IMF takes charge in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 00:02 GMT]
Whilst Sri Lanka’s government hailed its securing of an IMF loan for $2.6bn last week as a ‘victory’ and as indication of international support for its political and economic policies, the reality is the reverse. Sri Lanka has been compelled to accept not only painful economic and quasi-political obligations, but also the kind of external supervision the ultra-Sinhala nationalist regime routinely rails against. Moreover, whilst the IMF loan is ostensibly to revive Sri Lanka’s economy, its first purpose is to ensure the government keeps up with repayments to prior foreign lenders. In short, Sri Lanka can borrow from the IMF to pay back its creditors but has to undertake harsh economic reforms - under IMF supervision - for the breathing space.
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TNA accuses government of using state resources in JMC election campaign

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 16:36 GMT]
Ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) conducted Sunday a large scale procession of vehicles organized by Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in Jaffna town in which more than a thousand supporters participated, canvassing people to vote for the Betel symbol of UPFA, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which has also entered into the fray, accused UPFA and its ally EPDP of using government vehicles for election campaign. TNA also accused the police for being partial to UPFA in carrying out duties related to Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, the sources added.
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JMC election candidates complain of police malpractice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 13:01 GMT]
Candidates contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election raised complaints about police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna assisting ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) persons pasting election campaign wall posters displaying the images of President Mahinda Rajapakse and Minister Douglas Devananda even during SLA imposed curfew hours in Jaffna town, in a meeting held by police authorities in Jaffna Sunday at Vembadi Girls’ College in Jaffna to discuss security arrangements for the contestants, sources in Jaffna said.
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Resettlement of IDPs within 180 days not possible – SL Minister

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 06:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Minister of Electricity and Energy, Aluthananda Gamage told media in Jaffna Saturday that it will not be possible to resettle Vanni IDPs in Ki’linochchi within 180 days. Aluthananda Gamage, who is staying in Jaffna to campaign in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council also said that the opening of the A9 route to public will be considered only after decisions are made in a Defence Ministry conference on the issue. Meanwhile, Basil Rajapakse, brother of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse and his advisor, had inaugurated the bus service from Jaffna to Colombo Wednesday declaring that the service will be conducted every other day in a week in a much publicized event.
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NCCL official remanded for allegedly defaming armed forces, SL President

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 12:43 GMT]
Colombo Magistrate Friday further remanded Mr. Jayampathy Shantha Nihal Fernando of Moratuwa, the Executive Secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the National Christian Council (NCCL) till August 7 for allegedly circulating false allegations against the Armed Forces, Sri Lankan Government and President Mahinda Rajapakse.
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Opening A9 route, an election gimmick – Mudiyappu Remedias

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 19:23 GMT]
“Though the Government of Sri Lanka had control of the A9 land route to Jaffna eight months ago it had kept it closed until now when it opens the route for public use as an election gimmick to lure voters in but no one can fool the people of Jaffna, Mudiyappu Remedias, the chief candidate of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, said in an interview to TamilNet Wednesday
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5 buses take passengers from Jaffna through A9 route

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 11:23 GMT]
Basil Rajapakse, the brother and advisor of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, inaugurated the opening of A9 route to public use Wednesday around 10:30 a.m by waving a flag for the convoy of five buses that carried 210 passengers from Jaffna to Mathavachchi, heavily escorted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in an event held at Duraippa Stadium in Jaffna. Minister Douglas Devananda and the Governor of Northern Province, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri were present on the occasion, sources in Jaffna said.
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Colombo denies visa extension to AP's Sri Lanka bureau chief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 00:17 GMT]
Associated Press reported Tuesday that AP's bureau chief in Sri Lanka, Ravi Nessman, left Sri Lanka Monday after Colombo refused to extend Nessman's journalist visa. "We find this failure to renew Ravi's visa disturbing," John Daniszewski, AP's senior managing editor for international news, was quoted as saying in media reports. Colombo reports said that Nessman broke news of private U.N. reports outlining civilian death tolls, and also revealed the "first word of a government document from January outlining a plan to keep hundreds of thousands of displaced" Tamil civilians in the camps for up to three years.
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Government yet to decide on 13 plus political solution – Minister Alagaperuma

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 July 2009, 16:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Transport Minister, Dallas Alagaperuma, said Monday in a press meet in Jaffna that no final decision has been made by the government on the proposed 13 plus political solution to the ethnic issue, correcting Minister Douglas Devananda, who told the reporters that President Mahinda Rajapakse and the cabinet have accepted the 13 plus political solution. The press meet took place in the newly opened Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) office in Chu’ndukkuzhi in Jaffna to which more than a hundred media persons were brought from the South. Ministers Dallas Algaperuma, Douglas Devananda and Srisena Cooray were some of the political leaders present in the meeting.
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Air of martial triumph unbefitting while controversy surrounds Tamil civilian deaths - NY Times

