SLA cautions continuous curfew in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2008, 06:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna cautioned Wednesday UN humanitarian organization and its other institutions functioning in Jaffna peninsula to maintain food stocks enough for three days in case a continuing curfew being imposed in the peninsula during eventual military measures on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the Front Defence Line areas or on targets within the peninsula in the coming days, sources in Jaffna said. Residents in Jaffna say this could be a measure of the SLA to transport troops and weapons, unseen by the public, to the northern FDL areas.
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Arson attack destroys Grocery store in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2008, 18:01 GMT]
A petrol bomb attack on a grocery store in Aaraiyampathi within Kaaththaankudi police in Batticaloa district Tuesday night 9:30 p.m. caused extensive damages to the store, the owner stated in a complaint lodged with Kaaththaankudi police.
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2 SLA killed in ambush in Trincomalee - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2008, 06:38 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials in the East claimed Wednesday that a Tiger guerrilla unit ambushed Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Battaragaram in Thimilakadawa, a remote Sinhala area in Trincomalee district Tuesday morning around 7:00 a.m., killing 2 SLA soldiers.
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Canada says Bahu an LTTE member, refuses visa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2008, 05:51 GMT]
Canadian High Commission in Colombo last week denied visa to the Leader of New Left Front and General Secretary of New Sama Samaja party, Dr Wickramabahu Karunaratne, saying that his past actions "constitute membership in the LTTE," and therefore, Dr Karunaratne fails the admissibility tests laid out in Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
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Veeramani, Thirumavalavan court arrest to condemn Indian aid to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 19:17 GMT]
Tamil leaders in Tamil Nadu, K. Veeramani, President, Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) and Thol. Thirumavalavan, President, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchchi (VCK), courted arrest along with five hundred cadres while attempting a rail blockade in Chennai to protest against Indian aid to the Sri Lankan state. "The Indian Government should not assist the Sinhalese regime in any manner either through imparting military training, or deputing Indian defence personnel to help Sri Lanka unleash its genocidal war," Veeramani said while he addressed an enthusiastic gathering of thousands of cadres of both the parties.
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5 bodies washed ashore in Jaffna islets indentified

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 12:02 GMT]
The bodies of five persons washed ashore recently along with three other corpses in Analaitheevu, Nedunththeevu and Pungkudutheevu islets of Jaffna, were identified by a relatvie Monday in the presence of Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts) Magistrate Ms. Joy Mahadeva at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, hospital sources said. The five persons belonging to the same family died when their boat capsized mid-sea while returning to Mannaar to escape unbearable living conditions in the Tamil Nadu refugee camp, sources in Jaffna said.
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Two Tamil females shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 09:38 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons, who arrived in a three-wheeler, shot two Tamil working girls dead in Vairavappu'liyangku'lam in Vavuniyaa Monday night close to their houses. The victims succumbed to their injuries on admission to the Vavuniyaa general hospital by volunteers of the Sri Lanka Red Cross, according to medical sources.
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Tamil diaspora representative addresses British Labour Party conference

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 08:21 GMT]
Leader of British Tamils for Labour, Sen Kandiah, on Monday, addressed the annual conference of the British Labour Party, in front of over 10,000 delegates and the British masses viewing the conference on BBC, urging the Labour Party to note with alarm the increase in violence and human rights violations perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Government against Tamils. He also urged the party to note that the policies of the successive Sinhala governments and the current Sri Lanka constitution, which was adopted without the mandate of the Tamil people lies at the heart of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
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Eezham Thamizh and Tamil Eelam: Understanding the terminologies of identity

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 00:43 GMT]
Many readers, Tamils as well as non-Tamils, wonder at the way words and phrases such as Eezham, Thamizh, Eezham Tamil or Eezham Thamizh, Tamil Eelam or Thamizh Eezham, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan etc., are presented today in the media and the connotations implied by them. Culture Columnist Akazhaan discusses the etymology, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics of these terms in the context of the Tamil and Sinhala national questions in the island known as Sri Lanka today.
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Armed men abduct Tamil fisherman in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 September 2008, 12:10 GMT]
Unidentified armed men in a white van abducted Saturday morning a Tamil youth, K.Ganehsamoorthy, a fisherman by profession. The gang first went to the victim's house in Tha'lavaay in E'raavur police division, and then to the Tha'lavaay sea shore when being told he had gone for fishing, and took him by force in their vehicle, around 11:00 a.m., according to complaints lodged in the E'raavoor Police station by his relatives. Meanwhile, two Tamil youths were reported missing in Aaraiyampathi i Kaaththaankudi police division.
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Two Tamils reported missing in Kaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 September 2008, 12:08 GMT]
Two Tamil youths of Aaraiyampathi were abducted by unidentified armed men who arrived in a white van on September 18, according to complaints lodged with the Kaaththaankudi Police and the Batticaloa regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
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SL Police detain 10 civilians in Batticaloa after slaying of TMVP operative

