Roads lead to ruin – Prime Minister Wickramanayake

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 19:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka will not open up closed roads despite defeating the Tamil Tigers because this could cause the economy to collapse, the country’s Prime Minister was quoted as saying last week. "Do you remember what happened to the Soviet Union under Gorbachev? He opened the roads immediately and what happened? The entire country collapsed. We can't afford to do that," Ratnasiri Wickramanayake told a business forum in Colombo last Tuesday, according to the business news portal, Lanka Business Online.
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Continuing misery of Sri Lanka's camps

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 17:16 GMT]
Two months after Aljazeera compiled a dossier of information highlighting what the broadcaster described as “shocking and disturbing” conditions in Sri Lanka’s militarised internment camps, nothing has changed. Reporting in late July, Aljazeera noted that what the Colombo government calls “welfare camps”, critics have called “the world’s biggest open air prison”. TamilNet is revisiting Aljazeera’s July report, which set out the substantial material about camp conditions compiled by the broadcaster despite the govenrment’s restrictions, to highlight the ongoing misery of the camps’ inmates.
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Pakistan destroyer arrives in Colombo on goodwill visit

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 11:51 GMT]
‘Zulfiquar’, Pakistan’s destroyer class ship arrived in Colombo Harbour Saturday on a goodwill visit to Sri Lanka. The visit is aimed to strengthen existing ties and the level of cooperation between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Sri Lanka navy sources said. PNS ‘Zulfiquar’ was ceremonially welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy in the presence of Pakistan Defence Adviser Colonel Syed Khurram Hassnain Alam in the Colombo Port Saturday.
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TID interrogates JVP newspaper editor

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 11:48 GMT]
Police Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) interrogated Mr.Chandana Sirimalwatte, the Chief Editor of the pro-JVP newspaper ‘Lanka’ for three hours Sunday regarding the three journalists who are being detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations(ER) since their arrest, Colombo sources said.
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SLA massacred civilians in bunkers - medical worker

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 08:57 GMT]
The advancing Sri Lanka Army massacred civilians by paving their bunkers with tanks, by throwing explosives inside the bunkers and by shooting the injured, says a medical worker who came out of Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal during the last days of the war, became incarcerated in a camp and now escaped the island. "Around a hundred thousand captured civilians herded to Mullaiththeevu were kept in rows within barbed wires, most of the time without water or food under the hot sun, and were bullied and ill treated with arrogance," he writes in a lengthy note that reached TamilNet this week. The note in Tamil was provided by the Norwegian Tamils Health Organisation (NTHO), urging TamilNet not to reveal the identity of the health worker for reasons of his security.
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JVP to decide on its stand in supporting extending emergency

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 16:48 GMT]
The politburo of the Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is to decide this week whether to support the Extension of Emergency in the country any more in view of the arrest and detention of three journalists working in its official paper “Lanka” under the Emergency Regulations (ER) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), JVP parliamentary group leader Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake told media in Colombo. Police arrested three journalists of JVP in Deniyaya on 2nd September while they were taking pictures and videoing Bewarali estate bungalow.
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Colombo evicts UNICEF official

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 13:34 GMT]
Chief of Communications for UNICEF in Sri Lanka, James Elder's visa to continue to remain in Sri Lanka was refused by Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration, BBC reported Sunday. Mr Elder, a spokesman for the UN children's agency regularly spoke to the media on the plight of children caught up in the conflict, but Sri Lanka spokesperson was quoted by BBC as saying "James Elder's visa has been cancelled over his propaganda in support of the Tigers."
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China to boost Sri Lanka’s coconut industry

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 08:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Plantations Industries Minister Mr. D. M. Jayaretna held discussions Friday with visiting officials of a China based company to boost coconut industry in the island and also to set up a plant to manufacture coconut shell charcoal, sources in Colombo said. Direct instructions were issued to this China based company from the Government of China to hold discussions with the Government of Sri Lanka, the sources added.
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Monthly 400 births in Vavuniyaa Menik IDP camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 08:04 GMT]
Four hundred babies are born every month in the internment camps at Menik Farm where nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians are held in Vavuniya district, and they are in need of considerable assistance and care, according to Sarvodaya leader Dr A. T. Ariyaretna. He presented the statistics when he was making a commemorative address in honour of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, at the SEDEC centre, Colombo Saturday.
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Pakistan Navy ship to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 07:59 GMT]
Pakistan Navy Ship “ZULFIQUAR” will pay a goodwill visit to Sri Lanka next week, Colombo media reported quoting a spokesperson of Pakistan High Commission in Colombo. "This will provide an opportunity for close interaction between both friendly navies", he added.
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Sri Kantha meets fellow MP Kanagaretnam in detention

