TNA warns of 'imminent humanitarian disaster' in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 17:33 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), condemning the Sri Lankan military's blockade of food and medicine going into the Vaharai area as "a blatant violation of all humanitarian laws", said Monday this action "is clearly an attempt to use food as a weapon of war, and compulsively evict persons from their areas of historical habitation." In an adjournment motion moved by its Parliamentary group leader, R. Sampanthan, MP, in the House, the TNA called on the government to "rush food medicine and other essentials to the families resident at Vakarai and Kadiravelli and thereby avert an imminent and grave humanitarian disaster."
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38,000 Tamils face starvation in Vaharai, humanitarian disaster imminent - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 12:00 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance Parliamentary Group leader and MP for Trincomalee District, R. Sampanthan, in an urgent letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, Sunday, requested again the SL President that food, medicine and other essentials be urgently rushed to the people of Vakarai and Kathiraveli and urged Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse to intervene personally and take every necessary step to ensure that this is done. 8,500 families from the villages of Trincomalee district, internally displaced to Vakarai and Kathiraveli in addition to 3,500 families of the area are facing malnutrition, disease and starvation. "A grave humanitarian disaster is imminent," Mr. Sampanthan said.
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Indian Foreign Secretary to visit Colombo Wednesday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 03:27 GMT]
Mr.Shiv Shankar Menon, India's Foreign Secretary, is scheduled to arrive in Colombo on November 22 to hand over a special message from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse before the latter visits New Delhi, media sources in Colombo said. Mr.Shiv Shankar Menon is to meet Mahinda Rajapakse on 23 November.
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Army vows not to let food into Vaharai, says will capture region

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 November 2006, 19:41 GMT]
Despite a personal assurance given Thursday by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to Tamil parliamentarians that emergency food supplies would be permitted to reach tens of thousands of Tamil refugees facing starvation in LTTE-controlled areas, Sri Lanka Army at the border turned back convoys on Friday and Saturday. Saturday’s returning convoy was stopped by suspected paramilitary men and subsequently looted by refugees in government controlled areas. A local Army officier, has told civil officials not to send any more convoys, vowing the Army would not allow food into LTTE-controlled areas under any circumstances and saying the area would be captured soon.
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Tamil parliamentarian in Colombo faces death threats

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2006, 12:46 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Western Province People's Front parliamentarian and an active member of the Civil Monitoring Committee on Abductions, Extrajudicial and Arbitrary Killings, Thursday said that he has been facing threat to his life. Mr. Mano Ganesan, is one of organisors of the monitoring committee, with the slain Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Nadaraja Raviraj.
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Sri Lanka expands military in ‘marked shift’

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2006, 11:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka is preparing for a major onslaught against the Liberation Tigers, raising defence spending by 45% to $1.29 bln and calling on the international community to help fight terrorism, reports said Friday. Sri Lanka’s military chief, Air Chief Marshal G.D. Perera, told top defense and military officials from 23 countries that his government needs "a lot of assistance" in handling the “terrorist issue.” Sri Lanka’s defence spokesman and cabinet minister Keheliya Rambukwella said: "Right now the requirement of strengthening the air force, navy and defence sector becomes very paramount. National security comes first."
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Children in Vaharai starving for 48 hours - Jeyanandamoorthy MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2006, 13:13 GMT]
The children in Vaharai have been starving for 48 hours as no humanitarian supply has reached the region since November 05, Tamil National Alliance MP S. Jeyanandamoorthy who met Sri Lankan President with fellow TNA parliamentarians said Thursday evening. "Despite the fresh assurances from President of opening Valaichenai Vaharai Road at Mankerni entry point by Thursday noon, the road remains closed," the MP who returned from the parliament where TNA MPs staged a silent protest, told media. Meanwhile civil officials in Vaharai said that all food supplies including the latest emergency rice supplies from the Tigers, had dwindled.
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India trains jet bomber support crews

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 09:46 GMT]
India is training a third batch of six Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel at Chandigarh, Punjab to support Colombo’s plans to expand its jet bomber fleet, the Times of India reported this week. Sri Lanka plans to purchase four more jet bombers from Russia and, in preparation, SLAF personnel are being put through three months of instruction. The latest group began training on October 14, despite outrage in Tamil Nadu over the targeting of civilians by SLAF bombers in which over a hundred people have been killed this year.
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British special envoy arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 17:48 GMT]
Paul Murphy, special envoy of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday arrived in Colombo to discuss ways in which the Britain could support the Norwegian peace process. Mr. Paul Murphy is a former Northern Ireland Minister.
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Northern Ireland Peacemaker to visit Sri Lanka this week

