Family man reported missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 01:46 GMT]
A 52-year-old man from Urumpiraay in Valikaamam, Jaffna, has been reported missing since Friday. Meanwhile, human rights activists in Jaffna express fear that there were similar abductions have not been registered by the media as the Sri Lankan police authorities systematically suppress information reaching media on complaints of abductions and disappearances. The ‘effective’ subjugation of Tamils by the militarised Sri Lankan civil administration has silenced the community, from reporting information that could reach human rights activists or journalists as the public fears repercussions from the ‘white-van’ squad.
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Eyewash LLRC makes even the commission members to doze off

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2011, 03:55 GMT]
LLRC commission members, tired and perhaps sleepless over their own pretentious exercises, were seen dozing off during the session in Mannaar Saturday, when more than 500 gathered to give evidence and many more could not attend due to lack of space in the hall. People were waiting from 8.30 in the morning, the announced time for the session, but the commission members came only at 10.30. The hearing was over by 2.00 PM for the three AGA divisions of Musali, Naanaaddaan and Mannaar Town. 8 witnesses gave evidence and 250 remaining were asked to give their submissions in writing. Meanwhile, representative of Mannaar Tamil Association, V. S. Sivakaran, while giving evidence said that people have lost faith and are suspicious of exercises like LLRC that do not go hand in hand with political initiatives, but on the contrary coupled with more oppression.
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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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Oppression is not forever, but resistance is – editorial

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 15:20 GMT]
It is not the possibility of statehood, but the impossibility of living under oppression that sustains protracted struggles for self-determination, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. Referring to the three major initiatives for self-determination at the beginning of 2011 – by South Sudanese, Iraqi Kurds and Palestinians, the paper noted that in all three cases, years of international intervention to produce an amicable settlement amongst the peoples in conflict failed due to the conduct of the state concerned. Similarly, in Sri Lanka today, “the state's murderous policies of violence, humanitarian deprivation, demographic change and economic starvation will sustain, more forcefully than any theoretical exposition, the Tamil demand for self-determination,” the paper said.
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NorthEast Local Election circulars printed in Sinhala only

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 13:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has issued circulars and directives for the forthcoming local council elections printed in Sinhala only, sources in Jaffna said. Election officials in the NorthEast are undergoing enormous difficulties in interpreting the directions and procedures to conduct the elections. Civil society sources said that Colombo appears to be imposing Sinhala only policy especially following the recent controversy after forcing the Jaffna Tamil school students to sing the Sri Lankan national anthem in Sinhala.
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Tamil student reported missing in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 13:30 GMT]
Jeyaseelan Jegan, 15, a student at the Thampiluvil Maththiya Maha Viththiyaalayam and residing in Kaayaththiri village in Vinaayakapuram division with his parents, has been reported missing since January 2, according to complaints lodged with the Thirukkoayil Police in Ampaa'rai district by his relatives.
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JDS condemns silence of Colombo media over terror campaign in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 08:27 GMT]
Detailing the recent killings, abductions and other atrocities in the SL military occupied North, the Journalists For Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an exiled organisation of journalists, on Friday condemned the silence of Sinhala and English media in Colombo over the terror campaign. Instead, these media highlight only the explanations from the side of the SL government, the report said. The JDS statement exposed the latest twist of portrayal of the situation by SL media minister and government spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella, who wanted to pass the blame on "elements seeking tarnish the image of Colombo government internationally". The JDS statement, with details of earlier unreported crimes, noted that human rights violations not being exposed is high in Vanni as journalists and aid workers were barred from entering Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts.
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Fatal blow on Eezham Tamil fishery follows Indo-Lanka ‘defence’ agreement

