Military exercises aim at terrorising people in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 June 2011, 21:47 GMT]
Joint military exercises conducted by the occupying SL Army and Navy in the Jaffna peninsula in recent times, aim at terrorising Eezham Tamils and keeping them under indefinite military occupation environment, civil society circles in Jaffna said. Intense joint military exercises were conducted continuously for three days this week at Naakar-koayil in Vadamaraadchi East and at Maathakal-Thiruvadinilai coast in Valikaamam, where people recently resettled. Fishermen avoided going to the sea as volleys of shells were fired towards the sea and residents confined themselves to houses.
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‘India can do without a highly militarised autocratic neighbour in the south’ - paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 04:39 GMT]
India’s political engagement and generous financial assistance are not bringing about an equitable post-war settlement Sri Lanka, and instead an authoritarian government and a dangerously powerful military have emerged, The Pioneer newspaper warned Wednesday in an editorial titled 'Necessary Intervention' . “[India’s] policies and initiatives have fallen tragically short [but] South Block has been reluctant to … press for more reforms and greater accountability. This must change. … Rajapaksa should be asked to keep his promises,” India’s oldest English language newspaper argued.
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Tamil protestors abused at Sri Lanka-England cricket match

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 03:47 GMT]
Three dozen Tamils protesting Tuesday evening outside the Oval ground where Sri Lanka played England in the first one day international were taunted by some Sinhala spectators who gloated over the mass killings of Tamil civilians in 2009, until police intervened and moved them on. Earlier in the day a small group of Tamil activists setting up for the protest were spat and sworn at by other Sinhala spectators. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan parliamentarian Sanath Jayasuriya, recalled to his country’s team at the behest of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was dismissed for two runs off four balls, as England won the match.
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European Conservative bloc calls for maximum autonomy for Tamil areas, justice for war crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 03:36 GMT]
A center-right bloc of Conservative parliamentarians in the European Parliament Tuesday expressed support for “a just and peaceful solution for the Tamil community of Sri Lanka” and for “a negotiated political solution which can achieve maximum autonomy and regional devolution to Tamil majority areas within a single Sri Lankan state”, as well as “justice for all alleged war crimes committed by both sides during the conflict.” In a statement, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group and British Conservative MEPs said whilst they support the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, they also support the “peaceful and democratic pursuit of all political goals.”
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US wants ‘quick demonstration’ of Sri Lanka’s willingness to investigate mass killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 June 2011, 02:11 GMT]
The United States on Tuesday again called for “a full, credible, and independent investigation” into accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and accountability for such violations, and urged Sri Lanka to “quickly demonstrate that it is able and willing to meet these obligations,” warning that otherwise “international accountability mechanisms can become appropriate.” The position was articulated by the US State Department’s spokesperson.
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Death certificates to whitewash abductions, killings?

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 10:10 GMT]
Relatives of persons categorized under the missing and disappeared in Batticaloa district for more than a year are in dilemma whether to obtain death certificates as they believe that they are alive. The relatives say that their loved ones were abducted, in their presence, by para military groups led by Karuna and Pilliayan, and by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, and could be still alive.
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Plans afoot to “Sinhalacise” Tamil border villages in east, says MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 09:58 GMT]
Of 310 families which fled from their homes only 70 have returned to the village Poochchikoodu located in Raanamadu GS division in Batticaloa district, according to Batticaloa TNA parliamentarian P. Selvarasa. Authorities in Colombo are ignoring resettlement of Tamil families with a sinister motive to “Sinhalacise” border Tamil villages, Selvarasa alleged.
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Jaffna returnee found hanged to death

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 June 2011, 15:10 GMT]
A 30-year-old male who had recently returned to Jaffna, after staying in south for 2 years, was found beaten and hanged to death Sunday morning at a playground in Achchuveali Thoappu in Valikaamam East, 20 km northeast of Jaffna city. The victim, Balachandran Satkunanathan, had sought refuge in South after he had been harassed by the Sri Lanka Army intelligence operatives 2 years ago, residents in the area said. Recently, he had returned to Achchuveali. The attackers, believed to be from an SLA squad had come in motorbikes Saturday night and have taken him away before hanging him to death at the grounds, the residents further said.
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Colombo fears judgment against Rajapakse in US Courts

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 June 2011, 02:35 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Attorney General’s Department is to “retain a lawyer to oversee the [Sri Lanka’s] President’s interests in the US District Court which had issued the summons on Rajapaksa,” latest edition of Sunday Leader said quoting Justice Ministry Secretary Suhada Gamlath. The statement reflects a change in strategy by Sri Lanka’s Justice Ministry which said last week that it had received the summons but the [Sri Lankan] government would not respond to it. “Under our laws, the President has immunity,” Gamlath had told the media last week.
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Commonwealth calls for investigation of Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 June 2011, 13:09 GMT]
The Commonwealth has called on Sri lanka to conduct “a full, credible, and thorough investigation” of the atrocities detailed in Channel 4’s documentary, ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’. A statement by Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma’s spokesperson said: “The Commonwealth has long supported the peaceful resolution of the civil war in Sri Lanka, and recognises that genuine and sustainable reconciliation must include investigation of alleged war crimes and accountability of those responsible, and the promotion of justice.”
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Sivajilingam, Sri Kantha decide to join TNA, restructure TELO

