STF assaults, injures LTTE political head for Amparai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 11:32 GMT]
Mr. S Kuyilinban, head of LTTE's political division for Amparai was admitted to Kalmunai Hospital with serious injuries after he was severely assaulted by Special Task Force commandos at a Tsunami refugee camp 76 kilometres south of Batticaloa Monday. Two LTTE political workers were also seriously injured when the STF assaulted brutally at the Mandaanai Tsunami refugee camp in the Thirukkovil area. The injured LTTE political officer and his colleagues were transferred from Amparai Hospital to Kalmunai for fear of their safety, the LTTE media spokesman for Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

LTTE's Vavuniya political office bombed

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 02:14 GMT]
Three persons were injured in grenade attack on the political office of the Liberation Tigers in Vavuniya town Monday morning around 5.30. Police said. The wounded were a security guard at an adjacent weaving centre and two civilian employees at the LTTE political office. The unidentified assailants got away, Police said.
Full story >>

Suspected paramilitary cadres kill pedestrian

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 March 2005, 16:48 GMT]
Gunmen suspected to be members of a paramilitary group shot dead a man Sunday evening around 4.45 in Chenkalady, 16 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Police said. The gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on Mr. Nadarajah Supenthiran, 26 of Kannankudah, an LTTE held village 6 kilometres west of Batticaloa town, at point blank range when he was walking down Kanapathipillai Road in Chenkalady, Eravur Police said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka army SF suspected in murder of civilians – LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 March 2005, 15:23 GMT]
Two civilians were knifed to death Saturday night in the Kudumbimalai area, about forty kilometres northwest of Batticaloa, a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers said. “We strongly suspect the hand of Sri Lanka army Special Forces in the murder. Evidence points in that direction. The two men were persons who had volunteered from the Sithaandy village to help us stop the plunder of sand and timber from their area”, he said. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) claimed Sunday that six were killed in clashes between LTTE troopers and a paramilitary group in Batticaloa on Saturday.
Full story >>

War memorial declared open in Ithathavil, Pallai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 March 2005, 12:39 GMT]
A memorial hall housing a destroyed SLA tank in Ithavil, a village along the A9, 3 km north of Pallai, was declared open Saturday morning 9.30 AM by LTTE's commander for northern front forces, Col. Theepan. The SLA tank which was destroyed in LTTE offensive "Unceasing Waves III" symbolises the landmark Ithavil battle that breached the Main Supply Route (MSR) life-line to the Elephant Pass (EPS) garrison, said LTTE's commander for northern front forces, Col. Theepan, who declared the memorial hall opened.
Full story >>

Poverty alleviation woes highlighted

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2005, 18:23 GMT]
An organisation for the 'Samurdhi' poverty alleviation program officers in Sri Lanka's northeast and in the Nuwara Eliya District was inaugurated Friday in Vavuniya. Thousands of people living in poverty in several districts of the northeast do not receive any benefit under this program, according to the governers of the new organisation. The Samurdhi program is also affected by a shortage of field officers in the north.
Full story >>

LTTE committed to CFA and Flexible in Joint Mechanism, says Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2005, 06:55 GMT]
LTTE’s commitment to maintain the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with integrity and exercising flexibility in the matter of formulating proposals for a Joint Mechanism, remains undiluted, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan who heads the LTTE's top-delegation on the European mission, was quoted as saying by the LTTE website to the Austrian Government officials in Vienna on Thursday.
Full story >>

NPC urges Colombo to disprove Government support to Karuna group

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2005, 09:36 GMT]
Pointing out the existence of a camp manned by militants of the Karuna group in Government-controlled territory that borders the north east, the National Peace Council (NPC), a Colombo based Sri Lankan peace group, in a media release issued on Thursday, called on the Government to disprove the allegations regarding its support for the Karuna group immediately and ensure that no such camps are permitted to exist in the territory it controls. Cease Fire Agreement between the GoSL and the LTTE in its clause 1.8 prohibits armed paramilitaries in the NorthEast. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been accused of collaborating with paramilitaries to promote internecine violence in the east.
Full story >>

NESOHR Deputy refutes Kadirgamar's statement at the UN

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 23:56 GMT]
Mr. K. Sivapalan, Attorney-at-Law and Deputy Chairperson of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights, on Wednesday refuted the recent statement made by Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar at the 61st Sessions of the UN Commission on Human Rights. There were several misleading and wrong facts in Kadirgamar's address, Mr. Sivapalan, told the UN Commission.
Full story >>

