Alaiyadivembu PS urges government to hold talks with LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 16:56 GMT]
Alaiyadivembu Pradesiya Sabah (PS) at its first meeting held Monday morning unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with sincerity and without duplicity. The resolution further said the government should not adopt a hard-line policy in finding a lasting political solution to the Tamil national question, sources said.
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Two Homeguards, one Ex-LTTE cadre shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Two homeguards were shot dead in Thutuwewa Vavuniya at 11.30 a.m. and a former member of Liberation Tigers was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Maravankulam area Monday morning, sources from Vavuniya said.
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SLA deep penetration attacks increase in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 05:15 GMT]
Ilayathamby Balasubramaniam, 54, was seriously injured and his lorry severely damaged Sunday around 12.30 p.m. in a claymore explosion triggered by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) deep penetration unit in Vavuniya north, 7 miles east of A9 highway , in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled area in the Vavuniya district, said sources from Vavuniya.


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SLN fire injures Vadamaradchi fisherman

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 03:58 GMT]
"The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) harassment on fishermen in Northern waters has escalated in the last several weeks. Unprovoked attacks on the fishermen are forcing us to find ways to protect ourselves. The only way open for us is to seek the assistance from the Liberation Tigers," said James Venisles 41, who was injured when SLN troopers from Dvora gun boat fired at fishermen, fishing in the Kadaikadu sea in Vadamarachchi east Saturday 8 a.m.


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Colombo ‘in a military mindset’ – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 13:50 GMT]
With Sri Lanka’s government refusing to disarm Army-backed paramilitaries whose ‘shadow war’ against the LTTE is spiralling into increasingly cycles of revenge killings, the Ceasefire Agreement is ‘falling apart,’ the LTTE's Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham, said this week. Colombo’s support for the paramilitaries and the escalated repression against Tamil civilians in government-controlled areas of the Northeast means "we can safely assume that Rajapakse administration has not given up the military option," he told The Sunday Leader newspaper.
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LTTE sentry attacked in Vavunathivu, 3 wounded

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 12:48 GMT]
Three Liberation Tigers cadres who were repairing the bunkers at LTTE controlled Vavunathivu were wounded in Sri Lanka Army soldiers gun and mortar fire, alleged LTTE's Political Head of Batticaloa District, Mr. Daya Mohan.
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Colombo expects EU to ban LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 07:46 GMT]
Head of Sri Lanka Government's Peace Secretariat, Dr. Palitha Kohona told media in Colombo that the EU was considering imposing a ban on the LTTE. Responding to a question at a press conference held at the Sri Lankan Information Department Sunday morning, Dr. Kohona, said that the "recent conduct" of the LTTE is a minus point for the Tigers as the EU was evaluating the events taking place in the North and East.
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Two auto-rickshaw drivers shot dead in Nelliady

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 April 2006, 13:01 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen riding in a motorbike shot dead two owners of auto-rikshaws, at the central bus stand in Nelliady, Vadamaradchy at 5 p.m. Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. Subramaniam Vaseekaran, alias Kannan, one of the two killed, is the current President of the Vadamaradchy branch Auto-rickshaw Owners Union, civil sources said. Relatives and witnesses accuse the Sri Lanka Army and collaborating paramilitaries for carrying out the killing.
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Two civilians killed in Mannar claymore attack

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 April 2006, 12:26 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were killed in the LTTE controlled area in Mannar district Saturday afternoon around 2.30 p.m., when their motorbike hit a claymore mine fixed in a tree by Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and collaborating paramilitaries. They were traveling from Pandivirichchan to Aandankulam to their worksite where they were employed as masons, sources said.


