27 killed, 63 wounded, bus explosion in South

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 03:33 GMT]
27 civilians, including 3 school children, were killed and 63 wounded in a Claymore blast that targeted a bus in Helagama in Buttala DS division in Monaragala district in Uva Province at 7:35 a.m. Wednesday, Police said. The blast comes amid reports the Sri Lankan military leadership was trying to convince the government to shut down schools in the South for extended periods, ahead of major offensives, including bombardments likely to cause heavy civilian casualties, into the Vanni. The 6-years-old ceasefire expires today.
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'Pathetically unenforceable' – Sri Lanka response to UN war crimes warning

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 23:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s militarist government reacted furiously Tuesday to warnings by UN Human Rights Chief, Louise Arbour, that human rights abuses in Sri Lanka left perpetrators and their commanders at risk of international war crimes charges. Rejecting Ms. Arbour’s comments as “pathetically unenforceable threats,” Sri Lanka’s embassy to the UN said the Colombo government “will not be deterred by thinly veiled threats attempting to undermine the morale of its military, deter its military campaigns and save separatist terrorism from elimination.” It also challenged the transparency of funding for Ms. Arbour’s office and the extent to which it represented the “world’s peoples.”
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Arbour: SL rights abuses risk war crimes charges

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 15:59 GMT]
A day before the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka is due to formally end, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, on Tuesday, reminded the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of their obligations under international law to respect human rights. She warned that rights abuses “by any party could entail individual criminal responsibility under international criminal law, including by those in positions of command.”
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Claymore attack kills 3 in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2008, 07:51 GMT]
A military police and two home guards were killed and three persons, a soldier, a home guard and a civilian, were wounded when a Claymore attack targeted a vehicle carrying explosives to a stone quarry, at Kachchaikkodi near Pirappamadu southeast of Vavuniyaa town, Monday around 10:00 a.m., Police said.
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Monopoly on Violence

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2008, 02:05 GMT]
German social scientist Maxwell Weber said one hundred years ago that the monopoly on violence, and the provision of security and public order, are the cornerstones of modern, Westphalian, state legitimacy. A current school of conflict resolution theory has advanced a more progressive definition of "Public monopoly of force," that accommodates legitimate international intervention in "fragile or failing" states. In many cases, such as in Sri Lanka, the challenge by an armed non-state actor to the Weberian State's monopoly of violence can pose a serious threat to the State's stability, creating further need for an international response commensurate with "Public monopoly of force" doctrine.
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White van abductions escalate in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 17:33 GMT]
Threatened by increasing number of abductions in the area, members of 40 families residing in a refugee camp located in Thaalikulam, Vavuniyaa handed over a written appeal Saturday to the officials of Vavuniyaa Human Rights Commission (HRC) requesting them to take immediate action to provide protection and relocate them to a safer location, civil society sources in Vavuniya said.
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Co-chairs request Colombo to provide diplomatic access to Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 10:59 GMT]
The Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference for Sri Lanka Peace Process, the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Norway, jointly expressing "strong concerns" about the termination of the 2002 CFA by the Government of Sri Lanka, Saturday called on the GoSL to provide access to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam in Ki'linochchi for representatives of the Co-Chairs and the facilitator, Norway. The Co-chairs also expressed deep concern about the human rights situation and protection of civilians in Sri Lanka, and called for continued monitoring of the human rights situation by such means as to assure an appropriate role for the United Nations.
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Civilians in protective custody apprehensive of future

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 19:02 GMT]
212 civilians in Jaffna peninsula who sought protection with Human Rights Commission (HRC) due to death threats by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and SLA-backed paramilitaries, and placed in the protective custody of Jaffna prison, are uncertain of their future in after the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna ceasing to funtion in Jaffna, legal society sources in Jaffna said.
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"Military solution is all Mr. Rajapakse has left" - Wall Street Journal

