SL minister threatens Mannaar UC not to restrict southern hawkers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 December 2010, 09:26 GMT]
The Sri Lankan minister for Industry and Commerce in Rajapaksa's cabinet, Rishad Bathiyutheen has warned the Urban Council of Mannaar not to collect taxes from southern pavement hawkers who have invaded the streets of Mannaar, causing reactions from the local business community and the public. Instead, the minister who is also from Mannaar has deployed his gang to collect money from the Sinhala hawkers. The daily collection of such taxes is around two hundred thousand rupees, UC sources said.
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Sinhala encroachment unabated in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 December 2010, 10:36 GMT]
Encroachment of lands belonging to Tamil people goes unabated in several villages in Batticaloa district despite assurances given by M.L.A.M.Hisbullah, a deputy minister for women affairs who also holds the post of chairman of the Batticaloa District Development and Coordinating Committee, and Deputy Minister for Resettlement Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan that they would take immediate action, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP P. Selvarasa charged at the District Development and Coordination (DDC) meeting, sources in Batticaloa Thursday said.
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US donates ambulances to aid SLA demining efforts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 December 2010, 14:50 GMT]
U.S. Ambassador Butenis presented five ambulances Thursday to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Chief of Staff Major General Daya Ratnayake to assist the SLA’s humanitarian demining efforts in the North, a press release from the Colombo US Embassy said. The vehicles will ensure that demining teams have emergency medical care and transportation at all times, according the release.
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Veteran Tamil scholar, politician Kaa. Po. Ratnam passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2010, 08:55 GMT]
Pandithar Kaarthigesar Ponnambalam Ratnam, a veteran Tamil scholar and a former parliamentarian who represented the electorates of Ki’linochchi and Kayts (Oorkaavaththu’rai) in Jaffna district on the tickets of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) and later on Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) since 1965 to 1983 passed away peacefully in his Colombo residence at the age of 96 Monday evening. His funeral is to take place Wednesday evening in Kanatte cemetery in Colombo.
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Mahinda doctrine deprives Tamils of irrigation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, 01:44 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan state with its 'Mahinda doctrine' has revamped the 50-year-old Sinhala colonisation scheme in the Ampaa'rai and Batticaloa under a new name tag, Navodaya, calling it a 'renaissance' programme and spending 1,260 million rupees between 2008 and 2011, one of the potential irrigation source of Tamils in Batticaloa, U'rukaamam tank in Paduvaan-karai, situated 20 km north of Batticaloa city, has been completely ignored. Two third of water in the tank is going waste without any benefit to the farmers under its potential reach. Dr.R.Rushanthan, Deputy Commissioner of Agrarian Development Services has said only thirty percent of those residing in the area manage to live with at least one meal per day.
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Tamil boy in Batticaloa wounded in gunfire by Sinhala policemen on meat hunting

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 December 2010, 11:40 GMT]
A 13-year-old Tamil boy who was playing near Karaveddi playground on Tuesday was hit by gunfire by Sinhala policemen who were on meat hunting 5 km west of Batticaloa town. Policemen on hunting have been firing indiscriminately on animals in the area causing panic among the civilians who live in the hamlets. The injured boy, Baskaran Vijayakumar, a 9th grade student at Naavatkaadu Naamaka'l Viththiyaalayam, has been admitted at the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital. Policemen targeting pigs in the jungle area use automatic rifles and fire several rounds, the civilians in the area complain adding that the residents in the densely populated areas have been hit by gunfire also on earlier occasions.
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Tamil media group, parliamentarian condemn attack on Batticaloa journalist

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 2010, 07:00 GMT]
Independent East Media Forum, a Tamil media group in the East, condemned the attack on Tamil journalist Manikapody Sasikumar, the correspondent of Thinakkural paper in Batticaloa by a group of unidentified persons. The attack cannot be considered as an act against an individual but on the whole media community in the district. The law enforcement authority should bring the culprits behind the attack to courts, the IEMF further said in its statement. Meanwhile, Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian P.Ariyanethran also condemned the attack on Mr. Sasikumar.
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Sri Lanka extends State of Emergency

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2010, 01:15 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s parliament Wednesday evening adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 130 votes. 145 parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituent parties voted for the motion. Fifteen parliamentarians from the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) voted against the motion.
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NLF leader Karunaratna's supporters assaulted at airport

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 December 2010, 01:51 GMT]
Supporters of Dr.Wickremabahu Karunaretna, leader of the New Left Front (NLF), Tuesday, who went to receive him at the Katunayake International Airport (KIA) on his return after a visit to London, were assaulted by aviation authority officials and a gang said to be sent by a deputy minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, according to complaint lodged by Dr.Wickremabahu Karunaretna, NLF sources in Colombo said.
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Sinhalese VC for Eastern University?

