US urged to go beyond clichés

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 August 2009, 01:18 GMT]
The very phrase ‘political reconciliation’ is partial and diabolical as it only upholds the integrity of a genocidal state and artfully nullifies the nationalist perspectives of the Tamil struggle, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo, responding to US stand discussed with groups of diaspora Tamils. Any genuine political approach to the age-old nationalist conflict in the island begins from recognising the nations involved in the conflict and engaging them as equal parties having full right to self-determination, the commentator writes, adding: “If willingness for positive political engagement is not forthcoming from the Sri Lankan state, the state can be induced and Eezham Tamils could be encouraged to participate willingly, by US and India in particular acknowledging the nation of Eezham Tamils and its absolute right to self-determination without mincing words.”
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7 Tamilnadu traders arrested in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 August 2009, 17:53 GMT]
Batticaloa Police Thursday night took into custody seven residents of Chennai in Tamilnadu from a lodge in Batticaloa town for conducting business illegally with only a tourist visa. The arrested individuals had been engaged in selling saris and clothes to the people of the town for several years.
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Bill banning community reference in party name unconstitutional, say Tamil parties

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 August 2009, 17:43 GMT]
If the amendments to the election bill are passed as gazetted, "no political party which has a name signifying any religion or ethnic or other community will be entitled to be treated as a recognized political party," and the "concept of outlawing names of religions or other groups or communities from the name of political parties is inconsistent with the constitutional standards that may be gleaned from several articles of the Constitution," said Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi 9itaK) and All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) in a petition filed in Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Wednesday, legal sources in Colombo said.
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US stresses ‘political reconciliation’ with Tamils for peace in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 August 2009, 17:38 GMT]
The US State Department met Tuesday with US-based Tamil Diaspora groups to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis and the prospects for “political reconciliation” in Sri Lanka, a government press release said. US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake and Chargé d'Affaires in the US embassy in Colombo, James Moore (participating by video link) held discussions with representatives of sixteen Tamil groups. The US officials had welcomed the opportunity to discuss the Tamils' concerns and perspectives and had "underscored the importance of political reconciliation," the US statement said. The US government has meanwhile stressed to the Sri Lanka government that "to achieve a lasting peace, it must promote justice and political reconciliation for all parties" the statement also said.
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12 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 August 2009, 05:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody 12 Tamil youths in a search conducted in the suburbs of Colombo on information received from the Intelligence Department that a suicide bomber has infiltrated into Colombo, sources in Colombo said. The arrested youths are said to be from North, East and the Upcountry.
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Conscience of Swaminathan should touch India, IC: Tamil circles

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2009, 23:27 GMT]
M S Swaminathan, internationally renowned agriculturalist, regarded as the father of India’s Green Revolution, declined to involve with Colombo “unless there is some kind of political settlement,” IANS reported Wednesday. “There are people who feel unless Tamils in Sri Lanka can live in dignity, other things are subsidiary. This is a viewpoint. I have no plans to go to Sri Lanka in the immediate future,” Swaminathan told IANS. In February, another prominent Indian and a Kannadiga from Mysore, N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys, refused IT advisory to Colombo. “Development is not exploitation of the plight of people facing structural genocide,” Tamil circles said pointing to the attitude of the Indian Establishment and sections of IC blindly abetting Colombo and officially rationalising genocide, just to make inroads into the island.
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Kuala Lumpur congratulates Colombo, donates US $ 100,000

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2009, 17:17 GMT]
Malaysian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka, Rosli Ismail congratulated Colombo for defeating ‘LTTE terrorism’ and described it as a “big achievement” while handing over his government’s donation of US $ 100,000 for the welfare of internally displaced ‘Sri Lankans’ affected by the conflict, according to a press release of Colombo’s foreign ministry, Thursday. Eezham Tamil IDPs in the internment camps alone number 300,000. Speaking on the occasion, Colombo’s foreign minister, Rohitha Bogollagama noted that Malaysia is one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka and has been consistently supportive of Sri Lanka’s efforts, “especially in the fight against terrorism.”
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Government to withdraw controversial Electoral Reforms Bill

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2009, 16:55 GMT]
The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms Wednesday decided to completely withdraw the draft bill outlawing political parties that signify a race or a religion and to table a new draft bill in the parliament. The decision was taken at the PSC meeting held the same day at the parliamentary complex after Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) filed fundamental right violation petitions separately challenging proposed Electoral Reforms Amendment Bill tabled in the parliament last week, political sources said.
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Tamil businessman arrested in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 August 2009, 06:27 GMT]
Galkissa Police took a Tamil businessman into custody in a flat located along Hampton Lane in Wellawatte Monday. The police said they recovered army uniforms from his room in the flat.
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Tamil homeland to get integrated in Indo-Lanka power grid

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 19:24 GMT]
India is to sign the Joint Venture agreement and Letter of Intent (LoI) with the Government of Sri Lanka this month to accelerate the "much delayed" two strategic power projects- 1,000 MW Champoor Coal Power Plant in Trincomalee and under the sea power cable link to India, "heralding an era for cross-border energy trade" in the near future according to media reports from Colombo quoting top official of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). The official further said that "in a dramatic development this week India has intimated to the GOSL its intention to accelerate these projects". The Indian High Commission in Colombo has recently gifted 117 million rupees to the Sri Lankan military to 'rehabilitate' Palaali military airbase following reports of Kaankeasanthu’rai (KKS) harbour will be given to India.
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EPDP member demands Jaffna Mayor post

