SL Independence Day observed in low key in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 February 2010, 02:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Armed Forces occupying Jaffna peninsula which had forced its people to observe "Independence Day" in the past did not engage in any such activity on Thursday, sources in Jaffna said. Less than ten employees took part in the event in Jaffna Secretariat where Jaffna District Government Agent (GA) hoisted the National Flag, the sources added. Meanwhile, 34 persons including 3 Sinhalese serving prison sentence for minor offences were freed on the day.
Full story >>

SLA demolishes Liberation Tigers’ Heroes’ Resting Homes in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 05:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Jaffna peninsula is actively engaged in demolishing the Heroes’ Resting Homes (HRH) of fallen Liberation Tigers in Uduppidi, Kodikaamam, Koappaay and Veala’nai in the islets of Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Foreign media persons now visiting Jaffna peninsula in large numbers who show a keen interest in visiting the HRHs are shocked to witness the systematic demolishment of war heroes’ memorial monuments which are given due respect all over the world.
Full story >>

SLA constructs Maximum HSZ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 04:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has begun constructing an earthen dam in an area encompassing Kaangeasanthu’rai and Keerimalai in Valikaamam North as part of the new Maximum High Security Zone (MHSZ) Wednesday, sources in Jaffna said. 20 Village Officer (VO) divisions of the 27 VO divisions occupied as SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North are to be turned into the new MHSZ, the sources added.
Full story >>

Fisherman’s body recovered from well in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 04:09 GMT]
Police in Jaffna recovered the body of a fisherman with assault injuries Wednesday in Kozhumpuththu’rai in Jaffna and handed it over to Jaffna Teaching Hospital mortuary, sources in Jaffna said. The victim’s house is located near the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry posts in Kozhumpuththu’rai, the sources added.
Full story >>

Ki'linochchi to Mu'rika'ndi: no human beings, ghost buildings, stray cattle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 00:39 GMT]
A video footage taken a few days back, while travelling between Ki'linochchi and Mu'rika'ndi, shows the real situation in the heartland of Vanni in Tamil Eelam. The tract bustling with contended people two years back is virtually a no-man zone with ghost buildings and stray cattle today. The landscape is physical evidence to the genocide committed on a nation. The parties responsible for one of the worst crimes against humanity in the 21st century such as this, refuse to accept it, but hide it, coerce the victims not to talk about it and in various nuanced ways want to finish the genocide to its end, is the feeling of Eezham Tamils, both in the island and in the diaspora.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Overwhelming Tamil response in referendum hit British media reports

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 13:36 GMT]
"British-based Tamils have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the creation of an independent sovereign state in Sri Lanka, days after the man credited with crushing the Tamil Tigers's 26-year rebellion won a second term as the island's president," reported leading British newspaper Guardian on Monday. Meanwhile, BBC reported that an overwhelming majority among the Tamil disapora in UK has endorsed the call for a separate country for the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Self-polls of Tamils make contrast to State-polls of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 13:16 GMT]
The conduct of the Tamil referendum in UK was exemplary and given that it was achieved entirely with private resources contrasts favourably to the shambles of Sri Lanka's recent Presidential elections, said Graham Williamson, a director of the UK based human rights group ACT NOW, set up by British Humanitarian aid workers to address war in Sri Lanka. The International Community must now call upon Sri Lanka to conduct a UN-Supervised referendum for Tamils living on the island, Mr. Williamson said adding that such an Independence referendum in 1999 put an end to a similar conflict in East Timor and has been successfully followed in recent times in Kosovo and Montenegro. "Democratic referenda is the modern and civilised mechanism to end inter-community conflicts and it's time Sri Lanka joined the modern world," he further said.
Full story >>

SLA refuses permission to residents to enter HSZs in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 03:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers did not allow the people evicted from SLA High Security Zones (HSZs) in Jaffna peninsula to enter the HSZs in Thellippazhai and Jaffna town when they went to see their lands and houses Sunday. Prior to the presidential election the government had promised them resettlement in the HSZs and SLA soldiers had allowed them to go and see their properties during day time but now they had been denied permission even to enter the HSZs, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Largest possible turnout, 99.33 percent British Tamils aspire Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 01:09 GMT]
In an unprecedented turnout that brought 64,692 Eezham Tamils to vote in the referendum held last weekend in UK, 64,256 (99.33%) said they aspire to the formation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the contiguous north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. 185 (0.29%) voted against and 251 (0.39%) votes were spoilt. Polling took place in sixty-five booths across London and in major towns and cities throughout UK. Five days after presidential poll proving sharp and clear divide in outlook between Sinhala and Tamil nations in the island of Sri Lanka, the near-total diaspora verdict in UK for Tamil Eelam gains much significance, observers said.
Full story >>

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.”
Full story >>

Voting continues in British Tamil Eelam referendum

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 16:32 GMT]
The second day of the British Tamil referendum on the question of independence for Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka began Sunday. Polling stations opened at 10:00 a.m. across London and report once again an incessant stream of eager voters. Those who had been at work Saturday were keen to partake in the democratic process. Voters accompanied by their small children, elderly ladies dressed in sarees and grandfathers leaning on walking sticks dropped their votes into ballot boxes.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Mother country means Tamil Eelam for 90-year-old Sathyabhama

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 05:52 GMT]
I love my country as I love my mother. That’s why I have come to vote in the referendum, says 90-year-old Sathyabhama Kumaraswamy who came to cast her vote in a booth in London Saturday. For her, who was a teacher for 37 years at Mangkaiyarkkarasi Viththiyaasaalai in Nalloor, Jaffna, country means the country of Tamils in the island. She disassociates her from the country of the Sinhalese. Sathyabhama, who saw the days of the beginnings of democratic struggle of Eezham Tamils, recounted how her mother encouraged her in that and urged all Tamils to do whatever possible for their country. The grand lady, accompanied by her 30-year-old grandson said no one should back out from a venture such as this referendum. Voting continues for the second day in Greater London, Sunday.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Brisk early voting in UK referendum

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 13:24 GMT]
Initial reports indicate close to a thousand votes have been cast in the first hour of voting in the referendum being held in the UK this weekend. British Tamils are holding the referendum to re-mandate the Vaddukoddai Resolution passed in 1976, demanding an independent state of Tamil Eelam for the Tamils living in the island of Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

EPDP supporters set fire to SLTB bus in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 10:33 GMT]
Eelam People’s Democracy Party (EPDP) supporters set fire to a Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) bus Saturday morning in a shutdown protest demanding Minister Douglas Devananda not to resign his post, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers forced open the few shops in Jaffna town which had been closed in fear of EPDP supporters who had called for the shutdown protest, the sources added. Minister Douglas Devananda, the leader of EPDP, had told his supporters that he was going to resign his minister post for being the reason for Mahinda Rajapakse’s defeat in Jaffna peninsula in the presidential election, the sources added. This is but a political stunt in view of the parliamentary general election expected in April or May, political observers in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

SLA, SLN restrictions in Jaffna peninsula imposed again

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 04:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) which had relaxed their various restrictions in Jaffna peninsula prior to president election have begun to impose them again actively, sources in Jaffna said. These restrictions include the checking of passengers travelling within the peninsula and to the islets of Jaffna besides access to their places in the SLA High Security Zones (HSZs), they said. People of Ezhuthumadduvaa’l in Thenmaraadchi who were told by Minister Douglas Devananda and SLA officials that they would be permitted to resettle in their places immediately after the presidential election were turned back when they tried to go to their homes Friday.
Full story >>