Delay in resettling Vanni IDPs lamentable – PCPG

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 July 2009, 04:41 GMT]
“No one is showing any interest at all in resettling the Vanni Internally Displaced Persons or consider their miserable lives, being detained in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps,” representatives of the Peoples’ Committee for Peace and Goodwill (PCPG) Jaffna, led by Jaffna Bishop Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, told Dr. Packiyasothy Saravanamuthu, the head of Colombo based Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Sunday at Jaffna Bishop’s house. A team led by the head of CPA arrived in Jaffna to attend to matters related to the monitoring of the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, sources in Jaffna said.
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Air of martial triumph unbefitting while controversy surrounds Tamil civilian deaths - NY Times

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 16:07 GMT]
Noting that "[t]he Tamil minority has suffered discrimination and violence at the hands of various Sinhalese-dominated governments through the decades. Tamils have sought, first peacefully, then violently, the right to a measure of self-rule in Tamil-dominated areas," the New York Times in a Sunday article said, "[m]any Sri Lankans see these soldiers as heroes, but given the controversy that remains over how many Tamil civilians were killed in the last weeks of the fighting, some people find the air of martial triumph unseemly."
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Police force public to attend UPFA election office opening in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 14:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police brought in their vehicles ten persons each from their local areas in Jaffna peninsula whom they had summoned to the police stations through the respective Village Officers, to the official opening of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) election office in Jaffna, Sunday around 9:30 a.m, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Minister Douglas Devananda, leader of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), an ally of UPFA, was a notable absentee in the event held in the newly opened UPFA election office located on Somasuntharam Veethi, Chu’ndikkuzhi, Jaffna, the sources added.
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Dayan Jayatilake sacked from UN ambassador post

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 10:52 GMT]
Mr.Dayan Jayatilake said he had been sacked from his post as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at Geneva. Mr.Jayatilake told Colombo media that he had been sacked from July 17 - a fax came from the Foreign Ministry, terminating his contract with effect from August 20 and requesting his return. No reasons were given, Jayatilake said, according to Colombo media reports.
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Court explores relaxing restrictions on Jaffna to Colombo travel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 16:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday, in a Fundamental Rights petition inquiry, directed the Attorney General to consider the relaxation of the procedure now being in force to obtain special permission from the defence ministry to travel from Jaffna to Colombo, legal sources in Colombo said. Senior Counsel, Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy, filed the FR petition that the restriction imposed on residents of Jaffna traveling from Jaffna to Colombo without special permission from the security forces is violation of fundamental rights, according to court documents.
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Capturing Jaffna market, the sole intention of Southern Traders – JTU

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 16:31 GMT]
“The traders and ministers from the South invading Jaffna peninsula are only interested in capturing the market in Jaffna peninsula; their visits are not in anyway beneficial for the people here,” Jaffna Traders’ Union (JTU) sources said Friday participating in a meeting with the 45 members of the National Chamber of Commerce (NCC) visiting Jaffna to explore possibilities of market opportunities. JTU met the Minister of Industrial Development, Kumara Welgama, in a separate meeting Friday, also held in the JTU office on Maanipaay road in Jaffna, where JTU members requested the lorries of Jaffna traders to be allowed to transport goods through A9 road to Jaffna as their repeated requests to several government authorities had been ignored, JTU sources added.
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Policy on Tamils haunts India

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 05:20 GMT]
Setting the parameters based on 13 plus and ruling out federal, the Colombo – Chennai – New Delhi axis is learnt to be pressurising Tamil political circles to come out with a political formula, as early as possible, to hastily close the file on Tamil nationalism and to hide all skeletons under the cupboard. The haste in the Indian Establishment is said to be arising from the fear of China’s growing influence in the island resulted from India’s folly of not maintaining balance in the ethnic war. “Grasping geopolitics and aspirations of people, the Tamil political circles need to play the cards with dexterity,” said TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Tissainayagam judgement fixed for August 31

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 02:30 GMT]
The Colombo High Court judge Ms. Deepali Wijesundara Friday fixed the judgment for August 31 on the case against senior journalist Mr.J.S.Tissanayagam who was indicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER), legal sources in Colombo said. Mr. Tissainayagam was charged on three counts including printing and distributing the publication North Eastern Monthly magazine, and the offences was stated to have been committed during the period between June 1, 2006 and June 1, 2007.
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Court orders detained UN workers to be produced before Medical Officer

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 00:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday directed the State to produce, before the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO), the two workers of the United Nations agency now being detained by the Sri Lanka police, and to submit the medical report within two weeks. Two UN workers, Charles Ravindran Navaratnam, 45, and Kanthasamy Soundararajan, 35, were arrested on June 13 when they were fleeing into the government controlled area from Vanni. Since then they are being detained without appearence before a court of law or before the Judicial Medical Officer, legal sources in Colombo said.
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SL minister promises to fulfill President Rajapakse’s dream, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 15:14 GMT]
”President Mahinda Rajapakse’s present dream is to make goods available to Jaffna people at reasonable Colombo prices”, Minister of Electricity and Energy, Aluthananda Gamage, said in an event held at Nalloor Divisional Secretariat Tuesday, sources in Jaffna said. The visiting minister, accompanied by Minister Douglas Devananda, further promised that steps would be taken before 1st August to fulfill President Rajapakse’s dream, the sources added.
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Death threats to Jaffna Uthayan daily continue

