Sri Lanka's presumptive war-criminal to take UN job in New York

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2010, 00:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative (DPR) to the United Nation's post in New York, vacant following the recall of previous DPR, Bandula Jayasekera, after an alleged sexual harassment scandal, is reported to be filled by Major General Shavendra Silva, former 58th Division commander, who has been accused of committing war crimes by his former General Sarath Fonseka, Inner City Press reported. Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in International Law, commenting on this reported UN job said, "the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is trying to sanitize and immunize their genocidaires/war criminals and thus regularize it all."
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NGO workers killed in accident in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2010, 14:12 GMT]
Two Tamil youth attached to an international Non-Governmental organisation were killed in a head on collision Wednesday night around 9:30 p.m. at Cheddiku'lam in Vavuniyaa.
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Robbers posing as CID arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2010, 09:12 GMT]
Two persons posing as Sri Lankan Criminal Investigations Department officers and robbing Tamil residents in Bambalapitiya, Wellawatta and Dehiwala suburbs of Colombo, were arrested by the Bambalapitiya Police Wednesday.
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Indian Foreign Affairs minister to visit Sri Lanka in September

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 August 2010, 13:45 GMT]
In response to the accusations raised by All India Anna Dravidia Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) parliamentarians against the Indian Government for having not given any help to the uprooted Tamils in Sri Lanka held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps or any assistance to the resettled Tamils in Vanni in Indian Parliament Wednesday, Indian Foreign Affairs minister, S. M. Krishna, told the parliament he will be visiting Sri Lanka late September to hold talks with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa again on the issues raised.
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NP Governor wants teaching stopped in war damaged schools in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 August 2010, 05:41 GMT]
Northern Province Governor, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri instructed the Education Authorities in Vanni to stop all educational activities in the schools in Vanni that were damaged and destroyed during Sri Lanka government's war on Vanni until they are rebuilt or renovated, in a meeting held in Vavuniyaa Monday with the officials of the Northern Province Ministry of Education and Vanni education authorities, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Governor's order is seen as a blow on the students of Vanni who already had been robbed of their education by the war, Vanni education officials said.
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Devotees throng tenth day Nalloor temple festival

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 August 2010, 05:39 GMT]
Thousands of devotees from all parts of Sri Lanka as well as from abroad attended the 'Manchath Thiruvizhaa' on the tenth day of the annual festival of Nalloor Kanthasuvaami temple in Jaffna Tuesday, sources in Jaffna said. Police personnel posted at the entrances of the temple checked the persons entering the temple grounds. But thefts of gold jewelry from the devotees did take place, according to complaints made to the security officers of Jaffna Municipal Council, the sources said.
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Cultural and psychological attack on Tamils in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 22:19 GMT]
A Tamil diaspora visitor who recently went to see the archaeological site at Kantharoadai in the heart of Jaffna peninsula found all signboards in the site in Sinhalicized Sinhala. Further, he was asked to remove shoes to walk the site, indicating that this important heritage site of the people of Jaffna is fast becoming a cult centre of contemporary Sinhala-Budhhism to culturally and psychologically alienate the people of Jaffna from their land. Ancient remains of Buddhism in Tamil land are not a cultural property of today’s genocidal Sinhala-Buddhism. What is happening in Jaffna is perhaps the ‘reconciliation’, meant by the ‘culture and development’ pundits, commented an academic in Jaffna.
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Sri Lanka ambassador's refugee claims absurd, says US Academic

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 10:23 GMT]
Robert Oberst, professor of political science, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and an expert on Sri Lanka commenting on Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canada, Chitranganee Wagiswara's remark that Tamil boat refugees were a "human smuggling operation with links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," said Wagiswara's claims "would be offensive, if they were not so absurd," and added that if Wagiswara wanted to silence critics, "she would be better served to persuade her government to allow outside independent observers into the Tamil areas to report on the conditions rather than to slander and attack those who question her government," Rediff.com reported.
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USA donates maritime hardware to SL military

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2010, 12:48 GMT]
Major General Darryll Wong, Chief of Staff and Commander of the Hawaii Air National Guard and Valerie Fowler, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Monday donated maritime hardware to Sri Lanka Air Force to assist the Sri Lanka military in ensuring the safety and security of Sri Lanka's territorial waters, a press statement issued by the US Embassy in Colombo said. "Safe and secure seas are in the interests of both our countries," the statement further said. In the meantime, Tamil Nadu fishermen along the coastal areas, continue to complain that Sri Lankan military has been systematically stepping up violence against them in the traditional waters of Palk Strait.
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TamilNet launches Palaka'ni

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2010, 10:56 GMT]
TamilNet plans to launch shortly a weekly video programme Palaka’ni, fulfilling repeated requests from its readership to extend services in Tamil. The programme will have panel discussions on current affairs in Tamil. Even though constraints faced by TamilNet are manifold, we go forward in this venture considering the needs of the times. TamilNet appeals for continued support and cooperation of its readership, which has been the sole provider of support to the functioning of TamilNet until now. TamilNet reiterates its independent and democratic support to the national cause of Eezham Tamils. As an alternative media TamilNet may have to continue functioning in alternative ways to maintain its freedom, independence and commitment to the cause. Our request to the media world is not to view us in conventional terms but to help us in this experiment of information liberation.
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Swiss German media twists heart of the matter

