Tamil doctor among victims killed in Uganda blast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 13:44 GMT]
A Tamil doctor from Colombo was among the 74 people killed in the bomb attack in Uganda, claimed by al-Shabaab, a group with links to al-Qaeda. The victim, Ramrajah Krishna, a father of two girls, had returned to Uganda after visiting his family in Colombo.
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Protest by nurses in Jaffna enforces arrest of Sinhala doctor suspected in murder

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 13:10 GMT]
Hundreds of family consultant nurses, public health officers, midwives and other health service employees picketed Jaffna Public Health Service (PHS) office from Tuesday early morning and agitated demanding immediate investigation into the killing of Tharsika, a family consultant nurse, found hung inside Veala’nai government hospital Saturday morning. The agitators further demanded the immediate arrest of the Sinhala doctor alleged of killing Tharsika. Police was forced to arrest the Sinhala doctor who was transferred on the instruction of the Sri Lanka Army officials. The doctor, who was kept in the safety in Regional Health Service Director’s office in Jaffna, was produced in Oorkaavattu’rai courts Tuesday.
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Nurses demand investigation into killing of fellow nurse in Veala’nai

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 15:04 GMT]
More than a hundred family consultant nurses employed in Jaffna peninsula participating in the funeral procession of fellow nurse alleged killed by a Sinhala doctor in Veal’ani government hospital in the islets of Jaffna Saturday staged a protest demonstration at Kaithadi junction Monday for an hour demanding immediate inquiry into the killing of Tharsika, a native of Charava'ani, who was found hung with a rope inside the hospital. The Judicial Medical Officer’s report rules out suicide in the above case and the family consultant nurses have decided to abstain from duties from 7:00 a.m. Tuesday until their demand is met.
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HRW welcomes Ban’s resolve, urges war crimes roadmap

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 10:09 GMT]
Welcoming UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s refusal to bow to Sri Lanka’s outrage and disband his recently appointed advisory panel on warcrimes in the island, Human Rights Watch said Sunday that the expert panel should provide him “with a roadmap – which should be made public – for an independent international investigation to examine laws-of-war violations by both sides during the final months of the conflict.”
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War crimes and human civilisation

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 08:19 GMT]
A war will not end without the delivery of political justice to the core issue. Even the winners who waged World Wars for the monopoly of colonies couldn’t escape conceding independence to colonies. USA and India bungling political justice to the national question in the island will have a bearing on Afghan War, Western Civilisation and on Indian integrity. The solidarity of Eezham Tamil diaspora is as important a trump as the geopolitical trump of Sri Lanka. In its historic duty to its nation and to civilisation, the diaspora without succumbing to lures should intensely align with the people of Tamil Nadu and progressive Sinhalese in realising political justice and in seeing no others ever suffer like Eezham Tamils. The last diplomatic chance for the USA and India to make ‘strategic partnership’ a smooth affair is to jointly uphold the balance of nations in the island.
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Indian Film actress Asin visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 06:43 GMT]
Leading Indian film actress Asin paid an unannounced visit to Jaffna Sunday along with the wife of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and took part in the events in Eye Treatment Centre in Jaffna Teaching Hospital, sources in Jaffna said. Despite warning that her films will be boycotted in all South Indian States if she participates in shooting in Sri Lanka, by the Federation of South Indian Film Industry Unions, Asin is in Sri Lanka to act in a Hindi film. Asin had reportedly told media in Colombo that she is not in anyway connected to South Indian politics adding that the warning will not affect her.
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Sexual harassment charges allegedly behind errant Sri Lanka UN diplomat's recall

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 18:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Bandula Jayasekera was allegedly involved in a sexual harrasment complaint by another employee at the Sri Lanka mission, Sunday Leader said in the latest weekend edition. Mr. Jayasekera who has been recalled to Colombo by External Affairs Ministry Secretary Romesh Jayasinghe said that he was informed over the telephone by Jayasinghe that following his ‘good service’ in the country’s foreign missions, he has been asked to return in order to put his services to better use in Sri Lanka, the Leader reported.
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Batticaloa Tamils fear establishment of civil youth committees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 05:36 GMT]
Civil youth committees are to be formed in all thirty Grama Niladhari divisions in the Batticaloa police division, according to Superintendent of Police in charge of the division, I. M. Kaurnaretna. Each committee will comprise of ten youths including the Grama Niladhari of the area in charge, he said at a meeting held Monday at Batticaloa Mahajana College. Tamil residents in Batticaloa district are perturbed over the move of setting up civil youth committees in the background that Sinhalese and Muslim members of such committees earlier appointed during the war time in the Ampaarai district had engaged in burglary and robbery.
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Gotabhaya's involvement in agitation against UN irks foreign missions

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 16:36 GMT]
Sinhala journalists concerned on freedom of speech released recorded evidence of verbal abuse by the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa against the police officers providing security to the UN Compound on Tuesday, raising questions on Rajapaksa brothers involvement in triggering protest against the UN. Meanwhile, the heads of foreign missions in Sri Lanka from Germany, UK, USA, France, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Romania, Norway and EU delegation on Friday issued a statement saying that they were dismayed by the blockade of the UN-compound in Colombo and the role played in it by a government minister.
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SLFP wants diplomatic approach to UN issue than protest

