Shut down in Vavuniyaa against police inaction

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 15:52 GMT]
Vavuniyaa Traders' Association Tuesday staged a general shut down protesting against inaction by Vavuniyaa Police to launch an inquiry into the alleged abduction of a wealthy Tamil businessman from the area few days ago. He was later released after paying the demanded ransom of six hundred thousand rupees to an unidentified gang, sources said.
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Tamil prisoners attacked in Colombo remand prison

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2010, 16:20 GMT]
United National Party (UNP) Jaffna district parliamentarian Ms. Vijyakala Maheswaran Monday requested Sri Lanka government to launch an inquiry into the attack on Tamil prisoners in Colombo remand prison on Saturday. The Tamil prisoners were attacked when they complained to the prison authorities that they were being detained in overcrowded cells in the prison, sources in Colombo said.
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British Tamils seek boycott of defiant Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2010, 12:21 GMT]
British Prime Minister David Cameron will Monday be handed a memorandum on behalf of UK’s Tamil community urging his government to support an international probe into war crimes in Sri Lanka, and to pressure the Colombo government to resettle in their homes tens of thousands of Tamils still languishing in refugee camps, and allow international access to thousands held in its prisoner-of-war camps. The UK is also being urged to boycott Sri Lanka till Colombo complies with international law. The handover follows a march and ‘midnight vigil’ outside 10 Downing Street staged Friday night by thousands of supporters of the campaign who marked the anniversary of the 1983 ‘Black July’ anti-Tamil pogrom.
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Tamils sue Germany for accepting alleged war crimes commander as ambassador

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 23:54 GMT]
In an unprecedented legal move, three diaspora Tamil organisations have decided on Friday to file a case against Germany in the European Court of Human Rights. The Switzerland Council of Eezham Tamils (SCET), the Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils (NCET) and the US based NGO, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), are to submit an application to the European Court of Human Rights charging the German government for violating EU Rights conventions by accepting a Sri Lankan military commander, Major General Jagath Dias, an accused in the war crimes, as Sri Lanka’s diplomat to Germany. Meanwhile, German based International Human Rights Association at Bremen, while welcoming the move said that real thrust could be achieved only by exposing and suing what this general is doing in Germany, violating human rights with the tacit approval of the German government.
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STF appropriates Tamil land to erect Buddhist temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 17:10 GMT]
The Special Task Force (STF) in Batticaloa district, after asking the Kannaipuram Tamil villagers in Vellave'li DS division to vacate their lands to construct a Murugan Temple, has reportedly started unloading bricks, cements and sand for the construction of a Buddhist vihare.
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Male corpse washed ashore in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 06:03 GMT]
Fishermen in Nedunththeevu (Delft) in the islets of Jaffna going fishing Friday morning found a naked male body washed ashore and informed Nedunththeevu police. The body covered with injuries is suspected to be one of the Tamil Nadu fishermen killed by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on Indian seas some days ago, police sources said. Some corpses had also been washed ashore in Mannaar area few days ago.
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Tamil journalist attacked in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 11:56 GMT]
Unidentified persons who arrived in a white van pulled out a Tamil journalist from a passenger vehicle travelling along Mannaar-Thalaimannaar road Thursday night around 8.30 and attacked him, according to a complaint lodged with the Mannaar Police.
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Reconciliation pre-requisite to development, World Bank VP tells Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 11:42 GMT]
World Bank Vice President for South Asia Isabel Guerrero who ended a three-day visit to Sri Lanka pledging support to Sri Lanka's transition to a middle income country at peace, has emphasized that reconciliation is a pre-requisite for development in Sri Lanka. During her visit to Sri Lanka, Guerrero called on Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and key officials of the Sri Lanka Government.
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Resettled family children in Vanni abandon school to earn a living

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 06:20 GMT]
Most of the resettled families having lost their earning male members either killed, disappeared or detained in prison after arrest or surrender, their children are forced to drop out from school in order to earn a living for the family, an education officer in Vanni said. The number of children above fifteen in the resettled families abandoning school has shot up drastically, though most of them would like to continue schooling if only they have the means, he further said. Politicians and others who had been shouting hard for the rights of children during the war have become silent on this grave issue, Sitsabesan, a local NGO representative in Vanni said.
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Boyle urges divestment-disinvestment campaign against "apartheid" Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 00:07 GMT]
Speaking at the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA) convention during the US Independence day weekend, Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law, said that Sri Lanka is a violator of the Apartheid Convention, and that Tamils across the world should, without delay, intensify a divestment and disinvestment campaign against Sri Lanka "in the same lines and for the same reason the world did this against the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa." The July event held in Waterbury, Connecticut, is traditionally the largest event of the Tamil speaking people in the US every year, and the Connecticut event this year drew more than 2000 Tamils.
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IFJ condemns death threats to journalist's family in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 06:19 GMT]
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a media release Wednesday said that it is alarmed by threats made against the safety of the family of senior Sri Lankan journalist Gamini Pushpakumara. "We call upon the Sri Lankan police and security agencies to take immediate measures to investigate the source of the threats and to extend all necessary protection to Pushpakumara's family," IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said. "Unfortunately, recent actions by the Sri Lankan authorities indicate that they remain disinclined to take action against the use of coercion and threats of violence that attempt to silence journalists who courageously speak the truth to power," the report said.
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TNA seeks TN Chief Minister's help, writes Sinhala daily

