School girl killed in Vaddakkachchi in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2008, 11:08 GMT]
A 6-year-old child was killed and a male was injured Monday around 11:45 a.m. when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells targeted Hudson Road (Ira'naimadu Vaddakkachchi Road), according to initial details from Tamileelam police officials in Vanni. The killed girl was on her way back home from Vaddakkachchi school as the school closed earlier due to artillery barrage.
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Quick IDP action averts carnage from Cluster bombs

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2008, 01:33 GMT]
“Three bombs exploded first time. Second time, when the bomber returned after 5 minutes from the opposite direction, there were 3 more blasts. But, the third time, bombs exploded with a parachute effect, like an auto explosion,”  said the head of the camp of the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) that came under indiscriminate attack by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) in the early hours of Saturday. Many children fled into the jungle during the five-minute window before the aircraft returned for the second attack. If not for the fast action of Ketheeswaran, the head of the settlement, and Pulendran, an intrepid IDP, in escorting and moving IDPs away from the refugee camp, the cluster bombs would have wrought havoc killing many, according to the refugees who escaped. TamilNet interviewed both Ketheeswaran and Pulendran, and several wounded civilians for this feature.
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SLA checks more than 10,000 during Batticaloa curfiew

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2008, 20:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the police searched and checked more than 10,000 Tamils , 4,000 houses and more than 50% of the vehicles in Batticaloa district, during the joint search launched, clamping a 12-hour police-curfew Saturday, Police media spokesman, Ranjith Gunesekara said.
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Tamil farmer shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2008, 12:40 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a Tamil farmer Saturday around 9:30 p.m in Ka'luvaangchchikudi police division at his house in Ward 12, Kuruma'nve'li area. This is the first killing after a 12-hour police-curfew was clamped down in Batticalao district, taking place just after three hours after the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) cordon and search operation during the curfew, the sources added. A Special Task Force (STF) camp is located 200 m from the site of the killing.
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Colombo's cluster bomb attack on civilians in Vanni challenges international norms

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2008, 02:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers that attacked the hamlet of Internally Displaced Persons bordering Piramanthanaa'ru and Uzhavanoor in the early hours of Saturday have deployed Russian made OFAB-500 cluster bombs in their indiscriminate attack that killed three civilians, including a child, eyewitnesses told TamilNet's Vanni correspondent on Saturday. Seven children were among the wounded. Colombo's use of cluster bomb comes as more than 100 countries are scheduled to meet in Oslo on Wednesday to sign a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs.
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International media, human rights watchdogs lopsided - Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2008, 20:39 GMT]
"The Colombo government is embarked upon a killing spree of children and women in refugee camps who are already victims of war, displacement, cyclone and floods. This act of 'state terrorism' is in what way less deplorable than the Mumbai killings, for failing to attract condemnation and action from the International Community," asks Padmini Sithamparanathan, Tamil National Alliance MP for Jaffna.
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SLAF bombs refugee camp in 'secure zone' in Vanni, children among victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2008, 08:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers attacked a refugee camp of Internally Displaced People bordering Piramanthanaa'ru and Uzhavaoor (Tharmapuram) in Ki'linochchi district in the early hours of Saturday around 1:35 a.m. Medical authorities at Tharmapuram said three persons were killed. Two, a 5-year-old child and an 80-year-old man, died at the hospital. At least 18 wounded civilians, including 7 children and 7 females, were admitted at the hospital following the indiscriminate bombardment on IDP settlement. Medical authorities described the bombardment as "terrible mid-night aerial attack on refugee camp". SLAF bombs refugee camp in Vanni, children among killed, wounded
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Kungchupparanthan: first debacle of SLA in battle for Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 22:55 GMT]
Several decomposed corpses of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were still lying within the no-man area between the SLA and Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) frontiers in Kugnchupparanthan no man zone, informed sources revealed on Friday. The SLA soldiers had maneuvered deep into LTTE trap, according to the source, which said it was the first debacle of the SLA in the battle for Ki'linochchi. At least 75 SLA soldiers were confirmed dead so far, the source said adding more than 160 of the soldiers, who managed to reach back to their barracks, had been injured. The LTTE, which earlier said 43 SLA soldiers were killed and 70 wounded, is yet to release further updates.
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US development aims integrating East with Sinhala provinces

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 19:04 GMT]
Based on their firm conviction that development disparity is the root cause of the conflict in Sri Lanka, the United States Embassy in Sri Lanka is busy in recent times in promoting a number ‘development’ programmes, especially in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Launching a new programme, Connecting Regional Economies (CORE) two months ago, the US aim ‘at the provincial and community level’ is to ‘focus on improving supply chain and market linkages between producers, processors, and the end markets in five districts of the Eastern, North Central and Uva Provinces’, read a press release from the US embassy in Colombo.
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80 Tamils arrested in Colombo, Kandy

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 17:42 GMT]
More than eighty Tamil civilians, including eight women, arrested in Colombo and Kandy in separate cordon and search operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police on Wednesday and Thursday are detained in respective police stations and are being interrogated.
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Floods kill 6 people in Vanni, thousands displaced

