Tamil technologist feared extra-judicially executed in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 15:33 GMT]
Kathiravel Thayapararaja, a 28-year old Tamil Electrical Engineer, is feared to have been extra-judically executed by Sri Lanka intelligent services, after being forcefully abducted sometime second week of September, informed sources in Colombo said. Thayapararaja's wife, Uthayakala, and the two children of her diseased sister who were under Uthayakala's care, have now been taken under the protection and care of a Church Organization in Colombo, after being left helpless with the disappearance of her husband, unconfirmed reports said.
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Transferring IDPs, instead of releasing them, must stop: Anglican Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 15:22 GMT]
If [IDP] persons said to be released [from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa] are in fact being transferred to camps in different regions, this is misleading and must stop, says Anglican Bishop of Colombo Rev. de Chickera. The Bishop has urged Rajapaksa government to allow media access to areas in the North and provide public updates on the work regarding resettlement of displaced persons.
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Ireland rejects visas to SL cycling team

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 16:28 GMT]
Ireland embassy in New Delhi in India has refused visas to thirteen competitors from Sri Lanka for the cycling event at the World Military Games 2009 in Ireland. A number of reasons for the refusal had been given by the embassy officials, sources in Colombo said.
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Move to make money for 3-wheelers owned by state armed cadres, in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 13:48 GMT]
The office of Vavuniya Ramya House Army Civil Affairs has been shifted from the town to Ee’rataperiyaku’lam with immediate effect, causing inconvenience to the Tamil civilian travelers. The reason for the re-location of the office is mainly to enable the three-wheelers owned by Police, Army and Civil Defence force cadres to earn more money as hire from the Tamil passengers due to the long distance to the shifted office of Ramya House Army Civil Affairs in Ee’ratperiyaku’lam, according to well informed sources in Vavuniyaa.
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FR petition allowed against SSP, wife, son in abduction, assault incident

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 09:15 GMT]
The three-member bench of Supreme Court Friday granted leave to proceed with the rights violation petition filed by Nipuna Ramanayake, a Malabe SLIIT undergraduate, against Colombo Crimes Division officers, its former Director Vas Gunawardena, his wife and son. Chief Justice Asoka de Silva, Justices Jagath Balapatebendi and S. I. Imam were members of the bench, legal sources said.
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Jaffna HRC gets Coordinating Officer after an year

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in Jaffna which had been inactive for nearly an year without a Coordinating Officer (CO) is expected to function again with the appointment of a new CO, sources in Jaffna said. Mr. Thangavel Kanagaraj, who had been serving as CO in Trincomalee HRC, assumed duties as CO in HRC Jaffna office Tuesday.
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SL Budget to be tabled in parliament on November 7

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 03:47 GMT]
The 2010 budget will be presented to Parliament on November 7, Non Cabinet Minister of Finance Ranjit Siyambalapitiya said. The third reading vote on the budget will take place on December 4, he told parliament Tuesday. There were speculations earlier that a budget will not be presented this year.
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US leadership in rights issues questioned

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 02:27 GMT]
Noting that the "[Obama] Administration has pursued a low profile approach to Sri Lanka, where a military offensive against rebels is believed to have killed thousands of civilians," Washington Post in an article in Tuesday edition says that rights advocates have been frustrated by several episodes and said US's new approach has undercut U.S. leadership on human rights issues. Responding to U.S.'s assertion that "it[US] is not going to preach its values and not going to impose its values," Kenneth Ross, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said "[t]he problem is they are not American values -- they are international values."
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Kuppuzhaan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 13:44 GMT]
The locality of Kuppuzhaay (Vernonia zeylanica) vegetation
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UNDP to give identification documents to IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 08:01 GMT]
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has initiated a project to provide important legal documents the displaced people lost due to the conflict or the tsunami, sources in Colombo said.
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'Tamil heritage for sale in Colombo'

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 22:37 GMT]
Valuable antiquities plundered from the archaeological sites and monuments in Vanni by the occupying forces of Sri Lanka are now sold in the antiquarian market of Colombo, reports reaching from Colombo said. Before the war, the LTTE was maintaining a museum in Vanni, with a large collection of archaeological material including Buddhist artefacts.
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Colombo contemplates Malaysian model

