JDS: State sponsored brutality against opposition

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 December 2010, 14:43 GMT]
Noting that "State sponsored violence against dissenting voices in Sri Lanka" is on the increase, Journalist for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an exciled group of Sri Lankan journalists, said in a press release issued Sunday that JDS unreservedly condemned attacks on journalists who "went to cover the arrival of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) General Secretary, Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne, from the United Kingdom," and called upon "all forces both within Sri Lanka and abroad who cherish freedom and democracy to do what they can to stop this extremely dangerous trend that threatens democracy."
Full story >>

FMM condemns attack on journalists

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2010, 14:21 GMT]
Free Media Movement (FMM), a Colombo-based media watchdog, in a press release isssued this Thursday, condemned the attack on two journalists by a "group of BIA [Bandaranaike International Airport] employees, allegedly under [Sri Lanka] government orders while covering an attack on Dr. Wickremabahu Karunaratne, leader of the New Left Front, and his supporters. Dr. Karunaratne was returning from a visit to the United Kingdom where he delivered several lectures. His speeches were earlier criticised by ruling party members as 'traitorous,'" FMM said. FMM described the attack as a serious threat to media freedom in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

NLF leader Karunaratna's supporters assaulted at airport

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 December 2010, 01:51 GMT]
Supporters of Dr.Wickremabahu Karunaretna, leader of the New Left Front (NLF), Tuesday, who went to receive him at the Katunayake International Airport (KIA) on his return after a visit to London, were assaulted by aviation authority officials and a gang said to be sent by a deputy minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, according to complaint lodged by Dr.Wickremabahu Karunaretna, NLF sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Repercusssions from Oxford debacle spills over to Sri Lanka's parliament

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 03:17 GMT]
A parliamentary Select Committee is to be appointed to inquire if the opposition United National party (UNP) MP, Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, had acted in contravention against the Sri Lanka's Constitution, State run daily Dinamina said. Ruling party alleged that the MP instigated the protests by Tamil activists in UK that resulted in the cancellation of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse's speaking engagement at the Oxford Union. Both the government and even the main opposition, United National Party (UNP) agreed for the setting up of the committee.
Full story >>

Musali lawyer to fill vacancy in parliament

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 00:09 GMT]
The name of Attorney-at-Law U.L. Muthaliph Farook is to be gazetted by the Commissioner of Elections to fill the vacancy created in the parliament with the demise of Noordeen Mashoor, political sources in Colombo said. The new parliamentarian is a resident of Musali in the Mannaar district and polled second highest preferential votes in the United National Party (UNP) list at the last general election held in April this year.
Full story >>

Sinhalese VC for Eastern University?

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 20:25 GMT]
A Sinhalese academic is likely to be appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University by the Sri Lanka Ministry of Higher Education. The Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister and several deputy ministers in the eastern province have given consent to the appointment, according to reports emerging from education sources in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr.C. Yogeswaran, made an appeal in the parliament recently that the steps now being taken by the government to appoint a Sinhalese as VC should be stopped as the Eastern University is located at Vanthaa'rumoolai in the Tamil dominated district.
Full story >>

This is a struggle for all of us: Vikramabahu tells Heroes Day congregation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2010, 12:57 GMT]
Tamils were killed by successive Sinhala chauvinistic governments and at last but not the least by the Mahinda regime. Not only Tamils but also thousands of Sinhala youth who were sent for aggression in the Tamil homeland and attack Tamils died in an alien land. The misery created among the Sinhalese will also show its reaction in future. This is a struggle for all of us. Yes, we have gone through defeat. Now we have to get up and fight to overthrow this chauvinistic military regime to have democracy in the land, said Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne, Secretary of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), who was a star speaker at the Maaveerar (Heroes) Day gathering in London, Saturday. The event attended by more than 50, 000 diaspora Tamils paid homage to the heroes who laid down their lives fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.
Full story >>

