Paramilitary abductions continue in Batticaloa, Amparai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2006, 21:44 GMT]
Paramilitary Karuna Group men working with the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) abducted 15 Tamil civilians in Batticaloa and Amparai Districts within last two days, said Jeya, the Amparai District LTTE Political Head. He further said the incidents have been reported to the Sri Lanka Monitoring mission(SLMM).


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Tiger marines conclude pre-emptive strike on Mandaithivu - LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2006, 13:56 GMT]
Marine Corps of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Saturday midnight destroyed the artillery launch pad in Mandaithivu, and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sri Lanka Army's (SLA) preparations to launch a seaborne offensive towards Elephant Pass, LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasaiah Iltanthiryan told media Sunday. Two Sri Lanka Army tanks were destroyed within the last 48 hours, along A9 between Mirusuvil and Muhamalai, where severe clashes took place. Small clashes were still continuing, he said. Tiger marines returned to their positions from Mandaithivu Sunday early morning, according to LTTE military spokesman.
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Colombo's claim of talks offer false - Puleedevan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2006, 11:42 GMT]
Director of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Peace Secretariat, S. Puleedevan, denied the press reports which said that Tigers have made a fresh offer for talks. "There is absolutely no truth in these reports. Colombo is adamant in finding a military solution, and we are defending to safeguard our people and territory," said Puleedevan.
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STF, LTTE clash in Batticaloa, Tiger cadre killed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2006, 08:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) troopers and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres manning the Forward Defence Line (FDL) positions in Vellaveli, clashed Sunday morning around 5:15 a.m. Mortar shells were fired towards LTTE FDL and the surrounding villages as a group of STF troopers attempted to move inside the LTTE territory, said LTTE Batticaloa District Poliitcal Head Daya Mohan. A Liberation Tigers cadre was kiled and two STF troopers were wouned in the clash that lasted for more than 45 minutes. Vellaveli is located 25 km southeast of Batticaloa.
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SLN arrests 95 Pesalai civilians fleeing to Tamilnadu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2006, 07:06 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy seized an Indian trawler with 95 Tamil civilians from Pesalai village in Mannar district while on its way to South Indian coast, Sunday. These villagers following the volatile situation in Mannar decided to seek refuge in Tamilnadu in South India, sources said.
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ICRC convoy reaches Vaharai with relief to Tamil IDPs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2006, 06:59 GMT]
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) convoy of 17 trucks and four cars reached the town of Vaharai in the Batticaloa district of eastern Sri Lanka in the early afternoon on Saturday. The convoy brought food, water and other items such as tarpaulins, mats, bed sheets, cooking pots and buckets for distribution to thousands of displaced people fleeing the fighting in the Eachchilampathu area, said press release issued by the ICRC Saturday evening.
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Allow free movement to civilians seeking safety, TNA appeals to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 20:04 GMT]
Pointing out that the imposition of curfew in Jaffna Peninsula resulting in denial of legitimate right of civilians to move to safer areas is a severe violation of fundamental human rights, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members appealed to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse to "issue directions that no restriction whatever be imposed on civilians moving to safer and more secure places in order to ensure their personal safety and security," in a letter issued in Colombo Saturday, TNA sources said.
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Kethesh Loganathan shot dead

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 16:21 GMT]
Kethesh Logananathan, Deputy Secretary General of Sri Lanka Government's Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), and a former member of EPRLF, was shot dead by unknown gunmen near Vandervet place in Dehiwela Colombo at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Mr Loganathan received serious gunshot wounds and died on the way to Kalubowila Hospital, sources in Colombo said.
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8 pilgrims killed in Muhamalai, 4 survive, fate of 37 not known

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 14:56 GMT]
Seven Jaffna civilians returning from a religious pilgrimage to Kathirgamam Hindu Temple were killed by artillery fired by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops retreating north from the Muhamalai checkpost, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The SLA had blocked a bus with 48 civilian pilgrims returning from Kathirgamam to Jaffna Friday evening. Four of the passengers survived artillery and gunfire attacks by the SLA troops while withdrawing from their checkposts. The injured were rescued by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres Saturday. Fate of the others is not known.
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Sri Lanka ‘blocking massacre probe’ - SLMM

