Elections jeopardize democracy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 August 2009, 00:46 GMT]
With only 20 percent turn out in the municipal elections, the clear verdict of the Eezham Tamils is no confidence in the Sri Lankan state and its institutions, said Tamil circles, commenting further that genocidal war and democratic elections mean the same for Colombo. They were citing the manner in which the elections were conducted denying entry to outside witnesses, while 40 percent of the voters not present, 50 percent of polling cards not delivered, Colombo-sponsored forgery of ID cards accused, people coerced and even the Tamil outfit with the government was forced to drop its identity. Whether war and elections against Tamils mean the same to the international community too is the question now coming from the Tamil circles which pointed out that the armed forces occupying the peninsula were more than double in number than the people voted in the elections.
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Polling begins in Jaffna MC, Vavuniyaa UC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 August 2009, 07:29 GMT]
Polling began Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m to twenty three members of the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) and eleven members to the Vavuniyaa Urban Council (VUC) in the Northern Province and will close at 4:00 p.m. Results are expected to be announced at midnight. “We have deployed more than one thousand two hundred police personnel at all polling stations in the JMC and VUC. Mobile police patrolling is also being done in the two local bodies, “said Mr. Nimal Lewke, Deputy Inspector General of Police, for the northern province at a media briefing in Vavuniyaa.
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Massive election fraud imminent, says ITAK

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 August 2009, 14:53 GMT]
Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) in a letter addressed to the Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections complained that 'a party' contesting Jaffna Municipal Council Elections Saturday is printing forged National Identity Cards (NICs) to commit impersonations to illegally obtain additional votes in its favor. Mavai Senathirajah, General Secretary of ITAK, in the letter appealed to the Commissioner to allow polling agents to verify the authenticity of voters to prevent fraudulent voting.
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EPDP men violate human rights – ITAK chief candidate Remediyas

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 14:16 GMT]
“Minister Douglas Devananda’s men are intimidating the fishermen in Jaffna that the ban on fishing will be imposed again if they vote for Ilankai Thamizh Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election and this is an obvious violation of human rights,” Mudiyappu Remediyas, the principal candidate of ITAK, said in the press conference held Tuesday in ITAK office in Jaffna.
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TNA candidates, supporters attacked by government party men in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 05:26 GMT]
A group of supporters led by the leader of a government party contesting the election in the Vavuniyaa Urban Council attacked two candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and their supporters while they were engaged in electioneering at Kuruma'nve’li area in Vavuniyaa Monday evening in two separate incidents, according to complaints lodged with Vavuniyaa Police and the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV).
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3 TNA candidates in Vavuniyaa polls receive death threats - CMEV

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 11:56 GMT]
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said Wednesday that it received complaints that three candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) contesting the election to the Vavuniyaa urban Council have been issued with death threats.
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Political struggle will continue until Tamil aspirations are met -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 18:43 GMT]
"Tamil militancy was a part of the political struggle of the Tamil people to achieve the right to self-determination in the traditional homeland of the Tamil people in the northeast. The Sri Lanka government says that the armed struggle has been completely defeated. But the political struggle of Tamil people would go on till the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamil people are achieved," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group, addressing a meeting in Vavuniyaa Saturday in support of the TNA candidates contesting the elections to the Vavuniyaa Urban Council under the banner Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK).
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Indian High Commissioner on pulse reading mission in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 15:10 GMT]
Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Mr. Alok Prasad, arrived at Palaali Military Airport Tuesday morning accompanied by his deputy and political wing head and held several meetings in Jaffna with the representatives of academic circles, political parties, interreligious associations and civil organizations in Jaffna peninsula in an effort to read the pulse of the people of the peninsula, sources in Jaffna said. “The Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka have faith only on China while the Tamils had absolute faith on India which had committed a historical blunder by betraying the Tamils in Sri Lanka,” one of the civil society representative participant said, commenting on Alok Prasad’s visit to Jaffna.
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TNA parliamentarians meet Indian Foreign Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 June 2009, 00:45 GMT]
A team of five Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians met the new Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna on Thursday and discussed matters related to the release of the three doctors and a TNA parliamentarian who rendered invaluable service to the beleaguered people to the very end of war, demilitarization of Tamil areas, resettlement and rehabilitation of civilians in the internment camps and grant amnesty to LTTE carders in captivity, TNA circles told TamilNet. The parliamentarians met National Security Advisor M K Narayanan on Wednesday and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday before the meeting with Mr. S M Krishna. They also met the leader of the opposition L. K. Advani on Friday.
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US Tamil groups meet with State Department on Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:17 GMT]
A group of American Tamils representing different diaspora organizations met with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, (via video link) on 8th April in Washington, D.C., to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka. The Tamil groups pressed for an immediate ceasefire and pointed out that no durable political solution is possible without the participation of the LTTE, and told the State Department officials that "...[N]egotiations should not preclude separation as a solution, and that confederation with power sharing at the center may be a viable alternative to total separation."
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TNA urges IC to ensure Sri Lankan forces do not bomb besieged civilians