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 00:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has appealed for assistance from the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to help influence the Sri Lankan government to speed up the resettlement of the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and to develop the war ravaged north and east provinces, Sinhala daily Lakbima reported Thursday. According to Lakbima, the TNA is currently holding meetings with Indian leaders, in an effort to obtain the Indian government’s assistance to pressure the Sri lankan government into speeding up the resettlement of the IDPs.
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SLA forces resettled civilians in Ki’linochchi to vacate dwellings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 06:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Ki’linochchi are forcing the resettled civilians in Selvaanakar Eight Houses Scheme to vacate their houses claiming that their houses are built on private land, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni parliamentarian Sritharan said. He added that SLA soldiers entering the Scheme during nights in the last few days have been attacking the men, women and children in the housing scheme indiscriminately. The above families, whose heads are disabled, are so scared and frustrated that they consider suicide to escape SLA intimidation and harassment, Sritharan said.
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Tamil Country Councils, TAG announce legal partnership

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 01:02 GMT]
Four democratically-elected Country Councils (CCs) of Eezham Tamils in Europe announced Tuesday the signing of a formal "Collaboration Agreement" with Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, to form a co-operative relationship to pursue criminal and civil litigation against Sri Lanka officials complicit in war-crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in the courts of European Community member countries and in international courts. "Norway, Switzerland, France and Italy have already signed the preliminary agreement. The National Council of Canadian Tamils has also decided to formally join the partnership and other countries are expected to join the collaboration effort," spokesperson coordinating the effort in Europe told TamilNet.
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Court orders exhumation of the body of nurse killed in Veala’nai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 15:51 GMT]
Oorkaavattu’rai magistrate Tuesday ordered the body of the family consultant nurse Saravanai Tharsika allegedly killed by Sinhala doctor Priyantha Seniviratne in Veala’nai government hospital in the islets of Jaffna 10 July to be exhumed and sent to Colombo Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) for fresh medical examination as the victim’s mother had said that she suspects her daughter was sexually abused before being killed, in a petition filed Monday, sources in Jaffna said. Arrangements are being made to exhume the body 28 July buried in Kaithadi Hindu crematorium grounds. Tharsika’s mother had said in her petition that she does not have faith in the medical examination being conducted in Jaffna. Meanwhile, it is claimed that the suspect Sinhala doctor was attacked by Tamil inmates in Jaffna prison when he was detained in the prison 13 July, the sources added.
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SL minister includes spouses of Balakumaran, Yogi, among widows

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 13:04 GMT]
According to Rajapaksa regime’s Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms minister and Communist Party leader, Dew Gunasekera, the wives of the senior members of the LTTE, K.V. Balakumaran and Yogaratnam Yogi are among the widows needing rehabilitation, The Island reported Monday. Both the LTTE leaders were reportedly seen reaching internment camps run by the Sri Lankan military, by many who went into those camps. The international community was repeatedly telling the LTTE to surrender to Colombo and civilians to get into barbed-wire camps of the Sri Lankan Army. The Army killed Balakumaran on the Vanni east front early last year, The Island says. There were earlier media reports that the leaders were taken to Colombo.
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NPC calls on SL government to ensure no discrimination targeting Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 08:59 GMT]
National Peace Council (NPC) in its media release 16 July titled ‘Discriminatory Practices are Detrimental to Reconciliation’ called on Sri Lanka government to ensure that there is no discriminatory targeting Tamils. “The re-commencement of the practices of registering Tamils with the police and of conducting search operations that target them have been widely reported in the Tamil media in particular and have created a renewed sense of insecurity and injustice amongst the larger Tamil population that is detrimental to national reconciliation,” NPC said.
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Non-derogable rights under international law

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 14:25 GMT]
While the United Nations charter guarantees "the sovereign equality of all its Members," evolving legal doctrines dealing with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are leading to the theory that the national sovereignty is not absolute, but is qualified by peremptory norms determined by jus cogens or "compelling law." Despite Sril Lanka's persistent opposition, based on sovereignty claims, to international attempts to investigate alleged killing of more than 40,000 of Tamil civilians, the egregious nature of these crimes is unlikely to disappear from the consciousness of the world community and the Tamils affected by war. Until the issue is taken up at the world courts, expatriate Tamils should seek to assert jus cogens based cause of action in the courts of Europe and elsewhere to bring Sri Lanka officials complicit in war-crimes to justice.
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China sends convicts to work in Sri Lanka, Maldives

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 12:56 GMT]
Thousands of Chinese convicts have been pressed into service in projects by state-run Chinese companies in Sri Lanka, a strategically important country for China, which is seeking a role in the Indian Ocean. Chinese convicts also have been taken to a microstate in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives, where the Chinese government is building 4,000 houses on several different islands as a government-to- government "gift" to win influence there, writes Indian Professor of Strategic Studies Brahma Chellaney in The Japan Times, 5th July. A couple of months back a Chinese technician working in the construction of Nuraichchoalai thermal power plant undertaken by China in Puththa’lam district was arrested for alleged rape of a minor girl, Sri Lankan media reported.
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