Boyle: Word "Genocide" missing in UN Panel's war crimes report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 April 2011, 12:09 GMT]
Pointing out the instances where the criminal allegations on Sri Lanka made in the UN's war crimes report support the charge of genocide on Sri Lanka, Professor Francis Boyle, expert in International Law and Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet, "[f]or obvious political reasons, no one wants to use the word “genocide." And that is because it then raises the question why did no one stop the genocide as required by article I of the Genocide Convention. The same phenomenon happened in Bosnia. No one would use the word “genocide” until afterwards, and it was too late to do anyone any good—they were all dead."
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Salary not paid to Health volunteers in east

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 April 2011, 03:12 GMT]
Twenty six health volunteers working in the Kalmunai base hospital for more than two years say that they have made complaints to the Regional Office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) that they have not been paid salaries since their appointment as authorized by the Department of Health, even after the assurance by the Deputy Minister of Resettlement. When the Health Volunteers were recruited to the post, they were promised a pay of Rs: 175 per day. The Colombo Health Ministry has also authorized the payment and sent necessary funds to the hospital but the volunteers said they have not received a single pay check.
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Ampaa'rai teacher transfer scheme suspended

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 April 2011, 03:06 GMT]
The teacher transfer scheme scheduled to come into effect from May 1 in the Ampaa'rai district in the eastern province has been put off following protests from the teachers’ trade unions, according to education sources. Provincial Director of Education Mr.M.T. Abdul Nizam had earlier ordered that all excess teachers should be transferred from May 1 to schools in other districts that suffer due to shortage of teachers.
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Sri Lanka war-crime alleged over killing of TECH Director

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 April 2011, 00:08 GMT]
Emerging evidence on Sri Lanka military targeting civilian leadership of Eezham Tamil development organizations at the end of Vanni war further reinforces the credible allegation that Sri Lanka's war crimes and crimes against humanity had genocidal intentions. C. Sivalingam Suhunan, alias Thilak, the executive director of TECH (The Economic Consultancy House), the flagship development NGO of the de-facto state of Tamil Eelam and a registered NGO in Sri Lanka, was one of the victims, according to a Senior official of TECH, who has identified Thilak's body in a recently leaked photograph taken by Sri Lankan soldiers. Mr. Suhunan had phoned his family last on 18 May, 2009 at 6:15 a.m. local time, informing that he was among a group of persons in civil clothes, going into Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled territory in Mullaiththeevu.
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Sri Lanka plans criminal show of ‘reconciliation’ in Colombo, Jaffna on May 1

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 April 2011, 20:51 GMT]
In a cruel show of ‘reconciliation,’ Sri Lanka’s occupying military in full swing has gone to the houses of released LTTE cadres, family members of the captives and ‘resettled’ Eezham Tamils living in open prisons in north and east and intimidated them to participate in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s demonstration show in Colombo on 1 May, to oppose any international justice coming to the crimes committed against them. A fleet of buses are organized to herd the people from Vanni and Jaffna to Colombo, after warning them of dire consequences if they don’t come. Meanwhile, a group of thugs has been brought from the south for violent demonstrations in the locality of UN offices in Jaffna city on May 1.
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Sri Lanka Court shuts news website

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 April 2011, 00:46 GMT]
A Magistrate court in Colombo Thursday ordered the ban of the trilingual website after the site was accused of posting an inaccurate news item regarding a pending court case. The Pugoda Magistrate, Aravinda Perera, ordered the Telecommunication Regulations Authority to ban the site (Lankaenews.com) until the judicial proceeding of contempt by publication of the news item is concluded, legal sources in Colombo said.
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UPFA controlled Ea'raavoor UC suspends workers as political revenge

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 11:07 GMT]
Minor grade employees working in Ea'raavoor Urban Council for about eighteen months have been suspended from service as they did not support the ruling United peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) at the last local authority elections held in March 17, according to a written complaint to the Batticaloa Regional Office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
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Ampaa'rai DCC meeting conducted in Sinhala only

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 11:02 GMT]
The civil authority of the Ampaa'rai administrative district, where seventy five percent are Tamil speaking officers, is conducting the meeting of the District Coordinating Committee (DCC) only in Sinhala excluding Tamil language, complained district Parliamentarian Mr.P. Piyasena who has been supporting the Mahinda Rajapakse led United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). He was elected on the ticket of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the last general election held in April 2010 from the Ampaa'rai electoral district.
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Accountability needed before lasting reconciliation possible - UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 06:45 GMT]
Britain Wednesday welcomed the UN Panel of Experts report on the war crimes in Sri Lanka’s war and expressed support for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s decision to commission the study. Calling on Sri Lanka to respond positively to the expert panel’s report, the UK said accountability for war crimes must be resolved before lasting reconciliation could be achieved in Sri Lanka. But, the British Foreign Office was not specific whether it means an international investigation or a fresh local investigation by Colombo.
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Ban “would welcome a mandate” to investigate Sri Lanka’s war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 06:06 GMT]
The day after his office released an expert panel’s report on Sri Lanka’s war crimes, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said he would welcome a mandate to establish a commission of inquiry (CoI) into war crimes in Sri Lanka. Noting that a UN-led probe would require the agreement of Colombo – something that is patently impossible – or an intergovernmental body.
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Horrors of Rwanda genocide to be retold in Kansas court

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 01:16 GMT]
While Sri Lanka's savage killing of more than 40,000 Tamil civilians is in the center stage of world main stream media following the release of UN's war crimes report Monday, trial of Rwanda's Lazare Kobagaya, having a last name similarly syllabled as the first name of Sri Lanka's alleged war-criminal Gotabaya, charged with illegally obtaining United States citizenship and misusing an alien registration card is to begin in a Kansas Court. Prosecutors say Mr. Kobagaya lied on his citizenship application when he denied participating in genocide in 1994, and they are bringing witnesses from Africa to try to prove it, New York Times said in an article in Tuesday.
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Colombo’s crimes grotesque – The Times

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 00:04 GMT]
The Times newspaper (London) said Wednesday that the UN expert panel’s report on Sri Lanka’s war crimes confirms the newspaper’s reporting in May 2009 that the “Sri Lankan Government was party to the mass murder of civilians.” Referring especially to mass bombardment of civilians in so-called no-fire zones, the paper demanded that “perpetrators of this war crime should be pursued and targeted with sanctions by the UN and other international organisations.” Dismissing Colombo’s claim that the UN panel’s conclusions would inflict “irrevocable damage” on postwar efforts of reconciliation as “disingenuous”, the paper singled out India especially to act over Sri Lanka’s war crimes.
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New evidence leads to war crime committed on LTTE's Col Ramesh

