"Allow Raviraj's casket to be taken through A9," family requests SL President

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2006, 10:14 GMT]
Assassinated Jaffna District TNA parliamentarian's widowed wife Sasikala Raviraj, Saturday morning when Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mr. Mangala Samaraweera visited the parlour, made an appeal to open the A9 Muhamalai exit-entry point in order to take her husband's remains to his hometown Chavakachcheri for cremation. The funeral is scheduled to be held on Wednesday in Chavakachcheri in Jaffna. Hundreds of mourners from all ethnic communities, political leaders, religious dignitaries and social activists gathered in Colombo to pay their last respects to the assassinated Jaffna district Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj.
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Pirapaharan confers Maamanithar award to Raviraj

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2006, 05:10 GMT]
Leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Velupillai Pirapaharan, bestowed the title Maamanithar (Great Humanbeing) on the slain Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj Friday. "As a parliamentarian he worked tirelessly for the Tamil nation... He shattered the false propaganda of the Sinhala state infusing his arguments with his legal expertise. He stood firm and fought injustice in the face of threats from paramilitary violence," Pirapaharan said in the statement conferring the award.
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GoSL should take responsibility for Raviraj's assassination - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 14:03 GMT]
R. Sampanthan, Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said Friday in Colombo to the press, "Raviraj's assassination is a clear attempt by the paramilitary operating with the Sri Lanka Army to stifle the Tamil parliamentarians' voice in and out of the Parliament to inform the International Community of the Sri Lanka Government's genocide against the Tamils." Sampanthan further said, "Almost an year has passed since the assassination of Batticaloa parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingam and the Sri Lanka government is yet to bring the killers to book. This reveals the covert connections the government has with them."
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Batticaloa, Amparai shut down in protest of Vaharai killings

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 12:18 GMT]
Batticaloa and Amparai districts came to a standstill in response to a call made by Parliamentarian P. Ariyanenthiran, on behalf of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), to the people of both the districts to observe total shut down on Friday, as an expression of their united appeal to the International Community to exert pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to stop killing Tamil civilians, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Tamil Parliamentarian Raviraj assassinated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 03:43 GMT]
Nadarajah Raviraj, 44, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian was shot in Colombo around 8:30 a.m. Friday. The MP succumbed to his wounds at Colombo National Hospital. A lawyer turned politician, former mayor of Jaffna, Mr. Raviraj, elected twice, has been an outspoken parliamentarian who voiced against the extra-judicial killings and forced disapperances in NorthEast and Colombo. The parliamentarian took part in a demonstration Thursday against the Sri Lanka Army shelling in Vaharai where 47 Tamil civilians, Internally Displaced from Trincomalee, were killed, Wednesday.
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Stop genocide against Tamils - TNA appeals to UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 01:20 GMT]
19 Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians led by Mr. R. Sampanthan, Leader of the TNA Parliamentary group and Member of Parliament for Trincomalee district, protested Thursday at 11:00 a.m in front of United Nations office in Colombo condemning the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bombing of Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Vaharai and Kathiravelli, killing 53 civilians and seriously injuring 127, sources in Colombo said. The protesters urged the United Nations to urgently intervene to stop the "genocide against Tamils let loose by the Sri Lanka government."
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SC's NorthEast merger verdict stands- SL Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 11:09 GMT]
The Government will never act, and has no power to act against the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) that the merger of North and East Provinces was illegal, Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, the Sri Lankan Premier and Deputy Minister of Defense announced in the Parliament Tuesday while submitting a special report explaining Sri Lankan Government's stand on the issue, parliamentary sources said.
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TNA parliamentarians meet Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 10:54 GMT]
Nineteen of the twenty two Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Tuesday met with Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), at the latter's request and held discussions on the urgency of bringing normalcy in the North East, legalising the merger of the two provinces, and the opening of the land route A9 to Jaffna peninsula, political sources in Colombo said.
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TNA calls on Sri Lanka to uphold 1987 merger

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 November 2006, 15:20 GMT]
Saying that the Sri Lankan state’s recognition of the Tamils’ historical existence as a people living in the Northeast of the island was realised in the establishment of the Northeast province in 1987, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), charged Tuesday that it was the duty of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government to uphold the merger as it constituted a recognition of Tamil grievances. The TNA is expected to pass a resolution as Sri Lankan Prime Minister is reported to have told the Parliament Tuesday that a "future merger" would be dependent on a referendum in the East.
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TNA parliamentarians' protest continues

