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Jaffna Technical College Students Union (JTCSU) raised accusation against Yogarajan, their principal and President Mahinda Rajapakse’s Alliance candidate in the parliamentary election, for compelling them to campaign for Mahinda Rajapakse’s Alliance. Yogarajan had welcomed Namal Rajapakse, President Mahinda Rajapakse’s eldest son and his ‘Blue Warriors’ group accompanying him when they arrived in Jaffna Tuesday to [...]

After abetting a military defeat and subsequently blessing a political defeat, the coterie of countries propping up Sri Lankan state is now bent upon enacting a third Mu’l’livaaykkaal, by bringing in a ‘development defeat’ of Eezham Tamils through handing over development management to the Sinhalese, said a concerned group of diaspora Tamils who recently had [...]

China has completed arrangements through its funding arm, Exim Bank, to provide $290m in concessionary development loans to Sri Lanka, Reuters reported. $190m of the loan is to develop a second airport in Matara and the other $100m is to improve the railways. China was the largest foreign funding source for Sri Lanka in [...]

British Permanent Under Secretary for Foreign affairs, Sir Peter Ricketts, arrived in Colombo Wednesday early morning on a two day visit, Colombo media reported. He immediately called on Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

Retired Major General Sarath will be tried over five charges under Army Act at a court martial within next few days, Military spokesman, Major General Prasad Amarasinghe told media Monday. He added that the summary of evidence over charges against General Fonseka made in compliance with provisions of the Army Act was completed and handed [...]

Trincomalee electoral candidates led by Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) leader Mr. R. Sampanthan, Tuesday visited the camps in Ki’liveddi and Paddiththidal in Moothoor DS division where hundreds of internally displaced Tamil families from Champoor, Kooniththeevu, Choodaikkudaa and Navaratnapuram in the High Security Zones declared by the Sri Lanka Army after the eviction of [...]

The Sinhala Marxist party Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) former parliamentarian, Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that JVP will oppose if a new political constitution devolving powers to the Northern and Eastern provinces is to be created, in a press briefing held in Colombo Tuesday. “Minister G. L. Peiris recently said that the government intends implementing its [...]

While India is said to be seriously considering opening a branch of its High Commission for Sri Lanka in Jaffna, Chinese contractors are actively engaged in planning the broadening of five major roads in the peninsula in keeping with the agreement entered with Sri Lanka President, Mahintha Rajapakse, sources in Jaffna said. A conference presided [...]

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander Lt. Gen. Jegath Jeyasooriya officially opened the SLA Civil Administration Head Office Tuesday and inaugurated its Website in a public building on Jaffna Hospital road, taken over by SLA for this purpose, sources in Jaffna said. In the past SLA civil administration offices had been used by the government to [...]

Executive directors of two NGOs, the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a Colombo-based think tank, and Transparency International, Sri Lanka (TISL), have written a protest letter to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse complaining about a news report in a Colombo website that “[Sri Lanka] state intelligence agencies have been compiling a list or lists of [...]

Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) allowed to resettle in some areas in Ki’linochchi and Mannaar districts are being subjected to severe restrictions and harassment by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources close Jaffna Bishop’s House said. This information was gathered from the group of Catholic Bishops of six districts who visited the said areas in [...]

The State of Emergency was extended by another month by the Sri Lanka’s parliament Tuesday. Ninety three parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its constituent parties voted for the extension and twenty parliamentarians from the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance
(TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) [...]

A protest demonstration demanding immediate resettlement of people displaced from Valikaamam North occupied by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) as High Security Zone (HSZ) organized by the Welfare Organizations for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on 1 March in front of Jaffna Secretariat had to be given up due to the strong opposition to it by Jaffna [...]

Expressing concerns on the lack of progress on “political reconciliation, the treatment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the setting up of an accountability process in Sri Lanka,” United Nations Secretary General, confirmed that he intends to move forward on a group of experts which will advise him on setting the broad parameters and standards [...]

Around 500 women including many feminists from South observing International Women’s Day went on an awareness march Monday around 9:30 a.m from Jaffna Secretariat, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh officially inaugurated this event which highlighted the plight of women gone missing and arrested women exposed to violence in the prisons including [...]

Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) Monday began a three day campaign by
holding election meeting in every Tamil village in the Moothoor East,
Verukal DS division, Moothoor DS division in Trincomalee district. ITAK leader and the chief candidate for the Trincomalee district
Mr.R.Sampanthan is leading the campaign with other six candidates in
the list.

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Sunday morning at the President’s House. Both discussed several issues relating to the resettlement of the internally displaced people after the war. Sources in Colombo said the talks between the two also touched the subject on finding a political solution to the ethnic question. [...]

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met President Mahinda Rajapaksa Sunday morning at the President’s House. Both discussed several issues relating to the resettlement of the internally displaced people after the war against LTTE came to a finish last May. Sources in Colombo said the talks between the two also touched the subject on finding a [...]

Dismissing the response by Colombo that Ban Ki Moon had not appointed panel of experts on other countries where there are “continuing armed conflicts on a large scale, involving major humanitarian catastrophes and causing the deaths of large numbers of civilians due to military action,” as “simply untrue nonsense,” Francis A. Boyle, professor at the [...]

A group of thirty-two journalists from the communities of Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim from Trincomalee district visited Jaffna peninsula Sunday under a program arranged by National Peace Council (NPC) aimed at promoting understanding between communities, sources in Jaffna said. The group of journalists visited the offices of Uthayan, Yarl Thinakural and Valampuri Tamil dailies published [...]

Pilgrims who returned from Paalaitheevu after attending the lent period prayers in St. Antony’s church Sunday said that they had seen many Chinese Tents and food packets with Chinese writing on them during the annual festival held Saturday and Sunday. Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) occupies many of the pilgrims’ halls behind the church and no [...]

In the context of Sri Lanka government failing in its duty to provide assistance to the resettled Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Jaffna peninsula as promised, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has stepped in to help the IDPs, paying each of the 16,831 IDP families with the second stage payment of 25,000 rupees, sources in Jaffna [...]

Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in building police stations and magistrate courts in the districts of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu in Vanni where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are yet to be resettled, sources in Vanni said. Secretary to the Ministry of Justice made a sudden visit Wednesday to Ki’linochchi and Mullaitheevu with the view to [...]

Three member delegation led by Indian Foreign Secretary Ms Nirupama Rao arrived in Colombo Saturday night around 10:30 on a three day official visit. She is scheduled to meet Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse and other government leaders and hold discussion on the resettlement of internally displaced Tamil families, and prospective political solution to Tamil [...]

The central issue discussed in the March 4th morning arguments heard by the panel of nine United States Supreme Court judges in the case Samantar v. Yousuf was not if the the former Somali defense minister Samantar was responsible for torture, war-crimes, and rape in his native land but whether Samantar has immunity under the [...]

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to ask a panel of experts to advise the world body on “accountability issues” relating to possible human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, Reuters reported quoting spokesperson Martin Nesirky as saying. Ban has said an investigation of war crimes allegations should be handled by the High Commissioner for Human Rights [...]

The presence of Chinese in Sri Lanka owned island of Kachchatheevu, considered as a threat to the security of India, is confirmed by a group of journalists and social activists from Tamil Nadu. More than thirty pre-fabricated structures with Chinese names were found on the island of Kachchatheevu located on the sea boundary between India [...]

The presence of Chinese in Sri Lanka owned island of Kachchaitheevu, considered as a threat to the security of India, is confirmed by a group of journalists and social activists from Tamil Nadu. More than thirty huts with Chinese names were found on the island of Kachchaitheevu located on the sea boundary between India and [...]

“Sri Lanka government does not want any area in the island where minority community lives in majority. Hence the government led by President Mahinda Rajapakse is implementing its ‘hidden agenda’ to colonize such areas with Sinhalese to reduce the majority of minority community,” Mr. R. Sampanthan, leader of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) and the [...]

Whereas the Tamils democratically gave the mandate for the independence of their own country Tamil Eelam by endorsing the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976, in the 1977 general elections, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) calls upon the international community, governments, leaders and the UN to conduct a UN monitored referendum in the North-East region of Sri [...]

