Parts of abandoned vehicles in Vanni sold with SLA connivance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 05:54 GMT]
Parts of thousands of vehicles left abandoned by fleeing Vanni civilians during the final days of the war are dismantled by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and officers and sold to Sinhalese and Muslim traders from South, a Tamil trader who had bought such a spare part for his heavy vehicle told TamilNet. The dismantled parts are available for sale in most of the SLA bases along A9 road as well as in some SLA sentry post, he said. SLA soldiers and their officers are alleged to be making millions of rupees in this lucrative enterprise.
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Clash of Roadmaps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 19:33 GMT]
The Mahinda – KP move handled by the military intelligence of Sri Lanka, whether a culmination of a long-term strategy or a move to probe the diaspora, is now backfiring against Colombo, is backfiring against some international actors harping on wrong notions of reconciliation and is backfiring against some elements in the diaspora which were long dreaming on the success of this move to trail behind with their tangential politics.
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Muslim school to function with Sinhala name in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 19:32 GMT]
Nallakuddiyaa'ru Muslim School has been given a Sinhalese name as Namalwatte Vidiyalayam without identifying it as a Muslim school. A Sinhalese woman Principal has been appointed with four Muslim teachers to Muslim students about 65. Not even a single Sinhala student is studying in the school which is located in Nallakuddiyaa'ru Muslim village in Morawewa (Muthalikku'lam) division in Trincomalee district. This school comes under the Trincomalee Zonal Education Office.
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Basil Rajapakse fails to reply TNA allegations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2010, 14:47 GMT]
Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse has failed to respond to questions raised by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians at the Batticaloa District Development Council (DDC) meeting held on Monday at Batticaloa District Secretariat over the resettlement of displaced Tamil families and settling Sinhalese from the south in traditional Tamil villages in the district under the pretext of resettlement.
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Tamil Brahmi inscription found in Tissamaharama

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2010, 02:59 GMT]
An early historic inscription in Tamil language and in Tamil Brahmi script, dateable to c.200 BCE, has been found in the archaeological excavations by a German team at Tissamaharama in the down south of the island of Sri Lanka. The inscription deciphered by I. Mahadevan as ‘Thira’li Mu’ri,’ which means ‘written agreement of the assembly,’ was incised on an early historic Black and Red Ware pottery. The last letter of the inscription, which is retroflex Tamil ‘Ri’, is very clearly a Tamil phoneme in Tamil Brahmi script, academics commented. The Tamil Brahmi inscription is also found mixed with megalithic or early historic graffiti marks, which were probably the symbols of the guild, they further said. Tissamaharama or ancient Mahaagama is located close to Kathirkaamam (Kataragama), a famous pilgrim centre for Tamils as well as Sinhalese.
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Colombo steps up militarisation of Paasikkudaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2010, 22:32 GMT]
Special camps of the Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Police have been set up in east cost covering the tourist resort to provide 'foolproof security to tourist community' to spend their holiday, Sri Lankan Police said. The move comes following Basil Rajapaksa's visit to Paasikkudaa last week.
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UPFA promises gone with the wind

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2010, 06:32 GMT]
The United People’s Freedom Alliance which had lavished promises prior to April general election including a monthly increase of 2500 rupees to public servants, on the contrary, has increased the price of essentials like fuel, flour, milk products and other services hitting the common man who had been already struggling to make ends meet. The Sinhalese people, kept under the spell of the ‘Victory’ of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime over the Tamils and the propaganda of 'Mahinda Chintana', but are becoming frustrated by the reality of spiralling prices of essential utility items while Rajapaksa regime is calculating ways to to benefit economically by playing the 'geo-political' card with the powers that are locked in a corporate race.
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Continuing ‘counter insurgency’ approach to chronic national question

