U.S. statement: 'we don't advocate talks with LTTE'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 14:25 GMT]
The United States, a member of the Co-Chairs for the Sri Lankan peace process following the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement brokered by Norway, in a statement issued after the Sri Lanka Army occupation of Ki'inochchi town in Vanni, said it does not advocate the Government of Sri Lanka to negotiate with the LTTE. "The fall of Kilinochchi represents an important point in the 25-year war that has divided Sri Lanka," the U.S. statement said.
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Indian espionage aircraft on recce mission over Sri Lanka - Paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 09:01 GMT]
A day after Sri Lanka Army occupied the town of Ki'linochchi, India's foreign intelligence agency and crucial adviser to the Government on foreign policy-making, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was engaged in a "secret aerial surveillance mission across the Palk Straits" on Saturday according to a report in the Indian media. The report quoted sources who claimed that an aircraft "with high-tech espionage equipment" belonging to the RAW's top-secret wing Air Research Centre (ARC) had taken off from the Chennai airport around 3:00 a.m., on Saturday. The report filed by India's largest selling English daily has buttressed the claims of Tamil Nadu politicians who have accused New Delhi of providing several kinds of strategic military help to the Government of Sri Lanka.
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Britain says Ki'linochchi's fall calls for progress on political solution

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 08:06 GMT]
The capture of the former administrative capital of the LTTE by Sri Lankan armed forces makes it even more urgent that all parties achieve progress on setting out a political solution that addresses the "legitimate concerns of all communities," said a statement issued by the British High Commission on January 06. Tamil political observers note that the statement has come after two noteworthy observations in December: the British Defence Attache in Colombo taking part in a trip to Sri Lankan military command in Vanni on 15 December, and the British Minister of State at the Foreign Commonwealth Office, at an adjournment debate in British Parliament, exposing the fact that his government still had faith in the APRC myth created by the Rajapaksa regime.
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RSF condemns attack on Tamil-owned TV station

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2009, 20:37 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued today, condemned the attack on Maharajah Televsions Network (MTV) near Colombo by heavily armed men early morning Tuesday. "Violence and threats against such privately-owned media outlets and journalists trying to impartially report on the conflict must stop," the RSF release said, adding , "[t]he network is one of the country's few, and very popular, independent news sources." Several Sri Lanka Government Ministers and Government owned media have previously charged the network for being not "patriotic" enough in reporting the war between Sri Lanka military and the Liberation Tigers.
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Peoples support will help surmount challenges: LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2009, 08:23 GMT]
Pointing out that Ki'linochchi was where Sri Lanka military has suffered previous historic debacles, LTTE Political Head B. Nadesan, in an interview with TamilNet on Monday dismissed the occupation of the town as an insignificant setback in the context of a liberation struggle, and said, Tamil people’s support has always been LTTE’s strength, and with the moral backing of the global Tamil community the movement will surmount current and future challenges. "We have taken forward our struggle for more than 30 years, solely relying on the support of our people," and reiterated that the Tigers were spearheading the Tamil struggle, which was based on legitimate political aspirations as defined by the democratic mandate in the elections of 1977.
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Indian Naval Personnel to Mullaiththeevu: Thirumavalavan lambasts New Delhi

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 January 2009, 18:08 GMT]
Thirumavalavan, a Tamil nationalist leader and the president of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) in Tamil Nadu, on Monday condemned the Indian Government for "betraying the entire Tamil people" by sending civil clothed Indian naval personnel to Mullaiththeevu through the Chennai international airport. Addressing the media in Chennai, he said that New Delhi was "totally responsible" for the "ruthless genocide" of Tamils in Sri Lanka. "Even the future generations of Tamils will never forgive the Indian Government for disrespecting the sentiments of 100 million Tamil people," he warned.
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TNA accuses Colombo of war crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 21:06 GMT]
Describing several recent escalation in incidents where Sri Lanka Armed Forces have targetted Tamil civilian during festive days between Christmas and Thaipongal, Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a press release issued today, said that the "stringent economic, food and medical embargos on the war affected areas," ..."are not only War Crimes in contravention of the Geneva Conventions but are also a part of a policy of Genocide that the Sri Lankan State has been carrying out against the Tamil people." The release also noted with disappointment of the silence of the international community "whilst the Genocide of the Tamil people is taking place," and continuing military assistance of the international states to the Sri Lankan State "using various pretexts."
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SLA celebrates "Ki'linochchi victory" in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 13:29 GMT]
As part of the elaborate arrangements Sri Lanka Army (SLA) command is organizing in Jaffna district to celebrate the SLA occupation of Ki'linochchi, residents of Vadamaraadchi towns and villages were transported to Nelliadi junction Saturday in private vans, to participate in the victory celebrations, sources in Jaffna said.
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'Annals of history'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 19:44 GMT]
The message of "veiled racism" in Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s remarks Friday in his telecast address announcing the capture of Ki'linochchi town, betrayed the true intentions of him and his ilk, camouflaged in saintly wordings against separatism, terrorism, racism, North-South war etc, to hoodwink the outside world, writes a regular academic commentator to TamilNet from Colombo. "Unfortunately, those who claim to be at the helm of the international community, even though very well aware of the impossibility of the Sri Lankan state to satisfy Tamil aspirations, refuse to acknowledge the logic and legitimacy behind the ethnonational demand of Tamils to have political sovereignty to save themselves from genocide," he further writes.
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Tamil Nadu signals protests against New Delhi's inaction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 15:58 GMT]
Condemning the inaction by the Indian Central Government, even after the unanimous declaration by the State Assembly of Tamil Nadu to demand immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka, the Communist Party of India Tamil Nadu branch on Saturday announced it would launch a protest on January 06 in Tamil Nadu's capital city Chennai. Meanwhile, Pazha. Nedumaran, the leader of the Tamil National Movement has called for black flag protest against the Indian Prime Minister who is scheduled to visit the annual congregation of Non Resident Indians (NRI) on January 08. Meanwhile, the leader of VCK, Tholmavazhavan has said New Delhi's ignorance stands exposed as it failed to satisfy even the simplest demand to send its foreign minister to Colombo to stop the war.
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Mano Ganesan: Political solution after 'military victory' not acceptable to Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 10:02 GMT]
Responding to the mood of "celebration" in South over the Sri Lankan military occupation of Ki'linochchi, Mano Ganesan, parliamentarian and the leader of Democratic Peoples Front (former WPPF), in a statement issued on Saturday said political solution after "total military victory" of the Sri Lankan state was not acceptable to the Tamils. He added: "If the north today is a military battle field, the government has a political battle field in the east. You have your own provincial council. It is not the solution. But it is part of the constitutional law. You are not even implementing what is law."
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Bomb blast in front of SLAF HQ in Colombo, airman, civilian killed

