2 Tamil civilians abducted in Bambalapitiya, Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 May 2008, 18:47 GMT]
A Tamil youth was abducted from his house located along Milagiriya Street in Bambalapitya in Colombo Friday night around 10:00 p.m. The victim is a native of Batticaloa and had been temporarily staying in Bambalapitya, according to complaints lodged with the Bambalapitya Police by his relatives.
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17 civilians wounded in grenade explosion in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 May 2008, 07:24 GMT]
Seventeen civilians were wounded in a hand grenade explosion on Bazar Street in Vavuniyaa around 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Three of the victims were children and 6 females, medical sources said.
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Family man reported missing in Peasaalai, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 10:52 GMT]
Armed men riding in a white colour van, on Thursday abducted a 34-year-old Tamil civilian, T.M. Francis, at Nadukkudaa in Peasaalai around 3:25 p.m., according a complaint made by the relatives of the missing person, who is a family man.
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Bomb explosion targets Police bus in Colombo, 10 killed, 95 wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 07:00 GMT]
A motorbike fitted with a bomb rammed into a bus carrying riot control police personnel, few hundred meters away from the Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat, Friday noon, killing 10 persons, 7 policemen and 3 civilians, and injuring 6 Sri Lanka Army soldiers, 30 policemen and 59 civilians. The explosion has taken place on Lotus Road inside the High Security area near the Hilton Hotel. 12 wounded policemen were in critical condition, according to medical sources in Colombo hospital.
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Two civilians reported missing in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 May 2008, 13:24 GMT]
Two daily wage workers from Murungkanpiddi in Murungkan, Mannaar, were reported missing since last Wednesday, according to a complaint lodged Tuesday with the Citizens Committee in Mannaar by the relatives of the missing.
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10 Tamils arrested in Gampaha, Badulla

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2008, 09:56 GMT]
Ten Tamil civilians were arrested in separate cordon and search operations conducted by the police and the Sri Lanka Army in Gampaha in the western province and Badulla in Uva province during the weekend. They are being detained in respective police stations and being interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Division as they failed to prove their identity and to reasons for their stay, Police said.
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61 Tamils still held in Colombo, 254 remain in Boosa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 May 2008, 11:13 GMT]
About 61 Tamil civilians arrested in Colombo in several cordon and search operations last few weeks are still being detained in several police stations in Colombo, civil society sources said. 25 are being detained in police stations at Dehiwala, Wellawatte and Kohuwela, 15 at Weliveriya, and 21 are held in Kotahena. All detainees had valid national identity cards, but were taken into custody because of their Tamil nationality, media reports said quoting complaints forwarded by their relatives to P.Radhakrishnan, Colombo district parliamentarian representing the Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF).
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Musali displaced harassed by SLA, 70 families flee to Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 May 2008, 10:40 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Mannaar has ordered the displaced Tamil civilians from Musali division in September 2007, to present themselves at the 21-5 SLA Brigade High Quarters at Ilanthaimoaddai, on a village-by-village basis on allocated days, to obtain details of every individual and interrogate them for alleged participation in training given to civilians by the Tigers when their native division was under the control of the Liberation Tigers prior to September 2007. Around 70 families of between 450 to 600 families, all of them displaced from Musali division and living Naanaaddaan, have crossed the Palk Strait to Tamil Nadu during the recent days, according to residents in Naanaaddaan.
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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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Widespread violence, last-hour ballot stuffing mark elections in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 18:40 GMT]
Paramilitary TMVP personnel entered several polling stations in the Tamil areas in Batticaloa and Trincomalee and stuffed the ballot boxes forcefully during the last-hour, before the ballot boxes were removed to counting centers in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, election officials said an average of 60% voter turn-out was registered across the three districts in the East. The polling was high in Sinhalese and Muslim areas while an average of 45-50% votes were registered in Tamil areas. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) has recorded 64 incidents at 6:00 p.m. Saturday. Majority of major offenses were committed in Batticaloa district, followed by Ampaa'rai (12) and Trincomalee (08).
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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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CMEV: 25 complaints, 18 major offenses on EPC elections day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 10:22 GMT]
Centre of Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) in an update issued at 2:30 p.m. in Sri Lanka said it had registered 18 major offenses such as murder, attempted murder, assault, threat and intimidation, impersonation and ballot stuffing. Of the major offences, 13 were reported from Batticaloa, 03 from Ampaa'rai and 02 from Trincomalee district. The CMEV has urged the Sri Lankan Election Commissioner to annul the poll in the stations it had identified. The TMVP Pillayan Group supporters were seen removing voter ink from their fingers and returning to vote repeatedly in Thambiluvil in Ampaa'rai and there has been a mortar attack close to polling stations in which four civilians were wounded.
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CMEV reports violence, possible misuse of state resources in east

