Vallai Textile Mills inaugurated defying SLA obstruction

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2010, 16:46 GMT]
Board of Directors of Vallai ‘Ceylon Spinning & Textile Mills Ltd.’ located in Uduppiddi in Vadamaraadchhi inaugurated the re-establishment project of the above concern by unveiling its name board defying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) orders to keep out of the site on claims that it is reserved as ‘Army Land’, Vadamaraadchi sources said. SLA officials stopped Tuesday the initial efforts by Uduppiddi Welfare Society and other public organizations to renovate Vallai ‘Ceylon Spinning & Textile Mills Ltd.’ which had ceased to function for more than twenty years due to war. The event was followed by a public meeting attended by nearly a hundred persons including local residents and members of Uduppiddi Welfare Society and other public organizations of the area.
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Imelda Sukumar assumes duties as Jaffna GA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 13:47 GMT]
The Government Agent (GA) for Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, Imelda Sukumar, officially assumed duties as GA Jaffna district Tuesday in place of outgoing Jaffna GA, K. Ganesh, whose term was extended after the announcement of his retirement on July 01 following alleged influence exerted by Northern Province Governor, former Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Douglas Devananda, a minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet. Three days ago, Ms. Imelda Sukumar was again asked to assume duties as GA in Jaffna, cancelling the decision to keep Mr. Ganesh as GA in Jaffna for another six months.
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Devananda, Perumal join hands in new forum

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 08:45 GMT]
A group named 'Tamil Political Parties Forum' (TPPF) of nine Tamil Political parties, paramilitary cum political parties and activists allegedly backed by New Delhi and Colombo, has been formed with the aim to explore ways of finding solution for the problems of the Tamil people in the North and East, political sources in Colombo said. Varatharaja Perumal, Chandrahasan and PLOTE Siddharthan, already known to have close links with New Delhi, have joined hands with M.K. Sivajilingam, a former TNA MP, Anandasangaree of TULF, Pillayan from TMVP and Kumarakuruparan of Democratic People Front in creating the forum. The move has been initiated by Shereen Xavier of Home for Human Rights and Douglas Devananda, the leader of EPDP, who is aligned with Mahinda Rajapaksa government.
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Central Bank of Ceylon opens Northern Provincial Office in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 18:44 GMT]
Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri officially opened the Northern Provincial Office of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Jaffna in a private building on Arasadi Veethi in Jaffna Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander Major Gen. Mahinda Kathurasinghe participating in the event walked out when he was called upon to light the traditional lamp as he was dissatisfied with the seating arrangement, apparently because he was not given his due place, the sources added.
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Colombo sinhalicises Ampaa'rai District Secretariat

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2010, 04:38 GMT]
Biased Sinhala officials in Ampaa’rai District Secretariat have been taking steps to transfer all Tamil officials working there in an effort to convert it a Sinhala only office. As a first step a Tamil Assistant Director of Planning has been transferred out of Ampaa’rai District Secretariat causing hardships to Tamil people in the district.
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Jaffna GA K. Ganesh receives sudden extension for 6 months

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 12:12 GMT]
The Jaffna District Government Agent K.Ganesh who retired Wednesday received another six months extension with effect of July 1, on the recommendation of Douglas Devananda, EPDP leader and a minister in Rajapaksa's government, sources at the Department of Public Administration said Thursday.
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Clash of Roadmaps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 19:33 GMT]
The Mahinda – KP move handled by the military intelligence of Sri Lanka, whether a culmination of a long-term strategy or a move to probe the diaspora, is now backfiring against Colombo, is backfiring against some international actors harping on wrong notions of reconciliation and is backfiring against some elements in the diaspora which were long dreaming on the success of this move to trail behind with their tangential politics.
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Sand dunes scooped at Ma'n'niththalai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 07:56 GMT]
Similar to the plunder of limestone in the Jaffna Peninsula, agents of Colombo are now engaged in scooping the sand dunes of the Ma’n’niththalai sandbar, which is of immense natural beauty and of archaeological as well as tourist potentiality, sources in Poonakari said. The fragile ecology of the densely populated Jaffna Peninsula is deliberately destroyed by corporates in the construction industry and by their contractors, academics in Jaffna said. The plunder of resources in Jaffna and Vanni are divided among Douglas Devandanda and Namal Rajapaksa respectively. Meanwhile percentage of benefits from large-scale 'development' contracts goes to Basil Rajapaksa and the income extracted by the military goes to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, informed circles said.
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Continuing ‘counter insurgency’ approach to chronic national question