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 15:47 GMT]
Despite holding moral high ground as countries have labelled the LTTE terrorists and cracked down on funding, Rajapakse's "commitment to the negotiated cease-fire has always been shaky," and Rajapakse and his party "have done little to win over moderate Tamils," said the Wall Street Journal in an article published in Friday edition, and added that "now, the military solution is all Mr. Rajapakse has left, and it's not a sure bet by any means."
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Family man shot dead in Ea’raavoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 13:51 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot to death Thursday night 10:00 p.m. an elderly civilian, a resident of Uma mill road, Kommaathu’rai within Ea’raavoor Police division in Batticaloa district, police sources said.
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Conflict sustained by world equating oppressor and oppressed - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 January 2008, 08:12 GMT]
The international community’s “stubborn refusal to accept, even when it is thrust in their faces, the racist oppression that underpins ethnic politics there and, consequently, the impossibility of reforming the Sinhala state,” is sustaining Sri Lanka’s conflict the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued this week. “It is [the] ready equating of the violence of the oppressor with the resistance of the oppressed which reveals the international mindset,” the paper’s editorial said.
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Mannaar magistrate orders SLN to cease photographing civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 January 2008, 18:45 GMT]
Mannaar district magistrate, T.J. Prabakaran on Thursday ordered the Head Quarters Inspector (HQI) of Mannaar Police, Chief Inspector Suthath Thasmadalle, to investigate and record statements from the Sri Lanka Navy officials who have been photographing civilians within the jurisdiction of Mannaar Magistrate's Court. The Magistrate also ordered to cease the practice of photographing people with immediate effect, questioning who gave such orders to the SLN in Mannaar, legal sources said. Two police constables who attacked a freelance journalist while the SLN troops were photographing civilians in Pa'l'limuani Wednesday, and their OIC were ordered to be transferred from their check post.
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White van armed men abduct 3 Tamil civilians in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2008, 14:27 GMT]
Armed men in military uniform arriving in a white van forcibly abducted Monday a father of three children at Mukaththuvaaram in Colombo, and in a separate incident a 30-year-old mother and her 5-year-old daughter are alleged abducted Tuesday from their house in Wathala, according to complaints made to Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan and Wattala police by the relatives of the abducted persons.
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SLA suffers casualties in Tiger artillery strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2008, 09:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army suffered casualties Tuesday evening around 7:30 p.m. when Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) fired artillery shells on SLA troops, positioned 17 km southeast of Mannaar city at Parappaangka'ndal. At least 9 SLA soldiers with severe injuries were admitted at Mannaar hospital Tuesday night.
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4 civilians disappear in Jaffna, 4 seek protections with HRC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 January 2008, 16:27 GMT]
Four Tamils, including youths and young married men, disappeared in Jaffna peninsula within the one week period ending Monday, according to reports lodged at the Jaffna office of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), sources said.
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Parcel bomb explodes in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 January 2008, 14:47 GMT]
A parcel bomb explosion was reported in Colombo High Security area, 50 meters away from the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Head quarters near Lake House building around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Two civilians were treated for shock. Nobody was injured in the attack, Police said.
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SLA artillery fire kills 2 civilians in Pooneryn

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 January 2008, 10:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched heavy artillery fire Saturday around 6:40 p.m on civilian settlements in the Fourth Mile area in Poonakari killing two family men besides causing damage to some of the dwellings in the area, sources in Ki’linochchi said.
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"Deepening media crisis in Sri Lanka"- IFJ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 January 2008, 03:45 GMT]
Expressing alarm at the comments at made by Sri Lanka's Army (SLA) Commander Major General Sarath Fonseka labelling some journalists and sections of the media as "traitors," the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is a press release issued Monday said, "the statement by Major General Fonseka and the allegations of death threats against journalists are indicative of a deepening media crisis in Sri Lanka."
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Eligible voter details for Batticaloa district released

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 January 2008, 22:05 GMT]
A total of 270,041 voters in nine local council areas are eligible to cast their votes in the forth coming local council elections scheduled to be held soon in Batticaloa District, Assistant Commissioner of Elections, T. Krishnananthalingam said Monday .
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Colombo removing witnesses to impending carnage- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 January 2008, 00:24 GMT]
Colombo abrogated the CFA to remove the presence of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) which was instrumental in exposing rights violations by all sides. "Government will want to rid the Northeast of any witnesses of the carnage that it intends to unveil on the Tamil people in the name of safeguarding the Sovereignty of the State," said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an interview to TamilNet this week. He added that anti-Tamil actions by Rajapakse Government are taking place under the full glare of the International Community which is able to only make verbal condemnations, but remains largely ineffective to reign in on Colombo on the rights abuses.
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