SLA tightens security in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 December 2010, 15:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is employing new measures in the last several days to increase security in Jaffna, civil sources in Jaffna said. SLA has increased search operations during nights and has increased checking of motor vehicles including motor bikes. Passengers traveling in night buses are being subjected to delays as they searched in the proximity of four or five SLA camps. In addition, reports from Jaffna say SLA soldiers are constructing new earth bunds in the previously declared High Security Zones (HSZ) raising fears among families awaiting resettlement that return to their ancestral homes are going to be further delayed.
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More than 100,000 persons affected by rain in the North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 December 2010, 13:39 GMT]
More than hundred thousand people were affected by rain in Jaffna, Mannaar, Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu district, according to civil society sources in the Northern province. Menik Farm camp used as an internment camp to hold Tamil civilians, is surrounded by flood. More than 20,000 remaining refugees have been struggling with toilets submerged in flood. Dengue and malaria are spreading rapidly, according to medical sources.
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Gunmen open fire at Hindu chief priest, sons in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 December 2010, 18:17 GMT]
The Chief Priest of Murukamoorththi Temple in Changkaanai of Valikaamam and his two sons were fatally injured Saturday evening when unknown gunmen, who attempted to rob the temple, opened fire on them. 56-year-old Niththiyantha Sharma, the chief priest and 32-year-old Sivananda Sharma and 27-year-old Jegananda Sharma, were rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, medical sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, civilian movement has been heavily restricted in Changkaanai by the Sri Lankan military that has rounded up the area, residents said. Journalists are denied access to the area. Recently, a temple musician playing Naathasvaram at a temple in A'laveddi in Valikaamam was also fired at by gunmen.
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US Senators call for Independent International Investigations

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2010, 23:16 GMT]
Seventeen United States Senators, in a letter sent to the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urged her to "call for an independent international investigation into the allegations of gross human rights violations that occurred during the country's 25-year civil war." Coinciding with the week following release of WikiLeaks cable which revealed the Colombo-based US diplomats' view that "responsibility for many alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka," the letter follows the August letter sent by 58 members of Congress urging the Obama administration to push for an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes that occurred during Sri Lanka's civil war.
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Astonishingly powerful, rare category of War Crime evidence, says Legal expert

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 December 2010, 02:42 GMT]
"On the question of whether there should be an inquiry, this is astonishingly powerful evidence of a type I've only seen in a handful of times – there's some footage from Yugoslavia about mass killings – and this is up there. It's within a very, very rare category of evidence where killings are actually captured on tape and the idea that there can be a debate about whether there should be an investigation in the face of evidence like this is very surprising. So this evidence should lead to only one conclusion which plainly is there needs to be a full investigation and there needs to be prosecution of the people responsible," a leading war crimes lawyer Julian Knowles of Matrix Chambers told Channel-4 after watching the video obtained by Channel-4 on the extra-judicial execution of Tamils by Sri Lanka soldiers.
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Suspect Sri Lanka war-criminal in UN post under US media spotlight

