Proving geopolitical strength, antidote to international injustice to Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 February 2010, 21:20 GMT]
In whatever ways Eezham Tamils may express aspiration for their national liberation, India and Rajapaksa government will quietly go ahead with their agenda of what they understand by ‘reconciliation,’ is the response that comes from the circles of the Indian Establishment. Informed Tamil political circles say there is a ‘high level’ understanding among all powers of geopolitical competition to negate Tamil independence. How to achieve the goal when all are against and what is the point in claiming freedom outside when people are subjugated inside are questions of those who are disillusioned by the psychological war. If crimes against Tamil nation are committed due to geopolitics the antidote is nothing but Tamil uprising to prove geopolitical superiority and the responsibility lies with Tamil Nadu.
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International countries should urge Sri Lanka to reveal proposal to solve ethnic issue

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 February 2010, 03:52 GMT]
Civil Society Organizations in Jaffna Peninsula requested Canadian Ambassador Mr. Pruce Levy to urge international countries to exert pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka to disclose immediately if it has any proposal to solve the ethnic issue, when the Ambassador met them at several places in the peninsula. President Mahinda Rajapakse who said that he will present the proposal after the presidential election now says that he will reveal it after the announced general election, the representatives told the visiting Canada Ambassador.
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SLA arrests TNA supporters in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 February 2010, 03:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested Tuesday morning supporters of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) distributing handbills thanking the people of Jaffna peninsula for casting their votes in large numbers to Sarath Fonseka in the recent presidential election, rejecting President Mahinda Rajapakse, on TNA’s request, sources in Jaffna said. This arrest is seen as a continuation of the attacks on TNA supporters and their properties who openly campaigned for Sarath Fonseka, the sources added.
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Sri Lanka parliament dissolved

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 February 2010, 18:14 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has dissolved Parliament and the gazette notification to this effect has been sent to the government printer, according to initial report from presidential secretariat sources.
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Sri Lanka, acid test for International Law

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 February 2010, 23:15 GMT]
The widespread systematic pattern of crimes committed by the Sri Lankan state against Tamil civilians, particularly during the first five months of 2009 in the Northeast province, constitute violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, legal scholars have said. During this period, indifference exhibited by the international community, including the United Nations, led to the deaths of more than 30,000 Tamils. The strong transnational expatriate Tamil community now has the burden (a) to prevent Sri Lanka from erasing the massacres from historical record, (b) to resist attempts by international powers to persuade Tamils for reconciliation without establishing justice and accountability for the crimes, and (c) to seek justice for tens of thousands of Tamil victims by charging Sri Lanka of war crimes and genocide against Tamils in world courts.
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SL Parliament to be dissolved this week: Maithiripala Sirisena

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 February 2010, 11:46 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa would be dissolving the parliament this week on his return from Russia, said Maithripala Sirisena, a Senior Minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Sunday to media. The term of office of the current parliament ends on April 22. He further said his government hopes to have a 'closer understanding' with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the forthcoming general election to 'uplift' the Northern and Eastern provinces. However he said that does not mean that the UPFA government would accept any condition by the TNA.
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Rajapaksa leaves for Russia

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 February 2010, 10:15 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa left on a three day official visit to Russia Saturday. Mr. Rajapaksa is scheduled to meet his counterpart President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday and is expected to sign an agreement with him, enabling Sri Lanka to receive a USD 300 million loan to buy arms and dual use of equipment from Russia, presidential secretariat sources said.
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Presidential pardon clears ex-UNP national organizer to contest on UPFA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 February 2010, 02:03 GMT]
S.B.Dissanayake who was the national organizer of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) till he defected to the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and supported the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse in the last presidential election was granted full presidential pardon and appointed as UPFA organizer for Udunuwara electorate in Kandy district.
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Fonseka had plans to stage Russian style coup, says Rajapaksa government