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 15:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday called upon its constituent parties for more diplomatic approach to resolve the crisis with the United Nations over the appointment of Experts Panel on Sri Lanka and to advice the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon that holding protests and fasting against UN organization. Senior members including six cabinet ministers have appealed to the hierarchy of the SLFP to resolve the issues diplomatically. SLFP general secretary and a senior minister Maithripala Sirisena is reported to have told Colombo media that the issue with the UN could have been resolved in a diplomatic manner than protesting agaist it.
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Weerawansa resigns ministry portfolio, continues fast against UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 10:19 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, the leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), a splinter group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and currently an ally of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Friday resigned from the post of Minister of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Colombo media reported quoting his ministry spokesman. However Lalith Weeratunge, the Secretary to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse told media that he has not received the resignation letter yet.
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Nedumaran calls for protest demanding closure of SL Mission in Chennai

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 10:19 GMT]
Triggered by the killing of a Tamil Nadu fisherman and violent intimidation of seven Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy on Thursday, the leader of Tamil Nationalist Movement Pazha Nedumaran, who also coordinates the alliance of Ilangkai Tamil Protection Movement, has announced a protest in Chennai on July 14 Wednesday demanding the Indian government to close down the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Tamil Nadu state. Mr. Nedumaran, in a statement issued on Friday condemned the Indian state for lack of response as the Sri Lanka Navy continues to kill Tamil Nadu fishermen while the Sri Lankan government which has been waging a genocidal onslaught of Tamils has went to the extent of propping up a campaign against the UN office in Colombo.
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Peiris, Wickramasinghe speak on Weerawansa hunger strike in parliament

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 05:24 GMT]
The hunger strike by Minister Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and a splinter group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) came up for debate between the External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris and opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe Thursday in parliament during the committee stage debate of the 2010 budget.
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Sri Lanka expels two foreign NGO workers

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 02:40 GMT]
Sri Lankan government has deported a Canadian national who functioned as the director of the Nonviolent Peaceforce organization, and a Pakistani national attached to the same non-governmental organization. According to the local Lankadeepa newspaper, the decision to deport the director was taken subsequent to an order issued by the military intelligence to the Immigration and Emigration department in Sri Lanka. Colombo cancelled the visas before deporting the two NGO staffers.
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Malaysian corporate brokers embark on ‘development’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 23:01 GMT]
A Malaysian Ceylonese delegation visited Jaffna last month to discuss ‘development’ with the commander of the occupying Sri Lanka military, the Government Agent and the Bishop of Jaffna. The purpose of the visit of the nine-member team, headed by Dato S Kulasegaran and C Gnanarajah, was to assist the government machinery in the fields of economy and trade and to inspire the foreign investors on the ventures open for investment in the region, said a military-run website in Jaffna. Kulasegaran, a corporate lawyer having economic interests in Colombo, is close to the Malaysian Prime Minister. In the past few years he has been coordinating with the military intelligence of Sri Lanka and with the Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia.
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UN recalls Resident Coordinator from Colombo, closes UNDP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 17:29 GMT]
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, Thursday recalled UN's Colombo Resident Coordinator, Neil Buhne, to New York for consultations, and closed the UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka media reported. UN spokesperson blamed Sri Lanka Government for failing to prevent demonstrators disrupting operations of the UN office, according to reports.
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Police registration made mandatory to Wellawatte Tamil residents

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 14:56 GMT]
Tamil residents in Wellawatte in Colombo division are reported to have been instructed by the police to register with the local police station immediately. An announcement had been made through loudhailers fixed in three wheelers and some vehicles Wednesday, residents of the area said. Police sources said the procedure was intended to account for the large number of Tamils who had returned from abroad and staying in several hotels and lodges.
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CaFFE: Thousands in Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu to be disenfranchised

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 14:41 GMT]
After a fact finding mission to the North, Campaign for Free and Faie Elections (CaFFE), an election watchdog, said that in Ki'linochchi only 16 out of the 96 Kiraama Chevakar (GS) Divisions have received voter registration forms, and in Mullaiththeevu none of the 127 divisions have been distributed with registration forms. CAFFE statement further adds that election officials have written off " 40,000+" IDPs still living in camps. Camp resident IDPs are widely believed to exceed 80,000.
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Put a stop to media intimidation, IFJ appeals to Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 13:11 GMT]
In a press alert issued by International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a media watchdog, appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka "to act quickly to investigate the latest threat against a Sri Lankan media outlet after a threatening letter was sent to the Colombo office of Lanka-e-News," and called on Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse to "investigate and punish the perpetrators of the latest attacks on media freedom, and guarantee protection for Lanka-e-News and its personnel."
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Weerawansa begins fast unto death in front of Colombo UN office

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 08:53 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, a Sri Lankan minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet and the leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), has launched a 'fast unto death campaign' in front of the UN office in Colombo at Bauddaloka Mawatha Thursday.
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