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 20:25 GMT]
A Sinhalese academic is likely to be appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University by the Sri Lanka Ministry of Higher Education. The Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister and several deputy ministers in the eastern province have given consent to the appointment, according to reports emerging from education sources in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr.C. Yogeswaran, made an appeal in the parliament recently that the steps now being taken by the government to appoint a Sinhalese as VC should be stopped as the Eastern University is located at Vanthaa'rumoolai in the Tamil dominated district.
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A’luth punchi ku’lama, Kugnchukku’lam

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 01:29 GMT]
The new small tank
The small tank
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Three vie for Jaffna University VC post

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 10:01 GMT]
The next Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University is to be named by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa from three names recommended by the Senate of the Jaffna University. Eight academics out of twelve contested for the post of VC but only the first three who polled highest number of votes were selected. Professor Ms Vasanthy Arasaratnam of the Medical Faculty received 14 votes, the incumbent VC Professor N. Shanmugalingan and Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole received 9 votes.
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More than 50,000 determined Tamils in Toronto pay homage to heroes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 11:14 GMT]
The temperature was freezing. Permission was half-hearted. Venue arrangement was last minute due to anticipated obstacles. Yet, a determined mass of 50,000 Eezham Tamils in Toronto, Canada, congregated on Saturday in four sessions in a temporarily built hall for the purpose, to pay homage to the heroes who laid down their lives for the cause of the liberation of Tamil Eelam. The hall was built on an open terrain where permission to congregate was granted, and the floor was paved with wooden planks to bear with the cold. The event was marked with heart-touching cultural programmes. Meanwhile, the resolution seen in the diaspora now makes Colombo think tanks to question their present strategy of countering the diaspora through hired Public Relations firms and lobbyists. The Tamil diaspora would out-bid the Colombo government they are afraid.
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SLA suspends resettlement in Valikaamam North HSZ villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 10:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Sunday suspended the resettlement of displaced people of three village (GN) divisions including I'lavaalai and Viththakapuram after the civil authorities ceremonialy launched resettlement of 970 families in Valikaamam North sector of Jaffna district on Saturday with a pooja at Nakuleasvaram temple, attended by EPDP leader and minister Douglas Devananda and Tamil National Alliance MPs. The military officials have said there were crucial security establishments with minefields on the way to the villages. As a result, the much awaited resettlement has again been postponed, this time for 'another month'. Meanwhile, informed sources said that the whole episode of resettlement was hurriedly staged at Keerimalai temple to coincide with the visit by Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna to Jaffna last week.
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SL High Court to decide on using Fonseka video on white flag case

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 17:57 GMT]
The three member bench of the Colombo High Court Monday said that it would decide on Wednesday whether the edited video speech of Sarath Fonseka, the former commander of the Sri Lanka Army, produced by the Attorney General could be accepted as evidence against him in a case in which he is indicted with causing disrepute to the government by a giving an interview to the Sunday leader, English weekly. Sarath Fonseka in that interview had alleged that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had instructed the Major General Shavendra Silva not to spare any LTTE member who came holding white flags, but to shoot them all dead.
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SL parliament adopts 2nd reading of 2011 Budget

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 17:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Monday evening adopted the second reading of the Budget for the year 2011 by a majority of 104 votes. 150 parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituent parties voted for the budget. 46 parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) voted against. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians abstained from voting.
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TNA to abstain from voting on 2nd reading of Sri Lankan budget

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 13:13 GMT]
Rajapaksa's government, which proclaims that it's priority is resettlement of displaced Tamil people, has not translated the words into deeds in its budget for 2011, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said in a press statement Monday. The TNA statement further noted that the allocation made for defence expenditure has continued to increase year by year even after the conclusion of the war and said that the TNA members have unanimously decided not to participate in the voting on second reading of budget on Monday. The TNA said its position was that Colombo should negotiate with the TNA, which is the elected representatives of the Tamils.
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This is a struggle for all of us: Vikramabahu tells Heroes Day congregation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2010, 12:57 GMT]
Tamils were killed by successive Sinhala chauvinistic governments and at last but not the least by the Mahinda regime. Not only Tamils but also thousands of Sinhala youth who were sent for aggression in the Tamil homeland and attack Tamils died in an alien land. The misery created among the Sinhalese will also show its reaction in future. This is a struggle for all of us. Yes, we have gone through defeat. Now we have to get up and fight to overthrow this chauvinistic military regime to have democracy in the land, said Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne, Secretary of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), who was a star speaker at the Maaveerar (Heroes) Day gathering in London, Saturday. The event attended by more than 50, 000 diaspora Tamils paid homage to the heroes who laid down their lives fighting for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.
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Indian External Affairs Minister Krishna arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 17:36 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister Mr. S. M. Krishna arrived in Sri Lanka on a three day visit Thursday evening by a special plane from New Delhi. He is accompanied by a delegation of twenty members. He was received at the Katunayake International Airport by his counterpart in Sri Lanka Mr.G.L.Peiris. Mr. Krishna is scheduled to meet a delegation of the Tamil Parties Forum on Sunday morning around 9:00 a.m and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) delegation around 10:00 a.m the same day in Colombo.
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Missing Tamil trader found dead

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 13:37 GMT]
The body of a Tamil trader Kanapathy Gunaratnam, 52, who was reported missing since Wednesday morning was recovered in Wellawatte Thursday morning, according to initial reports from the Wellawatte Police. The trader was a resident of Alwis Town in Wattala, a suburb in Colombo.
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