Sampanthan: Majority of TNA MPs back Fonseka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 January 2010, 15:27 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary group leader and Trincomalee district MP Rajavarothayam Sampanthan on Wednesday said majority of 18 members of the alliance who were present at lengthy deliberations were of the view that the "only meaningful way" to thwart the desire of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to seek a mandate to hold office for a further term would be urging the Tamils to vote for the joint opposition candidate General (retd.) Sarath Fonseka. The announcement by Mr. Sampanthan comes amid strong opposition from the Tamil diaspora against supporting either General Sarath Fonseka or Mahinda Rajapaksa as Tamils believe they are both implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Australian refusal of Tamil refugees triggers regional xenophobia: HRW

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 January 2010, 14:34 GMT]
A wave of anti immigration sentiment sparked by Australia’s collaboration with Sri Lanka & Indonesia to detain Tamil asylum seekers travelling on boat has swept like a “virus” across Asia charged Bill Frelick, Refugee Policy Director for Human Rights Watch (HRW). Accusing regional governments of lying to the U.N and defying international law by sending refugees back to their home nations despite the risk of prosecution, Frelick urged nations to remember that “granting asylum is a humanitarian act that should be entirely divorced from political relations between states”.
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Plunder for business, double enterprise of Sri Lanka Army

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army deployed in Mullaiththeevu has started dismantling and destroying the houses belonging to the Tamils, an eye-witness who recently visited Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts told TamilNet Tuesday. The SLA soldiers were seen shifting valuable timber used in buildings, windows and doors to other Sinhalese areas through Weli-ioya.
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Tamil political prisoners in CRP, Magazine prisons on hunger strike

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2010, 13:32 GMT]
More than 360 Tamil political prisoners being detained in Colombo Remand Prison and in the Magazine prison in Colombo are on a wide scale hunger strike demanding the authorities to expedite their cases or release them on bail. 52-year-old Kanagasabai Devadasan, who was former State Film Corporation director, abducted and later detained at the New Magazine Prison in Welikada, launched his fast-unto-death campaign on January 01 demanding authorities to prosecute if there are any charges against him. Mr. Devadasan has also demanded that the case should be heard in Tamil.
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SL Parliament extends Emergency

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2010, 13:07 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Parliament on Tuesday extended the state of Emergency in the island with a majority of 79 votes. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs voted against the motion while most of the parties that back presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka were not present at the time of the voting.
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Tamil detainees in Welikada prison attacked, 2 injured

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 January 2010, 16:34 GMT]
Two Tamil detainees held under the Emergency Regulations (ER)and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in Welikada prison were injured in an attack carried out on Sunday by another group of prisoners in remand for other various offences. The injured were admitted to the Prisons Hospital immediately for treatment, Colombo media reported quoting prison sources.
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"I will not accept partition of the country" - Sarath Fonseka, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 January 2010, 04:25 GMT]
"I am not prepared to allow partitioning the country, be it proposed by the minority or majority community," Sarath Fonseka, the common opposition presidential candidate, said in a press meet held Saturday in Jaffna town. In response to a question Sarath Fonseka took pains to explain the difference between the role he had to play as a military officer in the past and his present role as a politician. He had to give priority to the safety of soldiers as the Military Commander and now as a politician he gives priority to the benefit of people, he added.
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Fourth Anniversary of Trinco Students' extra-judicial killings

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2010, 19:35 GMT]
Dr Kasippillai Manoharan, the father of high school student Ragihar who with four of his friends were extra-judicially executed in what is widely believed to be pre-meditated killings by Sri Lanka military, told TamilNet today, at the fourth anniversary of the killings, that there is not even an iota of chance that he would receive justice from the Sri Lanka court system for his son's death, and that he is working with a select group of international organizations to bring war-crime charges against the culpable Sri Lanka military officials. Dr Manoharan who, with the surviving members of his family, was relocated to UK with the assistance of a UN organization, said that he will not rest until his son's killers are prosecuted in an international court of law.
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Sarath Fonseka visits Jaffna seeking Tamils' votes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2010, 10:24 GMT]
Main opposition presidential candidate and former Chief of Sri Lanka Armed Forces and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, Major General (retd) Sarath Fonseka arrived in Jaffna Saturday morning accompanied by the Leader of Opposition, Ranil Wickremasainghe, Parliamentarians Mano Ganeshan, Jayalath Jayawardene, JVP Samaraweera Amarasinghe, Anurakumara Disanayake, Hakeem and several other political personalities to engage in election campaign in Jaffna peninsula. Sarath Fonseka and his team made it a point to first visit Saiva temples in the peninsula before meeting the public and other important persons. Sarath Fonseka and his associates also visited Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Soundaranayagam at his residence where they spoke with the representatives of civil organizations in the peninsula, sources in Jaffna said.
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Tamils, Muslims should reject both Mahinda and Sarath - Wickremabahu Karunaratne

