NPC members take oath in Jaffna after honouring fallen Tamil Heroes

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 October 2013, 06:57 GMT]
Twenty members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) elected to the Northern Provincial Council took oaths in Jaffna after visiting the memorial site of SJV Chelvanayakam and after observing honour to fallen Tamil Heroes (Maaveerar) and the people perished in the war, at Jaffna Veerasingham Hall Friday 9:00 a.m. EPRLF-leader Suresh Premachandran and five of the six EPRLF's elected members, TELO's M.K.Sivajilingam and an elected TELO member, PLOTE leader Tharmalingam Siththarthan and one elected PLOTE member were absent at the event. Ms Ananthi Sasitharan was present marking her independency between the ITAK and the portfolio-seekers. The ceremonial event took place without any celebrations and the members declined to wear traditional garlands at the function.
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ITAK announces NPC ministers, EPRLF challenges

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 October 2013, 12:43 GMT]
A press note coming from the ITAK, the main party in the TNA, on Thursday, has announced the list of chairperson and deputy chairperson of the council and the provincial ministers to function under Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran. But EPRLF, the party next in line in terms of number of seats in the council, challenged the list, saying that it was highhandedly decided by a few in the ITAK. In a hastily convened press conference in Jaffna on Thursday, Mr. Suresh Premachandran of the EPRLF, denouncing the list, blamed Mr R. Sampanthan for creating internal dissension within TNA. He also condemned the act of C.V. Wigneswaran taking his oath before Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Occupying SLAF demands money from people to access their beach in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 October 2013, 23:35 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Air Force, which had appropriated the popular Marble Beach in 2001 at the southern tip of Trincomalee under the pretext of providing ‘high security’ to the SL Air Force base at China Bay, has transformed it into a military run corporate outfit after the war, naming it ‘Marble Beach Air Force Resort’. The occupying SL Air Force has now started to charge money from the public to even access that limited area, civil sources in Trincomalee said.
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TNA members boycotted oath-taking, Wigneswaran-trio effigy burnt in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 October 2013, 11:44 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) supporters in Mullaiththeevu on Tuesday have burnt the effigy of NPC Chief Minister Mr CV Wigneswaran who took his oath before genocidal Colombo’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday. New Delhi Establishment’s External Affairs Minister Mr. Salman Kurshid had already arrived in Colombo when Wigneswaran was taking oath to function under the 13th Amendment. Immediately after the ceremony, the visiting New Delhi minister received leading TNA personalities in Colombo itself on Monday evening and congratulated them. The effigies of TNA leaders Mr R. Sampanthan and Mr M.A Sumanthiran were also burnt along with that of Wigneswaran on Tuesday. Except four, all the elected TNA representatives in the NPC as well as in the SL parliament, had boycotted the oath-taking ceremony.
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"Rajapaksa, a serial abuser of human rights"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 October 2013, 00:35 GMT]
Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has concluded that Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is a serial abuser of human rights and is refusing to be photographed getting out of a car and shaking hands with him, Canada's CBC News said Monday. The Prime Minister, while citing "intimidation and incarceration of political leaders and journalists, harassment of minorities, reported disappearances, and allegations of extra-judicial killings," in accusing Rajapakse of gross rights violations, also took a swipe at the Commonwealth accusing the organization as "the great, lumbering remnant of the British empire [that] has betrayed its values by letting Sri Lanka off the hook, and by allowing it to host the summit at all," CBC reported.
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Sri Lanka fails to stop screening of Channel-4's Killing Fields in Nepal

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 October 2013, 11:53 GMT]
"The producers of the feature documentary No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka have condemned an unsuccessful attempt by the Sri Lankan government to prevent the screening of the film as part of the Film Southasia film festival in Nepal. The film’s director Callum Macrae accused the government of attempting to suppress the truth about their complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity," a press release posted in a website affiliated with Channel-4 said.
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TNA should learn from history: Poonkuzhali Nedumaran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 October 2013, 23:38 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) should learn from history, and from the experience of their predecessors, on what should NOT be done, writes Tamil Nadu political activist Poonkuzhali Nedumaran in a feature sent to TamilNet this week. She cited the history of TNA’s predecessor TULF failing in upholding the responsibility it was vested with by the people in 1977, compromising with District Councils and how that triggered the Tamil youth to lose confidence in parliamentary methods. The NPC election results mean communication of a will than participation in governance. With the Eezham Tamils rejecting the polity and rule of the State in Colombo, the TNA must understand the responsibility vested with them by the people, she further said.
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New Delhi mission in Jaffna launches war crimes defender’s poetry projection

