Rajapakse to visit Iran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2007, 21:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse is scheduled to pay his first official visit to Iran from October 24 to 26. During his stay in Teheran Rajapakse is to hold talks with Iranian President regarding strengthening diplomatic ties including defence between the two countries, media reports in Colombo said.
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TNA parliamentarians visit fasting detainees at Colombo prison

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2007, 14:46 GMT]
Three Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, Sivanathan Kishore, P. Ariyanenthran and K.Pathmanathan visited Thursday the Tamil political detainees who have launched a fast-unto-death campaign at the remand prison in Welikada. The prisoners handed over three separate petitions to be forwarded to the visiting UN Human Rights High Commissioner Louise Arbour, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Attorney General C.R.de Silva.
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"Separation inevitable if power continues to polarize with ethnic hegemony" - Mano Ganesan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2007, 13:07 GMT]
Mano Ganesan MP, the leader of the Western Province People's Front (WPPF) and the convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), engaged in monitoring abductions, addressing the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, at the UN office in Colombo, on Thursday, said that the Tamils would be forced to seek separation as the only alternative if the Sri Lankan government failed to satisfy the "Sri Lankan dream," which he described as a dreamland with political power sharing between all the ethnic communities, where there are no places for war, abductions, extra judicial killings and where there is no room for polarization of political power with ethnic hegemony.
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Thondaman rejoins Rajapaksa cabinet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2007, 07:17 GMT]
Ceylon Workers Congress leader Arumugam Thondaman and four CWC members have rejoined Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet Thursday morning. Mr. Thondaman and the other CWC members had resigned from Rajapaksa's cabinet in August after being insulted by Basil Rajapaksa, the brother of Sri Lankan president, using a racial slur.
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UN envoy meets Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2007, 06:12 GMT]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Louise Arbour, is due to meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Thursday. She met Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mr.Mahinda Samarasinghe on Wednesday morning and discussed with him in detail the human rights situation on the ground, UN sources said.
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SLA intelligence officer, soldier shot in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2007, 17:10 GMT]
An unknown armed person shot and wounded a Sri Lanka Army intelligence officer and a soldier at Maligawatte in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo Friday around 2:40 p.m., police said. The two military personnel in plain-cloth were riding in a three-wheeler along Jumma Masjeed road.
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Gotabhaya bans transport of livestock from abandoned Tamil homes in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 October 2007, 08:55 GMT]
Acting on a complaint made by Ameer Ali, Sri Lankan minister of disaster relief services, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan defense secretary, has instructed teh Batticaloa district commanding officer of Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Superintendents of Police and officers of Special Task Force (STF) to ban the transport of livestock belonging to Tamils from the areas in Batticaloa district, recently brought under the control of the SLA. Tamils in these areas have repeatedly lodged complaint with Mr. Ameer Ali that cattle from their homes were being systematically stolen out of the district by paramilitaries and Sri Lankan soldiers and sold in Sinhala areas of the Polonnaruwa district.
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International Chakkadaththaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 October 2007, 13:38 GMT]
The main reason why Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict couldn’t be resolved all these decades was that it was approached as a terrorist issue. The approach, which served the convenience and deceit of the Sinhala politicians, was endorsed by the world system, because everybody had skeletons in their cupboards. It was a general debility of international polity and political ideologies to resolve situations similar to that of Sri Lanka. As a result, the mainstream international system has led the world into an Age of Paranoia. The bigger the State, the bigger is the paranoia, writes Opinion Columnist Ampalam.
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UN envoy meets Sri Lankan Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 October 2007, 02:35 GMT]
UN special Rapporteaur Mr.Manfred Nowak Monday held talks with Sri Lankan Minister of Human Rights Mr.Mahinda Samarasinghe at the latter's office. The talks centred on the condition of detainees held in detention camps and prisons under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations, according to sources close to the Minister.
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UNP drops federalism

