220 Tamils in Boosa detention camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 August 2007, 09:01 GMT]
About 220 Tamils, men and women are being still detained in the Boosa detention camp in the Galle town in the southern province under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). A Tamil woman of Dematagoda in Colombo city was released Sunday after 86 days in Boosa detention centre without any charge.
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Western media ignores Sri Lanka State Terror- Aussie doctor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 August 2007, 13:35 GMT]
Queensland Pediatrician and Director of Townsville Hospital's Neonatal Unit, Dr John Whitehall, talking with Richard Fidler of ABC radio in the program "Conversation hour" early this week, said that in Tamil eelam there "is tremendous commitment from a population of only three million people [for separation]. You can't get 17000 people to take up arms and fight to death unless their hearts are in their cause," and added that "What I have come to be aware [is] you can't understand the situation in Colombo if you only focus on the terror which is coming from one side, and you don't mention the state terror, the terror inflicted by Colombo state."
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Court releases two PTA detainees

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 August 2007, 13:24 GMT]
Colombo magistrate court Thursday ordered the release of two Tamils who were taken into custody by the Grandpass Police on July 26 on information that they were in possession of transport permit issued by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Additional Magistrate Mr.Ajit Anaviratne made the order on a report by the police that there was no evidence to implicate the suspects Sellathurai Kanthasamy, 64, and M.Selvarajah, driver and cleaner with any offence under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), legal sources said.
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"Jaffna's media in the grip of terror"

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 August 2007, 11:21 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders and International Media Support, two members of the international press freedom mission to Sri Lanka, that carried out a joint fact-finding mission in June, said in a report released Friday that "Murders, kidnappings, threats and censorship have made Jaffna one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists to work. At least seven media workers, including two journalists, have been killed there since May 2006."
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Court releases PTA-charged priest, trustee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2007, 18:02 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate Thursday ordered the release of Brammasri Sivaramalinga Kurukal Manohara Kurukal, chief priest of Kayts Muthumaariamman Temple and a trustee Mr. Nadarajah Sivarajah on a report of the Sri Lankan Attorney General that there was no evidence to implicate both under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
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Young man reported missing in Point Pedro

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 August 2007, 18:07 GMT]
A young family man from Point Pedro is reported missing from Tuesday afternoon after going to obtain pass to travel to Colombo from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Civil Administration office in Point Pedro, according to complaints made by his family members to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office Wednesday.


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IFJ calls for safety of journalists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 August 2007, 02:04 GMT]
Jacqueline Park, Asia-Pacific Director of International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), said that as long as journalists are continued to be intimidated and attacked in Sri Lanka, a free press in the country cannot be assured, in an IFJ media release Monday. IFJ, which represents over 600,000 journalists in 114 countries, while expressing its concern, called upon the Sri Lanka Government to act immediately to ensure the safety of journalists who serve the public's fundamental right to know, according to the media release.


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UNP Women's Front demonstrates against CoL

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 August 2007, 21:08 GMT]
The prices of fuel and other essential goods have soared beyond the reach of ordinary citizens of Sri Lanka due to the war waged by Sri Lanka government, United National Party (UNP) Women's Front, Colombo District Organizer, Rosy Senanayake said, after participating in a protest demonstration Tuesday from 10.30 a.m to 12:00 noon in front of Colombo Fort Railway station, to highlight the burdens faced by the public due to increase in Cost of Living (CoL).


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Veala'nai DS employee seeks protection

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 August 2007, 08:31 GMT]
An employee of Veala'nai Divisional Secretariat (DS), threatened to death continuously, (allegedly by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and its collaborating paramilitary members), sought safety Monday with his superior officers. The officers took steps with the help of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office Tuesday for him to be placed in the protective custody in Jaffna prison, HRC sources said. Meanwhile, two Chaiva temple trustees, including an education official in Veala'nai arrested earlier, are still detained at the Sri Lanka police interrogation centre in the 'Fourth Floor', in Colombo.


