SL Navy backs Indian poachers clashing with fishermen in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 October 2011, 15:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy Monday night engaged in giving protection to Indian trawlers that were destroying the fishing nets of local fishermen, according to S. Thavaratnam, the president of fisheries societies in Jaffna. The SLN has detained 33 fishermen from Munai in Point Pedro with their 12 boats alleging them for attacking the Indian fishermen, Mr. Thavaratnam told reporters. In the meantime, sources in Kaarai Nakar and in Point Pedro said Indian trawlers came close to the shores of Jaffna peninsula at many locations destroying the fishing nets put up by the local fishermen.
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SL Police registers details of residents in Trincomalee city

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 October 2011, 11:12 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Police in Trincomalee has started registering residents in Trincomalee city and its suburbs from Saturday evening. SL Police personnel were seen visiting households in Trincomalee city Sunday handing over printed forms to the chief occupant and asking him or her to write names of persons residing in the house.
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Aaduka'lam 2011: spectacular dance performances celebrate pursuit of World Peace

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 October 2011, 04:34 GMT]
Aaduka'lam 2011, an international dance competition hosted by the Tamil Youth Network in Munich, Germany on October 22 drew spectacular performances from Diaspora teams vying for the top prize. Staged in the Theater Leo 17, one of the city’s most prestigious venues, the event was organised by the Global Tamil Youth League, and had as its theme, ‘In pursuit of Global Peace’. Interpreting this, the performances depicted how all forms of oppression, as well as hunger, poverty and greed, needed to be confronted if this aspiration is to be realised. The competition was won by a British team which also won best prize for technical execution, while teams from Switzerland and Canada won prizes for choreography and costume.
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Britain echoes Canada’s warning to Sri Lanka on CHOGM 2013

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 October 2011, 16:40 GMT]
British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Sri Lanka on Sunday to make progress on human rights before it hosts the next Commonwealth leaders meeting in 2013 to prevent the likelihood of boycotts, AFP reports. Mr. Cameron also said he pressed President Mahinda Rajapaske during this year's summit in Australia to show that Colombo did not "have things to hide" following the end of the island’s civil war. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared last month he would not attend the CHOGM meeting in Sri Lanka “if we do not see progress in Sri Lanka in terms of human rights and … political reconciliation, democratic values and accountability.”
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Colombo pushes for 40,000 acres land grab for Sinhalese in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 October 2011, 15:48 GMT]
More than 40,000 acres of fertile lands that are located in border villages that come under the DS division of Koa'ralaippattu North, Vavu'natheevu, Ea'raavoorpattu, Chengkaladi, Koa'ralaippattu South and Paddippazhai in the Batticaloa district belonging to Tamil speaking people are under alienation to Sinhalese without the permission of the District Land Alienation Committee, the District Government Agent and Divisional Secretary and is undermining the Provincial Land Ordinance, says Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) member R. Thurairatnam. The EPC has not taken any action against the illegal encroachments Mr. Thurairatnam says in a memorandum to the Chief Minister of the EPC, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan.
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Confederation of civil groups formed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 October 2011, 18:01 GMT]
A confederation of people’s forums for humanitarian work was formed in Jaffna on Saturday morning, when representatives of various civil groups and civil activists met at the NGO Centre located at the Temple Road in the city. The decision to form the confederation was unanimously resolved at the meeting. President of the NGOs Consortium in Jaffna, Mr. CVK Sivagnanam and the Jaffna University Students Union President, Mr S. Thavabalasingham were elected respectively as Coordinator and Secretary of the confederation. Student union of the University of Jaffna took the initiative to convene the meeting. Such a confederation of civil groups to face human rights violations was formed in Jaffna on an earlier occasion too, when the ‘peace keeping’ force of India was occupying Jaffna.
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SL Police registering people in Batticaloa causes fear among residents

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 October 2011, 17:01 GMT]
Fear and tension prevail among residents of Batticaloa district following the re-introduction of registration of persons by the Sri Lankan Police. The SL police personnel, predominantly Sinhalese, have been collecting the details of residents living permanently and temporarily in Batticaloa. Students and others from remote areas such as Paduvaankarai, staying in Batticaloa for study and work, fear that their freedom of movement and security is threatened, civil sources in Batticaloa city said.
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SLA constructs cantonment in Mannaar causing fear among residents

