Karuna visits Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 01:12 GMT]
The leader of Thamil Makkal Viduthali Puligal (TMVP) Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, visited Batticaloa Tuesday and met TMVP operatives at the office in Meenagam, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Attempted German bargain at the cost of Sri Lanka's Human Rights

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 July 2008, 21:38 GMT]
Der Spiegel, a renowned German weekly news magazine, in its 23 June edition, has revealed that Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the permanent representative of the government of Germany in New York in February, agreed to a deal prior to the voting in U.N. General Assembly in May, where Germany would vote for Sri Lanka's re-election to the Human Rights Council, and Sri Lanka in turn will vote for German seat in the Security Council in 2010. The paper said Germany's deal with the Human Rights violator Sri Lanka was 'indelicate', despite Sri Lanka's defeat in the race.
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CTTU extends support for General strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 July 2008, 02:42 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU ) in an official communiqué issued Tuesday called upon all it members to take part in the island wide general strike scheduled for July 10 in a show of support for the one-day token strike organized by the Marxist Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) with the blessings of main opposition United National Party (UNP).
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Scurried pact for oil off Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 July 2008, 13:22 GMT]
Cairn India, a subsidiary of Cairn UK Holdings Limited, on Monday signed a Petroleum Resources agreement to explore for oil and natural gas in the Mannaar Basin. The signing took place in front of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees between the Sri Lankan Minister for Petroleum and Petroleum Development Resources A.H.M Fowzie and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Director of the Cairn India, Indrajit Banerjee, who gave USD one million as signature bond to Rajapaksa government, according to informed sources.
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A9 gateway to Vanni re-opens at Oamanthai

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 July 2008, 11:58 GMT]
The ICRC resumed its services at A9 gateway to Vanni after having secured guarantees from the Government of Sri Lanka that attacks such as that took place close to the gateway would not be repeated, informed sources in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet. The ICRC resumed its services from 3:00 p.m. Monday.
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Assure government employees in Vanni their safety – Ki’linochchi GA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 02:42 GMT]
"If attacks and assassinations of government employees continues, the government services in Vanni will be completely crippled in the near future," N.Vethanayagan, Ki'linochchi Government Agent (GA) said, speaking at the protest rally held in Ki'linochchi Wednesday morning to condemn the brutal killing of N. Nanthakumar, Divisional Secretary (Assistant Government Agent) of Thu'nukkaay division of Mullaiththeevu district in a Claymore attack carried out by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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HRW calls on GoSL to end illegal internment of IDPs in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 July 2008, 22:58 GMT]
The New York based Human Rights Watch has voiced against the illegal internment of around 400 Internally Displaced Tamils, who are languishing under Sri Lanka Army detention in a so-called 'welfare center' in Ka'limoaddai in Naanaaddaan division of Mannaar district. Since March 2008, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has detained civilians fleeing areas controlled by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Ka'limoaddai. The SLA has imposed severe restrictions on freedom of movement, instituting a daily pass system that limits to 30 the number of people who can leave the camp each day, and only if a family member remains behind to guarantee the detainees return in the evening.
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Moscow International film festival defies SL request on Black Tiger documentary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 June 2008, 10:30 GMT]
The world-renowned Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), despite being approached by the Russian Foreign Ministry, which was under pressure from the Sri Lankan Embassy in Russia, turned down the Sri Lankan request not to feature a documentary film on Black Tigers in the film festival. The MIFF screened Monday 'My Daughter The Terrorist,' the award winning documentary on Black Tigers by Director Beate Arnestad from Norway.
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Moscow film festival features Arnestad's Black Tiger documentary

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 04:45 GMT]
Norwegian Director Beate Arnestad's documentary on Black Tigers, "My daughter the terrorist," is to be featured in the Moscow International Film Festival to be held between 19th and 26th of June. The documentary, produced after Tamil Tigers for the first time allowed a foreign film team to "hand-pick, follow, interview and dig deep" into the lives and faiths of two female Black Tigers, was premiered in Oslo in March, was featured in the North Carolina, US film festival, and also in Paris.
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TNA MP meets Norwegian Special Envoy in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 12:14 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Batticaloa District, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, who is currently on a visit to Europe, met Norwegian Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, in Oslo on Monday and discussed the political and humanitarian situation prevailing in the North and East. "Rajapaksa government is now attempting to seek regional recognition, especially from India, as it attempts to seek foreign funds for implementing a colonisation-agenda in the East," the MP told TamilNet after his meeting with the Norwegian Envoy.
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Abductions have blessings of Colombo- Ganeson

