Government does not reveal true number of Vanni IDPs yet to be resettled

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 February 2010, 02:31 GMT]
Though the government of Sri Lanka reports that only less than 60,000 Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the camps remain to be resettled, more than a hundred thousand of them have not been resettled in their own places but have sought refuge with their relatives and friends while some of them live in temporary sheds put up on government lands, according to Ki’linochchi District Secretariat sources. The government issues false figures so as to create a picture that all is going well according to plans with the resettlement of Vanni IDPs, they further said.
Full story >>

SL state media turned into propaganda outlets for Rajapaksa: RSF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 January 2010, 13:49 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders, on Thursday said it had established that 98.5 per cent of the news and current affairs air-time on Sri Lankan state-owned TV stations Rupavahini and ITN on 18 and 19 January was given over to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his supporters. “The TV propaganda is deafening and the figures we are releasing today are worthy of the Burmese or North Korean regimes," the press freedom organisation said. Control of the state media has become crucial to the election campaign. The Commissioner of Elections has issued several reminders about the rules requiring balanced coverage and tried to introduce a Competent Authority to monitor the TV stations, but the president’s office resisted. The Sri Lankan supreme court’s ruling has also been ignored, the RSF said.
Full story >>

TNA MP complains of Sinhala colonisation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 January 2010, 04:28 GMT]
“Government has taken action to settle 107 Sinhalese families in the traditional Tamil areas in Batticaloa district within the last three months,” P. Ariyanethiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa parliamentarian, said in a report. He further said that a written complaint about the matter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had not produced any result.
Full story >>

Eezham / E'lu / He'la

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 00:01 GMT]
The gold (land)
The land of metal
Full story >>

Sinhala / Chingka'lam / Ceylon

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 21:03 GMT]
The red tract of land
Full story >>

Colombo court remands 2 Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 15:38 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were ordered remand by the Colombo Magistrate Tuesday till December 16 on a report submitted by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) that they were cadres of the LTTE air-wing involved in sentry duties at the Visuvavamadu air strip.
Full story >>

North, East assigned 31 seats in new parliament

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 November 2009, 17:21 GMT]
The number of parliamentary seats for the North and East provinces in the new parliament would be the same as at present-31. There is no change, according to gazette notification issued by the Commissioner General of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake.
Full story >>

Encroachment of government lands in Batticaloa Tamil areas

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 November 2009, 16:46 GMT]
Ma’nmunai Southwest Divisional Secretariat has informed the Deputy Secretary to President Rajapakse confirming the illegal colonization of government lands in Batticaloa district in Eastern Province where Tamil people live predominantly. Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Ariyanenthiran had already brought the issue of illegal colonization to the President and his Deputy Secretary had called for reports from the three Government Agents (GAs) in Eastern Province.
Full story >>

Madu SLA Brigade commander dies in road accident

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 2009, 18:57 GMT]
Colonel Duminda Amarasekara of the 611 Madu brigade of the Sri Lanka Army died in a road accident Wednesday early morning that took place in Thorayaya in Kurunegala district. The Sri Lankan Colonel had been traveling in an army cab in the direction of Dambulla when the accident had occurred.
Full story >>

Eastern Province CM unable to stop Sinhalese colonization – Ariyanenthiran

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 October 2009, 08:41 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA), P. Ariyanenthiran who was able to visit his constituency after three years Friday said that Sinhalese families from the South have been colonized in Choaliyaamadu village in Paddiruppu Regional Secretariat division in Batticaloa district. He told media that the Chief Minister of Eastern Province, though a Tamil, cannot stop traditional home lands of Tamils being colonized with Sinhalese families.
Full story >>

India denies visa to US rights activist

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 September 2009, 03:47 GMT]
Indian embassy in New York denied a visa to US-based humanitarian worker and a critic of the Sri Lanka Government, Dr Ellyn Shander to travel to New Delhi to address the Delhi Tamil Sangam on 20th September, Deccan Chronicle reported. Shander was to address the Delhi meeting with MDMK General Secretary Vaiko, after attending meeting in Bangalore with the local Tamil Sangam on 15th of September.
Full story >>