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 October 2011, 16:37 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in Maanaar is constructing a cantonment at Chelveari area situated along Mannaar - Thalai Mannaar Road. For the last four days heavy vehicles such as armoured cars and tanks had been seen transporting materials for the construction, thus creating fear and tension among residents. This area is under the control of the Sri Lanka Navy for the last several years. The Sri Lanka Army has now moved into the area for the construction of a big new camp and repairing existing small camps.
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Perth Tamils join Australians protesting amidst attempts to bail out genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 October 2011, 22:57 GMT]
While Her Majesty the Queen was inaugurating the Commonwealth sessions in Perth, Australia, a few hundreds meters away, hundreds of Tamils have joined over a thousand of 20 diverse groups of the mainstream population of Perth to protest against Mahinda Rajapaksa attending the Commonwealth Sessions. The protest of the diaspora Eezham Tamils and global civil society took place while some Establishments guilty of abetting the crimes are keen in bailing out genocidal Sri Lanka by diplomatic manoeuvres in Perth and by hijacking the polity of Eezham Tamils elsewhere by simulating that everything is coming to normalcy and is under ‘control’. The outcome of Perth Meet will show to what extent the Commonwealth boasting of its origins from the ‘cradle of democracy’ could prove its effectiveness in checking States globally turning into anti-people Establishments, commented political observers.
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TNA MPs advocate for Tamils rights in U.S. capital

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 October 2011, 03:33 GMT]
Four Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Members of Parliament visiting the U.S. on an invitation by the State Department arrived Tuesday night and have completed two days of meetings at the State Department and with Congress persons including members of the Sri Lanka caucus, sources close to the MPs said. The team led by Parliamentary group leader Mr Sampanthan said that they were aware of the political significance of this unique gesture by the State Department in inviting a non-State political party and that they would use every opportunity available to articulate Tamils position to the decision makers in Washington.
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New Delhi’s anti-Tamil manoeuvrings challenged in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 October 2011, 21:19 GMT]
New Delhi’s Congress parliamentarian Dr. Sudharshana Natchiappan who was leading a team of ‘international parliamentarians’ visiting Jaffna on Thursday, was asked by news reporters, whether the visit was planned by India to bail out Colombo from war crimes accusations when a momentum is building up for international investigations of the crimes. The visit of the team brought by Natchiappan was timed for the Commonwealth Meet in Perth where war crimes of Sri Lanka and even its expulsion is a topic of discussion and was also timed for the US visit of the Tamil National alliance (TNA). The Indian Foreign Secretary on Thursday supported Colombo to be the venue for the next Commonwealth Meet and rejected the idea of Commonwealth monitoring human rights and rule of law in the member countries. After being covert for sometime, India once again openly props up genocidal Sri Lanka.
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Ban reminds Sri Lanka -again- about accountability

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 October 2011, 01:29 GMT]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed to the Sri Lankan government importance of dealing with accountability issues in themeeting on Wednesday at United Nations Headquarters in New York with Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Special Envoy of the President of Sri Lanka on Human Rights, the UN news agency said.
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Delink War Crimes accountability from political process, NorthEast civil leaders urge Clinton

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 October 2011, 01:43 GMT]
In a memorandum sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and copied to the Tamil National Alliance, a group of NorthEast Civil society leaders said that "the question of accountability [for war-crimes] should not be bartered for the sake of arriving at political solution [yet to be defined]," and added that the civil leaders believe that "justice cannot and should not be bartered for anything else," informed sources who obtained a leaked version of the confidential letter said Tuesday. The civil society group is comprised of politically active and highly respected professional members of the NorthEast Tamils.
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Another student activist attacked, civil society comes together in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 08:42 GMT]
A motorbike squad allegedly operated by the intelligence unit of the occupying Sri Lankan military Sunday night followed 27-year-old Rajavarothayan Kavirajan, a final year student at the art faculty of Jaffna University and severely attacked him and a fellow student, who were on their way from Poonakari to Paranthan near A-9 highway in Ki'linochchi district. Mr. Kavirajan was one of the student activists who organised the protest against the attack on Jaffna University Student Union president S. Thavapalasingam on 16 October. The new attack has come as the university students were continuing their strike for 8th day on Monday. In the meantime, civil society members in Jaffna got together on Monday and discussed the prevailing situation in Jaffna and resolved to take forward concerted actions in confronting the situation of terror prevailing in North and East.
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Channel-4 complied with broadcasting code, UK regulator rules

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 03:28 GMT]
The independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, the OfCom (Office of Communications) ruled that the Channel-4 video, "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields," that the documentary did not breach any broadcasting code, The Guardian said. As part of the campaign orchestrated by Colombo to discredit the documentary, OfCom received 118 complaints about issues including impartiality, offensiveness and the broadcast of misleading material, but concluded it had not breached the broadcasting code on any of these counts.
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Rajapakse accused of war-crimes in Melbourne Court filing

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2011, 16:01 GMT]
Sri Lankan-born Australian Arunachalam Jegatheeswaran filed an indictment on war-crime charges against the Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday, declaring he was seeking justice for thousands who perished in a series of aerial bombardments and ground attacks on shelters, schools, hospitals, orphanages and community centres. Rajapakse was leading a delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Perth.
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TNA goes to courts against land registration

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2011, 15:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance on Monday filed a case against the re-registration of lands in North and East. TNA MP for Jaffna Mr. Suresh Premachandran said the re-registration, taking place in North and East, was illegal and the recent protest and political appeals have failed to give any result forcing the TNA to file Fundamental Right Case at the Supreme Court of Colombo.
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K. Manoharan et al. v. Mahinda Rajapakse: Complaint, Summons

