Horrors on women in Sri Lanka's internment camps - Egeland

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 10:59 GMT]
Jan Egeland, the former UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tuesday told the press that "Sri Lanka is one of the latest examples of the World community letting a government get away with denying access for the international community of witnesses, of humanitarian relief and protection for civilians," adding that world governments failed what they swore in 2005 of the "responsibility to protect," and that "for Tamil women" there were a "number of horrors." Egeland's comment contrasts with the stand of his successor John Holmes who earlier commended the Sri Lanka's treatment of the 300,000 civilians currently being held in internment camps in Vavuniyaa.
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SLMC, independent group lists rejected in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 09:21 GMT]
The Sri Lankan election authorities in Jaffna rejected the lists of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and an independent group headed by Arumugam Sellathurai to contest for the Jaffna Municipal Council elections as the lists were not complying with requirements of documentation, officials in Jaffna said Thursday. It is a statuary requirement that at least 12 of the candidates should be below the age of 35 and the rejected groups failed tailed to submit documentary evidence for all their candidates, the sources said. Even if one candidate doesn't fulfil the requirements, the entire list will be rejected.
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Colombo’s concentration camps compared with Hitler’s in NZ parliament

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 08:36 GMT]
Urging New Zealand government to pay immediate attention to the horrific situation faced by the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, Keith Locke, New Zealand’s member of parliament, speaking Tuesday last week on the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, compared the concentration camps run by Colombo with that of Hitler. Blaming the international community for its failure, the MP urged the NZ government to demand full access to the camps, fair treatment to the combatants and non-combatants of the LTTE and release of people to get back to their homes. He also reminded not to forget attending the underlying cause of the conflict – the Tamil aspirations that arose from the time of independence, well before the Tamil Tigers were ever thought of.
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TNA submits nomination list for local elections in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 08:01 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, Mavai Senathirajah submitted Thursday the list of TNA nomination list of 29 candidates contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election with Mudiyappu Remedius, a leading lawyer and a human rights activist as its principal candidate, under ‘House’ symbol of Ilangkaith Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi. The list includes one Muslim and four women candidates. Besides Mavai Senathirajah, TNA MPs Suresh Premachandran, Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam and Solomon Cyril were also present at the event in Jaffna. Meanwhile, the TNA parliamentarians N. Sivasakthy Ananathan and S. Vino Noharathalingam fielded S.N.G Nathan as principal candidate for the list for Vavuniyaa Urban Council Wednesday.
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Wholesale attack on Jaffna newspapers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 01:36 GMT]
All the local newspapers of Jaffna that defied publishing an anonymous and defiling notice against the LTTE came under attack by an armed group in the early hours of Thursday. The notice was brought out in the name of 'Tamil Front Protecting the Country' allegedly linked to a paramilitary group operating with Colombo. Thousands of copies of the local newspapers, Valampuri, Uthayan and Thinakkural (Jaffna edition), were burnt down wholesale in huge flames by the armed group allegedly operated by the Sri Lankan military intelligence at Aanaippanthi and Kannathiddi junctions at 5:00 a.m. Thursday, while the newspapers were being taken for distribution.
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ICJ Vice Chairman urges governments of free people to protect Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 00:16 GMT]
“I call upon the Australian government to stand up and complain bitterly until something is done”, said Justice John Dowd, Vice President of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), stressing his point that it is “to not speak up but yell” in order to save the Tamils in the concentration camps. He was addressing a forum in Federal Parliament, Canberra, discussing Australia's role on human rights in Sri Lanka Wednesday last week. Sceptical of United Nations and questioning why Commonwealth is aloof, the jurist mooted an idea for governments such as Australia to hold hearings against those who violated the Genocide Convention, warning what is happening in the island is ethnic cleansing of an ancient people in their homeland.
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Sri Lanka’s hidden agenda in JMC election - Manickasothy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 June 2009, 17:48 GMT]
”Tamils struggle for their rights began at a time even when there were four train services a day from Jaffna to Colombo, hundreds of lorries and busses plying on the A9 road and a continuous electricity supply from Laxapahana was available to the people of the North; the claim to restore these by the government is but an obvious propaganda ploy to lure votes for the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA), in an effort to show the world that the Tamils are not opposed to a unified Sri Lanka but whole heartedly support it, by securing victory in Jaffna Municipality Council (JMC) election,” Abimanasingham Manickasothy, the principal candidate of the Independent group contesting JMC election, told the media in a press meet held Wednesday in Bastion Hotel in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said.
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UPFA, Muslim Congress, independent group submit nomination for JMC election

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 June 2009, 14:58 GMT]
United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by its General Secretary and Minister Susil Premajayantha along with Minister Douglas Devananda submitted its list of nomination to Jaffna election officer Wednesday, sources in Jaffna said. Muslim Congress (MC) tendered its list with Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Sahir as the principal candidate while Abimanasingham Manickasothy, submitted the nomination list of his independent group contesting JMC election Wednesday, the sources added.
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CNN interview censored for using G-word - MIA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 June 2009, 04:20 GMT]
In an interview with Los Angeles Times magazine, published 20th June, Maya Arulpragasam (M.I.A), the Jaffna born music phenom, disclosed that CNN, after interviewing her for an hour, broadcast only a one-minute-segment reasoning that MIA had used the word "Genocide" in describing the killings of the widely reported 20,000 Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka Government security forces during the 16-weeks leading up to 18th May.
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25 Tamil detainees in A’pura prison request release

