Colombo schemes Sinhalicised capital for North

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 05:52 GMT]
Similar to the Sinhalicisation of Trincomalee, the capital of the East, Colombo plans for a new, Sinhalicised capital for the North too at Ki'linochchi, administrative sources working for Colombo on the project said. Ki'linochchi is being prepared for that with an extensive military cantonment with permanent houses for military personnel, cultivation lands for them, an airstrip at Ira'naimadu, new Buddhist temples and by not allowing the local population to their lands. For every three people there is one military personnel at present. When resettled, the local Tamils will be herded into pockets and there will be a new population, considerably Sinhalicised, the sources said adding that with the completion of the plot, there won’t be even one city or administrative centre existing for Tamils in the island.
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Fasting political prisoner in Jaffna Teaching Hospital ends protest

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2010, 17:03 GMT]
A Tamil political prisoner arrested by Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) in 2006 in Chaavakachcheari and detained in Jaffna prison had been continually fasting for the last 21 days requesting not to be transferred to Anuradapura or Vavuniyaa prison and to conduct his case in Jaffna courts in protest against the instruction issued by Attorney General (AG). When his condition grew critical he was transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) where he continued to fast in protest against AG’s order to transfer him to Anuradapura or Vavuniyaa. The fasting political prisoner ended his fast Sunday following the cancellation of the AG’s order, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA to construct big base in Vallai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is to construct a big base invading the lands of the abandoned Vallai Weaving Centre and the government hospital located on Uduppiddi-Valvai road in Vadamaraadchi Vallaive’li, sources in Jaffna said. SLA is forced to vacate the private and government properties in the towns and near the big junctions in Jaffna peninsula as the owners of the properties have begun claiming them.
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Malaysian corporates jump at Mahinda-KP plot for development, says Colombo media

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2010, 16:01 GMT]
Top entrepreneurs of the Ceylonese Tamil diaspora in Malaysia gathered Saturday to raise funds for Selvaraja Pathmanathan’s (KP) ‘development’ of the North and East of Sri Lanka, media circles in Colombo said, citing Sri Lankan High Commission sources in Malaysia. The tables at the gathering were priced one million rupees upwards and the Maxis Communication CEO donated 35 million rupees, Lakbimanews said, adding that the fund will be for resettlement, reconstruction as well as rehabilitation of the LTTE cadres and disabled army soldiers. Two years back, a group of Ceylonese Tamils naming them newly as ‘Sri Lankans’ organized a conference for the diaspora attended by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner. The conference failed in its results, said the New York based Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) in a report last year.
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Supreme scrutiny

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2010, 12:34 GMT]
Starting Monday, for nearly a week, Senate confirmation hearings on US Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, the third potential woman justice in the highest court, will draw the attention of US television viewers. Analysts indicate Kagan's tenure, a life time appointment, will mark a complete alignment between the liberal-conservative split in the supreme court and the Democrat-Republican party presidential appointments. Kagan, if appointed, will become, together with her liberal collegues Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Bryer, the 4th appointee by a Democratic President.
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Tamil Brahmi inscription found in Tissamaharama

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2010, 02:59 GMT]
An early historic inscription in Tamil language and in Tamil Brahmi script, dateable to c.200 BCE, has been found in the archaeological excavations by a German team at Tissamaharama in the down south of the island of Sri Lanka. The inscription deciphered by I. Mahadevan as ‘Thira’li Mu’ri,’ which means ‘written agreement of the assembly,’ was incised on an early historic Black and Red Ware pottery. The last letter of the inscription, which is retroflex Tamil ‘Ri’, is very clearly a Tamil phoneme in Tamil Brahmi script, academics commented. The Tamil Brahmi inscription is also found mixed with megalithic or early historic graffiti marks, which were probably the symbols of the guild, they further said. Tissamaharama or ancient Mahaagama is located close to Kathirkaamam (Kataragama), a famous pilgrim centre for Tamils as well as Sinhalese.
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Development without politics dangerous to Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 June 2010, 06:06 GMT]
By blackmailing the Tamil nation through the plight of its people and by handling ‘development’ in counterinsurgency style, Colombo is trying to lock the diaspora away from political cause, and by demonstrating it, Colombo is seeking acquittal of its crimes in the international arena as well as money for its greed. De-linking development from decision-making political sovereignty of Tamils is advantageous to sectarian Sinhala polity, it is convenient to the international polity of the corporates, but how it is beneficial to the affected, is the question. Diaspora Tamils taking individual or petty-group decisions on development is suicidal. Rather they should demonstrate that they have collective polity and political control independent of Colombo, in dealing with their development. It is for such purposes the diaspora has elected a number of bodies and they should do the orientation.
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Speech criminalized in US Supreme Court material support case

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 June 2010, 01:51 GMT]
In a decision announced Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to criminalize speech in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the first case to challenge the Patriot Act before the Supreme Court, and the first post-9/11 case to challenge primacy of national security claims over free speech guarantees. The plaintiffs were organizations and individuals who wanted to continue to support lawful political and humanitarian activities of two groups designated as terrorist: the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an advocate for self-determination of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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Sri Lanka rejects UN war crimes panel

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 10:56 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka said Thursday that it would not issue visa to members of UN Experts Panel to enter the island. Establishment of UN Experts Panel would only complicate matters of the Commission set up by the government. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris at a media briefing on Thursday said:"Our government rejects the UN experts’ panel and they would not be allowed to enter the island."
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Continuing ‘counter insurgency’ approach to chronic national question