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 23:13 GMT]
As per order issued on the 13th day of October 2011, by the United States District Judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the District Court of District of Columbia, with respect to Civil Action No. 11-00235 (CKK) Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan, et al. v. Percy Mahendra Rajapakse, the Court Summons and the Complaint are published here in full. The 29-page complaint is published as a single PDF document, and as 29 separate jpg images, one for each page.
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No bartering of war-crimes accountability for political concessions: TNPF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 16:02 GMT]
Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), a post-war Tamil political formation in the island of Sri Lanka, in a press conference held Sunday morning 11:00 am at a Colombo residence, congratulated TNA leadership on the forthcoming visit to the USA, and said that the visit is a significant historic first where the US-State Department has extended invitation to a non-State Tamil political party, adding that the visit has potential for improving the political status of the Tamil people who have suffered within a majoritarian democracy for several decades. While pointing out that the TNA is carrying a tremendous burden on its shoulders to articulate clearly the aspirations of Tamils, TNPF cautioned that TNA, under no circumstance, should barter away Sri Lanka's accountability for war crimes for ‘political concessions.’
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Remains of dead SLA soldier recovered in Poonakari

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 09:10 GMT]
The remains of male body suspected to be of a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army was recovered by the SL police on receipt of information from a farmer on Thursday from Poonakari Vaadiyadi Villadikku'lam area in the Ki'linochchi district.
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‘Liam Fox was Sri Lanka’s influential friend in British cabinet’ – SL paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011, 07:37 GMT]
While the British government was quick in the wake of former Defence Secretary Liam Fox’s resignation to assert – somewhat unconvincingly, given a plethora of UK press reports about his activities - that he had “not” been running a shadow foreign policy in relation to Sri Lanka and other countries, one at variance from his government’s, the Sri Lankan Sunday Times made clear he had been. “Sri Lanka has lost probably the only influential friend it had in the British Cabinet,” the paper said in its editorial this week. In a separate editorial, the paper also mourned the loss of another friend of Sri Lanka – Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
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Consequences of Tamil genocide engulf entire island: Bahu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 October 2011, 12:44 GMT]
The regime of state terror, which started in the Tamil homeland has now become a menace everywhere in the island. The state terrorism, created on the basis of Sinhala chauvinism, is for a purpose; that is to assist certain neo liberal forces involved in plunder of resources, said Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne, the general secretary of the NSSP, who took oath as the newly elected Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) member for the Dehiwala Mount Lavinia municipal council on Friday. “So-called development of the government is based on displacement of people and plunder of resources. While people are pushed out of their traditional habitat land, marine resources, minerals and earth resources, forest, water resources etc., are taken over by the neo liberal developers. World powers that supported the genocidal war are happy and satisfied about the situation,” Dr. Karunaratne further said.
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Dutch court convicts 5 Tamils, says LTTE not "terrorist"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 October 2011, 01:42 GMT]
The Hague district court, by refusing to brand Liberation Tigers as a "terrorist" organization, defied the current European Union policy, but convicted five Tamil naturalized dutch citizens to prison terms for using "nonviolent threats to force Tamil exiles to donate to the Tigers." The Dutch decision, in addition to being a "significant public relations victory for the Tigers" will also be critical to the on-going case in the European Court of Justice to overturn the 2006 decision by the EU to put the Tamil Tigers on the terror list, the Washington Post said. Victor Koppe, attorney for one of the defendants, said he would appeal the convictions.
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Two females recovered dead from well in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2011, 19:17 GMT]
Two Tamil female siblings who were reported missing since Tuesday evening were recovered dead from a well Thursday at Pa'l'lakkoaddai village in Naanaaddaan PS division in Murungkan, Mannaar, according to legal sources in Mannaar.
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123,000 fall below poverty line in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2011, 18:58 GMT]
20.5 percent of the population in the Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province is beyond the poverty line, according to Sri Lankan Central Bank Advisor of the Poverty Abolishment Programme, R.Sri Pathmanathan. At an event held in Batticaloa last week, Mr. Sri Pathmanathan said Batticaloa district was one of the 14 poverty stricken districts in the island. The districts of Ki'linochchi, Vavuniyaa and Mullaiththeevu have not been included in the study, he said.
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Tamil groups urge New Zealand not to host SL President

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 October 2011, 10:30 GMT]
Tamil Action Front (TAF), an umbrella organisation of Eezham Tamil associations in New Zealand have urged the NZ government on Tuesday not to host Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa who plans a stopover in Auckland to watch Rugby Final Match and to be accorded with a dinner on Sunday on his way to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet in Perth, Australia. Accusing the NZ government for being tagged behind Australia in accepting war-crimes-accused as ambassadors, TAF in a letter to the NZ Foreign Minister urged the NZ government to support prosecution against the accused in the Australian court, independent international investigation of SL war crimes, suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and to work for the appointment of a Commissioner for Human Rights in the Commonwealth.
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Siddha Medical Faculty in Trincomalee to come under Colombo University

