Tissainayagam: always agitated against violence, fought for justice for oppressed

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 12:16 GMT]
In statement made to the Court Friday, senior Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who has been held in detention for more than a year under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), said: "I was and am still an advocate against terrorism. I have criticized terrorism in whatever form. I never advocated violence, my objective was to generate non violent means of resolving the conflict, my research, writings and work was towards achieving this." Many international rights groups have called for the "unconditional release of Tissainayagam, who has been subjected to arbitrary court adjournments and is suffering ill health.” First anniversary of arrest and imprisonment of Tissaianayagam fell on 7th March.
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“SL parliament passes only bills favourable to the Sinhalese” – Ariyanenthiran MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 10:52 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian, P. Ariyanenthiran, participating in the debate on the bill to issue pension to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) home guards, said that there are more than 45,000 Tamil War Widows in the North and East whom the government does not help while it gives compensation and pension to the members of the three armed forces which clearly shows that it discriminates the Tamils. The bill was submitted in the House when it met Thursday around 9:30 a.m.
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20 Tamil youths arrested in Badulla

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 10:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested 20 Tamil youths Friday in a joint cordon and search in Pasa’rai in Badulla district. Eleven of them were produced in Badulla District Court where they were ordered to be placed in remand prison and nine youths were released after interrogation on the intervention of Deputy Health Minister, Vadivel Suresh, sources in Badulla said.
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Injured mother, child reported missing after admission to Mannaar hospital

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 19:18 GMT]
A mother and her two-month-old child sustaining injuries in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling in Vanni and taken to Trincomalee by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and admitted to Mannaar government hospital 16 February had reported missing Wednesday night, according to complaints made by her relatives to Vanni Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians.
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Indian assistance to children in SLA detention camps in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 14:08 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) distributed learning materials donated by the Indian Embassy in Colombo to the children held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Mirusuvil and Kodikaamam. The Indian Embassy officials who had discussed the arrangement with Jaffna GA earlier had sent the learning materials through Sri Lanka Army, Jaffna secretariat sources said.
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SLA refuses permission to humanitarian organizations to enter Jaffna detention camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 13:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel at the SLA detention camps for the civilians who had fled war are not permitting representatives of Human Rights Commission and other independent humanitarian organizations in Jaffna to enter the said camps under the control of SLA, sources in Jaffna said. Only the government officials assisting the inmates and a few local and international humanitarian organization representatives are allowed entry into the detention camps, the sources added.
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Maddakka'lappu / Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 12:10 GMT]
The muddy lagoon / backwaters
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4 Tamil herdsmen reported missing in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 06:44 GMT]
Four Tamil herdsmen who went to graze their cattle on 23 January in the area between Ampaa’rai and Batticaloa district boundaries, with permission from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers had gone missing, according to complaints made to the police authorities. More than 500 cattle taken for grazing in Pullukannaava, Manka’lakama, Keviliyaamadu and Vakkiyella are reported missing too.
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Policeman, 2 SLA soldiers killed in LTTE attack in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 06:12 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants launched an attack Wednesday around 10:00 a.m on a road patrol unit at Saahaamam area in Akkaraippattu police division in Ampaa’rai district killing a policemen, sources Ampaa’rai said. In another attack around 12:00 noon LTTE attacked the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers engaged in a cordon and search in Panangkaaddu area in the same police division killing two soldiers and injuring two, LTTE souces in Ampaa'rai said. Meanwhile, SLA shot and killed a Tamil youth in Panangkaddu area and claimed that he was a member of LTTE pistol group and that a pistol recovered from him, Akkaraipattu police said.
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Third ICRC worker wounded in 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 05:15 GMT]
An ICRC worker was wounded Wednesday in Puthumaaththa'lan in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fire within the 'safety zone', medical sources in Vanni said. An ICRC worker was killed earlier this month and two ICRC workers had sustained injuries within the safety zone.
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Tamil Eelam flag flown in Toronto protest legal - Canadian Police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 05:06 GMT]
The use of Eezham Tamil national flag did not contravene any law in Canada, according to a report by CBC News which cited Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash. Citing the ban on the LTTE, some representatives of the Sri Lankan government, who have been over-sensitive to any demonstration of overwhelming Tamil diaspora support to Tamil nationalism, have been demanding a ban on the national flag of the Eezham Tamils, seeing it an opportunity of dismembering Tamil nationalism.
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US support to IMF's Sri Lanka loan illegal – Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 00:17 GMT]
“Concerning the proposed loan to Sri Lanka by the International Monetary Fund, United States domestic law makes it quite clear that the Obama Administration is obligated to oppose the loan. And given the weighted voting system for the IMF Board of Directors, a United States vote against the loan would be tantamount to a veto,” said Prof. Boyle, Professor at Illinois College of Law, adding, “for the Obama Administration to violate the Statute [22 USC 262d] and vote in favor of the proposed IMF loan to support the GOSL's "policy goals" would render the United States government "complicit" with Sri Lanka's genocide.”
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Speak your language at home: Lee Kuan Yew

