'Future bleak, but do not give up,' veteran Marxist reviewed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 November 2009, 21:19 GMT]
“Fifty years of ethnic cleansing have wiped out whole generations who knew any sort of peace, and made cohabitation with the Sinhalese people virtually impossible,” says veteran Marxist A.Sivanandan on the political future of the island of Sri Lanka in an interview to the New Left Review 60, November-December 2009. The 87 years old ideologue, who in his younger days “had no sense at all of being a Tamil” while living in the south, and who now feels “not only for the Tamils but also for the Sinhalese people,” further said: “The Sinhala elite has transformed the country into a counter-insurgency state like Colombia, in which repression, torture, imprisonment without trial and disappeared people are institutionally embedded. I don’t think anything now can be done from above, let alone from the debased self-interests of the ‘international community’.”
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Retired SLA major arrested for assisting LTTE in past

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 November 2009, 11:06 GMT]
A retired Major of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was arrested last week by the Terrorist Intelligence Division for allegedly assisting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) while in service and after retirement. The suspect is a Sinhalese and a resident in a suburb in Colombo. He worked in the SLA intelligence unit while in service. He served in the SLA for fifteen years, police sources said.
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Tamil youth from Batticaloa reported missing

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 November 2009, 06:55 GMT]
A Tamil youth from Kiraanku’lam in Batticaloa district has gone missing after leaving to his work place in Colombo two weeks ago on 5 November, according to complaints made to Kaaththaankudi police and Human Rights Commission (HRC) by his father.
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Tamil, Muslim political parties find their table in Zurich

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 November 2009, 15:10 GMT]
Widely speculated as a drama backed by ‘high-powers,’ leaders of most of the Tamil and Muslim political parties in the island of Sri Lanka are meeting for the first time in Zurich, Switzerland, between Thursday and Saturday. The move is said to be for ‘extracting’ a joint proclamation of them necessary for further power manoeuvres in the island. A couple of years ago it was such a behind-the-scene move of some powers that made most of these parties except the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to rally behind Mahinda Rajapaksa and pledge support to him in the war that brought in disaster to Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Fonseka instructed to vacate official residence on short notice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 November 2009, 10:35 GMT]
Retired Chief of Defence Staff and former SLA Commander General (retd) Sarath Fonseka is facing difficulty in securing a new residence in a safe location after the Sri Lankan defence authorities have given him near zero time to vacate his official residence in Colombo, sources close Fonseka said.
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President calls Jaffna government heads for urgent meeting in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 November 2009, 05:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has invited the top government officials in Jaffna District including the Government Agent (GA), Divisional Secretaries and Additional Government Agents for an urgent meeting at his official residence Temple Trees Thursday 6:00 p.m, Jaffna Secretariat sources said. This meeting taking place on the occasion of the President completing his fourth year of term and the presidential election expected to be announced any time has raised speculations among Jaffna peninsula residents.
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Court fixes inquiry into FR filed on SLA travel pass

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 November 2009, 05:51 GMT]
A three-member bench of Supreme Court Tuesday fixed the inquiry into the Funamental Rights (FR) petition filed by former parliamentarian and the leader of All Ceylon Tamil Congress, Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy against the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) imposed travel restriction requiring persons travelling out of Jaffna, to 18 January 2010. The petition had been filed in April 2009.
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'Norway finances humiliation of Tamils'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 November 2009, 03:18 GMT]
Norway is up to appease Colombo as the Tamil Tigers are out of the picture and the only way to do this is abetting Colombo’s discrimination of Tamils in the line of Iran, Burma and China, writes Professor Øivind Fuglerud of the University of Oslo adding that a revealing cue comes from Norway insensitively sponsoring a Buddhist organisation to conduct a music festival on 27th November in Galle, timed to humiliate Tamils on the Heroes' Day. Norway sat silently like a mouse in the final phase of the war. Now its ‘humanitarian’ aid helps the internment camps of captivity and death. In future Norway’s aid may be integral to Colombo’s military complex cum Buddhist temple infrastructure to dominate Tamil areas, he further says. Not surprisingly, Norway's leading news agency, NTB, on Monday came out with biased reporting on the first ever democratically elected council of diaspora Tamils.
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Protest demonstration against assault of Tamil political prisoners in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 November 2009, 12:47 GMT]
The Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA) staged a protest demonstration outside the main central jail in Colombo Tuesday against the assault of Tamil political prisoners by prison guards and fellow Sinhalese prisoners Friday, sources in Colombo said. The demonstrators demanded the release of Tamil political prisoners or to take legal action against them. Despite the assurance given by Sri Lanka government to United Nations (UN) Commissioner of Human Rights, Ms. Louis Arbour that the Tamil political prisoners would be released after speedy trials, during her visit last year, they are continued to be imprisoned without any legal action against them, the sources added.
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Main suspect in 1996 Central Bank bombing claimed arrested in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 November 2009, 09:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka police spokesman and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), I. M. Karunaratne, claimed that the main suspect in the bomb attack on Sri Lanka Central Bank in 1996 has been taken into custody in Cheddiku’lam in Vavuniyaa district when he tried to get out of the detention camp with a forged National Identity Card (NIC).
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Sri Lanka government, SLA obstruct Jaffna lorries using A9 road

