Nothing will happen by some welcoming UN report: Basil Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 18:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka President’s brother and SL Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa made an unannounced sudden visit to Jaffna Monday. Nothing will happen by some welcoming the UN panel report and ‘Tamils should not play treachery by betraying the country for a few thousand dollars,’ Basil Rajapaksa who was carrying a ‘special message’ from Mahinda Rajapaksa to the people of Jaffna said, while addressing a meeting at Maaviddapuram. Basil’s ‘message’ implied a warning against any evidence going out of Tamils in Jaffna on the war crimes and genocide committed on them, news sources in Jaffna said.
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SL minister intimidates resettled in Vanni to sign against UN report

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 12:55 GMT]
Similar to the show of a group of Sinhala thugs forcing passers by to sign petition against UN panel report in Jaffna city Sunday, a Sri Lankan minister CB Ratnayake lead the occupying military and military intelligence personnel to intimidate the resettled Eezham Tamils in Vanni to sign a petition Saturday and Sunday. Members of village and civil society institutions were summoned over the phone by the military to bring people to Ki’linochchi town and when they gathered, the group lead by Ratnayake forced them to sign the petition. The military deployed in the streets in large numbers saw to it that no one escapes signing.
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Tamils ignored in Administrative Service examinations

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2011, 12:22 GMT]
Tamils are ignored in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) competitive examination conducted by the Sri Lanka’s Department of Education. Not a single Tamil public servant has been selected from the SLAS competitive examination conducted in 2010, sources in the Department of Education said. Applications were called in for the said examination in 2009. More than thousand Tamils sat for the examination held in Colombo and Jaffna.
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Occupying SL military threatens TNA politicians in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2011, 11:40 GMT]
While building up democratic politics in the north and east is reiterated as a prerequisite for ‘reconciliation,’ the genocidal SL Army occupying Jaffna under the command of ‘Asian Nobel Peace Laureate’ Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe is engaged in intimidating politicians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the most favoured political formation in the north and east, and the people who come into contact with it, news sources in Jaffna said. The occupying army particularly threatening people resettled in the so-called High Security Zones that “the TNA should not come here, if they come you will be chased out again,” shows that there is a long-term agenda in the Army to take Tamil politics directly into its hands, the news sources further said.
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Sivajilingam interrogated for calling military to vacate Valveddiththu’rai town

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2011, 09:09 GMT]
Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam was summoned on Thursday by the occupying Sri Lanka military in Valveddiththu’rai and was interrogated for about half an hour. The reason for the interrogation was his manifesto for the forthcoming local body elections in which he has called for the shifting of the SL military camps from the Valveddiththu’rai town area, as they cause much inconvenience to the free movement of the public, alleges Mr. Sivajilingam, who contests for the Town Council of Valveddiththu’rai under TNA ticket.
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Powers, corporate interests behind personal wars in The Hindu

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 May 2011, 10:53 GMT]
“In a shocking display of bad faith,” N. Ram, who has become the Editor in Chief of The Hindu in 2003, “by stealth,” postpones his retirement agreed upon last year, and “seems bent on taking all the editorial directors—most are in their 50s--into retirement with him with a scorched earth policy to ensure that no one in the family succeeds him,” accuses N. Ravi, who is the Editor of The Hindu since 1991, writing an open letter to media brethren in April in The Hoot, the website of the New Delhi-based Media Foundation. However, Ravi’s long list of accusations that include the projection of Ram as pro-left/ pro-China, has no reference to the role he played against Eezham Tamils, suggesting, Ravi and Ram as well as the forces behind them are the same on the question of the liberation of Eezham Tamils, commented diaspora media circles.
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Robert Blake visits Ki'linochchi, learns the plight of Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 18:08 GMT]
Robert O. Blake, the US assistant secretary of state for the South and Central Asian affairs visited Vanni for the first time on Tuesday and learned the plight of Tamil civilians, affected by the genocidal war waged by the Sri Lankan state in 2009 and continue to suffer in the hands of the SL military. The occupying SL military didn't allow journalists to witness the event, which was scheduled as monitoring the ‘development’ activities supported by the USAID, the lead development agency of the US government. However, civilians who had the opportunity to raise their plight with Mr. Blake, who came to witness the programmes for unemployed youth and the farmers, said they got an opportunity to raise their concerns and got a chance to respond to the questions from the visiting US diplomat.
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Ooraaththu'rai (Kayts), Pa'n'naiththu'rai, Matara

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 06:45 GMT]
The port of ships or small ships
The port of large boats or cargo boats
The big port
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NorthEast Tamils still under military rule, says TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 May 2011, 03:16 GMT]
Two years after the end of the war, Tamils in the North and East are still living under the yoke of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), said Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.P.Ariyanenthran. "Colombo government and its supporters are saying that the peace has returned with the end of the three decade old war.
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ITAK urges internationally supervised negotiations with GoSL

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2011, 09:20 GMT]
Two veteran Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) politicians, C.V.K Sivagnanam and Mavai Senthirajah, on Sunday urged international supervision of a process that guarantees both a proper negotiation process and the implementation of results in the talks between the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). The two officials of ITAK, a key party of the TNA, in their address urged that both the governments of India and Tamil Nadu to play a sincere and constructive role to bring about an international supervision that should include China, USA and other world players. In the meantime, the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) condemned the agents of the Sri Lankan state for forcing Tamils from all the districts in the North and East to take part in May Day demonstrations in Colombo, organized by Sinhala extremist elements against the UN Expert panel report.
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Sinhala extremist federation wants Rajapaksa to terminate talks with TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2011, 05:42 GMT]
The Federation of National Organizations, a coalition formed by ten Sinhala extremist groups in the south, has requested the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to terminate its talks with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a statement issued on May Day, coinciding with the protest show of Mahinda Rajapaksa against the UN Expert Panel report. Meanwhile, Tamils from several parts of the island were forcefully taken to Colombo by Sri Lankan military, paramilitary and other agents to showcase as people from all ethnicities were united in the protest against the UN. However, a dead silence prevailed in the SL occupied country of Eezham Tamils throughout the whole day on May Day.
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Ampaa'rai DCC meeting conducted in Sinhala only

