SLA continues fishing ban in resettled areas in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 07:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues its ban on fishing in the areas in Vanni where the uprooted civilians were resettled recently, allowing them access only to a space of 200 m from the shore, fishermen in Vanni said. Meanwhile, Sinhalese fishermen from South are permitted by SLA to freely fish with their trawlers in Mullaiththeevu seas, they complained. Despite Fisheries Minister’s assurance that the Southern fishermen will not fish in northern seas, they are welcomed by SLA to fish with their trawlers, they said.
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Scheme afoot to Sinhalicise part of Mullaiththeevu district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 09:36 GMT]
The leader of Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLF) and former MP Sivajilingam said in a press meet Tuesday in Jaffna that Sri Lanka government has built 5,000 houses for families of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on the east of A9 road between Maangku’lam and Mu’ruka’ndi with the aim to Sinhalicise Mullaththeevu district reducing the numerical strength of Tamil population. Sivajilingam accused the government for being a ‘dog in the manger’ as it refuses local and foreign volunteer organizations to assist the resettled uprooted civilians in Vanni who suffer without even food and drinking water. Government’s ‘Resettlement’ is nothing but taking the uprooted civilians from the camps in trucks and unloading them in places without any basic facilities, Sivajilingam further said.
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TNLA to launch protest demonstration against government

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 06:05 GMT]
Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) leader and former MP Sivajilingam said that TNLA will hold a large scale protest demonstration 2 August in Jaffna urging Sri Lanka government to disclose its decision on the state of persons held in detention and those who had disappeared after arrest by government armed forces, in a press meet held in Jaffna town Tuesday. TNLA has sought the cooperation of Leftist Front and the Committee for the search of disappeared persons in the South to hold the protest demonstration as it fears government obstruction and intimidation, he said.
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Child recovered dead from shrub jungle in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2010, 11:51 GMT]
The body of an unidentified baby girl was recovered from a shrub jungle at third lane along Paranthan-Mullaiththeevu on Friday, Sri Lankan police said.
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Parts of abandoned vehicles in Vanni sold with SLA connivance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2010, 05:54 GMT]
Parts of thousands of vehicles left abandoned by fleeing Vanni civilians during the final days of the war are dismantled by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and officers and sold to Sinhalese and Muslim traders from South, a Tamil trader who had bought such a spare part for his heavy vehicle told TamilNet. The dismantled parts are available for sale in most of the SLA bases along A9 road as well as in some SLA sentry post, he said. SLA soldiers and their officers are alleged to be making millions of rupees in this lucrative enterprise.
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SLA obliterates Tiger Heroes' Cemeteries, erects military bases

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 July 2010, 18:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which has been systematically razing to the ground without any traces the Thamizh Eezham Heroes War Cemeteries (Thamizh Eezha Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam) in several places of North and East, has in recent weeks obliterated the Thuyilum Illam at Kodikaaman in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, and is erecting a big SLA base in its place. Ellangku’lam Heroes Cemetery in Udupiddi in Vadamaraadchi had been already destroyed without any trace and the premises converted into an SLA base. The obliterated Thuyilum Illam is now enclosed by barbed wire fence and hidden by coconut cadjans where a large number of SLA soldiers are hurriedly constructing a base. Tamil circles view the systematic destruction of Tamil war heroes' cemeteries and the symbols of the Tamil struggle in north and East as part of a large-scale genocide programme on Tamils by the Sri Lankan state.
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Colombo sinhalicises Ampaa'rai District Secretariat

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2010, 04:38 GMT]
Biased Sinhala officials in Ampaa’rai District Secretariat have been taking steps to transfer all Tamil officials working there in an effort to convert it a Sinhala only office. As a first step a Tamil Assistant Director of Planning has been transferred out of Ampaa’rai District Secretariat causing hardships to Tamil people in the district.
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Person sending false SMS under detention

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2010, 17:53 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defence Ministry Thursday issued detention order to detain a manager of a mercantile firm for allegedly initiating a false SMS message claiming Black Tigers were to attack Anuradhapura on Poson Day.
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Clash of Roadmaps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 19:33 GMT]
The Mahinda – KP move handled by the military intelligence of Sri Lanka, whether a culmination of a long-term strategy or a move to probe the diaspora, is now backfiring against Colombo, is backfiring against some international actors harping on wrong notions of reconciliation and is backfiring against some elements in the diaspora which were long dreaming on the success of this move to trail behind with their tangential politics.
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Amunugama appointed acting finance minister to present 2010 budget

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2010, 11:08 GMT]
In a dramatic move, the Sri Lankan Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Sarath Amunugama was sworn in as the acting Finance Minister by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Tuesday morning before the latter left for Ukraine on an official visit accompanied by External Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris.
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SLA harasses resettled civilians in Vanni - TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2010, 03:15 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarians informed visiting British Acting High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Mr. Mark Gooding Monday, that the resettled civilians in Vanni are harassed by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers according to several complaints they had received from the resettled civilians in Vanni, sources in Jaffna said. TNA parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran, Sritharan and Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy met the visiting British envoy in a hotel in Chu’ndukkuzhi. The TNA parliamentarians also explained how the resettled civilians in Vanni have been left to suffer even without basic facilities that should have been provided prior to resettlement by government authorities, the sources added.
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Sand dunes scooped at Ma'n'niththalai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 07:56 GMT]
Similar to the plunder of limestone in the Jaffna Peninsula, agents of Colombo are now engaged in scooping the sand dunes of the Ma’n’niththalai sandbar, which is of immense natural beauty and of archaeological as well as tourist potentiality, sources in Poonakari said. The fragile ecology of the densely populated Jaffna Peninsula is deliberately destroyed by corporates in the construction industry and by their contractors, academics in Jaffna said. The plunder of resources in Jaffna and Vanni are divided among Douglas Devandanda and Namal Rajapaksa respectively. Meanwhile percentage of benefits from large-scale 'development' contracts goes to Basil Rajapaksa and the income extracted by the military goes to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, informed circles said.
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Supreme scrutiny

