Police forces, Tigers exchange mortar fire in Murunkan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 November 2006, 07:11 GMT]
Sri Lankan police forces exchanged mortar fire for 45 minutes with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Monday night from 8:00 p.m., 15 km east of Mannar in Murunkan, Police officials said. 6th Mile Post and 17th Mile Post centry posts manned by military trained policemen were attacked by LTTE mortar fire, according to police officials who claimed that they launched mortar fire in retaliation. Civilians who reached Mannar from LTTE controlled areas above Murunkan said around 10 mortar shells hit civilian settlements. No casualties were reported.
Full story >>

72,000 displaced from Batticaloa, Trincomalee districts

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 November 2006, 01:47 GMT]
Batticaloa District Secretariat reported Monday that 41,463 people from Trincomalee district and 30,630 people from Batticaloa have fled to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas in the Batticaloa district from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas. Mr. S. Puniyamoorthy the District Secretary said that the Internally Displaced People have been sheltered in 22 temporary locations in 14 Grama Seveka divisions in Batticaloa district.
Full story >>

Two SLA troopers injured in Puthur grenade attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 22:23 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed hand grenades on a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry post near Puthur junction on the Jaffna-Point Pedro road Monday around 8:30 a.m injuring two SLA troopers, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna visited the site of the attack and conducted investigations.
Full story >>

Two Allaipiddy refugee brothers shot dead, sister seriously injured

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 17:01 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a 'white van' Sunday around midnight to a house on Navalar street in Navanthurai, Jaffna, sprayed bullets killing two brothers on the spot while seriously injuring the twin sister of one of the brothers, all siblings displaced from Allaipiddy, Jaffna police said. The seriously injured sister was rushed to Jaffna Teaching hospital.
Full story >>

Court hears TRO's case against Central Bank

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 11:14 GMT]
Attorneys representing the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) filed written submissions to High Court requesting that the Judge vacate the ex parte order of 4 September 2006 that froze TRO’s bank accounts as directed by the Judge, TRO said in a press release issued in Colombo Monday, detailing the status of the case against Central Bank of the Government of Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

NTT to broadcast LTTE Leader's speech live

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 10:22 GMT]
National Television of Tamileelam (NTT) will be broadcasting live the annual policy address delivered by the LTTE Leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan at 12:00 GMT Sunday on the occassion of Heroes Day, the officials of the Television in Kilinochchi said. The broadcast, using Eurostar at frequency 11.5 GHz, is viewable in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asian countries. Meanwhile, Tamil televisions in Europe and Canada are also expected to broadcast Mr. Pirapaharan's speech live, according to media sources in Europe.
Full story >>

Three Tamil youths shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 06:03 GMT]
Armed persons riding in a van shot and killed three Tamil youths at Palaiyootu, a suburb in Trincomalee town Sunday night between 7 and 7.30 p.m. at two separate locations. Two of the victims had been working in a cement factory located in Chinabay Police division, sources said.
Full story >>

Viral fever sweeps Jaffna, northeast

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 01:16 GMT]
Viral fever, suspected to be Chikungunya, is spreading rapidly amongst people in Jaffna, medical experts said Sunday. “In Jaffna, this viral fever which has the symptoms of Chikungunya is spreading very fast. I find that more than 5,000 people have been infected," Dr. A. Ketheeswaran, director of provincial health services there, told Reuters. The disease has been confirmed spreading rapidly in Kalmunai, Mannar, Batticaloa, Puttalam and parts of Colombo.
Full story >>

Bishop calls for urgent transport of food to Jaffna via A9

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 16:18 GMT]
Bishop of Jaffna, Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundara nayagam, in a letter addressed to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday, urged the President to follow through on his proposal to send food and other essentials to Jaffna through A9 highway. The Bishop said he would like to believe that the proposal is "a humble and good gesture on the part of the Government. to build trust and confidence with the Tamil people," and as a "genuine desire of the GOSL to attend to the Humanitarian needs of the people."
Full story >>

Heroes Day celebrations held across Jaffna as jubilation triumphs fear

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 12:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers remained inside their camps in the villages in Vadamaradchy, Valikamam, Thenmaradchi sectors and the outskirts of Jaffna city following posters that warned soldiers to stay inside their camps Sunday. Villages that have remained gripped with fear due to forced disappearances and killings for many weeks, were decorated with red and yellow flags, and youths wearing tiger-striped uniforms were seen in many places in Vadamaradchy, residents said. Meanwhile, SLA soldiers in Jaffna town and the surroundings of University of Jaffna and Parameswara Junction on Palay Road conducted search operations.
Full story >>

