SLA high commands, government servants in Jaffna caught in dilemma

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2010, 04:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) high officials and government department chiefs in Jaffna being summoned by Basil Rajapakse, the brother and senior advisor to President Mahinda Rajapakse, to participate in election campaign meetings in Jaffna to canvas votes for Mahinda Rajapakse are caught in a tight spot, unable to disregard the call of Basil Rajapakse, sources in Jaffna said. Welfare Union of Public servants in Jaffna expressed its deep concern on its members being called to attend election campaign meetings held in support of Mahinda Rajapakse by his brother Basil Rajapakse, the sources added.
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Basil Rajapakse announces election concessions in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2010, 03:39 GMT]
Basil Rajapakse, the brother and senior advisor of President Mahinda Rajapakse, who arrived in Jaffna Wednesday, announced several concessions in an attempt to get Tamils to vote for Mahinda Rajapakse in the forthcoming presidential election. The concessions are being promised to counter the rising wave of support in the peninsula for the joint opposition candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, political observers in Jaffna said. One of the concessions announced by Basil Rajapakse is the opening of A9 route, 24 hours a day, with effect from Wednesday midnight, sources in Jaffna said.
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Alternative world to hold tribunal on Sri Lanka's war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2010, 02:00 GMT]
An independent commission of jurists of the Rome based Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) will be meeting in Dublin, Ireland, on 14th and 15th of January 2010 to investigate allegations that the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and its armed forces committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during its final phase of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The commission will also examine violations of human rights in the aftermath of the war and the local and international factors that led to the collapse of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement. The provisional findings of the Peoples' Commission will be announced to the public on January 16.
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Sampanthan: Majority of TNA MPs back Fonseka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 January 2010, 15:27 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary group leader and Trincomalee district MP Rajavarothayam Sampanthan on Wednesday said majority of 18 members of the alliance who were present at lengthy deliberations were of the view that the "only meaningful way" to thwart the desire of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to seek a mandate to hold office for a further term would be urging the Tamils to vote for the joint opposition candidate General (retd.) Sarath Fonseka. The announcement by Mr. Sampanthan comes amid strong opposition from the Tamil diaspora against supporting either General Sarath Fonseka or Mahinda Rajapaksa as Tamils believe they are both implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Australian refusal of Tamil refugees triggers regional xenophobia: HRW

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 January 2010, 14:34 GMT]
A wave of anti immigration sentiment sparked by Australia’s collaboration with Sri Lanka & Indonesia to detain Tamil asylum seekers travelling on boat has swept like a “virus” across Asia charged Bill Frelick, Refugee Policy Director for Human Rights Watch (HRW). Accusing regional governments of lying to the U.N and defying international law by sending refugees back to their home nations despite the risk of prosecution, Frelick urged nations to remember that “granting asylum is a humanitarian act that should be entirely divorced from political relations between states”.
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2 SLA soldiers commit suicide in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 January 2010, 02:43 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier shot himself to death in Point Pedro while another soldier took his life by taking poison in Palaali, police sources said. Incidents of suicide among SLA soldiers have increased in recent times and SLA authorities are conducting a survey to find the cause of the suicides, sources in Jaffna said.
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Plunder for business, double enterprise of Sri Lanka Army

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army deployed in Mullaiththeevu has started dismantling and destroying the houses belonging to the Tamils, an eye-witness who recently visited Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts told TamilNet Tuesday. The SLA soldiers were seen shifting valuable timber used in buildings, windows and doors to other Sinhalese areas through Weli-ioya.
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SL Parliament extends Emergency

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2010, 13:07 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Parliament on Tuesday extended the state of Emergency in the island with a majority of 79 votes. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs voted against the motion while most of the parties that back presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka were not present at the time of the voting.
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Security measures to Sarath Fonseka in Jaffna withdrawn

