SLA Commander declines to comment on Jaffna GA’s announcement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 September 2010, 05:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander Major Gen. Mahinda Kathurusinghe declined to endorse Jaffna Government Ms. Imelda Sukumar’s announcement that uprooted families from Valikaamam North SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) will be soon allowed resettlement in a recent meeting at Jaffna Veerasingham Hall, representatives of welfare organizations for uprooted families from Valikaamam North said. The GA is acting as if she is the spokesperson of Sri Lanka Defence Ministry, they accused. SLA Jaffna continues to deny permission for resettlement as Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa is unyielding in his decision not to permit resettlement in Valikaamam North HSZ, they said.
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'India should stop calling Eezham Tamils a minority'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 September 2010, 00:30 GMT]
Eezham Tamils are a nation having historical sovereignty and territory in the island called Sri Lanka. Members of the Indian Establishment should stop humiliating them any further by calling them as ‘minority’. Tamil brethren of Tamil Nadu should be sensitive enough and stop such fundamentally faulty approaches and psyop war of the New Delhi-Chennai-Colombo axis on the historical nation of Eezham Tamils in the island. Edification of Chennai and New Delhi is basic to make the world see the crisis in realistic perspectives. Eezham Tamils, in their casual and social interaction should consciously stop using the recently invented name 'Sri' Lanka of genocidal connotations, when an official Tamil name Ilangkai and another ancient Tamil name Eezham are available to refer to the island, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Deepening of fisheries jetties in Vadamaraadchi stopped

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 September 2010, 04:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka National Environment Commission (NEC) has stopped the deepening of the fisheries jetties in Vadamaraadchi saying prior permission had not been obtained from NEC. The deepening of the jetties had commenced after a long period. Fishermen societies in Vadamaraadchi said that they will gather fishermen to launch protest demonstrations unless Sri Lanka government finds a solution for the problem.
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All island District Government Agents conference in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 September 2010, 15:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Public Administration Affairs Ministry held its first all island District Government Agents conference in Jaffna Monday in District Secretaiat hall at 9:00 a.m presided by Sri Lanka Minister of Public Administration, John Seneviratne. Jaffna Government Agent Ms. Imelda Sukumar told Tamilnet that past development activities in the North and future devolpment projects were discussed in the meeting. Allocation of funds for various projects was also considered, the GA said.
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174 Tamil youths disappeared in Vanthaa’rumoolai remembered

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 September 2010, 11:38 GMT]
Parents and relatives of one hundred and seventy four Tamil youths disappeared after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from Vanthaa'rumoolai campus of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka in Batticaloa district two decades ago held prayers in memory of them Sunday. SLA troops had come in buses and taken 158 Tamil youths by force from Vanthaa'rumoolai campus on 05.09.1990 and 16 youths eighteen days later on September 23.
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Hard questions for India and Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2010, 06:33 GMT]
Nirupama Menon Rao expressed satisfaction at the progress in resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and development activities of the North, said state-owned Colombo newspaper Daily News Thursday, titling the news as “Indian investment interest rising”. But, reporting on Nirupama’s visit, The Hindu on Friday titled the news “Political solution should be priority” and cited her saying to Colombo-based Indian journalists that “While the focus on development and rehabilitation is very welcome, a long term perspective that also includes the issues relating to the political settlement that would meet some of the needs of the minorities should also be kept in mind.”
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Uprooted families from Vadamaraadchi East, Pa’lai to be resettled

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2010, 06:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka government authorities in Jaffna have announced that uprooted families from Pa’lai Divisional Secretary area and Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna district will be resettled in their own villages 9 and 10 September. The announcement comes in the wake of the recent meeting held on this issue between Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander and Jaffna Government Agent in Palaali Military head office. Though similar announcements had been made on resettling the uprooted families from Valikaamam North SLA High Security Zone earlier, so far they had not been allowed to resettle by SLA. The uprooted families now held in interim camps said that they will believe the announcement only when it becomes a reality.
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Re-examine claimed safety of refugee returnees, AI appeals to Australia

