Sri Lanka's commission to conclude "sittings"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2011, 14:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the mandate of which was deliberately designed to whitewash Sri Lanka's war-crimes, and invitation to three leading premier human rights watchdogs Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and International Crisis Group (ICG) to attend LLRC's sittings was rejected due to LLRC "lacking the ability to advance accountability for war crimes," announced that the LLRC will "conclude its public sittings after the completion of sittings in the Ampara District in mid February" and would then would prepare its "final report that would be submitted to [Sri Lanka's] President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May," local media reported.
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Amnesty: US should investigate Rajapaksa during his visit

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 January 2011, 23:23 GMT]
The United States should investigate Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapksa, when he arrives on a surprise visit to the US this week, for his alleged role in perpetrating torture and war crimes, Amnesty International said Wednesday. President Rajapaksa left Sri Lanka for the US early Wednesday, taking a delegation of 20 on a supposedly private visit.
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'Pentagon blighting Tamil cause may turn counter-productive to US interests'

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 January 2011, 00:39 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government does have supporters in the U.S., particularly in military circles. Senior officials told me that their government owed much to a Pentagon official named James Clad, ‘a great friend of Sri Lanka.’ Clad was the Bush Administration’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia, in charge of the Pentagon’s dealings with India and Sri Lanka, until he was replaced by the Obama Administration in January, 2009,” wrote John Lee Anderson in Newyorker.com last week, adding that in order to reform Sri Lanka’s public image, Clad, who recently retired from the Pentagon’s National Defense University, recommended to Gotabaya Rajapaksa that he host a meeting on maritime-security concerns in the Indian Ocean to “get out of its box as a ‘single-issue country’ and reconnect it with an earlier maritime heritage,” Anderson cited Clad, advising Gotabhaya.
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SL military stops resettlement by Douglas Devananda in Ariyaalai East

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 January 2011, 00:23 GMT]
The much publicised resettlement effort by SL minister Douglas Devananda in the Poompukaar locality of Ariyaalai East was stopped by SL military Thursday. Hundreds of families that accompanied Mr. Douglas Devananda with much anticipation to resettle in their houses and lands from where they were uprooted 15 years ago were disappointed. Meanwhile, on resettlement in the ‘High Security Zone’ (HSZ) of Valikaamam, the SL minister told people who were uprooted for the last 20 years to observe more patience. The Sri Lanka government agent in Jaffna, Mrs. Imelda Sugumar also recently said that it could take more than ten years for the removal of land mines and re-settlement of people in the HSZ.
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Gotabhaya to 'witness' in white-flag case

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 January 2011, 22:06 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is to give evidence before the Trial-at-Bar of the Colombo High Court on January 25 in the white flag case. Mr. Rajapaksa is the fourth witness in this case against former commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka who has been charged for causing 'disrepute' to the Colombo government by making a statement in an interview to the English weekly, the Sunday leader.
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32-year-old male seeks asylum with HRC in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 11:24 GMT]
A 32-year-old man from Changkaanai, where a chief priest was killed a few weeks ago, has sought asylumn with the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna Monday and was produced in the courts through Sri Lankan Police Tuesday. The judge, witnessing the traumatic condition of the victim ordered the police to take him to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for a medical inspection and place him in the protective custody till 18th January, legal sources in Jaffna said.
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146,679 Vanni people missing within a year of war: Bishop of Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 00:09 GMT]
According to records of the SL Government Agent offices of Mullaiththeevu and Ki’linochchi districts, the population of Vanni was 429,059 in October 2008. The total number of people who got into SL government control after the war was 282,380, according to UN update as of 10 July 2009. “Due clarification should be made regarding what happened to 146,679 people, which is the discrepancy between the number of people who came to government controlled areas between October 2008 – May 2009 and the population reported to be in Vanni in early October 2008,” said the Catholic Bishop of Mannaar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph in his submission to the LLRC Saturday. The Bishop has also raised the issues of militarization, colonisation, land grab, Sihalicization, Buddhicisation and civil as well as human rights abuses that take place in the Tamil land following the war.
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LTTE former commander Yaan's wife witnesses on SLA war crime

