Ea'raavoor tense, 9 wounded, Police imposes curfew

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2008, 10:46 GMT]
Muslims in Ea'raavoor on Sunday alleged that two more Muslims were abducted as they launched a shut-down protest against the paramilitary-cum-political party, the TMVP, that had promised to release two Muslims who were abducted on Thursday, when the group attacked Muslims after a key paramilitary operative of the group was gunned down in the Muslim town of Kaaththaankudi. Ea'raavor Police has clamped down a curfew from 2:00 p.m. Sunday till 5:00 a.m. Monday. Seven passengers and two conductors were wounded when Muslim youths stoned three Sri Lanka Transport Board buses in Ea'raavoor. Residents of Tamil village Iyangkea'ni in Ea'raavoor were seen fleeing.
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Pillayan group supporters attack Muslim traders in Thaazhangkudaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2008, 07:40 GMT]
Supporters of Shanthan, the key TMVP Pillayan group operative killed Thursday in Kaaththankudi, attacked Saturday around 1:00 p.m Muslim traders from Kaththaankudi at Thazhalngkuda area in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said. Meanwhile, Ea’raavoor police had chased a group of Muslim youths who tried to attack the Tamils who had gone to Ea’ravvoor for purchase provisions Saturday, the sources added. Tension prevails both in Batticaloa and Ea’raavoor following these incidents.
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Consecration of Deputy Bishop held in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2008, 00:46 GMT]
The Episcopal Ordination of the Bishop-elect Msgr. Joseph Ponniah was held Saturday afternoon at St. Mary's Co-Cathedral, Batticaloa by His Lordship Most Rev. Dr. Kinglsey Swampillai, the Bishop of Trincomalee-Batticaloa, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Kaaththaankudi returns to normalcy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2008, 00:25 GMT]
The turbulent town of Kaaththaankudi in Batticaloa district is slowly returning to normalcy since the violent clashes and killings on Thursday and the business establishments and the markets in the area have once again started functioning, sources said.
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DPU attack victims laid to rest in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 21:00 GMT]
The bodies of 16 civilians including 5 children, three girls and two boys, killed Friday afternoon in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled Vanni during the claymore attack by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were laid to rest Saturday afternoon 5:20 p.m. in Baarathypuram General Cemetery.
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SLA compels students, public to attend Jaffna tamasha

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 17:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities summoned government officials and departmental heads to SLA Palaali Military Head Quarters, prior to the SLA organized three-day Veasak Carnival that began Friday in Jaffna Duraippaah Stadium, and directed them to compel students, traders and the public attend the above carnival, Jaffna Secretariat sources said. Students from schools in Jaffna peninsula were transported in buses to attend the carnival where all entrants were subjected to rigorous body check before entering the heavily guarded carnival grounds, sources in Jaffna said.
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Shifts in world order alters dynamics of Sri Lanka’s conflict - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 12:14 GMT]
Whether Sri Lanka is or isn’t on the UN Human Rights Council is an irrelevancy as far as international dimensions of the island’s conflict are concerned, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued this week. “Rather than a ‘universal’ principle, the concept of ‘human rights’ has, in actuality, served mainly as a tool for the West-led international community to (re)order the world,” the paper said. Meanwhile, the rise of new poles in the international system is proving a challenge for the West’s post-Cold War efforts to construct a liberal order, the newspaper said in another recent editorial.
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Court remands 3 Tamil women arrested in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 11:52 GMT]
Puththa'lam Magistrate Friday ordered remand till June 4 for the three Tamil women arrested in a cordon and search conducted in Selvapuram, a village in Udappu police division by the Sri Lanka Army on Tuesday. Asantha J.Jothy Fernando, 60, Josephine Kanimolzhi Fernando, 42, and Mariampillai Rita Fernando, 45, residents of Mattakuliya in Colombo were first taken in for questioning while they were staying in a house of their relative in Selvapuram.
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4 youths arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 11:48 GMT]
Four youths, one Tamil and three Sinhalese, were arrested in cordon and search operations conducted in the Gampaha police division from Wednesday evening till Thursday morning around 8 a.m. Police said they were being detained and interrogated as they failed to prove their identity and to give valid reason for their visit to Gampaha from outstations, media reports said.
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8 Tamil civilians arrested in Chilaapam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 02:35 GMT]
Eight Tamil civilians, majority of them are from upcountry or NorthEast were taken into custody by the police in a cordon and search operation conducted from Friday night till Saturday morning in Chilaapam (Chilaw) area in northwestern province, media reports said.
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Brigadier Balraj's body laid to rest in Mu'l'liyava'lai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 01:29 GMT]
The remains of Brigadier Balaraj, senior commander Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who passed away due to a sudden heart attack Tuesday, was laid to rest 6.30 pm Friday with full military honours in Mu'l'liyava'lai Heroes Cemetery the presence of thousands of public and hundreds of LTTE cadres.
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Raviraj murder suspects further remanded

