Sinhalicisation of Jaffna disguised as resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 October 2010, 04:41 GMT]
Sinhala people from various parts of Sri Lanka brought into Jaffna peninsula by Sri Lanka government claiming resettlement has raised suspicion of Sinhalicisation in the name of resettlement among the residents of the peninsula, civil societies said in a message to local media Sunday. Sinhala and Muslim people who had resided in Jaffna peninsula before displacement are welcome to resettle providing they produce the legal documents for their properties in Jaffna peninsula, the message said. Attempting to encroach the lands near Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps in the peninsula to settle Sinhala families will only lead to ethnic confrontations, the message further said.
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Birth centenary of V. Navaratnam, pioneer of Tamil Eelam polity

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 October 2010, 05:35 GMT]
18 October 2010 is the birth centenary of V. Navaratnam, doyen of the Tamil Eelam cause and founder leader of Thamizhar Chuyaadchik Kazhakam (TCK) in the late 1960s. TamilNet interviewed him in July 2005 when he was 95 years old. He passed away on 22 December 2006. Eezham Tamils and Sinhalese could never live under one government, even a confederation will not work and separation is the only way, he asserted in his interview. When his party contested the 1970 election there was only a little support. He was criticized for dividing the vote bank of the Federal Party. But within a few years all the mainstream Tamil political parties fell in line with his polity. The Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 was a copy of his party manifesto, said Mr. Navaratnam. His interview in voice is reproduced here.
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Amnesty to begin campaign on SLA execution of Trincomalee students

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 October 2010, 18:41 GMT]
With the fifth anniversary of the massacre of five Tamil students in Trincomalee beach by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers approaching on January 2nd, Amnesty International (AI), the human rights watchdog has embarked on a postcard campaign "to use this case as an example of the ongoing lack of accountability in Sri Lanka," according to the U.S. Director of Amnesty Jim McDonald. AI researchers plan to use the campaign as the focus of a broader effort to highlight the need for an independent international investigations into Sri Lanka's war crimes.
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Local authorities warn of landmine danger in Pachchilaippa’l’li in North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 October 2010, 05:04 GMT]
Pachchilaippa’l’li Piratheasa Chapai officials have warned the people allowed to resettle in their area by Sri Lanka government to be extra cautious of unexploded devices advising them not to burn the rubbish but to burry them to avoid being injured by them, sources in Jaffna said. This warning comes despite Sri Lanka Army (SLA) allowing resettlement in the area claiming that de-mining of this vast area including Pazhai and Iyakkachchi had been completed. A youth was seriously injured in Iyakkachchi Wednesday when he set fire to the rubbish heap in his compound. Sri Lanka government local officials too have warned the people of this area to be aware of the danger of landmines and other explosive devices that are found in this area.
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‘Sinhala Only’ imposed on name boards in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 October 2010, 08:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka government Road Development Authority (RDA) in Eastern Province using only Sinhala language in the name boards reveals the intention of Sri Lanka government to impose the ‘Sinhala Only’ Act again, Batticaloa residents said. The name board of the road to Vaakarai from Batticaloa is written only in Sinhala language and despite the request made by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa parliamentarian Pon. Selvarasa to RDA to include the names in Tamil and English languages in August in the Vaakarai Development Meeting, the name board remains with the Sinhala name only.
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Uprooted families due to SLA offensives in East denied assistance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 October 2010, 06:48 GMT]
Vanthaa’rumoolai Village Development Society president, bearing witness before Sri Lanka President’s Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Chengkaladi Divisional Secretariat in Batticaloa said that even basic facilities are denied to the families uprooted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensives, now resettled. Ms. Subramaniam Vijayaladchumy, the president, told the LLRC that paddy fields and lands of Tamils in Chengkaladi Divisional Secretariat area are being encroached by Muslims and requested the LLRC to take action to stop the encroachment.
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Villagers stop illegal sand excavation in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 October 2010, 05:46 GMT]
The people of Kuddaththanai East in Vadamaraadchi protesting against the illegal sand excavation in their villages by persons of ‘Maheswary Funds’, an organ of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), stopped the men and vehicles excavating Friday, sources in Vadamaraadchi said. Indiscriminate excavation of sand has caused seepage of sea water into their village submerging the public crematorium and the villages too will be submerged if the sand excavation is not stopped, the protestors said. Maheswary Funds representatives joined by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel and EPDP men who arrived at the scene had to agree to suspend the excavation for two days. The villagers will continue their united protest unless the excavation is stopped completely, the protestors said.
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US War Crimes Unit receives list of Sri Lanka's missing Tamil surrendees

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2010, 21:32 GMT]
Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, submitted to the War Crimes unit of the U.S. Department of State, a list of persons known to have surrendered to the Government of Sri Lanka forces in the final stages of the war in the first five months of 2009 and who remain missing in custody as of October 2010. The list was compiled from witness statements and interview data collected by Tamil Diaspora groups in the UK.
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Sri Lankan police fail to protect harassed female ex-combatant