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Thai deportees held incommunicado in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 14:34 GMT]
Three Tamil asylum seekers who were returned by Thailand to Sri Lanka are being detained in Colombo and are at risk of torture or ill-treatment or disappearance, legal sources in Colombo said Wednesday. Sujith Gunapala, Sasikaran Thevarajah and Satyaphavan Aseervatham are being held incommunicado by the Criminal Investigations Division (CID).
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Sri Lanka: ‘Holmes is a terrorist’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 13:38 GMT]
Stung by a top UN official’s criticism that Sri Lanka has one of the worst records in the world for humanitarian aid worker safety, the Colombo government Wednesday condemned him as a “terrorist” and said he had been bribed by the Tamil Tigers to tarnish the country’s reputation. Meanwhile the head of the government's peace secretariat accused French aid group Action Contre la Faim of being responsible for the massacre of 17 of their own local staff last year through "negligence" and "irresponsibility". International monitors have blamed government troops for the killings.
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5 Tamils arrested near SL Parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 04:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested five Tamil youths near the Sri Lanka Parliament for staying overnight in an open ground located in Madiwela within the Sri Jeyawardanapura Municipal limits, around 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, sources in Colombo said. The youths allegedly had arrived there late evening in an auto trishaw and stayed there until dawn.
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SLA deserters arrested in Colombo for terrorising Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 10:54 GMT]
The Colombo police Monday arrested three Sinhalese persons who are said to be deserters of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on a complaint that they had been collecting names of Tamils who returned from abroad and staying with their relatives in Jampettah Street at Kotahena in Colombo city.
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Three to be charged in Kadirgamar assassination- AG

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 10:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Attorney General, Mr.C.R.de Silva, told the media Sunday on the second death anniversary of former foreign minister Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar that indictments against three Tamils now in remand will be filed soon after statements from three persons are obtained, legal sources in Colombo said.
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Chandrika Kumaratunge to meet Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2007, 02:11 GMT]
Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge, former President of Sri Lanka for two terms from 1994 till 2005, returned to Colombo from UK Sunday and is scheduled to hold talks with Mr.Mangala Samaraweera, leader the Peoples Wing of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), regarding current political situation Monday evening at her Horagolla residence, media sources said.
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Former AG Kamalasabeyson passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2007, 11:43 GMT]
Mr.K.C.Kamalasabeyson, former Attorney General of Sri Lanka, passed away in a private nursing home at Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state in India, Sunday early morning around 2.30 a.m., after a brief illness, sources in Colombo said. He was 59. He retired from the post of Attorney General in April this year.


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Right to Protect

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 August 2007, 01:01 GMT]
Gareth Evans, President, International Crisis Group, in the eighth Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture at International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) , Colombo, 29 July said "The State has a primary responsibility to protect the individuals within it. Where the state fails in that responsibility, through either incapacity or ill-will, a secondary responsibility to protect falls on the wider international community. That, in a nutshell, is the core of the responsibility to protect (R2P) idea" and that "Sri Lanka is anything but an R2P."
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Black July emblematic of Sinhala rule - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 July 2007, 05:38 GMT]
In nearly a quarter century of conflict since the state-sponsored anti-Tamil riots of July 1983, despite the tens of thousands of lives that have been lost in the conflict, “there has not been an iota of change in the Sinhala leadership’s thinking – nor, for that matter, in the sentiments of the international community [on the ethnic question],” the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its editorial this week. Comparing the regimes of Presidents Junius Jayawardene, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse, the paper contends: “Black July is not just a historical event. Rather, it is an emblematic act of Sinhala rule."
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Japan's aid not conducive to peace in Sri Lanka - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 July 2007, 19:38 GMT]
R. Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has said that the decision by Sri Lanka's major donor country Japan, to continue economic aid to Sri Lanka, will soften the International pressure on the SL government to seek a political solution and strengthen Colombo to pursue the military option. Pointing out Sri Lanka President's categorical statement that there would be no change in his policy on a "unitary structure of a government" with the "district as the unit of devolution," Mr. Sampanthan dismissed the efforts of All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) as "no more than a mere pretense" to show some action is being taken towards political solution.
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Sri Lanka blocks TamilNet

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 June 2007, 15:32 GMT]
TamilNet has completed 10th year of its web publication on 7th June 2007. TamilNet is a globally based news agency, run by an independent group of persons, to cover news and views related especially to the North and East of Sri Lanka. TamilNet has earned its credibility for news reporting and has become an indispensable news source for analysts and opinion makers worldwide. Unsurprisingly, the Government of Sri Lanka has thought of rewarding the TamilNet on its 10th anniversary by surreptitiously blocking it to the public of Sri Lanka.
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