Muslim youth injured in Ea'raavoor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 September 2007, 06:50 GMT]
Unidentified armed men opened fire on three Muslim youths Friday around 4:25 p.m on Chavukkadi beach, injuring one of them, Ea'raavoor police said. The youths were on the beach spending time leisurely when the armed men shot at them and beat them with batons.
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Amnesty calls for impartial, international investigations on escalating Human Rights violations in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2007, 08:02 GMT]
"There are grounds to fear a return to a pattern of the security forces involvement in extrajudicial killing of journalists and others," the Amnesty International noted in a public statement issued on Tuesday charging that the national Human Rights monitoring mechanisms, including the Commission of Inquiry (CoI), lacked capacity to launch prompt, impartial and independent investigations. The Amnesty called on the members of the United Nations Human Rights Council, before the sixth session of the Council, scheduled to be held between 10 - 28 September, to exert pressure on Colombo to invite an international monitoring mechanism to independently investigate rights violations in the country.
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Ex-Karuna cadre shot dead in internal fight

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2007, 15:19 GMT]
Armed men, alleged to be Karuna group members, shot dead Sunday around 7:30 p.m, a former member of Karuna group at Koththiyaapula in Vavu'natheevu police division. The killers, arriving at the victim's house, had called him out and tried to take him away for interrogation. They shot him dead when he tried to escape.
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Hospital employee abducted in Ninthaavoor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2007, 13:19 GMT]
Gunmen, suspected to be Karuna group members, abducted an employee of Ninthaavoor hospital Saturday evening at Kalladi Uppoadai area in Batticaloa district, according to a complaint made at Batticaloa police station.
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Couple shot, injured in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2007, 12:59 GMT]
Unidentified armed men, alleged to be from Karuna group, shot and injured a farmer and his wife Saturday around 7:45 p.m, in an attempt to abduct the farmer from his house at Kannangkudaa area in Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Unidentified male body interred in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2007, 17:53 GMT]
Batticaloa acting magistrate Mr. S. Chinnaiah directed Friday Batticaloa police to inter the body of a male recovered with gunshot wounds Monday at Paalameenmadu, Mukaththuvaaram area in a jungle behind Murukan Koayil (temple) in Batticaloa police division, at state expense. Police, Special Task Force (STF) and Karuna group camps are located in Paalameenmadu area where the police recovered the body, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Paramilitary groups clash in Trincomalee, 1 killed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2007, 16:46 GMT]
A paramilitary person of Karuna Group was killed and another wounded when two rival factions of the paramilitary group clashed Thursday around 2:15 p.m at Chaampaltheevu, located 8 km north of Trincomalee city.
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Jeyananthamoorthy MP's brother shot dead

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 August 2007, 16:07 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa parliamentarian S. Jeyananthamoorthy's brother S. Thiyagachandra was shot dead by armed men in Oaddamaavadi, 1 km west of Vazhaichcheanai Monday evening around 6:30, according to his relatives.
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5 Tamils arrested near SL Parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 04:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested five Tamil youths near the Sri Lanka Parliament for staying overnight in an open ground located in Madiwela within the Sri Jeyawardanapura Municipal limits, around 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, sources in Colombo said. The youths allegedly had arrived there late evening in an auto trishaw and stayed there until dawn.
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Sub-contractor shot dead in Poththuvil

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2007, 21:22 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a sub-contractor around 8:00 p.m Monday at Inspector Eattam area in Poththuvil, Ampaa'rai district, in front of Karuna group's political party office, Poththuvil police said.
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Australia Court grants bail to 3 arrested on terrorism charges

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 July 2007, 11:37 GMT]
Victoria state Supreme Court Judge Bernard Bongiorno, telling the court that if the "principle [normal presumption of innocence] is abandoned or even modified for political expediency, that risks the whole foundation of our criminal justice system," Tuesday released Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, 33, and Sivarajah Yathavan, 36, on bail, Associated Press reported. Bongiorno pointed out that the Australian government has not declared the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group. The two were arrested in May charged with "raising money for Liberation Tigers."
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India: Sri Lankan Navy attacking Tamil Nadu fishermen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2007, 12:11 GMT]
The Indian government said Wednesday that it “is aware that a number of fishermen from Tamil Nadu are being attacked and killed by Sri Lankan Navy.” In a written response to a query in Parliament, India’s Defence Minister, Shri AK Antony, noted: there have been incidents of firing on Indian fishing boats in Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar area and recently slight increase in such incidents has been noticed.” The Defence Minister did not comment on recent accusations by Tamil Nadu Police that Tamil Tigers had also fired on fishermen.


