SLA tears down Tamil Heroes memorial monuments in VVT

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 May 2010, 15:28 GMT]
More than a hundred Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers deployed Sunday evening in Theeruvil in Valveddiththu’rai, the birth place of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V. Pirapaharan in Vadamaraadchi, are tearing down the memorial monuments erected in memory of twelve combatants including senior Commanders Kumarappa, Pulenthiran and another memorial monument of Col. Kiddu, sources in Valveddiththur’ai (VVT) said. Meanwhile, former TNA parliamentarian Sivajilingam told that he too had received complaints about the demolishing of LTTE memorial monuments.
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SLA converts Tiger Heroes Resting Homes into bases in Vanni, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 May 2010, 14:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities are hastily converting the Heroes Resting Homes where Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) war heroes are buried in Vanni main land and Jaffna peninsula, to obliterate all traces of them and to prevent their dear and near ones visiting the tombs in fond memory, sources in Jaffna said. Another reason for the demolishing of the Heroes Resting Homes (HRH) is to prevent people from South seeing them when visiting North, the sources added.
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Swiss Tamils observe May Remembrance, highlight geopolitical injustice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 May 2010, 12:03 GMT]
Twenty-six democratically elected members of the Switzerland Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET) took oath in front of the masses, who gathered at Helvetia in Zurich Saturday evening in an emotional remembrance event, paying tribute to the victims of the genocidal onslaught on Vanni last May. Switzerland representative of the Sudanese political movement voicing against the genocide in Darfur and Green Party politician Zefari Zidun, explained how his people experienced the genocide in Darfur and said there was no struggle that has been won without experiencing major political setbacks. A dance theatre presented the geopolitical injustice experienced by Tamils, depicting how the war against Tamils was abetted by the powers of the world.
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Former caretaker of Uduppiddi LTTE Heroes Resting Home found dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 May 2010, 19:26 GMT]
Former caretaker of Uduppiddi E’l’langku’lam Heroes Resting Home of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham (LTTE) was found dead Saturday evening near the cremation grounds in Veampadi area in Thunnaalay South, Karaveddi, Vadamaraadchi, sources in Jaffna said. His body was naked and hands bound with many assault injuries.
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Champoor resettlement not in agenda- Governor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 May 2010, 18:28 GMT]
Nearly one thousand seven hundred uprooted families from traditional Tamil villages, such as Navaratnapuram, Koonitheivu, Champoor, Soodaikuda, and Kadatkaraichchenai in Moothoor east in Trincomalee district since April 2006 in the military operation launched by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) will not be resettled immediately. The decision to resettle them should come from the Government of Sri Lanka, Eastern Provincial Governor Mohan Wijewickrema told a delegation of the Association of Champoor Uprooted Tamil Families that met him in the Governor's located in Trincomalee Friday, sources said.
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Resettlement of uprooted civilians remains rejected in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 May 2010, 11:05 GMT]
The civilians uprooted from Valikaamam in Vadamaraadchi by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) converting their lands into High Security Zone (HSZ) 20 years ago have lost all hopes despite repeated promises and announcements made by government ministers, officials and Jaffna SLA Commander as SLA authorities continue to deny permission for resettlement, according to A.C. Nadarajah, one of nearly a hundred thousand uprooted persons in Jaffna peninsula. Mr. Nadarajah, a former principal, social activist and the present manager of ‘Yarl Thinakural’ in Jaffna, leads one of the welfare organizations for uprooted civilians in Jaffna peninsula. "It is obvious that the main reason for this predicament is the adamancy of the SLA to vacate the lands and properties confiscated from thousands of families in Jaffna peninsula," Mr. Nadarajah told journalists in Jaffna.
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Thought crime, torture and kingly fiat

