News vom 02.01.2006

[srilanka1998]

Plot to kill Maharaja chief bared
[ The Sunday Leader ] [ 03:27 GMT, Jan. 2, 2006 ]

Shocking evidence in the possession of The Sunday Leader reveals an insidious plot allegedly masterminded by a top politician, to murder a well-known media mogul. The plan, hatched behind prison walls with the aid of a network of mobile phones and underworld king pins, comes at a time when the independent media in this country is severely under threat. The politician mentioned is none other than Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, who upon hearing he had been identified as the contractor was aghast and charged that it was a politician more powerful than he, with connections to the army major who is reported to have allegedly contracted the underworld gang leader to carry out the murder. Wickremanayake even went so far as to tell his confidants that when the army major was to be arrested in a police crackdown on underworld figures during his tenure as public security minister, political influence was brought to bear not to arrest the major in question.


The real reasons behind murder in the cathedral
[ Northeastern Monthly ] [ 03:44 GMT, Jan. 2, 2006 ]

Pararajasingham's ability to converse with fluency both in Tamil and English earned him an almost permanent place in TNA delegations that regularly met with foreign diplomats or visiting dignitaries from overseas. Further, he was in the group of TNA MPs who went overseas to speak at rallies and meetings organised by the LTTE and Tamil diasporas to put forward the Tamil point of view.This led to the government to argue that as long as the LTTE had access to the international community, travel freely overseas, meet foreign officials etc. it would be very difficult for it (government) to win the propaganda war. TNA credentials insulated him from the ban, lobbied those who had no opportunity to meet the LTTE leadership on matters affecting the Tamils. It should be said however that being a TNA MP did not automatically qualify for travel overseas. For instance Pararajasingham could not obtain a visa to Canada to address a Tamil rally there because the Canadian government refused to give him one.

 

[srilanka1998]

The DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance to kick off poll campaign on Jan 18
[ Chennai OnLine ] [ 12:50 GMT, Jan. 2, 2006 ]

The DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) will formally kick off its campaign on January 18 for the coming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.On seat-sharing talks among constituents of the DPA, he said, "Preliminary talks have already begun". On MDMK and PMK's demand that the Centre should not sell arms to Sri Lanka, he said the leaders of these parties had already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard. "Dr Singh is not averse to the demand," he said. As far as the DMK was concerned, the party always toed the line of the Centre on foreign policy. But the party was firm that Sri Lankan Tamils should not be "tortured" on any account, he added.


PMK against India replacing Norway in Sri Lankan peace process
[ News IndPress ] [ 12:53 GMT, Jan. 2, 2006 ]

Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a constituent in Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre, has opposed any move on India replacing Norway in the on-going peace process in war-torn Sri Lanka. A resolution to this effect was adopted at the party's high-level executive committee and general council meetings, which were presided over by PMK founder-leader Dr S Ramadoss, in Thailapuram late Sunday night. A PMK resolution stated that the demand of the Sri Lankan Government seeking India's role in the peace process would not yield any fruitful result in the near future.


The Low-Down on Narasimhan Ram, the Ignoramus
[ Illangai Thamizh Sangam ] [ 12:59 GMT, Jan. 2, 2006 ]

it is time to offer my low-down on Narasimhan Ram (born 1945), the Ignoramus. His current official designation is Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu (newspaper) and Frontline (magazine). As per his profile, available in the internet, Ram grandiosely poses as a specialist on 'The Sri Lanka ethnic crisis and the Tamil question,' among other themes. The 22 editorials which appeared in The Hindu (Chennai) newspaper in 2005 in which the editorial coterie led by Ram prominently ' sometimes marginally ' commented about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and/or its leadership. It is safe to assume that, though these editorials were anonymously published, that the scribe was none other than Ram. Internal evidence for this assumption is glaringly visible. The editorials have been filled with the same hackneyed cliches on the LTTE, the same vocabulary-challenged admonitions, the same laments and the same unsolicited advice to the Sri Lankans and Eelam Tamils.

 

[srilanka1998]

Sri Lankan military excesses is fueling division
[ LTTE Peace Secretariat ] [ 21:10 GMT, Jan. 2, 2006 ]

Violence and harassment by Sri Lankan armed forces against young Tamil men and women has started all over again. As the Tamil saying goes, 'The sound of the bell precedes the arrival of the elephant', the current violence and harassment against young Tamil men and women fore warns the brutality of the violence against Tamils that is to come in the future. The harassment of young Tamils in Colombo was re-launched on Saturday when almost 1000 of them were taken away from their sleep and taken in buses to police stations in Colombo. Like criminals, they were photographed, video taped and finger printed before being released after the humiliation.


Two Vadamaradchy women complain of sexual assault by SLA
[ TamilNet ] [ 21:12 GMT, Jan. 2, 2006 ]

Two women from Malusanthi, a village located 3 km southeast of Point Pedro town on the Jaffna Point-Pedro, road registered complaints with the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commision (SLHRC) offices in Jaffna Monday that they were sexually assaulted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers around midnight Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. The SLA troopers had allegedly taken the man occupant of the house outside for questioning and in the meantime other soldiers inside the house had sexually assaulted the two women, the complaint said. When the women screamed to fight back the attackers the troopers threatened to kill the man, the complaint further said. The complainants requested the SLHRC to provide adequate saftey from future attacks.Civil society sources in Jaffna allege that SLA troops are arresting increasing number of women during middle of the night for interrogation and are sexually assaulting them.


Strong quake registered in South Atlantic
[ AP ] [ 21:20 GMT, Jan. 2, 2006 ]

A strong earthquake struck Monday off the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, but there were no reports of injuries or a tsunami. News of the quake prompted thousands of residents along the coast of Sri Lanka - thousands of miles away - to flee inland, officials said. The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, struck at 5:10 a.m. local time (1:10 a.m. EST), and was centered six miles under the seabed some 215 miles southeast of Bristol Island of the South Georgia and South Sandwich islands - an overseas territory of Britain also claimed by Argentina, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. The Japanese Meteorological Agency reported the same earthquake with magnitude 7.5. The agency said it did not have any information about whether the quake had triggered a tsunami, according to spokesman Kana Akiyama.