Attack on media: freedom, arrogance and playing with the will of people

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 23:57 GMT]
The Tamil nationalist sentiments bursting into anti-media violence, spontaneously or otherwise, is not the appropriate way, said a senior Eezham Tamil editor in Colombo, commenting on the reported recent attacks on The Hindu in Tamil Nadu. "Camouflaged in the name of Indian national interest, the intellectual venom, sectarian interests, dynastic interests and personal biases sadly making The Hindu into a pro-Sinhala and anti-Tamil media have to be countered socially, culturally and politically on a superior intellectual plane by bringing out public awakening locally and globally," he said.
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Tamil Surgeon reported missing in Kandy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 16:30 GMT]
A 50-year old Tamil ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) surgeon working in the Kandy Teaching Hospital is reported missing since 11th October after he left his residence located along William Gopallawa Mawatte in Kandy town. He has failed to report to work thereafter, according to a complaint lodged with the Kandy Police by the Administrative Officer of the hospital.
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Rajapaksa re-stages 'APC drama' to avert pressure from Tamil Nadu - Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 01:15 GMT]
Leader of the dissident SLFP (M) Wing and a former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera in the Rajapaska government, charged Monday that the Sri Lankan President was engaged in re-staging 'All Party Conference' drama as agitations and protests were growing in Tamil Nadu state in India and Tamil Nadu politicians have formed broad alliances as never before against the war in Sri Lanka. Stating that Rajapaksa regime is bogged down in war with its "Unitary State," Mr. Mangala Samaraweera said there is absolutely no possibility of finding a political solution that could address the just grievances of the Tamil people within Rajapaksa's Unitary State and its 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
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Resettled Moothoor IDPs lack basic facilities

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2008, 21:40 GMT]
461 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) belonging to 159 resettled last week in Kaddaippa'richchaan South, Kaddaippa'richchaan East Grama Sevaka (Village Level Administrator) Divisions in Moothoor East are facing severe hardships due to lack of basic amenities.
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JVP files court action against Karuna's nomination as UPFA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2008, 19:32 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sinhala nationalist party, Tuesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking annulment of the gazette notification issued by the Commissioner of Elections nominating Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, a renegade Tiger commander who turned leader of a paramilitary group operated by the Sri Lanka Army in Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai as a nationalist parliamentarian from the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to the seat that fell vacant due to the resignation of a JVP parliamentarian Vasantha Samarasinghe, legal sources said.
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Parliament approves emergency extension

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2008, 19:25 GMT]
The Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday by a majority of 84 votes adopted the motion moved by the government to extend the State of Emergency by one month, parliamentary sources said. 98 parliamentarians of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) including the newly appointed Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna voted for the motion. Fourteen parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against the motion.
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SL Premier: 200 military personnel killed, 1,000 wounded in September

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2008, 14:45 GMT]
About two hundred military personnel were killed and over one-thousand wounded in the battle field in the military operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in September, said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake in Sri Lanka parliament Tuesday when moving the motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month, parliamentary sources said.
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SLA arrests youth, another reported missing, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 2008, 10:28 GMT]
A 26-year-old Tamil youth from Kaithadi in Jaffna, temporarily staying Colombo, was reported missing after going out on an errand 22nd September, according to a complaint registered by his mother with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in Jaffna. Meanwhile, another 24-year-old Tamil youth has disappeared in Cha'ndilippaay Jaffna after being arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers while he was on his way to a closeby Saiva temple, his mother said in a complaint to the HRC.
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Batticaloa Buddhist priest protests Police action