During the popular Diane Rheme show in Washington’s National Public Radio (NPR) Friday, responding to a question on the muted response of Obama administration to the slaughter of civilians in Sri Lanka, NPR’s commentator Gjelten said, “When people feel that their suffering is not acknowledged and recognized by the international community, they tend to develop [...]

Responding to United Nation’s France Ambassador, Gerard Araud’s, comment on UN inaction on Sri Lanka’s civilian slaughter that the UN Secretary General cannot intervene against the wishes of a UN member state, Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law and a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet that the French [...]

Responding to United Nation’s France Ambassador, Gerard Araud’s, comment on UN inaction on Sri Lanka’s civilian slaughter that the UN Secretary General cannot intervene against the wishes of a UN member state, Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law and a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet that the French [...]

Tamil Nadu police and its intelligence unit personnel are actively engaged in collecting details of the persons internally displaced from Vanni during the later stages of war who had gone to Tamil Nadu in South India from the detention centres in Vavuniyaa, sources in Tamil Nadu said. Information is being gathered particularly of those who [...]

French Ambassador to the UN, Gerard Araud, when asked by the Inner City Press (ICP) on the Secretary Ban Ki Moon’s inaction in Sri Lanka “on the slaughter of civilians in Sri Lanka,” said “[t]he Secretary General can’t go against member states which did not want to intervene.” Meanwhile, Inner City Press in a previous [...]

Sri Lanka government continues to deceive the people evicted from their properties in Valikaamam north and east in Jaffna, which were declared High Security Zones (HSZs) by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), without allowing to them to resettle in their homes as promised time and again by government ministers and officials, A. S. Nadarajah, the president [...]

Sri Lanka Police Thursday claimed that they had taken into custody
twenty-five persons at Naavaladi in Batticaloa in an attempt to flee by
boat to seek asylum in a foreign country, probably Australia. Twenty
Tamils and five Sinhalese were in the group.

Eezham Tamils in Switzerland will democratically elect their representatives to form Swiss Council of Eezham Tamils on March 28, announced Tamil Election Switzerland (TES) it its official website. The constitution of the council will be based on the democratic mandate given by the diaspora Tamils of Switzerland in a referendum held in January this year, [...]

Jaffna Bishop House, instructed by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), has requested the devotees who wish to attend the annual two days festival of Paalaitheevu St. Antony’s church on the 6th and 7th of March to register their names and the particulars of their boats, with local SLN authorities. Devotees are being allowed to attend this [...]

Redd Barna (Save the Children) aid worker from Norway, Vidar Strøm, has said that there are over one hundred thousand children who have been traumatised, to a greater or lesser degree, after being exposed to the war and then for the internment camps in the North. Redd Barna has gained access to the camps only [...]

The inquiry into the killing of Lasantha Wickremathunge, Chief Editor
of the Sunday Leader took a new turn with the arrest of fifteen
soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) who earlier served in the SLA
Intelligence Unit. They are now being detained by the Terrorist
Investigation Division (TID) and being interrogated, police spokesman told media in Colombo.

Some recent ‘abductions’ of Eezham Tamil refugees who have come to Tamil Nadu after the war may have connections to orchestrated efforts in silencing war crime witnesses, allege informed media circles in Chennai. Within the last one month, a special group of people, released from the detention camps of Colombo, was sent to Tamil Nadu [...]

While Colombo plans allotting lands for ‘retired’ Sinhala army personnel in the so-called ‘resettlement’ schemes of Tamil North and East of the island of Sri Lanka, China and India compete in proving who is the best facilitator of Colombo in its demographic onslaught, Eezham Tamils circles said. China has emerged as Sri Lanka’s biggest single [...]

The three-day election campaign of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi
(ITAK) is to begin on March 17 and will continue till March 19 in the
Jaffna electoral district. Mr.R.Sampanthan, ITAK President and the
Chief Candidate in the Trincomalee electoral district is to lead the
three-day campaign, ITAK sources said.

“Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in colonizing the Vanni districts of Mannaar, Mullaiththeevu and Ki’linochchi with the families of armed force personnel and Sinhalese people,” Suresh Premachandran, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian and one of the TNA candidates contesting Jaffna electoral district, said in a press briefing held Wednesday at his Jaffna office.

