Winners are never tried for war crimes, says Colombo’s foreign secretary

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 07:33 GMT]
“If you look at the history of war crimes there isn’t one instance where a winner of a war has been tried before a Tribunal. They have always been set up for losers. And if you were to take winners then the start would have to be taken elsewhere. Sri Lanka did not drop atom bombs or destroy entire cities during the war,” said, Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary and newly appointed permanent representative to the UN, Palitha Kohona in an interview to Daily Mirror, Thursday, outlining the diplomatic prospects of Colombo in engaging the officialdom of the world, in negating political solutions to the Tamil national question. “There is this thinking that all our problems can be solved by applying a political solution. I fail to see the logic behind this,” he said.
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Sri Lanka to train Pakistan army in Tamil land

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 07:20 GMT]
“We received a request from Pakistan to train their officers on our small team operations, so we have decided to open several new training schools in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya to train local and foreign military officers,” said Colombo’s new Army Chief Jagath Jayasuriya, reported, Daily Mirror, Friday. The newspaper further quoted the military chief saying that there was a big demand from foreign countries to have their forces trained by Sri Lanka. But Political observers said that it was a ploy of Colombo, Pakistan and probably some others too, to check the current presence of Indians in Vanni.
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'Political formula needs to address Tamil nationalist fundamentals'

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 00:12 GMT]
The powers of the international community, especially India, recognising the nation of Eezham Tamils, spelling out its right to self-determination and immediately stepping in guaranteeing its security and territorial integrity are more important for producing positive political results than mooting proxy draft solutions, says Roy Gardiner Wignarajah, a spokesman of the Canadian Tamil activist group, International Human Cultural Union (IHCU). "Tamil groups should not engage in demoralising the future course of the liberation struggle by playing in the hands of those who are all out to erase the nationalism of Eezham Tamils. Instead, they should concentrate on ingenuously posing democratic challenges, locally and internationally, convincing the inevitability of conceding liberation to Tamils."
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Global vigilance needed amid Sri Lanka’s post war rhetoric: Australian Senator

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 23:57 GMT]
The ethnic issue in Sri Lanka must remain at the forefront of the global conscience amid the “very serious prospect of continued breeches of human rights” faced by over 300,000 Tamil IDP’s at the hands of the Sri Lankan Government, said Liberal party Senator Gary Humphries in address at Canberra on Tuesday. Citing allegations of abuse and continued censorship imposed by the Sri Lankan Government throughout military controlled refugee camps to dismiss claims of post war stability, senator Humphries urged the international community "to be vigilant, to watch carefully what is going on, to ask questions about how the Sri Lankan government is treating people” in order to force the Rajapakse regime to address the plight of thousands of Tamil civilians.
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White House Tamil protest draws media attention

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 23:39 GMT]
Commenting on the increase in number of protests after President Obama came to power, Politico.com, a site run by a Virginia-based popular American political group and edited by former Washington Post staffers, noted that the "most memorable crowd of protesters outside Obama's door [White House]" was a Tamil expatriate group which has "caught the attention of administration officials and journalists alike with its unflagging, mind numbing chants." Tamils from several states in the US and Canadian Tamils have been protesting in front of the White House for the 102nd contiguous day Thursday, urging Obama administration to take steps to safeguard Tamil civilians and to enforce a just and fair solution to the Tamil National question.
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Relocating Moothoor east IDPs continues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 11:54 GMT]
The sixth group of internally displaced families from Moothoor east Tamil villages who had sought refuge in Batticaloa district since the military operation launched by the Sri Lanka in April 2006 were sent back Thursday morning by seven buses via Verukal to Ki’liveddi. They are again given temporary shelter in a welfare centre in Ki’liveddi as they are not allowed to resettle in their traditional villages in Moothoor east which are located in the SLA declared high security zone after its military operation, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Sri Lanka maintains military spending, recruits 50,000 more troops

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 11:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka will keep up record defence spending despite its recent victory over the Tamil Tigers, Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told AFP Tuesday, as the Sri Lankan Army announced plans to recruit 50,000 more soldiers shortly. Sri Lanka raised its defence budget to a record 1.6 billion dollars this year, and finally defeated the LTTE in May after months of intense battles in which 20,000 Tamil civilians were massacred by government shelling. 6,000 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed in last three months of the war, Gotabhaya also said.
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US: Tamils ‘confined against their will’ in Sri Lanka camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 01:49 GMT]
The United States’ top official dealing with humanitarian crisis reiterated Wednesday the Obama administration’s demand that Tamil civilians held in Sri Lanka’s militarised camps be allowed to leave freely. “Our position is that people who are displaced should be agents of their own destiny,” Eric P. Schwartz, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, said. Responding to reporters’ asking about his comments during a visit to Sri Lanka, Mr. Schwartz clarified: “I don’t think there’s anything ambiguous about “confinement against their will.”
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'UN, the fence that ate the crop'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 August 2009, 01:00 GMT]
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who was refused admittance by Colombo at the height of the war, chose to accept its invitation as soon as the war was “won”, accuses Norway’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Mona Juul, whose confidential assessment of Ban sent to Norway’s Foreign Ministry, leaked to Afterposten newspaper of Oslo Wednesday. War in Sri Lanka is an example of the weak handling of the Secretary General. He was a passive observer when thousands lost lives and were driven from their homes, the diplomat further said in her mid term assessment of Ban’s tenure. “Even when it was helpless at the gang-up of certain powers, the UN should have upheld its integrity by telling the truth and exposing the culprits to the world. But Ban and his chosen officials not only failed but also shielded them”, said Tamil circles which look at UN as the ‘fence that ate the crop.’
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Thousands attend Nalloor Thear festival

