Hospital employees, driver shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 September 2006, 09:37 GMT]
Three civilians-two Tamils and one Muslim were shot dead by unidentified men in separate incidents Tuesday evening in Trincomalee district. Of them two had been employed in the Kantalai government hospital and the third person, private heavy vehicle driver, civil sources said.
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STF shoots Muslim protestors in Ullai, 14 wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 September 2006, 05:39 GMT]
Fourteen Muslim protestors were wounded when Sri Lankan counter-insurgency Special Task Force (STF) troopers opened fire on Muslim protestors who turned violent as the STF personnel started attacking the Muslim shop owners to open the shops, disregarding the shut-down protest. 4 protestors, with serious injuries, were rushed to Kalmunai hospital. 10 protestors were admitted at Pottuvil hospital. STF has clamped down a curfew in Pottuvil and suburbs till further notice. Sinhalese civilians were seen fleeing Pottuvil area in boats towards Paanama in the south.
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SLAF conducts air-raids over LTTE areas in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2006, 16:27 GMT]
Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) Kfir fighters flew air sorties over areas near residential homes in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled territory in the Batticaloa district on Tuesday around 7 a.m, S. Seelalan, deputy head of the Batticaloa LTTE political wing said. Though two bombs were dropped simultaneously on Tharavi in Eerakulam region no one was hurt, Seelalan said.
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SL Police arrests 3 Tamils in Eravur

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2006, 12:28 GMT]
Eravur Police arrested Monday 3 Tamil youths in Iyankerni, 13 km north of Batticaloa. Residents said the youths, cycling towards a house of their friend around 8:00 p.m., were arrested by the policemen who were hiding along the street. Eravur Police claimed that the youths were in possessing 3 grenades.
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Massacre survivor dies, Amparai shuts down

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2006, 03:46 GMT]
Muslim community leaders were summoned in Pottuvil Tuesday morning as the only survivor and the eyewitness to the massacre was reported dead Monday night. The eyewitness, M. Meeramohideen, 55, was blocked by the Sri Lankan armed forces at a checkpost and redirected elsewhere "on orders from Colombo," from being transferred to Kalmunai Ashraf Memorial Hospital for treatment by Muslim doctors, the community leaders charged. Meanwhile, Tamil speaking people in Amparai district were observing a shut down protest over the massacre where 10 Muslim youths were butchered to death Monday early morning.
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Rajapakse wants protests postponed, Tamil doctor abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2006, 01:49 GMT]
A protest shut-down, scheduled to be held Tuesday against the recent abductions of Tamil civilians and businessmen in Colombo, organised by representatives from seven political parties, was called off Monday following Rajapakse government's "requests", during the weekend, urging the organisors to postpone the shut-down, informed political circles in Colomb said. Meanwhile, a Tamil medical doctor and owner of three medical businesses in Colombo, was allegedly abducted in his car in Maradana in Colombo Monday.
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Four civilians shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 23:26 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot and killed four Tamil civilians on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning in separate incidents in Jaffna district. Victims of the three incidents have been identified. The deceased in the fourth incident is yet to be identified.
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India opposes NE de-merger, wants truce, talks - report

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 21:21 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday told Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse that only negotiations can resolve the island dragging ethnic conflict. “A political, and not military, solution is what Sri Lanka should aim at - this was India's message,” IANS reported from the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Cuba. The Indian leadership had also pressed that the island's Tamil-majority Northeastern province should not be de-merged without a referendum and that such a referendum would only be possible when there was a 'conducive atmosphere,' IANS reported.
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Civilian killings soaring under Rajapakse - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 19:26 GMT]
Pointing out that the killings of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan security forces and Army-backed paramilitary groups have shot up since President Mahinda Rajapakse assumed power last year, the Liberation Tigers said this week that in keeping with the agenda of Sinhala extremist forces, Rajapakse is determined to pursue the military option to the ethnic conflict. “All attempts by the LTTE to value, abide by and protect the CFA have been undermined by the military option pursued by the Rajapakse regime,” the LTTE said in a statement Monday.
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Two youths shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 18:10 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were shot dead in Jaffna district Sunday and Monday. In the first incident Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers took away a Tamil youth from his house and shot him dead in front of Kondavil Hindu Maha Vidiyalayam Sunday around 8.30 p.m., according to his relatives. In the second incident another civilian was shot dead by unidentified armed men Monday morning around 10 a.m. at Karaveddi.
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Uncertainty haunts Vaharai IDPs, two children die of diarrhea

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 15:54 GMT]
A one-year-old baby girl and a 7-year-old girl, both children of Internally Displaced families from Muthur East, have died of diarrhea at Vaharai hospital. A displaced medical doctor from Eachilampattu, M. Varathan, working at Vaharai hospital says the IDPs in Vaharai are facing health hazards. A displaced person, Thangarajah, says that the IDPs were however not prepared to return home, "at least until a situation that prevailed prior to April 25, is returned to our areas."


