SLA shoots dead Tamil youth in Chengkaladi

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2008, 13:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops shot killed a Tamil youth Friday around 4:30 a.m on Chengkaladi Main Road in Batticaloa district. The Senior Police Commissioner of Batticaloa claimed that the SLA troops opened fire on the youth when he was fixing a Claymore device along the road.
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iTRO urges countries to allow diaspora help

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2008, 00:02 GMT]
International Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, iTRO, based in U.K., in a press release issued this week following the unilateral abrogation of Cease Fire Agreement by the Government of Sri Lanka, appealed to the Governments of the West "to allow space for the Tamil Diaspora to provide much needed humanitarian assistance to their people. International organizations have been restricted in their ability to access the affected areas and deliver the necessary relief and the GoSL has restricted food, medicine, fuel and construction materials to the Vanni. As a result in many areas TRO is the only organization with access to the war and tsunami affected populations," the release said.
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India admits helping Sri Lanka Navy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2008, 20:47 GMT]
A day after Colombo praised the Indian Navy for its role in "breaking the LTTE's backbone", India on Wednesday acknowledged, for the first time in recent years, its active role in countering the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka Navy Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda had told the Colombo Post on Tuesday that Tiger supply vessels and floating warehouses containing 10,000 tons of war-like material had been destroyed thanks to Indian help. His Indian counterpart, Admiral Sureesh Mehta spoke in sync and said, "We support by checking our activities on their coast and their activities on ours. In this way, we help ourselves by helping them."
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SLA fires artillery on Northern Fronts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2008, 18:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched heavy artillery and mortar attack Thursday from 5:30 a.m to 7:00 a.m in Mukamaalay, K’laali and Nakarkoayil areas in the Northern Defence Lines (FDLs), sources in Jaffna said.
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LTTE foils STF penetration in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2008, 18:21 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters foiled an attempt by the Special Task Force (STF) to penetrate into their territory in the jungle near Kagnchikudichchaa'ru in Ampaa’rai district Thursday around 9:30 a.m, Amparai district political head of the Tigers, P. Kaviyarasan said.
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SLA withdraws from Mu'l'likku'lam - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2008, 04:28 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials told media in Ki'linochchi that a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) unit that was lured into a booby-trapped minefield in Mu'l'likku'lam in Mannaar abandoned its ground movement Wednesday around 3:30 p.m. Meanwhile, a group of SLA soldiers engaged in setting up Claymore mines in the area were counter-attacked by the Tigers.
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SLAF bombs Ki'linochchi suburb, 1 killed, 7 wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2008, 04:09 GMT]
Liberation Tigers anti-aircraft guns fired at Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) warplanes that bombed a civilian area with a mechanic workshop near Kanakapuram Maha Viththiyaalayam school at Kanakapuram, a suburb of Ki'linochchi town, Thursday morning. A 32-years-old man who sought safety inside a bunker was wounded and succumbed to his injuries. Seven civilians were wounded in the SLAF attack. Nine houses were damaged in the bombardment that was launched at 9:30 a.m. and carried out four times.
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Norwegian Tamils march against abrogation of CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 21:56 GMT]
Abrogation of the CFA by the Government of Sri Lanka has removed the only reporting body of human rights and humanitarian law violations that take place in Sri Lanka, said K. Sivapalan, a senior attorney-at-law from Trincomalee, addressing four hundred participants, mainly members of the Tamil diaspora, who participated in a march carrying torches towards the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo, expressing solidarity with the Tamils in the homeland Wednesday evening.
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Amnesty International calls for urgent protection of civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 14:12 GMT]
Amnesty International, in a press release issued on Wednesday said it was gravely concerned that the end to the Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam today will lead to an increase in hostilities that will result in a dramatic rise in indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population. The Human Rights watchdog called on all parties in the conflict to comply with their obligations under international law to protect civilians and urged the international community to support the call to establish an independent, international monitoring presence on the ground without delay.
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SLMM bids farewell

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 12:41 GMT]
In a press statement issued by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the Nordic Monitors whose functions were terminated by the unilateral termination of the CeaseFire Agreement (CFA) by Sri Lanka Government, Maj.Gen Solvberg, the Head of Mission, thanked the GOSL and the LTTE for inviting SLMM to serve them, and said "Future heroes in Sri Lanka will be those who recognize the complexity of the situation, and prove able to manage this complexity in a way that reduces rather than increases human pain, fear and hopelessness – those capable of respecting people with different perceptions, and bringing them together."
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British Group urges Tamils to boycott Sri Lankan Airlines

