Rajapaksa lies in negating Wigneswaran’s military reduction plea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 January 2014, 16:49 GMT]
Sri Lankan president and Commander-in-Chief of the occupying Sinhala military Mahinda Rajpaksa put the figure of the SL soldiers in the North as 12,000 in responding to a plea by Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CW Wigneswaran, at the same stage in Thellippazhai, where a cancer hospital was declared opened on Sunday. Credible sources put the figure of the occupying military at minimum 136,000. At least 36,000 soldiers are stationed in Jaffna peninsula and the remaining 100,000 are in the Vanni mainland. The SL president thinks that the international Establishments would be buying his figures as they did during the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009, political observers in Jaffna said.
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SL officials exert pressure on uprooted people to vacate camps in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 January 2014, 23:49 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajpaaksa is scheduled to visit Jaffna on Sunday to declare open a cancer hospital at Thellippazhai, the divisional secretaries serving under the SL Government Agent of Jaffna have been exerting pressure on the uprooted people from Valikaamam North to accept ‘alternative resettlement’ in the quarry lands at Kaangkeasanthu’rai (KKS). The ‘welfare centres’ where a section of the uprooted people from Valikaamam North live are to be closed down and this is the last chance for them to accept the offer, the officials have told them. However, the uprooted people remain firm in demanding the SL president to provide the lands seized by the SL military back to them.
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Colombo ‘reveals’ US connections in cluster bomb use

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 15:55 GMT]
United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) advised the Sri Lankan Defence Establishment to purchase Cluster Bomb Units (CBUs) during the peace talks mediated by Norway in 2002. The Island paper, which gives media space for PSYOP and information war waged by the SL military Establishment, on Monday released portions of an alleged FOUO-classified document of the US Defence Establishment. The ‘leak’ was made to remind the US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen J. Rapp, that Colombo was having proofs of ‘US complicity’ in the genocidal onslaught it waged on Eezham Tamils, an informed journalist from South told TamilNet. Colombo’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa himself timed the ‘leak’, the journalist further said.
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Colombo to seize more Tamil lands in Moothoor East, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2014, 23:48 GMT]
The survey department of the occupying Sri Lankan State is engaged in marking lands for further appropriation in Moothoor East, where uprooted people were promised resettlement earlier. The genocidal land grab is taking place according to the instructions from Colombo’s Defence Ministry and Economic Development Ministry, both run by the siblings of SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) wants to expand its camp situated at Champoor MMV School. At the same time, the Board of Investment under Basil Rajapaksa wants to seize further lands for corporate exploitation. 232 acres of lands have been already surveyed for seizure by the SL State, informed sources told TamilNet.
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CPJ calls for immediate release of Indian journalist

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 December 2013, 20:18 GMT]
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media rights group, on Friday called for the immediate release of an Indian journalist and film-maker, Maga Thamizh Prabhagaran who was arrested by the occupying Sri Lankan military and Police in Vanni on Wednesday.
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Vadamaraadchi East remembers Tamil tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 December 2013, 16:06 GMT]
Families, relatives and friends of victims who perished in the 2004 tsunami gathered at Uduththu’rai, Ma'natkaadu and Thaazhaiyadi burial grounds on Thursday remembering their loved ones on the 9th anniversary of the devastating catastrophe. The gigantic waves of tsunami claimed the lives of 41,000 people in the island on 26 December 2004 and most of the victims were from eastern and northern coasts of the Tamil homeland. Around 1.5 million people lost their homes in the tsunami. The International Community of Establishments, who failed the victims of tsunami, were not only complicit in Sri Lanka's genocidal onslaught on them in 2009, but they continue to fail the victims of the tsunami and the genocide by allowing the Sri Lankan State to continue the structural genocide on the nation of Eezham Tamils.
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Civil activists condemn Colombo for detaining Tamil youth under PTA

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 December 2013, 16:12 GMT]
More than 100 civil activists from all walks of life, including religious dignitaries, human rights activists, journalists, writers and academics, both from within and outside the island, have strongly condemned the Government of Sri Lanka for the continuous detention of 7 Tamil youth under the so-called Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) since their arrest during the last week of November following the Tamil Heroes Day observations in Jaffna and Mannaar. The aactivists said that they were concerned as the arrests were unfounded and only served to perpetuate the climate of fear and insecurity of the people of the North.
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Villages gone, buildings razed to ground in SL military appropriated Valikamaam North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 December 2013, 07:53 GMT]
Almost all the buildings that were situated in the 6,400 acres of lands seized by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Valikaamam North in Jaffna have been completely bulldozed by the SL military, according to those who have witnessed the destruction in recent days. The entire area of fertile cultivation and residential lands now looks like single piece of desert land, they said. Except the buildings used by the genocidal military at the ‘forward line’ and the building at the rear, close to the Palaali military base, everything else has been razed to the ground. The SL military is transforming the former High Security Zone into a Sinhala Military Zone to encapsulate the Palaali military complex in Jaffna with a Sinhala military colony of the occupying soldiers from South.
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SL military governor declares NPC's inaugural budget null and void

