Sivajilingam to contest SL presidential polls as independent candidate

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 10:07 GMT]
"There is no point supporting either of the two main candidates, Rajapaksa or Fonseka," said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian K. Sivajilingam Tuesday morning after making his deposit at the Sri Lankan Election Secretariat in Colombo stating that he would contest the presidential polls as an independent candidate.
Full story >>

AG to institute legal action against Fonseka

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 10:45 GMT]
The Attorney General has been directed by the government to investigate and institute legal action against General (retd) Sarath Fonseka for making allegation against the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse that the latter had ordered the Division Commander on the ground to kill LTTE cadres who made an attempt to surrender, according to Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe.
Full story >>

Activists accuse South Africa of ignoring Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 00:17 GMT]
Human rights activists have accused the South African government of double standards for "flirting" with Sri Lankan government officials and ignoring the genocide in the country, South Africa's Times reported Saturday. The accusations followed South Africa's minister of international relations, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, to Colombo last month, where the Minister was quoted by Times as saying, "Sri Lanka has become a key partner [of South Africa] on several international issues such as human rights, poverty alleviation, globalisation and the reform of the United Nations."
Full story >>

Family rule or Democratic rule? – Ranil Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 10:22 GMT]
“The time has come for the people to decide whether they want the Rajapakse family rule to continue or democratic rule to be restored in Sri Lanka,” Leader of the opposition and United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremasinghe, who is in Jaffna canvassing support for Sarath Fonseka, the common candidate of the opposition parties in the presidential election, said Saturday speaking among the students of the private College of Education near the Buddhist temple in Jaffna.
Full story >>

Fonseka’s official residence searched for harbouring army deserters

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 10:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers numbering about 150 led by the police Friday evening rounded up the official Bullers’ Residence of General(retd) Sarath Fonseka on a complaint that the latter( former SLA commander) had given shelter for a group of army deserters.
Full story >>

Fonseka names assassins of Nadesan, Puleedevan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 09:01 GMT]
Former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander and presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka named Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Shavendra Silva, commander of army’s 58th division as directly responsible to the assassination of LTTE’s political leaders B. Nadesan, S. Puleedevan and police chief Ramesh, while naming presidential advisor Basil Rajapaksa, Norwegian minister Erik Solheim and various foreign parties as people involved in the episode, The Sunday Leader reported. While Basil Rajapaksa denied communication with Norway, Sri Lanka defence circles refused to comment. Meanwhile, Tamil circles commenting on Fonseka's 'revelations', said both the SLA Commander Fonseka and Commander-in-Chief Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot explain away their involvement in war crimes and the crimes against humanity.
Full story >>

Colombo sacks Tamil doctor for internment camp comments

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 December 2009, 13:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Ministry of Health has interdicted a Tamil doctor, Dr Murali Vallipuranathan, for speaking out on the conditions on the detention camps, and informed him that the Ministry "found him to have acted in a manner that brought disrepute on the Government of Sri Lanka," Sri Lanka weekly Lakbima reported. Ministry of Health's communication, written in Sinhala dated 10th November 2009, said that Dr Vallipuranathan was being removed from service for causing disrepute to the Government of Sri Lanka, and that his salary was also being stopped.
Full story >>

France goes for referendum on Tamil Eelam this weekend

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 December 2009, 08:15 GMT]
Eezham Tamils living in France will be voting this weekend to say yes or no for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the island of Sri Lanka. Polling will take place in 30 centres in Paris and suburbs and in 5 centres outside, between 08:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Saturday and between 08:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Sunday. The formation committee for the country council of Eelam Tamils in France is organizing the poll with the support of 61 Eezham Tamil organizations and two NGOs in France. Taking the secret ballot will be officiated and presided over by independent French election officers coming from members of the local government councils of France. The poll gains significance at a time when Tamils are left with no choice other than politically proving their geopolitical importance as powers have made it absolutely clear that they are guided only by geopolitical considerations.
Full story >>

NCET urges Obama to explore policy reciprocal to US-Tamil interests

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 December 2009, 01:49 GMT]
US president Barak Obama visiting Oslo to receive Nobel Peace Prize Thursday was urged by the Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET) that the USA should explore possibilities of recharting a policy pragmatic to both the national question of Tamils and the US interests in the island of Sri Lanka. In a letter addressed to the President and made open to media, NCET expressed its deep concern about Monday’s recommendations of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs seeking to strengthen Colombo and sidelining political solution to Tamils. Hundreds of Eezham Tamils in Oslo, joining many other organisations of international politics making demands to Obama, also took part in a vigil Thursday evening, marching from the city centre towards the Stortinget, the Norwegian parliament.
Full story >>

