Outsiders quit Colombo, tells Defence Secretary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 September 2008, 15:03 GMT]
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told the State run Daily News Saturday that thousands who stay in Colombo "without any valid reason" should return to their villages as they are creating a huge security concern. "We must be prepared for this. That is why wer doing human control measures. People criticise us for fundamental rights violations when we do these things," paper quoted Gotabhaya as saying.
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SLAF bombs Ki'linochchi town, 3 civilians wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 September 2008, 01:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers attacked Ki'linochchi town Wednesday around 7:00 a.m., wounding a 90-year-old man and a 11-year-old boy and causing damage to 23 houses. A 23-year-old pregnant mother was to be operated due to fetal death, caused by the bombardment and a 1-year-old child was admitted in fainted state, medical sources said. The attack has taken place at the heart of the town where NGO offices, residences, civilian facilities and other offices are located. The Sri Lankan bombers fired 16 bombs and deployed lethal air bursts, causing wide destruction. NGO office of Seva Lanka and a store of OXFAM are located 100 meters from the attack site.
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UN pulls staff from Vanni, aid workers fear 'bloodbath'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2008, 13:33 GMT]
United Nations staff have begun leaving Vanni this week after Sri Lanka’s government ordered aid workers out of the Tamil Tiger controlled region and told them to remove their equipment with them. The government move comes after the UN agencies said they were unable to advise civilians to vacate LTTE-controlled areas in compliance with a government directive to this effect. Over 160,000 people have been displaced in the past two months by Sri Lankan offensives and a humanitarian crisis is fast developing, aid workers said. And amid indiscriminate bombing and shelling, some aid workers are warning of an impending bloodbath.
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Sri Lanka officials complicit in Tamil Genocide? - Washington Times

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2008, 01:43 GMT]
Asserting that "[t]here is reason to believe that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been complicit in a Srebrenica-like genocide or worse against Sri Lanka's Tamils on the installment plan. Since entering office in November 2005, he has been witness to the extrajudicial killings of more than 1,500 Tamils, torture, scores of kidnappings, countless arbitrary detentions and displacement of more than 250,000, a staggering percentage of Tamils who have not fled abroad seeking asylum," a commentary in the Washington Times, Wednesday issue, urged the U.S. Justice Department to lead a genocide investigation of Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Lt.Gen. Fonseka, and Basil Rajapakse.
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Sri Lanka rejects LTTE truce offer, responses differ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 04:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government Tuesday rejected the Tamil Tigers offer of a unilateral ceasefire for the period of the SAARC conference (Jul 26 to Aug 4). But senior officials of the Colombo government gave different responses as to the government stance on the truce offer, announced formally by the LTTE Political Wing on Monday.
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India helping Colombo to perpetrate genocide on Tamils, accuses Vaiko

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 June 2008, 14:39 GMT]
In a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, Vaiko, General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), accused India of “equipping the Sri Lanka Government to help its war machine to perpetrate genocidal attacks against the Tamils...throwing to winds the farsighted foreign policy adopted by Pandit Nehru and Mrs. Indira Gandhi,” and urged the Prime Minister to not participate in the SAARC Conference.
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Defense Ministry culpable of exposing journalists to reprisals- RSF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 20:32 GMT]
While noting that Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has added Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, to RSF's list of "Predators of Press Freedom," RSF in a press release issued Sunday, pointed to the ministry’s website "carrying virulent attacks on journalists critical of the government," and condemned the "defense ministry campaign against independent media, especially journalists who cover military affairs."
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Fein seeks SL Defence Ministry approval to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 02:37 GMT]
Responding to Sri Lanka Defence Ministry posting that labeled U.S. based attorney for a Tamil activist group, Bruce Fein, as "Carrion Bird of LTTE Terrorism," Fein said in a letter to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse that he accepts Sri Lanka Defence Ministry's invitation to "any interested party to visit Sri Lanka and see how the people of all ethnicities live in harmony in this country," and requested the Ministry to inform him the travel dates allowing him to obtain "direct and candid testimony of Tamil sentiments toward a unitary state as opposed to separate Tamil statehood."
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Gotabhaya 'warns' activists of state-owned media

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2008, 11:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary and the brother of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday invited two media activists Poddala Jayantha of Working Journalists' Association and Sanath Balasooriya, the secretary of the organization, both employed in the state-owned Lake House, and had cautioned them that their activities are bringing disrepute to State armed forces, and that the Government will not bear responsibility if any harm befalls on them from 'patriotic citizens' who support the military, informed sources from Colombo said. on Wednesday, SL Minister Keheliya Rambukwella confimed the meeting and reiterated that state employees should abide by rules of their employer organization.
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IFJ: Sri Lanka on a rapid downhill course

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 May 2008, 11:44 GMT]
Noting that in the past 12 months the relationship between Sri Lanka’s civil society actors and the Sri Lanka State has continued to deteriorate, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a media watchdog, in a report released Monday on “In the Balance: Press Freedom in South Asia 2007-2008,” said that “Verbal and physical attacks, harassment, restrictions on access and vilification of media personnel have become a common feature in the lives of journalists, photographers and all those engaged in the gathering, publication and dissemination of information in Sri Lanka.”
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Washington to remain engaged with Colombo, hopes for progress on Human Rights

