Bishop calls for urgent transport of food to Jaffna via A9

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 16:18 GMT]
Bishop of Jaffna, Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundara nayagam, in a letter addressed to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday, urged the President to follow through on his proposal to send food and other essentials to Jaffna through A9 highway. The Bishop said he would like to believe that the proposal is "a humble and good gesture on the part of the Government. to build trust and confidence with the Tamil people," and as a "genuine desire of the GOSL to attend to the Humanitarian needs of the people."
Full story >>

Heroes Day celebrations held across Jaffna as jubilation triumphs fear

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 12:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers remained inside their camps in the villages in Vadamaradchy, Valikamam, Thenmaradchi sectors and the outskirts of Jaffna city following posters that warned soldiers to stay inside their camps Sunday. Villages that have remained gripped with fear due to forced disappearances and killings for many weeks, were decorated with red and yellow flags, and youths wearing tiger-striped uniforms were seen in many places in Vadamaradchy, residents said. Meanwhile, SLA soldiers in Jaffna town and the surroundings of University of Jaffna and Parameswara Junction on Palay Road conducted search operations.
Full story >>

LTTE leader participates in Heroes commemoration event

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 08:22 GMT]
Leader of Liberation Tigers, Velupillai Pirapaharan, took part in a commemoration event held in Vanni Saturday when the three-day long 'Tamil National Heroes Day' remembrance events were inaugurated. From 27 November 1982, when the first LTTE fighter Lt.Sanker was killed, until 20 November 2006, a total of 18,742 fighters have died, all of whom have been declared War Heroes by the LTTE. 818 LTTE fighters, 568 men and 250 women fighters of the LTTE, have been killed in a largely defensive war faced by the Tigers in 2006. The list also includes members of Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS) and selected members of other organisations.
Full story >>

STF offensive meets stiff Tiger resistance in Amparai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 November 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) troopers from Kanchirankuda and Sangamankandy camps in Amparai district Saturday morning around 7:00 a.m. launched an ambush-styled offensive towards Thangaveluathapuram in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled area. Following stiff resistance put up by a guerilla unit of the Tigers, the STF has pulled back, LTTE political official Veeramani said. A civilian was killed when the STF continued with heavy mortar fire towards Thangavelauthapuram. Two LTTE fighters and four STF personnel were killed in the fighting. STF officials have claimed seizure of 2 automatic rifles and a pistol from the Tigers.
Full story >>

SLA shoots dead 5 youths in Vavuniya, 1 dies in grenade explosion

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 November 2006, 11:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Friday handed over 5 bullet-sprayed dead bodies and an exploded body to Police, claiming that the youths were killed when SLA troopers retaliated to gunfire Thursday night. The sixth youth had killed himself, Friday early morning, detonating a hand grenade, according to the SLA that claimed that the youths were LTTE cadres waiting to penetrate into SLA area. The killings have taken place at Parayanalankulam 30 km west of Vavuniya town along Vauniya Mannar Road.
Full story >>

7 troopers, LTTE cadre killed in Batticaloa STF offensive - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 13:23 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has claimed that seven Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) troopers were killed when the Tigers counter-attacked the elite commando force that launched a troop movement towards 38th Colony with heavy artillery and mortar fire that claimed the life of a 15-year-old female student and wounded 5 civilians including 2 sisters and a brother of the killed student. A 40 mm Grenade Launcher and a T-56 rifle were seized by the Tigers who lost a cadre, Nanthan, according to LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan said.
Full story >>

15-year-old girl killed, 5 civilians wounded in artillery fire in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 13:16 GMT]
A Tamil female student was killed, her sister and 2 brothers were wounded when artillery shells fired by Sri Lankan counter-insurgency Special Task Force (STF) troopers hit 50th Housing Scheme in Thikkodai in Vellaveli, Thursday noon. A 65-year-old woman and a man were also wounded. The victims had displaced from 39th Colony, 4 km from the border inside the LTTE territory, three months ago due to heavy shelling from the Sri Lankan camps.
Full story >>

Colombo intensifies aerial bombardment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 11:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers intensified aerial bombardment on LTTE controlled areas for the third day on Thursday. 2 Kfir bombers dropped bombs near a civilian settlment in Oddusuddan around 9:30 a.m. and on Mullaithivu around 1:30 p.m.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka Army launches tank offensive on Vaharai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 03:43 GMT]
Heavy fighting broke out between the Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, at the southern border of Vaharai region in Batticaloa district Thursday as SLA troopers from Kajuwatte and Mankerni SLA camps, launched a ground troop movement backed by heavy mortar, artillery and Multi-Barrel Rocket fire, into the LTTE territory Thursday around 8:30 a.m. The fresh SLA operation comes following Sri Lankan defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwela's interpretation on Wednesday that the outcome of a crucial meeting by the Co-Chairs was not hard as Colombo had feared. Mr. Rambukwela had said Sri Lanka's "national security" had a higher priority than upholding the ceasefire.
Full story >>

