65 Allaippiddi IDP families resettled

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 11:05 GMT]
Jaffna Secretariat officials transported 65 families of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Monday in 3 buses and lorries loaded with their belongings from camps in Jaffna for resettlement in Allaippiddi, sources in Jaffna said. Many Non-government Organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna peninsula, however, expressed concern that the security situation has not returned to normal.
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Norway condemns killing of NESoHR Chairman

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 06:33 GMT]
The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo on Tuesday said that Norway condemned the killing of Rev. Fr. M.X. Karunaratnam, the chairman of the NorthEast Secretariat On Human Rights (NESoHR), who was slain in a Claymore attack that targeted his vehicle. The killing further adds to the already far too high civilian toll of the ongoing conflict, the press statement said. NESoHR was launched, in July 2004, as part of the Norwegian-facilitated 2002 Peace Process to strengthen the human rights protection mechanisms in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka.
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TNA condemns Father Karunaratnam slaying

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 04:32 GMT]
Father Karunaratnam was actively engaged in Human Rights related work, and as Chairman of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights, played a prominent role in the exposure of the grave human rights violations to which the Tamil Civilian population in the Vanni area were continuously subjected, said R.Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance and Maavai S.Senathirajah, the general secretary of Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in a press statement issued on Tuesday. "We deeply mourn the loss of Rev Father Karunaratnam who indefatigably served the legitimate interests of the Tamil Civilian population in the Vanni."
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Youth killed, 7 seriously injured in SLAF bombing in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 17:39 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kifir fighter jets in two sorties bombed Monday around 9:30 a.m fishermen engaged in fishing in A'lampil in Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni killing a youth and seriously injuring seven innocent civilians including two small girls. Four SLAF bombers again struck Ma'nalkudiyiruppu, a civilian settlement near Mullaiththeevu town and fishermen, around 4:10 p.m in four sorties dropping more than 43 bombs in a continued air strike that lasted till 5:20 p.m. The head of the youth killed was severed from his body in the bombing.
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Threat to Jaffna journalists from SLA, paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 04:20 GMT]
Journalists in Jaffna face continued threats to their lives and harassment from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers and SLA-backed paramilitaries, severely impacting news coverage, and the deteriorating media freedom may lead to a complete breakdown of newspaper publications in the North, sources close to Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians told TamilNet Sunday.
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Two Tamils arrested in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 April 2008, 14:59 GMT]
Police Friday night arrested two Tamil civilians in a cordon and search operation in Vihare Mawatte in Wellawatte. Police said they were residents of Jaffna, and that they failed to prove their identity and provide satisfactory reason for their stay in the location.
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Court places 12 Tamil Nadu fishermen, 6 civilians in remand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 April 2008, 16:59 GMT]
Kayts Court Magistrate, Joy Mahatheva, directed Kayts police Thursday to continue to detain the 12 Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested in Kachchaitheevu seas and the 6 civilians arrested in Neduntheevu seas on their way to Tamil Nadu as refugees, in Jaffna Prison, atleast until the law enforcement authorities receive instructions from Attorney General’s office in Colombo, legal sources in Kayts said.
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34 security personnel killed, 236 injured in 17 days - SLA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 April 2008, 09:04 GMT]
During the last seventeen days 34 soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) have been killed and 263 others were injured in the war front, media reports quoted SLA military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakara as saying at Thursday press briefing held at Media Centre for National Security in Colombo.
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ACF: Moothoor massacre, a war crime

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 April 2008, 15:02 GMT]
Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger/ACF) in a press note to journalists released Thursday said, “[t]he Muttur slaughter can't be considered only as a "collateral damage" during the Muttur battle: our team has been specifically and deliberately targeted, their death has been organised execution style with bullets shot in their head. Everything was consciously and brutally planned: the victims were kneeling, unarmed and defenceless. The culprits of this massacre are the ones who were carrying the arms. We can assert that this massacre is a war crime in violation of the Geneva Conventions.”
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Indian PM denies arms supply to Sri Lanka: Vaiko

