Tamil parties protest against abductions in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 September 2006, 18:05 GMT]
Representatives of Tamil political parties addressing a press briefing held Friday in Colombo Holiday-In-Hotel said they are going to hold awareness meetings among Tamil people in Colombo from next week against the increase of abduction by the intelligence service of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). They stressed that several Tamil youths in Colombo had been abducted by SLA intelligence unit in past and immediate action should be taken to stop this.
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Private air line employees abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 September 2006, 07:24 GMT]
Three employees, including a woman Finance Director of the Aero Lanka Air Line have been abducted in Colombo by unidentified persons who came in a white coloured van on 22 August, according to a complaint lodged with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
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Sri Lanka rationale for offensive ‘spurious, deceptive’ - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 September 2006, 03:59 GMT]
Dismissing the Sri Lankan military’s justification for its latest major offensive against the LTTE in Sampoor as “spurious” and “deceptive,” the Tigers’ political representative in the area said the LTTE first fired on the naval base in Trincomalee when resisting the SLA’s initial offensive in late July.
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Sri Lanka military using "scorched earth policy" - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 15:13 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army is deliberately razing Tamil villages to the ground as part of its military offensive against the LTTE in Muthur East region of Trincomalee. Through Norwegian facilitators, the LTTE has condemned in the "strongest possible terms Sri Lanka's 'scorched earth' policy of occupying Tamil civilian centers and rendering them uninhabitable," the LTTE's military spokesman, I. Ilanthirayan, said Friday.
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Sri Lanka defiant over aid massacre charge

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 13:59 GMT]
Accused by international ceasefire monitors of being responsible for the massacre of 17 aid workers, Sri Lanka reacted with indignation, rejecting the findings and launching a blistering personal attack the outgoing head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Swedish Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricson. And whilst its senior representatives lambasted the SLMM, the Sri Lankan government slapped new restrictions on other international aid workers. Meanwhile, reflecting international reaction to the SLMM’s findings, the United Nations threatened to stop its agencies’ activities in the country, a warning it subsequently toned down.
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Sri Lanka's military conducting slow pogrom - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 10:36 GMT]
The deliberate displacement of over 160,000 Tamils by Sri Lankan military offensives and attacks this year combined with the purposeful blocking of food, medicine and relief supplies amounts to a 'slow pogrom' of the Tamils, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its latest editorial. "Whilst trotting out the tired counter-insurgency rhetoric of 'hearts and minds' and a glib insistence that Tigers, not Tamils, are the target, Sri Lanka's military has always been ready to punish the Tamils for the LTTE's violence," the paper said.
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Maharaja TV employee abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 10:26 GMT]
A Tamil woman, employed in the computer section of the Maharaja Televion (MTV), was abducted Friday around 7:30 a.m. in Wellawatte, Colombo. Six armed men, riding in a white-van, abducted Thavarajah Thavamani, 26. More than 10 Tamil civilians, including three females, have been abducted in Colombo city and its suburbs during the past week alone, humanitarian sources said.
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One hundred Tamil civilians arrested in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 08:19 GMT]
About one hundred Tamil civilians were arrested Thursday in Vavuniya town in a combined cordon and search operation by soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police. They were brought to Vavuniya Police Station and subjected to severe interrogation.
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SLA ban affects cultivation in LTTE held Batticaloa villages

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 23:55 GMT]
Cultivation of paddy in about fifty thousand acres and cash crop in around forty thousand acres in the LTTE controlled areas in Batticaloa district has been completely affected as the farmers are not allowed to enter the government controlled area to buy agro-chemicals, fertilizer for their crops and to purchase petroleum products for the use of tractors via SLA checkpoints located in Vavunativu, Chenkalady and Kiran Bridges and Vaharai road, pointed out Mr. P.Ariyanethran and Miss K.Thangeswary, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians at a conference held Thursday morning in the Batticaloa District Secretariat Auditorium.
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One soldier injured in Vadamaradchchi, Tamil youth shot dead in Kopay

