Innocent students charged in Uthayan killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 May 2006, 12:04 GMT]
Amid propaganda by Sri Lanka Defense Ministry and the Sri Lanka Security forces that they have arrested four suspects in the killings at the Uthayan offices Tuesday, civil society members registered complaints with the the Jaffna Human Rights Commission (JHRC) offices that the four arrested are innocent students from the east, who were temporarily living in Jaffna to complete their Advanced Level education and examinations, sources in Jaffna said.
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IATJ raises concerns for Tamil Journalists' safety

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 May 2006, 11:08 GMT]
The International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATJ), based in London, called upon the International Community, Media and Human Rights Organisations of the world to focus their attention to the fast deteriorating safety of the Tamil journalists in Sri Lanka and to urge the Government of Sri Lanka to adopt internationally accepted standards in the treatment of the media and its journalists in Sri Lanka.
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SLMM issuing clarifications under pressure, disturbing- LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 May 2006, 10:56 GMT]
Liberation Tigers in a letter to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) chief General Henricsson sent Wednesday regarding the clarifications on a previous statement that confirmed complicity of Government in extra-judicial killings in NorthEast, said: "We assume that the SLMM still stands by the above conclusions...and that the clarification only refers to the generalization of SLMM's conclusions."
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Gun recovered at attack site of Jaffna Daily

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2006, 22:25 GMT]
Jaffna Additional Magistrate, Mrs.Srinithi Nanthasekaran, who visited the crime site at the Jaffna daily Uthayan offices, ordered police protection to the Uthayan office, and directed the Police to investigate into the armed attack on the paper office Tuesday night. Police said they have recovered a gun from the attack site.
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Paramilitary gunmen attack Jaffna daily, 2 killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2006, 14:25 GMT]
Five armed paramilitary gunmen who entered the main office of the Jaffna daily Uthayan Tuesday night around 7:45 p.m., opened fire on editorial staff, killing at least two staffers, including the daily's marketing manager and wounding two, according to initial reports. At least 40 gunshots were heard, residents said.
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Colombo's bona fides on creating normalcy ahead of talks, questionable - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 February 2006, 13:25 GMT]
Uthayan, the Jaffna based daily, in its Monday editorial warned of the potentially dangerous consequences of the attitude being displayed by the Sri Lankan Government insisting on its innocense and not taking urgent action to secure the release of the seven humanitarian workers of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in the east. Referring to the "strict adherence" by the Tamil side in living up to its pledge on the cessation of hostilities the last two weeks, since the meeting between Norwegian Peace Envoy and the LTTE leader commenced on January 25, the paper questioned whether Colombo has demonstrated its will to create a conducive environment in the run-up to the truce talks.
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Journalist killed for reporting on paramilitary abuses- RSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 18:23 GMT]
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) in a press release issued Tuesday said that Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan, a correspondent of the Tamil-language daily Sudar Oli was killed for writing about "abuses committed in his region by Tamil paramilitary groups," and that in Sri Lanka, "the impunity enjoyed by the instigators and perpetrators of these murders encourages more violence against the press."
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"How will International Community respond?"

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 December 2005, 13:27 GMT]
"A critical question looming large in Tamil Peoples' mind is how the International Community is going to express its reaction to the Government of Sri Lanka on the slaying of the senior Tamil democratic leader, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham," Jaffna daily Uthayan said in its editorial Monday. The paper described the slaying of Joseph Pararajasigham as an attempt to "throttle the voice of Tamil Nationalism."
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Withdraw armed forces from civilian inhabited areas in NE- TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2005, 09:50 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a statement tabled in parliament Tuesday demanded the Sri Lanka government to withdraw all armed forces from all civilian inhabited areas in the North East. TNA further called the government to take disciplinary and legal action against all members of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces who are responsible for the attack on Tamil civilians in Jaffna district in the last several days.
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SL troops open fire on demonstration in Jaffna, Lecturer shot, VC attacked

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 December 2005, 06:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army troopers opened fire at a peaceful demonstration march by Jaffna University students and staff, wounding at least seven demonstrators including Prof. N. Perinpanathan, a Senior Lecturer, and a student leader of the medical faculty T. Kandeepan. Professor C. Mohanadas, the Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University, Prof. R. Sivchandran, Dean of Arts, and S. Kajendran, Jaffna MP were severely beaten by the soliders. The demonstration march from Jaffna University towards the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) did not proceed beyond Parameswara Junction where the troopers began firing at the demontrators around 11:00 a.m. Monday. Tension prevails in the area.
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“Karuna Defection, Wickremasinghe's Ploy” - UNP Stalwart

