Goons attack journalist in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 July 2008, 20:17 GMT]
A journalist attached to the Daily Mirror newspaper, Yohan Perera, was manhandled by 'political goons,' while he was on coverage of the demolition of unauthorized structures in Slave Island, Colombo, by the urban development Authority Friday, media sources in Colombo said. The demolition comes as Sri Lankan authorities were preparing to host the SAARC summit in Colombo.
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Abductee recovered dead in EPDP office premises in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 July 2008, 12:14 GMT]
A shop owner, who was abducted by the paramilitary EPDP group in Chengkaladi in Ea'raavoor police division on June 19, was found dead and his body was recovered Thursday in the backyard of the EPDP office, which is guarded by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) of the Kommaathu'rai camp. The location was discovered following the information revealed by the EPDP personnel to the TMVP paramilitary operatives in a 'Police interrogation', according to informed sources. An EPDP person, Kaliyappan Gunaseelan, who was abducted by the TMVP, after Sureshkumar's disappearance, was recovered dead near a pond in Vaazhaichcheanai on 27 June.
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73 IDP families to be resettled in Moothoor east

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 July 2008, 08:05 GMT]
A group of Tamil families fled from Moothoor east in Trincomalee district to Batticaloa with the launching of military operation by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on their villages in 2006 are to be resettled Friday.220 members of 73 families are to be brought by the eight buses via Vaakarai-Verukal road to their villages in three Grama Sevaka divisions, Paddaalipuram, Pa'l'likkudiyiruppu and Nallur, resettlement authority officials said.
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LTTE, SLA exchange artillery fire in Jaffna FDLs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 11:38 GMT]
From early morning 6:00 a.m. till late evening Tuesday, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers exchanged continuous artillery fire in Forward Defense Lines in Mukamaalai and Naakarkoyil areas, sources in Jaffna said. Cellular phone networks were disabled during the day, and passenger air-line flights were also suspended from noon. Jaffna was tensed as residents feared breakout of war.
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Massacre grave unearthed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 07:03 GMT]
A mass grave, containing skeletons bearing gunshot wounds, has been discovered Wednesday morning at Paalameenmeadu, 6 km north of Batticaloa city, near a Tsunami resettlement. The grave was found after the IDPs, who were engaged in digging wells near their camp, unearthed body parts in one of the wells Monday. At least 32 pieces of skeletons have been recovered with cloths since 9:30 a.m., when Judge B. Ramakannan from Batticaloa visited the massacre site with Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) M.M.A. Rahman and the Police. The site, located 1.5 km from a Sri Lankan military post, manned by police and later by the Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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Karuna visits Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 01:12 GMT]
The leader of Thamil Makkal Viduthali Puligal (TMVP) Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, visited Batticaloa Tuesday and met TMVP operatives at the office in Meenagam, sources in Batticaloa said.
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TNA: Jaffna Pass system violates basic human rights

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 July 2008, 15:43 GMT]
Maavai Senathirajah, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Jaffna in a letter to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse, protested that procedures instituted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials for Jaffna residents to obtain a “Pass” to travel out of Jaffna require several days, and are causing “tremendous hardships” to the public and demanded immediate withdrawal of the pass system. He accused Colombo of suppressing freedom of movement and of grossly violating basic human rights.
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SLA approval mandatory for Vadamaraadchi development projects

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 July 2008, 01:39 GMT]
The commanding officer of 52nd Division of Sri Lanka Army (SLA), in a letter sent to the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) Friday, has instructed the GA to obtain permission from SLA before implementing any projects in SLA- controlled Vadamaaradchi East.
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British Foreign Minister to meet Pillayan - reports

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 19:40 GMT]
Britain’s Foreign Minister, Lord Malloch-Brown, is to meet Pillayan (Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan), Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and leader of the Army-backed paramilitary group, the TMVP, Sri Lankan press reports said. Lord Malloch-Brown is on a four day visit to Sri Lanka this week, The Island newspaper said.
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Two milk vendors missing in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 18:02 GMT]
Two milk vendors from Akkaraippattu police division have been reported missing since Saturday early morning 4:00 a.m., Vimalavathy, wife of one of victims, stated in a complaint lodged with Akkaraippattu police. The relatives of the victims have also reported the disappearances to the nearby Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps.
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Grand finale for Pongku Thamizh in London