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 11:41 GMT]
Colombo’s latest deployment of Selvarasa Pathmanathan (KP), a victim of circumstances, to blunt the Eezham Tamil struggle only reveals that ‘counter insurgency’ is the style continued to be envisaged by some powers in approaching the chronic national question in the island, commented Tamil circles watching the developments. The move, bereft of any political promises, but aiming at roping in the diaspora for ‘development,’ comes after the visit of G L Peiris to Washington, Robert Blake lamenting that still “some polarisation” exists in the island and amidst heavy visits of dignitaries in the last couple of weeks. The move is not surprising. It is a sequence of a long-existing design, operated simultaneously through good and ugly faces of the West, observers said. The KP operation in Colombo is handled by a controversial group of foreign-trained Sri Lankan military intelligence personnel.
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Plans afoot to Sinhalicise Paasikkudaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 04:23 GMT]
Sri Lankan Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa Tuesday paid an official visit to Paasikkudaa in Batticaloa district and laid the foundation stone for a tourist complex. The tourist complex is viewed as another step to settle yet more Sinhalese in the traditional Tamil areas of Batticaloa district, by the local residents.
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Muslim villagers of Kalmunaikkudi complain aid misuse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 17:12 GMT]
Residents of Kalmunaikkudi, a densely populated Muslim suburb of Kalmunai town, 40 kilometres south of Batticaloa, which suffered worst by the giant waves of Tsunami in December 2004, complain that the funds allocated for the Muslim residents under the tsunami rehabilitation scheme by the Sri Lankan government have been diverted for the benefit of the Sinhalese people who were not affected by the tsunami.
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JHU ousts pro-Rajapaksa Thera from leader post

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 07:52 GMT]
Power struggle ended in the extreme Sinhala nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) by ousting Venerable Ellawala Medhananda Thera from the post of party leader and electing Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha Thera unanimously at the party’s seventh national convention held Saturday evening at Colombo Town Hall. Ellawala Thera was backing Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa with the idea of prolonging his presidential term through constitutional amendment. The JHU had to elect a new leader as Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thera had resigned from the post as he needed more time to devote on his pet subjects of archaeological research in Mullaiththeevu, JHU sources said.
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Sinhalese with Pirapaharan photo further remanded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 06:32 GMT]
Puththa'lam Magistrate Monday ordered further remand till June 30 for a Sinhalese civilian Amarasingha Chandana when he was produced from prison on a charge that he was carrying a photograph of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan.
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Janakaraliya inaugurates program of dramas in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 18:48 GMT]
Janakaraliya, Makkal Ka’lari of the people, with the assistance of Jaffna Education Department inaugurated Monday its program of dramas in ‘Mobile Theatre’ in Nalloor in the CMS School playground located near Jaffna Education Office scheduled to take place from 21 June to 02 July, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, V. Anandasangari of the TULF, who earlier backed Mahinda Rajapaksa during Colombo's war against the LTTE, condemned the program of Janakaraliya for being inappropriate in the context of war affected civilians suffering in Vanni and suggested that Janakaraliya could serve best by visiting Vanni and learn of the misery of Vanni people which could be portrayed realistically in their dramas.
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Champika Ranawaka visits to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 17:29 GMT]
“Identified United National Party men were responsible for the burning of Jaffna Public Library that was the foremost library in South East Asia and a valuable cultural asset of Tamils and I as a Sinhalese and a Sri Lankan cannot pardon the atrocious act,” Power and Energy Minister and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) theoretician Patali Champika Ranawaka said Monday in an event in Jaffna Public Library where he donated a batch of books to the library. Mr. Ranawaka is a key founder of Sinhala extremist National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT) in 1998 and Sinhala Urumaya (SU) in 2000. He was known for his Nazi shade of anti-Semitism, in his speeches comparing Tamils with Jews and Sinhalese with Aryans.
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Illegal excavation of limestone threatens ecology of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 04:05 GMT]
Threatening the entire groundwater and fragile ecology of Jaffna peninsula, a private Sinhalese company is engaged in the illegal excavation of limestone in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North while Rajapaksa government refuses to reveal details of this enterprise in the area from Maaviddapuram to Keerimalai where the uprooted residents have not been allowed to resettle for the past twenty years. The indiscriminate excavation of limestone in a 4 sq km area at depths of nearly 40 feet has already caused seepage of sea water and it is feared the area becoming submerged. The underground channels that bring in freshwater to the innumerable aquifers of the peninsula, have an underneath entry into sea adjacent to the locality of the quarries. It is obvious how indiscriminate quarrying and the possibility of seawater coming inside can affect the potable water of the masses.
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Northern Tamil building contractors forced to pay commission

