Tension grips Tamil business community in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 11:54 GMT]
Tension has gripped the Tamil business community in Colombo and its suburbs after Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers called on them to register their assets with the local authorities. The soldiers had called on the community with a printed form which has to be filled with every miniature detail from the type of enterprise, to assets such as vehicles, etc, members of the family, relatives and employees. The Tamil business community is perturbed over this new regulation since they have already registered themselves with the relevant police divisions.
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Jaffna fort to be readied for new colonial masters

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 10:35 GMT]
In the name of archaeology the Dutch fort of Jaffna is going to be renovated by the Department of Archaeology of Sri Lanka as an abode for visiting Colombo’s dignitaries and Sinhala Buddhist ‘pilgrims,’ news reports say. The fort of Jaffna, originally built by the Portuguese and made into its present form by the Dutch in the 17th century, never ceased to be a symbol of oppression to the people of Jaffna. It never became the cultural property of Tamils to whom it rightfully belongs. After the so-called independence it served as provincial prison, quarters for the Sinhala security forces and the King’s House inside was the guesthouse for Colombo’s politicians. The Sinhala politicians who burnt the Jaffna library in 1981 executed it from the King’s House and the police that killed audience and disturbed the 4th International Tamil Conference in 1974 came from the fort.
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Legal action against Tamil MPs calculated, partial – Defence Attorney

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 October 2009, 12:44 GMT]
”There are many who had addressed ‘Pongu Thamizh’ events held in various places in Sri Lanka then, now functioning as government ministers, deputy ministers and leaders of political parties. But cases are filed only on four Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians accusing they had addressed ‘Pongu Thamizh’ rallies in countries like Germany and Australia in 2006 with the intention of partitioning Sri Lanka. Therefore this is a case of calculated and partial act,” argued K. V. Thavarajah, Senior Attorney-at–law, appearing on behalf of TNA parliamentarians, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, P. Ariyanethiran, Selvarajah Gajendran and K. Sivajilingam, in Colombo Chief Magistrate Court, Tuesday, with Magistrate Nishantha Happu Araachi on the bench.
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Eastern Province CM unable to stop Sinhalese colonization – Ariyanenthiran

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 October 2009, 08:41 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA), P. Ariyanenthiran who was able to visit his constituency after three years Friday said that Sinhalese families from the South have been colonized in Choaliyaamadu village in Paddiruppu Regional Secretariat division in Batticaloa district. He told media that the Chief Minister of Eastern Province, though a Tamil, cannot stop traditional home lands of Tamils being colonized with Sinhalese families.
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Emergency extended in Sri Lanka for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 17:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Thursday adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency by another month with a majority of seventy votes. Eighty-two parliamentarians from the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the National Freedom Front (NFF), the rebel group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) voted in favor of the motion. Twelve Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who were present at that time voted against the motion. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) abstained from voting. Parliamentarians of the JVP were not present in the House at that time of voting. The State of Emergency is being extended by the parliament monthly since August, 2005.
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Mass graves fear prevents Colombo from seeking demining help - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 11:35 GMT]
"The Sri Lanka government fears that, if the international community gets involved in the de-mining, they may stumble on to mass graves of Tamil victims killed during the last stages of fighting between the Sri Lanka military and the Tamil Tigers," said Parliamentary Group Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R. Sampathan, on Thursday accusing the Sri Lankan government of refusing to accept foreign assistance towards the de-mining parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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Colombo has plans to colonize North with Buddhist Sinhalese – Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2009, 17:06 GMT]
The government of Sri Lanka is actively engaged in colonizing Ki’linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Jaffna district with Sinhalese Buddhists in order to crush the demand for Eelam in the traditional homelands of the Tamils in the North, Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna parliamentarian, said in a press meet held Monday in his Jaffna office. He further accused the government for not accepting help from International Community in de-mining Vanni as it does not want the persons from foreign countries to see the mass graves of civilians killed by its armed forces in the Vanni during the war. The MP also said that though the government says that it had resettled 40,000 IDPs from Vavuniyaa internment camps, 95% of them have been again detained in new internment camps in their respective home districts under the direct control of Sri Lankan forces.
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UNHCR helps stranded pregnant IDPs to leave Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2009, 15:28 GMT]
Officials of the UNHCR Monday sent a batch of 124 pregnant IDPs with their relatives to Jaffna. They had been staying in the wedding hall of the Vavuniyaa Sivan Koayil from September 29 since the refusal of permission by the Sri Lanka stating that they were not issued with proper clearance by the civil authority.
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JMC mayor, deputy to take oath before President

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2009, 16:32 GMT]
Eealm People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) sources in Jaffna said that the successful candidates of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) proposed to hold office as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) will take the oath 12 October in front of Sri Lanka President, Mahinda Rajapakse at his official residence, Temple Trees, in Colombo. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of JMC had already taken the oath while the UPFA members will be taking the oath in front of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor after 12 October, the sources added.
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Tamil, Muslim party leaders call for end to forced detention

