Colombo court releases 9 Jaffna youths

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 October 2007, 12:24 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate Tuesday ordered the release of nine Tamil youths, residents of Jaffna district, kept in detention in Boosa detention camp. Some of them were arrested in Colombo and its suburbs during cordon and search operation.
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International Chakkadaththaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 October 2007, 13:38 GMT]
The main reason why Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict couldn’t be resolved all these decades was that it was approached as a terrorist issue. The approach, which served the convenience and deceit of the Sinhala politicians, was endorsed by the world system, because everybody had skeletons in their cupboards. It was a general debility of international polity and political ideologies to resolve situations similar to that of Sri Lanka. As a result, the mainstream international system has led the world into an Age of Paranoia. The bigger the State, the bigger is the paranoia, writes Opinion Columnist Ampalam.
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Chunnaakam, Point-Pedro victims identified

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 October 2007, 01:36 GMT]
The body recovered in Kantharoadai, Chunnaakam with severe cut wounds, and the youth killed in Point Pedro were identified Monday by their relatives, sources in Jaffna said. Point Pedro Magistrate Mr. K. Ariyanayagam and Mallaakam magistrate Ms. Sarojini Illankovan directed the police in their respective divisions to hand over the bodies to the family members who had identified the bodies,
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UNP drops federalism

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2007, 11:15 GMT]
The decision by Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) to ditch the federal constitutional model as a solution to the island’s protracted ethnic conflict makes it the last of the major southern parties to embrace Sinhala nationalism again. In doing so, the former ‘pro-peace’ party may finally have resolved its ethnic dilemma.
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Fr. Packiyaranjit's funeral held in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 September 2007, 17:05 GMT]
The funeral of Rev.Fr. Nicholaspillai Packiyaranjit, who was killed in a claymore explosion in Mallaavi in LTTE controlled area on Wednesday, was held Saturday afternoon at Mannaar cemetery with large number of people attending. Earlier the body was kept at Bishop House and at St.Sebastian Cathedral for public to pay their homage for the popular priest known for his humanitarian work.
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Students protest SLAF bombings near Vanni schools

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 September 2007, 12:16 GMT]
Students, parents, teachers, and principals in Puthukkuddiyiruppu in Mullaiththeevu district, protested Friday against the continuing Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombing on areas close to schools in Vanni. They marched to the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) office in Puthukkuddiyiruppu and handed an appeal, requesting ICRC to intervene to stop the indiscriminate bombings by the SLAF, sources in Vanni said.
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World must rein in Sri Lankan state – TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2007, 11:13 GMT]
Protesting that the Sri Lankan government had discarded negotiating a settlement to the island’s ethnic conflict, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)urged the international community to take a principled stand on the Tamil people’s right to self determination. Outlining the humanitarian and human rights crisis that has emerged in the wake of Colombo’s military project, the TNA also argued: “the Sri Lankan State will not conform to international norms or standards. It is only by the International Community … taking meaningful steps, can the Sri Lankan State be made to realize that it cannot continue with the present disastrous trend.”
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Monks attend Mannaar peace march

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2007, 05:58 GMT]
Anti-War National Front and Felix Organization organized a peace procession in Mannaar town Saturday morning starting in front of the Mannaar courthouse and ending at St.Sebastian Church premises via main road. More than one hundred delegates comprising of Buddhist priests and peace activists from Anuradhapura participated in the procession and public meeting with their counterparts in Mannaar town.
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SLAF bombs Visuvamadu for 2nd day, civilian killed, 12 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2007, 04:58 GMT]
An 85-year-old man was killed and 12 civilians, including his son and daughter who is a teacher, a six-months-old baby, a 9-year-old girl and two couples, were wounded when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers attacked Punnai Neeraavi village in Visuvamadu Saturday between 7:00 and 7:25 a.m. Civilians at the Visuvamadu market, situated 350 meters from the attack site, fled away in panic. The bombed area is located bordering the Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts.
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TNA urges resettlement of Musali displaced

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 September 2007, 11:13 GMT]
Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, TNA Wanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, in an urgent letter, has appealed to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse to take steps to resettle all families displaced from Musali divisional secretariat division in Mannaar district before the northeast monsoon, TNA sources said.
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Tamil GS officer shot dead in Moothoor East

