Pakistan ‘guiding’ Sri Lanka’s war

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 05:16 GMT]
A group of Pakistan Air Force officers stationed in Colombo have been guiding the Sri Lankan military in carrying out air-mounted operations against the LTTE, a former counter-terrorism chief of India’s External intelligence says. The Pakistani officers have also been involved in drawing up plans for a decapitation airstrike with bunker-buster bombs to kill LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan, B. Raman says. The appointment of recently retired Deputy Chief of the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) as Islamabad’s representative to Sri Lanka is a deepening of Pakistan’s support, he says, adding the move is a concern for India’s national security.
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Armed men destroy NGO office in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2006, 09:10 GMT]
A group of armed persons, believed to be paramilitary men working with Sri Lanka Army (SLA), entered the Jaffna District Secretariat of the NGO, Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), located on Temple Road, smashed the computers and accessories and set-fire to the building, destroying tools and data inside the office Wednesday night during the curfew hours. The TRO Jaffna office, opposite the UN officials' residence and close to many UN offices including UNHCR, UNICEF and UNDP, and several international organizations, is located 200 meters away from the SLA checkposts at Kailayapillayar temple.
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Eachchilampathu IDPs face dire shortage of food

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 August 2006, 03:18 GMT]
About 12 thousand internally displaced Tamils from 2956 families trapped in LTTE held villages in Eachchilampathu division in the Trincomalee district following continuous aerial bombardment and artillery fire directed by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from its military installations in east port town and its suburbs have been facing starvation as food and essential materials are not supplied by non-governmental organizations and the government agencies since the fighting broke out, civil sources said.
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SL Navy arrests Tamils fleeing to Tamil Nadu, Indian trawler seized

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 August 2006, 13:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy Saturday night arrested about 85 Tamil civilians including men, women and children fleeing in an Indian fishing trawler to seek refuge in Tamilnadu in India. The SLN sailors seized the Indian trawler with its three member crew all are Indian nationals in mid sea from the coast of Mannar.
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Colombo aggravates humanitarian crisis in NorthEast – NGO forum head

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 August 2006, 15:32 GMT]
Head of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) forum in Kilinochchi, Mr Ganesapillai, speaking at a press conference Wednesday accused the Sri Lankan government of deliberately blocking food and other supplies to civilians living in Vanni and Jaffna. "The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) is not allowing supply vehicles to pass through the check posts located at the entry points to the Vanni region. Governments agents for Jaffna, Kilinochchi, and Mullaitivu have requested the GOSL to instruct the SLA to open the roads so that all supplies can pass through to civilians in Vanni and Jaffna but the Colombo Government has been withholding issueing such directive," said Mr.Ganesapillai.
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GoSL's aid delivery, inequitable - Rev. Dr. Jeyanesan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 August 2006, 13:34 GMT]
Sri Lankan government does not treat alike the people of all communities, affected in war and Tsunami, in connection with relief distribution, and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is deliberately creating barriers to effective functioning of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in delivering relief to the affected, said Rev. Dr. Jeyanesan, the Coordinator of South Indian Missionary for Batticaloa District.
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Paduvankarai faces misery

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 August 2006, 12:20 GMT]
Tamil people living in LTTE controlled Paduvankarai area in Batticaloa District face starvation and danger of health hazards due to the closure of all the entry points to the LTTE controlled area from Military controlled Eluvankarai area by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) from 12 August, local residents said. "This act of collective punishment by the SLA has affected mostly the poorest civilians in the LTTE-controlled areas in Batticaloa," civil society sources in Batticaloa said.
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SLAF bombers destroy tsunami-boat yard

