17 Tamil youths abducted, gone missing in Trincomalee, Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 14:11 GMT]
Seventeen Tamil youths have been either abducted or gone missing in the past two weeks in Moothoor East in Trincomalee district and Thirukkoayil in Batticaloa district, according to complaints made by the youths’ relatives to Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian K. Thurairatnasingam. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and paramilitary military men who operate with them come to the houses of the youths in white vans and forcibly take the youths away, the relatives said in the complaint.
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Mangled bodies, torn limbs litter Safe Zone - medical official

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 22:29 GMT]
"Death in most brutal form has become common within the Safety Zone. The area littered with mangled bodies, torn limbs, and blood soaked soil appears more horrific than what one finds inside a butchers shop," a lady medical staff working out of a school-building converted into the temporary primary surgical care centre at Puthumaaththa'lan, told TamilNet Sunday. She also pointed out that a great number of small children have died in the last few days because of the SLA's ceaseless shelling and firing.
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Tamil woman abducted in Wattala

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 14:49 GMT]
A 26 year-old married Tamil woman was abducted Thursday afternoon in Mabola area, Wattala in Colombo district by a group of unidentified men who came in a three-wheeler while she was having a conversation with her co-employees at a bus halt, according to the complaint lodged by her husband S.Thevamanoharan with the Wattala police on Friday.
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Paramilitary detainee escapes from Jaffna prison

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 09:50 GMT]
A paramilitary man alleged to be a person of a prominent Tamil political-cum-paramilitary party in Jaffna, detained for suspected involvement in various robberies, abduction and extortion, escaped from Jaffna Prison Sunday between 4:30 a.m and 4:35 a.m, according to Jaffna Prison officials. The escapee is alleged to have operated along with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) elements in Jaffna and the concerned political party refused to comment when contacted for information, sources in Jaffna said.
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Kandy Police arrest Tamil woman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 08:34 GMT]
Kandy Police on Thursday evening arrested a Tamil while she was waiting near Rupavahini Tower located at Handana in Kandy town for a bus to her village. The Police said she was arrested on receipt of information from the residents of area about her suspicious movement.
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Sinhalese mob attacks Tamil demonstrators in Melbourne

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 14:55 GMT]
A group of around 50 Sinhala expatriates, some of them allegedly inebriated, attacked a car-rally demonstration organised by the Eezham Tamil diaspora in Melbourne Saturday noon protesting genocide of their kith and kin in the island of Sri Lanka and demanding immediate end of the war waged by Colombo government. A few Eezham Tamils were injured and their cars were damaged in the attack. One of the attackers also reportedly got injured in the melee.
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Mullaiththeevu wounded die due to lack of antibiotics

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 13:40 GMT]
Regional Medical Services Divisions (RMSD) for Mullaiththeevu and Kilinochchi received only 5% of the total allocation of monthly needs of medical supplies for the first three months in 2009, a report from Mullaiththeevu health officials received via Vavuniyaa District Secretariat said. Blood transfusion bags have been depleted and at least one death occurs daily due to the inability for blood transfusion, the report added. Several badly wounded civilians die without antibiotic treatment, health officials document in the report released.
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Karuna group person shot, killed, another injured in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 10:11 GMT]
Unidentified armed men opened fire Friday around 10:45 p.m on Karuna group persons in Karuna’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) office in Vadamunai Ooththuchcheanai on the border of Batticaloa district, killing one and injuring the person in charge of the office. Two persons in the office at the time of the shooting have gone missing, police sources in Batticaloa said.
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Recognize our freedom: Vanni civilian leader

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 07:39 GMT]
How can a people trust a government that has instructed them to get into a safety zone and then kills, maims and starve them continuously for months now, asks Pararajasingam Kanagalingam, president of the Vanni People Welfare Organization (VPWO), in a recorded affidavit on the civil situation of Vanni sent to TamilNet Wednesday. “ Right to live is the most fundamental right guaranteed by the UN. But, even after assurances, people are killed here everyday by government forces. Is it a government that can’t guarantee the fundamental right? If the government can’t care for us it should leave us free. What is wrong if the Tamils think of self-determination? Even now the people of Vanni are firm in this aspiration for freedom”, said Mr. Kanagalingam.
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BDJU condemns attack on Muslim Tamil editor in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 09:36 GMT]
“Killings and abductions of media men and threats to their lives which have become daily events in the country have now reached Kaaththaankudi too,” the statement released by Batticaloa District Journalists Union (BDJU) said. The Union staged a silent protest demonstration Thursday in Kaaththaankudi condemning the attack on M. I. Rahamthulla, a Muslim Tamil editor of the Tamil weekly ‘Vaara Uraikal’ Wednesday midnight in his house on Dean Veethi in Kaaththaankudi in Batticaloa district.
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Grandmother of Boosa detainee reported missing

