Tissainayagam wins international award for ‘courageous and ethical journalism’

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 19:56 GMT]
J. S. Tissainayagam, a Tamil reporter sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison, has been named the first winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. Tissainayagam was selected for the awrd, by the US branch of RSF and Global Media Forum (GMF), a company founded by Mackler to train journalists and non-profit organizations to use the media as a tool for social change. The Peter Mackler Award, named for a 30-year veteran of Agence France-Presse (AFP) who died last year, rewards journalists who fight courageously and ethically to report the news in countries where freedom of the press is either not guaranteed or not recognized.
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Lopsided sovereignty sentences Tissainayagam - journalist

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 19:50 GMT]
If Tissainayagam is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for 'inciting communal feelings' by editing, printing or distributing North Eastern Herald Monthly, what should be the punishment to Sarath Fonseka, who as commander of the armed forces publicly said Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese, mutilating the constitution and inciting genocide in the island, asks a senior journalist in Colombo. Unfortunately there are governments and diplomats who deceive humanity by projecting Sri Lanka as a ‘democratically elected government', besides multi national corporations, who don’t care freedom of people but grabbing opportunities in the island and there are also media such as The Hindu in India and a host of others in the international community praising Colombo on its ‘successes’ in ethnic totalitarianism, the journalist said.
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4 Tamil civilians arrested in Katunayake HSZ

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 14:13 GMT]
Four Tamil civilians arrested by the police while staying with their relatives and friends in Katunayake, a High Security Zone (HSZ) in Colombo district Saturday night are still being detained in the Katunayake police station and interrogated by the Terrorism Intelligence Department (TID). All the four are natives of north and east, sources said.
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Sri Lankan court imprisons Tamil journalist for 20 years

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 06:03 GMT]
J.S. Tissainayagam, a senior journalist and Sunday Times columnist, was sentenced to twenty-year rigorous imprisonment by Colombo High Court judge Deepali Wijesundara on Monday. Mr. Tissanayagam has been indicted under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER), and was charged on three counts including printing and distributing the publication North Eastern Herald Monthly magazine.
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Tamil youth shot, injured in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 August 2009, 17:23 GMT]
An unidentified gang of men shot and injured Saturday a Tamil youth in Tambuluvil in Ampaa’rai district, according to a complaint lodged by his relatives with Akkaraipattu police.
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Video, leaked memo bedevil Moon's climate visit to Norway

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 August 2009, 13:23 GMT]
International Development Minister Erik Solheim told Norway's Aftenposten Wednesday that he will discuss the details of the gruesome video showing Sri Lanka soldiers executing naked, bound men, during Ban Ki Moon's Norway visit this week. Meanwhile, the visit occurs while 'The Economist' gave Mr. Moon a failed grade in his UN performance (30%), and a leaked memo by Norway’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Mona Juul, accused Moon for being a "passive observer when thousands lost lives and were driven from their homes [in Sri Lanka]," in her mid term assessment of Ban’s tenure.
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Liam Fox meets Mahinda Rajapakse, Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 August 2009, 11:35 GMT]
The government of United Kingdom (UK) is seriously involved in finding a political solution to the legitimate aspirations of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the early resettlement of the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced as well as ensuring a better future for them, Mr. Liam Fox, British Conservative Party parliamentarian, is reported to have told President Mahinda Rajapakse when he met the latter on Saturday.
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Journalist Tissanayagam case judgement on Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 August 2009, 11:27 GMT]
The Colombo High Court judge Ms. Deepali Wijesundara is to deliver the judgement on Monday August 31 on the case against senior journalist J. S. Tissanayagam who was indicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER), legal sources in Colombo said. Tissainayagam was charged on three counts including printing and distributing the publication North Eastern Monthly magazine and the offences were stated to have been committed during the period between June 1, 2006 and June 1, 2007. He has been detained for 425 days since March 06 2008.
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SC directs AG to expedite inquiry into Tamil detainees in prison

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 17:01 GMT]
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General to prepare an emergency plan to expedite the inquiry of the hundreds of Tamils now being detained in prisons without any inquiry under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations(ER) in consultation with the Justice Ministry Secretary. “It is unjust to keep them indefinitely in remand. As a result of this delay the number of fundamental rights violation petitions challenging the detention without inquiry is on the increase hampering the smooth functioning of the judiciary,” said Chief Justice Asoka de Silva.
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Colombo suspends releasing Trinco internees from Menik farm

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 15:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka authorities, without prior notice and without citing any reason, have suspended Saturday, a planned release of a group of 600 persons out of about 3,000 internally displaced persons who are residents of Trincomalee district and fled from Vanni and currently being interned in military supervised Menik Farm in Vavuniyaa to their own villages, civil sources in Vavuniyaa told media. More than 300,000 Tamil civilians are currently being held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa.
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SLA blocks spouse from collecting Welikada victim's body

