SLA fire injures Muttur east woman

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 17:22 GMT]
Ms. Alageswary Sivagnanam, 50, of Chenaiyoor was injured badly in one her eyes when soldiers manning the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp at Alimsenai, in the government controlled Muttur division suddenly started firing indiscriminately towards the villages in the LTTE held Muttur east Tuesday evening around 6.30 p.m., sources said.
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Elilan turns down talks with Muslim civil leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 16:51 GMT]
Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), turned down a request made by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for a meeting between the LTTE and a delegation of Muslim civil leaders in Muttur to take steps to diffuse tension between the two communities, LTTE sources said. Elilan accused the Muslim leaders for serving their own self interests, and for not raising their voices against killing in Muttur east by the Sri Lanka military, sources added.


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One LTTE cadre killed, 2 LTTE, 4 SLA troopers wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 13:01 GMT]
A Liberation Tigers woman cadre, Yalisai, was killed when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers who moved beyond the no-man zone at Palamodai, north of Vavuniya, attacked an LTTE Forward Defence Line (FDL) around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Later, two LTTE cadres were wounded in Jaffna district when SLA soldiers attacked the FDL of the Tigers at Kandalkadu, located near Eluthumadduval between Nagarkovil and Muhamalai in Jaffna district, around 5:45 p.m., according to LTTE sources in Kilinochchi. Direct clash between the SLA troops and the Tigers erupted after the incident. Four SLA soldiers were wounded, according to SLA sources in Jaffna.
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International silence is encouraging killings - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 06:38 GMT]
The international community's continuing reluctance to criticise Sri Lanka’s leadership is encouraging atrocities against Tamil civilians, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. “Emboldened by the manifest reluctance of international ceasefire monitors, leading members of the international community and southern liberals to condemn its actions, Sri Lanka’s military is now readily killing Tamil civilians with abandon,” the expatriate newspaper said in its editorial.
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BBC ‘supporting Tamil terrorists’ - protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 12:37 GMT]
An estimated two hundred Sinhala expatriates demonstrated outside BBC headquarters in London Monday, protesting what they described as the organisation’s bias towards the Liberation Tigers. The protest, organised by a hitherto unknown group, Sri Lankans Against Terrorism (SLAT), drew together members of other Sinhala organisations and, in defiance of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s instructions, members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) also.
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The remains of Sea Tigers laid to rest in Vanni Martyrs Homes

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 11:05 GMT]
"The Thalayady sea battle in which four of our Sea Tigers sacrificed their lives is of great significance at a time when our people are being blatantly victimised in an undeclared war by the Sri Lanka Government (GoSL) armed forces and the paramilitaries. Though the loss of these four able Sea Tigers cause us deep grief, the Thalayady sea battle is crucial as an open declaration of the determination of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in asserting our sovereign rights to seas which had been recaptured at the cost of the lives of thousands of Tigers," said K. V. Balakumaran, a prominent senior member of the LTTE, Sunday evening in Puthukudirrupu.
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2 civilians wounded in Claymore attack in LTTE controlled Vavuniya North

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 09:12 GMT]
Sri Lankan troopers who penetrated into LTTE contolled area in Semamadu, north of Vavuniya, exploded a Claymore mine towards a tractor with two youths. Two youths were wounded in the attack, one was seriously injured, Tamileelam Police sources said. The attack has taken place around 9:30 a.m. Monday.
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No relief supplies yet for Muttur displaced

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 18:57 GMT]
Thousands of Tamil families, displaced due to bombing raids by Sri Lanka Air Force, and artillery attack by ground, naval wings of the State armed forces on April 24 and 25 on coastal villages in the Liberation Tigers controlled Muttur east in the Trincomalee district, have not been provided with dry ration relief as promised by the Government of Sri Lanka even after two weeks, civil society sources said. The displaced families are now sheltered in schools and welfare centers in Muttur east and Eachchilampathu division, Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district parliamentarian said Sunday.
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SLA soldier arraigned on friendly fire killing released on bail

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 18:46 GMT]
"I heard sounds of some one hiding behind bushes in front of my sentry point. I thought a LTTE cadre was hiding to attack us. I fired four times at the bush due to security reasons. But later I found the dead was my fellow soldier who had gone to bring food for me," said Lance Corporal Nimal Heart of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at the magisterial inquest held Friday in Vavuniya Magistrate's Court into the killing of Lance Corporal Gamini Wasantha Dassanayake, legal sources said.
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Colombo lacks strategic objective for conflict transformation- Saravanamuttu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 17:29 GMT]
Pointing out "disturbing aspects" in the institutionalization of good practices in governance in Sri Lanka, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a Colombo-based think-tank, says that the Government lacks a roadmap for the future with a "clear and cogently stated vision and action plan," and that the Government's approach to Geneva talks has exposed a "lack of strategic objective" towards conflict transformation, in a political column that appeared in this week's Morning Leader,
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SLMM's delay in publicizing evidence aiding killing spree- Ilamparithi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 17:01 GMT]
"Though the injured victims, the relatives of the killed and our Political office have submitted concrete evidence to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna proving the killings of innocent civilians in the Jaffna peninsula after the Geneva talks by security forces and paramilitaries, the evidence has not been made public by the SLMM. Unfortunately, this delay has resulted in marked escalation in killings," said Ilamparithi, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Jaffna district political wing head, giving particulars of his urgent complaint to the Chief of SLMM, Jaffna district, Sunday.
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Seven civilians injured in SLA shelling in Eravur

