3 alleged suspects of Thinusika killing found shot dead: Police

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 May 2009, 05:44 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police officials in Batticaloa said they have located Tuesday morning three bullet-riddled dead bodies of men who were alleged suspects of involvement in the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Thinusika Satheeskumar Saturday.
Full story >>

RSF campaigns for release of three women journalists

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 01:38 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Saturday said it is mounting a campaign for the release of three women journalists, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on a charge of spying for the United States, and two American journalists employed by California-based Current TV, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who have been held in Pyongyang since 17 March. In the 2009 report released earlier in the year the RSF said in Sri Lanka, "[m]urders, physical assaults, kidnappings, threats and censorship are the lot of Sri Lanka's journalists. Top government officials, including the defence minister, are directly implicated in the serious press freedom violations that accompanied the military offensive against the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels."
Full story >>

Paramilitary kills kidnapped girl in Batticaloa after ransom demand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 11:56 GMT]
Dead body of the 8-year-old Thinusika Satheeskumar, the girl reported missing since Tuesday after going to her school, was recovered inside an abandoned well in the city Saturday morning. The victims' relatives have alleged that the killers were paramilitary operatives who have been demanding 3 million rupees in ransom. Thinusika is the daughter of Satheeskumar Santhirarajah who was abducted two years ago allegedly by Karuna Group paramilitary men demanding ransom. He was reportedly slain in Welikande even after a part of the ransom was paid. Now, a former PLOTE paramilitary operative is alleged to be the man behind the abduction and murder of the girl.
Full story >>

IC has been duped by Colombo: Prof. Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 16:07 GMT]
The Tokyo-Co-chairs and other international actors have been duped in supporting the war aims of the Sri Lankan government, says Professor P. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Malaysia, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet. “The LTTE is expression of Tamil discontent of the Sri Lankan government and the way the latter has dealt with the Tamil national question. In so far as the conflict in Aceh was concerned, the international community was much neutral in providing the political circumstances for peace to be achieved. However, in the Sri Lankan conflict, the international took a biased stand. The current issue is not one of positions between the warring parties, but one that re-focuses attention on the fallacy of the international community in searching for a just solution for Tamils in Sri Lanka”, he says.
Full story >>

Extortion demands petrify Kandy Tamil traders

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 15:31 GMT]
Tamil traders in Kandy town are reported to have been threatened by paramilitaries of Karuna group by telephone, demanding extortion from one hundred thousand rupees to five hundred thousand rupees per head, according to media reports quoting Kandy Tamil Traders’ Association. Kandy Tamil Traders’ Association held an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening to explore ways to respond to the threats.
Full story >>

Fr. Karunaratnam remembered on First anniversary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 11:24 GMT]
Mr. K.Sivapalan, Deputy Chairperson of North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), on the first year anniversary of the killing of founder Chairperson of NESoHR, Rev.Father Mariampillai Xavier Karunaratnam, recounts his services to the community, and asks why the International Community is standing by as a Rwanda unfolds in Vanni. Father Karunaratnam was killed by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on 20th April 2008 while he was driving from his residential prayer and counseling center in Vavunikku'lam.
Full story >>

'Powers have to repent for what they are doing': Vickramabhu Karunaratne

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 00:17 GMT]
It will be nonsense to think of eradicating the LTTE, writes Vickramabahu Karunaratne in a recent article highlighting the need for alternative thinking. "In the case of the LTTE, it represents the real anger of the Tamil people against discrimination, humiliation and oppression by Sinhala chauvinism. [...] It was and is wrong to the hilt in hating Tamil society for its demand for equality and self-determination. [...] All global capitalist powers including India will be forced to repent in time to come for their aggressive participation in human suffering of this order. [...] The LTTE cannot be blamed for not surrendering to the Sinhala army of the chauvinist regime," he writes.
Full story >>

'Three insults to Tamils for the traditional New Year'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 19:32 GMT]
Disguised insults meant against Tamil struggle this week bring out a picture of the attitudes operating in Colombo, New Delhi and Chennai, writes a political analyst in Colombo. “It is not exactly the Sri Lankan government, but the Sri Lankan state that is the core symbol of oppression in the island. Ethnic chauvinism is the cornerstone of this state. No liberation can come to Eezham Tamils unless this symbol is deconstructed. It is important for both Tamils and Sinhalese to see that accepting this symbol as it is now, or imposing this symbol as the basis of any political discourse, will never pave way for peace of both.”
Full story >>

Fein debunks Patton-Boggs "white paper" on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 21:52 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former Associate Deputy Attorney General and counsel for a Washington-based Tamil activist group, responding to a "white paper" on the current situation in Sri Lanka written and distributed to the media by Patton Boggs LLP, the Washington Law firm retained by the Government of Sri Lanka for advocacy work in the U.S., said, the "[p]aper is a collection of lies or misrepresentations calculated to conceal the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes perpetrated against Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s armed forces," and "fails to discredit a single one of the more than 1,000 genocidal incidents marshaled in the model genocide indictment."
Full story >>

