Family man recovered dead, another reported missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2008, 16:24 GMT]
Maanippaay police recovered Monday the body of a family man with assault injuries in a shrub land close to his house in Kaddudai in Maanippaay police division in Valikaamam. He had gone missing since Saturday after leaving home, the police said. Meanwhile, a family man from Colombo is reported missing after sending off his relative by ship from Trincomalee to Jaffna, according to the complaint lodged with Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna by his daughter.
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Discuss Tamil national question and self-determination: CPI (ML)

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 23:07 GMT]
"Stop the war. The Tamil national question in Sri Lanka demands a political solution”, is the headlines of a statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), released in its November issue of Liberation. "The current phase of the war in Sri Lanka does call for an urgent and appropriate Indian response to bring about an immediate cessation of the war and facilitate a negotiated political settlement of the question of Tamil self-determination in Sri Lanka", urged the ultra Marxist party actively leading proletarian movements throughout India.
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LTTE planes drew Indian embassy gunfire as Rajapaksa moved to bunker- report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 23:02 GMT]
Indian gunners in the Indian embassy compound in Colombo “fired relentlessly” at the LTTE aircraft that were returning to Vanni after bombing on the Kelanitissa power station Tuesday, a Sri Lankan press report said Sunday. Quoting reliable sources, the Lakbima newspaper also reported that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse was ushered into a special bunker during the air raid ‘purely as a precaution’’. Meanwhile, the Sunday Times said the LTTE had used a new kind of bomb on the Army Headquarters in Tha'l'laadi, Mannaar and that Sri Lankan jet’s missile was unable to ‘lock on’ to the LTTE plane.
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Dismissive to Sunday Times, acceptable to Hindu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 16:20 GMT]
Sunday Times of Sri Lanka rejected an award bestowed on a newspaper of its group by a Sri Lanka government-backed NGO, last Tuesday, saying it does not recognize the NGO or its ‘spurious’ awards. However, the editor-in-chief of the Chennai-based The Hindu, Mr. N. Ram received the ‘Best Journalist of Asia award’ given to him by the NGO in person and delivered a speech on ‘the media's social responsibility to promote peace processes’.
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Strategic Partners

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 13:14 GMT]
"The American ban on the LTTE, which was followed by several other countries, also cut the flow of money and weapons to the Tigers, the result of which could be seen in their recent military defeats", said the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka in an interactive session at Chennai last month, as reported by The Hindu. The other side of the result story is that the same American policy tilted the balance in favour of a genocidal government, precipitated aggressive war on a grand scale and thus deepened immensely the divide between the concerned ethnicities, making reconciliation unfeasible more than ever.
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Colombo first to use anti-terrorism laws to punish journalists, say media watchdogs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 November 2008, 18:53 GMT]
The International Press Freedom Mission, a group of five international media watchdogs, which visited Sri Lanka between 25th to 29th October, said in a statement released Thursday that the mission is “alarmed at the use of an anti-terrorism law for the first time in the democratic world, to punish journalists purely for what they have written,” and added that the mission “found a deterioration in the press freedom situation since its last visit in June 2007, marked by a continuation in murders, attacks, abductions, intimidation and harassment of the media.”
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LTTE condems attacks on civilians, says Colombo disregards Indian concerns

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 18:33 GMT]
Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), in a statement dated 30 October, condemned the Sri Lankan government for carrying out indiscriminate aerial bombardment and artillery barrage on civilians in Vanni. "Within few days of the Sri Lankan Government saying to the Indian Government that it will not carry out attacks on civilians, it has carried out attacks on Paranthan and Vallipunam civilian areas," the statement issued by the LTTE said.
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Tamil civilian abducted in Peliyagoda

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 17:32 GMT]
A Tamil civilian was abducted by unidentified persons, who arrived in a white van in Peliyagoda of Colombo district Wednesday night, Police said.
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Tehelka on what the grass roots feel in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 12:19 GMT]
"In these villages, it hardly matters that Pirabhakaran is an accused in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, or that the LTTE is banned un India. Many have named their children after Pirabhakaran. Housing colonies have been given the names of LTTE martyrs", reports Tehelka Magazine in a feature article on Kolathur (Ku'laththoor), a Panchayat of 10 villages and 75,000 people, bordering Karnataka, in the Selam (Chealam) district of northwestern Tamil Nadu.
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Jaffna Tamil youth arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2008, 19:51 GMT]
A Tamil youth said to be resident of Jaffna was arrested by the Fort Police Wednesday in a cordon and search operation. Police said a time bomb and two detonators were found in his possession.
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Eastern University students boycott lectures

