Death certificates to whitewash abductions, killings?

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 10:10 GMT]
Relatives of persons categorized under the missing and disappeared in Batticaloa district for more than a year are in dilemma whether to obtain death certificates as they believe that they are alive. The relatives say that their loved ones were abducted, in their presence, by para military groups led by Karuna and Pilliayan, and by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, and could be still alive.
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Plans afoot to “Sinhalacise” Tamil border villages in east, says MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 June 2011, 09:58 GMT]
Of 310 families which fled from their homes only 70 have returned to the village Poochchikoodu located in Raanamadu GS division in Batticaloa district, according to Batticaloa TNA parliamentarian P. Selvarasa. Authorities in Colombo are ignoring resettlement of Tamil families with a sinister motive to “Sinhalacise” border Tamil villages, Selvarasa alleged.
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Colombo fears judgment against Rajapakse in US Courts

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 June 2011, 02:35 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Attorney General’s Department is to “retain a lawyer to oversee the [Sri Lanka’s] President’s interests in the US District Court which had issued the summons on Rajapaksa,” latest edition of Sunday Leader said quoting Justice Ministry Secretary Suhada Gamlath. The statement reflects a change in strategy by Sri Lanka’s Justice Ministry which said last week that it had received the summons but the [Sri Lankan] government would not respond to it. “Under our laws, the President has immunity,” Gamlath had told the media last week.
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Grassroot Tamil Nadu gathers to remember genocide, voice for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 June 2011, 02:18 GMT]
Keeping aside party identities, religions and castes, more than 30,000 people of grass root Tamil Nadu gathered in Marina Beach of Chennai on Sunday to remember the genocide committed on Eezham Tamils and to call for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, sending a strong message to New Delhi and to the international community, the organisers of the event said. The congregation organised by Mr. Thirumurugan Gandhi of May 17 Movement, received massive support and participation of leaders cutting across party lines, similar grass root movements, civil society organisations, artists, social workers and the common public that has come with families bringing even their children.
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Jayasuriya's inclusion in cricket team raises awareness of SL mass killings

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 June 2011, 19:35 GMT]
Several dozen British Tamils leafleted Saturday outside the Bristol grounds where Sri Lanka’s cricketers played a Twenty20 match against England to further raise awareness of the mass killings of civilians at the end of the war in 2009. Their efforts were assisted by critical commentary in the British press of Sri Lanka’s inclusion of all rounder Sanath Jayasuriya, who is also a parliamentarian of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling party, for the remaining one day matches of their tour. Ahead of the match three of Britain’s top broadsheets – The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian - slammed the decision as a ‘scandal’ and urged spectators not to applaud Jayasuriya.
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Sexual violence against Eezham Tamils carried out with genocidal intentions

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 June 2011, 14:25 GMT]
Sexual violence committed against Eezham Tamils by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Vanni is on the increase in the recent months, reliable civil sources told TamilNet. Personnel in military vehicles and auto rickshaws parked under the trees away from the roadside in Ki'linochchi commit sexual violence to girls forcefully brought from the resettled villages and sometimes even to girls passing by on the road, by grabbing them into the vehicles. The wails of the victims are commonly heard, but people are unable to do anything about it, the civil sources further said. The violence is systematically committed with genocidal mentality and soon by replacing the civil administration of Ki'linochchi entirely by the Sinhalese, all protests will be silenced, the sources added.
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Sivajilingam, Sri Kantha decide to join TNA, restructure TELO

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 14:46 GMT]
Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians as well as Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) leaders Mr. Sivajilingam and Mr. Sri Kantha have decided to dissolve their newly formed party Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) and to re-join TELO and TNA, with a view of strengthening TNA and restructuring TELO to meet the demands of the times. They took the decision after a group of former TELO members in the diaspora taking the initiative to speak between them and the TELO president cum TNA parliamentarian Mr Selvam Adaikalanathan. The decision revealed in a press meet in Jaffna on Saturday will be officially announced in the 20th Annual Conference of TELO convened to take place in Vavuniyaa on Sunday. TELO is one of the constituent parties of the TNA. Mr. Selvam Adaikkalanathan confirmed the reunity that is taking place in TELO.
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‘Sinhala only’ implemented in Trinco DDC, DAC meetings