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 14:46 GMT]
Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians as well as Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) leaders Mr. Sivajilingam and Mr. Sri Kantha have decided to dissolve their newly formed party Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) and to re-join TELO and TNA, with a view of strengthening TNA and restructuring TELO to meet the demands of the times. They took the decision after a group of former TELO members in the diaspora taking the initiative to speak between them and the TELO president cum TNA parliamentarian Mr Selvam Adaikalanathan. The decision revealed in a press meet in Jaffna on Saturday will be officially announced in the 20th Annual Conference of TELO convened to take place in Vavuniyaa on Sunday. TELO is one of the constituent parties of the TNA. Mr. Selvam Adaikkalanathan confirmed the reunity that is taking place in TELO.
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New transfer scheme for teachers in East from January

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 14:14 GMT]
The cabinet of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) has decided to remove M.T.Nizam from the post of Provincial Director of Education, transferring him to another post in the Provincial Ministry of Education, said Mr.M.S.Uthumalebbe, media spokesman and the provincial minister of road development. The aborted teacher transfer scheme was considered the brainchild of Mr. Nizam in the EPC circles. The controversial teacher transfer scheme, was suspended for another six months, when teachers
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‘Sinhala only’ implemented in Trinco DDC, DAC meetings

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 14:00 GMT]
Conducting meetings of the Trincomalee District Coordinating Committee (DDC) and District Agricultural Committee (DAC) and other important conferences by the Trincomalee District Secretariat solely in Sinhala language has caused dissatisfaction among the Tamil speaking members. Two third of the population in Trincomalee district is Tamil speaking people. Most of the Rajapaksa appointed heads of government departments and officials attending the conferences are Sinhalese. Earlier, there was a translator to translate Sinhala and Tamil at meetings and conferences held in Trincomalee district secretariat to facilitate members of all communities to understand the proceedings. Now the translator is removed by the Trincomalee district secretariat.
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Sri Lankan peace group admits level of SL military rule in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 13:00 GMT]
“Citizens of the North, including school teachers, believe that any meeting, including a school meeting, has to be authorized by the military,” said a press statement issued by a Colombo based peace group, National Peace Council, following the recent attack on TNA meeting in Jaffna. “While a strong military presence in the North following the war may allow many a sense of security, it must be remembered that the intervention of armed force in daily civil life cannot foster reconciliation or give a sense of security to the people,” the statement issued on Friday said.
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Left Front protests against SLA attack on TNA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 12:47 GMT]
The Left Front, led by Vickramabahu Karunaratne, on Friday staged a protest in Colombo against the attack on Tamil National Alliance election meeting in Jaffna. The attack on TNA meeting, carried out by an SLA contingent that was led by a Sri Lanka Army Colonel and two Major rank officers, was a “planned attack with a political directive from the top,” Dr. Karunaratne alleged. United Socialist Party, Socialist Party, Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) of Mano Ganesan and the Tamil National Alliance took part in the protest.
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Students union blocked in Jaffna University, aid to war victims affected

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 10:00 GMT]
The Jaffna University administration continuously proscribes the functioning of its students union. The Vice Chancellor Prof. Vasanthi Arasaratnam recently told the elected representatives of the union that they could function only when SL minister Douglas Devananda and SL minister for higher education, S B Dissanayake permit them. She told the newly elected representatives for the current academic year to meet the said ministers personally and have talks with them for the recognition of them as office bearers. The intention behind the stand expressed through the Vice Chancellor is to make the students union a stooge of the said ministers, accuse student circles in the university. Meanwhile, aid given to war-victim Vanni students thorough the union is stopped due to dysfunction of the union.
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SL Army orders against renting halls to TNA, political parties

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2011, 19:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna comes out with intimidating ‘unofficial orders’ to owners of public halls in Jaffna, not to rent halls to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) or to any other political party critical of the Colombo regime to conduct political or public meetings, news sources from Jaffna said. Colombo has decided to completely prohibit all political campaign of Tamil parties against it and in this respect, the occupying Army in Jaffna has received instructions from the SL defence headquarters in Colombo to stop the use of public halls in Jaffna, the news sources further said. Meanwhile, the TNA is also prevented from the use of loud speakers for its political campaign in the civic elections. Authorities chased out TNA workers, who went to get permission for the use of loud speakers on vehicles for political campaign.
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Tamils' land acquired to construct Arabic institution in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2011, 16:41 GMT]
Ea'raavoor Urban Council Chairman Ali Zahir Mowlana, a close ally of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been blamed for illegally acquiring lands that belong to 17 families of forcefully displaced Tamils from Ward 3 and 4 of the Ea'raavoorpattu in Chengkaladi division, to construct Arabic College with aid from Arab countries while the Sri Lankan police refuses to vacate the other 40 houses it has occupied with a police station.
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Transfer scheme in East postponed, teachers abandon trade union action

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2011, 07:34 GMT]
The controversial teacher transfer scheme, scheduled to be implemented in the eastern province before the end of June by the Provincial Ministry of Education under the direction of Provincial Governor was suspended for another six months on the orders of the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa. However the Provincial Director of Education said that the transfer scheme would be implemented from January next year with ‘amendments’.
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Tamil youth in UK mark Eezham identity with I'lantha'lir event