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 11:41 GMT]
Colombo’s latest deployment of Selvarasa Pathmanathan (KP), a victim of circumstances, to blunt the Eezham Tamil struggle only reveals that ‘counter insurgency’ is the style continued to be envisaged by some powers in approaching the chronic national question in the island, commented Tamil circles watching the developments. The move, bereft of any political promises, but aiming at roping in the diaspora for ‘development,’ comes after the visit of G L Peiris to Washington, Robert Blake lamenting that still “some polarisation” exists in the island and amidst heavy visits of dignitaries in the last couple of weeks. The move is not surprising. It is a sequence of a long-existing design, operated simultaneously through good and ugly faces of the West, observers said. The KP operation in Colombo is handled by a controversial group of foreign-trained Sri Lankan military intelligence personnel.
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Champika Ranawaka visits to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 17:29 GMT]
“Identified United National Party men were responsible for the burning of Jaffna Public Library that was the foremost library in South East Asia and a valuable cultural asset of Tamils and I as a Sinhalese and a Sri Lankan cannot pardon the atrocious act,” Power and Energy Minister and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) theoretician Patali Champika Ranawaka said Monday in an event in Jaffna Public Library where he donated a batch of books to the library. Mr. Ranawaka is a key founder of Sinhala extremist National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT) in 1998 and Sinhala Urumaya (SU) in 2000. He was known for his Nazi shade of anti-Semitism, in his speeches comparing Tamils with Jews and Sinhalese with Aryans.
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Sri Lanka one country, unitary state: Namal Rajapaksa, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 16:38 GMT]
“Sri Lanka is one country and a unitary state,” Namal Rajapakse, MP and son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa said speaking at the event where Minister Douglas Devananda officially inaugurated a boat service Sunday around 11:00 a.m at Ma’n’niththalai jetty in Poonakarai, sources in Jaffna said. “Douglas is a model person to the Tamils of the country as he sets an example by cooperating with the government in the development of the whole country,” he added. Meanwhile, civil society circles in Jaffna said that Namal Rajapaksa had praised Douglas Devananda in an effort to pacify him as Namal Rajapaksa had brought five of his own boats to be engaged in the boat service between Kurunakar and Poonakari in the project which was initiated by minister Douglas Devananda.
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Namal Rajapaksa’s men monopolize Jaffna-Poonakari boat service

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 05:40 GMT]
The new boat service between Kurunakar and Poonakari in the North which is to be inaugurated Sunday by Namal Rajapaksa, son of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is to be entirely serviced by boats owned by him, sources in Jaffna said. Colombo government and the powerful men from South are exploiting all possible sources of income in Jaffna peninsula, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented.
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Douglas Devananda says charges against him in Madras High Court will be dropped Monday

