vavuniyaa. A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp is located in front of the shop where building materials are sold, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Police had been notified by the public that an offensive smell was emanating from the said shop and they had to break in to recover the body. Full story >> Two Up-Country Tamil girls molested by Sri Lankan policeman, businessmen[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 09:52 GMT]A 14-year-old Tamil girl from a leading girl’s convent in Hatton was allegedly raped by a Sri Lankan policeman attached to the same area, and a court on Wednesday ordered the immediate arrest of the suspect, who has been transferred to the north barely a day after the incident is alleged to have taken place. Meanwhile, another under-age girl in the same division was abducted by three businessmen who forced her to perform sexual acts and filmed her inside a privately-owned studio. Full story >> Butenis sworn in as new U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 08:23 GMT] Patricia A. Butenis, a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, who served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2007-2009, presented to her credentials as U.S. Ambassador in Colombo Thursday, according to a press statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo. Full story >> Students detained in Vavuniyaa camps to be used as showpieces[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 05:55 GMT]The students from Ki’linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Vavuniyaa and Mannaar districts, now detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, are to be taken like prisoners under military and police guard to participate in a Sports Meet that is to be held in Jaffna Alfred Duraippa Stadium from Friday for three days, sources in Jaffna said. The students thus brought to Jaffna will be taken back to the SLA internment camps in Vavuniyaa at the end of the sports meet, the sources added. Full story >> Jaffna youths disinterested in joining police force[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 05:23 GMT]Despite efforts made by Minister Douglas Devananda to recruit Tamil young men and women from Jaffna district to serve in the police stations in Jaffna district only a few of them have shown interest, sources in Jaffna said. The minister made a public request in the media again Wednesday calling the Tamil youths to join the police force. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) including its parliamentary leader R. Sampanthan and civil society representatives in Jaffna expressed strong protest against this scheme pointing out that the government, without placing a just political solution for the Tamils, is using this as a ploy to deceive the Tamils showing that it is sharing police powers with the Tamils in Jaffna. Full story >> Journalist Tissainayagam files appeal against jail sentence[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 15:23 GMT]Senior journalist S. Tissainayagam, through his lawyer, filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal Tuesday seeking to set aside the conviction and the sentence imposed on him by the Colombo High Court on August 31, 2009. Tissainayagam was convicted for blaming the Government of Sri Lanka, inciting racial hatred and for having monetary dealings with the LTTE, a terrorist organization prohibited by the State, according to the prosecution led by the Attorney General. Full story >> Vanni IDP detainees sent to Ampaa’rai detained again[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 14:01 GMT]Sri Lanka Army (SLA), instructed by higher authorities, is constructing new detention centres to hold the Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) sent to Ampaa’rai district recently from Vavuniyaa SLA detention camps while the IDPs are being detained in the SLA camp located on Poththuvil road in Akkaraippattu, sources in Ampaa’rai said. The efforts made by Aalayadiveampu Pratheasa Chapai Secretary to handover the said IDPs to their relatives failed as the local SLA officer refused their release citing orders from above, the sources added. Full story >> Rights group appeals for accountability for victims of disappearances, detainees[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 12:29 GMT]The Civil Monitoring Mission in an appeal made after convening a conference on the "Disappeared and the Detained" said Wednesday, "[t]he end of war has not brought any end to our agonies and miseries. We feel more vulnerable today than in the past. National reconciliation and national unity have been reduced to mere rhetoric statements. Instead of bringing change towards constructive hope, the ending of war has brought new miseries to our people. We are today witnessing over two hundred and fifty thousand of our people languishing in military guarded camps...," and appealed to the Sri Lanka Government to account of all detainees in prison, and to "[p]rovide democratic space with legal assurance to human rights organizations tomonitor and evaluate the violations and represent the victims." Full story >> Court further remands 4 returnees from Fiji[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 11:09 GMT]Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi Tuesday ordered further remand till September 22 for three Tamils and a Sinhalese who were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials at the Katunayake International Airport on their return from Fiji islands, rejecting their bail applications. CID told court said that the suspects had immigrated to the Fiji Islands for employment and the Fiji Islands authority had deported them. Full story >> SL Government intends to detain IDPs in camps indefinitely[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 10:13 GMT]Northern Province Governor, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Minister Douglas Devananda directed government officials in Jaffna to take immediate steps to bring Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Jaffna detained in Vavuniyaa camps to the detainment camps in Jaffna district and to send IDPs from Vanni detained Jaffna district to Vavuniyaa camps, according to the decision taken in the Jaffna District Coordination Committee held Tuesday in Jaffna Secretariat, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, the IDPs from the islets of Jaffna brought to Kaarainakar and Veala’nai Monday, on the assurance that they will be settled in abandoned houses, are kept in school buildings and Saiva temples until new detainment camps are established for them to move in, the sources added. Full story >> War and disregard make Tamils hard and determined[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 08:44 GMT] “After looking at the people dying and dead bodies everywhere, it is like nothing threatens me any more, it is like I have had the hard time in my life and I think I am prepared to take up whatever happens in life now,” says Damilvany Gnanakumar, an Eezham Tamil of British citizenship, who witnessed war and internment camp in the island of Sri Lanka. "I'm not that old Vany that sits down and cries for little things. I'm stronger now after going through and seeing all that problem. My mind is clear now," she told Gethin Chamberlain of The Guardian in an interview Tuesday, asking at the same time, what have the people done wrong? Why are they going through this, why is the international government not speaking up for them?Full story >> English Bishops condemn conditions in Sri Lanka camps[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 02:31 GMT]Two English Catholic bishops who recently returned from Sri Lanka are calling for the end of forced confinement of nearly 300,000 Tamil survivors of the government’s final offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Bishop John Rawsthorne of Sheffield and Bishop John Arnold of Westminster have just returned from an eight day tour of the country, where they were looking at work of CAFOD with partner Caritas Sri Lanka. A report by the Independent Catholic News (ICN) quoted the Bishops noting the “serious overcrowding and inadequate food and health services” in the camps and the need to hold the Sri Lankan government to account. Full story >> Colombo's paranoid secrecy[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 16:20 GMT] "Why must the military be in control of the camps, why not civilian agencies? Why can't visitors enter the camps? Why are journalists