Hard questions for India and Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2010, 06:33 GMT]
Nirupama Menon Rao expressed satisfaction at the progress in resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and development activities of the North, said state-owned Colombo newspaper Daily News Thursday, titling the news as “Indian investment interest rising”. But, reporting on Nirupama’s visit, The Hindu on Friday titled the news “Political solution should be priority” and cited her saying to Colombo-based Indian journalists that “While the focus on development and rehabilitation is very welcome, a long term perspective that also includes the issues relating to the political settlement that would meet some of the needs of the minorities should also be kept in mind.”
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Ranil Wickremasinghe in India on official visit

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 September 2010, 09:02 GMT]
The leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Ranil Wickremasinghe Thursday evening left for India on an official visit. He flew first to Chennai to meet Tamilnadu politicians soon after meeting the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Ms Nirupama Rao in Colombo, sources in Colombo said.
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18th Amendment move reminds of Emergency Bill: Media movements

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2010, 14:56 GMT]
Seven media associations in South have jointly opposed the proposed 18th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, describing the move as violating the freedom of expression on the part of the people. The proposals have not been discussed among the masses and it is a dangerous trend to make such amendments in the form of an Emergency Bill, said the joint statement issued by the movements. When the country requires a new Constitution to address the challenges faced by it, the amendments which further concentrate power seriously around one person, dismantling checks and balances on that rule taking an individual nature, would further establish this dangerous trend, the statement said.
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More than 25,000 war widows in Batticaloa district alone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 14:00 GMT]
“Estimates reveal that there are more than 89,000 war widows in the North and Eastern provinces and more than 25,000 of these widows are in Batticaloa district in the Eastern province,” Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian P. Selvarasa said in a meeting of the War Victimized Women Association in Batticaloa. “Women have been victimized by war even more than by natural disasters and Sri Lanka government has failed to do anything constructive to improve their miserable living conditions though thirteen months have passed since the end of the cruel war,” Selvarasa said.
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Counterinsurgency, development conquistadors and economic integrators

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 10:50 GMT]
Many Eezham Tamils wonder at some recent political developments but they waste their energy in concentrating on individuals. The individuals, whether KP, section of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, others who come out one by one with statements and ‘development’ agenda in support of the KP-line of politics, and the members of the ‘task’ group that executed the sequence are unimportant. Why they are mobilised so and what makes them to take that line of polity are more important.
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1215 uprooted civilians abandoned in Visuvamadu in Vanni - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2010, 02:30 GMT]
1215 uprooted civilians from Vanni brought from the camps three months ago in the name of resettlement are held without any help in Visuvamadu area in Mullaiththeevu district, Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, who visited them Monday told media. Mullaiththeevu district Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities do not allow them to settle in their own lands in the district and the people abandoned by government authorities and humanitarian organizations are subjected to untold hardships. The families say that they will look after themselves if only they are allowed to settle in their own properties, the MP said.
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Nirupama faces civil society outburst in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2010, 17:31 GMT]
India provided arms and logistical support to Colombo in the Vanni war. It didn’t take any effort to stop the war. Even after one year of the war, India didn’t act on rehabilitating the incarcerated people, accused members of the confederation of citizens’ forums in Jaffna while meeting the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao on Tuesday. Resettlement is a hoodwink in Vanni, said retired Senior Professor S.K. Sitrampalam of the University of Jaffna, expressing the strong sentiments of Eezham Tamils. Army has occupied the Tamil lands and people have strong doubts whether India would be of any help in Tamils getting a political solution, the civil society representatives told the visiting Indian diplomat.
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Wimal Weerawansa, Russian Ambassador visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2010, 16:56 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, Sri Lanka minister of Housing and Common Amenities, accompanied by the Russian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, visited Jaffna Tuesday morning preceding India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao who was expected in Jaffna Friday evening, sources in Jaffna said. Wimal Weerawansa and the Russian Ambassador returned to Colombo Friday evening after participating in some events in Jaffna peninsula.
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'Anti-Tamil ideology, international meddling make reconciliation impossible'

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 14:42 GMT]
In a recent paper titled "Why National Reconciliation in Sri Lanka Is Not Possible," Brian Senewiratne, a renowned physician and an Australia based Sinhala expatriate, says although he had realized that ‘national reconciliation’ in Sri Lanka was ‘totally unrealistic’, after witnessing the major human rights violations inflicted upon the Tamil people, what has made the reconciliation really ‘impossible’ was the most serious recent slaughter of Tamils with features of genocide. In addition, what makes reconciliation ‘most unlikely’ is ‘international meddling’ and ‘power play’, he argues. The 78-year-old member of the Bandaranaike family, who is a long-time defender of the Eezham Tamil cause, also argues in his paper that even the real development of the Sinhala areas is not possible if the ‘developmental power’ is left in the hands of those in Colombo.
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Tamil political prisoners in A’pura appeal for release

