War crime suspect in Rajapaksa entourage plans charted flight escape

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 00:44 GMT]
Sri Lankan Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London, plans to escape war crimes accusation in the courts of London by chartering a flight, informed circles in London said Thursday midnight. Meanwhile, if Mr. Rajapaksa's visit was a private one as claimed by him, why there were senior ministers like G.L.Peiris and military commanders in the entourage, wonder media circles in London. The escape plans of the military commander follows attempts by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) to file a war crimes case against him in London. Valid reasons are suspected behind the escape attempt of Chagi Gallage. Around 7,000 Eezham Tamils in London protested the presence of Rajapaksa entourage in London Thursday.
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British High Commission clarifies cancellation of Rajapaksa's Oxford event

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 20:07 GMT]
As a cabinet minister in Rajapaksa government called for a protest against the British Government in Colombo on Friday, the British High Commission issued a statement Thursday stating the planned address by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in London was a private event organized by the Oxford Union and the Sri Lankan High Commission in UK. The British Government was not involved in that event, it said. On Wednesday, The Times of India reported on Wednesday that Rajapaksa embarked on the trip after British government assured him diplomatic immunity.
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Weerawansa calls for protest against British High Commission

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 19:27 GMT]
Blaming the British government for 'failing' to provide 'adequate security' to the visiting Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, a minister in the Rajapaksa's cabinet Wimal Weerawansa Thursday called for a protest in front of the British High Commission in Colombo on Friday. In July 2010, minister Weerawansa staged 'devil dance' in front of the UN office in Colombo demanding the UN to dissolve the expert panel announced to investigate allegations of war crimes and human rights violations in the island. The protest against the UN turned violent and Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa went to the extent of threatening the police officers who were protecting the UN office from the violent protesters.
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Vanni parliamentarian Mashoor dies of heart attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 05:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Vanni District Parliamentarian Noordeen Mashoor died from a heart attack on Thursday morning. He reportedly died at a private hospital in Colombo, according to media sources in Colombo.
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UNP MP threatened in Sri Lanka Parliament over UK protests

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 05:20 GMT]
Tense situation is prevailing in Sri Lanka's parliament Thursday morning after the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians attempted to assault UNP MP Jayalath Jayawardena accusing him of instigating the protests in the United Kingdom against visiting Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, parliamentary sources said.
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Rajapakse, brothers responsible for alleged War Crimes in Sri Lanka, says leaked US cable

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 01:20 GMT]
In a startling setback for the war-crimes concealment agenda of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, and his siblings holding high level positions in Sri Lanka's defense and civilian sectors, a January 2010 cable from US Embassy in Sri Lanka, made public by Wikileaks Thursday, acknowledges that U.S. is cognizant of the fact that "responsibility for many alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka." Ambassador Butenis further reasons the lack of progress in internal investigations: "There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power."
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Veteran journalist Sivanayagam passes away

