Allaippiddi IDPs reluctant to return despite concessions

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 March 2008, 16:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka government (GoSL) and Jaffna Government Agent (GA) are making efforts to resettle Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Allaippiddi, displaced due to Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) offensives in August 2006, offering benefits and concessions with the help of International and local Non-government organizations, Jaffna Secretariat sources said. But 90% of the IDP fishing families are reluctant to return because fishing, their main means of living, is banned by SLN and the danger from land mines near civilian settlements have not been fully eliminated, IDP related welfare organization sources said.
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Sinhala daily: Sri Lanka tops Asian countries in number of NGOs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 March 2008, 11:18 GMT]
Around 600 Non Government Organisations (NGOs) are officially present in Sri Lanka, while 400 more NGOs are also engaged in Sri Lanka without official presence, Divayina, a Sinhala language daily reported on Saturday. Highlighting that Sri Lanka had become a lucrative country for peace agencies, the paper pointed out that more than one hundred organisations were engaged in peace-related business, benefiting from the CFA. The newspaper criticized 8 organizations for managing to get foreign funding to the tune of 20 million rupees per year and further alleged that these organizations, which claimed to be researching about peace, were in fact supplying "false information" to foreign actors.
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GoSL lacks will to bring justice – IIGEP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 March 2008, 00:16 GMT]
A lack of will on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) was one factor in the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) terminating its operations in Sri Lanka, Prof. Sir. Nigel Rodley, representing Britain in the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), told BBC Tamil service in an interview Thursday.
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TNA condemns SL Ministers' attempt to mislead Batticaloa voters

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 March 2008, 00:15 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a media communiqué released Saturday condemned the action of the cabinet ministers of Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) attempting to mislead civilians in Batticaloa for their own political gain by falsely claiming the Japan initiated scheme of reconstructing Kallady bridge as “Dawn of the East," whereas the project is part of the ongoing effort Japan's effort to rebuild bridges after tsunami.
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Ganesan charges SL Embassy for misinformation campaign

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 February 2008, 15:33 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, leader of Western Peoples Front (WPF) and convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), in a press release issued Friday, charged the Counselor for Sri Lanka Embassy in France misrepresenting the strength of security provided to him. The actual number of security personnel assigned is eight, and not eighteen as the Embassy official had said, the press release said. "[T]his too had come after the Lankan Court of Appeal’s intervention in this legal battle...," the release added.
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Changkilian Force threatens officials to stop Jaffna census activity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2008, 15:53 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA), Regional and Divisional Secretaries and officials involved in taking census in Jaffna peninsula have received warning notices signed by Changkilian Padai (Force) asking them to stop all census taking immediately, sources in Jaffna said. The note said that the census effort was launched by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) with hidden military motives, and warned that failure to comply will result in drastic actions.
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UPFA, TMVP alliance implicates GoSL complicity, collusion with armed group - CPA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 13:37 GMT]
Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo based think-tank that undertook a fact finding mission to Batticaloa district between February 8 and 11, said Sri Lanka's ruling United Peoples Freedom Allilance (UPFA) government, by opting for the alliance with the armed TMVP group in Batticaloa municipal council election, finds itself in a position where it is increasingly difficult for the GoSL to deny the charges of "complicity and collusion with the TMVP." The CPA's statement has warned that there was a clear sense of inevitability that the elections will result in a TMVP "victory" as it is the only "political actor" allowed to move around in recently resettled areas.
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Jaffna peninsula Demining activities stall

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 02:34 GMT]
Increased frequency in clashes between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Forward Defence lines (FDL) has resulted in humanitarian demining activities in the peninsula slowing down with the possibility of all related activities coming to a complete halt in the near future, representatives of various Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna said Saturday.
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Details of mine safe areas in Jaffna released

