Grandmother of Boosa detainee reported missing

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 09:07 GMT]
A 71-year-old grandmother, a Tamil, who visited Tuesday her grandson detained in Boosa detention camp in Galle in the south, is reported missing after leaving the camp, according to complaint lodged by her realatives with Pettah police and Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Colombo. Boosa camp officials have reportedly said that she had left after seeing her grandson.
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Jaffna Univeristy students continue boycott, demand Raveendran’s release

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 15:10 GMT]
“We are reliably informed that the men who took away our lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran in Colombo were in police uniform and we therefore request to reveal the place where he is detained and to produce him in a court of law according to legal procedure. We also request that Raveendran be interrogated decently and released at the earliest,” Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in a report to the media in Jaffna Thursday evening.
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Suspension of flight to Colombo inconveniences public in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 05:38 GMT]
The unannounced suspension of flights of Expo Travels between Jaffna and Colombo in the past two days has caused inconvenience to students who were to appear for the entrance examinations of universities in the south and for people from foreign countries who had travelled to Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The other firm that operates flights has increased the fare up to nearly 55,000 rupees to fly from Colombo to Jaffna adding to the inconvenience, the sources added.
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British celebrities, MPs endorse Mercy Mission to Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 05:34 GMT]
A global appeal event for the "Mercy Mission," a ship carrying relief and medical supplies to Vanni, was held Tuesday at the Royal Horseguards, UK, attended by several British Members of Parliament, celebrities to raise awareness of the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka to the public, organizers of the event said. The event was sponsored by "Act Now" and several Tamil charities. A petition addressed to the President of Sri Lanka was signed by the attending MPs and other celebrities, and the organizers said that the petition will be circulated to political leaders and other celebrities in US, Europe, Canada and Australia before the petition is sent to Colombo.
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JU students boycott lectures demanding Raveendran’s release

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 13:58 GMT]
Jaffna University students of Medicine, Science and Agricultural Faculties joined in the boycott of lectures launched by the Arts Faculty students Wednesday demanding the immediate release of lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran, the younger brother of Jaffna District Tamil National (TNA) parliamentarian, Selvarajah Kajendran, sources in Jaffna said. All educational activities in Jaffna University ceased as the entire students joined in the boycott which is expected to continue until the release of Raveendran, the sources added.
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US envisioning 'post-conflict' period puzzles Tamil circles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 11:09 GMT]
“The international community has started planning for the post-conflict period”, said a letter written a week ago by US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to US Congress members who had shown concern to the humanitarian situation in the island of Sri Lanka. “I emphasized that the Sri Lanka Army should not fire into the areas where civilians are trapped in the conflict zone. I urged President Rajapaksa to devise a political solution to the ongoing conflict”, the letter further said. On the contrary, as civilian killings are only intensified by Colombo and as there are no signs of recognising the long-standing basic Tamil aspiration of self-determination, Tamil circles wonder what is meant by ‘post-conflict’ and by ‘political solution'.
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LTTE Political Wing responds to John Holmes' briefing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 08:36 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Wing on Tuesday released the contents of a letter it recently sent to the UN, where it reiterated that an immediate ceasefire is urgent for the humanitarian aid and relief to reach the affected people. Stating that "no pressure is being exerted on the Government of Sri Lanka to bring an immediate end to the shelling that is slaughtering Tamil civilians in their thousands," the letter charged that "even while the Sri Lankan government is an active member of the United Nations, the UN is unable to rein in its own member state from killing civilians in thousands."
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Jaffna University students’ outstation travel impeded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 03:39 GMT]
The suspension of sea passage and very limited air travel have impeded Jaffna University students’ travel to Colombo to sit for examinations or to reach Eastern University to which they have been selected from Jaffna peninsula, Prof. N. Shanmugalingan, Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University said. The VC has requested Moratuwa University VC and the Eastern University VC to help make alternative arrangements, Jaffna University administration sources said.
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JU Arts Faculty students to boycott demanding Raveendran’s release

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 14:11 GMT]
The Arts Faculty Students Union (AFSU) in Jaffna University is to engage in a boycott of lectures from Wednesday until further notice demanding the immediate release of their lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran, the younger brother of Jaffna District Tamil National (TNA) parliamentarian, Selvarajah Kajendran, according to a report to the media by AFSU. Raveendran was abducted 24 March night by armed persons inside the high security area in Madiwela in Colombo while he was returning to the parliamentarian's residence, according to police.
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Apply adequate pressure on Colombo for ceasefire and negotiations: LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 01:09 GMT]
The LTTE is not a movement believing that war is the only means to achieve the aspirations of the people it represents. But, political solution needs an environment conducive to it. The IC can play a positive role by adequately pressurizing Colombo for ceasefire and by promoting negotiations between GoSL and the LTTE as equal partners with due recognition, said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in an interview to TamilNet on Monday. On the issue of civilians, Mr. Pathmanathan said they have already asked the IC, what international instruments now hold GoSL accountable for the denial of basic rights of the people already moved and presently living in the internment camps.
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Tamil journalists applaud “Women of Courage” award to Srinithy Nandasekaran

