Civilian shot dead in Amparai

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 16:19 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen called out a mason out of his house and shot at him with a T56 gun Thursday around 8:15 p.m at Sinnakulam in Alalayadivembu area in Akkaraipattu police division in Ampara, Akkaripattu police said. The seriously injured victim was rushed to Akkaraipattu District hospital where he succumbed to his wounds.


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Demonstration against abductions held in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 11:52 GMT]
The Committee for Investigation of the Disappeared, and the National Front Against War (NFAW) staged a protest demonstration Friday around 10:00 a.m at Peliyagoda circle on the Colombo-Negombo road calling for a stop to forced disappearances and to safeguard humanity, sources in Colombo said. The Protest was led by Dr. Wickremabahu Karunaratne, the patron of the Committee for Investigation of the Disappeared and the leader of the New Leftist Front party.
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Four youths abducted in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 11:38 GMT]
Unidentified armed men abducted four youths at gun point Monday around 11:00 p.m from Santhiveli, Palayadi Thona area in Batticaloa district while they were sleeping at their houses, according to a complaint made Thursday by the relatives of the abducted at Earavur police station, Eravur police said.


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War budget bares Colombo's intent - Senathirajah

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 01:09 GMT]
"This budget allows 140 billion rupees for defence which clearly exposes the intent of the Sri Lanka government to suppress the Tamils by waging war on them. Our people have been suppressed for the last 50 years by the successive Sinhala governments. Our youth were forced to take up arms because of such racist attitude," Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said participating in the debate on budget Wednesday in the Sri Lanka Parliament, Colombo sources said.


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SLA denies transport to critical Vaharai patients

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 00:07 GMT]
K. Thurairatnasingham, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Trincomalee district said Thursday that four civilians including two children are fighting for their lives in Vaharai hospital as the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Mankerny camp on the A15 route refuses to allow the patients to be transported to Batticaola Teaching Hospital for intensive treatment. His appeals to the Defence Ministry officials and Batticaloa SLA high commands had not been responded favourably, the MP added.


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SLFP, UNP MoU monitoring committees meet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 01:17 GMT]
The two high level committees appointed by the Sri Lanka Freedom party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by these two parties met Wednesday morning for the first time in the Sri Lanka parliamentary complex, parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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Rajapakse, Wickremasinghe meet to discuss MoU

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 December 2006, 01:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Tuesday held a lengthy discussion at Temple Trees on the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), and UNP on identified issues giving top priority to solve the ethnic conflict, according to news report of the State-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC).
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GoSL considering proscription, reimposition of PTA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 December 2006, 00:36 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is considering seriously to proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) and re- impose the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) again, Ratnasri Wickramanayake, the Premier and Deputy Defense Minister of Sri Lanka, announced in Parliament Tuesday, while addressing allocation of funds to the Ministry of Defense in the new budget for the year of 2007, Parliamentary sources said.
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130 billion rupees defence budget approved in Sri Lankan Parliament

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 December 2006, 15:00 GMT]
Sri Lankan Army, Navy and Air Force commanders, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse, who narrowly escaped a suicide attack last Frdiay, were present at the Sri Lankan Parliament Tuesday when it approved the defence budget allowing an increased defence spending by 43% to USD 1.3 billion. The Sri Lankan parliament would adopt the budget for 2007 on Wednesday while the Sri Lankan cabinet is expected to decide on re-imposing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) that has not been invoked since the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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Forcing Vaharai students to miss GCE(OL), morally reprehensible- TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 December 2006, 02:53 GMT]
Joint decision by Sri Lanka Ministry of Education and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to not hold the GCE Ordinary level examinations in Vaharai Educational Circuit citing unstable security situation, has brought condemnation from Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, sources said.
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New TNA parliamentarian takes oath

