SLA, STF, police accused of sexual harassment in Aaraiyampathi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 14:01 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops, Special Task Force (STF) commandos, and policemen who visit homes in Aaraiyampathi area during daytime for interrogation, elicit information about men in the family, and visit the homes that do not have any males, on pretext of night patrol, subjecting widows and women to sexual harassment, residents in Aaraiyampathi in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district said. The victims do not complain to the police or speak of their suffering due to fear of being killed by the troops and policemen.
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Police shoot dead Tamil fish vendor in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 June 2008, 02:43 GMT]
Vavuniya police shot dead a fish vendor Tuesday early morning close to the refugee camp located in Poonthoddam in Vavuniyaa, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The victim's wife identified the body at the inquest held at the site by Vavuniyaa Magistrate M.Y.M.Isardeen same day morning around 9:00 a.m. The body was handed over to the Vavuniyaa general hospital for postmortem examination.
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Former Journalist abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 June 2008, 09:15 GMT]
A former reporter of Colombo Tamil daily Thinakkural, Thiruchelvam Thirukumaran, currently an officer attached to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Environment, was abducted from his house at Dehiwala by a group of men who arrived in a white colour van around 8:45 p.m. Saturday, according to a complaint lodged by his parents with the Dehiwala Police Sunday. The abductors were clad in police uniform.
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Student reported missing found dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 13:41 GMT]
Batticaloa police recovered Wednesday around 10:30 a.m. the body of a youth reported missing since Monday, along Naavaladi Lake in Batticaloa police division, with severe assault injuries. The youth was reported missing after going on his motor cycle to Kadalaadchi Amman Temple festival Monday, according to the complaint.
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Seven leaders including G.G.Ponnambalam honored in SL parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 04:29 GMT]
Seven political leaders, C.W.W.Kannangara, A.E.Goonesinghe, Dr.S.A.Wickremasinghe, G.G.Ponnambalam, Dr.N.M.Perera, Phillip Gunawardene and Alhaj T.B.Jayah were honored for their services to Sri Lanka, Tuesday in Sri Lanka's parliament. Their photographs were unveiled Tuesday morning in the parliament as a mark of respect in an event presided by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, parliamentary sources said.
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Thousands pay their last respects to Thangamma Appakkuddi

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 June 2008, 15:08 GMT]
More than five thousand people gathered together at Thellippazhai Monday to pay their last respects to the mortal remains of Thangamma Appakuddi, the veteran religious and cultural personality of Eezham Tamils, in the homage paying event held around 12:00 p.m. in the Common Hall outside Thellippazhai Thurkkai Amman Koayil, presided by Aa’ruthirumurkan. Most of the schools in the peninsula were closed before lunch interval while all schools, shops, private and public institutions in Valikaamam north were closed before noon enabling all to attend the funeral.
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"Plucked peace flower"- Washington Times

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2008, 11:25 GMT]
In a commentary appearing in the Tuesday issue of Washington Times, Bruce Fein, Washington-based attorney for a Tamil Activist Group, and Chairman of the American Freedom Agenda, says that "the peace solution to Sri Lanka's descent into hell was discerned by [Ambassador] Mr. Blake - even if unwittingly - in an interview published in the Sunday Observer on May 25. The subtext affirmed the right of the Tamil people to determine their own political destiny without dictation by Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabharkaran, or by any other person or organization."
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Tamil woman shot dead in Chelvanakar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2008, 11:10 GMT]
Fifty year-old Tamil woman was shot dead by unidentified armed persons on Wednesday night in Chelvanakar in Vavuniyaa. She has been identified as Ms. Mary Baskaran. Her husband was shot dead four weeks earlier by unidentified persons, civil sources said.
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Fein: Hold referendum to test support for Tamil Statehood

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2008, 18:15 GMT]
Bruce Fein, Attorney for a US-based Tamil Activist Group, in responding to a statement by Ambassador Robert Blake to Sunday Observer saying that from his discussions with Tamils he knows that "over 95 percent of them [Tamils] support a solution within a framework of a united Sri Lanka," challenged the Ambassador to hold a referendum to prove his assertion of percentage Tamil support, and added that "[i]f statehood prevails, the Ambassador should be the first to concede Prabhakaran’s superiority in discerning the political aspirations of the Tamil people."
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Ethnic divide reflected in Sri Lanka media coverage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 17:56 GMT]
The polarization between Sri Lanka’s ethnic communities is also reflected in coverage of the island’s protracted conflict and has rendered ‘the truth’ an inevitable casualty of war, several speakers argued last week at the annual conference in London of the International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATAJ). The day-long event at the University of Westminster was attended by one hundred invited participants and was addressed by journalists, academics and media activists, including Mr. Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, editor of the Uthayan newspaper, Mr Chandana Bandara, senior producer with the BBC’s Sinhala service and Mr. Bhagwan Singh of the Deccan Chronicle.
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Thanthai Chelva remembered on his 31st anniversary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 April 2008, 14:59 GMT]
The 31st death anniversary of the late Tamil leader and the founder of the Federal Party (Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi -ITAK), Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam (SJV) was held in Jaffna near the SJV memorial statue at 9:45 a.m Saturday presided by Rev. Dr. Jebanesan of the South Indian Council of Churches.
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Mavai Senathirajah meets Jaffna Military Commander

