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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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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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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Wimal Weerawansa, Russian Ambassador visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2010, 16:56 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, Sri Lanka minister of Housing and Common Amenities, accompanied by the Russian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, visited Jaffna Tuesday morning preceding India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao who was expected in Jaffna Friday evening, sources in Jaffna said. Wimal Weerawansa and the Russian Ambassador returned to Colombo Friday evening after participating in some events in Jaffna peninsula.
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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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SL Cabinet approves removal of 2 term executive presidency system

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 15:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet Monday approved the draft constitutional amendments. Prime Minister D. M. Jayaretna presented the draft proposals at a special cabinet meeting held at Temple Trees. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse presided the meeting, sources in Colombo said. The draft proposals included the removal of two term restriction allowing an incumbent president to contest any number of times and modifying the 17th Amendment with a five member constitutional council by amending of Article 31 (2), the sources said.
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Fonseka to be indicted for harboring army deserters

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 14:59 GMT]
Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army is to be indicted in the Colombo High Court for harboring army deserters prior to the presidential election held in January this year. Sarath Fonseka who contested as the common opposition candidate in the presidential election was defeated by the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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'Anti-Tamil ideology, international meddling make reconciliation impossible'

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 14:42 GMT]
In a recent paper titled "Why National Reconciliation in Sri Lanka Is Not Possible," Brian Senewiratne, a renowned physician and an Australia based Sinhala expatriate, says although he had realized that ‘national reconciliation’ in Sri Lanka was ‘totally unrealistic’, after witnessing the major human rights violations inflicted upon the Tamil people, what has made the reconciliation really ‘impossible’ was the most serious recent slaughter of Tamils with features of genocide. In addition, what makes reconciliation ‘most unlikely’ is ‘international meddling’ and ‘power play’, he argues. The 78-year-old member of the Bandaranaike family, who is a long-time defender of the Eezham Tamil cause, also argues in his paper that even the real development of the Sinhala areas is not possible if the ‘developmental power’ is left in the hands of those in Colombo.
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Nirupama Rao to visit North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 August 2010, 07:53 GMT]
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is to visit Jaffna, Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa in the North 30, 31 August in the context of Indian Foreign Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna's proposed visit to Sri Lanka late September, sources in Jaffna said. Nirupama Rao will inspect the progress of development projects, resettlement and rehabilitation activities in the North before meeting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians 1 March in Colombo. Sri Lanka government, keen to make a show of the 'Development of North' to international countries and India, is sending its ministers to North in haste in an effort to support its claims of achievements in the above mentioned matters, the sources added.
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Rajapaksa instructs UPFA MPs not to leave island for 2 weeks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 August 2010, 13:19 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse has instructed its parliamentarians not to go abroad till September 15. The leaders of the constituent parties also have been instructed by SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa to ensure the presence of their parliamentarians in Colombo during the period.
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Politicising religious reformation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 August 2010, 09:02 GMT]
Around 300 goats and countless chickens were sacrificed in a folk ritual on Wednesday at the Kaa’li temple in Munneasvaram, Chilaapam (Chilaw), in the Puththa’lam district of the North Western Province. A group of Buddhist monks marched in protest and when prevented, the angry monks sat on the road and refused to move until the ritual was over. Tension developed in Chilaapam, media reports from Colombo said. The demography of the region is largely made of Sinhalicised Tamils and some surviving pockets of Tamils. A considerable number of Sinhala Buddhists also took part in the folk ritual, Wednesday, and academics wrote on Buddha’s denouncement of animal sacrifice and rituals of Vedic Brahmins. When around 40,000 Tamils were slaughtered in Vanni last year, the Buddhist establishments in the island were either silent or encouraged it.
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SLMC to support Rajapakse from opposition bench

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2010, 23:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka's predominant Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Rauff Hakeem, today decided to support the Sri Lanka government’s decision to make constitutional amenedments which will also remove the two term restriction on the presidency, political sources in Colombo said. SLMC Leader Rauff Hakeem told the media in Colombo, his party has decided to support the government by helping it attain a two third majority in parliament which will held change the country’s constitution.
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Colombo "deliberately shelled civilians," accuses UN's departing Holmes

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2010, 11:18 GMT]
United Nation's Human Rights Co-ordinator, John Holmes, in a parting shot at Colombo the end of his 3-year tenure at the UN, defended his department's funding of the Sri Lanka government's internment camps where more than 350,000 held for several months while admitting the Sri Lanka government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals, Inner City Press reported.
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Robbers posing as CID arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2010, 09:12 GMT]
Two persons posing as Sri Lankan Criminal Investigations Department officers and robbing Tamil residents in Bambalapitiya, Wellawatta and Dehiwala suburbs of Colombo, were arrested by the Bambalapitiya Police Wednesday.
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Colombo plans to acquire EPC lands in Trincomalee district

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2010, 05:52 GMT]
Plans are afoot by Sri Lanka government land ministry to acquire five hundred and twenty five acres of state land that comes under the administration of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) in the Kuchchave'li divisional secretariat division in Trincomalee district for the Tourist development Ministry. These lands are located along the coast of Kuchchave'li division.
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SLFP’s annual convention to be held at Temple Trees

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 09:57 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s (SLFP) 59th annual convention will be held on September 2nd under the patronage of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the state run, Dinamina newspaper said. The convention will be held at Temple Trees in Colombo, which is Rajapaksa’s official residence. According to the newspaper article, several important decisions will be taken at the convention.
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Mahinda Rajapaksa meets UNP delegation led by Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 06:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa Monday met a three-member delegation of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) led by its leader Ranil Wickremasinghe at Temple Trees. The UNP delegation comprised of two UNP parliamentarians Tissa Attanayake, general secretary, Joseph Michael Perera and the Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress party, Rauf Hakim, sources in Colombo said.
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Only Basil Rajapaksa leaves for India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 06:32 GMT]
Basil Rajapaksa, Economic Development Minister and a brother of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa will leave Tuesday to India to have talks with the Indian government leaders. Earlier the government said a three member delegation comprising Basil Rajapaksa, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa and President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunge would be visiting New Delhi.
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USA donates maritime hardware to SL military

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2010, 12:48 GMT]
Major General Darryll Wong, Chief of Staff and Commander of the Hawaii Air National Guard and Valerie Fowler, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Monday donated maritime hardware to Sri Lanka Air Force to assist the Sri Lanka military in ensuring the safety and security of Sri Lanka's territorial waters, a press statement issued by the US Embassy in Colombo said. "Safe and secure seas are in the interests of both our countries," the statement further said. In the meantime, Tamil Nadu fishermen along the coastal areas, continue to complain that Sri Lankan military has been systematically stepping up violence against them in the traditional waters of Palk Strait.
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