Winners are never tried for war crimes, says Colombo’s foreign secretary

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 07:33 GMT]
“If you look at the history of war crimes there isn’t one instance where a winner of a war has been tried before a Tribunal. They have always been set up for losers. And if you were to take winners then the start would have to be taken elsewhere. Sri Lanka did not drop atom bombs or destroy entire cities during the war,” said, Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary and newly appointed permanent representative to the UN, Palitha Kohona in an interview to Daily Mirror, Thursday, outlining the diplomatic prospects of Colombo in engaging the officialdom of the world, in negating political solutions to the Tamil national question. “There is this thinking that all our problems can be solved by applying a political solution. I fail to see the logic behind this,” he said.
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Sri Lanka to train Pakistan army in Tamil land

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 07:20 GMT]
“We received a request from Pakistan to train their officers on our small team operations, so we have decided to open several new training schools in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya to train local and foreign military officers,” said Colombo’s new Army Chief Jagath Jayasuriya, reported, Daily Mirror, Friday. The newspaper further quoted the military chief saying that there was a big demand from foreign countries to have their forces trained by Sri Lanka. But Political observers said that it was a ploy of Colombo, Pakistan and probably some others too, to check the current presence of Indians in Vanni.
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Sri Lanka maintains military spending, recruits 50,000 more troops

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 11:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka will keep up record defence spending despite its recent victory over the Tamil Tigers, Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told AFP Tuesday, as the Sri Lankan Army announced plans to recruit 50,000 more soldiers shortly. Sri Lanka raised its defence budget to a record 1.6 billion dollars this year, and finally defeated the LTTE in May after months of intense battles in which 20,000 Tamil civilians were massacred by government shelling. 6,000 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed in last three months of the war, Gotabhaya also said.
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General Fonseka says more troops needed to ensure peace in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 05:44 GMT]
General Sarath Fonseka, Chief of Defence Staff, said that resettlement of internally displaced people from Vanni now housed in temporary camps in Vavuniyaa will not be carried out haphazardly as dictated by some interested parties. He said so when he called on the prelate of Malwatte Most Venerable Tibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera and on the prelate of Asgiriya Most Ven. Udugama Sri Buddharakkitha Thera Monday to mark the third month of ‘liberating’ the country from LTTE.
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Floods threaten Tamils in Sri Lanka’s detention camps - HRW

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 10:31 GMT]
Floods and disease are threatening the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of Tamils detained enmasse in violation of international by the Sri Lankan government, HRW said Tuesday. The floods have caused emergency latrines to flood or collapse, causing sewage to flood several areas of the camps, heightening the risk of outbreaks of contagious diseases. The camps are located in places that are known to flood during the onsetting monsoon season.
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Tamil Nadu government erases the word 'Eezham'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police was seen pasting white papers on the word 'Eezham' and on the picture of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, figured in the banners and posters of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchi (VCK) organised uprising in Chennai attended by more than 100,000 people Monday. The VCK's annual uprising day, conducted on the birthday of its leader Thol Thirumavalavan, has chosen the theme 'Ezhum Thamizh Eezham' for this year. The phrase can either mean the 'rising Tamil Eelam' or 'Tamil Eelam will rise'. The word 'Eezham' is the earliest reference to today's island of Sri Lanka, found in Tamil literature and inscriptions of pre-Christian centuries.
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Creeping Talibanization in Sri Lanka - Prof. David

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 August 2009, 10:13 GMT]
Noting several trends in Sri Lanka point to "early steps in [reaching for] totality of power," Prof Kumar David in a column in the weekend edition of "The Island" asserts that the cultural control exercised by the current Rajapakse regime are no different to those of "the Mullahs of Teheran and the iconoclastic Taliban fundamentalists." Prof. David summarizes the views of six lawyers expressed at a Lawyers’ Press Conference organised by the Platform for Freedom (PfF) early August where one notes that the scene is set for ever expanding authoritarianism as Sri Lanka's President flagrantly violates the "supreme law, the public [is] apathetic and the judiciary [is] powerless," and another points to the holding of 300,000 people "against their will, in defiance of local and international law" as "obscene infringement of the constitution."
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Sinhala SP arrested for aiding LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 August 2009, 08:09 GMT]
A special team of the Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police Wednesday night took Police superintendent Lakshman Cooray of Gampaha Division into custody over alleged involvement in LTTE activities. He served as the SP in Jaffna police division till he was transferred to Gampaha recently, police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media Thursday.
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Kuala Lumpur congratulates Colombo, donates US $ 100,000

