IOM winds up activities in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 11:09 GMT]
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) closed its district office in Trincomalee town with effect from July 31. IOM sources said it has been closed its office in Trincomalee due to lack of funds and that IOM has laid off ten of its employees. However five employees have been transferred to Vavuniyaa (01) and Jaffna (03) in the Northern Province and Ampaarai (01) in the eastern province, IOM sources said.
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101 complaints of abductions made to SL police in 7 months

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 08:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka police have received 101 complaints of abductions since January to the end of July in various parts of Sri Lanka and 93 of them are related to ransom demands, SL police spokesman Preshantha Jayakody told media in Colombo.
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Fate of teenage students disappeared during war on Vanni remains unknown

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 05:20 GMT]
At least a thousand of the persons disappeared during Sri Lanka government’s war on Vanni are students below the age of eighteen and their families, mostly mothers, have begun a desperate search for their children gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at the end of the war, Education Department sources in Ki’linochchi said. Sri Lanka government has failed to disclose the particulars of the teenage students who had either surrendered or been arrested while humanitarian organizations responsible for tracing persons disappeared have no information on them, the sources added.
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SLA appropriates uprooted civilians’ villages in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 04:43 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni has declared the villages of Mayilvaakanapuram and Kumarasaamipuram in Ki’linochchi district not allowed for resettlement as they had been reserved for SLA use, sources in Ki’linochchi said. 140 uprooted families of the two villages brought to be resettled two months back after detention in Vavuniyaa SLA camp by Sri Lankan civil authorities have not been allowed to resettle in their properties.
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Searches in Colombo instill fears among Colombo resident Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 02:18 GMT]
The re-commencement of registration of Tamils with the police and targetted search operations have created a renewed sense of insecurity and injustice amongst the larger Tamil population that is detrimental to national reconciliation, said Democratic People's Front Leader Mano Ganesan, according to Colombo media. Ganesan has requested Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa to intervene to halt the police registration of Tamils in the Wellawatte Police division in Colombo saying that the searches are discriminatory and against the spirit of reconciliation.
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Mano Ganesan condemns Siyatha attack, urges IGP to investigate

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 01:52 GMT]
Leader of Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) and Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission, Mano Ganesan, has unequivocally condemned the arson attack on the Siyatha Media Network studio in Colombo on Friday morning. In a statement released Friday, Ganesan, while condemning the attack in the strongest of terms, noted that the incident had taken place in the very heart of the city location in close proximity to the major political and military installations of Sri Lanka.
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Intestines of nurse killed in Veala’nai exhumed, sent to Colombo JMO

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 July 2010, 14:57 GMT]
The intestines of the family consultant nurse Saravanai Tharsika alleged killed by Sinhala doctor Priyantha Senivaratne in Veala’nai hospital, removed after post mortem examination in Jaffna Teaching Hospital and buried in Koddadi cemetery before her body was handed over to her family, were exhumed Friday in the presence of Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate and Jaffna Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) and sent to Colombo JMO on request, sources in Jaffna said.
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Armed men set fire to TV station in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 July 2010, 07:50 GMT]
Twelve armed men clad in black uniforms forcefully entered the private TV channel Siyatha TV office and assaulted the security guard and set fire to the station and caused severe damage to the equipment on Friday at 1.30 am. The station belongs to former Chairman of the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Mr. Priyantha Kariyapperuma. Mr. Kariyapermuma was earlier a close associate of Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa, but he was sacked from his post week before the presidential election by the SL President.
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Trial in ‘white flag’ case against Fonseka to begin on September 27

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 July 2010, 06:47 GMT]
Editor of the Sunday Leader, Frederica Janz, is one of the twenty witnesses summoned to give evidence before the Sri Lankan High Court Trial-At-Bar which is to begin on September 27 into the ‘white flag’ case against former commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka. Major General Shavendra Silva and Sri Lanka’s Representative to the UN in Geneva Kshenuka Seneviratne are among the other witnesses noticed to appear in court on September 27.
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Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka rules against TRC injunction on Shakthi TV

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 July 2010, 04:11 GMT]
The Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka ruled against the Tele Communication Commission injunction on ‘Shakthi Television’, the Tamil channel of MTV (Pvt) of Maharajah Organization, to continue telecast in Jaffna peninsula from 1 January 2010, in favour of a petition filed by Shakthi, sources in Jaffna said. MTV (Pvt) is a leading concern that had been attacked many times in Colombo by supporters of Sri Lanka government and Shakthi TV journalist Shakthi Theva had been beaten to death in Jaffna by unidentified persons. Its telecast tower in Jaffna Veerasingam Hall had been smashed by unknown persons in the past, the sources added.
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Malwatte Chapter Chief Incumbent visits newly erected Buddhist temples in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2010, 17:34 GMT]
The Chief Incumbent of Malwatte Chapter, Most Venerable Thippaduwaave Sri Sumangala thera, accompanied by Buddhist priests visited Vanni Wednesday where he worshiped in the Buddhist temples newly erected by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Vanni said. Thursday, the Chief Incumbent participated in an event in Nelliyadi Maththiya Makaa Viththiyaalayam in Vadamaraadchi and distributed learning materials to the children of war affected areas of Vadamaraadchi and Thenmaraadchi. This visit is counted as the first by a Chief Incumbent of Malwatte Chapter to Jaffna after many years, sources in Jaffna said.
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Tamil hunger striker wins libel claim against Daily Mail, Sun

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2010, 09:36 GMT]
British newspapers Sun and Daily Mail, represented by their Counsel at the Royal Court of Justice in London on Thursday, apologised sincerely and unreservedly for untrue and highly defamatory allegations against Parameswaran Subramanyam, who was on a 23-day hunger strike April, last year, demanding international community to stop Colombo’s war on Tamils. The newspapers also agreed to pay substantial damages and legal costs, according to Carter-Ruck solicitors. “The false allegations about Parameswaran were not just hurtful but clearly aimed at undermining Parameswaran’s credibility and the credibility of the whole Tamil protest,” commented Liberal Democrats' Deputy Parliamentary Leader Simon Hughes. According to Labour MP, Siobhain McDonagh, the ‘authorities’ who gave the information to the newspapers, “did it to undermine and shame the Tamil demonstrators in Parliament Square”.
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Southern contractors benefit from international funds for development in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2010, 03:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka government gives preference mostly to Southern contractors and workers allowing them to benefit from international assistance provided to develop the infrastructure of Jaffna district and to take South the profits made while denying opportunities to local people, C. V. K. Sivagnanam, former president of Jaffna district NGOs Federation and Joint Secretary of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) told TamilNet. Local entrepreneurs in foreign countries should immediately appoint their representatives in Jaffna and actively participate in the development projects so that the profit in the ventures could be invested again in the north creating job and trade opportunities for the local people, Sivagnanam said.
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Indian Bank to open branch in Jaffna to channel Delhi’s rehabilitation aid

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2010, 01:14 GMT]
The Chennai-based, state-run Indian Bank is planning to open a branch in Jaffna, and to facilitate an Indian government loan to Sri Lanka of US$ 200 million for the rehabilitation of internally displaced Tamils, media reports said. "Talks [with Sri Lanka] are in an advanced stage at the moment," chairman and managing director Mr. TM Bhasin told The Times of India earlier this week. Indian Bank has at present over 1,700 branches, the majority in Tamil Nadu (757) and Andhra Pradesh (230).
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3 die of dengue fever in Mannaar in July

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 19:20 GMT]
Three of twenty-nine dengue patients admitted in Mannaar general hospital have died in July. Meanwhile, the Department of Health in Mannaar has launched a campaign against the spread of dengue.
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Body of nurse killed in Veala’nai exhumed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 19:07 GMT]
The body of the family consultant nurse Saravanai Tharsika allegedly killed by Sinhala doctor Priyantha Seniviratne in Veala’nai government hospital in the islets of Jaffna 10 July and buried in Kaithadi Hindu crematorium grounds was exhumed Wednesday in the presence of Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate under the direction of Judicial Medical Officer, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA interrogates resettled people in K’linochchi following JVP delegation’s visit

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 15:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers interrogated the residents of Kavuthaarimunai in Poonakari in Ki’linochchi Friday immediately after a delegation of Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had visited them, Socialist Youth Association (SYA), a front organization of the JVP, claimed in a media statement. The delegation met the resettled people to learn first hand about the true conditions under which they were living.
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SLN constructs new coastal bases in Eastern Province despite protests

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 14:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) is engaged in constructing many new bases along the coast in the districts of Ampaa’rai and Batticaloa in Eastern Province disregarding strong protests of local Tamil and Muslim people, sources in Batticaloa. Oluvil Mosque president Abubucker Lebbai Ismail expressed concern that new SLN bases in heavily populated places where there were none even during the war will cause inconvenience to fishermen of the area besides creating conflicts between SLN and the residents. The big SLN base under construction near South Eastern University in Oluvil will pose economical and cultural problems for the people in Oluvil in Ampaa’rai district, the president said.
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Sinhala magistrate to be appointed to Mullaiththeevu, in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 17:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Justice Ministry has decided to appoint Jayawardne, a Sinhala magistrate to Mullaiththeevu magistrate court in Vanni which had begun to function after a period of nearly 20 years, sources in Mullaiththeevu said.
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Chaavakachcheari magistrate express discontent over for police noncooperation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 17:35 GMT]
Chaavakachcheari magistrate A. M. Mohamed Riyal expressed strong discontent over police noncooperation Monday when Jaffna police authorities failed to submit the statement of the suspect, Allexander Soosaimuthu alias Charles, Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) Thenmaraadchi organizer and its candidate in the last general election, in the killing of student Kapilnath in Chaavakachcheari, sources in Jaffna said. Former Chaavakachcheari magistrate K. Pirapakaran who inquired into the case initially was issued with death threats allegedly by EPDP men and then transferred to Akkaraipattu in Eastern Province. Present magistrate Abdul Majid Mohamed too is to be shortly transferred from Chaavakachcheari magistrate court to East and it appears that Sri Lanka police top officials are attempting to upset legal proceedings, legal circles in Jaffna said.
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Resettled couple in Vanni attempt suicide, husband dies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 16:39 GMT]
A young couple, recently resettled in Ki’linochchi district in Vanni, attempted to kill themselves Sunday. The neighbours rushed them to Ki’linochchi government hospital where the husband died and the wife, transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, is admitted in the Intensive Care Unit. The couple had lost all four of their children during the war in Puthumaaththa’lan, killed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling on civilians, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Frustration over their children’s death and the loss of all their belongings had driven the couple to attempt suicide, the neighbours said.
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SLA conducts search operation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 16:04 GMT]
Atleast six hundred soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) conducted a house to house search in Onththachchimadam in Batticaloa district from Sunday morning for several hours. Tension prevailed among residents of the village when the soldiers surrounded the village without allowing any one to leave their houses, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Shut down in Vavuniyaa against police inaction

