Motorbike squad destroys Swami Vivekananda statue in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 23:39 GMT]
A group of men who came in motorbikes Tuesday around 00:30 a.m. destroyed the statue of Swami Vivekananda, a well known Vedantic spiritual leader of Hinduism from the 19th century. The statue, located in front of a fuel filling station on Batticaloa Kalmunai Road (A4) and is regarded locally as a border mark of Tamil dominated Aaraiyampathi and Muslim dominated Kaaththaankudi in Batticaloa district. The destruction is viewed as an attempt to create further divisions between Tamils and Muslims in the district. The SL police is allegedly involved in activities creating dissension between Tamils and Muslims by engineering such attacks, informed sources in Kaaththaankudi told TamilNet Tuesday.
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SL paramilitary in Jaffna monopolises cable TV market at gunpoint

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 06:10 GMT]
Hundreds of private cable operators, who have been supplying cable Television covering the villages of Jaffna for years have been harassed and coerced into working under a paramilitary operated cable operator, MBL Cable Network, in Jaffna. Independent operators who were operating their own dishes and distributing television channels to private consumers were told that their business was illegal and they have to buy the channels and lease the network being established by the paramilitary company that had exclusive ‘government permission’. However, those who were in the competing business and argued that there was no such ‘exclusive permission’ obtained by the MBL continued to operate on their own. But, now they are being threatened. Alexkumar Balasundaram, a cable provider who operates from Kokkuvil with 10-year-experience, says he was threatened Saturday at gunpoint.
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Ampaa'rai Tamil driver found dead with cut injuries in Nuwara Eliya

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 January 2012, 12:02 GMT]
30 year old Kamalaraj, a resident of Thambiluvil in Thirukoail division in Ampaarai district, was found dead blindfolded and with cut injuries in his neck along a main road Nuwaraeliya area in the central province. He had been a driver by profession in Wellawatte in Colombo district and went on a hire to Kathirkaamam with persons arrived from abroad on January 3 in a van owned by another person.
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TNA, GTF join ANC centenary celebration, Sri Lanka boycotts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 January 2012, 09:48 GMT]
Delegations from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) are amongst international attendees of the centenary celebrations of the African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday. Sri Lanka has refused to participate at the event in Bloemfontein because of the ANC’s invitation to the GTF, the Sunday Times reports. Dozens of heads of state and representatives of other governments, as well as large numbers of dignitaries from across Africa are joining over 100,000 politicians, members and supporters of the ANC in the historic celebration. In the meantime, a Tamil academic based in Colombo cautioned Eezham Tamils to be aware of the duality of South Africa. While the ruling party has been engaged in a show of solidarity with struggling forces across the world, the South African State has joined hands with anti-people regimes as it did during the 2009 voting at the UNHRC.
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Sound of Silent Speech

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2012, 16:57 GMT]
One can speak not only through words but through expressive conduct often called "Symbolic speech" - legally defined as nonverbal gestures and actions intended to communicate a message. In Western liberal democracies, most forms of symbolic speech are constitutionally protected. The Tamil diaspora's recent use of such protected expressive speech to publicize symbols of Colombo oppression as philatelic stamps has infuriated Sri Lanka diplomats, and is posing a long-term threat to Sri Lanka's image abroad. The autocratic suppression of free speech and threat to life have progressively shaped a local compliant media that exercises self-censorship, and have ill-prepared Sri Lanka's diplomats to confront the individual freedom enjoyed by the Tamil diaspora in the West.
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Colombo Tamil group fallen into GoSL net?

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2012, 13:33 GMT]
“After the war, with protection of Tamil civilians neutrralized, the Eezham Tamils have become powerless even to conduct their routine day-to-day activities to survive. The occupying Sri Lankan army, the military-led administration of Colombo, and Sri Lankan ministers such as Rishad Bathiutheen, who intervene in the affairs of resettlement, have become the authorities of ‘appeal’ in resettling the Muslims in Jaffna and other places,” says a Colombo-based Tamil academic responding to an appeal that appeared Thursday in the Island paper. The appeal was made by a group of 68 Colombo-based Tamils. The academic describes the move as an attempt to create divisions among the Tamil speaking people and as a move to counter the real civil society in the North and East that has recently spoken up on course correcting the Tamil National Alliance.
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SL military-led administration in North harasses Tamil journalists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2012, 09:48 GMT]
After two years of war and claims that Colombo has resettled civilians in Vanni, remote areas of the mainland still remain prohibited for Tamil journalists. Sri Lankan military intelligence officers and operatives systematically harass the journalists who visit the areas beyond the ‘A9 comfort zone’ of the occupying SL military. Meanwhile, harassment by SL military-led administration has increased in the Jaffna peninsula. On Friday, a 28-year-old reporter in Jaffna, A. Daniel, was taken to SL police station in Jaffna and questioned for 3 hours by the SL police, allegedly for exposing SL military governor not allowing the Jaffna GA for a separate meeting as scheduled with the British Conservative MP James Wharton, who was taken on a guided tour to Jaffna with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in London.
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Hearing in Sivaram assassination case put off for April 25

