Government trying to win JMC election using unfair means – TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 16:20 GMT]
“Sri Lanka government plans to bring 80 Sinhalese officers from South to serve as Junior Polling Officers in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election while there are sufficient Tamil speaking government officers in Jaffna to conduct the election; it is obvious that the government intends to win the election by rigging as it had done in the East,” Suresh Premachandran, Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, said in a press meet held in the TNA Thamizharasuk Kadchchi (TK) office in Jaffna. TNA chief candidate Mudiyappu Remedias participated in the press meet.
Full story >>

Vavuniyaa hospital security tightened

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 17:15 GMT]
The deployment of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Vavuniyaa general hospital has been suddenly stepped up from Monday. SLA soldiers and police personnel are seen in every nook and corner of the hospital monitoring movement of each individual, civil sources say. All the entry and exit points of the hospital have been placed under the strict surveillance of the Sri Lankan forces.
Full story >>

Air of martial triumph unbefitting while controversy surrounds Tamil civilian deaths - NY Times

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 16:07 GMT]
Noting that "[t]he Tamil minority has suffered discrimination and violence at the hands of various Sinhalese-dominated governments through the decades. Tamils have sought, first peacefully, then violently, the right to a measure of self-rule in Tamil-dominated areas," the New York Times in a Sunday article said, "[m]any Sri Lankans see these soldiers as heroes, but given the controversy that remains over how many Tamil civilians were killed in the last weeks of the fighting, some people find the air of martial triumph unseemly."
Full story >>

Policy on Tamils haunts India

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 05:20 GMT]
Setting the parameters based on 13 plus and ruling out federal, the Colombo – Chennai – New Delhi axis is learnt to be pressurising Tamil political circles to come out with a political formula, as early as possible, to hastily close the file on Tamil nationalism and to hide all skeletons under the cupboard. The haste in the Indian Establishment is said to be arising from the fear of China’s growing influence in the island resulted from India’s folly of not maintaining balance in the ethnic war. “Grasping geopolitics and aspirations of people, the Tamil political circles need to play the cards with dexterity,” said TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
Full story >>

Time for silence is over - New York Times

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 15:41 GMT]
New York times in an editorial published Wednesday said that "[t]he [Sri Lanka] government's strict control on visits to the [internment] camps has also raised suspicions that it may be trying to block any investigation into possible government abuses committed in the last months of the war," and added, "[m]ost [donor countries and international organizations] have kept quiet so far about the Tamils' plight, evidently fearful that criticizing conditions in the camps could get them thrown out of the camps. The time for silence is over. The best way to help the Tamils is by demanding their freedom and an end to their long ordeal."
Full story >>

SLA Intelligence Unit behind abduction, murder of Bank official

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2009, 21:24 GMT]
The Colombo Crime Division (CCD) arrested a captain and four soldiers from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit, Friday, in connection with the abduction and murder of Peoples' Bank Kollupitiya branch assistant manager, Mr Gunasinghe Premathilake, police said.
Full story >>

Second election related violence reported in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 July 2009, 05:07 GMT]
Unidentified armed men on motorcycles followed the Thamizharasuk Kadchi party contestant in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) elections and forcibly took away Tuesday the wall posters and handbills from him at gunpoint at Hospital Road-Old Railway Station Road junction in Jaffna, an area guarded by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers day and night, according to the complaint made to Jaffna Election Officer. Meanwhile, Sunday night, on ‘Black Tigers Day’, unknown persons had smashed the temporary election office of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) located near Jaffna Bishop’s House in Kurunakar, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Devotees to Nainaatheevu temple inconvenienced, delayed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 09:55 GMT]
Around a thousand devotees on their way Monday to attend the annual Thear (charriot) festival of Nainaatheevu Nakapoosha’ni Amman temple, a historically famous Saiva temple in the islets of Jaffna, had to undergo severe checking and undue delay at the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) check post at Allaippiddi, sources in Jaffna said. Only around 50 ordinary boats were used by SLN to sail the devotees from Allaippiddi to the Nainaatheevu, the devotees said.
Full story >>

