Eastern university don shot dead

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 May 2004, 12:18 GMT]
Mr. Kumaravel Thambaiah, a senior lecturer in the Eastern University was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at his home in Batticaloa town around 4.30 p.m. Monday. Mr.Thambaiah, 48, the head of the economics department of the Eastern University, is from the village of Aasikulam north of Vavuniya.
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PAFFREL to set up citizens committees in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 May 2004, 18:23 GMT]
People's Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL), a Colombo based election monitoring group said it plans to start citizens committees in Jaffna-Manipay, Pt. Pedro-Karaveddy and Kopay for addressing local social problems and issues.
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Sinister elements behind killing of police constable - Kausalyan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 May 2004, 14:59 GMT]
Mr. E. Kausalyan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Batticaloa, told TamilNet Wednesday that the LTTE has nothing to do with the killing of a police intelligence operative by unidentified gunmen Wednesday morning at a sub-post office in Batticaloa town.
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Tamil parliamentarians to debate Kandapola incident with black bands

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 May 2004, 11:32 GMT]
Tamil parliamentarians irrespective of party affiliations would attend parliament wearing black bands on their arms when the adjournment motion on the Kandapola incident is debated Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Two were killed and several wounded when Police opened fire on Tamil estate workers in the hill country town last month.
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TNA MPs to decide on strategy in parliament

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 May 2004, 22:25 GMT]
The parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) met at the parliament building Monday to discuss the strategy to follow during the election of the Deputy Speaker on Tuesday, but decided to meet again Tuesday morning to take a firm decision, a TNA MP said.


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SLA bans cultivation in lands outside Palaly HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 May 2004, 18:09 GMT]
Inspite of repeated assurances by the Jaffna command of the Sri Lanka Army that internally displaced families will be allowed to resettle and do their cultivation in their lands located six hundred meters away from the forward defence line of the Palaly high security zone, soldiers manning checkpoints are putting obstacles for the resettled farmers to prepare their lands for cultivation, resettled families complained to TamilNet Friday.
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India should lift ban on LTTE-TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 May 2004, 13:39 GMT]
"The Indian government should lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a first step to win the hearts of Tamils in northeast province and to facilitate the peace process brokered by Norway," the Tamil National Alliance Jaffna district parliamentarian, Mr.N.Raviraj, told TamilNet Friday
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Eastern public complain of wood smuggling

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 May 2004, 16:48 GMT]
A large number of valuable trees in Vakaneri, Poththanai, Poonaakaadu and Kaaradipaththy areas of the Batticaloa district are being felled and smuggled out illegally during the past few weeks, thus robbing valuable forest resources, residents complained to TamilNet Thursday.
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RSF fears for safety of Tamil journalist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 2004, 16:18 GMT]
The Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) in a letter to Sri Lanka's minister of home affairs, Mr. Amarasiri Dodangoda, on Tuesday expressed its fears for the safety of Tamil journalist Mr. Dharmeratnam Sivaram ("Taraki"), whose home in Colombo was searched by Sri Lanka police Monday.
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Balasingham to visit Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 2004, 10:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers’ theoretician and political strategist, Mr. Anton Balasingham, will travel to Vanni this week to meet the movement’s leader, Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan, to map out its strategy for future peace talks, TamilNet learns.


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Police raid Tamil journalist’s home on Press Freedom Day

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 2004, 01:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police raided a Tamil journalist’s home in Colombo Monday night. During the raid by a large group of Police personnel, the journalist, Mr. Sivaram Dharmeratnam (‘Taraki’), a political affairs columnist for English and Tamil papers published from Colombo and a member of TamilNet's editorial board, was away in Batticaloa in connection with the World Press Freedom Day on Monday, 3 May. The journalist’s family said that the raid was intimidating. Mr. Dharmeratnam was threatened and intimidated several times in the past for his comments and reporting on Tamil issues.
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U.S.-based Sri Lankan cardiologist develops new artificial heart valve

