Eastern killings threaten cease fire- truce monitors

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 13:47 GMT]
“ Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) perceives the recent killings in the eastern parts of the country as a direct threat to the CFA and the Peace Process" said the Nordic truce monitors in a statement issued Tuesday. "SLMM monitors are currently making inquires into all the incidents. However, it is important to underline that the SLMM is tasked to monitor and assist the parties in implementing the Ceasefire Agreement. SLMM is not here to conduct police investigations" the statement added.
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EU commissioner hopeful of LTTE, GoSL joint mechanism for aid delivery

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2005, 18:04 GMT]
The European union's commissioner for external relations Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner met the Srilankan President Chandrika kumaratunga Monday and said "she hopes...that the Government would soon evolve a joint mechanism to ensure the equitable distribution of aid to all affected areas," in a press release issued in Colombo.
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Kodikamam Police force entry, search LTTE office

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2005, 17:00 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Monday evening lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna that a group of Sri Lanka Policemen had forcibly entered its Kodikamam Political Office Monday morning around 10.45 a.m. and conducted search operation without informing the SLMM, sources said.
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JVP demands World Bank Country Director to be removed from Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2005, 04:04 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sri Lanka's powerful Marxist Sinhala nationalist party and President Chandrika Kumaratunga's main coalition partner in the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, has demanded the World Bank to remove its Country Representative, Mr. Peter Harrold, from Sri Lanka. The JVP in a statement issued on Sunday accused that the World Bank Representative had "overstepped his duties" by making a statement to a newspaper indicating that Rs. 6 billion of the post-tsunami aid for the LTTE-held areas in the North-East would be disbursed through state agencies in consultation with the LTTE.
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GoSL, LTTE must grasp opportunities for reconciliation- Prof Oberst

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 March 2005, 23:08 GMT]
While stressing the importance of "the Norwegian effort to create a joint government-LTTE mechanism to be successful" for Sri Lanka to recover from the tsunami disaster, and expressing hope that "UN special ambassador and former U.S. president Bill Clinton will be able to bring the two sides together to work towards rebuilding of the devastated areas," Professor Oberst pointed out that "[The] sad reality of the Sri Lankan conflict has been the remarkable ability of both sides to allow opportunities for peace and reconciliation to slip away from their grasp," when he talked to TamilNet this week commenting on post-tsunami development in Sri Lanka.
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IDPs demand resettlement in HSZ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 March 2005, 14:33 GMT]
Vadamaradchi East Fisheries Co-operative Societies Union (VEFCSU) has requested the Government of Sri Lanka to take immediate steps to allow all Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) to resettle in their own lands in Nagarkovil West, Nagarkovil East, Nagarkovil South and Amban East, which are located inside the high security zone (HSZ), sources said.
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Karuna Group kills six civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 March 2005, 03:03 GMT]
Four Muslims, a Singhalese and a supporter of the Liberation Tigers were shot dead by gunmen suspected to be from the paramilitary Karuna Group in Kolakunaweli, in the Welikanda area, 65 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa Saturday night around 8.45, Police said. A Muslim man, a muslim woman and a Singhalese were wounded in the shooting. The Karuna Group had attacked the Muslims and Singhalese for providing information to the Liberation Tigers about its activities in the Welikanda area, Police sources said. The gunmen massacred the civilians in place by the Polannaruwa-Batticaloa highway, about 300 metres from Kolkunaweli Police post.
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UNICEF has erred - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 18:47 GMT]
The question of child soldiers continues to vex strained relations between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers. That the matter has been raised against the Tigers by the UN and other rights organizations is considered by Colombo as a feather in its foreign policy cap. "The Government of Sri Lanka is more interested in cynically exploiting the child soldiers issue for its black propaganda war against us than in finding a political solution to the conflict", said Mr. S. P . Thamilchelvan in an interview with the TamilNet this week. He said there were serious errors in the UNICEF report on child recruitment by the LTTE.
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Jaffna agitation to student's death, spontaneous- Ilamparithi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 18:31 GMT]
Refuting allegations by Sri Lanka military that "LTTE was behind the public protest after the death of a student by an army vehicle," Head of LTTE Political Wing for Jaffna district, Mr Ilamparithy said "not a single political cadre of the LTTE was involved in the public agitation" in a press release issued Saturday after an LTTE delegation met with Sri Lanka Army delegation, sources said. The meeting was arranged by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in an effort to bring the tensed climate in Jaffna under control after the death of Vembadi Girls School student Thulashika and a civilian who was shot dead allegedly by Sri Lanka Police Friday.
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Thousands attend Thulashika's funeral

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 17:31 GMT]
Amid tight security provided by Sri Lanka Police, thousands of civilians including Mr.C.Ilamparithi, LTTE Jaffna district political head and several Jaffna district Tamil national Alliance parliamentarians, educationists and civil leaders Saturday paid their last respects to Miss Nagendran Thulashika, student of Jaffna Vembadi Girls College, who was killed by an army vehicle Friday morning in the Jaffna, civil sources said.
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Army desecrates Muslim cemetery, Pulmoddai villagers protest

