Two Tamil youths reported missing in Kotahena

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 June 2008, 18:53 GMT]
A 37-year old Tamil flower-vendor and his assistant are missing from Kochchikade in Colombo since June 26, according to complaints lodged with the Kotahena Police and Rajagiriya Police by their relatives, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Australian socialist conference highlights Tamil rights

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 June 2008, 12:20 GMT]
Tamil youth activists addressed a packed audience, who attended 'Resistance 2008', an annual conference of Australia's largest socialist youth organisation, held at the University of Technology in Sydney this weekend. At a workshop on Saturday the Tamil presenters urged the socialist activists in Australia to voice support for the right to self determination of the Eezham Tamils.
Full story >>

TMVP person shot, injured in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 June 2008, 08:28 GMT]
Unidentified armed men on motorcycle shot and seriously injured Friday around 9:15 p.m the person in charge of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) office in Aalaiyadivempu in Akkaraippattu police division in Ampaa’rai district, near the office. The injured person was first rushed to Akkaraipattu hospital and then transferred to Ampaa’rai District Hospital for further treatment.
Full story >>

STF exposed in Batticaloa killings: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 June 2008, 01:07 GMT]
The indiscriminate shooting on Sunday by Special Task Force (STF) troops of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) resulting in the killing of two civilians and injuring three others in Ka’luthaava’lai, Batticaloa demonstrates the 'barbaric behaviour' of STF, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian T.Kanagasabai Batticaloa district said in a press communiqué released Monday.
Full story >>

Woman, 3 children reported missing in Uduppiddi

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 June 2008, 13:50 GMT]
A woman and her three children from Uduppiddi in Vadamaraadchi are reported missing since 17 June, according to a complaint to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna by her husband Monday. The husband had flown back from a Middle East country on being informed of the disappearance of his family by neighbours.
Full story >>

Sampanthan regrets neglected relationship

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 15:23 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan, who on Saturday met the visiting Indian top officials at India House in Colombo, told the delegation that "Tamils believed all these years that they were the natural allies of India, but it is not so today." Even the human rights violations against Tamils, abductions and genocide are largely ignored by India.
Full story >>

UNP dissidents withdraw their case against Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 01:30 GMT]
Eleven dissident parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and have been functioning as UNP Democratic Wing in the parliament holding ministerial posts in the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Friday withdrew their petitions filed against Ranil Wickremasinghe and Tissa Attanayake, president and general secretary of the UNP from taking steps to expel them from the proper UNP, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Gunmen target Tamil Jewelery shop owners in South

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 08:31 GMT]
Two unidentified persons riding a motor cycle shot and killed a Tamil jewelery shop owner, Kanagaratnam Devanayagam, at Kamachchoalai, in Negombo, Thursday around 7:30 p.m., police said. 8 days ago, the owner of Vasantha Jewelery was gunned down in Ambalangoda by two armed men who arrived in a motorbike.
Full story >>

Fishermen demonstrate against SLA restriction in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2008, 04:20 GMT]
More than 300 fishermen from PanangkaddukKoddadi area in Mannaar district launched a protest demonstration in front of Mannar Regional Secretariat Thursday around 10:30 a.m against the restrictions imposed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and submitted memoranda to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, S. Vino Noharathalingam and Mannaar Assistant Government Agent (AGA), requesting their help to solve their problems, sources in Mannaar said.
Full story >>

Stay order extended in tsunami house distribution to Muslims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2008, 16:47 GMT]
The Supreme Court Thursday extended its interim stay order in the Fundamental Rights petition filed by the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) parliamentarian Venerable Ellawela Methanananda Thera and officials of Deegavapi Restoration Committee against the distribution of about five hundred houses constructed under tsunami rehabilitation project to members of the Muslim community, legal sources said. The three member bench of the Supreme Court said the stay order would be in force until the inquiry into the FR petition is over. The inquiry has been put of for September 9.
Full story >>

