Colombo begins deluding campaign through ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 14:24 GMT]
Accusing the LTTE for missing the opportunity of ‘mega development’ and for walking out from the Peace Process on ‘flimsy grounds’, Sri Lanka’s former head of the Peace Secretariat, Bernard Gunatilleke inaugurated the misinformation campaign of Colombo while appearing before the ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission on Wednesday. However, Gunetilleke who emphasized that the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) demanded by the LTTE for return to negotiation could not have been granted by the government, didn’t attribute any reasons for it. Whether hoodwinking Tamils with ‘development without political solution’ is a long-contemplated strategy of Colombo and its abetters and whether it was this attitude that ditched the peace process is the question asked in the Tamil circles.
Full story >>

Malaysia releases 62 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 05:45 GMT]
Immigration Department of Malaysia released Thursday noon 62 of the 75 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers, held in at the KLIA depot for 111 days, according to Free Malaysia Today daily. Alternative Action Team (AAT) president B. Kalaivanar said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur Thursday that 13 of the asylum seekers still held are expected to be released Friday. Tamil Integrity Movement chief T. Sembiyan was also present in the conference.
Full story >>

Tamil driver found dead in his house in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 04:01 GMT]
A Tamil driver of a three wheeler was found hanging from the roof in his house at Oor Veethi in Kalladi in Batticaloa district Thursday morning. The body was covered with bleeding injuries and Kaaththaankudi Police on investigation ruled out the possibility of suicide.
Full story >>

Malaysian Tamil leader hard on Sri Lanka’s abetters, urges boycott

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2010, 17:12 GMT]
Malaysian Tamil leader and Deputy Chief Minister of the Penang State Prof P. Ramasamy came hard on some industrial circles of Ceylonese in Malaysia buttressing Colombo in the name of ‘development. Speaking to media Thursday he urged global Tamils to boycott commercial pursuits of Karunanidhi family. Party decisions announced by him urged Malaysian government to take a serious view of the situation in the island and wanted war crimes investigation to cover the roles played by Indian Prime Minister, Home Minister, Congress Party leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. His party plans tabling resolution on war crimes investigation in the Penang State Assembly and internationally working for solutions to the national question of Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

Sinhala armed gangs rob Tamil passengers from North, East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2010, 08:52 GMT]
Armed gangs comprising solely Sinhala men posing as personnel of the Criminal Investigations Depart (CID) of the Sri Lanka Police are on the prowl in the South robbing Tamil passengers travelling from North and East to Colombo, according to complaints made by the victims to the police.
Full story >>

Resolutions passed against governments of India, Tamil Nadu for disregarding Eezham Tamils, Tamil Nadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 August 2010, 16:23 GMT]
Karuththurimaikk Kazhakam (Union for Freedom of Expression), an umbrella organization consisting of several poltical and humanitarian organizations in Tamil Nadu passed resolutions condemning the Central Government of India and the State Government of Tamil Nadu for willingly maintaining silence over for Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa regime's blatant violation of democracy related to its war crimes committed during the war on Vanni and the frequent killings of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), in a public meeting held 06 August in Chennai Purasavaakkam Thaa'naa Street, sources in Chennai said. The meeting was presided by Comrade Nallakannu of the Communist Party of India. Vaiko, the leader of Marumalarchi Dravida Munetra Kalazham (MDMK) proposed the resolutions that were passed unanimously.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka’s Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission begins sitting

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 August 2010, 15:16 GMT]
The Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), consisting of eight members, chaired by the former Attorney General C. R. de Silva, commenced its sittings Wednesday morning at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute in Colombo 7, according to Commission’s Secretary S. M. Samarakoon. Bernard Goonatillake, former head of Sri Lanka's Peace Secretariat that was operational during the period of the conflict,is scheduled to give evidence on the opening day. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is to give evidence before the Commission 17 August. The Commission is to meet from August 11 till the 25th. Sessions on August 14th and 15th are to be held in Vavuniyaa.
Full story >>

Armed men abduct Tamil man in white van in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2010, 10:38 GMT]
Armed men who came in a white van abducted a 30-year-old Tamil man in the early of Thursday from his house in Akkaraippattu in Batticaloa district, according to a complaint lodged by the wife of the victim at Akaaraippattu Police on Monday
Full story >>

Extremism of defeatism

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2010, 02:31 GMT]
Promoting extremism of defeatism is the latest ‘counterinsurgency’ weapon Colombo and those who abetted it in the war are trying on Eezham Tamils and especially on their diaspora in recent times. They do it for different purposes but none of them are prepared to come out with solutions other than subservience. Individual extremists of defeatism, who seek political space by upholding united Sri Lanka with wrong elements, are making the same mistake of their forefathers that haunt Eezham Tamils to this day and will continue to haunt their posterity. Eezham is the only rightful living space in the world for Eezham Tamils. Whatever geopolitical contests take place in the island the world will care only when Eezham Tamils have an independent polity for them.
Full story >>

