President Rajapakse will give nothing to Tamils – Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 06:49 GMT]
“Tamils should be vigilant of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse’s intentions. He says that there is no minority race in the country but only a majority race. It is clear that his intention is to assimilate the Tamil race into the Majority Sinhala race in Sri Lanka,” Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, told TamilNet Saturday in an interview in Jaffna.
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Ruling party supporters confiscate voting cards in Jaffna – TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 17:11 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran alleged that the ruling party contestants in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election had forcibly confiscated more than 1500 voting cards from residents in Kozhumpuththu’rai, Ariyaalai and Eachchamoaddai area in Jaffna, in a press meet held in his Jaffna office Saturday. TNA parliamentarians Gejendrakumar Ponnambalam and Solomon Cyril along with Thamizharsuk Kadchi (TK) chief candidate Mudiyappu Remedias attended the press meet.
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Commencement of bus service via A9 route from Jaffna doubtful

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 08:45 GMT]
Government announced that transport service for public between Jaffna and Colombo will commence from 1 August but the officials of Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) in Jaffna who have to provide the buses said that they had not received any instructions from their superiors in Colombo. The five buses which took 210 passengers from Jaffna on 22 July in an event inaugurated by Basil Rajapakse, the brother and advisor of President Mahinda Rajapakse are being held back in Jaffna by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), they further said.
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Police recover bodies of 2 youths killed in Delkanda

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 July 2009, 09:53 GMT]
Police recovered the bodies of two youths killed, one in Delkanda and the other in Ratnapitiya, with hands tied and face covered in cloth, Thursday morning, police spokesman, Ranjith Gunasekara said.
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Army officer appointed as Commissioner of Rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 July 2009, 11:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse has appointed Major General Daya Ratnaike as the new Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, the government information department announced Thursday. He is the latest recruit from the military to the civil administration by Mr. Rajapakse.
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3 TNA candidates in Vavuniyaa polls receive death threats - CMEV

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 11:56 GMT]
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said Wednesday that it received complaints that three candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) contesting the election to the Vavuniyaa urban Council have been issued with death threats.
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Attend to Vanni IDPs’ problems first – Jaffna University Students Union

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 17:10 GMT]
“We strongly criticize the Tamil politicians who seek votes without attending to the problems faced by the Vanni people held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa,” Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in a press release Tuesday in Jaffna. “We are deeply dissatisfied with some Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who do not attend to the immediate problems of the Vanni IDPs,” JUSU said in its press release.
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Eastern Provincial Minister surrenders to courts in assault case

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 16:45 GMT]
The Eastern Provincial Minister of Agriculture Mr.Thuraiappah Navaratnarajah and two others were allowed in personal bail in a sum of rupees One Hundred Thousand each when they surrendered in Kalmunai Magistrates’ Court Monday through his lawyer in an assault case. According to police reports to court the provincial minister and two others were alleged to have assaulted a Muslim civilian with their hands, legs and guns. The incident had taken place on July 13 when the victim had been driving his three-wheeler along Maruthamunai-Kalmunai road.
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TNA accuses government of using state resources in JMC election campaign

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 16:36 GMT]
Ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) conducted Sunday a large scale procession of vehicles organized by Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in Jaffna town in which more than a thousand supporters participated, canvassing people to vote for the Betel symbol of UPFA, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which has also entered into the fray, accused UPFA and its ally EPDP of using government vehicles for election campaign. TNA also accused the police for being partial to UPFA in carrying out duties related to Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, the sources added.
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Political struggle will continue until Tamil aspirations are met -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 18:43 GMT]
"Tamil militancy was a part of the political struggle of the Tamil people to achieve the right to self-determination in the traditional homeland of the Tamil people in the northeast. The Sri Lanka government says that the armed struggle has been completely defeated. But the political struggle of Tamil people would go on till the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamil people are achieved," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group, addressing a meeting in Vavuniyaa Saturday in support of the TNA candidates contesting the elections to the Vavuniyaa Urban Council under the banner Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK).
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Supreme Court calls for AG’s report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 12:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General to report on August 6 the position of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) about releasing internally displaced families from Vanni region now being detained in several camps in Vavuniyaa to ensure their right to live anywhere according to their wish. “It is unjust to detain IDPs in camps contrary to their wish,” the Supreme Court pointed out to the Deputy Solicitor General when it took up a Fundamental Rights petition filed by a relative on behalf of a four member family now being illegally detained in Veerapuram centre of the Vavuniyaa Kovil Kulam main camp for inquiry Friday. These camps are described by human rights organizations and activists as ‘internment camps’.
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NCCL official remanded for allegedly defaming armed forces, SL President

