Sri Lanka deports British journalist

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 19:59 GMT]
Jeremy Page, reporter for the British paper, The Times, was escorted to the detention room on arrival at the Katunayake International Airport last week, locked up for the night, and deported to the UK the next day, says Page in an article in Timesonline. He was denied a journalist's visa for Sri Lanka since August despite multiple applications, and he was identified and deported when he tried to enter Sri Lanka on a tourist visa. "I know why I'm blacklisted: the Government [of Sri Lanka] thinks, or pretends to think, that I support the Tigers. That is nonsense. I have no personal connection to either side of this 26-year civil war," writes Page.
Full story >>

AFP puts spin on TamilNet report

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
A TamilNet news report citing political observers in Colombo that appeared Thursday became a ‘view of the LTTE’ for the Agence France-Presse (AFP). Since its inception, TamilNet has been an independent news agency committed to reporting news with a Tamil perspective. However, it has become an objectionable practice with a section of the international media, including AFP, to refer to TamilNet as a pro-rebel, pro-LTTE etc. medium. But, Friday’s reporting by AFP has gone a step further by treating TamilNet report as LTTE’s belief or opinion. TamilNet does not such reporting as just oversight.
Full story >>

Colombo householders asked to register particulars with police

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 07:43 GMT]
All householders in Colombo have been instructed by Sri Lanka Defence Ministry to register their particulars at the nearest police station and that failure to do so may result in punitive measures, according to announcement made over loud speaker in Sinhalese and Tamil from a long white bus bearing the Sri Lanka government insignia, Thursday night and Friday morning. Letting a person live in the house without informing the police is a punishable offence, it was announced.
Full story >>

Colombo, India and IC conspire three-pronged attack: Canadian Tamil artist

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 00:01 GMT]
The coercion of the Canadian government withdrawing the release of a statement just because the Canadian Tamil demonstrators refused to lower the Tamil national flag, considered as pro-LTTE flag by the government, is a part of the international conspiracy to break down the Eezham Tamil liberation struggle by isolating and dealing with the three components of the struggle, i.e., the LTTE, the TNA and the diaspora, said Varnarameshwaran, a Canadian Tamil Music Director. "The conspiracy is to abet Colombo to eliminate the LTTE leadership at whatever civilian cost, India to handle the TNA and the governments of the so-called international community to intimidate the diaspora. It is a three-pronged attack," he said.
Full story >>

UN and IC signal civilian carnage

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 19:14 GMT]
The observation of UN official Holmes, that a ceasefire is not possible and the LTTE is preventing the civilians from leaving, followed by the chorus of British and French foreign ministers coming out with the same accusation on the LTTE in strong words, signal UN and IC assenting to a civilian carnage in the so-called safety zone, political observers in Colombo said. They also cited Rajapaksa’s visit to Ki’linochchi and unconfirmed reports on the withdrawal of even pro-government media from the battlefront as final preparations for Colombo’s onslaught.
Full story >>

Buddhist extremists damage Methodist Church in Dehiwala

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 16:00 GMT]
An armed gang of persons alleged to be Buddhist extremists who arrived in a white van Thursday to the 150-year-old Methodist Church in Pepliyana in Dehiwala in the suburbs of Colombo caused damages to the church, according to Fr. Surangitha Fernado, the pastor of the church.
Full story >>

Holmes needs more homework: Diaspora refugee worker

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 15:06 GMT]
It is unfortunate that UN, the apex body meant to protect the weaker sections of humanity, is on the contrary exploiting the misery of Eezham Tamil civilians to abet the aims of their sworn oppressors, said K.Suthahar, an information counsellor of a refugee reception centre in Norway. "Top UN official John Holmes, would do better by convincing his organisation to first demonstrate that to what extent it can practically defy the genocidal agenda of the Sri Lankan state and in what ways it can protect the concerned civilians particularly, and the Tamil people in general. The first step is to take full responsibility of the civilians who are already in the concentration camps of Colombo. But the UN is unable even to free its own local workers in Colombo’s camps," he said.
Full story >>

Norway urges attention on precarious situation for civilians in conflict zone

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 12:03 GMT]
"All attention must now be directed towards the precarious situation for the civilians trapped in the conflict zone, and to end the fighting without further bloodshed," said a press statement issued by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo on Thursday, stating that Norway strongly condemned and regretted the incident in Oslo where the Sri Lankan Embassy building was subjected to a mob attack on 12 April 2009.
Full story >>

11 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo on New Year day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 03:39 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos arrested eleven Tamil youths in a search conducted Wednesday in the suburbs of Colombo on the Tamil Sinhala New Year day, according to complaints made by the youths’ relatives to Deputy Minister P. Rathakrishnan.
Full story >>

Last chance for Congress Establishment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 02:26 GMT]
"The Indian Establishment has an arrogant way of reminding that it is the Eezham Tamils who will be needing India and not vice versa. But it is time to tell that they also will need us," writes a political analyst in Colombo. “There is an increasing tendency among Eezham Tamils today to rely more on the West for solutions and the blame squarely falls especially on the present Indian Establishment. Observers feel that in recent times the mounting anger of Eezham Tamils are more directed at perpetrators and abetters of the war than at Colombo, for it is always expected what the irredeemably chauvinistic state will do. If not for the abetters, the Tamils would have handled it on their own. In the Tamil mind, India tops the list of perpetrators and abetters”, writes the political analyst in Colombo who regularly contributes to TamilNet.
Full story >>

