New SL cabinet to be sworn in on Monday evening

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2015, 12:48 GMT]
The cabinet of the newly installed Sri Lankan President Maithiripala Sirisena is to be sworn in on Monday evening at 6:00 p.m., according to SL presidential media unit. In the meantime Monday's Virakesary carried a news item quoting Mr M.A. Sumanthiran that TNA will not be accepting ministerial portfolios in the ‘national government’.
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Ananthy urges Pope to see genocide, get answers from local, international players

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2015, 13:59 GMT]
As Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the island from Tuesday to Thursday, NPC Councillor Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, urged him to grasp the underlying factor of the conflict in the island, i.e. genocide and sought his help in getting answers from the government in Colombo and the international players, including the UN, the Co-chairs and India. “I hope Your Holiness is aware that there is an ideology behind the genocidal process,” she wrote in a letter addressed to the Pope on Saturday. She was citing a key case of Fr Francis Joseph towards the end of the war in perceiving the dimensions and said: “The Catholic Church, having witnesses among the people, has a moral duty to safeguard the people from the protracted crime of genocide.”
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‘LLRC’ Palihakkara expected to replace Military Governor of North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2015, 20:17 GMT]
Sri Lankan Military Governor of North, Major General (retd.) G.A. Chandrasiri, on Saturday told his staff that he would resign his job before anyone on the top coming with the instruction of transfer to him, informed civil sources in Jaffna said adding that Colombo's regime-changers have proposed HMGS Palihakkara, who was one of the eight panellists earlier appointed by former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the so-called Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was aimed at buying space and time for Sri Lanka to escape international investigations. Colombo-centric agenda-setters are replacing a military governor with a more sophisticated diplomat concerned with safeguarding the unitary state of Sri Lanka.
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Sirisena sworn in as 6th SL President

