Robert Blake: U.S. 'development' doesn't seek majoritiarian inroads to East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 09:35 GMT]
Responding to an article that appeared in TamilNet on U.S. enthusiasm in 'developing East' to link it with markets in Western province, ignoring the Tamil perspectives on development, the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, in an article that appeared in U.S. Embassy's blog has defended that the U.S. development program has a goal of "fostering economic development, good governance and stability while preserving the existing ethnic balance in the east." Disagreeing with the perspective shed by the Batticaloa district TNA parliamentarian Ariyanethran, the U.S. Ambassador says that meaningful development can take place in the East before a political solution is agreed upon.
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Sivaram murder trial fixed for June 2009

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 15:49 GMT]
The Colombo High Court Monday fixed the inquiry into Journalist Dharmaretnam Sivaram murder case for June 1st next year before Sinhala speaking Jury. The sole suspect, Arumugam Sriskandarajah, was produced in court under heavy security when the case was taken up, legal sources said
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SLAF bombs refugee settlements: 2 killed, 13 wounded, 4 child victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 02:30 GMT]
A 5-month-old child and a 25-year-old male were killed and 13 other refugees including three children were wounded Wednesday when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets bombed refugee settlements in Vaddakkachchi four times, on each sorties bombing the refugees twice. The SLAF bombardment on civilian targets comes in the wake of high casualties to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in its latest offensive push in Ki'linochchi and Jaffna frontiers. The second attack was reported 250 meters near the hospital in Vaddakkachchi. Civilians in Vanni interpreted the indiscriminate attacks, which were repeatedly carried out on displaced peoples settlements, as 'collective punishment' by the Sri Lankan forces that have suffered heavy casualties in the battlefront.
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CID withdraws application to impound passports of 3 TNA MPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 09:41 GMT]
Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday withdrew the application filed at Colombo Magistrate Court to impound the passports of three Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians S. Jeyanandamoorthy, P. Ariyanethran and S. Gajendran, who have been grilled by the CID on allegations that they violated the Sri Lankan Constitution and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in speeches that they made at a Pongku Thamizh event held in Germany.
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3 abducted, teacher reported missing, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2008, 16:22 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a white van abducted three persons including a student from their houses during curfew hours in three separate incidents in Thenmaraadchi, two Friday and the third Saturday, according to complaints lodged with Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna by the abductees’ family members. Meanwhile, the wife of a teacher from Vadamaraadchi has reported her husband missing since 8 December with HRC Jaffna office.
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18 Tamils detained by Thirukkoayil police

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 December 2008, 06:52 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos arrested Thursday eighteen Tamils including two women in a cordon and search conducted in the Tamil area in Thirukkoayil police division in Ampaa’rai district. All arrestees are being detained in Thirukkoayil police station, according to complaints made by their relatives to Ampaa’rai district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian K. Pathmanathan.
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State of Human Rights in Sri Lanka on 60th anniversary of UDHR

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2008, 08:04 GMT]
Although it is sixty years since 'Ceylon' as the Island was then known gained independence from Britain, and sixty years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations, Tamils of Sri Lanka are yet to enjoy the benefits of UDHR. According to the Annual Report for 2007 of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), more than 5000 cases of disappearances are pending without clarification from the Sri Lankan Government. Data shows that there are more extra-judicial killings in the East now after the Government’s celebrated 'liberation of the East'.
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Sri Lanka's 2009 budget passed

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2008, 10:48 GMT]
The 2009 budget of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa was adopted in the parliament Monday afternoon with a majority of 42 votes. 126 parliamentarian voted for the budget and 84 against. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa tabled the budget on November 6 in parliament in the capacity of Finance Minister.
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Crucial voting on UPFA budget to be held Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 December 2008, 16:44 GMT]
The final voting on the third reading of the Sri Lankan budget for 2009 presented by the government led by Mahinda Rajapakse is to take place Monday amid speculation that some of the UNP dissident parliamentarians led by its leader Karu Jayasuriya would rejoin the UNP. However, the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) said the budget would be passed with a comfortable majority.
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Senior Tamil Journalist Joe Ariyanayagam passes away in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 December 2008, 15:30 GMT]
“Joseph Gnanapragasam Ariyaratnam, popularly known as Joe, was a senior English journalist in Jaffna peninsula who did an excellent service to the people of the peninsula in conveying their true situation to the international community and his death is a great loss to the Tamil people as well as the media,” North Ceylon Journalist Association (NCJA) said in its tribute message Saturday. Joe Ariyaratnam passed away in a private hospital in Colombo Friday where he was being treated for his illness. Free Media Movement (FMM) is making arrangements to have Joe’s remains flown to his residence in Chu’ndikkuzhi Wednesday.
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CID-grilled TNA parliamentarians asked to appear in courts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 December 2008, 06:31 GMT]
Colombo Chief Magistrate, Nishantha Happuarachchi on Friday ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to seek the legal opinion regarding a complaint made by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) alleging the three Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians that they have made speeches in a Pongku Thamizh ceremony held in Germany in 2006, violating the Sri Lankan Constitution and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
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‘No ceasefire’ - UNP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 20:05 GMT]
Military offensives aimed at curbing the LTTE should be continued and a ceasefire won't be necessary until the offensives come to an end, Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) said Thursday. The UNP’s Badulla District MP Laksman Seneviratne told Parliament during a debate on the defence budget that this was the stance of his party, the website lankadissent.com reported. The vote was passed by 114 to 14, reports said.
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Eezham Tamil writer wins national award of Singapore

