Vaharai children eat roast fish to quench hunger

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 00:05 GMT]
Faced with severe shortage of food and driven close to starvation, children in besieged Vaharai area in the LTTE controlled Batticaloa district, have started eating locally caught fish, after roasting them, in open fire under unhygenic conditions, Mr. Moorthy, the coordinator for Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) for Vaharai area said Sunday.
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Troops 'shot students at close range’ - SLMM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 14:38 GMT]
International truce monitors said on Sunday Sri Lankan troops entered a school and opened fire on a group of students at close range on Saturday, killing five, after a deadly Tamil Tiger ambush on government forces. "These soldiers fired indiscriminately at a group of students who had thrown themselves on the ground seeking safety after an LTTE (Tamil Tiger) claymore mine blast nearby," Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that oversees the 2002 ceasefire, told Reuters.
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SLA, LTTE exchange mortar fire in Vavunathivu, Kommathurai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 07:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) exchanged mortar fire in Vavunathivu, 5 km southwest of Batticaloa town and Kommathurai and Black Bridge, 15 km northwest of Batticaloa Saturday evening and night. Details of civilian casualties or LTTE casualties were not available. 4 SLA soldiers were wounded and admitted to Polonnaruwa hospital. Meanwhile, a dead body was handed over to Valaichenai hospital by the SLA soldiers Saturday, medical sources said.
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Army vows not to let food into Vaharai, says will capture region

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 November 2006, 19:41 GMT]
Despite a personal assurance given Thursday by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to Tamil parliamentarians that emergency food supplies would be permitted to reach tens of thousands of Tamil refugees facing starvation in LTTE-controlled areas, Sri Lanka Army at the border turned back convoys on Friday and Saturday. Saturday’s returning convoy was stopped by suspected paramilitary men and subsequently looted by refugees in government controlled areas. A local Army officier, has told civil officials not to send any more convoys, vowing the Army would not allow food into LTTE-controlled areas under any circumstances and saying the area would be captured soon.
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Indian Premier writes to Vaiko: Colombo must meet legitimate Tamil rights through negotiations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 November 2006, 12:38 GMT]
Indian Prime Minisiter Dr. Manmohan Singh has written to Mr. Vaiko, the General Secretary of MDMK in Tamil Nadu state of India, sharing his concerns about the closure of A-9 highway and the loss of many innocent lives, mainly Tamils, including women and children, stating that it was a matter of "utmost concern and sorrow." India would reiterate to Colombo that it must find a political solution through negotiations and meet the genuine and legitimate rights of the Tamils, rather than adopt tactics that lead to the death of innocent people, Dr. Manhoman Singh said, adding that India has taken great care not to provide Sri Lanka with lethal hardware that could be used against Tamils.
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Sri Lanka Navy, Sea Tigers clash in Mannar seas

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 November 2006, 04:26 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Navy Inshore Patrol Crafts were sunk and a third IPC vessel was damaged in a sea battle that broke out in the seas off Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlled Vidathalthivu, 20 km north of Mannar, Saturday at 6:50 a.m., LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan said. Meanwhile, sources in Mannar said civilians were fleeing Talaimannar as the battle raged off Talaimannar two hours later around 8:30 a.m.
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Police post in Mannar attacked, one constable injured

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2006, 02:23 GMT]
A constable was injured when a group of unidentified persons attacked the police check post at Kattukaraikulam in Murunkan police division in Mannar district Wednesday night around 10.45 p.m. Police sources claimed that a group of five cadres of the LTTE had fired at the police check point, military sources said.
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‘Everything on table, equal respect for all’ needed for peace - Murphy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2006, 15:55 GMT]
Peace talks can succeed only if “everything is on the table and there is respect for all points of view,” Britain’s former Northern Ireland Minister said Thursday after meeting Tamil Tiger officials. Saying there is a “huge comparison” between the conflicts in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, Mr. Murphy said: “no one can win this kind of war. … we have the same message for the Sri Lankan government as the LTTE: keep searching for a solution, ensure the ceasefire agreement is one of integrity, renounce violence and ensure there is a proper look at everything that can bring peace.”
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Displaced cut off from international aid – watchdog