barred? Why are international agencies kept out? Why is it taking the courts so long to make a straightforward order to allow members of parliament to visit the camps?" and quoting Mangala Samaraweera, "I can walk into any prison at will and meet any criminal, but I am not allowed to meet these people held in detention for no reason," Prof Kumar David, in an opinion column in Sunday's Lakbima, writes, "[t]he reasons offered for this paranoid secrecy varied from the need to hide human rights violations to calculations relating to the upcoming elections. I think it will be some time before the real reason comes seeping out."Full story >> US's war crimes report, a canary in coalmine - Rapp[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 11:44 GMT] With United Nations remaining impotent to act carry out investigations into the conduct of Sri Lanka military during the last several months of the war, a report to be released by the United States State Department on September 21, remains, perhaps the last credible instrument in the hands of the West to begin to find the truth on the allegations of war-crimes by the Sri Lanka Government and the Liberation Tigers, a spokesperson for a US-based activist group said. Stephen Rapp, US's ambassdor at large for War Crimes Issues (WCI) told Time that his office is responsible "to collect information on ongoing atrocities... [and] give a signal [when] something serious is occuring."Full story >> SSP’s wife, son, further remanded in Malabe abduction, assault case[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 11:01 GMT]Kaduwala Magistrate Amal Ranarajah Tuesday ordered further remand until September 29 for the wife and son of former Colombo Crime Division Director, Senior Superintendent of Police, Vass Gunawardena and eight others accused in a case where a student of the Malabe IT campus was abducted and assaulted. Full story >> 8 Tamil civilians arrested in Thanthirimalai[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 10:57 GMT]Anuradhapura Police Monday arrested eight Tamil civilians in Thanthirimalai area in Anuradhapura district on suspicion. Police said a police party rushed to the site and took them into custody on information from the Sinhala villagers that some strangers were seen in the area. Full story >> India, Sri Lanka to sign MOU next month for undersea power line[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 08:15 GMT]The Governments of India and Sri Lanka are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the construction of an undersea power line between South India and Thalaimannaar in Sri Lanka next month. The construction work of the power line will start next year and the estimated project cost is $ 500 million, according to Power and Energy Ministry Spokesman. Full story >> 8 SL media organizations urge President to release journalist Tissanayagam[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 08:07 GMT]Eight media organizations comprising Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka (EGSL), Free Media Movement (FMM), Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists Alliance (SLTJA), Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF), Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Union (FMETU), South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) and Sri Lanka Newspaper Publishers’ Association (SLNPA) Monday unanimously decided to request President Mahinda Rajapakse to release senior journalist Mr.J.S.Tissanayagam using his executive powers, sources in Colombo said. Mr.Tissanayagam was recently sentenced to twenty years rigorous imprisonment under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Full story >> 500 Vanni IDPs to be settled in the islets of Jaffna against their wish[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 05:05 GMT]500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vaviniyaa were brought to Jaffna Monday and efforts are being made to settle them in the abandoned houses in the islets of Jaffna that are in the full control of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), sources in Jaffna said. In the name of resettlement Vanni IDPs are being just relocated from the internment camps in Vavuniya against their wish to another area which is strictly controlled by another armed force, the SLN, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Full story >> Rajapakses' incipient personality cult would shame a Chinese communist - Guardian[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 03:20 GMT] In the second article in two days, UK's Guardian, warned Monday that by making Tamils feel newly repressed Sri Lanka is sowing seeds of future rebellian, noting that "in the months that have followed [the military victory] there has been little magnanimity, let alone reconciliation. Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians are still being kept in camps surrounded by barbed wire." The article further said that "Colombo's streets are littered with so many pictures of president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers that the incipient personality cult would shame a Chinese communist. The triumphalism in Colombo means those who dare to question the government are deemed Tiger collaborators, terrorist sympathisers or Tamil secessionists."Full story >> 3 Tamil youths arrested in Mathavaachchi[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2009, 13:19 GMT]Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers took into custody three Tamil youths in the last three days at the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Mathavaachchi checkpoint, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The youths were arrested for not being able to provide a valid reason for their travel to Colombo, the sources said. Full story >> Starvation, rape, killings, torture in Sri Lanka camps, Murphy tells Australia parliament[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2009, 12:04 GMT] Noting that "hundreds of thousands of innocent Tamils displaced by the military offensive are living in camps in appalling conditions. Moreover, foreign media channels have reported horrifying evidence of the worst violations of human rights, including starvation, rape, killings and torture. International agencies are calling for full access to these camps in order to provide life-saving treatment and medical supplies and to allow free and independent media access," parliamentarian, John Murphy, appealed at the House of Representatives Thursday, "to all governments of the world who have respect for human rights, the rule of law and free speech to join together and call on the government of Sri Lanka to right the wrongs forthwith."Full story >> Police arrest 5 Tamil, Muslim civilians in Puththa’lam[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2009, 10:29 GMT]Puththa'lam Police Sunday arrested six civilians including three Tamils and two Muslims who were staying in a house at Thampapanni in Puththa’lam police division. Police said they rushed to the site and arrested them on reports that a group of unidentified persons from Murungkkan in Mannaar district were staying in Thampapanni. Full story >> Blood stained body of woman recovered in Vavuniyaa[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2009, 10:27 GMT]Vavuniyaa Police on information from public, Sunday afternoon recovered the blood stained body of a woman around fifty years of age inside the kitchen (madapa’l’li) of Kaa’li Koayil located at Kzhlumaaddu Junction in Vavuniyaa. The body was handed over to Vavuniyaa general hospital for postmortem examination and identification. Full story >> Documentation of Norwegian Tamil mandate released[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2009, 07:49 GMT] Comprehensive documentation of a referendum conducted among Eezham Tamils of Norway is now released in the form of a 48-page publication by Utrop newspaper, which conducted the poll on 10th of May this year. In the referendum, 99 percent of the voters endorsed the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976, calling for an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. 