TNA appeals to international community to ensure security to Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 09:59 GMT]
"We wish to impress upon the International Community that the Sri Lankan State is failing in it duty to give adequate protection to the Tamil civilian population. We wish to impress upon the International Community that it should intercede and compel the Sri Lankan State to fulfil its obligations to the Tamil civilian population. The atmosphere of unbridled impunity now prevalent should be brought to an end," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in statement made in the Sri Lanka's parliament Wednesday on the rapidly deteriorating plight of Tamil civilian population in the North East region of the country, parliamentary sources said.
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Norway, Nordic countries to respond on 29 June - Brattskar in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 07:00 GMT]
The Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar, on Wednesday, discussed with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Political Head S. P. Thamilchelvan on LTTE's response to Norway's request of clarifications, issued on 08 June, from the parties to the Ceasefire Agreement. Confirming that the parties to the CFA, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the LTTE, have submitted their responses to the five questions posed by Norway, Mr. Hans Brattskar told media that Norway, as facilitator, has to take note of LTTE's point of view, although Norway regretted the LTTE's stand to the continued engagement of EU Member States from Nordic countries in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
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SL Navy desecrated island's biggest church - Bishop

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 18:03 GMT]
The biggest church in Sri Lanka “has been desecrated by innocent blood being shed [in it] by unjust aggressors, the Sri Lanka Navy,” Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, protested this week in a letter to the Vatican, through the Apostolic Nuncio to the island. “Today I buried the six civilians murdered by the Navy at Pesalai yesterday,” the outraged Bishop wrote Sunday. The local people are “mortally afraid of the Navy” and when they met the local Navy commander, 7,000 people of Pesalai begged to be allowed to flee to India or LTTE-controlled Vanni, he said.
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Tamil businessman shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 16:40 GMT]
Two armed men who came in a motorbike entered a crowded liquor restaurant in Kommathurai, 16 km northwest of Batticaloa, shot and killed the business owner, Iyathurai Nirmalakumaran, 55, Tuesday around 7:00 p.m., Eravur Police said. The killers were Karuna Group paramilitary cadres, who had been demanding money from the businessman, according to civilian sources in Kommathurai.
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SLMM guarantee needed to re-open Muttur east schools-Principals

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 12:24 GMT]
Around eight thousand students are not attending classes since the closure of eighteen government schools in the Liberation Tigers held Muttur east in the Trincomalee district since the three pronged attack launched by the Sri Lankan government forces in the last week of April following the suicide bomb attack on the army commander in Colombo. The artillery fire continued during the second week of June following Kebbitigollawa blast has forced them to continue the closure of schools, said Principals of Muttur east schools in a memorandum sent to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Tuesday.
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Pandemonium in SL parliament, JVP wants LTTE banned in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 06:31 GMT]
Speaker Mr.W.J.M.Lokkubandara Tuesday morning adjourned the sitting of the parliament when pandemonium reigned following heated arguments and fisticuffs between a group of parliamentarians of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) over the matter of observing two minute-silence for the Sinhalese civilians killed in Kebbitigollawa claymore mine explosion, and not for Tamil civilians killed by the Sri Lankan troops elsewhere in the NorthEast, parliamentary sources said.
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Four Tamil youths arrested in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 18:05 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter-insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan forces, Monday morning arrested three Tamil youths in Akkaraipattu town in the Amparai district and handed them over to the SL Police in the town. The police said they apprehended another youth after interrogating the three youths. The youths were in posession of a T-56 automatic rifle, Akkaraipattu police claimed.
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Mannar fishermen feared lost, return to Vankalaipadu

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 16:11 GMT]
Thirteen fishermen reported missing while fishing in Mannar Sea with their boats on Saturday during a fire-fight between the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) returned to Vankalaipadu shore Monday evening, sources in Mannar said. Mr.V.Visuvalingam, Mannar Government Agent, Ms Stanley de Mel, Mannar Divisional Secretary, representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and naval officers of the Vankalaipadu camp were present at the Vankalaipadu shore when these fishermen arrived from Vidathaltivu located in LTTE controlled Manthai West division.
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Clash erupts at Nagarkovil FDL

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 14:43 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded in Nagarkovil in a fresh clash between the SLA and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Monday, according to SLA sources in Jaffna. The Liberation Tigers said they counter-attacked the SLA after LTTE Forward Defence Line (FDL) positions were targeted by SLA artillery fire around 5:45 p.m. Monday. Civilian sources in Thenmaradchi, Jaffna, said artillery fire was initiated from SLA 52 Brigade Head Quarters camp located in Varani.
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Independent Tamil homeland, a reality, not a myth -Elilan