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 06:26 GMT]
Northern Tamil Contractors Union (NTCU) in Jaffna complains that a man introducing himself as ‘School Engineer’ is engaged in obtaining five to ten percent commission from building contractors in Jaffna to be passed on to Northern Province Governor, Major General G. A. Chandrasiri. Meanwhile, it is alleged that the Governor has instructed the officials of the Northern Province Council to allocate contracts for building construction in the North only to Sinhalese contractors from South. While Basil Rajapaksa, the brother and senior advisor of President Mahinda Rjapaksa, is known as ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ in the matters of contracts, the Governor too is being seen as a person engaged in the same pursuit, NTCU circles said.
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Venezuela and the 'law of the fishes’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 00:18 GMT]
"Instead of making connections with the illegitimate opposition of Sri Lanka, Venezuela should be strengthening the hand of an ally that is also suffering imperial aggressions," says Eva Golinger, a friend of the President of Venezuela and English editor of the Venezuela government newspaper Correo del Orinoco. Writing a feature of factual and perceptual errors, Golinger says, Rajapaksa who is supported by left and communist parties put an end to the LTTE that has strong ties with the CIA. Tamil circles don’t believe that the reputed left-wing writer failed to do her homework on Sri Lanka or on the Eezham Tamil struggle. Instead, they think that in a world where the villains and the heroes are together nowadays, some forces are working on luring Latin America to enter into South Asia from the wrong direction, hanging onto the deceptive red shawl of Rajapaksa soaked in genocidal blood.
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Sinhalese undergrads demanding 'victory' money assault Tamil students in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 June 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Some second year Sinhalese undergrads in Eastern University in Vanthaa’rumoolai, under the influence of liquor, assaulted first year Tamil students Wednesday night in their hostel for not contributing money to celebrate the ‘Victory Day’ that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was to Celebrate in Colombo Thursday. On learning this, third and final year Tamil undergrads had joined together and attacked the Sinhalese students. The situation, however, was brought under control by Vice-chancellor S. Premkumar who intervened.
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India was not happy about Norwegian peace: Prof Shanmugaratnam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2010, 10:40 GMT]
India was not happy about Norway being given a role in peace brokering in Sri Lanka. Japan was keen to be the broker, but India was more against Japan than Norway, said Dr. N. Shanmugaratnam, Professor of Development Studies and Head of Research of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, while addressing a session on the failed peace process and Norway’s role in Sri Lanka, at a conference held in Nansen Peace Centre in Norway last Friday. The Norwegian Tamil academic also said that in his view the key challenges to the peace process were internal than international and the internal has always been decisive. Post mortem of the peace process has become a hot topic in Norwegian circles nowadays since the failed envoys of Sri Lankan process have embarked upon fresh peace initiatives elsewhere.
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JUSU condemns IUSU representatives being denied entry into Jaffna University premise

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 June 2010, 05:15 GMT]
Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) in a media report Tuesday expressed its deep discontent against Inter University Student Union (IUSU) representatives being denied entry into Jaffna University premises to hand over relief goods they had brought from South for the war affected Vanni undergrads. Meanwhile, Jaffna University Vice-chancellor who had denied entry to the IUCU representatives Saturday and Sunday said in a report to media Tuesday that students from other universities have to submit an authorization letter from their VC. Jaffna VC’s media report is seen as an attempt to pacify JUSU. Meanwhile, JUSU in its media report requested the VC to reveal the source of order from above directing him not to permit the IUCU representatives from meeting the war affected Vanni students, sources in Jaffna said.
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