Protest on Kuganathan assault escalates amid eyewash arrest

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 August 2011, 08:56 GMT]
More than 200 media workers, politicians and activists from North and South joined hands at Jaffna Bus Station staging a protest Tuesday from 11:00 a.m. till noon against the brutal assault last month on Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, the chief news editor of Uthayan daily in Jaffna and against the prevailing suppression of freedom of expression in Jaffna. Five Colombo-based media organisations arranged the protest together with the journalists in Jaffna. On Monday, the Sri Lankan Police had claimed that they have arrested the suspect at Kalubowila Hospital in Colombo. However, the media sources in Jaffna told TamilNet Tuesday that the said person was not the real culprit.
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Residents protest against abusive SLA at Thikiliveddai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 August 2011, 11:17 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka Army soldiers have assaulted protesting residents of Thikiliveddai village situated in Ea'raavoor division of Batticaloa district, on Saturday night. The assault followed the villagers protesting SLA attack on a resident, 35-year-old Ilayathamby Pulendran, a father of two. Thikiliveddai villagers are long oppressed and abused by the occupying SLA. Last year, when three SLA soldiers sexually abused a 9-year-old girl of the village, deputy minister in Rajapaksa regime and paramilitary leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan suppressed protests. The villagers now demand removal of the abusive SLA camp from their village. Meanwhile, public protests after SLA atrocities are reported widely from the Eastern Province in the recent days.
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Mayilanthanai massacre of Tamils remembered

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 August 2011, 18:06 GMT]
Nineteenth death anniversary of 39 Tamil civilians who were massacred by on 9th August 1992 at Punaanai Maiyilanthanai village, 50 km off north of Batticaloa city, was commemorated on Tuesday. The victims, including pregnant women, children and elders, were shot and hacked to death by a group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army from a camp located at Punaanai railway station.
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Vanni survivors recount mass killings, rape in Headlines Today documentary

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 August 2011, 04:05 GMT]
In a world exclusive report aired Tuesday, India’s Headlines Today (HT) television broadcast eyewitness accounts of mass slaughter, the use of chemical weapons and cluster bombs, and torture, rape and sexual humiliation in internment camps by Sri Lanka’s military. The accounts were gathered inside Vanni from survivors of the catastrophic violence of 2009 by one of HT’s investigative reporters, P. Priyamvatha, who traveled undercover into the region – described by the channel as “the most densely militarized place in the world.” She conducted her interviews in Tamil. Responding to the documentary, titled ‘I witnessed genocide’, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India condemned it as “tendentious, unsubstantiated, inflammatory” and questioned Priyamvatha’s bona fides.
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‘Political separation needed to stop genocide in Sri Lanka’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2011, 16:25 GMT]
To his surprise, Graham Williamson of Act Now, UK, realised that Tamils and Sinhalese biologically stem from a common genetic process originating since prehistoric times, when he read the book Peopling of Sri Lanka by Subramaniyam Visahan. The study may help to overcome genocidal conflict. Yet the reality of genetic similarity between the two peoples does not suggest that the two should be treated as one as Sinhala nationalism seeks the extinction of Tamils as a cultural identity, if not a people. The many differences of language, religion and culture suggests a political separation in the same way that the peoples of Europe jealously guard their national identities yet manage, today at least, to cooperate in harmony, he reviewed. Meanwhile, Chennai-based website The Weekend Leader on Saturday documented the extent of cultural genocide committed in the land of Tamils in the island.
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Corpse recovered near SLA post in Vanni causes suspicion on the cause of death