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 September 2010, 16:35 GMT]
“The Australian government must re-examine its claims that asylum seekers returned to countries they are fleeing from are not subjected to torture and mistreatment,” Madhu Malhorta, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Asia said in an appeal to Sri Lanka government Friday calling on it to ensure the safety of three men who have been tortured and jailed following their forced return from Australia where they had sought asylum in 2009. Three Sinhala men, two of them brothers, seeking asylum in Austarlia had been forcibly sent back to Sri Lanka by the Australian government.
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SLA commander invites Indian Army commander to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 September 2010, 07:54 GMT]
Indian Army General Vijay Kumar Singh is scheduled to visit the island 05 September on a five day visit on invitation by Sri Lanka Army commander Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya.
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2 Eastern Province youths arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2010, 18:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) special police from Colombo arrested two youths from Eastern Province Thursday in Nalloor in Jaffna claiming they were robbers, Jaffna police sources said. Jaffna magistrate directed the police to place the youths in remand in Jaffna Prison for two weeks when they were produced in the court by Jaffna police.
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SLA deserters rob jewelry posing as Interpol officers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2010, 12:22 GMT]
Kosawathe police in Chilaw district arrested Wednesday six deserters of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) including an officer who had robbed one million rupees worth jewelry from a woman who had recently returned from Middle East, posing as Interpol officers, the police said.
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Anglican Bishop: 18th Amendment will lead to destructive erosion of democracy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2010, 10:13 GMT]
The 18th Amendment, proposed by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, if passed by the SL Parliament, will lead to destructive erosion of already fragile democratic culture said Rt. Revd Duleep de Chickera, the Anglican Bishop of Colombo in a statement issued Thursday.
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Properties of uprooted in Vanni plundered with SLA assistance

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2010, 05:55 GMT]
Muslim and Sinhala traders from Southern Sri Lanka are actively plundering the properties abandoned when the people of Vanni were forced to leave them during war, with the assistance of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Vanni. The traders make huge profits transporting them in vehicles to Vavuniyaa, Anurdapura and Puththa’lam for sale. The plundered goods include iron objects, spare parts dismantled from abandoned vehicles, house fittings and other valuable things. SLA soldiers are given a percentage of the profits made by the traders for allowing them to plunder and transport the goods of the people in Vanni to the South, sources in Vanni said.
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More than 25,000 war widows in Batticaloa district alone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 14:00 GMT]
“Estimates reveal that there are more than 89,000 war widows in the North and Eastern provinces and more than 25,000 of these widows are in Batticaloa district in the Eastern province,” Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian P. Selvarasa said in a meeting of the War Victimized Women Association in Batticaloa. “Women have been victimized by war even more than by natural disasters and Sri Lanka government has failed to do anything constructive to improve their miserable living conditions though thirteen months have passed since the end of the cruel war,” Selvarasa said.
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SL media curbed to publish news on military appointments, transfers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 11:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Defense Ministry with immediate effect banned publishing news of all transfers and appointments of the military officers of the three armed forces, Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF). Media institutions have been asked to report on such transfers and appointments only with the approval of the Media Centre for National Security. Publishing such stories could lead to direct or indirect threat to national security and military officers concerned, according to a press release by the Defense Ministry.
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Counterinsurgency, development conquistadors and economic integrators

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 10:50 GMT]
Many Eezham Tamils wonder at some recent political developments but they waste their energy in concentrating on individuals. The individuals, whether KP, section of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, others who come out one by one with statements and ‘development’ agenda in support of the KP-line of politics, and the members of the ‘task’ group that executed the sequence are unimportant. Why they are mobilised so and what makes them to take that line of polity are more important.
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SLA soldier killed, 2 injured in Kandy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 08:00 GMT]
A truck carrying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Galagedera in Kandy Tuesday night ran off the road killing a soldier and seriously injuring two, Kandy police said.
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1215 uprooted civilians abandoned in Visuvamadu in Vanni - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 02:30 GMT]
1215 uprooted civilians from Vanni brought from the camps three months ago in the name of resettlement are held without any help in Visuvamadu area in Mullaiththeevu district, Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, who visited them Monday told media. Mullaiththeevu district Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities do not allow them to settle in their own lands in the district and the people abandoned by government authorities and humanitarian organizations are subjected to untold hardships. The families say that they will look after themselves if only they are allowed to settle in their own properties, the MP said.
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Nirupama faces civil society outburst in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2010, 17:31 GMT]
India provided arms and logistical support to Colombo in the Vanni war. It didn’t take any effort to stop the war. Even after one year of the war, India didn’t act on rehabilitating the incarcerated people, accused members of the confederation of citizens’ forums in Jaffna while meeting the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao on Tuesday. Resettlement is a hoodwink in Vanni, said retired Senior Professor S.K. Sitrampalam of the University of Jaffna, expressing the strong sentiments of Eezham Tamils. Army has occupied the Tamil lands and people have strong doubts whether India would be of any help in Tamils getting a political solution, the civil society representatives told the visiting Indian diplomat.
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JVP to launch campaign against constitutional amendment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2010, 11:26 GMT]
The Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has decided to launch a campaign from September 8 on the day the United Peoples Freedom Alliance government led by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse presents the constitutional amendment bill that removes the two term executive presidency system and modifying the Constitutional Council system into a five member advisory council.
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