Has Sri Lankan Government declared war? - Elilan asks SLMM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 19:18 GMT]
Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Tuesday night asked the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to clarify whether the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has launched a full-scale war violating the ceasefire agreement. Mr.Elilan made this query in his complaint lodged with the SLMM over the air strike by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) and artillery shell attack by the Sri Lanka Army and gunboat attack by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on the villages in Muttur east Tuesday evening, sources said.
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Pre-school building destroyed in air strike in Muttur east

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 18:46 GMT]
Pre-school and the science laboratory of Chenaiyoor Central College were damaged in the air strike and artillery shell attack launched by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Tuesday evening on the villages in the Muttur east in the Trincomalee district held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a worker of a local non-governmental organization in the area told Tamilnet by telephone. The NGO worker was under the first floor of the college when the artillery attack took place.
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SLMM condemns Colombo bomb attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 14:45 GMT]


Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is a press release issued from Colombo condemned the "suicide bomb attack that took place at the Sri Lankan Army Head Quarters," and urged the "Sri Lankan Government to equally refrain from any retaliatory actions at this stage and remain committed to the Peace Process."
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Sri Lankan Kfir jets bomb LTTE controlled area in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 13:00 GMT]
Sri Lankan Kfir jets have been bombing LTTE controlled Sampoor, Ilakkanthai and Kattaiparichchan villages in Muttur, Trincomalee district from 5:00 p.m Tuesday. Casualty details are not available at the moment. There are also reports about multibarrel artillery fire. Sri Lankan Dvora attack crafts and gunboats were surrounding the LTTE controlled coastal areas in Trincomalee, civilian sources said.
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GoSL duplicity incompatible with peace process - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 07:56 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), which has been inciting violence with it's paramilitaries in total violation to the ceasefire agreement and working hard to sever the relationship between the LTTE and the international community, has shattered all the goodwill gestures, said S.P. Thamilchelvan, Political Head of the Tigers in a letter to the Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen Bauer on Tuesday. The Political Head of the LTTE also said that the International Community should come forward to pressure the GoSL, to calm the current tense situation and bring to an immediate end to the violence.
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ITAK takes over Trinco Town PS administration

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 01:54 GMT]
Nine members of the Trincomalee Town and Gravets Pradesiya Sabah (PS) took oaths Monday morning at the PS office located in Chelvanayakapuram in Uppuveli police division, about four km off north of port city. Mr.T.Thiruchenthilnathan, President of the Trincomalee Bar Association and Justice of Peace first administered oaths to the Chairman, Mr.Thangavelautham Kantharoopan followed by Mr.Vellaithamby Sureshkumar, Vice Chairman and other seven members.
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Alaiyadivembu PS urges government to hold talks with LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 16:56 GMT]
Alaiyadivembu Pradesiya Sabah (PS) at its first meeting held Monday morning unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with sincerity and without duplicity. The resolution further said the government should not adopt a hard-line policy in finding a lasting political solution to the Tamil national question, sources said.
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Expedite building permanent housing to Amparai refugees, appeals TNA MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 16:55 GMT]
Mr.K.Pathmanathan, Amparai district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Monday appealed to chairman and councilors of the Alaiyadivembu Pradesiya Sabah (PS) to work hard by exerting pressure on relevant authorities to construct permanent houses to resettle tsunami affected coastal families without any further delay, sources said.
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Trader abducted in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 16:37 GMT]
A Vavuniya trader was abducted by unidentified armed men riding in a white van around 8:15 p.m. at Pandarikulam in Vavuniya, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Vino Noharathalingam said.
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One Sinhalese killed in Seruvila, one Tamil escapes death in Muttur

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 16:25 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Sinhalese person identified as Pushpakumara Monday afternoon around 1.30 p.m. in Block-C of Seruvila police division. Meanwhile, an attempt made by two unidentified persons to kill Mr.K.T.Ponnudurai, Grama Sevaka Niladhari of Pattithidal in Muttur police division around 3 p.m. Monday was foiled, Muttur police sources said.
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Rights group questions appointments to Commissions