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 14:00 GMT]
Conducting meetings of the Trincomalee District Coordinating Committee (DDC) and District Agricultural Committee (DAC) and other important conferences by the Trincomalee District Secretariat solely in Sinhala language has caused dissatisfaction among the Tamil speaking members. Two third of the population in Trincomalee district is Tamil speaking people. Most of the Rajapaksa appointed heads of government departments and officials attending the conferences are Sinhalese. Earlier, there was a translator to translate Sinhala and Tamil at meetings and conferences held in Trincomalee district secretariat to facilitate members of all communities to understand the proceedings. Now the translator is removed by the Trincomalee district secretariat.
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Sri Lankan peace group admits level of SL military rule in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 13:00 GMT]
“Citizens of the North, including school teachers, believe that any meeting, including a school meeting, has to be authorized by the military,” said a press statement issued by a Colombo based peace group, National Peace Council, following the recent attack on TNA meeting in Jaffna. “While a strong military presence in the North following the war may allow many a sense of security, it must be remembered that the intervention of armed force in daily civil life cannot foster reconciliation or give a sense of security to the people,” the statement issued on Friday said.
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Left Front protests against SLA attack on TNA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 12:47 GMT]
The Left Front, led by Vickramabahu Karunaratne, on Friday staged a protest in Colombo against the attack on Tamil National Alliance election meeting in Jaffna. The attack on TNA meeting, carried out by an SLA contingent that was led by a Sri Lanka Army Colonel and two Major rank officers, was a “planned attack with a political directive from the top,” Dr. Karunaratne alleged. United Socialist Party, Socialist Party, Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) of Mano Ganesan and the Tamil National Alliance took part in the protest.
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SL Army orders against renting halls to TNA, political parties

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2011, 19:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna comes out with intimidating ‘unofficial orders’ to owners of public halls in Jaffna, not to rent halls to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) or to any other political party critical of the Colombo regime to conduct political or public meetings, news sources from Jaffna said. Colombo has decided to completely prohibit all political campaign of Tamil parties against it and in this respect, the occupying Army in Jaffna has received instructions from the SL defence headquarters in Colombo to stop the use of public halls in Jaffna, the news sources further said. Meanwhile, the TNA is also prevented from the use of loud speakers for its political campaign in the civic elections. Authorities chased out TNA workers, who went to get permission for the use of loud speakers on vehicles for political campaign.
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Work with the ‘other’ International Community: leftist MEP

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2011, 17:56 GMT]
“Tamil diaspora activists are very capable and able to put pressure on governments around the world. But, alongside this work, I would really like to encourage the Tamil diaspora to focus on the 'other' international community – which isn't represented by these governments or institutions,” said Socialist Party and United Left Alliance MEP for Dublin, Paul Murphy MEP, in an e-mail interview to TamilNet on Thursday. The Irish MEP who played a key role in organising a hearing at the EU Parliament earlier this month also said: “For us in the Committee for a Workers' International, the right to self-determination for the Tamil people is vital.” He urged the Eezham Tamil diaspora to join hands with the progressive Sinhala forces in the South.
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Tamils' land acquired to construct Arabic institution in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2011, 16:41 GMT]
Ea'raavoor Urban Council Chairman Ali Zahir Mowlana, a close ally of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been blamed for illegally acquiring lands that belong to 17 families of forcefully displaced Tamils from Ward 3 and 4 of the Ea'raavoorpattu in Chengkaladi division, to construct Arabic College with aid from Arab countries while the Sri Lankan police refuses to vacate the other 40 houses it has occupied with a police station.
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Eezham question gets entangled in competition of SCO and NATO