90 percent of eligible voters in Oslo, and an average 80 percent of them in entire Norway turned out for the voting, a first of its kind exercise in that country and among the world diaspora of Eezham Tamils. The documentation is widely seen inspiring global democratic efforts of Eezham Tamils for their liberation.Full story >> JTC students to call off boycott of lectures[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2009, 07:35 GMT]More than a thousand students of Jaffna Technical College (JTC) have been continuously boycotting lectures since 8 August in protest against JTC being used by the administration for political activities in support of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and misappropriation of the funds meant for the college. The protesting students, however, have decided to call off the boycott Monday on the intervention of a key UPFA minister promising that JTC will not be used for political activities in the future and the funds of the college will be properly handled, JTC student union representatives said. Full story >> Rivers of sewege cascade through tents in Menik farm - Guardian[TamilNet, Monday, 14 September 2009, 01:55 GMT] Cataloguing emerging stories of families destroyed by war and separated through internment in Sri Lanka's fortified camps, UK Guardian's Sunday story describes feeble attempts by the Government of Sri Lanka to resettle refugees criticized as "chaotic and underfunded." Malnutrition-related complications have resulted in increased deaths, the paper notes, and adds that doctors in Vavuniyaa have warned of "impending disaster if conditions do not improve." Humanitarian workers recently allowed in to Menik Farm had criticized "persistent water shortage," and described precarious health, inhumane conditions as "heavy rain sent rivers of sewage cascading through tents and tin sheds," the paper said.Full story >> Unsuitable food for malnourished children in Vavuniyaa camps – Indian doctor[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 September 2009, 11:13 GMT]Malnourished children in the camps for the Internally Displaced (IDPs) from Vanni and held in the camps in Vavuniyaa are being provided with unsuitable food for consumption, which could make their condition deteriorate further, according to Dr. Bose, an Indian doctor providing medical assistance to the IDPs, sources in Colombo said. Full story >> Boycott Sri Lanka campaign expands to multiple US cities[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 September 2009, 05:22 GMT] North American Tamils expanded their boycott campaign over Sri Lanka goods to over a dozen cities across the US and Canada, targeting GAP and Victoria's Secret stores on Saturday, youth organizers of the event said. Leveraging the "No to Sri Lanka" website run by Canadian youth activists to spread the campaign message, the organizers held protests in San Francisco, Chicago, North Carolina, Boston, Atlanta, New York city and in several Canadian cities. The protesters stood inside malls, outside shopping centers, and some in the median of busy streets, urging ethical shoppers to resist buying garments made in Sri Lanka. Full story >> UN ‘war crimes witness’ expelled - report[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2009, 12:28 GMT]A senior UN diplomat was expelled from Sri Lanka in July for providing details to the international community of mass killings of civilians during the final battles against the Tamil Tigers, The Guardian newspaper in Britain reported Saturday. Peter Mackay, an Australian citizen, was given two weeks to leave the country for providing detailed rebuttals of Sri Lankan government’s "wartime propaganda." The diplomat is seen as a legal timebomb by the Sri Lankan government as he could personally take the stand and testify that the army shelled non-combatants – action considered to be a war crime under international law, the paper said. Full story >> Executions: Sri Lanka refuting processed video, not original[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2009, 09:32 GMT] Sri Lanka’s technological refutation of the authenticity of a video of Army (SLA) soldiers executing unarmed Tamil men broadcast by Channel 4 in August is based on a processed video-file taken from the broadcaster’s website, rather than the original mobile phone footage, experts said. An analysis commissioned by US-based pressure group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) of the original video distributed by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) and Sri Lanka’s subsequent technological refutation says Colombo’s experts looked “at a second generation transcoded video to derive erroneous conclusions.”Full story >> 9 policemen further remanded in Angulana killings[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2009, 07:07 GMT]Moratuwa Magistrate Ms. Indika Kalingawansa Friday ordered all nine suspects in the Angulana double murder remanded till September 24. She ruled that 21-year-old Danushka Udaya Shantha Aponsu, whose body was found in the Moratuwa police area, had died of injuries caused by shooting with a rifle. Earlier last week Mt. Lavinia Magistrate Harsha Settunge ruled that the death of Dinesh Tharanga was caused by shooting with a rifle. Full story >> India denies visa to US rights activist[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2009, 03:47 GMT]Indian embassy in New York denied a visa to US-based humanitarian worker and a critic of the Sri Lanka Government, Dr Ellyn Shander to travel to New Delhi to address the Delhi Tamil Sangam on 20th September, Deccan Chronicle reported. Shander was to address the Delhi meeting with MDMK General Secretary Vaiko, after attending meeting in Bangalore with the local Tamil Sangam on 15th of September. Full story >> BBC: UN patience wears thin in Sri Lanka[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 12:59 GMT]The United Nations says it cannot continue to indefinitely fund the sprawling, overcrowded and militarized camp in which Sri Lanka has interned hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians. Speaking to the BBC, the UN's Sri Lanka chief, Neil Buhne, said people should be allowed to leave the barbed wire-ringed Manik Farm camp. Mr Buhne also criticised Sri Lanka’s denial of access for the International Red Cross to 10,000 Tamils whom the government calls LTTE suspects. Meanwhile the UN says it is extremely concerned for two staff members arrested by Sri Lankan authorities in June, being amid reports they were mistreated during the early days of their detention. Full story >> "Sri Lanka, stop" says Le Monde[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 11:44 GMT]"After winning the war, the Sri Lankan regime is in the process of losing the peace. Following the historic, but bloody and distasteful victory, against the armed struggle of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa could be magnanimous and reach out to the Tamil minority and open the way for national reconciliation. But Rajapakse has chosen another path, the path of domination...Under the tents of the refugee camps tomorrow's Tigers may already be rising to mount a future rebellion," warned France's popular daily, Le Monde in Thursday editorial. Full story >> US bemoans Sri Lanka inaction on camps, reconciliation[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 09:02 GMT]The United States this week criticised the Sri Lankan government’s continued internment of hundreds of thousands of Tamils and Colombo’s not taking steps towards a political reconciliation. “President Rajapaksa did meet on Monday with representatives of the Tamil National Alliance, but in general there have been few other concrete steps to re-unite the country and begin to heal the wounds of a long war in such a way that all Sri Lankans feel they enjoy equal rights and opportunities,” US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said Wednesday. Full story >> 2 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 08:43 GMT]Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers took into custody two Tamil youths in a search conducted Thursday night in Kohuwala, a suburb of Colombo city, according to complaints made by the youths’ relatives to Deputy Minister, R. Rathakrishnan. Full story >> Colombo pounces on its own diplomats[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 07:34 GMT]Sri Lanka’s ambassador in Japan, Jayantha Palipane is the latest victim of Colombo’s 'panicked restructuring' of its foreign service, journalistic circles in Colombo said Friday. The recall of the ambassador may look as a response to an incident at the Narita airport involving the prime minister of Sri Lanka, but it is only a pretext, according to the sources. SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa was making use of career diplomats and academics to paint a deceptive picture of his government before and during the war. But now the government, either not trusting its own diplomats or considering them a spent force, replaces them with military and political appointments in the style of some totalitarian regimes, the sources further said. Full story >> Remove SLA camps, HSZ, checkpoints from NE - Sampanthan[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 05:19 GMT]R. Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), told parliament Thursday that the government could not cite any reason for the delay in resettling hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Tamils in their own places in Vanni region. "High Security Zones (HSZs) should be removed from the north and east. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps and check points should be dismantled immediately to restore normalcy in the provinces," Mr.Sampanthan said while speaking in parliament Thursday opposing the motion moved by the Government of Sri Lanka to extend the State of Emergency for another month. Full story >> Emergency extended for another month, JVP walks out[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 05:19 GMT]Sri Lanka’s parliament Thursday evening approved the motion to extend the State of Emergency for another year by a majority of eighty-seven votes. One hundred parliamentarians of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituent parties voted for the motion. Thirteen parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians were not present in the house during the debate, parliamentary sources said. Full story >> Western inaction the building blocks of Chinese vassal state - Former Australian Diplomat[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 00:22 GMT]Nations operating behind the Sri Lankan Governments’ manipulation of the post 9-11 global climate in equating 'Tamil and terrorist' continue to ignore their humanitarian obligations to the point of complicity accused former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh, referring to the imprisonment of 300,000 Tamil refugees in government camps. Speaking at a forum held at The University of Sydney last week, Haigh described the actions of the Sri Lankan Government as one of “pure vindictiveness…towards people who are totally dispossessed and totally powerless”, before warning that the island may become “a vassal state of China.. not averse to carrying out acts of terror and in the future that may be directed towards India in ways to be determined by the Chinese". Full story >> Colombo opts for bravado than complying with Human Rights[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 00:22 GMT] Challenging the impending EU move to cancel 1 billion pounds trade concession to Sri Lanka, the islands former foreign secretary and newly appointed permanent representative to UN, Palitha Kohona , Thursday said, that it is a “cynical approach” of the EU. "We can handle [the loss]. Western countries should remember that economic power has shifted from the west to the east. New markets open up in the east. Our friends China, India, Japan, Korea, Iran … a whole range of countries [can help]," he said. UK refused ‘five years multiple entry visa’ to Kohona this week. Palitha Kohonoa was earlier named in media reports as one of the actors of the ‘failed rescue’ of LTTE officials that could be considered a matter for war crimes investigation. Full story >> Palitha Kohona refused visa by Sri Lanka’s UK High Commission[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2009, 11:51 GMT]The British High Commission in Colombo Wednesday refused visas to outgoing Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona and former Deputy Tourism Minister and ruling party parliamentarian Arjuna Ranatunge, according to Daily Mirror. Palitha Kohona and Arjuna Ranatunge had submitted their passports to the British High Commission for visa to London but to their surprise the passports were returned without any valid reason for turning down their visa applications, the paper said. Full story >> No change in dire camp conditions - CAFOD[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2009, 11:41 GMT]As monsoon floods loom, CAFOD (Catholic Fund for Overseas Development) has called on Sri Lanka’s government “to end the forced confinement” of hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians. “Nothing has changed over the last three months for the people that are living in the camps. They are overcrowded with poor sanitary conditions and inadequate health care,” CAFOD’s head of international programmes said this week. Another CAFOD official who visited one of the barbed-wire ringed militarised camps told the BBC this week that “a potential crisis could brew there if the rains come through and those camps are still as congested as they are [now].” Full story >> Turbulent Sri Lanka opts for offshore tourism[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2009, 10:54 GMT] Some European investors and a Sri Lankan entrepreneur, relieved about the ‘end of war,’ are embarked upon building a 175 million dollar luxury tourist resort in the offshore tracts of the Dutch Bay in Katpiddi, media sources in Colombo reported Wednesday. The narrow stretch of land lying between the Dutch Bay and the Indian Ocean will have 60 chalets and 20 villas in the first phase, costing 1000-1500 dollars per night and will have 80 villas in the second phase to be sold to Arabs, Europeans and Sri Lankans as holiday or retirement homes. The Katpiddi region of the North Western Province was part of the Tamil homeland and even now is a territory of Tamil speaking people. Mr Neil de Silva, chairman of the project refused to say how much the investors paid for the land to the local people.Full story >> Pakistan's naval academy annually trains 70 SLN sailors[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2009, 05:44 GMT]The Captain of Pakistan’s newly acquired Chinese built guided-missile frigate PNS Zulfiquar, which docked in at the Colombo Port earlier this week, told media that his country was training 70 SLN personnel on annual basis and that the SLN would acquire Pakistani built small frigates in the future. Full story >> 3 Tamil civilians missing, abducted in Colombo[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2009, 04:59 GMT]Three Tamil civilians have been reported missing since the last week of August from Wattala, Pettah and Moratuwa in separate incidents, according to complaints lodged by their relatives with the respective police stations and human rights groups in Colombo. Full story >> JVP to vote against emergency extension[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 September 2009, 04:55 GMT]The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has decided to vote against the Emergency Regulations in Parliament as the government has used it to suppress the media, the trade unions and oppress opponents, Colombo media reports said quoting parliamentarian K. D. Lal Kantha, trade union leader of the party Wednesday. Full story >> 500 Tamil police personnel to be appointed in Jaffna[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 September 2009, 08:19 GMT]Jaffna district Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Roshan Fernando, said that 500 Tamil young men and women are to be selected to be trained as police constables, sub-inspectors and inspectors to serve in Jaffna district to meet the need for Tamil police personnel, in a press meet held Tuesday in Jaffna police station, sources in Jaffna said. Full story >> 3 JVP journalists released on bail[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 September 2009, 06:13 GMT]The three journalists working in “Lanka” news paper run by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) were released on cash and surety bail Tuesday by Morawaka Magistrate when they were produced in court. The police did not object to the release of Journalists Ravindra Pushpakumara, Shalika Wimalasena and Daya Neththasinghe who were arrested 1 August in Deniyaya and later transferred to Colombo and held in the custody of the TID under the Emergency Regulations (ER) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Full story >> Channel-4 broadcast of internment camp conditions irks Colombo[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 September 2009, 00:11 GMT] Following the broadcast of shocking video footage showing Sri Lanka Government soldiers executing Tamils stripped naked and hands tied behind their backs, British Television Channel-4 Monday revealed a new film