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2006, 11:36 GMT]
K.N.Sri Kantha of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was sworn in as new parliamentarian of the Jaffna district to fill the vacancy created by the assassination of Mr.Nadarajah Raviraj by unidentified gunmen in the heart of Colombo on 10th November, political sources in Colombo said.
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SLA truck collides with train at crossing, 5 killed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2006, 06:41 GMT]
Three policemen, including a woman police constable, and two army troopers were killed and four wounded when a SLA truck packed with soldiers collided with a train as it crossed a railway crossing in Enderamulla, located 12 km northeast of Colombo, in Gampaha district Thursday morning around 6:30, Wattala Police said.
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2 Priests, 2 youths arrested for subversive activities in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2006, 05:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police officials produced two catholic priests and two youths before Additional Magistrate M .Thirunavukarasu on Wednesday, accusing the four of indulging in activities defaming both the Goverment of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Sri Lanka Military, legal sources in Jaffna said. The magistrate however, instructed the police to contact the Attorney General and submit a report concerning the feasibility of filing charges against the accused.
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Rajapakse dismisses Pirapaharan’s comments

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 November 2006, 11:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Tuesday dismissed Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s declaration Monday that Colombo’s intransigence has compelled Tamils no option but an independent state. Rajapakse, who is visiting India this week said he had not heard the speech. “But I have not taken it seriously. Because he has always been saying these things.” President Rajapakse’s comments come after belligerent and contradictory comments by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, government defence spokesman Rumbekwella and government Peace Secretariat chief Palitha Kohana.
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Court hears TRO's case against Central Bank

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 11:14 GMT]
Attorneys representing the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) filed written submissions to High Court requesting that the Judge vacate the ex parte order of 4 September 2006 that froze TRO’s bank accounts as directed by the Judge, TRO said in a press release issued in Colombo Monday, detailing the status of the case against Central Bank of the Government of Sri Lanka.
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Tree planting encouraged in Mullaithivu on Pirapaharan's birthday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 18:52 GMT]
Business Union in Mullaithivu, on Sunday, organised an event to celebrate the 52nd birth day of LTTE leader V.Pirapaharan. Sea Tiger Special Commander Col. Soosai took part in the event where tree saplings were gifted, encouraging the local community to plant trees along the coast, ravaged by the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.
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India wants Northeast merger to stand - report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 07:43 GMT]
India has again called upon Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to honour the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement and give legal force to the Northeast merger, The Sunday Leader newspaper reported this week. Even before the Supreme Court’s ruling in October that the merger of the North and East in 1987 was ‘null, void and illegal’, Delhi had already expressed its opposition to the move, a view echoed by the Co-Chairs – US, EU, Japan and Norway – last week.
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TNA presents sole opposition to 2007 budget

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 00:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Wednesday adopted the second reading of the 2007 Budget with a majority of 115 votes. 133 members voted for the budget and eighteen voted against, parliamentary sources said. All eighteen Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians opposed the budget.
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TNA warns of 'imminent humanitarian disaster' in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 17:33 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), condemning the Sri Lankan military's blockade of food and medicine going into the Vaharai area as "a blatant violation of all humanitarian laws", said Monday this action "is clearly an attempt to use food as a weapon of war, and compulsively evict persons from their areas of historical habitation." In an adjournment motion moved by its Parliamentary group leader, R. Sampanthan, MP, in the House, the TNA called on the government to "rush food medicine and other essentials to the families resident at Vakarai and Kadiravelli and thereby avert an imminent and grave humanitarian disaster."
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Paramilitary threatens Tamil MPs from Batticaloa, Amparai to resign their seats before Monday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 07:35 GMT]
A paramilitary Karuna Group operative, identifying himself as Gunanan, operating from the office of the group located in Sri Lanka Army controlled Batticaloa town, has issued death threats to Tamil parliamentarians from the East, Tamil National Alliance said in a letter to the Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Tuesday. If the 8 parliamentarians from Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai, did not resign their posts before coming Monday, November 27, they would be assassinated, the group has warned. 4 key members of the the TNA, 2 MPs, an ex-MP and a to-be-nominated MP, have been assassinated during the past 2 years.
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