Normalcy returns to Aaraiyampathi,, Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 15:02 GMT]
After more than a week of violence, normalcy returned Sunday in Kaaththaankudi, Aarayampathi areas in Batticaloa district sources said. All the business establishments have reopened and normal transport is being continued without any interruption. Muslims and Tamils are able to travel through each others’ villages, the local residents said.
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SLN conducts large scale search in Nedunththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 13:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Nedunththeevu, assisted by policemen and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops brought down from Jaffna peninsula in large numbers, launched a joint cordon and search operation in Nedunththeevu Sunday, clamping a curfew from 10:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m. sources in Jaffna said. Anyone arrested during this search is not known.
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Diaspora Tamil students mark Sivakumaran Day

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 12:03 GMT]
The Tamil Students' Uprising in Sri Lanka, originating in the late 1920s and early 30s against the Donoughmore Constitution, remained a peaceful struggle even in 1970 when the Tamil Students League entered into the scene. But, the 1972 Constitution inevitably compelled the Tamil youth to get into armed struggle and Sivakumaran was the pioneer marking this transition and setting its basic attributes such as sacrificing one's life by consuming cyanide, said Ki. Pi. Aravinthan, a close associate of Sivakumaran, while addressing an event held for the memory of Sivakumaran at Rohr in the district of Aarau in Switzerland on Saturday.
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International inaction reveal hollowness of external assurances - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 10:29 GMT]
By rearming and stabilizing the Sri Lankan state after the ceasefire and then encouraging a hardline approach to the Liberation Tigers, the international community is responsible for the catastrophe unfolding in the island, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its latest editorial. "Rather than seizing the moment [of the peace process] and making the restoration of the Tamils' dignity and self-rule their focus, the international community made the weakening and marginalizing of the LTTE their preoccupation" the paper said. "Presently, whilst an imposed solution is in the interests of everyone except the Tamils, a just solution is, conversely, in the interests of only the Tamils."
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SLA launches ground movement in Ma'nalaa'ru

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 08:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army launched a ground movement in Ma'naalaa'ru region Sunday night. The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam claimed that at least 15 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 20 wounded when they put up heavy resistance Sunday night.
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250 Tamils arrested Monday in Colombo region

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 02:44 GMT]
Police arrested more than 250 persons in a search conducted Monday in Colombo, Avissawela, Buwakpitiya, Peliyagoda and Gampaha, Sri Lanka police spokesman and Senior Police Commissioner Ranjith Gunasekara said. Persons from outstations without documents of identification and proper reason for their stay were arrested, he said. More than 220 Tamils have been arrested in Avissawela and Buwakpitiya areas.
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Defense Ministry culpable of exposing journalists to reprisals- RSF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 20:32 GMT]
While noting that Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has added Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, to RSF's list of "Predators of Press Freedom," RSF in a press release issued Sunday, pointed to the ministry’s website "carrying virulent attacks on journalists critical of the government," and condemned the "defense ministry campaign against independent media, especially journalists who cover military affairs."
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Three Tamil judicial officers promoted as High Court Judges

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 16:39 GMT]
Three judicial officers M. Ilancheliyan, R.T.Vikanarajah and Ms Chandramani Sivapathasuntharam currently serving in Vavuniyaa, Jaffna and Trincomalee have been promoted High Court Judges by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the recommendation of the Chief Justice Sarath Silva. The promotions have come into effect from May 16, according to directives issued by Presidential Secretariat.
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3 SLA attempts thwarted in Vavuniyaa, Tigers attack DPU team - LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 15:41 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam officials on Sunday said that the LTTE fighters in Vavuniyaa thwarted three repeated attempts by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to break into LTTE controlled territory throughout the day in Paalamoaddai in Vavuniyaa between 8:00 til 5:00 p.m.
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Sri Lanka Navy disallows resettlement in Naavaladi in Moothor DS

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 14:38 GMT]
29 Tamil families have been denied permission to resettle in their village Naavaladi in Moothoor DS division in Trincomalee district. These families displaced from Naavaladi in 2006 military operation have been sheltered in a welfare centre in Moothoor town.
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JVP Trincomalee parliamentarian protests against fishing ban

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 14:29 GMT]
Trincomalee district parliamentarian of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Jayantha Wijesekara while participating in the emergency debate in parliament on Thursday said that people of Trincomalee district had a better life under the control of LTTE than under the rule of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. If the present fishing ban continues, the LTTE would draw popular support among the rural people for armed struggle, he warned.
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Journalist Tissanayagam's detention extended by three months