Mass human tragedy possible any moment in 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 23:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Tuesday night launched a full scale ground offensive attempting to break the last earth bund of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) situated close to the safety zone on Puthukkudiyiruppu - Mullaiththeevu Road, TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reported Wednesday early hours, Sri Lankan time. When the Co-Chairs countries have asked for the extension of ceasefire, Colombo's defiance and ferocious attack on the civilian safety zone are widely seen by political observers as efforts to fulfil the agenda of India, which is scheduled to receive TNA, Wednesday.
Full story >>

IC should engage LTTE directly - Diaspora activist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 15:38 GMT]
"Discredited and wrongly applied policies shouldn’t be a hindrance to the International Community in upholding a humanitarian cause. The IC, especially the US should find ways of engaging the LTTE directly in resolving the humanitarian tragedy resulting from the war waged by the Colombo government," said Shan Thavaraja, Switzerland based diaspora and human rights activist, on Tuesday. Striping Norway of its peace negotiation role, reportedly for mediating on behalf of US, was a scheming act of Colombo to keep the IC at bay. Colombo is planning for massive genocide and imprisonment of civilians in the forthcoming days. IC negotiating directly with LTTE only can pre-empt Colombo, he said.
Full story >>

Only 40 civilians reach SLA territory during 48 hour announcement by Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 13:32 GMT]
As a few hours remained of Colombo's announcement of restricting military operations for 48 hours, sources in Jaffna and Vavuniyaa reported that only 40 civilians were registered as having arrived in SLA controlled territory from the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) held area. 26 civilians arrived in boats to Point Pedro Munai in Vadamaraadchi while 14 civilians had reached Vavuniyaa by land during the said period.
Full story >>

US engagement irks Colombo, Norway ousted from Sri Lanka peace mission

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 15:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka in a formal letter handed over to Norway's ambassador to Colombo, Tore Hattrem, Monday, has stripped the peace facilitator of its role in the Sri Lankan process, AFP said in a report Monday. "The government of Sri Lanka perceives that there is no room for Norway to act as (peace) facilitator," AFP quoted an official as saying. The announcement comes following recent reports leaked in Colombo press suggesting that the United States had contacted the LTTE leadership through a third party and that the LTTE, concerned of the security of the civilians, had proposed a longer period of ceasefire. Diplomatic circles in Colombo said that Sri Lanka's action was precipitated by the revelation that the United States Government was using Norway as a third party to facilitate a week long ceasefire.
Full story >>

'Three insults to Tamils for the traditional New Year'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 19:32 GMT]
Disguised insults meant against Tamil struggle this week bring out a picture of the attitudes operating in Colombo, New Delhi and Chennai, writes a political analyst in Colombo. “It is not exactly the Sri Lankan government, but the Sri Lankan state that is the core symbol of oppression in the island. Ethnic chauvinism is the cornerstone of this state. No liberation can come to Eezham Tamils unless this symbol is deconstructed. It is important for both Tamils and Sinhalese to see that accepting this symbol as it is now, or imposing this symbol as the basis of any political discourse, will never pave way for peace of both.”
Full story >>

5 Sinhala villagers hacked to death in Buttala

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 16:11 GMT]
Five Sinhala villagers were killed by unidentified persons at Mahagodaya in Buttala area in Moneragala district Sunday evening around 7:00 p.m., according to police spokesman in Colombo.
Full story >>

3 Tamil youths from Vavuniyaa reported missing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 02:51 GMT]
Three Tamil youths from Vavuniyaa who left to Colombo Thursday morning and interrogated by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Oamanthai check post are reported missing with Colombo Human Rights Commission office by the their relatives. The youths had travelled up to Madawaachi SLA check post where they had gone missing, the relatives said in the complaint.
Full story >>

SLA arrests 66 Tamils in Colombo, Ampaa'rai, Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 18:21 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Police from Thursday till Friday morning conducted several cordon search operations in Colombo, Ampaarai, and Vavuniyaa. About 50 civilians, including 40 Tamils were arrested in Colombo division and detained in respective police stations for further inquiry. Police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media that detained civilians had failed to prove their identity and justify their presence in the location. Most of the arrested Tamils are residents of Jaffna. 14 Tamil youths were taken into custody in Wellawatte area, he said.
Full story >>

Nadesan: there will be no post-LTTE scenario

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 12:35 GMT]
Head of Liberation Tigers Political section, B. Nadesan, in an interview to India's weekly magazine Tehelka, said that, "[t]here will not be a post-LTTE scenario. Look around the world, and you will see the desire for freedom and dignity in the hearts and minds of all Tamils. The LTTE is seen as the way to achieve the political aspirations of the Tamil people," and added that the International Community should work towards "fulfilling the political aspirations of the Tamil people by recognizing their struggle for self-determination and a homeland," instead of waiting for a "post-LTTE scenario, which is never going to come."
Full story >>

RSF repeats war-crimes complaint against Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 22:50 GMT]
Reminding Colombo to to fulfill its international obligations to let journalists into the Vanni conflict area where "a major humanitarian crisis in unfolding," Asia-Pacific Desk at Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Friday said, "[t]he death of at least two journalists in the so-called "no-fire" area tends to support allegations that the Sri Lankan security forces are responsible for war crimes against civilians," and that the [Sri Lanka] government is violating UN Security Council resolution 1738 about protecting journalists in war zones."
Full story >>