LTTE's Elilan surrendered to SLA on 18 May, wife tells BBC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 September 2010, 16:21 GMT]
Ananthi Sasitharan, wife of Elilan, former Trincomalee political head of the LTTE, told BBC Tamil service that she and her three daughters witnessed her husband and hundreds of other LTTE members surrendering to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on 18th May 2009, after the war has come to an end. "I have been trying to trace my husband and has not been successful to locate his whereabouts. I have no doubt that Sri Lanka's president knows where my husband and others who surrendered are being held," she told the BBC.
Full story >>

Properties of uprooted families in Vadamaraadchi East plundered by SLA

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 2010, 06:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) have constructed many bases and camps in the properties of uprooted families and on the coastal villages of Vadamaraadchi East using the roofing, door and windows plundered from the shops and houses left by the residents, persons who visited the area said. The areas from Naakar-koayil to Kaddaik-kaadu are fully occupied by SLA and SLN, they further said. Meanwhile, Jaffna Government Agent Ms. Imelda Sukumar has announced that uprooted families from Vadamaraadchi East will be taken to their own places in the second stage of the resettlement plan and that Jaffna SLA Command had given permission for the resettlement.
Full story >>

TNA parliamentarians to visit Valikaamam North HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 2010, 05:51 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) spokesman and Jaffna district parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said that a group of TNA parliamentarians will be visiting Valikaamam North Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupied High Security Zone (HSZ) once they get the permission from Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence. Meanwhile, Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka minister and brother of SL President Mahinda Rjapaksa who is in Jaffna has again said that the families uprooted from Valikaamam North by SLA will be allowed to resettle in their places excluding the surroundings of Palaali Airport, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, SLA authorities have already marked places in Palaali to construct housing schemes for the colonization of Sinhala families in the lands of Tamils evicted by SLA, sources in Palaali said.
Full story >>

90% of mines in Mullaiththeevu remain uncleared

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 2010, 01:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka military has been able to remove only 10% of the total area in which mines are suspected to have been buried, state-run Sinhala daily Dinamina reported. According to the article, Sri Lanka military has decided to accelerate the mine removal program.
Full story >>

Resettled families in Jaffna peninsula abandoned by SL government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 September 2010, 05:56 GMT]
Non-government Organizations in Jaffna peninsula accuse Sri Lanka government to have abandoned most of the uprooted families resettled in Jaffna peninsula without providing them adequate assistance for rehabilitation. 82,000 uprooted persons had been resettled in Jaffna peninsula so far, according to Jaffna Secretariat statistics. Meanwhile, nearly 100,000 persons uprooted from Valikaamam North High Security Zone of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) twenty years ago continue to stay with their relatives, friends and in camps not allowed by SLA to resettle in their own properties.
Full story >>

European Court to review Jagath Dias case

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 September 2010, 03:43 GMT]
A. Muller-Elschner, the legal secretary to the Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said in a letter to the Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET), the democratically elected country council of Eezham Tamils in Switzerland, that the European Court will take up the case against the appointment of ex-SLA commander Jagath Dias as a diplomat to the Sri Lanka embassy in Germany. SCET, the Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET) and the US based NGO, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), had filed an application to the ECHR in July 2010 charging the German government for violating EU Rights conventions by accepting a Sri Lankan military commander, Major General Jagath Dias, an accused in the war crimes.
Full story >>

NP Governor visits restricted areas in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 September 2010, 02:21 GMT]
Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri accompanied by some Sinhala parliamentarians and Sri Lanka government officials visited Tuesday some places in Vanni where uprooted people have not been allowed to resettle by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA). Meanwhile, some influential sections are trying again to shift Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and its offices to Ki’linochchi from Trincomalee, a move which had been suspended by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in August, sources in Trincomalee said.
Full story >>

