2 Priests, 2 youths arrested for subversive activities in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2006, 05:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police officials produced two catholic priests and two youths before Additional Magistrate M .Thirunavukarasu on Wednesday, accusing the four of indulging in activities defaming both the Goverment of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Sri Lanka Military, legal sources in Jaffna said. The magistrate however, instructed the police to contact the Attorney General and submit a report concerning the feasibility of filing charges against the accused.
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Norwegian peace envoy arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2006, 03:02 GMT]
Jon Hansen Bauer, Norwegian special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, arrived in Colombo Wednesday night around 11:15 p.m. to attempt to revive peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).


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India rejects Rajapakse's call for joint naval patrols - Hindu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 16:36 GMT]
Indian Press Reports Wednesday said that Indian External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, had expressed India's concerns at the continuing civilian deaths in Sri Lanka and had reiterated that there was no military solution to the conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The proposal for joint naval patrols advanced by the Sri Lankan President was not on the cards, Hindu reported. However, India was prepared to assist the Rajapakse government with "non-lethal" military supplies, according to the report.
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US presses GoSL, LTTE on CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 04:28 GMT]
In the United States’ first reaction to the LTTE’s declaration Monday that successive Sinhala regimes’ intransigence in resolving Sri Lanka conflict has compelled Tamils no option but to seek an independent state, a State Department spokesman on Tuesday called on both sides to honour the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), describing it as the “foundation” for the finding peace, and also called for a return to dialogue.
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Bishop calls for urgent transport of food to Jaffna via A9

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 16:18 GMT]
Bishop of Jaffna, Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundara nayagam, in a letter addressed to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday, urged the President to follow through on his proposal to send food and other essentials to Jaffna through A9 highway. The Bishop said he would like to believe that the proposal is "a humble and good gesture on the part of the Government. to build trust and confidence with the Tamil people," and as a "genuine desire of the GOSL to attend to the Humanitarian needs of the people."
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Co-chairs call for full implementation of CFA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 23:07 GMT]
While condemning the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers for "systematic ceasefire violations," the co-chairs called both sides to "seize the historic opportunity created by the 2002 Cease-Fire Agreement to resolve the country's conflict peacefully," in a press release issued after the meeting in Washington Tuesday. Co-chairs while urging re-opening of A9, called on the LTTE to co-operate with GoSL's effort to send one convoy as a first step.
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Parents honored in Heroes day celebrations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 11:45 GMT]
"We owe our military and political strength to our fighters who gave up their lives in the Tamils' struggle. Today we face a critical situation where we are faced with the danger of losing more lives to achieve our final goal. It is our duty to honour the parents who have made the priceless sacrifice through their sons and daughters," said Col. Theepan of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), speaking at the first event held, to honour the parents of dead cadres of LTTE, at Kilinochchi Kanagapuram Maha Vidyalayam Monday around 10:00 a.m., sources in Kilinochchi said.
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MP accuses Government minister of complicity in Raviraj killing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 00:09 GMT]
Colombo District Parliamentarian of United National Party (UNP) T.Maheswaran, addressing the parliament on Monday, accused a cabinet minister of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) of complicity in the assassination of late Raviraj Nadaraj, the Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian, parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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Colombo ignoring humanitarian catastrophe - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 15:49 GMT]
Colombo was engaged in "last minute tactics to placate the international community," prior to a scheduled meeting of Co-Chairs in Washington, by dispatching a single lorry into Vaharai where 38,000 civilians were starving for the past fortnight. Likewise, Colombo was showcasing to the media that it would dispatch a single convoy of supplies through A9 into Jaffna where 600,000 Tamils are under military siege in an "open prison," charged S. P. Thamilchelvan, political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Monday.
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Fertilizer shortage imperils paddy cultivation in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 02:54 GMT]
Jaffna Farmers Society officials warned Sunday that since the Government of Sri Lanka has not yet sent adequate supply of fertilizer required for the rain-dependent Maha season paddy cultivation currently in progress, Jaffna farmers face economic ruin, sources in Jaffna said.
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Bishop of Jaffna urges Co-Chairs to prevail upon GoSL to open A9, implement CFA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 13:47 GMT]
Bishop of Jaffna, Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundaranayagam, Sunday in an urgent letter, urged the Members of the Co-Chairs for the Sri Lanka Peace Process, to prevail upon the Sri Lankan government to implement the cease-fire agreement (CFA) in its entirety, and to open the A-9 Road so that the people "don't feel they are living and suffering in an open prison any more." The Government of Sri Lanka "seems to be blind" to the difficulties of the people of Jaffna, and refuses to open the land route for the people and make good for the short-fall in the quantity of the goods brought, the Bishop said in his letter.
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Execution-style killings of students in Vavuniya, a war crime - TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 09:15 GMT]
The Parliamentary Group of the Tamil National Alliance, condemning the execution style killing of four students of Agricultural Farm School by the Sri Lanka Army Saturday morning in Vavuniya where ten students including six girls were also wounded, said it was a serious war crime to be added to a long list of war crimes that targeted innocent Tamil civilians in NorthEast, the area of historical habitat of the Tamil people. Four key members of the the TNA, 2 MPs, an ex-MP and a to-be-nominated MP, have been assassinated during the past 2 years. The alliance consists 22 members of Parliament of the 23 Tamil members elected from the NorthEast.
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Operation USA: GoSL ‘blocking aid’ to Jaffna, Vaharai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2006, 05:27 GMT]
Operation USA, a large American NGO, says it is “collecting funds and pushing the US Government and the UN to take firm action to help re-open humanitarian corridors” in Sri Lanka. Demanding access to internally displaced people (IDPs), the NGO said “a contributing factor to the current tension between the Sinhalese and Tamils is the inequitable distribution of tsunami relief aid by the Government of Sri Lanka.”
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Kilinochchi remembers Raviraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2006, 00:07 GMT]
"Nadaraja Raviraj went to the doorsteps of his people, observed their living conditions, understood the daily struggle of our people, and exposed the atrocities and human rights violations committed against the Tamil people by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). His activities were a threat to the extremists who have succeeded in taking his life," said C. Ilamparithi, the Jaffna political head of Liberation Tigers, Wednesday in an event held to remember the slain parliamentarian, held at Kilinochchi Cultural Hall, 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, sources in Kilinochichi said.
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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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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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Three day shut down in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 November 2006, 09:24 GMT]
All shops, schools, banks, public and private institutions remained closed and all transport ceased for the third day Monday as residents of Vavuniya district observed complete shut down condemning the assassination of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna Parliamentarian Raviraj and in protest against the Sri Lanka government's (GoSL) economic embargo on the Jaffna peninsula by the closure of A9 landroute.


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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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Batticaloa, Amparai shut down in protest of Vaharai killings

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 12:18 GMT]
Batticaloa and Amparai districts came to a standstill in response to a call made by Parliamentarian P. Ariyanenthiran, on behalf of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), to the people of both the districts to observe total shut down on Friday, as an expression of their united appeal to the International Community to exert pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to stop killing Tamil civilians, sources in Batticaloa said.
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