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 15:52 GMT]
Vavuniyaa Traders' Association Tuesday staged a general shut down protesting against inaction by Vavuniyaa Police to launch an inquiry into the alleged abduction of a wealthy Tamil businessman from the area few days ago. He was later released after paying the demanded ransom of six hundred thousand rupees to an unidentified gang, sources said.
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SL government suspends WPF relief measures to resettled people in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 06:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has suspended the dry food relief supplied under World Food Programme to the recently resettled people in the outskirts of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Vazhalaay near Achchuveali, according to Divisional Secretariat officials who had suspended the supply of dry food rations on instructions from Sri Lanka government authorities.
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NPC cuts funds to Vanni local bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 05:44 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) is alleged of cutting funds allocated to the local government bodies in Vanni in great measures while these institutions are not in a position to collect revenue from people who had been uprooted and just resettled in Vanni, sources in Vanni said. It is further accused that NPC officials spend the above funds on needless projects to satisfy the whims of Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Sri Lanka government.The Governor is expected to hold a meeting Monday with the officials of the local government bodies in the North.
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Tamil prisoners attacked in Colombo remand prison

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2010, 16:20 GMT]
United National Party (UNP) Jaffna district parliamentarian Ms. Vijyakala Maheswaran Monday requested Sri Lanka government to launch an inquiry into the attack on Tamil prisoners in Colombo remand prison on Saturday. The Tamil prisoners were attacked when they complained to the prison authorities that they were being detained in overcrowded cells in the prison, sources in Colombo said.
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2 university students die in motor accident in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2010, 09:58 GMT]
Two undergrads, one of Jaffna University and the other of Peredeniya University riding on a motorcycle collided with another vehicle Sunday night in Jaffna at Kantharmadam and died on the spot, sources in Jaffna said. The victims riding without helmets had speeded up to escape traffic police chasing them and had collided with an oncoming vehicle, the sources added.
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Plans to move NPC from Trincomalee to Ki’linochchi postponed

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2010, 06:48 GMT]
Plans to move Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and its offices now functioning in Trincomalee to Ki’linochchi by Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Sri Lanka government have been indefinitely postponed due to opposed opinion of the NPC officials who maintain that Ki’linochchi has not returned to normalcy and there are no basic facilities for the officials and employees to reside and work, sources in Trincomalee said. Chandrasiri is very keen on making use of the buildings earlier used by Liberation Tigers in Ki’linochchi as NPC departmental offices and former Ki’linochchi Government Agent and present personal advisor to Governor, Rasanayagam, is aiding him in identifying such buildings, Ki’linochchi sources said.
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SLA reintroduces checking of vehicles in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2010, 06:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has reintroduced checking of all vehicles passing through the main road in Batticaloa to Vaazhaichcheanai, Kalmunai and Verukal areas. This checking of civilians causes untold hardships during emergency travelling, residents express concern. Despite these checking by police and SLA, paramilitary gangs continue to rob and involve in other crimes, they added.
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SLA impedes INGOs work in Eastern Province

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2010, 05:50 GMT]
International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGO) sources say that their work is being hampered due to the interference by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). INGOs have been instructed by the SLA not to use stickers. INGOs use these stickers to identify their institutions to the SLA and other armed groups, sources in Batticaloa said.
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British Tamils seek boycott of defiant Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2010, 12:21 GMT]
British Prime Minister David Cameron will Monday be handed a memorandum on behalf of UK’s Tamil community urging his government to support an international probe into war crimes in Sri Lanka, and to pressure the Colombo government to resettle in their homes tens of thousands of Tamils still languishing in refugee camps, and allow international access to thousands held in its prisoner-of-war camps. The UK is also being urged to boycott Sri Lanka till Colombo complies with international law. The handover follows a march and ‘midnight vigil’ outside 10 Downing Street staged Friday night by thousands of supporters of the campaign who marked the anniversary of the 1983 ‘Black July’ anti-Tamil pogrom.
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PTF imposes restrictions on local NGOs in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2010, 06:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka government which allows only a few Non-government Organizations (NGO) to serve in Vanni, now imposes restrictions on NGOs serving in Jaffna too through its Presidential Task Force (PTF), headed by Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan Minister and brother of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, NGO circles in Jaffna said. It is alleged that PTF favours the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the allocation of housing constructions for more than 15,000 uprooted civilians from Vanni staying in temporary dwellings in Jaffna.
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STF appropriates Tamil land to erect Buddhist temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 17:10 GMT]
The Special Task Force (STF) in Batticaloa district, after asking the Kannaipuram Tamil villagers in Vellave'li DS division to vacate their lands to construct a Murugan Temple, has reportedly started unloading bricks, cements and sand for the construction of a Buddhist vihare.
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SLA personnel to be settled in uprooted civilians’ land in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 06:28 GMT]
Five thousand houses constructed in Mu’ruka’ndi area in Ki’linochchi district including Skanthapuram along A9 road are to be settled in August with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) senior and junior officials and their families permanently while the uprooted civilians brought to be resettled in Skanthapuram are left in a school building by Sri Lanka government officials, sources in Ki’linochchi said.
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Male corpse washed ashore in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 06:03 GMT]
Fishermen in Nedunththeevu (Delft) in the islets of Jaffna going fishing Friday morning found a naked male body washed ashore and informed Nedunththeevu police. The body covered with injuries is suspected to be one of the Tamil Nadu fishermen killed by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on Indian seas some days ago, police sources said. Some corpses had also been washed ashore in Mannaar area few days ago.
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Jaffna HRC to investigate cases of persons disappeared at the end of war on Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 17:46 GMT]
An official of Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office said that the first stage of preliminary investigation to find out the fate of persons who had disappeared after leaving Liberation Tigers controlled area in Vanni at the end of the war, is in the offing. Representatives of Associations related to finding persons disappeared after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) or surrender, however, said that they believe that the above announcement will also end up with no results just as their earlier complaints to HRC, ICRC and UNHCR on disappeared persons remain stored in files without any action taken on them so far.
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NGOs consider withdrawing from Vanni as Sri Lanka tightens restrictions

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Some International and Local Non-government organizations (NGOs) serving in Vanni consider leaving Vanni as Sri Lanka government’s restrictions to stay and serve in Vanni are tightened. Permission from President’s Task Force (PTF), headed by SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother and Sri Lanka Minister, Basil Rajapaksa for NGOs has been a prerequisite to assist the war affected people in Vanni. In addition to this now Sri Lanka government requires the NGOs serving in Vanni to obtain permission from Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence (MoD) and renew same monthly if they wish to be in Vanni and serve its people, a representative of a local NGO in Vanni said.
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Tamil journalist attacked in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 11:56 GMT]
Unidentified persons who arrived in a white van pulled out a Tamil journalist from a passenger vehicle travelling along Mannaar-Thalaimannaar road Thursday night around 8.30 and attacked him, according to a complaint lodged with the Mannaar Police.
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Reconciliation pre-requisite to development, World Bank VP tells Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 11:42 GMT]
World Bank Vice President for South Asia Isabel Guerrero who ended a three-day visit to Sri Lanka pledging support to Sri Lanka's transition to a middle income country at peace, has emphasized that reconciliation is a pre-requisite for development in Sri Lanka. During her visit to Sri Lanka, Guerrero called on Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and key officials of the Sri Lanka Government.
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Boyle urges divestment-disinvestment campaign against "apartheid" Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 00:07 GMT]
Speaking at the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA) convention during the US Independence day weekend, Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law, said that Sri Lanka is a violator of the Apartheid Convention, and that Tamils across the world should, without delay, intensify a divestment and disinvestment campaign against Sri Lanka "in the same lines and for the same reason the world did this against the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa." The July event held in Waterbury, Connecticut, is traditionally the largest event of the Tamil speaking people in the US every year, and the Connecticut event this year drew more than 2000 Tamils.
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SLA soldiers continue to plunder abandoned houses in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 17:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers continue to plunder the valuable properties abandoned by the uprooted residents of the coastal area from Naakarkoayil to Chu’ndikku’lam in Vadmaraadchi East, a team of officials which had visited the area recently said. Only Naakarkoayil and its surroundings had been affected by war while the people and their properties in the rest of the vast area had not been greatly affected as the war did not take place in their area. These people, uprooted when SLA began to invade Naakarkoayil and Mukamaalai during the offensive on Vanni, had fled leaving all their belongings. It is this area that is now being plundered by SLA soldiers and Southern traders allowed into the area by SLA authorities, the officials further said.
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Uprooted civilians in Kodikaamam starve due to reduced food ration

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 15:41 GMT]
2,307 uprooted civilians of 715 families staying in Raamaavil camp in Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi complain of starvation as they are given only rice, that too of a very poor quality, as dry food relief ration. They are forced to sell the poor quality rice as cattle fodder and buy rice for consumption, they further said. The relief dry food ration given under World Food Programme had been suddenly suspended and former Jaffna Government Agent K. Ganesh had announced that the supply of dry food relief ration would be soon resumed, following media reports exposing the sudden suspension, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA soldier taking drugs to Kilinochchi arrested

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 11:14 GMT]
Amid several allegations that members of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and other state security forces have been engaged in smuggling ganja, a locally made drug, opium and other prohibited narcotics items to the Northern Province for sale, the Sri Lanka Police Wednesday arrested a soldier of the SLA at Anuradhapura while seated in a bus that destined for Kilinochchi with about one hundred packets of powdered ganja, sources said.
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IFJ condemns death threats to journalist's family in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 06:19 GMT]
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a media release Wednesday said that it is alarmed by threats made against the safety of the family of senior Sri Lankan journalist Gamini Pushpakumara. "We call upon the Sri Lankan police and security agencies to take immediate measures to investigate the source of the threats and to extend all necessary protection to Pushpakumara's family," IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said. "Unfortunately, recent actions by the Sri Lankan authorities indicate that they remain disinclined to take action against the use of coercion and threats of violence that attempt to silence journalists who courageously speak the truth to power," the report said.
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TNA seeks TN Chief Minister's help, writes Sinhala daily

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 00:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has appealed for assistance from the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to help influence the Sri Lankan government to speed up the resettlement of the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and to develop the war ravaged north and east provinces, Sinhala daily Lakbima reported Thursday. According to Lakbima, the TNA is currently holding meetings with Indian leaders, in an effort to obtain the Indian government’s assistance to pressure the Sri lankan government into speeding up the resettlement of the IDPs.
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SLA soldiers sexually abuse resettled women in Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 22:38 GMT]
Young women recently released from Vavuniyaa internment camps and resettled in Mannar district are living in fear of their life, and are living are being sexually abused by members of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying the Mannar area, sources in Mannar said.. Parents of the women undergoing harassment are unable to make official complaints because of fear of retribution, and are relocating, in increasing numbers, their daughters to relatives' houses located elsewhere for safety, civil sources from resettled areas say.
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Construction of fishing centre for Southern fishermen in Mannaar suspended due to protest

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 18:49 GMT]
The construction of a fishing jetty and a cooler facility for Sinhalese fishermen from South that was begun in Naachchikkudaa coast in Mannaar district with the support Sri Lanka government top officials was suspended as the local fishermen organizations had raised their strong protest, sources in Mannaar said. The above constructions were begun in the Nachchikkudaa coast where uprooted civilians were allowed to resettle.
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Armed men rob fuel station flanked by police, SLA, EPDP office in Point Pedro

