Tamil trader abducted in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2009, 04:43 GMT]
A gang of four unidentified armed men clad in military uniform Friday abducted a Tamil trader on his way to Colombo in his lorry, between Habarana and Minneriya, according to complaints lodged with Batticaloa police by his wife and relatives Tuesday.
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29 year old Tamil youth is under detention for 15 years in Welikada

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 2009, 17:42 GMT]
A team from a Human Rights Organization called Peoples Forum for Independence that visited the Welikada prison made a startling disclosure that they found a Tamil youth who was arrested at the age of fourteen has been under detention for fifteen years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Now the youth is 29 years old. He is among several Tamil political prisoners who have been detained under the PTA and Emergency Regulations (ER) without any inquiry and without recourse in courts, said an official of the organization to the Colombo media.
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Colombo censure spreads to private websites

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 2009, 03:32 GMT]
The Information Department of the Government of Sri Lanka is to blacklist and carry out round-the- clock monitoring of private websites that are "known to spread anti-government propaganda and feed incorrect information." "Counter propaganda will be launched by the government to safeguard the present environment of peace and prevent unrest among the public,” said Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeyawardene at a press briefing held Tuesday. Meanwhile, Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), ranked Sri Lanka at 162, fourteenth from the bottom of a 175-nation list, and relegated Sri Lanka to reside with the world's worst press rights offender nations.
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29 Tamil youths arrested in Katunayake in two incidents

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2009, 11:26 GMT]
Twenty nine Tamil youths were taken into custody by the State Intelligence Unit of the Sri Lanka Police at Katunayake International Airport in two separate incidents Thursday and Friday, sources in Colombo said. The arrested youths are now detained in the Katunayake Police and are being interrogated.
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Muslim driver abducted by men in white van in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2009, 07:45 GMT]
A group of unidentified men in a white van introducing themselves as police personnel forcibly took away the driver of a three-wheeler Friday evening in Dematagoda in Colombo police division, according complaints lodged with Maradana Police and Deputy Minister, V. Radhakrishnan by his relatives.
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30,000 Tamils march in London over Sri Lanka's internment camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2009, 20:37 GMT]
More than 30,000 British Tamils marched to draw attention to the Sri Lankan government's continued incarceration of over 280,000 Tamils in military supervised camps despite earlier pledges to release within 180 days from the end of war in May. Protesters, young and old, carried banners and chanted slogans expressing that 150 days have passed with no concrete steps taken to resettle the Tamils held in the “concentration camps" in Vavuniyaa.
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Singapore Foreign Minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2009, 09:07 GMT]
Foreign Minister of Singapore, Mr. George Yeo, paid a visit to Jaffna peninsula Saturday where he went to the Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) held in Koappaay Teachers’ Training College buildings accompanied by Northern Province Governor and former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander G. A. Chandrasiri, Minister Douglas Devananda and Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh, sources in Jaffna said. The Governor extended a request to the visiting Singapore Defence Minister to help develop computer technology education and related activities in the North, the sources added.
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Addressing ambiguity of Right to Self-Determination

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2009, 00:26 GMT]
The international system is erratic in justifying right to self-determination (RSD) of nations set against right to security of states. All areas of discretion were interpreted against, in the case of Eezham Tamils. As the militant-created de facto state that has been making a case for RSD all this time doesn’t exist in its territory today, democratic political move should create a new de facto situation. RSD can be invoked when peoples of more than one state are involved, but Mr Karunanidhi nullified the opportunity. The option now is not asking for RSD, but exercising it and mandating democratic de facto situation or situations. This is why spelling out the goal of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam is paramount for transnational governance. Elected country councils enhance meeting the task by structurally involving ‘peoples of many states.’
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Tamil internment, a manifestation of Sinhala state racism - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2009, 16:04 GMT]
"Despite the manifest outrage of international human rights groups like HRW and Amnesty International, relief agencies and several Western states, Sri Lanka defiantly continues to brutalize the [Tamil] detainees [locking them up in barbed wire militarized camps]. Whilst various international actors attempt to goad, cajole and compel Sri Lanka to let the civilians go, few have examined the reasons for their incarceration. As far as the Tamils are concerned, it is obvious: this is the latest manifestation of the Sinhala state racism," the British paper Tamil Guardian said in the latest weekend edition.
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Sri Lanka releases arrested pro-JVP newspaper editor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2009, 15:11 GMT]
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lanka Police Saturday evening arrested Mr. Chandana Sirimalwatte, the editor of “Lanka,” a Sinhala language weekly newspaper, over a news item regarding the alleged rift between the Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Major General Sarath Fonseka. Latest reports from Colombo say that the editor was released around 11:00 p.m. Saturday after nearly five hours of interrogation.
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UNP parliamentarian says his life is under threat

