'Mercenary Intellectuals'

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2009, 14:14 GMT]
Prof. Peter Schalk, of Uppsala University, Sweden, identifies four western educated individuals hired by the Government of Sri Lanka to defend Colombo's decisions and criticisms from the West, and labels them as "mercenary intellectuals." He dismisses even discussing the "Sinhalatva hard core idealogues" from whom, Schlak says, one cannot expect any "rational reaction of responsibility in the Tamil issue," and that one cannot expect any "academic performance" from these Sinhalatva types.
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TNA engaged in gathering Tamils' opinion on presidential election

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2009, 03:26 GMT]
Four TamiL National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians are presently in Jaffna actively engaged in learning the opinions of several prominent persons and bodies regarding the stand to adopt in the forthcoming presidential election. Pathmini Sithamparanathan, one of the four MPs, said that they had already met many important persons and intellectuals besides consulting Jaffna University personalities and Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Soundranayagam gathering their opinion on the approach to presidential election, she added.
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ACTC decides to boycott presidential election

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2009, 03:21 GMT]
All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) political party decided to boycott forthcoming presidential election and not to support any of the candidates contesting the election, in the ACTC National Conference held Sunday in Jaffna, presided by ACTC leader Vinayagamoorthy. 75 prominent members of ACTC and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Gejendrakumar Ponnambalam participated in the conference, sources in Jaffna said.
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Virginia GAP draws boycott campaigners attention

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2009, 00:47 GMT]
Tamil activists from Washington D.C. metro area and suburbs engaged in "boycott Sri Lanka campaign" focused their attention on the GAP and Banana Republic stores in the historic Old Town, Alexandria where they held a protest Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Meanwhile, more than 20 Tamils from the Delaware Valley Region (Delaware, Pennsylvania and South Jersey) held protest rally at the same time in front of the Concord Mall in Wilmington, as part of the campaign currently being organized by the United States Tamil Political Action Committee (USTPAC) and the NoToSriLanka teams.
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Police arrest 6 Batticaloa Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 December 2009, 13:59 GMT]
Six Tamil farmers, two each from Unnichchai, Aayithimalai and Vavunatheivu in Batticaloa district were taken into custody by Maha Oya Police Saturday near the border of two districts Batticaloa and Ampaarai when they went in search of cattle that have strayed across the borders.
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India denies entry visa to Sivajilingam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 December 2009, 13:31 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian M.K.Sivajilingam arrived in Colombo Saturday after Indian Immigration officials at the Thiruchchirappalli airport in South Indial refused to allow Sivajilingam to enter India to attend a conference in support of Eelam Tamils, Tamil media in Colombo reported.
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Maha Oya Police arrest 6 Batticaloa Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 December 2009, 12:35 GMT]
Six Tamil farmers, two each from Unnichchai, Aayithimalai and Vavu'natheevu in Batticaloa district were taken into custody by Maha Oya Police Saturday near the border of two districts Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai when they went in search of their strayed cattle.
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Asylum seeker dies without Indonesian medical aid

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 December 2009, 18:11 GMT]
One of 250 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka who have spent the past eleven weeks refusing to leave their boat in Indonesia has died after being denied medical help, Australian press reports said. The 29-year-old Tamil man died late Wednesday after falling ill several days earlier, AAP said. The group’s spokesman, Sanjeev "Alex" Kuhendrarajah, said the man had been vomiting blood for two days but authorities ignored his pleas to be taken to hospital until after he had a seizure on Wednesday night. Refugee advocates have called on the Australian government to intervene and bring the asylum seekers to Australia.
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Diplomatic misstep

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 December 2009, 21:33 GMT]
Professor Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, appears to have received a reprimand from his Department's Minister after making disparaging remarks on Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execution, and for dismissing as "another nuisance," the letter from Alston requesting explanation to Sarath Fonseka's allegations that Colombo may have committed war-crimes. In an interview, Mr Wijesinha calls Alston "a sad man," "an excitable man," and "a bit of an excitable chap." The Sri Lanka Government announced that it has withdrawn Mr. Wijesinha's self-publicized response to Alston.
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Boycott campaign in US gathers momentum

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 December 2009, 18:59 GMT]
While New York Tamil activists deployed a mobile billboard to spread the message of their boycott campaign urging ethical shoppers to shun garments and other products made in Sri Lanka whose 99% Sinhala military allegedly killed more than 30,000 civilians, activists in Florida and in Northern California held protest campaigns in Fort Lauderdale and in San Franciso city early this week. Organizers of the two protests said they are working with protest groups in other states to define a consistent boycott message.
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Sinhala ultra-nationalist monk backs Fonseka