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2011, 19:14 GMT]
The Tamil Youth Organisation in Britain hosted Sunday an awareness event for ‘Eezham Thamizh identity’, with an evening of music, drama, dance and poetry. The event, named I'lantha'lir 2011, held at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall, began with the ceremonial raising of the Tamil Eelam flag outside the imposing art deco building, chosen for the quality of the acoustics which make it one of the UK's top venues for recording classical music. The performances opened with instrumental music using traditional Tamil instruments: Murasu, Thappai, Udukku, Changku (conch) and Kompu (horn). Many of the visitors touched or ran their hands through soil from Mullaiththeevu beach placed in a bronze bowl, and encouraged their children to do the same.
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Teachers unions to launch protest in East against transfer scheme

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 16:03 GMT]
Four major teacher trade unions Monday announced that they would launch token sick leave protest in the eastern province against the implementation of a controversial teacher transfer scheme. Under this scheme the provincial education ministry has been transferring excess teachers from schools.
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Colombo denies water to paddy crops of Batticaloa Tamil farmers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 15:59 GMT]
Irrigation facilities are denied to about 30,909 acres of paddy fields in several Tamil villages in the Batticaloa district as the Sri Lankan Mahaweli ‘Development’ Authority has stopped issuing water for the last one month and the livelihood of 8,580 families who are solely depending on the farming has been severely affected, according to complaints made by farming community sources to the District irrigation Authority and Agricultural Authority.
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After ‘eradication’ of 30 years of conflict Sri Lanka searches for ‘attackers in uniform’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 08:12 GMT]
After the complete eradication of 30 years of conflict, those who were present at the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) meeting at A’laveddi last Thursday have said that attackers had come in ‘uniforms similar to those of the Army.’ The SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has therefore directed Jaffna Army Commander Major General Mahinda Haturusinghe to inquire into the incident and take into custody those who were involved and punish them, said SL state run newspaper Daily News on Monday. The TNA parliamentarians in a press meet Friday said that they could identify two commanders of the Sri Lanka Army who led the Army assault on them Thursday.
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Law becomes an ass by inaction on UN report: Miliband, Kouchner

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2011, 18:30 GMT]
“If foreign policy is about anything, it should be about stopping this kind of inhumanity,” said David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner, writing in New York Times Monday and commenting on how Sri Lanka conducted the Vanni War and treated Tamil life as fourth or fifth class in the refugee camps. Both Miliband and Kouchner were foreign ministers of Britain and France respectively during the Vanni War. They said that in April 2009 they tried to stop the war. Now, responding to the UN panel report on war crimes in the island and citing the need of action, both the former foreign ministers said “We therefore call on our governments to set a deadline, soon, for satisfactory response from the Sri Lankan government, and if it is not forthcoming to initiate the international arrangements recommended by the report.
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CPI calls for all India solidarity with Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2011, 12:36 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI) in its National Council Meeting at New Delhi on 18-19 June, passed a resolution, demanding the Indian government to take into account the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on war crimes investigation and economic sanctions against Sri Lanka. Accusing Sri Lanka Army for violation of human rights, state terrorism and perpetration of mass murder of Tamil population in the island, the CPI demanded India to facilitate open enquiry on war crimes and resettlement of Tamils in their own places as well as media entry to monitor Indian aided rehabilitation. The party’s national council decided to observe July 8 as “All India Solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils Day” to press for peaceful political settlement to the ethnic conflict and appealed to other left and democratic parties to join.
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Sinhala GS actions threaten to disenfranchise Ka'n'nakipuram Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2011, 10:13 GMT]
Tamil residents in traditional Tamil village Kannagipuram East in Poratheevupattu Vellave’li DS division in Batticaloa are in the danger of losing their voting rights due to the discriminatory action taken by a Sinhala village officer T.Sugathadasa who is responsible to register their names in voters’ list by visiting each house in the village. The village is located between two Sinhala villages Bakkiella and Nugalanda along the border of the two districts Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai. Instead of visiting each house and register their names the Sinhala GS has asked Tamil people to come to his office located at Paalaiyadiveddai, several miles away from Ka'n'nakipuram.
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Sri Lanka’s “Novel way to kill tens of thousands”: The Times

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2011, 09:54 GMT]
“In a grotesque perversion of humanity, the military had considered the mechanics of human grieving and come up with a novel way to kill tens of thousands: they would drop an initial shell on a village, usually killing those too old, weak or young to take shelter in time. Then they would wait ten minutes — until people had gathered around dead or dying loved ones, trying to save them, or weeping over them — and then shell for a second time; thus wiping out whole families in 11 minutes flat,” says Caitlin Moran, in UK’s The Time’s review of the Channel-4 “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields,” widely believed to be “the most visceral war footage ever broadcast.”
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Sri Lanka internment camps compared to Nazi gas chambers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 June 2011, 18:42 GMT]
“We saw how the Sri Lankan government created protected zones whose only equivalent that I can think of are the gas chambers of the Nazis who duped their victims into believing they were safe and then killed them. Corralled into an ever-shrinking space, civilians were bombed and shelled. Thousands died. Desperate doctors performed amputations on children without anesthetic. Disease, starvation, infection decimated the population,” says an Israeli blogger in an article titled “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields – what genocide actually looks like” written after viewing the Channel-4 documentary on Sri Lanka’s war.
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SLA commanders of the assault could be identified: TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 June 2011, 09:44 GMT]
Convening a press conference at the Martin Road office on Friday, to brief about the blatant attack on a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) meeting at A’laveddi by the Sri Lanka Army on Thursday, the TNA members said that it was a calculated demonstration by the occupying Army to tell the Tamils of the north and east of the island that they are under military rule. Two of the commanders who led the attack could be identified, said TNA parliamentarian Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran. TNA would seek legal action and would hereafter go for house-to-house campaign, the parliamentarians said. The realities of the military rule by a genocidal Army prevent even the TNA holding public meetings in future, political observers in Jaffna said.
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Hague summons reaches Rajapakse for US Court case

