Colombo cripples traders in Jaffna to bring in Sinhala trade

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 December 2010, 22:20 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka is alleged to have been involved in crippling the business activities of the Tamil traders in Jaffna peninsula to make way for the Sinhalese to capture it, Jaffna traders who have been subjected to harassment by officers from Criminal Investigation Department of Colombo Police.
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SL cabinet decides to abolish Tamil version of ‘national anthem’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 December 2010, 13:32 GMT]
The first cabinet meeting convened by Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa after returning from London decided to abolish the Tamil version of Sri Lanka’s national anthem, Sunday Times reports. The ‘shortcoming’ of having two national anthems should be rectified and in no other country was the national anthem used in more than one language, Mahinda Rajapaksa told his cabinet Wednesday. The Tamil version of the national anthem of Ceylon and later Sri Lanka was adopted in 1948 at the time of the so-called independence. It was an exact translation of the Sinhala original, sung in the same tune. Supporting Rajapaksa, minister Wimal Weerawansa said that even in neighbouring India, where around 300 languages were used, the national anthem was only in Hindi. But the SL minister was ignorant of the fact that the national anthem of India is in Bengali.
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SL First Lady’s Xmas in Jaffna cancelled

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 December 2010, 23:58 GMT]
As most of the local priests and Christians in Jaffna were not interested in participation, the programme of Mahinda Rajapakasa’s wife Shiranthi Rajapakasa presiding over an Xmas fete in Jaffna as its chief guest was cancelled. However, Buddhist monks, Sinhalese visitors and some Muslim religious leaders who were brought from the south for this purpose, along with military personnel in Jaffna, celebrated Christmas at the Methodist Church in Jaffna on Saturday. Since Shiranthi Rajapaksa didn't come Mrs. Imelda Sugumar, the Government Agent of Jaffna, joining religious representatives, released ‘peace doves’ on the occasion.
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Time for Eezham Tamils to think afresh

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 December 2010, 02:23 GMT]
Despite two nasty wars India got involved against Eezham Tamils in crushing their national aspirations, and despite constant demonstration that whatever genocide may take place or whatever counter-Indian alliances Sri Lanka may make India would continue to hang on to any devil that is sitting in Colombo, Eezham Tamils are so far not stirred up to evolve an integrated foreign policy to meet the equation. Just as Mahinda Rajapaksa told N. Ram of The Hindu that “What we refused to give Prabakaran we won’t give to others”, what India refused to act on so far, it is not going to act, whatever exclusive dependency Tamils may continue to show. The relentless may try and everyone should be happy if there are any yields, but it is time for the mainstream to think and seriously act on other avenues that are complimentary to Eezham Tamil interests.
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Sinhalese VC for Eastern University?

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 20:25 GMT]
A Sinhalese academic is likely to be appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University by the Sri Lanka Ministry of Higher Education. The Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister and several deputy ministers in the eastern province have given consent to the appointment, according to reports emerging from education sources in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr.C. Yogeswaran, made an appeal in the parliament recently that the steps now being taken by the government to appoint a Sinhalese as VC should be stopped as the Eastern University is located at Vanthaa'rumoolai in the Tamil dominated district.
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Rajapakse endures brickbats and snowballs in London