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 14:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry has extended the detention order served on a senior journalist J.S.Tissanayagam and two other Tamils, V.Jasikaran and Ms V.Valarmathy for another three months as the earlier order had lapsed on June 5. The Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka Police produced three detention orders for each of the suspects instead of producing them before the Colombo Additional Magistrate Ms Kumari Jayewardene Friday, June 6, legal sources said.
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Fein seeks SL Defence Ministry approval to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 02:37 GMT]
Responding to Sri Lanka Defence Ministry posting that labeled U.S. based attorney for a Tamil activist group, Bruce Fein, as "Carrion Bird of LTTE Terrorism," Fein said in a letter to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse that he accepts Sri Lanka Defence Ministry's invitation to "any interested party to visit Sri Lanka and see how the people of all ethnicities live in harmony in this country," and requested the Ministry to inform him the travel dates allowing him to obtain "direct and candid testimony of Tamil sentiments toward a unitary state as opposed to separate Tamil statehood."
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Don't visit Colombo, Ganesan tells NorthEast Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 16:58 GMT]
Accusing both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers for action irrationally, Mano Ganesan, leader of Western People’s Front (WPF) and the Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC) said in a media release Saturday, "[n]either the government nor the LTTE have any control over blasts going on in the respective territories under their own control," and appealed to the Tamil civilians travelling from NorthEast to stay away from Colombo and the South as both areas are "unsafe and insecure for Tamil civilians."
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Tamil youth shot dead in Paalaiyoottu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 16:52 GMT]
A Tamil youth was shot dead Saturday evening around 6.30 p.m. in his house in Paalaiyootu, in Uppuve'li, Trincomalee, by a group of armed persons arrived in a white van. His wife was injured in the incident, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Amnesty vigil for killed journalists during Rajapakse's visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 15:25 GMT]
Amnesty International, UK, is organizing a vigil for "Sri Lankan journalists killed and under threat," at the Marlborough House, Commonwealth Secretariat, London from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. 9th Monday, the organizations UK co-ordinator Sarah Oliver said. Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse will be in UK to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting scheduled for 9th and 10th June.
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4 SLA killed, 7 wounded in Vavuniyaa, SLA offensive thwarted - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 13:53 GMT]
At least 4 Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed and more than 7 wounded Saturday when the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) put up heavy resistance against the SLA that attempted to advance through three fronts targeting Kugnchukku'lam in Vavuniyaa district, LTTE officials told media in Vanni. The SLA's attempt to advance was thwarted after five-hours heavy fighting, the Tigers said. Meanwhile, residents in Vavuniyaa - Mullaiththeevu district border said more people were displaced by the artillery shelling stepped up by the SLA in recent days.
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'Sinister move' of Colombo disrupting Tamil contiguity at Kokku'laay - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 11:14 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government's cabinet decision on Thursday to bring Kokku'laay, the Tamil coastal village of Northern Province under the administration of the Sinhala dominated Padavi Sripura division of Eastern Province is a "sinister move, officialising the separation of the Tamil contiguity of the North and East," said Tamil parliamentarian Selvam Adaikkalanathan on Saturday. "The International Community, especially America, Britain and India, who often harp on the theory of development in the East, before reaching a political solution, should take a serious note of what they are actually abetting in Sri Lanka," he further said.
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Australia asks citizens not to travel to North, NorthCentral, East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 10:07 GMT]
Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in a reviewed and reissued travel advisory for Sri Lanka, asking citizens not to travel to "Northern, north central and eastern areas (including Cultural Triangle, Wilpattu and Yala National Parks),...because of the very high risk of politically motivated violence. " The advisory added that "[a]ttacks in Colombo have become more frequent and have killed many civilians. Recent attacks have been directed against public buses and trains. Further attacks can happen at any time, anywhere in Sri Lanka. Australians could inadvertently become victims of violence directed at others.
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SLA arrests Moratuwa university Tamil students at checkposts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 08:36 GMT]
At least 20 Tamil students studying at the University of Moratuwa, transferred by the Sri Lankan police to Bambalapitiya, security-checked and cleared to travel to their native places after the Claymore attack that took place in the morning, were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army at Medawachchiya and at Iraddaip Periyaku'lam in Vavuniyaa Friday night. More than 30 Tamil students are detained by the Sri Lankan forces after the attack in Katubedda.
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