UN event in Jaffna evokes controversy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 01:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan Lion flag was hoisted at the UN office of Jaffna on the occasion of UN Day this year unlike ever before and the guests of honour invited for the celebration event were Sri Lankan military officials, triggering controversy on the sudden change of practice by the UN office in Jaffna, the city which has been under the control of the Sri Lanka Army for the last 15 years. Civil society circles, expressing displeasure on attitudinal changes within the UN office in Jaffna wondered whether it was a bureaucratic practice adopted by a biased-section of UN officials or the event signalled that the apex body of global humanity has gone further in adopting a 'post-war' change in its attitude towards Eezham Tamils after failing them during the final stages of the genocidal war last year.
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SLA soldiers try to evict resettled Tamil families in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 November 2010, 17:40 GMT]
A group of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of Jaffna Municipal Council who visited Tuesday the resettled Tamil families in Vasanthapuram, Ma’niam Thoaddam area in Jaffna said that the families complained to them that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are trying to evict them saying that the area has not been cleared of landmines. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka government has decided to settle the Sinhala families claiming resettlement in Jaffna on the coastal areas of Jaffna Fort and Ma’niam Thoaddam in Kozhumpuththu’rai, sources in Jaffna said. SLA claiming the area to be infested with landmines is seen as a ploy to evict the Tamil families so as to make room for the Sinhala families to settle there, the sources added.
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Tamil laborer recovered dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 November 2010, 10:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka police in Karadiyanaa’ru in Batticaloa district recovered Monday morning the body of a building construction laborer drowned in a drain in Iluppaiyadichcheanai in their police division.
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Sinhala families to be settled in Jaffna with Chinese assistance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 November 2010, 05:33 GMT]
Colombo government has decided to settle the Sinhala families claiming they were IDPS and demading resettlement in Jaffna on the coastal areas of Jaffna Fort and Ma’niyam-thoaddam in Kozhumpuththu’rai, sources in Jaffna said. Parts of prefabricated houses donated by China to construct 12,000 houses in the areas from Mu'rika'ndi to Mullaiththeevu to settle Sinhala families have been brought to Jaffna to construct houses for the Sinhala families. The Sinhala families claiming resettlement are lodged in the Old Jaffna Railway Station where they had arrived in early October and are looked after by the Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna.
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UN reforms and nations without state

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 November 2010, 21:59 GMT]
Indian media campaigns for permanent membership to India in the UN Security Council. But another opinion appearing in the Indian media show how far the Indian state, riding on the masses for the benefit of a few, is different from the peoples of India. Permanent membership to such an India or to any others in the already vicious and outdated Security Council is not the answer to the current global turmoil. It will further aggravate subservience of humanity to the Establishments. The UN and particularly Indian behaviour on Eezham Tamils is a lesson to humanity. Nations and the oppressed inside India should be the first to oppose India’s permanent seat as they would be the first to face the brunt of it. Meanwhile, nations without state all over the world should work for veto-powered collective say in UN to achieve balance for peace, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Tamil medium candidates not selected for SLAS

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 November 2010, 15:30 GMT]
Not a single Tamil medium candidate who sat for the open competitive examination for the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) held in 2009 has been selected. All the selected 257 candidates are from the Sinhala medium, according to the results released on Sunday by the Sri Lanka’s Public Administration Ministry.
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Policemen, thugs attack Tamil Village Officer in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 November 2010, 07:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka policemen in civil dress attached to Ea’raavoor police with two thugs assaulted the Tamil Village Officer K. Jeganathan Saturday evening for having produced documents in Tha’lavaay police station that the lands encroached by Muslims in Tha’lavaay legally belong to Tamils, sources in Batticaloa said. They had also destroyed the said documents in possession of the Village Officer.
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Mavai Senathirajah refutes Jaffna GA’s statement on Valikaamam HSZ issue