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 11:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) opened fire and launched shells on Ward 5, a thickly populated Tamil residential area in Eravur in Baticaloa district around 11:45 p.m Saturday night wounding seven civilians. Two of them, seriously injured, were rushed to the Eravur hospital, said sources from Eravur. This attack on civilians followed a mortar attack on the police sentry post located behind Eravur police station by unidentified men on the same night around 11.15 p.m. Shells were fired by the SLA and police for more than thirty minutes, injuring civilians and damaging six houses.
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Wickremesinghe addresses Boston Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 03:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Leader of Opposition and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is completing a two-week fellowship at MIT's Center for International Studies (CIS) this week, addressed expatriate Tamils at the Boston Tamil Center on Friday at 6.30 pm, sources attending the event said.
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Self-defense training to Mannar civilians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 May 2006, 03:45 GMT]
Cadres of Liberation Tigers are providing two week-self defense training to about 270 Tamil civilians in Arippu in the LTTE controlled territory in the Mannar district, sources from Mannar said. The training which began on May 3rd is to conclude on May 18, according to sources.


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SLA sets Students Association Jaffna building, office of Jaffna MP on fire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 May 2006, 01:55 GMT]
The International Students Association of Tamileelam (ISATE) building which also contains the office of Tamil NationalAlliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr Gajendran located close to Parameswara College in Jaffna Palaly Road was set on fire Friday night at 11.30 p.m., according to sources from Jaffna.
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SLMM has no mandate to rule on Tamils sovereign rights - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 May 2006, 09:09 GMT]
"We entered the peace process based on a status-quo achieved in the battlefield in our territory. Nobody has the right to pass judgement on the sovereign rights of our access to the adjacent sea and airspace of our homeland," told LTTE's Political Head S.P.Thamilchelvan after having an urgent meeting with the Head of the Scandinavian truce monitors on Friday. The ceasefire and the entire peace process between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is a process based on parity of status and military power of balance. The SLMM statement issued on Thursday was a serious statement affecting this framework, LTTE's Political Head told media.
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Elilan alleges SL army-Jihad nexus in killing Muttur Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 May 2006, 06:40 GMT]
Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Friday made complaint to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee that government troops in connivance with an armed Muslim Jihad group have been killing Tamil youths in Muttur to create rift and enmity between Tamil and Muslim community currently live in amity and harmony, sources said.
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Colombo lacks realpolitik strategy- Furuhovde

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 May 2006, 04:32 GMT]
The present situation in Sri Lanka is mainly caused by Colombo's reluctant approach for a peace based on negotiations involving concessions. Central political players and its Military leadership still believe a military solution to the conflict is possible. This reflects a dangerous perception of reality and lacks a "Realpolitik strategic basis," required to handle Sri Lanka's war, wrote late Maj. Gen. (retd) Trond Furuhovde in a comment he wrote under the title "The troubled Sri Lanka" in Norwegian daily Adressa on January 30, a few days before Geneva-I talks. He touches on the geopolitical significance of the Sea route and the geographic location of the island Sri Lanka in his article.
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LTTE refutes SLMM's controversial statement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 May 2006, 20:26 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head, S. P. Thamilchelvan, in a letter to Major General Henricsson, the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Thursday said that the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's statement issued earlier Thursday, stating that the Tigers have no rights at sea, was in contradiction to SLMM's earlier stand, as expressed in a Press Release on 25 April 2003. Sea Tigers existed prior to CFA and it contributed to the balance of power that resulted in the CFA. The LTTE statement attached three letters sent to SLMM explicitly asking the SLMM to stop boarding Sri Lankan naval vessels as the Lankan vessels have come very close to the shores of LTTE area firing at their naval bases.
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SL army launches artillery fire towards Muttur east

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 May 2006, 13:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Thursday evening around 5.45 p.m. started artillery attack from its Monkey Bridge military installation towards LTTE controlled Muttur east villages following a confrontation between Sri Lanka Navy and LTTE. Monkey Bridge SLA military installation is located along Trincomalee-Colombo road about fifteen km off southwest of east port town, sources said.
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