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2012, 18:44 GMT]
The Colombo High Court on Thursday put off further hearing in the assassination case of TamilNet senior editor Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki) for April 25, 2012. SL State Counsel appearing for the prosecution requested the court to postpone further hearing as he found difficult to proceed with the case in the ‘absence of vital witnesses’. The Sri Lankan high court has postponed the case also on earlier occasions citing the same excuse.
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Rajapaksa to visit Pakistan

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2012, 15:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse is scheduled to visit Pakistan from 8 to 10 February. His visit is expected to be in return for Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari visit to Sri Lanka in 2010, Colombo media quoted SL foreign ministry sources. Rajapaksa's visit is in relation to the US dollars 200 million credit facility offered by Pakistan during Zadari’s visit last year, informed sources in Colombo said.
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SL Military governor sabotages Jaffna GA meeting British Conservative MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 January 2012, 09:14 GMT]
Sri Lankan colonial governor of North, Major General (retd) G.A. Chandrasiri, on Wednesday instructed the SL Government Agent of Jaffna district, Ms. Imelda Sugumar, to come to his official residence and have meetings with the visiting British Conservative MP James Wharton, canceling her meeting at Jaffna District Secretariat with the British parliamentarian of UK - Sri Lanka Parliamentary Group. Colombo's Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs has recently ‘reminded’ the officials of the administrative sector in North and East that the foreign diplomats need to secure permission through the ministry in Colombo before meeting the officials. Ms. Imelda Sugumar had to receive Mr. Wharton at Alfred Duraiappah Stadium and join the delegation to governors residence, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Colombo targets Tamil officials who defy instruction in land alienation in East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 January 2012, 16:09 GMT]
Tamil divisional secretaries who are in charge of the administration of border Tamil villages in Batticaloa district are transferred out to other areas as they are strict in allocating lands according to law and without yielding to Colombo pressure. Villagers have been holding protests against such transfers. Transfers of divisional secretaries are being carried out targeting officers who are not yielding to the pressure of the structural genocide program of Colombo and not allowing Sinhala colonisation in border Tamil villages.
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EP councilor opposes transfer of divisional secretaries from Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 January 2012, 16:04 GMT]
The transfer of divisional secretaries in the Batticaloa district at the instance of SL administration in Colombo has created a stir among the public in the Batticaloa district. Eastern Provincial Councilor R.Thurairatnam has called for the immediate suspension of transfers of the divisional secretaries.
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Extra-judicial execution of Trincomalee students, Sixth anniversary

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2012, 00:05 GMT]
Two Tamil organizations in the U.S. jointly issued a commemorative stamp to mark the 6th anniversary of the extra-judicial execution by Sri Lanka security forces of five Trincomalee high school students on the 2nd January 2006, when the highly accomplished students were spending an afternoon at a seafront in Trincomalee. The stamp, the issuing organizations said, is a mark of respect to the families that are fighting for justice, and to celebrate the indomitable spirit of Dr Manoharan, the father of one of the students, Ragihar, who had made the fight to bring the killers of his son to justice his life's mission. Meanwhile, Amnesty International conducted a "Write-for-Rights" campaign seeking justice for Dr Manoharan's family during the first week of December 2011.
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EPDP accused of post-2006 killings as SLFP-EPDP feud escalates in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 January 2012, 23:58 GMT]
Pandemonium prevailed and Police was called to manage the altercation during a Jaffna Municipal Council meeting Friday when Nishanthan, an ex-member of the Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP), and currently functioning under ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) label, accused EPDP of carrying out abductions, extortions, and gruesome killings that occurred in Jaffna after the breakdown of the peace process in 2006 under Sri Lanka military occupation, sources in Jaffna said. Nishanthan was a key activist within EPDP when EPDP was functioning as an armed-paramilitary unit under the command of Sri Lanka military intelligence. The exposé of EPDP complicity in killings was a manifestation of brewing infighting between the members of the EPDP and SLFP within the Jaffna Municipal Council, political observers in Jaffna said.
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TamilNet releases LTTE documents of 2006 talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 December 2011, 16:34 GMT]
A set of documents prepared by the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat during Geneva peace talks held in February 2006, in June 2006 in Oslo and in October 2006 in Geneva, some of which have not yet reached public domain, are being released by TamilNet to facilitate a deeper understanding of the peace process and its eventual collapse. While 2011 has been a "year of reports," the UN panel report, Norway’s ‘Pawns of Peace’, the genocide model LLRC report etc., the LTTE documents provide valuable insight into the Tigers' efforts undertaken to fulfill LTTE's commitment to the International Community. Though groups such as the International Crisis Group (ICG) reject the application of the concept of "earned sovereignty" to Eezham Tamils, the documents prepared by the Peace Secretariat show how the concept was validated in practice by the LTTE.
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UPFA goons attack on Mullaiththeevu district accountant draws protest