‘Extreme position of appeasement’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 September 2010, 00:50 GMT]
“Sri Lanka sits at the crossroads of two significant contemporary geopolitical shifts. Firstly there is the rise and resurgence of China as a regional power; and secondly, many Western governments have lost their credibility in terms of morality, human rights advocacy and international law due to interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The SL government is masterful in its diplomacy and deals with a variety of governments, which are sometimes at odds e.g.: Iran & Israel, India & Pakistan, USA & China. This puts SL in a unique geopolitical position”, says ‘Minutes of the Sri Lanka Roundtable’, convened by Centre for Peacebuilding in Switzerland last month. While the West in its inability opts for extreme position of appeasement towards genocidal Colombo, Tamil voices against subjugation are ironically viewed as ‘extremism’, commented diaspora circles.
Full story >>

Jaffna MPCS employees agitate against political interference

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 September 2010, 05:09 GMT]
The General Manager of Jaffna Multi Purpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) resigned his post Monday due to pressure by Sri Lanka minister Douglas Devananda and his supporters, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka government has scrapped the democratically elected Board of Directors of MPC societies appointing its own persons as directors who are alleged of corruption, Jaffna MPCS members said. A case against the former President of Jaffna MPCS, Kiritharan, appointed by Douglas Devananda, for misappropriating millions of rupees is pending in Jaffna High Court in which Douglas Devananda is also involved, the members said. Jaffna MPCS handles various services to people of Jaffna peninsula including the distribution of relief dry food rations.
Full story >>

Alternative Development

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 September 2010, 06:35 GMT]
There is no point in diaspora arguing with officials and politicians over development, because, they ‘do know’ what they are doing. Instead the diaspora should think creatively in identifying overlapping areas of interest in development, without compromising the national aspirations. Human resource development is a potential area, needed both by the ‘developers’ and nationalists. Eezham Tamils have credible institutions at home and grass root organisations in the diaspora to carryout it. Ask the developers whether they are prepared to give direct aid. If they decline and if their interest is only in prodding the diaspora to Rajapaksa and in devising KP-line of politics, then the diaspora need not care for them.
Full story >>

Batticaloa MC member reported abducted

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 September 2010, 10:43 GMT]
The wife of a member of Batticaloa Municipal Council (BMC) complained to Batticaloa police that her husband had gone missing since August 23 after having met BMC Mayor Sivageetha Pirabakaran and a member. She said she suspects that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit officers had abducted her husband. A person had called her 22 August night and intimidated that her husband will be abducted by the SLA. Meanwhile, Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias (Pillayan) is reported to have said that SLA and Sri Lanka police in Batticaloa should take responsibility for the abductions in Batticaloa district.
Full story >>

Danger of landmines in nearly half of Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 September 2010, 07:30 GMT]
49,7 sq kms of Jaffna peninsula (44%) are identified infested with land mines sown during war, according to Jaffna District Secretariat survey statistics. The explosive devices so far removed in Jaffna peninsula excluding the outskirts of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North are more than 120,000. The residents of Valikaamam North evicted by occupying SLA 20 years ago still live in interim camps as SLA refuses to permit them to resettle in their own properties.
Full story >>

‘Take care of symbols’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 September 2010, 15:12 GMT]
Tamil Information Centre (TIC), London, has called for a Round Table Discussion on “Postwar Challenges Facing ‘Sri Lanka’s Tamil-Speaking Peoples” on 25 and 26th of this month in London. The discussion is a follow-up of the Zurich gathering held last November. Commenting on the programme a Tamil-speaking social activist in Batticaloa said: “While it is appreciable to work for unity and one voice of the Tamils of the island and to find ways of rebuilding society, livelihood, institutions and political structures for them, symbols of identity that are fundamental to all their regeneration with self-respect should not be compromised. The Tamil-speaking peoples of the island have to shun the identity of ‘Sri Lanka’ that has become a symbol of state oppression ever since the constitutionality of the identity in 1972.”
Full story >>

