SLA guns down trauma affected male in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 12:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers on A9 Road opened fire on an uprooted Tamil along the A9 road Friday afternoon near Puththoor junction in Meesaalai. The victim was a psychologically affected male due to the war last year. The soldiers harassed him prompting the victim to attack a soldier and gunned him down, civilians in the area said.
Full story >>

British High Commission clarifies cancellation of Rajapaksa's Oxford event

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 20:07 GMT]
As a cabinet minister in Rajapaksa government called for a protest against the British Government in Colombo on Friday, the British High Commission issued a statement Thursday stating the planned address by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in London was a private event organized by the Oxford Union and the Sri Lankan High Commission in UK. The British Government was not involved in that event, it said. On Wednesday, The Times of India reported on Wednesday that Rajapaksa embarked on the trip after British government assured him diplomatic immunity.
Full story >>

Vanni parliamentarian Mashoor dies of heart attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 05:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Vanni District Parliamentarian Noordeen Mashoor died from a heart attack on Thursday morning. He reportedly died at a private hospital in Colombo, according to media sources in Colombo.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Vanni schools face closure due to torrential rain, negligence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 09:03 GMT]
Education department sources have warned that schools in Vanni are facing closure due to continuous torrential rain. Majority of schools including in Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Mannaar, and Vadamaraachchi East have been functioning in temporary shelters. Classrooms have been under water due to rain. Members of several families have also sought refuge in temporary shelters put up in schools as their houses are also under water. Hence education authorities have asked students not to come to schools which are located in rain affected areas.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Swiss Tamil youths launch 'Thamizhan' Energy Drink

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 21:34 GMT]
Two Tamil youths in Switzerland on 26 November 2010 launched an Energy Drink named 'Thamizhan' and announced that the income generated through the sales of the product of their private firm would be fully invested to form and sustain a foundation-managed fund that would strengthen the democratic interests of the Eezham Tamil cause, the owners told TamilNet Friday.
Full story >>

Rains flood low-lying areas in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 19:27 GMT]
Jaffna peninsula is experiencing persisting rains since Wednesday and the most affected are the families from Vanni resettled in low-lying areas lodged in tin sheds and tarpaulin covered huts, sources in Jaffna said. The uprooted families who had lived in temporary makeshift structures in the camps suffer the same life even after being resettled. Jaffna Fort, Kurunakar, Pommaive’li and Kaakkaitheevu in Jaffna town are some of the places where residences and other buildings are submerged in floods.
Full story >>

New Secretaries appointed to ‘Mahinda Chintana’ government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 12:24 GMT]
55 Secretaries, the highest civil servants of the ministries appointed Tuesday by the President of the Colombo government Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, were advised by him to discharge their duties properly according to the ‘Mahinda Chintana’, reports Daily Mirror. Structuring the ministries in his second term of office, Mr. Rajapasksa handed over new appointment letters to the secretaries of the various ministries. The Mahinda Chintana list of Secretaries has one Tamil and one Muslim among the 55. The lone Tamil secretary is appointed to the Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development for which Mr. Douglas Devananda is the minister.
Full story >>

Ex-Liberation Tiger combatant student in Jaffna University attempts suicide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 07:25 GMT]
A first year Arts Faculty student in Jaffna University, a released ex-Liberation Tiger combatant from Vanni, tried to commit suicide Monday by taking overdose of tablets, sources in Jaffna. Meanwhile, the parents of a former Liberation Tiger combatant who had been rehabilitated after arrest and later released to join his family complained 18 November to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office that their son is continually threatened by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit officers and men when he appears to sign at the SLA Intelligence Unit camp as instructed. The 23-year-old student who attempted suicide is admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where the Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University, Professor. N. Shanmuagalingan visited him.
Full story >>

