2 PLOTE members shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 October 2007, 08:14 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead two members of Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and wounded a youth at Murkanoor area in Ellappamaruthangkulam, a village located six km south east of Vavuniyaa town Tuesday around 10:15 p.m., Police said.
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Heavy artillery duel, clashes in Northern FDL positions

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 21:26 GMT]
Clashes between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) erupted Tuesday around 1:30 a.m at Mukamaalai in Thenmaraadchi and Naakarkoayil in Vadamraadchi in which both sides engaged in heavy artillery duel and gunfire exchange, SLA sources said. Movement of LTTE combatants near the northern Front Defence Line (FDL) positions triggered the clashes, the sources added.
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Sinhala journalist shot in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 20:56 GMT]
Two armed men who tried to stop the motorbike of the news editor of ethalaya.com, a Sinhala language website attached to the Sisira TV, opened fire on him, around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday in Rajagiriya in Colombo. The journalist, Kumudu Champika Jayawardana, was rushed to Colombo General hospital. The attack on the journalist of the Sisira TV, owned by one of the largest privately-held media corporations, the Maharajah Television (MTV), which runs three stations, comes three days after the Sri Lankan government silenced the five FM radio services operated by the Asian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), another private media corporation in Sri Lanka.
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Sri Lanka beefs up security in East port city

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 20:33 GMT]
The three armed forces of Sri Lanka and the police have tightened the security of Trincomalee city and its suburbs after the land and aerial attack on Anuradhapura airbase by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), residents in the city said.
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Tigers gun down 2 DPU intruders in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 20:04 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Tuesday said a roaming patrol of their border security combatants on Monday evening gunned down two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) intruders inside LTTE controlled Valaignan Kaddu area in Mannaar district. Arrangements were underway to hand over the dead bodies of the SLA soldiers through the ICRC, informed sources in Vanni said. The Tigers have lost a combatant in the counter-ambush.
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Rights group launches campaign against attacks on Journalists in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 08:03 GMT]
Expressing concern on the level of prevailing impunity of the killings of media personnel in Sri Lanka, the Asian Human Rights Commission, citing 11 cases where 12 Tamil media personnel were killed since 31 May 2004 till 29 April 2007, on Tuesday urged the public to write letters to the concerned Sri Lankan authorities demanding impartial investigation in order to identify and bring the perpetrators to justice. "Not a single person has been brought before the court," in the 11 cases, the AHRC noted and urged the public to forward a copy of their appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
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SLAF bombs Tsunami settlement in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 07:26 GMT]
Two youths were wounded Tuesday morning around 10:00 a.m. when three Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers bombed the vicinity of a Tsunami resettlement of 400 families at Theerththakkarai, a village in Mullaiththeevu district. Three resettlement houses were damaged when SLAF fired bombs fell 50 meters close to the settlement. The refugees were engaged in World Food Program's food-for-work project in the area where the bombing has taken place, initial reports said.
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Torture widespread in Sri Lanka- UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 02:50 GMT]
Mr.Manfred Nowak, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Human Rights Abuse, said today that the brutal practice of torture is widespread in Sri Lanka, and “prone to become routine in the context of counter-terrorism operations,” in a press release issued Tuesday by the United Nations. Mr Nowak visited Sri Lanka during the first week of October, and held discussions with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and other highlevel officials.
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7 drowned, 3 missing, vehicle plunges into Kelani river

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 October 2007, 16:09 GMT]
Seven Tamil civilians were drowned, three reported missing and four wounded when their vehicle returning after sending off a person at Katunayake International Airport, plunged into Kelani river at Kitulgala around 4:30 p.m. Monday, Police said.
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2 civilians wounded, SLAF attacks Puthukkudiyiruppu

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 October 2007, 13:13 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir fighter bombers have attacked Koampaavil, a densely populated residential area in Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaiththeevu district, Monday between 10 and 10:40 a.m., destroying two houses and wounding the owners of the houses, a 43-year-old mother and a 46-year-old man. More than 3800 students, attending the schools in the area, were forced to seek bunkers for safety.
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SLA trooper killed, 2 injured in LTTE artillery attack in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 October 2007, 18:00 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched heavy artillery attack Saturday afternoon, amidst continuing rain, on key Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) bases in Va'ra'ni and Kodikaamam in Themaraadchi, killing one SLA trooper and injuring two, SLA sources said. Meanwhile, heavy exchange of gunfire erupted between LTTE and SLA Sunday around 7:45 a.m north of A9 land route at Ki'laali, but none of the their troops were injured, SLA sources added, confirming the clash.
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Editorial blasts CID's political subservience

