Portending danger for potable water in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 August 2008, 09:50 GMT]
The news of re-opening the cement factory at Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) in the Jaffna Peninsula has been received with serious concern by academics and environmentalists from Jaffna. According to them, the factory, when it was functioning earlier, was a health hazard to the densely populated surroundings. It affected horticulture as crops were covered by cement dust. Above all, exploitative quarrying of limestone has already portended the possibility of seawater coming inside and polluting the entire groundwater table of the peninsula.
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30 SLA killed, offensive thwarted, Tigers locate SLA dead bodies

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2008, 01:59 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam officials in Vanni told TamilNet that their defensive formations at Mallaavi thwarted Friday a three-pronged Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive, which was launched from Vavunikku'lam and Paalaiyadi targeting Mallaavi. At least 30 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 60 troopers sustained injuries in an intense fighting, according to the Tigers. 3 dead bodies of SLA soldiers were also recovered by the Tigers. An SLA vehicle, one AK-LMG with rounds, one RPG launcher with shells, a mortar, eleven T-56 assault rifles were seized by the Tigers.
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Member of European Parliament envisages converting Tamils to Buddhism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 July 2008, 20:45 GMT]
"Frequently now I wonder whether Sri Lanka would have been a much more peaceful and much more homogeneous place if say 40% or so of the Tamil speaking population had been Buddhists and not exclusively Hindu or Christian. Is taking the Buddhist religion to Tamil people such a difficult task?" wonders Niranjan de Silva Deva-Aditya, Member of European Parliament (MEP) from U.K. and Honorary Ambassador-at-Large for Sri Lanka, in a statement after his recent visit to Sri Lanka as Vice-Chairman of the EU delegation. The Sinhala speaking MEP is tagged with a title, 'Vishwa Keerthi Sri Lanka Abhimani' (universally famous pride of Sri Lanka), bestowed onto him by the Buddhist clergy of Sri Lanka.
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Colombo's war boomerangs

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 July 2008, 09:20 GMT]
For the first time in two years, after Colombo launched its war, public and private sector employees in South have come to the open demanding higher wages from the government, despite Rajapaksa government's appeals to the public to back the military campaign. Ironically, the extreme nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which helped Mr. Rajapaksa into power and backed the military campaign, has come out openly to campaign for a salary increase of Rs. 5,000 per month and have threatened to launch a three day strike which comes in the backdrop of a one day token strike which had mixed results.
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Eezham exhibition impresses UK parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 July 2008, 14:28 GMT]
A photo exhibition on '60 years of oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka,' held at the premises of British Parliament on Wednesday brought in 'positive responses' from the Lawmakers cutting across party lines and other dignitaries, according to British Tamils Forum, the organisers of the display.
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Civilians flee SLA shelling in Northern Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 July 2008, 00:07 GMT]
Internally displaced families in Moon'raampiddi and Ve'l'laangku'lam villages, located in the northern part of Mannaar district, were fleeing their villages and settlements Friday after artillery and mortar barrage from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) that has approached Iluppaikkadavai, north of Vidaththaltheevu. Meanwhile, IDPs from the administrative areas of Maanthai West division of Mannaar district and Thu’nukkaay division in Mullaiththeevu district are undergoing severe hardships without proper accommodation and relief supplies in Karaichchi division of Ki'linochchi district.
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Boston Globe: Sri Lanka, in danger of becoming a rogue state

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 July 2008, 11:33 GMT]
"The solution to Sri Lanka's conflict must be political, not military. Rajapakse should be encouraged to strike a deal that grants Tamils substantial autonomy in their own homeland areas. If not, the war will drag on, and Sri Lanka's government may find itself classified alongside the regimes in Burma, Zimbabwe, and Sudan as an international pariah," Boston Globe, in an editorial published Thursday said.
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SLAF attacks paddy fields again, civilian wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 July 2008, 06:25 GMT]
A 24-year-old man, father of two, was wounded Tuesday morning when two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Kugnchup-paranthan and the adjacent paddy fields along Paranthan - Poonakari (Pooneryn) road. TamilNet correspondent who visited the attack site said that the bombardment has caused extensive damage to the agricultural lands in the 5th canal. The road was also damaged in the attack. The SLAF bombers came again in the afternoon and attacked the same area with deep bombs leaving large craters.
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Protection seekers in Jaffna face uncertain future

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 July 2008, 00:21 GMT]
Nearly three hundreds civilians who sought protection with Jaffna Human Rights Commision (JHRC) and kept in protective custody within Jaffna prison premises are facing danger of being removed against their wishes as a result of the activities of a local judge, sources in Jaffna said. Continued threats from in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence and paramilitary operatives forced many civilians to surrender to the HRC from various parts of the peninsula during the past two years. The SLA has earlier forced protection seekers at Jaffna prison to sign a letter, stating that they were LTTE members, before accommodating them to the centre at Thellippazhai.
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A9 gateway to Vanni re-opens at Oamanthai

