Tamil political prisoners attacked in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 November 2009, 04:40 GMT]
22 Tamil political prisoners in custody within the Colombo Remand Prison (CRP) were attacked Friday morning by Sinhala prisoners, initial reports from Colombo said. Seven of the prisoners were rushed to Colombo hospital with serious injuries.
Full story >>

Fonseka resigns

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 November 2009, 10:02 GMT]
General Sarath Fonseka, the Chief of Defence of the Sri Lanka Army on Thursday resigned from his post, informed sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka expands number of troops and officers in its armed forces

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 November 2009, 11:29 GMT]
Though Sri Lanka government claims that the war with Liberation Tigers is over it is actively engaged in recruiting persons to serve as soldiers and officers in Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), according to statements made by the spokesmen of the three armed forces to media in Colombo. Recruitment to Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force will continue to meet the targets for this year and the coming years, they said. New officers are much needed for defensive and offensive purposes, for humanitarian de-mining and for development work in the country, they added.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka schemes ‘legal reform’ to negate identity and grab land

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 November 2009, 02:34 GMT]
News reports from Colombo indicate Sri Lanka government is planning to revise the Theasa Vazhamai law of Tamils, which is a constituent legal code, ever since the formulation of the island’s current legal system by the Dutch. The urgency of the Sri Lanka state at this juncture is not social reformation but grabbing the lands of Tamils without legal hurdles, besides removing last vestiges of Tamil sovereignty in the state apparatus, Tamil legal circles said.
Full story >>

Ministers invade Jaffna prior to Presidential Election announcement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 November 2009, 19:11 GMT]
With the announcement of President Election expected to take place any time government ministers and deputy ministers have begun to visit Jaffna with the aim to gather support for President Mahinda Rajapakse, media sources in Jaffna said. Similar invasion of ministers to Jaffna had also taken place prior to the recent Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election but having won it the ministers have not stepped in Jaffna since then, the sources observed. The ministers and deputy ministers from Colombo now in Jaffna visit government departments in Jaffna meeting the public and officers.
Full story >>

Court orders remand for 45 suspects arrested under PTA, ER

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 November 2009, 10:17 GMT]
Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi Monday ordered remand till November 12 for forty-five suspects, majority of them Tamils, arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER) for allegedly being involved in terrorist activities in the hill country in the central province. They were produced in court after being interrogated by the CID held under the detention order of the Defence Ministry. Some of the suspects are Muslims and Sinhalese, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Household checking by police in Colombo reimposed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 November 2009, 10:10 GMT]
The new Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mahinda Balasooriya, on his assumption of duty has reimposed checking of house holds of Tamil residents in Colombo. In a repetition as in the LTTE war period, police personnel have been instructed to question any visitor lodged in a residence not registered with the respective police station in the area and to take any person living in a household unregistered into police custody, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

India invites Ranil Wickremasinghe for talks

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 November 2009, 10:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan opposition United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe Sunday left for India on an invitation from the Indian government. Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe is expected to meet Indian National Security Adviser R.K. Narayanan, Foreign Minister and Indian Opposition BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani to discuss the current situation in the island, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Police arrest 2 Tamil civilians in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 November 2009, 10:38 GMT]
The Intelligence Unit of the Sri Lanka Police Saturday night arrested two Tamil civilians in Thoa’nikkal in Vavuniyaa on information received that they had been members of the Liberation Tigers. They are now detained in Vavuniya police station and being interrogated to find out their involvement with the militant group earlier, police spokesman Nimal Mediwake said in Colombo.
Full story >>

TID interrogates Selvam Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 November 2009, 16:38 GMT]
Selvam Adaikalanathan, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, for the third day - Saturday - was summoned to the Headquarters of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka Police. But he was sent back home around 9:00 a.m. with the instruction that he should come to TID office when called for, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Batticaloa AGA posted to Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 November 2009, 16:36 GMT]
The Additional Government Agent (AGA) of Batticaloa District in the Eastern Province, Ms. Rupawathy Ketheswaran, was shifted to Kilinochchi District in the Northern Province Thursday in an unexpected move by higher authorities in Colombo, sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

