Grenades lobbed at liquor dealer's house in Chenkalady

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 April 2005, 07:46 GMT]
Six grenades were lobbed at the home of a liquor dealer in Chenkalady, 16 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Wednesday night around 9.45, Police said. The house and a vehicle were damaged in the blasts. No one was injured. The liquor dealer's house is in a high security zone.
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JVP slams NGOs, western countries for meddling

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 18:28 GMT]
“We should spit on NGOs and stop them from walking on our streets. Donor countries and their NGO agents are holding this country to ransom, telling the government to set up a joint Tsunami relief mechanism with the LTTE. It is something that can be done through the Sri Lankan state machinery. There is no need for a joint mechanism”, said Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, the powerful propaganda secretary of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), speaking to a packed audience in Maharagama, an outer suburb of Colombo, at a meeting Wednesday to ‘expose the NGO Mafia that is against the land and the country’.
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NPC urges Colombo to disprove Government support to Karuna group

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2005, 09:36 GMT]
Pointing out the existence of a camp manned by militants of the Karuna group in Government-controlled territory that borders the north east, the National Peace Council (NPC), a Colombo based Sri Lankan peace group, in a media release issued on Thursday, called on the Government to disprove the allegations regarding its support for the Karuna group immediately and ensure that no such camps are permitted to exist in the territory it controls. Cease Fire Agreement between the GoSL and the LTTE in its clause 1.8 prohibits armed paramilitaries in the NorthEast. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been accused of collaborating with paramilitaries to promote internecine violence in the east.
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JVP will never quit UPFA government, Kadirgamar assures to BBC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
Throwing his weight fully behind the radical Sinhala nationalistic Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition in the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance government, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, in a live television interview with the BBC on Tuesday said that the JVP is for the negotiated political settlement with the LTTE and assured that it would never quit the ruling coalition in this regard.
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Injured Karuna Group cadres transferred to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 06:17 GMT]
Three Karuna Group cadres injured in an attack on their camp in the early hours of Monday morning have been transfaerred to Colombo national hospital for treatment under tight security, Police said. Meanwhile, bodies of two persons killed during the predawn raid are yet to be identified and are lying at Polannaruwa hospital, Police said Tuesday. The assistance of the ICRC has been sought to identify the bodies.
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Three injured in predawn attack on paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2005, 05:12 GMT]
Three paramilitary cadres of the Karuna Group were wounded in a predawn attack by gunmen suspected to be Liberation Tigers Monday in Theevuchenai, an interior hamlet near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border, Police said. The wounded paramilitary cadres, including a man identified as ‘Mangalam Master’, were admitted to Polannaruwa Base Hospital Monday morning, Welikanda Police sources said. On Sunday, Sri Lanka army (SLA) spokesman denied a report in a Colombo weekend paper that the Karuna Group was running a camp in Theevuchenai, an area controlled by the SLA.
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Colombo paper exposes paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 10:55 GMT]
Colombo-based English newspaper, the Sunday Leader, in its latest edition, has exposed the presence of a paramilitary camp at Theevuchenai in the SLA-held area of the Polonnaruwa district. The paper said its reporters visited last week the village lying about 10 km north of the Harabarana-Valaichenai highway from Sevenapitiya.
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Tilak Karunaratne withdraws petition against MoU

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 08:27 GMT]
One of the three petitions filed in the Court of Appeal challenging the constitutional validity of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the then Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mr.V.Pirapaharan leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was withdrawn last week, legal sources said.
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Japanese hazard management team visits Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2005, 18:23 GMT]
Issues related to establishing an Early Warning System (EWS) and Implementing Disaster Management methods in Sri Lanka were discussed when visiting Japanese experts met with Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge and cabinet officials, a press release issued in Colombo Thursday by the Presidential Secretariat said.
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EU commissioner hopeful of LTTE, GoSL joint mechanism for aid delivery

