SL colonial governor, EPDP, intrigue against Indian delegation

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2012, 05:58 GMT]
While displaying a big show with welcoming posters particularly aimed at pleasing Sushma Swaraj, and with a dominated presence in receiving the Indian delegation, the SL colonial governor in the north, Maj. Gen. Chandrasri and SL minister Douglas Devananda, on the other hand played intrigues against the delegation, which were thwarted by the Deputy High Commission of India in Jaffna, news sources in Jaffna said. The delegation cancelled visiting Nalloor Kandasamy temple after being tipped on Devananda orchestrating a fishermen agitation in front of the temple during its planned visit. The SL governor ordered the secretariat officials not to attend a meeting convened by the delegation. On Thursday, the Sinhala colonial governor accused India for the delay in the construction of houses promised to the war victims.
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Resettled Tamils threatened in Ampaa'rai - Batticaloa border, girl kidnapped

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2012, 18:25 GMT]
Around one hundred and fifty uprooted Tamil families of Chinna-vaddai, a village situated in the Poara-theevup-pattu division of Batticaloa district, bordering Uhuna village of Ampaa'rai district, complain that they are being harassed by the Sinhala paramilitary personnel and settlers, who have occupied their village for 22 years, since 1990. A Sinhala electricity worker, who came to the village from Kurunegala two weeks ago, abducted a 17-year-old Tamil girl forcing her to marry him, complain the family of the girl and her relatives. In the meantime, the Sinhala paramilitary men of the ‘Civil Defence Force’ have been harassing the Tamil families, who have recently resettled in the village. The CDF men are plundering fish and vegetables belonging to returnees at gunpoint and are warning the Tamils to vacate the village.
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Norway plays with words on investigation, sees failed 13 Amendment as solution

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 March 2012, 12:48 GMT]
During a parliamentary interpolation seeking to know Norway’s stand on independent international investigations of Sri Lanka’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, when Conservative MP Peter Skovholt Gitmark asked the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr-Støre on Monday, whether Norway would back such an investigation, the minister answering a clear “yes,” later stopped at only “independent investigations,” dropping the international part. On political solutions, the foreign minister was harping on the 13 Amendment failed for 25 years, backtracking even from the constitutional experiments envisaged by the so-called Oslo Declaration. After playing with the lives of thousands, Norway now plays with words escaping from spelling out international investigations and leaves Eezham Tamils subjugated by unitary and genocidal Sri Lanka, commented diaspora activists.
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Ram journalism faces criticism in JNU for pro-Sri Lanka bias, endorsing genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2012, 06:04 GMT]
Activists of Delhi Tamil Students’ Union, Democratic Students Union, Students for Resistance and other common students raised slogans against N. Ram accusing him of being a ‘media fascist’ and ‘a stooge of Rajapaksa’ at a public meeting in JNU after his reply to a question on The Hindu’s role in whitewashing the Sri Lankan state genocide of the Eezham Tamils, wherein he had extensively blamed the LTTE. The meeting on ‘Paid news and media ethics’ was organized at JNU on Wednesday by the Student’s Federation of India, which is the students wing of the CPI(M). The fact that N.Ram and The Hindu have unethically manipulated news to cover up the war crimes of Colombo makes them complicit in the genocide committed on the Eezham Tamils, a Tamil Nadu research scholar in JNU told TamilNet.
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SLA re-confiscates land ‘declared’ resettled in Jaffna HSZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 March 2012, 11:56 GMT]
The Sinhala state occupying the country of Eezham Tamils will never observe any of the ‘reconciliation’ hoodwink it simulates to the outside world. This becomes explicitly evident with the Sri Lanka military re-occupying villages ‘declared’ for resettlement in the Valikaamam High Security Zone, to create an extensive and fenced militarized region along the northern coast of Jaffna, news sources in Jaffna exposed. Several traditional villages of Jaffna in the fertile red-soil belt will be lost forever in the creation of an extensive Sinhala military region in the most strategic and economically important part of the country of Eezham Tamils, and civil officials in Jaffna are gagged to open their mouths on the blatant grab that takes place after showcasing resettlement to the world, news sources further said.
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Questions for Sri Lankan Ambassador of Australia: Dr. Senewiratne

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 November 2011, 11:21 GMT]
If the war is over and the Tamil people have been ‘liberated’ from the ‘terrorists’ and ‘rehabilitated’, then why does the Sri Lankan government still not allow access to international groups in Tamil areas, asks Brian Senewiratne in a hard-hitting series of questions to Sri Lankan High Comissioner to Australia. Dr. Senewiratne, a renowned physician and an Australia based Sinhala expatriate, produced posers to ex-Admiral Thissara Samarasinghe using evidence from the UN report, Channel 4 video and other sources. The ex-Admiral, incidentally, is also alleged of war crimes and there have been calls in Australia to investigate his role in the genocide of the Eelam Tamils.
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SLMM tilted balance in favour of Sri Lanka, against LTTE: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 November 2011, 21:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the peace keeping arm of the Norway facilitated peace process in the island, tilted the balance in favour of the Sri Lankan state and against the LTTE, wrote Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam in 2007, in an unpublished research paper on the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) he submitted to a foundation in the West. The IC could have used the CFA to pursue conflict resolution by maintaining the balance of power between the parties, but to the contrary it had used the CFA as a ‘counterinsurgency’ tool to reinforce the state and weaken the de facto state, so that the state could pursue yet another military solution to the conflict, he further wrote. The unpublished paper that reveals how the very idea of Norway’s peace facilitation was to ‘fail the peace facilitation’ in favour of state, is documented here for historical purposes.
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US Congressman’s ‘Sri Lanka interest’ surpasses care for own constituency