Eye witness gives evidence in Tamil youth murder in Bamabalapitya sea

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 November 2009, 14:55 GMT]
Assistant News Editor of the TNL television channel, Sisikelum Dahampriya Balage, told Colombo Magistrate Thursday, in the case of the killing of a mentally ill Tamil youth in the Bambalapitya Sea, that he did not inform the police of the incident as several police officers were witnessing the scene and it was his impression it was taking place under the supervision of the police. “I viewed what happened on the beach below through the lens of a camera recorder from the seventh floor of a building located next to the Bambalapitya railway station” he said while giving evidence before Colombo Fort Magistrate, Gihan Pilapitiya, when the murder of Balawarnam Sivakumar, 26, was taken up for inquiry.
Full story >>

US Legislators urge rapid release of interned Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 November 2009, 03:49 GMT]
H. Res. 711 resolution, passed in the US House of Representatives Thursday by a vote of 421 to 1, reminded the Sri Lanka Government of its commitments to care for and ensure the 'speedy return' of those displaced by fighting, noting that Colombo made a commitment to the UN Human Rights Council that the 'bulk' of the IDPs would be resettled in 180 days, a period that will end on November 23, 2009. Fewer than 20% of those detained have been released as of Oct. 23, 2009. The resolution also emphasized that "the United States supports the rapid release and voluntary return of all civilian IDPs as a critical element of national reconciliation in Sri Lanka."
Full story >>

Protest held against killing mentally ill Tamil youth in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 November 2009, 14:58 GMT]
Several political parties along with some human rights organizations Wednesday afternoon held a demonstration in front of Fort Railway station to protest against the police on the alleged attack on a mentally unstable Tamil youth in the shallow seas near the Bambalapitya Railway station last Thursday. Democratic People’s Front (DPF) led by parliamentarian Mano Ganeshan, United Socialist Party (USP) led by Sritunga Jayasuriya along with ‘Mothers and Daughters of Lanka’ and the ‘Platform for Freedom' organizations participated in the demonstration.
Full story >>

TID interrogates TNA parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 November 2009, 13:38 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan has been subjected to interrogation by the Terrorist Intelligence Division of the Sri Lanka Police from Thursday morning. He has not returned to his residence located in Madiwela complex till Thursday afternoon, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

British MPs hail US initiative on Sri Lanka warcrimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 November 2009, 05:17 GMT]
Joining international calls for a full independent investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, a group of British Parliamentarians Tuesday welcomed the initiatives taken by the United States in this regard and urged the UK government to support Washington’s efforts. In a statement, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) welcomed US authorities questioning of Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka over the massacre of Tamil civilians in the closing months of the war this year.
Full story >>

Adappara-gama

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 November 2009, 01:44 GMT]
The village of a headman of the pearl-diving community of Paravas.
Full story >>

Tamil Eelam not a lost cause: Fr. Jegath Gaspar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 November 2009, 01:14 GMT]
“I don't think Tamil Eelam is a lost cause. If there was any point of time in history that Eelam was a possibility, I think it is now. Tamils all over the world are more determined than ever,” says Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj, Chennai based Catholic priest and international broadcast journalist in an interview to TamilNet Sunday. “I believe that geopolitics or foreign policy or security policies are never static; they are ever dynamic, they will keep changing. I am confident that at some point of time India will come to realize that the only strategic leverage it has against the Chinese-Sri Lankan combine in the Indian Ocean is the Indo-Tamil combination,” he said, pinning the responsibility for the failure of Indian foreign policy to M K Narayanan Doctrine.
Full story >>

2nd batch of Vanni IDP children admitted to Ratmalana Hindu College

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 November 2009, 10:30 GMT]
Sixty-seven children including 44 boys and 23 girls left Vavuniyaa Poonthoaddam Rehabilitation Centre Saturday to Colombo under the second phase of rehabilitation program. They were admitted to Colombo Hindu College to receive fully fledged education. They would be provided with all facilities such as lodging, clothing and other expenses, sources in Vaviniyaa said.
Full story >>

Fonseka, Gotabhaya entangle in US legal net

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 November 2009, 00:54 GMT]
United States appears to be slowly moving to corral Major General Sarath Fonseka, an aspiring US citizen, and Gotabhaya Rajapakse, a US citizen with property and family living in the U.S., into the US Justice system to investigate the two Sri Lanka officials for criminal culpability for allegedly issuing commands to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to fire heavy weapons towards the SLA demarcated No Fire Zone (NFZ) in the final stages of war killing more than 20,000 Tamil civilians. Colombo dailies report that Gen. Fonseka, currently on a private visit to the US, has been asked by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to have a "voluntary meeting" to discuss matters related to the recently released war-crimes report, and if he would be willing to testify against Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary.
Full story >>