2 Jaffna youths, one Up-Country youth abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2008, 17:59 GMT]
Three Tamil youths, two of them from of Jaffna and one from Badulla were abducted on Saturday from their lodges located along Kathiresan Street in Fort area in Colombo by unidentified armed men. The two youths from Jaffna had been staying in Colombo to go abroad and the upcountry Tamil youth had been a betel vendor.
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Tamil woman from Jaffna abducted in Paalavi, Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2008, 17:57 GMT]
A 22-year-old Tamil female was abducted on Sunday in Paalaavi in Puththa'lam district Sunday. Unidentified persons who came in vehicle stopped a three wheeler in which the girl was traveling with another woman and took her forcibly with them, according to complaint lodged with the police of the area.
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NGO woman worker abducted in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2008, 16:09 GMT]
A 26-year-old Tamil woman Thenmozhi Sangeetha was abducted Sunday evening in Thillaiyadi in Puththa'lam district. The victim had been working in a non-governmental organization in the area.
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10 Tamils arrested in Gampaha, Badulla

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2008, 09:56 GMT]
Ten Tamil civilians were arrested in separate cordon and search operations conducted by the police and the Sri Lanka Army in Gampaha in the western province and Badulla in Uva province during the weekend. They are being detained in respective police stations and being interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Division as they failed to prove their identity and to reasons for their stay, Police said.
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Geopolitics shape Sri Lanka’s conflict - study

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2008, 06:12 GMT]
Politics between powerful states have always been integral to the dynamics of war and peace in Sri Lanka, several contributors to a collected volume exploring the international dimensions of the island’s protracted conflict say. The study by the Centre for Just Peace and Democracy (CJPD) published this year comprises papers presented by academics and analysts at a conference held in Switzerland last June along with extracts of the subsequent discussions.
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61 Tamils still held in Colombo, 254 remain in Boosa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 May 2008, 11:13 GMT]
About 61 Tamil civilians arrested in Colombo in several cordon and search operations last few weeks are still being detained in several police stations in Colombo, civil society sources said. 25 are being detained in police stations at Dehiwala, Wellawatte and Kohuwela, 15 at Weliveriya, and 21 are held in Kotahena. All detainees had valid national identity cards, but were taken into custody because of their Tamil nationality, media reports said quoting complaints forwarded by their relatives to P.Radhakrishnan, Colombo district parliamentarian representing the Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF).
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Musali displaced harassed by SLA, 70 families flee to Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 May 2008, 10:40 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Mannaar has ordered the displaced Tamil civilians from Musali division in September 2007, to present themselves at the 21-5 SLA Brigade High Quarters at Ilanthaimoaddai, on a village-by-village basis on allocated days, to obtain details of every individual and interrogate them for alleged participation in training given to civilians by the Tigers when their native division was under the control of the Liberation Tigers prior to September 2007. Around 70 families of between 450 to 600 families, all of them displaced from Musali division and living Naanaaddaan, have crossed the Palk Strait to Tamil Nadu during the recent days, according to residents in Naanaaddaan.
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UPFA wins 'rigged' EPC election