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 11:41 GMT]
Colombo’s latest deployment of Selvarasa Pathmanathan (KP), a victim of circumstances, to blunt the Eezham Tamil struggle only reveals that ‘counter insurgency’ is the style continued to be envisaged by some powers in approaching the chronic national question in the island, commented Tamil circles watching the developments. The move, bereft of any political promises, but aiming at roping in the diaspora for ‘development,’ comes after the visit of G L Peiris to Washington, Robert Blake lamenting that still “some polarisation” exists in the island and amidst heavy visits of dignitaries in the last couple of weeks. The move is not surprising. It is a sequence of a long-existing design, operated simultaneously through good and ugly faces of the West, observers said. The KP operation in Colombo is handled by a controversial group of foreign-trained Sri Lankan military intelligence personnel.
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Plans afoot to Sinhalicise Paasikkudaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 04:23 GMT]
Sri Lankan Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa Tuesday paid an official visit to Paasikkudaa in Batticaloa district and laid the foundation stone for a tourist complex. The tourist complex is viewed as another step to settle yet more Sinhalese in the traditional Tamil areas of Batticaloa district, by the local residents.
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SLA arrests sixteen Tamil civilians in Eastern provinces

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 04:15 GMT]
At least sixteen persons were taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from the districts of Ampaa’rai and Batticaloa until last week and held in detention on reports that they possessed cell phones with photographs of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V. Pirabakarna and video films related to LTTE, civil sources said.
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Colombo intensifies spread of Buddhism in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 17:51 GMT]
Buses carrying around two thousand Buddhist priests under heavy escort carrying a sacred statue of Buddha on a pilgrimage to Jaffna had passed Vavuniyaa Monday and entered Vanni main land through A9 road, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The buses, however, have not reached Jaffna until Tuesday evening and it is assumed that the Buddhist priests, on an urgent mission to spread Buddhism in the North, are engaged in some unannounced opening ceremonies of newly erected Buddhist Viharas in Vanni by the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) directed by Colombo government, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA constructs big base on Pa’n’nai coast near Jaffna Fort

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 16:46 GMT]
Hundreds of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are actively engaged in constructing a big base on the coastal stretch of Meenaadchipuram between Pa’n’nai and Naavaanthu’rai near Jaffna Fort, allocated for resettlement of uprooted civilians, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna SLA Commander Mahinda Kathurusinghe recently said in a press meet that the SLA 512 Division base presently located in the occupied private properties in Jaffna town including Subas and Gnanam hotels are to be soon relocated to another place.
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Failure of international system results in slave camps for POWs

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 21:27 GMT]
The plight of the captured LTTE cadres and alleged supporters numbering more than 10,000 in the slave camps of Colombo is a direct result of the deliberate failure of the international system in not recognising them as Prisoners of War. The war broke out by Colombo breaching an internationally enacted peace. The war against the LTTE was internationally abetted. Personnel of some countries, especially India, were known for directly operating in the ground, proving the international dimensions of the war. The call for the surrender of the LTTE was made internationally. The Norwegian peace facilitator publicly made the call. Yet, the international system tries to maintain the issue as ‘internal’. The failure of the system in either not taking direct responsibility of the cadres or declaring them as POWs questions the credibility of the powers dominating the system, Tamil circles said.
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Illegal excavation of limestone threatens ecology of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 04:05 GMT]
Threatening the entire groundwater and fragile ecology of Jaffna peninsula, a private Sinhalese company is engaged in the illegal excavation of limestone in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North while Rajapaksa government refuses to reveal details of this enterprise in the area from Maaviddapuram to Keerimalai where the uprooted residents have not been allowed to resettle for the past twenty years. The indiscriminate excavation of limestone in a 4 sq km area at depths of nearly 40 feet has already caused seepage of sea water and it is feared the area becoming submerged. The underground channels that bring in freshwater to the innumerable aquifers of the peninsula, have an underneath entry into sea adjacent to the locality of the quarries. It is obvious how indiscriminate quarrying and the possibility of seawater coming inside can affect the potable water of the masses.
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Intoxicating hubris

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 00:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is widely believed to be the key Sri Lanka official responsible for instituting procedures and issuing commands that allegedly violated international norms in the conduct of war, has provided enlightening clues to inner workings of his mind in several interviews recorded on film by reputable international media. "His unchecked power, authorized by his brother and Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, appears to have blunted his reasoning faculty, triggering him to compulsively express open threats against journalists and unwittingly admit to abject disregard for civilian casualties while issuing military commands. Many of his statements border on self-incrimination," said a spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group. A collection of Gotabhaya interviews are compiled in this feature.
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Japan backs UN war crimes probe into Sri Lanka war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 18:28 GMT]
Japan is backing efforts by the United Nations to investigate war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the final months of the island’s war, Tokyo’s visiting envoy, Mr. Yasushi Akashi, said Sunday. Amid Sri Lanka’s vehement rejection of any international scrutiny into the conduct of its armed forces, two days ago, Mr. Akashi had seemed to imply his government was supporting Colombo when he told reporters "It is up to the Sri Lankan government to define the precise role [of an inquiry]”. However, speaking on Sunday Mr. Akashi endorsed a UN probe and suggested Colombo was not heeding his advice towards a proper accounting of the war.
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Explosions heard from SLN base in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 07:21 GMT]
People in Jaffna peninsula were startled to hear intermittent explosions Saturday evening from the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Kaarainakar base in the islets of Jaffna for nearly half an hour, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopters were seen circling above the SLN base and unconfirmed sources said that a joint military exercise was the cause of the deafening explosions. Fishermen engaged in fishing in Kaarainakar sea had hastened to the shore on hearing the blasts.
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PAC instructs government heads to invite SLA Commander to official functions in North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 07:07 GMT]
The Secretary of Presidential Action Committee (PAC) has issued strict instruction to the Government Agents of the five districts in North to invite Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, government parliamentarians and the key members of PAC to all official functions and ceremonies of the government departments.
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