Karuna seeks Devananda's support for comeback

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2008, 11:02 GMT]
Amid reports of a renewed infighting among the factionalised TMVP paramilitary in the East, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, a former Tiger commander who turned leader of the paramilitary group operated by the Sri Lanka Army, Wednesday met the EPDP paramilitary leader and Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda, seeking the latter's support to strengthen his position in the East, which is under the grip of the UPFA-installed chief minister and paramilitary leader, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who was a former confidante of Karuna.
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PMK demands New Delhi to withdraw military aid to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 20:38 GMT]
The Pattali Makkal katchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) in Tamil Nadu staged Tuesday a protest rally in front of the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai, where more than 2000 Tamil activists took part. Welcoming the Tamil Nadu leaders who have extended their support to Eelam Tamils at a critical juncture, Dr. S. Ramadoss, the founder leader of the PMK, urged the remaining leaders to extend their support to pressurise the Central government of India to withdraw military support to the Sri Lankan government which is engaged in a genocide against the Eelam Tamils.
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US Ambassador says 'honoured' to meet paramilitary leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 05:23 GMT]
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert O' Blake says he was honoured to meet the leader of the Army-backed paramilitary group TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal) which Human Rights Watch has condemend for widespread human rights abuses in the eastern province - of which Pillayan was appointed chief minister. Mr. Blake said he is "pleased that [Pillayan] assured me he too is committed to demobilizing the paramilitaries" the Sunday Times reported. The same column in the paper reported that TMVP cadres are once again being used to support the Sri Lankan security forces' counter-insurgency in the east.
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Canada says Bahu an LTTE member, refuses visa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2008, 05:51 GMT]
Canadian High Commission in Colombo last week denied visa to the Leader of New Left Front and General Secretary of New Sama Samaja party, Dr Wickramabahu Karunaratne, saying that his past actions "constitute membership in the LTTE," and therefore, Dr Karunaratne fails the admissibility tests laid out in Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
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Paramilitary kills 60-year-old man in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 September 2008, 10:19 GMT]
A paramilitary unit operated by Iniyaparathy, a close associate of Karuna, shot and killed a 60-year-old relative of an LTTE commander Saturday night around 7:45, at Eruvil in Ka'luvaagnchikkudi, located between Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai, residents said.
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Paramilitary abducts civilian, sets fire to house in Akkaraippattu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2008, 12:42 GMT]
Armed men of paramilitary operative, Iniyapararathi, associated with Karuna, entered the residence of a civilian, identified as Mr. Vadivel at Akkaraippattu 7 in Ampaa'rai district on Friday and set fire to his house around 8:00 p.m. on Friday, residents said. In the meantime, another civilian, whom the residents identified as Mr. Moorthy, has been abducted in the early hours of Friday allegedly by the paramilitary.
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2 TMVP paramilitary men shot, injured in Akkaraippattu

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 August 2008, 09:57 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen opened fire Friday around 2:30 a.m on two paramilitary men of the political-cum paramilitary party TMVP, seriously injuring them, at Ka’n’nakipuram area in Akkaraippattu police division in Ampaa’rai district, sources in Akkaraippattu said. The injured men, admitted to Akkaraippattu hospital first, had gone missing while being transferred to Kalmunai Hospital for further treatment, the sources added.
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TID questioned Ganesan on his visits to Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 14:08 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) on Tuesday questioned Civil Monitoring Commission Convener and Western Peoples Front Leader Mano Ganesan for six hours from 11:00 a.m. The questions were based on his peace delegation visits to Ki'linochchi during the CFA period between 2002 and 2004. The TID wanted to know if he had developed any 'special relationship' with the LTTE during the these visits. Mano Ganesan has vehemently refused any 'special relationship' with LTTE and any link with any arrested 'terrorist suspects', according to a statement released Wednesday by his office in Colombo.
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TID interrogates Mano Ganesan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 August 2008, 08:02 GMT]
The leader of the Western Province People's Front (WPPF) and a Member of Sri Lankan Parliament Mano Ganesan is being questioned by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) Tuesday morning, informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet.
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Protest demonstration against Minister Mervin Silva in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2008, 15:00 GMT]
More than a hundred media persons and political leaders staged a protest demonstration Friday around 12:00 noon at Colpetty junction in Colombo, organized by five leading media associations, condemning Minster Mervin Silva’s assault on media persons who went to participate in the opening ceremony of Kelaniya flyover recently, sources in Colombo said.
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Reflections on Black July in art, literature and theatre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 July 2008, 14:05 GMT]
Artists and writers in different parts of the world reflect through various ways on Black July 1983, the state-sponsored pogrom against Tamils in Sri Lanka, marking its 25th year. Citing some of the aesthetic expressions, a play in English to be staged in Canada on Saturday is based on the post-pogrom phenomenon of refugee hearing. While an ongoing art exhibition in Colombo documents life after 1983 in the eyes of a Sinhala photographer, a novel that comes from Australia bases itself on the psychological scars of the pogrom.
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The master plays his cards