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 December 2013, 23:01 GMT]
While the elected members of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) on Thursday passed the inaugural budget of the NPC after 3 days of sittings at their secretariat in Kaithadi, Colombo's military governor of North, Major General (retd) G.A. Chandrasiri on Friday hastily summoned the officials and secretaries of various ministries to a conference at Koappaay College of Education and told the officials that the budget was not valid until he approved particular sections of the budget. The TNA was not abiding by the Sri Lankan Constitution in preparing the budget, he has told the officials.
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Family of Tamil activist threatened in Mannaar after ‘Sri Lanka CHOGM’

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 November 2013, 14:05 GMT]
Sri Lankan Military Intelligence operatives have threatened the wife of a Tamil activist in Mannaar, while she was at her house with her 2 months old baby and a 5-year-old child on Thursday. Her husband, Jude Bashil Sosai (Sunesh) was at forefront in the demonstration held in Jaffna on 15 November demanding the attention by the visiting British PM David Cameron. The threat by alleged SL military operatives was reported on Thursday when Mr Sunesh was on his way to attend a meeting in Colombo. The president of the Citizens' Committee of Mannaar District, Rev. Fr. E. Sebamalai, in a letter addressed to SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa on behalf of the citizens' committee, on Friday said the Committee suspected Sri Lankan armed forces for the threat issued on Mannaar District Coordinator of National Fisheries Society Organization (NAFSO) Mr Sunesh and his family.
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Cut-out of Rajapaksa burnt in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 23:35 GMT]
A large cut-out of SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been burnt down in Jaffna city in the early hours of Wednesday. Coinciding with this incident, the SL military has beefed up the presence of armed soldiers in the streets of Jaffna. The cut-out was put up in connection with Mahinda Rajpaksa’s widespread campaign of the deceptive Vadakkin Vasantham ‘development’ campaign.
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Sri Lanka's war-crimes culpability raised in Australian Parliament

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 November 2013, 14:21 GMT]
Lee Rhiannon, a Greens Party Senator from New South Wales, during a debate in the Australian parliament following her return from Sri Lanka on the eve of the Commonwealth meeting [CHOGM], said that the situation in the NorthEast under Mahinda Rajapakse regime is dire, that the Sri Lanka army's involvement in civilian life is pervasive and Australia is turning a blind eye to credible allegations of continuing torture, rape and crimes against humanity reported by respected Rights groups and by several video documentaries from Channel-4. Rhiannon pointed out the increasingly voiced broad consensus from several countries for an international investigations into the war-crimes by the Rajapakse regime, and praised the CHOGM boycott of several Prime Ministers in spotlighting the Sri Lanka's continuing dismal rights record and lack of accountabililty for war-crimes.
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Sri Lanka's Chairmanship makes mockery of Commonwealth values: NYT

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 November 2013, 03:56 GMT]
The New York Times, in an editorial appearing in the Thursday edition, accused Sri Lanka of committing "serious human rights violations" and of failing "to provide accountability for wartime abuses." Under the Rajapaksa government, the paper said, journalists have been systematically threatened, harassed, killed or forced into exile in what amounts to a war on the press, adding, that Colombo did everything it could to sabotage a free and fair outcome [in the Northern elections], including publishing a fake edition of the local newspaper Uthayan. The editorial urged the leaders attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to insist that Colombo show meaningful progress in addressing human rights abuses abiding by international standards and to restore constitutional protection for freedom of expression.
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Britain epitomizes genocide in ‘British Commonwealth’: QSM recipient

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 November 2013, 16:33 GMT]
British Prime Minister David Cameron being edged to deal directly with the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and that too in a periodical session of the Commonwealth, hints at the dismal failure of Britain's normal diplomatic channels, said veteran Tamil activist and Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) recipient A. Theva Rajan in a statement issued by New Zealand Tamil Action Front (TAF) on Thursday. “130 years on, your crowning of a war criminal as Commonwealth head will only help epitomize Tamil genocide. Please do not damage the Tamil cause,” the veteran Tamil activist urged the British PM in his letter.
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CHOGM presence shows Australia is blind to Sri Lanka's rights abuses - SMH