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 April 2008, 14:17 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told Vaiko who met him Thursday in New Delhi that there is no truth in reports on Indian supply of arms to Sri Lanka. Vaiko met Indian PM to brief him on his meeting with Erik Solheim and Jon Hanssen-Bauer in Oslo and the outcome of the conference organised by the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) in Norway's capital last week. The Indian PM further told Vaiko that he was aware of Pakistan and China supplying arms to Sri Lanka. The general secretary of Marumalarchchi Dravida Munneatta Kazhakam (MDMK) also met Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Thursday night.
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15-year-old girl killed in SLAF airstrike

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 April 2008, 07:26 GMT]
A 15-year-old girl was killed Thursday morning around 6:30 a.m. when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Punnaineeraaviyadi in Visuvamadu in Mullaiththeevu district, according to Tamileelam Police.
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Resettlement of Allaippiddi IDPs begins

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 April 2008, 18:27 GMT]
Thirteen families of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Allaipiddi, the islet village where 13 civilians were massacred by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in May 2006, have been resettled in Allaippiddi in the first stage of resettlement, according to Jaffna Secretariat. 65 more families are ready to return to Allaippiddi and to occupy houses built for them with the help of World Vision, International and local NGOs and they will be resettled on Monday, Jaffna Government Agent announced. Education Department officials in the islet are making arrangement to reopen Paraasakthi Maha Viththiyalam, the only school in Allaippiddi.
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SLA imposes travel restrictions on Mannaar Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 April 2008, 05:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has recently imposed travel restrictions on Tamils traveling to and from Mannaar. Tamils who leave Mannaar are only allowed to travel in train from Mathavaachchi while the Tamils, returning to Mannaar from other areas are filtered by their native and residential addresses and refused entry into Mannaar if they carry a National Identity Card with a residential address in South at Kaddaiyadampan SLA checkpost, located between Madu Road junction and Murungkan, on Mannaar Mathavaachchi Road. Family members are separated and refused entry, residents complain.
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SLA vehicle fatally knocks down Tamil cyclist on A9 road

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 April 2008, 09:49 GMT]
A Tamil civilian was killed when an armored vehicle of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) knocked him down on the eve of Tamil-Sinhala New Year Day. The victim Kaalimuththu Ledchumanan, 44, of Paththiniyaar Makizhangku'lam was cycling towards home Sunday afternoon around 1:00 p.m. along A-9 highway from Thaandikul'am when the armored vehicle knocked him down fatally, media sources said.
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IIGEP: Colombo lacks political will to investigate Human Rights violations

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 April 2008, 22:51 GMT]
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), which terminates its observation mission reasoning that the proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) setup by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to investigate and inquire into serious violations of Human Rights, have not been transparent and not satisfied basic international norms and standards, in its concluding public report on Tuesday blamed the Government of Sri Lanka for "absence of will" in the present Inquiry to "investigate cases with vigour, where the conduct of its own forces has been called into question."
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Two Tamil civilians abducted in Kotahena

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 April 2008, 03:35 GMT]
Unidentified men operating in a white van abducted two civilians along New Chetty Street, Kotahena (Koddaagncheanai), Colombo Friday noon in front of Our Lady of Sorrow church, the relatives of the abducted men told Kotahena police.
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Upcountry Tamil youth arrested in Matale

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 April 2008, 17:03 GMT]
Ratota Police Thursday arrested an upcountry Tamil youth, a resident of Pitakantha estate in Matale district on receipt of information that he has connection with the LTTE, media sources said.
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SLA shell kills family man in Poonakari

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2008, 16:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery shells on civilian settlements Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled areas in Aththaai, Poonakari Friday around 2:45 p.m., killing a family man and destroying two houses completely.
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As humanitarian crisis unfolds, Diaspora needs to help – paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2008, 04:55 GMT]
Warning that, faced with determined resistance to its offensives into the Vanni, the Sri Lankan government, like previous ones, will intensify punitive attacks and measures against the Tamil population there, the Tamil Guardian newspaper this week called on the Diaspora to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis. “The embargo on food and medicine will be tightened further and civilian centers will be targeted more heavily. The Diaspora has long been the mainstay of relief efforts for the people of the Northeastern warzones. It needs to step forward yet again,” the paper said in its editorial.
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Jaffna census details released

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 April 2008, 01:21 GMT]
608,916 civilians belonging to 180,216 families reside in areas under the administration of 15 District Secretary (DS) areas in Jaffna peninsula, a report released Wednesday by Jaffna secretariat said.
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