New Indian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka assumes duties

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 November 2009, 12:45 GMT]
Ashok K. Kantha, assumed duties on 9th November as the new Indian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in place of Alok Prasad who has been appointed Deputy Defence Advisor in the Indian Foreign Ministry under Chief Defence Advisor Mr. M. K. Narayanan. The new High Commissioner has been serving as the Indian High Commissioner for Malyasia from April 2007 until 2009 November before being appointed to Sri Lanka.
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'Future bleak, but do not give up,' veteran Marxist reviewed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 November 2009, 21:19 GMT]
“Fifty years of ethnic cleansing have wiped out whole generations who knew any sort of peace, and made cohabitation with the Sinhalese people virtually impossible,” says veteran Marxist A.Sivanandan on the political future of the island of Sri Lanka in an interview to the New Left Review 60, November-December 2009. The 87 years old ideologue, who in his younger days “had no sense at all of being a Tamil” while living in the south, and who now feels “not only for the Tamils but also for the Sinhalese people,” further said: “The Sinhala elite has transformed the country into a counter-insurgency state like Colombia, in which repression, torture, imprisonment without trial and disappeared people are institutionally embedded. I don’t think anything now can be done from above, let alone from the debased self-interests of the ‘international community’.”
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Tamil, Muslim political parties find their table in Zurich

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 November 2009, 15:10 GMT]
Widely speculated as a drama backed by ‘high-powers,’ leaders of most of the Tamil and Muslim political parties in the island of Sri Lanka are meeting for the first time in Zurich, Switzerland, between Thursday and Saturday. The move is said to be for ‘extracting’ a joint proclamation of them necessary for further power manoeuvres in the island. A couple of years ago it was such a behind-the-scene move of some powers that made most of these parties except the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to rally behind Mahinda Rajapaksa and pledge support to him in the war that brought in disaster to Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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CID arrest heads of resettled IDP families – TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 November 2009, 09:18 GMT]
Unidentified persons without uniform posing as personnel of Criminal Investigation Department arrest heads of IDP families who have been resettled in their own villages after detention in camps located in Vavuniyaa. These persons do not provide receipts to their relatives when they remove heads of their families, complained Mr. K. Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, in parliament Tuesday.
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Main suspect in 1996 Central Bank bombing claimed arrested in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 November 2009, 09:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka police spokesman and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), I. M. Karunaratne, claimed that the main suspect in the bomb attack on Sri Lanka Central Bank in 1996 has been taken into custody in Cheddiku’lam in Vavuniyaa district when he tried to get out of the detention camp with a forged National Identity Card (NIC).
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Voter turnout endorses NCET, 15 members elected

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 November 2009, 05:27 GMT]
The Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET) attracted enough number of participants in the poll that took place Sunday in 16 centres of the different regions of Norway, in which 2767 voters turned out to elect 5 members under a national list and 10 under regional lists. Noticeable of the results was Mr. Bjønar Moxnes topping the national list polling 1864 votes. Mr. Vijayshankar from Tamil Nadu is elected to the Council topping the list of Western Region. Considering the electoral history of Eezham Tamils, who have hitherto been imposed with constitutions and were voting in elections conducted by others, this is their first ever country-wide elections, conducted by them on their own, to form a political body of their own, based on their own constitution. The eight-member Election Commission performed the task with professional perfection, observers said.
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Encroachment of government lands in Batticaloa Tamil areas

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2009, 16:46 GMT]
Ma’nmunai Southwest Divisional Secretariat has informed the Deputy Secretary to President Rajapakse confirming the illegal colonization of government lands in Batticaloa district in Eastern Province where Tamil people live predominantly. Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Ariyanenthiran had already brought the issue of illegal colonization to the President and his Deputy Secretary had called for reports from the three Government Agents (GAs) in Eastern Province.
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Vavuniyaa court remands TNA parliamentarian Kanagaretnam till 4 December

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 November 2009, 05:20 GMT]
Mr. Sathasivam Kanagaretnam, Mullaiththeevu district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian was produced in Vavuniyaa Magistrate’s court Friday morning for the first time after six months detention in the headquarters of the Terrorist Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka Police. He was taken into custody from Oamanthai camp in May this year while he was staying with his family. He fled from Mullaiththeevu when Sri Lanka Army launched its final battle against the LTTE and sought refuge in Oamanthai.
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Sri Lanka schemes ‘legal reform’ to negate identity and grab land