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2010, 22:31 GMT]
While younger generation of diaspora Tamils respond to the times and express themselves through democratic protests such as the British youth Sivanthan’s war crimes awareness walk to Geneva, the Swiss German media NZZ portrays the long-standing national cause of Eezham Tamils as an LTTE idea. Parameswaran won his case against British media. But there is an orchestrated effort in the Western media from Canada to Geneva to blunt the liberation question in the name of 'terrorism'. Bulk of this media shamefully abetted genocide in the island. Are they now against terrorism or against liberation of a people and whether independent democratic transformation of liberation polity is sabotaged to bail out Rajapaksa and the genocidal state, ask Tamil diaspora circles.
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Australian ‘Sri Lankans’ test conscience of international Tamil writers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2010, 02:06 GMT]
Creative writers are conscience keepers of humanity. They are neither bound by nor are contributors to authoritarian forces. They don’t need ‘sponsors’ whose ‘sponsors’ have bloodstained hands. In the name of ‘International Tamil Writers Forum’, some Australian Tamil individuals donning ‘Sri Lankan’ identity want international Tamil writers to meet in Colombo, January next year. They promise passage, boarding, lodging and even a tour around ‘Sri Lanka’ for those who come forward. The sponsors say they have been organizing the international meet hitherto in Australia for the last ten years, but this time they want to have it in Colombo. What is the message these conscience keepers want to give to international Tamils and to the world of creative writers, asks a writer in Colombo who has no freedom to reveal name.
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Morawaka

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 22:29 GMT]
The side of Mora trees (Nephelium longanum)
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95 persons disappeared in Batticaloa district after SLA occupation

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 09:07 GMT]
Ninety-five persons including two women have disappeared without trace in Batticaloa district since Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupation of the district, according to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, P. Selvarasa. The youths who had left the Liberation Tigers and married leading a normal life and persons who had been supporters of the LTTE had been arrested or abducted by SLA Intelligence Wing with the assistance of Tamil paramilitary group of Pillayan and Karuna. These persons are among those gone missing. The abductors arriving in white vans during nights had taken away the persons who had disappeared since then, the MP said.
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Tamil woman dies in accident in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 08:27 GMT]
A Tamil woman was killed knocked down by a lorry in front of Vavuniyaa general hospital located along A9 road Thursday around 9:00 a.m. A lorry coming from behind knocked down the woman riding bicycle. She died on the spot.
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‘Development’ conquistadors have no appetite for psychological need of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Psychotherapy provides meaning for the enormous suffering people have undergone to hope for the future and to hope for trust in the world, says Daya Somasundaram of the University of Jaffna, one of the very few psychiatrics serving the war affected Eezham Tamils in the island. Considering the long history in the island, the meaning comes only when Eezham Tamils get their land and affairs into their hands and when their nation is recognised. But the ‘development’ conquistadors of the West and India show no appetite for basic psychology needed for regeneration in the context of the island, commented Tamil circles, citing Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao who is scheduled to visit the island saying that conflict in the island had ended and India has to go beyond rehabilitation to look at development, without any reference to the crux of the matter.
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4 Vavuniyaa Tamils arrested in Kandy

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 05:02 GMT]
Four Tamils, residents of Vavuniyaa, were taken into custody by the Kandy police in Alawathugoda area Wednesday in a cordon and search operation. Police said the suspected Tamils failed to produce documents to identify them and the purpose their visit to Kandy.
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British youth’s war crimes awareness walk to conclude Friday

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 00:40 GMT]
The British Tamil youth who set out to highlight the need for an international investigation into Sri Lanka’s war crimes through an awareness-raising walk from London to the United Nations in Geneva is near the end of his journey, fellow activists said. Well wishers from several European countries are traveling to Switzerland to welcome him there. Gobi Sivanthan has almost reached Geneva, activists said Thursday night. Whilst French media outlets have reported regularly on his progress through France, local and national police have provided support along the way to facilitate Sivanthan and his supporters. Meanwhile, a group of British Parliamentarians hailed the youth’s efforts, describing it as “a noble mission for a noble cause.”
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Namal Rajapaksa engaged in promoting government propaganda in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 August 2010, 11:27 GMT]
Namal Rajapaksa, parliamentarian and son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been frequently visiting Jaffna and Vanni in the North in an attempt to show that he is keen in the development of North, particularly in the field of education, sources in Jaffna said. The swimming pool project he inaugurated with much publicity in Jaffna Central College had to be abandoned as his 'Blue Brigade' young men had made away with millions of rupees allocated for the project, they added.
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Indian HC refuses visa to head of Northern fishermen society representatives

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 August 2010, 06:48 GMT]
Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka refused to issue visa to the president of the Northern Fishermen Societies Federation, S. Thavaratnam who was to head the delegation of 23 representatives from Northern Sri Lanka to hold talks with their counterparts in Tamil Nadu. The former secretary of Vadamaraadchi Fishermen Society, K. Sooriyakumaran is now leading the delegation which is engaged in the talks now, sources in Jaffna said.
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