SLA massacred civilians in bunkers - medical worker

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 08:57 GMT]
The advancing Sri Lanka Army massacred civilians by paving their bunkers with tanks, by throwing explosives inside the bunkers and by shooting the injured, says a medical worker who came out of Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal during the last days of the war, became incarcerated in a camp and now escaped the island. "Around a hundred thousand captured civilians herded to Mullaiththeevu were kept in rows within barbed wires, most of the time without water or food under the hot sun, and were bullied and ill treated with arrogance," he writes in a lengthy note that reached TamilNet this week. The note in Tamil was provided by the Norwegian Tamils Health Organisation (NTHO), urging TamilNet not to reveal the identity of the health worker for reasons of his security.
Full story >>

Relocating Moothoor east IDPs continues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 11:54 GMT]
The sixth group of internally displaced families from Moothoor east Tamil villages who had sought refuge in Batticaloa district since the military operation launched by the Sri Lanka in April 2006 were sent back Thursday morning by seven buses via Verukal to Ki’liveddi. They are again given temporary shelter in a welfare centre in Ki’liveddi as they are not allowed to resettle in their traditional villages in Moothoor east which are located in the SLA declared high security zone after its military operation, sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu government erases the word 'Eezham'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police was seen pasting white papers on the word 'Eezham' and on the picture of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, figured in the banners and posters of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchi (VCK) organised uprising in Chennai attended by more than 100,000 people Monday. The VCK's annual uprising day, conducted on the birthday of its leader Thol Thirumavalavan, has chosen the theme 'Ezhum Thamizh Eezham' for this year. The phrase can either mean the 'rising Tamil Eelam' or 'Tamil Eelam will rise'. The word 'Eezham' is the earliest reference to today's island of Sri Lanka, found in Tamil literature and inscriptions of pre-Christian centuries.
Full story >>

1187 students in internment camps sit for GCE A/L examination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 14:59 GMT]
1187 students including a visually impaired student detained in internment camps with nearly 300,000 people displaced from Vanni region have been sitting for the G.C.E.Advanced Level-2009 examinations which commenced Tuesday. District education officials said that about 166 students are identified by Sri Lanka military as ex-combatants.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

4 border Sinhala villages brought under Batticaloa district administration

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 08:42 GMT]
Four Sinhala border villages which were administered under Ampaa'rai district for the last eighteen years have now been brought under the administration of Batticaloa district. Sinhala villages, Gemunupura and Managalagama located along Batticaloa-Chengkaladi-Badulla highway have been annexed with Ea’raavoor Pattu-Chengkaladi Divisional Secretariat division (DS) and Keviliyaamadu and Pulugannaawa with Paddippazhai DS division. Both DS divisions come under the administration of Batticaloa District Secretariat.
Full story >>

Mahanayake announces programme to renovate “destroyed” Buddhist sites in NE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 08:28 GMT]
Malwatte Mahanayake Thera Venerable Tibbotuwawe Siddhartha Sri Sumagalabhidana Thera Sunday announced that a programme is to be launched shortly in the North and East to renovate Buddhist religious sites, according to him, destroyed or damaged during the war.
Full story >>

More Moothoor IDPs transferred to Ki’liveddi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 July 2009, 09:37 GMT]
Aaraiyampathi Vayiravar Koayil welfare centre in Batticaloa district was closed down Tuesday following the transfer of the final batch of 51 members of eighteen Tamil families displaced from Tamil villages located in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Moothoor east in Trincomalee district during 2006 April military operation. They were transported in three State sector buses via Vaakarai and Verukal to Ki’liveddi Tuesday morning. They would be sheltered in welfare centres located in Ki’liveddi, Paddiththidal and Thillaangkear’ni till alternative lands are found for them, civil authority sources said.
Full story >>

Colombo / Kozhumpu / Ko'lumpu / Ko'lamba

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 13:46 GMT]
The point where the land bends inside
The point of the bend
Full story >>