Only UNP can solve the problems of the Tamils – Dr. Jayalath Jayawardne

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 18:27 GMT]
“The present government will never offer a solution for the problems of the Tamils; only the United National Party (UNP) will solve their problems,” Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, the Deputy Secretary of UNP, said in a press conference held Thursday in Delka hotel in Jaffna. “The government does not allow the opposition MPs to see the Vanni IDPs in the camps when it permits people to visit even prisoners in jails; this is gross injustice of the government which has betrayed the Tamils,” he further said.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

1000-mile trek by Canadian students reaches half way mark

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 01:52 GMT]
Three Canadian college students, who started a 1000-mile trek from Chicago to Washington D.C. on the 26th of June to raise awareness of the general American population to the several thousand Tamil civilians killed by the Sri Lanka military during the first two weeks of May, and the 300,000 Tamil civilians held in Sri Lanka military supervised internment camps, have now nearly reached the half-way mark. "The men arrived in Dayton Monday morning after starting their trip in Chicago. By the time the trip is done, the men will have walked more than a thousand miles," the Dayton Television station WDTN reported.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

HRW calls for international inquiry into ACF-17 massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:31 GMT]
Quoting James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) that "[f]or three years since the ACF massacre, the Rajapaksa government has put on an elaborate song and dance to bedazzle the international community into believing justice is being done," HRW in a news release issued Monday added, "the Sri Lankan government's gross mishandling of the investigation into the execution-style slaying of 17 aid workers in the northeastern town of Mutur three years ago demonstrates the need for an international commission of inquiry."
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Manhattan GAP becomes target to trade boycott dry-run

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 01:12 GMT]
About twenty protesters stood in front of the fashionable clothing store GAP located at 34th street and Broadway intersection in Manhattan, New York, Saturday afternoon carrying placards urging U.S. shoppers to stop buying goods made in Sri Lanka. Placards claimed that Sri Lanka is one of the worst human rights violator nations in recent history, slaughtering more than 20,000 civilians in April and May 2009, according to a reputable British broadsheet, and keeping more than 300,000 Tamil civilians in military supervised internment camps as collective punishment. Protesters said, by engaging in apparel trade with Sri Lanka, GAP is funding genocidal war against the Tamil people.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

SL minister talks stopping SLA interference while civil administration militarised

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 17:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Minister of Power and Energy, Aluthananda Gamage, said in Jaffna Sunday that the interference of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna civil administration will be brought to a stop when 500 Tamil policemen selected in Jaffna district are appointed. The minister said that the newly appointed policemen will be engaged in the civil administration in Jaffna. Tamil circles responded that the promise is of no meaning when the civil administration itself is militarised in the Tamil areas with the appointment of military personnel to civil service and governorship.
Full story >>

Congressman urges Holder to review Gotabaya, Fonseka genocide indictment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 15:01 GMT]
United States Congressman G.K. Butterfield, who represents North Caronlina's first district, in a letter addressed to the U.S. Attorney General (AG), Eric Holder, referred to the model indictment submitted by the US-activist group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), charging Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and former Sri Lanka Army Commander Lt.Gen. Fonseka of crimes against humanity, and urged the AG to "investigate the charges of violations of the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007 and the War Crimes Act related to atrocities against the Tamils in northern Sri Lanka." The indictment details allegations of the efforts to destroy the Tamil people of northern Sri Lanka through atrocities and genocide, and chronicles more than 3,750 extrajudicial killings, approximately 30,000 Tamils suffering serious bodily injury and more than 1.3 million civilian displacements.
Full story >>

President Rajapakse will give nothing to Tamils – Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 06:49 GMT]
“Tamils should be vigilant of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse’s intentions. He says that there is no minority race in the country but only a majority race. It is clear that his intention is to assimilate the Tamil race into the Majority Sinhala race in Sri Lanka,” Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, told TamilNet Saturday in an interview in Jaffna.
Full story >>

Irish Trade Unions call for Sri Lanka war crimes investigations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 02:23 GMT]
Noting that more than quarter of a million Tamils were crammed in to an area the size of New York Central park that was repeatedly bombarded for 4 months when "the UN estimates that up to 8000 people were killed," and "other sources claim that more than 20,000 people were killed," and "[t]here are several reports about serious war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan Army," David Begg, General Secretary of Irish Congress of Trade Unions with a total membership of 850,000 workers, in a letter to Ireland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, said he agrees with "Amnesty International's call for an independent inquiry into war crimes," and added that "[t]he Irish Congress of Trade Unions hopes that the Irish government will take initiatives on the international level, and within the European Union, for such an independent inquiry."
Full story >>

“Colombo no longer has any excuse for its brutal policies” - National Post

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 20:48 GMT]
In light of the 'military victory' over the LTTE, Sri Lanka must now be judged by the human-rights standards that typically govern developing countries. And by those standards, the country's recent conduct should be of great concern” said an editorial in the National Post on Friday, citing the detainment of 280,000 Tamil civilians in government camp as indicating Tamils “are destined to remain second class citizens”. Questioning the global silence over the deaths of thousands of civilians in the final stages of the war and the praise given to the Sri Lankan Government by the U.N Human Rights Council, the article observed a continued double standard by the international community, where “apparently, some humans' human rights count for more than others”.
Full story >>

Hundreds of Tamils interrogated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 08:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched Friday an intensive search mostly in Fort and Bambalapitiya stopping passenger buses and other vehicles and interrogated hundreds of Tamils, sources in Colombo said. Though the search was conducted for more than three hours no official information of anyone arrested is available, they said.
Full story >>

Army officer appointed as Commissioner of Rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 July 2009, 11:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse has appointed Major General Daya Ratnaike as the new Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, the government information department announced Thursday. He is the latest recruit from the military to the civil administration by Mr. Rajapakse.
Full story >>

Tamil political prisoners in Welikada begin fasting demanding their release

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 July 2009, 06:53 GMT]
A group of Tamil political prisoners currently being detained in Welikada prison for many years without any inquiry and not being produced in court began fast unto death campaign Wednesday demanding their release or to indict them in court. The campaign is being conducted in the Welikada prison complex. However Sri Lankan prison authorities denied that no such fasting is held inside the prison complex.
Full story >>

India needs to work with IC - Former Indian diplomat

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 23:10 GMT]
India has a common interest with the US in countering China’s strategy. No matter the motives behind the US’ current emphasis on a “political settlement”, after having been a staunch supporter of Rajapaksa’s war, Delhi must closely work with the Barack Obama Administration, writes former Indian diplomat M. Bhadrakumar, who sees Delhi’s political leverage over Colombo diminishing in what he thinks ‘post-LTTE’ era. To make up lost influence India needs to work with the IC, promote urgent international monitoring mission and mobilise IC opinion favouring political process and settlement within reasonable timeline, he said.
Full story >>