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 00:17 GMT]
The coordinating office for the removal of land mines in Jaffna peninsula, situated in Jaffna secretariat, in a communiqué issued Saturday, said mine clearing activities in areas permitted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is nearing completion and released details concerning the areas cleared of land mines.
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Fein challenges SL Ambassador on "right to secession"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 18:01 GMT]
"A debate between us would enlighten the American people, Congress, and the White House over a question central to the foreign policy of the United States: when should a right to secession from an existing sovereign be recognized? Tamil statehood, which would end a grisly conflict that has killed tens of thousands in Sri Lanka, is too important to be left to sophistry," challenged Bruce Fein in a letter addressed to Sri Lanka's Ambassador to U.S., Bernard Goonetilleke, following the Ambassador's 25th speech in Washington, and 17th February article titled "Tamil homeland fantasy" in Washington Times.
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Kosovo’s victory has lessons for other liberation struggles - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 16:16 GMT]
Describing Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Sunday and the ensuing international recognition as “a powerful shot in the arm to peoples resisting and seeking independence from tyrannical regimes,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper this said that “whilst every situation and every circumstance is unique, there are important lessons from the Kosovan march to independence for liberation struggles everywhere. The paper pointed out that just a few years ago, the idea of Kosovan independence had been dismissed by the international community and the Kosovan Liberation Army had been condemned as terrorists by the United States and other countries.
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Election violences escalate in Ea’raavoor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 13:25 GMT]
Two incidents of election related violence, one involving a hand grenade and the other altercation during an election meeting, occurred Wednesday night 11:00 p.m.in Ea’raavoor within Batticaloa District, Ea’raavoor police said.
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GoSL imposes restrictions on food supplies to Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 08:29 GMT]
New restrictions imposed by the Government of Sri Lanka on transport of goods from Vavuniyaa to Ki’linochchi via Oamanthai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) check post will severely hamper distribution of food and other essential commodities to Vanni, Vavuniyaa Secretariat sources said. SLA is directed to allow only 30% of the food supplies required to support Vanni needs, Ki’linochchi district Government Agent, Mr. Vethanayagam said. Meanwhile, a controlled price for bread is to be fixed in Jaffna peninsula with effect from Sunday, Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh said.
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Sri Lanka rejects Kosovo independence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 18:22 GMT]
While the United States and a number of European Union countries are expected to recognize Kosovo on Monday, Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry, reasoning that declaration of Independence can set "an unmanageable precedent in the conduct of international relations," said that Sri Lanka does not endorse the secession of Kosovo from Republic of Serbia. Questions raised by the birth of a new state towards demand for self-determination by similarly affected Tamils in Sri Lanka, may explain Sri Lanka's discomfiture towards Kosovo's independence, more than the outwardly expressed "concern" for the threat to international peace and security, political observers in Colombo said.
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Ministry reshuffle impacts relief supplies for Jaffna IDPs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 16:46 GMT]
The distribution of relief supplies for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) within Jaffna peninsula has been seriously affected due to shifting of the responsibility from the Ministry of Nation Building to the Ministry of Resettlement and Disaster Relief services, Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K.Ganesh said, Sunday.
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Kosovo's parliament declares Independence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 01:47 GMT]
Kosovo's parliament has unanimously endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia, in an historic session Sunday amid growing excitement among its ethnic Albanians, anger from its Serbs, and the launch of an EU mission to ease the birth of the world's newest state, AFP reported from Pristina, Kosovo. Tens of thousands of people had thronged the streets of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, since the morning. When news came of the declaration in parliament, the centre of the city erupted with fireworks, firecrackers and celebratory gunfire, BBC reported.
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Justification for Tamil statehood compelling under international law- Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 February 2008, 15:10 GMT]
Accusing a Sri Lanka website of "surrender[ing] the honorable role of scrutinizing and criticizing [Sri Lanka] government to become an obsequious courtier daily genuflecting to the GOSL and the Tamil quislings Karuna and Pillaiyan group," Bruce Fein, an attorney based in Washington D.C, in responding to questions posed by the website, challenged the site to publish a list of Americans killed or threatened by the LTTE, saying "[O]ne statutory requirement is proof that an organization threatens Americans or impairs the national security of the United States."
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Germany wants sanctions if Sri Lanka continues war

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 13:40 GMT]
Unless Sri Lanka’s hardline government abandons its militarist path, the EU should impose sanctions, Germany said this week, adding that an EU-Troika will travel to Sri Lanka in early March to assess the situation. In an interview with the Tages Speigel newspaper published on February 9, German Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul also said Germany had frozen new development cooperation projects with Sri Lanka and, because of the deteriorating security situation, was withdrawing half their development personnel from the island as well as closing the German Development Bank in Sri Lanka.
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Jaffna Local councils face financial crisis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 February 2008, 13:28 GMT]
Acute shortage of funds has crippled functioning of the local government authorities in the Jaffna Peninsula, and the Municipal and Pradeshya Sabhas face uncertain future, local administrative officials said. Development activities have been curtailed, and the security situation prevailing in the North has further impacted the day-to-day activities of the local councils, officials added.
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Election related violence escalate in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 February 2008, 19:03 GMT]
Thirteen election related incidents of violence have been reported from the date of submission of nominations by candidates for Batticaloa local council elections until Sunday 10 February, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) Vasantha Nanayaskkara in charge of the security of Eastern province, said Sunday.
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