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 March 2009, 06:24 GMT]
The leaders of four major Tamil parties, the ITAK, ACTC, EPRLF and TELO comprising Tamil National Alliance (TNA), on behalf of the 22 elected parliamentarians from North and East, sent an appeal to the International Community urging it to ensure an immediate cessation of the war and ensure that adequate medical supplies, food and shelter be sent to the 333,000 civilians inside the area under siege by the Sri Lankan military. "The civilians are merely asking, that the SriLankan armed forces do not bomb them, and that the government permits adequate food, medicine and shelter into the area." Since the beginning of this year, more than 2150 civilians have been killed inside the so-called ‘safe zones’ by bombing campaigns carried out by the Sri Lankan armed forces and over 5000 are wounded, the TNA appeal said.
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Revise policies on Tamil struggle: Karen Parker tells U.S. Senate

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 00:55 GMT]
The twenty-six year old armed conflict between the armed forces of the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has reached a phase that can only be called genocide-like and catastrophic for the Tamil people in the north and east of the island, said human rights expert Karen Parker, Wednesday to the subcommittee of the US Senate, hearing on the situation in the island of Sri Lanka. Describing the war waged by Colombo as illegal military operations, using illegal weapons or legal weapons in an illegal manner without any international monitoring, she urged the US government to call for an immediate ceasefire and address it most forcefully to the Rajapaksa administration.
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Eezham Thamizh and Tamil Eelam: Understanding the terminologies of identity

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 00:43 GMT]
Many readers, Tamils as well as non-Tamils, wonder at the way words and phrases such as Eezham, Thamizh, Eezham Tamil or Eezham Thamizh, Tamil Eelam or Thamizh Eezham, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan etc., are presented today in the media and the connotations implied by them. Culture Columnist Akazhaan discusses the etymology, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics of these terms in the context of the Tamil and Sinhala national questions in the island known as Sri Lanka today.
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Former IGP assumes duties as Governor of demerged North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2008, 10:48 GMT]
Former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Victor Perera, Saturday assumed duties as the first Governor of Northern Province in an event held at the chief secretariat of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) located at Varothiayar Nagar, Trincomalee, sources said.
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Victor Perera vows to establish civil administration in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2008, 18:55 GMT]
Victor Perera, the former Sri Lankan Inspector General of Police (IGP), who has been appointed as the Governor of the de-merged Northern Province by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Saturday assumed duties at the Northern Provincial Secretariat located at Varoathaya Nakar in Kanniyaa, 3 km from Trincomalee of the Eastern Province. Mr. Perera said he would take steps to establish civil administration in the 'liberated areas' in the North and launch development projects there. Both the secretariats of Northern Province and Eastern Province are now functioning from Trincomalee.
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Seven leaders including G.G.Ponnambalam honored in SL parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 04:29 GMT]
Seven political leaders, C.W.W.Kannangara, A.E.Goonesinghe, Dr.S.A.Wickremasinghe, G.G.Ponnambalam, Dr.N.M.Perera, Phillip Gunawardene and Alhaj T.B.Jayah were honored for their services to Sri Lanka, Tuesday in Sri Lanka's parliament. Their photographs were unveiled Tuesday morning in the parliament as a mark of respect in an event presided by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, parliamentary sources said.
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Thanthai Chelva remembered on his 31st anniversary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 April 2008, 14:59 GMT]
The 31st death anniversary of the late Tamil leader and the founder of the Federal Party (Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi -ITAK), Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam (SJV) was held in Jaffna near the SJV memorial statue at 9:45 a.m Saturday presided by Rev. Dr. Jebanesan of the South Indian Council of Churches.
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TNA condemns Father Karunaratnam slaying

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 04:32 GMT]
Father Karunaratnam was actively engaged in Human Rights related work, and as Chairman of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights, played a prominent role in the exposure of the grave human rights violations to which the Tamil Civilian population in the Vanni area were continuously subjected, said R.Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance and Maavai S.Senathirajah, the general secretary of Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in a press statement issued on Tuesday. "We deeply mourn the loss of Rev Father Karunaratnam who indefatigably served the legitimate interests of the Tamil Civilian population in the Vanni."
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Emergency extended in Sri Lanka for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 March 2008, 07:26 GMT]
The Sri Lanka's parliament Wednesday adopted the motion extending the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 88 votes. 102 parliamentarians voted for the motion and 14 against, parliamentary sources said. Parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) were not present in the parliament when the motion was put to vote.
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24 Village-divisions in Trincomalee deserted due to conflict

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 February 2008, 14:47 GMT]
A preliminary report released by the Department of Census and Statistics in Colombo revealed that villages in 24 grama niladhari (village level) divisions in the Trincomalee district have been deserted due to the displacement of residents following the conflict. 20 GN divisions are Tamil areas. Other four are Sinhala divisions, media sources said.
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