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2010, 04:37 GMT]
Tamils and Muslims should not cast their votes either to Mahinda Rajapakse or Sarath Fonseka in the presidential election so that niether of them poll more than 50% of the votes cast, as a clear message to both, Dr. Wickremabahu Karunaratne, leader of the New Left Front (NLF), contesting the forthcoming presidential election said in a press meet held Friday in Jaffna Bastian Hotel. The defeat of Liberation Tigers has also affected the lives of the poor among the Sinhalese, he said.
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UPF leader Chandrasekaran dies of heart attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 11:48 GMT]
Periyasamy Chandrasekaran, the leader of Up-country People's Front (UPF) and Minister of Community Development and Social Inequity passed away Friday morning in a private hospital. He was fifty-two years old. Mr. Chandrasekaran was admitted to the hospital following a brief illness.
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Eezham / E'lu / He'la

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 00:01 GMT]
The gold (land)
The land of metal
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Eezham explained of its etymology

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 00:01 GMT]
Over two thousand years Eezham was in continued use without any change in its form in Tamil to denote the entire island called Sri Lanka today. The strong possibility is that the identities He’la and E’lu derived from Eezham, says etymological column appearing in TamilNet Friday. The three early names for the island, Thampa-pa’n’ni, Eezham and Seeha’la, the first one in Prakrit and the other two in Dravidian, are perhaps generically related to one another in meaning. They are geographical and descriptive of the landscape and its metallurgical potentialities, the column further says. A re-appraisal at the end of the column on the 2000 years-old Thirupparangkun'ram inscription of a person of migrant lineage from Eezham to Tamil Nadu, traces the connections of his personal name to Sinhala Pol and old Tamil Pul, both Dravidian, meaning coconut.
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3 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 December 2009, 13:16 GMT]
Police Wednesday arrested three Tamil youths in Colombo in a cordon and search operation. One youth was taken into custody in Bambalapitya and two at Wellawatte. They are now detained in the fourth floor of the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters and being interrogated, according relatives of the arrested youths.
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Tamil political parties should unite to find a decision in facing presidential election - JUSU

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 December 2009, 03:54 GMT]
Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU), in a press report Wednesday, said that all Tamil factions should forget their political differences to arrive at a united decision in regard to the forthcoming presidential election. Decisions spurred by emotions in the past and their consequences should be remembered and Tamils should not be allowed to be exploited like puppets in the hands of Southern political forces, the report further said.
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Sri Lanka Police arrests 3 Tamil youths in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 December 2009, 03:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police Wednesday arrested three Tamil youths in Colombo in a cordon and search operation. One youth was taken into custody in Bambalapitya, and the other two from Wellawatte, and all three are now detained in the fourth floor of the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters undergoing interrogation, according relatives of the arrested youths.
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Sri Lanka's civilian massacre censored in RSF's 2009 report

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 13:09 GMT]
Reporters sans frontières (RSF), in a 2009 round-up report of key events on journalists, journalism and war, refers to the "mass exodus of journalists from repressive countries such as Iran and Sri Lanka" as RSF's major concern," and notes that "[t]he authorities in these countries have understood that by pushing journalists into exile, they can drastically reduce pluralism of ideas and the amount of criticism they attract." However, the report fails to mention the "massacre of more than 20,000 unarmed Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka security forces during the first 5 months of 2009 after banning journalists and NGOs, and conducting a "war without witness," Tamil circles complained.
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SLA arrests Mannaar Tamil civilian in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 12:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army(SLA) intelligence officers took into custody Sunday a Tamil civilian staying in a lodge in Colombo. Criminal Investgaation Department (CID) has notified the civilian's wife that her husband is being detained in the Fourth Floor of CID headquarters in Colombo.
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Heritage genocide abetted by decades of Western funding

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 11:57 GMT]
Ever heard of ‘archaeology’ being first priority in a conquered territory? If not, then you don’t know Sri Lanka, writes an academic from Jaffna on Colombo’s heritage genocide. Colombo’s use of archaeology against Tamils is not new. But the dimensions to which Tamils are now exposed to are not only its acceleration but the tragedy of facing imposed ‘knowledge supremacy’ that only the Sinhalese can explore, excavate, manage and teach heritage. Sri Lankan state is not the only culprit. The West, especially the UK, US, Germany, France and Holland as well as India, Japan and Australia, the main countries that have been giving funds, training and scholarships to Sri Lanka and also the UN agencies have to be equally indicted for blindly following only State protocols and vested interests, without considering the long-term genocidal impact of their assistances in the island, he further writes.
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‘Tamils without Tamil’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 09:15 GMT]
“Why we need 1700 temples for only 3 million Indians in Malaysia? It does not make sense but we still continue to build temples and fight for it. We only have 450 Tamil schools in Malaysia and it is getting lesser,” says a news-group posting from Hindraf, New York. At least the Indian Tamils raise the issue, but the more affluent Jafanese or Ceylonese have forgotten Tamil and Tamil schools with their first generation. Now, even to give ‘tuition’ in Tamil only a few of the old generation remain, commented an Eezham Tamil refugee recently went to Malaysia.
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