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 22:31 GMT]
Colombo Additional Magistrate Ms Sujatha Alahaperuma Thursday ordered further remand for the two suspects in the Nadaraja Raviraj murder case till June 4th and directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to communicate immediately with the Attorney General to find out what action they should take against the suspects, legal sources said.
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TNA condemns Mu'rika'ndi killings

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 18:27 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi) in a press release issued Friday condemned the killing of civilians in Mu'rika'ndi claymeor attack, and urged the International community "to take necessary measures to insist the Sri Lankan Government to stop its terrorist attack on Tamil civilians," and to restore the normalcy by withdrawing the security forces from the NorthEast.
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Reserved hero: Brigadier Balraj

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 09:00 GMT]
In over two decades of service with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Brig. Balraj, who passed away Tuesday after a heart attack, had been a courageous and skilled fighter and commander whose last years were spent institutionalizing the training of a new generation of LTTE field officers. Although he joined the LTTE later than many of the other top commanders, Brig. Balraj had risen rapidly through the ranks on the strength of his shrewdness on the battlefield and courage under fire, fighters who served with him said this week.
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Fisheries director killed, DPU attack targets ambulance

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 04:33 GMT]
Assistant Director of Fisheries in Mannaar, J.G.Jujin and another civilian were killed when a Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) Claymore mine targeted an ambulance of the Ki'linochchi hospital at Muzhangkaavil in Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled Vanni Friday around 8:00 a.m., initial reports said.
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Batticaloa Bishop holds meeting to defuse tension

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2008, 21:39 GMT]
A special conference was held Thursday afternoon 5:00 p.m.at the residence of Batticaloa Bishop’s to ease the tension prevailing in Kaaththaankudi, Batticaloa District in the aftermath of Thursday morning shooting incidents in the area that has so far claimed the lives of five men, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Thousands pay homage to Brigadier Balraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2008, 21:03 GMT]
Several thousand members of general public filed past the casket Wednesday morning in Mallaawi, Vanni to pay their last respects to Brigadier Balraj, a senior and a special commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who passed away Tuesday of a sudden heart attack in Vanni. Meanwhile, a number of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jet fighters flew over the skies in provocative act to intimidate the public Thursday afternoon.
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Tamil woman reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2008, 15:48 GMT]
A family woman from Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi is reported missing since Saturday when she was traveling in a bus to Negombo from Colombo, according to complaint lodged by her mother to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna, Thursday. Meanwhile, the employees of Udupiddi Multi Purpose Co-operative Society who went on a search Wednesday to find their General Manager who was suspected abducted, at the place of abduction close to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps in Kalikai and Yaakkarai, said they could not find his body that was rumoured to be lying in the mangrove land near the SLA camps.
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Pirapaharan felicitates late Commander Balraj

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2008, 13:51 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in his condolence message following the demise of Brigadier Balraj, elaborated the characteristics that he admired in Brigadier Balraj as an exceptional military leader. Balraj was at the center of many of LTTE's Himalayan victories, he said and remembered him as the "heroic military leader, who trained, guided and fought with our fighting formations and conventional brigades."
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Muslims shot dead in revenge by paramilitary after the killing of key operative

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2008, 10:30 GMT]
Following the killing of a key paramilitary operative Shanthan and his associate of the TMVP Pillayan Group in the Muslim town of Kaaththaankudi around 11:40 a.m. Thursday, gunmen from the paramilitary group opened fire on Muslim travelers in the pre-dominant Tamil village Aaraiyampathi, 1.5 km south of the Muslim town, killing three Muslims, Police said. Four persons, including two Sinhalese were wounded. Tension prevails in Kaaththaankudi and Araiyampathi. Sri Lankan police and Special Task Force commandos have been deployed in the area. A local curfew was imposed and additional forces were sent to the border village, Police said.
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