Genetics and etymology go contrary to myths

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 06:38 GMT]
Kadugannawa, the Sinhala name of a key mountain pass in the Kandy district of the island of Sri Lanka comes from Dravidian etymology and is related to Kadu-ka’navaay in Tamil, reveals an etymological column in TamilNet. Meanwhile, genetic studies based on DNA conducted on Sinhala expatriates by a British medical institute 10 years ago showed that the Sinhalese predominantly carry M20, the Dravidian marker in them, says Subramaniyam Visahan who recently came out with an outline publication on the peopling of the island of Sri Lanka. Myths that obscure objective history about the peopling of the island could have been shattered had Colombo joined the DNA mapping programme, the Human Genome Project, said the UK-based writer, who formerly worked for the British National Archives.
Full story >>

SLA victimizes released ex-Liberation Tiger combatants in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 November 2010, 05:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers and intelligence wing men threaten the owners of the shops and other places which had given employment to the ex-Liberation Tiger combatants released after arrest and rehabilitation not to employ them, sources in Jaffna said. Many of them, intimidated by SLA are sending away the ex-Tiger combatants who have no other means to earn their living. Meanwhile, the families which had come from Vanni and settled in Jaffna peninsula complain that they are under the strict observation of the SLA. The young men and women who had been employed in civil sector of the Liberation Tigers too are victimized in this manner by the SLA and its intelligence wing men, the sources added.
Full story >>

New York media alerts UN posting of 'War Criminal'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 November 2010, 18:47 GMT]
"A suspected war criminal who allegedly played a key role in the slaughter of 40,000 civilians in Sri Lanka has landed a cushy job at the United Nations -- with full diplomatic immunity," said New York Post in the Sunday Edition, adding "Human-rights groups are outraged that Shavendra Silva, 46, a top ex-military commander, was named Sri Lanka's deputy permanent UN representative in August, after which he moved to New York." Innercity Press, referring to NY Post's story, pointed out to ICP's August 25th report where ICP asked the UN spokesperson that if the alleged killings by Mr Silva during the final stages of the war was true, whether the UN Secretary General has the discretion to reject Mr Silva. ICP said the question is no longer a hypothetical and that Ban Ki Moon did nothing.
Full story >>

Colombo censors Tamil Nadu magazines, articles

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 November 2010, 08:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka government continues to censor articles related to the Eezham Tamil national cause or the State terrorism in Sri Lanka appearing in magazines, books and other written literature coming into the island from foreign countries, particularly the Tamil Nadu state of India. Both Tamil and English works are subjected to the censorship. An article written by the news reporter of Anantha Vikadan, a Tamil weekly magazine published in Tamil Nadu, in its last issue had been torn off from all the imported copies and the title of the article on the cover rendered illegible.
Full story >>

Family man reported missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 November 2010, 16:32 GMT]
A young family man from Karaveddi in Vadamaraadchi is reported since 5 November after leaving home to see the ‘Theepaava’li’ celebration events conducted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Duraiappa Stadium in Jaffna town, according to complaints made by his wife to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office and the police. He had failed to return home even after fifteen days, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Tamil couple in motorbike killed in head-on collision with SLA vehicle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 November 2010, 10:47 GMT]
A husband and wife, residents of Chettly Street, Nallur in Jaffna district died in a road accident that took place Friday evening on their way in a motor bicycle to Murukandy Pillayar Temple located along A9 highway fulfill a vow in a head-on crash with a vehicle of the Sri Lanka Army. The couple was identified as Pounrajah Selvaraja, 52, and his wife Naguleswary, 48. The accident took place at Inthupuram in Murukandy area.
Full story >>

Ramanathan Trust endows land to Upcountry Tamil tenets in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 17:39 GMT]
In a significant move Friday, the president of Sir. P. Ramananthan Trust, former senior professor S.K. Sitrampalam, donated the lands of the Trust in Ki'linochchi to 60 families of Upcountry Tamils who were long-term tenets of those lands. The families uprooted in the recent war were unable to claim housing aid supposed to come through an Indian aid programme in the absence of ownership-documents of the lands, which they were inhabiting for a long time. The Ramanathan Trust was owning 330 acres of productive farmland in Ki'linochchi, which was settled by the Upcountry Tamils for several decades.
Full story >>

SLA intensifies surveillance on ‘outsiders’ visiting Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 17:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Vanni have instructed all schools and other such public institutions and organizations in their areas to inform them in advance if any political persons, representatives of volunteer organizations and Non-government Organizations (NGOs) from outside Vanni visiting their places. On such occasions SLA being informed beforehand sends its men to watch and record the proceedings of the meetings and events conducted or attended by the above ‘outsiders’, according to complaints made by some school heads in Vanni to a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian.
Full story >>

TNA opposes move to appoint a Sinhala Vice-chancellor to Eastern University

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 15:57 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian C. Yogeswaran in a letter to Sri Lanka Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake has brought to his notice that steps are being taken to appoint a Sinhala person to the post of the Vice-chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka replacing the Tamil Vice-chancellor. Tamil academics in the East are perturbed over the alleged move by the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka to appoint a Sinhala person as the Vice-chancellor of the Eastern University that is located in Vantharumoolai in Batticaloa district.
Full story >>

I'lavaalai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 November 2010, 23:07 GMT]
The small hamlet
The new hamlet
Full story >>