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 12:06 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airman and a civilian were killed and 36 persons, including 16 airmen were wounded in a bomb explosion in front of the SLAF head office in the high security zone in Slave Island, Colombo 2, Friday at 5:15 p.m., while the city was lighting firecrackers celebrating the occupation of Ki'inochchi town by the Sri Lanka Army. The explosion took place 15 minutes after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced, in a televised address, that the SLA had captured the town of Ki'linochchi, 320 kilometres north of Colombo.
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SLA occupies Ki'linochchi town

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 11:20 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military authorities Friday said their forces have occupied the strategic town of Ki'linochchi in Vanni, situated 320 km north of Colombo. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has entered a virtual ghost town as the whole civilian infrastructure as well as the centre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) had shifted further northeast. It is the first time after a decade the Sri Lankan forces have been able to take control of the town after several months of fierce fighting that has claimed hundreds of combatants on both sides of the war.
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SLA shelling blocks ambulances, 2 injured in convoy

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 09:56 GMT]
Two persons who accompanied with the convoy of ambulances from Puthukkudiruppu to Vavuniyaa were wounded when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells at Mannaaka'ndal Friday morning, shortly after two ambulances left Puthukkudiyiruppu, medical authorities said. Two ambulances with 13 civilians with serious injuries, being transferred from Tharmapuram and Puthukkudiyiruppu hospitals to Vavuniyaa hospital, after getting clearance through the ICRC, were forced to turn back as the SLA stepped up artillery fire on the road.
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Tharmapuram hospital struggles to cope with victims of air strikes

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 00:32 GMT]
The hospital located at Tharmapuram, the new administrative centre of Vanni, struggles to cope with a high number of patients as Sri Lankan air strikes and artillery barrage on Wednesday and Thursday killed 10 and caused injuries to more than 50 civilians. The hospital, originally a village level hospital, has to cope with the inpatients of Ki'linochchi hospital, with its short space and lack of medical equipment, was forced to dispatch its vehicles on Thursday seeking blood donors to come forward to donate blood as all blood types in were at critical level.
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SLAF bombs Ka'ndaava'lai, Ki'linochchi suburb

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers that attacked Murasumoaddai on Paranthan Mullaiththeevu Road thrice, returned to bomb the next junction, Ka'ndaava'lai, while hundreds of civilians were fleeing the carnage at Murasumoaddai in the evening around 4:30 p.m., on Thursday. Two civilians, a 60-year-old mother and a 20-year-old male were injured in the attack on the densely populated junction. Three shops were fully destroyed and six shops damaged.
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SLA claims occupation of Paranthan junction

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 16:38 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defence Ministry on Thursday claimed that its troops reached Paranthan Junction, which is situated north of Ki'linochchi town on A9 Road. Informed military sources said the SLA suffered high casualties as the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) put up heavy resistance. The occupation of Paranthan junction comes after SLA suffering three major debacles in which several soldiers, including child soldiers and young recruits have been killed.
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North and South cannot remain separate, Rajapaksa tells Jaffna people

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2008, 08:57 GMT]
“The people of Jaffna peninsula should forget the tragic past and all people of the north and south should live as one people”, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka, said in a special satellite television broadcast Monday night for the people of Jaffna peninsula, which has become an open prison under Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control. Another message, delivered by Mr. Rajapaksa to the people of Jaffna, was that he has taken steps to 'liberate' Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu and very soon the people there will 'live like' the people of Jaffna.
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Ki'linochchi hospital attacked again

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2008, 15:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells have again hit Ki'linochchi hospital Tuesday evening between 3:50 and 4:00 p.m., initial reports from the town said. Hospital building was damaged in the shelling. Meanwhile, close-exchange of gunfire was reported in Paranthan area.
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SLAF bombers attack Christian orphanage for girls

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 December 2008, 13:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers targetted 'Karuna Nilayam', a Christian center and center for orphaned and disabled girls located close to the A9 highway in Ki'linochchi town, at 4:30 p.m. on Christmas day, sources in Ki'linochchi said. The resident girls have been relocated to a different building and no one was injured in the attack, the adminstrators said.
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