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2008, 02:41 GMT]
Around 30,000 people attended the Pongku Thamizh (Tamil Upsurge) rally in London at the Rorehampton Vale sports ground on Saturday, choking traffic in one of the highways, said the organisers. A number of British parliamentarians cutting across party lines, international representatives of liberation movements, rights activists, and politicians from Tamil and Sinhala communities addressed the event, and sent messages in support of the event. Even by conservative estimates, nearly 150,000 Tamils of North America, Europe, Africa and Australia have so far demonstrated their support to the cause of Eezham during the last one-month through Pongku Thamizh 2008.
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Moothoor IDPs resettled in Veeramaanakar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2008, 02:30 GMT]
A group of 135 members from 44 Tamil families who fled from the Moothoor east during the 2006 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensives, and sheltered in temporary structures in several welfare centres located in Manmunai North, Aarayampathi and Kaluwaanchikgudi, were resettled in their village, Veeramanagar in Pattalipuram Grama Sevak division in Moothoor, divisional secretariat sources said.
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6 Tamil civilians arrested in Buttala

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2008, 02:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police in a joint cordon and search operation conducted along Buttala-Kathirkaamam road Saturday arrested six Tamil civilians Saturday, sources said. The search was triggered by the attack Friday morning on a passenger bus by a group of unidentified gunmen that killed four commuters and wounded 26 others.
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SLA deploys night recon flights to deter LTTE troop buildup

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 July 2008, 19:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Security forces, in a new security plan to reinforce defences in the Northern Forward Defense Lines (FDLs), have been deploying Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopters and new generation Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in reconnaissance missions along the FDLs during nights, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna residents have reported seeing spy aircrafts near Vadamaraachi East and West, Kaangkeasanthurai, and near Jaffna lagoon, during the last few days.
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Large scale SLA cordon, search in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2008, 15:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna peninsula launched large scale cordon and search operations Friday morning till evening in areas of Vadamaraadchi including Uduppiddi and Valveddiththu'rai, residents of Vadamaraadchi said. Vehicular traffic on main roads were blocked with SLA Buffel armoured personnel carriers and battle tanks from Palaali military complex, and the people were subjected to intensive search. The escalation of small scale attacks on SLA in the peninsula in recent times have triggered this intensified search, according to informed sources.
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Bus attacked in Buttala, 4 killed, 25 wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2008, 06:43 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen Friday morning attacked a passenger bus, killing two females and a 12-year-old child in Buttala, Police said. 26 passengers were wounded in the attack and one of the wounded succumbed to injuries later. The bus was plying from Buttala to Kathirkaamam (Kataragama). The injured were rushed to Kathirkaamam hospital and 19 of them later transferred to Hambantota hospital.
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'Conversations in a Failing State'

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2008, 04:00 GMT]
Towards the end of 19th century, the renowned American writer Mark Twain visited Colombo. While he was admiring the plurality of colour in the native dresses, somewhere in Pettah, he saw native children coming out of an English school, in line, in white uniform and in the same hairdo. ‘What an ugly scene’, he wrote, being sad at the way colonial institutions depriving natives of their pluralism. More than a century later, Patrick Lawrence, another American, comes to Sri Lanka to record the net results, a failed nationalism and a failed state, as consequences of the loss of pluralism.
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SLA threats put damper on general strike in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2008, 01:06 GMT]
Amidst threats issued by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops, the general strike in the North fizzled out without any significant impact on the daily activities of the public, service sector, and work at Government offices, sources said. Though tension prevailed in the peninsula in the morning, the situation turned normal late morning, with a heavy intimidatory presence of SLA troops spread across the peninsula.
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13th anniversary of Navaali church massacre observed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 July 2008, 09:49 GMT]
Thousands of family members and friends participated in the 13th memorial mass and prayers held Wednesday in Navaali St. Peter's Church and Navaali Chinnakk Kathirkaama Murukan Koayil in remembrance of the 147 persons including women and children killed 9 July 1995 when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets dropped thirteen bombs on people who had sought safety in the above places of worship.
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Displaced family man abducted in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 July 2008, 17:24 GMT]
An internally displaced Tamil family man sheltered in the refugee camp located in Zahira College in Batticaloa police division was abducted Sunday evening by unidentified armed persons. 35 year-old Selvarajah Sritharan left the refugee camp to buy milk food to his one-year old child but he failed to return thereafter, according to a complaint lodged by his wife with the Batticaloa police. Zahira College is located about 1.5 km north of Batticaloa town.
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