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2009, 17:17 GMT]
Malaysian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka, Rosli Ismail congratulated Colombo for defeating ‘LTTE terrorism’ and described it as a “big achievement” while handing over his government’s donation of US $ 100,000 for the welfare of internally displaced ‘Sri Lankans’ affected by the conflict, according to a press release of Colombo’s foreign ministry, Thursday. Eezham Tamil IDPs in the internment camps alone number 300,000. Speaking on the occasion, Colombo’s foreign minister, Rohitha Bogollagama noted that Malaysia is one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka and has been consistently supportive of Sri Lanka’s efforts, “especially in the fight against terrorism.”
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Tamil businessman arrested in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2009, 06:27 GMT]
Galkissa Police took a Tamil businessman into custody in a flat located along Hampton Lane in Wellawatte Monday. The police said they recovered army uniforms from his room in the flat.
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Underworld criminals given final warning to surrender

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 06:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police has given final warning to underworld criminals to surrender immediately with their arms. "Without waiting for another deadline, they should surrender themselves at the nearest police station," police media spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara said.
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2 Tamils arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 August 2009, 09:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took two Tamil civilians into custody in Colombo Thursday night in two separate incidents. One was arrested in Katunayake International Airport (KIA) area and the other along D. R. Wijewardene Mawatte in Colombo town, media spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media.
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Custody of Pathmanathan raises questions about recognition to state terrorism

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 August 2009, 23:35 GMT]
The manner in which Selvarasa Pathmanathan was 'arrested' and ended up in the custody of the Sri Lankan state that is widely accused of war crimes, genocide and state terrorism, raises serious concerns about the world outlook to political justice, Tamil circles said. Mr. Pathmanathan who denounced violence was engaged in re-organising the LTTE and in consenting the formation of a transnational body for the Eezham Tamils. Meanwhile, acknowledging Pathmanathan’s custody, Colombo’s minister and spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwela said Friday: “There was some false hopes that after the LTTE was crushed that movement could be revived with Pathmanathan. But we have proved that we have the capability of getting to them from wherever they emerge.”
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SL parliament extends Emergency for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 16:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka parliament Thursday adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of sixty four votes. Seventy one Parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) voted for the motion. Seven Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians voted against the motion.
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Details emerge on Tamil media workers killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 00:52 GMT]
TamilNet recently compiled details on Tamil journalists and media workers confirmed killed during the height of war in Vanni, between March and May. The list is not exhaustive. These media persons, committed to the human cause and engaged in the noble task of bringing out information to the people inside and to the world outside, have laid down their lives in achieving what the international media shamefully couldn't accomplish. TamilNet will be serialising compilations on the losses of other humanitarian workers too in due course.
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HRW calls for international inquiry into ACF-17 massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:31 GMT]
Quoting James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) that "[f]or three years since the ACF massacre, the Rajapaksa government has put on an elaborate song and dance to bedazzle the international community into believing justice is being done," HRW in a news release issued Monday added, "the Sri Lankan government's gross mishandling of the investigation into the execution-style slaying of 17 aid workers in the northeastern town of Mutur three years ago demonstrates the need for an international commission of inquiry."
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Reporters barred from Jaffna, Vavuniyaa during elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka will not allow reporters into Vavuniyaa and Jaffna to cover the local government elections to be held there on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. “The government did not give a reason for banning reporters, but it cites security reasons for denying entry to any outsider,” AP reported. The towns are accessible with Defence ministry permission and “even residents can't leave without permission,” AP report said. Meanwhile, an elections watchdog, PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) said there seemed to be little public interest in the polls as people were preoccupied with the plight of their relatives in government’s military-run internment camps.
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“Colombo no longer has any excuse for its brutal policies” - National Post

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 20:48 GMT]
In light of the 'military victory' over the LTTE, Sri Lanka must now be judged by the human-rights standards that typically govern developing countries. And by those standards, the country's recent conduct should be of great concern” said an editorial in the National Post on Friday, citing the detainment of 280,000 Tamil civilians in government camp as indicating Tamils “are destined to remain second class citizens”. Questioning the global silence over the deaths of thousands of civilians in the final stages of the war and the praise given to the Sri Lankan Government by the U.N Human Rights Council, the article observed a continued double standard by the international community, where “apparently, some humans' human rights count for more than others”.
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Colombo remembers Alfred Duraiappa, setting hands of the clock backwards

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 July 2009, 17:45 GMT]
Ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) observed the 34th death anniversary of assassinated Alfred Duraippa, former Mayor of Jaffna, Thursday at his grave in Alfred Duraippa Stadium in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lankan Minister of Vocational and Technical Training, Piyasena Gamage, and the former Chief Minister of Western Provincial Council, Reginald Cooray and other prominent members of SLFP laid flowers at the grave and garlanded the memorial monument, the sources added.
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Tamil political prisoners in Welikada begin fasting demanding their release

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 July 2009, 06:53 GMT]
A group of Tamil political prisoners currently being detained in Welikada prison for many years without any inquiry and not being produced in court began fast unto death campaign Wednesday demanding their release or to indict them in court. The campaign is being conducted in the Welikada prison complex. However Sri Lankan prison authorities denied that no such fasting is held inside the prison complex.
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