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 October 2011, 06:52 GMT]
The Colombo government is taking steps to bring the Siddha Medical Faculty now under the Trincomalee campus of the Eastern University with the University of Colombo. Academics in the East blame the move as a design of cultural genocide by Colombo that seeks to undermine the traditional medical science of the Tamil country. The transfer of the Faculty to Colombo will be affecting the education in the eastern province, complains R.Thurairatnam, a member of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) in a memorandum sent to SL Minister of Higher Education.
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Unidentified male body recovered from Mannaar coast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 October 2011, 03:03 GMT]
A headless highly decomposed body of a male was recovered along the coast of Mannaar Sea on Tuesday, sources in Mannaar said. Mannaar police took the body and handed it over to the Mannaar general hospital after being alerted by members of the public.
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SLN imposes pass system to fishermen in Jaffna lagoon

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 07:19 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy in Jaffna has again introduced pass system for fishermen engaging in fishing in the Jaffna lagoon, fishing community leaders in Jaffna csaid. During the recent election campaign in the North, the SLgovernment had annonced that it was withdrawing the pass system which has been in practice for several years. However, the practice is getting re-introduced and the SLN has taken over the control of Jaffna lagoon from the Sri Lanka Army. The SLN which brings fishermen from South and engages in hostilities against the fishermen from Tamil Nadu is engaged in a systematic process of colonisation of Tamil coastal areas in the North by bringing in fishermen from the South to settle in Tamil areas.
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Rajapakse says will defy Court Order, Shavendra hires NY law firm

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 03:13 GMT]
While Sri Lanka's media spokesperson told a website that Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapakse "will not answer and is not answerable" to charges in the complaint filed by three Tamil plaintiffs in the District Court of District Columbia, Shavendra Silva, an ex-army commander and currently Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) has hired a New York-based multi-national law firm as his defense counsel for charges of torture and extra-judicial killings filed in the District Court of Southern District of New York (SDNY). Both are civil cases.
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Sri Lanka in war crimes quagmire before CHOGM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 01:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka is sinking deeply inside a torrent of allegations of war crimes against three senior officials, including Sri Lanka's President, ten days before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is to take place in Perth, prompting Premier Julia Gillard to confirm that Australian Federal Police (AFP) is conducting investigations on Sri Lanka officials over allegations of serious war-crimes, and forcing shadow foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop to demand Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd to reveal whether the government knew about the allegations against Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe before it accepted him as Sri Lanka’s high commissioner.
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Buddhist stupa built in Kokku’laay after brutal attack on Tamil landowner

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 08:26 GMT]
An Eezham Tamil landowner in Kokku’laay in Mullaiththeevu district was brutally attacked receiving serious injuries when he refused to part with his land for the construction of a second Buddhist stupa in the locality. He was even chased away from the hospital where he was admitted, after severe warning. Koku’laay lagoon is the focus of Sinhala colonisation presently, as it is the key location for wedging the demographic contiguity of the north and east of the country of Eezham Tamils in the island, as well as direct communication between Mullaiththeevu and Trincomalee. A new Sinhala administrative division ‘Weli-oya’ comprising of Sinhala-Buddhist colonies has started functioning in the region last week and the division is expected to include Kokku’laay to cut off north and east permanently up to the very coastline.
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Sri Lanka's Ex-Navy diplomat accused of war-crimes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 00:02 GMT]
Citing evidence from Australian Tamil witnesses, the International Commission of Jurists, an international NGO dedicated to ensuring respect for international human rights standards through the law, has submitted a brief before the Australian Federal Police (AFP), to investigate Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia, former navy Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, for committing possible war-crimes, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald reported Sunday. Samarasinghe was the commander of the Sri Lankan navy's eastern and then northern areas, as well as naval chief of staff, during the final years of Sri Lanka's civil war.
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Sinhalese given lands in Tamil villages in East under Mahaweli Scheme: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 October 2011, 18:49 GMT]
Thirty Sinhalese families have been allocated lands under the Mahaweli Development Land Distribution Scheme in a traditional Tamil village Oamadiyaamadu located in Koa'ralaippattu North DS division in Batticaloa district. This planned land grab in Batticaloa district is being carried out on the direction of Colombo government led by SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Sinhala settlers block Tamils from fishing in Navakkiri tank in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 October 2011, 18:36 GMT]
Resettled Tamil people in 35th colony in Vellaave'li DS division in Batticaloa district are barred by from fishing in Navakkiri tank by Sinhalese from 36, 37 and 37 colonies on the orders of Samurdhi Authority officials in 36th colony. The Tamil families are told by the Sinhalese that Navakkiri tank belongs to Sinhalese and not to Tamils. Hence they cannot venture in inland fishing in the tank, according to affected persons.
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Colombo responsible for attack on JUSU Leader: Jaffna university students

