Sri Lanka one country, unitary state: Namal Rajapaksa, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 16:38 GMT]
“Sri Lanka is one country and a unitary state,” Namal Rajapakse, MP and son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa said speaking at the event where Minister Douglas Devananda officially inaugurated a boat service Sunday around 11:00 a.m at Ma’n’niththalai jetty in Poonakarai, sources in Jaffna said. “Douglas is a model person to the Tamils of the country as he sets an example by cooperating with the government in the development of the whole country,” he added. Meanwhile, civil society circles in Jaffna said that Namal Rajapaksa had praised Douglas Devananda in an effort to pacify him as Namal Rajapaksa had brought five of his own boats to be engaged in the boat service between Kurunakar and Poonakari in the project which was initiated by minister Douglas Devananda.
Full story >>

JVP delegation to visit Vanni, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 13:55 GMT]
The parliamentary group delegation of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna led Democratic National Alliance (DNA) is scheduled to undertake a three day-tour to Vanni and Jaffna from June 14 Monday. JVP leader Somawansa Amarasingha will be leading the delegation, according to DNA parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake to media Sunday.
Full story >>

Namal Rajapaksa’s men monopolize Jaffna-Poonakari boat service

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 05:40 GMT]
The new boat service between Kurunakar and Poonakari in the North which is to be inaugurated Sunday by Namal Rajapaksa, son of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is to be entirely serviced by boats owned by him, sources in Jaffna said. Colombo government and the powerful men from South are exploiting all possible sources of income in Jaffna peninsula, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented.
Full story >>

SLA engaged in obliterating evidence of mass killings in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 05:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are hastily destroying hundreds of human skeletal remains that lies in the weed overgrown bunkers where the Vanni civilians had crept into to save their lives when SLA moved into Vanni in its final offensives on Vanni, a representative of an International NGO who recently visited places not permitted for resettlement in Vanni told TamilNet. Meanwhile, a priest, an eyewitness to the massacre, recalled how the advancing SLA soldiers had thrown grenades into the bunkers and how SLA tanks had dumped them with earth even with people alive in them.
Full story >>

IUSU denied access to meet counterpart of Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 04:39 GMT]
The Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University did not permit Saturday more than seventy representatives of Inter University Students’ Union (IUSU) from South who had come to Jaffna to give the war affected Vanni students in Jaffna University things they had collected, to enter the university premise, sources in Jaffna said. The IUSU representatives led by Uthila Premaratne were stopped at the entrance as Jaffna University VC directed the security guards to close the main gate. Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) representatives were told curtly by the VC that Jaffna University was not a place for their political activities, the sources added.
Full story >>

CID conducts spurious searches in paramilitary operatives’ houses in Vaazhaichcheani

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 June 2010, 09:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) searched Tuesday the house of Nagalingam Thiraviyam alias Jeyam, a member of the Eastern Provincial Council and an operative of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) who had been evicted from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2004 by the then Commander Karuna and present Deputy Minister of Rehabilitation, Vinayagamoorthy Muaralitharan. Similar searches were also made in his other houses in Vaakarai police division and his relatives’ houses in Challiththeevu and Panichchangkea’ni areas, sources in Batticaloa said. The CID, however, has not confiscated any stolen goods or documents related to various criminal activities of Jeyam who possesses wealth and properties exceeding his income, the sources added.
Full story >>

Resettled people in Vanni suffer increasing SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 June 2010, 04:30 GMT]
Disappearances, sexual abuse and extortion by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Vanni where people have been allowed to resettle have increased and the victims are helpless as there are no authorities to complain against the violence except to the SLA in Vanni, a government officer in Vanni said. Meanwhile, SLA earmarks properties with ‘Reserved for SLA’ notice boards and the owners of the marked properties have to pay large sums of money to claim their properties back, a worker of an NGO in Vanni said.
Full story >>

