Chinese identify Tamils conducive in breaking up India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 04:36 GMT]
A recent article that appeared in a Chinese strategic think tank saying “[i]f China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up,” and its argument that China in its own interest, and the progress of whole Asia, should join forces with different nationalities like Assamese, Tamils, and Kashmiris, and support the latter in establishing independent nation-states of their own, out of India, has ruffled the Indian counterparts. Responding to the article in Chinese, D S Rajan, Director of Chennai Centre for China Studies wrote, “an approach of panic towards such outbursts will be a mistake, but also ignoring them will prove to be costly for India.”
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Jaffna craftsmen sculptured Ther debuts in Washington festival

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 August 2009, 09:45 GMT]
Several hundred saiva devotees from different parts of the U.S. Saturday attended the Washington Murugan Temple chariot festival held annually to coincide with the festival at the Nalloor Kandaswamy Temple in Jaffna. A new chariot funded by Sri Lanka's Tamil expatriates in New York, built in Colombo by Jaffna craftsmen, shipped to the U.S., and assembled locally, made the maiden-run Friday in preparation for the Saturday ceremony. Cognizant of the hardships suffered by relatives and friends inside internment camps, devotees kept the festivities outside the temple at a low-profile, attending devotees said.
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2 Tamils arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 August 2009, 09:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took two Tamil civilians into custody in Colombo Thursday night in two separate incidents. One was arrested in Katunayake International Airport (KIA) area and the other along D. R. Wijewardene Mawatte in Colombo town, media spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media.
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Outbreak of skin disease reported in Vavuniyaa IDP camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 August 2009, 09:23 GMT]
The outbreak of skin diseases among hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from Vanni detained in several camps in Vavuniyaa has been reported. “They mostly complain of continuous itchy skin. They say the itching only starts when they wash. This may be due to the different levels of minerals found in the water that could cause irritation,” a medical officer who spoke on conditions of anonymity told Colombo media.
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Elections jeopardize democracy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 August 2009, 00:46 GMT]
With only 20 percent turn out in the municipal elections, the clear verdict of the Eezham Tamils is no confidence in the Sri Lankan state and its institutions, said Tamil circles, commenting further that genocidal war and democratic elections mean the same for Colombo. They were citing the manner in which the elections were conducted denying entry to outside witnesses, while 40 percent of the voters not present, 50 percent of polling cards not delivered, Colombo-sponsored forgery of ID cards accused, people coerced and even the Tamil outfit with the government was forced to drop its identity. Whether war and elections against Tamils mean the same to the international community too is the question now coming from the Tamil circles which pointed out that the armed forces occupying the peninsula were more than double in number than the people voted in the elections.
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Supreme Court to inquire FR petition by IDP family against illegal detention

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 August 2009, 04:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights violation petition filed on behalf of members of one family who are detained in an Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp (IDP Camp) in Vavuniya against their wishes, and listed the case for hearing on November 12, legal sources in Colombo said. The bench comprised Justices Nihal Gamini Amaratunge and Chandra Ekanayake. The petition alleged infringement of plaintiffs' fundamental rights to equality, equal protection of the law, as well as their right to the freedom of movement and of choosing their residence within Sri Lanka.
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Custody of Pathmanathan raises questions about recognition to state terrorism

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 August 2009, 23:35 GMT]
The manner in which Selvarasa Pathmanathan was 'arrested' and ended up in the custody of the Sri Lankan state that is widely accused of war crimes, genocide and state terrorism, raises serious concerns about the world outlook to political justice, Tamil circles said. Mr. Pathmanathan who denounced violence was engaged in re-organising the LTTE and in consenting the formation of a transnational body for the Eezham Tamils. Meanwhile, acknowledging Pathmanathan’s custody, Colombo’s minister and spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwela said Friday: “There was some false hopes that after the LTTE was crushed that movement could be revived with Pathmanathan. But we have proved that we have the capability of getting to them from wherever they emerge.”
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2 Sinhala undergrads remanded in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 August 2009, 10:21 GMT]
Colombo Chief Magistrate, Nishantha Kappurarachchi, Thursday ordered remand for two Colombo University undergraduates till August 12 on charges of writing anti-government slogans on a school parapet wall in Cinnamon Gardens. The suspect-students Upul Premaratne and Gehan Seneviratne were arrested writing the anti-government slogans on a parapet wall of St. Bridget’s Convent in Colombo on Wednesday, according to police allegation.
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40% of eligible voters live out of Jaffna Municipal Council

