SL Supreme Court allows videofilming during search operations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 July 2008, 10:22 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarath Silvan has allowed the Sri Lankan 'security' establishment to video residents of 'all communities' during the cordon and search operations. The Sri Lankan Chief Justice issued the directive Tuesday following the explanation by the State Counsel appearing for the Attorney General in a fundamental rights violation case filed by the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) against the indiscriminate arrests of Tamils in Colombo that it is tantamount to violating fundamental rights of Tamils. Members of law enforcement authority could continue video filming of persons in search operation irrespective of racial, religious and other differences.
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Two milk vendors missing in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 18:02 GMT]
Two milk vendors from Akkaraippattu police division have been reported missing since Saturday early morning 4:00 a.m., Vimalavathy, wife of one of victims, stated in a complaint lodged with Akkaraippattu police. The relatives of the victims have also reported the disappearances to the nearby Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps.
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Making SAARC meaningful

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 11:42 GMT]
The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, which incorporates India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and now Afghanistan, is a logical process, not just because of geographical contiguity, shared cultures, legacies of British imperialism, elite use of English language etc., but because of the region’s common aspirations and problems, first of all in ensuring secure and quality life, and then seeking the rightful place for one fifth of humanity in the contemporary world. What went wrong with the noble concept of SAARC, while similar regional formations such as the EU and ASEAN are successful elsewhere, discusses Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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Grand finale for Pongku Thamizh in London

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2008, 02:41 GMT]
Around 30,000 people attended the Pongku Thamizh (Tamil Upsurge) rally in London at the Rorehampton Vale sports ground on Saturday, choking traffic in one of the highways, said the organisers. A number of British parliamentarians cutting across party lines, international representatives of liberation movements, rights activists, and politicians from Tamil and Sinhala communities addressed the event, and sent messages in support of the event. Even by conservative estimates, nearly 150,000 Tamils of North America, Europe, Africa and Australia have so far demonstrated their support to the cause of Eezham during the last one-month through Pongku Thamizh 2008.
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30 civilians arrested Katunayake HSZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 July 2008, 01:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested thirty civilians including ten Tamils into custody during a cordon and search operation conducted from Thursday night till Friday morning the Katunayake High Security Zone (HSZ), sources in Colombo said. The Katunayake international airport, and military installations are located within the HSZ.
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'Conversations in a Failing State'

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2008, 04:00 GMT]
Towards the end of 19th century, the renowned American writer Mark Twain visited Colombo. While he was admiring the plurality of colour in the native dresses, somewhere in Pettah, he saw native children coming out of an English school, in line, in white uniform and in the same hairdo. ‘What an ugly scene’, he wrote, being sad at the way colonial institutions depriving natives of their pluralism. More than a century later, Patrick Lawrence, another American, comes to Sri Lanka to record the net results, a failed nationalism and a failed state, as consequences of the loss of pluralism.
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Sri Lanka's rank critical in Failed States Index

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 July 2008, 16:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka, which was positioned 25th among the most failed states during the last two years, ranked this year as the 20th in the Failed States Index (FSI), compiled by the Washington based think-tank, Fund for Peace (FfP) and Foreign Policy magazine. Sri Lanka's score further dropped this year in almost all of the 12 indicators in the FSI. The country was ranked 2nd worst, next to Sudan in one of the indicators, 'Group Grievances'. Five of the eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, including Sri Lanka, accounting for one-quarter of the population of South Asia, are placed among the 35 critically failed states of the world in the FSI 2008 index.
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6 civilians arrested in Chilaw

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 July 2008, 18:39 GMT]
Six civilians, majority of them are Tamils were arrested at Munthal in Chilaw police division Monday night at a check point manned by the police and Sri Lanka Army at Karikaattu Veethi when they subjected a vehicle they were traveling for search. The police said they found camouflage army uniforms in the possession of some of the occupants, media sources said.
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Paramilitary 'safe houses' hinder peaceful PC election -JVP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 July 2008, 11:06 GMT]
Candidates contesting on behalf of opposition parties in the North Central Provincial Council election are reported to have expressed fear that 'safe houses' used by the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) paramilitary in villages Thiruchcheanai, Muthgala, Madurangala, Thuruvilla, and Mannampiddi where about 5,800 Tamils are living, would hinder peaceful election, media reports said quoting M.Palitha Upul Kumara, a former councillor of the NCPC. Mr. Upul Kumara, a resident of Mannampiddi, is contesting the election on the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) ticket.
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Sivajilingam seeks referendum to decide Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 July 2008, 01:42 GMT]
Let the International Community hold a referendum to get the will of Eezham Tamils for an independent homeland if it is not convinced of their sentiments shown explicitly through the events of Pongku Thamizh all over the world. Australia supported such a referendum in East Timor, said Tamil National Alliance MP, Sivajilingkam to TamilNet, when he came to address the Pongku Thamizh event held at Sydney on Sunday.
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Spontaneous show of solidarity in Canada