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 11:52 GMT]
Expressing dismay over the non-functioning Constitution Council for more than one year, the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) in a press release issued in Colombo Sunday said “Constitutional Council is a salutary step forward in the de-politicisation of crucial public institutions and the furthering of democracy,” and its functioning is “vital in a pluralist, complex and conflict-prone society.” The release also said that if press reports which say that “[SL President Mr Rajapakse] himself appointed members to the Public Service Commission and the National Police Commission,” are true, then these appointments are “unconstitutional and misguided.”
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Civil society members meet SLA in Jaffna Bishop's House

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 10:35 GMT]
Representatives of the People's Committee for Peace and Goodwill (PCPG) and members of Jaffna NGOs consortium met with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Senior officials at the House of Jaffna Bishop, Rev Fr Thomas Saundaranayagam at 11.30 a.m., Monday to explore ways to arrest the increasing violence in the district, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA deep penetration attacks increase in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 05:15 GMT]
Ilayathamby Balasubramaniam, 54, was seriously injured and his lorry severely damaged Sunday around 12.30 p.m. in a claymore explosion triggered by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) deep penetration unit in Vavuniya north, 7 miles east of A9 highway , in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled area in the Vavuniya district, said sources from Vavuniya.


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Sinhala village attacked in Morawewa, 5 killed, 6 reported missing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 16:43 GMT]
Five persons were killed, four injured and six others were reported missing, all Sinhalese, when a group of gangsters attacked a suburb Kallampathai in Gomarankadawela village in Morawewa police division along Trincomalee-Anuradhapura main road, 33 km northwest of Trincomalee town Sunday evening.
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Colombo ‘in a military mindset’ – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 13:50 GMT]
With Sri Lanka’s government refusing to disarm Army-backed paramilitaries whose ‘shadow war’ against the LTTE is spiralling into increasingly cycles of revenge killings, the Ceasefire Agreement is ‘falling apart,’ the LTTE's Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham, said this week. Colombo’s support for the paramilitaries and the escalated repression against Tamil civilians in government-controlled areas of the Northeast means "we can safely assume that Rajapakse administration has not given up the military option," he told The Sunday Leader newspaper.
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Gunnmen target auto-rickshaw owners, another killed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 09:50 GMT]
An auto-rickshaw owner was shot dead by gunmen at Irupalai junction on the Jaffna-Pt.Pedro main road, around 1 p.m., Sunday. "The victim was sitting inside his vehicle. He was chased by the assailants when he tried to escape. He was shot and killed near Vairavar temple. Sri Lanka Army soldiers were standing by," an eyewitness told TamilNet. The SLA has a large camp about 100 metres from the junction. In a seperate incident, a former member of the PLOTE, Amirthanathan Kennady,35, was gunned down at Navanthurai, in Jaffna, around noon, Sunday.
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Funeral of Kanniya Tamil youth held

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 08:22 GMT]
Kanniya resettled Tamil community plunged into deep grief and sorrow when the funeral of seventeen year old Pakkiaraja Baskaran alias Batchcha, a member of a resettled family was held Sunday morning in the Kanniya cemetery. SLA soldiers took the youth into custody Friday evening. Later he was shot and killed allegedly by SLA soldiers, civil sources said.
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Three Tamil youths killed in Trinco

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 05:38 GMT]
A Tamil youth was shot dead at Kappalthurai, a Tamil village in the Chinabay police division, Sunday morning. Meanwhile, bodies of two Tamil youths were found with gunshot injuries at Poddankadu in Kantalai, Sunday. According to villagers, the victims were among the the five Tamil youths who had come to Kantalai from Muttur, Saturday, to meet representatives of Insurance Company and were detained by Sri Lankan Government armed forces.
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Kanniya shocked over youth's killing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 April 2006, 12:31 GMT]
Resettled families in Kanniya, a traditional Tamil village in Trincomalee are shocked over the killing of 17 year-old Tamil youth Pakkiaraja Baskaran alias Batchcha allegedly by soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Friday nigh, civil sources said. His body was recovered near Barathipuram located close to Mihindupra Saturday morning,
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Two civilians killed in Mannar claymore attack

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 April 2006, 12:26 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were killed in the LTTE controlled area in Mannar district Saturday afternoon around 2.30 p.m., when their motorbike hit a claymore mine fixed in a tree by Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and collaborating paramilitaries. They were traveling from Pandivirichchan to Aandankulam to their worksite where they were employed as masons, sources said.


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