Rajapaksa appoints Acting Secretary for Sri Lankan parliament

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 March 2008, 17:54 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday appointed Dhammika Kitulgoda as the acting Secretary General of the Sri Lanka parliament which fell vacant with the retirement of Mrs. Priyani Wijesekara with effect from March 31 amid protest by the main opposition United National Party (UNP) that it would disrupt the proceedings of the parliament continuously if the post was not filled by the Constitutional Council appointed under the 17th amendment to the SL constitution, parliamentary sources said.
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IIGEP ends observation role

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 March 2008, 07:30 GMT]
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) on Monday said its members cease their mandate to observe the work of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI). The IIGEP will submit a concluding report to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and issue a final public statement before closing the office in Colombo on 30 April, 2008.
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Left parties in UPFA join TNDA to contest east elections

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2008, 14:28 GMT]
Communist Party (CP) of Sri Lanka and Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), constituents of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by President Mahinda Rajapakse, and three more political parties in the south, Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya, Democratic Left Front and Desha Vimukthi Janatha Pakshaya have decided to contest the East Provincial Council election in alliance with the recently formed Tamil National Democratic Alliance (TNDA), media sources said. TNDA comprises Peoples Liberation Front of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and Padmanaba wing of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).
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Furore in Tamil Nadu over 'anti-Tamil' film

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 19:29 GMT]
Politicians and film personalities from Tamil Nadu have taken strong exception to a Sinhalese film that seeks to "vulgarize the Tamil liberation struggle in Sri Lanka." Tamil Nadu Film Producers' Association President Rama. Narayanan condemned the film for disgracing the Tamil people at the end of a special screening. Tamil Protection Movement President Thol. Thirumavalavan vowed to take legal action to prevent the film's release in Tamil Nadu since he felt that it not only degraded the Eelam liberation struggle and hurt Tamil sentiments but it was also capable of disrupting communal harmony in Sri Lanka.
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JVP: Sri Lanka moving towards Kosovo-type situation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 11:32 GMT]
Comparing the situation in Sri Lanka with the State of Kosovo before it declared independence, Weerawanse, parliamentary group leader the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the general secretary of the National Patriotic Movement at a press briefing held Wednesday said that the situations are similar, and that the damaging report by Ms Louis Arbor, High Commission of the UN Human Rights on Kosovo paved the way for Kosovo independence, media sources said.
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Destroyed East villages, MP chronicles history

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 March 2008, 16:33 GMT]
"Population of Sinhalese in the East was a mere 0.53 percent in 1827 but due to systematic colonisation and subsequent establishment of military camps along the borders of traditional Tamil areas, Sinhala settlers encroached into more than 25 percent of land owned by Tamils," said Maavai Senathirajah, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, addressing, as the chief guest, to a gathering in Colombo Saturday on the occasion of the release of a book "Destroyed Tamil villages," authored by fellow Member of Parliament (MP), S.Jeyananthamoorthy, literary sources in Colombo said. T. Kangasabai, Batticaloa district TNA parliamentarian presided the function.
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Military Officer in media position will affect war reporting, says CPJ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 March 2008, 11:59 GMT]
Citing incidents of "ongoing intimidation of Sri Lanka media ... and the treatment of Tamil journalists under investigation by the Terrorist Investigation Division," and the appointment of retired Major General Sunil Silva, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media watch dog, in a letter sent to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse Friday said, "[u]nsupported terrorist accusations threaten the security and livelihood of Tamil journalists. A military leader in a state media group threatens the objectivity of journalists," and urged Rajapakse to vigorously investigate attacks and provide the journalists with due protection.
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SL Supreme Court considers Rajapaksa's request on ICCRP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 09:35 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Supreme Court Monday considered the application of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa seeking its advisory opinion in terms of Article 129 (1) of the Constitution whether and how individuals in Sri Lanka would derive benefits from rights contained in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The European Union, in view of a previous SC judgment informed Sri Lankan government that to qualify for the General System of Preferences Plus facility, the government would have to introduce a constitutional amendment to ensure rights under the ICCPR are rights recognized by the Constitution. Hence, Mr. Rajapaksa has sought the advisory opinion of the Supreme Court.
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UPFA-TMVP councilors take oath in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 15:44 GMT]
The Mayor, Deputy Mayor of Batticaloa Municipal council, chairmen and deputy chairmen of other eight local councils and the members of all nine local councils elected from United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPAF) and the paramilitary-cum-political party, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), took their oaths in the presence of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the presidential secretariat Tuesday. Key Paramilitary operative, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who was present at the presidential secretariat was greeted by Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Boston Globe advocates "Self-rule in a confederal structure for Tamil region"

