Colombo's Archeology department intrudes into historic Hindu temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2010, 19:12 GMT]
Colombo’s Archeology Department officials, who have been frequently intruding into several century old Hindu temple of Thaanthaamalai Sri Murukan in Batticaloa, 10 days ago warned the devotees and the members of the temple management while they were attending a pooja, not to enter the shrine in future for any reason. Thereafter they took management committee members to the Ampaa’rai police station. The temple, revered by Saivaites in the East as ‘Chinna Kathirkaamam’ and the land in the extent of 25 acres that comes under Paddippazhai DS division in Batticaloa district was declared in 13 March 1959 as Saiva Sacred Area according to the decree entered by the Court of Law, temple sources said.
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Tamil Nadu leftists in South Africa gathering expose anti-humanity in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2010, 17:51 GMT]
Tamil Nadu leftist youth who went to South Africa for the gathering of international leftist students and youth, attended by 15,000 delegates from 126 countries, exposed the anti-human war Sri Lanka waged against Eezham Tamils. Speaking on the occasion, Dakshinamoorthy Lenin, the Tamil Nadu head of All India Youth Federation, described the war last year as genocide against Eezham Tamils, condemned Colombo’s treatment of Tamil youth, accused India for abetment through inaction, and pointed out that the war has not brought in political justice. Meanwhile, Colombo sent 180 politicians and youth to the event in a chartered flight along with Namal Rajapaksa and higher education minister S.B. Dissanayake. Unruly in defending Colombo, the SL team was reminded by the organisers that it was not ‘Sri Lankan parliament.’ Rallying international students stopped Dissanayake addressing a session.
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India continues grooming genocidal military of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 December 2010, 14:36 GMT]
As a goodwill gesture, India is expected to gift some military equipment such as shoulder-fired missiles and radars to Sri Lanka when Indian defence secretary Pradeep Kumar undertakes a two-day visit to Colombo from Monday, PTI reported Friday. The equipment, part of the assistance provided earlier to Sri Lanka to fight Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is planned to be gifted apparently to demonstrate India's efforts to help build the defence capabilities of Colombo in the backdrop of Chinese attempts to make inroads there, PTI further said. Kumar, who will hold talks with his counterpart Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, is also likely to discuss the future defence requirements of the Sri Lankan armed forces. If the war with the LTTE is over, against whom India is grooming a genocidal military, wonder Eezham Tamils.
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Jewellers stage lightening strike against continued crippling of trade in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 December 2010, 13:24 GMT]
Jewellers in Jaffna Friday closed their businesses against the arrest of three leading businessmen in their industry that took place the same day morning by a team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lanka Police from Vavuniyaa. In the melee due to the protest the Sinhala CID men chose to release two jewellers and took one trader into their custody. Jewellers in Jaffna said Vavuniyaa Police, deployed by Colombo government, was serving the hidden agenda of crippling the business activities of the Tamil traders in the peninsula to make way for the Sinhalese to capture it.
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Ultimate subjugation by making Tamils lie to themselves

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 December 2010, 22:51 GMT]
“Humanitarian operation will not stop until the painful memories of terrorism and all thoughts of separatism are removed from people's hearts. You pass out today to contribute to this noble humanitarian operation”, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who believes in “winning the hearts and minds” of Tamils by military terrorism of state, told the passing out cadets at Diyatalawa Military Academy Tuesday. The ultimate point of subjugation comes when Tamils are made to lie to themselves. After Rajapaksa demonstrating that through the captured doctors of the Vanni war, another example comes in Government Agent Imelda Sugumar ‘evidencing’ before LLRC. More than felt towards such victims or Rajapaksa, the Tamil anger is in fact felt towards the external elements that have brought out the situation and now either talk about ‘home grown’ solution or back Rajapaksa through their bankers.
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Forced prostitution, sex slavery with GoSL complicity – US cable