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2015, 14:06 GMT]
The SL President-Elect Maithiripala Sirisena was sworn in as the 6th Executive President of ‘Sri Lanka’ before Justice K. Sripavan on Friday at the Independence Square in Colombo on Friday evening around 6.20 p.m. Mr Maithiripala had declined to take oath before the current Sri Lankan Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, who is considered as a political appointee after the impeachment motion against the 43rd Chief Justice Ms Shiranee Bandaranayke, news sources in Colombo said. Later, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the president of the United National Party and the leader of the opposition in the current SL parliament took oath as the Prime Minister before the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena at the same venue.
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SL Paramilitary operatives threaten TNA supporters in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2015, 12:38 GMT]
Paramilitary operatives of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, the former UPFA-appointed Chief Minister of Eastern Province, have threatened monitors appointed on behalf of the common opposition to monitor the polling stations at Chiththaa'ndi in Batticaloa, news sources in Batticaloa said. In the meantime, Iniyabarathy's paramilitary operatives in Ampaa'rai district have assaulted a TNA divisional councillor P. Vijayarasa near Thirukkoayil Peoples Bank.
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More than 50% voter turnout in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2015, 12:18 GMT]
Voter turnout was registered at 51% in Jaffna, 50% in Mannaar, 55.3% in Ki'linochchi, 68% in Mullaiththeevu and 60% in Vavuniyaa around 2:30 p.m., according to election department sources. The polling was peaceful in most of the places in the North apart form reports of a grenade explosion at Alvaay. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) canvassing for regime change in the South has arranged buses for the transport of the voters at many places in the North. In the meantime, SL military soldiers were instructed to distribute leaflets urging people to vote for Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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SL military divided over voting in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2015, 08:06 GMT]
Despite the tension about possible violence in Tamil areas by the occupying Sinhala military and its paramilitary, all arrangements necessary for brisk polling have completed in the two provinces, according to Sri Lankan Government Agents in the North and East. Voters were seen at many polling stations in queue. In the meantime, Sri Lankan military intelligence had stepped up disinformation campaign to divert the voting to another ‘Sirisena’ contesting the elections under the symbol of flag. While a section of the occupying military was hijacking the boycott call, thinking that it will be in favourable of Mahinda Rajapaksa, there were also SL soldiers encouraging the public to vote for the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Sirisena.
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‘Regime change’ drive reinvigorated Sinhala extremism: Tamil trade unionist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2015, 19:26 GMT]
Sinhala extremist racist politics has again proved itself as being the driving force of the Sinhala politics in the South as demonstrated by the mainstream camps of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena in the run up to the presidential elections, said President of All Ceylon General Employees Union, S. Loganathan, a Tamil trade unionist who is based in Ampaa'rai in the Eastern Province. Explaining the problems of Tamils in the Ampaa'rai district in detail, the long-time trade unionist, now in the process of forming a new party, also blamed the Tamil National Alliance for its failure at the grassroots level in addressing the plight of oppressed Tamils.
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Tamil will expressed only by distancing from racist election: Jude Lal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2015, 07:13 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena cannot be seen as the greater evil and the lesser evil respectively, says Professor Jude Lal of Trinity College, Dublin, in an interview to TamilNet on Wednesday. The democratic rights of the Tamils and the democratic rights of the Sinhalese are not the same as the so-called Sinhala pro-democracy campaign claims, the director of Centre for Post-Conflict Justice at Trinity College argues, underlining the fact that the promise of democracy by the so-called Sinhala pro-democracy campaigners has totally and radically different meanings for the Tamils and the Sinhalese: It means good governance for the Sinhalese and continuation and furtherance of subjugation for the Tamils, he says. The TNA is being used by USA, UK and India to reinforce Sinhala hegemony in the name of democracy, Jude Lal told TamilNet.
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Leaders should enlighten gullible masses, not hide behind them: Thiyagu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2015, 11:42 GMT]
Those among the Tamils of Tamil Eelam, who expect change in their favour from a future Maithiripala regime are going to be deceived as the sections of Tamils in Tamil Nadu, who were gullible enough to expect change from Modi and got deceived, said veteran activist Thoazhar Thiyagu from Tamil Nadu, responding to the write-ups that originated from disillusioned sections among the Tamil-speaking writers, who have been posting their views to blog sites and email discussion groups defending the position of TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, TNA's National List parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran and ITAK Leader Mavai Senathiraja. Mr Thiyagu questioned why Mr Sampanthan, who was talking about the 17th Amendment and the18th Amendment, was not able to demand the withdrawal of the detrimental 6th Amendment to the unitary constitution of Sri Lanka.
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Ananthy's house stoned in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2015, 08:18 GMT]
Unknown attackers stoned the house of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councillor in the Northern Province, Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, in the early hours of Tuesday, threatening the NPC councillor and her three children while they were sleeping at their residence located at Vadakkamparai in Chuzhipuram in Valikaamam West, Jaffna. Ms Ananthy and her children narrowly escaped from a stone that went through the window inside the house. The attack comes after Ms Sasitharan warned a local media, DAN TV, which backs Colombo regime, that she would be filing legal suit against misusing her name in their advertisement.
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Maithiripala denies devolution agreement with Tamils, Muslims

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2015, 12:41 GMT]
“We are firm in our stand that there is no place for Tamil Eelam demand and the Sri Lanka Army would not be withdrawn from the Northern Province,” said Common Presidential Candidate Maithiripala Sirisena on Monday. The statement comes after Mr Maithiripala has received unconditional backing from the TNA Parliamentary Group Leader Sampanthan and TNA's National List Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran. “My government will safeguard the unity and the territorial integrity of the country,” Mr. Sirisena added stating that he had not signed any agreement on devolution with Tamil and Muslim parties that are backing him.
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SL military targets TNA members waging Maithiripala propaganda in North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2015, 22:48 GMT]
SL police arrested five health labourers of Valikaamam North civic council at A'laveddi on Saturday, when they were putting up posters in support of Maithiripala Sirisena. The chairman of Valikaamam North Piratheasa Chapai (PS), S. Sugirthan of TNA had asked them to put up posters, news sources said. The arrested were allowed to go on bail on Sunday. Similarly, three TNA members were arrested earlier in Maanippaay for putting up posters in support of Maithiripala. In the meantime, SL military operatives, who came in a white van were trying to abduct four TNA activists in Ki'linochchi while they were on a Maithiripala propaganda mission. The Tamil youth have managed to escape from the abductors, news sources in Ki'linochchi said.
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Tamils of struggle polity need not worry who becomes SL president

