05/08/2011
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The Sunday Leader
Its been two years since the war came to an end. Soon after, exultant southerners began visiting Jaffna in busloads and van loads to ‘see it with their own eyes’ and to celebrate the end of the protracted war. To most, Jaffna is like a war memorial, a once exotic place that remained the theatre of war and hence inaccessible. Two years and the travel urge is still strong.
02/09/2011
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TamilNet
Large stretches of lands in Jaffna Peninsula in the so-called High Security Zones and in other areas where people are not permitted to resettle in the guise of landmines are hurriedly sold to Sinhala businessmen ostensibly to start ‘industrial estates’. 100 acres of land near Ezhuthumadduvaa’l railway station along the A9 Highway has been recently sold to an influential Sinhala businessman. Another Sinhalese attempted buying 80 acres between Ki’laali and Puloappazhai. Occupying military officials are also said to be interested in buying lands. Industrial estates are a smokescreen, but Sinhala colonisation in that stretch to completely seal off the people of Jaffna within their own peninsula is the strategy, political circles in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, in Valikaamam HSZ, a Sinhalese is said to be running a farm at Vasaavi’laan and another indiscriminately quarry limestone near Keerimalai.
12/25/2010
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TamilNet
Implementing a decision of Rajapaksa, students in Jaffna are ordered to sing the SL anthem in Sinhala only in an event to be attended by him in Jaffna Sunday. Students of Jaffna Hindu College became the first to succumb. The move comes contrary to news in a section of press that Rajapaksa cabinet never took any decision on the anthem-issue as India and USA reportedly opposed it. A few days ago, when the Inner City Press asked for clarification on the SL cabinet decision from a UN spokesman, there was no reply. Meanwhile, Eezham Tamils should never demand the right to sing the SL anthem in Tamil, as it is contrary to the spirit of Eezham Tamil nationalism. Rather, every time they are asked to ‘sing’ the Sinhala anthem they should remember the colonial legacy of the Portuguese, Dutch and the English of the past and should be prepared for liberation struggle, said a student activist.
12/13/2010
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BBC
A Tamil minister in the Sri Lankan cabinet denies reports that the Tamil version of the national anthem has been abolished.
12/12/2010
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NDTV
Colombo: In a move likely to further alienate the ethnic Tamils in the country, Sri Lanka has scrapped the Tamil version of its national anthem at official and state functions. Now the national anthem can only be rendered in the majority Sinhala language at official functions.
12/12/2010
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Hindustan Times
The Sri Lankan cabinet has mandated the Sinhala version of the national anthem instead of a Tamil version used in some parts of the country, a media report said. The move will mean that the Tamil version of the anthem will no longer be played at any official or state functions, the Sunday Times reported. The decision was taken on Wednesday.
05/05/2010
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The Economist
TRAMPLING weeds underfoot, a group of people bound excitedly into an abandoned cemetery for Tamil Tiger rebels, hack bricks off the once pristine tombs and throw them into a waiting van. They are, sighs a local Tamil autorickshaw driver resignedly, “Sinhala tourists”—members of Sri Lanka’s ethnic majority, collecting souvenirs to take back home in the south. Since the main north-south highway reopened to civilian traffic in December 2009, thousands of such visitors have been streaming to Sri Lanka’s northern peninsula, eager to make up for lost time. Alas, reconstruction and ethnic reconciliation are not following in their wake as quickly as people had hoped.
03/19/2010
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BBC
Police stations in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, have opened special units to take down statements in the country's main minority language, Tamil.
01/07/2010
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Time magazine
A year after the murder of the prominent Sri Lankan editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, the island's independent media is still under siege. An investigation into Wickrematunge's death has gone nowhere, and at least half a dozen other journalists, including his widow, have left the country in fear since his death.