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 02:21 GMT]
Center for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), a civil society organization that reports on election violence, reported twelve complaints of major election violations in a report issued Friday. Incidents of "[m]isuse of State resources, distribution of state benefits, intimidation of party workers and other civilians" were also reported to CMEV, the report said. The CMEV urged the Election Commissioner "to take the speedy action necessary to ensure that such a violation of democratic rights does not take place."
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Elderly man seeks protection with Jaffna HRC

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 00:30 GMT]
An 61-year-old civilian from Puloali, Vadamaraadchi, sought protection Thursday with Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna, due to death threats by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and SLA-backed paramilitaries, HRC sources said. Many Puloali residents are in protective custody of Jaffna Prison, the sources said.
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PLOTE member shot dead, 2 killed in Vavuniyaa claymore attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 May 2008, 06:50 GMT]
A leading member of Peoples’ Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) of Vavuniyaa district was shot and killed, and another person seriously injured in a shooting incident Tuesday around 5:30 p.m at Poonththoaddam area in Vavuniyaa, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, two civilians were killed in a Claymore attack Tuesday around 6:00 p.m targeting a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) truck, near Vavuniyaa Town Council playground, the sources added.
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945 military personnel injured in April - SL Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 May 2008, 09:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, who opened the debate on the state of emergency in the Sri Lankan Parliament Tuesday morning said 945 Sri Lankan security personnel were wounded in April, from March 30 upto April 29. However, he put the death toll for the April at 120 killed in action. 56 civilians were killed and 145 wounded, including the bus bomb in Piliyandala. He said there were also Sinhalese who were involved in carrying out the attack on the civilian bus in Piliyandala.
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Ethnic divide reflected in Sri Lanka media coverage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 17:56 GMT]
The polarization between Sri Lanka’s ethnic communities is also reflected in coverage of the island’s protracted conflict and has rendered ‘the truth’ an inevitable casualty of war, several speakers argued last week at the annual conference in London of the International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATAJ). The day-long event at the University of Westminster was attended by one hundred invited participants and was addressed by journalists, academics and media activists, including Mr. Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, editor of the Uthayan newspaper, Mr Chandana Bandara, senior producer with the BBC’s Sinhala service and Mr. Bhagwan Singh of the Deccan Chronicle.
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41 civilians arrested in Ratmalana, 24 in Minuwangoda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 10:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police, assisted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in two separate cordon and search operations, took into custody 65 civilians for questioning. 41 were arrested in Ratmalana in search operation conducted Sunday for about five hours from 5:00 a.m. 24 civilians were arrested in Minuwangoda from Saturday night till Sunday early morning, reports from Colombo said.
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Tamil woman, man reported abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 02:04 GMT]
Unidentified men have allegedly abducted two Tamil civilians, a woman and a man, in Colombo in two separate incidents on 28th and 29th of April, sources close to the victims said.
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EPDP thanks Rajapaksa, India for Northern Province Interim Council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 May 2008, 12:40 GMT]
The paramilitary-cum-political party headed by Douglas Devananda, the EPDP, in a statement issued to media on Saturday thanked the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the friendly neighbouring state, India, for having selected the EPDP to lead the Interim Council for Northern Province. The decision was passed in a cabinet meeting by Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the EPDP said, and added that it was a 'practical step' advocated by the EPDP for a long time.
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