'Thanks for food, but help to win our rights,' Vanni IDPs urge Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2008, 02:12 GMT]
Internally Displaced persons in Vanni who were receiving the humanitarian supplies sent by the people of Tamil Nadu, while expressing their gratitude for the timely help, urged the leaders of Tamil Nadu to help them to win their freedom by voicing for the political aspirations of Eezham Tamils. TamilNet correspondent recorded expressions from the IDPs who were gathered at Karaichchi Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, one of 23 supply centres in Vanni, on Thursday.
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‘No ceasefire’ - UNP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 20:05 GMT]
Military offensives aimed at curbing the LTTE should be continued and a ceasefire won't be necessary until the offensives come to an end, Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) said Thursday. The UNP’s Badulla District MP Laksman Seneviratne told Parliament during a debate on the defence budget that this was the stance of his party, the website lankadissent.com reported. The vote was passed by 114 to 14, reports said.
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Eezham Tamil writer wins national award of Singapore

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 15:56 GMT]
Kanagalatha Krishnasamy Iyer, a Singapore national of Eezham Tamil origins, won the national literature prize, 2008, of Singapore on Wednesday for her collection of short stories, Naan Kolai Seyum Penkal (The Women I Murder). Hailing from Negombo in the Western Province of Sri Lanka, Kanagalatha first migrated to Jaffna after the 1983 pogrom against Tamils and later settled in Singapore. An old student of Vijayaratnam Maha Vidyalayam, Negombo and Jaffna Hindu Ladies College, Kanagalatha is currently News Editor of Tamil Murasu, the national Tamil daily of Singapore.
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TRO issues details of cluster-bombed IDP camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 09:15 GMT]
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), in a press release disseminated on Wednesday said the IDP camp subjected to cluster bombardment by the Sri Lanka Air Force at Uzhavanoor in Vanni was located within the area declared by the Government of Sri Lanka as "safe zone" and that the IDP camp was constructed and maintained by the TRO and local NGO REERDO for families that had been displaced due to the Government of Sri Lanka's ongoing military offensive into Vanni.
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HRW: Colombo abuses anti-terror laws to muzzle media

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 08:59 GMT]
Accusing Sri Lanka Government for “shamefully using antiterrorism laws to silence peaceful critics in the media," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a press release Monday that, "[t]his is no way for a government that claims to be a rights-respecting democracy to act." HRW demanded Colombo to drop charges and free J.S. Tissainayagam, a prominent Tamil journalist on trial for his writings, and Tamil publisher couple N. Jasiaharan and V.Valarmathy who were also arbitrarily arrested.
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International treaty bans cluster munitions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 01:42 GMT]
Diaspora Tamils in Norway demonstrated in Oslo on Wednesday against the use of cluster bombs by the Sri Lankan government as 120 countries gathered in Oslo to sign a landmark treaty banning the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions internationally. Signatory states are required to promote universalisation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), to notify non-signatory parties of their treaty obligations, and to discourage non-signatory state parties from using cluster munitions.
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5 Tamil civilians arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 17:13 GMT]
Five Tamil youths, most of them residents of north and others from upcountry estates, were taken into custody in cordon and search operations conducted by the police and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) with the assistance of local home guards from Monday evening till Tuesday morning in Kohuwela area in Colombo district.
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SLA, LTTE clash in Kumizhamunai, Tigers recover SLA body