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 June 2011, 06:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s local media reported that the Sri Lanka Justice Department has received the summons filed in connection with the Monoharan et al v. Rajapaksa (Civil Action No. 11-235(CKK) under the Hague Convention. This notification and demonstrated failure of Mr Rajapakse to answer the complaint will allow the Court to proceed to the next step in proposing a last resort attempt at service by publication or to move to consider a default judgment, plaintiffs’ attorney Bruce Fein told TamilNet.
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Controversial teacher transfers in East suspended

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2011, 12:26 GMT]
The controversial teacher transfer scheme in the districts and education zones of the Eastern province has been suspended due to the stiff opposition by teachers and students, sources in the East said. The transfer scheme, the brainchild of the militarized civil administration's governor, Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema, and Provincial Director of Education, M.T.A.Nizam, gave preference to Sinhalese and discriminated other communities based on political bias, teacher trade unions alleged.
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British commentator questions suitability of English cricket tour to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2011, 12:18 GMT]
Following the airing of Channel-4 documentary “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields,” Mike Atherton, cricket correspondent for UK’s The Times, compares Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse’s regime to that of Robert Mugabe’s in Zimbabwe and questions the suitability of England’s tour to Sri Lanka, scheduled for this winter. Atherton is a former England captain and Sports Writer of the Year 2010.
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SL Army brutally attacks public meeting of politicians, journalists in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2011, 16:34 GMT]
In what is seen as retaliation for Channel 4 broadcast Tuesday, the genocidal SL Army occupying Jaffna brutally attacked TNA parliamentarians, journalists and public in Jaffna on Thursday, causing injuries to an unspecified number of people, according to initial reports. The blatant attack by SL Army in uniform took place when the TNA politicians held a meeting at A’laveddi in Jaffna, inaugurating their political campaign for the forthcoming civic elections. Tension prevailed as SL Army was deployed in the area and the public that came for the meeting sought refuge in the nearby houses. “British diplomats satisfied with Army’s role in Jaffna,” said a website of the occupying Army on Tuesday, after the visit of the Deputy High Commissioner of UK, announcing ‘reintegration’ of ex-LTTE combatants in detention through the occupying Army.
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Britain: UN must investigate Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2011, 13:39 GMT]
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron called Wednesday in Parliament for a United Nations inquiry into war crimes committed during the final months of Sri Lanka’s war in 2009. Responding to a question by ruling Conservative Party MP Lee Scott following the previous night’s screening of Channel 4’s documentary, ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, Mr. Cameron said the film refers to "some very worrying events … The Sri Lankan government does need this to be investigated and the UN needs this to be investigated."
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Amnesty International appeals for halt to deportations to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2011, 13:12 GMT]
Amnesty International called Thursday for the UK Authorities not to deport Sri Lankans at risk of torture, ahead of a planned deportation in the afternoon from Gatwick Airport in London, echoing a call Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. At least twenty people, mostly Tamil, face forcible return on the flight, the rights watchdog said, adding it was aware of cases of deported asylum seekers being arrested and tortured on arrival in Colombo. At least one of the failed asylum seekers due to be deported tried to commit suicide last night at an airport detention facility, following threats he reportedly received on the telephone to kill him once he returned to Sri Lanka, Amnesty said.
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Colombo: Channel 4 film ‘fake’, made for LTTE supporters

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2011, 13:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka denounced a hard hitting Channel 4 documentary aired Tuesday on war crimes committed by both sides during the final months of the armed conflict in 2009 as propaganda by Tami Tiger supporters. Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the film was a ‘fake’ and that LTTE supporters had paid Channel 4 to make it. The External Affairs ministry echoed the charge, saying the film came from “a sinister motive driven by a political agenda against Sri Lanka” and had been made “at the behest of certain parties with vested interests”, for an objective that “caters only to the interests of separatist forces living outside Sri Lanka.”
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Sri Lanka offers attack aircraft to UN

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2011, 13:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka has offered to supply the United Nations with three Mi-24 attack helicopters and a pair of fix wing aircraft for peacekeeping duties, but a decision to accept would not only generate controversy, but potentially trigger a US review of Sri Lanka's human rights conduct, Foreign Policy magazine reported Wednesday. The Sri Lanka pledge appears calculated to improve Sri Lanka's relationship with the United Nations at a time when it is facing mounting UN pressure to hold alleged war criminals within the army's ranks accountable, UN officials told FP magazine.
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Sri Lanka rejects international investigation of war crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 22:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Wednesday again categorically rejected an international inquiry into war crimes carried out by its forces, footage of some of which was aired in a hard-hitting Channel 4 documentary broadcast Tuesday night. Asked by Al-Jazeera (English) if Sri Lanka would accept an international inquiry, government spokesman Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe replied “Absolutely not!” and added such calls were part of a “separatist, terrorist agenda” which, he said, “was extremely sad to find others falling in [with].” He went on to say: “I don’t think we’re going to play to the agendas of other countries.”
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HRW urges halt to UK deportations to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 22:30 GMT]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized Wednesday the British government’s decision to deport asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, saying they should not be sent back home until the situation improves there. Brad Adams, South Asia director of the New York based human rights organisation, told BBC Sinhala service: "we urge the British government to hold off sending people who could face persecution on return". He was speaking a day before Britain is scheduled to deport a large number of people on a chartered flight to Colombo.
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On burying evidence: The Guardian