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 02:40 GMT]
Mass demonstrations in London condemning Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse as a war criminal took place Thursday evening in front of his luxury hotel and the Sri Lankan High Commission where he held a glittering reception for some of his supporters in lieu of his abortive address to the Oxford Union. Over seven thousand Tamil expatriates and others braved the snow falls inundating Britain this week to crowd Park Lane, where The Dorchester is located, to demand Sri Lankan officials be prosecuted for war crimes, while hundreds more filled the short street in front of the High Commission. President Rajapakse’s reception began with an organising mix-up that left some of his select guests waiting to be allowed into the mission, and ended with a flurry snowballs thumping into his departing police-escorted motorcade.
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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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This is a struggle for all of us: Vikramabahu tells Heroes Day congregation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2010, 12:57 GMT]
Tamils were killed by successive Sinhala chauvinistic governments and at last but not the least by the Mahinda regime. Not only Tamils but also thousands of Sinhala youth who were sent for aggression in the Tamil homeland and attack Tamils died in an alien land. The misery created among the Sinhalese will also show its reaction in future. This is a struggle for all of us. Yes, we have gone through defeat. Now we have to get up and fight to overthrow this chauvinistic military regime to have democracy in the land, said Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne, Secretary of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), who was a star speaker at the Maaveerar (Heroes) Day gathering in London, Saturday. The event attended by more than 50, 000 diaspora Tamils paid homage to the heroes who laid down their lives fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.
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Sinhalese appointed to government departments in Batticaloa, Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2010, 12:20 GMT]
All Ceylon Government Public Servants Association (ACGPSA) has requested the President Mahinda Rajapakse to stop appointing Sinhalese from other parts of the country to fill vacancies in Divisional Secretariats and other government departments in the districts of Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai with immediate effect. ACGPSA President S.Loganathan said that he has sent a memorandum to Rajapakse to this effect.
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SLA deploys soldiers in LTTE leader's village

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 20:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army on Friday deployed hundreds of soldiers in Valveddiththu'rai (VVT), the birth place of LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, to stop anyone publicly celebrating his birthday. Road patrols and searches too were conducted in Valveddiththu’rai forcing people to stay indoors.
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SLA active in grabbing strategic lands in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 14:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Ki’linochchi have threatened 18 Tamil families in Irathinapuram where they were each given 5 acres of land to live in 1994 by Sri Lanka government for which they have the documents proving ownership. SLA now claims that a Sinhala school had been located in the said area and therefore the land belongs to the government. SLA further says that it wants the land to be used as cattle grazing ground, the families said. Similarly, SLA officials in the Achchuveali camp have claimed areas in Puththoor and Vaatharavaththai in Valikaamam East saying that a Sinhala school called Panjaseeva and a Buddhist temple had been functioning in the said area. A military establishment and Sinhala colony at strategic Vaatharavaththai will check free movement of Tamils among the sectors of Valikaamam, Vadamaraadchi and Thenmaraadchi regions of the Jaffna peninsula.
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Kadugannawa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 06:54 GMT]
The fierce mountain pass
The mountain pass at the frontier
The mountain pass to traverse

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Genetics and etymology go contrary to myths

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 06:38 GMT]
Kadugannawa, the Sinhala name of a key mountain pass in the Kandy district of the island of Sri Lanka comes from Dravidian etymology and is related to Kadu-ka’navaay in Tamil, reveals an etymological column in TamilNet. Meanwhile, genetic studies based on DNA conducted on Sinhala expatriates by a British medical institute 10 years ago showed that the Sinhalese predominantly carry M20, the Dravidian marker in them, says Subramaniyam Visahan who recently came out with an outline publication on the peopling of the island of Sri Lanka. Myths that obscure objective history about the peopling of the island could have been shattered had Colombo joined the DNA mapping programme, the Human Genome Project, said the UK-based writer, who formerly worked for the British National Archives.
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China urged to respect Tamil place names

