STF lays siege to LTTE's Thirukovil political office

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2005, 13:27 GMT]
Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) soldiers were stopped from forcibly entering the Political office of the Liberation Tigers in Thirukkovil, Amparai at 12.00 PM Friday, by Political Head of LTTE Veeramunai Koddam Mr. Atheeswaran Master who demanded the presence of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials, LTTE officials said. STF soldiers kept the LTTE office under siege till 18.20 PM till SLMM officials arrived at the scene. Mr. Aleeswaran Master told TamilNet that harrassment by Security Forces to provoke the LTTE cadres is escalating in Batticaloa, Amparai districts and the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
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Two civilians injured in STF fire in Amparai

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2005, 07:28 GMT]
Two civilians, Mr. Nadarajah Manickam (42) and Mr. Vijay Nadarajah (22), a father and his son, were injured when Special Task Force (STF) soldiers who had come to the EPDP office in Karaithivu fired at random Thursday night around 9.30 PM. The soldiers who opened fired had come to EPDP office after unidentified gunmen had fired behind the EPDP office, Police sources said. Injured civilians are admitted to Kalmunai Ashraff Memorial Hospital.
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Profile of a shadow war veteran

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2005, 01:02 GMT]
The veteran intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nizam Muthaliff, was a central figure in the atrocity-punctuated paramilitary aspects of the counter-insurgency campaign against the LTTE in the early nineties then had a critical role in the deep penetration attacks on LTTE commanders and officials, the Tamil Guardian reported Wednesday.
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Minibus carrying students escapes landmine blast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2005, 12:18 GMT]
A minibus carrying more than 70 students travelling to participate in Tamileelam Students Uprising Day in Kaludavalai from LTTE controlled Pankudaveli in Batticaloa narrowly escaped a Claymore landmine attack at 8.30 AM on Thursday. The incident took place 100 meters from a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) checkpoint at Koduvamadu in Chenkallady-Badulla Road.
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Grenade attack on Akkaraipattu LTTE office

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 June 2005, 02:42 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed two grenades at the administration office of the Liberation Tigers in Akkaraipattu-Amparai road. The incident took place Wednesday morning around 2.00 AM. No one were injured in the attack, LTTE sources said.
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Military blocks LTTE commanders’ return

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 May 2005, 14:17 GMT]
Amid the continuing cycle of violence in Sri Lanka’s eastern province, hopes of improving trust between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers are being undermined by Colombo’s refusal to provide safe passage to senior LTTE commanders and other cadres across Army-controlled areas, officials said. In the wake of the massacre of an LTTE political leader and his team when travelling by road through Army-controlled roads, there are accusations the use of helicopters is being denied to expose LTTE officials to paramilitary attack.
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Muslim van driver shot dead in Kalmunai

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 May 2005, 12:21 GMT]
Mr. Mohammed Fowzan (31), a Muslim van driver from Ibbagamuva, Kurunagalle, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in Veeramuanai close to Kattumedu junction in the early hours of Monday. Mr. Fowzan is the driver of Free Media Movement (FMM) Spokesperson Sunanda Deshapriya, sources in Colombo said. A friend of Mr. Fowzan, Mr. Mohammed Nazar (32) who was a passenger in the front seat, was admitted to the Sammanthurai hospital with two gunshot wounds, hospital sources said.
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Clinton expresses support for Joint Mechanism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2005, 11:05 GMT]
Expressing shock at the scale of damage caused by tsunami devastation, visiting UN's Special Envoy on tsunami relief, former US President Bill Clinton expressed support for the urgent need for a Joint Mechanism on Saturday when he met with North East Provincial Governor Mr.Tyronne Fernando, Ministers, Government officials and the representatives from local and foreign NGOs at Carmel Fatima College in Kalmunai. Security measures were tightened in Kalmunai. Dialog Cellphone links were cut off in Kalmunai from 19.00 PM Friday till 2 PM Saturday in Kalmunai, Police sources told TamilNet.
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Arrested Home Guards produced in Kokkaddicholai Courts

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 May 2005, 10:18 GMT]
Thamil Eelam Police on Friday produced three suspected Sri Lankan homeguards in Thamil Eelam District Court in Kokkaddicholai. The Home Guards were arrested by the Liberation Tigers on Tuesday in LTTE held Poraithivu, 35 km southwest of Batticaloa, according to police reports. The judge, refusing bail, has ordered remand till 10th of June. Officials from Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and parents were allowed to meet with the arrested persons, sources in Kokkadicholai said.
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‘Joint mechanism, trust fund part of peace process’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 May 2005, 20:37 GMT]
The proposed Joint Mechanism and the Trust Fund for post-tsunami management are part of efforts to resume the Sri Lankan peace process, the European Union’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Wouter Wilton, said Wednesday when he met with the Liberation Tigers in Kilinochi.
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Karuna Group cadres remanded in Puttalam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 May 2005, 04:42 GMT]
Four armed members of the Karuna Group and their driver who were arrested by Sri Lanka police last Sunday in Saliyaveva region of Amparai district were remanded in custody until 8 June by Acting Magistrate for Puttalam, Tamil press reports said.


