Gotabhaya outbursts against UN, International investigations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 23:01 GMT]
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan defence secretary and the brother of the SL president, in an exclusive interview to the BBC on Tuesday, opposed any international investigation on war crimes during the final stage of the war. Meanwhile, the official news website of the Rajapaksa government in its Sinhala and versions has blamed external forces for rejuvenating the claim of Tamil Eelam by backing Sarath Fonseka, citing the pattern of the results of the recent presidential elections. The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa also warned the politicians not to guide the 'innocent people' in 'wrong path', while he referred to the election participation in North and East in his Tamil version of the February 04 speech.
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Joint opposition demonstrates against election fraud

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 February 2010, 12:19 GMT]
Several roads in Colombo city were blocked Wednesday afternoon due to a large demonstration launched by the joint opposition against the alleged manipulation of Sri Lanka's presidential election results, sources in Colombo said. The traffic around Lipton Circus, T.B.Jaya Mawatte, and Union Place almost came to a standstill due to the surge of demonstrators participating in the protest. Riot Police with tear gas canisters and batons are seen along the route of demonstration on standby, according to initial reports filed by media from the scene.
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India plays upon Buddhist emissary while monks colonize Tamil land

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 23:04 GMT]
New Buddhist temples built by armed forces and militant monks mushroom in Tamil land occupied by Colombo, news reports from Eezham said, citing new constructions along A9 highway. Meanwhile, an extremist Buddhist monk with armed support has arrived at Thalai Mannaar Pier area, the nearest point opposite to the Indian coast, to buy 100 acres of land and to start a Sinhala-Buddhist colony there, news sources from Mannaar said. While nearby Mullaiththeevu and Trincomalee of the Tamil north and east are never linked for ages, A3 highway in the western coast is going to be extended according to Colombo reports, linking Puththa’lam and Mannaar through Vilpattu forest to facilitate inroads of Sinhala colonies. In the meantime, India is learnt to have gifted to Sri Lanka a replica of Asoka’s rock edict speaking of his Buddhist emissary to the island.
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UNP to boycott SL Independence Day celebrations in Kandy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 14:40 GMT]
Marking its protest over alleged harassment of Sarath Fonseka's supporters, the main Sri Lankan opposition party, the UNP, decided on Tuesday to boycott the 62nd Sri Lankan Independence Day celebrations in Kandy on Thursday, the party's General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told media in Colombo.
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Sri Lanka experts silent, Wijesinha oblivious to forensic evidence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 04:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka's video experts appear unable or unwilling to rebut the body of evidence presented at the Dublin tribunal, UN Rapporteur on Extra-judicial Executions Philip Alston's report, and findings from other independent forensic analysts that all ruled as flawed the analyses by the Sri Lanka experts of the video broadcast on Channel 4 showing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers summarily executing Tamil prisoners, stripped naked and hands tied behind their backs. Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, continues to advance his efforts to exculpate Colombo and the perpertrators from charges of war crimes by arguing that the video is fake, a spokesperson for US-based pressure group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) said.
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Sri Lankan Police instructed to quell protests by opposition

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 02:21 GMT]
Any demonstration against the government and the SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa organized by the opposition without permission would be dealt severely if peace is disrupted, the Sri Lankan Police has warned on Monday.
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Joint opposition to hold demonstration against presidential election malpractice

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 13:38 GMT]
The joint opposition United National Alliance (UNA) comprising United National Party (UNP), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Mahajana wing of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has decided to hold a demonstration Wednesday in Colombo to protest against the alleged manipulation of presidential poll results, UNP media spokesman and Puththa’lam district parliamentarian Palitha Range Bandara said in a media conference held Sunday.
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Ban on”Lanka” newspaper lifted, editor still in custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 13:05 GMT]
The Gangodawila Magistrate Monday refused to accept the decision of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to seal the Nugegoda office of the “Lanka” newspaper, after CID Saturday sealed the office stating that the article published by “Lanka” on January 26 was a threat to national security, legal sources in Colombo said
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Colombo not answerable to UN for 80,000 IDPs remaining in Vavuniyaa camps - Minister

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 13:01 GMT]
About eighty thousand Internally displaced persons from Vanni region still remain in camps located in Vavuniyaa despite Sri Lanka government's assurances to the United Nations that all IDPs will be resettled by January 31. Richard Badiudeen, Minister of Resettlement and disaster relief services, told Colombo media Monday that no such assurance has been given to any organization including UN.
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Tamils undisputed champions of diaspora politics: Scottish writer

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 17:07 GMT]
“Unless there is a sea change in the factional Scottish parliament in the months ahead, it is a vote I will not be able to cast in a Scottish constitutional context,” writes Stuart Cosgrove, a Scot married to an Eezham Tamil, who cast his vote in that capacity in the referendum for Tamil Eelam in Mayhill, Glasgow, Saturday. In his column in Times Online, from the Sunday Times, he recollected the Scottish referendum of 1997 and sounded contentment about his participation in the Tamil referendum which in his view defied the new world order on the epic stage of global politics. Saying Tamils are undisputed champions of diaspora politics today, Cosgrove’s appreciation was that “it was a timely reminder that democracy is a precious gem that neither war nor national circumstances should tarnish.”
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Swiss journalist visa reinstated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 12:35 GMT]
Karin Wenger of Swiss Public Radio has been allowed to stay by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, Colombo media sources said quoting the Government Information Department. Wenger was one of more than one hundred foreign journalist in Sri Lanka to cover the Presidential elections.
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First day of British Referendum draws to a close

