GoSL lacks will to bring justice – IIGEP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 March 2008, 00:16 GMT]
A lack of will on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) was one factor in the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) terminating its operations in Sri Lanka, Prof. Sir. Nigel Rodley, representing Britain in the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), told BBC Tamil service in an interview Thursday.
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Pirapaharan confers Maamanithar title to Sivanesan

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 March 2008, 16:58 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) has conferred Maamanithar (Great human being) title, the highest national civilian honour by the LTTE, posthumously to K. Sivanesan, the Tamil national alliance parliamentarian who was assassinated Thursday in Vanni in Claymore attack allegedly carried out by the Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit. Honouring Mr. Sivanesan, the LTTE leader said: "Mr. Kiddinan Sivanesan is a unique individual who functioned selflessly, honestly, and with courage. He is simple, courteous and loving. He is a sincere politician who possessed high ideals. He labored tirelessly for the advancement and welfare of the workers."
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TNA condemns Sivanesan killing

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 March 2008, 14:38 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a statement issued Friday strongly condemned the killing of its Jaffna district parliamentarian K.Sivanesan on Thursday at Maangku'lam along A9 highway. TNA has been expressing its deepest sorrow and distress over the killing of Mr. Sivanesan in a claymore explosion, the statement added. "Mr. Sivanesan worked hard for the emancipation of the Tamil people, against social injustice and for the development of co-operative movement. He won the hearts of Tamils by his unwavering stand on the freedom struggle by his deed and speech. He dedicated himself from the young age for the liberation of his people," the TNA statement said.
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'Frankenstein' franchise in Batticaloa - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 March 2008, 01:52 GMT]
"Ceylon was the first country in Asia to receive universal adult suffrage as early as in 1931. Even though many at that time eulogized it, from the very beginning, it was doomed as it was implemented in a country where the voting was communal. The Tamils boycotted the first elections. The curse continued and has become a Frankenstein monster in Batticaloa today. People are terrified at the thought of elections and would feel greatly relieved without it," said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy while sharing his opinion with TamilNet on Friday on the local elections in Batticaloa.
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Japan-UNDP sign agreement to assist resettlement in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 March 2008, 01:14 GMT]
Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, during a meeting held on Tuesday at the office of the Sri Lanka's Nation Building Plantation Infrastructure Ministry said, to promote peace efforts in Sri Lanka, the Government of Japan is ready to provide the much needed assistance to the conflict-affected people of the north and east to enjoy the fruits of peace.
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SL Police arrests 2 Tamils at Anuradhapura railway station

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 March 2008, 08:29 GMT]
Two Tamil youths aged 22 and 27 were arrested Wednesday morning by the Sri Lankan police at Anuradhapura railway station when they were traveling to Colombo from Madawachchi.
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Goons intimidate HRC officers in Kandy

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 March 2008, 14:40 GMT]
Goons alleged to be associated with Kandy police threatened a Tamil female high official attached to Kandy Regional Human Rights Commission (HRC) coordinating office and confiscated her National Identity Card (NIC) near Kingston College in Kandy, accusing her of suspicious presence in the school environment, sources in Kandy said.
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Swiss Tamil children challenged in chess

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 March 2008, 07:01 GMT]
More than seventy Swiss Tamil children took part in the S.P. Thamilchelvan Chess Tournament held in Lucern, Switzerland Saturday from 10:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m. Competitions, the first of its kind held by diaspora Tamils in Switzerland, were organized into five divisions, under-10, 12, 14, 16, and over-16 age groups, organizers of the tournament said.
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SLA deserters threaten Up-Country Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 March 2008, 08:47 GMT]
A group of more than 15 armed Sinhalese persons, said to be instigated by the arrival of a dead body of a Sri Lanka Army soldier from Ma'nalaa'ru battlefront in the North, entered the 'line' houses of Up-Country Tamils at Kirimetiya watte (estate) in Yatinuwara division of Kandy district in the Central Province and heaped threats of 'collective punishment' a few days ago. Fear gripped the Tamil 'lines' following the episode as many SLA soldiers, recruited from the Yatinuwara area, are engaged in the Northern battlefront.
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Election commissioner in legal trouble over language issue

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 March 2008, 01:11 GMT]
The Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General to obtain statement from the Commissioner of Elections regarding the failure of publishing the voters register in Tamil language, for consideration during the March 17 hearing of Fundamental Rights violation petition filed by the Ceylon Workers United Front (CWUF), legal sources in Colombo said.
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Ganesan charges SL Embassy for misinformation campaign

