JVP accused of attempts to deceive Tamils in North

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 06:31 GMT]
The extremist anti-Tamil Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party that had vehemently opposed the Liberation Struggle of the Tamils earlier is now assuming a false role in an attempt to deceive them by pretending to give voice for the silenced Tamils, political observers in Jaffna said. JVP, in the recent past had been gradually attempting to infiltrate into North with its various false fronts claiming to be genuinely interested in the Tamils, they added. The real motive of JVP is to rally support against Namal Rajapaksa, the son of Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is expected to be the chief contestant in the next presidential election, the observers said. The SL government stalwarts in Jaffna peninsula are equally keen in effectively killing the efforts of JVP in North, they said.
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American Power in Indian ocean, a book review

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 18:24 GMT]
Greater Indian Ocean, from the Horn of Africa to Indonesia, "may comprise a map as iconic to the new century as Europe was to the last one" and "demographically and strategically be a hub of the twenty-first century world." This makes the Indian Ocean "the essential place to contemplate the future of U.S. power," says Robert D. Kaplan, an influential US writer of foreign policy, in a recent book, Monsoon:The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, a review of which appeared in the weekend edition of Washington Post.
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Indian intelligence think-tank studying China to meet in Chennai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 08:31 GMT]
“China’s relations with neighbouring countries having territorial disputes including India have somewhat come under strain. It has become important for the latter to factor the reasons behind China’s apparent assertiveness in their formulations of policies towards Beijing,” says the concept paper of a national seminar “Rise of China: Implications for Asian Neighbours,” convened on 17 December at Hotel Savera by three academic-intelligence outfits of India based in Chennai. One of them was founded a year ago to ‘sensitise the people of South India to the complex political, economic and security problems facing India and its South Asian neighbours’. Many of the participants of the seminar, addressed as renowned Sinologists, were actively involved in blunting the national question of Eezham Tamils.
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US, Norwegian Embassy officials observe LLRC proceedings in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 07:05 GMT]
In the context of international media agencies being not permitted to enter Jaffna, officials of the Embassies of America and Norway in Sri Lanka are in Jaffna observing the proceedings of the Lesson Learnt & Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in Jaffna peninsula at various places. The complaints made to LLRC by many parents about the disappearance of their daughters after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni and Oamanthai during the last days of the war are directly observed with interest and recorded by the officials of American and Norway Embassies, the sources added. In the meantime, three leading Human Rights groups have slammed LLRC accusing Colombo's commission of failing to “meet basic international standards for independent and impartial inquiries.”
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Colombo's commissions have failed to do any good to victimized persons: HR activist