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 22:47 GMT]
The wife of slain Batticaloa Commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on Thursday verified that the dead body shown in the photo released on Wednesday was that of her husband, Col. Ramesh. On Wednesday, a former member of the LTTE identified a photo leaked in recent days by the soldiers of the SLA as that of showing the dead body of Col. Ramesh, who had come to SLA controlled territory with civilians during the final hours of Vanni war in May 2009.
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G.L. Peiris to confront diplomats on Expert Panel report

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 15:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris is scheduled to “brief” Colombo based foreign diplomats Thursday morning on its response to the UN Experts Panel report, which has put serious war crimes and crimes against humanity allegations against Mahinda Rajapaksa government during the Vanni War in 2009. Mr. Peiris returned to Colombo Wednesday after a trip abroad.
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Colombo rejects UN Expert Panel report, dubs it as “Darusman Report”

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 14:49 GMT]
Colombo government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday issued an official statement, stating that the conclusions of the externally constituted “Darusman Panel” working from New York should not take precedence over the conclusions, still awaited, of the domestic [LLRC] process. The statement said that the material could be looked at by the LLRC should it wish to do so, depending on its own assessment of the contents. “The public release of the Report at this stage is divisive, and disrupts our efforts to reinforce peace, security and stability in Sri Lanka. It feeds into the political agendas of interested parties,” the release by the External Affairs ministry in Colombo said.
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UN expert panel’s report: US welcomes, India noncommittal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 14:42 GMT]
Whilst India issued a tepid response to the UN expert panel’s report on war crimes in Sri Lanka, the United States strongly welcomed the report and its being made public, and, declaring “that accountability and reconciliation are inextricably linked,” unequivocally backed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s actions for Sri Lanka to respond constructively to the report. In seeming contrast, India’s terse statement, also issued Tuesday, said: “The issues raised in the Report need to be studied carefully. As a first step, we intend to engage with the Government of Sri Lanka on the issues contained in the Report.”
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Colombo forces Tamils to sign petition against UN: Srikantha

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 05:53 GMT]
Former Tamil National Aliance parliamentarians N. Srikantha,and M.K Sivajilingam, who formed Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA), blamed Colombo on Monday for continuing to lead the Sinhala masses on a racial path and for forcing the Tamils in Colombo to sign their petition against the United Nations Expert Panel report. Tamil civilians traveling in buses in Colombo are being forced to sign the petitions by extremist Sinhala elements, Mr. Srikantha, a Colombo based Tamil politician, told journalists in Jaffna at a press meeting held in Jaffna Monday evening.
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'Thanthai Chelva pioneered political course of Eezham Tamils'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 05:37 GMT]
“The first Republican Constitution of 1972 gave the last rites to the slow death for ethnic relations in this country that started when a unitary constitution was handed to us by the departing British,” said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr. M A Sumanthiran, while delivering Thanthai Chelva Memorial Speech at New Kathiresan Hall in Colombo, Tuesday, remembering 34th death anniversary of SJV Chelvanayakam, who founded Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi in 1949. To prove Tamil opinion rejecting the 1972 constitution, Chelva resigned his parliamentary seat and won a by-election. After leading the most favoured Tamil political party and struggling for federal solution for more than 25 years that found no success with Sinhala leadership, Chelva ultimately presided over the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution that called for Tamil independence in 1976.
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Channel 4 to show film on Sri Lanka’s war crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 05:35 GMT]
Channel 4 is to air “probably the most horrific” footage it has ever shown in an investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, The Guardian reported Tuesday. Because of the horrific nature of the videos, the film, presented by Jon Snow, will air in a late night slot in May and C4 said that "distressing images will be preceded by appropriate warnings".
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‘War crimes investigation is not a choice or policy but a duty’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 05:33 GMT]
While the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon says it is not possible for him to institute an international inquiry into Sri Lanka’s war crimes as recommended by the advisory panel, unless Sri Lanka or any intergovernmental forum calls for it, the UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay on Tuesday urged for further international investigation. “As the report itself says, addressing violations of international humanitarian or human rights law is not a matter of choice or policy; it is a duty under domestic and international law,” she said adding that “The way this conflict was conducted, under the guise of fighting terrorism, challenged the very foundations of the rules of war and cost the lives of tens of thousands of civilians.”
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Ban Ki Moon, Accessory After the Fact to Sri Lanka war crimes, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 22:56 GMT]
Faulting UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for his continued "pattern and practice of criminal behavior by rejecting the recommendation of his own Panel that he appoint a Commission of Inquiry into GOSL war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Tamils," Professor Francis Boyle, expert in International Law and Professor at the University of Illinois School of Law, told TamilNet that "Ban Ki-Moon is an absolute disgrace to the lofty standards of the United Nations Charter and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights," and that Moon should be prevented from being elected for a second term.
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UNP appoints team to study UN Expert Panel report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 15:09 GMT]
The main Sri Lankan opposition United National Party (UNP) has decided to appoint a team to study and report on the UN Experts Panel that was officially released by the UN Secretary General on Monday. The team will be headed by a UNP veteran civil servant Bradman Weerakon.
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SL Military ‘abducts’ two Tamil youths in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 14:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from the notorious Uduvil camp in Jaffna on Monday assaulted civilians in the streets of Tholpuram, situated 30 km away from Jaffna city in Valikaamam, till it finally managed to trace and ‘abduct’ two Tamil youths who had a quarrel with an SLA soldier in their village, the previous day, on Sunday. The parents of the youths who were taken away by the SLA Monday night said the Sri Lankan Police did not know the whereabouts of their sons. Tension prevails in Tholpuram.
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Kaaththaankudi UC defends Arabic usage in name boards

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 10:22 GMT]
The president of the Urban Council of Kaaththaankudi, a Muslim dominated town in the Eastern Province, has defended the use of Arabic on par with English in the name boards following protests from certain quarters in Colombo and in the provincial council in the East. Mr. S.H. Mohammed Anzar, the president has said it was a decision solely within the authority of the urban council.
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SL Police threaten Tamils in Colombo to sign petition against UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 10:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Unit personnel are threatening Tamils walking along roads in Colombo, forcing them to sign petitions prepared by the Rajapakse led government in an attempt to collect one million signatures against the UN Experts panel report. Tamils who refuse to sign are threatened and subjected to bodily harm, Tamil civil sources allege.
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ITAK chooses Colombo to observe SJV's 34th death anniversary

