Rajapakse invites UNP as Norway, India meet Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 August 2006, 06:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse on Friday invited the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to join his government, press reports said Sunday. In a letter to the UNP leadership, President Rajapakse had called on the opposition to join his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led government so as to resolve the ‘crisis’ in Sri Lanka, The Sunday Leader broadsheet said. Days after two up-country Tamil parties joined the government, President Rajapakse is also courting the main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the paper added.
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WFP says food situation ‘critical’ - amid MoD embargo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 August 2006, 06:34 GMT]
The food situation in LTTE-controlled areas is becoming ‘critical’ the World Food Program (WFP) announced Friday, as Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry maintained its blockade. “In spite of high-level negotiations between the UN and the Government, the issue of access to areas not under Government control has not been resolved,” the WFP said. WFP said its staff “are [still] operating inside both the Vanni and Jaffna, but all supplies are running low in these areas due to the closing of the access roads by the Ministry of Defence.”
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LTTE cadre killed, 2 policemen wounded in Amparai

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 22:44 GMT]
A Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadre was killed and two policemen riding in a three-wheeler were wounded, in a shootout on Thambiluvil Road in Amparai district Friday noon, Thirukkovil Police said. The LTTE cadre was gunned down when the policemen retaliated after an attack, police claimed. Meanwhile, LTTE Political Head in Amparai, Jeya, said the person shot dead was a political cadre of the Tigers.
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Volunteer teachers hold protest march in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 22:39 GMT]
Batticaloa district volunteer teachers who have been on a hunger strike and picketing in front of the zonal education office on rotation basis for the last three weeks demanding permanent appointment held a protest procession Friday to draw the attention of religious leaders of all faiths, politicians, government officers in support of their demands. The agitation campaign, which was earlier called off following the announcement by Colombo, with the promise that interviews would take place between August 1 and August 8, resumed, as there was no interview letter issued by the Sri Lankan Education Ministry.
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LTTE to release Sri Lankan policeman

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 16:08 GMT]
The leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on Friday, decided to release the third Sri Lankan Policeman held in custody since October 2005. The decision was made following a request for goodwill-gesture from the outgoing Head of SLMM Major General Ulf Henricsson, LTTE sources in Kilinochchi said.
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Thamilchelvan thanks Nordic EU Members

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 13:37 GMT]
The outgoing Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Major General Ulf Henricsson and the newly appointed Acting Head of Mission, Major General Lars Johan Sølvberg, met Liberation Tigers Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan in Kilinochchi Friday evening. Mr. Thamilchelvan, on behalf of the LTTE leadership, thanked Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson for his courageous and determined efforts, at the risk of his own safety, to resolve the Maavilaru dispute and thanked the truce monitors of Nordic EU Member States for their "four and a half year profound service."
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Sri Lankan C-in-C, Rajapakse or Weerawanse, asks UNP MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 11:26 GMT]
UNP Puttalam District parliamentarian Johnston Fernando Thursday told reporters recent developments aimed at motivating armed forces of Sri Lanka had cast doubts on whether the Commander in Chief (C-in-C) of Sri Lanka was Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawanse or Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse. Wimal Weerawanse's demeanor during his address to the Sri Lankan soldiers in the recent "Manel Mal" (Water Lily) ceremonies was more like a C-in-C than a party secretary, the UNP MP said.
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Paramilitary detonates explosive laden motorbike with teenager - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 11:01 GMT]
Paramilitary cadres operated by the Sri Lanka Army in Batticaloa district, sent a 19-year-old boy in a motorbike with explosives towards the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Forward Defence Line (FDL) and detonated the bike Thursday around 1:00 p.m., said LTTE's Batticaloa District Political Head P. Daya Mohan.
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3 Tamil youths abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 08:50 GMT]
Unidentified men riding in 3 cars abducted three Tamil youths in a lodge on Grandpass Street in Colombo 14, Wednesday, according to the employees at the lodge. The lodge owners have informed their relatives and police about the abduction. The abdoctors had claimed they were taking the youths for interrogation.


