Army and Archaeology Department at work in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 April 2010, 06:56 GMT]
If the fort of Jaffna which was the symbol of colonial and post-colonial oppression of Eezham Tamils, and which continues to be the seat of occupying forces of the Sinhala State, has to be preserved with the funds of the Netherlands government, why should the monuments built by Tamils in their own land, remembering their own struggle, have to be destroyed, asks an academic in Jaffna, responding to the destruction of the memorial for Thileepan who fasted unto death in the struggle against Indian imperialism at Nalloor.
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TNA MP: Low turnout reflects Tamils losing faith in political system

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 April 2010, 01:34 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) spokesperson Suresh Premachandran has been quoted by The Island as saying that the very low turnout of Tamils in North and East in the 7th parliamentary elections of Sri Lanka signalled that the Tamil voters were losing faith in the political system. The TNA MP from Jaffna further said that the majority of Tamils who participated in the elections had endorsed the TNA manifesto for the resolution of the conflict and speedy re-settlement of the uprooted civilians.
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HR activist in Australia condemns freezing asylumn to Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2010, 23:24 GMT]
The Australian Government has introduced a suspension of the processing of new asylum applications from Sri Lanka. The suspension has been made as a result of the "evolving circumstances" said a joint media release from the Australian Ministers for Immigration and Citizenship, Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs on Friday. Meanwhile, Julian Burnside, an Australian barrister and a human rights advocate, has condemned the move in an article published in The Age, stating that Tamils from Sri Lanka are fleeing because they face genocide in Sri Lanka.
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Overwhelming Tamil majority rejects elections under Sri Lankan State

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2010, 11:04 GMT]
A record number of candidates, numbering more than 1800 contested for the parliamentary seats in the North and East, but Eezham Tamils responded to it by a record low in participation. The turnout was only 18 percent in the North. Even after including the displaced it is only 23%. The clear verdict of Eezham Tamils, said in the most profound democratic way under circumstances possible, is that they have no confidence in democracy under Sri Lankan State. Another interesting observation is that in the entire Jaffna district, the leading Tamil National Alliance (TNA) totally polled just 65,119, only as much as the 64,256 votes cast in favour of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution by the diaspora in UK alone. The silent but vast majority of Eezham Tamils at home demand new genre of political organisation and leadership is the message of Thursday's polls.
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Clashes reported in the wake of election all over the country

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 April 2010, 19:56 GMT]
Clashes following Thursday parliamentary election between supporters of opposing candidates are reported to be taking place in several areas of the island, according to media reports. Former minister of the ruling United People’s Freedom (UPFA), M. Aluthgama is alleged to be directly involved in the assault of a member of the Election Monitoring Committee in Navalappiddi in the upcountry where incidents of post election violence has been high. Fights between two Muslim factions in Aalayadiveampu in Batticaloa in which Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) members are alleged to be involved, are also reported.
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Self-organised democracy of Tamils receives global attention

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 April 2010, 09:59 GMT]
The Tamil community in Australia is trying to test its aspirations of its people through a referendum of its own while Sri Lanka goes for parliamentary elections, reported Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Wednesday about a referendum on independent Tamil state organised by Australian Tamils on April 17th and 18th. "This ballot has nothing to do with the parliamentary elections held this week in Sri Lanka. This is a referendum to test the will of the Tamil diaspora," Liam Cochrane of the ABC reported. "Self-organised democracy, the most meaningful of all democracies, has become the need of the times for Eezham Tamils, who are cornered for subjugation, not only militarily, but also through imposed elections in the island," TamilNet correspondent in Australia cited the mood of the diaspora.
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Thousands of uprooted civilians denied voting: CaFFE election monitors