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 12:43 GMT]
Placing the blame on the International Community and Human Rights Organizations for not preventing the mass murder in Sri Lanka where the Government allegedly killed 40,000 Tamil civilians, and for not documenting the atrocities committed there, The Guardian in an editorial comparing Sri Lanka crimes to the Genocide in Srebrenica, recommends Mahinda Rajapakse and his brother meet the same justice as Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic now face justice in The Hague, and Bashar al-Assad faces UN sanctions for an assault that has killed 1,300 Syrians.
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Tamil famers denied irrigation facility in East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 10:52 GMT]
Irrigation facility from Inginiyagala tank has been denied to more than 2000 acres of paddy cultivated in the Yala season in Tamil areas in 13th and 14th colony located on the border of the Batticaloa district for the last one month. One month old crops are facing destruction due to lack of water, according to complaints made by farmers at the coordinating meeting of the Vellaave'li Divisional Secretariat.
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Britain warns Sri Lanka to act on war crimes by year’s end

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 10:47 GMT]
Speaking after Tuesday’s transmission of Channel 4’s documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, Foreign Office Minister for South Asia Alistair Burt said Sri Lanka must carry out an independent, thorough and credible investigation of war crimes by the year’s end or UK would will support the international community “in revisiting all options available to press the Sri Lankan Government to fulfil its obligations.”
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Campaign for Channel-4 programme gains momentum in UK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 17:33 GMT]
Human rights and media activists in UK have published advertisements on TV channels, full page ads on Sunday and Tuesday papers and have distributed over two million leaflets urging the public in UK to view ‘Sri Lanka's Killings Fields’, a documentary produced by Channel 4 that has won awards for exposing Sri Lanka's war crimes. The show follows a group of Sinhala journalists, the Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) exiled from the island initially, chose the channel to release a gruesome execution video they had acquired from their sources on the ground in 2009. "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" would be globally viewable from the website of Channel-4 as the station has removed 'geo blocking' software from this programme for 7 days, to facilitate those outside the UK and Ireland to view the documentary after its broadcast Tuesday night.
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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister wants Delhi to change course

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 13:20 GMT]
“The Tamil Nadu legislative assembly has recently passed a resolution urging the Government of India to initiate action by working with other nations for the imposition of an economic embargo on the Government of Sri Lanka, until the Tamils who are now living in camps are resettled in their own places and are allowed to live with dignity and with equal constitutional rights on par with the Sinhalese,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said in her memorandum to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Tamil Nadu CM, who met the Indian PM on Tuesday told him that Sri Lankan Navy was harassing and torturing the Tamil Nadu fishermen and demanded cancellation of ferry service which was started Monday between Tutucorin in Tamil Nadu and Colombo. The memorandum submitted to Indian PM said on the resumption of ferry service that it “will not be advisable and it will be against the sentiments of the people.”
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SLA extorts money from Batticaloa milk producers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 11:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army intelligence unit personnel camped in Tharavai in Batticaloa district are demanding money from Tamil civilians under threat, sources in Batticaloa said. Intelligent unit personnel are alleged to be using an individual known as ‘Maniam’ for ‘collecting’ money from owners of dairy farms, persons employed for milk collection and farmers through intimidation. SLA intelligence personnel also visit houses where Tamils returned from abroad reside in Kiraan, Chiththaa'ndi and Vanthaa'rumoolai, demanding money from them under threat. Victims fear to lodge complaints with the police due to retaliation by the army soldiers.
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UK routeing ex-LTTE ‘reintegration’ through SL Army raises controversy in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 June 2011, 22:06 GMT]
Announcing a donation of 5,00,000 pound sterling (90 million SL rupees), and entirely accompanied by the occupying Sri Lanka Army, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Colombo, Mark Gooding, visited a detention camp run for ‘reintegration’ of ex-LTTE combatants by the SL military at the High Security Zone part of Thellippazhai in Valikaamam North, Jaffna, on Monday. The British government policy of accepting a genocidal military accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as competent authority for the ‘reintegration’ of the ex-LTTE combatants, and involving the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) of questionable local credibility in the process, raises controversy in Jaffna.
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Sinhala policeman found slain in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 June 2011, 15:21 GMT]
A 41-year-old Sinhala policeman from Ki'linochchi police station was found beaten to death at Umaiyaa'lpuram in Paranthan in Vanni Sunday morning. The dead body in civil, with beaten injuries on face and chest, was first believed to be a civilian and was taken to the mortuary at Ki'linochchil hospital. Later, the body was identified as that of Sinhala policeman, Ananada Samarakoon, sources in Ki'linochchi said.
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Koppe: Tamil demand for retributive justice justifiable