that showed Tamil "victims of Sri Lanka's war suffering poor conditions in UN-funded camps." The new footage, allegedly taken by a mobile phone, was sent to Channel-4 from the group War Without Witness, and was reportedly shot two weeks ago in Vavuniyaa, in northern Sri Lanka, where more than 300,000 Tamils are being interned in Sri Lanka military supervised camps. Sri Lanka's spokesperson, while insisting that United Nations is active inside there [the camps], responded that the malnutrition statistics reflect "Western standards," indeed malnutrition is present in other parts of Sri Lanka, and also that the situation was worse under the Liberation Tigers.Full story >> JVP candidate in SPC election attacked by UPFA supporters[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 September 2009, 17:01 GMT]A candidate of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Darshana Samantha was assaulted by supporters of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) on Monday night in Hiniduma in Galle district. He is contesting from the Galle district to the Southern Provincial Council. Election to the SPC is scheduled to be held on October 10. Full story >> Banning political parties identifying with race, religion is violation[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 September 2009, 16:59 GMT]Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ruled that certain sections of the Amended Parliamentary Elections Bill are inconsistent with the Constitution, Speaker W.J.M Lokkubandara informed the Parliament Tuesday. A section in the Bill banning political parties signifying a race or a religion is a violation of fundamental rights of the citizens. Hence the Bill is inconsistent with the Constitution and will require two-third majority to be approved by Parliament, he said. The Supreme Court conveyed its ruling to the Speaker after inquiring into several petitions filed against the Amended Bill, parliamentary sources said. Full story >> TNA's meeting with Rajapaksa fails to resolve IDP crisis[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 September 2009, 12:24 GMT]Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who held talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his ministers Monday evening at Temple Trees on the issue of resettling Vanni IDPs in their own places, said that the talks ended in failure as Mr. Rajapaksa evaded the main issue by saying resettlement of Vanni IDPs is not immediately possible as demining in Vanni has to be completed before resettlement. The urgent request to resettle the Vanni IDPs in Vavuniyaa internment camps before the monsoon rains was not given any due consideration by Rajapaksa and his ministers, TNA parliamentarians said. Full story >> Colombo micromanages aid, bullies aid deliverers, says Guardian[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 September 2009, 11:40 GMT]Noting that while Sri Lanka with the economy undermined by "[h]igh military spending, collapsed tourism revenues, disrupted agriculture, [and] reduced trade," Sri Lanka is "dependent on outside aid in its efforts to deal with the human consequences of the war," the Guardian said Wednesday, adding, but "Colombo is still severely restricting access to the north, particularly to the area of the final battles, and to the camps where an estimated 280,000 people displaced by the fighting are detained." The paper said that "[i]t is time that the donor nations and the agencies formed a united front to resist this unreasonable and ungrateful attitude." Full story >> UPFA supporters attack JVP candidate in Galle[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 September 2009, 11:40 GMT]A candidate of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Darshana Samantha was assaulted by supporters of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Monday night in Hiniduma in Galle district. He has been contesting from the Galle district to the Southern Provincial Council. Election to the SPC is scheduled to be held on October 10. Full story >> Fire damages Maantheevu leprosy hospital in Batticaloa[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 September 2009, 11:23 GMT]A major fire broke out at the leprosy hospital in Maanthivu Island in Batticaloa district around 6:00 a.m. in the morning of Tuesday. All thirteen patients warded in the hospital and employees were immediately evacuated in boats and helicopters by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF). Full story >> Roads lead to ruin – Prime Minister Wickramanayake[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 19:14 GMT]Sri Lanka will not open up closed roads despite defeating the Tamil Tigers because this could cause the economy to collapse, the country’s Prime Minister was quoted as saying last week. "Do you remember what happened to the Soviet Union under Gorbachev? He opened the roads immediately and what happened? The entire country collapsed. We can't afford to do that," Ratnasiri Wickramanayake told a business forum in Colombo last Tuesday, according to the business news portal, Lanka Business Online. Full story >> Continuing misery of Sri Lanka's camps[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 17:16 GMT] Two months after Aljazeera compiled a dossier of information highlighting what the broadcaster described as “shocking and disturbing” conditions in Sri Lanka’s militarised internment camps, nothing has changed. Reporting in late July, Aljazeera noted that what the Colombo government calls “welfare camps”, critics have called “the world’s biggest open air prison”. TamilNet is revisiting Aljazeera’s July report, which set out the substantial material about camp conditions compiled by the broadcaster despite the govenrment’s restrictions, to highlight the ongoing misery of the camps’ inmates.Full story >> Obama should call for release of Tissainayagam - Boston Globe[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 16:48 GMT] Boston Globe in a Monday editorial called an irony that Tissainayagam was thrown into prison for his writings that the Sri Lanka Government called have "creat[ed] communal disharmony" when "280,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the government’s victorious war against the separatist Tamil Tigers are currently suffering and dying in flooded, ill-provided camps" which is a real cause of disharmony," and appealed that "Obama should call for his [Tissainayagam's] release and for Sri Lanka’s uprooted civilians to be returned to their homes."Full story >> Pakistan destroyer arrives in Colombo on goodwill visit[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 11:51 GMT]‘Zulfiquar’, Pakistan’s destroyer class ship arrived in Colombo Harbour Saturday on a goodwill visit to Sri Lanka. The visit is aimed to strengthen existing ties and the level of cooperation between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Sri Lanka navy sources said. PNS ‘Zulfiquar’ was ceremonially welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy in the presence of Pakistan Defence Adviser Colonel Syed Khurram Hassnain Alam in the Colombo Port Saturday. Full story >> TID interrogates JVP newspaper editor[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 11:48 GMT]Police Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) interrogated Mr.Chandana Sirimalwatte, the Chief Editor of the pro-JVP newspaper ‘Lanka’ for three hours Sunday regarding the three journalists who are being detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations(ER) since their arrest, Colombo sources said. Full story >> 3 foreign Bishops visit Vavuniyaa IDP camps[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 11:44 GMT]Bishop Monsvlovnni Battista from Italy and Bishop John Stanley Arnold and Bishop John Anthony Rawsthrone from the United Kingdom (UK) during the weekend visited the camps in the Menik farm and in Cheddiku'lam in Vavuniyaa where hundreds of thousands internally displaced people are held. The Caritas of Sri Lanka had organized the visit. Full story >> 1034 unaccompanied children in Vavuniyaa camps - NCPA[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 16:54 GMT]Sri Lanka’s National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) said Saturday that there are 1034 unaccompanied children in the camps where internally displaced people are held in Vavuniyaa. “Of the 1034 children 250 were handed over to close relatives while the guardianship of 300 children is yet to be determined. Another 300 were handed over to three orphanages - two