New evidence emerges on war crimes committed on Isaippiriyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 19:26 GMT]
The gruesome killing of 27-year-old LTTE journalist Shoba (Isaippiriyaa) is a clear case of war crime committed by Sri Lanka Army, as evidences come forth indicate. Isaippriyaa never went for any kind of military training. She was exempted by the LTTE from such training, as she was a patient of Rheumatic Heart Valvular Disease, says a medical practitioner who was working in Vanni and who has personally seen her taking Echo Cardiogram test conducted by visiting US and Australian cardiologists. Until 8 May 2009 she was working as a volunteer in the Mu’l’livaaykkaal makeshift hospital. She was taken by SLA on 23rd or 24th of May 2009, while staying in D8/ Zone 4 of the Cheddiku'lam internment camp, according to the wife of the medical practitioner, a media worker who was also interned in the camp at that time.
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Sri Lanka’s police stations get own buildings in Ki'linochchi, Maangku'lam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 12:34 GMT]
Sri Lankan Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne on Friday opened two new buildings for two key police stations in Vanni, which have been functioning the buildings of LTTE-run administration, at Maangku'lam and Ki'linochchi.
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Repercusssions from Oxford debacle spills over to Sri Lanka's parliament

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 03:17 GMT]
A parliamentary Select Committee is to be appointed to inquire if the opposition United National party (UNP) MP, Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, had acted in contravention against the Sri Lanka's Constitution, State run daily Dinamina said. Ruling party alleged that the MP instigated the protests by Tamil activists in UK that resulted in the cancellation of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse's speaking engagement at the Oxford Union. Both the government and even the main opposition, United National Party (UNP) agreed for the setting up of the committee.
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One did not fly over

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 04:54 GMT]
It was billed as a ‘private’ visit. But when Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse flew to Britain on Monday, the entourage he took with him included Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris, Education Minister S.B.Dissanayake and even a Provincial Council member, Nauzer Fauzi, amongst other politicians. Also came Sri Lanka Army Major General Chagi Gallage – though he was Thursday reportedly scrambling to find a flight out to escape an arrest warrant UK lawyers are building a case for. The only member of President Rajapsksa’s entourage not to get a visa to Britain, The Times newspaper reports, was Tamil paramilitary leader and ruling party Parliamentarian, Douglas Devananda.
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Weerawansa calls for protest against British High Commission

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 19:27 GMT]
Blaming the British government for 'failing' to provide 'adequate security' to the visiting Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, a minister in the Rajapaksa's cabinet Wimal Weerawansa Thursday called for a protest in front of the British High Commission in Colombo on Friday. In July 2010, minister Weerawansa staged 'devil dance' in front of the UN office in Colombo demanding the UN to dissolve the expert panel announced to investigate allegations of war crimes and human rights violations in the island. The protest against the UN turned violent and Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa went to the extent of threatening the police officers who were protecting the UN office from the violent protesters.
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Leaked video shows LTTE commander Ramesh in SLA custody

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 12:36 GMT]
A video clip has surfaced on YouTube Thursday showing LTTE's Batticaloa Commander Col. Ramesh in the custody of Sri Lankan soldiers, after he reached Sri Lanka Army captured Vadduvaakal with civilians on 18 May 2009. TamilNet has been in contact with a person who witnessed Ramesh reaching Vadduvaakal unarmed on 18 May. The eyewitness, fleeing the island, also confirmed that Ramesh was identified by the SLA personnel and separated from civilians. The latest information on Ramesh is the 34 seconds video that has been leaked out on the Internet.
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Rajapakse, brothers responsible for alleged War Crimes in Sri Lanka, says leaked US cable

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 01:20 GMT]
In a startling setback for the war-crimes concealment agenda of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, and his siblings holding high level positions in Sri Lanka's defense and civilian sectors, a January 2010 cable from US Embassy in Sri Lanka, made public by Wikileaks Thursday, acknowledges that U.S. is cognizant of the fact that "responsibility for many alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka." Ambassador Butenis further reasons the lack of progress in internal investigations: "There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power."
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Woman victim in Channel-4 video identified as Journalist Isaippiriyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 12:53 GMT]
One of the women victims, stripped naked, hands tied behind back, and shot dead, as seen in the video footage that has recently reached Channel-4 has been identified as 27-year-old Shoba, with nom de plume Isaippiriyaa, who worked as media specialist with the LTTE, according to the TamilNet Vanni correspondent who recently reached a free country in the West. “I am able to learn through those who have been at Mu'l'livaaykkaal in the final days of war, that Shoba remained unarmed and did not take part in combat," the Vanni correspondent told TamilNet, adding that Shoba lost her 6-month-old baby girl, named Akal, in the last stage of the war. TamilNet refrains from publishing the cruel video, but instead publishes a video footage of Isaippiriya as a reporter from LTTE's O'liveechchu video magazine.
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SL High Court to decide on using Fonseka video on white flag case