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 June 2009, 02:56 GMT]
Twenty five Tamil civilians detained in Anuradhapura prison for the last two years without any inquiry, some under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and some under the Emergency Regulations (ER), have requested President Mahinda Rajapakse that they should be released immediately.
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Task of legal war vested with diaspora

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 22:32 GMT]
When serious action is needed against Colombo and the Sri Lankan state in order to uphold human dignity and world civilisation, some world leaders pathetically believe in not penalising Colombo and in a ‘carrot and stick’ approach. The Eezham Tamils have seen enough of carrots always going to Colombo and stick always coming to them, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. "The legal system and procedural governments of the liberal democracies have enough space to indict these leaders and governments in their own countries to remind them of their crime and responsibilities. Unless humanitarian organizations and the Eezham Tamil diaspora take up this matter seriously, these leaders will not only go on conning but will also dare to abet Colombo’s agenda of structural genocide."
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7 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 16:36 GMT]
Police took into custody Tuesday seven Tamil youths as they failed to prove their identity on being checked at the road check posts in Dehiwala, Colpetty, Kelaniya, the police said.
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TNA MP Kanagaretnam ordered further detention in Colombo court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 09:37 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate and Additional District Judge Mr. Nishantha Kappurarachchi Monday instructed the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sri Lanka Police to further detain the suspect Mr.Sathasivam Kanagaretnam, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, conduct investigations and submit a comprehensive report to court on the next date, July 26.
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Foreign banks looking for profit in "Bloodbath Bonds," says Inner City Press

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 03:06 GMT]
While human rights groups called for investigations of tens of thousands of [Tamil] civilians killed by the Sri Lanka Government, and urged Colombo to release more than 300,000 Tamils including UN staff members held in internment camps, Citybank and Deutsche Bank are looking to make profits on "bloodbath bonds," said Inner City Press which covers the U.N. activities in New York.
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Lessons to be learnt about China

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 20:04 GMT]
The ‘Himalayan’ blunder committed by Nehru and Krishna Menon in their China policy has been re-enacted by their descendants in the Indian Establishment nearly half a century later. A couple of years ago, writing on the crisis in the island of Sri Lanka, a TamilNet article quoted a saying in Tamil about the dog that allowed the squirrel to climb the tree (A’nil ea’ravidda naay). Now it seems that it isn’t just one but many in that situation, after allowing the ethnic question in the island to be hijacked by China. India has to realise at least now that a united Sri Lanka, that too an enforced one, at the cost of its natural ally – and at the cost of ruining its leverage with it – is no guarantee to prevent China’s ambitions in South Asia.
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Phone threats to Tamil groups, political parties contesting JMC election

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 15:34 GMT]
Persons alleged to be government supporters have begun issuing anonymous phone threats continually to prominent persons related to Tamil independent groups and political parties contesting the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, supporters of Minister Douglas Devanada in Kurunakar area had cautioned him of defeat in the election if he contests under the Beetle Leaf symbol of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and advised him to contest under the ‘Vee’nai’ symbol of his Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP), when he met them Sunday to learn of their opinion, the sources added.
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UNP submits nominations for JMC election

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 11:47 GMT]
Jayalath Jayawardne, representing United National Party (UNP), submitted Monday the nomination list of 29 candidates with A. J. Sathiyendra, a prominent Tamil businessman as the principal candidate, contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) elections, sources in Jaffna said. 28 Tamils and a Muslim including 4 women are contesting the forthcoming election as UNP candidates, the sources added.
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100,000 Tamils march in London over Sri Lanka’s concentration camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 June 2009, 02:25 GMT]
Over one hundred thousand expatriate Tamils in Britain marched Saturday through central London to express their outrage at international inaction over Sri Lanka’s massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils and the suffering of hundreds of thousands more enduring starvation, disease, disappearance, rape and torture in Colombo’s internment camps. Dressed in black, carrying placards and several hundred Tamil Eelam flags, the protesters marched from Hyde Park to rally at Embankment. The event was organised by the British Tamil Forum.
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Tamil Christian epitaph of significance found in Kayts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 June 2009, 02:15 GMT]
An interesting early 19th century Tamil epitaph found on a tomb in Kayts, off Jaffna, evidences the usage of the word ‘Aariyar’ in Christian context, says Professor P. Pushparatnam, Head of the Department of History of the University of Jaffna, who brought the epitaph to notice and read it. According to local media reported his finding, the tomb of one Ales Francis Cruz, died in 1827 was found behind the old customs building at the Kayts port.
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Proposals for roof without foundation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 June 2009, 00:12 GMT]
M S Swaminathan is a great name in the world of agriculture. He is a pride for all Tamils all over the world. The 83-year-old veteran who is now a member of Indian parliament in the Rajya Sabha and is running his own research foundation in agricultural sciences has recently come out with a ‘roadmap’ for India to develop agriculture, livestock and fisheries in the North to facilitate the twin mantras ‘resettlement and rehabilitation’. Mahinda Rajapaksa pricked his enthusiasm by saying ‘de-mining first’. Dr. Swaminathan should have first spoken to Eezham Tamils, the intended recipients. With all due respect to him they would have told him that if the guilty Indian Establishment he represents could concede their self-determination, they would be able to resettle and rehabilitate by themselves without giving the trouble to anyone.
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