‘Jailed Karuna associate in SLA psy-ops’ - LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 July 2004, 07:18 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa Sunday charged that the Sri Lanka army intelligence was providing telephone facilities to an associate of renegade commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna) who is in prison in the eastern town for possessing weapons illegally. “We have clear proof now that ‘Satchi Master’ is giving phone interviews from his cell in the Batticaloa jail to a Tamil weekly and a radio station which are backed by Sri Lanka military intelligence," a senior LTTE official in the eastern district said Sunday.
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New Sri Lanka Army Commander assumes duties

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2004, 14:06 GMT]
Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda who took his duties as the 17th Army Commander today (Thursday) admitted at a press conference that the statement by the Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera that Army personnel were involved in Karuna’s issue, was “an embarrassment to the Army”.


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Kumaratunga says talks should restart without delay

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2004, 12:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Thursday told Norwegian facilitators of the the island’s peace process that peace talks between her government and the Liberation Tigers should be resumed without further delay. She denied accusations by the Liberation Tigers that the SLA was engaged in activities in support of renegade commander Karuna in the eastern province.
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The cease-fire’s weakest link: Tamil paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 17:50 GMT]
When Norwegian Special Envoy Erik Solheim flew into Sri Lanka this week, he was well aware that the problems that have bedeviled his government’s peace process thus far have now been eclipsed by new and far more severe one: a weak link in the formal ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers has finally snapped.
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Thamilchelvan conveys LTTE’s stand on CFA, talks to Solheim

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 08:37 GMT]
“If the Sri Lankan President and government are serious about the cease-fire agreement and peace talks they should stop sheltering Karuna and backing the murder and mayhem in which some of his henchmen are indulging Batticaloa. This is what we told the Norwegian facilitators today”, said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, head of the LTTE’s political division, speaking to the press after meeting Norway’s special peace envoy Mr. Erik Solheim Wednesday in Kilinochchi.
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Seven Karuna-cadres apprehended

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 02:05 GMT]
Batticaloa-Amparai district secretariat of the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) said today that they have arrested seven cadres belonging to renegade Karuna group who were working with the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence, media sources said.
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Tamil journalists condemn slander

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2004, 14:59 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) and the East Lanka Journalists’ Association (ELJA) Tuesday condemned what they described as “attempts in a section of the Colombo to discredit independent Tamil journalists”. Referring to a report in the Tuesday edition of ‘The Island’, an English language daily published from Colombo, a spokesman for the ELJA said, “the paper refers to us as ‘supporters of LTTE leader Pirapaharan’. This is a dangerously mischievous report aimed at discrediting us and thereby justify the intimidation and murder of eastern journalists”.
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‘SLA intelligence behind Batticaloa murders, confusion’ - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2004, 13:08 GMT]
“We have very reliable evidence now that the Sri Lanka army is using Karuna as a pretext to murder and to create mayhem in Batticaloa. We have indubitable proof that he is working with the Sri Lankan military intelligence. The Liberation Tigers will not recommence meetings with the Sri Lanka army while the Sri Lankan government and its military continue to harbour Karuna and continue to instigate murder and confusion in Batticaloa. We made this clear to the head of the monitoring mission today”, said Mr. S.P Thamilchelvan speaking to the press Monday in Kilinochchi.
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Monks urge Sinhala unity over Karuna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2004, 11:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s hardline monks’ party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), has called on the Sri Lankan government and opposition to work together in supporting the renegade LTTE commander, Karuna, “in the interests of national security.”
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SLA role in renegade affair said scuttling peace effort

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 18:24 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers will take up the question of the Sri Lanka army backing renegade commander ‘Karuna’ with the Norwegian facilitators when they meet them next, LTTE sources in Kilinochchi said Saturday. “The Sri Lankan government should come clean on this matter if it wants to preserve the bona fide on which the peace talks are based," they said.
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Maj. Gen. Kottegoda SLA's new commander

