Conscience of Swaminathan should touch India, IC: Tamil circles

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2009, 23:27 GMT]
M S Swaminathan, internationally renowned agriculturalist, regarded as the father of India’s Green Revolution, declined to involve with Colombo “unless there is some kind of political settlement,” IANS reported Wednesday. “There are people who feel unless Tamils in Sri Lanka can live in dignity, other things are subsidiary. This is a viewpoint. I have no plans to go to Sri Lanka in the immediate future,” Swaminathan told IANS. In February, another prominent Indian and a Kannadiga from Mysore, N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys, refused IT advisory to Colombo. “Development is not exploitation of the plight of people facing structural genocide,” Tamil circles said pointing to the attitude of the Indian Establishment and sections of IC blindly abetting Colombo and officially rationalising genocide, just to make inroads into the island.
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Another batch of Vanni IDPs in Jaffna to be released

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2009, 15:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has announced that it will release the second batch of Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detainment camps in Jaffna district soon, sources in Jaffna said. The first batch of Vanni IDPs released with much publicity by Basil Rajapakse and Minister Douglas Devananda recently in Duraiappa Stadium are left without any help from the government or any other organization, local NGOs said.
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FR petitions filed against Bill banning parties signify race, religion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 17:26 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Wednesday filed Fundamental Right Violation petitions separately in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka challenging the Parliamentary Elections Amendment Bill on the grounds that its provisions violate the fundamental rights of the people, legal sources said. The Bill that was presented in Parliament last week seeks to ban political parties that signify names of a race or religion. The Bill also seeks to deregister parties which have failed to contest parliamentary elections twice consecutively.
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1187 students in internment camps sit for GCE A/L examination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 14:59 GMT]
1187 students including a visually impaired student detained in internment camps with nearly 300,000 people displaced from Vanni region have been sitting for the G.C.E.Advanced Level-2009 examinations which commenced Tuesday. District education officials said that about 166 students are identified by Sri Lanka military as ex-combatants.
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Sri Lanka is laying foundations for renewed war – paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 02:56 GMT]
“Sri Lanka's conflict is anything but over. On the contrary, it has clearly entered another period of gestation,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper warned in its latest editorial. “Unless the international community acts decisively to end Sinhala oppression of the Tamil people and ensures a robust political solution that guarantees the equality of the two nations, there will be neither 'reconciliation' nor peace. Instead, the violent tyranny of the state will lead inevitably to violent resistance anew,” the paper, published last week, said.
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Outbreak of skin disease reported in Vavuniyaa IDP camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 August 2009, 09:23 GMT]
The outbreak of skin diseases among hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from Vanni detained in several camps in Vavuniyaa has been reported. “They mostly complain of continuous itchy skin. They say the itching only starts when they wash. This may be due to the different levels of minerals found in the water that could cause irritation,” a medical officer who spoke on conditions of anonymity told Colombo media.
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Supreme Court to inquire FR petition by IDP family against illegal detention

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 August 2009, 04:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights violation petition filed on behalf of members of one family who are detained in an Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp (IDP Camp) in Vavuniya against their wishes, and listed the case for hearing on November 12, legal sources in Colombo said. The bench comprised Justices Nihal Gamini Amaratunge and Chandra Ekanayake. The petition alleged infringement of plaintiffs' fundamental rights to equality, equal protection of the law, as well as their right to the freedom of movement and of choosing their residence within Sri Lanka.
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40% of eligible voters live out of Jaffna Municipal Council

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 August 2009, 05:17 GMT]
Postal department sources in Jaffna said that 40,390 polling cards of the 100,417 eligible voters in the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election to be held Saturday are kept in Jaffna Post Office not delivered to the rightful recipients. A total of 51,182 polling cards have been delivered directly to persons in the last nine days by postal employees going house to house, the sources further said.
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Indian HC hands over 117 million rupees to Gotabaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 21:49 GMT]
Bank drafts worth over 117 million Sri Lankan rupees were officially handed over by Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Alok Prasad to Colombo’s Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Wednesday, for the ‘rehabilitation’ project of the air force base at Palaali (Palaly) in the Jaffna peninsula. This is the second instalment of Indian assistance to the improvement of the runway, according to SL defence ministry. Meanwhile, India intends to withdraw its medical team from August 31, as most of the urgent medical needs of the war displaced in the Menik Farm zone assigned to the Indian hospital had been met, The Hindu reported.
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Only UNP can solve the problems of the Tamils – Dr. Jayalath Jayawardne