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 November 2011, 20:13 GMT]
US Congressman of the Democratic Party, Heath Shuler, ‘sacrificed’ the interests of his own constituency in order to visit Sri Lanka last month and give a clean chit to the genocidal regime of Rajapaksa. He was absent at his own city Asheville in North Carolina, when Obama visited the city on October 17. He stands for re-election in the constituency next year. This was Shuler’s second visit to Sri Lanka since the end of war in 2009 and both his visits were paid by the Colombo regime. According to the US media reports, Shuler believes that the US could learn a lot from the diligence and triumph of Sri Lanka and he was cited saying “Sri Lanka is a long-time ally of ours and is accomplishing some incredible things right now.” Shuler, a businessman by profession, finds progress “tremendous” in the island. “I didn’t see any current evidence of human rights issues,” Shuler has told media.
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Blake wooed genocidal Sri Lanka Army to help Afghan war

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 October 2011, 09:30 GMT]
Within months of a war masterminded to end in the genocide of Eezham Tamils, the US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake wooed the genocidal Sri Lanka Army’s help in the US-led war in Afghanistan, reveals a Wikileaks document. In a meeting that took place in Colombo on 8th December 2009 with SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, “Blake raised the possibility of Sri Lanka contributing to U.S.-led coalition operations in Afghanistan, noting that would be a significant step in support of improving military-to-military engagement,” briefs a classified cable of the US embassy in Colombo. Citing Muslim sentiments and ire of Islamic organizations, Gotabhaya avoided committing on any direct involvement, but he came out with an alternative for Sri Lanka providing covert training assistance in Afghanistan through NGOs and Private Military Companies.
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Sri Lanka relocates uprooted civilians by force in jungles to cover-up war crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 15:40 GMT]
Closing down the infamous Manik Farm barbed-wire camp where several thousands of war-displaced Tamil civilians were detained under extremely difficult conditions since early 2009, the genocidal Rajapaksa regime has now decided to relocate them in some strange jungle areas by force, under the name of ‘resettlement’ of internally displaced people (IDPs), mainly to cover up war crimes. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence this week announced that preparations were under way to construct 600 acre new village in Koampaavil in Puthukkudiyiruppu area to resettle the remaining 7,394 IDPs from 2,097 families at the Manik Farm Camp.
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EPC acts as agent of Colombo in harassing Champoor Tamils: Thurairatnam

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2011, 05:54 GMT]
Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan in the capacity of its chief minister has been assisting the Colombo government in harassing uprooted Eezham Tamils of Champoor now being held in so-called temporary welfare centres in Ki'liveddi, Ma'natcheanai, Mallikaith-theevu and Kaddai-pa'richchaan, alleged Mr.R.Thurairatnam, an opposition EPC councillor. He appealed to EPC administration to allocate a day to debate Champoor resettlement issue, as uprooted people are not in favour to be resettled in alternate lands other than in their original traditional Tamil villages.
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Headlines Today to air new documentary: Inside Lanka's Killing Fields

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 August 2011, 17:28 GMT]
New Delhi-based news channel, Headlines Today, which has brought wide media focus in India on Sri Lankan war crimes after broadcasting the Channel 4 documentary, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, followed with a debate recently, on Monday said it was to broadcast an exclusive documentary of its own on Tuesday, titled "I witnessed Genocide: Inside Lanka's Killing Fields". The new documentary to be aired on Tuesday will feature eyewitness accounts of shelling and aerial bombardment of designated safe zones, hospitals and other civilian targets, rape, sexual harassment at IDP camps, use of chemical bombs, use of cluster munition, denial of food and medicines to civilians etc., media sources in New Delhi said.
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S.M. Krishna and his suo motu statement

