Emergency extended for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2008, 21:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Thursday adopted the motion to extend the state of emergency by another month with a majority of 89 votes. 106 parliamentarians voted for the motion and 19 parliamentarians voted against. Parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) were not present in the house at that time when the motion was put to vote, parliamentary sources said.
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138 military personnel killed, 549 injured in May - Wikremanayaka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2008, 16:48 GMT]
During the third session of Sri Lanka's parliament which commenced Thursday morning after a month long prorogation by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa using his executive powers, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake stated that during May 138 members of the three armed forces and police were killed and 549 were injured in confrontation with the LTTE. 63 civilians were also killed during that period, according to Wickremanayaka.
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Death toll in floods reaches 20 in south

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2008, 07:23 GMT]
Floods due to incessant rain in the south continued Wednesday and the death toll has risen to twenty. Most of the deaths took place in Kalutara district in the western province and second Galle district. About four hundred thousand peoples have been internally displaced and being sheltered in public buildings, schools and welfare centres, according to the officials at Sri Lankan social department.
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Heavy flood claims the lives of Eleven

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2008, 00:23 GMT]
At least eleven people have been killed and two gone missing in different parts of Sri Lanka due to floods caused by heavy rain, police said. Torrential rain has caused flooding and land slides in eight districts in southern, south-eastern, western and central provinces, displacing 150,000 people belonging to 47,000 families, according to the officials at the Disaster Management Centre in Colombo.
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Floods claim 5 lives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2008, 17:27 GMT]
The South-west monsoon rains that has been pouring down non-stop for the past four days have claimed 5 lives while affecting 32,000 people belonging to 10,000 families in Ratnapura, Galle, Kaluthura, Gampaha and Colombo districts, Disaster Management Centre in Colombo said. The torrential rain may continue for another 5 days due to low pressure created by the South-west monsoon, according to Sri Lanka Meteorological Centre.
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SLA appropriating Tamil IDPs' properties in Ampaa’rai district

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2008, 09:38 GMT]
The appropriation of the properties of the Internally Displaced People (IDP) and a Non-government organization in the Tamil areas in Ampaa’rai district by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Special Task Force (STF) Friday is a premeditated government plan to prevent the displaced from resettling in their traditional villages, K. Pathmananthan, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Thikaamaduva in Ampaa’rai district, said.
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Rajapakse leaves for Italy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2008, 11:40 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse left Thursday to Italy to address the summit of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) scheduled to be held on June 2 and 3 in Rome. Rajapakse is scheduled to address the summit on June 3, presidential secretariat sources said.
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Five suspects discharged in Kadirgamar murder case

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2008, 11:33 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate, Nishantha Kapuarachchi, discharged the five suspects arrested and remanded in connection with the murder of Lakshman Kadirgamar, former Foreign Minister on 12th August 2005 in Colombo, legal sources in Colombo said. The court made the order on the instruction of the Attorney General when four of the five suspects were produced in court Monday from Welikada prison.
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Wikramanayaka stops one-day service to obtain NIC

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2008, 09:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka has directed the Commissioner of Registration of Persons to stop immediately issuing national identity card (NIC) in one-day to those who lost their NIC and make application for renewal. Prime Minister said he has issued this directive to stop undesirables using this facility to commit crime and terrorist activity, media reports said.
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Ea'raavoor tense, 9 wounded, Police imposes curfew

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2008, 10:46 GMT]
Muslims in Ea'raavoor on Sunday alleged that two more Muslims were abducted as they launched a shut-down protest against the paramilitary-cum-political party, the TMVP, that had promised to release two Muslims who were abducted on Thursday, when the group attacked Muslims after a key paramilitary operative of the group was gunned down in the Muslim town of Kaaththaankudi. Ea'raavor Police has clamped down a curfew from 2:00 p.m. Sunday till 5:00 a.m. Monday. Seven passengers and two conductors were wounded when Muslim youths stoned three Sri Lanka Transport Board buses in Ea'raavoor. Residents of Tamil village Iyangkea'ni in Ea'raavoor were seen fleeing.
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Raviraj murder suspects further remanded