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 18:27 GMT]
“The present government will never offer a solution for the problems of the Tamils; only the United National Party (UNP) will solve their problems,” Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, the Deputy Secretary of UNP, said in a press conference held Thursday in Delka hotel in Jaffna. “The government does not allow the opposition MPs to see the Vanni IDPs in the camps when it permits people to visit even prisoners in jails; this is gross injustice of the government which has betrayed the Tamils,” he further said.
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Details emerge on Tamil media workers killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 00:52 GMT]
TamilNet recently compiled details on Tamil journalists and media workers confirmed killed during the height of war in Vanni, between March and May. The list is not exhaustive. These media persons, committed to the human cause and engaged in the noble task of bringing out information to the people inside and to the world outside, have laid down their lives in achieving what the international media shamefully couldn't accomplish. TamilNet will be serialising compilations on the losses of other humanitarian workers too in due course.
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3112 Vanni IDPs in Jaffna camps released

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 August 2009, 14:46 GMT]
3112 persons belonging to 1057 families brought from Vanni and held in the six detainment centres in Jaffna district were released and allowed to go with their relatives Wednesday in an event which the government conducted as an election campaign stunt in Duraiyappa Sports Stadium in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The IDPs, brought to the venue from 3:00 a.m from their camps, had to wait in the broiling sun until 3:30 p.m as Basil Rajapakse, the brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse and his advisor, arrived at Jaffna only after 2:30 p.m to take part in the event, the sources added.
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SLASA appeals for the immediate release of Ki’linochchi GA, Vethanayagan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 19:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association (SLASA), while strongly condemning the arrest of Ki’linochchi Government Agent (GA), S. Vethanayagan, by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials on 30 July 2009, extended a public appeal to the authorities concerned to release him immediately, sources in Colombo said.
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TNA outlines political formula

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 13:13 GMT]
Based on Self-Determination, distinct and comprehensive autonomy to the historical homeland of Eelam Tamils is the political solution envisaged by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to the ethnic conflict in the island of Sri Lanka, said veteran Tamil politician and TNA Parilamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, while addressing the press in Jaffna Tuesday. Mr. Sampanthan, who said that a draft proposal of the TNA will be released soon, was optimistic of India's support. This is the first time the TNA is coming out with its own political formula to resolve the ethnic conflict.
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15-25 births daily in Vavuniyaa ‘internment camps’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 05:31 GMT]
More than 2,500 pregnant mothers are detained in Vavuniyaa camps along with hundreds of thousands of Vanni displaced civilians. Around fifteen to twenty five births take place each day. 350 births had taken place in the Vavuniyaa general hospital last month, July, according to a survey conducted by the health authorities in collaboration with the WHO and the UNICEF.
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HRW calls for international inquiry into ACF-17 massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:31 GMT]
Quoting James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) that "[f]or three years since the ACF massacre, the Rajapaksa government has put on an elaborate song and dance to bedazzle the international community into believing justice is being done," HRW in a news release issued Monday added, "the Sri Lankan government's gross mishandling of the investigation into the execution-style slaying of 17 aid workers in the northeastern town of Mutur three years ago demonstrates the need for an international commission of inquiry."
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Reporters barred from Jaffna, Vavuniyaa during elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka will not allow reporters into Vavuniyaa and Jaffna to cover the local government elections to be held there on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. “The government did not give a reason for banning reporters, but it cites security reasons for denying entry to any outsider,” AP reported. The towns are accessible with Defence ministry permission and “even residents can't leave without permission,” AP report said. Meanwhile, an elections watchdog, PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) said there seemed to be little public interest in the polls as people were preoccupied with the plight of their relatives in government’s military-run internment camps.
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Manhattan GAP becomes target to trade boycott dry-run

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 01:12 GMT]
About twenty protesters stood in front of the fashionable clothing store GAP located at 34th street and Broadway intersection in Manhattan, New York, Saturday afternoon carrying placards urging U.S. shoppers to stop buying goods made in Sri Lanka. Placards claimed that Sri Lanka is one of the worst human rights violator nations in recent history, slaughtering more than 20,000 civilians in April and May 2009, according to a reputable British broadsheet, and keeping more than 300,000 Tamil civilians in military supervised internment camps as collective punishment. Protesters said, by engaging in apparel trade with Sri Lanka, GAP is funding genocidal war against the Tamil people.
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Emotional rehabilitation should precede IMF, GSP politics

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 22:55 GMT]
If structural changes are what the West aims in the island of Sri Lanka through IMF and GSP+ loans, those cannot be achieved without first emotionally rehabilitating the Eezham Tamils. Emotional rehabilitation, which is fundamental to all other rehabilitation is possible only when the West openly acknowledges Eezham Tamils as a nation and their cause as a national liberation struggle, says TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. “Tamils are deeply hurt by IMF and Indian assistance to Colombo failing to take note of this fact, the commentator said, adding that the GSP+ should not make the same mistake.
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IRC goods for IDPs yet to be given Colombo port clearance - SLRCS

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 18:13 GMT]
Twenty seven containers of goods sent by the Indian Red Cross (IRC) for the internally displaced Vanni people detained in camps in Vavuniyaa continue to lie in Colombo port since 9 July and are yet to be given clearance, as documents have not been received for clearance from the Indian Red Cross, Director General of Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS), Suren Peris said Saturday.
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