Rakwana Hindu Cultural Hall opening put off due to chauvinist opposition

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 09:15 GMT]
The ceremonial opening of the newly constructed Hindu Cultural Hall in Rakwana in Ratnapura district did not take place on Friday (Siththirai Pooranai) as scheduled, due to opposition by Sinhala extremist elements. Earlier the annual festival of Rakwana Sri Muththumaariamman Koayil which was scheduled to be held from April 28 till May 10 was stopped due to opposition by Buddhist extremists that the Thear festival falls on Vesak Day. Chauvinist elements in the area said that no festival of any other religion should take place on Vesak Day.
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Tamil families to be evicted to settle injured Sinhala soldiers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 May 2009, 14:42 GMT]
Mano Ganeshan, leader of the Democratic Peoples Front and Colombo district parliamentarian in an urgent letter faxed to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, urged him to stop moves to oust sixty two Tamil families residing in Vavelkanthura GS division in Ratnapura district and to settle injured soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Colombo said. The said Tamil families have owned and been living in their homes for the past seven decades, according to local sources.
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Sinhala gangs threaten Tamil traders in Kandy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 May 2009, 14:24 GMT]
Sinhala gangs in Kandy are continuing to threaten Tamil traders and extorting money from them, according to Mr.S.Rajaratnam, Member of the Central Provincial Council. Police were provided with telephone numbers and bank details of the heads of the gangs, but the law-enforcement has not taken any action on the criminals.
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Family man reported missing with Jaffna HRC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 16:43 GMT]
An officer attached to Kodikaamam Agriculture Department is reported missing since 30 April while returning home from Nalloor in Jaffna, according to complaints registered with Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna continues to announce over loud speakers that all Vanni civilians not staying in the SLA detention centres should surrender themselves before 31 May and that the failure to do so will have serious consequences, sources in Jaffna said.
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Students boycott schools in Batticaloa against abduction of girl student

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 14:07 GMT]
Students of nearly 25 schools in and around Batticaloa town continued their boycott of schools for the ninth day Thursday in protest against the abduction of Satheskumar Thinusika, a grade 3 girl student of Batticaloa Koaddaimunai Junior School by a paramilitary group operating with Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Batticaloa said. Meanwhile, parents alleged that the police have shot and killed three suspects in order to save the main perpetrators who hold high positions in the government, the sources added.
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World Press Freedom Day observed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 16:15 GMT]
“It is of great importance that the World Press Freedom Day is celebrated in Jaffna peninsula where press freedom is completely restricted,” Chief guest of the event, C. V. K. Sivagnanam, the president of Jaffna peninsula NGOs Federation, said in the event organized by North Ceylon Journalists’ Association (NCJA) Sunday around 10:30 a. m in Jaffna University Media Training Centre, chaired by NCJA President, V. Kathirkamathamby. The portraits of the slain journalists of Jaffna peninsula and Tharmaratnam Sivaram, Tharaki, from Batticaloa and late senior journalists were unveiled in the NCJA office in the Media Training Centre at the beginning of the event, sources in Jaffna said. Veteran media photographer, Changkarakambar Kahiravelu, 76, was honoured for his continuing dedicated service to the media for the past 45 years, in the event.
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Japan’s aid for Tamils’ rehabilitation will not reach them – TNA tells Yasuhi Akashi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 10:02 GMT]
”Japan’s 480 million aid to Sri Lanka government to rehabilitate displaced Tamils will only help the government’s aims to segregate the traditional home lands of the Tamils converting Vanni into a military zone”, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, Suresh Premachandran told Japanese Ambassador, Yasushi Akashi when the TNA delegation led by Iraa. Sampanthan, TNA parliamentary group’s leader, met the Ambassador Saturday, TNA sources said. Yasushi Akashi, in response said that the Sri Lanka government which was elected by the people of Sri Lanka has pledged to him that the displaced Tamils will be gradually resettled and was told by Iraa. Sampanthan that Sri Lanka government will never keep to its pledge, the sources added.
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Sinhalese colonization of Tamil village in Eastern Province

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 04:37 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Eastern Province parliamentarians accused the government of colonizing traditional Tamil villages in the border area between the districts of Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai districts with Sinhalese families, sources in Batticaloa said. Encroachment by Sinhalese families of paddy fields of Tamils in Keviliyaamadu village in Paddippazhai Divisional Secretariat in Batticaloa district takes place with government assistance, they further said.
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Jaffna DDC meeting postponed again

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 18:00 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K. Ganesh informed that the Jaffna District Development Committee (DDC) meeting scheduled to take place 5 May has been postponed indefinitely. This is the second time the DDC meeting is postponed during the current year. The DDC, comprised of Sri Lanka Minister, Douglas Devananda, Governor of Northern Provincial Council and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, Mavai Senathirajah, is responsible for the planning and implementation of development projects of Jaffna district.
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TNA parliamentarians condemn disappearance of students in Eastern Province

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2009, 16:12 GMT]
“How could the government say that normalcy has been restored to Eastern Province and that civil administration takes place when many students in Batticaloa, Ampaa’rai and Trincomalee have gone missing?” Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa parliamentarians asked, in a joint report which called on the government to take action to have the abducted students released at the earliest, sources in Batticaloa said.
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7,000 Tamils in Vanni killed, 14,000 injured in 3 months, TNA tells David Miliband

