Four seek humanitarian protection with HRC in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 12:29 GMT]
Four Tamil civilians in Jaffna have sought protection with the Human Rights Comission in Jaffna due to threats to their lives, especially after the worsening situation in Vara'ni in Thenmaraadchi following the recent abductions of two youths.
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Condoleeza Rice spotlights Rights violations in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2008, 12:15 GMT]
United States Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, Wednesday, awarded the 2008 Human Rights and Democracy Achievement Award to Michael De Tar, the chief of the Political Section of our Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for engaging "constructively with Sri Lanka while underscoring our [U.S.'s] human rights," and for proposing the roadmap adopted by the Sri Lankan Government "to induce a paramilitary aligned with the government to begin to release its child soldiers [in the east]." The situation in the East, however, has rapidly deterioted recently with Human Rights Watch accusing the Colombo-backed paramilitaries in the east for thirty murders and thirty abductions during September and October.
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Colombo's development agenda aggravates factional fight within TMVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2008, 00:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has sidelined Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a key paramilitary leader operated by the Sri Lankan government and the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, on the utlisation of funds allocated for 'development'. "Pillayan is being treated almost like a political prisoner by the Rajapaksa government these days, especially after the recent protests against the killings," according to a Colombo based journalist.
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Token fast against killings of Tamil civilians observed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 14:57 GMT]
A one-day token fast demanding the immediate stop of the rampant killings of Tamils in Batticaloa district and the arrest of the killers was observed Friday around 9:00 a.m near Gandhi Statue in Batticaloa town, organized by Pillayan faction, Baticaloa Municipal Council (BMC), and Federation of Local Government Councils' (LGC) Presidents, presided by the Mayor of Batticaloa Municipal Council, Ms. Sivakeertha Pirapakaran, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Rights watchdog faults Colombo for deteriorating human rights situation in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2008, 07:52 GMT]
"Killings and abductions are rife and there is total impunity for horrific abuses," in the eastern province, which the Sri Lankan government claims to have 'liberated' as an example of democracy in action, said the New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW). There have been at least 30 extra-judicial killings and 30 abductions in Eastern Province within the last 60 days, the HRW said blaming the Sri Lankan government for providing unqualified support to TMVP paramilitary factions. The attacks and other threats against journalists have caused the media to curtail reporting on the security situation in the East. Members of civil society organizations have also been subjected to threats, according to the HRW.
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Paramilitary abducts familes of recruits

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 November 2008, 14:24 GMT]
Armed men of a TMVP faction have abducted nine members of two families at Pankduaave'li Friday morning following an attack on Pankudaave'li camp of the paramilitary Thursday night. The victims were said to be family members of two of seven paramilitary operatives who disappeared from the mini-camp. Tension prevails in the area following the abductions. At least three children were among the abductees. The abductions come following a joint search by the Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) and the TMVP paramilitary.
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Colombo first to use anti-terrorism laws to punish journalists, say media watchdogs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 November 2008, 18:53 GMT]
The International Press Freedom Mission, a group of five international media watchdogs, which visited Sri Lanka between 25th to 29th October, said in a statement released Thursday that the mission is “alarmed at the use of an anti-terrorism law for the first time in the democratic world, to punish journalists purely for what they have written,” and added that the mission “found a deterioration in the press freedom situation since its last visit in June 2007, marked by a continuation in murders, attacks, abductions, intimidation and harassment of the media.”
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Abductions escalate in East

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2008, 09:28 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a white van Wednesday around 9:30 a.m. at the Ullai ICCA Non-government Organization abducted the security officer on duty, in Poththuvil police division in Ampaa'rai district, according to a complaint made by the victim's wife to Poththuvil police. In Trincomalee, a Tamil youth was abducted Thursday night at Uppuve'li suburb of the city. There have been several reports of abductions in the Sri Lankan military controlled East during the recent days.
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Italian Tamils march to raise awareness about Tamils plight in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 20:29 GMT]
More than two thousand diaspora Tamils in Southern Italy marched Thursday from Piazza Politama to the Palermo office of the Internal Affairs Ministry to hand over an appeal urging awareness on the plight of the Eezham Tamils in Vanni and elsewhere in the island of Sri Lanka.
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British statement fails to condemn Sri Lanka - BTF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 10:43 GMT]
The Tamils in UK feel confused by a British statement that acknowledges the apparent recognition by the GoSL of its responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians affected by the conflict and its continued co-ordination with humanitarian agencies, at a time when foreign aid workers of the UN and International Non-Governmental Organisations have been expelled from Vanni by the government of Sri Lanka, said a statement issued by the British Tamils Forum (BTF) on Saturday.
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US Ambassador says 'honoured' to meet paramilitary leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 05:23 GMT]
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert O' Blake says he was honoured to meet the leader of the Army-backed paramilitary group TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal) which Human Rights Watch has condemend for widespread human rights abuses in the eastern province - of which Pillayan was appointed chief minister. Mr. Blake said he is "pleased that [Pillayan] assured me he too is committed to demobilizing the paramilitaries" the Sunday Times reported. The same column in the paper reported that TMVP cadres are once again being used to support the Sri Lankan security forces' counter-insurgency in the east.
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British FM meets Tamil expats in London

