Allaipiddy families vacate village

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 May 2006, 12:19 GMT]
Eighty families which remained in Allaipiddy, the islet village where 13 civilians were massacred by Sri Lanka Navy last week, completely vacated the village Saturday in fifteen lorries, sources from Jaffna said. 42 families have sought shelter in St.Michael's church in Navanthurai. 38 families in six lorries proceeded towards Liberation Tigers controlled areas but two lorries were stopped by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers manning the Muhamalai checkpoint saying the checkpoint was closed for the day, sources said.
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EU ban 'obstacle to just and lasting solution' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 May 2006, 09:45 GMT]
"The resolution of the European Union Parliament imposing punitive measures and harshly censuring our liberation organisation is unfair, untimely and utterly biased. This EU intervention will thus emerge as a serious impediment to reaching a just and lasting solution to Sri Lanka’s conflict," the LTTE’s chief negotiator and political ideologue, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said Saturday when asked by TamilNet for his response to the move by the EU Parliament to proscribe the movement.
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EU bans LTTE as terrorists - Times

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 May 2006, 06:53 GMT]
The European Union has agreed to blacklist the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist group, despite warnings that this could lead to full-blown civil war in Sri Lanka, the Times newspaper reported Saturday. Quoting EU diplomats, the London daily said Britain and other countries persuaded Sweden, Denmark and Finland to overcome their reservations and that pressure from the United States was also a factor.
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South African Tamils protest against Sri Lanka's rights violations

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2006, 22:58 GMT]
Representatives of the South African Tamil Federation, Dravidians for Peace and Justice, Tamil Co-ordinating Committee, supporters of human rights in South Africa, and concerned Tamils staged a peaceful demonstration in front of the United Nations building in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, protesting the human rights violations of the Sri Lanka Government against Tamil civilians, sources in South Africa said.
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Student forum appeals to international community

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2006, 18:59 GMT]
"We still believe that the international community would take into serious consideration the violence unleashed on the Tamil people by the Government of Sri Lanka through its armed forces," said Mr.Puratchi, Trincomalee district head of the Thamileelam Students Forum addressing representatives of several social service organizations Thursday evening in Verugal, in the Eachchilampathu division in Trincomalee district.
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ITAK contests Kalmunai MC, two PS in Amparai district

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2006, 18:20 GMT]
Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) is contesting three local government institutions of six which go to polls Saturday in the Amparai district. ITAK has fielded candidates for the Kalmunai Municipal Council (MC), Navithanveli PS and Pottuvil PS, sources said.
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Magistrate wants police report on Muttur killings

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2006, 13:06 GMT]
Muttur Magistrate Mr.Manickavasagar Ganesharajah instructed the Police to file a full report on the murders that took place recently in the Muttur police division. The Magistrate informed at a discussion held Thursday afternoon with a police team comprised Trincomalee Police Headquarters Inspector, Trincomalee Harbor Police Inspector and Trincomalee Assistant Superintendent of Police that no evidence has been submitted to court regarding the identity of persons who were behind these killings, legal sources said.
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IFJ welcomes LTTE assurances on media freedom

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2006, 10:43 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers were not behind a warning issued to Tamil journalists employed in Sri Lankan state media, Political Head of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, told a group of representatives from media watchdogs, trade unions and organisations from South, this week. The meeting was organised after a warning appeared on some Tamil websites in the name of a hitherto unknown group, "Ravana Battalion," after attacks against against Tamil media workers. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said it "welcomes the LTTE assurances on media independence," in a press release issued Friday.
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UNICEF's indifference to Children's killings, regrettable- Sithamparanathan

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2006, 03:06 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Jaffna district, Ms Pathmini Sithamparanathan Friday accused the UNICEF Colombo office for issuing a irresponsibly crafted, perfunctory press release that avoided even mentioning the names of the child victims of Allapiddy extrajudicial killings, said sources in Jaffna. Amnesty International had said it received credible reports that Sri Lanka Navy personnel and armed cadres affiliated with Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), were present at the massacre site on Kayts islet.
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Jaffna GA, NGOs unable to guarantee safety to Allaipiddy refugees