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 06:39 GMT]
Bearing witness in front of Mahinda Rajapaksa's Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Maanthai West in Mannaar on Sunday, Mrs R. Mironio, the wife of LTTE's former Mannaar commander Antony Rayappu alias Yaan, said she has not heared from her husband or not told of the whereabouts of him after he surrendered in front of her in SLA controlled territory in Mullaiththeevu on 18 May 2009. The surrender was facilitated by facilitated by Catholic Priest Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph, she said. The priest was also taken with her husband, but noone have heared about them, she said.
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Eyewash LLRC makes even the commission members to doze off

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2011, 03:55 GMT]
LLRC commission members, tired and perhaps sleepless over their own pretentious exercises, were seen dozing off during the session in Mannaar Saturday, when more than 500 gathered to give evidence and many more could not attend due to lack of space in the hall. People were waiting from 8.30 in the morning, the announced time for the session, but the commission members came only at 10.30. The hearing was over by 2.00 PM for the three AGA divisions of Musali, Naanaaddaan and Mannaar Town. 8 witnesses gave evidence and 250 remaining were asked to give their submissions in writing. Meanwhile, representative of Mannaar Tamil Association, V. S. Sivakaran, while giving evidence said that people have lost faith and are suspicious of exercises like LLRC that do not go hand in hand with political initiatives, but on the contrary coupled with more oppression.
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JDS condemns silence of Colombo media over terror campaign in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2011, 08:27 GMT]
Detailing the recent killings, abductions and other atrocities in the SL military occupied North, the Journalists For Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an exiled organisation of journalists, on Friday condemned the silence of Sinhala and English media in Colombo over the terror campaign. Instead, these media highlight only the explanations from the side of the SL government, the report said. The JDS statement exposed the latest twist of portrayal of the situation by SL media minister and government spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella, who wanted to pass the blame on "elements seeking tarnish the image of Colombo government internationally". The JDS statement, with details of earlier unreported crimes, noted that human rights violations not being exposed is high in Vanni as journalists and aid workers were barred from entering Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts.
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EPDP, SLA, confuse public, lottery-fraud arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2011, 03:31 GMT]
An alleged EPDP member from Vavuniyaa faced the brunt of public anger in Jaffna as he was said to be moving in suspicious ways and was selling fake lottery tickets in Martin Road, Jaffna on Thursday. SL Police, on information from public, arrested him. He is said to have confessed his membership with the EPDP. There was no response from the side of the EPDP. Meanwhile, EPDP leader and SL minister Douglas Devananda in the SL parliament on Tuesday said that he didn’t want to embarrass the SL government internationally by raising the plight of the fear-engulfed people in Jaffna. In the meantime, the public in Jaffna senses EPDP and SLA indirectly passing blame on each other over the systematic infliction of terror by manipulative forces controlling the both.
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Imelda accuses police, prefers military

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 18:49 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police has failed in its duty to arrest killings, abductions and anti-social activities in Jaffna, Imelda Sugumar, the Sri Lankan government agent in Jaffna accused on Monday. In a press meeting at her office, she briefed the journalists about her preference to induct the occupying SL military to police the situation further in Jaffna. The police are corrupt and no ‘development’ work is possible in the district under the current circumstances, she claimed. Two weeks ago, while meeting a section of Tamil politicians, the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was also vocal about his preference to the military than the police in running the affairs of the Tamil land. He said this in reply to the visiting politicians when they expressed concern about SL military cantonments in the country of Eezham Tamils.
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Escalating killings, abductions: ‘Diplomatic civilities will not work with Colombo’

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 00:06 GMT]
Fatal attacks and abductions against educationalists, environmentalists, priests and youth activists in recent days in the Jaffna peninsula seriously question the wisdom of some sections of diplomats and politicians in the international community who sometimes back advocated unassuming participation of Tamils in ‘development’ and ‘reconciliation’ without resolving political and military questions. Diplomatic civilities as shown by the US ambassador Patricia A. Butenis in taking pride of what Rajapaksa government is achieving in resettlement, while making it a beneficiary of USAID, will not work with the kind of people at the helm of affairs in Colombo. The IC is once again demonstrating its impotency in handling the national question of Eezham Tamils without political solution and without removal of occupying military, a Jaffna based human rights activist told TamilNet Sunday.
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Mobile phone saves 30 abductees in Vanni from being taken to South

