SL Parliament begins debate on emergency extension

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 April 2008, 10:23 GMT]
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Wednesday tabled a motion seeking an extension of the State of Emergency now in force since August 2005, for another month, parliamentary sources said. Speaker W.J.M.Lokkubandara was in the chair when the debate on the motion began. Wickremanayake said during March, 93 members of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and police died in the fighting with the LTTE.
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STF shoots dead 2 SLA soldiers, civilian in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2008, 18:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) commandos lying in ambush in a shrub jungle shot and killed 2 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and a civilian in Oo’ra’ni area in Poththuvil, Ampaa’rai district, Tuesday around 2:00 p.m. The SLA troops, gathering civilians, had gone to collect firewood when the STF commandos opened fire on them. An SLA soldier and a civilian injured in the shooting were admitted to Ampaa’rai hospital.
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A church in Madu destroyed, dreaded stage of ethnic cleansing, says TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2008, 13:03 GMT]
The Sacred Heart Church of the Madu Shrine complex has been destroyed in SLA shelling after the priests had taken away the image of Our Lady of Madu last Thursday, reveal the photos taken by K. Baskaran, a photographer who visited the Madu church on Sunday. "Any desecration of Madu is likely to be understood as an effort of the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism to erase out the symbols of other religions and thus serving a spiritual blow which is the most dreaded stage in the process of ethnic cleansing," Vanni District Parliamentarian Selvam Adaikkalanathan told TamilNet Tuesday.
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"Sri Lanka at the brink"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2008, 12:26 GMT]
Advocating a "federal accommodation for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority," Dr Whitehall in an article on Australia's News Weekly says: "In the first eight months of 2007, an estimated 1,212 Tamils were murdered or disappeared, according to the Sri Lanka-based Law and Society Trust, which reports that Tamils to have been "overwhelmingly affected". Of these victims, 23 were aid and church workers, eight worked with the media, and 68 were children. Most of the abuses occurred in Jaffna, the historic capital of the Tamil region, which is now "occupied" by over 50,000 Sri Lankan troops. Many of the reported abuses have occurred within "high security zones" under the control of those troops."
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Tamil civilian shot dead in Chilaapam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2008, 02:28 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons shot dead a Tamil civilian in his house Tuesday early morning at Aa'ndimunai in Udappu in Munthal police division, media sources said. The area comes under Chilaapam (Chilaw) district in the northwestern province.
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Muslim civilian stabbed to death in Vaazhaichcheanai party scuffle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2008, 00:09 GMT]
A Muslim civilian was stabbed to death Sunday afternoon 5:30p.m. in Pireantharachcheanai area in Vaazhaichcheanai within Batticaloa police division during an election related altercation between the supporters of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Congress and those from the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPAF), sources in Batticaloa said.
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STF shoots dead 2 Tamils in Vavu’natheevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 April 2008, 08:57 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandoes shot dead two Tamil civilians at 8:30 a.m in Paalcheanai area in Vavu’natheevu police division in Batticaloa district, following a Claymore attack on a STF road patrol unit in Paavatkodicheanai in Paalcheanai, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Two pronged SLA offensive attempt thwarted in Vavuniyaa - LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 April 2008, 14:57 GMT]
At least 9 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and more than 13 SLA soldiers wounded when Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) confronted the SLA on two fronts at Paalamoaddai in Vavuniya - Mannaar border Sunday. Heavy fighting raged from 8:30 a.m. till 5:40 p.m. until the SLA troops were withdrawn, according to LTTE's Operations Command in Vavuniyaa. Due to heavy artillery barrage, the remaining 32 families in Koayil Kugnchukku'lam and Kungnchukku'lam have displaced from their villages.
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Tamil, Muslim civilians arrested in Gampaha, Katunayake