Released ex-Liberation Tiger combatants intimidated by SLA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 November 2010, 16:01 GMT]
The parents of a former Liberation Tiger combatant who had been rehabilitated after arrest and later released to join his family complained Thursday 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. Amidst many accusations that the former Liberation combatants released after rehabilitation are intimidated and at times attacked in the SLA Intelligence Wing camps in Achchezhu and Oorezhu in Jaffna, this complaint has been made against the SLA men to the HRC publicly, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Swiss Tamil council arranges safe custody for war crimes evidence

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 November 2010, 22:53 GMT]
The Swiss branch of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), a human rights organisation that speaks up for voiceless peoples and communities, has come forward to act as an independent custodian of evidence material and in working out submissions on behalf of individuals and organisations, who need assistance in making submissions to the UN Panel, Tharsika Pakeerathan, the president of Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET), told TamilNet Wednesday. The GfbV will begin by conducting interviews on 28 November, 2010 in Bern, aiming for submission to UN Panel before 15 December.
Full story >>

Saudi academic questions Nafeek's death sentence

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 November 2010, 03:53 GMT]
Raising questions on the treatment afforded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) justice system to the Sri Lankan maid, Rizana Nafeek, accused of choking to death an infant while under her care, a King Saud University academic appealed to the "judicial Authorities concerned to reconsider this matter sympathetically" and to remove the death sentence. "She has come from Mutur in East Sri Lanka, where majority are Tamil people. She belongs to the Muslim minority which were caught in the midst of the Tamil’s civil war against the state. She comes from a family who has suffered for over 3 decades due to terrorism," the academic who works in the History Department said in the appeal.
Full story >>

SLA accused of imposing restrictions on resettlement in Valikaamam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 16:07 GMT]
The Welfare Associations for the uprooted families from Valikaamam accused Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities for imposing undue restrictions on the people in Thellippazhai Divisional Secretariat area. Jaffna Government Agent (GA) Ms. Imelda Sukumar, instructed by the SLA authorities has asked the families of the above area to again register their particulars on 19 November though they had submitted the necessary particulars earlier, the associations said. Besides, the Non-government Organizations that are to assist the families to be resettled are also asked to submit applications through the GA. The families are not going to be resettled in the SLA occupied High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam but in the No-man-zone on the edge of the HSZ, the associations pointed out.
Full story >>

CaFFE, CHR condemn intimidation at LLRC session in Kayts Island

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 10:35 GMT]
The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), and Centre for Human Rights - Sri Lanka (CHR) in a statement issued Monday condemned the alleged systematic intimidation of those who wanted to make submissions at the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation (LLRC) sessions at Kayts Island in Jaffna district on Sunday.
Full story >>

Military fortresses and colonisation in Jaffna choke Tamils, threaten India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 10:26 GMT]
The selection of locations for building new military fortresses and for colonising Sinhalese in the Jaffna peninsula is sinisterly schemed by colonial Sri Lanka to permanently squeeze the Tamil heartland. Casual visitors don’t perceive it. Tamils of collaborative politics helplessly defend it. Indian policy planners of habitual bungling compare it with what they do in Kashmir, tribal belt and northeast India and agree with it. They think that if the nation of Eezham Tamils is permanently erased and if they get one or two harbours there that is enough for the security of India. The military cum colonisation complexes come up with the full blessings of India and with Chinese material help. But eventually they are going to be trained on India, said an academic in Jaffna, citing the complexes that squeeze the peninsula at strategic locations.
Full story >>

ENDLF wants another IPKF to implement 13th Amendment

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 21:11 GMT]
In an ‘extraordinary meeting’ convened in Bangalore, Saturday and Sunday, Eezham National Democratic Front (ENDLF), a paramilitary group based in India, passed a resolution urging India to send a ‘new peace making force’ to fulfil the promise made by Rajiv Gandhi on the North-East Provincial Council. If India can’t help it should constitute a higher level international committee of countries that accommodated the refugees to bring in justice, the resolution further said. ENDLF, mainly having former members of PLOTE and led by Paranthan Rajan, is a pro-Indian militant outfit created by the Indian intelligence agencies to defend the Indian agenda in the late 1980s. The ENDLF sacrificed 1700 of its cadres pinning faith on the promise made by Rajiv Gandhi, the resolution said.
Full story >>

Woman’s skeleton found in Naakarkoayil SLA base area

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 15:26 GMT]
The de-mining team engaged in surveying the area near Naakarkoayil Sri Lanka Army (SLA) base in Vadamaraadchi found the skeletal remains beneath a bush suspected to be of a young woman identified by the inner garments found near the skeleton, Point Pedro police said. Though Sri Lanka government had wanted to renovate the Point Pedro-Maruthangkea’ni main road that goes through Naakarkoayil, local SLA authorities had closed the road saying that the area was infested with landmines. The SLA higher officials in Palaali, however, had all of a sudden given permission for de-mining in the said area.
Full story >>

JVP abandons press meet in Jaffna due to death threats

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 11:36 GMT]
Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) group led by parliamentarian Sunil Handunneththi who were attacked by unidentified operatives in Jaffna Sunday evening abandoned the press meet that was to be held Monday around 1:00. p.m in Uthayan Lodge in Nalloor due to death threats to the proprietors of the lodge, Sunil Handunneththi told the reporters who had been invited, before leaving the lodge with his companions.
Full story >>

Man posing as SLA Major arrested in Ki’linochchi for extortion

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 10:57 GMT]
Ki’linochchi police arrested Sunday a man posing as a Major in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and three men led by him. He had taken 150,000 rupees from each parent of the LTTE cadres now held in the custody of the SLA, promising that he would get them released, police sources said. The gang led by the man posing as army major had claimed that they could get their children released when about 300 LTTE cadres would be brought to Ka'n'nakipuram Central College in Ki’linochchi Sunday morning, the police said.
Full story >>