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 00:12 GMT]
“My advice is for both parents to speak Mandarin to their children if they can. If one speaks in Mandarin and the other in English, the child will grow up speaking more English than Mandarin”, said Lee Kuan Yew, minister mentor and former prime minister of Singapore, Tuesday, at the 30th Anniversary Launch of Singapore’s language campaign. “Singapore’s multi-racial peoples will never be united if we had used Mandarin as our common language. All non-Chinese, 25% of Singaporeans, will be disadvantaged. The result will be endless strife, as in Sri Lanka, where Singhalese was made the national language and the Tamil-speaking were marginalized”, the senior statesman said further.
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Uthayn editor Vithiyatharan detained for 3 more months

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 19:12 GMT]
Colombo Pettah Court majistrate, Jegan Balapitiya, extended Wednesday the detention period of Uthayan editor Vithiyatharan for 3 more months when he was produced before him by Prevention of Crime Branch police, sources in Colombo said. The police requested the court for the extension of detention of Vithiyatharan on the directions of Gothabaya Rajapakse, Defence Secretary and the brother of President Rajapakse, the sources added.
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UN withheld civilian casualty figures to protect Sri Lankan state - report

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Publishing two leaked documents by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, in an exclusive report on Wednesday revealed that the United Nations office had its own estimates of casualty figures. The UN had internal documentation for 9,924 civilian casualties including 2,683 killings and 7,241 injuries since 20 January to 07 March 2009. "Now it appears that unlike in other conflicts from Darfur to Gaza, the UN withheld the Sri Lanka figures, in effect protecting the Sri Lankan government from criticism," the Inner City Press reported Wednesday. The report comes as the Sri Lankan government was trying to discredit TamilNet figures, fearing that the UN-referred casualty figures were based on TamilNet coverage.
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Japan to offer financial assistance for demining in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 15:39 GMT]
A delegation of key officials of the Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka which visited Jaffna recently had intimated Japan’s inclination to provide financial assistance to continue the demining activities in Jaffna peninsula which has been curtailed in recent times, sources close to the Coordinating Committee for demining projects in Jaffna District Secretariat said. Areas in Changaththaanai, Madduvil and Oorkaavattu’rai have been earmarked to benefit from Japan's help in the first stage, Danish Demining Organization (DDO) sources said.
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2 SLA soldiers killed, 3 injured in LTTE attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 10:30 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants launched a grenade attack Tuesday around 8:05 p.m on a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) unit at Mu’rakkoddaancheanai in Ea’raavoor police division, killing two soldiers and injuring three, Batticaloa LTTE wing said.
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India’s help significant in defeating Tigers - Sri Lanka minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 09:28 GMT]
Nimal Sripala de Silva, a cabinet minister in Sri Lanka parliament, said that India’s great assistance helped Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to defeat the Liberation Tigers and that the people of Sri Lanka should be grateful to India, while responding to the strong accusation against allowing Indian Medical team into Sri Lanka by Anurakumara Tissanayake, the parliamentary group leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party, during the proceedings of the House of Representatives when it met Tuesday around 9:30, sources in Colombo said.
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99 Tamil civilians arrested in Matara district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 06:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took 99 Tamil civilians into custody Sunday in a joint cordon and search in Akuressa and Morawaka in Matara district on a tip that the suicide bomber involved in the recent Akuressa bomb blast had spent several months in an estate in the district. Meanwhile, Matara police had earlier arrested 19 Tamils, most of them upcountry residents, in connection with the Akuressa bomb blast,They are being detained and interrogated on Defence Ministry detention orders, Matara police said.
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First ever English novel on Vanni by a writer of Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 00:53 GMT]
Veteran writer Balamanoharan has come out with another first of its kind piece of writing of him recently. His Bleeding Hearts is a first ever novel based on the settings of Vanni, written in English. More than three decades ago, when Balamanoharan wrote Nilakki’li, it was widely appreciated for the ‘scent of earth’ it was emanating and was acclaimed as the first Tamil novel coming from Vanni. Three decades of his maturity and the impact of changes that have taken place during this time in his beloved homeland are obviously perceivable in his latest work.
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