TN should send relief as commodities, not money: Australian academic

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 November 2008, 02:44 GMT]
The aid and relief money generously given to Sri Lanka by various governments and international organizations tacitly helps filling the coffers of the Sri Lankan government and its foreign exchange capacity in waging the war against Tamils. The Tamil Nadu government should therefore consider sending the relief money in the form of much needed commodities for the rehabilitation and resettlement of the IDPs in Vanni and should make sure that they reach the Eezham Tamils in the non-government controlled areas directly says, Professor E.A. Selvanathan of the School of International Business, Griffith University, Australia.
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APRC: how long you tolerate a farce, Suresh asks India and IC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 01:20 GMT]
The All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) is a farce of the Sri Lanka government. It was always used to impress upon India and the International Community. The basic premise of the APRC not to go beyond unitary constitution of Sri Lanka, will not bring in any meaningful result. India and the IC know it well. Yet, if they continue to tolerate the farce, they will only be abetting the genocidal programme of Colombo, says Suresh Premachandran of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
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Civilian killed in SLA DPU attack in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2008, 16:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) infiltrators triggered a Claymore mine in Nedungkea'ni, northeast of Vavuniyaa, inside Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) held area in Vanni, killing a father of one Monday morning, initial reports said.
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Patient dies as SLA blocks ambulance in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 22:13 GMT]
One of the five patients sent in Ambulance from Ki'linochchi Tharmapuram hospital to Vavuniyaa hospital in need of urgent treatment died Saturday night as Vanni Sri Lankan Forces Head Quarters (Vanni SF-HQ) refused permission for the ambulance to proceed to Vavuniya general hospital, Tharmapuram hospital sources said. The ambulance had sought SLA permission to proceed to Vavuniyaa along the SLA allowed road, through the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) located in Puthukkudiyiruppu.
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Perth Tamils draw attention of Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister to IDPs plight

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 21:58 GMT]
More than two hundred Australian Tamils held a vigil in Perth, Western Australia on Friday between 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in front of the electorate office of Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith, to create an awareness among the Australian public and inform the Australian government about the plight of the displaced people in Wanni. This is the fourth in a series of protest vigils, being organised by the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA).
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SLA intensifies artillery barrage on LTTE held Poonakari

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 13:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna stepped up artillery barrage since Friday and continues to pound Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held Poonakari across Jaffna lagoon from its bases in Jaffna town and suburbs. The noise of artillery fire from the bases close to Jaffna Teaching hospital has severely affected the patients warded in the hospital, medical staff in the hospital said.
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SLA bars Vaakarai fishemen from taking food

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 November 2008, 12:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vaakarai in Batticaloa district imposed new restrictions on fishing in areas in Koa'ralaipattu North Regional Secretariat division which forbid fishermen taking food, and that if they go fishing in the evening they should return only next morning. SLA has also introduced a pass system in which all fishermen have to register their names at the SLA camp in Panichchangkea'ni camp when going out to, and on return from fishing, sources in Vaakarai said.
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Mother of three killed in SLA DPU attack in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2008, 16:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit detonated a Claymore mine targeting a tractor, killing a 49-year-old mother of three, P. Packiyaluxmy, Wednesday morning at 9:10 a.m., according to medical sources in Mullaiththeevu hospital. The woman was killed on the spot and the body was brought to Mullaiththeevu hospital.
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'World wishes Obama to say good riddance to politics of terrorism'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2008, 13:01 GMT]
The historic victory of Barack Obama in the presidential elections of the United States of America, bestowed on to him by the people of America, heralds a paradigm shift in world affairs. "The new hope is that the International Community will recover from the psychological sickness of the 'paranoia of terror,' which will in turn induce recovery of economy, human rights and peace in the world," said Selvam Adaikkalanathan, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from Vanni, welcoming the victory of Mr. Obama.
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India has not asked to stop the war - SL Foreign Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2008, 10:03 GMT]
India has not exerted any pressure on the Sri Lankan government to halt the war against the LTTE, said Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, while responding to a demand made by Joseph Michael Perera, chief whip of the main opposition United National Party to table the secret understanding reached in New Delhi between President Mahinda Rajapaksa's special envoy Basil Rajapakse and Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjie on 26th October. 'As a step to strengthen the relationship of the two countries,' India has come forward to send 800 metric tones of food material to internally displaced people in Vanni region.
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'Political solution, not politics of food': Mano Ganesan to India