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 August 2006, 14:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers bombed and destroyed a boat yard, at Nellian in the Vadamaradchi East, around noon, Friday . The boat yard was built in February 2005 under 'Back to Sea' project, a Post Tsunami Rapid Rehabilitation Development Service, to help fishermen affected by 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Two workers were wounded in the attack. The boat yard was funded by the Norwegian and Malaysian branches of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).
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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister condemns Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 August 2006, 15:42 GMT]
Kalaignar M Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister (CM) of the southern Tamil Nadu state of India, has condemned the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombing in Vallipunam in Mullaithivu district in NorthEast Sri Lanka, where tens of schoolgirls were killed and more than 100 wounded Monday. Describing the SLAF air-strike as an "atrocious and inhumane act", the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state, home to 60 million Tamils in India, has urged the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, to request the Sri Lankan government to hold talks to settle the issue peacefully and stop killing innocent Tamils.
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Diaspora Tamils condemn Sencholai Attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 August 2006, 06:17 GMT]
Diaspora Tamils around the world held protest marches and vigils to condemn the aerial attack of Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) that reportedly killed 61 schoolgirls in Mullaithivu in Vanni, Tuesday. Participants urged the international community to intervene to stop the atrocities of Sri Lanka armed forces and paramilitaries against Tamils in the Northeast, organizers said.
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March for Peace campaign to be held in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 19:21 GMT]
A broad coalition of people against violence and war is to participate in a "March for Peace," organized by the National Anti-war Front (NAWF), that will begin at Hyde Park in Colombo at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, culminating in a peace rally at the Viharamahadevi open Air Theatre at 3.00 p.m, said a press release issued by the NAWF Chairman, Dr Kumar Rupesinghe.
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Vavuniya, Trinco observe hartal, mourning day for massacred children

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 08:20 GMT]
General shut down and the day of mourning day was observed in the districts of Vavuniya and Trincomalee Wednesday condemning the massacre of about sixty one children in Puthukudiruppu Sencholai children home in Mullaitivu district by Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), killing of seventeen workers of French NGO in Muthur by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and indiscriminate killing of Tamil civilians in the North East by the State armed forces, sources said.
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Canada expresses concern over Escalation of Hostilities in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 05:01 GMT]
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Peter MacKay, in a statement on Tuesday expressed concern regarding the escalation of hostilities in Sri Lanka. Canadian Tamils held a rally in front of his ministry in the capital Ottawa, demanding immediate action by Canada, on Monday, after Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombed the Sencholai children home in Mullaithivu where tens of teenage school girls were killed and more than a hundred wounded.
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Tamils protest against SL Government and SLA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 20:13 GMT]
Tamil residents of Batticaloa and Amparai districts, observed a one day Hartal (general shutdown) and a day of mourning Monday to condemn the Sri Lanka Government and the Sri Lanka Army for discriminating and repressing the Tamils in the region, civil society sources in Batticaloa said. Hartal was also intended to draw the attention of the international community to the desperate plight of the Tamils in the East, the organisers of the Hartal said.


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Day of mourning for teenagers killed in airstrike

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 09:50 GMT]
Tamils in the Vanni Tuesday mourned the 61 teenage schoolgirls killed in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombing Monday. Urging the international community to condemn the attack, the Tamileelam Students Association (TSA) said “there are no words strong enough to condemn the Sri Lankan government’s pre-meditated massacre of innocent school girls in a peaceful learning environment”
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ITRO condemns SLAF attack on "Peace Village" with 5 orphanages

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 13:42 GMT]
Chencholai Valaham is the campus among the orphanages at the Peace Village of Vallipunam, said the International Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (ITRO London), the representative body of the overseas offices of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation in a press statement condemning the Sri Lanka Air Force bombing that killed 61 schoolchildren and wounded more than 129. "The area is well known by all parties: the Government of Sri Lanka, the Government Agent, ICRC, UNICEF and all those who work in the Vanni," the organisation said urging the international community to condemn the bombing.
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Sri Lanka ‘blocking massacre probe’ - SLMM

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 12:13 GMT]
Sri Lankan authorities are deliberately hampering efforts to investigate the murder of 17 aid workers, some of whose relatives blame the military, the island's chief truce monitor said on Saturday. “I have experienced this in the Balkans before. When you're not let in, it's a sign that there's something they want to hide,” retired Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson, who heads the unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) told Reuters.
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"Restrain armed forces from killing civilians," TNA urges Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 11:26 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Friday wrote to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse urging him to restrain the Sri Lanka armed forces from killing innocent Tamil civilians, and to ensure proper action is taken against those responsible for such crimes.
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Protests in Jaffna Peninsula condemn SLA atrocities

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 08:36 GMT]
Protests against Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the Jaffna Peninsula are becoming widespread with people showing solidarity in their disapproval for the violence on innocent civilians perpetrated by the SLA. Student protests demanding removal of SLA presence near schools and other protests against SLA violence in Muttur and the killing of health care professionals, have increased in the last several days, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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Swiss Tamils hold month long awareness program of Black July

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 00:01 GMT]
Tamil Forum Swiss, a confederation of 26 Tamil organizations in Switzerland, has been conducting a month long publicity and awareness program in different regions of Switzerland from 24 July, the remembrance day of the July Massacre in 1983, organizers said.
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