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 November 2005, 10:04 GMT]
A United National Party (UNP) stalwart in Nuwara Eliya district, Mr. Naveen Dissanayake, has said that it would not be necessary for Sri Lanka’s Military to fight the Tigers. "American and Indian forces will fight the LTTE if Liberation Tigers' leader Pirapaharan opts to wage a war," Naveen Dissanayake told the audience at an Election propaganda meeting, Thursday, at Ginigathena in the upcountry district of Nuwara Eliya, a Tamil daily, Uthayan, quoted in its headline story, Monday. Mr. Dissanayake has also claimed that a situation was created to make the renegade LTTE commander Karuna to get dissatisfied with his leadership during the period covering his trips to Europe, the paper said.
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Paramilitary cadres abduct 3 youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 November 2005, 16:39 GMT]
Armed men believed to be the cadres of the paramilitary Karuna Group have kidnapped three youths at gunpoint Saturday night in Kaluwankerny in Eravur. Complaint lodged by parents of the kidnapped youths at the Eravur Police said that the kidnappers had come in a white van. At least five youths have been reported disappeared last week in the Batticaloa district.
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Jaffna daily assails "Mahinda Doctrine"

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 October 2005, 11:39 GMT]
Mr Mahinda Rajapakse has brought the Sinhala approach to resolving the Tamil National question a full circle by rejecting the concepts of Tamil home land, right to self determination, federal solution, and the P-TOMS, and re-affirming Tamils belief that the Sinhala south is incapable of shedding the chauvinist mindset, said the editorial of the popular Jaffna Tamil daily 'Uthayan' in its Thursday edition.
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Nimalarajan remembered in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 15:54 GMT]
Journalists and academicians Wednesday addressing the fifth death anniversary of late journalist Mr.Mylvaganam Nimalarajan held at the Media and Research centre of the Jaffna University appealed to the government to take steps to bring the culprits of the murder before court of law without any further delay, attendees to the event said. The case filed in the court was struck off from the call roll after some months.
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Jaffna journalists hold demonstration against attack on Tamil media

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 September 2005, 14:17 GMT]
Large number of journalists based in Jaffna district Thursday morning held a one-hour demonstration in the Jaffna central bus stand condemning the assault on journalists of Sudar Oli, Colombo Tamil daily and its offices at Wellawatte and Grandpass. The shouted slogans, carrying placards protesting against the government for not taking prompt action to safeguard the Tamil media in Colombo, sources said.
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Jaffna journalists picket against Denmark funded Media Training Institute

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2005, 10:00 GMT]
Journalists of all Tamil dailies in the Jaffna district and representatives of media associations held a picketing in front of the Denmark funded Media Training Institute (MTI) of the Jaffna University Thursday demanding the implementation of four demands put forward by the North Sri Lanka Journalists' Association (NSJA). The picketing which commenced around nine a.m. was called off by afternoon following an agreement reached at a discussion held later between the MTI and NSJA officials, sources said.
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SLTMA condemns grenade attack on newspaper office

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 August 2005, 04:07 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) in a news release Saturday said it strongly condemned the grenade attack on the Uthayan newspaper’s office in Wellawatte, Colombo, calling it a “cowardly act,” and urged the Sri Lankan government to take prompt action to stop such attacks.
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Vigilance vital to reap benefits from aid deal- paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 June 2005, 01:30 GMT]
Calling on the Tamil people to temper the euphoria related to the successful signing of the post-tsunami aid deal by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) on Friday, popular dailies in Jaffna in editorials Saturday cautioned the NorthEast residents that serious challenges still remain in enforcing the agreement and to be vigilant against being misled.
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Government stays, but will its power? - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2005, 17:38 GMT]
Despite the exit of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a key Parliamentary ally, the stability of Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government is assured, not because of its inherent strength, but because none of the other parties want an election at this juncture, Jaffna's Uthayan newspaper argued in its editorial Thursday.
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Sri Lanka's future in peril, Jaffna editorials say

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 May 2005, 13:32 GMT]
Saturday editorials in Jaffna's popular dailies, Uthayan, Namathu Eelanaadu and Valamapuri, carried ominious messages reflecting an unpredictable and potentially explosive future facing the Tamil people as well as Sri Lanka. Quoting LTTE Head of Political Wing, Thamilchelvan who said recently, "If Sinhala leadership continues to impose majoritarian hegemony on Tamil people without pursuing peaceful solutions to satsify Tamil aspirations, there will soon be an end to this state of affairs," Eelanaadu editorial Saturday said.
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