US warns Sri Lanka to investigate atrocities ‘quickly’ to avoid international action

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 August 2011, 07:41 GMT]
The United States said Tuesday that if Sri Lanka does not “quickly” investigate “in a way that meets international standards” allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the final months of the island’s war in 2009, “there’s going to be growing pressure from the international community for exactly the kind of international action that Sri Lankans say they don’t want.” The comments by State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland came in response to questions posed by Headlines Today television’s Washington correspondent Tejinder Singh, following up on answers to his queries on Monday.
Full story >>

Headlines Today to air new documentary: Inside Lanka's Killing Fields

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 August 2011, 17:28 GMT]
New Delhi-based news channel, Headlines Today, which has brought wide media focus in India on Sri Lankan war crimes after broadcasting the Channel 4 documentary, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, followed with a debate recently, on Monday said it was to broadcast an exclusive documentary of its own on Tuesday, titled "I witnessed Genocide: Inside Lanka's Killing Fields". The new documentary to be aired on Tuesday will feature eyewitness accounts of shelling and aerial bombardment of designated safe zones, hospitals and other civilian targets, rape, sexual harassment at IDP camps, use of chemical bombs, use of cluster munition, denial of food and medicines to civilians etc., media sources in New Delhi said.
Full story >>

21st anniversary of Thiraayk-kea'ni massacre commemorated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 August 2011, 14:36 GMT]
Twenty first death anniversary of 47 Tamil civilians massacred by Muslim goons with the support of Special Task Force (STF) of Sri Lanka Police in Thiraayk-kea'ni village in Ampaa'rai district on the 6th August, 1990, was observed Saturday. Thiraayk-kea'ni village is located 70 km away south from Batticaloa in Ampaa'rai district. Tamils were massacred as retaliation to the killing of 13 Muslim labourers that took place on August 5, 1990 by the STF at Digavapi village.
Full story >>

SLA complicit in assisting Karuna's extortion ring

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2011, 03:32 GMT]
Paramilitary personnel of the group led by Karuna working hand in hand with the intelligence personnel of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are engaged in extorting money from people who go to work in Paduvaankarai village, Batticaloa, according to complaints filed by the victims to authorities, civil sources in Batticaloa said. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, currently holds the post of Deputy Resettlement Minister in Mahinda Rajapakse government.
Full story >>

Colombo transfers Admin functions of East Tamil areas to Sinhala districts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 August 2011, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has been implementing a scheme to transfer administrative functions of Tamil districts in Eastern Province to the adjoining Sinhalese districts. As a first step the government has transferred the financial administration of Batticaloa District Coconut Development Board to Polonnaruwa located in the North Central Province. The government should immediately stop this transfer, said Mr.P. Selvarasa, Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian.
Full story >>

Unidentified persons erase Arab letters from street name boards

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 July 2011, 10:35 GMT]
A group of unidentified persons had erased the Arabic letters written along with Tamil, Sinhala and English languages on street name boards within the administrative limit of the Kaaththaankudi Urban Council in Batticaloa district. Residents have lodged a complaint with the SL Police in Kaaththaankudi, according civil society sources.
Full story >>

‘Dropping call for justice and independence is worst crime’

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 July 2011, 21:03 GMT]
Voicing on behalf of the present establishment in New Delhi, sections in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) unnecessarily declaring against independence of Eezham Tamils and discouraging war crimes investigations are worst of the crimes committed not merely against Eezham Tamils but against human civilization, said Tamil national as well as Left political circles in the island and in the diaspora to TamilNet on Monday. The comments have come responding to TNA views expressed after its victory and during its campaign in the civic elections. TNA leader Sampanthan interpreted the victory as Tamil wish for solutions within ‘united Sri Lanka’ and a confidential document circulated among ‘friends of the TNA’ during the civic elections said that the war crimes investigations were actually directed against India than against Colombo, and hence Tamils should not pin hopes on them.
Full story >>