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 April 2004, 17:13 GMT]
Dr. Rohan Jayasinghe, an interventional cardiologist of Sri Lankan origin based in New York, U.S., on Wednesday presented what is said to be the world’s first artificial mitral heart valve that can be delivered to and implanted in the heart through a catheter inserted through a blood vessel in the groin, thus precluding the need for open heart surgery in heart valve replacement, at Columbia University in New York, medical sources said.
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SLA prevents Muslims from resettling in Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 16:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army has prevented Muslim refugees who came back recently to Chavakachcheri, the second largest town of the northern peninsula, from repairing and resettling in their war-destroyed homes, a spokesman for the returnees told TamilNet Tuesday. “We have been living in refugee camps in Puttalam for many years. I arrived with my family today, hoping to restart my life here in my hometown. But the military says that it won’t vacate my house. Where do I go?” asks Mr. Ismail Sultan, 38, a businessman.


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Escapee details 18-year detention, torture in STF camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 15:17 GMT]
A Tamil youth arrested in 1986 by the Special Task Force of the Sri Lanka Army at Kaluwanchikudy in the Batticaloa district, and assumed dead, has escaped last week from an STF camp where he was held incommunicado for 18 years, and has detailed the torture and killings by the STF that took place in the camp and elsewhere to Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), sources in Batticaloa told TamilNet.
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Media bias: dangerous fruits, flowers and foliage

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 April 2004, 14:07 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers’ adoption in November 2003 of the Gloriosa Lily as the national flower of Tamil Eelam, featured on TamilNet last week, prompted a spate of sensational news reports linking the flower with death and suicide. But, while the ‘Karthigaipoo’ joins a small group of poisonous flowers that have been adopted as national flowers, like France’s Fleur-de-Lis, some more innocuous flowers and plants have proven deadlier.
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‘Karuna’s colleagues are returning’- Col. Ramesh

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2004, 16:15 GMT]
“We will not punish or victimise or persecute anyone who has been associated with Karuna in his traitorous activities. Our leader has instructed us to take a strictly humanitarian approach in dealing with this issue. Karuna’s colleagues who fled the district four days ago are contacting us now. They are all coming back. We would soon restore the law and order system and the judiciary”, said Col. Thambirajah Ramesh, LTTE’s special commander for the Batticaloa-Amparai district speaking to TamilNet at the ‘Meenaham’ military base Friday.
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"International community accepts LTTE as Tamils’ saviour”-Gajendran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2004, 15:24 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from the Jaffna district, Mr.S.Gajendran, said Thursday that the international community has accepted that the Liberation Tigers’ military wing safeguards and protects the Tamil people. "Because of this," said the TNA MP, "the international community remained silent, watching the events that took place when the LTTE launched its military operation to retrieve the areas from its renegade commander ('Karuna')."
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LTTE, SLA agree to restore relations in Batticaloa-Amparai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2004, 12:24 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army held discussions Wednesday afternoon on restoring relations in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts in Vavunathivu, 5 kilometres northwest of the Batticaloa town. Col. Thambirajah Ramesh, the Special Commander for the Batticaloa-Amparai District, led the LTTE delegation. Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Maj. Gen. (ret) Tronde Furuhovde chaired the meeting. Asked whether the issue of renegade LTTE commander Karuna’s whereabouts was raised at the meeting, Col. Ramesh and Maj. Gen. (ret) Furuhovde replied in the negative.
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Four Karuna group cadres further remanded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 13:23 GMT]
The Batticalo Magistrate, Mr. H.H.M. Ajmeer, on Wednesday ordered further remand until April 27 to the four cadres of the renegade Karuna group who were arrested by Sri Lanka police on March 31 with weapons on the Kalmunai-Batticaloa road, sources in Batticaloa said.
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‘No trace of ‘Karuna’ in Batticaloa’s interior’ – LTTE commanders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 14:23 GMT]
Special Forces commanders of the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa told TamilNet Tuesday that all the LTTE military camps in the district’s interior have been completely checked and cleared. “We have recovered the Batticaloa-Amparai district armoury fully, except for a heavy mortar and some rifles. The ammunition stores are intact”, one of them said. He said that they found several vehicles set on fire in ‘Meenaham’, the LTTE’s largest military base in the east.
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