in Vavuniyaa and the other in Mannaar,” Mr. Jagath Wellawatte, NCPA Chairman, said. Full story >> JVP to decide on its stand in supporting extending emergency[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 16:48 GMT]The politburo of the Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is to decide this week whether to support the Extension of Emergency in the country any more in view of the arrest and detention of three journalists working in its official paper “Lanka” under the Emergency Regulations (ER) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), JVP parliamentary group leader Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake told media in Colombo. Police arrested three journalists of JVP in Deniyaya on 2nd September while they were taking pictures and videoing Bewarali estate bungalow. Full story >> Colombo evicts UNICEF official[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 13:34 GMT] Chief of Communications for UNICEF in Sri Lanka, James Elder's visa to continue to remain in Sri Lanka was refused by Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration, BBC reported Sunday. Mr Elder, a spokesman for the UN children's agency regularly spoke to the media on the plight of children caught up in the conflict, but Sri Lanka spokesperson was quoted by BBC as saying "James Elder's visa has been cancelled over his propaganda in support of the Tigers."Full story >> China to boost Sri Lanka’s coconut industry[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 08:12 GMT]Sri Lanka’s Plantations Industries Minister Mr. D. M. Jayaretna held discussions Friday with visiting officials of a China based company to boost coconut industry in the island and also to set up a plant to manufacture coconut shell charcoal, sources in Colombo said. Direct instructions were issued to this China based company from the Government of China to hold discussions with the Government of Sri Lanka, the sources added. Full story >> Monthly 400 births in Vavuniyaa Menik IDP camp[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 08:04 GMT]Four hundred babies are born every month in the internment camps at Menik Farm where nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians are held in Vavuniya district, and they are in need of considerable assistance and care, according to Sarvodaya leader Dr A. T. Ariyaretna. He presented the statistics when he was making a commemorative address in honour of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, at the SEDEC centre, Colombo Saturday. Full story >> Pakistan Navy ship to visit Sri Lanka[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 07:59 GMT]Pakistan Navy Ship “ZULFIQUAR” will pay a goodwill visit to Sri Lanka next week, Colombo media reported quoting a spokesperson of Pakistan High Commission in Colombo. "This will provide an opportunity for close interaction between both friendly navies", he added. Full story >> CES allows 142 Jaffna lorries to transport goods to South[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 05:02 GMT]Jaffna Government Agent informed that some of the Southern lorry owners who had registered their vehicles to transport essential goods from South to Jaffna through A9 route have been taken off the registration list, in a press release Saturday. The press release further said that the Commissioner of Essential Services (CES) has granted permission to 142 Jaffna lorry owners to transport goods from Jaffna to South. Full story >> Sri Kantha meets fellow MP Kanagaretnam in detention[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 03:07 GMT] N.Sri Kantha, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Friday met with the fellow parliamentarian Mr. Sathasivam Kanagaretnam who is currently being detained under the Emergency Regulations (ER) in the sixth floor of Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), sources in Colombo said. Mr Kanagaretnam was arrested from a camp in Omanthai by CID officiers when the MP sought refuge after fleeing from Mullaitheivu in the last leg of military operation against LTTE. The TNA MP was trapped for several months in Mullaitheivu due to military operation.Full story >> Time of the Thugs - Dr Saravanamuttu[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 00:46 GMT]Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, pointing to the anonymous death threat and his detension in the airport by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), an arm of the Sri Lankan State, writes in the latest Sunday Leader that both incidents "constitute a chilling illustration of the potential costs and likely consequences of daring to dissent in this our beloved land. Daring to dissent and to constructively critique the prevailing orthodoxy and in doing so outlining an alternative vision and future for Sri Lanka, is what I believe I do and in the strongest conviction of it being an affirmation and celebration of our democracy, rather than an act of treason against the motherland."Full story >> India to share nuclear technology with Sri Lanka - report[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 September 2009, 20:45 GMT]India is likely to share its nuclear technology with Sri Lanka for power generation using Thorium as the main source of energy, Science and Technology Minister Tissa Vitharana said Friday. The Daily Mirror newspaper quoted Professor Vitharana as saying India is prepared to support Sri Lanka with setting up a nuclear power plant and that he had requested IAEA support for the project. Professor Vitharana also told the paper he had invited Indian nuclear scientists to conduct a feasibility study on the use of Thorium deposits – said to be found in abundance along Sri Lanka’s southern costal belt – as a source of nuclear energy for power generation. Full story >> Police arrest suspect in killing of Sinhalese doctor in Batticaloa[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 September 2009, 16:13 GMT]Batticaloa police took into custody Friday a suspect involved in the killings of a Sinhalese Medical Officer and a Tamil civilian that took place in Naavatkudaa in Batticaloa district on 16 November 2008. Batticaloa court ordered the suspect to be detained in Ea’raavoor police station for further interrogation. Full story >> Blackcaps cower in silence, says NZ peace group[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 September 2009, 12:49 GMT] Global Peace and Justice in Auckland (GPJA), an activist group in New Zealand, said Saturday that New Zealand cricket team has "cowered in silence, complicit in the oppression of the Tamil population," for reneging on an agreement where "Blackcaps would publicly and symbolically facilitate the transfer of milk powder products from Fonterra in Sri Lanka to World Vision for the victims of war in the military camps." NZ Television channel TVnz said that GPJA's spokesperson John Minto told the station that the Blackcaps pulled out "after team manager Dave Currie refused to allow his team to take part in any humanitarian gesture."Full story >> 2 Up-Country Tamils found dead in Maskeliya[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 September 2009, 07:08 GMT]A 24-year-old Tamil man from Maskeliya in Up-Country was found dead Friday hours after he had gone to collect firewood in the nearby jungle, Police said. Meanwhile, another Up-Country Tamil was found dead inside a public passenger coach in the same area on Saturday. Full story >> Batticaloa Tamil resident arrested in Katunayake airport[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 September 2009, 07:03 GMT]Sri Lankan Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) officials Friday arrested a Tamil civilian at Katunayake International Airport when he was about to leave the country. Full story >> Central Bank to take over inactive accounts in banks[TamilNet, Friday, 04 September 2009, 15:35 GMT]Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Friday announced that savings and safe deposits that have not been maintained as active accounts in banks over ten years will be taken over by the Central Bank soon. “Central Bank would investigate into such accounts being held at all state and private banks and convert the value to be held by the Central Bank until such time the owners prefer to reclaim their assets,” a Central Bank official told media. Full story >> 2 Tamil journalists file FR petition[TamilNet, Friday, 04 September 2009, 11:32 GMT]Three -member bench of the Supreme Court Thursday fixed the inquiry into the fundamental