Court orders exhumation of the body of nurse killed in Veala’nai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 15:51 GMT]
Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate Tuesday ordered the body of the family consultant nurse Saravanai Tharsika allegedly killed by Sinhala doctor Priyantha Seniviratne in Veala’nai government hospital in the islets of Jaffna 10 July to be exhumed and sent to Colombo Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) for fresh medical examination as the victim’s mother had said that she suspects her daughter was sexually abused before being killed, in a petition filed Monday, sources in Jaffna said. Arrangements are being made to exhume the body 28 July buried in Kaithadi Hindu crematorium grounds. Tharsika’s mother had said in her petition that she does not have faith in the medical examination being conducted in Jaffna. Meanwhile, it is claimed that the suspect Sinhala doctor was attacked by Tamil inmates in Jaffna prison when he was detained in the prison 13 July, the sources added.
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UN war-crimes advisory panel on Sri Lanka meets in New York

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 05:42 GMT]
The United Nations Panel on Sri Lanka met for the first time in New York Monday at the UN's North Lawn building, Inner City Press (ICP) reported. The meeting of Panel members Marzuki Darusman, a former Attorney General from Indonesia, Yasmin Sooka, Member of South Africa's Truth Commisssion, and Steven Ratner, Law professor at Michigan University, US, officially marked the start of the 4-month period UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has given the Panel to complete the first report. While the Government of Sri Lanka has announced that it will not issue visas to the Panel members to visit Sri Lanka, the UN spokesperson has indicated that visit is not a critical part of the Panel's initial mission.
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SLA soldier recovered dead in Pazhai

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 15:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from Pazhai in Thenmaraadchi handed over the body of a young soldier to Jaffna Teaching Hospital Monday claiming that he was killed in an accident, hospital sources said. Chaavakachcheari magistrate held the inquest into the death in Pazhai and ordered the victim’s body to be sent to his home in Colombo. He further instructed the police to arrange for medical examination of the remains by Colombo Judicial Medical Officer and submit his report to Chaavakachcheari court.
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SL minister includes spouses of Balakumaran, Yogi, among widows

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 13:04 GMT]
According to Rajapaksa regime’s Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms minister and Communist Party leader, Dew Gunasekera, the wives of the senior members of the LTTE, K.V. Balakumaran and Yogaratnam Yogi are among the widows needing rehabilitation, The Island reported Monday. Both the LTTE leaders were reportedly seen reaching internment camps run by the Sri Lankan military, by many who went into those camps. The international community was repeatedly telling the LTTE to surrender to Colombo and civilians to get into barbed-wire camps of the Sri Lankan Army. The Army killed Balakumaran on the Vanni east front early last year, The Island says. There were earlier media reports that the leaders were taken to Colombo.
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Buhne heads to Colombo with Ban’s ‘special message’

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 11:39 GMT]
The United Nation’s Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Neil Buhne, who was recalled by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon early this month, is heading back to Colombo, with a ‘special message’ from Ban to be delivered to the Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa led Government, the government owned Dinamina newspaper said in its front page.
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NPC calls on SL government to ensure no discrimination targeting Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 08:59 GMT]
National Peace Council (NPC) in its media release 16 July titled ‘Discriminatory Practices are Detrimental to Reconciliation’ called on Sri Lanka government to ensure that there is no discriminatory targeting Tamils. “The re-commencement of the practices of registering Tamils with the police and of conducting search operations that target them have been widely reported in the Tamil media in particular and have created a renewed sense of insecurity and injustice amongst the larger Tamil population that is detrimental to national reconciliation,” NPC said.
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China sends convicts to work in Sri Lanka, Maldives

