Scores wounded in Sri Lankan bombardment on displacing civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 14:37 GMT]
The three armed forces of Sri Lanka have carried out a joint indiscriminate bombardment from air, land and sea targeting the civilians who were displacing from Vadamaraadchi East villages to Vanni mainland, causing injuries to at least 40 civilians, initial reports from the area said. The attack has targeted civilians who have come to Chu'ndikku'lam lagoon to cross over to Vanni mainland as the land route has been occupied by the Sri Lanka Army following the occupation of Elephant Pass. Medical authorities at Kallaa'ru said they were struggling to transport the wounded. Ambulances at Tharmapuram hospital were sent to Kallaa'ru in Chu'ndikku'lam.
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35th anniversary of Tamil Conference victims held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 09:31 GMT]
The 35th anniversary memorial of the eleven Tamils shot and killed by Sri Lanka policemen during the Fourth International Tamil Conference on 10 January 1974 was held Saturday in Jaffna esplanade in front of Veerasingam Hall where the memorial monuments for the civilians who had been killed stand erected, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA soldiers arrest 33 civilians in Pa’lai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 04:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested 9 women, 20 men, and 4 children in a search conducted Friday, in a house in Choaranpattu, Pa’lai area, earlier held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Jaffna said. SLA handed over the arrestees to Kodikaamam police.
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4 killed, SLA artillery targets civilian settlement in Puthukkudiyiruppu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 03:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells killed four displaced civilians, including the parents and the daughter of a family, residing in the settlement located behind the hospital of Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaiththeevu district Saturday night, according to medical sources. Two of the killed victims were 17-year-old students. Four civilians, including a 5-year-old child were wounded in the indiscriminate artillery attack. Meanwhile, artillery barrage on Vaddakkachchi and Pu'liyampokka'nai in Ki'linochchi district continued, disrupting the access roads for civilians to move away from the areas that have come under artillery barrage.
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Civilians trapped in SLA artillery barrage

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2009, 11:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hit civilian settlements in Vaddakkachchi, killing a 56-year-old father and caused injuries to his 16-year-old son. Meanwhile, a 76-year-old elderly man residing in an elderly home sustained injuries Friday night after he returned home unable to reach Tharmapuram as Kaddaikkaadu Road (Vaddakkachchi - Tharmapuram Road) was continuously targeted by the shelling. In the meantime another male was killed in SLA shelling at Chu'ndikku'lam on Friday.
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Tamil civilian shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2009, 09:53 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a Tamil owner of a fuel station and robbed the cash he had with him, in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district Saturday around 5:30 a.m., sources in Batticaloa said.
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SLA arrests 4 Tamil civilians in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 20:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers took four Tamil civilians into custody Wednesday morning while they were resting in a hut located in a paddy field in Puthukku'lam in Vavuniyaa division on their return home after hunting. These youths are residents of Sasthrikoo'langku'lam and Puthukku'lam.
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Police hand over 4 corpses to Jaffna Teaching Hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 18:13 GMT]
Kaangkeasanthu’rai (KKS) police, directed by Mallaakam court, Friday evening handed over four corpses to Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) mortuary. The bodies were handed over in plastic bags because of their highly decomposed state. Their gender and identification were not disclosed by the police, JTH sources said.
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Civilian shot, wounded in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 12:59 GMT]
Unidentified armed men riding a motorbike shot a 37-year old family man along Kottadi Seenivasa Road, Jaffna Friday at 4:30 p.m. while the victim was on his way to the Jaffna Town, sources said.
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SLAF suffers casualties in Tiger ambush in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 12:04 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) from Trincomalee district claimed that 12 Sri Lankan armed personnel were killed and 6 sustained injuries in a Claymore and gunfire ambush on a tractor carrying armed personnel from Panku'lam to Muthalikku'lam (Morawewa) at 8:55 a.m. Friday. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan military sources in Colombo said three Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel and four civilians and seven SLAF personnel sustained injuries in the ambush. A main camp of the SLAF is currently situated in Morawewa, which was earlier a traditional Tamil village called Muthalikku'lam.