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 October 2011, 17:37 GMT]
The successive SL governments in Colombo have been subjecting the student leaders of the University of Jaffna to state terror and harassment and the student community is not going to give up voicing for the rights of Eezham Tamils, said student leaders who addressed the gathering of more than 1,000 students at the University grounds Monday. The students carrying placards against the SL military boycotted their classes and came together in a meeting of condemnation against the attack on Student Union leader S. Thavapalasingam by alleged SL military intelligence operatives on Sunday.
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University student leader attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 October 2011, 13:06 GMT]
Suspected Sri Lanka Army intelligence personnel armed with sharp iron rods followed the Jaffna University Student Union leader S. Thavapalasingham in more than 8 motorbikes and attacked him at Kantharmadam in Jaffna seriously wounding the student leader who has been mobilizing students in democratic protests against the grease-devil threat recently. 24-year-old Thavapalasingham has been admitted at the Intensive Care Unit of Jaffna Teaching Hospital. This is the third iron-rod attack on prominent persons of the civil society in Jaffna after the Vanni war. Suresh Premachandran's secretary Ramesh, who now heads the Valikaamam East Piratheasa Chapai (PS) narrowly escaped from the attackers first. Later, in July 2011, the chief news editor of Uthayan daily, Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, was attacked by the motorbike squad.
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Foreign Office ‘relief’ at Fox resignation – The Times

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 October 2011, 01:59 GMT]
The Times newspaper Saturday described “a palpable sense of relief” in Britain’s Foreign Office at the resignation of Defence Secretary Liam Fox, whose “shadow diplomacy”, the paper said, “has seriously muddied the presentation of British policy abroad.” Although the Foreign Office had agreed to Dr. Fox visiting Sri Lanka to deliver a public lecture in July, after it added a phrase calling for an independent inquiry into crimes against Tamil civilians, suspicions remained. “There was a lot of suspicion about what was being said in private,” an FCO source told The Times. “We couldn’t be sure that there wasn’t unofficial diplomacy going on.”
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India urged to help tracing transfer of sovereignty document

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2011, 10:32 GMT]
Like the Kandyan Convention signed between the British and the chieftains of Kandy in 1815, which is a legal document for the transfer of sovereignty, the Portuguese signed a treaty with the Muthaliyaars of Jaffna after their conquest of the Kingdom of Jaffna in 1621. Earlier historians have cited the availability of a copy of the document in Goa, the former colonial headquarters of the Portuguese in the East. Whether India that proposes to help developing a museum in Jaffna would help tracing the document and similar Portuguese documents on Jaffna for the display of copies in the proposed museum, ask academics in Jaffna.
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Rift in TNA citing dissatisfaction in struggle spirit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2011, 06:36 GMT]
TULF politician Mr. Anandasangaree, who was earlier supporting Rajapaksa’s war, has born again now, being furious at the TNA’s lack of spirit in fighting against Rajapaksa over the land re-registration issue. He publicly accuses the TNA leaders, particularly Mr. Sampanthan and Mr Premachandran for not leading a people’s struggle against the issue. Mr. Anandasangaree and the PLOTE of Mr Siddharthan, both who earlier backed the genocidal Colombo, have joined the TNA in contesting the last civic elections and they were successful in capturing three local bodies. This week, Mr. Anandasangaree has convened a ‘general body’ meeting for the TULF in which he and Mr. Kanagaraja have respectively been named as General Secretary and President of the TULF. Sampanthan has responded by protesting to the election commission that the meeting was illegal and was breaching earlier court rulings.
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UK’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox quits as pressure mounts

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 October 2011, 16:05 GMT]
UK’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox has resigned from his post Friday afternoon amid mounting pressure over his working relationship with his flatmate and self-styled adviser Adam Werritty. Dr. Fox was widely accused of running a ‘shadow foreign policy’ on Sri Lanka and undermining Britain’s official foreign policy, a mysterious trust he set up to solicit private sector contributions to ‘development’ in Sri Lanka – with Mr. Werritty as its key contact - seems to have done nothing other than fund his visits to the island, and now it appears that Mr. Werritty’s globe-trotting to numerous places Dr. Fox was also visiting on official business, has been partly funded by a corporate intelligence company with “a close interest” in Sri Lanka.
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US Court authorizes use of TamilNet to serve Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 October 2011, 02:22 GMT]
In a precedent setting order issued by the District Court of District of Columbia Thursday on the case against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse filed by three Tamil plaintiffs, Judge Kotelly authorized service by "posting the full summons and complaint on the main page of the TamilNet website," and by publication in two Sri Lankan newspapers. Legal sources in Washington said that Rajapakse being haled into a US court to answer charges of complicity in the extra-judicial killings of plaintiffs relatives is imminent.
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Maldives defence minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 October 2011, 05:04 GMT]
Maldivian Defence Minister, Thalhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaanu, visited Sri Lanka’s occupying Army in the country of Eezham Tamils in Jaffna on Wednesday. His visit follows Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed’s unhindered support to genocidal Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa in shielding the latter from international war crimes investigation. The ‘hundred per cent Islamic country’ Maldives in recent times has entered into a number of agreements with Israel, the secret protocols of which are yet to be known to the public. However, the new friendship and the lease of one of the islands to Israel for ‘agricultural development’ are much talked about in Maldives. The support of US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake to Nasheed’s Maldives in the international organisations is not without reason, political observers say.
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India refuses landing to GTF leader, TNA plans visit to USA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 October 2011, 05:55 GMT]
The Indian government on Tuesday refused landing permission to the President of the UK-based Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Fr. S.J. Emmanuel, when he went to Chennai via Dubai. He flew back to Dubai. The GTF is a confederation of large Eezham Tamil diaspora organisations in leading western countries and Australia as well as democratically elected country councils in the West. Meanwhile, the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians led by Mr. R. Sampanthan are planning a visit to the USA on the 23rd of this month to discuss current political situation, media reports from Colombo said on Tuesday.
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"Racial supremacist ideology thriving in Sri Lanka"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 October 2011, 04:51 GMT]
"The status of Sri Lanka in the 21st century is of a political elite triumphantly thriving on racial supremacy ideology....CHOGM is the perfect opportunity to challenge Rajapaksa over his government's wilful murder of Tamils under the guise of defeating terrorism. It is arguable whether he should even be allowed into the country but if he arrives in Perth he should be made to realise that he has the blood of innocents on his hands," said Antony Loewenstein, an Australian independent journalist who sits on the advisory council of the UK-based Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, in the ABC's online column Wednesday.
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Improper Swiss disclosure to Sri Lanka endangered Tamil lives: Swiss TV