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 August 2011, 01:09 GMT]
The Suo Motu statement of Indian foreign minister SM Krishna on Sri Lanka in the Indian parliament has led him into a controversy of filing a defamation case against the Press Trust of India (PTI), because the latter reported him reading the statement ‘absent minded’. The minister "appeared absent-minded and had to be prodded to make a statement," PTI reported. On Krishna’s response through a defamation case the PTI said on Friday: "This is perhaps the first time a minister has threatened a news organisation with... action for reporting [House] proceedings despite the Parliamentary Proceedings [Protection of Publication] Act." Meanwhile, Krishna’s statement was meant to mislead the parliament and to hoodwink Tamil Nadu, writes, a leading legal practitioner and human rights activist of Trincomalee.
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Gotabhaya’s sexist comments on war victim giving evidence on rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2011, 11:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s genocidal soldiers making lewd comments on the naked bodies of female victims killed in the war, suggesting that they were killed after rape has been documented in the Channel 4 documentary. While denying the documentation as fake to Headlines Today this week, Sri Lanka’s defence secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made a sexist comment on a war victim who was giving evidence to Channel 4. The attitude of Gotabhaya only proves the mind-set with which a defence establishment is being steered in the island, media circles in Chennai commented. Headlines Today released the main comments of Gotabhaya on Thursday. The full interview will be on telecast on Monday.
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TNA gives two weeks ultimatum to Colombo’s ‘devolution’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 August 2011, 21:12 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance in a press statement Thursday has said that it gives two weeks ultimatum to Rajapaksa government to come out with ‘devolution’ details on the structure of governance, the division of subjects and functions between centre and the devolved units and on fiscal and financial powers, to decide on carrying forward any future dialogue. As no response has been forthcoming for several months from Colombo’s side, no meaningful or purposeful discussion could be had on the discussion papers tendered by the TNA, said the statement released from the office of TNA’s nominated parliamentarian, Mr. MA Sumanthiran.
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Terrorism was the problem: Krishna; no need of solution now: Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 August 2011, 15:02 GMT]
In a Suo Motu statement in the Indian parliament, Indian foreign minister SM Krishna viewed that Sri Lanka’s problem for three decades was ‘terrorism’. “Sri Lanka has borne the brunt of terrorism for nearly three-decades,” the minister said, adding that the highest priority for India now is welfare of the IDPs. Colombo’s assurances for building upon the 13th Amendment would meet the reconciliation, he contented. Meanwhile, speaking to Headlines Today this week, SL presidential sibling and defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said that there was no need to talk about solution any more as they had ended terrorism. Headlines Today will be airing the exclusive interview with Gotabhaya on coming Monday.
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Basil-show ‘resettlement’ ends up in further misery and abandonment of IDPs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 July 2011, 12:49 GMT]
The Raamaavil camp inmates, who were suddenly herded out in the middle of the night by the occupying SL Army to make a show of ‘resettlement’ during the visit of the presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa to Jaffna, are now facing further misery. Staying in two small schools in Vadamaraadchi East, without food or facilities they are left to their own ‘resettlement’ in their villages, where they find even the foundations of their houses had been dug out. They are abandoned, say TNA parliamentarians who with much difficulty got ‘permission’ from the SL Army to visit them Tuesday. But it is more than that: they are left in an open prison with discouragement to resettle, where thousands of Sinhala fishermen are ‘licensed’ to come, commented a social worker in Jaffna, pointing to the strategic significance of the area linking Jaffna with Vanni.
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Midnight ‘resettlement’ of IDPs for Basil-show

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 July 2011, 08:38 GMT]
IDPs from Vadamaraadchi East (a former LTTE controlled region) affected by the war and were staying in the Raamaavil camp near Kodikaamam for more than two years were all of a sudden ordered to vacate the camp immediately by Saturday midnight and were herded by the occupying SL Army into military vehicles, after telling them that they would be ‘resettled’ in their villages in Vadamaraadchi East. They are at present staying in a school building in Vadamaraadchi East, without any food or facilities. They were ordered to go to their abandoned and dilapidated houses within three days and ‘live’ there. The reason for the overnight operation executed in an inhuman way was that the visiting presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa wanted to make a show of enacting ‘resettlement’, news sources in Jaffna said.
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SLFP gang comes for campaign after militarily attacking TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 July 2011, 08:37 GMT]
A gang of SLFP ministers and parliamentarians, including presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa were camping in Jaffna last weekend to plan and campaign for the forthcoming civic elections to the town and village councils scheduled to take place in the north on 23 July. Their meetings were also participated by occupying Sri Lanka’s colonial governor Maj. Gen. Chandrasri. The SLFP campaign in Jaffna takes place after occupying SL Army brutally attacking the participants of a Tamil National Alliance election campaign meeting at A’laveddi a few days ago. After leaving democracy in the hands of a decidedly genocidal state, is there any point in some powers talking of the 13th Amendment and political solutions within one country, ask Eezham Tamil civil circles in the island.
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SL government manipulates IDP statistics in East: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 July 2011, 12:45 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Batticaloa district, P. Selvarajah has blamed the Mahinda Rajapaksa government for false records of resettlement in the province. While many thousands people still find themselves displaced, their names are marked as resettled in the SL government records. “For example, people who displaced from Kagnchi-kudichchaa'ru and Thangka-vealaayutha-puram during the war are still living as displaced in Thampiluvil and Vinaayakapuram in Thirukkoayil in Ampaa'rai. But, their names are registered as resettled in the government list,” Mr. Selvarajah MP told media on Saturday. Rajapaksa government has also seized thousands of acres of lands in Ampaa'rai for the families of the Sinhala military personnel, he further accused.
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