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 01:14 GMT]
From Maathakal to Mannaar, several millions worth fishing nets belonging to Eezham Tamil fishermen, laid in the Palk Bay even very close to the shores of the country of Eezham Tamils, were systematically destroyed this week in a highly organised way by trawlers coming from the Tamil Nadu coast. The destruction of Eezham Tamil fishery in the Palk Bay follows immediately the defence agreement signed between New Delhi’s Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and Colombo’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in the last week of December. While an agreement has been reached between the two establishments on the security of sea-lanes, as in the past many protocols of it remain a secret. Both the establishments in New Delhi and Colombo have joint interests in bringing in a wedge between the Tamil fishing communities on either side of the Palk Bay.
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EPDP, SLA, confuse public, lottery-fraud arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2011, 03:31 GMT]
An alleged EPDP member from Vavuniyaa faced the brunt of public anger in Jaffna as he was said to be moving in suspicious ways and was selling fake lottery tickets in Martin Road, Jaffna on Thursday. SL Police, on information from public, arrested him. He is said to have confessed his membership with the EPDP. There was no response from the side of the EPDP. Meanwhile, EPDP leader and SL minister Douglas Devananda in the SL parliament on Tuesday said that he didn’t want to embarrass the SL government internationally by raising the plight of the fear-engulfed people in Jaffna. In the meantime, the public in Jaffna senses EPDP and SLA indirectly passing blame on each other over the systematic infliction of terror by manipulative forces controlling the both.
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First land, now food: Sri Lanka’s powers-abetted genocide progresses unabated

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2011, 01:17 GMT]
In its innovative model of inspiring the entire world on genocide, the Sri Lankan state has decided to deploy its occupying military to cultivate 40, 000 acres of abandoned land in the country of Eezham Tamils, after uprooting them in the war and not allowing them to resettle. The program is being implemented under the directions of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, according to SL military media. The SL colonial governor in the north, Maj. Gen. G A Chandrasiri said this week that the government would cultivate black gram on 19,786 acres, groundnuts on 7,231 acres, red onions on 4,709 acres, green chillies on 4,329 acres and cowpea on 4,729 acres. The SL Army will also buy produce of farmers cultivating near its sprawling estates, and it will sell vegetables in Colombo at ‘concessionary’ rate to control market prices.
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Abductions shock Mannaar, relatives of victim confront white van

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 January 2011, 19:22 GMT]
Sinhala-speaking armed men in white-van rushed through Mannaar abducting four males, one of them a Muslim youth, Jaharil Jazeel. The episode resulted in a confrontation between the relatives of Mr. Jazeel and the abductors, exposing the level of top-hierarchy involvement of Sri Lankan defense authorities in the chain of abductions. Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Army and Police guarding the Mannaar Bridge withdrew their security, allowing the abductors to proceed southwards after seeing a piece of paper produced by the men right in front of the victim’s relatives, who were chasing the white van in four three-wheelers. The armed men, confronted by Jazeel’s relatives opted to take away the mother of Jazeel in their vehicle only to force her off their vehicle at gunpoint at Vangkaalai Junction after crossing the Mannaar bridge on their way to South along Mannaar – Medawachiya Road.
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Indian coast guard says deterring Sri Lankan attacks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 January 2011, 17:05 GMT]
The Indian Coast Guard is taking steps to protect Indian fishermen from the attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN), outgoing Inspector General of the Eastern Region A. Rajasekhar told IANS last week. Speaking on Dec 29, the day after twenty Tamil Nadu fishermen were assaulted mid-sea by the SLN, he claimed the number of attacks on Indian fishermen were declining due to the Coast Guard’s vigilance. The Coast Guard has ordered twelve hovercraft to expand its capacity, he told IANS. The twenty fishermen were attacked in mid-sea off Dhanushkodi village, PTI quoted fisheries officials as saying in Rameswaram last Tuesday.
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Assault on Tamil media personnel continues in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 January 2011, 16:55 GMT]
Attacks on media persons in Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai districts by armed groups and politicians associated with Colombo is on the increase. On Wednesday, P.M.M.A.Cader, a media person working for several years in the Ampaa'rai district, was severely assaulted on Wednesday by a councillor of the Kalmunai Municipal Council when the journalist was on his way to Maruthamunai to collect information about displaced persons due to the recent floods. Mr. Cader has been warded in Maruthamunai base hospital.
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Colombo extends Emergency for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 January 2011, 16:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s parliament Wednesday evening adopted, as usual, a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of one hundred and eleven votes. One hundred and thirty four members of the ruling United Peoples National Alliance (UPFA) and its constituents voted for the motion.
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Tamil jewellery shop in Colombo burgled

