Cutting UN ties will earn Sri Lanka rogue status, says Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 March 2010, 00:28 GMT]
"If the Government of Sri Lanka ruptures relations with the United Nations, then it will turn itself into a pariah state along the lines of apartheid South Africa or the genocidal rump Yugoslavia, both of which the United Nations General Assembly suspended from participation in the activities of the United Nations for their criminal behavior. In fact and in law, the same principles should apply here.," said Professor Boyle, commenting on Colombo's recent warning that "ties with the United Nations (UN) is in danger of going sour if the present conflict with UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon over his move to appoint a panel on Sri Lanka is not resolved."
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Government engaged in Sinhalese colonization in Kokkaavil – Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2010, 18:17 GMT]
Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) former Jaffna parliamentarian and a TNA candidate contesting Jaffna electorate, accused Sri Lanka government of systematically colonizing Kokkaavil in Mullaiththevu district along A9 road with Sinhalese, in the TNA election campaign meeting held Thursday in Chuzhipuram-Tholpuram area, sources in Jaffna said. He also accused Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers and soldiers of dismantling the vehicles abandoned by Vanni residents when they were driven to Mu’l’livaaikkaal and selling the parts in Vavuniyaa and Anuradapura making huge profit.
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Expert panel for Sri Lanka will not infringe on sovereignty – Ban Ki-moon

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 07:09 GMT]
The panel of experts being set up by the United Nations as part of an accountability process following the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka will not infringe on the country’s sovereignty, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday. Mr. Ban told journalists that the establishment of the panel is in line with a joint statement he issued with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his visit to the country last May after Government forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to UN News Centre press release Tuesday.
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IDPs accuse SLA soldiers of plundering their properties in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 05:25 GMT]
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Pachchilaippa’l’li Divisional Secretariat area in Ki’linochchi district who had been to their places accused occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers of plundering their properties and taking the spoils in their vehicles to South during night time. Parts of houses like doors, door frames, windows and felled valuable timber are being taken away to the South by the soldiers, they said. Besides, the fertile coconut plantations in the area which remain unaffected by war are being plundered and the proceeds take to Jaffna peninsula by the soldiers, they further said.
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TNA candidates meet SLA officers in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 20:55 GMT]
Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah and Suresh Premachandran, held a meeting with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers in Ki’linochchi Tuesday where they brought to their attention about TNA candidates as well as contestants of Tamil National United Front (TNUF) being obstructed from canvassing among the resettled people in Ki’linochchi district recently, according to Suresh Premachandran. The SLA officers have now agreed to allow candidates to meet the resettled people in Ki’linochchi and canvass among them but whether the SLA soldiers manning the check posts will carry out the instructions of their superiors is yet to be seen, he added.
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Election campaign gains momentum in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 16:28 GMT]
Election campaign activities by contesting political parties and independent groups have gained momentum in Jaffna peninsula and leaders of political parties including President Mahinda Rajapakse of United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), R. Sampanthan of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Ranil Wickremasinghe of United National Party (UNP) and Somaratne Amarasinghe of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are expected to come to the peninsula to engage in electioneering, sources in Jaffna said.
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Teenage student abducted for ransom in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 17:15 GMT]
Unidentified men arriving at the house of a popular merchant in Madaththadi in Chaavakachcheari North abducted his son, a 17-year-old student of a leading educational institution in Jaffna, Sunday night around 11:00 p.m, according to complaints lodged by his father with Chaavakachcheari and Jaffna police stations. The abductors kept demanding 300 million rupees as ransom to release the boy using various phones from the time of abduction until Monday dawn and had threatened to kill the boy if the money is not paid, the merchant said. The abductors had mentioned the names of some political parties contesting parliamentary election in Jaffna district while demanding ransom, he further said.
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Thellippazhai govt. hospital allowed to operate again in its original building

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 14:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, Major Gen. Mahintha Kathurusinghe and Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh officially handed over Monday afternoon the original building of Thellippazhai government hospital to its administration which had been functioning in government buildings outside the SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Thellippazhai for the last 20 years. SLA had taken over the hospital building during the war in 1990, sources in Jaffna said.
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The Tamil Diaspora

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 13:56 GMT]
Much of the recent commentary on the Tamil Diaspora, both in research and media, not only fails to account for the specific reality of Tamil expatriates in the West, it consciously serves to misrepresent and vilify them, with the explicit objective of denying them their rightful place in the resolution of the Tamil question in Sri Lanka, and limiting their role in the island’s politics, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its latest editorial.
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Devotees observe Sivaraathitri in Keerimalai Nakuleasvarar temple

