JMC mayor, deputy to take oath before President

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2009, 16:32 GMT]
Eealm People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) sources in Jaffna said that the successful candidates of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) proposed to hold office as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) will take the oath 12 October in front of Sri Lanka President, Mahinda Rajapakse at his official residence, Temple Trees, in Colombo. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of JMC had already taken the oath while the UPFA members will be taking the oath in front of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor after 12 October, the sources added.
Full story >>

UNP leaders attacked in Deniyaya by ruling party supporters

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2009, 09:04 GMT]
Supporters of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) led by its parliamentarians Mr.Tissa Attanayake , the general secretary of the party and Mr. Ravi Karunanayake, including media personnel were attacked in Deniyaya Sunday morning while they were on their way to inspect the alleged Presidential palace under construction in the area.
Full story >>

Internment, poisoning hopes of reconciliation - Economist

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2009, 05:29 GMT]
"The fate of a quarter of a million interned Tamils is poisoning Sri Lanka’s hopes of ethnic reconciliation....So long as Tamils feel abused by a racist Sinhalese state, the conflict may resume. Economic development of their shattered regions, which the government is planning, is unlikely to change that. Hence the government’s continued war-footing—but this is in turn also reinforcing Tamil grievances," a feature in the 1st October edition of The Economist said,
Full story >>

Minister seeks permission to use unclaimed funds in northern banks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 04:13 GMT]
Minister Douglas Devananda said that he had sought permission from President Mahinda Rajapakse to use the funds in the form of cash and gold jewellery worth around 3000 million rupees lying unclaimed in the banks in the north for the development of the north, sources in Jaffna said. Around 1000 million rupees and gold jewellery worth 2000 million rupees stagnate in government and private banks in the north, he said in a press meet held Sunday in Jaffna.
Full story >>

UN warns Sri Lanka of Tamil ‘bitterness’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 01:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s failure to rapidly resettle nearly 300,000 Tamils who survived the government’s final onslaught against the Tamil Tigers and their further suffering under harsh conditions in militarised camps could result in growing bitterness, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake Tuesday - the same day, the UN issued its strongest criticism yet of Sri Lanka’s continued internment of the hundreds of thousands of displacedTamils. Mr. Ban also stressed the need to expedite “a serious, independent and impartial accountability process to look into alleged violation of international law during the conflict as a critical part of moving forward and building peace in Sri Lanka,” a UN statement said.
Full story >>

JTC students march in protest against college management

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 11:53 GMT]
More than a hundred students of Jaffna Technical College (JTC) went on a protest march Tuesday around 11:00 a.m. from JTC accusing the college management for corruption and malpractices, sources in Jaffna said. The protesting students first handed over their memorandum to Minister Douglas Devananda at his office in Jaffna Srithar Theatre and then to Jaffna District Government Agent, K. Ganesh, at Jaffna Secretariat in Chu'ndikkuzhi, demanding speedy action, the sources added.
Full story >>

“No IDPs but FDDPs, in Vavuniyaa camps” - Mangala Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 03:51 GMT]
“Today barbed wire internment camps are euphemistically called “Welfare Camps” and the 280,000 people incarcerated there are called IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) while in actual fact that these people should be called FDDPs (Forcibly Displaced and Detained Persons)”, Mangala Samaraweera, the leader of the dissident group of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), said.
Full story >>

HRW: World leaders should demand end to Sri Lanka detention camps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 02:08 GMT]
Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights group, in a press release issued Tuesday, expressed concern "about a lack of protection mechanisms in the camps and the secret, incommunicado detention - and possible enforced disappearance - of suspected combatants. Poor conditions, overcrowding, and inadequate medical care increases the risk of serious health problems during the coming monsoon season," and noting that "the authorities are not being open and honest with camp residents about when they may go home, keeping them in a state of uncertainty and anxiety," urged the world leaders to demand an end to Sri Lanka 'detention camps."
Full story >>

Colombo contemplates Malaysian model

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 22:36 GMT]
A participant in a study group that recently met in London cautioned that Colombo with the support of Asian powers is dreaming to follow Malaysian model of ethnic totalitarianism and related development model, ultimately aimed at erasing the territoriality of Eezham Tamil nation, bringing the entire island under Sinhala ethnic hegemony. “The Sri Lankan state has forgotten that even in the case with the 19th century Chinese migrants, after all the ethnic persecutions Malaysia had to finally concede secession of Singapore, to have peaceful development in the region. The Eezham Tamils who have right on the island ever since Sinhalese became Sinhalese need deserving justice and if Colombo thinks of Malaysia, who ever is going to support a Singapore in the island is going to have the say in the region,” commented another participant of the meet in London.
Full story >>

SL Prime Minister to attend UN general assembly

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 17:43 GMT]
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake will be heading the Sri Lankan delegation to the 64th session of the United Nations (UN) general assembly. He is scheduled to address the general assembly on September 26 on “Strengthening of Multilateralism and Dialogue among Civilizations for International Peace, Security and Development”, according to foreign ministry spokesman.
Full story >>