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 October 2011, 01:09 GMT]
Switzerland government improperly passing over information of 235 phone numbers to Colombo by the end of 2010 is feared to have contributed to arrests, disappearances or extrajudicial killings of Tamils traced by those numbers in the island, Switzerland National TV, Schweizer Fernsehen said Tuesday. Swiss gave the phone numbers in the island that were contacted by alleged LTTE sympathisers in Switzerland. Commenting, Social Democratic Party’s Luzern Canton parliamentarian Lathan Sudaralingam told TamilNet that accused war-criminal and former SL Ambassador Maj. Gen. Jagath Dias was instrumental in facilitating such transactions. “We have long been raising alarm on such human rights violations, but Swiss Government appeared to have allowed an alleged criminal to engage in more crimes while in Switzerland, and had allowed him to escape from facing prosecution,” Mr. Lathan said.
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Sri Lanka organises sea-paramilitary to attack Tamil Nadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 October 2011, 21:40 GMT]
Calling themselves ‘Somalian pirates’ a sea-paramilitary created and deployed by Sri Lanka’s Navy is intensifying its mid-sea attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen in the waters of the Palk Bay, Gulf of Mannaar and off the southern tip of India, news sources in Jaffna said. Largely Sinhalese from the south, along with a Tamil gang inducted by the SL Navy from Koddadi, a coastal locality near military occupied fort of Jaffna city, man the paramilitary. SL Navy has given military training to this outfit. A Sri Lankan minister is also suspected to be involved in the operation. Several lakhs worthy of fish catch of the fishing fleets of Tamil Nadu is routinely seized after attack by this paramilitary getting inside Indian waters, while the SL Navy holds off the fishing fleets along the maritime boundary. One such attack took place while the Indian foreign secretary was visiting Jaffna on Sunday.
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Forest destruction, land grab go unabated in Batticaloa: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 October 2011, 20:34 GMT]
Twenty thousand acres of grazing lands along the border villages in Batticaloa district have been fenced and allocated on lease to the families of the members of Sinhala home guards, according to Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.P.Selvarasa. 8.4 percent forest resources in Batticaloa district have now been reduced 6.4 percent and twelve thousand acres of forest land has been handed over to Mahaweli Development Authority by the Department of Forest, Mr. Selvarasa told journalists in Batticaloa. The SL Mahaweli Development Authority has allocated these lands to the Sinhala home guards at the rate of fifty acres per family, Mr.Selvarasa further told journalists while visiting the village of 38th colony this weekend.
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SL Police intimidated Tamil voters in Kalmunai: TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 October 2011, 23:26 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police had unleashed terror on Tamil voters who went to cast their votes and return after exercising their franchise in the Kalmunai Municipal Council election held Saturday, according to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) sources in Kalmunai. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) polled 22,356 votes (48.99%) and secured 11 seats. The TNA has secured 4 seats polling 9,911 votes (21.72%). The UPFA came third, securing 3 seats and the UNP 1 seat of the Kalmunai Municipal council.
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Colombo destroys herbal forest in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 October 2011, 21:38 GMT]
Several hundred acres of forest that contains herbal plants, situated along the coastal strip from Koa'ra'langkea'ni to Paalaiyadith-thoa'naa in Koa'ra'laip-pattu South DS division in Batticaloa district where rare medicinal plants are found are being destroyed deploying bulldozers for the past six days under the direction of Colombo authorities. On behalf of Colombo, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, a paramilitary leader and deputy minister in Rajapaksa government, has been heading the destruction in the name of ‘urban development and tourism’.
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Japan's defiance to adhere to UN Convention, leaves Tamil Refugees in limbo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 October 2011, 16:02 GMT]
Several refugees, fleeing repression and threat to life in Sri Lanka, are either being held in Japanese immigration jails, or have been temporarily released on "bail" after paying sums of between $2K to $5K, and these refugees are undergoing severe misery for more than two years, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group contacted by the asylum seekers said. Since becoming a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1981, and until 2008 Japan has admitted only 573 of a total 7,297 applicants under the guidelines set out in the convention while an additional 882 were granted permission to remain for humanitarian reasons, reports indicate.
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Snail pace delivery of houses with Indian assistance, mere 0.1% completed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 October 2011, 14:38 GMT]
Housing scheme for displaced civilians of North and East, announced by India last year, has failed to deliver, according to Tamil NGO and political circles in Jaffna. India had announced last year that it would construct 50,000 houses for the displaced in the North and East. However, only 53 houses have been constructed so far till October 2011, Tamil NGO sources said. Plans were afoot in Mannaar, Vavuniyaa, Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Jaffna in North to construct houses for the war-displaced people. Earlier this year, when asked on the lack of progress of Indian announcement, Indian officials in the island responded that at least one thousand houses will be constructed before the end of 2011. The officials diluted the commitment further indicating that the numbers also included repair of existing houses.
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Colombo accused of attempts to nobble Navi Pillay's budget