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 November 2006, 08:25 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians continued their sit-in-protest in Sri Lanka's parliament when it resumed its sitting Tuesday. TNA parliamentarians have been demanding the re-opening of the landroute A9 to Jaffna peninsula and protesting against the de-merger of NorthEast province as directed by the Supreme Court.
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SLA censors Heroes' Day coverage

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2006, 21:25 GMT]
"It is an outright violation of the freedom of press by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) 512nd Division high officials to threaten the Editors of the Jaffna peninsula Tamil dailies not to publish any news related to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and not to publish LTTE leader Pirabakaran's photo or his annual November Heroes' Day message," S. Gajendran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Jaffna district, told TamilNet Monday.
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Northeast de-merger issue to dominate parliament sitting

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2006, 13:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament is to resume sitting Tuesday morning amid speculation in political circles that the government is likely to bring a motion soliciting the position of the parliamentarians from all parties on the Supreme Court ruling that rendered invalid North East merger, parliamentary sources said.
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Vaharai residents face severe food shortage- MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2006, 01:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops of Mankerni Camp have refused permission to transport food items beyond their check point into LTTE- controlled Vaharai Region for more than a week, resulting in 43,000 civilians of the area facing acute shortage of essential food items, P.Ariyanenthiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament, Batticaloa District said in a communiqué issued to the press on Sunday.
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Ex-PLOTE cadre shot dead in Kayts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 November 2006, 16:39 GMT]
A former senior member of the paramilitary Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) was abducted from his home in Puliyankudal, Kayts Friday and his body was found with gunshot wounds Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. Kumaravelu Suthaharan, alias Appan, 33, left PLOTE less than 5 years ago, got married and was living in Puliyankudal in the Jaffna islet when he was killed.
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EPDP members attacked in Valaichchenai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2006, 00:12 GMT]
Unknown assailants hurled hand grenades at the cadres of the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) selling "Thinamurasu", a weekly paper printed by EPDP, at Kanagaretnam road junction in Valaichchenai Police division in Batticaloa district, around 10:30 a.m. Friday, sources said. No one was injured in the attack.
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Kilinochchi raid violates International Humanitarian Law- TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 November 2006, 15:58 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a press release issued in Colombo Friday condemned the Thursday bombing raid by SLAF near Kilinochchi hospital as "serious violation of International Humanitarian Law," and said the bombing was "conducted with callous disregard for the safety and the security of Tamil civilian life and property." TNA also expressed disappointment that despite repeated attacks by GoSL against civilian life and property, "the International Community is unable to bring such attacks of the GOSL to an end."
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GoSL will attack Northeast over land, sea, air- Wickremenayake

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 November 2006, 10:31 GMT]
The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, said that his government has planned to launch offensives on the Tamil north and east provinces by land, sea and air, while speaking at a function held Friday at 11:00 a.m at the Prime Minister's office to announce financial assistance to the children of soldiers affected by the war, sources in Colombo said.


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Jaffna residents stranded in Vavuniya, protest

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Stranded Jaffna peninsula residents, trapped in Vavuniya since Sri Lanka Army (SLA) closed A9, the land route to Jaffna peninsula from August 11, staged a demonstration Wednesday at the Vavuniya Secretariat demanding the authorities to send them to their homes and submitted an appeal to Ms. Charles, the Additional Government Agent of Vavuniya, said Vavuniya Secretariat sources.


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5 killed, SLAF attacks hospital surrounding in Kilinochchi, 500 patients flee hospital

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2006, 09:07 GMT]
Five members of a family were killed when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jets dropped 16 bombs within 500 meters east of the newly built Kilinochchi General Hospital at Anandapuram around 2:30 p.m. Thursday. One was seriously wounded. Around 500 patients warded in the hospital, among others mothers with newly born babies in their hands and severely wounded patients from earlier SLAF bombings, were forced to leave the hospital premises. Explosion shock shattered hospital window-glasses and fans fell down while the patients were having lunch in their beds, doctors told TamilNet. Tension prevailed in Kilinochchi town following the aerial attack.
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NECORD funded Mullaithivu hospital opens

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2006, 08:23 GMT]
Dr. T. W. Jeyakularajah, Mullaithivu District Deputy Provincial Director of Health Services, presided over the opening ceremony of a section of the Mullaithivu hospital complex constructed at a cost Rs.110m funded by he Northeast Community Restoration and Development (NECORD), held Wednesday at 10:00 a.m at Maanthottam area along the Mullaithivu-Mulliyawalai road.
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