Batticaloa Tamil political detainees begin hunger strike

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 July 2011, 02:55 GMT]
Seven Tamil political prisoners began hunger strike from Saturday morning in protest to the assault on three fellow inmates by jail guards, civil sources in Batticaloa said. The protesting prisoners demanded that all detainees be provided with better facilities, detainees should be given separate cells and that harassment of prisoners by prison officials should stop. The protesters added that the hunger-strike will continue until the demands are met.
Full story >>

EPDP assaults youth leader of TNA in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 July 2011, 19:14 GMT]
Ki'linohchi EPDP chief organizer V. Thavanathan and Sri Lanka Army intelligence personnel at Viveakaananthaa Nakar in Ki'linochchi severely assulted the youth wing leader of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) of Ki'linochchi district Suntharalingam Lokeswaran while he was returning from a polling booth Saturday aroiund 4:30 p.m. Mr. Lokeswaran was admitted to the Ki'linochchil hospital and was later transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital with serious injuries, reports from Ki'linohchi said.
Full story >>

Protests make India withdraw SLA training in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 July 2011, 14:21 GMT]
A programme of the Indian military to train soldiers of the genocidal Army of Sri Lanka at the Madras Regimental Centre at Wellington in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu was withdrawn after a protest of the people of Tamil Nadu staged by Periyar Dravida Kazhakam (PDK), Naam Thamizhar Party (NTP), Viduthali Chiruththaigal Katchi (VCK) and other activists groups on Friday. 25 soldiers of Sri Lanka’s Army who arrived at Wellington Thursday night for a three months training were sent back in a bus via Chennai, Indian officials said Saturday. About 200 activists participated in the protest demonstration at Wellington on Friday. A wordy quarrel took place between the Tamil Nadu police and a section of the agitators when the latter attempted to squat on road, PTI reported.
Full story >>

Clinton meets Jayalalithaa in Chennai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2011, 17:00 GMT]
The United States is “looking at some innovative and creative ideas to break the impasse over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue,” PTI quoted visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in Chennai Wednesday. The report did not elaborate. Meanwhile, in a public address Ms. Clinton said that India's example of multicultural democracy should serve as a model for Sri Lanka. Commenting on Clinton's remarks, Eezham Tamil political circles said Indian-modelled political solution will not work in the island when the military is Sinhalese. Centuries of political experience in the island shows that equal status of Tamils and Sinhalese is possible only when they have equal States, the political circles further commented.
Full story >>

BJP vows to take up Eezham Tamils plight in Indian Parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2011, 07:10 GMT]
Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari who met a top delegation of the British Tamils Forum (BTF) last weekend in London, has said that the BJP was very serious on taking up the ‘Sri Lanka issue’ in the Indian Lok-Sabha. BTF leaders V Ravi Kumar and S. Pathmanathan, who led the BTF delegation to the meeting with the visiting Indian politicians, expressed hope that the BJP would be consulting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa on the plight of Eezham Tamils and that the Indian leaders would also be meeting the Tamil representatives from the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The BJP is yet to adopt a stand on the accountability issue on the question of Eezham Tamils and the genocide committed on them.
Full story >>

14-year-old boy taken for anti-UN demonstration reported missing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 July 2011, 22:45 GMT]
A 14-year-old student of Yarltan College in Kaarainakar, Jaffna, Thiruchelvan Kajeethan, who was enticed by the EPDP and taken to Colombo to participate in the anti-UN panel report demonstration that took place on May Day, is so far missing. The parents of the grade-6 student, disappointed in getting a reply from the EPDP have approached TNA parliamentarians in Jaffna to find out what had happened to the boy. In recent times, there are many instances of school children, below the age of sixteen, missing in the country of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Jayalalithaa should play the role like Indira Gandhi on Bangladesh