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 June 2008, 00:01 GMT]
Responding to the recent press communiqué released by the Presidential secretariat, Mano Ganeshan MP, the leader of Western Province People Front (WPPF) and Convenor of Civil Monitoring Commission on Extra judicial killings and Disappearances state, in a press release issued Friday said: "It is good to note that the President is concerned of this situation but we did not create this situation. In fact this was created due the abductions created with the blessings of this Government."
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Unemployed graduates fast outside Batticaloa Education Office

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2008, 12:05 GMT]
A one day token fasting campaign by hundreds of unemployed graduates organized by the Association of Graduates of Eastern province Tuesday outside the Zonal education office of Batticaloa district effectively stopped functioning of the office from 7:00 till 11.00a.m, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Fein seeks SL Defence Ministry approval to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 02:37 GMT]
Responding to Sri Lanka Defence Ministry posting that labeled U.S. based attorney for a Tamil activist group, Bruce Fein, as "Carrion Bird of LTTE Terrorism," Fein said in a letter to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse that he accepts Sri Lanka Defence Ministry's invitation to "any interested party to visit Sri Lanka and see how the people of all ethnicities live in harmony in this country," and requested the Ministry to inform him the travel dates allowing him to obtain "direct and candid testimony of Tamil sentiments toward a unitary state as opposed to separate Tamil statehood."
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"Plucked peace flower"- Washington Times

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2008, 11:25 GMT]
In a commentary appearing in the Tuesday issue of Washington Times, Bruce Fein, Washington-based attorney for a Tamil Activist Group, and Chairman of the American Freedom Agenda, says that "the peace solution to Sri Lanka's descent into hell was discerned by [Ambassador] Mr. Blake - even if unwittingly - in an interview published in the Sunday Observer on May 25. The subtext affirmed the right of the Tamil people to determine their own political destiny without dictation by Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabharkaran, or by any other person or organization."
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SLTMA condemns assassination of Tamil Journalist

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2008, 00:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) in a statement issued Wednesday condemned the killing of Jaffna based journalist P.Thevakumar and his friend by armed men, and said that such killings have diminished the ability of general public to have access to information and had raised questions on media democracy.
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DPU attack victims laid to rest in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 21:00 GMT]
The bodies of 16 civilians including 5 children, three girls and two boys, killed Friday afternoon in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled Vanni during the claymore attack by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were laid to rest Saturday afternoon 5:20 p.m. in Baarathypuram General Cemetery.
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SLA accelerates colonization in Vaaka'rai

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 13:31 GMT]
Sinhalese fishermen from Puththa'lam, Chilaapam, and other areas of the island are being brought in increasing numbers into Vaaka'rai area in Koa’ra’laippattu North, Batticaloa district by the civilian coordinator of Sri Lanka Army (SLA), residents in the area said.
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Ground facts, Rights lobby cause Sri Lanka's UN debacle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2008, 00:27 GMT]
Despite determined lobbying by Colombo during and prior to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the stark history of gross rights violations by Sri Lanka Security forces, the unfolding ground situation including the exit of International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) from rights monitoring from the island, and intense lobbying by several Rights organization including three Peace Nobel laureates, have led to the ignominous defeat of Sri Lanka Wednesday in securing the sought after coveted spot in the Human Rights Council of the UN.
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International Law, Human Rights will salute Tamil Statehood- Fein

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2008, 21:52 GMT]
Quoting the words in the American declaration of Independence, “[b]ut when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce [a people] under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security,” Bruce Fein, Washington-based attorney for a Tamil Activist Group, and Chairman of the American Freedom Agenda, said Tuesday that Tamil Statehood is the immediate answer to save innocent lives, and that “[a]n international consensus on statehood would bring the war to a close, as it did in Kosovo.”
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Sri Lanka lies to UN on disppearance of upcountry youth - Ganesan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2008, 17:40 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Leader of Western People’s Front and Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), accused the Sri Lanka Government of lying to the United Nations Working Group of Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) when the disappearance of a 25-year old upcountry youth was raised by the WGEID based on a complaint filed by the CMC. While CMC said it had irrefutable evidence of complicity of Sri Lanka Police officials in the disappearance of the youth, Colombo has responded to the WGEID that no such person was arrested and that National Identity Card was not a valid one.
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