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 18:23 GMT]
Armed men entered Monday night the fuel station in Nelliyadi in Vadamaraadchi, located in front of Nelliayadi Sri Lanka police station, near Sri Lanka Army (SLA) civil administration office and the office of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), a constituent of the ruling UPFA government, and robbed cash around half a million rupees breaking open the iron safe of the fuel station in Kaddaiveali Muti-purpose Cooperative Society building, sources in Point Pedro.
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SLA forces resettled civilians in Ki’linochchi to vacate dwellings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 06:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Ki’linochchi are forcing the resettled civilians in Selvaanakar Eight Houses Scheme to vacate their houses claiming that their houses are built on private land, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni parliamentarian Sritharan said. He added that SLA soldiers entering the Scheme during nights in the last few days have been attacking the men, women and children in the housing scheme indiscriminately. The above families, whose heads are disabled, are so scared and frustrated that they consider suicide to escape SLA intimidation and harassment, Sritharan said.
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Tamil Country Councils, TAG announce legal partnership

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 01:02 GMT]
Four democratically-elected Country Councils (CCs) of Eezham Tamils in Europe announced Tuesday the signing of a formal "Collaboration Agreement" with Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, to form a co-operative relationship to pursue criminal and civil litigation against Sri Lanka officials complicit in war-crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in the courts of European Community member countries and in international courts. "Norway, Switzerland, France and Italy have already signed the preliminary agreement. The National Council of Canadian Tamils has also decided to formally join the partnership and other countries are expected to join the collaboration effort," spokesperson coordinating the effort in Europe told TamilNet.
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Polls chief wants Supreme Court to scrap Fonseka’s petition

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 23:36 GMT]
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has made an appeal to the Supreme Court to immediately dismiss the petition submitted by Sri Lanka's defeated opposition Presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka who has challenged the presidency of incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa, State owned Dinamina newspaper said in a report Wednesday. Fonseka is currently under military custody.
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Buhne, Blake arrive in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 18:04 GMT]
Neil Buhne, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sri Lanka arrived early Tuesday morning. Later in evening he met External Affairs Minister G.L Peiris, according to External Affairs ministry sources. Robert O. Blake, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, also arrived in Sri Lanka Tuesday evening .
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SLA to construct permanent base in demolished Koappaay Tiger Heroes’ Resting Home site

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 16:27 GMT]
Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) high command has requested Sri Lanka Electricity Board Jaffna to supply electricity to the site where Tiger Heroes’ Resting Home had stood in Koappaay before being obliterated by SLA recently as it intends to construct a big permanent base for its 512 Division, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, SLA, constructing several bases in Jaffna in haste, forces the uprooted civilians living in the area around the above site to evacuate their dwellings, the affected civilians complain.
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Court orders exhumation of the body of nurse killed in Veala’nai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 15:51 GMT]
Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate Tuesday ordered the body of the family consultant nurse Saravanai Tharsika allegedly killed by Sinhala doctor Priyantha Seniviratne in Veala’nai government hospital in the islets of Jaffna 10 July to be exhumed and sent to Colombo Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) for fresh medical examination as the victim’s mother had said that she suspects her daughter was sexually abused before being killed, in a petition filed Monday, sources in Jaffna said. Arrangements are being made to exhume the body 28 July buried in Kaithadi Hindu crematorium grounds. Tharsika’s mother had said in her petition that she does not have faith in the medical examination being conducted in Jaffna. Meanwhile, it is claimed that the suspect Sinhala doctor was attacked by Tamil inmates in Jaffna prison when he was detained in the prison 13 July, the sources added.
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Media development authority to be set up in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 05:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that Sri Lanka government has decided to set up a Media Development Authority to help media to enhance its professionalism and efficiency further. The government is to introduce media guidelines in accordance with media ethics to promote professionalism and the skills of journalists in Sri Lanka, he added.
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UN war-crimes advisory panel on Sri Lanka meets in New York

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 05:42 GMT]
The United Nations Panel on Sri Lanka met for the first time in New York Monday at the UN's North Lawn building, Inner City Press (ICP) reported. The meeting of Panel members Marzuki Darusman, a former Attorney General from Indonesia, Yasmin Sooka, Member of South Africa's Truth Commisssion, and Steven Ratner, Law professor at Michigan University, US, officially marked the start of the 4-month period UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has given the Panel to complete the first report. While the Government of Sri Lanka has announced that it will not issue visas to the Panel members to visit Sri Lanka, the UN spokesperson has indicated that visit is not a critical part of the Panel's initial mission.
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Jaffna Prison officer alleged of assaulting Sinhala doctor suspect, attacked

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 18:47 GMT]
A gang of more than eight persons arriving on motorcycles Saturday night at the residence of the Jaffna Prison officer, Nanthakumar alleged of assaulting the Sinhala doctor suspect in Jaffna prison, attacked him and damaged his household goods and furniture, according to a complaint made to Maanippaay police by Nanthakumar. Many persons including high Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers and powerful political persons have been intimidating him and the attack Saturday night followed the intimidations, Nanthakumar said in his complaint.
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Death threats to family of nurse killed in Veala’nai government hospital

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 16:16 GMT]
The mother of Sravanai Tharsika, the family consultant nurse allegedly killed by a Sinhala doctor in the islets of Jaffna, complained in Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate court Monday that unidentified persons on motor cycles had come to her house several times and threatened her and her family with death if they pursue in any way with the case of Tharsika’s killing, sources in Oorkaavattu’rai said. Tharsika’s mother also filed a petition through a lawyer Monday to Oorkaavttu’rai court seeking exhumation and fresh medical examination of her daughter’s remains as she believes Tharsika was sexually abused before being killed. She had added in the petition that she does not believe the medical examination report of Tharsika’s body submitted and requested the fresh medical examination report to be submitted in the court, the sources added.
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SLA soldier recovered dead in Pazhai

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 15:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from Pazhai in Thenmaraadchi handed over the body of a young soldier to Jaffna Teaching Hospital Monday claiming that he was killed in an accident, hospital sources said. Chaavakachcheari magistrate held the inquest into the death in Pazhai and ordered the victim’s body to be sent to his home in Colombo. He further instructed the police to arrange for medical examination of the remains by Colombo Judicial Medical Officer and submit his report to Chaavakachcheari court.
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SL minister includes spouses of Balakumaran, Yogi, among widows

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 13:04 GMT]
According to Rajapaksa regime’s Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms minister and Communist Party leader, Dew Gunasekera, the wives of the senior members of the LTTE, K.V. Balakumaran and Yogaratnam Yogi are among the widows needing rehabilitation, The Island reported Monday. Both the LTTE leaders were reportedly seen reaching internment camps run by the Sri Lankan military, by many who went into those camps. The international community was repeatedly telling the LTTE to surrender to Colombo and civilians to get into barbed-wire camps of the Sri Lankan Army. The Army killed Balakumaran on the Vanni east front early last year, The Island says. There were earlier media reports that the leaders were taken to Colombo.
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Buhne heads to Colombo with Ban’s ‘special message’

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 11:39 GMT]
The United Nation’s Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Neil Buhne, who was recalled by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon early this month, is heading back to Colombo, with a ‘special message’ from Ban to be delivered to the Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa led Government, the government owned Dinamina newspaper said in its front page.
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NPC calls on SL government to ensure no discrimination targeting Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 08:59 GMT]
National Peace Council (NPC) in its media release 16 July titled ‘Discriminatory Practices are Detrimental to Reconciliation’ called on Sri Lanka government to ensure that there is no discriminatory targeting Tamils. “The re-commencement of the practices of registering Tamils with the police and of conducting search operations that target them have been widely reported in the Tamil media in particular and have created a renewed sense of insecurity and injustice amongst the larger Tamil population that is detrimental to national reconciliation,” NPC said.
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SLA refuses permission of reopen fishing jetties in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 06:19 GMT]
The fisheries societies in Vadamaraadchi protest against Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Jaffna peninsula for refusing to reopen and deepen the fishing jetties in Vadamaraadchi North and East, which had been closed by SLA during war. 11,200 families living in nearly fifteen villages in Vadamaraadchi North and East depend entirely on fishing and are affected by the closure of the fishing jetties in their areas, sources in Vadamaraadchi said.
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SLA soldiers plunder produce of civilians in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers intimidate the resettled civilians in Paduvaankarai area in Batticaloa district and take away their home produce without paying money, according to complaints made by the affected civilians to Sri Lanka government authorities. Despite complaints to government officials the SLA soldiers continue to rob the poor civilians of what they had managed to produce as no action has been taken on them, sources in Batticaloa said.
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China sends convicts to work in Sri Lanka, Maldives

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 12:56 GMT]
Thousands of Chinese convicts have been pressed into service in projects by state-run Chinese companies in Sri Lanka, a strategically important country for China, which is seeking a role in the Indian Ocean. Chinese convicts also have been taken to a microstate in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives, where the Chinese government is building 4,000 houses on several different islands as a government-to- government "gift" to win influence there, writes Indian Professor of Strategic Studies Brahma Chellaney in The Japan Times, 5th July. A couple of months back a Chinese technician working in the construction of Nuraichchoalai thermal power plant undertaken by China in Puththa’lam district was arrested for alleged rape of a minor girl, Sri Lankan media reported.
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Bank robbery complainants abducted, assaulted in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 11:19 GMT]
Two men abducted and assaulted two employees of the National Savings Bank in Ka'luvaagnchik-kudi in Batticaloa district Thursday evening who had complained to police of the robbery of three million rupees Thursday morning by armed men who had grabbed the bag from the person who had just withdrawn the cash, sources in Batticaloa said. Ka’luvaangchik-kudi police had instructed the two complainants to report at the police station Thursday evening and the two men who had abducted and assaulted the bank employees were near the police station in civil clothes when the complainants went to the police station, according to complaints made to Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, K. Selvarajah.
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Families to be resettled suffer without assistance in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 10:42 GMT]
Many of the uprooted families to be resettled in Periyapa’ndivirichchaan in Mannaar district brought and lodged in Periyapa’ndivirichchaan Mahaa Viththiyaalayam have not been supplied with any materials to clear their lands in which they are expected to resettle, sources in Mannaar said. Meanwhile, Periyapa’ndivirichchaan Mahaa Viththiyaalayam where the families are staying is to start functioning again Monday, the sources added.
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US landing-ship visits Trincomalee for 'community work'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 09:13 GMT]
Sailors and marines from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbour, visiting Trincomalee last week were engaged in repairing broken bathroom sinks and toilets at the base hospital in Moothoor, said the official website of the United States Navy Thursday. Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan media reported Sunday that Sri Lanka shared her experience in fighting Sea Tigers with the US Navy during the three-day visit of the US Pearl Harbour. While some Sailors and Marines are planning to help with military-to-military training on board Pearl Harbor, others are planning on volunteering for medical assistance events ashore, The Sunday Island said.
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Pathmini Sithamparanathan injured in road accident

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 15:50 GMT]
Ms. Pathmini Sithamparanathan, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian of Jaffna district and her husband Sithamparanathan, lecturer at Jaffna University and two others were injured Saturday around 2:30 p.m when the van in which they were returning from Colombo to Jaffna collided with another vehicle on A9 road in Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi. The injured are admitted in the Intensive Care Unit in Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
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Young woman shot, killed in Kodikaamam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 15:46 GMT]
Unidentified armed men on motorcycle opened fire Saturday around 7:30 a.m on a young woman riding bicycle and killed her, near Kodikaamam Tiger’s Heroes’ Resting Home in Thenmaraadchi, sources in Chaavakachcheari said.
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SLA installs Buddha statute in Tamil village in Mannaar district

