Western Province elections endorse Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s UPFA, standing on the electioneering platform of eliminating ‘Tamil Terrorism’ secured Sunday clear majority of 64.7 percent in the elections for the Provincial Council of the Western Province. Rajapaksa’s victory is a clear mandate given to him by the Sinhala ethnic majority to go ahead with the genocide of Tamils; is well timed for him to convince the IC of his ‘democratic’ necessity to proceed with the final onslaught on Tamil civilians in the safety zone and sets clear the way for his long-term genocidal agenda and denial of any political solution, political observers in Colombo said. Meanwhile, the elections also clearly evidence that the ethnic crisis in the island can never be resolved within the Sri Lankan state system or through mandate of the majority Sinhalese, for anyone who wants to see an end to the conflict, they pointed out.
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Physical capture and incarceration of people: latest ways of neo-colonialism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 06:01 GMT]
"The pundits of political science may have to revise the connotations of the word neo-colonialism as indirect ways of imperialism only operating through economy. The experiment that is taking place with the Tamil question in the island of Sri Lanka indicates that powers of today are bold enough to orchestrate physical capture of people in brutal ways without worrying about casualty and the imprisonment of the remaining indefinitely, in order to achieve their geopolitical goals," writes a regular political commentator to TamilNet. "The manipulations at the UN, open defiance in recognizing the obvious ethnic nature of the crisis, and the outrageous statement diplomacy empty of action in saving the oppressed, but signalling Colombo’s genocide, are clear evidences for the new trends of neo-colonialism, encountered by the world of freedom-loving people," the commentator writes.
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Tamil woman arrested in Kandy

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 21:04 GMT]
A Tamil woman arrested on Wednesday in Kandy by the police in a cordon and search operation has been detained under the detention order served by the Defense Ministry for further inquiry, police said.
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Rajapaksa appoints notorious commander to head IDP resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 17:32 GMT]
Sri Lankan President and C-in-C of the armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' and 'villages' in the North. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Meanwhile, Colombo has started to seek funds to 'resettle' and 'rehabilitate' civilians who have been captured from the LTTE controlled area.
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'Ostriches can never be right'

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 11:46 GMT]
It is as obvious as one’s palm that the crisis in Sri Lanka is ethnic. It is not just a story of today or yesterday. In contemporary politics it is dated back to 1931, ever since universal suffrage was introduced, paving way for ethnic majority rule. Sinhalese historians believing in Mahavamsa may trace it back to more than 2000 years. Contemporary history of the island is nothing but an ethnic bloodbath. But in the ‘most compassionate’ Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time, it is no more ethnic but only terrorist. People say he has been successful in convincing the international community so. The recent stand taken by UN and certain countries reducing the crisis to a humanitarian issue caused by ‘terrorism’, make observers only dumb-founded. Might, may be the supreme right, but however mighty, ostriches can never be right, said, a political analyst in Colombo on Friday.
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Demonising Tamil struggle without citing solutions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 11:40 GMT]
What the Sinhala government is now trying to do to the Tamil people is nothing new. Exactly the same thing was done in Vietnam by the US army, writes Indian journalist T.G. Jacob from Kerala. “Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are there all over Europe and their number in India is growing. All these factors make the situation even more highly volatile, which in all possibility will create new polarizations. The short term military defeat of LTTE cannot at all prevent the Tamil issue from becoming an international one and change to guerilla war within the island. That is why the Sri Lankan political leadership is talking of ‘protected’ villages. Actually this is exactly what is happening now. The Sri Lankan government through all its barbarity and outrageous double talk is immensely facilitating this process”, he writes.
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LTTE welcomes US initiative, asks Sri Lanka to listen to IC

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 07:35 GMT]
The LTTE on Monday, in a significant statement, recognized and welcomed a refreshing attitude in US, different from the other countries. It pleaded the Sri Lanka government to listen to international opinion, to stop the war and enter into negotiations. But at the same time it warned Colombo of dire consequences if the war is continued. "The LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace as it imagines a military victory will bring. However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasize again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict”, the LTTE statement issued from the political headquarters in Vanni, read.
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Colombo householders asked to register particulars with police

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 07:43 GMT]
All householders in Colombo have been instructed by Sri Lanka Defence Ministry to register their particulars at the nearest police station and that failure to do so may result in punitive measures, according to announcement made over loud speaker in Sinhalese and Tamil from a long white bus bearing the Sri Lanka government insignia, Thursday night and Friday morning. Letting a person live in the house without informing the police is a punishable offence, it was announced.
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Sinhalese goons seriously injure 11 upcountry Tamils in Moneragala

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Sinhalese men armed with guns and swords descending on Tamil rubber plantation workers in Monaragala district fired at random on the workers sheds, seriously wounding eleven of them on Tuesday and Wednesday, Monaragala police who had arrested two Sinhalese youths involved in the incident, said. The wounded Tamil estate workers are admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Monaragala government hospital.
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Police shoot dead 6 inmates in Kalutura prison

