30 Tamils interrogated over Colombo bomb blast

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 August 2008, 15:59 GMT]
About 30 Tamil civilians were taken in for questioning by the Sri Lankan police following the bomb blast in Pettah, Colombo, Saturday afternoon. Around 45 civilians were injured in the blast.
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Catholic commission in Vanni highlights IDPs plight

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 00:19 GMT]
Amid pouring rain and thundering blasts of artillery and mortar shells, more than 170,000 Internally Displaced Persons in Vanni are facing a great human tragedy, which is calculatedly concealed from the world outside, said Rev. Fr. James Pathinathan, the president of the Vanni branch of the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, in an urgent appeal to the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, on Tuesday. "If the International Community doesn't act at once, it will be too late," he told TamilNet after handing over the memorandum to the Residential Representative of the UNHCR in Vanni.
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25 Tamils arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 August 2008, 11:39 GMT]
Twenty five Tamil civilians were taken into custody Tuesday morning in a cordon and search conducted in Gampaha police division in the Western Province by the Sri Lanka Army and police with the assistance of homeguards.
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Ten thousand Tamil voters deprived from voting in Sabaragamuwa election

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 August 2008, 21:26 GMT]
Nearly 10,000 Up-Country Tamils who are eligible to vote were deprived from voting on Saturday at Ratnapura and Kegalle districts in Sabaragamuwa provincial council elections as they did not have National Identity Cards (NIC), a senior Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) member told media in Colombo.
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25 Tamil civilians arrested in Puththa'lam, Badulla

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 August 2008, 16:22 GMT]
35 people including 25 Tamil civilians were taken into custody in two separate cordon and search operations conducted by the police with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Army and civil volunteer groups in Badulla and Puththa'lam on Tuesday and Wednesday. Five Tamil youths were arrested in Badulla police division on Tuesday evening and 30 persons including 20 Tamils were arrested in Puththalam police division. The search operation conducted in Puththa'lam commenced on Tuesday night and concluded on Wednesday, civil sources said.
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Sri Lanka officials complicit in Tamil Genocide? - Washington Times

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2008, 01:43 GMT]
Asserting that "[t]here is reason to believe that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been complicit in a Srebrenica-like genocide or worse against Sri Lanka's Tamils on the installment plan. Since entering office in November 2005, he has been witness to the extrajudicial killings of more than 1,500 Tamils, torture, scores of kidnappings, countless arbitrary detentions and displacement of more than 250,000, a staggering percentage of Tamils who have not fled abroad seeking asylum," a commentary in the Washington Times, Wednesday issue, urged the U.S. Justice Department to lead a genocide investigation of Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Lt.Gen. Fonseka, and Basil Rajapakse.
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2 Tamils abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2008, 18:32 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were abducted by unidentified armed groups on Friday night in two separate incidents in Colombo police division, according to complaints lodged with the police by their wives Monday, human rights sources said.
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22 Tamils arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2008, 10:34 GMT]
Twenty nine Tamil civilians were arrested in a cordon and search operation conducted in Gampaha police division from Saturday night till Sunday morning around 9:00 a.m., according to the Sri Lankan Police. Most of them had been working in shops and other institutions. Some had come from Northern Province and Eastern Province but others are Up-Country Tamils.
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Fragile fictions of 'sovereignty' and 'territorial integrity'

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2008, 14:05 GMT]
Russia’s intervention over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, just like the Western intervention over Kosovo, amply demonstrates that 'sovereignty' and 'territorial integrity' are not cast-iron principles, but fragile covers for pursuit of interests by powerful states, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued this week. “Sri Lanka's sovereignty and territorial integrity, like those of Serbia, Georgia, and many others, has always been contingent on these being sufficiently useful to all the Great Powers, at the same time,” the paper said. “The moment the emergence of Tamil Eelam becomes useful to any of the Great Powers, a new game will begin.”
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Loss of GSP Plus to cost 2% of Sri Lanka's GDP - Economist

