3 Malaysian citizens arrested in Wellawatte with LTTE photos

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 June 2009, 23:00 GMT]
Two Malaysian citizens staying in a lodge located along 37th Lane in Wellawatte in Colombo police division were taken into custody Wednesday by the police as they were suspected to be involved in LTTE activities. Police said they recovered a pen drive with LTTE propaganda matters from their room they occupied in the lodge.
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Camp conditions ‘not satisfactory’, ‘dust must settle’ for aid - Akashi

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 June 2009, 01:11 GMT]
Japan’s Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi, said Thursday that Colombo "has lots to do" to improve the conditions of those living in the overcrowded camps in the north, where there are shortages of food, water, sanitation and medicines, AFP reported. Saying that Sri Lanka needs to wait until "the dust of the war" settles before donors would take a closer look at the massive development aid needed to rebuild, Akashi urged Colombo to engage with the international community, Reuters reported.
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Neelson accuses NGO of supporting "dictatorship masquerading as democracy"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 June 2009, 11:35 GMT]
"When even the then supporters of the GoSL [Government of Sri Lanka] in Berlin, Paris or London have demanded an enquiry into war crimes and violations of human and humanitarian law in view of the estimated 20,000 mostly dead civilians during the last few weeks, when even the established media question the internment of 300,000 Tamil IDP, there is no way for any self-respecting intellectual or the critical public in general in the country concerned to pretend that the only problem left to be tackled is "humanitarian," said Prof. John Neelsen of Institute of Sociology in Tuebingen Germany in response to appeal for relief funds by the head of the NGO Foundation for Co-Existense's Dr Kumar Rupesinghe, accusing the NGO of supporting a "dictatorship masquerading as democracy."
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Bob Rae denied entry to Sri Lanka - report

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 June 2009, 09:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Wednesday denied entry to Bob Rae, a prominent Canadian politician outspoken in his criticism of Colombo’s military campaign and then Chair of the Forum of Federations, the constitutional NGO advising the Norwegian peace process during 2002 and 2003. Sri Lanka’s Immigration Commissioner P. B. Abeykoon said “intelligence reports” meant Mr. Rae should not to be admitted and was therefore detained when he arrived at Colombo airport and put on a leaving flight.
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SL parliament extends Emergency for another month

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 17:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Tuesday adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of ninety five votes. 102 parliamentarians voted for the motion and seven against. This was the first extension of the State of Emergency after the defeat of LTTE last month, sources said.
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Emergency extension motion to be moved in parliament Tuesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 June 2009, 17:48 GMT]
A motion to extend the State of Emergency is to be moved in the Sri Lanka’s Parliament Tuesday for the first time after the defeat of LTTE in the war front. The State of Emergency was introduced on August 12, 2005. Thereafter it is being extended with the permission of parliament every month, parliamentary sources said.
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Kandy court remands Mannaar Tamil woman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 June 2009, 14:35 GMT]
Kandy Magistrate Friday ordered remand for a Tamil woman who is a resident of Mannaar till June 16 on a report by the police that she was a suspected member of the LTTE and had been hiding in Kandy, according to media reports.
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UN chief calls for Sri Lanka war crimes probe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 18:37 GMT]
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon Friday called for an international inquiry into war crimes in northern Sri Lanka and sought the Colombo government’s agreement, press reports said. At a closed-door briefing for UN Security Council members, Mr. Ban called for a credible inquiry to be undertaken with international backing and full support from Sri Lanka's government, AP reported. He declined to elaborate on exactly how the inquiry should be done, but urged an examination of serious allegations of violations of international humanitarian laws, according to diplomats and UN officials who attended. Ban also told the council that Sri Lanka must refrain from any victory dance after defeating the LTTE.
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Do not approve IMF loan, Senators tell Clinton