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 October 2007, 12:10 GMT]
The editorial of this weekend's Sunday Leader launched a scathing attack on the Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) as having been reduced to a "mere plaything of the Rajapakse Brothers and hangers-on such as [Minister] Wijeratne, poodles to do their beck and call," and called Mr. Wijeratene a "pathetically bad liar" who will soon be exposed as "a fraud, a purloiner of the public purse, and a perjurer," after the CID arrested Tamil journalist Wamanan on a hearsay charge of extortion, following Wamanan's article exposing Mr. Wijeratne of misappropriating government funds.
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Houses robbed during curfew hours in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 October 2007, 01:11 GMT]
An unidentified group of armed men dressed in black fatigues with their faces covered with black cloth Friday night at about 8:00 p.m. entered at least three houses located within the boundary of Jaffna Municipal Council robbing the houses of cash and jewelry.
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Did LTTE plane down SLAF helicopter?

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2007, 21:53 GMT]
Whilst the Sri Lankan government has blamed engine failure for the crash of the Bell 212 last Monday, press reports Sunday raised the possibility it had been downed by a Tamil Tiger aircraft. Four airmen, including the pilots and door gunners were killed when the Bell 212, enroute to support the defence of Anuradhapura airbase which was under attack by LTTE commandos.
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Anuradhapura losses worse than Katunayake’s - Athas

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2007, 21:24 GMT]
Two dozen aircraft of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) were destroyed or damaged when Black Tiger commandos stormed the Anudradhapura airbase in the early hours last Monday, the Sunday Times reports. Ten aircraft were completely destroyed while fourteen others were damaged, some beyond repair, the paper’s defence correspondent, Iqbal Athas, said in his column this week. All but three of the 27 aircraft in the base were destroyed or damaged, the paper said, publishing pictures of incinerated aircraft on the runway and in the hanger. Meanwhile press reports said India was supplying anti-aircraft guns to Sri Lanka.
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APRC on hiatus

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2007, 12:56 GMT]
Despite claims by Colombo media in early August that the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) formed by Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse has met with "sudden death," amid opposition from SLFP, MEP and the JHU to the "unit of devolution" ahead of the Committee report deadline of 15 August, the APRC discussions were resurrected; the latest on the resilient APRC is that after the 51st sitting on the 23rd October, the APRC is taking a 2 month recess, reports from Colombo said. The current status: APRC is "exploring the possibility of reaching consensus among the political parties on power sharing."
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Police lawlessness alarming in Sri Lanka - Rights group

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2007, 12:23 GMT]
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), issuing a statement on the arrest of a Tamil staff reporter of The Sunday Leader, Arthur Wamanan, by the Sri Lankan Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID), has said the higher officers in the Sri Lankan Police, ranging from the Inspector General of Police to the Assistant Superintendents, have shown a level of irresponsibility that no institution could tolerate. The magistrate of Mount Lavinia, granting bail to the detained journalist has reprimanded the CID for arresting the journalist based on a telephone call made by a minister.
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Ten civilians arrested in Ragama

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2007, 02:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police conducted a cordon and search operation Friday morning at Ragama, including the vicinity of railway station and arrested 10 persons. The arrested failed to prove their identity with valid documents, police said.
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Sri Lanka knocks ABC's radio services off the air

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 October 2007, 06:31 GMT]
One of the main sources of breaking news in Sri Lanka, five FM Radio services, operated by Asian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), has been silenced by Government of Sri Lanka in the early hours of Friday, following the controversy over a news report that alleged five civilians were gunned down near Wirawila airbase, on Wednesday, in the Southern Province Hambantota district, the electorate of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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SLA hands over two bodies to Jaffna Hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 October 2007, 05:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Thursday handed over two bodies of youths claimed to be Liberation Tigers Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants killed in a clash Thursday SLA and the LTTE at Ki'laali to Jaffna Teaching Hospital mortuary for identification by Jaffna police.
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