Collegues vow to carry on policies of slain MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 18:31 GMT]
Speaking in the presence of large number of civilians gathered in Jaffna on Wednesday to pay their last respects to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Late Raviraj Nadaraj, fellow parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran accused an armed group linked to Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) as directly responsible for the killing of Raviraj,sources in Jaffna said.
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India trains jet bomber support crews

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 09:46 GMT]
India is training a third batch of six Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel at Chandigarh, Punjab to support Colombo’s plans to expand its jet bomber fleet, the Times of India reported this week. Sri Lanka plans to purchase four more jet bombers from Russia and, in preparation, SLAF personnel are being put through three months of instruction. The latest group began training on October 14, despite outrage in Tamil Nadu over the targeting of civilians by SLAF bombers in which over a hundred people have been killed this year.
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Hartal observed in Batticaloa, Amparai to protest Raviraj killing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 22:33 GMT]
General shut down was observed in Batticaloa and Amparai districts on Tuesday as a mark of protest against the killing of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Jaffna district Nadarajah Raviraj and remembering his services to the society, civil sources in Batticaloa said. The hartal organized by Batticaloa-Amparai Tamil National Forum and Student Consortium.
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Up-country Tamils shun work mourning Raviraj's assassination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 11:55 GMT]
Tamil workers shunned work Tuesday in the central Sri Lanka, and a complete shut down was observed in all the up-country towns, as a mark of protest against the assassination of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Raviraj and the Vaharai killings of Internally Displaced People (IDPs), Hatton sources said. P. Chandrasegaran, Minister and the leader of Up-country People's Front (UPF) organised the protest.
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Thousands pay homage to Raviraj in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 01:58 GMT]
"Raviraj was a leader who fought for Tamils' rights and gave a democratic voice to their struggle. The Sri Lanka Government should hold itself responsible for Ravraj's assassination," said Rajitha Senaratne, United National Party parliamentarian for Colombo, addressing a public meeting organised by the Anti-War Front at Vihara Mahadevi Park in Colombo held Monday evening around 4:20 p.m held to pay homage to the slain Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Raviraj, sources Colombo said.
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Raviraj worked for Tamil, Muslim unity- Muslim Federation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2006, 15:55 GMT]
The Federation of All Mosques and Organizations in Eastern Province (FAMOEP), in a statement issued Saturday, expressed its deep sorrow over the death of Mr.Nadarajah Raviraj, and said "Muslims of North East revere Raviraj as a Tamil leader who had given an important place in his heart for the well-being of Muslims." The statement was signed by FAMOEP President Alhaj Moulavi S.L.M.Haniffa.
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Colombo's Law, order machinery collapsing- Rights Groups

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2006, 14:58 GMT]
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expressed shock at the "further intensification of violence in Sri Lanka with the assassination of a Member of Parliament, Nadarajah Raviraj...and the killings of the civilians at Vakarai in the Batticaloa district," a UK-based Tamil Rights group said Raviraj's killing in the Capital indicated "chaotic law and order situation and the lack of human protection in Sri Lanka," while California-based Humanitarian Law Project (HLP) described Vaharai killings as a "war crime", in statements issued to the press in the aftermath of the assassination of Tamil parliamentarian, Friday.
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Tamil Americans call for moratorium on military aid to Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2006, 03:12 GMT]
Expressing condemnation over killing of at least 65 internally displaced people (IDPs) who were seeking shelter in a school in Vakarai by the government of Sri Lanka," a joint press release issued by Tamil organizations in the US Friday, called upon the international community to "impose a moratorium on military assistance to GOSL," and urged "the co-chairs of the peace process to explore modalities that will allow the peoples on the island of Sri Lanka to live with dignity, to determine their political and economic future without interference, and to ensure regional security."
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GoSL should take responsibility for Raviraj's assassination - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 14:03 GMT]
R. Sampanthan, Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said Friday in Colombo to the press, "Raviraj's assassination is a clear attempt by the paramilitary operating with the Sri Lanka Army to stifle the Tamil parliamentarians' voice in and out of the Parliament to inform the International Community of the Sri Lanka Government's genocide against the Tamils." Sampanthan further said, "Almost an year has passed since the assassination of Batticaloa parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingam and the Sri Lanka government is yet to bring the killers to book. This reveals the covert connections the government has with them."
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LTTE Political Head condemns Raviraj assassination in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 11:02 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Political Head S.P.Thamilchelvan condemned the assassination of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj and accused the Sri Lankan state as responsible for the systematic slaying of humanitarian and democratic voices of Tamils. "Mr. Raviraj was slain in Colombo where he voiced against the abductions and killings carried out by the Sri Lankan military and it's paramilitaries," he said.
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Tamil Parliamentarian Raviraj assassinated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 03:43 GMT]
Nadarajah Raviraj, 44, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian was shot in Colombo around 8:30 a.m. Friday. The MP succumbed to his wounds at Colombo National Hospital. A lawyer turned politician, former mayor of Jaffna, Mr. Raviraj, elected twice, has been an outspoken parliamentarian who voiced against the extra-judicial killings and forced disapperances in NorthEast and Colombo. The parliamentarian took part in a demonstration Thursday against the Sri Lanka Army shelling in Vaharai where 47 Tamil civilians, Internally Displaced from Trincomalee, were killed, Wednesday.
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Stop genocide against Tamils - TNA appeals to UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 01:20 GMT]
19 Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians led by Mr. R. Sampanthan, Leader of the TNA Parliamentary group and Member of Parliament for Trincomalee district, protested Thursday at 11:00 a.m in front of United Nations office in Colombo condemning the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bombing of Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Vaharai and Kathiravelli, killing 53 civilians and seriously injuring 127, sources in Colombo said. The protesters urged the United Nations to urgently intervene to stop the "genocide against Tamils let loose by the Sri Lanka government."
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SLA arrests eight men in Kottawa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 16:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and police cordoned off and searched Kottawa area in Colombo Wednesday around 08:10 a.m arresting eight persons including six Tamils in connection with the recovery of a 40 mm hand grenade found on the top of a building in Kottawa area, said Kottawa police.
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TNA calls on Sri Lanka to uphold 1987 merger