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 12:43 GMT]
Colombo Magistrate Friday further remanded Mr. Jayampathy Shantha Nihal Fernando of Moratuwa, the Executive Secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the National Christian Council (NCCL) till August 7 for allegedly circulating false allegations against the Armed Forces, Sri Lankan Government and President Mahinda Rajapakse.
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1200 Southern police personnel to be engaged in JMC election duties

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 18:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has taken steps to bring 1200 police personnel to Jaffna in vehicles along A9 route to be engaged in election duties in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, police high officials in Jaffna said. This announcement comes amidst accusations raised by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that the government is planning to use these police personnel in unfair ways to conduct the election to achieve its own ends, sources in Jaffna said.
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Government trying to win JMC election using unfair means – TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 16:20 GMT]
“Sri Lanka government plans to bring 80 Sinhalese officers from South to serve as Junior Polling Officers in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election while there are sufficient Tamil speaking government officers in Jaffna to conduct the election; it is obvious that the government intends to win the election by rigging as it had done in the East,” Suresh Premachandran, Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, said in a press meet held in the TNA Thamizharasuk Kadchchi (TK) office in Jaffna. TNA chief candidate Mudiyappu Remedias participated in the press meet.
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Opening A9 route, an election gimmick – Mudiyappu Remedias

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 19:23 GMT]
“Though the Government of Sri Lanka had control of the A9 land route to Jaffna eight months ago it had kept it closed until now when it opens the route for public use as an election gimmick to lure voters in but no one can fool the people of Jaffna, Mudiyappu Remedias, the chief candidate of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, said in an interview to TamilNet Wednesday
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Castes, religions and Eezham Tamil nationalism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 23:34 GMT]
“Tamil nationalism needs to realise its potentialities and weaknesses in making it progressive, benevolent and an internationally recognised culture in the future world,” writes Opinion Columnist Ampalam. “The secular linguistic identity of Tamil nationalism, based on a classical language in which more than two millennia of human experience and discourses both spiritual and temporal are recorded, and its inclusiveness cum plurality are strong points in making criteria for nationalism and in contributing to the paradigm ‘culture and development’. But jingoism of religions, which soon will be used as cards by imperialisms regional as well as international, and castes cum hierarchies old as well as new, are the liabilities,” he further writes.
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People in Jaffna live in fear – Suresh Premachandra

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 07:32 GMT]
“The people in Jaffna live in fear of the government armed forces and the paramilitary groups operating with them. They are scared to air their views or to openly participate in election related activities,” Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, told TamilNet in a special interview Friday in Jaffna. “Though government ministers invading Jaffna continue to offer promises to the people of Jaffna they cannot be deceived as they fully well know that the promises will not be kept because the government does not have the money to fulfill the promises,” he further said.
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Court orders detained UN workers to be produced before Medical Officer

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 00:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday directed the State to produce, before the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO), the two workers of the United Nations agency now being detained by the Sri Lanka police, and to submit the medical report within two weeks. Two UN workers, Charles Ravindran Navaratnam, 45, and Kanthasamy Soundararajan, 35, were arrested on June 13 when they were fleeing into the government controlled area from Vanni. Since then they are being detained without appearence before a court of law or before the Judicial Medical Officer, legal sources in Colombo said.
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Court refuses to withdraw arrest order on Eastern PC Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 July 2009, 03:45 GMT]
Kalmunai Magistrate, N. M. M. Abdullah, Tuesday, refused to withdraw the arrest order he passed on Eastern Provincial Minister Thuraiappah Navaratnarajah and some of his escorts for alleged assault on a Muslim civilian Sunday, legal sources in Kalmunai said.
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Percival was not an apostate - Prof. Hoole

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 22:54 GMT]
“The late Rev. Dr. Kingsley Muthiah (former President of the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka) has told me of cowardly verbal claims that Percival turned apostate to undermine his efforts but this is the first time I have seen it being openly stated”, writes Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole responding to a statement appeared in a TamilNet feature that Percival deviated from evangelism and concentrated on education and accusing the article for adding another dimension to anti-Christian diatribes. Prof. Hoole says Jaffna Tamils have made an icon of Navalar as the translator of the Bible and as father of prose, but earliest Tamil prose may be traced to catechisms of the Roman Catholics.
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