State terrorism against JVP, Wijitha Herat accuses Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 August 2008, 13:17 GMT]
"The government led by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse has unleashed state terrorism against the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). I would say categorically to the government that it cannot suppress the JVP; the JVP has all powers and strength to defeat state terrorism in any form," Gampaha district parliamentarian and JVP Propaganda Secretary, Wijitha Herat, told media Friday, sources in Colombo said.
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War needs to continue, dependancy on the West bypassed - Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2008, 10:16 GMT]
"The war against the LTTE will continue without a break until the capture of the Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu", declared Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday while addressing a public meeting following the inauguration of an irrigation project in Polonnaruwa in the North Central Province. Mr. Rajapaksa also proclaimed that the era of rulers who were dependent on the West was over with his regime in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Somawanse Amarasinghe, the leader of the Sinhala extreme nationalist JVP, charged that Mr. Rajapaksa has 'surrendered the sovereignty of Sri Lanka' to India.
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"End Minister's Anti-Media Campaign," IFJ demands Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2008, 08:22 GMT]
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a press release issued on Wednesday demanded the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to immediately intervene and order an end to Sri Lankan Labour Minister Mervyn Silva's anti-media campaign of 'interrogation and violence' against Sirasa TV, a Sinhala channel owned by Maharajah Organisation Limited, one of the largest privately-held corporation, in Sri Lanka. "Any encouragement of violence against the media is irresponsible and potentially life-threatening for journalists in a country that has long been considered one of the most dangerous for the media profession," the IFJ has said.
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JHU walks out of APRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2008, 02:02 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Sri Lanka's all monks' political party which has nine members in parliament, informed Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse that it would not participate in the deliberations of the All Party Representatives Council (APRC) in future as it has lost confidence on the body in finding a consensus to solve the ethnic conflict on the basis of Mahinda Chinthanaya.
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Victor Perera vows to establish civil administration in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2008, 18:55 GMT]
Victor Perera, the former Sri Lankan Inspector General of Police (IGP), who has been appointed as the Governor of the de-merged Northern Province by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Saturday assumed duties at the Northern Provincial Secretariat located at Varoathaya Nakar in Kanniyaa, 3 km from Trincomalee of the Eastern Province. Mr. Perera said he would take steps to establish civil administration in the 'liberated areas' in the North and launch development projects there. Both the secretariats of Northern Province and Eastern Province are now functioning from Trincomalee.
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NPM opposes granting police, land powers to PCs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2008, 01:41 GMT]
The National Patriotic Movement (NPM), an extreme Sinhala nationalist organization, said Friday that it would launch a struggle if the government accedes to the demand to devolve land and police powers to provincial councils. "Granting of such powers to provincial councils is tantamount to granting Tamil Eelam to Velupillai Pirapaharan,"said Dr.Gunadasa Amarasekara, President of NPM at a press briefing held in Colombo.
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Iran ‘willing’ to share nuclear technology with Sri Lanka, ups aid

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2008, 18:45 GMT]
Iran is willing to share nuclear technology for peaceful purposes with Sri Lanka, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told The Island newspaper. Mottaki, who was in Colombo to attend the 15th SAARC Summit told The Island, that Iran and Sri Lanka are long standing friends and Tehran was willing to assist Colombo in all fields, including uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes. He also called for the establishment of an Asia parliament on the lines of the European Parliament as a first step towards regional integration. Iran has outpaced Japan as Sri Lanka’s biggest donor this year.
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Rajapaksa 'pardons' Arumugam Thondaman

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2008, 06:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has pardoned Minister Arumugam Thondaman, from the suspended jail sentence and fine imposed by Nuwara Eliya Magistrate Tuesday for the contempt of court. The Nuwara Eliya Magistrate sentenced Thondaman Arumugam with two others on Tuesday morning and the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa pardoned only Mr. Thondaman on Tuesday evening, media sources said.
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Sri Lanka's new Ambassador to US presents credentials

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 July 2008, 02:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka's new Ambassador to U.S., Jaliya Wickramasuriya, presented his Credentials to U.S. President George W. Bush, at the Oval Office of the White House, on July 28, 2008, Sri Lanka embassy website reported. As the 15th Ambassador to the U.S., Wickramasuriya replaces the outgoing Ambassador Bernard Gunatillake.
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Basil Rajapaksa visits Batticaloa to discuss ADB allocation of funds