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2011, 13:49 GMT]
The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), main constituents of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is scheduled to hold the thirty fourth death anniversary of its founder leader Thanthai S.J.V.Chelvanayakam on Tuesday in Colombo-Bambalapity New Kathiresan Hall, projecting the topic of the memorial event as "finding lasting peace through power sharing". The event is being keenly watched by Colombo political circles at a time when the country is in tension with the leaking of the UN Experts Panel report alleging war crimes allegations against the Rajapakse government and the TNA welcoming the UN Experts Panel report.
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India was fully aware of the war situation: former UN spokesperson

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2011, 07:32 GMT]
The Indian government which wanted to "see the Tamil Tigers destroyed" was "fully aware" of the real situation in the battle zone, including the civilian casualties, said, Mr. Gorden Weiss speaking to BBC Sinhala Service Sunday. "I believe that Indians were aware of the civilian casualties that were happening, because they had pretty good intelligence inside the siege zone," Weiss who was the UN spokesperson in Colombo during the war said. He admitted that Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, made an agreement between the LTTE and the Sri Lanka authorities to arrange the surrender of senior Tamil Tiger leaders including B Nadesan and Pulithevan, who were executed after the surrender. The UN should have done more to prevent civilian casualties, he further said.
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UN has no right to meddle with democratic government - Dinamina

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2011, 19:36 GMT]
An angry Sri Lankan government lashed out at the United Nations declaring that it did not have any right to meddle with the affairs of an independent, democratically elected government, the state run, Dinamina newspaper said in its lead article on Sunday. Quoting Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, the article said, the report by the three member panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was one sided with obvious partiality to the LTTE.
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Chinese envoy stays away from Peiris briefing on UN report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2011, 02:32 GMT]
The Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Ambassador Yang Xiuping, was absent at the briefing held by Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris over the Colombo stance on the UN-panel report on war-crimes during the final phase of the war. Heads of all diplomatic missions in Colombo except Chinese envoy attended the briefing, according to a report published by the Sunday Times.
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Police sentry in East University to continue says SL Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2011, 11:51 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister of Higher Education S.B.Dissanayake has said that the SL police sentry located in the premises of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) at Vanthaa'rumoolai in Batticaloa district would not be removed for any reason and the security of EUSL would be handed over to one of the three ‘security establishments’ of the government, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) or to the Special Task Force (SLF) if necessity arises.
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Teacher transfers racially motivated, accuses Ampaa'rai civil society

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2011, 02:09 GMT]
Ampaa'rai District Tamil, Muslim Social Federation (ADTMSF) in a statement accused Provincial Director of Education Mr.M.T.M. Nizam of of enforcing a racially motivated Teacher Transfer program, sources in the east said. Transfers of Tamil medium teachers remain in force, while transfers of Sinhala medium teachers have been suspended indefinitely, contrary to the earlier instruction issued by the Director of Education.
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PTA suspect discharged after 7 years in remand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2011, 00:01 GMT]
The Batticaloa High Court discharged an accused who was indicted seven years ago under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for getting arms training from LTTE. The High Court Judge, Mr. B. Sasimahendran, reasoned that the the confession made by the accused was taken under duress, and therefore, he is discharging the accused. The accused, 44 years-old Kanthasamy Thavarajan of Badulla was kept in remand since November 21, 2004, legal sources said.
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'Srebrenica moment'

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 23:37 GMT]
In an article in "The Australian" news paper authored by Gordon Weiss, a former UN spokesperson who accused Sri Lankan Government earlier of killing 10,000 to 40,000 Tamil civilians by discriminate shelling during the final stages of war, Weiss says that with the release [leak] of UN report on Sri Lanka's war crimes, the parallel, with the mass execution of 8000 Muslim boys and men by the Bosnian Serb army and how the horror reached the world from David Rohde, an US reporter, who had hiked through frontlines to reach the outskirts of the empty town, is apt, that Sri Lanka has reached its "Srebrenica Moment,"
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 23:31 GMT]
A Tamil man, Solaikli Jeyaprasath, 31, a resident of Kotahena in Colombo, has been reported missing since a day after the Tamil-Sinhala New Year festival, according to complaints lodged by his relatives to Muhaththuwaram Police. Jeyaprasath left home in a three-wheeler on April 15th to purchase some goods from a shop in Kotahena and failed to return home, relatives said.
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India must act over Sri Lanka’s war crimes - AIADMK

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 22:29 GMT]
Citing the leaked UN expert panel’s report on Sri Lanka’s war crimes, Tamil Nadu’s main opposition AIADMK party has demanded India take steps to ensure Sri Lanka’s leadership stands international trial. "The UN Panel report is very clear. It lists out the war crimes of the Sri Lankan government," AIADMK leader and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa said in a statement Friday reported on by PTI and IANS.
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SL occupation of hospitals, schools harm resettlement in Vanni - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 12:20 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Vanni, S. Sritharan, has blamed the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Vanni for continuing to occupy public buildings, including primary hospitals and schools, causing severe hardships to resettling civilians. The accusation by the TNA MP comes following District Development Committee (DDC) meeting held in Jaffna on Tuesday, when Medical Officers brought to the notice of the DDC that if the Poonakari primary hospital, now occupied by the Sri Lanka Army, is handed over to them, they would resume services to the resettled civilians.
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Rajapaksa uses SL military to distribute Indian aid

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 12:12 GMT]
Much controversy arose at the Jaffna District Development Committee (DDC) meeting held on Tuesday over the selection of the beneficiaries for the houses to be built by the Indians and the way the SL authorities were handling the distribution of tractors gifted by India. The SL Presidential Secretariat has instructed the Divisional Secretaries to send ‘recommendations’ through the area Brigade Officers of the SLA. The SL Government Agent, Imelda Sugumar, who denied knowledge of the housing project proposed by the Indian Government, said the SL Presidential Secretariat was handling the distribution of Indian aid.
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Sinhalese being settled in Tamil village in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 11:02 GMT]
Lands in abandoned traditional Tamil village Thennaimaravaadi in Trincomalee district are being allocated three acres each to members of ‘home guards’, now known as Civil defence Force (CVF), dominated by Sinhalese. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Trincomalee is organizing the transfer of land on the instruction of the SLA headquarters in Colombo without the approval of local civil authority, Tamil sources allege.
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Report, devastating indictment of Sri Lanka military conduct, says Washington Post