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2 Karuna cadres, auto driver shot, injured in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2007, 11:33 GMT]
Two members of Karuna group in an internal strife were shot and injured Thursday around 6:35 p.m at the Karuna Camp located near Toddy Tavern junction on Muhaththuvaaram Road in Batticaloa police division. Meanwhile, an auto rickshaw driver passing by close to the camp was caught in the cross fire and was injured, sources in Batticaloa said.


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Police powers to military threatens democracy - NPC

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2007, 06:16 GMT]
Colombo based National Peace Council, a peace group, Friday said it was "extremely concerned," about SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's decision, a month ago, about delegating police powers to the military. "There is an urgent need for the government to demonstrate clear political will in regard to law and order processes if it is to retain the confidence of the civilian population that it is not taking the country on a journey to anarchy and to the breakdown of democratic governance," the NPC said. The group said it was apprehensive that this government decision will send wrong signals and lead to an aggravation of the hardships faced by the civilian population.
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WTCC representative arrested in New York - U.S. Justice Department

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 20:53 GMT]
A senior U.S. representative of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Karunakaran Kandasamy, was arrested in Queens, New York, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, Wednesday. The arrest was made on a complaint alleging Mr. Karunakaran, as director of the American branch of the Tigers, for having operated within the United States drawing on America’s financial resources and technological advances. The complaint further said that the LTTE relied on sympathetic Tamil expatriates residing in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and several other countries.
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GoSL denies air transport to Batticaloa MPs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 02:02 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) refused to provide helicopter transport to the four Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian of Batticaloa district, from Colombo to Batticaloa, to attend the District Development Council (DDC) meeting held at Batticaloa Kachcheri Tuesday, TNA sources said. The MPs requested transport help following death threats from Karuna Group. The meeting was organized to explore solutions to the IDP problems and to endorse the other development activities planned for the current year.
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Britain’s Liberal Democrats back Amnesty’s Sri Lanka campaign

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 01:38 GMT]
Britain’s third largest political party, the Liberal Democrats, came out strongly Tuesday in support of Amnesty International’s campaign to promote independent human rights monitors in Sri Lanka and called on all sides to respect international human rights and humanitarian law. The party said one of its MEPs, Saj Karim, Liberal Democrat Member of the Human Rights Committee, has tabled a key amendment to the annual European Parliament report into Human Rights.
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SL President pooh-poohs Gothabaya death threat

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 11:05 GMT]
Before leaving for Italy Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Ms. Champika Liyanarachchi, editor of the Daily Mirror, in a bid to defuse the controversy that has erupted over the death threats she received Tuesday from Defence Secretary Gotathabaya Rajapaksa. The President had suggested to Ms. Liyanarachchi that she had overreacted to Mr. Gotabhaya’s “expressions of concern for her safety,” Presidential Secretariat sources said.
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HRW urges Pope to discuss human rights with Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 08:48 GMT]
The Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, Tuesday, urged Pope Benedict XVI, to raise the deteriorating human rights crisis in Sri Lanka with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is visiting Vatican this week. Sri Lankan military and police forces, as well as proxy armed groups, are engaged in serious violations of the laws of war and human rights, reiterated Human Rights Watch in the letter.
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Gothabaya threatens Mirror editor over Karuna story

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 03:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa threatened the editor of a leading English daily on Tuesday, saying the paper’s coverage of actions of the Karuna Group had angered the Army-backed paramilitaries, a media watchdog said. Mr. Gothabaya, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, had Tuesday morning telephoned Ms. Champika Liyanarachchi, editor of the Daily Mirror to say she should not be surprised if the Karuna Group turned its violence against her and if so, she shouldn’t expect government protection, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said.
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