Sinhalese brought from South to settle in state lands in Vaakarai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 June 2010, 04:45 GMT]
State and abandoned lands in Vaaharai division in Batticaloa district in Eastern Province are being distributed to persons who have been brought down from the south. This is being done without the knowledge of the Batticaloa District Government Agent and Vaakarai Divisional Secretary. They are being kept in dark and some military officials and Buddhist monks are behind the state aided colonization, civilian sources alleged.
Full story >>

Douglas Devananda says charges against him in Madras High Court will be dropped Monday

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 June 2010, 16:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda, just returned after his visit to India with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, told media Friday that the charges against him filed in Tamil Nadu Courts will be dropped when they will be taken up for hearing in the Mandras High Court Monday. He said this in a press meet held through phone at Srithar theatre in Jaffna. According to The Times of India, Tamil Nadu lawyer P. Pugalenthi, the secretary of Tamil Nadu Peoples Rights Forum, a pro-Eezham Tamil body, had filed a petition that action should be taken against Mr. Devananda since the VIth Additional Sessions Judge in June 1994 had issued a proclamation warrant treating him as an 'absconding accused' in the case relating to the killing of a city resident in 1986.
Full story >>

China, India, USA work to increase influence in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 June 2010, 14:17 GMT]
China, India and the United States of America are gradually strengthening their presence in Jaffna. India and China have openly sought to influence the 'post-war development’, which is unilaterally undertaken under the supervision of Basil Rajapaksa, the brother of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Tamil circles in Jaffna commenting on the corporate race by the powers said articulate sections of Tamils in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora should come out with appropriate responses that the powers should respect the rights of the people of the land in deciding their own development.
Full story >>

Tamil Commemorative stamp released in US

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 June 2010, 02:08 GMT]
Tamils for Obama, a US-based Tamil activist organization, is releasing a first-class postage stamp ($0.44) for use with letters posted within the United States. "U.S. Postal Service (USPS) recently decided to allow American citizens to design and market their own postage stamps. We decided make use of this opportunity to show respect to the Tamils who have suffered destruction to life and property in Sri Lanka," spokesperson for the organization told TamilNet.
Full story >>

India compels CEPA on Sri Lanka: Dr. Wickrembahu Karunaratne

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 June 2010, 08:15 GMT]
India is compelling Sri Lanka to sign the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) for the favour of supplying weapons in the war against the Liberation Tigers, Dr. Wickremabahu Karunaratne, the leader of the New Left Front (NLF), said in a press meet held in Colombo Wednesday morning. He further said that India which had been instrumental in the mass killings of Tamils in Sri Lanka is employing schemes like CEPA to bring Sri Lanka under its control. He warned that all trade ventures including small industries in Sri Lanka will become Indian if the CEPA is signed.
Full story >>

Tamil Nadu delegation not satisfied after meeting Rajapaksa in New Delhi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 June 2010, 16:49 GMT]
A delegation of 21 MPs from Tamil Nadu led by T.R. Baalu failed to secure concrete assurances on political settlement, release of Prisoners of War or resettlement of Tamils after meeting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in New Delhi on Wednesday. In a televised comment in Sun News, Mr. T.R. Balu said that there was some progress, but added he was not satisfied with the output of the meeting. The Sri Lankan delegation headed by Mr. Rajapaksa and the Indian delegation led by Dr. Manmohan Singh inked seven agreements, which included bilateral counter-insurgency and corporate deals. In the meantime, fifteen Tamil Nadu fishermen from Rameswaram were admitted to hospital after they were stripped off their clothes, tortured with ice on their heads and were forced to eat salt and raw fish by the Sri Lanka Navy on Tuesday off Kachchatheevu in Palk Strait, media reports in Tamil Nadu said.
Full story >>

US ambassador to Sri Lanka visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 June 2010, 15:36 GMT]
Ms. Patricia A. Butenis, Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives arrived in Jaffna Wednesday on a two-day visit where she first went to the ‘Periya Pa’l’livaasal’ (Big Mosque) of the Muslim community in Jaffna town, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, the Intelligence wing men of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were active in covering all her visits collecting particulars of the places she went, persons she met and also the subjects she discussed, the sources added.
Full story >>