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:53 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Trincomalee district MP and parliamentary group leader, R. Sampanthan, and parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told the visiting British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, that 7,000 Tamils in Vanni have been killed and 14,000 injured in the last three months, but the International Community has remained inactive without taking any action to stop the killings, TNA sources said. The TNA parliamentarians also told Miliband that more than 300 Tamil youths in Vavuniyaa detention centre have been arrested by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and that the SLA has not revealed the whereabouts of the arrested youths to their parents.
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Ratnapura Saiva temple festival suspended due to threats

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 10:11 GMT]
The trustee board of the 200-year-old historical Rakkuvaanai Sri Muththumaariyamman temple in Ratnapura district has been forced to suspend the annual festival of the temple due to death threats by Sinhalese youths of the area who went to the houses of the trustee board members and warned them of severe consequences if they conduct the festival that was to be held from 28 April to 10 May, sources in Ratnapura said. Rakkuvaana police too had denied permission to conduct the festival as the Buddhist Vesak festival is to be celebrated from 4 May to 10 May, the sources said.
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'Explicit international deceit on Tamils'

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 20:03 GMT]
“What is the limit of IC’s appeasement with Colombo and what is the limit of IC in cheating Tamils,” asks Sri Navaratnam, on the 8th day of his hunger strike in Oslo, furious at the news of Colombo’s all out attack on Tamil civilians Monday night. “To facilitate the international community to deceive Tamils, Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday announced the halt of the use of heavy weapons in the safety zone of more than 165,000 civilians. Everybody welcomed it as though killing the civilians by small weapons is acceptable. It was a joke, the UN begging ‘Sri Lanka must respect heavy weapons pledge’, as though they are prepared to act if Sri Lanka breaches it. Colombo, which was already aerial bombing the civilians started with intense barrage of heavy weapons Monday night”, he cited.
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Paramilitary men shoot dead 3 Tamils, a Muslim in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 06:54 GMT]
Paramilitary men operating with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shot and killed Saturday around 8:45 two Tamil civilians including the President of the Nochchiku’lam Peace Committee and a Muslim civilian in Kantha’laay police division in Trincomalee district, sources in Trincomalee said. Meanwhile, paramilitary men gunned down a Tamil civilian Saturday around 9:00 p.m at Shaanthipuram in Kantha’laay police division, the sources added.a
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SL Police arrests Tamil couple in Ratnapura

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 15:29 GMT]
A young Tamil couple was taken into custody Tuesday by the Nallathanni Police in Ratnapura district while they were staying in a house at an estate in the area. Police said they were detained on detention orders by the Defence Ministry for further inquiry.
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Demonising Tamil struggle without citing solutions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 11:40 GMT]
What the Sinhala government is now trying to do to the Tamil people is nothing new. Exactly the same thing was done in Vietnam by the US army, writes Indian journalist T.G. Jacob from Kerala. “Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are there all over Europe and their number in India is growing. All these factors make the situation even more highly volatile, which in all possibility will create new polarizations. The short term military defeat of LTTE cannot at all prevent the Tamil issue from becoming an international one and change to guerilla war within the island. That is why the Sri Lankan political leadership is talking of ‘protected’ villages. Actually this is exactly what is happening now. The Sri Lankan government through all its barbarity and outrageous double talk is immensely facilitating this process”, he writes.
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'Empty statements of IC evoke fury in the diaspora': Oslo hunger striker

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 14:57 GMT]
The whole concept of peace facilitation will become a mockery and no peace facilitation will hereafter be seen with credibility in the world, if Norway fails in its ‘responsibility’ in stopping civilian tragedy in Sri Lanka, said 51 years old Sri Navaratnam, the leader of Norway Tamil Sangam (association), who commenced an indefinite fast in Oslo, Monday, demanding Norway bringing out immediate ceasefire, negotiations between LTTE and GoSL, not sending civilians to camps but resettling them and Norway recognizing the self-determination of Eezham Tamils. Mr. Navaratnam was furious of empty statements coming from IC and said such statements without action only infuriate the already traumatised people.
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Fr. Karunaratnam remembered on First anniversary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 11:24 GMT]
Mr. K.Sivapalan, Deputy Chairperson of North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), on the first year anniversary of the killing of founder Chairperson of NESoHR, Rev.Father Mariampillai Xavier Karunaratnam, recounts his services to the community, and asks why the International Community is standing by as a Rwanda unfolds in Vanni. Father Karunaratnam was killed by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on 20th April 2008 while he was driving from his residential prayer and counseling center in Vavunikku'lam.
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TNA MP in Vanni fears mass slaughter amidst starvation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 10:33 GMT]
The Tamil Natonal Alliance (TNA) MP for Vanni, Sathasivam Kanagaratnam, who talked to TamilNet correspondent in Vanni on Monday blamed the Sri Lankan military for planning to cause a mass slaughter of civilians as Colombo announced a 24-hour ultimatum of surrender to the LTTE. Colombo has warned of concerted attacks into the so-called 'safety zone' starting from Tuesday noon. "The remaining area in the south of safe zone is full of civilians as many more have fled in recent days," Mr. Kanagratnam said fearing an unprecedented civilian carnage.
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Tamil policeman, trader arrested in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 14:04 GMT]
Thirukkoayil police arrested Sunday a Tamil policeman attached to Thirukkoayil police and a Tamil trader in Thurukkoayil, in Ampaa’rai district, on suspicion of helping Liberation Tigers, the police said. The arrested policeman had earlier taken into custody some paramilitary men who had tried to extort money form the arrested Tamil trader along with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, residents of Thirukkoayil said.
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