SLA, SLN conduct joint war rehearsals in Jaffna seas

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 02:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailors from Karainagar Naval base and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers stationed along the northern coastal areas, have been jointly conducting large scale war exercises in the seas off the coast of Jaffna peninsula in Valigaamam North High security Zone (HSZ) for the past few days supported by attack air crafts of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Jaffna Bishop's House appeal to Colombo to rebuild Allaippiddi church

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 14:33 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop House and several Catholic organizations in Jaffna peninsula appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to rebuild St. Philips Narrie’s church in Allaiappiddi in the islets of Jaffna which was destroyed in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Multi-barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire in August 2006, sources in Jaffna said. The church serves more than 80 resettled families in Allaipiddi.
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Opposition parties in Sri Lanka fear election malpractice

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 02:12 GMT]
All activities of the political parties and independent groups contesting the Eastern provincial council elections ended Wednesday midnight, the office of Elections Department (ED) announced Thursday. Meanwhile, expressing fear that Colombo was preparing itself for a large-scale election rigging, UNP parliamentarian Laxman Kiriyelle has accused the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry for its alleged involvement in distributing blank polling cards in the East. It is also alleged that nearly 170,000 polling cards remained stagnant in the post offices without being delivered and these were taken away by the paramilitary Pillayan group.
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Colombo revises decision to refuse AP coverage in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 May 2008, 11:20 GMT]
Associated Press of America (AP) Colombo Bureau Chief Ravi Nessman and staff photographer Gemunu Amarasinghe, who were in Batticaloa and asked to leave the area immediately as the Government of Sri Lanka had taken a decision not to allow foreigners, except the election monitors, to visit Batticaloa. The journalists were told Thursday afternoon that they would need Ministry of Defence clearance. However, soon after the news spread, the GoSL revised the decision and allowed the journalists to return to Batticaloa giving instructions they can only engage in election coverage, media activists in Colombo said.
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US Country Report accuses GoSL, LTTE of terrorist activities

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2008, 11:17 GMT]
Noting that in South and Central Asia, "[t]errorism remained a serious problem in the region, directly and indirectly threatening American interests and lives," the Country Reports on Terrorism 2007, released by the US Department of State Wednesday, blamed the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers for terrorist activities saying, "[t]he LTTE reverted to targeting civilians in bus bombings and claymore mine attacks, while the government used anti-LTTE paramilitaries to terrorize citizens suspected of having ties to the Tigers."
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IIGEP members reiterate their stand, lament GoSL for diverting attention

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 April 2008, 18:33 GMT]
Members of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), which terminated its observation mission reasoning that the proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry setup by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) did not satisfy basic international norms and standards, reiterated Wednesday that they stand by their "clear assertions" of their concluding statement which blamed the GoSL for the absence of political will to investigate Human Rights violations with vigour. Lamenting that the GoSL continues to "divert attention from the central truth," the IIGEP members said they disassociated themselves from any attempt by the GoSL to reformulate and re-interpret the concluding statement.
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JVP secretary lodges complaints of GoSL's abuse of power

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 April 2008, 03:43 GMT]
Tilvin Silva, the General Secretary of Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in letter addressed to Dayanantha Dissanayake, the Elections Commissioner (EC), has pointed out the large scale abuses being committed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) in the East.
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One million people in Sri Lanka may face starvation - WFP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 April 2008, 15:28 GMT]
“Scarcity of food items and the subsequent escalation in the cost of essential items may result in more than one million in the country facing starvation," Mohamed Saleheen, the resident representative of United Nations (UN) World Food program (WFP) in Colombo told the media Friday. As a result of the situation, the WFP country office in Sri Lanka is facing major crisis, he said, and urged donor countries to respond immediately to overcome the crisis.
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Colombo bars journalists access to wounded soldiers

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 April 2008, 07:04 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) officials have barred photographers from entering hospitals in Colombo where Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers injured in battle are being treated according to complaints received from four journalists, said Colombo based media watchdog Free Media Movement on Friday. Stating that only some foreign wire services and few news websites operating from Colombo reported the battle front casualties independent of government press releases, the FMM said the right of the public to know information and news related to the on going war is severely undermined by the restrictions placed on journalists.
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Silence is eloquence: last remarks of Rev Fr Karunaratnam