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 June 2011, 21:16 GMT]
Victor Koppe, the Amsterdam-based Bohler advocaten attorney, acting on the recent decision by European Court of Justice that he can legally represent the Europe-based political wing of the Liberation Tigers, said in an interview to the Sunday Leader, that his demand for annulment of the inclusion of LTTE in the EU's terrorism list is partly to stop the prosecution of Tamils in The Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, and other member countries. Legal sources in Amsterdam said that the Court's decision to allow the LTTE to grant power of attorney to Victor Koppe, may also establish the standing of the EU-based political wing of the Liberation Tigers to file other claims in the EU Court of justice, including possibly complaint against EU-members regarding international law violations arising from imposition of the ban during peace process.
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War crimes documentary publicity infuriates Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 June 2011, 15:23 GMT]
Media publicity surrounding the forthcoming airing of Channel-4 produced war-crimes video "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields," viewed as probably the most horrific" footage it has ever shown in an investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, evoked complains by Colombo to OFCOM, as Colombo unsuccessfully tried to keep the identity of the complainant from being disclosed. Colombo continues to attempt to discredit the video despite advice from seasoned political experts to persuade Colombo to take a more professional approach to dealing with the mounting crisis related to call for independent international investigation of war-crimes.
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Rathika makes maiden speech in English, Tamil and French

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 June 2011, 12:43 GMT]
Canadian Eezham-Tamil parliamentarian Rathika Sitsabaiesan representing Sacarborough-Rouge River constituency chose to make her debut speech in Canadian parliament Friday in English, Tamil and French. The New Democratic Party MP speaking on Budgetary Policy, and making part of her speech in Tamil, said that as the very first Member of Parliament from Tamil heritage, she was proud and humbled for being able to speak in the Canadian parliament in her mother tongue. Amidst applauding claps and shouts of “bravo” by fellow members she continued to say that Tamils who had come to Canada fleeing prosecution and civil war do their utmost to contribute to the economic development and cultural fabric of the great country that had received them with open arms.
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SL Intelligence intimidates Tamils to sell lands of Batticaloa coastal villages

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 June 2011, 07:06 GMT]
Tamil families in the coastal villages I'raal-oadai, Vadduvaan and Kaayangkea'ni are being forced to sell their lands to Sinhalese who are brought by Sri Lankan military intelligence personnel from elsewhere, according to complaints by the residents to the Divisional Secretary of Koa'ra'laippattu North DS Division in Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province. Some of the villagers have already been forced to sell their lands.
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Sitrampalam receives dead-dog threat

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 June 2011, 09:00 GMT]
A dog shot by gun and packed in a bag was put into the well of the house of Professor S.K. Sitrampalam in Thirunelvealy, Jaffna, on Thursday night. The emeritus Professor of Archaeology of the University of Jaffna and Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) stalwart recently gave an interview to a Tamil daily in which he has said that the Mu’l’livaaykkaal war was like Kurukshetra (the war of the Mahabharata epic) and Tamils should never forget it. In another incident recently Rev. Fr. C.G. Jeyakumar, the parish priest of Kayts and former director of Human Development Centre of the Catholic Church was humiliated by a group of thugs who bucketed him with dirt at his church. The identity of the assailants was traced to a private army operated by Sri Lanka Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
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Gotabhaya grooms private army in the north

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 June 2011, 06:13 GMT]
In order to absolve the Sri Lanka Army occupying the Tamil country from international accusations, but at the same time to continue terrorisation and subjugation of Tamils, genocidal Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has formed a private army in the north consisting of military intelligence personal and some members of the paramilitaries who had gone astray, news sources in Jaffna said. This new outfit headquartered in Vanni but operates mainly in Jaffna as groups of thugs, is responsible for many recent acts terrorising civil society movements, public protests and university student activities, the news sources further said.
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Channel-4: airing horrific images necessary to obtain justice for 40,000 killed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 June 2011, 02:23 GMT]
In a radio discussion on ethics of airing the documentary on "Sri Lanka's killing fields" which contains what Channel-4 calls "probably the most horrific images it has ever shown" Channel-4's Head of news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, explains that the absolute justification for showing the program is that nothing has yet happened after the UN expert panel's report revealed that there was credible evidence that massive war-crimes were allegedly committed by the Sri Lanka military on Tamil civilians. "People, and ambassadors to UN have to see the documentary and can decide for themselves if they are prepared to do nothing," Byrne adds.
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300 Tamils disappear in Batticaloa during SLA rule, alleges TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 June 2011, 02:02 GMT]
More than three hundred youths of both sexes have been reported disappeared after abduction in the Batticaloa district since the eastern province was brought under the control of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), said Mr.P. Selvarasa, district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian during the debate on the extending the State of Emergency for another month that took place in Sri Lanka's parliament on Wednesday.
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TNA MP blames Ampaa'rai politicians for allowing land grab

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 June 2011, 00:19 GMT]
All ministers and parliamentarians from the Ampaa'rai district seem to collaborate with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and they have no backbones to challenge the injustice done to Tamil and Muslim people based on ethnic, religious and language basis by the Colombo government, said Mr. P. Selvarajah, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian representing the Batticaloa district, addressing a meeting in Kalmunai last week.
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Poththuvil DS exposes SL Police link in Sinhala encroachment of Tamil village

