'Pentagon blighting Tamil cause may turn counter-productive to US interests'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 January 2011, 00:39 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government does have supporters in the U.S., particularly in military circles. Senior officials told me that their government owed much to a Pentagon official named James Clad, ‘a great friend of Sri Lanka.’ Clad was the Bush Administration’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia, in charge of the Pentagon’s dealings with India and Sri Lanka, until he was replaced by the Obama Administration in January, 2009,” wrote John Lee Anderson in Newyorker.com last week, adding that in order to reform Sri Lanka’s public image, Clad, who recently retired from the Pentagon’s National Defense University, recommended to Gotabaya Rajapaksa that he host a meeting on maritime-security concerns in the Indian Ocean to “get out of its box as a ‘single-issue country’ and reconnect it with an earlier maritime heritage,” Anderson cited Clad, advising Gotabhaya.
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SLA soldier on rape attempt attacked by Neerveali villagers

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 January 2011, 17:21 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier who attempted to rape a young Tamil woman in Neerveali in Jaffna district in the early hours of Friday was caught and severely beaten by the villagers,who heard the woman shout. The soldier, from a camp belonging to Achchuvea'li section of the SLA, was handed over to Koappaay Police by the villagers. The police has not produced the soldier in the courts, but admitted that a soldier was heavily beaten by the villagers was taken for medical treatment.
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Batticaloa flood relief diverted to Kudumpimalai SLA camps

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 13:46 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is reported to have appropriated the flood relief materials intended for flood affected villagers in the Batticaloa district, and has distributed the materials to soldiers in SLA camps located in Kudumpimalai, civil sources in Batticaloa said. The Deputy Resettlement Minister in the Mahinda Rajapakse government, Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan alias Karuna, claimed that he had allocated two tonnes of relief materials for the distribution among affected families in the Batticaloa. Now it has come to light that the assistance had been handed over to the Batticaloa Headquarters of the Sri Lanka Army and not to the civil authority in the district.
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Kosovo Ex-Army commanders charged of War Crimes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 21:46 GMT]
European Union (EU) prosecutors have charged former Kosovo Army Commanders, Sabit Geci, 52, and Riza Alija, 50, of "war crimes against civilian population" committed in two camps in Albania towards the end of Kosovo war, according to the indictment. The two were charged with committing war crimes on Kosavars fleeing the war and who were suspected of collaborating with Serbia or having political views different from the Kosavar Army. The prosecuters belong to the 3000-member EU Rule of Law (EULEX) mission which was launched in December 2008 to enforce the rule of law in the newly declared Kosovo and to supervise Kosovo's police, customs, and judiciary.
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Colombo attempts to divert attention from increasing lawlessness in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 18:00 GMT]
Colombo is campaigning to portray the continually escalating incidents of civilian murders, disappearance and robberies as being the result of individual enmities and family squabbles among the local population, civil sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna district Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Neville Padmadeva, speaking at a conference to explore the reasons for the increasing crimes, held in Jaffna’s Veerasingham Hall Friday, in the presence of NGOs, journalists and civil society members, advanced this view, according to attendees. Colombo is keen to divert the attention of the media and the international community from focusing on Sri Lanka Security forces saturating Jaffna district, and Colombo’s tacit sanction to Jaffna-deployed Sri Lanka soldiers and collaborating paramilitaries to create fear among the public to suppress dissent, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Fifth Anniversary of Trincomalee Students execution

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 January 2011, 01:18 GMT]
As relatives of the five Trincomalee students, who were shot dead execution style by Sri Lanka soldiers on January 2nd 2006, prepare to remember the fifth anniversary and mourn the death of their children, Dr. Kasipillai Manoharan, the father of Ragihar, one of the students killed, appealed to international rights groups including the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate the crime and to provide justice to his lost son and his friends who were killed. Information, recently made public, from the US embassy in Colombo, which has highlighted that ruling Rajapakse family sanctioned extra-judicial killings in the NorthEast, adds further obligation to international human rights watchdogs to take steps to advocate independent international investigations into war crimes.
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Forced prostitution, sex slavery with GoSL complicity – US cable

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2010, 02:39 GMT]
Forced prostitution and trafficking abroad for sex of Tamil children are amongst the organized criminal activities being undertaken with the knowledge of the Sri Lankan government by its troops and allied Tamil paramilitary groups, according to another Wikileaked US embassy cable from May 2007. The cable says these practices, which constitute war crimes, were raised “repeatedly” with Sri Lanka’s top leadership, including the President and top ministers. “The preponderance of [accounts] and the extent to which they independently corroborate each other points to a pattern of GSL complicity with paramilitary groups on multiple levels,” the then US Ambassador Robert Blake wrote.
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Police confirm arrest of two Tamil youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 17:22 GMT]
Batticaloa Police said the two brothers, Perinparasa Thavaseelan, 20, and Perinparasa Thirukeswaran, 38, taken into custody by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on Saturday afternoon around 12:30 pm on an allegation that they had hidden weapons in their land at Ma'nippuram-Katpaanaikulam in Aayithimalai Police Division are now detained in Earaa’voor Police Station. Thavaseelan was arrested while he was staying in his house and his brother Thirukeswaran while returning home after handing over milk to the Ilupaiyadichchenai milk collecting centre the same day at Keluthimadu village.
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SLA 'arrests' two Tamil youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 December 2010, 18:51 GMT]
Two Tamil youths, both residents of Katpaanaik-ku'lam in Aayiththiyamalai police division in Paduvaankarai area in Batticaloa district were taken into custody Friday by about ten persons in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) uniform who arrived in army jeep and three motor bicycles.
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WikiLeaks: Gotabaya sanctioned extra-judicial killings by Paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 2010, 01:08 GMT]
A WikiLeaks cable, dated 18th May 2007 from US embassy in Colombo, accuses Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse of giving orders to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commanders in Jaffna not to interfere with Tamil paramilitaries who are "doing "work" that the military cannot do because of international scrutiny. The work referred to in the cable includes extra-judicial killings, extortion, abduction and prostitution by the Tamil paramilitary groups EPDP and Karuna Group. Both groups are led by Ministers in the present ruling Government in Sri Lanka.
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SLA, Police launch search operations in Mannaar city