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 November 2013, 01:59 GMT]
Scoffing at Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's comment that Canadian Premier Stephen Harper's decision to boycott CHOGM was regrettable, Australia's popular daily, Sydney Morning Herald said, "[w]hat is more regrettable is Australia's blindness to Sri Lanka's human rights concerns," adding, "Australia seems to be reluctant to admit human rights violations as a means of deflecting asylum claims of Sri Lankan Tamils coming to Australia by boat." Bishop after a visit to Sri Lanka earlier this year said there were no rights abuses in Sri Lanka, while UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, in contrast, was damagingly critical of Colombo's rights record and of Sri Lanka's movement towards an authoritarian state.
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3 NPC members stage walkout during SL Governor’s keynote address

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 November 2013, 01:16 GMT]
Three key members of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) on Monday staged a walkout, when Sri Lanka’s colonial governor in the North, Maj Gen (retd.) G.A. Chandrasiri was about to deliver his keynote address at the NPC. The SL governor was formally invited by the NPC Chief Minister to address the council. Former parliamentarian and NPC member Mr MK Sivajilingam, Ms Ananthi Sasitharan and Mr S. Sugirthan walked out stating that they were obliged protest when a war criminal was addressing the elected council. More than 2,000 people disappeared in the peninsula under the military command of Chandrasiri and as the Governor of North he has done nothing for the real rehabilitation or reconciliation, the NPC members who walked out told media.
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Colombo in CHOGM panic interrogates, gags NZ, Aussie MPs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 November 2013, 17:25 GMT]
Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon of the Greens party and New Zealand MP Jan Logie were detained, and interrogated separately in Colombo and were"sent back to their countries," for, according to Colombo, allegedly breaking the island's visa laws, a Sydney popular daily reported Sunday. Sri Lanka authorities appeared to have been perturbed by the damaging independent observations on rights issues made by the two MPs in their visit to the North, political observers said. In a joint statement that was to be released by the two MPs, before Immigration officials took the two MPs into custody, the MPs called for the cancellation of Commonwealth Meet in Colombo saying, "[i]f CHOGM goes ahead and if Sri Lanka is given the Chair of this organisation the Commonwealth will have failed the people of Sri Lanka and damaged its own high standing with the international community."
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Former associate of Jaffna Mayoress alleges widespread corruption in JMC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 November 2013, 23:53 GMT]
S. Vijayakanth, an elected member of the EPDP in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) and a former close associate of Ms Yogeswari Patkunam, the mayoress of Jaffna, has blamed the JMC for not having democratic sittings according to the procedures. The general assembly has not been convened for the last three months, he said on Thursday. The lifetime of the current administration was extended by one year from August 2013 by SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Following disputes, the EPDP has sacked Mr Viajayakanth from the party blaming him on corruption charges. Now, the former EPDP member has vowed of revealing details of widespread corruption in the JMC administration.
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"Perfidious Albion cannot change its spots"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 November 2013, 03:12 GMT]
Asserting that the Commonwealth is simply a reincarnation of the British Empire and the British Imperial system, Professor Boyle, an expert in international law, remarked that placing the alleged genocidaire Mahinda Rajapakse as the Commonwealth Chairperson-in-office for the next two years, "will expose the Commonwealth as a Sick Joke." Professor Boyle found Prince of Wales and British Prime Minister David Cameron's attendance to CHOGM despicable and drew similarity to the American Founding Father Thomas Paine's charaterization of the British as "Perfidious Albion cannot change its spots," after the massacres of American soldiers at Lexington by the British Hessian mercenaries.
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SL military steps up demolition of houses in Valikaamam North, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 November 2013, 23:41 GMT]
Despite the ‘assurance’ to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan by Sri Lankan president’s secretary Mr Lalith Weerthunga that the demolition of houses inside the former ‘High Security Zone’ would be postponed, the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Palaali continues to bulldoze the houses of Tamil civilians in Va’ruththalai-vi’laan and Kurumpachiddi now being transformed into a permanent Sinhala Military Zone in 6,000 acres land in Valikaamam North in Jaffna. The Civil Military Coordination Office of the SL military in Jaffna told the civilians of Valikaamam that the SL military was free to demolish the houses and clear the area as it has officially been taken over by the military Establishment. Journalists were not allowed to witness the destruction.
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