Eezham / E'lu / He'la

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 00:01 GMT]
The gold (land)
The land of metal
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Tamil doctor files Rights petition in Sri Lanka Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 December 2009, 13:13 GMT]
The Supreme Court Monday granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights violation petition filed by a Tamil medical officer, S.Murali, against his interdiction on his alleged comments made on the conditions in the internment camps which the Sri Lanka Government said "had brought disrepute on the Government of Sri Lanka." The petitioner had been serving as an Acting Consultant Community Physician of the Health Care & Nutrition Ministry at that time of interdiction.
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3 resettled IDPs arrested in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 November 2009, 11:53 GMT]
Three Tamil civilians were taken into custody by the Intelligence Unit of the Mannaar police Tuesday evening. Police sources confirmed that the suspects were a part of a group of Tamil civilians recently resettled in Adampan and Parappaagka'ndal villages in Mannaar district after being released from internment camps in Vavuniyaa.
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Acute health problems among children in Vavuniyaa IDP internment camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 14:23 GMT]
Twenty-five percent of children in IDP camps in Vavuniya suffer from acute malnutrition while 40 percent of them are anaemic, according to a report on Nutrition Among Post Conflict Displaced Children in Vavuniya. The report further says that 41.9% of the children have diahorreal diseases and 17.2% are low weight babies.
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SLA soldier opens fire, Captain, soldier killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 October 2009, 11:27 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) captain and a soldier succumbed to their injuries caused by a shooting that followed a quarrel among the Sri Lankan soldiers at Parappaangka'ndal in Naanaaddaan in Mannaar, Friday night.
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SLA blocks spouse from collecting Welikada victim's body

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 11:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials Saturday denied permission to Mrs Devendran Saro, the wife of a Welikada prisoner who died in questionable circumstances inside the maximum security prison in Boralle last week, to travel to Colombo to collect her husband's body, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The second Tamil prisoner who died under the same circumstances is yet to be identified.
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2 Tamil political prisoners killed in Welikada

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 August 2009, 14:42 GMT]
Two Tamil political prisoners have died under 'questionable circumstances' inside the Sri Lankan Central Prision at Welikada in Borallea this week, civil sources in Colombo revealed on Friday. One of the prisoner's wife, a native of Vaddukkoaddai, was informed by Jaffna police that her husband, 30-year-old Sinnaiah Devendran, had died three days ago while he was under going treatment at prison hospital.
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Free civilians from detention camps, HRW tells Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 11:49 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government should immediately release the more than 280,000 internally displaced Tamil civilians held in detention camps, Ney York-based rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW), again demanded Wednesday. “The government has effectively sealed off the detention camps from outside scrutiny. Human rights organizations, journalists, and other independent observers are not allowed inside,” HRW said. Condemning the mass detention as “outrageous”, HRW cited comments by Walter Kälin, the UN secretary-general’s representative on internally displaced persons, that: “Prolonged internment of such persons would not only amount to arbitrary detention but it also aggravates the humanitarian situation needlessly.”
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A "rolling" genocide?

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 July 2009, 11:56 GMT]
"The continuing concentration of over 250,000 people in the camps both blocks the search for answers to these questions, and itself constitutes a most serious crime. If the doors are not opened quickly, this will raise questions of whether the government seriously intends a restoration of Tamil society in the conquered zone. This would indeed pose a question of genocide, in the sense of the deliberate destruction of a population group in its home territory," writes Dr. Martin Shaw, professor of International Relations at UK's University of Sussex, and a historical sociologist of war and global politics.
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Galle / Kaali