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 15:56 GMT]
Kanagalatha Krishnasamy Iyer, a Singapore national of Eezham Tamil origins, won the national literature prize, 2008, of Singapore on Wednesday for her collection of short stories, Naan Kolai Seyum Penkal (The Women I Murder). Hailing from Negombo in the Western Province of Sri Lanka, Kanagalatha first migrated to Jaffna after the 1983 pogrom against Tamils and later settled in Singapore. An old student of Vijayaratnam Maha Vidyalayam, Negombo and Jaffna Hindu Ladies College, Kanagalatha is currently News Editor of Tamil Murasu, the national Tamil daily of Singapore.
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TNA MP urges global community's awareness on Sri Lanka's use of cluster munitions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 11:24 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Gajendran, who represents Ki'linochchi district (Jaffna electorate), Wednesday urged the global community to "unreservedly condemn" the Sri Lankan government for deploying cluster munitions against civilians in Vanni in its air strikes and artillery attacks. Appreciating the Norwegian initiative which has led to the landmark treaty on baning the cluster munitions, the TNA parliamentarian said the Sri Lankan forces were deploying cluster munitions against civilians after expelling the international witnesses and blocking foreign journalists from entering Vanni.
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Colombo's development agenda aggravates factional fight within TMVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 00:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has sidelined Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a key paramilitary leader operated by the Sri Lankan government and the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, on the utlisation of funds allocated for 'development'. "Pillayan is being treated almost like a political prisoner by the Rajapaksa government these days, especially after the recent protests against the killings," according to a Colombo based journalist.
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Token fast against killings of Tamil civilians observed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 14:57 GMT]
A one-day token fast demanding the immediate stop of the rampant killings of Tamils in Batticaloa district and the arrest of the killers was observed Friday around 9:00 a.m near Gandhi Statue in Batticaloa town, organized by Pillayan faction, Baticaloa Municipal Council (BMC), and Federation of Local Government Councils' (LGC) Presidents, presided by the Mayor of Batticaloa Municipal Council, Ms. Sivakeertha Pirapakaran, sources in Batticaloa said.
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15 Tamils arrested in Ratnapura

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 05:45 GMT]
The Ratnapura police assisted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and home guards took into custody about fifteen Tamil civilians in a cordon and search operations conducted in the Ratnapura town on Wednesday early morning till midnight
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Seeking solutions in horror-scope

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2008, 20:19 GMT]
Ever since the Sri Lankan polity has become violent and belligerent, the top Sinhala politicians have abandoned the rational Heenayaana Buddhism to become Tantrics or perhaps Vajrayaana Buddhists. It has now become a routine for them to consult astrologers, seek propitiation or instigation from Malayala Tantrics and to undertake pilgrimages to temples and establishments of god-men in India just like visiting Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and M.K. Narayanan. They leave no stone unturned in winning the war with Tamils, writes Opinion Columnist Ampalam.
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3 Tamils shot dead in 3 separate shootings, in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 2008, 14:34 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot and killed three Tamil civilians Sunday night in three different places in Batticaloa district. The first killing took place around 7:00 p.m in Kokkaddichchoalai police division and the second in Kaaththaankudi police division around 7:15 p.m while the third in Ea'raavoor police division around 8:30 p.m, according to sources in the respective police stations.
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Colombo 'commissions' education for structural war on Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 2008, 13:28 GMT]
Beginning from curriculum, school textbooks, teachers, educational administrators and resources to the destruction of the existing educational infrastructure in the guise of war, the structural violence committed by the Sri Lankan state against Tamils has been condemned by the Trincomalee MP, Mr. Thurairetnasingam in a parliamentary debate on Friday. “An ethnicity can be devastated by the destruction of its education, and that’s what this government is bent on doing in the North and East”, said the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, while exposing the short term and long term ‘conspiracies’ of the Colombo government in ruining the education of Tamils.
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