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 13:35 GMT]
Don Camp, the principal assistant secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, visited Colombo this week and met with Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama, SL Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe, Secretary to the SL Ministry of Defense Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. "Many of the issues we discuss are difficult ones, particularly on human rights and the resolution of the conflict, but the U.S. will remain engaged in the hope of seeing progress." Mr. Camp was quoted by the U.S. Embassy.
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Military Officer in media position will affect war reporting, says CPJ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 March 2008, 11:59 GMT]
Citing incidents of "ongoing intimidation of Sri Lanka media ... and the treatment of Tamil journalists under investigation by the Terrorist Investigation Division," and the appointment of retired Major General Sunil Silva, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media watch dog, in a letter sent to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse Friday said, "[u]nsupported terrorist accusations threaten the security and livelihood of Tamil journalists. A military leader in a state media group threatens the objectivity of journalists," and urged Rajapakse to vigorously investigate attacks and provide the journalists with due protection.
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SLRC Deputy Director attacked in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 08:24 GMT]
A group of unknown men Friday morning around 8:45 a.m. attacked the Deputy Director of Sri Lanka state-owned Rupavahini Cooperation (SLRC), Anurasri Hettige, the trade union leader and a JVP supporter, at Kottiyawatta. Employees at the SLRC have started a protest against alleged targeted attacks by unknown men on journalists and staff of the station, who participated and covered a spontaneous protest on 27 December when Mervy Silva, the SL Minister of Labour was retaliated when he reportedly went amok on a news editor at the station.
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Contain threats against media, RSF appeals to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 16:12 GMT]
Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, expressing concern over escalating threats and violence against media personnel in Sri Lanka, in a press release issued Tuesday appealing to Mr Rajapakse, said: "Mr. President, it is not yet too late to restrain those of your close associates and political allies who sow trouble and fear among journalists," and added, "The violent behaviour of the men employed by some of your ministers is bringing the government into disrepute, a situation that will be hard to redress if nothing is done."
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Endorsement of media repression in Sri Lanka, alarming- CPJ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 10:37 GMT]
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media rights group, in a press release issued Monday, expressed alarm at "Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s brazen public call yesterday to censor the media and reintroduce criminal defamation laws." Condemning Gotabhaya's statement to Sri Lanka media, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said, "This is an open intimidation of the media...The Sri Lankan press sorely needs space to report independently on the escalating instability in the country, free of government intimidation."
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JVP noose around APRC neck

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 January 2008, 02:02 GMT]
While State media continues to provide an air of credibility to the All Party Representative Committee (APRC), insiders revealed to the Sunday Leader that APRC committee has decided to "delay discussing the contentious issues until the end but that they have now reached a deadlock with the JHU and SLFP insisting on a unitary state while the other parties have objected to the use of that terminology." The Sunday Leader further said that while several members have insisted on a set of proposals which goes beyond the 13th Amendment, the JVP has warned that they would topple the government if any proposals resembling a federal formula is forwarded in February.
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2007: The year in review

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 07:34 GMT]
For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year. Sri Lanka’s security forces and allied paramilitaries intensified their campaign of abductions (‘white van’ abductions), torture, and murder of Tamil civilians. Tamil civil society leaders bore the brunt of the counter-insurgency campaign. Jaffna remained an open prison with shortage of essential items, east falling under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control with thousands displaced as Colombo concocts colonization schemes to make east a Sinhala majority province.
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Mahinda Rajapaksa has won the confidence of India- Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 December 2007, 15:19 GMT]
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan defence secretary and the brother of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an exclusive interview to state owned Sunday Observer, claimed that the relationship between Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in an all-time high, and has reached the same level of trusted relationship that marked Srima-Shastri period. While, Rajapaksa, in 2006, demerged the NorthEast Province, breaching the Indo-Lanka accord, Gotabhaya has recently posted the U.S. trained Director of Military Intelligence as the Eastern Commander, expressing confidence that Colombo would be successful in holding elections in the East.
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GoSL to ban Tigers, abrogate CFA, says Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 December 2007, 15:10 GMT]
Misquoting the failed talks between a delegation of Tamil Liberation Movements and Sri Lanka Government in August 1985 as "Thimpu Agreement," Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary and brother of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an interview to state owned Daily News said that the Sri Lankan government would "give a solution" to the Tamil people after proscribing the LTTE, abolishing the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement. Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's statement comes as Sri Lankan forces were preparing for an all out war with the Tigers in the North.
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U.K. group urges protection for Sri Lanka's rights defenders

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 December 2007, 19:49 GMT]
A U.K-based Rights Group, Tamil Information Center (TIC), in a report released this week expressed serious concern "over the plight of human rights defenders in Sri Lanka, who are facing persecution and threats to life from [Sri Lanka] government authorities," and said the situation requires "urgent intervention by the International Community." The report urged the "Government of Sri Lanka to bring to an end a cycle of cumulative disregard for human rights in general and for abuses against human rights defenders in particular and to accept the offer of the international community to establish a human rights monitoring mechanism."
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