TNA challenges Pilliayan to resign, hold election to EPC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2011, 12:47 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa District TNA Parliamentarian, Mr.C.Yogeswaran, addressing an election meeting in Kaaraitheivu, challenged the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC), Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, to dissolve the EPC and to stand for re-election to prove his popularity instead of criticizing the TNA, sources in Batticaloa said.
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British Minister arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 February 2011, 12:39 GMT]
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister for South Asia of the British Government, Alistair Burt, arrived in Colombo Monday morning on a two-day official visit. This is the first ministerial visit to Sri Lanka under the current UK administration, the British High Commission in Colombo in a press release said. Mr Burt is also scheduled to visit Jaffna, according to the High Commission.
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Maathakal fishermen foil SL military attempt to sabotage silent protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 February 2011, 11:45 GMT]
While hundreds of fishermen from Maathakal were staging a silent protest Monday morning in front of the Indian consulate in Jaffna, Sri Lankan military intelligence brought a group of their men, numbering around 100, posing as fishermen in a march from Naga Vihara Buddhist temple through Palaali Road to the Indian Consulate and attempted to create a violent episode outside the mission, around 10:00 a.m. The representatives of the Maathakal fishermen society, grasping the sabotage attempt by the occupying Sri Lankan military intelligence, handed over the appeal to Mr. Mahalingam, the Consul-General of India, and left the site peacefully.
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Plan to “Sinhalacise” Eastern University discussed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 February 2011, 04:32 GMT]
A plan to appoint Sinhalese academicians as the Vice Chancellor, Registrar and Dean of Faculties to the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) was seriously considered at a meeting held to discuss the development of EUSL presided by Minister of Higher Education Mr.S.Dissanayake, education sources in Batticaloa said. The meeting was held amid protests made by the Batticaloa district Tamil parliamentarians against the appointment of Sinhalese as the Competent Authority to the EUSL.
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Colombo exploits Buddhism to consecrate genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2011, 22:49 GMT]
The political and military connotations with which a sapling of the Bo tree at Anuradhapura was paraded in Jaffna on Wednesday, before presenting it to Bodh Gaya in India to mark the 2600th year of the attainment of Buddhahood, alienated Eezham Tamils of the land, smacked of consecration of the genocide against them and involved India as a party, commented a Jaffna university academic. A modern ‘inscription’ erected at Maathakal, Jaffna, to mark the occasion read in corrupt Tamil, that the sapling was brought to Dambapanni (a wrong identification) for peace and to create goodwill among the ‘Buddhists’ of the island, before presenting it to Bodh Gaya in Damba-diva [India], under the guidance of president Mahinda Rajapaksa, of ‘Universal Acclaim,’ Lord of the Three ‘Sinhala’ Countries [the island], who routed out 30 years of ‘terrorism’ and united the island.
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Muslim journalist attacked for exposing corruption

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 04:31 GMT]
An unidentified group of assailants attacked the Chief Editor of the weekly Batticaloa newspaper ‘Vaara Uraikal’ with iron rods after throwing chilli powder on the editor's face on Monday evening in Kaaththaankudi, sources in Batticaloa said. Puvi Rahumathulla, was admitted in the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital for treatment. Media sources alleged that the attack had been carried out by an armed gang at the instigation of M.L.A.M. Hisbullah, a deputy minister the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse.
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DC Court to serve summons to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 01:38 GMT]
Attorney for the three Tamil plaintiffs who are suing Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse in the District of Columbia Federal court for monetary damages under US's Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) said in a press release issued Tuesday that he will be requesting the Clerk of the United States District Court to send summons by mail to Rajapakse's residence "Temple Trees" in Colombo 3. Civil procedure rules normally require a properly served defendant 21days to file an answer.
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Another former US envoy goes to Chennai to save Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2011, 17:42 GMT]
Former US envoy to Sri Lanka Teresita Schaffer, speaking at a forum on ‘US perspective on security in South Asian region with special emphasis on Nepal and Sri Lanka’ in Chennai on Monday, ruled out American backing for Tamil Eelam, reported Express News Service, Tuesday. The ex envoy was harping on genuine reconciliation, focus on war crimes investigation and shared her apprehension that “If the reconciliation process is allowed to slide, then some new internal conflict may spring up,” but conceded that she had no idea of how to approach. “I don’t have any clear sense on how one can persuade the Sri Lankan leader on reconciliation,” the ex envoy said. Obviously the helplessness comes by refusing to recognize long-existing realities, commented a political observer in Chennai, long familiar with the competitive Indo-US deceit on Eezham Tamils.
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‘Nazi-style registration of civilians in Jaffna’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 February 2011, 12:08 GMT]
The occupying SL military in Jaffna is directly engaged in registration of individuals and families in the Jaffna peninsula in recent times. Everyday, covering area by area, the SL military is distributing forms to collect information and is insisting of family photographs along with children to be given to them. The activity of the SL military, reminding the Nazi practice before the Holocaust, creates terror in the minds of the people in Jaffna, said a human rights activist in Jaffna. Meanwhile, undeclared curfew is imposed in Jaffna by the SL military and police, who have brought the street movement of people almost to an end after 6:00 p.m. by harassing them through numerous checkpoints after dusk.
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100,000 displaced, 7 die in second wave of floods, Ampaa'rai worst hit