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 15:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers have installed a Buddha statute in Pa’ndivirichchaan, a traditional Tamil village two km from Madu St. Mary’s Church in Madu Assistant Government Agent division in Mannaar district. Residents uprooted during SLA offensive two year back have been recently resettled in Pa’ndivirichchaan.
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Upcountry woman found dead in a flat in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 14:59 GMT]
A forty-year-old house maid employed in a flat in New Chetty Street in Kotahena area in Colombo city was found dead. The owner of the flat and her employer had told Kotahena Police that she had committed suicide by hanging. However, the police arrested her employer and detained the for further inquiry as they suspect foul play, police sources said.
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Protesters storm Kotelawala residence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 00:15 GMT]
Chairman of Ceylinco Consolidated, Lalith Kotelawala, was confined to house yesterday for more than 12 hours after a group of angry Golden Key depositors surrounded his Bambalapitiya residence demanding him to immediately pay the depositors the lost deposits allegedly swindled in a massive scandal. More than 20 angry depositors stormed into Kotelawala’s residence premises and surrounded him, barring him from going out of his home.
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Rajapaksa to invite TNA for constitutional talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 00:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa led government has decided to extend an invitation to both the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for discussions with regard to proposed constitutional reforms. The invitation follows a reported successful round of talks with the country’s main opposition, the United National Party (UNP).
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Vallai Textile Mills inaugurated defying SLA obstruction

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2010, 16:46 GMT]
Board of Directors of Vallai ‘Ceylon Spinning & Textile Mills Ltd.’ located in Uduppiddi in Vadamaraadchhi inaugurated the re-establishment project of the above concern by unveiling its name board defying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) orders to keep out of the site on claims that it is reserved as ‘Army Land’, Vadamaraadchi sources said. SLA officials stopped Tuesday the initial efforts by Uduppiddi Welfare Society and other public organizations to renovate Vallai ‘Ceylon Spinning & Textile Mills Ltd.’ which had ceased to function for more than twenty years due to war. The event was followed by a public meeting attended by nearly a hundred persons including local residents and members of Uduppiddi Welfare Society and other public organizations of the area.
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Release of Sinhala doctor suspect on bail causes shock in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2010, 15:31 GMT]
Jaffna High Court magistrate Friday released the Sinhala doctor suspected of involvement in the killing of Saravanai Tharsika, a female Family Consultant Nurse, found dead hung by a rope in Veala’nai government hospital, sources in Jaffna said. The petition seeking the suspect’s release on bail submitted to Oorkaavattu’rai Court by police Thursday had been rejected by the acting magistrate. Veala’nai residents, relatives of the victim and fellow health department employees expressed shock on hearing the news about the release of the suspect doctor, the sources added.
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Mahinda Rajapaksa fears loosing chance of extension of term as SL president - UNP spokesman

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2010, 11:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa due to fear of loosing chance to extend his term as president has invited the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to talks when he realized that talks with the main Tamil political group Tamil National Alliance (TNA) would not yield positive results, Dayasiri Jayasekara, UNP media spokesman and parliamentarian said Thursday in a press briefing held in the UNP office in Colombo. “UNP will never betray the country and the party by holding talks with Mahinda Rajapaksa,” Dayasiri Jayasekara said.
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Statistics of dengue fever victims in Jaffna peninsula undisclosed

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2010, 06:15 GMT]
Health service related Non-government organizations in Jaffna peninsula accuse Sri Lanka government for not disclosing the true statistics of dengue victims, particularly children in the rural areas in recent times. Though monthly meetings are held to prevent the spread of dengue and to create awareness of prevention are held nothing mentionable has resulted from these meetings which have become mere formalities where government politicians take photographs for the media, they further said. The NGOs said they have the statistics of dengue fever victims which show a sharp increase in the recent times.
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Weiss: Colombo dominated by racist ideologues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 23:28 GMT]
Arguing the reasons why Sri Lanka is making "fanciful" claims that "as many as half of all Tamil boatpeople have "links" to the Tigers," Gordon Weiss, UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka during the war, says "Its [Sri Lanka's] government is dominated by racist ideologues who promote the notion of the Sinhalese as a "chosen people." Government death squads have snatched thousands of people from the streets over the years. The country's highest court has explicitly rejected the role of international human rights instruments in Sri Lanka's affairs. And the government continues to deny that it killed civilians during the recent war, that there were battlefield executions, that it bombed hospitals, or that there is anything wrong with the sham democratic machinery of the state. The repressive creature of extreme nationalism is alive and well in Sri Lanka."
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Sri Lanka cabinet's next stop, Ambilipitiya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 23:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has decided to hold the next out station Cabinet meeting in Ambilipitiya, the Lankadeepa newspaper said Friday. This follows this week’s Cabinet meeting held in Ki'linochchi, the former headquarters of the LTTE. The significance of holding cabinet meetings in cities across the country is to primarily showcase the fact that Colombo, Sri Lanka's commercial capital, is not the only place where decisions with regard to the country’s upliftment are taken, according to the paper.
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SL government intends to keep Jaffna in SLA grip

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 17:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has speeded up constructing several new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps and bases around Jaffna town. Hundreds of SLA soldiers are working day and night constructing a big base on the coastal area government land between Pa’n’nai and Kurunakar, sources in Jaffna said. A big SLA base is already under construction in Meenaadchipuram in Pa’n’nai area and another important base in Jaffna Fort. Meanwhile, though it had been announced that the private properties occupied by SLA 512 Division in Jaffna town are to be located elsewhere so far nothing in that direction has been done. Jaffna is being swiftly converted into a garrison town of SLA encircled by camps and bases, the sources added.
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Motorbike men rob 3 million cash from bank customer in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 16:26 GMT]
Two unidentified men who arrived in a motor bike robbed three million rupees cash from a person who came to deposit in a bank in Ka'luvaagnchik-kudi in Batticaloa district Thursday morning. The robbers are alleged to have grabbed the bag with the cash as the victim was about to enter the bank branch, police said.
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Plans afoot to transfer Sinhala doctor suspect out of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Intention of taking the Sinhala doctor suspected in the killing of Tharsika in Veala’nai government hospital out of Jaffna peninsula came to light when Oorkaavattu’rai police requested permission from Magistrates court to transfer the case to Anuradapura court Thursday claiming safety of the suspect, legal sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna prison authorities and Oorkaavattu’rai police Thursday submitted contradicting reports in Oorkaavattu’rai court on why the suspect was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) Wednesday night. Prison authorities’ report said that the suspect was suffering from chest pain while the police report said that the suspect had sustained physical injuries in the prison.
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4 upcountry women commit suicide in two days

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 16:15 GMT]
Four upcountry Tamil women have committed suicide Wednesday and Thursday according to reports from Bogawanthalawa. Three of them are residents of Bogawanthalawa and one from Pusselawa, police said.
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High Security Zones will not be dismantled says SL Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 15:32 GMT]
Sri Lankan Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella on Thursday said High Security Zones of the Sri Lankan military in strategic locations will remain although the war had ended and people have been claiming ownership of their land. The Sri Lankan minister said even super powers such as the USA were having High Security Zones. Colombo's decision comes while Indian assistance was provided to revive the KKS Harbour, the cement factory and Palaali airstrip, all of which are located inside High Security Zone. The Sri Lankan military is also setting up new bases along the coastal areas of North and East in recent weeks. Tamil circles, commenting on the controversial announcement by Mr. Rambukwella said Colombo was preparing the ground for large-scale Sinhalicisation of strategic Tamil areas
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Tamil Nadu Police detains Vaiko, Nedumaran, Rajendran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 15:13 GMT]
Tamil Nadu police arrested Wednesday Vaiko, the leader of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam, Pazha Nedumaran of Tamil Nationalist Movement, Viduthalai Rajendran of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam and 160 activists including 23 females as they marched in protest towards the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai demanding the closure of it. Mr. Pazha Nedumaran, in a statement issued Friday, had condemned the Indian state for lack of response as Sri Lanka Navy continues to kill Tamil Nadu fishermen while the Sri Lankan government which has been waging a genocidal onslaught on Tamils has gone to the extent of propping up a campaign against the UN office in Colombo, sources in Chennai said.
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Sri Lanka PM to visit China

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 14:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne is scheduled to leave on a six day official visit to China Friday. This is his first visit abroad after assuming duties as Prime Minister. He is expected to hold talks with Chinese government officials strengthening existing diplomatic and bilateral ties between the two countries.
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Development funds promised by Basil Rajapaksa not reached Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 11:13 GMT]
Though Sri Lanka Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, the brother and senior advisor to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa, had said several million rupees of money have been allocated for the development of Batticaloa district the funds have not reached the Batticaloa district secretariat, according to district government officials.
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Premadasa opposes UN Expert Panel

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 09:03 GMT]
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has no authority to appoint an Expert Panel to inquire into war crimes and human rights violations, said Sajith Premadasa, Hambantota district parliamentarian of the main opposition United National Party (UNP). The son of former president, aspiring to become the next leader of the UNP said the international community was exploiting the situation created by the irresponsible governance by Rajapaksa government, while addressing a media briefing held at the office of the Leader of the Opposition Wednesday.
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Drinking water shortage hits resettled families in Maanthai west

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 08:55 GMT]
Resettled uprooted Tamil families in Maanthai west DS division in Mannaar district have been experiencing acute shortage of drinking water as the Sri Lankan government has stopped non-governmental organizations earlier engaged in such humanitarian services. No NGOs or other social service organizations are involved in supplying drinking water to the resettled villagers, civil officials told media.
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SLA soldiers sexually harass Tamil women in Paduvaankarai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 08:47 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army are reported to be engaged in sexually harassing resettled Tamil women in the Batticaloa district, according to residents of several resettled villages. SLA soldiers camped in small sentry points located in Thikiliveddai in Ea'raavoor police division have been harassing the women, civil sources say.
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SLA appropriates Vallai weaving centre premises in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 06:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials stopped Tuesday the initial efforts by Uduppiddi Welfare Society (UWS) and other public organizations to renovate Vallai weaving centre which had ceased to function for more than twenty years due to war, UWS representatives said. The organizations have decided to meet Friday to explore ways of overcoming the SLA obstruction, they further said.
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Central Bank Governor unperturbed amid threat of GSP+ loss