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Pre-planned element behind Trinco violence - fact finding report

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2006, 12:52 GMT]
The 15-minutes speed, with which the violence in Trincomalee town was triggered on 12th April, after a bomb explosion that killed five persons, indicate that there was an "element of pre-planning," said a report issued by Colombo based civil society representatives Friday. The report said over 20 civilians were killed, over 30 shops and 100 homes destroyed and more than 3000 persons are displaced seeking refuge in schools and places of worship in Trincomalee.
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Onus on Colombo to create cordial atmosphere - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2006, 12:26 GMT]
Accusing Sri Lanka Government of reneging on providing established modes of travel, and proposing impractical travel procedure that showed scant respect for the security of the Senior commanders of the Liberation Tigers, the Head of LTTE Political Wing, S.P. Thamilchelvan in an interview to TamilNet Thursday said that violence is likely to spiral out of control if Sri Lankan forces do not urgently stop killing Tamil civilians in NorthEast.
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Man killed in Vauniya claymore explosion

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2006, 11:16 GMT]
A businessman from Vavuniya was killed in a claymore explosion at 9.30 a.m. Friday morning, LTTE Political Office in Vavuniya said. Mr M Kandasamy, a trader in Palmyrah and Coconut products, and a father of six children, was killed in the jungle area between Puthur and Navvi villages in Vavuniya North, according to sources.
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Rights body reports 62 deaths, disappearances in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2006, 03:28 GMT]
NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) in a report released Sunday has listed details of 62 killings and disappearances of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka security forces and collaborating paramilitaries in the NorthEast during the last seven weeks.
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Verugal PS councilors take oaths

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 20:08 GMT]
The only local government institution, Verugal Pradesiya Sabah (PS) in the Liberation Tigers controlled area in the Trincomalee district began functioning with effect from Wednesday when all seven councilors of the PS returned uncontested in the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) ticket took oaths before a Justice of Peace in the presence of Mr.S.Elilan, LTTE Trincomalee district political head. Mr.Puratchi, Trincomalee head of the Thamileelam Students Department hoisted the Thamileelam National Flag, sources said.
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Canadian Tamils call for stern action against Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 15:01 GMT]
In a press conference held Tuesday April 18th, at the Delta Toronto East Hotel in Toronto, the Trincomalee Welfare Association (TWA) urged the Government of Canada to condemn the ethnically motivated violence on Tamil civilians in Trincomalee last week, and "to take stern measures against the Sri Lankan government for its continued failure to comply with the Ceasefire Agreement."
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Memorial for civilians killed in war opened in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 11:45 GMT]
"Innocent Tamils are being killed even now by the Sri Lanka armed forces and the paramilitary groups working with them. Erecting a monument in memory of the innocents alone is insufficient. Ending wanton killings is the need of the hour," said S. Thangan unveiling the plaque Wednesday, on the monument erected in remembrance of civilians killed by the Sri Lanka armed forces and the Indian Peace Keeping Force, at Kanthapuram junction in Akkarayan Kilinochchi district.


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"Non-violent struggle will not work," says student leader

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 11:31 GMT]
"Annai Poopathy, reverently remembered today at the eighteenth anniversary of her fasting to death for the liberation of the Tamils, shines like a beacon to all of us, as dark clouds of war gather fast in our skies," said Vijayaroopan, president Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU), Wednesday at the memorial day observance held in the Jaffna University. He was one of several speakers at the Annai Poopathy memorial day observed in the districts of the NorthEast.


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LTTE reiterates stand, says GoSL responsible for stalemate

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 10:04 GMT]
Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on Thursday reiterated LTTE's stand on safe travel of their eastern special commanders Col. Sornam and Col. Bhanu in preparation to the second session of the talks in Geneva, when he met the Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer at LTTE's Political Secretariat in Kilinochchi Thursday. The participation of the Tigers in Geneva Talks is entirely dependent upon GoSL, Thamilchelvan told the Norwegian Envoy, LTTE sources in Kilinochchi said.
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Aussie TV exposes paramilitary presence in SLA controlled areas in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 02:31 GMT]
Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Television’s Dateline program aired for the first time video footage from a training camp of paramilitaries from Karuna Group operating from Government controlled territory in Batticaloa. In the same program, Mr Gothabaya Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan Secretary of Defence and the brother of SL President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, denies any knowledge of existence of paramilitaries. Previously, Mr Gothabaya Rajapakse had claimed that Sri Lanka forces could win a war against Tigers with Karuna Group's support.
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CFA teaches belated political lesson to UPFA, says UNP MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 April 2006, 21:01 GMT]
United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, addressing a UNP press conference Wednesday in Colombo said that those in power in Sri Lanka today are facing the political reality and learning a hard lesson that proper implementation of the Cease Fire Agreement is a critical prerequisite if efforts to find solutions to the national problem are to make progress.
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