Paintings depicting horror of war on Vanni exhibited in Bergen

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 November 2010, 14:50 GMT]
The Tamil students of Bergen University held an exhibition at the Bergen University Student Centre paintings by Tamil Nadu Artist Kuzhanthaivelu Pugazhenthi titled ‘The Faces of War’ Friday and Saturday, depicting the horror suffered by Eezham Tamils in its Fourth War and the heroic sacrifice and valour of Liberation Tigers, sources in Oslo said. The exhibition drew a large number of Norwegian students on the first day while the students of Bergen Tamil School viewed them on the next day.
Full story >>

SLA victimizes released ex-Liberation Tiger combatants in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 November 2010, 05:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers and intelligence wing men threaten the owners of the shops and other places which had given employment to the ex-Liberation Tiger combatants released after arrest and rehabilitation not to employ them, sources in Jaffna said. Many of them, intimidated by SLA are sending away the ex-Tiger combatants who have no other means to earn their living. Meanwhile, the families which had come from Vanni and settled in Jaffna peninsula complain that they are under the strict observation of the SLA. The young men and women who had been employed in civil sector of the Liberation Tigers too are victimized in this manner by the SLA and its intelligence wing men, the sources added.
Full story >>

Ramanathan Trust endows land to Upcountry Tamil tenets in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 17:39 GMT]
In a significant move Friday, the president of Sir. P. Ramananthan Trust, former senior professor S.K. Sitrampalam, donated the lands of the Trust in Ki'linochchi to 60 families of Upcountry Tamils who were long-term tenets of those lands. The families uprooted in the recent war were unable to claim housing aid supposed to come through an Indian aid programme in the absence of ownership-documents of the lands, which they were inhabiting for a long time. The Ramanathan Trust was owning 330 acres of productive farmland in Ki'linochchi, which was settled by the Upcountry Tamils for several decades.
Full story >>

SLA intensifies surveillance on ‘outsiders’ visiting Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 17:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Vanni have instructed all schools and other such public institutions and organizations in their areas to inform them in advance if any political persons, representatives of volunteer organizations and Non-government Organizations (NGOs) from outside Vanni visiting their places. On such occasions SLA being informed beforehand sends its men to watch and record the proceedings of the meetings and events conducted or attended by the above ‘outsiders’, according to complaints made by some school heads in Vanni to a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian.
Full story >>

UK billboard announces Tamil Eelam National Remembrance Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 04:26 GMT]
As part of the global Tamil Eelam community’s events to mark National Remembrance Day on November 27, expatriate Tamils in London have sponsored a public billboard. The Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO), an activist group comprising Tamil students and young professionals, coordinated the effort. “We wanted to express the significance of this day for Eelam Tamils, when all of us across the globe are united in remembering the sacrifices made so that the Tamil people could one day live in peace and dignity in their own homeland,” Nisha Mariyathas, TYO spokesperson told TamilNet.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Chinese companies begin road extension work in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 05:45 GMT]
China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group, China Aero Technological Engineering Group and China Hydro Corporation, the three Chinese companies that have undertaken the road development projects in the North of Sri Lanka funded by China, began their projects in Jaffna Sunday. Namal Rajapaksa, son of Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa and MP for Hambantotoa, inaugurated the projects in Jaffna peninsula accompanied by SL ministers G. L. Pieris, Douglas Devananda, Jaffna Government Agent Ms. Imelda Sukumar and parliamentarian Ranga, sources in Jaffna said. The team of SL ministers and parliamentarians had inaugurated similar road development work in Vanni Saturday.
Full story >>

Assassinated TNA parliamentarian Raviraj remembered in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2010, 05:15 GMT]
Hundreds of people participated in the fourth anniversary memorial event of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Nadaraja Raviraj held Sunday around 3:30 p.m in Va’ra’ni in Thenmaraadchi. Professor Kathasamy, Dean of the Science Faculty in Jaffna University and a close friend of Raviraj, delivered the memorial speech while former TNA parliamentarians, Selvarajah Gajendran and Ms. Pathmini Sithamparanathan offered flowers and paid tribute to Raviraj, sources in Thenmaraadchi said. Raviraj had been conferred with the title Maamanithar (Great Human being) by Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>