Police officer demands ransom from fishermen in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 May 2008, 15:02 GMT]
A Sri Lankan Chief Inspector of Police who is serving as Officer-In-Charge of the Police (OIC) of the police post in Peasaalai in the island of Mannaar, has been demanding ransom from the fishermen of Peasaalai during the recent days, according to religious leaders in Mannaar. The OIC has gone door-to-door in certain areas of the village, demanding ransom ranging from SLR 20,000 to 500,000. The police officer has accused the fishermen of transporting 'banned goods' to LTTE controlled areas from Mannaar and warned them that they would be spared from charges of 'assisting terrorism,' only if they heeded to his ransom demand on time.
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'India gives full blessings to eliminate LTTE,' says SL Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 11:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, in a special interview to Thinakkural, a Colombo based Tamil daily, on Friday, claimed that the Indian government had given "full blessings" to the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa to "eliminate the LTTE." Mr. Wickramanayaka further proclaimed that there was no "ethnic conflict" in Sri Lanka. "The LTTE should lay their arms down if they want peace talks. We are not prepared for talks with them in the meantime," he further said.
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ICRC receives dead body of LTTE cadre in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 11:02 GMT]
The ICRC on Friday received a dead body of an LTTE cadre from Mannaar hospital to be transported to LTTE controlled area after Mannaar magistrate's inspection, Police said.
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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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SLA, SLN conduct joint war rehearsals in Jaffna seas

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 02:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailors from Karainagar Naval base and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers stationed along the northern coastal areas, have been jointly conducting large scale war exercises in the seas off the coast of Jaffna peninsula in Valigaamam North High security Zone (HSZ) for the past few days supported by attack air crafts of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), civil sources in Jaffna said.
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No CFA in future, says Sri Lanka's PM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 May 2008, 18:50 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government would not sign any ceasefire agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at any stage as the time has come to wipe out terrorism from Sri Lanka completely, said Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, at an event held Tuesday in Colombo.
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Student feared abducted by SLA in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 May 2008, 09:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers who had demanded a student in Karaveddi East, Vadamaraadchi, to hand over his brother, who they claimed was a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatant, abducted the said youth, according to complaints made to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna, by his parents.
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Geopolitics shape Sri Lanka’s conflict - study

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2008, 06:12 GMT]
Politics between powerful states have always been integral to the dynamics of war and peace in Sri Lanka, several contributors to a collected volume exploring the international dimensions of the island’s protracted conflict say. The study by the Centre for Just Peace and Democracy (CJPD) published this year comprises papers presented by academics and analysts at a conference held in Switzerland last June along with extracts of the subsequent discussions.
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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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UPFA wins 'rigged' EPC election

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 May 2008, 05:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling UPFA alliance wins the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) election with 18 seats and 2 bonus seats in the election held on Saturday with widespread rigging. The opposition UNP-SLMC alliance receives 15 seats, 1 seat for the JVP and 1 seat for Tamizh Democratic National Alliance. Meanwhile The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) observed that the Eastern Provincial election, was not at all ‘free and fair’. Despite the rigging, the opposition UNP-SLMC alliance wins the Trincomalee district where it had promised to resettle displaced Tamils in Champoor.
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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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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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Sea Tiger commandos sink SLN supply ship in Trinco Harbour

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 21:40 GMT]
A troop carrier cum supply ship of the Sri Lanka Navy, A-520, named 'MV Invincible', was sunk by Sea Tiger naval commandos in the Trincomalee Harbour at 2:23 a.m. Saturday, according to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials in Vanni. The underwater attack by Black Tigers was carried out when the supply vessel was loaded with explosives to be transported to KKS Harbour in Jaffna, the LTTE said.
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Former Mayor of Jaffna passes away

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 11:27 GMT]
Mr. Sinnathamby Nagarajah, who served as Mayor of Jaffna twice in the late 60’s, passed away in New Jersey, USA, on Thursday May 8h at the age of 77. Mr. Nagarajah was a Tamil nationalist, and an active member of the Tamil diaspora in lobbying in the United States for political support for Tamil struggle of self determination.
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30 SLA killed, 7 bodies recovered, arms seized in Mannaar - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 07:53 GMT]
30 Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed, seven dead bodies of SLA troops were recovered after heavy fighting at Ka'rukkaaykku'lam Friday morning, LTTE officials told media. Five bodies were recovered Friday morning, LTTE spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan said. Two more bodies were recovered Friday night, according to latest updates by the LTTE officials. Two PK Light Machine Guns, three AK LMGs, five T-56 assault rifles and military hardware including ammunitions were seized by the Tigers. The SLA, while pulling back was towing an Armoured Personnel Carrier that had caught fire, the Tigers said. Ka'rukkaaykku'lam is located 2 km east of Adampan.
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Opposition parties in Sri Lanka fear election malpractice

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 02:12 GMT]
All activities of the political parties and independent groups contesting the Eastern provincial council elections ended Wednesday midnight, the office of Elections Department (ED) announced Thursday. Meanwhile, expressing fear that Colombo was preparing itself for a large-scale election rigging, UNP parliamentarian Laxman Kiriyelle has accused the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry for its alleged involvement in distributing blank polling cards in the East. It is also alleged that nearly 170,000 polling cards remained stagnant in the post offices without being delivered and these were taken away by the paramilitary Pillayan group.
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Family man abducted in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 May 2008, 12:39 GMT]
Armed men who arrived in a white van on Tuesday abducted a 27-year-old family man in Akkaraippattu, Ampaa'rai, according to a complaint lodged by the victim's wife with the Police in Akkaraippattu.
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Rights Groups lobby against Sri Lanka seat in UN Rights Council

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 May 2008, 00:39 GMT]
A coalition of Human Rights organizations including Human Rights Watch, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Article 19, and Reporters Without Borders, in a letter to the member states of the UN Human Rights Council, urged respective governments to "not vote for Sri Lanka for membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council in the election in the General Assembly on 21 May 2008 because of Sri Lanka’s failure to meet the Council’s membership standards." Meanwhile, FreedomHouse, a Washington-based Rights organization, in a press release issued Tuesday, expressed alarm that Human Rights abusers are poised to take seats on UN Council.
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Intense fighting in Mannaar - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 May 2008, 18:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army units launched an attempt to move its troops from Thirukkeatheesvaram towards Veaddaiyaamu'rippu in Mannaar Tuesday morning from 5:30 a.m. till noon with artillery barrage, but sustained heavy casualties, LTTE offiicals in Vanni said. Meanwhile, on another front where SLA attempted to move from Ka'rukkaaykku'lam targeting Vaddakka'ndal was confronted by the Tigers from 8:15 a.m. An Armoured Personnel Carrier was destroyed in LTTE mine, killing at least 9 SLA soldiers and wounding many, according to the LTTE.
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2 new parliamentarians sworn in

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 May 2008, 10:46 GMT]
Sarana Gunawardene and Dulip Wijesekara were sworn in as new parliamentarians from the Gampaha district Tuesday when the parliament met for the first time after the New Year recess. Speaker W.J.M.Lokkubandara administered oaths at the commencement of the session, parliamentary sources said.
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