Two bodies recovered in Nilaavarai bear signs of torture

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 February 2007, 06:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police recovered bodies of two men with gunshot wounds and bearing torture marks in Valikamam East along Puttur-Chunnakam road close to Nilaavarai junction Sunday morning, sources in Jaffna said. The victims were said to have been abducted from their homes in Siruppiddy by armed men driving a white van half and hour earlier before being killed, according to residents in Siruppiddy.
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Eight "white van" abductions in Jaffna in 3 days

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 February 2007, 01:10 GMT]
Eight Tamil male civilians have been abducted by unidentified armed men in white vans within seventy two hour period beginning Wednesday, Jaffna branch of Human Rights Commission (HRC) officials said. According to complaints registered at the HRC office by the victims relatives, three men were abducted on Wednesday and five on Friday.
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Man shot dead in Madduvil

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 February 2007, 17:10 GMT]
A Tamil youth, who had recently returned from working abroad, was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Madduvil North in Thenmaradchi at 10:00 a.m. Friday, Kodikamam Police said. The gunmen stopped the victim riding his motor-bike, shot him dead in point blank range, and absconded on the abducted bike.
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Emergency extended for another month in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2007, 17:48 GMT]
Sri Lankan parliament Wednesday adopted motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month with a majority of 105 votes. 122 parliamentarians voted for the motion and 17 voted against.
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SL parliament debates emergency extension motion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2007, 10:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament began Wednesday morning debating the motion of extending the State of Emergency for another month. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister tabled a motion for extending the State of Emergency for eighteenth time, said soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were being killed and 181 were injured in the month of January in the war front.
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Two youths shot dead in Kathankudy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2007, 08:35 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead two youths Tuesday around 2:30 p.m in Kankeyan Odai area in Kathankudy police division in Batticaloa. Preliminary police investigations revealed that the two youths had been abducted and killed.


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Normalcy to return to Vaharai soon– Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2007, 02:15 GMT]
Vaharai Regional secretariat and Vaharai regional council presently relocated to Valaichenai will begin functioning at their original locations beginning Wednesday. Displaced civilians from the nine Grama Sevaka divisions will be resettled within the next four weeks, Mr.M.S.S.Amir Ali, Minister for Disaster Management and Rehabilitation announced in a meeting held at Ottamvady regional secretariat building, Tuesday 9:00 a.m. sources said.
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Ranil: SLFP-UNP pact over, dark times ahead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 February 2007, 09:39 GMT]
Addressing the new session of Parliament, leader of the opposition United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremsinghe, slammed President Mahinda Rajapakse for accepting the cross over of 19 UNP lawmakers to government ranks. Mr. Wickremsinghe said the move had led to the “dissolution” of the Memorandum of Understanding between the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the UNP. “The UNP thus finds it impossible to work with the government in finding a solution to the issues referred to in the MOU,” he said. Among the issues are a bi-partisan approach to ending Sri Lanka’s civil war.
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Ratnapura attacks spark strike by plantation workers

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 February 2007, 14:02 GMT]
Seven housing units belonging to Tamil plantation workers in Farm Garden Estate in Ratnapura were destroyed by fire Friday night at 8:30 p.m. when a group of unidentified gangsters, allegedly from the neighboring Sinhala village of Navanagara, armed with hand bombs set ablaze more than fifty housing units. The mob kicked the doors open, removed valuables from the units, splashed accelerants before setting fire to the units. The workers at the Farm Garden Estate went on strike Sunday to protest against the violence, and the lethargic response shown by the Estate Management, spokesperson for the workers said.
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Release East undergraduates immediately- TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 February 2007, 00:27 GMT]
“Successive Sri Lanka Governments have been using education as a tool to punish the Tamil community as part of their campaign to subjugate the Tamils. The recent abductions and harassment of Northeast student community by the Sri Lankan Forces aimed at disrupting the education and instilling fear among the student population should be stopped immediately,” said S. Jeyananthamoorthy, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian for Batticaloa district, Friday.
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Youth's body with torture marks found in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 February 2007, 01:01 GMT]
The body of a 30- year old civilian discovered in Arukalmadam Tuesday morning has been identified On Wednesday morning as Gunaratnam Gajendran of Suthumalai North, Manipay by relatives at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, hospital sources said.
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Canadian Memorial Stamp issued for late Navaratnam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 16:17 GMT]
A set of Canadian Memorial Stamps and First Day Cover were issued at a memorial function in Toronto Saturday, honoring the contribution by late V. Navaratnam, a doyen of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), the Federal Party, and who called upon the Tamil youth to fight for the establishment of a separate self-governing Tamils State in 1969. Mr Navaratnam urged the youth to fight, when he left the Federal Party and founded Thamil Suyadchi Kalaham, the Organisation for Tamil Self-Governance, after witnessing failed negotiations for power-sharing with Sri Lankan leaders for almost three decades.
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IFJ mounts campaign to free journalist Parameshwary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 12:13 GMT]
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Free Media Movement (FMM) together with other journalists organisations Monday launched an International and national campaign to release journalist Parameshawary who has been detained in Sri Lanka prison for seventy days without trial, civil sources in Colombo said. She was arrested under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) act. The authorities have filed no charges and have failed to establish any links with terrorist activity, the letter of appeal says.


