Resettling civilians locate mass graves in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2011, 16:18 GMT]
Uprooted civilians of Vanni, who are recently allowed to resettle in some areas of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) division of Mullaiththeevu district, have come across hundreds of skeletons of slain civilians in the 2009 war of Tamil genocide. The residents of Kaiveali village of PTK, while putting up temporary huts in their lands and paving way for lanes along the borders of the allowed resettlement area, have come across human graves and skeletons this week, sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet.
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Corpse recovered near SLA post in Vanni causes suspicion on the cause of death

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2011, 14:43 GMT]
A 42-year-old family man, Philip Chelvanayakam, who had gone from his village, Kumizha-munai in Karaithu'raip-pattu, to a bank situated in Mullaiththeevu, was recovered dead last Tuesday near a Sri Lanka Army post located in Theakkangkaadu on Kumizhamunai - Mullaiththeevu Road. In the meantime, the officers of the occupying Sri Lanka Army have ‘explained’ to the family and the relatives of the deceased that soldiers manning the post had gone on vacation. Further, the body of the deceased was sent to Colombo for post-mortem and not to Ki'linochchi or Jaffna, the residents of the village told media.
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US Court rules Rumsfeld can be sued for torture

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2011, 14:02 GMT]
Federal judge, James S. Gwin, of the District Court of District of Columbia, ruled this week that former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld can be sued personally for damages by a former U.S. military contractor who says he was tortured during a nine-month imprisonment in Iraq. The lawsuit also accused four other US Government officials of a failure to secure the return of plaintiff's property seized upon his detention and of violations of his right to travel. Chicago civil rights law firm, Loevy & Loevy, argued for the plaintiff identified only as John Doe. A War crimes civil suit against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse by three Tamil plaintiffs sponsored by a US-based advocacy group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), is also pending in the same District Court but under a different judge Colleen Kollar-Kelly.
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IC’s war crimes investigation, looking upon India counterproductive: KP

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2011, 19:23 GMT]
Gotabhaya-controlled Selvarasa Pathmanathan (KP) meeting media in Mullaiththeevu on Thursday said that the diaspora should stop campaigning for war crimes investigation as it provokes anger and hatred among the Sinhala people. “They have to know the reality, we must live in peace,” he said. According to him, talking about Channel 4 documentation is absurd. On India he said, “India is doing its maximum. India would not go further than this and propose a solution. So this should be understood by responsible people,” adding that, “We should not run to India complaining over minor matters.” The ‘patriotism’ of Sinhala regime that never hesitated to invite the West and India into the island to commit genocide on a part of the population, now voices ‘patriotism’ through the mouth of the captive-KP, to get rid of the ‘partners’, commented Tamil national politicians in the island.
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Colombo rejects TNA’s ultimatum on non-existing devolution plan

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2011, 11:54 GMT]
Rejecting outright the demands of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a typical Sinhala hegemonic manner, the militaristic government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday said that the demands set out in the TNA’s ultimatum for future talks have reflected the attitude of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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Gotabhaya’s sexist comments on war victim giving evidence on rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2011, 11:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s genocidal soldiers making lewd comments on the naked bodies of female victims killed in the war, suggesting that they were killed after rape has been documented in the Channel 4 documentary. While denying the documentation as fake to Headlines Today this week, Sri Lanka’s defence secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made a sexist comment on a war victim who was giving evidence to Channel 4. The attitude of Gotabhaya only proves the mind-set with which a defence establishment is being steered in the island, media circles in Chennai commented. Headlines Today released the main comments of Gotabhaya on Thursday. The full interview will be on telecast on Monday.
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SLA complicit in assisting Karuna's extortion ring