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 22:31 GMT]
Colombo Additional Magistrate Ms Sujatha Alahaperuma Thursday ordered further remand for the two suspects in the Nadaraja Raviraj murder case till June 4th and directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to communicate immediately with the Attorney General to find out what action they should take against the suspects, legal sources said.
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TNA condemns Mu'rika'ndi killings

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 18:27 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi) in a press release issued Friday condemned the killing of civilians in Mu'rika'ndi claymeor attack, and urged the International community "to take necessary measures to insist the Sri Lankan Government to stop its terrorist attack on Tamil civilians," and to restore the normalcy by withdrawing the security forces from the NorthEast.
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16 civilians killed in DPU attack in Vanni, 5 children, 7 females among victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 10:10 GMT]
16 civilians, including 5 children, three girls and two boys, were killed in a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) Claymore attack that targeted a Hiace van returning from Akkaraayan hospital to Ki'linochchi on Mu'rika'ndi - Akkaraayan Road Friday around 2:15 p.m., reports from Ki'linochchi said. The SLA on Friday stepped up DPU attacks in LTTE controlled Vanni as the region was observing a national mourning day following the demise of LTTE's Senior Commander Brigadier Balraj.
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Thousands pay homage to Brigadier Balraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2008, 21:03 GMT]
Several thousand members of general public filed past the casket Wednesday morning in Mallaawi, Vanni to pay their last respects to Brigadier Balraj, a senior and a special commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who passed away Tuesday of a sudden heart attack in Vanni. Meanwhile, a number of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jet fighters flew over the skies in provocative act to intimidate the public Thursday afternoon.
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"Sri Lanka will not succumb to western pressure"- Wickremanayake

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2008, 01:31 GMT]
"Western powers have been exerting pressure to Sri Lanka to start negotiation with 'terrorists' as a condition to provide economic assistance. I categorically state that Sri Lanka will not succumb to any such pressure," declared Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sunday addressing an event to mark the release of two Sinhala translation of books on Kandahar area in Pakistan, sources in Colombo said.
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'India gives full blessings to eliminate LTTE,' says SL Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 11:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, in a special interview to Thinakkural, a Colombo based Tamil daily, on Friday, claimed that the Indian government had given "full blessings" to the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa to "eliminate the LTTE." Mr. Wickramanayaka further proclaimed that there was no "ethnic conflict" in Sri Lanka. "The LTTE should lay their arms down if they want peace talks. We are not prepared for talks with them in the meantime," he further said.
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Tamil fisherman shot, killed in Kalkudaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 May 2008, 22:05 GMT]
Unidentified armed men following a fisherman in Paddiyadichcheanai area in GTZ village of Kalkudaa within Kalkudaa police division in Batticaloa district, shot him at close range Wednesday night 9:15 p.m.and fled the scene, sources said.
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No CFA in future, says Sri Lanka's PM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 May 2008, 18:50 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government would not sign any ceasefire agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at any stage as the time has come to wipe out terrorism from Sri Lanka completely, said Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, at an event held Tuesday in Colombo.
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India's Champoor power project, a terrible scandal, say activists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 19:44 GMT]
While India's National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC) Chairman Ram Charan Sharma told the media that the 500-MW thermal power project in Champoor in Trincomalee district will be one of the largest infrastructure investment in Sri Lanka, residents and rights activists complained that the Indian decision to pick Champoor for the power project had added to the Champoor displaced people's misery. "I have interacted with Indian diplomats (in Colombo) and am certain they are very sensitive to the human rights and humanitarian issues. But if India is involved in this, it will be a grave disappointment, even a terrible scandal," the activist told the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), the agency reported.
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2 Tamil civilians abducted in Puththa'lam, Modera

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 10:59 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians one, in Puththa'lam and other in Modera in Colombo, were abducted in two separate incidents, according to complaints lodged by their relatives with the Puththa'lam Police and Modera Police, media sources reported.
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