Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi departed Sri Lanka earlier this month, New Delhi’s media was already hailing the visit as a diplomatic triumph. A raft of development projects had been announced and a significant new defence pact between the two governments signed. Images broadcast showed Modi beside a smiling Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake, arms raised aloft in symbolic…

IDPs ‘in need of protection’ – IDMC

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has stated that Internally Displaced Persons within the island of Sri Lanka are still ‘in need of protection and assistance’, in their latest Global Overview report.

The report noted that the number of IDPs had risen to 28.8 million last year, particularly noting the conflicts in Syria and the Democratic Republic Congo had significantly pushed up the numbers of displaced.

On Sri Lanka the report stated,

Hundreds of thousands of current and former IDPs in Sri Lanka remained in need of protection and assistance as of the end of 2012… More than 93,000 people were still living in camps, with host communities or in transit situations. Of more than 480,000 people who had returned to Northern and Eastern provinces, many are still to achieve durable solutions”.

The IDMC was also critical of the government’s increasing militarisation in the North-East, stating,

“Of more than 1,300 IDPs still living in the camp in September, 560 were unable to return to their home areas because they were occupied by the Mullaitivu Security Force headquarters. Instead they were relocated, many of them against their will.

Military occupation of land is preventing around 26,000 people from returning across the north and east of Sri Lanka, and it is estimated that more than 3,000 people have been relocated, in many cases involuntarily.”

Sooka calls for CHOGM boycott

Human rights expert Yasmin Sooka has criticised the decision to go ahead with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.

Sooka, who was on the Panel of Experts, appointed by Ban Ki-moon to investigate human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, said it must not be rewarded by hosting the event, as it was still perpetrating abuses against civilians.

Land grab protesters met with SL riot police in Tellipalai

Photograph Uthayan

Hundreds of Tamil protesters were met with riot police and Sri Lankan security forces, at today's demonstration in Tellipalai against the Sri Lankan Army's seizing of private land in Valikaamam North in Jaffna. (See here for report in Tamil by Uthayan).

After staging a sit down protest in front of Tellipalai Divisional Secretariat, tensions rose as protesters breached police barricades and began to march towards the entrance of the High Security Zone, and attempted to enter the Divisional Secretariat building in order to make their pleas for the military to leave their land.

Dozens of riot police and security forces immediately stepped in to kettle back the protesters within the barricades.

GL Peiris slams foreign intervention

Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister, GL Peiris, slammed any notion of foreign intervention in Sri Lanka, whilst speaking at an event to mark the start of Sri Lanka's 'National Policy on Social Integration'.

Dismissing foreign intervention in what he described as Sri Lanka's 'internal affairs', Peiris said:

Australia deports a further 25 people

 
The Australian government repatriated a further 25 people to the island of Sri Lanka today, bringing the total to 1000.
Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Brendan O'Connor, was quoted as saying,
"Returning thi

US trains SL Navy & Coast Guard

The United States Embassy in Colombo has announced that the country has been providing training to Sri Lanka’s Navy and Coast Guard as part of improving the island’s “border security”.

20 Sri Lankan Coast Guard Officers and 4 Sri Lankan Navy Officers had graduated as Coast Guard instructors who could go on to train other members, after training funded by the US Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program.

SL Air Force opens commercial office in Jaffna

The Sri Lankan Air Force has opened a new office of its commercial wing in Jaffna.

China and Sri Lanka vow to strengthen military ties

China will make joint efforts with Sri Lanka to push the military relations between two countries to a new high, a Chinese defence official has announced.
A member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of China and chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Fang Fenghui, outlined in a report , that  the Chinese military was prepa

526 acres of land grab announced

Notices announcing the Sri Lankan state's acquisition of 526 acres in Keppapilavu and Mullaitivu have appeared reports the Uthayan.

The proposed land grab is the latest in a marked expansion of the Sri Lankan state's programme of acquisition of private land in the North-East.

Australia dismisses calls to boycott CHOGM

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has rejected demands that Australia should boycott the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.

The Foreign Minister claims he has not seen any evidence that the Sri Lankan government deliberately killed Tamil civilians.

"Any suggestion of a boycott would be counter-productive. It would simply isolate the country and render it defiant of international opinion," he told ABC.