Teachers oppose political pressure on Jaffna University to back Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 December 2014, 23:04 GMT]
The administration of the University of Jaffna is under pressure from the Colombo government and its occupying military in Jaffna to issue a statement supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa at the forthcoming SL presidential elections. The members of the Jaffna University Teaches Union have opposed the move after seeing the draft letter that has been on private circulation among a few Deans and Heads of Departments, informed sources at the University told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Ex-LTTE members forced to vote for Rajapaksa at postal voting in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2014, 21:17 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has forced around 4,000 former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are under the captivity of the so-called Civil Security Division (CSD) in Vanni, to vote for the incumbent SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa through postal voting, which concluded on Wednesday. In the meantime, a special unit of SL military personnel, led by the officers handpicked by the SL presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has been monitoring the rank and file of the SL military stationed in the North. A section of the Sinhala soldiers, who have been advocating against the re-election of Mahinda Rajapaksa have been subjected to investigations by this special unit, informed sources told TamilNet.
Full story >>

Tamils can't endorse Sinhala-centric presidential election: TCSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 December 2014, 16:07 GMT]
As long as Sri Lanka’s democratic practice and culture is driven by chauvinist Sinhala Buddhist politics no change of form of Government is going to benefit the Tamil people,” the Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) said in a statement issued on Tuesday. The denial of democracy that the Sinhalese suffer now is result of them being by-standers, endorsing the anti-Tamil agenda of successive Governments. “[T]he Tamil people do not have to take a collective stance at the forthcoming elections. To explicitly call for a vote for either of the main candidates will be tantamount to accepting a unitary constitution and to rejecting international investigations,” the TCSF further said noting that both the main candidates election are in denial of the problems being faced by the Tamil people and that they have taken positions contrary to Tamil interests.
Full story >>

Controversial SL minister Badurdeen backs Sirisena

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2014, 13:21 GMT]
Rishad Badurdeen, a cabinet minister in the Rajapaksa regime, who has been causing ethnic unrest between the Muslims and Tamils in the North has defected from SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and joined hands with the joint opposition on Monday, news sources in Colombo said. Mr Badurdeen, who is elected from North and Amir Ali, elected from East, together with many other All Ceylon Muslim Congress (ACMC) members have pledged their support to common opposition’s presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena a short while ago in Colombo.
Full story >>

Sumanthiran makes challenges to shield political bankruptcy

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2014, 23:35 GMT]
Colombo-based parliamentarian of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M.A. Sumanthiran, who visited Batticaloa on Thursday challenged the SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa to release the purported ‘secret agreement’, signed between the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Srisena and the TNA. Responding, the grassroots activists from Aalaiyadi-vempu who met Mr Sumanthiran told TamilNet Friday that the TNA had failed to come out with a people-centric political move challenging the real perpetrators of the plight faced by Tamils and instead comes out with empty challenges to shield its political-agenda bankruptcy. The TNA should have made use of the opportunity to mobilise the Tamil masses to send message to the forces that stage the deceptive game of presidential election for the perpetuation of the genocidal State, the activists in the East further said.
Full story >>

Tamil people should reject both Mahinda and Maithiripala: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2014, 18:55 GMT]
The global and regional powers locked in a geopolitical gambling have brought a contest between Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena. Rajapaksa is backed by China while the West and possibly India back Rajapaksa's former associate Sirisena, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) on Thursday. Declared that there is no use for Tamil people by going behind any of the two mainstream candidates of the South in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election, the former Tamil parliamentarian, who addressed the press on behalf of the TNPF and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, urged the Tamil people to refrain from backing any of the two candidates. The TNPF leader blamed the TNA for betraying the Tamil people for the second time as it did by backing Sarath Fonseka in 2010.
Full story >>