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2006, 14:14 GMT]
Some 130,000 internally displaced people - more than half of those uprooted by the current intensification of violence in Sri Lanka - are "cut off from international assistance and exposed to serious human rights abuses," the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said in a report released Thursday, citing the shelling of a refugee camp in Vakarai last week. Despite “signals” by the government that access restrictions "may be eased", IDMC said it is concerned that "bureaucratic procedures will in effect continue to prevent humanitarian workers from reaching the civilian populations."
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Kilinochchi remembers Raviraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2006, 00:07 GMT]
"Nadaraja Raviraj went to the doorsteps of his people, observed their living conditions, understood the daily struggle of our people, and exposed the atrocities and human rights violations committed against the Tamil people by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). His activities were a threat to the extremists who have succeeded in taking his life," said C. Ilamparithi, the Jaffna political head of Liberation Tigers, Wednesday in an event held to remember the slain parliamentarian, held at Kilinochchi Cultural Hall, 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, sources in Kilinochichi said.
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SLMM backs UN envoy on SL troops’ child conscription

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 15:05 GMT]
International monitors overseeing Sri Lanka’s shaky truce this week endorsed a UN envoy’s findings that government security forces were conscripting children for their paramilitary allies against the Tamil Tigers. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) says it also possesses evidence of military complicity.
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Jaffna pilgrims from Madhu stay in Mannar welfare centers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 10:58 GMT]
More than 700 Jaffna pilgrims who returned from Madhu church after three months to go to their own villages in peninsula have been sheltered in two places in the government controlled areas in Mannar town till transport arrangements are made, civil sources said.
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Vaharai starves

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 10:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers staffing Mankerny check post continuously refuse to allow food being taken to the Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Vaharai area creating urgent humanitarian crisis with severe shortage of food, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian P. Ariyanenthiran accused Tuesday. Four lorries with emergency food items had procured permission from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) permission, Mankerny SLA still denied permission to proceed to Vaharai saying that the area was under attack, Mr P. Ariyanenthiran said.
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Stranded Jaffna residents await sea transport from Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 10:42 GMT]
300 Jaffna district residents, stranded in Vavuniya since the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) closure of the A9 route when clashes between the SLA and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) erupted August 11, were taken by bus Tuesday to Trincomalee to be sent by ship to Jaffna, Vavuniya Secretariat sources said.


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India trains jet bomber support crews

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 09:46 GMT]
India is training a third batch of six Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel at Chandigarh, Punjab to support Colombo’s plans to expand its jet bomber fleet, the Times of India reported this week. Sri Lanka plans to purchase four more jet bombers from Russia and, in preparation, SLAF personnel are being put through three months of instruction. The latest group began training on October 14, despite outrage in Tamil Nadu over the targeting of civilians by SLAF bombers in which over a hundred people have been killed this year.
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British special envoy arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 17:48 GMT]
Paul Murphy, special envoy of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday arrived in Colombo to discuss ways in which the Britain could support the Norwegian peace process. Mr. Paul Murphy is a former Northern Ireland Minister.
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Sri Lanka Army moves into Tiger territory in fresh offensive

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 15:52 GMT]
Sri Lankan troops have moved into Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlled Vakarai region, beyond no-go zone, Tuesday morning, amid heavy artillery shelling, according to civil sources in Vakarai.
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Bodies of SLN sailors washed ashore in Valvettithurai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 00:04 GMT]
Four bodies also believed to be those of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers killed during Thursday’s clashes in the seas off Point Pedro were discovered floating along the coast in the area between Supparmadam and Inparuddy Sunday, sources in Point Pedro said. Two more bodies of SLN personnel were found washed ashore on Monday in Valvettithurai near Sivaguru Maha Vidyalayam.
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UN: Sri Lanka military ‘recruiting child soldiers’

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 November 2006, 13:15 GMT]
A United Nations official Monday accused Sri Lankan government security forces of recruiting child soldiers on behalf of an allied paramilitary group which is also fighting Tamil Tigers. The special advisor to the UN Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Allan Rock, told reporters in Colombo that he had evidence of direct involvement of troops in forcibly enlisting children for the paramilitary group.
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Sri Lanka Army intensifies artillery barrage on Vakarai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 November 2006, 11:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Sunday morning intensified multi-barrel and artillery attacks from four different bases towards Liberation Tigers controlled Vakarai causing thousands of Internally Displaced Tamil families from Vakarai, Panichchankerni and Alamkulam to flee on foot, civil sources in Vakarai said. The already scuttled transport was brought to a halt by the intensified attack, reported between 3:30 and 8:30 a.m. The artillery barrage comes amid condemnations from the International Community against the attack on refugee camp in Kathiraveli, 15 km north of Vaaharai, where tens of Tamil civilians were killed and more than a hundred wounded.
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