People not happy despite the end of war – European representatives

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 October 2010, 07:56 GMT]
The representatives of the British Parliament and Commonwealth Parliament led by Labour MP Paul Murphy who met Jaffna Government Agent and representatives of civil societies in Jaffna Monday said that from what they had heard from people and seen for themselves it was obvious that the people are not happy though the war has ended, according to Uthayan daily published in Jaffna. “Though the war had ended people are denied the freedom of movement and expression due to the Prevention of Terror Act (PTA) and the State of Emergency in force. The removal of these two acts can only bring complete freedom,” the civil society representatives had told the European representatives, Uthayan news report said.
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EPDP Thinamurasu published as daily paper in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 October 2010, 03:14 GMT]
Thinamurasu, the Eealam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) weekly that was published in Colombo and issued in Jaffna peninsula by EPDP leader and Sri Lanka minister Douglas Devananda was released in Jaffna Friday as a daily when he opened his press located in Chu’ndikkuzhi on Jaffna main road. It is alleged that Douglas Devananda had coerced the editors and workers of former ‘Namathu Eezhanaadu’ daily which had stopped publishing, into working in his newly opened press, local media sources said.
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Intoxicating hubris

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 00:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is widely believed to be the key Sri Lanka official responsible for instituting procedures and issuing commands that allegedly violated international norms in the conduct of war, has provided enlightening clues to inner workings of his mind in several interviews recorded on film by reputable international media. "His unchecked power, authorized by his brother and Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, appears to have blunted his reasoning faculty, triggering him to compulsively express open threats against journalists and unwittingly admit to abject disregard for civilian casualties while issuing military commands. Many of his statements border on self-incrimination," said a spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group. A collection of Gotabhaya interviews are compiled in this feature.
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6 SLA soldiers rape young mother in Visuvamadu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 17:34 GMT]
A 25-year old mother of two children was raped by six Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers last Sunday night in the resettlement village of Redbarna located at the border of Mullaiththeevu district, Jaffna daily Uthayan reported. The incident occurred when the soldiers entered the house when the mother was alone. The family relocated to the village two weeks earlier as part of the resettlement program.
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Minister Douglas Devananda to launch a new Tamil daily in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2010, 16:32 GMT]
The leader of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister in the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), who continues to publicly accuse the three Tamil dailies published in Jaffna of having denied him and his party equal opportunity and sufficient cooperation during the last parliamentary elections, is actively engaged in launching a new Tamil daily in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Minister Devananda had in person offered higher wages to the members of the editorial boards of the three dailies published in Jaffna in an attempt to lure them to his new daily, the sources added.
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Tamil civilian arrested in Pulmoaddai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 18:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police arrested a Tamil civilian from his house at Kaddukku'lam in Pulmoaddai village in Trincomalee district Friday and took him for interrogation.
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Media owner's election participation invokes reactions in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2010, 09:06 GMT]
Criticism has emerged from various quarters in Jaffna, including the senior activists of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), against the way the TNA conducted its campaign promoting industrialist Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, a senior UNP member and the general manger of two leading newspapers, Jaffna based Uthayan and Colombo based Chudaro'li. Meanwhile, the chief editor of the newspaper has complained to his management that he is considering to renounce his editorship as criticisms are levelled against him for his stand in the last parliamentary election.
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Overwhelming Tamil majority rejects elections under Sri Lankan State

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2010, 11:04 GMT]
A record number of candidates, numbering more than 1800 contested for the parliamentary seats in the North and East, but Eezham Tamils responded to it by a record low in participation. The turnout was only 18 percent in the North. Even after including the displaced it is only 23%. The clear verdict of Eezham Tamils, said in the most profound democratic way under circumstances possible, is that they have no confidence in democracy under Sri Lankan State. Another interesting observation is that in the entire Jaffna district, the leading Tamil National Alliance (TNA) totally polled just 65,119, only as much as the 64,256 votes cast in favour of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution by the diaspora in UK alone. The silent but vast majority of Eezham Tamils at home demand new genre of political organisation and leadership is the message of Thursday's polls.
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Britain names Sri Lanka as a country of concern

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 March 2010, 07:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka is the only country added on the annual human rights report by Britain this year as a country of concern by the Foreign Affairs Committee, according to British Foreign Office. The Annual report on Human Rights 2009 presented 17 March to British Parliament says, ‘Since the last report, we have added one country of concern. We agreed with the Foreign Affairs Committee’s recommendation to include Sri Lanka. This reflects our concern about allegations of serious conflict violations, as well as the deteriorating status of the rule of law and freedom of expression.’
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ITAK engaged in setting up offices in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 March 2010, 19:03 GMT]
Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) is actively engaged in opening its offices in various parts of Jaffna peninsula and the first office was opened Thursday in Pa’ndaitharippu, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, it is reported that Tamil National Alliance (TNA) stands split into two factions - one which constitutes of former TNA Jaffna parliamentarians and the other which includes new comers to the election arena, the sources added.
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32 journalists from Trincomalee district visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2010, 18:05 GMT]
A group of thirty-two journalists from the communities of Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim from Trincomalee district visited Jaffna peninsula Sunday under a program arranged by National Peace Council (NPC) aimed at promoting understanding between communities, sources in Jaffna said. The group of journalists visited the offices of Uthayan, Yarl Thinakural and Valampuri Tamil dailies published in the peninsula.
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SLPP persons harass senior Tamil journalist Parameswaran in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 February 2010, 08:33 GMT]
Persons of Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP), a constituent of ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), caught and held N. Parameswaran, a senior Tamil journalist in Jaffna peninsula, the correspondent of BBC Tamil service and Daily Mirror, Saturday from 9:00 a.m til 9:30 in front of the SLFP office located at Veampadi Veethi in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. This office is actively engaged in getting SLFP membership forms signed by the resettled Vanni displaced persons in Jaffna on the pretext that the forms are to be used to get information about their children gone missing during the war and to give them relief food, and Parameswaran was caught and held for nearly half an hour as he tried to expose the motive of the forms to the Vanni IDPs waiting in queue to get them, the sources further said. Police, on being informed of the incident freed Parameswaran.
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ACTC submits own list of candidates to contest Jaffna electorate