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2010, 02:39 GMT]
Forced prostitution and trafficking abroad for sex of Tamil children are amongst the organized criminal activities being undertaken with the knowledge of the Sri Lankan government by its troops and allied Tamil paramilitary groups, according to another Wikileaked US embassy cable from May 2007. The cable says these practices, which constitute war crimes, were raised “repeatedly” with Sri Lanka’s top leadership, including the President and top ministers. “The preponderance of [accounts] and the extent to which they independently corroborate each other points to a pattern of GSL complicity with paramilitary groups on multiple levels,” the then US Ambassador Robert Blake wrote.
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Nambiar, UN, undermine war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka, Burma

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, 08:48 GMT]
Unchecked for the role he played in the genocide of Eezham Tamils last year, Vijay Nambiar’s UN villainy is now targeting ethnicities struggling in Burma. The Burmese military now plans to adopt the Rajapaksa doctrine of military solution to the national question in Burma, with the backing of the same establishments that backed Rajapaksa, and Vijay Nambiar is in the scene again, facilitating the agenda and shielding the war crimes. A few days ago, UK has urged the UN to replace Vijay Nambiar by another fulltime envoy to deal with Burma. According to Mizzima News Wednesday, the London-based Burma Campaign expressed extreme disappointment on the approach of Nambiar befriending military generals and ignoring nations struggling for liberation. Meanwhile, the UN panel on Sri Lanka meeting Colombo’s LLRC has raised eyebrows in the human rights circles.
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Hathurusinghe, Imelda, deny existence of ‘High Security Zone’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 10:48 GMT]
Addressing media in Jaffna Friday, the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) Mrs Imelda Sugumar said that according to the briefing she had from Sri Lanka’s military commander in Jaffna Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, the nomenclature High Security Zone (HSZ) is inappropriate in the present context. According to the General, in the past as there was war between the LTTE and the SL government, people were evacuated from that area in order to save the public from getting trapped in the war, and as the SL government was providing security to that area it was called High Security Zone. Now it is only a zone ‘restricted to the public,’ the GA said. Meanwhile, the GA also said in the same press meet that it would take another 10 years to clear mines in the HSZ and resettle people there. But a map obtained from mine clearing agencies show a different picture.
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Imelda, Daya Master, felicitate Asian ‘peace laureate’ Hathurusinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 01:51 GMT]
The commander of Sri Lanka’s colonial military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, was felicitated by SL government circles in Jaffna, Thursday, for the Guci Peace Prize given to him in Philippines, which according to SL military web sites, ‘Asian equivalent of Nobel Peace Prize’. Mrs. Imelda Sugumar, the SL Government Agent of Jaffna was the chief guest for the felicitation that was coordinated by Daya Master, former LTTE spokesperson and now executive director of a paramilitary-backed television supporting Colombo. In a press meet the previous day, Hathurusinghe accused former LTTE members conniving with SLA as responsible for the robberies and other atrocities committed on people in Jaffna. While felicitating Hathurusinghe, Imelda attacked the editors of diaspora media for their bias and said that SL government and its military only help people in Jaffna.
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Fox cancels trip amid Sri Lanka War Crimes accusations

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 2010, 02:03 GMT]
Liam Fox, the British defence secretary whose friendship with Sri Lanka's President has been in the news during Rajapakse's visit to the UK early this month, was tonight forced to abandon a private visit to Sri Lanka this weekend after a row with William Hague, who feared that Fox would upset Britain's carefully balanced approach to Colombo, UK Guardian reported.
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WikiLeaks: Gotabaya sanctioned extra-judicial killings by Paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 2010, 01:08 GMT]
A WikiLeaks cable, dated 18th May 2007 from US embassy in Colombo, accuses Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse of giving orders to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commanders in Jaffna not to interfere with Tamil paramilitaries who are "doing "work" that the military cannot do because of international scrutiny. The work referred to in the cable includes extra-judicial killings, extortion, abduction and prostitution by the Tamil paramilitary groups EPDP and Karuna Group. Both groups are led by Ministers in the present ruling Government in Sri Lanka.
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Chief priest fired at by SLA gun succumbs to injuries