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2008, 13:17 GMT]
During a community meeting attended by over one thousand British Tamils, UK Foreign Minister Lord Mark Malloch Brown, said: "UK Government believes that minorities in any country must have their right to practice the fullest and free to expression of self determination. "We are extremely concerned about how this government behaves and treats the Tamil community, and we are using all the means available to us to press the government to do otherwise."
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JVP parliamentarian accuses government of 'white van culture'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 July 2008, 06:38 GMT]
Parliamentarian Mr.Wijitha Heart, Propaganda, propaganda secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), told media Friday that abductions are now being carried out in the country with the blessing of the government. The excavation of a corpse of a Tamil person who is alleged to have been abducted and later found to be dumped in the premises of the office of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) in Batticaloa, clearly points complicity of Colombo in the abduction-murder, the JVP MP added. EPDP is a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, and the leader of EPDP is a cabinet minister.
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Demining in Jaffna peninsula likely to stall

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 July 2008, 18:34 GMT]
Danish Demining Organization and Halo Trust, the two humanitarian organizations engaged in demining projects in Jaffna peninsula, have decided to reduce the number of employees owing to cutback on funding by International Organizations, according to an official of the Demining Coordinating department in Jaffna Secretariat.
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White van confiscated in EPDP Chengkaladi office

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 08:01 GMT]
Ea’raavoor police confiscated a white van used in abductions in Batticaloa district in the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) office premises in Chengkaladi in Batticaloa district, Ea’ravoor Acting Inspector of Police, Nalakka Magedara said. The van bearing 56-5659 registration number was confiscated on information given by the EPDP members arrested in connection with the recovery of an abductee's body in the backyard of Chengkaladi EPDP office 17 July.
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Ea’raavoor police arrest four EPDP cadres

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 June 2008, 13:09 GMT]
Four cadres of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) alleged to have been involved in the recent spate of abductions, robberies, extortion of money from traders in Chengkaladi region were arrested Wednesday morning by Ea’raavoor police, produced in courts, and detained for 14 days on the instruction of the magistrate, Officer in Charge (OIC) of Ea’raavoor police said.
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Director of SCOPP visits Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 June 2008, 03:42 GMT]
Director of Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), Professor Rajiva Wijayasinghe, visited Tuesday Batticaloa to study the situation in Batticaloa district and to identify the obstacles in resuming normalcy of life of the people of Batticaloa district, Batticaloa District Secretariat sources said. Security was beefed up around District Secretariat and the Judicial Complex. The officials were not permitted to take their vehicles in, according to sources.
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Sampanthan regrets neglected relationship

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 15:23 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan, who on Saturday met the visiting Indian top officials at India House in Colombo, told the delegation that "Tamils believed all these years that they were the natural allies of India, but it is not so today." Even the human rights violations against Tamils, abductions and genocide are largely ignored by India.
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Abductions have blessings of Colombo- Ganeson

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 June 2008, 00:01 GMT]
Responding to the recent press communiqué released by the Presidential secretariat, Mano Ganeshan MP, the leader of Western Province People Front (WPPF) and Convenor of Civil Monitoring Commission on Extra judicial killings and Disappearances state, in a press release issued Friday said: "It is good to note that the President is concerned of this situation but we did not create this situation. In fact this was created due the abductions created with the blessings of this Government."
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3 Tamils abducted, youth reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2008, 13:40 GMT]
Unidentified armed men in civil clothes abducted Wednesday around 10:30 p.m. the manager of a lodge in Kotahena while a family man was abducted the same night by a gang of armed men arriving at his house in Kotahena. In the third abduction, three men in police uniform and one in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) uniform abducted Monday an elderly man from his house in Wattala, sources in Colombo said. Meanwhile, a Tamil youth from Kotahena is reported missing from his home since Tuesday, according to the complaint made by his relatives to Kottahena police.
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