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 January 2010, 03:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka government withdrew Sunday the customary security arrangements to Sarath Fonseka, the common opposition presidential candidate and the opposition political leaders who are presently in Jaffna to campaign for Sarath Fonseka, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander who was expected to receive Sarath Fonseka who had been the Chief of Sri Lanka Armed Forces did not turn up at Palaali airport while SLA high officials in Palaali military base kept themselves busy in their offices, the sources added. The Chief priest of Nagavikarai Buddhist temple in Jaffna was the only prominent personage present at the airport to receive Sarath Fonseka when he arrived with the opposition parliamentarians Saturday.
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"I will not accept partition of the country" - Sarath Fonseka, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 January 2010, 04:25 GMT]
"I am not prepared to allow partitioning the country, be it proposed by the minority or majority community," Sarath Fonseka, the common opposition presidential candidate, said in a press meet held Saturday in Jaffna town. In response to a question Sarath Fonseka took pains to explain the difference between the role he had to play as a military officer in the past and his present role as a politician. He had to give priority to the safety of soldiers as the Military Commander and now as a politician he gives priority to the benefit of people, he added.
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Sarath Fonseka visits Jaffna seeking Tamils' votes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2010, 10:24 GMT]
Main opposition presidential candidate and former Chief of Sri Lanka Armed Forces and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, Major General (retd) Sarath Fonseka arrived in Jaffna Saturday morning accompanied by the Leader of Opposition, Ranil Wickremasainghe, Parliamentarians Mano Ganeshan, Jayalath Jayawardene, JVP Samaraweera Amarasinghe, Anurakumara Disanayake, Hakeem and several other political personalities to engage in election campaign in Jaffna peninsula. Sarath Fonseka and his team made it a point to first visit Saiva temples in the peninsula before meeting the public and other important persons. Sarath Fonseka and his associates also visited Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Soundaranayagam at his residence where they spoke with the representatives of civil organizations in the peninsula, sources in Jaffna said.
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No likelihood of Vanni IDPs being settled east of A9 road

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2010, 04:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in resettling Vanni IDPs along A9 road from Oamanthai to Maangku'lam in an attempt to show the outside world that it is resettling Vanni IDPs in their own places, in view of the forthcoming presidential election, sources in Jaffna said. Resettlement in areas located east of A9 road in Vanni will not be possible in the near future, according to sources in Northern Province Governor's office. The IDPs taken to areas along A9 road from Oamanthai to Maangku'lam have been only allowed to live in places close to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps and sentry posts while neither the government nor NGOs provide them with any assistance, thee sources said.
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Eezham / E'lu / He'la

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 00:01 GMT]
The gold (land)
The land of metal
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Eezham explained of its etymology

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 00:01 GMT]
Over two thousand years Eezham was in continued use without any change in its form in Tamil to denote the entire island called Sri Lanka today. The strong possibility is that the identities He’la and E’lu derived from Eezham, says etymological column appearing in TamilNet Friday. The three early names for the island, Thampa-pa’n’ni, Eezham and Seeha’la, the first one in Prakrit and the other two in Dravidian, are perhaps generically related to one another in meaning. They are geographical and descriptive of the landscape and its metallurgical potentialities, the column further says. A re-appraisal at the end of the column on the 2000 years-old Thirupparangkun'ram inscription of a person of migrant lineage from Eezham to Tamil Nadu, traces the connections of his personal name to Sinhala Pol and old Tamil Pul, both Dravidian, meaning coconut.
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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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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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Abductees unreleased even after payment of ransom, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 December 2009, 03:45 GMT]
Around fiteen to twenty persons had been swindled each for two hundred thousand rupees as ransom to have their abducted family members released in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intelligence officers are alleged to have collaborated with certain persons in this racket.
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Curfew in Jaffna to be lifted - NP Governor

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 December 2009, 02:27 GMT]
Northern Province Governor, Major General G. A. Chandrasiri announced Monday that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) imposed curfew on Jaffna peninsula will be completely lifted, in a meeting held in Jaffna to gather support to Mahinda Rajapakse in the forthcoming presidential election, sources in Jaffna said. Minister Douglas Devananda, Jaffna Government Agent K. Ganesh, Jaffna University Vice-chancellor took part in the meeting along with ardent supporters of Mahinda Rajapakse, the sources added.
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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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