Explosion in Vanni SLA camp, 3 soldiers wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 September 2010, 09:25 GMT]
Three soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army were injured in a blast that took place Friday afternoon at SLA 211 headquarters in Vavuniyaa. It was an accidental explosion while soldiers were cleaning a detonator box in the camp, SLA spokesman Major General Ubaya Medawala told media in Colombo.
Full story >>

SLA obstructs resettlement in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 September 2010, 05:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has not permitted the families uprooted from Vadamaraadchi brought Thursday morning from Raamaavil and Kudaththanai camps in Thenmaraadchi to be resettled in their houses. SLA has instructed the families to stay in temporary interim camps in Vadamaraadchi East until their houses are renovated, Jaffna District Secretariat sources said. The families, now lodged in government buildings under the control of SLA, complain that they are unable to engage in fishing which is their main livelihood.
Full story >>

Some areas in Vadamaraadchi East to be declared HSZ

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 September 2010, 03:01 GMT]
The uprooted families of Vadamaraadchi East ín Raamaavil and Kudaththanai camps who will be taken to Vadamaraadchi East Thursday will be first lodged in four government buildings and the families from Kaddaikkaadu and Vettilaikkea'ni areas will not be permitted to resettle in their own houses as these villages now occupied by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) are expected to be declared as High Security Zone (HSZ), Jaffna District Secretariat sources said. The uprooted families from these villages may have to remain in the government buildings and nothing can be confirmed about the resettlement procedure now, according to Maruthangkea'ni Assistant Government Agent Office sources. Meanwhile, Point Pedro-Maruthangkea'ni road through Naakarkoayil that had been closed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for the last fifteen years will be opened for public use Thursday from 7:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m, the sources added.
Full story >>

Fonseka refuses to seek pardon from Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 September 2010, 15:10 GMT]
Former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Sarath Fonseka said that he had been approached by intermediaries of Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa urging him to ask the President for a pardon. “I told them that I will never do that,” Sarath Fonseka said at a media briefing held in the parliamentary complex Wednesday. Sarath Fonseka, leader of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) and other MPs of the DNA participated in the media briefing.
Full story >>

'Colombo teaches lessons of political culture for South Asia'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 September 2010, 14:22 GMT]
The 18th Constitutional Amendment was passed in Sri Lankan parliament Wednesday with a majority of 144 votes. The Amendment, which has been passed in a rush by the government without pubic debate enables Mahinda Rajapaksa to contest presidential election for any number of terms besides bestowing additional powers in the appointments of key government posts. What is happening to state and democracy in the island of Sri Lanka is a warning to people who are deceived in the ‘democratic’ practices of dynasties and families in the rest of South Asia, political observers said. Sometimes back, a key diplomat of a leading power, looking after South Asia, tolerantly sounded that family rule in the island is typical of contemporary political culture in the region.
Full story >>

SL Army, Archaeology dept appropriate lands of uprooted Tamils in Maathakal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 September 2010, 07:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka government’s archaeological department with the help of Sri Lanka Army is constructing more structures in Thirvadinilai in Maathakal in Vallikaamam North SLA High Security Zone (HSZ), in addition to a Buddhist temple erected in October 2009. This area had been the home of Tamil families living there since ancient times evicted twenty years ago when Valikaamam North HSZ was established by SLA. Now the families are not allowed even to see their own places in Maathakal while thousands of Sinhala Buddhist pilgrims visit the newly built temple daily which now has become a 'tourist attraction' in Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Thousands attend Nalloor Thear festival

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 September 2010, 08:15 GMT]
The Thear (Chariot) festival of the historic Nalloor Kanthasuvaami Temple in Jaffna town was held Tuesday morning with at least a hundred thousand devotees from all over the island and abroad participating in the annual festival. The opening of A9 road had enabled the devotees to travel easily to Jaffna. Tamils and Sinhala people from South and expatriate Tamils in particular were among the thousands of devotees, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>