Vanni protest rallies condemn SLA killing of school girls

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 November 2007, 01:26 GMT]
All employees of Government Departments in Vanni wearing black arm bands staged a work stoppage from 9:30 a.m. till 11:00 a.m. Thursday as a mark of protest against the Claymore attack carried out Tuesday morning by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) in which seven female students of Iyankankulam school engaged in rural first aid service were killed.
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"Avoid civilian casualties," EU tells warring parties

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2007, 11:43 GMT]
The European Union on Thursday said it remained "gravely concerned about the welfare of civilians caught up in the Sri Lanka's conflict - in the Wanni, in Colombo or wherever," and said it expected the parties to take the utmost care to avoid civilian casualties in accordance with international humanitarian law. The statement condemned Wednesday's "terrorist attacks in Colombo" and deplored "deliberate targeting of civilians."
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SLAF bombs VoT radio station in Vanni, 11 killed, 15 wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 11:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. attacked the Voice of Tigers (VoT) broadcast station located at 155 Mile Post, 3.5 km south of Ki'linochchi. Three editorial staff workers at the station and eight civilians, residents and travelers near the station were killed in the attack. 15 civilians, including four editorial staff, wounded in the attack were admitted to Ki'linochchi hospital. A hostel belonging to World Food Programme (WFP) was fully destroyed. The Vanni office of FORUT and a library of Ki'linochchi Pradeshiya Sabah were damaged in the airstrike. A bomb hit the A9 Road. 17 civilian houses in the vicinity were attacked, 8 houses have sustained heavy damage.
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Tamils mark 25-years of Tiger sacrifice

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 10:11 GMT]
November 27 Heroes Day remembrance events were being held in Vanni since Sunday amid air attacks and Deep Penetration Unit attacks that have been stepped up by the Sri Lankan forces. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has deployed soldiers close to the Heroes cemeteries in SLA controlled areas of NorthEast, including the cemeteries that have been desecrated by the Sri Lankan forces in Batticaloa, Ampaa'rai and Trincomalee. From 27 November 1982, when the first LTTE fighter Lt. Sankar died, until 20 November 2007, a total of 19,877 fighters are declared war heroes by the Tamileelam Heroes Secretariat.
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DPU attack claims lives of 7 school girls, 11 killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 09:47 GMT]
Seven school girls, riding in a Hiace van engaged in rural first aid service, were killed on the spot at Iyangkea'ni on Kokkaavil - Thu'nukkaay Road in Vanni Tuesday at 11:30 a.m, in a Claymore attack carried out by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit (DPU). The driver of the van and three male volunteers were also killed in the attack, according to Tamileelam Police in Ki'linochchi.
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SLAF bombs civilian settlements in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 November 2007, 13:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers have attacked two densely populated areas in Puthukkudiyiruppu and Ki'linochchi in Vanni on Monday. 13 houses have sustained damages in five rounds of air attacks. The first attack was reported in Puthukkudiyiruppu, 150 meters from the town junction, between 5:00 and 5:20 p.m. 7 houses have sustained heavy damage. No civilian casualties were reported. The second attack was reported between 5:30 and 5:50 p.m. in Jeyanthinakar, a suburb of Ki'linochchi town, where six houses were damaged. An 18-year-old youth was wounded in Jeyanthinakar.
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2 DPU attacks claim 2 civilian lives, ambulance targeted again in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 November 2007, 09:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) attackers, in two separate Claymore attacks on Sunday targeted civilians in Oddisuddaan, 22 km southwest of Mullaiththeevu town and Mudkompan, 20 km northwest of Ki'linochchi town in Poonakari (Pooneryn) division Sunday, Tamileelam Police officials said. The Claymore attack in Oddisuddaan claimed the lives two, a student and a business man, around 7:55 a.m. and another attack at Mudkompan targeted an ambulance around 9:50 a.m. The two DPU Claymore attacks during Heroes Day remembrance days in Vanni come two months after a similar attack that claimed the life of Rev. Fr. Nicholaspillai Packiyaranjith who was on a humanitarian mission.
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4 civilians killed, 6 wounded in SLAF bombardment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 November 2007, 04:51 GMT]
A father and mother with their daughter and a teenage girl were killed, their son and his wife were seriously wounded with four other civilians, Sunday morning, when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a civilian settlement twice, between 7:15 and 7:40 a.m., at Tharmapuram 8th Unit, located in Ki'linochchi district. A 4-years-old girl, a teacher and a retired postmaster were among the wounded. The airstrike, using bombs that explode underground, comes as November 27 Heroes Day remembrance events were being observed in Vanni. The explosions have created 6 to 10 meter depth craters.
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Magistrate directs police to consider arrest of soldier suspects in Thavasikku'lam killings

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2007, 15:51 GMT]
Vavuniyaa magistrate M. Ilancheliyan Friday directed the police to consider arresting Sri Lanka Army soldiers who were on duty at Veappangku'lam SLA detachment on November 03 between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. Five young Tamil males who were allegedly arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) that day were found shot dead the following morning at Thavasikku'lam. The parents of the slain youths have told the magistrate that there were many witnesses who saw their sons being arrested and taken by SLA troops. The magistrate has earlier directed that the assault rifles of 49 soldiers, including that of the commander of the detachment, be sent to government analyst department for examination.
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UNP welcomes ban on TRO