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2007, 11:15 GMT]
The decision by Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) to ditch the federal constitutional model as a solution to the island’s protracted ethnic conflict makes it the last of the major southern parties to embrace Sinhala nationalism again. In doing so, the former ‘pro-peace’ party may finally have resolved its ethnic dilemma.
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UN Special Rapporteur on Torture visits Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2007, 05:21 GMT]
Mr.Manfred Nowak, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Human Rights Abuse arrived in Colombo Sunday morning around 9 a.m. During his one-week stay till October 8 he is to hold talks with authorities concerned and victims of torture and human rights abuse, according to human rights sources in Colombo.
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Tamil sovereignty, basis of peace talks - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2007, 17:37 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), in a statement issued Monday, urged the UN General Assembly which has gathered for its 62nd session in New York, USA, to recognize the concept of the sovereignty of the Tamil people and support the peace process in accordance with this principle. The LTTE statement characterized the confidence of some members of the International Community on Sri Lanka's latest All Party Representative Committee (APRC) which has not brought any constructive outcome to date, as a misplaced confidence.
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Barmy Army to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2007, 08:49 GMT]
The British High Commissioner, speaking at the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association in Habarana, on Saturday, praised the tourism potentiality of Sri Lanka and the "smiling faces" of Sri Lankan people. He was hopeful of England's touring fans, the Barmy Army to Sri Lanka on the eve of England's cricket tour. Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan academic in the field of cultural tourism told TamilNet that western tourists, ever crazy about novelty, chose Sri Lanka as a destination in recent times to get the thrill of being in a war zone.
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World must rein in Sri Lankan state – TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2007, 11:13 GMT]
Protesting that the Sri Lankan government had discarded negotiating a settlement to the island’s ethnic conflict, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)urged the international community to take a principled stand on the Tamil people’s right to self determination. Outlining the humanitarian and human rights crisis that has emerged in the wake of Colombo’s military project, the TNA also argued: “the Sri Lankan State will not conform to international norms or standards. It is only by the International Community … taking meaningful steps, can the Sri Lankan State be made to realize that it cannot continue with the present disastrous trend.”
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Kumaratunge to visit New York

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2007, 05:19 GMT]
Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge, former President of Sri Lanka, is scheduled to leave for New York Tuesday morning at the invitation of Bill Clinton Foundation. Her US visit coincides with President Mahinda Rajapakse trip to New York. Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge held the Executive Presidency post from 1994 till 2005, for two terms.
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TNA urges resettlement of Musali displaced

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 September 2007, 11:13 GMT]
Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, TNA Wanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, in an urgent letter, has appealed to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse to take steps to resettle all families displaced from Musali divisional secretariat division in Mannaar district before the northeast monsoon, TNA sources said.
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SL President's Commission of Inquiry fails - IIGEP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2007, 15:34 GMT]
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), tasked to monitor the progress of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Commission of Inquiry (CoI), set up to investigate and inquire into serious violations of Human Rights, on Tuesday, charged that there was no substantial progress since the inception of the Commission. The IIGEP has been concerned that the Commission had not fulfilled its obligation of full disclosure and concluded that the investigation and inquiry process to date fails to comply effectively with international norms and standards.
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LTTE's patience intentional - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2007, 08:18 GMT]
"Without caring for International policies and passive requests, the Government of Sri Lanka is continuing its genocidal war against the Tamil people. The concerns raised by the International Community have failed to make any dent on the ethnic cleansing by Colombo government which has proved itself a terrorist-state. Some International governments, without understanding realities, give aid to the deceitful purposes of the Sinhala government, which will only escalate the island's ethnic conflict to hitherto unseen heights," said LTTE's Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Wednesday.
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Basil Rajapakse appointed National List MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2007, 18:59 GMT]
Basil Rajapakse, senior advisor and brother of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse is to be sworn in as National List parliamentarian when the parliament meets on Wednesday, parliamentary sources in Colombo said. His name has been forwarded to the Commissioner of Elections by the General Secretary of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Susil Premajayanth Tuesday to fill the vacancy created with the death of Mr.Anwer Ismail, a minister in the present government last week.
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SL Parliament to debate Rajapakse-LTTE bribe allegation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2007, 11:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka Parliament is to debate an adjournment motion moved by Mr.Sripathi Sooriyarachchi, co-ordinator of the Peoples Wing of he Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on Thursday on the controversial allegation that Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse had given money to the LTTE on the eve of 2005 November presidential election.
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