SLA harass relatives, friends visiting resettled IDPs in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2010, 05:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers restrict and harass the relatives and friends of the small number of Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) allowed to resettle in Ki’linochchi, the IDPs said. SLA soldiers inspect the National Identity Cards of the relatives and friends of the IDPs visiting them besides registering their particulars. Meanwhile, the soldiers subject the IDPs to severe interrogation after the visitors had left and these harassments have made the IDPs to request their relatives and friends not to visit them.
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Death threats to MP Kajendren, Jaffna University community

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 January 2010, 00:48 GMT]
A group calling itself ‘Tamil Protection Alliance to Save the Country’ issued Tuesday and Wednesday handbills threatening with death to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Selvarajah Kajendran and the Jaffna University community. The group which allegedly operates on the directions of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit and a Tamil paramilitary-cum-political party last year issued similar death threats to 13 persons including representatives of Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU), faculty deans and lecturers and one of them had been shot and seriously injured.
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Mahinda inciting racial hatred between Sinhalese and Tamils - Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010, 14:01 GMT]
“President Mahinda Rajapakse, on learning Tamil National Alliance (TNA) intention of supporting his rival Sarath Fonseka in the presidential election, is actively engaged in whipping up racial animosity between the Sinhalese and the Tamils,” Suresh Premachandran, TNA parliamentarian said in a press briefing held Tuesday in his Jaffna office. “Mahinda, Minister Douglas Devananda and other government supporters are deceiving the Tamils with their false promises,” he further said.
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SLA holds greater part of Ki’linochchi as HSZ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 January 2010, 02:19 GMT]
Normalcy has not been restored in greater part of Ki’linochchi district as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has declared a large area of it as its High Security Zone, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Although Northern Province Governor, Major General G. A. Chandrasiri ordered all government offices to function from 1st January, many of them being located east of A9 road, have not been opened as they are caught within the HSZ, the sources added.
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Dublin verdict: Sri Lanka guilty of War Crimes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 January 2010, 22:51 GMT]
Dublin war-crimes tribunal, conducted by Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) based in Milan, which held hearings on Thursday and Friday on war-crime charges on Sri Lanka from eye-witnesses and other material evidence, in the preliminary findings issued Saturday said, Sri Lanka Government is "guilty of War-Crimes" and "guilty of Crimes Against Humanity." The tribunal also concluded that the charge of Genocide requires further investigations. Eye witnesses included several escapees from the final week of Sri Lanka offensive in the Mullaitivu "No Fire Zone" where more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were allegedly slaughtered by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) training heavy weapons on them.
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Satellite imagery evidence of Hospital attack recorded in Dublin

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 January 2010, 12:49 GMT]
Do the facts made available to the Dublin war-crimes tribunal on the available direct and circumstantial evidence that between 9 January 2009 and 25 March 2009, in areas in or nearby Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) Hospital, legally establish that the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) committed, purposely, intentionally or knowingly, via act or omission, war crimes against Tamil civilians? - was the legal question presented to the tribunal. "The legal admissibility of evidence, currently available and to be discovered in the future, and the question of culpability of Sri Lanka of war-crimes, are likely to continue well beyond Dublin," said a spokesperson for the US-based pressure group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), on the attack on the PTK hospital during the early months of 2009.
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TNA MP Sathasivam Kanagaratnam released

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 January 2010, 09:39 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Vanni district Sathasivam Kanagaratnam was released on condition after being produced before Vavuniyaa Magistrate Alex Raja Wednesday night. Mr. Kanagaratnam was taken into custody while he was staying with his people in one of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, for displaced civilians from Mullaiththeevu.
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TGTE: 45 degrees polity for Tamils or ramp for powers?

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 January 2010, 09:24 GMT]
“21st century political reality is Transnational,” aptly says the Advisory Committee report for the formation of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), released Friday for public comments. Differentiating the novel concept from a conventional government in exile and justifying its rationale, the report argues that people in Tamil Eelam are also an active part of the transnational social space for the national struggle. The high ideals in the report were noticeably slipping when it ultimately envisages not a TGTE to politically fight for the cause but a remote controlled transnational corporation for collaboration and ‘step by step’ negotiation. The 45 degrees outlook, not surprising but only anticipated should now prompt the diaspora to respond with appropriate checks and balances.
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IDPs not allowed to enter their places in HSZs in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 January 2010, 03:08 GMT]
Following the announcement made by government ministers and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials, persons who went to observe ‘Pongal’ in their houses in the SLA High Security Zones (HSZ) in Ariyaalai North and Valikaamam North Thursday were chased away by SLA soldiers and police deployed at the Front Defence Line (FDL) positions in these areas, Internally Displaced Person’s Welfare Association representatives said. All promises of resettlement in Jaffna HSZs made by government ministers and SLA officials remain unfulfilled and empty promises made with the aim to get the IDPs to vote for Mahinda Rajapakse, they openly accused.
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People displaced from HSZs in Jaffna continue to be deceived

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 January 2010, 02:47 GMT]
Arranged by Minister Dougals Devananda, around 300 IDPs were taken by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers to Ariyaalai Wednesday saying that they can see their houses which had been caught in the High Security Zone (HSZ) during SLA occupation in 2000, representatives of IDP Welfare Organisations in Jaffna said. The IDPs, however, were not permitted to go beyond Poompukaar junction in Ariyaalai and they had to return with disappointment, they added. Though many promises had been given to the IDPs in an effort to get their votes for President Mahinda Rajapakse, so far no definite date or information had been given to them regarding resettlement in the HSZs, the representatives said.
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Support for Mahinda in Jaffna declines