SL presidential race brings violence between EPDP, TNA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2014, 18:11 GMT]
A District Development Council (DDC) meeting, which was co-chaired by Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran and SL Minister Douglas Devananda, ended in violence at Jaffna District Secretariat on Tuesday, when the EPDP paramilitary leader Mr Devananda faced objections from the NPC councillors of the TNA for turning the DDC meeting a venue for Rajapaksa's election propaganda. The paramilitary goons of the EPDP began to assault the TNA representatives who objected the conduct of the EPDP leader at the meeting. EPDP goons assaulted five TNA members, including NPC Ministers Aingaranesan and Sathiyalingam. The EPDP has also claimed that five of its personnel had sustained injuries in the violent episode.
Full story >>

Premachandran denounces clandestine TNA deal with NDF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 December 2014, 18:15 GMT]
The basic strength of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by the incumbent Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, and the National Democratic Front (NDF) led by the Common Opposition Presidential candidate Mr Maithiripala Sirisena, has been solely depending on the Sinhala communal mindset South in the upcoming presidential election and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) cannot enter into an agreement with any of them, said the TNA media spokesman and Jaffna district TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachchandran on Thursday. However, responding to Premachchandran, NDF's Maithiripala Sirisena said ‘individual politicians’ could make ‘different’ statements.
Full story >>

Rajapaksa, Sirisena, 17 others hand over nominations for SL presidency

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2014, 11:17 GMT]
The incumbent Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance, common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena and seventeen other candidates on Monday handed over their nominations at the SL Elections Secretariat in Rajagiriya, news sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Sirisena, Rajapaksa compete to deceive Tamil voters, Sampanthan faces criticism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2014, 23:36 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, who recently assured that the TNA would not take any decision ignoring his own Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) party and the other parties in the Tamil alliance on the issue of SL presidential elections, has again come under criticism from the ITAK structures for deciding to send TNA national list parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran to a meeting of the opposition parties, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, ITAK sources told TamilNet Sunday. In the meantime, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has been targeting Tamils in the education sector in the North and East inviting different organisations, trade unions and interest groups to Temple Trees seeking votes, informed sources said.
Full story >>

SL military raped conscripted Tamil women after Rajapaksa meeting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2014, 09:07 GMT]
47 Eezham Tamil women from Mullaiththeevu, recently conscripted to the occupying SL military and put under the Civil Security Department (CSD), were taken to Mihintale on 22 Saturday when SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa was on a trip to the ‘sacred city’. After the president of genocidal Sri Lanka requested the Tamil women to engage in campaign supporting him, the SL soldiers were having a party. Some of the 47 Tamil women were raped by the Sinhala soldiers and the others were subjected to sexual harassment, one of the victims told TamilNet on Monday. The women were also sexually harassed in the bus on their way back to Mullaiththeevu.
Full story >>

SL presidential election to be held on January 08, 2015

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 November 2014, 16:16 GMT]
The Sri Lankan presidential election will be held on January 08, 2015, according to the gazette notification issued by the SL Election Commissioner Mahinda Desapriya on Friday.
Full story >>

Maithiripala Sirisena of SLFP emerges as common opposition candidate contesting Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 November 2014, 11:17 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) in the South on Friday decided to support Maithiripala Sirisena as the common candidate of the opposition to contest the upcoming Presidential election against the SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Currently, Mr. Maithiripala Sirisena is holding the post of Minister of Health in the Rajapaksa cabinet and the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
Full story >>

JHU breaks away from Rajapaksa's ruling UPFA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 09:27 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a Sinhala extremist Buddhist monks political party on Tuesday decided to leave SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and decided to function as an ‘independent’ political party in the SL parliament, news sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Commonwealth fabricates genocidal history