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 May 2008, 05:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling UPFA alliance wins the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) election with 18 seats and 2 bonus seats in the election held on Saturday with widespread rigging. The opposition UNP-SLMC alliance receives 15 seats, 1 seat for the JVP and 1 seat for Tamizh Democratic National Alliance. Meanwhile The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) observed that the Eastern Provincial election, was not at all ‘free and fair’. Despite the rigging, the opposition UNP-SLMC alliance wins the Trincomalee district where it had promised to resettle displaced Tamils in Champoor.
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India's Champoor power project, a terrible scandal, say activists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 19:44 GMT]
While India's National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC) Chairman Ram Charan Sharma told the media that the 500-MW thermal power project in Champoor in Trincomalee district will be one of the largest infrastructure investment in Sri Lanka, residents and rights activists complained that the Indian decision to pick Champoor for the power project had added to the Champoor displaced people's misery. "I have interacted with Indian diplomats (in Colombo) and am certain they are very sensitive to the human rights and humanitarian issues. But if India is involved in this, it will be a grave disappointment, even a terrible scandal," the activist told the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), the agency reported.
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Widespread violence, last-hour ballot stuffing mark elections in East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 18:40 GMT]
Paramilitary TMVP personnel entered several polling stations in the Tamil areas in Batticaloa and Trincomalee and stuffed the ballot boxes forcefully during the last-hour, before the ballot boxes were removed to counting centers in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, election officials said an average of 60% voter turn-out was registered across the three districts in the East. The polling was high in Sinhalese and Muslim areas while an average of 45-50% votes were registered in Tamil areas. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) has recorded 64 incidents at 6:00 p.m. Saturday. Majority of major offenses were committed in Batticaloa district, followed by Ampaa'rai (12) and Trincomalee (08).
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Tamil youth abducted in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 17:13 GMT]
A Tamil youth was abducted by unidentified men who came in a white vehicle on May 7 morning when he was on his way to see his mother living in Wellawatte. The abductee has been identified as Selvakumar Selvathurai, 23, according to a complaint lodged with the Wellawatte police Saturday by his relatives.
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Complicity of Armed group raises questions of sovereignty violations- CaFFE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 13:12 GMT]
Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE), a Colombo-based NGO, in a pre-election observation report on the east elections released Saturday observed that fear-psyche prevented Tamil community from participating actively in the east elections, whereas the Muslim and Sinhala communities enthusiastically participated in the campaigns, and that the Sinhala participation "gradually transformed into violent and confrontational political campaign at the end of the pre-election period."
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2 Tamil civilians abducted in Puththa'lam, Modera

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 10:59 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians one, in Puththa'lam and other in Modera in Colombo, were abducted in two separate incidents, according to complaints lodged by their relatives with the Puththa'lam Police and Modera Police, media sources reported.
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Tamil trader abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 10:54 GMT]
Unidentified men arriving in a white van Thursday afternoon abducted Ehamparampillai Viswanathan, 53, a father of three children, at Fourth Cross Street-Keizer Street junction in Colombo, according to complaints lodged with the Fort Police Station by his relatives on Friday.
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Tamil business man shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 03:25 GMT]
Unidentified gun men shot and killed the owner of a popular flower garden and nursery business, located in Kalviyangkaadu within Jaffna Municipal council area, Friday night outside his home, sources in Jaffna said.
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AG's role in investigations, main concern of IIGEP- Prof. Shearer

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 01:44 GMT]
Member of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), and retired Professor of Law at Sydney Universisty, Prof. Ivan Shearer, in an interview to the Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation, said Friday that unless the Sri Lanka Government implements all IIGEP's suggestions, including appointing independent counsel to assist the Commission of Inquiries (CoI), establishing an effective witness protection program, and giving sufficient finances to the Commission to assert their independence, neither he nor other members would be willing to participate in any new IIGEP monitoring effort.
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Pillayan group on recruitment drive among Paduvaankarai resettlers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2008, 01:23 GMT]
The paramilitary operatives of Pillayan group are intimidating and threatening recently resettled families in Paduvaankarai in Batticaloa district to allow one member from each family to join the group, residents from the area told TamilNet.
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Sea Tiger commandos sink SLN supply ship in Trinco Harbour

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 21:40 GMT]
A troop carrier cum supply ship of the Sri Lanka Navy, A-520, named 'MV Invincible', was sunk by Sea Tiger naval commandos in the Trincomalee Harbour at 2:23 a.m. Saturday, according to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials in Vanni. The underwater attack by Black Tigers was carried out when the supply vessel was loaded with explosives to be transported to KKS Harbour in Jaffna, the LTTE said.
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Tamil trader shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 17:10 GMT]
Unidentified men shot dead a Tamil trader in Selvanagar at Checkadipulavu in Vavuniyaa Thursday around 11:00 a.m. The victim has been identified as Baskaran, owner of shop at fourth milepost in Nelukulam, sources said.
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Former Mayor of Jaffna passes away

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 11:27 GMT]
Mr. Sinnathamby Nagarajah, who served as Mayor of Jaffna twice in the late 60’s, passed away in New Jersey, USA, on Thursday May 8h at the age of 77. Mr. Nagarajah was a Tamil nationalist, and an active member of the Tamil diaspora in lobbying in the United States for political support for Tamil struggle of self determination.
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