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 April 2010, 08:46 GMT]
Many interned Tamil civilians in Menik Farm in Vavuniyaa were told by Sri Lankan election officials that they must go to Ki'linochchi Cluster Polling Station to vote, while election officials in Ki'linochchi station were instructing civilians that they must proceed to the Menik Farm Polling Station to vote, said Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) in a statement issued Thursday. "In the Killinochchi Central College Cluster Polling Centers only 362 out of 7,504 total registered voters have been able to cast their votes in the first set of 8 cluster polling stations. Furthermore, in the second set of 8 cluster polling centers only 283 out of 10,240 voters have been able to cast their votes by 12.00 noon," CaFFE statement said.
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Ballot boxes dispatched to polling booths in Jaffna, Ki’linochchi districts

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 April 2010, 11:07 GMT]
Jaffna secretariat started dispatching Wednesday morning ballot boxes and polling cards in vehicles escorted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police to the polling centres in Jaffna district and to the cluster voting centres set up in Ki’linochchi district and in the islets of Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The ballot boxes, cards and election duty officers to Nedunththeevu were flown in a helicopter. Meanwhile, Saravanabavan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) candidate contesting Jaffna electorate, alleged that nearly 3,000 polling cards had been snatched away by Eezham People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) men in the islets of Jaffna.
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ACTC candidate attacked in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 April 2010, 09:29 GMT]
Three unidentified persons waylaid and attacked a candidate of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) when he was returning home on his motorbike Tuesday night around 10 p.m. His house is located in Orr’s Hill, a suburb in Trincomalee town.
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High ranking Tiger officials in SLA custody feared assassinated

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 April 2010, 15:39 GMT]
Basil Rajapakse, senior advisor of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and his brother said Monday in Colombo that if the name of anyone not found in the list of 11,000 persons held in the rehabilitation camps for Liberation Tigers, published in government websites they could be considered no longer living, in a conference he held with the Non-government Organizations now functioning in Vanni. In response to a question raised by HUDEC Caritas representative on the situation of the persons gone missing and arrested during the final stage of the war on Vanni Basil Rajapakse referred to the list of 11,000 persons held in the rehabilitation camps but failed to mention the websites he referred to, an NGO representative who attended the conference said.
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Eezham fishermen not responsible for attack on Tamil Nadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 April 2010, 14:11 GMT]
The president of Jaffna peninsula fishermen society federation, C. Thavarathinam, said Tuesday that the Tamil fishermen from Jaffna peninsula had nothing to do with the attack on Tamil Nadu fishermen on Kachchaitheevu seas Monday night. While refuting the rumour blaming Jaffna fishermen for the attack he said that there is a strong suspicion that the Sinhalese fishermen from the South who engage in deep fishing on Northern seas in large numbers had attacked the fishermen from Tamil Nadu with the assistance of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers who are in full control of the islets of Jaffna and the seas around. Meanwhile, fishermen who were attacked said that SLN soldiers had assaulted them and cut off their nets besides confiscating their catch, sources in Raameasvaram said.
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TNPF manifesto cannot be faulted: Brian Senewiratne

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 April 2010, 02:10 GMT]
There has been no “General Election” in Sri Lanka since 1977. Most of the Tamils in the North and East have been effectively disenfranchised and only marginally better than the Plantation Tamils, says Brian Senewiratne. The options for the Tamils in the North and East are limited. They will not vote for the sympathetic left led by Sinhala leaders. This leaves the choice between the two, TNA and the TNPF. If I were a Tamil, there is no way I would vote for the TNA. The TNPF seems to have got the message that the Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinistic regime has to be confronted, and challenged, not pampered. The election choices facing the Plantation Tamils are serious, mainly because their political party is as ruthless as the government. Facing discontent the CWC is intimidating the Left working in the plantations, Brian writes.
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USA aids, awards Colombo supplier

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 April 2010, 22:56 GMT]
A Colombo-based supplier of horticultural produce to McDonalds, Burger King, Unilever, Heinz and also to Japan has been provided with US aid since 2008 to initiate its activities in the Eastern Province. Mr. Mohan Pandithage, chairman of the supplier group, Hayleys, a Multi National Corporate (MNC) of Sri Lanka, received an award from USAID for the achievement of economically linking conflict-affected East with the Colombo-centric system and through that with the other multinational corporates. While Eezham Tamils were butchered, starving, suffering from acute malnutrition, deprived of their land and were incarcerated, sections of their cultivable lands were producing gherkins, jalapeno, peppers and pineapples to MNCs under the programme of the USA, commented a university academic of the East.
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Election fraud feared in Jaffna electorate

