Stop arms supply to Sri Lanka: CPI urges Indian government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 14:36 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (CPI), a prominent ally of the ruling Congress party, has urged the Indian Government to "immediately stop supplying arms to Sri Lanka that was mindlessly killing Tamil people." A resolution to this effect was passed Wednesday in the party's four-day 20th National Congress at Hyderabad. According to reports in the Indian media, D. Pandian, State Secretary, Tamil Nadu moved this resolution which sought New Delhi to interfere in the war-torn island's ethnic problem towards finding a political solution.
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East undergrads urge Muslim politicians to unite

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 11:30 GMT]
The student community of Southeastern University staged a peaceful rally Wednesday morning 9:30 a.m. outside the Oluvil campus demanding the need for all Muslim political leaders to come to an understanding and to contest under a common symbol in the forthcoming Batticaloa Provincial Council Elections, sources in
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15 SLA killed, body recovered in Ma'nalaa'ru - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 05:59 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Operations Command in Ma'nalaa'ru on Thursday said the Tigers confronted two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive pushes within the last two days in the region. On Wednesday, the LTTE thwarted an SLA attempt to break into LTTE territory after 2 hours confrontation at Ceylon Theatre area from 1:15 p.m. 5 SLA soldiers were killed and the Tigers recovered the dead body of one SLA soldier with arms and ammunition. On Tuesday, 10 SLA soldiers were killed in a similar confrontation that erupted when the SLA attempted to advance, the Tigers said.
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Vavuniyaa MP requests relief for rain affected farmers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2008, 02:56 GMT]
Vavuniyaa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.Sivasakthi Aanandan appealed to the Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Services to compensate farmers of the districts of Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannaar and Vavuniyaa for the loss of their crops due to the recent torrential rain. Many of the affected farmers depend on the income from the crops, and are under severe economic hardship, the MP said in his appeal.
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U.S. Rights report fortifies moral, legal entitlement of Tamil state- Fein

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 17:11 GMT]
Contrasting U.S. State Department’s institutional bias in favor of governments, and Bush administration’s willingness to overlook abuses by foreign governments in the name of fighting terrorism, with the recent U.S report on Human Rights in Sri Lanka, Bruce Fine, an attorney for a Tamil activist group in the U.S., in a statement released to the media Wednesday, asserts that, “[t]he fact that the United States would savage the human rights record of the GOSL [Government of Sri Lanka] means that its [Sri Lanka’s] actual terrorism record is far more gruesome than represented. The report thus fortifies the moral and legal entitlement of Tamils to a separate statehood.”
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SLN arrests 11 civilians in Kachchaitheevu seas

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 15:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Kayts arrested 11 civilians from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held Vanni on their way to Tamil Nadu on Kachchaitheevu seas Tuesday early morning, according to the statements in Kayts Magistrate Court where the civilians were produced Wednesday before Kayts Magistrate Ms. Joy Mahatheva.
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Sri Lanka’s parliament Monk shuns Nonviolence- paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 14:25 GMT]
Athurliye Rathana, a celebrated monk and a Sri Lanka parliamentarian, “sounded more like an army general than a legislator or monk” when he said, "[w]e can sort this out on our own. We tried to discuss things, but the LTTE always wanted to fight. We must do our duty on the battle field," Washington Post said in an article that appeared in the Wednesday edition.
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Abducted Tamil man released at Kalubowila

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 17:57 GMT]
A Tamil civilian from Dehiwala, Edward Premanandan, 37, who was abducted Saturday night at Wellawatte in Colombo, was dropped by unidentified persons near the Kalubowila government hospital Monday night. He immediately admitted himself at the hospital for medical examination, according to media sources.
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5 Tamil civilians arrested at Modera

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 17:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and police launched a cordon and search operation Tuesday morning at Modera police division in Colombo and arrested five Tamil civilians. Police said they were being interrogated following the recovery of a consignment of explosives.
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No solution possible without LTTE – South Africa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 03:52 GMT]
Expressing deep concern over the escalating violence in Sri Lanka, South Africa this weekend called for renewed negotiations to end the protracted conflict and emphasized “no solution to this conflict can be found without the involvement of the two principal parties to the conflict – the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.” Speaking in London, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Communications Roy Padayachie assured that his country would render every assistance towards making peace but, in an implicit criticism of approaches by some other countries, said: “we will never ever impose our involvement in any part of the globe.”
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Key Tamil official in Sri Lanka cricket to be sidelined

