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.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Wattala

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 09:31 GMT]
A fifty two year-old Tamil civilian has been reported missing since Wednesday morning, according to a complaint by his relatives in the Wattala Police station. Wattala is in the suburbs of Colombo.
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Washington Post questions ethics in Indian media

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 November 2010, 11:51 GMT]
“Do you have in mind a clear political solution, even if you have not revealed the specifics?” Mr. N. Ram of The Hindu who was awarded ‘Sri Lanka Ratna’ gave the lead to Mahinda Rajapaksa in a recent interview. The Hindu, lobbying for Colombo, later titled the news “I have a political solution in mind: President Rajapaksa.” The Sri Lanka president in fact sounded vicious when he said “We defeated terrorists, not freedom fighters…What we refused to give Prabakaran, we won’t give to others,” and even on provincial elections he said “We can’t have elections under the 1981 Census,” indicating what schemes are hatching in his mind. Meanwhile, Indian journalists are accused of secretly helping politicians, businesses, said the lead of an article in Washington Post, Monday, in the context of a multibillion-dollar scandal causing the resignation of a DMK minister in the New Delhi Establishment.
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Opposition Councilors accuse JMC administration of embezzlement, corruption

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 November 2010, 06:48 GMT]
Eight opposition councilors of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) led by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) councilor, M. Remediyas have jointly released a media report Tuesday accusing the JMC administration run by ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of embezzlement and corruption. The councilors have also sent a detailed report of the misadministration of JMC by its Mayor, Ms. Yogeswary Patkunam and Deputy Mayor in collaboration with Sri Lanka minister Douglas Devananda, to the Governor of Northern Province. The councilors pointed out in their report that the JMC administrators continue to reject whatever proposals submitted by the opposition councilors.
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Indian High Commissioner visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 15:18 GMT]
The Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Mr. Asok K. Kantha is on a sudden visit to Jaffna where he is engaged in preparations to receive Indian Minister of External Affairs Mr. S. M. Krishna who is expected to visit Jaffna peninsula on 27 Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. The Indian minister will be taking part in the event of resettling families in the outskirt villages of the Sri Lanka Army (SLZ) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North that is to be presided by Sri Lanka Minister, Basil Rajapaksa, the sources added. Mr. S. M. Krishna will be opening an office of the Indian High Commission to Sri Lanka in Jaffna during his visit.
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Rajapaksa’s Ampaa’rai coordinator gets suspended jail sentence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 06:57 GMT]
Kalmunai High Court Judge Ms. Chandramani Visuvalingam Monday imposed a sentence of two years rigorous imprisonment that is suspended for a period of ten years on Kanthasamy Nishanthan alias Inniyabarathi, Ampaa’rai District coordinator for the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he pleaded guilty to the charge of threatening with death a former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian of the Ampaarai district Chandiranehru Chandrakanthan on 11.06.2007 at Thirukkoayil.
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Rajapaksa appoints 59 member-cabinet

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 November 2010, 10:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa Monday morning administered oaths to a fifty-nine member cabinet at the Presidential Secretariat. Nine senior ministers and forty-nine ministers are in the new cabinet. D. M. Jayaratne has been re-appointed as the Prime Minister.
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Sinhala persons from other districts appointed as minor employees in Batticaloa – MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 November 2010, 06:57 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian P. Selvarasa has sent a letter to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa protesting against the appointment of 17 Sinhala persons from other districts as minor employees in the government departments and in divisional secretariats in Batticaloa district. Meanwhile, Ven. Ampitiya Sumanaratne Thero, the chief monk of the Mangalaramaya in Batticaloa fasted unto death in August demanding Sri Lanka government to appoint Sinhala officers to the government departments in Batticaloa and to appoint a Sinhala person as the SLFP organizer for Batticaloa district besides demanding first preference to Sinhala people and Buddhist temples in Batticaloa district. He gave up the fast on assurances made by SL government that his demands will be met.
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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.
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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.
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TNA parliamentarians to study present political situation