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 July 2008, 17:04 GMT]
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has allocated 4,015 million rupees for the development of agriculture and irrigation tanks in Batticaloa district and a conference presided by Basil Rajapakse, the brother and Senior Advisor to SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa and member of parliament, was held Sunday in Batticaloa District Secretariat to discuss ways of making use of the ADB funds, sources in Batticaloa said. Sri Lankan ministers and heads of local and provincial governments of the ruling UPFA, TMVP alliance attended the conference. Members of parliament from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Batticaloa district were not invited.
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Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, not far away, says Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 July 2008, 09:40 GMT]
It is "not too far away," to "liberate the people of Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu" and make them live under a "democratic set up" now being "enjoyed by the people of the eastern province," declared Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, addressing a provincial election campaign meeting in Anuradhapura on Saturday. The statement comes after Sri Lanka Army officials in Colombo told media that their forces were making "rapid progress" in Vanni claiming that the SLA recovered 37 dead bodies of LTTE fighters together with arms as the Sri Lankan forces were engaged in consolidating an offensive line south of Mallaavi.
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4 Boosa detainees transferred to Terrorism unit, 8 freed

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 July 2008, 10:44 GMT]
Four Tamil civilians detained in Boosa detention camp in the Galle district for several months were transferred Wednesday to the Prevention of Terrorism Unit (PTU) located in Chaitiya Street in Colombo. Meanwhile, eight other Tamil civilians detained for about six to eight months in Boosa Detention Centre had been released without any charges, sources in Colombo said.
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JVP trying to launch another insurgency- SLFP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 July 2008, 12:47 GMT]
The Sinhala Nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), has been on its way to the jungle once again after its internal split, said the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and a senior minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Mr.Maithiripala Sirisena, addressing a press briefing held in the auditorium of the Mahaweli Centre in Colombo Friday.
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Landmark European ruling says Tamils risk torture if deported

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 July 2008, 10:48 GMT]
In a rebuke of Britain’s efforts to deport Tamil asylum seekers, the European Court of Human Rights allowed Thursday the appeal by one refugee, finding that he was at risk of torture by the Sri Lankan authorities if returned there. Immigration lawyers said the European Court’s ruling was ‘very significant’ as the forcible removal of hundreds of Tamils had been held up pending this judgment. The Court’s decision came as the British government praised the Sri Lankan government’s efforts on human rights.
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Boston Globe: Sri Lanka, in danger of becoming a rogue state

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 July 2008, 11:33 GMT]
"The solution to Sri Lanka's conflict must be political, not military. Rajapakse should be encouraged to strike a deal that grants Tamils substantial autonomy in their own homeland areas. If not, the war will drag on, and Sri Lanka's government may find itself classified alongside the regimes in Burma, Zimbabwe, and Sudan as an international pariah," Boston Globe, in an editorial published Thursday said.
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British minister meets Pillayan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 19:57 GMT]
British Foreign and Commonwealth (Asia, Africa and UN) Affairs Minister Malloch-Brown Wednesday morning held talks with Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, leader of the paramilitary-cum-political party TMVP. The meeting was held at the Chief Secretariat of the EPC in Trincomalee town. The talks lasted for about two hours, Media was not allowed to cover the proceedings.
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TNA: Jaffna Pass system violates basic human rights

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 July 2008, 15:43 GMT]
Maavai Senathirajah, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Jaffna in a letter to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse, protested that procedures instituted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials for Jaffna residents to obtain a “Pass” to travel out of Jaffna require several days, and are causing “tremendous hardships” to the public and demanded immediate withdrawal of the pass system. He accused Colombo of suppressing freedom of movement and of grossly violating basic human rights.
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Court seeks explanation from AG for video taping Tamil residents

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 July 2008, 00:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, in response to a complaint filed by the petitioner in a fundamental rights violation case, Monday, directed the Attorney General to appear on Tuesday and submit his explanation for video taping a group of Tamil civilians in Muhathuwaaram in Colombo on July 2 after they were taken to an open space following a cordon and search operation, legal sources said.
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British Foreign Minister to meet Pillayan - reports

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 19:40 GMT]
Britain’s Foreign Minister, Lord Malloch-Brown, is to meet Pillayan (Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan), Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and leader of the Army-backed paramilitary group, the TMVP, Sri Lankan press reports said. Lord Malloch-Brown is on a four day visit to Sri Lanka this week, The Island newspaper said.
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Making SAARC meaningful

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 11:42 GMT]
The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, which incorporates India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and now Afghanistan, is a logical process, not just because of geographical contiguity, shared cultures, legacies of British imperialism, elite use of English language etc., but because of the region’s common aspirations and problems, first of all in ensuring secure and quality life, and then seeking the rightful place for one fifth of humanity in the contemporary world. What went wrong with the noble concept of SAARC, while similar regional formations such as the EU and ASEAN are successful elsewhere, discusses Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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