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 06:13 GMT]
“Various commissions and committees appointed by alternating Sri Lanka governments have stopped with issuing reports and their reports have been slighted by all the governments,” the President of the Association for the Protection of Disappeared persons arrested by Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna peninsula, N. Vijayakumar said Saturday witnessing before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) session in Nelliyadi in Vadamaraadchi. LLRC is authorized to record statements related only to the past ten years but this period should be extended to cover the last thirty years, he said. The president of LLRC in response said that LLRC had already made this request in its interim report submitted to the SL government.
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North, East already established as Tamils’ Homeland – Prof. K. Sitrampalam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 06:08 GMT]
“Banda-Chelva pact and Indo-Sri Lanka pact were based on the acceptance of North and East as the homeland of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. This concept should be first accepted and a constitutional reform based on it be brought to find a lasting solution for the ethnic issue,” Prof. S.K. Sitrampalam said Friday giving witness before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Jaffna Secretariat.
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Demand US to provide war crimes evidence to UN Panel, urges Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 November 2010, 20:45 GMT]
Pointing to the recent news stories on UN Sri Lanka Advisory Panel's willingness to review incriminating photographic evidence of graphic scenes with dead bodies blindfolded, hands bound and shot through the head, exposing alleged war crimes of Sri Lanka soldiers, Professor Boyle of University of Illinois, College of Law, said: "there is some precedent here in what happened to Milosevic. The Americans have all the intelligence the Tamils need. Tamil activists have to figure out a strategy to get the US Government to act."
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Former LTTE cadres’ wives bear witness before LLRC in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 November 2010, 14:02 GMT]
The wife of Vijithan, a key person in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political wing, told the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) Friday in Changkaraththai in Vaddukoaddai that her husband and her brother were taken away after they surrendered themselves to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Vadduvaakal in Mullaiththeevu and that she had not had any information about her husband since then. Vijithan Arivumathi added that her brother who was released later had seen her husband surrendering to SLA at Vadduvaakal.
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War crimes and the responsibility of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 November 2010, 04:04 GMT]
Eezham Tamils have made a strategic blunder two decades back in not internationally indicting the Indian Establishment for the war crimes committed by the IPKF. On one hand they allowed the indictment to sink under the din of Rajiv Gandhi assassination and on the other hand sections of them thought that the Indian Establishment should be spared for future benefits. Yet some others thought that it was not as important as Tamils acquiring military strength. The failure, in two decades of time, resulted in those who were a party to the crimes – from politics to military and from diplomacy to media – to boldly commit further crimes on a massive scale in proxy ways. Tamils should not fail again. Now it should be comprehensive indictment that needs own initiation and institutions coming from Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political comentator in Colombo.
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Jaffna fishermen complain against SLA restrictions before LLRC

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2010, 12:25 GMT]
Representatives of Maathakal Fishermen Society complained Friday to the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) against the closure of the fishing jetties in Valikaamam North High Security Zone (HSZ) of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the continuing restrictions to fish using the only jetty in the area, in A’laveddi Mahajana Hall Friday. Witnessing before LLRC, the representative from Maathakal pointed to the LLRC that Sri Lanka government that had urgently executed the verdict of the Supreme Court to demerge the North and East had failed to execute the Supreme Court verdict to allow resettlement in Valikaamam North HSZ though the two verdicts were given on the same day.
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Witnesses before LLRC accuse SLA for disappearances in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2010, 06:04 GMT]
All the persons who witnessed before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Ariyaalai and Neerveali in Jaffna Thursday accused Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) Intelligence Unit and soldiers for taking away their family members who had disappeared without trace after arrest, sources in Jaffna said. Hundreds of mothers, fathers and wives of the disappeared persons witnessed before the LLRC in Neerveali where the session continued even after midnight Thursday. The wife of Rangasamy Mahintharaj alias Reka who is said to be the former head of the Medical Wing of the LTTE too witnessed before the Committee in Neerveali, the sources added. Many witnessed directly while others submitted statements and appeals to the LLRC which is to continue sittings Friday and Saturday in Jaffna peninsula.
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SL Parliament sittings postponed due to floods

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2010, 04:49 GMT]
The Sri Lankan parliament is to meet next Tuesday as its first floor of the complex is submerged in flood water due to torrential rains. Speaker Chamal Rajapakse announced the postponement of the parliament sitting after he convened the parliament for five minutes by entering parliament complex in a boat.
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Australian Court rules refugee processing violates "procedural fairness"

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2010, 03:06 GMT]
High Court of Australia, in a landmark ruling said that the Australian Government's attempt to keep "unlawful non-citizens" in prolonged detention in Christmas Island while the refugee status was being processed under the Migration Act of 1958, was not proper as the detention had "direct impact on the rights and interests of the plaintiffs to freedom from detention at the behest of the Executive," and ordered the Commonwealth and the Immigration Minister to pay plaintiffs' costs. The plaintiffs' were two Sri Lankan Tamils who were refused refugee status and decided to challenge the legality of Australia's offshore refugee processing system in Christmas Island.
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Tamil editor blames Colombo of deceiving uprooted civilians in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 18:14 GMT]
A leading journalist and the news editor of Thinakkural Tamil daily published in Jaffna, M. Vamadevan accused the Sri Lankan governments in power during the last 20 years of deceiving the uprooted people from Valikaamam North Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zones (HSZs) saying that resettlement is not possible as they are infested with land mines, witnessing before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) Thursday in Jaffna. Promises had been given to the uprooted families that they will be soon permitted to resettle in their own places at various instances by various Sri Lanka ministers and government officials but nothing has been done to resettle them, Vamadevan told LLRC.
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LTTE senior official's wife witnesses on SLA war crime