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Tamil civilian shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 11:09 GMT]
Armed men who arrived in a three-wheeler shot and killed a 30-year-old Tamil civilian Thursday night in his resident at Periyaku'lam in Vavuniyaa division, police sources said.
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6 Tamils arrested in Chilaw, one in Kuchchave'li

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 22:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested six Tamil civilians Tuesday night in Chilaw town on receipt of information that some strangers were seen moving in the area. The Chilaw police said that the arrested failed to justify their presence in the location during the preliminary inquiry.
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Sri Lanka steps up aerial bombardment on Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 11:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers dropped at least 20 bombs in four sorties on Chu'ndikku'lam and the coastal areas on Thursday. Two SLAF bombers dropped 10 bombs at 7:10 a.m., and the bombers returned again two hours later at 9:00 a.m. targeting the same area. Kallaa'ru in the same region was attacked at 11:00 a.m. The bombers returned for the fourth time around 3:00 p.m. to target the same area.
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7 killed, Sri Lankan artillery attack targets civilian centre of Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 07:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells targeting Tharmapuram Junction, the remaining centre of displaced civilians in Vanni killing at least four and causing injuries to many around 1:20 p.m. on Thursday, after artillery shelling killed three, including a child in Vaddakkachchi. Two of the slain victims were children. The attack has targeted Tharmapuram Junction, which is located 75 meters from the hospital. Tension and chaos prevailed in the hospital, which was full of the wounded civilians, as they were forced to seek shelter from the artillery barrage.
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3 civilians, including child, killed in SLA shelling in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 06:26 GMT]
Three civilians, including a child, were killed Thursday morning when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery guns stepped up shelling on densely populated Vaddakkachchi in Vanni, according to initial reports from Tharmapuram hospital. There were three children among the 9 wounded who have been rushed to the hospital.
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SLA blocks gateway to Vanni civilians for 5th day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 16:22 GMT]
A woman, wounded in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment on 01 January succumbed to her wounds Monday night and other patients in need of urgent medical transport from Puthukkudiyiruppu to Vavuniyaa with ICRC escort remain blocked for days despite repeated attempts to access the road, which remained under Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery fire, as reported earlier. In the meantime, officials at the Government Agent's office in Vavuniyaa told media that the SLA has turned away humanitarian convoys despite their repeated attempts. Civilians in Vanni are refused essential supplies and refused critical medical transport, in violation to Geneva Conventions.
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2 Tamils reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 16:22 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians, one a 57-year old former manager of Mullaitivu branch of Peoples Bank, and the other a 29-year old owner of a Dehiwela eatery, are reported missing in Colombo since Monday, sources in Colombo said.
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106 civilians detained in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 15:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police detained 106 civilians when they went to police stations in the western province last Sunday to register their presence, civil sources in Colombo said. The civilians, 68 Tamils, 2 Muslims and 36 Sinhalese were detained for interrogation by the Terrorist Intelligence Division as they failed to prove their identity with required legal documents, police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara said.
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SLA shelling injures 3 civilians in Vaddakkachchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 14:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells exploded in densely populated Ramanathapuram in Vaddakkachchi, causing injuries to 3 civilians Wednesday around 11:45 a.m., according to medical sources at Tharmapuram hospital.
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Indian espionage aircraft on recce mission over Sri Lanka - Paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 09:01 GMT]
A day after Sri Lanka Army occupied the town of Ki'linochchi, India's foreign intelligence agency and crucial adviser to the Government on foreign policy-making, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was engaged in a "secret aerial surveillance mission across the Palk Straits" on Saturday according to a report in the Indian media. The report quoted sources who claimed that an aircraft "with high-tech espionage equipment" belonging to the RAW's top-secret wing Air Research Centre (ARC) had taken off from the Chennai airport around 3:00 a.m., on Saturday. The report filed by India's largest selling English daily has buttressed the claims of Tamil Nadu politicians who have accused New Delhi of providing several kinds of strategic military help to the Government of Sri Lanka.
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