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 April 2008, 11:32 GMT]
Barely two weeks before he was killed in a Claymore attack, allegedly carried out by a Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army, Rev M X Karunaratnam was interviewed by the National Television of Tamileelam (NTT). While answering questions on the Madu Shrine controversy, he said, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) was entirely responsible for politicizing the issue of the Shrine as it had attempted to achieve a militarily favourable situation by choosing to launch its offensive drive through Madu, a greatly revered Catholic holy pilgrim center. The Reverend Father also explained the silence of Vatican and the Sinhala bishops.
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Sinhalese appointed Secretary of Education for East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 April 2008, 15:03 GMT]
Condemning the hurried appointment of Uppul Weerawardene as the secretary of Ministry of Education in Eastern province, P.Ariyanarenthiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament told TamilNet t that the appointment is further evidence of the Government of Sri Lanka's mission of continued Sinhalization of the east.
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Indian PM denies arms supply to Sri Lanka: Vaiko

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 April 2008, 14:17 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told Vaiko who met him Thursday in New Delhi that there is no truth in reports on Indian supply of arms to Sri Lanka. Vaiko met Indian PM to brief him on his meeting with Erik Solheim and Jon Hanssen-Bauer in Oslo and the outcome of the conference organised by the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) in Norway's capital last week. The Indian PM further told Vaiko that he was aware of Pakistan and China supplying arms to Sri Lanka. The general secretary of Marumalarchchi Dravida Munneatta Kazhakam (MDMK) also met Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Thursday night.
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LTTE, SLA exchange artillery fire in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 April 2008, 00:47 GMT]
A large number of artillery shells believed to have been launched by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Thursday morning towards the Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) in Thenmaraadchi fell in the vicinity of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bases in Va'ra'ni, Mirusuvil Educated Women’s Scheme and Usan.
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No doctors in Pungkudutheevu Hospital for 17 years

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 April 2008, 16:09 GMT]
Pungkudutheevu District Government Hospital, in the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) controlled islets of Jaffna, since its destruction in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) 1991 offensive, has been without any permanent medical officers due to the reluctance of Sri Lanka government (GoSL) to rebuild the hospital complex in Pungkudutheevu, Jaffna District Director of Public Health Services (DPHS), Dr. Ketheeswaran said.
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IIGEP: Colombo lacks political will to investigate Human Rights violations

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 April 2008, 22:51 GMT]
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), which terminates its observation mission reasoning that the proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) setup by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to investigate and inquire into serious violations of Human Rights, have not been transparent and not satisfied basic international norms and standards, in its concluding public report on Tuesday blamed the Government of Sri Lanka for "absence of will" in the present Inquiry to "investigate cases with vigour, where the conduct of its own forces has been called into question."
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International Community should learn from experience, Vaiko tells Norway

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2008, 23:03 GMT]
Expressing that the lack of implementation by the Government of Sri Lanka on the agreed principles of the February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA), especially disarming of army backed paramilitary groups, led to the ultimate breakdown of the peace process, Vaiko, the General Secretary of Marumalarchchi Dravida Munneatta Kazhakam (MDMK), told Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim and Jon Hanssen-Bauer, the Norwegian Special Envoy, that the International Community should prevail upon the GoSL to reinstate the ceasefire in order to engage in a meaningful process for a negotiated settlement.
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'My Daughter the Terrorist' producer receives death threat - Norwegian paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2008, 10:57 GMT]
Morten Dae, the producer of the award winning Norwegian documentary film, "My Daughter the Terrorist," on two Tamil Black Tiger female cadres in Vanni, has received death threats after the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) failed in blocking the organisers from screening the film at the Full Frame Documentary Festival, in Durham in the United States, reported Dagsavisen, a Norwegian daily, on Thursday.
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Jaffna census details released

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 April 2008, 01:21 GMT]
608,916 civilians belonging to 180,216 families reside in areas under the administration of 15 District Secretary (DS) areas in Jaffna peninsula, a report released Wednesday by Jaffna secretariat said.
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Mullaiththeevu faces fuel crisis

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 April 2008, 00:25 GMT]
“The quantity of fuel supplied by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for medical and health related services in Mullaiththeevu district has been drastically reduced creating great difficulties in implementing the various health services in this district," Dr.T.Varatharajah, Director of Health services of Mullaiththeevu region said.
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'Sinhala regime transforming holy land into battlefield': LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 19:59 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B Nadesan in a statement issued Thursday from Ki'linochchi strongly condemned the indiscriminate shelling on the Madu Church and urged the International Community and Human Rights organizations to condemn the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for 'barbarically' transforming a sacred shrine that offered refuge to displaced people into a battlefield. He criticized GoSL for unleashing its army on an area that was ought to be free of war according to war ethics and UN conventions.
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