Ananthy Sasitharan responds to ITAK ‘interdiction’ letter

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2015, 21:04 GMT]
Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan has requested the leadership of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) to provide evidence in the form of records of debates, decisions and the names of participants to document that a democratic decision was arrived at before Mr R. Sampanthan went public on 03 January 2015 with the decision to explicitly support a particular candidate in the SL presidential elections. Ms Ananthy Sasitharan further stated that she had articulated her stand according to her conscience, protecting the decades-long fundamental principles of the Tamil politics and in the belief that internal democracy existed within the party.
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Resettling Tamils silently expelled from Champoor in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2015, 23:43 GMT]
Following the election of Maithiripala Sirisena as new Sri Lankan President, the uprooted families from a section of the 5th Division and 7th Division of Champoor situated along both the sides of Champoor main road, started to clear their lands for resettlement. Their lands, seized by Colombo under the so-called ‘Special Economic Zone’ (SEZ) were to be handed over to a Chinese-owned corporate. The occupying Sri Lanka Navy was blocking the uprooted Tamils from resettling in their lands. Despite the ‘regime change’, the Sri Lanka Navy occupying Champoor and the Sri Lankan Police have chased away the 162 families, who were clearing their plots to prepare for resettlement in the 1,430 acres of lands appropriated by Colombo under the so-called SEZ.
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Singapore Principles of 2013: Tamil polity taken for ride from Oslo to Singapore

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2015, 07:19 GMT]
Right from the Indo-Lanka agreement of 1987 to Oslo Declaration of 2002 and to hitherto unrevealed Singapore Principles of 2013 that brought the Sampanthan polity into a conceptual framework for the recent regime change in Colombo, the external forces seeking to influence the affairs of the island have taken the Eezham Tamils for a ride to confine the Tamil polity into the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka without securing any concrete and descriptive guarantee from the Sinhala polity. By its latest move, the ITAK has pushed the Tamils back into the past, Tamil political observers in Jaffna said citing the so-called Singapore Principles from 2013. TamilNet brings out the text of the so-called Singapore Principles for the edification of global Tamils.
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Sampanthan polity interdicts Ananthy Sasitharan from ITAK

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2015, 16:54 GMT]
The Jaffna District General Secretary of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) K. Thurairasasingam has sent a registered letter to Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, the popularly elected provincial councillor in the North, stating that she had been interdicted from the ITAK for having acted against the decision of the ITAK to support Maithiripala Sirisena in the Sri Lankan Presidential Election, informed TNA sources in Jaffna said. Ms Sasitharan has ‘violated’ the party discipline by issuing statements, conducting a press conference and by making opinion contrary to what the party had decided, the letter dated 11 January 2015, states.
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Extra-government authority to supersede government in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2015, 14:24 GMT]
Tamil ‘National’ Alliance Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan and genocidal Sri Lanka's former military commander Sarath Fonseka, who led the onslaught during the war, being together in a superseding extra-government authority constituted in Colombo would mean nullifying genocide investigation and even war crime investigation, as well as endorsing the unitary Sri Lankan State of US-Indian interests, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island, responding to SL president Maithiripala Sirisena, constituting a 11-member ‘National Executive Council’ that would be superseding his newly formed cabinet. The TNA earlier said that it would not participate in the SL government's cabinet. But, now Mr Sampanthan is a member of a Colombo-centric arrangement, higher than the cabinet.
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New SL regime fails to give policy-based assurance on de-militarisation: TNA circles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2015, 10:33 GMT]
Informed sources close to the hierarchy of the Tamil National Allaince (TNA) told TamilNet Wednesday that the newly elected Executive President of Sri Lanka, Maithiripala Sirisena, has failed to give a positive response to the request placed by the TNA to look at the issue of the de-militarisation of North and East as matter of a principled decision, marking a policy change. Mr Sirisena has reportedly told the TNA that the Sri Lankan military being stationed in strategic locations was largely based on the ‘national security’ concern and has justified the militarisation of public lands. Mr Maithiripala Siriesena, like his predecessors, is projecting the major issue as ‘isolated incidents of disputes’, which need to be addressed by the two separate committees, the disappointed TNA circles told TamilNet.
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Sirisena sworn in as 6th SL President

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2015, 14:06 GMT]
The SL President-Elect Maithiripala Sirisena was sworn in as the 6th Executive President of ‘Sri Lanka’ before Justice K. Sripavan on Friday at the Independence Square in Colombo on Friday evening around 6.20 p.m. Mr Maithiripala had declined to take oath before the current Sri Lankan Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, who is considered as a political appointee after the impeachment motion against the 43rd Chief Justice Ms Shiranee Bandaranayke, news sources in Colombo said. Later, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the president of the United National Party and the leader of the opposition in the current SL parliament took oath as the Prime Minister before the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena at the same venue.
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SL military divided over voting in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2015, 08:06 GMT]
Despite the tension about possible violence in Tamil areas by the occupying Sinhala military and its paramilitary, all arrangements necessary for brisk polling have completed in the two provinces, according to Sri Lankan Government Agents in the North and East. Voters were seen at many polling stations in queue. In the meantime, Sri Lankan military intelligence had stepped up disinformation campaign to divert the voting to another ‘Sirisena’ contesting the elections under the symbol of flag. While a section of the occupying military was hijacking the boycott call, thinking that it will be in favourable of Mahinda Rajapaksa, there were also SL soldiers encouraging the public to vote for the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Leaders should enlighten gullible masses, not hide behind them: Thiyagu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2015, 11:42 GMT]
Those among the Tamils of Tamil Eelam, who expect change in their favour from a future Maithiripala regime are going to be deceived as the sections of Tamils in Tamil Nadu, who were gullible enough to expect change from Modi and got deceived, said veteran activist Thoazhar Thiyagu from Tamil Nadu, responding to the write-ups that originated from disillusioned sections among the Tamil-speaking writers, who have been posting their views to blog sites and email discussion groups defending the position of TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, TNA's National List parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran and ITAK Leader Mavai Senathiraja. Mr Thiyagu questioned why Mr Sampanthan, who was talking about the 17th Amendment and the18th Amendment, was not able to demand the withdrawal of the detrimental 6th Amendment to the unitary constitution of Sri Lanka.
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Maithiripala denies devolution agreement with Tamils, Muslims