rights violation petitions filed by S. Jaseeharan who is one of the co-directors of the ‘Outreach’ website and his fiancée V. Valarmathi for October 30. The Bench comprised Chief Justice Asoka de Silva, Justices N. G. Amaratunge and Chandra Ekanayake. Full story >> 3 JVP journalists to be detained, JVP supporter abducted[TamilNet, Friday, 04 September 2009, 11:28 GMT]Journalist Sahlika Wimalasena, Daya Nathasingha, and photo journalist Ravindra Pushpakumara of “Lanka”, the official newspaper of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), are to be served detention order by the defence Ministry for further interrogation, according to Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Anura Senanayake, to the media. Police said they took them into custody when they entered a private land without permission and alleged that they were filming a construction site of a new house of a VIP in the Southern Province. Full story >> Economist: EU report places Sri Lanka's GSP+ concession in jeopardy[TamilNet, Friday, 04 September 2009, 02:06 GMT] "Its [Sri Lanka's] alleged wartime and other abuses make a grim catalogue: thousands of Tamil civilians allegedly killed by army shelling during the rebels’ last stand; scores of Tamils disappeared; nearly 300,000 Tamil war-displaced callously interned; murder and intimidation of journalists—including J.S. Tissainayagam, sentenced to 20 years hard labour on August 31st for criticising the army’s tactics," says an editorial in The Economist in its 3rd September edition, and points to a damning 130-page report by the European Union which concludes that "Sri Lanka has failed to honour important human-rights commitments, and is ineligible for GSP Plus."Full story >> Arrest Sri Lankan state racism to meet norms of International governance - paper[TamilNet, Friday, 04 September 2009, 00:13 GMT]A future peace in Sri Lanka rests on the international community being willing and able to contain and constrain the now rampant, but long-embedded, Sinhala chauvinism gripping the island, the Tamil Guardian said this week. “Racism, especially when entrenched thus [in the state], cannot be effaced by suasion and engagement, but by making it utterly impossible for it to hold sway,” the editorial said. “In short, as in the case of [past] racist regimes in other parts of the world, the international community must be prepared to isolate and exclude the Sri Lankan state until it is prepared to adhere, no matter how reluctantly, to international norms of governance.” Full story >> FR petition against SSP, others in student abduction incident[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 15:13 GMT]Nipuna Ramanayake, the student of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), who was abducted and assaulted by a group of policemen, has filed a fundamental rights violation application in the Supreme Court Thursday, claiming Rs. 100 million as compensation. He has cited Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Vass Gunawardene, his wife, son and twelve policemen as respondents. Full story >> Vanni war front videos under Media Minister's custody[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 15:07 GMT]The Government of Sri Lanka Thursday directed the Chairman of the State run Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and Independent Television Network to hand over all video tapes in relation to Vanni war front immediately to the Media Minister and to ensure and verify whether any video tapes used or unused are missing or stolen while in the custody of the two institutions, sources in Colombo said. Full story >> 7 govt. officers with their families released from Pulmoaddai camp[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 14:37 GMT]Two more government officers who were working in Mullaiththeevu district during the war and later detained in Pulmoaddai internment camp in Trincomalee district were handed over to the Mullaiththeevu Government Agent Wednesday by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authority. They are Mrs. M. G. Vilvarajah, District Director of Planning in Mullaiththeevu and Mr. V. S. Theivendran, Mullaiththeevu Zonal Director of Education. Earlier, five staff officers, including Mr. K. Parthipan, Mullaitheivu Additional Government Agent, with their families, were released. Full story >> Only 93 elders allowed to leave Vavuniyaa camp[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 08:40 GMT]Only ninety-three elders were allowed to leave the ‘internment camps’ in Vavuniyaa Wednesday despite earlier announcement that five hundred elders would be allowed to leave. Of the ninety-three, forty-six elders were handed over to the All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC) and the rest to the elders’ home run by the Vavuniyaa-Koayil Ku’lam Sivan Koayil. Full story >> Obama extolled Sri Lanka Journalist given prison term, says NYT[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 04:09 GMT] Noting that J.S. Tissainayagam was picked by President Obama on World Press Freedom Day as a “symbol of oppression of the media,” the New York Times (NYT) Tuesday reported that this editor of a crusading magazine in SriLanka was sentenced by the island’s court for writing critical articles on the Sri Lanka government’s offensive against Tamils. The NYT, quoting two prominent staffers at the Colombo-based think-tank Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), said that the sentence was a very serious blow [to journalism], that the law under which the sentence was passed “ is so vague that practically any speech could be prosecuted,” and that it is unacceptable that the Court would give maximum sentence to a journalist for simply doing his job.Full story >> 5th Vanni doctor released on surety bail[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 17:15 GMT]Dr. Kanagathurai Sivapalan who was serving in Puththukuddiruppu hospital in the Vanni region during the final assault on the LTTE by Sri Lanka Army was released on surety bail of a sum of 200,000 rupees by Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi Tuesday. He was the last in the batch of five doctors arrested from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa after they fled from the battle ground. Full story >> 3 JVP journalists arrested in Deniyaya[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 12:15 GMT]Three Sinhala journalists were arrested Wednesday afternoon by the Deniyaya Police in the southern province. The journalists worked for the “Lanka” newspaper, the party organ of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Full story >> UK Tamils welcome Conservatives’ concern for Tamils in Sri Lanka[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 10:00 GMT]Tamils in Britain have welcomed the statement last week by the main opposition Conservative Party highlighting the ongoing suffering of over 280,000 Tamils held in barbed-wire ringed, militarised detention camps in Sri Lanka. Noting the Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague’s expressions of “serious concern” over the confinement of Tamils in the camps, and those by the Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox, during his recent visit to Sri Lanka, the British Tamils Forum (BTF) said Wednesday it will continue to engage with all political parties and others in Britain to bring a permanent end to the suffering of the Tamil people in their traditional homeland. Full story >> Ban on night fishing in Jaffna peninsula continues[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 09:00 GMT]Despite government’s publicity that all fishing restriction in the north have been lifted Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) continues to impose ban on night time fishing in the seas of Jaffna peninsula, fisheries society sources said. SLN insists on the fishermen to install radar reflectors on their boats and catamarans if they want to go night fishing. As these radar reflectors are not available in Jaffna more than 2500 boats and catamarans lie idle, seriously affecting the livelihood of the fisher families, the sources added. Full story >> Tamil civilian reported missing in Mannaar[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 08:30 GMT]A Tamil civilian from Saanthipuram in Mannaar is reported missing since 23 August, according to complaints made by his wife to the police and human rights organization in Mannar Tuesday. Full story >> Return of 3,800 detained Tamils cancelled – TearFund[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 