Maheswaran’s remains cremated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 18:58 GMT]
United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians took over the casket containing Maheswaran’s remains from his family Thursday around 2:30 p.m. at his residence in Wellawatte and the cortege, and the funeral procession went along Galle Road and several areas in Colombo to reach Kanaththai cremation grounds in Borella. Homage was paid to the Tamil parliamentarian, who was assassinated while worshiping in Colombo Ponnampala Vaa'neasvarar temple on New Year Day, before the body was cremated.
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91 civilians still held in Boosa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 January 2008, 12:22 GMT]
Ninety one civilians including eighty nine Tamils and two Sinhalese are still being detained in Boosa detention camp located in Galle, south of Colombo, without any charges. Eight of them are Tamil women, and most of them are residents of Nugegoda, a suburb in Colombo.
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Mahinda Rajapaksa has won the confidence of India- Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 December 2007, 15:19 GMT]
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan defence secretary and the brother of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an exclusive interview to state owned Sunday Observer, claimed that the relationship between Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in an all-time high, and has reached the same level of trusted relationship that marked Srima-Shastri period. While, Rajapaksa, in 2006, demerged the NorthEast Province, breaching the Indo-Lanka accord, Gotabhaya has recently posted the U.S. trained Director of Military Intelligence as the Eastern Commander, expressing confidence that Colombo would be successful in holding elections in the East.
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Police instructs Tamils in Moneragala to register details

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 December 2007, 16:19 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police has instructed all Tamil residents above the age of ten in estates Muppanavalli, Maragala, Kumarathola and Ulaanthawa in Moneragala district to register themselves with their photographs with the respective police stations immediately. Those who fail to comply with the directive would be punished, the police has warned, residents said.
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Home guards to protect key highways in border villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 December 2007, 15:41 GMT]
More than one thousand Sinhalese youths are to be recruited as home guards to protect key highways in the north central province. Habarana- Minneriya, Polonnaruwa-Punaani, Polonnaruwa- Alangahavilla, Habarana- Kanthalaai and Kebittigollwa- Padaviya roads, are included in the list of high priority highways to be safeguarded in the first phase of the new security measures taken by Sri Lanka Government, sources said.
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English proficiency vital for success in global world: LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2007, 20:52 GMT]
"Eelam Tamils have excelled in military science and geo-political affairs at an International level. For our people to acquire skills and knowlege to succeed at the global level, opportunity and facilities to attain high levels of proficiency in English is critical," said B. Nadesan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in his commencement address at the English Language College (ELC) in Ki'linochchi, on Saturday. The ELC, a Tamils' Rehabilitation Organization (TRO)-funded college, was established on September 13, 2004 to produce educators to fulfill the shortage of competent of English teachers in the NorthEast.
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Nadesan calls for attitudinal shift in rights approach

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 December 2007, 13:17 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka remained unperturbed despite severe criticism from U.N representatives who had visited the island and confirmed the large-scale violation of human rights against Tamils, because it continued to receive military and monetary aid from those who actually condemn the human rights violations, charged Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan, Monday, on the International Human Rights Day. Declaring that the human rights violations by the GoSL in SLA-controlled areas was nothing short of a "systematic genocide of the Tamils," he called upon the International Community to use "severe pressure" against Colombo to put an end to the flagrant violation of human rights.
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UK: LTTE must change its ways, no intervention in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 December 2007, 22:10 GMT]
The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Dominick Chilcott, said Monday that President Mahinda Rajapakse must make an offer acceptable to moderate Tamils because the LTTE would not accept a negotiated solution within a united Sri Lanka. Mr. Chilcott accepted, however, that the President had to be able to “sell the solution” to the majority Sinhalese. The international community has no plans to intervene in Sri Lanka to exercise the responsibility to protect, he further said.
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Thissamaharama villagers locate skeletons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 December 2007, 13:54 GMT]
Bendawewa villagers in Thissamaharama, Wednesday morning, located two skeletons of Sinhalese cattle herders who were reported missing in October, Police said.
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Gunmen shoot dead two Sinhala traders in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2007, 11:31 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen Thursday noon shot and killed two Sinhalese civilians at Iyangkea'ni in Ea'raavoor, Police said. Ea'raavoor is located 12 km northwest Batticaloa.
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Police arrests 6 Tamil speaking persons in Tangalla

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2007, 17:23 GMT]
Tangalle Police on Tuesday arrested 6 Tamil speaking persons, including 2 Muslims, and detained them on suspicion after some Sinhalese registered their suspicion as the group of persons were seen conversing in Tamil. Tangalla, a coastal town is situated 63 km east of Galle and 37 km west of Hambantota in the Southern Province.
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Sinhala doctors unlikely to accept Jaffna vacancies- Director

