Major General Shavindra Silva to give evidence in “white flag” case

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2010, 04:51 GMT]
Colombo High Court Thursday issued notice on Major General Shavendra Silva to appear in court on November 15 to give evidence in the case in which the former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army has been charged for causing disrepute to the government by an alleged interview to the English weekly Sunday Leader. Sarath Fonseka is reported to have alleged in that interview that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse had ordered Major General Shavendra Silva to shoot all LTTE cadres dead who come forward to surrender holding white flags.
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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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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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Appeal Court reserves order on Fonseka’s application

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 08:44 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal Wednesday reserved its order on the Writ Application filed by Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army seeking interim relief to enable him to attend parliament to vote on November 18, the day before the incumbent Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse takes oaths for the second term. The three-member bench of the Court of Appeal comprised Justices R. L. Ranjit Silva, A. W. A. Salam and Upali Abeyaratne heard the submission of the petitioner and the Attorney General Wednesday.
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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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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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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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Riot in Welikada prison, 50 policemen injured

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 November 2010, 09:34 GMT]
A group of policemen Sunday morning armed with court order made a surprise raid in the Welikada jail to search the prisoners for drugs and mobile phones. They were attacked by prisoners with stones. Prisoners did not allow the policemen accompanied by prison officials to enter their cells but pelted stones on them. At least forty-five policemen including Special Task Force personnel have been admitted to the Colombo national hospital with injuries.
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10 new envoys present credentials to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 November 2010, 20:55 GMT]
Ten new envoys, including 8 ambassadors and 2 high commissioners, presented their credentials to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa Friday. Colombo has received new envoys from Norway, Switzerland, Cyprus, Mexico, Peru, Oman, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam and Mongolia. Four of the envoys are women.
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Indian High Commission offices to be opened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 November 2010, 20:00 GMT]
India Foreign Affairs Minister, S. M. Krishna, who will be in Sri Lanka on 25 November on a three-day visit to participate in the Indo-Sri Lanka Economic Conference in Colombo will ceremoniously open the Jaffna offices of the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka located in Ammaan Thoaddam in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Minister S. M. Krishna is also expected to inaugurate the renovation of the railway track between Oamanthai and Kaangkeasanthu'rai at an event to be held at Oamanthai during his visit, the sources added. The government of India had taken the responsibility of renovating the above stretch of railway track.
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Diabetic escalates among young in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 November 2010, 14:32 GMT]
Diabetes is on the increase in Sri Lanka among young men and women and among persons living in urban areas, according to Professor Chandrika Wijeratne. She addressed a media briefing on Friday to mark the Global Diabetes Walk 2010 at Sri Lanka Medical Association auditorium. She further said that one in ten adults over twenty years of age and one in five persons living in urban areas are affected by diabetes.
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No development in Jaffna worthy of mention – German delegation

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 November 2010, 05:44 GMT]
A delegation of German MPs led by Ms. Petra Ernstberger visited Jaffna accompanied by German Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Jens Ploetner and Mr. Guido Baumann, officer in charge of press affairs. Mr. Guido Bauman, at the end of the visit Thursday, told local press that the delegation saw no development worthy of mention in Jaffna. He added that the main intention of the delegation was to find out how the German tax payers’ money given as donation is being used in Jaffna peninsula. Mr. Holger Ortel, Mr. Jurgen Kilmke and Dr. Birgit Reinemund were the three German other parliamentarians besides Ms. Petra Ernstberger visiting Jaffna.
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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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Wimal Weerawanse’s party office in Batticaloa burnt down

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 09:37 GMT]
Unidentified persons arriving on motor bikes set fire to the office of the National Freedom Front (NFF), a constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, located along Punnaikkudaa Road in Ea’ravoor division in Batticaloa district Wednesday afternoon. NFF is a splinter group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) that is currently campaigning vigorously against the regime of Rajapaksa. JVP is alleged to be instigating university students against the government.
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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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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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Three judges to decide on Fonseka attending parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 November 2010, 06:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal President Sathya Hettige Tuesday appointed a three-member bench to hear a petition by Sarath Fonseka, the former Army Commander and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader seeking for an order allow him to participate in Sri Lanka parliament proceedings. The three- member bench comprising Judges Ranjit de Silva, A. W. A. Abdul Kalam and Upali Abeyaratne will commence inquiry into the petition Wednesday, legal sources said.
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