Tamil jeweller’s body found in Nanu Oya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 June 2009, 21:58 GMT]
Nuwara Eliya police recovered the body of the Tamil jeweller from Bandarawella who had gone missing since 30 May, near Nanu Oya railway station Saturday. Relatives of the victim who had earlier made complaints to Bandarawella police about the disappearance, identified his body at Nuwara Eliya general hospital where it was kept for identification.
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Historic task awaits all freedom fighters

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 June 2009, 20:59 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil nation doesn’t need words to explain the current situation because everybody feels it in the core of their heart. This is a situation that warrants no one else but only the members of the nation to rise up to the occasion. Unprecedented catastrophe awaits unprecedented response from the nation.
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TNA to nominate Dr.Thomas Thangathurai William for Ampaa'rai district

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 June 2009, 18:30 GMT]
Dr.Thomas Thangathurai William is to be nominated as Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for the Ampaarai district to fill the vacancy created with the death of Kanagasabai Pathmanathan who passed away in Mathurai in South India after a brief illness, TNA sources said.
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Kandy court remands Mannaar Tamil woman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 June 2009, 14:35 GMT]
Kandy Magistrate Friday ordered remand for a Tamil woman who is a resident of Mannaar till June 16 on a report by the police that she was a suspected member of the LTTE and had been hiding in Kandy, according to media reports.
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Sri Lanka refuses to allow Mercy Ship to unload relief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 20:32 GMT]
Despite repeated appeals by the Directors of Mercy Mission, a humanitarian project with a ship loaded with relief items donated by expatriate Tamils in Europe to help Tamils caught up in the war in NorthEast, Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has been detaining the Mercy Mission ship the MV “Captain Ali,” for more than three days, and is refusing to allow the 884 metric tons worth of relief items to be unloaded, sources close to the project said. Latest information indicates Colombo is moving towards returning the ship back to international waters, and force the ship to return to its origination port.
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UN chief calls for Sri Lanka war crimes probe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 18:37 GMT]
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon Friday called for an international inquiry into war crimes in northern Sri Lanka and sought the Colombo government’s agreement, press reports said. At a closed-door briefing for UN Security Council members, Mr. Ban called for a credible inquiry to be undertaken with international backing and full support from Sri Lanka's government, AP reported. He declined to elaborate on exactly how the inquiry should be done, but urged an examination of serious allegations of violations of international humanitarian laws, according to diplomats and UN officials who attended. Ban also told the council that Sri Lanka must refrain from any victory dance after defeating the LTTE.
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Do not approve IMF loan, Senators tell Clinton

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 12:55 GMT]
"With the [Sri Lanka] government still refusing to address any of the major concerns that you [Secretary of State Clinton] and others have raised, we believe it would send the wrong signal to approve the IMF loan. It would suggest that to gain international support, the Sri Lankan government did not need to heed the world community's concerns; it merely need to win the war. Before receiving major financial support, the government should first take at least some steps to reassure the world that it is adjusting its policies, by allowing access to the conflict area and international monitoring of the screening process...," said Senators Patrick Leahy and Robert Casey in a letter to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday.
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Investment Promotion Minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 12:12 GMT]
Former United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian and the present Sri Lanka Minister of Investment Promotion, Naveen Dissanayake and his younger brother Mayantha Dissanayake paid a sudden visit to Jaffna peninsula Saturday which the brothers described as a personal visit, to the media, sources in Jaffna said. The brothers are the sons of late Gamini Dissanayake, who is alleged to have been the person responsible for the burning of Jaffna Public Library in June 01, 1981, by Sri Lankan police, the sources added.
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World obliged to act when genocide occurs: Obama

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 00:42 GMT]
"The international community has an obligation, even when it's inconvenient, to act when genocide is occurring," US President Barack Obama said Friday during a visit to Germany. He was responding to reporters asking how the Holocaust mantra of "never again" might apply to current crises in the Darfur region of Sudan or in Sri Lanka. He also said that it is up to other nations to take action to stop genocide when it occurs. Meanwhile, the UN's top human rights official, former war crimes judge Navi Pillay, has again called for an "independent international inquiry" into the violence against Tamil civilians in the Sri Lankan conflict.
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Contestants in JMC elections register with election officer