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 11:02 GMT]
"Tamils as a people entitled to right to self-determination and the freedom of Tamil homeland is not a myth but a reality. The hardline Sinhala leadership in the South would come to know this soon," said Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) addressing a gathering of Tamil civilians who participated the civil defence training programme in several villages in the Muttur east Monday, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Mannar Police arrest TRO volunteer

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 07:29 GMT]
One of the volunteers of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), engaged in providing assistance to injured civilians warded in the Mannar district base hospital, was arrested by the Mannar Police on Sunday evening, TRO officials said.
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Two SLA soldiers killed in Manalaru - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 06:14 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and their bodies captured by the Tigers when a group of SLA troopers launched an attack on the Forward Defence Line (FDL) of the Tigers in the remote jungles of Manalaru, south of Mullaithivu, on Sunday.
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Tamil protest mars UK tourism push

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 03:05 GMT]
A major effort by Sri Lanka to promote tourism from Britain did not make much headway last week as British television and newspapers simultaneously gave considerable coverage to the spiraling violence in the island and highlighting fears of a slide back to war. Moreover, the grand finale of a ten-day festival promoting Sinhala culture held in Trafalgar Square Saturday drew a novel protest by Tamil youth organizations in London – traditional Tamil arts being performed for the public while volunteers distributed leaflets highlighting the bloodletting underway in the distant island.
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Pesalai victims traumatized

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 June 2006, 05:02 GMT]
Bishop Rayappu Joseph, one of the first persons to enter the church, Our Lady of Victory, after the attack targeting civilians who had taken refuge in the church, told media that the attack was carried out by men in blue uniform, alluding that the attackers were Sri Lanka Navy men. "There was no fight on land; no LTTE cadre was present at the attack site in Pesalai," the Bishop of Mannar Diocese told BBC Tamil Service Saturday. Fear has gripped civilians of Pesalai, who have no other place to seek safety, says Parish Priest Vincent Patrick. Nearly 3000 civilians, most of them women and children, were forced to remain inside the Church, for hours, among the flesh and blood of the victims.
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EU ban decision primitive, says Danish Peace Council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2006, 17:09 GMT]
"Denmark should follow Norway and not European Union in this question [of working with both parties to the conflict]. We are part of a Nordic peace mission and that gives us much better ways to support peace than EU's labelling policy which I see as very primitive. This situation shows the world need neutral Scandinavian countries to promote peace," said Lave K. Broch, vice president of Danish peace council, commenting on violence following the EU ban of LTTE.


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Kalmunai Council ITAK members take oath

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2006, 16:04 GMT]
All six councillors elected on Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) ticket for the newly created Kalmunai Municipal Council took oaths before Mr.Kanagasabai Pathmanathan, Amparai district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian at an event specially held at Brothers' House Hall in Paandiruppu, Tamil sources in Trincomalee said. Mr. Y.L.Saleem, Kalmunai MC Commissioner, Mr.P.S.Peermohamed Thamby, Assistant Commissioner of Local Government, and Rev Fr.Dr.S.A.Mathew, leading educationist also participated in the event. Mr.K.Ehambaram, central committee of the TNA presided.
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LTTE hands over DPU soldier's body to SL Government

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2006, 13:54 GMT]
The body of Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), who was shot dead by members of the Tamil Auxilliary Force inside Mathiyamadu forest in the Nedunkerni area of Vavuniya district Thursday, was handed over to the representatives of the Red Cross (ICRC) Friday morning to be given to the Government of Sri Lanka, sources from Vavuniya said.
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LTTE will be forced to retaliate, Thamilchelvan warns Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2006, 09:54 GMT]
The LTTE has requested the Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the peace facilitor Norway's Ambassador to Sri Lanka to convey a strong warning to Colombo of possible retaliation following the provocative aerial bombing by the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) in Mullaithivu, Kilinochchi, Batticaloa, and artillery fire towards LTTE territory from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps carried out during the last 2 days in violation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), LTTE Head of Political Wing, S.P. Thamilchelvan said in Kilinochchi Saturday.
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3 SLN boats sunk, 12 troopers killed - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2006, 09:21 GMT]
Twelve Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel were killed and three "Blue Star" boats of the SLN were sunk in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled seas in Mannar districts when SLN boats interrupted a Sea Tiger movement, LTTE media unit said in a press note. Two Sea Tiger cadres sustained minor injuries in the defensive act, the Tigers said.
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Sri Lankan attacks violate CFA, SLMM officials agree with LTTE in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2006, 04:15 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials in Trincomalee have explained to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) officials in the district that the aerial bombing and artillery fire, carried out by the Sri Lankan armed forces towards the LTTE controlled territory were considered "clear violations" of the ceasefire agreement, S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE, told media Friday after concluding a meeting with Ove Jensen, Trincomalee district head of the SLMM.
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