Fonseka vows to break out of prison to protect masses

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 October 2010, 04:55 GMT]
Sarath Fonseka, former commander of the Sri Lanka Army while leaving the Colombo High Court Friday told media persons gathered there that he along with others remanded in prison by Sri Lanka government are prepared to break out of prisons and protect the people. He has been indicted in the trial at bar of the High Court for causing disrepute to the government by giving an interview to the Sunday leader.
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US War Crimes Unit receives list of Sri Lanka's missing Tamil surrendees

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2010, 21:32 GMT]
Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, submitted to the War Crimes unit of the U.S. Department of State, a list of persons known to have surrendered to the Government of Sri Lanka forces in the final stages of the war in the first five months of 2009 and who remain missing in custody as of October 2010. The list was compiled from witness statements and interview data collected by Tamil Diaspora groups in the UK.
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Sri Lankan police fail to protect harassed female ex-combatant

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2010, 09:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka police in Veala’nai in the islets of Jaffna have ignored the complaints made by a former underage female member of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on attempts made by a gang of ten men on 09 October to abduct and sexually abuse her in her relative’s house in Veala’nai. IOM and UNICEF officials who had facilitated her release from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camp and placed her in the custody of her relatives too have not taken steps to protect her from being intimidated by her tormentors even in Jaffna Teaching Hospital where she is admitted for treatment, the girl said. The family members who had given her refuge had been attacked by the gang and injured when they tried to protect the girl.
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HRW, ICG, Amnesty reject invite, slam LLRC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 October 2010, 15:25 GMT]
Three leading international organizations will not accept an invitation to testify before a Sri Lankan government commission because it lacks the ability to advance accountability for war crimes, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, and Amnesty International said in a joint letter to Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission that was released Thursday. The LLRC was set up by President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government, whose military campaign against the Liberation Tigers concluded in early 2009 with the massacre in systematic shelling of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians. “"This Commission is nothing more than a cynical attempt by Sri Lanka to avoid a serious inquiry that would bring genuine accountability,” HRW’s Kenneth Roth said.
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Indian Secretary General leads Commonwealth away from human rights

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 October 2010, 00:13 GMT]
Another instance of key persons in international organisations sabotaging international norms of humanity came to light when The Guardian leaked last Friday a document of the Commonwealth Secretariat. This time it was the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, an Indian national heading the organisation telling his staff that it was not their job to speak out against the human rights abuses of the 54 member states. The Secretary General ignored calls from secretariat staff urging him to express concern at least, when abuses were committed in member states in recent years, The Guardian said, citing specific cases including the course of war in the island of Sri Lanka. "All those cases were all about the values the Commonwealth is supposed to stand for and we failed," according to a staff member.
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IMF to discuss Sri Lanka's debt repayment terms

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 03:16 GMT]
A delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka next month, state owned Dinamina newspaper said in a front page report. During the visit, the delegation will meet with government official to discuss terms related to debt repayment and other issues related to the island's economic revival, the paper said.
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Fonseka not prepared to ask for pardon from Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 October 2010, 18:14 GMT]
Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, Monday told journalists in Colombo that he would prefer to serve life imprisonment and die in prison rather than asking for a pardon from “gangsters”. Mr. Fonseka talked to journalists when he was brought to Colombo High Court Monday by prison officials from Welikada prison for making his presence in “white flag” case.
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Former LTTE spokesman Ilanthirayan’s wife bears witness before LLRC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 October 2010, 06:13 GMT]
“I have not seen my husband after Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers took him away saying that he was to be given medical treatment and I do not know what had happened to him,” Vanitha Ilanthirayan, the wife of former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) spokesman Ilanthirayan (Rasiah Sivaroopan), said bearing witness before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) Saturday in Batticaloa District Government Secretariat. Meanwhile, Bobby, the wife of former LTTE Commander of Batticaloa district Piraba (Krishnapillai Pirabakaran), told the LLRC that she has no information of her husband who was taken away by SLA soldiers when they came along with the people to the SLA controlled Vadduvaakal area in Mullaiththeevu district when the war ended, sources in Baticaloa said.
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Sunday Leader Editor first witness in ‘white flag’ case

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 October 2010, 15:22 GMT]
Ms. Fredica Janz, Editor of the Sunday Leader, is listed as the first witness in the case against Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), related to the ‘White Flag’ issue. Fonseka, in an interview to the Sunday Leader, had alleged that Sri Lanka Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse had ordered not to spare any Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres surrendering with white flags but to shoot all of them dead. The case is scheduled to be taken up for inquiry before a three-member bench of the Colombo High Court presided by Deepali Wijesundera Monday.
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Police order Kalmunai Muslim youths to surrender weapons

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 September 2010, 16:07 GMT]
Officer-in-Charge of the Kalmunai Police warned this week that legal action will be taken against Muslim youths who fail to surrender their weapons and continue to engage in unlawful activities. Kalmunai Police have asked the Muslim youths who underwent military training under the leadership of late Muslim leader M. H. M. Ashraff to surrender their arms to the mosques in Kalmunai immediately to avoid arrest, legal action and imprisonment. During the second Eelam War that began on 11.06.1990 the Government of Sri Lanka gave military training to Muslim youths under the leadership of late M. H. M. Ashraff, founder President of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and provided them with machine guns.
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Fasting Sinhala Buddhist monk admitted to Batticaloa hospital

