Cast the first vote to Bahu: Manickasothy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 21:43 GMT]
All Tamil political leaders should ensure in unison that Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne receive the first preferential vote in the presidential election, so that the two main candidates equal in their chauvinistic agenda against Tamils will not get the necessary 50 percent to win, said senior politician and civil movement member Manickasothy Abhimannasingham in an interview to media in Jaffna, Tuesday. Bahu was always consistent in his stand on Tamil question even under trying times and voting him is an opportunity to show the Tamil will locally and internationally, he further said. On the candidature of Mr. Sivajilingam, he said the candidature should not demonstrate Tamil disunity. His observation on TNA was that it is nowadays open about its proclivity to India and is now waiting only to receive instructions from India.
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Sivajilingam to contest SL presidential polls as independent candidate

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 10:07 GMT]
"There is no point supporting either of the two main candidates, Rajapaksa or Fonseka," said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian K. Sivajilingam Tuesday morning after making his deposit at the Sri Lankan Election Secretariat in Colombo stating that he would contest the presidential polls as an independent candidate.
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Heavy floods in East, 3 killed, IDP camps under water

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 09:37 GMT]
Lightning claimed the lives of three people and more than 25,000 have been displaced due to heavy floods as cyclone 'Ward' entered the Eastern coast Monday night. Vaakarai, Vaazhaichcheanai, Kaaththaankudi and Vavu'natheevu are among the worst affected areas in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, all the huts of 'welfare centers' located in Moothoor East and Eechchilampattu in Trincomalee district where hundreds of internally displaced Tamil families, still sheltered awaiting resettlement in their own villages, are under water due to torrential rain now being experienced. Roofs of these huts have been blown off due to gale winds due to depression that moves along the coast of North and East.
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Times expert authenticates Sri Lanka's Channel-4 war-crimes video

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 04:51 GMT]
Following independent verification by a US-based group of the authenticity of the Channel-4 video in October, UK's Times reported in its Tuesday edition that its own independent analysis of the Channel-4 broadcast video, showing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers summarily executing unarmed Tamils stripped naked and hands tied behind the back, found "no evidence of digital manipulation, editing or any other special effects." Times' forensic analyst, Grant Fredericks, is an independent forensic video specialist who is also an instructor at the FBI National Academy, the paper said.
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Rajapakse brothers, Brigadier Silva, presumptive war criminals, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 04:18 GMT]
Former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander General Sarath Fonseka's statement to the effect that the Rajapaksa Brothers, Gotabhaya Rajapakse and Basil Rajapakse, and Brigadier Shavendra Silva ordered the murder of surrendering LTTE leaders protected by a White Flag pursuant to a prior agreement to surrender that way sets forth a prima facie "war crime" under the customary international laws of war as codified into and exemplified by U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 "The Law of Land Warfare" (1956), paragraph 504, said Professor Francis A. Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law, and an expert in International Law, in a note sent to TamilNet.
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Sinhala / Chingka'lam / Ceylon

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 21:03 GMT]
The red tract of land
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Grenade attack on UNP district office in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 11:12 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed a hand grenade Sunday around 10:40 p.m on the United National Party (UNP) office located in the residence of UNP Batticaloa district branch president and member of Eastern Provincial Council, Arasaratnam Sasitharan, Batticaloa police said. None was injured in the blast but the office has been damaged a little.
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99% assent Tamil Eelam in overwhelming turn out of 31,000 in France

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 02:23 GMT]
31,148 eligible Eezham Tamil diaspora voters over 18 in France participated this weekend in the referendum to say yes or no to independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam and 30,936 of them have said yes. The postal votes permitted to interior areas of France are yet to be counted and the number is expected to be between 2,000 and 3,000. In the absence of any official statistics, police estimates earlier placed the number of adult Eezham Tamils in France between 25,000 and 35,000. The near total turn out of voters amidst international campaign that Tamil Eelam is drowned in Mu'l'livaaykkal has stunned the observers. The public spirit has made sections of Tamil media, initially engaged in vicious campaign against the referendum, to make a U-turn supporting it later.
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Tamil woman beaten to death in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 01:53 GMT]
A gang of unidentified men broke into the house of a young Tamil family woman and beat her to death in her sleep Saturday around 11:00 p.m in Kalkudaa police division in Batticaloa district. Police have arrested two suspects and detained them for interrogation and further action.
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FT: Fight for Eelam far from over, say young activists

