UNP appeals to all political forces to preserve Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2010, 01:36 GMT]
"The time is opportune for all Sri Lanka’s political forces opposed to the tyrannical course the present regime has set for this country to come together to preserve the future of this nation," according to the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya's statement to media.
Full story >>

Swiss German media twists heart of the matter

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2010, 22:31 GMT]
While younger generation of diaspora Tamils respond to the times and express themselves through democratic protests such as the British youth Sivanthan’s war crimes awareness walk to Geneva, the Swiss German media NZZ portrays the long-standing national cause of Eezham Tamils as an LTTE idea. Parameswaran won his case against British media. But there is an orchestrated effort in the Western media from Canada to Geneva to blunt the liberation question in the name of 'terrorism'. Bulk of this media shamefully abetted genocide in the island. Are they now against terrorism or against liberation of a people and whether independent democratic transformation of liberation polity is sabotaged to bail out Rajapaksa and the genocidal state, ask Tamil diaspora circles.
Full story >>

Australian ‘Sri Lankans’ test conscience of international Tamil writers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2010, 02:06 GMT]
Creative writers are conscience keepers of humanity. They are neither bound by nor are contributors to authoritarian forces. They don’t need ‘sponsors’ whose ‘sponsors’ have bloodstained hands. In the name of ‘International Tamil Writers Forum’, some Australian Tamil individuals donning ‘Sri Lankan’ identity want international Tamil writers to meet in Colombo, January next year. They promise passage, boarding, lodging and even a tour around ‘Sri Lanka’ for those who come forward. The sponsors say they have been organizing the international meet hitherto in Australia for the last ten years, but this time they want to have it in Colombo. What is the message these conscience keepers want to give to international Tamils and to the world of creative writers, asks a writer in Colombo who has no freedom to reveal name.
Full story >>

Opposition to introduce bill to protect journalists rights

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 August 2010, 04:59 GMT]
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has declared that legislation will be brought to parliament shortly which will ensure that the rights of all journalists in Sri Lanka are safeguarded. According to Dinamina, a state run newspaper, Wickremesinghe will put forward the bill as a private member’s motion.
Full story >>

Morawaka

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 22:29 GMT]
The side of Mora trees (Nephelium longanum)
Full story >>

‘Development’ conquistadors have no appetite for psychological need of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Psychotherapy provides meaning for the enormous suffering people have undergone to hope for the future and to hope for trust in the world, says Daya Somasundaram of the University of Jaffna, one of the very few psychiatrics serving the war affected Eezham Tamils in the island. Considering the long history in the island, the meaning comes only when Eezham Tamils get their land and affairs into their hands and when their nation is recognised. But the ‘development’ conquistadors of the West and India show no appetite for basic psychology needed for regeneration in the context of the island, commented Tamil circles, citing Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao who is scheduled to visit the island saying that conflict in the island had ended and India has to go beyond rehabilitation to look at development, without any reference to the crux of the matter.
Full story >>

Colombo says cannot interfere with Fonseka Court's decision

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 01:46 GMT]
Chief Government Whip, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, said in Sri Lanka parliament that the government is ‘helpless’ and cannot reverse the military court ruling made against former army Commander General Sarath Fonseka. "The Court arrived at the verdict applying laws of State to the conduct of General Fonseak, and Sri Lanka Government or the legislative body, the parliament cannot do anything about it," Sinhala dailies Lakbima and Dinamina said quoting Minister Gunawardena.
Full story >>

ADB delegation to visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 August 2010, 07:15 GMT]
A team of Asian Development Bank (ADB) officials led by Vice-President, Ms. Schaefer-Preuss, is expected to visit Jaffna Thursday, sources in Jaffna said. The team will be supervising ADB development projects in Jaffna as well as meet several persons including Jaffna Government Agent. This is the first time that a high profile team of ADB visiting Jaffna as ADB representatives visiting Sri Lanka normally stop with Colombo and talks with Sri Lanka government representatives, the sources added.
Full story >>

Indian HC refuses visa to head of Northern fishermen society representatives

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 August 2010, 06:48 GMT]
Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka refused to issue visa to the president of the Northern Fishermen Societies Federation, S. Thavaratnam who was to head the delegation of 23 representatives from Northern Sri Lanka to hold talks with their counterparts in Tamil Nadu. The former secretary of Vadamaraadchi Fishermen Society, K. Sooriyakumaran is now leading the delegation which is engaged in the talks now, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

The Hindu review accuses LTTE for failure of peace

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 10:31 GMT]
“To those who knew that the ceasefire was built on a glaringly faulty premise — that the LTTE wanted a negotiated settlement within a united Sri Lanka — its eventual breakdown was foretold on the day it was signed,” writes, Nirupama Subramanian in reviewing a book in The Hindu Tuesday. The review was favourably highlighting a point that Tamil polity should drop ‘liberation’ to focus on securing economic rights for the people. “They are absolutely right since the development they mean is not even economic liberation of people,” responded Tamil circles, adding that the previous generation of Indians shouldn’t have asked for independence but should have focused on development the British colonialism was undertaking.
Full story >>

