LTTE report details 174 killings by SL forces, paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 07:17 GMT]
174 Tamil civilians have been killed, since Geneva talks on 24 February till 15 May, 2006, by the Sri Lankan armed forces and their paramilitaries, according to a 16-page report, with statistics, issued by the Political Head Quarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on Tuesday. The report said unless the Scandinavian truce monitors become more proactive in ruling extrajudicial killings for what they are, a heavy burden will be on SLMM shoulders and on the shoulders of the International Community for failing to stop the slaughter of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan Armed forces. The report details the pattern of paramilitary and Sri Lankan forces extrajudicial killings.
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Protests in Kilinochchi against extra-judicial killings

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 10:49 GMT]
Demonstrations were held in Killinochchi town and Visuvamadu Tuesday morning condemning the extra-judicial killings of Tamil civilians in the North East by the Sri Lankan government troops. Protesters condemned the inaction of the international organizations to stop the massacres and appealed to the international community to intervene without delay to safeguard innocent Tamils from the attack by the Sri Lankan government troops and collaborating paramilitaries, civil sources said.
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International silence is encouraging killings - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 06:38 GMT]
The international community's continuing reluctance to criticise Sri Lanka’s leadership is encouraging atrocities against Tamil civilians, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. “Emboldened by the manifest reluctance of international ceasefire monitors, leading members of the international community and southern liberals to condemn its actions, Sri Lanka’s military is now readily killing Tamil civilians with abandon,” the expatriate newspaper said in its editorial.
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BBC ‘supporting Tamil terrorists’ - protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 12:37 GMT]
An estimated two hundred Sinhala expatriates demonstrated outside BBC headquarters in London Monday, protesting what they described as the organisation’s bias towards the Liberation Tigers. The protest, organised by a hitherto unknown group, Sri Lankans Against Terrorism (SLAT), drew together members of other Sinhala organisations and, in defiance of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s instructions, members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) also.
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The remains of Sea Tigers laid to rest in Vanni Martyrs Homes

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 11:05 GMT]
"The Thalayady sea battle in which four of our Sea Tigers sacrificed their lives is of great significance at a time when our people are being blatantly victimised in an undeclared war by the Sri Lanka Government (GoSL) armed forces and the paramilitaries. Though the loss of these four able Sea Tigers cause us deep grief, the Thalayady sea battle is crucial as an open declaration of the determination of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in asserting our sovereign rights to seas which had been recaptured at the cost of the lives of thousands of Tigers," said K. V. Balakumaran, a prominent senior member of the LTTE, Sunday evening in Puthukudirrupu.
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Preschool teacher training held in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 01:39 GMT]
The last day of a three-day training program for more than 50 pre-school teachers held at the non Governmental Organization (NGOS) builiding in Kilinochchi was completed Saturday. The concluding event was held at 3:30 p.m., sources in Kilinochchi said. The Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) and PreSchool Educational Development ConsortiumPSEDC) in Kilinochchi jointly organized the training program.
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Seven civilians injured in SLA shelling in Eravur

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 11:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) opened fire and launched shells on Ward 5, a thickly populated Tamil residential area in Eravur in Baticaloa district around 11:45 p.m Saturday night wounding seven civilians. Two of them, seriously injured, were rushed to the Eravur hospital, said sources from Eravur. This attack on civilians followed a mortar attack on the police sentry post located behind Eravur police station by unidentified men on the same night around 11.15 p.m. Shells were fired by the SLA and police for more than thirty minutes, injuring civilians and damaging six houses.
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Wickremesinghe addresses Boston Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 03:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Leader of Opposition and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is completing a two-week fellowship at MIT's Center for International Studies (CIS) this week, addressed expatriate Tamils at the Boston Tamil Center on Friday at 6.30 pm, sources attending the event said.
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SLMM has no mandate to rule on Tamils sovereign rights - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 May 2006, 09:09 GMT]
"We entered the peace process based on a status-quo achieved in the battlefield in our territory. Nobody has the right to pass judgement on the sovereign rights of our access to the adjacent sea and airspace of our homeland," told LTTE's Political Head S.P.Thamilchelvan after having an urgent meeting with the Head of the Scandinavian truce monitors on Friday. The ceasefire and the entire peace process between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is a process based on parity of status and military power of balance. The SLMM statement issued on Thursday was a serious statement affecting this framework, LTTE's Political Head told media.
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Colombo lacks realpolitik strategy- Furuhovde