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 16:04 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) fighters on Tuesday recovered a dead body of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and seized a AK-LMG in the clearing mission after repulsing the SLA that attempted to advance from Kumizhamunai towards A'lampil in Mullaiththeevu, Tiger officials told media in Vanni.
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3 STF killed, 2 wounded in Ampaa'rai - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 13:10 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) official Nilavan in Ampaa'rai told media Wednesday that 2 Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) commandos were killed and 2 wounded on Ukanthai - Kumbukkan Oya Road in Ampaa'rai around 5:25 p.m., when a LTTE commando unit opened fire on a road patrol of the STF. The others escaped the site and a Buffel Armed Personnel Carrier came to the site to recover the casualties, the Tigers said.
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SLA soldier killed, 1 wounded in mine explosions in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 12:15 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) sources in Batticaloa said Wednesday that a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier seriously wounded in a mine explosion Monday on Vadamunai - Welkande Road succumbed to his injuries and another SLA soldier lost his leg in a second explosion on the same road on Wednesday.
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US government donates USD 100,000 for flood relief in North-East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 11:35 GMT]
The United States Government will provide $100,000 for emergency relief to assist people affected by the flooding in the North and the East, said a press release issued by the Embassy of he United States of America. The US donation will be used for non-food relief items and targeted to victims in Jaffna and in the Vanni, where particularly serious flooding has occurred in recent days. Ambassador Blake requested funds from the US government after Major General Hettiarachchi of the Disaster Management Centre asked for American assistance, the press release said hinting that the aid would be channeled
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TNA MP urges global community's awareness on Sri Lanka's use of cluster munitions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 11:24 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Gajendran, who represents Ki'linochchi district (Jaffna electorate), Wednesday urged the global community to "unreservedly condemn" the Sri Lankan government for deploying cluster munitions against civilians in Vanni in its air strikes and artillery attacks. Appreciating the Norwegian initiative which has led to the landmark treaty on baning the cluster munitions, the TNA parliamentarian said the Sri Lankan forces were deploying cluster munitions against civilians after expelling the international witnesses and blocking foreign journalists from entering Vanni.
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Colombo's development agenda aggravates factional fight within TMVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 00:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has sidelined Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a key paramilitary leader operated by the Sri Lankan government and the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, on the utlisation of funds allocated for 'development'. "Pillayan is being treated almost like a political prisoner by the Rajapaksa government these days, especially after the recent protests against the killings," according to a Colombo based journalist.
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'Knowing friends and enemies'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 December 2008, 15:14 GMT]
“Exploiting the Mumbai carnage and the mood of indignation in India, the Colombo government is calling for the collaboration of India in labeling and isolating all Tamils as terrorists, just because they demand for their rights. Mr. P. Chidambaram, the new Home Minister of India, carrying Indian as well as Tamil identities needs to be additionally alert in what has to be done”, read Tuesday’s editorial of Janasakti, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of India. Meanwhile, an Eezham Tamil foreign national and a political analyst, now living with the IDPs in Vanni, responded to TamilNet with his remarks on current development, especially after 26 November, 2008.
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Police shoots dead Tamil youth in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2008, 14:04 GMT]
Ea’raavoor police in Batticaloa district shot and killed a Tamil youth Sunday around 6:00 p.m whom they had taken into custody during the search conducted Saturday in Aiyangkea’ni during the police-curfew, Aiyangkea’ni residents said. The police claimed that they opened fire on the youth when he tried to hurl a hand grenade on them when they to took him to recover weapons at Tha’lavaay in Aiyangkea’ni according to information revealed by the youth during interrogation.
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25 Tamils arrested in Upcountry, Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2008, 13:21 GMT]
Twenty five Tamil civilians, including a woman, were taken into custody in two separate combined cordon and search operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police Sunday morning, sources in Colombo said. Three persons, including a woman, were arrested in Maligaawatte. 22 Tamils were taken into custody in search operations conduct at Talawakelle, Nuwara Eliya, Hatton, Norwood and Kotagala in upcountry districts, police sources said.
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School girl killed in Vaddakkachchi in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2008, 11:08 GMT]
A 6-year-old child was killed and a male was injured Monday around 11:45 a.m. when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells targeted Hudson Road (Ira'naimadu Vaddakkachchi Road), according to initial details from Tamileelam police officials in Vanni. The killed girl was on her way back home from Vaddakkachchi school as the school closed earlier due to artillery barrage.
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Quick IDP action averts carnage from Cluster bombs

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2008, 01:33 GMT]
“Three bombs exploded first time. Second time, when the bomber returned after 5 minutes from the opposite direction, there were 3 more blasts. But, the third time, bombs exploded with a parachute effect, like an auto explosion,”  said the head of the camp of the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) that came under indiscriminate attack by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) in the early hours of Saturday. Many children fled into the jungle during the five-minute window before the aircraft returned for the second attack. If not for the fast action of Ketheeswaran, the head of the settlement, and Pulendran, an intrepid IDP, in escorting and moving IDPs away from the refugee camp, the cluster bombs would have wrought havoc killing many, according to the refugees who escaped. TamilNet interviewed both Ketheeswaran and Pulendran, and several wounded civilians for this feature.
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Churn in Tamil Nadu reopens spectre of R2P - Prof. David

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2008, 23:48 GMT]
Contrasting  the relatively slow changing and stable U.S. foreign policy to Pandora’s Box of unpredictable possibilities of India’s foreign policy towards Sri Lanka, Prof David in an op-ed column in Sri Lanka’s weekly Lakbima, asserts that “if  TN [Tamil Nadu] boils over not all the protestations of sovereign rights by the Sinhala state will count for a farthing; it will be R2P in its most rough manifestation.” Even ruling out outright military intervention, Prof David says, the new administration in India may take a tough line including using trade as a weapon, harass the Sri Lankan State, or turn a blind-eye to LTTE military activities.
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SLA checks more than 10,000 during Batticaloa curfiew

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2008, 20:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the police searched and checked more than 10,000 Tamils , 4,000 houses and more than 50% of the vehicles in Batticaloa district, during the joint search launched, clamping a 12-hour police-curfew Saturday, Police media spokesman, Ranjith Gunesekara said.
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