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 12:55 GMT]
"With the [Sri Lanka] government still refusing to address any of the major concerns that you [Secretary of State Clinton] and others have raised, we believe it would send the wrong signal to approve the IMF loan. It would suggest that to gain international support, the Sri Lankan government did not need to heed the world community's concerns; it merely need to win the war. Before receiving major financial support, the government should first take at least some steps to reassure the world that it is adjusting its policies, by allowing access to the conflict area and international monitoring of the screening process...," said Senators Patrick Leahy and Robert Casey in a letter to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday.
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The Liberal Moment in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 12:39 GMT]
“For decades, the international community, especially the Western liberal democracies, have simply refused to confront the Sinhala chauvinism at the heart of the island’s crisis. Instead, it has blamed the LTTE solely. … Without the LTTE, it was unshakably believed, compromise, reconciliation and peace were inevitable. Now, according to Colombo, the LTTE is no more. However, what is taking place is something very different to liberal peace. The Sinhalese, it seems, have little interest in liberalism or peace with the Tamils. The question, however, is what is to be done, ” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week.
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Avoid witch hunt, HRW tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 03:34 GMT]
Noting that "Disappearances" of ethnic Tamils in the north and east and in the capital, Colombo, allegedly by members of the security forces or Tamil armed groups remain a serious problem, New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a press release issued today said, "[t]he Sri Lankan government needs to ensure that the abuses that occurred when LTTE strongholds fell in the past don't recur," and that Sri Lankan Government "should ensure that military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam does not result in new "disappearances," unlawful killings or the jailing of government critics."
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Sri Lanka rejects probes into slaughter of Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 03:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka has no plans to investigate allegations that its security forces massacred 20,000 Tamil civilians in the final stages of an offensive against the Tamil Tigers, and neither is Colombo willing to eventually accept an international probe, trade minister G. L. Peiris said Wednesday in Tokyo. "No, we don't regard that attitude as acceptable. That is some kind of inquisition," Peiris, a former peace negotiator said, according to an AFP report. Last week, leading British and French newspapers published their investigations, including interviews with UN officials, into the massacre.
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SLA searches for LTTE cadres in Vilpattu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 June 2009, 10:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched a search operation Monday in Vilpattu wild life sanctuary on reports of the presence of strangers received from residents of the area, according to media reports quoting SLA sources.
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Injured Tamil youth dies in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 21:26 GMT]
The Tamil youth Wimalan Satkunarajah, 29 who was shot by unidentified men on May 26 evening close to his residence located along New Chetty Street in Colombo succumbed to injuries Sunday evening in a private hospital. He was immediately admitted to the Colombo National Hospital but later transferred to a private hospital as his condition was reported critical, media sources said.
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Tamils unprotected under deteriorating Sri Lanka justice system – international lawyers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 June 2009, 10:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s judiciary is vulnerable to political interference and counter-terrorism legislation, in particular the emergency regulations, has had a detrimental impact on basic due process guarantees as well as freedom of expression, a high-level delegation of international lawyers say. Following its fact-finding tour, a report by the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) says “Sri Lanka’s justice system, legal profession and media are all under grave threat” under the government of President President Mahinda Rajapakse, which enjoys unprecedented popularity amongst Sinhalese. “Some members of Sri Lankan society, particularly those of Tamil ethnicity, are unprotected within the criminal justice system.”
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Leading journalist Podala Jayantha attacked in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 21:38 GMT]
Unidentified persons arriving in a white van forcibly took away Podala Jayantha, the Secretary of Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA) in Nugegoda in Colombo, heavily assaulted him, before throwing him out of the van at Ambuldeniya junction in Nugegoda, Monday, sources in Colombo said. Inspector General of Police (IGP), in an interview to state television Friday, had accused certain journalists being paid by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, (LTTE) and Podala Jayantha’s photograph was telecast in the interview along with some other journalists.
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Sri Lanka hunting media’s Tamil sources - RSF

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2009, 23:47 GMT]
Apart from threatening to prosecute journalists who attempt to visit the northern areas captured from the Liberation Tigers, Sri Lanka’s military is trying to identify Tamil civilians who provided information to the foreign press by infiltrating paramilitaries into their military-run refugee camps, RSF (Reporters Without Borders) said Friday. While the Army general appointed in charge of resettling refugees says “all foreign journalists are working against his homeland,” the country’s police chief claims that several journalists, “mostly Sinhalese”, were on the payroll of the LTTE and were involved in the insurgency.
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UN concealed carnage to keep Sri Lanka goodwill – Le Monde

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2009, 23:39 GMT]
The United Nations deliberately hid the number of Tamil civilians being killed during the Sri Lankan government offensive against the LTTE, according to a report in the French daily Le Monde. The report, translated by FRANCE 24, quotes several UN sources alleging that high-ranking UN officials, including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, chose to keep silent about the high civilian death toll so as to avoid offending the Sri Lankan government and maintain UN operations in the country. A low figure was even leaked by the UN in mid-May, when it was known that the real toll was approaching 20,000 dead.
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Sinhala thugs destroy Tamil shops in Badulla

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2009, 12:46 GMT]
Sinhala thugs broke open three shops owned by Tamils in Palakaduwa, a suburb in Badulla police division, and robbed the premises of valueables Wednesday night. The intruders attempted to break open two other shops but failed in their attempt and fled when neighbors rushed to the site, media reports said. Tension prevails among Tamil business community in Badulla town about their future.
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20,000 Tamil civilians massacred by Sri Lanka – The Times

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2009, 00:54 GMT]
Evidence gathered by The Times newspaper has revealed that at least 20,000 Tamil people were killed on the Mullaitivu beach by Sri Lanka Army shelling. Aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony collected by the newspaper “present clear evidence of an atrocity that comes close to matching Srebrenica, Darfur and other massacres of civilians,” the paper’s editorial says. Confidential UN documents acquired by The Times record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the ‘no-fire’ zone up to the end of April. UN sources said that the toll then surged, with an average of 1,000 civilians killed each day until May 19.
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