TamilNet launches Palaka'ni

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2010, 10:56 GMT]
TamilNet plans to launch shortly a weekly video programme Palaka’ni, fulfilling repeated requests from its readership to extend services in Tamil. The programme will have panel discussions on current affairs in Tamil. Even though constraints faced by TamilNet are manifold, we go forward in this venture considering the needs of the times. TamilNet appeals for continued support and cooperation of its readership, which has been the sole provider of support to the functioning of TamilNet until now. TamilNet reiterates its independent and democratic support to the national cause of Eezham Tamils. As an alternative media TamilNet may have to continue functioning in alternative ways to maintain its freedom, independence and commitment to the cause. Our request to the media world is not to view us in conventional terms but to help us in this experiment of information liberation.
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Swiss German media twists heart of the matter

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2010, 22:31 GMT]
While younger generation of diaspora Tamils respond to the times and express themselves through democratic protests such as the British youth Sivanthan’s war crimes awareness walk to Geneva, the Swiss German media NZZ portrays the long-standing national cause of Eezham Tamils as an LTTE idea. Parameswaran won his case against British media. But there is an orchestrated effort in the Western media from Canada to Geneva to blunt the liberation question in the name of 'terrorism'. Bulk of this media shamefully abetted genocide in the island. Are they now against terrorism or against liberation of a people and whether independent democratic transformation of liberation polity is sabotaged to bail out Rajapaksa and the genocidal state, ask Tamil diaspora circles.
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95 persons disappeared in Batticaloa district after SLA occupation

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 09:07 GMT]
Ninety-five persons including two women have disappeared without trace in Batticaloa district since Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupation of the district, according to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, P. Selvarasa. The youths who had left the Liberation Tigers and married leading a normal life and persons who had been supporters of the LTTE had been arrested or abducted by SLA Intelligence Wing with the assistance of Tamil paramilitary group of Pillayan and Karuna. These persons are among those gone missing. The abductors arriving in white vans during nights had taken away the persons who had disappeared since then, the MP said.
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‘Development’ conquistadors have no appetite for psychological need of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Psychotherapy provides meaning for the enormous suffering people have undergone to hope for the future and to hope for trust in the world, says Daya Somasundaram of the University of Jaffna, one of the very few psychiatrics serving the war affected Eezham Tamils in the island. Considering the long history in the island, the meaning comes only when Eezham Tamils get their land and affairs into their hands and when their nation is recognised. But the ‘development’ conquistadors of the West and India show no appetite for basic psychology needed for regeneration in the context of the island, commented Tamil circles, citing Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao who is scheduled to visit the island saying that conflict in the island had ended and India has to go beyond rehabilitation to look at development, without any reference to the crux of the matter.
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Refuse asylum to Tamil boat refugees, Sri Lanka tells Canada

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 23:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan High commission in Ottawa has made a representation to the Canadian Government urging Canada to refuse asylum and citizenship to the Tamil migrants who came to Canada on a ship seeking asylum, the state run Dinamina newspaper said in a front page news article. According to the article, Sri Lanka has claimed that majority of the Tamil migrants comprised of members of the LTTE organization.
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The Hindu review accuses LTTE for failure of peace

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 10:31 GMT]
“To those who knew that the ceasefire was built on a glaringly faulty premise — that the LTTE wanted a negotiated settlement within a united Sri Lanka — its eventual breakdown was foretold on the day it was signed,” writes, Nirupama Subramanian in reviewing a book in The Hindu Tuesday. The review was favourably highlighting a point that Tamil polity should drop ‘liberation’ to focus on securing economic rights for the people. “They are absolutely right since the development they mean is not even economic liberation of people,” responded Tamil circles, adding that the previous generation of Indians shouldn’t have asked for independence but should have focused on development the British colonialism was undertaking.
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Canada paints 'terrorism' to escape responsibility