SLA launches search operation in Eastern Muslim villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 03:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police Sunday evening launched an extensive search operation in the Muslim villages in Ea’raavoor Pattu division in Batticaloa district for arms which had not been surrendered during the amnesty period that ended Sunday afternoon. Soon after the ceremonial surrender of some weapons by some militant armed Muslim groups at an event held Sunday in Kaaththaankudi Grand Mosque in the presence of the Eastern DIG Edison Gunatilake and Provincial Minister Mr. M. L. A. M. Hisbullah, hundreds of SLA soldiers backed by police personnel surrounded several Muslim villages in E’raavoor Pattu and conducted the search for hidden weapons.
Full story >>

SLA soldier killed in confrontation with LTTE in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 July 2009, 09:53 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed and two wounded in a clash that erupted at Kiraanku'lam in Batticaloa lagoon area in the early hours of Saturday, sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

Kohona: ‘Victorious soldiers could have raped every single woman’

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 02:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan government officials are running a prostitution racket using Tamil women interned in at least one of the militarised camps for displaced people, The Australian newspaper reported Thursday. "It's been brought to the attention of senior government officials but no one seems to be doing anything about it," an aid worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told the paper. In response to the accusations, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Palitha Kohona told the paper: "These (the military) are the guys who were winning the war - they could have raped every single woman on the way if they wanted to. Not one single woman was raped."
Full story >>

JHU to withdraw support to Government if 13th amendment is fully implemented

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 09:50 GMT]
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the Buddhist monks’ political party, Monday declared that it would withdraw its support to the government led by President Mahinda Rajapakse if it fully implements the 13th Amendment to the Constitution or attempts to bring any other solution for the ethnic conflict devolving more powers to provinces including land and police.
Full story >>

SLA shoots dead youth in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 13:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers shot and killed a youth in Yakkaalai, Vara'ni in Thenmaraadchi Wednesday in a cordon and search operation held in the area, residents of the area said. Kodikaamam police recovered the body of the youth and handed it over to Jaffna Teaching Hospital mortuary Wednesday night for identification, hospital sources said.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

IDPs living on Jaffna railway track area ordered to leave

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 17:26 GMT]
The president of the Federation of Jaffna Non-government Organizations (NGOs), C. V. K. Sivagnanam, requested Jaffna Government Agent (GA) not to evict immediately the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), numbering around a hundred families, living in camps on the railway track area in Jaffna since the time they were thrown out of their residences in Valikaamam North which were declared High Security Zones (HSZ) by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in 1990, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Fate of young detainees in Thellippazhai SLA Rehabilitation camp bleak

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 11:58 GMT]
The fate of nearly 300 young women and more than 500 young men from Vanni held in Thellippazhai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Special Rehabilitation Camp (SRC) continues to remain unceratin and bleak, local NGO sources expressed concern. Education officials who had visited SRC said that there are more than a hundred youngsters between 14 to 18 ages whose educational needs are ignored by SLA authorities in charge of SRC. Neither UNICEF nor any other international organization has been permitted to visit these young detainees, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Restrictions on fishing remain in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 11:51 GMT]
Despite government propaganda that fishermen in the North can engage in fishing 24 hours of the day freely, various restrictions imposed earlier continue to be in force, Fishermen Society sources in Jaffna expressed concern. Fishermen in Jaffna have to get the ‘fishing pass’ from their local Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp authorities every time they go fishing besides being subjected to checks by SLA soldiers at the jetties, they added.
Full story >>

Basil's Jaffna meet fails to discuss people in internment camps

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 09:02 GMT]
The meeting meant to explore possibilities of the resettlement and rehabilitation of more than 13,000 Vanni civilians held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Jaffna, held under tight security in Jaffna Public Library Thursday ended without any significant decisions regarding the issue concerned, Government officials who attended the meeting said. The venue of the meeting which was to be held in Jaffna Secretariat was changed at the last moment to Jaffna Public Library due to security reasons, the sources said. Even the pens carried by the officials were subjected to checking.
Full story >>

SLA shoots, injures fisherman in Jaffna seas

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 June 2009, 19:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers posted along the coast of Kalmunai in Poonakari opened fire Monday around 6:30 a.m on a fisherman from Kurunakar in Jaffna who was fishing in Kalmunai sea area, sources in Jaffna said. The seriously injured fisherman was admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital around 9:30 a.m by fellow fisherman and is in a critical situation, hospital sources said.
Full story >>