Tamil youth shot dead in Uppuve'li

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 12:00 GMT]
Unknown gunmen shot dead a 32-year old three-wheeler driver Tuesday evening around 7 p.m. at Chelvanayakapuram in Uppuve'li division in Trincomalee district, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Auto-rickshaw driver shot dead in Uppuve'li

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 06:00 GMT]
Unidentified men shot and killed a Tamil auto-rickshaw driver at Selvanaayakapuram in Uppuve'li division in Trincomalee district, around 7 p.m., Tuesday, police said.
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Extortion by SLA suspected in release of Jaffna youths- MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 00:27 GMT]
Family members of 44 youths who were recently allowed to leave Jaffna prison have complained to a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian that they had paid sums of up to Rs.70,000 to brokers acting as intermediaries between the relatives and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel in Jaffna, to obtain the youths' release. Meanwhile, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, claimed that the youths had confessed to being members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and had accepted to undergo rehabilitation at the Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre in Thellippa’lai, under SLA supervision.
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Jaffna Tamil youth reported missing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 19:09 GMT]
A Tamil youth Sathasivam Yogendran of Ward No: 4, Ve'lanai East in Jaffna district has been reported missing since February 16, according to a complaint lodged with the Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) by his mother on Monday.
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Bishop appeals for violence free elections in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 14:10 GMT]
Rt.Rev.Dr.Kingsley Swampillai, Bishop of Trincomalee-Batticaloa, appealed to all political parties to extend their cooperation to help conduct a violence free election, when he addressed a meeting held in the auditorium of Batticaloa public library Tuesday morning attended by a number of Sri Lanka officials.
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Ganesan protests Kane's failure to meet Tamil, Muslim party leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 12:31 GMT]
Civil Monitoring Commission Convener and Western People Front leader Mano Ganesan expressed his protest over the failure of United Nation's Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, Ms Angela Kane to meet with Tamil or Muslim party leaders during her week long visit to Sri Lanka. Ganesan said the visit, where she met only Sri Lanka Government officials, opposition party leaders, and the extremist JVP leaders, was a "one-sided affair" and "too political."
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Failure to publish voters list in Tamil, violation of Languge Act- Workers Front

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 12:11 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers United Front (CWUF) Monday filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the Sri Lanka's Supreme Court for not publishing voters list in Tamil language. The petitioner trade union has cited the Commissioner of Elections and several government officers as respondents.
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STF shoots dead 2 fishmongers in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 11:45 GMT]
Masked Special Task Force (STF) commandos shot and killed two fishmongers at Akkaraipattu in Ampaa’rai district Monday around 4:30 p.m as the two were returning on a motorbike after selling fish in Akkaraipattu town, sources in Akkaraipattu said. STF handed the victims’ bodies to Akkaraipattu Base Hospital claiming that the two killed were Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) members, the sources added.
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LTTE, SLA clash in Jaffna lagoon

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 05:29 GMT]
A clash between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) erupted Tuesday around 7:45 a.m. in Jaffna lagoon near Kozhumpuththu'rai when SLA troops in their Forward Defence Line positions along the lagoon shore attacked Sea Tiger patrol boats, sources in Jaffna said. LTTE retaliated from their vessels and the fighting lasted for nearly fifteen minutes, the sources said.
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New Auxillary Bishop appointed for East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 02:56 GMT]
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Rev.Fr.Joseph Ponniah as auxiliary Bishop of Trincomalee-Batticaloa diocese, where he was already serving as Vicar General. The announcement was made on 19 February according to Church officials in Trincomalee.
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30 civilians arrested in Colombo, Embilipitia

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 11:34 GMT]
Thirty civilians, majority of them Tamils, were arrested in cordon and search operations conducted in the western province and Embilipitya since Sunday. Thirteen persons were taken into custody in house-to-house search conducted in the western province, and seventeen were arrested in Embilipitya, media sources said.
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Second Tamil abducted in Bandarawela

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 11:26 GMT]
Unknown persons abducted a a 27-year old Tamil employee of the Bandarawela Urban Council Monday increasing the number of Tamil civilians abducted in Bandarawela since Sunday night to two, sources in Bandarawela said.
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Ex-LTTE cadres forced to join TMVP

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 11:24 GMT]
Pillaiyan group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) members are alleged to be forcing former members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Batticaloa district who had opted to leave the LTTE and lead a normal life after Sri Lanka Army (SLA) took LTTE area in Paduvaankarai last year, to join the TMVP, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Sri Lanka sliding into humanitarian nightmare- Geneva Group

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 04:37 GMT]
Pointing out that the number of civilian deaths has jumped sharply after the election of Rajapakse Government and that "the present government displays little appetite for peace," Director of Small Arms Survey in Geneva, Robert Muggah, in an article appearing in Canada's The Star, recommends that if Sri Lanka rebuffs pressure to abandon military solution "U.S. and the EU could consider withdrawing the country from the General System of Preferences," U.N. should appoint a special envoy to start documenting under-reported armed violence, and U.N. should use article-99 to take up the issue in U.N. security council.
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Tamil youth abducted in Bandarawela

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 02:36 GMT]
A 20-year old Tamil youth has been abducted by a group of unidentified persons Sunday night around 7 p.m. He was forcibly taken in a white colored vehicle by the abductors, media sources in Colombo said.
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11 SLA killed in Paalaikkuzhi, Mannaar - LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 17:45 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Operations Command in Mannaar said Sunday that 11 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and 23 SLA soldiers wounded in a five-hour fighting erupted in Paalaikkuzhi Sunday. The SLA withdrew its forces at 10:00 a.m., the Tigers said.
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Tampoe: Sri Lanka is a virtual Police, Military dictatorship

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 16:42 GMT]
Prominent Trade Union leader, Bala Tampoe, says Rajapakse Government falsely states that their military objective is to defeat terrorism. The main objective is to wrest control from the LTTE the areas of North and east. "...[Colombo] can never achieve a proper political settlement till and until they recognise the right of self-determination, which is a democratic right, of the Tamil people and the Muslim people in the North and East, Tampoe says in an interview to Vikalpa, a citizen journalism initiative in Sri Lanka built on the effort pioneered by the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think-tank.
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7 Tamils arrested in Mount Lavinia

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 13:00 GMT]
Seven civilians said to be Tamils were taken into custody Sunday in the continuing cordon and search operation in Mount Lavinia area that started on Saturday following the explosion that took place on Saturday morning at Mt. Lavinia junction. The suspects are being detained in the police station and interrogated. Several Tamil civilians were questioned and released after preliminary investigations, media sources said.
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Jaffna peninsula Demining activities stall

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 02:34 GMT]
Increased frequency in clashes between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Forward Defence lines (FDL) has resulted in humanitarian demining activities in the peninsula slowing down with the possibility of all related activities coming to a complete halt in the near future, representatives of various Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna said Saturday.
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Details of mine safe areas in Jaffna released

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 00:17 GMT]
The coordinating office for the removal of land mines in Jaffna peninsula, situated in Jaffna secretariat, in a communiqué issued Saturday, said mine clearing activities in areas permitted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is nearing completion and released details concerning the areas cleared of land mines.
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