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 March 2008, 13:31 GMT]
A top Tamil official in Sri Lanka cricket, Velummylum Mathivanan, Secretary of the interim committee of Sri Lanka Cricket, has been "sidelined from his functions, and it s feared that he could be ousted from the job by the interim committee head Arjuna Ranatunga," Daily Mirror, a Colombo-based daily reported Monday.
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Police arrests Tamil youth in Matara

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 March 2008, 11:51 GMT]
Matara Police Friday arrested a 35-year old Tamil civilian residing at Pitapatara estate in Matara police division and have him at Matara police station, media sources said. Terrorist Intelligence Division is interrogating the man on a report that he had been sent to Matara from Killinochchi to collect information about important personalities in the area, sources added.
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Search operation in Peradeniya, 1 Tamil youth arrested

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 March 2008, 11:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Police conducted a large scale cordon and search operation in Peradeniya police division from dawn to dusk on Sunday, media sources said. All trains to and from Peradeniya railway station were subjected to search and passengers were interrogated. One Tamil youth was taken into custody and is being detained in Peradeniya police station for further interrogation.
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Civil protection committee deployed in searches

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 March 2008, 11:13 GMT]
Members of civil protection committees (CPC) assisted by Sri Lanka Police launched random searches in public and private sector buses plying in various routes in Colombo and suburbs from morning till afternoon on Sunday causing tremendous inconveniences mainly to passengers amid protests by commuters, both Sinhalese and Tamil. The bus routes selected for search operation were mainly used by Tamils, media sources said.
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SLA forces civilians to cleanup checkposts, military bases in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 March 2008, 02:48 GMT]
More than 600 men of all ages were rounded up Sunday around 7:00 a.m. by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers in Vara'ni, Kudamiyaan and suburbs in Thenmaraadchi and taken away in military vehicles to be deployed for clean up and restoration work within and outside the military bases, sources in Jaffna said. The civilians were forced to work the whole day at gun point in and around the army bases, check posts and shrub lands along Kodikaamam – Point Pedro road, officials from Thenmaraadchi District Secretariat confirmed.
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SLA suffers heavy casualties in Mannaar, clashes erupt in Northern FDL

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2008, 15:15 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Operations Command in Mannaar said upto 55 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed in heavy fighting that ensued between the SLA and the LTTE Saturday at Iththikka'ndal in Paalaikkuzhi, Mannaar. Meanwhile the SLA has handed over dead bodies of 10 LTTE cadres, 6 females and 4 males, at Mannaar hospital Sunday, claiming that the bodies were recovered in the heavy fighting on Saturday. On Sunday, 4 SLA soldiers were killed and 7 wounded, according to LTTE Operations Command in Vavuniyaa. As the rain ceased, the SLA engaged in offensive push in Mannaar, Vavuniyaa and along the FDLs in the North.
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15 Tamil civilians arrested at Wattegama

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2008, 14:57 GMT]
15 Tamil civilians including five women were arrested at Wattegama in Kandy district during a cordon and search operation conducted Sunday morning. Houses, shops and vehicles were searched during a four hour operation that commenced around 9.30 am., media sources reported.
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Steps are on to retrieve Kachchatheevu: Congress MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2008, 11:12 GMT]
A Congress leader in Tamil Nadu and Indian Upper House (Rajya Sabha) Member of Parliament, Sudarsana Natchiappan, has said that the Indian Government was taking steps to take back Kadchatheevu according to a report by Dinamani newspaper in Tamil Nadu Sunday. Mr. Natchiappan was participating in the 66th state executive committee meeting of the Human Rights Division of the Congress Party at Raameasvaram on Saturday.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2008, 02:02 GMT]
A Tamil civilian, resident of Dehiwala, has been reported missing from Saturday night after he left his mother's house at Wellawatte in a three-wheeler, according to complaints lodged with the Wellawatte police.
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Stop military aid to Sri Lanka: Nedumaran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2008, 01:51 GMT]
Tamil National Movement leader Pala Nedumaran, along with two hundred members of the Tamil Eelam Supporters Co-ordination Committee (TESCC) staged a demonstration Saturday to condemn the Indian Government's military aid to the genocidal Sri Lankan Government. Around 165 members of the TESCC, including its convenor Nedumaran, courted arrested near Memorial Hall, Chennai for agitating in defiance of prohibitory orders from the state police. They were subsequently released.
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