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 January 2010, 04:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) being reluctant to permit resettlement in its High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North, whatever support that President Mahinda Rajapakse had in Jaffna peninsula began to decline fast, sources in Jaffna said. Besides, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Sivasakthi Ananthan had told ‘Valampuri’, the Tamil daily published in Jaffna, that SLA soldiers at Thellippazhai had demanded Ministry of Defence (MOD) permission from him to enter the HSZ and this had altogether dashed the hopes of the IDPs who had been time and again promised with resettlement.
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Families evacuated from Thellippazhai HSZ deceived by government officials

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 January 2010, 04:57 GMT]
More than a hundred Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), evacuated from their places in Thellippazhai area by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for establishing High Security Zone (HSZ), who was informed by Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh, that they will be allowed to resettle in their places had to return with disappointment. Even, Sivasakthi Anathan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian who too had come to the SLA Front Defence Line (FDL) in Thellippazhai hoping to see his house within the HSZ was not allowed entry into the HSZ, sources in Jaffna said.
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British Minister calls for independent war-crimes probe

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 January 2010, 02:32 GMT]
A senior British Minister Friday said that the allegations of war crimes especially during the last phase of war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) including the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge in Sri Lanka should be probed independently. British International Development Minister, Gareth Thomas MP made these remarks in his address at the First Anniversary of the killing of late editor of Sri Lanka’s weekly, Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunge, during an event held at Mahatma Gandhi Hall, 41 Fitzroy Square London on Friday, 08 January 2010 between 07:00 – 09:00 PM. The event was organized by Tamil Legal Advocacy Project (TLAP).
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Remains of Pirapaharan’s father cremated in VVT

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 January 2010, 13:20 GMT]
Late Thiruvengadam Veluppillai, father of LTTE leader Mr. V.Pirapaharan, was cremated at the central cremation grounds in Oo'ra'ni Valveddiththu’rai Sunday around 2:30 p.m with thousands of mourners participating in the last funeral rites, sources in Jaffna said. Thousands of people from all parts of the peninsula joined in the procession when the remains were taken from Pirapaharan’s home in Aaladi in Valveddiththu’rai (VVT) while black flags were flown and sombre music was played in VVT, despite the intimidating presence of a large number of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and policemen, the sources added. Thol. Thirumavalvan, the leader of Viduthalai Chi’ruththaika’l from Tamil Nadu and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Sivajilingam paid their last tribute at the cremation grounds.
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Sri Lanka's President fails to fulfill Jaffna expectations, "go home" tell students

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 January 2010, 13:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse who arrived in Jaffna Sunday on his re-election campaign failed to make any important announcement in matters regarding youths gone missing after arrest, the immediate resettlement of IDPs in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zones (HSZs), and a solution to the ethnic issue, sources in Jaffna said. Government supporters in Jaffna and political leaders from the South had informed the local media that Mahinda Rajapakse will announce positive decisions in these pressing issues, but the speech delivered at Jaffna Duraippah Stadium Sunday side-stepped all issues of immediate interest to the people in Jaffna. At Aa’riyaku’lam Rajapakse was angered when protesting students shouted that they will never vote for him besides shouting "go home", journalists who covered the visit said.
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France to setup Genocide, War Crimes court

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 January 2010, 11:23 GMT]
The French government announced Wednesday that it will set up a special judicial unit to investigate and bring charges against people accused of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity in France or abroad, the Washington Post reported. The move is likely to create tension between the French Government and other Governments, such as Sri Lanka, which are alleged to have participated in war crimes and/or genocide, legal sources in Washington said.
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Magistrate concerned over cultural decadence, crime, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 January 2010, 04:01 GMT]
District magistrate Mr. K. Ariyanaygam expressed grave concern over the alarming rise of cultural decadence, illegal activities and crime in Jaffna peninsula when he spoke to police and government officers Friday after having assumed duties as Mallaakam District magistrate, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, civil society representatives in Jaffna alleged members of Sri Lanka armed forces occupying Jaffna for the circulation of porno CDs and films among students, illicit sale of liquor and running brothels in Jaffna town.
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Pirapaharan father's remains released, funeral in VVT on Sunday

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 January 2010, 15:44 GMT]
The funeral of late Thiruvengadam Velupillai, father of LTTE leader leader Mr. V. Pirabaharan, is to take place in Valveddiththu'rai on Sunday. The mother of LTTE leader Mr. V. Pirapaharan, Vallipuram Parvathy, was Friday released from Sri Lanka Army custody and handed over to Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian and Presidential candidate M. K. Sivajilingam, SLA officials in Colombo said. The ailing 80-year-old mother was driven by road from Colombo to the northern Jaffna Peninsula in an ambulance.
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Tamil political detainees in Batticaloa on hunger strike

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 January 2010, 08:26 GMT]
15 Tamil political prisoners detained under the Sri Lankan Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the Emergency Regulations have joined the hunger strike campaign launched by the Tamil political prisoners in all the prisons throughout the island.
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LTTE leader Pirapaharan's father passes away in SLA custody

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2010, 12:39 GMT]
Thiruvengdam Velupillai, the father of LTTE leader Mr. V. Pirapaharan, passed away following a brief illness in Panagoda Sri Lanka Army camp Wednesday night, Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo said. The headquarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a message Thursday conveyed its condolences to Mrs. Velupillai, children and relatives. The entire Tamil Nation laments for the demise of Mr. Velupillai, who preferred to be with the people during the war, the statement said. Mr. Velupillai was kept in isolation and illegal custody by the SLA and was denied of proper medical care at his grand old age, the LTTE further said.
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