SLAF to commence passenger flights to Jaffna without AOC

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 02:22 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) said Sunday it would continue to operate domestic passenger flights to and from Colombo and Jaffna despite objection by the Civil Avian Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) that it should obtain Air Operations Certificate (AOC) to do so. The flights are scheduled to commence from Monday.
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Australia, Sri Lanka to cooperate on people smuggling issues

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 21:01 GMT]
“The Australian Government is appreciative of Sri Lanka’s cooperation on people smuggling issues and we wish to emphasise the importance Australia places on working with regional partners to combat irregular migration and people smuggling” Senator Evans said, according to a press statement issued by the Australian High Commission in Colombo Friday. Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, visited Sri Lanka from 22 to 24 July and was accompanied by Australia’s Ambassador for People Smuggling issues, Peter Woolcott.
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JMC election candidates complain of police malpractice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 13:01 GMT]
Candidates contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election raised complaints about police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna assisting ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) persons pasting election campaign wall posters displaying the images of President Mahinda Rajapakse and Minister Douglas Devananda even during SLA imposed curfew hours in Jaffna town, in a meeting held by police authorities in Jaffna Sunday at Vembadi Girls’ College in Jaffna to discuss security arrangements for the contestants, sources in Jaffna said.
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Resettlement of IDPs within 180 days not possible – SL Minister

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 06:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Minister of Electricity and Energy, Aluthananda Gamage told media in Jaffna Saturday that it will not be possible to resettle Vanni IDPs in Ki’linochchi within 180 days. Aluthananda Gamage, who is staying in Jaffna to campaign in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council also said that the opening of the A9 route to public will be considered only after decisions are made in a Defence Ministry conference on the issue. Meanwhile, Basil Rajapakse, brother of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse and his advisor, had inaugurated the bus service from Jaffna to Colombo Wednesday declaring that the service will be conducted every other day in a week in a much publicized event.
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NCCL official remanded for allegedly defaming armed forces, SL President

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 12:43 GMT]
Colombo Magistrate Friday further remanded Mr. Jayampathy Shantha Nihal Fernando of Moratuwa, the Executive Secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the National Christian Council (NCCL) till August 7 for allegedly circulating false allegations against the Armed Forces, Sri Lankan Government and President Mahinda Rajapakse.
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Madu pilgrims to be registered at checkpoint to enter church premises

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 12:39 GMT]
All pilgrims attending the annual feast of “Our Lady of Madu” will have to be registered at a checkpoint that would be set up at Madu Road Junction, Police Spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media in Colombo. Madu Church festival is to begin on August 14. He said the registered names of pilgrims would be computerized by the Sri Lanka Army. Those leading the pilgrims are expected to submit three copies of name lists giving details of persons in their respective groups.
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2 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 04:23 GMT]
Seeduwa Police took into custody two Tamil youths Thursday on their arrival from Singapore. The vehicle in which they were travelling from Katunayake International Airport (KIA) was stopped at a road block in Seeduwa area and checked. Police said the youths were taken in for questioning and have recovered several digital cameras and cell phones which were in their possession.
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Postal voting in Jaffna, Vavuniya local elections on July 27, 28

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 14:44 GMT]
Postal voting in the forthcoming elections to Jaffna Municipal Council and Vavuniyaa Urban Council is to take place on July 27 and 28. 183 government servants are qualified to cast their votes in Vavuniyaa Urban Council and 335 out of 473 are qualified for postal voting in Jaffna Municipal Council, election department sources said.
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Sweden decides to close embassy in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 13:14 GMT]
The Government of Sweden Thursday decided to close its Embassy in Colombo and the Consulates-General in Kaliningrad, Canton, Los Angeles and New York. “The closure of the Embassy in Colombo is to be completed by 31 March 2010 at the latest. In connection with the Government's review of development cooperation in 2007 a decision was made to end Sweden's bilateral development assistance to Sri Lanka.
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Permission denied for travel from Colombo to Jaffna via A9

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 04:34 GMT]
“The Defence Ministry has not still granted permission for people to travel by bus from Colombo to Jaffna via A9 highway. Those who wish to travel to Jaffna from Colombo should do so by air or by sea,” Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) media spokesman, told Colombo media Thursday.
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Depression setting among Vanni IDPs in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 04:30 GMT]
Number of people suffering from some form of depression in the centres which are described by human rights organizations and activists as ‘internment camps’ is on the increase, Colombo media reported quoting a medical officer working in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) centres. The medical officer did not want to be named.
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3 washed ashore bodies in the islets of Jaffna identified

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 15:33 GMT]
Three of the six bodies washed ashore since Sunday in the islets of Jaffna have been identified as belonging to fishermen from Raameasvaram in Tamil Nadu, according to the identity cards found on the recovered bodies. Meanwhile, fishermen returning from the sea in the islets Thursday said that another body was sighted in the sea and that it would reach the shore Thursday night or Friday morning.
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Arbour to head ICG