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 00:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said that Sri Lanka will march ahead towards prosperity with or without the much hyped Generalized System of Preferences (GSP +) concession. Cabraal was quoted in the state owned Dinamina Sinhala daily as saying, “for 30 years, Sri Lanka was plagued by a war, today this is over, and in the years to come we will see economic and general development in the country.”
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Singapore business tigers interested in Sri Lankan beer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 22:34 GMT]
Following the visit of Malaysian corporate brokers, the Singapore Business Federation led by its Deputy Mission Leader V K Rajan and 14 members of the team visited their business counterparts in Colombo, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce (FCCISL) this week to discuss possibilities of joint ventures. The Singapore delegation was interested in manufacturing beer brands, manufacturing equipment and machinery for the construction industry, create architecture, real estate business, manufacturing lumps and fine powders, construction material, and consultation. The FCCISL General Secretary Tushita Tennakoon said the investors could import raw material and export their products to India, Pakistan and Maldives after value addition.
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Residents forced indoors as SL armed forces take control of Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 20:47 GMT]
The recently resettled people in Vanni were forced to remain indoors Wednesday as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, Special Task Force (STF) commandos, Sri Lanka police and the President’s Special Security Force soldiers took control of A9 road and the main streets in the districts of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu as a part of security measures related to the Cabinet meeting held by President Rajapakasa in Ki’linochchi Wednesday, sources in Vanni said.
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Attempts to safeguard Sinhala doctor suspected in murder exposed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 18:56 GMT]
The Sinhala doctor arrested by police Tuesday suspected of involvement in the killing of Tharsika from Charava'nai, a family consultant nurse Saturday in Veala’nai government hospital in the islets of Jaffna, was produced in Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate court Wednesday. Magistrate Vasanthasenan directed the police to place him in Jaffna Remand prison until 21 July. The police, instead of taking the suspect to the prison, admitted him to the Intensive Care Unit in Jaffna Teaching Hospital Wednesday night claiming that he had been injured in the attack by Veal’nai residents Saturday. This turn of events reveals the attempts taken by influential politicians and top government officials to safeguard the Sinhala doctor, legal society sources in Jaffna said.
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Cabinet meeting in Ki'linochchi aims to deceive Sinhala people: UNP MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 18:17 GMT]
“All should understand that the Sinhala people also have to bear the burden of foreign loans Sri Lanka has to borrow to develop the North which was destructed by Tigers,” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed in a public meeting in Ki’linochchi Wednesday after having held the Cabinet Meeting in Ira’naimadu Sri Lanka Army (SLA) head quarters in Vanni. Nearly a hundred people brought by SLA participated in the meeting held under tight security. “There is no minority in the country but all are majority in the sense that all are Sri Lankans,” Mahinda Rajapaksa further claimed. Meanwhile, Jayalath Jeyawardene, an opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian said in a statement to media in Colombo Wednesday that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet meeting in Ki’linochchi was a political drama to deceive the Sinhalese in the South, condemning the Ki’linochchi cabinet meeting.
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SLN constructs big base in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 15:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has begun the preliminary work on the construction of a big base in a 1200 acre land in Koa’ra’laippattu North Divisional Secretariat division in Batticaloa district denying the people of this area their livelihoods besides affecting them socially and economically, sources in Batticaloa said. The Minister of Economic Development who presided over the recent District Development meeting said that the land in question had not been made use of when Batticaloa district Tamil MPs, members of Provincial Council members and local government bodies of Batticaloa raised protest over the encroachment of public land, the sources added.
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No peace without justice, says Obama's envoy to Srebrenica

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 03:24 GMT]
On the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, Samantha Power, Director of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the National Security Council in the Obama administration on her way to deliver message from President Obama in Srebrenica-Potocari memorial said, "as a factual matter, as a historical matter – it is very difficult to see lasting peace and stability without this kind of justice. So the more Serbia recognizes, the Bosnian government recognizes what atrocities were committed by its forces, the Croatian government grapples as well, more progress you will see and the more forward we move."
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SLA denies irrigation facility to resettled civilians in Ki’linochchi district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 19:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Ki’lnochchi has stopped the supply of water to the paddy fields cultivated under Akka’rayan Ku’lam in Ki’linochchi district by resettled civilians claiming the water in the reservoir is reserved for its supply of drinking water, the resettled civilians said. The paddy cultivated by the resettled civilians face the risk of withering off due to lack of water, they said. SLA in Akka’rayan Ku’lam area obtains its drinking water transported in water bowsers from the tank.
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SLA strengthens security in Ki’linochchi prior to Cabinet meeting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 18:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has strengthened security in and around Ki’linochchi in Vanni as President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to hold his cabinet meeting in Ira’naimadu SLA Vanni Head Quarters Wednesday, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Traffic along A9 road has been cut down while hundreds of SLA soldiers and police personnel are posted at several points along the road. This is the first ever cabinet meeting to be held out of Colombo and an important one for President Mahinda Rajapaksa after the end of the war on Vanni, the sources added.
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Male body recovered from Thalaimannaar sea coast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 17:34 GMT]
A decomposed corpse of a male was recovered from Nadukkudaa in Thalaimannaar coast Monday by the Thalaimannaar Police. The corpse was later handed to the Mannaar general hospital for further investigation.
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Madu uprooted Tamil families abandoned at school without food

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 17:19 GMT]
257 members of 110 uprooted Tamil families have been staying in Periyapa’ndivirichchaan Maha Viththiyaalayam buildings in Madu AGA division in Mannaar district since Saturday without food to elders and milk food to children. They were brought down from temporary shelters in Vavuniyaa and were left in the school building by civil authorities to find their own way to reach their abandoned houses in their villages, sources in Mannaar said.
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Houses constructed for SLA in Vanni as resettled civilians suffer, abandoned in huts

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 14:38 GMT]
While the resettled civilians in Vanni suffer in makeshift huts in broiling sun Colombo government is hastily constructing semi-permanent houses for Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers near Muruka’ndi in Vanni in a Sinhalese colonization scheme consisting of 12,000 houses with facilities including hospitals, schools, post offices, sources in Vanni said. The houses are being constructed in a newly declared SLA High Security Zone, strictly out of bounds for all outsiders. Hundreds of container vehicles bring the construction material for the semi-permanent houses and heap them along A9 road. These materials are transported in SLA trucks to the construction site so as to prevent any outsider seeing the work in progress, the sources added.
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Imelda Sukumar assumes duties as Jaffna GA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 13:47 GMT]
The Government Agent (GA) for Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, Imelda Sukumar, officially assumed duties as GA Jaffna district Tuesday in place of outgoing Jaffna GA, K. Ganesh, whose term was extended after the announcement of his retirement on July 01 following alleged influence exerted by Northern Province Governor, former Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Douglas Devananda, a minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet. Three days ago, Ms. Imelda Sukumar was again asked to assume duties as GA in Jaffna, cancelling the decision to keep Mr. Ganesh as GA in Jaffna for another six months.
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Tamil doctor among victims killed in Uganda blast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 13:44 GMT]
A Tamil doctor from Colombo was among the 74 people killed in the bomb attack in Uganda, claimed by al-Shabaab, a group with links to al-Qaeda. The victim, Ramrajah Krishna, a father of two girls, had returned to Uganda after visiting his family in Colombo.
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SLA soldier kills fellow soldier, injures three in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 13:10 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and another three were injured including an SLA lieutenant when they tried to apprehend a fellow soldier involved in stealing iron bars that were brought in for road repair work in Allai in Kantha'laay police division of Trincomalee district Monday midnight, Police said.
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Protest by nurses in Jaffna enforces arrest of Sinhala doctor suspected in murder

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 13:10 GMT]
Hundreds of family consultant nurses, public health officers, midwives and other health service employees picketed Jaffna Public Health Service (PHS) office from Tuesday early morning and agitated demanding immediate investigation into the killing of Tharsika, a family consultant nurse, found hung inside Veala’nai government hospital Saturday morning. The agitators further demanded the immediate arrest of the Sinhala doctor alleged of killing Tharsika. Police was forced to arrest the Sinhala doctor who was transferred on the instruction of the Sri Lanka Army officials. The doctor, who was kept in the safety in Regional Health Service Director’s office in Jaffna, was produced in Oorkaavattu’rai courts Tuesday.
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MIA's album-release grabs US headlines

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 10:24 GMT]
Washington Post called Jaffna born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam (popularly known as MIA) the "most innovative and dynamic pop star of her generation" as it covered the story of MIA's release of her third album "Maya" Tuesday. The British Guardian, writing about the British singer's popularity before the release of her album said that "she speaks out in support of Tamil citizens," and that "[h]er assertions that the Sri Lankan government is guilty of the genocide of local Tamils have not been going down well."
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ICC charges Sudan's Bashir of Genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 23:29 GMT]
The International Criminal Court (ICC), in a statement issued Monday, accused Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir of "genocide by killing, genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm and genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction," and issued an arrest warrant. Bashir becomes the first sitting head of state to be charged with genocide. The addition of genocide charge follows the March 2009 indictment of Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity, for which another arrest warrant is pending, and has added further diplomatic pressure on his isolated regime. Bashir has denied these charges.
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Batticaloa’s police intelligence officers demoted

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 22:18 GMT]
The police intelligence unit attached to the Batticaloa police has been demoted with immediate effect for involvement in arresting large numbers of 'terrorism' suspects, and a new set of officers have been appointed in the vacated positions, Sri Lanka Sinhala daily Lankadeepa reported. The affected officers were attached to ten different intelligence units across Batticaloa district, the paper noted.
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Nurses demand investigation into killing of fellow nurse in Veala’nai

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 15:04 GMT]
More than a hundred family consultant nurses employed in Jaffna peninsula participating in the funeral procession of fellow nurse alleged killed by a Sinhala doctor in Veal’ani government hospital in the islets of Jaffna Saturday staged a protest demonstration at Kaithadi junction Monday for an hour demanding immediate inquiry into the killing of Tharsika, a native of Charava'ani, who was found hung with a rope inside the hospital. The Judicial Medical Officer’s report rules out suicide in the above case and the family consultant nurses have decided to abstain from duties from 7:00 a.m. Tuesday until their demand is met.
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Tamil Nadu Naam Tamilar party leader Seeman arrested, detained

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 12:21 GMT]
Tamil Nadu police arrested and detained popular film director and the leader of Naam Tamilar political party Seeman Monday noon allegedly for inciting violence, sources in Chennai said. Seeman had condemned the killings of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in a demonstration held in front of Chennai Government Secretariat and is alleged to have said that if SLN continues to attack Tamil Nadu fishermen Sinhalese in Tamil Nadu will not be allowed to live in Tamil Nadu, the sources added. Consequently Tamil Nadu police filed a case against Seeman for inciting violence and searched for Seeman to arrest him before he could meet the press in Chennai Press Club. The police arrested Seeman when he came to Chennai Press Club after the demonstration.
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450 voluntary teachers in Vanni struggle for permanent appointment

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 10:11 GMT]
Four hundred and fifty volunteer teachers serving in schools in the districts of Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu are still awaiting permanency in their posts even after ten years of service under trying condition, education sources said.
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HRW welcomes Ban’s resolve, urges war crimes roadmap

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 10:09 GMT]
Welcoming UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s refusal to bow to Sri Lanka’s outrage and disband his recently appointed advisory panel on warcrimes in the island, Human Rights Watch said Sunday that the expert panel should provide him “with a roadmap – which should be made public – for an independent international investigation to examine laws-of-war violations by both sides during the final months of the conflict.”
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Indian Film actress Asin visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 06:43 GMT]
Leading Indian film actress Asin paid an unannounced visit to Jaffna Sunday along with the wife of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and took part in the events in Eye Treatment Centre in Jaffna Teaching Hospital, sources in Jaffna said. Despite warning that her films will be boycotted in all South Indian States if she participates in shooting in Sri Lanka, by the Federation of South Indian Film Industry Unions, Asin is in Sri Lanka to act in a Hindi film. Asin had reportedly told media in Colombo that she is not in anyway connected to South Indian politics adding that the warning will not affect her.
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‘All roads lead to Mahinda Rajapaksa’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 19:24 GMT]
The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh advised the visiting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians to work with Mahinda Rajapaksa to find political solution, according to media reports Friday. The TNA parliamentarian A. Vinayagamoorthy was cited saying: "Prime Minister Dr Singh advised us to take along with us the Muslims, the upcountry Tamils and others and work unitedly with President Rajapaksa to evolve a solution to the Tamil problem. We told him we will try to do so." The MP further said: "We depend hundred per cent on India for help to find a political solution acceptable to our people. We will be happy if President Mahinda Rajapaksa gives us what India thinks is reasonable."
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Sexual harassment charges allegedly behind errant Sri Lanka UN diplomat's recall