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 June 2010, 16:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda, just returned after his visit to India with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, told media Friday that the charges against him filed in Tamil Nadu Courts will be dropped when they will be taken up for hearing in the Mandras High Court Monday. He said this in a press meet held through phone at Srithar theatre in Jaffna. According to The Times of India, Tamil Nadu lawyer P. Pugalenthi, the secretary of Tamil Nadu Peoples Rights Forum, a pro-Eezham Tamil body, had filed a petition that action should be taken against Mr. Devananda since the VIth Additional Sessions Judge in June 1994 had issued a proclamation warrant treating him as an 'absconding accused' in the case relating to the killing of a city resident in 1986.
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Tamil Nadu delegation not satisfied after meeting Rajapaksa in New Delhi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 June 2010, 16:49 GMT]
A delegation of 21 MPs from Tamil Nadu led by T.R. Baalu failed to secure concrete assurances on political settlement, release of Prisoners of War or resettlement of Tamils after meeting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in New Delhi on Wednesday. In a televised comment in Sun News, Mr. T.R. Balu said that there was some progress, but added he was not satisfied with the output of the meeting. The Sri Lankan delegation headed by Mr. Rajapaksa and the Indian delegation led by Dr. Manmohan Singh inked seven agreements, which included bilateral counter-insurgency and corporate deals. In the meantime, fifteen Tamil Nadu fishermen from Rameswaram were admitted to hospital after they were stripped off their clothes, tortured with ice on their heads and were forced to eat salt and raw fish by the Sri Lanka Navy on Tuesday off Kachchatheevu in Palk Strait, media reports in Tamil Nadu said.
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Jaffna District Union for persons disappeared after arrest meets after 8 years

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 June 2010, 17:25 GMT]
The Jaffna District Union for persons disappeared after being arrested by Sri Lanka Armed Forces which met in Jaffna town Monday after eight years extended an appeal to all political parties to forget their differences and cooperate with dedication to trace the youths and young women disappeared after arrest by the armed forces, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, there were many participants in the meeting who said that Minister Douglas Devnananda had told them that their children are under detention by Army Intelligence Division, during his campaigns in the last parliamentary election meeting.
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Mahinda Rajapakse to hold talks with TNA, EPDP before leaving to India

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 June 2010, 20:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has invited the representatives of Tamil National (TNA) for talks on the eve of his visit to India Tuesday, sources in Colombo said. The president has also invited representatives of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) led by Minister Douglas Devananda for talks to be held following his meeting with TNA representatives Monday evening, the sources added. Meanwhile, the joint statement by Sri Lanka and India to be released following the meeting with the heads of both governments in India is expected to include the various development projects that are to be launched in Jaffna peninsula, the sources added.
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Sri Lanka delegation to India named

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 June 2010, 16:53 GMT]
The delegation led by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa scheduled to leave for India on a four day official visit on Tuesday will include External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, Ministers Keheliya Rambukwella and Douglas Devananda, and Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, according to a news report carried by State run Sunday Observer.
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India wants TNA proposals submitted to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 June 2010, 06:11 GMT]
Top officials of the Indian government have advised the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to consider submitting its devolution proposals to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa before he leaves to New Delhi on June 7, informed diplomatic sources in Colombo said. The move has come as the Indian Establishment, locked in a corporate race with China, has been pushing Colombo to finalise the bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which New Delhi wants signed when Mahinda Rajapaksa visits India. In the meantime, the TNA leadership has invited Tamil parties, except Douglas Devananda, through Tamil channels, to join hands with the alliance before facing the provincial elections in the North. The invitation has also been extended to paramilitary-cum-political outfits aligned with India.
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Minister Douglas Devananda to launch a new Tamil daily in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2010, 16:32 GMT]
The leader of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister in the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), who continues to publicly accuse the three Tamil dailies published in Jaffna of having denied him and his party equal opportunity and sufficient cooperation during the last parliamentary elections, is actively engaged in launching a new Tamil daily in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Minister Devananda had in person offered higher wages to the members of the editorial boards of the three dailies published in Jaffna in an attempt to lure them to his new daily, the sources added.
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Colombo conducts ‘fake’ conference in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 May 2010, 19:27 GMT]
Northern government department and corporation key officials urgently directed by their superiors to attend a conference Monday in Ki’linochchi in Vanni to discuss resettlement of people uprooted due to war in North were disillusioned to find that the conference failed to address the issues meant, participants in the conference said. The conference, attended by several key ministers including Wimal Weeravansa and Douglas Devananda besides many parliamentarians from the South, revealed the glaring absence of essential matters like allocation of funds for resettlement or definite plans for resettlement, the sources added. Colombo government has enacted another ‘drama’ to show the world that it is able to convene a conference in Ki’linochchi town just as the Liberation Tigers had done in their days, political circles in North said.
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