Another Sri Lanka "Committee" to investigate ex-Minister's tree fiasco

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 01:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse's ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Tuesday appointed a three member committee to inquire into the actions of controversial former minister, Mervyn Silva who allegedly tied a Samurdhi officer to a tree for not participating in a dengue awareness campaign conducted by the then Minister Silva. The chairman of this committee will be presidents counsel Jayantha Weerasinghe. Other members of the committee are N.M. Saheed and Mahinda Samarasekara who will function as the secretary to the committee, according to Colombo media.
Full story >>

Canada paints 'terrorism' to escape responsibility

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2010, 14:41 GMT]
Canadian government which tilted the balance by branding the defensive national struggle of Eezham Tamils as 'international terrorism' and was thus one of the abetters of Colombo in the war, is in its attempt to escape responsibility now breaches all bounds by painting a picture of 'terrorism' even for the arrival of refugees, Tamil circles said. "Canada government foments reaction over Tamil refugee boat," fans anti-immigrant prejudice, and boosts "Sri Lanka's authoritarian, communalist government - a government that is implicated in horrific war crimes," wrote Keith Jones in The World Socialist Website, Tuesday. Citing Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, he noted that Canada government may also use the country’s anti-terrorism laws to prosecute any Canadians of Tamil origin who helped fund the passage of their relatives to Canada on the MV Sun Sea, by linking the refugees to the LTTE.
Full story >>

Dengue claims 186 lives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2010, 14:16 GMT]
The number of persons died of dengue fever in the country has risen to 186 till August 13 this year while 25,880 dengue cases were reported during the same period. Dengue fever claimed the lives of 45 in Colombo district (4262 cases), 25 in Gampaha district (3015 cases) and 16 in Jaffna district (2750 cases), a Health Department report said.
Full story >>

Sarath Fonseka charged for harboring army deserters

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2010, 17:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Attorney General Monday filed indictment in the Colombo Chief Magistrate court charging Sarath Fonseka on forty-one counts that include employing deserters of the Sri Lanka Army, paying salaries and providing lodging facilities. Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army was last week sentenced by the 1st Court Martial being found guilty for the involvement in politics while in service.
Full story >>

SL government delegation visit to New Delhi postponed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 August 2010, 09:21 GMT]
An official visit of a three–member top level delegation of the Government of Sri Lanka to India is scheduled to leave Colombo on August 25 for high level talks and not on August 15 Sunday as earlier fixed. Basil Rajapakse, Economic Development Minister and a brother of Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse is to lead the delegation.
Full story >>

Police instructs Tamils in Kotahena to register their presence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2010, 04:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police Thursday early morning conducted a cordon and search operation in Kotahena in Colombo district for several houses from 4:30 a.m.. Police personnel engaged in the operation instructed Tamil residents to register their presence in the location with the police immediately. Some Tamil residents argued with the police personnel that there was no need for them to register their presence with the police as the clause to the effect had been withdrawn from the Emergency Regulations now in force.
Full story >>

Fonseka’s lawyers to appeal ‘conviction’

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 22:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka's ex-Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s lawyers have decided to file a petition in the court of appealing contesting the verdict issued by the military court. Fonseka’s Democratic National Alliance (DNA) party termed the first court martial hearing, concluded Friday that the case was ‘one sided’ and that they will not accept the ruling.
Full story >>

Colombo's Court Martial finds Fonseka guilty of engaging in politics

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 14:26 GMT]
Colombo's military court martial on Friday found the former Sri Lanka Army commander General (retd) Sarath Fonseka guilty of engaging in political activity while still in uniform, Colombo media reported Friday evening. Colombo has sentenced him for a 'dishonorable discharge from rank pending approval of the President,' media reports further said.
Full story >>

Colombo begins deluding campaign through ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 14:24 GMT]
Accusing the LTTE for missing the opportunity of ‘mega development’ and for walking out from the Peace Process on ‘flimsy grounds’, Sri Lanka’s former head of the Peace Secretariat, Bernard Gunatilleke inaugurated the misinformation campaign of Colombo while appearing before the ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission on Wednesday. However, Gunetilleke who emphasized that the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) demanded by the LTTE for return to negotiation could not have been granted by the government, didn’t attribute any reasons for it. Whether hoodwinking Tamils with ‘development without political solution’ is a long-contemplated strategy of Colombo and its abetters and whether it was this attitude that ditched the peace process is the question asked in the Tamil circles.
Full story >>

Malaysian Tamil leader hard on Sri Lanka’s abetters, urges boycott

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2010, 17:12 GMT]
Malaysian Tamil leader and Deputy Chief Minister of the Penang State Prof P. Ramasamy came hard on some industrial circles of Ceylonese in Malaysia buttressing Colombo in the name of ‘development. Speaking to media Thursday he urged global Tamils to boycott commercial pursuits of Karunanidhi family. Party decisions announced by him urged Malaysian government to take a serious view of the situation in the island and wanted war crimes investigation to cover the roles played by Indian Prime Minister, Home Minister, Congress Party leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. His party plans tabling resolution on war crimes investigation in the Penang State Assembly and internationally working for solutions to the national question of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>