Tamil Left in Sri Lanka revisited

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 September 2007, 02:12 GMT]
"The majoritarian nationalists have reframed the national question as a ‘terrorist problem’ and displaced it from the historical and political domain to which it belongs. They have couched their call for a military solution in a discourse of ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of the majoritarian unitary state and linked it to the so called global war on terror at the same time. Now it is official that the main problem is ‘terrorism’ which has to be defeated before any ‘political solution’ can be found. The real meaning of this position is that the military solution is the political solution," writes Professor N. Shanmugaratnam, in his foreword to Ravi Vaitheespara's book on Tamil Left.
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Tsunami warning issued after earthquake in Sumatra

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 12:29 GMT]
An earthquake has occurred in Southern Sumatra in Indonesia with 8.2 Magnitude with the potential to generate a widespread Tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian ocean basin, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. The warning was issued at 11:10 GMT on 12 Sep. The Tsunami could reach Trincomalee at 15:02 GMT (8:32 p.m., local time), Jaffna at 16:25 GMT (9:55 p.m.) and Colombo 15:15 GMT (8:45 p.m.). However, it is not known a Tsunami was generated, the watch is based only on the Earthquake evaluation. Authorities in the region should take appropriate action in response to the possibility of a widespread destructive Tsunami, according to the NOAA warning.
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Colombo unwilling or unable to contain Rights violations- HRW

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 11:18 GMT]
During the launch of the Report “Return to War: Human Rights Under Siege” in the European Parliament Tuesday, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), a leading Rights organization based in New York, said after the report was published in the first week of August, disappearances especially in Jaffna have continued, condition of internally displaced have reached alarming levels, climate of impunity continued to prevail, and the Attorney General’s office, have not effectively investigated human rights violations or brought perpetrators to justice. HRW also condemned Colombo's dismissal of international critics as “traitors,” and “terrorist sympathizers.”
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Kumaratunge to visit India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 September 2007, 10:54 GMT]
Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge, Sri Lanka's former president is scheduled to leave for India Tuesday to hold talks with Indian leaders Her decision to visit India was taken after a two hour meeting with Indian High Commissioner Mr.Alok Prasad at her official residence in Colombo, media reports quoting diplomatic sources said.
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LTTE's Rights group draws attention to plight of Tamil people

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2007, 13:42 GMT]
The Office of the LTTE Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, in a detailed report released Saturday before UN Human Rights Council session, drew attention to the human rights violations committed by the Sri Lanka State on the Tamil people, and said that more than 1974 Tamil civilians have been killed and 842 Tamil civilians were either arrested or abducted in the 21 months from November 2005 after Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse came to power. The Rights Group called upon the "international and UN representatives who visit Colombo, to also pay a visit to the Tamil homeland and to find out first hand the ground situation."
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SL Ministers visit PTA detainees in Boosa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2007, 01:01 GMT]
A delegation of Sri Lankan Ministers and high-ranking police officials visited 118 Tamil detainees arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), now held in the Boosa Detention Center situated in the Southern province, Friday morning.
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Mu'l'likku'lam villagers face starvation

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2007, 05:29 GMT]
More than 500 Tamil civilians belonging to around 195 families in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sieged Mu'l'likku'lam, a remote village in SLA occupied Musali division in Mannaar, have been sending SOS message through the few wireless phones in operation that all outside links were cut with their village for five days since September 01 and all food supplies have gone dry.


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SL Ministers visit PTA detainees

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2007, 01:01 GMT]
A team of Sri Lankan Ministers and high-ranking officials of the Sri Lanka Police visited Friday morning the Tamil detainees arrested under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and kept for months without any inquires in the Boossa Detention Center situated in the deep South. 118 Tamil detainees including five women arrested in the districts of Colombo, Monaragala, Trincomalee, Jaffna and Batticaloa are also part of the detainees kept at the Boosa camp.
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Colombo aims to carve out Sinhala district between North and East - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2007, 19:46 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka is giving in for the demands of the extreme nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), with its plans afoot to carve out a Sinhala district between Trincomalee district in the Eastern Province and Mullaiththeevu in the Northern Province, aiming to split the geographical contiguity of the Tamil homeland, charged R. Sampanthan, the senior Tamil parliamentarian and the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), addressing the Sri Lankan parliament Wednesday. The attempt to create a Sinhala district would spoil the chances for a negotiated settlement, Mr. Sampanthan further warned.
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Account freeze by Sri Lanka violates UN Declaration- TRO

