Encroachment of government lands in Batticaloa Tamil areas

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2009, 16:46 GMT]
Ma’nmunai Southwest Divisional Secretariat has informed the Deputy Secretary to President Rajapakse confirming the illegal colonization of government lands in Batticaloa district in Eastern Province where Tamil people live predominantly. Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Ariyanenthiran had already brought the issue of illegal colonization to the President and his Deputy Secretary had called for reports from the three Government Agents (GAs) in Eastern Province.
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Natives of Norway, Tamil Nadu, among 37 contesting NCET elections

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 November 2009, 06:43 GMT]
As the final list of candidates is out for the popular elections of the Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET) scheduled Sunday, 9 candidates contest for 5 seats of the national list and 28 candidates are in the fray for 10 seats under regional list. Figuring in the list are three native Norwegians and one Tamil of Tamil Nadu. The NCET constitution, while permitting vote only to people of Eezham Tamil descent above 16, allows even others to be elected provided they accept the principle of the Council advocating independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the island of Sri Lanka. Another feature of the candidates list is that many of them are highly educated and are professionals in various walks of life. Seven in the list are women, eight under 35 and two over 60. Two are young women among the 5 who have already been elected by institutions for the second chamber.
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Australia aiding and abetting Sri Lanka’s war crimes - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 November 2009, 00:25 GMT]
“Australia is a contracting party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees as well as to its related 1967 Protocol. Thereunder Australia has an absolute obligation to provide meaningful and humane asylum procedures, regulations and hearings to all Tamils fleeing from Sri Lanka,” said Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, in a note sent to TamilNet Friday.
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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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Norway Eezham Tamils enfranchise all above 16

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 November 2009, 06:42 GMT]
In the forthcoming elections for Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils (NCET), scheduled to take place Sunday, all those of Eezham Tamil descent above 16 years will be permitted to vote according to the constitution of NCET. The move was in line with the trial project of the government of Norway enfranchising over 16 in commune elections in 2011. The NCET ballot will elect 5 under the national list and 10 under the regional list who will constitute the chamber of representatives. Another five members elected by Eezham Tamil institutions in Norway will make the second chamber. This is the first country-wide ballot taking place among diaspora Tamils, democratically electing representatives to form a Council.
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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.
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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.
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LTTE welcomes all diaspora ballots

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 November 2009, 00:19 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a press statement issued on Monday welcomed all the current democratic moves in the diaspora, such as referendum on Vaddukkoaddai Resolution, Country Councils and Transnational Government and said that even if one of the efforts is at shortfall, it will affect all the others. “These are democratic efforts for which people have taken over the leadership to gain their political aspirations and while welcoming them the LTTE requests that they should be accomplished with full participation of people,” said the statement addressed LTTE headquarters. "It is now a historical duty of all Tamils to firmly tell the whole world that what they desire is independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam and they have their homeland, nationalism and the right to self-determination to claim it," the statement further said.
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Government has to get the support of the South first to solve Tamil ethnic issue – Vasudeva Nanayakkara

