News summary of the human rights of Tamils

17.7.09

Scoop:

Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 10:11 am
Press Release: Consortium of Tamil Associations in NZ

Sri Lanka News Summary: 15th July 2009
A bi-monthly news summary of the human rights situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka

Access to independent news website blocked
[ RSF ][ Jul 14 02:44 GMT ]
Reporters Without Borders condemns the blocking of access to the independent Lanka News Web website within Sri Lanka since 11 June. The site’s editors believe the blocking was prompted by a report posted earlier that day about President Mahinda Rajapakse’s son, Namal Rajapakse. The press freedom organisation also deplores Namal Rajapakse’s seizure of news media videos. Lanka News Web reported that, when visiting the Menik Farm Camp as head of the NGO, Tharunyata Hetak, the President’s son had stones thrown at him from persons violently opposed to his visit. Before leaving, he ensured that the video recordings of the incident were confiscated from the cameras of the media personnel accompanying him.

Notorious commander appinted Governor of Northern Province
[ TamilNet ][ Jul 12 18:11 GMT ]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the new Governor of the Northern Province. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Tamil political circles in Colombo commented that Mr. Rajpaksa, who claims to have crushed the de-facto state of Tamil Eelam, has appointed his military men in key posts in the occupied Tamil homeland to head civil services with a 'colonial mindset'. Earlier, in April, Rajapaksa appointed Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' in Vavuniyaa.

Displaced Tamils Feel Being Kept in Open Prison in Camps
[ PTI ][ Jul 12 16:18 GMT ]
A top Tamil leader has asked Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to review the conditions of the displaced Tamil civilians living in the government-run welfare camps in the north, saying some feel being kept in an "open prison". "In utter despair I am writing this appeal to you to convince you that your intervention at this stage is indispensable, if the country is to maintain its dignity and honour," said Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) President V Anandasangaree in a letter to Rajapaksa.

The Time of Judgement has arrived to the Land of Terror
[ Telegraph ][ Jul 14 02:40 GMT ]
Fifty thousand innocent men, women and children were brutally murdered on the sandy beaches and in the jungles of Sri Lanka, by the Sri Lankan Military while the whole world stood back and watched. Three hundred thousands are now locked up in the death camps of Sri Lanka. Men are tortured, Women are abused and raped, Children are psychologically tormented, foreign media is banned, aid workers are blocked and the Tamils are now let to die like flies without proper food, medicine and water. Dead bodies are thrown outside the tents and let to rot while the young and old stand in the hot sun for hours to beg for food.

Facilities inadequate in Lankan IDP camps: Doctors
[ PTI ][ Jul 13 12:00 GMT ]
Doctors treating displaced Tamils in the government-run welfare camps in Sri Lanka's north have written a letter to Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa complaining about the inadequate facilities and shortage of medical staff. "It is difficult to stay in these shelters. The doctors examine patients from 7 o'clock in the morning to 7 o'clock in the night (in the Menik camps in Vavuniya). They need a proper place to sleep. The doctors do night shift. They are virtually alone there. There is no adequate nurse or staff members," a representative of the doctors told mediapersons in Colombo.