100 SLA killed, 250 wounded, heavy fighting in Ki'linochchi - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2008, 14:28 GMT]
More than 100 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and at least 250 SLA soldiers wounded Monday when the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) repulsed a fresh offensive push, said S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat, quoting LTTE's field commanders. Heavy fighting raged from 5:30 to 12:45 when the SLA attempted to advance from Uruththirapuram towards Ki'linochchi and Ira'naimadu. Several corpses of the SLA soldiers were seen in the battlefield and the Tigers were engaged in seizing arms and ammunitions after routing the offensive on two fronts, Mr. Puleedevan further said. The fighting was continuing on three fronts.
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Tamil civilian shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2008, 05:06 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons shot dead a Tamil civilian Saturday night in Vavuniyaa police division. His body was recovered near a cemetery along Nelukulam-Koomaangkulam road Sunday morning with gunshot injuries in his head. The victim has been identified as Seevaratnam Pushparajah, 36, a recruitment agent persons for foreign employment opportunities, sources said.
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Fresh SLA recruit becomes Prisoner of War

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 21:12 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier, taken captive by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Ki'laali on 09 December, has revealed that he was attached to Sinha Regiment and sent to the forefront of the offensive immediately after completing his military training at Diyathalawa Army Training Centre on 25 November. The Prisoner of War (PoW), who was allowed to talk to media on Saturday while he was admitted at Ki'linochchi hospital, said he had studied up to 7th standard and joined the SLA considering the economic benefits, but did not expect that he would be sent to the battle front immediately.
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Kalmunai police detain 7 Tamils, 5 Muslims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 20:47 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police jointly conducted a cordon and search Sunday from 6:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m arresting 12 youths, including 7 Tamils and 5 Muslims, in Kalmunai Police division in Ampaa’rai district. The youths were taken into custody as they failed to establish their identity and they will be produced in the court, Kalmunai police said.
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SLA steps up attacks on hospitals in Vanni, disregards Geneva Conventions

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 18:37 GMT]
Mullaiththeevu Government Hospital has come under artillery fire by the Sri Lanka Army despite the Sri Lankan military and civil authorities being repeatedly urged by the medical authorities at the hospital not to fire shells on the civilian medical facility. The government hospital was attacked Monday, Friday and Saturday. Two patients sustained injuries last Monday and two medical staff were wounded in the artillery attack on Friday. The building sustained damage in the bombardment Friday when 5 shells hit the premises. The quarters of the Medical Superintend has also sustained damage for the second time.
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Douglas, Anandasangari prepare for election campaign in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 12:48 GMT]
Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister in the Rajapaksa government and the leader of paramilitary-cum-political party EPDP and V. Anandasangari of the TULF, are both busily engaged in preparatory meetings for election campaign in Jaffna, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. No official announcement, however, has been made by Sri Lanka government on holding elections in Jaffna peninsula.
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Gampaha police arrest 14 Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 02:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police, with the assistance of home guards, Saturday arrested 14 Tamil residents during a search operation conducted in several parts of the Gampaha town and its suburbs. The police said the arrested residents were taken in for questioning as they failed to prove their identity and to justify their presence in the location. However, civil sources said the arrested Tamils have been working in buisness establishements in Gampaha for several years.
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Tigers recover 12 SLA bodies after preemptive strike, 60 killed, 150 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 16:03 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) counter-offensive units carried out a preemptive strike on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive formation in Mu'rika'ndi - Ira'naimadu area Saturday, killing at least 60 SLA soldiers, LTTE officials told TamilNet. The SLA was pushed back 2 km, and the Tigers said they have recovered 12 dead bodies of SLA soldiers so far in the clearing mission, according to latest update from the LTTE officials in Ki'linochchi. More than 150 SLA soldiers were wounded in the counter operation, Tiger officials told TamilNet.
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US at fault for not stopping Colombo's abuses- Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 14:40 GMT]
Asserting that “there have been several disturbing examples of the US national interest standing in the way of actions to defend human rights,” Saturday’s Boston Globe editorial blames the United States and Europe for failing to do enough to intervene, asserting that “[t]he United States and its European allies have gone only so far in trying to halt the Darfur genocide,…[or] the Sri Lankan government's abuses of civilians in its counter-insurgency war against the Tamil Tigers…”
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Tamil motor mechanic shot, injured in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 07:24 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen on a motor cycle following a Tamil motor mechanic shot and seriously injured him Friday around 8:30 p.m at Thampiluvil in Thirukkoayil police division in Ampaa’rai district. The injured mechanic was rushed to Thirukkoayil District Hospital first and then transferred to Ampaa’rai Teaching Hospital for further treatment, Thirukkoayil police said.
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11 Tamil youths arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 00:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka police arrested eleven Tamil youths traveling in Colombo bound Vavuniyaa passenger Yarldevi train at Gampaha railway station Wednesday evening. The police searched all compartments of the train and subjected every commuter to severe questioning, sources said.
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Police officer released on bail, nine remanded in extortion case