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2007, 03:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National party (UNP) has welcomed the government’s decision to ban the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), the Daily Mirror reported Friday. The UNP echoed the stance of the ultra-Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) with senior UNP official, Lakshman Kiriella, also telling a news conference that the government had failed to pursue the matter with commitment. Earlier this week, there was applause in Sri Lanka’s parliament as the government promised to consider banning the TRO and also the LTTE
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Sri Lanka’s ban on TRO ‘final nail’ in coffin of peace process

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2007, 01:10 GMT]
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisations (TRO) has condemned the Sri Lankan government’s banning of the charity, saying the Rajapakse regime had done so with the “ulterior motive of unleashing untold hardships on the Tamil people as part of [the government’s] continuing discrimination and oppression of the Tamil people.” The TRO, which has been the largest - and for long periods the sole - NGO assisting the hundreds of thousands of Tamils displaced by the conflict, said in a statement this week “With the banning of the TRO the final nail in the coffin of the peace process has been hammered home.”
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FORUT funded pre-school opened in Mannaku'lam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2007, 16:29 GMT]
A pre-school built by Vavuniya Development Rehabilitation Organization (VDRO) using funding from FORUT, a Norwegian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) working in Vanni, was opened in Mannakulam area in Vavuniya district Wednesday. FORUT's Vanni Director of Planning, Mr. Arnon, cut the ribbon to open the building.
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Eelaventhan meets Harper, U.S. officials

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007, 13:32 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr Eelaventhan, currently visiting Canada and United States met with Canada's ruling Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and politicians from other parties during the early part of November, and also met with United States State Department officials on the 14th of November, briefing them on the worsening humanitarian conditions in Tamil areas of North East of Sri Lanka, and the deteriorating ground situation that is leading towards large scale confrontation between Sri Lanka Security forces and Liberation Tigers.
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Thileepan statue destroyed in Nalloor, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007, 05:23 GMT]
A gang of unidentified men went on rampage Sunday night, during the curfew hours, demolishing the statue of Lt. Col. Thileepan (Rasiah Parthipan) located behind the historic Nalloor Kanthaswamy Koayil on Point Pedro Nalloor road, sources in Jaffna said.
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TRO denies U.S. accusations, says proscription will harm Tamil people

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 November 2007, 20:23 GMT]
Expressing dismay over U.S. Department of Treasury's action against the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), and reiterating that TRO is NOT a "front to facilitate fundraising and procurement for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," the TRO, in a press release issued Sunday, stated categorically that "all funds received are utilized according to the wishes of the donor, in line with the stated mission of TRO, to assist the tsunami and war affected populations of the NorthEast. None of these funds are, or have ever been found to have been, misappropriated for use by any other organization or used inappropriately by TRO itself."
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TNA MPs condemn US action on TRO

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 November 2007, 18:19 GMT]
"While the Government of Sri Lanka has imposed an effective economic embargo in Vanni, and the sustained bombardments of Sri Lanka Military have made situation difficult for International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) to work amidst the affected local residents in border villages of Tamil areas, United States has made the situation worse for the Tamil people, internally displaced and reeling under economic hardship, by stopping the humanitarian aid from the branches world-wide of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO)," said Kajendran, parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance.
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Colombo losing political war- Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 16:22 GMT]
In an incisive and pessimistic article in Wednesday's edition in a Colombo daily, Professor Jeyadeva Uyangoda, Head of Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo, says, Colombo, with its militaristic approach to finish "LTTE terrorism once and for all," is fast losing the political war, has "heightened alienation of the Tamil citizens from the Sri Lankan state," erased distinction between the State and the regime marking an "authoritarian drift in governance in which liberal democracy is seen as an unaffordable luxury, and even a threat," and self-destructively "mirror-imaging the LTTE particularly in the area of human rights and humanitarian issues."
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SLN restricts Police vehicular access to Colombo harbour

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 15:30 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence (MoD) has issued a directive to the Sri Lankan Police establishment in Colombo to acquire permission from the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) before entering the harbour using Police vehicles.
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Thousands pay homage to Major Selvam in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 November 2007, 14:03 GMT]
Thousands of Ki’linochchi residents, LTTE officials, and LTTE cadres gathered at Ki'linochchi Cultural Hall Saturday morning 10:00a.m.to pay last respects and homage to Major Selvam who succumbed to his wounds Friday after being critically injured along with five political cadres and Brigadier S. P. Tamilchelvan, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Political Head, in the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aerial bombing on Ki’linochchi on the 2nd of this month.
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Sri Lanka builds police station on Kausalyan’s cemetary

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 November 2007, 13:38 GMT]
Sri Lankan authorities have razed a Tamil Tiger cemetery in the island’s east and built a police station on it, international ceasefire monitors said in a recent report. The Thaandiyadi cemetery, in which large numbers of LTTE cadres, including Mr. E. Kaushalyan, the popular political head of the LTTE in Batticaloa-Amparai district, who was killed by Army-backed paramilitaries whilst traveling through government-controlled territory during the peace process in 2005, has been razed. At least one other LTTE cemetery has had the grave markings razed, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said.
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