Anton Balasingham afflicted by rare cancer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 16:34 GMT]
Mr. Anton Balasingham, theoretician and political advisor of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been diagnosed with bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), a rare and aggressive malignancy of the biliary system. The cancer is in an advanced stage and has spread to his liver, lungs, abdomen and bones, doctors have informed Mr. Balasingham, who is now resting at home, cared for by his wife, Adele.
Full story >>

Second group Madhu pilgrims leave Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 14:42 GMT]
The vessel Ocean Green Wednesday morning left Trincomalee harbor with 287 pilgrims, second group of stranded in Madhu church in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held area in Mannar district since August 11.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka assured of Co-Chairs’ military, financial support

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 13:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s casual dismissal of the Co-Chairs statement Tuesday condemning rights abuses and ceasefire violations by the armed forces stems from confidence that, despite these, military and financial support from the international community is not going to be disrupted – a point reinforced by the strong messages of support for Colombo by individual representatives of the Co-Chairs soon after their meeting in Washington on Tuesday.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka rejects Co-Chairs’ condemnation, continues attacks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 12:25 GMT]
Unfazed by strong condemnation by international donors of rights abuses and truce violations by its military, Sri Lanka’s government Wednesday continued air strikes and bombardment against the Liberation Tigers. Saying the donors had been “mislead” by international truce monitors and a UN envoy, government defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella insisted that national security took precedence over the ceasefire and that the international community recognised this.
Full story >>

Co-chairs call for full implementation of CFA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 23:07 GMT]
While condemning the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers for "systematic ceasefire violations," the co-chairs called both sides to "seize the historic opportunity created by the 2002 Cease-Fire Agreement to resolve the country's conflict peacefully," in a press release issued after the meeting in Washington Tuesday. Co-chairs while urging re-opening of A9, called on the LTTE to co-operate with GoSL's effort to send one convoy as a first step.
Full story >>

TNA warns of 'imminent humanitarian disaster' in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 17:33 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), condemning the Sri Lankan military's blockade of food and medicine going into the Vaharai area as "a blatant violation of all humanitarian laws", said Monday this action "is clearly an attempt to use food as a weapon of war, and compulsively evict persons from their areas of historical habitation." In an adjournment motion moved by its Parliamentary group leader, R. Sampanthan, MP, in the House, the TNA called on the government to "rush food medicine and other essentials to the families resident at Vakarai and Kadiravelli and thereby avert an imminent and grave humanitarian disaster."
Full story >>

Second group of Jaffna pilgrims arrive in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 16:43 GMT]
A second group of 287 Jaffna residents who were stranded in Madhu church since August 15 while they were on a pilgrimage, was brought from Mannar to Trincomalee in five buses Tuesday evening, sources in Trincomalee said. They are temporarily staying in Trincomalee Vipulananda Vidiyalayam to leave by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) vessel to KKS port Wednesday morning, sources said.
Full story >>

Parents honored in Heroes day celebrations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 11:45 GMT]
"We owe our military and political strength to our fighters who gave up their lives in the Tamils' struggle. Today we face a critical situation where we are faced with the danger of losing more lives to achieve our final goal. It is our duty to honour the parents who have made the priceless sacrifice through their sons and daughters," said Col. Theepan of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), speaking at the first event held, to honour the parents of dead cadres of LTTE, at Kilinochchi Kanagapuram Maha Vidyalayam Monday around 10:00 a.m., sources in Kilinochchi said.
Full story >>

Colombo ignoring humanitarian catastrophe - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 15:49 GMT]
Colombo was engaged in "last minute tactics to placate the international community," prior to a scheduled meeting of Co-Chairs in Washington, by dispatching a single lorry into Vaharai where 38,000 civilians were starving for the past fortnight. Likewise, Colombo was showcasing to the media that it would dispatch a single convoy of supplies through A9 into Jaffna where 600,000 Tamils are under military siege in an "open prison," charged S. P. Thamilchelvan, political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Monday.
Full story >>

Vavuniya shuts down for massacred students

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 06:06 GMT]
The Vavuniya town came to a standstill Monday due to a 'hartal' (general shut down) called by the Tamil National Allaince (TNA) to protest against the massacre of 5 Agricultural Farm School students by the Sri Lanka Army on Saturday. Ten other students, including 6 six girls were also injured in the incident.
Full story >>

Stranded Madhu pilgrims take long-trip back to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 02:11 GMT]
About three hundred pilgrims from Jaffna, out of one thousand stranded in Madhu church in Mannar district since August 15, left Trincomalee port Sunday morning by vessel Green Ocean escorted by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to Kankesanthurai port, sources said.
Full story >>