Elections to 98 local bodies expected in May: SL Elections Secretariat

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2011, 02:50 GMT]
Elections to 64 local bodies postponed due to legal issues and 34 local bodies postponed due to the ongoing Cricket World Cup are expected to be held in May this year, Sri Lanka’s Elections Secretariat sources said without specifying a date. Preliminary steps are being taken to hold elections to local bodies in Jaffna and Ki'linochchi district which were postponed following the rejection of nomination papers submitted by the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) by the Jaffna District Returning Officer.
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UPFA expects cabinet reshuffle

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2011, 23:54 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to replace the incumbent SL Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratne with a new face in a new cabinet reshuffle expected at any time, UPFA sources in Colombo said.
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ITAK wins 12 local body elections in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2011, 12:22 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), contesting under the symbol of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), captured the administration of twelve local authorities including two Urban Councils (UC) and Predesiya Sabas (PS) in the North and East in the elections held Thursday. The TNA failed to capture power of the Moothoor PS in Trincomalee district but was able secure three seats out of 11. Elections to local bodies in Jaffna district and to some in the districts of Trincomalee, Ampaarai and Mullaithivu were not held Thursday.
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Tight security at SL local elections

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2011, 02:19 GMT]
More than 50,000 police officers and 30,000 military personal have been deployed to maintain security at the 7402 polling centers and 52 counting centers in the Thursday's local council elections. 333 special teams have been setup for election duty, Inspector General of Police Mahinda Balasuriya was quoted saying in the Lakbima newspaper.
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Elections to 231 local authorities to be held Thursday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 11:34 GMT]
Elections are scheduled to be held Thursday March 17 to Municipal Councils in Akkaraipaththu, Bandarawela and Dambulla, 30 Urban Councils and 201 Predesiya Sabhas. 9.4 million persons are eligible to vote for 29,098 candidates at 7,396 polling stations in the 23 administrative districts, excluding Jaffna and Killinochchi, to elect 3,022 candidates, Election Department sources said.
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Trinco under heavy security for Rajapakse election visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 March 2011, 14:45 GMT]
Trincomalee town has been put on red alert from Friday for the forthcoming visit of Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse who is scheduled to address an election rally on Sunday morning in the Trincomalee McHeyzer Stadium in support of the ruling United peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) contesting the Trincomalee urban Council. Roads leading to the McHeyzer Stadium are under heavy checking by army and police personnel. Vehicles and other mode of transports are stopped and checked by security personnel, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Karuna alleges Pillaiyan TMVP corrupt

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 March 2011, 14:38 GMT]
"The Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) party led by the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan is a political party full of corruption and deceit. Pilliayan has no support from the government," said Resettlement Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan alias Karuna. "Pilliayan became the Chief Minister due to votes of Tamils. He is now hanging on the government to show Tamils that he has the support of the government. He cannot act alone," said Karuna who has been spreading Mahinda Chinthanaya in Ampaarai district. Both are leaders of two Para military groups in the east.
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No security guarantee for Tamil parliamentarians: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2011, 07:58 GMT]
Over the attack on his vehicle at Nochchiyagama on Monday, Tamil National Alliance Ki'linochchi district parlimentarian S. Sreetharan said in Parliament on Wednesday, “It is clear that there is no security guarantee for MPs in this country. How can a Tamil here expect security from the state?” He further stated that while he was passing Medawachchiya on Monday at 5:30 p.m., a white colored van without a number plate overtook their vehicle. When they approached Ullukku'lam the said vehicle was parked on the side of the road and three men got off from the vehicle and fired at them using small weapons. In return, his security guards fired back before the assassins threw a grenade at his vehicle and fled the scene.
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Opponents cannot topple government before 2016, says SL President Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 March 2011, 15:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has declared that if anyone wanted to topple his leadership and government, they will have to wait till the years 2016 and 2017 for either the general election and or the presidential election, the state run Dinamina newspaper said in the lead article on Sunday.
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Sri Lankan state shows ‘reconciliation’ in the country of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2011, 15:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka military occupying the Tamil country opened a new fort and an extensive military base on Friday at Koappaay in Jaffna, over the graves and memorials of the heroes who laid down their lives to the cause of the liberation of Eezham Tamils. The Chinese helped the occupying SL military to raze down the Maaveerar Thuyilumidam (the resting place of the heroes) and to build the fortress at that very premises for the occupying Army to tread on it. The resident of the king of Jaffna was at Koappaay during the times of the Kingdom of Jaffna. The Portuguese destroyed it in the 17th century. The US State Department coined the word 'reconciliation' but Colombo is writing the meaning for the word, commented a Tamil politician in Jaffna.
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AG suspends forced registration by SLA in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2011, 02:50 GMT]
A three-member bench of the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday terminated the proceedings in the Fundamental Rights application filed by five Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians against the forced registration of resident in the Jaffna district and Killinochchi district by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) after Sri Lanka's Attorney General (AG) informed the Court that SLA will stop forced registration, legal sources in Colombo said. The Deputy Solicitor General, Buvaneka Aluvihare, on behalf of the AG gave the undertaking said that the forced registration would be suspended until a procedure that passes constitutional muster is developed to collect information pertaining to the two districts.
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Officials opposing Sinhala encroachment threatened with transfer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 12:10 GMT]
Tamil Divisional Secretaries in the eastern province are facing transfer threats due to the non-co-operation to implement Mahinda Chinthanaya in the Eastern Province in allowing encroachment by Sinhalese in Tamil villages. Already, Divisional Secretaries of the two DS divisions Koa'ra'laip-pattu South and Koa'ra'laip-pattu North in Batticaloa district are said to be informed of their transfer, sources in Eastern province said.
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Occupying military orders VVT people to register before 10:00 a.m. Wednesday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 20:40 GMT]
In a draconian order, the SL military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils has asked the people of Valveddiththu’rai, a densely populated town in the northern coast of Jaffna, to register themselves with the military, along with family photos, before 10:00 a.m. Wednesday. The shocked Eezham Tamils wonder whether their country is fast turning into an open concentration camp for them. The order comes even as there is a case against such registrations filed by TNA is pending in the court. The notice to the public to register within 24 hours and forms for that are distributed by the SL Army to local shops. On the order of the Army, the local village officials were seen carrying out the work even during the night. People feel that the show of terror is a revenge for the participation of the people of VVT in the funeral of Parvathi Amma, despite military harassment.
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Two SLAF Kfir fighter jets crash in mid-air