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 23:43 GMT]
Following a claymore explosion at Idaikkadu in Nelliyadi in Jaffna-Point Pedro Road Thursday soldiers manning the gateways to Vadamaradchchi, Vallai, Mulli in Kodikamam, and Aayam in Chavakachcheri road prevented the movement of about one thousand civilians for about three hours. SLA did not allow the movement of about hundred vehicles. One SLA sodleir was injured in the explosion.
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Army releases mutilated bodies, warns families

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 15:00 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army released the mutilated bodies of 16 Tamil youth in Vavuniya Wednesday, claiming they were Tamil Tiger cadres. The genitals of some of the youth had been hacked off and the faces of some bodies had been burnt off by acid, hospital sources said. The bodies of 10 youths have been claimed by their familes in Vavuniya, who said the youth had gone missing after leaving for work. The LTTE has accepted the bodies of the remaining six to see if they are those of 7 cadres who went missing on patrol earlier this week.
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LTTE seeks road supply to Jaffna civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 14:16 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are ready to allow food and medicine for the civilians in Jaffna to be transported by road through the Vanni, to ease the difficulties of the population there, LTTE officials told the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Wednesday. Agreement on the use of a sea route to the peninsula is proving problematic as the Sri Lanka military is seeking to resupply its garrison there under the guise of aid for civilians, LTTE officials said.
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SLN arrested fleeing Sri Lankan Tamils in Mannar Sea

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 12:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Wednesday night around 11 p.m. arrested 18 Tamil civilians with four Indian boatmen while they were fleeing to seek refuge in Tamilnadu from Talaimannar coast. They were handed over to the Talaimannar Police Thursday morning. SLN has detained the Indian boat in its custody.
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British Tamils protest against Rajapakse’s London visit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 11:53 GMT]
More than one thousand British Tamils and UK residents, Wednesday held a demonstration in front of the British Parliament in London from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. protesting against the visit of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to London, and condemning the Sri Lankan Government for violations of the human rights of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, the organizers of the rally said.
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Policeman injured in grenade attack in Chenkalady

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 10:04 GMT]
One police constable was injured when unidentified men lobbed a grenade Thursday morning around 8.50 a.m. This incident took place in front of the Chenkalady Vellimalai Pillayar Temple located in Eravur police division in Batticaloa district.
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Seven Tamil civilians arrested in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 10:00 GMT]
Seven Tamil civilians were arrested Wednesday night during a combined cordon and search operation by SLA troops and Police along Vavuniya-Horowopottana road following the killing of a home guard by unidentified persons. The home guard was shot dead Wednesday evening.
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Fonseka vows to capture Sampur

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 09:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka vowed Thursday to take control of Tamil Tiger controlled Sampur in Trincomalee “within days” as a Sri Lankan military offensive against the enclave continued for the fourth day. “We have gone through half way and we will capture the whole area within a few more days,” Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told The Associated Press. Meanwhile aid workers alleged that Muslim families trying to escape the heavy fighting are being prevented from leaving by Sri Lankan security forces.
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SLAF bombs Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 07:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers dropped at least 3 bombs on the suburbs of Kilinochchi Thursday around 9:45 a.m. Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells hit 5 villages in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled territory in Vanni for 6 hours from 3:00 a.m.
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IDPs face food and accommodation problems in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 07:45 GMT]
The Internally Displaced People (IDP) staying at the Palsenai Government Tamil Mixed School in Vaharai division in the LTTE controlled area in Batticaloa District have been facing food and accommodation problems, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Vaharai branch said on Wednesday.
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Tamil medium education affected in North East-CTTU

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 06:58 GMT]
About two hundred thousand Tamil medium students in the North East have been deprived of their education due to the prevailing tense situation resulted in mass displacement of teachers and students and curfew imposed in the Jaffna peninsula, Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) said in a press release Thursday.
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