Bus timekeeper shot in Vavuniya town

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 April 2006, 05:28 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded Mr. JW Dhanasri, a timekeeper employed at Vavuniya private bus services union, at 8:50 a.m. Sunday. The incident took place in in the heart of the town where security was beefed up following the Claymore attack Saturday.
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Kalmunaikudi Muslims protest against Athaullah's visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 17:02 GMT]
Several hundred residents of Kalmunaikudi in the east, from 6 p.m. Saturday, held a sit-in-protest in front of the stage erected close to Jumma Mosque for a meeting to be addressed by Mr.A.L.M.Athaullah, Minister and the Leader of the National Congress shouting slogans against his visit to the area. Protestors carried placards asking Mr.Athaullah not to disturb the unity of Kalmunai and the unity of Muslims and Tamils in the area, and also not to obstruct a Muslim becoming mayor of the Kalmunai Municipal Council, which will go to poll on May 20.
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Karaitivu Pradesiya Sabah office opened

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 16:58 GMT]
The administrative office of the newly created Karaitivu Pradesiya Sabah (PS) in the Amparai district was declared open Saturday by Mr.C.Pathmanathan, Amparai district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian. Parliamentarians of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Mr.Hasan Ali and Mr.S.Nijamudeen, also participated in the event, sources said.
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State forces watched as thugs attacked, charge Trinco victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 15:51 GMT]
"Our houses were burnt, properties were destroyed and we were attacked by thugs with knives and clubs while the State armed forces and police looked on. No one came to our rescue. We fled from our houses and sought refuge elsewhere to save our lives," several Tamil families sheltered in Varothiayanagar Bharathi Vidiyalam following fresh violence erupted Friday afternoon told Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian when he visited them Saturday morning.
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Indian citizen killed in Friday Trinco violence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 12:09 GMT]
Death toll in the Friday violence in the suburbs of Trincomalee town increased to three with two more bodies of Tamil civilians including an Indian citizen were handed over to the Trincomalee general hospital Saturday morning. Earlier a sixty-year-old Tamil woman Somasuntharam Maheswary from Nadesapuram in Kanniya was knifed to death when violence broke out Friday afternoon, sources said.
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Tamil woman knifed to death in Friday violence in Kanniya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 05:25 GMT]
A 60 year old woman was knifed to death in violence which erupted in the suburbs of the Trincomalee town Friday afternoon, police sources said. Somasuntharam Maheswary was attending religious duties at Nadesar Temple when a group of thugs had dragged her from the temple premises and cut her. Her body was latter found on the road and handed over to the mortuary of the Trincomalee general hospital Friday night, sources said.
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LTTE cancels sea travel, SLN violates agreed procedure - Puleedevan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 03:55 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cancelled the sea-transportation of their Acting Commanders to Eastern district Saturday morning from Vanni after getting on board the ferry. The Tiger officials "spotted suspicious movment of four Sri Lanka Navy attack vessels issuing instructions to the ferry over VHF Marine Radio," said Director of the LTTE Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan from Mullaithivu shore. "We were forced to cancel the transportation of Acting Commanders at the last moment after the breach of agreed procedure," Mr. Puleedevan said. Eastern Commanders of the LTTE were scheduled to travel to Vanni on the same ferry.
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State orchestrated violence raises spectre of 1983 pogrom- TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 01:26 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group in a scathing press release issued Friday accused the Sri Lanka Government of unleashing "State Terror" on Tamil speaking people with the intention of "ethnically cleansing" the Tamil dominated Trincomalee town
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LTTE warns forces engaged in "genocidal attacks" in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2006, 15:16 GMT]
"If the genocide attacks by State armed forces with the connivance of Sinhalese hoodlums continue in the Trincomalee district we would be forced to take steps to safeguard the lives and properties of innocent Tamil people in the district and that would lead to undesirable serious consequence on the current peace process," warned Mr.S.Elilan, LTTE district political head in a statement on the afresh violence against Tamil people in the suburbs of Trincomalee town since Friday afternoon.
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Colombo attempts to force LTTE withdrawal from Peace Talks - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2006, 14:08 GMT]
Accusing the Sri Lanka Government of imposing impractical conditions as part of a deliberate attempt to force LTTE to withdraw from talks, Head of LTTE’s Political Division, S.P.Thamilchelvan said that recent one-sided actions by some members of the International community have encouraged Sri Lankan state to adopt a hardline stance and Sinhala extremists to unleash violence against Tamil community.
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Talks in Geneva on 24, 25 April