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Number of Cabinet rank ministers swells to 52

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2007, 17:19 GMT]
The number of cabinet rank ministers in United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government of Sri Lanka rose to fifty-two with the swearing in of Amarasiri Dodangoda who took oaths as Minister of Justice before Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday afternoon, political sources in Colombo said. Fifty-one cabinet rank ministers took oaths Sunday morning in the Presidential Secretariat. 38 parliamentarians have been appointed non-cabinet ministers and 16 deputy ministers. Including the cabinet rank ministers, total number of ministers and deputies in the UPFA government is 103.
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UNP dissidents, SLMC join UPFA government, appointed ministers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2007, 09:28 GMT]
The first major cabinet reshuffle of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government took place Sunday morning in the Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat. Dissident parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) joined the Sri Lankan government. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Rauff Hakeem also joined the government. UNP dissident Karu Jayasuriya becomes Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister, Milinda Moragoda, the new Minister of Tourism and G.L.Peiris, Minister of Export Promotion and International trade. Mangala Samaraweera loses his Foreign Ministry portfolio. Rohitha Bogollagama has been appointed new Foreign Minister.
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Man shot dead in Nelliady

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 January 2007, 13:25 GMT]
A 43-year old man was shot dead by unknown gunmen in front of Nelliady Madhya Maha Vidyalayam along Nelliady-Vathiri road in Vadamaradchy at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, sources in Point Pedro said. Gunmen brought the victim in a motor-bike to the area, and shot him dead at point blank range before escaping. Unconfirmed reports said that the victim was an intelligence operative working with the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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Abducted man found dead, youth missing, three arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 January 2007, 20:56 GMT]
Police recovered the body of the building contractor reported missing since Monday in Pannakam area, with hands bound and with cut wounds, Friday morning, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, in two separate complaints made to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna, a youth from Kachcheri-Nallur road was reported missing by his parents, and three youths from a house on the same road were reported arrested by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers, sources close to HRC said.
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Indian Envoy's help sought in resettling displaced civilians

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 January 2007, 09:25 GMT]
A delegation of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians met the Indian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka Alok Prasad and his deputy Manickam in Colombo at 10:00 am Thursday morning at the official residence of the envoy and appealed to him for help in resettling the recently displaced Tamil civilians in East, TNA sources in Colombo said,
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Police arrest 5 upcountry Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 January 2007, 09:10 GMT]
Mathugama police arrested three upcountry Tamil youths who had come to Mathugama from Galle to their relatives' house Thursday, while Wenapuwa police arrested two upcountry Tamil youths from Maskeliya at Wenapuwa bus stand Thursday morning, sources in Maskeliya said. The five youths were arrested on suspicion of assisting Liberation Tigers, and are detained for investigation.
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Kinniya Urban Council Tamil member assassinated

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 January 2007, 08:30 GMT]
The only Tamil member of the Urban Council of Kinniya, Thangarajah Ithayarajah, a Tamil National Alliance Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) member, was shot and killed Friday around 10:30 a.m. while he was on his way to Kinniya from his village, Alankerni. A friend of Mr. Ithayarajah was wounded. The assassins who shot and fled the area, came in a motorbike. The assasination comes three months after the assassination of the only Tamil TNA member of the Sinhala dominated Seruvila Pradeshaia Saba in the district. Meanwhile, 10 Tamil members who had won the Trincomalee Urban Council have received death threats, Thurairatnasingham MP said.
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