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2015, 18:28 GMT]
While SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa is almost open in telling that electing the next president is choosing between China and the USA, senior Tamil grassroot leaders and activists in the island are of the opinion that Eezham Tamils put in a situation of struggle polity need not worry who succeeds as president. “Tamils should not participate in this election. Whether the future of Tamils is linked to the Sinhalese or not has to be decided by the Sinhalese. [...] The TNA leaders in their decision [of supporting Mr Sirisena] failed in guiding the Tamils in the right way,” said senior ITAK Central Committee member and former UN consultant Ma'ravan-pulavu K. Sachithananthan, speaking to media in Jaffna on Saturday. The former Jaffna University academic was addressing along with Ananthy Sasitharan of the NPC and ITAK Youth Wing Leader VS Sivakaran.
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Mavai threatens Ananthy for BBC interview on election stand

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2015, 14:10 GMT]
Popularly elected NPC Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan was taken to medical care at fainted state on Friday morning after she was threatened over the phone by ITAK leader and TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah to resign from the ITAK and the TNA. The controversial threat comes following an interview to the BBC Tamil Service by Ms Ananthy on Thursday. In the interview, Ms Ananthy went on stating that she would be either abstaining from the voting or nullifying her vote as no Tamil with self-respect would be voting for any of the two mainstream candidates in the SL presidential race. Ignoring the opposition from the grassroots, the Establishment-centric hierarchy of the TNA last week decided to support the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Gotabhaya monitors Devananda's allegiance to Kumaratunga

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2015, 11:09 GMT]
While welcoming the incumbent SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to North and challenging the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in District Development Committee meetings with a pro-Colombo stance, SL minister and EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda, has also assured his personal allegiance to former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives under the direct command of SL presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa have been questioning the close associates of Mr Devananda for his lack of interest in putting up Rajapaksa posters ahead of Rajapaksa's scheduled visit to Jaffna.
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TNA loses civic council to UPFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2014, 22:22 GMT]
Four members of Pachchilaip-pa'l'li civic council, elected on TULF ticket, have defected to the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of genocidal Sri Lanka on Wednesday, a day after TNA's Parliamentary Group leader R. Sampanthan urged Tamils to vote for the common opposition candidate in the South. In the meantime, the occupying SL military intelligence officers, who are loyal to SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa and UPFA politicians are trying to woo the support of leading TNA civic members in other civic councils in North by paying large sums of money to them, news sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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Sampanthan announces decision to back Sirisena in SL presidential elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 09:25 GMT]
Despite strong opposition from various sections of Eezham Tamils against giving explicit support to any of the two main contestants in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential elections, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan has decided to support the Opposition Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena. Mr Sampanthan announced the stance of the TNA Tuesday morning at a media briefing held at Hotel Jananaki in Colombo. Mr Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran have been blamed for striking a clandestine deal with Chandrika Kumaratunga on backing Maithiripala Sirisena.
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Sampanthan arrives from India, meets constituting party leaders

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 December 2014, 23:12 GMT]
R.Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance, who arrived in Colombo Sunday morning from his visit to India presided over a crucial meeting of the TNA co-ordinating committee at Madiwela parliamentary complex on Sunday night, news sources in Colombo told TamilNet.
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Shivajilingam urges TNA to avoid backing any particular presidential candidate

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2014, 23:00 GMT]
If the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) asks the Tamil people to back a presidential candidate, who is not committed to federalism and international investigations, it would only backfire on Tamils as the global powers representing the international community could cite our own stand against ourselves in the future, said former parliamentarian and TNA councillor at the Northern Provincial Council M.K. Shivajilingam, who addressed the press in Jaffna on Friday. The TNA should avoid backing a candidate, Mr Shivajilingam said. “The Tamil people are intelligent. Let them decide on their own without giving them any hint,” he said.
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