Two youths shot dead in Chelvanayagapuram

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 05:48 GMT]
Bodies of two youths were found at 3rd mile-post, near Chelvanayagapuram, a suburb about 4 k.m. north of Trincomalee, Friday morning. Unidentified armed persons shot the youths dead Thursday night, said residents of the area.
Full story >>

Vavuniya stranded to be sent to Jaffna in November

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 01:06 GMT]
More than 2500 people stranded in Vavuniya who came from Jaffna Peninsula to Vavuniya and other area for various reasons before the closure of A-9 road on August 11, will be sent to Jaffna by ships from November 1 onwards, Sivanathan Kishore, Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian for Vanni district, said Thursday quoting the Commissioner of Essential Services.
Full story >>

EU allocates Rs.667m to help displaced Sri Lankan Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 00:26 GMT]
The European Commission (EU) is concerned about the upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka from the beginning of 2006 that directly affects thousands of civilians in the island, said the report of Louis Michel, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Activities, read by Julian Wilson Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, at a press briefing held Wednesday around 11:00 a.m at the EU office in Colombo.


Full story >>

TNA urges LTTE to prioritize opening of A9, warns humanitarian catastrophe in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 October 2006, 18:34 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in an urgent letter to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Thursday, noting that the humanitarian situation in Jaffna has reached critical levels since the closure of the A9 highway, appealed the Tigers to take-up the opening of the A9 highway as a matter of top priority at the forthcoming talks in Geneva. Sri Lanka Army conrolled Jaffna, with 653,755 persons, requires 11,000 Metric tons of food supplies per month. For the last three months, only 14,000 Metric tons of food items had been sent by ship, the short fall is 19,000 Metric tons. The fuel that is currently available is grossly inadequate.
Full story >>

LTTE delegation arrives in Geneva, enters consultations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 October 2006, 14:52 GMT]
Delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), headed by Political Head of the Tigers S.P. Thamilchelvan arrived in Geneva International Airport Thursday morning and engaged in internal consultations Thursday around 4:00 p.m. with the legal advisors and diaspora experts in Geneva.
Full story >>

Tamileelam Legislature enacts Child Protection Act

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 22:29 GMT]
Tamileelam Child Protection Act 2006 (Act No. 03 of 2006), enacted by Tamileelam Legislature Secretariat and which became effective on October 15, brings into law measures to protect the Rights and well-being of children from inception of life through adolescence, Head of Tamileelam Judiciary, E. Pararajasingham, told TamilNet Wednesday. The Act, containing 83 sections, makes education compulsory upto grade 11, mandates registration of all child births, outlaws enlisting of children under 17 years in Armed Forces, makes participation of under 18-year olds in armed combat illegal, and proscribes all forms of child labour.
Full story >>

FMM condemns burning of 10,000 copies of Virakesari

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 09:39 GMT]
The Free Media Movement (FMM)- Sri Lanka condemned the burning 10,000 copies of the Tamil daily Virakesari, and Metro News near Kiran Regional Secretariat 22nd Monday around 3:50 a.m. by paramilitary cadres alleged to be belonging Karuna group, in a statement released Wednesday in Colombo, political sources in Colombo said. Earlier in August, paramilitaries collaborating with the SLA threatened the owner of Surena Travels not to deliver to Muruges and Son Stores, Sudaroli and Thinakural news papers.


Full story >>

NorthEast shuts down against de-merger

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 07:38 GMT]
The entire districts of NorthEast Wednesday came to a standstill following a shut down protest expressing Tamil opposition to Colombo's move to de-merge the NorthEast. Very few vehicles plied the streets, shops remained closed, businesses and private institutions remained closed and the Tamil towns in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna were deserted, despite the threats by the SLA and paramilitaries.
Full story >>

Jaffna faces humanitarian catastrophe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 October 2006, 12:24 GMT]
Closure of A9, the only trunk road to Jaffna from rest of Sri Lanka, more than 10 weeks ago, has halted the flow of essential food provisions, and medical supplies to Jaffna Peninsula, and if urgent steps are not taken, the residents will face severe humanitarian crisis, civil society leaders in Jaffna warned Monday. Jaffna residents face malnutrition and imminent starvation; and shortage of medical supplies and doctors, have wreaked havoc with the peninsula's fragile health care system, hospital and Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) sources said.
Full story >>

