SLN arrests 26 persons in Northern seas seeking refuge in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2008, 20:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) arrested 26 persons, including a 6-months-old infant, who were trying to escape on boats on their way to Tamil Nadu seeking refuge. Civilians took the perilous journey to escape continuing artillery barrage and bombings of civilian settlements in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territories in Vanni. When the arrested refugees were produced before the Point Pedro magistrate Sunday, the Magistrate ordered the refugees to be placed in the Rehabilitation Camp.
Full story >>

Tamil farmer shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2008, 12:40 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a Tamil farmer Saturday around 9:30 p.m in Ka'luvaangchchikudi police division at his house in Ward 12, Kuruma'nve'li area. This is the first killing after a 12-hour police-curfew was clamped down in Batticalao district, taking place just after three hours after the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) cordon and search operation during the curfew, the sources added. A Special Task Force (STF) camp is located 200 m from the site of the killing.
Full story >>

Colombo's cluster bomb attack on civilians in Vanni challenges international norms

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2008, 02:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers that attacked the hamlet of Internally Displaced Persons bordering Piramanthanaa'ru and Uzhavanoor in the early hours of Saturday have deployed Russian made OFAB-500 cluster bombs in their indiscriminate attack that killed three civilians, including a child, eyewitnesses told TamilNet's Vanni correspondent on Saturday. Seven children were among the wounded. Colombo's use of cluster bomb comes as more than 100 countries are scheduled to meet in Oslo on Wednesday to sign a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs.
Full story >>

International media, human rights watchdogs lopsided - Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2008, 20:39 GMT]
"The Colombo government is embarked upon a killing spree of children and women in refugee camps who are already victims of war, displacement, cyclone and floods. This act of 'state terrorism' is in what way less deplorable than the Mumbai killings, for failing to attract condemnation and action from the International Community," asks Padmini Sithamparanathan, Tamil National Alliance MP for Jaffna.
Full story >>

3 Tamils arrested in Kandy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2008, 18:22 GMT]
The Kandy police Saturday took three Tamils including a woman into custody in a cordon and search operation carried out within the municipal limits of Kandy town. Police sources said the arrested failed to prove their identity and justify their presence in the location.
Full story >>

Tamil civilian shot dead in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2008, 15:41 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen forcibly took away a Tamil family man from his house in Pankudaave’li area in Karadiyanaa’ru police division Friday around 12:00 p.m and shot him killed, police said. Meanwhile, a Tamil youth shot and seriously injured by unknown armed men in Ea’raavoor police division Thursday night succumbed to his wounds Friday night in Batticaloa Teaching Hospital.
Full story >>

SLAF bombs refugee camp in 'secure zone' in Vanni, children among victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2008, 08:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers attacked a refugee camp of Internally Displaced People bordering Piramanthanaa'ru and Uzhavaoor (Tharmapuram) in Ki'linochchi district in the early hours of Saturday around 1:35 a.m. Medical authorities at Tharmapuram said three persons were killed. Two, a 5-year-old child and an 80-year-old man, died at the hospital. At least 18 wounded civilians, including 7 children and 7 females, were admitted at the hospital following the indiscriminate bombardment on IDP settlement. Medical authorities described the bombardment as "terrible mid-night aerial attack on refugee camp". SLAF bombs refugee camp in Vanni, children among killed, wounded
Full story >>

Kungchupparanthan: first debacle of SLA in battle for Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 22:55 GMT]
Several decomposed corpses of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were still lying within the no-man area between the SLA and Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) frontiers in Kugnchupparanthan no man zone, informed sources revealed on Friday. The SLA soldiers had maneuvered deep into LTTE trap, according to the source, which said it was the first debacle of the SLA in the battle for Ki'linochchi. At least 75 SLA soldiers were confirmed dead so far, the source said adding more than 160 of the soldiers, who managed to reach back to their barracks, had been injured. The LTTE, which earlier said 43 SLA soldiers were killed and 70 wounded, is yet to release further updates.
Full story >>

US development aims integrating East with Sinhala provinces

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 19:04 GMT]
Based on their firm conviction that development disparity is the root cause of the conflict in Sri Lanka, the United States Embassy in Sri Lanka is busy in recent times in promoting a number ‘development’ programmes, especially in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Launching a new programme, Connecting Regional Economies (CORE) two months ago, the US aim ‘at the provincial and community level’ is to ‘focus on improving supply chain and market linkages between producers, processors, and the end markets in five districts of the Eastern, North Central and Uva Provinces’, read a press release from the US embassy in Colombo.
Full story >>