New Secretaries appointed to ‘Mahinda Chintana’ government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 12:24 GMT]
55 Secretaries, the highest civil servants of the ministries appointed Tuesday by the President of the Colombo government Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, were advised by him to discharge their duties properly according to the ‘Mahinda Chintana’, reports Daily Mirror. Structuring the ministries in his second term of office, Mr. Rajapasksa handed over new appointment letters to the secretaries of the various ministries. The Mahinda Chintana list of Secretaries has one Tamil and one Muslim among the 55. The lone Tamil secretary is appointed to the Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development for which Mr. Douglas Devananda is the minister.
Full story >>

Ex-Liberation Tiger combatant student in Jaffna University attempts suicide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 07:25 GMT]
A first year Arts Faculty student in Jaffna University, a released ex-Liberation Tiger combatant from Vanni, tried to commit suicide Monday by taking overdose of tablets, sources in Jaffna. Meanwhile, the parents of a former Liberation Tiger combatant who had been rehabilitated after arrest and later released to join his family complained 18 November to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office that their son is continually threatened by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit officers and men when he appears to sign at the SLA Intelligence Unit camp as instructed. The 23-year-old student who attempted suicide is admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where the Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University, Professor. N. Shanmuagalingan visited him.
Full story >>

Wickramabahu to meet Diaspora Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 08:39 GMT]
Dr Wickramabahu Karunaratne, the leader of New Left Front and General Secretary of New Sama Samaja party, would be meeting diaspora Tamils in UK, British Tamil Forum (BTF) officials told TamilNet Friday. The meeting, scheduled to take place on 25 November in South Harrow, comes at a time when forces operating against solidarity among progressive leftist forces, were engaged in spreading false propaganda, Tamil political circles in UK said.
Full story >>

SL Police arrest TMVP operative in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 07:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka police Intelligence officers arrested Sunday an important operative of Tamil Makkal Viduthali Pulikal (TMVP) a political-cum-paramilitary party led by Eastern Province Chief Minister, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, in Ka’ruvaakkea’ni in Batticaloa. He was arrested for involvement in the theft of a van on information given by Vadivel Ravichandran, the Vice Chairman of the Vaazhaichcheanai Pradeshiya Saba in Batticaloa who was arrested and detained in October by police in Nuwara Eliya district, sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

24th Anniversary of the massacre of 320 Tamils in Batticaloa remembered

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 16:32 GMT]
The massacre of 320 innocent Tamils of Pullumalai in Batticaloa district on 10.11.1986 by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sinhala thugs was remembered Wednesday by the people of Batticaloa district. The SLA soldiers and the Sinhala thugs who brutally massacred the 320 Tamils were not arrested during the United National Party (UNP) government then and the present United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) too has failed to take action on them or to pay compensation for the affected or find the disappeared persons, sources in Batticaloa said. Complaints made by the victims’ family members to Sri Lanka President’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) recently in Chengkaladi Secretariat were not registered, the sources added.
Full story >>

Eelam war damaged India’s reputation: Pinang Deputy Chief Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 17:42 GMT]
India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Malaysian visit to inaugurate ‘Little India’ didn’t go well with Tamils, the predominant Indian community in Malaysia, said Prof. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of the Pinang State of Malaysia. The Indian High Commission and other agents of India tried to control the damage. India does not understand that the pernicious actions of India in Eelam have damaged the reputation of the government of India and the entire Indian establishment in the eyes of global Tamils. Before the mass murder in Eelam, Malaysian Tamils looked upon India as their saviour. Today, there is little or no respect for India in general and for the politicians in Tamil Nadu or in the Congress Party, Prof Ramasamy said.
Full story >>

Undergrad Buddhist monks allegedly attack university officials

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 October 2010, 13:51 GMT]
A group of monk undergraduates of the Sri Jayawardenepura University in Colombo allegedly attacked some university officials, accompanying Vice Chancellor Dr. N. L. A. Karunaratne, when they visited the monk hostel on Sunday night, The Island reported Monday. According to the Vice Chancellor, the attack took place when he and the officials visited the hostel to inquire on a complaint they had received from the people of the area that their children could not study at night due to the din from the hostel.
Full story >>