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 May 2010, 03:22 GMT]
“Tissainayagam’s pardon is clearly an act of Sri Lanka’s international diplomacy, an act made possible by the complete absence of the rule of law as an operating principle in its legal system,” writes a columnist in the Tamil Guardian newspaper. “[While] the legal system’s ability to convict Tissainayagam on the basis of a confession obtained under torture on charges that amount to accusations ‘thought crime’ reveal that Sri Lanka has fully departed from the principles of the rule of law […] the Presidential pardon echoes medieval forms of justice dispensed as royal patronage and is in keeping with Sinhala leaders’ proclivity for styling themselves as mythical Sinhala rulers.”
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Mahinda Rajapakse leaves to Iran to accept G-15 chairmanship

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 May 2010, 15:11 GMT]
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to leave Colombo on Sunday to attend the forthcoming G-15 Summit to be held in Tehran on Monday. He is to take over the Chairmanship of the G-15 from the incumbent chairman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, according to Colombo External Affairs Ministry.
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Lest We Forget: Children affected by Genocidal War Crimes of Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 May 2010, 04:01 GMT]
Tamils all over the world mark 18 May as Genocidal War Crimes Day, observing one year remembrance of thousands who perished in the war, waged by the Sri Lankan state and its abettors, on the de-facto state of Tamil Eelam. Despite its repeated pledges to the International Community, the Sri Lankan state and its military machine vowing to erase 'separatism demand' from Tamils for generations, to turn heavy arms on civilian population claiming the lives of thousands of children and women in addition to depriving them of food, medicine and medical evacuation on time. The conduct of the Sri Lankan state, which disregarded all norms of humanity in the war, has posed a civilisational question, and justice remains undelivered. TamilNet releases 14 of 512 photos taken by a humanitarian worker to mark the Genocidal War Crimes Day.
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SLA junior officer recovered dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 May 2010, 09:39 GMT]
Vaddukkoaddai police recovered the corpse of a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Second Lieutenant Wednesday around 11:00 p.m near Periya Thampiraan temple in Araali with more than four bullet wounds on the head, sources in Jaffna said. Police are investigating to find out whether internal conflict among soldiers was the reason or he was shot and killed out of the camp.
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Explosion in SLA Point Pedro camp causes tension

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 May 2010, 15:57 GMT]
A deafening explosion in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) 524 Division camp in Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi Wednesday around 4.30 a.m and gun shots which followed for nearly half an hour upset residences in the neighborhood. SLA sources said that the explosion was an accident due to electric short-circuit in the ammunition stores in the camp. The sources, however, did not provide any information on casualties or injuries.
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Australia must ratify Tamil referendum results: Greens MLA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 May 2010, 08:52 GMT]
Citing the overwhelming consensus for independence as expressed by the Australia’s Tamil Diaspora in the recent Tamil Referendum on independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, Greens Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Ms. Amanda Bresnan, who witnessed the referendum as an observer, has urged the Australian government to ratify the results, also citing the overwhelming support in similar referendums held across Europe and Canada. The referendum is “to reaffirm the political aspirations of the Tamils in the isle of Sri Lanka, that the opinion of Tamils living overseas can be used to determine the political solution to ethnic conflict, that the results be taken to governments and international bodies and that this bring about national and global solidarity amongst Tamils and bring consensus on the national question” she said.
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Jaffna peninsula people gripped in shock, fear as abductions escalate