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 03:07 GMT]
N.Sri Kantha, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Friday met with the fellow parliamentarian Mr. Sathasivam Kanagaretnam who is currently being detained under the Emergency Regulations (ER) in the sixth floor of Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), sources in Colombo said. Mr Kanagaretnam was arrested from a camp in Omanthai by CID officiers when the MP sought refuge after fleeing from Mullaitheivu in the last leg of military operation against LTTE. The TNA MP was trapped for several months in Mullaitheivu due to military operation.
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Time of the Thugs - Dr Saravanamuttu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 00:46 GMT]
Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, pointing to the anonymous death threat and his detension in the airport by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), an arm of the Sri Lankan State, writes in the latest Sunday Leader that both incidents "constitute a chilling illustration of the potential costs and likely consequences of daring to dissent in this our beloved land. Daring to dissent and to constructively critique the prevailing orthodoxy and in doing so outlining an alternative vision and future for Sri Lanka, is what I believe I do and in the strongest conviction of it being an affirmation and celebration of our democracy, rather than an act of treason against the motherland."
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Vanni war front videos under Media Minister's custody

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 15:07 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka Thursday directed the Chairman of the State run Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and Independent Television Network to hand over all video tapes in relation to Vanni war front immediately to the Media Minister and to ensure and verify whether any video tapes used or unused are missing or stolen while in the custody of the two institutions, sources in Colombo said.
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Obama extolled Sri Lanka Journalist given prison term, says NYT

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 04:09 GMT]
Noting that J.S. Tissainayagam was picked by President Obama on World Press Freedom Day as a “symbol of oppression of the media,” the New York Times (NYT) Tuesday reported that this editor of a crusading magazine in SriLanka was sentenced by the island’s court for writing critical articles on the Sri Lanka government’s offensive against Tamils. The NYT, quoting two prominent staffers at the Colombo-based think-tank Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), said that the sentence was a very serious blow [to journalism], that the law under which the sentence was passed “ is so vague that practically any speech could be prosecuted,” and that it is unacceptable that the Court would give maximum sentence to a journalist for simply doing his job.
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5th Vanni doctor released on surety bail

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 17:15 GMT]
Dr. Kanagathurai Sivapalan who was serving in Puththukuddiruppu hospital in the Vanni region during the final assault on the LTTE by Sri Lanka Army was released on surety bail of a sum of 200,000 rupees by Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi Tuesday. He was the last in the batch of five doctors arrested from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa after they fled from the battle ground.
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CPA Director detained at KIA, questioned by CID

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 02:20 GMT]
Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based think-tank Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), was detained and questioned Wednesday early morning at the Katunayake International Airport (KIA) by Criminal Investigations Department officials upon his return from abroad. He was detained for several minutes and later allowed to go, media sources said.
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26 civilians arrested by TID in Mannaar in August 2009

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 17:13 GMT]
Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) operating from Colombo had arrested twenty-six civilians, including young family men, in Mannaar in the month of August alone, sources from Mannaar Welfare Association said. Complaints have been made by the Association to the relevant authorities to have the arrested civilians released, the sources said.
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CPJ honors Tissainayagam with Press Freedom Award

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 11:35 GMT]
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based media watchdog, announced Monday that it will honor imprisoned Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam with 2009 International Press Freedom Award. "We are announcing this award today to highlight the depth of outrage at this unjust sentence," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "Its harshness and the retroactive nature of the charges reflect vindictiveness and intolerance. We are calling today for Tissainayagam's release--an appeal we plan to repeat at our awards ceremony, when the world's leading journalists gather to demand press freedom for all of our colleagues," CPJ's press release said.
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Sentence to Tissainayagam extra-judicial: HR lawyer

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 23:42 GMT]
The sentence of 20-year rigorous imprisonment to J.S. Tissanayagam on Monday mark a sad day for journalists and those who believe in the ’freedom of expression’ all over the world, says Deputy Chairperson of Northeast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), K Sivapalan, an Atterney-at-Law from Trincomalee, in whose opinion this is an extra-judicial way to punish people. ”The provisions of the PTA are not in conformity with the International Criminal Law especially the ’confession’ being admitted in evidence agaist the accused and with regard to the burden of proof.UNHRC requested the GoSL to repeal or amend many of the provisions which were not in conformity. However this was not followed by them on the basis that it was an erosion of the sovereignty of Sri Lanka,” Mr. Sivapalan, now exiled in Norway, said.
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Lopsided sovereignty sentences Tissainayagam - journalist

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 19:50 GMT]
If Tissainayagam is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for 'inciting communal feelings' by editing, printing or distributing North Eastern Herald Monthly, what should be the punishment to Sarath Fonseka, who as commander of the armed forces publicly said Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese, mutilating the constitution and inciting genocide in the island, asks a senior journalist in Colombo. Unfortunately there are governments and diplomats who deceive humanity by projecting Sri Lanka as a ‘democratically elected government', besides multi national corporations, who don’t care freedom of people but grabbing opportunities in the island and there are also media such as The Hindu in India and a host of others in the international community praising Colombo on its ‘successes’ in ethnic totalitarianism, the journalist said.
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