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 11:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials Saturday denied permission to Mrs Devendran Saro, the wife of a Welikada prisoner who died in questionable circumstances inside the maximum security prison in Boralle last week, to travel to Colombo to collect her husband's body, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The second Tamil prisoner who died under the same circumstances is yet to be identified.
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British Conservative party MP Liam Fox visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 05:44 GMT]
Liam Fox, British Conservative Party shadow Defence Secretary accompanied by his advisor W. Adams, visited Jaffna Friday where he met the representatives of civil and religious societies at Jaffna Bishop House around 2:15 p.m. “A just political solution to Tamils’ problems should be the first concern and not development,” the representatives told the visiting emissary, sources in Jaffna said. Liam Fox later met Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh at Jaffna Secretariat. The representative who met Liam Fox said that he showed a keen interest in finding out the true situation of the Tamils, the sources added.
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Tamil youth shot, injured identified as an IDP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 04:44 GMT]
The Tamil civilian shot and injured on Wednesday night in Ka’luwaangkear’ni in Batticaloa district has been identified as 27-year-old Nadarajah Baskaran who returned from Vavuniyaa internment camp for resettlement in his native village.
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Chauvinism and greed 'naked' in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 04:07 GMT]
It was frightening to see the combined effect of naked chauvinism of Sri Lanka and naked greed of powers, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo responding to the video clip displayed Tuesday. “Such a trend in the establishments is a challenge to every lay human being of the civilized world. While rising up to free people in the internment camps is a spontaneous response, what is of paramount importance is independent political organisation of Tamils in order to meet the challenge of the same forces that are now coercing or enticing them to drop righteous aspirations. Tamils are not asking for other’s land or for empires. They only ask for their own land and there is nothing to get scared or to feel ashamed of. As people of classical heritage, if Tamils fail, they fail not merely their cause but an entire human civilization,” he writes commenting on current Tamil affairs.
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Horrendous video images indicate violation of International Law - UN expert

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 August 2009, 22:23 GMT]
Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, commenting on the video clip aired in British Channel-4 TV, allegedly showing Sri Lankan troops executing prisoners, stressed the need for an investigation, AFP reported. The images, which Alston described as "horrendous," indicate a serious violation of international law if found to be authentic, AFP reported Alston as saying. The video showed victims stripped naked and their hands crossed and tied behind their backs, when they were executed.
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Jaffna Tamil youth abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 August 2009, 16:39 GMT]
Unidentified persons abducted a Tamil youth from Achchuveali in Jaffna in Colombo on 23 August around 5:00 p.m in front of the lodge he was staying in, according to the complaint lodged by his mother to Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in Jaffna. The youth had been expelled from Malaysia where he had sought refuge in 2006, her mother said in her complaint.
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2 Tamil political prisoners killed in Welikada

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 August 2009, 14:42 GMT]
Two Tamil political prisoners have died under 'questionable circumstances' inside the Sri Lankan Central Prision at Welikada in Borallea this week, civil sources in Colombo revealed on Friday. One of the prisoner's wife, a native of Vaddukkoaddai, was informed by Jaffna police that her husband, 30-year-old Sinnaiah Devendran, had died three days ago while he was under going treatment at prison hospital.
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4 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo city

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 August 2009, 04:36 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos arrested Wednesday night four Tamil youths from Upcountry employed in shops in Colombo Fort and Pettah in a search conducted Wednesday night, sources in Colombo said. The youths were arrested on the streets in Fort and Pettah.
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Switzerland ‘deplores’ block on Tamils’ movement, donates essential drugs

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 August 2009, 01:05 GMT]
Announcing its third donation of essential drugs of the Tamils confined in Sri Lanka’s militarised camps, Switzerland Thursday “deplore[d] the continued lack of freedom of movement” for those in the camps and appealed for Colombo to cooperate with the international community and allow humanitarian actors access to the people “rapidly and without hindrance.” Although the press release by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) referred to the people held in the barbwire ringed camps as "Sri Lankan civilians," they are in fact all Tamils - comprising the population of the northern Vanni region.
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UK main opposition: “serious concerns” about Sri Lanka camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2009, 12:46 GMT]
As British Tamil groups prepared to launch a campaign to raise public awareness of Sri Lanka’s concentration camps, the UK’s main opposition Conservative Party joined the chorus of international protests about the “continued confinement” of hundreds of thousands of Tamils. Calling for “full and unrestricted access” for international humanitarian actors, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague stressed the importance of the Sri Lankan government living up to its commitment to allow the people to return to their homes by the end of the year. Tamil expatriates in UK will on Thursday – the “100th Day behind barbed wire” - launch an awareness campaign titled “Unlock the Concentration Camps in Sri Lanka.”
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