Further oppression expected as SL Army takes over islands off Jaffna from SL Navy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 January 2011, 21:23 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna will take over the islands off Jaffna from the occupying SL Navy, an Army spokesman announced in Jaffna Thursday. Since 1990s the control of the islands off the Jaffna Peninsula was vested with the occupying Navy of colonial Sri Lanka. Extensive new bases are now being built for the army next to the establishments of the SL Navy in the islands. Fear engulfs the people of the islands as the Army is insisting on fresh registration of people in addition to earlier registration of them with the SL Navy. Pungkudutheevu Island has become the new centre for the Army’s extensive establishment.
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SLN firing on fishermen: Delhi protests, Colombo denies

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 January 2011, 18:31 GMT]
India registered a ‘strong protest’ Thursday over the Sri Lanka Navy’s firing on Tamil Nadu fishermen, killing one, but Colombo flatly denied the accusation. Three fishermen, who put out to sea from Puthukkoaddai, came under indiscriminate fire from Sri Lankan Navy about 14 miles off the hamlet, Indian fisheries officials said. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi sent a telegraph to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, reports said.
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Floods: Eezham Tamils need a government for them

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 15:43 GMT]
While the Eastern Province is 100 percent affected by the floods in the last two weeks, seriously harming and displacing hundreds of thousands, the SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa visited only the partially affected Polonnaruwa district in the North Central Province and returned to Colombo. The assistance that was meant for the East was diverted to the SL military at Kudumpimalai. Flood relief is totally politicised by Colombo’s factions led by the East chief minister Chandrakanthan, SL deputy minister Muralitharan and another SL deputy minister Hisbullah. Eezham Tamils are left without a government even in meeting natural disasters is the public feeling in the North and East. Meanwhile, Mr. Muralitharan calling the diaspora to send relief confirms once again that the SL government is not meant for Tamils, commented reports from the East.
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32-year-old male seeks asylum with HRC in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 11:24 GMT]
A 32-year-old man from Changkaanai, where a chief priest was killed a few weeks ago, has sought asylumn with the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna Monday and was produced in the courts through Sri Lankan Police Tuesday. The judge, witnessing the traumatic condition of the victim ordered the police to take him to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for a medical inspection and place him in the protective custody till 18th January, legal sources in Jaffna said.
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Fishermen in Ezhuvai-theevu protest against Indian poaching

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 09:49 GMT]
Fishermen in Ezhuvai-theevu island off Jaffna on Tuesday protested against poaching by Indian trawlers in their waters, heavily destroying the sea-resources and the livelihood of local fishermen. All traffic to and from the island was disturbed and the whole island was at standstill as all the residents joined the protest expressing support to the fishermen. Sri Lanka Navy officers from Kayts, who arrived at the site of protest told protestors that the SLN had no instructions to interfere in the matter as it was an issue of diplomatic relations between the Sri Lankan and the Indian states.
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Batticaloa flood relief diverted to Kudumpimalai SLA camps

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 13:46 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is reported to have appropriated the flood relief materials intended for flood affected villagers in the Batticaloa district, and has distributed the materials to soldiers in SLA camps located in Kudumpimalai, civil sources in Batticaloa said. The Deputy Resettlement Minister in the Mahinda Rajapakse government, Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan alias Karuna, claimed that he had allocated two tonnes of relief materials for the distribution among affected families in the Batticaloa. Now it has come to light that the assistance had been handed over to the Batticaloa Headquarters of the Sri Lanka Army and not to the civil authority in the district.
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Tamil villages of Katpiddi Peninsula are for sales by Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 06:05 GMT]
Many traditional Tamil villages in the Katpiddi Peninsula and islets off that in the Puththa'lam district of the North West Province are for sales by Colombo establishment, ostensibly for tourism purposes under Kalpitiya Integrated Tourism Resort Project (KITRP). “There are about 11 investors who applied to invest around US$ 500 million to put up tourist resorts, golf courses, marinas, etc in this zone which was defined as a tourist zone by the Sri Lanka Tourism Authority, but the government is not happy with the bids which have mainly come from Indian parties,” Sunday Times reported. The presence of Chinese is overwhelming in the Katpiddi Peninsula along with construction of Nuraichchoalai power plant, local residents said.
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Five of six Mannaar abductees released, Colombo involvement exposed