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 00:25 GMT]
"The [UN] panel’s findings constituted a devastating indictment of the country’s [Sri Lanka's] military conduct during the final stage of the 28-year war, accusing government forces of shelling hospitals, no-fire zones and U.N. facilities, and blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid to victims of the war," Washington Post said Thursday, adding, "the panel calls on Sri Lanka to “issue a public acknowledgment of its role in and responsibility for extensive civilian casualties in the final stages of the war."" The UN officials told the Post that the release of the report had been delayed amid discussions with Sri Lanka over the possibility of including a rebuttal in the report.
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Petitions, complaints, warnings from Sri Lanka ahead of UN war crimes report

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2011, 22:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government has launched a petition campaign against the UN making public an expert panel’s report on war crimes committed during the final months of the island’s war. The campaign, launched Thursday by Sri Lanka’s Minister of Private Transport Services, C. B. Ratnayaka, aims to collect one million signatures. It comes two days after President Mahinda Rajapaksa called for annual May Day rallies to be directed against the UN report. Also on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister G.L. Peiris claimed releasing the report will damage the UN, while Mass Media minister Keheliya Rambukwella claimed the experts had written the report in just two weeks. The UN said earlier it will be releasing the much anticipated report on Friday.
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UN experts took bribes from LTTE supporters – SL minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2011, 15:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s minister for Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities, Wimal Weerawansa, accused the independent experts who authored a UN report on war crimes during the final months of Sri Lanka’s war, of having taken bribes from the Tamil Diaspora. His comments were reported in the state-run Daily News Thursday. Sinhala ultra-nationalist firebrand Weerawansa last July famously staged a fast-unto-death in front of the UN building in Colombo in response to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s appointment of the panel.
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BTF requests UN to release Panel report public, urges focus on Tamil Genocide in May

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 14:02 GMT]
The British Tamils Forum (BTF) has called upon global Tamils to come together in breaking the international silence on Tamil genocide while marking the remembrance this year of those who perished in Mu'l'livaaykkaal in May 2009. “Focusing the genocidal onslaught by the Sri Lankan state on Eezham Tamils in Mu'l'livaaykkaal and reiterating the now widely acknowledged demand for international investigations on war crimes and crimes against humanity, we should all target our efforts in convincing the global community on the core theme of the crime of genocide, which is establishing the ‘intent’ on the part of the Sri Lankan state behind a systematic destruction of the Eezham Tamil nation in the island,” Kana Nirmalan, a Human Rights activist of the BTF said when contacted by TamilNet Wednesday, following a media statement the organisation issued urging the UN to make the Panel report public.
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Colombo High Court postpones “White Flag” hearing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 12:44 GMT]
The Colombo High Court Wednesday allowed an application by the accused Sarath Fonseka, retired Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), to reconsider his decision to give evidence on behalf of the defense in the controversial “white flag” case due to the current tense situation in the island following the release of a portion of the UN Experts Panel report to the UN Secretary General, legal sources in Colombo said.
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Eastern campus students continue boycott

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 10:18 GMT]
Undergrads of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) did not attend classes Tuesday following the arrest of the President and Secretary of the University Students Union (USU) on Monday night, according to the acting Vice Chancellor Mr.K.Premkumar. The EUSL re-opened Tuesday after the closure following the boycott of classes in protest to the assault on Tamil undergrads by the police that took place on March 29. But the Student Union through a media statement on April 18 wanted its members to continue the boycott till the removal of the police sentry point from varsity premises when the EUSL administration decided to reopen the varsity on April 19.
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Tamil Nadu youth immolates himself for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 00:52 GMT]
Following the UN report calling for an international commission on the war crimes in the island of Sri Lanka, 25 years-old engineer Mr R. Krishnamoorthy, hailing from Thirunelvely District of Tamil Nadu, immolated himself and died on Monday, demanding that the next state government in Tamil Nadu should see Eezham Tamils get their separate country. Tamil Nadu state government should not sworn in until achieving this status for Eezham Tamils, Mr. Krishnamoorthy wrote in a note before his self-immolation at Sangaran Koyil in the southern district. Paying tributes to him, but at the same time requesting that others should not follow such models of action, MDMK leader Vaiko said Tamil Nadu should fight for the achievement of Tamil Eelam.
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Pillaiyan group robs houses in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2011, 03:44 GMT]
Personnel of the paramilitary group led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilliayan, chief minister of the Eastern provincial Council (EPC), have been involved in several robberies in the province, sources in the east said. On April 13, members of this group had robbed jewelry worth 1.5 million rupees from a house at Aaraiyampathi West Kaaddumaavadi area in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district after brandishing knives and threatening residents .
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Pillaiyan, Karuna paramilitary groups clash in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2011, 03:33 GMT]
Cadres of the para military group led by Pilliayan, who is the chief minister of the Eastern Provincial Council, assaulted a former cadre, Seenithamby Pakkiyarajah, 38, severely injuring him Sunday, sources in the east said. Pakkiyarajah was admitted to the Ka'luvaagnchikkudi Government Hospital. Pakkiyarajah had recently joined the para-military group led by Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan alias Karuna, who is now a Deputy Minister in the Mahinda Rajapakse government. The Ka'luvaagnchikkudi police have so far arrested two suspects in this regard.
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TNA urges GoSL not to miss the opportunity to engage in equality process

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2011, 18:38 GMT]
R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in his response to the leaked recommendations of the UN Panel, on Monday said that the TNA urged the Rajapaksa regime not to miss the opportunity to "constructively engage in a process which would result in all the Peoples of Sri Lanka being the beneficiaries of genuine democracy, equality and justice."
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Sri Lanka's conduct of war "serious challenge to International Order"

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2011, 11:14 GMT]
In an interview with Radio Australia, Gordon Weiss, a former UN spokesperson who accused Sri Lankan Government earlier of killing 10,000 to 40,000 Tamil civilians by discriminate shelling during the final stages of war, said that the real impact of the UN-panel's report "really in its absolute clarity that grave crimes were committed and that there must be an international judicial inquiry into it," and adds that he believes these "investigations will lead to a war crimes process."
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Trade unions allege politically motivated teacher transfer scheme in East

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2011, 08:57 GMT]
Teachers from the eastern province are being transferred contrary to the islandwide transfer policy but according to a political agenda of the Colombo government, the All Ceylon Teachers Union (ACTU) and All Ceylon Government Workers Union (ACGWU) have alleged. ACTU President Joseph Stalin said transfer of teachers in the eastern and western provinces are carried out according to the Mahinda Chinthanaya policy.
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Rajapaksa wants May Day rally against UN report