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 September 2010, 15:05 GMT]
Venerable Ambitiya Sumanaratna Thera, chief priest of the Batticaloa Mangalaramaya Vihare and the Deputy Chief Sanganayake of Batticaloa-Ampaarai district was taken to Batticaloa Teaching Hospital Tuesday night for emergency treatment as his condition was reported critical on the third day of his fast unto death campaign, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Buddhist monk on fast-unto-death, demands colonisation of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 September 2010, 09:26 GMT]
A Sinhala Buddhist monk, Ven. Ampitya Sumanaratna Thero, has been on a fast-unto-death campaign demanding construction of Buddhist temples in the predominantly Tamil-speaking Batticaloa district with Saivites, Christians and Muslims. The monk, who has on the fast-unto-death campaign for 3 days also demands appointment of Sinhala officers to Batticaloa District Secretariat, Divisional offices and Courts. The extremist monk said he would end his campaign only when Basil Rajapaksa, the brother of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, promises action on the demands and extends in person an apology for 'defaming' him in front of two former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leaders.
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Sarath Fonseka appears in court on ‘white flag issue’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 20:36 GMT]
The trial-at-bar in Colombo High Court Tuesday re-fixed the inquiry for October 4 and 5 in the case against former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka. Fonseka is charged for disclosing military secrets that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse had issued orders not to spare any of the LTTE cadres surrendering with white flags in the final battle and that the surendees should be shot dead.
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High Court begins inquiry against Fonseka on ‘white flag issue’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 04:31 GMT]
The Trial-at-Bar inquiry in the Colombo High Court against Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, began Monday. But the court comprising Deepali Wijesundera, H. N.P. B. Warawewa and Zurfick Raseen re-fixed the inquiry for Tuesday on receipt of a report that Fonseka was indisposed. Army Legal Officer Major Karunaratne further informed court that Fonseka had fallen ill Monday morning and was later examined by SL Navy doctors.
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ICJ blames Colombo for world's largest detention, cautions donors against complicity

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 September 2010, 10:18 GMT]
The International Commission of Jurists in a latest report has urged the International Community and the United Nations to extend 'rehabilitation' donor support only on condition of compliance with international law and standards, given the current legal vacuum and uncertain conditions under which at least 8,000 ‘surrendees’ are being detained by Colombo. Otherwise, those who provide support to Colombo's detention programme risk complicity in a policy of systematic mass arbitrary detention, the ICJ warned, in an in-depth report titled "Beyond Lawful Constraints: Sri Lanka’s Mass Detention of LTTE Suspects". In the report, the ICJ has characterised the detention as the largest mass administrative detention anywhere in the world. "[T]he mass detention has the character of collective punishment, which is prohibited in any circumstances under international law," the report said.
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India's reasons for banning LTTE false, fabricated: Vaiko tells Tribunal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 September 2010, 14:55 GMT]
MDMK leader Vaiko on Friday appeared before New Delhi’s Tribunal set to hear petitions against the ban of the LTTE in India, to argue that he should be involved in the hearing and to plead that the ban extended by the Central Government on 14 May 2010 should not be confirmed by the Tribunal. The very first reason given by GOI for the ban that the Tamil Eelam objective of the LTTE includes Tamil Nadu, falls to the ground to pieces as the LTTE never wanted to annex an inch of land of Tamil Nadu, Vaiko said, adding that GOI’s reasons are totally fabricated with falsehood. The Tribunal judge Vikramjit Sen was specific in raising the question “Don’t they [the LTTE] want to annex Tamil Nadu or part of India with Tamil Eelam?”
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Colombo bans explosives to Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 September 2010, 08:45 GMT]
Amidst suspicions arising about circumstances leading to dynamite blast at Karadiyan-aa’ru police station that killed around 62 and injured more than a hundred, the Colombo government has banned explosives reaching Batticaloa district for blasting rocks for road construction, reports from Batticaloa said. Meanwhile, eyewitness accounts confirm that a big number of dead bodies were taken away by SL armed forces that reached the spot shortly after the blast. Colombo maintains that only 21 killed and around 70 injured.
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'EU should coordinate powers to bring justice to Eezham Tamils'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 September 2010, 05:08 GMT]
While powers and countries like Norway, preoccupied with geo-strategy and ‘development’, ignore the fundamentals of the crisis in the island, the European Union should work towards convincing and coordinating them in bringing political justice to Eezham Tamils, said 62-year-old Jegatheeswaran Arunachalam, an Australian national who witnessed the war in Vanni to its end. The EU, consisting of old nations that have gone through the gravity of national question in history, is in a better position to grasp appropriate solutions, he said. “As an immediate action, the EU should send a fact finding mission that includes members of the diaspora, and it should work for an internationally guaranteed situation for the diaspora to independently reach out its kith and kin in the island”, Jegatheeswaran, now on a Walk for Justice mission across Europe with two fellow activists, told TamilNet Friday.
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US University calls for Sri Lanka war crimes investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 September 2010, 02:10 GMT]
The Human Rights law clinic at the Washington D.C.-based American University, in a report released to the media Friday, proposed that the United Nations should establish a War Crimes Tribunal for Sri Lanka. "The Tamil community's need for truth, justice, and redress will continue to be marginalized without outside intervention. Marginalization and impunity for human rights violations may once again lead to unrest in the country and will impede justice and accountability," the report said.
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Colombo Crime Division arrests press owner in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2010, 18:25 GMT]
A special team of Colombo Crime Division arrested the owner of Churapi Achchakam (printing press), C. Kuruthev, in Jaffna Tuesday and took him to Colombo for inquiry, sources in Jaffna said. Kuruthev’s brother, the General Manager of the Tamil daily Namathu Eezhanaadu, C. Sivamaharajah, had been assassinated at his house in Thellippazhai in August 2006. Sri Lanka Minister Douglas Devananda, the head of Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), had sought to acquire Churapi Achchakam to print a Tamil Daily in the name of Thinamurasu to which Kuruthev had not consented, media circles in Jaffna said.
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