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 October 2011, 15:07 GMT]
Crediting Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, along with Zambia for the Human Rights Watch praise on UN Human Rights Council [UNHRC] for launching international investigations in Côte d’Ivoire, Libya and Syria, appointing an investigator to monitor developments in Iran, and extending the mandates of rapporteurs for Myanmar, Cambodia, Somalia and Sudan, The Economist, in an article in the 8th October edition, accused Sri Lanka of colluding with two other countries in "underhandedly' attempting to manipulate the Agency's budget, allegedly to limit Navi Pillay's efforts to focus on allegations of war crimes against Sri Lanka.
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Tamil opinion backs Bahu, Mano

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 October 2011, 18:54 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance and the Tamil National Peoples Front have urged the Tamil speaking people in the Western Province to support Wickramabahu Karunaratne and Mano Ganesan of the Democratic National Front (DNF) in the civic elections in the South. While Selvam Adaikalanathan and Mavai Senathiraja of the TNA in their speeches have urged the Tamil speaking population in Colombo to back Dr. Vickrmabahu and Mr. Mano Ganeshan, Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam and Selvaraja Kajendren of the TNPF came out with a statement urging the Tamils to back the courageous leaders of the DNF who have been openly expressing support to Tamils Right to Self-Determination at a time when some individuals of Tamil parties claiming to represent Tamils were displaying dubious conduct on the fundamental principles of Tamil Nation.
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SL military collects details on ex-LTTE members in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 October 2011, 13:22 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka Army soldiers in Jaffna and Vanni have again started collecting details of former LTTE members. The SLA, using new forms from Colombo, is registering details of ex-Tiger members who had left the movement several years ago and of those who were detained and released by the SLA after the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009. The SLA has been registering the details of former LTTE members since it seized the control of Jaffna peninsula from the Tigers in 1996. The SL military also registered the details of the LTTE members whom it took into its custody in 2009. The SLA is now collecting data on the whereabouts and details on what the former LTTE members are doing now. Even the identities of the dead ones are being verified, sources in Jaffna said.
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Sinhala encroachment of grazing lands continues unabated in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 October 2011, 20:32 GMT]
Under the direction of SL authorities in Colombo, the Ampaa'rai District Agrarians Services Department has begun issuing permits to Sinhala encroachers on grazing lands in the Batticaloa district giving permanent status. Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr.P.Selvarasa addressing a meeting of the farmers at Vavu'natheevu DS secretariat last week requested the Sri Lanka Government Agent of Batticaloa District to stop legalizing encroachment by Sinhalese on grazing land located in Vavu'natheevu, Paddippazhai and Vellaave'li DS division in the Batticaloa district.
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Tamil student reported missing in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 October 2011, 20:20 GMT]
A 16-year-old student who left his home at U'rukamam in Karadiyanaa'ru in Batticaloa on September 29 to visit his relatives in Aiyangkea'ni in Ea'raavoor has failed to return since then, according to a complaint lodged with the SL Police at Ea'raavoor by his parents. The victim, Amarasingham Vimalraj, has been a student of Karadiayanaa'ru MV and attending GCE O/L classes.
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"Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" to be screened at EU Parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 October 2011, 03:35 GMT]
Three international Human Rights watchdogs, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group (ICG), and Human Rights Watch (HRW) are jointly organizing the screening of Channel-4 documentary "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields," at the European Union Parliament Wednesday (12th), invitation sent to decision makers said. The documentary has been shown at the legislative bodies of western capitals including Washington, Ottawa, London, Wellington (NZ), and Oslo, and United Nations in Geneva and New York, and has triggered calls for international investigation on war crimes in Sri Lanka.
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US knew Rajapaksa election was irregular