Exert pressure on Colombo to declare detained LTTE members as political prisoners: CPI politician

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 June 2010, 02:50 GMT]
Thousands of former LTTE members, who were captured by the Sri Lanka Army in May last year are still perishing in Colombo’s detention camps in unknown locations. “Many of the families of these young Tamils do not even know the whereabouts of their loved ones. The Sri Lankan state is treating them like criminals. Rajapaksa is not recognising these young Tamils as Prisoners of War. But, he should at least be pressurised by the global community to declare those detained as political prisoners,” said C. Mahendran, the deputy state secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Mahendran was addressing fellow activists of Ilangkai Thamizhar Paathukaappu Iyakkam, while they were held under collective custody by Tamil Nadu police, after a protest on Tuesday against Rajapaksa’s visit to New Delhi.
Full story >>

Emergency extended for another month in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 2010, 16:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Tuesday evening adopted the motion tabled by the government to extend the State of Emergency by another year by a majority of sixty eight votes. 121 parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituents voted for the extension while fifty-three voted against. Kandy district parliamentarian Abdul Cader elected from the main opposition United National Party (UNP) voted with the government.
Full story >>

Rajapaksa visits India amid wide-scale protests in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 2010, 11:33 GMT]
All the district capitals and major cities of Tamil Nadu state Tuesday noon reported wide-scale protests against Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to India. All the prominent leaders of political parties and movements, Vaiko, Pazha Nedumaran, Thirumavalavan, Seeman, Nallakannu, Mahendran, T. Rajendar, Thiyagu were arrested by Tamil Nadu police with thousands of other activists after they concluded their speeches and protests. The protests, including black flag demonstrations in front of Indian Central Government Institutions in Tamil Nadu, blocking railway and burning effigies of Sri Lankan President, have brought many Tamil parties and movements together in support of Eezham Tamils. All major media outlets operating from India have given coverage to the protests.
Full story >>

Robberies by armed gangs escalate in Ampaa’rai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 2010, 10:41 GMT]
Gangs of armed robbers in Kalmunai and Kalmunaikkudi areas in Ampaa’rai district in the Eastern Province are frequently robbing cash and jewellery from wealthy people during nights while the Special Task Force (STF) Commandos and Police are jointly engaged in road patrol duties in the said areas, sources in Kalmunai said. The complaints made to Kalmunai police by a well-known Muslim doctor who had been robbed of cash and jewellery worth more than 1.5 million rupees were not considered seriously by the police who are yet to arrest any suspects involved in the robbery, the sources added. Meanwhile, armed men robbed two houses in Vaazhaichcheanai last Thursday.
Full story >>

JVP to step up opposition against Indian involvement in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 June 2010, 18:32 GMT]
General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Tilvin Silva Monday blamed India for meddling with affairs of the Sri Lankan state as if it was a federal unit of India. The JVP reaction has come as the Tamil National Alliance was scheduled to meet Rajapaksa Monday evening before his visit to India on Tuesday. Recently, the Government of India, while gazetting a declaration designating LTTE as an unlawful association in India, linked 'Tamil Eelam' as a separate homeland amounting to 'cession and secession of a part of the territory of India.'
Full story >>

Rajapaksa reschedules 'victory day' parade for June 18

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 June 2010, 08:14 GMT]
Colombo's 'victory parade' postponed due to bad weather in May is re-scheduled to be held on June 18 at Colombo Galle Face Green, according to government sources in Colombo. The three armed forces, police, and Civil Defence Force are to participate in the parade to be held by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Meanwhile, Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) would mark 'Victory Day' on June 8 with Adishtana Pooja at the Viharamahadevi Open Air Theatre, said Mrs. Anoma Fonseka, wife of General (retired) Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army who led the Sri Lankan forces in the war against Tamils.
Full story >>