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 July 2009, 17:24 GMT]
Reporters, employees and agents of Uthayan Tamil daily published in Jaffna continue to be issued with death threats by post despite President Rajapakse’s recent assurance that he will not permit anyone to violate the freedom of the press, sources in Jaffna said. A group calling itself ‘Tamil Front Protecting the Country’ allegedly linked to a paramilitary group operating with Colombo had issued on 27 June a notice titled ‘Final Warning’ to Uthayan Tamil daily office in Jaffna warning that Uthayan staffers will be killed if they do not officially relinquish their posts with effect from 30 June 2009.
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Holding grounds is fundamental to everything

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 22:34 GMT]
Professing defeatism or surrendering the basic grounds are not the ways to begin or to sustain the struggle with the masses, even in ways anew, perhaps through democratic means. Talking on the need to continue the struggle is not to rule out the need to negotiate. But negotiation is not collaboration. Negotiators need a firm platform supported by the hearts of the masses on behalf of whom they negotiate. Negotiation cannot take place when the platform is surrendered. It is to safeguard the platform for struggle and negotiation the Tamil circles are now keen in re-affirming the democratically mandated Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 that upholds independence, sovereignty and self-determination of Eezham Tamils, at least where there is freedom of expression. Even after 2000 years the Jews were able to regain their land because they never lost their nationalism or the thought of Israel.
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Colombo doctors to investigate outbreak of meningitis, encephalitis in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 17:29 GMT]
Six medical officers from Colombo are scheduled to visit IDP camps which are described as internment camps by human rights agencies in Vavuniya tomorrow to investigate a suspected outbreak of meningitis and encephalitis, reported from the Vavuniyaa General Hospital. Meanwhile the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has charged that a severe shortage of nurses and pharmacists in the Vavuniyaa camps is compounding health problems there.
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Notorious commander appointed Governor of Northern Province

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 17:05 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the new Governor of the Northern Province. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Tamil political circles in Colombo commented that Mr. Rajpaksa, who claims to have crushed the de-facto state of Tamil Eelam, has appointed his military men in key posts in the occupied Tamil homeland to head civil services with a 'colonial mindset'. Earlier, in April, Rajapaksa appointed Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' in Vavuniyaa.
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Gotabaya labels popular Colombo attorneys as traitors

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 16:39 GMT]
A defence website run by Sri Lanka's Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapakse has labeled the attorneys appearing to defend Leader Publications (Pvt) which was charged with allegedly publishing a libelous article involving Secretary of Defence Mr Gotabaya Rajapakse, as traitors. "A new team comprising of some who have a history of appearing for and defending LTTE suspects in the past, namely Srinath Perera, Upul Jayasuriya, S. Sumanthiran, Attorney-at-Law Viran Corea, Attorney-at-Law instructed by Athula Ranagala, Attorney-at-Law appeared for Leader Publications," the website further said.
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AG to file response to FR petition on “internment “camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2009, 22:01 GMT]
Three member Bench of the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General (AG) to file objections within two weeks in respect of granting leave to proceed, and interim relief to the Petitioners, in a Fundament Rights (FR) Violation petition against the detention of nearly three hundred thousand Vanni IDPs in State controlled "welfare centres" which have been described by human rights activists and organizations as "internment camps," legal sources in Colombo said.
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SLA Intelligence Unit behind abduction, murder of Bank official

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2009, 21:24 GMT]
The Colombo Crime Division (CCD) arrested a captain and four soldiers from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit, Friday, in connection with the abduction and murder of Peoples' Bank Kollupitiya branch assistant manager, Mr Gunasinghe Premathilake, police said.
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Inclusion is effective nationalism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2009, 10:01 GMT]
Ethnic identity is not genetic but of social origin caused by political action, argues Dr. A.R.M. Imtiyaz of Temple University, USA, explaining what made the Tamil speaking Muslims in the island of Sri Lanka opting for a separate identity seeking power. In a recent article ‘The Eastern Muslims of Sri Lanka: special problems and solutions,’ published in the Journal of Asian and African Studies, Dr. Imtiyaz emphasizes that the divide, a reality of today caused politically, has to be addressed by appropriate political models for the mutual benefit of Tamils and Muslims in their homeland. The academic, hailing from Colombo, rejects feasibility of power-sharing units for Muslims in such an inter-dependent landscape, but suggests consociationalism, i.e., proportional allocation of power.
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Fishing restrictions in Jaffna will continue – Fisheries Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 July 2009, 15:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Fisheries Minister and Aquatic Resources, Felix Perera, told representatives of the Fisheries Societies in Jaffna peninsula that the current restrictions on fishing in Jaffna lagoon and in the seas of the islets of Jaffna will not be lifted until new radars are installed between Mannaar and Poonakari, on being requested to lift the existing restrictions which continue even after President Mahinda Rajapakse’s public announcement that 24 hours fishing is permitted in the North, sources in Jaffna said.
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PTF Permission necessary to enter former Vanni war zone

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 July 2009, 14:05 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has directed those who intend to enter the former conflict areas in the North to transport goods and conduct other activities should obtain permission from the Presidential Task Force (PTF). All local and foreign non-governmental organizations should also obtain permission from the PTF to enter former conflict areas in the North.
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