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2014, 19:40 GMT]
The country information page of The Commonwealth 2014, appearing in thecommonwealth.org, says, “The Great Dynasty (Mahavamsa) of the Sinhalese was established in 543 BC by King Vijaya, who came with his followers (the Sinhala, or ‘Lion Race’) from Bengal and settled in the north. Traces of the vast irrigation system they established still exist. About 300 years later, a royal prince from India named Mahinda, son of Asoka, introduced Buddhism. Tamil settlements began in the 10th century AD, and gave rise to a Tamil kingdom in Jaffna. There was a long struggle between Sinhalese and Tamil kings for the control of the north of the island. By the end of the 13th century, the Sinhalese were forced to migrate to the south.” Genocidal Sri Lanka is the current chair of the Commonwealth and former New Delhi diplomat Kamalesh Sharma is its Secretary General.
Full story >>

SL judiciary gives green light to Rajapaksa contesting for third presidential term

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2014, 14:46 GMT]
Leader of the House of the Sri Lankan Parliament and SL Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva informed the parliament on Tuesday that the SL Supreme Court was of the opinion that Mahinda Rajapakse had no legal impediment to contest for a third term in the presidential elections. SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa last Wednesday sought the Supreme Court’s opinion on the constitutionality to contest for a third term under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Genocidal Sri Lanka will be holding presidential elections in January 2015, almost two years ahead of the schedule.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu researcher testifies to OISL on Indian complicity in genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2014, 23:43 GMT]
“While several actors including US, UK, China, UN involved in different ways in the conflict in Sri Lanka which led to genocide of Eelam Tamils, the actor most severely and the most consistently perplexed in the Sri Lankan war has been India,” says University of Bergen Research Fellow, Vijayshankar Asokan in a submission he sent on “Indian complicity in the genocide of Eezham Tamils” to OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka. A native of Tamil Nadu and studying in Norway since 2008, Mr. Vijayshankar in his submission was extensively citing Mr. Ku. Ramakrishnan, General Secretary of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam, Mr. Erik Solheim, the failed peace facilitator and various reports as well as statements.
Full story >>

Unrest in Tamil Nadu following Colombo’s death sentence to 5 fishermen

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2014, 18:15 GMT]
As Hindutva New Delhi’s partnership with genocidal Sri Lanka gathers momentum and reaches a stage of jointly aiming intimidation and destabilisation of Tamil Nadu, Colombo’s high court on Thursday delivered death sentence to five Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested in 2011 on charges of smuggling drugs, political observers in Chennai said. Following the sentence, widespread protests engulf Tamil Nadu, where Tamil fishermen face decades-long arrests, attacks, loss of property and death in the hands of the Navy of genocidal Sri Lanka. While death sentence itself is universally controversial, the government, law-enforcement agencies and judiciary in the genocidal State themselves don’t have any credibility at all, the observers further said.
Full story >>

Waging struggle with self-respect amidst Delhi-Colombo engineering

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2014, 21:00 GMT]
Earlier this month, re-inaugurating Colombo’s railway line to the occupied North, Mahinda Rajapaksa and the genocide line’s mastermind New Delhi, staged a ‘development’ show in Jaffna. On the same occasion, Rajapaksa also unveiled Colombo’s plans on converting the Nedun-theevu (Delft) Island off Jaffna and close to Tamil Nadu in the Palk Bay, into a Sinhala-Buddhist colony and military-commercial centre. While a leaked letter of the NPC chief minister Wigneswaran was harping on the functional unworkability of the NPC and the question of funds as well as the right over land in the province, more importance should be given to directly addressing and openly denouncing the fundamental policy line and master strategies of New Delhi, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics.
Full story >>

Rajapaksa deception in North aims at elections

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2014, 23:22 GMT]
The elected representatives of Tamil National Alliance in the North fully boycotted the ceremonial events staged by the visiting SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Vanni and Jaffna on Sunday and Monday claiming that the meetings “do not appear to be in furtherance of a legitimate objective, and are not transparent nor collaborative.” While large numbers of SL soldiers were deployed on the streets of Jaffna subjecting the public with security checks, EPDP paramilitary operatives and a section of occupying SL military soldiers were coercing public sector workers, teachers, students together with the people deceived with false promises of livelihood assistance to attend the meetings.
Full story >>