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2008, 04:53 GMT]
Students of Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) in Vanthaa'rumoolai are boycotting lectures since Monday, wearing black bands to express their condolence to the killing of their fellow Sinhalese student, S. P. Samarasinghe, on 21 August 2008, and the detaining of Sasikaran, a third year Agricultural Faculty Tamil student, arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing of the Sinhalese student.The boycott of lectures and protest demonstrations will continue until Sasikaran is released, the vice president of EUSL student union said.
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SLN bans fishing in Trincomalee seas

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 23:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Wednesday refused permission to hundreds of fishermen who went to the shore along Trincomalee to Kuchchaveli Wednesday early morning to fish in Trincomalee seas, fisheries sources said. The fishermen were told the directive was to ensure security SLN personnel manning checkpoints along the coastal area.
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Uthayan Editor threatened by EPDP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 19:47 GMT]
The Free Media Movement (FMM), an independent Colombo-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Wednesday, accused leader of Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Douglas Devananda for threatening Managing Editor of Jaffna Daily Uthayan, and condemned the disruption to the distribution of the paper by the paramilitaries of the EPDP.
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SLA blocks oxygen cylinders urgently needed by hospitals in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 15:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vavuniyaa has held back for weeks the vehicle bringing 52 oxygen cylinders from Colombo to Ki'linochchi public hospital urgently needed to save the lives of the Internally Displaced Persons, increasingly subjected to indiscriminate shelling, air attacks and road accidents. Although two of the three lorries with medical supplies that were waiting for weeks were allowed to reach the hospital on Monday, the lorry with oxygen cylinders was not allowed to cross the Oamanthai entry point by the SLA. There is acute need for oxygen cylinders at Ki'linochchi hospital, according to Dr. P. Brighton, the assisting Deputy Provincial Director of Health (DPDH).
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Wind of Change in Maldives

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 07:14 GMT]
As the counting is over for the elections that took place in Maldives on Tuesday, Mr. Mohamed Nasheed, popularly known 'Anni' has secured 54.21 percent of votes and is expected to assume power as president of the republic on November 11th. Mr. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the present incumbent ruling the country for 30 years since 1978 trailed behind with 45.79 percent. The voter turnout in the first ever elections in that country based on multi party system was a very high 86.58 percent.
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Turbines damaged in TAF airstrike on power plant, one killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 05:45 GMT]
A turbine operator of the Kelanitissa power plant was killed due to the impact of the explosion and two turbines and air coolers sustained damage when Tamileealm Air Force (TAF), the air wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) attacked the powerplant Tuesday night, according to the sources in Colombo. The air-strike was carried out on the target in Colombo, after attacking the Tha'l'laadi garrison of the Sri Lankan forces in Mannaar, inflicting heavy damage to the Tha'l'laadi base, which functions as the rear station for the Sri Lankan military operation on Vanni from the Mannaar front.
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Tigers launch airstrike in Mannaar, Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 18:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) carried out an air attack on Tha'l'laadi military base, the main artillery and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) launchpad of the Sri Lanka Army in Mannaar Tuesday around 10:30 p.m., dropping three bombs on the base. The Tiger aircrafts then proceeded to Colombo and dropped two bombs on Kelanitissa power station, while Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) bombers were searching for LTTE aircrafts in skys over Ki'linochchi between 11:00 and 11:30 a.m. Latest reports from Vanni said the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aircrafts were flying over the suburbs of Mullaiththeevu and Puthukkudiyiruppu with para lights focused on the ground from 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
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Colombo soft launches FM channel in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 17:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka government resumed its broadcast to 'Listeners in All India', with a newly adopted name, diplomatically aiming at dampening the emotional upsurge of sympathy and support expressed all over Tamil Nadu State, sources in Chennai said. The Tamil Nadu media reports related to the Sri Lankan government's war on the Tamils in Vanni being unfavorable to it, the resumption of the broadcast from Colombo appears to be a propaganda measure adopted by Sri Lanka government, the sources added.
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Handguns planted in UN premises in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 12:49 GMT]
The UN office in Colombo in a statement issued in Colombo on Tuesday said they have discovered two pistols hidden in the premises of one of its complexes in Mannaar.
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Violence against upcountry Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 12:03 GMT]
A gang of about fifteen Sinhalese armed persons entered the house of a Tamil family in Perk rubber estate in Horana electorate Sunday evening and attacked the inmates mercilessly with clubs and knives. Other Tamil families in the area along with the affected family fled into the nearby jungle to escape further attack from the Sinhalese hoodlums. The violence comes as reports in Colombo said an upcountry Tamil minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, Mr. P. Chandrasekaran was currently under presidential investigation for alleged expression of support to the recent protest campaign lauched by the Tamil Nadu government that sought to protect Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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