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 October 2010, 07:58 GMT]
“I am one of the victims uprooted from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone 20 years ago and the petition filed by me in court seeking resettlement is pending inquiry. It is ridiculous for Jaffna Government Agent Ms. Imelda Sukumar to claim that there are no HSZs in Jaffna peninsula,” Mavai Senathirajah, Tamil Natilonal Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian said. Ms. Imelda Sukumar, speaking at the event of the handing over of furniture by SLA to Jaffna Teaching Hospital Saturday had claimed that there were no HSZs in Jaffna peninsula but only areas which need to be cleared of landmines.
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War affected women in North exploited by SL ministry agents

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 October 2010, 06:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka government ministries affected by the slump in garment exports due to the loss of GSP Plus face an acute shortage of workers in the garment industries in the South. The workers, mostly women, have left due to drastic pay cuts. The ministries now attempt to lure war affected young women in the North to work in the garment factories in the South at much lower salary. In this context, two groups of young women from Thellippazhai and Uduvil Divisional Secretariat areas in Jaffna have been taken to Colombo Thursday by the agents of some ministries, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, an attempt to entice some war affected young women in Ki’linochchi in Vanni with employment by a company in Kandy with the intention of misusing them had been stopped with the timely intervention of local social activists.
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Eelam war damaged India’s reputation: Pinang Deputy Chief Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 17:42 GMT]
India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Malaysian visit to inaugurate ‘Little India’ didn’t go well with Tamils, the predominant Indian community in Malaysia, said Prof. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of the Pinang State of Malaysia. The Indian High Commission and other agents of India tried to control the damage. India does not understand that the pernicious actions of India in Eelam have damaged the reputation of the government of India and the entire Indian establishment in the eyes of global Tamils. Before the mass murder in Eelam, Malaysian Tamils looked upon India as their saviour. Today, there is little or no respect for India in general and for the politicians in Tamil Nadu or in the Congress Party, Prof Ramasamy said.
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Denmark Tamils take legal step to file war-crimes charges

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Bjørn Elmquist, a Danish attorney specializing in criminal law on crimes against humanity has written to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague Netherlands to bring war crimes charges against Sri Lankan officials alleged to have committed war-crimes against Tamils in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka. The legal effort is being initiated by three Danish Tamils and the Denmark Tamil Forum. The DTF officials told TamilNet that the Danish legal effort is being closely co-ordinated with the recent legal action undertaken by Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET).
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Police recover male corpse in Kalladi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Kaaththaankudi Police Saturday morning recovered the corpse of an elderly Tamil civilian, Michael Gnanapiragasam, 65, along the coast of Kalladi in Kaaththankudi police division in Batticaloa district. The deceased was a resident of Thiruchchenthoor, according to the Officer-in-Charge of the Kaaththaankudi Police Station.
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Argentina: a possible forum to prosecute war criminals

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 October 2010, 22:18 GMT]
In a notable reversal of roles Judge María Servini is taking steps, to litigate in Argentina's Courts, cases of torture, murder and disappearance of Franco's political opponents during Spain’s Civil War between 1936 and 1939. Such probes supported by universal jurisdiction, have long been exercised in Spain by the mercurial Judge Baltasar Garzón, whose case against Chilean General Augusto Pinochet in 1998 helped lead to the undoing of amnesties that had protected dictators. With Spain's judicial system imposing constraints on filing such cases, Argentina might become a suitable forum to bring charges against alleged war criminals in other parts of the world hiding behind the cover of diplomatic immunity, or by keeping UN silent using the support of other rights violator nations.
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Malaysian Tamils protest Indian PM inaugurating their township