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2007, 18:59 GMT]
Although Sri Lanka Health Ministry has appointed 69 newly qualified doctors to Jaffna peninsula to fill the urgent shortage of doctors, the success of this effort is likely to be limited as more than 50 are Sinhalese, and due to the extraordinary situation prevailing in Jaffna peninsula many will decline to accept their positions, Dr. A. Ketheeswaran, Director of Public Health Service (DPH) Jaffna said. Further 24 of the new appointees are assigned to positions in the divisional hospitals, and DPH is finding it difficult to provide proper residential facilities, the director added.
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Thileepan statue destroyed in Nalloor, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007, 05:23 GMT]
A gang of unidentified men went on rampage Sunday night, during the curfew hours, demolishing the statue of Lt. Col. Thileepan (Rasiah Parthipan) located behind the historic Nalloor Kanthaswamy Koayil on Point Pedro Nalloor road, sources in Jaffna said.
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TRO denies U.S. accusations, says proscription will harm Tamil people

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 November 2007, 20:23 GMT]
Expressing dismay over U.S. Department of Treasury's action against the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), and reiterating that TRO is NOT a "front to facilitate fundraising and procurement for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," the TRO, in a press release issued Sunday, stated categorically that "all funds received are utilized according to the wishes of the donor, in line with the stated mission of TRO, to assist the tsunami and war affected populations of the NorthEast. None of these funds are, or have ever been found to have been, misappropriated for use by any other organization or used inappropriately by TRO itself."
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Eelam and Indian Security: Need for policy alternatives

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2007, 23:33 GMT]
"The history of the past sixty years has brought us to a point that makes separation a necessary condition to renegotiate a union on an equal basis," writes Ampalam in the concluding part of his opinion column. "We live in a time witnessing the European nation states that gave birth to modern nationalism and fought two world wars, involving the entire world for the sake of their nationalistic competition, coming together as European Union. The Asean countries have set a similar agenda. Such wonders became possible when there were no conquests or outside interferences. Perhaps it is much easier to come together and achieve unity if the concerned parties are free to choose," he writes.
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Eelam and Indian Security: Averting a Catastrophe

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2007, 03:30 GMT]
The isolation of the LTTE and active assistance for a military option against it by the International Community, may lead the LTTE and the people backing it with no option other than facing the situation. The repercussions are sure to threaten Indian security for a long time to come. The major responsibility lies with the governments concerned in avoiding a catastrophe to the already suffering masses of Sri Lanka. The gap between the Government of India and the LTTE is a serious impediment in bringing out a balance in the crisis management. A situation of having outraged people on either side of the Palk Strait is unaffordable to Indian security, writes Opinion Columnist Ampalam.
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U.S. editorial advocates confederation, urges arms embargo against Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 12:12 GMT]
Advocating arms embargo against Sri Lanka, Boston Globe in an editorial appeared Wednesday, quoted Human Right Watch's letter to members of the U.S. Congress that "there has been a significant jump in abuses by government forces such as indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial executions, and forced disappearances," recommended that "arms sales to Sri Lanka be conditioned on that government improving its human rights record and accepting a United Nations monitoring mission to protect civilians caught in the conflict," and pointed out "current US policy contradictions," in U.S. donating military hardware to Sri Lanka Navy while urging Sri Lanka to seek a negotiated peace.
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Policy study assesses Sri Lanka conflict

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 November 2007, 01:36 GMT]
A policy report on Sri Lanka conflict by East-West Center, a U.S think-tank based in Washington D.C, suggests "both LTTE terrorism and the ethnocentric nature of the Sri Lankan state, which resorts to its own forms of terrorism when fighting the civil war, need to be overcome if the island is to become a liberal democracy."
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British MPs slam Thamilchelvan ‘assassination’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2007, 01:28 GMT]
Parliamentarians from all of Britain’s main political parties this week condemned as an “assassination of a moderate Tamil leader” the killing of Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, head of the LTTE’s Politcial Wing, by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) last Friday. The All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, which earlier this year had urged the UK government to invite Mr. Thamilchelvan to the British Parliament so that he could articulate the LTTE’s perspective, also called for peace talks.
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International community is letting war decide Tamils' fate - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 November 2007, 14:15 GMT]
By allowing the Sri Lankan state free rein and supporting it to wage war, the international community has made any rights the Tamils secure depend entirely on the battlefield outcome, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. "The military has for two years blasted villages, driven hundreds of thousands from their homes and continues to abduct, torture and murder…For all the noise about human rights (and much of that has dissipated now), the state actually wants for nothing. Ironically, the more the international community is convinced the LTTE can be defeated, the freer the hand it will have."
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