India, Sri Lanka sign agreement on Trinco Thermal power plant

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 February 2008, 16:01 GMT]
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), India’s largest power producer, and Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) officially agreed Wednesday in Colombo that Vealoor in Trincomalee north will be the site for the establishment of the coal-fired power plant, sources in Colombo said. Although a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the two parties in December 2006, the proposed project had stalled for nearly a year due to India’s disinclination to agree on Champoor in Trincomalee district, the site originally selected by Sri Lanka, diplomatic circles in Colombo said.
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Tamil youth, girl arrested at Aluthgama

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 February 2008, 11:25 GMT]
A Tamil youth, resident of Jaffna, and a Tamil girl of plantation sector were taken into custody between Angulana and Aluthgama in the south when they were traveling in a van Wednesday night. Police said they are being detained in Aluthgama police station and are being interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Division to find out their purpose of the visit.
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Tamil civilian shot dead in Akkaraippattu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 February 2008, 02:16 GMT]
Two unidentified men riding a motorbike shot and killed a middle aged man riding a bicycle in Naavatkaadu, Akkaraippattu in Ampaa'rai district Wednesday afternoon at 12:30, Akkaraippattu police said.
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Tamil civilian from Ratnapura reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 February 2008, 01:59 GMT]
A familied man from Happugastanne, Ratnapura, who moved to Colombo five months ago to Colombo and living in Grandpass has gone missing since Sunday, the victim’s relatives reported to Deputy minister Rathakrishnan Wednesday morning.
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Jayalalitha to Centre: Take action against Karunanidhi for LTTE support

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 16:57 GMT]
Jayalalitha, leader of All India Anna Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam (AIADMK), the major opposition party in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday urged the Centre to take action against Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for his "support" to the LTTE. A resolution adopted at the party's General Council said that Mr. Karunanidhi, after coming back to power, not only remained silent over LTTE supporters, but also went a step ahead and eulogized the death of S P Thamilchelvan, LTTE's former political head. It labeled Karunanidhi's elegy "an act of treason" and alleged that it would pave way for secessionism.
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Sri Lanka breaches Tamil residential, monetary rights in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 16:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police in Maradana, Colombo, is embarked upon issuing time stipulated temporary residential 'visas' to all Tamils living in their police jurisdiction while Mukaththuvaram police insists the Tamil residents in their area to provide their personal bank account details in addition to other information, Attorney-at-Law Sumanthiran told the panel of Judges of the Colombo High Court Wednesday. Appearing on behalf of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), the Attorney pointed out that it was against the Sri Lankan law for the police to collect such particulars or to limit the time of residence. He added that the procedure will be counted as a gross violation of human rights.
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Germany wants sanctions if Sri Lanka continues war

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 13:40 GMT]
Unless Sri Lanka’s hardline government abandons its militarist path, the EU should impose sanctions, Germany said this week, adding that an EU-Troika will travel to Sri Lanka in early March to assess the situation. In an interview with the Tages Speigel newspaper published on February 9, German Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul also said Germany had frozen new development cooperation projects with Sri Lanka and, because of the deteriorating security situation, was withdrawing half their development personnel from the island as well as closing the German Development Bank in Sri Lanka.
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Appalling rights violations no bar to contain rebellion- RSF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 12:24 GMT]
"The government and the military have intensified the war against the Tamil Tigers and President Mahinda Rajapakse has sworn to stamp out the rebellion, at the price of appalling human rights violations if necessary. Both the Sinhala and English-language press came under even greater pressure from the authorities in 2007. On their side, the Tamil Tigers allow no dissident voices in the areas they control," said Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) in the annual report issued Wednesday. "Some ministers behave like gang leaders," the report further described the deteriorating state of governance in Sri Lanka.
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Court directs AG to look into grievances of Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 12:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court Wednesday directed the Attorney General (AG) to appoint a committee to look into the grievances, harassment and hardships suffered by Tamil people in Colombo and its suburbs due to the arrest and checks carried out by the government security forces, legal sources said. The Court issued the directive when a Fundamental Rights violation petition filed by the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) came up for inquiry.
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Priests deny SLA's "Shramadana" story

