Colombo under tight security to celebrate government’s “Victory Day”

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 21:32 GMT]
Cordon and search operations are being conducted by large number of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army in Fort, Bambalapitya, Wellawatte, Dehiwala Kohuwela, Nugegoda, Kelaniya, Demtagoda and Gampaha in Colombo district since Monday to ensure foolproof security for grand victory day celebration with military parade that is scheduled to be held on Wednesday in Galle Face Green, media sources said.
Full story >>

CPA threatened over ‘treason’ - report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 19:23 GMT]
The Colombo-based liberal think tank, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), has received a threat accusing it of treason, Reuters reported Tuesday. A letter titled "Notice to the Traitors" left at CPA’s office talked about the military victory over the Tamil Tigers last month and warned the CPA to shut its offices for a week in salute to fallen Sri Lankan soldiers.
Full story >>

Britain sold arms despite Sri Lanka’s abuses – The Times

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 13:01 GMT]
Britain sold £13.6m worth of arms to Sri Lanka in the past three years despite Colombo’s widespread abuse of human rights, The Times newspaper reported. Whilst the United States suspended arms sales in 2008, Britain, Bulgaria and Slovakia continued to arm President Mahinda Rajapakse’s ultra-nationalist government. The sales contravened the 1998 EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports that restricts business with countries facing internal conflicts or with poor human rights records and a history of violating international law. The arms were sold as international ceasefire monitors, human rights groups and Tamil Diaspora repeatedly protested Sri Lanka’s rights abuses.
Full story >>

Tamils unprotected under deteriorating Sri Lanka justice system – international lawyers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 10:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s judiciary is vulnerable to political interference and counter-terrorism legislation, in particular the emergency regulations, has had a detrimental impact on basic due process guarantees as well as freedom of expression, a high-level delegation of international lawyers say. Following its fact-finding tour, a report by the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) says “Sri Lanka’s justice system, legal profession and media are all under grave threat” under the government of President President Mahinda Rajapakse, which enjoys unprecedented popularity amongst Sinhalese. “Some members of Sri Lankan society, particularly those of Tamil ethnicity, are unprotected within the criminal justice system.”
Full story >>

Colombo to issue finger print ID to Vanni civilians in custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 11:23 GMT]
All members of IDP families including children of over ten years of age who were forced to flee Vanni and detained by the Colombo government in Vavuniyaa internment camps are to be issued with special identity cards with their finger prints. Police with officials of the Presidential Secretariat are currently engaged in implementing the scheme.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka hunting media’s Tamil sources - RSF

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2009, 23:47 GMT]
Apart from threatening to prosecute journalists who attempt to visit the northern areas captured from the Liberation Tigers, Sri Lanka’s military is trying to identify Tamil civilians who provided information to the foreign press by infiltrating paramilitaries into their military-run refugee camps, RSF (Reporters Without Borders) said Friday. While the Army general appointed in charge of resettling refugees says “all foreign journalists are working against his homeland,” the country’s police chief claims that several journalists, “mostly Sinhalese”, were on the payroll of the LTTE and were involved in the insurgency.
Full story >>

NYT calls for investigation of war crimes in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2009, 02:09 GMT]
Supporting UN High Commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay's, call for the investigation of war-crimes of both sides to the conflict, the Sri Lanka Government and the Liberation Tigers, the New York Times, in its Wednesday editorial said, "[T]he government claims it must screen out rebels hiding in the camps. But aid workers suspect other motives, including a desire to deny access to witnesses who may have seen abuses by government forces." The editorial pointed out that the Tamils were "long oppressed by the Sinhalese majority, and added, "[m]ost [Tamils] were driven to the guerrillas as a desperation move after decades of abuse. Until the government treats all of its citizens fairly, there is no chance for the peace that President Rajapaksa has promised his country."
Full story >>

Access to Sri Lanka detention camps ‘not satisfactory’ - ICRC chief

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2009, 00:47 GMT]
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been barred from visiting internment camps in Sri Lanka to check on people held by the Colombo government, the head of the organisation has said. Jakob Kellenberger has asked the Sri Lankan government for access to all its camps, which are ringed by barbed wire and soldiers, to check on conditions of hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians. He pointed out the present situation is "not satisfactory," Swissinfo reported. The ICRC, which usually refrains from publicly criticizing governments, is mandated under the Geneva Conventions to aid victims of war, Canadian Press reported.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka accused of 'ethnic cleansing' of Tamil areas - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 12:43 GMT]
"Aid officials, human rights campaigners and politicians claim Tamils have been driven out of areas in the north-east of the country by killings and kidnappings carried out by pro-government militias. They say the government has simultaneously encouraged members of the Sinhalese majority in the south to relocate to the vacated villages," Telegraph, UK, said, adding that according to an aid worker the recent killings in Trincomalee "were part of a strategy to drive out Tamils."
Full story >>

South Africa calls for investigations into violations of Geneva Conventions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2009, 10:41 GMT]
Noting that "[t]he military offensive conducted by the Sri Lankan government has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the north of the country and resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians and the displacement of many hundreds of thousands of citizens," South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister Ehrahim Ebrahim in a press release issued today, urged the UN to "to urgently investigate possible violations of international human rights law and contraventions of the Geneva Convention," and called for "peaceful dialogue with all minorities to address their long standing grievances."
Full story >>

