Sri Lanka Army launches tank offensive on Vaharai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 03:43 GMT]
Heavy fighting broke out between the Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, at the southern border of Vaharai region in Batticaloa district Thursday as SLA troopers from Kajuwatte and Mankerni SLA camps, launched a ground troop movement backed by heavy mortar, artillery and Multi-Barrel Rocket fire, into the LTTE territory Thursday around 8:30 a.m. The fresh SLA operation comes following Sri Lankan defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwela's interpretation on Wednesday that the outcome of a crucial meeting by the Co-Chairs was not hard as Colombo had feared. Mr. Rambukwela had said Sri Lanka's "national security" had a higher priority than upholding the ceasefire.
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TNA presents sole opposition to 2007 budget

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 00:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Wednesday adopted the second reading of the 2007 Budget with a majority of 115 votes. 133 members voted for the budget and eighteen voted against, parliamentary sources said. All eighteen Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians opposed the budget.
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Anton Balasingham afflicted by rare cancer

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 16:34 GMT]
Mr. Anton Balasingham, theoretician and political advisor of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been diagnosed with bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), a rare and aggressive malignancy of the biliary system. The cancer is in an advanced stage and has spread to his liver, lungs, abdomen and bones, doctors have informed Mr. Balasingham, who is now resting at home, cared for by his wife, Adele.
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Second group Madhu pilgrims leave Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 14:42 GMT]
The vessel Ocean Green Wednesday morning left Trincomalee harbor with 287 pilgrims, second group of stranded in Madhu church in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held area in Mannar district since August 11.
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Sri Lanka assured of Co-Chairs’ military, financial support

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 13:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s casual dismissal of the Co-Chairs statement Tuesday condemning rights abuses and ceasefire violations by the armed forces stems from confidence that, despite these, military and financial support from the international community is not going to be disrupted – a point reinforced by the strong messages of support for Colombo by individual representatives of the Co-Chairs soon after their meeting in Washington on Tuesday.
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Body exhumed in Kondavil, 10 youths surrender to HRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 12:27 GMT]
A body believed to be belonging to a Tamil youth was recovered buried near a desolated house in Nanthavil area in Kondavil, 5km north of Jaffna town, in the presence of Jaffna Assistant Magistrate Mr M. Thirunavukarasu, source in Jaffna said. Chunnakam Police receiving a trip, obtained legal permission from Jaffna Magistrate to exhume the remains, legal sources said.
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Sri Lanka rejects Co-Chairs’ condemnation, continues attacks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 12:25 GMT]
Unfazed by strong condemnation by international donors of rights abuses and truce violations by its military, Sri Lanka’s government Wednesday continued air strikes and bombardment against the Liberation Tigers. Saying the donors had been “mislead” by international truce monitors and a UN envoy, government defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella insisted that national security took precedence over the ceasefire and that the international community recognised this.
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Two Tamil civilians shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 09:06 GMT]
Unidentified armed men who came in a motorbike shot dead two Tamil civilians when they were riding in a motorbike Wednesday morning around 7:30 a.m., to report for work in a cement factory located in the Chinabay police division. The killings took place when the victims had been riding along the rail track in Palaiyootu village, Police said.
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Co-chairs call for full implementation of CFA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 23:07 GMT]
While condemning the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers for "systematic ceasefire violations," the co-chairs called both sides to "seize the historic opportunity created by the 2002 Cease-Fire Agreement to resolve the country's conflict peacefully," in a press release issued after the meeting in Washington Tuesday. Co-chairs while urging re-opening of A9, called on the LTTE to co-operate with GoSL's effort to send one convoy as a first step.
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TNA warns of 'imminent humanitarian disaster' in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 17:33 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), condemning the Sri Lankan military's blockade of food and medicine going into the Vaharai area as "a blatant violation of all humanitarian laws", said Monday this action "is clearly an attempt to use food as a weapon of war, and compulsively evict persons from their areas of historical habitation." In an adjournment motion moved by its Parliamentary group leader, R. Sampanthan, MP, in the House, the TNA called on the government to "rush food medicine and other essentials to the families resident at Vakarai and Kadiravelli and thereby avert an imminent and grave humanitarian disaster."
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Parents honored in Heroes day celebrations

