SLA denies permission to Thirumavalavan to meet public in Jaffna

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

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 04:08 GMT]
Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi Friday directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to expedite the investigation into the cases against twenty-seven Tamil civilians arrested in connection with alleged terrorist activities and to report to the court on the progress made so far, on September 29. The order was made following Defence Counsel claiming that the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) was acting unfairly in its investigations.
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JMC election candidates complain of police malpractice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 13:01 GMT]
Candidates contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election raised complaints about police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna assisting ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) persons pasting election campaign wall posters displaying the images of President Mahinda Rajapakse and Minister Douglas Devananda even during SLA imposed curfew hours in Jaffna town, in a meeting held by police authorities in Jaffna Sunday at Vembadi Girls’ College in Jaffna to discuss security arrangements for the contestants, sources in Jaffna said.
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Ilanthirayan seriously wounded in SLA barrage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 15:38 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Military Spokesman Irasiah Punitharooban alias Ilanthirayan (Marshall) sustained heavy injuries in the latest artillery barrage by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the early hours of Sunday, sources close to LTTE in Vanni told TamilNet.
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Norway Tamils ballot-test political course

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 08:50 GMT]
"After deliberately abetting the process of ethnic polarisation to its height reaching genocide, and after creating a situation that warrants secession more than ever, the international community and India, vested with their own interests, have started talking about a federal solution. It is time that the Tamils have to democratically test the validity of the political course democratically set for them in 1976 by the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution and democratically tell the world what they want now," commented a self-exiled Tamil politician of the pre-1977 times responding to a ballot on Vaddukkoaddai resolution taking place among Eezham Tamils in Norway on Sunday.
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15 Tamil civilians arrested in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 17:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police jointly conducted several cordon and search operations in the Tamil villages of Chaampalththeevu, Nilaave'li, Chelvanaayakapuram, and Kanniyaa in Trincomalee district Tuesday. Police said the operations were conducted to check infiltrators entering Trincomalee town and its suburbs.
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SLIC official reported missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 16:53 GMT]
An officer of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) Jaffna office has gone missing since Wednesday while returning home after duty along Kallu’ndaay Veethi in Jaffna, according to information given by his relatives to SLIC Jaffna office and Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office. Meanwhile, a family man from Achchuveali sought protection to his life in Jaffna Magistrate Court due to death threats, sources in Jaffna said.
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Thanthai Chelva’s 111th Birthday commemorated in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 16:28 GMT]
Hundreds of persons including several dignitaries took part in an event Tuesday morning to commemorate the 111th birthday of Thanthai Chelva, late S. J. V. Chelvanayagam, respectfully known as the Father of Tamil Nation, at the Thanthai Chelva Square in Jaffna town. Rev. Dr. S. Jebanesan, the president of Thanthai Chelva Trustee Board, presided at the event and delivered the memorial address. Later in the evening a memorial service was held in St. John’s Church in Chu’ndikkuzhi where Rev. Dr. S. Jebanesan paid tribute to Thanthai Chelva.
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Tamil journalists applaud “Women of Courage” award to Srinithy Nandasekaran

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 11:46 GMT]
Magistrate Srinithy Nandasekaran, who had served earlier in the courts of Vavuniyaa, Jaffna, and Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts), and currently a Magistrate in the Colombo Juvenile Court, was recognized as a South Asia Regional Finalist for the US Secretary of State's Women of Courage Award by the U.S. Ambassador Blake in Colombo on 24th March. Commenting on the award, a senior journalist said: "Ms Nandasekaran took strong, legally admissible steps to reign in on the Sri Lankan military's attempts to encroach into basic freedom of movement and rights of Jaffna residents. She ruled that the military cannot wear black masks during duty, and was a staunch critic of the road blocks the military forces set up that created hardship to the normal life of civilians."
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‘UN must protect civilians in Sri Lanka’ – Tutu, British academics

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 04:57 GMT]
Demanding that the UN protect civilians in Sri Lanka, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and several leading scholars at British universities have written an open letter to the British government urging it to press for a UN Security Council Resolution authorising a fact-finding mission to the island’s Northeast. “The deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation throughout the war-afflicted areas of northern and eastern Sri Lanka warrants immediate attention and action by the Security Council,” the letter, published in the Times newspaper, said.
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Lankan-ness Vs the Tamilness: thoughts of A.J. Canagaratne

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 16:48 GMT]
Is it possible in today's context to be both a Tamil and a Sri Lankan? I think it is, provided our leaders are statesmen enough to treat all communities as equal and guarantee this equality both in practice and constitutionally. Only time will tell whether the Sinhala political leadership can stop playing games of one-upmanship and indulging in political manoeuvring. It's high time they stop being fixated on a unitary state and think along the lines of a fully federal set-up to preserve the unity of this country, wrote AJ in 2005, a year before his demise, reviewing a publication ‘ Being a Tamil and Sri Lankan by Professor K. Sivathamby.
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Samaraweera to raise Colombo's rights violations with U.S.

