Sarath Fonseka’s stand on relations with Tamils, Muslims should be made public – Mano Ganeshan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 18:32 GMT]
“The persons who try to bring in former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander, Sarath Fonseka as a prospective presidential candidate should first publicize his stand on his relations with the Tamils and Muslims of the country,” Mano Gnaeshan, Colombo district parliamentarian and the leader of Democratic Peoples’ Front (DPF) told media in Colombo after a discussion held with Ranil Wickremasinghe, the leader of the opposition and United National Party Friday evening, sources in Colombo said.. “We will not write ‘blank cheques’ in favour of any major political party candidate in the Presidential election,” he said. “We do not have any personal hard feelings either towards President Mahinda Rajapakse or Sarath Fonseka; whatever difference of opinion that exists is purely political,” he further said.
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Stop settling Sinhalese in Tamil, Muslim owned land - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 17:21 GMT]
Rajavarothaiam Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), speaking on an adjournment submitted by him in Sri Lanka's parliament Friday, said that "encroachment of lands belonging to Tamils and Muslims and State has been on going in the eastern province on large scale with the support of government, and amid intimidation of minority communities by government security forces, and this should be stopped immediately," parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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Tamil Nadu must recognize and support establishment of Tamil Eelam: Thirumavalavan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 13:38 GMT]
Stating that there was a total violation of human rights in the Sri Lankan Government's camps for Internally Displaced Persons, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi President Thol.Thirumavalavan, told TamilNet Friday in an exclusive interview of the "appalling conditions" prevalent in these "barbed-wire concentration camps" which he witnessed firsthand as one of the ten-member parliamentary delegation from Tamil Nadu. Pointing out that Tamil people could not become a "permanent slave society" and "live as second class citizens in Sri Lanka," Thirumavalavan sought to emphasize that Tamil Eelam was the only solution to a struggle that had claimed the lives of nearly fifteen hundred thousand Tamils civilians and more than thirty thousand Tamil Tiger fighters.
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Tamils hold “Will Break the Obstacles!” rally in Berlin

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 08:44 GMT]
Tamil Diaspora in Germany gathered Thursday in Berlin to stage a protest march in an effort to draw the attention of the international community to the pathetic plight of Tamils interned in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps. Two youths, representing students in Tamil Nadu, T. Sreenivasa Rao and Iraa. Gnanasekaran, on their journey in Europe to take part in the UN conference on Global Warming Awareness in Denmark on 7 December, took part in the march and rally. They have made it their duty to raise their voices for the interned Tamils, in all the countries they pass through, sources in Berlin said.
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Mercy Mission relief goods released by SL government nearing expiry dates

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 07:58 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka which had turned away the Mercy Mission ship, ‘Captain Ali’, loaded with relief items donated by expatriate Tamils in Europe to help Tamils caught up in the war in Vanni in June has now, after purposely delaying for nearly five months, released 27 containers of the total 88 to the ICRC in Colombo Thursday, sources in Colombo said. Subsequently, the entire cargo was released and ICRC had to obtain a certificate from the Sri Lanka Standards Institute as most of the goods were nearing expiry dates, the sources added.
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5 Tamils arrested in Vavuniyaa, Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 04:52 GMT]
Five Tamils including two women were taken into custody by the police in two separate incidents Friday morning. In the first incident, four Tamils including a woman were arrested in Vavuniyaa by the Police Special Investigations Division. In the second incident a team of the Special Task Force (STF) of Police took into custody a Tamil woman in Ampaa’rai, according to police spokesman Nimal Mediwake.
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Army colonel, wife arrested for plotting to kill Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 October 2009, 04:04 GMT]
Five suspects, including an Army Colonel, held under detention orders for their alleged involvement in plotting to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapakse, were handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Friday for further investigations on the orders of Mount Lavinia Additional Magistrate Ruchira Weliwatte. The court made the order on an application by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD).
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Rights organizations urge Japan to break its silence on SL rights abuses

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 October 2009, 17:16 GMT]
Six Japanese and international human rights organizations in a joint letter to Japan’s Foreign Minister Katsuya Okadanew called upon Japan’s new administration to publicly press the Sri Lankan government to end the illegal detention of approximately 250,000 Tamil civilian, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). “Japan is an excellent position to make its influence felt with Sri Lanka. The new government needs to make clear that it expects Sri Lanka to free the people locked up in the camps and pursue justice for the victims of the war years”, Tokyo director at HRW, Kanae Doi, said.
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HRW: US report ignites call for war crimes investigations against Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 October 2009, 04:05 GMT]
The US State Department war crimes report to the Senate submitted as mandated by the explanatory statement to the US Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009, detailed day-by-day account in a format similar to a "model indictment," and said the alleged incidents in the final stages of war may constitute "violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or crimes against humanity and related harms." Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said, "[g]iven Sri Lanka's complete failure to investigate possible war crimes, the only hope for justice is an independent, international investigation," and added, "concerned governments should use the US State Department report as a clarion call for an international investigation. There are no more excuses for inaction."
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SL Police arrest 2 Tamil youths at Katunayake

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 October 2009, 03:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took two Tamil youths of the north into custody in two separate incidents while the youths were waiting at the Katunayake International Airport to go abroad for employment, according to complaints lodged by their elatives to the police and Missing Peoples Monitoring Committee (MPMC) in Colombo. The arrested youths had valid travel documents.
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U.S. forfeits international responsibility to Sri Lankan state