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2008, 10:07 GMT]
Referring to the conclusion of a research study by economists at the University of Sussex that "losing GSP Plus would lead to a 4% cut in Sri Lanka’s garment exports," and "[o]verall, it would cost 2% of GDP," the Economist in an article published in the 15th August edition, predicted dire economic future, and pointed out, "[a]nnual inflation is close to 30%. The rupee has appreciated against the dollar, further hurting exporters. By one estimate, economic growth—which was 7.6% in 2006—will be 4.3% this year. As elsewhere, inflation is being driven by high food and energy prices."
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Fear of arrest haunts Matale Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2008, 11:03 GMT]
Tension and fear prevail among upcountry Tamil residents in Matale district in the central province due to the daily cordon and search operations being conducted by Sri Lanka Police from Monday, sources in Matale said. Police have arrested several Tamil youths and are interrogating the detained youths on suspicion that the youths have links to Liberation Tigers.
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Sri Lanka doesn't have Tamils on its side - India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2008, 13:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka may win the battle against the Tamil Tigers but not the war as 'they haven't got the Tamil population on their side', India's National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan said in an interview with the Straits Times newspaper published Tuesday. Saying India understands the Tamils, Mr. Narayanan asked of Sri Lanka, “Do they want a situation like many countries have faced?” His comments come after a survey in a leading Tamil Nadu weekly suggested the majority of people there support the LTTE and want Indian intervention in Sri Lanka.
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19 Tamils arrested in Gampaha, Kandy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2008, 11:41 GMT]
Nineteen Tamil civilians were arrested in two separate cordon and search operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police since Sunday evening till morning on Monday at Gampaha and Kandy towns, police sources said.
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Three Tamils abducted in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2008, 03:51 GMT]
An unidentified group came in a white van abducted three Tamil civilians Ponniah Kaaralasingham, 55, his son-in-law Mahendrarajah Saarangan, 28, and Sivagnanam Anbalagan (43) from their residences located in Periyapuliyaalanku'lam in Vavuniyaa police division on Sunday night, according to complaints made by their relatives to the police and human rights groups in the area Monday.
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61 Tamils arrested in Negombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 August 2008, 11:15 GMT]
Sixty-one Tamil civilians taken into custody with several others in cordon and search operations conducted by the police and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from Saturday late evening till Sunday early morning in several parts of Negombo town are being detained in Negombo police station. The rest were released after preliminary inquiry.
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6 Tamils arrested in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 August 2008, 10:37 GMT]
Six Tamil civilians including a woman were arrested in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Vavuniyaa Police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Chettikulam and Mudaliyaarkulam villages in Vavuniyaa on Monday from early morning until 10:00 a.m., sources said.
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Land dispute leads to arson in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 August 2008, 11:40 GMT]
Unidentified persons set fire Saturday around 9:30 p.m to more than fifteen temporary huts built by Muslims in Meeraavoadai in Koa’ra’laippattu Divisional Secretariat area in Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police had intervened earlier Friday in a confrontation between Tamils and Muslims related to ownership of lands in Meeraavoadai and dispersed the two parties, the sources added.
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ACHR: Sri Lanka, worst Human Rights violator among SAARC countries

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2008, 12:40 GMT]
Asian Center for Human Rights (ACHR), a New Delhi-based human rights watchdog, in a rights report covering the South Asian Association for Regional Cooporation (SAARC), released Friday, said "Sri Lanka ranks South Asia’s No.1 human rights violator," adding, "Sri Lanka’s human rights indicators must be considered within a context of very high levels of impunity which tend to suggest a worsening over the human rights picture over the long term."
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Tamil Nadu opinion poll calls for independent Eezham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2008, 07:18 GMT]
A majority of voters decided that an independent Thamizh Eezham is the solution to the Sri Lankan crisis and solicited support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in a significant opinion poll conducted by Ananda Vikatan, a popular weekly of Tamil Nadu state in India. The outcome of the poll and its appearance in an influential media, foretell shifting paradigms in Tamil Nadu scenario, according to observers.
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Indian Prime Minister to meet TNA leaders

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2008, 14:58 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh arrived at Katunayake International airport at 12:45 p.m, Friday to attend the 15th SAARC conference. He was received by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and given a red carpet welcome. Later he was escorted by the Indian special guard forces to the helipad and flown to Colombo in an Indian helicopter.
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