Colombo court remands 2 Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 15:38 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were ordered remand by the Colombo Magistrate Tuesday till December 16 on a report submitted by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) that they were cadres of the LTTE air-wing involved in sentry duties at the Visuvavamadu air strip.
Full story >>

US Senate Committee evaluation pushes aside political solution to Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 07:32 GMT]
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recommending Monday on ‘recharting’ US strategy on Sri Lanka, said the US should focus on economy and security of the island instead of humanitarian considerations, IDPs and civil society; should also invest in Sinhalese parts of the country instead of just focussing on North and East; should resume training of Sri Lankan military officials to ensure human rights in future operations as well as to build critical relationships and implied that US should not emphasise on political reform as a condition to assistance, bringing rift in US- Sri Lanka relations making the latter to align with countries of alternative model of development. While the report based on evaluation by two staffers, one of whom a US Sinhalese, is viewed by Tamil circles as an open insult to their struggle, it is also seen as an election ‘manifesto’ to woo Sinhalese votes.
Full story >>

Cluster voting booths to be installed in resettlement areas in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 03:17 GMT]
Cluster voting booths in the forthcoming presidential election are to be installed in Karaichchi and Poonakari areas where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) had been resettled, Jaffna Assistant Election Commissioner (AEO), S. Suthakar said. Meanwhile, provisions have been made to enable IDP voters who had lost their identification documents due to the war, he further said.
Full story >>

Robert Blake arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 December 2009, 11:43 GMT]
Robert Blake, the United States Under-Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs arrived in Colombo for the first time after his assumption of the new post.
Full story >>

Colombo's aid program for refugees “flawed”: The Times

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 December 2009, 01:54 GMT]
Sri Lankan government bodies are incapable of administrating aid programs required to assist the thousands of refugees temporarily released from military camps, further compounding their suffering by refusing regional access to aid groups and organisations “far better skilled at delivering resettlement aid than local authorities” The Times has reported. Many refugees, including children and the disabled, who are without homes and entirely dependent upon aid programs after months of imprisonment have not been able to obtain basic essential items days after the Government claimed to have released thousands of civilians in custody.
Full story >>

Colombo's claims of free access a lie, says media, ICRC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 December 2009, 03:30 GMT]
Reporters and aid workers said they are still being barred from visiting Government internment camps housing thousands of Tamil refugees, days after Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama proclaimed on British television that the areas were "totally open."
Full story >>

Jaffna IDP voters can vote in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 December 2009, 02:39 GMT]
Registered voters of Jaffna Electoral District who are displaced and living temporarily in and around Colombo can apply to the Department of Elections to cast their votes for the Presidential elections at a polling station in the area they are now residing.
Full story >>

Attempts to split TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 December 2009, 06:35 GMT]
A faction led by Mavai Senathirajah and some by Srikantha, both Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians for Jaffna, are said to be engaged in activities aimed at splitting TNA, sources in Jaffna said. Srikantha and Selvam Adaikalanathan, another TNA parliamentarian, met Monday Basil Rajapakse, the brother and senior advisor of President Mahinda Rajapakse, in Colombo after which Srikantha told press that Basil Rajapakse had consented to allow resettlement of 4,500 IDPs from Valikaamam North in the first stage. Meanwhile, Mavai Senathirajah said in a press release to the media that Thamizh Arasukk Kadchi (TAK) had sent a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse requesting the resettlement of IDPs in Valikaamam North.
Full story >>

Global meet urged to discuss environmental genocide by Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 December 2009, 13:18 GMT]
Decades-long massive military operations and occupation of Tamil Eelam by Sri Lankan forces have caused grave environmental destruction to the north and east of the island. Recovery is difficult as the Tamil homeland is in the dry and arid part of the island, depending on scanty and truant northeast monsoon, writes environmentalist and freelance journalist T. Thipaakaran. It may take more than 150 years for the plundered timber trees to grow again, he says. Tamil academic circles viewing the situation as 'ethnically motivated environmental rape taking place with international abetment,' urge the Denmark meet to discuss the challenge of curbing such crimes of ‘state sovereignty’ and to explore ways of entrusting in such situations the control of land to the sons and daughters of the soil, who only could take a genuine interest in the recovery and protection of their environment.
Full story >>

Borella abductees in police custody

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 December 2009, 08:33 GMT]
Four persons, including a police sub inspector of the Colombo Crime Division and a leading businessman, reported abducted Wednesday night are now in the custody of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police, according to the police.
Full story >>

Mano Ganesan backs Fonseksa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 December 2009, 11:17 GMT]
Democratic People's Front leader Mano Ganesan Thursday announced that his party would support General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, the joint opposition candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections in Sri Lanka. The DPF leader also said that he was presently negotiating with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to win their support to General Fonseka.
Full story >>