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2015, 12:41 GMT]
“We are firm in our stand that there is no place for Tamil Eelam demand and the Sri Lanka Army would not be withdrawn from the Northern Province,” said Common Presidential Candidate Maithiripala Sirisena on Monday. The statement comes after Mr Maithiripala has received unconditional backing from the TNA Parliamentary Group Leader Sampanthan and TNA's National List Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran. “My government will safeguard the unity and the territorial integrity of the country,” Mr. Sirisena added stating that he had not signed any agreement on devolution with Tamil and Muslim parties that are backing him.
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TNA loses civic council to UPFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2014, 22:22 GMT]
Four members of Pachchilaip-pa'l'li civic council, elected on TULF ticket, have defected to the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of genocidal Sri Lanka on Wednesday, a day after TNA's Parliamentary Group leader R. Sampanthan urged Tamils to vote for the common opposition candidate in the South. In the meantime, the occupying SL military intelligence officers, who are loyal to SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa and UPFA politicians are trying to woo the support of leading TNA civic members in other civic councils in North by paying large sums of money to them, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Sampanthan announces decision to back Sirisena in SL presidential elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 09:25 GMT]
Despite strong opposition from various sections of Eezham Tamils against giving explicit support to any of the two main contestants in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential elections, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan has decided to support the Opposition Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena. Mr Sampanthan announced the stance of the TNA Tuesday morning at a media briefing held at Hotel Jananaki in Colombo. Mr Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran have been blamed for striking a clandestine deal with Chandrika Kumaratunga on backing Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Sampanthan arrives from India, meets constituting party leaders

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 December 2014, 23:12 GMT]
R.Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance, who arrived in Colombo Sunday morning from his visit to India presided over a crucial meeting of the TNA co-ordinating committee at Madiwela parliamentary complex on Sunday night, news sources in Colombo told TamilNet.
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TNA agrees to hijack Tamils for ‘unconditional’ support to Maithiri

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2014, 18:50 GMT]
At a so-called high-level meeting held Monday in Colombo between the main delegation of the Sri Lankan opposition and the constituent parties of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the national list parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran has promised TNA's unconditional support to Maithiripala Sirisena, informed TNA sources told TamilNet. “The opposition was not prepared to provide any assurance to Tamils. Suresh Premachandran of the EPRLF raised certain questions that on what promises the opposition is expecting the support of the Tamils. There was none from the opposition. The discussion on the topic was knocked down by TNA's national list parliamentarian in front of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickramasinghe,” the source further told TamilNet.
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Mavai wants Tamils to vote at SL presidential elections

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2014, 22:04 GMT]
Tamil people should use their voting rights without fail in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election. The Tamil National Alliance is in the process of preparing statement to be issued very shortly in this regard in few days, said Mr. Mavai Senathirajah, Jaffna district parliamentarian and the President of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), a constituent party of the TNA.
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Tamil people should reject both Mahinda and Maithiripala: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2014, 18:55 GMT]
The global and regional powers locked in a geopolitical gambling have brought a contest between Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena. Rajapaksa is backed by China while the West and possibly India back Rajapaksa's former associate Sirisena, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) on Thursday. Declared that there is no use for Tamil people by going behind any of the two mainstream candidates of the South in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election, the former Tamil parliamentarian, who addressed the press on behalf of the TNPF and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, urged the Tamil people to refrain from backing any of the two candidates. The TNPF leader blamed the TNA for betraying the Tamil people for the second time as it did by backing Sarath Fonseka in 2010.
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TNPF to reveal position on SL presidential election on Wednesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2014, 23:47 GMT]
Tamil National People Front (TNPF) led by former parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is to announce its position on the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election at a media briefing scheduled to be held on December 17 in Colombo, Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnamblam said in response to journalists in Jaffna on Monday.
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Sirisena, Rajapaksa compete to deceive Tamil voters, Sampanthan faces criticism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2014, 23:36 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, who recently assured that the TNA would not take any decision ignoring his own Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) party and the other parties in the Tamil alliance on the issue of SL presidential elections, has again come under criticism from the ITAK structures for deciding to send TNA national list parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran to a meeting of the opposition parties, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, ITAK sources told TamilNet Sunday. In the meantime, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has been targeting Tamils in the education sector in the North and East inviting different organisations, trade unions and interest groups to Temple Trees seeking votes, informed sources said.
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TNA not in haste to take decision on SL Presidential election: Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2014, 12:15 GMT]
The parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance after about two hour discussion held at parliamentary complex on Monday evening decided not to take any hasty decision on the forthcoming Presidential election immediately. TNA Parliamentary Group Leader and Trincomalee district parliamentarian Mr R. Sampanthan presided the meeting.
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Sampanthan suspected of clandestine deal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 November 2014, 23:28 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan is suspected of making a clandestine deal on his own with former SL president Chandrika Kumaratunga on supporting the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Srisena, informed sources in Colombo said on Sunday. The deal harps of implementing the 13th Amendment, bringing in changes in the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) and in changing the governors of the North and East. There was no discussion on international investigations of the war crimes. Sampanthan’s suspected secret deal raises eyebrows within the TNA and there is already heated discussion on the issue, the sources further said.
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