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 12:21 GMT]
British Tamil Forum (BTF), an umbrella community organization, in a press conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Central London to coincide with the Thai Pongal day Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. urged Tamils to boycott Sri Lankan Airlines, Sri Lanka's national carrier, claiming that its profits fund Colombo's war against Tamils. Ivan Pedropillai, chairing the meeting said, the abrogation of the CFA by the government of Sri Lanka is a precursor to an "unfettered and all out war on the Tamils living in the North of Sri Lanka. The Tamils from Sri Lanka cannot and will not continue to pay in Foreign Exchange for this deplorable war upon their own kith and kin."
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2 STF killed, 6 wounded in Ampaa'rai - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 11:26 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) personnel who were on a combat mission inside the jungles of Kagnchikuddichchaa'ru in Ampaa'rai district Tuesday evening entered a booby-trapped area of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE). At least two STF commandos were killed and 6 wounded, resulting in the withdrawal of the STF personnel, according to P. Kaviyarasan, the political head of the Tigers in Ampaa'rai district.
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U.S condemns attack on bus in Uva Province

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 11:05 GMT]
The Embassy of the United States of America, in a press release said it strongly condemned the attack on a civilian bus. Expressing condolences to the victims and their families, the U.S. statement said the targeting of civilians serves to foster fear and cause further suffering among the Sri Lankan people. Only a political solution to the country’s conflict offers a way out of the current cycle of escalating violence.
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SLA disrupts Thaippongkal Day in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 10:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops in Kaithadi in Jaffna forcibly took more than 600 local residents Tuesday early morning, disrupting their Thaippongkal rituals, to the playgrounds and schools in the area and held them for interrogation until evening. The SLA troops also assaulted the people going along Jaffna-Kandy road in Kaithadi during the extensive SLA cordon and search operation conducted in Kaithadi area on Thaippongkal Day.
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'Pathetically unenforceable' – Sri Lanka response to UN war crimes warning

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 23:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s militarist government reacted furiously Tuesday to warnings by UN Human Rights Chief, Louise Arbour, that human rights abuses in Sri Lanka left perpetrators and their commanders at risk of international war crimes charges. Rejecting Ms. Arbour’s comments as “pathetically unenforceable threats,” Sri Lanka’s embassy to the UN said the Colombo government “will not be deterred by thinly veiled threats attempting to undermine the morale of its military, deter its military campaigns and save separatist terrorism from elimination.” It also challenged the transparency of funding for Ms. Arbour’s office and the extent to which it represented the “world’s peoples.”
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Tamils respect Pirapaharan's single-minded commitment- civil activist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 18:12 GMT]
Prominent Tamil civil society activist, Shanthi Satchithanandam, discussing her views on Pirapakaran's role in the Tamil National struggle, says: "Pirapaharan is the single most dedicated leader who gave voice and form to the demands put forward by Tamil political leaders of the 50s, 60s and 70s," 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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Arbour: SL rights abuses risk war crimes charges

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 15:59 GMT]
A day before the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka is due to formally end, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, on Tuesday, reminded the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of their obligations under international law to respect human rights. She warned that rights abuses “by any party could entail individual criminal responsibility under international criminal law, including by those in positions of command.”
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30 SLA killed, ground offensive thwarted in Mannaar - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2008, 13:56 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam Operations Command in Mannaar has claimed to have thwarted a major push by the Sri Lanka Army launched in Parappaangka'ndal area on Monday. The SLA movement was thwarted after almost 8-hours of stiff resistance. At least 30 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 100 soldiers were wounded, the Tigers said. One SLA dead body was recovered by the Tigers who seized three AK-LMG guns, one RPG, two disposable Light Anti-tank Weapons and five T-56 type-2 assault rifles. Three LTTE fighters were killed in action.
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Monopoly on Violence

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2008, 02:05 GMT]
German social scientist Maxwell Weber said one hundred years ago that the monopoly on violence, and the provision of security and public order, are the cornerstones of modern, Westphalian, state legitimacy. A current school of conflict resolution theory has advanced a more progressive definition of "Public monopoly of force," that accommodates legitimate international intervention in "fragile or failing" states. In many cases, such as in Sri Lanka, the challenge by an armed non-state actor to the Weberian State's monopoly of violence can pose a serious threat to the State's stability, creating further need for an international response commensurate with "Public monopoly of force" doctrine.
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Census officials escape claymore attack in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2008, 18:06 GMT]
A team of officials involved in census work in Jaffna peninsula escaped injuries in a claymore attack targetted on them Sunday noon in Sampanthan Kadai area in Karaveddy as the device failed to explode completely, sources said.
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