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 08:40 GMT]
Five of six civilians abducted from Mannaar on Thursday, including Jazeel Jaharil whose abduction created confrontation between the abductors and his relatives exposing the squads link with Sri Lankan military, returned Friday evening from Colombo and were handed over to their relatives Saturday early morning by the Sri Lankan Police. Earlier reports said 4 persons were abducted on Thursday. But, according to latest information 6 persons were abducted that day. No information is available about the other person, Mr. Sasi, who is also reported missing on Thursday.
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Colombo hurriedly appoints Sinhala civil officials to North

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 06:45 GMT]
Colombo establishment is hurriedly attempting to appoint Sinhala officials in higher posts of the civil administration in the North in recent days, civil sources in Jaffna said. Sinhala officials are being appointed to top level civil services posts of local civil administration, the civil sources further said. Meanwhile, among 135 new recruits to Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) recently, there is not even one Tamil and there was only one Muslim. SL Secretary to Public Administration gave an explanation that none of the Tamil medium candidates could score enough marks in the examination evaluated by Tamil academics, implying that standard of education among war-torn Tamils became poor. But Colombo has no explanation why it was poor even among Up-Country Tamils, Colombo Tamils and Muslims, in not being able to bring out administrators.
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LTTE former commander Yaan's wife witnesses on SLA war crime

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 06:39 GMT]
Bearing witness in front of Mahinda Rajapaksa's Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Maanthai West in Mannaar on Sunday, Mrs R. Mironio, the wife of LTTE's former Mannaar commander Antony Rayappu alias Yaan, said she has not heared from her husband or not told of the whereabouts of him after he surrendered in front of her in SLA controlled territory in Mullaiththeevu on 18 May 2009. The surrender was facilitated by facilitated by Catholic Priest Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph, she said. The priest was also taken with her husband, but noone have heared about them, she said.
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SLA commanders target women in North for garments industry in South

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 04:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army commanders in North have been campaigning among the rural populations in the North that they were offering employment to Tamil women in the garments industry in the South. Women's Development Centre, Jaffna, and gender equality groups such as Paalnilai Chamaththuva Amaippu have urged residents in the North to be aware that such offers targeting women are being made without any guarantees of transparency or contracts, sources in Jaffna said.
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Family man reported missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 01:46 GMT]
A 52-year-old man from Urumpiraay in Valikaamam, Jaffna, has been reported missing since Friday. Meanwhile, human rights activists in Jaffna express fear that there were similar abductions have not been registered by the media as the Sri Lankan police authorities systematically suppress information reaching media on complaints of abductions and disappearances. The ‘effective’ subjugation of Tamils by the militarised Sri Lankan civil administration has silenced the community, from reporting information that could reach human rights activists or journalists as the public fears repercussions from the ‘white-van’ squad.
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Kosovo Ex-Army commanders charged of War Crimes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 21:46 GMT]
European Union (EU) prosecutors have charged former Kosovo Army Commanders, Sabit Geci, 52, and Riza Alija, 50, of "war crimes against civilian population" committed in two camps in Albania towards the end of Kosovo war, according to the indictment. The two were charged with committing war crimes on Kosavars fleeing the war and who were suspected of collaborating with Serbia or having political views different from the Kosavar Army. The prosecuters belong to the 3000-member EU Rule of Law (EULEX) mission which was launched in December 2008 to enforce the rule of law in the newly declared Kosovo and to supervise Kosovo's police, customs, and judiciary.
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NorthEast Local Election circulars printed in Sinhala only

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 13:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has issued circulars and directives for the forthcoming local council elections printed in Sinhala only, sources in Jaffna said. Election officials in the NorthEast are undergoing enormous difficulties in interpreting the directions and procedures to conduct the elections. Civil society sources said that Colombo appears to be imposing Sinhala only policy especially following the recent controversy after forcing the Jaffna Tamil school students to sing the Sri Lankan national anthem in Sinhala.
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Fatal blow on Eezham Tamil fishery follows Indo-Lanka ‘defence’ agreement