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2011, 14:43 GMT]
A 42-year-old family man, Philip Chelvanayakam, who had gone from his village, Kumizha-munai in Karaithu'raip-pattu, to a bank situated in Mullaiththeevu, was recovered dead last Tuesday near a Sri Lanka Army post located in Theakkangkaadu on Kumizhamunai - Mullaiththeevu Road. In the meantime, the officers of the occupying Sri Lanka Army have ‘explained’ to the family and the relatives of the deceased that soldiers manning the post had gone on vacation. Further, the body of the deceased was sent to Colombo for post-mortem and not to Ki'linochchi or Jaffna, the residents of the village told media.
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Gotabhaya’s sexist comments on war victim giving evidence on rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2011, 11:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s genocidal soldiers making lewd comments on the naked bodies of female victims killed in the war, suggesting that they were killed after rape has been documented in the Channel 4 documentary. While denying the documentation as fake to Headlines Today this week, Sri Lanka’s defence secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made a sexist comment on a war victim who was giving evidence to Channel 4. The attitude of Gotabhaya only proves the mind-set with which a defence establishment is being steered in the island, media circles in Chennai commented. Headlines Today released the main comments of Gotabhaya on Thursday. The full interview will be on telecast on Monday.
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Colombo unable to bury facts of ACF massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 July 2011, 21:15 GMT]
Fifth anniversary of the massacre of seventeen staffers of the French NGO, Action Contre la Faim (ACF), by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers falls on the 4th of August. Later investigations established that the workers, trapped inside their Moothoor branch office residence of ACF located close to Moothoor Cultural Centre, were shot and killed at point blank range, by SLA soldiers. Colombo has continued to sabotage investigations, failed to provide protection for witnesses, and has failed to make public findings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report on the ACF killings. Meanwhile, a former wife of slain ACF worker, Premas Anandarajah, has filed a civil suit in the District Court of District of Columbia, U.S., against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse as responsible for the crime, claiming damages of $30m (all three plaintiffs).
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Army witnesses recount final orgy of massacre, rape, torture, mutilation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 July 2011, 02:19 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officer has given Channel 4 an account of how, following orders from Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the commander of the 58 Division, Brigadier (now Major General) Shavendra Silva gathered his officers in the closing days of the war and ordered them to take no prisoners when capturing the remainder of the enclave in which thousands of Tamils civilians and fighters were surrounded. Brig. Silva received the same orders that Mr. Gotabaya issued to all regiments, the officer who was then serving under Brig. Silva told Channel 4. Meanwhile, another Sri Lankan soldier with the 58 Division has given an eyewitness account of an orgy of mass murder, rape, torture and mutilation in the final days in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians perished.
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Norwegian Tamils remember Oslo-Utøya, Black July victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 July 2011, 08:32 GMT]
City of Oslo, the capital of Norway, was full of roses Monday and Tuesday. More than 200,000 people gathered Monday evening to express their sorrow and solidarity with the victims of the attacks by far-right Islamophobic killer, Anders Behring Breivik, who has claimed the lives of at least 76 people, most of them young, in a combined bomb attack on the government square in the heart of the city and a shooting rampage at the summer camp of the youth wing of the ruling Labour Party at Utøya Island, located northwest of Norway's capital. Two of five Norwegian Eezham Tamil youths, who survived the attack at the Utøya Island, took part in a memorial event Monday, jointly organised by three Tamil organisations. The memorial event also remembered the victims of Black July, the Sri Lankan state-sponsored pogrom against Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka in 1983.
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Protests make India withdraw SLA training in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 July 2011, 14:21 GMT]
A programme of the Indian military to train soldiers of the genocidal Army of Sri Lanka at the Madras Regimental Centre at Wellington in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu was withdrawn after a protest of the people of Tamil Nadu staged by Periyar Dravida Kazhakam (PDK), Naam Thamizhar Party (NTP), Viduthali Chiruththaigal Katchi (VCK) and other activists groups on Friday. 25 soldiers of Sri Lanka’s Army who arrived at Wellington Thursday night for a three months training were sent back in a bus via Chennai, Indian officials said Saturday. About 200 activists participated in the protest demonstration at Wellington on Friday. A wordy quarrel took place between the Tamil Nadu police and a section of the agitators when the latter attempted to squat on road, PTI reported.
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Widespread SLA attacks reported on voters, candidates in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 July 2011, 13:02 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army let loose its soldiers in civil cloths on house-to-house attack in many of the villages in Ki'linochchi district in the early hours of Saturday, causing panic and fear among the voters in Vanni and forcing the voters to stay inside their houses. The armed men in civil, speaking broken Tamil, came in vehicles as early as 3:00 a.m. and attacked the civilians instructing them to stay indoors on the election day. Knowing that it would be difficult to entirely change the mindset of the people of Jaffna, the SLA was ordered to stay inside the barracks in Jaffna. But, the SLA was deployed in Ki'linochchi, threatening both the candidates and voters, with a clear intent to capture the councils by intimidation.
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SL Army in Jaffna harasses JVP campaigners from South