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 22:36 GMT]
A participant in a study group that recently met in London cautioned that Colombo with the support of Asian powers is dreaming to follow Malaysian model of ethnic totalitarianism and related development model, ultimately aimed at erasing the territoriality of Eezham Tamil nation, bringing the entire island under Sinhala ethnic hegemony. “The Sri Lankan state has forgotten that even in the case with the 19th century Chinese migrants, after all the ethnic persecutions Malaysia had to finally concede secession of Singapore, to have peaceful development in the region. The Eezham Tamils who have right on the island ever since Sinhalese became Sinhalese need deserving justice and if Colombo thinks of Malaysia, who ever is going to support a Singapore in the island is going to have the say in the region,” commented another participant of the meet in London.
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SL Prime Minister to attend UN general assembly

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 17:43 GMT]
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake will be heading the Sri Lankan delegation to the 64th session of the United Nations (UN) general assembly. He is scheduled to address the general assembly on September 26 on “Strengthening of Multilateralism and Dialogue among Civilizations for International Peace, Security and Development”, according to foreign ministry spokesman.
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UN envoy Kalin to arrive in Colombo Wednesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 17:30 GMT]
Mr. Walter Kalin, Human Rights envoy of the United Nations is scheduled to arrive in Colombo late Wednesday on a five-day visit that includes a tour to Vanni IDP camps holding tens of thousands of refugees. "Mr. Kalin will meet with senior government officials, international aid agencies, including UN staff, and also visit some sites holding internally displaced people (IDPs)," UN sources said.
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Tamil engineer arrested in Katunayake

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 09:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service (SIS) Sunday morning arrested a Tamil engineer who arrived in Katunayake International Airport (KIA) from Singapore. He has been identified as Ratnasekaram, a resident of Point Pedro in Jaffna district, sources in Colombo said.
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Welikade Tamil prisoners continue hunger strike

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 September 2009, 01:55 GMT]
135 Tamil political prisoners out of a total of 600 Tamil political prisoners in maximum security Central Jail in Welikada, Colombo, continued their fast unto death campaign demanding the state to expedite their cases, release the prisoners who have no charges filed against them, and to allow others charged with less serious offenses to undergo rehabilitation.
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Vaddukkoaddai and Thimphu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 13:04 GMT]
Calling for the creation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, based on Vaddukkoadai Resolution (VR) was the last spontaneous and definite mandate by Eezham Tamils in a totally free and democratic atmosphere. As the need for democratic political organisation unfolds afresh, Tamils have to take up the thread directly from the VR. The Thimphu principles and all the other formulas put forward subsequently under the duress of powers, and failed as negotiation models, do not get precedence over the VR as bases for political organization. Mu’l’livaaykkaal was not the real defeat. The defeat comes only when Tamils are made to politically denounce their heart-felt aspirations. The diaspora needs to peruse and correct course of any proposal that stops just at self-determination. In UN charter and in international law it is just an empty phrase that doesn’t protect nations or ethnicities.
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Two Up-Country Tamil girls reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 12:43 GMT]
Two Up-Country Tamil girls who were brought to Colombo from Maskeliya in Nuwara Eliya district as domestic aids are reported missing. The parents of the two girls have lodged a complaint with P. Radakrishnan, deputy vocational and technical training minister, who represents the Upcountry People’s Front (UPF).
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‘From one prison to another’: Sri Lanka’s ‘resettlement’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 08:31 GMT]
Under international pressure as the monsoon looms, the Sri Lanka government is hastily engaged in relocating some of the displaced Tamils being held in militarised internment camps in Vavuniyaa. However, the inmates are being moved from Vavuniyaa’s barbed-wire ringed camps to similar overcrowded enclosures without facilities in other districts, sources in Jaffna said. Moreover these camps are also located in low-lying terrain in the path of oncoming floods, NGO workers say. “There is no resettlement. This is like being sent from one prison to another prison," Mavai Senathiraja, a parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said.
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Passports of Indian traders in Kalmunai confiscated

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 07:34 GMT]
A special team of the Sri Lanka’s Immigration and Emigration Department Friday raided houses and lodges in Kalmunai town in the eastern province where Indian traders were staying and engaged in the sale of textiles with tourist visa. The team confiscated passports and other travel documents from eighty-two Indian citizens, all Tamils of Tamil Nadu, who had entered the island on tourist visa. They were ordered to appear before the Controller of Immigration and Emigration in Colombo for further action.
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