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2011, 03:32 GMT]
Paramilitary personnel of the group led by Karuna working hand in hand with the intelligence personnel of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are engaged in extorting money from people who go to work in Paduvaankarai village, Batticaloa, according to complaints filed by the victims to authorities, civil sources in Batticaloa said. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, currently holds the post of Deputy Resettlement Minister in Mahinda Rajapakse government.
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Terrorism was the problem: Krishna; no need of solution now: Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 August 2011, 15:02 GMT]
In a Suo Motu statement in the Indian parliament, Indian foreign minister SM Krishna viewed that Sri Lanka’s problem for three decades was ‘terrorism’. “Sri Lanka has borne the brunt of terrorism for nearly three-decades,” the minister said, adding that the highest priority for India now is welfare of the IDPs. Colombo’s assurances for building upon the 13th Amendment would meet the reconciliation, he contented. Meanwhile, speaking to Headlines Today this week, SL presidential sibling and defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said that there was no need to talk about solution any more as they had ended terrorism. Headlines Today will be airing the exclusive interview with Gotabhaya on coming Monday.
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Indian parliament hijacked to show solidarity with genocide and militarism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 August 2011, 16:00 GMT]
The Congress-led Indian establishment that orchestrates a crime-filled Sri Lanka policy through advisors, bureaucrats and intelligence agents, on Tuesday hijacked its parliament to demonstrate its adamant solidarity with genocide and militarism in the island by inviting a delegation of the island’s parliament to a session of its parliament, at a time when the Tamil Nadu State Assembly has passed an overwhelming resolution to investigate the crimes of the regime in the island, political analysts in Chennai said. The protesting AIADMK, MDMK, CPI and CPI(M) of Tamil Nadu in the Indian parliament shouted “shame, shame”, when the speaker of the Indian parliament welcomed the guest-partners and the rest of the members followed thumping their desks.
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Indian PM rejects TN State assembly resolution for economic sanctions on SL

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 August 2011, 06:04 GMT]
Rejecting the resolution of the Tamil Nadu State assembly, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday has said that India “cannot afford to restrict economic links with neighbouring Sri Lanka”, a move widely seen as giving a moral and diplomatic strength to the hawkish Rajapaksa government, which is under international pressure over wide-spread war crime allegations. According to the Delhi-based Hindustan Times report, the Indian Prime Minister has made his government’s policy with regard to Sri Lanka and to Eezham Tamils when he was met by the General Secreatry of Marumalarchi Dravida Munetra Kazhakam (MDMK) Vaiko on Tuesday.
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Gotabhaya denies role in white flag surrender killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 August 2011, 12:55 GMT]
Rattled and ravaged by the widespread credible war crime allegations, Sri Lankan Presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Monday denied his role and responsibility over the killing of LTTE’s political wing leaders, Nadesan and Puleedevan while surrendering to the 58 Division troops in the final days of the war in May 2009. In the meantime, a disinformation report released by his ministry has come with a comically low figure of major offences committed by Sri Lanka Army personnel between 2005 and 2010 in the North and East: 8 murders, 4 rapes and 1 sexual abuse. The only year with no major offenses by the SL Army was, according to its own report, none other than the year 2009, the year when SLA ironically adhered to the policy of Gotabhaya's “Zero Civilian Casualty”.
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Attack on Uthayan editor portrays renewed attacks on Tamils: JDS

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 August 2011, 06:18 GMT]
Holding the political and military leadership of the Rajapaksa regime responsible for the recent pre-planned attack on the news editor of the Janffa-based Uthayan newspaper, the Journalist for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a media organisation of exiled group of Journalists from the island, has said that the attack has portrayed “the vicious nature of the renewed and accelerated violent attacks on democratic rights of Sri Lanka's Tamil people”.
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Colombo unable to bury facts of ACF massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 July 2011, 21:15 GMT]
Fifth anniversary of the massacre of seventeen staffers of the French NGO, Action Contre la Faim (ACF), by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers falls on the 4th of August. Later investigations established that the workers, trapped inside their Moothoor branch office residence of ACF located close to Moothoor Cultural Centre, were shot and killed at point blank range, by SLA soldiers. Colombo has continued to sabotage investigations, failed to provide protection for witnesses, and has failed to make public findings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report on the ACF killings. Meanwhile, a former wife of slain ACF worker, Premas Anandarajah, has filed a civil suit in the District Court of District of Columbia, U.S., against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse as responsible for the crime, claiming damages of $30m (all three plaintiffs).
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Stop treating Tamils as minority: Premachandran MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 July 2011, 20:37 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran on Sunday touched on an important conceptual issue related to the national question in the island that affects equality between Tamils and Sinhalese, when he criticized those who treat Tamils as a ‘minority’. “We will not allow the government or anyone else to treat the Tamils as a minority anymore. If the Sri Lankan government thinks the Sinhalese are the majority and the Tamils are the minority, then they are mistaken,” Mr. Premachandran told The Sunday Leader.
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Nirupama, India’s ambassador-designate to US, meets Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 July 2011, 17:29 GMT]
India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao who will be retiring on Sunday is on a three-day visit to Colombo. Arriving on Friday night she had a breakfast meeting with Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday. The Hindu, saying that the meeting was a result of spontaneous invitation from Rajapaksa, cited officials describing the meeting as a “farewell” Rajapaksa had wanted to accord her because of the special relationship she shared with the country. But political observers said Nirupama’s fascination with Colombo on the eve of her retirement is connected to her new assignment as India’s ambassador to the US.
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Colombo targeting Tamil civil service is more than revenge