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 October 2011, 20:24 GMT]
A classified cable of the US Embassy in Colombo, made available through WikiLeaks, shows that the US Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis has informed the US government about a Rajapaksa order to eight SL Government Agents to send election results directly to SL President’s house for his review before sending them on to the SL Election Commissioner. The Ambassador also has cited other irregularities, frauds and intimidations in the last SL Presidential Elections. However, the US Government ‘congratulated’ Rajapaksa on his election and it regularly used to appreciate ‘democracy’ in the genocidal State, Tamil politicians commented.
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SLA encroaches 100 acres of farmland in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 October 2011, 17:20 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in Vanni has forcibly taken over about one hundred acres of farmland situated between the villages Shanthapuram and Kanakaampikaik-ku'lam 5 km southeast of Ki'linochchi town. Earlier, the farmland was the livelihood of hundreds of people under a poverty alleviation scheme under the civil administration of the LTTE. A church and a well used by the residents of Shaanthapuram and Ira'naimaduk-ku'lam are also located in the land militarised by the occupying SL military. The SL military says it wants to exhibit military hardware seized from the Tigers in the farmland, which is situated near Ira'naimadu.
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Missing Muslim youth in Batticaloa found dead after one month

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 October 2011, 16:51 GMT]
A 17-year-old Muslim youth reported missing from 05 August was found dead on Friday. The police recovered the highly decomposed body in Meeraakea'ni area. The youth, a resident of Meeraakea'ni village in Ea'raavoor division has been identified as Abdul Majeed Harris Anwar. According to a complaint lodged with the Ea'raavoor Police by his sister, the deceased was last seen before he left home to collect firewood in the nearby cashew plantation.
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Dutch Court overrides Koppe's challenge against Judges

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 October 2011, 02:30 GMT]
The Hague Chamber of Recusal ruled that the panel of three judges in the case of five alleged Dutch Tamil citizens charged with providing material assistance to Liberation Tigers, can continue, after the panel considered a challenge to the judges submitted by defense lawyer, Victor Koppe, for refusing to let Koppe continue with the 200-page address beyond 5:00 p.m., Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) reported Monday. Koppe said the trial was "unfair" as the Judges "shamelessly ignored his request for an additional 30 minutes of defense argument.
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UK Labour party calls for Sri Lanka's War Crimes investigations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 October 2011, 18:57 GMT]
Speaking to Tamil supporters at a meeting during the Labour party conference Wednesday, Douglas Alexander MP, the British Shadow Foreign Secretary, said his party supports the establishment of an international commission to investigate the “acts of unconscionable violence” perpetrated in the final months of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict in 2009, a press release issued by the British group, Tamils for Labour. "Investigation held under international auspices was essential given that there are “profound concerns” regarding the independence, accountability and witness protection capacity of Sri Lanka’s domestic inquiry, the ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission,’" Alexander further said, according to the release.
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Rajapakse, an enemy of all mankind, filed U.S. Court papers say

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2011, 17:07 GMT]
In a potential precedent setting motion filed in the U.S. District Court of District of Columbia, Bruce Fein, attorney for three Tamil plaintiffs, requested Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, to authorize issuing summons through latest electronic social networks and local papers to the defendant, Sri Lanka's sitting President, Mahinda Rajapakse, forcing the defendant to answer war-crimes charges, paving the way for Court determination of civil claims of $30m, legal sources in Washington said. Arguing that Rajapakse is "hostis humani generis," an enemy of all mankind, the motion provides legal precedence to establish that Rajapakse's crimes fall under Universal Jurisdiction applicable under TVPA.
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Congressman Honda calls for war-crimes accountability

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2011, 16:01 GMT]
Citing Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International's criticism of Sri Lanka's failed accountability through the locally constituted "Commission," and highlighting the atrocities described in the UN Panel's report, California Congressman Honda said in a US Congressional debate Thursday that a independent international mechanism is necessary to investigate Sri Lanka's war-crime allegations. However, the Congressman, appeared to be adhering to the soft foreign policy on Sri Lanka laid out by Asst. Secretary of State for South Asia, Robert Blake, by continuing to express faith in Government of Sri Lanka to "to provide for the peaceful well-being of all its people."
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Canadian parties join in screening Channel-4 documentary in Parliament

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2011, 06:47 GMT]
“As a Member of Parliament to Barrie, I was proud to host the screening of the UK Channel 4 - Sri Lanka’s Killing Field documentary in the Canadian Parliament on Wednesday, September 28th,” said Patrick Brown, Conservative MP for Barrie in a statement issued Friday adding that “we can all take this noble cause forward till we see freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Sri Lanka.” The well-attended screening, organised by Human Rights Watch in Toronto, was co-hosted by NDP’s Rathika Sitsabaiesan and Liberal’s John McKay.
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