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2006, 13:50 GMT]
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday that the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have agreed on a short postponement of the peace talks in Geneva. New dates for the talks are 24-25 April 2006.
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Trincomalee, suburbs under dusk to dawn curfew, violence widespread

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2006, 11:39 GMT]
Dusk to dawn curfew has been enforced in Trincomalee town and its suburbs Varothianagar, Kanniya, Mihindupura Friday evening following the escalation of violence that erupted in Mihindapura, a suburb about five km off Trincomalee on Trincomalee-Anuradhapura road as a group of persons attacked houses of Tamil residents in the area following the discovery of a body of Sinhalese youth Nissanka who was reported missing from Thursday. The Police rushed more personnel to Mihindapura and other areas in Kanniya village where also several houses are reported burnt down by unruly mobs. Initial reports said a Hindu Nadesar temple and an NGO office, Aham, were burnt down in Mihindapura.
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Death toll in Trinco violence rises to 19, fifteen identified

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 April 2006, 12:18 GMT]
15 of 19 civilians killed in Trincomalee violence on Wednesday were identified Thursday. 7 victims were Sinhalese civilians, 6 were Tamils and 2 Muslims. The bodies of another three Tamil persons, burnt alive inside a three-wheeler in Linganagar, were not in identifiable state, medical sources said. Another dead body is yet to be identified.
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Two LTTE cadres killed in paramilitary ambush in Vakaneri

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 April 2006, 05:29 GMT]
Two Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres were killed Thursday around 8:45 a.m. when paramilitary cadres launched an ambush with the support of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers inside the LTTE controlled Vakaneri, 40 km north of Batticaloa, LTTE officials in Batticaloa said. One of the cadres killed in the ambush was identified as Ithayaventhan.
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Nine Tamil scholars to receive NE Governor's Award

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 April 2006, 03:36 GMT]
The list of names of nine recipients for the North East Governor's Award for the Year 2005 was released Wednesday by the Provincial Secretary for the Provincial Education and Cultural Affairs Ministry Mr.R.Thiagalingam. The recipients who are reputed Tamil scholars will be presented with awards on the second day of two-day Twelfth North East Tamil Literary Festival, which is to commence on April 20th at Mannar Town Hall, sources said.
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Trinco Tamils seek refuge in public, religious institutions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 18:13 GMT]
Several Tamil families Wednesday night sought refuge in public buildings and religious institutions following violence in Trincomalee town and its outskirts, civil sources said. Burnt down shops and other business establishments along the Central Road and North Coast Road are still smoldering, sources added. The Trincomalee town had been under complete dark Wednesday night as the workers of the Urban Council failed to switch on the street lights due to fear after evening violence, sources said.
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Trinco violence pre-meditated, Elilan tells SLMM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 16:03 GMT]
Trincomalee district Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Wednesday night lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee that the attack on Tamil business establishments and Tamil civilians by hooligans brought down in a lorry immediately following an explosion in Trincomalee town Wednesday evening was a preplanned one and had been carried with the support of the Sri Lanka armed forces, LTTE sources said.
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US condemns attacks, killing of Vigneswaran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 12:00 GMT]
In a press release issued Tuesday in Colombo, the United States condemned the "recent terrorist attacks carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against the armed forces of Sri Lanka," and "other recent incidents of violence, in particular the April 7 murder of Mr. V. Vigneswaran in Trincomalee."
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19 killed, 45 wounded, 20 shops burned in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 10:41 GMT]
The death toll in the Trincomalee town violence has risen to 19 with more than 45 wounded. Around 15 persons with serious wounds were being treated at Trincomalee hospital. Around 20 Tamil and 2 Muslim shops have been burnt down by thugs armed with incendiary devices assisted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) troopers, said Trincomalee District TNA parliamentarian Thurairatnasingam. Widespread attacks on Tamils were reported after a bomb explosion in the town around 4:00 p.m where a Sri Lanka Army soldier was reportedly killed. Looting continued in the east port town where an indefinite curfew was clamped down by the Police.
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Historic Trinco Koneswaram Temple festival begins

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 April 2006, 16:52 GMT]
The twenty-day annual festival of the historic Trincomalee Koneswaram Temple located inside the Fort Frederick in the east port town began Tuesday morning with the flag-hoisting event. The THER (chariot) festival will be held on April 27th, Theertham (water cutting) festival on April 28 at Papanasam Theerthakerni and Theppam festival on April 30, temple society sources said.
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