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 February 2008, 15:33 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, leader of Western Peoples Front (WPF) and convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), in a press release issued Friday, charged the Counselor for Sri Lanka Embassy in France misrepresenting the strength of security provided to him. The actual number of security personnel assigned is eight, and not eighteen as the Embassy official had said, the press release said. "[T]his too had come after the Lankan Court of Appeal’s intervention in this legal battle...," the release added.
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Bruce Fein: Independence promotes stability

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2008, 02:33 GMT]
"The reason why the Kosovo independence is so significant is because it addresses an issue that's prevalent throughout the world, for example Sri Lanka, where you have a minority that has been oppressed by the majority. And we’ve always had rather blurry lines in knowing, well, when does the oppression reach a sufficiently intense and egregious level that you're entitled to walk away from a sovereign and establish your separate statehood?" asks Bruce Fein in a video commentary on the global significance of Kosovo independence given to U.S-based Real News Network Sunday.
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Britain to get tough with Sri Lanka - Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 13:51 GMT]
Britain will be pressing Sri Lanka’s hardline government for greater access for senior UN officials and would join European allies in taking a stronger position against Colombo over human rights abuses. In a meeting with Tamil Diaspora representatives at the British Foreign Office on Monday, Foreign Minister Lord Malloch-Brown said he would personally be attending the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva next week to press the point. The government of President Rajapakse had “made political process secondary to military process,” the British Tamil Forum, a Diaspora advocacy group which attended the meeting, quoted the Minister as saying.
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27 civilians arrested at Veappamadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 12:17 GMT]
Twenty seven civilians, majority of them Tamils, were taken into custody by the Sri Lanka police in a cordon and search operation conducted at Veappamadu village along Puththa'lam-Mannaar road Wednesday from dawn for about five hours, media sources said.
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30 civilians arrested in Colombo, Embilipitia

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 11:34 GMT]
Thirty civilians, majority of them Tamils, were arrested in cordon and search operations conducted in the western province and Embilipitya since Sunday. Thirteen persons were taken into custody in house-to-house search conducted in the western province, and seventeen were arrested in Embilipitya, media sources said.
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Tampoe: Sri Lanka is a virtual Police, Military dictatorship

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 16:42 GMT]
Prominent Trade Union leader, Bala Tampoe, says Rajapakse Government falsely states that their military objective is to defeat terrorism. The main objective is to wrest control from the LTTE the areas of North and east. "...[Colombo] can never achieve a proper political settlement till and until they recognise the right of self-determination, which is a democratic right, of the Tamil people and the Muslim people in the North and East, Tampoe says in an interview to Vikalpa, a citizen journalism initiative in Sri Lanka built on the effort pioneered by the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think-tank.
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7 Tamils arrested in Mount Lavinia

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 13:00 GMT]
Seven civilians said to be Tamils were taken into custody Sunday in the continuing cordon and search operation in Mount Lavinia area that started on Saturday following the explosion that took place on Saturday morning at Mt. Lavinia junction. The suspects are being detained in the police station and interrogated. Several Tamil civilians were questioned and released after preliminary investigations, media sources said.
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Fein challenges SL Ambassador on "right to secession"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 18:01 GMT]
"A debate between us would enlighten the American people, Congress, and the White House over a question central to the foreign policy of the United States: when should a right to secession from an existing sovereign be recognized? Tamil statehood, which would end a grisly conflict that has killed tens of thousands in Sri Lanka, is too important to be left to sophistry," challenged Bruce Fein in a letter addressed to Sri Lanka's Ambassador to U.S., Bernard Goonetilleke, following the Ambassador's 25th speech in Washington, and 17th February article titled "Tamil homeland fantasy" in Washington Times.
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SLA arrests several Tamils in Mt. Lavinia

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 16:07 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police launched a combined cordon and search operation Saturday in Mount Lavinia and surroundings in Colombo, and took several persons for questioning following the bus explosion that took place in the morning. Majority of the arrested are said to be Tamil civilians working shops and other offices in the locality, media sources said.
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Sri Lanka C.I.D., Police treat Tamils like stray dogs- Mano Ganesan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 13:50 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Leader of Western People’s Front (WPF) Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), in a press release issued Saturday, said that "[T]he Criminal Investigation Division (CID) has very clearly contravened the accepted norms, rules and regulations in conducting this arrest [of two tamils] let alone the civility and decency. They have failed to inform the police of the area where the ‘arrested’ persons were living at the time of ‘arrest,' and questioned whether the arrests were "deliberately done on purpose to put fear into the minds of Tamil Citizens."
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