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 12:42 GMT]
Veteran journalist S. Sivanayagam whose contributions were part of the history of the liberation struggle of Eezham Tamils, passed away on Monday in Colombo at the age of 80. The funeral will take place on Thursday. Joining The Daily News in 1953, he became the founder editor of Saturday Review started in Jaffna in 1982. The weekly that made a name in the early stages of the Tamil militant struggle had an abrupt end with the 1983 pogrom. He was later in charge of the Tamil Information Centre in Chennai. In 1990, he was editing a new journal Tamil Nation. Following the assassination of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, he was arrested without any charges, harassed, insulted and was ill treated by the Indian intelligence. He left India in 1993 to get asylum in France. He was also residing in London. Ailing from bone cancer, a few years ago he went back to Colombo and was remaining silent.
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More than 50,000 determined Tamils in Toronto pay homage to heroes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 11:14 GMT]
The temperature was freezing. Permission was half-hearted. Venue arrangement was last minute due to anticipated obstacles. Yet, a determined mass of 50,000 Eezham Tamils in Toronto, Canada, congregated on Saturday in four sessions in a temporarily built hall for the purpose, to pay homage to the heroes who laid down their lives for the cause of the liberation of Tamil Eelam. The hall was built on an open terrain where permission to congregate was granted, and the floor was paved with wooden planks to bear with the cold. The event was marked with heart-touching cultural programmes. Meanwhile, the resolution seen in the diaspora now makes Colombo think tanks to question their present strategy of countering the diaspora through hired Public Relations firms and lobbyists. The Tamil diaspora would out-bid the Colombo government they are afraid.
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Vanni schools face closure due to torrential rain, negligence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 09:03 GMT]
Education department sources have warned that schools in Vanni are facing closure due to continuous torrential rain. Majority of schools including in Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Mannaar, and Vadamaraachchi East have been functioning in temporary shelters. Classrooms have been under water due to rain. Members of several families have also sought refuge in temporary shelters put up in schools as their houses are also under water. Hence education authorities have asked students not to come to schools which are located in rain affected areas.
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Wikileaks show US probing UN's position on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 03:32 GMT]
While the text message content of leaked cabes from US embassies throughout the world to the US State Department is yet to become public, British Daily Guardian published secret cables sent to US diplomats two months after the Sri Lanka war was over, where US was probing the UN's position on appointing a special envoy for Sri Lanka. Wikilieaks is expected to reveal contents of 3325 cables from US Embassy in Colombo, ranking within the first 10 countries from where largest number of cables were sent. US also queried its diplomats' on views of the UN member states' view of strengthening measures to prevent egregious crimes including genocide.
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Icy reception for Rajapaksa at Heathrow

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 22:36 GMT]
More than five hundred Tamils gathered at London’s Heathrow airport to protest as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa landed from Colombo. As Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL509 carrying Mr. Rajapaksa, who is on a private visit, landed at about 9:50 p.m. UK time, protestors braved Britain’s unusually cold weather to call attention to his government’s war crimes. Meanwhile, a senior Norwegian expert on the conflict in Sri Lanka advised Tamil activists to concentrate on country-level legal moves, rather than waiting for any global or governmental actors to take the lead. Tamils should forge alliances with legal, alternative, and human rights groups to fight the legal battle, the expert told Norwegian Country Council representatives, who welcomed the British demonstration.
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SL High Court to decide on using Fonseka video on white flag case

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 17:57 GMT]
The three member bench of the Colombo High Court Monday said that it would decide on Wednesday whether the edited video speech of Sarath Fonseka, the former commander of the Sri Lanka Army, produced by the Attorney General could be accepted as evidence against him in a case in which he is indicted with causing disrepute to the government by a giving an interview to the Sunday leader, English weekly. Sarath Fonseka in that interview had alleged that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had instructed the Major General Shavendra Silva not to spare any LTTE member who came holding white flags, but to shoot them all dead.
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TNA to abstain from voting on 2nd reading of Sri Lankan budget