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 February 2010, 17:08 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa Friday claimed that there was an attempt to stage a Russian style coup in Sri Lanka on the eve of last presidential election. Thirty seven persons including several retired Major Generals and Colonels and Brigadiers have been held in detention over their alleged involvement in the coup attempt, the government said.
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Gotabhaya outbursts against UN, International investigations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 23:01 GMT]
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan defence secretary and the brother of the SL president, in an exclusive interview to the BBC on Tuesday, opposed any international investigation on war crimes during the final stage of the war. Meanwhile, the official news website of the Rajapaksa government in its Sinhala and versions has blamed external forces for rejuvenating the claim of Tamil Eelam by backing Sarath Fonseka, citing the pattern of the results of the recent presidential elections. The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa also warned the politicians not to guide the 'innocent people' in 'wrong path', while he referred to the election participation in North and East in his Tamil version of the February 04 speech.
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SLA constructs Maximum HSZ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 04:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has begun constructing an earthen dam in an area encompassing Kaangeasanthu’rai and Keerimalai in Valikaamam North as part of the new Maximum High Security Zone (MHSZ) Wednesday, sources in Jaffna said. 20 Village Officer (VO) divisions of the 27 VO divisions occupied as SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North are to be turned into the new MHSZ, the sources added.
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Rajapaksa's second term begins from November 2010: SL Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 14:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Tuesday determined that the second term of the Mahinda Rajapaksa, as president of the country, begins from November 19, 2010 and not from November 19, 2011, according to a communiqué sent to the Presidential Secretariat, legal sources said.
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Sri Lankan Police instructed to quell protests by opposition

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 02:21 GMT]
Any demonstration against the government and the SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa organized by the opposition without permission would be dealt severely if peace is disrupted, the Sri Lankan Police has warned on Monday.
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Colombo not answerable to UN for 80,000 IDPs remaining in Vavuniyaa camps - Minister

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 13:01 GMT]
About eighty thousand Internally displaced persons from Vanni region still remain in camps located in Vavuniyaa despite Sri Lanka government's assurances to the United Nations that all IDPs will be resettled by January 31. Richard Badiudeen, Minister of Resettlement and disaster relief services, told Colombo media Monday that no such assurance has been given to any organization including UN.
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Swiss journalist visa reinstated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 12:35 GMT]
Karin Wenger of Swiss Public Radio has been allowed to stay by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, Colombo media sources said quoting the Government Information Department. Wenger was one of more than one hundred foreign journalist in Sri Lanka to cover the Presidential elections.
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SL foreign minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 02:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama paid a sudden visit to Jaffna Saturday where he said that he has come to explore the possibility of establishing an office of the Foreign Ministry for expatriate Tamils in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, it is being said in the media circle that Rohitha had been sent to Jaffna by President Mahinda Rajapakse to pacify Minister Douglas Devananda who had announced his resignation of his post of minister for being the cause for Mahinda Rajapakse’s defeat in the president election in Jaffna district.
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EPDP supporters set fire to SLTB bus in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 10:33 GMT]
Eelam People’s Democracy Party (EPDP) supporters set fire to a Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) bus Saturday morning in a shutdown protest demanding Minister Douglas Devananda not to resign his post, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers forced open the few shops in Jaffna town which had been closed in fear of EPDP supporters who had called for the shutdown protest, the sources added. Minister Douglas Devananda, the leader of EPDP, had told his supporters that he was going to resign his minister post for being the reason for Mahinda Rajapakse’s defeat in Jaffna peninsula in the presidential election, the sources added. This is but a political stunt in view of the parliamentary general election expected in April or May, political observers in Jaffna said.
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Tamils pay tribute to Holocaust victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 January 2010, 03:56 GMT]
American Tamils join the world humanitarian community in remembering and paying tribute to the victims of the Holocaust at the hands of Nazi Germany, honoring survivors and supporting the recognition of this day internationally, said United States Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) in a press release issued Monday. Noting that the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is of special significance to Tamils, the release added, "[t]he 2009 onslaught by the mono-ethnic Sinhala Sri Lankan armed forces claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians under the guise of a “humanitarian operation”...The plight of Tamils continues, with internment, separation of children from their parents and the holding of people in detention under secret conditions."
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Democracy in Sri Lanka: new lessons add to old ones

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 13:59 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa gains a victory of big margin in the presidential elections of Sri Lanka and this has not surprised Tamil nationalist circles. The voters of Sinhala Nation have very clearly endorsed a regime accused of genocide and war crimes against Tamils. Democracy insisting the need to recognise two Nation States in the island is an old lesson. But the new lesson is to the International Community, especially to the West that is slipping for the third time within one year, first in stopping the war, then in human rights action in the UN and now in bringing out a 'democratic' regime change. There is also a lesson to revisionist Tamil polity and media that wasted the crucial time of Tamils by harping on regime change and not concentrating on the own political organisation of Tamil nationalism.
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No manipulation in presidential election results: Premajayantha

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 13:24 GMT]
The government of Sri Lanka led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa Wednesday denied any kind of involvement in the manipulation the presidential election results. The Secretary General of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and a senior minister in Rajapaksa cabinet, Susil Premjayantha at a news briefing held Wednesday evening denied the allegation that a senior presidential advisor had been seen in the office of the Commissioner of Elections.
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