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 April 2011, 11:02 GMT]
The civil authority of the Ampaa'rai administrative district, where seventy five percent are Tamil speaking officers, is conducting the meeting of the District Coordinating Committee (DCC) only in Sinhala excluding Tamil language, complained district Parliamentarian Mr.P. Piyasena who has been supporting the Mahinda Rajapakse led United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). He was elected on the ticket of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the last general election held in April 2010 from the Ampaa'rai electoral district.
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'Thanthai Chelva pioneered political course of Eezham Tamils'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 05:37 GMT]
“The first Republican Constitution of 1972 gave the last rites to the slow death for ethnic relations in this country that started when a unitary constitution was handed to us by the departing British,” said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr. M A Sumanthiran, while delivering Thanthai Chelva Memorial Speech at New Kathiresan Hall in Colombo, Tuesday, remembering 34th death anniversary of SJV Chelvanayakam, who founded Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi in 1949. To prove Tamil opinion rejecting the 1972 constitution, Chelva resigned his parliamentary seat and won a by-election. After leading the most favoured Tamil political party and struggling for federal solution for more than 25 years that found no success with Sinhala leadership, Chelva ultimately presided over the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution that called for Tamil independence in 1976.
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ITAK chooses Colombo to observe SJV's 34th death anniversary

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2011, 13:49 GMT]
The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), main constituents of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is scheduled to hold the thirty fourth death anniversary of its founder leader Thanthai S.J.V.Chelvanayakam on Tuesday in Colombo-Bambalapity New Kathiresan Hall, projecting the topic of the memorial event as "finding lasting peace through power sharing". The event is being keenly watched by Colombo political circles at a time when the country is in tension with the leaking of the UN Experts Panel report alleging war crimes allegations against the Rajapakse government and the TNA welcoming the UN Experts Panel report.
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Police sentry in East University to continue says SL Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2011, 11:51 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister of Higher Education S.B.Dissanayake has said that the SL police sentry located in the premises of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) at Vanthaa'rumoolai in Batticaloa district would not be removed for any reason and the security of EUSL would be handed over to one of the three ‘security establishments’ of the government, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) or to the Special Task Force (SLF) if necessity arises.
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SL occupation of hospitals, schools harm resettlement in Vanni - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 12:20 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Vanni, S. Sritharan, has blamed the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Vanni for continuing to occupy public buildings, including primary hospitals and schools, causing severe hardships to resettling civilians. The accusation by the TNA MP comes following District Development Committee (DDC) meeting held in Jaffna on Tuesday, when Medical Officers brought to the notice of the DDC that if the Poonakari primary hospital, now occupied by the Sri Lanka Army, is handed over to them, they would resume services to the resettled civilians.
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Rajapaksa uses SL military to distribute Indian aid

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 12:12 GMT]
Much controversy arose at the Jaffna District Development Committee (DDC) meeting held on Tuesday over the selection of the beneficiaries for the houses to be built by the Indians and the way the SL authorities were handling the distribution of tractors gifted by India. The SL Presidential Secretariat has instructed the Divisional Secretaries to send ‘recommendations’ through the area Brigade Officers of the SLA. The SL Government Agent, Imelda Sugumar, who denied knowledge of the housing project proposed by the Indian Government, said the SL Presidential Secretariat was handling the distribution of Indian aid.
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Sinhalese being settled in Tamil village in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2011, 11:02 GMT]
Lands in abandoned traditional Tamil village Thennaimaravaadi in Trincomalee district are being allocated three acres each to members of ‘home guards’, now known as Civil defence Force (CVF), dominated by Sinhalese. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Trincomalee is organizing the transfer of land on the instruction of the SLA headquarters in Colombo without the approval of local civil authority, Tamil sources allege.
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Petitions, complaints, warnings from Sri Lanka ahead of UN war crimes report

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2011, 22:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government has launched a petition campaign against the UN making public an expert panel’s report on war crimes committed during the final months of the island’s war. The campaign, launched Thursday by Sri Lanka’s Minister of Private Transport Services, C. B. Ratnayaka, aims to collect one million signatures. It comes two days after President Mahinda Rajapaksa called for annual May Day rallies to be directed against the UN report. Also on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister G.L. Peiris claimed releasing the report will damage the UN, while Mass Media minister Keheliya Rambukwella claimed the experts had written the report in just two weeks. The UN said earlier it will be releasing the much anticipated report on Friday.
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Indian public opinion should take care of Russia meddling with Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2011, 21:51 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa is harping on Russia and China to escape international action on war crimes and to continue the well-planned genocide of Eezham Tamils unabated. Regrettably, Russia sees the current accelerated process of structural genocide and dismemberment of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island as ‘reconciliation’ that should not be disturbed by war crimes investigation. On Monday Russia raised a number of ‘procedural’ objections on UN discussing the panel report. According to Inner City Press Thursday, Colombo’s UN representative Palitha Kohona insisted that there was “no mechanism” to bring the matter to the Security Council and that “We have Friends”. Whether Russia is acting on own or at the behest of somebody else, public opinion in India should take care of Russia, writes a Tamil political activist in Colombo.
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