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 13:13 GMT]
Rajapaksa's government, which proclaims that it's priority is resettlement of displaced Tamil people, has not translated the words into deeds in its budget for 2011, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said in a press statement Monday. The TNA statement further noted that the allocation made for defence expenditure has continued to increase year by year even after the conclusion of the war and said that the TNA members have unanimously decided not to participate in the voting on second reading of budget on Monday. The TNA said its position was that Colombo should negotiate with the TNA, which is the elected representatives of the Tamils.
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Colombo covers up bank robbery by Sinhala gang in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 10:44 GMT]
Sri Lankan police authorities are trying to cover up an attempted bank robbery by a three-member Sinhala robbers at Chaavakachcheari branch of the state-owned National Savings Bank Sunday morning. While Police in Chaavakachcheari said they had arrested one of the the robbers, a Sinhala man from South, based on surveilance camera monitoring and were searching for the other two robbers in his team, the police in Colombo at a press conference twisted the facts by saying that the arrested robber was from Ki'linochchi.
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This is a struggle for all of us: Vikramabahu tells Heroes Day congregation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2010, 12:57 GMT]
Tamils were killed by successive Sinhala chauvinistic governments and at last but not the least by the Mahinda regime. Not only Tamils but also thousands of Sinhala youth who were sent for aggression in the Tamil homeland and attack Tamils died in an alien land. The misery created among the Sinhalese will also show its reaction in future. This is a struggle for all of us. Yes, we have gone through defeat. Now we have to get up and fight to overthrow this chauvinistic military regime to have democracy in the land, said Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne, Secretary of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), who was a star speaker at the Maaveerar (Heroes) Day gathering in London, Saturday. The event attended by more than 50, 000 diaspora Tamils paid homage to the heroes who laid down their lives fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.
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50,000 gather in London to remember Tamil Eelam Heroes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 19:14 GMT]
Around 50,000 Eezham Tamils congregated on Saturday in London to pay homage to the Maaveerar (heroes) who laid down their lives in fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam. Similar gatherings proportionate to the population of Eezham Tamil diaspora were noticed in the other European capitals. 9,000 congregated in one of 8 localities in France and 9,000 at Fribourg in Switzerland, where local organisers noticed a new vigour of uprising. Meanwhile, the BBC in London cut a pathetic figure by featuring a report of a BBC Tamil Service staff, titled “Why Sri Lankan Tamils won’t remember war dead this year”. The BBC Tamil Service in recent years has become a mouthpiece of war crimes accused Colombo and the establishment abetting it from New Delhi, observers said. The subversive game is played by manipulating the unjustified continuation of the tag of ‘terrorism’ in UK, they further said.
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Pakistan President Zardari arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 14:47 GMT]
Pakistan President, Asif Ali Zardari, arrived Saturday evening in Colombo on a three day official visit, and was received by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), diplomatic sources in Colombo said. Ali Zardari will interact with Members of the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Association and address a Business Forum comprising businessmen and corporate leaders during his state visit, according to the same sources.
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Indian FM harps on failed 13th Amendment in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 09:16 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who ceremoniously opened an Indian Mission near Kantharmadam junction in Jaffna, failed to deliver any positive message to Eezham Tamils on India's position in resolving the national question. Mr. S.M. Krishna harped on the failed 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, a model Tamils have rejected as inadequate in guaranteeing their rights and he also failed to touch the territorial integrity of the North-Eastern Province which was de-merged by Rajapaksa government that disregarded the earlier arrangement that has been in practice for several years following the Indo Lanka Accord.
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Poet Kasi Anandan speaks to Palaka'ni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 05:03 GMT]
Mu'l'livaaykkaal is only a turning point in the Tamil Eelam struggle, says veteran national poet of Eezham Tamils Kasi Anandan to the audience of Palaka'ni, the TamilNet window for cross-views that features its inaugural programme on Saturday. “The Tigers have silenced their guns. To what extent the chauvinism of the Sinhala state could go, the international community has yet another opportunity to understand now. But, has it ever accepted that what is being committed is a genocide," he questioned. Any struggle that is based on righteous principles will win. Eelam Tamils should understand this and proceed, said the 72-year-old Batticaloa-born poet, who has been associated with Periyar E.V.Ramasamy Nayakkar, S.J.V Chelvanayakam and Velupillai Pirapaharan.
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Heroes Day - 2010

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 00:01 GMT]
At the height of the Vanni war, a representative of the Biafra struggle sent a message to TamilNet. He wanted the Eezham Tamils to remember that they were fighting not merely for them, but for the cause of many peoples like them all over the world. If the Eezham Tamils fail they fail the world of liberation, he said. He wanted the message and his best wishes to be conveyed to Vanni. That is the international dimension of the heroes of Tamil Eelam. They fought for the liberation of their nation and at the same time fought for a missing point in contemporary human civilisation. Many thought that Biafra could never be repeated in contemporary times and that too in ‘civilized’ South Asia. But there were people who adamantly wanted to prove that it is possible. Remembering the heroes in 2010 should remind us of the duty ahead of us towards ourselves and towards human civilisation.
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