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 18:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Bandula Jayasekera was allegedly involved in a sexual harrasment complaint by another employee at the Sri Lanka mission, Sunday Leader said in the latest weekend edition. Mr. Jayasekera who has been recalled to Colombo by External Affairs Ministry Secretary Romesh Jayasinghe said that he was informed over the telephone by Jayasinghe that following his ‘good service’ in the country’s foreign missions, he has been asked to return in order to put his services to better use in Sri Lanka, the Leader reported.
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Champoor uprooted Tamil villagers demand early resettlement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 16:31 GMT]
The Champoor Division Uprooted Tamil Villagers’ Association has decided to request relevant authorities to allow them to cultivate during the forthcoming Maha season about three thousand acres of paddy fields belonging to them located in the High Security Zone (HSZ). Sri Lanka Army (SLA) demarcated large areas as HSZ after the SLA captured Champoor and adjacent villages of Koonitheivu and Soodaikudha in the military operation in April 2006. The Association took this decision at the general meeting held recently.
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Fifty Tamil Nadu fishermen wounded in new SLN attack

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 12:38 GMT]
Fifty fishermen from Tamil Nadu were injured when they were attacked allegedly by Sri Lankan Naval (SLN) personnel while fishing off Katchathivu Island, PTI reported Sunday, citing Indian Fisheries department officials. The attack comes hours after the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu staged a demonstration near the Sri Lankan deputy high commission in Chennai to protest the recent death of a fisherman in an SLN attack off the Kodiakarai coast on Wednesday. Hundreds of Indian fishermen, and many more Tamil fishermen in Sri Lanka, have been killed or wounded in SLN attacks over several years.
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Boat refugees ‘not Tigers’, Canada admits

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 00:08 GMT]
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) now admits it has no proof that 25 Tamils boat refugees that it labelled as terrorists and kept behind bars for months were members of the Liberation Tigers, The Vancouver Sun reported Friday. Last month, The Vancouver Sun obtained a secret CBSA report that stated there were "reasonable grounds" to believe a third of the 76 migrants who arrived on the Ocean Lady migrant ship last October were members of the Tamil Tigers.
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Sinhala doctor alleged of killing Tamil nurse in Jaffna transferred to safety

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 14:55 GMT]
The Sinhala doctor alleged of killing a Tamil female nurse in Veala’nai government hospital in the island off Jaffna Saturday morning has been suddenly transferred to a hospital in Changkaanai in Jaffna peninsula. Meanwhile, Oorkaavattu’rai police said that they found evidence indicating that the nurse had been killed. The doctor had been taken to Changkaanai escorted by Sri Lanka Army. Meanwhile, Veala’nai residents who had protested against the killing said that they will continue their protest.
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Weerawansa abandons fast unto death after Rajapaksa visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 14:27 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, the leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF) and an ally of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance government Saturday evening abandoned his fast unto death accepting a glass of water from Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mr. Rajapaksa paid a surprise visit to the venue where Weerawansa had been fasting. He was immediately transferred to a hospital in an ambulance.
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Tension prevails in Veala’nai following alleged killing of nurse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 09:09 GMT]
More than a hundred residents of Veala’nai in the islets of Jaffna attempted to attack a Sinhalese doctor in Veala’nai government hospital Saturday morning on finding a local young woman nurse dead, hung inside the hospital, sources in Vela’nai said. Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers occupying the islets of Jaffna rushed to the scene and took away the Sinhalese doctor to their base, the sources said. The enraged residents allege that the Sinhalese doctor had killed the nurse and then hung her with a rope in an attempt to show that she had committed suicide.
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Sexual abuse of resettled women in Vanni by SLA soldiers escalates

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 07:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Vanni continue to sexually abuse women among recently resettled civilians, according to complaints made to a Christian priest now living in Vanni. Meanwhile, a journalist from Tamil Nadu who returned Friday from a visit to Vanni also said that the resettled people in Vanni had told him about SLA soldiers sexually abusing women besides intruding into their privacy under the pretext of search and checking. The journalist who wishes to remain anonymous said that he will write in detail the sufferings of resettled civilians in Vanni in Tamil Nadu papers when he returns home.
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Navaali massacre of 147 Tamil civilians remembered

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 06:11 GMT]
Relatives of the victims and Navaali Church organization observed Friday the fifteenth death anniversary of 147 Tamil civilians including men, women and children who were killed in the indiscriminate bombing by the Sri Lanka Air Force bombers and artillery attack by the Sri Lanka Army on Navaali St Peters Church on 9 July 1998, sources in Jaffna said. Hemalatha Memorial Organization set up in remembrance of Hemalatha, a Village Officer who was killed in the bombing, was jointly engaged in observing the memorial event, the sources added.
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Batticaloa Tamils fear establishment of civil youth committees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 05:36 GMT]
Civil youth committees are to be formed in all thirty Grama Niladhari divisions in the Batticaloa police division, according to Superintendent of Police in charge of the division, I. M. Kaurnaretna. Each committee will comprise of ten youths including the Grama Niladhari of the area in charge, he said at a meeting held Monday at Batticaloa Mahajana College. Tamil residents in Batticaloa district are perturbed over the move of setting up civil youth committees in the background that Sinhalese and Muslim members of such committees earlier appointed during the war time in the Ampaarai district had engaged in burglary and robbery.
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Gotabhaya's involvement in agitation against UN irks foreign missions

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 16:36 GMT]
Sinhala journalists concerned on freedom of speech released recorded evidence of verbal abuse by the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa against the police officers providing security to the UN Compound on Tuesday, raising questions on Rajapaksa brothers involvement in triggering protest against the UN. Meanwhile, the heads of foreign missions in Sri Lanka from Germany, UK, USA, France, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Romania, Norway and EU delegation on Friday issued a statement saying that they were dismayed by the blockade of the UN-compound in Colombo and the role played in it by a government minister.
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SLA changes traditional Tamil names of streets in Batticaloa district to Sinhalese

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 16:28 GMT]
People in Batticaloa district said that occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities are substituting traditional Tamil names of streets to Sinhalese names. Alli Oadai Tamil name for the street to Kudumpimalai has been changed into Ali O’luva, a Sinhalese name, they further said. Kudumpimalai is a traditional Tamil village in Koa’ralaippattu South Divisional Secretariat.
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SLFP wants diplomatic approach to UN issue than protest

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 15:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday called upon its constituent parties for more diplomatic approach to resolve the crisis with the United Nations over the appointment of Experts Panel on Sri Lanka and to advice the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon that holding protests and fasting against UN organization. Senior members including six cabinet ministers have appealed to the hierarchy of the SLFP to resolve the issues diplomatically. SLFP general secretary and a senior minister Maithripala Sirisena is reported to have told Colombo media that the issue with the UN could have been resolved in a diplomatic manner than protesting agaist it.
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Rice stresses war-crimes accountability under international law

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 12:32 GMT]
"Governments bear the primary responsibility for protecting civilians, but other parties to armed conflict must also comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law. And all too often, they do not," said Dr Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, during a Security Council Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict Wednesday. "Those legal obligations should have legal consequences. It’s incumbent upon the international community to end impunity—by helping governments create, maintain, and operate credible and effective national courts where possible, or by supporting international and other mechanisms where necessary. The International Criminal Court can also be useful in the fight against genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity," Rice added.
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Weerawansa resigns ministry portfolio, continues fast against UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 10:19 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, the leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), a splinter group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and currently an ally of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Friday resigned from the post of Minister of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Colombo media reported quoting his ministry spokesman. However Lalith Weeratunge, the Secretary to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse told media that he has not received the resignation letter yet.
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SLN kills Tamil Nadu fisherman, torture 4 others

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 10:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers brutally attacked Wednesday fishermen from Vethaara’niyam in Tamil Nadu killing one of them besides denuding and torturing fellow fishermen as they were fishing in Tamil Nadu seas, according to Maalai Malar Tamil daily published in Chennai. SLN continue its brutal attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen despite protests raised by the Central and Tamil Nadu governments, Maalai Malar said.
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Fisherman drowns to death while fishing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 06:27 GMT]
A twenty-one year old fisherman from Kurunakar in Jaffna drowned to death Thursday while fishing in Jaffna lagoon, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, fishermen living in the coastal villages between Kaangkeasanthu’rai and Kaarainakar complain that Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) continues imposing the ‘pass’ system restricting fishing in their seas and of harassment by SLN soldiers while they are engaged in fishing.
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Ki’linochchi police try to free SLA soldiers suspected of gang rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 06:06 GMT]
Ki’linochchi police informed Ki’linochchi magistrate court Thursday that they have no objection in releasing the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers detained on suspicion of gang raping a mother of two children in the resettled Visuvamadu in Vanni, legal sources in Ki’linochchi said. The suspects, earlier identified by the victim in an identification parade, had filed a petition seeking their release on bail. The lawyers appearing on behalf of the woman protested against releasing the suspects pointing out that it will give room for the suspects to intimidate the witnesses in this case, the sources added.
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Peiris, Wickramasinghe speak on Weerawansa hunger strike in parliament

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 05:24 GMT]
The hunger strike by Minister Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and a splinter group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) came up for debate between the External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris and opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe Thursday in parliament during the committee stage debate of the 2010 budget.
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Sri Lanka expels two foreign NGO workers

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 02:40 GMT]
Sri Lankan government has deported a Canadian national who functioned as the director of the Nonviolent Peaceforce organization, and a Pakistani national attached to the same non-governmental organization. According to the local Lankadeepa newspaper, the decision to deport the director was taken subsequent to an order issued by the military intelligence to the Immigration and Emigration department in Sri Lanka. Colombo cancelled the visas before deporting the two NGO staffers.
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Malaysian corporate brokers embark on ‘development’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 23:01 GMT]
A Malaysian Ceylonese delegation visited Jaffna last month to discuss ‘development’ with the commander of the occupying Sri Lanka military, the Government Agent and the Bishop of Jaffna. The purpose of the visit of the nine-member team, headed by Dato S Kulasegaran and C Gnanarajah, was to assist the government machinery in the fields of economy and trade and to inspire the foreign investors on the ventures open for investment in the region, said a military-run website in Jaffna. Kulasegaran, a corporate lawyer having economic interests in Colombo, is close to the Malaysian Prime Minister. In the past few years he has been coordinating with the military intelligence of Sri Lanka and with the Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia.
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UN recalls Resident Coordinator from Colombo, closes UNDP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 17:29 GMT]
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, Thursday recalled UN's Colombo Resident Coordinator, Neil Buhne, to New York for consultations, and closed the UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka media reported. UN spokesperson blamed Sri Lanka Government for failing to prevent demonstrators disrupting operations of the UN office, according to reports.
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Police registration made mandatory to Wellawatte Tamil residents

