SLA fired shells, rounds hit Madu Shrine premises - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 15:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has launched sporadic offensive pushes from Pa'ndivirichchaan targeting Madu on Tuesday and Wednesday, LTTE's Operations Command in Mannaar told media in Vanni. Meanwhile, LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet that the SLA-fired artillery and mortar shells exploded inside the mess of the Madu shrines premises, in the vicinity of the well and on priests' quarters. All civilians, except the priests, have vacated the premises. LTTE has lost one fighter while facing the offensive initiated by the SLA, 1.5 km away from the Madu premises. The Tigers said 15 SLA soldiers were killed in two days in Pa'ndivirichchaan and 10 near Giant's Tank on Wednesday.
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'British assent to genocide in the East': readers' feedback

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Camouflaged with the provincial elections in Sri Lanka's East, under military and paramilitary terror, is the Sri Lanka's agenda to dismember the homeland of Tamil speakers that include Tamils and Tamil Muslims. The elections with a possible boycott of TNA, as a result of the intimidation of main Tamil opinion, is going to confer 'unholy legitimacy' to the government to complete its genocide and subordination of Tamil speakers in the East. It is unfortunate that the British provide a 'tacit assent' to this agenda, by discussing the elections rather than condemning it, writes a reader from UK, responding to a British press release on a meeting between British and Lankan foreign ministers.
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Thousands march in Mannaar, urge protection for Madu shrine

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 09:01 GMT]
More than five-thousand people of Mannaar city gathered at St. Sebastian's Cathedral Wednesday morning for an special prayer service and staged a peace march towards the District Secretariat and handed over an appeal, urging the warring parties, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) to respect the area of Madu Shrine as a 'Zone of Peace'. "Shells are falling within the Church premises several times and many of those staying there have been compelled to leave, while priests and the other church workers who are still remaining, live in fear and are being forced to seek shelter in bunkers," an appeal from the Bishop of Mannaar said.
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Expenditure reduction vital for Sri Lanka's economic growth– UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 12:11 GMT]
The economic growth of Sri Lanka is possible only by reducing expenditure and preventing waste, said Socio Economic Research report for South Asia released Monday morning by United Nations at the Law College, Colombo, sources said.
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Not possible to remain mute spectators: Ramadoss to Indian PM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2008, 09:16 GMT]
Labelling Sri Lanka "a failed state, a condominium of anarchy, and a shame on humanity" that "terrorized its own Tamil citizens," Dr. S. Ramadoss, leader of Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) and a constituent ally of the Congress-led Indian government, said that it was not possible to remain "passing by-standers to this human tragedy at our doorstep" in his letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday. "The sixty million Tamils in India cannot wait and watch while their sisters and brothers are being decimated across the Palk Straits and Gulf of Mannar," he said.
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Ki'linochchi facing imminent food crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2008, 13:24 GMT]
The food stock for emergency use in Ki’linochchi district has been completely exhausted due to difficulties in bringing in the required food items N.Vethanayagam, Government Agent (GA) said Thursday, when questioned about the imminent crisis in the region due to the worsening shortage of essential food items.
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South African media regrets the act of Indian consulate

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 20:35 GMT]
It would have been better if a representative of the Indian Consulate had accepted the memorandum from the peaceful protestors, even if the consulate was not in agreement with their views, aired the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in its morning news last Friday while reporting the demonstration conducted in front of the Indian consulate in Durban the previous day by the Indian community in South Africa in support of the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka.
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Furore in Tamil Nadu over 'anti-Tamil' film

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 19:29 GMT]
Politicians and film personalities from Tamil Nadu have taken strong exception to a Sinhalese film that seeks to "vulgarize the Tamil liberation struggle in Sri Lanka." Tamil Nadu Film Producers' Association President Rama. Narayanan condemned the film for disgracing the Tamil people at the end of a special screening. Tamil Protection Movement President Thol. Thirumavalavan vowed to take legal action to prevent the film's release in Tamil Nadu since he felt that it not only degraded the Eelam liberation struggle and hurt Tamil sentiments but it was also capable of disrupting communal harmony in Sri Lanka.
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East undergrads urge Muslim politicians to unite

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 11:30 GMT]
The student community of Southeastern University staged a peaceful rally Wednesday morning 9:30 a.m. outside the Oluvil campus demanding the need for all Muslim political leaders to come to an understanding and to contest under a common symbol in the forthcoming Batticaloa Provincial Council Elections, sources in
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U.S. Rights report fortifies moral, legal entitlement of Tamil state- Fein

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 17:11 GMT]
Contrasting U.S. State Department’s institutional bias in favor of governments, and Bush administration’s willingness to overlook abuses by foreign governments in the name of fighting terrorism, with the recent U.S report on Human Rights in Sri Lanka, Bruce Fine, an attorney for a Tamil activist group in the U.S., in a statement released to the media Wednesday, asserts that, “[t]he fact that the United States would savage the human rights record of the GOSL [Government of Sri Lanka] means that its [Sri Lanka’s] actual terrorism record is far more gruesome than represented. The report thus fortifies the moral and legal entitlement of Tamils to a separate statehood.”
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Pilayaan group’s interference stalls Siththaandi housing scheme