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 16:07 GMT]
Noting that "[t]he Tamil minority has suffered discrimination and violence at the hands of various Sinhalese-dominated governments through the decades. Tamils have sought, first peacefully, then violently, the right to a measure of self-rule in Tamil-dominated areas," the New York Times in a Sunday article said, "[m]any Sri Lankans see these soldiers as heroes, but given the controversy that remains over how many Tamil civilians were killed in the last weeks of the fighting, some people find the air of martial triumph unseemly."
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Free election in Jaffna improbable – Manickasothy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 04:31 GMT]
Abimanasingham Manickasothy, the chief candidate of the Independent Group II contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, told TamilNet Saturday that with the paramilitary groups operating with the government blatantly breaching election regulations with the blessing of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the police by intimidating and issuing death threats voters will not be free to cast their votes to the candidates of their choice. Despite the promise of Jaffna district Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) to remove all wall posters, paramilitaries, alleged to be allied with the government, paste election campaign posters of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) during curfew hours in places where the SLA is present, flouting election regulations, Manickasothy added.
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Capturing Jaffna market, the sole intention of Southern Traders – JTU

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 16:31 GMT]
“The traders and ministers from the South invading Jaffna peninsula are only interested in capturing the market in Jaffna peninsula; their visits are not in anyway beneficial for the people here,” Jaffna Traders’ Union (JTU) sources said Friday participating in a meeting with the 45 members of the National Chamber of Commerce (NCC) visiting Jaffna to explore possibilities of market opportunities. JTU met the Minister of Industrial Development, Kumara Welgama, in a separate meeting Friday, also held in the JTU office on Maanipaay road in Jaffna, where JTU members requested the lorries of Jaffna traders to be allowed to transport goods through A9 road to Jaffna as their repeated requests to several government authorities had been ignored, JTU sources added.
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Tissainayagam judgement fixed for August 31

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 02:30 GMT]
The Colombo High Court judge Ms. Deepali Wijesundara Friday fixed the judgment for August 31 on the case against senior journalist Mr.J.S.Tissanayagam who was indicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER), legal sources in Colombo said. Mr. Tissainayagam was charged on three counts including printing and distributing the publication North Eastern Monthly magazine, and the offences was stated to have been committed during the period between June 1, 2006 and June 1, 2007.
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Time for silence is over - New York Times

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 15:41 GMT]
New York times in an editorial published Wednesday said that "[t]he [Sri Lanka] government's strict control on visits to the [internment] camps has also raised suspicions that it may be trying to block any investigation into possible government abuses committed in the last months of the war," and added, "[m]ost [donor countries and international organizations] have kept quiet so far about the Tamils' plight, evidently fearful that criticizing conditions in the camps could get them thrown out of the camps. The time for silence is over. The best way to help the Tamils is by demanding their freedom and an end to their long ordeal."
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Campaign against free speech must end: CPJ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 23:17 GMT]
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media rights group, slammed the Sri Lankan Government for its anti media policies and accused the current administration of “continuing to silence its critics through harassment and threats” in a press release on Tuesday. Responding to the recent blocking of independent news websites in Sri Lanka and “smear campaigns” against various publications and individuals engineered to incite public outrage hatred, CPJ Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz urged the Governement to lift its censorship and cease its campaign against free speech.
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SL minister promises to fulfill President Rajapakse’s dream, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 15:14 GMT]
”President Mahinda Rajapakse’s present dream is to make goods available to Jaffna people at reasonable Colombo prices”, Minister of Electricity and Energy, Aluthananda Gamage, said in an event held at Nalloor Divisional Secretariat Tuesday, sources in Jaffna said. The visiting minister, accompanied by Minister Douglas Devananda, further promised that steps would be taken before 1st August to fulfill President Rajapakse’s dream, the sources added.
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UPFA involved in obvious breach of election regulations in Jaffna - TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 July 2009, 05:07 GMT]
“The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its allied parties using great number of vehicles in election campaign in Jaffna and that too guarded by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the police is an obvious breach of election regulations,” Mudiyappu Remedias, the chief contestant of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), said in a meeting held Sunday morning at Vembadi Girls’ College in Jaffna by SLA and police authorities with the representatives of the parties contesting the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) elections. The meeting was convened to discuss arrangements to offer protection to the contestants, sources in Jaffna said.
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Holding grounds is fundamental to everything

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 22:34 GMT]
Professing defeatism or surrendering the basic grounds are not the ways to begin or to sustain the struggle with the masses, even in ways anew, perhaps through democratic means. Talking on the need to continue the struggle is not to rule out the need to negotiate. But negotiation is not collaboration. Negotiators need a firm platform supported by the hearts of the masses on behalf of whom they negotiate. Negotiation cannot take place when the platform is surrendered. It is to safeguard the platform for struggle and negotiation the Tamil circles are now keen in re-affirming the democratically mandated Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 that upholds independence, sovereignty and self-determination of Eezham Tamils, at least where there is freedom of expression. Even after 2000 years the Jews were able to regain their land because they never lost their nationalism or the thought of Israel.
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Notorious commander appointed Governor of Northern Province

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 17:05 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the new Governor of the Northern Province. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Tamil political circles in Colombo commented that Mr. Rajpaksa, who claims to have crushed the de-facto state of Tamil Eelam, has appointed his military men in key posts in the occupied Tamil homeland to head civil services with a 'colonial mindset'. Earlier, in April, Rajapaksa appointed Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' in Vavuniyaa.
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AG to file response to FR petition on “internment “camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2009, 22:01 GMT]
Three member Bench of the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General (AG) to file objections within two weeks in respect of granting leave to proceed, and interim relief to the Petitioners, in a Fundament Rights (FR) Violation petition against the detention of nearly three hundred thousand Vanni IDPs in State controlled "welfare centres" which have been described by human rights activists and organizations as "internment camps," legal sources in Colombo said.
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