TNA leadership faces admonition from civil society of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 December 2011, 23:50 GMT]
Prominent members of the Tamil civil society of all walks of life presented a memorandum to the Tamil National Alliance leadership on Tuesday, strongly condemning deception and deviatory polity of the leadership while times demand well-defined solutions to a long struggle. The civil society members urged firmness of leadership in political stand in convincing India and the US of the indispensability of addressing fundamentals of the aspirations of Eezham Tamils, i.e., nation and the right to self-determination. Tamils are not a ‘minority’ requesting concessions, but a nation demanding self-rule, the memorandum said. The impressive list of signatories included prominent religious leaders, academics, educationalists, professionals, trade unionists and community leaders. For the first time the TNA leadership faces such an open challenge of the first magnitude from the civil society.
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University student leader attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 October 2011, 13:06 GMT]
Suspected Sri Lanka Army intelligence personnel armed with sharp iron rods followed the Jaffna University Student Union leader S. Thavapalasingham in more than 8 motorbikes and attacked him at Kantharmadam in Jaffna seriously wounding the student leader who has been mobilizing students in democratic protests against the grease-devil threat recently. 24-year-old Thavapalasingham has been admitted at the Intensive Care Unit of Jaffna Teaching Hospital. This is the third iron-rod attack on prominent persons of the civil society in Jaffna after the Vanni war. Suresh Premachandran's secretary Ramesh, who now heads the Valikaamam East Piratheasa Chapai (PS) narrowly escaped from the attackers first. Later, in July 2011, the chief news editor of Uthayan daily, Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, was attacked by the motorbike squad.
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Blake will draw blank if truth not recognized

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 August 2011, 01:57 GMT]
The US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake visits Sri Lanka this week, following Indian Foreign Minister Krishna telling the Parliament that what bothered the island for the last three decades was nothing but ‘terrorism’ and the solution confines to material ‘rehabilitation’ of Tamils and political ‘build up’ of the defunct 13th Amendment. Blake spoke to diaspora groups in the US before his visit. The engagement of India and the USA with the island is meaningless if it is not based on the recognition of the truth that the issue in the island is a national question, the war waged there had chronic genocidal intentions on the part of the Sri Lankan State and the military that now occupies the country of Eezham Tamils is in actuality not a State military of international norms but a genocidal Sinhala military, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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Protest on Kuganathan assault escalates amid eyewash arrest

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 August 2011, 08:56 GMT]
More than 200 media workers, politicians and activists from North and South joined hands at Jaffna Bus Station staging a protest Tuesday from 11:00 a.m. till noon against the brutal assault last month on Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, the chief news editor of Uthayan daily in Jaffna and against the prevailing suppression of freedom of expression in Jaffna. Five Colombo-based media organisations arranged the protest together with the journalists in Jaffna. On Monday, the Sri Lankan Police had claimed that they have arrested the suspect at Kalubowila Hospital in Colombo. However, the media sources in Jaffna told TamilNet Tuesday that the said person was not the real culprit.
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US urges Colombo to investigate assault on Uthayan news editor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 August 2011, 13:12 GMT]
Condemning the assault on Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, the news editor of Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna, the US Embassy in Colombo on Wednesday urged the SL government to undertake a thorough investigation and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
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IFJ outraged by brutal attack on senior journalist in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 August 2011, 05:02 GMT]
Uthayan newspaper's editorial policy in backing the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) appears to be the direct provocation for the near lethal attack on its senior news editor in Jaffna on July 29, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said in a statement issued on Tuesday. "The IFJ is shocked at the viciousness of the attack on Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, which extends a long sequence of targeted attacks on Uthayan," the statement further said listing attacks on Uthayan in recent years.
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Media organisations in Colombo protest against attack on Tamil editor

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 August 2011, 10:46 GMT]
Five Colombo-based media organizations held a protest campaign at Lipton Circus, Colombo, Tuesday afternoon, against the assault of Uthayan newspaper's News Editor Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan in Jaffna. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa talking to foreign journalists on Tuesday said the attack on Kuhanathan was an 'isolated' incident and a 'petty' crime. Since year 2000, six employees of Uthayan newspaper including two journalists, Raji Varman and S.S.R. Sugirtharajan, have been killed. But the Sri Lankan authorities have not arrested a single person to date in connection with the killings.
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Attack on Uthayan editor portrays renewed attacks on Tamils: JDS