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 11:46 GMT]
Magistrate Srinithy Nandasekaran, who had served earlier in the courts of Vavuniyaa, Jaffna, and Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts), and currently a Magistrate in the Colombo Juvenile Court, was recognized as a South Asia Regional Finalist for the US Secretary of State's Women of Courage Award by the U.S. Ambassador Blake in Colombo on 24th March. Commenting on the award, a senior journalist said: "Ms Nandasekaran took strong, legally admissible steps to reign in on the Sri Lankan military's attempts to encroach into basic freedom of movement and rights of Jaffna residents. She ruled that the military cannot wear black masks during duty, and was a staunch critic of the road blocks the military forces set up that created hardship to the normal life of civilians."
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Arundhati Roy: "Colossal humanitarian tragedy"

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 00:52 GMT]
Pointing an accusing finger at the Indian Government for silence on the unfolding tragedy in Sri Lanka, Arundhati Roy, writer and activisit, in an article appearing in Times of India says, "while the killing continues, while tens of thousands of people are being barricaded into concentration camps, while more than 200,000 face starvation, and a genocide waits to happen, there is dead silence from this great country [India]. It’s a colossal humanitarian tragedy. The world must step in. Now. Before it’s too late."
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Youth shot, injured in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 2009, 07:19 GMT]
Two unidentified men on motorcycle shot and seriously injured a youth Sunday around 9:30 a.m in front of his house in Church Lane, Kokkuvil West in Jaffna as he was returning home on his motorcycle, sources in Jaffna said. The youth is admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
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'Global order' experiments with body and mind of Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 2009, 01:17 GMT]
To what extent human beings can survive under extreme conditions was a Nazi research on the ‘dispensable Jews’ of the concentration camps, to find out the levels of extremity the human body and mind can withstand. Academic and professional circles raise an alarm that the Colombo government and the abetting powers, in experimenting political cum military effectiveness of their local and global order through a no-witness genocidal war, are probably at such a research with the Eezham Tamils. "Whether a humanitarian catastrophe faced by them is deliberately ignored by the international community and whether the instruments of humanitarian intervention have given up Vanni people for good," ask Dr. J. Sivamanoharan and S. Edmond Reginold, professionals of mental health working in Vanni.
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Reporter arrested for plundering computers, temple artifacts in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 12:27 GMT]
A Sinhala TV reporter attached to the state-run Rupavahini Corporation and posted to cover the conflict in the Vanni was arrested on Thursday along with five laptops and ten digital cameras allegedly plundered from Tamil Tiger bases, police confirmed. Several artifacts allegedly removed from Hindu temples were also found on his possession, according to the investigators.
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257 Tamils arrested in outskirts of Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 05:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took into custody 301 persons including 257 Tamils in a joint search conducted in Gampaha, in the outskirts of Colombo city, from Thursday 6:00 p.m till Friday 6:00 a.m, according to police spokesman, Ranjith Gunasekara. 8,830 persons were interrogated in the search, he said. The relatives of the arrested Tamils have lodged complaints with Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan and Mano Ganeshan, leader of Western Peoples’ Front (WPF) and Colombo district parliamentarian.
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Tamil civilian arrested in Borella

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 02:22 GMT]
Western province Police Intelligence Unit Thursday arrested a Tamil civilian, who was resident of Jaffna, while he was waiting to board a bus to his destination at Borella bus stand in Colombo. The police said he was suspected to be involved in terrorist activity, according to information they received.
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Abducted Jaffna student detained by Uppuve’li police

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 17:44 GMT]
A 17-year-old student from Jaffna staying with his relatives in Trincomalee was abducted first and then held under detention in Uppuve’li police station, according to complaint made by his parents with Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office Friday.
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Jaffna University Teachers urge immediate release of Selvarajah Raveendran

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 17:31 GMT]
Abducted Jaffna University lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran should be released immediately so as to enable the smooth function of Jaffna University and to expel the fear and anxiety that prevails among the tutorial staff of Jaffna University, Jaffna University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) urged in a press report released Friday.
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Grasping at straws leaving the tail: diaspora activist on Holmes' brief

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 16:21 GMT]
UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, who briefed the UN Security Council for a second time on Thursday "didn’t say anything new in his latest briefing other than reflecting on the escalation of the crisis and the pathetic impotency of the UN in handling the situation," Roy Gardiner Wignarajah, a spokesman of the Canadian Tamil activist group, International Human Cultural Union (IHCU), told TamilNet Friday. He also referred to a recent statement by Professor Francis Boyle, a leading expert in International Law, who said that it seemed as if the UN is now repeating one of the 'most shameless and disgraceful debacles in its entire history in today's Vanni Pocket by becoming complicit in Sri Lanka's genocide.'
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