5 Tamil fishermen held without charges

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 March 2007, 11:23 GMT]
Five Tamil fishermen, arrested on 21 March 2006 by Sri Lanka Navy for allegedly straying into the high security zone in Mannar sea, are still being detained in Colombo magazine prison under the Emergency Regulations (ER) without any charge, as relevant documents not reviewed by Attorney General's department for more than a year, legal sources said. The fishermen were produced defence before the Colombo Chief Magistrate last Friday.


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Tamil student missing in Nawalapitiya

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 March 2007, 01:30 GMT]
A plantation Tamil student at Nawalapitiya Balika Vidiyalayam has been reported missing since February 27, according to a complaint lodged with the Nawalapitya Police, sources in Upcountry said.
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Air-Tigers attack Katunayake military airbase

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2007, 20:06 GMT]
Two attack air-crafts belonging to Liberation Tigers carried out bombing raids at the Sri Lanka Air Force airbase at Katunayake at 12:45 a.m. early morning Monday and returned safely to Vanni, military spokesperson of the LTTE, Irasaiah Ilanthiraiyan told TamilNet. The targets for the air attack were the SLAF's Kfir and MiG-27 hangars at the military base located adjoining the Katunayake International Airport (KIA), Ilanthiraiyan said. Meanwhile, military officials in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo said 3 Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel were killed and 15 wounded in the attack.
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CID to question Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2007, 12:35 GMT]
Media reports in Colombo said Mangala Samaraweera, one of the three-sacked ministers by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse in a major cabinet reshuffle last month, is likely to be taken in for questioning regarding an alleged malpractice during his tenure as minister. Mr. Samaraweera was foreign minister when he was dismissed from the cabinet, sources said.
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Engineered Catastrophe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2007, 11:52 GMT]
Batticaloa has turned into an area of humanitarian disaster, and a battle ground for refugee figures, as more than 100,000 residents of Paduvankarai districts were forced to flee to GoSL controlled regions by the shelling of Sri Lankan Armed Forces inside LTTE controlled areas during the first two weeks of March. The changing IDP numbers have swelled to 165,485. While UN appealed for "vital funds to boost its operations in eastern Sri Lanka" and leftist parties accused the Government of engineering "demographic change," Sri Lanka Government spokesperson K. Rambukwella dismissed the severity saying only 52,000 are displaced, contradicting his own administration's official figures.
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NGO worker killed, directors wounded in DPU attack in Mannar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2007, 11:42 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) directors who were returning after monitoring the relief assistance to the displaced civilians, following the Sri Lanka Army operation in Mannar Vavuniya border, were attacked by a Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit Claymore mine Saturday around 12:30 p.m., initial reports from Vanni said. Humanitarian worker Muthuraja Aruleswaran, was killed and 3 TRO directors, including the Assistant Executive Director of the TRO, Vadivel Ravichandran, 38, were wounded in the attack which took place at Periyamadu in Mannar district, located northwest of Madu.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Negombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2007, 09:26 GMT]
Wife of a Tamil resident of Negomobo, missing since January 11, last week complained to Negombo Police that her husband, Selliah Tharmarajah, 46, who was employed at a foreign employment agency, did not return home after he left home by bus with his national identity card to report for work in Colombo office.
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Masked men shoot, wound Tamil family in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2007, 09:20 GMT]
A group of masked men Friday midnight forcibly entered a house in Faizal Nagar in Kinniya division and shot at inmates injuring a husband and wife. The injured, identified as Arumugam, 40, and his wife Vijerani, 37, were admitted to the Kinniya district hospital.
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SLA holds Tamil journalist, says RSF

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 15:10 GMT]
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) said in a press release issued Friday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was involved in the abduction and disappearance of Subramaniam Ramachandran, a journalist working for Tamil daily, Yarl Thinakural. Ramachandran disppeared on 15 February after being questioned at the Kalikai junction, Vadamaradchy SLA camp, and RSF said his collegeues believe that he is being held in an SLA camp.
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SLA attempt to invade LTTE territory beaten- Seeralan