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 10:42 GMT]
A housing scheme about to be implemented as a joint venture by Swiss Red Cross Society (SRCS) and Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) in Siththaa’ndi First Division in Batticaloa district has come to a halt due to interference and demands by Pillayan group, the affected civilians in the area said.
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No solution possible without LTTE – South Africa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 03:52 GMT]
Expressing deep concern over the escalating violence in Sri Lanka, South Africa this weekend called for renewed negotiations to end the protracted conflict and emphasized “no solution to this conflict can be found without the involvement of the two principal parties to the conflict – the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.” Speaking in London, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Communications Roy Padayachie assured that his country would render every assistance towards making peace but, in an implicit criticism of approaches by some other countries, said: “we will never ever impose our involvement in any part of the globe.”
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Destroyed East villages, MP chronicles history

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 March 2008, 16:33 GMT]
"Population of Sinhalese in the East was a mere 0.53 percent in 1827 but due to systematic colonisation and subsequent establishment of military camps along the borders of traditional Tamil areas, Sinhala settlers encroached into more than 25 percent of land owned by Tamils," said Maavai Senathirajah, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, addressing, as the chief guest, to a gathering in Colombo Saturday on the occasion of the release of a book "Destroyed Tamil villages," authored by fellow Member of Parliament (MP), S.Jeyananthamoorthy, literary sources in Colombo said. T. Kangasabai, Batticaloa district TNA parliamentarian presided the function.
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SLA corrals 3 additional Jaffna buses for military use

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 March 2008, 00:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commandeered three new buses from Koandaavil bus depot adding to the scarcity of serviceable buses available for public transport, further burdening the Jaffna SLTB officials reeling from fuel crisis, Jaffna transportation officials said. SLA handed back three buses, irrevocably damaged due to claymore attacks or misuse, officials at the Koandaavil depot said.
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India abetting Tamil genocide: Vaiko

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 March 2008, 10:49 GMT]
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) General Secretary Vaiko Tuesday said that the present attitude of the Indian Government amounted to assistance in Sri Lanka's genocide of Tamils. He sought the withdrawal of the radars supplied to Sri Lanka and an end to all forms of military assistance from India to the Sri Lankan government. Accusing the Indian Government of "betraying the Tamils," the veteran leader in his reply to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's letter, pointed out that no sovereign nation would tolerate the dangerous action of a neighbouring country planting mines in the bordering seas.
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TNA to boycott Eastern PC elections - MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 23:35 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will not contest in the forthcoming Provincial Council elections for the Eastern Province as the alliance "steadfastly opposed the de-merger of the North Eastern Provincial Council (NEPC) in January 2007 by the Government of Sri Lanka," Batticaloa district TNA parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy told TamilNet Tuesday. "We do not want to fall prey to the policy of divide and rule of the Sri Lankan government," the parliamentarian further said.
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Nominations called for Eastern Province Council elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 00:12 GMT]
Representatives of political parties and independent groups have intensified political activities and have taken steps to choose potential candidates after the Elections Department called nominations for the forthcoming Provincial Council elections in the East, sources said. Elections are to be held for the three districts in the east- Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampaa’rai, but Dayanantha Dissanayake, the Elections Commissioner (EC), has not yet fixed the date of the elections.
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Mihin Lanka flies into turbulance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 March 2008, 23:41 GMT]
Eleven months after beginning operations, Mihin Lanka, a low cost Air Lines fully owned and funded by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), is facing a loss of Rs.300 million, and if the economic performance does not improve soon, the airline may face bankruptcy, airline industry observers in Colombo said.
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Ganesan assails Sri Lanka's rights record

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 March 2008, 14:08 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Leader of Western People’s Front and Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), in a meeting with visiting officials of the European Union, pointing to the culture of impunity prevailing in Sri Lanka, rejected Colombo's proposal to appoint a SAARC commission to monitor rights in Sri Lanka as a "ploy to buy time," and flayed Judge Tilakaratne's investigation into disappearances as an exercise to "deceive the nation and the international community." Judge Tilakaratne had earlier commented that most people listed as disappeared and abducted have either "returned home or gone abroad," the press release issued by Ganeson Saturday said.
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No compensation in sight for Vaakarai, Champoor victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 March 2008, 11:14 GMT]
Even after a lapse of one-and-a-half-year, the families of at least 100 civilians killed and 84 wounded in Vaakarai region of Batticaloa district during Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive, are still waiting for their compensations from the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). In the meantime, the families of the victims of previous SLA offensives before the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA), who were assured of their sanctioned compensations, complained that the authorities were still delaying their payments. Before the local elections in Batticaloa in March 2008, the GoSL offered some fishing nets to fishermen societies and gifted 25,000 rupees per temple in Vaakarai.
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