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 17:21 GMT]
At least four people were reportedly killed and two more feared dead in the floods caused by storms coupled with torrential monsoon rain during the past 6 days in Vanni. The sluice gates of Visuvamadu tank were opened as the raising water level posed great danger to the wall of the dam that has been shaken already by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) attacks. Also the sluice gates of two other tanks, Udaiyaarkadduk-ku'lam and Kalmaduk-ku'lam, were opened. Hundreds of volunteers of Tamils Rehabilitation Organiation (TRO) and the Tamileelam Police personnel were seen evacuating civilians and in arranging immediate accommodation in public places.
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SLAF attacks Paranthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 14:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers attacked Paranthan, a key junction north of Ki'linochchi on Thursday and Friday, dropping bombs on shops and offices. Latest air attack was reported at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Meanwhile, artillery barrage that targeted Paranthan and Ki'linochchi suburbs continued despite pouring rain and floods during the past five days, according to farmers who fled the low-lying cultivation lands in the region.
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5 dead, thousands displaced due to floods in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 11:57 GMT]
Heavy monsoonal rains and resulting floods claimed five lives in Jaffna peninsula while 118,273 persons belonging to 32,026 families have been displaced, according to Jaffna Secretariat statistics, civil sources in Jaffna said. Many persons are admitted to hospitals due to injuries sustained by collapsed roofs and falling trees. While rains have subsided, the electricity supply, transport services and telecommunication remain affected. Billions of rupees worth properties and cultivation have been damaged and destroyed in the past four days.
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15 Tamils arrested in Ratnapura

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 05:45 GMT]
The Ratnapura police assisted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and home guards took into custody about fifteen Tamil civilians in a cordon and search operations conducted in the Ratnapura town on Wednesday early morning till midnight
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Faultline of Sri Lanka’s conflict now clear - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2008, 19:50 GMT]
Pointing out that it is as Sinhalese have become more and more confident of winning the war that overt racism against Tamils has become blatant, the Tamil Guardian newspaper this week said “what is qualitatively different between the late nineties and now is the clarity of the ethnic faultline in Sri Lanka.” The paper, published Wednesday, argued “Since independence the island’s core problem has been Sinhala domination and … persecution, of the Tamils. In the global liberal bubble of the nineties, this fundamental truth was subsumed amidst the logics of underdevelopment, resource wars and so on.”
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India is our friend, we are not against any country, remove the hindrance of ban: Pirapaharan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2008, 12:31 GMT]
While conveying his love and gratitude to the people and leaders of Tamil Nadu and leaders of India who have grasped the heartbeat of Eezham Tamils and have come forward with timely support, the LTTE leader V.Pirapaharan in his Hero’s Day speech on Thursday requested them to voice firmly for Tamil Eelam and to undertake conducive measures to remove the ban, a great hindrance to amicable relationship between India and the LTTE. “At no stage did we ever consider India as an enemy force. Our people always consider India as our friend. They have great expectations that the Indian super power will take a positive stand on our national question”, he said. The LTTE leader also requested the world powers to remove the ban on it, citing that the LTTE never schemed any act against any country and the Tamil struggle is not against the geopolitical, national or economic interests of any country.
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President of RDS abducted in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2008, 09:01 GMT]
Unidentified armed men abducted the President of Karadippooval Rural Development Society (RDS) Sunday around 3:00 p.m after he had passed Vavu’natheevu Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp check post while returning home from Batticaloa town.
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Vaiko urges British Parliament to restore Eezham Tamil sovereignty

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2008, 19:06 GMT]
Vaiko, the general secretary of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam (MDMK) from Tamil Nadu, while addressing British parliamentarians of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Tamils on Wednesday in the British Parliament, said that the British Parliament has a moral responsibility to rectify the historic injustice caused on to the Eezham Tamils during the colonial rule. It was the British who statutorily put the Tamil and the Sinhala territories together in 1833, made Ceylon a unitary entity and refused to consider federalism in their constitutional reforms. When they left in 1948, they passed on the power to the Sinhala majoritarian rulers, he said.
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6 Tamil civilians including 4 in a family shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2008, 06:27 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed the parents, son and daughter Tuesday around 12:30 p.m in Ka’luvaangchchikkudi police division and in a separate shooting unidentified armed men shot and killed a young woman Tuesday around 9:15 p.m in Vaazhaichcheanai police division while unidentified armed men shot and killed a family man Tuesday around 11:00 p.m in Karadiyanaa’ru police division.
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Relief supplies from Tamil Nadu still not reached Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2008, 05:25 GMT]
Emergency relief supplies, sent by the efforts of Tamil Nadu people and their government, received in 100 containers in Colombo 11 days ago, have not reached Vanni due to the sabotage by the Sri Lankan military, a top government official, who did not wished to be named, told TamilNet. Severe flooding has cut off Vanni on Wednesday. However, contradicting to the ground reports, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi was made to believe that the supplies were reaching the affected civilians unhindered.
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