Tamil youth arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2009, 15:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested a Tamil youth travelling in a government transport bus Tuesday morning at Ediyawathe in Colombo in a joint search conducted from 7:00 a.m until 11:00 a.m, sources in Colombo said. The arrested youth is detained in Kotahena police station.
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CID arrests 3 Tamil youths at Medawachchiya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2009, 19:24 GMT]
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka has arrested three Tamil youths, two of them on Sunday and the third on Monday at Medawachchiya check point while they were on their way to Colombo from Vavuniyaa, according to their relatives.
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India, Sri Lanka joint naval exercise begins

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2009, 13:15 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) will conduct a joint sea training exercise with Indian Navy ships in the Western sea coast from October 6 to October 8, Colombo media sources said quoting SLN spokesman Captain D.P.K. Dassanayake.
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Boat people, no security risk - Australian Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2009, 12:25 GMT]
Australian Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor has "rejected claims some Sri Lankan boat people detained on Christmas Island are former Tamil Tigers who could pose a security risk," Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) reported Tuesday. The Minister was responding to Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia, Senaka Walgampaya's allegations that "former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels are among recent illegal boat arrivals," the newspaper said.
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EP Education Ministry administered by Sinhalese officers - CTU

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2009, 03:48 GMT]
Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) pointed out in a memorandum sent to the President Mahinda Rajapakse Saturday that the development of education in the Eastern Province where Tamil speaking people are in majority is in the hands of three Sinhalese officers who hold the three top posts in EP provincial education ministry. The provincial minister of education is also a Sinhalese, CTU said.
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JMC mayor, deputy to take oath before President

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2009, 16:32 GMT]
Eealm People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) sources in Jaffna said that the successful candidates of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) proposed to hold office as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) will take the oath 12 October in front of Sri Lanka President, Mahinda Rajapakse at his official residence, Temple Trees, in Colombo. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of JMC had already taken the oath while the UPFA members will be taking the oath in front of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor after 12 October, the sources added.
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Duplicitous Colombo bereft of excuses on holding internees - ICG

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 October 2009, 22:25 GMT]
Andrew Stroehlein, International Crisis Group's Communications Director, during his testimony to the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights on the situation in Sri Lanka Thursday, noted the poor and deteriorating conditions in the internment camps where more than 264,000 Tamils are being held by Colombo, and said, "[t]he worst kind of duplicity was seen just a few weeks ago, when the [Sri Lanka] government announced it had released 10,000 displaced persons. In fact, we know at least 3,300 people had been moved from an internment camp to another detention facility," and added, "Sri Lankan government has run out of excuses for continuing to keep these hundreds of thousands of innocent people prisoner."
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SLA explosive expert arrested for van bomb

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 October 2009, 10:19 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier and explosive expert attached to Minneriya camp in Polonnaruwa was arrested by Kurunegala Police Friday night in connection with the school van bomb blast Friday that killed a 11 year old girl student and injured 11 others including school children and the driver. The soldier, a neighbour of the van owner, is suspected for making the bomb by smuggling C4 explosives from the military installation.
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Former Tamil Director on hunger strike in Magazine prison

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 October 2009, 05:11 GMT]
Former Director of Sri Lanka National Film Corporation (SLNFC), S. Thevasan, presently detained in Colombo Magazine Prison, is on a hunger strike from Thursday morning demanding speedy inquiry into his case and release, his fellow prisoners informed Tamil Media Friday morning.
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Girl killed, 11 wounded, personal enmity triggers off van bomb

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2009, 08:30 GMT]
An 11-year-old girl, Erandika Dissanayake, succumbed to her injuries and 11 others, including school children, were wounded following a bomb blast in Uduwalpola area in Kurunegala Friday around 7:45 a.m., Police said adding further that they suspect personal enmity causing the bomb blast.
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Internment, poisoning hopes of reconciliation - Economist

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2009, 05:29 GMT]
"The fate of a quarter of a million interned Tamils is poisoning Sri Lanka’s hopes of ethnic reconciliation....So long as Tamils feel abused by a racist Sinhalese state, the conflict may resume. Economic development of their shattered regions, which the government is planning, is unlikely to change that. Hence the government’s continued war-footing—but this is in turn also reinforcing Tamil grievances," a feature in the 1st October edition of The Economist said,
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Vavuniyaa camps meant for detainees, not for IDPs - JVP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2009, 17:51 GMT]
“It is not a refugee camp if inmates are escaping from that in large numbers. Then it should be called a detention or internment camp. IDP families have freedom to move in and out from IDP camps which are established under international norms. It is not so in Vavuniyaa camps, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarian Wijitha Herat, said at a press briefing held at JVP headquarters in Battaramulla in Colombo Wednesday to discuss matters about the plight of IDPs in Vavuniyaa camps.
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5 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2009, 04:57 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos took into custody Wednesday morning five Tamil youths in a search operation conducted in Wellawathe, Mount Lavinia and Dehiwella in the suburbs of Colombo city.
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Sri Lanka journalist threatened by Sinhala gang