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2009, 15:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian Mr. Palitha Ranga Bandara informed the Speaker Friday that "cadres of an armed political group based in eastern province have been sent to Colombo to harm him. A gang of masked men in motor bikes have been already following me wherever I go," Mr. Bandara, who represents Puttalam district in the West coast of Sri Lanka stated in a letter addressed to the Speaker Mr.W.M.J. Lokkubandara.
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Tamil political prisoners appeal to minister demanding release

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 October 2009, 03:02 GMT]
Tamil political prisoners held in several prisons in the south for years without inquiry and without any recourse in courts under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER) have started handing over individual appeals to the Justice Minister, Milinda Morogoda, demanding their release or to take legal action if there is evidence against them.
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US should help launch international investigations into Sri Lanka killings - HRW

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 23:10 GMT]
Pointing out that "Sri Lanka's nervousness about its international standing has not yet triggered any significant improvement on human rights matters, and there is no indication that the government is genuinely rethinking its policies," Dr Anna Neistat, Human Rights Watch (HRW), in an article written for a Washington-based think tank, said that Washington while "pushing publicly and privately for the release of the displaced," should insist on accountability for the crimes by using its "influence at the UN to help launch an international independent investigation into violations of humanitarian law."
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Fonseka reporting triggers TID raid on JVP paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 20:16 GMT]
Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) of the Sri Lankan Police raided Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna's (JVP) newspaper office "Lanka" Friday around 9:30 p.m. following an article by the paper on alleged rift between Rajapaksa administration and General Sarath Fonseka.
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Colombo set to lose GSP plus

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 18:20 GMT]
The European Union has found Sri Lanka in breach of International Human Rights laws, implying that Colombo does not fulfil the basic human rights conditions of GSP plus, according to an exclusive update by Reuters Friday night. It is likely that Sri Lanka would lose concessions worth over $100 million for its top exports to Europe, the report said citing EU sources. The findings of the investigations by the EU are expected to be published Monday.
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War-affected areas to be explored for new avenues of U.S., Sri Lanka economy

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 17:34 GMT]
Assistant United States Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Michael Delaney, who on Thursday led the U.S. delegation in the seventh council meeting of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), a bilateral agreement reached between the USA and Sri Lanka in July 2002, following the Ceasefire Agreement, has said that both the countries have now identified new areas of cooperation, adding that the purpose of the meeting was to "foster economic development and generate jobs, particularly in the war-affected areas."
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Colombo ducking international investigations on civilian killings - UN Rights Chief

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 04:30 GMT]
United Nations Human Rights Chief, Navi Pillay, speaking at a press conference in Brussels Wednesday criticized the Sri Lanka Government for not responding “to our many requests for an international investigation of what we say is widespread acts of killing of civilians," and that she had pointed out that "they [Sri Lanka Government] have in the past attempted to hold national investigations of very serious acts of killings that occurred of NGO and humanitarian workers and these investigations were dropped," the Washington D.C-based Examiner reported.
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Colombo squandaring chance for reconciliation - Economist

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 03:34 GMT]
Noting that, while the improving economy and successful recent elections may increase Colombo's reluctance to deal with the Tamil internment issue in expeditious manner, the Economist in its latest edition said, "[t]he damage being done to Sri Lanka’s international image, however, may last longer. The Tamil diaspora will keep alive the calls for investigation of alleged war-crimes by both sides in the climactic campaign. And the EU has to decide whether to withdraw Sri Lanka’s special trade privileges on human-rights grounds. If, as seems likely, it does, the country’s garment exporters will suffer great damage, and employment will consequently be hit," and added that "the government, its reputation already tarnished by the manner of its final victory, risks squandering the richest prize that victory offers: the chance for national reconciliation."
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Stop transferring IDPs from Vavuniyaa to camps in other areas - Bishop urges govt.

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2009, 07:38 GMT]
Rev. Duleep de Chickera, Anglican Bishop of Colombo has urged the Government that if IDPs said to be released from Vavuniyaa are in fact being transferred to camps in different regions, this is misleading and must stop. Reports of the lack of co-ordination amongst State Authorities are disappointing, and all those responsible for implementing this decision should be required to ensure co-ordination, compassion and speed.
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UNICEF urged to explore direct assistance to IDP education

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 22:01 GMT]
UNICEF has recently announced an emergency programme to assist Colombo’s Ministry of Education implementing Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) to an estimated number of 85,000 IDP children. According to a UNICEF advertisement, seeking experts to work with Colombo’s ministry, the programme will begin from January 2010 and 2000 teachers are to be trained for this purpose. Over the years the so-called national education in the island has been thoroughly Sinhalicised with scheming perfection, so that education of Tamils is now completely ‘directed’ by Sinhalese from concept and management to curriculum and textbooks. The ‘core curriculum’ in the mind of Colombo is structural and cultural genocide, commented academic circles in the island, adding that the UN agency should explore ways of handing over the education of Tamils to Tamils.
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