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 11:45 GMT]
"We owe our military and political strength to our fighters who gave up their lives in the Tamils' struggle. Today we face a critical situation where we are faced with the danger of losing more lives to achieve our final goal. It is our duty to honour the parents who have made the priceless sacrifice through their sons and daughters," said Col. Theepan of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), speaking at the first event held, to honour the parents of dead cadres of LTTE, at Kilinochchi Kanagapuram Maha Vidyalayam Monday around 10:00 a.m., sources in Kilinochchi said.
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IFJ condemns death threats against a Shakthi TV journalist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 09:35 GMT]
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Monday said it is deeply concerned for the safety of the head of Tamil-language Shakthi TV, J. Sri Ranga, after police reportedly informed the MTV/MBC network on November 12 that Ranga's life was in grave danger.
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Paramilitary threatens Tamil MPs from Batticaloa, Amparai to resign their seats before Monday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 07:35 GMT]
A paramilitary Karuna Group operative, identifying himself as Gunanan, operating from the office of the group located in Sri Lanka Army controlled Batticaloa town, has issued death threats to Tamil parliamentarians from the East, Tamil National Alliance said in a letter to the Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Tuesday. If the 8 parliamentarians from Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai, did not resign their posts before coming Monday, November 27, they would be assassinated, the group has warned. 4 key members of the the TNA, 2 MPs, an ex-MP and a to-be-nominated MP, have been assassinated during the past 2 years.
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MP accuses Government minister of complicity in Raviraj killing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 00:09 GMT]
Colombo District Parliamentarian of United National Party (UNP) T.Maheswaran, addressing the parliament on Monday, accused a cabinet minister of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) of complicity in the assassination of late Raviraj Nadaraj, the Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian, parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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Colombo ignoring humanitarian catastrophe - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 15:49 GMT]
Colombo was engaged in "last minute tactics to placate the international community," prior to a scheduled meeting of Co-Chairs in Washington, by dispatching a single lorry into Vaharai where 38,000 civilians were starving for the past fortnight. Likewise, Colombo was showcasing to the media that it would dispatch a single convoy of supplies through A9 into Jaffna where 600,000 Tamils are under military siege in an "open prison," charged S. P. Thamilchelvan, political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Monday.
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Tamil youth missing in Mannar

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 11:52 GMT]
Theeparanjan Dias, 27, a father of one child and a resident of Ward No: 7 in Pesalai in Mannar district, has been reported disappeared since November 17, according to complaint lodged with the Mannar Regional Office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC), officials at the Rights office said.
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Vavuniya shuts down for massacred students

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 06:06 GMT]
The Vavuniya town came to a standstill Monday due to a 'hartal' (general shut down) called by the Tamil National Allaince (TNA) to protest against the massacre of 5 Agricultural Farm School students by the Sri Lanka Army on Saturday. Ten other students, including 6 six girls were also injured in the incident.
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Vaharai children eat roast fish to quench hunger

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 00:05 GMT]
Faced with severe shortage of food and driven close to starvation, children in besieged Vaharai area in the LTTE controlled Batticaloa district, have started eating locally caught fish, after roasting them, in open fire under unhygenic conditions, Mr. Moorthy, the coordinator for Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) for Vaharai area said Sunday.
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Troops 'shot students at close range’ - SLMM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 14:38 GMT]
International truce monitors said on Sunday Sri Lankan troops entered a school and opened fire on a group of students at close range on Saturday, killing five, after a deadly Tamil Tiger ambush on government forces. "These soldiers fired indiscriminately at a group of students who had thrown themselves on the ground seeking safety after an LTTE (Tamil Tiger) claymore mine blast nearby," Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that oversees the 2002 ceasefire, told Reuters.
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38,000 Tamils face starvation in Vaharai, humanitarian disaster imminent - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 12:00 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance Parliamentary Group leader and MP for Trincomalee District, R. Sampanthan, in an urgent letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, Sunday, requested again the SL President that food, medicine and other essentials be urgently rushed to the people of Vakarai and Kathiraveli and urged Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse to intervene personally and take every necessary step to ensure that this is done. 8,500 families from the villages of Trincomalee district, internally displaced to Vakarai and Kathiraveli in addition to 3,500 families of the area are facing malnutrition, disease and starvation. "A grave humanitarian disaster is imminent," Mr. Sampanthan said.
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