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 03:25 GMT]
Journalist Dileesha Abeysundera Tuesday lodged a complaint with the Borella Police that she was threatened by a group of unidentified persons around 11.45 p.m. on Monday night, according media reports in Colombo. Ms. Abeysundera works for Irudina, a sister newspaper of the Sunday leader. She is also the Deputy Secretary of the Free Media Movement (FMM), a media watchdog, and Secretary of the National Forum for Journalists (NFFJ).
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Former LTTE leaders likely to be used for Colombo-US formula

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 00:34 GMT]
Unconfirmed reports indicate that some noted LTTE leaders in the custody of Colombo are likely to be made to collaborate a Colombo-US formula of ‘reconciliation,’ nullifying national aspirations of Eezham Tamils. The recent visit of Colombo’s defense secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and foreign minister Rohita Bogollagama to the US was in fact aimed to discuss the details, sources in Colombo said. The visiting delegation also wanted to strike a ‘deal’ with the US on handling the LTTE cadres and suspects in its prison camps, the sources further said. Meanwhile, the war crimes report scheduled to be released by the U.S. State Department to the U.S. Congress on 21st September is delayed, allegedly due to ‘Gotabhaya involvement’, according to a report by the Inner City Press.
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Tissainayagam, a prisoner of conscience - paper, Amnesty

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 15:48 GMT]
Arrested without a warrant, incarcerated without detention order, refused to see a lawyer for more than two weeks after arrest, denied privacy of conversation with his attorney and his wife while under detention, and held without charge for more than 5 months, and now sentenced by Sri Lanka's high court for 20 years in prison, Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam, a Sri Lanka's Tamil journalist, "became a symbol of [Sri Lanka] government repression and a martyr for freedom of the press. To many observers, Tissainayagam’s treatment cemented Sri Lanka’s reputation as a totalitarian state in the making," Sunday Leader said in its weekend edition. Tissainayagam was chosen by President Obama as an emblematic example of persecuted journalists.
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Indian envoy listens to preparations on IDPs withstanding monsoon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 00:55 GMT]
The Indian High commissioner in Colombo, Mr. Alok Prasad, on Saturday visited internment camps in Vavuniyaa and held discussions with the militarised 'Competent Authority' for IDPs in the Northern Province, Maj. Gen. Kamal Goonaratne, and the Sri Lankan Government Agent for Vavuniyaa Mrs. Charles. Amidst all what have been listed by the Indian High Commission, as matters discussed by the High Commissioner, observers give much significance to his listening to briefings on making facilities for the internment camp mates to face flooding and water logging during the forthcoming monsoon. Tamil circles find it as tacit acceptance by India for prolonging the internment camps beyond this year's rainy season.
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Tamil Nadu fishermen assaulted, driven naked by Sri Lanka Navy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 17:34 GMT]
Twenty-four fishermen from Keechchaangkuppam in Naakarkoayil area in Tamil Nadu, fishing in Kanniyaakumari seas in five boats Friday night, were brutally assaulted and cast naked in the seas by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers, sources in Naakarkoayil said. SLN soldiers had beaten the fishermen on their heads with the ice blocks taken by the fishermen to preserve their catch, the sources added. Fishermen in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu saved the 24 fishermen who managed to swim ashore Saturday morning and admitted them in the local hospital, the sources further said.
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‘Paranoid Colombo machinates IDP human shield’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 13:43 GMT]
A whole world is duped in what Colombo is machinating in the name of resettlement of IDPs, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented, citing Sri Lanka Navy’s new internment camps around its installations in the island sector of Jaffna. Colombo’s aim is threefold: a human shield of civilians for its occupying forces, prevention of rightful owners reoccupying houses and lands around its military installations and eventually confiscating those lands in strategic areas for its expansion and other demographic conspiracies in the very heart of Tamil homeland, pointed out Tamil circles adding that a paranoid Sri Lankan state can never deliver justice to Tamils. The core truth is that the barbed-wire camps came up because the world powers wanted it. But some powers by not directly taking responsibility and some others like India by sitting on international action continue injustice, Jaffna circles said.
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SLA shoots 6 including women, children in Cheddiku'lam camp

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 12:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Saturday around 6:00 p.m. opened fire and injured six civilians including two women and three children in Cheddiku'lam internment camp, according to initial reports reaching from Vavuniyaa. One 8-year-old child, seriously wounded in the episode, was transferred to Anuradhapura hospital from Vavuniyaa hospital, medical sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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