Indian national killed in Wellawatte; 2 including CID Inspector arrested

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 09:47 GMT]
A Chief Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and another person were arrested Sunday afternoon by the police on receipt of information from the public of Munthal in Puththa'lam division that two unidentified men had brought a body of a person in a taxi and dumped it in the sea at Pa’livaasalpaduwa. The police promptly followed the taxi and arrested the two persons. It was gathered from the identity cards that one of them was the Chief Inspector of the C.I.D Chandana de Silva. Other suspect is said to be a resident of Wellawatte in Colombo city, police sources said.
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Sand dunes scooped at Ma'n'niththalai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 07:56 GMT]
Similar to the plunder of limestone in the Jaffna Peninsula, agents of Colombo are now engaged in scooping the sand dunes of the Ma’n’niththalai sandbar, which is of immense natural beauty and of archaeological as well as tourist potentiality, sources in Poonakari said. The fragile ecology of the densely populated Jaffna Peninsula is deliberately destroyed by corporates in the construction industry and by their contractors, academics in Jaffna said. The plunder of resources in Jaffna and Vanni are divided among Douglas Devandanda and Namal Rajapaksa respectively. Meanwhile percentage of benefits from large-scale 'development' contracts goes to Basil Rajapaksa and the income extracted by the military goes to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, informed circles said.
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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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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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Colombo steps up militarisation of Paasikkudaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2010, 22:32 GMT]
Special camps of the Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Police have been set up in east cost covering the tourist resort to provide 'foolproof security to tourist community' to spend their holiday, Sri Lankan Police said. The move comes following Basil Rajapaksa's visit to Paasikkudaa last week.
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Dengue fever claims 113 lives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 June 2010, 12:32 GMT]
The number of deaths due to dengue in the country has increased to 113 while the number of diagnosed patients has increased to 17,411. The highest number of patients, 2,354, was diagnosed from Colombo, the most developed district of the country. The districts of Jaffna and Gampaha have also shown high prevalence of the disease, 2181 diagnosed in Jaffna and 2,219 in Gampaha. In Mannaar district 45 positive cases of dengue have been detected last week, but no death has been reported so far, according to the latest statistics issued by the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry.
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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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Russia opposes UN Panel on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 19:29 GMT]
UN Secretary-General should have asked the Security Council or the General Assembly before appointing the panel to advise him on war crime investigation on the sovereign member state of Sri Lanka, says a statement of the foreign ministry of the Russian Federation Thursday. The UN should allow Sri Lanka's own investigations and the Secretary General's decision for the panel is unwarranted, is the Russian position. Russia's earlier stand against Eezham Tamils in the Human Rights Council and its present position have evoked serious concern among the traditional supporters of Russia in Tamil Nadu. The Russian stand paves way for international abetment of structural genocide of Eezham Tamils in their homeland, which the Sri Lankan state is presently carrying out, leftist circles in Tamil Nadu said.
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Colombo decides to hold next cabinet meeting in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 17:25 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government decided to hold weekly cabinet meetings at provincial level from next month. First such meeting will be held in Kilinochchi on July 14 presided by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, Minister Maithripala Sirisena told media Thursday.
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US welcomes panel as Sri Lanka moves to block experts visa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 11:46 GMT]
While Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, welcomed the panel of experts saying that the "United States supports a robust accountability process that will provide a durable foundation for national reconciliation and the rule of law in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s decades-long conflict," Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris told reporters that "[w]e [Sri Lanka] will not issue them [UN panel] with visas. We will not allow them into this country [Sri Lanka]," Colombo media reported.
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Explosion in Colombo, nine persons injured

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 07:01 GMT]
At least nine civilians were injured in a grenade explosion that took place Thursday early morning at Bodhiraja Mawatte in Pettah in Colombo. This incident took place near a stall in the busy Pettah area selling apples, police said.
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Fonseka to be indicted for military arms purchase fraud

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 03:52 GMT]
The State Counsel representing the Attorney General Wednesday informed Colombo Fort Magistrate that General (retired) Sarath Fonseka, the former commander of the Sri Lanka Army and currently a parliamentarian will shortly be indicted with committing financial irregularities in the military arms deal while he was serving in the army, legal sources said.
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Media circles wonder whether US senators confirm offence by welcoming pardon

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 12:30 GMT]
The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in a statement for immediate release, Tuesday, said “Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, Ranking Member Dick Lugar and Subcommittee Chairman on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs Senator Robert P. Casey,Jr., today welcomed Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision to pardon journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who had been convicted last year and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor.” By welcoming Mahinda Rajapaksa ‘pardoning’ him, do the US senators imply Tissainayagam committed an offence, ask media circles in Colombo.
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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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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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JHU ousts pro-Rajapaksa Thera from leader post

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 07:52 GMT]
Power struggle ended in the extreme Sinhala nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) by ousting Venerable Ellawala Medhananda Thera from the post of party leader and electing Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha Thera unanimously at the party’s seventh national convention held Saturday evening at Colombo Town Hall. Ellawala Thera was backing Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa with the idea of prolonging his presidential term through constitutional amendment. The JHU had to elect a new leader as Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thera had resigned from the post as he needed more time to devote on his pet subjects of archaeological research in Mullaiththeevu, JHU sources said.
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130 Tamil civilians reported disappeared in Batticaloa district since 2007

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 05:04 GMT]
One hundred thirty Tamil civilians are reported disappeared during the last three years in the Batticaloa district since 2007, relatives of the disappeared told Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians at a discussion held Sunday at Batticaloa American Mission Hall. They requested the TNA parliamentarians to help trace the disappeared. Most of the disappeared were between the ages 20 and 35, they said. TNA parliamentarians P. Selvarajah, S. Yogeswaran and P. Ariyanethiran participated in the discussion.
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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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Janakaraliya inaugurates program of dramas in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 18:48 GMT]
Janakaraliya, Makkal Ka’lari of the people, with the assistance of Jaffna Education Department inaugurated Monday its program of dramas in ‘Mobile Theatre’ in Nalloor in the CMS School playground located near Jaffna Education Office scheduled to take place from 21 June to 02 July, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, V. Anandasangari of the TULF, who earlier backed Mahinda Rajapaksa during Colombo's war against the LTTE, condemned the program of Janakaraliya for being inappropriate in the context of war affected civilians suffering in Vanni and suggested that Janakaraliya could serve best by visiting Vanni and learn of the misery of Vanni people which could be portrayed realistically in their dramas.
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Colombo to block Fonseka attending Nairobi conference

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 03:24 GMT]
The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has decided to inform the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Union (CPU) about the alleged attempt by the government to prevent General Sarath Fonseka from attending the CPU conference to be held in Kenya in September this year, according to DNA general secretary and JVP parliamentarian Vijitha Hearat.
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