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2010, 12:34 GMT]
Starting Monday, for nearly a week, Senate confirmation hearings on US Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, the third potential woman justice in the highest court, will draw the attention of US television viewers. Analysts indicate Kagan's tenure, a life time appointment, will mark a complete alignment between the liberal-conservative split in the supreme court and the Democrat-Republican party presidential appointments. Kagan, if appointed, will become, together with her liberal collegues Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Bryer, the 4th appointee by a Democratic President.
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UPFA promises gone with the wind

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2010, 06:32 GMT]
The United People’s Freedom Alliance which had lavished promises prior to April general election including a monthly increase of 2500 rupees to public servants, on the contrary, has increased the price of essentials like fuel, flour, milk products and other services hitting the common man who had been already struggling to make ends meet. The Sinhalese people, kept under the spell of the ‘Victory’ of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime over the Tamils and the propaganda of 'Mahinda Chintana', but are becoming frustrated by the reality of spiralling prices of essential utility items while Rajapaksa regime is calculating ways to to benefit economically by playing the 'geo-political' card with the powers that are locked in a corporate race.
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Resettled Vanni civilians left uncared for

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 07:25 GMT]
130 families of uprooted Vanni civilians resettled four days ago in Oottuuppulam, a village along A9 road near Muruka’ndi in Ki’linochchi district had to seek shelter under trees in the pouring rain Tuesday night as they were not provided with tarpaulins to put up temporary shelter, a local NGO official in Ki’linochchi said. The resettled civilians had not been given even the dry food rations by government authorities in charge of resettlement in Vanni, he said.
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Colombo intensifies spread of Buddhism in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 17:51 GMT]
Buses carrying around two thousand Buddhist priests under heavy escort carrying a sacred statue of Buddha on a pilgrimage to Jaffna had passed Vavuniyaa Monday and entered Vanni main land through A9 road, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The buses, however, have not reached Jaffna until Tuesday evening and it is assumed that the Buddhist priests, on an urgent mission to spread Buddhism in the North, are engaged in some unannounced opening ceremonies of newly erected Buddhist Viharas in Vanni by the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) directed by Colombo government, sources in Jaffna said.
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Failure of international system results in slave camps for POWs

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 21:27 GMT]
The plight of the captured LTTE cadres and alleged supporters numbering more than 10,000 in the slave camps of Colombo is a direct result of the deliberate failure of the international system in not recognising them as Prisoners of War. The war broke out by Colombo breaching an internationally enacted peace. The war against the LTTE was internationally abetted. Personnel of some countries, especially India, were known for directly operating in the ground, proving the international dimensions of the war. The call for the surrender of the LTTE was made internationally. The Norwegian peace facilitator publicly made the call. Yet, the international system tries to maintain the issue as ‘internal’. The failure of the system in either not taking direct responsibility of the cadres or declaring them as POWs questions the credibility of the powers dominating the system, Tamil circles said.
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Janakaraliya inaugurates program of dramas in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 18:48 GMT]
Janakaraliya, Makkal Ka’lari of the people, with the assistance of Jaffna Education Department inaugurated Monday its program of dramas in ‘Mobile Theatre’ in Nalloor in the CMS School playground located near Jaffna Education Office scheduled to take place from 21 June to 02 July, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, V. Anandasangari of the TULF, who earlier backed Mahinda Rajapaksa during Colombo's war against the LTTE, condemned the program of Janakaraliya for being inappropriate in the context of war affected civilians suffering in Vanni and suggested that Janakaraliya could serve best by visiting Vanni and learn of the misery of Vanni people which could be portrayed realistically in their dramas.
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Intoxicating hubris

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 00:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is widely believed to be the key Sri Lanka official responsible for instituting procedures and issuing commands that allegedly violated international norms in the conduct of war, has provided enlightening clues to inner workings of his mind in several interviews recorded on film by reputable international media. "His unchecked power, authorized by his brother and Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, appears to have blunted his reasoning faculty, triggering him to compulsively express open threats against journalists and unwittingly admit to abject disregard for civilian casualties while issuing military commands. Many of his statements border on self-incrimination," said a spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group. A collection of Gotabhaya interviews are compiled in this feature.
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Northern Tamil building contractors forced to pay commission

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 06:26 GMT]
Northern Tamil Contractors Union (NTCU) in Jaffna complains that a man introducing himself as ‘School Engineer’ is engaged in obtaining five to ten percent commission from building contractors in Jaffna to be passed on to Northern Province Governor, Major General G. A. Chandrasiri. Meanwhile, it is alleged that the Governor has instructed the officials of the Northern Province Council to allocate contracts for building construction in the North only to Sinhalese contractors from South. While Basil Rajapaksa, the brother and senior advisor of President Mahinda Rjapaksa, is known as ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ in the matters of contracts, the Governor too is being seen as a person engaged in the same pursuit, NTCU circles said.
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