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 15:08 GMT]
S. Seeralan, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Batticaloa District Deputy head of Political wing, said the attempt by SLA to invade into LTTE territory, from their camps in Unnichai and Vavunathivu, has been successfully thwarted.
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Christian, Hindu teachers boycott training college

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 11:27 GMT]
The untrained English teachers of non-Muslim faith selected for the new academic year for teacher training at Addalaichchenai Teachers’ Training College picketed in front of the Batticaloa Teachers’ Training College around 10:30 a.m. Thursday demanding transfers to Batticaloa Teachers’ Training College.
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SLA takes human shields in Vavuniya Mannar border - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 05:00 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam officials in Kilinochchi Friday charged that more than 300 Sri Lankan Army (SLA) troopers had breached 2 km into LTTE territory and taken more than 120 villagers of Periyathampanai, around 10 km southeast of Madu, in Vavuniya Mannar border, as human shields Friday morning around 7:30 a.m.
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Supreme Court rejects Jaffna youth's FR petition

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2007, 12:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court rejected Tuesday a fundamental rights application filed by a Jaffna Tamil youth who is currently being detained in Colombo magazine prison stating that the petitioner has failed to fulfil conditions needed to file such application, legal sources in Colombo said.
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Trader, associate shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2007, 11:47 GMT]
Unidentified armed men on a motorcycle shot dead a trader and his associate, spraying bullets at them near the trader's house at Pothisumaku road in Vavuniya Wednesday around 7:25 p.m. and escaped, Vavuniya police said. Vavuniya magistrate Mr. Manickavasagar Illancheliyan conducted inquiries Thursday morning at Vavuniya hospital. The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated the bodies were taken to the hospital.
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Reckless Justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2007, 02:23 GMT]
Discharge papers to release Mawbima journalist, Munusamy Parameswary, 25, who was arrested on 22nd November under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and held for nearly four months, on suspicion of "helping the LTTE and a suspected suicide bomber," were sent Wednesday morning, by Harshika De Silva, State Counsel representing the Attorney General (AG), to Colombo chief Magistrate Court. Parameshwari was released Thursday at 10:00 a.m..
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72 civilians arrested in Chilaw

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 22:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka armed forces Wednesday morning took into custody 72 civilians, most of them Tamils, in a cordon and search operation conducted in Uddapu, a Tamil village in Chilaw district, northwestern province.
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Tamil youth shot dead in Trincomalee town

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 11:15 GMT]
Unidentified armed came in a motor bike shot dead a 27 year old Tamil youth Wednesday morning around 10 a.m. in the heart of Trincomalee town. He is a resident of Killikunchchumalai area in Kanniya village located about eight km northwest along Trincomalee-Anuradhapura road, sources said.
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Colombo fails to release Parameswary despite Court order

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 10:44 GMT]
The Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka failed to produce Mounasamy Parameswary in Colombo Courts by Wednesday evening despite a Supreme Court order Wednesday morning to release the Tamil woman journalist before the end of Wednesday, legal sources said. Ms Parameswary was arrested and detained without charge for more than three months.
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Tigers raid SLA camp, checkposts on A-15 road in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 07:49 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched heavy artillery shelling on Sri Lanka Army camps located in Morakkoddanchenai and Mavadivembu, and on the checkposts along Trincomalee Batticaloa A-15 road in a pre-dawn attack inflicting damage to the SLA positions in the area north of Batticaloa. LTTE fighters raided at least one SLA camp, located at Mavadivembu, according to initial reports. SLA sources claimed to have located 8 bodies of LTTE fighters after the raid which lasted for more than 2 hours. At least 4 SLA troopers were killed and 8 SLA troopers were seriously wounded in LTTE shelling that started around 12:45 a.m. The LTTE is yet to release details about the attack.
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Karuna group, SLA, abduct 5 IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 16:19 GMT]
Five persons, including a Hindu priest, two teen aged sisters, and two youths from the Internally Displaced People (IDP)s displaced from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas in Batticaloa district, have been taken away by paramilitary Karuna group personnel and soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence wing within the last 10 days, according to complaints lodged with Batticaloa Human Rights commission by their relatives.
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