The Liberal Moment in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 12:39 GMT]
“For decades, the international community, especially the Western liberal democracies, have simply refused to confront the Sinhala chauvinism at the heart of the island’s crisis. Instead, it has blamed the LTTE solely. … Without the LTTE, it was unshakably believed, compromise, reconciliation and peace were inevitable. Now, according to Colombo, the LTTE is no more. However, what is taking place is something very different to liberal peace. The Sinhalese, it seems, have little interest in liberalism or peace with the Tamils. The question, however, is what is to be done, ” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week.
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NESoHR Head appeals for help to protect humanitarian workers

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 10:43 GMT]
Deputy Chairperson of Northeast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), K Sivapalan, in a memorandum issued Thursday, appealed to the different Governments of South East Asia including Singapore, where many Tamil humanitarian workers from the conflict zone in Vanni have sought safety, to treat these refugees compassionately, and to protect them from falling back into the vindictive hands of the Government of Sri Lanka. Sivapalan also urged the Human Rights organizations across the world to exert pressure on the SriLanka Government to release the three medical doctors from Vanni who are currently being detained and interrogated in Colombo.
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Avoid witch hunt, HRW tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 03:34 GMT]
Noting that "Disappearances" of ethnic Tamils in the north and east and in the capital, Colombo, allegedly by members of the security forces or Tamil armed groups remain a serious problem, New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a press release issued today said, "[t]he Sri Lankan government needs to ensure that the abuses that occurred when LTTE strongholds fell in the past don't recur," and that Sri Lankan Government "should ensure that military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam does not result in new "disappearances," unlawful killings or the jailing of government critics."
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Sri Lanka rejects probes into slaughter of Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 03:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka has no plans to investigate allegations that its security forces massacred 20,000 Tamil civilians in the final stages of an offensive against the Tamil Tigers, and neither is Colombo willing to eventually accept an international probe, trade minister G. L. Peiris said Wednesday in Tokyo. "No, we don't regard that attitude as acceptable. That is some kind of inquisition," Peiris, a former peace negotiator said, according to an AFP report. Last week, leading British and French newspapers published their investigations, including interviews with UN officials, into the massacre.
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25 Tamil youths arrested Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 02:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police took into custody 25 Tamil youths from North, East and upcountry in a sudden cordon and search in Colombo and its suburbs Wednesday, sources in Colombo said. Security has been beefed up in Colombo since last week in view of the victory celebrations that is being held in the capital, the sources added.
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Jaffna University pays last respects to Prof. Krishnarajah

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 21:56 GMT]
Students, faculty deans and lectures gathered in Kailasapathy Auditorium in Jaffna University Tuesday noon to pay their last respects to the remains of Prof. Somasuntharam Krishnarajah in an event presided by Prof. N. Shanmugalingan, Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University. Prof. Krishnarajah died Friday in a private hospital in Colombo Friday and his remains were interred in Jaffna Tuesday, sources in Jaffna said.
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Colombo under tight security to celebrate government’s “Victory Day”

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 21:32 GMT]
Cordon and search operations are being conducted by large number of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army in Fort, Bambalapitya, Wellawatte, Dehiwala Kohuwela, Nugegoda, Kelaniya, Demtagoda and Gampaha in Colombo district since Monday to ensure foolproof security for grand victory day celebration with military parade that is scheduled to be held on Wednesday in Galle Face Green, media sources said.
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Injured Tamil youth dies in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 21:26 GMT]
The Tamil youth Wimalan Satkunarajah, 29 who was shot by unidentified men on May 26 evening close to his residence located along New Chetty Street in Colombo succumbed to injuries Sunday evening in a private hospital. He was immediately admitted to the Colombo National Hospital but later transferred to a private hospital as his condition was reported critical, media sources said.
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CPA threatened over ‘treason’ - report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 19:23 GMT]
The Colombo-based liberal think tank, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), has received a threat accusing it of treason, Reuters reported Tuesday. A letter titled "Notice to the Traitors" left at CPA’s office talked about the military victory over the Tamil Tigers last month and warned the CPA to shut its offices for a week in salute to fallen Sri Lankan soldiers.
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13,000 have ‘disappeared’ from Sri Lanka camps – UN reports

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 14:58 GMT]
According to reports of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, last week over 13,000 internally displaced people have disappeared from Sri Lanka’s internment camps for Tamil civilians, Inner City Press reports. Moreover, UN sources in Colombo are telling Inner City Press that senior UN officials above them, Sri Lankan nationals who are Sinhalese, are deliberately downplaying the 13,000 "missing" IDPs, which would otherwise be of much concern given the reports of disappearances from the camps, the seizing of teenage males for detention and females for sexual abuse.
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33 Tamils arrested in Wellampitya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 13:44 GMT]
Police took into custody thirty-three Tamil civilians in Wellampitya in Colombo district on Sunday during a cordon and search operation as they failed to register themselves with the police.
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Britain sold arms despite Sri Lanka’s abuses – The Times