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 July 2008, 14:37 GMT]
Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, chief minister of the Tamil Nadu state of India, cautioned the Indian Government on Saturday that his state wouldn't hesitate to seek the retrieval of Kachchatheevu from Sri Lanka if the rights of the Tamil Nadu fishermen are not safeguarded. The timing and intensity of the demand leads to wide-ranging speculations among observers.
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Karuna visits Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 01:12 GMT]
The leader of Thamil Makkal Viduthali Puligal (TMVP) Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, visited Batticaloa Tuesday and met TMVP operatives at the office in Meenagam, sources in Batticaloa said.
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British Foreign Minister to meet Pillayan - reports

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 19:40 GMT]
Britain’s Foreign Minister, Lord Malloch-Brown, is to meet Pillayan (Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan), Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and leader of the Army-backed paramilitary group, the TMVP, Sri Lankan press reports said. Lord Malloch-Brown is on a four day visit to Sri Lanka this week, The Island newspaper said.
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Grand finale for Pongku Thamizh in London

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2008, 02:41 GMT]
Around 30,000 people attended the Pongku Thamizh (Tamil Upsurge) rally in London at the Rorehampton Vale sports ground on Saturday, choking traffic in one of the highways, said the organisers. A number of British parliamentarians cutting across party lines, international representatives of liberation movements, rights activists, and politicians from Tamil and Sinhala communities addressed the event, and sent messages in support of the event. Even by conservative estimates, nearly 150,000 Tamils of North America, Europe, Africa and Australia have so far demonstrated their support to the cause of Eezham during the last one-month through Pongku Thamizh 2008.
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Renegade Karuna deported to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 17:25 GMT]
British Embassy spokesman Dominic Williams told BBC that Vinayagmoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, had been removed from a UK detention centre and deported to Sri Lanka on 2 July, according to a BBC report. Karuna, a former Tiger commander who turned leader of a paramilitary group operated by the Sri Lanka Army in the East, completed a prison sentence in the UK, for the violation of UK's immigration rules.
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Media institutions hold protest demonstration in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 July 2008, 14:41 GMT]
Five media organizations and prominent political leaders staged a protest demonstration Wednesday around 12:30 p.m. at Colpetty Junction, condemning the attacks let loose on journalists and media men. The demonstrators called on the Sri Lankan government to immediately appoint a ministerial sub-committee to conduct inquiries into the Monday attack on Media Director of the Sri Lankan Press Institute (SLPI) Namal Perera and the British Embassy officer Mahendra Ratnaweera.
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TMVP person shot, injured in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 June 2008, 08:28 GMT]
Unidentified armed men on motorcycle shot and seriously injured Friday around 9:15 p.m the person in charge of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) office in Aalaiyadivempu in Akkaraippattu police division in Ampaa’rai district, near the office. The injured person was first rushed to Akkaraipattu hospital and then transferred to Ampaa’rai District Hospital for further treatment.
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Ex-paramilitary shot, injured in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2008, 18:21 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen riding on a motorbike shot and seriously injured a former Muslim member of paramilitary Karuna group, Sunday around 7:10 p.m, at Fiscal Road in Akkaraipattu police division in Ampaa’rai district, sources in Ampaa'rai said.
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Ea'raavoor tense, 9 wounded, Police imposes curfew

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2008, 10:46 GMT]
Muslims in Ea'raavoor on Sunday alleged that two more Muslims were abducted as they launched a shut-down protest against the paramilitary-cum-political party, the TMVP, that had promised to release two Muslims who were abducted on Thursday, when the group attacked Muslims after a key paramilitary operative of the group was gunned down in the Muslim town of Kaaththaankudi. Ea'raavor Police has clamped down a curfew from 2:00 p.m. Sunday till 5:00 a.m. Monday. Seven passengers and two conductors were wounded when Muslim youths stoned three Sri Lanka Transport Board buses in Ea'raavoor. Residents of Tamil village Iyangkea'ni in Ea'raavoor were seen fleeing.
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