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 November 2009, 02:34 GMT]
News reports from Colombo indicate Sri Lanka government is planning to revise the Theasa Vazhamai law of Tamils, which is a constituent legal code, ever since the formulation of the island’s current legal system by the Dutch. The urgency of the Sri Lanka state at this juncture is not social reformation but grabbing the lands of Tamils without legal hurdles, besides removing last vestiges of Tamil sovereignty in the state apparatus, Tamil legal circles said.
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TID interrogates Selvam Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 November 2009, 16:38 GMT]
Selvam Adaikalanathan, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, for the third day - Saturday - was summoned to the Headquarters of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka Police. But he was sent back home around 9:00 a.m. with the instruction that he should come to TID office when called for, sources in Colombo said.
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State of Emergency extended for another month

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 November 2009, 16:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Parliament extended the State of Emergency for another month Friday after it was passed with a majority of 78 votes as 95 voted in favour of it while 17 voting against. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Muslim Congress (SLMC) voted against the motion. Main opposition United National Party (UNP) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) abstained from voting.
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TID interrogates TNA parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 November 2009, 13:38 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan has been subjected to interrogation by the Terrorist Intelligence Division of the Sri Lanka Police from Thursday morning. He has not returned to his residence located in Madiwela complex till Thursday afternoon, sources in Colombo said.
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Shivajilingam, Adaikalanathan arrive at Katunayake airport

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 November 2009, 12:52 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarians Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan and Mr. M. K. Sivajilingam arrived at Katunayake Bandaranayke International Airport Wednesday afternoon after several months stay abroad.
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TNA members boycott initial ceremonies of first JMC session

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 October 2009, 17:48 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) who kept away from the initial ceremonies which preceded the inauguration of the first session of JMC Wednesday said that the vain ceremonies held by the ruling United People’s Front Alliance (UPFA) and allied political parties as propaganda is deplorable while the Vanni IDPs are suffering in the internment camps. “We will not allow exploitation of JMC and its activities for propaganda purposes of political parties, the leader of TNA opposition in JMC, Mudiyappu Remedias said.
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60 transferred IDPs arrested from transit centres in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 October 2009, 16:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Intelligence personnel have been 'screening' the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who were being transferred in recent days from Vavuniyaa internment camps to transit centres in Trincomalee and have arrested 60 IDPs for interrogation and 'rehabilitation'.
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Stop settling Sinhalese in Tamil, Muslim owned land - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 17:21 GMT]
Rajavarothaiam Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), speaking on an adjournment submitted by him in Sri Lanka's parliament Friday, said that "encroachment of lands belonging to Tamils and Muslims and State has been on going in the eastern province on large scale with the support of government, and amid intimidation of minority communities by government security forces, and this should be stopped immediately," parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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SLA conducts Perahera in Jaffna city

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 October 2009, 07:03 GMT]
The 51st Division of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna conducted the ‘Katrima Pooja’ perahera (Buddhist religious procession) of Naakavikaarai located in Jaffna city Thursday night led by Namal Rajapakse, the son of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had come along with 250 youths and 20 Buddhist priests from the South to participate in the perahera. Local residents, however, did not show any significant interest in the perahera conducted by the SLA.
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SLA denies permission to Thirumavalavan to meet public in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2009, 07:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna turned down the request of Thol. Thirumavalavan, Tamil Nadu Parliamentarian and leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Kadchi (VCK) Party, to meet the public in Jaffna when the delegation of Tamil Nadu MPs was taken to Jaffna Public Library for a meeting Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna University Students expressed their strong protest against India for having let down the Eezham Tamils and for deceiving them continually, when the MPs met students in Jaffna University Sunday, the sources added.
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Tamils get international recognition in sciences

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 October 2009, 23:23 GMT]
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, born in Chithamparam, Tamil Nadu is named for Nobel Prize 2009 in Chemistry, Wednesday, for contributing to the knowledge of structure and functions of ribosome, leading to development of direct and more effective antibiotics in medicine. In June, Jaffna-born Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, an old student of Mahajana College, Thellippazhai, was conferred knighthood for his contributions in the field of medicine in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. While such achievements inspire younger generation of diaspora Tamils in making global contributions to humanity, it is also time for the diaspora to forge its own global organization to help itself as well as to remind a dodging IC of its responsibilities to the plight of Tamils. Sir Arulkumaran’s Alma Mater, celebrating its centenary next year, is in the military occupied HSZ for years now, being deprived of its population.
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Ad hominem attack on Clinton draws US's ire

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 October 2009, 15:34 GMT]
Following Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka's statement during a live radio interview Wednesday that "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seems to have forgotten the Monica [Lewinsky] episode and should focus on her own backyard instead of making allegations of women being abused in other countries," Sri Lanka’s Ambassador Jaliya Wickremasuriya, was "summoned to the Department of State to be told of the US Government’s displeasure," Sri Lanka's weekly broadsheet, Sunday Times, reported.
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