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"Horrendous consequences if peace process collapses"- TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 May 2005, 10:39 GMT]
"The forces who opposed negotiations with the LTTE are forces committed tocontinuing the present structure of governance in this country, who want a unitary structure of government to continue, who want majority hegemony to continue. If these forces succeed, the peace process must inevitably collapse with all its horrendous consequences," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a recent one-day debate on the current state of the peace process, parliamentary sources said.
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STF trooper wounded in landmine blast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2005, 12:25 GMT]
A trooper of the elite Special Task Force (STF) was injured when the vehicle he was driving was hit by a claymore land mine which detonated at around 9.30am near the 9th milepost on the Monaragala-Ampara Road, police sources said. The blast might have been linked to the presence of Karuna Group cadres in the following vehicle, which the STF was escorting, Police and the Army said.
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Akashi meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2005, 10:01 GMT]
The Japanese special peace envoy Mr.Yasushi Akashi met with the Head of the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) S.P. Thamilchelvan at LTTE's Peace Secretariat building in Kilinochchi, Saturday.
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Lack of normalcy eclipsed by joint mechanism debate - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2005, 13:26 GMT]
The serious lack of normalcy in the Tamil areas due to continuing military occupation and restrictions on civilians’ livelihoods, even three years after the mutual ceasefire agreement was signed, is leading to severe frustrations amongst the people, the head of the Liberation Tiger’s political wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan told Norwegian diplomats Friday. The extraordinary focus on a post-tsunami aid management mechanism is masking the severity of the obstructions to rehabilitation work and the day-to-day difficulties faced by ordinary people, Mr. Thamilchelvan told Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Hans Brattskar, when they met in Kilinochchi.
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Sinhala Nation, refusing to share national wealth- Taraki

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2005, 11:46 GMT]
Liberation Tigers' demand for an independent administrative arrangement and funds to rehabilitate and rebuild the infrastructure of the Tamil homeland is rooted on the fact that for the past 56 years the Sinhala Nation has resolutely exercised its monopoly power on island's national wealth and refused to accept Tamil's right to a fair share of the wealth, argues late Dharmeratnam Sivaram, in a column which appeared in Virakesari of 21 November 2004. This feature provides an English translation.
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Jaffna protesters urge SLMM action on Santhiveli

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2005, 10:38 GMT]
A demonstration was held in Jaffna town Thursday condemning the firing protesting civilians at Santhiveli by Sri Lankan security forces on Monday. An elderly person was killed and several others, including schoolchildren were wounded.
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Northeast shuts down over checkpoint gunfire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 10:59 GMT]
The normal life was disrupted in several parts of the districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai, in the Northeast province Tuesday following a hartal (general shut down) condemning the attack on protesting civilians by Sri Lankan security forces at Santhiveli in Batticaloa, Monday, in which one person was killed and more than 15 others, including 5 school children were injured.
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Pirapaharan extols Jeyanthan Brigade on 12th anniversary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 May 2005, 00:02 GMT]
In April last year, the world witnessed the prowess, fighting spirit and the commitment of the Jeyanthan Brigade which, by executing in Batticaloa soil “the right operation at the right time and the right place, triumphed against betrayal and reclaimed our soil, our people and our cadre," said LTTE leader, Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan in a congratulatory message sent to the fighting unit which celebrated the 12th anniversary of its formation on Wednesday.
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Sivaram: ‘Don’t raise false hopes amongst our people’

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2005, 18:35 GMT]
The last article published by Mr. Dharmeratnam Sivaram, the political columnist and military analyst abducted and murdered on Friday, was an appeal to his colleagues in the Tamil media. Urging them not to hype up the chances of a positive outcome with regards to the joint mechanism until it actually happens, Mr. Sivaram argued that the media has a duty to not to raise false hopes amongst the Tamil people and to keep the Sri Lankan state’s determination not to meet Tamil expectations in sight.The article, written in Tamil for the Colombo-based Virakesari newspaper appeared in its edition of Sunday April 24.
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