SLA disrupts Thaippongkal Day in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 10:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops in Kaithadi in Jaffna forcibly took more than 600 local residents Tuesday early morning, disrupting their Thaippongkal rituals, to the playgrounds and schools in the area and held them for interrogation until evening. The SLA troops also assaulted the people going along Jaffna-Kandy road in Kaithadi during the extensive SLA cordon and search operation conducted in Kaithadi area on Thaippongkal Day.
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Paramilitary opens fire on Muslim worshippers at Mosque in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 15:33 GMT]
Paramilitary gunmen from Pillayaan Group opened fire on Muslims who were emerging from a Mosque in Karbala village in Aaraiyampathi Saturday at 7:55 p.m. Three persons, including a chief Mawlawi were wounded, two of them were in critical state, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. Tension prevails in the village with longstanding settlement dispute between the Tamil and Muslim communities. Shops were closed and additional police and Special Task Force personnel have been rushed to the village, Police said.
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Colombo removing witnesses to impending carnage- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 January 2008, 00:24 GMT]
Colombo abrogated the CFA to remove the presence of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) which was instrumental in exposing rights violations by all sides. "Government will want to rid the Northeast of any witnesses of the carnage that it intends to unveil on the Tamil people in the name of safeguarding the Sovereignty of the State," said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an interview to TamilNet this week. He added that anti-Tamil actions by Rajapakse Government are taking place under the full glare of the International Community which is able to only make verbal condemnations, but remains largely ineffective to reign in on Colombo on the rights abuses.
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JVP noose around APRC neck

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 January 2008, 02:02 GMT]
While State media continues to provide an air of credibility to the All Party Representative Committee (APRC), insiders revealed to the Sunday Leader that APRC committee has decided to "delay discussing the contentious issues until the end but that they have now reached a deadlock with the JHU and SLFP insisting on a unitary state while the other parties have objected to the use of that terminology." The Sunday Leader further said that while several members have insisted on a set of proposals which goes beyond the 13th Amendment, the JVP has warned that they would topple the government if any proposals resembling a federal formula is forwarded in February.
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2007: The year in review

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 07:34 GMT]
For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year. Sri Lanka’s security forces and allied paramilitaries intensified their campaign of abductions (‘white van’ abductions), torture, and murder of Tamil civilians. Tamil civil society leaders bore the brunt of the counter-insurgency campaign. Jaffna remained an open prison with shortage of essential items, east falling under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control with thousands displaced as Colombo concocts colonization schemes to make east a Sinhala majority province.
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4 SLA soldiers killed in Northern Front - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 January 2008, 13:45 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and many wounded in two clashes in Ki'laali and Mukamaalai in Northern Front Wednesday, LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet. Meanwhile, sources in Jaffna said that the people hurried home early from their places of work, scared by the intense artillery fire directed towards LTTE positions from the SLA bases in Jaffna. SLA helicopters were seen flying between the FDL poisitions and Palaali Military Main Base.
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Maheswaran killing, disturbing erosion of democracy- FMM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2008, 12:50 GMT]
The Free Media Movement (FMM), a Colombo-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Tuesday, strongly condemned the assassination of United National Party (UNP) MP T. Maheswaran, and said the murder adds to the "incredible number of political killings and the suppression of those who seek to bring to light gross human rights abuses," in Sri Lanka, and FMM is "mindful that the Sri Lankan Police have been unable and unwilling to bring the killers of other high profile political figures."
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Sri Lanka ranked third in murders of journalists

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 December 2007, 16:49 GMT]
Press Emblem Campaign, an independent media watchdog based in Geneva, in a press release issued Monday said, Sri Lanka ranked third worldwide in number of journalists killed in 2007 in line of duty, behind Iraq and Somalia. "Sri Lanka ranks third, seven journalists killed this year against four last year due to the intensity of the civil war," the press release said.
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15,000 deprived of livelihood in Paduvaankarai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 December 2007, 21:27 GMT]
Half of the affected agriculture-dependent families in Batticaloa district are from Paduvaankarai region, where the major cultivable land of the district, is situated. Forced to flee their paddy fields, standing ripe and ready for harvest, the families who returned under the Government of Sri Lanka's (GoSL) resettlement, could only witness the remains of the properties and livestock that had been looted by the Sri Lankan forces. Although four months have elapsed since their resettlement, the GoSL has not provided any assistance to the farmers to resume paddy cultivation.
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Airstrike on VoT, a war crime - RSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 18:39 GMT]
A Sri Lanka military air strike Tuesday on the Voice of Tigers, the radio station of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), was a "war crime," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. Three of the station's staff, who had not been given any warning, and six other civilians were killed in the bombardment by air force jets, the RSF said.
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SLAF bombs VoT radio station in Vanni, 11 killed, 15 wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 11:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. attacked the Voice of Tigers (VoT) broadcast station located at 155 Mile Post, 3.5 km south of Ki'linochchi. Three editorial staff workers at the station and eight civilians, residents and travelers near the station were killed in the attack. 15 civilians, including four editorial staff, wounded in the attack were admitted to Ki'linochchi hospital. A hostel belonging to World Food Programme (WFP) was fully destroyed. The Vanni office of FORUT and a library of Ki'linochchi Pradeshiya Sabah were damaged in the airstrike. A bomb hit the A9 Road. 17 civilian houses in the vicinity were attacked, 8 houses have sustained heavy damage.
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Eelaventhan meets Harper, U.S. officials