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2007, 10:46 GMT]
Freezing of Bank Accounts of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in Colombo for more than one year without any charges being filed, and denying the TRO "day in court" to defend against the "false allegations," are violations of Declaration on the "Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly's Resolution 36/55 of 25 November 1981," said TRO officials in a media release issued Tuesday.
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SLAF charges money to fly Nalloor devotees to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2007, 09:02 GMT]
Amidst thousands of Chaiva devotees out of Jaffna peninsula unable to attend the annual festival of the Historical Nalloor Kanthasuvaami temple in Jaffna due to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) closure of the A9 land route, the devotees were charged 6,800 rupees per person by the Sri Lanka Air Force, to fly from Ratmalana in Colombo to Jaffna in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aircraft, sources in Jaffna said.
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Amnesty calls for impartial, international investigations on escalating Human Rights violations in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2007, 08:02 GMT]
"There are grounds to fear a return to a pattern of the security forces involvement in extrajudicial killing of journalists and others," the Amnesty International noted in a public statement issued on Tuesday charging that the national Human Rights monitoring mechanisms, including the Commission of Inquiry (CoI), lacked capacity to launch prompt, impartial and independent investigations. The Amnesty called on the members of the United Nations Human Rights Council, before the sixth session of the Council, scheduled to be held between 10 - 28 September, to exert pressure on Colombo to invite an international monitoring mechanism to independently investigate rights violations in the country.
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Jaffna students to participate in National Sports meet in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2007, 02:43 GMT]
The first group of students from Jaffna will travel by ship to Trincomalee and from there to Colombo by land to participate in the National Sports meet to be held in Colombo, according to Education officials in Jaffna. The officials met with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Palaali Head Quarters on this matter before making the announcement, Monday.
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4500 civilians displaced from Musali to Naanaaddaan in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2007, 00:54 GMT]
More than 4500 civilians were forced to flee Musali division in Mannnaar district Saturday when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) moved in, without any direct confrontation, into the area located south of Mannaar-Madawachchi Road where Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) were known to have been present in pockets of areas. No Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) were maintained by either warring party in the said areas. The coastal villages located between Mannaar and Puththa'lam. Naanaaddaan MV school and Don Bosco technical college where 1136 IDPs of 327 families were residing have been surrounded by the SLA and the Sri Lankan police.
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UNP to move no-confidence motion on Rajapakse government

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2007, 12:22 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) is to submit a no-confidence motion against government headed by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse when parliament meets on Tuesday, parliamentary sources in Colombo said. The political affairs committee of the UNP took this decision at a meeting held on Wednesday following one-to-one talks between former president Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge, and Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, UNP leader.


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4 Tamil civilians arrested in Maligaawatte

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2007, 06:18 GMT]
Four Tamil civilians were arrested Sunday morning in a combined cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army and Police at Maligawatte, a suburb in Colombo city. About 1800 houses were searched in the operation that lasted for about four hours, sources said.
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DPU Claymore kills 9 fleeing civilians in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2007, 07:09 GMT]
Nine civilians fleeing from a Sri Lanka Army offensive towards Chilaavaththu'rai in Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled territory in Musali, Mannaar, were killed and six including children wounded in a Claymore attack carried out by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) Saturday at 8:35 a.m. Two ambulances sent from Mannaar hospital to transport the wounded were blocked at Chi'rukka'ndal SLA camp. It has taken more than 6 hours to transport the wounded towards Mannaar hospital through a separate route via Achchangku'lam, medical sources said.
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Census in East after civilian displacement

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2007, 13:02 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian blamed the Government of Sri Lanka Thursday, for conducting a census in Batticaloa district after Tamil people were driven out of the district due to the military offensives, said R. Sampanthan, MP, the Parliamentary Group Leader of TNA, Batticaloa district members of Parliament, T. Kanagasabai, S. Jeyananthamoorthy, Miss. K. Thangeswary and P. Ariyaneththiran, Amparai district MP, K. Pathmanathan and Jaffna district MP Suresh Premachchandran, in a joint press communiqué issued Thursday.


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RSF urges EU, US to help protect Sri Lanka journalist

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2007, 06:58 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF) in a press release issued Wednesday urged European and US Embassies to do their utmost to protect Iqbal Athas, investigative journalist of the Sunday Times weekly in Sri Lanka, who had gone into hiding for fear of his life after he published an article, revealing corruptions Sri Lanka State's purchase of Mig-fighter jets from Ukraine. Athas finds himself the target of some members of the government and the army and Sri Lanka's President should order the speedy restoration of Iqbal Athas' security, RSF further said in the press release.
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Etihad says Colombo no longer profitable destination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 August 2007, 09:06 GMT]
Citing the non profitability of the Sri Lankan market in terms of passenger growth, Etihad Airway’s, Monday announced plans to code share with local carrier SriLankan Airlines, the Daily Mirror reported Tuesday. The airline will be suspending their operations to Colombo from September 15. The airline’s Regional General Manager Asia Pacific Charles Phelps-Penry told journalists in Colombo that they had changed plans for Colombo due to the non profitability of the carrier flying into the capital inspite of a load factor of 75%-80%.
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