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 April 2008, 18:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested two Tamil civilians and five Indians at Katunayake area in a cordon and search operation Thursday evening, sources in Colombo said. In another search operation conducted in Gampaha town from Thursday evening until early Friday morning two youths, one Muslim and one Tamil, were taken into custody, media sources said.
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Military convoys hinder civilian use of public roads in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 April 2008, 01:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), have been blocking the public from using key roads in Jaffna while transporting troops and weapons to the Northern Front Defence Lines (FDLs), causing severe hardships for the public who are kept waiting for several hours until the convoys pass through, sources in Jaffna said. Requests by civil society organizations to SLA authorities in Jaffna to reduce hardships to the public remain unattended, sources added.
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'Sinhala regime transforming holy land into battlefield': LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 19:59 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B Nadesan in a statement issued Thursday from Ki'linochchi strongly condemned the indiscriminate shelling on the Madu Church and urged the International Community and Human Rights organizations to condemn the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for 'barbarically' transforming a sacred shrine that offered refuge to displaced people into a battlefield. He criticized GoSL for unleashing its army on an area that was ought to be free of war according to war ethics and UN conventions.
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Our Lady of Madu becomes refugee in her own land: Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 12:36 GMT]
Bishop of Mannaar, Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, told TamilNet Thursday that he had instructed the remaining four reverend priests, four reverend sisters and five civilian assistants to flee the premises of the Madu Church with the statue of Our Lady. "This is the first time Our Lady of Madu becomes refugee in her own land," Mannaar Bishop said. "She has been giving shelter to IDPs. In 1990, she gave shelter to 36,000 IDPs." Meanwhile, according to the latest reports from priests who were staying in bunkers, shells exploded inside the Church premises Thursday noon.
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LTTE, SLA exchange artillery fire in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 17:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam exchanged heavy artillery fire along forward defence lines of the Thenmaraadchi sector on the Jaffna peninsula, Wednesday evening, civilian sources in the area said.
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SLA fired shells, rounds hit Madu Shrine premises - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 15:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has launched sporadic offensive pushes from Pa'ndivirichchaan targeting Madu on Tuesday and Wednesday, LTTE's Operations Command in Mannaar told media in Vanni. Meanwhile, LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet that the SLA-fired artillery and mortar shells exploded inside the mess of the Madu shrines premises, in the vicinity of the well and on priests' quarters. All civilians, except the priests, have vacated the premises. LTTE has lost one fighter while facing the offensive initiated by the SLA, 1.5 km away from the Madu premises. The Tigers said 15 SLA soldiers were killed in two days in Pa'ndivirichchaan and 10 near Giant's Tank on Wednesday.
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8 Tamils arrested in Badulla

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 11:09 GMT]
Badulla police Monday night arrested eight Tamil civilians in a cordon and search operation conducted for about eight hours within the limits of the Badulla Municipal Council area. Police said the search operation was conducted to ensure the security of the town.
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Eastern PC election, another step in Sinhalasisation of East - TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 05:32 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has projected himself as an "ultra Sinhala nationalist leader" in all his decisions since taking office in 2005, was going ahead with his agenda of Sinhalasising the Eastern sector of the North-East, the historical habitation of Tamil speaking people, in the guise of development, splitting it into High Security Zones, Industrial Zones and Environmental Zones, after de-merging the North-East, in violation of the Indo-Lanka International Treaty, said R. Sampanthan, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group, who issued a statement of principles on Wednesday, clarifying the reasons for boycotting the Eastern PC elections.
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12 civilians including 8 Muslims injured in SLA assault in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 15:00 GMT]
More than twelve civilians including 8 Muslims sustained injuries in an indiscriminate attack by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops Monday around 7:30 p.m in Jaffna town and its neighbouring areas, sources in Jaffna said. Armed men in military uniform had tried to rob a house Five Junction area, and SLA troops who rushed to the scene, went on a rampage assaulting civilians along the way, witnesses said. The injured were admitted for treatment in Jaffna Teaching Hospital Monday night.
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Colombo offensive claims civil victims- Washington Post

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 11:50 GMT]
"...[U]nder a recent military offensive to wipe out those rebels [from LTTE], government forces have abducted hundreds of members of the Tamil minority group, including civilians, according to human rights groups. Many of the "disappeared" never turn up again," Washington Post said in an article in the Tuesday edition, adding, "Abductions are carried out in various ways, according to activists and relatives of those who have disappeared. Sometimes Tamil men of fighting age are rounded up at checkpoints, hurried into white vans and never heard from again. Sometimes they are arrested with little explanation in house-to-house raids at night."
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Tamil civilian shot dead in Ka'luvaagnchikkudi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2008, 17:19 GMT]
Unidentified armed men in a white van shot and killed Saturday evening a young Tamil family man in Onthaachchimadam area in Ka'luvaagnchikkudi police division in Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Tamil civilian abducted in Kotahena

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 March 2008, 05:41 GMT]
A Tamil civilian residing at Jampettah Road in Kotahena in Colombo city was abducted on March 18 morning around 5:00 a.m. by a group of unidentified armed persons who arrived in a van. The men dressed in civil stated that they had come from Kotahena police station, according to a complaint lodged with the Kotahena Police and the Civil Monitoring Committee in Colombo by his wife.
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