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2010, 09:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka police in Veala’nai in the islets of Jaffna have ignored the complaints made by a former underage female member of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on attempts made by a gang of ten men on 09 October to abduct and sexually abuse her in her relative’s house in Veala’nai. IOM and UNICEF officials who had facilitated her release from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camp and placed her in the custody of her relatives too have not taken steps to protect her from being intimidated by her tormentors even in Jaffna Teaching Hospital where she is admitted for treatment, the girl said. The family members who had given her refuge had been attacked by the gang and injured when they tried to protect the girl.
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SL government sabotages IUSU activities in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2010, 05:36 GMT]
Inter University Students Union (IUSU) representatives accused Sri Lanka government and the Intelligence Unit of Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) for sabotaging their activities in Jaffna peninsula. Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) administration had cancelled its permission for a film show that was to be held in Nalloor Naavalar Cultural Hall on 15, 16 October by the Socialist Youth Organization (SYO), an organ of IUSU, instigated by Sri Lanka government, the representatives said. Meanwhile, SYO representatives alleged that SLA intelligence unit men had attacked Uthila Premaratne, the president of IUSU and stolen his phone and camera in Koappaay in Jaffna Tuesday as he was returning to Colombo after holding a press meet in Jaffna town.
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HRW, ICG, Amnesty reject invite, slam LLRC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 October 2010, 15:25 GMT]
Three leading international organizations will not accept an invitation to testify before a Sri Lankan government commission because it lacks the ability to advance accountability for war crimes, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, and Amnesty International said in a joint letter to Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission that was released Thursday. The LLRC was set up by President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government, whose military campaign against the Liberation Tigers concluded in early 2009 with the massacre in systematic shelling of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians. “"This Commission is nothing more than a cynical attempt by Sri Lanka to avoid a serious inquiry that would bring genuine accountability,” HRW’s Kenneth Roth said.
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Complaints against SLA, paramilitary groups made to LLRC in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 October 2010, 06:00 GMT]
Majority of the complaints made to Sri Lanka President’s Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Eastern Province are related to persons disappeared after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit personnel, and the paramilitary groups of Pillayan (Eastern Province Chief Minister) and Karuna (Sri Lanka Deputy Minister of Resettlement), sources in Batticaloa said. 490 complaints had been made to LLRC Monday in Chengkaladi Divisional Secretariat and six of them were confidential. Meanwhile, the families of disappeared persons in Batticaloa district accused that the LLRC has narrowed down its scope of action only to a selected number of years thus conveniently keeping out the genocide of Tamils in several villages of Batticaloa district in which hundreds of persons had been taken away by Sri Lanka armed forces and the paramilitary groups that operate with them.
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Indian Secretary General leads Commonwealth away from human rights

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 October 2010, 00:13 GMT]
Another instance of key persons in international organisations sabotaging international norms of humanity came to light when The Guardian leaked last Friday a document of the Commonwealth Secretariat. This time it was the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, an Indian national heading the organisation telling his staff that it was not their job to speak out against the human rights abuses of the 54 member states. The Secretary General ignored calls from secretariat staff urging him to express concern at least, when abuses were committed in member states in recent years, The Guardian said, citing specific cases including the course of war in the island of Sri Lanka. "All those cases were all about the values the Commonwealth is supposed to stand for and we failed," according to a staff member.
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Youth injured in landmine blast in Pazhai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 October 2010, 15:27 GMT]
A landmine in an area declared demined and allowed for resettlement by Sri Lanka government in Iyakkachchi in Pazhai in Jaffna district exploded Wednesday morning seriously injuring a youth when he tried to set fire to the rubbish heap in his compound, sources in Jaffna said. The youth was first rushed to Pazhai government hospital and later transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for further treatment. The demining is done by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) units in the above area.
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North ‘Development’ meeting to be held in Vavuniyaa SLA Headquarters

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 October 2010, 07:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to preside over the Northern Provincial Development Committee meeting on October 19 in Vavuniyaa. The venue of the meeting is the regional headquarters of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) located in Vavuniyaa. Similar development committee meeting for the Eastern Province was held in the Naval Headquarters located inside Trincomalee Naval Dockyard recently.
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SLA continues to limit number of students into VMMV College in Palaali HSZ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 06:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Palaali High Security Zone (HSZ) permitted only three upper grade classes to function in a small section of Vasaavi’laan Maththiya Makaa Viththiyaalayam (Central College) located in Palaali military HSZ in an event Monday when the building was officially handed over to the school administration. Though Sri Lanka government had handed the entire school officially in an event held with much publicity in September, SLA officials had later not allowed the school to reopen claiming that land mines in the location have to be removed. The principal of the school said that so far he has not been informed as to when the other classes would be permitted to attend classes. However, he confirmed that renovation of the school buildings is under way.
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IMF to discuss Sri Lanka's debt repayment terms

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 03:16 GMT]
A delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka next month, state owned Dinamina newspaper said in a front page report. During the visit, the delegation will meet with government official to discuss terms related to debt repayment and other issues related to the island's economic revival, the paper said.
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HRW discusses Sri Lanka war-crimes in Harvard event

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 October 2010, 12:53 GMT]
In a talk titled "Prosecuting War Crimes in Sri Lanka: “No Reconciliation without Justice” at the Harvard Law School earlier this week, James Ross, Legal and Policy Director for Human Rights Watch (HRW), discussed options available for prosecuting war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war in 2009 in seeking justice to the victims. The event well attended by students and several Boston area Tamils heard Ross describe how HRW exhausted all options to stop the mass killings during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka where more than 300,000 Tamil civilians were holed up along with Tamil Tiger units in a narrow stretch of beach front.
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Former LTTE spokesman Ilanthirayan’s wife bears witness before LLRC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 October 2010, 06:13 GMT]
“I have not seen my husband after Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers took him away saying that he was to be given medical treatment and I do not know what had happened to him,” Vanitha Ilanthirayan, the wife of former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) spokesman Ilanthirayan (Rasiah Sivaroopan), said bearing witness before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) Saturday in Batticaloa District Government Secretariat. Meanwhile, Bobby, the wife of former LTTE Commander of Batticaloa district Piraba (Krishnapillai Pirabakaran), told the LLRC that she has no information of her husband who was taken away by SLA soldiers when they came along with the people to the SLA controlled Vadduvaakal area in Mullaiththeevu district when the war ended, sources in Baticaloa said.
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