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2011, 06:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appealed to organizers of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to turn the May Day rally into a massive show of strength against the UN Experts Panel report and the people are with him despite accusation that the government had committed war crimes, according to a news report of the Sunday Times.
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100,000 civilians go missing in war’s final months – Channel 4

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 April 2011, 16:32 GMT]
Over 100,000 Tamil civilians remain unaccounted for after Sri Lanka’s onslaught in 2009 into the northern Vanni region, Channel 4 reported Saturday. Government census forms obtained by Channel 4 show 430,000 residents in Vanni in mid 2008. However internal UN documents also obtained by Channel 4 show only 290,000 people coming out of the final enclave overrun by the government’s troops and being put into its militarized internment camps. Only 60% of the original residents have returned, a Channel 4 source who recently visited Vanni also said.
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Panel’s report ‘cannot erase the stain on the UN’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 April 2011, 15:10 GMT]
The damning UN report on Sri Lanka’s mass killings of Tamil civilians in 2009 submitted last week to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon by a panel he appointed last year, “cannot erase the stain on the UN over its silence” during the bloodletting, The Times newspaper’s writer who first comprehensively reported on the violence said in a comment Friday. Catherine Philp recalling UN officials saying how the Ban’s chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, had ordered UN staff in Colombo to cover up the mass casualties being inflicted on Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan forces in 2009, so as not to “rock the boat” by criticising the Sri Lankan Government during its onslaught.
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Boyle reacts to UN report: "Creating Tamil Eelam, the only remedy"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2011, 23:25 GMT]
Reacting to the contents of the UN expert panel's report on Sri Lanka's war-crimes, Professor Boyle, expert in International Law, and Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet, "there is absolutely no way the GOSL [Government of Sri L anka] is going to implement any of them [panel's recommendations], and the GOSL has already rejected all of them, according to published reports. Therefore, under these circumstances of longstanding and ongoing genocide against them [the Tamils], the only effective remedy the Tamil People now have is to create the State of Tamil Eelam and move to have the International Community recognize it."
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"Prepared to go to gallows to save Motherland" - Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2011, 20:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during a meeting held at Temple Trees today with electoral officers, declared that he is willing to go even to gallows to safeguard his motherland. "Certain groups with vested interest are still hell bent on bringing disrepute to Sri Lanka, almost two years after the war was ended," Rajapakse said according to political sources in Colombo. Rajapakse made these statements in reference to the UN-panels report on Sri Lanka war crimes which was submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Sri Lanka-based paper Island leaked the executive summary of the report in an attempt to soften the damages before the UN releases the full report, a political observer in Colombo said.
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Tamil medium schools brought under Sinhala education zone in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2011, 16:19 GMT]
Four Tamil medium schools have been brought under the administration of newly carved out Sinhalese dominated Trincomalee North Education Zone which has its office at Gomarankadawela. Four Tamil medium schools are located in Morawewa (Muthalik-ku'lam) DS division and had been under the Trincomalee education zone till the end of March this year till the creation of a new Sinhala education zone
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Sinhalese demanding ransom captured by villages in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2011, 16:34 GMT]
The three men, who came in a white colored van, searching for the trader, had earlier claimed that they were from Pillayan's TMVP and issued a letter to the trader for a fee of 30,000 rupees while he was visiting Trincomalee. After issuing the letter, they also informed their contacts in Vavuniyaa military check-post while the trader was travelling back to Jaffna.
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Canada orders deportation of Mrs. Parajasingham

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2011, 03:41 GMT]
Canada has ordered the deportation of the widow of Joseph Pararajasingham, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian shot dead during at Christmas Mass in 2005 at packed church in the then Sri Lankan government-controlled Batticaloa town, the Toronto Star reported. Canada says 74 year old grandmother, Mrs. Sugunm Joseph, is a member “by association” of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), because her husband was a member of the TNA, the largest Tamil political party of Eezham Tamils in the island. Mr. Parajasingham was killed just weeks after President Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed office after the elections in November 2005.
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58 Tamils languish in Magazine prison for more than 12 years

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 April 2011, 10:52 GMT]
Information smuggled out of the notorious Magazine Prison in Borella, Colombo, reveal that 58 Tamil prisoners, 44 of them with no charges filed or charged without any viable court case or witnesses to prove guilt, are being held under the Island's Emergency Regulations in the prison for more than 12 years. One of the inmates told TamilNet that except two of the Tamil inmates who have relatives visiting them, most of the others have no visitor and are inflicted with illnesses arising from torture.
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Colombo dismisses UN report as "biased, flawed"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 April 2011, 02:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka's External Ministry Wednesday dismissed the report submitted to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon by his specially appointed 3-member panel of experts as "fundamentally flawed," and added that the report dealing with possible war crimes is based on "patently biased material which is presented without any verification." UN Office said Moon will Colombo the opportunity to review the report first, before making the report public. Meanwhile, human rights organizations exerted pressure on the UN for public release of the report, while expressing concern that UN is capable of "just burying the report."
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SLA killed my son - Dr. Manoharan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 April 2011, 01:19 GMT]
In a video released by Amnesty International in the wake of the submission of a Sri Lanka war-crimes report by a UN-panel to Ban Ki Moon, Dr Manoharan, father of one of the 5 Trincomalee students extra-judicially executed on 2nd January 2006, tells Amnesty that he will continue to challenge the Sri Lanka Government until he receives justice for the "criminal political murder" of his son. The video was shot during Dr. Manoharan's visit to New York during the last week of February 2011 to present the more than 55,000 signatures Amnesty received as part of Amnesty's campaign to urge the UN to begin investigations into the murder of the five Trincomalee students.
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British PM extends greetings on Tamil New Year

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 13:14 GMT]
Extending his warmest greetings to everyone celebrating the Tamil New Year, the British Prime Minister and the Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameroon, on Wednesday said he acknowledged the significant contribution the Tamil diaspora makes to many aspects of British society.
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Army to locate more checkpoints in Mannaar villages

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 12:27 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is preparing remove some of its check points in Mannaar town to open more check points in villages. Two SLA check points located close to the office of the Mannaar zonal education office in the town have been dismantled. These check points were in the area during war and even after the conclusion of the war.
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Local officials harass war widows in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 11:26 GMT]
War widows with their children residing alone in the border villages of Batticaloa district are still being intimidated and harassed by some village level officers of the Sri Lanka’s government led by President Mahinda Rajapakse, according to local civil sources. Responsible local government officials and non-governmental organizations are turning blind eye to complaints made by affected war-widows, civil sources say.
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SLA soldiers, para military attack local Tamil traders in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 11:19 GMT]
Local Tamil traders from Vadamunai, Pendugalseanai, Oothuchcheanai, Poththanai, Tharavai and Kudumpimalai areas in Chiththa'ndy division who had gone to collect milk from dairy farms in Paduwankarai area came under attack by soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and cadres of para military groups. SLA soldiers and para military cadres had attacked them asking them to show the hide outs of LTTE in the area, according to affected traders.
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World Bank helps Colombo’s colonialism of Tamil country

