Al Jazeera spotlights Sri Lanka's alleged War Crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 00:43 GMT]
Al Jazeera, the international news network headquartered in Qatar, published photographs Wednesday "showing graphic scenes, with dead bodies blindfolded, hands bound [and] shot through the head," that appear to provide further believable evidence of alleged massacre of Tamils during final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war. One of the photos shows a line of bodies, including what is believed to be the body of the son of Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the news network said.
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24th Anniversary of the massacre of 320 Tamils in Batticaloa remembered

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 16:32 GMT]
The massacre of 320 innocent Tamils of Pullumalai in Batticaloa district on 10.11.1986 by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sinhala thugs was remembered Wednesday by the people of Batticaloa district. The SLA soldiers and the Sinhala thugs who brutally massacred the 320 Tamils were not arrested during the United National Party (UNP) government then and the present United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) too has failed to take action on them or to pay compensation for the affected or find the disappeared persons, sources in Batticaloa said. Complaints made by the victims’ family members to Sri Lanka President’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) recently in Chengkaladi Secretariat were not registered, the sources added.
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32 Sinhala families allowed to settled in Naavatkuzhi in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 13:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka government authorities hurriedly took 32 Sinhala families claiming resettlement in Jaffna Tuesday night to the housing scheme in Naavatkuzhi area where they were allowed to erect temporary dwellings in lands claimed as government property, sources Jaffna said. The Tamils who inhabit these areas since ancient times say the said lands belong to them. The Tamil families living in the housing scheme expressed fear that the Sinhala families may encroach into their houses in the future, as they are provided with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police protection.
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SLA, police protection to Jaffna GA Imelda Sukumar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 11:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Defence Ministry has ordered protection to Ms. Imelda Sukumar, Jaffna Government Agent (GA) in response to complaint made by her to the ministry of continuous threat to her life through phone calls, sources in Jaffna said. Her residence in the Old Park in front of Jaffna Government Secretariat is being guarded by SLA from Wednesday morning while her office is provided with police protection, the sources added.
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SL government to screen NGOs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 05:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government is to launch an island wide registration of non-government, organizations (NGO) operating in the country, Sri Lanka Minister Dinesh Gunawardene said in parliament Tuesday. He made this statement in response to a question by government parliamentarian Rajiva Wijesinghe.
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A/HINI influenza spreads in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 05:12 GMT]
The Epidemiology Unit of the Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry Tuesday confirmed that 35 patients infected with influenza A/H1N1 have been identified in the island. 23 of them have been identified in Colombo district.
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Rights groups flay LLRC, say whitewashes War Crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 04:17 GMT]
International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the three premier human rights watchdogs, today slammed Sri Lanka’s reconciliation commission (LLRC) accusing the commission of failing to “meet basic international standards for independent and impartial inquiries,” and for "proceeding against a backdrop of government failure to address impunity and continuing human rights abuses.” The Rights groups further pointedly attacked the island's legal system saying, “Sri Lanka’s government and justice system cannot and will not uphold the rule of law and respect basic rights.”
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SLA occupation of school in Poonakari affects students