80 Tamils arrested in Colombo, Kandy

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 17:42 GMT]
More than eighty Tamil civilians, including eight women, arrested in Colombo and Kandy in separate cordon and search operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police on Wednesday and Thursday are detained in respective police stations and are being interrogated.
Full story >>

Floods kill 6 people in Vanni, thousands displaced

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 17:21 GMT]
At least four people were reportedly killed and two more feared dead in the floods caused by storms coupled with torrential monsoon rain during the past 6 days in Vanni. The sluice gates of Visuvamadu tank were opened as the raising water level posed great danger to the wall of the dam that has been shaken already by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) attacks. Also the sluice gates of two other tanks, Udaiyaarkadduk-ku'lam and Kalmaduk-ku'lam, were opened. Hundreds of volunteers of Tamils Rehabilitation Organiation (TRO) and the Tamileelam Police personnel were seen evacuating civilians and in arranging immediate accommodation in public places.
Full story >>

Token fast against killings of Tamil civilians observed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 14:57 GMT]
A one-day token fast demanding the immediate stop of the rampant killings of Tamils in Batticaloa district and the arrest of the killers was observed Friday around 9:00 a.m near Gandhi Statue in Batticaloa town, organized by Pillayan faction, Baticaloa Municipal Council (BMC), and Federation of Local Government Councils' (LGC) Presidents, presided by the Mayor of Batticaloa Municipal Council, Ms. Sivakeertha Pirapakaran, sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

4 STF killed in Ampaa'rai - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 10:52 GMT]
Four commandos of a Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) unit that launched a search operation into a jungle area in Poththuvil in Ampaa'rai district were killed and one wounded in a counter-attack carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Friday around 11:50 a.m., according to LTTE official Nilavan in Ampaa'rai.
Full story >>

15 Tamils arrested in Ratnapura

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 05:45 GMT]
The Ratnapura police assisted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and home guards took into custody about fifteen Tamil civilians in a cordon and search operations conducted in the Ratnapura town on Wednesday early morning till midnight
Full story >>

3 Tamils shot dead in 3 separate shootings in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 04:30 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed three Tamils Thursday night in three police divisions in Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said. 26 persons have been shot dead during the past three days in Batticaloa district, and no one has been arrested by the Police related to any of the killings.
Full story >>

Vaiko addresses 40,000 at London Remembrance Day event

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 03:09 GMT]
Over 40,000 expatriate Tamils participated in the Remembrance Day ceremony in London on Thursday, a record turnout for the usually well-attended annual event. Vaiko, leader of the MDMK party in Tamil Nadu delivered the keynote address at the ExCel centre, London’s largest auditorium, whilst, earlier, the 2008 Heroes’ Day speech by LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan was heard by attendees as it was broadcast live via satellite from Vanni to Diaspora centres around the world.
Full story >>

Former Indian PM V.P. Singh passes away

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 02:01 GMT]
Former Prime Minister of India, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, passed away in New Delhi at the age of 77 on Thursday. He was Prime Minister of India between December 1989 to November 1990.
Full story >>

Vanni MP condemns Mumbai killings

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2008, 20:08 GMT]
The deliberate and indiscriminate killing and injuring of hundreds of civilians and foreign tourists in Mumbai by armed men shocks the civilized world and is beyond all justification, said Selvam Adaikalanathan, Tamil National Alliance MP for Vanni, on Thursday.
Full story >>

Faultline of Sri Lanka’s conflict now clear - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2008, 19:50 GMT]
Pointing out that it is as Sinhalese have become more and more confident of winning the war that overt racism against Tamils has become blatant, the Tamil Guardian newspaper this week said “what is qualitatively different between the late nineties and now is the clarity of the ethnic faultline in Sri Lanka.” The paper, published Wednesday, argued “Since independence the island’s core problem has been Sinhala domination and … persecution, of the Tamils. In the global liberal bubble of the nineties, this fundamental truth was subsumed amidst the logics of underdevelopment, resource wars and so on.”
Full story >>

India is our friend, we are not against any country, remove the hindrance of ban: Pirapaharan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2008, 12:31 GMT]
While conveying his love and gratitude to the people and leaders of Tamil Nadu and leaders of India who have grasped the heartbeat of Eezham Tamils and have come forward with timely support, the LTTE leader V.Pirapaharan in his Hero’s Day speech on Thursday requested them to voice firmly for Tamil Eelam and to undertake conducive measures to remove the ban, a great hindrance to amicable relationship between India and the LTTE. “At no stage did we ever consider India as an enemy force. Our people always consider India as our friend. They have great expectations that the Indian super power will take a positive stand on our national question”, he said. The LTTE leader also requested the world powers to remove the ban on it, citing that the LTTE never schemed any act against any country and the Tamil struggle is not against the geopolitical, national or economic interests of any country.
Full story >>