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 December 2010, 20:17 GMT]
Armed policemen and Sri Lanka Army soldiers were deployed within the limits of town council of Mannaar in search operations inspecting the passengers in buses and the pedestrians who hit the roads Wednesday evening between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
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SLA tightens security in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 December 2010, 15:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is employing new measures in the last several days to increase security in Jaffna, civil sources in Jaffna said. SLA has increased search operations during nights and has increased checking of motor vehicles including motor bikes. Passengers traveling in night buses are being subjected to delays as they searched in the proximity of four or five SLA camps. In addition, reports from Jaffna say SLA soldiers are constructing new earth bunds in the previously declared High Security Zones (HSZ) raising fears among families awaiting resettlement that return to their ancestral homes are going to be further delayed.
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Ira'naimadu tank spills due to heavy rain

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 05:55 GMT]
Ira'naimadu irrigation tank in Ki'linochchi district, currently under control of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), has reached 28.6 inches above its spill level of 28 feet following one week continuous rain, sources in Vanni said. Due to efforts taken by the agricultural sector organizations in the district to ensure the safety of the tank, sluice gates had been opened on December 3 to release the excess water.
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SLA guns down trauma affected male in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 12:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers on A9 Road opened fire on an uprooted Tamil along the A9 road Friday afternoon near Puththoor junction in Meesaalai. The victim was a psychologically affected male due to the war last year. The soldiers harassed him prompting the victim to attack a soldier and gunned him down, civilians in the area said.
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300,000 mines cleared in north, east-SLA claims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2010, 22:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Sunday claimed that more than three hundred thousand mines have been cleared and destroyed in a land area of 1863 square kilometers so far in the North and East. More than 1300 soldiers have been deployed for demining activities using mechanical and manual methods, Military Spokesman Major General Ubaya Medawala said
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SLA in Vadamaraadchi East pilfer properties of uprooted people

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 08:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Vadamaraadchi East continue to pilfer the roof and timber components of the houses from which the uprooted families fled during SLA offensives, the recently resettled families in Vadamaraadchi said. Though the families had fled, most of their houses in the areas from Naakarkoayil to Saalai had remained undamaged as there was no war fought in the said area. SLA soldiers since then had pilfered the components of the houses abandoned to construct their sentry posts and camps along the coast and roads. Now, SLA soldiers refuse to return the properties of the uprooted families who have been resettled in Vadamaraadchi East, the families said.
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SLA conducts searches in Mannaar to obstruct Heroes’ Day observations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 07:34 GMT]
Armed Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and police jointly launched search operations in important places in Manaar Friday from 6:00 p.m to midnight with the aim to prevent anyone from paying homage to the Heroes who laid down their lives in the struggle for liberation, sources in Mannaar said. The soldiers and the policemen stopped people going along the roads and checked their belongings to find any leaflets related to Heroes’ Day or things used to light lamps in memory of the heroes. There is no information available about anyone arrested during the searches.
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Poet Kasi Anandan speaks to Palaka'ni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 05:03 GMT]
Mu'l'livaaykkaal is only a turning point in the Tamil Eelam struggle, says veteran national poet of Eezham Tamils Kasi Anandan to the audience of Palaka'ni, the TamilNet window for cross-views that features its inaugural programme on Saturday. “The Tigers have silenced their guns. To what extent the chauvinism of the Sinhala state could go, the international community has yet another opportunity to understand now. But, has it ever accepted that what is being committed is a genocide," he questioned. Any struggle that is based on righteous principles will win. Eelam Tamils should understand this and proceed, said the 72-year-old Batticaloa-born poet, who has been associated with Periyar E.V.Ramasamy Nayakkar, S.J.V Chelvanayakam and Velupillai Pirapaharan.
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SLA deploys soldiers in LTTE leader's village

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 20:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army on Friday deployed hundreds of soldiers in Valveddiththu'rai (VVT), the birth place of LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, to stop anyone publicly celebrating his birthday. Road patrols and searches too were conducted in Valveddiththu’rai forcing people to stay indoors.
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SLA holds leader of protestors under house arrest in Karaichchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 10:33 GMT]
More than ten Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arriving Thursday around 11:00 a.m at the house of the President of Oottuppulam Rural Development Society (RDS), who led the protest demonstration Wednesday demanding the cancellation of the sudden transfer of Karaichchi Divisional Secretary on the instructions of SLA authorities, continue to hold him under house arrest surrounding his house, sources in Ki’linochchi said. The president who is held under house arrest was to lead a hunger strike in front of Ki’linochchi Government Agent’s office Thursday along with nine other RDS presidents and a large number of civilians until the transfer order issued to the Divisional Secretary was cancelled.
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