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 01:14 GMT]
From Maathakal to Mannaar, several millions worth fishing nets belonging to Eezham Tamil fishermen, laid in the Palk Bay even very close to the shores of the country of Eezham Tamils, were systematically destroyed this week in a highly organised way by trawlers coming from the Tamil Nadu coast. The destruction of Eezham Tamil fishery in the Palk Bay follows immediately the defence agreement signed between New Delhi’s Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and Colombo’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in the last week of December. While an agreement has been reached between the two establishments on the security of sea-lanes, as in the past many protocols of it remain a secret. Both the establishments in New Delhi and Colombo have joint interests in bringing in a wedge between the Tamil fishing communities on either side of the Palk Bay.
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EPDP, SLA, confuse public, lottery-fraud arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2011, 03:31 GMT]
An alleged EPDP member from Vavuniyaa faced the brunt of public anger in Jaffna as he was said to be moving in suspicious ways and was selling fake lottery tickets in Martin Road, Jaffna on Thursday. SL Police, on information from public, arrested him. He is said to have confessed his membership with the EPDP. There was no response from the side of the EPDP. Meanwhile, EPDP leader and SL minister Douglas Devananda in the SL parliament on Tuesday said that he didn’t want to embarrass the SL government internationally by raising the plight of the fear-engulfed people in Jaffna. In the meantime, the public in Jaffna senses EPDP and SLA indirectly passing blame on each other over the systematic infliction of terror by manipulative forces controlling the both.
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First land, now food: Sri Lanka’s powers-abetted genocide progresses unabated

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2011, 01:17 GMT]
In its innovative model of inspiring the entire world on genocide, the Sri Lankan state has decided to deploy its occupying military to cultivate 40, 000 acres of abandoned land in the country of Eezham Tamils, after uprooting them in the war and not allowing them to resettle. The program is being implemented under the directions of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, according to SL military media. The SL colonial governor in the north, Maj. Gen. G A Chandrasiri said this week that the government would cultivate black gram on 19,786 acres, groundnuts on 7,231 acres, red onions on 4,709 acres, green chillies on 4,329 acres and cowpea on 4,729 acres. The SL Army will also buy produce of farmers cultivating near its sprawling estates, and it will sell vegetables in Colombo at ‘concessionary’ rate to control market prices.
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330 local authorities dissolved, local elections under PR system

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 January 2011, 11:44 GMT]
330 local authorities- Municipal Councils (MC), Urban Councils (UC) and Predesiya Saba (PS) in the twenty five districts in the island are to be dissolved with effect from Thursday midnight by a special gazette notification and the election is to be held on one day in mid March under the current Proportional Representation (PR) system, Sri Lankan election department sources said.
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Sri Lanka's attempt at illegal arms deal with Iran, N.Korea exposed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2011, 02:08 GMT]
A classified State Department cable dated May 1st, 2009, released by WikiLeaks and posted in Norwegian daily Aftenposten, revealed that Sri Lanka's alleged attempts to negotiate arms deal with Iranian Government and North Korean Government violated U.S's Iran Non-proliferation Act of 2000 (INKSNA), and the United Nation's Security Council Resolution 1718 (UNSCR 1718). Lanka Logistics, a Sri Lanka Government owned firm was named in the classified document as the Sri Lanka party involved in the illegal arms deal. Gotabaya Rajapakse, brother of Sri Lanka's President, held the post of chairman of the firm and exercised complete control over arms purchases, according to Colombo media reports.
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Environment endangering life in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2011, 00:31 GMT]
News reports from the south of the island, Saturday, said that Colombo government had yielded to the protests of fishermen and Church in the south, and had dropped a project to have sea planes in the Negombo lagoon. The fishermen in and around Negombo feared affliction to fish catch by the sea plane project. But on the same day, a budding young environmentalist having concern for the sand dunes and the drinking water of his people was shot dead in Jaffna. SL military intelligence occupying Jaffna and paramilitary are suspected. An academic in Jaffna brings out the environmental background of the issue.
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