Court turns down CID application to record Fonseka statement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 2010, 10:00 GMT]
Colombo Chief Magistrate Monday turned down an application tendered by the Criminal Investigation Department (C.I.D) of Sri Lanka Police seeking permission of the court to record a statement from retired General Sarath Fonseka over a statement that latter had given to a Sunday English weekly regarding the killing of surrendering LTTE cadres at the last stage of the war, legal sources said.
Full story >>

No threat SL state sovereignty, no need for emergency, says Fonseka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 2010, 09:54 GMT]
“There is no threat to the sovereignty of the country any longer. As such the government should completely lift the State of Emergency Regulation,” former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and a parliamentarian from Colombo district representing Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Tuesday, said participating in a debate on the extension motion moved by the government.
Full story >>

Colombo Court remands Vavuniya Tamil youth

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 2010, 09:48 GMT]
Colombo Fort Magistrate Monday ordered further remand for a Tamil youth till May 17 when he was produced in court by Sri Lanka Police on a report that he had allegedly been involved in bomb attacks in the south during pre-war situation, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Colombo relaxes some provisions of Emergency Regulations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 2010, 09:03 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka Tuesday relaxed some provisions of the Emergency Regulations now in force since 12 August 2005. The relaxed provisions are such as holding meetings, imposing curfew, printing certain literature and providing the house holder’s name to the police, according to SL External Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris while speaking in the parliament that began Tuesday two-day debate on the extension of the State of Emergency for another month.
Full story >>

Rajapaksa decides to pardon journalist Tissainayagam

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 May 2010, 07:38 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa is reported to have decided to pardon and release the senior journalist J.S.Tissainayagan who had been convicted and sentenced to twenty years rigorous imprisonment on 31 August 2009 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), according to External Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris to media Monday.
Full story >>

IUSU demands detainees' names made public

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 May 2010, 19:06 GMT]
Inter University Students Union (IUSU) has given ultimatum to the Sri Lanka government authority concerned to release the names of uprooted persons detained in internment camps enabling their relatives to identify their kith and kin who are reportedly missing during the war or later. In failing to do so relatives of those missing would hold demonstration in front of detention centres with victims’ photographs, said IUSU President Udul Premaratne at a media briefing held Friday. Relatives of the missing persons brought down from Mannaar were present in the media briefing, media sources said.
Full story >>

Final nail on APRC's coffin

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 May 2010, 15:46 GMT]
Professor Tissa Vitarane's omission from the ministerial list "reinforces the contention that the APRC [All Party Representative Committee] was set up for the sole purpose of placating the international community and India in particular," said Dr. Paikiyasothi Saravanamuttu, director of Colombo-based think-thank, in the Saturday edition of Daily Mirror, adding that the APRC was "never meant by the regime to be anything else." Saravanamuttu was one of the few who were unique in articulating publicly that APRC was constituted for mere presence than for action.
Full story >>

UPFA plans 'War Heroes Week' in mid May

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 2010, 16:42 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government is to celebrate War Hero’s Week (Ranaviru Sathiya) from May 12 to May 18, said the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse during an informal talk with media persons at Elephant Pass in the north Friday while he was on a visit to Jaffna. Media sources in Colombo commented that the model being implemented by the Sri Lankan military and the UPFA, ignoring the advice from its global partners who advocate 'reconciliation' and 'development' as 'post-conflict' paradigm in the island.
Full story >>

Colombo plans Buddhist vihara in Mullaiththeevu town

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 2010, 16:16 GMT]
Sri Lankan government has planned a large Buddhist vihara at the entrance of Mullaiththeevu town at Karaichchikkudiyiruppu, 150 meters near the Kachcheari building, said former Jaffna MP Selvaraja Kajendren Saturday. The government is spending millions in construction of the Buddhist temple and in constructing at least two memorial sites for Sri Lanka Army commanders killed in action, while the Tamil civilians are not provided with meaningful aid for resettlement, Mr. Kajendren told media.
Full story >>

Major parties hold May Day rallies without procession

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 2010, 14:38 GMT]
Major political parties held their May Day rallies without procession Saturday. The ruling party United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) held its May Day meeting at Colombo Municipal Grounds. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) decided not to hold its May Day procession.
Full story >>

Jaffna Civil organizations accuse Colombo financial institutions of exploitation

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2010, 16:46 GMT]
Civil organizations and Non-governmental organizations in Jaffna peninsula raised accusations against financial institutions in South rushing to open their offices with the motive of exploiting the wealth of peninsula residents as Sri Lanka Central Bank Governor, Ajith Nivard Cabral, a close friend of President Mahinda Rajapakse ceremoniously opened Friday the offices of ‘The Financial Co. Ltd’ and ‘Bartleet Mallory Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd, in Jaffna town, sources in Jaffna said. The organizations further said that Sinhalese persons have been brought to work in the Southern firm, denying job opportunities to young men and women in Jaffna peninsula.
Full story >>

