BTF requests UN to release Panel report public, urges focus on Tamil Genocide in May

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 14:02 GMT]
The British Tamils Forum (BTF) has called upon global Tamils to come together in breaking the international silence on Tamil genocide while marking the remembrance this year of those who perished in Mu'l'livaaykkaal in May 2009. “Focusing the genocidal onslaught by the Sri Lankan state on Eezham Tamils in Mu'l'livaaykkaal and reiterating the now widely acknowledged demand for international investigations on war crimes and crimes against humanity, we should all target our efforts in convincing the global community on the core theme of the crime of genocide, which is establishing the ‘intent’ on the part of the Sri Lankan state behind a systematic destruction of the Eezham Tamil nation in the island,” Kana Nirmalan, a Human Rights activist of the BTF said when contacted by TamilNet Wednesday, following a media statement the organisation issued urging the UN to make the Panel report public.
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‘Saving a state that refuses to be saved’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 02:40 GMT]
A perusal of the leaked UN report would show that the outlook is to ultimately save the Sri Lankan state by providing it with an escape avenue through a minimum penalty of accepting a ‘concurrent’ international mechanism to investigate the war crimes. But the reactions coming from Colombo only show that such an undue consideration on the part of the UN and the IC towards Sri Lanka is futile as state has never been orientated in the island for peaceful unity or for being genocide-free. Perhaps a chance has now been given especially to the Sinhala masses to demonstrate their choice between supporting a criminal regime that tries to save its skin by citing love to a genocidal `mother country´ and recognizing the love of both the Sinhalese and Eezham Tamils towards their mother countries in order to pave way for true reconciliation, writes A. Vijayshankar of Tamil Nadu who is now in Norway.
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Pillaiyan, Karuna paramilitary groups clash in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2011, 03:33 GMT]
Cadres of the para military group led by Pilliayan, who is the chief minister of the Eastern Provincial Council, assaulted a former cadre, Seenithamby Pakkiyarajah, 38, severely injuring him Sunday, sources in the east said. Pakkiyarajah was admitted to the Ka'luvaagnchikkudi Government Hospital. Pakkiyarajah had recently joined the para-military group led by Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan alias Karuna, who is now a Deputy Minister in the Mahinda Rajapakse government. The Ka'luvaagnchikkudi police have so far arrested two suspects in this regard.
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Trade unions allege politically motivated teacher transfer scheme in East

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2011, 08:57 GMT]
Teachers from the eastern province are being transferred contrary to the islandwide transfer policy but according to a political agenda of the Colombo government, the All Ceylon Teachers Union (ACTU) and All Ceylon Government Workers Union (ACGWU) have alleged. ACTU President Joseph Stalin said transfer of teachers in the eastern and western provinces are carried out according to the Mahinda Chinthanaya policy.
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Rajapaksa wants May Day rally against UN report

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2011, 06:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appealed to organizers of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to turn the May Day rally into a massive show of strength against the UN Experts Panel report and the people are with him despite accusation that the government had committed war crimes, according to a news report of the Sunday Times.
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"Prepared to go to gallows to save Motherland" - Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2011, 20:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during a meeting held at Temple Trees today with electoral officers, declared that he is willing to go even to gallows to safeguard his motherland. "Certain groups with vested interest are still hell bent on bringing disrepute to Sri Lanka, almost two years after the war was ended," Rajapakse said according to political sources in Colombo. Rajapakse made these statements in reference to the UN-panels report on Sri Lanka war crimes which was submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Sri Lanka-based paper Island leaked the executive summary of the report in an attempt to soften the damages before the UN releases the full report, a political observer in Colombo said.
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Canada orders deportation of Mrs. Parajasingham

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2011, 03:41 GMT]
Canada has ordered the deportation of the widow of Joseph Pararajasingham, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian shot dead during at Christmas Mass in 2005 at packed church in the then Sri Lankan government-controlled Batticaloa town, the Toronto Star reported. Canada says 74 year old grandmother, Mrs. Sugunm Joseph, is a member “by association” of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), because her husband was a member of the TNA, the largest Tamil political party of Eezham Tamils in the island. Mr. Parajasingham was killed just weeks after President Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed office after the elections in November 2005.
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Local officials harass war widows in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 11:26 GMT]
War widows with their children residing alone in the border villages of Batticaloa district are still being intimidated and harassed by some village level officers of the Sri Lanka’s government led by President Mahinda Rajapakse, according to local civil sources. Responsible local government officials and non-governmental organizations are turning blind eye to complaints made by affected war-widows, civil sources say.
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Remembering Mu’l’livaaykkaal to focus on injustice of powers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 05:16 GMT]
With all recent revelations, the most crucial question the Eezham Tamils have to now openly ask Washington and New Delhi is that like their understanding on the elimination of the LTTE, whether they have already decided that dismemberment of the Eezham Tamil nation is the ‘lasting solution’ for the national crisis in the island – whether they have already entered into an agreement with the Rajapaksa regime on this. It is folly on the part of a section of Tamil political circles to think that they should not confront the powers on this crucial question of life and death of their nation. Remembering Mu’l’livaaykkaal in the month of May should mobilise Eezham Tamils of all political shades to rise up in unison and boldly ask justice for what Washington and New Delhi had done to them. Tamils have seen enough of the ‘reconciliation and development’ hoodwink.
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Sinhala colonization threatens coastal areas of Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2011, 03:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse led United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has been implementing a planned scheme to settle Sinhalese persons in the southern coastal areas of Mu'l'lik-ku'lam, Thampapa'l'li in Ko'ndaichchi and areas along Madu road in the Mannaar district. Lands belonging to Tamil villagers in these areas are being grabbed to settle Sinhalese from the south, said Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni district parliamentarian in a statement to media.
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Robert Blake’s ‘reconciliation’ is farming in Tamil land for SL military