LTTE to focus humanitarian issues, CFA implementation in Geneva

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 October 2006, 06:37 GMT]
S.P. Thamilchelvan, the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers, before leaving Kilinochchi Tuesday morning, with Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar and the LTTE delegation, for talks in Geneva, told media that the Tigers were participating in the talks respecting the call by the International Community. "Agenda for the talks has not been worked out," Mr. Thamilchelvan said. "However, on our part, we have prepared to focus the urgent humanitarian crisis caused by the Sri Lankan state terrorism in the Tamil homeland," he told media adding that the Tigers were also prepared to focus the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement.
Full story >>

IFJ condemns bombing of VoT radio station

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 16:51 GMT]
The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the bombing of the official radio station of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Voice of Tigers (VoT), by the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) in Vanni last Tuesday. The IFJ, reminding the Sri Lankan government of its "absolute obligation" under the Geneva Convention to respect the safety of journalists, said it hoped the attack does not set a "terrible precedent" for further "targeted attacks" on media outlets. The SLAF attack on Thamileelam Vanoli tower in Kokkavil, destroyed the main transmitter and tower of the station that broadcasts three services, the VoT, a Sinhala service and a Tamil commercial service from Vanni.
Full story >>

Shell injures police, civilian in Vavunathivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 15:34 GMT]
A civilian and a police Seargent were seriously injured when a mortar shell exploded near the police sentry point on the Vavunathivu Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Forward Defence Line (FDL) Monday around 6:30 a.m, said residents in Vavunathivu.
Full story >>

Two Tamil youths shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 15:18 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons shot and killed two Tamil youths in Trincomalee district in two separate incidents. The youth killed in east port town Sunday night around 9 p.m. has been identified as Jeyaratnam Jesuthadasan, 27, and the youth killed at Serunuwara Monday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. was identified as Nadarajah Inthiran, 23, police sources said.
Full story >>

Paramilitary cadres burn Tamil dailies in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 10:58 GMT]
Fifteen paramilitary cadres alleged to be belonging to Karuna group, stopped a private bus and a van transporting Tamil dailies Virakesari and Metro News from Colombo to Batticaloa and Amparai, near the Kiran Regional Secretariat, and set fire to the news papers in a compound opposite the Secretariat Monday around 3:50 a.m., civil sources from Kiran said.
Full story >>

Lorry driver shot dead, one injured in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 10:37 GMT]
Unidentified armed men stopped a lorry and shot dead the driver and injuring another at Poonthodam in Vavuniya Monday around 10:30 a.m. said Vavuniya police. The injured was rushed to Vavuniya hospital.
Full story >>

Saivite priest shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 10:35 GMT]
Unknown men shot and killed a Saivite priest in Vavuniya Sunday night around 9:30. The victim was one of the organisers of a vigil group against theft and robberies, civil sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka in "interminable and intractable crisis"- UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 01:56 GMT]
Prof. Philip Alston, United Nation's Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, Third Committee, 20 October 2006, said that the "dramatic attacks in recent days and spiraling number of extrajudicial executions" indicate that "Sri Lanka is not so much on the brink of a new crisis but, instead, only in the midst of an interminable and intractable crisis that has already exhausted its fair share of international attention," and called upon the United Nations Secretariat to "establish a full-fledged international human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka."
Full story >>

Two Tamil fishermen shot dead in Mannar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2006, 12:36 GMT]
Bodies of two Tamil young fishermen who left Pesalai in Mannar district on Friday afternoon for fishing were found with several gunshot injuries Sunday morning inside their fibre glass fishing boat about 15 km off Pesalai coast. The victims have been identified as 19 year-old Savarian Robinson Koonja and Sahayam Ajith Croos of Ward No: 08 of Pesalai, fisheries sources said.


Full story >>

US should support "confederal Sri Lanka"- Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2006, 12:16 GMT]
The Boston Globe, in an editorial appeared in the 22 October edition, said that Washington should prevail on Colombo to "withdraw its armed forces from the Tamil areas in the north of the island," and urge Colombo to open A9, to demonstrate Washington's seriousness towards advocating a "permanent peace that provides for Tamil self-government and human rights in a confederal Sri Lanka."
Full story >>

SLA shells injure two youths, child in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2006, 10:52 GMT]
Three members of a family including a 3 year old boy was seriously injured when high explosive artillery shells fired by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from Valaichenai brigade and Sinhapura camps on residential settlelments in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled Vaharai areas in Batticaloa district at 6:00 pm Friday, hit their house, said sources in Vaharai. The injured were rushed to Vaharai hospital and are listed in serious condition, hospital sources said.
Full story >>