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2005, 18:04 GMT]
The European union's commissioner for external relations Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner met the Srilankan President Chandrika kumaratunga Monday and said "she hopes...that the Government would soon evolve a joint mechanism to ensure the equitable distribution of aid to all affected areas," in a press release issued in Colombo.
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Karuna Group kills six civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 March 2005, 03:03 GMT]
Four Muslims, a Singhalese and a supporter of the Liberation Tigers were shot dead by gunmen suspected to be from the paramilitary Karuna Group in Kolakunaweli, in the Welikanda area, 65 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa Saturday night around 8.45, Police said. A Muslim man, a muslim woman and a Singhalese were wounded in the shooting. The Karuna Group had attacked the Muslims and Singhalese for providing information to the Liberation Tigers about its activities in the Welikanda area, Police sources said. The gunmen massacred the civilians in place by the Polannaruwa-Batticaloa highway, about 300 metres from Kolkunaweli Police post.
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UNICEF has erred - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 18:47 GMT]
The question of child soldiers continues to vex strained relations between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers. That the matter has been raised against the Tigers by the UN and other rights organizations is considered by Colombo as a feather in its foreign policy cap. "The Government of Sri Lanka is more interested in cynically exploiting the child soldiers issue for its black propaganda war against us than in finding a political solution to the conflict", said Mr. S. P . Thamilchelvan in an interview with the TamilNet this week. He said there were serious errors in the UNICEF report on child recruitment by the LTTE.
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Suspected Karuna Group operative killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 09:29 GMT]
A man suspected to be a cadre of the paramilitary Karuna Group was shot dead in Vanthaarumoolai, 18 kilometres north of Batticaloa Saturday, Police said. He was identified as Mr. Mylvaganam Pulenthiran, 26. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force flew the paramilitary cadre who was shot and seriously injured in Batticaloa town Saturday morning to Colombo, Police said.
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Paramilitary ambushed in Polannaruwa, one killed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2005, 13:25 GMT]
A paramilitary cadre was killed and another wounded when gunmen ambushed them near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border Sunday around 11.45 a.m. Sri Lanka Police in Welikanda said. The two men, both cadres of the Karuna Group, were traveling on a motorbike from Karapola to Muththukkal, villages in the interior of Polannaruwa District, about 65 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa, when they were ambushed. The injured cadre identified as Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Jeganathan (Suthaharan) was admitted to Polannaruwa Base Hospital.


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Paramilitary cadre injured in shooting

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2005, 08:40 GMT]
A young person was shot and injured by unidentified gunmen Saturday night around 10.15 in Oddamavady, 34 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Police said. The man, Mr. Vadivel Ravichandran, 22, of Kiran, told Police he was a member of the paramilitary Karuna Group.
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Sri Lanka blasts Annan’s statement

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 February 2005, 13:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar has officially registered his government’s strong objections with the United Nations over Secretary General Kofi Annan’s condemnation of the assassinations on February 7 of E. Kousalyan, head of LTTE's Political Wing in Batticaloa-Amparai district, and his team in a Sri Lanka government-controlled area of the Eastern province, political sources said Friday.
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Nehru, a fearless Human Rights campaigner- NESOHR

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 February 2005, 13:43 GMT]
Eulogizing Mr. A. Chandra Nehru, founder member of NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR), as a champion of peoples rights and as one "who steered through the highly militarized and inhospitable environment that prevails in the NorthEast to defend and protect the Human Rights of those who were voiceless and helpless..," Rev Father Karunaratnam, Chairman of NESOHR, said in a press release issued Sunday that Nehru's tragic death "is an irreparable loss for NESOHR, the HR fraternity, both local and International, and the down trodden and helpless citizenry of the NorthEast."
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Colombo should disarm all unauthorized armed groups- NPC

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2005, 17:55 GMT]
The National Peace Council in a media release issued Friday in Colombo said that "there needs to be confidence building and positive action at this time is imperative in view of consistent accusations by the LTTE of alleged military connivance in the activities of the Karuna group. We call on the government to ensure that all unauthorised armed groups are disarmed as required by the Ceasefire Agreement."
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LTTE leaders visit Kousalyan's wife, mother

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2005, 16:54 GMT]
Head of LTTE Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, LTTE's Special Commander for Batticaloa, Col. Banu, Head of LTTE's Finance Division, Mr. S. Thamilenthi, LTTE Senior Member Mr. K. V. Balakumaran, and LTTE military commander Mr. S. Nagesh arrived in Karadiyanaru Maha Vithiyalam grounds in Batticaloa 5 PM Wednesday in a SLAF Helicopter facilitated by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). LTTE leaders visited Mr. Kousalyan's wife Pushpa in Ampilanthurai, Kokkadicholai and Kousalyan's mother and three sisters in Pandariyaveli in LTTE controlled area, LTTE sources said. Kousalyan was married in 22 March 2004, and Pushpa is 7 months pregnant, sources said.
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Underage youths handed over to NESOHR

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2005, 15:32 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) handed over 23 underage youths who had enlisted with the LTTE to the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) Chairperson Rev.Fr.Karunaratnam Thursday, the Peace Secretariat website said.
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