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 2008, 14:39 GMT]
Batticaloa Buddhist Vihare incumbent Chief priest, Ven. Sumanaratna Thero, led a protest fast near Batticaloa Clock Tower Saturday morning demanding the Police Officer in charge of Batticaloa police station to be transferred for refusing permission to participate in the opening ceremony of the new Appeal Court building in Batticaloa by Chief Justice Mr. Sarath N. Silva, earlier the same day.
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Compulsory registration of Tamils, another act of oppression - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 2008, 13:14 GMT]
Compelling all Tamils from North and East currently residing in Western province to register with police is another act of oppression, and has caused fear and apprehension, stated K.Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian in a media communique released Thursday.
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TNA condemns grenade attack on Tamil MP's house in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2008, 12:32 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a report released Wednesday, condemned the grenade attack on TNA Ampaa'rai district parliamentarian Chandra Nehru Chandrakanthan's house in Thirukkoayil Tuesday, and accused Sri Lanka government of using paramilitary operative Iniyabarathi to prevent TNA parliamentarians of Eastern Province from fulfilling their responsibilities to the constituents. Paramilitary opertive Iniyabarathi functions as Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Ampaa'rai district coordinator.
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JB Jeyaratnam passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2008, 11:27 GMT]
JB Jeyaretnam, the veteran opposition politician in Singapore and the first opposition member to be elected as Member of Parliament in Singapore, passed away on Tuesday of a heart attack at the age of 82.
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Grenade attack on TNA MP's house in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2008, 05:56 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed a hand grenade on the house of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Ampaa'rai district parliamentarian, Chandra Nehru Chandrakanthan, on Thirukkoayil main street, Tuesday around 10:00 p.m, despite the presence of three policemen guarding the residence, the MP said. The blast had damaged only the front portion of the house and no one was injured, he said. Police said two attackers were riding in a motorbike.
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Arson attack destroys Grocery store in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2008, 18:01 GMT]
A petrol bomb attack on a grocery store in Aaraiyampathi within Kaaththaankudi police in Batticaloa district Tuesday night 9:30 p.m. caused extensive damages to the store, the owner stated in a complaint lodged with Kaaththaankudi police.
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Two Tamils reported missing in Kaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 September 2008, 12:08 GMT]
Two Tamil youths of Aaraiyampathi were abducted by unidentified armed men who arrived in a white van on September 18, according to complaints lodged with the Kaaththaankudi Police and the Batticaloa regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
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SLA shelling hits convoy on A9, driver wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 September 2008, 09:49 GMT]
A driver of a lorry convoy on its way to Oamanthai, expecting humanitarian supplies, was wounded when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hit the A9 highway Thursday around 7:30 a.m., 1 km off Maangku'lam.
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History rejects military defeat of liberation movements- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2008, 18:22 GMT]
Responding to a question on year-end dead line set by the Government of Sri Lanka to defeat the Liberation Tigers, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Jaffna said, "We have been told many times and by many governments of Sri Lanka that the war will be won and that the LTTE will be defeated...I am yet to come across an instance when a national liberation movement in any part of the world has been militarily defeated," in an interview published in Colombo weekly the Sunday Leader 14th edition.
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Ambushes kill 2 policemen in Batticaloa, 7 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 September 2008, 06:40 GMT]
An ambush team of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) attacked a sentry post at Thimilatheevu in Batticaloa district in the early hours of Saturday at 4:30 a.m., killing a Sri Lankan policeman at the post. Meanwhile, a Claymore attack on Ma'ndoor Vellaave'li Road targeted a truck, killing a policeman and causing serious injuries to four Sri Lankan policemen at 9:30 a.m., according to LTTE officials in the East. Sri Lankan police sources also confirmed that two of their policemen were killed in two separate attacks and said seven police personnel, including two female police, were wounded in the Claymore attack, according tot he Police sources.
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TNA condemns expulsion of foreign aid workers from Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2008, 11:49 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Thursday condemned the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for instructing the foreign NGOs and aid workers to leave from Vanni and urged the International Community to prevail upon the GoSL to recall its decision.
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Sampanthan on excluding UN missions: Sri Lankan State destroys its sovereignty

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2008, 07:41 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan Government, though it talks big about its concern for the displaced people in Vanni, does nothing more than make available to these people the meagre food items provided under the United Nations World Food Programme," said R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), while addressing the Sri Lankan Parliament on Tuesday. Also noting the Sri Lankan state's refusal to establish UN presence for monitoring the Human Rights violations, the senior Tamil politician blamed the Sri Lankan state for contributing to the "erosion and eventual destruction of its own sovereignty," in a lengthy speech during the debate on extending Emergency.
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