Complaints against SLA, paramilitary groups made to LLRC in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 October 2010, 06:00 GMT]
Majority of the complaints made to Sri Lanka President’s Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Eastern Province are related to persons disappeared after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit personnel, and the paramilitary groups of Pillayan (Eastern Province Chief Minister) and Karuna (Sri Lanka Deputy Minister of Resettlement), sources in Batticaloa said. 490 complaints had been made to LLRC Monday in Chengkaladi Divisional Secretariat and six of them were confidential. Meanwhile, the families of disappeared persons in Batticaloa district accused that the LLRC has narrowed down its scope of action only to a selected number of years thus conveniently keeping out the genocide of Tamils in several villages of Batticaloa district in which hundreds of persons had been taken away by Sri Lanka armed forces and the paramilitary groups that operate with them.
Full story >>

Police order Kalmunai Muslim youths to surrender weapons

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 September 2010, 16:07 GMT]
Officer-in-Charge of the Kalmunai Police warned this week that legal action will be taken against Muslim youths who fail to surrender their weapons and continue to engage in unlawful activities. Kalmunai Police have asked the Muslim youths who underwent military training under the leadership of late Muslim leader M. H. M. Ashraff to surrender their arms to the mosques in Kalmunai immediately to avoid arrest, legal action and imprisonment. During the second Eelam War that began on 11.06.1990 the Government of Sri Lanka gave military training to Muslim youths under the leadership of late M. H. M. Ashraff, founder President of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and provided them with machine guns.
Full story >>

SL government appropriates Tamils’ lands in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 05:48 GMT]
Aaraiyampathi Social Development Organization (ASDO) in Batticaloa district alleged Sri Lanka Deputy Minister M. L. A. M Hisbulla of converting lands of the Tamils in Kaangkeayanoadai village into a Muslim village in the name of ‘The Village of Peace’ with funds from Iranian government. The foundation stone has been laid for this purpose without the knowledge of the Local Government Body (LGB) of the area and it is said that Muslim families of Kaaththaankudi are to be settled in the village to be built, T. Mahendran, the Secretary of ASDO said.
Full story >>

High Court begins inquiry against Fonseka on ‘white flag issue’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 04:31 GMT]
The Trial-at-Bar inquiry in the Colombo High Court against Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, began Monday. But the court comprising Deepali Wijesundera, H. N.P. B. Warawewa and Zurfick Raseen re-fixed the inquiry for Tuesday on receipt of a report that Fonseka was indisposed. Army Legal Officer Major Karunaratne further informed court that Fonseka had fallen ill Monday morning and was later examined by SL Navy doctors.
Full story >>

Complaints against SL Deputy Minister’s empty promises

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 September 2010, 06:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka Deputy Minister of Rehabilitation, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, has failed to fulfill his promises to solve the drinking water problem of the people of Kuruma’nve’li and Murungkaiyadi and the difficulties caused by the break down of the boat service between Thu’raineelaava’nai and Annamalai in Batticaloa district, the people of the areas said. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian P. Selvarasa had raised these issues two months ago in the District Development meeting presided by the Deputy Minister. There is no use in Muralitharn being a Deputy Minister in Sri Lanka government when he hasn’t the power to solve even these problems, the people said.
Full story >>

SL government responsible for abductions – TMVP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 September 2010, 05:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka government should take responsibility for the abductions that have taken place after the war in Eastern Province, the propaganda secretary of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), a political-cum-paramilitary party led by Eastern Province Chief Minister, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, said in a meeting held in Kommaanththu’rai in Batticaloa district. Meanwhile, Batticaloa district residents said that armed men alleged to be Pillayan group and Karuna group abduct persons and rob houses in the outskirt villages of the district. Karnuna group is also a political-cum-paramilitary party led by Sri Lanka minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna.
Full story >>