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 November 2006, 15:20 GMT]
Saying that the Sri Lankan state’s recognition of the Tamils’ historical existence as a people living in the Northeast of the island was realised in the establishment of the Northeast province in 1987, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), charged Tuesday that it was the duty of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government to uphold the merger as it constituted a recognition of Tamil grievances. The TNA is expected to pass a resolution as Sri Lankan Prime Minister is reported to have told the Parliament Tuesday that a "future merger" would be dependent on a referendum in the East.
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Lack of Tamil proficiency impedes prompt action by SL police- IGP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 November 2006, 09:33 GMT]
The Sri Lanka police constables and officials lack proficiency in Tamil language, and therefore, are unable to take prompt and right action on the complaints made by the Tamils regarding abductions, disappearance, killings, and other law and order concerns of Tamils, said Inspector General of Police (IGP), Victor Perera, in a press meet held in Colombo Monday.


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Tamils forced to leave homes at Habarana

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2006, 13:22 GMT]
Many Tamils, living in the Habarana area where more than 100 Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) troopers were killed in a blast of a pickup truck loaded with explosives on October 16, are moving out of their homes as many Tamils are being arrested in the frequent cordon and search operations held in the area by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the police.
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Co-Chairs’ failure to condemn bombing will fuel violence - IFT

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2006, 16:22 GMT]
Geneva based Tamil diaspora federation, International Federation of Tamils (IFT), criticising the Co-Chair's "failure" to condemn the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) airstrike on the environs of Kilinochchi hospital which killed five people, the IFT warned the weak international response “will encourage Sri Lanka to continue such attacks with impunity.”
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Colombo emboldened by international support - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2006, 15:02 GMT]
Uncritical international support for the Sri Lankan government in its campaign against the Liberation Tigers contributed greatly to the collapse of the peace talks in Geneva last weekend, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its latest editorial. “When even the US publicly declares that it is backing Sri Lanka [against the LTTE], why wouldn’t Colombo have adopted the intransigent and belligerent stand it did?”
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Jaffna Bishop calls for urgent help to avert humanitarian disaster

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 November 2006, 00:30 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Savundara- nayagam, has sent an urgent telegram Thursday to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse requesting him to immediately open a landroute to Jaffna peninsula to allow the flow of desperately needed food and other essential materials to Jaffna residents, civil society sources in Jaffna said Thursday.
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India should lift ban on LTTE - Kuldip Nayar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2006, 22:04 GMT]
Kuldip Nayar, the noted Indian journalist and head of the Indian Peace Mission to Sri Lanka called on India to lift the ban on the LTTE and engage it politically in order to bring lasting peace to the war-torn island, the Hindustan Times reported.
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