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 18:28 GMT]
Meeting between Jaffna Government Agent (GA), representatives of the non-Governmental Orgnizations, and Allaipiddy refugees Thursday afternoon around 3 p.m at the Allaipiddy St. Philips church, ended inconclusively with the GA and NGOs unable to provide guarantees of safety to the Allaipiddy displaced, sources said. Families from the islets have sought refuge in the Church following the 13th Saturday Allaipiddy assassinations alleged to have been carried out by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and its paramilitary men,.
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Stop violence, enter talks, Anti-war group tells GoSL, LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Condemning the increasing levels of violence committed by Liberation Tigers and by the "armed groups and forces within and outside" Sri Lanka's Military, Kumar Rupesinghe, chairman of National Anti War Front, in a press release issued Thursday in Colombo urged the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka to "implement the agreements reached in the High Table in Geneva," and to "immediately resume the talks which were initiated in Geneva."
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TNA candidate, companion shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 11:08 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) candidate contesting the forthcoming Navithanveli Predeshya Sabha polls, and his companion riding with him in a motorbike on the Kalmunai Central Camp Road, Thursday noon around 1.30 p.m, said sources in Kalmunai. The shooting occured in a location about 300 meters from the police sentry post at Central Camp 11th village in Kalmunai.
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‘EU proscription will seriously damage peace process’ - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 08:34 GMT]
Further international proscriptions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will seriously impact negatively on the already weakened peace process in Sri Lanka, the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist Anton Balasingham said Thursday. Asked by TamilNet for his comments to press reports that the European Union (EU) would ban the LTTE this week, Mr. Balasingham warned that “the hardliners in the south are urgently seeking the international isolation of the LTTE as a prelude to taking up the military option in earnest.”
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2 LTTE posts in Muhamalai, SLA post in Vavuniya attacked

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 04:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers Wednesday night moved into the no-go zone in Muhamalai close to A9 Road and attacked two Forward Defenece Line (FDL) posts of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Kilinochchi said. No casualties were reported. The Tigers said they repulsed the attacking Lankan troopers. Meanwhile, sources in Vavuniya said an SLA FDL post in Mamadu, 8 km northeast of Vavuniya was attacked and destroyed Wednesday evening.
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Religious heads protest in Kilinochchi against civilian killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 18:17 GMT]
"International community and Human Rights agencies including UNHCR, UNICEF are keeping silent while Tamil men, women and children are being killed daily in NorthEast of Sri Lanka," said Janab. S. M. Shaheel, Islamic religious leader, participating in a non-violent sit-in demonstration staged in front of the UNHCR office in Kilinochchi Wednesday from 8.45 a.m to 1:00 p.m., said sources in Kilinochchi.
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SL Navy, EPDP cadres present at massacre site - Amnesty International

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 08:13 GMT]
The Amnesty International has slammed the Government of Sri Lanka as having a record of "disturbing pattern of incomplete or ineffective investigations" of the extrajudicial killings and said it has received credible reports that Sri Lanka Navy personnel and armed cadres affiliated with Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), were present at the massacre site on Kayts islet. Thirteen civilians were massacred in three spots on the Kayts islet controlled by the Sri Lanka Navy Saturday night. The EPDP, a paramilitary and a political party in the ruling UPFA alliance of the SL President Mahinda Rajapakse, had exercised tight control of the Jaffna islets before the Ceasefire Agreement.
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LTTE report details 174 killings by SL forces, paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 07:17 GMT]
174 Tamil civilians have been killed, since Geneva talks on 24 February till 15 May, 2006, by the Sri Lankan armed forces and their paramilitaries, according to a 16-page report, with statistics, issued by the Political Head Quarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on Tuesday. The report said unless the Scandinavian truce monitors become more proactive in ruling extrajudicial killings for what they are, a heavy burden will be on SLMM shoulders and on the shoulders of the International Community for failing to stop the slaughter of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan Armed forces. The report details the pattern of paramilitary and Sri Lankan forces extrajudicial killings.
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General shut down paralyses Tamil areas in Ampara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 06:32 GMT]
General shut down was observed in the Ampara district Wednesday in response to the call by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), condemning the extra judicial killings of Tamil speaking civilians in the Northeast province. Normal life in Kalmunai, a major town and several villages, Thirukovil, Thambiluvil, Alaiyadivembu, Akkaraipattu, Karaitivu, and Paandiruppu in the district was completed disrupted, TamilNet sources said.
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Grenade explosion kills Tamil woman in Thampalakamam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 03:55 GMT]
Ms Jeyamalar Sakthikumar, 31, of Thamplakamam was killed Wednesday early morning around 1 a.m. when unidentified persons lobbed a grenade into their house located at Kovilady near the historic Aathi Koneswaram Temple, said Thampalakamam police sources.


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Monitors confirm deep penetration, extrajudicial killings charges

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 23:35 GMT]
International truce monitors this week said they believed reports Sri Lanka Army troops were conducting Deep Penetration raids into Tamil Tiger controlled areas, killing several civilians. Their comments came as the LTTE said its frontlines to the north and south of Vanni were attacked by infiltrating SLA soldiers. Meanwhile, the international monitors also said Sri Lankan security forces are responsible for extrajudicial killings with the troops so unconcerned as to the consequences as to not even provide plausible denials.
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