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 17:57 GMT]
The three member bench of the Colombo High Court Monday said that it would decide on Wednesday whether the edited video speech of Sarath Fonseka, the former commander of the Sri Lanka Army, produced by the Attorney General could be accepted as evidence against him in a case in which he is indicted with causing disrepute to the government by a giving an interview to the Sunday leader, English weekly. Sarath Fonseka in that interview had alleged that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had instructed the Major General Shavendra Silva not to spare any LTTE member who came holding white flags, but to shoot them all dead.
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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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Indian FM harps on failed 13th Amendment in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 09:16 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who ceremoniously opened an Indian Mission near Kantharmadam junction in Jaffna, failed to deliver any positive message to Eezham Tamils on India's position in resolving the national question. Mr. S.M. Krishna harped on the failed 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, a model Tamils have rejected as inadequate in guaranteeing their rights and he also failed to touch the territorial integrity of the North-Eastern Province which was de-merged by Rajapaksa government that disregarded the earlier arrangement that has been in practice for several years following the Indo Lanka Accord.
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Poet Kasi Anandan speaks to Palaka'ni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 05:03 GMT]
Mu'l'livaaykkaal is only a turning point in the Tamil Eelam struggle, says veteran national poet of Eezham Tamils Kasi Anandan to the audience of Palaka'ni, the TamilNet window for cross-views that features its inaugural programme on Saturday. “The Tigers have silenced their guns. To what extent the chauvinism of the Sinhala state could go, the international community has yet another opportunity to understand now. But, has it ever accepted that what is being committed is a genocide," he questioned. Any struggle that is based on righteous principles will win. Eelam Tamils should understand this and proceed, said the 72-year-old Batticaloa-born poet, who has been associated with Periyar E.V.Ramasamy Nayakkar, S.J.V Chelvanayakam and Velupillai Pirapaharan.
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Heroes Day - 2010

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 00:01 GMT]
At the height of the Vanni war, a representative of the Biafra struggle sent a message to TamilNet. He wanted the Eezham Tamils to remember that they were fighting not merely for them, but for the cause of many peoples like them all over the world. If the Eezham Tamils fail they fail the world of liberation, he said. He wanted the message and his best wishes to be conveyed to Vanni. That is the international dimension of the heroes of Tamil Eelam. They fought for the liberation of their nation and at the same time fought for a missing point in contemporary human civilisation. Many thought that Biafra could never be repeated in contemporary times and that too in ‘civilized’ South Asia. But there were people who adamantly wanted to prove that it is possible. Remembering the heroes in 2010 should remind us of the duty ahead of us towards ourselves and towards human civilisation.
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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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Leaflets calling people to observe Heroes’ Day distributed in Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 11:52 GMT]
Unidentified men arriving on motorcycles Thursday morning entered Jaffna University premises and distributed leaflets calling the people of Jaffna peninsula to observe the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Maaveerar (Great Heroes) Day on Saturday. The men had quickly left the campus to the chagrin of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna who assume that Jaffna University and its surroundings are under their tight control, sources in Jaffna said. Wall posters calling people to observe the Heroes’ Day are found pasted on the walls in the environments of Jaffna University. The leaflets and the posters had a photograph of the LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan which shows him paying his respects to the Great Heroes who had sacrificed their lives to the cause of Tamil Eelam, the sources added.
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Sarath Fonseka discharged from prison hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 November 2010, 07:42 GMT]
Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and the leader of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA), was discharged from the prison hospital and sent back to his cell at the Welikada Prison Saturday afternoon, according to Commissioner of Prisons Major General. V.R. Silva. He was suddenly taken ill after he returned from the inquiry in the Colombo High Court in a case in which he was charged for causing disrepute to the government by giving an interview to the Sunday Leader, English weekly published from Colombo. He was then immediately transferred to prison hospital.
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Major General Shavendra Silva gives evidence in “white flag” case

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 10:39 GMT]
Major General Shavendra Silva, now posted as Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative in the United Nations Monda, gave evidence before a three-member bench of the Colombo High Court in a case in which the former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka has been charged for causing disrepute to the government by an alleged interview to the English weekly Sunday Leader. Sarath Fonseka is reported to have alleged in that interview that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ordered Major General Shavendra Silva to shoot all LTTE cadres dead who come forward to surrender holding white flags.
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Man posing as SLA Major arrested in Ki’linochchi for extortion

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 10:57 GMT]
Ki’linochchi police arrested Sunday a man posing as a Major in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and three men led by him. He had taken 150,000 rupees from each parent of the LTTE cadres now held in the custody of the SLA, promising that he would get them released, police sources said. The gang led by the man posing as army major had claimed that they could get their children released when about 300 LTTE cadres would be brought to Ka'n'nakipuram Central College in Ki’linochchi Sunday morning, the police said.
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Paramilitary-employed Daya master says ex Tiger members unable to secure jobs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 17:23 GMT]
“All the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants detained should be released under general amnesty and steps should be taken to reunite them with their families enabling them to lead a normal life,” V. Thayanithy, who was once an employed media coordinator of the movement, said while 'witnessing' at a session before Mahinda Rajapaksa's 'Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission' (LLRC) in Oorkaavattu’rai St. Henry’s Church, in the islets of Jaffna on Sunday. 'Employers are reluctant to give jobs to the rehabilitated and released former LTTE combatants. They are unable to lead a normal life and they should be assisted to rejoin the society, Mr. Thayanithy said.
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SLN, EPDP intimidate LLRC witnesses in Jaffna islets

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 10:57 GMT]
Members of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Intelligence Unit and of the Eealam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) Sunday intimidated many potential witnesses who were planning to appear before the Lesson Learnt & Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) during its sessions in the SLN controlled islets of Jaffna, persons present at the sessions said. Some government officials too are alleged to have assisted the intimidators. A press reporter who had filmed a man intimidating one of complainants had threatened the reporter with death and when this was brought to the attention of the head of LLRC with the assistance of the officials of American and Norway officials present at the site, the man was arrested by the police who recorded his statement and let him free, the sources added.
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