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 December 2010, 07:42 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government has appointed a senior army officer accused of war crimes in the conflict with Tamil rebels as its deputy permanent representative to the United Nations,” Washington Times said in a lead article Sunday referring to ex-Major General Shavendra Silva who commanded one of the largest divisions in Sri Lanka Army, and was the front line commander during the final phases of the war, the blood bath in which more than 40,000 Tamil civilians were alleged to have been killed in indiscriminate bombardment.
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New evidence emerges on war crimes committed on Isaippiriyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 19:26 GMT]
The gruesome killing of 27-year-old LTTE journalist Shoba (Isaippiriyaa) is a clear case of war crime committed by Sri Lanka Army, as evidences come forth indicate. Isaippriyaa never went for any kind of military training. She was exempted by the LTTE from such training, as she was a patient of Rheumatic Heart Valvular Disease, says a medical practitioner who was working in Vanni and who has personally seen her taking Echo Cardiogram test conducted by visiting US and Australian cardiologists. Until 8 May 2009 she was working as a volunteer in the Mu’l’livaaykkaal makeshift hospital. She was taken by SLA on 23rd or 24th of May 2009, while staying in D8/ Zone 4 of the Cheddiku'lam internment camp, according to the wife of the medical practitioner, a media worker who was also interned in the camp at that time.
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Defending WikiLeaks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 14:22 GMT]
U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, has asserted that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating to bring charges against WikiLeaks' Julian Assange for disclosing classified information. Survival of WikiLeaks from brewing legal challenges in the U.S. Courts is essential for bringing charges of war-crimes and crimes against humanity against Sri Lanka officials. A recently released cable from US Embassy in Colombo has revealed U.S. diplomats believed "responsibility for many alleged [war] crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka." The remaining 3324 cables from Colombo are likely to contain information of interest to Tamils on the evolution of US policy towards Sri Lanka conflict.
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"Sovereign Immunity question is a matter for U.S. Supreme Court"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 23:01 GMT]
The U.S. Justice Department responding to a query by Tamils for Obama, a US-based activist organization, in August of this year, on the immunity against arrest of heads of state accused of war crimes visiting the U.S., said, "as a matter of general policy, the Office of the Solicitor General does not state or provide opinions on such matters unless such questions arise in the context of Supreme Court or other appellate litigation." The response was received during the week of controversy of the attempted arrest of suspect war criminal Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London.
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Rajapaksa vengeance orchestrates political shield of captive Tamils in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 11:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa, crest fallen in London, tried to simulate support for him Saturday, by intimidating Eezham Tamils living in captive conditions under his military in Vanni. On Saturday early morning, amidst heavy rains, Sri Lanka army rounded up ‘re-settled’ Tamil civilians in Vanni, including pregnant mothers, elderly and children, and brought them to Ki’linochchi forcing them to carry placards in a ‘demonstration’ that Rajapaksa was doing good to them and it was wrong for the diaspora Tamils in London to reject him. About 500 civilians were caught in the military harassment and those who resisted were attacked by the military. Rajapaksa is determined in demonstrating that the genocidal conditions set by him is the reality to comprehend with, as opposed to diaspora articulations, and he is backed in it by the position taken by India, observers said.
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Leaked documents reveal UK lacking practical approach and India unwilling

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 09:38 GMT]
Though there was recognition for the need of a political solution and intention to stop human tragedy, lack of insight on the nature of the Sri Lankan state, lack of a serious and practical policy in handling a state like Sri Lanka long known for its chauvinism and lack of perspectives in addressing a national question as a national question, paved way for the failure of the Miliband-led British foreign policy on the war in the island, reveals leaked classified documents of British Foreign Office by Wikileaks. The documents also reveal that the British saw India “ambivalent and unwilling to undertake any heavy lifting on Sri Lanka” during the last days of the war. In this regard, a British diplomat confessed that he had trouble in getting meetings with India’s political level.
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Suspect War Criminal flees UK, escapes arrest

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 03:43 GMT]
Suspect Sri Lankan war criminal, Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London, escaped arrest by his premature departure from Britain, British daily Guardian reported. "An application [for arrest warrant] was lodged at Horseferry Road magistrates court, central London, but inquiries by Scotland Yard established that he [Chagi Gallage] had left on Thursday night," the paper said. Tamil campaigners sought the arrest warrant claiming that the ex-General who was in-charge of 53 & 59 divisions committed war-crimes by intentionally shelling civilian hospitals while advancing towards Mullaiththeevu area.
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SLA guns down trauma affected male in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 12:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers on A9 Road opened fire on an uprooted Tamil along the A9 road Friday afternoon near Puththoor junction in Meesaalai. The victim was a psychologically affected male due to the war last year. The soldiers harassed him prompting the victim to attack a soldier and gunned him down, civilians in the area said.
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War crime suspect in Rajapaksa entourage plans charted flight escape