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 November 2006, 10:10 GMT]
Former Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy will be visiting Sri Lanka between 14 and 16 November, accompanied by Christopher MacCabe, the British Joint Secretary of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Secretariat. Mr Murphy will meet a range of key participants in the Sri Lankan peace process and share his experiences of building peace in Northern Ireland, according to a press statement issued by the British High Commission in Colombo Monday . His visit follows a meeting in August where British Prime Minister Tony Blair discussed with President Mahinda Rajapakse ways in which the UK could support the Norwegian facilitated peace process.
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Raviraj assassination, a black mark on Sri Lanka - UNP parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 November 2006, 18:08 GMT]
United National Party MP for Kalutura district, Rajitha Senaratne, addressing an all party press meet Sunday in Colombo said the assassination of Tamil National Alliance MP Nadarajah Raviraj in Colombo has challenged the people who voice for peace in the South. The assassination has created a black mark on Sri Lanka and has paved a way for the International Community to intervene in the domestic affairs, the MP said. The Anti-War National Front (AWNF) in Colombo has called for a Hartal in Colombo on Monday protesting against the assassination, extra-judicial killings and abductions taking place in Colombo and its environs.
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"Allow Raviraj's casket to be taken through A9," family requests SL President

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2006, 10:14 GMT]
Assassinated Jaffna District TNA parliamentarian's widowed wife Sasikala Raviraj, Saturday morning when Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mr. Mangala Samaraweera visited the parlour, made an appeal to open the A9 Muhamalai exit-entry point in order to take her husband's remains to his hometown Chavakachcheri for cremation. The funeral is scheduled to be held on Wednesday in Chavakachcheri in Jaffna. Hundreds of mourners from all ethnic communities, political leaders, religious dignitaries and social activists gathered in Colombo to pay their last respects to the assassinated Jaffna district Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj.
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Plantation workers union appeals for wage increase

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 November 2006, 00:08 GMT]
S.Sathasivam, the Secretary General of Ceylon Workers United Front said on Wednesday that he had forwarded an appeal to the Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to intervene regarding the demand by plantation workers to increase their wages, sources in Nuwara Eliya said.
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TNA parliamentarians meet Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 10:54 GMT]
Nineteen of the twenty two Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Tuesday met with Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), at the latter's request and held discussions on the urgency of bringing normalcy in the North East, legalising the merger of the two provinces, and the opening of the land route A9 to Jaffna peninsula, political sources in Colombo said.
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TNA calls on Sri Lanka to uphold 1987 merger

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 November 2006, 15:20 GMT]
Saying that the Sri Lankan state’s recognition of the Tamils’ historical existence as a people living in the Northeast of the island was realised in the establishment of the Northeast province in 1987, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), charged Tuesday that it was the duty of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government to uphold the merger as it constituted a recognition of Tamil grievances. The TNA is expected to pass a resolution as Sri Lankan Prime Minister is reported to have told the Parliament Tuesday that a "future merger" would be dependent on a referendum in the East.
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Tamil officers removed from SL President's security detail

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2006, 12:50 GMT]
Twenty Tamil Sri Lanka police security officers accompanying Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse to a public function at Veerahetiya, an upcountry town, Sunday were sent back to their stations on suspicion raised on the bonafides of the officers by the Veerahetiya Sinhala residents, sources from Hatton said.
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Heavy intervention shoring up rupee - UNP

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2006, 02:23 GMT]
A collapse of Sri Lanka’s currency was being stymied by heavy intervention by the Central Bank, the main opposition party said Sunday. The central bank had spent 352 million dollars from January to September to defend the rupee, with 121 million dollars being spent from September 01 to 19, former Deputy Finance Minister and United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian, Bandula Gunewardene, told Lanka Business Online (LBO).
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JVP to meet Rajapakse Tuesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2006, 02:17 GMT]
The Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is reported to have agreed to meet Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse on Tuesday to discuss matters related to latest political development in the island, political sources in Colombo said. This will be first the time both party leaders are to meet since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Sri Lanka Freedom party (SLFP), main constituent of the United Peoples Alliance (UPFA) government, and the main opposition United National Party (UNP).
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Colombo emboldened by international support - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2006, 15:02 GMT]
Uncritical international support for the Sri Lankan government in its campaign against the Liberation Tigers contributed greatly to the collapse of the peace talks in Geneva last weekend, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its latest editorial. “When even the US publicly declares that it is backing Sri Lanka [against the LTTE], why wouldn’t Colombo have adopted the intransigent and belligerent stand it did?”
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Colombo falls short on shipment of essentials- GA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2006, 15:01 GMT]
The Government Agent of Jaffna, K. Ganesh, in a media report sent to local papers, said that nearly 25% shortfall in amount of required food and essential items sent by Colombo to Jaffna district was the main cause for the high prices and the difficulties residents are facing, having to stand in long lines to procure provisions, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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