STF commando killed, 2 wounded in Batticaloa - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2008, 12:47 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Batticaloa said Saturday that they carried out a commando attack on a Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) post in a high security area on A5 road in Koappaavea'li in Batticaloa district Friday evening around 7:00 p.m.
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Time for Colombo to defeat LTTE with political solution: U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2008, 10:16 GMT]
"The U.S. view is that the [Sri Lankan] government could further isolate and weaken the LTTE if it articulates now its vision for a political solution," said U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake while addressing an interactive session at the University of Madras on Friday, The Hindu reported. While ruling out the military option, Mr. Blake has alluded that the U.S. position was to militarily weaken the LTTE to defeat it politically. The United States has been a key player of the Co-Chairs for the Sri Lankan process, which has been managed by the facilitation of Norway till Sri Lanka unilaterally withdrew from the ceasefire.
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Colombo to avoid reporting casualty figures on Vanni fighting

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2008, 22:36 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Friday continued in its attempt to advance further into southern Ki'linochchi facing stiff resistance from the Tigers, according to the officials of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Vanni. Fighting intensified as SLA attempted to advance towards Naachchikkudaa on Friday, they said adding that the SLA has suffered heavy casualties. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Defence Ministry officials said they have suspended reporting casualty figures of their side in the offensive that has been stepped up in Vanni.
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Saiva priest arrested in Kandy

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2008, 11:38 GMT]
A Tamil Saiva priest was arrested on Wednesday in Teldeniya in Kandy district, and is being detained in police station for interrogation by the Police Intelligence Unit. The priest was taken into custody by a special police team which went from Kandy Police Headquarters on a report from the intelligence unit, civil sources said.
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Change course or face misfortune: Indian scholar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 21:32 GMT]
The broad sentiment in Tamil Nadu this time is not merely against Colombo but against New Delhi as well. It is widely perceived in Tamil Nadu that New Delhi is collaborating with Colombo in authoring the misery of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, says M S S Pandian in an article appeared in The Times of India on Thursday. "Tamil Nadu had a history of demanding secession from the Indian Union. Yet, over time, it has chosen to integrate itself fully with the national mainstream. If New Delhi does not change course in its Sri Lankan policy, it may plant the seeds towards a reversal of such history. That will be India's misfortune," wrote the renowned scholar on sociopolitical and subaltern studies of contemporary India.
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Vaiko arrested for "pro-LTTE speech"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 17:22 GMT]
Tamil Nadu state police arrested MDMK General Secretary Vaiko, a staunch supporter of Tamil Eelam cause, on Thursday afternoon for allegedly making "highly inflammatory speeches in support of the LTTE".
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2 SLA killed in Ampaa'rai - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 10:42 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and one wounded Thursday at 11:05 a.m. in a gunfire ambush carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Bakimitiyawa in Ampaa'rai district, according to LTTE sources in the East.
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SLA steps up fighting in Mu'rika'ndi, Akkaraayan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 19:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter gunships were deployed in transporting casualties on Wednesday from newly occuppied territories in the southern frontiers of Ki'linochchi as Sri Lanka Army stepped up fighting amid stiff resistance by the Tigers. SLA launched artillery barrage in the frontiers also extended to target the suburbs of Ki'linochchi town, causing panic among the civilians who had come back for temporary stay in their houses due to the lack of shelter elsewhere following the monsoonal rain. More than 80 SLA soldiers were killed and 200 sustained injuries within the past 4 days, according to informed sources in Colombo.
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2 STF killed in Ampaa'rai - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 14:05 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) on Wednesday claimed two Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) personnel were killed and one wounded in a mine explosion in Kagnchikudichchaa'ru jungle in Ampaa'rai district Wednesday around 1:50 p.m.
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Sea Tigers sink Sri Lankan supply ship