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 13:01 GMT]
Britain sold £13.6m worth of arms to Sri Lanka in the past three years despite Colombo’s widespread abuse of human rights, The Times newspaper reported. Whilst the United States suspended arms sales in 2008, Britain, Bulgaria and Slovakia continued to arm President Mahinda Rajapakse’s ultra-nationalist government. The sales contravened the 1998 EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports that restricts business with countries facing internal conflicts or with poor human rights records and a history of violating international law. The arms were sold as international ceasefire monitors, human rights groups and Tamil Diaspora repeatedly protested Sri Lanka’s rights abuses.
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Leading journalist Podala Jayantha attacked in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 21:38 GMT]
Unidentified persons arriving in a white van forcibly took away Podala Jayantha, the Secretary of Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA) in Nugegoda in Colombo, heavily assaulted him, before throwing him out of the van at Ambuldeniya junction in Nugegoda, Monday, sources in Colombo said. Inspector General of Police (IGP), in an interview to state television Friday, had accused certain journalists being paid by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, (LTTE) and Podala Jayantha’s photograph was telecast in the interview along with some other journalists.
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Setting the hands of the clock right

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 20:04 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils and their political representatives have no obligation to anyone now, to engage in the deliberations of fruitless alternatives. But the world has an obligation now to tell the Tamils whether its opposition is to what it has perceived as 'terrorism' or to Tamil nationalism. The Eezham Tamil mainstream has a historic responsibility on its shoulders to be performed right now. If the oppression to their nationalism is trans-national, the Eezham Tamils have to respond by forming a trans-national government fully responsible to them based on democracy, to negotiate with the world and to look after their own affairs.
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Colombo to issue finger print ID to Vanni civilians in custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 11:23 GMT]
All members of IDP families including children of over ten years of age who were forced to flee Vanni and detained by the Colombo government in Vavuniyaa internment camps are to be issued with special identity cards with their finger prints. Police with officials of the Presidential Secretariat are currently engaged in implementing the scheme.
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Sri Lanka war crimes: Ban must speak, UN must investigate – The Times

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 10:51 GMT]
Following on from investigations published last week which revealed the United Nations was aware as 20,000 Tamil civilians were being slaughtered by the Sri Lanka Army, The Times newspaper called Monday on the UN to investigate the war crimes, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to speak out, and UK Foreign Minister David Miliband to press Mr. Ban. Saying “there is a terrible augury for such inexplicable reticence [by the Secretary-General],” to speak out, the paper recalled the UN’s “insouciance and failure” over the Srebrenica massacre of Muslims by Serbs and asked if the UN would scotch parallels for it in Sri Lanka.
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Diarrhoea claims 9 lives in Vavuniyaa internment camp in one day

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 10:30 GMT]
Nine elderly IDP persons sheltered in Cheddiku'lam internment camp Saturday died due to diarrhoea. Several IDP families in the camp have been affected by diarrhoea. Cheddiku'lam Inquirer into sudden deaths Mr.E.Sahul Hameed held the inquests. Lack of proper distribution of drinking water and medical facilities was the reason for the spread of diarrhoea among the IDPs, according to Cheddiku'lam District Medical Officer.
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UN can investigate Sri Lanka’s actions - war crimes judge

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 May 2009, 20:47 GMT]
The United Nations is able to investigate the war crimes which occurred recently in Sri Lanka, British human rights lawyer and international war crimes judge, Geoffrey Robertson QC said Sunday. The avenues for the UN include the UN Human Rights Committee, which can investigate individuals’ complaints against states under the International Convention on Human Rights, to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. The UN Human Rights Council, by contrast, is a “highly politicized” body staffed by diplomats of various countries, including those abusing human rights, rather than human rights experts, he said.
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Sri Lanka Police arrests Tamil woman in Wattala

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 May 2009, 03:46 GMT]
A Tamil woman was arrested in Wattala town in Colombo district on Thursday night on a tip off from the public that she is stranger to the area. Police said it was revealed at preliminary inquiry she was a resident of Mullaitheivu, and had come to Wattala during the height of military operation in Vanni, according to media reports.
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TNA MP Kanagaretnam allowed to meet fellow TNA MPs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 May 2009, 16:53 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, Mr N Srikantha and Mr Sivanathan Kishor met separately their fellow parliamentarian Sathasivam Kanagaretnam who is being detained in the Fourth Floor of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sri Lanka Police in Colombo. Mr.Kanagaretnam is detained since a special CID team took him into custody from an internment camp in Omanthai, in Vavuniyaa district where Vanni IDPs are being kept, media reports said.
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