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 06:15 GMT]
Around 5000 devotees observed ‘Sivaraathiri Poosai’ Saturday night at the historically famous Nakuleasvarar Koayil in Keerimalai which is located in the High Security Zone (HSZ) of occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA), after a period of 20 years, sources in Jaffna said. During the past few years SLA had allowed only a limited number of devotees to observe Sivaraathiri night worship in the temple on condition that they should leave the HSZ only on the following day under SLA control, the sources added.
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Demand US to reveal more inculpatory war crimes evidence, urges Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 March 2010, 18:13 GMT]
While applauding the U.S. Government for revealing significant amount of details that point to complicity of Sri Lanka Government in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, Professor Francis A. Boyle of University of Illinois College of Law, urged American Tamils to "pressure the relevant agencies of the United States government to produce as much evidence in public as they possibly can against the Rajapaksas, Fonseka, the GOSL General Staff, etc." Prof. Boyle noted that "[t]he United States government did this once before against the Serbian genocidaires Milosevic, Karadzic et al. for what they did to the Bosnians and the Kosovars. The United States government can certainly do the same against the GOSL genocidaires against the Tamils," Prof. Boyle said.
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SLA soldiers obstruct ITAK candidate from campaigning in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2010, 16:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers manning the check posts along the roads do not allow him to go the places where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are resettled in Ki'linochchi district, Sivagnanam Sritharan, the candidate contesting Ki'linochchi district in Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) ticket and the principal of Ki'linochchi Maha Viththiyaalayam said, in the press meet held Friday at the ITAK office on Martin Road in Jaffna where the ITAK election manifesto was released. He was forced by the soldiers to reveal the names of the persons he wants to meet and as this would put them in danger he had not given their names, Sritharan said.
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TNA releases election manifesto

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2010, 12:08 GMT]
Federal solution based on shared sovereignty and right to self-determination in a contiguous north and east of Sri Lanka was the highlight of the TNA manifesto released Friday. While irreversibly committing on federal solution, the manifesto is ambiguous on the nature of the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils and their right to self determination, said Tamil political circles in their immediate responses. The term shared sovereignty is used to describe structures such as the European Union as well as federal structures with or without the right to secession. The manifesto refrains from either asserting to Tamils exercising their right to self determination to decide the national question in an internationally monitored arrangement or including the unavoidable diaspora in the political process of reaching a solution, the political circles commented further.
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UN investigation can serve as leverage to establish ICTSL, says Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 March 2010, 03:28 GMT]
Commenting on the United Nations report that UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon's appointed experts will establish standards for Sri Lanka's accountability concerning "possible breaches of international humanitarian law...," Professor Francis A. Boyle of University of Illinois College of Law said, "[t]his language of "international humanitarian law" means that the United Nations will be getting into investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the GOSL against the Tamils, which is an encouraging sign. In other words, the United Nations will be investigating international criminal responsibility by the Rajapaksas, Fonseka, the General Staff, et al," Boyle added.
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Third Mu'l'livaaykkaal in the name of 'development'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 12:50 GMT]
After abetting a military defeat and subsequently blessing a political defeat, the coterie of countries propping up Sri Lankan state is now bent upon enacting a third Mu’l’livaaykkaal, by bringing in a ‘development defeat’ of Eezham Tamils through handing over development management to the Sinhalese, said a concerned group of diaspora Tamils who recently had an experience of negotiating development in a peace-facilitating European country. Funding agencies of this country, citing their present choice of a Sinhala NGO for implementation of programmes in the island, advise Diaspora Tamils seeking development funds for the North and East to work under the Sinhala NGO.
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China lends Sri Lanka $290m for development

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 12:30 GMT]
China has completed arrangements through its funding arm, Exim Bank, to provide $290m in concessionary development loans to Sri Lanka, Reuters reported. $190m of the loan is to develop a second airport in Matara and the other $100m is to improve the railways. China was the largest foreign funding source for Sri Lanka in 2009 with $1.2 billion followed by the Asian Development Bank with $424 million, according to the same report. The 2009 funds were allocated to build roads, coal power project in the Eastern province, and a port in Sri Lanka's President's electorate in Hambantota.
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IDPs in Moothoor complain to ITAK leaders about their uncertain future

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 10:50 GMT]
Trincomalee electoral candidates led by Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) leader Mr. R. Sampanthan, Tuesday visited the camps in Ki’liveddi and Paddiththidal in Moothoor DS division where hundreds of internally displaced Tamil families from Champoor, Kooniththeevu, Choodaikkudaa and Navaratnapuram in the High Security Zones declared by the Sri Lanka Army after the eviction of LTTE in April, 2006, are lodged. The visit by ITAK candidates was a part of their election campaign for the forthcoming general election, sources in Trincomalee said.
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SLA consolidates its grip on Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 06:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander Lt. Gen. Jegath Jeyasooriya officially opened the SLA Civil Administration Head Office Tuesday and inaugurated its Website in a public building on Jaffna Hospital road, taken over by SLA for this purpose, sources in Jaffna said. In the past SLA civil administration offices had been used by the government to control and subjugate the people of the peninsula militarily, the sources added. These offices were alleged to have been involved in the disappearances of the young men and women who had gone to these offices as well as the killings of them on the roads and elsewhere, the sources further said.
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SLA harasses resettled IDPs in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2010, 11:21 GMT]
Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) allowed to resettle in some areas in Ki’linochchi and Mannaar districts are being subjected to severe restrictions and harassment by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources close Jaffna Bishop's House said. This information was gathered from the group of Catholic Bishops of six districts who visited the said areas in Ki’linochchi and Mannaar recently, the sources said. The Bishops, however, are reluctant to officially disclose this situation in Vanni due to fear, the sources added.
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Government suppresses protest demonstration of IDPs in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2010, 06:00 GMT]
A protest demonstration demanding immediate resettlement of people displaced from Valikaamam North occupied by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) as High Security Zone (HSZ) organized by the Welfare Organizations for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on 1 March in front of Jaffna Secretariat had to be given up due to the strong opposition to it by Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K. Ganesh, the representatives of the welfare organizations said. The GA had refused to accept the memorandum of the protestors saying that the matter of resettlement should not be made a political issue in the context of the forthcoming parliamentary election, the organizations further alleged.
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