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 18:17 GMT]
Major General Shantha Kottegoda will be appointed as the Sri Lanka army’s 17th commander from 1 July 2004. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the commander in chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces, has approved his appointment despite speculation that she might extend the present SLA commander’s term for six months. Maj. Gen. Kottegoda, like his predecessor, is a senior intelligence officer. He was appointed to a special post as Overall Operations Commander (OOC) for the east after the LTTE crushed a renegade’s short-lived rebellion in the region.
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Batticaloa turns nightmare for local journalists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 10:28 GMT]
A journalist in Batticaloa went into hiding Friday, fearing for his life after persons suspected to be members of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lankan military intelligence threatened him with death, family members told TamilNet. The journalist, Mr. Thanthiyan Vedanayagam, was working as the Batticaloa correspondent for the independent Tamil daily ‘Thinakkural’. Two journalists fled the eastern town earlier this month after they too were threatened with death by persons suspected to be members of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lankan military intelligence.
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SL Government admits SLA complicity in Karuna affair

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2004, 10:39 GMT]
Contradicting Defense Secretary Cyril Herath who denied Monday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) gave shelter to renegade commander Muralitharan (alias Karuna), Information Minister of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Mangala Samaraweera, admitted to the press today that the SLA helped Karuna "escape and wage a covert war of attrition against the Tamil Tigers" according to a BBC report from Colombo today.
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UNP said investigating Moulana

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2004, 14:21 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) in a press release Wednesday reiterated its policy of non-interference in the internal matters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The UNP leadership Wednesday clarified its stand amid revelation that one of its national list parliamentarian Mr.Ali Zahir Moulana Seyed helped LTTE renegade commander Karuna safe passage to Colombo from east on April 11 following the outbreak of Karuna revolt, sources said.


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Ali Zahir Moulana resigns MP post over Karuna affair

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 June 2004, 13:01 GMT]
Mr.Ali Zahir Moulana Seyed, National List Parliamentarian of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Wednesday evening handed over his resignation letter to Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the UNP following the revelation of his connection in the escape of the LTTE renegade commander Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna and his associates from the East to Colombo, party sources said.
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One accused in Bindunuwewa massacre case acquitted

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2004, 13:37 GMT]
Specially constituted five-member bench of the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court comprising Justices Asoka de Silva, T.B.Weerasuriya, Nihal Jayasinghe, N.E.Dissanayake and Raja Fernando Monday acquitted the fifth accused Sub-Inspector of Police Mr.Tyronne Roger Ratnayake who was sentenced to death along with Inspector of Police Mr. Senaka Jayampathi Karunasena and three civilians in the Bindunuwewa massacre case, for want of evidence, legal sources said. The inquiry into the appeals of four other accused-appellants is continuing.
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Karuna stayed with SLA in Colombo - Nilavini

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2004, 16:42 GMT]
A senior associate of the renegade LTTE commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna) said Monday that she and other associates of Karuna stayed in a house provided and protected by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in a suburb of Colombo. Ms. Nilavini (Charlie), formerly the commander of the LTTE womens' fighting formations in the Batticaloa-Amparai district who rejoined the tigers on Friday 18 June spoke to the press Monday about the renegade LTTE commander's activities with the SLA since he fled Batticaloa on 11 April.
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Details of Karuna's whereabouts emerge

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2004, 01:15 GMT]
Revelation by four Senior LTTE women commanders who escaped from Colombo and rejoined the LTTE Friday, that Karuna is working with the Sri Lanka Security Forces in Colombo, is likely to raise serious doubts on the bona fides of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and has introduced a potentially explosive component to prospects for peace, political sources in Colombo said.
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SL propaganda aims to create fear psychosis in East- Ramesh

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2004, 15:02 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Special Commander to Batticaloa-Amparai district, Col.Ramesh denied recent reports in Sri Lanka Government media on fighting in Thoppigala jungles in Batticaloa district, and dismissed the reports as propaganda to create a fear psychosis in the minds of eastern Tamils, during an interview with United Kingdom based Vectone Broadcasting network, Sunday.


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Southern intellectuals, artists participate in book release

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2004, 12:54 GMT]
"A letter from Vanni (Vanniye sita liyuma)" and "Voice from the heart of the Silent (Handak Nathiyunge Hathawatha Sakshiye Handa)," two books describing the political and social liberation feelings of the tamil community were launched ceremonially today in Vavuniya with T.Gnanavel, Vavuniya district political head of the LTTE presiding the function at Muthiah Hall, sources in the Northern town said.
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