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 July 2008, 23:00 GMT]
In a spectacular show at short notice, more than 75,000 Canadian Tamils spontaneously gathered at Downsview Park in Toronto, Canada, for the Pongku Thamizh event, forging solidarity for the cause of Eezham, on Saturday. It was in fact a response to the oppressive policies of the International Community against Eezham Tamil nationalism, observers say.
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30 civilians arrested in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 July 2008, 15:23 GMT]
Thirty civilians, Tamils and Muslims, were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan police in a cordon and search operation conducted in Puththa'lam town in northwestern province Sunday morning till afternoon. Every shop and buildings located in the town came under search, residents said.
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Sri Lanka, a case of political inequality

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 July 2008, 16:38 GMT]
Striking a sharp contrast to Colombo's portrayal of Eezham struggle as a terrorist issue, Frances Stewart, the director of the Oxford based Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), looks at the crisis as a case of inequalities in political power between the Tamils and Sinhalese. In an interview that appeared in Human Rights Tribune, on Thursday, she said: "Horizontal inequalities have political, economic, social and cultural dimensions… Inequalities in political power, which are very important, where one group may have total dominance of the political system, and another group does not have any access, which is the situation more or less in Sri Lanka."
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UPFA seeks TMVP candidates to woo Tamils in Polonnaruwa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 11:05 GMT]
The ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) said Thursday that will include members from the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) as UPFA ticket for Polonnaruwa district in the forthcoming North Central Provincial Council elections, party sources said.
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Knowledge books mistreat Tamil history

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 07:34 GMT]
The presentation of the History of Eezham Tamils, in some of the international reference material such as Britannica Concise Encyclopedia and The World Factbook by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has become a matter of serious concern for Tamils all over the world. When the discipline of history itself is being deconstructed in the portals of knowledge of the postmodern era on one hand, these international sources of information are still harping on colonial brand of Orientalism, by basing history on myths.
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Collecting Bank account details, violation of privacy, court says

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 01:40 GMT]
Sri Lankan Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, while presiding over a Fundamental Rights submission on Monday, said that privacy of individuals was fundamental and warned those responsible for abuses such as asking for bank account numbers from civilians during search operations. Counsel M.A. Sumenthiran had submitted to court that directions given by the court were not being carried out during search operations. The CID officers were asking for bank account numbers from the civilians during the operation.
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HRW calls on GoSL to end illegal internment of IDPs in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 July 2008, 22:58 GMT]
The New York based Human Rights Watch has voiced against the illegal internment of around 400 Internally Displaced Tamils, who are languishing under Sri Lanka Army detention in a so-called 'welfare center' in Ka'limoaddai in Naanaaddaan division of Mannaar district. Since March 2008, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has detained civilians fleeing areas controlled by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Ka'limoaddai. The SLA has imposed severe restrictions on freedom of movement, instituting a daily pass system that limits to 30 the number of people who can leave the camp each day, and only if a family member remains behind to guarantee the detainees return in the evening.
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Tamil family from Kalmunai arrested in Horana

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 July 2008, 13:59 GMT]
Horana police arrested a Tamil family of five including a one-year-old child from Kalmunai who had come to Horana for a wedding, Rajaratnam Lawrence, the youngest member (son) of the arrested family, said in his complaint to P. Rathahkrishanan, Deputy Minister for Vocational Training and Industrial Education. The Inspector in charge of Horana police, Jayantha Wickramaratne, verbally abused Rev. Patrick Lawrence, the priest who was to conduct the marriage, when he appeared at the police station to attest that the family had come to participate in the marriage, the complainant said.
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15 Tamils from Batticaloa, Ampaa’rai arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 July 2008, 13:07 GMT]
Kurunthuwathe police arrested nine Tamils from Batticaloa and six from Ampaa’rai districts Tuesday around 7:30 a.m at Narahenpitya in Colombo when they were on their way to appear for an interview examination for clerical service appointment, according to information given by one of the arrested. They were released after interrogation Wednesday afternoon.
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Australian parliamentarian calls for ceasefire

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 July 2008, 01:06 GMT]
Australian parliamentarian for federal state of Lowe, Mr John Murphy, submitted to the House of Representatives Wednesday, a petition signed by more than 4000 Australians calling the Australian Government "to do everything in its power to get a peaceful resolution" to Sri Lanka's conflict, and pressed for the "proper implementation of the 2002 ceasefire agreement" that brought optimism for all Sri Lankans that there would be an end to the needless death and displacement of innocent people.
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