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 12:13 GMT]
Sri Lankan authorities are deliberately hampering efforts to investigate the murder of 17 aid workers, some of whose relatives blame the military, the island's chief truce monitor said on Saturday. “I have experienced this in the Balkans before. When you're not let in, it's a sign that there's something they want to hide,” retired Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson, who heads the unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) told Reuters.
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Muhamalai overrun, battle on Mandaithivu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 07:11 GMT]
Heavy fighting is reported at different locations in the southern Jaffna peninsula between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and the Liberation Tigers. The Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio confirmed that LTTE forces repelling SLA offensive towards Elephant Pass have now broken through SLA forward defence lines (FDLs) at Muhamalai. But Jaffna correspondents quoted military sources as saying that FDLs had been "breached in several locations." SLA artillery and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) jets are bombing Mandathivu island, which LTTE officials say had been prepared as a launch pad for another offensive into Vanni.
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Co-chairs call for immediate cessation of hostilities, international investigation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 06:49 GMT]
The Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference for Sri Lanka Peace Process, the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Norway, Saturday called on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to cease hostilities immediately and return to the negotiation table. The statement has called for independant, international investigations of serious human rights abuses, including the massacre of 16 Tamil and a Muslim NGO workers of the French NGO Action Faim and the alleged killing of Muslims. "Both parties should take immediate action to allow relief agencies to assist victims from all three ethnic groups and to grant access to disputed areas."
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Muhamalai, Pallai residents flee to Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 02:25 GMT]
Residents of Muhamalai, Pallai through Iyakachchi on A9 highway are fleeing for safety towards Kilinochchi. Two elderly refugees, Mrs. Thavamanithevi Mahalingam, 56, mother of 5 children, and Seran Selliah, 85, who trekked, found transport to Kilinochchi under severe duress, detailed their ordeal to TamilNet reporter. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shells were targeted to hit A9, fleeing civilians said.
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Exchange of artillery fire continues in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 01:31 GMT]
Exchange of artillery fire has been going on between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) military installations in Trincomalee town and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Muthur East.
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Tamil youth abducted in Valaichchenai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 00:28 GMT]
Paramilitary Karuna Group abducted a Tamil youth of 4th Division, Vinayagapuram, Valaichchenai in Batticaloa District Thursday night at 8.20, civil sources said. Nesarasa Guruparan, 17, a mason, was resting at home when unidentified gunmen forcibly took him at gunpoint, according a complaint filed by Guruparan's mother with the Valaichenai Police.
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SLA allows food convoy after SL President's intervention

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 00:18 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) manning the checkpoint at Mankerni allowed a convoy of lorries carrying dry ration and other food materials to enter the LTTE held Vaharai area at 5:00 p.m. Friday after Sri Lanka's President intervened on the request of TNA parliamentarian, Mr R Sampanthan, civil society sources said. The relief material was intended for distribution among the thousands of internally displaced Tamil civilians who fled from Muthur east and Eachchilampathu division in Trincomalee district following heavy aerial bombardment and artillery by the SLA, sources said.
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Tiger aircraft rockets Palaly base, curfew in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 15:53 GMT]
At least one unidentified aircraft flew over the Sri Lankan military base at Palaly firing rockets at around 9.30 p.m. Friday, sources in Jaffna town said. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery fire being directed from the base stopped after the attack, the sources said. Meanwhile a curfew has been clamped on Jaffna town. The LTTE has vowed to repel the SLA offensive on the Elephant Pass area.
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Civilians flee SLA offensive in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 12:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Army (SLA) launched heavy artillery bombardment against LTTE-held Elephant Pass area Friday and at 5.40 p.m. troops began moving towards LTTE frontlines at Muhamalai. The Tigers said they are rushing reinforcements to their northern Vanni defences to confront the SLA advance. Civilians have begun fleeing the southern Jaffna area and the town of Pallai is emptying amid hundreds of SLA shells. Meanwhile LTTE artillery counterfire is hitting SLA positions in Nagerkoil, Jaffna sources said.
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LTTE says "casualties" in Tharavai SLAF bombing

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 11:56 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sources Friday said there were casualties, without specifying figures, in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombing in Tharavai, northwest of Batticaloa. "The GoSL forces are attempting to open another front of offensive towards Batticaloa," said Director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan. He said the Tigers had called on the Norwegian facilitators and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to take "immediate steps to cease the Sri Lankan attacks that aimed to put CFA in jeopardy."


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"Restrain armed forces from killing civilians," TNA urges Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 11:26 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Friday wrote to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse urging him to restrain the Sri Lanka armed forces from killing innocent Tamil civilians, and to ensure proper action is taken against those responsible for such crimes.
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