JVP will never quit UPFA government, Kadirgamar assures to BBC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
Throwing his weight fully behind the radical Sinhala nationalistic Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition in the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance government, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, in a live television interview with the BBC on Tuesday said that the JVP is for the negotiated political settlement with the LTTE and assured that it would never quit the ruling coalition in this regard.
Full story >>

LTTE delegation in Bern, meets with Foreign Affairs officials

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 12:09 GMT]
The delegation led by Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, the head of political section of the LTTE, on Wednesday, met with Ambassador Thomas Greminger, Head of Political Affairs Division IV (Human Security), Switzerlands Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and discussed the post-tsunami joint mechanism and the current state of peace process.
Full story >>

Media report of British pressure false -Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 10:52 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers' Chief Negotiator and Political Advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham Tuesday dismissed claims in a Sri Lankan newspaper that British authorities had pressured him to secure the release of a Tamil resident of the UK which the paper also claimed had been detained by the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka. A columnist in The Sunday Leader claimed this week that British intelligence officials had threatened Mr. Balasingham on behalf of Mr. Rajasingham Jeyadevan after the latter was detained by the LTTE.
Full story >>

Resettled families urge not to stop issue of dry ration

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2005, 15:05 GMT]
Hundreds of residents of Islets in the Jaffna district Monday held a demonstration in front of the Velanai divisional secretariat demanding that they should be provided with dry ration without interruption instead of taking steps to suspend it, civil sources said.
Full story >>

Three injured in predawn attack on paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2005, 05:12 GMT]
Three paramilitary cadres of the Karuna Group were wounded in a predawn attack by gunmen suspected to be Liberation Tigers Monday in Theevuchenai, an interior hamlet near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border, Police said. The wounded paramilitary cadres, including a man identified as ‘Mangalam Master’, were admitted to Polannaruwa Base Hospital Monday morning, Welikanda Police sources said. On Sunday, Sri Lanka army (SLA) spokesman denied a report in a Colombo weekend paper that the Karuna Group was running a camp in Theevuchenai, an area controlled by the SLA.
Full story >>

"War and Peace" released in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 12:26 GMT]
The book "War and Peace" authored by LTTE political strategist Mr.Anton Balasingham was released Saturday evening at an event held at the Kailasapathi auditorium of the Jaffna University. Mr.E.Puviraj, President of the International Federation of Tamil Eelam Students presided. Professor C.Mohanathas, Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University lit the common flame of sacrifice followed by the Chief Librarian. LTTE deputy political head Mr.S.Thangan hoisted the Thamileelam National Flag, sources said.
Full story >>

Colombo paper exposes paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 10:55 GMT]
Colombo-based English newspaper, the Sunday Leader, in its latest edition, has exposed the presence of a paramilitary camp at Theevuchenai in the SLA-held area of the Polonnaruwa district. The paper said its reporters visited last week the village lying about 10 km north of the Harabarana-Valaichenai highway from Sevenapitiya.
Full story >>

Tilak Karunaratne withdraws petition against MoU

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 08:27 GMT]
One of the three petitions filed in the Court of Appeal challenging the constitutional validity of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the then Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mr.V.Pirapaharan leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was withdrawn last week, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Tamils risk turning violence inwards- Prof Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:20 GMT]
Although the three years of relative peace after the signing of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the United National Party (UNP) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) has demonstrated that violence and war is not necessary to mediate relations between warring parties, the same period has "also proved that Tamil society ran the risk of turning violence inwards, against itself," writes Prof Uyangoda in an article appearing in the Saturday edition of Daily Mirror.
Full story >>

"No hope for Tamils within a united Sri Lanka" - Verena Graf tells UN Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 21:28 GMT]
"The developments during the last three years compounded by the post-tsunami experiences raise the specter that time is running out; that there is no hope for the Tamils within a united Sri Lanka, that their only chance lies in fighting for external self-determination," Ms. Verena Graf, Secretary General of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, a Geneva based NGO with Special Consultative Status at the United Nations, said in her oral statement on Friday at UN Commission's 61st session on Human Rights.
Full story >>

LTTE delegation meets EU's Deputy Director for External Relations

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 05:23 GMT]
The delegation led by Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, the head of political section of the LTTE, on Thursday, met with Mr. Hervé Jouanjean, the Deputy Director for External Relations for the European Union and discussed the post-tsunami joint mechanism and the current state of peace process.
Full story >>