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 03:03 GMT]
The rocks
The rocky place
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Tamil Christian epitaph of significance found in Kayts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 June 2009, 02:15 GMT]
An interesting early 19th century Tamil epitaph found on a tomb in Kayts, off Jaffna, evidences the usage of the word ‘Aariyar’ in Christian context, says Professor P. Pushparatnam, Head of the Department of History of the University of Jaffna, who brought the epitaph to notice and read it. According to local media reported his finding, the tomb of one Ales Francis Cruz, died in 1827 was found behind the old customs building at the Kayts port.
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Sinhala goons destroy Jesus statue in Minneriya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 June 2009, 19:06 GMT]
A group of Buddhist chauvinist elements forcefully removed a Jesus Christ statue from Minneriya convent on June 3 and destroyed it. The remnants of the statue were found near Minneriya tank. National Catholic Association has expressed deep concern over the vandalism against the Catholic community in Minneriya in north central province.
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Investment Promotion Minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 12:12 GMT]
Former United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian and the present Sri Lanka Minister of Investment Promotion, Naveen Dissanayake and his younger brother Mayantha Dissanayake paid a sudden visit to Jaffna peninsula Saturday which the brothers described as a personal visit, to the media, sources in Jaffna said. The brothers are the sons of late Gamini Dissanayake, who is alleged to have been the person responsible for the burning of Jaffna Public Library in June 01, 1981, by Sri Lankan police, the sources added.
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Potent Tamil voice for European Parliament

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 May 2009, 01:44 GMT]
June 4th elections will determine if Tamils in the London electoral region have the political muscle, organizational acumen and seasoned campaigning skills to attract broader British voters to elect Ms Janani (Jan) Jananayagam, a British, French educated young professional, who is contesting as an Independent candidate to the European Parliament. Ms. Jananayagam’s educational credentials, demonstrated communications skills, and a deftly constructed election platform centered on civil rights, financial transparency, and equality and diversity, will appeal to a broad section of British public and other immigrant groups besides the Tamil community, political observers in London say.
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Sinhalese youths vandalize Saiva temple in Upcountry

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 04:53 GMT]
Gangs of Sinhalese youths smashed the Pi’l’laiyaar statue in front of Vaddav’lai Murukan temple and broke the wall around the temple in Hatton police division in upcountry Wednesday during the early hours, according to complaints made by the temple trustee board to Hatton police Wednesday morning. In a similar incident in Rakwana district the annual festival of Sri Muththumaari Amman temple had been suspended due to threats by Sinhalese youths.
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Colombo / Kozhumpu / Ko'lumpu / Ko'lamba

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 13:46 GMT]
The point where the land bends inside
The point of the bend
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SL High Commission in UK differentiates Tamil students from Sri Lankans

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 02:20 GMT]
“We are also being informed by Sri Lankan diaspora [in UK] that Tamil students in schools, attended by their children, have made presentations titled ‘Stop Tamil Genocide’ during their citizenship class,” complained a recent letter signed by Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner, Sumith Nakandala, sent to head teachers of schools in Britain. Responding to the letter, the Chairman of British Tamils Forum (BTF) said: “British MPs and even a minister have recently expressed apprehension in British Parliament over impending genocide of Tamils at the hands of the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces. But the Sri Lankan High Commission is attempting to bully the democratic rights of the school students in London learning and voicing against the genocide in Sri Lanka.”
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Maddakka'lappu / Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 12:10 GMT]
The muddy lagoon / backwaters
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Socialist Resistance voices for Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 02:17 GMT]
“The socialist and labour movement stand against repression and genocide. We stand in solidarity with the Tamil people in the face of its suffering at the hands of the Sri Lankan government”, said Duncan Chapel, member of the Socialist Resistance steering committee, Tuesday, greeting 25,000 strong Tamil demonstration outside of the European Commission. Supporting the demands for sending food and medicine, withdrawal of Sri Lanka military from Tamil homeland and lifting the ban on LTTE, “the legalization of the LTTE has to be the first step towards Tamil peace, freedom and self-determination”, he said.
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Unitary Ceylon was an error: British Politician

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:45 GMT]
A Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, Dr. Rachel Joyce, apologised Sunday for the error of Colonial Britain in making a unitary Ceylon out of two nations, the Tamils and the Sinhalese. “The Tamil people have lived on the island currently called Sri Lanka for millennia - in their own contiguous, distinct, geographical territory. They lay claim only to the territory they have historically lived in. In fact, the 3 million Tamils of the island constituted a self governing nation until invaded and occupied by Colonial powers – in particular Britain, who amalgamated them with the Sinhala nation purely for convenience. In retrospect, this cultural naivety was a mistake that has caused problems since independence,” she said in a meeting held at Harrow, where Bruce Fein, a constitutional expert from the United States was the guest speaker.
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