No Tamil Eelam, only devolution within Unitary State- Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 February 2006, 12:57 GMT]
Ruling out demands by the Liberation Tigers for a separate homeland in the NorthEast, Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse in an interview with Reuters ahead of Geneva talks said, "This is a small country, where you can't have two states. I won't allow the country to be divided," he added. "You have to give up the concept of having two nations, or two countries … There is no Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. There cannot be an Eelam."
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Karunanidhi to apprise Delhi on Sri Lanka Tamil issues

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 February 2006, 06:31 GMT]
Leader of Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF), Periyasamy Chandrasekaran, said in a letter dated 1 February to Dr. Kalaignar M. Karunanithi, President of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhaham of Tamil Nadu, for his early attention to meet India's Prime Minister and Mrs Sonia Ghandi and to release a statement to the media on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) harassment of NorthEast Tamils, UPF media section said.
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Underage paramilitary recruit attests to SLA-Karuna link

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 February 2006, 11:05 GMT]
A 15-year-old boy, recruited by the paramilitary cadres of Karuna Group, later sent on vacation, and who managed to move with his family into the Liberation Tigers held area in Ayithiyamalai, addressed a press meet at Solayaham in LTTE controlled Kokkaddicholai Friday. The underage youth, Arulraj, has revealed details on how he was abducted, transported to Thivuchenai and trained at the training camp of the paramilitary group at Thivuchenai in Welikande. Arularj, who was on leave, managed to escape as his "guardian", an EPDP cadre Rama Ranjan, who accompanied him to Batticaloa from Welikande, was gunned down by unidentified gunmen in mid-January.
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More UNP Pradeshya Sabha members cross over to SLFP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 January 2006, 12:27 GMT]
United National Party (UNP) members of Pradeshya Sabhas from Navalapitiya and other areas obtained membership in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in a simple ceremony held at the Temple trees, office of the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse, Tuesday, parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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Erik Solheim arrives in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 06:35 GMT]
The meeting between the Norwegian Minister of International Development Mr. Erik Solheim and the Leader of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, began at 11:25 a.m. in Kilnochchi, LTTE officials said. The Norwegian Minister, upon his arrival at 10:35 a.m., had a meeting with the officials of NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) and a group of parish priests from Jaffna and Mullaithivu districts, NESOHR sources said.
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Police officer injured in Batticaloa grenade attack

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 January 2006, 16:31 GMT]
Mr Karunaratne Ajith, 33, a Sri Lanka Police constable was injured when unknown assailants attacked Sunappodai, Batticaloa police sentry at 7.15 p.m. Sunday, Batticaloa police said. The incident took place near the Kallady bridge.
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LTTE confers Maamanithar award to stalwart at Niedharsanam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 January 2006, 13:41 GMT]
Leader of Liberation Tigers, V Pirapaharan conferred Maamanithar (Great Humanbeing) award to Mr V Satchithananthasivam (also known as Gnanatharan) a tamil activist, jounalist, political thinker, and later the key force behind the LTTE's visual media division Niedharsanam. He was 65-years old when he died on Wednesday after a prolonged illness. Gnanatharan, who began his literary career as a novelist in 70s, directed the first short film in 1992 and the first full length film of Niedharsanam, LTTE media sources said. Gnanatharan was the Chief Advisor of the National Television of Tamileelam (NTT).
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Vakarai residents complain of increased SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 12:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has constructed three additional checkpoints along the road leading to Vakarai in Batticaloa district and travellers to the Liberation Tigers' controlled area are being subjected to increased harassment during security checks at these checkpoints, civil society sources in Batticaloa said.
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Norwegian Ambassador, SLMM Head to meet LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 11:11 GMT]
Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hans Brattskar, and the Head of Mission of the Scandinavian truce monitors, Hagrup Haukland, will be visiting Kilinochchi to meet the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers, S P Thamilchelvan on Tuesday, according to the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi. The LTTE is likely to press for urgent de-escalation of violence in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas of the NorthEast in the meeting viewed to be a preparatory meeting for the visit of Norwegian Development Minister Erik Solheim, expected to take place at the end of the January as announced by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.
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Colombo not forthright in paramilitary issue- SLMM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 January 2006, 01:59 GMT]
"The [Sri Lanka] government claimed that it had nothing to do with this [Karuna] group and was not aware of their existence. But when we visited the spot in the east and asked the Sri Lankan army where we could find Karuna, they told us where to go. So it was clear that the local army knew where he was," said Sunday Leader, a Colombo weekly, in the Sunday edition, quoting Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Spokesperson Helen Olafsdottir as saying in an interview to the paper.
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Peace Group calls for urgent talks on CFA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2006, 12:24 GMT]
Peace Support Group (PSG), a group consisting of civil society peace activists, expressed "deep sorrow and concern" at the escalation of violence in the NorthEast, reiterated the necessity to "return to direct talks as a matter of the utmost priority," and called upon the Government of Sri Lanka and Liberation Tigers "to affirm their commitment to the maintenance of law and order in the areas under their control, and take all steps to prevent a return to armed hostilities," in a press release issued in Colombo Monday.
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Maize vendor shot, injured in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 January 2006, 11:42 GMT]
Mr Ratnam Karunakaran, 32, also known as Sinappodiyan, was shot and seriously injured by unknown gunmen on Monday evening 3.30 p.m. at Piscal Junction, a predominantly muslim area in Akkaraipattu along the Akkaraipattu-Kalmunai main Road. Karunakaran was selling maize at the time gunmen shot him, sources said.
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TamilNadu parties ready to lend support to Tamil struggle- Ramdoss