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2011, 23:38 GMT]
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), if materialises as alliance of China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Central Asian countries accounting for more than half of humanity, it will make NATO (and Pax Americana) simply irrelevant to an entire landmass. NATO may face a piquant situation when it aspires to claim that it is the only global security organization available in the 21st century, writes M K Bhadrakumar, formerly of the Indian Foreign Service, in Asia Times Saturday. With the SCO summit last week admitting Sri Lanka as a ‘dialogue partner,’ the organization brings itself to the waters of the Indian Ocean, Bhadrakumar pointed out. The question of Eezham Tamils would be muffled by both of them competing for control of the island as a whole, unless awareness of people counters them.
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Transfer scheme in East postponed, teachers abandon trade union action

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2011, 07:34 GMT]
The controversial teacher transfer scheme, scheduled to be implemented in the eastern province before the end of June by the Provincial Ministry of Education under the direction of Provincial Governor was suspended for another six months on the orders of the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa. However the Provincial Director of Education said that the transfer scheme would be implemented from January next year with ‘amendments’.
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Tamil youth in UK mark Eezham identity with I'lantha'lir event

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2011, 19:14 GMT]
The Tamil Youth Organisation in Britain hosted Sunday an awareness event for ‘Eezham Thamizh identity’, with an evening of music, drama, dance and poetry. The event, named I'lantha'lir 2011, held at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall, began with the ceremonial raising of the Tamil Eelam flag outside the imposing art deco building, chosen for the quality of the acoustics which make it one of the UK's top venues for recording classical music. The performances opened with instrumental music using traditional Tamil instruments: Murasu, Thappai, Udukku, Changku (conch) and Kompu (horn). Many of the visitors touched or ran their hands through soil from Mullaiththeevu beach placed in a bronze bowl, and encouraged their children to do the same.
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Colombo to declare permanent ‘Sacred HSZ’ at Maathakal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2011, 10:01 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka plans to keep Thiruvadinilai area of Maathakal, the northwest tip of the Jaffna Peninsula, as a permanent ‘High Security Zone’ by building a naval base there, but camouflaging it as a ‘Sacred Place’ of the Sinhala-Buddhists, news sources from Jaffna said. The location is one of the two closest spots of communication between the island of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. While Thalai Mannaar in Mannaar district is the closest to Rameasvaram, Maathakal in Jaffna Peninsula is the closest to Koadikkarai (Point Calimere) in Tamil Nadu. Colombo’s archaeologists claim Thiruvadinilai as the landing place of Sinhala-Buddhism to the island in 3rd century BC, and are building modern Buddhist establishments there. A gazette notification of Colombo is soon expected to declare the area a ‘Sacred Place’ to facilitate permanent confiscation of lands belonging to Tamils.
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Teachers unions to launch protest in East against transfer scheme

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 16:03 GMT]
Four major teacher trade unions Monday announced that they would launch token sick leave protest in the eastern province against the implementation of a controversial teacher transfer scheme. Under this scheme the provincial education ministry has been transferring excess teachers from schools.
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Colombo denies water to paddy crops of Batticaloa Tamil farmers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 15:59 GMT]
Irrigation facilities are denied to about 30,909 acres of paddy fields in several Tamil villages in the Batticaloa district as the Sri Lankan Mahaweli ‘Development’ Authority has stopped issuing water for the last one month and the livelihood of 8,580 families who are solely depending on the farming has been severely affected, according to complaints made by farming community sources to the District irrigation Authority and Agricultural Authority.
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After ‘eradication’ of 30 years of conflict Sri Lanka searches for ‘attackers in uniform’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 June 2011, 08:12 GMT]
After the complete eradication of 30 years of conflict, those who were present at the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) meeting at A’laveddi last Thursday have said that attackers had come in ‘uniforms similar to those of the Army.’ The SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has therefore directed Jaffna Army Commander Major General Mahinda Haturusinghe to inquire into the incident and take into custody those who were involved and punish them, said SL state run newspaper Daily News on Monday. The TNA parliamentarians in a press meet Friday said that they could identify two commanders of the Sri Lanka Army who led the Army assault on them Thursday.
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