'Immediate ceasefire is the only way' - Jayalalithaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 12:35 GMT]
"I strongly insist that an immediate ceasefire is the only way to save the Tamil civilians in the safety zone," said AIDMK General Secretary and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms. J. Jayalalithaa in a signed statement in Tamil, issued on Wednesday. Ms. Jayalalithaa in the strongly worded statement blamed Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the Central Government of India for the current plight of Tamil civilians. "People of Tamil Nadu will wash their hands off of such elements whose hands are jointly at work causing misery to the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka," she said.
Full story >>

Police recover body of Kauna group person in Vaazhaichcheanai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 17:31 GMT]
Vaazhaichcheanai police recovered the body of the Karuna group person shot and killed Friday night by unidentified armed men at the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) office of Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan alias Karuna in Vadamunai Ooththuchcheanai on the border of Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said. The body was recovered near Vadamumani tank with gunshot injuries, the police said.
Full story >>

Karuna group person shot, killed, another injured in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 10:11 GMT]
Unidentified armed men opened fire Friday around 10:45 p.m on Karuna group persons in Karuna’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) office in Vadamunai Ooththuchcheanai on the border of Batticaloa district, killing one and injuring the person in charge of the office. Two persons in the office at the time of the shooting have gone missing, police sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

2 more police detainees shot, killed in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 08:12 GMT]
The two suspects in detention in connection with the killing of Varasha, the six-year-old girl, were shot and killed Monday evening in an attack by unidentified gunmen while they were being led by the police to recover weapons hidden in Saradapura jungle near Kanniya on information elicited from the suspects, Trincomalee police said. One of the two suspects arrested earlier and held in police detention in this case was shot and killed by the police who claimed that he tried to escape custody and the other suspect the police claimed he had committed suicide by swallowing cyanide capsule while being taken to another place.
Full story >>

EUSL Registrar, Dean resign after paramilitary threats

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 11:12 GMT]
The Registrar of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) has resigned his post following harassments by a paramilitary operative, Julian alias Newton, who claims to be in charge of "educational affairs" of SLFP appointed Minister of National Integration, Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan alias Karuna. The resignation comes after the paramilitary person demanded two-thirds of the income of Eastern University from its Registrar threatening him either to pay the sum or resign from his post. Meanwhile, the Dean of the faculty of Fine Arts at the EUSL has also resigned his post after being harassed by Newton to select Karuna-favoured candidates the posts of assistant lecturers.
Full story >>

Batticaloa district development meeting held without TNA parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 10:16 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians representing the people of Batticaloa district, P. Ariyanenthiran, S.Jeyanandamoorthy, K. Thangeswary and T. Kanagasabai did not attend the Annual Batticaloa District Development meeting Monday in Batticaloa District Secretariat for fear of danger to their lives by the paramilitary men operating along with the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Special Task Force (STF) in Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa. This is a meeting where the district’s parliamentarians allocate funds to various development projects in the district.
Full story >>

2 Karuna group men shot, killed in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 11:33 GMT]
Unidentified armed men entered Thursday around 8:30 p.m into the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) office of Karuna group in Annamalai in Chava’lakkadai police division in Ampaa’rai district and opened fire on two Karuna group men killing them, sources in Ampaa’rai said.
Full story >>

Trinco Varsha killing; Tamil paramilitary groups blame each other

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 17:08 GMT]
Two paramilitary groups, Tamil Makal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) led by Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan and other by Karuna Amman alias Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, who resigned from the TMVP and joined the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), are blaming each other for the abduction and killing of six-year-old girl student, Varsha Jude Reggie, according to Colombo media reports.
Full story >>

Tigers seize weapons from SLFP Karuna camp in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 14:14 GMT]
An armed paramilitary person was killed and two T-56 assault rifles were seized Thursday night around 11:00 p.m. when an ambush team of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) carried out a surprise attac on a building at Ku'laththumadu in Vaakaneari in Vaazhaichcheani, according to a news release by the LTTE. The building, used as an office of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was a minor camp of Karuna group, the Tigers said. Dayamohan, the Batticaloa district political head of the LTTE told TamilNet last week that Karuna group had stepped up intimidations against the civilians in Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai districts in recent times.
Full story >>

Tamil woman abducted in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 March 2009, 06:16 GMT]
Unidentified armed men abducted 9 March a Tamil woman, a mother of three children, in Poththuvil police division in Ampaa’rai district, according to the complaint lodged by her relatives at Poththuvil police station. No action has been taken on the complaint yet, the relatives said.
Full story >>

4 TMVP Karuna group men shot dead in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 10:52 GMT]
Armed men alleged to be Liberation Tigers launched an attack Friday around 2:05 a.m on the office of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) Kaurna paramilitary group located at 6th mile post, Cho'rikkalmunai in Chammaanthu'rai police division in Ampaa'rai district killing four men of the paramilitary group and injuring two of them, sources in Ampaa'rai said.
Full story >>