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Karuna Group child recruits, government links worry HRW

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 08:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government was colluding in the recruitment of children by anti-Tamil Tiger paramilitary groups, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. Warning that the links between the Karuna Group and the government “seem to be very clear,” HRW senior legal adviser James Ross said a new worry for HRW was the abduction of children by the Karuna Group. Ross also condemned the LTTE for recruiting fighters under the age of 18 – a practice the LTTE says has ceased.
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Fresh SLA offensive move from Muhamalai thwarted - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 07:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers two-pronged fresh move to take on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) FDL positions in Muhamalai area, Friday morning, amid bombing by Kfir jets, artillery fire and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire directed towards LTTE territory in the Northern Front, was thwarted by the Tigers, LTTE sources in Kilinochchi said. The Kfir bombers also dropped bombs in Mullaithivu Friday.
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STF kills 5 Tamil youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 05:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) personnel who came from Navatkerny, a suburb of Batticaloa town, where an STF patrol was targeted in a grenade attack, shot and killed five Tamil youths in the nearby New Muhathuvaram Road Cemetery Junction, 3 km northeast of the town, Thursday night around 7:45 p.m. The killings were carried out by STF men as "revenge killings" for the grenade attack, civilian sources said. The STF has claimed that the killed persons were Tigers carrying weapons. Meanwhile, the STF trooper, wounded in the grenade attack at Navatkerny, later succumbed to his wounds when he was airlifted to Colombo hospital, medical sources said.
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Pakistan ‘guiding’ Sri Lanka’s war

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 05:16 GMT]
A group of Pakistan Air Force officers stationed in Colombo have been guiding the Sri Lankan military in carrying out air-mounted operations against the LTTE, a former counter-terrorism chief of India’s External intelligence says. The Pakistani officers have also been involved in drawing up plans for a decapitation airstrike with bunker-buster bombs to kill LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan, B. Raman says. The appointment of recently retired Deputy Chief of the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) as Islamabad’s representative to Sri Lanka is a deepening of Pakistan’s support, he says, adding the move is a concern for India’s national security.
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Kfir bombers over Vanni, SLA fires MBRL rockets

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 05:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jets, for the fourth day, flew over Vanni from 8:10 a.m. Friday. A reconnaissance aircraft was observed from 7:55 a.m. and continued to fly also after the Kfir jets had left the Vanni airspace. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) began firing Mulit-Barrel Rocket Launcher shells towards Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled territory from 8:20 a.m.
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Sri Lanka on EU FMs' agenda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2006, 23:39 GMT]
The situation in Sri Lanka is amongst matters European Union Foreign Ministers will discuss Friday afternoon at a meeting in Brussels, officials said. The 'extraordinary' meeting of EU Foreign ministers is primarily to deal with contributions to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon by the EU member states, but will also consider other international matters, according to Finnish news agency STT.
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Clashes erupt in Vavuniya, A9 Omanthai entry point closed after brief opening

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2006, 17:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) closed the Omanthai entry point from the SLA controlled Vavuniya to Liberation Tigers controlled Vanni, after opening the gates for a while Thursday. SLA soldiers fired mortar shells towards LTTE Forward Defence Line (FDL) claiming that the Tigers had fired 10 mortar shells towards SLA FDL. Meanwhile, two Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres were killed at Semamadu FDL, the SLA sources in Vavuniya claimed to have recovered one body. An SLA trooper was killed at Mamadu FDL, 8 km northeast of Vavuniya, in a clash between the SLA and LTTE cadres, Vavuniya Police said.
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Policeman, civilian killed, one soldier injured in separate incidents in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2006, 13:38 GMT]
A police constable and a Tamil civilian were killed and a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was injured in three separate incidents that took place Wednesday evening and Thursday morning in Batticaloa district.
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EU ban gave Sri Lanka Carte Blanche - SLMM Head

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2006, 12:42 GMT]
Major General Ulf Henricsson, the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), in an interview to AFP, Thursday, criticised the European Union for having ignored a "seven-point memo" sent by the SLMM before banning the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The EU ruling meant the Sri Lankan government thought it had "carte blanche" to take on the Tigers, the outgoing Head of Mission said adding that he had become "more convinced than other" that there would be no military solution to the Sri Lankan crisis.
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Education International deplores Sencholai children killing

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2006, 11:28 GMT]
“Education International (EI) is of great concern that in the recent escalation of hostilities, children are more often the victims. Education International particularly deplores the death of dozens of teenage school girls in the Sencholai children home in Mullaitivu as a result of bombings,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse.
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SLAF Kfir jets bomb Vadamaradchi East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2006, 10:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers Thursday morning bombed Kattaikadu area in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlled Vadamaradchi East twice on Thursday. SLAF bombers dropped three bombs around 8:50 a.m. and at least four, later around 10:50 a.m. at Kattaikadu. Civilians from a Tsunami shelter took refuge at the bunkers. Fishermen's boats took fire in the attack. SLAF sources in Colombo claimed that the Kfir jets hit a Sea Tiger naval camp in the Vadamaradchi East.
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