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 08:22 GMT]
Rev. Fr. S.K. Devarajah, the parish priest of St. Sebastian Cathedral in Mannaar in a statement issued Thursday, said that "the Sri Lankan Army occupied this church premises on their own," and added that his visit to the St. Anthony’s Shrine on the 11th of February 2008 was to ask the SLA permission to hold Lenten Pilgrimage in the shrine, and not to request the SLA command to conduct Shramadana (voluntary work). Colombo media and SLA had earlier reported that the SLA troopers were in the church compound cleaning the premises on the Priest's request when LTTE shells fell on the premises.
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4 Tamil passengers arrested at Habarana

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 February 2008, 18:19 GMT]
Four Tamil passengers were taken into custody Tuesday afternoon when they were traveling in a van from Trincomalee to Colombo at Habarana, a town located close to Dambulla in the north central province along Trincomalee-Kandy highway, police sources said.
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LTTE, SLA exchange artillery fire across Jaffna lagoon.

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 February 2008, 16:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched heavy artillery and mortar fire towards Jaffna lagoon in Ariyaalai east, an area close to Thanangki’lappu and Koayilaakka’ndi in Thenmaraadchi, Tuesday around 8:30 p.m. targeting boats that were crossing the lagoon, sources in Jaffna said. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) retaliated, and the artillery duel lasted nearly ten minutes, according to Thenmaraadchi residents.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 February 2008, 12:08 GMT]
A 32-year old Tamil civilian has been reported missing since Saturday night around 8 p.m. after he was seen walking along Thaalvupaadu Veethi in Mannaar, according to complaints lodged with the Mannaar Police, Mannaar District Citizen Committee, and International Committee of Red Cross.
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Dambulla court remands Tamil, Muslim youths

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 February 2008, 12:07 GMT]
Dambulla Magistrate Nimal Ranaweera Monday ordered remand till February 19 for a Tamil youth, Armugam Sivanathan, a resident of Uduvil in Jaffna district, and a Muslim Abdul Munaf Hazaly. The Muslim person was produced in court for giving accommodation to the Tamil youth in his house without checking latter's identity, legal sources said.
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Outgoing artillery fire rocks Mannaar city

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 February 2008, 04:04 GMT]
Normalcy was disturbed in Mannaar city Tuesday from 8:10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. as Sri Lanka Army mounted an artillery barrage simultaneously from all its camps in Mannaar towards Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam territories, after an artillery box barrage carried out by the Tigers targeting the Tha'l'laadi garrison. LTTE shells hit a mini-camp causing casualties among SLA soldiers. Clouds of smoke were observed in the area where at least 3 of the SLA positions attached to the mini camp took fire. According to SLA reports, the LTTE shelling caused damage to St. Antony's church and killed 6 soldiers staying in the premises. The church shares a common fence with the mini-camp.
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Three pronged SLA push thwarted in Pa'ndivirichchaan - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 February 2008, 20:47 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Operations Command in Mannaar Monday said the Tigers thwarted a three-pronged ground push by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) along Pa'ndivirichchaan - Madu Road. The movement by the SLA, launched at 1:30 a.m. was defeated at one of the fronts within an hour. Heavy fighting was reported at the remaining two fronts on either sides of the road till the SLA was pushed back at 3:45 p.m., the Tigers said.
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Karunanidhi condemns Sri Lanka Navy for killing Tamil Nadu fisherman

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 February 2008, 14:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy personnel shot and killed a fisherman from Tamil Nadu by firing on his boat on the Palk Strait on Sunday. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was the first to condemn the "indiscriminate firing" by the SLN. The Chief Minister has "taken steps to draw Sri Lankan Government's attention to the issue through the Centre," according to an official press release from Chennai.
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SLA soldier injured in Chengkaladi grenade attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 February 2008, 13:35 GMT]
An unidentified person lobbed a hand grenade Saturday around 8:15 p.m on a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) road clearance unit at Chengkaladi area in Ea'raavoor police division in Batticaloa district, seriously injuring a soldier.
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SL Police arrests 7 commuters in Colombo bound train

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 February 2008, 11:09 GMT]
Seven commuters were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan Police Sunday night at the Lunuwila station from the Colombo bound from Puththa'lam. Majority of them are said to be Tamil civilians.
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Indian Marxist party shuts door on JVP

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 February 2008, 08:31 GMT]
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the key ally of the ruling Congress, has not invited the JVP to its 19th Annual Meet to be held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The boycott of the extreme Sinhala nationalist party, that has been a regular attendee of CPI-M meetings since the 1970s, comes in the wake of heightened Tamil sentiments prevailing in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu where the CPI-M looks forward to consolidating its base.
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