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 July 2011, 16:12 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa should make it a mission to campaign for the independence of Eezham Tamils in the other states of India and elsewhere. For two years before the independence of Bangladesh Mrs Indira Gandhi quietly undertook a diplomatic campaign for it all over the world. Now there is no one except Ms. Jayalalithaa who is bestowed with the mantle to play such a role for the independence of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Grassroot Tamil Nadu gathers to remember genocide, voice for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 June 2011, 02:18 GMT]
Keeping aside party identities, religions and castes, more than 30,000 people of grass root Tamil Nadu gathered in Marina Beach of Chennai on Sunday to remember the genocide committed on Eezham Tamils and to call for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, sending a strong message to New Delhi and to the international community, the organisers of the event said. The congregation organised by Mr. Thirumurugan Gandhi of May 17 Movement, received massive support and participation of leaders cutting across party lines, similar grass root movements, civil society organisations, artists, social workers and the common public that has come with families bringing even their children.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister wants Delhi to change course

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 13:20 GMT]
“The Tamil Nadu legislative assembly has recently passed a resolution urging the Government of India to initiate action by working with other nations for the imposition of an economic embargo on the Government of Sri Lanka, until the Tamils who are now living in camps are resettled in their own places and are allowed to live with dignity and with equal constitutional rights on par with the Sinhalese,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said in her memorandum to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Tamil Nadu CM, who met the Indian PM on Tuesday told him that Sri Lankan Navy was harassing and torturing the Tamil Nadu fishermen and demanded cancellation of ferry service which was started Monday between Tutucorin in Tamil Nadu and Colombo. The memorandum submitted to Indian PM said on the resumption of ferry service that it “will not be advisable and it will be against the sentiments of the people.”
Full story >>

SLA extorts money from Batticaloa milk producers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 11:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army intelligence unit personnel camped in Tharavai in Batticaloa district are demanding money from Tamil civilians under threat, sources in Batticaloa said. Intelligent unit personnel are alleged to be using an individual known as ‘Maniam’ for ‘collecting’ money from owners of dairy farms, persons employed for milk collection and farmers through intimidation. SLA intelligence personnel also visit houses where Tamils returned from abroad reside in Kiraan, Chiththaa'ndi and Vanthaa'rumoolai, demanding money from them under threat. Victims fear to lodge complaints with the police due to retaliation by the army soldiers.
Full story >>

Abducted Tamil child found deployed in slave labour in Sinhala district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 June 2011, 21:22 GMT]
The grandfather of an abducted 11-year-old Tamil boy from Batticaloa has been threatened by paramilitary for having braved to rescue his grandson from the grips of ‘treasure hunters’ who had deployed the abducted boy for slave labour in Dambulla. Mr. Velmurugu Sivalingam, the grandfather, upon receiving information on the whereabouts of his grandson, had rushed to Dambulla to rescue his grandson, Athisayarajah Soundararajah.
Full story >>

STF collects details of exiled Tamils from Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2011, 08:56 GMT]
The Special Task Force, an elite commando wing of the Sri Lankan Police and a part of the SL armed forces in the war against Tamils, has begun registering the names and other details of Tamils from Batticaloa, who are settled abroad. A group of personnel of Special Task Force dressed in black uniform conducted house to house search operation in Ea'raavoorpattu Chengkaladi division in Batticaloa district Thursday from 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Full story >>

Amidst renewed SL militarisation, Batticaloa village observes 24th year of massacre

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2011, 12:54 GMT]
The residents of Thoa'ni-thaa'nda-madu, a village situated in Koa'ra'laip-pattu North in Batticaloa district, along the border of Polonnaruwa district, on Friday observed 14th anniversary of massacre of Tamil villagers whom the Sri Lanka Army shot and hacked to death at least 3 women and 8 men with 6 children in the early hours of 27 May 1987 while the victims were asleep. The entire village was burnt together with the bodies of the victims. Last year, following the efforts taken by certain NGOs, around 56 families comprising 102 members had been resettled in the village, according to the Divisional Secretary of the area. However, the SLA has not been willing to hand over the houses it has occupied. Recently, the deployment of the SLA has been further strengthened, threatening the villagers of possible colonisation.
Full story >>