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 12:56 GMT]
Thousands of Chinese convicts have been pressed into service in projects by state-run Chinese companies in Sri Lanka, a strategically important country for China, which is seeking a role in the Indian Ocean. Chinese convicts also have been taken to a microstate in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives, where the Chinese government is building 4,000 houses on several different islands as a government-to- government "gift" to win influence there, writes Indian Professor of Strategic Studies Brahma Chellaney in The Japan Times, 5th July. A couple of months back a Chinese technician working in the construction of Nuraichchoalai thermal power plant undertaken by China in Puththa’lam district was arrested for alleged rape of a minor girl, Sri Lankan media reported.
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US landing-ship visits Trincomalee for 'community work'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 09:13 GMT]
Sailors and marines from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbour, visiting Trincomalee last week were engaged in repairing broken bathroom sinks and toilets at the base hospital in Moothoor, said the official website of the United States Navy Thursday. Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan media reported Sunday that Sri Lanka shared her experience in fighting Sea Tigers with the US Navy during the three-day visit of the US Pearl Harbour. While some Sailors and Marines are planning to help with military-to-military training on board Pearl Harbor, others are planning on volunteering for medical assistance events ashore, The Sunday Island said.
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Pathmini Sithamparanathan injured in road accident

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 15:50 GMT]
Ms. Pathmini Sithamparanathan, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian of Jaffna district and her husband Sithamparanathan, lecturer at Jaffna University and two others were injured Saturday around 2:30 p.m when the van in which they were returning from Colombo to Jaffna collided with another vehicle on A9 road in Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi. The injured are admitted in the Intensive Care Unit in Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
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Upcountry woman found dead in a flat in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 14:59 GMT]
A forty-year-old house maid employed in a flat in New Chetty Street in Kotahena area in Colombo city was found dead. The owner of the flat and her employer had told Kotahena Police that she had committed suicide by hanging. However, the police arrested her employer and detained the for further inquiry as they suspect foul play, police sources said.
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Mahinda Rajapaksa fears loosing chance of extension of term as SL president - UNP spokesman

