Kurankupaanchaan IDPs to be resettled

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 August 2007, 02:49 GMT]
Nearly three hundred families displaced from Kurankupaanchaan, a hamlet in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district in 1990, are to be resettled. A team of Sri Lanka government officials led by the Kinniya Divisional Secretary is to pay a visit to Kurankupaanchaan village during the weekend to see the ground situation before making arrangement for the resettlement, civil society sources said.
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SL Tamil detainees on hunger strike in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2007, 17:48 GMT]
Two Sri Lankan Tamil detainees, on hunger strike from Tuesday in Chenkalpet Special Detention Centre (CSDC), are loosing consciousness, and were admitted to Chenkalpet government hospital Friday, sources in Chenkalpet said. 17 detainees in CSDC for Sri Lankan Tamils are on a hunger strike demanding release since Tuesday.
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1 killed, 2 disappear, 2 surrender at HRC in Urumpiraay

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2007, 11:13 GMT]
Koappaay Police recovered the body of a youth with gunshot wounds al killed Thursday night in Urumpiraay North and transferred the body to the Jaffna Hospital Friday morning, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, in Urumpiraay two youths disappeared and two others sought safety with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna, HRC officials said. HRC officials said in the first two weeks of August, 18 have disappeared, 21 have been killed and 11 have surrendered to the HRC in Jaffna district.
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Tamil civilian abducted in Peasaalai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2007, 18:38 GMT]
Armed unidentified persons abducted a Tamil civilian Tuesday afternoon in Peasaalai in Mannar district, according to complaint lodged by his wife with the regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and Foundation for Co-Existence Thursday, civil sources said.
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Eachchilampaththu refugees without food in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2007, 12:50 GMT]
111 persons of 41 Tamil families displaced from Eachchilampaththu division in Trincomalee district since the military offence by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and now being sheltered in temporary structures in Batticaloa district have not received their free dry ration for last two weeks, civil society sources said. The affected refugees are close to starvation, and are beginning to beg for food, sources added.
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APRC is dead, says UNP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2007, 00:43 GMT]
After the Tuesday meeting of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) on Constitutional Reforms was abruptly halted and adjourned indefinitely due to demands from Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) members, and failed to "finalise a draft report by today to keep to a deadline set by the United National Party UNP," the opposition UNP spokesperson said the "APRC process is dead in the water," the Morning Leader reported in the Wednesday edition.
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Sri Lanka's Rights violations dominate TNA's European talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 18:57 GMT]
Senior members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) after concluding their month long visit to European capitals to meet with top Government officials, said in a press release issued Wednesday, that the meetings focussed on the "horrendous human rights situation" in Sri Lanka, the "retrogressive movement in regard to the political process," and the Sri Lanka Government's attempt to "impose a military solution" to the Tamil National conflict.
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SLAF again bombs civilian settlements in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 17:38 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Mi-24 helicopter gunship bombed civilian settlements in Nedungkea'ni in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled territory in Vavuniyaa north from Tuesday midnight up to Wednesday noon, causing heavy damages schools, houses and cultivation, sources in Nedungkea'ni said. Residents of the villages bombed, scattering in panic, managed to save their lives, seeking shelter away from the exploding bombs.
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Thai deportees held incommunicado in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 14:34 GMT]
Three Tamil asylum seekers who were returned by Thailand to Sri Lanka are being detained in Colombo and are at risk of torture or ill-treatment or disappearance, legal sources in Colombo said Wednesday. Sujith Gunapala, Sasikaran Thevarajah and Satyaphavan Aseervatham are being held incommunicado by the Criminal Investigations Division (CID).
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Sri Lanka: ‘Holmes is a terrorist’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 13:38 GMT]
Stung by a top UN official’s criticism that Sri Lanka has one of the worst records in the world for humanitarian aid worker safety, the Colombo government Wednesday condemned him as a “terrorist” and said he had been bribed by the Tamil Tigers to tarnish the country’s reputation. Meanwhile the head of the government's peace secretariat accused French aid group Action Contre la Faim of being responsible for the massacre of 17 of their own local staff last year through "negligence" and "irresponsibility". International monitors have blamed government troops for the killings.
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5 Tamils arrested near SL Parliament

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 04:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested five Tamil youths near the Sri Lanka Parliament for staying overnight in an open ground located in Madiwela within the Sri Jeyawardanapura Municipal limits, around 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, sources in Colombo said. The youths allegedly had arrived there late evening in an auto trishaw and stayed there until dawn.
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53 School girls killed in 2006 SLAF bombing, remembered

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 02:03 GMT]
The first anniversary of the death of fifty three school girls killed at Va'l'lipunam Chegnchoalai orphanage premises from an aerial raid by Kfir fast attack crafts belonging to the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on 14 August 2006, was observed throughout Vannni in Ki'linochchi and Mullaitheevu districts at 10:00 a.m Tuesday, sources in Vanni said.
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SLA deserters arrested in Colombo for terrorising Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 10:54 GMT]
The Colombo police Monday arrested three Sinhalese persons who are said to be deserters of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on a complaint that they had been collecting names of Tamils who returned from abroad and staying with their relatives in Jampettah Street at Kotahena in Colombo city.
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Uddapu Tamil youths released

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 10:48 GMT]
The Chilaw (Chilaapam) Magistrate Monday released four Tamil youths who were arrested in April at Uddapu, a traditional Tamil village in the northwestern province alleging that they were members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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Three to be charged in Kadirgamar assassination- AG

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 10:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Attorney General, Mr.C.R.de Silva, told the media Sunday on the second death anniversary of former foreign minister Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar that indictments against three Tamils now in remand will be filed soon after statements from three persons are obtained, legal sources in Colombo said.
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IDPs refusing to resettle in new areas refused relief

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 10:12 GMT]
East Provincial Governor Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema is reported to have instructed civil authorities in districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa not to provide food and other relief assistances to Tamil displaced families frpm Moothoor east and Eachchilampathu division who refuse to be relocated in new lands allocated to them by the Sri Lanka government in other parts of the Trincomalee district. Moothoor east and Eachchilampaththu have been declared as high security zone after the military operation and civilians are not being allowed to resettle there, civil society sources said.
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Tamil film-styled gang fight in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 02:25 GMT]
At least two persons were seriously injured, one of them struggling for life, as a result of a gang fight that took place in Kalbakken, a suburb of Norway's capital Oslo, on Sunday. Confrontation between local Tamil youth and a few who intruded into Norway in recent months is said to have caused the formation of gangs that fought to settle scores, using handguns and Samurai swords.
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Woman killed, School destroyed in SLAF bombardment in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2007, 15:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Monday morning bombed a civilian area in Maruthoadai, Nedungkea'ni Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled territory in Vavuniyaa, killing a 20-year-old female. A government school, Maruthoadai Tamil Mixed School, was destroyed in the bombardment. A Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society building, a rice mill and two civilian houses were also damaged in the bombardment that took place twice between 6:40 and 7:10 a.m. A couple, owners of one of the houses, were seriously wounded in the air-attack.
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Displaced Uppaaru families to be resettled

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2007, 10:19 GMT]
About five hundred Tamil and Muslim families displaced from Uppaaru, a village in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district, due to military operations in 1990 and 1999 and sought refuge in others areas are to be resettled, Secretariat sources in Kinniya said.


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14 Tamil civilians arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2007, 08:06 GMT]
Fourteen Tamil civilians were arrested in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police from Sunday night till Monday early morning in Gampaha town in the western province. This was the fourth search operation conducted by the government security forces in Gampaha town during the first 2 weeks of August, sources said.
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