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2010, 14:05 GMT]
All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) party which had quit Tamil National Alliance (TNA) submitted Friday its nomination list at Jaffna Secretariat with Sinnathurai Varatharajan, a teacher of economics, as its chief candidate, sources in Jaffna said. Many prominent people in the peninsula as well as the Jaffna University community are said to be supporting ACTC in the forthcoming parliamentary election in Jaffna district electorate.
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ITAK submits candidates’ list to contest Jaffna district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 12:39 GMT]
Mavai Senathirajah, General Secretary of Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) along with Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy of All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) submitted the list of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) candidates contesting the general election Wednesday around 11:15 a.m in Jaffna Secretariat. This nomination list has excluded many of the TNA former parliamentarians causing dissatisfaction among several Tamil circles in Jaffna including Jaffna University community, the sources added.
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Media, journalists in Jaffna issued with death threat again

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 November 2009, 18:19 GMT]
Two black-helmeted persons arriving on motor cycles Tuesday around 7:00 p.m to the offices of Yaazh Thinakkural, Uthayan and Valampuri Tamil dailies in Jaffna issued a letter threatening the lives of their journalists and officials for publishing false news about ‘terrorists’, causing confusion among the residents of Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna said. The letters signed, ‘Alliance Protecting Tamils’, accused the media and its reporters in Jaffna for reproducing Indian media released photos of Pirapakaran and Pottu Ammaan taken in 2002 and warned them of drastic consequences if they continue in the same manner, the sources added.
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'Norway finances humiliation of Tamils'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 November 2009, 03:18 GMT]
Norway is up to appease Colombo as the Tamil Tigers are out of the picture and the only way to do this is abetting Colombo’s discrimination of Tamils in the line of Iran, Burma and China, writes Professor Øivind Fuglerud of the University of Oslo adding that a revealing cue comes from Norway insensitively sponsoring a Buddhist organisation to conduct a music festival on 27th November in Galle, timed to humiliate Tamils on the Heroes' Day. Norway sat silently like a mouse in the final phase of the war. Now its ‘humanitarian’ aid helps the internment camps of captivity and death. In future Norway’s aid may be integral to Colombo’s military complex cum Buddhist temple infrastructure to dominate Tamil areas, he further says. Not surprisingly, Norway's leading news agency, NTB, on Monday came out with biased reporting on the first ever democratically elected council of diaspora Tamils.
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'Time for South India to take care of its own geopolitics'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 00:26 GMT]
The historic duty of Tamil Nadu today is to cast with far sight its diplomatic weight internationally, convincing New Delhi and the international community to come out with fundamental solutions recognizing the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. "Saying foreign affairs is an exclusive domain of the Centre is only an excuse in contemporary world, especially when a federal government fails in it seriously affecting the strategic interests of a state. A Tamil Nadu delegation visiting Sri Lanka is perhaps for the first time an external affairs exercise of a state in India, but it has cut a negative image with the people to whom it was meant for, raising questions on the bona fides of the whole exercise," the commentator further says.
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Death threats to Jaffna Uthayan daily continue

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 July 2009, 17:24 GMT]
Reporters, employees and agents of Uthayan Tamil daily published in Jaffna continue to be issued with death threats by post despite President Rajapakse’s recent assurance that he will not permit anyone to violate the freedom of the press, sources in Jaffna said. A group calling itself ‘Tamil Front Protecting the Country’ allegedly linked to a paramilitary group operating with Colombo had issued on 27 June a notice titled ‘Final Warning’ to Uthayan Tamil daily office in Jaffna warning that Uthayan staffers will be killed if they do not officially relinquish their posts with effect from 30 June 2009.
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‘Final Warning’ issued to Jaffna Tamil daily Uthayan staffers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 June 2009, 06:30 GMT]
A group calling itself ‘Tamil Front Protecting the Country’ allegedly linked to a paramilitary group operating with Colombo issued Saturday a notice titled ‘Final Warning’ to Uthayan Tamil daily office in Jaffna warning that Uthayan staffers will be killed if they do not officially relinquish their posts with effect from 30 June 2009, sources in Jaffna said. Thursday, all the local newspapers of Jaffna that defied publishing an anonymous and defiling notice against Liberation Tigers came under attack by an armed group in which thousands of copies of the local newspapers, Valampuri, Uthayan and Thinakkural (Jaffna edition) were burnt.
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SLA provides security to Tamil dailies’ distributors in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 June 2009, 04:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), following the burning of all copies of three Tamil dailies intended for distribution in Jaffna district Thursday, allegedly by the armed group operating with the Sri Lanka military intelligence, provided escort by armed motorbike squad Friday morning to the newspaper distribution staff on motorcycles, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, SLA deployed security guards for the offices of Valampuri and Yarl Thinakural Tamil dailies in Jaffna with effect from Friday though the editors of these dailies have rejected SLA security in the past, the sources added.
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