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 00:04 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate allowed the Officer-in-Charge of Police Special Crimes Branch of Western Province on surety bail for Rs. 200,000, and ordered remand for nine other suspects, including two police constables, when they were produced in court Wednesday on a police report that they extorted money from a Tamil businessman. The suspects demanded a sum of one million rupees from that Tamil businessman for his release otherwise he would be implicated for engaging in 'terrorist' activities, according to a police report furnished in court, legal sources said.
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Colombo's military campaign will not resolve conflict - British Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 11:53 GMT]
The current approach by the Government of Sri Lanka, to defeat the LTTE militarily before developing a political solution, does nothing to win the hearts and minds of conflict-affected civilians in the north and it will not resolve the underlying conflict, said Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Bill Rammell, while responding to the concerns raised Thursday evening by British Parliamentarians at an adjournment debate on Sri Lanka at the UK Parliament. However, another response by the minister exposed the fact that the British Government still has faith in the APRC myth created by the Rajapaksa regime.
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Rajapaksa in war with judiciary - AHRC

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 08:11 GMT]
If the Sri Lankan Executive President wins his war against the judiciary the people will soon be heading in the direction of the type of life that prevails in places like Burma and Cambodia, said the Hong Kong based regional rights group Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in a statement issued Friday. Stating that reports indicated that the government had already ordered the use of all propaganda at its command to support itself in this new war against the judiciary, the AHRC warned: "It will be the people themselves who will have to resolve the issue of either living under a political system which is completely under the control of the executive or to maintain the separation of powers."
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Tamil Nationalist Poet Thevathasan passes away in U.S.

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 07:41 GMT]
Mr. Thevathasan Antony, a Tamil nationalist, poet, and humanist affectionately known as “Maampazham Swamy” passed away in New Jersey, USA on December 14. An advocate for peace who highlighted Sri Lanka's rights violations of Tamils in the NorthEast succumbed to a sudden stroke at the age of 63.
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Claymore attack injures 2 SLA soldiers in Ea’raavoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 06:34 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched a Claymore attack Thursday around 8:00 p.m, seriously injuring two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers engaged in road patrol at Murakkoddaancheanai in Ea’raavoor police division in Batticaloa district, LTTE officials in Batticaloa said.
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Police arrest 7 Tamils in Ea’raavoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 03:24 GMT]
Ea’raavoor police arrested seven civilians on suspicion Wednesday morning in their division in a cordon and search launched jointly with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Aiyangkea’ni, Tha’lavaay area in Batticaloa district, Ea’raavoor police said.
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Former EROS parliamentarian passes away in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 00:03 GMT]
Sivapragasam Ratnarajah, former Member of Parliament for Trincomalee district, passed away after brief illness last Thursday. His funeral was held Sunday in Trincomalee Hindu Cemetery with traditional Saiva rites.
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HR Day, 60th Anniversary of UDHR, observed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 17:13 GMT]
“There are people in Jaffna who ask whether it is necessary to celebrate these days when human rights in Jaffna peninsula is violated with impunity and one cannot slight these questions,” K. Ganesh, Jaffna Government Agent (GA), participating as the chief guest, said in an event held Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Human Rights Day in Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) Jaffna office, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna HRC Coordinating Officer K. Sivarajasingam presided at the event in which important officials including Jaffna District Additional Director of Education, V. T. Selvaratnam and the chief editors of the Tamil dailies in Jaffna participated.
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Trincomalee IDPs in shelters suffer due to rain

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 16:55 GMT]
Hundreds of internally displaced Tamil families now being sheltered in several welfare centres in Paddiththidal and Ki'liveddi in Moothoor division of Trincomalee district, have been suffering due to leaking roof and flood water entering their huts following heavy rain with gale since Tuesday.
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