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2008, 19:05 GMT]
Sri Lankan forces and TMVP paramilitary men on Saturday detained 10 Tamil civilians in a cordon and search operation jointly conducted by them in Tha'lavaay area, after a TMVP operative was slain Friday night at the office of TMVP at Tha'lavaay.
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Gunmen shoot SLFP activist in Poththuvil

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2008, 11:17 GMT]
Armed men who entered a shop in Poththuvil in Ampaa'rai shot at its owner, a 53-year-old Tamil man, who has been operating as the Pothtuvil area secretary of the SLFP, the party of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa around 8:15 p.m. Saturday.
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Grenade attack on UNP candidate's residence in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2008, 09:02 GMT]
Unidentified attackers lobbed a grenade into the house of a Tamil candidate of the United National Party (UNP) for the second time, Kalkudaa police said. The UNP member, Jehan Arumugam, 27, said he has been threatening telephone calls from the TMVP paramilitary from May, 2008, when Eastern provincial council elections were held. The attack on Saturday took place around 11:00 p.m. No body was injured.
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Heavy fighting breaks out in southwest frontiers of Ki'linochchi district

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2008, 01:06 GMT]
Heavy fighting has broke out between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the fighting formations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in the southwest frontiers of Ki'linochchi district, at Vanneari, Akkaraayan and the interior of Mu'rika'ndi at 5:50 a.m. on Sunday.
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STF commando killed, 3 wounded in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2008, 17:23 GMT]
A Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) commando was killed and three wounded Friday around 5:50 p.m. in Kagnchikudichaa'ru region where Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) laid booby trap exploded when hundreds of commandos engaged in a search operation entered a mine field, sources in Ampaa'rai said.
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Crisis unfolding in Ki'linochchi - Human Rights Secretariat

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2008, 16:56 GMT]
The better off among the newly displacing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ki'linochchi have gone to the extreme of dismantling their homes so that they can setup a home in due course in new place. The sight of Ki'linochchi streets with roofless, doorless homes tells the sad tale of the IDPs who once lived in them, said North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR) on Saturday. Meanwhile, the United Nations office of the Resident / Humanitarian Coordinator in Colombo, in a press statement issued on Saturday, said it was seriously concerned by theft from its Ki'linochchi offices on Thursday and Friday nights and said it has brought this to the attention of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE).
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Tamil diaspora representatives condemn International System Failure in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2008, 14:45 GMT]
"First was its failure to stop state human rights abuses in Sri Lanka; second was its inability to inspire a political solution in lieu of military solution; third was succumbing to government pressure in withdrawing International Agencies, and now, sitting with crossed fingers for the impending genocide and bloodbath, yet backing the failed state of Sri Lanka. What is the message the International System is trying to give to the people of the world in the test case of the Tamil crisis in Sri Lanka," asks Rev. Fr. F.C. Inpanathan, who was one of the diaspora representatives of a delegation that met Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer on Friday. "Does State Terrorism being replaced by System Terrorism?" he further questions.
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5 students reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2008, 12:56 GMT]
Five students, three Tamils and two Muslims, traveling together from Kotahena to Bambalapitya on September 17th night, are reported missing, according to complaints lodged by their relatives to Maradana Police and Kotahena Police. All were born and grew up in Colombo. One of the students was to leave Sri Lanka last Thursday for higher studies in London with his father.
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SL Police arrest Tamil youth returned from abroad

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2008, 10:59 GMT]
A 30-year-old Tamil man who returned from abroad was arrested by the Sri Lankan Police on September 12 while he was staying in a lodge located in Maradana. He is still being held in detention in the police station without any reason or any charge, according to complaints lodged by his father to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
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