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 June 2011, 22:16 GMT]
The Divisional Secretary, members of the Rural Development Society (RDS) and the residents of the village Ma'natcheanai, situated in Poththuvil DS division of Ampaa'rai district, have forced the SL Police at Poththuvil station to arrest 12 SL policemen including a Senior Superintend of Police (SSP) and a contractor employed by them for encroaching the lands of Tamil residents in the village where more than 150 families reside.
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Abducted Tamil child found deployed in slave labour in Sinhala district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 June 2011, 21:22 GMT]
The grandfather of an abducted 11-year-old Tamil boy from Batticaloa has been threatened by paramilitary for having braved to rescue his grandson from the grips of ‘treasure hunters’ who had deployed the abducted boy for slave labour in Dambulla. Mr. Velmurugu Sivalingam, the grandfather, upon receiving information on the whereabouts of his grandson, had rushed to Dambulla to rescue his grandson, Athisayarajah Soundararajah.
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TN Assembly passes resolution to indict Sri Lanka, impose economic sanctions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 June 2011, 08:44 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Wednesday mid noon unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Indian government to indict Sri Lanka for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the UN, and to work along with world countries to impose economic sanctions on Sri Lanka until Tamils in the island are rehabilitated and get equal rights. The resolution accused Sri Lanka on five counts based on the UN panel report. The DMK was absent at that time as it was boycotting the house on some other issue. The resolution was passed unanimously when more than two third were present in the house.
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TN govt was voted for getting justice to Eezham Tamils: CPI member

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 June 2011, 23:07 GMT]
Participating the debate on Governor’s Speech in Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Tuesday, the Communist Party of India (CPI) Deputy Leader in the Assembly and Sivagangai MLA, Mr. K. Gunasekaran, pointed out that the new government was voted by the people of Tamil Nadu to bring those who committed genocide on Eezham Tamils across the Palk Strait to justice. Declaring that the CPI considers what happened in the island is genocide and not merely war crime, Gunasekaran said that the TN Assembly should unanimously pass a resolution to penalise Mahinda Rajapaksa for the genocide. He also requested the TN Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalitha to lead the struggle for the right of Eezham Tamils over their country and said that the 100 million Tamils all over the world expect this from her.
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EU Court of Justice takes up LTTE case

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 June 2011, 16:49 GMT]
Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, on Tuesday, informed Victor Koppe, attorney for the LTTE, that the Court has taken up the case “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) vs Council of the European Union” (Case T-208/11-9) for hearing. The Registrar of the General Court informed the attorney that the case has been assigned to the Court's Second Chamber. Victor Koppe, filed the case against the European Union for the annulment of the European Union's ban on Liberation Tigers.
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SL Army, Police search Tamil residences in Trinco city

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 June 2011, 07:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police on Monday conducted house to house search in Trincomalee city and its suburbs. The SL military was checking household lists to find out whether any outsiders were staying in the city. Outsiders found staying with the members of families are questioned about their details and reasons for their stay.
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Campaign in London against war on Indian people

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 June 2011, 22:34 GMT]
Campaigning against the war the New Delhi establishment is waging on peoples in the Indian subcontinent, Arundhati Roy of India, Jane Myrdal of Sweden and Basantha Indramohan of Nepal, convene a meeting and discussion in London this Sunday afternoon at Friends House in Euston Road, London. International Campaign Against War on People of India and the Indian Workers Association (Great Britain) organize the programme. Speaking to BBC last week, Arundhati said India’s economic success a ‘lie’ as the countries poorest masses are suffering at the hands of corrupt governments bought and sold by big corporations.
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US attaché clarification, a linguistic legerdemain, accuses Boyle

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 June 2011, 00:03 GMT]
Response from the US State Department on the comments made this week by US defence attaché Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith in Colombo at the controversial 3-day seminar organised by the Sri Lankan military to expound on its defeat of the LTTE earlier this week that the remarks "reflected his personal opinions," and that "[t]hey [the comments] do not reflect the policy of the United States Government,” was "all linguistic legerdemain by the United States Government," accused Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in International Law and a professor at the University of Illinois School of Law.
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Tamils protest at Lords over allegations of Sri Lanka war-crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 June 2011, 04:47 GMT]
Tamil youth activists in Britain took their ‘Boycott Sri Lanka Cricket’ campaign to the Lords cricket grounds on Saturday, the third day of the second Sri Lanka v England test match this summer. Several dozen Tamil activists and supporters handed out leaflets to arriving spectators and cricket officials and staged a noisy demonstration opposite the famous grounds in the latest in a series of events organised by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) to raise awareness of the mass killings of Tamil civilians during the final months of Sri Lanka’s war in 2009, and call for a boycott of Sri Lankan cricket until Colombo agrees to an independent international investigation.
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LTTE mounts legal challenge, says post-Mu’l’livaaykkaal EU ban illegal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 June 2011, 00:20 GMT]
Amsterdam-based Bohler Group's attorney, Victor Koppe, brought an action on behalf of the European wing of the LTTE against the Council of the European Union at the European Court of Justice Thursday for the annulment of the ban on Liberation Tigers, arguing that the LTTE no longer uses military means to achieve its goals, and in post-Mu’l’livaaykkaal context, uses political and non-violent methods to achieve the movement's goals of obtaining Tamil justice and exercising the right to self-determination of the Tamil people. Koppe argues that these rights are protected by the doctrine of fundamental freedoms of speech, association, assembly and movement.
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US Defence Attaché in Colombo ‘embarrasses’ Obama administration