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2006, 12:21 GMT]
"While the Tamil National struggle in Sri Lanka has assumed new dimensions in its progress towards its goal, parties in Tamil Nadu are spiritually bound to provide unflinching support to Eelam Tamils. We are mobilizing our supporters in India to show our strength and unequivocally express our support," said Leader of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Dr Ramdoss, when Sri Lanka's Leader of Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF), Periyasamy Chandrasekaran met him Saturday. Mr Chandraseakaran is currently on a two week long visit to Tamil Nadu to meet political leaders sympathetic to Tamil struggle, media co-ordinator for UPF in Colombo, Prabha, said.
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Protest in Colombo over indiscriminate arrests of Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2006, 12:40 GMT]
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated Friday afternoon 3 p.m.at the Five Lamp junction in Colombo city against indiscriminate arrests and harassment of Tamil people in Colombo under the Emergency Regulations. Several organizations and Sinhala and Tamil political party leaders participated in this jointly organized event, sources said.
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"How will International Community respond?"

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 December 2005, 13:27 GMT]
"A critical question looming large in Tamil Peoples' mind is how the International Community is going to express its reaction to the Government of Sri Lanka on the slaying of the senior Tamil democratic leader, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham," Jaffna daily Uthayan said in its editorial Monday. The paper described the slaying of Joseph Pararajasigham as an attempt to "throttle the voice of Tamil Nationalism."
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Checkpost near SLAF airport in Batticaloa attacked, one dead

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 December 2005, 09:42 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen fired at a checkpost at Puthunagar, near Batticaloa Valaiyiravu Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airport, 4 km west of Batticaloa town, wounding a policeman Sunday night around 1:20 a.m. The policeman, N. Karunaratne, later succumbed to his gunshot wounds at Batticaloa Hospital, medical sources said.
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NESOHR mourns killing of Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 December 2005, 14:59 GMT]
Praising Joseph Pararajasingham as a human rights activist ready to take up human rights violations against his community in Batticoloa disregarding risks to his life, the Northeast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) in a press release issued Sunday said, " A land where human rights defenders’ life can be taken away so cheaply is a damned land. It is also a damning indictment on those who are charged with the responsibility of protecting them."
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Tigers condemn the killing of Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 December 2005, 08:37 GMT]
Condemning the "appalling and vicious murder" of the Tamil National Alliance MP Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers, on Sunday, charged the Sri Lankan military intelligence and the paramilitaries working with them for the killing of Mr. Pararajasingham, a Tamil nationalist and human rights activist. The Tigers also said the killing at the Christmas mass symbolised the "long hand of the chauvinistic forces such as the Jathika Hela Urumaya," was working through the Sri Lankan military intelligence wing.
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Paramilitary cadre shot dead in Welikanda

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 December 2005, 07:08 GMT]
Unidentified attackers shot and killed a paramilitary cadre of Karuna Group at Kudapokkuna in Welikanda, Police said. The incident took place around 9:45 p.m. Thursday. The attackers escaped from the area, the police added.
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"STF, SL Ministers complicit in paramilitary operations, Karuna in India"

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 December 2005, 17:12 GMT]
The two paramilitary cadres who surrendered to the Tigers in Amparai disclosed that Karuna operates from India and that Pillayan was leading the Karuna group operating in the east. They also revealed that Sri Lankan Government Ministers A L M Athaullah, Douglas Devananda and Maithripala Sirisena are complicit in helping paramilitaries operating in the east, during a press conference held at Thenakam guest house in LTTE controlled Karadiyanaru Monday. The cadres also said that the paramilitaries were involved in violence against Muslims to create dissension between Tamil and Muslim communities.
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