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 04:13 GMT]
Asserting that Mahinda Rajapakse regime is “the darkest, the most brutal and the most ruthless,” that has ruled Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera, the convenor SLFP (M), in an interview published in this weekend Sunday Leader, said that he will “seek an appointment with the US State Department and the incoming Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton,” to offer evidence related to human rights violations committed by “Gotabaya [Rajapakse] and Basil Rajapakse as well as Sarath Fonseka…The US must deal with these people. They have an obligation to deal with them.”
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Unprecedented civilian carnage in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 18:44 GMT]
Fifteen civilians including 5 children were killed and 29 seriously injured in the relentless artillery barrage that Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) kept pounding the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Visuvamadu, Udaiyaarkaddu, Chuthanthirapuram and Maa'nikkapuram areas in Mullaiththeevu district Tuesday, sources in Vanni said. SLA continued its artillery barrage on the IDP settlements Monday from 11:00 a.m till 12:30 p.m in Chuthanthirapuram and Theavipuram areas in Vanni killing two IDPs and seriously injuring nine including children.
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13 civilians wounded in SLA shelling on Pongkal day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 09:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells targeting civilians who have been moving from other areas of Vanni towards Puthukkudiyiruppu, causing injuries to 13 civilians, initial reports from Puthukkudiyiruppu said. The indiscriminate shelling has targeted Kaiveali settlement in Puthukkudiyiruppu division of Mullaiththeevu district. The bombardment comes on civilian settlement comes on Pongkal Day, a common festival of Tamil identity. The Tamil diaspora has called off Pongkal celebrations.
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Kalmunai police detain 7 Tamils, 5 Muslims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 20:47 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police jointly conducted a cordon and search Sunday from 6:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m arresting 12 youths, including 7 Tamils and 5 Muslims, in Kalmunai Police division in Ampaa’rai district. The youths were taken into custody as they failed to establish their identity and they will be produced in the court, Kalmunai police said.
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Slain parliamentarian Maheswaran’s death anniversary held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 16:24 GMT]
Hundreds of people from different parts of Jaffna peninsula took part in the first death anniversary of Mr. Thiyagarasa Maheswaran held Sunday around 9:00 a.m in the Trustee Board Hall of Kaarainakar Sivan Koayil in his home town. He was gunned down while observing prayers in Colombo Ponnampalavaa'neasvarar Koayil on January 1 this year.
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Elderly man killed by SLA field bike in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 14:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers riding a field bike knocked down an elderly man seriously injuring him Tuesday at Koa’ndaavil junction on Kaangkeasanthu’rai road in Jaffna. The elderly man was rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, sources in Jaffna said.
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Elderly woman knifed to death in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2008, 22:16 GMT]
An elderly Tamil woman was knifed to death while in her house on Thursday night by unidentified men. This killing took place at Chekkadippulavu in Chelva Nakar in Vavuniyaa.
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Vaiko urges British Parliament to restore Eezham Tamil sovereignty

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2008, 19:06 GMT]
Vaiko, the general secretary of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam (MDMK) from Tamil Nadu, while addressing British parliamentarians of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Tamils on Wednesday in the British Parliament, said that the British Parliament has a moral responsibility to rectify the historic injustice caused on to the Eezham Tamils during the colonial rule. It was the British who statutorily put the Tamil and the Sinhala territories together in 1833, made Ceylon a unitary entity and refused to consider federalism in their constitutional reforms. When they left in 1948, they passed on the power to the Sinhala majoritarian rulers, he said.
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Mother, son, grandson shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2008, 16:56 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen forcibly entering a house Tuesday around 7:30 p.m in Ka’luvaangchchikudi police division shot and killed an 80-year-old mother, her son, a retired village officer (Grama Sevaka) and grandson in a family, sources in Ka’luvaangchchikudi said. Meanwhile, more than a hundred civilians have been arrested and detained on suspicion following the killing of two Special Task Force (STF) commandos in a Claymore attack Tuesday morning in Ka’luvaangchchikudi, in a cordon and search conducted by the STF and the police.
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