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 July 2011, 18:02 GMT]
After curbing the Tamil National Alliance from conducting campaign meetings ahead of civic elections in North, the occupying Sri Lanka Army of Mahinda Rajapaksa regime now harasses the other opposition parties that come from the South for election campaign. The JVP campaigners in Jaffna told media Thursday that a Brigadier rank officer of the SL military headquarters in Palaali in Jaffna had phoned and threatened them when they went to the SL Police to complain against the harassments by the SLA soldiers.
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SLA, paramilitary, extort money from traders in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 July 2011, 10:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and cadres of para military groups under the guise of civil administration are allegedly extorting money from traders who come to Batticaloa town from Paduvaankarai area, sources in Batticaloa said. Sri Lanka army soldiers and para military groups are also being accused of forcibly taking produce brought by traders at several check points.
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Threats escalate on TNA candidates ahead of civic elections in North

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 July 2011, 04:54 GMT]
Following the Sri Lanka Army attack on Tamil National Alliance (TNA) meeting last month and the systematic harassment on building owners not to provide their halls to TNA for campaign meetings, the residences of various candidates of the TNA, including the former parliamentarian M.K. Sivajilingam, have been targeted by SLA-operated squads that are engaged in threatening the candidates. In the early hours of Saturday, a gang that came in two white-coloured Hiace vehicles threw dirt baskets at the residence of Mr. Sivajilingam. On the same day, the residence of Mr. Subramaniyam, another candidate of the TNA in Maanippaay constituency in Jaffna, came under attack by an alleged SLA operated squad. Earlier, similar acts of intimidation were reported in Cha'ndilippaay in Jaffna. In the meantime, the residences of various TNA candidates have been stoned in Thenmaraardchi.
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Rajiva: UN expert panel copied from Weiss’s book, Channel 4 documentary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 July 2011, 09:33 GMT]
Speaking on BBC’s HardTalk program Tuesday, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe, advisor to the Sri Lankan President on reconciliation, claimed the UN panel of experts’ report on Sri Lanka’s war crimes had “taken stuff, some of it verbatim” from former UN spokesperson Gordon Weiss’s recently published book, and from Channel 4’s recent documentary. When asked why the Sri Lankan government wasn’t agreeing to demands by the British government, US government and the EU for a thorough, independent, investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, Prof. Wijesinghe said: “Because we are not here to keep your electorate happy.”
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Sri Lanka attempts to stop ABC from airing Channel-4 video

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 July 2011, 13:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government run weekly, Sunday Observer, said the current edition that Sri Lanka’s High Commission in Australia has sent a letter of protest to ABC’s Australia Broadcasting Corporation's] Four Corners Program requesting "to avoid telecasting the documentary [Channel-4's "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields"] as it is completely biased and contains unsubstantiated allegations against the Government of Sri Lanka."
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India enters into ‘Army-to-Army’ talks with Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 June 2011, 14:17 GMT]
India initiates its first Army-to-Army talk with Sri Lanka, which is viewed as a significant bilateral military collaboration between the two establishments. During the current three-day talks, the two Armies will chalk out the programmes to be undertaken over the next one year, Times of India reported Thursday. At present, India has such military-to-military level cordiality only with nine other countries, the US, UK, Israel, France, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Singapore. New Delhi timing the special official recognition and confirming participation with the genocidal military of Sri Lanka occupying the country of Eezham Tamils, send a strong message to those who demand the liberation of Eezham Tamils and talk against war crimes and militarization in the island, political observers said.
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Sri Lanka’s “Novel way to kill tens of thousands”: The Times

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2011, 09:54 GMT]
“In a grotesque perversion of humanity, the military had considered the mechanics of human grieving and come up with a novel way to kill tens of thousands: they would drop an initial shell on a village, usually killing those too old, weak or young to take shelter in time. Then they would wait ten minutes — until people had gathered around dead or dying loved ones, trying to save them, or weeping over them — and then shell for a second time; thus wiping out whole families in 11 minutes flat,” says Caitlin Moran, in UK’s The Time’s review of the Channel-4 “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields,” widely believed to be “the most visceral war footage ever broadcast.”
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SLA commanders of the assault could be identified: TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 June 2011, 09:44 GMT]
Convening a press conference at the Martin Road office on Friday, to brief about the blatant attack on a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) meeting at A’laveddi by the Sri Lanka Army on Thursday, the TNA members said that it was a calculated demonstration by the occupying Army to tell the Tamils of the north and east of the island that they are under military rule. Two of the commanders who led the attack could be identified, said TNA parliamentarian Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran. TNA would seek legal action and would hereafter go for house-to-house campaign, the parliamentarians said. The realities of the military rule by a genocidal Army prevent even the TNA holding public meetings in future, political observers in Jaffna said.
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