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 00:44 GMT]
Sri Lankan Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London, plans to escape war crimes accusation in the courts of London by chartering a flight, informed circles in London said Thursday midnight. Meanwhile, if Mr. Rajapaksa's visit was a private one as claimed by him, why there were senior ministers like G.L.Peiris and military commanders in the entourage, wonder media circles in London. The escape plans of the military commander follows attempts by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) to file a war crimes case against him in London. Valid reasons are suspected behind the escape attempt of Chagi Gallage. Around 7,000 Eezham Tamils in London protested the presence of Rajapaksa entourage in London Thursday.
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Leaked video shows LTTE commander Ramesh in SLA custody

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 12:36 GMT]
A video clip has surfaced on YouTube Thursday showing LTTE's Batticaloa Commander Col. Ramesh in the custody of Sri Lankan soldiers, after he reached Sri Lanka Army captured Vadduvaakal with civilians on 18 May 2009. TamilNet has been in contact with a person who witnessed Ramesh reaching Vadduvaakal unarmed on 18 May. The eyewitness, fleeing the island, also confirmed that Ramesh was identified by the SLA personnel and separated from civilians. The latest information on Ramesh is the 34 seconds video that has been leaked out on the Internet.
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UNP MP threatened in Sri Lanka Parliament over UK protests

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 05:20 GMT]
Tense situation is prevailing in Sri Lanka's parliament Thursday morning after the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians attempted to assault UNP MP Jayalath Jayawardena accusing him of instigating the protests in the United Kingdom against visiting Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, parliamentary sources said.
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Rajapakse, brothers responsible for alleged War Crimes in Sri Lanka, says leaked US cable

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 01:20 GMT]
In a startling setback for the war-crimes concealment agenda of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, and his siblings holding high level positions in Sri Lanka's defense and civilian sectors, a January 2010 cable from US Embassy in Sri Lanka, made public by Wikileaks Thursday, acknowledges that U.S. is cognizant of the fact that "responsibility for many alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka." Ambassador Butenis further reasons the lack of progress in internal investigations: "There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power."
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Properties, temples of uprooted Tamils robbed in Valikaamam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 00:09 GMT]
How the number of Tamils in Valikaamam in Jaffna district has dwindled during the last 20-years due to Sri Lankan genocidal onslaught on Tamil homeland became evident when only 970 families registered for resettlement in the three villages of I'lavaalai and Viththakapuram in Valikaamam North, bordering the Sri Lanka Army declared High Security Zone, civil sources in Jaffna said. 1746 families were registered in the same area in 1990, according to the statistics by Thellippazhai divisional secretariat. The uprooted civilians, who were allowed to visit their villages last weekend and later denied of proper access-route to their villages, also complained that even the few properties that remained in their houses and temples have been robbed away after they were allowed access to the villages.
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SLA suspends resettlement in Valikaamam North HSZ villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 10:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Sunday suspended the resettlement of displaced people of three village (GN) divisions including I'lavaalai and Viththakapuram after the civil authorities ceremonialy launched resettlement of 970 families in Valikaamam North sector of Jaffna district on Saturday with a pooja at Nakuleasvaram temple, attended by EPDP leader and minister Douglas Devananda and Tamil National Alliance MPs. The military officials have said there were crucial security establishments with minefields on the way to the villages. As a result, the much awaited resettlement has again been postponed, this time for 'another month'. Meanwhile, informed sources said that the whole episode of resettlement was hurriedly staged at Keerimalai temple to coincide with the visit by Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna to Jaffna last week.
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Icy reception for Rajapaksa at Heathrow

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 22:36 GMT]
More than five hundred Tamils gathered at London’s Heathrow airport to protest as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa landed from Colombo. As Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL509 carrying Mr. Rajapaksa, who is on a private visit, landed at about 9:50 p.m. UK time, protestors braved Britain’s unusually cold weather to call attention to his government’s war crimes. Meanwhile, a senior Norwegian expert on the conflict in Sri Lanka advised Tamil activists to concentrate on country-level legal moves, rather than waiting for any global or governmental actors to take the lead. Tamils should forge alliances with legal, alternative, and human rights groups to fight the legal battle, the expert told Norwegian Country Council representatives, who welcomed the British demonstration.
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