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2009, 10:59 GMT]
"The United States looks to the Government of Sri Lanka to identify an appropriate and credible mechanism and initiate a process for accountability," read a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo on Thursday, announcing that U.S. Department of State delivered a Congressional report Wednesday detailing the incidents that allegedly occurred during the final months of the war in Vanni that may constitute violations of international humanitarian law or crimes against humanity. While Eezham Tamils are expecting justice from international mechanisms on the genocidal war carried out by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil nation, the U.S. statement attempts to make Colombo responsible for initiating a process for accountability within the anti-Tamil Sri Lankan system itself, commented Tamil circles blaming the statement as attempting to abet Colombo’s agenda of structural genocide.
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Vanni IDP students admitted to Ratmalana Hindu College

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2009, 10:28 GMT]
A batch of 144 Tamil students including 81 boys and 63 girls studying in grades from seven to eleven and detained in Vavuniyaa internment camp were admitted to Ratmalana Hindu College in Colombo district Wednesday. After detention they were rehabilitated at the Poonthooddam Child Protection and Rehabilitation Centre in Vavuniyaa. They left Vavuniyaa around 6.30 a.m. Wednesday in four special buses arranged by the Sri Lanka Army.
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Tamil trader abducted in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 October 2009, 04:43 GMT]
A gang of four unidentified armed men clad in military uniform Friday abducted a Tamil trader on his way to Colombo in his lorry, between Habarana and Minneriya, according to complaints lodged with Batticaloa police by his wife and relatives Tuesday.
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29 year old Tamil youth is under detention for 15 years in Welikada

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 2009, 17:42 GMT]
A team from a Human Rights Organization called Peoples Forum for Independence that visited the Welikada prison made a startling disclosure that they found a Tamil youth who was arrested at the age of fourteen has been under detention for fifteen years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Now the youth is 29 years old. He is among several Tamil political prisoners who have been detained under the PTA and Emergency Regulations (ER) without any inquiry and without recourse in courts, said an official of the organization to the Colombo media.
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Time to support the Tamils, say British Conservatives

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 October 2009, 09:01 GMT]
Increasing involvement in British politics and reciprocal openness of the British political parties was marked by a part-televised event held in Essex Sunday where several incumbent and prospective parliamentarians from the British Conservative party reached out to their Tamil constituencies and articulated their positions on the conflict and its consequences in Sri Lanka .The event was the first one in a series planned by the recently formed British Tamil Conservative Association (BTCA). Members of Parliament from the British party were keen to stress both their sense of fairness as well as their orientation towards action over rhetoric, according to a BTCA attendee. Conservative candidate, Robert Halfon, echoed in his website, the sentiments expressed Sunday stressing the need for autonomy for the Tamils saying they deserved nothing less.
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EU Commission: Sri Lanka fails to meet Rights thresholds for GSP+

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 October 2009, 02:27 GMT]
"[N]ational legislation of Sri Lanka incorporating international human rights conventions, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is not being effectively implemented. In the light of these findings, the Commission will now consider whether a temporary withdrawal of some or all of Sri Lanka's GSP+ benefits is called for and make a suitable proposal to EU Member States in the Council. If such a proposal is made and subsequently adopted by the Council, it would enter into force six months after the date of adoption," the European Commission said in the notice summarizing the Commission's findings on the Sri Lanka's GSP+ status released today.
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29 Tamil youths arrested in Katunayake in two incidents

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2009, 11:26 GMT]
Twenty nine Tamil youths were taken into custody by the State Intelligence Unit of the Sri Lanka Police at Katunayake International Airport in two separate incidents Thursday and Friday, sources in Colombo said. The arrested youths are now detained in the Katunayake Police and are being interrogated.
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30,000 Tamils march in London over Sri Lanka's internment camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2009, 20:37 GMT]
More than 30,000 British Tamils marched to draw attention to the Sri Lankan government's continued incarceration of over 280,000 Tamils in military supervised camps despite earlier pledges to release within 180 days from the end of war in May. Protesters, young and old, carried banners and chanted slogans expressing that 150 days have passed with no concrete steps taken to resettle the Tamils held in the “concentration camps" in Vavuniyaa.
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15 IDPs abducted from transit camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2009, 15:50 GMT]
Fifteen Internally Displaced Tamil men were abducted by a group of unidentified persons clad in army uniform Saturday evening from the transit camp located in the complex of Eachchilampathu Sri Shenpaga Maha Vidiyalayam in Seruvila division in Trincomalee district. Abducted IDPs are married and in the age group 25-45, according to complaints filed with the police and the civil authority by abductees relatives, civil sources in Trincomalee said.
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Forensic analysis confirms execution-video authentic, says US-group

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2009, 02:25 GMT]
A notarized report of preliminary findings from a US-based forensic company that took nearly three weeks to analyze the Channel-4 broadcast video allegedly showing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers extra-judicially executing Tamil captives stripped naked and hands tied behind their back, said "[t]he video and audio of the events depicted in the Video, were continuous without any evidence of start/stops, insertions, deletions, over recordings, editing or tampering of any kind." US pressure group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) which sponsored the study, placed an embargo on revealing the details of the forensic company, until the final report is complete early November.
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