International war corporatism continues silencing Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2010, 12:30 GMT]
Diaspora Tamils wonder at the arrests, crackdowns and deportations of Eezham Tamil activists taking place in an orchestrated way in the West as well as in the East by governments conniving with the war-crimes-accused defence establishment of Colombo. The targets are those who are firm in their views on the national cause and those who work with the grass root. The timing is diaspora organising its polity. Whether the orchestration is pre-emption, expecting resurgence of the struggle as the IC knows no solutions to the crisis in the island, or whether it foretells something unpleasant that is going to be imposed on Tamils through a deal of Colombo with New Delhi and the West, are questions asked in the diaspora. How the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam is going to be structured and how Tamil Nadu is going to play its role gains new significance in the unfolding situation.
Full story >>

Indian Visa Application Centre to be opened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 April 2010, 14:06 GMT]
Contrary to the Sri Lanka government propaganda of opening a branch of the Indian High Commission Colombo office in Jaffna, a private firm will be opening an office at Brown Road in Jaffna 5 May which will receive visa applications to India and send them for processing in the Indian High Commission for Sri Lanka in Colombo and deliver the passports to the applicants after processing, sources in Jaffna said. Mr. Ashok K. Kantha, Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka is expected to open the said Visa Application Centre in Jaffna 5 May at 3:00 p.m, the sources added.
Full story >>

DNA to oppose extension of state of emergency

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 April 2010, 13:00 GMT]
The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Tuesday decided to oppose the extension of the State of Emergency when the government tables a motion seeking it for another month 4 May in parliament, sources in Colombo said. DNA parliamentary group met Tuesday with General Sarath Fonseka in the chair at the parliamentary complex and discussed the strategy that is to be adopted in parliament by the DNA when its meets next week.
Full story >>

Jaffna Mayor allows star hotel in historical sacred site in Nalloor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 April 2010, 06:07 GMT]
Amidst strong protests raised by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, Saiva and cultural organizations in Jaffna peninsula against the proposed construction of a star hotel in the land where the palace of last Tamil King of Jaffna Kingdom Sangkilian had stood and in the sacred vicinity of historically famous Nalloor Kanthasuvami temple, ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Jaffna Mayor, Ms. Yogewary Patkunam has decided to permit construction of the said star hotel, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, UPFA Minister Douglas Devananda, in a recent press meet in Colombo had said that he had advised the Mayor on this issue and that he has taken action to stop the hotel being built on the sacred site, the sources added.
Full story >>

Jaffna undergrads held as prisoners, charges IUSF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 12:07 GMT]
The Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) Wednesday charged that more than 150 students of the Jaffna University are still being held in rehabilitation centers and are being prevented from attending classes in the University campus. IUSF made the statement on return to Colombo after a fact-finding visit to universities in Jaffna and Batticaloa, and prepared a report of the plight of students.
Full story >>

Diaspora paramount in voicing aspirations of Tamils: The Age

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 10:04 GMT]
Amid Sri Lankas' legal constitution that classifies Tamils as “Second class citizens” and “continuing problems of ethnic marginalisation and persecution”, the Tamil Diaspora feel they “need to press for and represent Tamil claims, because Tamils in Sri Lanka have lost their voice, and have no representation following the defeat of the LTTE” said an article in the Age on Friday, a day after results of Australia’s historic Tamil referendum were announced showing “unanimous support for the proposal for an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka”.
Full story >>

Dengue Control Week to be launched in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 08:59 GMT]
The `Dengue Control Week' is to be launched in the country from May 3 to 9 to warn the public of possible outbreak with the onset of monsoonal rains, according to Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry press release. The number of dengue deaths reported this year from January to April is seventy-five and over twelve thousand dengue cases reported island wide, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry Epidemiology Unit, Director Dr. (Ms) Paba Palihawadana said.
Full story >>

Jaffna Civil organizations accuse Colombo financial institutions of exploitation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 04:45 GMT]
Private and government banks rushing to Jaffna peninsula to open their branches and the opening of the fifth branch of Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in Jaffna town Tuesday, in the name of development are but schemes aimed at exploiting the funds of peninsula residents, civil organizations in Jaffna said. They further accused the above financial institutions of employing only Sinhalese persons from South at all levels while denying job opportunities to the Tamil young men and women in the peninsula.
Full story >>

Australia's young lawyers to document Sri Lanka's war-crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 01:39 GMT]
While calls for independent investigations into Sri Lanka's war crimes continue to mount, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's appointment of advisory panel on Sri Lanka's war-crimes shows no progress, ABC Radio Australia reported that Australian Young Lawyers Group in New South Wales is joining forces with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) to take witness statements and prepare evidence on the conduct of Sri Lanka's Security Forces, and the Polical and Military Command for future war crimes tribunals on Sri Lanka.
Full story >>