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 August 2011, 06:18 GMT]
Holding the political and military leadership of the Rajapaksa regime responsible for the recent pre-planned attack on the news editor of the Janffa-based Uthayan newspaper, the Journalist for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a media organisation of exiled group of Journalists from the island, has said that the attack has portrayed “the vicious nature of the renewed and accelerated violent attacks on democratic rights of Sri Lanka's Tamil people”.
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Attack on news editor exposes post-war state of media freedom: SLTMA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 July 2011, 13:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA), a Colombo based Tamil journalists association on Saturday condemned the attack on Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, the news editor of Uthayan Tamil Daily in Jaffna, and said that the attack reported within 6 days after the conclusion of the civic elections has cast severe doubts. The government of Sri Lanka claims that it has has brought media democracy and freedom of expression to Jaffna, but the journalists are continuously harassed and threatened, the media watchdog said.
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News Editor attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 July 2011, 15:08 GMT]
Two unidentified men who came in a motorbike attacked the Chief News Editor of Uthayan Daily in Jaffna, Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, Friday around 7:45 p.m., causing serious injuries to the 59-year-old news editor. Till the end of war, Mr. Kuganathan was living inside the paper office for 3 years as the news paper had come under attacks by occupying SL Army-backed operatives in May 2006 and in March 2009. The staff at the paper office have been threatened by the EPDP paramilitary on several occasions. The timing of the attack signals that it was a ‘punishment’ by the SL military intelligence not favouring the ruling UPFA alliance during the campaign for civic elections.
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SL Army brutally attacks public meeting of politicians, journalists in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2011, 16:34 GMT]
In what is seen as retaliation for Channel 4 broadcast Tuesday, the genocidal SL Army occupying Jaffna brutally attacked TNA parliamentarians, journalists and public in Jaffna on Thursday, causing injuries to an unspecified number of people, according to initial reports. The blatant attack by SL Army in uniform took place when the TNA politicians held a meeting at A’laveddi in Jaffna, inaugurating their political campaign for the forthcoming civic elections. Tension prevailed as SL Army was deployed in the area and the public that came for the meeting sought refuge in the nearby houses. “British diplomats satisfied with Army’s role in Jaffna,” said a website of the occupying Army on Tuesday, after the visit of the Deputy High Commissioner of UK, announcing ‘reintegration’ of ex-LTTE combatants in detention through the occupying Army.
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Gang attacks Tamil journalist in Jaffna city

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2011, 11:30 GMT]
32-year-old Staff Correspondent of Uthayan Daily in Jaffna, S. Kavitharan, was attacked Saturday morning around 6:30 by a gang believed to be operated by a paramilitary group, near the Jaffna Hindu College while the journalist was on his way to work, the officials at the paper said. A camouflaged group, of up to five members, attacked him with cricket bats.
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Heavy competition in capturing Tamil media in the island

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2011, 00:42 GMT]
Shares of a leading all-island Tamil daily, Thinakkural, published simultaneously in Colombo and Jaffna, were for ‘sale’ recently for hundreds of millions, and the competitors ranged from a former LTTE bigwig in the Rajapaksa camp and a Sinhala media house to circles close India. Ultimately, another leading Tamil daily in the island, The Virakesari, succeeded in purchasing 41 percent of the shares for 240 million rupees, informed media circles in Colombo said. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan state-owned media establishment Lake House has started publishing a Jaffna edition of its Tamil daily Thinakaran. Colombo soon plans to bring out this edition of Thinakaran using the facilities of Eezhanaatham, the only daily that was earlier coming from Vanni and the building of which is now occupied by the SL colonial military.
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SL Policeman, claiming EPDP, threatens Tamil daily in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2011, 07:17 GMT]
A Sri Lankan police constable, claiming to be a EPDP man, entered the building of Uthayan daily in Jaffna Wednesday afternoon and warned the daily over an item it had carried in its Tidbits column involving a school principal recently. The SL Police constable, Ratnathas Pradeepan from Achchuveali, intimidated the press workers threatening to set fire with a cigarette lighter he was holding, the paper said. Publishing a photograph of PC Pradeepn, the paper also said that he was “selected” for SL Police when the police recruited 500 personnel for training.
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Permanent settlement eludes Batticaloa displaced