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2011, 12:02 GMT]
While the US Asst Secretary of State Robert O Blake testified before the US Foreign Affairs Committee on the “reduction of the reach of High Security Zones” (HSZ) in the island to support his vision of progress that is taking place towards the US State Department-conceived paradigm of ‘reconciliation,’ evidences that come from Jaffna show that the occupying genocidal SL military is engaged in full-fledged farming and horticulture in the largest HSZ in Jaffna Peninsula, reportedly by using slave labour of the captured LTTE cadres. The Valikaamam HSZ, created after uprooting villages, is in the best of the fertile lands and the occupying military has already leased out large tracts of them to Sinhala businessmen. If farming could take place why mines are an excuse to hand over the lands to the owners, ask Tamils.
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HRW demands accountability for wartime disappearances

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2011, 05:19 GMT]
Human Rights Watch, a New York based rights organization, said in a press release issued Friday that "[t]hrough interviews with relatives of the missing and witnesses, published testimony, and media reports, Human Rights Watch found that more than 20 people who were taken into army custody between May 16 and 18, 2009, appear to have been forcibly disappeared. Most of them are known to have been detained in the Vadduvaakal area, just south of the strip of land in northeastern Sri Lanka where the final battle between the LTTE and government forces occurred. At the time, the area was controlled by the Sri Lankan army’s 59 Division," and demanded that Colombo "should account for everyone who was taken into custody."
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Sinhala hoodlum attack Up-Country Tamils after SL defeat in Cricket final

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 April 2011, 16:39 GMT]
Sinhala hoodlum including some Muslims were on the rampage in the several parts of the upcountry attacking Up-Country Tamils of Tamil Nadu origin following the defeat of the Sri Lanka to India in the World Cup final that was held in Mumbai in India last Saturday. The unruly mob had entered line rooms of upcountry Tamil families and damaged the household properties and causing cut injuries to three Tamil youths, according to Mr.Arumugan Thondaman, leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by Mahinda Rajapaksa. About 25 upcountry Tamil youths had been admitted in Dikkoya hospital with cut injuries caused by sharp weapons.
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EPC employees not paid flood relief salary advance

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2011, 12:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka General Employees Union (SLGEU) accused the Chief Minister of Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) and the ruling party members for not taking action over the failure to provide flood relief salary advance to employees coming under the EPC due to contradictory circulars issued by the Provincial Governor and the Chief Secretary of the EPC, according to a memorandum sent by SLGEU to the Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse. SLGEU President Mr.S.Loganathan and Secretary Mr.I.M.Ibralebbe have signed the memorandum.
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Ampaa'rai mother appeals to LLRC to locate son abducted by Karuna men

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 March 2011, 11:08 GMT]
A widowed Tamil mother, Kasipillai Marakathamani, of Vinaayagapuram in Thirukoail Friday appealed to the Lessons and Learnt Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to locate her only son who was forcibly taken over from her house three years ago by cadres of Karuna Para military Group. Since then the son has been missing and his whereabouts are not known. Marakathamani was giving evidence before the LLRC sittings Friday morning in the Ampaa'rai District Secretariat.
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LLRC to hold sittings in Ampaa'rai, Moneragala

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2011, 11:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), appointed by the Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse is to hold its sitting in Ampaa'rai and Moneragala from March 25 to March 27, LLRC sources said.
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New Elections Commissioner appointed

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2011, 11:30 GMT]
Mahinda Deshapriya has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s new Commissioner of Elections consequent to the retirement of the incumbent Dayananda Dissanayake from March 24 Thursday. Dehspriya is to assume duties on Friday, according to a media release by the Presidential Secretariat Thursday evening. Currently Deshapriya is the Deputy Commissioner of Elections.
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Batticaloa development not transparent, benefits no residents, says Council member

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2011, 11:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has been planning development projects in the Batticaloa district to boost the image of Mahinda Chinthanaya and also to help its financial resources, but not to benefit the district residents, according to Mr.R. Thurairatnam, Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) member. Mr.Thurairatnam is also the leader of the Padmanaba wing of the EPRLF and representd Batticaloa district in the EPC.
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Wickremasinghe retains UNP leadership

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2011, 11:31 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe has retained his leadership in the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and his contender Sajith Premadasa accepted a post of Co- Deputy Leader. Both agreed to amicably settle the dispute over the leadership that had been dragging for over several months at the party’s working committee that met on Wednesday evening at Sri Kotha, party headquarters.
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TNA MP accuses Pillaiyaan of issueing death threats

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2011, 01:41 GMT]
Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian C. Yogeswaran has lodged a complaint with the Kaththangkudy Police that he had repeatedly received death threats from the Chief Minister of Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilliayan, according to electronic media reports in Colombo Tuesday.
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