Civilians fleeing war feared drowned in Naakarkoayil seas

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 11:42 GMT]
Civilians fleeing war in Vanni in a 17 foot boat are feared drowned, fishermen who had seen the boat towed empty by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Friday evening to Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) harbour from Naakarkoyil seas, raised suspicion. Friday morning gunfire was heard from Naakarkoayil seas indicating fleeing civilians being fired upon in the sea and their boat being towed by SLN went under water on Point Pedro seas Friday evening, fishermen in Jaffna who saw the incident said.
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Floods displace thousands in Vanni again

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 18:30 GMT]
More than hundred thousand were displaced due to floods in Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi districts earlier this week, the Government Agent for Ki'ilnochchi district, Imelda Sukumar, told media Saturday. Meanwhile medical sources in Vanni said one civilian was killed by the floods. Students who sat for GCE O/L exams have been disturbed due to the floods, air attacks and artillery shelling by the SLA.
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2 civilians killed in SLA shelling in Vaddakkachchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 17:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired shells killed 2 civilians in Vaddakkachchi in Ki'linochchi Saturday around 3:00 p.m., medical sources in Tharmapuram hospital said. One dead body was brought to Tharmapuram hospital.
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Tigers recover 12 SLA bodies after preemptive strike, 60 killed, 150 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 16:03 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) counter-offensive units carried out a preemptive strike on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive formation in Mu'rika'ndi - Ira'naimadu area Saturday, killing at least 60 SLA soldiers, LTTE officials told TamilNet. The SLA was pushed back 2 km, and the Tigers said they have recovered 12 dead bodies of SLA soldiers so far in the clearing mission, according to latest update from the LTTE officials in Ki'linochchi. More than 150 SLA soldiers were wounded in the counter operation, Tiger officials told TamilNet.
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Colombo steps up bombardment on Vanni, 3 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 05:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Saturday a coastal area in Mullaiththeevu where thousands of civilians, recently displaced, had established temporary shelters. The bombers dropped eight bombs on fishing huts and boats, lighting up the stretch using para lights, causing panic among the refugees and the fishermen engaged in fishing at 4:55 a.m. The bombers arrived again at 5:35 to bomb the area with 8 eight more bombs, targeting the temporary shelters of refugees. The SLAF bombers attacked Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi five times within four hours in the morning. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched an artillery barrage from all the frontiers of Vanni from 4:20 a.m. till 5:50 a.m.
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Sri Lanka attacks hospital, settlements in Vanni, children among victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 15:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked civilian settlements in Mu'l'livaaykkaal village Friday morning and in the noon causing injuries to 11 civilians, including 6 children, according to medical sources in Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital. A 13-year-old girl was seriously injured. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has also fired artillery shells on Mullaiththeevu General Hospital injuring two members of the medical staff and caused extensive damage to the complex including the operation theatre.
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Tamil Nationalist Poet Thevathasan passes away in U.S.