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 11:50 GMT]
The Thear (Chariot) festival of the historic Nalloor Kandasamy Temple in Jaffna town was held Wednesday morning with thousands of devotees from all over the island and participating, turning Jaffna into a virtual spiritual town, sources attending the festival said. With 300,000 fellow Tamils incarcerated in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, and constrained by the curfews the Jaffna citizens still have to endure daily, the festival had added significance to the Saiva population in the NorthEast, although the number of participants were fewer than the previous years, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Review fears Sri Lanka used British weapons on Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 10:39 GMT]
Fears that British weapons were used against civilians in Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil Tigers have prompted calls for a review of the arms trade, British newspapers said. Four British Parliamentary committees have issued a joint report arguing that all existing licences to Sri Lanka should be investigated. Singling out Sri Lanka, Roger Berry, chairman of the Committees on Arms Export Controls, said that arms exports to countries which had only recently ceased hostilities should be monitored because of the high risk that fighting would resume. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the UK Foreign Office told the Daily Telegraph newspaper a review of Sri Lanka was underway, adding: "the Government shares the Committees' concerns regarding military exports fuelling conflict in countries such as Sri Lanka.”
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8 Tamil youths arrested in Anurdhapura, Polonnaruwa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 05:34 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) took into custody Tuesday morning eight Tamil youths in a search conducted in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa areas. The arrested youths are from upcountry who had come to these areas in search of employment, the youths’ relatives said. Police authorities in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, however, said that no arrestees are being detained in their police stations.
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Academic exposes ideological shift in DMK

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 11:59 GMT]
Discerning students of Tamil Nadu politics, especially those analysing the role of the state in Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, are intrigued by the transformation that has taken place in the DMK perception on Sri Lanka, writes V. Suryanarayan in an article last week appeared in New Indian Express. “The tragedy of the situation must be underlined; the Sri Lankan Tamils became pawns in the electoral politics of the state. What is more, their struggle for justice, equity and dignity has been pushed back by several decades. A long winter of discontent is ahead of Sri Lankan Tamils,” he concludes the article.
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Floods threaten Tamils in Sri Lanka’s detention camps - HRW

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 10:31 GMT]
Floods and disease are threatening the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of Tamils detained enmasse in violation of international by the Sri Lankan government, HRW said Tuesday. The floods have caused emergency latrines to flood or collapse, causing sewage to flood several areas of the camps, heightening the risk of outbreaks of contagious diseases. The camps are located in places that are known to flood during the onsetting monsoon season.
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US Tamil boycott campaign targets Victoria Secret, Macy's

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 01:46 GMT]
U.S. Tamil expatriate groups in New York as part of their continuing campaign urging U.S.companies to avoid trade with Sri Lanka, targetted Victoria Secret, the lingerie giant with $5.6b net sales in 2008, and the retail giant Macy's which had $26.3b sales in Fiscal Year 2007, Saturday 15th August in Manhattan at 34th street and Broadway junction, between 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
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Tamil Nadu government erases the word 'Eezham'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police was seen pasting white papers on the word 'Eezham' and on the picture of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, figured in the banners and posters of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchi (VCK) organised uprising in Chennai attended by more than 100,000 people Monday. The VCK's annual uprising day, conducted on the birthday of its leader Thol Thirumavalavan, has chosen the theme 'Ezhum Thamizh Eezham' for this year. The phrase can either mean the 'rising Tamil Eelam' or 'Tamil Eelam will rise'. The word 'Eezham' is the earliest reference to today's island of Sri Lanka, found in Tamil literature and inscriptions of pre-Christian centuries.
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Indian Tamil traders arrested in Batticaloa to be deported

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 2009, 17:07 GMT]
Seven South Indian Tamil traders were fined each two thousand rupees Monday by the Batticaloa Magistrate V.Ramakamalan and were discharged with a warning that they should not engage in illegal business with tourist visa. They were taken into custody by the Batticaloa Police from a lodge in Batticaloa on receipt of information that they had been operating illegal business in Batticaloa while staying with tourist visa.
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2 suspects arrested in Kalmunai SSP's murder

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 August 2009, 17:43 GMT]
The Special Task Force (STF) of Kalmunai Police Saturday took into custody two persons, a Tamil and a Muslim, over the killing of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), S. H. Jamaldeen.

The killing took place 5 April 2009 when Jamaldeen was returning home on his motorbike from Maruthamunai after attending evening prayers in mosque.
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Bodies of 2 Up-Country Tamil women found in canal in Colombo HSZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 August 2009, 19:40 GMT]
Bodies of two females of young age were found Saturday morning in a canal along Bauddhaloka Mawatte in Colombo. The area is located in the high security zone. A special police team rushed to the site on receipt of information and began investigation into the deaths of the women and to identify the victims.
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