LTTE leader participates in Heroes commemoration event

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 08:22 GMT]
Leader of Liberation Tigers, Velupillai Pirapaharan, took part in a commemoration event held in Vanni Saturday when the three-day long 'Tamil National Heroes Day' remembrance events were inaugurated. From 27 November 1982, when the first LTTE fighter Lt.Sanker was killed, until 20 November 2006, a total of 18,742 fighters have died, all of whom have been declared War Heroes by the LTTE. 818 LTTE fighters, 568 men and 250 women fighters of the LTTE, have been killed in a largely defensive war faced by the Tigers in 2006. The list also includes members of Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS) and selected members of other organisations.
Full story >>

India wants Northeast merger to stand - report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 07:43 GMT]
India has again called upon Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to honour the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement and give legal force to the Northeast merger, The Sunday Leader newspaper reported this week. Even before the Supreme Court’s ruling in October that the merger of the North and East in 1987 was ‘null, void and illegal’, Delhi had already expressed its opposition to the move, a view echoed by the Co-Chairs – US, EU, Japan and Norway – last week.
Full story >>

Mahinda Rajapakse leaves to India

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 November 2006, 15:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse left Saturday afternoon to India on a four day visit. Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse is scheduled to inaugurate the Asian Mayors Conference in Dehra Dun in Uttaranchal State in North India Sunday. Tamil mayors from Chennnai, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Saleem, Tiruchi and Coimbatore in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu will be boycotting the Asian Mayor's meeting, media reports in Tamil Nadu said.
Full story >>

STF offensive meets stiff Tiger resistance in Amparai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 November 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) troopers from Kanchirankuda and Sangamankandy camps in Amparai district Saturday morning around 7:00 a.m. launched an ambush-styled offensive towards Thangaveluathapuram in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled area. Following stiff resistance put up by a guerilla unit of the Tigers, the STF has pulled back, LTTE political official Veeramani said. A civilian was killed when the STF continued with heavy mortar fire towards Thangavelauthapuram. Two LTTE fighters and four STF personnel were killed in the fighting. STF officials have claimed seizure of 2 automatic rifles and a pistol from the Tigers.
Full story >>

Heroes day celebrations continue amid SLA sabotage

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 November 2006, 16:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers have desecrated Heroes cemetaries located in Kopay, Ellankulam in Udupiddy and in Kodikamam as part of a wide spread attempt at sabotaging the Heroes day celebrations and muzzling the emotional support of the residents of Jaffna district in paying homage to those who died in the Tamil national struggle, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Tamil student abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 November 2006, 13:03 GMT]
Unidentified men abducted a student Colombo Technical College Thursday night in Mattakuliya in Colombo, relatives of the abducted student in Modara said.
Full story >>

Include abducted workers in CoI's list, TRO appeals to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 November 2006, 04:23 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) appealed to Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapakse, to include the case of the seven abducted TRO workers missing since 29 and 30 January, to be included in the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI), in a press release issued from TRO's Colombo office Friday.
Full story >>

7 troopers, LTTE cadre killed in Batticaloa STF offensive - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 13:23 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has claimed that seven Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) troopers were killed when the Tigers counter-attacked the elite commando force that launched a troop movement towards 38th Colony with heavy artillery and mortar fire that claimed the life of a 15-year-old female student and wounded 5 civilians including 2 sisters and a brother of the killed student. A 40 mm Grenade Launcher and a T-56 rifle were seized by the Tigers who lost a cadre, Nanthan, according to LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan said.
Full story >>

15-year-old girl killed, 5 civilians wounded in artillery fire in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 13:16 GMT]
A Tamil female student was killed, her sister and 2 brothers were wounded when artillery shells fired by Sri Lankan counter-insurgency Special Task Force (STF) troopers hit 50th Housing Scheme in Thikkodai in Vellaveli, Thursday noon. A 65-year-old woman and a man were also wounded. The victims had displaced from 39th Colony, 4 km from the border inside the LTTE territory, three months ago due to heavy shelling from the Sri Lankan camps.
Full story >>

Youth shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 06:45 GMT]
Five masked gunmen forced entry into the house of a tamil youth in Thetkilupaikulam in Vavuniya at 11:00 p.m. Wednesday and shot him dead before escaping, sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>