02:29 GMT]TearFund, a Christian relief and development agency, this week renewed its call for hundreds of thousands of Tamils detained in Sri Lanka’s concentration camps to be allowed home. A scheduled return of 3,800 detained Tamils to a region being assisted by TearFund was cancelled two days ago - even after detainees had packed to return home, the agency said. TearFund also called for an international commission of inquiry into possible war crimes committed by both sides during the armed conflict in Sri Lanka after viewing Channel 4 video footage, allegedly showing Sri Lanka army soldiers executing Tamil men in January of this year. Full story >> CPA Director detained at KIA, questioned by CID[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 02:20 GMT]Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based think-tank Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), was detained and questioned Wednesday early morning at the Katunayake International Airport (KIA) by Criminal Investigations Department officials upon his return from abroad. He was detained for several minutes and later allowed to go, media sources said. Full story >> Ban under fire, Sri Lanka performance said key failure – Washington Post[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 18:22 GMT] Amidst controversy surrounding Ban Ki Moon’s visit to Norway, Washington Post, in a critical article, published Tuesday, critiquing Ban’s performance, said, “halfway through his first term, Ban is facing a leadership crisis as U.N. civil servants and diplomats here increasingly portray him as an ineffective administrator whose reluctance to hold outlaw leaders to account for bad behavior has undercut the United Nations' moral authority.” Faulting Ban’s approach to quiet diplomacy with “despots and dictators,” the paper pointed to the engagement with Sri Lanka as a major failure of Ban’s tenure, for “not pressing hard enough to hold Sri Lanka accountable for its actions,” and for dropping “U.N. push for an independent investigation into war crimes, leaving it to Sri Lanka to determine whether its military was responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the final offensive.”Full story >> 26 civilians arrested by TID in Mannaar in August 2009[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 17:13 GMT]Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) operating from Colombo had arrested twenty-six civilians, including young family men, in Mannaar in the month of August alone, sources from Mannaar Welfare Association said. Complaints have been made by the Association to the relevant authorities to have the arrested civilians released, the sources said. Full story >> Boy dies in mine explosion, 2 children injured, in Jaffna[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 16:16 GMT]A 12-year-old boy from Achchezhu in Jaffna died in an explosion Tuesday around 5:00 p.m when he tried to inspect a strange object found in a canal on the outer boundary of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit base in Achchezhu. Two siblings, a boy and girl who stood watching close to the boy who died were seriously injured when the object exploded, sources in Jaffna said. The injured are admitted to the Emergency Unit in Jaffna Teaching Hospital where the girl is in a critical condition, hospital sources said. Full story >> SSP’s son, wife, 12 policemen further remanded in abduction case[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 13:02 GMT]Fourteen suspects including the wife and son of the Senior Superintendent of Police Vass Gunawardene were further remanded Tuesday by Kaduwala Magistrate in connection with abduction and assault of a student. The Magistrate said his court has no jurisdiction to hear bail application and it should be made to the High Court. “Hence I reject the bail application and I order further remand till September 15,”the Magistrate said in his order, legal sources said. Full story >> CPJ honors Tissainayagam with Press Freedom Award[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 11:35 GMT] The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based media watchdog, announced Monday that it will honor imprisoned Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam with 2009 International Press Freedom Award. "We are announcing this award today to highlight the depth of outrage at this unjust sentence," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "Its harshness and the retroactive nature of the charges reflect vindictiveness and intolerance. We are calling today for Tissainayagam's release--an appeal we plan to repeat at our awards ceremony, when the world's leading journalists gather to demand press freedom for all of our colleagues," CPJ's press release said.Full story >> Tamil woman arrested in Wellawatte[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 10:49 GMT]Sri Lanka police arrested a Tamil woman in Wellawatte Monday while staying in a lodge making preparation to travel abroad. She is being detained by the police and interrogated by the Terrorist Investigation Unit, police sources said. Full story >> World Bank holds seminar in Jaffna University[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 06:48 GMT] The World Bank Sri Lanka Office held a seminar Monday in Jaffna University Library Auditorium on its recent report on Higher Education in Sri Lanka titled ‘The Towers of Learning’ which said “the economic relevance and quality of the higher education sector at present is considerably below the level required of a middle-income country”, sources in Jaffna said. It was informed in the above seminar that World Bank will allocate 1700 million rupees for the current year for improving the standard of education in the 15 universities in the country, almost doubling its last year allocation of 800 million rupees, the sources added.Full story >> Union Assurance to open branch in Point Pedro[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 06:15 GMT] Union Assurance, a leading private insurance institution in Sri Lanka is to open its second branch Tuesday in Point Pedro in Jaffna district and has donated funds to Jaffna Teaching Hospital and the hospitals in Point Pedro and Valveddiththu’rai, the institution's Chief Excutive Officer, Ms. Marina Darmaratne said in a press meet held Monday evening in the head office of Union Assurance (UA) located on Stanley Road Jaffna. Northern Region General Manager of UA, T. N. Mathivannan presided at the press meet.Full story >> Young woman’s body recovered in Jaffna[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 05:26 GMT]Koappaay police recovered Monday night the remains of a 21-year-old woman in a highly decomposed state in an abandoned place in Koappaay East in Jaffna on information given by the residents of the area. The family members of the woman identified the skeletal remains placed in Jaffna Teaching Hospital mortuary by the remnants of the dress on the woman’s body, hospital sources said. It is suspected that the woman was abducted, killed before being dumped. Full story >> Sri Lanka's cynical technique of rebuttal - Aussie Don[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 04:24 GMT] Commenting on the recently exposed execution video, Professor Jake Lynch, Director, Centre for Peace and Conflict at Sydney University writes: "the Sri Lankan authorities assiduously kept journalists from international media away from the conflict zone, having, in the previous few years, terrorised local editors and reporters with arbitrary arrests, imprisonment and beatings, while many were mysteriously killed amid persistent rumours of official complicity. Now, the same authorities who have treated journalism with such contempt are seeking to keep information in the realm of contestability, through the cynical technique of rebuttal." Full story >> Democracy in chains, JDS condemns Tissainayagam's verdict[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 03:13 GMT] Describing Sri Lanka as a country where "democracy [is] in chains," Journalists for Democracy (JDS), a Germany-based advocacy group consisting of a multi-racial members exiled from Sri Lanka, condemned the 20-year jail sentence as "flagrant violation of media freedom," and added that, "every political party that has been involved in the creation and perpetuation of the PTA [Prevention of Terrorism Act] is complicit in the judgment against Tissainayagam."Full story >>
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