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 June 2011, 16:53 GMT]
“Remarks earlier this week by the U.S. Embassy’s Defense Attaché at a conference in Colombo reflected his personal opinions. They do not reflect the policy of the United States Government,” said a spokesman for the U.S. State Department Friday. The comment came in a statement officially distancing the USA from remarks made this week by its own defence attaché Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith in Colombo at the controversial 3-day seminar organised by the Sri Lankan military to expound on its defeat of the LTTE. The USA had earlier declined Sri Lanka’s invitation to attend the controversial seminar. The latest US controversy has raised questions whether the US military officials were also playing a ‘personal counter-insurgency’ role in the Sri Lankan State's war against Eezham Tamils.
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SLA instructs Jaffna fishermen to stay away from intruding Indian trawlers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 June 2011, 13:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army officers who instructed the local fishermen representatives in Vadamaraadchi North to come to their camps, have warned the Eezham Tamil fishermen to stay away from the intruding trawlers of Tamil Nadu fishermen after Indian trawlers began excessively poaching in the seas off Vadamaraadchi North, East and the islets since Wednesday last week after a 45-day annual break. During the last two days, the poaching by Indian trawlers was widely reported in the seas off Vadamaraadchi North, East, the islets and Mannaar. In the meantime, four Tamil Nadu fishermen on Friday swam to Neduntheevu, an islet off Jaffna, after their trawler sank in the seas following heavy winds on Thursday. 20 Tami Nadu fishermen were reported missing in the incident.
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SL Army in Jaffna defies judiciary, restarts photo registration

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 June 2011, 08:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna has restarted its terrorising mission of photo registration of people in Jaffna peninsula. Some times back, when the ‘obligatory’ SL military registration of the people in Jaffna was challenged in the courts by the Tamil National Alliance, the SLA said in the courts that it had stopped the process. But, while the matter is sub-judicial, the registration has restarted and forms to this effect are being distributed by the occupying SL military, accuses TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja. A few days ago, overlooking the SL Supreme Court's request to postpone the mandatory military training programme to students entering the universities, Colombo went ahead with the programme citing that it had already spent money on the project and students had already started travelling to the military bases.
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Discrimination continues in teachers appointment in East

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2011, 12:55 GMT]
A group of councilors in the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC), which already collaborates with Colombo have given a memorandum to the SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa complaining about the discrimination shown in the appointment of teachers to ‘national’ and provincial schools disregarding qualified Tamil medium teachers. P. Piyasena, a parliamentarian from Ampaa'rai elected on TNA ticket and later crossed over to the ruling UPFA and the EPC members S.Pushparajah and S.Selvarajah have signed the memorandum.
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330,000 voters ‘missing’ in Jaffna, Ki'linochchi electoral list after 2009 war of genocide

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2011, 12:21 GMT]
In 2009, the number of registered voters in Jaffna electoral district that comprises of the administrative districts of Jaffna and Ki'linochchi was 816,005. This figure has dropped to 481,791 entries in the register of the electoral district of Jaffna. On Thursday, Assistant Commissioner of Elections (ACE) of Jaffna Electoral District S. Karunanithi confirmed that the SL Election Department has removed 331,214 names from the list. “Most of them have fled the country,” was the official explanation by the ACE. The untold story is that the figure also includes the victims of genocide in Vanni from the Ki'linochchi district. Meanwhile, the date for local elections for 16 Piratheasa Chapais (PS) and three Urban Councils is fixed by the department to take place on July 23, the day when Tamils remember the victims of state-sponsored anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983.
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STF collects details of exiled Tamils from Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2011, 08:56 GMT]
The Special Task Force, an elite commando wing of the Sri Lankan Police and a part of the SL armed forces in the war against Tamils, has begun registering the names and other details of Tamils from Batticaloa, who are settled abroad. A group of personnel of Special Task Force dressed in black uniform conducted house to house search operation in Ea'raavoorpattu Chengkaladi division in Batticaloa district Thursday from 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
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U.S. case: Rajapakse ducks service, Court order sought for alternate service

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2011, 00:04 GMT]
Attorney for the three Tamil plaintiffs who filed civil action against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse for monetary damages under US's Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in the District Court of District of Columbia, informed the Court Tuesday that defendant, Mahinda Rajapakse, has avoided service of process by not accepting mail sent by recorded delivery to the Sri Lanka embassy and "Temple Trees," and that Plaintiffs are in the process of attempting to serve via Sri Lankan central authority in accordance with the provisions of "The Hague Convention," to which the U.S. and Sri Lanka are signatories. Plaintiffs will seek authorization from the court for alternate means of service, such as notification via a legal publication.
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Spain exercises universal jurisdiction in El Salvador killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 June 2011, 03:13 GMT]
Judge, Eloy Velasco Nuñez of Spain’s National Court, used the doctrine of universal jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed outside of the country, to issue arrest warrants on Monday for some of the top military leaders of El Salvador’s civil war, accusing them of meticulously planning and carrying out the killings of six Jesuit priests in 1989, New York Times said in its Tuesday edition. The 77-page charging document said that the 20 men named in the warrants never had doubts about “carrying out the most execrable crimes against people merely to impose their strategies and ideas.”
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War-crimes film, Heyns report, drown Colombo theatrics on terror

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 June 2011, 00:22 GMT]
Channel-4's announcement of screening of an hour-long film on Sri Lanka's killing fields at UN on 3rd June, and the presentation of video footage to the UN Human Rights Council by the UN special investigator into extrajudicial killings, Christof Heyns, spread a gloomy war-crimes cloud over Sri Lanka making the terror-summit in Colombo, a holiday-extravaganza for the military brass of several rogue nations. The terror-summit is widely perceived as an ill-conceived attempt to whitewash the criminal enterprise the Rajapakse brothers took in slaughtering more than 40,000 civilians and incarcerating more than 300,000 Tamils in internment camps in the war to defeat the Tigers.
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