SL parliament extends Emergency for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 16:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka parliament Thursday adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of sixty four votes. Seventy one Parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) voted for the motion. Seven Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians voted against the motion.
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China's help sought to stop ethnic cleansing of Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 05:12 GMT]
A large group of American Tamils from the New York region held a protest rally outside the Chinese Mission to the United Nations in New York Monday. The protesters appealed to China use its influence with the Sri Lankan government to end the ethnic cleansing of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and to release the nearly 300,000 Tamils detained indefinitely in the military supervised internment camps. The purpose of the protest is to keep the international community's eyes trained on Tamil concerns about abuses being committed against their relatives, neighbors and friends in Sri Lanka, protesters at the rally said.
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1000-mile trek by Canadian students reaches half way mark

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 01:52 GMT]
Three Canadian college students, who started a 1000-mile trek from Chicago to Washington D.C. on the 26th of June to raise awareness of the general American population to the several thousand Tamil civilians killed by the Sri Lanka military during the first two weeks of May, and the 300,000 Tamil civilians held in Sri Lanka military supervised internment camps, have now nearly reached the half-way mark. "The men arrived in Dayton Monday morning after starting their trip in Chicago. By the time the trip is done, the men will have walked more than a thousand miles," the Dayton Television station WDTN reported.
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Details emerge on Tamil media workers killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 00:52 GMT]
TamilNet recently compiled details on Tamil journalists and media workers confirmed killed during the height of war in Vanni, between March and May. The list is not exhaustive. These media persons, committed to the human cause and engaged in the noble task of bringing out information to the people inside and to the world outside, have laid down their lives in achieving what the international media shamefully couldn't accomplish. TamilNet will be serialising compilations on the losses of other humanitarian workers too in due course.
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3112 Vanni IDPs in Jaffna camps released

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 August 2009, 14:46 GMT]
3112 persons belonging to 1057 families brought from Vanni and held in the six detainment centres in Jaffna district were released and allowed to go with their relatives Wednesday in an event which the government conducted as an election campaign stunt in Duraiyappa Sports Stadium in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The IDPs, brought to the venue from 3:00 a.m from their camps, had to wait in the broiling sun until 3:30 p.m as Basil Rajapakse, the brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse and his advisor, arrived at Jaffna only after 2:30 p.m to take part in the event, the sources added.
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TNA conducts election procession in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 August 2009, 14:41 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, contestants in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election and supporters marched in a procession Tuesday around 10:00 a.m which started from Suresh Premachandran’s office on Hospital Road in Jaffna and ended at Jaffna Co-operative Society Hall. TNA leader and Trincomalee district MP, R. Sampanthan and TNA parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah, S. Thurairatnasingam, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Solomon Cyril, Pathmini Sithamparanathan and Suresh Premachandran marched in the procession, sources in Jaffna said.
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861 students held in SLA camps to sit for GCE A/L exam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 August 2009, 07:55 GMT]
Eight hundred and sixty one Tamil students now being held in the internment camps of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are to sit for the forthcoming G.C.E. Advanced Level examination which is to commence on August 11 and conclude on September 5. They are among the 2,420,091 students sitting for the examination all over the country.
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130 IDPs in Vavuniyaa camps to be resettled in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 19:05 GMT]
One hundred and thirty Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa are to brought to Jaffna Wednesday to be resettled in places in Jaffna that are out of SLA High Security Zones (HSZ) and in Vadamaraadchi East except Maruthangkea’ni Assistant Government Agent (AGA) division, Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh, informed in a press meet held in Jaffna Secretariat Tuesday. The GA also told the media that he has nothing to do with the forms distributed by persons in Jaffna to apply for resettlement in Jaffna.
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TNA outlines political formula