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 01:18 GMT]
Popular British broadsheet Financial Times, on a follow-up article to October coverage on young Tamils, said that while the western crackdown on the Tigers’ financiers among the diaspora, has created despondency among this often wealthy migrant community, the "clued-up second-generation migrants were turning to political lobbying," and that, "[t]hese young activists said the fight for Eelam, an independent Tamil homeland, was far from over."
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Activists accuse South Africa of ignoring Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 December 2009, 00:17 GMT]
Human rights activists have accused the South African government of double standards for "flirting" with Sri Lankan government officials and ignoring the genocide in the country, South Africa's Times reported Saturday. The accusations followed South Africa's minister of international relations, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, to Colombo last month, where the Minister was quoted by Times as saying, "Sri Lanka has become a key partner [of South Africa] on several international issues such as human rights, poverty alleviation, globalisation and the reform of the United Nations."
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“We are not going to start another armed struggle” – PLOTE Sitharathan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 10:25 GMT]
“We are not preparing ourselves to launch another armed struggle. The accusations that we had abducted minors from Vavuniyaa camps are baseless,” Sitharathan, the leader of People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) said in a press meet held Saturday in PLOTE office in Jaffna. He further said that after the talks held with President Mahinda Rajapakse his party has decided to support him in the forthcoming presidential election, sources in Jaffna said.
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Kantha’laay Koayil burgled, Pi’l’laiyaar statue missing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 10:05 GMT]
About one hundred kilo weighing bronze Vinaayakar statue was stolen from the historic Pilliyaar Koayil located in ancient Kantha’laay Tamil village Saturday early morning. The devotees who went to the Koayil to worship Saturday morning were taken aback when they saw the statue of the deity was missing, according to complaints lodged with the Kanthalaai Police.
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Fonseka names assassins of Nadesan, Puleedevan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 09:01 GMT]
Former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander and presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka named Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Shavendra Silva, commander of army’s 58th division as directly responsible to the assassination of LTTE’s political leaders B. Nadesan, S. Puleedevan and police chief Ramesh, while naming presidential advisor Basil Rajapaksa, Norwegian minister Erik Solheim and various foreign parties as people involved in the episode, The Sunday Leader reported. While Basil Rajapaksa denied communication with Norway, Sri Lanka defence circles refused to comment. Meanwhile, Tamil circles commenting on Fonseka's 'revelations', said both the SLA Commander Fonseka and Commander-in-Chief Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot explain away their involvement in war crimes and the crimes against humanity.
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Sarath is only a tool to eliminate Mahinda – Ranil, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 08:18 GMT]
“The opposition intends to use Sarath Fonseka only as a tool to eliminate Mahinda Rajapakse from the presidential post; people should not be afraid of him because he was an army commander,” Ranil Wicremasinghe, the leader of the opposition said Saturday night in Jaffna at a press meet held in ‘Yaa’lpaadi’ guest house, sources in Jaffna said. “The failure of the people in the North and East to vote in the last presidential election enabled Mahinda to become president and the resulting sufferings of the Tamils is now clear to them,” Ranil further said.
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Colombo sacks Tamil doctor for internment camp comments

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 December 2009, 13:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Ministry of Health has interdicted a Tamil doctor, Dr Murali Vallipuranathan, for speaking out on the conditions on the detention camps, and informed him that the Ministry "found him to have acted in a manner that brought disrepute on the Government of Sri Lanka," Sri Lanka weekly Lakbima reported. Ministry of Health's communication, written in Sinhala dated 10th November 2009, said that Dr Vallipuranathan was being removed from service for causing disrepute to the Government of Sri Lanka, and that his salary was also being stopped.
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100th day of Tissainayagam's 20-year prison term

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 December 2009, 13:15 GMT]
Thursday marked the 100th day of Sri Lanka journalist, Jeyaprakash Tissainayagam's 20-year prison term. "Tissainayagam, known as Tissa, was convicted of “terrorism” charges for articles documenting human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan military, as well as the difficult conditions faced by Sri Lankans displaced in the nation’s long war. His sentence was a dire warning to other journalists who would dare be critical of the government. They are right to be concerned," Committe to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a report Thursday. Tissanayagam has been languishing in jail from 7th March 2008 when he was first arrested without charge.
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France goes for referendum on Tamil Eelam this weekend

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 December 2009, 08:15 GMT]
Eezham Tamils living in France will be voting this weekend to say yes or no for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the island of Sri Lanka. Polling will take place in 30 centres in Paris and suburbs and in 5 centres outside, between 08:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Saturday and between 08:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Sunday. The formation committee for the country council of Eelam Tamils in France is organizing the poll with the support of 61 Eezham Tamil organizations and two NGOs in France. Taking the secret ballot will be officiated and presided over by independent French election officers coming from members of the local government councils of France. The poll gains significance at a time when Tamils are left with no choice other than politically proving their geopolitical importance as powers have made it absolutely clear that they are guided only by geopolitical considerations.
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HR Day observed in Jaffna after 3 years

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 December 2009, 07:28 GMT]
Thousands of persons whose family members had gone missing after abduction or arrest by Sri Lanka Armed forces and paramilitary men participated in an event organized by Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna Veersingham Hall Thursday around 10:00 a.m to mark the 61st International Human Rights Day. Representatives of various Tamil political parties and human rights activists participated in the event which ended around 2:00 p.m. The day’s events concluded with the torch festival held in Aariyaku’lam in Jaffna after a procession which highlighted human rights, source in Jaffna said.
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Reveal whereabouts of surrendered, arrested Liberation Tigers – Mano Ganeshan

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 December 2009, 06:35 GMT]
“The government should maintain transparency in matters related to the Liberation Tigers who had surrendered or were arrested at the end of the war,” Mano Ganeshan, Democratic People’s Front (DPF) leader and parliamentarian said, in a special interview to TamilNet Thursday. Mano Ganeshan, presently in Jaffna, also said that Sarath Fonseka, the common opposition presidential candidate, is steadfast in solving the issues related to the reunion of the Liberation Tigers with their families and resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
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