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 15:41 GMT]
Residents of traditional Muslim village of Pulmoddai closed their shops, set up road blocks, and burnt tyres Saturday protesting against the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for forcibly digging their cemetery and removing human remains out of the burial sites, sources said. Pulmoddai village is located about 65 km, north of Trincomalee town on the border area close to Mullaitivu district.
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Norwegian ambassador meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 13:35 GMT]
Mr.Hans Brattskar, Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Saturday met with Head of LTTE Politicial Wing S.P Thamilchelvan at the LTTE Peace Secretariat, sources in Kilinochchi said. The Ambassador expressed his Government's concern and condemnation over the killing LTTE political cadres in the east, during the meeting and when he later met with journalists in Killinochchi, sources said.
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LTTE member killed in Batticaloa ambush

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 12:07 GMT]
A member of the Liberation Tigers was killed in an ambush near Kirumichchai, 48 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Saturday morning around 10. "He was killed in an ambush by the Sri Lanka army (SLA) in an area that is under our control. It about three kilometres from the SLA's Cadjuwatte camp", said an LTTE official in Batticaloa. "A Sri Lanka army helmet was found at the scene of the ambush," he said.
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JVP sets up illegal Sinhala settlements, Trincomalee tense

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2005, 11:48 GMT]
Tension is mounting in the eastern port city of Trincomalee Thursday as members of radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major constituent of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, attempt to construct small houses to settle Sinhalese people in State land in a portion of the esplanade of the urban council in the heart of Trincomalee town, civil sources said. Tension escalated Thursday afternoon as groups of Tamil youth blocked traffic by placing blockades on roads protesting the encroachment.
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Gunman who shot Kuveni worked for SLA intelligence – paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 March 2005, 05:00 GMT]
The gunman who allegedly shot and grievously wounded head of Liberation Tigers’ political division for Batticaloa-Amparai (women), Ms. Kuveni and two female LTTE political activists, was a former Sri Lanka military intelligence operative, the Tamil daily Virakesari said Thursday quoting Sri Lanka army Headquarters sources. The man, now in Police custody, has been identified as Mr. Johnson Jeyakanthan (also known as ‘Pratheepan’) who had worked as an informant for Sri Lanka military intelligence, the paper quoted SLA Headquarters sources as saying.


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Thousands march in Jaffna, urge talks, condemn attacks on LTTE activists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2005, 12:39 GMT]
More than twenty thousand people marched in Jaffna Wednesday urging the international community to persuade the Sri Lankan government to restart the long stalled peace talks with the Liberation Tigers. The march condemned the killing and shooting of LTTE political leaders and called on Colombo to set up a joint mechanism with the Tigers for the equitable distribution of Tsunami aid to the northeast. Jaffna peninsula was shut down until the march, which wound through the northern town from morning 10.45, concluded in the afternoon.
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Sri Lanka Taxes, bureaucracy limit flow of Tsunami relief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2005, 00:48 GMT]
In camps off the North-East coast of Sri Lanka, over 300,000 people drink water from bowsers brought in from kilometres away. Dependant on an unsustainable water source, they are unaware of the NGOs' struggle with Sri Lanka's bureacracy and fight against Government's mechanisms to throttle relief reaching NorthEast. Nor are the refugees aware of the heavy duties paid to clear high-tech water filtration systems and relief supplies that would otherwise either collect dust in a customs warehouse or distributed to other areas at the fancies of Sri Lanka's Social Services Ministry officials.
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Jaffna to hold protest march

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2005, 16:10 GMT]
Jaffna District Civil Organizations Consortium (JDCOC) Tuesday called for a protest march on Wednesday condemning the violence against political cadres of LTTE by the para military groups supporting the Sri Lanka government armed forces and the discrimination in providing relief to tsunami victims. The protest march will commence from Jaffna University Wednesday morning around 10 a.m. and will conclude in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat, sources said.
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Attacks on LTTE political leaders serious and disturbing - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2005, 15:46 GMT]
"The continuing killing and shooting of our senior political leaders is a very serious and disturbing matter", said Mr. S.P Thamilchelvan, head of LTTE's political division, in a message conveyed to the Norwegian government through its ambassador in Colombo Tuesday night. "The killing of Mr. Kousalyan and the attack on Ms. Kuveni, both senior political leaders of the LTTE, since the Tsunami is casting a dark shadow over the peace process", said Mr. Puleedevan, secretary general of the LTTE peace secretariat.
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Wounded LTTE political activists flown to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 March 2005, 13:21 GMT]
Liberation Tigers said the three wounded female political activists who were shot by gunmen on Sri Lanka were airlifted to Colombo for further treatment Tuesday evening. Ms. Kuveni, head of LTTE's political division (women) for Batticaloa-Amparai was seriously wounded along with two of her colleagues when gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on the near Akkaraipattu, 64 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Monday evening. LTTE charged that the gunmen were working in collusion with Sri Lankan armed forces.
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