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 April 2008, 03:06 GMT]
Mavai Senathirajah, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, arrived in Jaffna Friday to participate in the 31st Memorial Day of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam Saturday. The first TNA member to return to Jaffna since the assassination of TNA Jaffna MP, Nadarajah Raviraj, in 2006, he met Maj. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, at the latter’s request Friday in Palaali SLA military complex, the MP told media.
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International Community should learn from experience, Vaiko tells Norway

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2008, 23:03 GMT]
Expressing that the lack of implementation by the Government of Sri Lanka on the agreed principles of the February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA), especially disarming of army backed paramilitary groups, led to the ultimate breakdown of the peace process, Vaiko, the General Secretary of Marumalarchchi Dravida Munneatta Kazhakam (MDMK), told Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim and Jon Hanssen-Bauer, the Norwegian Special Envoy, that the International Community should prevail upon the GoSL to reinstate the ceasefire in order to engage in a meaningful process for a negotiated settlement.
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Not possible to remain mute spectators: Ramadoss to Indian PM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2008, 09:16 GMT]
Labelling Sri Lanka "a failed state, a condominium of anarchy, and a shame on humanity" that "terrorized its own Tamil citizens," Dr. S. Ramadoss, leader of Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) and a constituent ally of the Congress-led Indian government, said that it was not possible to remain "passing by-standers to this human tragedy at our doorstep" in his letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday. "The sixty million Tamils in India cannot wait and watch while their sisters and brothers are being decimated across the Palk Straits and Gulf of Mannar," he said.
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SLN arrests 11 civilians in Kachchaitheevu seas

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 15:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Kayts arrested 11 civilians from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held Vanni on their way to Tamil Nadu on Kachchaitheevu seas Tuesday early morning, according to the statements in Kayts Magistrate Court where the civilians were produced Wednesday before Kayts Magistrate Ms. Joy Mahatheva.
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It needs a mandate to prod them to justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 March 2008, 11:52 GMT]
"Anyone who wishes to see a peacefully united Sri Lanka has to begin from separation. Separation for unity is the appropriate paradigm today. The Sri Lankan situation has transcended the 1987 formula. It is time the Tamils in India have to take care of a policy shift in the Indian establishment. The suggestion is that the political parties of Tamil Nadu who aspire for power in the forthcoming elections have to boldly adapt a policy upholding a Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka in their election manifesto and get the mandate from the people. Only such a mandate can silence the antagonists and direct the foreign policy of India to serve the interests of Tamils, India as well as a peaceful Sri Lanka."
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Swiss Tamil children challenged in chess

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 March 2008, 07:01 GMT]
More than seventy Swiss Tamil children took part in the S.P. Thamilchelvan Chess Tournament held in Lucern, Switzerland Saturday from 10:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m. Competitions, the first of its kind held by diaspora Tamils in Switzerland, were organized into five divisions, under-10, 12, 14, 16, and over-16 age groups, organizers of the tournament said.
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International institutions turn sour to Colombo government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2008, 13:18 GMT]
The Sri Lankan state, which was gleefully making use of some of the International NGOs and the Colombo based intellectuals associated with them, as long as their activities were serving its interests in weakening the Tamil cause, now frowns at them and seeks for their disintegration. The latest story is the government's hand in the disruptions faced by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) in Colombo. According to informed circles, there is a clear message from the Rajapaksa government that it would not tolerate any agenda of the International Community through such NGOs, when it comes to interference with the genocidal programme of the Sri Lankan state.
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Tamil youth shot dead in Uppuve'li

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 12:00 GMT]
Unknown gunmen shot dead a 32-year old three-wheeler driver Tuesday evening around 7 p.m. at Chelvanayakapuram in Uppuve'li division in Trincomalee district, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Jayalalitha to Centre: Take action against Karunanidhi for LTTE support

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 16:57 GMT]
Jayalalitha, leader of All India Anna Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam (AIADMK), the major opposition party in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday urged the Centre to take action against Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for his "support" to the LTTE. A resolution adopted at the party's General Council said that Mr. Karunanidhi, after coming back to power, not only remained silent over LTTE supporters, but also went a step ahead and eulogized the death of S P Thamilchelvan, LTTE's former political head. It labeled Karunanidhi's elegy "an act of treason" and alleged that it would pave way for secessionism.
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