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 July 2008, 11:58 GMT]
The ICRC resumed its services at A9 gateway to Vanni after having secured guarantees from the Government of Sri Lanka that attacks such as that took place close to the gateway would not be repeated, informed sources in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet. The ICRC resumed its services from 3:00 p.m. Monday.
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Sivajilingam seeks referendum to decide Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 July 2008, 01:42 GMT]
Let the International Community hold a referendum to get the will of Eezham Tamils for an independent homeland if it is not convinced of their sentiments shown explicitly through the events of Pongku Thamizh all over the world. Australia supported such a referendum in East Timor, said Tamil National Alliance MP, Sivajilingkam to TamilNet, when he came to address the Pongku Thamizh event held at Sydney on Sunday.
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Tigers target SLAF bomber over Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 July 2008, 14:37 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) MiG-27 fighter jet was forced to return after it sustained damage in anti-aircraft fire over Ki'linochchi area in Vanni Sunday afternoon, LTTE officials told media in Vanni. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) officials in Colombo, admitting that an aircraft had a troubled landing at Katunayaka military airbase in Colombo after carrying out an air strike, said that the fighter jet had 'skidded off' the runway while landing.
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Sri Lanka, a case of political inequality

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 July 2008, 16:38 GMT]
Striking a sharp contrast to Colombo's portrayal of Eezham struggle as a terrorist issue, Frances Stewart, the director of the Oxford based Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), looks at the crisis as a case of inequalities in political power between the Tamils and Sinhalese. In an interview that appeared in Human Rights Tribune, on Thursday, she said: "Horizontal inequalities have political, economic, social and cultural dimensions… Inequalities in political power, which are very important, where one group may have total dominance of the political system, and another group does not have any access, which is the situation more or less in Sri Lanka."
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Knowledge books mistreat Tamil history

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 07:34 GMT]
The presentation of the History of Eezham Tamils, in some of the international reference material such as Britannica Concise Encyclopedia and The World Factbook by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has become a matter of serious concern for Tamils all over the world. When the discipline of history itself is being deconstructed in the portals of knowledge of the postmodern era on one hand, these international sources of information are still harping on colonial brand of Orientalism, by basing history on myths.
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A9 gateway to Vanni closed after SLAF attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 July 2008, 18:29 GMT]
The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) Tuesday evening informed the Government Agent (GA) of Ki'linochchi, N. Vethanayagam, that it has decided to withdrew its personnel from manning the A9 post in Pu'liyangku'lam after Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a locality close to the gateway at 3:40 p.m., the GA told TamilNet. Four bombers attacked the location twice, endangering the lives of the civilians and the personnel manning the gateway.
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DPU Claymore explodes claiming the life of attacker

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 June 2008, 13:35 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed while he was engaged in setting up a Claymore mine in Vannearikku'lam in Karaichchi division of Ki'linochchi, Sunday morning around 9:30, Tamileelam police officials in Ki'linochchi said. The SLA DPU team that hurriedly withdrew from the area, had left behind the dead body of the SLA soldier, 2 km away from the site of the blast. Police said a bus carrying civilians was approaching the area when the explosion took place.
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Weerawansa, Pillayan discuss alliance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 June 2008, 10:04 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, a pro-government politician who heads a breakaway faction of the Sinhala extreme nationalist JVP, Saturday morning held discussions with Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, the leader of the paramilitary-cum-political party TMVP, who was recently installed by Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling UPFA as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, to reach a 'common understanding' and to form a 'common political front', informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet. Meanwhile, JVP sources, when contacted with the news, described the move as 'alliance of puppets.'
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Ea’raavoor police arrest four EPDP cadres

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 June 2008, 13:09 GMT]
Four cadres of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) alleged to have been involved in the recent spate of abductions, robberies, extortion of money from traders in Chengkaladi region were arrested Wednesday morning by Ea’raavoor police, produced in courts, and detained for 14 days on the instruction of the magistrate, Officer in Charge (OIC) of Ea’raavoor police said.
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TNA MP meets Norwegian Special Envoy in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 12:14 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Batticaloa District, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, who is currently on a visit to Europe, met Norwegian Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, in Oslo on Monday and discussed the political and humanitarian situation prevailing in the North and East. "Rajapaksa government is now attempting to seek regional recognition, especially from India, as it attempts to seek foreign funds for implementing a colonisation-agenda in the East," the MP told TamilNet after his meeting with the Norwegian Envoy.
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Unemployed graduates fast outside Batticaloa Education Office

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2008, 12:05 GMT]
A one day token fasting campaign by hundreds of unemployed graduates organized by the Association of Graduates of Eastern province Tuesday outside the Zonal education office of Batticaloa district effectively stopped functioning of the office from 7:00 till 11.00a.m, sources in Batticaloa said.
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