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 15:07 GMT]
“I have not seen my husband Yogarathinam Jogi who was taken away by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vadduvaakal in Mullaiththeevu on 18th May 2009 after surrendering himself expecting general amnesty as announced by SLA that day over loud speaker,” the wife of Yogaratnam Yogi, a senior member of the LTTE said bearing witness before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) Thursday around 3:30 p.m in Ariyaalai Saraswathy Community Centre. In response to a question by Rajapaksa's LLRC panel Ms. Jeyavathy Jogi, who confirmed that her husband was Mr. Yogi, further said that she saw her husband being taken away along with 50 others including poet Puthuvai Irtathinathurai and Lawrence Thilakar who had surrendered themselves to SLA. “My husband surrendered himself to SLA believing that he will be given amnesty as assured by the SLA announcement,” Ms. Jeyavathy said.
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SLA, police chase away Tamil families from their lands in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 12:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and policemen chased away hundreds of men and women uprooted from their housing scheme in Naavatkuzhi in Jaffna when they tried to erect sheds in their lands Thursday morning, sources in Jaffna said. These Tamil families had been living in this housing scheme since 1992 until they were uprooted in the SLA offensives. Meanwhile, the number of Sinhala families from South brought to this area Tuesday night has risen to 70 while more Sinhala families continue to arrive with building materials and action is taken to distribute them the unoccupied houses in 300 Housing Scheme in Naavatkuzhi, the sources added. The Tamil families fearing that their lands being encroached by the invading Sinhala families had tried to establish themselves in their lands Thursday morning.
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Colombo submerged in flood due to heavy rain

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 11:23 GMT]
Several parts of Colombo city were submerged in flood water due to heavy rain fall that started Wednesday night and expected to persist even after Thursday, according to the Met Department. Thursday 08:00 a.m Met Department had recorded 435 mm of rainfall in Colombo. The worst effected area in the highest rainfall recorded thus so far was in 1992 at 493 mm. The site where the Sri Lanka Parliamentary complex is located in Sri Jayewardenepura is also under flood water.
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CID summons Jaffna Traders representatives to Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 05:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has summoned the representatives of Jaffna Traders Association (JTA) to Colombo to record their statements and the representatives who left to Colombo expressed fear that may have to face interrogation by CID in Colombo. Meanwhile, another leading Tamil businessman in Jaffna has been arrested by CID alleged of funding Liberation Tigers in the past, sources in Jaffna said. SLA is engaged in rounding up the prominent Tamil traders claiming that it has evidence of their involvement with LTTE found in the statements of the traders in their detention, the sources added. The real motive behind this move is to cripple the prominent Tamil traders in Jaffna to eliminate them competing with the Sinhala traders who continue to invade Jaffna since the opening of A9 land route, JTA circles said.
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Imelda says she discussed Ceasefire with Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 05:19 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) Imelda Sukumar said Wednesday in a meeting in Jaffna Secretariat that Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa had consented to a ceasefire when she had held talks with him in Colombo during the August 2008 SARRC Conference but Liberation Tigers had rejected the offer missing the opportunity to create a peaceful atmosphere. Commenting on Jaffna GA's latest statement, political circles in Jaffna said that Sri Lankan government servants and humanitarian workers or former LTTE members now in Colombo's captivity could speak nothing but the version of the government.
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