Tigers two pronged strategy- Taraki, 1989

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 November 2005, 01:02 GMT]
On the 3 December 1989 issue of Sri Lanka's English daily, Island International, late Dharmeratnam Sivaram, popular journalist and Senior editor at TamilNet, writes on LTTE's ascendency after the collapse of the Indo-Lanka accord. Beginning of withdrawal of Indian troops, JVP insurrection in the South that made Sri Lanka a killing field, and the start of Premadasa-LTTE talks provide the political context to the article.
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Jaffna Campus Heroes' Memorial unveiled

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 November 2005, 10:53 GMT]
"People of Jaffna will never forget nor pardon the desecration of the memorials of more than 900 war heroes in the hallowed grounds of Kopay Martyrs Cemetary in 1996 by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers," Professor. C. Mohanadas, the Vice Chancellor of Jaffna Univeristy told TamilNet after addressing the opening ceremony of a Heroes' Memorial constructed within the Jaffna Campus premises, Thursday. "It was an act, unheard of in the civilized world," the Vice Chancellor said.
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SL Military is the intimidatory presence - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 November 2005, 10:11 GMT]
Denying accusation they had intimidated Tamils into not voting in last week’s Sri Lanka Presidential election, the Liberation Tigers said the boycott by the Tamil people last week was a reflection of prevailing Tamil opinion towards Sri Lankan leaders, based on their bitter experiences of the past. The near total boycott by Tamil voters took place despite the "oppressive presence of thousands of Sri Lankan troops and Army-backed paramilitaries in Jaffna and other parts of the Northeast," the LTTE's Political Head, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, told TamilNet Tuesday. He reiterated that the LTTE had not ordered Tamils to boycott the elections.
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Jaffna election irregularities on voting eve

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 November 2005, 12:55 GMT]
Reports from Jaffna reveal intimidating and underhand activities of the Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP) cadres in organising vote-rigging in Sri Lanka Presidential election. Groups of armed EPDP cadres were seen visiting house to house forcibly collecting the 'ballot-tokens' from residents in islets off Jaffna peninsula, TamilNet learns. With armed protection from the State armed forces, Douglas Devananda's EPDP is holding unannounced short-meetings at market places and actively campaigning for Mahinda Rajapakse, the candidate of the ruling party.
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LTTE: no change in our position on polls

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 November 2005, 09:06 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Wednesday there is no change in their position on Thursday’s Presidential election from that taken last Friday. Denying newspaper reports that the LTTE was now actively encouraging people to vote in the Presidential elections, head of the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat, S. Pulidevan, said "the issue was discussed at length by the LTTE and the TNA (Tamil National Alliance) last week and the conclusion was the Tamils cannot place our trust on either of the parties or their candidates".
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Two LTTE cadres shot and killed in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 November 2005, 06:00 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed two political cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eealm Monday night in Pallikudiyiruppu, a Muslim suburb in in Sri Lanka Army controlled Akkaraipattu in Amparai district, police said. The cadres, Mr. Suresh, 26, and Mr. Vellai, 22, who use to come to the village to purchase meat, were kidnapped by the gunmen, residents said.
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"SL Government's speak soft, hit hard policy" - Taraki, 1992

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 November 2005, 03:33 GMT]
In the 10th June 1992 issue of Sri Lanka's English daily, Island International, late Dharmeratnam Sivaram, popular journalist and Senior editor at TamilNet, sheds light into the then Sri Lanka's President Premadasa and Leader of the House, Ranil Wickremesinghe's strategy of dealing with Tamil national question, a strategy of wooing Tamil votes with political rhetoric and to inflict military defeat on LTTE by planning to allow Sri Lanka forces to "smash their way into Jaffna."
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Somalian sea pirates release Sri Lankan captive

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 October 2005, 13:05 GMT]
Selvathurai Mahalingam (58), captain of a Kenyan ship, who had been detained by a group of Somalian sea pirates for 101 days was released and returned to Sri Lanka on Friday (October 28th). The ship had been seized close to the waters of Somalia, Mr.Mahalingam told TamilNet.


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SLA fires at Puthur protesters, seven injured

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 October 2005, 11:28 GMT]
Seven Tamil civilians injured and four of them were admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital Friday evening following the shooting by soldiers of the SLA at Puttur junction at the angry crowd which pelted stones and threw a petrol bomb at the army sentry around 3.30 p.m. The crowd later is alleged to have set fire to an army vehicle, sources said. SLA soldiers fired at least 250 gunshots to bring the situation under their control. Monitors of the SLMM arrived at the site at 12.15 and remained there until late evening, Helen Olafsdottir of SLMM has told TamilNet.
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Fostering political transformation, key to peace - Norwegian Don

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 08:48 GMT]
Transformation of the Sri Lankan democracy into one that is capable of handling conflicts is essential in addition to the political transformation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for Sri Lanka to resolve its pressing ethnic struggle, notes Kristian Stokke, a Professor of Human Geography at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway. Pointing to the post-tsunami period which has witnessed divisive politicization of both peace and development due to the intra-elite fragmentation and rivalry in Sri Lankan polity, Prof Stokke argues that international community can only act as an enabler to stimulate the needed transformation.
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Tamil representatives, Legal experts meet EU officials

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2005, 11:16 GMT]
Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois and a leading practitioner and advocate of international law, Mr. V. Rudrakumaran, an attorney of law based in New York, U.S, and a legal advisor to the Tamil delegation at the peace negotiations, met a high level delegation of European Commission External Relations officials on Monday at 2:00 p.m. in Brussels following the Tamil diaspora rally, sources in Brussels told TamilNet.