385 Tamil civilians languish in SLA detention in Nanaaddaan - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 19:00 GMT]
385 civilians from 177 families of Mannaar are languishing in Sri Lanka Army detention at Ka'limoaddai in Naanaaddaan for three months without any inquiries, said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Sivasakthy Anandan in a letter to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday. The TNA parliamentarian for Vanni District appealed to the Sri Lankan president to order the release of the civilians detained in the SLA camp. Some of those detained include those who were born in India and had their education in the schools and Universities there.
Full story >>

Seven leaders including G.G.Ponnambalam honored in SL parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 04:29 GMT]
Seven political leaders, C.W.W.Kannangara, A.E.Goonesinghe, Dr.S.A.Wickremasinghe, G.G.Ponnambalam, Dr.N.M.Perera, Phillip Gunawardene and Alhaj T.B.Jayah were honored for their services to Sri Lanka, Tuesday in Sri Lanka's parliament. Their photographs were unveiled Tuesday morning in the parliament as a mark of respect in an event presided by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, parliamentary sources said.
Full story >>

SL Parliament begins debate on Witness Protection Bill

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 04:28 GMT]
Ruling and opposition parties in Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday agreed to debate the Assistance and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Bill. The Minister of Justice Amarasiri Dodangoda presented the Bill, parliamentary sources said.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

9 Up-Country Tamils arrested in Marawila, Kochchikade

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 10:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police took into custody nine Up-Country Tamil civilians including a woman into custody Monday in two separate search operations. Marawila Police took eight Tamil youths and the Kochchikade Police took a Tamil woman. All have been residents of Passara in Badulla district and had been employed in Marawila and Kochchikade.
Full story >>

9 upcountry Tamils arrested in Marawila, Kochchikade

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 03:56 GMT]
Police took into custody nine Tamil civilians including a woman into custody Monday in two separate incidents for alleged involvement with the LTTE. Marawila Police took eight Tamil youths and the Kochchikade Police took a Tamil woman. All are residents of Passara in Badulla district and have been employed in Marawila and Kochchikade, sources said.
Full story >>

Thousands pay their last respects to Thangamma Appakkuddi

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 June 2008, 15:08 GMT]
More than five thousand people gathered together at Thellippazhai Monday to pay their last respects to the mortal remains of Thangamma Appakuddi, the veteran religious and cultural personality of Eezham Tamils, in the homage paying event held around 12:00 p.m. in the Common Hall outside Thellippazhai Thurkkai Amman Koayil, presided by Aa’ruthirumurkan. Most of the schools in the peninsula were closed before lunch interval while all schools, shops, private and public institutions in Valikaamam north were closed before noon enabling all to attend the funeral.
Full story >>

50 civilians arrested in Ratnapura

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 17:18 GMT]
About fifty persons, majority of them Tamils of upcountry origin, were taken into custody in Ratnapura town in Sabragamuwa province in a cordon and search operation conducted jointly by the Sri Lanka Army and Police Sunday morning from 8 till afternoon. Police ordered owners to open their shops and searched, sources said.
Full story >>

Diaspora Tamil students mark Sivakumaran Day

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 12:03 GMT]
The Tamil Students' Uprising in Sri Lanka, originating in the late 1920s and early 30s against the Donoughmore Constitution, remained a peaceful struggle even in 1970 when the Tamil Students League entered into the scene. But, the 1972 Constitution inevitably compelled the Tamil youth to get into armed struggle and Sivakumaran was the pioneer marking this transition and setting its basic attributes such as sacrificing one's life by consuming cyanide, said Ki. Pi. Aravinthan, a close associate of Sivakumaran, while addressing an event held for the memory of Sivakumaran at Rohr in the district of Aarau in Switzerland on Saturday.
Full story >>

'Sinister move' of Colombo disrupting Tamil contiguity at Kokku'laay - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 11:14 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government's cabinet decision on Thursday to bring Kokku'laay, the Tamil coastal village of Northern Province under the administration of the Sinhala dominated Padavi Sripura division of Eastern Province is a "sinister move, officialising the separation of the Tamil contiguity of the North and East," said Tamil parliamentarian Selvam Adaikkalanathan on Saturday. "The International Community, especially America, Britain and India, who often harp on the theory of development in the East, before reaching a political solution, should take a serious note of what they are actually abetting in Sri Lanka," he further said.
Full story >>