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 October 2010, 18:25 GMT]
Around 200 Malaysians gathered Wednesday to protest Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurating ‘Little India’ in Brickfields, Malaysia, were dispersed when police arrested key leaders, Free Malaysia Today reported Thursday. The protestors questioned the rationale of naming the area ‘Little India’ when most traders doing business there for the past three centuries were Tamils. The protestors were also unhappy about Malaysian government choosing Manmohan Singh to preside over the launch. Manmohan Singh was least concerned about Tamil welfare, “Look at what happened in Sri Lanka. The Tamils were massacred by the Sri Lankan army but he was very quiet about it. The Sri Lankan army also attacked Tamil fishermen in Rameswaram (India) but Manmohan was mum about it as well,” M S Arjunan, a Malaysian Tamil leader said.
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NP Governor retracts sudden transfer of Ki’linochchi Director of Education

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 October 2010, 05:59 GMT]
The education officials and principals of schools in Ki’linochchi district abstained from duties Wednesday in protest against the sudden transfer order to K. Kurukularajah, Zonal Director of Education in Ki’linochchi, by Northern Province Governor, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandarasiri. The governor, however, said that the transfer order has been immediately cancelled in a meeting he convened in Vavuniyaa Thursday, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The governor had also claimed that he had nothing to do with the sudden transfer order to K. Kurukularaja. Meanwhile, the protestors in Ki’linochchi said that Chandrasiri acts more like a military commander in performing his duties than as the governor of Northern Province. He had been the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander of Jaffna before being appointed as governor. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) too had joined in the Wednesday protest.
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Jaffna police unaware of whereabouts of abducted Tamil Nadu traders

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 October 2010, 05:26 GMT]
The officer-in-charge of Jaffna police said that he does not have any information of the textile traders from Tamil Nadu abducted Saturday morning in Jaffna town from the lodges they were staying in, in response to questions raised by local media. He declined to answer when asked whether the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers from Colombo had arrested them. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) spokesman in Colombo said that the traders may have been arrested for overstaying their tourist visa period. No official information about the abducted traders is available.
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SLA targets prominent Tamil businessmen in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 October 2010, 12:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has cast its net wide to arrest around 163 leading Tamil traders in Jaffna on charges that they had funded Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the past, Jaffna Traders Association (JTA) circles said. Some of them had been already arrested and detained after being interrogated in the notorious ‘Fourth Floor’ of the SLA Intelligence Wing in Colombo. SLA is engaged in rounding up the prominent Tamil traders claiming that it has evidence of their involvement with LTTE found in the statements of the traders in their detention, the sources added. The real motive behind this move is to cripple the prominent Tamil traders in Jaffna to eliminate them competing with the Sinhala traders who continue to invade Jaffna since the opening of A9 land route, JTA circles said.
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Thanthai Chelva memorial monument site in Jaffna vandalized

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 October 2010, 12:29 GMT]
The unruly Sinhala tourists who stormed into Jaffna Public Library Saturday are suspected to have vandalized the premises of Thanthai Chelva (Late Mr. S. J. V. Chelvanayagam) memorial monument located next to Jaffna Public Library, according to Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) circles in Jaffna. The plantain and coconut trees in the premises were found cut down and the flower plants in the premises trampled and damaged in acts of vandalism, they said. They alleged that on earlier instances the decorative palms in the premises had been plundered by Sri Lanka Armed Forces men and that some of them are now found planted in front of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) base in the islets of Jaffna.
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TNA files petition challenging Local Authorities Amended Bill

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 October 2010, 11:30 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Wednesday filed a petition in Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court that the “Local Authorities (Special Provisions)” Bill seeks to amend the Municipal Councils Ordinance, the Urban Councils Ordinance and the Pradeshiya Saba Act No. 15 of 1987 while the “Local Authorities Elections (Amendment)” Bill seeks to amend the “Local Authorities Elections Ordinance” which cannot become law without the ratification of the elected Northern Provincial Council (NPC).
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Britain reiterates support for independent inquiry into Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 October 2010, 00:39 GMT]
British Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday reiterated his government’s support for an independent inquiry into war crimes committed during the closing stages of Sri Lanka’s protracted war. Mr. Cameron comments on his government’s stance, made in response to a question from opposition MP Siobhian McDonagh, come a week after similar comments by British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the wake of his meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Prof. G. L. Peiris.
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