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 11:28 GMT]
Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, becomes the President of the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels headquartered organization, recognised as one of the world’s leading independent, non-partisan, source of analysis and advisory group on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict, a media release issued by the ICG said Wednesday. During Ms Arbour's UN post, she visited Sri Lanka on a 5-day mission in October 2007, when Colombo blocked her from visiting the East. Arbour then spoke of the "weakness of the rule of law," and the "absence of vigourous investigations and prosecutions" on the large number of disappearances.
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West decides to buttress Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 11:01 GMT]
After weeks of deliberations the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has ultimately decided to release 2.5 billion dollar loan to Colombo on a 20-month stand-by basis. 133 million dollars will be made available immediately. The conditionality of the loan is due to be finalised on 24th July. Inside circles said that while the loan will relieve Colombo from acute financial crisis and pressure on external liquidity, it is going to be hooked with external obligations. But to what extent the external obligations are related to relief and political solutions to Tamils is not specified. Meanwhile insiders also said that the Indian Establishment was successful in convincing the visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of the ‘inevitable need’ of saving the regime in Colombo. "If the UN shields the war criminals, the IMF rewards them," Tamil circles responded to the IMF move.
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5 buses take passengers from Jaffna through A9 route

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 11:23 GMT]
Basil Rajapakse, the brother and advisor of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, inaugurated the opening of A9 route to public use Wednesday around 10:30 a.m by waving a flag for the convoy of five buses that carried 210 passengers from Jaffna to Mathavachchi, heavily escorted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in an event held at Duraippa Stadium in Jaffna. Minister Douglas Devananda and the Governor of Northern Province, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri were present on the occasion, sources in Jaffna said.
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French university conference on Tamils flawed in perspectives - Tamil academic

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 09:28 GMT]
Organisers from two French universities have embarked upon an international pluridisciplinary conference on ‘Tamil communities and the Sri Lankan conflict’, based on presumptions that the LTTE has ‘surrendered’ and what exists is only Tamil ‘minority rights’ issues, as though the question of Eezham Tamil nation doesn't exist. One of the conference themes is the role of religious communities in seeking solutions to “the traditional Tamil society founded mainly upon the importance of caste and religious solidarity.” A Tamil academic in Colombo, responding to the conference scheme said the current task of the Eezham Tamils is to prove their status of nationhood since the agenda of priority for Colombo, New Delhi and the IC that orchestrate media and universities, is to nullify Eezham Tamil nationalism.
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Colombo denies visa extension to AP's Sri Lanka bureau chief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 00:17 GMT]
Associated Press reported Tuesday that AP's bureau chief in Sri Lanka, Ravi Nessman, left Sri Lanka Monday after Colombo refused to extend Nessman's journalist visa. "We find this failure to renew Ravi's visa disturbing," John Daniszewski, AP's senior managing editor for international news, was quoted as saying in media reports. Colombo reports said that Nessman broke news of private U.N. reports outlining civilian death tolls, and also revealed the "first word of a government document from January outlining a plan to keep hundreds of thousands of displaced" Tamil civilians in the camps for up to three years.
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Colombo should end the farce, free doctors - New York Times

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 17:43 GMT]
In a devastatingly incriminating article on Sri Lanka's conduct of war and the holding of 300,000 Tamil civilians in internment camps, New York Times in an op-ed piece Tuesday said, the doctors who "worked heroically to save lives and alert the world to the humanitarian disaster endured by civilians trapped in the fighting," should be freed. Also, noting that "[t]he army was indiscriminately launching artillery shells and air strikes into mixed areas of insurgents and innocents and the Tigers shot at people who tried to escape," the paper added, "Sri Lankan government now risks losing the peace with its approach toward ethnic Tamils displaced by the conflict. Colombo needs to alter course if the country is to begin overcoming years of animosity and avoid having old hatreds and current antipathy turn into the next Tamil rebellion."
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Altogether 4 bodies washed ashore in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 15:11 GMT]
Oorkaavattu’rai police recovered a male body washed ashore each in Pungkudutheevu and Ezhuvaitheevu beaches in the islets of Jaffna Tuesday in addition to a male body washed ashore each in Pungkudutheevu and Ezhuvaitheevu Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. The four recovered bodies may belong to the fishermen from Raameasvaram in Tamil Nadu gone missing on the seas recently, police said. Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate, Ms. Joy Mahatheva, has directed the police to inform the Indian High Commission in Colombo and the fisheries societies in India and Sri Lanka to take necessary action to find whether the dead bodies belong to Indian fishermen.
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3 Tamil youths, travel agent arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 July 2009, 11:26 GMT]
Two Tamil youths who were waiting to take a flight to Cairo, capital of Egypt Thursday morning and another Tamil youth who arrived in Friday morning from Dubai were taken into custody at Katunayake International Airport by the Katunayake police. Police said they are being detained and are suspected to be LTTE cadres, sources in Colombo said.
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