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 July 2011, 18:02 GMT]
Orders have been issued by Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa and by his sibling Basil Rajapaksa to colonial governor Maj. Gen. Chandrasri for immediate and full-swing replacement of Tamil civil service in the north. The act may superficially look as a revenge for the defeat in the civic elections, but it is actually aimed to make any political solution that will be ‘accounted’ to the outside world completely meaningless to Eezham Tamils, and is a part of a long-contemplated agenda of structural genocide, political observers said. Meanwhile, knowing what is happening and what will happen in demography, political representation, civil administration, militarisation and in all other respects, why should the TNA commit to seek solutions under a ‘united Sri Lanka’ just because the powers that abetted the genocide want it, ask non TNA Tamil nationalists.
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CEB workers in North, East protest demanding salary arrears

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 July 2011, 20:15 GMT]
Ceylon Electricity Board workers in Trincomalee and Jaffna on Tuesday and Wednesday staged protests demanding immediate payment of salary arrears for 10 months. While the Sri Lankan government has been waging a propaganda inviting foreign countries to invest money in a “developing Sri Lanka”, the State is unable to pay salary arrears for more than 10 months, CEB workers in Jaffna said Wednesday. For the first time after several years, electricity board workers from North and South joined in the protest that took place in front of CEP office situated on KKS Road.
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Army witnesses recount final orgy of massacre, rape, torture, mutilation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 July 2011, 02:19 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officer has given Channel 4 an account of how, following orders from Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the commander of the 58 Division, Brigadier (now Major General) Shavendra Silva gathered his officers in the closing days of the war and ordered them to take no prisoners when capturing the remainder of the enclave in which thousands of Tamils civilians and fighters were surrounded. Brig. Silva received the same orders that Mr. Gotabaya issued to all regiments, the officer who was then serving under Brig. Silva told Channel 4. Meanwhile, another Sri Lankan soldier with the 58 Division has given an eyewitness account of an orgy of mass murder, rape, torture and mutilation in the final days in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians perished.
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Norwegian Tamils remember Oslo-Utøya, Black July victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 July 2011, 08:32 GMT]
City of Oslo, the capital of Norway, was full of roses Monday and Tuesday. More than 200,000 people gathered Monday evening to express their sorrow and solidarity with the victims of the attacks by far-right Islamophobic killer, Anders Behring Breivik, who has claimed the lives of at least 76 people, most of them young, in a combined bomb attack on the government square in the heart of the city and a shooting rampage at the summer camp of the youth wing of the ruling Labour Party at Utøya Island, located northwest of Norway's capital. Two of five Norwegian Eezham Tamil youths, who survived the attack at the Utøya Island, took part in a memorial event Monday, jointly organised by three Tamil organisations. The memorial event also remembered the victims of Black July, the Sri Lankan state-sponsored pogrom against Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka in 1983.
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‘Dropping call for justice and independence is worst crime’

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 July 2011, 21:03 GMT]
Voicing on behalf of the present establishment in New Delhi, sections in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) unnecessarily declaring against independence of Eezham Tamils and discouraging war crimes investigations are worst of the crimes committed not merely against Eezham Tamils but against human civilization, said Tamil national as well as Left political circles in the island and in the diaspora to TamilNet on Monday. The comments have come responding to TNA views expressed after its victory and during its campaign in the civic elections. TNA leader Sampanthan interpreted the victory as Tamil wish for solutions within ‘united Sri Lanka’ and a confidential document circulated among ‘friends of the TNA’ during the civic elections said that the war crimes investigations were actually directed against India than against Colombo, and hence Tamils should not pin hopes on them.
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