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 14:56 GMT]
Tamil residents in Wellawatte in Colombo division are reported to have been instructed by the police to register with the local police station immediately. An announcement had been made through loudhailers fixed in three wheelers and some vehicles Wednesday, residents of the area said. Police sources said the procedure was intended to account for the large number of Tamils who had returned from abroad and staying in several hotels and lodges.
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CaFFE: Thousands in Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu to be disenfranchised

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 14:41 GMT]
After a fact finding mission to the North, Campaign for Free and Faie Elections (CaFFE), an election watchdog, said that in Ki'linochchi only 16 out of the 96 Kiraama Chevakar (GS) Divisions have received voter registration forms, and in Mullaiththeevu none of the 127 divisions have been distributed with registration forms. CAFFE statement further adds that election officials have written off " 40,000+" IDPs still living in camps. Camp resident IDPs are widely believed to exceed 80,000.
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Put a stop to media intimidation, IFJ appeals to Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 13:11 GMT]
In a press alert issued by International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a media watchdog, appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka "to act quickly to investigate the latest threat against a Sri Lankan media outlet after a threatening letter was sent to the Colombo office of Lanka-e-News," and called on Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse to "investigate and punish the perpetrators of the latest attacks on media freedom, and guarantee protection for Lanka-e-News and its personnel."
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Weerawansa begins fast unto death in front of Colombo UN office

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 08:53 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, a Sri Lankan minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet and the leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), has launched a 'fast unto death campaign' in front of the UN office in Colombo at Bauddaloka Mawatha Thursday.
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Northern fishermen society representatives to hold talks with Indian counterparts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 07:25 GMT]
Representatives of fishermen societies from the districts of Jaffna and Mannar decided in a meeting held in Vavuniyaa Wednesday to send a group of fishermen society representatives to India in August to hold talks with the representatives of fishermen societies in South India to stop Indian fishermen encroaching the northern seas in Sri Lanka, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The issue of Indian fishermen attacking northern fishermen is also to be discussed in the talks, the sources added.
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SLA continues fishing ban in resettled areas in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues its ban on fishing in the areas in Vanni where the uprooted civilians were resettled recently, allowing them access only to a space of 200 m from the shore, fishermen in Vanni said. Meanwhile, Sinhalese fishermen from South are permitted by SLA to freely fish with their trawlers in Mullaiththeevu seas, they complained. Despite Fisheries Minister’s assurance that the Southern fishermen will not fish in northern seas, they are welcomed by SLA to fish with their trawlers, they said.
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Weerawansa threatens fast unto death campaign

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 19:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government's frontline minister Wimal Weerawansa has vowed to go on a fast unto death if the United Nations (UN) fails to disband the expert panel appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, State owned daily Dinamina reported. Weerawansa is expected to kick off his fast-to-death campaign Thursday if the UN does not respond positively to demands put forward by Sri Lanka demanding the immediate disbanding of the expert panel, the paper said.
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JHU criticizes Colombo UN seige

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 16:12 GMT]
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) Wednesday criticized the siege against the UN office in Colombo by the National Freedom Front (NFF) led by Sri Lanka government minister Wimal Weerawansa, saying that the seige is a foolish act. JHU's former leader and currently a Member of Parliament of the JHU, Venerable Ellawela Medhananda Thera, told media that the UN has many member countries, and that UN should not be held responsible for the appointment of Experts Panel to assist the UN Secretary General to probe Sri Lanka's war crimes.
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Scheme afoot to Sinhalicise part of Mullaiththeevu district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 09:36 GMT]
The leader of Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLF) and former MP Sivajilingam said in a press meet Tuesday in Jaffna that Sri Lanka government has built 5,000 houses for families of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on the east of A9 road between Maangku’lam and Mu’ruka’ndi with the aim to Sinhalicise Mullaththeevu district reducing the numerical strength of Tamil population. Sivajilingam accused the government for being a ‘dog in the manger’ as it refuses local and foreign volunteer organizations to assist the resettled uprooted civilians in Vanni who suffer without even food and drinking water. Government’s ‘Resettlement’ is nothing but taking the uprooted civilians from the camps in trucks and unloading them in places without any basic facilities, Sivajilingam further said.
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Devananda, Perumal join hands in new forum

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 08:45 GMT]
A group named 'Tamil Political Parties Forum' (TPPF) of nine Tamil Political parties, paramilitary cum political parties and activists allegedly backed by New Delhi and Colombo, has been formed with the aim to explore ways of finding solution for the problems of the Tamil people in the North and East, political sources in Colombo said. Varatharaja Perumal, Chandrahasan and PLOTE Siddharthan, already known to have close links with New Delhi, have joined hands with M.K. Sivajilingam, a former TNA MP, Anandasangaree of TULF, Pillayan from TMVP and Kumarakuruparan of Democratic People Front in creating the forum. The move has been initiated by Shereen Xavier of Home for Human Rights and Douglas Devananda, the leader of EPDP, who is aligned with Mahinda Rajapaksa government.
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UN office in Colombo declares 'holiday' following protest against expert panel

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 08:35 GMT]
The United Nations office in Colombo has declared holiday on Wednesday after Wimal Weerawansa, a government minister and leader of National Freedom Front, protested outside the UN office Tuesday. Meanwhile, Mr. Weerawansa on Wednesday told journalists that their protesters will launch a fast unto death campaign if the UN fails to respond to their demands.
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Ban gets tough as protests mount over panel

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 08:32 GMT]
Amidst mounting protests from Sri Lanka against the controversial expert panel, the United Nations has declared that it will not disband the panel appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
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TNLA to launch protest demonstration against government

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 06:05 GMT]
Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) leader and former MP Sivajilingam said that TNLA will hold a large scale protest demonstration 2 August in Jaffna urging Sri Lanka government to disclose its decision on the state of persons held in detention and those who had disappeared after arrest by government armed forces, in a press meet held in Jaffna town Tuesday. TNLA has sought the cooperation of Leftist Front and the Committee for the search of disappeared persons in the South to hold the protest demonstration as it fears government obstruction and intimidation, he said.
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SLA converts Valvai Monumental site into army playground

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 05:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) completed obliterating the memorial monument erected by Valveddiththu’rai (Valvai/VVT) people near Theeruvil crematorium grounds by destructing the remaining memorial pillar Monday and Tuesday, sources in VVT said. SLA which has systematically removed all traces of Liberation Tigers in the peninsula by demolishing the Heroes’ Resting Homes, Theeruvil memorial monuments for Col. Kiddu, Kumarappa, Pulendran and ten combatants has now converted the VVT memorial site into a playground.
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Jaffna Tamil daily reporter dies in accident

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 19:45 GMT]
A 32-year-old reporter and photographer of 'Yarl Thinakkural', a Tamil daily published from Jaffna died Tuesday morning in an accident when he was hit by a bus on A9 road at Usan while on duty. The victim, Perampalam Jeyachandran alias Jeyam, a father of one child, was a native of I'lavaalai. Mr. Jeyachandran was one of the few journalists who served with commitment to journalism particularly during the dangerous times that prevailed in the peninsula, media sources in Jaffna said.
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83 new political groups apply for registration

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 18:52 GMT]
Leaders of the eighty-three new political parties that applied for registration before the deadline 30 June have been waiting for the return of the Commissioner of Elections from abroad to learn whether their applications are accepted or rejected after interviews. According to Additional Commissioner of Elections, W. P. Sumanasiri, 83 applications had been received.
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SLA claims to have removed 290,445 mines in North, East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 18:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) claimed that 290,445 mines have been removed in the North and East and adjacent areas. Of them 59379 mines were removed from Mannaar district, 30905 mines from Vavuniyaa district, 57710 mines from Kilinochchi district and 16749 mines in Mullaiththeevu district, according to Military media spokesman Brigadier Ubaya Medewela.
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Woman’s body found hanging inside house in Vaazhaichcheanai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 18:39 GMT]
The body of a woman aged about 36 was found hanging inside a house in Piranthu’raichcheanai in Vaazhaichcheanai police division in Batticaloa district Monday. Vaazhaichcheanai Magistrate T. Swarnarajah visited the scene and conducted the inquest into the death of the woman, sources in Batticaloa said.
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SLN soldier found dead in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 15:29 GMT]
A soldier of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) was found dead with gunshot wounds Tuesday morning in Vettilaikkea’ni area in Vadamaraadchi East. People who heard gunshots from Vettilaikea’ni sea area later found the above body, sources in Vadamaraadchi said. Vettilaikkea’ni area is one of the places where uprooted civilians have not been permitted to resettle but occupied by SLN soldiers, the sources added.
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Weerawansa’s protest against UN turns violent, announces 'devil dance'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 14:30 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister for Construction and Housing, Wimal Weerawansa, who launched a protest in front of the UN office in Bauddaloka Mawatta in Colombo demanding the UN to dissolve the expert panel announced by the UN Secretary General to investigate allegations of war crimes and human rights violations, arrived at the demonstration site around 5:00 p.m. and prompted the protesters to enter the premises of the UN complex after phoning Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and receiving instructions, a reporter at the site told TamilNet. A police officer was manhandled by the mob and the police has withdrawn from the premises. The protest was going till the reporter left the site at 7:00 p.m. The minister himself attacked the police officer and has planned to hold 'devil dance' throughout the night in front of the UN office.
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SL Parliament extends Emergency

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 08:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Monday adopted a motion moved by the Rajapaksa government to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of one hundred votes. 132 Parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituent parties voted for the motion and 32 parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) voted against.
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SL minister protests against UN office, demands Ban-Ki moon to dissolve panel

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 08:01 GMT]
Sri Lankan minister Wimal Weerawansa, who was opposed to the peace process, has gathered his supporters outside the UN office in Colombo at Bauddhaloka Mawatha protesting against the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki moon's move to appoint an expert panel Tuesday afternoon. The protesters have erected a temporary shed in front of the main entrance preventing the UN staff from entering the office premises and were calling the UN Secretary General to dissolve the expert panel.
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Ampaa’rai Tamil, Muslim volunteer teachers complain of discrimination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 06:17 GMT]
The president of Ampaa'rai District Volunteer Teachers' Union (ADVTU) accused Sri Lanka government for not making their appointments permanent though they had served for more than twelve years under trying circumstances and for having granted permanent appointment for seventy Sinhalese volunteer teachers an year and half before, sources in Ampaa'rai said. The president of ADVTU, M. S. A. Sabras, said that 109 Tamil medium volunteer teachers had not been made permanent in their appointments though they had faced several interviews held by Education Department in the past. He added that their union has launched a protest to draw the attention of the authorities to their five demands and that they will go on hunger strike if the demands are not met.
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Daytime robberies escalate in Ampaa’rai district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 04:53 GMT]
Unidentified persons have been robbing in Kalmunai, Chaainthamaruthu and Ma’l'likaikkaadu areas in the last few weeks and no suspects have been arrested though complaints have been lodged with the local police, residents of the above areas said. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress parliamentarian M. H. Harais told Parliament during last month sessions that paramilitary men were operating openly in their vehicles in Ampaa’rai district. He had further accused that the paramilitary men were involved in various criminal activities besides being a danger to the public.
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Constitutional reforms to be further delayed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 00:10 GMT]
The proposed constitutional reforms which was scheduled to be tabled in parliament this month is likely to be further delayed by one or more months according to media reports from Colombo. The proposed reforms are yet to be forwarded to Sri Lanka's Cabinet for approval, reports further said.
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SLA destroys remnants of Black Tiger Miller monument in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2010, 16:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers totally destroyed the remnants of the first Black Tiger Miller memorial statue Sunday night on the eve of Black Tigers’ Day which falls on 5 July, sources in Vadamaraadchi said. The remnants destroyed were the dais on which Miller’s statue had stood and the stone memorial plaque erected in memory of Miller. SLA which is systematically obliterating all evidences of Liberation Tigers in the North hastily destroyed what remained of Miller’s memorial monument Sunday night.
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SL parliament to debate emergency extension motion Monday