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 05:06 GMT]
When the effective link between northern and eastern parts of the country of Eezham Tamils are systematically neglected to disrupt the contiguity and to prevent the integration of Eezham Tamils, the World Bank on Tuesday has approved 100 million US dollar additional financing for road link of the east with the west to strengthen Colombo’s colonialism and the Colombo-centric subordination of Eezham Tamils. “Connecting people to prosperity between the East and West will be critical for Sri Lanka to realize its ambitious development goals,” said Diarietou Gaye, World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka.
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Pressure mounts on UNSG to make Sri Lanka war-crimes report public

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 00:05 GMT]
After the report on laws-of-war violations in Sri Lanka was submitted to the United Nation's Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, by a UN appointed 3-member panel of experts, prominent Rights organizations called on the UNSG to make the report public. While Ban's office said the UNSG will do so after Colombo has a chance to look at the report, the office did not set a time frame. Amnesty International said, "report on accountability for war crimes committed in the Sri Lankan armed conflict must be made public," and Human Rights Watch (HRW) added that "UNSG should use the findings to press for justice."
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Thinakkural vehicle hijacked in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2011, 09:09 GMT]
Three persons clad in police uniform hijacked a white van belonging to Thinakkural newspaper at Wall’s Lane in Modera, Monday 6:30 p.m., claiming that they were suspicious over documents that were in the van.
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Sinhala colonization threatens coastal areas of Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2011, 03:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse led United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has been implementing a planned scheme to settle Sinhalese persons in the southern coastal areas of Mu'l'lik-ku'lam, Thampapa'l'li in Ko'ndaichchi and areas along Madu road in the Mannaar district. Lands belonging to Tamil villagers in these areas are being grabbed to settle Sinhalese from the south, said Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni district parliamentarian in a statement to media.
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Tamil temple consecrated in Myanmar

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2011, 21:10 GMT]
Around 200, 000 devotees of all religions gathered at the Peelikan village near Yankon in Myanmar on Sunday to participate in the consecration ceremonies (Kudamuzhukku) of the Angkaa’la Parameasvari – Muneesvarar temple, which is popularly known as Aiyaa Koayil, reports Thiyagarajan Solai from Myanmar. The anthropological significance of this temple that was built 150 years ago is that it is revered as a kind of a ‘court of justice’ not only by the Tamil diaspora but also by the natives.
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UN served a ploy to surrender killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2011, 12:47 GMT]
Around 18 hours before the surrender of the LTTE Political Head B Nadesan and other civil officials of the LTTE that ended in their killing by the Sri Lanka Army, the UN officials served in the island met in Vavuniyaa and made plans to receive them on behalf of the UN. The UN officials were very well aware of who were coming to surrender, said a high-ranking UN worker who was involved in the arrangements to TamilNet on Monday. All the UN officers who served in the island at the time of the war are either no more in UN service or have left the island. The UN was used as a ploy in arranging and enacting the ‘surrender’ and then to kill the LTTE officials, Tamil political observers said. Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was in Colombo at the time.
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Bay Area Walk highlights "Tamil Genocide" in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2011, 11:11 GMT]
For the first annual Bay Area Walk Against Genocide which involved a 3-mile walk conducted in Oakland, California on Sunday April 10th, 2011, nearly 500 protesters turned up, organizers of the event said. "Activities providing a unique opportunity to meet local genocide survivors and their families, hearing their stories, and learning to make a difference by getting involved," participants in the protest campaign said. Several groups including the Darfur Coalition, Enough Project and Coalition of Tamils Against Genocide took part.
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Residents succeed in protest against SLA checkpost in Mannaar village

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2011, 06:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army had abandoned its move to set up a sentry in Pa'l'limunai village in Mannaar district Sunday due to vehement protest by residents. A group of SLA soldiers had gathered near the water tank in the village on Sunday morning and had been making arrangement to establish a sentry point.
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Buddhist monk threatens Moothoor Tamil farmers

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2011, 06:45 GMT]
A group of Sinhala hoodlum led by a Buddhist monk had chased away a group of Tamil famers who have been doing paddy cultivation in the fields in Muthalai-madu and Padukaadu in Seruwila division in Trincomalee district for the last four decades. Tamil farmers are from villages Paddiththidal, Ma'natcheanai and Ki'liveddi, who possess deeds for their paddy fields in Muthalai-madu and Padukaadu and have been doing cultivation since 1963.
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Seine-net beaches in Mullaiththeevu distributed to Sinhala fishermen

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2011, 15:27 GMT]
Traditional seine-net beaches (Karaivalai-paadu) of Eezham Tamils in the coastal tracts of Mullaiththeevu district are grabbed and distributed among Sinhala fishermen from the south by a team of SL fisheries officials from the south. The excuse is that the local Tamil fishermen in the LTTE controlled areas did not register their seine-net stretches with the SL fisheries ministry. 12 stretches in A’lampil, 8 stretches in Thoo’ndaavil and 5 stretches in Chemmalai are thus grabbed and given to the Sinhalese. The Mullaiththeevu Government Agent as well as the district fisheries director had no knowledge of what the Sinhala officials from the south were doing. Meanwhile, Sinhala fishermen in Kalpiddi in the south, after seeing Tamil Nadu trawlers in their waters, are meeting on Monday to mobilise ‘Jaffna-Sinhala’ corporation against ‘Indian poaching.’
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Robert Blake’s ‘reconciliation’ is farming in Tamil land for SL military