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 02:00 GMT]
As the first day of voting in Britain's referendum comes to an end, preliminary reports indicate that several thousands of British Tamils have cast their vote, reports TamilNet UK correspondent Saturday. The referendum is to re-mandate the fundamentals of the Vaddukoaddai Resolution passed in 1976, which Tamils overwhelmingly mandated in the 1977 general elections proclaiming their desire for an independent and sovereign state in the contiguous North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. An important achievement of the referendum is that it has made the determined people to righteously defy the 'taboo' on Tamil Eelam imposed by an amendment to the constitution by Colombo in 1983, conspired by New Delhi in 1987, insinuated into the peace communique by the West in Oslo in 2002 and endorsed by Karunanidhi in 2009, diaspora circles in UK said.
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Swiss journalist to be evicted from Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Sri Lankan authorities are to cancel the visa of Karin Wenger, a journalist attached to Swiss Public Radio based in New Delhi, who was in Sri Lanka to cover the recently concluded Presidential elections. Colombo was irked by the journalist's probing questions at a government press briefing which had caused "discomfort" to the government minister speaking at the briefing, according to political analysts in Colombo.
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New Chief of Staff appointed for SLA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 14:53 GMT]
Former military spokesman Major General Daya Ratnayake has been appointed the Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) with immadiate effect on Saturday, defense sources from Colombo said. Major General Daya Ratnayake was earlier the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation.
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British Politicians express support to Tamil referendum

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2010, 17:16 GMT]
Robert Evans, former Member of European Parliament from Britain and Labour politician, urged the diaspora Tamils in UK to participate in the referendum this weekend, saying that the message should go to Mr. Rajapaksa and the Colombo government should know what the diaspora thinks. Meanwhile, Conservative Parliamentary candidate Andrew Charalambous, strongly supporting the referendum, said: "If I had a chance to vote or I were a Tamil, I would be the first to vote." He called for loud expression and said the referendum should be recognised within Sri Lanka itself. Mr. Charalambous urged the diaspora to vote to show the International Community that Tamil Eelam is alive and is a physical reality.
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STF searches Fonseka’s political office in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2010, 14:11 GMT]
The office of the defeated opposition common presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka was under siege Friday afternoon by Special Task Force (STF) of Sri Lanka Police. About two hundred STF personnel surrounded the office of Fonseka which is located near Royal College in Colombo along Rajkeeya Mawatte. Some masked STF personnel entered the office and started searching the premises, sources in Colombo said.
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British Tamils embark upon significant referendum this weekend

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2010, 07:06 GMT]
The referendum on Tamil Eelam scheduled to Saturday and Sunday in UK, organized in unison by all main stakeholders of Eezham Tamil nationalism, is going to be very significant, said diaspora circles. Apart from the size of Eezham Tamil population in UK, the significance actually lies in how the public spirit is going to be demonstrated through participation, as it holds the key in inspiring all united democratic efforts in future everywhere in the diaspora, they further said. The referendum is on re-mandating the main particular of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 that called for the formation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. After Eezham Tamils in 6 countries endorsing it by overwhelming 99%, the ballot in the country of the former colonial masters fundamentally responsible for the plight of Tamils, has a particular bearing.
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Tamil civilian arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 January 2010, 22:50 GMT]
A Tamil civilian Subramanian Siva Kumar was arrested by the Terrorism Investigations Department (TID) in Colombo, according to the Director of the TID. He told media persons in Colombo Thursday evening that the suspect has been identified as a hardcore cadre of the LTTE.
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Eezham artist presents heritage as everybody’s property

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 January 2010, 01:53 GMT]
An unconventional artwork of diaspora heritage, Imag(in)ing ‘Home’ presented by Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan, Lecturer in Art History of the Fine Arts Department of the University of Jaffna, with the participation of Eezham Tamil community in Vancouver, Canada, is now in display in an Art Exhibition of the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada. What Shanaathanan did last September was asking the members of the diaspora in Vancouver to bring anything that reminds them of the heritage of ‘home.’ 300 objects thus collected, prompting historical as well as structural analysis, were put into plastic bottles and like a collage giving collective meaning they make an innovative display now in the exhibition titled Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures, opened last Saturday.
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Democracy in Sri Lanka: new lessons add to old ones

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 13:59 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa gains a victory of big margin in the presidential elections of Sri Lanka and this has not surprised Tamil nationalist circles. The voters of Sinhala Nation have very clearly endorsed a regime accused of genocide and war crimes against Tamils. Democracy insisting the need to recognise two Nation States in the island is an old lesson. But the new lesson is to the International Community, especially to the West that is slipping for the third time within one year, first in stopping the war, then in human rights action in the UN and now in bringing out a 'democratic' regime change. There is also a lesson to revisionist Tamil polity and media that wasted the crucial time of Tamils by harping on regime change and not concentrating on the own political organisation of Tamil nationalism.
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