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 December 2011, 08:17 GMT]
The employees at Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat on Thursday staged a token strike protesting against the attack by UPFA goons on the accountant of the District Secretariat of Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday. A five-member group of Colombo's ruling UPFA Wednesday around 7:30 p.m. entered the office of the accountant, S. Jeyakumar and attacked him. Mr. Jeyakumar has been voicing against the political interference and against the misappropriation of the funds taking place in the district, informed sources told media. The sources alleged involvement of various personalities associated with Rajapaksa establishment with vested interests, ranging from SL minister Rishad Bathiutheen to the Mullaiththeevu coordinator of North East Housing Rehabilitation Project (NEHRP) and the Puthukkudiyiruppu SLFP organiser for intervening in the affairs of the District Secretariat.
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SL ‘special agents’ ransack human rights activist's apartment in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 December 2011, 02:25 GMT]
Sri Lankan investigation officers claiming to be from the ‘Special Unit’ on Wednesday evening ransacked an apartment where a Tamil human rights activist from the East was residing in Colombo. The agents clad in civil and uniform entered the room of the human rights activist around 10:00 p.m. and took away documents and files without mentioning the intention of the action and without providing any list of what they have taken from the apartment, informed sources said. The Human Rights activist, who was formerly a progamme officer of a Belgium-based international organisation, was living in the apartment with his Sinhala room mate. The Sinhala friend was taken away by the investigating officers, detained for almost 20 hours and harrassed, informed NGO sources in Colombo told TamilNet Thursday.
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SLA assaults, threatens activists who protest against sand mining in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 December 2011, 10:55 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Mu'rakkoddaagn-cheanai camp in Batticaloa district have summoned civil activists from Chantha'na-madu river basin to their camp, intimidating them and issuing death threats to some of the activists for having protested against illegal sand mining carried out by TMVP paramilitary operated by the SLA. The villagers, intimidated by the soldiers not to protest against the sand mining, revealed that two activists, 30-year-old Muthupillai Nadesan, the second ‘vanniyanaar’ (temple administrator) of Chiththaa'ndi Murukan temple and 28-year-old Velautham Ruban, were severely assaulted by the SLA soldiers and were issued death threats on December 18.
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Tragedy of US policy on Sri Lanka's war crimes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 December 2011, 00:02 GMT]
The Obama Administration has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to human rights and dignity and rule of law and has largely delivered on its promise -- most notably in the context of the Arab Spring, commented Tamil legal activists in the United States. Tragically, they observed, the US administration has failed dismally in the case of Sri Lanka, with catastrophic consequences (a) to the many tens of thousands of Tamil civilians killed whom the US knowingly failed to protect, under Blake architected policy on Sri Lanka, during and after the war; (b) to the credibility of US commitment to universal human rights, democracy and rule of law, and to justice and national reconciliation in Sri Lanka; and (c) to the integrity of international human rights and humanitarian law.
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LLRC criticisms escalate as Colombo threatens legal action

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 December 2011, 14:27 GMT]
Questioning the need for "a seven-man presidential Commission costing millions of rupees for platitudinous recommendations that the government will ignore," Prof. Kumar David, in an opinion column in Lakbima says, "[t]his game [LLRC] is not being played for reconciliation with the Tamils; it is being played to get the human rights and international agencies baying for blood off the government’s back," and notes, "[i]f GoSL wants to settle the national question it knows what it needs to do and could have done so a long time ago; no need for commissions. End the military occupation of Tamil areas and close down the High Security Zones, implement full devolution of power, and release Tamil youth held in illegal detention for years. For starters, these few steps will do more than a hundred commissions of inquiry."
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