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 September 2013, 13:14 GMT]
New Delhi’s Deputy High Commission in Jaffna will be launching on Monday an anthology of poetry, “Mirrored Images”, compiled by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, said a press note from the diplomatic mission on Wednesday. Prof Rajiva Wijesinha has gone on record on several occasions in internationally defending the Rajapaksa regime from war crimes accusations. He was often seen coming out with blatant denials of the war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan State. The National Book Trust of India entrusted the editorship of the book to Prof Wijesinha and according to him, the anthology “contributes to the development of a common Sri Lankan identity.” The anthology was first released by New Delhi’s External affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, followed by Colombo’s missions in Canada.
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Uthayan faked, SL forces focus on targeting Ananthi on election day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 September 2013, 07:18 GMT]
While the Indian media, The Hindu and The Times of India, highlight NPC chief minister candidate Mr CV Wigneswaran condemning the call for Tamil Eelam and the call for boycotting the CHOGM meet, the focus of genocidal Colombo seems to be on targeting Ms Ananthi Sasitharan, the Tamil homeland-based candidate, who has become popular among the people. On the morning of Saturday, which is election day, the popular daily in the North, Uthayan, was faked and in its name, a newspaper was circulated saying that Ms Ananthi has joined the Colombo government. The fake paper cited Mavai Senathirajah. Meanwhile, news reports from several parts of the North said that the occupying SL forces are intimidating and preventing Tamils from voting. In Mullaiththeevu, a voting booth captured by Sinhalese prevented local Tamils from voting. Despite the odds, people are seen actively engaged in voting.
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Rajapaksa-allied squad brutally attacks two independent candidates in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 September 2013, 19:17 GMT]
Two candidates of an independent group, contesting the provincial council elections in Jaffna district under Padlock symbol, were brutally attacked in the early hours of Thursday allegedly by EPDP operatives with the facilitation of the occupying Sri Lankan military at Ma'ndaitheevu junction while they were returning from the islets towards Jaffna city. The driver of the three-wheeler in which they were travelling, escaped by jumping into the sea, while the candidates were brutally attacked. The three-wheeler was set on fire by the attackers. The attack has taken place while Indian election monitors and international media personnel were present in the city. The two candidates were attacked as they were dividing the vote bank of the UPFA in Vadduk-koaddai and the vote bank of the EPDP in the islets.
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Politicization of war-crimes: Bashir and Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 September 2013, 10:58 GMT]
While Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who bears command responsibility for the killing of nearly UN-estimated 100,000 Tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka military, is attending the 62nd United Nations General Assembly, commencing on September 25, the White House is not commenting on if the US would be issuing an entry visa to alleged war-criminal and Sudan's long time leader Hassan al-Bashir to attend the UN annual meeting. Recently, the US State Department, using its discretionary powers, intervened to save Rajapakse from war-crimes charges in Court cases filed by affected Tamils.
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TNA activist killed in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 September 2013, 19:25 GMT]
A 35-year-old Tamil National Alliance (TNA) activist, Mr Rasiah Kavithan, also known as Suresh, was beaten to death by a criminal squad associated with the ruling UPFA of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Mullaiththeevu on Monday around 6:00 p.m., initial reports from Vanni said. The killing has taken place while the sons of the SL President, Namal Rajapaksa MP and Yoshitha Rajapaksa (SL Navy), have been spearheading the election campaign in Mullaiththeevu district for the ruling UPFA. A UPFA supporter and an operative of the SL military intelligence, Mr Raja Karuna, is contesting the elections in Ma'nal-aa'ru. The election campaign undertaken by Rasiah Kavithan on behalf of the TNA was challenging the UPFA in Mullaiththeevu.
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TNA MP calls for international investigations on prisoners of war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2013, 23:51 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran has called for an international investigation on the state of Prisoners of War (POW) according to international law on the conduct of war. Addressing a press conference in Jaffna on Friday, Mr Premachandran said the latest witness declaration by the SL military at Vavuniyaa High Courts that there are no former LTTE surrendees in their custody any more, while there are still hundreds of family members looking for their kith and kin, who had been handed over personally by them to the SL military, clearly indicated that the international community should now take the initiative to bring about international investigations on both war crimes and on the state of the Prisoners of War (POW).
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Genocidal Colombo appropriates 500 acres at NE border for Sinhala Buddhism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2013, 09:53 GMT]