The dissolved parliament is to be summoned on March 9 to extend the
State of Emergency for another month. The State of Emergency now in
force is to expire on March 5. President has been empowered to extend
the State of Emergency for another month by issuing extra-ordinary
gazette notification under the Constitution, but it has to be ratified
by [...]

Torture of female detainees in special camps of the Sri Lankan Army in Vavuniyaa continues to the extent of making many of the detainees insane, reports reaching from Vavuniyaa said. The torture is mainly carried out by female soldiers of the SLA, according to information provided by reliable civil society sources, which claim that they [...]

Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader, V. N. Anandasangari, released the election manifesto of TULF Tuesday at the party office in Stanley Veethi in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. He said that the Tamil parliamentarians elected in the last general election in Jaffna district had done nothing for the good of the Tamils and that [...]

Vavuniyaa Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) arrested Friday 100 Tamil youths detained in Ne’lukku’lam Technical College detention camp in Vavuniyaa for further interrogation and later took them to Boosa prison in the south, according to information given to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Colombo. Recently two groups of young Tamil women from some detention centres in Vavuniyaa [...]

U.S. Supreme Court will hear “war-crimes charges” against former Somali Defense minister and Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar in a civil case this Wednesday, legal sources in Washington said. Samantar, 74, currently lives in Fairfax, Virginia, after fleeing his native country in 1991 to Rome, and then moving to the U.S. to join his wife [...]

Seventeen persons had been reported missing till 23rd February, spanning first seven weeks this year, according to complaints made by the relatives to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL). HRCSL spokesperson in Colombo said that HRCSL regional offices had received seventeen complaints of disappearance of persons, majority of them from north and [...]

Supporters of Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a political party of Buddhist monks, Saturday morning held a protest demonstration in Kandy against Mano Ganeshan, leader of the Democratic Peoples Front (DPF), contesting in the Kandy electoral district on the United National Alliance (UNF) ticket led by the main opposition party (UNP), political sources in Kandy said.

Noting that the “European Union recently dropped the island’s preferential trade status because of human-rights violations,” Seattle Times (U.S.) in Friday’s editorial “says Sri Lankan media are not free to discuss the challenges, so the best hope is international attention.” The editorial observes, “[a]t the core of Sri Lanka’s problem is a rotten constitution, which [...]

Persons of Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP), a constituent of ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), caught and held N. Parameswaran, a senior Tamil journalist in Jaffna peninsula, the correspondent of BBC Tamil service and Daily Mirror, Saturday from 9:00 a.m til 9:30 in front of the SLFP office located at Veampadi Veethi in Jaffna, [...]

Six Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were taken into custody for allegedly molesting a nine-year-old Tamil girl at Ki’raan Vaazhaichcheani in the eastern Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said. The victim identified one of the perpetrators during an identification parade held in Batticaloa Magistrate Court. Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reported that the soldiers of [...]

Six Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were taken into custody for allegedly molesting last week a nine-year-old Tamil girl at Ki’raan Vaazhaichcheani in the eastern Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said. The victim identified one of the perpetrators during an identification parade held in Batticaloa Magistrate Court. Asian Human Rights Commission reported the soldiers of [...]

Eezham Tamils in Denmark will cast their ballot in 32 centres across the country in a referendum on the question of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. The referendum will be conducted by a professional institute TNS Gallup, specialised in sociological and public opinion research [...]

Unidentified persons threw stones continually, attacking the office of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) former parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran Friday night causing damage to the tiles and windows of the office, sources in Jaffna said. The office is located at the entrance of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) 512 Division on Point Pedro road in Jaffna where there [...]

All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) submitted its list of candidates contesting Trincomalee electoral district Friday, sources in Trincomalee said. Meanwhile, former parliamentarians Gajendrakumar Kangkesar Ponnambalam, Ms. Pathmini Sithamparanathan and Selvarajah Gajendran along with representatives of public organizations as a new alliance are contesting under bicycle symbol of ACTC in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, according to [...]

A total of 1867 candidates are set to contest the up coming April eight Parliamentary Elections in Sri Lanka’s north and east where 31members will be elected to the SL Parliament. The candidates will contest in the districts of Jaffna, Vanni, Batticoloa, Trincomalee and Digamadulla. The total includes those from eight recognized political parties while [...]