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 March 2008, 10:01 GMT]
Pointing to Sri Lanka's documented pattern of "abductions of civilians by security forces," and Rajapakse Government's complicity in "large scale disappearances," Boston Globe in an editorial Monday said: "[t]he bottom line is Sri Lanka's conflict is political, and it must be resolved by political means. A lasting solution will require that the central government grant meaningful self-rule to the Tamil region, perhaps in a confederal structure that maintains the unity of the country. Continuing attempts to resolve the conflict militarily can only produce more suffering and more war."
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Abductions escalate in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 March 2008, 09:48 GMT]
Armed men in police uniform arriving in a van bearing registration number 250 7363 Sunday around 7:00 a.m at Sangamiththa Mawata in Colombo abducted a Tamil youth who had come from Jaffna with his mother to go abroad, according to the complaint made by the his mother to Kotahena (Koddaagncheanai) police. Meanwhile, a Tamil student of Moratuwa University, abducted on March 4 from Colpetty in Colombo, is still missing. Abduction of Tamils in Western Province by armed men in white van have escalated in recent days despite the global attention on Sri Lanka's Human Rights violations.
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Assault on media

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2008, 16:08 GMT]
While the 2007 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. State Department catalogued the deteriorating climate for media freedom in Sri Lanka, State intimidation of, and violence on journalists continue in 2008. Unidentified men have broken into the houses of journalists Munusamy Parameshwari in Gampola, and Sashi Kumar and Sunetra Athugalpura in Gonawela, Kelaniya in three separate incidents in the last two days, according to media reports. Parameshawari's relatives were assaulted before the attackers got away, reports added.
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Anura Bandaranaike passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2008, 10:32 GMT]
Anura Bandaranaike, the brother of former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the son of two former Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka, passed away after brief illness at a private hospital in Colombo Sunday at 2:45 p.m. Mr. Bandaranaike, the 59-year-old son of the world's first woman prime minister, a former Foreign Minister and a former Opposition Leader, had walked away from the Sri Lankan parliament after crossing over to the opposition during the final voting of the latest Sri Lankan Budget in December 2007. His father, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, was assassinated by an extremist Buddhist monk when Mr. Anura Bandaranaike was 10 years old.
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Ganesan assails Sri Lanka's rights record

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 March 2008, 14:08 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Leader of Western People’s Front and Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), in a meeting with visiting officials of the European Union, pointing to the culture of impunity prevailing in Sri Lanka, rejected Colombo's proposal to appoint a SAARC commission to monitor rights in Sri Lanka as a "ploy to buy time," and flayed Judge Tilakaratne's investigation into disappearances as an exercise to "deceive the nation and the international community." Judge Tilakaratne had earlier commented that most people listed as disappeared and abducted have either "returned home or gone abroad," the press release issued by Ganeson Saturday said.
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Police arrests 2 Upcountry Tamils at Monergala bus stand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 March 2008, 13:25 GMT]
Moneragala Police arrested a Tamil youth and his younger sister at the main bus stand Friday afternoon, media sources said quoting Police sources. Both siblings are being detained in the police station and interrogated by the Terrorist Investigation Department as they failed to prove their identity and the purpose of their visit to Colombo, the Police said.
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SL Minister implicated in bribe attempt to silence massacre witness

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 19:52 GMT]
The inquiry into the massacre of five Trincomalee students took a dramatic turn Thursday when an exiled medical practitioner father of one of the student victims, in a video conference before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI), revealed that a prominent Cabinet Minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, after the massacre, had proposed to offer a house in Colombo to the family if they were willing to "forget the mistake that had taken place."
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SLRC Deputy Director attacked in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 08:24 GMT]
A group of unknown men Friday morning around 8:45 a.m. attacked the Deputy Director of Sri Lanka state-owned Rupavahini Cooperation (SLRC), Anurasri Hettige, the trade union leader and a JVP supporter, at Kottiyawatta. Employees at the SLRC have started a protest against alleged targeted attacks by unknown men on journalists and staff of the station, who participated and covered a spontaneous protest on 27 December when Mervy Silva, the SL Minister of Labour was retaliated when he reportedly went amok on a news editor at the station.
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UPFA-TMVP secures Mayor post in Batticaloa MC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 March 2008, 16:10 GMT]
Paramilitary TMVP group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP) candidate, who jointly contested in the elections for the Batticaloa Municpal Council with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), was appointed Mayor of Batticaloa Municipal Council (MC) in the TMVP committee meeting Wednesday, TMVP Secretary, Kailasarasa said. Daughter of Sathiyamoorthy Rajan, the assassinated Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary candidate in 2004 general elections, Pirabakaran Sivakeertha, known as Pathmini, polled 4,722 preferential votes and was appointed Mayor of Batticaloa MC.
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British parliamentarians call for UK to rein in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 04:30 GMT]
A group of Parliamentarians from all of Britain’s main political parties Tuesday condemned the assassination last week of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP K Sivanesan and, lamenting the recent exit of the international panel overseeing rights abuses probes in Sri Lanka, called on the UK government to take all possible steps to ensure that Government of Sri Lanka plays by accepted international rules.
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UPFA-TMVP alliance wins Batticaloa local elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 March 2008, 00:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) that contested jointly in the elections for the Batticaloa Municipal Council with the paramilitary TMVP group has secured 11 seats with 14,158 votes. The coalition of remaining paramilitary groups has won 6 seats. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Eelavar Democratic Front (EDF) have both secured one seat each in the Municipal Council. Voter turnout was at 53 percent in Batticaloa city. Around 10% of the voters who turned up for voting have cast invalid votes.
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