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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"And they came for me" - Lasantha Editorial

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 14:07 GMT]
"What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen - and all of the government - cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall," says late Wickrematunge, in an editorial penned before his death; he adds "It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when."
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3,000 Sri Lankan troops killed in three months, Army to double – newspapers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 12:37 GMT]
Three thousand Sri Lankan soldiers were killed fighting the Liberation Tigers in the past three months, the Sunday Island newspaper reported this week, quoting government Defence spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. He was responding to opposition charges that 15,000 troops had been killed in the battles since October last year. Meanwhile SLA commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka wants to eventually double the size of the SLA to 300,000 soldiers to hold areas captured from the LTTE. A colonel of the SLA’s Air Mobile brigade was killed in a booby trap explosion in the fighting for Elephant Pass last week, the Sunday Times reported.
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TMVP person killed, another injured, in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 09:52 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched an attack Saturday around 8:45 p.m on the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) office in Ea’raavoor police division killing a TMVP person and seriously injuring another.
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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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Bandarawela Police arrest Tamil youth

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2009, 16:16 GMT]
Bandarawela Police arrested a Tamil youth Wednesday in a cordon and search operation conducted in Poonagala estate in Bandarawela district. Police said the suspect had been hiding in the estate and suspected to have been with the Liberation Tigers in 2003.
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SLA attempt to advance from Ira'naimadu repulsed: Tigers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2009, 15:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched an offensive push from Ira'naimadu targeting to enter Vaddakkachchi in Ki'linochchi district Saturday. The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials told reporters in Vanni that their defensive forces repulsed the move. 18 SLA soldiers were killed, 40 wounded and the Tigers seized arms and ammunitions in the clearing mission that followed the 8 hours long fighting.
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Media activists protest against Lasantha assassination

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 21:41 GMT]
Hundreds of media activists took to the streets in Colombo Friday protesting against the assassination of one of the prominent journalists in Colombo and Chief Editor of Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, who was shot dead Thursday. The protesters accused Rajapaksa regime for the prevailing impunity as heavily armed military personnel ringed the area of protest at Regal Junction, the metropolitan heart of the city. Meanwhile, opposition parties have blamed the government for using the military achievements in its war against the LTTE as a propaganda ploy to suppress and eliminate the opposition.
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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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SLA takes control of A9 - Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 14:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday announced that the Sri Lanka Army regained the control of A9 Jaffna Kandy highway linking the south and the north after 23 years. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said that 53 Division commanded by Brigadier Kamal Gunaratne and 55 Division commanded by Brigadier Prasanna Silva based in the Mukamaalai area have advanced nearly 22 km south and occupied the Elephant Pass (EPS) and hoisted the Sri Lankan flag. The EPS was held by the LTTE for over eight years.
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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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Moneragala police arrest 5 Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 01:25 GMT]
Moneragala Police took five Tamils youths into custody during a cordon and search operation Monday. The operation was conducted on receipt of information that some LTTE cadres had stealthily entered the Moneragala estate, police said.
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SLN arrests 12 youths fleeing war in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2009, 01:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) arrested Friday twelve youths fleeing war in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held Vadamaraadchi East in a boat which was washed ashore on Point Pedro coast in Vadamaraadchi, sources in Point Pedro said. SLN handed over the arrestees to Point Pedro police who produced them in Point Pedro court Monday.
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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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IFT calls for redoubling of effort to support Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 12:47 GMT]
Accusing the International Community of attempting to "wean Tamil people, both in the Tamil homeland and the Diaspora, away from the LTTE," by advocating the need for a political solution while Kilinochchi is under occupation, International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a Geneva-based umbrella group of expatriate Tamil organizations, in a press release issued today "called upon over 70 million strong world Tamil community to redouble it support to the Eelam Tamils for their struggle to create the State of Tamil Eelam," and interated "that the future State of Tamil Eelam will negotiate with the Sinhala State of Sri Lanka to create a mutually acceptable relationship whereby both Peoples pool their sovereignties to associate with each other for purposes of mutual benefit."
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AHRC fears more killing following Senior Editor's assassination

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 12:19 GMT]
Calling on the "local and international community to take note of the escalation of violence in Sri Lanka and to do all [they] can to intervene for the purpose of saving lives," Asian Hurman Rights Commission (AHRC), a Hong Kong based rights watchdog, in press release issued today, warned that the situation points to "establishment of a dictatorship with the help of some sections of the military," and that "[i]f the local and the international community ignore this situation it may once more have to regret yet another situation of carnage."
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Sri Lanka bans LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 17:01 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has proscribed the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), one year after it unilaterally withdrew from the February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with the Tigers. The LTTE was banned in 1998, for the first time before Colombo embarked on the futile military exercise of 'Operation Jayasikurui' (Victory Assured) on Vanni mainland. Colombo had to lift the ban in 2002 before entering into the CFA agreement with the Tigers.
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Ban South Indian movies, say posters in Kandy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Sinhala ultra-nationalists have launched a campaign against screening South Indian movies in the theatres of Kandy, the capital of Central Province in Sri Lanka. Posters requesting the public not to allow screening South Indian films in theatre have appeared in several parts of the town, including the busy central bus stand and Good Shed area close to the railway station, sources in the town said.
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U.S. statement: 'we don't advocate talks with LTTE'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 14:25 GMT]
The United States, a member of the Co-Chairs for the Sri Lankan peace process following the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement brokered by Norway, in a statement issued after the Sri Lanka Army occupation of Ki'inochchi town in Vanni, said it does not advocate the Government of Sri Lanka to negotiate with the LTTE. "The fall of Kilinochchi represents an important point in the 25-year war that has divided Sri Lanka," the U.S. statement said.
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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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