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 16:40 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group is to meet Saturday and Sunday in its party office in Colombo to study the latest development in regard to finding a political solution and to the problems now faced by Tamil people in the North and East after the war. Meanwhile, the leader of the TNA and Trincomalee district parliamentarian R .Sampanthan has sent a congratulatory message to Mahinda Rajapaksa who was sworn in as Sri Lanka President for second term on Friday morning.
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TNA opposes move to appoint a Sinhala Vice-chancellor to Eastern University

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 15:57 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian C. Yogeswaran in a letter to Sri Lanka Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake has brought to his notice that steps are being taken to appoint a Sinhala person to the post of the Vice-chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka replacing the Tamil Vice-chancellor. Tamil academics in the East are perturbed over the alleged move by the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka to appoint a Sinhala person as the Vice-chancellor of the Eastern University that is located in Vantharumoolai in Batticaloa district.
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SC determines amendment bills consistent with SL constitution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 November 2010, 17:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Supreme Court has determined that the two bills, Local Authorities (Special Provisions) Bill and the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill presented in parliament last month on local government electoral reforms are consistent with the Sri Lanka constitution, the Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa announced Tuesday in parliament.
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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.
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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.
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Unidentified operatives attack JVP engaged in wooing Tamil support in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 15:02 GMT]
A gang of ten men arriving on five motor cycles to the residence of former Tamil parliamentarian, Pathmini Sithamparanathan Sunday around 6:30 p.m, assaulted the visiting Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party members, causing serious injuries to the group members including parliamentarian Sunil Handunneththi, who were engaged in talks with Ms. Pathmini Sithamparanathan. The injured were rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital. The extremist anti-Tamil JVP, which is now locked in waging a campaign against Rajapaksa family-rule in South, is attempting to woo Tamil support in Jaffna by highlighting the plight of the disappeared Tamils arrested by Rajapaksa's military. The attack by unidentified operatives on JVP has taken place a few hours after Namal Rajapaksa visited Jaffna to attend an opening ceremony.
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North, East already established as Tamils’ Homeland – Prof. K. Sitrampalam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 06:08 GMT]
“Banda-Chelva pact and Indo-Sri Lanka pact were based on the acceptance of North and East as the homeland of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. This concept should be first accepted and a constitutional reform based on it be brought to find a lasting solution for the ethnic issue,” Prof. S.K. Sitrampalam said Friday giving witness before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Jaffna Secretariat.
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Witnesses before LLRC accuse SLA for disappearances in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2010, 06:04 GMT]
All the persons who witnessed before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Ariyaalai and Neerveali in Jaffna Thursday accused Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) Intelligence Unit and soldiers for taking away their family members who had disappeared without trace after arrest, sources in Jaffna said. Hundreds of mothers, fathers and wives of the disappeared persons witnessed before the LLRC in Neerveali where the session continued even after midnight Thursday. The wife of Rangasamy Mahintharaj alias Reka who is said to be the former head of the Medical Wing of the LTTE too witnessed before the Committee in Neerveali, the sources added. Many witnessed directly while others submitted statements and appeals to the LLRC which is to continue sittings Friday and Saturday in Jaffna peninsula.
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LTTE senior official's wife witnesses on SLA war crime

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 15:07 GMT]
“I have not seen my husband Yogarathinam Jogi who was taken away by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vadduvaakal in Mullaiththeevu on 18th May 2009 after surrendering himself expecting general amnesty as announced by SLA that day over loud speaker,” the wife of Yogaratnam Yogi, a senior member of the LTTE said bearing witness before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) Thursday around 3:30 p.m in Ariyaalai Saraswathy Community Centre. In response to a question by Rajapaksa's LLRC panel Ms. Jeyavathy Jogi, who confirmed that her husband was Mr. Yogi, further said that she saw her husband being taken away along with 50 others including poet Puthuvai Irtathinathurai and Lawrence Thilakar who had surrendered themselves to SLA. “My husband surrendered himself to SLA believing that he will be given amnesty as assured by the SLA announcement,” Ms. Jeyavathy said.
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