HRW calls for boycott of Colombo Defence Seminar

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2011, 01:31 GMT]
Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights organization, called on countries worldwide to boycott a conference to be held in Colombo between 31 May to 02 June labelled "Defeating Terrorism Sri Lankan Experience” aimed at sharing Sri Lanka's war experience, BBC reported. “What we are telling the militaries around the world is that they should not attend a meeting to celebrate a military policy that involves killing so many civilians,” HRW Executive Director Brad Adams told BBC.
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Uprooted Tamils from Puthukkudiyiruppu still strive for resettlement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2011, 19:41 GMT]
Large number of Tamil families from Mullaiththeevu district of Vanni, forcibly displaced and still held behind barbed wire camps in Menik Farm and other places, are yet to be allowed into their native villages in Puthukkudiyiruppu. The occupying Sri Lankan military has only allowed civilians to enter 6 of 19 Village Officer (GS) divisions in Puthukkudiyiruppu. So far, Only 68,846 persons from 23,050 families have been resettled in 65 out of 92 Village Officer divisions in Mullaiththeevu district. Thirty percent of the civilians are not allowed to resettle in the entire district of Mullaiththeevu, according to the data from the Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat.
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Indian High Commission rejects Jeyaratne's LTTE camp statement as "baseless"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2011, 12:40 GMT]
The Indian High Commission in Colombo Thursday denied the claims made by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne that there were three LTTE training camps in Tamil Nadu, according to a news report carried this evening by Times Online. Spokesman for the Indian High Commission in Colombo Birender Singh Yadav said that the statement was ‘baseless’ and a detailed response will follow.
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No security guarantee for Tamil parliamentarians: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2011, 07:58 GMT]
Over the attack on his vehicle at Nochchiyagama on Monday, Tamil National Alliance Ki'linochchi district parlimentarian S. Sreetharan said in Parliament on Wednesday, “It is clear that there is no security guarantee for MPs in this country. How can a Tamil here expect security from the state?” He further stated that while he was passing Medawachchiya on Monday at 5:30 p.m., a white colored van without a number plate overtook their vehicle. When they approached Ullukku'lam the said vehicle was parked on the side of the road and three men got off from the vehicle and fired at them using small weapons. In return, his security guards fired back before the assassins threw a grenade at his vehicle and fled the scene.
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Three opposition MPs to give evidence in “white flag” case

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2011, 02:41 GMT]
Two parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and a parliamentarian from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are among ten witnesses who will be giving evidence in the white flag case in which former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Sarath Fonseka is charged for causing disrepute to the Sri Lanka government by making allegedly false statements to The Sunday leader, an English weekly published in Colombo.
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State run daily plays down assassination attempt on TNA MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 March 2011, 12:10 GMT]
Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Sritharan’s shooting incident in Nochchiyagama on March 7th, received minimal coverage in the state run leading Sinhala newspaper Dinamina, sources in Colombo said. Dinamina carried the report in page-4 with minimal details of the incident.
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Eastern teachers denied flood distress loans

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2011, 13:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Democratic Teachers Union (SLDTU) has accused Colombo Public Administration Ministry of not disbursing distress loans to public servants affected by recent floods in east as previously announced with a circular issued by the Ministry. SLDTU President, A.P. Kamaldeen, said, according to the circular three months salary will be given as interest free loan and would be recovered in a period of ten months. But the loan has not been released to teachers even after two months.
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Canadian Tamil husband suspected in hiring southerners to kill wife in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2011, 06:44 GMT]
38-year-old Kukathasan Shanthini of Meesaalai in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, was abducted Sunday and her body with signs of torture and defacement was found Monday in a remote neighbourhood of Kiraampuvil temple. Sri Lanka Police in Chaavakachcheari suspects that her husband, who has recently come from Canada has hired assassins from Colombo. Shanthini and the 8-year-old child of the couple also have recently returned from India after disappointment in waiting for her Canadian visa to join with her husband.
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Veteran journalist Sabaratnam passes away