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 18:45 GMT]
The Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) candidate, who got more preferential votes than Ms. P. Yogeswari who had been proposed to the post of Jaffna Mayor by Minister Douglas Devananda, is said to demand being appointed as the Mayor, sources in Jaffna said. Apputhurai Manuel Mangaleswaran alias Nesapriyan, the member in question, had obtained 1394 preferential votes while Yogeswari had only polled 1250 preferential votes attaining fifth rank, the sources added.
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TNA nominates Chairman of Vavuniyaa UC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 17:36 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has nominated Mr. S. N. G. Nathan for the post of Chairman of the Vavuniyaa Urban Council. General Secretary of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) and TNA parliamentarian Maavai Senathirajah said that he would inform the Elections Commissioner the decision in writing Thursday. ITAK, a constituent of the TNA, bagged five seats in the recently held election to the Vavuniyaa UC.
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FR petitions filed against Bill banning parties signify race, religion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 17:26 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Wednesday filed Fundamental Right Violation petitions separately in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka challenging the Parliamentary Elections Amendment Bill on the grounds that its provisions violate the fundamental rights of the people, legal sources said. The Bill that was presented in Parliament last week seeks to ban political parties that signify names of a race or religion. The Bill also seeks to deregister parties which have failed to contest parliamentary elections twice consecutively.
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A roadmap to liberation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 22:30 GMT]
What is currently seen as the biggest threat of destabilisation by Colombo and by some powers is not the militancy of Tamils. Militancy of a small nation can be crushed by ganging up and by fabricating all excuses, as has already been witnessed by us. But what exactly threatens the establishments is the effort of Tamils organising themselves politically. What they expect is the ‘defeated’ Tamils to play political stooges. Tamil national question today appeals to an array of oppressed masses deprived of political justice all over the world. It is a topic that appeals to progressive minds thinking of restructuring the polity of human civilisation. The responsibility of Eezham Tamils and their diaspora is to present the case with a progressive political theme and language.
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Reconcile with Tamils or risk terrorism - US

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 16:40 GMT]
The top US diplomat for South Asia says Sri Lanka's refusal to share power with the Tamils following the end of a bloody 25-year civil war in May could lead to renewed violence. US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake also said that Sri Lanka should allow more freedom of movement for the nearly 300,000 Tamils displaced by the war and confined to government camps. However, the hardline government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa questioned the US official’s right “to speak on behalf of the Tamils.” The US has been providing emergency assistance to the displaced, but longer term reconstruction assistance depends on Sri Lanka’s progress in resettlement, Mr. Blake said.
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SLA blocks IDPs permanent resettlement citing Moothoor HSZ security

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 16:23 GMT]
A group of 63 Tamil families consisting of 244 members, internally displaced from their traditional villages in Moothoor east in Trincomalee district and sheltered in temporary camps located in Paalameenmeadu in Batticaloa for the last three years, were transported Tuesday in eleven buses via Verugal River to temporary shelters in Ki'liveddi welfare centre. They will remain here until an alternative site is found for them to be resettled permanently as their own traditional Tamil villages have been brought under high security zone (HSZ) following the military operation by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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Tamils confined against their will – US

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 14:04 GMT]
The United States, which has provided aid to the camps and is ready to offer more to help the displaced Tamils go home, was dismayed so many were being held against their will, Eric Schwartz, US assistant secretary at the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said. Sri Lanka’s claim that they plan to settle 75,000 of the 280,000 Tamil civilians now held in military run camps before the end of August was “encouraging news," but Colombo should move faster, he told Reuters Friday.
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Tamil civilian arrested at KIA still under detention

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 07:28 GMT]
A Tamil civilian attached to Mannaar Education Office who was taken into custody by police at Katunayake International Airport (KIA) in Colombo is held under detention by Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) since 28 June, according to complaints by his wife to Colombo police and human rights organizations. She said her husband was taken into custody by the police saying that he was to attend a meeting organized by Seeman, a film director in South India in Chennai.
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Chinese identify Tamils conducive in breaking up India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 04:36 GMT]
A recent article that appeared in a Chinese strategic think tank saying “[i]f China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up,” and its argument that China in its own interest, and the progress of whole Asia, should join forces with different nationalities like Assamese, Tamils, and Kashmiris, and support the latter in establishing independent nation-states of their own, out of India, has ruffled the Indian counterparts. Responding to the article in Chinese, D S Rajan, Director of Chennai Centre for China Studies wrote, “an approach of panic towards such outbursts will be a mistake, but also ignoring them will prove to be costly for India.”
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Sri Lanka is laying foundations for renewed war – paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 02:56 GMT]
“Sri Lanka's conflict is anything but over. On the contrary, it has clearly entered another period of gestation,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper warned in its latest editorial. “Unless the international community acts decisively to end Sinhala oppression of the Tamil people and ensures a robust political solution that guarantees the equality of the two nations, there will be neither 'reconciliation' nor peace. Instead, the violent tyranny of the state will lead inevitably to violent resistance anew,” the paper, published last week, said.
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