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 January 2011, 10:47 GMT]
A jewellery shop located close to a police station along busy Galle Road in Wellawatte was burgled by a gang of unidentified persons Tuesday morning. The owner of the jewelry shop is a Tamil person. Initial investigations revealed that the value of the jewellery robbed could be estimated to the tune of several hundred thousands of rupees, Police said. The Tamil business community in the Wellawatte area is highly perturbed over the day time robbery carried out by a gang in a busy area watched by recently installed detective cameras by the Sri Lankan defense ministry.
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'Experimenting with Eezham Tamils on how to cheat trauma'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2011, 00:02 GMT]
First, deliberately and knowingly give a blow of trauma to a nation of people, without worrying about the outcome. What comes later is later. Then you know the trauma will backfire. So, make the nation to cheat its trauma by advocating religious observations, cricket, sports and entertainment. They don’t make much difference from drugs and alcohol, except that they bring in lesser physical health problems and lesser ‘law and order’ problems to the oppressors. But a trauma shouldn’t be cheated. Seeking justice and working for justice are the truly meaningful ways for a nation to treat its trauma, says a mental-health therapist from Vanni in a note sent to TamilNet on Tuesday.
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46 local council members to be chosen in Mannar elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2011, 03:02 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is to contest all the five local authorities in the Mannaar electoral district in the forthcoming election, according to Vanni district TNA parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan. Elections to local authorities are to be held after a lapse of thirty five years in the district to elect 46 members to an Urban Council and the four Pradeshya Sabas in the district.
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Environment endangering life in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2011, 00:31 GMT]
News reports from the south of the island, Saturday, said that Colombo government had yielded to the protests of fishermen and Church in the south, and had dropped a project to have sea planes in the Negombo lagoon. The fishermen in and around Negombo feared affliction to fish catch by the sea plane project. But on the same day, a budding young environmentalist having concern for the sand dunes and the drinking water of his people was shot dead in Jaffna. SL military intelligence occupying Jaffna and paramilitary are suspected. An academic in Jaffna brings out the environmental background of the issue.
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Imelda accuses police, prefers military

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 18:49 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police has failed in its duty to arrest killings, abductions and anti-social activities in Jaffna, Imelda Sugumar, the Sri Lankan government agent in Jaffna accused on Monday. In a press meeting at her office, she briefed the journalists about her preference to induct the occupying SL military to police the situation further in Jaffna. The police are corrupt and no ‘development’ work is possible in the district under the current circumstances, she claimed. Two weeks ago, while meeting a section of Tamil politicians, the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was also vocal about his preference to the military than the police in running the affairs of the Tamil land. He said this in reply to the visiting politicians when they expressed concern about SL military cantonments in the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Escalating killings, abductions: ‘Diplomatic civilities will not work with Colombo’

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 00:06 GMT]
Fatal attacks and abductions against educationalists, environmentalists, priests and youth activists in recent days in the Jaffna peninsula seriously question the wisdom of some sections of diplomats and politicians in the international community who sometimes back advocated unassuming participation of Tamils in ‘development’ and ‘reconciliation’ without resolving political and military questions. Diplomatic civilities as shown by the US ambassador Patricia A. Butenis in taking pride of what Rajapaksa government is achieving in resettlement, while making it a beneficiary of USAID, will not work with the kind of people at the helm of affairs in Colombo. The IC is once again demonstrating its impotency in handling the national question of Eezham Tamils without political solution and without removal of occupying military, a Jaffna based human rights activist told TamilNet Sunday.
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