4 Vanni doctors released on conditional bail

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 August 2009, 16:15 GMT]
Three doctors and a medical superintendent, who had worked in Vanni and later arrested and grilled by the Sri Lankan authorities alleging that they made pro-LTTE statements, were released on conditional personal bail for a sum of one million rupees each Monday by the Colombo Chief Magistrate Mr. Nishantha Hapuarachchi. The doctors were ordered to appear before the Vavuniya CID every Sunday and also they have been instructed to reside in Vavuniyaa and not in any other place, legal sources said.
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Australia reluctant to call for closure of camps, release of IDPs

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 August 2009, 11:48 GMT]
While expressing serious concern about the civilian toll of the conflict, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) officials conveyed to a delegation of the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA) that Australia’s trade relations with Sri Lanka has been very strong from time immemorial and Australia wants to maintain this relationship, and further to nurture that, Australia is keen on seeing a united Sri Lanka. While continuing to insist that the IDP camps be administered in line with international standards, Australia is reluctant to call for a closure of these camps and release of the innocent IDPs as soon as possible, DFAT officials told the Tamil delegation last week.
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MNCs flock in to get the ‘fruits’ of war

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 August 2009, 09:18 GMT]
Roman Scott of Calamander Group, who believes Tigers have been effectively contained, suppression of free expression by Colombo will not affect business, and economics is not really that strong related to democratic principles, is an early bird in the island for investment, says the latest issue of Forbes India. Sri Lanka is going to be “one of the best investment opportunities on the planet for the next two to three years,” said the Singapore based British equity manager. According to Forbes, companies from some countries have a natural advantage either because they have the trust of the Sinhalese or understand the local nuances better. China falls into the first category and India into the second. These two countries are likely to play a major role in the reconstruction.
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Saiva priest, wife, child abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 05:21 GMT]
Unknown persons took away a Saiva priest from Jaffna, his wife and their five-year-old child on 15 August as they were coming out of Colombo Fort Railway Station, according to complaints lodged by the priest’s parents with Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna Sunday. HRC officials have referred the complaint to their head office in Colombo for action.
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Eelam and the new 'super power' Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 04:46 GMT]
In their petty geopolitical and corporate interests, India and the West have created a Frankenstein monster of a state in Sri Lanka that disgraces the whole world. What fears them now is this monster in its frenzies making their labours lost in the island. This is what impels them to tell the victims to reconcile, not to anger the monster and not to say genocide even when it takes place for decades. A general excuse they come out with is that the present world has no appetite for new nation states. Colombo makes the best use of this weakness. No justifiable norm of polity could be seen in why India and the West should labour so hard to uphold a united Sri Lanka and to appease it beyond all limits, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Boyle debunks Kohona's war-crimes braggadocio

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 03:17 GMT]
Debunking Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary, Palitha Kohona's statement that "no winner of a war has been tried [for war crimes] before a Tribunal," Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the Illinois College of Law, said, as legal counsel for the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja, he had convinced the Honorable Carla Del Ponte, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to indict Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for every crime in the ICTY Statute, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Winners are never tried for war crimes, says Colombo’s foreign secretary

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 07:33 GMT]
“If you look at the history of war crimes there isn’t one instance where a winner of a war has been tried before a Tribunal. They have always been set up for losers. And if you were to take winners then the start would have to be taken elsewhere. Sri Lanka did not drop atom bombs or destroy entire cities during the war,” said, Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary and newly appointed permanent representative to the UN, Palitha Kohona in an interview to Daily Mirror, Thursday, outlining the diplomatic prospects of Colombo in engaging the officialdom of the world, in negating political solutions to the Tamil national question. “There is this thinking that all our problems can be solved by applying a political solution. I fail to see the logic behind this,” he said.
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Sri Lanka to train Pakistan army in Tamil land

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 07:20 GMT]
“We received a request from Pakistan to train their officers on our small team operations, so we have decided to open several new training schools in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya to train local and foreign military officers,” said Colombo’s new Army Chief Jagath Jayasuriya, reported, Daily Mirror, Friday. The newspaper further quoted the military chief saying that there was a big demand from foreign countries to have their forces trained by Sri Lanka. But Political observers said that it was a ploy of Colombo, Pakistan and probably some others too, to check the current presence of Indians in Vanni.
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JVP councillor detained

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 05:51 GMT]
A Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party member of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) who was putting up posters for the abolition of the executive presidency was detained and later released by the Borella police.
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SSP’s wife arrested in abduction, assault incident

