Mason shot dead in Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 March 2007, 04:30 GMT]
Amid escalating number of killings and abductions in Thenmaradchy in Jaffna district, a young family man, 28, was shot dead by unknown gunmen along Dutch Road in Chavakachcheri near the Government Hospital at 8:45 a.m. Sunday, sources in Jaffna said.
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Appeal to MPs, ICRC, GA to bring murdered student’s body home

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 March 2007, 10:51 GMT]
Eight Tamil parliamentarians have written to Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Gothebaya Rajapakse, on behalf the family of a murdered Jaffna University student, who are pleading for permission for his body to be taken to their home in Viswamadu in Tamil-Tiger controlled Vanni. The family has also requested the University authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Kilinochchi to also help, relatives said.
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Businessman shot dead in Ariyalai

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 March 2007, 01:54 GMT]
A businessman from Kanagaratnam Road in Ariyalai Jaffna inside the Jaffna Municipal boundary was shot dead by unknown gunmen at 10:30 p.m. Thursday night, sources in Jaffna said. The gunmen went to Mr Manikkam Manoharan's house in a motorbike, called the man to come outside the house, and shot him at point blank range before escaping, sources said.
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TNA urges India not to provide warship to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 16:04 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has urged the Government of India to desist from providing lethal military assistance to Sri Lanka. Referring to recent media reports that the Indian Government is to either grant or lease a large warship to the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), the Parliamentary group of the TNA in a press release issued Wednesday observed that these reports have come against the backdrop of repeated assurances given by the Indian leadership, including the Indian Premier Dr. Manmohan Singh, that the India, as a matter of policy, will not provide any lethal weapons to Sri Lanka.
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Christian family wounded in DPU attack in Madu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 09:33 GMT]
A 4-year-old girl, 15-year-old boy and their parents riding in a motorbike to Madu church from Andankulam through parappukandanthan road were wounded in a Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit Claymore attack Wednesday around 10:00 a.m., 6 km away from the church. This is the second DPU attack on civilians inside Liberation Tigers territory within the last 24 hours.
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Prisoners call off protest

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 00:15 GMT]
The Tamil political prisoners at Magazine Prison, Colombo, who started a fast-to-death campaign on 21 February demanding their release, called off their action temporarily on Monday following assurances given by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarians to assist them, sources in Colombo said.
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Arrests of Tamils in upcountry areas escalate

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 00:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka police arrested 11 Tamils in during a search operation at 4:00 a.m Monday at Lunugala Upper Division in Poonagala, Bandarawella, while Karantheniya police arrested 4 youths returning in a lorry from Galle, sources in Bandarawela said. Meanwhile, Koswathe and Karruvakadu police each arrested one plantation Tamil youth Monday, sources said.


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Abducted teenage students released in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2007, 21:58 GMT]
The two teenagers of Uduppiddy American Mission College, who were abducted last Saturday while on their way to attend tuition classes at Uduppiddy in Vadamaradchy region, were returned home safely Monday morning. The abductors brought both the 15 years old boys in a white van, blind folded, and left them at somewhere in the Uduppiddy area in the early morning. The lads waited at the same place until the sunrise and then returned home.
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American Tamils call for Recognition of Tamil Sovereignty for NorthEast Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2007, 11:46 GMT]
Pleading to the international community that "the just aspirations of the Tamils should not be held hostage by fictitious claims of protecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of a failed state," a consortium of Tamil organizations in the US, in a press release issued Monday, urged the International Community to "recognize the current de-facto Tamil state should their authentic representatives exercise the right to external self-determination," and called upon fellow Americans "to stand with the Tamil Americans in support of the inalienable right of self-determination."
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SL President leaves for China on 7-day official visit

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2007, 03:11 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse around midnight on Sunday left Colombo on a seven-day official visit to China leading a delegation of about fifteen ministers. Several business leaders and officials of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries in the districts of Kandy, Galle, Matara and Kegalle also joined the President's delegation, sources said.
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Eastern Tamils oppose merger of Universities