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 May 2010, 06:16 GMT]
Unidentified men arriving in a van forcibly took away a family woman Tuesday morning as she was returning along Karaveddi Sampanthar shop area after having taken her son to school, sources in Vadamaraadchi said. The abductors had attacked the woman with the intention of killing her and dumped her among the shrubs in a deserted area in Valvai where Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are on patrol. Meanwhile, a teenage girl student had managed to escape from abductors with injuries Tuesday in Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi while some men had tried to abduct a young woman in front of Jaffna Teaching Hospital as she was coming out of the hospital after treatment, sources in Jaffna said.
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Cancellation tactics make potential candidates withdraw from TGTE elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 May 2010, 13:14 GMT]
Four candidates, including two who had come within the first five in the poll conducted 8 days ago for the TGTE in the London South West Constituency, withdrew their candidature Monday after there were delays in announcing the results. Dr. N.Sathiyamoorthy, Mr. A.Vairavamoorthy and Mr. David Joseph, candidates sharing a common opinion said in their withdrawal letter that "even though it was hard for us to come to this decision, we feel it is necessary to make such decision to take our struggle to the next level through the TGTE, without giving any room for the Sri Lankan state or the IC to shame our Tamil Nation." The election committee delayed the announcement of the results citing ‘complaints’ and there were behind the scene manoeuvrings by certain members of the CWG that conducted the elections, in selecting candidates without a re-poll, said a journalist who did not wish to be named.
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SL government stages hidden agenda in Jaffna peninsula – Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 May 2010, 17:23 GMT]
Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, accused Sri Lanka Government for purposely encouraging crimes in Jaffna peninsula such as abduction and killing for ransom, robbery, sexual abuse of lonely women so that it could continue to hold the peninsula in its authority, in a press meet held Monday at his Jaffna office. He further blamed the government for having abandoned the resettled civilians in Mullaiththeevu district who had been uprooted and detained during the war on Vanni.
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Colombo accelerates Sinhalicisation of Madu

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 May 2010, 12:57 GMT]
Colombo has launched a large scale Sinhala colonisation at Madu Road Junction, located on Mannaar-Madawachchi Road, which branches off the main route to Madu shrine, situated in the middle of traditional Tamil area, by officially claiming to "resettle" 80 Sinhalese families after renovating a Buddhist temple into a large Vihara at the junction. Categorising the Sinhalese settlers as "Internally Displaced Persons," the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry officials said the Sinhalese "IDPs" had met Resettlement Minister Milroy Fernando and G.A. Chandrasri, the former SLA commander of Jaffna, who is serving as the Northern Province Governor, with the Chief Incumbent Buddhist Monk of the Vihara. Caritas, a Catholic agency for justice, peace and development has been pressurised to construct the houses for the Sinhalese settlers.
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SLA declares 'Sri Lankan war heroes week' from May 12

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 May 2010, 01:55 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law and Order have declared a week to commemorate Sri Lankan war heroes commencing on May 12-18, on May 12 in the Central Province, May 13 in Uva, East and Northern Provinces, May 14 in the North Western, May 15 in Southern Province, May 16 in the North Central and on May 17 in the Sabaragamuwa Province, according to Military spokesman Major General Prasad Samarasinghe to media.
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TGTE member from New Zealand speaks on Vaddukkoaddai Resolution

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 May 2010, 00:13 GMT]
Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, in his last ever speech in the Sri Lankan parliament on 19 November 1976 said: “Our Party is moving with the idea of establishing a separate state. It is not an easy matter to get a separate State; it is a difficult matter. We know it is difficult. But either we get out of the power of the Sinhala masses or we perish. That is certain. Therefore, we will try and get this separation.” Citing the speech Mr. A. Theva Rajan, member of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, from New Zealand, said that the relevance of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution today is unique in historical terms as "the reign of Percival Rajapakse" fully demonstrated to the world that the Tamils are facing a genocidal onslaught. "Rajapakse brothers made the Tamil genocide open, indelible and internationally recorded,” he said.
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Trade Unions slam Australia’s treatment of refugees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 May 2010, 15:46 GMT]
Leaders of Australia’s most powerful unions have united to voice their “concern at the growing stance of indifference towards and demonisation of asylum seekers from both sides of Australian politics” in an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Rudd released on Monday.
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Colombo adopts failed Sudanese ruse to deflect war crimes charges - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 May 2010, 14:38 GMT]
Commenting on Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse's announcement that Colombo will appoint a 7-person commission to "search for any violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct in such conflict situations, and the circumstances that may have led to such actions [in Sri Lanka], and identify any persons or groups responsible for such acts," Francis A Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law said "after it was announced that the ICC was going after Sudan, they hired a British lawyer to advise them on setting up some type of fake internal procedure of investigation/ prosecution in order to head off the ICC, pretending to satisfy the requirement of complementarity. It miserably failed, and Sudan's Al Bashir is now under ICC's arrest warrant."
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