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2010, 14:41 GMT]
Canadian government which tilted the balance by branding the defensive national struggle of Eezham Tamils as 'international terrorism' and was thus one of the abetters of Colombo in the war, is in its attempt to escape responsibility now breaches all bounds by painting a picture of 'terrorism' even for the arrival of refugees, Tamil circles said. "Canada government foments reaction over Tamil refugee boat," fans anti-immigrant prejudice, and boosts "Sri Lanka's authoritarian, communalist government - a government that is implicated in horrific war crimes," wrote Keith Jones in The World Socialist Website, Tuesday. Citing Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, he noted that Canada government may also use the country’s anti-terrorism laws to prosecute any Canadians of Tamil origin who helped fund the passage of their relatives to Canada on the MV Sun Sea, by linking the refugees to the LTTE.
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Police instructs Tamils in Kotahena to register their presence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2010, 04:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police Thursday early morning conducted a cordon and search operation in Kotahena in Colombo district for several houses from 4:30 a.m.. Police personnel engaged in the operation instructed Tamil residents to register their presence in the location with the police immediately. Some Tamil residents argued with the police personnel that there was no need for them to register their presence with the police as the clause to the effect had been withdrawn from the Emergency Regulations now in force.
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Colombo begins deluding campaign through ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 14:24 GMT]
Accusing the LTTE for missing the opportunity of ‘mega development’ and for walking out from the Peace Process on ‘flimsy grounds’, Sri Lanka’s former head of the Peace Secretariat, Bernard Gunatilleke inaugurated the misinformation campaign of Colombo while appearing before the ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission on Wednesday. However, Gunetilleke who emphasized that the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) demanded by the LTTE for return to negotiation could not have been granted by the government, didn’t attribute any reasons for it. Whether hoodwinking Tamils with ‘development without political solution’ is a long-contemplated strategy of Colombo and its abetters and whether it was this attitude that ditched the peace process is the question asked in the Tamil circles.
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Namal Rajapakse follows father to Nalloor Koayil

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2010, 01:00 GMT]
A delegation of government ministers including, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s eldest son, Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, have offered gratitude to the Saiva gods at the Nalloor koayil in Jaffna for 'helping' Mahinda Rajapaksa to complete the Hambantota Port project on schedule, the state owned Dinamina newspaper said in a front page article. The article pointed out that soon after the LTTE was defeated, the Sri Lanka's President, along with members of his government, had visited the Nalloor koayil seeking blessings to help 'develop' Sri Lanka following the defeat of the "terrorists."
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Malaysian Tamil leader hard on Sri Lanka’s abetters, urges boycott

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2010, 17:12 GMT]
Malaysian Tamil leader and Deputy Chief Minister of the Penang State Prof P. Ramasamy came hard on some industrial circles of Ceylonese in Malaysia buttressing Colombo in the name of ‘development. Speaking to media Thursday he urged global Tamils to boycott commercial pursuits of Karunanidhi family. Party decisions announced by him urged Malaysian government to take a serious view of the situation in the island and wanted war crimes investigation to cover the roles played by Indian Prime Minister, Home Minister, Congress Party leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. His party plans tabling resolution on war crimes investigation in the Penang State Assembly and internationally working for solutions to the national question of Eezham Tamils.
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Extremism of defeatism

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2010, 02:31 GMT]
Promoting extremism of defeatism is the latest ‘counterinsurgency’ weapon Colombo and those who abetted it in the war are trying on Eezham Tamils and especially on their diaspora in recent times. They do it for different purposes but none of them are prepared to come out with solutions other than subservience. Individual extremists of defeatism, who seek political space by upholding united Sri Lanka with wrong elements, are making the same mistake of their forefathers that haunt Eezham Tamils to this day and will continue to haunt their posterity. Eezham is the only rightful living space in the world for Eezham Tamils. Whatever geopolitical contests take place in the island the world will care only when Eezham Tamils have an independent polity for them.
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Surrendered students detained under PTA sit GCE A/L examination

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2010, 08:19 GMT]
Around 2,500 hundred students from the districts of Vavuniyaa, Mannaar, Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu in Vanni sitting for the GCE A/L examination which commenced Monday are among the 2,45,000 students appearing for the examination throughout the country. 367 students from the districts of Vanni arrested and detained under Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) claimed as members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are also sitting for the examination, sources in Jaffna said.
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HC applications to be filed by familes of disappeared LTTE key persons