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CitiHope, first recipient of TRO-USA's Katrina fund

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2005, 02:27 GMT]
CitiHope International, an Andes, New York, based humanitarian relief and development service agency is the first recipient of Katrina relief donation from the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO-USA), President Dr Ranjithan told TamilNet. "We chose CitiHope, as members of TRO's Board of Directors have noted its impressive work in Sri Lanka's tsunami effort and also the organization has a low, less than 1%, operational overhead," Dr Ranjithan said.
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Media speculation on cause of UAV crash rebuffed

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 October 2005, 00:05 GMT]
Media reports that the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) belonging to Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) that came down in Vanni on 19 October was downed either by radar-guided gun or by an air-borne attack by the Liberation Tigers were mere speculations not backed up by concrete evidence, experts contacted by TamilNet said. A Virginia (US) based science journalist who covers UAV developments, rebuffed a report that quoted a Sri Lanka Air Force official as saying: "engine failure, generator failure and communications failure warning messages appearing simultaneously at Ground control indicated sudden destruction of the UAV caused by enemy action."
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Thousands to attend rally near EU Secretariat in Brussels

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2005, 20:59 GMT]
Thousands of diaspora Tamils in Europe are expected to participate in Eluthamil (Tamil uprising) rally near the European Union (EU) Secretariat Monday noon "to express solidarity with the Tamil people in NorthEast homeland in their search for peace with justice, and to urge EU to recognize Tamils right to self-determination and not to impose unilateral punitive measures on Tamils' only politico-military force, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," according to organizers. More than 150 coaches will transport around 10,000 participants from European countries, mainly from Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, to Brussels, Belgium on Monday for the rally, organizers added.
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Sri Lankan UAV comes down in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 10:01 GMT]
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) launched from the Joseph camp in Vavuniya for surveillance mission into the Liberation Tigers controlled area has come down in Vanni Wednesday afternoon, sources in Kilinochchi said. A UAV was seen coming down in Vignanikulam between 9th Mile and Karappukuththi, around 20 km northeast of Omanthai, according to civilian sources in Vanni. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) sources in Colombo also confirmed that an UAV was missing.
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Constitutionality of Economic Powers Act challenged in US Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2005, 00:05 GMT]
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), non-profit legal organization based in New York, is expected to file a case in US Courts against provisions in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) that criminalize contributions of "goods or services" to designated foreign terrorist groups. CCR represents Humanitarian Law Project, a human rights organization, and several Tamil- American organizations that seek to support the lawful activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, especially in areas affected by the 2004 tsunami.


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Chandrasekaran meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2005, 16:25 GMT]
Leader of the Up-Country People’s Front (UPF) and Member of Parliament P. Chandrasekaran met with LTTE's Head of Political Wing, S. P. Thamilselvan, Friday at Kilinochchi for discussions on the current political situation as Sri Lanka moves closer to electing the next President of Sri Lanka.


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SLA soldiers, gunmen clash in Eravur

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2005, 11:31 GMT]
A group of unidentified gunmen and the Sri Lanka Army soldiers exchanged gunfire for more than fifteen minutes in Kaluwankerny, an SLA controlled village in Eravur, 20 km north of Batticaloa, civilian sources told TamilNet. Meanwhile, Eravur Police said SLA soldiers had rushed to the village when a Sri Lanka Police Jeep was confronted by the gunmen. More than 5 armed men were involved in the clash, police said. The gunmen who fled the scene left behind a T-56 rifle, police sources added.
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LTTE's auxilliary force cadre shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 October 2005, 11:33 GMT]
A cadre of Liberation Tigers National Auxilliary Force, Mr. Rasalingam Pugalenthiran, was shot and killed Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. by a group of men wearing military uniforms, according to Batticaloa District Political Head of the LTTE, Mr. Ilanthairayan (Marshall). The gunmen had moved beyond the no-man zone and fired at Pugalenthiran, Ilanthirayan told TamilNet.
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Court orders final police report on Sivaram murder

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 October 2005, 10:48 GMT]
Ms Champa Janaki Rajaratne, Kaduwela Magistrate Tuesday directed the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) of the Sri Lanka Police to submit full report on the investigation held into the murder of popular Journalist and senior editor at TamilNet, Mr Dharmaretnam Sivaram, with out any excuse on the next date, October 25. The only suspect Mr. Sriskandarajah arrested in connection with the murder was not brought to courts Tuesday when the case was taken for further inquiry, legal sources said.
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