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 17:47 GMT]
Veteran journalist T. Sabaratnam passed away after a brief illness on Saturday in Colombo at the age of 79. Mr. Sabaratnam, who held the post of senior deputy editor of the SL State run Daily News at the time of retirement in 1997, was contributing to the English weekly, the Nation and other English and Tamil newspapers after retirement from the Lake House newspapers. He worked as a lecturer in the College of Journalism since its inception till his demise.
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TNA MP Sritharan narrowly escapes assassination in Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2011, 14:54 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Vanni, S. Sritharan, narrowly escaped from a group of attackers who lobbed two hand grenade targeting his vehicle and fired at the vehicle using pistols from behind Monday evening around 6:00 p.m. at Nochchiyaagama in Anuradhapura, TNA parliamentarians told media. The parliamentarian was on his way from Vavuniyaa to Colombo to attend the Tuesday sittings in SL parliament. No one was hurt in the attack, SL Police in Anuradhapura said.
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Sri Lankan state shows ‘reconciliation’ in the country of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2011, 15:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka military occupying the Tamil country opened a new fort and an extensive military base on Friday at Koappaay in Jaffna, over the graves and memorials of the heroes who laid down their lives to the cause of the liberation of Eezham Tamils. The Chinese helped the occupying SL military to raze down the Maaveerar Thuyilumidam (the resting place of the heroes) and to build the fortress at that very premises for the occupying Army to tread on it. The resident of the king of Jaffna was at Koappaay during the times of the Kingdom of Jaffna. The Portuguese destroyed it in the 17th century. The US State Department coined the word 'reconciliation' but Colombo is writing the meaning for the word, commented a Tamil politician in Jaffna.
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AG suspends forced registration by SLA in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2011, 02:50 GMT]
A three-member bench of the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday terminated the proceedings in the Fundamental Rights application filed by five Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians against the forced registration of resident in the Jaffna district and Killinochchi district by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) after Sri Lanka's Attorney General (AG) informed the Court that SLA will stop forced registration, legal sources in Colombo said. The Deputy Solicitor General, Buvaneka Aluvihare, on behalf of the AG gave the undertaking said that the forced registration would be suspended until a procedure that passes constitutional muster is developed to collect information pertaining to the two districts.
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Occupying SL military stops re-installing MGR statue in VVT

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2011, 00:05 GMT]
Efforts by the people of Valveddiththu’rai in Jaffna to re-install a statue for Mr. M G Ramachandran (MGR), the Tamil film icon since 1950s and former chief minister of Tamil Nadu was stopped by the Sri Lanka Army occupying the Tamil country. A statue of MGR that existed earlier at Valveddiththu’rai was desecrated and the arms were broken by the occupying military a few months back. Eezham Tamils, especially the coastal community people, are strong admirers of the films of MGR for well over six decades. MGR was born in Kandy in the island.
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Meaningful accountability comes by addressing the national question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2011, 10:33 GMT]
When events similar to what happened and is happening in the island led to international intervention and liberation of the affected in many other instances of the world, the issue of Eezham Tamils is consciously blunted as something concerned to insurgency, counterinsurgency and war crimes investigation of both. In the process, the main culprit of decades, i.e., the Sri Lankan state (not the regimes) escapes unscathed and is being saved by those who have a problem of irregularity with their appetite, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo responding to discussions in a live web-seminar conducted by Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research of Harvard University on 24 February.
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SL Military Intelligence behind abduction of priests in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 12:16 GMT]
Intelligence officials of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was behind the abduction of three Christian priests ten days ago in Batticaloa town, sources close to the priests said. The Priests were released February 25 after interrogation held in Fourth Floor of the SLA headquarters. The Priests while admitting that the abduction occurred, declined to reveal anything that took place while in custody due to security reasons.
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Officials opposing Sinhala encroachment threatened with transfer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 12:10 GMT]
Tamil Divisional Secretaries in the eastern province are facing transfer threats due to the non-co-operation to implement Mahinda Chinthanaya in the Eastern Province in allowing encroachment by Sinhalese in Tamil villages. Already, Divisional Secretaries of the two DS divisions Koa'ra'laip-pattu South and Koa'ra'laip-pattu North in Batticaloa district are said to be informed of their transfer, sources in Eastern province said.
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Sri Lanka's rights violations compel investigations, says Australian MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2011, 02:45 GMT]
Laurie Ferguson, Member of Australian Parliament for Werriwa and Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services, in his statement following submitting a private members bill for debate on "Humanitarian Issues During the War in Sri Lanka," Monday detailed the egregious violations of human rights in Sri Lanka and said he supported eminent personalities, Governments, and premier Rights organizations around the world in demanding an independent, international investigations into Sri Lanka's rights violations.
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After Libya referral to ICC, US warns Sri Lanka on war crimes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 13:12 GMT]
The United States warned this week that Sri Lanka could be hauled before a war crimes tribunal over the killing of “many thousands of civilians” in the final months of its armed conflict, if it is not willing hold to meet international standards in its own investigations into the mass killings, AFP reported. The warning, described by AFP as “the toughest yet” came in comments by US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake, in an interview with the agency. Blake also cited the UN Security Council referring Libya to the International Criminal Court last week as a signal of global concern over human rights.
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Antiquity of Jaffna city goes back to Roman times

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 07:31 GMT]
Pottery associated with Roman times of the early historic period were found in the premises of the King’s House in Jaffna fort by archaeologists of the University of Jaffna led by Prof P. Pushparatnam. The team took over digging after getting information on pottery finds when a pit was dug for toilet purposes in the King’s House premises. The disturbed rubble layer at the top had a variety of pottery of various periods, including Rouletted Ware and Amphora Ware associated with Roman times. Digging further, the Jaffna University team reached a floor level and artefacts are being excavated even below that level. From the indications at the surface, the excavators expect to reach undisturbed levels of early historic habitation in the excavation.
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Wahalkada

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2011, 00:13 GMT]
The outer entrance
The entrance side
The entrance part
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