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 06:19 GMT]
Two Israeli-built Kfir bomber jets of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) crashed in a mid-air collision during a rehearsal Tuesday morning killing one pilot at Yakkala in Gampaha. The other pilot sustained injuries. Both the Kfir bombers that killed several civilians in Vanni War were completely destroyed. The rehearsal was for the 60th anniversary of the SLAF which is being marked on Wednesday with fly-past aerobatics and a skydiving display. Five years ago, on 14 August 2006, 55 schoolchildren and staffers were massacred in Mullaiththeevu in a genocidal air strike carried out by the SLAF. The crime against humanity is yet to be subjected to international investigations.
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Prof Sitrampalam visits China on invitation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 February 2011, 15:10 GMT]
The Vice President of Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Katchi (ITAK), Professor S K Sitrampalam, representing his party, is on a visit to China on the invitation of the Chinese government, ITAK leaders said in a press meet in Jaffna Sunday. Even though the ITAK leaders said that this is a routine invitation extended to party leaders in the island, they didn’t answer the question when in the past the ITAK had been invited or visited China. ITAK is the main component of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The Deccan College trained Dr. S.K. Sitrampalam, retired senior professor of Archaeology of the University of Jaffna, was widely appreciated by Eezham Tamils when he boldly countered the Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao in Jaffna, last year.
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Batticaloa flood victims denied relief due to shortage of funds

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 February 2011, 12:32 GMT]
Most of the employees of the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital were not paid flood relief advance due to insufficient funds released by Colombo. Only 118 employees of 420 had been paid flood relief advance from the Rs. 15m received from the central health ministry, according to hospital Medical Superintendent Dr.K.Muruganandam. Rs. 90million is needed to pay the entire workforce of the hospital, he added.
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Amnesty enlists Trinco killings in push for UN war-crime investigation

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 22:55 GMT]
Dr. Kasipillai Manoharan, the father of one of the “Trinco 5” students killed by the Sri Lanka security forces in 2006, and two Amnesty officials delivered 52,000 signed petitions to the UN offices in New York Tuesday, Amnesty website reported. The petition, which appeared to have been timed to precede the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) sessions scheduled from February 28 to March 25 in Geneva, was the result from the responses Amnesty received following a call for action campaign demanding international investigations as a first step towards accountability for crimes committed by both protagonists in Sri Lanka's war.
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Appeal Court to review Fonseka writ petition

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 12:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal (CA) Friday decided to conduct inquiry into the writ application by the former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) despite the preliminary objection the Attorney General, legal sources in Colombo said. The Attorney General (AG) requested the court to dismiss the writ application without inquiry as the Supreme Court had determined that the court martial is also court under the constitution of Sri Lanka. Sarath Fonseka has filed the Writ Application in the Court of Appeal against unseating him from the parliament following the order of a Court Martial.
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Vaiko urges world leaders to condemn Colombo's desecration of Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 06:03 GMT]
Vaiko, the genral secretary of MDMK, on Wednesday condemned Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Sri Lanka for having carried out a “barbaric act” allegedly by letting his troops to desecrate the ashes of the late Parvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan. Vaiko urged the world leaders to condemn the act.
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TNA files HR petition against forced registration in Killinochchi, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 February 2011, 03:17 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance Tuesday filed a fundamental rights violation petition in the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court against the forced registration of the districts of Jaffna and Killinochchi by the Sri Lanka Army. Parliamentarians Maavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachchandran, Appathura Vinayagamoorthy and Easwarapatham Saravanapavan of the Jaffna district and Sivagnaam Sritharan of the Killinochchi district have signed the petition. The petition was filed by Attorney-at-Law Mohan Balendra, legal sources in Colombo said.
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