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 13:13 GMT]
Based on Self-Determination, distinct and comprehensive autonomy to the historical homeland of Eelam Tamils is the political solution envisaged by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to the ethnic conflict in the island of Sri Lanka, said veteran Tamil politician and TNA Parilamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, while addressing the press in Jaffna Tuesday. Mr. Sampanthan, who said that a draft proposal of the TNA will be released soon, was optimistic of India's support. This is the first time the TNA is coming out with its own political formula to resolve the ethnic conflict.
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TNA candidates, supporters attacked by government party men in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 05:26 GMT]
A group of supporters led by the leader of a government party contesting the election in the Vavuniyaa Urban Council attacked two candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and their supporters while they were engaged in electioneering at Kuruma'nve’li area in Vavuniyaa Monday evening in two separate incidents, according to complaints lodged with Vavuniyaa Police and the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV).
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Hundreds of Tamils interrogated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 05:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka police and military launched a large scale search Monday from 4:00 a.m til 10:00 a.m in the suburbs of Colombo where Tamils live in large numbers interrogating hundreds of Tamils, sources in Colombo said. The search was conducted on a tip off, Wellawathe police said.
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HRW calls for international inquiry into ACF-17 massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:31 GMT]
Quoting James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) that "[f]or three years since the ACF massacre, the Rajapaksa government has put on an elaborate song and dance to bedazzle the international community into believing justice is being done," HRW in a news release issued Monday added, "the Sri Lankan government's gross mishandling of the investigation into the execution-style slaying of 17 aid workers in the northeastern town of Mutur three years ago demonstrates the need for an international commission of inquiry."
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Reporters barred from Jaffna, Vavuniyaa during elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka will not allow reporters into Vavuniyaa and Jaffna to cover the local government elections to be held there on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. “The government did not give a reason for banning reporters, but it cites security reasons for denying entry to any outsider,” AP reported. The towns are accessible with Defence ministry permission and “even residents can't leave without permission,” AP report said. Meanwhile, an elections watchdog, PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) said there seemed to be little public interest in the polls as people were preoccupied with the plight of their relatives in government’s military-run internment camps.
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5 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 14:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody five Tamil youths in a search conducted in Ettiyawathe junction in Mattakuliya, a suburb in Colombo Monday morning, sources in Colombo said. The youths were travelling in the bus that was on its way from Mattakuliya to Galkisse when the police stopped it and searched.
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Indians need three years to clear mines

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 11:36 GMT]
It will take one-and-a-half to two years to do away with most land mines and another year to declare the areas safe for habitation, reported Times of India, Sunday, citing Indian Army’s retired Major General Prem K. Puri who is heading one of the Indian outfits engaged in de-mining the North and East. Meanwhile, 82 more former Indian soldiers have gone to Sri Lanka last week to join the hundreds or perhaps thousands already operating under the care of Colombo’s National Steering Committee. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s insistence on ‘de-mining first’ to free civilians from the concentration camps and India sitting on international intervention raise serious concern in Tamil circles, how long both the Establishments are going to continue the ‘human shield’ in fulfilling their agenda.
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Manhattan GAP becomes target to trade boycott dry-run

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 01:12 GMT]
About twenty protesters stood in front of the fashionable clothing store GAP located at 34th street and Broadway intersection in Manhattan, New York, Saturday afternoon carrying placards urging U.S. shoppers to stop buying goods made in Sri Lanka. Placards claimed that Sri Lanka is one of the worst human rights violator nations in recent history, slaughtering more than 20,000 civilians in April and May 2009, according to a reputable British broadsheet, and keeping more than 300,000 Tamil civilians in military supervised internment camps as collective punishment. Protesters said, by engaging in apparel trade with Sri Lanka, GAP is funding genocidal war against the Tamil people.
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Emotional rehabilitation should precede IMF, GSP politics

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 22:55 GMT]
If structural changes are what the West aims in the island of Sri Lanka through IMF and GSP+ loans, those cannot be achieved without first emotionally rehabilitating the Eezham Tamils. Emotional rehabilitation, which is fundamental to all other rehabilitation is possible only when the West openly acknowledges Eezham Tamils as a nation and their cause as a national liberation struggle, says TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. “Tamils are deeply hurt by IMF and Indian assistance to Colombo failing to take note of this fact, the commentator said, adding that the GSP+ should not make the same mistake.
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EPDP candidate attacked in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 19:19 GMT]
Unidentified persons attacked Saturday night around 11:00 p.m one of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) candidates contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) and the attacked candidate is admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, sources in Jaffna said. Some residents in Ariyaalay where the attack took place said that youths who had been deceived by the said EPDP candidate who had received money promising them jobs, had attacked him. Meanwhile, police have taken ten supporters of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) into custody and detained them for investigation.
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SL minister talks stopping SLA interference while civil administration militarised

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 17:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Minister of Power and Energy, Aluthananda Gamage, said in Jaffna Sunday that the interference of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna civil administration will be brought to a stop when 500 Tamil policemen selected in Jaffna district are appointed. The minister said that the newly appointed policemen will be engaged in the civil administration in Jaffna. Tamil circles responded that the promise is of no meaning when the civil administration itself is militarised in the Tamil areas with the appointment of military personnel to civil service and governorship.
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Congressman urges Holder to review Gotabaya, Fonseka genocide indictment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 15:01 GMT]
United States Congressman G.K. Butterfield, who represents North Caronlina's first district, in a letter addressed to the U.S. Attorney General (AG), Eric Holder, referred to the model indictment submitted by the US-activist group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), charging Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and former Sri Lanka Army Commander Lt.Gen. Fonseka of crimes against humanity, and urged the AG to "investigate the charges of violations of the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007 and the War Crimes Act related to atrocities against the Tamils in northern Sri Lanka." The indictment details allegations of the efforts to destroy the Tamil people of northern Sri Lanka through atrocities and genocide, and chronicles more than 3,750 extrajudicial killings, approximately 30,000 Tamils suffering serious bodily injury and more than 1.3 million civilian displacements.
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