Under the so-called "Buddha Pooja Boomi" project, the Colombo government has decided to appropriate about five hundred acres of land in Chuvaami-malai area in the traditional Tamil village of Thennai-maravadi that is in the narrow corridor linking the North and East provinces of the country of Eezham Tamils, informed sources in Trincomalee said. Of the five hundred acres, four hundred acres are to be allocated for the construction of a Buddha Vihara and one hundred acres to the Department of Archaeology of the genocidal State. Interestingly, this brand of Buddhism finds patronage from both the Congress as well as the BJP of New Delhi. In the meantime, one of the ‘Singapore principles’ proposed by the South African ‘initiative’ is to provide foremost place to Buddhism, informed circles said.
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SL military harasses Tamil activists engaged in election campaign: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2013, 19:58 GMT]
Violating the election rules, and intervening into the civil affairs, the occupying Sri Lankan military is threatening the Tamil activists campaigning for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the North, said TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran at a press conference held in Jaffna on Friday. Further, the SL military, that doesn't even understand what is written in the leaflets, is levelling false allegations against the TNA activists that they are distributing leaflets to start ‘another war’. Following that, 40 TNA supporters were detained by the SL Police. At least four people are still under police detention, Mr Premachandran said demanding their immediate release.
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‘Yaazh Theavi’ claims life of 78-year-old man in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2013, 18:56 GMT]
A 78-year-old Tamil man, who survived the genocidal onslaught on Vanni, was killed Friday in Ki'linochchi where ‘Yaazh Theavi’ train, which was under a trial run, knocked him down at a crossing without an operational barrier. The accident comes two days ahead of SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to declare the train service extended to Ki'linochchi from Vavuniyaa in a hasty election propaganda move on Sunday.
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Basil Rajapaksa deploys government employees for UPFA campaign in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2013, 04:59 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa is spearheading the election campaign for the occupying UPFA regime in Jaffna, all the government workers under his ministry, including ‘Samurdhi’ officials, who have access to the grassroots and unemployed graduates, who have been provided trainee appointments on a 10,000 rupee monthly salary, are instructed to work for Rajapaksa’s ruling UPFA, carrying out election campaign among the masses for the coming 7 days starting from Friday till 20th September in violation of the rules for a free and fair election. At least 40 Sinhala ‘Samurdhi’ officials from the South have been brought to Jaffna to supervise the poverty alleviation Tamil workers in Jaffna deployed in the election campaign, civil sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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SL colonial governor chooses to ‘boycott’ Swiss ‘development’ function in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 September 2013, 21:06 GMT]
A move by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) inviting the occupying Sri Lanka's colonial Governor in North, Major General (retd) GA Chandrasiri, as chief guest to the opening ceremony of two reconstructed schools in the Jaffna Peninsula on Thursday has ended up in the SL governor ‘boycotting’ the event, news sources in Uduththu'rai said. The controversial move by the SDC had received media attention prior to the event. Tamil politicians also protested against Chandrasiri using the occasion to wage election propaganda in favour of the UPFA government. However, the occupying SL military deployed its soldiers at the venue to demonstrate their occupation of the country of Eezham Tamils and to distribute leaflets canvassing among the public to support SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA in the forthcoming PC elections in the North.
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UK ‘development’ means building genocidal State against Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 September 2013, 08:41 GMT]
The UK and Scottish governments have been training more than 3,500 Sri Lankan police officers, including some senior commanders, since 2007, Herald Scotland reported Sunday. Reporting the findings by Corporate Watch, a non-profit research group, the paper cited several human rights campaigners as questioning the Scottish involvement with the Sri Lankan police. The training by Scottish police officers has also taken place when the notorious Special Task Force (STF), a full-fledged military outfit under the SL Police, was directly engaged in acts of genocide in the East as well as in Vanni. The ‘development’ ministry of UK (DFID) has been backing the project and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has defended the project and denied it was developing a police state.
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Sarath Fonseka denies Elilan's surrender

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 September 2013, 23:07 GMT]
“Elilan was never handed over to the army,” claimed Sarath Fonseka, the former military commander of the occupying SL military, at a press conference held in Jaffna on Saturday. “Elilan was an important man and if he was handed over to the army, as the commander of the army, I will know. He was never handed over to the army,” Mr Fonseksa said, once again whitewashing the genocidal SL military from serious war crimes committed under his command during the final days of the war in Vanni. Fonseka, who visited Jaffna on election campaign for his ‘Democratic Party’ went further with a humiliating comment that some families of war-dead LTTE cadres were claiming them as ‘missing’ in order to claim compensation. Sarath Fonseka also went on record blaming the current SL military commander in Jaffna as a very corrupt officer at the press conference held in Jaffna.
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