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 15:17 GMT]
Democratic Tamil Liberation Alliance (DTLA) consisting of EPRLF Varathar wing, PLOTE and TULF led by V. Anandasangaree, informed Jaffna Election Officer that their party will contest in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) elections, sources in Jaffna said. The above information was submitted to Jaffna Election Officer, signed by V. Ananthasangaree, the general secretary of DTLA.
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President Rajapakse’s wife, son visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 13:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka president’s wife Shiranthi Rajapakse and his son Namal Rajapakse arrived on a sudden visit to Jaffna Friday morning with a statue of Changkamiththa, Emperor Aoska’s daughter and the first woman Buddhist missionary to Ceylon, to be enshrined in the newly built Buddhist temple in Maathakal in the High Security Zone (HSZ), sources in Jaffna said. Seven girl students were taken to the temple by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers on the occasion to sing the national anthem in Sinhalese language, the sources added.
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The Liberal Moment in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 12:39 GMT]
“For decades, the international community, especially the Western liberal democracies, have simply refused to confront the Sinhala chauvinism at the heart of the island’s crisis. Instead, it has blamed the LTTE solely. … Without the LTTE, it was unshakably believed, compromise, reconciliation and peace were inevitable. Now, according to Colombo, the LTTE is no more. However, what is taking place is something very different to liberal peace. The Sinhalese, it seems, have little interest in liberalism or peace with the Tamils. The question, however, is what is to be done, ” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week.
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300,000 Tamils in concentration camps - MIA

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 12:25 GMT]
Oscar and Grammy award nominee, Jaffna born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam (MIA) who used to live in Sri Lanka and experienced the war, told Sky News: "Three hundred thousand people have been put into concentration camps and they (the authorities) have taken all the rights away from these people. They have no food and access to the media and aid. No freedom of speech or freedom of press," and said Britain and international governments should step in and help. MIA was speaking in support of Ms Jananayagam who contested the European Parliament elections held Thursday. The results are expected to be released Sunday.
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NESoHR Head appeals for help to protect humanitarian workers

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 10:43 GMT]
Deputy Chairperson of Northeast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), K Sivapalan, in a memorandum issued Thursday, appealed to the different Governments of South East Asia including Singapore, where many Tamil humanitarian workers from the conflict zone in Vanni have sought safety, to treat these refugees compassionately, and to protect them from falling back into the vindictive hands of the Government of Sri Lanka. Sivapalan also urged the Human Rights organizations across the world to exert pressure on the SriLanka Government to release the three medical doctors from Vanni who are currently being detained and interrogated in Colombo.
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Avoid witch hunt, HRW tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 03:34 GMT]
Noting that "Disappearances" of ethnic Tamils in the north and east and in the capital, Colombo, allegedly by members of the security forces or Tamil armed groups remain a serious problem, New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a press release issued today said, "[t]he Sri Lankan government needs to ensure that the abuses that occurred when LTTE strongholds fell in the past don't recur," and that Sri Lankan Government "should ensure that military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam does not result in new "disappearances," unlawful killings or the jailing of government critics."
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D.C. District Court grants time extension for IMF case

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 03:25 GMT]
Judge Richard J Leon of United States District Court of District of Columbia, issued an order granting the Motion for Extension of Time filed by Bruce Fein, counsel for plaintiff, Tamils Against Genocide, in response to the Motion to Dismiss filed by U.S. Attorney John R. Coleman of U.S. Department of Justice, representing Defendants, Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner, and Executive Director of IMF Meg Lundsagar. Judge Leon allowed TAG's attorney till 29th June to file the response. Since the case will be "pending" until the Court makes a determination, which cannot take place at least until counsel Bruce Fein files a response, the U.S. is unlikely to vote on the IMF loan before 29th June, legal sources in Washington said.
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Sri Lanka rejects probes into slaughter of Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 03:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka has no plans to investigate allegations that its security forces massacred 20,000 Tamil civilians in the final stages of an offensive against the Tamil Tigers, and neither is Colombo willing to eventually accept an international probe, trade minister G. L. Peiris said Wednesday in Tokyo. "No, we don't regard that attitude as acceptable. That is some kind of inquisition," Peiris, a former peace negotiator said, according to an AFP report. Last week, leading British and French newspapers published their investigations, including interviews with UN officials, into the massacre.
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25 Tamil youths arrested Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 02:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police took into custody 25 Tamil youths from North, East and upcountry in a sudden cordon and search in Colombo and its suburbs Wednesday, sources in Colombo said. Security has been beefed up in Colombo since last week in view of the victory celebrations that is being held in the capital, the sources added.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Bandarawela

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 01:12 GMT]
A Tamil civilian has been reported missing since Monday after he left home to deposit money in his account in a bank in Bandarawela, according to complaints made by his relatives with the Bandarawela Police. The victim has been identified as sixty year old Narayanan Rajendran, a former owner of Udaya Jewelers in Bandarawela.
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Vanni IDPs live under appalling condition: Sri Lankan Chief Justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 01:03 GMT]
"Vanni IDPs sheltered in transit centres in Cheddiku'lam cannot expect justice under the Sri Lanka’s law. Law of the country does not show any interest on these IDPs. I openly say this. The authorities can penalize me for telling this," said Sri Lanka's Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva when he addressed a public meeting which followed the ceremonial opening of a court complex at Marawila in Negombo district Tuesday. These transit centres are described as internment camps by human rights activists.
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