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 07:41 GMT]
Mr. Thevathasan Antony, a Tamil nationalist, poet, and humanist affectionately known as “Maampazham Swamy” passed away in New Jersey, USA on December 14. An advocate for peace who highlighted Sri Lanka's rights violations of Tamils in the NorthEast succumbed to a sudden stroke at the age of 63.
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HR Day, 60th Anniversary of UDHR, observed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 17:13 GMT]
“There are people in Jaffna who ask whether it is necessary to celebrate these days when human rights in Jaffna peninsula is violated with impunity and one cannot slight these questions,” K. Ganesh, Jaffna Government Agent (GA), participating as the chief guest, said in an event held Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Human Rights Day in Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) Jaffna office, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna HRC Coordinating Officer K. Sivarajasingam presided at the event in which important officials including Jaffna District Additional Director of Education, V. T. Selvaratnam and the chief editors of the Tamil dailies in Jaffna participated.
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Visit of 'strategic partners'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 12:19 GMT]
The Defense Advisers/Attaches of seven countries, USA, UK, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives were taken on a one day tour to Vanni by the Colombo government on Monday. Suffering from heavy military debacles and facing serious economic crisis, the Colombo government is badly in need of parading strategic partners and abettors to attract means and justification for its genocidal war before time runs out, note political observers. The visitors represented three of the Co-Chair countries, USA, UK and Japan and four South Asian countries having maritime boundaries.
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India, US, UK, Pakistan officers visit Vanni command HQ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 16:16 GMT]
Military representatives from seven countries – India, the United States, Britain, Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh and Maldives – Wednesday visited the Sri Lankan military command centre coordinating Colombo’s offensive into the Vanni. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence said the foreign defence attaches/advisors visited the Vann Security Forces HQ as well as the HQs of the SLA’s 57 and 59 Divisions.
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Local NGOs help battle economic woes in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 03:07 GMT]
The Economic Consultancy House (TECH), a local NGO operating in the NorthEast, is battling to help economic needs of refugee by attending to small scale economic development projects, civil society sources in Vanni said. Activities include distribution of seed paddy, training of sewing skills, and providing loan for self-help, according to Techinical Director of TECH, Mr Suntharamoorthy.
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SLAF bombs refugee settlements: 2 killed, 13 wounded, 4 child victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 02:30 GMT]
A 5-month-old child and a 25-year-old male were killed and 13 other refugees including three children were wounded Wednesday when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets bombed refugee settlements in Vaddakkachchi four times, on each sorties bombing the refugees twice. The SLAF bombardment on civilian targets comes in the wake of high casualties to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in its latest offensive push in Ki'linochchi and Jaffna frontiers. The second attack was reported 250 meters near the hospital in Vaddakkachchi. Civilians in Vanni interpreted the indiscriminate attacks, which were repeatedly carried out on displaced peoples settlements, as 'collective punishment' by the Sri Lankan forces that have suffered heavy casualties in the battlefront.
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SLA death toll hits 170 in Vanni, hundreds wounded, 36 bodies recovered - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 02:08 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials on Wednesday said that 130 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed in the multi-front offensive push by the SLA in Ki'linochchi on Tuesday. More than 300 soldiers were wounded in the heavy battle that raged throughout the day till 4:00 p.m. on five main localities and along a wide stretch of the frontiers in Ki'linochchi. Meanwhile, in Ki'laali, 40 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 120 sustained injuries. 36 dead bodies of the SLA soldiers have been recovered so far, 28 in Ki'linochchi and 8 in Ki'liaali, in the clearing missions following Tuesday's fighting. There are young recruits of the SLA, including child soldiers, engaged in the front by the SLA in Ki'linochchi.
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SLA push thwarted in Ki'laali, 40 killed - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 10:30 GMT]
More than 40 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and at least 120 soldiers wounded Tuesday morning when the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) repulsed an offensive push by the SLA along the Forward Defence Line in Ki'laali, Tiger officials in Vanni told TamilNet. The LTTE has claimed to have seized weapons and recovered dead bodies of the SLA.
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Slain parliamentarian Maheswaran's death anniversary to be held

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2008, 03:59 GMT]
The first death anniversary of Mr.T.Maheswaran, Colombo district parliamentarian, is to be held on December 21 Sunday at Bambalapitya Kathireasan Hall. He was shot dead while attending prayer in Colombo Ponnambalavaaneswarar Kovil on January 1st this year.
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Kompan Chaayntha Ku'lam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 December 2008, 06:42 GMT]
The tank where a tusker fell dead
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Jaffna Bishop meets IDPs in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 December 2008, 06:39 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, Bishop of Jaffna, was on a mission visit to Vanni 9 December where he met thousands of people displaced due to war offensives and floods sharing their grief and offering consolation to them, in various places in Vanni, according to Jaffna Bishop’s secretary. The Bishop stayed in Vanni meeting the IDPs in their temporary refugee camps and returned to Colombo Saturday.
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3 civilians, including child, killed in SLA shelling in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2008, 13:02 GMT]
A 5-month-old child, sleeping inside an IDP hut near Thakarap-Pi'l'laiyaar temple on Hudson Road in Vaddakkachchi, was decapitated by a shrapnel of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shell Saturday morning around 9:30. 26-year-old mother of the child was wounded in the artillery barrage that targeted the IDP settlement. Meanwhile, two males who went to their agricultural lands in Kanakapuram, a suburb of Ki'linochchi town, to unearth cassava roots, were killed in SLA shelling around 11:45 a.m. A 17-year-old youth narrowly escaped death with injuries from the shelling.
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SLA death toll hits 120, army pushed back to Malaiyaa'lapuram - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 December 2008, 16:18 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials told TamilNet correspondent in Vanni Thursday that the two-pronged SLA offensive on Ki'inochchi was pushed back Wednesday after heavy fighting in Puthumu'rippu in the west of Ki'linochchi and A'riviyal Nakar in the south. The final death toll of the SLA in both the fronts, according to the LTTE claim, was 120 killed in action and more than 280 wounded. Photographs given by the LTTE officials also indicate that there were some young recruits of the SLA among the dead. Meanwhile, the SLA, which admitted heavy fighting, has put the casualties at 20 SLA and 27 LTTE combatants as killed in the latest fighting.
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500 SLA soldiers hurriedly transferred to Vanni from East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 December 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Informed military sources in the East said at least 500 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers have been transferred to the war front in Vanni from the Eastern province in the recent days.
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