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2010, 11:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa due to fear of loosing chance to extend his term as president has invited the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to talks when he realized that talks with the main Tamil political group Tamil National Alliance (TNA) would not yield positive results, Dayasiri Jayasekara, UNP media spokesman and parliamentarian said Thursday in a press briefing held in the UNP office in Colombo. “UNP will never betray the country and the party by holding talks with Mahinda Rajapaksa,” Dayasiri Jayasekara said.
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Weiss: Colombo dominated by racist ideologues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 23:28 GMT]
Arguing the reasons why Sri Lanka is making "fanciful" claims that "as many as half of all Tamil boatpeople have "links" to the Tigers," Gordon Weiss, UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka during the war, says "Its [Sri Lanka's] government is dominated by racist ideologues who promote the notion of the Sinhalese as a "chosen people." Government death squads have snatched thousands of people from the streets over the years. The country's highest court has explicitly rejected the role of international human rights instruments in Sri Lanka's affairs. And the government continues to deny that it killed civilians during the recent war, that there were battlefield executions, that it bombed hospitals, or that there is anything wrong with the sham democratic machinery of the state. The repressive creature of extreme nationalism is alive and well in Sri Lanka."
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Sri Lanka cabinet's next stop, Ambilipitiya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 23:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has decided to hold the next out station Cabinet meeting in Ambilipitiya, the Lankadeepa newspaper said Friday. This follows this week’s Cabinet meeting held in Ki'linochchi, the former headquarters of the LTTE. The significance of holding cabinet meetings in cities across the country is to primarily showcase the fact that Colombo, Sri Lanka's commercial capital, is not the only place where decisions with regard to the country’s upliftment are taken, according to the paper.
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Verdict on Sri Lanka should be warning to others: Pakistan Newspaper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 18:07 GMT]
“The verdict on Sri Lanka should come as a warning to other armies fighting on their own soil”, says Thursday’s editorial of Pakistan’s influential newspaper Dawn, commenting on UN’s efforts of war crimes investigation and Sri Lanka’s opposition to it. “The war was conducted by the army but had the full backing of the president who believed that Tamil Eelam was an intractable problem which could not be resolved through political means”, the Dawn said. Meanwhile, Tamil circles were commenting on the war crimes of peace brokers. The former peace facilitator Erik Solheim made a statement last month that lives would have been saved and the UN, the USA and India would have taken over the situation had the LTTE surrendered. Why didn’t he tell this possibility when hundreds of thousands took to street to stop the war, asks Dr. T. Sivakanesan, a member of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.
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High Security Zones will not be dismantled says SL Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 15:32 GMT]
Sri Lankan Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella on Thursday said High Security Zones of the Sri Lankan military in strategic locations will remain although the war had ended and people have been claiming ownership of their land. The Sri Lankan minister said even super powers such as the USA were having High Security Zones. Colombo's decision comes while Indian assistance was provided to revive the KKS Harbour, the cement factory and Palaali airstrip, all of which are located inside High Security Zone. The Sri Lankan military is also setting up new bases along the coastal areas of North and East in recent weeks. Tamil circles, commenting on the controversial announcement by Mr. Rambukwella said Colombo was preparing the ground for large-scale Sinhalicisation of strategic Tamil areas
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Tamil Nadu Police detains Vaiko, Nedumaran, Rajendran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 15:13 GMT]
Tamil Nadu police arrested Wednesday Vaiko, the leader of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam, Pazha Nedumaran of Tamil Nationalist Movement, Viduthalai Rajendran of Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam and 160 activists including 23 females as they marched in protest towards the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai demanding the closure of it. Mr. Pazha Nedumaran, in a statement issued Friday, had condemned the Indian state for lack of response as Sri Lanka Navy continues to kill Tamil Nadu fishermen while the Sri Lankan government which has been waging a genocidal onslaught on Tamils has gone to the extent of propping up a campaign against the UN office in Colombo, sources in Chennai said.
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Singapore business tigers interested in Sri Lankan beer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 22:34 GMT]
Following the visit of Malaysian corporate brokers, the Singapore Business Federation led by its Deputy Mission Leader V K Rajan and 14 members of the team visited their business counterparts in Colombo, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce (FCCISL) this week to discuss possibilities of joint ventures. The Singapore delegation was interested in manufacturing beer brands, manufacturing equipment and machinery for the construction industry, create architecture, real estate business, manufacturing lumps and fine powders, construction material, and consultation. The FCCISL General Secretary Tushita Tennakoon said the investors could import raw material and export their products to India, Pakistan and Maldives after value addition.
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Cabinet meeting in Ki'linochchi aims to deceive Sinhala people: UNP MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 18:17 GMT]
“All should understand that the Sinhala people also have to bear the burden of foreign loans Sri Lanka has to borrow to develop the North which was destructed by Tigers,” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed in a public meeting in Ki’linochchi Wednesday after having held the Cabinet Meeting in Ira’naimadu Sri Lanka Army (SLA) head quarters in Vanni. Nearly a hundred people brought by SLA participated in the meeting held under tight security. “There is no minority in the country but all are majority in the sense that all are Sri Lankans,” Mahinda Rajapaksa further claimed. Meanwhile, Jayalath Jeyawardene, an opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian said in a statement to media in Colombo Wednesday that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet meeting in Ki’linochchi was a political drama to deceive the Sinhalese in the South, condemning the Ki’linochchi cabinet meeting.
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SLA strengthens security in Ki’linochchi prior to Cabinet meeting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 18:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has strengthened security in and around Ki’linochchi in Vanni as President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to hold his cabinet meeting in Ira’naimadu SLA Vanni Head Quarters Wednesday, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Traffic along A9 road has been cut down while hundreds of SLA soldiers and police personnel are posted at several points along the road. This is the first ever cabinet meeting to be held out of Colombo and an important one for President Mahinda Rajapaksa after the end of the war on Vanni, the sources added.
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Houses constructed for SLA in Vanni as resettled civilians suffer, abandoned in huts

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 14:38 GMT]
While the resettled civilians in Vanni suffer in makeshift huts in broiling sun Colombo government is hastily constructing semi-permanent houses for Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers near Muruka’ndi in Vanni in a Sinhalese colonization scheme consisting of 12,000 houses with facilities including hospitals, schools, post offices, sources in Vanni said. The houses are being constructed in a newly declared SLA High Security Zone, strictly out of bounds for all outsiders. Hundreds of container vehicles bring the construction material for the semi-permanent houses and heap them along A9 road. These materials are transported in SLA trucks to the construction site so as to prevent any outsider seeing the work in progress, the sources added.
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