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 09:13 GMT]
The thermal power plant China builds in the Puththa’lam district is located at a Tamil village called Nuraichchoalai that simply means the grove of Nurai fruit trees (Nephelium longanum). But a corrupted and Sinhalicised form Norocholai is the one followed by Chinese official records. Even the media in India, including the media in Tamil Nadu, mutilate the name joining with Sinhalese and Chinese. Norocholai has no meaning in Sinhala or Tamil. Sri Lanka comes out with a new set of colonial names for places in the land of Tamil nation. China and India, which have cared to bring back the names of their cities such as Beijing and Mumbai from the colonial renderings Peking and Bombay should be sensitive enough for the sentiments of Eezham Tamils, urged a Tamil academic in Colombo.
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Military fortresses and colonisation in Jaffna choke Tamils, threaten India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 10:26 GMT]
The selection of locations for building new military fortresses and for colonising Sinhalese in the Jaffna peninsula is sinisterly schemed by colonial Sri Lanka to permanently squeeze the Tamil heartland. Casual visitors don’t perceive it. Tamils of collaborative politics helplessly defend it. Indian policy planners of habitual bungling compare it with what they do in Kashmir, tribal belt and northeast India and agree with it. They think that if the nation of Eezham Tamils is permanently erased and if they get one or two harbours there that is enough for the security of India. The military cum colonisation complexes come up with the full blessings of India and with Chinese material help. But eventually they are going to be trained on India, said an academic in Jaffna, citing the complexes that squeeze the peninsula at strategic locations.
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American Power in Indian ocean, a book review

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 18:24 GMT]
Greater Indian Ocean, from the Horn of Africa to Indonesia, "may comprise a map as iconic to the new century as Europe was to the last one" and "demographically and strategically be a hub of the twenty-first century world." This makes the Indian Ocean "the essential place to contemplate the future of U.S. power," says Robert D. Kaplan, an influential US writer of foreign policy, in a recent book, Monsoon:The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, a review of which appeared in the weekend edition of Washington Post.
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Sri Lanka fallen under dangerous authoritarianism, says Rae

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 November 2010, 00:39 GMT]
"Sri Lanka has now fallen into a dangerous authoritarianism with the Rajapaksa brothers and their government fully in control. They can point to elections as the source of their legitimacy, but the evidence of a politicized judiciary, widespread corruption, and a deeply repressed and partisan media is a troubling reflection of a political agenda that is leaning far away from the respect for rights and diversity that lies at the heart of the democratic idea," writes Mr Rae, former Ontario Premier, in a book published in 2010, excertps from which appeared in Canada's National Post. Rae also faults Prabhakaran for developing a "militant cult of personality and exclusionary nationalism" which "set the country on a course of conflict that proved irreversible."
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TamilNet wartime correspondent from Vanni reaches a free country

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 22:13 GMT]
Living incognito since May 2009, the TamilNet chief correspondent who reported from Vanni during the war, reached a free country this week. He was just 24 when he joined TamilNet. His knowledge in English was just basic. He was neither a member nor an associate of the LTTE. The free working space he had in Vanni was based only on an understanding about the political outlook of TamilNet towards the national cause of Eezham Tamils. But what he achieved goes into history of war journalism. He did a marvellous job on the ‘war without witnesses’, which major international media establishments couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. His safe passage to a free country was achieved by international civil society infrastructure. Many organisations, individuals and progressive Sinhalese helped him in his passage.
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Tissamaharama Tamil Brahmi inscription ‘missing’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 October 2010, 19:34 GMT]
The third century BCE potsherd inscription in Tamil language and in Tamil Brahmi script found at Tissamaharama in Hambantota district by German excavators is now missing in Sri Lanka’s Archaeology Department, informed sources said. The inscription found sometimes back was not included in the excavation reports of the Archaeology Department. Photo and decipherment of the inscription was brought out by Iravatam Mahadevan in The Hindu in June this year, followed by TamilNet. Meanwhile, accusing TamilNet for false publications, Dr. Susantha Goonatilleke in an article posted by transcurrents.com and published by Daily Mirror said that TamilNet had recently published inscriptions claimed to be from the South of Sri Lanka, which nobody in the Archaeology Department had seen.
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Identify murderers of Tamil journalist, RSF appeals to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 October 2010, 11:33 GMT]
Expressing hope that the Government of Sri Lanka will launch an investigation to identify the murderers of Tamil journalist Mayilvaganam Nimalarajan, who was gunned down on 19th October 2000, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), cautioned that "[r]econciliation in Sri Lanka will require tough government initiatives to combat impunity in high-profile cases such as Nimalarajan’s murder, one of the most shocking killings of the past decade."
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