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 05:13 GMT]
Six Sinhalese prisoners were shot dead by prison guards and another four received gunshot injuries, when they attempted to escape from the Kalutara prison in the early hours on Wednesday, prison officials said.
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3 Sinhala villagers killed in second Buttala attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 12:01 GMT]
Unidentified persons shot dead three Sinhalese villagers including two women Monday night around 7:00 p.m. at Galmadiyawa along Buttala-Moneragala highway in the southern province. Among the injured one is a woman. This was the second attack on Sinhalese villagers in Buttala area since Saturday.
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'Three insults to Tamils for the traditional New Year'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 19:32 GMT]
Disguised insults meant against Tamil struggle this week bring out a picture of the attitudes operating in Colombo, New Delhi and Chennai, writes a political analyst in Colombo. “It is not exactly the Sri Lankan government, but the Sri Lankan state that is the core symbol of oppression in the island. Ethnic chauvinism is the cornerstone of this state. No liberation can come to Eezham Tamils unless this symbol is deconstructed. It is important for both Tamils and Sinhalese to see that accepting this symbol as it is now, or imposing this symbol as the basis of any political discourse, will never pave way for peace of both.”
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Fein debunks Patton-Boggs "white paper" on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 21:52 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former Associate Deputy Attorney General and counsel for a Washington-based Tamil activist group, responding to a "white paper" on the current situation in Sri Lanka written and distributed to the media by Patton Boggs LLP, the Washington Law firm retained by the Government of Sri Lanka for advocacy work in the U.S., said, the "[p]aper is a collection of lies or misrepresentations calculated to conceal the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes perpetrated against Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s armed forces," and "fails to discredit a single one of the more than 1,000 genocidal incidents marshaled in the model genocide indictment."
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US Tamil groups meet with State Department on Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:17 GMT]
A group of American Tamils representing different diaspora organizations met with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, (via video link) on 8th April in Washington, D.C., to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka. The Tamil groups pressed for an immediate ceasefire and pointed out that no durable political solution is possible without the participation of the LTTE, and told the State Department officials that "...[N]egotiations should not preclude separation as a solution, and that confederation with power sharing at the center may be a viable alternative to total separation."
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Sinhalese mob attacks Tamil demonstrators in Melbourne

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 14:55 GMT]
A group of around 50 Sinhala expatriates, some of them allegedly inebriated, attacked a car-rally demonstration organised by the Eezham Tamil diaspora in Melbourne Saturday noon protesting genocide of their kith and kin in the island of Sri Lanka and demanding immediate end of the war waged by Colombo government. A few Eezham Tamils were injured and their cars were damaged in the attack. One of the attackers also reportedly got injured in the melee.
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David Miliband calls for 'humanitarian' ceasefire

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:29 GMT]
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday renewed his call for an "urgent humanitarian ceasefire" to "allow the remaining civilians to leave the conflict area" and sought unhindered access for humanitarian agencies to the civilians displaced by the fighting, including those, whom he referred as "still trapped" in the conflict area. Mr. Miliband's call comes a day after LTTE's Political Head B. Nadesan conveying the Tiger stance to the Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim that the attacks by the Sri Lankan forces on Tamil people aimed at total subjugation of the Tamil nation, and that only an immediate ceasefire could put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Sri Lankan aggression and pave the way for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
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LTTE Political Wing responds to John Holmes' briefing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 08:36 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Wing on Tuesday released the contents of a letter it recently sent to the UN, where it reiterated that an immediate ceasefire is urgent for the humanitarian aid and relief to reach the affected people. Stating that "no pressure is being exerted on the Government of Sri Lanka to bring an immediate end to the shelling that is slaughtering Tamil civilians in their thousands," the letter charged that "even while the Sri Lankan government is an active member of the United Nations, the UN is unable to rein in its own member state from killing civilians in thousands."
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SLA officer attempts Sinhalese colonization in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 04:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Civil Security Coordinator, Berty Perera, is alleged of pressurizing the Assistant Fisheries Director (AFD) of Batticaloa district to implement a plan to colonize the coastal area in Koa’ralaippattu North Divisional Secretariat in Batticaloa, with Sinhalese fishermen from South, sources in Batticaloa said. Earlier attempts made by Berty Perera to colonize Vaakarai with Sinhalese fishermen from South on his own accord having failed the Coordinator is exerting pressure on government officials to realize his intention, the sources added.
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5 Tamil youths arrested in Tangalle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 15:27 GMT]
Tangalle police in Hambantota district in the south arrested five Tamil youths Wednesday early morning in a house owned by a Sinhalese at Walsmulla-Kohulana area. The owner was also taken into custody for renting out his house to strangers, the police said. Three Tamil youths had fled from the house when the police raided the house.
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257 Tamils arrested in outskirts of Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 05:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took into custody 301 persons including 257 Tamils in a joint search conducted in Gampaha, in the outskirts of Colombo city, from Thursday 6:00 p.m till Friday 6:00 a.m, according to police spokesman, Ranjith Gunasekara. 8,830 persons were interrogated in the search, he said. The relatives of the arrested Tamils have lodged complaints with Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan and Mano Ganeshan, leader of Western Peoples’ Front (WPF) and Colombo district parliamentarian.
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