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2010, 07:28 GMT]
The family members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham (LTTE) key persons gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) or surrender at the end of the war on Vanni are to file Habeas Corpus (HC) applications next week, sources Jaffna said. According to Sri Lanka minister D. Gunasekara the wives of LTTE senior key persons Balakumaran and Yogi are now widows. Some sources say that both had been killed after surrendering to SLA and some that they are held in special SLA detention centres. The contradicting and confusing information have led their family members to file HC applications, the sources added.
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Tutu: Persecution, disappearances in Sri Lanka, truely terrifying

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 2010, 01:09 GMT]
Cautioning that "the international response to Sri Lanka’s worrying approach to human rights, good governance and accountability as a ‘deafening global silence’ that may encourage other states to act in a similar way," Elders, an independent group of eminent global leaders, said Tuesday that "Sri Lankan government’s domestic conduct, as well as its recent unacceptable treatment of the United Nations in Sri Lanka warrants a firm, public response from its most influential friends – particularly China, India, Japan and the United States as well as the non-aligned group of countries."
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India sending special envoy to assess rehabilitation in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 August 2010, 23:41 GMT]
A special envoy from the Indian government is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka shortly to monitor the progress of the rehabilitation work and resettlement of internally persons in the northern province, the state run Dinamina newspaper said in a front page news article. The visit has been announced subsequent to an appeal made by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi who wrote to the Indian Premier Manmohan Singh to send a representative from the Indian government to scrutinize the work being carried out in the north and to ascertain whether the work is on schedule.
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Trial in ‘white flag’ case against Fonseka to begin on September 27

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 July 2010, 06:47 GMT]
Editor of the Sunday Leader, Frederica Janz, is one of the twenty witnesses summoned to give evidence before the Sri Lankan High Court Trial-At-Bar which is to begin on September 27 into the ‘white flag’ case against former commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka. Major General Shavendra Silva and Sri Lanka’s Representative to the UN in Geneva Kshenuka Seneviratne are among the other witnesses noticed to appear in court on September 27.
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SL minister includes spouses of Balakumaran, Yogi, among widows

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2010, 13:04 GMT]
According to Rajapaksa regime’s Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms minister and Communist Party leader, Dew Gunasekera, the wives of the senior members of the LTTE, K.V. Balakumaran and Yogaratnam Yogi are among the widows needing rehabilitation, The Island reported Monday. Both the LTTE leaders were reportedly seen reaching internment camps run by the Sri Lankan military, by many who went into those camps. The international community was repeatedly telling the LTTE to surrender to Colombo and civilians to get into barbed-wire camps of the Sri Lankan Army. The Army killed Balakumaran on the Vanni east front early last year, The Island says. There were earlier media reports that the leaders were taken to Colombo.
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US landing-ship visits Trincomalee for 'community work'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 09:13 GMT]
Sailors and marines from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbour, visiting Trincomalee last week were engaged in repairing broken bathroom sinks and toilets at the base hospital in Moothoor, said the official website of the United States Navy Thursday. Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan media reported Sunday that Sri Lanka shared her experience in fighting Sea Tigers with the US Navy during the three-day visit of the US Pearl Harbour. While some Sailors and Marines are planning to help with military-to-military training on board Pearl Harbor, others are planning on volunteering for medical assistance events ashore, The Sunday Island said.
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Weiss: Colombo dominated by racist ideologues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 23:28 GMT]
Arguing the reasons why Sri Lanka is making "fanciful" claims that "as many as half of all Tamil boatpeople have "links" to the Tigers," Gordon Weiss, UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka during the war, says "Its [Sri Lanka's] government is dominated by racist ideologues who promote the notion of the Sinhalese as a "chosen people." Government death squads have snatched thousands of people from the streets over the years. The country's highest court has explicitly rejected the role of international human rights instruments in Sri Lanka's affairs. And the government continues to deny that it killed civilians during the recent war, that there were battlefield executions, that it bombed hospitals, or that there is anything wrong with the sham democratic machinery of the state. The repressive creature of extreme nationalism is alive and well in Sri Lanka."
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