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 December 2009, 18:08 GMT]
The Sinhala Buddhist extreme nationalist organisation, Patriotic National Centre (PNC) led by Buddhist Monk Venerable Dhambara Amila Thero, Thursday said that it has decided to support General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, contesting in the forthcoming Sri Lankan presidential elections. Dhambara Amila Thero has been opposed to outside influence, both the Western and the Indian, since the Norwegian brokered Ceasefire Agreement in 2002 and his movement has been a key opinion maker of the Sinhala nationalism, exercising the pressure on the Sri Lankan state to nullify the Norwegian brokered P-TOMS in 2005 and to unilaterally withdrew from the Ceasefire Agreement in 2008. Ven. Dhambara Amila Thero was formerly the leader of the National Bhikku Front (NBF), an ultra Sinhala nationalist organisation of Buddhist monks.
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Copenhagen exhibits expose NorthEast environmental destruction

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 December 2009, 14:53 GMT]
Two environmentalists from Tamil Nadu, interrupted their world tour promoting environment preservation, to organize an exhibit in the hallways of the climate change conference in Copenhagen between 7th and 18th December, to highlight the irreversible deforestation in the Tamil homeland of North-East carried out by the Sri Lanka military. “Decades-long massive military operations and occupation of Tamil Eelam by Sri Lanka’s military have caused grave environmental destruction to the north and east of the island. Recovery is difficult as the Tamil homeland is in the dry and arid part of the island, depending on scanty and truant northeast monsoon,” the two activists said, echoing many eelam activists' sentiments.
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Tamils staying beyond 30 days in Colombo should report: SL Police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 December 2009, 13:45 GMT]
Tamils coming from other countries or from North and East, should register themselves with the Sri Lankan Police in Colombo if they are staying in the city for more than 30 days, Sri Lankan Police Department said in a note to media on Wednesday.
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2 Tamil youths arrested in Katunayake, Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 December 2009, 12:43 GMT]
Colombo Police's 'Terrorist Intelligence Division' arrested a Tamil youth in Vavuniyaa and another at Katunayake International Airport Tuesday when he was about to take a flight to India.
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SLFP appoints main organizer for North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 December 2009, 02:56 GMT]
Thilagakumara Udagama, being appointed as the main Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) organizer for Jaffna and Vanni districts in the North by the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), is presently in Jaffna actively engaged in election campaign in support of Mahinda Rajapakse, sources in Jaffna said. He said that eleven Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) campaign offices have been opened in Jaffna peninsula and that local persons will go from house to house canvasing votes for Mahinda Rajapakse in the presidential election.
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Fonseka revelations mandate independent probe into UN's role, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 December 2009, 01:11 GMT]
Former Sri Lanka Army Commander, Sarath Fonseka's revelations of Gotabhaya Rajapakse ordering executions of surrendering LTTE leaders and their families, and UN chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar's reported role in the deadly surrenders "require a formal Investigation of the entire role played by the United Nations Organization and its Officials throughout the course of this latest irruption of the GOSL genocide against the Tamils starting in January of 2009 until today," said Professor Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois. "The U.N. Secretary General has the power to order and publish such an investigation," Boyle added.
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UN Official's involvement in LTTE leaders' killing questioned

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 December 2009, 12:29 GMT]
Following up on independent rapporteur for the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Philip Alston's, request to Colombo to provide details of the killing of LTTE leaders who surrendered the arms, Inner City Press questioned, "given not only the UN's role in the final days of what even it called the "bloodbath on the beach" in Sri Lanka, but especially UN chief of staff Vijay Nambiar's reported role in the deadly surrenders, why Rapporteur Alston has not already demanded answers from the UN itself."
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Tamil doctor files Rights petition in Sri Lanka Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 December 2009, 13:13 GMT]
The Supreme Court Monday granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights violation petition filed by a Tamil medical officer, S.Murali, against his interdiction on his alleged comments made on the conditions in the internment camps which the Sri Lanka Government said "had brought disrepute on the Government of Sri Lanka." The petitioner had been serving as an Acting Consultant Community Physician of the Health Care & Nutrition Ministry at that time of interdiction.
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Mobile billboard aids boycott campaign

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 December 2009, 08:23 GMT]
Times Square holiday shoppers were alerted Monday by a moving truck carrying a large bill board in its cargo bay urging the shoppers to boycott garments produced in Sri Lanka for Gap, Victoria's Secret and other big-label department stores, sources in New York said. The truck with a large billboard showing images of Tamil refugee suffering drove along popular shopping clusters in New York city, including 34th Street and Broadway. Lighting arrangements in the truck enabled the campaign to extend until early evening 7:00 p.m., according to the organizers of the campaign.
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Boston Tamils protest over Kerry report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 December 2009, 01:04 GMT]
Tamils in Boston, U.S., protested in front of Senator John F. Kerry's office Monday against a report that Kerry's Senate Foreign Relations Committee released earlier this month that called for friendlier relations between the United States and Sri Lanka. "The protesters claimed that the report was biased towards the Sinhalese ethnic majority that rules Sri Lanka, and against the Tamil minority that has been fighting for a separate homeland for decades," Boston Globe reported in its Monday edition.
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