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2009, 02:23 GMT]
Five Tamil and Muslim party leaders in a joint communique issued Wednesday stated that "the forcible detention of hundreds of thousands of Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka in camps for Internally Displaced Persons is illegal, without basis in the Constitution and in gross violation of international human rights norms," and called for immediate action to "end to military administration and restrictions placed on civilians, and we urge the restoration of full civilian administration to facilitate return to economic and social normality."
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Tamil detainees in Anuradhapura prison suspend fast on condition

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 07:13 GMT]
Forty-three Tamil political detainees in Anuradhapura prison Tuesday evening called off their fast unto death campaign on a request by the Commissioner of Prisons that their problem would be sorted out within five weeks. The Commissioner of Prison rushed to Anuradhapura prison and met with fasting Tamil detainees. Tamil detainees began their fast Monday afternoon demanding their release or to subject them to judicial inquiry in courts.
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UN warns Sri Lanka of Tamil ‘bitterness’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 01:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s failure to rapidly resettle nearly 300,000 Tamils who survived the government’s final onslaught against the Tamil Tigers and their further suffering under harsh conditions in militarised camps could result in growing bitterness, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake Tuesday - the same day, the UN issued its strongest criticism yet of Sri Lanka’s continued internment of the hundreds of thousands of displacedTamils. Mr. Ban also stressed the need to expedite “a serious, independent and impartial accountability process to look into alleged violation of international law during the conflict as a critical part of moving forward and building peace in Sri Lanka,” a UN statement said.
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JTC students march in protest against college management

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 11:53 GMT]
More than a hundred students of Jaffna Technical College (JTC) went on a protest march Tuesday around 11:00 a.m. from JTC accusing the college management for corruption and malpractices, sources in Jaffna said. The protesting students first handed over their memorandum to Minister Douglas Devananda at his office in Jaffna Srithar Theatre and then to Jaffna District Government Agent, K. Ganesh, at Jaffna Secretariat in Chu'ndikkuzhi, demanding speedy action, the sources added.
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Tamil political detainees in A’pura prison begin fast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 03:07 GMT]
Forty three Tamil political prisoners currently being detained in Anuradhapura prison began their fast unto death Monday afternoon, demanding their release or to subject them to judicial inquiry. They are held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER) from two to five years without being produced in court.
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Kuppuzhaan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 13:44 GMT]
The locality of Kuppuzhaay (Vernonia zeylanica) vegetation
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SL Prime Minister to attend UN general assembly

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 17:43 GMT]
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake will be heading the Sri Lankan delegation to the 64th session of the United Nations (UN) general assembly. He is scheduled to address the general assembly on September 26 on “Strengthening of Multilateralism and Dialogue among Civilizations for International Peace, Security and Development”, according to foreign ministry spokesman.
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Tamil engineer arrested in Katunayake

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 09:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service (SIS) Sunday morning arrested a Tamil engineer who arrived in Katunayake International Airport (KIA) from Singapore. He has been identified as Ratnasekaram, a resident of Point Pedro in Jaffna district, sources in Colombo said.
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Vaddukkoaddai and Thimphu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 13:04 GMT]
Calling for the creation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, based on Vaddukkoadai Resolution (VR) was the last spontaneous and definite mandate by Eezham Tamils in a totally free and democratic atmosphere. As the need for democratic political organisation unfolds afresh, Tamils have to take up the thread directly from the VR. The Thimphu principles and all the other formulas put forward subsequently under the duress of powers, and failed as negotiation models, do not get precedence over the VR as bases for political organization. Mu’l’livaaykkaal was not the real defeat. The defeat comes only when Tamils are made to politically denounce their heart-felt aspirations. The diaspora needs to peruse and correct course of any proposal that stops just at self-determination. In UN charter and in international law it is just an empty phrase that doesn’t protect nations or ethnicities.
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‘From one prison to another’: Sri Lanka’s ‘resettlement’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 08:31 GMT]
Under international pressure as the monsoon looms, the Sri Lanka government is hastily engaged in relocating some of the displaced Tamils being held in militarised internment camps in Vavuniyaa. However, the inmates are being moved from Vavuniyaa’s barbed-wire ringed camps to similar overcrowded enclosures without facilities in other districts, sources in Jaffna said. Moreover these camps are also located in low-lying terrain in the path of oncoming floods, NGO workers say. “There is no resettlement. This is like being sent from one prison to another prison," Mavai Senathiraja, a parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said.
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Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs meets Tamil Diaspora group

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 23:35 GMT]
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Stephen Smith, participated in a meeting organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) with representatives of several Australian Tamil organisations and individuals, chaired by Mr. David Holly, the Assistant Secretary, South and West Asia Branch of the DFAT, sources in Australia said. Minister Smith explained his government’s approach to handling the conflict in Sri Lanka.
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