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 2010, 20:15 GMT]
The chief priest of Changkaanai Murukamoorthy temple, Nithiyananda Sharma, 56, fatally fired at in a robbery in the temple last week, died in the hospital Wednesday. The gun used in the firing belongs to the SLA, admits SLA military commander for Jaffna, Maj. General Mahinda Hathurusinghe. Briefing media in Jaffna, he said that two former LTTE members working closely with the SLA were responsible for the firing. But independent sources in Jaffna said that the two accused belong to the military intelligence of SLA. There were three who were involved in the firing cum robbery incident, according to witnesses.
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'Post-Tsunami failure of Co-Chairs promoted Colombo on genocidal war path'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 2010, 12:02 GMT]
The main event of remembering the victims of 26 December 2004 that claimed the lives of 41,000 people in the island, most of the victims from eastern and northern coasts of the Tamil homeland, is to be held at Veerasingkam Hall in Jaffna. Around 1.5 million people lost their homes in the Tsunami. Most of the victims along the coastal belts of Vanni and elsewhere have been denied of proper resettlement as Colombo waged a genocidal war on them, killing and maiming thousands of the Tsunami victims. The West, which had equal humanitarian access to North-East as well as to the South, failed to course correct the Sri Lankan state in addressing the post-Tsunami reconstruction. Instead, it relied upon appeasement tactics towards Colombo at that time and is still harping on the same string, said TamilNet commentator in Colombo responding to the latest comment by US spokesman, P J Crowley.
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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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SLA intelligence ‘leaks’ stories about robberies in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 December 2010, 22:08 GMT]
In an attempt to pass the blame and entrap the released LTTE cadres now living in Jaffna, the Sri Lanka Army intelligence has started ‘leaking’ stories linking the former LTTE cadres with the escalating robberies in the peninsula, media sources in Jaffna said. Among the two arrested by the police related to the firing incident at Changkaanai last week, one was an LTTE cadre escaped surrender, says the SLA. But the Maanippaay police investigating the incident denied any such information. It is said that one of the arrested had a T56 rifle and was responsible for the firing. How was he able to freely move with that gun and fire a volley of shots in an area completely controlled by the SLA, is the question raised by the public. The escalating robberies mostly take place in the areas of Kaithadi, Uduppiddi, Kodikaamam, Chunnaakam and Changkaanai, where the SLA presence is heavy.
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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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Wounds from Oxford fiasco linger

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2010, 15:49 GMT]
Cabinet spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, in a media interview conducted in Sinhala, pointed to the "weakness and inability of the British government to correctly evaluate the situation," and added that "[n]either the Thames Valley Police nor the British government could get away from the blame for their failure to give adequate security to President Rajapaksa and to his entourage by saying it was a personal trip." The Minister said the LTTE had been listed as a terrorist organization in that country and all activities carried out by the LTTE and its sympathizers had been banned, Daily Mirror reported.
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Colombo denies North Korean arms purchase

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2010, 14:57 GMT]
Following a report in the New York Times of the alleged Sri Lanka's purchases of rocket launchers from North Korea in the Spring of 2009 despite protests by American Diplomats, a senior Sri Lanka official involved in procurement of arms told local media that "there hadn’t been any transactions with NK [North Korea] for a long time." The official added that Sri Lanka "never purchased any arms, ammunition and equipment from North Korea during the war against the LTTE," according to the Island, a pro-Government Colombo daily. NYT wrote that "American diplomats have confronted foreign governments about shadowy front companies, secretive banks and shippers around the globe," saying information was obtained from recently released WikiLeaks cables.
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Opposition's War Crimes charge triggers inter-party squabble

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 December 2010, 04:15 GMT]
Leader of the House and a Minister in Sri Lanka's parliament, Nimal Siripala de Silva, challenged opposition Parliamentarian Karu Jayasuriya to submit evidence to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on the alleged human rights violations and war crimes committed by Sri Lanka soldiers, Sinhala daily Lankadeepa said.
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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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