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 November 2009, 06:28 GMT]
Senior Advisor to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse and a veteran Sinhalese politician, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, said that the government has to get the support of the people in the South of the country to solve the problems of the Tamils, in response to questions raised by the members of Jaffna Traders’ Association (JTA) in a meeting held Saturday evening in the JTA building in Jaffna. The members had asked as to why it was not possible to carry out the Supreme Court directive to resettle the IDPs from Valikaamam North in their own places now occupied by Sri Lanka Army while the Supreme Court order to demerge Northern and Eastern provinces had been executed overnight.
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Reconciliation of two nation states requires parity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 November 2009, 18:42 GMT]
Considering all what had gone before, 'reconciliation' has to first take place between the powers and Eezham Tamil psyche and the probabilities are remote unless the powers recognize the national question as national question and come forward to address it in ways fit enough for chronic cases. Ultimate reconciliation has to take place between Sinhala and Tamil nation states but genuine reconciliation cannot come without parity and dignity. The issue has to be approached reconciling to the reality of two nation states, not only for peace in the island but for even achieving shared sovereignty of a regional model, if that is going to be the demand of time in future. Present day International Community will register a point of progress in the polity of humanity by collectively eradicating baneful states like Sri Lanka that habitually use the card of geopolitics to resist restructure.
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Vasudeva Nanayakkara to deliver speech titled “Tamils and Future” in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 November 2009, 18:20 GMT]
Vasudeva Nanayakkara, a senior Sinhalese politician and the senior advisor to President Mahintha Rajapakse, who arrived in Jaffna Friday is to deliver a speech titled “Tamils and Future” Saturday at Changkaraththai Hindu Youths’ Hall in Vaddukkoadai, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Vasudeva Nanayakkara met Jaffna district High Court Magistrate R. T. Vicknarajah in Jaffna Court Complex Friday where the magistrate stressed on the importance of resettling Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Valikaamam North evicted nearly 19 years ago by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in order to establish High Security Zones (HSZ) in the said area, the sources added.
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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."
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Fonseka flees US

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 November 2009, 13:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army chief, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka fled the United States cutting short his planned stay in the US to avoid being questioned by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over warcrimes under his command, according to an AFP report. "Mr Fonseka's future chances of retiring to the US are now in jeopardy, and consequent developments in other countries of the world, except the rights violator nations, may make him a fugitive," legal sources in Washington said. Meanwhile, incriminating, anonymous, hearsay evidence has surfaced on the activities of his son-in-law, Danuna Tillakaratne, on making weapons deals from Oklahoma. Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based pressure group, said yesterday that TAG will be preparing a detailed document after further research on this matter for possible use by the US law enforcement authorities.
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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.
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Eezham Tamil mandate picks up global momentum

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 November 2009, 12:47 GMT]
Spontaneous and parallel efforts to effect a global mandate of Eezham Tamils in proclaiming the desire for the creation of an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka are picking up momentum among the diaspora in several countries of the world, following a similar mandate in Norway last May. Eezham Tamils exercising their self-determination in democratically coming out with such a mandate is widely viewed in Tamil circles as a common basis for all shades of their national politics. This week, VN Music Dreams of Norway has released a song upholding the Tamil national mandate, in the music composed by Udhayaa and voiced by Krishnaraj for the lyrics of Vaseeharan.
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Fonseka demands summary justice for LTTE cadres

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 November 2009, 11:45 GMT]
"We must deploy enough troops to provide security for these [resettled] areas. We must in these areas, this virus, there are still 1000’s of terrorists in IDP camps. We must identify these terrorist and destroy them. We must take them into custody and then resettle them. We must provide security in strength to these areas. I will only be happy that we finished the war we ended when I see this," said General Sarath Fonseka during a talk in a Budhist Temple in Washington D.C., according a website's English translation, before the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked for a "voluntary meeting" with the General to discuss the war-crimes alleged to be committed by Sri Lanka's military officials.
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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.
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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.
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Sinhala encroachers deny Tamil owners land

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 November 2009, 16:59 GMT]
"More than 1,486 Tamil families are unable to peacefully resettle in their homes in Trincomalee, Vavuniya and Batticaloa due to unlawful and widespread occupation of state land by members of the majority community," Sri Lanka's weekly, The Nation said, according information from Tamil National Alliance leader, Rajavarothiam Sampanthan and member of parliament, Packiyaselvam Ariyanethiran.
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US legal noose tightening around Fonseka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 October 2009, 22:02 GMT]
The audacious visit to the United States by Major General Sarath Fonseka soon after an incriminating US State Department report over war crimes, appears to have landed the Major in a legal bind with US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to a report in the Sunday Times. While the DHS has requested a "voluntary meeting," Fonseka's legal counsels are yet to determine if US has the authority to trump Fonseka's assumed diplomatic immunity and can force him to testify, or if Fonseka's immunity would grant him the option to refuse to testify and return to Sri Lanka.
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