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 November 2010, 17:38 GMT]
More than a hundred students of Vigneswara Viththiyaalayam in Poonakari in Jaffna have to walk nearly ten km to attend schools as their school is occupied by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which had converted the school as its base, Ki’linochchi Education officials said. The same situation prevails in Vanni too where many schools are occupied by SLA and the related authorities had done nothing to enable the schools to function, they added. Namal Rajapaksa, the son of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and parliamentarian had been recently visiting schools in Vanni laying foundation stones and planting trees in the schools but nothing had followed his campaign to restore the schools to normalcy, parents in Vanni said.
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SLA forced to engage soldiers in civil work in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 November 2010, 17:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna are forced to engage soldiers in civil work to stop them from deserting the army and because they are unable to allocate military duties for the thousands of soldiers in the North, sources in Jaffna said. Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed in renovation and cleaning work while some of them are employed in food stalls and hair dressing saloons. The soldiers, particularly those in Vanni, due to malaria and forced to be in deserted places are reluctant to serve there, a SLA officer said. Many of them have failed to return after vacation, he added. Most of the soldiers suffer from fatigue and a sense of frustration, sources in Jaffna said.
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Sarvodaya officials in North accused of swindle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 November 2010, 08:47 GMT]
The farmers among the resettled families in Vanni accuse the officials of Sarvodaya for having sold them inferior quality seeds at a high price making huge profits for themselves, sources in Vanni said. The Sarvodaya officials buying black grams and other grains whole sale in Colombo market at low prices sell them in packets as quality seeds at high prices, the sources added. Meanwhile, the agricultural implements issued to the resettled people in Vanni are found to be of poor quality and unsuitable for use in Vanni, the sources said. The people of Vanni already rendered destitute by the war on Vanni are further cheated by unscrupulous men in organizations like Sarvodaya, the sources in Vanni said.
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Muslim families to be resettled in Jaffna soon – Jaffna GA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 November 2010, 06:01 GMT]
“The Muslim families evacuated from Jaffna 20 year ago will be soon resettled in their own places,” Jaffna Government Agent (GA), Ms. Imelda Sukumar said in an event held in Jaffna Osmania College Saturday. The event was organized by more than ten Muslim organizations in Jaffna in memory of the evacuation in 1990, sources in Jaffna said. Imelda Sukumar saying in the event that Sri Lanka government is correct in asserting that there is no place in Sri Lanka for any race to claim exclusive rights to it, has raised controversy among the people of Jaffna. She had previously said that there were no High Security Zones in Jaffna peninsula but only areas which have not been de-mined, a statement contrary to the truth, the sources added.
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Rajapaksa fears arrest in UK: Times of India

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 November 2010, 01:06 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's scheduled visit to UK has been called off by him fearing arrest in UK for his alleged war crimes under British law, the Times of India reported Friday. SL Foreign Minister G L Peiris was despatched to reconnoitre last month, the paper said, adding that certain Tamil organisations were planning to move court for Mr. Rajapaksa's arrest. Mahinda Rajapaksa is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces. Meanwhile, Eezham Tamil political activists allege that the war crimes in the island took place with the full blessings of the Indian Establishment.
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TamilNet wartime correspondent from Vanni reaches a free country