Continued detention of IDPs endangers future political stability: Pascoe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 04:11 GMT]
“Keeping these persons in the camps is breeding resentment and endangering the future political stability of Sri Lanka,” United Nations Under Secretary General of Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe told reporters Friday night in Colombo after meeting President Mahinda Rajapakse, sources in Colombo said. The UN too reflected the same sentiments saying that the political stability of Sri Lanka is jeopardized due to rising resentment among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the camps, the sources further said. While Mr. Pascoe was expressing his concerns of future stability of the [unitary state of] Sri Lanka, the UN administration of Ban Ki-moon in New York, was seeking to control its message and limit questions, to turn the tide of negative coverage of its handling of Sri Lanka, Inner City Press reported.
Full story >>

UN envoy Lynn Pascoe insists on early release of IDPs

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 16:36 GMT]
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe who met Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday to present the letter from UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon outlining the concerns of the international community on the situation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other related matters, said that he had raised the issue of the early release of the IDPs and their freedom of movement with the President, sources in Colombo said. "It is frustrating to live in such conditions and therefore the people should be allowed to return to their original homes at the earliest. The security concerns of the government are understandable but at the same time the people must also be taken into serious consideration", Mr. Pascoe said.
Full story >>

Pascoe to deliver Ban Ki-Moon’s letter to Rajapakse Friday

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 07:14 GMT]
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe is to deliver the letter given by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse when meets the latter on Friday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told reporters in New York Thursday, he has sent a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse outlining the concerns of the international community on the developments regarding internally displaced persons, the political process and a possible accountability mechanism.
Full story >>

UN top official arrives in Colombo, due to visit NE Thursday

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 10:28 GMT]
Mr. Lynn Pascoe, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, arrived in Sri Lanka Wednesday night. He is expected to visit the North and East Thursday to assess the progress and development therein and the situation of the displaced people. Mr. Pascoe is expected to meet President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday after his visit to the North and East, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Tamil national aspirations, TNA and transnational governance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 23:36 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) or any other political party claiming that they represent Tamils have no right to proclaim that they have moved away from the 1977 mandate for independence and sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation, to satisfy India, Mahinda Rajapaksa or any other power. They may negotiate but without dropping the fundamentals, until any acceptable formula is freshly mandated by all Tamils including those who are now in the diaspora. Meanwhile, the emerging novel concept of transnational governance will be misled if it is orientated merely with an idea of negotiation. It is not just a negotiation platform. There is no need to show Tamils have ‘democratically’ dropped their aspiration just because some powers want it as a pre-requisite for negotiation.
Full story >>

Sanctions compel people to change their government’s conduct - paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 20:28 GMT]
Noting that “the logic of sanctions is simple: economic isolation of a state compels its discomforted people to pressure their leadership to change its behaviour and adhere to sought after international principles,” and that “it is especially on ultra-nationalist leaderships that rely on popular support, like President Mahinda Rajapsksa's government in Sri Lanka or former President Slobodan Milosevic's in Serbia, that sanctions can be most effective,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper this week said: “The international community can support the Sinhala state and hope for lasting peace or it can act to constrain Sinhala chauvinism and bring about one.”
Full story >>

Rights group appeals for accountability for victims of disappearances, detainees

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 12:29 GMT]
The Civil Monitoring Mission in an appeal made after convening a conference on the "Disappeared and the Detained" said Wednesday, "[t]he end of war has not brought any end to our agonies and miseries. We feel more vulnerable today than in the past. National reconciliation and national unity have been reduced to mere rhetoric statements. Instead of bringing change towards constructive hope, the ending of war has brought new miseries to our people. We are today witnessing over two hundred and fifty thousand of our people languishing in military guarded camps...," and appealed to the Sri Lanka Government to account of all detainees in prison, and to "[p]rovide democratic space with legal assurance to human rights organizations tomonitor and evaluate the violations and represent the victims."
Full story >>

US's war crimes report, a canary in coalmine - Rapp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 11:44 GMT]
With United Nations remaining impotent to act carry out investigations into the conduct of Sri Lanka military during the last several months of the war, a report to be released by the United States State Department on September 21, remains, perhaps the last credible instrument in the hands of the West to begin to find the truth on the allegations of war-crimes by the Sri Lanka Government and the Liberation Tigers, a spokesperson for a US-based activist group said. Stephen Rapp, US's ambassdor at large for War Crimes Issues (WCI) told Time that his office is responsible "to collect information on ongoing atrocities... [and] give a signal [when] something serious is occuring."
Full story >>

8 SL media organizations urge President to release journalist Tissanayagam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 08:07 GMT]
Eight media organizations comprising Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka (EGSL), Free Media Movement (FMM), Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists Alliance (SLTJA), Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF), Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Union (FMETU), South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) and Sri Lanka Newspaper Publishers’ Association (SLNPA) Monday unanimously decided to request President Mahinda Rajapakse to release senior journalist Mr.J.S.Tissanayagam using his executive powers, sources in Colombo said. Mr.Tissanayagam was recently sentenced to twenty years rigorous imprisonment under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
Full story >>

Rajapakses' incipient personality cult would shame a Chinese communist - Guardian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 03:20 GMT]
In the second article in two days, UK's Guardian, warned Monday that by making Tamils feel newly repressed Sri Lanka is sowing seeds of future rebellian, noting that "in the months that have followed [the military victory] there has been little magnanimity, let alone reconciliation. Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians are still being kept in camps surrounded by barbed wire." The article further said that "Colombo's streets are littered with so many pictures of president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers that the incipient personality cult would shame a Chinese communist. The triumphalism in Colombo means those who dare to question the government are deemed Tiger collaborators, terrorist sympathisers or Tamil secessionists."
Full story >>