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2011, 09:01 GMT]
Seven persons have died and over 100,000 civilians are displaced due to second wave of heavy rains in the Eastern, North Central and Central provinces of the island according to District Disaster Management Centre Friday. Four persons have died in Ampaa'rai district alone. While tens of thousands were hit by the disaster, the participation of even Sinhalese was poor at Mahinda Rajapksa government's celebration of Sri Lanka's Independence Day at Vihara Mahadevi Poongaa in the bordering district of Tissmaharagama at Kathirkaamam, sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet. People who lost their properties, houses and belongings have been left in the lurch due to failure of the Colombo government to provide any relief to restart their day to day life.
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US State Department plays ‘ultimate saviour of genocidal Colombo’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2011, 08:34 GMT]
Those who are guilty of war crimes naturally would try to blame others and would do everything to save their skins. If at all the LTTE was responsible of any war crimes, it is not there now. But the others responsible are roaming free. The US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake often calls for ‘some’ accountability. Some accountability comes only when some of those internationally responsible for the crimes bow down first taking responsibility, and desist from further contribution to genocide and denial of independence to Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo, responding to Mr. Blake passing “large part of the responsibility” for the civilian casualty in the Vanni war on the LTTE. In a way Blake in his recent interview concedes that he and his government were a party to the war and thus a party to the war crimes, the writer points out.
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TVPA: US's legal gift to victims of war-crimes, torture

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 February 2011, 03:47 GMT]
For new immigrants, America is the face of liberty, palladium of justice and the embodiment of the ideal of government under law, not under men. In this deliberative democracy, where the nation is perpetually arguing with its own conscience, debates spawn statutes that afford redress to victims who have suffered under despotic states around the world. The Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) is one such statute enacted in 1992 that enables U.S. citizens and non-citizens, whose relatives have suffered torture or extra-judicial killings, to assert a civil claim for damages. The recent legal action in the US by three Tamil plaintiffs in the US Federal Court against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse is based on the provisions in the TVPA.
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Village Officers association condemns attacks in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 February 2011, 03:20 GMT]
Batticaloa District Branch of the United Village Officers Association has expressed concern over the failure of the Colombo government to take action against intimidation and assault on its members involved in relief work following the recent floods. The association has organized a demonstration Wednesday to condemn such attacks in Batticaloa.
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SLFP sidelines SLMC, EPDP in Mannaar local elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 February 2011, 23:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the EPDP, constituents of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have been completely rejected from the lists of candidates fielded in the local elections in the Mannaar district. The SLMC led by SL Minister Rauff Hakeem was forced to file separate nominations to contest the Piratheasa Chapais (PS) of Maanthai West, Musali and Mannaar, as SL minister Rishad Bathiudeen selected candidates from Mahinda Rajapaksa's SLFP, against the assurances the UPFA had given to SLMC and the EPDP, sources in Mannaar said.
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TNA MP protests against ethnic subjugation of Eastern University

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 February 2011, 00:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently appointed a Sinhala officer with powers above the rank of Vice Chancellor in the Eastern University under the pretext of eliminating irregularities and corruption. “The real agenda of the move is subjecting the overwhelmingly Tamil-speaking Eastern University to the insinuations of Mahinda Chintana based ethnic subjugation,” blamed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Batticaloa District C. Yogeswaran, talking to Tamil journalists.
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Fire destroys offices of website critical of Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 January 2011, 03:59 GMT]
The office of news website LankaeNews located in Rajagiriya, a suburb of Colombo, has reportedly been set on fire by a group of unknown persons who broke into the premises Monday at 2:00 a.m., according to reports from Colombo. The fire has caused extensive damages to the computer and communications equipment in the facililty. Talangama police are investigating into the incident.
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US legal effort to seek justice for son's killing - Dr Manoharan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 January 2011, 00:17 GMT]
In an interview with the BBC Tamil service, Dr Kasippillai Manoharan, father of Ragihar, one of the five students extra-judicially executed by Sri Lanka's military at the Trincomalee beach on January 2nd, 2006, said that Sri Lanka's judicial system is not capable and unwilling to provide justice and bring closure to his son's death, hence his initiating a civil suit in the U.S. He further told the BBC, five years have passed since his son's brutal killing, and he will use all judicial instruments now available to him outside Sri Lanka to bring his son's killers to justice. Dr Manoharan said he is convinced that Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has information on the killers but the President is unwilling to allow prosecution of military officers. Both Mr and Mrs Manoharan are prominent physicians who earlier practiced in Trincomalee.
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Ambassador, an honest man sent to lie for Sri Lanka, responds Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2011, 16:49 GMT]
Noting Sri Lanka's Ambassador's response to the law suit filed in US by three Tamil plaintiffs as initiated by LTTE-front organizations involved in "publicity stunts like this baseless law suits," Bruce Fein, the attorney for the plaintiffs said that the Ambassador Wickramasuriya was an honest man but was apparently instructed that if both the facts and the law demonstrated President Rajapaksa’s criminal culpability, then he should bugle “Tamil Tigers” to confuse the issue. Further, the group that sponsored the law suit cautioned the Ambassador and Colombo's Presidential spokesperson that libel is a serious offense in U.S. law and that any malicious labeling of legitimate US organizations as terrorist may have serious legal consequences.
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Rajapaksa sued in US Courts over war-crimes, plaintiffs seek $30m in damages

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2011, 20:05 GMT]
Three Tamil plaintiffs whose relatives were killed in three different incidents, all considered to be war-crimes, filed a civil case in the District Court of District of Columbia against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa Friday at around 4:00 p.m, the attorney for the plaintiffs and former Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the US, Mr Bruce Fein, said in a release sent to the media in the U.S. The legal action was sponsored by Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group. The plaintiffs seek $30m as damages through six counts of violations of the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA).
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Military in Jaffna district to stay, says SLA Commander

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2011, 01:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander, Maj. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, while addressing a news conference at the army headquarters in Colombo, said that the Sri Lanka's defence ministry will not move out the security forces stationed in the Jaffna peninsula, the state-run Dinamina newspaper said in a front page article Friday.
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