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 September 2007, 06:49 GMT]
Armed men shot and killed Paranjothy Muttukumar, 52, the Village Officer of Kaddaipparichchaan GS area in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) held Moothoor East in Trincomalee district Thursday around 8:00 p.m. Mr Paranjothi is the eldest brother of P.Sounthararajan, opposition leader of the Moothoor Pradesya Sabha (PS). Mr.Sounthararajan has been leading a group of four Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members elected last year to the eleven-member Moothoor PS.
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TNA urges inquiry into East killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2007, 15:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group leader R. Sampanthan told the Sri Lanka Parliament Tuesday, the Government of Sri Lanka should appoint a commission, consisting retired judges, to investigate the killings of the Tamil civilians during the recent military offensives in the East, parliamentary sources said. He suggested that a Muslim should lead the commission with members appointed from three communities, Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese.
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Civilian injured following grenade attack on Nelliyadi SLA camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 September 2007, 18:56 GMT]
Unknown gunmen hurled a hand grenade inside the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp located in Vathiri junction and opened fire at the camp around 6:50 p.m. Saturday, sources in Point Pedro said. A civilian riding in his bicycle along the main road was injured in the exchange of gunfire
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Kanchikudichchi Aaru farmers need assistance- TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 September 2007, 11:15 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) urged the Sri Lanka government to pay compensation to affected farmers of Kanchikudichchi Aaru, and to take steps to repair the Kanchikudichchi Aaru Tank, sources in Ampaa'rai said. Mr.S.Chandrakanthan, Ampaa'rai district TNA parliamentarian, has requested that the houses of displaced families located in Thangavelauthapuram and Kanchikudichchi Aaru due to war should be repaired immediately.
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Tamil Left in Sri Lanka revisited

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 September 2007, 02:12 GMT]
"The majoritarian nationalists have reframed the national question as a ‘terrorist problem’ and displaced it from the historical and political domain to which it belongs. They have couched their call for a military solution in a discourse of ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of the majoritarian unitary state and linked it to the so called global war on terror at the same time. Now it is official that the main problem is ‘terrorism’ which has to be defeated before any ‘political solution’ can be found. The real meaning of this position is that the military solution is the political solution," writes Professor N. Shanmugaratnam, in his foreword to Ravi Vaitheespara's book on Tamil Left.
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Eachchilampaththu refugees complain of forced resettlement –TNA MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 08:38 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) forcibly loaded 74 families from Verukal, Eeechilampattu District, into buses September 6th for transport to a jungle area in CHinnakku'lam, Udappukkea'ni, 3 km from Eeechilampattu. The families who were previously housed in Batticaloa transitional shelters communicated their plight to Thurairatnsaingham, a Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian.
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Paduvaankarai IDPs' cattle to be appropriated – Batticaloa MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 09:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Defence Ministry has ordered the transfer of nearly 20 thousand cattle belonging to the Internally Displaced People (IDP) of Paduvaagkarai in Batticaloa, to Polanaruwa National Cattle Development Centre, citing danger to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps located on Chengkaladi-Badulla A5 road, Batticaloa Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Ariyanenthiran said.
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Colombo aims to carve out Sinhala district between North and East - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2007, 19:46 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka is giving in for the demands of the extreme nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), with its plans afoot to carve out a Sinhala district between Trincomalee district in the Eastern Province and Mullaiththeevu in the Northern Province, aiming to split the geographical contiguity of the Tamil homeland, charged R. Sampanthan, the senior Tamil parliamentarian and the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), addressing the Sri Lankan parliament Wednesday. The attempt to create a Sinhala district would spoil the chances for a negotiated settlement, Mr. Sampanthan further warned.
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SL Parliament to debate on North East situation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2007, 05:38 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is to move for a full-day debate on the current political and military situation in the North and East when parliament resumes sessions on Wednesday. Leaders of political parties representing in parliament have agreed to have a debate on a request made by Mr.R.Sampanthan, TNA parliament group leader, parliamentary sources said.


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SLA soldier killed during bomb clearing operation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2007, 16:54 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier searching for explosives in Pulipaaynthakal, Kiraan, Vaazhaichcheanai police division in Batticaloa district was killed Sunday at 12:30 p.m when a hidden land mine exploded, Vaazhaichchenai police said.
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