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 09:07 GMT]
A 71-year-old grandmother, a Tamil, who visited Tuesday her grandson detained in Boosa detention camp in Galle in the south, is reported missing after leaving the camp, according to complaint lodged by her realatives with Pettah police and Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Colombo. Boosa camp officials have reportedly said that she had left after seeing her grandson.
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STF shoots dead 13 Tamil youths in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 08:50 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos shot and killed Friday 13 Tamil youths at Paa’nama Laakula in Ampaa’rai district, sources in Ampaa’rai said. Eye witnesses to the shooting said that the victims were innocent Tamil youths who are among others who come to work in the area.
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Eyewitness reports horrific experiences at makeshift hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 08:00 GMT]
“What’s happening here is something that has not happened anywhere in the world,” says, Theyva, a local humanitarian worker, who has been attending the admittance of seriously wounded civilians being brought to the makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan within the so-called 'safe zone' for 48 days. Sharing some of his horrific experiences with TamilNet Vanni correspondent on Wednesday, contributing his record of the gruesome effects of the carnage by the attacks of the Sri Lankan forces on civilians amidst prevailing starvation, Mr. Theyvendran asks: “How can the outside world keep on watching these things? Do they want the Tamil people to perish completely?”
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Swiss representatives visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 04:25 GMT]
Two officials representing Switzerland were on a visit to Jaffna to assess various development projects carried out by the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) in Jaffna peninsula and to consider further development schemes, sources in Jaffna said. The officials will be submitting a report to their government on the progress made in the development projects SDC is engaged in and on the planning and feasibility of future projects.
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David Miliband calls for 'humanitarian' ceasefire

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:29 GMT]
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday renewed his call for an "urgent humanitarian ceasefire" to "allow the remaining civilians to leave the conflict area" and sought unhindered access for humanitarian agencies to the civilians displaced by the fighting, including those, whom he referred as "still trapped" in the conflict area. Mr. Miliband's call comes a day after LTTE's Political Head B. Nadesan conveying the Tiger stance to the Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim that the attacks by the Sri Lankan forces on Tamil people aimed at total subjugation of the Tamil nation, and that only an immediate ceasefire could put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Sri Lankan aggression and pave the way for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
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12 Tamil youths arrested in upcountry

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody twelve Tamil youths in Nuwereliya, Bogawanthalawa, Aniwathe in Kandy where Tamils live predominantly in a cordon and search operation conducted Thursday evening, police sources said. Many more were arrested but were released after interrogation.
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Young Tamil Teacher in Weligama detained in Booza camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Weligama police arrested a young Tamil Teacher who went to the police station to seek permission to travel to his family in Jaffna and sent him to Booza Detention Camp in the South, according to a complaint made to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office by his family members.
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Jaffna Univeristy students continue boycott, demand Raveendran’s release

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 15:10 GMT]
“We are reliably informed that the men who took away our lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran in Colombo were in police uniform and we therefore request to reveal the place where he is detained and to produce him in a court of law according to legal procedure. We also request that Raveendran be interrogated decently and released at the earliest,” Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in a report to the media in Jaffna Thursday evening.
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2 more police detainees shot, killed in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 08:12 GMT]
The two suspects in detention in connection with the killing of Varasha, the six-year-old girl, were shot and killed Monday evening in an attack by unidentified gunmen while they were being led by the police to recover weapons hidden in Saradapura jungle near Kanniya on information elicited from the suspects, Trincomalee police said. One of the two suspects arrested earlier and held in police detention in this case was shot and killed by the police who claimed that he tried to escape custody and the other suspect the police claimed he had committed suicide by swallowing cyanide capsule while being taken to another place.
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Erik Solheim discusses Vanni civilians plight with LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 07:27 GMT]
Erik Solheim, the Norwegian minister for international development and the topmost representative of the Norwegian facilitator discussed Wednesday evenng the plight of the civilians in Vanni with B. Nadesan, the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE). Revealing the details of the phone conversation that lasted for 30 minutes, S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat told TamilNet that Mr. Solheim conveyed the recent developments in the International arena regarding the Tamil conflict, especially with regards to the latest briefings at the UN Security Council. Solheim was briefed on the grave humanitarian catastrophe caused by the military aggression of the Sri Lankan armed forces, Puleedevan said.
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