14 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 May 2009, 00:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested 14 Tamil youths in searches conducted in Colombo city since Saturday, sources in Colombo said. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, addressing the Parliament Tuesday, declared Wednesday as a national holiday to celebrate the victory over the Liberation Tigers and called on the people of the country to celebrate the occasion for a week, the sources added.
Full story >>

EU must investigate Sri Lanka war crimes - Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 11:30 GMT]
"The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been claiming a glorious total victory - and denying allegations from doctors on the scene that tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been the victims of indiscriminate artillery fire and scorched-earth tactics," said Boston Globe in Tuesday's editorial, adding "the European Union must follow up on its call for an investigation of war crimes against civilians." The editorial also said that "the United Nations adopted a resolution in 2005 on the "responsibility to protect" populations that are not protected by their own governments. The massive killing and wounding of civilians on Sri Lanka represents exactly the sort of case that resolution was meant to address."
Full story >>

Mahinda’s accounts crime

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 07:33 GMT]
Before his murderous assault on the so-called safety zone, Mahinda Rajapaksa has always been maintaining that the number of civilians there was only 70,000. But after the first bout of the capture of civilians last month, until Thursday, 247,908 civilians from the safety zone were registered in the internment camps of Vavuniyaa, Pulmoaddai, Mannaar and Jaffna. After the first bout, the Sri Lanka president was saying that only 15 to 20 thousand were remaining in the safety zone. Sunday evening Colombo’s militarised civil administration head of internment camps, Chandrasiri admitted more than 80,000 crossing after the latest onslaught. According to aid officials, some more thousands are still remaining.
Full story >>

'Long live human dignity; shame on international community'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 18:37 GMT]
While the so-called international community is "exposed of its shameful conning," thousands of Tamil civilians and combatants are laying down their lives to "uphold Tamil dignity, and human dignity," says a Tamil academic in Colombo. Those who blame the LTTE for bringing in the disaster know well that Colombo always had the option to negotiate or to come out with a political solution convincing Tamils not to continue the conflict. But Colombo’s aim is not power sharing but genocide and subjugation of Tamils by forcing war on them. "The only way now for the IC to come out of the colossus shame is direct intervention and recognition of the justification for Tamil Eelam," the academic said.
Full story >>

Flaunting 'victory' to Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 16:51 GMT]
Sinhala mob carrying the Lion Flag of Sri Lanka, and shouting 'jeyawewa' (victory), menacingly hover around the Tamil suburbs in Colombo such as Ko'l'lup-piddi, Ve'l'la-vaththai, Bambalapiti, Dehiwela, Koddaagn-cheanai and Maddakku'li, news reports from Colombo said. Their vehicles in which they roam around, are also guarded by flag-carrying police and intelligence vehicles, the reports said. The Tamil pedestrians are humiliated and ridiculed by this gang and by the armed personnel at security points by being specifically addressed and told that their leader Pirapaharan has been captured and everything was over, the reports further said.
Full story >>

'Responsibility now with US'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 10:37 GMT]
The first act of Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi after the announcement of the election results was an appeal to the Indian Establishment re-elected to power to save the Eezham Tamils. However, the utmost responsibility lies with the Co-Chairs and especially with the US, says TamilNet’s political analyst in Colombo. The US has to either convince India or act alone to save the situation and save its own credibility. Failing, the White House is likely to emerge bearing the major responsibility for conning Tamils to their death and subjugation, and the IC tagged behind it may never be able to justify its credentials in implementing a world order it desires, he further said.
Full story >>

‘Tigers will regroup with a vengeance’ - FT

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 02:02 GMT]
“The Tamil cause will reignite from the embers of this war unless the Sinhala majority shows magnanimity and gives the Tamils control of their own lives,” the Financial Times warned Thursday in an editorial. Pointing out that Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s war “has only defeated the resourceful LTTE’s conventional capability,” the paper also warned that “[the Tigers] will regroup – and expand offshore – with a vengeance that will match the government’s vengefulness.”
Full story >>

Bloodbath will not resolve the conflict: Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 21:16 GMT]
"Colombo's approach to finish the war in 48 hours through a carnage and bloodbath of civilians will never resolve a conflict of decades. On the contrary it will only escalate the crisis to unforeseen heights. The Sinhala people have a duty and responsibility in stopping it, considering their own interest if not that of the Tamils," said LTTE's Head of International Relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, when contacted by TamilNet on the situation prevailing in Vanni.
Full story >>

“SL government conceals true picture of “Vanni safe zone”-UNP charges

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 20:49 GMT]
Dr.Jayalath Jayewardene, Deputy Secretary of the main United National Party (UNP) and parliamentarian made a scathing attack on the government led by President Mahinda Rajapakse that it is rejecting all statements made by the United Nations regarding the immense sufferings of Tamil people trapped in Vanni region without verifying the true picture. The government is committing blatant treachery by concealing the true situation in Vanni, he added at a press briefing held Tuesday in Colombo.
Full story >>

Japan urged to act over Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 19:14 GMT]
Four international organisations - Human Rights Watch, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, International Crisis Group and Amnesty International - released a joint letter to the Japanese Prime Minister Monday, calling on Japan “to play a more active role in confronting the unfolding catastrophe in Sri Lanka.” The four organisations called on Japan “to support efforts for the [United Nations] Security Council to keep the situation in Sri Lanka under close and regular review and to consider the situation in Sri Lanka formally at the Security Council.” Meanwhile, American Tamils after a rally and a night vigil Friday in New York submitted a memorandum to the Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations.
Full story >>