Trader, student disappear in Ariyalai

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 March 2007, 11:26 GMT]
A trader and a student accompanying him have disappered in Pungankulam, Ariyalai, inside the Jaffna Municipal area, after being interrogated by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Sunday noon, according to complaints made at the offices of Jaffna Human Rights Commission, sources said.
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175 schoolchildren, 9 staff narrowly escape air strike on school

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 March 2007, 08:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers Monday morning bombed a school in Chundikulam, wounding a female teacher and two schoolboys, attending 7th grade and 9th grade at the school, Chundikulam Vidyalayam, located 21 km northeast of Kilinochchi, in the southern part of Vadamaradchi East region in Jaffna district. Three bombs were dropped 25 meters from a class room. A bomb that hit a tree exploded in the air, wounding two children and a teacher. Around 175 schoolchildren, 8 teachers and the principal of the school narrowly escaped from the aerial attack. TamilNet correspondent who visited the site of the attack witnessed a second air strike at 11:45 a.m.
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38 civilians arrested in Mt.Lavinia

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 March 2007, 17:01 GMT]
Thirty-eight civilians, including twenty women of all three communities, were arrested Sunday in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka government troops in Mt.Lavinia police division in Colombo city, police sources said.
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Rights questions bedevil Bogollagama UK, US visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 March 2007, 12:55 GMT]
"The five year old Ceasefire Agreement is in tatters and the Government [of Sri Lanka] seems more and more determined to pursue a military solution. But what are the costs? With widespread reports of abductions and disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture, today's Sri Lanka is beginning to look like Pinochet's Chile," says Allan Little, BBC's Hard Talk, in his introduction to an interview with Rohitha Bogollagama. The foreign minister has completed his visit to UK and is currently in US, and his visit is plagued by questions regarding the worsening Human Rights situation in Sri Lanka.
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Colombo forcing refugees to return home- Rights Group

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 19:47 GMT]
"Sri Lankan authorities are using threats and intimidation to force civilians who fled recent fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war to return home," Human Rights Watch said today. "To pressure individuals to return home, government officials and military personnel have threatened to withdraw humanitarian aid, food and other essential supplies," the Rights body further said.
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Two civilians disappear in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 00:12 GMT]
Two civilians, one from Kasturiar Road Jaffna and another from Point Pedro, Vadamaradchy disappeared on Thursday, according to complaints filed by their relatives at the Human Rights Commission (HRC) offices in Jaffna.


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Ships meant for civilian use, carryout military tasks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2007, 20:23 GMT]
While refusing to open the A9 land route, the Sri Lanka government (GoSL), under the pretext of shipping passengers and essential food items to Jaffna district, is using the ships to bring in the requirements of its armed forces occupying Jaffna peninsula, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The ship 'Ruhuna', the latest ship arriving at Jaffna, was taken to Kankesanthurai harbour, used exclusively by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), first unloaded the goods brought for the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the SLN.
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SLA attacks Vavuniya Mannar border villages

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2007, 11:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Thursday morning launched heavy artilery and mortar fire towards Mannar Vavuniya border villages Mullikulam, Keerisuddan and Periya Pandivirichchan causing hundreds of civilian families to flee the villages, according to initial reports in Vanni. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) have carried out three aerial attaks in Mullaithivu district till Thursday noon.
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UK calls for truce, backs Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 March 2007, 23:13 GMT]
British Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday called for the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) to be implemented as a first step towards ending Sri Lanka’s conflict. “The only realistic way to get a solution is to come back to the 2002 agreement and make sure that it is implemented,” Mr. Blair said. Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told her Sri Lankan counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagama, “there can be no military solution alone to the conflict.” The emphasis on ‘alone’ is seen by some as British preparedness to endorse the Colombo’s war against the Tigers, provided a political solution is offered also.
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Tamils arrested in Tissamaharagama still in detention

