Kandy / Senkadagala / Mahanuwara

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 07:43 GMT]
The enclosure / The red hill of difficult side / The great city
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SLA promotes 3 Brigadiers as Major Generals, 46 Colonels as Brigadiers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 July 2009, 10:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) promoted three Brigadiers to the rank of Major Generals and 46 Colonels as Brigadiers. These officers had served in Vanni war front during the military operations against the Liberation Tigers. Former General Officer of Command (GOC) of the 55 Division, Brigadier Prasanna Silva, present 53 Division GOC, Brigadier Chagi Gallage and Director Operations of Army Head Quarters, Brigadier Shavendra Silva have been promoted as Major Generals, sources in Colombo said.
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Young couple knifed to death in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 20:04 GMT]
Unidentified armed men broke through the roof of a house in Koa’ndaavil East in Jaffna and killed a young couple with sharp bladed weapons Tuesday night during Sri Lanka Amy imposed curfew hours, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, number of robberies in Jaffna has risen in Jaffna in the last few days where people have been also attacked with knives, the sources added.
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'Sathosa' opened in Jaffna for the third time

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 18:10 GMT]
Bandula Gunawardena, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Trade, Marketing Development Cooperative and Consumer Affairs, declared open a branch of Lanka Sathosa, a branch of the CWE, in Jaffna Windsor Theatre Tuesday, sources in Jaffna said. Sathosa was opened in Jaffna twice before but had been closed down as the government failed to send goods to keep it functioning, the sources added.
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SLA refuses to lift curfew during Nalloor temple annual festival

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 17:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities refused to lift the night curfew imposed in the peninsula in response to the request of the Saiva Organizations which wanted the curfew lifted during the Nalloor Kanthasuvami temple annual festival which began Monday so that devotees from all parts of the peninsula could attend the festival conveniently, sources in Jaffna said.
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Rajapaksa grants amnesty to SLA deserters during Buddhist rite

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 11:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Mahinda Rajapaksa, on the occasion of Esala Perahera, the Sri Lankan Buddhist festival that commemorates the scared tooth of Buddha, has granted an special amnesty for 1,933 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) deserters including SLA officers released from several prisons, Sri Lankan police authorities said Tuesday.
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IMF takes charge in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 00:02 GMT]
Whilst Sri Lanka’s government hailed its securing of an IMF loan for $2.6bn last week as a ‘victory’ and as indication of international support for its political and economic policies, the reality is the reverse. Sri Lanka has been compelled to accept not only painful economic and quasi-political obligations, but also the kind of external supervision the ultra-Sinhala nationalist regime routinely rails against. Moreover, whilst the IMF loan is ostensibly to revive Sri Lanka’s economy, its first purpose is to ensure the government keeps up with repayments to prior foreign lenders. In short, Sri Lanka can borrow from the IMF to pay back its creditors but has to undertake harsh economic reforms - under IMF supervision - for the breathing space.
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TNA accuses government of using state resources in JMC election campaign

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 16:36 GMT]
Ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) conducted Sunday a large scale procession of vehicles organized by Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in Jaffna town in which more than a thousand supporters participated, canvassing people to vote for the Betel symbol of UPFA, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which has also entered into the fray, accused UPFA and its ally EPDP of using government vehicles for election campaign. TNA also accused the police for being partial to UPFA in carrying out duties related to Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, the sources added.
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New SLA Commander meets North-East commanders in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 02:34 GMT]
The newly appointed Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, met all the Security Forces Commanders of Jaffna, Vanni, Mullaitheivu, Killinochchi, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaarai and other senior Field Commanders in the North and East, for the first time after his assumption of duties, at the Vanni Security Forces headquarters located in Vavuniyaa Saturday. During the conference special attention was drawn to the security situation in different regions in the North and East, media reports said.
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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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Supreme Indiscretion

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 01:23 GMT]
While the U.S. voters closely followed the intense scrutiny at the recent Senate hearing to appoint Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court - the venerable institution that the U.S. public trusts will make decisions based on law to create a just society - Sri Lanka's Supreme Court and the judicial system where the justices are appointed at the whims of Sri Lanka's President, came under scathing attack by International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (‘IBAHRI’), and the International Crisis Group (ICG). IBAHRI report said, among other concerns, "[t]he lack of independent oversight and practice of executive presidential discretion over judicial appointments makes the judiciary vulnerable to executive interference and jeopardizes its independence."
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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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Islamic factions clash in Beruwala, 3 killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 07:57 GMT]
Three Muslim civilians were killed and seven others injured in a clash between two Islamic factions, Tawjeed and Ahla Sunnat Jamatt in Beruwala of Kalutara district Friday night, Sri Lankan Police said. Most of the shops in the predominant Muslim town Beruwala, remain closed on Saturday.
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SLN imposes new restrictions on visitors to Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 04:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLA) authorities in Mannaar have directed all persons visiting Mannaar Island to surrender their national identity card and to obtain a special pass at the Mannaar Fort sentry point before entering the town. This directive has caused difficulties for the visitors to transact business and other official activities with banks and other government departments, civil society sources complain.
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Genocide Studies Center holds Sri Lanka event in Minnesota campus

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 01:17 GMT]
During an event on Sri Lanka's civil war sponsored by Center of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Human Rights Center, and the Genocide Intervention Network-Minnesota, and held Wednesday at the College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, Dr. Ellen Kennedy, the Interim Director for the Center of Holocaust and Genocide Studies spoke of the 25 million IDPs in 25 countries with 425,000 IDPs in Sri Lanka alone. "IDPs own country is responsible for the well being of the IDPs, but it is mainly the same country by its own action creates the IDPs," she said.
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US, UK, France abstain, IMF vote to approve Sri Lanka loan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 00:10 GMT]
Despite opposition from the US, UK, and France, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Friday approved a $2.6B loan to Sri Lanka, of which approximately $322m will be made available immediately, wire reports from Washington D.C. said. "The U.S. position was based on an assessment, in the current circumstances, of the ability and commitment of the government to carry out necessary policy adjustments during an IMF program," a U.S. Treasury spokesperson said. A British Government source said that that it was “not the right time to go forward” with the loan, because Sri Lanka is forcibly detaining nearly 300,000 mostly Tamil refugees in internment camps and spending a large proportion of its wealth on its military - even though the country’s bloody 26-year civil war ended in May, British daily, The Times reported.
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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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Grass root organisations form Global Tamil Forum

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 23:57 GMT]
A number of grass root Tamil organisations across the world on Thursday launched an initiative in forming Global Tamil Forum (GTF) said Suren Surendran of British Tamil Forum, which is one of the constituent organisations of the Forum. The Tamil diaspora is united in restoring the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in their homeland and bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice, Mr. Surendran told TamilNet. The Forum will work for the benefit of Eelam Tamils based on the principles of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution that recognises Self-Determination of Eezham Tamils in creating an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, said Dr. Sampavi Parimalanathan, a diaspora activist in Australia.
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Government trying to win JMC election using unfair means – TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 16:20 GMT]
“Sri Lanka government plans to bring 80 Sinhalese officers from South to serve as Junior Polling Officers in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election while there are sufficient Tamil speaking government officers in Jaffna to conduct the election; it is obvious that the government intends to win the election by rigging as it had done in the East,” Suresh Premachandran, Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, said in a press meet held in the TNA Thamizharasuk Kadchchi (TK) office in Jaffna. TNA chief candidate Mudiyappu Remedias participated in the press meet.
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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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