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2008, 16:47 GMT]
The leader of the Western Province People's Front (WPPF) Mano Ganesan on Sunday said the need of hour for India was to push the Government of Sri Lanka to fair and reasonable political solution alluding that India was not needed for the job of supplying 800 MT humanitarian supplies. Three basics of the upheavals in Tamil Nadu were: stop the war, stop the military aid to Sri Lanka and send humanitarian aids to the needy in Vanni. "The Indian Government virtually dismissed first two and got hold of the last, comparatively easy one," Mr. Mano Ganesan said in a press statement issued from Colombo.
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Tamils commemorate first death anniversary of Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 23:29 GMT]
Eezham Tamil diaspora as well as the war-affected people in Vanni marked Sunday the first death anniversary of Brigadier S.P. Thamilchelvan, the former political head of the Liberation Tigers who was assassinated with six members of the political division, in a Sri Lanka Air Force targeted air-strike on his residential office in Ki'linochchi on November 02, 2007.
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LTTE planes drew Indian embassy gunfire as Rajapaksa moved to bunker- report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 23:02 GMT]
Indian gunners in the Indian embassy compound in Colombo “fired relentlessly” at the LTTE aircraft that were returning to Vanni after bombing on the Kelanitissa power station Tuesday, a Sri Lankan press report said Sunday. Quoting reliable sources, the Lakbima newspaper also reported that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse was ushered into a special bunker during the air raid ‘purely as a precaution’’. Meanwhile, the Sunday Times said the LTTE had used a new kind of bomb on the Army Headquarters in Tha'l'laadi, Mannaar and that Sri Lankan jet’s missile was unable to ‘lock on’ to the LTTE plane.
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LTTE leader decorates Tiger airmen, heroes of Vavuniyaa mission

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 November 2008, 02:30 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), on Friday conferred Awards of Valour for Tiger commandos who excelled in their performance in the LTTE operation against the Sri Lankan Forces Vanni Headquarters (Vanni SF HQ) and the Tamileelam Air Force pilots and operators who took part in consecutive and successful flight operations of attack against the targets in the South and the bases of the Sri Lankan armed forces.
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LTTE condems attacks on civilians, says Colombo disregards Indian concerns

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 18:33 GMT]
Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), in a statement dated 30 October, condemned the Sri Lankan government for carrying out indiscriminate aerial bombardment and artillery barrage on civilians in Vanni. "Within few days of the Sri Lankan Government saying to the Indian Government that it will not carry out attacks on civilians, it has carried out attacks on Paranthan and Vallipunam civilian areas," the statement issued by the LTTE said.
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India, US working with hidden agenda against Sri Lanka, says JVP

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 14:51 GMT]
"Indian and United States of America have been working with a hidden agenda for their own political benefit political in Sri Lanka and also to safeguard the Liberation Tigers. The speech made US envoy William O'Blake in Mathurai in South India is part of that agenda," said Mr. Somawanse Amarasinghe, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sinhala nationalist party at a press briefing held Thursday.
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MI-24, Bell damaged in Tiger air strike on Mannaar garrison

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 13:09 GMT]
An MI-24 attack helicopter gunship of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), deployed in Vanni offensive, and a Bell helicopter used to transport the wounded soldiers from the battlefield, sustained damage Tuesday night when Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) air wing, Tamileelam Air Force, carried out a bombing raid on the Sri Lankan garrison at Tha'l'laadi in Mannaar, according to a reliable military source.
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21 cases of Malaria reported in Vanni, artillery fire wounds health worker

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 06:52 GMT]
A health worker spraying houses with insecticide in the fight against malaria epidemic in Aazhiyava'lai in Vadamaraadchi East was wounded in artillery firing by the Sri Lanka Army, according to the medical sources in Ki'linochchi on Friday. Meanwhile, TamilNet correspondent who visited the hospitals on Thursday reported seventeen patients with Malaria were being treated by Ki'linochchi hospital and four patients by the hospital in Mullaiththeevu.
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SLAF bombing kills IDP teenager, injures another in Puthukkudiyiruppu, Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2008, 11:20 GMT]
A 16-year-old boy was killed with his arm blown off and 17-year-old girl seriously injured in the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombing the civilian settlement in Va'l'lipunam in Puthukkudiyiruupu division in Mullaiththeevu district, Thursday morning. SLAF kfir jet fighters dropped eight bombs in two sorties in the aerial strike that lasted from 9:15 a.m to 9:30 a.m, sources in Puthukkudiyiruppu said. Four houses of the residents of the area were destroyed in the bombing.
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SLN bans fishing in Trincomalee seas

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 23:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Wednesday refused permission to hundreds of fishermen who went to the shore along Trincomalee to Kuchchaveli Wednesday early morning to fish in Trincomalee seas, fisheries sources said. The fishermen were told the directive was to ensure security SLN personnel manning checkpoints along the coastal area.
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