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Muslims want STF out of Pottuvil

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 15:03 GMT]
Blaming the elite Special Task Force (STF) for the killings of 10 young Muslim men, the Muslim community in Pottuvil is demanding the unit be transferred out, the BBC reported. Earlier angry protestors stoned STF and police vehicles, rejecting Sri Lankan government accusations the Tamil Tigers were responsible for the killings near the Yala game reserve. Sri Lanka's police chief, Inspector-General Chandra Fernando is now in the eastern Amparai district for talks with senior Muslim politicians, the BBC also reported.
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Muslim protestors stone STF over Pottuvil massacre

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 10:29 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) personnel and Policemen who were deployed in Pottuvil fired several shots into the air to disperse the angry Muslim protestors who stoned STF and Police vehicles around 11:30 a.m. Monday following the massacre of 10 Muslim youths. All the slain Muslims were youths below 25 years. Two of the victims are 15-year-old boys. The bodies of the victims were taken to Periya Pallivasal Mosque in Pottuvil. Tension had re-surfaced in the area, a few days ago, when the dead body of a Sinhala person was brought to burial inside a Muslim cemetery, according to the sources at the Mosque.
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Death toll increases to four in Anpuvallipuram shooting

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 07:37 GMT]
The death toll in the Anpuvallipuram shooting incident that took place Sunday afternoon has risen to four. Two more persons succumbed to injuries in the Trincomalee general hospital Sunday night. A Tamil youth and a two year old girl died on the spot when unidentified armed men came in a van fired at them while they were in a house located along Ambal Road in Anpuvallipuram, a suburb in Trincomalee town.
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SLA arrests two Tamil youths in Mannar

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 07:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) arrested two Tamil youths Sunday afternoon at Mavilankerni in Mannar district. They have been identified as Mariyathas, 25 and Gnanaseelan Thavaseelan, 23 of Puthirakandal in Murunkan police division, civil sources said.
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Tigers blame Sri Lanka for Pottuvil killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 07:22 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Amparai District Political Head, Mr. Jeya, has blamed Sri Lankan military for "indulging in sabotage activities." In a statement issued in Tamil Monday, the Tigers charged that the Sri Lankan counter-insurgency Special Task Force (STF) was behind the slayings and "sabotage activities" aimed at creating tension between the Tamil and Muslim communities in Amparai district. Conveying condolences to the Muslim victims in Pottuvil and expressing sympathies to their families, Mr. Jeya, urged the civilians "not to fall prey to the calculated propaganda of the Sri Lankan military till the truth behind the slayings is uncovered."
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Armed men shot dead a Tamil youth, a child in Anpuvallipuram

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 September 2006, 19:59 GMT]
A Tamil youth and a child were killed and three others including a woman were injured when unidentified armed men opened fire at them Sunday afternoon around 2.30 p.m. in a house located along Ambal Road in Anpuvallipuram, a suburb located about three km off south west of Trincomalee town.
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IDPs cannot be resettled against their wishes - TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 September 2006, 13:01 GMT]
Internally displaced people (IDP) should not resettled in the government controlled territory against their wishes and to do so would be violating their human rights, stated P.Ariyaneththran, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian at a conference held Saturday morning in the Batticaloa district secretariat which discussed the urgent need of providing relief assistance to those families who fled from the government controlled area and sought refuge Vaharai division in Batticaloa district.
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Bodies of two slain aid workers exhumed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 September 2006, 22:04 GMT]
Investigators began exhumation of bodies of seventeen aid workers of the Action Contre La Faim (ACF-Action against Hunger) who were killed in execution-style in Muttur. Two bodies were exhumed on the first day in the Trincomalee Hindu Cemetery in the presence of the Anuradhapura Additional Magistrate. ACF officials and relatives of those killed, legal sources said.
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SLA accused of stealing belongings of Thenmaradchy displaced

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 September 2006, 17:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Thenmaradchy Forward Defense Line (FDL) areas have been accused of allegedly stealing millions of rupees worth of belongings left behind by the fleeing refugees from Thenmaradchy villages following clashes between the Government troops and the Liberation Tigers, civil society sources in Jaffna said. SLA troopers from Varani 52-4 Brigade Head Quarters located along Point Pedro- Kodikamam road have come under severe criticism from residents slowly returning back to their homes in villages surrounding the Varani camp for having ransacked their houses and stealing valuable property, residents said.
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