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 11:46 GMT]
The wife of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vass Gunawardena has been arrested and is now being interrogated by police at the police headquarters over the recent assault on an IT student, Police spokesman SSP Ranjit Gunasekara told media Thursday. She is expected to be produced in court later in the evening. She had gone into hiding when a special police team rushed to her house to arrest her Wednesday.
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'UN, the fence that ate the crop'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 01:00 GMT]
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who was refused admittance by Colombo at the height of the war, chose to accept its invitation as soon as the war was “won”, accuses Norway’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Mona Juul, whose confidential assessment of Ban sent to Norway’s Foreign Ministry, leaked to Afterposten newspaper of Oslo Wednesday. War in Sri Lanka is an example of the weak handling of the Secretary General. He was a passive observer when thousands lost lives and were driven from their homes, the diplomat further said in her mid term assessment of Ban’s tenure. “Even when it was helpless at the gang-up of certain powers, the UN should have upheld its integrity by telling the truth and exposing the culprits to the world. But Ban and his chosen officials not only failed but also shielded them”, said Tamil circles which look at UN as the ‘fence that ate the crop.’
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United States provides $6 million to support de-mining in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 09:21 GMT]
U.S. Department of State is contributing $6 million to be shared by four non-governmental organisations, Danish De-Mining Group (DDG), Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), Halo Trust and MAG (Mines Advisory Group) for de-mining activities to increase their demining capacity and expand their work over the next twelve months in the Northern Province, according to a press statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo. The U.S. military, through U.S. Pacific Command, will provide equipment and training to the Sri Lanka Army for humanitarian demining in the Northern Province, the statement further said.
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SSP’s wife gone into hiding

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 05:52 GMT]
A special police team deployed to arrest the wife of Vass Gunawardena, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in connection with an alleged assault incident, reported that she had gone missing since Tuesday evening. Police spokesman SSP Ranjit Gunasekara said that the police team had visited her house and found that the suspect had left home, and that her whereabouts were unknown. She is the mother of Ravindu Gunawardene, the prime suspect in alleged assault on an IT student Nipuna Ramanayake.
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8 Tamil youths arrested in Anurdhapura, Polonnaruwa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 05:34 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) took into custody Tuesday morning eight Tamil youths in a search conducted in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa areas. The arrested youths are from upcountry who had come to these areas in search of employment, the youths’ relatives said. Police authorities in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, however, said that no arrestees are being detained in their police stations.
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SSP’s wife to be arrested, discharged son from hospital remanded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 17:14 GMT]
A special police team has been deployed to arrest the wife of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vass Gunawardene and she is to be produced before a Magistrate Tuesday at any time in connection with the alleged assault of a SLIT student, police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media Tuesday. The Director of Kalubowila Hospital Dr. Anil Jayasinghe told media that Ravindu, son of SSP Vass Gunawardene and the chief suspect in the alleged assault of the student has been discharged from the hospital and was taken to remand prison.
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Academic exposes ideological shift in DMK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 11:59 GMT]
Discerning students of Tamil Nadu politics, especially those analysing the role of the state in Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, are intrigued by the transformation that has taken place in the DMK perception on Sri Lanka, writes V. Suryanarayan in an article last week appeared in New Indian Express. “The tragedy of the situation must be underlined; the Sri Lankan Tamils became pawns in the electoral politics of the state. What is more, their struggle for justice, equity and dignity has been pushed back by several decades. A long winter of discontent is ahead of Sri Lankan Tamils,” he concludes the article.
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US Tamil boycott campaign targets Victoria Secret, Macy's

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 01:46 GMT]
U.S. Tamil expatriate groups in New York as part of their continuing campaign urging U.S.companies to avoid trade with Sri Lanka, targetted Victoria Secret, the lingerie giant with $5.6b net sales in 2008, and the retail giant Macy's which had $26.3b sales in Fiscal Year 2007, Saturday 15th August in Manhattan at 34th street and Broadway junction, between 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
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JVP to launch campaign against continuing executive presidency system

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 20:05 GMT]
Sinhala nationalist Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Monday announced that it would launch a campaign to obstruct the holding of presidential election without first abolishing the executive presidency. JVP leader Somawanse Amarasinghe made the announcement at a press briefing held Monday in Colombo. JVP was one time ally of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance and now a critic from the opposition.
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UN refutes claim by GOSL for flooding Vavuniyaa camps

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 19:54 GMT]
United Nations (UN) Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, Mr. Neil Buhne, Monday said it is the government’s responsibility to look into the damage of drainage systems and sewage in the camps for the internally displaced people in Vavuniyaa. These camps are described by humanitarian organizations and activists as ‘internment camps’ where hundreds of thousands of Vanni displaced people are detained against their wish behind barbed wire fences.
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11 police personnel remanded in assault case: SSP'son in hospital

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 17:09 GMT]
Kaduwala Magistrate Monday ordered remand for eleven police personnel who are allegedly involved in assaulting an IT student till August 31.However the main suspect, son of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Vas Gunawardene was not produced in court along with other eleven suspects including three inspectors, one police sergeant and seven constables. But the court was told that the son of SSP had got himself admitted to the Kalubowila hospital claiming that he was ill.
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