Two SLAF Kfir fighter jets crash in mid-air

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 06:19 GMT]
Two Israeli-built Kfir bomber jets of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) crashed in a mid-air collision during a rehearsal Tuesday morning killing one pilot at Yakkala in Gampaha. The other pilot sustained injuries. Both the Kfir bombers that killed several civilians in Vanni War were completely destroyed. The rehearsal was for the 60th anniversary of the SLAF which is being marked on Wednesday with fly-past aerobatics and a skydiving display. Five years ago, on 14 August 2006, 55 schoolchildren and staffers were massacred in Mullaiththeevu in a genocidal air strike carried out by the SLAF. The crime against humanity is yet to be subjected to international investigations.
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Tamils say Sri Lanka's new envoy to Australia, a war-criminal

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 00:49 GMT]
Australian Tamils held a protest rally in front of the Parliament House, Canberra, Thursday urging the Australian Government to reject the nomination of retired Sri Lankan Navy Commander Admiral Thisara S.G. Samarasinghe as the new High Commissioner to Australia. The rally was jointly organised by two of the member organisations of Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), the Eelam Thamizh Association of Sydney and the Canberra Tamil Association. The protesters also demanded independent international investigations into war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the last phases of war, and particularly the crimes of Dr Palitha Kohona, an Australian citizen and a current Sri Lanka diplomat at the UN.
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ICRC closes Jaffna office

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 00:32 GMT]
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday announced that it is closing down its Jaffna office after 21 years of service, hinting that Jaffna is no more a region of priority needing conflict related activities. After Mu’l’livaaykkaal, while genocidal Colombo is now focussing on converting the entire Jaffna peninsula into an open concentration camp, the withdrawal of ICRC reminding its earlier withdrawal from Vanni at the beginning of the war, causes serious concern among people of Jaffna, commented a human rights worker in Jaffna. The ICRC leaves Jaffna not only when High Security Zones remain but also when new bases for occupying military are built among civilian population and when the people of Jaffna are pointedly targeted by a terror campaign. The international perception on ‘conflict’ is lopsided, the human rights worker commented.
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Ban and Nambiar confer with generals and officials of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2011, 15:19 GMT]
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and his Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar, on Wednesday had a meeting with SL Attorney General Mohan Pieris and foreign secretary Romesh Jayasinghe as well as the war crimes accused general Shavendra Silva and Palitha Kohona, the Inner City press (ICP) reported. Nambiar was hiding for photographs when Ban shook hands with Silva. Colombo converted Silva into UN ambassador to give him immunity and to see UN legitimating him, the ICP said. Both Ban and Nambiar are accused for their failure to prevent the killings of several thousands of Tamil civilians and even accused of indirect green signalling of the killings.
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SLA restricts movement of IDPs in Kodikaamam Camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2011, 12:43 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has instructed outsiders to get prior permission from its sentry points to visit the uprooted civilians from Vanni staying in Kodikaamam Ramaavil IDP camp in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna. The inmates who were earlier allowed to leave camps and work without any restriction, are from this week onwards have been instructed to register themselves with SLA sentry point, before leaving for work and after their return.
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Genocidal Colombo unleashes new war on unarmed Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 07:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka is now waging a new genocidal war on unarmed and demographically weakened Tamils after converting their country imperceptibly into an open concentration camp. The new war is focussed on the Jaffna Peninsula. Many Tamils believe that by stressing on the negation of their independence, India and USA continue to encourage Colombo, smokescreen the current war by projecting it ‘reconciliation’ cum post-war ‘development’ and thus actually play a party to the war and genocide. All these decades India and USA competitively negotiating the national question by upholding the integrity of a fundamentally flawed state has brought in only untold misery. At least now, why shouldn’t they try in unison, a genuine reconciliation by the option of secession? Further delays will convert the island a bleeding spot of the region for ages, cautions a Jaffna university academic.
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DC Court to serve summons to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 01:38 GMT]
Attorney for the three Tamil plaintiffs who are suing Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse in the District of Columbia Federal court for monetary damages under US's Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) said in a press release issued Tuesday that he will be requesting the Clerk of the United States District Court to send summons by mail to Rajapakse's residence "Temple Trees" in Colombo 3. Civil procedure rules normally require a properly served defendant 21days to file an answer.
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‘Nazi-style registration of civilians in Jaffna’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 February 2011, 12:08 GMT]
The occupying SL military in Jaffna is directly engaged in registration of individuals and families in the Jaffna peninsula in recent times. Everyday, covering area by area, the SL military is distributing forms to collect information and is insisting of family photographs along with children to be given to them. The activity of the SL military, reminding the Nazi practice before the Holocaust, creates terror in the minds of the people in Jaffna, said a human rights activist in Jaffna. Meanwhile, undeclared curfew is imposed in Jaffna by the SL military and police, who have brought the street movement of people almost to an end after 6:00 p.m. by harassing them through numerous checkpoints after dusk.
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Flood displaces 100,000 in Vanni, 25,000 in camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 February 2011, 08:25 GMT]
At least 100,000 Tamil civilians of around twenty five thousand families have been affected by the flood in the two districts of Vavuniyaa and Mullaiththeevu in Vanni. Sand bunds erected by the Sri Lanka Army are obstructing the flow of water reaching the sea. Hence the villages are flooded. The uprooted families are still not allowed to resettle between Mullaiththeevu and Puthukkudiyiruppu. In the meantime, informed sources said the occupying military was promoting the idea of opening transport services via Anuradhapura-Ma’nalaa’ru road, making inroad for Sinhala colonization.
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Hague's WikiLeaks admission spells legal danger to Sri Lanka war-criminals

