SL Police open fire to avert election clash in Kiribathgoda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 January 2010, 14:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police open fire and exploded tear gas canisters Sunday morning to avert a major clash between supporters of Sri Lanka's common opposition parties and the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) campaign of the non-cabinet rank minister Mervin Silva at Kribathgoda in Colombo district, media in Colombo reported.
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Hambantota political offices of Fonseka campaign burnt down

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2010, 14:28 GMT]
Four political offices of the opposition common presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka) were burnt down by unidentified persons believed to be supporters of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in Hambantota Saturday night, Colombo media reported. The destroyed offices were located in Hunugama, Ranagodamune, Barawakkumbura and Abeysekeragama in the Hambantota district.
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UPF leader Chandrasekaran dies of heart attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 11:48 GMT]
Periyasamy Chandrasekaran, the leader of Up-country People's Front (UPF) and Minister of Community Development and Social Inequity passed away Friday morning in a private hospital. He was fifty-two years old. Mr. Chandrasekaran was admitted to the hospital following a brief illness.
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3 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 December 2009, 13:16 GMT]
Police Wednesday arrested three Tamil youths in Colombo in a cordon and search operation. One youth was taken into custody in Bambalapitya and two at Wellawatte. They are now detained in the fourth floor of the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters and being interrogated, according relatives of the arrested youths.
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Sri Lanka Police arrests 3 Tamil youths in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 December 2009, 03:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police Wednesday arrested three Tamil youths in Colombo in a cordon and search operation. One youth was taken into custody in Bambalapitya, and the other two from Wellawatte, and all three are now detained in the fourth floor of the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters undergoing interrogation, according relatives of the arrested youths.
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Dengue claims 5 lives in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 December 2009, 03:01 GMT]
Five persons, including two resettled Vanni IDPs, in Jaffna penisula have died due to dengue fever which is spreading at an alarming rate while hospitals are unable to treat dengue patients for want of basic facilities, according to Dr. K. Ketheswaran, Jaffna Director of Public Health (DPHS). Nearly 40 to 50 dengue patients are admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) daily and they have to be accommodated along corridors due to lack of space, JTH administration said.
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Media persons need MOD clearance to visit Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 14:08 GMT]
Restriction on the travel of media persons to Jaffna peninsula via A-9 highway still remains, Director General of the Media Centre for National Security, Lakshman Hulugalla, told media in Colombo Wednesday.
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SLA arrests Mannaar Tamil civilian in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 12:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army(SLA) intelligence officers took into custody Sunday a Tamil civilian staying in a lodge in Colombo. Criminal Investgaation Department (CID) has notified the civilian's wife that her husband is being detained in the Fourth Floor of CID headquarters in Colombo.
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Indian envoy meets SL Navy Commander

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 12:07 GMT]
Indian High Commissioner Ashok K.Kantha Tuesday evening met the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy Vice Admiral Thissara Samarasinghe in a courtesy call at the latter’s headquarters and discussed mutual interests of the two countries. The discussion included the matter of providing training of SL navy personnel in India, Colombo media reported quoting SL navy sources.
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Heritage genocide abetted by decades of Western funding

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 11:57 GMT]
Ever heard of ‘archaeology’ being first priority in a conquered territory? If not, then you don’t know Sri Lanka, writes an academic from Jaffna on Colombo’s heritage genocide. Colombo’s use of archaeology against Tamils is not new. But the dimensions to which Tamils are now exposed to are not only its acceleration but the tragedy of facing imposed ‘knowledge supremacy’ that only the Sinhalese can explore, excavate, manage and teach heritage. Sri Lankan state is not the only culprit. The West, especially the UK, US, Germany, France and Holland as well as India, Japan and Australia, the main countries that have been giving funds, training and scholarships to Sri Lanka and also the UN agencies have to be equally indicted for blindly following only State protocols and vested interests, without considering the long-term genocidal impact of their assistances in the island, he further writes.
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Jaffna youth reported missing on his way to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 December 2009, 13:17 GMT]
A youth from Jaffna who travelled through A9 road on 14 December had gone missing after boarding Yaazh Theavi train to Colombo from Vavuniyaa, according to a complaint made to Jaffna police by his family memebers.
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Monks observe Satyagraha in Colombo demanding Amila Thera's release