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2011, 12:02 GMT]
While the US Asst Secretary of State Robert O Blake testified before the US Foreign Affairs Committee on the “reduction of the reach of High Security Zones” (HSZ) in the island to support his vision of progress that is taking place towards the US State Department-conceived paradigm of ‘reconciliation,’ evidences that come from Jaffna show that the occupying genocidal SL military is engaged in full-fledged farming and horticulture in the largest HSZ in Jaffna Peninsula, reportedly by using slave labour of the captured LTTE cadres. The Valikaamam HSZ, created after uprooting villages, is in the best of the fertile lands and the occupying military has already leased out large tracts of them to Sinhala businessmen. If farming could take place why mines are an excuse to hand over the lands to the owners, ask Tamils.
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North-East ITAK local councilors take oaths in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 April 2011, 20:39 GMT]
Seventy six councilors, elected under Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) ticket on behalf of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for the fifteen local authorities in North and East, took oaths on Saturday at Trincomalee Town Hall in the presence of Mr.R.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the TNA and President of the ITAK, sources in Trincomalee said. Sampanthan is also the Trincomalee district parliamentarian.
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Sampanthan presides oath taking event of ITAK local councilors

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 April 2011, 05:36 GMT]
The oath taking event of seventy six councilors of the fifteen local bodies in the North and East is scheduled to be held on Saturday in Trincomalee Town Hall. Mr.R.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the President of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) arrived in Trincomalee Friday evening to preside over the event. The event was earlier fixed for Sunday.
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HRW demands accountability for wartime disappearances

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2011, 05:19 GMT]
Human Rights Watch, a New York based rights organization, said in a press release issued Friday that "[t]hrough interviews with relatives of the missing and witnesses, published testimony, and media reports, Human Rights Watch found that more than 20 people who were taken into army custody between May 16 and 18, 2009, appear to have been forcibly disappeared. Most of them are known to have been detained in the Vadduvaakal area, just south of the strip of land in northeastern Sri Lanka where the final battle between the LTTE and government forces occurred. At the time, the area was controlled by the Sri Lankan army’s 59 Division," and demanded that Colombo "should account for everyone who was taken into custody."
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Emergency extended for another month in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2011, 05:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka parliament Thursday evening adopted the motion by the government to extend the state of emergency for another month with a majority of 81 votes. 98 parliamentarians from the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituents voted for the motion, parliamentary sources said.
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Eastern Tamil, Muslim nurses barred from voting in Nursing Council elections

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2011, 00:44 GMT]
Majority of Tamil and Muslim nurses in the eastern province have their voting rights violated in the election of office bearers of the Sri Lanka Nurses Council scheduled to take place on Saturday in Colombo, according to provincial nurses’ union sources. 11 members of the 19 member Nurses Council are to be elected at Saturday election.
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Abductions of under-age youth escalate in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 April 2011, 23:05 GMT]
Unidentified men from South last Sunday abducted a 13-year-old Tamil boy, K. Diluxon, from Uruththirapuram in Ki'linochchi. The boy managed to escape from his abductors while they parked their vehicle in Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old girl, Sangarapillai Maithrayi, from Vallaarai in Thenmaraadchi in Jaffna district was reported missing since Monday, according to complaints registered at Human Rights Commission in Jaffna.
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SL parliament debates emergency extension motion

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 April 2011, 11:27 GMT]
While moving a motion to seek the approval of House to extend the State of Emergency for another month, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne Thursday claimed in parliament that LTTE’s international network remain intact even after LTTE's defeat two years ago in the battlefield. Jayaratne referred to the talks between with US Assistant Secretary of State and the representatives of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and the British Tamil Forum (BTF) recently. The State of Emergency is being extended every month with the approval of the parliament since August 2005.
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Pillayan's driver arrested for assaulting SL policeman

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2011, 17:47 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police in Batticaloa arrested Tuesday the driver of the Eastern Provincial Chief Minister's vehicle on a complaint that the driver and his group had assaulted an SL Police Constable who was on duty at the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital. Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a para military group leader, is the chief minister of the EPC.
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Fishermen spot dead bodies of SLN sailors in the seas off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2011, 17:13 GMT]
Tamil fishermen from Vadamaraadchi East on Wednesday said they spotted dead bodies of uniformed Sri Lanka Navy sailors floating in the seas off Vadamaraadchi East while the fishermen went for fishing. There were also reports that four Tamil Nadu fishermen had gone missing in the seas. In the meantime, two decomposed bodies of males without clothes have been washed ashore in Jaffna during the last 48 hours.
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SLA officer killed in accident, driver beaten up by SL soldiers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2011, 17:12 GMT]
A junior Sri Lanka Army officer was killed on the spot and another soldier was wounded on A9 Highway at Ira'naimadu junction in Ki'linochchi Wednesday around 10:00 a.m. when a tipper truck, coming from Vavuniyaa, hit the motorbike of the SL soldiers. The driver of the vehicle was severely beaten up by the SLA soldiers at the site.
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‘SL forces want Emergency extended for colonizing East’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2011, 12:11 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa, Pakiaselvam Ariyanethiran, Tuesday night told media that Sri Lankan forces were staging search operations in the three districts of Eastern Province to justify Colombo's “need” to extend the Emergency in the island. The Sri Lanka Army with the SL Police on Tuesday launched major cordon and search operation simultaneously in all the three districts of the Eastern province for the first time since the end of Vanni war. Meanwhile, Tamil residents of border villages in the East said the SLA had put up new road blocks and had issued warnings asking for details of those who were protesting against Sinhalese being settled along the border villages.
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Tamil national activist attacked in London

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2011, 19:09 GMT]
Two unidentified men attacked Eezham Tamil nationalist R. Soosaipillai, known as Thanam, in front of his house in London Monday night. Mr. Thanam, a veteran activist, was one of the key persons who supported the successful re-mandate of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution in UK that democratically reaffirmed the Eezham Tamil aspiration for an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in January 2010. He served as a mobilisation coordinator in the British Tamil Forum (BTF) during the crucial time 2008 – 2010. Thanam, who once served the infrastructure of the Tamil national cause for 21 years, is also one who grasped the transition of the times with perception. The 47-year-old activist has been a force behind major Tamil public events in UK including the Heroes Day remembrances. In his capacity, he has always been in touch with the law and order agencies of UK.
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IMF approves $218M loan to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2011, 11:20 GMT]
Completing the sixth review under the Stand-By arrangement (SBA) for Sri Lanka, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved US $218.3 million for immediate disbursement bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to an amount equivalent to SDR 1.10 billion (about US$ 1.75 billion), IMF reported in its website. The SBA was approved on July 24, 2009 for an amount equivalent to SDR 1.65 billion (about US$ 2.62 billion), or 400 percent of Sri Lanka's quota.
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Tamil boy reported missing in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2011, 10:46 GMT]
14-year-old M.Puvithas a resident of Thambalawatte village in Vellaave’li police division has been reported missing since Monday afternoon.
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Body of Muslim man recovered in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2011, 04:20 GMT]
The body of Mohamathu Sharifuthamby, 65, father of five children, was recovered near a tank located in the close proximity of a camp of the Sri Lanka Army at Naavaladi junction, about 3 km off Vaa’laichcheanai in Batticaloa district on Monday. Relatives said Sharifuthamby left home for fishing in the tank and did not return. The police recovered the body on receipt of information from residents of Paa’laikaaduve’ddai within the Vaa’laichche’nai police division.
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Australia soft on prosecuting Kohona's alleged war-crimes - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2011, 03:01 GMT]
Professor Gideon Boas of Monash University School of Law, in an article appearing in Sydney Morning Herald, criticized the Australian Government for its reluctance to prosecute war criminals, and pointed to the recent filing by two Tamil organizations of war-crime charges in the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Dr Palitha Kohona who is an Australian citizen and formerly a senior official with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. While Prof Boas said the factual case has problems and complexities, the Tamil organizations that filed the case said that new key witnesses to the Kohona's alleged crimes have come forward and that a "superceding complaint" will likely be filed with ICC once a legally admissible deposition is obtained from the new witnesses.
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Security for resettling Tamils in Batticaloa's border villages abysmal