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2011, 12:11 GMT]
The Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal in The Hague has granted Charles G. Taylor, 62, the former Liberian president, who has been on trial charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the right to use two leaked American diplomatic cables as evidence to challenge the court’s impartiality. While the leaked information in the Taylor case was used by Taylor's lawyer to raise doubts on the courts independence and suggested the prosecution was political, Sri Lanka's leaked cables from the US Embassy contain incriminating information on the complicity of Rajapakse family, Ex-SLA Commander Sarath Fonseka, and Tamil paramilitaries in war-crimes and crimes against humanity on Tamil civilians, legal sources in Washington said.
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'Wish and reality of Sri Lanka's Independence'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2011, 03:08 GMT]
“I wish all Sri Lankans around the world a happy celebration and continued peace and prosperity in the coming year," said a statement harping on "post-war reconciliation" released from the office of the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on the eve of the independence day of Sri Lanka on 4th February. But the imposed celebration was largely ignored inside the island and outside, the day drew protests across the world by Eezham Tamils. “Sri Lankan High Commission has invited the Sri Lankan community for a reception to celebrate their independence. We will assemble outside the embassy to condemn the Sri Lankans celebrating while denying the Tamils their right to independence,” the call for protest in London said. Demonstrations were held in London, Toronto and in Oslo. Addressing protesters in Oslo, Conservative Party (Høyre) leader Erna Solberg called for war-crimes investigations.
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100,000 displaced, 7 die in second wave of floods, Ampaa'rai worst hit