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2010, 11:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister is to table a motion Monday seeking the approval of the parliament to extend the State of Emergency for another month. The State of Emergency is in force since 12 August 2005. Every month it is being extend with the approval of the parliament. Opposition parties including the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have decided to oppose the emergency extension motion.
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HRW urges Australia to end discriminatory asylum policy

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2010, 11:52 GMT]
"Australia’s new prime minister, Julia Gillard, should lift the suspension on new asylum claims by Sri Lankans when the three-month moratorium expires on July 8, 2010, Human Rights Watch said today. The [Australian] government should also lift the suspension on Afghan asylum claims, which have been halted until October," Human Rights Watch (HRW) a rights watchdog said in a press release issued Sunday.
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Child recovered dead from shrub jungle in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2010, 11:51 GMT]
The body of an unidentified baby girl was recovered from a shrub jungle at third lane along Paranthan-Mullaiththeevu on Friday, Sri Lankan police said.
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SLAF soldier commits suicide at KIA

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2010, 11:49 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) person shot himself, committing suicide, while on duty at the Katunayake International Airport (KIA) Sunday morning.
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Move afoot to make Kumaratunga UNP MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2010, 11:05 GMT]
Moves are afoot by the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to make Chandrika Kumaratunga a Member of Parliament through the UNP list, political sources in Colombo said. The move has been reportedly initiated by a splinter group of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), led by Mangala Samaraweera.
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NEXT quits Sri Lanka, exports to EU fall - report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 22:49 GMT]
The British clothing retailer, NEXT, has stopped sourcing its garments from Sri Lanka because of the uncertainty of the continuance of the GSP+ duty concession from the European Union, The Sunday Leader reported this week. The company has moved production to Bangladesh, an industry source told the paper. Meanwhile, exports to the EU fell 13% in the first quarter of 2010, a decline the Sri Lankan garment industry attributes to falling demand due to the economic conditions there. Garments are Sri Lanka’s largest foreign exchange earner.
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Sinhala daily says India opposes UN panel

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 22:26 GMT]
Colombo-based Sinhala daily, Lankadeepa, without quoting any officials from the Indian government or the Indian embassy in Colombo, said in a report Sunday that the Indian government has expressed its disapproval over the appointment of the expert panel by United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon. Responding to the news, Tamil circles in Chennai blamed Monday the New Delhi Establishment for continuing to abet the genocidal agenda of Colombo, by objecting any international investigation amidst widespread allegation of Indian forces assisting the Sri Lankan military in the war against the Tigers.
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Central Bank of Ceylon opens Northern Provincial Office in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 18:44 GMT]
Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri officially opened the Northern Provincial Office of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Jaffna in a private building on Arasadi Veethi in Jaffna Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander Major Gen. Mahinda Kathurasinghe participating in the event walked out when he was called upon to light the traditional lamp as he was dissatisfied with the seating arrangement, apparently because he was not given his due place, the sources added.
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SLA demolishes Koappaay Thamizh Eezham Heroes Cemeteries

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 18:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers along with Sinhalese thugs are engaged in obliterating Koappay Thamizh Eezham Heroes War Cemetery (Thamizh Eezha Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam), the only one that remained in Jaffna peninsula, for the last three days, residents of the neighbouring villages said. The remnants of the graves, memorial plaques and monuments are taken away in the night to unknown destination, the sources added.
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SLA Civil Admiration Offices in Jaffna to be made permanent

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 06:33 GMT]
SLA 52 Division Commander Brigadier Lal Perera officially opened a civil administration office in Kodikaamam area in Thenmaraadchi on 30 June in addition to the one already functioning in Jaffna town, sources in Jaffna said. The hurried official openings of SLA civil administration offices in Jaffna peninsula are said to be a part of the government scheme to keep the peninsula under the control of SLA, the sources added. Meanwhile, the Secretary of Presidential Action Committee (PAC) has again instructed the government officials in the North to invite local SLA key officials to all government functions, Jaffna Secretariat sources said.
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Parts of abandoned vehicles in Vanni sold with SLA connivance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 05:54 GMT]
Parts of thousands of vehicles left abandoned by fleeing Vanni civilians during the final days of the war are dismantled by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and officers and sold to Sinhalese and Muslim traders from South, a Tamil trader who had bought such a spare part for his heavy vehicle told TamilNet. The dismantled parts are available for sale in most of the SLA bases along A9 road as well as in some SLA sentry post, he said. SLA soldiers and their officers are alleged to be making millions of rupees in this lucrative enterprise.
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SLA obliterates Tiger Heroes' Cemeteries, erects military bases

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 July 2010, 18:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which has been systematically razing to the ground without any traces the Thamizh Eezham Heroes War Cemeteries (Thamizh Eezha Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam) in several places of North and East, has in recent weeks obliterated the Thuyilum Illam at Kodikaaman in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, and is erecting a big SLA base in its place. Ellangku’lam Heroes Cemetery in Udupiddi in Vadamaraadchi had been already destroyed without any trace and the premises converted into an SLA base. The obliterated Thuyilum Illam is now enclosed by barbed wire fence and hidden by coconut cadjans where a large number of SLA soldiers are hurriedly constructing a base. Tamil circles view the systematic destruction of Tamil war heroes' cemeteries and the symbols of the Tamil struggle in north and East as part of a large-scale genocide programme on Tamils by the Sri Lankan state.
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2010 Budget second reading passed in SL parliament

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 July 2010, 17:02 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s parliament Saturday evening adopted the second reading of the Budget for the year 2010 by a majority of sixty three votes. 138 parliamentarians voted for the budget and 75 voted against. Eleven parliamentarians were absent when the vote was taken, parliamentary sources said.
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Former CM Varatharaja Perumal back in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2010, 20:33 GMT]
Former Chief Minister of North East Provincial Councils, Varatharaja Perumal from the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), is back in Jaffna actively engaged in political activities accompanied by his supporters, sources in Jaffna said. Varatharaja Perumal was on a short spell of visit to Jaffna after years of exile during last parliamentary election in which the coalition party candidates he fielded had failed even to get their deposit money back, the sources added.
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SLA conducts sudden search, checking in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2010, 11:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers stopped pedestrians, passengers travelling in vehicles along Beach Road and Galle Road in Wellawatte in Colombo city Friday early morning and subjected them to search and checking, sources in Colombo said. It is not known whether anyone had been taken into custody. Wellawatte is predominantly a Tamil area.
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State media blames exiled scribes for 'mudslinging' against Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2010, 10:01 GMT]
A 'clandestine media group' consisting of several Sri Lankan journalists now in exile has embarked on a mudslinging campaign against Sri Lanka, state-owned media reported Friday. According to the Dinamina Sinhala daily, this group of journalists have sent a petition condemning Sri Lanka to more than 70 foreign non-governmental organizations urging these organizations to pressure the international community to withdraw any trade benefits given to Sri Lanka.
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Indian Navy Admiral avoids meeting media in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2010, 05:07 GMT]
Chief of the Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral Nirmal Verma, who was on a day’s visit to Jaffna peninsula Thursday avoided facing local media persons who awaited his arrival at Nalloor Kanthasuvami Koayil to collect news and take photographs, media sources in Jaffna said. Nirmal Verma was received by North Central Naval Commander Rear Admiral Rohan Amarasinghe on arrival at Kaangkeasanthu’rai (KKS) Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) base where he inspected the renovation work in KKS harbour.
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Colombo sinhalicises Ampaa'rai District Secretariat

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2010, 04:38 GMT]
Biased Sinhala officials in Ampaa’rai District Secretariat have been taking steps to transfer all Tamil officials working there in an effort to convert it a Sinhala only office. As a first step a Tamil Assistant Director of Planning has been transferred out of Ampaa’rai District Secretariat causing hardships to Tamil people in the district.
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CDF identity cards withdrawn in Kalmunai

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2010, 04:28 GMT]
Kalmunai police have withdrawn the identity cards issued to members of the Civil Defence Force (CDF) in Kalmunai division in Batticaloa district as it has been discovered that some CDF members had been involved in robberies and other crimes using their identity cards. All CDF members were asked to surrender their IDs before June 30.
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ITAK stalwarts in Jaffna oppose TNA abandoning alliance concept

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 18:39 GMT]
The concept of TNA as a broad alliance has become a legacy with Suresh Premachandran's move in convincing Mr. Sampanthan to make the alliance into a political party, blame opponents of the latest move by the TNA hierarchy, which has applied to register the alliance as a political party. The TNA has applied to register itself as a political party with R. Sampanthan as the leader and Mavai Senathirajah representing ITAK, Suresh Premachandran of EPRLF Suresh faction and Selvam Adaikalanathan on behalf of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), as joint secretaries.
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Person sending false SMS under detention

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 17:53 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defence Ministry Thursday issued detention order to detain a manager of a mercantile firm for allegedly initiating a false SMS message claiming Black Tigers were to attack Anuradhapura on Poson Day.
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Basil: Sri Lanka will not dance to international tunes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 12:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has said that his government will not be bullied by either the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or any other foreign lending agencies on how to steer the economy of the island. He told parliament on Thursday that the Sri Lankan government was not going to dance to the tunes of any international lending institutions.
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Jaffna GA K. Ganesh receives sudden extension for 6 months

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 12:12 GMT]
The Jaffna District Government Agent K.Ganesh who retired Wednesday received another six months extension with effect of July 1, on the recommendation of Douglas Devananda, EPDP leader and a minister in Rajapaksa's government, sources at the Department of Public Administration said Thursday.
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Hindu temples in East face forcible removal, destruction

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 10:54 GMT]
Two Hindu temples in Trincomalee are earmarked for forcible removal by the Colombo government and another temple in Batticaloa is being subjected to Sinhala militarisation, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Batticaloa C.Yogeswaran told journalists in Batticaloa on Wednesday.
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Tamil groups meet US War Crimes Ambassador

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 00:16 GMT]
US and UK representatives of Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) met with Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues, Stephen Rapp, and his staff at the Washington offices of the State Department on Wednesday morning, sources from Washington said. The meeting focused on the credibility of Sri Lanka's internal efforts, progress of external efforts by the US government and the United Nations, continuing militarization of the NorthEast, progress on resettlement, the expectations of the Sri Lanka's local commission, and the status of Tamil Prisoners of War.
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