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2011, 22:34 GMT]
A 20-year-old student, Gajeevan Puvanendran, who was being abducted by men in green uniform in a vehicle Saturday morning around 5:30 in Ki'linochchi, alerted his parents and relatives through SMS and phone conversation that he was being taken away on A9 highway towards South. Later, Mr. Gajeevan was saved with around 4 others in Vavuniyaa. The Sri Lankan Police has not revealed the details of the abductors or other abductees. Informed sources close to the police in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet that a squad operated by Sri Lankan military was taking away the abductees to South. However, latest information from Vavuniyaa from reliable sources said there were around 30 young boys and at least one of them was taken by an intelligence squad.
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Youth abducted in Jaffna Thursday is a teacher

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2010, 16:30 GMT]
The youth who was abducted by ‘white van’ squad Thursday at Urumpiraay, Jaffna, has been identified as 30-year-old teacher, Shanmuganathan Vignesvaran of Vaiththeesvaraa Road of Urumpiraay West. His wife on Friday identified his slippers and bicycle at the Chunnaakam police station. The abduction took place in the same locality where Deputy Director of Education Mr. M. Sivalingam was assassinated Sunday. The hand of SL military intelligence is widely suspected in the series of terror campaign in Jaffna.
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Youth abducted, Sri Lanka colonial commander denies knowledge

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2010, 01:07 GMT]
Unidentified persons coming in a white van abducted a youth in Urumpiraay, Jaffna, in broad daylight and in public, while he was riding a bicycle Thursday. When contacted by media over the incident, Sri Lanka’s colonial commander in Jaffna, Maj. Gen Hathurusinghe not only denied any knowledge of it, but also said that there are no chances for such abductions since the LTTE doesn’t exist now. When it was pointed out that public had witnessed the abduction and that the bicycle and slippers of the victim had been remaining on the street, the ‘Asian Nobel laureate’ General replied that the police would investigate into that matter. However, the police that picked up the evidence also denied any abduction. Meanwhile, irresponsible reporting of the happenings in Jaffna by some in the diaspora affects the credibility of even bona fide news, commented media circles in Jaffna.
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Why Sri Lanka keeps Tamil areas insecure and unstable - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2010, 15:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka is actively using paramilitary groups in a campaign of terror in Tamil areas, alongside the military’s own harassment of business and civil society activity, to “actively deny the conditions – physical security and societal stability - necessary for a fully fledged post-conflict revival,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in an online comment Thursday. Sri Lanka is opposed to societal revival in the Tamil areas [because] with economic progress and the restoration of normalcy will undoubtedly come renewed Tamil demands for political rights, including greater freedom from Colombo's rule and stronger links with the "globalised" economy and community, the Tamil Guardian argues.
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'Only China and Pakistan could prod New Delhi'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2010, 00:58 GMT]
Paying tribute at the memorial for the IPKF that killed more than 6000 Eezham Tamils in the late 1980s, the visiting Defence Secretary of the New Delhi establishment offered training programme for 1400 personnel of the genocidal military of Sri Lanka in the Indian defence academies. Indian Express on Sunday reported that a key outcome of Russian president recently meeting New Delhi’s prime minister was India helping Colombo’s nuclear power generation, to counter Chinese power hold in South Asia. Meanwhile, the thrust of a recent article by India’s former envoy in UK, Kuldip Nayar implies that rather than the merit of the national question of Eezham Tamils attracting Indian attention, only the involvement of China and Pakistan may prod it to do something.
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Terror campaign in Jaffna: abducted youth tortured and beheaded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 21:27 GMT]
Mahendran Thiruvarudchelvam, known as Chelvam, abducted 9 days ago was tortured and beheaded as evidenced by his remains reaching Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Even though initial reports said that he had been abducted for a ransom of 8 million, his background and prevailing terror campaign in the SL-military-occupied Jaffna point to deeper motives behind his killing, human rights activists in Jaffna said. Mr. Chelvam, 28-year-old, and father of a child, was living in Vanni to the end of the war, spent some time in the internment camp and was released for resettlement. He returned to his native place Meesaalai North near Kanakan-pu'liyadi and started doing business as a vehicle dealer. The former residents of Vanni, whether they are in captivity or released, are viewed by the occupying military and paramilitary as objects for exploitation and then extermination.
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NLF leader complains to HRCSL on attack at airport

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2010, 14:15 GMT]
Dr.Wickremabahu Karunaratne, Leader of the New Left Front (NLF), Tuesday registered a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (SLRCL) regarding the attack on him and his party supporters at the Katunayake International Airport (KIA) during the first week of December on his arrival of London, human rights sources in Colombo said.
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