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 08:16 GMT]
Thirty-five Tamil political prisoners held in Anuradhapura prison since 2005 have made an urgent appeal to Sri Lanka government Sunday to release them on bail or discharge them. They have told the authorities in a memorandum that they are in remand on fabricated evidence against them. These prisoners were taken into custody from Vavuniyaa, Anuradhapura, Mannaar, Jaffna, Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Batticaloa.
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SL government allocates land for star hotel in Jaffna to private company

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 08:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has allocated land in Chiruththeevu in the islets of Jaffna occupied by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to a private company to build a five star hotel, sources in Jaffna said. SLN continues to refuse permission to local fishermen to fish in Chiruththeevu area which includes Ma'ndaitheevu, Poonakari and Jaffna lagoon.
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SL Education Minister wants students from South in Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 07:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Minister of Higher Education, S. B. Dissanayake showed a keen interest in exploring the possibility of admitting more students from South Sri Lanka to Jaffna University in a meeting with the Vice-chancellor, deans, lectures and students Sunday, Jaffna University sources said. The minister, invited as chief guest to the Founder's Day celebration Monday, held Sunday meeting claiming to discuss the upgrading of Jaffna University and improvement of basic facilities.
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80% of resettled families in Batticaloa not paid livelihood assistance

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2010, 05:53 GMT]
Around eighty percent of resettled people in Batticaloa district have not been paid their livelihood assistance of twenty-five thousand rupees. Others were not paid a single cent as livelihood assistance they are entitled at the time of resettlement, according to Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Pon. Selvarajah.
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Nirupama Rao to visit North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 August 2010, 07:53 GMT]
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is to visit Jaffna, Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa in the North 30, 31 August in the context of Indian Foreign Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna's proposed visit to Sri Lanka late September, sources in Jaffna said. Nirupama Rao will inspect the progress of development projects, resettlement and rehabilitation activities in the North before meeting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians 1 March in Colombo. Sri Lanka government, keen to make a show of the 'Development of North' to international countries and India, is sending its ministers to North in haste in an effort to support its claims of achievements in the above mentioned matters, the sources added.
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Batticaloa Tamils mourn disappearance of 48 Tamils two decades ago

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 August 2010, 06:26 GMT]
Tamils of several villages in Batticaloa district Friday observed the twenty years’ death anniversary of 48 Tamil people who were reported disappeared after being arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on 27th August 1990, with silent procession from Siththaa'ndi Kaa'li Koayil to Siththaa'ndi Murukan Koayil from 9:00 a.m till 11:00 a.m. Relatives of the disappeared participated in the procession with tears. Special prayer was also held in Siththaa'ndi Murukan Temple in remembrance of those “disappeared”.
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No Tamil doctors in Vaakarai government hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 August 2010, 06:23 GMT]
Residents of Vaakarai, a traditional Tamil village in Batticaloa district, find difficult to explain their illness and obtain treatment as medical officers who can converse in Tamil language are not posted to Vaakarai government hospital. All medical officers posted to this hospital are Sinhala, the residents said.
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New Zealand Supreme Court decides LTTE a political organisation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 August 2010, 00:40 GMT]
The Supreme Court of New Zealand Friday dismissed the appeal of the government seeking rejection of the refugee status of an Eezham Tamil who was captaining a ship carrying arms to the LTTE. The court in its judgement said: “At all relevant times the Tamil Tigers was an organisation having the goals of self-determination for Tamils and securing an independent Tamil state in northeast Sri Lanka. The principal objective was to induce the government of Sri Lanka to concede such political change. These characteristics made the Tamil Tigers a political organisation notwithstanding its use, at times, of proscribed methods of advancing its cause. That much is not in dispute”.
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Politicising religious reformation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 August 2010, 09:02 GMT]
Around 300 goats and countless chickens were sacrificed in a folk ritual on Wednesday at the Kaa’li temple in Munneasvaram, Chilaapam (Chilaw), in the Puththa’lam district of the North Western Province. A group of Buddhist monks marched in protest and when prevented, the angry monks sat on the road and refused to move until the ritual was over. Tension developed in Chilaapam, media reports from Colombo said. The demography of the region is largely made of Sinhalicised Tamils and some surviving pockets of Tamils. A considerable number of Sinhala Buddhists also took part in the folk ritual, Wednesday, and academics wrote on Buddha’s denouncement of animal sacrifice and rituals of Vedic Brahmins. When around 40,000 Tamils were slaughtered in Vanni last year, the Buddhist establishments in the island were either silent or encouraged it.
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Colombo "deliberately shelled civilians," accuses UN's departing Holmes

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2010, 11:18 GMT]
United Nation's Human Rights Co-ordinator, John Holmes, in a parting shot at Colombo the end of his 3-year tenure at the UN, defended his department's funding of the Sri Lanka government's internment camps where more than 350,000 held for several months while admitting the Sri Lanka government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals, Inner City Press reported.
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School girl killed in accident in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2010, 09:46 GMT]
A young school girl was killed on the spot when a truck ran over her at new bridge road in Batticaloa Friday around 7:30 a.m. police said. An eyewitness told TamilNet that the driver was alleged to have switched seat with a passenger soon after the accident since he did not have a valid driving license.
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