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 22:13 GMT]
Living incognito since May 2009, the TamilNet chief correspondent who reported from Vanni during the war, reached a free country this week. He was just 24 when he joined TamilNet. His knowledge in English was just basic. He was neither a member nor an associate of the LTTE. The free working space he had in Vanni was based only on an understanding about the political outlook of TamilNet towards the national cause of Eezham Tamils. But what he achieved goes into history of war journalism. He did a marvellous job on the ‘war without witnesses’, which major international media establishments couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. His safe passage to a free country was achieved by international civil society infrastructure. Many organisations, individuals and progressive Sinhalese helped him in his passage.
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Southern fishermen occupying Vadamaraadchi accused of sexual harassment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 06:20 GMT]
One of the fishermen of nearly 600 Sinhala and Muslim fishermen from South brought by Sri Lanka government with the assistance of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to catch sea cucumber and conch shells in Vadamaraadchi East, was thrashed by local people when he tried to sexually harass a young woman, civil sources in the region said. Intervention by SLA soldiers to save the fisherman has triggered conflict between the people and the army and tension prevails in the area. The presence and activities of the southern fishermen, protected by SLA, is viewed by the civilians of the area as causing cultural deterioration including sexual abuse of women and children of the area. The fishermen brought in by the SLA were behaving as 'winners' from the South, also causing structural and psychological genocide, the sources further said.
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SLA blocks access road to resettled areas in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 05:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Vadamaraadchi East has blocked Point Pedro-Maruthangkea’ni road, the main access road to Vadamaraadchi East where nearly 6,000 uprooted persons were resettled recently, Non-government Organizations (NGO) representatives in Jaffna said. The resettled families suffering without any help from Sri Lanka government after being allowed to resettle depend entirely on NGOs for their sustenance. The access road, opened with much publicity by SLA and Sri Lanka minister Douglas Devananda when the people were resettled, was later blocked for public. Government officials and NGOs, however, were allowed to use the road. But SLA has now blocked the road even to them. The NGOs are forced to suspend or abandon their assistance to the resettled families due to the closure of the main access road by SLA.
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Colombo schemes Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 02:13 GMT]
Following the end of war in Vanni last year, the Colombo government has taken over three thousand acres private land in Eastern Province in seven Tamil Divisional Secretariat areas for the purpose of setting up new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps, colonizing the traditional Tamil homeland with Sinhala people and for contracting the land to external actors for commercial exploitation, civil society circles in Batticaloa said. Some of the private lands taken over, rich with resources, are to be given on long term lease to entrepreneurs from South involving Chinese and Iranian assistance, the sources added.
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UN event in Jaffna evokes controversy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 01:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan Lion flag was hoisted at the UN office of Jaffna on the occasion of UN Day this year unlike ever before and the guests of honour invited for the celebration event were Sri Lankan military officials, triggering controversy on the sudden change of practice by the UN office in Jaffna, the city which has been under the control of the Sri Lanka Army for the last 15 years. Civil society circles, expressing displeasure on attitudinal changes within the UN office in Jaffna wondered whether it was a bureaucratic practice adopted by a biased-section of UN officials or the event signalled that the apex body of global humanity has gone further in adopting a 'post-war' change in its attitude towards Eezham Tamils after failing them during the final stages of the genocidal war last year.
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SLA soldiers try to evict resettled Tamil families in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 November 2010, 17:40 GMT]
A group of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of Jaffna Municipal Council who visited Tuesday the resettled Tamil families in Vasanthapuram, Ma’niam Thoaddam area in Jaffna said that the families complained to them that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are trying to evict them saying that the area has not been cleared of landmines. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka government has decided to settle the Sinhala families claiming resettlement in Jaffna on the coastal areas of Jaffna Fort and Ma’niam Thoaddam in Kozhumpuththu’rai, sources in Jaffna said. SLA claiming the area to be infested with landmines is seen as a ploy to evict the Tamil families so as to make room for the Sinhala families to settle there, the sources added.
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Sinhala families to be settled in Jaffna with Chinese assistance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 November 2010, 05:33 GMT]
Colombo government has decided to settle the Sinhala families claiming they were IDPS and demading resettlement in Jaffna on the coastal areas of Jaffna Fort and Ma’niyam-thoaddam in Kozhumpuththu’rai, sources in Jaffna said. Parts of prefabricated houses donated by China to construct 12,000 houses in the areas from Mu'rika'ndi to Mullaiththeevu to settle Sinhala families have been brought to Jaffna to construct houses for the Sinhala families. The Sinhala families claiming resettlement are lodged in the Old Jaffna Railway Station where they had arrived in early October and are looked after by the Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna.
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UN reforms and nations without state

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 November 2010, 21:59 GMT]
Indian media campaigns for permanent membership to India in the UN Security Council. But another opinion appearing in the Indian media show how far the Indian state, riding on the masses for the benefit of a few, is different from the peoples of India. Permanent membership to such an India or to any others in the already vicious and outdated Security Council is not the answer to the current global turmoil. It will further aggravate subservience of humanity to the Establishments. The UN and particularly Indian behaviour on Eezham Tamils is a lesson to humanity. Nations and the oppressed inside India should be the first to oppose India’s permanent seat as they would be the first to face the brunt of it. Meanwhile, nations without state all over the world should work for veto-powered collective say in UN to achieve balance for peace, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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