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 December 2009, 04:12 GMT]
Buddhist monks of National Bhikku Front Monday held a Satyagraha campaign in front of the Bo Tree located in Fort in Colombo demanding the immediate release of Venerable Dambara Amila Thera who is now in remand after the arrest by CID on Sunday.
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Around 800 persons including 50 women held in Boosa detention centre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 December 2009, 03:14 GMT]
Nearly 800 youths including 50 women who had been either abducted in white vans or arrested by the armed forces in Vanni detention centres from January to September 2009 are being held in Boosa camp, according to a list sent to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna officials by HRC office in Colombo. Most of the families of the above detainees, being still held in Vanni detention centres, have no way of learning the fate of those abducted and arrested, the HRC Jaffna officials said.
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'Mercenary Intellectuals'

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2009, 14:14 GMT]
Prof. Peter Schalk, of Uppsala University, Sweden, identifies four western educated individuals hired by the Government of Sri Lanka to defend Colombo's decisions and criticisms from the West, and labels them as "mercenary intellectuals." He dismisses even discussing the "Sinhalatva hard core idealogues" from whom, Schlak says, one cannot expect any "rational reaction of responsibility in the Tamil issue," and that one cannot expect any "academic performance" from these Sinhalatva types.
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Jaffna youth missing

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2009, 04:03 GMT]
Velmurugan Kirupananthan, 29, has been reported missing after he left his home town Jaffna on the 11th of November to see his relatives in Dehiwala. Kirupananthan has failed to return home until Sunday, according to a complaint lodged with the Jaffna Police by his relatives.
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Court remands Amila Thera

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2009, 03:46 GMT]
Horana Magistrate Sunday remanded Venerable Dambara Amila Thera till Tuesday when the CID produced the Thera in the Court. Venerable Amila Thera was taken into custody from his Vihare at Talangama by CID officers on a complaint of cheating, following his announcement at a press briefing that his organization Patriotic National Centre (PNC) would extend its full support to the common opposition presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka.
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India denies entry visa to Sivajilingam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 December 2009, 13:31 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian M.K.Sivajilingam arrived in Colombo Saturday after Indian Immigration officials at the Thiruchchirappalli airport in South Indial refused to allow Sivajilingam to enter India to attend a conference in support of Eelam Tamils, Tamil media in Colombo reported.
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JHU submits 29 proposals in support of Rajapakse election manifesto

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 December 2009, 12:46 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a Sinhala Buddhist Monk party has handed over 29 point proposals to the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse in support of his election manifesto that is to be released during the first week of next month. One of the proposals is to renovate and reconstruct all Buddhist shrines and Buddhist archaeological sites which were destroyed in the north and east due to the three decade old war. The other proposal is to set up a Foreign Intelligence Service to destroy the international network of the LTTE now actively engaged abroad, after its defeat in the island.
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Sri Lanka’s tsunami aid: Over $1 billion missing or misappropriated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 December 2009, 01:20 GMT]
Nearly half a billion dollars in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over 600 million dollars has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, press reports quoted anti Transparency International as saying Saturday. The anti-corruption watchdog demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami which hit the island on December 26, 2004, killing 31,000 people, AFP said.
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TMVP cadre arrested with 4 T-56 rifles in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 December 2009, 03:12 GMT]
Kalkudaa Police Thursday arrested a cadre of TMVP led by Pillayan, Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC), with four T-56 rifles and nine magazines in Maangkearni in Vaakarai division in Batticaloa district. The suspect has been identified as Sinnathamby Vettivel, 26.
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