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 November 2009, 18:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka government and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are not permitting the lorries owned by Jaffna traders to transport goods through A9 road though the said lorries had been inspected by SLA in its Palaali Military Head Quarters and issued with roadworthy certificates to nearly 147 lorries that belong to Jaffna traders, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, the lorries owned by Sothern traders are engaged in transporting essential goods and other items to Jaffna and are permitted to take Jaffna produces back to South and this procedure with its high amount of transport charges has caused prices of goods in the peninsula to rise, affecting local producers and consumers, Traders Union representatives in Jaffna said.
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Secretaries of SLFP, JVP hold special talks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2009, 17:36 GMT]
General Secretary, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Maithiripala Sirisena and the General Secretary of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Tilvin Silva held special talks last week on issues related to the current political situation in Sri Lanka and the political actions to be taken in the future, political sources in Colombo said. The talks had taken place only between the general secretaries of the two political parties, the sources added.
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Executive Presidential system inappropriate - Malwatte chapter chief incumbent

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2009, 17:19 GMT]
Kandy Malwatte Chapter Mahanayake Most Ven. Siddhartha Sri Sumangala Thero said that the systems of Executive President, Provincial Council and present election system are not appropriate to Sri Lanka when the Leader of Opposition and United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremasinghe went to Malwatte along with other UNP leaders Saturday to get the blessings of the Chief Incumbent, sources in Colombo said.
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SL Government will decide later which election to be held first – President Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2009, 15:44 GMT]
President Mahinda Rajapakse did not announce which election would take place first, presidential or parliamentary, while addressing the national convention of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), Sunday evening despite wide speculation that he would announce the date for early presidential election. The convention was held at Kettarama Stadium in Colombo.
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87 Welikada Tamil prisoners on hunger strike

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2009, 10:24 GMT]
Eighty-seven Tamil political prisoners began a hunger strike protest from Saturday morning demanding guarantee for their lives and to strengthen the security for them following the attack on fellow Tamil prisoners Friday by Sinhalese prisoners in the presence of prison officials, sources in Colombo said. Seven of the Tamil prisoners attacked are admitted in the prison hospital. The fasting Tamil prisoners sent a memorandum to relevant authorities requesting release on bail or to prosecute them in court and to hold an impartial inquiry into the Friday incident of attack on Tamil political prisoners, the sources added.
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Indian Finance Minister arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2009, 05:45 GMT]
Mr. Pranab Mukherjie, Indian Finance Minister, arrived in Colombo Saturday afternoon on a two-day official visit. He is scheduled to meet President Mahinda Rajapakse, and other opposition political leaders while in Colombo.
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A9 reopened, SLA authorities in Jaffna not informed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 November 2009, 07:54 GMT]
The A-9 highway was opened to the public Friday on a special directive by President Mahinda Rajapakse, Governor of the Northern Province G.A Chandrasiri said. However, when Colombo bound passengers went to Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya in Jaffna Saturday morning, they were informed by the SLA that they have not received official information from Colombo and only those who have the military passes in possession were allowed to travel.
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New Indian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 November 2009, 05:17 GMT]
Mr. Ashok K. Kantha, the new Indian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka arrived in Colombo Thursday. He is to present his credentials to President Mahinda Rajapakse during the weekend, sources in Colombo said. He called on Foreign Minister Mr.Rohitha Bogollagama at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Friday.
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Ki'linochchi female undergrad arrested in Peradeniya University

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 November 2009, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers took into custody a Tamil female undergrad, a native of Ki’linochchi, Thursday afternoon from Peredeniya University in Kandy but she is yet to be released and her whereabouts remain unknown, according to complaint lodged with Human Rights Commission (HRC) Kandy office by fellow Tamil undergrads.
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Postgraduate courses debarred in Jaffna university

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 November 2009, 09:25 GMT]
University Grants Commission in Colombo has ordered the university of Jaffna to stop postgraduate courses conducted at present in its postgraduate faculty, media sources in Jaffna said. Even though the reason is said to be quality of coaching, academic circles in Jaffna believe that Colombo doesn’t want development-oriented courses to be conducted in this university in the Tamil region, news sources further said.
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