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2007, 00:32 GMT]
The initiative of the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, 'Myown' Mustafa to amalgamate the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) with the Muslim-dominated South Eastern University, faces stiff resistance from Tamils and Muslims living Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said.
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SLA strips bare houses in Vaharai, Sampoor - MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 February 2007, 15:45 GMT]
Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy charged Saturday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are dismantling civilians homes and stripping them of furniture and equipments in the recently captured Vaharai area. The internally displaced people (IDPs) who fled Vaharai before the SLA entered the area, have been prevented from entering the area by the soldiers guarding the entry points, the parliamentarian said. Meanwhile, the refugees from Sampoor had complained that the roofs of their houses have also been removed by the SLA.
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20 Tamil detainees on fast unto death campaign in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 February 2007, 14:29 GMT]
Twenty Tamil detainees, taken into custody by the Sri Lankan police and military since 2003 and detained in the Magazine prison in Colombo, are on a fast-unto-death campaign for the fourth day Saturday, urging the Sri Lankan authorities to expedite the investigations against them or release them if there were no charges against them. The health condition of five of the fasting detainees has worsened, according to Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians who visited the prison Saturday.
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TNA appeals to international community to back Tamil self-determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 February 2007, 11:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s ongoing military campaign leaves Tamils with no option but to seek self-determination and self-rule, the country’s largest Tamil party said Friday. In a statement to mark the fifth anniversary of the Ceasefire Agreement between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) called on the international community to recognise the Tamil struggle pointing out that in the past five years, “the Sri Lankan government has utterly failed to alleviate the sufferings of the Tamil people. Neither has it contributed meaningfully to a lasting solution to the national conflict.”
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SL Government has no deals with LTTE- Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2007, 22:44 GMT]
Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Prime Minister, Monday refuted the allegation that the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has a secret understanding with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He was answering a question by Joseph Michael Perera, parliamentarian of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) citing ousted minister Sripathi Sooriyarachchi in parliament Tuesday.
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Pakistan’s military assistance endangers regional security­ -TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 February 2007, 15:54 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah of Jaffna district and Thurairatnasingham of Trincomalle district speaking to media on Monday condemned Pakistan’s offer to provide military assistance to Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). The MPs made the comment when asked about the announcement of arms purchase from Pakistan by Rohitha Bogallama, Minister of foreign affairs on Sunday.
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Education in peril

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 February 2007, 00:33 GMT]
More than 7% of school-aged children in Jaffna, amounting to 10201 students, dropped out of schools in 2006, most of the dropouts occurring following the fresh outbreak of violence from 11 August 2006, say education officials in Jaffna. The schools in the district that boasted highest literacy rates 3 decades ago, and produced nearly 40% of the medical and engineering freshmen, now are gripped with fear of student abductions, and with high school education crippled with lack of school supplies and scarcity of books.
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TNA condemns threats against Tamil journalists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 February 2007, 09:06 GMT]
"We condemn in the strongest terms the killing of the President of Tamil News and Information Centre (TNIC) Mr. Gananathan the very next day an indirect threat to his life was made in the Sri Lanka National Radio on the 31st of January," said a communique issued by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Friday in Colombo. "We also condemn the unlawful incursion of the Sri Lanka Military Intelligence personnel into the office of the TNIC on the 9th of February and their attempt to seize information and photographs of its Media Coordinator and International Media Coordinator," the communique signed by the parliamentarians said.
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SL Police arrests three Tamil teachers in Nuwara Eliya

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2007, 10:48 GMT]
Special police team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested three Tamil teachers in Ragala in Nuwara Eliya district in the central province Wednesday night, and has taken them to Colombo Thursday for interrogation, upcountry sources said. Police said the three were arrested on information from one of the three Sinhala journalists, arrested earlier in Colombo, on charges of having received arms training from Liberation Tigers.


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UNP Municipal Councillor shot dead in Colombo suburb

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 February 2007, 09:26 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council member of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) inside his office in Dehiwela, a suburb of Colombo Tuesday around 10:00 a.m.
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