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2011, 09:01 GMT]
Seven persons have died and over 100,000 civilians are displaced due to second wave of heavy rains in the Eastern, North Central and Central provinces of the island according to District Disaster Management Centre Friday. Four persons have died in Ampaa'rai district alone. While tens of thousands were hit by the disaster, the participation of even Sinhalese was poor at Mahinda Rajapksa government's celebration of Sri Lanka's Independence Day at Vihara Mahadevi Poongaa in the bordering district of Tissmaharagama at Kathirkaamam, sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet. People who lost their properties, houses and belongings have been left in the lurch due to failure of the Colombo government to provide any relief to restart their day to day life.
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US State Department plays ‘ultimate saviour of genocidal Colombo’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2011, 08:34 GMT]
Those who are guilty of war crimes naturally would try to blame others and would do everything to save their skins. If at all the LTTE was responsible of any war crimes, it is not there now. But the others responsible are roaming free. The US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake often calls for ‘some’ accountability. Some accountability comes only when some of those internationally responsible for the crimes bow down first taking responsibility, and desist from further contribution to genocide and denial of independence to Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo, responding to Mr. Blake passing “large part of the responsibility” for the civilian casualty in the Vanni war on the LTTE. In a way Blake in his recent interview concedes that he and his government were a party to the war and thus a party to the war crimes, the writer points out.
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Sinhala colonization threatens fishermen of Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 February 2011, 23:47 GMT]
The number of Sinhala fishermen from South, camping close to Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Navy camps in the SL occupied Vadamaraadchi East and Mullaiththeevu, has doubled within a short period in the recent weeks, causing alarm among the fishermen associations of resettled Tamil fishermen. Commanders of the occupying Sri Lankan military have become brokers bringing in hundreds of fishermen from south and allowing them to operate from coastal areas where Tamil civilians are denied resettlement, complained representatives of fishermen societies in Vadamaraadchi East to media on Tuesday.
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Flood victims express anger on public servants for lack of relief in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 January 2011, 20:07 GMT]
Civilians in Batticaloa district have started to show their anger on government servants for the failure to provide relief as promised by Colombo authority. The latest attack on a Village Officer of Makizhadith-theevu in Paddipazhai DS division in Batticaloa district took place Friday while he was in the act of distributing relief items donated by a non-governmental organization. Over five hundred thousand flood affected people in Poaratheevup-pattu, Paddippazhai, Vavu'na-theevu, Ea'raavoor-pattu, and Chengkaladi in Paduvaankarai DS division have not been provided with relief materials properly. Meanwhile, the district has started to experience another round heavy torrential rain since last week. Hence the spill gates of Unnichchai and U'rukaamam irrigation tanks have been opened to allow excess water.
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Ambassador, an honest man sent to lie for Sri Lanka, responds Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2011, 16:49 GMT]
Noting Sri Lanka's Ambassador's response to the law suit filed in US by three Tamil plaintiffs as initiated by LTTE-front organizations involved in "publicity stunts like this baseless law suits," Bruce Fein, the attorney for the plaintiffs said that the Ambassador Wickramasuriya was an honest man but was apparently instructed that if both the facts and the law demonstrated President Rajapaksa’s criminal culpability, then he should bugle “Tamil Tigers” to confuse the issue. Further, the group that sponsored the law suit cautioned the Ambassador and Colombo's Presidential spokesperson that libel is a serious offense in U.S. law and that any malicious labeling of legitimate US organizations as terrorist may have serious legal consequences.
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Kokkaddichchoalai massacre of 65 Tamil civilians remembered

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2011, 12:13 GMT]
The twenty fourth annual remembrance of Kokkaddichchoalai massacre was held Friday in Batticaloa. The Sri Lanka Army, which is almost all Sinhalese, killed 65 Tamil civilians in a prawn farm located about 10 km off west of Batticaloa city on 28 January 1987. The SLA burnt down the farm and huts where Tamil laborers were staying.
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Solheim without ‘appetite’ envisages further involvement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2011, 12:19 GMT]
How could the Norwegian ‘peace’ broker Erik Solheim claim that he was not biased towards one party in the national conflict in the island of Sri Lanka, when he had approached the issue with a preconception that there had been no appetite in the world for separations, asked Stephen Pushparajah, a well-recognized Eezham Tamil in Norway, responding to Mr. Solheim’s reiteration Wednesday that there is “no international support for a separate Tamil state” and his envisagement on behalf of Norway to play a further “role as a dialogue partner both with the government and peoples of Sri Lanka, including exile communities.” It was this closed mind of the peace facilitators and the powers behind them that encouraged Rajapaksa to end the war with genocide and to continue the genocide even after the war, he further said.
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New Delhi’s insensitive defence approach triggers off trouble in Palk Strait

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2011, 22:13 GMT]
New Delhi’s approach of safeguarding its defence interests by protecting a flawed state and regime in Sri Lanka is the root cause for recent escalation of trouble in either side of the Palk Strait, following defence agreements and secret protocols between Indian Defence Secretary and Colombo’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. New Delhi and Colombo, having strategic partnership in safeguarding establishments and in economic interests of corporations, were totally insensitive to the defence of the people living on either side of the Palk Strait, the historic shareholders of the waters. Instead of working for international recognition and justice to the national question of Eezham Tamils, New Delhi sitting on it and defending genocidal Colombo will invite further trouble in the coming days, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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HRW: Sri Lanka stonewalls on wartime abuses

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2011, 05:37 GMT]
In a press release issued today with the 649-page World Report for 2011, Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that “Sri Lanka’s aggressive rejection of accountability for war crimes is an affront to the victims’ of the country’s long civil war,” and Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director warns that “[t]here is no reason to believe that Sri Lanka will return to a rights-respecting government any time in the near future. Until wartime abuses are prosecuted, minority grievances are addressed, and repression against the press and civil society ends, only the president and his family members in power have reason to feel secure in Sri Lanka.”
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