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 21:38 GMT]
Ten Tamil civilians arrested in Tissamaharagama, in the southern province Sunday night in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police are still being detained in the police station and being questioned.
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Documentary on Black Tigers premiered in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 13:05 GMT]
For the first time the Tamil Tigers have allowed a foreign film team to "hand-pick, follow, interview and dig deep," into the lives and faiths of two female Black Tigers, according to the producers of a documentary film titled "My daughter the terrorist," which made its World Premiere to a full house at Parkteatret in the Norwegian capital Oslo Monday.
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Postman, civilian killed in DPU claymore attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 12:33 GMT]
A postman and another civilian were killed in a claymore mine attack carried out by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Monday morning at fourth mile post along Madhu-Parapukadanthan road in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territory in Mannar district. The postman has been identified as Fernando Arulananthan Croos, 48, and the civilian has not been identified yet, sources said.


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13 Tamil civilians arrested in Kohuwela

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 10:54 GMT]
Thirteen Tamil civilians were arrested Monday night in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police at Kohuwela, a suburb in Colombo city. All including three women are natives of North East province and were temporarily staying with friends and family members in their homes and in lodges in Kohuwela when they were arrested, sources said.
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TNA delegations meet British, Japanese ambassadors

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 09:59 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians appealed to the British Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Dominic Silcott Monday, urging the International Community to pressure Sri Lanka government to stop artillery attacks into civilian populated areas in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas and to provide the necessary facilities to the people displaced in the recent violence. The meeting lasted an hour starting at 2:30 p.m. Monday.
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SLA forces exodus of Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 March 2007, 01:34 GMT]
More than 100,000 people have moved out of Liberation Tigers controlled areas of Batticaloa district to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas as Sri Lankan armed forces continued shelling for the third consecutive day in their attempt to force evacuation of large section of Tamil population with the military agenda to capture additional territory, officials providing relief assistance said Sunday.
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International community must intervene to stop attacks on East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2007, 18:50 GMT]
More than hundred and fifteen thousand people have been rendered homeless due to the indiscriminate and persistent shelling of Paduvankarai region in the Esatern province by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) since 5th March, in its attempt to invade the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territory, T. Ariyanenthiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Batticaloa said in an urgent appeal on behalf of the TNA, requesting the International Community to intervene immediately to stop the Sri Lanka Government's war on Tamils in the east.
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Sri Lanka's gross violations of Human Rights must stop- Selvy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2007, 10:37 GMT]
Humanitarian Spokesperson of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), N. Selvy, Saturday expressed dismay at International Community's discourse with Colombo by failing to adopt a humanitarian strategy to end the culture of impunity in Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) administered territory. Despite expressing reservations on the effectiveness of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIEGP) according to the terms and reference of Colombo, Selvy said: "if the monitoring system could discipline the Sri Lankan state and bring the culprits to book, it would be worthwhile."
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2 STF troopers killed, one injured in Kalmunai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2007, 10:27 GMT]
Unidentified persons triggered a claymore device Sunday around 8:50 a.m at Pandirippu in Kalmunai police division in Amparai district killing two Special Task Force (STF) troopers and injuring one. The attack targeted the STF road patrol unit. Three civilians were seriously injured in this attack.
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87 youths abducted or disappear in Jaffna in 2007

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2007, 02:02 GMT]
87 youths have either been abducted or disappeared in the first 69 days of 2007, records at the office of the Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) said. 416 civilians disappeared in 2006, according to the same records. The escalating numbers have raised the spectre of disappearances of 1997, when Amnesty declared "600-odd people who have "disappeared" in the last 18 months after their arrest by the security forces, nearly all have died as a result of torture or been deliberately killed in detention." Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested 6 youths in Aanaikkodai during the Saturday funeral of fish trader who was shot dead Friday, sources in Jaffna said.
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Court releases 8 Tamil detainees, SLN arrests 4 in Negombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 March 2007, 12:45 GMT]
Colombo magistrate court Thursday and Friday released twelve civilians, eight of them Tamils, who were arrested in cordon and search operations in Colombo and its suburbs and detained in Boosa detention camp located in Galle in southern province. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) arrested four in Negombo suspected of attacking fishing boats, sources in Colombo said.
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