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 08:10 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Sea Tigers on Wednesday claimed that they carried out a Black Tiger attack on Sri Lankan ship MV Nimalawa, which carried military and other supplies, in Sri Lankan naval harbour in Kankeasnthu'rai in Jaffna Wednesday morning around 5:00. The supply ship was sunk and another vessel, MV Ruhunuwa, sustained heavy damage, the Tigers said.
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Explosions target Sri Lankan ships in the seas off Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 03:32 GMT]
Two big explosions were heard in the seas off Kaankeasanthu'rai Harbour in Jaffna around 4:00 a.m. Wednesday. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers fired rockets from their coastal positions in Vadamaraadchi North, fishermen in the area said reporting heavy exchange of gunfire in the seas after the explosions. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo said one of their ships sustained damage in the attack and that they prevented the Sea Tiger boats from destroying the other ship. In the meantime, the SLA soldiers have instructed the fishermen not to access the seas off Vadamaraadchi Wednesday morning. The LTTE is yet to issue details of their attack.
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STF commando killed, one wounded in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 13:51 GMT]
A Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) commando was killed and one wounded Tuesday around 11:45 a.m. in a jungle area in Poththuvil in Ampaa'rai, according to the claims by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in the East.
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SLA imposes unofficial restrictions on Thenmaraadchi residents

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2008, 17:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has imposed restrictions on the residents in Thenmaraadchi against buying food provisions in large quantities or to stock them from Sunday, following instructions from the Ministry of Defence, sources in Jaffna said. SLA authorities suspect that the people of Thenmaraadchi are providing food to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eazham (LTTE) combatants who had infiltrated into Thenmaraadchi.
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Indian federal model insufficient to Sri Lanka, says senior leader of CPI

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2008, 08:31 GMT]
Unlike India, which has a multitude of ethnicities, the Sri Lankan question is confined only to two identities, Sinhalese and Tamils. Legacies of struggle and military situation have made a contextual difference in Sri Lanka. Therefore the Indian federal model is insufficient to Sri Lanka. It should be higher than that, perhaps a confederation having constitutional guarantees, preventing one unit militarily interfering with the other, said C. Mahendran, senior leader of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Communist Party of India, in a recent interview to TamilNet.
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Mahinda telephones Manmohan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 23:15 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday to discuss recent developments in Sri Lanka. While the Sri Lankan press release is silent on details, the Indian brief discloses the PM's concern for the safety of civilians, ensured relief supply to IDPs, not enmeshing the Tamil community in the hostilities with LTTE and nurturing democracy in the East, apart from the usual reiterations on political solution, united Sri Lanka and Indian fishermen casualties. The Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee was invited by his Sri Lankan counterpart to visit Sri Lanka at an early date, according to SL press release.
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Beginning the end of war with Tamil right to self determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 08:06 GMT]
Those who peruse the demands raised by major political parties in Tamil Nadu may notice that the focus is merely on stopping the war but nothing said by any on the fundamental issue of the sovereignty of the Tamil nation in the island of Sri Lanka, the question on which war has been thrust upon the Eezham Tamils. Any meaningful way to end the war and the suffering of the masses in Sri Lanka should therefore begin from recognizing the right to self-determination of Eezham Tamils and the integrity of their homeland, writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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Time for India to re-think, says Singaporean scholar

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 16:21 GMT]
The all-party resolution in Tamil Nadu should provide New Delhi an opportunity to do some introspection about its Sri Lanka policy, says TS Gopi Rethinaraj of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore in an article that appeared in Hindustan Times on Thursday. Unless India is able to lock SL in a broad bilateral security relationship, their leadership will have no qualms about allowing China or Pakistan to get a foothold, he says. "This is the real danger of India's current policy facilitating the military defeat of the LTTE. If India were to take a hard-nosed view of its interests, a subtle shift in its position on the LTTE will go a long way in safeguarding its strategic interests in the region besides securing the interests of ethnic Tamils in the island."
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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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STF shoots dead 2 Tamils, 2 Muslims in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 19:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) commandos opened fire Thursday around 6:00 a.m, on four farmers, two of them Tamils and two Muslims, killing them at Vaddamadu pasture land in Thirukkoayil police division in Ampaa'rai district.
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Batticaloa girl arrested in Kalpity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 18:45 GMT]
22 year-old Tamil girl was arrested by the police in Kalpity in Puththalam district in northwestern province Tuesday night from a residence she was temporarily staying, Puththa'lam police said. She is being detained in the police station and under interrogation on a report that she had been closely associating with the LTTE cadres, police added.
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