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 August 2009, 05:17 GMT]
Postal department sources in Jaffna said that 40,390 polling cards of the 100,417 eligible voters in the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election to be held Saturday are kept in Jaffna Post Office not delivered to the rightful recipients. A total of 51,182 polling cards have been delivered directly to persons in the last nine days by postal employees going house to house, the sources further said.
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Indian HC hands over 117 million rupees to Gotabaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 21:49 GMT]
Bank drafts worth over 117 million Sri Lankan rupees were officially handed over by Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Alok Prasad to Colombo’s Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Wednesday, for the ‘rehabilitation’ project of the air force base at Palaali (Palaly) in the Jaffna peninsula. This is the second instalment of Indian assistance to the improvement of the runway, according to SL defence ministry. Meanwhile, India intends to withdraw its medical team from August 31, as most of the urgent medical needs of the war displaced in the Menik Farm zone assigned to the Indian hospital had been met, The Hindu reported.
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China's help sought to stop ethnic cleansing of Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 05:12 GMT]
A large group of American Tamils from the New York region held a protest rally outside the Chinese Mission to the United Nations in New York Monday. The protesters appealed to China use its influence with the Sri Lankan government to end the ethnic cleansing of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and to release the nearly 300,000 Tamils detained indefinitely in the military supervised internment camps. The purpose of the protest is to keep the international community's eyes trained on Tamil concerns about abuses being committed against their relatives, neighbors and friends in Sri Lanka, protesters at the rally said.
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SLASA appeals for the immediate release of Ki’linochchi GA, Vethanayagan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 19:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association (SLASA), while strongly condemning the arrest of Ki’linochchi Government Agent (GA), S. Vethanayagan, by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials on 30 July 2009, extended a public appeal to the authorities concerned to release him immediately, sources in Colombo said.
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EPDP men violate human rights – ITAK chief candidate Remediyas

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 14:16 GMT]
“Minister Douglas Devananda’s men are intimidating the fishermen in Jaffna that the ban on fishing will be imposed again if they vote for Ilankai Thamizh Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election and this is an obvious violation of human rights,” Mudiyappu Remediyas, the principal candidate of ITAK, said in the press conference held Tuesday in ITAK office in Jaffna.
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TNA outlines political formula

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 13:13 GMT]
Based on Self-Determination, distinct and comprehensive autonomy to the historical homeland of Eelam Tamils is the political solution envisaged by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to the ethnic conflict in the island of Sri Lanka, said veteran Tamil politician and TNA Parilamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, while addressing the press in Jaffna Tuesday. Mr. Sampanthan, who said that a draft proposal of the TNA will be released soon, was optimistic of India's support. This is the first time the TNA is coming out with its own political formula to resolve the ethnic conflict.
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Hundreds of Tamils interrogated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 05:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka police and military launched a large scale search Monday from 4:00 a.m til 10:00 a.m in the suburbs of Colombo where Tamils live in large numbers interrogating hundreds of Tamils, sources in Colombo said. The search was conducted on a tip off, Wellawathe police said.
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Reporters barred from Jaffna, Vavuniyaa during elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka will not allow reporters into Vavuniyaa and Jaffna to cover the local government elections to be held there on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. “The government did not give a reason for banning reporters, but it cites security reasons for denying entry to any outsider,” AP reported. The towns are accessible with Defence ministry permission and “even residents can't leave without permission,” AP report said. Meanwhile, an elections watchdog, PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) said there seemed to be little public interest in the polls as people were preoccupied with the plight of their relatives in government’s military-run internment camps.
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5 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 14:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody five Tamil youths in a search conducted in Ettiyawathe junction in Mattakuliya, a suburb in Colombo Monday morning, sources in Colombo said. The youths were travelling in the bus that was on its way from Mattakuliya to Galkisse when the police stopped it and searched.
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Indians need three years to clear mines

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 11:36 GMT]
It will take one-and-a-half to two years to do away with most land mines and another year to declare the areas safe for habitation, reported Times of India, Sunday, citing Indian Army’s retired Major General Prem K. Puri who is heading one of the Indian outfits engaged in de-mining the North and East. Meanwhile, 82 more former Indian soldiers have gone to Sri Lanka last week to join the hundreds or perhaps thousands already operating under the care of Colombo’s National Steering Committee. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s insistence on ‘de-mining first’ to free civilians from the concentration camps and India sitting on international intervention raise serious concern in Tamil circles, how long both the Establishments are going to continue the ‘human shield’ in fulfilling their agenda.
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Sri Lanka tax structure to be streamlined

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 05:12 GMT]
Against the backdrop of the massive IMF loan of US$ 2.6 billion the government is preparing a complete overhaul of Sri Lanka’s tax structure with the intention of streamlining and enhancing tax revenue, the presidential secretariat said.
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Emotional rehabilitation should precede IMF, GSP politics

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 22:55 GMT]
If structural changes are what the West aims in the island of Sri Lanka through IMF and GSP+ loans, those cannot be achieved without first emotionally rehabilitating the Eezham Tamils. Emotional rehabilitation, which is fundamental to all other rehabilitation is possible only when the West openly acknowledges Eezham Tamils as a nation and their cause as a national liberation struggle, says TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. “Tamils are deeply hurt by IMF and Indian assistance to Colombo failing to take note of this fact, the commentator said, adding that the GSP+ should not make the same mistake.
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