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 April 2011, 21:18 GMT]
28 Tamils, most of them family men with many children, have been reported disappeared since 2008 in Batticaloa's border villages with the Sinhala districts, human rights activists in Batticaloa say. Tamil women who have lost their husbands are subjected to sexual harassments under the highly militarised condition prevailing in these villages. I'rakkaka'di villagers in Ea'raavoor-pattu in Chengkaladi division have refused to resettle without proper security to them.
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Sinhala hoodlum attack Up-Country Tamils after SL defeat in Cricket final

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 April 2011, 16:39 GMT]
Sinhala hoodlum including some Muslims were on the rampage in the several parts of the upcountry attacking Up-Country Tamils of Tamil Nadu origin following the defeat of the Sri Lanka to India in the World Cup final that was held in Mumbai in India last Saturday. The unruly mob had entered line rooms of upcountry Tamil families and damaged the household properties and causing cut injuries to three Tamil youths, according to Mr.Arumugan Thondaman, leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by Mahinda Rajapaksa. About 25 upcountry Tamil youths had been admitted in Dikkoya hospital with cut injuries caused by sharp weapons.
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Book on India’s war crimes against Eezham Tamils released in New Delhi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2011, 20:33 GMT]
A new book on the war crimes committed by the ‘Indian Peace Keeping Force’ (IPKF) against Eezham Tamil civilians during 1987-1989 has been released at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Campus in New Delhi, Friday. The book, “In the Name of Peace: IPKF Massacres of Tamils in Sri Lanka” was documented by the Northeast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR) and was published by the Delhi Tamil Students Union. The book release organized by The Coordinating Committee for Oppressed Nationalities was followed by the screening of a documentary film, “Mullaiththeevu Saga” by Someetharan on the genocide of Eezham Tamils. Observers said that opinion prevailed among the panellists and audience favoured the Eezham Tamil right to secede.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2011, 19:11 GMT]
Sivakuru Ganeshalingam, 47, resident of Periyakallaaru has been reported disappeared since March 23, according to complaints made by his relatives with the Batticaloa Police, sources in Batticaloa said. Ganeshalingam left Batticaloa to Colombo on that day and his relatives have lost contact with him, the complaint states.
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Forced registration in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2011, 19:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has instructed residents of Vellaveli in Batticaloa district to register with the village level officers (Grama Niladhari-GN), civil society sources in Batticaloa said. The SLA has directed the GN to submit all names of residents of the village in forms supplied to them. SLA has also directed the villagers to indicate whether the household members include ex-cadres of the LTTE and disabled due to conflict. This has caused tension and fear among the villagers.
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Rajapaksa's LLRC seeks Buddhist Prelates guidance to prepare final report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2011, 13:34 GMT]
Members of Rajapaksa appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) had met the Mahanayaka Theras of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters last week to seek guidance before preparing the final report scheduled to be presented by May 15, according to a news report published in English weekly Lakbima on Sunday. The Buddhist prelates exercise a dominant influence on the Sri Lankan regime.
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SL Police conducts search operation in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 April 2011, 11:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police has launched a cordon and search operation and house to house checking in Mannaar district including the town since Thursday for the first time in two years since the end of war in Vanni in 2009.
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Rae criticizes Conservative ad

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 April 2011, 05:28 GMT]
Pointing out that "[t]he Tamil community is a source of pride to Canada – its members continue to make a huge contribution to our country [Canada]," Bob Rae, former Ontario Premier and a prominent Canadian politician, said the Conservative advertisement on human smuggling using the picture of the MV Sun Sea is "based on fear, and is directly prejudicial to a fair determination of refugee claims."
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EPC employees not paid flood relief salary advance

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2011, 12:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka General Employees Union (SLGEU) accused the Chief Minister of Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) and the ruling party members for not taking action over the failure to provide flood relief salary advance to employees coming under the EPC due to contradictory circulars issued by the Provincial Governor and the Chief Secretary of the EPC, according to a memorandum sent by SLGEU to the Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse. SLGEU President Mr.S.Loganathan and Secretary Mr.I.M.Ibralebbe have signed the memorandum.
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JDS calls for immediate release of arrested Sri Lanka journalist

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2011, 12:22 GMT]
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an group of Tamil and Sinhalese exiled journalists from Sri Lanka condemned the "outrageious arrest" of journalist and news editor of Lankaenews website, Benett Rupasinghe, and called for his immediate release. Rupasinghe was arrested on March 31 by Sri Lanka Police which the JDS called "another act of intimidation agaisnt media freedom."
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US initiated ‘contact groups’ to militarily weaken Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2011, 12:04 GMT]
Two international ‘contact groups', one each to check LTTE fund-raising and arms purchases were initiated by the U.S, in the first half of 2006, says The Hindu article Friday, based on the US cables accessed by The Hindu through Wikileaks. A cable sent in August 2006 from the US Embassy in New Delhi discloses the composition of the contact groups for the first time: representatives of Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States, The Hindu feature further said.
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ITAK local councilors of North, East to take oath in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2011, 06:55 GMT]
76 councilors of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) elected to fifteen local authorities and Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of twelve local authorities are scheduled to take oaths on April 10 Sunday morning at Trincomalee Town Hall in the presence of Mr.R.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the president of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK). ITAK is the major constituent of the TNA. Earlier TNA decided to have the event on March 31 but it was later postponed to April 10 enabling Sampanthan to attend the event, party sources said.
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