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007, 13:32 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr Eelaventhan, currently visiting Canada and United States met with Canada's ruling Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and politicians from other parties during the early part of November, and also met with United States State Department officials on the 14th of November, briefing them on the worsening humanitarian conditions in Tamil areas of North East of Sri Lanka, and the deteriorating ground situation that is leading towards large scale confrontation between Sri Lanka Security forces and Liberation Tigers.
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Peace keeper's silence regretted - Nadesan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 November 2007, 06:07 GMT]
The official silence of the peace facilitator Norway, in regard to the killing of Thamilchelvan, is viewed with serious concern and is regretted by the Tamil population and the Tigers, said B. Nadesan, the new political head of the LTTE, to TamilNet. The Head of SLMM, Major General Lars Johan Solvberg, was invited by the LTTE to Ki'linochchi to convey this message to the Government of Norway for necessary action, he said after the meeting, Thursday morning. Tamils all over the world closely watch Norway and other members of the International Community for their open responses and for what they are going to openly tell the Sri Lanka government, he further said.
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Sivaram murder case inquiry fixed for February 11

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2007, 16:22 GMT]
Popular military analyst and TamilNet editorial board member Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki) murder case was taken up for inquiry Monday before the High Court Judge Mr.W.A.D.Ratnayake. The court announced that the inquiry in this case would commence on February 11 next year before a panel of Jury. Attorney General has indicted Arumugam Sriskandarajah for murdering Mr.Sivaram on April 8, 2005, legal sources said.
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Tigers thwart offensive in Jaffna, 23 SLA killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2007, 02:38 GMT]
Liberation Tigers have repulsed a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) ground operation towards the Northern Forward Defence Line (FDL) positions between Ki'laali and Mukamaalai in the early hours of Wednesday, Irasiah Ilanthirayan, the military spokesman of the Liberation Tigers told TamilNet. The ground operation, launched by the SLA with heavy artillery, Multi Barrel Rocket Fire and with the support of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter gunships at 5:20 a.m. was thwarted around 7:30 a.m., after intense fighting, he said claiming that more than 100 SLA troops were wounded and at least 16 killed in the attack. A military source in Jaffna confirmed that 23 soldiers were killed and 150 wounded.
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‘Peace needs a paradigm shift in international approaches’

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 00:18 GMT]
"A striking sentiment perceivable on stage and among the audience at the gathering in Olso to pay tribute to Thamilchelvan, was righteous indignation about the lopsided morality of International Community, in not responding effectively to the killing of an important political personality," K. Sivapalan, a senior attorney-at-law from Trincomalee, who attended the gathering in Oslo on Saturday, told TamilNet.
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Thamilchelvan funeral Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 23:07 GMT]
The state funeral of S. P. Thamilchelvan, the head of the Liberation Tigers’ Political Wing and the movement’s Chief Negotiator, who was killed Friday in a targeted airstrike by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) will be held in Kilinochchi Monday, LTTE officials in Vanni told TamilNet. Tens of thousands of people paid their respects Saturday and Sunday as Mr Thamilchelvan’s body was taken in procession to the twelve sectors (Koaddams) of the LTTE-administered Vanni. In a notice emailed Sunday, LTTE published an email address for condolence messages to be sent.
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Bauer pays tributes to Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 15:45 GMT]
Jon Hanssen Bauer, the Norwegian special envoy for the peace process in Sri Lanka, on Saturday paid tributes to Liberation Tigers Political Head and Chief Negotiator S. P. Thamilchelvan. Stating that Mr. Thamilchelvan's role was important not only for Norway, but also for other countries, Mr. Bauer said Thamilchelvan was a patient man in explaining the rightful demands of Tamils and he was a moderate person within the LTTE, one who sought political alternatives.
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Peoples of 'historical waters' and Indian security

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 12:14 GMT]
Due to improved understanding and collaboration between the navies of India and Sri Lanka, and enhanced sea monitoring power, India need not to worry about repercussions of the ongoing war in Sri Lanka, said L. V. Sarath Babu, the Chief Staff Officer, Eastern Command of the Indian Navy to media men at Rameasvaram on Friday. The night of the same day, 97 Tamil Nadu fishermen, were arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy off the waters of Jaffna. This is an illustrative example of the wide gap between the security concerns of the two governments and the aspirations of the peoples they claim to represent.
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Karunanidhi laments the death of Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 November 2007, 11:43 GMT]
Seen as a significant gesture, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and veteran leader of Tamils, M. Karunanidhi, condoled the demise of Thamilchelvan on Saturday. Kalaignar Karunanidhi, quite typical of his style, used the medium of poetry and pun to pass a subtle message that the Tamils of Sri Lanka haven't gone brotherless. The Chief Minister's emotion-filled condolence gains significance in the background of a prevailing impression that the government of India is fully backing the war efforts of the government of Sri Lanka aiming for a military solution to the ethnic crisis in the island.
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