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 March 2011, 15:00 GMT]
Displaced families in Batticaloa district find very difficult to obtain lands to build their dwellings due to reckless attitude and inaction shown by respective Divisional Secretaries, civil sources say. The people of Pullumalai, Koppaave'li villages which come under Ea'raavoor-Chengkaladi DS division of Batticaloa, had been displaced at least six times due to atrocities committed by the armed forces since 1983 and sought accommodation in refugee camps and in places of relatives and friends and still are not permanently settled.
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Rajapaksa claims credit for British-aided causeway and bridge to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 January 2011, 20:00 GMT]
“The foundation for this causeway and bridge was laid down 7 times since 1940's, but it was only my government that managed to complete the project,” claimed Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in opening a causeway and bridge in the SL military-occupied Tamil country in the island, between Keara-theevu of the Jaffna peninsula and Changkup-piddi in Poonakari of the main island on Sunday. The causeway as used to be called Mahadeva Thaampoathi was first built in British times and the present bridge, doing away with the ferry route in between points of the causeway, has been built by British Steel Corporation, aiding the island. Mr. Rajapaksa made no mention of the British aid at the inauguration and the obscured British officials were found seated only among the audience.
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JDS condemns silence of Colombo media over terror campaign in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 08:27 GMT]
Detailing the recent killings, abductions and other atrocities in the SL military occupied North, the Journalists For Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an exiled organisation of journalists, on Friday condemned the silence of Sinhala and English media in Colombo over the terror campaign. Instead, these media highlight only the explanations from the side of the SL government, the report said. The JDS statement exposed the latest twist of portrayal of the situation by SL media minister and government spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella, who wanted to pass the blame on "elements seeking tarnish the image of Colombo government internationally". The JDS statement, with details of earlier unreported crimes, noted that human rights violations not being exposed is high in Vanni as journalists and aid workers were barred from entering Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts.
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Yogeswary obstructs Sherine’s human rights workshop in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 11:21 GMT]
The Jaffna Mayor Mrs. Yogeswary Patkunam, allegedly receiving ‘instructions’ from some ruling circles, cancelled permission to use the Jaffna Public Library auditorium by a human rights group called Home for Human Rights run by Sherine Xavier to conduct a workshop Saturday. The booking made for the auditorium on December 3 was cancelled in the last minute on Friday. Some academics of the Jaffna University and visitors from the south, altogether numbering more than 100, were scheduled to participate in the workshop on human rights violations after the Vanni war. While the Colombo-based Home for Human Rights is said to be liaising with a power that was a party to the war crimes, the Jaffna Mayor is said to have acted on the instructions of a minister who perceives local political mobilisation sponsored by that power a threat to him.
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CHR urges LLRC to ensure free, secure environment in Trincomalee, Mannar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 06:54 GMT]
The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) – Sri Lanka in a statement has requested the LLRC to ensure a free and secure environment where people can give evidence without fearing future persecution in its up-coming sessions in Trincomalee and Mannaar. Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is to conduct its sittings in Trincomalee on December 17, 18 and 19. The LLRC would record the evidence from relatives of affected persons in the Trincomalee district due to abduction, disappeared in round up by military and killing by security forces between the year 2001 and 2009, LLRC sources said. CHR has issued the statement as a press release Sunday.
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JVP abandons press meet in Jaffna due to death threats

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 11:36 GMT]
Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) group led by parliamentarian Sunil Handunneththi who were attacked by unidentified operatives in Jaffna Sunday evening abandoned the press meet that was to be held Monday around 1:00. p.m in Uthayan Lodge in Nalloor due to death threats to the proprietors of the lodge, Sunil Handunneththi told the reporters who had been invited, before leaving the lodge with his companions.
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