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 April 2010, 16:47 GMT]
The open participation of a high police officer in the election propaganda meeting of Minister Douglas Devananda at Nalloor Ilang Kalaingar Hall Sunday has triggered suspicion and fear that the police and Sri Lanka armed forces will support election fraud in favour of Douglas Devananda’s Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and its ally Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), sources in Jaffna said.
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Tamil Nadu police alleged of harassing Eezham Tamil refugees

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 April 2010, 04:51 GMT]
Six Eezham Tamil refugee youths arrested while stranded in mid-sea by Indian Navy and handed over to Tamil Nadu police, told reporters in Tamil Nadu that they had hired a boat to flee to Sri Lanka as they were harassed by Tamil Nadu police in the refugee camps they were lodged in. They further told the reporters they did not mind being killed in Sri Lanka than being harassed by Tamil Nadu police adding that harassment of Eezham Tamil refugees by Tamil Nadu police has escalated.
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Rwandan genocidaire leads middle-class life in Alabama

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 April 2010, 12:40 GMT]
Jean Damascene Bizimana, 56, a Rwandan politician, wanted for his alleged role in the Rwandan Genocide, with a pending warrant for arrest against him by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), has been discovered leading a middle-class life as an American citizen in the small town of Opelika, Alabama, David L. Bosco, a professor at the American University, Washington D.C. reported in the weekend Washington Post. Bizimana was Rwanda's UN Ambassador at the time when the assassination of Rwanda's president unleashed a horrific three-month genocide that would ultimately kill 800,000 people.
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Elections for ‘Asian’ model of dictatorship

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 April 2010, 10:27 GMT]
Even though the present elections are imposed ones and are deviation tactics of the oppressors, if it is properly understood where the game is heading for, Eezham Tamils will know to whom should they vote to keep their aspirations alive. Despite all odds, the TNA line of politics has to be challenged by the Tamil national cause, at least in some token constituencies, to send the message loud and clear to India and to the outside world. Such a challenge only can be the inspiration for Tamils to eventually evolve the much needed new genre of polity of their own to meet the local and global scenario and once again, such a challenge only can nullify forces conspiring to divide Eezham Tamils in the diaspora and at home, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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EPDP alleged of removing wall posters of other contestants, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 April 2010, 12:51 GMT]
United National Party (UNP) chief candidate Ms. Vijayakala Vijayakala’s supporters in Jaffna town accused Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) for tearing off their campaign wall posters and pasting Minister Douglas Devananda’s and EPDP candidates in their places in Jaffna town and its surroundings. Other political parties including Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and All Ceylon Tamil Congress too blamed the EPDP men for removing their wall posters.
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“Winning the hearts of Sinhalese should be the main aim” – Varatharaja Perumal

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 April 2010, 12:36 GMT]
“All the Tamils in Sri Lanka together should strive to win the hearts of the Sinhalese,” Varatharaja Perumal, the leader of Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) said in the press meet he held Friday at the EPRLF office of Pathmanaba faction located on Hospital Road Jaffna. “If all the Tamil factions agree on a common solution for the ethnic issue India will exert its pressure on Sri Lanka to implement it,” Varatharaja Perumal said.
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Buddhist monk threatens Tamil farmers in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 April 2010, 19:19 GMT]
About one hundred and forty Tamil farmers cultivating paddy in 13th unit of Maha Vi’laangku’lam, now named Mahadiulwewa after the State aided colonization since the country gained independence, were threatened by a Buddhist Monk in the area to leave their paddy lands and go elsewhere. The Buddhist Monk claims that the said paddy lands are parts of an archaeological site where an ancient Buddhist Vihare was located.
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