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 May 2006, 04:32 GMT]
The present situation in Sri Lanka is mainly caused by Colombo's reluctant approach for a peace based on negotiations involving concessions. Central political players and its Military leadership still believe a military solution to the conflict is possible. This reflects a dangerous perception of reality and lacks a "Realpolitik strategic basis," required to handle Sri Lanka's war, wrote late Maj. Gen. (retd) Trond Furuhovde in a comment he wrote under the title "The troubled Sri Lanka" in Norwegian daily Adressa on January 30, a few days before Geneva-I talks. He touches on the geopolitical significance of the Sea route and the geographic location of the island Sri Lanka in his article.
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LTTE refutes SLMM's controversial statement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 May 2006, 20:26 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head, S. P. Thamilchelvan, in a letter to Major General Henricsson, the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Thursday said that the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's statement issued earlier Thursday, stating that the Tigers have no rights at sea, was in contradiction to SLMM's earlier stand, as expressed in a Press Release on 25 April 2003. Sea Tigers existed prior to CFA and it contributed to the balance of power that resulted in the CFA. The LTTE statement attached three letters sent to SLMM explicitly asking the SLMM to stop boarding Sri Lankan naval vessels as the Lankan vessels have come very close to the shores of LTTE area firing at their naval bases.
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Jaffna Bishop appeals for urgent intervention of International Community

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 May 2006, 19:12 GMT]
"Tamil people are gripped with fear and insecurity due to the alarming escalation in Killings and abductions in NorthEast, including Jaffna, and in the South. People are scared of a major war exploding at any time. I appeal to the International Community to urgently intervene to pressure the parties involved to reduce the threat of war. In particular, the warring parties should be pressured to a implement the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) as agreed by both parties in Geneva," said Bishop of Jaffna, Rev. Fr Thomas Soundaranayagam, speaking to press in Colombo, Sunday.
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Swiss Tamil children hone language skills

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 May 2006, 12:27 GMT]
3349 Tamil children sat for proficiency tests in Tamil and religion in 17 of the 23 cantons in Switzerland Saturday conducted by the Swiss Tamil Educational Service (TES), a volunteer organization administered by expatriate Tamils, sources said. The examinations are being conducted for the 12th consecutive year, according to TES officials.
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Colombo version of Nelliady killings false, says TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 May 2006, 14:19 GMT]
The Parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a letter sent to all foreign missions in Sri Lanka said that the Sri Lanka Government's version of the killings of seven youths in Nelliady, that the youths were "cadres belonging to the LTTE, and were killed in retaliatory fire immediately after the attack on the Military Camp," was false as there is evidence that youths were in bar during the time of the grenade attack on the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp.
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TRO opens Pubic Hall in Mallavi, distributes ADB loans

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 May 2006, 21:02 GMT]
Mr. S. Gajendran, Pandiyankulam Village Coordinator presided over the opening ceremony of the newly constructed Public hall built by Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation, at Thirunagar in the Malavi region in Mullaitivu district, held Wednesday around 10.30 a.m, said sources from Vanni.
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IATJ raises concerns for Tamil Journalists' safety

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 May 2006, 11:08 GMT]
The International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATJ), based in London, called upon the International Community, Media and Human Rights Organisations of the world to focus their attention to the fast deteriorating safety of the Tamil journalists in Sri Lanka and to urge the Government of Sri Lanka to adopt internationally accepted standards in the treatment of the media and its journalists in Sri Lanka.
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SLMM issuing clarifications under pressure, disturbing- LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 May 2006, 10:56 GMT]
Liberation Tigers in a letter to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) chief General Henricsson sent Wednesday regarding the clarifications on a previous statement that confirmed complicity of Government in extra-judicial killings in NorthEast, said: "We assume that the SLMM still stands by the above conclusions...and that the clarification only refers to the generalization of SLMM's conclusions."
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Tamil Canadians declare "Tamil solidarity week"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 May 2006, 01:28 GMT]
The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) an organization which represents the interest of expatriate Tamil Canadians, held a press conference Monday in Toronto to declare May 8th through the 14th as "Tamil Solidarity Week for Peace." This week will bring together Tamil Canadians and other peace-loving Canadians to express their solidarity and support for finding lasting peace in Sri Lanka," said Mr. David Poobalapillai a spokesperson for the CTC.


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SL Police abandons Sivaram murder investigation- RSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2006, 12:14 GMT]
"Violence between Tamil factions, sometimes manipulated by the security forces, has had particularly bloody results. The renowned Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram "Taraki", head of the news website TamilNet and editorialist on the Daily Mirror, was gunned down in Colombo in April. After arresting one suspect, police abandoned the investigation," said Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its annual report for 2006 on Sri Lanka, issued Tuesday.
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May Day observed as a day of mourning in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2006, 02:22 GMT]
Hundreds of people in the Vanni wearing black bands, observed the International Workers' Day as a day of mourning, starting in a demonstration march from the Kilinochchi public playground Monday morning around 10 a.m, carrying effigies of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, Wimal Weerawansa, Propaganda secretary of JVP, and other Southern Sinhala extremist political leaders, and marching toward a public meeting held at the Cultural Hall in Kilinochchi, sources said. The meeting ended with the burning of the effigies.


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