BBC reports wrongly about car park incident in Norway

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2010, 08:37 GMT]
A minor violent incident, resulting from a dispute over parking car at a Tamil religious festival on Sunday in Oslo, Norway, was wrongly reported by BBC Sinhala as a clash between “rival factions supporting the Tamil Tigers.” Even though there was undue highlight, the Norwegian media reported the incident properly along with police report. But the BBC Sinhala.com, citing the Norwegian media and police, mischievously came out with imaginary additions, Tamil circles in Oslo commented. Just a few days back Parameswaran who won a libel case against two British newspapers commented how people are gullible to what comes in the English media. What went wrong with the BBC Sinhala Service that had progressive Sinhalese in the staff, diaspora circles wonder.
Full story >>

Surrendered students detained under PTA sit GCE A/L examination

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2010, 08:19 GMT]
Around 2,500 hundred students from the districts of Vavuniyaa, Mannaar, Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu in Vanni sitting for the GCE A/L examination which commenced Monday are among the 2,45,000 students appearing for the examination throughout the country. 367 students from the districts of Vanni arrested and detained under Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) claimed as members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are also sitting for the examination, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

HC applications to be filed by familes of disappeared LTTE key persons

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2010, 07:28 GMT]
The family members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham (LTTE) key persons gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) or surrender at the end of the war on Vanni are to file Habeas Corpus (HC) applications next week, sources Jaffna said. According to Sri Lanka minister D. Gunasekara the wives of LTTE senior key persons Balakumaran and Yogi are now widows. Some sources say that both had been killed after surrendering to SLA and some that they are held in special SLA detention centres. The contradicting and confusing information have led their family members to file HC applications, the sources added.
Full story >>

Moothoor east uprooted families languish in temporary shelters

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2010, 15:43 GMT]
Hundreds of uprooted Tamil families from Champoor north and east, Kooniththeevu and Navarathinapuram in Trincomalee district are accommodated in temporary shelters made up of tin sheets and cadjan leaves in Ki’liveddi, Ma’nalcheanai and Paddiththiddal in Moothoor division. They are agitating for their early resettlement in their villages. They fled from their villages following the military offensive launched by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in April 2006. The uprooted families had sought refuge first in Batticaloa district.
Full story >>

Malaysian politician to form Committee on genocide in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2010, 14:26 GMT]
Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, and human rights advocate, Prof. Ramasamy, is to form an international committee to collect evidence on the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, with the aim of presenting a case to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Panel, a Malaysian companian site to the Sun newspaper said Sunday. "The group will also fight for human rights anywhere, in places where people are deprived of their rights and privileges," said the Batu Kawan MP who is a long-time human right activist.
Full story >>

Indiscriminate sand excavation in Vadmaraadchi causes seepage of seawater

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2010, 07:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Department of Geological Survey & Mine Bureau (GSMB) officials who arrived in Jaffna to conduct a survey in Vadamaraadchi East where indiscriminate excavation of sand causes seepage of sea water had to stop their work due to interference by Sri Lanka minister Douglas Devananda, leader of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), sources in Vadamaraadchi said. The EPDP firm called ‘Maheswary Funds’, named after assassinated EPDP organizer Maheswaray Vealautham, has procured exclusive rights to excavate sand in Vadamaraadchi and is alleged of making huge profits, the sources added.
Full story >>

Plans afoot to settle Sinhala people in Thiriyaay in Trincomalee district

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 August 2010, 13:46 GMT]
Moves are afoot by Sri Lanka government central land authorities to acquire about three thousand acres including paddy fields belonging Tamil farmers located close to the Buddhist temple called Kirihandu Seya in Thiriyaay, a traditional Tamil village, north of Trincomalee town. The residents of Thiriyaay said that this is part of a subtle move by the chauvinist elements in Sri Lanka government to attach more lands to the Buddhist temple in order to settle Sinhalese from South.
Full story >>

ITAK seeks withdrawal of injunction order against its decision

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 August 2010, 04:44 GMT]
Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) party Jaffna parliamentarian N. A. Sumanthiran appeared Friday on behalf of ITAK and filed a petition seeking the withdrawal of the injunction order served by Jaffna District Court on the expulsion of three of its members from the party by ITAK. The three ITAK members had filed a petition 02 August against the decision by ITAK to expel them from the party because they had contested in the last general election on All Ceylon Tamil Congress ticket, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Court disallows application of Tamil student detainee to sit A/L exam

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 2010, 16:53 GMT]
Akkaraippattu Magistrate Friday refused permission to a Tamil youth to sit the Advanced Level as he was detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The youth, A. Suthaharan, arrested April last year, is detained in Batticaloa prison.
Full story >>

DPF suspends Praba Ganesan for ‘betraying’ party, Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2010, 23:31 GMT]
The Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) led by Mano Ganesan has suspended the membership of parliamentarian Praba Ganesan who joined the government in a surprising move Thursday. DPF termed the cross over as one which has ‘betrayed’ the party and Tamil people during "these trying times."
Full story >>

Odduchuddaan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2010, 21:01 GMT]
The quarry mound
The mound or high ground that remains after quarrying
Full story >>